Elle's Studio Spring Sale

It's happening! Head over to Elle's Studio to shop the spring [sale]! There are grab bags and individual items on mega discount.

While I was at it, I thought I'd share a page I made using this month's Elle's Studio [sketch]. As I'm a huge fan of circles, I totally loved this sketch! I rotated the elements 90 degrees and so much fun layering my photos, acrylic words and stamped pieces.

I completely loved the "We are living our Adventure" journaling tag from the [April kit]. But couldn't make the 3x4 size work. So I just cut out the sentiment placed it along the bottom of my photo. Totally made it work!

I used the [Travelouge stamps] and the [Go, See, Do acrylic words] to embellish this page.

And I used the arrows from the [puffy stickers] pack to help guide your eye around the page. Hands down, puffy stickers have to be my favorite type of embellishment!

cheers & besos,

Weekends at No. 1152

I’m so excited to share this page! It’s one of my favorites from the year. I love the design and the color scheme (so not my usual). The moments that were captured (me helping Matt cook!). And all of the fun Elle’s Studio products I used (puffy stickers!!).

Can I just say that I love the dash of purple Elle included in the Little Moments collection. Dear manufacturers, more purple please! I think adding it in small doses helped make this mage so much more fun!

I started out by making the 12x12 layout, using a Simple Scrapper sketch (due out in May!). It was originally a double page layout. But I decided to shrink all of the elements down and overlap them a bit to make a single page.

One of my favorite parts is the bisected background. I love that angle! It isn’t very harsh, but definitely adds some visual interest. I die cut the title from the white cardstock and backed it with an ombre pattern from the Little Moments paper stack. 

This page is actually an update to one I did last year. It was called Saturdays at No. 1152. Back then we had a cat and no dog. Now we have a dog and no cat. I think it’s so important to document these kinds of things, because you never know how much can change in a years time!

Having the other layout in mind, I decided to print my photos to look like the instax photos I had used before. I stamped labels below each photo and then “Perfect Weekend” (a stamp from this month’s Elle’s Studio release) below each. Then I added a simple note describing each of our perfect weekends.

The embellishing was simple, a tag from the monthly kit, Sat and Sun acrylic pieces and three wee puffy stickers (swoon!). I dropped just a tiny bit of teal and purple mist to finish the page.

And I thought I was done. I thought what I’d made was enough. But then I started flipping through the stack of journaling cards in the monthly kit and I saw that “Notes from the Weekend” one and knew I needed to use it!

I decided to add a 6x12 divided page protector alongside my main layout. I started with the notes from the weekend card, this time I journaled about this specific weekend which happened to be Easter.

We didn’t do much in the way of celebrating. The only way we marked the occasion was by making and eating Matt’s Grandma’s wedding soup. The top photo is of the two of us rolling tiny meatballs for the soup.

I journaled on the “File this Under:” card and made my own 3x4 card using paper from the Little Moment’s paper stack and a few puffy stickers.

cheers & besos,

Dreaming of Sunshine

It's the 10th today!! Which means, the latest Elle's Studio monthly kit is out! Along with a few fun goodies and the new design team projects!! Head over there to nab your loot, while the kit is on sale for $9.99. After midnight PST, the prices increase to $11.99. So save some pennies while you have the chance :)

Here's a divided page protector spread I put together using the kit. I don’t use divided page protectors in the traditional sense i.e. Project Life. Really, they’re just another tool in my creative arsenal. If it makes sense to tell the story in this format, then I will! I don’t think too much about it.

I chose a divided page protector because I really loved so many of the cards in this month’s kit. Four of them fit went really well with the story I was wanting to tell, and I threw a fifth in for fun and color!

Lately, I’ve been going through a bit of a hard time. I’ve dealt with anxiety and a bit of depression since I hit puberty. It fortunately, has not been a daily issue for much of my life. There have been months and years when it hasn’t been part of my life. But the older I get, the more these issues seem to decide to make themselves known. This last round of anxiety has lasted longer than any before. Obviously, it’s weighing heavy on my mind, so I can’t help but document it.

I thought the “dreaming of sunshine” card was such a great metaphor for my current situation. I’m truly dreaming of more sunshine, or in this case, a happier and more calming state of mind. I love that Elle included a card that highlights that not every day is “happy” or “the best!” The “This was not my day” card was great for adding my journaling. And I thought the “Weather Report” went really well with the set, continuing on with the weather metaphor.

One of my favorite products from this month’s release were the puffy stickers!!! The “real life” one was perfect for this page. It’s kind of hard to tell from the photo, but the “true story” is an acrylic word. This is one of the truest stories I’ve told in awhile, so I had to use it.

I added some thought bubbles directly onto my photo in white ink. It’s kind of hard to see them but I like that. It’s just some texture, and a bit of a visual cue as to what my head looks like right now. Crowded!

For anyone who’s concerned, I appreciate it. But truly I’m doing ok. Taking a lot of steps to get better. And really just moving forward and working towards a brighter April.

I’m still here. I’m still scrapbooking. I’m still making time to be creative!

cheers & besos,

Summer 2013

I blinked and suddenly we're almost to the end of September. And officially, done with summer. I had a fabulous summer this year. Can't you tell? 

I've had this summer wrap up page on my "to make" list. And one of our Art + Science class challenges (the left brained ideation one) is to create a page off your list. So here it is!

I hate to admit this, but I only sporadically watch the fabulous daily TwoPeas videos (a shame really). But the latest one from Lilith Eeckels totally had me inspired to scrap. Two of her prompts are featured here: leave it as is (or nearly) and get nature involved.

This past week I've been doing some purging and organizing, I took the plunge and now have most of my paper organized by color! I did a small exercise, where I made a pile of my most favorite have to use papers. And also included papers that I thought would be perfect for my list of projects. This yellow paper is one of the latter:

 The bright yellow circles just screamed summer & sun to me. And I thought they made perfect frames for a few circular photos. So I printed a smattering of summer highlight photos and punched them out with a circle punch.

The facing page is this fabulously awesome Pebbles background. I loved the words and didn't want to cover any of it up! So as Lilith suggested, I left it nearly as is; just added in bits of patterned paper scraps and a few puffy stickers. Viola!

I had fun embellishing this page, finding circular and none circular elements to balance the photos. Love that badge!

 And I wanted to be sure to use the Summer 2013 stamp from a Kelly Purkey set. Now's the time!

I dropped a few colors of mist onto the background, because I knew the colors would look fab on the white parts and be hidden by the blacks (a trick I did for this page as well)

The last part was to include the year, so I pulled out my Thickers and made it bright and colorful.

I'm thinking I'll probably add an insert page to include journaling and a few large photos. Probably one of these Becky Higgins ones for a bit of variety.

Oh summer, you were good to me. I had some fun, saw some cool places and hung out with friends. And thanks to Project 12 & all of my online learning, I'm almost all caught up!

cheers & besos,