New Year

I am so looking forward to being back in the store on Saturday January 3, 2015 and open for regular hours!  What exciting things are you looking forward to in 2015?

Did someone say Make-Over?  The store will be getting a minor make-over during the first two months of the year.  Additionally, I am looking forward to selling custom made stationary, invitations, and other printable items.  Stop in the store to see some of the custom stationary we have designed.   

Classes, did someone ask for classes?  I am working really hard to get classes scheduled for February and March.   On the horizon: a Valentine's Day party at the store for ages 6 to 14 years old,  beautiful paper from Authentique paper for St. Patrick's Day is on the way, and more youth and tween classes will be offered.  Check out our calendar for some of the dates that are already scheduled.

Lets get those Christmas pictures on some pages.  Join us for an awesome 7 page class.  Each participant will make 3 full layouts and one single page.  The pages are winter and Christmas themed and use My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland Collection.

Each participant will also leave with additional brads, glittered Thickers, a clear stamp set, enamel dots, and more.

If you bring a snack to share you will receive an additional ticket for the raffle.  Yes, there is a chance for you to win a prize, maybe 2!!

Class information:
Date: Saturday January 10, 2015
Time: 4pm-10pm
Cost: $65.00
Call (631)875-1542 at least 24 hours in advance to register and pay for your seat.  Please see our FAQ page on our website for our cancellation and refund policy.  Seats are limited. (631) 875-1542

I am looking forward to seeing you in the NEW YEAR!!!  

Back to School

The children will be returning to school next week.  As usual, the summer flew by, and I never made it to the beach or the pool.  

Now that school is back in session, that means all the wonderful Fall colors and events are weeks away.  Fall is my favorite season. What about you?  I love all things pumpkin?  What is your favorite fall flavor?  Apple, cinnamon, or pear, or pumpkin? 

New things are happening at the store.  

• The hours of the store are changing.  Please call before visiting to ensure the store is open.  I will try my hardest to keep the calendar on the website up to date.
• We are also making stationary items such as note cards, invitations, business cards, and party favor boxes.  Come and check out the new product.
• Enjoy 30% off regular priced merchandise while you crop or take a class.  Some exclusions apply, inquire within.
• Great classes and events are planned for September and October, check out the calendar for our weekend events.
• New Fall, Halloween, and Christmas Collections are in the store an still arriving.  Come and check out some of the beautiful collections from Carta Bella, Echo Park, and Authentique.

Looking to take a class?  I have offered several different classes over the past three months.  If there is something you are interested in learning, let me know.  I love being challenged and designing projects.  Are you interested in learning Crochet or something besides paper crafts?

Fish Netting Page directions

One of my favorite page kits from last summer featuring Bo Bunny's Key Lime Collection

Here is the information to make your own page.  

Edge with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap Distress ink.

Base page, sprayed with Thermoweb Iridescent glitter spray.

6 1/4" x 8 1/2", corners were shaped with a Crop-A-Dile corner rounder

 

10 3/4" x 3" without cutting the border,  with border 10 3/4"x 3 1/4"

8"x 1 1/4", cut a "v" at the end of the length of the strip to make it a pennant.

9" x 7", corners were shaped with a Crop-A-Dile

 7 1/4" x 2 1/4, unless you are going to border punch one of the long edges.  Cut 7 1/4" x 2 1/2" if adding a punched border.

8 1/4" x 3 1/4" without border punched edged.  8 1/4" x 3 1/2" if punching a border one of the edges.

Add fish netting and fishes as desired.  The fishes are covered with Ranger Ink's Ultimate Thick Embossing Enamel.  Sea horse from Life's A Beach Cricut Cartridge.  Other fish are from Cricut and Silhouette.

