Thai Temple

Refresh is launched for the season! For Day One's assignment I decided to tackle a page from my unfinished box. There aren't too many pages in there. More than 10 less than 20 or so. 

Awhile ago, I printed out these photos from a temple I visited in Thailand. I had originally intended to scrapbook them with a kit but then decided, adding too much product would overwhelm these already detailed photos. So I put them in the box with two sheets of Kraft cardstock, to complete another day.

Today was the day! Here's the finished page:

Day One's assignment had a specific time limit. Well, I took more than the time allotted. Ok, like a lot more time than was allotted! But I'm ok with that. I don't want to rush this process. For me the fun part is hemming and hawing over the details until I get it just right. And today I had time to do that, so why not, right?

I used Elle's Studio Travelogue Journaling Tags, Labels and Stamp Set + the Jonah Alphabet Stamp. Love that guy! I used black and two shades of gray ink for the stamping, which ended up being the only embellishing for the left side of the page.

It was fun to just create for the sake of creating! I love that every Refresh (and really just about every event Jennifer hosts) gets kicked off with a bit of creative time. It's why we're all participating, right?

cheers & besos,

My Tribe

I hope everyone had a great holiday last week! Ours was very low key. But I'm still very happy to be home in Houston and off for the entire week! I have big plans to get some organizing done, do a bit of scrapbooking, some planning. It's gonna be good y'all.

I'll kick off by sharing a page from my Tell your Story Scrapbook Circle gallery. It's for the Lifting You challenge and you can read more about it over on the SBC blog.

I've had this "story" on my list for awhile now. There's was nothing in particular that sparked this memory for me, when I sat down to play with the kit. Really I think I just wanted to spend some time with these sweet faces for a bit of time. I miss everyone so much!

I lived with these people. I studied with them. I traveled with them. We spent so much time together in the year and half when we all lived in the same two cities. Sincerely, these were some of the best days of my life. And I just wanted to spend some time reliving those days.

Which really is the beauty of scrapbooking. It's not just taking the time to remember. It's almost like you're honoring the memory by documenting it. I love this hobby. It just makes me happy =)

cheers & besos,

2009

Hey y'all! I'm back home!! So excited to be here after a whirlwind week of travel. I'm also so excited to share this page with you. It's one of my favorites that I've made in awhile.

I have a lot to say about this page and not much time to say it in. So here goes:

I made this page as part of the Super Simple Scrapbook Challenges class over at Big Picture Classes. I'm loving this class! But I haven't had much time to actually play along. This is for Challenge #1--build a block and fill it in.

I went to my box of new supplies and pulled out patterned papers in red, blue, yellow and gray (from a Studio Calico kit) and cut them into strips to anchor alongside each photo.

Most of the embellishments are stamps from the October Ali Edward's Story Stamp. That month was all about telling real stories, maybe the not so shiny ones. I didn't really intend to tell this particular story until I pulled out the stamp set. I thought I'd write about Matt's and my 6 year relationship and all of the highs and lows of it. Instead, I chose to tell the story of 2009. The hardest year of my life and when these photos were taken.

Journaling Reads: 
2009 was the dark year. It was the unhappiest year of my life. I was depressed. I was lonely. I was missing my amazing life and my fantastic friends. I was missing my boyfriend. I was angry with my parents and unhappy about being back in San Antonio.

I had just finished living my dream. I had been living abroad, having crazy new adventures every week and visiting exotic places every month. I had a ready group of playmates that were equally filled with wanderlust.

But in just a few short weeks I went from having the life I always wanted, to coming back to a place that had nothing for me. No jobs, no friends, no adventures.

And it took a very long time for me to dig myself out of that. I was anxious and unhappy. There were times when I didn’t want to leave the house for days.

I was in the craziest headspace when I decided to visit Matt in Thailand. I went for a week and felt miserable the whole time. We barely left the apartment because I was so agoraphobic about being out in the city. Doesn’t look like it does it? While pictures may be worth a thousand words, it doesn’t mean they tell the whole story.

