In Atlanta tonight ...

... actually, we are in Tucker, which is in the Atlanta metropolitan area, on the East side. We left Pensacola at about 8 a.m., first stopping by Scraphappy so I could drop off my sample for the beginning acrylic class I am teaching there next month. Then it was off to Alabama!

Fortunately, the drive was uneventful. We did stop at a Guthrie's chicken restaurant in Tallassee, Alabama (Not to be confused with TallaHAssee, Florida) for lunch. Rodney managed to drive 12 miles past the exit before I looked up from answering my email via iPhone to ask him what was taking so long to go 13 miles ... but we turned around and went back to Guthrie's anyway, simply for blog fodder. We even asked an amused stranger to take our picture for us. By the way, the chicken was excellent. Off to Georgia!




We arrived in Tucker at about 3 p.m. Well, we thought it was 3 p.m. It was actually 4 p.m. - we forgot about the time change to EST. Whoops! Good thing we didn't have anywhere we really needed to be. Unless you count the scrapbook stores ... There were two in the area I wanted to go to, but due to the lack of time (both stores closed at 6 p.m. and we needed to drop the dogs off at the hotel) I only got to one of them. Paper Impressions was on the opposite side of town, in Murietta, and traffic was starting to get bad. So I settled for just going to ScrapChic Boutique, which was only about 6 miles from our hotel, in Decatur.

We actually just drove right by ScrapChic before we saw it ... not because it was small, but because we were looking for a strip-mall type store and ScrapChic is actually housed in a turn-of-the-century house. I really loved the feel of the place!


The three owners had done a great job keeping the antique, rustic feel with their decor, use of space and fixtures, such as this ladder ...



The range of supplies was good. I picked up some of the new Sassafras, some Hambly Screen Prints transparencies and Atlanta-themed paper. But I loved the crop space.


While you did have the climb stairs to get to the crop space up there, there were three spacious rooms filled with tables. The huge windows gave great natural light for day crops and there were plenty of tools and computers for croppers to use. Rodney even managed to keep himself occupied with all the fun goodies to look at! And, of course, I just HAD to drop off some samples of Kits2Remember products while I was there ...

As always, the dogs traveled well. They were excited to be on an adventure and were thrilled this morning when they found out that they weren't going to be left behind, They had been edge all day yesterday ... the suitcases were in the house! For the trip, Marble has her crate, which Ripley sometimes sleeps in, so we got a travel crate that was chew-resistant fabric and folds down, sort of like a car sun shade. I laughingly call it the dogs' "sleeping bag."


We put Marble in it first, since she is smaller than Rip, but while we were at ScrapChic, and they were at the hotel, she managed to UNZIP it and meet us at the door when we came in to the room. Seriously! So, when we went to Fuddruckers for dinner, we put Rip in with a clamp on the zippers. That seemed to work out better.

We're off across I-20 tomorrow, headed for the Carolinas!

Dad, Grads, Teachers and Travel ...

... While summer officially starts on the 21st, there are certainly the signs of the warmer times. School years are ending, students are graduating, Dads will soon be celebrated and many of us will be taking summer vacations. The K2R Design Krew has been working on some fresh and affordable handmade gift ideas for the special teachers, students and Dads in your life. Be sure to check out the K2R Design Krew blog to see what they've been up to ...

While the kids are away, the parents will ... take a road trip! My husband, Rodney, and I are fortunate to have parents who love to take our children for weeks at a time during the summer months. That means we can actually have a conversation without getting interrupted! :) We've decided to take a road trip through Atlanta, Georgia; Jacksonville, North Carolina; Florence, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Jacksonville and Tallahassee in Florida over the next week. We plan to visit some friends and family. And, OF COURSE, we will be stopping at different scrapbook stores along the way! I've already mapped some out and can't wait to see what the scrapbook stores of the South have to offer! Any suggestions for scrappy stops along that route would be appreciated ... just post here or email me: jessica @kits2remember.com.

If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to this blog (just click the links on the right) so you'll get the latest chapter to our travelog each day... I love to travel, especially road trips, so I am very much looking forward to this vacation!

Fun with Fragments ...

... I have been messing around with Tim Holtz's Fragments Charms. With a little Glossy Accents, these have turned out to make some great little embellishments. Here are the first four I made - forgive the glare on the large one, I didn't realize how bad that was until I went to edit the photo... but you get the idea! These Fragment charms are pretty affordable, too, 48 for $10, so 21 cents each. Check them out in the Kits2Remember store...

New June project kits, sale items and more ...

Kits2Remember has two new kits available for June!

