my_weblog

Inspiration Organizer + Scraps

 

I tried. I waited what felt like forever. I allowed my hair to grow out a full eight months and then suddenly, I said "enough is enough." Last night, I went to the beauty salon and had it chopped off. They took off three to four inches and I'm love'en it already. It took me only two minutes to get ready this morning. What a huge relief. I was happy. Ethan was happy. We managed to get out the door at a decent time. The last thing I feel like worrying about in the morning is my hair..so, say "hello" to my new 'do!

 

"The weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful...." Yep, it's that time of year again in Minnesota - the snow is falling and already, Ethan is asking to shovel the driveway. I love it...I hope he continues to want to help mom out with the shoveling when the snow starts to pile up on the driveway these next couple months. I could sure use a little help in the snow shoveling department. Joy.

 

Here is the inspiration binder I wanted to share with you guys today. This is a fairly simple binder that I keep near my desk whenever I'm working project or layout. Actually, the article above is what inspired my last layout. Love this color palette. The binder is divided into eight sections:

• Traditional Layouts
• Digital Layouts
• Altered Projects
• Mini Albums
• Cards
• Traditional Scrapbook Techniques
• Digital Scrapbook Techniques
• Photography
• Graphic Design Inspiration
• Home Decor Inspiration
• Misc. Inspiration
• Patterns/Illustrations  

 Included in each section are magazine articles, online print-outs and other paper related items. Sections are separated via basic page dividers that I've labeled accordingly.  See below:

 

Here are a few items I have stored inside my binder:

I try to keep the contents of the binder fresh & up-to-date. I remove items from the binder on a bi-monthly basis. By doing this, I maintain use of the binder and never lose site of creative inspiration. I also make an effort to add items the binder on a regular basis. I visit online galleries & blogs often and take apart magazines when I'm done reading them. Catalogs are another great source of inspiration. Cards, pamphlets, misc. printed materials and anything else I find that inspires me creatively finds it's way into the binder. If something no longer inspires me, I remove it.

I use a 1" binder for storing my paper items. I store a limited number of items in my binder so that I'm not overwhelmed by ideas when looking through it. The binder sits beneath my cropper hopper paper holder below my desk. I almost always look through it before starting a project. I have a great deal of difficulty starting a new layout and having the binder available to me is of great help. It's a quick, immediate resource of inspiration. 

 

One last item I talked about sharing earlier is this amazing book titled "Scraps". I ran into this book last week while at Barnes and Nobel. For the longest time, I haven't been able to verbalize my understanding of collage (even though collage is the basis of my work). For me, collage is mostly instinctual. Elsebeth Gynthner & Christine Clemmensen have written this remarkable book all about collage. They simplify the process by explaining the underlying design concepts that go into creating well balanced, meaningful collages. They provide tips and techniques and show you how to use a variety materials for creating collages from start to finish. If you've not tried collage or have tried and struggled, this book might be of use to you. It's definitely worth checking out. 

Have a great weekend you guys! Thank you to those of you that left suggestions in response to my last post..I know someone mentioned "product listings" - I'll work on it. Promise. 

**Vintage Christmas Kit update: The first round of kits are expected to ship Wednesday of next week. Final invoices will go out on Tuesday/Wednesday to those on the reservation list. Please contact me if you have any questions! Thanks so much!

Frosting Delight

We've attended quite a few birthday parties these last couple of weeks, including Ethan's own birthday party. We celebrated the big day at my parent's place with family and lots and lots of food. Ask Ethan what his favorite food is and he'll tell it's cake. Hands down. It's not the presents that Ethan looks forward to the most when enjoying a birthday, it's the cake.  He specifically requested that we have a "water" cake this year, so I went and picked him up a Nemo sheet cake for the event. Sure enough, he blew out the candles with no issue and dug right in when it came time to eat his favorite dessert. After mentioning to me that he was done eating his cake, it was no surprise to find cake still sitting on his plate. Turns out, Ethan's not exactly a huge fan of "cake" per say, but more so of the frosting. I sort of laughed when I saw the cake sitting there...what is it about the cake itself that makes is less desirable than the frosting? Well, I suppose there's one word for that - sugar. Considering Ethan is a huge fan of sugar, as are most kids, I shouldn't be surprised that the frosting from his cake is the only thing missing at this point. This moment ultimately inspired me to create the above layout. It's about Ethan's obsession with frosting...he can't get enough the stuff. 

