Scrap 'N Yap Announces NEW GUEST TEACHER: Liz Hicks from Prima and Tattered Angels

Today is just full of announcements since I'm doing a major catch up! :) If any of you are local to me, Scrap 'N Yap is proud to announce that we'll have Liz Hicks of Prima and Tattered Angels as our featured Guest Instructor at the store this Friday Night for an amazing "All Natural" Mini Album class.

This class will be an intro to Glimmer mist with a few tricks and techniques that will use compatible products to showcase your creativity. We will be misting, stenciling, masking, inking, distressing and oooohhhhh so much more. On top of this,we will be loaded up with Prima bling and flowers.

I can't wait to take this class! For those of you know that know me, you'll know its been AGES since I've personally TAKEN a class! So yeah, Liz is something pretty amazing for ME to be taking it {not to mention, its ALOT of traffic to get thru to get to that side of town for me from work!}

Call the store to sign up and you can click on the link here to see additional sneak peeks of the class project on the Yap's blog OR on the Yap's Facebook group page.

Scrap-n-Yap 830 South Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia, CA 91016 Tel: 626-35-2727 www.Scrap-n-Yap.com

See you hopefully THIS Friday night!

Meet and Greet with Claudine Helm @ Scrap 'N Yap (Monrovia, CA)

Whoohooo!! If any of you are local to me, Scrap 'N Yap is proud to announce that we'll have Claudine Helmuth as our featured guest at the store Wednesday night for a meet and greet with this famed mixed media artist.

Meet and Greet with Claudine Helmuth!! Just to remind you - come and meet the artist! We have had Claudine Helmuth paints (from Ranger) in the store for a while now. They have been moving out rapidly and this is your chance to meet her in person. Get a few tips or just have the pleasure of meeting her! Straight from the CHA Winter Show; Claudine will be with us on Wednesday, January 29 from 6:00PM-7:00PM Don't miss this opportunity to talk to drop in, say "HI" and ask her about new products.

Scrap-n-Yap 830 South Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia, CA 91016 Tel: 626-35-2727 www.Scrap-n-Yap.com

For those of you local to me....Check out Scrap 'N Yaps' New Classes

If you weren't able to make it our Open House last month on Sat, December 6th, here's a glimpse at the Yap's upcoming classes for the New Year!

Click here for the Download January 2009 Class Schedule and here for the Download February 2009 Class Schedule.
Tonight, Friday, January 9th is our Monthly Quickutz Club with Karina. Call the store to see if there's still room for you to join in!
Sat, January 10th is Lisa's Silou-What? Class. Come and learn how to use the QK Silouette machine by creating two layouts. Did you know that the Silouette machines are now just $149 each? What a steal!! ~ $22
Sun, January 18th is Ching's "We're Off to the Ball" Card Class. Using the "Fairest of them All" line by Imaginisce, we'll be creating these 4 adorable cards.
You'll leave learning lots of new techniques like a fold over envelope card, a spinner card, and how to use mirror embellishments! We'll be playing with Quickutz too! ~ $35


Sat, January24th is Karina's "I {heart} You" Card Class. Using new Valentines papers, cardstock and embellishments, you'll be making a sweet set of 6 cards that you can give to your loved ones. ~ $29

Wed, January 28th is Claudine Hellmuth Meet 'n Greet night!! Claudine is a nationally recognized mixed media artist and has her own stamp line and product line with Ranger Industries. She has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show, HGTV, and DIY's "Craft Lab." Claudine just released her new paint colors and new paintable canvases which the Yap is proud to offer you. ~ FREE
Friday, February 6th is our Monthly Quickutz Club with Karina. Call the store to see if there's still room for you to join in!
Sat, February 7th is Karina's "Its a Party" class. Join Karina as she shows you how to create a festive bag containing party favors, cupcake kit and several cards to honor the occassion. ~ $32

