My Tribe

I hope everyone had a great holiday last week! Ours was very low key. But I'm still very happy to be home in Houston and off for the entire week! I have big plans to get some organizing done, do a bit of scrapbooking, some planning. It's gonna be good y'all.

I'll kick off by sharing a page from my Tell your Story Scrapbook Circle gallery. It's for the Lifting You challenge and you can read more about it over on the SBC blog.

I've had this "story" on my list for awhile now. There's was nothing in particular that sparked this memory for me, when I sat down to play with the kit. Really I think I just wanted to spend some time with these sweet faces for a bit of time. I miss everyone so much!

I lived with these people. I studied with them. I traveled with them. We spent so much time together in the year and half when we all lived in the same two cities. Sincerely, these were some of the best days of my life. And I just wanted to spend some time reliving those days.

Which really is the beauty of scrapbooking. It's not just taking the time to remember. It's almost like you're honoring the memory by documenting it. I love this hobby. It just makes me happy =)

cheers & besos,

Christmas Tags & Envelope

I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas! I'm in San Antonio spending the days with my family. But before all of the merriment is over, I thought I'd share the money envelopes and tags I made for the season. I love how they turned out!

cheers & besos,

Merry Christmas

To all who celebrate Christmas, here's wishing you the merriest of days!

cheers & besos,

Doublemint Twins

I hereby give any scrapbooker permission to copy any page they've ever made, and this pertains to either the design OR subject matter. That's what I did last month when I was working with the Good Cheer Scrapbook Circle kit.

Last Christmas I took a photo with my twin cousins, Nina and Mia. Looking at the photo made me remember the page I created in 2009 (left) of the 3 of us on Christmas. So I decided to make a new page (right) and call it the same thing.

This was for the Take 2 Challenge on the Scrapbook Circle blog. I lifted a page from Gina's Make it Happen gallery.

I love seeing these two pages side by side. It just helps me appreciate the passage of time. Which, I'm sure, anyone with children already knows all about.

Since I'm in San Antonio this year, I'll definitely have to snap a photo of the 3 of us tonight. It's now a little tradition!

cheers & besos,

Meta Layout

Ever have days when you just want to create for the sake of creating? I sat down at my scrapbook dish the other day, brand new Scrapbook Circle kit in my paws, and I just decided that I wanted to play. 

I've had scrapbooking style on the brain ever since (and of course before) the December style issue of Spark Magazine was published. So I wanted to make a page representing what I think my style is these days: graphic, colorful, textured, layered.

I used the September Scrapbook Circle sketch as my inspiration and literally plugged and played with it. I outlined where the items were meant to go. I sketched out my thought process and the elements of the page, and included the design speak to go along with it.

I'm calling this my "meta" layout. Since it's a scrapbook page about my scrapbook style highlighting and visualizing my scrapbooking style.

I've documented to much else about my life, why not my scrapbooking style along with it? 

So what do you think? Would you describe my style as graphic, colorful, textured and layered. I think that's me. But maybe you see something different. I'd love to hear if you agree...or even disagree!

Style is such an interesting thing and something I want to explore a bit more in 2016. Do you have a go-to style? Share in the comments what your staples are!

cheers & besos,

Christmas Markets

December means its Christmas market time in Europe! They are seriously some of the most magical places to wander and explore. Last year, I visited the one in Basel, Switzerland. 

I instagrammed the heck out of it! So when I was making the layout, I decided to keep my photos square. The design is based of a Simple Scrapper sketch (No. 258 for the members).

I love when a group of products so perfectly matches photos. For me, the Good Cheer kit from Scrapbook Circle + two shades of blue cardstock, just so perfectly encapsulated the vibe of the market.

I blogged about this over on the Scrapbook Circle blog last month. If you want to check it out there and take a look at the kit, click here.

This is honestly one of my most favorite Christmas pages ever! I just love how it all came together =)

cheers & besos,

Birthday Cards

You guys, I feel so productive right now! I've been mentally patting my back since I made these cards. Wanna know why? I's because I sat down, thought up all of the wonderful ladies and gentlemen I might want to send a birthday card too, tallied that number up, sat down and made them! 

That's right, all of the birthday cards I need for the year are done! You can read more about them over on the Scrapbook Circle blog if you'd like. 

I have to say I'm pretty stoked about this! The only thing that's left is for me to write a little note and pop them in the mail.

GASP!! Just had a major thought: I should write out all of the addresses and add the stamps to the envelopes and then they'll really be ready to go! I take this as an action point and will get it done by the end of the year.

cheers & besos,

Friendsgiving

Hello dear friends. I'm back. Still healing, but it's getting a little bit better every day. So thank you for your patience with me. Really, it means that I have more to share in a shorter window of time :) So more posts than usual this month!

I'd like to start with the winner of the Scrapbook Circle RAK I posted about awhile back. The winner of it + a hot off the presses only available to SBC subcribers "Tell Your Story" tote bag is.......

Congrats Pennie! I'm e-mailing you just after this =)

Sorry for the slightly hodge podge post, but I also wanted to share one of my latest Simple Scrapper pages. This was in the November edition of Spark Magazine. I used Sketch No. 188 (for any members to refer to) and a story starter from the November content.

Speaking of hodge podge, the page was made from leftovers of the Scrapbook Circle kits I purged for the giveaway. I love love love how quirky it is! The color scheme totally surprised me but I really love how it turned out. Might be because I love this story and fondly remember this day.

