A Guy That Scrapbooks

Sisters Hideaway

2009-10-18T20:44:00.004-05:00

This was our second time to go stay with the sisters. It is a great place for a retreat. It is out in the country, just a beautiful area. The food is the best. Three days of heaven. I hope we are able to continue to go every year. Twelve of us from our church group went this year. We have all been scrapping together for so long it's just really great. They are my best friends. The sisters have this one wall that they hang up things that people make for them. I had made a page for them the first time we went and decided to make something new this year.It was woven embossed metal. I think it came out pretty well. I made some other projects but will post them later. Oh yes, the first day that we were there this dog showed up. It actually lived a few houses down the road but came and stayed the entire weekend with us. He was a really cool dog. We named him Cricut to go with our scrapbooking theme. We have such a great time at the retreats I wish I could go every weekend.

Awesome Classes

2009-10-18T20:24:00.004-05:00

On June 26 I took the cert class at Ten Seconds Studio. Cheryl is so great, she takes time to make sure everyone is learning all she can teach in the time allowed, and just makes you feel so comfortable. I absolutely love working with metal. It was the best class I've ever taken. To make it the very best weekend ever I took the Tim Holtz class on Sunday the 28th. He is so great his classes move along so fast it leaves your head spinning. But when he says everyone will finish he means it. The project ws this cool looking shadow box frame. Tim did the inside and Cheryl taught the metal part on the out side. I have a picture of the one Cheryl did it's way more awesome than mine. The three of us(me, Deb, and Kalen) all took this class together and we all loved it. I now have almost all of the molds they sell!

Bi Tri Sometimes quarterly Update

2009-10-18T19:55:00.004-05:00

It's my first update since June but I've discussed what a bad blogger I am before so I'll skip that and just do some catching up. GASC was a blast. Me, Deb and Kalen took several classes together the best of which was the Crafty Scrapper and Ten Seconds class. Of course. The crowds were a little smaller than in the past ( bad for shops good for shopping) that is not to say that there was not still a ton of people there.

Altered Gift Box

2009-06-20T15:22:00.003-05:00

On Valentines a few years back Debbie got me this little mail box covered in hearts and stuffed with goodies for me. It was one of those things you really don't know what to do with but at the same time it was a special gift. So I kept it but it ended up getting stuck away someplace. I came across it a while back and decided to change it up a bit. I used a glossy black aluminum. The panels that make up the outside were run through cuttle bug embossing templates and adhered to the mailbox. Then I painted it with flat black paint and sanded. In the end you are able to see the glossy black, flat black and the bare aluminum. No disrespect to the original gift, but I like it better this way.

Love Cross

2009-06-20T14:57:00.002-05:00

I really like this project. I don't mean that like I'm bragging or whatever. Every crafter or artist that creates things has certain things they like better than others. Anyway the canvas I used is this dense corrugated paper board. Where I work we sometimes get material shipped in with this under the incoming material. Our monthly crop was that weekend and it was my turn to come up with a make and take. So when I saw the cardboard I knew some how it was the project. Granted the cross is not the project the photo frame was the project. I precut pieces of aluminum for the matting to save time at the crop. I offered a choice of colors of paint for the "canvas" and the aluminum if desired. On the Love Cross I used Adirondack Inks to create the pattern on the aluminum. The cross was embossed with a Cuttle Bug embossing template. The letters for the L O V E were cut with a Sizzix over foam adhesive.

Scrap Paper Frame

2009-06-20T14:46:00.002-05:00

Well the title says it all. I've been on a kick lately, and I've been trying to use up some scrap paper. We end up with these boxes of paper that get bigger and bigger. So I dug into it and started tearing and Mod Podgeing to the frame then repeat till covered. By the way, the horse in the picture belongs to a neighbor down the road from our place in Jacksonville in East Texas.

My little red barn

2009-06-20T14:39:00.002-05:00

At our last church crop I spent the day playing with different things. The barn I built with plain chipboard and coverd with aluminum that had been put through a crimper. Then I added paint. I was planning a trip to our place in east Texas to start builing our barn there. I guess that was my inspiration.

2009-06-19T10:05:00.003-05:00

Once again I find myself apologizing for being a bad blogger. This time of year is always so busy. I have been doing some crafting and went to GASC. I have made it as far as taking pictures of some of the things I have been doing but they are not yet on the computer.Oh yes my really great news is I am going to the Tim Holtz class at Ten Seconds Studio next Sunday, as well as the Ten Seconds certification class on Friday. Can't wait. Tomorrow me and Deb are going out to Crafty for a while, perhaps upon our return I'll get some pictures posted. I hope life is treating all of you well. Later!!

