Friendship with No End

Hey yall! Happy Monday =)

I'm in such a good mood because I was a crafting beast this weekend. Basically, I did nothing but sit at my desk and play. 

It was wonderful. 

It was cathartic. 

It had been sorely missed.

It had been too long!

I made 1-20 page 6x6in minibook. And remembered why I don't make them...

I made 10-Christmas Thank You cards.

And I decorated 3-6x6in trays as gifts for my besties. (I must confess being sick all last week put my Christmas gift making on the back burner.)

Sharing them all in good time, but speaking of besties, I made this page with my 34th Street kit a few weeks back.

I had fun with this page. I've never painted directly onto a picture before! 

There were a few random things in the background and since I don't know photoshop well enough to crop them out, I just decided to go old school and paint them out. Plus, I wanted to highlight the three guys behind us, who were also posing together for a photo. Then I thought I would doodle on the white, since it was so stark. It's not perfect, but I think it looks fun!

I knew when I started this layout I wanted my title to stretch across the entire page. So I cut it out using my Cameo (which btw, I have a total love/hate relationship with that thing. It never cuts how I want it too!!!). I originally wanted the chevron paper to show through but it wasn't translating very well with the font that I chose, so I backed it with some of the leftover paper from my Hello/Goodbye page.

At one point I was criticizing myself for choosing so lame a title, but then I realized that "end" is written write there in the middle. And that's when I thought up "Friendship with no end". (I added the with after I photographed this.) I'd be lying if I said it was my intention all along, but I'm so glad my mind stumbled upon it. It's perfect for this page of me and my besties. Ours is a friendship without an end.

After that, I pulled out a bunch of red accents from the kit and added my journaling. Viola! My page was complete. 

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check back later this week to see my projects from the weekend. Oh, and don't forget about the RAK! Comment on this post to win!

cheers & besos,

Baby Shower

More 34th Street funness to share today. This was surprisingly a quick page made easier with the help of my Silhouette machine.

I cut a bunch of ellipses, because I don't know how to do circles yet :P (I really need to read more about this thing!) And then I backed some of them with photos or paper and embellished just a few.

These photos are from Susie's baby shower. She had quite a few but I went to just the one. I loved this shot of Susie and Kim. They are truly BFFs. Their friendship is going on 20 years and it's still so strong!

And here's hulking me (seriously I need taller friends!) next to tiny Susie.

Thanks for dropping by! Be sure to check back tomorrow for a big announcement and a chance to win some goodies!

cheers & besos,

Hi/Bye 2012

Happy New Year everybody! 

I hope you all had fantastic nights. MT & I had a super quiet night in, as both of us weren't feeling great. I'm still in recovery mode, but hopefully back into the swing of things by tomorrow. And also slowly but surely, back into the swing of blogging as well!

This week on the blog I want to share:

the last few 2012 pages,

a RAK,

& my plans for 2013!

Today I'll start with sharing this wrap up page for 2012. I used my Studio Calico 34th Street kit (finally!). 

2012 was a fairly quiet year for me personally. I saw my friends hit a lot of big milestones but didn't have much going on myself. Which was absolutely okay with me. Had to love that the stamp in this month's kit echoed those sentiments =)

Journaling Reads:

2012 was a good normal: work, home, travel. I got to visit new places and see old friends. Mama & Papa celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. Papa turned 50. Kim & Eric got engaged. Baby Lauren was born. Urijah turned 3 & Cadie joined the family. In December, Matt & I moved apartments  It was a big year for some of my favorite people but a quiet one for me. And that's absolutely okay. I'm happy to celebrate with my family & friends. 2013 will be a bigger year for me. I can feel it.

This entire page literally resulted from that "hi" binder clip. And then the fact that the photo was from January and I was scrapping it in December. That's how "hi" and "bye" 2012 came about.

As far as design, I ended up using a lot of arrows in this page. I love how they're all pointed one way, while the triangles in the background paper are pointing another. I feel like it emphasizes the "hi" and "bye".  Looking back, thinking forward. All that fun symbolism and stuff.

Also loved that one of the little brads says house & home. It's perfect since MT & I said bye to our old apartment and then hi to the new one!

Which btw, speaking of the apartment, I'm about 95% done setting up and organizing my new scrap area. I'll be sharing that with you all too!

So be sure to check back this week for more 34th Street pages, my scrappy plans for the year and of course, don't forget the RAK!

cheers & besos,

Birth Day

She's almost here! Lauren is going to be born today. Her Mama is scheduled to be induced, so we'll get to meet the newest member of our group this afternoon.

