Monday, December 31, 2007

answers + word + 365

Ooh a question. A reason to keep up with the posting every day. It's like not a New Year's thing if you start before the first right?

As for the 365 portrait thing I mentioned yesterday I've seen bits and pieces of it everywhere. It started somewhere with the idea of taking one picture a day for 365 days. It's kind of all over now. There's a flickr group here for the daily picture of whatever. There are weekly challenges and pools of a ton of pictures. There's info on it at Photojojo. It's a good way to get better at taking pictures and getting in a better habit of taking pictures.

The self-portrait 365 project is all about taking a self portrait of yourself every day for a year. If you check out the pool you'll start to see the deviations from the typical head shot (or my personal favorite the myspace-in-my-bathroom-mirror-without-my-shirt-on shot--which EVERY guy has on his myspace page). Amber, who you might recognize her stuff from OLW is doing it too, but she started in early Dec. Her pictures are a pretty good range as well. (I read her blog sometimes because I love her style and she and her husband take some awesome pix--they do the photo thing professionally though but it's a good way to get inspiration.)

I love this idea of grabbing bits and pieces of real life + getting better with the camera in general. I have a nice Cannon SD630 Elph which is a great camera to take with me everywhere because it's super small. I don't know enough about it though because I'm not super into the photography thing. And it's not so much that I want to take artsy photos, or do it professionally. I just want to take better shots of my own memories. Plus I really want a digital SLR camera but can't justify the money until I've worn this one good and out.

I'll probably do the portrait challenge and the more and more I think about it the more I want to do the regular one as well. Photojojo also has some other great photo resolutions (goals if you will) if you are interested. I just stole the link to the site from Ali Edward's blog post so I'm going to do a little more reading into it.

If anyone decides to pick up the 365 challenges let me know! I'm on flickr and I'd love to add contacts who are doing the same challenges. I'm not sure if I'll join the flickr groups or not, but I might. I'll let you know.

I've been delaying thinking about it and now I'm behind, but Ali Edwards was talking about her word for the year. She talks about this trend she started with picking a word to use as your inspiration and focus for the year. Here's one of her old blog entries about it and then more stuff here. The second link actually has a list of words people told her they were using for 2007 and it's helpful if you're like me and you need a little boost. I love this idea of a word to focus on. I'm like obsessed with words though. But it does help. I'm still thinking about mine but I should have it nailed down within a day or two. Let me know if you come up with something.

Here's wishing you and yours all the best for 2008.




Sunday, December 30, 2007

NYC in a glimpse

1. 5th Street, 2. mac reflections, 3. outside looking in, 4. snowy lights, 5. shiny trees, 6. brightly shining, 7. IMG_1793[1], 8. church or staircase?, 9. happy christmas, 10. Playbill, 11. rainfall, 12. Times Sqaure

Made this today. Really cool. If you have flickr you can use this Big Huge Labs mosaic tool to make it of your pictures or other ones on flickr. Pretty neat huh?

busy holiday

Busy busy girl. The holidays were...intense. We had some bumps on the visit home, but that's just how things go sometimes. Sometimes we don't all get along. Oh well. I didn't take anywhere near enough pictures, but mom and little brother took some too so hopefully I can get copies of their stuff and make a full holiday collection.

I've mentioned this in my LJ but I was thinking about starting the 365 self portrait challenge. A self portrait a day for a whole year. I've seen some so of the examples around and about and it's not just all shots of your face or you alone. I've seen shots with friends and some of shoes and outfits and such. I like that idea. Plus it might help two things 1) me take more pictures and 2) me see how much progress I'm planning to make on getting in shape. So here's hoping.

The scrap stuff has yet to be unearthed, but i did get some good scrapbooking done while at home. I finished off two LOs and got some card fronts done for a swap i signed up for. Most of the free time was spent playing with my NEW Cuttlebug though. So yes, now I have both. I'm super happy. My first LOs using them came out way fun. and I love letters so now i have more versatile options with letters. All and all a good deal.

New LOs will hopefully be posted soon. I'll have to pull pictures off my email and then into flickr then on here. I don't know why I don't do it all in one shot but that would make sense or something.

Thinking about those new years resolutions yet? I know a lot of folks were thinking about scrapbooking resolutions (blame the Jan issue of CK) and #s of LOs to be accomplished. I personally would just like to finish a project. But here's the current list of "goals" (I hate "resolutions"; I always feel bad when I don't accomplish them.).
  • Finish a major project (examples: my 2007 album, my Disney album, my mom's book, 2007 travel album, etc)
  • Do at least one LO per week. But if I hit a rut I can let this slide. I like the idea of hitting 52 by the end of the year but there's no use FORCING work.
  • Get in shape. 10 minute mile. (if my foot stops hurting where I broke it when I run. If that keeps up then be able to do four miles in one shot either on ground, treadmill or elliptical.)
  • Post every day to blog spot and LJ.
  • Self portrait every day.

