color combos galore: orange crush

a new challenge at color combos galore is up!  

the colors had me stumped when i first saw them.  typically, i don't add too much orange or green to my layouts.  but....i love a challenge.  and i loved digging through my stash to find the perfect papers.  and in the end, i love the layout.  and i actually like the orange and green.  it's always fun to play around.  and i try to remember...that there is no "wrong".  if i'm having fun and creating, then that's all that matters.

here are the colors and inspiration board for this challenge...

here's my take on "orange crush"

Inspiration Photo #2/Focus on Patterns: Dots or Stripes
Other Inspiration:
Inspiration Photo #3: burlap (idea: container)

i misted the background using a circle mask from prima that i love.  it adds just "a little" to the background without being too overwhelming for me.  then i layered my photos on the right side of the page with a manilla office tag and lots of fun orange and green from the bow ties collection from basic grey.  for my bottom layer, i added a piece of burlap from my fabric stash (inspiration from photo #3).  i decided to add my journaling on another office tag on the left hand side of the page, with some more layering.  i liked the way that the tags add a little more dimension to my page rather than placing everything on one side (or the middle), like i typically do.  

thanks so much for stopping by!  be sure to head on over to color combos galore to check out all the other awesome inspiration from the design team!!  and play along!  it's super fun!!


for you, darling mini album

my daughter turned the big 4 this past weekend...sigh.

we had a small little tea party with some of her friends and it was a fabulous time.  it's the first time that i haven't gone "way overboard" with the decorations, food, presents, etc.  i threw everything together the day before.  and believe it or not....it was wonderful.  no stress (other than the "day of" kind of stuff). no worry. no endless nights spent perusing pinterest for the perfect cupcake topper.  nope.  just a simple little party.

my husband and i wrapped her presents the night before the party and he mentioned to me that "next year, we should have some tags on the gifts".  well....guess what i went and did for the next hour?  made tags.  which was awesome, by the way!  :)

as soon as my daughter saw the presents (and bypassed the tags without a glance), i grabbed them up and decided to put them in our project life album.  but then i decided that they looked so awesome together that creating a mini album remembering her fourth birthday would be perfect.  

so, i made a few more tags and turned them all into a little mini.  i tried to use my scraps and things on my table rather than dragging out every little bit that i have.  for the tags....i mainly used plain office supply tags, some dear lizzy tags and these large white tags from studio calico.  for the embellishments, i used some wood veneers from studio calico and freckled fawn, doilies, dear lizzy stickers, buttons and enamel dots.

check it out...


i couldn't quite figure out how i wanted to include the journaling.  the tags are a little small to include a picture and lots of words, so i opted to type the majority of my journaling on the front and back of the first tag.  

i created a little confetti tag using some cellophane wrapper (from a packaging).  i just sewed three sides of the wrapper onto the tag, added my confetti and then sewed up the remaining side.  easy peasy. (ps...i think i will make all of my gift tags like this from now on!)




i created a couple of "fabric" tags using fabric scraps that i had in my scrap pile.  i love how they turned out and i think fabric adds so much to a paper book.








super simple.  and super sweet.  hoping the little misses will enjoy "the tags" i made for her one day.  

thanks for stopping by!!  

xoxo

project life: week 13


week 13 was a busy week for us!  lots of celebrating going on with a sweet girl turning four and easter.
i ended up with so many photos of our birthday celebration and easter fun, and less of the "everyday" moments.  and i'm ok with that.  this week was all about my daughter, anna, and this week spread shows that.  i actually ended up making an insert documenting her birthday party, and i will share that next week with the little black dress kit club reveal.


here is the whole week together.

this week has a mix of papers and embellishments.  several of the cards ("you make me happy", butterfly card and the card with the pink triangles at the top and bottom) are from dearest someday.  i love her cards so so much!  the little bits and pieces are from the studio calico neverland printables, glitz design and freckled fawn (both of which are some sneak peeks of the april little black dress kit). 


here's a closer look at each side...

