Member Spotlight: Sandy Kidwell

This next member is one of our newest. We are so excited to have her as part of the group. She is a fantastic paper piecer and makes such fantastic, diverse layouts. When you see her work, you too will agree.

Sandy Kidwell

Sandy is 47 years old and currently lives in Covington, Kentucky. She also grew up there. She has been married to her wonderful husband, John, for almost 30 years. She has two fantastic daughters. Jennifer is 25 years old and graduated from Pharmacy school in June. She is working as a Pharmacist for a large retail chain. Elizabeth is 18 and in her first year of college. She is working toward a degree in Elementary Education and recently got engaged. She is also working part-time as a Pharmacy Tech. She also has a son, John, who was killed in a car accident at the tender age of 17. Sandy states that he was a bright and energetic young man with a zest for life. This is what she had to say about her family. "My greatest accomplishment is my family. I am so proud of my husband and children and all of their accomplishments. But I am most proud of the kind, loving, compassionate people they are." Outside of home life, Sandy works as a Youth and Children's Director.

Sandy has been scrapbooking for the last 7.5 years. It all started when her oldest daughter was graduating from high school and she wanted to give her a gift from the heart. A friend suggested scrapbooking and she has been hooked ever since. She is not exactly sure how to describe her style. She loves accents and embellishments. She is not a fan of clutter on a page. She loves clean and simple lines. Her specialty is paper piecing. She loves to see what she can create with paper and then the sense of accomplishment she gets afterward. She loves this hobby because of the creative outlet is offers. She can get lost for hours in her scrapbook room. Such a great escape. Her five must haves are her Fiskars paper trimmer, Cutter Bee scissors, a variety of awesome papers, foam tape and scrappy glue. She went one step further and listed her favorite embellishments. They would have to be ribbon (lots of it-she states that she is obsessed!), Prima flowers, charms, brads and buttons. Oh ya, did she mention ribbon-YES! Her favorite scrap snack is pretzels and peanut butter. She gets inspiration from her surroundings and paper. She loves to look at all of the patterns and textures that paper has to offer. Sandy started selling on Ebay to support her scrapbooking habit. She has to have the newest and latest things. "Hi, my name is Sandy! I'm a Scrapaholic!" Too funny!

Her favorite season is Spring. She loves to see everything come to life after a long drab winter. Her favorite holiday is Christmas because, "it is the birthday of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation he brought to the world." Sandy's favorite food is constantly changing. She does not have a favorite type of food but rather favorite foods. Currently it is Penn Stations Chicken Teriyaki. She loves all types of music (except for rap) however she would have to say that Christian Contemporary is her favorite. K-Love is her favorite station. She has 3 golden retrievers. Alex is 15 years old (wow!) and Tucker and Tanner are 4-month old puppies. We would love to see pictures of these adorable little guys! Sandy has always wanted to go to Hawaii if she could go anywhere. She has heard that they have white sandy beaches and crystal clear water (they do!).

She wanted to let us know that scrapbooking is her passion. She is delighted and excited to be a member of the PFOP design team. We are also so elated about having her with us. Her work brings a whole new dimention to the team. To check out her current auctions, click here!

TUESDAY'S TIPS

This tip may help your scrapbooking in a round about way ;-)....I received this in an email and thought it was pretty funny!
#1. Three Little Words That Work
The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please...' Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then when you eventually hear the phone company's busy tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up.
#2. When no one is on the other end
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible This confuses the machine and it kicks your number out of their system.
#3. Junk Mail Help
When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. This allows the company the opportunity to throw their own junk mail away. When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and such, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? Why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes. If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send. You can even send the envelope back empty if you want. It still costs them 37 cents. Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again You get the idea !If enough people follow these tips, it will work.

I hope no one is offended, but I found these to be funny.

Happy Scrapping
Tammy

Member Spotlight: Jennifer Bruce

Our next member makes fantastic, fun tins for any occasion. I just love to see what she comes up with next. We are so excited to find out more about her.

Jennifer Bruce

Our next member to spotlight is Jennifer Bruce. She is 36 years old and currently lives in Bluffton, South Carolina. She grew up in Northern Ohio on Lake Erie. She has 3 absolutely wonderful kids! Leighanna is 18 and currently in college studying to be a Forensic Scientist, Jordan is 11 and wants to be in the Army, a rock band and be a professional skateboarder, and Joshua is 9 and just loves being himself and living for today. She also has a fiance named Donnie who is the love of her life. She has been engaged for 2 years and hopes to set a date really soon. We can't wait to hear all about it when the time comes! She currently is a stay at home mom however she has a degree in Nursing.