Seems like a pretty solid list so far. Leave me a comment about your goals! (this posting every day is going to force y'all to share more, hah!)

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

moving on up

Actually it's more of a moving down...going to a second floor apartment over a third. Where on earth am i going to get my exercise at ?

Last night i made a valiant effort to move a good sized chunk of scrapbooking stuff. I had a good lot drug over and I made some good progress putting things in places. I'm going to have to completely reorganize when I finally start unpacking, but being forced to put everything somewhere helped a little (granted a bunch of stuff just got shoved into the cricut carrying case...but that's besides the point).

I think i have more stuff than i realize. A full on re-org will be helpful for me to really determine what I have and how to go about using large chunks of it. At least that's the plan. whew.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Quite Exciting

Boyfriend and I did Christmas a little early this year (we will both go home for the actual holiday on Saturday and then I'm in the process of moving across the complex so I'm super busy with that all week). I got to open my big present last night. Seriously, yall he's amazing.

He got me a Cricut! Plus the tool kit, plus extra mats, plus the carrying case to put it in. I started crying. He's too good to me. Spoils me. (No worries, I spoiled him too with new clothes, a Nintendo DS and an adorable Build-a-Bear Polar bear).

I played with it last night (talk about a good way to get the creative juices flowing) and I designed up a LO to do for my trip to NYC this past weekend. Only problems, I didn't have any of my tools/glue/stuffs at boyfriends so the actual page will have to wait just a little bit longer to finish up. Not to mention i don't have the pictures printed up yet. Oh well right?

I'm still keeping track of my daily stuff for my December book I want to do (Dec 1- 25). I haven't had time to make up the book but taking notes, remembering to take pictures and such is fun. And it's a good way to keep track. Hopefully I can work on it while I'm at home visiting the parents for the holiday.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Online Crop




My kit group had an online crop last weekend and it was a great excuse to get stuff done. The first two are from a "journal jogger" (to jog your memory apparently) to keep notes on what's going on throughout the year. I don't know if i'll actually use it but i've made through June and i'm having fun. I like usuing all the old papers that I bought but now have nothing to use them for.

The Baby Kitties page is my lil 'uns about a year ago. Man they grow fast! This challenge was to use buttons in three different ways. If you look I've got them dotting my 'i', adding an extra pop to the kitty bowl sticker and then as a center for the flower. Love these colors!

The last one was for a b&w only LO. I actually wanted to use b&w photos but i haven't shot with b&w film in a while. I actually had forgotten about these shots from the crew semiformal freshman year. I think it's my first time scrapping the ex bf too. There was def a desire to scratch his face out with my exacto. Still came out really pretty. Esp with the KI lace cardstock.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

New project I want to try

LOVE this.

I really want to try making it for the month. I'm a little behind and wouldn't have pictures for the first three days (well two days because I can take a shot of the tree this evening before the ornaments go on for yesterday). I think with some journaling it could be pretty neat. now I just need the clear pages...

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Jim = stud muffin

Just for fun. Because Jim's a cutie-pie. And Katie and I are adorable.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

it's been a mixed few days

The emotions have been back and forth today and yesterday with a mixture of good news and bad news. Good news involves things like one of my best friends coming into town, getting things finalized for our christmas party (well the evite sent out), some awesome happenings on my tv shows (Olivia Wilde staying on House, Sylar and Maya making out on Heroes--not that i care about their storyline, the tension was driving me nuts--plus all the other goings on that show, Bones and Booth...). But in the sad news it would seem my new kit club i JUST joined is taking a hiatus in January with no promise of return. This makes me a little more than sad, as I just got involved in the message boards, started making new friends and more. The women on the site seem determined to keep the group together in some way, so i'm sure i'll be involved in that.

That being said i'm on the prowl for a new kit for January. I have some idea in my head but we'll see how previews look and then I'll work from there.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

style?

I got a comment from a scrapbooking friend about my "style" and how much she enjoyed it. This is like the ultimate compliment in my opinion, because it's one thing to have someone say they like one of your layouts. That's an opinion that can be judged on anything--the colors you used happened to be their favorite, it's a cute picture, you used something they have, a layout they can see themselves doing. But to compliment someone's style? That's their work as a whole.

