My {Life}, My {Blog}

A boy Page!

I have been struggling with how to embellish boy pages, especially teen boy pages.  Not sure about yours, but mine would die if I used flowers and bling on his pages.  The new sketch at Sketches Creatively Yours uses a lot of circles, one of the few things I have found to embellish my boy pages with. 

This will probably be the last page you see me cut using a cricut on.  I had a little Christmas money to spend so I got myself a new Silhouette Cameo.  I LOVE THIS THING.  Cuts like BUTTAH!  I have another layout in the next friday reveal at Sketches Creatively Yours cut with the new cameo.  Amazingly smooth cuts in tiny places. 

Well, that's it for now.  I have a few project 52 photos to download and edit (I am the worse at getting photos off the camera).  I have week three and week five done.  I am sort of stuck on week 4, with is themed mis-matched.  I may trot around the web to see what other site prompts for week four are.  I just can't seem to come up with something for this one.

 

A New Layout

So, I did an entire graduation book for DD before she left for college.  Well, she took it with her (I guess it was her's so she could do that).  I am working along getting a few pages from her graduation done.  Here is a new one with her Honor's Night presentations.  She racked up that night.

This layout uses a sketch up at Sketches Creatively Yours.  If you are interested, there is a design team call going on now.  Check out the post announcing it here.

 

Project 52 week 2

It's the second week of the year, so that means a new project 52 photo.  I have a couple of blogs running through my feed on facebook that are doing project 52 challenges.  One of them used the theme of "From the Attic" this week.  Attics make me think vintagy, and since I wasn't in the mood to go shopping for antique stuff, I pulled together a few things that I had on hand and came up with this.  If I figure out my passwork for flickr, I might upload it to the challenge. 

Did anyone else get Ali Edwards newsletter this past week on her new creativity challenge?  I read it on my iPad and accidentally deleted it.  I wish I could get another copy of it as she said some things that really resonated with me.  Her main point was that we have to practice creativity to be creative.  I find that when I don't scrapbook, crochet, color, take pictures, or whatever my passion of the moment is for a really long time, by the time I try to go back to it, my work has lost that "umph" that it used to have. So, in keeping with my one little word, I want to savor creativity this year and practice it often. Hopefully I will remember to post my stuff on my blog and not just on facebook.  So...What's your goal for the year?

Project 52--Week 1

I decided to try Project 52 this year.  That 365 thing was just too hard.  I think I may be able to keep up with this one.  But just in case, I am giving myself permission to get behind if I have to, and to forgo posting if I don't feel like it.  I just want to get my photography groove back on again.  Thanks to an online friend, I found a couple of sites with prompts to follow this year.  The prompt this week is resolution.  I don't really make resolutions (too easy to break them), but I have set a goal this year to master project photography.  I figured this attempt at that goal met the prompt. 

I am not that happy with this shot, but I used much too shallow a depth of field on all the other attempts to even post those.  I did make notes, and I learned what does not work, so next time I will know what not to try.

Thanks for looking!

December Layouts to Share

Sketches Creatively Yours took the month of December off.  I used that time to start the Sketch Support class with Allison Davis.  I really *heart* her approach to using sketches.  I always considered myself pretty sketch savvy, but I have learned a lot about how to really make them work for me.  I hightly recommend this class.  We are on week 4 of the class.  So far, I have layouts done for weeks 1 and 2.  I have a double page spread almost done for week 3 (okay don't faint.  I know I never do double page spreads, but I wanted to see how the sketch worked out on one).    I may try to embellish it tomorrow and share.

Here is week 1.  Not a particular favorite of mine.  I think I just don't like kraft as a base color.

And here is week 2.  I LOVE this layout.  The sketch was awesome, and the info from the course content was on the money for how I scrap.

And since I am sharing.  Here is my latest crochet project.  I needed some fingerless gloves for my super cold office, so I made these up out of scraps left over from a shawl I made.