Sun, February 8th is Elizabeth's "Things I Love" altered book featuring lots of yummy findings from 7 Gyspies. If you don't know that Elizabeth loves 7 Gyspies, you will after this!! ~ $45
Sat, February 14th is Michael Strong's card class. We never know what he's up to, but we do know that his classes always sell out! Come and create one of a kind cards in these fast paced and fun classes. ~ $28
Sun, Febrary 22nd is Julie's "Papiers a Lettres" Stationary Box Set class. Julie is a new teacher, but look at what she's got to offer! Join Julie as you create a fabulous boxed stationary set featuring the very girly Heidi Swapp paper line. ~ $27

We definitely have alot in store for you. Call the 'Yap at (626) 357-2727 and sign up for a class today!

Another Belated Tutorial: "Our Vacation" Travel Envelope Accordian Mini Album

Its almost Hump Day and just 9 more days until Christmas!! So I thought I'd dig out these class instructions for this "Our Vacation" Travel Envelope Accordian Mini Album class that I originally taught at Scrap 'N Yap in Monrovia, CA this past summer to share with you all here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I'd be glad to help you out. Enjoy!

Materials Needed:

• 5 envelopes or any odd number – any size will do, but the larger the better as the envelope size will determine the size of your work surface on each panel and how large your pocket will be, should you decide to use the pockets. NOTE: my envelopes measured 5.5 x 8 inches each.

• 1 Extra envelope to use as a pattern template (you’ll be using this to trace the inside pages as well as the inside of the cover flap. This extra envelope will NOT be incorporated into your envelope accordion album.

• A few sheets of coordinating patterned papers (I used a total of 5 12x12 Heidi Swapp World Traveller patterned papers as I was able to cut 2 qty of 5.5x8 panels from each sheet).

• A few sheets of coordinating solid cardstock (I used 1.5 sheets of 12x12 Bazzill cardstock.

• At least 1 yard of ¾ inch wide ribbon which will be used to tie your accordian album together.

• Various embellishments (I used the entire package of Heidi Swapp World Traveller chipboard accents, a few Creative Café chipboard frames and colored office tags, a handful of prima flowers, 1 Karen Foster large round rhinestone brad, stickles, MM tiny alphabet stickers, Heidi Swapp “Escape” acrylic stamp, and travel themed stickers from Blue Cardigan.)


Tools Needed:
• Exacto Knife to make slits to attach your ribbon.
• A really good adhesive. I used UHU glue stick. I swear by that stuff.
• Glue dots – I can’t live without these boogers as I used it to attach the bulkier embellishments like chipboard and ric rac ribbons, etc.
• Pencil or pen for tracing.
• Paper Trimmer
• Sharp scissors – I prefer the short handled yellow Cutterbee scissors.
• Distressing tool – I prefer my distresser from SU to distress the edges of all my papers and the Basic Grey Distressing Kit for all their various skinny sized files.

Instructions:
1. Glue the INSIDE of the FIRST envelope flap (the area that is usually gummed) to the bottom of the FRONT of the SECOND envelope (this is the area underneath where you would normally write the addressee information (vs. the return address which would be written at the top left).

Here’s a picture of a few of the envelopes lined up, so you can see what I’m talking about. Hope I didn’t confuse you.



I stagnated the envelope flaps so you can see more clearly in this picture.


And here’s what they look like normally when the flaps are glued to another.


2. Now you have 2 envelopes glued together which are connected by just one of the envelope flaps. Continue to glue the envelope flaps together to connect all the 5 envelopes. In the end, you should have a chain of envelopes glued together. On one end, there is just ONE envelope flap which will serve as your cover for the entire album.

If you lay out the entire “chain,” all your pockets should be on the same side. For the rest of this class, we will refer to this side of the chain as “Pocket Side.”

Ditto for the other side, which should be the “front” of your envelope that would normally be the place you put the return and sending addresses. For the rest of this class, we will refer to this side of the chain as “FRONT Addressing Side.”

3. Take your EXTRA envelope that I had you set aside for your measuring template. Measure yours to determine the size of your panels. Cut 10 panels (in my case 10 qty of 5.5 x 8 panels) from your patterned paper stash.

