New Design Team

First of all we want to thank our fabulous design team.  We’ve loved loved loved them and we’re sad to see them go.  Not to worry though because we’re going to have some of them come back as guest designers so keep watching our blog. 

We had so many fabulous designers apply and it was hard choosing.  Everyone had their own style and we loved all the entries.  Ultimately we had to make a decision, so for all of those who didn’t make it we still loved your projects and encourage you to apply next time.

Design Teams for July 2010-January 2011

Project Design Team

Aphra Bolyer

Rhonda Van Ginkel

Tina McDonald

Lesley Langdon

Jenifer Cowles

Danielle Wycough

Organization Design Team

Bree Tetz

Carol Sheetz

Joan Liddle

Welcome to our team! We’re so excited to work with you all.  Check back in a few weeks to see pictures and more information about our new team, plus they’ll be posting starting July 14th.

Simply Renee Team

Quote of the Week

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” ~ Maria Robinson

Hanging Wreath

Hi everyone !

It is my turn to share an altered project.

I looked around my house and got hold of an ordinary item sitting on my kitchen top. This round kitchen wire stared at me for a while and an idea brewed !

An idea to create a hanging wreath grew and I was off to crystallize the idea

No kidding, it is really simple and straight forward to re-create the idea.
All you need are some large blooms, butterflies, hot glue, ribbons and some gems.



Here are the steps involved:
1. Place the rack in a standing up right position.
2. Apply hot glue onto blooms (sparingly) and attach directly onto the circumference of the round cooling rack.
3. Surround the rack with flowers, leaves (optional) and other embellishments you wish to include. Alternate flower blooms with ribbon bows.
4. When the glue is dried, flip the rack over and connect the top with 4 strips of ribbon.

This little re-purposed metal now hangs in my girl's room looking pretty. Hope you'll have fun re-purposing an item soon :) !

Emeline
www.scrapvilla.blogspot.com

Sailin'

We're goin' on a little trip next week. A little bon voyage kinda trip. My husband, the kids and I are goin' on our very first cruise and we're all so excited it's sick. That's all we talk about. Every dinner conversation. Every e-mail to one another during the day. All cruise all the time.

But because it's the summertime I want to keep the kids reading and writing. So we're packing them each little backpacks with journals and pens and books to read so that they don't forget how to form letters and words and sentences on paper. I thought it would be fun to make little tags to have hanging off their backpacks when we give them to them.

I love tags. Tags to me are like cupcakes - LOL I liken a card to a cake and a tag to a cupcake. It's a little piece of some bigger goodness, but you can still go overboard and embellish the daylights out of it - as I did here with these 2 vacation-themed tags.

My base patterned papers are from Echo Park Paper, I've got some Maya Road kraft envelopes on each one, and a little Jenni Bowlin bingo card on each too. And then I just embellished with really whatever random bit and bob I had in, on and around my craft table just to make something really fun.

Sailin' away.....

~ Michelle

Quote of the Week

A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. -Bernard De Fontenelle

Twilight Themed Ribbon Organizer

I’ll admit it. I’m a Vampire fan. From Interview with a Vampire to Lost Boys, Twilight to Vampire Diaries and everything else in between, I’m in love with the dark side. After thinking about my ribbon organizer and how, although functional, it needed to be Erika”ized”, I came up with a plan. Take this 36” Ribbon organizer from innocent to devilish with some Prima flowers, a can of red paint and some Tim Holtz goodness.
First I painted the entire ribbon organizer with 2 coats of red spray paint. After it was completely dry, I used one of the larger Tim Holtz Masks and went over it with two colors of paint dauber. Silver and Pitch Black were marbled onto the piece.

Then I added Velvet ribbon and lace trim to the top and bottom of the ribbon organizer. I also used felt border for the back side of the piece.

Then, I added Prima roses and satin rose buds to each side as well as Twilight epoxy buttons from Really Reasonable Ribbon. I attached all of these items onto the ribbon organizer with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive and Helmar Quick Fix adhesive runner and let me tell ya, they aren’t going anywhere!!!

Last but not least, I created a winged embellishment using grungeboard, crackle paint and UTEE. I lightly attached this onto the front side of the unit for now, but have plans to use the embellishment on a future project.

Here is the ribbon runner with its Vampire Make over.


Gotta love taking that perfect Simply Renee organizer and making it your own. Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you have gotten some inspiration to alter something you use for organizing your stash. Leave a link to a photo so we can see your ideas too.
Until next time
Toodles
Erika Taylor

Simple and Quick Cards

The portability of the Clip It Up was mentioned in an earlier post.  That is one of my favorite things about it!  I am one of those paper crafters who keeps all of my supplies in our walk in closet and pulls it out to play every time I craft (nearly a daily basis!)  So you can imagine how important it is for me to have something so functional.  I can’t say enough how much I have absolutely LOVED having my Clip It Up.  Most of my Thickers (another love of mine!) are hanging on my Clip It Up and it’s so nice to have them right at my finger tips so I can flip through and make my pick.

