More CHA sneak peeks

Another sneak peek - of more of the New Expressions Clear Word Titles from Clear Scraps - both the small and the large words.  I made journal covers, wall hangings and album covers with them.  Here are a few of my favourite projects.

 I used the large Expressions Word "MEMORIES" on the front of this 12x12 top-load album.  It was a little too long to fit across the top without getting in the way of the hinges, so cut the letters apart so I could later them slightly and make them fit across the album front.

 This large Expressions Word "FAITH" was a special request for the CHA booth.  I went with a really simple look - alcohol ink on the word itself and then just a little paint and ribbon to dress up the actual frame that it's on.

 This "HOPE" is one of the small Expressions words. I used it here on a small canvas - again coloured with alcohol ink and then a gold leafing pen to outline the edges.  

 "CREATE" was a fun word to use - this is a small Expressions Word Title and it fit on one of the frames from a Tri-fold Frame set.  I used a very large floral sticker from American Crafts to cover the entire word, trimmed the edges off, painted behind the sticker with a different colour of paint and then added a layer of glossy accents to the front of the acrylic word.  

For this "WELCOME" Banner, I used the large Expressions Clear Title coloured with alcohol ink and then texturized with Tsukinecko's Goosebumps.  

And, my last one for today - "TOGETHER" is a Tri-fold frame with the word holding it in the standing position.  I think this would be really cute with a couple's wedding photo in it....or even with a picture of the couple to have standing at the guest book area AT their wedding.  I used silver Krylon spray paint to paint the word for this project.  There's a little bit of drying time but it works great!!!

So, there you have it - a few more sneak peeks of what's new this year! 
If you happen to get a chance to go to CHA this next week.....stop by the Clear Scraps booth and say "HI."

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathy

Clear Scraps BLOG HOP

Welcome to the New Release For The New Year Blog Hop!!!

If you've stumbled upon this Blog Hop by accident - congratulations :)  And Welcome.  But you may want to start back at the Clear Scraps blog so you don't miss any of our design team's inspiration!
http://clearscraps.typepad.com/

The Blog hop is going to run January 19th - January 21st 
and the Grand prize will be 4 beautiful Send It Clear Cards (to be shipped in Feb.)

along with a set of Clearly Accent Embellishments of your choice!!

There are FOUR ways to enter!!

#1. Hop & comment on all the blogs

#2. Follow the Clear Scraps Blog

#3. Follow the Clear Scraps Design Team Blogs (all of them)

#4. LIKE the Clear Scraps Facebook page! (leave a comment on the Facebook page, so we know)

So, without further ado...
Clear Scraps proudly introduces the new lines for Spring 2012!

 "Send It Clear" (a collection of unique and easy-to-create cards)

New "Clearly Accent Embellishments" (including a garden set, dress forms, lampposts, flourishes, a baby set and more)

New mini albums (baby dress and overalls, football helmet, and more)

New large & small Expressions

Here's one of the new "Send it Clear" cards that I was given to make...the Christmas Tree card.  I know Christmas is over but in my opinion, it's never too early to start on next year's cards!!

There's a solid back piece and then 2 front pieces that interlock to make the card front.  Ingenius!  Each card comes packaged with an envelope to send it in and clear stickers for attaching the back to the fronts.

I decorated mine with some patterned paper, some flocking and some jewels. Oh, and yes, the "Send it Clear" cards are made from the same light extruded acrylic that is flexible enough for me to sew through with my sewing machine!!

Thanks for stopping by!  Leave me a comment and I'll be doing my own drawing for a little prize :)

Now, there's more on the other DT blogs!   Get to hopping!
Here is the complete New Release For The New Year Blog Hop order-

Clear Scraps

Cathy S.  <<<<you are currently here

Leah C.

Rita B.

Pinky H.

Tonya D.

Irene T.

Adora C.

Clear Scraps Facebook Page (Bonus entry)

Sneak peeks of NEW Clear Scraps

About 2 weeks ago I shipped off a big box of projects to Clear Scraps for their CHA booth.  

There was MUCH rejoicing in the house when that box left, let me tell you. 

I think the first week of Christmas holidays I barely came up for air.

And now.....finally...the day has arrived that I can finally share some of these projects with you.

