Polebridge, Montana

I'm still here! I've been working on finishing up a birthday gift for my little sister, who I can't believe is going to be 11 next week! Where has the time gone? I've also been dealing with a lovely almost-stiff neck from cranking my head to the side while trying to talk on the phone and do something with both hands. I know better than to do that! Oops!

Anyway, here are some pages I created last week with some of our vacation photos. I also used my own creations on these two pages. I've been working on putting together my own kit, and I thought I would try it out on some pages to see how I like using my own designs. And I have to say I like using them very much.

I don't have journaling on these pages yet. I've been working on the journaling part of it. The journaling will be added later. Note to self: do the journaling ASAP so you don't forget things!

Discipline

Every couple of weeks Little Dreamer has a challenge. This time it's a journaling challenge. I love these kinds of challenges! Check out the blog for more information about winning a $5 gift certificate for the store!

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Journaling can be quite intimidating at times, but it doesn’t have to be. Ever since I was 13 years old (or so) I have kept a journal. Journaling has helped me so much throughout the years. I love to scrapbook, but sometimes I focus so much on the pictures that I forget about journaling. So what I do is challenge myself to journal first and add the pictures later. There are even times when I don’t add pictures. I look at scrapbooking as a book for others to read. What do I want them to know about me? I want them to see more than pictures of me. I want them to know me, the real me, raw and real. I also like to look at some pictures I would like to scrapbook and I journal about them first. I don’t even worry about what font or font size I will use. I just write to my heart’s content. Sometimes it’s only a few words. Sometimes it’s several paragraphs. We also have the freedom not to journal. Maybe there’s just one word added to a page. The most important thing is to portray what the pictures or memory speaks to your heart.

Rappel

Rappel is such a weird word! This layout was supposed to be in the last set I posted, but I had to delete it because I realized that I spelled it wrong. Oops! Anyway, here it is again...



Like I said the first time, I had to add orange to this page because the blue was making me too "blue". Haha!

Project Update

I've talked about this project a few times. I haven't worked on it as much as I would like to. The most challenging part of working on these pages has been trying to keep things simple and really making sure the pictures are the main focus. It's not super hard to do, but when it comes to winter wonderland pictures, I find myself stalling. There's way too much blue for my taste. Ha! Quent is planning on going on a similar trip soon and I think I'm going to encourage him to wear colors that are exciting to me. Because you know...I don't want to break out of my color box and use blue. Oh, I crack myself up! *cough* Anyway...here's some old + new layouts that I've worked on.

This is anoather page I finished today. I think these pictures are beautiful!!

Isn't this sunrise breathtaking? I love looking at pictures of sunrises and sunsets, but they are really hard for me to scrap. So I kept this page super duper simple.

Why didn't this guy have an orange sled? LOL! Ok, enough with the complaining about colors, right?

Sometimes these pages remind me of something you would see in an outdoor kind of magazine. It feels like I'm creating newsletters instead of scrapbook pages. It's just a different approach to scrapping life.

$1

I know...where are some pages or cards to share, right? I have been creating, but I don't have anything I can share yet. But, I do want to tell you about some fun kits from Little Dreamer that are only $1 today!! I have my eye especially on the Urban Butterfly paper pack!

Yellow?

Sometimes when my mom answers the phone (and she knows it's me) it sounds like she's saying "Yellow?" instead of "Hello?". So the other day I knew she was calling and I answered, "Blue?" Haha!

Anyway...so about yellow. Little Dreamer is having a yellow challenge that ends today, Tuesday, January 26th. You can create a layout with yellow as the main color, using their amazing products, submit it to the challenge gallery before the end of the day, and you could win a $5.00 gift certificate to the store! Details here!

Living Life

Hello! Today I worked on using my own designs to create a page. I just wanted to see if I could do it...like if I had enough to work with. It was a fun adventure and I really like what I have so far, but I really want to do more. I used all of my designs in the page below, minus the stitching.

Sneak Peak @ design

Hello! The time is creeping more into the wee hours of the morning (I really should get to bed), but I wanted to share a little something-something with you. During the weekend I had spurts of creating, but not scrapbook pages...but designs for scrapbook pages. I'm REALLY excited because I feel like I'm starting to understand how to design. And again, I may look back on these months from now and think, "Why?" Ha! But we all start somewhere right? I'm excited! And tired...



Good night! Good morning!