She has been scrapbooking since 1999. She describes her style as very pink and feminine. Her style is the Jennifer style-just being herself. She loves to scrapbook because she can take an idea and create somethig beautiful. It also helps pass the day. Her top five scrapbook must haves are tons of paper, things to alter (tins, Sarabinders, etc.), tons of flowers, charms, and ribbons and lace. She felt that it was not fair that we could only choose 5. If given the choice, we would all say everything, right!? Jennifer does not snack while creatiing (probably a really good idea) however she does love to snack on Cocoa Puffs or Fruit Loops at nigth while watching TV. Jennifer started selling on Ebay out of the suggestions of others. They told her that she could make a fortune at her creations. She said that she is still waiting however she has had great success so far. Just seeing something at the craft store such as a pretty ribbon with inspire her to create. An idea will just pop into her head.

Her favorite season is Spring becuase she just loves the smell of fresh cut grass and all of the pretty things starting to bloom and grow. She loves Christmas as her favorite holiday becuase her kids get so excited. She loves Chinese food. She loves Honey Chicken with white rice and Crab Rangoons. Yummmm! That just makes me hungry thinking about it. She loves all types of music, especially the older stuff when she was a kid. Jennifer has a Peekapoo and a princess named Jill. She is also babysitting her daughters cockatiel named Sweet Pea for the next 4 years while she is away at college. She plans on getting her back when she is finished with school. If Jennifer could go anywhere in the world she would love to visit Australia.

Jennifer also mentions that she loves being part of PFOP. We too love having her as part of the group. She brings so many great creations and suggestions to the group. Her altered creations are a must see. Check them out on Ebay here!

"Dear Santa," Featured layout by Amber -ahalversen

Amber has created the most amazing layout!

Amber is always true to her personal style and this layout is no exception. It has the most adorable hand pieced tree, and sleigh, and of course, Amber's trademark bears. My favorite has to be Santa's list. I just love the little details and the handwriting it so perfect.

Click here to go directly to the auction listing! There are so many amazing details Amber has photographed and posted in the auction that really are must see to appreciate how much time and effort has gone into this beautiful layout.

Tuesday's Tips

For today's tip we have some tips from PFOP members regarding SANDING! I have never tried it before, but now must give it a go!

First this is what Camille said:
I have recently rediscovered using sandpaper or a metal file to trim the edges of my paper when doing acrylic albums and chipboard. I love the finished look.
Secondly Kristi added:
You can also use it effectively on tins.
And third, Cindy offered:
Sandpaper can also be folded and used directly on photos to create a distress frame.

To me, this sounds like an inexpensive technique that can quickly add dimension and texture to our projects. Please add any additional tips you might like to share that will help us with sanding.

Happy Scrapping & thanks girls!!
Tammy

Member Spotlight: Mandy Bridgeforth

Our next member to be spotlighted was right there at the beginning of QPSA and now PFOP. Her work is clean and simple with a fantastic eye for color. Her paperbag albums are made with the highest quality. We are thrilled to get to know her better.

Mandy Bridgeforth

Mandy is 31 years old and currently lives in Nampa, Idaho, which is a suburb of the capital city of Idaho. She grew up in Southeastern Idaho in the smaller town of Rexburg. She has been married for almost 6 years to her husband Tony. They will be celebrating their anniversary on February 15th. They met in Boise while Mandy was attending Boise State . He was born and raised in the Bronx and moved to Pocatello , ID for school. After he graduated from Idaho State he moved to Boise to find a job. Mandy moved to Boise about a year later and they met through friends at church. They had their first baby about 14 months after they got married and then had twins about 19 months after that. Julius is now 4 ½ and Braeden and Bronwyn just turned 3. They have kept them very busy – but they love it! They recently found out that they are expecting again…July 15th! It is another set of twins!! We are so excited for them and can attest to how cute their kids are. This summer, Mandy made the decision to stay at home with her kids. She has a degree in Respiratory Therapy and was working in that field before making the leap. She also has an Associates in Environmental Science and graduated from the Utah College of Massage Therapy. She is one educated person!

She started scrapbooking as soon as she returned home from an LDS mission to Pittsburgh , PA in 1998. She has two huge binders full of scrapbooked pics of exotic Pennsylvania ….;-) The thing that enticed her into scrapbooking was her love of photography. She took a black and white photography class in college and LOVED it! She hope to take more classes in the future so she can learn more about how to take great pictures. For her own scrapbooks she enjoys simples with clean lines. She also likes at least three pictures on a page. For Ebay she likes to spice things up a little but still maintain focus on the pictures. She also likes to distress and mess things up a bit. She has always enjoyed using her hands to create things. She loves to combine colors and patterns to end up with something unique. When asked what her top five must have scrapbooking things are she mentioned fabri-tac, crop-a-dile, glue dots, Cricut, and lots of buttons. Her favorite scrap snack is Diet Pepsi, Kettle Chips and chocolate. She also mentioned that Cam's carmel popcorn is also pretty good. She started selling on Ebay because her family encouraged her to do it and boy are we glad of that! Her biggest inspiration is paper. She loves to buy it and THEN decide what to do with it.

