Geotag Canvas

Hey yall! Back this afternoon sharing my latest piece of altered art. It's a mixed media canvas that I've wanted to do for sooooo long now. And thanks to May's mini class in Camp Scrap, I was able to get it done. 

I've had this idea for at least a year now. And I'm so happy that I finally got around to doing it. Plus! I used this crap old canvas I had started to paint on in 2009!!! It's just been dragged from one apartment to the next in its ugly half painted state. Upcycling at it's best =)

I dug into my postcard collection for this piece. I've collected them from all over the world and wanted to get them up in my apartment in some way. And so, this geotag canvas was born.

I went to Kinko's and photocopied and lightened all of my postcards. I also reduced the size to 80%. When I got home, I decopauged them to the canvas using Perfect Paper Adhesive. It was my first stab at this kind of thing, so some of the pages bubbled, some of the corners didn't stick. But I was ok with that. I wanted it to look handmade.

Using wrapping paper (because who gets actual newspapers anymore?!) I made a template of the geotag and traced it over the postcards. After that, it took a somewhat steady hand to outline it in black and then paint the rest of the canvas. It's far from perfect but I absolutely love how it turned out!

Here are a few close ups:

I hung it on the wall that's directly in front of my bedroom door. You can see it as you walk from the living room to the kitchen. I've loved catching glimpses of it as I walk around the apartment.

And, as you can see. I really like black canvases with white designs! Over my bed is an older piece I did of the London skyline. I also have a huge canvas over my living room couch. 

cheers & besos,

Goals: June Update

How is it the last day of June?! Where in the heck has this year gone? And look at us, already 1/3 of the way through summer. So crazy, but such is life.

As it is the end of the month, I wanted to revisit my summer goals; to give yall a little update on my progress. Here they are again with my comments:

• 01. Grandparents Mini. Not started
• 02. Note Mini. Not started
• 03. Japan Mini. Nearly done! I just need one last push to help check this one off.
• 04. Start Travels Mini. Well lookie there, it's started! More on this, later in the week.

• 05. Start Paper Life Mini. Not started.
• 06. Start Project 12 Mini. Not started.
• 07. Update blog design. Done!
• 08. Catch up on classes. Well, I've more or less kept up with the one class I'm currently taking. Just need to get back through the older two I had wanted to revisit.
• 09. Organize ephemera. I pulled everything out and got overwhelmed in about 2.5 seconds. So I put everything away again. I'll get to this this summer. I'm determined. But just not today.
• 10. Create art. It's done! Thanks to Camp Scrap and May's Mixed Media mini class, I was able to gather the necessary tools to get what I had in my head down on canvas. Check back later for a full post on this project.

• 11. Decorate guest room. I finished it! So excited about how this room turned out. More on the blog later this afternoon.

• 12. Walk 100 miles. According to my calculations, I'm at 34.7 miles. Right on track!
• 13. Take 100 pictures. Thanks Chicago, for all of the great memories and for helping add to my scrap-able photo bucket. I'd say we're at 60 photos.

I'm so proud of myself for setting up my goals and getting them done. I love making lists and ticking things off of them, but when it comes to goals, I always find it difficult to stick with them. This is the first time I've really followed through. 

So much of it had to do with my mindset. Since I love my list of goals, I really wanted to get them done. Nearly everyday this month I'd think to myself, "ok what's one thing I can do to help me tick off a goal". Having goals that I love, I think has helped tremendously.

That room didn't come together over night, I had to buy the bookshelf. Then on a separate trip I had to buy some storage bins. I spent another day hanging things and making up the bed.

Same with the mixed media piece. One day I had to make the photo copies. Another, I bought the adhseive. And of course, it took a few days to actually finish the piece. 

Taking the time to make them cognitive thoughts as I've gone through my days, has been the reason I'm able to check things off my list!

4 goals completely checked off, 3 goals well on their way to being completed and 6 to be started. With 2 months left to go, I like my odds.

What about yall? Did you make any summer goals? Have you stuck to them? I'd love to hear!

cheers & besos,

Mini Book Class

Guys have you seen this?! Celine has a Mini Book Workshop at Two Peas in a Bucket!