Forever

Hello! I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! It looks like it's going to be a beautiful weekend here weather-wise!

Last night I finished working on this page about Quent and his sister Natasha. I love the photos! It's a simple page using all of my own designs except for the flourish, which is from a brush set called Elegantly Speaking from After Five Designs (I'm not sure if it's available anymore?). I love when pictures tell the story!

Love

Today I played around in Adobe Illustrator for many hours. I finished Illustrator 101 with Carina Gardner (through Jessica Sprague). I learned a lot, but there is SO much more I want to learn. So after many weeks of already experimenting with design plus some new things I learned recently, here is what I created tonight:



One day I may look back and this and think, "What I was thinking?!!?" But right now I'm liking it!

Okay, I'm off to play some more!

UR Loved

This was one of those layouts that brought tears to my eyes. It's a page about baby Christina...ME! Ha! When I saw this template at Designer Digitals for 99-cents (I'm not sure if it was a Thursday sale or what?), I just had to have it. There was just something about it that touched my heart and I have future plans for it. I wanted to use "soft" pictures it, so I thought about childhood pictures. I think these fit the page perfectly.



My mom might want to shake me when she sees that I put these pictures of her on my blog, but if it makes her feel any better, I don't look so cute myself in these pictures. What is that about babies, anyway? My nose was pushed to the side because of the birth. I noticed it in the top picture and it made me chuckle because I had never noticed that before, but my mom always reminds me of it when she talks about when I was born. Speaking of which, last year for my birthday my mom gave me a letter where she talked about when I was born. She talked about the before, during, and after. It was such a sweet letter! My grandma gave my mom a letter about when my mom was born, too. I think it's such a precious thing to do.

I had to call my mom tonight to ask her how much I weighed when I was born and all of that. She could remember the time, how much I weighed, but she didn't remember how long I was. So I emailed my dad asking if he remembers. So for now I left that part blank.

Also, I used Michelle Underwood's Sunday Kind of Love kit for this page, along with some goodies from Designer Digitals:

Worn Page Edges No. 2

Stitched by Anna White No. 02

Psalm 27:14

This morning I was looking up "good courage" on Biblegateway.com because I was curious about what it meant. I also went to the Blue Letter Bible website to look even deeper. And then I got to thinking that it would be fun to type out the scripture to print off (if my printer worked right). And then that led me to create something that I can use and that you can use if you would like. So please feel free to use this for your own personal use. I may do this from time to time. Enjoy!

Psalm 27

One of my favorite digital scrapbooking blogs that brings me much inspiration is the Creative Inspiration Blog. A few amazing scrapbookers from Designer Digitals have put together the blog to inspire the digital scrapbooking community. I'm always amazed at the layouts I see on there! Tonight I felt tired and I thought I would head to bed, but first I thought I would check my blog roll to see who has recently posted, and I saw that they had posted something. And so I went, I saw, I scrapped! I even bought this paper set from Designer Digitals because I just fell in love with it right away. I think it's been "love at first site" for me with some digital stuff lately. It's kinda funny! Or maybe I'm just more impulsive these days? No matter, I loved this paper set and just HAD to have it. Here's what I created:

I had read this Psalm today. It's my favorite Psalm. After I read it I thought that someday I should do a page about it. I really liked this picture Quent took of me on a swing, but I wanted a purpose for scrapping it. And I found the purpose tonight!

I used all sort of goodies on this page. If you have any questions about what was used, I would be very happy to share links. I'm too tired now to actually all of them right now.

The LORD is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the strength of my life;

Of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked came against me

To eat up my flesh,

My enemies and foes,

They stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me,

My heart shall not fear;

Though war may rise against me,

In this I will be confident.

One thing I have desired of the LORD,

That will I seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the LORD

All the days of my life,

To behold the beauty of the LORD,

And to inquire in His temple.

For in the time of trouble

He shall hide me in His pavilion;

In the secret place of His tabernacle

He shall hide me;

He shall set me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;

Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;

I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice!

Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

When You said, “Seek My face,”

My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”

Do not hide Your face from me;

Do not turn Your servant away in anger;

You have been my help;

Do not leave me nor forsake me,

O God of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me,

Then the LORD will take care of me.

Teach me Your way, O LORD,

And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.

Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;

For false witnesses have risen against me,

And such as breathe out violence.

