Want FREE Flair?

Do you follow Inky Hot Mess on Instagram? Did you seriously just say no? For real??? Well, if you love Cape Cod you need to change that right now. Here's how to find our Instagram: CLICK ME!

Did you start following us on Instagram? Ok so now you can win these sweet new flair! Remember our new product line Inky's Travels? Inky loves to travel and one of her favorite places on earth is Cape Cod. So she decided Cape Cod would be our next release. She has a list about 20 feet long of places, beaches, activities, lighthouses, and famous bridges from Cape Cod so there will be a few phases to Cape Cod.

Phase 1 is being given away on our Instagram! You can only enter to win on our Instagram. We will ship these flair to the USA only. This does include Alaska, Hawaii, and our military bases! A random winner will be chosen on April 6th at 1 pm EST. To enter, you have to like the Cape Cod Flair photo we have up on Instagram and share it. Seriously. That is all you have to do!

Handmade Journaling Cards

Many moons ago, Crop on the Cape happened. I used some premade journaling cards. I also made a ton of cards that weekend. All of the cards I made were immediately used and are in my album of my nephew.

So today I'm going to show you a ton of the cards I made! I hope you enjoy. I tried to keep track of what items were used on each card and which stamps were used, but I wasn't always successful. I do have the info on most of them though! Feel free to ask me any questions about them.

This card was for the beginning of the album for my nephews. I started with the baby shower from nephew #1 who is now seven - yup 7!!! - years old. Sadly, this is the first I've scrapbooked him! In one weekend, I finished the first 11 months of his life. It was over 600 photos. His mom and I would scrapbook together every week or two so I saw him lots and cough cough my camera was busy. :)

The base of the card is just Bazzill cardstock. 

Next, I stamped the pregnant lady in chocolate onto the cardstock. The stamp is from Studio G.

I stamped " Mommy to be" in navy ink next to the pregnant lady. Don't know who the stamp is from. Sorry!

The journaling image was stamped next in navy ink. I think it's a stamp from We R Memory Keepers, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

To finish this card off, I added polka dot washi tape and a brad. I did journal some, but I'm not sharing the personal details. 

Up next is a fun card! I looooooooove calendar stamps. I seriously can't get enough of them. I hunt for them every time I go stamp shopping. 

This card was made from Bazzill cardstock, the calendar stamp (no idea who made it), a diaper pin stickers, and a bit of twine.

This card is super cute! I love little ducks. This card was made from Bazzill cardstock, 3 washi tapes, an adorable ducky sticker, and the april stamp is from Close To My Heart's S1111 Cherish the Day. 

Who doesn't love booties? Even better when they're not attached to a swinging foot! This card is made from Bazzill cardstock, a bootie sticker and then I stamped a blank ticket. Not sure who made this stamp. I used a white chalk marker/pen to write the name and date.

This cards is made from Close To My Heart cardstock and a rub on. Simple, easy, and fast!

Bazzill cardstock is the base. A little rhino sticker from Animal Crackers from Close To My Heart and red and white twine. 

The base is cardstock along with a lion sticker from Animal Crackers from Close To My Heart. A few simple embellishments include a red button and red and white chevron washi. The stamps from from D1378 Notice the Details from Close To My Heart.

Pale green cardstock is the base of this card. The alligator stamp along with the "Cloud I be any Cuter?" and hearts are all one stamp from C1501 New Arrival from Close To My Heart. I finished this card off with 3 enamel dots and yellow/white twine.

I love the phrase "Cutie Patootie." The base of this card is scrapbook paper. The "Cutie Patottie" is a rub on. The bottom of the card has navy polka dot washi along with a huge pearl brad.

This card is 4"x4". I have tons of pocket page protectors and they have pockets in a variety of sizes besides 3"x4" and 4"x6". The base of this card is paper. The stars on the right hand side are rub ons. There's a sticker from Echo Park in the center. The calendar stamp on the left is from D1468 On This Day from Close To My Heart.

This card is also 4"x4". The base is scrapbook paper. The "baby sweet cheeks" is a rub on. I finished off the card with 3 enamel dots and baby blue foot print washi.

I made this card as a 4"x4" as well. It's a very simple card made from paper and stamped from D1468 On This Day from Close To My Heart.

This pair of cards are both 4"x4" and they are placed in pockets next to each other in my album. they are made from scrapbook paper and stickers that spell baby.

Remember how I love calendar stamps? I warned you about that. :) The base of this card is cardstock. There's a sticker and some enamel dots. The stamp is from D1468 On This Day from Close To My Heart. 

