Core'dinations Design Team Call

Ask me what my favorite cardstock is...Go ahead, ask!  Well, that's easy!  I really LOVE Core'dinations Cardstock!  I love that it comes in a TON of colors!  I love that it textured!  But most of all, I LOVE THE COLOR CORE!  I can tear this paper and see a coordinating color inside.  I can also emboss and sand it too (or just sand, for a distressed look).  And I can't forget my most favorite thing to do with Core'dinations papers is to cut them in my Silhouette Cameo digital die cut machine.  All of their beautiful papers cut like butter in the Silhouette!

All these reasons came to mind when I saw that Core'dinations is having a Design Team Call!  I was recently chosen to be a part of the Craft Warehouse Design Team and I think that being a part of the Core'dinations team would be the perfect match for me.  I use Core'dinations papers on almost all my scrapbook layouts and papercrafting projects.  I can't imagine a project that wouldn't look a little nicer with some textured cardstock that has a fun colored core!

So, here I go...Core'dinations asked to see three projects featuring their amazing papers.  These projects are  some that I think show you lots of options for using Core'dinations papers and ones I think you'll enjoy seeing.  As always, I use a lot of color in my projects, along with some fun cuts from my Silhouette.  I hope you like them!

For this layout, the kids jumping in the pool reminded me of a clothesline.

I found the Loads of Fun die cut shape from Samantha Walker and altered it to fit my vision.

I added the flower & number 12 to the shirts and then I wanted to find a fun girls' swimsuit for

my clothesline, I found the Bikini by Sarah Bailey.  It was perfect with the addition of tiny holes for polka dots.  I love the way the Silhouette Cameo cuts such intricate shapes into the

Core'dinations papers!  Next, I used some tiny sanding tools to add a little texture to

my die cuts.  Distressing my little clothes lets you see the coordinating color inside the textured

cardstock and gives this layout that extra 'something'! 

Here are some close ups of this fun summer layout:

Next, I want to share a card I made this week with my favorite collection from Core'dinations,

the Vintage Collection.  I LOVE the Vintage Collection because you can see both colors of the paper in the texture without tearing or embossing it!  The Vintage papers give every layout an added color and texture without me doing a thing! My most favorite of all the hundreds of Core'dinations papers is Kisses from the Vintage Collection.  Kisses is the most perfect red for all my projects and, of course, its texture and colors give my projects and added depth I can't get with any other cardstock.

But back to my project!

I found this rainbow quote and the design of this card just popped right into my mind.

I used my Silhouette Software to design my own rainbow.

(I can explain how I did this, just let me know if you're interested in a post on it in the comments!)

I cut the entire rainbow out of each of the six yummy sheets of Core'dinations Vintage Collection papers.

Then I chose one of each color (in different sizes) and laid them together on my embossing folder.

This one is from Lifestyle Crafts.

After embossing the pieces, I used a sander to sand over the textured sections.  In this photo, the red and purple pieces have been completely sanded, while the blue piece has only been sanded on the right half.

You can see how much the design 'jumps' out of the Core'dinations papers when they are sanded

to reveal the inside core color of the paper.

I found this banner in my Silhouette library.  I used a Silhouette Sketch Pen and my own handwriting font to print the quote onto my banner.  Then, I cut the center of the banner.  The paper for the center of the banner is from the Core'dinations Whitewash Collection, and is called Washboard.

I cut the ends of the banner from metallic gold paper to symbolize the gold at the end of the rainbow.

I was very happy with the way the Silhouette Sketch Pens worked perfectly with the textured

Core'dinations paper!

For my last project, I want to share a double page spread layout I created to showcase

my daughter's birthday photos.

On this layout, I tore and sanded to reveal the coordinating bright colors inside the cardstock.

I love the way this paper adds just a little extra flair to my page!

 Here are some close ups of the Core'dinations papers at work!

I hope you enjoyed my projects featuring Core'dinations papers!

I also want to let you know that I'm in the middle of redesigning by blog and moving it over to juliechats.com

All of this should be finished by next week!