But then you end up back at that age old question. What is your style? Some days I honestly don't think I have one. I just do what I like on a page and I like too many different things (I see this problem with like...all aspects of my life, not just scrapbooking). But I think nailing down your style is more than just doing something that's always the same. I think it comes from the feel of your work. My pages don't all look alike (unless i'm hooked on a certain pp pack or something) but they do have some of a similar feel. But that's not the convential definition of style. Style is too hard to nail down, too hard to define.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Scrap What?!? Scrap Naked.

LOVE this. I just finished this up for the scrap naked challenge. It came out totally awesome. I used up some older stuff, some stuff i love and I took a new twist on my usual layout. This is 8.5 x 11, but landscape style. It's different but fun. I did more with acrylic paint accents. Such fun.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Ornaments? Possible project to work on while at home?

Look at these! (the page may load funny, scroll down to see the actual pictures) I saw them linked elsewhere and I'm totally sold. I wonder if Hobby Lobby at home will be open when I get in. I might have to make a quick stop for supplies and work on this while I'm at home visiting the family for Thanksgiving. Very exciting.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Cute Little Girl


For another ScrapGoods "book of me" challenge I was supposed to do a LO with a picture of me as a child or baby. This is the ONLY picture I could easily locate that was before middle school. it's a cute one of me though. Smiling, laughing...eating. haha. I adore my new KI lace cardstock, and I probably won't have the heart to use it again. I really love this paper from Basic Grey (LilyKate). It's so much fun and so happy.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

cards!

I mentioned these cards in a previous post and sinc they are already uploaded I figured I should just post them.

They are pretty simple since the main embellishment was supposed to be stickers from our stash. I think for the next batch I make I might step it up a little bit. But I did get two votes for them as favorites for the challenge so to me that's pretty good (especially since so many others did such awesome cards!).

This was also the first time I've ever ripped paper to put on a LO (or etc.). I was nervous and then I realized I ripped it the wrong way (the other side has the great white paper contrast). Either way though I think I kind of like the idea.

A big thing I loved about the challenge (make either cards or LOs with stickers are the main embellishment) was the stuff I used! I have all this stuff hoarded away in case I might need it and it's silly. This way I was getting rid of it and found something fun to make from it. I also used only scrap paper which was fun because I have TONS of it (I'm so afraid to throw anything away).

What would you come up with?

oh the things to do!

So my creative rut is gone and i'm literally coming up with things to scrap while i'm sitting around (or like last night, trying to go to sleep) . Sadly though, the current issue is not so much that I can't motivated and/or can't come up with things. It's that i'm running out of time to do them in.

I had the parents in town this past weekend so most of the weekend was spent with them and the week before trying to get the apartment into "mom and dad staying with me" shape.

But I've got great ideas for two more layouts. One will incorporate my tattoos (ooh something I haven't scrapped yet) plus kit items from ScrapGoods and the other will experiment with some new mediums. I'm pretty excited. Plus I have a minibook i'm setting up about the kittens. it's going to be a buy scrap-filled weekend.

I finished up another LO for the "Book of Me" challenge but I haven't had a chance to scan it. Will upload it as soon as I get a chance!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

So Behind...

I've been so distracted from scrapping! for a while I was still stuck in my funk, but with parents coming into town, massive cleaning and even more going on I've barely had time to sit down and work on things. I made about a zillion cards for a challenge to use stickers as your main embellishment and I laid out a great page for a scraplift challenge I'm in through ScrapGoods, but I've had the hardest time finding the time to actually glue it down. It's just in pieces on my craft table.

Hopefully I'll find some time this week (between work and getting ready to go home for the Thanksgiving Holiday) and hopefully I can post some things up to prove that yes I am scrapbooking. Or that I still love it at least.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

DELIGHT

I've been slow to look at the OLW update for the next word. Since I didn't do the last one I was somewhat distracted from it. The new word is DELIGHT. I think I have some more potential in this one. Especially since the phrase "absolutely delightful" keeps coming to me.

This week's challenge for the Book of Me on ScrapGoods is to do a page with a picture of you as a baby or a child. I'm gonna have to search to find one. I found some old Disney World pictures not too long ago, but they were just of the actual place (I have high hope for them) and not of me. I'll have to dig or ask Mom to pick one out to bring to me this weekend. It's frustrating because I don't actually have a lot of the pictures of me as a little kid. I need to do something about that.

Plus on top of everything I got my new kit and I need to get moving on that as well. So much scrapping to do!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

just to say I love you...

