Daydream

For some reason I'm really into clouds right now. These clouds were made with a custom shape in Photoshop and then a style added to them. There are just some pictures that I want solo on a page. This was one of them. The 'daydream' font is unknown to me as it was just a word art that was part of the Flutter kit from pclayers.com.

This is all for now folks.

Tomorrow I hope to be back with pictures of the cards we made at the stamping workshop that took place on Saturday. I was working (I mean playing) with a project today, but it will be awhile before I post pictures of it. It's been FUN!

Pretty cool!

KI Memories has released some of their product to the digital world!

I really really hope more companies will do this!!

Wednesday Pages

I wasn't planning on scrapbooking today, but...


This is a page I started a few days ago that I finished today. I love that 'custom shape' bird. It's fun! It should be an eagle, but I think it looks more like a pigeon, which makes it really hilarious.

I'm not real sure about this page spread. I should have it printed soon before I make changes on it. Ha!

The other day I was hired to make someone thank you cards, so I've been working on those. I'll post more about that soon.

Coldfoot

Coldfoot, Alaska
Don't blink or you just might miss it!



This is a digi page. It's simple, composed mostly of pictures.

Last night I was talking with Quent about my scrapbooking style. I was telling him that I love looking at other people's pages for ideas, but lately when I try to 'imi-make' their template, I end up not liking what I have created. He shared something with me and I realized something...I've truly found my style. I'm only satisfied with a page when it has my 'fingerprints' on it. I love looking at ideas on blogs, the Creating Keepsakes magazine, and other such places, but if I don't stay true to my own unique style, then I won't like what I create. Isn't that interesting? When I first started scrapbooking, I felt like I couldn't even cut paper without having a page idea in front of me. And I still have times like that. Most of the time now I look at ideas to get inspired. I glean from those ideas that fit more of my style.

I just love looking at what others have created. It makes my heart happy! It doesn't matter what it is, I just love looking. I love seeing people grow in their creativity. It's amazing!

I think it's neat how we can look at a picture of someone's page and know right away who the designer was. When I look through Creating Keepsakes, I'll see pages and I'll think, "That must be Ali's page." And sure enough, the designer is Ali Edwards. Everyone has their style and it's SO neat!

Fabric Scrapbooking

I've been busy with some 'traditional' pages. By traditional I mean non-digital. Because maybe these aren't very traditional after all. I've been working more with fabric. Here's what I've been up to:


I apologize for not having a picture to show the full page. I was having a hard time getting a good picture of the full page and the one that did turn out halfway decent was blurry. Sigh. So I gave up on that and just decided to show what I did have. I had SO much fun with this page. One thing I love about traditional pages is making a mess. And I sure did that!! I love the techniques and being able to use some of the letters I've collected. I don't even know if I could tell you from start to finish what I did on this page. Maybe sometime I'll post about what it's like to make these kinds of pages.

The page is a picture of me on a swing at my grandparent's house. The page is titled "Grandma's Swing".

And...(heart going pitter patter) I got to play with some unprimed canvas. *squeal* My friend Katrina and her husband gave me some canvas. XOXO I'm SUPER duper excited!! I got the canvas yesterday (Katrina and Kirk...thank you!!) and I started playing with it last night. A funny thing about both pages I'm posting here is that I had to iron the fabric & canvas. To me, ironing is like mopping and staining the deck..."No thank you!" BUT for the love of scrapbooking, I ironed. Haha!

I have no idea what I'm actually supposed to do with the canvas. I've just been inspired by people like Donna Downey. So I just make it work. I wanted to use the Wisteria stamps by Basic Grey again and I could visualize them on the canvas. And I had just printed this picture of my brother and I on the silk, and I thought it was a perfect match for what I wanted to do. See the purple? Oh yeah!

After I get another canvas page finished I will somehow connect them together with some grommets. I plan on putting my canvas/fabric pages in my albums without page protectors. I want to touch and feel these pages!

Quote

(Sorry there are no spaces between paragraphs...Blogger is being bad)

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.We ask ourselves,

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking

so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.

It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine,

we consciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
~Nelson Mandela

Over the weekend I watched the movie Akeelah and the Bee. What an amazing and inspiring movie! My mom recommended it to me and I'm so glad she did. It's one of those movies that moves your heart, makes you think about what you are doing and who you are. This quote by Nelson Mandela was quoted twice in the movie. It spoke to me.

In the past I have talked about how so many are afraid to be who they are. They think they have to be more or less of who they are. Why is it that we are afraid to let our light shine? Why are we afraid to live out those gifts God has given us? Why are we afraid to be ourselves?

