As we await the grand opening of the retail store on Broadway, we have opened the online site and store for preview. Whoo-hoo! It has our new logo and a simplified version of the site to come…

Check it out here at: http://www.portraitbug.com

It has taken a lot of work and is only a small part of what will be available on our site as we open our doors. In the future you will be able to book your photo appointment online and schedule a free crop concierge appointment. You will even be able to see and order your photos from a session online. Design team galleries, kits, classes are also coming soon. Stay tuned for regular updates and our store grows and grows.

For now, most of our in-store inventory is available online. Yippee. We have some really unique products that are non-traditionally scrapbooking. Some of our favorite finds (and to see what our dt picks see their section of the store) include…..

Lomo cameras:

The supersampler has 4 lenses and takes awesome shots. Just click it once and get 4 images on the same photo. It comes with a kit including everything you need to get started. Lomo also makes a fisheye camera that is ridiculously cool!

Four lens super sampler camera from lomo aka lomography

Super sampler camera image - 4 shots in one

Or find stencils from stencil1 and screens from Tattered Angels to ink up. The Stencil1 stencils are 4×6 and range from pretty to edgy. You can get your holiday stencils and your rockin turntables. Tattered Angels has amazingly easy to clean screens and we adore them!

Stencil1 Mini Sets

Tattered Angels Glimmer Screens

And if inking screens isn’t your style, we have traditional and oh-so-cute chipboard from Riff Raff Designs in Canada. The chipboard is some of the best quality we found. 

Riff Raff Designs something to say chipboard bubbles

Riff Raff Designs Chipboard Curly Tree

We of course have lots of staples. Bazzill and Staz-On are coming. You can search by manufacturer using the pulldown on the left navigation. We will also be adding paypal and regular credit cards with our full fledged site launch in the next couple weeks.

We hope everyone enjoys the site and loves the products. In a few weeks we will be announcing the grand opening of the store where you will be able to try everything out and see the products in action. I will also be posting updated pictures of our construction. It’s been busy and exciting over at PortraitBug and we are trying to get our doors open soon. soon. soon.

our favorite staple!

love the modern albums. we all use them so of course we are stocking them!

(if you are looking for certain colors or styles let us know.)

We’ll also be stocking…

and coming soon too!! fabric alphas…

we also have…

and so much more!

The countdown is on!  The portraitbug.com store is going live very very soon.  The store will give local scrappers a peek at some of the things we’ll be carrying in our store.  During this launch we’ll have several exciting giveaways to share with our local and online community!

More info is coming soon!  We can’t wait to see you at portraitbug.com!

I cannot live without paint.

Okay, that was a little dramatic. But, it’s a huge part of the way I scrapbook. You can use paint to…

Create a Background

I used Making Memories’ acrylic paint for this one. I painted the center with red, then added the orange swirls on top. Finally, I used black paint to sketch in the border and the journaling lines. I diluted the paint (so it would go on thin) by painting with a water brush (a brush that has a reservoir of water in it).

Create a Title

Once again, I used Making Memories’ acrylic paint to create this title. I used a dry brush technique this time (meaning no water). I dipped a regular paint brush into both red and black paint (at the same time) and started to write my title. Depending on how I held the brush, the dominant color changed!

Use It As Adhesive

I reverse painted (i.e. painted on the back of) the snowflakes, which were printed on transparencies, with gesso (a canvas primer). Then, I placed them on the layout when the gesso was wet. Once the gesso dried, the snowflakes were permanently adhered!

To Obscure Patterned Paper

I loved this patterned paper, but it was so dense that I felt my photos and journaling would get lost. You can see that my solution was to use gesso to paint over the patterned paper. Because gesso is a primer, it does a great job of covering up patterned paper in a single coat.

Change the Color

I didn’t like the colors of the patterned paper I had to use on this layout. So, I used a light wash of blue watercolor paint to change the red and white background to blue and red. I also used paint on the scalloped section – black watercolor along the edge and red on the interior. Watercolor paint is thin, so it works really well to change the color of patterned paper since you can still see the pattern through it.

I hope that I’ve given you some fun ideas for using paint on your pages! Now get out your brushes and get going!

hey there PB readers!

