CREATE November 2015 A Time to Say Goodbye

I've wondered how to write about the last issue of CREATE. In the end I can only say, I'm going this miss it. It's pushed me creatively and was just good fun.

To the ladies at Scrapbook Generation, thank you! You've helped to bring me out of my shell, applying was a last minute do or die kind of moment for me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think little ole me would get picked for the design team. You've meant a lot to me and I can never properly thank you enough.

Now onto the actual magazine! Once again CREATE is a free scrapbooking magazine brought to you from Scrapbook Generation, you can find this issue and past issues here.

Love this cover and I'll probably scraplift it at some point. Allison always does such a great job with the cover layout.

I had three projects in this issue, let's start with my faux canvas.

This was for the altered section where we take either the card or tag sketch and use in another way. I've been working on making more home decor pieces for the various holidays, last issue I had one for Halloween. That was in a shadowbox frame and I almost made this one the same way but it just didn't feel right. In the end I decided to make it a faux canvas. I took strips of black woodgrain embossed cardstock and scored and cut to make what really did seem like a canvas.

Next up was my Christmas layout.

Lots of Bella Blvd, from what I think was multiple collections. I love that each Bella Blvd Christmas collection that has come out goes well with the ones before it. I hope they always do that.

And finally my what I think is my favorite project in the issue.

The challenge was to use some of the various coloring mediums on a page. At first this one was hard, I tend to use those products for cards. Bella Blvd to the rescue with the Just Add Color line, the perfect way for me to bring in my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, which I then went over with one of my very favorite products ever, Wink of Stella clear brush marker. I went over both the colored hearts and the ones I left plain to give a sense of continuity. The striped paper was my jumping off point for choosing colors.

The other interesting thing about this layout is the photos aren't great quality. They were taken with an older iPhone and put through several Instagram filters. Looks good on a screen, not great when printing them out. To correct this as much as I could I printed them fairly small, only about 2.75 square. Enough to be seen without focusing on all the flaws. I didn't want to skip these photos just because they aren't the best when printed and I'm happy that it worked out well.

Again, thank you to Scrapbook Generation! This will be missed but I can't wait to see what you do in the future!

CREATE Sepetmember 2015

New CREATE is live and it's packed with goodness! You can find this issue and past issues of CREATE here.

Here is the cover in all it's glory.

I'm sharing a page in it today. Our assignment was do journaling in a interview style format. Perfect timing for me! My niece turned 16 last month and I asked her 16 questions about life now and her plans for the future. 16 is such a milestone age and I wanted a special way to document it.

I finally put a lot of those 3x4 Simple Stories snap cards to use. I've bought a lot of the releases and these are from what I believe is the first, the Her snap line. Using Lawn Fawn's stitched squares let me use those in a way other than the typical 3x4 format. Great way to use up stash!

Check it out and thanks for stopping by!

Card and Tag Sketch

Sharing another project from the July issue of CREATE, if you haven't taken a look yet you can find it and past issues here.

The card and tag sketch are fun and you can get all the measurements by downloading them here.

Here is my take on the two.

For the card I kept it fairly close to the sketch, opting to swap out the stars for hearts and one doily die cut.

The tag is where I changed up a couple of things, first the overall dimension is different. The other main change was to instead of add a piece inside the strips, which would be great for hidden journaling, I added a heart die cut on top. This would be an excellent set to use for a baby shower, which is exactly what I plan to do.

Finally breaking out my Simple Stories; Hello, Baby collection felt great. Some recent Waffle Flower purchases seem to be made for a card just like this, along with a favorite Maggie Holmes doily embossing folder. I'm happy with how it came out and I can't wait to send it with a gift for a new precious bundle.

July issue of CREATE

It's the second Monday in July and that usually means... New CREATE issue! I'm excited for this issue for a couple of reason, it's incredible and it really pushed me out of my comfort zone.

First let's take a look at the fantastic cover.

 Isn't it beautiful? You can see this issue and past issues here.

The layout I'd like to share today is the one that defintely pushed me out of my comfort zone, it's a product focus of stencils. I'm not a huge stencil user, and usually the rare times I do use them are on cards. I really had no idea how to approach this, to gather ideas I went a craft store and just walked around making sure to take my time and really look over the products to see if anything inspired me.