Journaling Reads:

For most of us, this was our first Thanksgiving away from home. It was definitely the first time Monica, Haileigh and I had ever cooked a turkey. But I think that’s the magic of this day in our history. There were twenty of us gathered around the string of tables we collected from each others apartments. I look at this photo and remember so many awesome memories with these people. Silly times in this flat specifically. Kyle busting into the Lion King intro towards the end of this meal. It would easily have been a sad a day for many of us, being so far from family. But then I think we all realized, we’d found family even far away from home.

I know I chose a winner for my Scrapbook Circle left over goodies. BUT, you can actually buy goodies too. Lisa has some $15 grab bags up for sale. You get a TON of lovely bits and baubs from a variety of manufacturers.

Thanks again, y'all for being so patient with me and for your kind words. They mean so much to me!

cheers & besos,

Fake it

...til you make it. That's what I've been repeating to myself these past few weeks.

I'm sorry I've been so absent here. We had a personal tragedy happen a few weeks ago. I lived through every pet parents worst nightmare. At the age of 2.5 and with little to no warning Mac got very very sick. We were at various vets and animal hospitals for a few days and then we decided it was time to let her go. I'm still shocked by it all. I'm still crying every day. I'm crying as I type this. Because she was my little girl and we loved each other very much.

There's a 6.8 lb hole in this apartment. Even though she wasn't very big, she's left a very huge hole in our hearts.

So I'm going through the motions and trying to make the most of the holiday season. But I'm still very sad. Please excuse my absence here. I promise to start posting again when my heart is a bit more healed.

cheers & besos,

Quarterly Giveaway

Hiya! I've been doing a bit of fall cleaning which includes my quarterly scrapbook purge. I went back through my old Scrapbook Circle kits to un-kit them and disperse things amongst my stash. I also set aside some of the little used goodies for a giveaway for one of you! 

Comment below for the chance to win this crop of goodies.  I'd love to know, what's your favorite: Thanksgiving (USA), Christmas or NYE?? Also, please include a way to get in contact with you!

Giveaway is open to international participants. Comment before 11:59 CST on 20 November. I'll announce the winner shortly after.

cheers & besos,

Penguin

I had so much fun playing with the November Scrapbook Circle kit. It definitely has a Christmas vibe to it, but I made a few pages this month that didn't really have anything to do with Christmas. This page is all about the time I met a penguin. 

I really wasn't intending to scrap about this experience. But after seeing the great penguin die cut in the Pinkfresh Studio die cut pack, I thought this would be the perfect story to share this month!

For the page itself, I channeled my inner Jennifer Larson. Using an enlarged black and white photo with journaling strips on top is definitely something I've picked up from her.

I love that scrapbooking helps me remember these random but fun moments. I'd nearly forgotten I'd met this penguin until I saw that die cut. I love it when good products spark memories too!

cheers & besos,

Bullet Journal

Oh man, I've fallen down a well. The planner/journal well. I just live there now. I have all kinds of fun binders and notebooks, expensive and inexpensive ones; large, small. I'm still trying to figure out what works best for me. So I'm paring up multiple approaches all at the same time. 

I love using my Simple Scrapper 2016 planner for keeping all of my creative team and scrapbook assignments and lists straight.

But I'm using a bullet journal for everything else! I discovered this via Kara from Boho Berry. She shared her bullet journal. And I was so hooked! I went to Amazon, bought myself a dot Leuchtturm1917 and impatiently waited for it to arrive.

I'm sharing just a few of my pages below. Everything is pretty simple and easy going. I like that whatever page or tracking I need, I can just create it!

I'm using a few different stamp sets [KP Check it Off][KP Planners gonna Plan][Waffle Flower Calendar][Neat & Tangled Blog Planner][KP/Hero Arts Special Occassion Planner][SC Alyra Alpha] some wash tape and my trusty Pilot FriXion erasable pen. The ink bleeds a bit through the thin paper, but I'm not bothered by it. I think it looks like I'm using this journal! Which is the whole point =)

It's only been a few weeks with the system. But I'm loving it so far. This is the first planner that's been portable enough for me to throw in my bag. So it's super helpful when I'm out shopping or running errands.

If you're interested in seeing more of this, just lemme know! Also, search Bullet Journal (or BuJo) on Pintersest for more inspiration. There's also a great Facebook page that I'm getting a ton of inspiration from: Bullet Journal Junkies! And of course, I drool over Kara's pages and her Boho Berry instagram.

cheers & besos,

From Paris to Today

Matt and I have traveled together dozens of times. But the first ever trip we took together was to Paris in 2009. We were living in London at the time, so it was a quick weekend getaway. It was his first visit, so we got in all of the highlights: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame. 

These few photos are pretty much the only ones we took. I was more intent on spending time with him than taking tons of photos. And I think that's totally ok sometimes! And I love these photos so much too, they feel very touristy and old school European holiday.

The story here is all about how far we've come in the seven years that we've been together. When we were in Paris in 2009, neither one of us had any clue what the future held or even when we'd next be seeing each other. It was a very uncertain time. Fast forward to today, when we definitely have much more security about our careers, lives and each other.

I used a Simple Scrapper sketch from the November collection as the starting point for this page. I love the look of a double page 8 1/2 x 11 and was so excited to see this sketch in the collection. For my fellow Simple Scrappers, this is sketch No. 276.

I recently purchased Ashli Oliver's The Softer Side class. I'm such a fan of Ashli's work and her amazing style. This page was my interpretation of her style, with the softer color scheme (all papers Gramercy Road from Gossamer Blue). I will definitely be incorporating more of her techniques into (or should it be onto....) my pages. Check it out if you haven't already! 

cheers & besos,