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed

That I would see the goodness of the LORD

In the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD;

Be of good courage,

And He shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Attempted Blogging

This is my 4th attempt to blog this page. I don't even know if I want to say anything. I'm SUPER annoyed right now. Maybe there's some cyber conflict between Picasa and Blogger? So I'm going to try to post this a different way, directly through Blogger, which I don't like doing. And I'll try to be on my best behavior while posting this. Grrrarr!

The NEW kit by Michelle Underwood is amazing! It's a gorgeous kit that ya'll should purchase. Ha! I think I almost gasped when I saw the kit and that doesn't happen to me that often. So yeah, I'm really liking this kit. I have another page I've been working on, but I keep forgetting to finish it.

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An unfinished scrapbook page means I either am not interested in scrapbooking, or I just don't have a great idea for the page yet. This time I've just not been in a creative mood. The dull, dreary winter days in Southeast Alaska eat away at creativity. So when the sun came out this morning (probably the first time in 2 weeks...no joke!) I felt like my creative fire began to burn once again.

Now hopefully THIS post will actually post. Sigh.

Testing...

Testing, testing. Does Blogger allow people to post anymore?

All My Love for You

Happy Sunday! Lately it seems like my most creative times have been in the morning. When I saw this new kit by Michelle Coleman I knew I had to have it. I used to LOVE hearts. I remember the first time I ever looked through a Stampin' Up! catalog with my friend Carrie and I saw these heart stamps I just thought I had to have. That's when I recognized my obsession with hearts. But over the years the obsession has died down, but today it started to bloom again. Such a fun kit and I love the quotes in it, too! Again, I did some color changes to some of the elements to fit my page.

Guess what? I think I'm pretty close to being finished with scrapbooking 2009's photos, except for our Montana vacation and a lot of Quent's photos. But I'm really pleased with that! I haven't taken hardly any pics so far this year. It's been so gloomy out that I haven't really wanted to. I really should work on the album I started for Quent a few months ago. Yeah...good idea! And finish the journaling for our Montana trip. Lots to do!


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You Picked Me

Hello! It seems like it's been awhile since I've posted a page. I guess I just haven't been in much of a scrapping mood lately. This morning the creative juices starting churning again, so I thought I'd create a page. I was behind on my designs for Michelle Underwood. This is a kit she created for The Daily Digi, where she was recently featured. Way to go, Michelle! I really like her designs and I love the challenge of using more patterned papers. For all of these papers, except for one, I changed the hue/saturation to match the colors in my photos. I love that option! That's why I don't understand when some designers sell the same exact paper, but in a set of 5+ colors, because you can just change the hue/saturation. I love digital! It's like color magic at my fingertips!


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Have a scrap happy day!

WINNER

Drumroll...



The winner, is Anna!! Congratulations Anna, you won the $10 Little Dreamer gift certificate!! Anna, please comment me your email address (it won't show for others to see) and I will email you your certificate. Thank you!!

Thank you for playing along!! I'll have more fun goodies like that in the future!

Valentine's Day cards

CARDS! Yes! Finally! But it's not what you think. I didn't stamp these. I just couldn't do it. Haha! When I saw that my friend Winter was having this amazing card drive for the kids at St. Jude, I knew I wanted to make a card or two. One night I set out to stamp some cards, but I just stared at my supplies and I felt lost. It was SO weird! Imagine yourself after stamping for years, being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for 4-1/2 years, and suddenly all of your stamping supplies feel foreign and just the idea of stamping is unfamiliar. It was almost like my hands didn't even know what to touch! I did stamp a few things and then I gave up on it and went to the computer and designed these cards fairly quickly. All of this seriously makes me wonder what's in the future for my stamping supplies! What I did for printing the cards was uploaded them to www.scrapbookpictures.com. They don't do double-sided printing, so when I got the prints in the mail I just cropped and adhered the card front to regular white cardstock.

Winter encouraged everyone to make cards that can be given to a boy or girl, so I stepped away from the traditional Valentine colors to orange, turquoise, white, and brown. Honestly, I think all Valentine's cards are kinda girly...


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Since I was making something digital, I thought I would create a card using products from Little Dreamer.

This is a card I used mostly my own designs on, except for the heart frames and of course the font (which is Fling).

I felt very honored to be making these cards! I hope you can join the card drive, too!

Thanksgiving 09

Hello! I'm going to keep this post short and sweet! Here's a layout I worked on tonight. I was in the mood for extra simple, so that's what I created...

I love when pictures are the central theme! And I still love orange!!