We have a big BLOG HOP coming up this weekend so you'll see lots of great projects from our Dt later this week.  Details at the end of this post.

For now, I'll just start with 2-3 new projects, to whet your appetite.

 Clear Scraps started making these large 12x12 Top Load acrylic albums last summer already and they were (and still are a HUGE hit).  The covers are the hard cast acrylic which makes them incredible surfaces to paint, ink, etc.  Each album becomes a unique, one-of-a-kind work of art.  I used one of the new Large Expressions words (MEMORIES) on the front of mine and since the word was very large, I cut the letters apart and overlapped them so they'd fit as the title of my album.  A little vintage lace, some gold leafing pen and some Basic Grey and it's the perfect place to put memory photos.

As a card-maker at heart, this new product from Clear Scraps has me jumping up and down.  It's CARDS!!  They come with 3 pieces - a back, and 2 interlocking front pieces.  Genius.  There are stickers included to adhere the back to the fronts and an envelope for delivering your newly created acrylic card.  These 2 samples here are...obviously...the Christmas Tree version of  the card.  The top of the tree is attached to the bottom half of the front.  The bottom of the tree is attached to the top of the front and they lock together to form a complete tree on your card front.  Did I say GENIUS?  

 For the card above, I used Gold paint pen to pain the tree, some jewels to decorate it, a sentiment sticker from SRM Press and some older gaffer tape from 7 Gypsies for a border and in place of the clear stickers that hold it together (just for variety).

Below, I used a sheet of adhesive from Glue Arts to make the whole tree sticky.  Then I covered it in DCWV's flocking and added more jewels.  These jewels are just thin enough to slip through the slot that interlocks the fronts.  Anything too much bulkier wouldn't work.  Oh, and yes....these are made from the extruded acrylic which is very easy to manipulate - emboss, cut, and even sew through with my sewing machine (see photo).

I can't wait to do a whole big stack of these.  

I think....I heard a rumor....that there might be a few of these at CHA as a make & take.  I'm just saying - if you're going - you might wanna check out the Clear Scraps booth!!

And speaking of checking things out.  Check back here this weekend for a Clear Scraps Blog Hop.  All of our designers will be showcasing some of the new stuff they've been working on.  You don't want to miss it!!  I think I'll give something away on my blog next weekend - it's been a long time since I gave away a prize.

New Years! (for real, this time).

Now we're talking.

When I wrote my last post, I wasn't feeling to excited about this new year.  I think partly that was because, for me....the "new year" doesn't really start until school starts.  On January 1st, I'm still in holiday mode and it didn't seem like a new start.    But now that school's resumed and I'm back into routine, it really is feeling like a new year.  I've got my camera rolling and my Project Life album set out on the buffet.  I think I'm ready to live this adventure of 2012.  

I'm not going to promise a photo-a-day this year.  I'd love to but no promises. 

And I have no word picked out for the year.  That didn't really pan out last year - I choose JOY as my word, hoping to find Joy in a lot of unusual places....and 2011 totally turned out to be about PEACE for me.  Who knew?  OK, besides Him, who knew?

SO....no agenda.  Good pictures, a great adventure....here we go:

Jan 1:  A little bit of snow, and our tent trailer hiding out behind the shed....waiting patiently for some summer adventures.  I booked tickets for Sonshine today :)

Jan 2:  My ribbon and button collection.  I took this picture because my latest assignment from one the scrapbook magazines I design for was to do some layouts with rainbows as my inspiration.  This ribbon/button shelf is my rainbow of inspiration.

Jan 3:  Mica and her good friend Lissa

Jan 4:  The boys were away so Mica & I went out for Sushi.  Yum!!

Jan. 5:  I drove to Winnipeg today to make cards with some cousins!  I love, love, love those ladies.  Cards were fun.  Being with them was even better.

 (of course, grabbed my camera from my purse after one cousin and my aunt had already left)

Jan. 6: This guy.  I love him.  Tonight, around 9:30 pm we went for a nice walk to get some treats at 1st Choice.

 

  Here's 1st Choice. Our closest convenience store.

 Jan. 7:  Finally, the Christmas tree is coming down.  I should have taken pictures of it when I put it up - it was a little more "done" then....that was before a few weeks of my kitten using it as a nap space. 