Stop over and LIKE my Facebook page for last minute details in case this site is down and 

the new on isn't quite ready yet!

Family Love Layout - Layout of the Week

This week I'm sharing another layout I created Plus Corp's CHA booth at the Winter 2014 show.  When I saw the new Vintage Camera Decorative Roller Stamp from Plus Corp., I almost jumped up & down!  I LOVE anything with a camera on it!  I immediately knew which paper I wanted to combine with this awesome stamp.  The Camera Bag paper from October Afternoon's Travel Girl collection was the PERFECT paper to complement the camera stamp.  Once I had the stamp and my paper, I headed to Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio (the LSS where I work here in Beaverton, Oregon).  I knew that we would have some great solids to coordinate for my layout.

When I first started planning this layout, I didn't know which photo I would use, only that I just HAD to make a layout with this super cute camera stamp.  I started to consider photos and realized that we had just had our family photos taken right before our Disneyland trip.  I have a friend who is an AMAZING photographer and a teacher too (in her spare time...ha ha!)  If you're in the Portland-Vancouver area, please consider her for your family and senior photos! Check out her website Stacy Major Photography.

I decided to use my shiny silver metallic paper as the background and layer gray and aqua on top of it.  I mounted my photo on a black matte and placed it on a horizontal strip of gray textured paper.  Next, I rolled my Decorative Roller Stamp with its cute cameras across a piece of textured white cardstock from American Crafts.  I really like the vintage look the textured cardstock gives to this stamp.  What would normally be a solid black impression is distressed using textured paper.  I worked at getting the stamp straight by laying my paper down next to a ruler and making every effort to roll my stamp perfectly along the ruler.  I think it took about three tries to create a camera strip to my liking.  And, just in case you have one of the Decorative Roller Stamps from Plus Corp. and are unhappy with the impressions you get at first, be sure to grab a piece of printer paper and roll the stamp around until your image is clear and perfect.  The images on the stamps I used did not come out perfectly on the first try.  Some black ink was printed in between the cameras and other images on the other stamps I used for my projects.  After rolling them around on printer paper a few times, the images began to come out perfectly clear with no black ink in between. To create a focal point, I used a vertical strip of the camera paper behind my photo, tearing and distressing its edges by rolling them back & forth between my fingers.  

Even though we are wearing gray and white in our photos, I decided to print my photo in black & white for this layout.  I really love the look of black and white and it looked perfect with the palette of aqua, gray and silver I chose to go with my October Afternoon paper.  I used my SMASH date stamp next to my photo, so we'll remember when we had this fun family photo shoot.  After stacking and adhering my papers, I used my sewing machine to machine stitch aqua, gray and white thread in a combination of zig zag and straight stitches.  I like the effect the stitching adds to my project, it coordinates with the vintage look of my camera stamps stamped on textured paper.  It also contrasts with the shiny silver paper and bold sans serif  Bebas font I used for my title.  Last summer, it seemed like everyone on the internet was hashtag (#) crazy, so I thought it would be fun to use one of the hashtags I use on Instagram as my title.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the title.  #familylove is a hashtag I try to use on all my family photos, so I will be able to easily find them when I want to share them.

For embellishments, I chose a couple groupings of sequins and one tiny wood veneer camera from Studio Calico.  I painted this camera just like the cameras I used in my Wood Veneer Camera Shadow Box blog post.  I used pewter mist from Luminarte as paint, read about it in my shadow box post.

This was another fun chance to create with a brand new product.  I have some more projects created for Plus Corp.'s booth at CHA and I'll share them soon!  In case you missed last week's post, I shared my Disney Carsland Layout using another new roller stamp from Plus Corp and 2014 winter release stamps from Technique Tuesday.

Sharing this project over at 

The Link Party Palooza!

So much fun over there, be sure to stop by & check out all the great St. Patrick's Day & Easter theme projects!