I didn't want to show up to the hospital empty handed, so I made a birth day card and some onesies.

Dear Lizzy's lines make making gifts for little girls so easy. I used several of her papers for this card (which is a semi-lift of a Danielle Flanders card) and thought the "celebrate sunshine" sentiment was perfect for the birth of a little girl, especially one born in the summer.

And I've not been neglecting the insides of my cards. I decorated this one with some mist, tape and a variety of lovely date stamps.

And onto the onesies...

I accidently bought muscle tees!!! For a baby! And of course I didn't realize this until I ripped open the package. But I had to make the most of it. I hope they don't mind too much.

Remember Laverne's (of Laverne & Shirley) famous signature "L" sweaters and shirts? That's the inspiration for this onesie.

I did something a bit different with the next one. It's one part reverse applique and one part straight stitching (my first attempt!) I liked the variety of the cursive and the block letters. Plus, it's yellow!

And finally, the signature design I created for little Ms. LC. I had to include the heart in the "C".

Oh, and I have to talk about this tutu. I've had it stowed away in my gift box since January, when I picked it up from Target at a steal. It's soooo tiny and perfect and cute! I'm happy to pass it along to an actual little being who will wear it and if possible, enhance its cuteness!

Can't wait to meet this little girl!

cheers & besos,

Perfect Polka Dot

I have succeeded. I have finally found the perfect polka dot paper. It's soft, it's neutral, it goes with everything! It's from the new Dear Lizzy line and it's called Sea Breeze.

Here are two layouts I made using Sea Breeze as a background:

A page from Xi'an, China, with 3 4x6 photos. I couldn't come up with a more clever photo design, what with 2 horizontal and 1 vertical photo. I think the grid worked out. I splashed some Pickle Mister Huey on the background, used the stamp that came with my Daydream Believer kit for my journaling. Which I also think would make a great frame for a photo strip, btw.

I added some twine, buttons, and those great butterfly embellishments as accents on the page.

I was channeling my inner Scrappy Jedi with this next layout. I love Melissa's layered style and all of the white space in her designs.

The page is about work, how I've finally filled in the big shoes I had to fill. After 1.5 years it's all come together. Figuring out the work environment, the sector, the government. And although I'll never be an expert on any of these things, at least I know now that I don't have to be. That no one expects us to have all of the answers at the top of our head. And that my friends, is a huge relief!

It's a bit hard to tell, but the shirt I'm wearing in this photo is purple. So I played with a purple/gold/silver/tan color scheme.

I did some splattering with Purple Maya Mist and layered small strips of paper, ribbon & stickers on the ends of the page.

See, perfect neutral right?! It can be dressed up, dressed down, the skies the limit! I will be purchasing more of it and it's cousin, Hazy Horizon, in the very near future.

Do you have a favorite neutral patterned paper? I'd love to see it! Link it up in the comments, won'tcha?

cheers & besos,

Portugal Pages

Oh my goodness, I'm exhausted.

Like spent!

Mentally checked out for the night.

I've been crafting up a storm today.

Throwing this together, then that; painting, journaling, cutting, stamping, embossing.

But I had so much fun! I love it when my mojo is good and flowing. I cranked out 5 pages in an afternoon! That's 9 this week!

And I'm still not done. But I just had to jump on to share some of my latest pages.

I put in my Portugal photo order via Persnickety Prints on Wednesday. To my complete surprise and utter delight, the order arrived today! Holy wow that was fast!

I also tore into the latest Studio Calico kit, Daydream Believer. I'm loving the colors in this one, and while they didn't work for all of the blue photos I came back with (seriously, the sky there is much bluer than here at home :) they did work for some.

See I water colored! My inspiration was this gem made by Lola. I saw it in the gallery the other day and knew I had to try my hand at water coloring. But the things is, I saw this layout last week and hadn't looked back at it since. So the details were hazy. It was fun to look back just now to see how similar & not similar they are :)

I've been wanting to incorporate enlarged photos into my scrapbooking for awhile, and these photos from Portugal were the perfect opportunity.

This my friends, is a page of a real life enchanted castle...it's even on top of a hill! Just like in the fairy tales. If you are planning to visit Lisbon ever, you HAVE to go to Sintra. Like have to, you have no other option. It's only a 40 minute train ride away and I even did it in 3/4 of a day and still managed to get back in time for my flight back to London.

So you're going right?! Good.

I think the photo pretty much speaks for itself, but those gorgeous butterflies from the Kit were the perfect addition.