 Jan. 8:  Last day of Christmas holidays....lunch at Smitty's after church.

Jan. 9:  When I came home from grocery shopping, there'd been a phone call for me and my message got delivered via remote control car.

Jan. 10:  Making some homemade beef jerky.  Kids' request.  Can't wait for it to be done tomorrow morning.

That's all.

Off to a great start.

And, my CHA projects got shipped a week ago.  They'll be arriving in Colorado now-ish.

Better yet.....this coming weekend I have permission to start giving SNEAK PEEKS!!  

Stay tuned and I'll show you what I was working on over Christmas holidays.

2012

I woke up this morning - January 1, 2012 - dreading the day, and dreading the year.  It was a horrible, sick-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach feeling that wouldn't go away.  I wanted to roll back over and go back to sleep but dreaded that too knowing I'd only wake up slightly later with the same feelings of being overwhelmed, exhausted, done.  It's bad enough some days not feeling like you want to face a meeting, or a day of work, or an assignment....but to wake up feeling like you don't want to face the year...?  

I can feel my shoulders slumping even remembering it. 

Normally I'd have some New Year's post about resolutions of mine:  to be a better person/mom/friend;  to take better photos/make better projects;  to blog more consistently/journal more often, etc. But I was feeling a little like, "why bother?"  Until, I read a New Year's blog post on Ann Voscamp's blog today where she talks of starting off the new year sometimes like this: 

... fear. Fear that I am impotent of change,  that new ways can’t be my ways.

What if I will always be this way… (fill in the blank with fear of personal choice: self-centered, overweight, uneducated, unmotivated, debt-ridden, angry, anxious, apathetic, unfulfilled…)

What if our family, this marriage, these children, stagnate, fester, languish?  

What if all tomorrows are just more of all our yesterdays?

A thousand times I’ve told myself, “I simply must try harder.” 

Try harder to be more organized, try harder to educate our children better,

try harder to be more after God’s heart.

But I know it: trying harder only results in harder trials....

She goes on in more depth, and as always in her beautiful poetic style...you can read the whole post here.

Then, she pasted in a quote.  Just a few simple words from a great man: 

                “God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible.

           What a pity when we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.” -A.W. Tozer

And then I knew.  

All my fears about the new year are there because I'm thinking of how I'm going to do it all by myself. 

I've been picturing myself as self-sufficient instead of reliant on God.  

I've been forgetting about the "village" around me that's going to help me parent my teen and pre-teenagers. 

I've been discounting the fact that people around me have gifts that they need to use in my life too - just like my gifts have a purpose in their lives.  

I've been neglecting the fact that I am not currently, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be...in control.

God is.

So, I'm going to adopt a few more of Ann's steps to making New Year's resolutions:

(This is a short version of hers - again, you can read the whole post here).

1. SET BACK TO THE WIND

Set back to the wind, and let His Spirit gently carry when the feet are too weak to carry on.

2. SET JAW TO PERSEVERE

“For we add to our faith, perseverance.”

For, really, what can go awry? The Spirit’s got your back.

3. SET TIMES

Set, fixed, times to make certain tracks each day allows for the wind to move us, for inspiration to surprise us. Sporadic creativity or intermittent commitment generally fails to forge a steady trail. Progress is born out of rhythm, routine, regularity….set times.

4. SET SIGHTS

Every day keep the intermediate goals in clear line of sight.

Set goals into achievable segments, and fix sights on the these midway markers: one pound shed this week, 15 minutes of organization, one date night a week with a child. Set sights close…

5. SET OUT

Simply, finally, take the first step. Again and again.

The wind, hope on its wings, sweeps each new day clean before us, and sweeps over our tracks from yesterday, filling with grace.

She's so much more poetic than I will ever be, but this is what I take from her post:  I will let the Spirit carry me this year.  When I see where he's leading, I will Go.  I will rest and refuel often and regularly.  I will keep my goals in sight.  And I will take the first step, and then the next first step, and then the next. 

No specific goals this year except to listen to the Spirit and go where he leads.  I have NO idea where that will be this year.  But I know it will be an adventure and I'm excited to start.