4. Adhere each panel of patterned paper to each of the envelope panels on the FRONT ADDRESSING Side of your accordion chain. You will have used up 5 of the 10 patterned paper panels so far.

5. Now take the same EXTRA envelope that now serves as your template and use it to trace

a) The envelope flap - For the envelope flap which will be the accordion album’s OUTSIDE top cover, I measured the entire flap and allowed a few extra inches so that it will wrap around partially on the other side (which is the FRONT ADDRESSING Side) so that when you open and close the flap on your finished book, its smooth. In my example, I used the the brown swirly HS patterned paper that overlays the houndstooth 5.5 x 8 panel.



b) The envelope flap – for the inside of the envelope flap which will be for the INSIDE album cover flap. In my example, I cut mine out of just black cardstock.



c) the lip of the pocket portion of the inside of the EXTRA envelope using the remainder of your 5 patterned paper panels. I used a pencil to trace onto the backside of the pp panels, and then used my cutterbee scissors to cut off the excess.

TIP: BE SURE to cut along your traced lines ALONE. Because the small remaining part can be used as LINERS for the top insides of each envelope pocket area.

6. Now that you have all your pieces traced and cut out, grab your accordion “chain” and lay it out so that the “Pocket Side” is facing up.

7. Adhere the larger patterned paper panels to the coordinating top side of your envelope pocket panels.

8. Adhere the remaining trimmed pieces to the TOPS of the inside of each envelope pocket so that they become liners. In effect, you have created an envelope accordion book with functional pockets.


9. Adhere both the top cover and the inner cover of the envelope flaps. Now all the surfaces of your envelopes are now covered with some sort of patterned paper or cardstock.

10. Grab your exacto knife and make slits to allow the width of your desired ribbon on both sides of your LAST envelope panel which still has the cover flap. See my picture. Thread your ribbon through. I glued my ribbon down so that it would not get loose as a result of regular handling of the accordion album.


11. Decorate/Embellish each panel and cover as desired. NOTE: I distressed all the edges of my patterned paper panels before adhering them.

12. My finished product, when laying “Pocket Side” face up with the envelope flap on the my left hand side, should fold into each other, one panel at a time beginning from the right side.

Here are pictures, panel by panel of my finished Envelope Accordian Album. I can’t wait to see yours!!!

Cover:


Cover Open with Flap Open:


Page 1 -2 (This is me unrolling the accordion pages AWAY from the envelope flap)



Page 1 -2 -3 (This is me unrolling the accordion pages AWAY from the envelope flap)


Page 1 -2-3-4 (This is me unrolling the accordion pages AWAY from the envelope flap)


Page 1 -2 -3-4-5 (This is the ENTIRE ”Pocket Side” Pages all unfolded out..the entire accordion chain on display)


This is the ENTIRE “Front Addressing Side” accordion chain on display:



Thanks for looking! :)

TOO Much Fun This Holiday Weekend

Man! was this long holiday weekend jammed packed or what?!?! I think I need another 4 day long weekend just to recover from all the fun I had this Thanksgiving Holiday.

I got some great deals both on Wednesday night and on Black Friday at Old Navy and Macy's! I'm mainly happy over the great deal I got on my new cashmere sweaters. It was amazing how low the prices were everywhere on everything that I really found it hard to spend more than $5 to $10 for most items. But I stuck to just getting some new basics that needed updating, so no overspending this year for me! I didn't turn mush just because I saw a sale sign!

Friday, it was Design Team Leader Suzy Haghighi's turn to host our weekly Friday Challenge over at Embellish-Online which was to use your left over scraps. Click here to see her gorgeous card along with what I came up with for this week's challenge in our gallery.

