RELAX | I love this picture of Nate and me, spending a lazy morning on the dock during our visit to Pike Lake. It was the perfect start to the perfect day. I also really love the completed layout. The pretty papers and banner were the perfect fit for the photograph and the mood I was hoping to portray.
I know I've been a little quiet here on the blog in recent weeks. Please bear with me a little longer as I complete a few behind the scenes projects and work on getting a few things in order. I hope to have things back to normal here by mid-November. Thank you for your understanding!
It's that time of the week again! Time for the Sketchy Thursdays 10.20 Challenge. Here is this week's sketch:
And here is my interpretation of the sketch:
Click here for full product credits (link coming soon).
FOXY FOX TAKES A SWIM | You've all probably figured it out by now, but my niece Kylee is a sassy one. She's always up to something - often times things she's not supposed to do. Things like taking a stuffed animal for a swim. The journaling reads:
Missy allowed the kids to each purchase a souvenir from the Grand Canyon. Kylee, being the animal lover she is, chose a cute stuffed fox, which she promptly named “Foxy Fox”. Kylee and Foxy Fox became fast friends and good buddies. Such good buddies that Kylee took him swimming - against the wishes of her mom! Fortunately, he was quickly rescued from his swimming adventure, with only a small piece of his tail becoming wet. ~August 14, 2011
I have a second page to share today which isn't based upon a sketch, but is similar to the page above because both layouts were created using products from the same designer - Elle's Studio!
TRUE LOVE | Yet another engagement photo of my sister, Molly, and future BIL, Greg. I just can't stop scrapping these gorgeous photos! This one was shot at my grandmother's farm. I really like the relaxed, casual feel of the photo. I also love the post-production edits my cousin applied to the photo (which she also photographed!).
Well, what are you waiting for? Head on over to Sketchy Thursdays and play along!
Changing it up. It's something I did a lot of this weekend. For the good. For the bad. For the indifferent.
I watched three movies. Two in one night, in fact. Probably more than I've watched this entire year. Guess what? It was kind of fun.
I spent nearly the entire weekend with either family or friends - both of which we don't see often enough due to distance and busy schedules.
I took a break from projects. Don't get me wrong, I still have a million of them (literally) in my mind, on paper, and ongoing, but I decided to not hold myself to some crazy standard - wherein I must check of a whole line of things on my list or I end up feeling like a failure. I let the list go for a few days. Guess what? It didn't kill me. At least yet. But seriously, if I don't start busting through it soon, it just might!
I made an actual meal plan for the week and went shopping to purchase everything I need. Hoping this helps get Nate and I both back on a normal eating schedule. We were sort of all over the place with eating times and habits. Trying to change them both up at once.
I let my blog reading and internet browsing and social media interaction slide. Guess what? I didn't miss out on anything earth-shattering (although I missed my blog friends!).
I let my blog posting slide too. Part of the whole "holding myself to a crazy standard" deal. Although I thought a lot about my blog and some changes I'm going to implement. I realize that recently, I haven't shared enough about me and my life. For my family and friends, especially those far away, that's something really important. Look for a little more in the near future.
I re-evlauated my "plan" and made a few changes. Changes which just might involve going back to school for another degree (I guess two degrees isn't enough for me). We'll see.
And, just to prove I haven't changed everything up completly, here's a cute little page I made a while back, but haven't got around to sharing:
LOVE YOU | I honesty REALLY LOVE this page! It's my favorite of recent time. Probably in my Top 5 from the year. The photo is one of my favorite from our trip to Duluth. The coloring of the photo was perfect for the lovely color pallet of the Paislee Press Then & Now kit.
That's all the changes for the moment. What's new and/or changing in your world?
The latest challenge is up at Sketchy Thursdays! Here's this week's sketch:
I moved a few things around, swapped the florish and journaling for paint splatters and confetti, and came up with this:
JUST BE HAPPY | This layout uses one of the newer releases by In the Making Design called Be Happy. I love the yellow and greys, mixed with the purple and lavendars. I couldn't resist whipping up a page with it. I chose a photo of Nate and I from our trip to Duluth. The journaling reads:
"Here we are, living the life! The days we spend on the lake are some of the very best of the summer. how could you not be happy at a place like this?"
Head on over to Sketchy Thursdays to join in the fun and for a chance to win a prize from this week's sponsor!
Last week was a little rough - in more ways than one. On Monday, I was excited for a fresh new week and the exciting things it would bring. I had lots of plans, including attending a Diamondbacks playoff game (with amazing seats) and more importantly, flying home to attend my sister's bachelorette party and wedding shower.
But, it seems fun and excitement were not in the cards for me. Long story short, I ended up being very sick and missed work and the playoff game. By Thursday, I was on the mend (or so I thought) and still hopeful to make it back home. Friday I woke up sick (again) and after a trip to the doctor was diagnosed with upper respiratory infection AND a sinus infection. If that were not enough, the doctor strongly advised against travel. Since I know the misery of flying with sinus issues, and the fact I didn't want to risk making others ill, I had to stay in Arizona and miss my sister Molly's special weekend.
To say it was a MAJOR BUMMER would be a gross understatement.