The first is “The Men in My Life,” a complimentary 8 x 8 album to last month’s “The Women in My Life.”


The kit features high-quality, double-sided paper from We R Memory Keepers, four packages Rebekka Erickson rub-ons and acrylic, chipboard and metal panels from Kits2Remember. With this project, you’ll also get to play with foam stamps and acrylic paint – the four different-sized circle stamps are included in your kit! Just like the “Women in My Life” kit, this project can be altered to suit many themes – you will get an entire Rebekka Erickson chipboard alphabet to work with!



The second kit released this month is the “Favorite Recipes Cookbook” featuring Teresa Collins’ “Bon Appetit” line, including her great double-sided papers and an entire package of her coordinating chipboard charms!


You’ll also work with embellishments from Imaginsce and Heidi Swapp, and an 8-inch Kits2Remember stadium album. About 24 recipe cards come with the kit, plus there is plenty of room to slip more favorites into the pockets of each section.





O-rings (also known as book rings) are back in stock in a variety of colors and sizes. Now you can order them individually for 50 cents each.



The last of the current kits that feature Teresa Collins’ lines (A2Z of Me, Family 6 x 12 and 4 x 8 albums, True Love 8 x 8 album) have been uploaded into the inventory. Once these sell out, there will not be any more of these kits made, so get them now while supplies last.

Some items on sale through June 7:
• Selected Kits2Remember flourish stamps are 30 percent off or more.
• Zutter Bind-it-All o-wire is buy one, get one of the same size and color FREE (discount applied when your order ships)
• Ranger Paint Dabbers are buy 2 get one FREE (discount applied when your order ships)
• Stickles are buy 3 get one FREE (discount applied when your order ships)
• Rebekka Erickson rub-ons are buy 2 get one FREE (discount applied when your order ships)

Kits2Remember products will be all over the country this month: Jessica will be teaching in Pensacola, FL, and Foley, AL, while K2R products will be featured in Chantilly, VA. For more information, please visit the Kits2Remember calendar!

Need inspiration? Be sure to check out these three places for great project ideas:

The Kits2Remember Project Ideas web page
The Kits2Remember Design Krew Blog (have you seen the latest video on acrylic paint dabbers?)
Right here on Jessica’s Blog (scroll down for a great teacher’s gift idea!)

Father's Day album ideas ...

... this past month I have worked on some Father's Day albums. I've been using quite a bit of Magic Mesh. I really think it has an ability to make things more masculine, and with two boys and a husband, I need more things scrappy that are masculine!

Anyhow, here are some of the albums I have created. Each one took less than 2 hours to make, so these are definitely do-able projects for busy moms and kids!









If you want any details on techniques or materials, email me: jessica @kits2remember.com.

Collage home decor finished ...

... One cannot live by acrylic, metal and chipboard alone! I love "repurposing" and "altering" stuff I find when I go "junking." I have collected some cool things from antique stores and flea markets for the wall hanging for nearly a year now. I am so pleased to finally have it done and on the wall.


The place above our TV set in the living room just seemed so bare, and this just fits so nicely.

I used canvas (some of you who follow this blog might notice the YuDu'ed canvas panels with the swirls), print drawer inserts and a wooden shadow box I picked up awhile back in the clearance section of JoAnns. I added some Distress ink, Glimmer Mist and acrylic paint, as well as some wood conditioning oil to the printer inserts. Most of the paper is from the Little Yellow Bicycle Vita Bella line, which I collected on the SoCal 2 Provo CKU bus tour last year. The blues and greens are perfect for my home decor.

I took a technique I learned from Donna Downey on the Ultimate Scrapbook Cruise in January: Take toilet paper or paper towel cardboard rolls and dip the ends in paint... they can then be used as cool circular stamps!



I also went to one of my favorite flea markets here in Pensacola, Jennifer's Flea Market, to find some small knick knacks that remind me of my boys, since they are the featured subjects of this piece. These included a Pensacola Ice Pilots hockey puck (Will played hockey when he was 4 and, not only did he learn how to roller skate, it really got him ready for team sports!), a toy Blue Angel jet (we love to watch them from our backyard as they perform), a spoon from Illinois (where Rodney is from and the boys love to play on the farm), a small tin cup with a California logo on it (Xan was born there) and some wooden alphabet blocks.

While I worked out the composition on my dining room table, I still need my husband, Rodney's help to translate it to the wall, which is easier said than done. Fortunately I was able to use some of the canvas hanging hardware to make it all work.

