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,

Scrapbooking from the Soul Review

[ETA: Giveaway closed, Winners announced here]

Wow, almost the end of summer. Time never ceases to amaze me, as it flies so quickly on by. 

Matt and I drove out to Austin in July to celebrate Tara's birthday. We floated the river in San Marcos; relaxed, laughed, nearly drowned (at least Tara did) and really just enjoyed the experience. 

I bought an old school water proof disposable camera to document our drifting and only just yesterday picked it up from the developer. (BTW, its so crazy to me that not very long ago, 1 hour film developing was the norm. Now you have to send them away!).  

It was fun to open up the package to see how the prints turned out. That was the awesomeness of film photography, you never actually knew what you were gonna get. Not all of the pictures were great, lots ended up blurry and hazy. But I love them anyway. They still captured that day and these memories.

On the surface, the page and photos are about the day we spent on the river. But the journaling was all about how this is life now, none of us are married or have kids. And how carefree and lacking in responsibility our lives are--which is lovely for now!

It's like that for all of us on this page. But we're each getting older. I'm sure one or all of us will take the plunge into marriage and parenthood eventually. But for now, I'm personally content with the life of a single (marital status) childless person.

The part of my life that includes marriage and babies may or may not be very far away in the future. And one day I imagine I'll look back at these pages and remember what life was like back before the husband and the kiddos.

Journaling Reads:
I love summer for its lazy carefree laid back vibe. I love the long summer nights. What feels like all kinds of time to just breath and relax. It's not going to be like this always. One of these days we'll all get married and start having babies. Not that life will be over then. But gone will be the days of minimal responsibility, of picking up and going wherever/whenever I please. For now, I relish this time. Still not married, no babies. Still carefree.

The journaling is a bit of a departure from my usual style. That's not to say that I've never made connections or done more introspective journaling before. But this was a totally different approach for me. And I have one person to thank for it, the incredible (not so edible) Jill Sprott.

Jill has long been a favorite scrapbooker of mine. Her pages are always gorgeous and full of masterful design. But I think the subjects she chooses and the connections she makes are what have always drawn me to her layouts. She transforms pretty portraits and still photographs, into poignant and meaningful visual stories due largely to her journaling. 

Let's face it, she has a bit of a leg up on all of us in this department, being a high school English teacher and all. So I try not to be too intimidated. But it's so hard to look at her pages not feel a connection to the lady herself. Her voice (she uses her words!) come across so brilliantly in each of her creations.

As if all of this isn't amazing enough, she sat down and created a class to help each of us achieve what she does so beautifully, meaningful journaling on gorgeously designed pages. The class is aptly named Scrapbooking from the Soul and is available at Two Peas for such an insanely low price. I bought it last week and was only able to dive in yesterday afternoon. Let me tell you, the first two lessons have me completely reconsidering the foundation of my entire scrapbooking process. That's how profound the class has been for me already!

Want another example of how awesomely talented Jill is? After watching the class videos and reading through the .pdf's I felt like I'd just had a conversation with her. As if she and I had sat down to chat (over a cup of tea I'd imagine =) about this thing called scrapbooking and how meaningful it can be.

I have to admit, Ms. Sprott has an insanely huge soft spot on my heart. She has been one of the best creative cheerleaders a girl could have asked for. She actually follows this blog! She even looks at my layouts. And if there's a comment on a post here, there's a 50/50 change Jill is the one to have left it. It's the little things, right? It takes her not so much time, but it always means so much to me, to read her sweet comments.

After reading through this post, I think its safe to say that I'm an avid Jill Sprott fan. And I'd love to honor this sweet lady with a giveaway. I believe so much in what she's taught me already, that I'd love to give away to two readers, access to her workshop.

To enter to win, please leave a comment below (with your 2Peas name). I'd love to hear which scrapbookers are super stars to you! I'm leaving this open through Saturday, 31 August at 11:59 CST and then I'll draw and announce two winners! Best of luck to you all! And even if you don't win, really consider taking the class. It will be worth each of those 1,200 pennies!

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,

NSD: 30 Years

My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary at the beginning of this month. I bought them a cake to celebrate. At least I got this one good photo out of them! They're the worst at letting me take their photo.

I used the aptly titled Crate Paper-Paper Heart line. I love the colors in this line, especially paired with that fabulous woodgrain.

This is for the SC Letter Stamps Challenge & 2Peas Beneath the Layer challenge.

Congrats Mama & Papi! 30 years is such an accomplishment in this day & age.

cheers & besos,

NSD: She

I went to town on some challenges this weekend. 

I love them. 

I like the parameters. 

I like trying new things. 

I like that my pages take twists & turns that I wouldn't get to on my own.

I had fun making this page. It's for the SC Sketch Challenge, Basic Grey Use a Photo taken with your Phone Challenge, 2Peas Chevron Challenge, and 2Peas Polaroid Challenge.