My Altered Object

2009-03-04T19:54:00.003-06:00

This is without a doubt the biggest altered project I have ever done. At least as far as crafts and scrapbooking goes. We remodeled our front office where I work. All of the pre-existing wall art was being done away with. Anyone that wanted anything just had to put their name on a list for the specific item. At any rate I got several of the items I signed up for. One of them was a framed print of a seriously outdated southwestern print. I took the frame apart and made something new. I covered the matting with some hand embossed aluminum using several different molds and a few pieces of copper embossed using the Cuttlebug embossing templates. Once that was done I covered the existing back board of the photo frame with some cream colored burlap. Once this was all done I took a couple of Upper Case Living phrases and adhered them onto the actual glass on the front of the frame. I hope all of you like it.

My Jar From Kandy

2009-02-07T11:21:00.004-06:00

Thank you so much for the jar Kandy. I love all the goodies. Charms are a personal fav of mine. Ribbons, bobbins, wood spools and so much more the large rose brad is beautiful. I have never used the beaded ribbon before and I can not wait to give it a try. The stamp with the horses is great. I have many photos of horses from around our land in the country. We went out to the store last night and picked up my jar. We had a really great time there. We did not have anything else going on so we just hung out for a few hours and shopped off and on. The jar swaps are so much fun. It is so neat seeing what others work with. The jar swaps are the most fun swaps I have done. I love making them and getting them.

Record Album Class

2009-02-07T11:01:00.004-06:00

Last weekend we went to the Crafty Scrapper and took Brook's album scrapbook class. Not only did we really enjoy the class but me and Debbie really liked the results of the class. The cropped album itself is inside. I just really like the picture on the cover and did not want to cover it up. Before we left that day we bought one of the Bind it All's. I look forward to making more similar books in the future. Yay Brook.

Copper Photo Frame

2009-02-07T10:53:00.003-06:00

This is my personal project from our last crop. It was made using a Ten Seconds embossing plate. Hand embossing is more work than running the metal through a machine but it also has a much different look. I chose not to ink, or paint it. I want it to develop a natural patina. The photo is from a trip we took to Las Vegas.

My Make and Take

2009-02-07T10:39:00.003-06:00

At our last home group crop it was my turn to come up with a make and take. I tried doing an embossing project once before, but it did not go over too well. Embossing by hand can be more challenging. My make and takes usually turn into classes. Some of the ladies are not so fond of my more challenging projects. However I love to work with metal. That being said, thanks to the Cuttlebug embossing plates, I was able to come up with a metal project that everyone liked. Two pieces of metal run through the machine, a little adhesive onto some wood crosses I had cut out earlier that week, a little paint and this is what you get. I had been working on a personal project that day using copper so I used the leftovers from that and the leftovers from the crosses everyone else made to do the cross with the mixed metals.

The pieces

2008-12-19T18:52:00.003-06:00

I used a note on the outside of the can to tell the recipient to open the top little Christmas can that I mounted with some foam squares. Along with that I placed one of my tags which will have the to and from on it. Inside the little can is a note telling the recipient to open the bottom of the bigger can. Inside I placed a couple of gift cards with a little tissue paper.

The pop top bottom & the sealed bottom lid

2008-12-19T18:49:00.006-06:00

So here is the gimmick. You use the Pampered Chef can opener to open the bottom of the can (I used a diced tomatoes can). Put the pop top to the bottom and then decorate the can and the bottom lid, which is to be the top.

Altered pop top can

2008-12-19T18:43:00.002-06:00

Well this is the completed can. What do you think?

Debbie's Cookbook

2008-12-14T19:52:00.003-06:00

I decided that I wanted to make my mom a cookbook for Christmas. So I took a Maya Roads binder and covered the front with Rooster paper because she likes roosters. Then I covered the rest of the pages with kitchen papers. Some with food, some with recipes, etc. I printed out my recipes on cream colored cardstock, tore them out so they would look distressed, and inked the edges with eye chalk. I glued them in the book, added embellishments, and some old pictures of my, my sister, my daughter and my parents. I hope she likes it!

My Last Book

2008-12-14T19:34:00.002-06:00

Okay I'm done for the year. This is the second book today and last gift to make. I am cover in ink, but it has been a fun day. The second book was also from scratch. I used embossing folders to run through one side of each page, except the cover of the book which I just put through twice. It is a mix of eye chalk, Adirondack ink, distreeing ink, and a plain blach ink pad.