I find that when I'm working on a layout, most things happen by accident. I don't preplan my layout designs. I never have. Instead, I toy around with various pieces of paper, chipboard pieces, die-cuts and embellishments. I fit them together like puzzle pieces with the hope that they'll match up and sit nicely together on my layout. It's an ongoing "will this work" or "will that work" sort of process. There's no rhyme or reason for what I do most of the time. Because of this, I'm not always able to explain to you how a layout is made. Instead, I try to provide bits and pieces of information to help inspire you to look at your supplies differently, try on new ideas and create something totally unique. Below, are a couple of creative combos I created while working on my "Frosting" layout.

 

Card filler. I have drawers full of journaling die-cut cards. Half the time, I cut them up and use them in segments. Very rarely do I have the space on a full size layout to use a whole card. This time around, I spontaneously grabbed a journaling card and started covering it with pieces of carefully cut paper. I divided the card into three areas: top, middle & bottom. I covered the top and bottom area with a single color cardstock and added a title to the center. Using a ruler, brown fine tip marker and gold gel pen, I drew a gold border above and below the title along with some scalloping & dots. After finishing the card, I adhered it to my layout as part of the title. 

   

Here's a quick combination of elements for creating a flower. You don't have to use traditional flower themed items to create a flower. I build flowers via layers using all kinds of items. Each layer is usually of a different material. For this particular flower, I combined chipboard, punched cardstock & a few Sassafras flower die-cuts. I adhered items together using a strong wet adhesive (I'm a big fan of Scotch Quick Dry Tacky Adhesive). I then secured the flower to my layout using a large size fabric brad and additional wet adhesive. 

Here are a few more images of the layout:

 

The color scheme for this layout didn't transpire on it's own. Friday, I'll return to share what inspired the color scheme for this layout and a quick, easy-to-make binder for storing scrapbook ideas and online finds. And I didn't forget about the embellishment/collage book I wanted to mention today - will share it tomorrow instead.  This post has reached maximum capacity. Hope all of you are having a wonderful week! Take care. 

Digital Mini Album + Holiday Weekend

 

I did it. I painstakingly dragged three large rubbermade bins from the basement to the living room and spent six long hours piecing together the fifteen foot artificial Christmas tree that I told myself I'd never use again. I almost bought a real one. It would of been so much easier to have bought a real tree and to have just stuck it in a container of water, but Eric would of been soooo mad at me. Laugh. It was "I" that insisted on buying the artificial tree, not Eric. While at the garden center this weekend, I kept looking at the various trees on display and thought about having one tied to my car. I gave up the idea as soon as I heard Eric's voice in my head telling me, "What? You're going to spend money on a real tree when we have a perfectly good tree sitting at home? Why not use it? It's free." So, after leaving the garden center, I went home and set up the tree with the help of a ladder and camera to record my progress. Below are some pics of the tree "under construction":

 

Ethan was thrilled to see the tree go up. The first words out of his mouth upon seeing the tree for the first time, "It's beautiful mommy, but what happened to the floor? It's dirty. We got to clean it up mommy. Get the vacuum." He makes me laugh. I swear. 

 

 

Because we had lots going on over the weekend, I didn't have a whole lot of time to scrapbook. I still insisted on getting something done with what little time I had, so I put together this digital album using a pre-designed template ("Perfect Party Brag Book") from "The Shabby Shoppe", another one of my favorite digital scrapbook stores. I've not previously worked with a pre-designed digital template before, so this project was really exciting for me. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I love how the album turned out..sure, it doesn't have the bling and layers, but it's still adorable. With this album, I included photos from Ethan's recent third birthday party - celebrated on Thanksgiving day. Below are few close-ups of the album. Take a peek. I added the title using letters from a separate digital scrapbook kit. 

 

The cardstock backing/album design is also from "The Shabby Shoppe". I changed the design just slightly - I went with Seven Gypsies mini binding rings instead of ribbon for binding my album. 

I'm currently working on a new layout. I hope to share it with you on Wednesday. I have a couple other items I want to share with you also, but I'm going to hold off for right now. For those of you seeking direction to further your understanding of collage work and detailing, visit me on Wednesday for a book recommendation. Also, a new scrapbook magazine recently debuted in Austria and a special someone sent me a copy....more a little later.