Her favorite season is fall. The cool weather, the smell of earthy decay, sweaters, crunchy leaves, getting ready for the holidays – she finds fall very romantic and nostalgic. She loves anything that she does not have to cook and loves anything type of music--especially fun stuff from the 60's. She currently has a cat, Fiona, and a litter of six kittens. Anyone want one!? One day she would love to go to Italy.

We just love having Mandy as part of PFOP. She has been a fantastic member with such original creations. To check out her auctions on Ebay click here!

Christmas Paper Bag Album by Mandy!

Mandy (Mandbrid) has created the most amazing Christmas themed paper bag album. Mandy has a real knack for putting together great colors. Her albums are very distinctive in look and style. From her perfectly inked papers to her interactive flaps and folds, and handmade paper flowers, Mandy's albums always look incredible.

Made from three STURDY paper bags which have been folded and bound with eyelets and lots of pretty ribbon. The patterned paper is from the Basic Grey line. the album ties closed with a silky green ribbon.

There are eleven removable tags inside. Great for tucking in extra pictures or writing down special memories. The album also includes 19 photo mats, providing lots of room for photos and journaling!

Click here to see the whole album!

Tuesday's Tip!

Our poor Tammy is out sick today and so she asked me to post a tip for her. While reading the scrapbook discussion boards, someone posted a helpful thread that she ran across somewhere. I thought that I would share it with you.

Scrapbooking as an Art Form: Ten Principles of Design & Composition

A scrapbook is more than a photo album with a few cute stickers. It's a visual recording of your life and loves. A way to communicate with generations to come.It's also the basis of a multi-billion dollar industry - and it's an art form all in itself.Here are ten basic design principles to guide your own creativity and lend natural balance and flow to your scrapbook pages.

1. Designate your focal point, first thing, by choosing your layout's main photograph. Ask yourself, "Where do I want the viewer's attention to be drawn first?" Then you can choose your supplementary, supporting photographs, if appropriate.

2. Group accents and small embellishments in groups of three or five. Aesthetically, we are drawn to groupings that contain an odd number of items.

3. Place related accents close in proximity so the eye processes them as one unit.

4. Create a triangle on the page, placing photos or embellishments at each of the triangle's three points. Our eyes like that, too.

5. Create sections in multiples of two. Two sections or four sections are more aesthetically pleasing to our eyes than 3 or 5 sections.

6. Apply the "Rule of Thirds." Think of your page as a grid, divided into thirds horizontally and vertically. Place your focal point on one of the convergences of these lines.

7. Maintain balance with the size of your elements. Consider both the size and complexity of your page elements as you distribute them in your layout.

8. Achieve a natural sense of flow by placing the photographs so that the eyes of your subjects turn toward the center of the page - or toward your focal point.

9. Use repetition. Repeat shapes, textures, sizes, colors, or other attributes.

10. Sketch your favorite layouts in books and scrapbooking magazines. Try to determine which design principles are at work to create such visual appeal and work to incorporate those principles into your own layouts.

The first rule of art, of course, is not to be bound by rules. Now that you know the basics of what our eyes are naturally attracted to, see what kind of beauty you can create.

Check out this great gingerbread album!

Bernadette - be4cookin - Has designed the cutest Gingerbread Man Album. Her original design is nine inches tall and six and a half inches across the widest area and is shaped like a gingerbread man cookie. The front cover has the cutest hand drawn face and 'icing' all around the outer edge. The papers and embellishments coordinate great throughout the entire album.


There are a lot of three dimensional embellishments including flowers, charms, ribbon and fabric. Here are a few of my favorite pictures, but if you want to see the entire album, click here.

Member Spotlight: Juli Luckett

Our next member to spotlight can make single layouts of any theme. Her skills are so versatile. When given the challenge of making an acrylic album, she made the most beautiful black and white wedding album. We all just loved it.

