Paper Camellia : Sept 2014 Round Up

Here's a quick round up of things I made with this month's Paper Camellia Kit!

The October kit reveals tomorrow and I can't wait!  

She's a Book Worm

Another layout from this summer that I haven't yet posted.  I cut into an older set of papers by Websters Pages and I just love the happy colors that echo the colors on my girl's shirt.  As you can tell, I was very into (and I still am very into!) great big pictures on my pages.  Story first, then decoration -- and the story is all about the photo in this one.

I'd like to say that this layout makes me long for summer again, but the truth is that it's still in the 90s in this part of the world and I want fall to come like nothing else.  I'm totally looking forward to the Chickaniddy Scrumptious line.  I just love that line -- I can't wait to pick up some pieces!

Bring on Apple Cider Weather!

Paper Camellia: 2013

I'm here today with another layout from the December Paper Camellia Kit!

I love a big photo, and I used this page to do another one of my sweet girl.  Gold rub ons around the edge provide a neat frame, and the frame of layered paper keeps things focused on the center of the page.

Love this cluster.  I put strips of washi on a piece of scrap card stock and punched out the butterfly.  

Love these little chipboard banners -- they match the banner from the Bundled Up sticker sheet perfectly!

Three Reasons you are THE BEST

I love this page.  It's all bright colors and funky, graphic patterns and hand writing and drawing -- and it's very, very me.  I was inspired by the No. 1, 2 & 3 tags out of the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party Bits pack -- I never seem to use my numbers in die cut packs like that and I was determined to use them this time.  So I pulled them out and built this entire page around them.  I chose a photo with bright, saturated colors that could hold its own against the brightness of the papers and went to town.  In the end, I love it.  It's a sweet, personal page that really captures my essence and the sorts of things I like to make the most.

I included lots of little bits like I am want to do -- I love those tiny little details.  Love, Love, Love those Dear Lizzy Polkadot Party Bits -- I used to think that they were a stupid purchase, but there are so many of them and you can really use them on so many things -- a good die cut pack is a must buy for me.  Pop them up on some foam tape and you have instant interest.

Hope you all have a happy Monday!  I'll be getting ready for Thanksgivukkah this week - what fun!

You Are One of a Kind

 Oh, my sweet girl.  All I scrap are baby photos these days, but that's really the center of my world, so I guess my books will reflect that.  I've never done a tiny photo on a giant page before, so I thought I'd give it a go.  And really, I like it.  The (brief) story is about her looking at the sky, and I think the empty space gives that big, sky-like feeling.  Plus, the paper has clouds on it (it's a Studio Calico B-Side) so how perfect is that?

Today on the Whimsical Twist Blog

You can see my layout, and the layouts by the other fantastic women on the Whimsical Twist Design Team, over on the Whimsical Twist Blog today.  It's all about negative space, and I think you'll like it!

September Kit Round Up: What I Made

To keep myself accountable, I'm going to post what I made each month from my last kit.  Citrus Twist releases in the middle of the month, so I'm not behind  -- yet!  :)  I recieved October earlier this week -- here is what I made with September.  I did add a few full sheets from my stash to the kit so I could keep going with my scraps.  Some pages are a little fugly, but not everything I make is blog worthy.  They are seeing the light of day only so I can keep my count honest. 

 

I plan on cutting into October tonight!  

xoxo, laurie

Favorite

I love the washed out, dreamy colors of Pink Paislee's Color Wash line.  This paper, which I used as a base for my layout, is so good I could eat it.  This is another page done with the September Citrus Twist Main and Pocket Life kits.  I added a few gold glitter mambi chip accents to compliment the gold on the amazingly intricate and organic lace that was in the kit.  I don't know where that lace came from, but isn't it beautiful?  