I am now working on one for my dining room. It will be a bit larger than this one, to fit the long, empty wall in the room, and feature canvas, a printer insert, raw frames and some cute doll chairs. The theme will be photos of our family members eating ... I already have the composition worked out, now I just need to execute!

Krew Tip - cookie sheets...

... A couple of Christmases ago, I asked for cookie sheets from the family. Both my mom and mother-in-law gave me a set, which was great for me. I need them both for the kitchen and for my scrap room!

In the scrap room, I use non-stick cookie sheets to lay down embellishments, grungeboard, chipboard and other elements that I want to paint or Stickle. I take a tip from Tim Holtz and put a glue dot on the back of the element to hold it still on the cookie sheet. Then I paint or Stickle. In the photo here, I am crackle painting a grungeboard heart for the cover of the Father's Day album shown below.


The beauty of the cookie sheet is that I can now take it off my work space to dry and I can move on to another scrappy task. The non-stick part allows me to easily remove the glue-dotted element once it's dry, plus it makes cleanup easy.


This album also has a cool magnetic closure. I used Basic Grey's magnetic buttons, placing one under the DAD title and then I wrapped the other in ribbon and secured it with adhesive and a staple.

Something scrappy for the teachers ...

... A few days ago my first-grader, Will, came home with a handful of his essays he had written the past few months, in preparation for the standardized writing test the school district here has each year. Here is one of my favorites:


Since he wrote about scrapbooking, I figured it would be only appropriate for Will's teacher's thank you gift to be something scrappy. So I got an 11 x 14 metal panel and created this message board:


I also used a Red Pepper Ranger Adirondack paint dabber, Stickles, http://www.qbaroo.com/KitsRemember/main.cfm?categoryoid=48&productoid=113and K2R flourish stamp 1-11. To "age" the paper, I used Distress Ink in Brushed Corduroy.
I covered the back side, as well, and added a photo of Will and Mrs. Perry together, along with some notebook-like paper for him to write a thank you to her for the fun time he had in her class this year. Fast, easy and inexpensive, yet from the heart.


For more scrappy ideas for the teachers in your lives, be sure to visit the Kits2Remember Design Krew blog and scroll back to last week. They have some really cute and easy ideas, too!

Buy 3 get the 4th FREE sale!

The Kits2Remember warehouse is restocked and a bit full, so I feel like having a sale to make some room in there for the soon-to-come June project kits... so for the next five days, Kits2Remember will have the Buy 3 get the 4th Free Sale! This applies to a number of product categories in the K2R store:

Project Kits
Acrylic Panels
Metal Panels
Chipboard Sheets
Bind-it-All o-wire
Paint Dabbers
Stickles/Liquid Pearls
Rebekka Erickson Rub-ons

Here's how it works: Order items in groups of four (four bottles of Stickles, four project kits, etc. - project kits do not have to be the same exact kit, you can choose four different ones). After you've purchased three you will get the fourth one, of equal or lesser value, FREE. You order total will be adjusted when your order ships. This sale CANNOT be used in conjunction with any other offers, with these exceptions:
- Free shipping on orders of $75 or more (after discounts) within the U.S. only.
- Frequent shopper points will be honored

The sale ends Monday, May 25, at noon PST. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jessica @kits2remember.com.

Some of the new products we now have up in the store as of today:


- Extra Scrapbook Expo Make and Take kits


- "Love Letters" 6x6 mixed media album kit
- We R Memory Keepers Rub-on Tool

Some of the restocked items:


- "True Love," "AtoZ of Me," "Family Defined," and "Family: True Story" album kits featuring Teresa Collins' popular collections.
- Opaque white StazOn ink
- New colors of Stickles and Liquid Pearls- New colors of Ranger acrylic paint dabbers
- Craft magnets for metal message boards
- http://www.qbaroo.com/KitsRemember/main.cfm?categoryoid=55- Distress inks
- Acrylic circles

Those of you in Florida may be planning to go to the Scrapbook Expo in Orlando this weekend. While Kits2Remember won't be there, our products will be! Scrapyard 329 will have a collection of our acrylic and metal panels, so be sure to stop and shop!


If you are in the Pensacola area, I will be teaching the class "The Women in My Life" at Scraphappy at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 28. You can check the K2R Calendar for details. Hope to see you there!

Artist Trading Cards ...

... I created a few artist trading cards today, as samples for the Scrapbook Expo in Orlando, Fla., next weekend. While Kits2Remember won't have a booth there, Scrapyard 329 will be featuring K2R acrylic and metal in several scrappy sizes and they need a collection of project samples to show off the possibilities acrylic and metal present. These three ATCs feature work with rubber stamps and StazOn ink. The "special" one also features an alcohol ink background - such a cool effect! Looking for some more great project ideas? Be sure to check out the Kits2Remember Design Krew blog!

