Shopping at Scrapbook Expo!

If you’re a scrapbook, paper crafting, rubber stamping junkie like me. If you LOVE new supplies, and to see new ideas, tools and all the great things that come with two days of shopping and cropping then the Scrapbook Expo is where you need to be. It’s a traveling wonder of paper crafters heaven!

Yesterday I attended the Chicago Scrapbook Expo with my fantastically creative mom, and our good friend Piper. We love to go VIP style, buy our tickets online so we get that extra hour of shopping before they open the doors to the public.

Sooo… with out any more chatter from me, here is what I bought with my $100 budget…

Starting out we had to register when we got to the Expo, and when you did you received an shiny new pack of these Glue Dots, already played with them, and LOVE them! 

I bought the Smash tape, black with white dots (at Archivers later that day with my 30% off coupon) now Smash books are ALL the rage, and I LOVE the idea. NOT a fan of their books. Disappointing that out of 5 themed books I couldn’t get attached to any of them! But not to say I didn’t get attached to their other Smash products (more to come!) and the Tombo adhesive dots refill is always a staple in my art room!

LOVE these Smash pads. They are 10 different journal tags, 3 of each kind. Now I am able to admit, journaling tags are a HUGE thing for me. I LOVE them. LOVE them. And unlike the Smash books, these tags were JUST my style!

These prompt you SO well to scrapbook about what you love most! Everyday stuff!

Halloween is hands down the easiest holiday for me to scrap. It was tough to decide on doodle fun Halloween, or vintage style Halloween. I went doodle-y!

Check out these awesome Martha Stewart strips, peel and stick, and AWESOME! My mom found these, there was 5 different per pack, and 3 of each kind. So she was super generous and gave me one of each! Wee!

(too cute my daughter saw them and she LOVED the dripping red paint! LOL!)

LOVE these winter ones she gave me too. She bought each pack for a DOLLAR!! OMG, a STEAL!

Speaking of steals, I bought these chipboard sets for $1.50 each, I just thought there was some letters, um no. The Berry Sweet had strawberries (glazed!) mushrooms, and tons of fun dots.

The Wild Saffron set has flowers with rhinestones, both sets had some super cute accents with! $1.50 each!?! DEAL!

Sorry I couldn’t get better light on this next shot, it’s some fun clear embellishments, fun flowers, glittered, and transparent. LOVE it! Those were $1.50 too. Then the Fall/Halloween chipboard was from Mellissa Frances, go to her blog, she’s SO Shabby Chic it’s insane, RIGHT up my mom’s alley. Mellissa Frances was actually AT the Expo yesterday. Very cool to see an artist right there selling their product. It was on clearance for $1, again I missed it, but she bought me one!

MORE tags! These were some fun summer one by Little Yellow Bicycles another company I LOVE so much.

These were a big hit, .49 cents each, buy 4 get the 5th one free. I heart my dad, I got two, one for a card for him, and one to scrapbook… or two to scrap, one for me, one for the kids?!

Have some old Vegas pictures to scrap, I know Ed would like to have NEW Vegas pictures to scrapbook! They are just die cut tags, BUT puffed up, like someone dry embossed details on them

 

BIG bag of buttons for $2. Wish they had more variety. Only saw purple (my fav) lime green, blue and red, blue and white or orange…

 

 

Two Copic markers. Sigh… I want to get into these, they seem great. BUT at $5 a marker, my collection is starting SLOW. So far two green, and two brown… well now I can just color lots of trees… I HAD two blue, and two pink in my basket too but I put them back because of…

 

 

Smooch paints. OMG love them. Or otherwise known as ‘Pearlized accent ink’ $3.19 each at the Expo, $4.99 at Archivers! They originally started out with just 8 colors, but have expanded greatly. Like my Stickles (glitter glue tubes!) I do think I need them ALL!

They are like a liquid eyeliner. They are a light paint, with a hint of glitter. These are my newest 7.

