April Stories

It was so hard to focus on packing up to move when I knew this amazing digital kit from Ali Edwards was just waiting for me to use! I held out as long as I could, but then the draw to tell my April stories was too strong this week, and I use some of the kit's digital stamps and journal cards to make two layouts.

The first layout goes back to my first love, which it's actually been a while since I've done - full page journaling that doubles as almost patterned paper. I added the photo on top with a little bit of dimension from foam dots, giving it a clean crease so it's easy to fold it down to keep reading the journaling, and then fold it back up to put away in the album.

When I do this, I like to to have some sort of tab to make flipping down the photo easier, so an Avery index tab and a stamp from the Week in the Life kit was the perfect fit!

Although I love all the simplicity of the text on the page, I knew I wanted to play with a bit more color, and considering that we are currently living in a maze of brown cardboard boxes, it was the perfect time to tell the story of my favorite tree before we move.

I wanted to be able to add this into my Project Life album, so I decided on a 6x8 and a 3x8, with the photo extending to both parts, and the journaling off to the side. I took the "sun please" from one of the kit's journal cards, changed it to white, and pt it right in the photo's sunny spot.  Many, how I am going to miss the sun coming through those blooms.

I think that what I love most about these kits is that they offer so much beautiful simplicity, you don't need much more to tell a great story. This come in handy when you realized you've already packed up more of your craft room. 

Make it Matter

I am so excited to share that the latest kit I designed for the Feed Your Craft shop, "Make it Matter" is now available. I love this theme of making, in all its many, many forms, and I am hoping that no matter what your crafty focus might be, this kit will touch on all or some of what you love to do as a maker.

It's packed with color, but lots of white space, too, a little respect for the blank canvas as well as the finished product.  I had a lot of fun using the kit to create this two page 6x8 and 3x8 layout that I plan to slip into my Project Life album for the year. 

I would love for you to consider picking up this kit for yourself, and even more so, I can't wait to see what you make with it, so if you grab one and put it to work, please tag me when you use it!  

You can get the kit as well as some complimentary flair in Elise's shop here, and you can see her amazing project she used the kit to create on her blog.

WITL 2017 Prep

With Week in the Life starting on Monday, I've done the only prep work I really ever do, which is to create my title page. There's something to making a page to start off my album that makes me excited to get started, and reminds me how much I love what this project offers me. 

During a great conversation with some amazing ladies about this project yesterday, I shared that this year's documentation is going to be really important to me, because it's the first one since leaving my day job and taking the leap to work for myself, the first time we will be packing up to move homes in almost a decade, and the first since losing mom.  I am as honest as I can be int he pages of these albums, I journal a good bit each day, and I include the best and worst parts of what comes along, and now, as I flip through the last three I've done, I can see all of these, and I am so eternally grateful to have it there on the page.  In part, it was working on, and looking back through these albums that gave me the courage the make some of the big changes I have in this past year.  Seeing my life for what it was, seeing how unhappy I was in some areas, and how alive and thankful I was in others, gave me the opportunity to decide the change what wasn't working.

Memory keeping is so much about being able to remain in touch with who we were, but it's also about making contact with who we can be, about seeing what we can do to make enough change to make that life possible, about seeing clearly what's so good in what we already have, and letting it be as good as it can be without doubting or overlooking it so much. This project, this seemingly small act of documenting a week in our lives, can really be one of the most important things we do for ourself if we're willing to be honest. 

If you're interested in seeing my previous albums, you can find them here:

2014

2015

2016

If you like the title page I created for my album this year, I am happy to share it with you!  You can download the file here.  If you like it and use it in your project, please share and tag me so I can see!

Eat

I was so excited for the March Story Kit, "Eat" from Ali Edwards, and at first, all I could think of were stories of my favorite foods, my sister's food phases growing up, my sometimes strange eating habits (you DO NOT want to see me eat a Snickers), but when I sat down to tell my first story, all I could think of was my dad's go-to line: everybody's gotta eat.