My Gift To Mom

2008-12-14T18:54:00.003-06:00

This book I actually started a few weeks ago. I got the paper on the outside covers and all the pieces of chip board cut to size, rounded and holes made for rings. Today I inked up the cover a bit and then misted all the pages in the book in way or another. I have put some pictures of all her grandsons, but I did not fill it up. I know she getting some new pics of them developed so I ll let her pick the rest of the ones for the book.

Our Maya Roads Stuff Came In

2008-12-14T18:47:00.002-06:00

Kian's 1st Scrapbook

2008-12-13T19:40:00.003-06:00

This book I am giving to my brother and his wife fr Christmas. All the photos are of their son. He just got through turning 1 year old. The first time I saw the chip board book at The Crafty Scrapper I knew I wanted to do a baby boy book,and i knew I wanted to use these electrical washers on it. They go so well with the shape of the book. It was a little different for my using primary colors is a rare thing for me. I hope they like how it turned out.

Brittany's '08 Scrapbook

2008-12-13T19:28:00.003-06:00

As the title says I am giving this one to my oldesr Daughter for Christmas this year. I love this Maya Roads book. 8" x 8" pages fit just right onto the inside chipboard pages. The pages and photo's inside are all in black and white but I distressed them just a bit and added a little Adirondack green ink around the edges. The outside cover is a little different. I just love playing with ink.

I got my Jar

2008-12-13T19:15:00.003-06:00

Just before we were to leave for our crop today my jar came in the mail. I really like it. The old style tags and ornaments were great. It so so much fun getting to see the things tha tdifferent people use. The old doily ribbon is my favorit that and the wooden spool. I am kind of the designated keeper of old things in my family. As soon as we got to our crop I started gigging into all the goodies. In fact I used some of the items to make a tag which is here with the pics of the jar and goodies inside. I was going to send the tag I made with things from my jar along with one of thegifts i'm making but I liked it so much it is going to be an ornament on the Christmas tree.

Debbie's 2008 Christmas Cards

2008-12-12T21:23:00.004-06:00

These were some of my Christmas cards that I made this year. Todd and I bought some stuff from Stampin Up when one of their demonstrators came to one of our crops, and then I ordered more because we didn't order any Christmas ones the first time. So I figured I should use them since I bought them. The one with the little truck was the most fun to do. I colored the truck with colored pencils and then used a glitter pen on the "metal" parts of the truck. I also used the glitter pen on all the tree branches to make it look like ice or snow. On the "Peanuts" one, I bought the stamp at Michael's and stamped it with black StazOn ink. Then I colored in all the characters. The two with the Christmas trees were also Stampin Up stamps. I really enjoy making my cards every year and everyone seems to like them a lot. This year I'm going to keep one of each of them for examples.

Debbie's Jar

2008-12-12T21:12:00.002-06:00

I'll let Debbie tell you about this one.

This was a really cool jar! On the outside, there were tags, and flowers and a cute little Christmas Ornament that looked like a sled and it has my name on it! Inside, there were all kinds of stuff! Stickers and ribbons and buttons. Cute metal frames, little cards, old fashioned tags and all kinds of goodies. Thanks to my secret Santa Becky for bringing my jar to my house! I'm just sorry I wasn't home when she brought it by! Hopefully I'll get to meet her soon!

Girl Friends Book

2008-12-12T20:59:00.003-06:00

I joined a Girl Friends/Guy page swap on the Crafty Scrapper Forum. The pages I got back were amazing. I love getting to see all the different styles of different people. It was also nice learning a little more about all my forum friends. This was something a little different for me. I wanted some thing different to put all the pages in. This is one of my scrap scrapbooks (freebie chipboard).Some paper, ink and grungeboard letters and there you go. The pages are 8.5 x 11 so you have plenty of room to punch holes for rings and still have plenty of room to frame 8 x 8 pages.

Dawn's Gift

2008-12-12T20:45:00.005-06:00

This is just one of those shadowbox frames. I have done some of the 12 x 12 ones before but wanted to do something different so I tried this one. The backing is just chip board with that velcro fabric on it so brads work well on it. The two photo's are some of Debbie's Grand Parents and her Dad. The rosaries actually belonged to her Grandmother before she passed away. After that it was just a few letters, and buttons, and of course a heart. This one I'm giving to Debbie's sister Dawn for Christmas.

2008-12-12T20:34:00.003-06:00

The friends page is a close copy of one that I made at our retreat the original one we all signed and left for the Sisters. The other black one is the house and our group out in front of it. And the other one you can figure out. It was a really great weekend.