The light should be top right corner.
Adhere the 10 3/4 x 3" scalloped patterned blue and yellow paper 5/8" from the bottom and 2 3/4"
from the right of base page. The scalloped edge should be facing the right side of page.
Adhere the yellow page, with the red scallops facing the top, so that the arches are facing the bottom
of the page.  Place it 1" from the left and 1 1/8" from the top, ensure that the small green
seahorse is just under the corner of the page, as seen in picture.
Adhere the blue patterned paper w/ the postage scallop 3 3/8" from the left and 1 5/8" from the top
of base page.  Postage border should be facing the left of base page. Adhere the green word paper, ensuring words are upright, 1/4" from the left and 3" from the top of base page.
Adhere the colorful chevron patterned paper 6" from the left and approximately 2" from the top of
base page.  The notebook border should be facing the right of base page.
Add the red strip of paper w/ the "V" towards the bottom of paper.  The top of the red will be flush
against the top of the green word paper, and 5 1/4" from the left of base page.
Add the matte 3/4" from the left and 3 1/2" from the top.   Trim the fish netting to your desired size. Add the fish to the netting.  The fish have all been coated in Ultimate Thick Embossing Enamel.  If you see  some cracks prior to adhering, you can simple re-heat with heating tool.  This will "re-melt" the enamel.   I added some pop dots behind the fish and used glue dots to add the netting. The fish may crack again, so be careful with the page.

The off white matte is 5x7 and fits a 4" x 6" picture.

FUN Classes

Working hard to get some FUN beach layouts, pages, and mini albums created for your summer pictures.

Here is a fun album for inspiration!

All the samples are on display in the store.

July Classes:

Youth Class: Thursday July 24, 2014 at 10am until 1pm.  Children will make a fun beach themed wall hanging to display some of their summer pictures.  Cost is $18.00.  Basic tool kit is required along with a 24 hour registration.

 Basic Quilling:   Join Regina for a relaxing Basic Quilling Class on Friday July 25, 2014.  Cost is $20.00.  Each person will learn some basic quilling techniques and make 4 beach themed gift/wine tags to take home.  Basic tool kit is required, quilling tools will be available.

August Classes:

Offering an AWESOME Disney inspired explosion box class on Sunday August 17, 2014, and a delicious Ice Cream Social Event scheduled for August 24, 2014.

Ice Cream Social includes ice cream and a two page layout.  Cost is $25.00 and starts at 10am. A basic tool kit is required for the class.  Register and pay 24 hours in advance.  Seats are limited.

GUEST INSTRUCTOR:  Patty, a talented guest instructor, will be teaching a class on Friday August 15, 2014 at 6pm.  The layout features Echo Park's Capture Life collection. 

The calendar is FULL of fun events including the Summer Blowout Sale.  The items on sale will be discounted up to 50% off the retail price.  Please note sale items are primarily overstock items and summer items.

Summer BLOWOUT Sale is Saturday August 16, 2014 from 9am until 5pm.  Don't miss out!

Check out the Calendar of events here.

Happy 4th of July

SUMMER is in full swing!  

Our youth classes are a great way for children to get out of the house and make  something creative they can share with friends and family.  The youth classes also allow children to share their most memorable moments.  Children are a great source of creativity, and it is fun to watch them alter their projects to match their personality.

I am offering a great youth class this Thursday at the store from 10am-1pm.  The children will have fun decorating their own wall hanging that they can proudly display at home or give as a gift.

  

What are some fun and creative summer activities you have planned for this summer?

Are you planning on seeing some fireworks?  What Fireworks display has the best show and why?

Summer Time

It is definitely SUMMER time in Riverhead, NY.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful, and the evenings are cool.

I realize most of you are relaxing in the sun by the pool or at the beach, but if you are looking to get out of the heat for a day or two stop in the store.  Don't forget we have open cropping on most days, so if there is a RAINY day, you can come in and crop.

There are some great CLASSES scheduled for July, and I am already adding classes for August.  If you are looking for something for children, we have some FUN classes for ages 5 and up scheduled on Thursdays at 10am.  If you want to make a project, but can't attend, contact me.  I will do my best to offer the class during a separate time, additional fees may apply.

*****Many of the summer classes are summer/beach themed, which is great because you can add pictures of this summer on your projects without getting behind on scrapbooking.

I am excited to have a tent at Riverhead's Park and Recreation Movie on the Beach in August this year. Stop by the tent, there will be a little project for the children to do at the movie.

The store has lots of awesome embellishments and paper packs in stock.  We have items from Little B, Hemptique, Penny Black, Queen & Company, Bo Bunny, Echo Park, Authentique, Spellbinders, and more. 

Looking for some SUMMER inspiration?  We have great projects on display at the store.  Here are a few pictures of what we currently have in stock.

