Friday, December 25, 2009

Graduation Cards

Yea, I know I'm really out of season, but just having a really hard time channeling my inner elf this year... So I thought I'd at least post something...

Papers for this one are older KI Memories, and it's a Stampin' Up Stamp.  And on a personal note, I can feel the lack of harmony in my life, as I'm sure is created from what it is saying.
 
This one is older MME paper, but again with a Stampin' Up stamp set.  The rubons are Making Memories, I believe.

Thanks for looking, and because sometimes, it's not about how you feel, have a truly Merry Christmas today.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Mini Book Mania

Today I've been working on proofing some pics here at home, and came across this.  I chopped a whole bunch of cardstock/paper for mini books awhile back (like a year!) and am happy to say I've made at least 8 of them. 

I've also finished these up, and they are available at the shop.

Monday, December 21, 2009

A couple of "new" old cards

Here's a couple of love cards I created last year, and am just now getting around to posting.... I think you'll like them....


this one uses bazzill basics cardstock as a base (of course!) and DCVW patterned paper, I chip topper by bazzill basics, a prima marketing flower, and a generic rhinestone....
and


more bazzill basics cardstock, DCWV patterned paper, and I tag that I don't remember where I got.  Added some doodlebug designs alpha rub-ons for some extra uumph.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Slow week in the Studio

Not sure why it's been a slow week in the studio for me, but it has.  Maybe life is just catching up with me this week.  I did, however, finish up 2 small projects that I just posted today.  Green Christmas CoasterZ and Red Christmas CoasterZ  , just click on them they will take you to the shop.  Super-cute for anything, if you ask me!

About 3 months ago (I remember it was still warm!) I brought over all my parents pictures (at least all the ones I could locate & there was almost not enough room for me to fit in the car when I was done!).  I finally last weekend got around to sorting them.  Going to go on a really loose LOM approach with these so that my Mom can look at them & hopefully help her memory a bit.  I will also, only lightly scrap them, so that I can get it done fast.  I'm thinking of using these refill pages by We R Memory Keepers (in various formats, I did not list all the choices they have) thinking this will help get it done faster.  I have pictures from them that date back to the early 1900s, so there are a lot.

In sorting through them, I've discovered they have a lot of duplicates and even triplicates.  They will be offered up to my sibs, but if they do not want them, and if I already have them, then they are going in the trash.  I know, I know, and it pains me to say it, but really, I just don't need 6 copies of dad's incredibly annoying dog....

There is probably a shoebox & a half of negatives.  I'm thinking of pitching the 110s and the 35mms that do not have index prints and/or CDs.  Please don't call 911 and send the sheriff out.... But my thought is, I can just scan the photo if I need a copy.

Things that just totally rocked my little heart... seeing pictures of my dad from the Army, when he was stationed in Korea, pictures of my uncle when he was in Viet Nam, letters to my dad from his brothers when they were in the service (his other brother was in the Army, and his other other brother we don't talk about). Cards from him to my mom that were sappy, cards from my mom to him that were sappy (they were NOT lovey-dovey in front of us) and letters between my grandparents & my mom when she was an exchange student in high school. Pictures of childhood friends when they were babies (because our moms were friends too) and pictures of us as kids.

Things that caused terror and horror.... pictures of all my bad (and I mean really bad!) hairstyles, or lack of style all together, clothing I used to wear that could have been my great-gramma's curtains, or sofa, or ???  Wow, was I ever really that fashion ignorant?!?!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Cherish Card

I made this card awhile ago, but I'm slow getting stuff put up, I know.  Trying to be more regular.  I'm all about babysteps.  I am much better at actually proofing photos every week, uploading pictures for submission, and working on product.  I want to get better at: scrapping each week, sharing what I create, and submitting for publication.... Wish me luck!

This one is very simple, Bazzill Basics cardstock, Prima flower, Bazzill Basics Chip Topper and some DCWV patterned paper.  Perfect for a wedding, anniversary or just because I love you card....

Thanks for looking - Elle

Friday, December 4, 2009

New/Old Project Posted

This is a mini book I did for Ben's Kindergarten teacher (he's in 3rd grade now...).  Thought you might get some inspiration.  I ADORE minis!

