Some Holiday Ideas from Our Favorite Vendors!!!

I want to share a little holiday gift with all of you!  I've looked through all the holiday papers at the store and compiled this list of holiday projects from our vendors blogs and galleries.  As I write this, we still have papers from all of these collections in stock!  So if something strikes your fancy, hurry to Whimzee's and pick it up before it slips away with the holiday season!  These are some of my favorite vendor's holiday ideas!

Check out this beautiful project on Graphic 45's blog! It's a Santa display using their Christmas Past collection...we've still got a few sheets left, hurry in!  I've also got a layout from this collection (detail photo above) on my blog as the Layout of the Week this week!


Download some cool gift tags and even some Christmas photo card templates from Kaisercraft's blog.

We have just a few sheets of American Crafts' Merrymint collection left!  Check out their blog for the Merrymint Week Challenge!

If you love our new cardstocks from Core'dinations, you'll really love their blog!  I love the embossed polka dot card!  Check out all the wonderful ideas for using their cardstock with sand paper!

Looking for a new snowflake card idea?  Find it on the Spotted Canary, the EK Success blog.

I love to create mini albums to help house my holiday memories!  This star shaped one was created with Reminisce's shimmery Santa's Workshop 2009 collection...we still have a few sheets of these papers left!

Be sure to check out My Mind's Eye's blog for a project for each of the 12 days of Christmas!

Don't forget to try our great selection of Best Creations glitter cardstock, for only $2.50 per sheet, it will add the perfect 'bling' to all your holiday projects.  This is our favorite glitter cardstock, it can be cut on the Cricut and the glitter never flakes off!  Try some on your next project!

If you're looking to create beautiful Hanukkah cards and scrapbook pages, be sure to take a look at our Hanukkah papers from EK Success.

Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio Holiday Open House, 12/1/2009

Thanks for stopping by! It's been a very busy couple of weeks for the Whimzee's Girls! In addition to preparing for the holidays at home with our families, we've been gearing up for our Holiday Open House. If you're a scrapbooker, card maker or paper crafter in the Portland Metro area, you don't want to miss the Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio Holiday Open House!

We have all sorts of special purchase merchandise, page kits and holiday paper packs marked down just for the party! Stop by to stock up on all the new large rhinestones and felt self adhesive laser cut ribbon from Kaisercraft at AWESOME prices!

Please call the store to RSVP! (503) 259-9130

Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio
16630 SW Shaw Street, Suite K
Beaverton, Oregon 97007

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
5:00pm to 7:00pm

We'll have snacks, drinks & Holiday Wish Lists for you to fill out!

Don't forget to call & register for Julie's Holiday Fold Out Mini Album Class this Saturday, December 5th from 10am to 1pm. $10 Fee plus supplies

See you at the store!

PS - for directions, check out our map at the top in the right side column of this blog.

A Little Christmas Inspiration

This DVD case is a fun holiday project if you're looking for a great way to package those DVD's of photos you're sending to the relatives this year. Don't worry, if you're not sending out photo DVD's this year, our instructor had a great idea for this case. She said that she uses it to house a special holiday music CD she creates each year for family and friends. Not being a big baker, she uses gives it as a hostess gift when others might give baked bread or goodies. And if you aren't looking to give DVD's or CD's this year, take a close look at the project and 'scraplift' it into a card or scrapbook page.

Twila & I made these at the Craft Fest event we attended a couple weeks ago, sponsored by EK Success and Petersen Arne. The project featured K & Company's new Christmas collection Evergreen by designer Brenda Walton. We used the paper pad from this collection which is perfect for card makers and those of you who create albums smaller than 12 x 12. Another winner is the adhesive border pack, this pack is full of borders that are great for trimming to the size you need or using as is. While we didn't order from this collection, you may be able to find it elsewhere. We did order the small paper pads and adhesive borders from a couple other collections, so be on the look out for those in the store. We loved using these products in creating the DVD case and we're sure you'll love them too!

Don't forget to call the store (503) 259-9130 to RSVP for our Holiday Open House, Tuesday, December 1st from 5pm to 7pm. We'll have tons of great deals on our class page kits and also some fun special purchase collections. Check out all the new holiday creations the Whimzee's Girls have been working on and be inspired to create some new things for your holiday gift giving list!

One last thing...stop by our online scrapbooking community and check out all the new projects that our members are uploading daily. We'll have a cool giveaway just for online community members as soon as we reach 25 members who have uploaded projects! We're on our way and can't wait for you to join us! We have an event calendar over there with all our crops & events listed!

Twila & Julie Get Creative!