Things turned around in 2010. I slowly emerged from my haze and made my way back into the land of the living. I found a job (two at once even!) and moved to Houston. I got to live in the same city as Matt for the first time in over a year and a half.

Although I wouldn’t ever want to live through it again, I am thankful for 2009. It was the year that Urijah was born, when I became an aunt. And if I had been working and hadn’t been home I never would have got to spend the time that I did with Uncle Joe. We lost him that September.

2009, you were undoubtedly my worst year of life. But I do thank you for what you did give to me: a beautiful nephew and much needed time with my family.

I typed it all out and tucked it into a mini paper bag that I added behind my central block. You can see it just peaking out on the left side there.

I think what I love so much about this page is the awesome colors and the real story that I shared. One that I really never would have it I hadn't picked these photos for the Super Simple Scrapbook Challenges class or if I hadn't pulled out the Ali Edward's Story Stamp.

See! This is why products and classes are awesome. They help you get to points you might not have otherwise. 

This page right here, it's all about why I scrapbook.

cheers & besos,

PRT 218: Paper Chains

Erhmagawd! Coming off of a small PRT high you guys :) I just finished recording this week's Paperclipping Roundtable! I was so honored and excited to be asked. Here's the link to the recording if you want to go listen (please do!): http://www.paperclipping.com/prt218-paper-chains/

If you're visiting because you've heard the episode, hi! Welcome to my little alley off the internet. 

Here's my "official" scrapbook bio:

My name is Jamie Leija (said correctly by Noell as "Lay-ha"). I’m a native Texan who loves to travel and scrapbook. I’ve lived in London, Thailand and Spain and have been blessed to travel to so many more places. Traveling and scrapbooking go hand in hand for me. I love that one hobby supports the other and that scrapbooking lets me relive and share all of those fabulous memories. I've been scrapbooking (as we know it) for the past 17 years. My first job in high school was for a local scrapbook store. I loved working there! And it helped me learn to love sharing this hobby with others. In college, I worked at Hobby Lobby (can you see the theme here :) and then another local scrapbook store. I've been published in Northridge Publishing's Scrapbook Trends, CARDS and Create publications. When I’m not scrapbooking or on a plane, I’m spending time with my kitten (who I hope you couldn't hear on the recording!!), boyfriend or adorable nephew.

The topic of the episode was travel scrapbooking, something so clearly right up my alley :) But more specifically, design around travel pages. We talked about a few of my pages so I'm sharing them again here. Also, if you click on the photo it will link you back to the original blog post for the page.

It was so surreal to go from listening to the Podcasts to actually participating in one. I had this weird moment in the beginning listening to Izzy go over some housekeeping stuff. I literally had to remind myself, Izzy is talking to you this time! =) 

I'll leave it at that for now. I hope you'll go and listen to the episode for more on these pages! Just want to send a huge shout out to Noell & Izzy for the awesome things they do for our industry. And for the huge honor and privilege of being part of the legacy :) And also to my new friend Wendy Morris who was a newb with me on today's episode.

cheers & besos,

Timeline Video

Remember yesterday how I mentioned I was happy? Well this video will show you the reason why. It's all about overcoming obstacles when you scrapbook ;) Even small lovable furry ones!!

Introducing Mac (aka Macclesfield)!! 

I'm so smitten but sooo tired. She's not letting me get much sleep these days. But she makes me happy and that's so ok.

Do your pets love to get involved in you scrapbooking? 

cheers & besos,

China Timeline

Hey yall! Halfway through the week and it feels like it has been a long one. My social life has been super busy lately so also not getting a whole lot of rest. But I'm happy. So happy =) 

I'll share more about that later, but this morning I wanted to blog my first Hello Story layout. 

You only have until tonight to register for this class, so get on it! I'm like 99.9999% sure you won't be disappointed. Because Ali isn't a legend for nothing. She's the best! So inspiring, simply amazing.