Azure

Frosted Aqua

Siren

Carrot

Sundance

Snickerdoodle

Moonlight

I have the Grape Soda, Sassy Pink, Kiwi and the ever so awesome top coat Illuminate. These are great for SO many projects. Mostly shown to color in stamped images. BUT I love them for outlining a picture or a journal tag in a scrapbook, lots of different surfaces outside of paper too.

S.E.I had these ‘Jocelyn’ 12x12 scrapbooks on clearance for $5 each! Mia needed a new book!

 

Some paper for me. I thought the cassette tape paper would be good for my all about me Smash book I’m creating. Talk about how back in the day how we’d tape off the radio, over and over again. And the yellow cloud paper was super cute, that’s just one for anyone… maybe Sophie in the sunshine?

I love to find new cat and dog papers. The cat paper was shimmery, and I’ve already cut apart all these cute cat and dog tags to put with my papers.

Have to say these chipboard cat and dog embellishments were the most pricey individual thing I bought. BUT at $5.99 each but breaking it down it’s about .49 to .59 cents each. Worth it, and I do 8x8 pet albums so these will last!

 

I swear if you add glitter to ANYTHING we paper crafters flock to it.

See this Adore page?! It’s covered in a yellow/gold glitter. I found an accent tag that goes with it, and can just PICTURE my babies on this page…

See the tag below?! PERFECT. Shiny, and beautiful.

 

Not only is this message adorable, but the just right amount of green glitter to go with! AND again I found paper to go with, thinking our bike adventure to the Locks with the kids will be PERFECT!

 

 

 

 

Picked up some adorable school papers, I love this style, and the more regal shades for school then the bright ones. Going to use an old 6x6 BoBunny chipboard book to put these sheets in. Make her a book from Preschool through 6th grade for Mia.

This next sheet may not excite you, but It’s a 12 month calendar. I’m going to cut it up, decorate it, and make a flip calendar for next to my desk. I do each year, and this is the start of my 2012 one!

Sooo that was our adventure, my loot, and each year we learn what to buy and what not to waste our time on. This is what we’ve learned…

1. Go early. Get the VIP, you can wizz through the free make-n-takes (I am NOT paying $5 for a MnT project) then hit the bargain booths, because the lines get SUPER long. I mean 15 minute wait to check out!

2. As much as we love to sit down in one of the nice restaurants there at Pheasant Run Resort, it was 45 minutes for them to COOK our food! Waste of time. I would have been fine getting a hot dog at the vendor stand by the banquet room. Or save money, and pack a lunch!

3. Bring ONE comfy back pack, or shoulder bag. I have one I bought at the Expo 3 years ago and LOVE it. NO roller carts allowed!

4. Don’t bring babies, or toddlers unless you have ZERO options otherwise and are desperate to go. Tweens and teens if they want to go, I think would be a great bonding experience.

5. Go with friends BUT don’t expect to shop together. I say this because if we 3 shopped together the WHOLE time we’d still be there. Do your own thing and meet up. We called each other if we thought one of us got lost in a booth somewhere.

6. Don’t buy it. Yesterday for me was the $29.99 glass tile set. Came with two glues, 20 GLAS tiles, images, and the metal charm to make it a necklace. Great deal BUT a third of my budget. I set it down, walked around thought about it. HAVE to have it? Go ahead. But just remember that you can probably order it online (unless it’s a rare ‘Expo special only deal’) I didn’t get it, and glad I didn’t for that would have been my Smooch Paint budget!

7. I make one FAST round, seeing where things are, before really buying. Seeing if there is a booth I MUST see first. Some booths I don’t even look twice at, some I want to curl up in and refuse to leave!

8. Be prepared to be tired, have sore feet, knees and backs! It’s an exhausting day, but I ask for Expo money for my birthday and save it till then. It’s my big day to spend birthday money on what inspires me and makes me happy. I not only got buy great things for my stash, but I was able to become inspired to scrap, stamp and create!

A wonderful day full of laughs, giggles and much needed girl time! Till next year! Happy Scrapbook Expo Day!!