(from left to right....grocery shopping, dinner date, flower card from anna's teacher, preschool birthday party, flowers, calendar card from studio calico, swinging at the playground and my little bunny).


from left to right...silly family shot, ice cream sundae for a special four year old, a silly boy on a sunny day, our weekly recap, lots of fingernail polish and the colors of the week, birthday cupcakes and family easter photo).


this is a little sneak peek of the birthday insert from this week.  and you got it....more confetti!  i'll share this next week after the april reveal for the little black dress kit club.  (ps....the top card with the diamonds and triangles is a layered template from studio calico.  and yep...it rocks).

linking up to the mom creative

someone is 4....


today is a very special day.
my little girl turns 4 today. sigh.
she's something else, for sure.
she loves the colors pink and purple, marshmallows, ballet, the iPad and wants to be a rockstar when she grows up.

we love you so much sweet girl.  you make everyday full of laughter.  happy day, darling.

on my desk....



lots and lots and lots of goodies on my desk.
lots and lots of ideas in my head.
lots and lots and lots and lots of paper.
you get the idea.

but...
for now i have a preschool birthday party today, a birthday party for a sweet almost four year old on saturday and easter on sunday.  

lots to do.
hope you are having an awesome day!



recently....


recently...

i have been playing with paper alot.
and i love it.

i'm not sure why i never actually created scrapbook layouts before this year.  it is so therapeutic for me. sometimes, though, i get overloaded with ideas and my brain seems to be on over-drive.  

recently....

i have been in love with all the kits from studio calico.  this month's may be my favorite. ever.  
it took me a while to actually cut the paper up and use it.  sometimes i tend to hoard my favorites... but with favorite papers, comes favorite layouts.

here are some of my recent favorites using this month's neverland, wendy and lost boys kits from studio calico....


hold you so close
i created this layout for the weekly challenge at sc.  the challenge was to scrap a layout using a song lyric.  this lyric "hold you so close" is from maroon 5 "daylight" and the picture of my daughter and i snuggling was perfect for the lyric.  i added lots of layers of the maggie holmes "remember this" paper (using both sides) and some of the other lovely papers from the neverland kit.


take my breath away
again...more of the amazing maggie holmes paper.  i couldn't resist cutting up one of the sentences of the paper to add underneath my photo.  sigh.


love your smile
this layout was for the sunday sketch on the sc blog and i chose lisa truesdell's layout as my inspiration. i love the beautiful colors of the kesi art papers in the wendy kit and they went perfect with my photos.



awesome
this layout was chosen as the layout of the week this past weekend.  yay!!
i created this layout with the lost boys kit.  i tend to really like grids and rows, and i love this one.  the wood veneer card (something else i have been hoarding) kinda started the process for this layout.  i was too scared to actually do anything to it and possibly ruin it, so i let it stand by itself.  and the card to the left with the date is actually a flip card that includes all my journaling.  i tend to hid my journaling if i can't quite figure out where i want it to be without standing out....

reveal is tomorrow afternoon (for subscribers) at studio calico.  can't wait to see what's in store for this next month.  it's always like christmas to me.  

happy wednesday everyone!

color combos galore: raspberry delight

there's a new challenge up at color combos galore this week and i love the colors!  
they just make you think about warmer weather and spring.  two things that i am so ready for right now.

you can see the color palette below.  so pretty.



and here's my layout for this week's challenge....


i chose to use the softer colors as my primary colors with pops of the turquoise and raspberry throughout my layout.  i think my "pear" choice was a little off, but oh well...

i was inspired by the butterflies in photo #4....and i cut out a few with my silhouette.  i added some soft colors of confetti around my photo and some of the butterflies.  then i layered the pretty color palette under that adorable photo of my daughter.  i added a little tag with a ribbon attached under the photo.  i'm trying to get better at journaling and hidden journaling seems to be easiest right now.  

hop on over to color combos galore and see all the other awesome inspiration.  be sure to play along too!  it's fun to raid your stash and throw together a fun layout.



playing with mists...


i love playing around with mists.  you can use them in so many ways.

i created this page with lots of splatters and drawings.  and it may be my favorite page ever.

the sundrifter collection from studio calico was perfect to add little bits and pieces to the page.

and those feathers..... i'm in love with feathers right now.  i'm probably pretty late to the party on that one, but oh well.  :)




i'm not always the best at journaling directly on my page.  if i ever do have any visible journaling, it's usually done with my typewriter.  i'm trying to be a little better by including my handwriting on pages, so here, i tucked a little handwritten card behind all the layers.  so....it's a start, at least.