You can find at Scrapbook.com  or Creating Keepsakes or 2Peas depending on which site you like....
Thanks!
elle

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

December Class & Kit

OK, I got the sample done for this, here it is....  I'll be posting the kit over on Etsy too....



Here's the kit first, $10, I don't think that is a bad price.  For the ones I ship out, keep in mind some of the product will vary slightly, and I don't think I'll be doing the scallop edges, as I cut those myself.  They'll be plain so you can dress 'em up however you'd like.

 
 
 Here are the NoteZ and TokenZ
 
 
 
 and BlockZ

and here is the link directly to the kit.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Black Friday Sale

OK, I can't figure out how to do a promo code through Etsy and/or Paypal (note to self, investigate sooner next year!) so if you email me your order today, I'll manually create the bill and give you a 30% off discount, from your entire order before shipping.  Just send me an email listing what you want to benzillascrapping@gmail.com
Thanks!
elle

Monday, November 23, 2009

have not been abducted by aliens....repeat....have not been abducted by aliens....

Your regular viewing program will resume momentarily, thank you for listening to this PSA....

OK, seriously, I've not fallen off the face of the planet, I swear.  But I have been very busy with Worship Team (Advent does start next week & we've managed to plan all the way to January!), finishing up the Adorn It project, and well life....

I have started working on new Christmas product, and it is printed out, so I hope to get it posted on the shop soon.  I'm also busy working on another Christmas project, this time for a class, and I will have a kit available on the shop too, once I get it put together.

I think that's it!

Back to your regularly scheduled program.....stay tuned for further information....
elle

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The remaining Adorn - It Project


Here is the cover decorated, the christmas came from a mini ornament from hobby lobby.  you can see I took out the binder rings and actually used hemp instead.  on the outside I tied 2 big bows and hung the ornaments from there.

 
Page 9 with journaling done & the small page that I stamped on actually started out as one of those little acrylic boxes that soaps and stuff come in.  I just unfolded it and cut off the edges. Scallop JournalZ here

Page 10 is a manila envelope that i cut the bottom off of, so i would have the flap end in the book.  since it is bound, nothing will really fall out unless it is small.  You could also glue it shut, i suppose.

 
Page 11 was some leftover chip. More scallop JournalZ action here too.

Page 12 the journaling is directly on the page/bag.  This one's a kraft colored one.  Felt angel also from Christmas section of Hobby Lobby.


Page 13, I traced the numbers, cool effect, it is more leftover chip (I don't allow anyone I know to discard the good stuff!).  Round JournalZ used.

Another baseball card pocket cut down to just 4x4 here on Page 14.


Page 15 is another white lunch bag.  Journaling is done on a stamp, I believe an Autumn Leaves acrylic set.


I just hand-sketched the number for 16, and the journaling is on the bag again.  The paper #16 is on is "frosted", I guess would be the best description, so erasing pencil is easy, but make sure to use a sharpie so the ink sets well on it.


17 has another former acrylic box page on top, with some Queen & Co. Poinsettia trim on it, gorgeous!  17 is actually made from a red envelope.  Great for tucking little goodies in it.  Oh, and I gotta say, I still love my Making Memories Trinkets!  Scalloped JournalZ used again....


Page 18 is a BingoZ card (backside) with a JournalZ on the bottom.


Here you can see the front side of the bingoZ card.  I did not intend for the backside to be first, but I accidentally punched the wrong side, so then what do you do?!?!

#19 is another 8x8 chip, with a larger JournalZ.
 
Page 20 has a clock OverlayZ (not available yet unless you email me) on top, i trimmed it to a curve, but you could leave it straight too.  And again, it was just a scrap piece of chipboard I had left over from trimming the other pages.  The journaling is on a shipping tag from Hobby Lobby.  Yes, I'm an HL addict and I'll admit it! lol

I used to be very shy about using my handwriting on anything, lately I've been using it a lot and I have to admit, it is very freeing!  It is also very quick for me, which I like.

Thank you to everyone who has left such wonderful comments for me, it makes a scrapgirl's heart overflow.  Thanks also for being patient with me during my moment of insanity because I overbooked myself.  Luckily, everything is getting done, and everything is OK.