Krew Tip - Aligning letters on acrylic ...

This is so simple, but sometimes not thought of... place your acrylic panels on top of notebook paper to ensure your sticker, rub-on and stamped words are straight across the panel. Makes creating titles so much easier!

A simple album formula ...

... I created two of these albums in less than 2 hours, so, since we are all strapped for time and unique gift ideas, I thought I'd share this with you. All I used were:

Two 6 x 6 chipboard sheets
Three 6 x 6 acrylic panels
One sheet of 12 x 12 Class of 2009 paper
One 12x12 sheet black cardstock
One 12x12 sheet silver cardstock
Two 12x12 sheets of different graduation papers
Silver acrylic paint dabber
Ribbon
Strong corner rounder
Binding method

The trick to keeping this fast and easy is to keep the page and mat sizes modular. I cut the papers up as follows:

One sheet of 12 x 12 Class of 2009 paper - I just cut the top strip of the paper with the writing, the rest was white and I saved it for journaling once I have photos.
One 12x12 sheet black cardstock - cut into four 5.25 x 5.25 pieces
One 12x12 sheet silver cardstock - cut into four 6 x 6 pieces
Two 12x12 sheets of different graduation papers - Cut them each in to four 5 x 5 squares

Save your scraps, as we will be using some of them in a minute.

So, here is what I did:
1) Take four of the 5 x 5 graduation paper squares (your choice) and mat them on the black cardstock. All of the black cardstock should be used up.
2) Take the four silver cardstock 6 x 6 squares and adhere them to the front and back of the 6 x 6 chipboard panels. Trim/sand as necessary so the paper is flush with the edge. Be sure to adhere the edges of the cardstock very well so they won;t peel over time.
3) Place your chipboard and acrylic panels (they should still have the blue film on them) in the following order: Acrylic on the front, chipboard, acrylic, chipboard and then acrylic on the back. Use the corner rounder to corner round the right two corners (the non-binding side) only, of all of the chipboard and acrylic.


4)Peel the blue film off of all of the acrylic panels. Take the Class of 2009 strip and lay it across the front of the acrylic cover panel so the words are centered on the front of the cover. Adhere it down, wrapping the ends around to the back side of the cover. The ends will not quite meet, so you can add a matted word (as I did in the sample) or other embellishment to hide it.


5) Add the remaining graduation paper and matted squares to the pages as you wish. Some things to keep in mind: Make sure that when you place squares on an acrylic page, it is simplest to use the same size square on the opposite side so they hide each others' adhesive. Also, before adhering the squares to the pages, you can also tie ribbon around the squares as an accent.
6) I also took scraps of the black cardstock and made a couple of edge borders to change up the simple page designs.
7) Bind the album together with the Bind-it-All and o-wire (I used 1-inch o-wire)or a Crop-a-dile and o- or book-rings. For binding tips you can go to the Kits2Remember Tips and Tricks page.
8) Add ribbon to the bindings.

There are plenty of variations you can add to the album, such as stamping, painting, Stickles, embellishments, etc., but you can see how this basic "recipe" makes it easy to switch out papers and themes for a simple yet attractive gift album that can be completed within an hour. Have fun!

Krew Tip - Peeling the film off acrylic

Since nearly everyone has a digital camera now, the only kind of film we really need to worry about in scrapbooking these days is the protective film that coats acrylic panels and keeps them from getting scratched before you embellish it.

Protective film is usually one of three colors: blue, as shown in the picture below, and the easiest to peel off in my opinion; light gray; and a frosted clear. The film is usually on both sides of the panels. It can be a real pain to try to remove it sometimes, so here are a few tricks to try next time you're film is giving you fits:

1) Use the tip of your scissors or paper piercer to lightly scratch at the panel's edge, peeling up a bit of the film.

2) Run the pad of your thumb along the edge of the acrylic panel, perpendicular to the cut edge until the film begins to roll up.


3) Once you have one piece of film off, use it to rub the edge of the film in a downward motion on the face of the rest of the panels. This should cause enough static and friction so the film begins to peel off.

Some of my NSD layouts ...

... I have some of my layouts here that I did at the National Scrapbooking Day crop at Scraphappy in Pensacola. Because I am pretty far behind on my personal scrapbooking, I have gone with the "quick and dirty" formula for scrapbooking. These are a few of my favorites...