A Scrap Lesson with Cheryl (Paint!) and Q & As 7 and 8 . . .

Last night I had a really FUN time with a group of ladies at Scrapbook Mania, teaching my March installment of the calendar class I do each month. This month we worked on paint techniques--painting on our layout for the month. It was too fun to see everyone trying something they'd never tried on a scrapbook before. There was paint everywhere, and a lot of smiles!

I had been playing around with paint for several days and came to class with a lot of ideas for the students on how to incorporate paint onto their scrapbook projects.

I brought these two layouts as "models" for them to base their own pages on. They both show how to use paint in different ways.





On both pages, I used paint as a frame (as a heart shape on the "I Love this Place" page and as a rectangle right around the picture of Scout on the "smile" page).

Some other techniques I used on these pages included cutting out rub-ons and then painting in details on them (the flowers on the the first page are rub-ons), painting onto details of patterned paper (as I did on the strip of border paper on the second page), and distressing the edges with paint (you can't really see the outside edges of either page, since my scanner appears to have lopped some of them off, but they are distressed; I also painted around the edges of the tags and paper strips on the second page).

For those of you who are scrapookers, here's a little list of some ways you can use paint on your pages. Why don't you try one of them on your next project?

• Create mats and frames for your photos
• Provide a background for letter stickers or journaling
• Paint white cardstock for custom colored background
• Paint rub-ons
• Paint patterns from patterned paper
• Change the look of patterned paper by re-coloring the pattern element
• Re-color buttons, charms, brads
• Paint on foam stamps or regular stamps
• Distress the edges of paper
• Write titles
• Paint-in stencils
• Paint chipboard (shapes, words, albums)
• Let your kids paint for you

And now... I thought I'd go ahead and answer two more of the Q & As that you guys and gals posed to me last week (I'm still planning on answering another three or four more; just doing them as I go along and when they're appropriate). These go perfectly with the scrapbook theme of the day, so here they are--

Q: Mississippi Songbird wants to know "How many scrapbooks do you own?"

Well, first off--I have always been great about putting my photos into albums, so I'm not one of those people who has pictures sitting in boxes or developers envelopes. So I have probably 35 photo albums from all the way back to high school, then a lot of college and right after (fun times with lots of goofy pics! lol), and then a lot of McKenna when she was little and on and on through until about 2001, when I did my first real scrapbook. (I should go back and dig out some of my first pages; now that would be FUN to show and share with you guys!).

I've never been one who has felt like she needed to go back and re-do my earlier pictures into scrapbooks; I've pretty much left all of the prior pictures in their albums where they were to begin with. And I think this is a great idea for any of you who have never scrapbooked before but want to start. Don't feel the pressure to go back and scrapbook old pictures. Just start where you are right now! That's worked for me!

Since then, I have 27 scrapbooks!! (Sheesh, that's a lot!!) One of my favorite things about scrapbooking--and really the reason I do it--is the joy I and my family get in sitting down and looking through the pages of a book. We can dig out a book I did from 2004 and we are RIGHT THERE again experiencing that birthday or that softball season or that vacation. It's just so much fun to re-live it through the photos and the pages!

Q: Telah wants to know, "How did you get on the Design Team for your local scrapbook store?"

I'm on the Design Team for Scrapbook Mania, a local scrapbook store about 2o minutes away from me. As a DT member, I design pages and projects for the store using new products that they get in (this is a way to market their products, showcasing how to use them to their customres). It's so cool because I get to try out some of the pages and goodies before anyone else does, and it also stretches my own creativity! I also get to teach classes on a regular basis (I'm doing the Calendar Class every month throughout the year, and also will be teaching a "Spice Up Your Journaling" and a "Scraplifts & Sketches" class soon). I love teaching and scrapping both so much, so that's great to get to do that!

I'm not really sure what the "normal" way to get picked as a Design Team is (I think usually--at least for scrapbook product manufacturers--you have to answer a call and submit sample projects), but I don't think mine was normal at all. India, one of the awesome co-owners of the store, happened to read my little ole blog right here and noticed some of the pages I'd posted. She saw them and asked me to join the DT. How cool is that!

I would really love to do more with my scrapbooking and would love to be on a manufacturer's DT and would also love to have some of my work published. I just haven't found the time, though, to devote to those plans. Maybe someday though! Right now, the Scrapbook Mania stuff is keeping me busy enough and I LOVE it!

Thanks for the questions, gals. They were great!

Let me know if any of you are inspired to paint on your pages. I would love to see your creations!

And now, I just have to mention... that I completely let my 300th post slip by. It was actually this past Monday, but I didn't realize it until I spotted the count on my "Create Post" page. Wow, I sure am talkative aren't I? Who knew I had so much to say?