Holiday Exit

 

Most of my time has been spent "here", on the computer. With coffee in hand, I've been working diligently on the Vintage Christmas mini album instructions these last couple of days. So far, I'm betten' thirty plus pages. I know, who in the world writes thirty pages of instructions for a mini album? Let me volunteer myself and confess that I'm extremely thorough when it comes to documenting project instructions. Because my projects are heavily involved, it's not enough for me to say "adhere paper and embellishments to page as show." If I did, I'd have everyone emailing me with questions about their project and boy, would my inbox fill up fast. Instead, I choose to cover all necessary bases upfront and explain my creation process in basic, step-by-step format. I also include lots of photos, which people loveeee. Personally, I prefer photos when working on a project. As a visual learner, I can't go without. Imagine, thirty pages and no photos? Thank goodness for photos - the instructions should be done by late next week (or sooner), which means the first round of kits will ship the week of December 7th. If you're in the first round, watch your inbox. I'll start sending out invoices December 8th & 9th. 

 

I've been quietly keeping a secret. My dear sweet boy is about to turn "three"! We're celebrating his birthday tomorrow with family (during Thanksgiving). I've been running back and forth between stores trying to get ready for the big day. Ethan is soooo excited about his birthday - we've been talking non-stop about it these last couple of weeks. So far, Ethan's only requests have been water and Nemo. I picked up a Nemo cake this mornen' along with a large bundle of helium filled balloons. I still need to wrap his present...I bought him a deluxe working cash register. It beeps, scans and has a working drawer filled with fake money. He'll love it.  I'm certain of it. 

I might actually send out Christmas photo cards this year! Normally, I can't coordinate a holiday card fast enough to get it out on time. I'm a slow goer. I've already located a couple of digital card contenders. Thought I'd share them here- most are printable via the home printer (accept those from Etsy). Just add a photo!

 

Can't pick just one? The Shabby Shoppe is selling an eclectic kit of digital holiday cards in variety of styles and sizes. It includes wordart graphics for personalizing your cards. 

   
Kit designers: Leora Sanford & Julia Makotinsky 

Ohhh, how I love Little Dreamer Designs. One of my favorite digital scrapbook stores ever. I happened upon these two holiday card kits while at their website this morning. 

  

More of a traditionalist? Prefer greens and reds? This is a cute card set from Kristen Rice at After Five Designs, another one of my favorite digital scrapbook stores. 

If you'd rather have someone else print your holiday photo cards, then visit Etsy. You'll find an array of one-of-kind, highly personalized holiday photo cards from a multitude of talented graphic designers while there. Simply select a card, send the designer your photo and he/she will print your cards on high grade photo paper for an additional fee. Here's a small sampling of cards from Etsy:

 
 Designers (in order): Sweet Print Shop, Sweet Papers & Dimple Prints

I'm taking a semi-break from my blog over the holiday weekend. I'll be back Monday to play catch-up. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving you guys!   

Early Holiday Tradition

 With Black Friday just around the corner, there's much to be seen already at the many local retail stores in my area. There's one place in particular, about a mile away, that we have grown to love over the years - Gertens Nursery, one of the largest garden centers in the Twin Cities (Minnesota). Each year, around the holidays, the nursery is converted into a "mini wonderland" of sorts. Large decorated Christmas trees are brought in for display. Surrounding the trees are racks of holiday must-haves, including hand blown ornaments, paper mache houses, scented candles, handmade candy, glittered frames, vintage wreaths and more. There are hundreds of lights on display for the Christmas light enthusiast (Ethan's favorite!). Wish you could find a set of pink bubble lights to hang on that vintage tinsel tree you have sitting in the basement (I so wish I had a tinsel tree - check out the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living)? How about a giant snowglobe for the front yard (believe it or not, my dad owns one and it's hooked up and worken' - don't tell him I told you!)? Gertens has you covered when it comes to lights. Of course, I'm not at all about the lights...I visit Gertens strictly for the decor and decor only. I packed up my camera this morning and went straight way to the place to grab a few photos for you guys. Thought it might be kind of fun to share some of their offerings here. Find them above and below.

This gorgeous collection of paper mache houses are designed by Barbara Schriber - you can find her here.

I have a crush on these Christmas trees...

and this house.

This is a great holiday gift idea - hatbox + miniature house + tree

I studied a number of the ornaments on display for paper crafting ideas. This particular ornament was created on a mirror base. Small mirrors like this are easily found at local craft supply stores. Apply a large size rub-on and a section of lace paper to mirror and you have almost the same ornament. 