Today I wanted to share with you a card that I made using some of my favorite stamps and a bit of Versa Magic!

First I gathered my supplies:

Stamps – Mint Motif (Very Square, Very Square Sentiments - AVAILABLE at iheartpapers.com

Kraft cardstock; Pattern Paper – Pink Paislee (Bayberry Cottage)

Stickers – American Crafts (Thickers – Honey)

Ink – Ranger Distress In, Versa Magic

Punch – Martha Stewart

Secondly, I sewed around the edges and used Versa Magic on my Very Square stamp to create a subtle and small background.

Thirdly, I inked the first five words on my sentiment stamp but I did not ink the last word (which was friend) so that I could add a bolder element to the sentiment.

Lastly, I finished off my card punching by sewing over top of the stickers and then layering two butterflies that I punched out of my Pink Paislee (Bayberry Cottage) paper.  Sometimes, the most simple and quick cards can end up saying the most important thing while still looking very elegant.

Julie Overby

Quote of the Week

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour.  -unknown author

Wendela’s altered Clip it Up

“First, I painted my Clip it Up Mini white with a paint spray….it’s really easy to do…. I sprayed mine I think 3 times, and this is what I get….a beautiful white clip it up!!

 

After that I added my romantic fabrics on it. I have a bunch of fabric, and now my favorites are so beautiful organized with my clip it up mini!! The little doll sitting on the front, is homemade…by me…

  

It’s a real treasure in my room!!

X

Wendela

wendela-lam.blogspot.com”

Keep it Simple

Hello All,

It's Nicole and it's my last blog post here at Clip it Up.

I have had so much fun creating with you ladies and sharing all the fun in organization.

My theme for this blog post is

Keep it Simple.

Weather it's  your creations or your craft space, simplicity is timeless.

Ok, so like every other organizer out there... I recently re-did my craft room. Actually it seems to get transformed about once a year.

Here is my new digs.

I know your thinking to  yourself... where is the Clip it Up... did she get rid of it?

NO!

I couldn't live without my Clip it Up... but just like my room... it transforms it's use about once a year...

It's new home in my closet (excuse the bill file box :)

Honestly, what is so great about Clip It Up is it's ability to move around the room and change uses with your whims.

As my time with Clip It Up comes to a close... I wanted to say thank you to all of you amazingly creative ladies who continue to inspire me on a daily basis and push my boundaries of organization.

No blog post would be complete without some creative eye candy...

So, I kept it simple and wanted to encourage you to add some Simple into your lives!

As always, happy crafting and happy organizing!

Nicole Rixon

Fun with Journaling Spots

One of my favorite scrappy things on the market right now are the sheets of punch-out journaling spots. While they're great for journaling, there's so much more you can do with them. Today, I'm going to show you how to use them to create a "mini-frame" for your photos.

You'll need a journaling spot, pencil, tracing paper and scissors or a craft knife -- plus a photo that has a small area you want to crop.

First, put the journaling spot underneath the tracing paper and trace around the inner space of the journaling spot. The one I'm using has a frame designed into it, so I'm simply tracing the inner circle of the design. If yours doesn't have a frame, just go in a small amount from each edge...doesn't have to be perfect.

 

Use scissors or a craft knife to cut the traced shape from the paper.

Now position the traced shape over the part of the photo you want to "frame" and hold it together firmly with your thumb while you cut around the edge.

And you end up with a photo in the same shape as your frame.

 

I like to adhere mine to the frame with foam squares to give it a little extra dimension.

And here you can see how I used this technique on a layout. I ended up punching holes in the frames and stringing them from baker's twine to form a little "banner" across the layout.

Keep in mind that any journaling spot works for this...it doesn't have to be a flower or circle shape. Be creative and try stars, hearts...anything that speaks to you!

Supply list:
Journaling spots/die-cuts: My Little Shoebox
Patterned paper: My Little Shoebox
Cardstock: Recollections
Letter stickers: My Little Shoebox
Ribbon: American Crafts
Pin: Making Memories
Other: foam squares, baker's twine, buttons

Robyn Schaub

Cricut Clip it Up

One of our fabulous Facebook friends found this movie on YouTube. It's a great way to use the Clip it Up Mini and Upper Tier to store Cricut Cartridges. The Mini and the Upper Tier are the same height and can hold items up to 8".



If you don't have desk space then check out one of our wall units : Swinging Wall Arm, Wall Mount, and Under the Shelf Rod. These are other great ways to store your Cricut cartridges.

Quote of the Week

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.  ~Thomas à Kempis,

Design Team Call- Looking for Scrapbookers, Crafters & Quilting

We are looking for 3-5 talented designers to participate as members of our design team.   Anybody who loves to scrapbook, craft and/or quilt we’d love to have you apply.  

