It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is starting to pop up everywhere, from Christmas decorations to December daily preparations in the crafting and scrapping world. I'm making a plan for this year. I've got plans to do more journaling by hand this year to (hopefully) improve the chances of completion.

Sharing a card today I made using a background from the Holiday Faves 5x7 Mini Album Vol. 2 by Nettio Design sand the ultracute December Doodads by Kate Hadfield.

The geometric patterns of the papers and the background stripes add a nice contrast to the dimensional doodles. I'm planning to make more cards using the mini albums backgrounds as well. 


 Heather

Nettio's Blog: Inspiration to Layout

Visit me over on Nettio's blog today. I'm guest posting while she is on vacation!
Join me as I discuss how I created this layout -

Inspiration to Layout

2012 Calendar

 

I used Everyday Storytelling by Jenn Barrette and Kristin Cronin-Barrow. I think it’s a good idea when making a calendar to use a big size kit so that you have a lot of papers and elements to choose from or to find two kits that coordinate with each other.  And this kit is big!

TIP: The best tip I can give for creating a calendar is to make it longer than 12 months. Last year, for the 2011 calendar I made pages to February 2012. This year I made pages until April 2013. It really helps to remember events farther in the future and also gives the calendar creator a bit more buffer time to make the new one!

Another tip: make the back cover as pretty as the front cover. When I was creating the front and back covers in Photoshop, I had envisioned the journal with the camera as the front cover and the “happiness lives here” on the back. However, I punched the wrong side of the back cover! Instead of having to reprint and use another piece of chipboard, I was able to change my plans and punch the front cover to be the new back cover. (When doing hybrid, I find I always have to be flexible and inventive!)

Back:

Page:

 

This is a sample page. Each of the pages looks different. The calendar templates are by Krisi’s Kreations (I resized them to fit my pages). I pasted the cover pages on chipboard so that it is nice and sturdy and portable. The chipboard measures 4.5 x 6.5 inches and came precut. I used the Zutter Bind-It-All to make it sturdy and This general construction worked really well last year and the size was very convenient. This pocket calendar is a great project because it is very handy and well used throughout the year!

2012 Goals in a layout!

I was so excited when Lynnette (nettio designs) created this set of templates for goal related layouts. It’s Goal-tastic. Look how cute that one with the word quote cut out is!


I was all ready to scrap because I just posted my goals on this blog. So for the journaling  - I copied and pasted my 12 2012 goals and then reordered them, took out the numbers, and changed  some to add some personal goals as well as scrapbooking goals.


Credits:
Positivity by Jenn Barrette and Lauren Reid
It’s Goal-tastic Templates by Nettio Designs
My personal goals include reading more and writing at least a paragraph in response to each book. I’ve found that when I look back at books I’ve read a while ago or not so long ago, I can’t remember as much as I’d like to. I’m not really going to focus on plot – more my response to characters, situations, likes, dislikes, inspiration….I’ve tried this with three books so far and like how it is going.
I also want to be more flexible this year. I was inspired by Elise Blaha a long time ago about how one of her goals was to do the splits. I’ve always wanted to do this in the back of my mind, but just didn’t think it possible. But I’ve been noticing that when I bend, I feel really stiff and it has gotten out of control. So any improvement in flexibility I would be ecstatic about.

Meet Harold and Vinnie.

I just think they are adorable. When they were finished, I knew they were just right. Jenn Barrette has a new kit called Puppy Love. So cute.

And I’ve been wanting a puppy for a while but I just can’t go for it right now because of the traveling I do. But these little guys warm my heart.

Here’s Harold:

Here’s Harold sleuthing out the truth in a paperback:And this is Vinnie:

I used a Martha Stewart punch (one that I got patterned off a Japanese punch) to create a weaving hole for the ribbon leash (blue ribbon – American Crafts, brown and blue ribbon – unknown company – from Michaels).  I also printed out a similar colored paper to adhere to the back and make the bookmark more sturdy.

Excuse me while I go take these guys for a walk!

So Thankful.

 

This Thanksgiving was not the most elaborate in terms of celebration for me. But I think that it is one where I was able to celebrate the things in life that I am thankful for even more than usual. I really think that scrapbooking and the current interest in being grateful and celebrating the big and little parts of our lives has helped me to gain perspective.

That’s where this layout comes in. Some layouts we do about a small specific event. Some layouts are really general. The layout I started out making – I thought it was going to have little quirky items in a list. But it ended up being really big picture and general. I think it’s nice to zoom out and zoom in at times.

