Thank you so much for downloading my kits, templates, doodles and brushes! I truly appreciate it ;D Without further ado, here is the newest template, Template 7:
I wanted to keep it simple and I’ve been really into rounded corners lately, so that’s what I went with! I love the journaling and the skinny little box around it.
I hope you all like it! Please leave a comment if you download, and link up to a page you create using it – I’d love to see what you create with it! Thanks ;D
Sorry I was MIA for my usual Monday post (and today too – hit by a horrible migraine). I’ve been reorganizing my den, adding new storage and rethinking the way I organize my papers and scraps. I added an Ikea Expedit cube to my room and got rid of things that I don’t use and don’t LOVE anymore. I also added some hanging storage for my markers, colored pencils, paint brushes and paints. I used these buckets and rail from Ikea and I love them! I plan on doing a video of my craft space when I film part 3 of my crop prep video.
Anyway, I’m almost done with reorganizing and I should be back on Monday with the part 2 crop prep video…
Oh, and don’t forget to grab my freebie kits and other downloads – only two away from 300 now and there will be a new template once I hit 300!
I am at 295 downloads of my digital goodies! I have a template sitting and waiting to be uploaded and offered as a freebie as soon as I hit 300. You can download my templates here. Or you can download my kits here. I also have a doodle set that is lovely ;D You can download that here. And my water splatter brushes are very popular and you can find them here.
I’m still working on my videos for the crop preparation series, the next one should be ready by Monday.
I’ve been a member for a little while and have been getting emails about their workshops (like One Little Word with Ali Edwards) but I didn’t think I had time for any classes with our busy crazy schedule (or the funds since work has been so slow). And then last week I decided to take a closer look at their classes. I noticed that they have a number of free classes (including Embrace Imperfection which starts next month and lasts two weeks – I’ve signed up, will you??).
I found another one for $10.00 (who can beat that!?) that I really liked and I’m excited to get started on it. It’s a self-paced class called Permission To Live A Creative Life. I soooo need this class! You create a mini album and it’s essentially about you and giving yourself permission to MAKE time to create and not feel guilty for doing it. I know how happy I was when I was making all our christmas presents and I was in the den creating every chance I got. However, I really did push it and ignored pretty much everything else so I could get them done. A happy medium would be good ;D Since Christmas I have made 1 card. That’s it! Just one. I have been itching to get in the den and I’m frustrated and cranky!!!
I know that I need this hobby to keep me happy and satisfied. I BELIEVE (there’s that word again) that creating is important to my happiness and I believe it will be a major part of my future. This hobby is my focus this year if you haven’t figured that out already! I used to scrapbook to record our family’s memories and tell the stories that are a part of every photo we take. In the last six months or so it has changed for me. It’s not just about that anymore, although that is huge – I still have to blog about my grandfather and the hole in our family history his passing left. No, I have discovered that I love being artistic. I am not just creating a layout with photos and words. I am creating my own artwork for my family to keep and cherish. I am discovering that this is who I am and that I can be artistic even though I can’t draw stick figures. I can try new things and although some don’t turn out the way I imagined, others turn out better than I could have hoped.
This year, I am giving myself permission to live the life I want and be creative as much as possible without completely ignoring real life either. Take a look. Maybe you’ll find a class that strikes a chord. ;D
This will be a 4-part series on start to finish how I choose my layouts; organize, edit and print my photos; pull together my supplies; and finally pack for a crop. Sorry for the lengthy post, but it’s worth it!
Like many of you, I have a bunch of ideas in my head so I thought I would start first with a list. I like lists. I try to make lists of things to do around my house, groceries, etc. First I want to write a list so I’m not staring at my folders of photos wondering which to choose. There are so many, if you are anything like us and anyone who uses a digital camera, you can take 300 photos in one day easy. So, I started by writing out a random list of ideas I’ve had swirling in my head. I started with some of the creative things I want to do – a layout about me and my weight loss journey, an art journal, another larger canvas, a sketch book to take note of some ideas and well, sketches, that sort of thing. Then I went through specific layouts I wanted to do about my boys – Matthew @ 1, Kyle @ 4, brothers, Rob and I, halloween, christmas, etc. Then I have a few albums I want to do – a wedding/honeymoon album of our wedding in 2003 (similar to the ones I did here and here). I have a few layouts about our Olympic experiences, and layouts and/or a mini album of our Road Trip 2010 as well. Then on a separate piece of paper I wrote out my list in priority order.
