Saturday 15 September 2012

Time Flies!

Oh my goodness - it's been more than a months since I've written anything here! Not that I didn't think about it but then I was distracted by the sand during the past month at Pitts's Peace, or by driving my boy (who isn't a little boy any longer) hither and fro, by preparing to lead AWANA games again this year, or by this weekend's distraction, The Great Scrapbook Carnival.

During the past month, I've only completed an explosion box for Hubby to celebrate our first anniversary, which serendipitously is paper. I don't craft much while at the cottage - who can blame me with this view? And yes, I just printed out the 5x7 to scrap. 


Being mistaken for a taxi just comes with being a Mom, as does taking out one's wallet when September looms. It's a good thing that high school requires much less variety of supplies than elementary school, and that the boy can now shop from a list all on his own. It's a bad thing that the supplies get more and more expensive (a $150 calculator, model specified - REALLY???).

Being a games leader at AWANA each week keeps me young while I'm preparing and directing the games, but a tad hoarse by the end of the evening. The kids have amiazing energy, and I consider the evening a success if everyone had a good time and the chaos was semi-organized. 

But I'm sure you're excited to hear about the Carnival! The fabulosa ladies at Canadian Scrapbooker organize this 2-day event in conjunction with a quilter's fair. There are retail booths, a huge cropping area (yep, I have my space!), wonderful classes, a photo booth, and some really cool make and takes by the retail participants. Good news for my crafting time, especially as I have tons of photos to scrap, and producing projects to show you here but bad news for my wallet. Beddie bye time for me now so I can dream of papers, twine, pennants, glitter, inks and more... you'll have to check back to see where those dreams take me.





Thursday 2 August 2012

Little Darlings Mini Album

Heidi ho! It rained here last night and has been raining on and off all day, plus the Boy and Hubby are both away so it was just me and the Dogger today. Perfect for a cuppa tea and... of course... crafting!!

Digging through my stash, I came across four different sheets from Graphic 45's Little Darlings collection.
Combined with only a little Ranger ink and some Xyron adhesive, this 6x8" (15x20 cm) mini album was a very low-cost project and uber-quick too! That made me think - this is a great idea for a future class. Remember, I don't add photos to potential class projects so you'll see empty matting inside the album. Here's the cover of what I whipped up:

I kept the cover very simple but added a little more detail inside. Even so, these papers are so darn gorgeous that I like to let them shine without too much distraction. Let's face it, I had a hard time even cutting this paper. Here are the inside pages:

Sunday 29 July 2012

Quickie Cameo Baby Boy Cards

It's a boy... and another boy!! Congrats to two different sets of new parents, and thanks for giving me an excuse to try Lori Whitlock's baby onesie card designs (available through the Silhoutte Online Store). I'm at the age where most of my friends have teenagers so there are very few opportunities to welcome new little ones into the world in my circle. That is, most moms I know are more concerned about hot flashes than diapers and raised their kids in a way as to not make them grandmas anytime soon. Maybe if some of those younger married cousins...

The three little onesies on the laundry line were glued onto Twinery twine instead of the paper clothesline in the design, and then the middle one was embellished with "JK" for the new one's initials. The base of the card and the little stars were inked with Colorbox ink to coordinate with the wee dots on the middle onesie, cut from an uber-old piece of cardstock (I suspect Bazzill) in my stash. This cute little quarter-fold card was a complete cinch to make!

The big onesie card was pretty simple too. The paper was the same as the little onesie from the first card so I planned my Cameo cuts accordingly (you can see the size difference by looking at the dots). The neckline, arm trim and leg trim started out as white cardstock until they were inked with the same Colorbox pad as I used above. The baby carriage was from a box of really old embellishments. It was so old that I had to add adhesive to the back because the original had hardened and was no longer sticky. This was a much bigger card (approx 5' x 7") and so the front and back are joined at the very top.

There ya go - two very simple baby cards made in under half an hour. It almost took longer to select the paper, twine and ink than it did to actually assemble these cards!

Botanical Mini Album

I was going through a box of projects that I had previously used for classes when I came across this little beauty:

This Kaisercraft paper from their Sweet Nothings collection was a wonderful source of inspiration for this mini album.