What is your thought?

Earlier today I was chit chatting with some lovely ladies about big box arts and craft supply stores.  We all know they LOVE issuing out coupons to save 30%, 40%, and even 50% off one item.  I am trying to understand the mindset of savings and sales.

As a small business owner, I work hard to try and keep prices low, and realized over the past couple of months that some of the Big Box stores actually have many of their items priced higher to alleviate the continuous discount they offer with coupons.  I keep the prices at the manufactured retail price, which on average is $1.00 to $2.00 less than the twin product at the big box store. 

Lets look at some numbers:

Glossy Accents, MSRP is $5.99

Big Box store: $7.99

Andrea's Artistic Albums: $5.99

40% off coupon at Big Box Store: $4.79

30% off at Andrea's Artistic Albums: $4.19 (May's monthly special on adhesive is 30% off, plus croppers receive a 30% discount off adhesives while they are cropping)

You would need a 50% off coupon to save an additional $0.19 from my discounted price of 30%.  

Pretty interesting, right?

As I mentioned, the coupons are usually only good on one item.  Therefore, if you wanted to "stock" up on adhesive, you would have to continually use a coupon to receive the discount.  The coupon is not an issue. It can be copied, used via phone, etc.  It is the fact, that the store typically only lets you use the coupon once per visit.  Every once and a while you will get a nice cashier that will let you ring up several orders to use a coupon several times.  We send our family members and friends in to make a purchase for us. 

I would love to hear what your thoughts are about this.  Don't think I am picking on the Glossy Accents, it is not the only product that is priced higher.  

Leave a comment.  I would love to hear what you think.  

What is happening in June

Paper Crafting Yard Sale

--Date: Saturday June 7, 2014--Time: 9am-5pm--Please bring cash to pay individual vendors.--First 5 people in the store will receive a free package of 12"x 12" assorted paper.

Rosettes

Rosettes are not new to paper crafting, but I have found a fondness for them, especially since I started using the ScorPal to score the "seams".  I have also started to use my hot glue gun to help make the glueing process quicker.  

Rosettes are versatile and great fillers for scrapbook pages, cards, mini-albums, and even home decor.  While I was as the National Stationary Show last week, I spotted a few companies selling the rosettes pre-scored.  They were beautiful, but you can make your own customized rosette with ease.  

The red, white, and blue one I made consists of 6 pieces of 6"x12" card stock.   Each strip of card stock is scored at 1" increments.  Five strips was almost enough, but the paper pulled just a little bit too much.  

Don't forget you can use a border punch on the outside potion of your rosette too.  The border punch adds a nice element to the rosette.

You can score at any increment you want depending on how deep you want your fold.  

If you are using a glue gun, you will have to work quickly, because the glue dries fast, but it holds great.

1.  Score your paper at the increment that you want.  Ensure you score at at that measurement the length of the strip.

2.  Cut into the strip width that you desire.  For the Red, White, and blue rosette above, I used 6" x 12" paper for the blue and 3"x12" for the red portion. 

3.  Fold where the score marks are, accordion style.  Add the adhesive to one of end of each strip.  I used Scor-TAdape, so it would show up on the picture, but you can use your adhesive/tape runner.

4.  Adhere the ends with adhesive to an strip that has no adhesive.  The fold up should fit over the fold up that you are attaching to. 

5. Adhere the last loose end to the beginning of the first paper strip.  You should have a circle at this point.  You can also see in this picture, where the ends meet to get a better idea of how to adhere the ends to each other.

6.  Gather the paper towards the inside center, and push down the center part.  The opposite side will flair out to make the rosette.  If you do this a couple of times, it makes the glue process a bit easier.  The paper shapes easier after it has been formed into the rosette a few times.

7.  Apply a generous amount of hot glue to a scratch piece of card stock.  You need to work fast.  The scratch paper should be half the size of the width of your rosette.  For example, for a 3" strip, you will end up with approximately a 6" wide rosette, make the scratch piece approximately 3"x 3".

8. Quickly assemble the rosette over the hot glue (don't burn yourself on the glue).  You should have a few seconds to shape your rosette.  If you feel like the rosette is not attached to the scrap piece of paper, turn it over, and add more glue to the scrap piece of paper that is facing the rosette side.  Hold in place, don't burn yourself.  

