Seven

I'm not a parent. Well, not to any humans. But I do have a nephew! His name is [Urijah] and if you've been following me for any bit of time, you've seen him on this blog. I love him to death! He's the only little person I've had the privilege of seeing grow up. On April 20th of this year he turned 7. SEVEN!!! Egads, where has the time gone?! I'm sure every parent...and even aunts and uncles have wondered the same.

I made a very special page to celebrate his birthday, using a sketch from the latest crop of [Simple Scrapper] goodies. And it was really simple and really easy to make! All it took was collecting some ink and a date stamp (used 3 on this page but whatevs) and going to town on some cardstock. 

I pulled colors from the shirt he was wearing in the photo. It had all of these bright little creatures on it. And then using a different ink pad for each year, I date stamped in bands across the page.

I also couldn't not use my [mega date stamp] on this page so I stamped directly onto the photo using white ink. I purchased those fantastic Bella Blvd heart enamels in every color (not joking, spent a tiny fortune on them!) so I dotted them around the page.

Below are close ups of the date stamping, which again, was so simple and fun to do!

cheers & besos,

Monochromatic Birthday

My birthday was last Friday! Oh my birthday...that whole day went by in a blur. I planned a fun party for my friends and asked if everyone could wear wigs! I thought it'd be fun to celebrate the last birthday of my 20's with something fun and crazy.

We took some great group photos of us in our crazy fun colored wigs. Obviously, I really wanted them to stand out. So I took on Jennifer's left-brained Color Challenge from Art + Science and only worked with neutrals. 

It was soooo hard! All I wanted to do was add in neon pink! But I refrained. And I think, the page came out the better for it. Instead, I used a lot of black and white elements plus gold and a touch of gray.

Us in those wigs definitely became the focal point!

Lately, I'm absolutely loving digital elements. And Two Peas is giving us some completely fabulous options! And of course, since black and white has become such a big part of my scrapbooking, I'm loving all of the October releases!

For this page, I incorporated some fabi printables and a freebie die cut from a few months back. (Snag it now!! They're available again for just a short while)

My Cameo cut the freebie die cut perfectly and I used it as a mask with some Heidi Swapp Gold Lame Color Shine (my favorite!). It didn't mask very well in certain parts, so I drew around the shapes using my black pen--on the white parts--and my white pen for the darker parts at the bottom.

I also finally got to use my new Pebbles Alphabet Stamp.

Oh, and about the background paper, I created this background of black and white photo strips in PSE and printed it out on white orange peel cardstock. All the photos were edited using Rad Lab. Heck all of my photos are edited using Rad Lab!

I had fun making this page. I had fun this night! Be prepared to see this photo and others like it over and over again. It was just so fun =)

cheers & besos,

Hello 29

Well I'm not there yet, just a few weeks away. But I wanted to share this page I made as part of Hello Story...which is almost over and makes me so sad!

This was for our numbers week and is a very close imitation of Ali's layout, except I condensed it down into one 8 1/2 x 11 page. 

Like last year's page, I made a list of 29 things about me at 29. I used a recent photo of myself and pilled a bunch of my favorite product onto the page.

Here's my list:

