Scrapbooking Ideas

Hello Everyone!

This week I find myself with a bit more downtime, which is perfect for some non-creative-team-free-scrapping. Since I've been doing the Photo a Day challenge, I have lots and lots of photos to choose from, which mean I really needed a little help picking which story to tell. I hopped on over to the Scrapbooking Ideas section of Get It Scrapped in hopes of finding a starting point.

I was immediately drawn to the title section. In it, I found an article about long titles and instantly knew what page I needed to make:

Supplies: Just Jaimee: Storyteller Collection- September 2013: Fonts: Varsity Playbook, Sketch College, TrashButterfly,1942 report, 28 Days Later, Sketch Serif, Advert, Colleged, appleberry, Pea Melody Shay

The title of this page tells most of the story. Ever since I beat him at Mortal Kombat ten years ago, my hubby gets seriously focused on winning whenever we play a game together. He, apparently, doesn't like losing to a girl. The good news for him is that I am terrible at board games, but he isn't exactly a good sport. When we play an analog game together, I always joke that he should either be pulling my ponytail to express his affection or he's  just a cocky jerk.

For the title I used a mix of different stampy, chalky and sketchy looking fonts in varying sizes, but still large (I think the smallest is around 48 pts). I alternated between serif and sans serif fonts- so there's an AB pattern of words. To make the title block feel like one piece and because those ascenders and descenders kinda force pesky gaps between lines, the title also became an embellishment cluster. Pretty sneak, eh?

Also, I'm still swooning over Jaimee's kit (and not just because I'm on her CT). I love the ombre papers and wanted to use more. The ombre paper here really helps reinforce the title with contrast and flow. It's needed since embellishments are sparse. To finish the page off I added some small staples. If you're gonna pull off minimal embellishments, affixers like tape, staples, stitching or brads really make a page feel finished.

That's my creation from the inspo in a nutshell! Check out Scrapbooking Ideas for more great ideas, tips and tricks.

♥ Carrie

September Storyteller Collection

Hello Scrappy Interwebz!

Today I'm bringing you tidings of fall. A funky, fresh fall to be exact in the for of the latest September Storyteller Collection from Just Jaimee. Here's a bit of eye candy to show it off staring a cutie-patootie kiddo, my nephew:




I adore the colors and smoothness of the papers. Do you see that ombre pennant? There are ombre 12 x 12 papers for all the colors in the palette, too! Yay! I have to say that I don't use circular alphas much, so I had this page work-shopped during Masterful Scrapbook Design's Office Hours (with Dina Wakley no less!) and was assured I did not #failalpha the page. As always, I'm impressed with the versatility of the Storyteller line. I definitely use them over and over again for every sorta page under the sun.

For a limited time, there's a coupon code on Just Jaimee's Facebook page so you can snag the whole collection for $6.50 at her personal shop. Otherwise, you can snag the whole collection HERE. Or you can shop a la carte HERE.

Also, Jaimee is moving stores and I'm super excited about where she is going!! I wish I could say, but for now my lips are sealed.

♥ Carrie

September Photo a Day: Weeks 1 & 2

Despite September proving to be a busy one, here I am. There's a new Photo a Day Challenge up on the GIS forums. This month has a twist: It's prompts are based on literature. I am kinda in love with these prompts because I find that I don't have to try take photos with a prompt in mind, but rather I can match my the photos I do take to the prompts. That's the great thing about literature: It's full of universal truths that we can all relate to, pretty much in any given moment.

 1. “A Boo Radley Moment” from To Kill a Mockingbird 

My nephew, who lives in Haiti, was in awe of all the cars. Here my son and mother in law are telling which car belongs to what family.


2.    Oh the Places You'll Go

The Moon at the dusk. This month, I was able to watch LADEE launch. To the Moon we go!


3. The Joy Luck Club

I skipped this one because really it's my favorite book. I'm saving it up for another day.