"Say Cheese" Disney Carsland Layout - Layout of the Week

A few months ago, I was asked to create some layouts by Plus Corp. for the Winter 2014 CHA show.  I was really excited to have a chance to work with Plus Corp's brand new Decorative Roller Stamps and Decorative Tapes.  The stamps I used were so new, I had one of the only sets in the US to play with!  Fun Fun!  With 12 roller stamps and 12 decorative tapes to choose from, I just had to grab some recent photos and use my imagination to create some super fun projects.  My very favorite project is this layout featuring a photo of our family with Lightning McQueen.  Our August trip to Disneyland and California Adventure was AMAZING!  And I was SO happy that I purchased the Disney Photo Pass CD full of our trip photos.  Knowing ahead of time that I would probably want to buy the CD, I was sure to have our photo taken by the Disney photographers every chance we got!  I love the CD and all of our photos, but I do wish that there were more photographers and photographers with every character we met.  It was strange that our photos with Mickey & Minnie in Toon Town had to be taken on our cameras.  It would have been nice to have professional ones with these characters.  But, all in all, I was very impressed with the quality of the photos and excited at the opportunity to reprint my photos many times, in any size I want!

This photo is from our very first day in the theme parks.  My little guy, Jake, has always been obsessed with the Cars movies and their characters, so of course, Lightning McQueen was at the top of his list of characters to meet.  To this day, he still tells everyone who will listen that Lightning McQueen lives in Disneyland and that he met him!  Such a fun memory!  We had just about every photo shot with our whole family and then again with just the kids.  I wanted as much versatility as I could get for my projects later.

For this layout, I looked to the photo for my color palette.  Bright red, electric yellow and black are classic Disney colors and help me show off Lightning too!  Putting them on a white background helps them jump off the page!  Textured white cardstock from American Crafts is my go-to white paper, it's a perfectly bright white and cuts like butter on my Silhouette Cameo.  To give my white background a more custom look, I used a paint brush to splatter acrylic paint onto the paper.  The black & yellow paints are regular acrylic from Kaisercraft, but the red is DecoArt Ultra Gloss Acrylic Enamel (usually used for painting glass).  I love how the red splotches are SO shiny!  I looked through my stash and the local scrapbook store where I work to come up with supplies for my layout.  Polka dots always make me think of Minnie and Disney, so I choose some polka dot elements in my color palette and grabbed my Mickey outline punch and Disney castle punch (I bought those years ago in Disneyland).

I arranged my elements on the page and balanced them out with another little cluster down in the bottom right corner with a little tag & some washi and a castle.

The new black honeycomb roller stamp from Plus Corp. was the perfect thing to mimic tire treads going across my page.  I used colored pencil to few in a few hexagons here & there.

For my title, I used the brand new "Say Cheese" stamp set from Technique Tuesday.  I stamped "cheese" with Versamark ink and embossed it in glossy red.  I used a couple of the hashtag word stamps from the set around my page, stamping them onto tags I cut on my Silhouette Cameo.  I inked the top tag in red before stamping it to help it stand out from my page.

This is one of my favorite layouts ever!  It was fun working with the new roller stamps from Plus Corp., along with the 2014 "Say Cheese" stamp set from Technique Tuesday too!  Stay tuned to this blog next when I share another Plus Corp. CHA sample!

Teacher Appreciation Layouts - Layout of the Week

This week is a very important week in schools all across America!  It's Teacher Appreciation Week!  This week was a huge deal in my daughter's elementary school.  And it still is!  Even though she's moved on to  middle school and her brother doesn't start elementary school until next year, I was asked to pitch in during this special week.  I'm sure it doesn't hurt that I work our local scrapbook store.  Those volunteers know just who to ask when these projects come up!

One of the mom's at the school came up with the idea of having each child in the school (about 600) create a scrapbook layout for his or her teacher.  Some kids also created layouts for the "specials" teachers: music, library and technology.  In an effort to include the office staff in this fun project, a mom contacted me and asked me to design pages for the principal and the three ladies who work in the office.  Of course, I was delighted to help.  These ladies were part of my and my daughter's life for six years and will be a part of my son's life for the next six years!