Here's my first page, a double page layout that's pretty much a direct copy of one of Ali's class layouts. If there's anyone I have no qualms about directly copying, its Ali. Her clean and simple style is amazing and she adds just the right touches of design and texture. Ahh! I could gush on Ali all day, but back to my page.

It's pages 2-3 for my China/Thailand album. (See the cover page, another lift, here) It's an overview of where I went the two weeks I visited. And yes, I do recognize that Hong Kong is it's own separate entity. It was just easier for me to include it no this one page. So hope I don't offend anyone!

I used geotags & compasses in fitting with the travel theme and tons of my fave travel stamps; sets from Kelly Purkey, October Afternoon, Mama Elephant.

The rest is just the details. Love these plastic letters from Crate Paper's The Pier collection!

I mixed stamps and brads as my primary embellishments. The Simple Stories Urban Traveler set is absolutely fabulous!

I hand wrote all of my journaling and included some stamping in there as well.

The majority of the stamping was done with the Brilliance gold ink pad. LOVE!

And I added a really subtle background design to the white cardstock. I stamped in gray on a scratch sheet of paper and then used the inked October Afternoon stamp again for a very soft look. You can barely see the "See the world" sentiment but it's there!

I have a process video for this layout coming. And no worries, it's a very different kind of process video. All about overcoming obstacles when you scrapbook, not necessarily showing you how I made the page. Because believe me, you want to see Ali do it, not me! So sign up, won't ya?

Yall have a lovely day!!

cheers & besos,

Bob Marley

Hi hello!! Quick share with you this evening, gotta get ready for my first day back at work in awhile.

[EDITED TO ADD: I was wondering why my Best Great Wall Memory page was getting so many visits. Thanks Shimelle for featuring it on your blog! Didn't realize that before I decided to use another Shimelle.com sketch for the page below =)]

I'm still making my way through the pile of photos I pulled out for Camp Scrap. I was really inspired by May's White Cardstock challenge but I don't think this really applies. However, she's definitely why I added some sequins to the page!! 

Mainly, this is for the Titles mini class. You see, I thought of the title (or idea) first and created a page around it. It's a long windy title (something I do often enough I should probably think to blog about some time) with lots o' words and a fun mix of textures and fonts. And like I said before, the jumping off point for this layout.

I used a Shimelle.com sketch as the basis for this page. I didn't even intend to play along with this sketch, but rotating it opened up a whole new option for me. And the sunburst has special significance since the top photo was taken just after sunrise as we were looking for dolphins.

Originally, I had a whole set of paper pulled out for this layout, lots of oranges and blues. And I tried so hard to make it work but I just wasn't inspired. So I scrapped that whole idea and decided to go in a different direction.

Blue + turquoise + magenta + lime was what I went with and I'm so much happier with how it turned out!

I custom made the very faint background you see. It's a whole bunch of Bob Marley lyrics printed super light on vellum and then stitched to the background page. Because....

BREAKING NEWS!!! I got my sewing machine fixed!!! It's operational for the first time in about 4 years. I'm still really terrible at it, but you should have seen how excited I was to make these few stitches.

Journaling Reads:
"You know how certain songs can trigger memories? How the minute you hear the tune, you're instantly transported to a different time and place? Bob Marley does that to me. But I think of a different island. I remember Bali.

Sarah & I had the same driver the whole time we were there. He drove us from the airport, two hours to our hotel. He drove us across the island, to see temples and waterfalls and rice paddies. He drove us the two hours back to the airport. All the while, Bob Marley was playing in the background. There's nothing that instantly makes me remember Bali more than Bob Marley."

Sometimes guys, I literally have to scrapbook my memories just to remember everywhere I've been. Like I know I've been to Bali, I have the memories. But it's so easy to just forget! You might think, "how does that happen?" But it really does. It's surreal to think about sometimes. It's one of the main reasons I scrapbook and why I love this hobby so so much.

