Friends

I have a good friend who moved away a year ago to Madagascar. She was back home visiting in August and September and after our stamp club, some of us went out for Bubble Tea. Being with friends and laughing made me smile, but also made me miss her too. She sent me a picture with all of us and normally, I would have smiled at it and then put it in a folder, but I decided to have it printed and scrapbook it instead.

When I got my paper for the December Paper Pack Club, I knew right away that I wanted to do a layout with this photo. There were a bunch of flower stickers and I thought it would be perfect.

This layout was one of two that I did as examples (with instructions) for the Paper Pack Club. If you are interested in joining, let me know!

Happy New Year

I have not been very good at blogging recently. I've had so much on the go getting ready for Christmas and working, that something had to give, and unfortunately, it always seems to be the fun stuff. Christmas is done, however and it's a New Year and I've decided to dedicate myself more to my stamping and scrapbooking.

I've been working at doing more stamping and scrapbooking and to building my business a bit which is good. I'm excited by it and I'm going to try really hard to not let stamping always fall by the wayside.

I spent some time the past few days reorganizing and cleaning and it has made me so happy. I am such a Type A person and I really like things put away and neat. I think that's part of the reason that I get into cycles of not stamping; I've left my craft room in a mess and it seems overwhelming to clean and organize it. I redid my office desk and emptied every drawer and bought organizers and I love it. I feel so much more at peace and I feel like I want to sit here and work. So, I'm going to try to apply the same logic for my craft room. I want it to invite me in to create.

So, Happy New Year. Here is a card I did while ago for my Technique Club. It's the Pearl Resist Technique.

Lumiere Crystal

Years ago when I first started stamping, I remember doing a technique called Caught in Crystal with the Future Floor Finish. The results were stunning, but man, what a lot of work.

I came up with a cheater version of this that meets my, "it can't take too long or be too much work" rule. Instead of Future Floor Finish, I used Lumiere paints and I thought the results were fantastic. Very pretty and easy to do. Lumiere Crystal is my December technique.

I made a bunch of backgrounds and used some as backgrounds and others I made die cuts from and I loved how they turned out. Here is a butterfly I cut out (from one of Tim Holtz' dies) and I just stapled it on so that the staple forms the main body. I was so pleased at the result.

Believe

I have been teaching my quick cards class for a couple months now and I'm enjoying it so much. It's a small group of awesome women and we have so much fun.

One of the cards we created this month was a quick Christmas card. Once again, it features some of my favorite Tim Holtz stamps (the trees and a different reindeer). I love how I can use them so many different ways. The trees are from "Reindeer Flight" and the reindeer is from "Season's Silhouettes."

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't been stamping much (at all). I figure it will continue like this until after Christmas. Then I'm hoping to go hard for a couple of weeks and maybe, just maybe, get Nathalie's pages done until her first birthday. It's still a possibility.

Until then, here is my Believe card.

Dazzled Flower

I got crap last week for ignoring my blog, so I thought I'd try harder. I might not type much, but I do actually have things that I can share, so I will try to do at least that.

I've been actually working through my journaling book (the one I posted about last week or the week before). I am LOVING it. I bought a little journal and I already have a ton of notes about stuff to journal and write about.

We were decorating the tree on Saturday and I asked the kids about their favorite Christmas Traditions, so I will definitely be doing a page about that for this years Christmas pages.

I'm finding myself quite inspired. What I seem to be lacking is time to do something with the inspiration. I can't seem to get everything, can I??

Anyway, here is a card from my last Quick Cards class. I love how simple it is, but how the Dazzles make the flowers pop.



My next Quick Cards class will be Thursday, January 5, 2012 from 12:30 - 2:30 pm. Let me know if you are interested in attending.

What makes a Scrapbook?

I have three young children and as a result, I have many friends also with young children. As mothers do, we will often exchange stories about something funny or frustrating one of those young charges did. Or we will share photos. I'll sometimes ask if the mom has scrapbooked it. Generally, I get a reply something along the lines of, "Oh, I can't scrapbook. I'm not creative or patient enough."

A scrapbook doesn't have to be a traditional paper, embellishments, journaling one. It can really be anything you want to capture the memories. I have spent time the past few years going through photos of my mother's and of my two grandmother's. Thankfully someone is around to tell me some of the stories, but it would have been very cool to have a book with that. I know my kids love to go back and look at my scrapbooks; not because they are entranced with the brads and ribbon, but because they want to see the pictures and read the stories. I figure it is one of the best gifts I can give them. I enjoy remembering some of these things too, as our memories fade and we forget details.

So, even a little coil book with plain paper where you glue a photo or two and write a story is a great gift. Or they have those little photo albums with the sleeves that hold 2 four by six photos. You can put the photo in the top slot and write a small journaling blub on an index card and slide it in the bottom one. It doesn't have to be fancy to record the memories and mean a lot to someone else.

With that, I will leave you with a layout I did about Nathalie and BJ, my old cat (we recently had to put her down although at 18.5, she lived far beyond what anyone expected for a little barn cat). I don't love the layout, but in years down the road, that won't matter. It will just be cool that I can see the photos and that Nathalie will one day have a pictorial memory and notes about the cat that once adored her.

My Struggle with Journaling

I feel like I'm back in grade one and just learning to put sentences together sometimes when I journal. I will write something out and then reread it and it sounds so awful. Simplistic sentences and boring content. It's turned into me dreading journaling which isn't good since it's probably one of the more important parts of scrapbooking. I want the kids to know the real story and not the crappy simplistic blob I just wrote.

I was really excited to find a whole big book devoted to journaling: Journaling Solutions for Scrapbookers by Creating Keepsakes. At almost 300 pages and with lots of quizzes and challenges, I'm hoping that I can work my way through it and improve this skill. It's full of layout ideas too!! Total win.

I have one extra book for sale if anyone is interested. Cost would be $20.