The class was all about die-cutting. I used Bazzill paper, Kraft-core and metal foil with an assortment of Spellbinders dies, and finished the pieces by embossing, sanding, stenciling or inking. There aren't any photos in here yet (I don't put photos in class projects before the class) but this inspires me to dig through the ones taken during the many trips my Mom and I have made to the Muttart Conservatory during her visits. Here's a closer look at each of the inside pages and what makes them special.

Wednesday 25 July 2012

"From the Heart" Scrapbook Layouts


I’m baaaack! 

The cottage was wonderful, and so was all the visiting we did with family and friends. The next two weeks are going to be frenetic… busy, busy, busy so I can spend a week at my Mom’s farm and then bring her to the cottage for a couple of weeks. Yep, I am well and truly blessed! 

 During the short time I’m here, I’m teaching a set of classes: a coordinating set of scrapbook layouts that feature die-cutting materials other than paper. Check 'em out and see how many different non-paper materials you see. 

There’s a feminine version in ivory with glittery cheesecloth and canvas butterflies and a more masculine version featuring denim, cork, and burlap. 

Both versions began with Little Yellow Bicycle paper and incorporated canvas, cheesecloth, denim, Spica pens, Adirondack inks and Tim Holtz distress stains.Even with the very different feel to these pages, it’s easy to spot the similarities, like the same title (“From the Heart”) and scalloped matting. The LYB paper complemented the textures without being overpowering – just like great paper ought to do. So let’s take a look at some of the unique details of each page.

Thursday 5 July 2012

Vacation!!

Oh my - I'm surprised I have a chance to sit down today. You see, hubby is flying home to day from his job in the oilsands (he's away for 14 days and then home for seven) and I have to pick him up at the airport (about an hour away) at dinnertime. We'll be back there tomorrow morning to fly to Ottawa, first for some visiting with family, and then two weeks at our little cottage. It'll be like the honeymoon we didn't have last summer. *big grin* Did I tell you that I love this man like crazy, even though he sometimes drives me crazy?

So if you don't see me too often during the next few weeks, that's because I'm here:

Wednesday 4 July 2012

A Quick Thank You

Here's a quick thank you card that lends itself to making a dozen (or two, or six) at a time. I found several pieces for this card while sorting through my stash so I'm procrastinating sharing.

Thank you, Bazzill, Bling, cardstock, Spellbinders, Cuttlebug, embossing, folder, heat embossing, Memento
Start with a 5.5" x 4.25" cardstock base, then add two layers of cardstock cut with a Spellbinders Nestabilities label and a third label with a sentiment. Emboss and ink the Spellbinders layers as you wish and... tada! All you need is a standard size envelope available at any office stationary store.


"Grandkids" Wall Art


 Dusty Attic, Grandkids, wall art, Memory Box, Valerian Flourish, Bo Bunny
My fave LSS, Scrap & Bean, received a whole lotta stuff from Dusty Attic yesterday. If you haven't heard about them, they make the most detailed chipboard I have ever seen. I picked up a few pieces, along with some Bo Bunny paper and May Arts ribbon, and home I went with my creative wheels just-a-turnin'.

After dinner and few other chores, I was able to sit down for the first of my projects: a "Grandkids" wall hanging for my Mom. She has three grandkids, none of whom she sees often enough, and I've been feeling especially sentimental during this past week. Okay, so my craft room is still not put back together and there are tons of other projects waiting for me but I just HAD to get my fingers full of ink and glue. Withdrawal is a terrible thing.


Sunday 1 July 2012

Celebration and Remembrance

On a happy note, Canada celebrated its 145th birthday today. Happy Canada Day to all Canadians, home and abroad, actual and hopeful. My boy and I checked out the celebration at CFB Edmonton, and then came home and vegged. It doesn't get dark here until 11 pm at this time of year so we skipped the fireworks (it had been raining on and off all day) in favour of the hopes of a good night's sleep. Needless to say, he's in bed and I'm sitting here typing. Bad Mommy!