Juli Luckett

Juli is 42 years old. She currently lives in Abingdon, Maryland which is 1/2 hour north of Baltimore, close to the Chesapeake Bay. She is a Maryland girl as she grew up in Towson Maryland. Juli has been married to her best friend for going on 19 years and has two very active boys ages 12 and 6. At this time she teaches art at her homeschool co-op and helps her husband in running their church's children's ministry. Juli is a busy gal. In the fall she was incredibly busy with a fall festival for the church. We hardly heard from her during this time. Juli is all about art. She has an Art Education degree; however, she spent most of her time in the corporate world as a desktop publisher and graphic designer. She has also given private art lessons to kids and adults alike.

She has been scrapbooking for 6 years. She started right after her second son was born. She would describe her style as "artsy". She is always up to trying new techniques, using supplies in a non-traditional way to create drama on her pages. Scrapbooking has been Juli a creative outlet to use her God-given talents and at the same time a way to record her family's journey through life. It is also relaxing and therapeutic. When asked what her top five must haves for scrapbooking are she said her Crop-A-Dile, loads of ribbon, her “BH&G Scrapbooks, Etc.” magazine (love that magazine), chipboard alphabets, and any color Stickles. Her favorite snack to scrap with would be Strawberry Twizzlers. When asked why she started selling on Ebay, this is what she had to tell us, "I started selling miscellaneous items on Ebay as a source of extra spending money for my family back in 2003. I didn’t realize the wonderful opportunity Ebay offered to paper crafters like myself until the spring of 2004, at which time I started to list my handmade scrapbook layouts and paper creations." We are so glad that she did! She just LOVES scrapbook paper! She has between 1,000 – 1,200 sheets of 12”x12” in her collection right now. Paper is usually her inspiration. She lets the colors and patterns dictate to her what type of project they are best suited for. She also gets inspiration from fashion and advertising trends. I think we can all relate to the paper addiction.

Her favorite season is definately fall therefore making Thanksgiving her favorite holiday. It is her favorite because it does not revolve around gift giving, instead on the blessings we have in our lives. Her favorite food is Chinese as well as anything Italian. She enjoys listening to contemporary Christian music. She has a house full of pets. She has a sweet, affectionate dog, a calico kitty, a very noisy parakeet, and an aquarium full of fish. Asked if she could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be and this is what she had to say, "I would love to visit Italy. I have always desired to see Michelangelo’s statue of “David” in person, as well as the Sistine Chapel. I would just love the chance to ride through Florence in a gondola."

We just absolutely love having Juli a part of PFOP. She is full of talent and skill. We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to get to know her better.

Please check out her current auctions on Ebay here!

Tuesday's Tips

Well, Kristi got a CRICUT ~ YAY Kristi ~ and it's been the buzz on our discussion board. So.... the ever-so-knowledgeable Cindy has some great advice. Here it is:

So, here are the two tips I learned and they work with the George cartridge that came with early machines (not sure if it still does?)

Trick #1 - Making letters smaller than 1"I think 1" is the smallest setting, if not than just call this the "making letters smaller than lowest setting tip" (hee hee hee). It is so easy that I can't believe I never thought of it and maybe you Cricut girls already are doing this. You use the sign feature! The machine can cut a small letter on a sign and the height of the sign is 1" (or lowest setting) making the letters about half that size. BTW, there will be some extra waste due to the sign being cut too. ALSO, be sure to slow the blade way down for this or your letters *will* tear. If there are other cartridges besides George with the sign feature, obviously this works on those too.

Trick #2 - Making rings (or hollowed out circles)Again, super easy to do but I sure never stumbled on this one on my own. In fact, even after I'd seen these used on a layout and so *knew* it could be done, I still couldn't figure it out. I had two different users try to email me instructions but I just couldn't figure it out until I saw it done in person (I'm a very visual person-lol!) The trick is in using the silhouette feature. (I had been trying to use the shadow feature, which won't do the hollowed items.) So, the great thing is that this works with ALL the basic shapes on George - hearts, squares, triangles, flowers, etc. And if there are other cartridges with the silhouette feature and solid shapes it works on them too. I love it! It is *so* hard to cut nice rings using a circle cutter, and an "o" is usually not a perfect circle if ukwim.So, have fun playing!

Thanks Cindy!
Happy Scrapping

Member Spotlight: Camille Serra McClelland

Our next spotlight is a fantastic member. She was the brains behind this group. Thanks to her, we are altogether, creating great things for you. Her creativity is like no other. We are thrilled to have her as our group leader.