happy thursday everyone!  go make something beautiful!

colors combo galore: in the navy

happy friday everyone!  

there's a new challenge up at colors combo galore and i'm in love with the colors this week!

i had so much fun putting my layout together.

there's just something about balloons, a princess dress, a banner and enamel dots that make for some fun.

here is the inspiration board.  aren't the colors awesome?



and here is my layout for the week.

i used lots of dear lizzy's lucky charm collection for this one.  it was the perfect match for me.  and the photo of my two sitting on the hill holding the balloons couldn't be better!!





i took my inspiration from picture #1: focus on trends (banners)...and I also some inspiration from that first picture for the polka dot paper and the enamel dots on the page.

the vintage look of the birdcage in picture #4 was perfect inspiration for the distressed dear lizzy card.

thanks so much for stopping by!  pop on over to color combos galore and check out the other inspiration this week!  so fun!

outdoors...

we've been living outdoors these last few days.  

daylight savings time in the spring always makes me so tired, but oh so happy.

so ready for spring!!


this is our story...


nicole samuels posted a challenge on her blog this week to create a layout about how your journey with memory keeping began.  I'm desperately missing the daily Bright Ideas challenges at Studio Calico and I loved the idea of documenting "your story".

For me, my memory keeping journey began in 2011 with project life.  i love project life (as you probably know if you follow my blog).  it's perfect for recording the little bits and pieces of life.  but i've also fallen in love with making layouts and documenting more memories.  i do it because i love paper and stuff.  and because it keeps me sane.  it's my little "quiet place" where i get to be creative and dream.  

but i also love having those little conversations of my children written down in one place.  and ticket stubs from plays (even if they are awful).

so this was layout for nicole's challenge.  i created a "project life" style layout, of course.  i'm loving it so much.  i love how it documents "our story".








color combos galore: sweet indulgence



happy friday everyone!

so excited to post the next challenge for color combos galore.  



i have to admit that i was a little stumped when i saw the color choices for this week's challenge.  if you follow along with me, you probably know that my style is a little muted and that i love some white.  the  rusty orange had me miffed.

after starring at the challenge for a few days, i went through my stash and pulled out some corresponding papers.

i also decided that i wanted to focus on inspiration #2: frames.  i cut a few Polaroid frames with my silhouette and then found some pictures to use for the layout.  i ended up ditching one of the two pictures because it felt a little overwhelming to me (remember...i'm a simple girl).  the other frame i added some journaling.

here's my take on the challenge...


I took my inspiration from photo #2: product (frames); with a little inspiration from photo #3 for the gold circles and script text on the tags.


i hope you'll pop on over to color combos galore and check out the challenge and other DT inspiration for this week!  it's a fun one!

have a happy weekend everyone!

little black dress kit club design team - march reveal


it's reveal day over at little black dress kit club today.

i had so much fun playing with the kit this month! especially since it was my very first design team kit!
lots of beautiful dear lizzy, glitz design and studio calico.  i loved both sides of the 12x12 papers, but the beautiful blues, grays and creamy browns caught my eye right off the bat!!  i loved mixing them all together to create some soft, but beautiful combinations.

the a chance for luck kit has oodles of wooden veneers, ribbons and buttons.  i loved finding new ways to use the veneers and buttons!

here are my layouts for this month:







i also managed to create a little mini book from a family beach trip last year.  the glitz design color me happy paper is so awesome!  I knew it would be perfect for a mini book cover!  i'll be sharing more of the mini a little later!





be sure to head on over to the blog to check out reveal and the awesome inspiration from the other design team members






photo apps perfect for project life...




today i thought i would share some of my favorite iPhone photo apps that are absolutely perfect for project life.

i take the majority of my photos with my iPhone mostly because i always have it close by....  it's easy to tote around when we're out and about and the photo quality is actually really good.  i also find myself using a lot of the iPhone apps to make my flow of project life easier.


here are my top 4 apps...which i think are perfect for project life!!



my #1...
pic.tap.go
$1.99

this app is just. plain. awesome.  it is an amazing photo editing program developed my the designers of rad lab (which is a great plug in for photoshop and photoshop elements).  i use rad lab all the time in photoshop so i was stoked to find this little gem in the app store.  it is so super easy to use and is definitely worth the $1.99 price tag.