Since my summer goals consisted of a fair amount of mini books, I couldn't not get this class! Just signed up and am diving into the materials now =)

I'll be sure to report back on this and the other classes I'm taking this summer, soon!

cheers & besos,

Hong Kong Skyline

Hey yall! Hope everyone had a lovely week. 

It's crazy to believe I was in Chicago only Monday and now it's Friday and sadly I'm home sick in bed. I'm hoping with more rest this weekend, that I'll be on the mend. But until then, I'll share a scrapbook layout with you.

I'm still chugging along with May at Camp Scrap. This was what I came up with for the Week 2: Layering Mini Class. I loved the colors in these photos (btw, they were the first photos I ever processed with Rad Lab. And I love them! But unfortunately the photos don't do them justice!!) so I pulled patterns in blues and grays with pops of greenish colors and that bright magenta.

I used an older Shimelle.com sketch as the basis for this page and minimal embellishments. But I made sure to use my last purchase before my Product Free Summer started, the Wanderlust set from Mama Elephant. These might be one of my most favorite stamp sets. I've used them on a few projects already!

I'm undaunted about being behind in my Camp Scrap lessons. Like May said, I won't have time to do everything. But I'm getting my game plan together for the next week and a half and really considering how I want to finish out this class.

I hope all of the above made sense. Apologies if it's a bit scattered!!
Ok, back to sleep. But I felt like I needed to tick at least one thing off my to do list!

cheers & besos,

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Nursela! You're the winner of last week's blog giveaway =)

I'm e-mailing you next so be on the look out!

Thanks everyone for commenting! It was fun to hear about everyone's fave color.

Blue was the overwhelming winner and I thought it was interesting that nearly everyone that said blue, mentioned that they liked every shade of blue. I included all of the turquoise/teal/aqua fans in this group.

Only one person said yellow was their favorite color (like me!) first and the others picked it as accents.

I also loved that some of you mentioned your color choices in your home/clothes vs. in your scrapbooking.

The next highest color choice was green! And nature is directly attributed to that.

And pink rounded out the top 3.

cheers & besos,

LBD: Cards!

Just very quickly wanted to share, what my graveyard of Little Black Dress Kit paper scraps created. 5 cards!! Combining them with the Pebbles sentiment stickers was perfection. 

In honor of Memorial Day, all of these (along with a few others) were sent off to Cards for Soldiers. It had been awhile since I sent them anything and that definitely needed to be corrected.

If you have an extra card or two sitting around, consider sending of to them, won't ya?

cheers & besos,

LBD: My People

I have another LBD video and page to share with yall! I used the June 2013 Little Black Dress kit which was sadly announced to be the last one :( I'm bummed. But happy to have had the opportunity to work with them as long (or as short) as I did.

I'll let the video do the talking for this page, about the people I depended on the most, those first few months in London. 

Here are the stills and the close ups!

cheers & besos,

Chicago-Scrapbook Essentials

Hiya from Chicago! We're safe & sound tucked up in our hotel room for the night. We're both pretty beat from the travel, but most probably because of the delicious burger we had for dinner.

But tonight, I wanted to share the little scrapbook kit I put together this morning in preparation for this mini vacay.

There's two blank moleskines in there bc I wasn't sure what size I wanted to use. 

Two tags of washi for color & hold. 

A tiny pair of scissors. 

My smash pen (ink on one side, glue stick on another).

Amy Tan date stamp with a mini ink pad. 

And a smattering of fun paper clips. 

All of its nicely contained in a cute zipper pouch that fits so neatly in my Amy Tangerine purse. 

I'm about to get working on today's pages. Can't wait to share!

cheers & besos,

Chicago-Wardrobe Selections

I'm off to Chicago tomorrow. It was time. I go for a few months without getting on a plane and the twitching starts. I can't help it. I'm now programmed to travel!

I'm so excited for this mini trip. It's me and my Mama, off for a long girls weekend in a new city. Neither of us has been before, so we don't really know what to expect. But as long as it's the two of us together, I'm not at all worried. She's a friggin blast (and adorable to boot)!!

But in preparation for our visit, wardrobe packing has been highly discussed. I'm all for packing light and picking up new goodies in the places I visit. She's more for being prepared for any scenario (the lady is packing two hoodies bc one won't be enough!)