Camille Serra McClelland

Camille is 31 years old. She currently lives in Meridian, Idaho but grew up in Eagle, Idaho. Both are suburbs of Boise which is the capital city of Idaho. She has a great husband named Andy and 3 wonder children: Noah (8), Jennica (5) and Aaron (3). She is a stay-at-home mom with an honorary degree of momhood.
She has been scrapbooking since 1997 but seriously since 2004. She would describe her style has 3-dimensional. Not really a style but she can not make anything flat. If you check out her acrylic creations, you will understand. After that, she would describe herself as shabby chic eclectic. When asked why she enjoys scrapbooking, this is what she had to say, "It's a great creative outlet, and relatively inexpensive. It's also such a versital skill that once developed can be applied to so many other crafts, ie, magnetic boards, handmade cards, bulletin boards. The options are endless when you have developed papercrafting skills." Fabritac, crop-a-dile, chalks, inks, and rubons are considered her top five must haves in scrapbooking. Her favorite scrap snack is Baked Carmel Corn. The recipe is 12 cups popcorn, 1 cup butter, I cup Brown Sugar. Combine butter and brown Sugar and bring to boil. Pour over popcorn and stir till evenly coated. Spread popcorn on cookie sheet or Jelly Roll pan and back at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, stiring once. After popcorn cools it is not sticky and nice and crunchy. Sometimes she will add nuts. YUM! Nature is a great inspiration for what she creates, as well as the holidays and the many beautiful patterned papers and embellishments.

She started selling on Ebay as a contract seller for an international scrapbooking company to liquidate excess inventory and discontinued and slightly damaged products. At the peak of her business she was closing about 500 listings per week, with at least 30% of my purchases being made internationally. After my sales contract ended she has picked up small contracts with individuals and small local companies. Lately she has been selling more and more premades created by herself, and representing others less and less. She is in the process of completeing the eBay Education Specialist Program, in the hope of teach more people to sell for themselves.

Her favorite holiday is Christmas mostly for the food. Her favorite type of music is soothing music. Do you call that soft rock, she asks?! Her favorite foods are chocolate with mint, avocados, artichokes, steak with sauted onions and mushrooms, bisque soups-it was lunch time when she wrote this, can you tell. She currently does not have any pets but will be getting a kitten from another one of our members (mandbrid) for her kids for Christmas-Shhh, don't tell them! If she could travel anywhere in the world she would undoubtedly go to Australia. Her best friend lives there. Even though they email everyday, they have never met in person.

Asked if there was anything else that she would like to add, this is what she wrote, "I had the opportunity to attend the US of eBay fly in business summit in Washington DC this year. It was AMAZING. I had the opportunity to meet with my state senators to discuss my position on the Streamline Sales Tax Proposal (SSTP.) The intent of this proposal is to require ALL online Unites States sellers to charge sales tax based on the location on their buyer. There is currently a $5 mil excemption built into the proposal, however it is scheduled to be fazed out withion 5 years. Thirty States have already joined the proposal. I strongly feel the SSTP would dramatically damage individuals and small businesses ability to sell online, and I urge all US online sellers to contact their state senators and congressmen and express their position."

Camille has proven to be such a great ambassador for Ebay as well as Pocket Full or Papers. We love her talent and are blessed to her have as part of PFOP. We all can not wait to see her completed Christmas Village in acrylic albums!

Click here for her great auctions on Ebay!

Baby Girl Album box set by Shelley

Shelley (scrap*pieces) has created the most amazing Baby Girl paper bag album box set. It's beautifully decorated with loads of flowers and lace, and filled with her signature tear bears.


The album measures approximately 5.25 x 5.5 inches and the box is 6.25 inches square.


See the full listing here!

Family Memories by Cindy

This week our featured listing was created by Cindy (papercraftprincess). It's an amazing 12 x 6 inch wire bound chipboard album. The theme of this book is "Family Memories" and it has a lovely, lived-in cottage feel.



The book includes three 12 x 6 pages and two "mini" 4x6 pages bound into this unique album.



It's ready for up to ten of your cherished photos. Think how cute those vintage family pics or photos from a special reunion will look in it!
This makes a great coffee table book and it will even stand up for display on a shelf.



Great as a gift, too.



The book is beautiful and well constructed to last a lifetime. Don't miss it!



I've included just a few of my favorite pictures of the album. You'll have to click here to have a look at the rest.

"Out-of-the-Box" Challenge

This month members of the team were challenged to reach outside their comfort zone and try something new. Our mission, should we choose to accept it, was to try something new, that we've never done before. Whether it was stamping, chalking, or creating a paper bag or acrylic album, we were all challenged to try something new.

To add a little extra spice to the challenge, all PFOP members voted on the completed projects and voted on our favorite item.

Drumroll please.............

and the winner of the first Pocket Full of Papers challenge is Camille/bigtex_in_idaho. Congratulations, Cam!!