I did some freestyle journaling. I know many of us are less than excited about our handwriting. I'm part of that crowd! I always feel like a 4 year old wrote for me. It is what it is! One thing I love about Project Life and pocket scrapbooking is the journaling. I've never journaled much at all in my 12 years of traditional scrapbooking. I couldn't stand doing it, but now I actually journal quite a bit! I'm not so afraid of it. I figure my handwriting is mine so deal with it. :)

I totally can't get enough washi. This card is made from cardstock, a sticker, and 3 washi tapes that I cut. The stamp is from C1338 Just for Boys from Close To My Heart.

This card is made from Close To My Heart cardstock. The sticker is from Echo Park. I really love their cardstock stickers! They have some really great graphics and colors. The little blue glitter hand is a brad. The date is handwritten on lines from D1378 Notice the Details from Close To My Heart.

Well, that's all for today. Be sure to stop back tomorrow and I'll be sharing more handmade journaling cards. 

Are We There YET, Papa Smurf?

Normally, Papa Smurf says no about 150 times before arriving to the Smurfs' destination. Folks, we have arrived at our destination! Do you hear the excitement in my voice? You should. And you should hear it loud and clear.

It is official! My studio is COMPLETE! That's right. No more remodeling. No more painting. No more sanding. No more freaking cleaning. No more unpacking. No more figuring out where to put things. No more trying to figure out if I really want to keep some things. It's all done! I'm soooooooo freaking excited. I've been waiting for this day for months. We moved in six months ago today.

While at Crop on the Cape two weeks ago, I felt totally lost. I couldn't figure out how to lay out my scrapping goodies and where to begin! I used to have this down pat and had a serious system. It was so strange to me to be so lost while scrapbooking. I've never experienced this.

Was I losing my love for paper? Yeah, right! Not exactly. Someone asked me if I had scrapbooked since I moved. Nope. Then she asked me when the last time I scrapbooked was. I had to think about it for a minute. Good grief! It was last June in North Carolina. That's nine months ago. I've never gone that long without playing with my paper collection. No wonder I was so lost.

Good news is that I found my way. I got quite a bit accomplished. Not nearly as much as I expected to given my track record. But I was quite pleased since the first night I didn't get much done and I was so lost. It was rather quite sad.

This sadness motivated me. I have been working on unpacking my studio for about two months now. I thought it would take two weeks. Boy, was I dreaming! I really do have a lot of stuff. No arguments here. My quilting and office are also in my studio so that took me some extra time. Previously, they were together in their own room. Here I get to have everything together!

Over 70 boxes later, they are all empty! Most are already at the landfill being recycled into something useful again. Tomorrow the rest will be recycled. I'm so happy to see them gone. Gone. Gone!

With the Great Unpack 2013 comes some challenges and new things. I have gone through every piece of paper crafting material I own. I roughly went through everything before I moved and had 2 boxes of things I planned on selling. Well, now that everything has been unpacked and sorted out, I can say wowee! There are a ton of pieces I will be parting with. I have dozens of brand new stamps and ink pads I'll be selling. I will be listing with photos and details everything on here first. Then it will move to my new Etsy store after a week or so. This is my project for next week. Wish me luck! Pretty sure I'm going to need it.

I will be starting posts on my new studio Wednesday! Exciting I know! There will be tons and tons and tons of photos and links on where to get the items I used for storage. Yeah, I'm cool that way. And nothing is expensive. Remember, every dollar spent on storage takes away from my precious paper budget!

Think Tank Tuesday will also be back next week. I completely forgot to set it up while I was away at Crop on the Cape. I'm a bad girl. I know. Sorry! Oh and Crop on the Cape 2014 will be March 13-16. Please visit the Colorful Creations website for details. Registration opens in November so the details may not be announced until then, but you can see the crop from 2013 and it will be very similar.

Until next time *

Look through an album you haven't looked at in years! You might be surprised to see how your style has changed and how different the faces are now.

Think Tank Tuesday

Something new I'm starting! Every other Tuesday will be reserved for my Think Tank Tuesday posts. I may post other projects as well, but I will focus on Think Tank Tuesday for the mort part.

What is Think Tank Tuesday? It's all about paper crafting tips! Now that doesn't mean it will actually involve paper. Have something you're interested in? Message me! And I'll be sure to cover that topic.