1. My boyfriend is Matt. 
2. My favorite color is yellow. 
3. My favorite sweet is Riesen. 
4. My little brother is 28 (eek!). 
5. My Mama is 50 & my Papa is 51. 
6. I have a kitten; her name is Mac. 
7. I live at 2121 Tannehill in Houston. 
8. My favorite city in the world is London. 
9. My nephew is 4, he lives in Katy with his Mama. 
10. I drive to the transit center and ride the bus to work. 
11. My favorite book is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. 
12. I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift on repeat in my car. 
13. My favorite TV shows are New Girl and The Mindy Project. 
14. I'm lately obsessed with neon, Project 12 and my new iPad. 
15. My best friends live in Fort Worth, Japan and New York City. 
16. Traveling is my favorite thing to do, I've been to 25 countries. 
17. I have new work playmates. Keely has been so fun to have around. 
18. Looking forward to visiting Louisiana, DC, Ohio and possibly Nashville. 
19. I’m applying for new jobs. It’s time for me to move on to a new challenge. 
20. I work at the British Consulate-General as a Business Development Manager. 
21. I make cards and scrapbook pages and am hoping to join a design team this Fall. 
22. My favorite movies are Pride & Prejudice (Drama) and I love you, Man (Comedy). 
23. Visited Wales, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Chicago and Los Angeles for the first time this year. 
24. My little Jetta is on her last leg, which makes me sad. And nervous! I can’t afford a new car. 
25. I have all of my grandparents still, Nana & Popo, Lipa and Grandpa. I wish I saw them more. 
26. This year is my 10 year reunion for high school and 5 year grad school reunion. Time has flown! 
27. Only 2 of my besties are married (Sarah and Kim). Kim got married this year; I was a bridesmaid. 
28. My favorite season is Fall. I love this time of year, my birthday, the holidays, scarves, boots and tights! 
29. Currently reading, the 5th Game of Thrones book. Recently read Bossypants (twice!), The Corrections, and Life after Life.

I'm hoping to put together a list of goals for my last year of my 20's soon. First on the list though, throwing myself a fab party! That's coming up next week. And I'm excited!

cheers & besos,

Handstitched Cards

What's with all of my married friends being born in pairs?! Kim and Eric are born in June. Susie and Gus (and now Lauren) have August birthdays. So it's more coordinating cards from me! (See K&E's travel birthday cards here)

Lately, I'm loving a neutral background with pops of color, mixed alongside a bold graphic design. So I custom made a boy and a girl version using paint, mist, black and white washi and stamps.

For Susie's card, I was inspired by the Mama Elephant Photo Challenge again. I love the white with the pops of pink and black. And instead of the yellow as in the inspiration photo, I used gold.

Tim Holtz Distress Paint is pretty awesome. The dauber makes it so easy to smear across a stencil. This pink is Picked Raspberry. It's so vibrant IRL (and in this photo thanks to RadLab). 

To back the sentiment, I used a few date stamps and gold brilliance ink to create a text block. I wrote the word "happy" on a scratch piece of vellum and poked holes where I wanted them over the text. Then I stitched through with black thread.

For Gus' card, I knew immediately that I wanted to create an argyle pattern. He's a sock guy and so that pattern just seems him to me. I used my Silhouette to cut a diamond out of scratch paper and then used it as a mask for the blue blocks (that's Distress Paint in Salty Ocean).

I traced more diamonds with a pencil and poked another round of holes. This time I stitched them in teal and finished the card off with tape and a die cut that was misted with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Bronzer.

The "Happy Birthday" stamp is by Papertrey Ink, a set I had totally forgotten about but still completely love! Might need to place another order with them sometime soon, they have the best stamps!

Happy belated birthday Gus! And happy early birthday Susie! The month of the Cruz celebrations is almost complete =)

cheers & besos,

Chicago-Scrapbook Essentials

Hiya from Chicago! We're safe & sound tucked up in our hotel room for the night. We're both pretty beat from the travel, but most probably because of the delicious burger we had for dinner.

But tonight, I wanted to share the little scrapbook kit I put together this morning in preparation for this mini vacay.

There's two blank moleskines in there bc I wasn't sure what size I wanted to use. 

Two tags of washi for color & hold. 

A tiny pair of scissors. 

My smash pen (ink on one side, glue stick on another).

Amy Tan date stamp with a mini ink pad. 

And a smattering of fun paper clips. 

All of its nicely contained in a cute zipper pouch that fits so neatly in my Amy Tangerine purse. 

I'm about to get working on today's pages. Can't wait to share!

cheers & besos,

Transparency Card

Yesterday, after I finished my layout, I posted this pic on instagram. It's some of the leftovers from my Hello Summer layout. One of our Camp Scrap challenges (last day to sign up yall, if you want in on the fun!) was to create something from our scraps.

