This House

The background paper by My Mind's Eye is so pretty. I built this layout design from the right corner with all those delightful flowers, leaving plenty of room for a lot of journaling about the house my husband and I first lived in together, a house we drove by during our day out together for our 10 year anniversary.

This page is another favorite.

Mark's

Another page inspired by a layout that was part of a Shimelle Laine class. (If you haven't already, you've gotta take one of her classes! Simply packed with content.) My version contains a few less layers as I went a bit simpler than the original design.

And I gotta love a layout glorifying toast. ;)

All For Him

For this layout, I took direct inspiration from a page by Corrie Jones which you can find on this post on Shimelle Laine's website.

I L-O-V-E-D this idea! I had to give it a try on a page of my own, and I really dig how it turned out. I'm going to be employing the technique again. Definitely.

You Are My Home

I went simple for this page. The title and subtitle are the only journaling, other than the date, and I kept embellishment minimal, as well. I did grab some puffy stickers from the same collection as the patterned paper to add to the kit supplies. They coordinated well and were the perfect size to add little bits of whimsy.

October Garden

This page was a bit of a challenge, and I admit, I added a duplicate of the background patterned paper from my stash to extend the layout to two pages, flipping the one on the right upside down. I used lots of butterflies because the photos were taken at the Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden, and because I love me some butterflies. I have a lot of them, and I made sure to include plenty in the kit. Of course, most were used on this page, and I'm happy with the result.

Underneath The Bridge

I took my inspiration for this layout from a page in a Shimelle Laine class I took. It's so very rare for me to use that teal color, but on this page, and in a lot of the other supplies from these kits, I'm totally digging it.

Weird since it's been my very least favorite color for such a long time.

I am liking the dragonflies peaking out on the right side, the leaves as flower centers, how the black anchors the page and brings everything together. And the cameras. I'm hoping to carry that as a theme throughout this particular album.

Which means I'll probably need to purchase some more camera icons, or I need to get stamping with one of the camera stamps I've got.

Our Journey Begins

The background pattern for this page was just a little different in tone from most of the other supplies in my kits, but I went with it because it suited the story I wanted to tell, and I love the paper!

I dig how it turned out!

One Fall Day

I got a little lucky today. A little bit of halfway decent light broke through the gloom, and I was able to retake a picture of the first page I did with my own February 2013 kits.

For this layout that serves as the introduction page for the album I'm doing of my 10th anniversary, I used this sketch from Shimelle Laine. I've had that wonderful piece of patterned paper for awhile now. I think it was part of a kit that somehow never got used, and it is absolutely perfect for this page.

I've got several more layouts to share, and I've still got plenty left of the kits, so there will be even more to come...

February 2013 Add On Kit

I've been trying out assembling my own kits, as I've posted previously, and as I started thinking about what I was scrapbook project I was going to work on next, I decided the February kit would be great for the album I wanted to do of our 10th anniversary photos from October, 2012.

Except I would need more supplies to even make a dent in all those photos. (It's amazing how many photos I can take in one day!)

Autumn Leaves was the theme of our wedding, and it continues to weave through our anniversaries, so I gathered some fall supplies that loosely coordinate with the existing kit, at least sharing some similar colors. The style is definitely not the same, particularly the Bo Bunny papers, which are more elegant, less quirky, than the style of the other papers and supplies I chose.

But I'm making it work.

I also wanted to add some stamp sets and some spray inks. I chose the word stamps by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday because I love the sentiments and style of those, and I selected an autumn themed stamp set, also from Technique Tuesday because I love it, and it hasn't been used much.

This kit thing, assembling my own from mostly stuff in my own stash? It's working out really well. I'm thinking of assembling more kits, not just one per month, and really putting my stash to use.

Coming soon: layouts I'm creating with these kits.

Valentine

It's been awhile since I created a card. I mostly focus on scrapbook pages in my papercrafting right now.

But for Valentine's Day, I dusted off my card-making skills, gathered a few supplies, and created a simple card for my Valentine.

The idea started with stamps. The double-heart stamp is part of a greeting set with just a few shapes--I think it's TPC Studio--and the greeting is from a great set Ali Edwards did for Technique Tuesday. The ribbon is from JoAnn, and the card stock is probably Recollections. The patterned papers are from last year's Valentine collection by Basic Grey.