This week's Think Tank Tuesday is all about photography. Photos truly are the backbone of scrapbooking. Where would we be without our photos? With the digital age, we have hundreds if not thousands of images at our disposal.

What about photography? Take a photography class! There's so much more to photography than point and shoot. You can take your very own photos that look like a pro took them!

I recently took a photography class from Sarah Kristiansen the owner of Sweet Jane Photography who is based out of Providence, Rhode Island. Confession time! I know Sarah from Crop on the Cape. I met her last year while taking one of her classes at the Crop. I was soooo impressed that I started following her business on Facebook and was overjoyed to see her offer workshops.

Shhh. This is Sarah looking glowy as  I
like to say. We were learning about
back lighting and being glowy.

She's actually working on more workshops! I'm so excited about this. I learned so much in just one day. I can't wait to see what else she can teach me and I can learn.

I finally understand aperture! I have taken classes before, but never quite got a full grasp on it. Now, I feel like I get it. I also understand shutterspeed and ISO. Granted, much of this has to do with DSLR cameras, but so many people have them now and don't know how use them to the best of their ability. Sarah really is all about getting you off of the auto built-in functions and into controlling your camera. You're the boss applesauce!

I shied away from having multiple lens once I got my Canon T3I, but after Sarah's class I see what one can do with a different lens. For example, I only have a zoom lens which is great for the landscapes I frequently shoot in my travels. However, it doesn't work well in low lighting unless on a tripod and I can leave the shutter open for days or what feels like days. My photos were all blurry and now I know why and most importantly, I understand why they are blurry! So lens shopping here I come! I also need to get a flash and yes, my camera came with a built-in flash, but it's pretty useless for a lot of shots. I learned a bit about using flash in my class as well.

Ribbons blowing in the wind. Notice
the fan looks like it's barely moving?

So while I may have driven over six - yes, really - hours to take Sarah's workshop, it was so worth it! If you are in the New England area or are looking for a fantastic photography class, I highly recommend Sarah's workshops. She is also teaching a couple of short classes at Crop on the Cape and you can now sign up for the classes without attending the Crop.

It's really amazing what you can shoot once you have the knowledge. Photography isn't all about the equipment. You need to be armed with knowledge as well.

One great place to check for photo checklists and ideas for photos is Pinterest. Yes, Pinterest. I find many monthly photo checklists and challenges. Arm yourself with your camera and get out there!

Until next time *

A photo a day will keep the doctor away....okay maybe not, but you'll get to see the world around you!

Road Trip Saga

welcome packet to crop on the cape 2012

Ever plan a road trip? A serious road trip? One over a thousand miles away from home that last for 13 days and you were attending to weekend crops? Crops that lasted seven days? Yeah, that was me last month. It was wicked awesome! Totally exhausting, but so worth it! I got to see friends and family I haven't seen in over a year and a half. Some friends I wasn't sure I'd ever see again since {Colorful Creations} closed, but all of the ladies came to Crop on the Cape.

the home of crop on the cape

Here's the kicker, after Crop on the Cape I was driving to North Carolina. I went to Scrapbook Traditions for a three day weekend crop. Talk about driving! I was really sick of driving by the time I got to Winston-Salem and I still had a four hour drive home, but I had a few days to prep myself for that one. Good thing because I sure needed it.

a view of the croppers

With so many cropping days and not returning home between crops, I worked on a major plan for my crop packing. I brought much more than I usually would even dream. I had two rolling totes with me which is huge since I bring my small one to weekend crops.


My plan was to finally finish my birthday trip to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC. That trip happened back in 2011. Nothing like being speedy and up to date with my layouts. :D The other pile of photos was to finish scrapbooking my friend's son's birthday party from last fall. I had started his birthday, but barely put a dent in the pile. Interesting mix of paper I tell you!

Thursday evening we kick off Crop on the Cape! It was such a wonderful time. I had so much fun seeing friends and visiting. Yes, we chat on Facebook, it's just not the same neither are emails. Face to face conversation and hugs truly are the best!

melissa brought a typewriter...yup she uses
it for all her texting :)

we're such a fun bunch
even kermit joined us

So I am scrapping away and finish my Riverbanks Zoo photos. Ummmm....hello? How did that happen? I had planned on working on them until at least Saturday afternoon! Friday I had two classes. One was a card making class with the amazing Jenn Shurkus and my second class was about photography with the fabulous Sarah Kristiansen. Seriously, the best ever photography class! I learned from her in an hour and a half than I have in the last three years! I really want to go to Rhode Island and do her workshops!

the fun cards we made in jenn shurkus' class

Because of my classes I kind of figured Friday would be a sort of lazy day. I knew I would be leaving the resort to eat lunch and dinner and then we had an ice cream social that evening. I didn't plan on accomplishing much. But I have to tell you I accomplished too much! How can that be? Oh just wait and see. Great, now I sound like Dr. Seuss.