Just a quick post to share a very cool project with you! Twila & I attended Craft Fest on Tuesday, put on by EK Success and Petersen Arne. We had fun seeing all the great new products...and yes, ordering lot's of them! So be looking in your newsletter for all the fun stuff as soon as it arrives, and you can always follow me on Twitter to get the first updates!

I thought I'd share our first project from Craft Fest! We got to "Bling" these cool bags by Carolyn Gavin! We used EK's Hotfix tool and Jolee's Jewels Swarovski Crystals. It was so fun to be able to choose where you wanted the crystals to go and then just push down on them with the tool and voila...in 20 seconds, crystals were attached! You can attach them to just about anything! We ordered some of these bags and the cool turquoise ones, along with some of the crystals and a couple Hotfix tools. We'll let you know as soon as they arrive!

I'll be back next week to share more of the cool projects from Craft Fest! See you in the store!

Holiday Card & Project Ideas from All Around the Web

In case you haven't checked a calendar in a while, it's November! Yes, NOVEMBER! And that means it's time to get going on all those holiday projects you promised yourself you'd work on this year. We'd love to see what you're working on! If you need some time away from the family to actually get any of your projects done, we totally understand. That's why we're having a crop every Monday night in November, 5pm to 10pm, $5 crop fee (waived with a purchase of $25 or more). Call the store now to sign up (503) 259-9130. We still have our Friday night crops from 6pm to 11pm, but recently they've been filling up fast, so we've added a Monday crop to our schedule. We also still have table time for $1 per hour during the days while the store is open, call to save your space. And for those of you who need more than just a few hours to work on your projects, call to sign up for our All Day crop, November 28th, 10am to 10pm, $10 crop fee (waived with a purchase of $50 or more). Call now to sign up!

And once you're signed up for a crop and know you'll have some time to get some work done, check out these sites for some great holiday inspiration, cards, projects and fun gift ideas.

As we mentioned in the newsletter, there's a great article featuring simple holiday cards & instructions in the November issue of Scrapbook Ellaments online magazine. Sign up & have the magazine sent to your inbox every month, stuffed full of fun ideas.

Sign up for Jessica Sprague's FREE online class Holidays In Hand, where Jessica will help us create a December album full of all the memories from this December. Click HERE to go to Jessica's website, on the opening page, scroll down for the info. on the class.

Another beautiful December album is featured on designer, Ali Edwards's blog right now. Ali creates a December Daily album every year. She shows us how she prepared her book for this year, creating a special page for each day, where she'll add some journaling and a photo for each day in December.

(Personally, I've checked out Ali's album and signed up for Jessica's class. I'm excited to try this for December. If I can get my album done in November, I think I'll be able to fill it in a bit each day. I think I'll combine some of each designer's ideas and come up with my own book. If everyone likes this idea, I can teach a class on it next Fall...let me know!)

If holiday party invitations are on your to-do list, check out check out the holiday invitations on the Make Your Own Invitations blog. They love to have people submit great invitations they've created for inclusion in the blog, I'm submitting some of mine soon.

Here are 25 Holiday Quotes from Creating Keepsakes to download & print and use on your holiday cards, layouts & other projects.

On Creating Keepsakes's blog, I found a cute envelope for that DVD of photos you've been meaning to send to the relatives. Put it in the envelope and send it as their Christmas gift!

I was going to include individual links on to this one, but the home page of Paper Crafts magazine's webpage has so many cool ideas, I thought I'd just link to it & let you choose what you like best. They have 12 online bonus projects for cards & gift ideas, along with a great idea for using recycled Christmas cards you received last year as your cards for this year...such a cool green idea!

Of course, search through the web for holiday ideas just wouldn't be complete without a visit to the craft diva herself, Martha Stewart. Now, I was one of those who used to follow Martha, but kind of got out of the habit when I started to find all these other sources for craft ideas. But lately, I've found myself coming back to Martha for her sense of style and ideas that seem easier to me now than her old ideas did way back then. So check out Martha's Christmas Ideas page for all sorts of fun Christmas ideas. If you give a lot of gift cards, give them a little of your personality this year and check out these great gift card holders.

And just to "toot my own horn" a bit, if you're looking for a nice project to create for your home or to give to a special friend, check out my H-O-M-E project article which is featured in Scrapbooking.com Magazine this month, complete with photos & instructions. I was very excited to be asked to write this article and have my project featured this month. As always, remember to check out my blog JulieChats, to see my latest Layout of the Week or browse through my "Get Your Creative On" section of blogs from all over the web.

