Heart Eyes

The page is titled "heart eyes" and I have heart eyes whenever I look at it! It's one of my favorites from this year! 

The page itself is based off of a sketch from the July 2016 issue of [Simple Scrapper]'s Spark Magazine--No. 313 for fellow members.

I knew I wanted to scrapbook these photos. And I decided to pull out the [Heart Story Stamp] from Ali Edwards. But it was only when I really looked at that set that I noticed the "heart eyes" phrase.

Because I knew I was going to use that stamp, I decided to pull out all of the fun [emoji products] I've been collecting. They made for such a fun and playful page!

cheers & besos,

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,

3Muskateers

I know I declare this regularly, but I'm serious when I say this is my latest favorite page. Maybe even my most favorite page ever!

I had so much fun putting this together and I'm so glad I decided to film the process. Here's a process video of how it all came together =)

Products used: [Acrylic Sunglasses] [Marie Alphabet Stamps] [Jonah Alphabet Stamps] [May Kit] [Thankful Paper Collection] [Little Moments Paper Collection] [Little Moments Paper Stack] [Letters & Numbers--White] [Letters & Numbers--Light Gray] [Letters & Numbers--Teal] [Tim Holtz Distress Stain--Peacock Feather] [Color Theory Inkpad--Pink Lemonade] [Color Theory Inkpad--Inky Black]

Here's the original sketch which was a bit hard to see in the video:

And the original inspiration!

cheers & besos,

Don't Forget

It's the little things that we tend to forget. I think we can all agree on that. Life can change slowly or quickly. Sometimes you don't see it coming. Sometimes you plan for it to change. 

For me, it's always so odd to plan for a change. I find myself going back and forth, weighing options and also just deciding in a flash. Hoping and praying that I've made the right choice.

This page is all about documenting life on the precipce of a change. It's not a huge change, but it's one that's definitely going to change our everyday lives. We've decided to adopt a kitten! New pets always make life exciting. And current pets meeting new pets is going to make for an interesting experiment for sure. Here's hoping that it's changing our family for the better!

I used the new Elle's Studio [Documented] items for this page, which is about five things I don't want to forget about what life was like as a family of three--mama, papa and puppy. There are [Journaling Tags] and [Stamps] and also [Acrylic Words] but I didn't use those here.

My favorite detail and really the start of this whole page are the little "don't forget" tabs. I wanted them to be reminiscent of an old idea. In order to remember something, people would [tie a string around their finger]. You know, in the days long before we had phones to alert and remind us of everything. So I stamped [don't forget] on a strip of patterned paper and tied a string around it.

Here's to hoping that I've made the right decision for my family! Can't wait to share more about the little creature that will soon be coming to our home.

cheers & besos,

Charleston Mini

MT and I visited Charleston last October for his birthday. We were only there for a few days but in that time we ate some good food, did a bit of sightseeing and then I got food poisoning and wanted to die. It was bad! Clearly I survived, but it definitely was a speed bump to what was shaping up to be a very nice trip!

I used the Elle's Studio [Travelogue] mid-release products for this micro-mini. There were a lot of photos so I ended up putting together a slide show for your viewing pleasure. To read more about it, head over to the [Elle's Studio blog]!

cheers & besos,

Inspiration Inventoried: My Sweetheart

I decided to go ahead and put together a quick Inspiration Inventoried video for this page, which was my favorite from the weekend.

Here are a few of the links I mentioned in the video:

[InkieQuill]

[ScrapStream No. 3]

InkieQuill [Heart Embellishments]

Jen Schow's [A Little Piece of my Heart] layout

Elle's Studio [Heart Digital Cut File]

And here are the still images from the page!

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,

We Three

I feel hopeful. 2015 ended up being such a bad year for us for many different reasons. So I can only hope that 2016 is better! So far so good and I'm hopeful that will continue. 

I wrote about this feeling on my latest Simple Scrapper page. It's part of February's issue of Spark Magazine and is based off one of the sketches from this month's release. (No. 288 for all of my fellow Simple Scrappers).

I haven't used kraft as a base in a minute, so this was a fun change of pace. I loved adding in all of these layers and bits and pieces pulled from my stash. It's been so long since I've scrapbooked just from my stash! So I decided to make that one of my goals this year. At least a quarter of my pages need to be put together from anything but a kits. Don't get me wrong, I love my kits! But they mean I neglect the other 90% of the stuff that I have. And I love all of that stuff so much too!

I think that's why I love the details on this page so much. This tiny house, that wood veneer heart, the cheers stamp, they're all to do with the photo and the journaling and the day. Sometimes those things line up with whatever kit I'm working with. But often they don't. Making a commitment to my stash means that I get to create these awesome customized pages. I don't need to do it for every layout. But it should definitely be a bigger part of my process than it currently is.

