And here are the last of the projects I’ve been working on the past few weeks:
I had a lot of fun working on these pages – there’s something really relaxing to sitting down for a day of memory keeping. If you want to see some additional layouts, Continue reading
Here are more of the projects I’ve been working on recently. Enjoy!
I didn’t see you there. Thanks for stopping in to my blog the past few weeks even though it wasn’t updated. I’m surprised and humbled to see that I got 85 or so views per day even when I didn’t update.
Thanks for sticking with me!
The past two weeks have been really hectic, as we’re getting into the busy season for my day job. I’m doing my best to stay on top of things. 
I’ve also spent a couple of days being really creative with my scraps and my photos. I was blessed to be surrounded by some really great friends, so it was a double bonus. Here are some of the projects I’ve completed lately:
I pushed myself to try something new with this layout, which has no photos. I used ephemera from our spirit bags at the event, and even used the curtain swatch that I didn’t like- I just put it in a glassine envelope to mask its ugliness a bit.
I loved this grid paper but wanted to do something new for me. I haphazardly put the papers and photo down, then added a strip of Hambly washi at the bottom, a sticker strip from the new Cosmo Cricket line, a camera rub on from Hambly plus a filmstrip rub on at the top. I balanced the Amy Tangerine thickers with a piece of striped washi at the top left, unevenly placed across the top of the page. I finished everything with some Studio Calico wood veneer banners that I misted with Mr. Huey’s in sunset and then finished off with some fruit punch Stickles and a string of orange bakers twine. Love it.
Seriously, I am on a roll.
Here are some more pages I’ve made this week.
I might go back over those letters with a darker orange. That is a bit bright. I used some basic white foam thickers and then used a Prismacolor marker to color them orange. I love that trick. I also used a cardboard coffee cup sleeve with my cloud punch and then colored them with my prismacolor.
I’ve been having a lot of fun with my mists and prismacolor markers lately. I used the marker along the top and the bottom of the page. I sprayed my Mr. Huey’s mists and then rubbed them a bit. I love the resist! Fun times.
I’ve had these House of Three pages for awhile and never had the nerve to use them. This was a lot of fun to spray up. I can see why Heidi Swapp loves the resist papers. Woot.
This was a spur of the moment layout with some amazing photos from Ireland. I love the look of the Chap collection and I love that little Sassafras Lass pear. Those Amy Tangerine thickers are great, too! The Mr. Huey’s showed up really nice, as well.
Last month I posted about starting my March album base pages and since it’s now March, I wanted to share some of them with you:
It’s kind of ironic that I used the “Fun Times” tag on day 1, since that’s when I was still really, really ill. Go figure. LOL.
This one is super simple but came together nicely with the Sassafras Lass paper, trim and corner sticker. Love those Amy Tangerine thickers and the October Afternoon Mini Market letter stickers.
I absolutely adore this puppy sticker from October Afternoon.
I will never grow tired of using doilies in my projects. THANK YOU to whomever thought of using them in crafts, layouts, etc. So awesome! The balloon is a House of Three Daily Junque printable that came on a bonus disc when I ordered the collection from HSN.
This Sassfras paper is so precious and I will forever be grateful to Michelle Clement for the design. I love its simplicity and elegance. Just added an OA butterfly sticker at the end of some washi tape and more of those Amy Tangerine thickers.
I’m in the process of finishing up today’s page and then I’ll take more photos of the completed pages so far and the base pages for the rest of the month. I also have an altered book that I’ve been working on (although now it’s kind of the norm thanks to Maggie’s awesome class) and an altered sketchbook in addition to the April printable calendar and a ton of St. Patrick’s Day printables. Have a great day!!
On Day 1 of CHA I was amazed and overstimulated and had a hard time focusing. My job was to take photos of the new products and subsequent projects but I quickly got overwhelmed and missed a lot of great photos. Fortunately, my partner in crime was there with her camera on hand! Now I just have to get her pics.
Here are some of my favorite photos from Day 1. Enjoy!
This might just be my favorite new paper from the entire trade show. Love it!
Be back soon with some others. Enjoy!
If you’re anything like me, you’re glued to the computer screen for the first hour of your weekdays because you’re catching up on all of your favorite blogs. One of mine happens to be the American Crafts Studio Blog which featured a challenge last week along with a sneak peek at the newest Amy Tangerine products to be released in the future.
Update: here’s the link to the entries. Happy voting!
Since I was heading to Big Bear for the second time, I knew it would be a great opportunity for a nice mini. I didn’t have time to get a daybook, though, so I opted to make my own. Here are some of the pages and the cover– I think Amy would approve (I hope?)
Check out the entries at The AC facebook page and vote for your favorite!
If you’ve ever seen my layouts you know that I love me some washi tape almost as much as I love my mists & spray paints. Love, love, LOVE!
I spent some time on Etsy last week and as a result, my wallet’s a bit lighter and my collection of worldly possessions that much stronger. I did a lot of monitor-shopping (like window shopping, but on the computer!) at the Etsy main page looking for tapes. There are some interesting products, indeed! However, I eventually landed at my favorite seller’s marketplace: Pretty Tape and had a look around at her billions of rolls of washi. After awhile I found myself with a cart full of tape and an excited grin on my face.