Best,
elle


Now showing

New product available at the shop, here's a sample .  Wow, I thought I'd never get them all done, but they are there.  I'm going to start working on more Christmas product soon, so if you have suggestions, drop me a note!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Adorn It Blog Hop

Welcome everyone! my name is michelle (people call me elle for short!) roudebush & i run benzillascrapping.  when georgana announced she was doing a make it merry blog hop, i wanted to hop on the bandwagon (ok, there might be pun in there somewhere....), however, i didn't find out about it until tuesday, i think so, like everything i do, i decided to jump right in.  and of course i've never done one... originally i wanted to do a project similar to ali edwards' december daily so i set to work.  but as i was working, i really wanted to do some older christmas pictures, so it then morphed into more of a 25 stories album, and that's where it's stayed.  but i ran out of time, and one of the things of the blog hop was that it's supposed to be a finished project.  maybe i should have just done a card, but i was really inspired to do this.  so i will show you today what i have done, and get you moving on to the next blog in the list, and perhaps, if you like what you see, you'll come back to see the rest of it.

if you did not start at the beginning of the blog hop, please go here www.adornitscrapbook.com/bloghop so that you can see everyone's lovely projects.

first i went through product & supplies to figure out what i wanted to use for my pages.
 
i tried to get a good mix of media, as i think that really makes it interesting (you can also check out the studio re-do in the background, it surely is messy!)

 here is the initial part of making the album.  the cover is actually a cardboard inset that came with a set of sheets that i got for 006's birthday last month.  when i saw it's cool shape, i couldn't help but keep it.  i don't do a lot of measuring, just lining up and cutting so for the outside i cut 2 squares, a rectangle for the binding and a couple of narrow strips for transition.  the inside is essentially the same, minus the strips.  be warned, this project will take a lot of paper (at least by my standards) minimum 6 12" sheets, more if you can spare.  great way to use up your stash, i used a ton of my older stuff, and i still just really like it.

if you can't tell, i'm using gel medium for adhesive as it is super tacky.  i think it works better than mod podge, but is much more expensive.  but it is extremely thick so it can be easy to use too much.  makes a great bond, really good for something that is going to be handled a lot.



after drying, it looks like this.  not too bad so far.  now i want to use binder rings to hold all the pages together, so i have to punch holes in the binding.  big bite to the rescue!

you can see him there in the background (i love the orange version, reminds me of my buddy warren) and you can also see the inside covers covered.  is that redundant?

next is a series of pages.....

oh, before i can punch, i need to sand everything down.  i like to use this method to trim up my uneven edgies...

i used the one page to line up where the holes are to go.


here's my big stack of pages waiting patiently for attention.....

 here are the rings in place.  i actually hate them, but now it is too late, but i did learn lots! like space them a wee bit farther apart.  not sure if there is a mathematical formula for that, but....


page 1 is 4 pockets of a sports card collector page. the number one is from my coasterbetz collection.
 

2 is some chip i cut to 6" square. the backside of page 1 has a journal spotz in it.


3 is a white lunch sack with the top trimmed down.  room for ???

4 is actually leftover packaging from a karen foster mini book.  i just covered up the logo, but i liked the neutral design. it also has one of my journalz spots


5 is the back side of said packaging, and a bingo card from my christmas collection.  the next page has an overlayZ in a music theme, also soon to be available at my store.

6 is again some up-cycled packaging, don't remember what from, perhaps the boys skivvies??? i just really liked the shape.

7 is a red envelope from hobby lobby.  nothing extremely fancy and another coasterbetz

and last, but not last, is 8, which is some upcycled chip, probably from the back of a paper pak, cut to 8" square.

sorry i don't have 9-25 done, but they will all be similar to this, please forgive me for running out of time.  your next blog to go peekie at is Sandra Correale at http://sandracorreale.blogspot.com who has an absolutely beautiful couple of projects for your drooling oops, i mean, viewing pleasure....

thanks so much for putting up with my crazy sense of humor, lack of time management skills and inability to say no to something very fun, it has been a tremendous pleasure having you as my guest.  please stop back by soon!
elle








i'm insane!

ok, so i'm trying to get the make it merry project done for the Adorn It blog hop & also decided it was a good time to re-do the studio a bit.  hellloooooo, what am i thinking..... oh, and i'm prepping the message for sunday and getting really nervous.  i think i'll post it monday over on the other blog.... also found some great stuff on clearance at hobby lobby last night.  love that store.  love the fact that 008 wanted a sketch journal of his own, rock on bro!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

cross my heart & hope to die....