But, if you look hard enough, you can find a silver lining in anything - even being sick and missing out on family events. What is that silver lining, you may wonder? Well, I had plenty of free time to play on my computer. You see, one perk of being a digital scrapper is that you can scrap in bed. Which is precisely what I did! I figured if I couldn't be there for my sister, I was certainly going to make her something meaningful and memorable.
The results? Pretty cool, if you ask me! While being cooped up, I was able to put together and album to house Molly and Greg's engagement photos. The beautiful photos you will see were taken by my talented cousin Jill, of Jill Riese Photography.
Here are a few of my favorite spreads from the album:
To create the album, I used the Curated album kit, a collaboration between Kitschy Digitals and Paislee Press. I embellished the album using lots of other goodies from Kitschy Digitals.
I created all of the pages in Photoshop and uploaded the final layouts to Shutterfly, using their custom path to create the book, which is being printed as I type!
You can see the full album below. Please take a peek and amire the lovely couple and the amazing photography! Oh, and the cute book too :)
Although the week didn't turn out as planned, I think I managed to salvage what would have been a lost week and turn it into something somewhat positive. I hope in doing so, I created a special memory for Molly & Greg.
Quite some time ago, I decided I would to learn to crochet. I was exposed to crochet throughout my childhood, spending hours watching my Grandma Schlattmann stitch away at amazing masterpieces. She was truly gifted in the art. I'm not certain why I never learned from her while she was able to teach. Maybe a lack of interest or impatience? I'm guessing it was the latter. Either way, it is an beautiful art that I am determined to perfect.
Because I already have too many types of arts and crafts in my arsenal, it took me quite a while to really get in gear to learn. Just recently, I bought some hooks, bought some yarn and started to research. The patterns overwhelmed me (I HATE following directions), so I signed up for a class. Then the class was cancelled, leaving me back at square one. Enter Crochet School.
I stumbled across a Tweet about Crochet School and headed on over to the Crafty Minx blog to check it out. What I found was a well designed, well written syllabus, that made the Instructional Design side of me sing! It turns out Ms. Crafty Minx, Dana, has a background in education, hence the well written and structured syllabus.
I'm now a few lessons into Crochet School and am loving it! Dana has a knack for writing and instructing. The content is chunked into manageable pieces and is very educational. I'm normally the type of person to dive in head first and hope I figure it out. But learning everything step-by-step, in detail, has certainly helped in the overall understanding of crochet. This is what I learned last night - the chain stitch:
There is one amazing detail about the class I forgot to mention...it's FREE! It is certainly something I would have paid money for, and I'm so appreciative Dana is offering it at no charge. If you've been wanted to learn to crochet, or are even a little curious to see what it's all about, head on over to Crafty Minx to check it out. It's self-paced, so it's not too late to join!
I'm anxious to continue building my knowledge of the craft and hopefully, one day soon, share some fun projects with you! Out of curiosity, do you crochet or knit?
I'm very excited to share with you my first page as a returning Design Team member at Sketchy Thursdays!
I'm slowly, but surely getting all of the photos from my sister's visit (back in August) scrapped. These particular photos were taken at the Grand Canyon, which I'm sure is evident by the title!
The layout was based upon this sketch:
As I was making the layout, it started to feel oddly familiar. So familiar, that it began to bother me. I went back to glance through my "Pages In Progress" folder and found this page I had started a few months back, but never completed.
Ironically, it was based on a Sketchy Thursdays sketch AND used the same two kits I had selected for the page above (Three Paper Peonies + Kitty Designs). Since the unfinished page was still in need of photos and a title, I selected a few more from our Grand Canyon trip to make a companion page to the layout above. Sort of two for the price of one :)
Head on over to Sketchy Thursdays to play along in the challenge for a chance to win this week's prize!
Back in May I was contacted by Somerset Memories to advise me my Cali mini-album had been accepted for publication. Needless to say, I was thrilled! I had submitted my album in response to a Tweet I came across, which was in search of submission for "green-friendly" scrapbooking projects. Upon seeing the Tweet, I immediately knew my Cali album would be a perfect fit. It is comprised entirely of recycled, repurposed and scrap items I collected and/or pulled from my stash. Happily for me the editors at Somerset Memories felt it was the perfect fit too!
As I read the acceptance email, I was even more thrilled when I was asked to write an 800-word article to accompany the album! A project AND an article published? Yes, please!
Although a large part of my day job involves writing, I was very intimated with the idea of penning 800 words that would be printed in a publication for all the world to see. Fortunately, the words flowed quickly and I was up to my total word count in no time.
I received my issue in the mail on Friday and was overjoyed to see how cute it looked in print! Somerset's graphic designers to a great job with the layout in their publications.
I was originally advised my project and article would be 4-pages in length. Imagine my surprise and excitement, when I found out I actually got 6-pages! :)
I feel very honored to be included in Somerset Memories. The publication takes a different approach to memory keeping than most scrapbooking publications. Their perspective is more artistic and stretches the idea of what a stereotypical scrapbooking project might be. They do a wonderful job of curating their publications and find many beautiful and intriguing projects you might not see elsewhere.
Aside from just seeing my project and article (isn't that enough in it's own?!), the magazine is packed full of projects from some amazing ladies - including Dina Wakely and Ali Edwards. You should definitely pick up a copy for yourself. If you're not able to find a copy locally, you can order a copy of the magazine here.
