Training in Toronto

I told you I loved the hanging off the page of another page look. Here it is again! And yes, if you're keeping track that would be 3 pages in a row =) I think I've found my staple/go to design.

Last May work sent me to Toronto for a day to do some training. It was a super short trip but we completely made the most of it.

Journaling Reads:

"One of the most amazing perks of my job is that they let me travel! Since working at the Consulate I’ve been to DC (twice), San Francisco, Denver, Louisiana, England, Scotland and now Canada! I’ve always wanted to visit. Haileigh and I flew up for a day of training (and touring). We got in late, grabbed a quick dinner and headed to bed. But we made sure to get a jump in the morning. We had maple syrup to eat and H&M to visit! We made it through our training (which was actually very useful) and then headed out with Captain Canada and his team. They showed us an awesome time, drinks in the shadow of the Trump Tower, beers at the local pub. Then released into the wild for some late night Thai foraging on our own. No Haileigh you cannot eat lasagna at a Thai restaurant! All in all, a jam-packed day but truly one of the most wonderful parts of my job."

I used my Roller Rink kit and the Crack the Whip add-on, pulling out a tan/gray/red/blue color combo.

I loved all the great reds in the kit, especially in the Echo Park alpha stickers. I also used a lot of speech bubbles on this page, including the super random "holla", "nerd" and "lol". What are people using these for?! But I made them work for this page simply by flipping them over and using the backs.

This paper from Teresa Collins ended up being a great cut apart sheet. I trimmed it into strips and cut out words to anchor and fill in that bit of trapped space between the speech bubbles and my journaling.

And then I journaled directly on the fab washi tape, using my slick writer. Does anyone else find it takes a bit for those pens to "warm" up for lack of a better word? It's really thin when you start writing and then it gets to the right consistency after a sentence or two.

Well, that's it for me today. I'm off to study some note cards. Joy! ;)

cheers & besos,

Travel Tips: Trips with Boys

'ello loves! Today I'm blogging my monthly travel tip/scrapbook page. 

Lately, I've been trying to think of common themes for my photos. And somewhere along the way, I started thinking about all of the trips I've taken with just the boys. All of China, 5 days in Prague & Budapest, a weekend in Norway, plus our J3 day trips. My experiences traveling are always colored by the people I'm with, and believe me these boys have some color.

But guys are super different to travel with than girls. I wrote in my journaling:

"I’ve been a lot of places with a lot of people & I have to say, my trips with the boys have been some of my favorites. In general, dudes are more “go with the flow” & low key, a LOT less drama. But they have their moments. A few things to remember about traveling with boys: they will prefer outdoorsy adventures, they sometimes walk around with their shirts off, hanging out in a pub is a perfectly acceptable way to spend a day in a foreign city & sometimes they get into random wrestling matches. It’s all in good fun & I recognize how lucky I am to have such a great group of guy friends. What can I say? I’m a bro at heart."

It also has to be said that I've never felt safer when I travel than when I'm with the guys. There was a hairy moment in Budapest, one of the few moments I've experienced of that kind, that had me so thankful to be with a group of boys.

I'll also never forget that one hard sleeper train we took in China. Where the only minutes of sleep I got were on James' shoulder.

I will forever cherish the crazy video Jon and Kevin made me, as they left the girls they were with to bring back the camera I thought I'd lost. I don't think they were very happy with me. But they left them all the same just to make sure I wasn't upset about my not-really-at-all-lost camera. Which they then ironically used to verbally berate me....

I guess this is less travel tips and more a gush fest on my part, for these wonderful boys that I love.

Oh, and last thing about traveling with boys. They're always hungry!!

cheers & besos,

Mother/Daughter

I'm back! Sorry about the brief hiatus. I wish I could be blogging and scrapbooking at my regular pace. But alas, I'm studying to sit for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam. Needless to say, that's eating up a lot of my time.

But here's a page I made today! 

Earlier this week, I spent an evening with my Roller Rink kit, pairing photos with possible papers and products. I didn't have time to do anything with them, but it made me feel creative to just do that. It was a temporary hit of a much needed scrapbooking high! =)

This black and white photo of me and my Mama was a rejected photo for her birthday card and I thought it went so beautifully with the blue patterned paper. This was my favorite sheet from this month's kit and I'm so glad I got to feature it in a big way on this page. 

And also that I got to scrapbook!! I spent hours studying today and by 5 pm I was done. I rewarded myself with a bit of scrap therapy.

The design is based on a sketch from Scrapbook Trends' submission page. But I played around with the elements just a bit.

As a nod to the stripe at the top and bottom of the sketch, I thought it'd mix it up and have the entire design hang off the side of a plain sheet of cardstock. I love this look and will totally be using it again and again. Also think I was subtly influenced by the lovely Steph on this one =)

[PHOTO]

The sketch called for a banner and I wanted it to have a bit more texture to it. So I cut a whole mess of pennants, outlined them white pen and inked the edges with Tin Can chalk ink. I strung them up on a piece of yarn (not included in the kit) and had them overlap each other.

I decorated the "open air" with Amy Tan puffy stickers and punched vellum clouds. I also punched two tiny birdies out of the backside of the second blue vellum envelope (from the Crack the Whip add-on). I can't even begin to describe how gorgeous that shade of teal/steel gray blue is in real life! The photos don't do it justice.

[PHOTO]

I loved the wood veneer chevrons in the kit but they were too brown for the page. So I dressed them up with some Martha Stewart Glitter Paint in silver. The same paint I used on the inside of my December album last year.

