beautiful & messy motherhood moments

I'm taking "Inspired Scrapbooking" over at Big Picture Classes this year and this is the first fruit of that endeavor.  I feel like all my pages are very baby-centric right now (well duh, I have a 10 month old, right?) but I want to make effort to explore a little more deeply this year.  And yes, the page is still a little baby-centric, but it's a step in the right direction.  My life pretty much revolves around a tiny human who doesn't say too much (except Duck, Art, Cat, Uht-Oh, and Snack) so there will still be a lot of baby.  

Speaking of classes, this year I'm taking:

1. One Little Word with Ali Edwards
2. Inspired Scrapbooking with Stacy Julian
3. 31 Things with Ali Edwards

and I'm ponding doing "Before Your Story" with Jennifer Wilson.  I think I'm in a sweet spot right now to take classes with Orli having a good, early bedtime and me feeling creative and productive when she's sleeping (and still able to be in bed by 10!) -- and the Ali class ends just before the Jennifer class starts.  And the idea of documenting your life before baby is appealing because it's all baby all the time in this house.

What are you taking this year?  Do you have your OLW picked out?

BPC: Design Challenge 7

When I was your age I used film cameras and I liked it!  Just kidding, sorta.

I like things to look like what they are.  Let a chair look like a chair, don't disguise it as a high heeled shoe.  Dress children like children, not tiny adults.  And scrapbook pages that harken back to the original days of gluing photos to paper -- I like those a lot.  And so I was inspired to put away my paper trimmer (not that it cuts right angles, but that is a story for a different day) and pick up my handy dandy scissors and go to town with some brightly colored paper and some photos that I took on some vintage and toy cameras a few summers ago.

Luckily (?) I had my bike tire exploded by Andy's (who has asked to be referred to as Mr. Wonderful) uncle, so I had an interesting story to tell on my page.  Now you see, Uncle Wonderful (which is to say, Andy's Uncle) is a bike dude.  He has spandex pants and a shirt with pockets all over its back and shoes with clips and all that fancy stuff and a bike with like 107 speeds*.  I, on the other hand, have an awesome vintage 3 speed that I got at a garage sale.  So Uncle Wonderful does not approve of my tire inflation levels and comes over with his pump and proceeds to add so much air that my tire cannot take it and literally explodes.  The sound of a bicycle tire exploding is horrifying, by the way. 

So here we are, on a small island with one general store and an exploded bike tire.  We rent houses on the island, so we don't really know where any tools are to fix the bike and even if we had tools we don't have a replacement tire.  But the men of the Wonderful Family are true heros and hop on their bikes (the irony is not lost on me) to go to the island general store and see what can be done to repair my tire.

And they fix it.  There was a lot of digging in the rental house's garage and a good deal of sweating (its hot in July in Georgia) but my tire was repaired.  And, of course, by then I was cranky and tired and pretty over riding my bike around the island.  The cool morning had faded into the blistering afternoon and no one wants to ride around in that.  I mean, maybe you do if you have on spandex pants and a shirt with pockets on its back.  I can't say. 

Wow, that was rambly.

But the photos look vintage and I thought it was a good fit for a more traditional looking page.  And man do I love that paper.  Love love love!

*107 may be a touch high. 

BPC: Design Challenge #6

Let's not tell my mother in law I posted that photo of her on the internet, shall we?

Still loving Design Challenges over at Big Picture Classes.  My craft-space is all organized and ready to go (I'll post details soon), so I worked on this today.  This started as a two page layout, but it was looking SO. BAD. that now it is a one page that actually looks decent.  I'm going to play around with the base of the other page and see what I can do to salvage it. 

As you can see from the picture, I am hereby claiming the correct way to spell that 8-day holiday with the candles is H-A-N-U-K-K-A-H.  I'm not really one for spelling it with a "C", but I guess my only real hard and fast rule is that any spelling of Hanukkah must have 8 letters.  Why?  Because 8 is important in Hanukkah and it is the only way I can tell if I have actually spelled it (any version) correctly.  It is true -- I am not such a good speller.  (Want proof?  On the post a couple down I have, in my page's journaling, spelled "pose" (like a group of people) as "posee" which I'm pretty sure isn't even a word. I should probably fix that.) 

Don't judge!

Okay -- you can judge a little. 

National Scrapbook Day -- Late But Not Forgotten

So I made it home from vacation and had a chance to do a few challenges that were floating around online for National Scrapbook Day.  This is one for Big Picture Classes -- the challenge was to make a layout with an envolope included.  I used the picture as a pocket and tucked a little card of hidden journaling behind it.  I just love the wood paper.  I only got three sheets of it when it was on sale at Hobby Lobby and already I can tell that I'll be needing more.  I'm going to use that stuff until it comes out of my nose, I can feel it!  Also, I got another sheet of those scrabble letter tile stickers when I was in Pigeon Forge (Hello giant Scrapbook Superstore, yes I will visit you!) because those are another laurie staple. 

I need to have my photos printed for this vacation, so if you know of any good printing specials going on, send them my way. 

I am inspired, though, to do some pages with paper piecing based on quilt patterns.  So that is on my to-do list. 

BPC: Design Challenge 3

I develop turtle neck when I take self portraits :(

I am cruising right along with this class and loving every minute!  I really thrive with a deadline and a set of rules -- something having everything available is just too overwhelming to be productive.  Or maybe it just puts me back into art school mode where it's do-or-die this is the assignment better not mess it up go! go! go!  This went together super fast because I am leaving for vacation today (YAY!) and didn't have a lot of time to putz around with frilly details.  Orange isn't a frilly color anyways.  It's bold, it's here and now it says hello and doesn't need you to dilly dally.

Also, the photos of me jumping in the bounce house crack me up.  I don't know if you've been in a bounce house lately, but it is REALLY tiring.  And they turn your legs into rubber.  I highly recommend them.  

BPC: Design Challenge #2

My (c)ankles were swollen from the flight.  I do not have elephant ankles normally.

Design Challenge number 2 completed.  I learned:

1.  Sam's Club prints 12x16 for, like, $3.50 -- and they had a free trial membership weekend last weekend so you didn't have to be a member to have prints made.
2. The prints from Sam's club are matte and slightly rubbery to the touch, so they do not go smoothly through your sewing machine and you have to spit on them a little to keep them gliding under your sewing machine's foot. (I learned the spit trick from my days as a costume designer)
3. My paper trimmer is all sorts of wonky and will not cut in straight line at a right angle
4. RAD LAB is, in fact, totally rad and I see myself making a major purchase in the next month to buy it once my trial runs out
5. I am totally digging using a big picture as the base of a page

BPC Design Challenges: Project 1

Hooray for first layouts of new classes. I'm taking Design Challenges over at Big Picture Classes, and this was my first layout of the class. I love a fast paced class with no real rules (ugh, I ESPECIALLY hate step by step tutorials -- I want to be FREE!) so I'm digging this already.

I had a 6x6 paper pad that I picked up a while back to try out that I used for my pie chart. I learned that I tend to like bigger pieces of paper than just 6" on my layouts, so the pad hadn't been getting much use -- but it was perfect for chopping up into wedges for my chart.

Did a little experimenting with Tim Holtz distress ink, which is a new material and technique for me. Next time I'm going to tone it down a little, I think.

And of course my layout has my one true love of WASHI TAPE all over it. I tell you, I could eat that tape for breakfast lunch and dinner. Its perfect for all occasions.

Can't wait for the next challenge to be released, and I'll post what comes of it here, of course!