my_weblog

Chasing Pumpkins

I want to quickly start off this post by thanking all of those that made Wednesday night a success at October Afternoon. Rumor has it that all attendees had a great time. A lot was packaged and in the end, all of you went home with OA product, including the new  8" x 8" Good Cheer pattern paper pad, which I so adore. Thank you again everyone!! :)

Note: For those attending the OA Packaging Party on Sunday, know that I'll be there for the entirety of the event. I'll be bringing along my camera and grabbing a few photos to share on the blog. Look forward to meeting all of you!

 

The second mini album class is coming along nicely. I struggled a little with the cover because I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to create a 3-D window. After a few hours of fidgeting and moving around product, I finally came up with window design above. I knew I wanted to do something with the snowman on the cover. He's part of the reason I chose to use the OA "Good Cheer" line for this project. I cut him out from a sheet of pattern paper and made him the centerpiece of the window. I accented him with various small details, including a medium size snowflake that I further embellished with stickles. Eventually, after the album is complete, I'm going to match it up with some bold, vibrant red ribbon that I picked up today at Archivers (also can be found at Paper Source). The red ribbon brings out the red of the snowman's scarf. It's sort of unexpected and fun. I'm going to spend the next week or so completing this album. I'll have a supply list available for this album in the very near future (for those attending the class).

I really wasn't sure what to expect from Ethan this year for Halloween. I sort had a forewarning that he wasn't a fan of his costume earlier on. The first time I had him try it on, he ripped it off and ran away from it. The second and third time I had him try it on, it was the same response. I figured the same thing would happen on Halloween and sure enough, it did. The costume stayed on for all of two minutes before he decided it had to come off for good. I let him take it off. We did our trick or treating without the costume. He walked around the neighborhood in a plain black outfit. He was still cute as ever. This year, he was totally fascinated by all the glowing  pumpkins. We made it a routine to visit only houses with "carved, lit pumpkins". Ethan was sort of shy about going door to door. I carried him most the way (I'm going to feel it tomorrow) and the only time he was willing to hang solo on the ground was when he had opportunity to approach a flashing, bright pumpkin. Every time he saw one, he bent over at an angle and stared at the pumpkin for a full thirty seconds. It was soooo funny! Laugh. At one point, he decided to kick a small pumpkin he had approached to see what would happen to it after it tipped over. I felt terrible and apologized to the owner a dozen or so times. He laughed and told me it wasn't an issue. I thought to myself that no one expects a two year old to kick over their pumpkin'(s). It's a story I'll be sharing with Ethan for years to come. He'll never believe he did such a thing. We ended up touring only a small section of the neighborhood, though Ethan collected enough candy to last us at least six months or more. I'm going to have to keep the candy under lock and key so I don't eat it. I'm easily tempted by chocolate and I crave it constantly. I'm like homer with "donuts", but I'm all about the chocolate. "Chocolateeeeeeeee.......mmmmmmmm....." Anyway, I've tagged on a few photos from tonight's festivities. You'll find Ethan modeling his costume..and a few tears. I did take the costume off him after capturing a few photos of it on. I simply wanted him to have a good time trick or treating and turns out, he did...he fell fast asleep in our car on the way home..love that. Happy Halloween everyone!

"Wait...What's that? What's in there? hmmm...Why is it glowing? Where's the light coming from?" This is Ethan every time we approached a pumpkin...too funny.

 

October Afternoon + Free Stuff

The October Afternoon warehouse is having a Pizza & Packaging Party!! Live in Minnesota and want to help with some of our extra packaging needs? We're hosting two days of pizza, packaging, and free October Afternoon product. All we ask is that you help us package some of our newest product and in exchange, we'll feed you and give you free October Afternoon product. We're opening our warehouse to those interested in helping this Wednesday from 5:00pm to 9:00pm and Sunday from 2:00pm to 7:00pm. There are only a limited number of spots available to attend the party, so if you'd like to see the warehouse and all the new October Afternoon goods in person, sign up quickly! We promise we'll send you home with some fabulous October Afternoon goodies :) If you'd like to join us on either of these days, please contact the warehouse at 1-866-513-5553 or email me directly at retrospection30@gmail.com. Thanks so much! Don't forget to tell your friends!