And my sweetheart? He liked it.

Perfectly Us - Eleven Years Living Together

Eleven years ago, I took a giant leap of faith in myself, and in the man I love, and I moved to Michigan to live with him.

At the time, I lived in Texas, and Daniel flew there, so he could fly back with me as I closed that chapter of my life, and we opened a new one together.

Neither of us had any idea then what was in store for us as the years unfolded. We were young, energetic, full of excitement and great expectations of our future. We had no idea how hard reality could and would kick us in the ass, over and over.

I don't think we had any idea how big and wonderful and magical and formidable our love would grow as we clung to each other through all of it: marriage, loss, death, relocations, health crises, difficult decisions, heartbreaking disappointments, quiet joys, heavy responsibility.

And the list goes on.

I like to celebrate our anniversaries, not just the wedding, but all the little and big anniversaries that mark our lives together. I like remembering how lucky I am that he is still with me, and I get to be with him every blessed day.

On this day in 2002, our living together began. Living with him made me so very deliriously happy and paved the way for the happiness and stability to come. I trusted myself to know this was right, to deal with it if I was wrong, and I trusted him to love me and let me love him back.

That's my favorite photo of me and my Daniel, taken over 5 years after we moved in together, taking that dizzying, wild, wonderful leap into this amazing love. I love this photo because it is so quintessentially him, so quintessentially me, and so beautifully, perfectly us.

My Own Kit - February 2013

I know, I know. Not the greatest photo, since it's gloomy as can be here today, and I don't want to put off working with this kit until a sunny day wanders along, and I can get a better one.

For this yummy collection of goodies, I started with this inspiration:

A package of very fetching brads from a new collection by My Mind's Eye that I loved on sight. (Oh, the blur of a cloudy, grey day...)

From that jumping off point, I snagged a couple papers from the same collection, then wandered around the store, looking for other papers and supplies that would coordinate. Same process at a second store, where I also picked up the chipboard cameras and a piece of patterned paper from the brand new Bo Bunny collection, Mama-razzi 2.

Once at home, I went through my stash and picked bits and pieces that would match the colors in the kit, and I made sure to include plenty of embellishments because the last kit wound up being a touch sparse.

I was able to include some very disparate elements from all over the place, some I've had in my stash a long, long time. Others were bits and pieces left over from subscription kits I received over the last year or so.

In the pursuit of using up as much of my stash as possible, I nabbed a couple partial packages of black Thickers, one felt, the other foam, to go along with the brand new, tiny letter stickers from Glitz in that tasty dark orange-red.

Now, teal and its lighter sibling are not my favorite colors, but I like how they blend with the oranges and yellows and warm reds in this collection of goodies, and I had quite a bit of those colors represented in my stash, so I figure, let's put them to use.

I'm so excited about how this kit came together, and I can't wait to dig into it and make some layouts.

January 2013 Kit - Wrap Up

Here's the kit I put together with a few new products, plus several patterned papers and other supplies from my stash:

And here are all nine of the layouts I created with this kit:

What I learned:

I like working with a kit I assembled from supplies I know I like better than working with kits from a subscription.

I like mixing new products with coordinating items in my stash, especially those I've had for a long time.

Creating kits from things in my stash gets those things used more readily than if they're not part of a kit.

Limiting my choice of supplies to only or mostly the items in the kit energizes and inspires me.

Assembling and using my own kits maximizes my creativity.

I need to increase the number of embellishments in each kit, even if that means some go unused.

* * *

Today, I've got supplies for my new kit strewn on my craft table. I bought a few more new things for Februarys selection, but I'm in the process of going through my stash for coordinating embellishments. I should have it done within the next day or so, and I'll post a photo as soon as it's done.

January 2013 Kit - Layout 9

Autumn Red

Another favorite, this layout was easy to put together. I put scraps to good use, here, and I used just a touch of light orange to contrast all that bright, luscious red. The "look" die cut was originally a speech bubble shape, but I cut it to be a simple oval. It was also bright white in background, so I used some Distress ink in Vintage Photo, to make it fit the tone of the page.