The digital kit gave me so much to work with to tell this story, and because I was a little short on time the day I pulled it together, I went all digital for this one. 

I used the "we eat" stamp to create my own patterned paper, and because the minute I started telling the story I realized it'd be much longer than half a page can hold, I went with my go-to two page layout. 

I think one of my favorite things about the themes of these kits is that the stories they encourage often surprise me.  i think I know what I want to say, and then before I know it, I am telling more of a story than I expected, and I am getting to the real story, the one I didn't even know was there.

It was both joyful and tough to tell this story, and the reality of missing my dad felt heavier than usual. The good news is that when the writing was all done, and I was putting the last touches on the page, alternating the stock pot and silverware stamps to create a pattern on the top of the journaling, there was lightness again, a lightness that makes me so grateful for getting those words on the page.

The physical kit sold out quickly, but the digital version is still available, and my hope is that seeing this all digital layout encourages you to pick it up and tell your stories of food, and what it means to nourish ourselves and others.

Fresh Start

For as long as I can remember, I've been a winter person, shunning all heat, content with the grey skies over sunny ones, but after this particularly rough winter (by PNW standards), I am so ready for spring. SO. READY.  

Luckily, Ali Edwards' March digital kit showed up for me just in time.  On a particularly glum day I dove into the kit and made two simple, but story heavy layouts in about an hour, and it was so, so good for the head and heart. 

For the first one, I knew I wanted to tell the story about fresh flowers in our home, and I was dying to use a photo I snapped of the bouquet I bought myself as part of my Valentine's tradition.  I wanted to make it the focal point, but I also wanted to write quite a bit, so a two page spread was perfect!

I used the digital "fresh start" stamp to give the photo a little more presence and title on the left page. In order for the first word to be white, and the second to be black, I did a simple digital step that I learned this last year, and because I know that there must be more of you like me who are learning as you go with these programs, I wanted to share a simple video about how I brought together the digital elements of this hybird page, and you can watch it here:

For the next layout, I wanted to use more of the awesome colors from the kit (green is absolutely tugging on my heart strings lately). The triangle in the kit are perfection, and just what I'd been looking for to use to build my own pattern on a page. Because the focus of this layout is more about the story than the photos, I used the clipping mask technique to format a couple of images as triangles to help illustrate the story, making them less of the focal point, which I love sometimes.

I LOVE hybrid pages because you can make a simple page that you can print out and love as-is, or you can add an easy physical embellishment and really make it pop.  For this layout, I printed out doubles of some of the triangles, cut them out, and adhered them on top of the page with adhesive foam dots to give them a little lift, and to draw the eye to some of my favorites.  So simple, but it can make such a difference to the final look.  Plus, my motto seems to be "pop dots forever" so it's really no surprise they're there.

Just in case you haven't used a clipping mask before, or want to see how I put together the digital portion of this layout, here's a quick video walkthrough of how I was able to pull these pieces together:

Bond Story Kit

I was a little nervous about this month's Story Kit theme. I knew that so close after losing mom, those would be the only stories that I would simultaneously want, and not want, to tell. Of course, I ended up telling one of her stories, our stories, but by the last word of journaling, it felt so good to get it down on paper, that I felt so grateful for the nudge to get it told. Some times the smallest stories are the ones we most need to get out, and this was no exception.  

I was spurred by the stitched style heart in the kit, so using the digital file, I printed these and added them to my hybrid page with a little hand stitching, using some of mom's old thread to make it even more meaningful.

By using my photo as the background, it allowed me to tie the journaling and the image together across the two pages, tucking the digital stamps, one on each page, into the layout and letting them more subtly encourage the narrative instead of being big, bold titles.

Because to much of my layout was digital, keeping it very flat in a lot of ways, popping up some of those stitched hearts with foam dots called a little bit more attention to them, and I love that bit of character, wonky though they may be, added to this story.

I also wanted to share these photos I added some of the digital stamps to for my Project Life, not because they're earth shatteringly creative, but because it's a good reminder sometimes how a simple, well designed digital stamp, in just basic black or white, can make a photo tell a story before the journaling is even complete.  I love that.  