So… in follow-up to Kristi’s awesome post I thought I’d post our Basic Grey spotlight, who happens to make one of the must-have tools when you are trying to cover chipboard shapes.

The Basic Grey Precision File Set is one of my most used tools..

There are two large files (emery boards) and four metal files (round, half round, knife, and square). It’s perfect to file unique shapes and get all those nooks and crannies. This is a staple in my and many many other scrappers’ crop bags. I’m sure Basic Grey’s newest tool, the rub-on roller, will be as well!

The Basic Grey tools will be available at our sit n’ scrap toolbar as will their other tools if you want to try them out!

What I really love about Basic Grey is their unique papers. Every CHA I look forward to seeing the BG release and this year I was so excited to see their newest! Here are the collections released this year, I know several of these papers are going to be added to my staple stash.

Offbeat and Urban Prairie are my favorites… although i really love the Ambrosia color palette too! So which of the new lines is your favorite?

this is a card i made with the maya road chipboard keychain.

at a recent crop, kim was saying she thought it would be really difficult to trace the little icons onto your patterned paper and then cut them out to adhere to the chipboard…to which meredith responded “you don’t have to cut them all perfect, just sand the edges!” and i said that i usually just leave them as is or paint them. it ended up getting the wheels turning in my mind. which technique was better? quickest? easiest?

well.

i am a pretty impulsive scrapbooker. i like to bust stuff out with the quickness. i don’t hem and haw over placement, i just stick it down and make it work. so when i sat down to make these little guys i decided i was going to put both of the techniques to the test. take the time to try something new. the result? they are BOTH time consuming. they both take lots of practice. but they are both totally worth it. i mean, who doesn’t love a lady shape covered in ninguins??

to cover your chipboard shapes with patterned paper, i find it’s easiest to trace the image and cut it out with fine tip scissors (tonic and cutterbee are both great options). place the paper pattern side down, then place your chipboard piece face down as well and trace the outline. when you begin to cut, you want to make sure you stay inside of the lines, or else the paper will be larger than the chip piece. to work the curved edges, make sure you are turning your paper and not your scissors. you could also trace the image with an exacto knife, i just didn’t have one with me so i braved the scissor technique (and honestly i think that is easier, but it could just be me). next i used 3m tacky glue to adhere the paper to the chipboard, making sure to work the glue around all the edges. next you can sand the edges to give it that white, rugged look. this will also cover any mistakes you made while cutting. i used a black nail file (the kind you would use for acrylic nails) as well as a metal file to get inside the smaller spaces. when sanding, it’s all about the angle, filing in one direction (just like your nails) and letting the chipboard and file do the work for you, as opposed to sawing at the paper and forcing it to separate the chipboard layers and bending the legs of your little people (both of which happened to me). i also found the coarser the file the better.

i think someday i will be able to work the chipboard flawlessly, but for now i’m content with a bit of an unkempt, raw flavor. i think it gives the piece a bit more personality, and a bit more of me. which is what crafting is all about

Kristina

at a recent mixer I attended for a new site/magazine called ‘the Bump’ which is part of theknot.com family, there was much talk about baby showers and what women spend on presents for baby showers. there was even talk that baby showers were so popular some women were attending one every couple weeks. honestly, I thought, “wow… thats watching a lot of women open the same presents week after week”. and since I have never done things the traditional way… I also thought, “how dull.”

now, I am in no way suggesting you shouldn’t celebrate your baby and cough your friends up for the ridiculous amount of gear required when you have a little one. by all means, milk the moms, so to speak. but let me suggest there is a more interesting party out there to be had. and in many ways one more meaningful and lasting. the kind of party where you share the most special moment in your life with the people you love most. an event that allows everyone to actually share the experience, leaving you with something special to remember it by. 

at portraitbug we have two ways of creating and sharing life moments: photos + crafting. its simple, bring the mom-to-be for portraits with her bump or the new mom and her little baby. Help her create a book filled her pictures, pictures of the people that love her, and journal notes of well wishes and happy thoughts. really, while a that extra copy of Goodnight Moon might be really helpful down the line, would you rather get that at your shower or a small book filled with pages of artwork created by your friends and family. where each page has personal feeling and sentiment meant just for you and your baby (+ daddy too). 

the portraitbug shower consists of:

1. half hour photo shoot with mom-to-be and her belly. we also allow mom-to-be to take some photos with her friends and family if time permits. the photos are available and printed immediately to use in your crafting party. 