 

JCat McGack

 

In the mail I got my new Creating Keepsakes, PERFECT timing. PLUS I got a $15 credit for my local scrapbook store from my punch card filling up at Scrapbook Junction in Minooka, IL… can’t wait for our 7 hour crop there at the end of September! (more giggles with mom and Piper!)

Green with Inspiration.

Creating Spaces? Where Women Create? Creating Keepsakes? ALL too much inspiration for me!

I LOVE the new Creating Spaces magazine. It’s an annual issue by Creating Keepsakes that covers 146 Inspiring Rooms, Ideas and Projects. From people who craft in a closet, to a studio size space. LOVE it. It was $14.99 but SO worth it.

Always an issue of Creating Keepsakes nearby, love scrapbook layouts and tons of inspiration there too.

Where Women Create… OMG. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE it. It’s not so much a magazine, it’s like an artist book, it’s a $14.99 a copy. It’s published 4 times a year. I JUST picked up the Aug/Sept/Oct 2011 issue. A girl named Heather Bailey is on the cover and she just SCREAMS creative! Susan Branch is in there, LOVE it. AND they started a Man page, and who else besides the talented Tim Holtz to have in it? The whole thing is PACKED with great artist, you just have to go get your own to read them all.

I have to say sure the fact that it’s $15 a book is a lot of money. BUT if you want to be inspired. And NOT just for how to set up a space, but there are quotes, and ideas, and how they started, and what inspires them to keep creating. How they had regular jobs and just did what they loved. Then I say it’s SO worth the money to just stir up some creativity in you.

I try to use their inspiring stories, pictures, quotes and ideas and use them in my art room, designs, and everyday use.

Amazing how one grows as an artist. From cutting and pasting my Sesame Street magazine at the age of 4, to paint by numbers. 4 years of art classes in High School. And 6 years of independent demonstrating for Stampin’ Up! (stampinup.com it wouldn’t let me link?!)

I’ve grown to love sewing, even though I often stab myself with the needles. I’m a rubber stamp hoarder. Scrapbook almost daily. And JUST reminding myself that painting, sketching, clay, and paper Mache’ need to be part of my routine too.

I have to say, I once was jealous of all these people in the magazines, some my age or younger who have LINES of their own, IN stores, or have their OWN stores like I want. So instead of being jealous, I’ve turned to them to help me create my own. My own every day art. My own thing. Do me.

So today I’m just playing in my room. May sound pointless to some. Why not create something you ask? Well I may, or not. I did cover a notebook for my best friend. Just for fun.

Thinking about moving my ribbon out of the drawer its in and hang it over my ceiling… we shall see! Until next time I leave you with this quote from Tim Holtz’s teacher…

“Class- Art is everywhere. Remember you can always create something from what at first you may see as nothing…”

JCat McGack

Where do you find inspiration? Leave me a comment and tell me!

Paint & Scrapbooking

Since the garden walk on Sunday inspiring me to paint, and my want to combine it with scrapbooking I did a bit of both today, now it’s more of a coloring book style, nothing free hand painting. But still painting with a brush and fun at that.

This is some older paper by Rusty Pickle company (sadly out of business) called Pop Star, I have a bunch of this line, and it’s literally black and white, doodly kind of scrapbook paper. NOW it is regular paper, so if you water color on it, you can’t get too wet, or it’s, well a mess.

AND since I had my two assistants with me…

Mia chose to take some of her unfinished art work, up into the cat tower and work. While her brother, Alex chose to meow like a cat for 20 minutes.

I did have my other two assistants, Jordan who is not pictured was busy catching Bob, the fly who is trapped in the basement art room, and catching Bob meant sitting on my work, nothing says water coloring like cat hair.

AND there is this princess Chloe, who was ALL in my business.

Reasons enough why I chose to work on a easier piece…

I had a cute picture of my mom with her Mother’s Day arbor that we got her, and though this BIG flower would be cute to go with. This is after I added the water color crayons.

