Sketchbook 4| No. 1

It's April! Do you know what that means? Sketchbook!! The class started this Monday & I have my first layout to share.

True to form, I'm using the class to finish up this year's Urijah photos before his birthday on the 20th.

I loved the red, white & blue in the photos and there were some great r,w & b products in last month's Studio Calico kit. I love how this layout turned out. I'm so happy to be back scrapping!

[PHOTO]

And since I'm sharing KP class sketch based layouts, I had to post this next to last Sketchpad based page. It's sweet & simple. It didn't need much with that super cute photo of Yaya aka Urijah.

So happy to have my mojo back =) and super excited for all of the goodies on their way to me. I placed a 2Ps order full of new Studio Calico, Crate Paper & Amy Tangerine. Can't wait to get my grubby mitts on it.

Also excited to scrap with some sweet Houston ladies in a few weeks. I need a good scrap day out!

cheers & besos,

Sketchpad Goodness

I signed up for Sketchbook 4, so I figured I needed to finish up with Sketchpad before April 1. Now, I've used all but 2 of the sketches!

Here's my take on Sketch No. 1, a fun page of some friends & I at the Kemah Boardwalk.

I ended up tilting the design of the sketch & rounded some corners. I also got to use some of the goodies I got on the cheap at Marshalls of all places. They just felt like great boardwalk/carnival pieces.

Oh, and about the largest photo. I took it on manual, not realizing my camera was set to manual, so it came out super wicked over exposed! But I was able to "save" it by playing with my histogram & sliders in iPhoto. I looks like it was put through some fun filter when really I just messed up!

This next layout was based off of Sketch No. 10. It was really about clustering & layering pieces, playing with paint and ink splatters.

I went for the red/black/white color combo & warmed it up with some gray & cream. I also dug into my London scrap stash & used the telephone booth stamp with white embossing powder.

I've been on a roll lately, just churning out layouts these last few weekends. I hope I can keep it up! I love being so productive!

cheers & besos,

Housekeeping

I have a winner for you all today!

This winner gets their choice of a Kelly Purkey Sketchbook/Sketchpad pdf class as well as a small prize pack of goodies I brought back from London & Lisbon.

There's some great graphic postcards, little notebooks, a few clothespins (or pegs as the Brits call them) and a cute stamp that I picked up here at home.

Without further adieu, the winner of the RAK is....

Congrats Cheryl!! E-mailing you now =)

A couple of other things I wanted to share with yall:

Scrapbook Challenges has a Paper to Digi challenge going on this month. I discovered it when I got back from my trip the other day. The ladies are using my layouts as inspiration for their digital designs. I was so flattered to have been picked as inspiration and so excited to see their pages! Be sure to check it out and to play along if you're a digital scrapper :)

Also, stumbled across the freebies section at Persnickety Prints. They have some great digital templates, tons of free papers and even some elements. I'd check them out if you were looking for a template to put multiple instagram shots on a single canvas.

Through the 22nd, they have a sale on their 8x8 photos. Each is $.79 instead of their usual $.99 (check out their blog for more details). If you were to put 9 instagram shots on 1 8x8 page, the photos would work out to $.08 a print! You'd have to do a bit of cutting, but I'm all for that kind of deal. They also have 2 12x12 templates.

Just wanted to share my sweet find!

cheers & besos,

300 + RAK!

It's here! I made it! I've crossed the 300 blog post threshold and there's no stopping me now =)
It took some time, nearly 2 1/2 years, but I did it! I'm so happy to have stuck it out and kept up with this blog. It makes me happy to look back to see all of my pages, to consider how my design style has evolved and to know that I still really love this hobby.
In honor of my little blog achievement, and as a thanks to all of you who've stuck it out with me, I'm offering up a RAK. One commenter on this post will win a Sketchbook/Sketchpad pdf class of their choice. (Note: These are not live classes.)
I found it fitting since I've talked about them so much, and have shared so many pages using them. I even put together a handy little slideshow of them all, below.