You can sign up to have updates to this blog and/or my blog emailed to your account.

Twila's Coaster Set

The holiday season is coming soon and we've got a great gift idea for you. Twila created this beautiful set of coasters using Kaisercraft's Beyond the Page collection mdf coaster set. She painted the coasters & holder red and covered them with papers from Graphic 45's Domestic Goddess collection. Give this coaster set a try, if you're looking for a fun, easy gift to make for family & friends this year. They would look great covered with photos, paper or a combination of both. Be sure to cover them with a water resistant coating, such as Mod Podge.

Paperbag Mini Album - 4th of July

If you're looking for a fun mini album idea, that's also economical, you really should check this one out! This mini album came to us from our customer Gina Smith. It's made from small paper bags and is covered with all sorts of great 4th of July embellishments. Tags, photos & memorabilia fill every page and are tucked into each bag.

We don't know about you, but we all can't wait to give this album idea a try!

Thanks for sharing Gina!

20% off almost everything, Monday October 12th!!!

Whimzee's is having a Columbus Day Sale! 20% off almost everything in the store, even markdowns! We're only holding out a very few new arrivals from this storewide sale! We just FILLED the tables with all sorts of great deals! Find Halloween, Christmas, Albums & much more, marked down plus an additional 20% off!

Everything (almost) in the store, 20% off!

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Nana's Coupons Mini Book

This week we're featuring a mini book created by Gina Smith's mom for her daughter. The book is full of cute coupons for a little girl to redeem for fun activities with her grandma.

Cheerleader Mini Album by Gina Smith

Fall is here, and that means the kids are busy with sports & activities! This mini album was created by Whimzee's customer, Gina Smith. Gina used our custom high school papers from Stamping Station and a 7 Gypsies album. (Album size is 6" x 8", page size is 6" x 6".) This album showcases Gina's daughter's youth cheerleading experience. (After reading the article, scroll down to see the inside pages.) This album shows us that you don't have to have a child in high school to use these cool custom papers. You might use them to create an album for your child's youth sports season. And if you do have a high schooler, you could use this idea to create an album celebrating a special event in your child's high school years. Still need some ideas...how about marching band, science fairs, school plays, homecoming, drill team or just freshman year. Twila scraplifted this idea and created a mini album she plans to use to document her son's high school football season at Aloha. We'll share her album soon!

Yes, we all scraplift, even those of us who are seasoned scrappers, in fact seasoned scrappers probably to scraplift more often than beginners. Scraplifting is a term used by scrapbookers to describe borrowing an idea from another scrapbooker. You might recreate an entire page layout from the design to the papers & embellishments used. You might use another person's design and placement of page elements while using different papers & embellishments. You might borrow only the color scheme of the layout, card or project. These are all forms of scraplifting.

For those of you out there who are beginners, don't be afraid to scraplift! In scrapbooking, we consider it the highest form of flattery when someone appreciates one of our creations enough to scraplift it!

My Favorites Mini Album by Gina Smith

We are so happy that Gina Smith has shared some of her original creations with us! This week, we feature Gina's My Favorites Mini Album. On each page, is a journal box where her daughter wrote a list of her favorite things, from TV shows to candy, video games & even school subjects. Now she'll always have this cute record of her favorite things when she was 11. Gina used Bo Bunny's Double Dot papers to create this album. She used the dotted side of the paper on the front side of each page and its solid side on the back of each page. This technique creates a rainbow effect when the book is viewed as a whole project. Check back next week to see another of Gina's mini albums.

Meet Carol Nelson, Our Newest Card Class Instructor

We are excited introduce our newest card class instructor, Carol Nelson. Carol's first class at Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio will be Monday, September 28th from 6:30pm to 7:00pm, $7.00 fee. Call the store to sign up for Carol's class 503.590.8806. She will help us create the two Halloween cards shown here.

Carol wants to introduce herself to all of us, so read on & meet Carol with us....

I have lived in Hillsboro for 5 years now, having retired from Customer Service in the electronics industry in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Now I finally have the time to do the things I love, making cards and other paper projects, sewing and gardening.

I always try to make cards that are simple and can be used for many occasions with little or no modification. I use every little scrap that I can to get the most out of one piece of paper. And I love embellishments!

I sell my cards at a couple of local stores and participate in the Red Sled Bazaar in Sherwood every Christmas. I have also taught at the Peddler's Pack in Beaverton.

I hope you will join me for this class. All you need is a ruler, a pair of scissors and your enthusiasm!

I am always open to suggestions, so if you see something you would like to see me make, please let me know.

Hope to see you at one of my classes soon!