One week until Halloween...

We made a trip to a local community parade this morning. With all the family nephews and nieces in haul & big bags for collecting candy, we sat along the parade line chasing down candy and ghosts. Ethan lasted all about two minutes collecting candy. He couldn't resist sitting and eating one of his prize possession suckers. He sat through the rest of the parade eating his sucker while hundreds of kids went crazy competing for candy being thrown from parade vendors. I tried to get him more excited about the event, but he wasn't having it. I think for Ethan, it was a tad bit overwhelming. There were a lot of loud horns, music, and strangely dressed people walking around everywhere. I held him in my arms half the time, but I did get him dancing once or twice while in my arms. We still had a fabulously fun time! My mother was able to collect quite a bit of candy for Ethan, so we brought home half a bag of various kinds of candies. It should last us a good year. Laugh. More than likely, when Halloween arrives, we'll visit a few houses for more candy. Halloween is short lived at this age. Toddlers don't have a lot of energy or patience for trick or treating. The big challenge is getting them to keep their costumes on. Already, Ethan has decided he wants nothing to do with his costume. Laugh. I've attempted to find a new costume for him, but have had very little success. Looks like I'll have glue his "car costume" on him come Halloween night. I'm just hoping to get some pictures of him in his car costume..it's so darn cute! All I really want for Ethan this Halloween is for him to have an opportunity to realize the fun that is "Halloween". It's tough at this age for them to truly understand the purpose of the holiday. In one or two more years, he'll be chasing down doors for candy on Halloween. I can hardly wait to watch him in action...this year, it's about introducing him to the idea of Halloween and visiting houses for "treats". We'll bring along Papa and maybe do some trick or treating with Ethan's cousin, Myels. We're keeping things simple this year for Halloween.

There's been a small delay in starting the next class album. I'm waiting on two very important products from OA. Since I'm now officially employed with OA (wait, did I just say that? Woops! Yep, I'm working at the OA office...woohoo!!!!!!), I'm even more excited to be working with OA product for this class project. The "Good Cheer" line is my favorite line of their latest product releases. It's festive, old fashion feel totally appeals to me. Who doesn't love a dancing snowman? His cheerful grin and black top hat reminds me of "Frosty the Snowman" from my younger years. Love Frosty. OA just started shipping the new "Good Cheer" line to retailers, so be on the look out for it at one of your local scrapbook stores. If you happen to create something using the new "Good Cheer" line, I would love to see a picture of your project. Email it to me at retrospection30@gmail.com. Thanks so much!

A completed album...

Oh my goodness you guys, you must think I dropped off the face of the planet. Laugh. I really haven't. Between work & class preparation, I've been unable to locate time to update my blog. I've been spending almost every evening creating mini album pages. I've been glued to the chair in front of my scrapbook desk and investing a lot of creative thought in the developing of ideas using a limited amount of product. Last evening, I finally finished my Golden Harvest Mini Album. Now that the album is complete, I'm enjoying feeling the entirety of the album. I have found myself flipping through the album pages over and over again this morning. There's a tactile "something" in holding a finished mini album that I really love. Whether it be the accomplishment of album itself or the weight of the pages as a sum or whole, simply holding it in my hands is something I can't resist. After countless hours of work and no sleep, a mini album is complete. We've all been there. Maybe it was a two page spread that took a week to finish or a gift that required a great deal of effort to complete, these are things we feel good about once they're done. There's a sense of accomplishment. The connection between creation and conclusion is met and a sense of ease and happiness is found. Looking at my album, I'm reminded of this and it serves as motivation to start my next class project, "Holiday Cheer". I can hardly wait. This may mean I'll only be updating a couple times a week, though know I'll be back to update on a regular basis once again mid-November. In the mean time, thank you for your continued patience. I appreciate you visiting this place and hope you'll stick around til' then. 