Oh, and if you're interested in seeing more from this trip, I made a mini book a few years back.
Yall have an awesome week!

cheers & besos,

Hong Kong Skyline

Hey yall! Hope everyone had a lovely week. 

It's crazy to believe I was in Chicago only Monday and now it's Friday and sadly I'm home sick in bed. I'm hoping with more rest this weekend, that I'll be on the mend. But until then, I'll share a scrapbook layout with you.

I'm still chugging along with May at Camp Scrap. This was what I came up with for the Week 2: Layering Mini Class. I loved the colors in these photos (btw, they were the first photos I ever processed with Rad Lab. And I love them! But unfortunately the photos don't do them justice!!) so I pulled patterns in blues and grays with pops of greenish colors and that bright magenta.

I used an older Shimelle.com sketch as the basis for this page and minimal embellishments. But I made sure to use my last purchase before my Product Free Summer started, the Wanderlust set from Mama Elephant. These might be one of my most favorite stamp sets. I've used them on a few projects already!

I'm undaunted about being behind in my Camp Scrap lessons. Like May said, I won't have time to do everything. But I'm getting my game plan together for the next week and a half and really considering how I want to finish out this class.

I hope all of the above made sense. Apologies if it's a bit scattered!!
Ok, back to sleep. But I felt like I needed to tick at least one thing off my to do list!

cheers & besos,

Elephant Trek

Thanks Camp Scrap for getting pumped to scrapbook this summer! I went digging through my photo box to see what photos I wanted to use. 

These were two 4x6's that I knew I wanted to scrapbook. 

I loved this sheet from Crate Paper and thought it brought out the best colors in the photos and also added in some great accent colors as well. It's how I pulled in the different colored scraps that I stamped those ellies on.

I dug into a whole slue of new goodies that just arrived with my last (for the next few months!) Two Peas order. Like those great Crate Paper plastic alphas. I also think it's the first time I've ever used that Amy Tangerine stamp set. For shame! 

But seriously, this is one of the biggest reasons why I decide to stop buying new product. It really forces me to use what I have.

I also initially decided that I wanted to write my journaling directly on the photo. But it turned out horrible! Not to worry, re-printing took only a few minutes and my problems were solved. But as I was going back through my files to find this photo in particular, I realized there were so many more photos I wanted to include.

Hence this second page:

I pulled a whole smatter of photos and cropped them into 2x2 in squares, knowing I wanted to create a grid layout. I also pulled out my Acorn Avenue 6x6 paper pad and some scraps of that great kraft Elle's Studio polka dot.

To decorate some of the squares I used my new Travel Girl stamps (LOVE THESE!!!) and that line's die cut pack. I also busted into the Simple Stories brad pack and added one of those fun cork medallions. I opened up a lot of new packages for this page and I love that.

The cardstock background is this amazing-in-person gray orange peel texture. When I saw it in the store I immediately thought, it looks like elephant skin!! So I definitely wanted to use it here. It cools down the whole page & that's ok. I'm just really glad that patterned paper sheet I decided on in the first place included some gray as well.

Since I didn't like how the journaling on my photo looked, I decided I wanted to add an insert page but with a twist!

I've had this idea to print a photo onto a full 12x12 sheet of vellum for awhile now. I'm so glad I did it! It's how I decided to incorporate the journaling and was a fun "technique". The photo wasn't that great of quality and the printing not exactly perfect, but I love the look and feel of it so much!

So here's how my loose double pager looks next to each other. I pulled a lot of the same elements onto both pages and made sure to repeat the patterned paper and tape on both, as well as the little stamped ellies.

And here's the vellum page with the next page peeking under it. I think it looks awesome!!

Wow, that turned into a big share! And I think that's perfectly ok.

But seriously yall, this is why I'm so excited about Camp Scrap! For me, it's been about just working on projects & getting my stories told. I can use any supplies I have and any photos that I want. This doesn't look like anything May has shared and everything goes! I'm quickly realizing, that's my kind of class =) So check it out if you have the chance. Registration closes on the 12th.

cheers & besos,