Good news, friends! Today I was in Washi Wonderland. Check out this awesomeness:
This is what I got from Pretty Tape, along with a cool heart stamp. Love it!
Then I was overjoyed to find the Amy Tangerine mix tapes at my doorstep to add to the excitement. This is what true happiness looks like:
I’m particularly excited about the two rolls of wide tape that I got. Woot!
If you’ll excuse me, I’m about to go play with some paper. Cheers.
Anyone who took any painting classes with me in art school will probably doubt the sincerity of my next statement, but I love using watercolor in my work. Simple as that. They’re quite versatile, easy to transport and work really well with doodles because of their transparency.
Of course, it took me about 10 years of practice to get to this point. Last year I was cleaning my house and found my old watercolor palette from art school. You can see it at Amy Tan’s blog - it’s the 6th photo block down after the image of Amy with her product, and I’m the one on the right (ignore my blink-in-progress expression) and the palette is to my left. I love that palette. It’s got a gazillion different spots for colors and a huge divided space in the middle for mixing even more. And since watercolor is reusable so long as you have some water handy, I was able to use all the custom colors I mixed during art school.
If my classmate Nancy were reading this right now, she’d probably be shaking her head in disbelief, because I think I managed to miss more classes during watercolor than I actually attended, and I barely passed (only thanks to a few big projects that kept my grade passing). Thinking back on it now, I realize that I hated watercolor because it didn’t work for what I wanted/needed it to do at the time. I wanted to manipulate the paints like I could acrylics, and that just won’t happen.
Watercolors were designed to be transparent and to be worked with multiple layers. They’re soft and wispy and provide just enough of a hint of color without dominating the entire piece. However, if you need them to be bolder, you just add less water. You are in control when you’re working with watercolors.
When I found that palette last year, I began playing again. Then I dug out my old box of paints and was overjoyed to find that most of them were still intact. Only a few were dried out, so I was able to start mixing my own colors again. I discovered that all the knowledge and experience that I had in the back of my brain came together in a way that made sense, and I was no longer afraid of these materials. Instead, I embraced all that watercolors can do and started integrating them into my scrapbooking and crafting.
This weekend I was a little lost when it came to a layout and wasn’t sure how to recover the page. I grabbed my trusty Galaxy marker and wrote the word “Dream” on the page. Then I started playing with the watercolors and I was inspired to totally change the page and make it into something that worked for me. I love the way it turned out and hope you do, too:
I’ll be back in a little while with some tips, and I’m working on a way to share some of what I’ve learned with you all. You can do so many fun things with watercolor, and the best part is, if you make it too dark or put some in a place where you don’t want it, you can make it fade out so far you’ll barely see it there (depending on what paper you use). I keep a set of Prang watercolors in a box in my crafting kit at all times as a backup for when I don’t have the space for my giant palette. I highly recommend them!
More coming soon, including tips on how to make your titles pop with the watercolors. Hint: if you use the galaxy markers, you can wipe it off of the letters with a little water and a towel.
Enjoy & have a great day!
I had the greatest fortune in attending a class led by Amy Tan at the Scrapbook Oasis last Friday and boy, lemme tell ya how much fun I had!
As usual, the lovely ladies from the Oasis that I see every week were there, along with a bunch of semi-new and new faces to share in the excitement.
It turns out that Amy is just as sweet as she is talented, and I’m excited to have gotten her amazing class kit full of goodies from her new line of American Crafts products.
The main project was a mini album celebrating “The Good Life” and I had a lot of fun with it! Luckily, Amy is the type of designer that encourages everyone to make the project their own, as I’ve never been very good at following orders – as an Aquarius, I have to do my own thing.
Here’s the cover of my album:
Many thanks to the lovely DJ Wanda for sewing my tag for me- a machine, I can do… hand stitching, I’m not so sure of!
We had a lot of laughs throughout the night and I was pleased to make a little progress on my album – I really do hate those UFOs (“Un-Finished Objects”) lying around my house.
I decided to go the whole hog and make my first photo on the inside of the cover, and this is what it became:
I managed to work my way all the way to the next page, and then I was ready to move on to something else. Here it is on the other side of that mini page:
I was able to instantly plug in the photos from the night thanks to my lovely friend Annette, who was also in attendance. Gotta love that printer!
All in all it was a great night, truly inspiring. Thanks to Karen at the Oasis and Amy for coming down (along with her lovely momma) and making the night possible. I’m excited to see what’s in store for the Amy Tangerine line! (And if you’re interested, I’ll post more photos from the book as it’s completed – as well as the film canister, once I figure out what I want to use it for.)
This one was fun because I had a piece of patterned paper that I was going to give away, just because the pattern wasn’t one that worked for my style. At the last moment, I decided to try and transform it- after all, what’s the worst that could happen? If I mess it up, I can always order another photo print. So I painted the paper with a few layers of white acrylic, then had some fun with watercolors. I put some washi down and then the photo, and created the fuse to connect to the bomb. A few stickles and we’re done. Fun stuff, eh?