Top 12 of 2012

Hello friends! And happy almost New Year! Blogging today as I'm coming back from the dead. I caught a virus a few days before Christmas and am still suffering from it. It's frustrating, because all I've wanted to do with my days off is run errands and clean house, but I haven't had much energy for either of those things. I'm hoping to start feeling better soon though. Especially as my sweet boyfriend planned a lovely NYE dinner out and about.

I had a fairly productive year in scrapbooking terms. I made 120 layouts and 90 cards, 2 mini books and 6 altered art pieces. Not bad for a crazy busy year.

But seeing as we're at the end of 2012, I wanted to share my 12 favorite layouts from the year. Here are some stats on them:

There are five 12x12 layouts and seven 8 1/2 x 11. 

One is from Lisbon. 

One is from Bangkok. 

One is from Cambodia. 

One is from Japan. 

Three are for Urijah's album. 

Two feature Sketchbook sketches. 

Two are scraplifts.

Five instagram shots were used.

Seven were made using Studio Calico kits.

Matt made it into three.

Paint and mist were used on five layout each.

I stamped on nearly all of them.

But surprisingly washi was used on just a few.

I love each and every one of these, most especially because of their vibrant colors. This is my life, these are my loves =)

Without further adieu and in no particular order. Here are my 12 favorite layouts of 2012:

And that's all folks! Until next year, I hope you all have a sparkling night full of light and love.

cheers & besos,

Kraft Wrapping

Who doesn't love brown paper packages tied up with string?!

Here's how I wrapped the presents I showed you all a few days ago.

This first with yarn and a homemade pom.

The second with loads of washi for a more modern look.

And with this last, I stamped using white chalk ink and finished it off with a ribbon.

Don't they look lovely sitting under my tree?

Merry [early] Christmas yall!

cheers & besos,

Tomerlin Presies

Good morning! Man does it feel great to be scrapping and blogging again =) I'm still scrapping out of boxes, but I'm hopefully I'll spend a good chunk of next week getting my scrapbook area set up and organized. 

In the meantime, I made a few Christmas gifts that I wanted to share. It was frustrating to want to use some things I knew were packed, but I made these work in the end.

Here's a shadowbox (is that what we're calling these?) of Matt and his sweet Grandma Rose. 

I love this smaller size and the 3 little boxes to decorate. It makes it easy! Well, as easy I'll let it. These tiny spaces are hard for me to fill for some reason! These 3 took me hours to make because I kept shifting through options, trying to find what I wanted.

I drew a lot from the colors in each of the photos. Grandma Rose's shirt helped me pull in some blues and pinks, and the trees helped with the greens and yellows.

I used a hodge podge of products on all of these. Most notably on this one, I used some of the new 5th & Frolic from American Crafts and the Crate Paper Trendsetter I think it's called.

For this one of Matt and his family, I pulled out greens, blues and khakis, plus some black for good measure. Products are from Studio Calico, American Crafts, Basic Grey, Echo Park and the Girls Paperie.

But I think I had the most fun putting this one of Matt and his sister together. Jenn's shirt made for such a pretty jumping off point. There's some Dear Lizzy, Crate Paper, Amy Tangerine, Crate Paper, Echo Park thrown in here.

So yes, 3 presents done!! 5-6 more to go! Be sure to check back for more of these lil trays. Also, check back this week for the wrapping and decorating of the presents. Arguably, this might be my favorite part =)

cheers & besos,

Triumphant Return

I'm back! And not so sure how triumphant it might be, but I'm definitely back!

Made an absolute mess on my desk, had to dig through various cardboard boxes but I happily glued paper and photos today.

More to come later this week =)

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,

Boys Best Friend

Only my Mama would want to give a three year old a puppy! But that's what Urijah got this year. Don't worry, she didn't send the puppy home with him. Cadie lives at Gma & Gpa's.

They were so cute running around the house together. She's the perfect size for him at this age. Both of them are tiny. And full of energy! He runs around. She runs after him. He doesn't know what to think of her. But he's gotten use to her now. 

Whenever he comes to visit, Mama makes sure to tell her "Your little boy is coming". 

Cadie is so good with him. She licks his face and he giggles hysterically. I'm hoping one of these days they get this on tape!

For this page about my nephew and his puppy present, I printed two instagram shots. So happy they turned out! It's not easy to capture an energetic 3 year old and a hyper puppy! And lucky me Urijah was running around with that pretty yellow balloon. 

I used my Sock Hop kit and pulled all of the blue, green, yellow and gray from it that I could. Originally, I excluded the green but added it in breathed some life into the page. It's one of those balancing colors that made the whole layout sing!

Oh, and the puppy stamp isn't from the Sock Hop kit. It's from an old Paper Moon add-on. I couldn't not use it for this page about my nephew and his puppy.

Also, cheers to you all who have stuck around! I know I've been horribly negligent. Between NYC and Thanksgiving last week, helping throw a weekend away Bachelorette Party this upcoming and moving the following weekend, I'm going nuts! But bear with me. I'll be back and blogging soon enough.

Now off to my most dreaded task...packing up the scrapbook supplies (seriously my lip is quivering). The few hours I spent today playing with paper was the most relaxing thing I've done in weeks! Here's hoping I survive.

cheers & besos,

Happy Accidents

Raise your hand if you ever added something to a scrapbook page and immediately regretted it? Or felt that by adding just the one little element, it suddenly through the entire page off balance?

Oh man, do I do this all the time. 

Like for this page, the top red fishbone arrow that I stamped was driving me absolutely nuts. But I mean I stamped it, so it wasn't like I could just move it around on the page.