 

"Golden Harvest" Update...

I'm going to keep this short and just share some updated photos of the "Golden Harvest" Mini Album. I finished three pages last evening and I hope to complete another three pages between today and tomorrow. I need to finish the album by early next week. I've set up a schedule for myself so that I'm able to stay on track. It's been a tremendous help to have one. I've given myself some goals because I want to be fully prepared for my classes in November. There's going to be a lot of ground to cover as both class projects are very detail oriented and heavy on instruction. I still have quite a bit of work to do, but I'm making great progress and using time wisely (as I should).  Here are those updated photos:

I added a few extra details to first couple pages of the album. I felt the pages needed something "more" after working on the album last night. I added a more "black" and a couple puffy clouds.

Again, for those not able to attend the two classes in California next month, class kits will be available for purchase either late December or January via my blog. I've begun a "reservation" list for those interested in purchasing either of the class kits. If you would like to be added to the list, please email me with your name and email address. Expect a confirmation email from me upon sending in your request. Thanks!

Today, I made a mad dash to one of the scrapbook stores in my area. I've been patiently anticipating the new "Christmas Cheer" & "Swell Noel" scrapbook product lines from K & Company. The store I visited happened to have a few of the embellishments from both lines, but none of the pattern papers. "Swell Noel" is by far my favorite of the two collections. Find it here: K&Company's Online Catalog 

I think I want to move in...conjures up memories of hot chocolate, blankets, rocking chairs, & a warm cozy fire place. Sounds lovely. Home sweet Home. Minnesota in December. 

It's all about the pants...

Tell me something, why are kid pants so darn cute? I avoid "jean shopping" because I swear they're made for women in a different galaxy. Being that I'm a whopping 4' 9", I have to hem everything in site. There's no walking into a store and leaving the place with perfect fitting pants. It just doesn't happen and over the years, I've sort of gotten used to it. Sort of. It still irks me to walk into a store and feel like a complete midget because every single pair of jeans I try on is two times the length of my inseam. Let me not forget to mention that most jeans are made for women with a tiny waist line and stick thin thighs. I'll confess, I don't have either and from what I can tell, having kids leads to permanent changes in both of these areas. I'm almost certain my body shape will remain "as is" for life. So, when I see little Ethan walking around this morning in his new jeans, I'm a happy mom. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to buy a pair a jeans (right off the rack) without fearing they won't fit the person wearing them. Ethan fits into just about any pair of jeans I buy him and he looks good wearing them too. It would take a miracle for such a thing to happen to me. Laugh. No way could I leave a store with a pair of pants without trying them on first. When it comes down to it, kids clothes are easy. I enjoy buying clothes for Ethan, especially worn, weathered jeans. We picked up this pair (the pants he's wearing in the photo above) at Old Navy a few days ago. I let him run around in the pants this morning just so I could get a picture of them. Someday, he won't believe he wore pants this small. They're so adorable. If only buying pants were this easy for me. I'll just keep dreaming...

You've been waiting and I've finally started on one of the class projects today. This album is for the "Golden Harvest" class that I'll be teaching in thirty days in California. I can't believe that I'll be flying to California in less than a month. I feel like I have a ton to do still before I leave, though I'm already looking forward to warm weather and palm trees. Minnesota mornings start at about thirty-five degrees in the Fall and the high is usually around fifty or sixty degrees. Talk about depressing compared to beautiful, breezy California.  Put me on the plane now...ok, not yet, I still have to finish the projects. Laugh. Anyway, you'll find more pics below from this album. I've finished a couple pages. Hopefully, it provides an idea of what to expect from this project/class.

