Ice Work!

Cathy Zielske's sixth week of class focused on the concept of unity in design. For this layout, we used a double-page 8.5 x 11 inch spread. Her point with this sketch is that the continuation of a layout across two pages opens up a perfect opportunity to unify the work.

Here, I used SU! patterned paper with dots that matched different colors in the pictures (look soon for the color focus!). The paper "jumps the gutter, unifying the two pages as one layout. I also slightly jumped the gutter with the title (Thickers Tinsel foil letters... yummy!), placing the exclamation point on the other page.

I decided to go more with gray and navy. Why? Gray day, navy coat... and I like the two colors when they combine.

I got to use some of my SU! felt snowflakes, also. I used one under the dot of the "i" in "ice." Further unity was included by placing a few more of these snowflakes in the lower right of the layout.

All About Me

In October of 2007, Karen and I went to CKC Kansas City. While there, I bought Lisa Bearnson's album, "All About Me." I was interested in the idea of archiving some thoughts for my children and others who might get a kick out of it.


I began making the album this summer. The album comes with all the instructions and pieces you need. It was my first Lisa Bearnson scrapbook, and I must admit, if you don't have a whole lot of scrapbooking materials, her kits are fabulous. Everything was cut to size, hole-punched, adhesive-backed... you name it. And yet, she still allowed for whatever creativity you desired. Below is a photo of one of the kits "before production."


The first thing I did was put all the pages together as much as I could. That was fairly brainless. The only thing that I did not like were the rub-ons that came with the kit. NOT good. However, this kit came out in the infancy of rub-ons, so I'll cut Lisa some slack.


Then, I did several pages, but I did not want to rush. Alas, there it was, the end of December 2008, and I was not finished. I had two more spreads. I finished them on New Year's Eve and, voila! I was done with 2008 in 2008! The photos below are what the actual book looks like. I almost scanned the pages, but I wasn't sure of the mood of my scanner today. :)

FINALLY!

I think God was bored today and needed to mess with me. Truly. At least as far as crafting was concerned.

I was very excited, because I finished photographing and preparing photographs for an upcoming online garage sale (stay tuned!)... and let me tell you, it was a purging of this room... I was finally in the scrapbooking groove, and I had time to let the groove take me. Alas, my computer, printer, and scanner all wanted to mess with me.

The layout you see here {four hours later and NOT due to the difficulty of the page itself} is mounted on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of SU! Not Quite Navy. The photos are from Christmas day, when Max first laid eyes on his new train table. I fell in love with the Making Memories Fa La La shimmer alphabet stickers at The Keepsake Element in town (see link on page).

I took Cathy's Sketch #1 from Week 6 (yes, it's Week 12 now), and, as she would say, I "worked it." Her sketch was oriented in portrait, and I rotated it to landscape. I wanted the picture of Max to be the focal point, despite the fact that it is pretty grainy. So, here's to working the sketch!

Week 6 focused on unity. Cathy's sketch dealt with grouping elements together creating a sense on "one-ness." Here, the 4 x 6 photo in the center anchors the other two photos (diagonal from each other) and the two text areas (diagonal from each other). It was hard not to incorporate other elements that I have learned from weeks 7-12, as I HAVE watched the slideshows and videos. I just need to create the pages. With Cathy's clean and simple design elements, it won't be too hard... provided technology is on my side.

Office Gifts

My husband has about 7 people whom he wishes to give holiday gifts to at his office each year. This year, I purchased several Subway gift cards from Ignatius' SCRIP program (percent of profit goes to the school, cost of card remains the same).

Scott, of course, was happy just to hand them a gift card. I wanted to make it a little more in depth, however. My friend, Kim, just returned from Florida where her daughter was married. For favors, her daughter wanted to list the wedding participants and a photo on a label on a water bottle (it was a beach wedding). I hadn't seen that before, and I thought it was adorable.

So, I went with that idea. I printed our message on Avery 2 x 4 labels using Designers (free) font and CK Becky, a free font of Becky Higgins' writing which can be found here. I used a template for an artist's trading card envelope found here. I had purchased a slab of holiday-themed paper from The Paper Studio, and I used some of it that would not be typically me. It a had red and pink grid with pink and white snowflakes. It went well with the Raspberry Ice packet of Crystal Light on the Go I attached to the bottle. I made a tag with SU! Punches Three, my square scallop punch, and SU! Real Red ink. Then, I finished it off with some Offray red grosgrain. Simple, easy, yet Scott was very impressed in the end. Will he ever trust the crafter vision? Time will tell.

Since it seems like a Becky Higgins kind of weekend, I should add that I made her Pretzel Hugs recipe today with Rolos and Hershey Kisses. Yummers. Thanks to Krystal, who made them for Karen's Christmas Crafters Gathering. I am officially addicted.

The Gift of Time

Finally, FINALLY, I will have some time to do some crafting. So, stay tuned for further updates.

I thought I would post a shot of this card. I actually bought a Hallmark card {gasp}. This was a set of cards, and I found the sentiment to be hysterical (and so very me). It is sitting on one of my new shelves in my revamped "oasis" of a craft room. Photos will soon follow.

Enjoy the excitement of the season!

Self-Portrait

I love toying with photography. The problem with being behind the camera, however, is that you are rarely in front of it. (Profound, yes?) Well, last January, Max was infatuated with cameras and would just pick one up and say, "Cheese." I took full advantage of this and tried some self-portraits. Looks like a photobooth, but the series of pictures cracks me up.

This is sketch #3 for Cathy Zielske's focus on space. This was such an easy layout, and it looks so very nice with not a lot of effort. Her idea, again, is that white space is good, not evil. I agree.

Well, with a little luck, maybe I can crank out another layout before I go to bed. Hmmm, what will be next?

Some specs for this layout:

Felt flowers: SU! Felt Fusion Too

Brown brads: Spare parts

Cardstock: Paper Reflections kraft

Fonts: Cartoonist Hand and Later On

Ink: Ice Blue Color Box Chalk

Spaced

Still in Week 5 for my Design Your Life class... I'm just a tad "behind," but I am not stressing. It will get done when it gets done.

Anyway, the design concept is space. For this layout, a great deal of space is available. I like the simplicity of the layout. It took very little time to put together. I chose not to go crazy with embellishments because I loved the Fine Flocked Paper in Chocolate by artsy.licious, and I wanted that to be the main texture item. Also, the subject matter is very serious, so the photos and the journaling needed to be prominent on the page with no distractions. The layout is 12 x 12 inches, and the base color is Stampin' Up! More Mustard textured cardstock. Cathy gave us the journaling block to work with. Her sample had four 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 pictures, but I chose three, as my middle photo was very difficult to put in a square crop. I also decided to keep a white margin/border around my photos, where she had no margin. She also filled more of her white space than I chose to.

Interestingly enough, about two months prior to her death, Marita and I had a conversation about the song "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" by Elton John. It had come on when she was in the limo for her brother-in-law's funeral, and she found it to be ironic. It was also the first time she had heard the song, which floored me. Perhaps her last time as well.