2. one hour ‘lite-instructional’ crafting session to use those photos or photos brought in from home to create an amazing book for the mom-to-be. food and drink are provided so you can eat, drink, or craft. this is not a class type environment, a teacher will be on hand to help you learn techniques or prompt you with journal concepts. but you can get up, chit chat with everyone, look over everyone else’s shoulder, laugh, and most definitely cry a little (and it won’t be over the bedding aunt marg bought with the bunnies on it).

3. when the mom-to-be leaves she will have an amazing handmade book of thoughts + photos. 

If you are superstitious like I was and opted for a ‘baby naming’ instead of a shower, the party can be equally as unique. instead of photos of mom and the belly, we will take baby’s first portraits. with mom, with friends, with grandparents. or just baby. now, the book will be a first baby book, filled with artwork and created by everyone who loves him or her. 

once we open we hope to have many more parties like these. providing a space where you create vs. just give. and if you want to give, you can give something which captures those important life moments like growing up.  

until the next post… kim

* did I mention we clean up?

Hi there PB Readers.

I’m back with more product to share. I haven’t even scratched the surface of all the fun products we ordered at CHA and are still ordering for PortraitBug.

Today I want to share some of the great color mediums and other goodies we ordered from Ranger Ink!

First up is one of my favorite products to use Tim Holtz Ditress Crackle Paint. At CHA Summer ’08 they released three new metallic colors that dry into a beautiful shiny texture that looks like antique cracked glass. So cool!

In addition to the whole color line of the Crackle Paints we ordered.. Paint Daubers, Distress Inks, Child Safe 4 Stamps Ink Pads, and tons of Stickles!

from Idea-ology…

new fragments:

new grungeboard:

We will also have some of the new masks and embellishments. Check back in for more product updates.

Hi there…

So we finally have an answer for everyone who wanted to know what the store hours would be for PortraitBug.  Please note that once we open these may change slightly.

Sunday: 11:00am – 6:00pm

Monday thru Saturday: 10:00am – 8:00pm

We may have extended store hours on crop/class nights and those will be specified on our monthly calendar on PortraitBug.com once launched.

Thank you for your patience on this one!

Hi there PB Readers!

We are getting super close to the PortraitBug.com website launch and the store grand opening, and we are all so excited! I’m sorry for the brief hiatus in product posts… but let’s get back to it!

One of the services PortraitBug is excited to offer our customers is the Sit n’ Scrap Toolbar. Options will be available to come into the store to scrap on an hourly or annual membership basis and have full use of our toolbar. The toolbar will be stocked with the latest and greatest (and the tried and true) tools that every scrapper should have the opportunity to try out. We will also have a staff of trained scrappers to help you learn the tools should you want to try out something brand new!

Our toolbar will also be a helpful way for customers to test out tools before deciding to buy them. All of our tools will be available for purchase in store or by order.

So want a brief preview of some of the cool tools we’ll be stocking?

From Zutter we have the *new* Bind-It-All 2, as well as a few other great products…

We will also be stocking the Zutter Journal & Book Making Kit which has just about everything a start up journal/mini book maker could want in a cute organizer.

We will also be stocking several die cutting systems and we are still debating on a few of them (comments on your favorites would be very helpful!!) but here are the two we have already ordered and can’t wait to play with!

from Making Memories…

and from QuickKutz…

In addition to these products we will have tools from:

• Fiskars
• Tonic Studios
• Martha Stewart Crafts
• Basic Grey
• We R Memory Keepers
• and more…

So we hope everyone will come and take advantage of our Sit n’ Scrap toolbar! If anyone has any suggestions on tools they’d love to see us stock don’t be shy! Leave us a comment or send us a quick email and we’ll see what we can do!

*Information on Sit n’s Scrap will be available on our website launch, date TBA.