Happiness is...

I have a tip for you, if you need to put something together quickly and easily, reach for your 3x4 journaling cards. I just bought the [Wander core kit] because I'm a big [Christine Herrin] fan, so I was excited to use them!

I used a [Simple Scrapper] sketch and story starter as the basis of the page. The sketch (No. 254) called for patterned paper blocks in the background. Instead, I substituted the journaling cards. So quick, so simple, so fun!

Seven of these bad boys, two 3x4 photos, some stitching and mist droplets + three heart embellishments and I was done in no time flat!

cheers & besos,

ScrapStream

I had so much freakin fun participating in Adele aka InkieQuill's ScrapStream No. 3! It was like cropping with a friend. I got up to my own scrapbook mischief and made five pages. I created with no rhyme or reason. Just went through some of my latest photos, printed them in sizes I thought would work (some didn't) and made pages without kits or parameters. Like I said, so much fun! 

If you're interested in watching the not live ScrapStream you can see it here [Part 1] [Part 2] I'm definitely planning to re-watch the parts I was asleep for.

I think I'll blog about one of these each day this week! So check back to find out more :)

cheers & besos,

Love List

I decided it was time to scrapbook my love list. What's a love list? A list of people I love the most! So basically, my immediate family. I did something similar in 2014 and am happy to repeat this again in 2016, especially since my family has changed a bit since then (lost a cat, gained a dog).

I loved this sheet of hearts from Crate Paper's Hello Love collection. I loved the high contrast and the imperfect hearts. I knew it'd be perfect for this list of my loves.

I made the page whimsical by cutting out my photos using a circle punch. And to keep with the high contrast, I printed them in black and white.

The rest of the embellishing was very minimal. The paper really did most of the work for me. And I have to add that these American Crafts gold dipped Thickers are some of my most favorite ever!

cheers & besos,

Inspiration Inventoried: Dear Dixie

So I had an idea for a new video series. I'm calling it Inspiration Inventoried. It's not a process video. It's me chatting about a finished page, going through the story, the design, the products. Basically a blog post but in video form. You get to see my mug as I wanted the chance to introduce myself. 

I'm not the most eloquent speaker but I think I'll get the hang of it. I didn't realize until recently that I really just love to talk about scrapbooking! I'm hoping to do these once or twice a month so let me know what you think.

cheers & besos,

Wedding Mini

Last September, Matt and I were in Ohio for his little sister's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a fun time! The whole family knows I'm the resident scrapbooker so I was teased about what I might do with all of the photos I was taking.

For Christmas, I put together a very quick and simple mini book for the couple. I had a ton of photos, but I opted to make the whole thing just about the two of them. It came together really quickly with the help of the Best Day Ever Class Kit from Big Picture Classes.

cheers & besos,

Golden Hour

This was such a fun page to make! The technique was super simple and thanks to this particular cut, it had a huge impact! I blogged this "technique" over on the Scrapbook Circle blog. Head over there for more on it and this page.

cheers & besos,

Best Gals

Hiya friends! Today I'm excited to share my latest Simple Scrapper page. This month our theme was all about personalities. It's been awhile since I've done a page about my bestie, so I thought now would be a perfect time to make a new page, featuring photos from this year.

Isn't she a cutie? We usually get confused for sisters. I guess I can see the resemblance. Both of us have that Asian look to our 100% hispanic features.

For this page, I used a big mix of products and a few papers from the Fancy Pants Office Suite 6x6 paper pad. LOVE that line! (See also At 30)

The page is based off of a Simple Scrapper sketch (No. 214 for all of the members). I love it whenever I'm able to incorporate journaling cards onto my pages. The & is from Studio Calico and the gold chevron is by Heidi Swapp.

For more info about this page and more layouts using sketches and story starters, check out the Simple Scrapper membership.

Jennifer just released the 2016 planner pages which I'm sooo excited about! I've printed them all out and have started assembling my book...which I'll blog more about later this month. It's probably worth noting that if you're a member you get the planner pages for free!

cheers & besos,

Finished Project

First order of business, announcing the winner of the Scrapbook Circle goodies giveaway. Random.org picked commenter number two, who was Sandi! 

Congrats Sandi! I will e-mail you shortly.

Secondly, I finished my Finishing Project!!! I'm so excited to have completed this. And only 18 months after the event :) I'm actually not bothered that it took so long. I'm just happy that it's done! 

I couldn't have done it without Jennifer's fantastic class and all of the great prompts and worksheets. They totally helped me clarify my vision and keep me on track. 

To see where I started, check out this post. I so naively thought I wasn't far from being done because my photos were printed and I'd picked a few background papers. 

As you will see, the book had quite a transformation. I re-ordered a few things, re-printed several photos, added in tons of inserts. I repeated several of the designs on multiple pages (See last few photos on this post).

It wasn't easy. It's just so hard to pick up momentum that you've lost. I had to fight my way through most of this (although some of it was easy) mini book. That's not to say it wasn't fun. It was just a mental hurdle I needed to overcome.

I'm extremely proud of myself and this little mini. If you have any questions about products or techniques I'm more than happy to answer them in the comments! For now, I'll let the photos do the talking. But beware, there are a ton!

cheers & besos,