But what if...?

Fear says, “But what if it happens?”

One of the hard things when we are going through something is that we know we are going through it. Part of what we are dealing with is truth, it is reality, it is what it is. But the other part are those things that will never happen and those are the things we focus on. We focus on “what ifs?” But we can only deal with things one step at a time, one moment at a time. Right now in this moment you are facing and dealing with _______ (you fill in the blank). You can only do what you can right now about it…you can be proactive where you are right now by not worrying about it. What if your reality isn’t fun? What if it’s downright unfair?

We have two feet. The only way to travel on our feet is to put one foot in front of the other. By such an action, we can walk inches, miles. We can go places. But if we look at the huge distance up ahead, we will feel overwhelmed. We can place our eyes on a goal, a crack on the road, a sign, etc. and we can say, “I will walk to that sign.” And then we walk. We get to that spot and we find another goal. And we walk to that. And so on. That’s how we get places. That’s how marathon runners do it. They make small goals. Little things turn into big things over time. And then it doesn’t feel so hard because we are doing it little by little, goal by goal.

I’m reading a book right now called Rowing to Latitude by Jill Fredston. It’s a book about journeys along the Arctic’s edge, by kayak and rowboat. Jill writes: “A friend once commented that she wished she could do the kind of trips we do but was inhibited by fear. “How do you deal with it?” she asked, as if it were a two-headed, fire-breathing monster with wickedly sharp incisors. She brought to mind Mark Twain’s words: “I have had a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” Most of the time it isn’t real fear that seems to cripple people; it is the worry about all the bad things that could happen.”

Fear is: (F)alse (E)vidence (A)ppearing (R)eal

I dealt with some pretty intense fear a few years ago and the hardest thing to break through were all of the "what ifs". I look back and I can't believe that I let what could happen drive me to a paralyzing fear with knots in my stomach. I was so focused on what could happen. And you know, IT never happened. And IT wasn't even a big deal. But when I was facing the fear, I felt powerless. It was hard!

I don't know exactly why I'm talking about this right now, but I feel led to share it. I'll post this and then maybe I'll find something more light-hearted to post. Ha!

Christmas Eve & PRIZE

Happy Saturday to you! It's raining here right now and it's breezy. Tomorrow's forecast calls for some pretty strong winds. Sounds like a good weekend to sit inside and scrap! This morning I wanted to share a few pages I recently created with some photos we took on Christmas Eve. I really like these pages! I used Little Dreamer's products for both layouts.


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This was the silly page I was talking about the other day. The pictures are silly, but so is some of the journaling! I don't know what got into me! Ha! [I just realized that the last "silly" on the page is spelled with only one 'l'. Oops! I'm editing it on my copy, but I won't update it here]

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Remember Callie? We saw her on Christmas Eve at the Claus family's home! Yes...Mrs. Claus was there! Seriously! Have you ever seen the show that was on a few years ago called The Alaska Experiment? One of the bush pilots is Paul Claus. He is Callie's uncle. Quent's brother is a friend of the family, so that's why we spent Christmas Eve at their home. It was one of the best turkey dinners I've ever had!
On another note, I just want to say how much I enjoy Little Dreamer and their amazing designers! And there are more designers to come! When I was on the 2Peas Digital Creative Team, I felt like a lot of time and energy was spent creating layouts for them because of the deadlines and "rules". I felt like I wasn't able to concentrate on creating for Little Dreamer. I love Little Dreamer's products! A lot! And because I just love them so much and I'm so thankful for my amazing blog readers, I wanted to offer a little gift/prize!

So here's the deal. If you leave a comment for this post about a goal you have this year (or maybe even share about your "little word for 2010") I will put your name in a drawing for a $10.00 Little Dreamer gift certificate!!! And if you aren't a digital scrapbooker or a scrapbooker at all, you can still use their products to print and use for cards or whatever you would like to create! I will give you until Friday, January 15th to leave me a comment. I will announce the winner on Saturday, January 16th! I can't wait!

The Beach

Hello! I hope your day is going well! I hope you are creating and doing what you love! Even if it's work...seriously!

This is a layout I created recently. It was a second draft. I really like my blog banner this month, so I thought I would imitate the idea for a scrapbook page. I love rounded corners on pictures right now! This page is simple, but I like simplicity!