I've been making Champ these little cards that I sneak in his lunch while he's asleep. The first one was ugly but the second came out really nice. He really likes getting them when he's at work or in the morning when I'm asleep. I thin it helps the the evening shifts (where I only see him when he's asleep and he only sees me when I'm asleep) a little easier to deal with. I'd have pictures to post but I gave them to him and as a result and he puts them somewhere...

Monday, October 29, 2007

Telling a Story

FREE! I think I'm out of my slump! I stayed up late working on this page for a "book of me" challenge I'm starting over at ScrapGoods. The idea is similar to those I've read out in other places (yes Ali Edwards' goes on about this) and it's a really neat idea. True I do a lot more scrapping about myself than others with kids and such but usually it's about stuff we've done, not just me. So this is the title page for my book. I am smiling here, even though after a while you could think I was crying. The pp is Basic Grey (the LilyKate line), the letter are American Crafts thickers (the brown). I love my gold American Crafts metallic marker and my new Sharpie white paint pen. I did this page in 8.5x11 which is a different size for me. I'm trying something new. I really like it so far so we will see how it goes. There should be new challenges every week (this weeks was to make the title page), so I will do my best to keep up.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Conundrum

I love this picture. It's the current favorite one I have of the two of us. It's just so us. Champ looks happy and I look at peace. Which is how we are. I'm happy of course, but being peaceful with my mind, body and soul is more of what makes us so...us.

But how do I scrap it?

I've been torn for days about how to get it into a layout. I'm just flat out stuck. It's such a beautiful shot with the beach in the background, the colors came out lovely...but I'm stuck. NOTHING is jumping out and inspriring me. Help?

Monday, October 22, 2007

Hiatus

I've been on somewhat of a hiatus. You know how it gets when you can't seem to sit still long enough to focus on something creative. I printed off a ton of lovely pictures from the Disney trip this summer and then the beach weekend earlier this month, but as much as I stare at them nothing is coming to mind. I'm stuck on the new OLW as well. BELIEVE. I like the concept of "believing in magic" but I can't seem to make it work. Or come up with something. Silly when I have about 200 Disney photos. My goal is to get some more things done later this week though.

But with the scrapbooking hiatus I keep finding that I want to read and write more which is good. I've missed the desire I've had for both of those things. I love to do both so much it was hard when I hit a serious writer's block and couldn't focus on anything long enough to read it.

I've got a new scrapbooking book to pour over so hopefully that will inspire me some. If not I'll just get caught up on some of the back logged reading and perhaps blow the dust off my endless work in progress novel.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Creative Manifesto

Lately my biggest vice has been Ali Edwards' blog and newsletter. I've just been introduced to her world as I've been expanding my scrapbooking outlooks (in a way only the internet can provide) and I'm definitely hooked. I love the newsletters she puts together and her thoughts on things that I realize I've been struggling with.

With getting better at this art, I've found that I (as well as other friends I have in the community of scrapbooking) have had issues with finding my place, my style, and my groove if you will. I like so many eclectic things, but my layouts end up looking similar. Ali has some great points about accepting your style and that it is different from others. Plus the voice expressed in her writing is so full of support in being yourself that it's relaxing.

In the 2/7/2007 issue of her newsletter she talks about developing a creative manifesto. I think this is a down right awesome concept. It's a grand way for people (not just scrapbookers) to put their thoughts into a coherent piece and use it to work from. For me, if I can nail down specifically what I want to do with something I can build on it and usually create something I've not yet dreamed of.

Here's some of what I have so far (mine is in list format, but that's def not required. You can do it however, but for me, I think in lists with descriptions. Short bursts that I have to explain.)
  • Take risks and experiment - I'm always afraid of messing something up or not doing something as well as someone else does so I tend to stick with what I already know.
  • Trust yourself - I'm alwasy so unsure of my work and of my ideas. This helps me focus on what I can and can't accomplish. It also helps put mistakes into perspective.
  • Do what inspires you - I'm so "behind" in scrapping that I feel like I need to get caught up all the time. Yet I've found that the pages I love hte most are the pages that I'm in the mood to work on when I work on them. It's something I really need to focus on doing. Just creating and letting myself get caught in the moment, not caught up.

That's it for the moment. Perhaps I'll build on it. I've got new LOs to post, but I'm still bringing it together. And I want to try and figure out the scanner a little better.

Monday, October 8, 2007

OLW: GONE

This word for OLW killed me. GONE? How do I work with that. Everything in my life is so more and not a whole lot has been taken away as of late. So I started thinking about things that were gone. I thought of college, of my friend Ian (of whom I have no good pictures so that was ruled out), old boyfriends, perhaps some old friends I had lost contact with. I was drawing a total blank.

