The Perfect Target

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Hiya! I'm back from a long weekend in NYC. It was awesome to spend time with one of my besties. But I have to confess, I took about 10 photos. I'm literally the worst! I didn't even get a photo of the two of us together (seriously?! what is wrong with me???!!!) I think it's because I really wasn't in vacation/tourist mode. I was in relaxed hanging out with friend mode. So I'll give myself a pass just this one time.

While I was away, Diana posted my latest page on the Scrapbook Circle blog. This month I was challenged to lift Wendi, an SBC subscriber. I created a sketch of her page and did a side by side comparison of our pages. Head over there to check it out!
I had fun with the journaling on this one. It was hilarious to see Urijah steal Grandpa's fries! We had a huge laugh about it. And I'm glad I captured the action shots. Really, I was just fortunate to have my camera in hand at the time. I was only trying to get shots of the two of them interacting and Cadie in her skeleton pajamas.
I pulled just bits and pieces from the July You're my Favorite kit: the stickers, the gold label, the gold heart. And you could do about a million and one things with that white ledger paper.  The main focal point was the red target die cut from The Cut Shoppe. The center ended up being right on the carton of fries in my dad's hand when Urijah was making his move to nab it. Unexpectedly perfect! Really I didn't plan or realize that until just this moment.
I had fun lifting the page and playing with this kit. Confession: I'm always surprised by what I come up with every month. Getting ready to tear into the August kit. Can't wait to see what's in store!

cheers & besos,

Stash Bash Vol. 2

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Hiya! I'm coming to you live from my latest toy: a brand new Macbook Pro! It's been 9 years since I last purchased a computer. It was totally time. So I splurged (quite a bit) and finally purchased the laptop I've been dreaming about. LOVE IT! I use to spend so much time waiting on my computer to catch up with me. Now it's waiting for me to catch up with it. What to do with all of this extra creative time....?! 

Well this weekend, I sat down to scrapbook. I wanted to be sure to jump in on a Stash Bash challenge or two!! This is for Challenge No. 7-The Leftover Meatloaf. I used my Ms. Pacman kit because it had all of the supplies I needed to complete this challenge. 

It's a just for fun page without any journaling. I don't do this very often but the title says it all. These are the 4 creatures that live in my house. I'm now thinking I should have incorporated a little house a la Ashlii Oliver! But oh, well. I like this page.
The background paper was solid white cardstock until I used a background stamp and some gray ink to create this design. I need to do this more often!
I really did have so much fun playing with this kit. Here are the three pages I made with it:

cheers & besos,

Stash Bash Vol. 1

Thursday, July 16, 2015

I have two things to share today. Yesterday, I was on the Paperclipping Rountdable! It was Episode #257-The Prospect of Paper. We were chatting about shopping! I'd love it if you listened. 

Secondly, I wanted to share my first layout from Stash Bash. Yay Stash Bash! We're having a party over at Simple Scrapper and I'm already having some fun. I completed Challenge #1 using the Ms. Pacman kit I assembled and also, with the help of the latest sketch from Scrapbook Circle

I pulled this kit and that sketch and knew I wanted to use it with this photo of me and Jennifer Wilson. I was allocated 30 minutes to complete the page and I think it came together in nearly that amount of time. I spent a bit more tiding up the sewing and taping all of the rough edges to the back of the layout.

I think my favorite bit is the "hey girl" stamped on the background. I used gray ink on the kraft cardstock and really like the look! My second favorite is this medley of colors. I'm loving this combo!
Jennifer released all of the Stash Bash challenges today so I'm excited to really jump in on this this weekend! But for now at least, I've started!

cheers & besos,

Ms. Pacman Challenge

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

My friend Jill revived the Ms. Pacman challenge on her blog last month. I thought it sounded awesome so I decided to jump in. I'm really into orange this month! And I'm loving it mixed with the cooler grays, teals and blues. Here's the kit I put together.
And the contents….

(1) Eight scraps of patterned paper: My Mind's Eye x2, Basic Grey, Jillibean Soup, American Crafts, Studio Calico x3; four pieces of specialty/other paper: gold heart vellum, white chevron vellum, gold foil, kraft corrugated
(2) Trim: Gray & teal seam binding, gray baker's twine, orange lace trim
(3) Sticker sheet (with missing sticker): Teresea Collins
(4) A pre-2013 alphabet: Crate Paper from 2011
(5) Opened product: Studio Calico wood veneer words
(6) Unopened product: Making Memories Embellishments
(7) One roll of tape: Studio Calico
(8) One item or package of product from a company that no longer makes scrappy products: Jenni Bowlin Studio gold feather rub-ons
(9) Six journaling and/or PL cards: from the Sunshine & Jade core kits, plus one from Studio Calico
(10) Unlimited cardstock, adhesive, and "technique-type product"
(11) A wild card item: CD Muckosky for Studio Calico stamps
(12) A nearby item: Studio Calico postage stamp book. I also added a package of cork shapes I found.

