You be YOU and I'll be ME

I just have to share something...

I've been learning a lot about what true security is. It's not about what I look like, where I work, how smart I am, where I stand in the family circle, how much I'm liked, how popular I am, what kind of car I drive, where I live, etc. etc. etc. It's about who I am in Christ. My self-worth is not defined by what someone else thinks of me.

Ok, so how does this play into scrapbooking and stamping? Well, it means that I can be me and you can be you. And we don't have to worry about if I like you and you like me because I am me and you are you. Are you confused yet?

I enjoyed visiting with a friend today (love you girl!) and we were talking about the differences in colors and styles of cards. It really got me to thinking about how God has made each of us different. He's made it so you like purple and I like orange. If we all liked purple, we wouldn't have orange, and vice versa. We are all different! And I'm learning more and more each day that it's ok to be different. It's ok to be me, and it's ok to be you!!

It's just getting to that place of liking who we are that's the challenge. Why should we spend the rest of our lives trying to be like someone else? I know I don't want to.

I was telling my friend today that when I was in 5th grade I decided that I didn't want to like the color blue because everyone else liked it. But before I got married I thought I *really* liked blue, so I wanted everything in my house to be blue. Now I have blue cobalt dishes, blue towels, blue bedding, etc. And now...now that I've grown and changed, I'm not a fan of blue. But that could change very soon! I will ride the color rollercoaster and enjoy it! Ha! I honestly think I liked blue so much because of my mom. She doesn't like most of the colors I like now. And maybe I finally found the freedom to like the colors I like. I LOVE orange! My mom HATES orange! It's such a simple thing, but wow, it's great to like what I like and she can like what she likes too. And it's ok...because we are all different.

What's important is that you like what you make! I cannot stress that enough! And that's not just for scrapbooking and card-making, but for everything in life. Why do something you don't enjoy? Why worry what others will think about what you made? And I think we can be softer even on ourselves too...it doesn't have to be perfect! Enjoy your life! Enjoy what God has given you! Enjoy the colors that make you want to skip down the street!

And for my friend...I know you will even love me (still) if I made you a "split-pea green" card. Haha!

Weird

Some of the pictures on this page are very strange. Haha!


I have been wanting to do the text in the circles, but I didn't know how. But I found this blog that shows you how.

Enjoy Everyday

(2) 12x12 digital layout. I was inspired by a 2-page layout I saw in our church's magazine we get each Sunday.

Scary Kitty!!

About this time last year we were kitten-sitting. Just felt like showing some random photos...


CHARGE!!! (Notice the Adobe Photoshop box?) Yes, that's our fancy-colored carpet (no comments from the peanut gallery please).

Scary! There were times I had to give this guy a time-out and myself a break. Whew!

Awww...but then he was so cute. It really broke my heart when we had to give back the kitten to it's owner (our cats were like, "See ya later, Dude! Don't come back!"). His name is now Piggy. *snort*

And this is a page I made this morning. I have been venturing over to I Inspire Me . I will admit I'm not very good at looking at things around my house and finding things to inspire me, but I'm trying to look at things differently. I guess it's working because this morning I was inspired by something kinda weird...the er...ah...toilet paper roll. ??? Um...yeah, so this page is all about that inspiration. The black frame and the picture are like the paper...and uh...the stars is like the holder thingy. Yeah...um...

2 Cards

I made this card a couple of weeks ago. The flowers were embossed in silver and then I colored the center of the flower brown.

I love, love, LOVE this card!! It found an idea similar to this on Splitcoast Stampers. I made this one for my Grandma. Her favorite colors are orange and peach. I think I'll be duplicating this one...and see what other color combos look like, too!

Whoa, bright!

I have this green jacket from American Eagle that I just really like. And I'm always excited when I find paper to match it. Ha!

This photo has been Photoshop'ed...


The 5 blanks are for journaling, which I will leave blank for this display.

One more 4th of July

I decided to give this page another makeover. I desaturated all of the photos and added a light warm filter. I also did something fun with keeping some of the balloons red. I sure had my work cut out for me there! Ha! But it was fun!

4th of July

I'm amazed I even have these pictures scrapped. Haha!

Below you will see the same, but different page.

I love how the flag looks with some overlays, but I think It's a bit too busy. I'll work it a little more.

Low Creative Juices

I'm in a creative slump again. I *want* to scrapbook or stamp, but I'm stuck. So because I so badly wanted to do something, I grabbed a layout I did before, skimmed off the top layers and put these pictures and added different embellishments.

Changes

Sometimes changing things on pages is ok. One thing I have to remember is that I will be in constant motion with scrapbooking. My creating will be in constant growth and change. So there are pages that I realize that I should just leave alone because that's where my creativity was at the time.

The "Before" version was okay, but I felt like it needed to be simplified a bit. The pink ribbon needed to be toned down. So I replaced it with this ribbon and strip of paper instead.

This is the "After" version, this is the "Before". I decided to move things down a bit.

More Vacation Pages

I really enjoyed making this page. It's complete with one of the Hoover Dam ticket stubs. It's fun to keep those things to scan for later use.

I was trying to put as many pictures on this page as I could.

Not too sure about this page, but I will probably leave it. Ha!

This is ME

This is the first traditional page I had created in a long time.


Haha! A couple of silly pictures of myself...so humbling. Haha!

I hardly ever use gold on anything, so I was surprised when I stamped the chipboard with gold-colored ink. I really like how it turned out.

SIL

For this page I started with the chipboard frame and the circles. I didn't even have the pictures picked out first, which is unusual for me. I put silver glitter on the main part of the frame and then used Stickles on two of the outside swirls. The other two swirls I painted pink. The pictures were added last. I don't have a title or journaling yet for this page.

Sisters

The paper and chipboard for this page are from the Basic Gray Sultry collection.

I really like this paper! I made the picture collage on Photoshop and printed it.

Happy

This page was really fun to create. I love the look of painted bubble wrap that's pressed onto paper, real or digital. Ha!


I'm not sure why, but the "Happy" isn't as orange as it looks on Photoshop. It's a glitter style I recently purchased from Scrap Girls. You know me and glitter!!

Canyon

I was really inspired by Lana's summer page. She is one of my biggest inspirations! (Thank you, Lana!!)


I really wanted to add more to this page, but I think I better just leave it. I don't want to take away from the picture. I downloaded a new kit this morning from Scrap Girls called Commotion (I think that's it) and I played with some of the elements right away.

I think I'm done scrappin' for the day...it's beautiful outside!

More Vacation

I've been having fun scrapbooking our trip from last year. I think my scrapbooking style is in a transition right now. I believe I (may) be going toward the more simple side of scrapbooking...I'm not sure. So until I figure it out, this is what I've been doing:


The original layout sorta (cough) looked like this... I may be making some adjustments to this one before it's printed, but this is the general idea. I think I need to move some of the pictures down. I'm not used to having everything at the top like that.

The little red boxes with the sayings are from the pictures I took of the signs. I have more signs to scrap...not sure what I'll do with those yet.

This page is not finished. I would like to make some finishing touches on it. The Creating Keepsakes font cd I have has the Route 66 graphic on it. I was excited about that! The border took awhile to make. It's actually a "font" box by CK called High Energy Doodles. It was designed by Elsie Flannigan. For those of you who know Photoshop...there are probably about 15-20 layers just in the border. I had to do a lot of rotating, expanding, shrinking, and erasing to get this final border. That was enough for a night! Ha!

Eagle

More Inspiration

Some more information from the Creating Keepsakes magazine designer Elizabeth Kartchner. These pages have both have the same template.