Craft and Run with Amy Tangerine

The most important thing I needed to get done today, beside leaving plenty of food and water for the cat, was birthday cards for the 3 family birthdays I'm celebrating this weekend in San Francisco! Thankfully the brand new Amy Tangerine collection from American Crafts really got the juices flowing. No pun intended =)

"You are Delightful" is for my mom who celebrates her birthday today. I used paper from the Amy Tangerine collection as the base and made the accordion flower from a strip of the fabric paper. And I'm so excited to use Glubers from Cosmo Cricket for the first time. Other accents on the card are fabric stickers from Amy Tangerine and Tiny Type from Cosmo Cricket.

"Wishing You a Slice of the Good Life" is for my bother-in-law who also celebrates his birthday today. I layered two Amy Tangerine pages as the base as well as a block of her self adhesive fabric paper. The fabric sticker sentiment is pop off of the card with foam tape. And since I tend to scrapbook backwards, the jumbo brads, also from American Crafts were an afterthought. So I snipped off the metal prongs with a junk pair of scissors (never, ever use your good scissors for this) and glued them on. Another fabric sticker accents one of the brads. And again, Tiny Type from Cosmo.

And "Smiles All Around" is for my sister who's birthday is next week. I layered a stitched paper from Amy's collection with another page and cut out the accent from the fabric paper. I used a leftover strip from the fabric paper to make a mini accordion flower and a jumbo brad for the center. The fabric sticker sentiment is also layered with the foam tape.

Have fun in the heat wave. Mom reminded me to pack a sweater...San Fran's natural AC is at work!

Scraptacular Scrapbooking

Here's a look back at Summer School! I had so much fun teaching at Marlborough. It was truly a privilege to share the fun of scrapbooking with the young ladies. Here's a few snaps, but I didn't get to take too many pictures....too busy!

This was my classroom...before moving all of the scrapbook stuff in.

Just a few of the student kits stacked up.

Every morning I brought my briefcase to class with me,

then back to the shop to help customers.

Our bulletin board featured a few of the techniques I taught the students...flower making, handmade embellishments, gimmer mist, stitching, cricutting, just to name a few.

The royal couple stayed just a couple blocks away...

it was so fun to see this banner on the corner of the campus.

During the last week of class, I asked the students

to make pages for my scrapbook! They were so cute!

I'm planning to adapt the Scraptacular Scrapbooking course for use at the shop...either for kids as an after school club or for adults. If you're interested, please take this survey to help me structure the class for the shop.

Click here to take survey

Sonja

Kapkumka (thanks) Heather!

Shop Hop would not have been complete without the help of my friend Heather who is living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, working with kids at risk in the red light district. She found my Thai bottle caps and shipped them without delay! I am so thankful for her help in making our Shop Hop so successful!

Heather is working with TawSaeng. I wanted to let her share more about what they are doing in case you are interested in helping support them. With the money I would have spent on bottle caps, I was able to donate to their important work in Thailand.

Also, we've purposefully chosen these photos to post because the identities of the kids are obscured, protecting them.

*****

Taw Saeng is a ministry working with children in the heart of the red light district of Chiang Mai, Thailand. We currently have 33 children between the ages of 3 and 18 in our after school program. 98% of the kids we work with have either been abused or propositioned in this unsavory part of town.

The goal of our program is to emphasize education and family unity while keeping the kids in a safe environment after school so they are not wandering the streets unaccompanied. One way we do this is by helping families pay for their children’s school fees. As the kids get older, their education becomes more expensive, so often parents feel it is easier to pull their kids out of school and have them sell things on the streets.

Our Thai staff do an amazing job of working with the families to keep kids in school, in homes with their families and away from potentially harmful situations. Please consider supporting our ministry by either a one time or recurring donation! We are also working on setting up an educational sponsorship program to ensure every family we work with can afford to send their children to school. If you would like to sponsor a child please let us know

Visit us at www.tawsaeng.org

*****

Heather just shared with me that they are hoping to take the older kids to a sleep away camp in October and they are hoping to receive enough donations to make this possible.

Also, you can follow Heather's Blog www.thethaisthatbind.blogspot.com for more about her day to day work.

Kapkumka (Thanks)!

Sonja

Elephant Dung Journals

Looking for a home for all of your fantastic Shop Hop Make 'n' Takes? Check out these fantastic Elephant Dung Journals, available by special order only.

The smaller journal measures Approximately 6 3/4" x 8", has 18 pages which is room for approximately 36 make 'n' takes. It also features elephant dung photo corners. Reserve yours for $18.00

The larger journal measures approximately 9"x11" and has

30 pages which is room for 60 make 'n' takes. Reserve yours for $25.00.

Sorry, shop hop discounts do not apply to these items. Also, color choices are not available. I am sent whatever is in stock with the US distributor and colors will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

If you are interested in a book, please contact me by September 1st. All orders must be pre-paid.

A portion of all sales of Elephant Dung products supports elephant conservation in Thailand.

Sonja

Thai Roasted Peanuts

The Thai Roasted Peanuts have been a huge hit and lots of you have requested the recipe so I snapped a few photos this morning as I cooked a fresh batch. The great thing about this recipe is you can make it as spicy or sweet as you like. Just adjust the amount of honey or red chilis. I rarely use measurements...sorry. But it's pretty hard to mess this one up. Cooking time is approximately 10 minutes. Click on each photo to enlarge and see more detail. Any questions, just leave a comment or email sonja@sonjasscrapbookspot.com

Same Same But Different

A really popular Thai phrase is "Same Same But Different." It's another way of saying similar when comparing something. You might say "is Core-dinations cardstock the same as Bazzill?" and I'd say...same same...but different. "Starbucks and Coffee Bean" Same same...but different. "Facebook and Twitter" Same same...but different. Got it?

When I saw this collection from Creative Imaginations it screamed Thailand. I expected it to be called Siam or Bangkok or Sawadeeka. But it wasn't. It's called Marrakesh which is in Morocco. So I have concluded that Marrakesh must be same same but different.

Also we'll do a 2nd run of our t-shirts at the end of Shop Hop by pre-paid, pre-order only. Use this sign up sheet to pick your size then call in to pay. Sorry, no shop hop discount on the shirts.

Elephant What???

That's exactly what I said when I first heard about Elephant Dung Paper. I couldn't believe it. They couldn't possibly be serious. But they were and on a whim I ordered if for Shop Hop. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it sure has been a hit!

The paper comes in 16 colors, in sizes 12x12 and 8 1/2 x 11. In addition to it's rich colors and unique lightweight texture, the paper features flecks of straw.

Fun Dung Facts....(from www.elephantdungpaper.com)

• One elephant will produce enough dung for 115 sheets of paper!
• Mr Wanchai started making the paper in his kitchen with a food processor.
• Elephant Dung Paper is 100% bacteria free and doesn't smell.

For more info on the poop to paper process check out their website. Or, you can check out this article.

I have reordered the paper 3 times and have cleaned out the US Distributor. So if you're out and about on Shop Hop, or just think this is way to cool to miss, stop by soon, because this last batch is going to go quickly!

Sonja