I found this lovely photo of Orli lounging in bed that was also a bit washed out (in the best way!  Love those bright whites!) that I thought would look lovely with the paper and went from there.  The photo is matted with a little bit of Carta Bella's Hello Again.  The butterflies are punched from that same 6x6 pad.  The Favorite chipboard title is from Dear Lizzy's Polka Dot Party.  The wood veneer asterisks came with the kit; I colored them pink with spray mist.  

I'm so glad you came by to see what I had to share today.  Please leave me a comment if you like my work; it makes my day to hear from you!

I Love You So Very Much

This is one of those layouts that came about as I tried to kill the last bits of a kit and was really stretching.  In the end, though, I think I'm actually rather fond of it, although I'll admit I had mixed feelings for the majority of the time I worked on it.  That pink background paper was my jumping off point.  It was the last whole sheet I had left and I needed to use it.  And in theory it's very pretty and fun and funky, but I had the hardest time working with it.  It wants to take center stage but I wanted it to be background but still shine.  The end product isn't anything I'd submit to a publication or anything, but I'm happy to flip through my album and see it.  

The butterfly was cut from the same painted paper I used on my "beach baby" layout earlier this year.  I'm really embracing the pink/orange color scheme it seems!

OMG I made a card, yall.

I have never made a card in my life before today.   I am applying for a design team that would pretty much be my DREAM if I got in, (because they have lots of colors!  Man I love colors!) and they want two cards.  I'll admit it; I don't know jack about card making.  I'm sure there are some techniques that people use and know and are very uptight about, but I just messed around until I found something that I thought was pretty groovy.  Which, I guess, turns out to be a great big "Dream Big" card.

The butterflies are punched from a sheet of paper I covered with washi tape strips (a by-product of my first, failed card) and I used a MAMBI card from their pocket card series as the sentiment.  I liked how the colors are bursting from the black box -- it's like the dream is flying free with the butterflies.  YES PEOPLE, THAT BAKERS TWINE IS REPRESENTATIVE OF HOPES AND DREAMS.  (That is in all caps and italics because it gave me a PTSD art school flash back.  There was this one time, I kid you not, that this one kid pulled out a giant knife in figure drawing studio, slammed it into a desk and just stood there.  Which, you know, at the school I went to could have been A+ work for concept studio.  So I think everyone just ignored it.  But back to the card...)

I think in an ideal world I would have figured out how to glitter it somehow, but I needed to do it fast to get it in on time, so here it is.  It's not so bad for a first attempt.

Back! (With Baby!)

Well, it has been awhile, but I'm back from maternity hiatus.  I've got a baby asleep on me right now (I'm the NAP ENFORCER!) but that won't stop me from typing very slowly and updating this blog!

I'll admit, I'm not at my scrappy best right now since I get to scrap in very brief fits and starts since, you know, baby and all -- but I'm creating and it feels great!  Plus its fun to see my books start to fill up again.  In honor of mother's day I thought I'd share a little page about being a mom to my wonderful baby girl.

I'm using Vintage Bliss from Simple Stories (OMG I LOVE THIS LINE) for this one, plus a sticker set from Michaels (Soft Spoken, I think), and some Dear Lizzy Thickers.  Gotta keep it simple if it's getting done!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

OLW 2013: Enjoy!

2013 has snuck up on me (OMG, am I really having a baby NEXT MONTH?  ACK!) so there are lots of new projects to tackle and it's a a good thing that the slate is clean, because I did not keep up as well as I could have (note I did not say should have -- there is no should in hobbies) in 2012.  2012's Project Life's weekly recaps pretty much ended when I found out I was pregnant (and the horrible exhaustion kicked in), and 2012's OLW didn't really get far at all in regards to projects, even if the word did stick with me and have an impact on my life.

2012 was REMEMBER -- and I did.  I took more photos, wrote in my journal more, worked on Project Life until I really couldn't handle it and just needed to sleep, and really worked on documenting life, not just big events or occasions.

2013 is the year of ENJOY -- with all the big changes that will be happening in my life, I want to remember to enjoy it all.  This time is fleeting, and while it can be overwhelming, I want to focus on taking it all in and really appreciating the small moments.  Also, what could be better in labor than a mantra of "enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!", right?  Right.