I had fun with the journaling. I was sitting at the bus stop a few weeks back, maybe even a month ago when I thought of this journaling. I used my phone to record it and have been waiting for the chance to stick it on a page. Figured this random bathroom shot could work.

Get ready, I have a ton more to share this week! It's good to be back at my scrapbook table =)

cheers & besos,

Rua Augusta Arch

Happy Good Friday to you all. I hope that work has let you have a holiday. Mine did! And I could not be more happy about it. I needed this break.

The sun is shining, MT & I are going to opening day of the Astros season tonight and tomorrow I get to see my parents!

In an effort to share my sunny mood, I wanted to blog a sunshiney page.

When I think of Portugal, I can see blue skies & sun and red terra-cotta roofs and yellow buildings. So this photo, of the Rua Augusta Arch, is nearly the most perfect representation of all of those things. Since it was so grand, I wanted it to be an enlarged photo on this page so it's printed at 6x12 inches.

I played around with sunny page elements from Amy Tangerine's first line. I also layered some great architectural and colorful patterned paper strips, along with washi tape.

I misted using a mask to get that sunny orange design & journaled on vellum, my new favorite thing!

I can't believe I was in Portugal just 2 months ago. I already want to go back!

From on sunny weekend to another, I'm so happy to be off of work and am off to enjoy this day! I hope all of you do as well :)

cheers & besos,

Nifty Fifty

He's 50!! I can't believe it, my Papa has officially become an old man ;) In honor of his birth and his life, I made him a card. It's funky and graphic and totally unique. I just went to town with some mists & paint.

I saw the idea for those candles on Pinterest so incorporated 5 of them into the card.

And this is how sweet my Papa is, he keeps all of my cards! Here's 4 that he has sitting on top of his dresser. The photo wasn't staged or anything, he has them there year round. I love that he appreciates my craftiness. He's where I get my artistic side after all.

I hope he has an amazing 50th year! I love him so much =)

cheers & besos,

Think?

I don't know if you know this about me. But when I was little, I was very very shy. I was terrible about asking questions, or at least the right questions in my mother's opinion. So she'd coach me through most interactions with my teachers, doctors, or any other authority figure.

I was on the phone with my Mama the other day and she made sure to tell me what I needed to say and to ask in whatever appointment I had going on. Same as she did was I was younger. It made me smile and I asked her, "how do you think I get through work?" She laughed and said she knew, old habits die hard and all of that.

We chatted a bit longer and then hung up but I kept thinking about it after. That's how the idea for this layout popped into my head.

What must she think of me? And all of the crazy life decisions I've made in the past few years? Is she proud of me? Does she think I can hold my own?

I journaled all about it, and tucked it behind this folded piece of new Neapolitan paper.

Archivers had a bunch of it when I visited the other day. Man is this stuff so pretty!! I just had to play with it. And since this idea was fairly none specific, I went to town with the ribbons (plus the new AC Glitter ribbon) buttons and stickers.

Also, drawing from a challenge over at Natt's blog, I created a sunburst with a hand cut mask and Mister Huey Overdue. I think the color worked really well with Lizzy's line.

I think one of the more interesting aspects to this design, is that instead of cutting off the 3 1/2 inches to get down to the 8 1/2 x 11 size, I decided to fold the paper instead. No need to miss out on the gorgeous green watercolor on the B side. Plus, it made it super convenient place to tuck my journaling behind.

And, I got to use one of my cute teal binder clips that have just been sitting on my desk for ages. Bonus!

What must my mother think of me?

I often wonder what my mother must think of me and my galavanting. Of being 27, not married and without kids. I wonder how she thinks of me at work. If in her head I'm still that shy quiet girls who was so scared to talk to strangers. Who shied away from social interactions and found more comfort in a book. I wonder what she thinks of my moving away and being independent. I wonder what she thinks of my life, one that is so very different from her own. Most of all I wonder if she's proud of me and all that I have accomplished. She is my sweet little Mama and my very bestest friend. I hope she is proud of me.

cheers & besos,

Paris 2003

Dear Mama,

I know traveling isn’t your thing. But I’m so proud of you for setting aside your misgivings and making the effort to step out of your comfort (and time) zone. I hope you’ve enjoyed the places you’ve seen. I’m glad you got to visit the Eiffel Tower, to hear Big Ben chime and to see the Coliseum in Rome. I know, in some small way, I was a part of that.

Thank you for helping to mold and shape me into the person that I am today. That girl with such a thirst for experiences and such a strong desire to see new places. I wouldn’t have become that girl without you.

-Chubs

I’ve finally finished a gift to my Mama! Last year, I started a set of layouts to decorate her guest room wall. They’re black and white photos of her travels throughout Europe.