Come play with us and be sure to use keyword FC18 when you upload your projects to the gallery so we can all see your beautiful work! To see everyone's submissions click *here*

Then, on Friday as well, I spent most of my time at Scrap 'N Yap getting ready for our Holiday Extravaganza Make and Take Event. The staff (Jenn, Erna, Roseann and of course, Elizabeth, the owner) and I, along with Yap customer Julie, cooked up 8 different make and take projects ranging from super quick and easy ones like the tree candy favor box to more time consuming detailed projects like Roseanne's Recipe Book. Click here to read and see all about our super fun day at the 'Yap on Saturday.

I was pleasantly surprised and grateful for my good friend Susan's support when she came by the store for a suprize impromptu visit with her hubby. We had time to chat and have lunch together at Jake's Roadhouse since my pics from my previous blog post seemed to have piqued Susan's taste buds.

Here's the project that I designed and taught which was totally fun especially with customers Allison and her niece Jade. These two were a giggle fest indeed! We made a super cute 6x6 album from American Crafts featuring Teresa Collin's Christmas paper line and Bazzil Dots Cardstock in under an hour!! For those of you that know me, you know that that timeframe was a huge feat even for me!



Sunday was my cousin's baby daughter's birthday. Addison turned one!! She was the Guest of Honor at her very own 10 course Chinese style luncheon banquet. Here are some of the dishes we feasted on today. (We Chinese traditionally do this for our babies at either one month or one year old with red dyed eggs...I'll spare you all the cultural explanation 'cuz I'm in major cooing mode right now.)







Here's Addison with her Mommy, Daddy (my cousin Randy), her big sis, Taylor and big bro, Jacob with her yummy chocolate birthday cake.



I had to take this next picture of Addison and her Grandfather (my uncle) because my Uncle used to "eat" her daddy's hands when he was a baby too just like he is doing to her in this picture!! I thought it was cute because I can still vividly see my Uncle doing this so many years ago. Randy is only 3 years younger than me. :) His son Jacob looks so much like Randy...its very endearing to be around this little boy.



I couldn't help myself when I saw Addison's adorable little golden ballerina slippers peeking out from her matching Princess style birthday dress while she was napping.



Lol...these aren't even MY kids and I can barely contain myself from over-sharing pictures and stories about these sweet, sweet, dear children of my cousin, who I regard as one of my brothers. Lol...can you imagine what I'll be like when I have kids??? OMG! I'll be hopeless!

I have to leave you with one last picture of Taylor, who is now 6, enjoying the lollipop that served double duty as our favors and table place cards. My lollipop indicated that I was at Table #2 - the table of adults who still have no children!



It truly was a super fun party with High School Musical songs playing in the background while we ate, talked and then were later entertained by a full fledged magician. It was cute seeing baby Addison sway back and forth to the music in her high chair. :) (Ok, I'll stop now....lol!)

But the night wasn't over yet. I then drove over to visit my friend Kari and her hubby at their new house that's now located a whooooole 12 miles farther away from me!! Sniff!! Sniff!! She and her hubby were painting their new house to get it ready for their move in a few weeks. It truly is one of the lovliest homes for the two of them to build their family and future in. I'm so very happy for Kari, but sad she's so much farther away now. lol

But what's amazing about Kari is that she's soo on top of things!! She's got her December Monthly Kit, entitled "Its a Wonderful Life," for her Urban-Anthology store packaged and ready to mail while she's in the middle of taking possession of her first home and packing/moving all her stuff! Wow!! I'm not worthy!! I'm not worthy!!! Check out the fabulous December kit from Urban-Anthology.




How cute are they in matching outfits??



But before I go, just one more baby picture. For those of you that know me and my fetish for babies with round heads with soft hair I can pet so that their hair bounces.....juuuust lookkkeee at this liddle baybeeee?? Look at that face! Look at those cheeks!! This one is Christian, and he's TWO!! He's Addison's first cousin, on her mother's side - so no blood relation to me. But he's my current favorite baby in my extended family.



Whew!! Definitely TOO much fun this long Holiday Weekend. Yes, baby petting is very exhausting! :) I'm already looking forward to next weekend for much needed relaxation!