I took a stab at heat embossing the Thickers but the little buggers kept being blown away by the heat gun and every time I tried to pick them up I'd lose some embossing powder. Good thing I was going for a more rustic look, I think it goes well with the castle facade.

And lastly, a page about the Cable Cars. Did you know Lisbon is full of hills? Just look at that incline. My gluts got the best work out by only walking around the city. Thankfully the cable cars are there to get you up and down some of them. The best part? They're yellow!!

I love the Sassafras frame paper. They were the perfect funky little accents to line along the bottom of this photo.

And ok, I ended up using some non-kit product but it's still Studio Calico and the perfect addition to this urban page. I love the map design on the triangle scraps!

I can't remember the last time I've felt this creative. But I'm savoring every minute of it.

cheers & besos,

Think?

I don't know if you know this about me. But when I was little, I was very very shy. I was terrible about asking questions, or at least the right questions in my mother's opinion. So she'd coach me through most interactions with my teachers, doctors, or any other authority figure.

I was on the phone with my Mama the other day and she made sure to tell me what I needed to say and to ask in whatever appointment I had going on. Same as she did was I was younger. It made me smile and I asked her, "how do you think I get through work?" She laughed and said she knew, old habits die hard and all of that.

We chatted a bit longer and then hung up but I kept thinking about it after. That's how the idea for this layout popped into my head.

What must she think of me? And all of the crazy life decisions I've made in the past few years? Is she proud of me? Does she think I can hold my own?

I journaled all about it, and tucked it behind this folded piece of new Neapolitan paper.

Archivers had a bunch of it when I visited the other day. Man is this stuff so pretty!! I just had to play with it. And since this idea was fairly none specific, I went to town with the ribbons (plus the new AC Glitter ribbon) buttons and stickers.

Also, drawing from a challenge over at Natt's blog, I created a sunburst with a hand cut mask and Mister Huey Overdue. I think the color worked really well with Lizzy's line.

I think one of the more interesting aspects to this design, is that instead of cutting off the 3 1/2 inches to get down to the 8 1/2 x 11 size, I decided to fold the paper instead. No need to miss out on the gorgeous green watercolor on the B side. Plus, it made it super convenient place to tuck my journaling behind.

And, I got to use one of my cute teal binder clips that have just been sitting on my desk for ages. Bonus!

What must my mother think of me?

I often wonder what my mother must think of me and my galavanting. Of being 27, not married and without kids. I wonder how she thinks of me at work. If in her head I'm still that shy quiet girls who was so scared to talk to strangers. Who shied away from social interactions and found more comfort in a book. I wonder what she thinks of my moving away and being independent. I wonder what she thinks of my life, one that is so very different from her own. Most of all I wonder if she's proud of me and all that I have accomplished. She is my sweet little Mama and my very bestest friend. I hope she is proud of me.

cheers & besos,

Sparkling Holiday Cards

Today I'm sharing my Christmas card. And also the "reject" designs from this year.

Meghan, you can stop hit refresh now :)

I made 50 cards this year. 50!! Am I crazy?! But since I've added Matt's family and friends to this year's distribution list, the number had to increase.

I started playing with designs in early November. These were my first three cards. I like them all but for some reason or another just didn't think they were "the" design for year. I felt like I was really close on the first one (the dark green with chevron paper) though.

After building some layers, collecting ephemera and playing with placement, I finally came up with this design. Tada!

There are several layers here:

• Sheet torn from a Christmas Carol paperback
• Doily
• Stamped/Misted Christmas tree
• Star diecut
• Stamped Tag
• Banner
• Bingo marker
• Washi tape
• Brad

It ended up being a bit bulky, so for those that I had to mail (which is 98% of them) I had to eliminate the bingo marker (insert sad face here).

And this is only a stack of 30 of them! I have 20 written in, sealed and about to be posted.

I also couldn't forget the inside! This is an old Hero Art stamp that I love. I'm pretty sure I used it on the inside of some of my cards from last year. It's just so classic!

Christmas is my favorite holiday, so it's no wonder that I go crazy with my cards! I can't afford to send everyone I love a gift, but I can at least let everyone know that I'm thinking of them.

Happy Holidays yall! I'll be back to share the cover of my new Christmas album in a bit. (Hint: it's going to look fairly familiar after your having seen these cards ;)

xxbesos

Yaya-Dear Lizzy Mini

Remember how weeks ago I promised to share my completed Dear Lizzy mini? Well today I'm finally doing that.

It features Crate Paper gorgeousness and my favorite photos of one adorable little man!

Thank you for stopping by =)

xxbesos