Friday I start going through the birthday photos. I printed 262 and had scrapped maybe 20 or 30 of them.  I started to really look at them and see what I really wanted to remember from the birthday party and weed out the photos that were duplicates or of people not looking so attractive. You know the photos with the mouth full of frosting while biting down on a cupcake and someone snaps your photo. That deer in headlights with the mouth open look. Yeah, we didn't need to scrap those. Pretty sure we all want to forget about those. I also try not to scrapbook people's rear ends. Faces truly are better looking.

more ladies getting their craft on

I must have thrown away over 60 photos. That was a lot! Kind of was beginning to wish I went through the photos before I wasted the time and money printing them. Uploading can be such a nightmare. Then I started cropping the photos and was like hmmmmmm this is what's supposed to last me the rest of this weekend and all next weekend? I don't know about this. Well, get scrapbooking and see.

Saturday afternoon panic sets in. OMG! I finished scrapbooking all of the photos I brought with me! Thankfully, I brought my MacBook and I have like a trillion photos on it that haven't been scrapped. Ok a trillion might be a slight exaggeration. A teeny, tiny one. I decided to see what photos I have that need to get out the computer and onto paper.

Sadly, it dawned on me. I've never scrapbooked my first nephew's first birthday! The little man - I can't even call him a little boy anymore - will be five - YES 5 - years old next week! What a terrible aunt I am!

this is the table where i scrapped
and i've actually been to oak bluffs

I start searching to see where I can get photos printed and picked up in the morning. Remember, I'm on Cape Cod and not in Winston-Salem. Cape Cod is limited on some things. Thankfully, there's no super centers or other scary things like that on the Cape. It would ruin the beauty of the Cape. So I check out the usual places - Wal-Greens, Wal-Mart, Target, nope not nearby. CVS....hey I've never gotten photos printed there, but they are nearby as in less than a half mile away. Ding ding ding ding we have a winner.

Thankfully, the CVS website didn't take days to upload. I didn't have to fight with it and call it names. Yes, I have had to call some photo printing service websites some names when the uploading just isn't working. If you've printed photos ever, you've probably been there. If you haven't, oh one day you will.

Not only did the upload go smoothly, I found a discount code online! I got 25 photos for free and then they were only 10 cents each. Sweeet! So this crisis wasn't so horrible after all.

yes the crop on the cape is practically on the ocean

One of the beauties of Crop on the Cape is that you can scrapbook 24 hours a day. The ballroom is open to us the entire time. Very few crops can say that. Because of this I decided to stay up late and make a bunch of layouts so I would be all ready to stick my freshly printed photos once I picked them up and cropped them. I did say I planned on staying up late which I was thinking would be like 2 am. Oh no 6 am rolls around and I decide I'm finally tired and I probably should get some sleep. I did need to shower, pack, and check out of our room by 11 am on Sunday. Yup, I just made it by like 15 minutes.

who wouldn't want to scrapbook with this
view around the corner?

Then I needed to go to CVS to pick up my prints hot off the presses! The said they would be ready at 11 am. Well, guess what. My photos were printed by 9:38! I wish I had known they were done early. Why? I don't know. I had this crazy idea in my head that I could have gotten them earlier and I could have gotten less sleep as if four hours of sleep really was enough. Oh did I mention that my husband gave me a cold a couple of days before I left South Carolina? A lovely parting gift I tell you!

                 Cold + No Sleep + Crop on the Cape = Holy Cow! Are You Crazy? 

save the date

On Sunday, I cropped a bunch of photos and popped them onto the layouts I made the night before. I made 12 and figured that would get me through the day. I finished them all by 2:30. In about three hours, I cropped and adhered the photos to all 12 pages. YIKES! Good thing Crop on the Cape ends at 3 pm so I had a good excuse to start picking up and packing up and getting those last few photos in! Have to document everything don't you know? And I needed to work on the mad skillz I learned from Sarah.

This was my crazy Crop on the Cape experience. Would I go again? Heck, yeah! I'm already planning on attending Crop on the Cape 2013. It is St. Patrick's Day weekend. If you want to check out a pub for St Paddy's Day, that is an option or if you want to scrapbook with me until 6 am that's available, too!  

the goodies i won!