A Toot and a Couple of New Gigs For Moi!!!

Guess what??? 


Scrapbook News & Review, an online scrap mag is publishing my "Laugh" scalloped circle card featuring all that scrumptious BG Sultry that I won from Barb over at Embellish-Online waaay back in May of 2008 ....before I got my DT gig at Embellish-Online. I can't share a picture of my card because my signed contract release requires for me to take down all my online images of the card until after its published in their e-zine in January 2009. I submitted to their call when I saw it late one night last week on pubcalls. Cool huh?? This is the first time I've been "published" so to speak, and then of course there are the "pubs" in the Basic Grey online gallery the past couple of months. I'm really stoked!! I can't wait to check it out in January!!

I also have a few new gigs I want to share now that I can officially announce them. I guess I just like to stay busy. :)

First up, a couple of weeks ago, Robin over at Moments-2-Remember has officially asked me to continue on as their Charming Diva (I was just volunteering before). lol...what is that you ask? You see, they are brilliant over at The Charmed Place as I dub them because they have this amazingly cute virtual charm bracelet incentive program to encourage participation on all aspects of their community, i.e. gallery uploads and praising, message board posting, and challenge/online crop participation. Every time a member meets their criteria, that member earns a special virtual charm. So...that's what I do! I"m the official Charming "fairie" Diva that goes around and inserts virtual charms in everyone signature lines. I swear, its the most FUNNEST place in virtual land. You gotta check it out! I have sooo much fun here; I truly love it and everyone there! Their December kit is just about to be released right after Turkey weekend. If you like colors that make you go brrrr, you're gonna love it. Click here for some sneak peeks!

Please help me earn my November Virtual Charm. Please register at Moments-2-Remember and post that I referred you. I earn 10 points for every new member that registers citing me as a referral. I need to earn 80 more points in order to earn my November charm, and today being the 25th of the month, I only have 5 more days to meet the criteria!!

Elizabeth at Scrap 'N Yap, my lss in Monrovia, CA has asked me to step into the Design Team Leader position beginning .....now! I suppose. I'm very excited at this opportunity and am looking forward to this new adventure (Yippee!! I get to go to CHA Anaheim!). I looooove the current staff at the Yap (Erna, Renee, Jen, Mykle (who's a fellow DT Instructor), Roseann and Shawna!) and loooove hanging out there on Friday nights (that awesome nightime Farmer's Market right outside the store doesn't hurt any either!) as well as on the weekends. Its such a pretty store and just soo much fun with the girls. I'm really looking forward to working with Elizabeth(the owner), Erna, who'll be doing the calendar coordination, and all the current and future DT instructors. Now, speaking of DT instructors, check out what my good and talented friend Mykle did with a freakin' frozen OJ top!!! Sheesh!! She's featured on the 7 gyspies site today!! I looooove her work and am blessed to call her my friend, so I wanted to give her a shout out!

Before I sign off for the day, I hafta hafta let you know that Scrap 'N Yap is hosting an all day Holiday Extravaganza of various make and takes priced from FREE to a few dollars! I'll be there with two projects...I promise you, after the tiring day you're sure to have on Black Friday from all that shopping, you'll WANT a day of fun and cute make and takes the day after on Saturday, November 29th!!

Scrap-n-Yap
830 South Myrtle Avenue,
Monrovia, CA 91016
Click here for Map

Friday, November 28th
Black Friday Sale

Saturday, November 29th
10AM - 4PM
Holiday Extravaganza Make and Takes - FREE to no more than $20

Friday, Saturday and Sunday
All Quickutz Dies are 40% off
(Dies Only)
*** I just got the adorable OWL, fox and bambi (that deer one) November release dies...hmm and the Jolly alpha/shaped die set too! ***

Yep, I know it sounds crazy, but I do really thrive on staying busy. January will be a crazy month indeed with CHA, co-designing new kits for Kari at Urban-Anthology, DT coordinating at Scrap 'N Yap and creating new projects for my DT assignments at both Embellish-Online and Scrap 'N Yap. And of course all that fairie business over at Moments-2-Remember in "blinging" everyone with new charms as they earn them. LOL....Yeah, I'm crazy...I know!! But I can't wait!! Its gonna be fun!!

