London Anniversary

Does your journaling ever hamper your design? Let’s say you make a page, you love the look and then you have to figure out where to put the journaling. And everything you come up with just doesn’t look right?? OR, you make a page, know you’re journaling is going to go just here, then you start writing and the words pour out of you and suddenly that spot is no longer adequate to hold all of your thoughts? This doesn’t happen to me too often. I think the weakest point of my scrapbook game is my journaling. But when either of these scenarios happen, I have a trick I turn to time and again.

I write as much or as little journaling as I want. Typically typing it out and printing on plain cardstock. Then I make a pocket for it on the back of my page. It’s super quick and simple! Here’s an older page that I used this technique on: Hello There

For this page, I had a lot to say about my 10 year anniversary with the city of London. Enough to fill an entire 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. But there was no way it was going to look pretty anywhere on my nearly completed page. Which is why I opted to add a tab to the top of the sheet and make a pocket on the back of my page!

The layout is based off a sketch from the Simple Scrapper membership (Sketch No. 293 for all of my SS ladies!) I loved all of the March 2016 sketches so much! I made two pages using them, this and the Adult Today layout I shared at the beginning of the month.

I loved that the sketch called for blocks of patterned paper, my favorite scrapbook supply! These are three sheets from way deep in my stash: 7 Gypsies (top), October Afternoon (middle) and Basic Grey (bottom).

I could have put this design on a white sheet of cardstock and would have been totally happy. But I thought I’d switch it up and instead used this bluish gray. After all, London is typically pretty gray. I think it makes the photos and the paper pop more.

Red was my accent color. But I used it sparingly. It was at the top of that 3x4 journaling card (by Ali Edwards) so I matted it behind my photo. Then I stamped a red bus and added two triangle enamel shapes.

Aside from the overall design and the photos and the story, I think my most favorite part of this page is the tiny timeline I included as the “journaling”. It’s such a great way to show a relationship over time!

cheers & besos,

Happy Place

I booked a trip yesterday. It's for work but it's also to my favorite place in the world, London! I'm so excited to be back. It's been over a year since I've been and I feel it calling to me. 

Because it's such an important part of my identity, I have no problem calling it my happy place. I have so my fantastic memories from this place.

I was very influenced by Fancy Pant's Happy Place line. It's how I came up with the idea to make this page in the first place. There's a ton in this month's Scrapbook Circle kit!

I think it's as equally important to document the places we love, as it is the people and the things. And I'm so excited to be heading back there in a few weeks. Until then, miss you London!

cheers & besos,

Friendsgiving

Hello dear friends. I'm back. Still healing, but it's getting a little bit better every day. So thank you for your patience with me. Really, it means that I have more to share in a shorter window of time :) So more posts than usual this month!

I'd like to start with the winner of the Scrapbook Circle RAK I posted about awhile back. The winner of it + a hot off the presses only available to SBC subcribers "Tell Your Story" tote bag is.......

Congrats Pennie! I'm e-mailing you just after this =)

Sorry for the slightly hodge podge post, but I also wanted to share one of my latest Simple Scrapper pages. This was in the November edition of Spark Magazine. I used Sketch No. 188 (for any members to refer to) and a story starter from the November content.

Speaking of hodge podge, the page was made from leftovers of the Scrapbook Circle kits I purged for the giveaway. I love love love how quirky it is! The color scheme totally surprised me but I really love how it turned out. Might be because I love this story and fondly remember this day.

Journaling Reads:

For most of us, this was our first Thanksgiving away from home. It was definitely the first time Monica, Haileigh and I had ever cooked a turkey. But I think that’s the magic of this day in our history. There were twenty of us gathered around the string of tables we collected from each others apartments. I look at this photo and remember so many awesome memories with these people. Silly times in this flat specifically. Kyle busting into the Lion King intro towards the end of this meal. It would easily have been a sad a day for many of us, being so far from family. But then I think we all realized, we’d found family even far away from home.

I know I chose a winner for my Scrapbook Circle left over goodies. BUT, you can actually buy goodies too. Lisa has some $15 grab bags up for sale. You get a TON of lovely bits and baubs from a variety of manufacturers.

Thanks again, y'all for being so patient with me and for your kind words. They mean so much to me!

cheers & besos,

London Design Museum

Hiya! I hope everyone here in the USA had the loveliest of Thanksgiving. And everyone outside of the  USA had an equally lovely Thursday. MT and I drove over to San Antonio for a feast put on by my mama. But we're already back in Houston. AND I'm already about to get on a plane tonight.