Here's what I came up with, and I'm so excited about it! I made the base out of the leftover transparency from my page!!! I love the color combo here and the cute die cut. Plus, that it's a square. For whatever reason they look more visually pleasing to me :)

And since all the patterned paper I was using is double sided, you get to see the "B" side when you open up the card.

I used a spray adhesive to stick the patterned paper base down and so you wouldn't see any through the clear transparency. Then I decorated with some of the left over washi and die cut printables.

I think it came out cute! And I'm so excited to keep creating with this beyond gorgeous collection. AND that I get to use these printables over and over again. If you're a semi-hoarder like me, that should make you very happy.

Check out Geralyn's In a Creative Bubble Shoppe for more of her awesome work. I love it!

cheers & besos,

NSD: Digital Elements

I can't believe my big little guy turned 4! It was a quiet birthday, just the 5 of us (and the puppy), a birthday cake and some balloons.

NSD Challenges: Shimelle's Spray Inks and Mists, Shimelle's Line up your Embellishments, Shimelle's Scrapbook with Square Photos, Studio Calico's By the Numbers, Studio Calico's Break out the Buttons, Studio Calico's Digital Elements.

Of course I forgot my camera! But thankfully my iPhone was there to capture our tiny celebration. I used a ton of different apps to achieve this look: PicTapGo--converted to black and white, Snapster--added the rainbow effect & PicFX--threw some bokeh on top. I could have used Over to add the words but just ended up adding them using PSE.

My mists did some heavy lifting, as I was trying to make the page as festive as can be!

I also used the Studio Calico free printable for decoration. Loved the circles & thought the sentiments were perfect for a birthday page! I also sprinkled in some "4" Thickers and buttons.

And finally, I used the Studio Calico date stamp to add a horizontal element to the bottom of the page.  Completely loving how it turned out!

cheers & besos,

Know U, Love U

It's been awhile since we've baby sat Urijah. We've been so busy! And I'm still studying for the PMP Exam. But his Mama called to say they were moving to a new place and that it would be a huge help for us to have him, so I couldn't resist!

He's become such a big boy these days. We had a blast playing and hanging out at the apartment. Uncle Matt entertains him by wrapping him up in a blanket like a burrito. Or swinging him around by his ankles. I help him twirl and he thinks it's hilarious. 

Uncle Matt pretended he was a monster and Urijah would come running down the hall and throw himself into my arms, laughing and giggling. It fills my heart with joy, to see him having fun.

For this layout, I was so inspired by this design by Glitz. But the colors weren't working for these photos of Urijah. 

I loved the orange, teal and blue in his shirt and wanted to use them as the color scheme for this page. 

My Silhouette did the heavy lifting on this page. I die cut the letters (font is Langdon) in various patterned papers from one of the new Hello Boy Basic Gray paper pads I scored at Joann's. But the oranges were a bit too bright. So I cut out the letters in vellum and stapled them directly over top. It adds some depth as well as tone down the colors.

But once I was done with the page I couldn't get the design out of my head. So I created a new layout for a different scrapbook using the original design. I'm sharing it tomorrow so be sure to check back tomorrow!

cheers & besos,

Hi/Bye 2012

Happy New Year everybody! 

I hope you all had fantastic nights. MT & I had a super quiet night in, as both of us weren't feeling great. I'm still in recovery mode, but hopefully back into the swing of things by tomorrow. And also slowly but surely, back into the swing of blogging as well!

This week on the blog I want to share:

the last few 2012 pages,

a RAK,

& my plans for 2013!

Today I'll start with sharing this wrap up page for 2012. I used my Studio Calico 34th Street kit (finally!). 

2012 was a fairly quiet year for me personally. I saw my friends hit a lot of big milestones but didn't have much going on myself. Which was absolutely okay with me. Had to love that the stamp in this month's kit echoed those sentiments =)

Journaling Reads:

2012 was a good normal: work, home, travel. I got to visit new places and see old friends. Mama & Papa celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. Papa turned 50. Kim & Eric got engaged. Baby Lauren was born. Urijah turned 3 & Cadie joined the family. In December, Matt & I moved apartments  It was a big year for some of my favorite people but a quiet one for me. And that's absolutely okay. I'm happy to celebrate with my family & friends. 2013 will be a bigger year for me. I can feel it.

