2009

Hey y'all! I'm back home!! So excited to be here after a whirlwind week of travel. I'm also so excited to share this page with you. It's one of my favorites that I've made in awhile.

I have a lot to say about this page and not much time to say it in. So here goes:

I made this page as part of the Super Simple Scrapbook Challenges class over at Big Picture Classes. I'm loving this class! But I haven't had much time to actually play along. This is for Challenge #1--build a block and fill it in.

I went to my box of new supplies and pulled out patterned papers in red, blue, yellow and gray (from a Studio Calico kit) and cut them into strips to anchor alongside each photo.

Most of the embellishments are stamps from the October Ali Edward's Story Stamp. That month was all about telling real stories, maybe the not so shiny ones. I didn't really intend to tell this particular story until I pulled out the stamp set. I thought I'd write about Matt's and my 6 year relationship and all of the highs and lows of it. Instead, I chose to tell the story of 2009. The hardest year of my life and when these photos were taken.

Journaling Reads: 
2009 was the dark year. It was the unhappiest year of my life. I was depressed. I was lonely. I was missing my amazing life and my fantastic friends. I was missing my boyfriend. I was angry with my parents and unhappy about being back in San Antonio.

I had just finished living my dream. I had been living abroad, having crazy new adventures every week and visiting exotic places every month. I had a ready group of playmates that were equally filled with wanderlust.

But in just a few short weeks I went from having the life I always wanted, to coming back to a place that had nothing for me. No jobs, no friends, no adventures.

And it took a very long time for me to dig myself out of that. I was anxious and unhappy. There were times when I didn’t want to leave the house for days.

I was in the craziest headspace when I decided to visit Matt in Thailand. I went for a week and felt miserable the whole time. We barely left the apartment because I was so agoraphobic about being out in the city. Doesn’t look like it does it? While pictures may be worth a thousand words, it doesn’t mean they tell the whole story.

Things turned around in 2010. I slowly emerged from my haze and made my way back into the land of the living. I found a job (two at once even!) and moved to Houston. I got to live in the same city as Matt for the first time in over a year and a half.

Although I wouldn’t ever want to live through it again, I am thankful for 2009. It was the year that Urijah was born, when I became an aunt. And if I had been working and hadn’t been home I never would have got to spend the time that I did with Uncle Joe. We lost him that September.

2009, you were undoubtedly my worst year of life. But I do thank you for what you did give to me: a beautiful nephew and much needed time with my family.

I typed it all out and tucked it into a mini paper bag that I added behind my central block. You can see it just peaking out on the left side there.

I think what I love so much about this page is the awesome colors and the real story that I shared. One that I really never would have it I hadn't picked these photos for the Super Simple Scrapbook Challenges class or if I hadn't pulled out the Ali Edward's Story Stamp.

See! This is why products and classes are awesome. They help you get to points you might not have otherwise. 

This page right here, it's all about why I scrapbook.

cheers & besos,

Done!

Hullo!!! Long time no blog. You know that mojo I'd been talking about a few weeks back? Yeah, it completely blew away. Along with any desire to blog, craft, or create.

I'm trying to get back on the bandwagon. It's been awhile since I've made anything but at least I can share some pages that hadn't yet been blogged.

Here's another Sketchpad layout, that I created based on a past Glitter Girl challenge to use transparencies. I've had this gorgeous gray damask from Hambly for awhile now, and pairing it with the deep purple made for a bold look. Like literally think of the bold Crayola color pack :)

The photos are from a night out in Bangkok. We were celebrating being done with finals and thesis and just wanting to spend time together before the whole MBA & Mountbatten experience came to an end.

I miss this cast of characters so much sometimes. Especially as I'm marooned in Houston at the moment. Why do we have to live so far away from each other?!

cheers & besos,

Ferris Bueller Layouts

It was a cold & rainy Saturday here in Houston. So I left early, headed to the grocery store, stocked up on provisions & came back to hibernate & play with my new Studio Calico kit, Story Hour. I LOVE the colors in this one! I had so much fun playing with the paper & all of the little goodies.

My parents came to visit me in London. I took them out to meet some of my friends & we all hit it off. My friends loved my parents, my parents liked my friends.

Journaling Reads: When I say "out" I mean we were literally out, at a bar with my friends. The parents were having a good old time meeting everyone. But by the time the tequila shots were bought & Mama declared she was staying at the Crowne Royal it was time for them to go. I'm so happy that they got to meet everyone and it seems like they had maybe too good a time.

I love this sheet of Crate Paper patterned paper. The color combo is one of my absolute favorites. I had to tone it down a bit with some white Mister Huey. Then I started layering the ledger papers, tags & stickers from the Illustrated add-on.

I guess I've been in the mood to scrap friends & family. I dug out these random photos from a night out in Bangkok with some of my best girls. There's not much going on in these, other than that we're pretty girls in pretty dresses.

The dresses made for a fun jumping off point. I loved the design of Liz's dressed the black with the khaki polka dots so I tried to mimic it with some paint and various circle "stamps". I ended up using a wine cork, the top of a tube of lipstick & a pencil for the dots.

Then I took my circle punch to a few sheets of the papers from the kit, cut them into 4's and pieces them back together.

Journaling Reads: These photos commemorate one of the few times we went out for a girls night. We decided to hit up the infamous bed bar, a few weeks before graduation. I remember being super tired & not at all the life of the party, but such is the life of a grad student. We needed to blow off a little steam with some dancing, drinks & a few girlfriends; no drugs, weapons or sex obviously. I so miss these lovely ladies and it's crazy to think that 2 of 4 of us are married now, 1 lives in Japan and another in Australia.