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Seriously, who else should we be? Our creator took the time to create us. Think about those scrapbook pages and cards we create: we took our time to create each detail. We made it exactly how we wanted it to be made. We didn't create the page or card to be a lamp, a can of root beer, scissors, a camera, etc. Ha! We created it to be exactly what it is. We were created to be who we are, not someone else.

Some are afraid to be beautiful, to show their intelligence, to show their talent. Why? Fear.

Akeelah was afraid to show her brilliance of spelling because she didn't want to stand out or be teased for being smart. She wanted to hide her talent. She was afraid.

I'm guilty of this, too. I still struggle with it. I'm afraid to be myself sometimes. Sometimes I hide because of insecurity. But more and more I'm finding the freedom to be me, who God created me to be.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

There is nothing good about shrinking back so we don't make others feel bad. We have to SHINE! We have to BE ourselves.

When I was in 5th grade I was chosen to be one of 5 or 6 mediators for the next school year. I don't remember why this school did this, but basically they wanted mediators on the playground to help students get along. We had to write essays and be voted in to be a mediator. I felt so honored to be one of the few picked. Well, it wasn't even an hour afterwards that those so-called friends turned on me. They were jealous and they treated me unfairly. I remember going inside during recess, going to my desk, and crying. It hurt really bad. And I can look back at that time and I felt myself shrink. I realized it was dangerous to be myself, to be excited about doing something I loved. They were jealous and insecure, so I shrunk myself so they wouldn't feel bad about themselves. No, no, no! I wish I could go back and whisper into my ear and say, "Don't shrink! BE yourself!" And for years and years I was this shrunken person, burying my talents in the sand, hoping no one would notice me. And it's really only been in the last 4 years that I've come out of that shell.

I hope this quote encourages you. Look at it, read each word and think about what it means to you.

And let your light shine!!

Happy Saturday!

I thought I would share a couple of other things with you on this beautiful Saturday morning. I can't believe we've been getting this much sunshine in Southeast Alaska! It's amazing!!


This card was inspired by an idea I saw in the May Cards magazine. When I was in Arizona I purchased one of the Martha Stewart butterfly punches. I think they are so cute! This is another one of my 'mail friendly' cards.

Oohhhh...and here's some fun, colorful Heather Bailey fabric I purchased from this etsy shop. It was my first time purchasing something through etsy. It was easy and fast! I really really want to create some fabric scrapbook pages. I am looking to buy some unprimed canvas, but I haven't a clue about it or where to purchase. I asked Donna Downey about it, but I'm not sure if she ever saw my question. She's pretty busy! I recently read through her Step-by-step Projects Fabric Scrapbooking book and it's amazing! It was just the inspiration and help I needed to get started. Now I just need to get started.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #8

Here's to another one of Dawn McVey's Color Challenges. The colors were kraft, chocolate, cream, and bright pink. I wasn't planning on participating in the challenge, but when I was looking at what others were making for the challenge, I knew I had to. I really like these colors together!



What I used:

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Kraft (SU)
Stamps: Wisteria (Basic Grey), birthday set by PTI
Ink: Chocolate chip, Very Vanilla, Pink Passion, Versamark
Ribbon: PTI (I don't remember the color name)
Other: white thread, clear embossing powder

Oh, I also wanted to mention that I am trying to challenge myself to make some of my cards 'mail friendly'. I like to give a lot of my cards as gifts for other people to use, and I'm thinking they will like them a lot more if they don't have to pay extra for postage.

Happy Birthday?

I posted this picture before. It makes me laugh. I used Basic Grey's Wisteria paper for the butterflies. I really liked using the letters for the title and how 'birth' and 'day' are separated. I love fun letters like that. This is a traditional page, but I had scanned it in. The scanner cut off some of the rhinestone flourish at the top. Oops!

Fun in the Sun!

Hello! I thought I would share some pictures I took today while we were out in the sun having a picnic today.


I haven't even seen a sprinkler in years...not joking! It was so fun! I just stuck my legs and arms in it...nothing too crazy.

Me and my friend Joy. (Photo courtesy of Jamie)

Joy's daughter Grace running through the sprinkler. Her son Dawson had fun, too! In the background is my friend Jamie's son, Jack, with a squirt gun. He really enjoyed that!