 

Yes they are amazing and they are by the company Stampin’ Up! I demonstrated for them for 6 years and LOVE their product. (there are also water color pencils out there, same idea, but the crayons to me are softer, and easier to work with)

 

They are that simple. Color your picture, and it doesn’t have to be ALL colored in, you can kinda sketch it. The water coloring part will blend it.

I use an Aqua Painter (again by Stampin’ Up!) but you can buy them at retail stores. Simple, fill with water, squeeze and water come through the brush. Just eliminates the cup of water. (see small children and cats above if you question my reasons)

 

Once ALL is blended, you get a much softer look. I did the dark pink first,wiped of excess color onto my hand (yes I do this out of habit. It’s the way I’ve been doing it since I was a kid) then switch to a different color, be cautious when doing lighter colors by darker, they may run together. But it’s water color so a bit of mess is good.

AND there you have it. A quick scrapbook page, that took me about 35 minutes to create!

JCat McGack

A Garden walk of creativity

The Annual Minooka Garden walk was yesterday, I go each year with my mom. Just the two of us. It’s fantastic to walk among some one else’s garden. To get to see what they create and labor over. To chat with gardeners, to really get a feel for how they love their yards.

So the first house has this in the front yard. My heart is happy already.

Then I see that they have these empty stations set up all over the yard, under pine trees and then tables with women painting in the garden! I chat with them for a few minutes, finding out that on Thursday nights at the local library they have open night. It’s free, you can sketch, paint, and do what every creative art you are in the mood for. Now I love to go and scrapbook but as of this year I am pretty set on cropping at home. I have a HUGE space for it. And cropping is a bit involved when it comes to the packing process (I have to take EVERYTHING!)

But painting and drawing? Simple. Sketch pad, paints, pencils, WAY less supplies. I could do this. AND make new friends? For free? Down the street? THEN they asked me to join them… right now! And paint!

So I did. OMG it was so much fun. We chatted and painted, I stayed for 40 minutes, and my wonderful mom, stood and watched. Thanks mom. She knew how much that meant to me.

 

I did what I do best, and that was a tree. I picked ONE color, and with watercolors the amount of water you use changes the darkness of the paint. It was fantastic. And this was just house #1 of seven!!

 Oh AND they had a canvas under a tree, and it was for anyone who came through to paint on. They wanted it to be the Garden Walk painting. So mom and I added a little ourselves.

The next house was just whimsical, and random, SO my way of gardening.

Lots of shade, lots of art too. She had paintings

from a local artist, plates hanging on the fence and half in her dirt. She had shown me her label maker, and her tags, she labels EVERY plant in her yard.

And old wooden play set is now a bird/squirrel feeder, she had a pond. BUT not for fish, for birds. Very shallow and clean.

 

Then there is this house… this is a combination of my mother and I. Both cute, a dash of country, but again the random whimsy look I love.

I mean WHO nails ALL these signs to their house?! I was in love!

And the details! Look at these mini lanterns! LOVED it!

 

And below check out the sink! How cute is that? NOW I know not every yard could pull that off, there a close line between cute as hell and hillbilly heaven

 

Oh and there are these all over this yard! They were glass bottles tied to stakes, with a note in each, usually about where the flowers came from, or what they mean to the family. This one was sweet. And they had a HUGE section of beautiful daisies.

So this shot did exactly the opposite of what I wanted, (Still getting the hang of my dad’s SLR) and I wanted to get the cupcake. It had a violet on top, and I ate it. (most flowers are edible) the cupcake too was amazing, and the home owners daughter was starting a baking company, and who better to try it out on?

So I was freaking excited on the front porch and even MORE excited when I started to notice the name of the home owner. OMG it’s THE preschool everyone talks about.

Sure enough, there is THIS one preschool that is RAVED about, by everyone in town. And you have to know some one to get her info, she is not on the internet, or in the phone book. AND there is a two year waiting list. SO MAYBE I could check it out because NOW I have her info! Wee!

Right so, there was so much to see, the yard, the play area, ALL of it was amazing, AND they let you go through the house to leave! Very cool.