I created this layout using Thankful by Elise’s Pieces and Embellish Holiday: Thankful by Nettio Designs and Traci Reed. I love how this template has the added stitching and slip-in pockets, they are such great layout starters. Stitching and page protectors – two of my current FAVES!

I used Rad Lab to edit this photo – it’s fun to play around with all the sliders – I think I need some more practice to see what the combinations create – it should be fun!

Scrapping Related Goals 2011–Part 1

Inspired by Lynnette (nettio) , I'm going to post over the next several days about some of the scrapping related goals I set for myself this year - 2011. I didn't write them down officially before  -but here's a chance to see where I'm at and maybe set some smaller goals to get to where I hope to be.

I also think that this might be a good idea because I'm not sure that I am doing all I could be....and I think this is a good time to reassess. With the ScrapMatters newsletter on hiatus this summmer, I've had more time at the end and beginning of this month to be creative for myself!

1. To scrap more layouts again…

Well, in general this one is not going as well as I hoped but it isn't going badly either. When I have a new digi kit in front of me, I often get distracted into the world of hybrid and a lot of my creative energy can go in that direction.

But I like having a record of me. I like the combination of words and photos that tells more of the story. So... my goal has not been just to scrap more layouts this year (2011) but also to put more journaling and more meaningful journaling into my layouts.

Here are two pages I scrapped recently!! They are very random, but I love how they came out.

This one started from a memory trigger - no photos but I hadn't thought about this trip since high school and then a bunch came flooding back.

Credits: Summertime Fun: Camping Out by Jady Day Studio and Family Fun by Plum Dumpling Designs

And this one is from a trip in 2008 - I've been thinking about this forest trip and when I looked at many of the photos - they look quite similar. I have to think about what makes that photo unique and why I took it to begin with.

Credits: Hip to Be and Bottom Ups 4 by Traci Reed

I'm hoping that the act of scrapping more will also help me to get my photos in order - but it's kind of a loop isn't it?

Good Times CD Folder

I created this fun CD folder – never mind that I haven’t even made the mix CD I plan to put inside yet… this fun and bright little envelope is inspiring me to make the CD I’ve planned for a while now.

and inisde:

I get worried about CDs slipping out the tops of envelopes like this (especially when the person you give this to turns it upside down without realizing) so I added a ribbon to secure it all together.
This uses Lazy Days  by Jenn Barrette – she’s guesting this month at her old home – ScrapMatters- during July!(later it will be released at her Sweet Shoppe store) and the CD folder template by Simply J.

Love how it come out!

Paper Garden Topiary

I am so happy that my tutorial to create a paper garden – topiary tree was featured in the May 2011 Artisan Notebook in the Hybrid Corner.

It uses digital items from the following kits by Jenn Barrette:
Papers from Petite Mademoiselle, Best.Birthday.Ever, Blah Blah Blah, and Cuppycake Love by Jenn Barrette
Papers and elements from So Happy Together by Shawna Clingerman and Jenn Barrette.

I really love how this project came out – probably one of my favorites ever.

July 2011 DST Featured Designer–Traci Reed!

 

Traci Reed is a most fantastic designer – I love so many of her products, it’s hard to restrain myself from the add to cart button! This month’s kit is called Daydreams and Jelly Beans and is available to Gold members. Love it. Her designs are available at the Sweet Shoppe.

Here’s the card I created – I just love how all the patterns came together. I used a card template by Colleen Swerb from NSD and the flower tutorial Cristina created for the April 2010 ScrapMatters newsletter (wow, was it that long ago?)

And here’s a detail photo of the flower – I’m never going to be able to fit this one in an envelope!

Calendar Fun!

I love how this turned out – I used my Bind-It-All to make a pocket calendar using New Year, New Me by Jenn Barrette and Everyday Moments by Jenn Barrette and Lauren Grier. The templates for the calendar are resized from Geeky Diva’s 2011 Calendar Grid Overlays.

Here’s the back:

And here are some of the pages – I even went up to February of next year because I always seem to get into the swing of calendars a bit late!

 

My Word for 2011: Strength

I think I'm a little behind. It seems like every year, I end up making February resolutions rather than New Year's Resolutions. I tend to start some projects in the 2nd month of the year rather than start the first month, taking January instead to contemplate what I hope to improve this year. I've picked my "One Little Word" for this year a la Ali Edwards and scrapped it using the kit Robot Love by Jenn Barrette and Jenna Desai. The font I used is The Quiet One by Heather Hess (love this because people are always saying that about me). It's the same font I used in my Remember layout.