I've already made two pages with this little kit! The first was a just for fun page of Dixie and her crazy Yoda ears (which we love!) I had an idea with the title that just didn't pan out. So I recycled the letters outlining them in black pen and then adding in a gray highlighter just for fun. I'm totally doing this again!
I'll share the second page tomorrow. I used this kit for my first Stash Bash assignment. So fun to work with!

cheers & besos,

Music?! Meh...

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Hiya! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I have the latest from Simple Scrapper to share today.
This month's theme was music. I will admit to you now, I'm pretty musically challenged. It's just not my thing. (More of a visual person, hence this hobby!!) I don't hate music. But I also only kind of like music.
The music I do listen to is limited and all over the place. There's really no rhyme or reason to it.  So this page was a compilation of the 10 records I listen to over and over again.
I also wanted to be sure to mention that today is the last day to sign up for Stash Bash! You guys, I'm so excited to jump into this event. I've found myself getting more excited as the week has gone by. Click here for more info!

 cheers & besos,

8 1/2 x 11 Love

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Bah! The colors in the photos are driving me nuts! They printed too dark and under exposed. I will most definitely be reprinting them here at home. So try not to let them distract you too much =)

I have a deep and abiding love for 8 1/2 x 11 sized layouts. There's just something about their proportions! I can't quite put my finger on it but they are definitely pleasing to my eyes. I wrote a post over on the Scrapbook Circle blog featuring the two 8 1/2 x 11 sized layouts I made with the You are my Favorite main and This was Fun add-on.
There are some master 8 1/2 x 11 scrappers out there. Off the top of my head I can think of Cathy Zielske, Mel Blackburn, Sasha Farina, & Marcy Penner.

Do you scrapbook in this size? Share some links in the comments if you're so inclined!

cheers & besos,

Happy Girl

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Good morning! I know you've been waiting patiently for it, my first scrapbook page about Dixon!! Isn't she adorable? We think so. 
I made this with the July You are my Favorite Scrapbook Circle kit. The kit had all of these great diamond patterns so I was inspired to create a diamond themed page. I even went looking for diamond inspiration on Pinterest and happened up the quote "happy girls shine brighter". I thought it was perfect for this shiny page of Dixie.
Tessa is sharing more about this on the Scrapbook Circle blog. Head over there to read a bit more!

cheers & besos,

Summer Camp Challenge

Monday, July 6, 2015

I kind of can't remember the last time I was this excited to share a page! I spent a quiet Friday evening putting this together. 

Jennifer posted a fun challenge called Summer Camp in the Simple Scrapper Facebook Group. It was a re-run of a fun challenge/event the community did in 2013, before I joined. So this whole exercise was new to me. I had so much fun playing along!

Without giving anything about the challenge away, here's the direction I was given for my page:

Story Direction-Event or Trip
Page Background-White or cream cardstock
Paper Selection-No patterned paper
Journaling Style-Long column
Design Foundation-Asymmetrical clusters
Embellishing Rule-Mixed title work
I wasn't at all worried about not being able to use any patterned paper. And it definitely helped that my background was white cardstock. Because then I was able to create my own background with the help of mists and stencils and stamps!

It also meant that my photos and the colors I worked with really popped of the page!
Event or Trip was my assigned subject. I did one better and combined the two. The page is about an international music and dance festival we just happened to wander into when I visited Prague.

What better to scrapbook this adventure with, than my Ali Edwards "Go" Story Stamp & Kit. I loved all of the orange in it so I played that up as much as I could. I pulled out two journaling cards, just one of the chipboard pieces, the acetate geotag, plastic "go" and of course, the Story Stamps.

I used just about every last one of the stamp phrases and paired it with my Hero Arts Ombre Butter to Orange ink pad. It's subtle but I kept the ombre going when I stamped down in a long column on the left of my page. I sprinkled my journaling in with all of the stamping.
The embellishing included a lot of geotags and the stamped "awesome memory". I also mixed two sets of alphas and my own handwriting to create the title. The "go" could be considered part of the title, but really I see it more as embellishing.
I love playing along with challenges. The more restricted, the more I end up loving the pages. At least that's how it seems. This page is definitely evidence of that for me. I love love love how it turned out!