Our Newest Arrival - Glue Pads

While checking out some of my favorite blogs this morning, I came across a very cute layout that showcases one of our newest products, the Glue Pad. I've never used the Glue Pad, but I know it can be used with all your stamps & glitter to achieve a cool look on your layouts. One of my favorite blogs, CreativitE, by Erin Bassett, has a recent post showing how you can add a beautiful embellishment to your projects using a Glue Pad & glitter. Check it out HERE!

I can't wait to try it! Thanks to Erin for giving me a great idea to include on my next layout!

FREE Beginning Scrapbooking Classes!!!

I know we've been advertising our Beginning Scrapbooking Classes in our newsletter, but I thought it would be a good idea to give a quick breakdown of the classes here for everyone who reads the blog. The Whimzee's Girls are teaching the Beginning Scrapbooking Classes together with Marlene Fuller, our favorite Canon Representative to the Scrapbooking Industry. The classes will be held in the Hillsboro Library's Main Branch on Sundays and its Shute Park Branch on Saturdays.

Please go to the library's calendar for a more detailed class description, required supply list and other information. Call the library at (503) 615-6500 to register for each class you plan to take.

The two hour classes are FREE and open to everyone (ages 6th grade & up). Each class will have its own theme. During the class, you will create a two page layout from a kit based on a sketch. While putting together your kit, you will learn a different basic scrapbooking technique for each class.

You are free to take one class or as many as you like!

9.12.2009, CLASS CANCELED!
Saturday, September 12th 2pm to 4pm Theme: Back to School @Shute Park Branch

Sunday, September 20th 1pm to 3pm Theme: Beach @Main Library

Saturday, October 3rd 2pm to 4pm Theme: Fall (Halloween) @Shute Park Branch

Sunday, October 11th 1pm to 3pm Theme: Birthday @Main Library

Saturday, November 7th 2pm to 4pm Theme: Baby Boy or Baby Girl @Shute Park Branch

Sunday, November 8th 1pm to 3pm Theme: Holiday (Christmas) @Main Library

Please come back here after you take a class & let us know what you think & how we could improve it! We love feedback, especially since this is our first attempt at a series of classes. We'd also love to hear what types of classes you would like us to have at the store in the future!

Meet Our Friend Ella!

When I think about it, I'm so surprised at all the cool people I've met and websites I've stumbled upon as a result of being on Twitter. My latest discovery is a very cool website that just published its first eZine this month. (In case you didn't know, an eZine, is a magazine found only on the internet.) Scrapbook Ellaments is a brand new monthly scrapbooking eZine published by Ella Publishing. This month's issue has tips for all those Photoshop users out there and a great free journaling quiz download. The journaling quiz, is a 4" x 6" printable box, complete with questions & blanks for you to fill in your answers. The article has lot's of layouts using the journaling quiz in different ways. I've already printed mine & I can't wait to use it! I'll share my layout with you as soon as I get it done!

One of the great features of Ella Publishing is the downloadable eBooks they sell. You can find all sorts of scrapbooking & photography eBooks for less than $6. Just download them to your computer and read them right there or print them out.

I think this website can be a great source of information and inspiration for all of us scrapbookers! Check it out and I'm sure you'll be just as hooked on it as I am!




Of course, I can share all the cool scrapbooking things I find with you even quicker, if you sign up to follow @JulieChats on Twitter!

Graphic 45 Helps Us Release Our Inner Domestic Goddess

You may not be the perfect housekeeper, chef or seamstress, but that shouldn't stop you from picking up the retro papers from Graphic 45's new Domestic Goddess collection. The 10 new double-sided printed papers and die cut tag sheet showcase a lot of June Cleaver types going about their duties. The 1950's are alive again on these wonderful, colorful papers.

Use them to make some humorous cards for your girlfriends, joking about who's got the best cooking...or take out skills. Use them in your heritage album...make a page with those photos of mom or grandma cooking or sewing. Or use them like I plan to...make something for mom to use in her sewing room. I'm thinking of using them to cover one of those multi-drawer wooden boxes from IKEA. (I'm sure you've got one in your craft room right now.) Don't hold me to it, but if I can get it done before Christmas, I promise to share it with you. I think it would make an awesome gift for not much money!

'Tis the Season to Get the New Graphic 45 Christmas Collection

Make Graphic 45's new Christmas Past collection part of your Christmas present this year! We love the 7 double-sided printed papers and the die cut tag sheet that are part of this collection. They bring back memories (or mom's or grandma's memories) of how Christmas used to be. So much magic and celebration, a time when we hand wrote personal notes in each card sent out before handwriting the addresses on the envelopes and choosing a favorite Christmas stamp to match.

