Superpower #2

Elephants are my favorite animal. Did I ever mention that? It's true. I love them. They're adorable and kind, intelligent and emotional. In my opinion, the best animals on the planet (aside from my kitten of course). They also have long memories. Which made them the perfect representation for one of my superpowers!

We all have superpowers. I have exactly two. Two things that I'm better at than the average person. And one of them is my memory. 

I was pulling out of a parking spot the other day, paying attention to my driving but otherwise zoning out. I must have been remembering something because it struck me as one of those "there you go again" moments. One of the times that something very old and totally random popped into my head. You see, my superpower even surprises me at times.

And I thought to myself, I need to make a page about that.

Here it is and I have to say I'm in love with my ellie! Isn't she gorgeous?!

As I was sitting there thinking about the page I would make, I knew that I wanted to have her pieced together from different patterned papers. Don't know why, but I knew that's how I would make her.

I purchased an elephant cut from the Silhouette store and edited & sliced it up into a bunch of pieces using the Silhouette software. I tried to make sure that most of the pieces were smaller than 2x2in so that it'd be easy to put down a bunch of 2x2in squares on the cutting mat.

I had just visited Archivers and grabbed a few sheets of the new Printshop line. So I was dying to cut into it. They have nothing to do with the theme of this page, and that's 100% ok with me. They're just so pretty all together!

I hand wrote my journaling directly on the page AND created my own custom cut with the help of my iPad and the Noteshelf app. This was the first time I had ever tried it and I love love LOVE how it turned out!

I opened up a blank sheet in the Noteshelf app, hand wrote "memory" a few times, saved and sent the photo to my e-mail, opened it up and traced it with the Silhouette, and then cut it out. It takes a few steps and is a bit more time consuming. But I think it's totally worth it. I'll never have to buy words again!

Let me know if its something you'd like me to create a tutorial for. Happy to do it!

And thus my love affair with the Silhouette continues. If you haven't bought one yet, you just might need to add it to your Christmas list!

cheers & besos,

Castle Gazing

ETA: I picked the winner! Or rather random.org chose commentor No. 4. That's you Marina! Forwarding along the code now. Cheers!

I have 3 things to share today: a confession, a layout, a small giveaway.

Confession: I totally caved on my Product Free Summer challenge. I couldn't pass up the 20% off at Two Peas a few weeks back! I just couldn't. But I'm back on a spending freeze. Especially after the $1000 I just had to spend fixing my car (eeeek!!)

Layout: This page features a ton of that new product I ordered, lots from Basic Grey's new(er) Mint Julep line. I only got three things for this line: the 6x6 paper pad, the badges and the title sticker sheet. I feel like they'll get you pretty far. I like to get at least a few things from each line so that they'll coordinate with each other.

I picked this line for these photos because of all the blue in the Edinburgh photo. I loved the blue in that floral print. I also definitely wanted to use it for that "So very charming" sticker.

I made this as part of the Two Peas CHA [Four Nature Elements] Challenge. There's flowers, butterflies, birds and stars on this page.

It's also for the [Five Senses] Challenge. This page is all about the castle gazing I've been doing over the years. I hadn't realized it until this year, but every place I've visited in Europe the last few years, has included visits to local castles and palaces.

Week 1 of Hello Story was the starting point for this layout. It's a loose timeline and a series. I used those great Chic Tags for each, to include the date, the city and country and the castle.

I also added small white letter stickers to each photo, to include the place and date.

The rest is just fun details. Love those clear mint Heidi Swapp letters. Like love! The color and the texture are fabulous. Also love that they coordinated with the Mint Julep line so well.

And I had to throw in some gold for good measure. Everything these days, needs a dusting of gold. Glad I picked up the gold star paper clips as well.

So I made my confession and shared the layout. Now on to the giveaway.

Giveaway: This apparently is the summer of the classes. First Camp Scrap, then Hello Story and I also signed up for Toolbox at Studio Calico. They were running a promo and I get to give a friend the class for free. That's where all my bloggy friends come in. I thought I'd share the class with one of yall.

Just leave me a comment below, to share which of the 4 parts you're most interested in learning more about: digital elements, mixed media, stitching or mist. [ETA: Please leave an e-mail address if you don't have one linked in your profile!!]

For me, I'm sooo looking forward to Shana's digital tutorial. Her work has been so inspiring to me lately!

I'm only leaving this open until Tuesday, 30 July at 11:59pm EST. I'll announce and e-mail the winner as soon as I can on Wednesday, 31 July. Class starts Thursday, 1 August which is why this is such a short one. I want you to be able to be part of the whole class.