This entire page literally resulted from that "hi" binder clip. And then the fact that the photo was from January and I was scrapping it in December. That's how "hi" and "bye" 2012 came about.

As far as design, I ended up using a lot of arrows in this page. I love how they're all pointed one way, while the triangles in the background paper are pointing another. I feel like it emphasizes the "hi" and "bye".  Looking back, thinking forward. All that fun symbolism and stuff.

Also loved that one of the little brads says house & home. It's perfect since MT & I said bye to our old apartment and then hi to the new one!

Which btw, speaking of the apartment, I'm about 95% done setting up and organizing my new scrap area. I'll be sharing that with you all too!

So be sure to check back this week for more 34th Street pages, my scrappy plans for the year and of course, don't forget the RAK!

cheers & besos,

Christmas Card 2012

2012 Christmas card is complete! You'd think I'd be excited but really it's bittersweet for me. 

I know, I know! I'm a weirdo. I know! I really think I enjoy making cards more than I do receiving them.

I just love Christmas so much. And card making too boot! I love layering bits & pieces and trying to figure out how to replicate something 30 times. That's how many I made this year. Doesn't hit 2009 levels, but still with everything going on, it definitely was time consuming.

This year I did something I've never done before. I scraplifted my card! I couldn't not after seeing this gorgeous design by Julie Ebersole. The design just spoke to me. You all know how much I love to travel and this design just felt so very appropo.

I played with it a bit. And my card is definitely not as simple as Julie's, but I wanted to add some of my layers in to make a bit more my own.

And layers there are! I die cut the skyline out of pearl finished cardstock then stamped on top. Adhered this to a vellum base and added jewels + glitter tape. I heat embossed the sentiment with Silver Metallic Zing! and stuck it to the card base with my ATG before finishing it off with some baker's twine.

Of course I couldn't forget the insides or the envelope! You simply can't over look the envelope. That's what gets people excited to open the card! My typical envelope includes some misting splatters, a snip of tape and a date stamp. I got fancy with this one and used a snowflake as a mask for my iridescent mist, subtle but festive!

Here are the 2010-1, 2010-2, 2010-3, 2010-4 and 2009 editions if you're looking for some extra inspiration. (The 2011 version is being published.)

Now on to the harder part...writing in them all!! I write big, it shouldn't be too bad ;)

What about yall? Have you finished your cards? Do you make them? I'd love to see them if you did!

cheers & besos,

Birth Day

She's almost here! Lauren is going to be born today. Her Mama is scheduled to be induced, so we'll get to meet the newest member of our group this afternoon.

I didn't want to show up to the hospital empty handed, so I made a birth day card and some onesies.

Dear Lizzy's lines make making gifts for little girls so easy. I used several of her papers for this card (which is a semi-lift of a Danielle Flanders card) and thought the "celebrate sunshine" sentiment was perfect for the birth of a little girl, especially one born in the summer.

And I've not been neglecting the insides of my cards. I decorated this one with some mist, tape and a variety of lovely date stamps.

And onto the onesies...

I accidently bought muscle tees!!! For a baby! And of course I didn't realize this until I ripped open the package. But I had to make the most of it. I hope they don't mind too much.

Remember Laverne's (of Laverne & Shirley) famous signature "L" sweaters and shirts? That's the inspiration for this onesie.

I did something a bit different with the next one. It's one part reverse applique and one part straight stitching (my first attempt!) I liked the variety of the cursive and the block letters. Plus, it's yellow!

And finally, the signature design I created for little Ms. LC. I had to include the heart in the "C".

Oh, and I have to talk about this tutu. I've had it stowed away in my gift box since January, when I picked it up from Target at a steal. It's soooo tiny and perfect and cute! I'm happy to pass it along to an actual little being who will wear it and if possible, enhance its cuteness!

Can't wait to meet this little girl!

cheers & besos,