Here is her winning creation (click on the image to go directly to the listing and read more about why this was a "challenge" for her):


Here are the other challenge projects:

"A Little Spooky" 12x12 layout - by jennifersscrappinghaven

Set of Christmas Cards (featuring dry embossing) - by keepsakesbykristi

"Lost My Tooth" 12x12 layout (featuring a shaker box) - by scrapn4mygirlz

"Our Princess" star album - by scrap*pieces

Altered band-aid tin by papercraftprincess

Christmas Accordian Picture Frame by skipper41017

Have fun looking at what happens when we reach outside-the-box and why not give our challenge a try yourself?

Member Spotlight: Cindy Farhbach

This week's spotlight is SO full of knowledge on just about anything! She is so good at informing us on the latest and greatest and is the go to on where to get something. We love having her as part of PFOP and are excited that we have the opportunity to get to know her a little better.

Cindy Farhbach

Cindy is 46 years old (Eek!-her words not mine) and lives in Southern California. She is a born and bred SoCal gal! She has been married to her dear hubby for over 25 years and has two wonderful children--a son who is nearly 15 and a daughter who is 10. They have a family cat names Mini. She is 6 years old but small enough that you probably would think that she is not yet full grown. She works from home as a desktop publisher and general trascriptionist. She is also part of her local scrapbook stores design team where she all teaches classes. Now do you know why she knows all of the latest and greatest. :)

It has been a little over 6 years since she has been scrapbooking the way that the hobby is now done. However she has been doing some form of scrapbooking since she was a kid. She would describe her style as eclectic since her style changes from layout to layout, however she would say that she is most drawn to romantic. Her best work is done in this style. Scrapbooking is therapeutic for her-relaxing, helps to unwind, and let go of stress. She also does it because she loves to preserve special memories. When asked what her top five scrapbooking must haves are she had a big question mark behind Just Five?. Her top five are Cuttlebug, Crop-a-dile, CM Circle Cutter, rubons and ribbon. Her favorite scrap snack is M&Ms. She started selling on Ebay because she would teach a class and then often have leftover kits and samples. She would hate seeing them sit in the garage unused so she started selling them. When asked what inspired her this is what she had to say, "For most of my scrapbooking (the stuff that ends up in my albums), I’m inspired by my subjects –usually my family. But I’m also often inspired by a moment or a memory or a thought. When it comes to creating classes or items for Ebay, the inspiration is all the beautiful colors and textures that are available in scrapbook products today."

Her favorite season is Fall. She loves the changing weather after her scorching summers (can anyone blame her?). "There is nothing like the crisp cool air that comes with autumn. Not to mention the joy of being able to bake and wear sweaters again," she states. Her favorite is always chocolate but her favorite food tastes change with the weather and her moods. Dance music is her favorite. Anything to get her moving. However if you checked out her CD collection or MP3player, you would see all types of music. If she could visit anywhere she would probably go sightseeing in Europe.

We just absolutely love her talent and skills from scrapbooking to her computer knowledge. She is for sure and invaluable asset to our group!

Check out her current auctions here!

Li'l Davis Designs joins the Fiskars Family

Some interesting news in the scrapbook industry. Li'l Davis Designs will join the Fiskars Craft Division (currently marketing well-known scrapbook lines Cloud 9 Design and Heidi Grace Designs as well as others).

The Fiskars press release:

Li’l Davis Designs joins Fiskars Craft Division Madison, Wis.—According to Tricia, “Family inspires much of what we do at Li’l Davis, so we understand the value of preserving important moments, family or other, in a unique way. We want to ensure that your scrapbook pages are just as special as the moments themselves.” Li’l Davis has continued to grow and now offers hundreds of innovative embellishments, tools and papers. Over the last five years, the company has evolved into an internationally recognized brand in the scrapbook community.

“We are excited about having Tricia and Brian join our family,” says Chad Vincent, Fiskars Craft President. “The brand look and feel that they have created and nurtured holds great potential for growth.”

Tricia and Brian will remain the creative leads of Li’l Davis, and the operations and marketing will be handled at Fiskars’ US headquarters in Madison, WI. Their newest lines will be revealed at the February 2008 Craft and Hobby Association Show in Anaheim, CA.

“The new product lines for 2008 are fantastic, and we can’t wait to share them with our customers,” says Michelle Ponti, Director of Consumables at Fiskars Craft.

Fiskars® Brands, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiskars® Corporation, a Finnish corporation traded on the Helsinki Stock Exchange (HEX:FIS). Fiskars®, is the world’s leading manufacturer of scissors, gardening tools and cutlery, as well as other consumer products sold under the brand names including FISKARS®, Cloud 9 Design, Gerber Legendary Blades®, Gingher, Heidi Grace Designs, Montana®, Raadvad, Sankey and Ebert, Brunton, Kaimano, Kitchen Devils, Oficut, Silva, Werga, Wilkinson Sword, Winchester, Zinck Lysbro.