When I thought about what types of layouts to create, I was looking for something simple & graphic, that I could reproduce pretty easily for four people.  I think that the teachers will be receiving albums full of pages from their students.  I'm not sure exactly how my layouts will be presented to the office ladies, but I think they would be perfect in frames to hang on the wall.

I am really excited that our store will be getting the retail version of Project Life very soon and so I thought I'd create a PL style layout for these projects.  I also have a few fun ideas that I'm going to start designing soon to sell in the store and on etsy.  I'll be back with details, once the products are ready for sale.  So I had some ideas floating around in my head that I wanted to try out.

Our store (Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio in Beaverton, Oregon) sells tons of custom paper for local schools.  We order our paper from Scrappin' Sports, and of course, my elementary school is one that we order.  Check with your local scrapbook store if you'd like to create a project like this at your school.  I'm sure they have a vendor who can create custom paper for them.

Our school colors are red and black, so I stuck with a red, black & white theme for the layouts.  I used American Crafts textured white paper and World Win non-textured black paper, along with stamps by Technique Tuesday and ink from Tim Holtz & Ranger.  The cute black chevron washi is from Glitz.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to create custom PL style cards for the pages too!

A parent provided me with the photos.  Most were horizontal, so for three layouts, the horizontal layout worked perfectly.  For the fourth layout, I used two vertical photos and turned the layout 90 degrees, printing and cutting my rectangles vertically.

These layouts were a lot of fun to create!  I think I'm going to use this idea as a Teacher Appreciation gift in the future!  Create a layout and grab a white or black square frame & you're set.  I even created cards for a 5th layout, so I can make one for my daughter with a couple special photos from her last day of 5th grade!

Check out my fun idea and TONS of other amazing ideas over at the link party on Today's Creative Blog!  Tuesday is 'Get Your Craft On' day!  You'll find SO many cool ideas there every week, you'll wonder why you hadn't found it before!  Oh, be sure to tell Kim (Creator & Diva of TCB) HI and that Julie from JulieChats sent you!

Layout of the Week - My Happy Place

Most of my layouts come straight out of my own mind.  I usually get inspired by my photos or new papers & supplies at the store.  But from time to time, I see a layout I just have to "scraplift"!  There are just some layouts that appeal to me so much, I have to honor them by recreating them, with a little Julie-spin.  Lately, I've been getting a lot of inspiration from Instagram.  I stumbled across the Chic Tags blog just this way.  After seeing the fun creations from Chic Tags on Instagram, I've been checking their blog for inspiration.  And a couple of weeks ago, I found a layout that begged me to recreate it!  Created by Kasia, who lives in Turkey, the "Today was Awesome!" layout had me smitten!

I love everything about this layout!  Now, someday, I really do plan to recreate this layout in the colors that Kasia used.  But, in this case, I had already chosen papers & photos and just needed to use this layout for its design...as more of a sketch or plan.

Being obsessed with color, I chose to add my Julie-spin by creating a layout full of bright colors, letting Kasia's overall page design guide the placement of my elements.

To start, I hand trimmed my dotted paper and used my sewing machine to stitch it to one of my very favorite colors of cardstock, Ruby from the Vintage Collection of Core'dinations.  I liked the idea of continuing the dot theme, so I searched the Silhouette Online Store until I found the Linked Welded Rings cut that I could duplicate, rotate and weld to create a background similar to Kasia's.

I cut it in a dark teal, Stargaze from American Crafts.  Then I went back and deleted out the center of all my circles and cut that in white to create a background.  I love using the Luminarte Mists from Splash of Color (previously Creative Imaginations), so I used a paint brush and water to wet the white background and then dripped four colors of the mist onto the paper.  I let the white pieces dry before adhering them to the circle pieces.

Next I gathered some tags & other embellishments, some old, some new to give my page a graphic look similar to Kasia's. I chose some stickers from the Fancy Pants kit, along with a couple Technique Tuesday stamps and my SMASH date stamp.

