I ♥ coffee & words

I do. I love coffee. It doesn't like me so much so I can only drink decaf or half-caf, but it's still my daily beverage of choice besides water (from the tap because I am a rebel).

I have no shortage of coffee themed layouts. Okay, I only have 3, but it seemed like a lot in my head.



The pages above I did back in May. The one below is my latest homage to coffee. For this latest layout I decided to to play a little since I'd already jotted down my love of coffee and my excitement trying new blends, beans and brands. Since I've been listening to WOTE's cover of Lordes song Royals I thought it would be apt to to twist the lyrics into my title and subtitle. My journaling is about my hubby being my dedicated and loving barista. And when I asked him if he'd call me ruler without missing a beat he said okay. Yeah, he's awesome.

I really, really liked the colorful photo of my coffee cup and I loved the rhythmic, wordy paper. Together they'd just be too overwhelming, so I used the creamy covered newsprint to calm things down. Because of my song lyric inspiration, I used words like embellishments. I'm kinda in love with typography lately.

Anything I put on that bold, wordy paper might have gotten lost. That was a problem solved by the paper's design itself. I just aligned my photo and journaling card with the stars on the paper. Doing that tricks you into thinking it's more word art in the vertical column than word pattern paper.

I did use a few small embellishments to fill in the holes on my page and polished up the page with staples and paint splatters (because I always need a bit of mess on page).

This is a really great kit and I wanted to USE ALL THE THINGS!!! But using less things worked a lot better. Oh, and the kit is on sale this weekend. BUY ALL THE THINGS! :)

♥ Carrie

November Storyteller and Your December Story just met

It's time for another Storyteller Collection! While I'm woefully behind on my month pages, November is pretty much done. It's going to be included in my December Story album, too. Two birds, one stone.

I haven't put journaling on these pages yet, but I plan to. If I don't, then the title really does say it all. This is a glimpse into our daily life before the holiday as prompted by YDS Lesson 1.

I used a template for this page, which I rarely do, but I know myself. If I didn't jump on the inspiration, I might not make the page. The template did the heavy lifting. Thank goodness for Crtl + G.




I used almost every part of the collection. I decided I'd make a title with the alphas to sum up our challenges this time of year. I wanted to be real, but not depressing, wanted to make sure it was our collective challenges, but not to general. Yet, I didn't want it to be depressing either. Here's what I came up with:



I'm really loving fonts and alphas lately. I have too many fonts, so I use Wordmark to sort through them when I'm creating something like this. You can type in the text you want to write, select the size and style, hit enter and Wordmark displays the fonts on your computer. It's a gem! You can also sort your fonts in lists, which Wordmark will save for you. For instance, I have a list of scripty fonts and typewriter fonts. It saves me a ton of time. Also, it's 100% free.

Overall, I'm happy with the pages and if I don't get to the journaling, I'm not stressing over it. Success!

♥ Carrie

We have a winner: Your December Story Blog Hop

Before I announce the lucky winner I want to take a moment to say some things:

Reading your comments was really enjoyable. I loved hearing about your goals, your holidays, your thoughts and feelings on the holidays. Thank you to everyone for sharing.

I wish I could  have scooped you all up and plopped in you in the class with  me. Everyone deserved to win, but alas, there can be only one.

Now for the winning: I numbered the comments in chronological order and excluded to two Get It Scrapped team members that commented. There were 51 eligible entrants. I used random.org to pick a winning number:

 And the winner is:

Courtney, I have sent you an email with all the info you need to sign up for the class!! Can't wait to see you there!

There's still a little bit of time to grab the class with the special $10 Gift Certificate. The special runs until 12pm EDT tonight. Click here to view more details Offer expired, but you can still click HERE for more great classes!

♥ Carrie

Your December Story Sneak Peak Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Last Christmas was pretty traumatic for our family because we I lost our kitten and then he died. I'm hoping this year we have a better December and I've devised a plan to make that happen:

Step 1: Don't lose or kill any kittens.

Step 2: Tell our Christmas story to rekindle the holiday magic.

I'm doing really well with step 1 and I've gotten to start on step 2, which really has me excited. I feel like I need to buy some glitter.

Growing up in multicultural house means my traditions aren't quite the standard American kinds. I also married into a family that still practices some Old World holiday customs, too. The stories of our Decembers, old and new, are simply worth recording.

When Debbie gave us a sneak peak of the class, I knew I had to do this. I had an idea from her Story Coach lessons what to expect, so I was excited to get started.

A brief description of class:

Many of the most-loved and best remembered stories play out in a story form described by Joseph Campbell as "the hero's journey." This class has prompts and page ideas for visual storytelling that have you telling Your December Journey, from the heralds, to the challenges, mentors, special tools and the return to the known world and what you take forward.