To enter for the chance to win, I'd like to know how you combat scrappers block/lack of mojo. Do you scraplift? Turn to sketches? Walk away from your desk? Surf the web (aside from Pinterest!)?
I feel like we could all use some tips on this and I can't wait to hear what you have to say!
I'm leaving this RAK open until midnight CST 20 February as I'm off traveling for a good part of next month. And who knows, there might be some fun mailed prizes in store for the person who wins ;) I'll be London and Portugal after all!
Once again, thank you so much for you blog love and support! I appreciate you all =)
cheers & besos,

Flora & Fauna

Morning yall! Just thought I jump on and share one of my latest Hawaii pages.

It's not my typical design, but I like it just the same.

I used paper from the American Crafts Margarita line and flower embellishments from Basic Grey's Lauderdale line.

It came out really festive!

These photos are for my Nana.

When I told her I was going to Hawaii, she made me promise to take pictures of the flowers. She said she knew she'd never go see them herself, so she had to see them through my photos. The scenery, the foliage, the flowers were some of the most beautiful I'd ever seen.

The photos just don't do them justice. But she'll love them just the same.

cheers & besos,

Kraft & KP

Oh sweet work holidays :) so thankful today for a 3 day weekend.

It's just the extra day I needed to get back on track with some stuff.

Like specifically, my blogging!

I've been scrapbooking, (some of my projects I can share, and some of which I have to wait to share until next month :) super excited about that!) just not blogging.

Today, I wanted to show off a few of the recent Sketchpad layouts I completed. Slowly but surely I've been making my way through these sketches and have used 7 of the 12 so far.

KP is famous for her use of circles, and when I saw the sketch this layout is based on, I knew I wanted to use them for these photos from the Haggia Sophia.

Jesus and Mary both have haloes depicted around their heads, which I thought went well with the circular design of the layout.

These mosaics were utter masterpieces. Their luminescence was absolutely breathtaking!

And don't you just love colors? The golds and blues with the dark red thrown in, it all felt very regal.

I wish I'd tended toward a "less is more" approach to this page, but I like how it turned out none the less. It was a fun layout to make. I just wish the Kraft had photographed better!

Speaking of Kraft, it seems I've been using it a lot lately. Here's another Sketchpad layout with a Kraft background.

The misting was meant to be the shining focal point, but I used too thin paper as a mask and it kind of bled through. Not to worry, I like the effect. It makes it feel more rustic, "manly" if you will ;)

It's very simple and straight forward, and features some instagram shots. Man do I love my instagram app! (And if only it was easier to get these bad boys printed!! But that's another story...)

The embellishment clusters came together really easy with some of the scraps I had on my desk, and also a few things from my pickle jars. Speaking of, I should probably share some of my desk organization this blog. That'll be a post for later this week.

We're getting really close to the magic 300th blog post. If you're interested in these Sketch classes of KP's you might want to keep checking back for it ;) :)

xxbesos

2011 Resolutions/2012 Habits

New Year = New Resolutions right?

Considering how well I did on last years, I'm not so sure.

Even having created this adorable mini, I still didn't stick to them.

Basically, the only three I actually did were:

(1) Budget, Save, Tithe...in moderation.

(2) Purge & Donate...not quite quarterly but at least a few times this year.

(3) Reconnect with friends...which was of course my favorite.

All are worthwhile accomplishments, I won't deny that. But I still feel like I could be doing more.

This year, I've resolved to not make resolutions but to focus instead on making habits. Habits that I can take with me throughout the year and even further on. Not pointless goals I set and then have no clue as to how to achieve.

These are the habits I'd like to work on cultivating for January:

• Waking up early enough to get a few things done, then to catch the 8:23 bus (so I won't be in after 9 anymore!)
• Exercising on the weekdays, running in the evenings
• Write daily (journaling, blog posts, Q&A, etc.)

At the moment, I'm just working on the 3. I don't want to get overwhelmed with an entire list of activities. I'll never create a habit doing that.