It's the EU for me this week! I'll be in London for a night then to a small city on the East coast of the UK for training. But after that I'm bound for Basel, Switzerland! I'm planning to visit a Christmas market, hit up some museums, catch up with an old friend. I'm so excited--just have to get through the work part first.

Getting to travel for work is fun! and exciting! and down right exhausting. and sometimes a bit boring and tedious. Also your time isn't your own, which too me is the biggest negative. I'd say the pro's definitely outweigh the con's but want to paint an accurate picture about the whole experience.

For me personally, traveling for work means getting to go back to the UK a few times a year. This year, I'll have visited 4 times! Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Newcastle, St. Andrew's and London have been on the itinerary this year. With several repeats up to Scotland, but most importantly to my beloved London.

I made this layout using a Simple Scrapper sketch and an older story starter. My journaling is about traveling to the same place over and over again. The photos are of a Paul Smith exhibition at the Design Museum in London. But the journaling is about London.

Instead of journaling only about the exhibition and it's awesomeness, I wrote about getting to explore even more of my beloved city, getting to discover more little nocks and crannies. And maybe, just maybe falling more in love with it more than I have before.

I love that I got this story out of these photos. If I hadn't have had the Simple Scrapper story starter, it would most definitely have been just about the exhibition. I love that those things get me to look at my photos in a different way. I love the challenge of pairing a sketch AND a story. I'm not usually challenged to do both. But it worked!

Journaling Reads:

It’s no secret I love London. Living there forever changed me and set me on a course different from one I ever imagined. I practically live, breath and sleep London. Especially when you consider the fact that I work for the British. This year I’ve visited London 3 times and I’ve been able to get back a few times every year since 2011. It means that I get to maintain my love affair with that city, getting to know it even better the more I return. It also means I get to explore more of its nooks and crannies. Discover new awesome places and see some truly great things. Over the summer I wandered farther down the Southbank than I ever had and got to tour the London Design Museum. The feature was a Paul Smith retrospective that I loved. The bright bold colors, the quirky twists. Oh it was divine! My two favorites were the stripped mini cooper and a button wall 2 stories high!  I may visit this city often, but there’s no way I could ever get my full. It’s just to rich and vibrant, much like the colorful designer who’s work I got to admire on this sunny day in London.

Well, lots to do today before I get on the plane. But I'm so excited to get there. This trip I only have half a day in London. It isn't a lot but it's enough to get my fix :)

cheers & besos,

Little Moments Layouts

Tada! Look what I made guys! Six layouts with the latest Scrapbook Circle kits. I used Little Moments, the main kit, and the Sweetness Add On for these. They were the perfect mix of fall festive and modern chic.

I'll be updating the blog throughout the month with more details about these pages. I've also decided this is going to be the month of Scrapbook Circle on the blog. I have plans to explain a bit more about the challenge schedule, the designers, my kit process and I have a bit of a RAK I'll chat more about next week.

cheers & besos,

Stash Bash Fin

Hiya! Sitting on the couch, finally watching the 3rd Season of GIRLS and balancing a kitten on my lap along with the computer. It's a gorgeously sunny day here in Houston and the BF is off at the rodeo. That's what's going on in a nutshell. And now I'm sharing the last page I made for the Simple Scrapper Stash Bash.

This was based off of one of Jennifer's fabulous Jump Starts video. I used the Studio Calico Office Hours PL kit for the page, as well as the printables and some of the awesome die cuts from this month [Brit Cut, Tea Cuts]. They were too perfect for a London themed page and also why I wanted to scrapbook these pictures.

I loved playing along in the Stash Bash. Have to confess, I didn't put even a millimeter of a dent in my crazy out of control stash, but I'm planning to.

Here's just a quick recap of the layouts I made this weekend as part of the event. I can't wait for the full one in September!

cheers & besos,

Blessed are the Brave

Hey there!! I feel like I haven't been updating as much this year. It's probably true. But I'm still creating and planning and also printing out photos for my Project Life. I seem to be focusing a lot of energy on the latter. Uploading photos, editing, printing them the appropriate sizes. At this point, I'm just slipping things in pockets, so I can go back to have fun and embellish later. We'll see if that strategy works. I'm still trying to figure this whole Project Life thing out! But I digress....