On a more sober note, I took time to craft the sympathy card for the family of my son's 15 year old classmate today. The death of someone so young didn't fit any of the sympathy card designs I had previously used so it was a challenge coming up with something that balanced the tragedy of his far-too-soon death with the knowledge that, as a Christian, he was now in the arms of his Saviour. The funeral is tomorrow so I couldn't procratinate any longer over finding the appropriate words or creating a design. Here is the front:  
sympathy, card, front, butterfly, Memory Box, Spellbinders, Lacey Squares

Thursday 28 June 2012

A Sad Day

Today was supposed to be a celebration for my son and his class as they graduated from grade 9 (no more Junior High! wooHOO!!) but it turned out to be a very sad day. We received a call this morning that one of his classmates committed suicide last night. The two of them were friends and hung out as teenage boys do so the news hit hard.

Instead of a joyous day, it's been a sober day. The remaining classmates gathered at school today to seek out each other, knowing very little except that no one wanted to be alone. They told stories of good times and wished they could have done something to prevent this. They've vowed to always remember him and to support each other. They're good kids, most with God's love in their hearts. One of their teachers read a passage from Isaiah about young men not growing weary but being given the strength of the Lord and prayed with them. Many parents were there too - all not quite knowing what to do or how to ease this situation for their children.

I've become a hover-Mom over my own son as I can't imagine the pain of another Mom today. I know she'll treasure the photos and other memories she has of her son, and they will comfort her after she sees him laid to rest in a few days. And I think - isn't this why we do what we do as crafters? We create scrapbook pages that are more than photos; they are pages that tell our stories and commemorate our lives. We create handmade cards that say "I care" much louder than anything store-bought could. We create gifts from our hearts, inspired by the hearts of those for whom we create. And we love doing this so much partly because of how much we love the people for whom we do it.

I hope you'll excuse me as I go hover.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

Getting things organized

Day two of blogging... this has gone better than some diets I've tried so that's GOOD news.

The bad news is that I took a look at my crafting space and decided it needed an uber-overhaul. So, since I've come home from work, I've been schleping out boxes, and totes, and bags, and containers - you get the idea. It's a big pile. No, it's REALLY big, like take-over-the-entire-dining-room big. Who needs somewhere to eat anyway?

But there's MORE good news. I'm rediscovering things I had purchased for past projects and my creative juices are flowing. There's the dollar-store wooden bird house and the papers, metal foils, wires and FlowerSoft that was going to transform it into a work of art. There's the shadowboxes that I cut from Lori Whitlock's design that just needs a final touch, and the laces and other goodies that were going to make it per-FECT-a-mundo. Then there's the baby card pieces I had cut out on my Silhoutte Cameo, all neatly in a pile, waiting to be inked and assembled. Bad news - I need more nifty organizing bags that I get at Scrap & Bean, the ones that hold 12x12 paper perfectly and have a zip closure at the top.

My challenge now is to stay the course organization-wise and create a space that lets those creative juices flow before I succumb to the temptation of these projects calling out to me. I bet even you can hear them - "Barbara... come play with us... we're waiting for you..."

My cuppa tea is down to the leaves so it's time to get moving again - towards organization!

Toodles for now!  

Monday 25 June 2012

Starting a blog is a leap for me.

It is a leap of of commitment to both myself and the three people that might read or even follow this blog. This is a leap of opening myself and my 'craftiness' to feedback from strangers and friends alike. Eek - what might they say! Mostly, this is a leap into the unknown because I'm not sure what I want to post here yet, other than some of the projects I've recently completed, ergo, "Snippets 'n' Pitts".

My name is Barbara Pitts - that's the "Pitts" part. I've been a crafter for a while but only really started paper-crafting during this past year. I never knew you could amass such piles of paper pieces - that's the "Snippets" part. Although my most common projects are cards, I've done scrapbooking, altered art, and a bunch of 3-D projects. I would generalize my style as clean and linear with bright colours (think your first box of Crayolas), but then I surprise myself by dipping into vintage, steampunk, grunge or something completely unexpected for inspiration. I love inks, die-cutting of all sorts, my Silhoutte Cameo, texture, and recycling. I'm not friends with my scissors and have no desire to spend more time than absolutely needed colouring an image. I'm also Canadian so you'll find my spelling may a bit off if you're American, or spot-on if you're British. And yes, because I'm Canadian, I can also say "Vive la difference!"

So now that I've dipped my toe into blogging waters, I'm going to have a cup of tea and consider my next move into this pond (if it is a pond, but that's a question for another day). Don't want to start too big, do we?