I was lucky because I found the perfect thing.

iCraft Deco Foil liquid adhesive from Therm-O-Web. This stuff is magic! I love the foil trend that is going on but I don't have a laminating machine to get the look, enter this adhesive. You can get the foil look you love, with no heat at all. I did have to apply some removable adhesive to the back side of my stencil to keep it from seeping underneath. Zig two way glue worked just perfect for this and it was super quick to do. All I had to do was wait for the foil adhesive to dry and rub my foil sheet on top, so easy and a great look!

You can see the foil in action inside the letter  L.

I used some silver cardstock to die cut hearts with some My Favorite Things and Sizzix dies to help reinforce the silver foiling.

It ends up being being a bright and playful layout, perfect for pictures of my niece and son when playing at the playground. The large word Playtime, works as both my title and a great way to spotlight a few of my favorite photos, it's cut on my cameo using the font Impact.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope to have process videos back in the near future. My computer is having issues and I'm hoping to replace it when the new Windows operating system comes out.

CREATE - March issue

The March issue went live a while ago and things have been so hectic that I haven't had a chance to share anything yet. I'm carving out a few minutes to share one project today.

Find the link to this magazine and all past issues here.

The first project I wanted to share is my layout for the sketch challenge. It shows a couple of things; 1. You don't have to use a perfect photo, this one my son actually has his eyes closed. 2. Sketches are just guidelines, they are meant to help give direction or inspiration. They aren't meant to be stifling or taken literally 100% of the time.

By moving the vertical strips of paper behind the small panel it allowed me to use one of the popular sunburst type of papers more effectively. The leading lines are something that I love about that paper but it would have been interrupted if I had used the sketch exactly as shown. The other major change was to move the cluster, which happens to be banners in the sketch, to just above the photo. Without the vertical strips of paper it appeared to be floating in mid air, this makes it more of a part of the photo. It's not hard to take a sketch and get exactly the look you want by tweaking things to your liking.

Be sure to download this sketch and others from Scrapbook Generation. There are lot of free options and if you like those there are single, triples, bundles, and so much more! The sketch books are favorites of mine.

Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!

CREATE Magazine and Process Video

Here we are with the first CREATE Magazine of 2015! I'm so nervous and excited for you to see it, the DT really went all out and I think you will love it!

You can view and download this and past issues here.

I myself have two layouts in this 303 page beast of a magazine.

This is the longest title work I've ever done on a layout and now I feel like it's some sort of challenge to beat it in the future. Not sure that can be done. I loved the challenge and knew exactly what I was going to do from the first moment. The realities of today's families are rather unique and things like shopping by text are all too common. I love glimpses of everyday life.

This is special because I actually have a process video for it! I'll link it up below. Thank you so very much for stopping by, enjoy.

New Year and lots of changes!

Hello! Long time no see. I've been around but not using blogger much. There is no good excuse why but I can say I will try much harder this year to be present.

One big announcement is I'm now on CREATE magazine's Design Team! I'm so excited and nervous all at the same time. The first issue for 2015 is coming up soon and I can't wait to share! It's fabulous and packed full of goodness!

Don't know what CREATE is? That's ok, it's still fairly new. It's a bi-monthly digital magazine that Scrapbook Generation offers. It's free and fabulous. It debuted in January of 2014 and with monthly issues, you can find them here, if you haven't taken a look I encourage you to do so. The inspiration is really outstanding and you can't beat FREE!

I had a feature in the June issue, for my son's 2nd birthday party. It starts at page 133. Who would have thought that going to my very first scrapbook retreat and using that time to get a head start on Riley's birthday party would have landed me a feature in a magazine? I was so honored when Debbie asked if she could write up an article on the party. Riley turns 3 this year with a bash that will rival the last, you might see that one too.

All in all there will be more layouts shared, cards shared and I'm hoping to show you some organizing solutions I've worked on in the past year. Going from my room to a closet and desk in a shared room has made me rethink everything, you might have some of the same challenges and I hope I can share some nifty organizing solutions I've found.

If you've wondered where I've been and why I haven't been around the answer is easy, Riley. Not that he is so demanding of attention, because now he far more independent, but because he has some pretty severe medical issues. He's going to turn 3 in a few months and still can't eat solid foods, yes, you heard that correctly. He underwent every test we could think of the last half of the year, hence me being away, to try and find the root cause. To put it simply there isn't anything "fixable" wrong. He has reflux that was pretty severe when he was an infant, the first medication he was on didn't help, he has a new one that actually works. The problem is now he doesn't think he can eat since he couldn't eat without pain when he was younger. It will be a long process to get him on the road to recovery but we can do it! Meanwhile he's happy, healthy and growing right on track thanks to supplements.