4. The Happiness Project



Shortly before we found Thor, my husband wished our cats were more snugly. Wish granted. This little guy is a daddy's boy.


5. “Small acts of kindness and love.” – Gandalf



My kiddo introduced his Haitian cousin to Legos. He loved them so much, that my kiddo gave his cousin some to keep.


6. The Hunger Games



Waiting for dinner. The child was starving. STARVING. Grandmommy needs to feed him because I certainly don't.


7. "A person's a person no matter how small!" - Horton



Our new niece: She's not small for a 4 month old, but she is still the smallest person in our family.


8. The Color Purple



More baby: Here with her purple pacifier. She's gone back to Haiti now, which makes me sad.


9. Rear Window



People watching on the boardwalk. Every year there are more and more people as our little resort area gets more and more publicized. After Labor Day, it used to be that the boardwalk was practically a ghost town.


10. The Language of Flowers



My kid was frustrated and sad, and struggled with communicating what he was feeling and what he needed. I decorated his new 'soft shot' gun with washi tape while helping him find the words to express himself.


11. The Book Thief



Butters isn't the brightest cat and he may be the cutest. His one flaw is that he literally likes to eat my books. Not magazines, not paper, but books. He prefers hardcovers to soft.


12. Let's Pretend This Never Happened



My hubby, having a bad day, and it's not over at this point.


13. “Riddikulus!” – Professor Lupin



That's Thor pulling out my bun. I'm not sure why he does this.


14. “We go together like peas and carrots.” – Forrest Gump



Cousins: Neither was thrilled to have pose for the photo, but both humored me. My kid is thrilled to have a little cousin and his little cousin is thrilled to have a big one. It works out perfectly.

I played with my Nik Color Effects Pro for this batch. It's a newer version and I loved how much simpler it is and cleaner it looks. I love things that take the work out of editing photos for me!

You can tell we've done some family visiting and that it's over now. One week a year is never quite long enough. Perhaps we'll get to visit them one year.

Join us for this challenge and share your photos with us- we wanna see!!  

♥ Carrie

LADEE Buzz or Why NASA is Awesome

Hell Interwebz Gang!

I'm coming down from a geek high. You see, at 11:27:30(ish) pm, this happened: 

Only the video doesn't do it justice. You need professional equipment to get the scale on space stuff at night. I should note that this isn't my video and it was taken from Ocean City, MD (about 40 minutes from my house).


It was like a giant, slow moving firework.

It's the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer. It was launch from Wallops Island, VA here on the Eastern Shore. And it's a probe stuck on a modified ICBM from the Air Force. There were 5 stages to propell it into the right position to be dragged into the lunar orbit, where it will float around for a while collecting data, then nosedive into the moon. We saw two stages of the launch before it was no longer visible.

By 'we' I mean a good portion of my neighborhood. I've watched space stuff a lot this year, but it's the first time I wasn't alone. For a moment it didn't look like it was gaining altitude. We all backed up. (like that would help if it crashed-- and considering a bomb fell off a jet last week and landed in the parking lot of bar north of us, you can never be to sure). When we saw the thing disappear, everyone clapped and cheered. We clapped because it didn't crash and the excitement that we (an in the USA) sent something to the moon again, finally.

Then we realized we could smell rocket exhaust briefly. That was cool, too, because it reminded us that it's our little peninsula that did something spectacular. Not much happens here, but when it does, it's normally big news. I'm not sure when NASA came here, but I'm glad they did. This is actually one of many launches, but the first night time, perfect weather one. More please!

Next on the fascinating space agenda is Comet ISON in November. If all goes well for the comet, it could visible to the naked eye during the freaking day. How cool is that?
 

August Photo a Day- Weeks 3 & 4

This has been a sad week. Yesterday, we put down our 15 year old kitty, Kelda. I adopted a couple years before my son was born and we did everything together. When I was pregnant, she was obsessed with  my growing belly. I used to joke about always having her on top of my belly by saying she was hatching my kiddo. Kelda had a big presence and it's absence is noticeable. She will be sorely missed.

