Not just Special

Have you guys been watching the 2Peas videos? Man do they have some awesome content! I'm loving the daily uploads. 

If I wasn't on a procurement freeze, I'd totally spend all my money there. They just market their products so well! So buy from them since I'm not. They're awesome!

But anyway, this page was directly inspired by Kristina Nicolai-White's In the Mood to Scrap video. Her prompt was to use punched circles but I drew inspiration from other places.

I hand wrote my journaling and added some hand drawn lines.

I liked the look of her title and even though it isn't exactly the same as hers, it's still reminiscent.

And the backing paper for the cut title had a little confetti vibe to it. Too bad you can't see much of it. 

I used stars and even hand cut one for a more organic look, like Kristina did with her heart. 

And as to the journaling, I was inspired by Glitter Girl's latest adventure. This is a favorite photo from Urijah's birthday last year, but the journaling is about his special needs. It's the first time I've ever scrapbooked about his autism diagnosis. Obviously it's a big part of his life and I think it deserves to be documented in his scrapbook.

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,

Started with a Chair

Why hello sweet blogging friends!

Come in. Take a seat. Stay awhile :)

Funny I should mention "taking a seat" as today I'm sharing one very special chair.

Last March I had a Sunday to kill while I was in London. On a whim I booked a train ticket to Alton, to visit Chawton Cottage one of Jane Austen's homes. It's now a finally preserved museum, who's primary exhibits are the rooms themselves.

Tucked into one corner of what I would call the dining room is Jane's desk and chair. It's reputed that this is where she wrote little known titles such as Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma.

You know, those sweet little tales :)

With role models such as Lizzy Bennett and Emma Woodhouse, I didn't let some silly little "No photographs please" sign stop me from capturing Mecca for the Jane Austenite.

I quickly uncapped my camera, aimed and prayed the photo would turn out nice. I only had the one shot!

With some careful cropping and editing, I think I managed to do this quiet little corner of the world some justice.

It's been nearly a year since I've visited Alton and Chawton Cottage and thus the same amount of time to scrapbook this photo. I think I've been waiting all of this time for the right design to come along, something worthy of it's significance.

And finally it did.

In the form of a Jill Sprott layout no less.

Now, dear blogger, you see me write a lot about my adoration for Kelly Purkey's work, but not many of you may know that Jill Sprott is just and dear and very near to my heart.

Her work never ceases to inspire and amaze me. And while I don't often straight scraplift from her work, I none the less admire and adore just about every page she's ever created.

This Fly layout was no exception. Suddenly, I had my inspiration!

I used a plethora of October Afternoon Farmhouse goodies, some Studio Calico and Amy Tangerine Stamps, Maya Road doilies, a gorgeous sheet of Sassafras (may they rest in peace) patterned paper. But, most precious of all, my "Jane Austen This Book Belongs to..." stamp that I picked up from the Cottage gift shop.

{Sigh} Oh Jane. How I simply adore thee.

cheers & besos,

P.S. My next order from Papertrey Ink will absolutely include the Simply Jane stamp, die cut and patterned paper set. Check them out if you'd like to make Jane Austen inspired layouts too!

yoU

**Giveaway Closed but comments still opened**

My nephew's name is Urijah. It's not your typical name, not many start with "U". You say it Ur-I-Yuh. The "J" is pronounced like a "Y". Try to say it with my last name, where the "J" sounds like an "H" and you're sure to be confused! Which is why my older generation relatives have trouble pronouncing it. One of my Grandpa's just calls him Baby Johnny. The other calls him "You".

When I originally started scrapbooking his life, I never quite knew how to word the journaling. Sometimes I wrote about him in the 3rd person, sometimes I wrote from my perspective. And then somewhere along the way, I just starting writing all of my journaling to him, an 80+ love love letter to my favorite little man.

I thought it was clever to just use a "U" every time the "y-o-u" word was needed, since his first initial is a "U". And it just stuck.

So the second I came across this layout on the Studio Calico board, I knew I had to lift it in some way.

Here's my take:

I LOVE this new collection from American Crafts! Next to the Amy Tangerine line, it's my favorite of the latest releases. The colors in it are fabulous. I love the muted tones and the green/blue/orange combo. Being a paper fiend, I had to have every piece!

Speaking of paper fiends, have you made a stop by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party? If not I definitely think you should! I used Day 2's (there's so much content this is as far as I've got!) prompt to start this page off. Oh, and if you're interested in this class, I'd keep reading... ;) ;)

I loved the diagonal element in the inspiration page, and this pretty sheet, which featured all of the great colors, was the perfect launching point for my layout.

The photos I used were just everyday shots of my little man. There's no big story here, he was just playing, getting in and out of a box we had lying around the apartment. The possibilities for these photos of his sweet little face and round chubby cheeks were endless!

Digging into my letter sticker stash helped me to realize how many sizes, shapes, textures, thicknesses and variety I have in that department! Next to paper, letter stickers are my favorite product.

For this page, I tried to balance all of the different sizes, fonts and colors to include that cute Dr. sUess poem that so reminds me of this little guy.

And, since the letter stickers are fairly flat, I made sure the flags sticking out of from under the photos, were raised to give the page some dimension.

There's my page! It's been forever and a day since I've actually been crafty. This felt real good to make. Especially since I didn't have any idea about what I was going to do with these photos, just that I needed to make something! That's the beauty of having a Pinterest board. Endless inspiration!

So if you've stuck it out this far, I just wanted to extend an extra special thiank you to you. And a thank you to everyone who comes back and reads my poorly updated blog!

In honor of this being my 100th blog post of the year, and this being my 101 layout I've created this year, I'd like to do a special giveaway!

One of my lovely blog reads will win an invitation to Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party! Yes, the class has already started and you might not get the daily e-mail prompts. But all of the content will be there! And believe me, this content is worth it! There is a lot of it. You'll also have access to the message board. I personally didn't even sign up until last week and don't feel like I've missed out.

To enter to win, leave me a comment telling me something that makes U, you!

[And also a way to get the message to you if you don't mind. If you'd rather not share your e-mail address, please e-mail me at paperheart[dot]project[at]gmail[dot]com]

U have until Wednesday, November 9th 11:59 pm CT to leave a comment for the chance to win. I can't wait to hear about what makes each of you Unique!

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