There were a couple other ornaments that inspired me during my trip - think in terms of layered chipboard stars (glittered), glittered framed vintage images, scallop circle bases with trees and children, old fashion candy canes made from piping and beads, decorated cones with greenery and birds...I'm tempted to Michaels this evening and start working on handmade ornaments soon. 

These are kind of cool. They're actual clips attached to preexisting hooks. Hang them right on the Christmas tree with a Christmas card or other handmade paper craft item. You could also create this kind of hook yourself - I have a drawer full of office clips in my dining room that would work for this sort of do-it-yourself project...save money too!

And a few extra pics:

 

 

We had a jammed packed weekend of cooking, shopping and family visits. I took out the dusty Kitchen Aid mixer (ok, I don't cook very often) on Saturday. I found a no-fail recipe in December's issue of Martha Stewart Living for peanut butter kiss cookies. Ethan and I whipped up a batch to share with family and friends. Amazingly, the cookies turned out great! They were soooo tasty that we managed to eat all of them before the weekend's end. Lets not count calories please...is there a limit on the number of cookies we're allowed to eat during the holidays? Nope. Not really (at least that's what I tell myself after consuming three cookies in a row). Laugh. I'm a serious sweetaholic...can you tell?

Hope you guys had a great weekend - be back with another update by mid-week. Take care everyone!

"A Card a Day" from Paper Crafts

I can't count the number of times I've skipped the many card magazines on display at some of my favorite craft stores. I always see them from the corner of my eye, but the scrapbooker in me says to keep moving forward and I end up missing lots of great, innovative embellishment ideas. Over the years, I've only managed to collect a handful of card making publications. My reasons for purchasing them are vast and in many respects, accidental. It's usually the cover that pulls me in for a closer look. So, it was no surprise to me when I "accidently" ran into this book a week ago while roaming the aisles of my local Archiver store:

Just released, this book is a serious feast for the eyes. Brimming with lots of color and gorgeous photography, "A Card a Day" is a sure treat for both card makers and scrapbookers alike. After a quick peek at the inside content, there was no second guessing myself, I had to bring this book home with me. Another accidental find - sure glad I didn't pass this one up!

I've not mentioned this previously, but whenever I'm working on a mini album, I often turn to cards for composition & embellishment ideas. The two are almost identical in size and scale. For someone who normally works within the confines of a 12" x 12" space, it's not easy to downsize. Mini album pages present a different set of design issues for most traditional scrapbookers like myself. Everything is on the small side. Most pages run 5" x 5" (if not less or more) and there's only so much you can do with that amount of space until you run out of options. Over the years, I've learned that the key to dealing with this problem is preplanning. I try to have the generals taken care of before beginning a mini album page so that I don't run into problems halfway into the project. I keep a couple card making books by me for easy reference. The book, "A Card a Day", was a great resource for me while working on the Vintage Christmas mini album. If I run into a design conundrum, I seek out a solution via one of the card making books nearby. 

And yes, there's a winner - congratulations to Barb - Great guess! Please email me your address and I'll send you a prize package of new scrapbook items. Thanks to all of you who left a comment to my last post! :)

Album + Guessing Game

I've been hiding. Hiding away in my creative space, working non-stop on the dire task of finishing my Vintage Christmas mini album. I'm finally ready to share it with you. Some of you requested that I show the album in it's entirety, so here it is...enjoy! 

 

 

I'll return tomorrow with a book that's been inspiring me lately - it served as source of inspiration for this album. Believe it or not, the book's not about scrapbooking..it's about cardmaking. Guess the book and win an assortment of new scrapbook goodies!! Write your best guess in the comment section below. The first person to mention the book, wins! Good Luck! Will post the winner tomorrow night.

Another Transition

 Still busy working on my Vintage Christmas mini album. As a result of my spending a significant amount of time behind the desk, I haven't had a whole lot of extra time to update this place. I'm very much alive and scrapbooking more than ever. Above are a few more sneak peeks from the Vintage Christmas mini album. It's almost done..so very close to done. Well, sort of..laugh. Three more pages to go....

A quick side note - the second round of Vintage Christmas mini album kits sold out over the weekend. I'll not have another round. Thank-you to all of those that signed up to receive the kit...December is just around the corner!