I was looking at Amber's LO on the OLW page and hers was titled "Gone are the days of broken hearts." I really liked this idea and it went with the more positive spin on my life I'm try to take. So I came up with this:Many apologies again for the AWFUL quality of the pictures. I need to crop things. I think I might have fixed the computer issues or at the very least plan to delete photoshop and switch to something more reasonable. The title reads "Young LOVE is GONE". It sounds like a kind of sad statement and it sort of is. But for us it really is where we are right now. We're past the days of young love where everything is carefree and all you need is love and etc. Now there are bills, work, responsibilities; general speedbumps and detours on the road of our life together and we are having to get used to it.

Some detailing:
This was my first attempt at embossing with powder and ink. I used the clear ink, my cute flower stamp and viola! I heated it with the toaster over and just about burned the apartment building down. But it looks nice.These journaling cardstock stickies (cringe at the though of calling them "stickers") obviously all match the paper from my monthly kit. I outlined it in brown pen to make it pop a littl more against the orange though.
The alphas are brown foam which I heated (with the toaster again) and then smushed a paisley background stamp on them to leave the imprint. I painted over the letters with gold acryllic paint then dabbed a lot of it off. The frame is chipboard painted with the same paint. This is my fave embellishment of the whole page.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

ScrapPink = lots of work done

I got a spot for one day at ScrapPink at the local store (actually about 20 min away) which was sweet because i actually got some good stuff done. Apologies for the pictures not being cropped perfectly. I was having issues with my computer running out of space and photoshop wouldn't save properly as a result.


This mosaic piece took an eon to actually do. I cut the 8x10 picture into little 1"x1" squares and pasted the whole thing together by hand. There are aparently like templates and such for this sort of thing, but I really wanted to try it out by hand. It doesn't help that i can't cut in a straight line (even with my cutter) or draw a straight line (even with my ruler). The notes along the side are the date and location. I've found that I like putting the dates and such in more obvious spaces.


This one I made for my cousin's kid Jake. He's the ardrenaline junkie in the family and spent most of the afternoon at the park jumping off swings and trying his best to go as fast as possible down the slides. The pictures are really sun drenched and as a result somewhat hard to see, but i love them anyway. To me they are more realistic. I loved these chipboard letters I got from HSN (seriously), the brand is 3Birds. I didn't want to take away from them by using a colored cardstock. I was pretty pleased with how the circle of embelishments and stamps came out. it gives it a pretty good feel overall.

When we got to Keagan's house, her mom told me about how excited she was about wearing her purple pants so i knew these pictures had to go on purple. I'm not much of a gold person so I literally had to scrounge to find some good gold things. The letters came from the store I was at for the crop (ChipChatter is the brand i believe). They come in squares and you can punch the letters out. They are super sparkely but don't get glitter all over you (which is nice).

I lifted a lot of the aspects of this LO from another one i saw (especially the edges of the patterned paper in the middle and the flowers). I love the way the flowers came out and just thought they def needed stems. The different ribbon and fibers make each one unique. I like the way the picture pops with the colors of everything. These blues and greens with brown are some of my new favorite colors to scrap with. Go figure right?

This page actually was really important to me because of what it means. I hadn't seen Scott in 20 years and it was possibly one of the most terrifying moments of my life to re-meet him. Thankfully we got along just fine and it turns out that we are more alike that i would have imagined. I've always felt somewhat out of place in my family in some regards (I've always had different talents and dreams). I'm simliar enough to my mom and dad, but I had yet to find someone as interested in mechanics and such. Scott though, is also an engineer and it would seem that it just doesn't come from nowhere. I really like this page even if the embellishments seem a little mismatched. To me they kind of represent us. Although I wasn't thinking that when i added them. I was just thinking that i liked them. The metal plate was great for a title block and the letter stickers i had been waititng to use for ages (i also have them in b&w--Sticko i think).

I've got a few more left to post. In particular my entry for the OLW word of this week (month? i dunno, bi weekly period), GONE. It came out tons better than I expected, but it is terribly simple. Oh well :)

Thursday, September 27, 2007

RI scrapping + OLW Perfect entry

These two are my latest from my trip to RI. It worked out that the second one will do for a One Little Word entry.

I love this page of Ryan. I really really excited that i was able to piece all the patterned pieces together + print out the title with my printer. It took about two hours to make but the end result was worth it. The patterned paper is from the Rockstar pad by DCWV.



This is little Logan and my entry for OLW this time around. Obliviously the word is perfect. I used a lot of materials from my old scrapgoods kit i got, and a lot of the inspiration came from there as well.

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