Use these beautiful papers to scrap your Christmases past or present. Or use them to create one-of-a-kind cards to send to your family and friends this holiday season. Remember to bring your creations by the store to share with the Whimzee's Girls. Let us know if it's ok to photograph them & use them on the blog. We'd love to put together a slideshow of holiday creations to inspire all of us!

Photography - A BIG Part of Scrapbooking

Recently I completed the digital photography class at the store. Although the class is focused mostly on SLR cameras (the big ones with interchangeable lenses), I learned tons of cool things about my little point & shoot. So if you're looking for some hands on instruction for your camera, call to sign up for our next class. The next session begins Saturday, October 3rd. The session includes 4 two-hour classes and a small album to keep your assignments in. All this in a class taught by our favorite photography diva, Marlene Fuller, who represents Canon, for only $20. Call the store, (503) 259-9130, to reserve your spot. Class sizes are limited, so call soon!

If you're a scrapbooker who reads our blog, but isn't in the Portland area, or just can't make it to our next class, we've got something for you too. I've been cruising around the internet looking for photography tips for scrapbookers. And I've found some great posts & sites where I think everyone can find some useful information.

So check out this list & get more from your photography right now!

KT the Scrapbook Lady's 5 Part Photography Series
Click at the top or bottom for the next post in the series. KT shares photos & tips using each of her cameras.

Tracey Clark's Tips on Photographing Birthdays from Ali Edwards's blog

Kodak's Tips for Scrapbook Photography

Tons of photography ideas from Jill @ A Matter of Memories

How to Take Better Photos from scrapbookscrapbook.com

Photography Tips from wescrap.com

Check out these sites & let us know if you have any favorite photography ideas & tips. We'd love to hear from you, feel free to share other scrapbooking photography sites you've found with the group!

If these tips or our great layout ideas have inspired you, call to sign up for tonight's crop, (503) 259-9130, I'll be working & can't wait to see what you're working on!

See you in the store!

We have a Winner!

Sorry we're a bit late in announcing the winner of the Follower/Commenter contest from our Store Newsletter.

Congratulations to Anh!

Anh is the winner of $25 worth of Scrapbooking Supplies. Just stop by the store Anh, to pick up your prize!

We'll be having more contests in the future, so be sure to sign up as a Follower to get in on them!

Coming Soon...New Collections from Reminisce

We've got all sorts of new releases from Reminisce arriving in the store in a few weeks. Check out these cool collections and get your photos together! We'll let you know they're here in the next newsletter after arrive. If you can't wait...sign up to find out about our latest arrivals on Twitter. Just sign up to follow @JulieChats & Julie will tweet about all our latest arrivals!

For now, let these great collections inspire you to get scrapbooking! If that's not enough, check out Reminisce's Blog!

Summer Inspiration Part 2

Here I am again, up WAY too late cruising the internet getting all inspired to create some new scrapbook layouts! I can't be the only one to cash in on all these great ideas, just waiting to be "scrap-lifted"! Check out some of these cool online idea galleries & blogs...

Creativity Inc.'s Idea Gallery Check out the beautiful layouts featuring Autumn Leaves Acrylic Stamps

Today's Creative Blog Sharing all things creative...

Bo Bunny's Latest Post, an 8 x 8 Birthday Book

Paper Source's Blog Featuring all manner of papercrafting ideas.

Craft Critique's Blog Check it out for the latest on everything in the crafting world, they've got cool photos & videos from the latest CHA convention.

I've found most of these blogs & galleries through twitter & my blog. I can't believe the huge amount of inspiration that's out there when I go looking! I share as much as I can on twitter, so if that's your thing, sign up to follow me @JulieChats. I'm trying to tweet more about what's going on at Whimzee's too. And don't forget to check out my blog JulieChats to find a new layout every week in my Layout of the Week column.

That's all the "Creative-ness" I've got to share right now! See you here next week! New Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio newsletter out next Tuesday, look for it in your inbox or use the brown button on the left to subscribe!

Twila's Baseball Mini Album

We just don't have enough room in the newsletter to share all the photos we'd like to share with you. That's one more reason why we like our blog so much! Scroll down in this post to see all the cool inside pages of Twila's Baseball Pennant Mini Album. She created it using the Party Banner Mini Chipboard book from Creative Imaginations's Bare Elements collection and our new baseball papers & cardstock stickers from Reminisce. Of course she added some ribbon, felt & other embellishments along the way too! Check it out!