This may become a tradition at the start of every new year – it was a good exercise to decide what projects I really want to do and have them laid out on paper, ready for me to tick them off when they are completed. I need a visual like that otherwise it all gets lost in my head and I’m scrambling when I’m ready to get down to some scrapping.
Specifically for the crop I am thinking about layouts, and since a few other projects will take a bit more time (like mini albums or canvasses), I want to make sure I am as productive as possible at the crop. I aim to have at least 8 layouts done, and I will plan on having several more prepared and packed in my bag. When the crop is all said and done, I will have most of the other projects ready to go, kitted with the papers and embellishments, and when I’m ready to do them I won’t have to search for any of my supplies or photos. I really like having things ready to go. That’s how I did three layouts in a week last summer; they were layouts I had prepared for a crop and hadn’t gotten to, but they were there, waiting for me to do them. It’s easy to take them with you for a weekend with the in-laws or a spur of the moment retreat… I want to be as busy as possible this year with my scrapbooking, and get as much done as I can this year. Part of my one little word is about my creativity and merging my daily life with that creativity. This fostering of creativity is an amazing thing, but that’s for another post (and trust me that post is coming too!) ;D
I find in the past I have been an event scrapbooker, not necessarily a chronological or day-to-day living scrapbooker. However, I am trying to be more of a day to day, living life and capturing the simple moments kind of scrapbooker. I still feel this pull to “catch up” with the layouts I haven’t done, but I’m trying to focus on the ones I really want to get done and am trying to let go of past layouts that did not get done. With that said, I still want to do the wedding/honeymoon album since I think I would like to have a mini album or an 8×8 album that I can pull out and show to my kids, rather than all the photos being on my hard drive or in a container tucked away with the little bit of memorabilia I kept. I feel that this needs to be said in this segment as opposed to the next segment because it has to do with how I choose the layouts I want to do.
I’ll be sharing my process for importing, selecting, editing and printing my photos in my next post in this series (which may or may not be my next post, I have another one I’d like to do first). There may also be a video for that post ;D
One last thing I wanted to say on this: When I started scrapbooking I pretty much exclusively used a sketch for every layout, printing my photos to fit perfectly. Sometimes I would go off a sketch and make it work with my photos, but still based very much on that sketch. I still find sketches to be very inspirational and an excellent jumping off point, but I find I have more fun if I do it by feel and my own intuition (part of the fostering creativity thing ;D). Quite often lately I will see something I like (almost anywhere too) and I’ll get an idea. I then promptly forget it if I’m not in the den creating, can write it down or bookmark it ;D I’m not one for carrying around a pen and paper. It’s just never a habit I’ve been able to get into. Instead, I’ve started using Evernote on my laptop (both as an application and an add-on to Firefox) and on my new iPhone (which was my birthday present in October – I absolutely love it and am suddenly utterly and completely lost if I have forgotten it at home). Evernote is a very cool tool and it’s becoming quite useful for storing away ideas and stuff that I want to keep handy. Check it out!
I thought I would quickly share a one layer card I did yesterday as part of a facebook challenge Hero Arts put on for 1.11.11. I don’t usually do one layer cards but I thought I would challenge myself.
First I stamped the heart in Fired Brick distress ink on white cardstock. Then I stamped it on a sticky note and cut it out leaving a bit of room for a border (not much, mind you). I placed the sticky note over the cardstock and then stamped the flourish in Ancient Page chocolate ink and then stamped the friend definition in Ancient Linen distress ink. I used my ink blending tool to distress and fade the background (with the sticky note still on the cardstock) and then used the chocolate ink to add depth to the edges. I then removed the sticky note leaving the space under it still white so the heart stands out. I stamped the love you (from Daisy Bucket) in Fired Brick as well, and then added my embellishments. I tucked the stick pins from Making Memories into the shank of the heart button, then through the ribbon and used glossy accents to hold them in place. That was it! I love how it turned out. Try masking to add depth and interest to your card and create a one layer card!! It’s fun to try new techniques and new styles.