Now onto happy things. I am smashing the last two weeks of the August Photo a Day in one post. While I am listing the photos in order, I didn't take them all in order. Also, I missed some days, but that's okay. The Photo a Day police aren't going to arrest me (at least I don't think so). I really enjoyed this project and am excited about September's prompts. Check out September HERE.

14. Arrow to my heart



It's been awhile since I've had layouts printed, so I was tickled when these arrived. Once again, well done Persnickety Prints.

15. Clearly



The reflection is from the hood of my car.  I really loved how I could see the clouds in the reflection, but I have also been trying to take more photos with me in them. This is a happy compromise.

16. Sweet, Sour, or Sassy




This might be my favorite photo from the whole challenge. Part of my favor might be because my kid and I had a blast capturing this moment and I see his personality in this. My kid has always jumped; It's a stim. Some kids with autism flap their hands, but my kid jumps. He reminds me of a Swami. ha! Also, notice the kitten on the floor behind him.

17. Don't Bug Me




Kelda, napping on my laptop. This is near the end and she's not feeling well. She stopped grooming herself, so she has a little soup on her nose. It is really hard to wipe a cat's face, but I got most of it off. It was frustrating at times that she wanted to be on my computer, but in the end I'm glad she was because we spent a lot of time together.

18. You're My Favorite



My mother in law went on a washi hunt for my birthday. I just wanted to have some to hold in my hands. It was the best gift! Washi Washi Bing Bong! (that's what we call it in my house) I have washi'd lots of random things in my house.

19. Slim Pickins



My birthday cake- always strawberry. No one likes it. Good.

20. Coffee, Tea or Me



My gift package from my mom and sister: Timmy's Coffee and Wegman's Peach Bread. They go so well together and neither are available in Delaware. 

21. Don't Blink



That's my hubby playing Warcraft.

22. Grow




I took photos of my dad's baby book, which was my inheritance from my grandmother. This is is hand and foot traced at 5 months old.

23. Blue Skies Smiling at Me



This is half the rainbow. It was so incredible that people in town pulled over in their cars to get out and marvel at it.

24. Oops! Skipped this one!!

25. Look Up



A corn moon. It was really large, but you can't capture that so well with a point and shoot camera (because I hate to think it's a user issue). I love the crepe myrtle in the foreground.

27. Water Works



This is my sorta water working. :) That's Lewes Beach on the Delaware Bay.

28. Cat Nap



Thor, napping. Hard to believe he was so little just a couple of months ago.

29. School Daze



We haven't started school yet, so I decided this photo of a page from my dad's baby book would work well. His teacher commented my dad was 'slow'. It's hard to believe she's talking about my dad because my dad is certifiably brilliant. He speaks a gazillion languages, is the historian at Seabreeze Park, arranges music for carousels across the country to use, is an editor at large for fun for a couple of magazines, and can fix or build just about anything. So that kindergarten teacher can suck it.

30. Dog Days



James doesn't know he's a cat.

31. Baby Got Back



I wanted to end this challenge in a similar way I began it. To me this screams good bye August.

There you have it. On to September! 

♥ Carrie

Get It Scrapped: Rectangle on Square aka The Golden Ratio

Hello Friends!

I thought I'd give you a peek into my page on the Get It Scrapped blog today. I really loved the way page turned out. I also kinda love how flamboyant it is and the in your face the color palette. What I'm telling you here is stuff not included in the article, but that I think is worth knowing.

I created this page a week or so before my 37th birthday. I am one of those annoying people who doesn't really mind getting old. I certainly don't feel my age... actually, I feel like I'm still a kid at times. I love birthdays in general; Life's too short not to celebrate stuff... and eat cake... and get presents!

When I was thinking about ideas for the assignment, I started by shopping my stash. I was really drawn to the neon pinks in Libby Pritchett's Be Awesome (which I believe was part of August Digi Files). Looking through my photos, I couldn't find any story that fit the kit's motif AND colors. Normally if it's one or the other I can make any photo work.