ENJOY!

So yesterday I put together my title page of my OLW album (you will note that it is in 2012 style -- I decided just to use the prompts from 2012 which I already paid for but didn't really use rather than pony up cash for 2013 and have 2012 go to waste.  I'll catch up in 2014, I'm sure.  Hah.) Of course, there will not be a OLW 2013 album, as everything will just get put in one or two WRMK faux leather albums for 2013, because I am not really into having lots of different albums for different projects.

Aqua : The color of 2013

I typed on the cards instead of writing by hand, just to try something different.  I'm not loving it, but done is done and I'm for real not re-doing them.  Experimentation is good.  Next time: I'll write by hand.  It just fits my style better.

Tomorrow holds assembling week one of PL, and a giant order of prints from Snapfish should be here Tuesday to get Baby Squid's Project Life Baby Book going.  I'll keep busy this week.  Plus I need to clean my scrap space.  It's been moved to the FROG (that's South Carolinian for Finished Room Over Garage), has lost some surface area, and gets a little chaotic.  Nothing 20 minutes can't solve, though.

Hope you all have nice crafty weekends!

Being Different (Than Myself)

Gummy candy in open bins?  YES PLEASE!

Didn't I just post on Halva?  I guess I've been inspired by food a lot lately.  That is because, um, of lady hormones, I think.  We'll be back to posts that don't feature food next week.  This week, lets chow down on some scrapbooking that was actually pretty hard for me because it deviated out of my normal colorways that I enjoy and feel comfortable in.  I took these pretty serious colors but wanted to make them true to my style (which I would describe as Rainbow Bright meets Clarissa Darling of Clarissa Explains it All and they have a disco party and you're invited!).  So how do I take my natural desire for neon and wild patterns and hand drawing and tone it down without completely losing interest?  I made myself a little checklist:

1. Pick a tamer version of a color you absolutely love (I picked this moss green variant of lime green)
2. Keep some bold pattern, just use it judiciously.  
3. Use the things you love, just make choices that fit within the color scheme.  (Thank you Tim Holtz washi tape!  And cute little "Sweet" doo-dad.  And not-quite matching but whatever, close enough glitter butterfly!) 
4. Keep the calm feeling with ample amounts of negative space
5. Add a little bit more interest with a graphic edge punch instead of adding more color

I think it worked out.  It was a struggle at times, but its fun to flip through my book and see a page that both doesn't look like my other pages, but still looks like I made it.  Don't you hate it when you're totally inspired by someones awesome page but then when you use their style it just doesn't feel like you anymore?   I feel like that all the time!  I think I struck a good balance this time, and doing something different makes me feel like I'm capable of designing on a larger scope than just what comes naturally to me.

How do you get out of your comfort zone?  Do you embrace the foreignness of creating something that doesn't look like you or do you add a little bit of yourself and your style into all of your layouts?  I would love to know!

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 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.  

Michael's Crop Night

Me in front of the NYC Public Library

I went to a crop for the first time ever this week since Andy was out of town.  It was so fun to make pages with other people around!  I was a little nervous since I'm a HUGE introvert, but it was actually really enjoyable.  It was at my local Michael's store (yes, I know, not highbrow, but super close!) and I have to say, along with the lovely ladies I met that evening, being able to shop on a tab for those odds and ends I needed was AWESOME!  And I spent less than $10, so that was pretty awesome too.  It was fun using some of the tools/toys that I don't have.  Like the butterflies on this layout  -- one was cut & embossed with a Cuttlebug, which I had never used before, the small ones were with a Martha Stewart punch that I don't own, and the green glittered one I made myself with chipboard that the leader provided and taught us how to glitter with double sided tape.  Yes, I got a little butterfly happy; things like this happen.  

 Lots of fun -- and I got 5 pages done.  I'll post more in the next few days.