Scrap Scrapbook

2008-12-12T20:21:00.004-06:00

Okay, this is an example of me just playing around. I cut down some scrap chipboard(freebie stuff) then I covered the front and back with some faux black leather upholstry fabric I bought as a remnant. The straps and the cross came from a purse that my daughter was getting rid of. The chipboard interior is ink with Maya Roads misters and the edges are done with Adirondack Silver ink using Tim Holtz blending tool.
So what do you think?

Another little book

2008-12-12T20:17:00.003-06:00

This one is full of pictures of my two nephews, it is to be a gift to my sister. It was my first try with fragments.

Chipboard Books

2008-12-10T21:18:00.005-06:00

The retreat we went to was The Sisters Hideaway It was a wonderful weekend. I hope we get to go back again in the year to come. These are two chipboard books I made that weekend. The one with the copper was my favorite. It came in a Tattered Angels kit we got at the convention this year. The embossed copper on the cover was done by hand using a Ten Seconds form, the copper with the script writing on the inside was done using a Cuttlebug embossing folder on my Ellison big kick. Much easier. I was told I could use the Ten Seconds on it also but I have not tried yet.So far this is my favorite book, But I am partial to anything with metal.

Our First Maya Roads Class

2008-12-10T19:43:00.003-06:00

These are some pages I did at our retreat a couple months ago. You might recognize some things about the pictures.

Past due updates

2008-12-10T11:20:00.004-06:00

I'm really a bad blogger. At least that is part of the reason for not updating in so long. Partly there has been some not so happy stuff at home. I'm not the most outgoing person to begin with, and when I get down in the dumps I tend to close myself off to everyone. I really wish I was not this way. I guess certain parts of who we are we don't have a lot of say in. I do feel bad about not keeping up with my blog and for not chatting with my forum friends.I know that when we are down our friends can be of such a great help and I need to do a better job of remembering that and not be a hermit. This week however I am going to try to correct that. I have been doing some crafting. In fact quite a bit of it. I need to take some pictures and then I will be doing a multi-month update. Some is from months past and some is still ongoing to be honest. I made the mistake of over commiting myself to a lot of projects which are to be given away for Christmas. So I'll be scrapping my butt off this weekend at our church crop. Debbie has been making some really awesome cards for Christmas and I am going to post a bunch of them as well. With a little luck and a lot of work I will have a vast number of updates posted by this Sunday.

My first chip board book

2008-08-25T22:00:00.003-05:00

I've never done one of these books before, but after having done this one it will not be my last. I really enjoyed making this book. I started it the weekend before last when me and Debbie did a all day crop at The Crafty Scrapper on a friday. And I gradually finished it over the following week.

I'm finally updating

2008-08-25T21:46:00.003-05:00

I've not had much time for bloging or much else on the computer lately other than printing pictures. We have been to crops the last two weeks and taken a Maya Roads class as well. Not to mention we scrapbooked here at the house the week before. So it has been a fun busy. At ant rate here are some of the pages I've been doing lately. Four of thw pages are from our weekend in the country on the Forth of July. The other page is a friend of my oldest daughter that is staying with us for a while.

Photo Box

2008-08-25T21:37:00.002-05:00

The box was a make and take from our church this past suday. The photo's are from The Crafty Scrapper the weekend before. The Maya Roads class was my first and me and Debbie had a great time.

Some Guy Pages

2008-06-28T22:09:00.006-05:00

In an effort to encourage more men to openly get into scrapbooking I'm posting a few of the most testosterone inspired pages I have made. Scrapbooking is such a wonderful way to save little pieces of both your life and that of the people around you. Not only that but it is a great creative release. I've been doing it for years now and going to crops the entire time. To the guys out there I'd like to say most of the women I have scrapbooked with would love to have their husbands come with them and participate in doing something that they feel so passionate about. Okay so now a little bit about my pages. The first is my in the woods page. I was setting up my deer blind. My wife Debbie took the pictures, and helped set up the stand. All of the embellishments are made of wood, well other than some brads. The second layout is one I made at oue crop last month. It's my shooting page. I took a trip to our place in East Texas with a couple of my friends and burned a little gun powder. It is really cool what happens when you shoot a steel drum. The cowboy loads mushroomed out into some really neat flower shapes. The Winchester items on the page are pieces of the box from the shells. The next page I just made today. It is an example of guys being guys. It's also an example of me having fun with inks. One 4 wheeler, one steel grate, and me and my buddy having a blast. Now for the last one.......actually I don't really think I need to explain it. It is pretty much self explanatory.

