2017 scrappy wrap up!

Hello friends,

Today I'm doing a quick post about my 2017 highlights. It was another rough year for my extended family, so I am not sorry to see it go and try to start afresh and hope to avoid any new disasters in 2018.

However, for my crafty life, 2017 was pretty awesome! Prepare for horn tooting, and scroll past if you don't want to hear some humble brags. But I accomplished some major scrappy goals this year, and I am happy to have a place to reflect on that awesomeness.

I feel like  I really got into a good scrapbooking flow this year and focused on the important stories in my albums. I attribute much of that to my Scrap Gals & the ongoing conversations in our Facebook group about important memory keeping topics. Furthermore, I was #blessed to spend an entire weekend with some of these lovely, like-minded souls at the Nashville Scrap Gals Retreat this year! In my 20+ years of scrapping, I have never  been to such an event or crop, and it was so refreshing to be around others who share the love of this hobby. I did a layout about the experience & the impact on me.

I was published in an online magazine and a paper magazine - WHAT?! In June I was featured in the Hello Gallery over at Jot Magazine. I was so pumped! Then I was even more stoked to have two layouts published in the lovely Creative Scrapbooker Magazine in December! These are seriously two giant accomplishments I thought were almost impossible, so I'm uber proud.

Also, I made my first compensated Design Team this year! I constantly blow up my pages and feed with Ink Road Stamps. I am so happy that I am on such a wonderful team of crazy inspirational ladies, and I love to use the stamps outside of my DT projects! I have made some great friends through this process. I love to share scrappy inspiration in the wonderful communities online, and it's nice to have others to talk to about this hobby since I do not have many people in my "real" life who get it.

I also am still a member of the Lasting Memories challenge blog design team. Those ladies are SO sweet and encouraging. I love how the weekly projects keep my crafty mojo rolling, and how flexible and understanding these lovelies are when life gets busy!

I created a free tutorial about How to Start Scrapbooking because I love this hobby so much, and I would love to spread the word about how accessible it can be.

I did a ton of Disney layouts! More to come in 2018, I'm sure, as I have not even touched the trip we took in October.  I even tried my hand a some process videos, but I don't love it. I think it's a practice makes perfect thing. I will definitely be willing to practice more if it is required for some of my #goal DTs.

I won some stuff this year - which is always fun! I may forget some, I hope not. But I do know I won a My Mind's Eye collection from Scrapbook.com and a gift certificate, I won some free digital stamps from Kellie Stamps, I won the cutest Buffalo Check planner folder from the 1407 planners, I won some crafty supplies from Pretty Little Studio, and I won some mixed media supplies from Creative Scrapbooker magazine.

I definitely became much more comfortable with my mixed media this year. I LOVE to get messy. Seriously contemplating an art journal in 2018 just for the times I want to create and  be messy without photos or stories.

I also feel that I have FINALLY defined my "style" here in 2017. Ya know, 20 years in. haha! But seriously, I have scrapped so much more in the past 2 or 3 years, more consistently than ever before. Practice does make perfect and definitely has improved my skills. I feel much more comfortable with design. The other day in our Scrap Gals group, someone asked us to define our styles. I love to craft boys, outdoors, bold colors, darker colors, but I also love SPARKLE. Give me all the wood grain and glitter, and I'm a happy girl. As much as those two may not seem to go together, I will continue to make it work. So I'm heading into 2018 with my RUSTIC SPARKLE style on my mind, to mindfully hone my style and let it lead me into a cohesive scrapbook album the encompasses my boys, our adventures and my love for all things glitter.

Whew! That's comprehensive.

Lastly, I've posted my "best nine" over on IG and my "true best nine" per the lovely ladies from the CAF podcast. I have a feeling I'm going to have another favorite podcast in 2018.

Here's to another crafty year! Cheers!

Merry Mail!

I'm sharing the holiday greeting cards I created for my crafty friends this year. It's nice to make pretty cards for those who you know appreciate a handmade item. These were actually the only ones I sent out! I feel like everyone get enough photos of my little ones throughout the year on social media, so it's a bit redundant.

But these were super fun to create. I did a non-traditional Christmas color palette, added sparkle, sparkle & more sparkle & tada!

I used Pearly shimmer something or other from Stampin' up for this wreath embossing, and I love how it turned out.

I used an Ink Road stamp from the Fir Real set for the merry and bright sentiment. I stamped it in a rose gold and embossed with iridescent glitter.

I found this adorable little Christmas Card list book at the thrift store - completely blank! The pages were old looking & I knew they would be wonderful for some Christmas projects.

I used some white glitter ribbon, tulle and a snowflake button here with some hot glue.

This wreath was embossed with heat and stick powder & I added fine, green glitter.

I cut all of the branches out of glitter cardstock on my Cricut.

I had so much fun creating these girly cards!

I always try to think of what I would like to receive in the mail, and the answer basically always includes lots of glitter.

I inked all the edges with the same rose gold I used for the sentiment to bring all the elements of the card together and give it an aged look.

 

I hope my crafty friends enjoy their holiday cards! I also hope they all make it in fair condition. I put a piece of cardboard or bubble envelope over each card for safe mailing.

Thanks for looking!

Naughty elf - a LM challenge

Hey friends!

This week at Lasting Memories we are keeping with the Christmas traditions theme in the challenge & using more than two photos on a layout.

I mean really!? haha! I can't really be mad when I clearly know where he got the idea.