That's the point when it becomes a personal challenge. And when my creativity kicks in and my brian starts churning out "get out of jail" options.

What I came up with ended up adding a lot of texture to the page albeit very subtle texture. 

I punched scallop and pinked circles out of the blue cardstock to cover it up and also to add that texture I was talking about. Now, I didn't have another piece of that cardstock, so I had to get creative and cut out a big square from behind where I matted the patterned paper.

See, the back isn't pretty:

But it's fixed! In my eyes at least. 

Want to know another secret about this page? I used blue cardstock for the base as another of my fixes. My original idea for the background was to just use the patterned paper. But I ended up cutting it down to 7 1/2 x 11 by mistake. My fix was to turn on its side, trim and adhere to the cardstock base. Problem solved!

The page went in a totally different direction than what I had originally thought. But that's ok. I like how it turned out in the end. 

Happy accidents & minor mishaps, although seemingly mistakes, push your creativity. That can't make them all bad!

cheers & besos,

Flock Together

Sock Hop has been my friend. I decided to play around with my latest Studio Calico kit today. A mental gift to myself after this incredibly stressful week.

Did I tell you I'm moving? Oh, probably not since I only found out last week!! My apartment complex is being redeveloped (i.e. torn down) and we all need to be out ASAP. It's pretty terrible timing (when isn't it really) but at least I have a new apartment lined up! I'm very excited about it, just not at all excited about actually packing up and moving. I have so much stuff!!

Have any of you had to move a scrap room? Any tips or tricks would be appreciated =)

But anyway, back to my scrapbooking. Yes, I scrapbooked. And yes, I totally needed it. Plus, I completely love this page!!

I jumped on the feather trend and came up with this page about our annual Mountbatten meet up. These are some of my old flat mates and also my grad school friends. We live very far from each other, but we still try to make time to see each other at least once a year.

This year's meet up was last month in DC. We mixed it up a bit from last year and Patrick made the drive over from Connecticut.

For the page, I went a little Native American with the motif. But I completely love it. Love having the feathers dangle down from the bottom of the photo. There's 5 of us and 5 feathers to match.

But the dipped ends are what get me. I used these feathers from Anthropologie as inspiration. But I have to give Geralyn credit for spotting these and remarking what a great idea it would be to incorporate it with the wood veneer feathers in this month's kit. Why yes ma'am I do agree.

Ooookkk, back to packing and worrying about packing I go...
But hey I scrapbooked! It can't be all bad.

cheers & besos,

Queen Card

Happy Birthday Mrs. T! 

It's MT's mama's birthday today. So I made her a card for him to send. I used an old Simon Says Stamp card kit that I hadn't touched (I know!!) and made it a bit shabby chic. It's not my usual style, but I still liked how the card turned out.

I gravitated to the crown patterned paper and a gray/pink/white/cream color scheme. And just layered some elements on top of a doily, before paper clipping (and also adhering them) to the top of the card.

The dimension is what makes this card for me. I only glued the one corner together, the rest I left to hang loose a bit.

I printed the sentiment out on vellum, bordered punched the bottom and washi taped it to the card. And for some extra texture, I wrapped baker's twine around the card and finished it off with a bow.

cheers & besos,

Birthday Boy

Someone just celebrated his 32nd birthday =) We feasted on cheddar biscuits with bacon jam, burgers, steaks and pumpkin cheesecake. Not too shabby!

Of course, I had to make a card to celebrate. I used the Roller Rink card kit and some Papertrey Ink dies.

And can I just add, the mileage I've gotten from that Martha Stewart Happy Birthday punch is almost remarkable. It's definitely paid for itself!

Happy birthday babe! I hope you have a wonderful year!

cheers & besos,

Christmas with Urijah

I scrapped! I just couldn't take not scrapping anymore. I started these pages last night at 10:00 pm. 

Last week, I pulled out my Christmas box. I went through it all, rediscovering some of the great products I had, getting ideas and inspiration for this year's Christmas card. But I ended up with a pile of patterned paper scraps and odds and ends on my desk. Which was really helpful with this week's Studio Calico challenge.

As soon as I saw that it was a puzzle challenge, I knew I wanted to make a star. I pieced this one together tucking one leg under the photo and one over a corner that didn't have much in it. I love how it's all tucked in there nicely, the way Urijah is tucked into my brother's lap. And I love that the stars point and frame the two of them.

This page ended up being super hodge podge, as I pulled a ton of different designers and lines together. I like scrapping like that. I'll have to start doing more non-kit scrapping!

This next page was almost entirely done using last year's Studio Calico/Ali Edwards December Daily kit. I still really love that kit. And yes, I'm even ashamed to admit that I haven't used as much of it as I would have liked. But I'm doing it now, right! That has to count for something?!

I also used last week's Studio Calico Sunday Sketch for this photo of Urijah opening up his presents. I changed it up a lot, to make it work with my photo, but the basics are all still there.

Can I just say, I love a red and green color combo. Most of the time I'm trying to not let this combo look to Christmasy. But now, as I'm making these pages, I get to go all out!

I also love how they look in my book side by side. It just makes me happy =)

Oh, and in case you're wondering. I did not use last year's kit as a December Daily album. It's my Christmas album that I plan to keep adding to over the years.

What about you? Did you buy any December Daily or Christmas kits? Do you plan to DD or just use the stuff? I'd love to hear!

I pre-ordered both (yes I know I'm obsessed!) the Studio Calico and Kelly Purkey kits. I cannot wait for  them to get here. I already have plans for my KP kit. Still working on what I'm doing with SC's. Stay tuned, we'll find out together!

cheers & besos,