I'm a big fan of Li'l Davis and Fiskars. Can't wait to see what is on the horizon from these companies!

Member Spotlight: Shelley Kaili

I am so excited for this next spotlight. She is incredibly fun and is full of ideas. There is probably nothing that she has not tried in scrapbooking this far. We are excited to be able to get to know her a little better.

Shelley Kaili

Shelley is 27 years old and is currently living in Wilmington, North Carolina. However when she was younger she lived in Macau for 11 years until she moved to the US. Since then she has lived in many places including San Francisco, then Las Vegas, and then Miami for college. She lived there for 5 years. She completed college with a BS in Accounting and that is the field she works in today. She grew up in a single parent family and has two younger sisters. She is currently dating a great guy and this is what she has to say. "I'm not married, nor been married, don't have the nerve to get marry yet, but I do have a boyfriend and he's been my significant other for 8 years. I guess I'm pretty content. and he's a wonderful guy and very supportive of my additive hobby!" You are way to funny Shelley!

Shelley has been scrapbooking since 2005 and she would describe her style as simple, shabby chic and very girly. She enjoys scrapbooking because it helps her relax and she loves photography. She feels that the two compliment each other. Her top five must have scrapbooking things are patterned papers, ribbon, Prima flowers, 3-D embellishments and buttons. All five of those things do show up in just about everything that she creates. She gets inspiration from anything--magazines, stickers, catalogues and other scrapbookers. Her favorite scrap snack is chocolate.

Her favorite holiday is Christmas and her favorite season is Spring. Her favorite types of food are Thai, Chinese, Vietmanese, Japanese and Italian. She likes anything but classic country music. If she could visit anywhere, she would love to go to Greece. She also mentioned that she is a good poker and Monopoly player. She has a super cute Pomeranian named Siu-Siu and she is 3.5 years old. Shelley is not Shelley without her Pom.

We love having Shelley part of PFOP. She brings a lot of talent to the group and has a wealth of knowledge on many things scrapbooking. We are thrilled that we have gotten to know her better.

Click here to view her auctions on Ebay.

TUESDAY'S TIPS

Oh my, I cannot believe it's Tuesday already!!

Well, looking at my workspace right now, there is no way I could ever be accused of being organized!! LOL

I really do work the best in this state of organized confusion though. It's so different from cooking ~ I like it clean and tidy to start cooking. Scrapping, I do better in my organized chaos. So even chaos needs some organization and the key to that is STORAGE.

I love shopping for scrapbooking almost as much as scrapping (even more according to the amount of supplies I have ;-0)!!

Winners has some great storage items (they're usually right beside the area where you find scrapping supplies!!). I use a hat box for some of my flowers ~ love hat boxes, but don't have any hats.... I found a great jewelry style box for 5.00! The other containers that were the same style, but different colours were 20.00 ~ YAY! And IKEA has great storage solutions. LOVE their little glass jars that sit at an angle. I keep them on my window sill at eye level to remind me what little knick knacks I have. And of course we shoud REDUCE REUSE and RECYCLE, so I love to find little containers at home (eg: starbucks little glass jars are so cute, almost as nice as a prima jar, but free!).

I would love to hear what you all use for storage, or see. Please share!!

Happy Scrapping,

Tammy

Member Spotlight: Juliana M. Santana

I am SO excited to be able to spotlight a member of our group on a regular basis. We are such a talented group of ladies and it is worth knowing us a little better on a more personal note. Please check back often to see who will be here next.

I am thrilled with our first spotlight. She is an incredible person with great talent. She was asked 20 questions and this is what she had to share with us:

Juliana M. Santana

She is 35 years old and a mother of 2 children, Brianna 28 months and Gabriel 5 years. She has been married for 9 years to a wonderful husband. Her and her husband exchanged letters for 3 years while they were both serving different LDS missions in Brazil. She stated that they had a great deal of time to meet and get to know each other before they were married. They currently live in Salt Lake City Utah but she grew up in Brazil. Because of that her first language is Portuguese. Her mother, sister and younger brother live in Spain and her father lives in Brazil. She loves all of them and misses them so much. She dreams that one day they can all be together again. She currently is a stay at home mom to her two beautiful children.

She has been scrapbooking for 5 years now and would describe her style as vintage/fashion. She enjoys scrapbooking because it is so relaxing and she has always adored arts, sewing and paper works. Her top 5 must have scrapbooking things is memories, relaxation, family, ideas and to celebrate her stories. She currently does not have a favorite scrap snack but is still looking for one good recipe. What inspires you to create what you do we asked? "Everytime I create a new album or pages, come different ideas in my mind!" She started selling on Ebay to help her relax through her hobby and make a little extra income since she stays at home.