I'm also still loving being a part of the Simple Scrapper community. Jennifer debuted a new Jumpstarts concept this year. It's exactly what you think it is, in that they are videos that are meant to jumpstart your creativity or help jog your memory. This page is a direct result of that inaugural video. Part of the challenge was to document a time when you had courage. For me, that was almost too easy. The bravest thing I ever did was to move to London after college. More on that in just a bit.

Before I talk about the idea for the page, I wanted to talk about the design. I have to say, it has me pretty excited!

I decided to create my own counterfeit kit this month and I used the January Hip Kit Club as my inspiration. I've had this gorgeous Amy Tangerine print in my stash, but I've almost been too intimidated by its beauty to actually use it. Choosing that kit forced me to reconsider it and I'm so glad that it actually made it into the scrapbook!

It's a really spectacular piece and I wanted to use as much of it as I could. But I ended up doing something way different with it. I sliced it down the middle and then pieced it back together. I decided to hide my journaling and did this by gluing the photo strip onto a folded piece. It unfolds to show all of my journaling.

But that's not all folks! I turned the other side into a flap as well. But this covered up an enlarged photo.

From the get go, I knew I wanted to use a line of black and white photos along the side. But it wasn't until I was choosing photos (and after I printed a strip that just didn't work with this page) that I decided to throw in the enlarged print of me in front of Big Ben.

This is what the layout looks like when its all unfolded. (And I have no idea why all of the color got sucked out of this photo!!) The gray polka dot is the B side to the horizontal stripe.

And what it looks like when the photo strip is folded down. Which is how I printed my photos to begin with, on one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of photo paper.

The majority of the embellishing went on this top flap. I used the Cut & Paste sticker book, wood veneer alphas, silver glitter Thickers, those awesome Printshop word stickers and just a few drops of gray ink to embellish. All of which I pulled for my counterfeit January Hip Kit Club kit.

I think what I love most about this page is that it reminds me of a file folder. Given my love for all thing office supplies, that makes me ridiculously happy.

But back to the Jumpstarts and this whole concept of courage. My journaling reads:

Blessed are the brave for they will have adventures. This was by far and away the adventure of a lifetime. Looking back, I really have no idea how/why I threw myself into that situation headfirst, no fear and no trepidation. It's so not me, typically.

After college I made up my mind to move to London. So I figured out how to do it and I just went. I didn't know anyone there. I had never met any of the 5 people I was going to be living with. I had only been to London one other time so I most definitely didn't know the city. If anything went wrong, I was at least 24 hours away from anyone familiar who could rush to my rescue.

Writing all that out makes me wonder why I signed up in the first place. But going back through that list with hindsight, I know I had nothing to worry about. I may not have known anyone when I got there. But by the end, I had dozens of people I would consider my friends. I may not have met my 5 flat mates before, but they became the best friends I've ever had, my true & honest soul mates. I didn't know the city at the beginning, but I learned as much about it as I could. It's a city you continue learning about. And every time I go back, I learn something new!

Moving to London was the bravest thing I've ever had to do and the best decision I ever made. And it never would have happened if I hadn't plucked up the courage to simply pack a bag, get on the plane and go.

See what I mean guys, I'm having so much fun being part of this new community. I'm loving all of the inspiration and the page ideas. I never would have thought to make this page otherwise! It's now the unofficial title page to my album. And something just darn pretty to look at!

cheers & besos,

Away Days

It's been two weeks since I've been on here. 

Two weeks since I've got crafty at my desk. 

One week of crazy hectic traveling.

...and it's not going to stop!

This was where I was last week for work.

Bouncing around from city to city and event to event. And only at the very end, did I get to do anything for me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the travel, not so much all of the meetings. But I like my job and am grateful it takes me to some really fabulous places. It just makes me so tired!

Lately its been keeping me from doing the fun stuff, like playing with paper and getting inky. And believe me, I'm just dying to sit down and scrap! I have some pages circulating around in this head of mine that I'm determined will see the light of day.

I hope you stick it out with me. I appreciate all of you who come visit my corner of the interweb!

cheers & besos,

London Scrapbook

I was flipping through my London scrapbook and thought, "ok you need to film yourself looking through this and talking about some of the pages." It's been on my to do list for ages, so I thought I'd finally do it!

Please excuse my head. Again, big time amateur videographer! But you get the picture.

And for the parts of pages you couldn't see, here they all are below:

cheers & besos,