9.  I fill in the center of the rosette with additional hot glue.  If you do this, it takes a little while for the hot glue to set because it is pretty thick in the center.

Back side of the rosette.

10.  You can place an embellishment, sticker, label, etc. over the whole where the center meets in the front of the rosette.  I sprayed the red, white, and blue one with some silver glitter.  I also added some ribbon with a hot glue gun to the back side of the rosette to be used for a wall decoration.

Here are a few more samples.

Out of the Box with Alcohol Inks

   Do you watch YouTube video tutorials?  Lately, I have been addicted to watching tutorials on YouTube, and I found some fun techniques with alcohol inks.  I have a few bottles of Ranger Ink's Adirondack's Alcohol inks, but have been intimidated by those little bottles of concentrated colors.  After watching a few videos, I gathered up the courage to use the inks on a project that did NOT INCLUDE PAPER.  I have seen that Mason Jars are also a huge fade right now, and I am decorating the store window for summer.  I brainstormed, and came up with an idea.  I wanted to use the alcohol ink on glass, so I picked up a couple of glass jars.

Here's what I created.  

What do you think?  It was super simple to make, and would be a great tea light candle holder (without the lid of course).

Here are the tools I used to produce this project:

• Mason jar
• Bag of assorted sea shells
• Fishing net
• Thick twined jute
• Ranger Ink Adirondack- Sailboat color
• Ranger Ink Blending tool with felt attachment
• Ranger Ink Glossy Accents.
• Glue Gun (my new bestie)
• Sand from the craft store

Process:

1. Put a few dots of the color on the blending tool that has the felt piece attached to it.  
2. Tab the ink on the glass jar to transfer the color.  I did not put the blue towards the bottom where the sand was (long messy lesson learned there).
3. Repeat adding ink to the felt, then to the jar until the blue is as deep as you want it.
4. Spread the Glossy Accents on the bottom section of the jar, but not on the actually bottom (flat piece) of the jar.  
5. After the lower section of the jar is covered in Glossy Accents, coat with the sand.  (This will stay wet for at least 4 hours, you can add more Glossy Accents and sand if you see holes or want it a bit thicker.)
6. Cut a piece of the fish net, wrap around the jar.  Trim netting to fit the jar.
7. Add a small dot of glue from glue gun behind a few of the fish netting knots.  Only glue a few knots at a time.  If you add too much glue, it will harden up before you can press it to the glass.
8. With the glue gun add your sea shells to the jar over/under the fish netting.
9. Add some of the glue from the glue gun to the bottom of the lid.  Wrap the jute around the lid.  You can spiral if you want, but I cut at the end where they beginning met the end, and repeated the steps.
10. On the very top you can add glue as you wind the jute in a circle covering the top.

Happy Crafting

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone's day is fabulous.  

We are spending the day at or house.  I cleaned most of the morning, took advantage of closing the store.   I am looking forward to a BBQ this afternoon with some family.  I have to remember to take at least two pictures of today.  I will need them for a scrapbook layout.  Do you take pictures with your family on Mother's Day?  

What did everyone else do?  Please share.

I also want to post the winner of the Mother word album.

CONGRATULATIONS to Cheri!!   

She is the winner of the Mother word album is Cheri.  Cheri, please email me to arrange for pick up of the album.  

Check back at some point this week.  I hope to have a layout with direction posted.  

Enjoy the day!

Welcome

It is time for me to once again start blogging.  I realize not everyone is on a social media forum such as Facebook, Instagram, or Vine, and I have been looking for a way to communicate with everyone.  I was also looking for an avenue that will allow me to keep you up to date and provide some FREEBIES.

Just in time for Mother's Day!

Here is your chance to enter and win the Mother word album pictured below.

How to enter:

• Share on this blog thread, one trait you and your mother share.
• Must be posted by 12pm EST 5/10/2014.
• Random winner will be selected and posted by 5pm EST on 5/11/2014.
• Important--winner must email or contact Andrea no later than 12pm EST on 5/18/2014 to claim word album.
• One entry per person.

I will continue to add links, recommendations, and helpful information over the next couple of months.