Life is full of its up and downs. There are things we cannot control. Things happen. We can only do what we can and the rest is up to God, nature, or the "laws" of life. Life isn't always fair. It's hard at times. We go through things. We face challenges we would rather not have to face. And I believe it's how we react during those times that makes or breaks us. Are we going to have a positive attitude? Or are we going to let this burden wear us down? We can only take things one moment at a time. You have this moment, and then it's gone, and then you have the next moment. And then it's gone. What are you doing in this very moment? What can you do in your 'circle of influence' in this very moment? Maybe it's nothing but breathing. All you can take care of is right now. There's no use in worrying about the future or what may happen. And what if that fear did happen? Would you be ok? About 98% of the things we worry about never happen. So why spend your time worrying? Take life one moment at a time. You can do it!

I know...where did that come from, right? Give me some time to chew on things and maybe I will share...maybe. Ha!

A tale of two...

Hello! I have another layout to share using some of the digital Basic Grey products! I created this one last night. It came together very quickly. I love when that happens! I've also noticed myself being a little goofy in my scrapbooking lately. I have a page that I'll post another time that I think is quite silly. There are a lot of pictures yet to be scrapped for 2009, and a lot of them are just cool pictures, not really with any great "meaning", so I'm trying to tell our story in different ways. Quent has more of a dry sense of humor, where mine is more quirky. I want our kids to look back on these pages someday and say, "Yup! That's my mom for ya!" I love when our personality shines through in the things we do and create!

So here is a tale of two very silly people:




For this page I used the Scarlet's Letter ala carte pattern Fare Thee Well & the Urban Couture flourishes (these are sweet!)

I did some overlay blending again with the Fare Thee Well pattern.

On another note, I've been doing a of thinking about my little word. Discipline. I've been sitting in the morning and sometimes afternoon, writing in my journal about this huge gulp of a word. I've been looking up scriptures and looking at other materials to find out just what it means to be disciplined. I'm not talking about the kind of discipline like spanking (although I probably need that at times--ha!). It's the kind of discpline that feels like being spanked sometimes. This word pretty much encompasses all areas of my life. I'm realizing pretty quickly that discipline isn't something I *want* to do. I'm learning to make my yes-yes, and my no-no. I'm learning that I need to kick myself in the butt sometimes to get myself into the right gear. I don't always *feel* like exercising, but I've been doing it. I don't always *feel* like getting up by a certain time in the morning, but I do it anyway. I'm realizing that discipline is the opposite of what's comfortable. It pretty much wants to go against the grain of what's easy. There are areas in my life that I'm better at having discipline with right now than with others. But I have a whole year (and a lifetime) to figure this out. I'll be sharing about this little word of mine from time to time. And I hope it's encouraging and inspiring to you, too!

Have a great day!

Mr. Yogurt Licker [take 2]

Remember this layout? Yeah, I do NOT like it. It wasn't my style. It wasn't even something I liked. So why did I create it? Pressure. Because I "had to" and I didn't like what I was working with. Plain and simple, that's what it was. But today...*a chorus sings* (my heart leaps) I went to the Basic Grey digital site and found some yummy stuff to play with. And so I played! And I smiled! And I enjoyed myself! And this is what I created...

*drum roll*
Can you tell I'm excited about this?


The Basic Grey products I used are:

Scarlet's Letter ala carte pattern Fare Thee Well (that's the background paper that I've used a blending style with to make it gold colored)

&

Black Tie Flourishes

And there was one more set of flourishes that I purchased. I can't wait to play with it!
Wow, 3 posts in one day! Maybe I'll skip tomorrow? *wink*

Basic Grey!

I never thought this day would come! Basic Grey has officially gone digital! *happy dance*

Seriously! You know, this is like really awesome! I know myself and others who have called Basic Grey countless times asking them if they were ever going to go digital. One of the reasons I had a hard time leaving the traditional scrapbooking world was because of Basic Grey. And now my dream has come true. *pinching self* Ouch! Yup, this is real!

Calendar [January-April]

This is another page I really like! I love the pictures! They were fun to work with!

The older bike in these pictures made me think of vintage/classic, so I added a vintage type action to the photos.

This is another page I could probably redo over and over again. This was another that took me awhile.

And this page, which is April, is one of my favorites. First of all I just love this picture. I've scrapped this picture before and it's one of my favorite pages (I have it in 12x12 frame and I will never get tired of looking at it). I could go on and on about this page, but I won't. Ha!

Well, that wraps up the calendar pages! Have an awesome day!