On a side note,  because I prefer to work with lots of product, I added a few extra items to the "Golden Harvest" class kit, including pattern paper and cardstock stickers from October Afternoon. The cost of the kit will remain the same. I'll share the add-ons later.

Where does time go? I thought I would share these old photos here. Can you believe how fast kids grow up? Oh my gosh..we're already almost two years in. Ethan will be two years old at the end of November. Baby no more...

Only a few weeks old!! Amazing transition...life is a blessing.

Catch Up

I'm sitting here with a cup of warm, spicy apple cider and realizing that I haven't updated my blog in quite a few days. Believe me, I've not forgotten about this place. I've been dedicating my day hours to something I'll share a little later on. These last few evenings, I've been hanging out with Ethan, working on scrapbook projects, and getting some much needed rest. I have two piles of product waiting to be used for class projects. I'll start that tomorrow. I plan to spend a lot of time in my studio over the next couple of weeks. Really want to get the class projects done and sent out to California. Here's some of what I have to work with:

Turns out, there's a new kitty in town. Didn't know she was with us until last week when I found her hanging out on my front porch with some of the other neighborly cats. We're enjoying her company, though I don't think she's enjoying ours so much. Laugh. Caught a few photos of her during one of her visits. She's so prrrrretty!

I'm liking all the woodgrain pattern paper out there right now. The one I used for this layout is from Cosmo Cricket, but October Afternoon and Tinkering Ink also have some fun woodgrain papers I've picked up. Tinkering Ink's woodgrain pattern paper is printed on actual "kraft" paper. It's very cool and unlike anything I've seen before. It's part of their "green" environmentally friendly paper campaign. There's sort of a playful, silliness factor to woodgrain paper that makes it a great option for mixing with bright colors and all things nature friendly. 

I raised the top border using pop-dots. I could of easily glued it down with regular adhesive, but I thought it might be kind of fun to raise it off the page a little bit. It actually turned out to be a great base for applying a title to the page. I slightly inserted the letters into the border so that the letters would look more even. This particular alpha set (Doodlebug) is made of various size letters and getting the letters to look even and straight wasn't easy. Thankfully, I had the border to use as "cover". 

There's one scrapbook supply item I have a lot of, but rarely use on layouts; paper flowers. My Mind's Eye releases new die-cut flowers with each of their new lines. I usually hit up one of their product stands at my local scrapbook store and search out their flowers. I have a weakness for flowers, especially red ones. The problem for me ends up being that I have too many of these flowers to use and I'm not always sure what to do with them. They're often oversized and one dimensional. Sometimes, I'll mix them with other flowers and throw on a button & rhinestone. It's rare that I'll use them "plain" or as is. This time, I actually used them "as is", but decided to cut one in half because it was large in size. I used the flowers to anchor the left, upper corner of the layout. I gave one of the flowers a little dimension by combining two of the same style flowers together, one on top of the other. There's still a lot I want to try using these kinds of flowers. If you have ideas, I would love to hear them. Post a comment below :)

A lot of mix & match possibilities here. Most of these are MME, though a few are from Making Memories and another from Amy Butler.

I found these about six months ago at a local scrapbook shop while in Upper Minnesota last Summer. These are great for combining with flowers. Sometimes, I'll cut up the leaves to better fit the flower size I'm using or when I only need one or two leaves for smaller flowers. You can mix them up and combine different size leaves on a single blossom. You can also layer them on top of each other to create a multi-leaf look. Spruce them up with green glitter or Tattered Angel glitter spray for a sparkle effect. There available in dark green and light green (shown above). 

The next post will share the first sneak peak of one of the class projects I'll be working on this week. I was hoping to have it posted today, but alas, the postman was off on Monday. Gotta love Columbus Day. It shall have to wait until next time. Have a wonderful day you guys!

Getting Ready...