Off to Los Angeles tomorrow for work. It's my first visit and I'm so excited! I'll be updating as and when I can. Catch up with yall later!

cheers & besos,

First Video

My first video! I did it! And it was fun =) Not easy but still fun. Bear with me guys, this was my first ever video. I was having to learn iMovie this morning as I went along. But luckily it's pretty straight forward. And as I say in the video, apologies for the shaky cam! I'll work on it for next time.

Here's the Shimelle sketch I based my page off of:

...and some close-ups of the finished layout! 

Let me know what you think!

cheers & besos,

LBD March Layouts

Hey there! I'm so excited to share my first pages for the Little Black Dress Kit club, using the A Chance for Luck kit. I've just shared all the bits and pieces you get from this kit and now I want to show you my layouts!

I loved the monochromatic look of the papers so I used a bunch on this page about me. I shared 5 things about life right now in March 2013.

1. I am a new member to the Little Black Dress Kit club! (I should probably have added design team member in there. But as I was doing this at 1am I wasn't actually thinking straight!)
2. Wishing I could sleep more. This year has already been a whirlwind. Off to San Antonio for work this week. (Ha! See item one)
3. So loving anything metallic right now & am wearing my latest favorite dress in this pic.
4. Losing weight! Down 10 lbs since the new year & hoping to lose much more.
5. Planning my holidays for the year. I want to make it to Australia but will definitely by visiting the Pacific Northwest with MT this summer.

I used my Silhouette to cut out these tear drop shapes. They're fairly similar to the silver pattern on my dress. But these I backed with all the great grays & neutrals. I dappled some gold Heidi Swapp Color Shine (which btw I absolutely adore. I bought all the colors!!) And added title on top of a piece of wood veneer.

This is for my monthly black cardstock challenge. I don't use this rich hue enough in my scrapbooking. So I'm hoping to share a monthly page using this overlooked neutral.

The next page features one of my favorite families. My friends Susie & Gus welcomed baby Lauren last August and they are the absolute cutest. I love this photo of the three of them. I snapped it at Kim & Eric's wedding last month.

I had fun with the background paper and did some painting with pink mist. Then I outlined the hearts and added in a few of my own. There's so much love in this little family love had to be the theme.

I used that kraft butterfly I was talking about, instead of hoarding it like I wanted to. And I used some wood veneer, a Silhouette cut and a little kraft envelope to anchor the photo and create a title.

This last page is just fun. I loved the Studio Calico patterned paper, with it's neutral gray color and its diagonal stripes. They were just begging to be filled in with pops of color and a bit of texture.

I used some patterned paper strips and a few of the great trims. I like all the color on here since we're all wearing different colored clothes in the photos. I added just a bit more dimension with the gorgeous gold buttons and the red brads that came in the kit.

Next, I'm sharing the two cards I made. Check back in just a few for them =)

cheers & besos,

Sketchbook 4| No.12

And just like that I've finished Sketchbook 4. I'll post my usual wrap-up but first, I have to share my final page :) 

I used the my May Studio Calico kit and went to town, filling in the squares and rectangles the sketch called for with patterned papers and photos. I did some shifting around, but the essence of the sketch is still there.

Once again color was the driving force behind my choosing these photos. I took the teal from the domes and the statues and used strips of patterned paper that highlighted the color. I made sure to throw in some green  to accent the bits of greenery.

For this page, I journaled in a list.

1. Travel Buddies: Kori was(is?) one of my favorite travel buddies. We went to Belgium, Morocco, Spain & of course Germany together.

2 & 3. Museum Island & Fernsenturm: This area was gorgeous and so picturesque. We didn't go into the museum but instead soaked it all in from afar.

4. Brandenburg Gate: We had to see this famous landmark. There was no way around it. The square was busy and full of history.

5. Berlin Wall: The famous wall was no less impressive. I think I was most captivated by graffiti all over the walls. And there's something about this area of the city. Although not very far from the bustling Brandenburg area & Check Point Charlie, it was much more subdued.

I played with both color and texture on this page, roughed up and distress inked the edges of each of these patterned paper blocks. And even attempted to do some sewing. I will never get the settings on my machine right!!!

Sketchbook 4 completed: check!
12 pages done: yay!

cheers & besos,

Temple

Celine Navarro you are a design genius! There, I said it. I love this lady's style & the funky graphic edge she adds to every page. Plus she travels! A ton. And goes EVERYWHERE! Like seriously, I want her life. But enough of my gushing. Go check out her work, it more than speaks for its' self.

This was one of my inspired by pages that I talked about yesterday. I based my layout off of her India 2012: My top 5 layout. I figured that little flipbook would work perfectly for all of the photos I took at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

I did my best to make the most of those tiny pages, but small canvases are just not my jam. Each "layout" had it's one challenges and I tried to make them cohesive but also random and varied at the same time. Here's where having the same color scheme and one that works well with your photos really helps!! 

cheers & besos,