And come February, I'm determined to have those seemingly small things down, and ready to add 3 more habits to my list.

A little at time is my mantra for the year.

A little to achieve a lot!

With all of that being said, I'd like to share a layout which shows on of my 2011 resolutions at work, reconnecting with old friends :)

I got to see Monica twice this year! A treat, you have no idea. In February, I stayed with her in London and in September we met up in Hawaii for her birthday.

I love this girl. She is such a blast and the one person who can get me to do some of the crazier things I would never have otherwise, like snowboarding (Austria) and white water rafting (Thailand). She's always up for a good time, my Moni. And even though we couldn't be less alike, we still get along really well.

I created this page using my trusty Cheat Sheet (Sketchpad) at that Croppin Bug crop. And it wouldn't have turned out the way it did if it weren't for that crop!

Let me explain.

I wanted a neutral background for these bright photos, so I could incorporate in some way all of these gorgeous patterned papers. In riffling through my stash of paper, I picked out these two Studio Calico patterns from their Classic Calico line. But I couldn't decide which to use!

I turned to Lindsay, one of the awesome ladies I scrap with from time to time, to ask her opinion. She pointed out that she liked the dark paper for the color photo and the light paper for the sepia-esque print.

And that's how I came up with this design! (Thanks Linds :) Since it is so simple, I angled the design to make it more interesting. Then, cut strips and turned them into banners. The banners became my journaling lines and the whole things was finished off with some bakers twine and letter stickers.

It's a plain page but it doesn't really look that way thanks to the gorgeous papers and bright photo.

I hope to next year continue to reconnect and spend time with some of my favorite people. Even if it means flying across the world to do so!

And also, of course, to cultivate those habits.

Are you making resolutions this year? If so please share!

xxbesos

[EDITED TO ADD: I guess I was channeling my Leo brain wave. Check out his blog post on habits posted today]

Urijah Love

"Good morning, good mooorning!"

I have this jingle stuck in my head for some reason. I think it might have to do with the fact that the sun is shining outside of my window and I can hear birds chirping off in the distance. Birds, really? Pondering how long it's been since I've heard a bird outside my window....

Anyway, I think I'm most excited this morning because we're finally home! Back from Ohio and all tucked into my cozy little apartment, with 7 full days of freedom staring me in the face. That my friends equals pure bliss!

I have a slue of little projects I'll be working on over the week. Mostly organizational things, but also some scrappy stuff.

This morning I wanted to share a few of the pages I made at that Cropping Bug crop with my pals out in Texas City.

They're all about looove :) Namely love of a certain lil man.

While driving out to the crop, I listened and rocked out to an old school Natalie Imbruglia CD. One song had a lyric that mentioned "bubbles of love" in it. I think it's called Big Mistake (actually I know it's called that because I just googled it :)

As that was gurgitating, and I pulled this photo from the box, and had already chosen a sketch that featured circles, I came up with the title. I find it very appropriate to the atmosphere Urijah's presence creates. You just can't not love him!

Their shirts were the deciding design elements for this page, varying shades of greens and yellows. I got to play with my circle punches and buttons & brads, finally using that gorgeous wood button with the green details from Crate Paper.

I also love how infinitely classic & cool my Papa looks with his Ray Band sunglasses.

Then I made a page with Urijah and Gma. I loved the cosmic vibe of this Studio Calico paper, especially when cut down to the smaller size which accentuates it. It somewhat mimicked the odd angle of the photo of the two of them. Which really could have been shown either portrait or landscape.

The title came from Urijah's pjs. There is a monkey in space with the words "Out of this world" on the front.

I think "Love (or Loved) out of this World" really worked as a title for this page. Plus, I'm super happy that I have a page with Gma and Urijah! There aren't as many photos of the two of them together.

Urijah's scrapbook is always my favorite to work on. Mainly because I actually complete them! But also because I tend to capture those everyday life photos. The ones that so perfectly exemplify relationships and interactions, rather than we did this, we saw that. It's a newer evolution in my scrapbooking. And I like it.

xxbesos

Saturdays with Yaya

How is Christmas already this weekend?! Amongst all of the mayhem of this fall, it's snuck up on me.