 

My in-laws recently asked about Eric's clothes and inquired as to whether or not I had plans to remove them from our closet. Previously, when asked about Eric's clothes, I always responded, "Not yet." I was attached to them. They served as a security blanket for me after Eric's passing...when at my absolute worst, I wrapped myself around his clothes and cried helplessly into them. I felt close to Eric when enveloped by his clothes. Just knowing that he wore them provided me great comfort and peace. Much of his personality was ingrained within the fabric of his clothes. He was a simple man.  He wore basic t-shirts (with the occasional funny phrase) and jeans most days. He wasn't the kind of guy that thought highly of ties. He actually mentioned once that he wouldn't work for IBM because they had a strict dress code. Eric's motto - if it's not comfortable, I'm not wearing it. So it goes...nothing could get in the way of Eric's clothing preferences. Laugh. Not even me. Since his passing, I've grown to love some of his shirts. My favorite - "No, I will not fix your computer." After talking with my in-laws about the clothes this weekend, I realized that it was time to remove them from our closet. They'd been there long enough. They served their purpose. I neatly folded his clothes into small piles before placing them into large size bags. I kept a couple of Eric's shirts to share with Ethan when he's a little older. A few people already suggested that I have a bear or quilt made using the shirts I kept for Ethan. I'm now looking into this as an option for preserving some of Eric's shirts. I donated the rest of the clothes to a local charitable organization for reuse. 

Oh Joy!

So many of you responded to my recent kit, "Vintage Christmas", that I decided to organize another small round of kits for those that missed out over the weekend. The second round is expected to ship mid-December. If interested in reserving a kit, please email me at retrospection30@gmail.com. 

I've been progressively moving forward with the album this week. Today, I'm sharing snippets of some of the album pages. This particular album is smaller than my last, but is still filled to the brim with delicious layers and yummy colors. The base of the album is simple scallop cardstock, though because of the many layers, the album is of a substantial thickness & weight. I'm so glad I was able to work with Paper Source in locating the hundreds of the scallop rectangle sheets needed for this kit. I had them shipped in from various parts of the country because they're not readily available in my area and are in high demand. They're a perfect addition to the album. 

I'm going to continue to share more of the album over the next week or so. I should have the album ready for a full debut early next week. 

One last note before closing this post - my presence here will always remain. I have no plans to walk away from blogging. I enjoy the small community of friends I've made here over the years. I'm grateful for all you who visit me here on daily,weekly or monthly basis. This is my home away from home. I'm passionate about the the hobby and can't imagine a life without it. Things may slow down here from time to time, but it's only because I have the near impossible task of selling our home this Spring. I'll continue to offer kits every three months and post technique driven ideas nearly every week on my blog. If I haven't, you'll know why...either I'm busy vacuuming the house for a last minute showing or packing boxes for a potential move. We have a busy Summer ahead of us :)

Creative Therapy Guest Designer

 I'm beyond excited..I was able to resolve the color setting issues that have been plaguing me these last couple weeks. After navigating Google to find out more about the "Save for Web" feature in Photoshop CS3/MacBook Pro, I was able to resolve the problem. It turns out that the "Save for Web" option in Photoshop was stripping my digital images of their RGBs color profile. Every time I uploaded an image in Typepad, it lost color saturation. I went to Typepad for help.  Typepad informed me that my images lacked color profiles, which resulted in inaccurate color readings on some monitors (mainly Macs). Finally, after a substantial amount of tweaking and a lesson in color management, I was able to find a color set-up that works for me. 

Having said that, it might take a little longer to upload my posts - this is because my image file sizes are slightly larger than before. Please accept my apologies for the added wait time. 

I'm going to put aside the technical stuff and share a little something I did for Creative Therapy a few weeks ago. I was asked the question "If money weren't an issue, what would you do with your time?" In answering this question, I created the above layout and wrote this response. 

A couple more detailed images from the layout (with improved color) -

* Technique ideas from this layout are posted at Creative Therapy. 

We took full advantage of the warm weather that surprised us over the weekend. Amazingly, it was sixty-plus degrees in the midwest yesterday...which is extremely unusual for this time of year in Minnesota. We took Ethan to the local Como Zoo to visit the various animals on display. We stayed for only a few hours - most of the animals are housed indoors in preparation for Winter's arrival. Ethan seemed to take a keen interest in the animals this time around, whereas before he'd skip the animals altogether. He stopped and stared at them, but couldn't quite figure out what the animals were up to in their confined spaces. Some of the animals came right up to the glass to greet Ethan, including "Sparky" the seal. That was a real treat. While hanging out with the lions, we were met with repeated growls. Ethan put his hands against his ears and angrily responded, "Mom, he's too loud. Much too loud. I want more M & M's." It was obviously lunch time..for both the lion and Ethan.