I love my mama, but we couldn’t be any less alike. She’s fun and friendly, always making new friends, and talking and giggling constantly. I’m much more quiet and reserved, less sociable and decidedly not as giggly. I love to visit new places, she’s happy just staying close to home. But as different as we are, I’m convinced it’s the reason why we’re so close. Where I lack, she excels and vice versa. She’s the ying to my yang, the cheese to my cracker and all that good jazz. I love her to pieces!

After all this time, I’ve finally finished this 3-piece set. They coordinate with a set of canvases she bought from Hobby Lobby. They’re black canvases with white line drawings of Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Coliseum, all 3 places that we’ve visited together. I thought it’d be cute to also have photos of her at these places, to include on the guest room walls. Those walls, btw, are this lovely pumpkin-y orange; hence the black and white and orange theme to the layouts.

The Paris layout was the last in the set because I couldn’t find this photo! It’s an old photo, one from 2003, before the days of the digital camera. I searched high and low for that photo, which back in the day I had for some reason decided to cut! Who knows? But at least I have the image still. I scanned it into my computer and printed off a new copy. The thing of it is, that scanned image wasn’t so great. It’s got all kind of scratches and lines and the colors are all off. But it doesn’t matter to me. The image of the two of us together, there in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower is all that matters to me.

I’m so blessed to have seen the things I’ve seen and visited the places I’ve visited and got to experience those things with someone I love so much. I truly am such a lucky girl.

xxbesos

Uh, oh! Spaghetti-os!

Just a quick post to share my latest page. A few weeks back, Urijah's mama sent us these photos of him feeding himself spaghetti! He got it everywhere but was happy as a clam! Just look at that little smile :)

I used this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch and a CHA Challenge prompt from 2Ps, the try something new one, to create this layout. It's very simple and only uses minimal supplies, Kraft cardstock, letter stickers (as masks) and my Maya Mist. The try something new part was my little frame there. I painted some dried spaghetti with orange paint and used it as a border. Subtle but effective.

Thanks for stopping by!

xxbesos

j.leija

Summer Lovin'

This summer Ch{all}enge Masters is hosting a Summer Lovin' contest for a fun prize! A $25 gift certificate to the online store of your choice. Totally fabulous! Hate to say that the sign up for this event is closed but do be sure to check out all of the Weekly Challenges. Someone who participates in one of the challenges will win this month's equally awesome prize, a $30 gift certificate to your favorite online store! And the opportunity to be the July Monthly Master! I think that's pretty good incentive to participate in a challenge or two :) Check back tomorrow to see how I approached some of the challenges.

Best Day

This weeks challenge was to be brave and to cut up a photo in rectangles or squares. I remembered this sketch I'd found at Page Maps and thought it'd be perfect for a layout that needed a photo cut into squares! Figured this photo of Mama and I in Italy would cut up nicely, without chopping into our faces! I was very inspired by the colors of the photo, the yellow in my sweater, the blue in mama's shirt and that so bright green in the plant behind us.

As part of the prompt for this week, you'd get a bonus 40 points for using a mask on your layout. I have these favorite masks that I use over and over again, but the thing is, they aren't actually masks. Prima makes these great felt stems, that are beautiful in their own right, but just screamed mask to me the moment I saw them. I arranged them on my background paper and hit them with green, yellow and blue Maya Mist and outlined a few of the edges to give them dimension.

The title of this layout is actually from a song lyric of Taylor Swift's. I just got her album a few weeks ago and LOVE it! I think I know all the words now, I've listened to it so much. But this one in particular, for some reason, has been on repeat in my head. I'd already decided to use that photo of me and Mama when I realized that this song would be a great way to journal about us, this day and our propensity for giggling.

Journaling reads: "We were in Rome, touring the Papal Residence, soaking up the gorgeous Italian sun, and were just taking a break from all the walking we'd been doing. I have no idea why we were laughing. Who knows with the two of us! We're always giggling about something or other, which is why this is my favorite photo of the two of us. What a wonderful day to remember and what equally wonderful memories of so many seemingly small moments with my Mama."

"I love you for giving me your [Asian] eyes. For staying back and watching me shine. I didn't know if you knew. So I'm taking this chance to say...that I had the best day, with you, today."

Lifeline

Last week's prompt was to scrap about a tool you can't live without. I'm not the greatest with just scrapping random things, so I wanted to use something that was relatable to other areas of my life as well. My Mac laptop is definitely something I use for my scrapping, but was also a big part of my life while I was aboard. I call it and this page, my lifeline.

Journaling reads: "My roomate took this photo of me on my Mac, back in our very first flat in London. I'll say I was doing homework but Sarah and I both know that rarely happened in our room and only ever at the last minute. While I was abroad, that computer became a lifeline to home and the outside world. I emailed, chatted, Skyped, searched, planned, browsed, Facebooked and occasionally homeworked from that glorious machine. My baby? A (now vintage) 13 inch Macbook that I purchased myself when I was a senior undergrad. My first BIG purchase. It just wouldn't be right to create a scrapbook about life in London and not include something about my Mac!