And this is Jamie. She was actually the one who got me started with digital scrapbooking. I'm so thankful she encouraged me to do it. (Photo courtesy of Joy)

Beauty

I'm so happy to know that I'm still in love with orange. Ha! Speaking of which, did ya'll see the BIKE? (Scroll down a bit and you'll see the orange beauty). You really should go check because it's finished and it looks AWESOME! And it should be in my possession next week! Whoohoo!

Ok, back to the page...I really love how this page came together. Yesterday I put the pictures in the collage and then worked on it again this morning. It's kinda funny that I don't normally create two-page spreads, but here I am creating one after another. We have so many pics of our trip to the interior of Alaska that I want to put as many as I can on the pages.

This page was inspired by Cindy Tobey. I really enjoy looking at her blog and her fun pages.

Today I'm taking a break from staining (can I get a 'Hallelujah!'?) and I'm going to enjoy a picnic with a friend.

More Alaska Pages

Here's another double-page spread. I like the simplicity of this page. It reminds me of some of Ali Edwards' pages. I've also been remembering to include journaling. Right after our trip I typed out the journaling because everything was fresh in my mind. (Hmmm...I should do that for the Arizona vacation). So now I just copy/paste it onto the page and do whatever necessary editing. It's nice to already have that journaling ready because then I don't feel forced with what I write.

Sometimes the pictures just need to speak for themselves. That's how I felt with this page. I just wanted to add a splash of color. I like what the circles add to the layout. It's fun finding creative ways to add the journaling. I've been looking at Jennifer McGuire's blog and I noticed that she uses a lot of twine on her embellishments, so I thought I'd add it to the star. This is a digital page, so I didn't have to tie anything. *wink*

Speaking of Jennifer McGuire, I wanted to share something that I thought was really neat. Yesterday Ali did a post about Jennifer and it was so inspiring. Jennifer says she isn't good at design or journaling, but she does enjoy the techniques. So she focuses on the techniques. Everyone is different! I love that! Ali Edwards is amazing when it comes to journaling. And there are others who are stronger with design. I'm really starting to see how everyone has their own style and ways that work best for them. I don't know how to describe my style, but I can see it. It's so fun! I love learning about people's styles!

Ok, so now I'm caught up on the pages I had started.

Taking a Break

I was outside staining the deck, but it's too hot in the sun, so I came in, made some lemonade, and sat down at the computer to finish up some pages. Here is a before and after of a page:


Before: I like this page, but it wasn't my favorite.

After: I changed it up a bit, but it still has a similar look as the first one.

Dalton Hwy

Here's another digital page I started a few days ago. I finished it last night. I want to add more to the page, but I think I'll do that after I have it printed. I love taking the beautiful photos from our trip and enlarging them on the pages. Most of the pictures from our trip were taken by my husband, Quent. He's an amazing photographer!



I never did get around to creating any traditional scrapbook pages yesterday. I feel like I'm in this weird phase with scrapbooking right now. Maybe it's the beautiful weather! I attempted a page this morning from our Arizona trip, but it's just not making the cut. It doesn't look like a page *I* would create on my own. I saw this idea in the June Creating Keepsakes magazine that I wanted to "imi-make" (like 'imitate'), but as I was working on it, I kept on thinking that it wasn't really my style. So I think I'm going to delete it and just glean the things I can contribute to my own style. I'm learning...

Who?

Who do you scrapbook for?

When you scrapbook, are you thinking about what YOU like or what others like?

Lately I feel like I've been guilty of the latter. So I've been reminding myself that I scrapbook for ME. I love having this blog, but sometimes I focus too much on what the final outcome of a page will be like and what the viewers will think. Honestly, I think that's the bad part about having a blog. I want to create and keep people interested in coming back to look, but that shouldn't be my reason for scrapbooking. I need to scrapbook for me. I don't even like saying that I scrapbook because I want my grandchildren to look at my pages someday and know about me. That will be cool, but right NOW I scrapbook because I LOVE it! It's a hobby. I love looking through albums and seeing all of the colorful pages.

So I'm thinking of ways to focus back on the real reason I scrapbook and I might be making some changes.

Arctic Circle

I started this page this morning. Actually, I take that back. I started this page a couple of days ago, but all I had on it up until this morning were the pictures. I don't normally do double pages like this, but I wanted to use a lot of pictures to tell the story of this event, so I decided to put it on a two-page spread. You'll see more of these in the future.

So I put the finishing touches on it this morning before I went outside to stain the deck. It's amazing how many things you can find to procrastinate. I even mopped because I did NOT want to stain anymore. And I hate mopping! So I found time this morning to create so I could feel better about staining.

So I stained...