I'm in the process of preparing for two classes I'll be teaching next month at Scrapbook Oasis. Product is finally rolling in for project construction and my official plan is to start both projects this Wednesday. I'm extremely excited to get things rolling. I've had product on order for the last two months for both classes. Now that boxes are arriving and I'm actually seeing the supplies in person, the process of preparing feels more real. All of the items will be organized into kits for students (including what you see above from October Afternoon) over the next few weeks. If you've signed up for the class (or class kits) and have been anxiously awaiting project photos, know that I'll be posting project photo updates later this week. You'll also find class project updates at Scrapbook Oasis's blog.

I've been spending some time at the new October Afternoon warehouse in Apple Valley (Minnesota). They've moved their facility to Minnesota recently and I'm helping out with a few office tasks as they continue to get settled in. I love the company and I'm a big fan of their product designs. It's so great to have them in town. Their newest product is fantastic! The "Good Cheer" holiday line is even better in person. If you haven't preordered this line, do so now. It's totally adorable. I can hardly wait to use it for my class, especially the snowman pattern paper. Smile. "Night Light" is charming with it's goofy little monsters and masculine feel. Reminds me of the movie "Monsters Inc." I think it will go well with photos of Ethan and his obsession with monsters. Laugh. If you want to peek at any of October Afternoon's latest releases, visit their website and download the catalog from their homepage.

It's actually happening. Autumn has arrived! The leaves are turning a golden/orange hue here in Minnesota. The air is dryer and colder than usual. The high this week will be around fifty degrees. It's crisp alright! Laugh. It's time for the Fall jacket and warm clothes. Luckily, I have the jacket situation covered, but I'm in need of some new fleece. It's the ideal material to where for staying warm during Minnesota's coldest months...and believe me, it gets cold. I took Ethan to a local community event this morning. There was a display of trucks in one of the library parking lots. There were fire engines, buses, plow trucks, etc. We climbed on a couple of them, but I think Ethan wasn't too keen being so high off the ground (many of the vehicles were large in size). We had a fun time though and met up with family while there. Later on in the day, we visited my parent's place. The photos above are from their home. I took a few miscellaneous pictures to capture some of the changes that typically happen this time of year in Minnesota.  I hope to use some of these images for my class album. I love Fall in Minnesota...

Inspire

I've been meaning to show off this girls work because I love her dearly. She is one of the funniest, most talented scrapbook designers I know and after stalking her blog for nearly six + months now, I still can't get enough of her work. Her name is Karla Dudley. If you haven't seen her work or visited her blog, you're totally missing out. Much of what she does reminds me of  Ali Edwards, though Karla's work is identifiably her own. Her scrapbook style is clean & crisp with a slight twist of sophistication. I'm inspired by her always. Recently, she started designing and selling digital scrapbook kits via "After 5 Designs". I'm already a huge fan! First, "After 5 Designs" is a cool place. Some of my favorite digital designers are on their Mixology team. I'm so happy to see Karla on the team and I wanted to share some of her digital designs with you guys today. I've already added the "Artist in Me" kit to my must-have-list. The white/kraft polka-dot paper is undeniably fresh and will go well just about anything. Check out her "Artist in Me" kit below along with a few of her other kits:

Look at all that sewing!! How does one go about creating this kind of stitching in digital format? I'm tempted to add these stitches to a photo using photoshop. They look so real!

Karla's writing is exquisite. I really like the typography elements in this kit, especially the series of numbers. Beautiful Karla!

{Karla Studio 5 / After Five Designs}

 

I put together a rather simple layout last evening. I kept my supply selection at a minimum and gave myself a three hour window to finish the layout. Turns out, I was actually able to finish it. Unreal. I actually like the simplicity of the design. It's not overwhelming or "too complicated". The only part of the layout that gave me trouble was the applying of gold glitter to chipboard. Talk about a complete mess! I accidentally dumped some of the glitter from the container and had it land all over my desk and myself. I looked aglow. I had glitter all over my arms, legs, chest, and just about everywhere else. Laugh. Took me quite a bit of time to clean up the mess. Lots of paper towels and water. It turned out to be the highlight of my night. Laugh. It didn't stop me from finishing the layout though, so I'm fine with a few extra glitter sparkles hanging around my studio space. It just goes to show you that scrapbooking can be a messy endeavor.