Okay, that's it for me today.  I am starting a sampler afghan project today.  It is 16 different blocks, each featuring a different stitch.  I am excited to start it as I usually don't do larger projects.  Some how, I never seem to finish them.

 

Happy Thanksgiving and a few Projects

Good Morning all.  I hope everyone had a fabulous thanksgiving.  We did here.  We spent it at home with everyone pitching in to cook.  We pulled a few recipes from Foodnetwork and had a fabulous time cooking and eating.  Then of course I had to hit the Michael's sale.  Didn't even need anything, I just wanted to go.  I did score an ott lamp for $17.99. And it's pink and will match the studio so well.

Anywoo, my laptop has been sick and at the HP hospital getting repaired most of the month.  I finally have it back and can update the blog.  I love my iPad, but you can not update typepad well from it.  I tried and it just didn't work.  ughhhh!  Here are three projects that I have completed since my laptop has been out of commission.  And don't faint, I pulled out the copics for one.  Coloring again made me want to do a new marker order. Please feel free to enable a sista and list any combos you think I can't live without in the comments.  I always love tried and true combos from others.

All of these are projects done for Sketches Creatively Yours.  My Boy is currently up over there.  Please drop by and check out the rest of the design teams work.  BTW, Sketches Creatively yours is taking the month of December off, but Ali plans to post a few things during the month of December so be sure to check it out.

Got a New Layout to Share

Friday was a new reveal over at sketches creatively yours.  This is the first months reveal for this new team.  Really great layouts over there.

Here is my take, using a few older pics of DD's graduation.  I did a complete album for her, but didn't do pictures for my book.  I have a few others from that event that I want to do as well to have a complete memory from graduation so look for another couple of layouts from then.

And while I am here, I guess I can share a couple of tumblers I made for my Mom and my cousin.  A friend made me one (first picture) in a swap and Mom kept talking about how nice it was, so I made a different version for her (second picture).

My friends version for the swap.

My take for my Mom.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

A Quick Card and My Nested Die Storage

I had an extremely productive weekend.  Finished 2 layouts and this really cool binder to store my nested dies.  I got the idea from You Tube.  I wanted to use my cinch for a project, and I am really trying hard to use some stash.  I did both with this cute storage.

 

 

I did my inside pages a little differently from the lady on you tube in that I used both sides of the pages of my book.  I initially thought that magnet strips would attract to each other and make the book hard to open, but it is working out fine.  My sheets are 6 x 12 chipboard, covered with cardstock weight patterned paper and they are really sturdy, so it seems to be holding up just fine.

I also did a quick card for Sketches Creatively Yours.  I need to work on my bow tying, but I really like how this fall card came out.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

A Couple of New Layouts and my Spotlight Post

Here are a couple of recent layouts posted at Sketches Creatively Yours.  I recently discovered Make the Cut and am really enjoying the freedom I have.

 

 

And, a couple weeks ago I was the featured designer for the site.  Take a look for a few extra layouts and projects.  My Spotlight Here!

Gonna try to get creative tomorrow, since I can't get out of the house to run errands.  Too much rain, and lots of tornados on the heels of Lee here on the Gulf.  Stay safe now.

 

Got a New Toy for My Birthday!

Today is my birthday and DH got me a new toy. I got a Cinch.  I counted up how much I was spending at Kinko's for binding and I could have paid for this Cinch twice with what I spent this past year.  Anywoo, here is my new toy.

 

And I got a chance to play with it.  Here is a little journal I made to jot notes in.  The inside has a place for a notepad and a pen.  I made the button attachment on the front as a closure and used Make the Cut to do the label, shadow and the welded title.  I love the font Lucinda's Handwriting.  It makes such a pretty weld.

  

 

And lastly, here is a card that went up Friday for the card sketch at Sketches Creatively Yours.  There are some great cards posted using the sketch.

 

Okay, that's it for me tonight.  Been working out and all that exercise has me tired.  Have a great week.