Don't forget to pick up your kit for this month and tell those stories of the bonds in your life - I promise you, it's worth it.

February 2017 Essentials by Ellen Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome from Sharon Harnist's blog!  

Welcome to the February 2017 Essentials by Ellen Release Hop! I’ll be showcasing several of the new products on my post today!

It’s a good thing you are here because I’m giving away an Essentials by Ellen stamp set!  The winner may chose any in stock Essentials by Ellen brand stamp set  (Maximum value $25 USD) at Ellen Hutson.com  To enter, please leave a comment on today’s post by Tuesday, February 28!

There is also an AMAZING Grand Giveaway on the CLASSroom!  To enter, be sure to leave a comment there, too, by Tuesday, February 28!

ALL winners will be announced at the CLASSroom on Friday, March 3! Please check there on that date to see if you are a winner and for further details on claiming your prize!

If you get lost along the hop, please visit the CLASSroom blog for a complete list of all the designers.

Happy hoppin’!

Now it's time for some sharing! I've been so excited to get to show you what I made using some of the sets from the release!

I started out using the Spa Day set to make a couple small cards that I could tuck into packages I send to friends. I'm always digging through my stash looking for smaller pieces to add notes to, only to find there's not much there, so being able to use some of the smaller elements from this set to make a colorful, fun card for these occasions was perfect!

The best part about stamp sets is that you can always mix and match, getting the most out of your collection, and always finding new ways to have fun! I use the towel clad girl from this same Spa Day set along with the mirror from the Mirror Mirror, and a phrase from Make it Beautiful to make this dimensional card:

I stamped the sentiment on a piece of clear transparency, layering it over the girl to give a glassy effect, and make the mirror come to life.

I went back to the Make it Beautiful stamp and die set to created my next two pieces, using them in very different ways.

Using sentiment stamps to create a background pattern is one of my favorite ways to give a project a little more character, and this reminder of how beautiful we are inside and out is a great one to use this way. I used watercolor pencils to add a pop of color to the makeup die cuts so that they'd stand out a bit against the simplicity of the black and white background.

The last project I'm sharing with you today is a different kind, because although I'm getting more and more comfortable with the art of card making (though I'm no Julie Ebersole, that lady is amazing, but I'm figuring it out), Scrapbooking is still my first love. I used the Make it Beautiful set to tell the story of the makeup I don't wear, and the Bubblegum Lip Smackers that I do (and have since I was little).  I had so much fun embossing a slightly sparkly pink bit of gloss with these lipgloss wands, keeping the colors of the layout simple, but true to the story.

Thank you so much for joining us in this hop! Now it's time to head over and see what beautiful and inspiring creations Stephanie Klauck has in store for you on her blog!

This post contains affiliate links.  Looking for the supplies I used to make these projects: Find them here:

Derwent Watercolour Collection, Set of 24

WOW Embossing Powder, Regular - Clear Gloss

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

Scrapbook Adhesives 3-D Foam Squares, Small Black

The View From Here

I am so excited to share the newest kit I designed for Feed Your Craft!  The View From Here releases today, and since I've already been sneaking it into my layouts and Project Life spreads for  while, I can safely and honestly tell you, it's a good one.  This month's kit focuses on photography, perspective, and being present in this life we're living right now. 

I mixed it up for this release day project, and used two of the cards from the digital printable to make this layout, with the "Perspective is everything" card cropped as the top title, and the more geometric cut style card used as a template of sorts that I added my photo to in order to create this pieced together look.

I tucked the journaling underneath by way of a pull out heart tab, giving me a bright and bold look, but still allowing me to have all the words I needed to tell the story of this moment.

You can pick up your own kit in the Feed Your Craft shop, and don't forget to head over to Elise's blog to see the awesome way she's been working with it!

Thank you to all of you for making this adventure possible - your support means the world to us, and we couldn't do it without you!