One Post Might Be Good...

One Post Might Be Good...

Thursday, November 15, 2012

...don't you think, before the year is over?  I know it's been quite a long time since my last blog entry.  2012 has been the kind of year where my attention was just needed elsewhere.  Nothing really terrible has happened, but there were some things going on with me personally, and with my family, that brought on the long hiatus.  So, let's get back to it, shall we?

My absence here has not meant that I haven't been creating, and here's some things I've been interested in, or that I've enjoyed documenting over that last 11 months or so:

Art Journaling
In January, I found myself very interested in art journaling.  I picked up a traditional paper journal, which I have started painting backgrounds in, but have felt drawn more to digital art journaling, so that's what I've been exploring.  I've found it's a great way to either "dump" feelings onto paper without worrying about it being "right" or "trendy," or a fun place to try a technique I've been too nervous to put on a layout.  I have been a bit sporaidic with it lately, but plan on continuing with it.  I find it makes me a better scrapbooker when I regularly do art journalng.  Here are just a few of those pages:

Cooking and Gardening

I've discovered some fun cooking blogs, some of which center around vegetarian and vegan cooking.  And no, I'm not switching permanently to either of those eating plans.  I'm not a fan of drastic changes.  Rather, I'm just choosing to incorporate some of the recipes into our regular menu rotation.  I'm also becoming more aware of all the additives in processed food, and trying to either eat less of them, or at least choose those that have shorter ingredient lists or are minimally processed.  So of course, I've been spending more time in the kitchen.  I also started a fall garden, and have been babysitting a bunch of cool weather veggies:

Family Activities
We aren't as on the go as most families, but it is great to see different members of our little brood taking part in things that interest them.  Lately, pictures from these types of activities have been really fun for me to scrap:

Oh, and I just added an activity for myself.  I've recently joined a low-key ballet class for adults.  Since I've only been to two classes, I haven't had much of a chance to do any layouts about it.  So keep an eye out for that in the future...;)

Online Classes
Currently, I'm taking part in a really fun class taught at jessicasprague.com, called {Mo}tography.

It's all about using various photo taking apps on your smartphone, and learning to make them look great and share with friends and family.  It's been great so far and we still have a week to go.  It's amazing how many different photo taking apps there are for these phones.

Another class I enjoyed in September was from Shimelle Laine:










Learn Something New Everyday focused on looking at the small lessons that are around us everyday, and being on the lookout for them.  Class members received a prompt everyday, which we could work from or we could do up a layout on a topic of our choice.  I learned a lot about myself during that time, and was able to complete a great photo book with all my pages from the class.  You can check it out below:




Create your own Photobooks with Inkubook.com!

OK, and to finish off, here's my most recent page, where I documented Thanksgiving 2011.  I used fabulous page kits from Jen Martakis:

 

Thanks for sticking with me for all of that!  And, I have great hopes of doing another blog post very soon.  

Have a great day!

Read more »

*Tap, Tap* Is This Thing Still On?

*Tap, Tap* Is This Thing Still On?

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  You all thought I forgot about this whole blogging thing.  I'm afraid that 2011 got a little busy on me, and my family had some needs that I had to tend to for awhile.  Things have settled down some, so here I am again with some pages to share with you.

Most of my creative team work lately has centered around kits by Jen Martakis. She's been busy creating several fabulous new kits and templates. You can check out her digital store to see all her of lovely goodies.

Also, just a quick hint. If you want to get a larger view of any of these layouts, you can left-click on the image of the scrapbook page, and it will enlarge the image so you can read journaling or look closer at the details. Here is my latest page, created with Jen's Toolbox kits: By The Numbers, Fancy Mats and Fancy Frames. I also used the Blossom kit for the papers and buttons:

This page about my son, Tony, used the Lined and Lined - In Color, and Grunge Brushes Set 1 kits:

The next layout uses the Halloween kit:

For Isabella's first day of school photos, I chose Jen's Fabulous Fall kit:

These final three pages are from kits that were released in the summer, and I loved them so much, I wanted to share them, too.

From Simple Starts Kit 1:

Made with the Summer Bugs kit:

Made with the Sunshine and Rain kit:

I promise...I'll be back much sooner than I did last time. Have a wonderful day!

Read more »

Long Time, No Blogging...

Long Time, No Blogging...

Saturday, May 1, 2010

...sorry about that guys, but um, I have really good reasons why I was gone for so long. Here they are:

-Three sinus infections
-Two ear Infections
-Two cases of Pink Eye
-Doctor's appointments and filling prescriptions
-A crazy dosing schedule for all the antibiotics

All this was followed by:
-Three cases of 24-hour flu
-Lots of laundry
-easing three little sick bellies back onto normal eating
-Lots of disinfecting

The only one in my household who completely escaped all of this was my oldest child, and the rest of us got socked with at least some of the above...ack!

OK, so now that my family has come through all of that, I finally have a couple of seconds to breathe and actually get some scrapping done!

The last month and-a-half hasn't been all bad. I have had the fun opportunity to work on the creative team for Kerry Stewart. I've admired Kerry's skills as a digital scrapper for well over a year now, and she has also started designing digital kits for Two Peas. You can see her cool line of products here.

Here are some pages and a card I've done recently using her kits:

And, something really cool that's happened is that a couple of these pages (Mother's Day and Supa Star) have been featured in the Digital Scrapbooking Newsletter at Two Peas recently.  It's nice to know that my pages are getting a little bit of notice...woo hoo!

Thanks again for taking a peek.  I promise I'll be back posting much sooner than the last time!

Read more »