Another page testifying to my love of autumn...

January 2013 Kit - Layout 8

Sewing Expo 2012

I love this page! I love the brightness and energy of it, echoing the actual event. I love how all the elements work so well together. I love how I used stickers in a bit different ways, cutting one circular border sticker in half, using another piece of a phrase sticker that I used part of for another layout with letter stickers to complete a sentiment.

I love the colors, especially that brilliant red background that matches the jacket Mom is wearing in the photo.

And I love the fiber/fabric elements that complement the subject of the layout.

This is one of my favorites.

January 2013 Kit - Layout 7

Apple Magic

As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, my word for 2013 is writing, and each month, I'm focusing on a different aspect of the craft. For February, my focus is on writing exercises, and the journaling/title for this layout came from a writing prompt.

I love when my two creative pursuits overlap that way!

January 2013 Kit - Layout 6

Salon Day

I probably could have done more with the circular area of embellishment, but I couldn't really find anything that fit, so I let it be. While I really enjoyed working with this kit, and I am really liking the way working with a kit inspires me, the drawback is the self-imposed limit of embellishments that might work. With future kits--and I'm working on assembling my February kit now--I may want to increase the number of embellishments I include. It's not like I don't have plenty in my stash!

January 2013 Kit - Layout 5

Up, Up & Away

Probably the most remarkable thing about this page for me is the background paper which I've had for I don't know how many years. It's from a Little Yellow Bicycle travel line, and I've been hoarding it, trying to find the perfect use for it. Since I made it part of the kit and really wanted to get as much of the kit used as I possibly could, I matched these photos up with it, and I love the result.

Other supplies not included in the kit I assembled are brand new letter stamps from Recollections, which I bought on sale at Michaels a few weeks ago for $5. The set includes both upper and lower case, along with some symbols, and I really dig the font. I also used the word stamp "daydream" from Close to My Heart, along with a sentiment and camera stamp from Hero Arts for Studio Calico. Ink is all Archival black from Ranger.

This one's a favorite, and it's the second layout for the tenth anniversary album.

January 2013 Kit - Layout 4

Happy

To be honest, this page did not turn out how I envisioned it. I wish I'd gone with a different green marker for the foliage I colored. The green I chose is too dark, but I do like the sort of homemade feel of colored stamped images, and the photo is one of my favorites of my mother from her birthday party last year.

I also realized when putting this layout together, that I don't have nearly enough flower stamps. Hmm...wonder what I need to do about that... :)

Speaking of stamps, the ones I used are Hero Arts, stamped with Archival ink from Ranger, colored with Stampin' Up! markers.

January 2013 Kit - Layout 3

Blur

One of the patterned papers in my January 2013 kit was printed to look like layers of patterned paper pieces, with a old Polaroid "frame" at its center. I brought out my craft knife and cut around some of the  faux layers, then adhered the paper to card stock and added dimensional adhesive to make the layers look more real. I also added additional patterned paper pieces to make the design more my own. I cut apart a sticker to create the title, completing it with letter stickers. The numeral element was the remnant of a die cut I used in the second layout from this kit, which added to the idea of the layout, time passing on New Year's Eve.

When I first saw that patterned paper, part of a kit club subscription kit from awhile back, I wasn't totally enamored of it, but I made it work for me, and I like the way this layout turned out.

January 2013 Kit - Layout 2

This Man I Love

Although this is the second page I made from my own January kit, it's the first page of an album I just decided to put together, our 10th anniversary. I took a lot of pictures. A lot. I used to do mini books of our anniversary adventures, but I feel like the number of photos I took during this one day Daniel and I had together would be better suited to a whole 12x12 album.

For this page, I used another brilliant Shimelle sketch, which I'm certain to use again.

January 2013 Kit - Layout 1

Middle of last month, I shared a photo of the kit I assembled with both new products and stuff from my stash. Click right here to read that post. Here is a photo of my own January kit:

Creating from this kit turned out to be even more fun and productive than I expected. Here's the first page I created from these supplies:

I followed a sketch by Shimelle Laine, and I'm really digging how this mix of supplies works together.

Coming soon: more layouts from this kit!