Eff it, I said, politely to myself. This page is going to be about me. I'd never done a list-ish type page before so I thought it would the perfect opportunity to try. I used my age to define how long the list should be. My hubby wondered if I even had that many favorite things, but it turned out I really did (and still do).




Because the assignment was rectangle on square, I started my page with a rectangle. I then used the buttons to plot out my curve (which is also the flow of the page). To get more info on the principle, go read the article!

Here is a quickie breakdown: This design makes the eye happy because Fibonacci said so and math and universe and junk. I'm putting the image here so you know what curve I'm talking about.

Since this is a photoless page, I had to create something interesting to look at. I decided to have fun with fonts by creating a snazzy title. The 'fav-o-rite things' was easy to make and I should really do it more often. When doing snazzy font work, remember to adjust the leading and tracking so the spaces between the letters and words don't look wonky.

The '36' cluster is really heavy on the page. Had I not added that pink cog, glitter, stitching and time piece under the button on the right, the '36' cluster would have toppled that whole rectangle and the design would have failed. The acrylic ampersand in the bottom left corner helps keep the weight of the left side from being overpowering as well. The confetti ties all of the elements together and eliminates trapped white space while the blue paper adds more dimension. Both confetti and paper add even more weight to the right side, making it feel grounded. Finally, no page (of mine) is complete without some framing around the edges, in this case stitches.

And if you want to learn all this neat-o design stuff, then come on over the GIS forums and take a class or two.

I hope you've enjoyed my breakdown and my wildly pink all about me page.

♥ Carrie

Mojo Monday: Pinterest Fails

If you're anything like me, you love Pinterest. It's so useful for bookmarking DIY ideas, gathering inspiration and basically making your interwebz experience an enriching one. Browsing Pinterest the world feels like a better, prettier, happier place.

There are times when perusing the copious amounts of visual perfection where I think to myself that I really must suck because my home doesn't look like that. Or wow, I really fail at making my trash look like a work of art (or I fail because I actually throw away my trash). Or my poor child has none of those wonderful pin worth experiences because I'm a fail mom.

When I'm in a Pinterest-shows-me-how much-of-a-complete-failure-I-am  mood it can be hard to remember that for each pretty image we see, we don't see the creators hard work, tears, and skill developing it took to get them to that point. Chances are those images are the end result of some good ol' fashioned failing and lots of practice.

This led me to begin curating Pinterest fails on a board called "Nailed It?". Now I'm reminded that life isn't always accurately represented on Pinterest:

I have personally made these and they
did not turn out anything like the pretty
Pinterest photo above. The bottom is
an accurate image of my own results.

Jello is not as easy to work with as you'd think

From Craft Fail Blog

I decided after comparing my life to the perceived lives of others on the interwebz that I needed to just stop. When I attempt a new recipe/craft/DIY project found on Pinterest I need to remember the person giving the directions has done the thing multiple times or has some information and experience I don't. And it's all okay. It's okay for my results not be Pinterest worthy. It's okay for my kid not to have a super mom every single day of his life. It's okay my house sorta looks like a bachelor pad and that I'm the kinda person whose every white shirt has a tomato stain on it. It's who I am.  Most of my world is far from pretty and pin worthy.

It's liberating to be able to try these things in the space of who I am. It's liberating to give myself permission to fail miserably and comically. Having that self-permission keeps the pressure off and keeps my mojo flowing. Sometimes I don't fail. Ultimately, not worrying about end result and focusing on the experience of just trying something from my Pinterest board is always a win.

I pinned, I failed, I learned, I tried again. Mostly, I laughed because my results never look like the thing I saw on Pinterest, but that's okay and perhaps even pin worthy.

♥Carrie

P.S. Do you ever see a pretty Pinterest DIY and wonder how it'd be cleaned or what it would look like after a year? I do.