this app offers many different "recipes" to lighten photos, improve contrast, change to black & white, add filters, etc....

totally worth having!

here's an example of the "lights on" option


and here's an example of "lights on" and "simple b&w"





my #2....
over
$1.99

this app is awesome and is perfect for adding text to your photos prior to printing out.  it's so user friendly and has some pretty awesome fonts.

after you add your text, you can change the color, resize and move it around to fit your picture.  so perfect for project life (and instagram)!!

below are two examples.....







my #3...
afterglow
$0.99

i definitely recommend the previous two first, but his one is a fun one if you like to play around with photos.  it has a variety of uses......filters, enhancing photos, black & white, etc...  but i really love it because it allows you to place your pictures into shapes.  and the pictures look great in a project life album.

here are two examples of the shapes...




my #4...
collect
free

this is a great app for keeping track of photos and events.  it's basically a calendar that lets you upload a photo to each day of the month.  i have my app set to send me a daily reminder to upload my photo and it's perfect for trying to "remember" what happened on monday that sunday when i'm putting my album together.


here's what my january calendar looked like....



there you have it.  my favorites. 

i love my iPhone and i love project life.  and i love how the iPhone has made project life that much easier for me.  

hope these help you!!  let me know if you have any questions!!

xoxo


















good times...


another layout for project 52 up today.

i wanted the colors of the kids yellow halloween costumes to be the focus of this pictures so i used a light background and neutral colors to help the yellows pop.

such cuties, these two.



i'm pretty sure i'm well over 52 layouts so far this year.  that's pretty crazy for someone who had only made two prior to the beginning of the year.

how are you coming with your crafty goals?  

project life: week 8


another week checked off.

more memories recorded.

more funny "drew-isms" documented.

more toys photographed.

more moments remembered.

and that's why i love this little project so much.  


here's a look at week 8...

pretty simple, as usual.



and the left side....


and the right side...


scott and i celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary with a little trip to wilmington, nc over the weekend.  he actually got sick and we ended up cutting the trip short, but i still wanted to document our time together.  i created (another) insert....and....i think that i love making them more than the week's spread...shhhh.


i figured it had been a few weeks since i included some confetti so i added a confetti pocket at the top of the insert with a silhouette cut "together" sewed into place.

it's a little difficult to see in just the insert alone so i added to the spread so you could see the whole look....



and here is the front and back of the insert.

don't ya just love some confetti???


thanks so much for hanging out with me this morning!!

as always, i'm linking up over at the mom creative today.  stop over if you get a chance!

xoxoxo

meet the 2013 color combos galore DT...

i am truly honored to be a part of the 2013 color combos galore design team.  there are so many talented ladies on the team and i can't wait to get started on this journey.

click here to be taken to the color combos galore website and learn more!  hope you will join in the fun!!


and here is the 2013 DT...


Welcome Color Combos Galore 2013 Design Team!
(click on their names below to know more about them)

We are truly honored to of had some of the best creative artists in the industry throughout the years. As a new family joins the long list of talented designers, we look forward to their inspiring creations, biggest hearts and warmest smiles! 



COLOR COMBOS GALORE FOUNDER...
alongside

RETURNING MEMBERS....
Jinny Newlin - USA
Fi Kenward - Australia

AND INTRODUCING….
Beck Beattie - Australia
Emilia van den Heuvel - Netherlands
Meihsia Liu - USA
Sara Noendeng - Australia
Trudi Harrison - Australia

WITH CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS....
Mebae Kasumi - Japan
Ana Castro - Brazil

together...


sharing another layout from my project 52.  

i can't believe how many layouts i've made this year.  it's been awesome.

for this one, i stamped some shimmery circles using puffy paint onto a piece of white cardstock.
then i layered on a doily, some pretty papers and a super cute photo of my two kids holding hands.

i wanted to keep the background white, so i stitched on some hearts randomly around the page.






together is best, right???


freebie: circle cut file


here's another freebie for ya...

this one is a circle cut file i made on the silhouette for the layout below.  

i love circles.

you could turn it sideways or on a diagonal for a different look...

and it would be super cute resized for a card...







circle cut file

please feel free to grab one for yourself, but please credit and link back if you use it.

xoxo