To apply please email:

·         Contact Information

·         Headshot or Photo

·         Short Bio

·         Resume including publication (if any)

·         Link to your blog and usernames on pertinent online forums

·         .jpegs of 3 projects (any combination of altered art, layout and/or cards)

Expectations:

·         One picture  of Simply Renee’s product setup and in use (does not have to hold scrapbooking products) and short review

·         5 blog entries about recent projects

o   Including pictures and instructions

Compensation:

·         Free Clip it Up product/s (to be determined)

·         Discount on Clip it Up products

·         Link to your blog on Simply Renee Inc’s blog

Deadlines:

·         An average of 1 blog post a month and a list will be sent out to all members telling them when their posts are due.

Simply Renee Inc  retains the right to approve or disapprove of any blog content and to change it accordingly (writer will be notified of changes) and to use the design team member’s likeness, designs, comments, blogs for publication or as we see fit, giving the design team member full and proper credit. 

Submissions will be accepted now through June 20^th, 2010 at 11:59 MST.Email Clipitup@gmail.com

Shadow Boxes

I recently took some lovely pictures of my god daughters in the park last week. I picked out my favorite pictures and created a shadow box just to put their pictures up for everyone to see. I had this 8" x 8" box which was part of the base of a flower gift I received during my last birthday and it's a perfect fit to what I'm going to do. I'm just glad I kept it because I know I'll have good use for it! :) You can use any size of shadow box as you prefer as long as it can showcase your favorite pictures with the rest of your embellishments.

I added a piece of wooden block at the base of the box so my papers which I'm going to use as a background will pop up from the depth of the box.

Next, I mat a grid paper from Scenic Route over a 8" x 8" black cardstock to use it as a background for the box.

Thereafter, I adhered the papers onto the wooden platform at the base of the shadow box.

I then chose a past season American Craft paper with leave motifs and cut out about 9 leaves. I curl the paper leave motifs with a pen to give them a little texture and I layered them onto the left side of the shadow box like shown below. Use foam dots to make them pop up from the background paper.

The last few steps will be to select a few types of embellishments to complete the shadow box. For my box, I selected a few embellishments such as the Jenni Bowlin Bingo card as a base for the pictures, die cut tags from Colorbox, journal stickers from Jenni Bowlin, pebble cailloux from Prima Marketing Inc. And I also chose some of my favorite Prima flowers which I displayed them on my "Under the Shelf Rod".

And here's my completed shadow box with my favorite pictures of my god daughters! I think I'm going to give this box to them so they can display it in their own room.

I hope you've enjoyed my post today and hope to see you again soon!

Leena

http://findingnana.com

Spring Quilt Market 2010

Here’s Bobbi and Kathy after a hard day of setting-up. We were happy because we thought we were almost done, but just kidding… the finishing touches took a lot longer than we expected. (Thanks to Kathy the finishing touches were well worth the effort).

Who would have ever thought deer netting would be such a nightmare to use.  Kathy had a love –hate relationship with it. It was hard to work with but the final result was amazing.

  Who would have guessed fabric and deer netting would look so great!

The Quilt Show was so much fun and we met so many amazing quilters and sewers. The show was a huge success and we’ll remember the friendships we made for years to come.

Kathy, Carolyn and Bobbi

We had a drawing everyday and the winners were:  

Harvest Moon Ladies won the Main Base

Ruth owner of Ruth’s Stitchery won the Main Base

Bear Claw Quilting Ladies won the Mini

Minneapolis is a gorgeous city and we loved all the buildings and the green trees. It was nice to get a break from the snow (yes it really did snow in Utah while we were gone and the snow even welcomed us home). We did not have much time for sight-seeing but we did have time to eat at some fabulous restaurants.

Here we are at Hell’s Kitchen. We are eating pancakes for dinner and they were to die for.  Kathy bought the cookbook and we’re going to try to make them. Email us if you want the recipe. The Jazz band was great and Carolyn looks like she may have seen a ghost.

Brit’s Pub was another fun restaurant we went to. We recommend the tomato soup and the salmon salad. We loved the outdoor atmosphere and watching the people pass by. We look tired in this picture because we were. This was after our second full day of set up.

Thanks to all of our new friends. For all those quilters and sewers out there make sure you check out the following companies: The Quilted Fish, Riley Blake Designs, Izzy n’ Ivy Designs, Abbey Lane, Serendipity Studio, Lizzie B Cre8ive!,  and Kati Cupcake. These were a few of our favorites, there are so many talented designers out there that we couldn’t name them all.  Sorry if we missed you.

Renee wasn’t able to attend the show due to her son getting ready to graduate from High School, and she had a new grandbaby join

her family  (He is adorable).  We missed her.

Simply Renee