...i've not forgotten my promise to upload new product to the shop.  got a little side-tracked getting a project together for the AdornIt Blog Hop & thinking of offering it as kit & doing it as a class..... stay tuned....

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

she works hard for the money...

furiously working on getting the second half printed out so i can cut & post tomorrow.  wish me luck!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

new product a'comin....

i'm busy working on them, i'm hoping to get it finished up tomorrow or monday and get them posted early next week.  super-cute, i tell ya!

Monday, November 2, 2009

class kit

i have 1 for sale over on etsy, once it's gone, it's gone so go & get it!  lol

Saturday, October 24, 2009

class kits

wow, i'm even a couple days early.  i've been working on it off & on for so many days, last night i finally said "i just need to put it together and so i started working on it.

first, the creative mess that i work in.....


i selected 12 pictures and matched them up to the elements i wanted them to go on and trimmed to the approximate correct size.  then i used gel medium to adhere the pieces together.  since this will be handled a lot (and has been already) i wanted something that was strong and that i could get to the edge.  i had a bit of trouble with that, but compensated as i needed to.


once everything was glued down (and by the way, i thought i had it 3 times, and each time i found something else, so i actually washed my brush and put the gel medium away 3 times!  can you tell it was getting late?!) then it was time to punch everything to bind it.  now my hope for this was (and i had practiced on a scrap piece of paper) was that the left side of the cover (which is actually 1 big 12" strip) would have the spiral binding and that i could get it deep enough into the punch to get 2 rows of holes (one column on each side of the fold).  well, i didn't think about it being much thicker due to the paper & photo.  it fit in, but not far enough, so i was left with 1 column of holes.  now the comb will just fall out.  i was pretty upset & good thing the boys were in bed as I did not have good words to say.  but being the trooper that i am, i worked, and worked and worked to find something that would work and still allow my original idea to come through.  well, i couldn't do it.  ended up the whole thing was so thick the cover on the left side couldn't fold properly.  well, now what to do?  i ended up leaving the right side as a fold around, but cutting the left side just enough to remove the holes, and then re-punching the back & front for the comb.  not exactly what i had planned, but still good. so here's the finished goods....


I could still do my original idea of using velcro for the closure, that was cool and repunching didn't hurt the rub-on, which was another thing to be grateful for.
 

the left side is a find from my parent's attic, it is a very lovely time card. not even the kind that goes in a machine, but one you hand write on.  thought it was lovely for journaling. the right is part of a task list my printer can print automatically.  like the check boxes!


my printer also does notebook paper, this one is wide-ruled.


this lady is from a women's retreat we had a couple years ago.  she cracked me up, the joy lady.  she's wearing her cross-colored (instead of rose-colored) glasses - too funny!  the other side is a clear "cd" what is actually at the top/bottom of a spindle or cake box.  love 'em and yup the comb binder can punch 'em.  if you look at the edge of the rick-rack you can see it better.


bingo card on 1 side, 3 1/2 floppy on the other side.  yup, another great find from my mom's stash. not much else to do with them now.  this took the big bite to punch though.  2 punches overlapping is big enough for the comb.

the right side is grid paper. inside back cover completely do-able and then this also shows the right-side flap, also with some goodness on it.

i realize all the photos are a bit on the warm side, but the paper really is ivory so it goes really nicely with the papers here which is actually a beautiful collection from the paper studio (hobby lobby brand) called della fantasia.  very classy!

so here is a look at the kit contents.  unless you specify otherwise, it will come unassembled and unpunched so that you can put your own creative flair to work.  this kit also will only be available through here, not on etsy.  If you are interested in one, send paypal payment to me michelle@benzillascrapping.com for $15 which also covers shipping.  most of my product is in limited quantities so  i will substitute as appropriate.  some of the trims are vintage trims from my mom and I do not have much of it left.


as you can see, tons of ribbon, tons of little fun embellies, it was so much fun to make!