Oh and I won a door prize! Jayne gave away tons and tons of prizes. I was super excited to win mine. It's mostly Ranger embossing powders and they are ones I don't have. I have a little addiction to Ranger and all things Tim Holtz. The bag also included a Pet Eye Pen from American Crafts, a cute little house mini book, and a few other trinkets I gave to my sister-in-law. Lots of good great things happen at the Cape!

Until next time *

Good times. Good friends. 19 1/2 hours to get there. Priceless!

PS No, I didn't scrap all of the photos I printed at CVS. More to come on that saga soon! Remember, I went to North Carolina the next weekend to scrapbook!

Cat's Out of the Bag

I can now let the cat out of the bag and tell you what's up! I had to take a mini hiatus from paper crafting. Shocking and hard to believe, I know. But it's true.

You see, I was gearing up to go on a road trip and go home for a quick visit after I went to Crop on the Cape (which was wicked awesome!). I had to bring Christmas presents with me.....ummmm two years worth. Yeah, I am not a huge fan of this shipping gifts to family. I like to see them open them!

There were three lap quilts on my list of things to finish before I went to New York. Thankfully I did finish them all. I finished the last one the morning I left.

I finally got to take the long arm machine quilting class at my local quilt shop. I machine quilted one of the quilts on my sewing machine and it's not fun. I quilted the other two at the end of my class and wow was it speedy! It would have taken me hours on my sewing machine and it took about 30 minutes to set up and quilt each lap quilt. Zoom zoom baby!

First up is my sister-in-law's quilt. She likes pink just a tad so I went with chocolate and pink fabrics for her quilt. All three quilts are the same pattern except I made hers larger by adding an additional row. Sure made some good times for me with math. Math and I don't get along. Oh remember, you can click on the photos and the will open in another screen much larger.

Next up is the quilt I made for my oldest nephew. He likes baseball just a little bit. His face was priceless when he unwrapped the quilt. The back of the quilt is all stars. He loves stars. Every night he looks for stars with his mom. I didn't know that and was totally taken aback by the excitement. I knew he'd be excited about baseball, but he was much more excited about the stars.

The photos we took really don't capture the excitement in his eyes. Seeing that was priceless and well worth the 15 hour 17 minute drive to his house. His reaction made the trip totally worth it. I didn't even need to go to Cape Cod after that. My trip was made.

The last quilt is for my youngest nephew who's still a toddler. The last time I saw this little guy he was only six weeks old! My goodness he is getting big. He's walking and talking now. Oh and he blows kisses. That was just adorable when I left my sister-in-law's house to go to North Carolina for my next crop.

I've called this nephew "My Little Linebacker" since he was born. He was a very big baby especially since my sister-in-law is a very tiny girl. The Linebacker was also excited about his quilt and kept pointing to the large squares and talking. I have no idea what he was saying, but he was one happy little dude!

Sorry there won't be any photos of the boys and their mom posted with their quilts. I don't post photos of children online. There are just too many crazy people out there! If you are family or a close friend, email me and I will show you the photos. Some people don't like this rule of mine, but you never know who's watching or reading and I would like to keep the kids safe. Their safety is much more important to me than complaining grown-ups.

Back to the quilts. I made two of them in two weeks. One quilt I need to complete. They all were in different stages of completedness. Completedness? Did I just make up a new word? Hmmm....it's been one of those days. The toddler quilt was started back when he was a baby. The baseball quilt took me forever to find all of the fabric. I searched for well over a year. Who knew I would have such a hard time with something as common and simple as baseball?

There will be much more to come! I have lots to tell about my very long trip. It was a wonderful trip and I was sad to go home. Leaving New York was very difficult, but I didn't cry leaving my sister-in-law's house which I am very happy to report. I won't tell you how much I cried through New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia though. It was probably a bit easier leaving her house with my nephew in school and the other one blowing me kisses. I've now lived in South Carolina for 2 years minus a week and the homesickness definitely has not gotten better. It's making me rethink this whole living in South Carolina thing!

Until next time *

Miss someone? Tell them! You never know how happy they will be to here it. They miss you, too.

PS If there are some typos, please forgive me. My one eye is swollen and feels like something bit me. Things are a tad fuzzy visually today. I tried to catch everything, but if I missed something, please go easy on me. I have ice on my eye as I type this one handed and one eyed. No easy feat I tell you!