The quote in the sticker was the perfect touch, since glitter was mentioned. Also because I'm looking straight at the camera and you get to see my big semi-Asian eyes, another gift from my mother.

[PHOTO]

Journaling Reads:

"My parents grew up in a different era. They met young, married you and started having babies young. My Mama was only 21 when I was born. She always says she grew up along with me. But as a kid you never notice such things. She was just my Mama, someone I looked up to. Literally! As an adult, I can appreciate all of the sacrifice that went into being a young Mama and I'm sure there were opportunities she may have had to let pass. I'm eternally grateful for her love & her sacrifice. I firmly believe her selflessness helped pave the way for some of my opportunities. I still (metaphorically) look up to my Mama. There's a lot of amazing in her tiny frame."

Can I say that I'm in love with this page? I love the soft colors and all of the little elements. It's not my usually style but I think it's why I like it!

I wanted it to be soft and a bit dreamy and the color helped enforce that. Which was the topic for this week's Glitter Girl video. I totally choose colors based on my photos. I think it's one of my scrapbooking strengths!

Ok, I think I'll end it there. I was a bit wordy today, apologies. I think it's because I've been blog deprived this week! I have a few more projects to share. But be forewarned I'll be around more scantily than usual. Counting down the days until November 11th!!

cheers & besos,

3x5x30

Sharing 3 cards made in 5 minutes and blogged within 30 minutes. This is live people! =)

I'm short for time these days. Between work travel, work, the new mentoring program I'm starting at work, being sick and now studying for my PMP exam, the days...well they aren't getting any longer.

Yet, somehow I still have time to kill hours on the internet :P Which is how I came across Ellie's 5 Minute Card Challenge.

Knowing I needed to make something, I've been itching to do it! And knowing I needed to update the good old blog. I figured I could squeeze in a 30 min activity. 

I grabbed 3 card blanks and my Roller Rink Card Kit. I quickly gravitated to the printed vellum speech bubbles. I paired them all up and went through the paper pad to find coordinating colors.

Loved the green, red and gray together! So I tore 'em out and ran them through my Big Shot using the Papertrey Ink banner builder dies.

For dimension, I added either a Amy Tan sticker or an MME enamel dot. Then, I snipped a piece of twine (not included in the kit) for each card and tied knots on both ends. Glued them to the top of the banner and finished with a sprinkling of Mister Huey in Clay.

I wanted to play with both rounded and straight edges, since the speech bubbles reflect both those designs so well. Corner rounding the one edge was the last step.

And done!! 3 cards, made in 5 minutes (or thereabouts) and blogged within 30.

Deep breaths....and now I head off to study. Happy Saturday!

cheers & besos,

Chevron Thank You

I'm back! And I'm sick :( But, as always I had an amazing time with my friends. So much so that I get a little depressed when I have to come home without them. If only we all lived in the same city again!

Enough about that, I wanted to share my birthday "Thank You" cards. I made a big batch of these to send to all the friends & family who made my birthday special.  

I used my Central High card kit and my new chevron die cuts from Papertrey Ink. Which, I'm still determined to keep using despite just having purchased a Silhouette!! I'm so excited to play with it and to take the Studio Calico Cut it Out class.

I purchased the Silhouette Cameo bundle from Amazon rather than, SC and got an extra cutting mat and cutting blade. Which in the long run, will turn out to be a much better deal. Even though I didn't get the second $10 gift card to the online store, I thought it was very well priced. Because lets face it, the cuts are the cheapest part!

Ok, that's my PSA for the day :) Happy to be back and blogging! And hopefully scrapping since my SC goodie box arrived while I was away.

cheers & besos,

TBT: Buckingham Palace

Happy Thursday yall! That means, a Throw Back Thursday post =)

I'm reaching into the not too distant past with these photos. Still, they were taken 5 years ago! I can hardly believe it sometimes.

The photo is the backside of Buckingham Palace. I got to take the tour in late August while the Queen was summering at Windsor Palace. It was one of the first excursions I did when I first moved to London, well worth the £13.50 it cost. And I only remember it cost that much because I unearthed the entry ticket from my folder of ephemera. 

I used my Central High kit for this page and honestly, really struggled with fitting everything together. Especially since I found that ticket after I had picked and cut into the paper. Cutting a slit and tucking it in was the best option I came up with. But I'm sad that you don't get to see the details like the date and price right off the bat.

I like the colors, we were have exceptionally lovely weather that weekend. Love seeing London against the backdrop of blue skies and sunshine!

I miss that place and my friends so much. But I'm excited that I get to go see a few of them this weekend!

Blogging might be scanty due to my travels. I'm off tomorrow and back on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll get to do some blogging in the midst.

cheers & besos,

With Love from Mama

Do you save your birthday cards? I always try to. But not many of them translate to scrapbook status. Unless they're really special...or just down right hilarious!

Allow me to introduce my mother :) She's cute and lil, silly and funny. And also a total space cadet. But I love that about her.

This year, I just had to scrapbook the birthday card she sent to me. While a very straight forward birthday card, she made a few mistakes along the way.

Exhibit A: She wrote the wrong century!! It's been 12 years since we've had to use the "19" prefix. Silly rabbit.

Exhibit B: She forgot to send my birthday present because she forgot she didn't have checks in her purse. Oh mama...

You really can't help but love her! I know I do. This may have been better than an actual present. A memory of one of my mama most endearing traits.

cheers & besos,