Holiday Open House @ Scrap 'N Yap Sat Oct 11th 10AM-4PM

Its time for another Open House at Scrap 'N Yap THIS SATURDAY, October 11th from 10am to 4pm to premiere classes for November and December as well as to showcase all new product that's been arriving at the store.

Ching, Erna, Kim, Michelle, Mykle, and Karina will be there to showcase our new classes and do our traditional meet and greet. And of course our amazing staff, Renae, Rosanne, Shauna, and Jen, and last and most definitely NOT least, the queen herself, Elizabeth Tuch, store owner and hostess of the grand event.

As you may or may not know, our open houses at are always a blast! The atmosphere is very welcoming and there's always something fun going on!!! It's like "CHEERS" but without the beer (lol)...everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came. So if you are new to Scrap n' Yap, or have not vistited us yet, come on by to check us out and say hello. If you're a regular, and we love our regulars, mark your calendars and don't forget to visit. The more, the merrier!

My project for the holidays will be featuring the lovely papers from the Happy Holiday Lines from Fancy Pants. Here's a peek of the papers...you'll have to come to the Open House this Saturday to see my project which will be a perfect gift item.



Remember, if you sign up for classes on the day of our Open House, you'll receive 10% off the class fee. Hmm, more savings means more shopping money for scrap goodies, and I'm all for that!!

Of course, I'll be sharing pictures of our really fun Open Houses on Sunday along with sneak peeks of my class project for those of you that can't make it this Sat. See you there!

Also, my Masculine Basic Grey Layout and Cards combo class featuring the Basic Grey Boxer line at Scrap 'N Yap is happening this coming Sunday, October 12th. (Looks like I'll be living at the Yap this weekend, huh?) There are still spaces left in the class, so if you're interested, call the store to reserve your space!



***Psssst!!! Scrap 'N Yap is now looking for class instructors. If you're interested, please send me an email and I'll give you the scoop!***

Scrap 'N Yap's Scrap Pink Crop Weekend

Scrap Pink Weekend!
Saturday, September 27 and Sunday September 28 will mark the second annual Scrap Pink Weekend at Scrap n' Yap. Many of us have been affected by the ravages of Breast Cancer, whether it is a friend, mother, daughter, sister, cousin. This devastating disease touches everyone in some way or another. Please join us for this weeked of fun that is also to fight the good fight against a deadly enemy. The proceeds for this event will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There will be fun, prizes, a goody bag and lots of laughter, shared stories and maybe even a tear or two. Maybe - we will even get a page or two done in our scrapbooks! Bring a little card or momento to put on our "Memory Board" to support our loved ones - past and present -who have been affected by breast cancer. As Ford Motor Company says in their support of the Susan G. Komen Foundation: We can all be "Warriors in Pink". We at the 'Yap want to help this wonderful foundation which was begun because a sister wanted to honor and remember a sister.
So.........join us at the 'Yap on Saturday, September 27 from 10:00AM- 10:00PM and on Sunday September 28 from 9:00AM -5:00PM for 18 hours of scrapping fun, laughter, food and friends. WHERE? Scrap n' Yap 830/840 S. Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia, CA 91016 626.357.2727 WHEN? Saturday, September 27 & Sunday September 28, 2008 TIME? Saturday - 10AM - 10PM Sunday 9AM - 5PM COST? $80.00 per person FOOD? OH! YES! 3 meals on Saturday and 2 on Sunday!! You will NOT starve! ( if you want to bring something to share - no one will mind!) Call now and become a "Warrior in Pink" at the 'YAP!

As you know - the space is limited - so call soon so you don't miss your spot!

626.357.2727

We want to see you there! Elizabeth and all the "Yap Warriors"

Comfortable PINK ATTIRE encouraged!