To my fellow Simple Scrappers, Jennifer posted the Summer Camp Challenge in the Facebook group on June 29 if you're looking for it.

If you're not a Simple Scrapper member, there's more info on it here.

cheers & besos,

This is Thirty

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Happy 4th! To all of my fellow Americans of course. Everyone else, I hope you're having a fantastic Saturday =)

I have to admit we're not doing much to celebrate this weekend. What with a new furry creature in our house. If she weren't here, we'd be down at the beach relaxing poolside with my parents. It's a trade off. Cute puppy vs relaxing beach weekend. Cute puppy wins for now!

Speaking of relaxing weekends, today I'm sharing my latest Simple Scrapper creation, which is featured in the July edition of Spark Magazine. 
I love love love it!! Like am nearly completely obsessed with how it turned out. It's the first page I've scrapbooked about my 30th birthday, which was spent pool side at The Saguaro in Palm Springs. I've been wanting to get there for years! So finally for my birthday, we made it happen.
This is one of those pages that came together thanks to my newly revamped scrap space. Because of how it's organized, I get to just shop in my room, pulling out bits and pieces that I thought would go well with the photos.

The flamingo, pineapple washi and gold heart are from a Studio Calico add-on. The background and confetti paper are the A & B sides of a Project Life Sunshine edition patterned paper.
I went with a bulleted list for journaling. It's all of the tiny things that made up my 30th Birthday. The list probably sounds more appropriate for a 22 year old. But I think I proved it doesn't always have to be!

Oh man, take me back to Palm Springs! Will you? Pretty please?!

cheers & besos,

Scrap Space Vol. 2

Friday, July 3, 2015

Hiya! It took more than a minute for me to update here. Sorry about that. But I had a really good reason I promise! This furry little girl came to live in our house last Friday. She's lovely and high energy and making me soooo tired. It's been a big adjustment for everyone in the house, Mac included. But we'll get there.
In the meantime I wanted to start by share my desk.

I scrap in my bedroom against the window. It's a small space but it has really good light. The biggest hurdle is battling the cat who loves to sit on the laptop. Prime retail for peeping out the window at neighbors. 

On the right side of my desk is my Silhouette, paper trimmer, pens/pencils/rulers holder, and my Raskog. Plus a lamp, my sticky notes and a penguin key chain for good measure.
The desk is kind of like a sawhorse and I have built in storage, in the form of two shelves.
The basket on the top shelf holds in-progress layouts. Or ones that I pulled product for but haven't actually put the page together.

The bottom shelf holds a basket with some lesser used tools and other craft supplies. A mousepad for paper piercing. An old tupperware for squirting acrylic paint into. My Xyron is in there. I also have a circle cutter in the back. I don't get into this basket very often. Which is why the Raskog lives on this side of my desk. 
Here's the Raskog. I'm planing to do a whole post on this thing because it holds a lot of different supplies.
On the left hand side of my desk is my printer. My Canon Pixma is pictured but it died a few months ago. An Epson has taken it's place.

On the shelves below are a few boxes and the only plastic bins I have. The top shelf is where my extra ink pads and other stamping paraphernalia are housed. You can only just see it but it's also where I keep my Silhouette cutting mats.

My punches live in the plastic bins on the bottom shelf. I still have a ton of these but I gave even more away. I also have a smaller bin for my corner rounder and hole puncher since I use those more.
And that's my desk! I have a lot of workable space but it still isn't enough. Especially since I tend to spread out when I scrap. If I'm working with a kit for example, I usually have all of the kit pieces laid out on my bed right behind me. I like being able to see everything all at once. 

Because of how the desk is built, I can access a lot of different supplies without getting up. It such a great table for that! Here's a similar one that looks a bit smaller [Pier 1] and I found another from [PB Teen]

I'll update soon with the other big furniture pieces in the corner of my room.


Since this series is all about my re-organized and de-cluttered scrap space, I also wanted to take a second to chat about Simple Scrapper's upcoming event: Stash Bash! It's an organizing/stash busting party. The format is very much choose your own adventure when it comes to focusing on either organizing or using your stuff.  I had so much fun cranking out layouts the last time I participated in Stash Bash (see here). Two of my six layouts even made it in my Top 14 of 14 post.

The fun runs July 14-20 so click over to find out what it's all about. Jennifer's even offering a promo to participate in Stash Bash and get 3 months of membership free. An awesome opportunity to find out what this community is all about. Also, I just read the fine print. If you take that route your membership after the 3 months is at a discount, $3 off every month. Win-win-win!

Ok, off to snuggle a puppy. Have a great July 4th weekend!

cheers & besos,