Also, I can't underscore how awesome the Simple Scrapper sketches are! They just keep getting better and better. And they're making it harder to decide between every month. I already can't wait to show you the page I make with next month's sketch. It's gonna be good!

cheers & besos,

7th Anniversary

Well that passed quickly. Can't believe Matt and I just celebrated our 7 year anniversary! We actually marked the occasion this year, so I had to scrapbook it. We usually forget because the day we call our anniversary is right between both of our birthdays, so there's a lot of other celebrating going on.

The page was made with the Scrapbook Circle Start Fresh kit and the Shine Bright (sold out) add-on. I loved those big numbers! And I totally took advantage of them being transparent. I love them laid out on top of each other. It helps reinforce the idea of all of the years running together and of them building on top of each other.

Because so much was going on with the numbers, I kept the rest of the page very simple. Title, journaling, a single embellishment cluster and a bit of patterned paper in the corner to balance it all out.

I blogged about this, which introduces a new challenge, over on the Scrapbook Circle blog. You'll have to head that way to hear more about it. I'm so excited about the concept!

cheers & besos,

Coffee & Donuts

I'm so excited to share my first Elle's Studio projects. I loved playing with the January kit and the stamps and the cut files. I wanted to use so much of it that I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone and totally went for it with this pocket page paired with a 9x12 in layout.

The two pages together don't necessarily tell the same story. Really, the only thing they have in common is that the photos were taken on our trip to Portland. But I like them together for some reasons. And I totally think its ok if in my head these are a double page spread =)

The page is a little love note to my boyfriend. I want to make sure he knows that I adore him. I mixed patterned papers from the Thankful collection in with a few of the cards from the January kit. That gradient card was my favorite. I love the colors! It was the perfect little landing place for the  "Adore You" acrylic piece which I used as my title.

But my most favorite item of them all was the stamp set. And especially the stamp set paired with the most amazing ink pad I've ever used. Look at this photo: I stamped on it with white ink. WHITE INK! It's truly a unicorn, a white ink pad that actually works. 

To me, this stamped so clearly it almost looks like a digital brush. But nope, this was done by hand. To note: I left it to sit out for a good hour before sliding it into the pocket. I didn't want a smeary image because it does take a bit to dry.

I also loved those tiny donuts! I need to figure out more ways to incorporate them into my projects because I think they're just too cute. And really, they were the jumping off point for choosing these photos. Donuts = Voodoo Donuts = Portland = Our trip in 2014. I stamped these with two teal, purple and red ink and then heat embossed pink sprinkles on a few of 'em. They look scrumptious to me!

I adored this cut file which is of hearts. But, a few of the hearts are only half cut and you fold them over to see them whole. I love the texture and dimension it adds to this pocket! I used that file to make a few cards, which I will share later this week. It's turned out to be one of my favorite cut files I've ever used! And the "negative" hearts that came out of the pocket design, were added to the Adore You layout as a bit of tone on tone texture. Win win!

I had so much fun playing with these products. And as of this posting, they're available over in the Elle's Studio shop. The kit is normally available for $11.99, but until 2:00am CST, it's only $9.99. So if you're interested in nabbing it, I'd suggest doing it now. Because as always, the kit, the stamps, the extras are gone when they're gone. So get them while they're hot!

The rest of the design team are also sharing their projects today. You can see everything over in the Designer's gallery. I'm racing over there as soon as this posts to see what everyone has created!

cheers & besos,

Simple Scrapper-January 2016

Hiya! I have an equally exciting but possibly less surprising announcement. 

I've signed up for another year on the Simple Scrapper creative team!

I love being a part of Simple Scrapper. Jennifer's resources and toolkits are just perfect for this nerdy planner girl who likes to take time to think through what I want to accomplish, plan it out and then do it! 

I love the sketches. I like the story starters. I adore Spark Magazine! Some of my favorite layouts have come from these resources and some of my best planning comes from events like Refresh, when I stop to take a minute to think about where my focus should be. 

Here are the January pages I submitted for the 25th issue of Spark! 

I had fun with this cheeky page about my "puppy daddy". Really it was just an excuse to scrapbook cute puppy photos. She was so tiny! I don't even remember her being that small and it was just a short time ago.

I used two different Studio Calico lines and Elle's Studio stamps for the page. I think the color combo is my favorite part of it!

The second page was all about my daily personal hygiene. Which the older I get, seems to become more involved! I took a photo of all of the products I use (or should use) on a daily basis. It's a lot!

The Simple Scrapper sketch I based the page off of called for circles of patterned paper. But I decided to use photos instead. I event staged my own little photo shoot to get the images. I also have more journaling tucked underneath the main photos.

These two ended up being some of my latest favorite pages! And this last one was definitely not something I would have documented, were it not for the Story Starters for the month.

I'm excited to spend another year on the Simple Scrapper team. Next week is the first Refresh of the year. Click over to read more about the fun (planner nerd fun) we'll be having!

cheers & besos,