Fun note: 3 of my 5 flatmates also owned a white 13 in. Macbook. They were always laying around the flat and you'd have to open all of them to find your own!

What can I say? I'm sentimental! But what scrapbooker isn't?! It's by far and away my most used tool for all things, scrappy and otherwise.

That Mac accent is about the most cutting edge as it gets in my scrapbooking. Can you guess how I did it? I painted it! Well, first I printed out the Mac logo and cut it out of a scrap sheet of paper and used it as a template. Then, I painted horizontal stripes in the colors of the rainbow. After, I inked the entire thing with Versamark and embossed over it with clear embossing powder. It gives it this great sheen. My one of a kind accent, that I'm so very proud of!

Disclaimer: please don't sue me Apple! I swear I haven't received any monetary compensation for this layout. But I am always looking for sponsors ;)

xxbesos

j.leija

Santa's Workshop

Christmas Cards

That's what my room has felt like, these last few weeks. As the holiday rapidly approaches, I find myself scrabbling to keep up with the plethora of cards, tags, and gifts, I've happily decided to undertake this season.

It all started with this idea for Christmas cards. I know this is going to be a difficult Christmas for all of the Leija's. It's the first Christmas we've had without Uncle Joe, who went to be with the Lord this past September. I was in charge of the memory boards for his funeral and it was then that I realized how valuable my beloved hobby is. How photographs are incredibly important in the preservation of our cherished memories. Thus, I wanted all of my family members, down to my very littlest cousin to have at least one photo of our loving uncle, father, brother, son and grandfather. And here is the result. I included the same poem I used for Nana's Christmas present as well as a favorite Christmas photo of him.

Christmas Gift Tags

My next project were all of the little gift tags, I want to include with my presents. I had the idea to make them layered and dangly and love how they turned out! They were incredibly time consuming but definitely worth it. I'll start my tutorial on how to make these little buggers from the bottom tag up.

1. Using my Slice, I die-cut a 4 in. tag out of Kraft cardstock using the Vintage Memories Design Card
2. Then, also using my Slice, I die-cut the word "joy" at 1 1/2 in. directly out of the tag, using the Mistletoe Design Card; and also being mindful of the placement of the word. I had to play a bit with positioning to get this in the general area of where I wanted the cut out to be. Save the cut out from the letter "O".
3. Next, I cut a 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 in square to back the word "joy" from behind. I choose Making Memories Argyle Mistletoe patterned paper bc it's decorative on both sides. I adhered it to the back of the tag and affixed the cut out from the letter "O" to the the red paper.
4. Playing with my left over cut-out, I sprayed the word "joy" with Emerald Metallic Maya Mist and set it aside to dry.
5. I typed out the phrase "Do not open until..." and arranged the text into the shape of a Christmas tree.
6. Using my Slice again, I cut out a mini tag from green cardstock and printed the text directly onto the tag. To decorate, with a gold paint pen, I added a star topper and the trunk of the tree. Finally, I inked the edges with gold stamping ink.
7. For the next layer, I again turned to my trusty Slice. I cut out a 2 in. ornament using the Mistletoe Design Card. Next, I distressed the edges with Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo distressing ink and stamped a red calendar with chalk ink and American Craft's 2 in. circle calendar stamp. I circled the word "DEC" and the number "25".
8. The easiest part were these gorgeous snowflakes cut from red cardstock, using the Mistletoe Design Card and the Slice.
9. Finally, I tied them all together with Martha Stewart's Holiday Baking Twine and hand wrote "To" and "From" on the large tag.

Gingerbread Men/Snowflake Gift Tags

These smaller tags were an after thought, but ended up being some of my favorite creations!

1. I cut up a manila folder into 2 in. x 3 1/2 in. rectangles. Hole punched a circle at the top and cut down two of the sides to create the look of a tag. Then, I distressed the edges using Tim Hotlz's Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and an ink blending tool.
2. Using the cut-out sheet from the previous gift tags, I positioned it over the manila tags and covered off the rest. I sprayed the Emerald Metallic Maya Mist and the Red Maya Mist over the cut out and then removed it to reveal the shape of snowflake.
3. Next, I cut out the shape of a gingerbread man using the Slice and the Mistletoe Design Card.
4. I threaded the two tags, along with a button, together using Martha Stewart's Holiday Baking Twine and tied it off with a bow

I had a lot of fun creating all of these Christmas goodies! So much fun, in fact, I made too many =) To get everyone into the holiday spirit and to wish you all a Merry Christmas, the first 5 people to comment on this blog entry will receive one of the Christmas tags showcased above. Please include your e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you for address details. Wishing you all mil blessings and besos!

xxbesos

j.leija