Alas, our bags are all packed and our shoes are tied tight. I'm ready for this Christmas with MT and his family in Ohio!

Wish us luck, it's the first flown trip we've ever taken with each other. I'm a professional traveler, so this could be really easy or really hard. I will let you know.

But for now, I wanted to share this page, created with my cheat sheet and as I channeled my inner Lisa T.

All of the photos are instagram shots that I had printed at Scrapbookpictures.com. I'd completely recommend them. I know a lot of people order from PostalPix, which is super convenient but annoyingly not great quality. The colors are always so ridiculously off! But I digress.

The photos are some random everyday shots of what we do when Urijah is around, a whole lot of hanging out.

I love how these photos also show Urijah's relationship with his "Uncle" Matt. He's clearly very comfortable with him, enough to use him as a chair at least. That photo of their shadows holding hands gets me every time :)

For this page, I used the Chap line by American Crafts. Instant love! I adore this line, especially for cute boy pages.

I'm quite proud of this page, it's the first I had made in at least a month and one for Urijah's Year 2 Album, the pages of which were very scant.

I love adding pages to albums. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Well Mr. OCD is pacing the floor at the moment. Even thought he said we were leaving at 3:30 it seems my time is up. I'll catch up with yall when I get back! I hope everyone has a safe and merry holiday!

xxbesos

Cheat Sheet

Confession: I'm a cheater.

There! I've said it!

Well...not a "cheater" per say but a definite cheat sheet user.

I'm talking about these guys, the ones that already have all of the answers to test:

It's the secret to my success!

Well kind of...

(It more or less holds up in a cropping court of law)

You all might know by now that I love me a good sketch and I turn to my repertoire of KP Sketchbook and now Sketchpad pdfs, frequently when I make my cheat sheets.

They're my go to group because 1) they're good and 2) I paid for them. That's more or less enough said.

So let me take just a minute to explain what I do and how I do it.

I bought the Sketchpad class when Kelly released it. Opened it up, poured over the sketches and the inspiration, wiped away some droll and then walked away from it for awhile.

Later, when I was in a scrapping mood I opened it up again and went through it page by page, sketch by sketch alongside of my iPhoto, pulling pictures with the appropriate orientation (landscape vs portrait) and groupings that would work for each sketch.

I jotted a quick mini sketch of just the photo placement, wrote down the appropriate file names and determined right then and there the photo sizes. That is the biggest tip I can give you. I like scrapping with a variety of sizes, but it can be a bit difficult and often time consuming chore.

When I make my cheat sheets, I don't have to think!

It makes the scrapping and the yapping that much easier when you're not thinking so hard!

This is one of the layouts I made from my cheat sheet. They're photos of this amazing local restaurant just off of the Kamehameha Hwy on the North Shore of Oahu.

It was a tiny little hole in the wall, but aren't those the best kind of eateries?! A local guy chatted up the place while we were ordering. Heck, if it's good enough for him it's definitely good enough for me!

For this page, I just started layering patterned paper strips on top of each other on either side of the line of photos. Then I added some 3 dimensional flowers and Thickers for embellishment.

And of course I had to make a cardstock grass skirt! I couldn't not with a restaurant (and page) so aptly named.

I almost forgot!

I have to add that I made the cheat sheet weeks and weeks ago. Printed the photos and let them marinate on my desk for awhile. It was a month later when I pulled it out to actually use. By then (and still now) I can't remember a single layout from the class pdf, but I have the bones to work with and thus was/am able to put my own stamp on the sketches.

I didn't make copies of the layouts featured. I made the sketches my own.

One of these days I'll go back and look at the inspiration. It'll be interesting to see how close to the original sketch my layouts turn out.

Signing off for tonight, but I'll be back later with more completed cheat sheet layouts! If you have any questions about the process, don't hesitate to ask. Cheers!

xxbesos