I opened Lesson 1 and printed out the hand-out:

I immediately jumped into the prompts after the reading the written material. Debbie has a talent for asking thought provoking questions. Somehow she reaches right into your mind, yanks and tugs until the relevant stuff is down on the page in an organized fashion (something I need help with constantly). I'm not saying she's magic, but she's magic. I filled out 7 pages of prompts in under 20 minutes. Out of that, I have a few pages I know I need to make to tell our story. 

The first page I decided to make was the "call to action" page. Since I becoming a part of my husband's family, I am given an amaryllis at the start of the holiday season each year. My mother in law has a phallic nickname for the plant that I won't get into, but is riot to hear her, a very proper lady, say. It usually doesn't bloom until Christmas, making it a natural advent calendar. 

Supplies: Mommyish: Hipster Holiday; CD Muckosky: Winter With You;
Fonts: Cassidy by Audacious Designs

Now for the fun part: I'm giving away a seat in the class!! (If you already purchased the class, you'll get a $24 gift card good for any other GIS/MSD classes.)

When you purchase "Your December Story" by midnight PT, Wednesday, November 20, you also get a $10 gift card that you can use for Get It Scrapped and Masterful Scrapbook Design classes.  Just click on the link to grab the deal!  

Offer expired, but you can still click HERE for more great classes!


How to enter: Simply leave a comment telling me why you want to tell your December story. I will draw the winner on Thursday, November 21, 2014.

Want more chances to win? Follow the links for the blog hop:

Anna Aspnes

Betsy Sammarco

Christy Strickler

Marie-Pierre Capistran

Katrina Kennedy

Carrie Arick <-- You are here

Doris Sander

Melissa Shanhun

Michelle Houghton

Sue Althouse

Terry Billman

Kiki Kougioumtzi

Susanne Brauer

Sian Fair

Jana Morton

Paula Gilarde

Kristin Tweedale

Katie Scott

Amy Kingsford

Tami Taylor

Stefanie Semple

Katie Nelson

Your December Story: $15 Gift with early bird registration

Register before November 11th to get a $15 gift code good on classes at Get It Scrapped or Masterful Scrapbook Design

(Regular registration will open on November 11th)

I am super excited about this 6 week class created by Debbie Hodge. She is a master of storytelling and the ease at which she helps you put them on your pages is astounding. This class will focus on the hero's journey: it's a quest to document holiday magic without any monsters or mountain climbing and more glitter. Every Monday for 6 weeks — answer the prompts, view the ideas, and open yourself to new and inspired ways to tell your December story.

Here's the class breakdown:


6 weekly lessons describe a step of the hero’s journey, provide detailed prompts that you can enter into digital worksheets or printables, and ideas for visual and written stories.

• November 25th: The Call to Adventure
• December 2nd: Entering the Magical World
• December 9th: Mentors
• December 16th: Tests, Tools, and Magical Objects
• December 23rd: The Reward
• December 30th: The Road Back and the Return with the Elixir

Debbie created this class so it can be used as a companion to your December Daily albums or as it's own stand alone project. Give yourself this wonderful gift for the holidays and craft a treasure for you and your family. Just use my affiliate link above to sign up before Nov. 11 so you can get the cool bonuses. 

Naturally, there will be a gallery to share your work and you can chat about the class in the forum. We'll be there to help you in your quest: heroes don't go it alone! 

♥ Carrie 

Digital Scrapbooking Day Fun!

This is the sort of perfect storm weekend for digi scrap. Here's what I'm doing this weekend:

It's the beginning of the month which means new Digi Files. It's also the weekend so there's a new Digi Show. (Did you hear the girls discuss Get It Scrapped's gallery on last weeks show?)

It's The (dash) Lilypad BYOC time again. Since it's DSD, there is a lot going on over there and you can win stuff in the forums.

Debbie Hodge is hosting a live crop until 5pm today. I plan on stopping by soon, once I can escape skyping boys. See this post on the GIS forums for details.

My Scrapbook Art has started off the month of November with an awesome, exclusive kit from Maya De Groot. If you have a Featured Presentation Pass, don't forget to pick it up, otherwise it's only $4.00. Check out the post for more details AND get a great coupon to Maya's store.

Also, don't forget to upload your pages (I know you are making them) to the MSA gallery. I'm doing the GSOs Monday and will be searching out eye candy all weekend long.

Here's what I've created for this weekend:

Using Jaimee's DSD grab bag I made a pocket style page with some bits from my dad's baby book along with an old and new photo:



For the BYOC, I used Jaimee's contribution to highlight my boys' photo antics. I really love that alpha!!



I got to play with some of Maya's product. I loved the artsy style and I paired with a lift from Karen Poirier-Brode's XXX's & OOO's. (I'm linking to Karen's blog. Her page is in the MSD gallery, so if you have a subscription, check it out)




That's it for me. I'm off to play in digi land!!

♥ Carrie