Her favorite holiday is Christmas. Her favorite music is U2, country... Brazilian food is absolutely her favorite as well as Italian and Chinese. If she could visit any where in the world, she would love to be in Spain with her mom, sister, and brother.

She absolutely loves the group and the opportunity to make new friends through what she does. She appreciates everyones patience because it is still too hard to understand everything sometimes.

We ABSOLUTELY love her work and love her as a friend. We really appreciate her willingness in sharing more about her with all of us.

Check out her listings here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZjujuarts

Welcome to Tuesday's Tips....

Well, Tuesday is not yet over so I am just in time to leave a tip for today ;-)
Papercraftprincess ~ Cindy had some great advice for journaling. Journaling is one of the most difficult parts of scrapbooking for me personally, but still so important. After reading Cindy's suggestions, I realized there are different levels of journaling. Here is what she suggested:

One is, at the very least journaling should include basic facts like a date, event, location, who is in the pics, etc. We've all seen or heard of someone finding or inheriting old photos or albums filled with unidentified people (probably relatives). So, even if you can't stand writing at least record the facts. Another tip is to use a calendar, journal or blog to record important details, your thoughts or feelings about things you want to scrap. Then you have that source to refer to when it is time to do the page. There are new products out there that make this even easier --journaling spots or tablets that you can jot your notes directly on to and save for later when you do the layout. The journaling is all done --you just adhere the note onto your page/s.

Thank you very much Cindy and if anyone has other suggestions or tips regarding journaling, please post them here.

Happy Scrapping,
Tammy

I just wanted to announce that our PINK Charity Auction will be starting tonight. Here is a little information about it:

Pocket Full of Papers is proud to present our second annual PINK Charity Auction. 100% of the proceeds will go to the "Susan G. Komen For The Cure" charity.

Every member of PFOP (formerly QPSA) has contributed a PINK 8x8 2 page layout for this auction.

The winning bidder will receive an adorable PINK post bound album filled with 14 beautifully designed PINK layouts: 28 individual pages with mats for 40 photos! The album has a frame in the front cover – a great spot to place a picture or title.

These beautiful PINK layouts are a wonderful way to celebrate women … from a new baby girl to a sweet grandmother to a breast cancer survivor.

This auction goes live tonight at 7 pm PST! Search PFOP PINK on ebay and add it to your watch list...Let's see how much money we can raise for such a great cause!!!

Featured listings Spotlight

This is a little awkward the first time around. I will be promoting members featured listings, and this week it happens to be my listing so I kind of get to toot my own horn!

I had an idea for an album. It started as this:


and transformed it into this:


To view the auction click here!

The album is made of acrylic, designed and hand cut by myself. I am so happy with the way it turned out. I know it's a little early for Christmas, but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to make a gingerbread house that the mice would not eat in the attic!

I cut additional houses out and I can't decide if I will use them to add to the "Christmas village" or make a haunted house and a doll house theme with the others. What do you think? I'd love some input!

It's going to be a sweet day.

I woke up this morning at the shameful hour of 8:45 to my 3 year old standing in front of me with the ice cream asking for some. I didn't give him any ice cream, but instead I gave him what we referred to as "sugar cereal" when I was growing up. You know the kind, where sugar is the first ingredient on the list of 3 real ingredients. Real meaning you recognize the ingredient and can pronounce it. It's going to be a sweet day.

Thank you Keepsakesbykristi (Kristi M) for finally doing my job for me and getting our blog set up! I can't wait to see what Ahalverson (Amber) will do with it next to make it look amazing. The PFOP girls are just so awesome!

So here's a peak of what's coming up from PFOP / QPSA:
Oct 17th - Annual Pink Charity Album listing goes up. 100% of the proceeds of this album will benefit the Susan G. Koman For the Cure foundation. Mandbrid (Mandy) organized this auction for us and is doing a great job getting everything ready. Each member has contributed a set of 8x8 pages and they have turned out beautifully. We're all excited to see this listing up. We'll give you a sneak peak early next week.

We'll soon be announcing our blog schedule with some great surprises for comment posters. You won't want to miss it!

Today is going to be a sweet day.

Welcome to the new PFOP blog

Welcome to our new blog! We are so excited to be able to share with you a little bit about us. We are also thrilled with the new announcement of our new name:

Pocket Full of Papers

We were formerly known as Quality Premade Scrapbook Association (QPSA).

Please save this link as one of your favorites and check back often. We have also provided a link from this blog to all of our auctions on Ebay.