As I was creating, I was thinking that a year ago I was not into mixed media much at all, and now I'm taking it wild! I messed with glitter & gel medium, then embossed a gold wood grain pattern. I even gold embossed the edges of my patterned paper. Give her a heat gun & she WILL emboss.

I stamped a title on a tag & tucked it into a glitter kraft bag on my page for my journaling.

Tucking a journaling tag in a bag left room for my super long title. Look at that little "angel" face!

Anyone else have to glue down their Thickers? These are alllll over the package, but they're cute, so it's fine.

I hope you will all go visit Lasting Memories for more multi-photo inspiration & play along with our last challenge of the year!

May your Christmas be wonderful, and your elves (and children!) nice.

Thanks for looking!

Santa!? I know him!

Hey, friends!

I am over on the Ink Road Stamps blog today with a fun pocket page scrapbooking layout using the Happy Holla Days stamp set.

Go check out more details on the blog & snag you a set for all those holiday pics!

Thanks for looking!

Whatever works! - A Lasting Memories challenge

Another week, another fun challenge over at the Lasting Memories challenge blog.

This week's challenge is using a tic tac toe board with our December memories/Christmas theme.

Here's the board:

 I used sequins, stars, and wood veneer.

Can you believe I scrapped these photos the same day I took them?! I just had to tell this adorable story of my 2 year old meeting Santa, and I wanted to get it right.

Sometimes you just do whatever works to get the photo, am I right?!

I used my label maker to tie the journaling in with the bottom stamped quote from my IRS stamp set. I just thought it was so perfect since showing Santa the phone was the only way I could get the boy close enough for a happy photo!

Loving me some Nuvo glue, y'all! Check it out! It makes my wood veneers and sequins stick quite well.

I wrote atop some Heidi Swapp shine splatters.

I hope you will all go play along with this week's Lasting Memories tic tac toe challenge!

Thanks for looking!

I'm messy...

Are you messy?

I think we all probably are...

Today I'm over on the Ink Road blog today for Feature Friday, featuring the adorable Bun Intended stamp set. For my project I created a Bible journaling entry.

I really love how this turned out! I was inspired by a Sunday school class we had about the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and hair.

It was a great reminder that Jesus loves me, messy bun (or life) and all. This adorable bun stamp was so perfect for this spread. I used the hearts in different color pinks as well.

I colored my hair with Shimmerz paints and it sparkles & I love it. Wish my real hair would sparkle like that!

I used a rose gold ink to transform my small white alphas and create contrast.

I added some splatter for sure, which transformed some of the stamped hearts. This created a more "messy" look on the spread, which just brought my point home.

My Bible definitely need a new clip to accompany this layout, so I just grabbed some bits of ribbon and twine and combined them together on a golden paperclip.

I mean really? Isn't that bun the cutest!?

Don't forget to head over to the Ink Road Stamps blog & see what other adorable projects my fellow DT members created with this sweet little stamp set. I hope you're inspired to grab one and create for yourself.

Thanks for looking!

Queue the smiles - a LM challenge

Happy Sunday, friends!

I'm so happy to be back with the lovely lades over at Lasting Memories creating for their weekly challenges after a small break.

This week's challenge is one of my favorite kinds - a sketch challenge by one of my favorite sketch artists, Laura Whitaker.

The monthly theme is Holiday traditions. These photos are from our trip to Disneyworld last Christmas, taken in the line for an attraction, thus the play on the title.

Here's the original sketch:

These chubby cheeks lent themselves well to a circular cropped photo, but don't be afraid to use whichever shapes work for your photos, you can still use this same sketch!

I loved this little kit from Echo Park that already had some snowflakes printed on the paper. I added my own by stamps with Happy Holla Days from the Ink Road.

I used my new Dymo lable maker for the title, which worked perfectly wth the black accents in this EP kit. I also used a Tim Holtz tiny label sticker to cover part of this tag because I had to use it upside down!

Speaking of...I'm just going to leave this here...

bahahah! I saw this the other day and thought it was so hilarious!

I added some handwritten journaling, mostly to let people know I know "queue" is not the correct phrasing, but it's punny! LOL!

Supplies:
Papers - Echo Park
Snowflake stamps - Ink Road Stamps
Black alphas - Studio Calico
Labels - Dymo

Thanks for looking & go play long with Lasting Memories challenge this week!

I was a good girl this year...

Sooo good, in fact, that Santa visited me early!

I'm so excited to say I am now a published scrapbooker! I was very honored that Creative Scrapbooker magazine chose two of my holiday layouts to include in their Winter 2017 issue.

It's a thrill to see my creation(s) in print (I mean, I made those cute kids too, huh?! LOL). Here is the original layout, and you can find the blog post about it here.

Such a fun and festive page.  I had a lot of fun creating this one.

The second layout they chose was an 8.5x11 layout of my youngest son.

They prompted submissions of kraft paper layouts, and this was my interpretation. Here is the original, and you can find my original blog post about it here. You can also see a (rare for me) process video on the YouTubes here.

Look at those sweet, Christmas cheeks! How is it already that time of year again!?

I really am so appreciative to Creative Scrapbook Magazine for my first published layouts! Thank you!! I feel like this is a wonderful culimination of my scrappy year, as I feel as though I really accomplished some of my #goals. That'll be a sappy, close-to-the-new-year post to come. :)

Thanks for looking, friends!