It's so crazy to think that these photos were taken nearly 4 years ago. I had to use the Ferris Bueller quote on both layouts.

It's so true. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

cheers & besos,

Khao San Road

Another page from Bangkok! I'm well chuffed (quite proud) to have these 3 random Thailand pages scrapped! They weren't about trips or any specific event. They were just pages about what I was like when I lived there.

And that is how my scrapbooking has evolved lately.

"It's not easy being green." Know who said that? Kermit the frog is who. Love me my Kermie!

The Boardwalk kit had a lot of great green papers and I thought they contrasted nicely with the reds in my photo, so I just started playing with some left over strips.

Had to use my favorite neutral gray for the background and I think it made the green, cream and white pop even more!

I liked that the design is a bit busy and chaotic, but not so all over the place that it drives your eyes crazy. I wanted to mimic how packed in all of the signs and stalls were.

And ok, so maybe I added baker's twine, a Thicker or 2 that wasn't a part of the kit. But I think they were the final touches needed for this fairly flat page.

Which, btw is about the famous backpapers area of Thailand. If you ever make it that way, I'd recommend stopping by. Touristy yes, but none the less fun!

Happy Scrapping =)

xxbesos

Sitara Place/Monsoon

Sunshine Broadcast makes my heart go pitter patter. It is one of the most exquisite lines, in my opinion.

When I was throwing photos into that "to print for crop" file that I was talking about yesterday, I didn't even realize what I had stumbled upon. I was just hurriedly nabbing photos that caught my fancy, and for some reasons these monsoon photos did the trick. (Perhaps Hurricane Irene was on the brain.)

Then I hurriedly grabbed some products to take with me to the crop and my latest Studio Calico kit, Boardwalk. Lo and behold, there was the paper, the most perfect paper for these photos of the monsoon and my the view of my balcony from my flat in Bangkok.

Not only are there clouds, but in the buildings in the photo are the peaches and the yellows and even the teals! It's the colors that did me in.

This was the view from the balcony attached to my apartment. I lived in a complex call Sitara Place in the Ratchadaphisek (shortened to Ratchada) part of Bangkok. Good old Sitara place...

As you can see the details in the paper and the coordinating embellishments included in the kit, made for a happy resting place for my photo.

The companion page was all about watching the monsoon roll in from the comfort of my balcony. It was a daily occurrence for that first month or so.

The page has lots of white space with little details, more from Sunshine Broadcast and a little from Basic Grey.

And the journaling was done a la Maggie Holmes =)

And there we have a memory captured. It's a small memory,but one that enhanced my experience in Bkk. I'm happy it's scrapped :)

Thank you so much for checking in. Happy Scrapping!

xxbesos

Challenges

Gratitude Card

In my own personal life, 2009 has met with plenty of challenges. But I'm not going to delve into that right now. This blog is about a good kind of challenge, and what else could it be but a scrapbooking challenge!!

I'm hosting 4 challenges this month, over at Twopeasinabucket.com. Three are part of the {Young Scrappers} thread and one is a Twilight Challenge in honor of this month's premiere of New Moon!

I'm going to take a second here to plug 2Ps (as its faithful band of followers have aptly dubbed it), which is, in my opinion, the best scrapbooking site on the internet. Not only can you shop there (and believe me I do) but they have an amazing forum for meeting fellow scrapbookers. I'm an active member on the General Scrapping message board and have found a niche for myself on the aforementioned Young Scrappers hread. 2Ps also hosts fun events such as Stamptoberfest, (which I recently participated in) National Scrapbook Day, as well as Weekly Challenges and various classes. All with the chance for awesome prizes and 2Ps gift certificates. So in honor of 2Ps and as a way to give back to this awesome website, I opted to host a few challenges.

The first is the Just Scrap! Challenge for November's Young Scrappers thread. For the chance to win a $10 2Ps gift certificate, simply scrap to your hearts content. Anything and everything is eligible to win, as long as you check the Young Scrappers challenge box during the uploading process.

I'm also hosting 2 mini-challenges for the chance to win a $5 2Ps gift certificate. Same rules apply, be sure to check the appropriate challenge box during the 4th step of the uploading process.

Thanksgiving Asia-08

Young Scrappers: Thanksgiving Challenge

November 1-15 is a Thanksgiving/Gratitude challenge. I created this layout of last years' Thanksgiving, primarily using Making Memories Autumn Leaves collection. Of course, this memorializes all of our MBA buffet goings. And actually catches all of us in nearly 1 photo.

Christmas in Paradise

Young Scrappers: Holiday Challenge

November 15-30 is a Holiday challenge and a chance for everyone to get caught up on their holiday cards and layouts. I created this layout of last years Christmas. Sarah and I were traveling at the time. We spent it on a beach in Lombok, Indonesia, soaking up some sun and immersing ourselves in the Twilight series.

Which brings me to my last challenge. A general Twilight Challenge in honor of New Moon hitting theaters on November 20. I'm such a Twilight geek, I had to host this mini-challenge. Sadly, I don't have my own Twilight layout to display but hopefully, I'll finish it soon.

So that's my grand contribution to the scrapbooking world this week. If you aren't already, be sure to check out 2Ps and participate in one of my challenges!

xxbesos

j.leija