Here's what I'm planning to pack:

1-Dress
1-Pair of pants
1-Sweater
2-Tops
2-Tanks
1-Pair of walking shoes
1-Pair of flip flops
1-Pair of wedges

I'll probably end up throwing an extra pair of shorts in for good measure. Plus of course the whole gamete of undergarments, make up & hair utensils. I'll post my packed bag in the morning. But really wanted to show off how versatile just those few items can be. Lots of mixing and matching, and the shoes let me dress everything either up or down.

More stuffs coming at you tomorrow. I'll also post about the scrapbook/photography items I'll be taking along for the ride. Until then...

cheers & besos,

Hello Today

Morning yall! Wow, I never expected this much of response for the giveaway! Thank you all for commenting. It's going on until Sunday, so if you haven't already comment while you have the chance.

This morning, I just wanted to do a quick share of a fun page I made over the weekend. It's not for any challenges, I didn't use any kits, I just grabbed some stuff from my "new goodies" drawer and played.

I'm loving the look of stacked photos these days. And thankfully, these photos had enough "dead" spaces for me to layer them on top of each other. And I got to cover up our messy brunch table.

I used more goodies from The Pier collection by Crate Paper. I love it so much!!

I loved how the photos looked on this neutral background color. It made them pop AND meant I could add color with my embellishments. I had fun clustering these around the page.

Just a sprinkling of gold Color Shine and I was done with my page.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Monday everyone =)

cheers & besos,

Blog Giveaway

**Winner posted here**

Blog giveaway yall!! I've been doing some deep cleaning these past few weeks and have pared down my stash a nice bit. Some of it's going off to my local Child Welfare office for their Life Books programme. And some of it I put into a special box for one of you!

There's a ton o stuff in there:

• Little Black Dress Kit
• My Mind's Eye Collection Pack
• 3-6x6 paper pads
• Simon Says Stamp set
• 2-Date stamps
• 24 single sheets of paper
• Camera earrings (from Scotland!)
• Ribbons
• Baker's Twine
• Chipboard Alphas

All you have to do is comment below for the chance to win! How about you tell me your favorite color. Easy enough :) Oh, and please make sure if you anonymously post or don't have an e-mail address associated with your profile, that I have a way to get a hold of you!

I'll be off to Chicago next week (more on that later) but let's say the giveaway will be open until Sunday, 23 June at 11:59pm CST. Also open to international participants. Good luck!

cheers & besos,

LBD: Brunch with Lauren

Happy Friday yall!! Oh geez...that was a too much enthusiasm. After last night's escapades I kinda can't believe I had the energy to muster even that!! =)

But I digress....

Today I wanted to share another Little Black Dress Kit layout with yall!

I used a sketch from my old Bright Ideas class for this layout. I had a lot of photos I wanted to share on one page. So lining them all up along the edges was the best way to go.

I left a few of the "boxes" open and added some patterned paper and die cuts for embellishing. The tea cup is in reference to Ms. Lauren's favorite song. She howls with laughter whenever we sing "I'm a little tea pot short and stout..." and move her arms to the words in the song. It's the cutest thing!

I added some of the great fringe for more texture. In pink of course, since we're all girls :)

I created and die cut my title using the Silhouette and added some glittery Thickers atop for dimension.

And with just the littlest bit of stamping, I was done!

cheers & besos,

Transparency Card

Yesterday, after I finished my layout, I posted this pic on instagram. It's some of the leftovers from my Hello Summer layout. One of our Camp Scrap challenges (last day to sign up yall, if you want in on the fun!) was to create something from our scraps.

Here's what I came up with, and I'm so excited about it! I made the base out of the leftover transparency from my page!!! I love the color combo here and the cute die cut. Plus, that it's a square. For whatever reason they look more visually pleasing to me :)

And since all the patterned paper I was using is double sided, you get to see the "B" side when you open up the card.

I used a spray adhesive to stick the patterned paper base down and so you wouldn't see any through the clear transparency. Then I decorated with some of the left over washi and die cut printables.

I think it came out cute! And I'm so excited to keep creating with this beyond gorgeous collection. AND that I get to use these printables over and over again. If you're a semi-hoarder like me, that should make you very happy.

Check out Geralyn's In a Creative Bubble Shoppe for more of her awesome work. I love it!

cheers & besos,