Back tomorrow with my first post in the series about preparing for a crop.
I made two sets of these hair pins. One set for our 8 year old niece and the other for our good friends’ 4 year old daughter. I love them. I love making the flowers. The fabric I chose is so cool, like silk with a textured threading in it, so pretty! It’s hard to tell in these photos, mostly because I still don’t have a good lighting system for my den. Oh, well, such is life. Eventually ;D
I really like the centers I chose for the flowers – glittery buttons I got from Michael’s! The smaller buttons really make the flower stand up too. The larger the center piece is the flatter the flower will be. And so easy to make!
That’s pretty much it for presents from this year. Next up will be a series of posts on planning for a crop. I will be going to the PE crop which is in February this year, so I’ll be in full planning mode for the next few weeks. I thought I would show you the process I go through, from choosing, editing and printing my photos to kitting my layouts, and actual packing for a crop. See you in a few days!
For this Christmas I also created a few 8×8 layouts for the great-grandmas with the intention that we would send new layouts periodically to add to an album. Here’s a look at some of the pages I created:
And some closeups:
I used Basic Grey’s Oliver line for these layouts, incorporating the stamp sets, the 6×6 paper pad, sticker sheet, and paper ribbons. I used Distress Inks and clear embossing powder to create the title on each page. The background is American Crafts white cardstock that I heat embossed using Versamark and clear embossing powder. Then I used Faded Jeans, Antique Linen, Peeled Paint and my ink blender tool to distress and color the bottom of each page. I used a dry cloth to buff the embossed title to get rid of any ink that may have been left on the title. I made sure to color high enough onto the page to ensure there would be full coverage up to the photos. I added a border with paper strips on the sides and the paper ribbons at the top and bottom of each page. Then I stamped the shield onto one of the solid red papers in the 6×6 paper pad and fussy cut around the image. I used small foam dots to pop it off the page. I hand wrote in each shield with our kids’ names and the year. Finally, I added some stamping and stickers to finish each page off.
I think these layouts are adorable and I want to update them at least three or four times a year. All four of the great-grandmas live out of town and most don’t get to see the kids at all during the year so I thought it would be nice for them to see the kids growing up.
Here’s the second canvas I created, this time for Rob’s sister and husband:
(sorry for the terrible photo…)
I wanted to use this amazing handmade paper I found on Granville Island. One sheet is red, black and cream and is these adorable flowers. The other sheet is a lighter cream and is flocked in a bamboo-like leaves and branches. It’s gorgeous. I decided to weave the paper to create a mat beneath the photo of my boys. I used black cardstock and cut out the branches with flowers using my silhouette. I felt the centers of the flowers mimic the handmade paper beautifully. I also die cut the word with my silhouette and the same type as the previous canvas. I initially painted the canvas in cream, and then I decided I needed red behind the flower die cut so I painted one half of the canvas and the outer edges in red. I adhered the pieces (using Mod Podge) and after sitting with it for a day or two, I decided it was too much red. It was way, way too bold. So, I painted in cream and covered the red around the edges and I was much happier with it. Here are some close ups:
It’s not as clean and simple as the canvas I did for Rob’s parents; it has a completely different artistic style, even though it has the same basic layout. I still had a lot of fun doing the painting, mixing and blending colors to get what I wanted. I never used to believe I could make art and yet that is what I am doing… If you had told me five years ago that this is the direction I would be heading with a hobby passion, I would have told you that you were crazy. Sure, I used to cross-stitch. I could follow the directions and the pattern, but it never satisfied me the way scrapbooking does. I cannot tell you how many times I would leave the den (my craft space) after working on these presents with a giant smile on my face or how much I was buoyed when I would show someone what I was working on and their expression when they saw it.
Next up are some 8×8 layouts I created for the great grandparents. Our kids are lucky in that there are four (out of five) great grandmothers that are still with us; two from my husband’s parents, and two from my mom’s side of the family. See you in a couple of days!
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