And stained...

And I was out there staining for almost 6 hours!! And the worst part of my job is over! Yeah!!!!!!



It's kinda funny that this page has WOOD on it...can't get away from it!

I'm tired, so maybe I'll blog-hop, look at Scrap Girls to see their new search engine for their boutique, preorder some NEW stuff from Stampin' Up!, or...

Zzzzzzzz

Mud & More

I had already scrapbooked these pictures, but I didn't like the page. Whenever I saw it I didn't feel satisfied, so I just had to redo it.
This is an all-digital page. I have other digital pages I'm still working on and I also have a plan to work on a traditional/hybrid page today. Anything besides finishing staining the deck sounds like fun. Ha!

Anniversary

Happy Monday! Did ya'll have a nice weekend? It's been so beautiful here! We are supposed to hit record highs this week (lower 80's). That's pretty 'hot' for Southeast Alaska! Ha!

Today is our 7th anniversary! It's hard to believe it's already been 7 years! Time sure does fly! Quent and I try to give each other the traditional gifts. This year it is copper/wool (or at least that's what Quent told me). There's a lot going on right now, so I kinda spaced the whole gift-exchange. Oops! I'm terrible at being late with sending gifts, so I didn't want that to happen again this anniversary. I also didn't have a clue of what to get Quent. I feel bad!

A few months ago my friend Katrina let me have a sheet of copper that she had embossed with the Big Shot at one of our stamping workshops. I cut out a heart with the Big Shot and this is what I made:


I made this with hopes he will put it in his office at work. It's simple, but elegant.

Here is the card that goes with it. I love the embossed swirls in the copper!

And for a bonus I thought I'd show another card I made over the weekend. Don't worry, this one isn't for Quent. It would be kinda fun to see him squirm because of the glitter....hmmm... Ha! I saw an idea that sparked the creation of this card. The original design used turquoise paper for the main part of the card, but I don't have any turquoise paper big enough for that right now. But that will soon change because of the amazing new In Colors by Stampin' Up! Whoohoo!

I've been working on some digital pages of our 2008 vacation, but they aren't complete yet. Stay tuned...

Back!

Hello! We arrived home yesterday morning and already last night I was working on a page. And you won't believe this, but I did a page with a picture from our trip! So that means I have another album in the works! Quent laughed and was teasing me about how this picture was from a place we went to and I wasn't really enjoying myself, but I chose to scrapbook it first! Ha! It was raining at the time and I wasn't excited about getting wet. But the awesome thing about this trail (besides my attitude being adjusted--yeah!) was that there were these beautiful cactus roses. I snapped a lot of pictures of them. I was blog-hopping last night and I saw what Rhonna had created and right away my creative juices were churning, so I started this page.

It's good to be home! We really enjoyed our trip! We saw SOOO many things in the two weeks we were there. Last night I was looking through the June Creating Keepsakes magazine for the first time and all of these ideas were coming to me. I sketched out a page idea I have for the introduction page for our trip. I'm excited! I really want to enjoy this process, this journey, this passion, this hobby of scrapbooking. I don't want to be in a rush about it. In my eyes, I have 4 scrapbook projects I am working on right now. I want to enjoy the journey and not think I have to get things done in whatever order (although it would be nice to get last year's vacation completely scrapped).

Also, Ro from Scrap Girls has been posting some pretty cool stuff on her muse blog. Check it out!



This is a digital page using elements from Jen wilson, Little Dreamer, and Designer Digitals. If you have any questions about what I used, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back with you. I'm not always good at listing what I used, but I can always look things up if you would like!

Hello there!

I thought I would show some pictures of some cards I made the other day when I was at the scrapbook store. These are not completely finished cards.


I bought this purple shirt from American Eagle just so I could have some pictures with purple to scrapbook. Isn't it funny how we can start to plan out our pages before we even have the pictures for them?

The butterfly was made from a Quick Kutz (sp?) die-cut machine. The top layer of the butterfly wasn't letting me punch out all of the parts, so I just left it as is. I didn't have my good scissors with me.

This was one of those cards where the whole time I was making it, I had someone in mind that I want to give it to. I think this one needs a touch of glitter, too.

Um, this card didn't turn out quite how I would have liked, but I still think it's cute. What a fun kid card!

I so wish I had packed my Fiskars cutter with me because I would really like to create more today. Now I know for next time. Too bad my husband's work laptop didn't have Photoshop, huh? I'm hoping to walk over to the Barnes & Noble sometime today to see if I can find a Cards magazine.