Swaps, Crops and Shops's Blog (17)

One of our boards on our Pinterest page is called Scrap Worthy and today I found something I gonna have to scraplift at my upcoming weekend retreat. Isn't that just too cute? I have a stack of those little zip strips that I've been saving (can you say hoarding?) and now I have the perfect use for them. And since I've shared this with all of you, I'll be held accountable, right? Check back in a couple of weeks (it…

It's time to eat! Literally, and looking at all of our members "pinned" foods was not helping me write this little post on good ideas for retreat food! I kept getting distracted by all the yummy looking stuff and it made it very hard to find just the right "food" to feature today. Hold the phone, there it is . . . …

And, we agree wholeheartedly!  How cute is our Pinspiration of the day?  

Jody Spiegelhoff of Spiegelmom pinned this one and we are in love.  It'd be so cute on a fun summer page--maybe to display pics of the day you tried out the new yogurt place in the neighborhood.  How about using it for a birthday party?  The possibilities are endless--and sweet!

Then she went so far as to doll up another…

As I write this, I’m preparing  for a mission trip. As you are reading it, I’ll be knee-deep in mud (so I’m told) helping to drill and then build out a water well for  a village of people that live somewhere deep in the southwest region of Guatemala. Living Water International is the organization that puts these trips together and I’ll be traveling with a group of fellow church members whom I consider family.

I can, right now, only image how this trip will play out in the end but it…

This is my second winter in Alaska…and I’m not talking about the sunny, green terrain you see on HGTV shows about Alaska home buying.  This is the Interior…and right now, the sun rises after 10am and sets between 2 and 3 pm.  Have you ever watched a sunset while picking up your kids from school?  Me neither.  Until now.

The up side, however, is that we put our lights up early and…

Black Friday—Ain’t Havin’ It!

 Is it un-American if I boycott Black Friday?  I can appreciate a good deal (love me some coupons at the craft stores) but I cannot handle crowds.  Listen, if I were in the desert dying of thirst and there was a water stand ahead with a crowd of parched peeps, I might decline.  I went out once on B*F with my aunt and cousins a few years ago. One cousin had eye black under each eye and some sort of sports jersey paired…

Photos are one of the two main reasons we scrapbook right? (Just in case you’re wondering, the story that goes along with the photo should be the other reason.) So how do you feel about altering those photos before you scrap them? Do you even take the time? Do you wrestle with the scruples of doing such a thing like I do?

Well…. yes…I find myself on the proverbial fence about making alterations to photos (especially those of myself) that for all accounts will last much, much, much,…

Most of us are all about scrapping whatever photos we take. And not just the big events like birthday parties, holidays, graduations or even that most important baby’s first year. We also scrap those sweet sleeping children, kids playing in the park, Spring’s first blooms, and those oh-soooo-beautiful sunsets. But I wonder how often we stop to think about what those photos really depict?

We recently gained a new SCS family member, Elizabeth Mindemann (yeah, and thanks…

I’ve found myself lately, as the mother of two teens, unable to snap a decent photo of my children.  They want to pull faces, grimace and generally hide from the flash of their proud momma’s camera.  I have tried pleading to teen girl vanity letting them know that when they’re older, they’ll look back at their cute little mugs thinking, “Huh!  I was young and adorable!” No one is listening to this wise old woman.

So, how do I get around this?  I could do like the school…

Cricut kind of Christmas tip for the day: Use the extra features on your Expression or Cricut Create and throw those other cutting systems out (ok don't throw them out; donate them to someone else). The Center Point buttons allows you to cut your photos (yes I said pictures!!) into all the circles, oval, hexagon or any other shape you could have on your carts. Just center the cutting blade over the main focal area, figure out just how big you can go to get the area you want included, set the…

At Swaps, Crops and Shops, we are ushering in the Christmas season with...

A CRICUT KIND OF CHRISTMAS! We got a little bit behind on here but we'll post Tips and tricks bi-weekly for you Cricut users throughout the month of December. We'll post here and on our site at www.swapscropsandshops.com.

Here's the first: Cricut mat won't stick? Don't throw it out! Try using alcohol free baby wipes to clean it up. You'll be sticking again in no…

George Bernard Shaw said, “The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.” Well, my spirit thought it critical today to create some inspired work in the form of food AND paper. Today, I’m having a rare day of being both good in the kitchen and the scrap room.  Makes a girl’s heart smile, ya know?  I have a friend who is expecting in September and here in the “wilds of…

Fashionistas follow trends in clothing and accessories.  Business people track trends in the economy and their respective markets.  So, does our favorite hobby “trend”?  It certainly does!  Check your favorite craft store or scrapbooking magazine.  There are hot styles of paper and brand new embellishments.  There are new techniques and even favorite adhesives!  In fact, there are sometimes so many new scrapbooking trends, it’s hard to keep track!  For this reason, Misty and I have decided…

....that's the question, isn't it?

It started as a dream (which is why we landed here on this website...duh!) albeit a fuzzy, grainy picture of a dream.  We had no idea what we were doing...only that we really, passionately WANTED to do it.  So, we did and we love it!

Being addicted scrapbookers and paper…