Awesome Nerds

It's raining here in Houston. But not half as bad as they predicted it would rain…and flood! Schools and businesses were closed yesterday and it barely sprinkled. I think everyone was in a panic after the flooding we had a few weeks ago. I suppose it's better to be safe and over cautious than sorry after the fact.

But because I worked from yesterday, and therefore didn't have to commute, I had a free hour to scrapbook on a weekday. That's really unusual for me. I come home so tired and drained. The last thing I want to do is sit at my desk. But yesterday I got to do that and here's what I made.

It's a totally just for fun page without any journaling. The photos are from Kim & Eric's 30th birthday party last Saturday. I might add just that somewhere but for now I'm happy with it like it is.

I used my Have a Little Fun Today Scrapbook Circle kit. The title is from The Cut Shoppe.

The wacky color combo just might be my favorite part! I thought the paper went so perfectly with Kim's green dress. But the pattern was so busy I only wanted to use a wee bit.

And since there were pops of red in the photos (Eric's shirt and the red lips prop) I pulled out the few red embellishments that were in the kit: the red acetate star and red flair badge. I wanted red in three different places so I outlined the heart in the title with red stitching.

I also wanted the title to be more pronounced, since the patterned paper by itself didn't have enough of a pronounced edge. So I messily (a word?) outlined the letters in pencil. I didn't use black on the layout and since the patterned paper had a really great gray in it already, I thought the pencil would be the better option over a black pen.

There were yellow banners hanging behind us in the photos, and they very nearly matched the yellow in the tag included in the kit. So I had to incorporate it onto the page and in the crook of that "e" seemed the best place. It filled in the negative space really well in the end.

Like I said early, there's such an odd concoction of color on this page, but I think it's why I like it!

The rest of my embellishing is fairly minimal. A few enamel dots and then this quote.

The quote was actually on the branding strip for the triangle patterned paper. I cut it off and was about to throw it away when I noticed the little hand with the feather pen. It was such a perfect sentiment for this page.

This was an awesome little deviation from my regular work week. I liked getting an extra just for fun page in and am going to figure out how I can keep it up!

It's helped that I'm logging my time this week, to get a better understanding of what I'm doing. The goal is to be able to really focus on doing what I love to do.

Anandi shared this book ("I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of their Time" by Laura Vanderkam) in the Paperclipping Forums. I purchased a copy and started reading it. I'm having a bit of trouble making my way through it, but I think the underlying messages are good. I checked out Laura's website and become more interested in her 168 Hours book and the free content she had available.

I'm thinking I'll do a separate blog post about this since I clearly have some stuff to say! I'll leave it at this for now. Here's me wishing you a lovely (and non-flooded) day!

cheers & besos,

See the World

Hiya! Hope everyone had a fantastic week. I spent most of mine sick in bed with some anonymous stomach bug. It was bad y'all. I'm slowly recovering and able to be up and out and about. But I'm not quite 100% yet. But I'm trying to remain positive and faking it until I'm making it!

Today though, I shared this layout over on the Scrapbook Circle blog. You can read more about it there. 

I've been in a bit of scrapbook slump lately. But today, I think I'll sit at my desk. Pull out some paper and see what happens. Wish me luck!

cheers & besos,

SBC & The Cut Shoppe Blog Hop

Hiya! Welcome to the awesome Scrapbook Circle & The Cut Shoppe collaborative blog hop. Scrapbook Circle teamed up with The Cut Shoppe to bring you this fun hop.

**Giveaway & promo closed but comments still open**

I've been a fan of Ashley's designs for awhile now (see other projects here). So it was super easy to integrate her fantastic cut files into my pages this month.

For this hop, I'm sharing a double page layout featuring the Geometric Graffiti background. The layout is about my neighborhood in Bangkok.

I have a single feature photo on one page. And this is where I incorporated the cut and nearly all of the papers from the June Have a Little Fun Today kit and You are Here add on.

The cut makes it look really complex but it's actually a really simple page. Just the photo, title, patterned paper filled cut and one flair badge (I love! More flair badges in SBC kits, please!)

This second page is equally as simple and that was totally intentional. There's so much to see in the photos, that I didn't want to distract from them. I added in a die cut here and there as well as a label where I stamped the date.

There was so much going on in the photos and with that cut file, I wasn't sure where to include my journaling. So instead of over complicating the design, I just added a pock page insert. That's where I added more embellishments, like a few of the die cuts from the Pink Paislee Atlas ephemera pack and that great silver airplane vellum in the Main kit.

I added two additional photos that I hadn't had room for before the pocket page, as well as my journaling.

That second pocket has two die cuts back to back that I stapled just at the top. I like that it's kind of floating there and that you can see what's behind it.

The bottom pocket is where I added the vellum. I love playing with transparency and vellum is an awesome way to do that.

Journaling Reads:
"I went back to visit MT in Bangkok after I left. I'm so glad I managed to take pictures of the old neighborhood and the streets we walked every day. Our apartments were at Sitara Place which is in the Ratchadapisek (Ratchada) part of Bangkok, just off Soi 3 (Saam). It was a nice "suburb" with lots of modernization. We were in between two sets of malls, the Boma (or Bowling Mall) and the Tema (or Tesco Mall as we dubbed them). Every day we'd get up and walk (or take the apartment Tuk tuk) to the metro station in front of the Tema. On the weekends, we'd head to the Boma for food or massages or other entertainment. Walking the streets you'd see lots of concrete and garages, Thai flags and the King's flag, mini temples with offerings. And it wouldn't be Thailand without a stray dog or twenty. On this particular day we were walking to the Boma and I snapped a ton of photos on the way. Just as we were approaching a corner I saw this little Thai girl through my viewfinder, she was so excited to see us. It was Ana, who I hadn't seen in months. She saw me before I saw her and it made me laugh when I was looking back at these photos and saw her reaction. It's still crazy for me to believe that I lived in Bangkok for a season. It was such an amazing time in my life."

Alright then! Be sure to hop along with the rest of the Scrapbook Circle team (start here) and comment as you go. We will be selecting a winner from all of the blog hop comments to receive $20 to The Cut Shoppe Hop.

ALSO, be sure to stop by The Cut Shoppe blog to see what their team created with our June kit. Comment on The Cut Shoppe post and you are entered to win one of the Have a Little Fun Today kits!

Finally, here's a wee promotion for you to use during the hop. I'll be jumping on this one myself. There's a ton of new cuts I'm excited to play with.

Next on the hop is Diana!

cheers & besos,

Famous Walls

If you don't already know I love to travel, I don't know who's blog you've been reading :) Since so many of my pages features this trip or that one. I love me some travel scrapbooking!

But my pages aren't always "We went", "I saw", "We did". I like to mix things up and tie places together sometimes. Like I did for this page that features some of the famous walls I've visited.

I used the June Scrapbook Circle kit (which is deliciously travel themed) and the You are Here add on and stuck with a navy/red/teal color scheme.

That middle tag is a cut file from The Cut Shoppe. I ended up flipping it around so that the tag part was on the other end.

Embellishing this page was really quick and easy, just three little clusters scattered around. Each one consisting of the country name + geo tag sticker + date label + enamel shape.

I finished the page and then thought it looked a tiny bit unfinished. So I went with my go to tilted design and adhered it to a sheet of kraft cardstock. The stitching and roughing up the edges really made it feel complete.

cheers & besos,