The fruits of a busy, busy week!

For some reason, I decided that all my deadlines and obligations needed to be met by yesterday. It was a gorgeous week spent at my computer, and I also planned it so when I was done I would have to build an ark. (rain, rain, and more weekend rain)....

There's a new Real Life in Pockets out today. It's perfect for those of us who have kids who are anti-mamarazi. On this page, I'm talking about exactly that. My kid rarely lets me get photos of him, except the obligatory holiday and birthday photos. I'm forever having to sneak photos (no flash, camera on silent). Another blocked design, which I'm loving lately. It's great for layering.

I'm also loving that that Jaimee and other designers are producing the square pocket stuffers. Rectangles are great and all, but after awhile, you crave another shape.

There's also another amazing collab Jaimee did with Amber from Stolen Moments Design called Lightbulb Moments. I used a criss cross design here because I wanted to show off the gorgeous background paper! I didn't use all the things I wanted to on the page, so I plan on scrapping more with the kit over the weekend. I really, really want to use the alpha!!

And here's the kit preview... The alpha is included, but I'm still showing you here because it's awesome!

Allison Pennington is the featured sponsor over on My Scrapbook Art. I was able to work with some of her product (yay!). I just love her bold colors and funky style. If you wanna see my page, hop on over there. While your at it, grab the free kit Allison is offering to MSA's readers:

Yesterday, I made my first post on the Gallery Standouts blog. It's always hard to pick standouts, but it's a huge honor to be a guest for the site. I'm actually thinking that some of the page I loved, but didn't select may end up on the Sunday Standouts over at MSA. I'll have to a post one of these as to what I look for in a GSO because I've developed a formula.

I'm ending with a reminder that I'll be critiquing pages next Friday at Masterful Scrapbook Design's Office Hours. If you haven't signed up, I highly recommend it. It's fun and you learn so much! The critiques so helpful and we are really super nice- it's not negative at all- for those that fear critique. If don't have a membership, grab one HERE.


Go have scrappin' fun! I'm taking the rest of the day through Saturday off. I have a date with my Playstation tonight! 

Until next time... 

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