2008-06-28T21:53:00.002-05:00

I just got home from our church crop and I could not wait to sign on and do some updating to my blog. We had a really great time today, and we had a real good turn out. A lot of our regulars and a few new ladies also. All together we had a little over a dozen people today. Our little group is growing. In september we are even having a lady from Stampin Up coming to do a demo at our crop. Anyway I thought I'd post a couple pics from the day. One is me one is some of my friends and one is everything me and Deb haul to our crop and the reason we like all day crops.

Some of My Photo's

2008-05-01T20:12:00.002-05:00

I've always loved taking pictures and once I learned to alter them on my home computer it was like falling in love all over again. I have become rather spoiled. I'm so used to adjusting and altering my own photos that now I hate taking anything out to be developed. I tend to like the high contrast black and white the most. It is just a totally differt look. You tend to see things different and the main focus is so much more prominent. I hope you like them.

Pages from our Crop

2008-04-27T17:10:00.009-05:00

I'm not really good at updating by blog. I really need to get better at it. Anyway here are three pages I did at our church crop yesterday. The first is the opening page to my book of pages I do about our trips to our land inn East Texas. The second and third are pages from when my wife's cousin came over with his kids. It was a really good day. On the Too Cute page I did some experimenting with distressed Alu. which was embossed using a Ten Seconds embosing plate and a balling tool. Then on the other two pictures I used some of the copper ink I picked up at The Crafty Scrapper to cover over the non important portions of the pic's as well as some of the floral stamps I got last weekend. I stamped them in color and then used aclear sparkel embossing powder. The Family Smile page I just played with a new Cricut cartridge that we picked up recently. We we are all together cell phones and cameras are always around. I hope you all like my new stuff.

2008-04-13T21:15:00.003-05:00

I spent the weekend at our land in East Texas with Debbie and her cousin Scott. It was a most relaxing time. This coming saturday me, Deb, and our friend Kalen will be coming out to do some shopping at the CraftyScrapper. Kalen is the business end of our little Scrapbooking group at church. She takes care of all the what and when for setting up our crops. We always have a really good time. Our next crop is on April 26. I can't wait. If anyone is going to be in the area and wants to stop in or come and scrap with us it would be great. All the particulars can be found at the site Kalen has set up for us. It's listed under My Places. We start about 11:am and go till around 5 or 6:PM. This time I'll probably come a little early and stay a little late. I've got some catching up to do. So many pictures and so little time. Oh yes, we meet a Indian Hills Baptist Church, 814 Tamara Lane, Grand Prairie, 75051.

The Shades of Brittany & Amy

2008-04-06T19:14:00.003-05:00

These were my attempt at abstract. I picked a single photo of each of my girls and altered each in four different ways. I then cut all of them up in the same pattern, mixed them up and put them back together. I added a fifth altered photo to each and overlayed it with a velum phrase that I thought matched each of them.

My Grandparents/Just after Boot Camp

2008-04-06T18:59:00.004-05:00

This photo was taken less than a year after they were married. I rarely make a page from a single photo, But this one was special. The original of this photo my grandfather carried in his wallet till the day he died. It was in less than perfect condition when I got it. I spent six hours on the computer retouching it. The metals are his actual service metals.

My Bling Page

2008-04-02T14:55:00.002-05:00

This is my family and my personal favorite of all the pages I've ever done. Other than the photo and the background paper everything you see is aluminum and copper. It was kind of hard to get a really good picture. I tried not to have too much glare but with all the metal it was hard. I worked on this page (I often refer to two pages designed together as a page) most every evening for a full week. It took around fourteen hours in all. Of course some of that was planning time. Hopefully you're able to see that some of the pieces are flat on the paper and others are on foam, and in some cases those layers are on more layers. One tag has the date and the other four were individually made one for each member of the family. On the four rectangular tags coming down the right hand side of the photo are the words"I'M A LUCKY MAN" it's a favorite song of mine. I hope you like my little collection of die cuts and metal stamping.

A couple of my pages

2008-04-02T10:24:00.001-05:00

Some of the Crafty Scrappers have asked to see some of my work, so here is a little. Hope you like them. These were some I already had pic's of on the computer. I'll try getting pictures of some of my newer pages soon.

Learning to blog

2008-04-02T09:33:00.000-05:00

This is a new thing for me. Till now I mostly used the internet for shopping. But the ladies of the Crafty Scrapper are very nice and informative as well, so I'm giving this a try.