  
The Sister's transparency is actually a rub-on from Crate Paper. Crate Paper has made their rub-ons larger with this latest release and I'm liking that. Large rub-ons are practical for using on a 12" x 12" layout.

Note the pink flowers. Those were cut from an old desk calendar I'm still using for 2008 by Snow & Graham. I couldn't justify throwing the calendar pages away, so instead I threw them in one of my scrapbook bins for using on layouts.


If you haven't been to Michaels yet, you should make a trip to their store. Martha's freshened up her line a bit and added a bunch of new stamps, punches, embellishments, and paper packs. I picked up an ornate border punch that you can see above & below. There were a number of other punches that caught my interest, including a small owl and more butterflies.

 

I need to run errands before getting the little guy from daycare. So I'm off! As always, have a good day everyone!

 

Park Visit & Article

The eclectic nature of Domino Magazine makes it one of my favorite home decor publications. They feature a lot of flamboyant, over-the-top rooms with bold hues and overly expensive furniture pieces. It's a magazine I choose not to take seriously, but it makes for great inspiration. It's a great resource for finding unique color combinations and design ideas. Every issue that reaches my mailbox is met by a pair of scissors. I tear out pages from each issue and hang them on my inspiration board in my studio. The page above was pinned to the board for only a few days. I took it down last Sunday and used it as a design guide for a new layout.

I took Ethan to one of the local parks last week to take some photos. It was our first visit to the "Highland" park area and we had such a good time. There were three or four ponds, gardens, trees, benches, and a gathering of geese preparing to fly South. The geese weren't real excited to see us, but we were thrilled to see them. Ethan ran towards them in full force and they scurried across one of the ponds in a desperate attempt to escape us. I can't say I blame them. Laugh. Ethan has an enthusiasm that often sends our cats running the opposite direction. He's an energetic  twenty-three month old and is curious about everything in the world. Even though we didn't get to see the geese up close, they were still wonderful to look at and Ethan loved climbing on the benches and rocks surrounding the area. While he was busy climbing, mom took out her camera and caught a few pictures. I used one of the pictures for this layout; a day at the park.

I made this flower using two circle shape labels, a single Prima flower, a sticker emblem, a button, a rhinestone, and then accented it with olive green velvet ribbon and two different style leaves (both K & Company). I used a Pop Dot between the top label and flower for added dimension.

These panels were inspired by the frames in the article. There are five parts to each panel (shown in order of configuration)-

1. Black Cardstock
2. Ivory Cardstock
3. Prima Vintage Transparency
4. Yellow Flower Pattern Paper (MME)
5. Turquoise Cardstock
6. Doodlebug Black Scallop Border


Here you can see that I've layered transparency on Ivory cardstock for each of the panels.

It's hard for me to create a layout now without including a butterfly of some sort. I love combining various materials and elements to create a one-of-a-kind butterfly. Here I've combined a Heidi Swapp transparent butterfly with a gold foil sticker butterfly. I attached the transparent butterfly to the layout using a Creative Imaginations brad and two petite Prima flowers. *Note: I painted the edges of the transparent butterfly using "Cream" acrylic paint and coated the back of the butterfly with "Glitter Mist" (brass). Glitter Mist can be used on transparency. Spray mist evenly (10" above surface) over surface of transparency and set aside to dry. 

Hanging out at Grandpa and Grandma's and watching "Papa" paint the exterior windows. He even got to climb the ladder with Papa. Talk about an exciting visit!

Sophie has been coming around the house after hanging solo for a few months. She's gotten so big and is sweet as always. It's great to see her and have her visit us again. We've missed her.