And THIS was just house #3… well house #4 was a repeat from last year, and well it was about 95 in the shade, so we skipped it, then houses #5-#7 were cute, but nothing like the first three houses.

SO much fun, SO inspired, hoping for all this rain to make my garden happy, then make my dirt soft, and Wednesday it should cool down and I can go out and garden! Till then it’s house work and hoping for some art room time! Happy creating!

JCat McGack

Dreams of art.

How ironic is it that this was a Mary Englebright calendar tear off page, for the weekend of my Mom’s birthday a few years ago.

The one person who taught me since I was big enough to hold a crayon, that art is fun. She would sew, and I would sit next to her with my Sesame Street magazines, cutting out pictures of my favorite characters with my safety scissors.

I spent my life so far creating. Anything I can try I do.

My youth was crafts, popsicle sticks, glue, markers, paper, and fabric.

I took drawing classes when ever I could. And once in High School my first priority was to schedule art classes. All 4 years, with Mrs. Henize. Not always liking the lessons, still life drawing was horrible (I still have those duck drawings though) but I took the lessons, and worked with them.

I have collages, from magazines. The watercolors, metal embossing, painting, cartooning, clay, paper mache, and our weekly drawing assignments.

After high school, not sure why I didn’t take art at the Junior College I attended… but art still lived on. My mom and I had found rubber stamping when I was about 12. When I was 23 we found a company called Stampin’ Up! and for 6 years I was a independent demonstrator for them. (hosting classes on how to stamp and create cards, and scrapbook pages)

I just left Stampin’ Up! 6 months ago. And it was a great thing in my life, but now I’m enjoying the freedom of creating more for myself. Ugly Sock Monsters are a new thing. Sewing is becoming a good habit and I know my mother is elated (that it only took 32 years to get me really into sewing. Now if only my bobbin agreed with me, I would do it more often!)

Our little ‘Gack and Gigi’s’ booth, is a dabble in the fact that we have space. To first off clean out our houses, but create and possible sell a few things.

I would like to create, and have an Etsy store filled with all the fun things I make.

The big dream?

To have a store. “JCat McGack’s” where I sell scrapbook supplies, fabric, tools and supplies for all art kinds. That is the first floor. THEN the second loft floor, is for tables. BIG tables. That people can ‘rent’ by the hour, to create right there.

I would have sewing machines, die cut machines, a kiln. ALL for them to create with.  The second floor would also have a back porch for sitting. To just read, drink coffee, or visit with friends.

I would have a kids area. (I’ve learned I am good with kids and art work, I have patience there with them)

Well it’s a dream. One I hope to see come true, but that magical thing called money that doesn’t exist, is what stops me… a girl can dream right?

JCat.

A new adventure is ours!

So we have officially opened a booth…

Now it’s NOT a craft booth, or an art booth. It’s a start.

A start on my Mom and I working together. To see how we do. How dedicated we are, and just how we work together.

(and yes I tried to picture fuse them together on Windows 7 ‘The cloud’ but it just wasn’t working)

So you ask what DO we sell?

Stuff.

Stuff from our house, stuff we buy cheap and can resell a bit higher

I consider it a permanent garage sale, a way to move the items in our house, be old or newer, toys or knick knacks.

I would LIKE to start making my UgLy SoCk MoNsTeRs, and putting a few in here. But for now this is what we’ve got.

Here we have what we like to call the ‘featured rack’ which is right now our Spring/Easter/Gardening display.

After one week we had to bring in more we were selling like crazy! (mostly the little Easter chachkey stuff)

It’s fun. My mom and I are really getting into rearranging the displays every week to keep it fresh, and updated.

Staging stuff is SO up our alley! So far in 6 days I made 18 dollars! Hooray!

Oh and the best part is, it’s at an old Mill house, where there are 60 booths for rent. We are on the second floor, second booth on the left.

So if your in Wilmington, IL be sure to check us out…

Milltown Market • 508 N.Kankakee • (815)476-0386 • Wilmington, Ill.

or check out their site at http://www.milltownmall.com/ (be warned they have music on their site!)

JCat McGack