I love how my page turned out, with tons of color and lots of layers & textures.  If you're having trouble layering your embellishments, just remember to lay everything down and move it around a lot until you like the result.  THEN start from the bottom adhering the back pieces first.  Adding pop dots to a few of your embellishments gives some depth to your creation, just be sure to pick only a few.  Everything doesn't need to be "popped up"!

I hope this "scrap-lift" shows you how you can use your inspiration layout as a sketch and think of its design elements in your own way to create something original that shows a little bit of you!

Check out my fun idea and TONS of other amazing ideas over at the link party on Today's Creative Blog!  Tuesday is 'Get Your Craft On' day!  You'll find SO many cool ideas there every week, you'll wonder why you hadn't found it before!  Oh, be sure to tell Kim (Creator & Diva of TCB) HI and that Julie from JulieChats sent you!

Supplies:

Paper:

Core'dinations Vintage Collection Ruby

Fancy Pants Down by the Shore: Colorful Days

American Crafts Textured Cardstock: Stargaze

Colormates Non-Textured Cardstock: Light Heritage White

Stickers:

Fancy Pants Down by the Shore: Sticker Fundamentals

Tags:

Peterson Arne: White & Yellow Mulberry

Creative Cafe: Together

Stamps:

Technique Tuesday: Awesome and Studio AE: My Life

K & Company: SMASH Date Stamp

Ink:

Versamark Watermark

Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Splash of Color Luminarte Radiant Rain Mists:

      Bashful Blue

      Ginger Peach

      Key Lime

      Sunburst

Embossing Powder:

Ranger: Rich Red

American Crafts: Zing in Cricket

Misc.:

Scrapbook Adhesives: 3D Foam Squares

Yellow Thread

Layout of the Week - Me & My Peeps

I know that no matter how hard we try to "keep up" with our scrapbooking, there are so many things in life that "get in the way".  Actually, it's all the amazing things we strive to record that "get in the way".  I willingly admit that I am YEARS behind in scrapbooking, if keeping up is measured chronologically....  I'm not sure when this "being behind" started.  Over the years, I have gotten less and less concerned with "keeping up".  The very first time I remember realizing that being "current" with my scrapbooking is not important was reading about the scrapbooking philosophy of Cathy Zielske.  Cathy was a big part of Simple Scrapbooking magazine and has a great philosophy of keeping things simple and following your own path as far as scrapbooking is concerned.  Read some of Cathy's idea's in a blog post about "Taking the 'Crap' Out of Scrapbooking".  After you read it,  you'll see some of the reasons why I'm not concerned with "keeping up" any more.

I love creating and scrapbooking is a way for me to create and working in a scrapbook store, doing this blog, teaching classes and giving advice are all parts of the creative process for me.  So, if you have always stressed about "keeping up" with your scrapbooking, take this opportunity to think about what it might be like to let go and concentrate more on being creative and telling the important stories.

But, as a nod to my family who loves to browse through their photos, I've found a way to combine my simple, non-chronological style with a new-to-me way to create a very simple, chronological albums.  I plan to continue using Cathy's philosophy of telling my family's stories when I create layouts.  I love the idea of choosing which stories I create whole page layouts for.  As far as regular, everyday life and creating albums that my family can sit and flip through, I plan to create a 2013 album using the Project Life system by Becky Higgins when it arrives in our store.  I love the idea of sticking my photos into divided page protectors, journaling on a card and having that be it...unless I decide to get creative with it, which I'm sure I'll do from time to time.  I love how I can stick a layout or two in between the divided page protectors whenever I feel like it.  Using the idea of combining both types of scrapbooking, I can cater to my philosophy of creating whole page layouts whenever I choose and also, please my husband and kids by providing actual books of their photos for them to look through and share.  (Yes, my husband has been known to comment "If you spend so much time scrapbooking, where are the scrapbooks?  I'd like to SEE our photos!")

I'm really excited about creating an album that combines the philosophies of both Cathy & Becky!  I think this will be perfect for me and my family.  They will have something to look at filled with their memories and I  will be able to create a fun, story telling layout whenever I find the perfect paper or embellishment...or inspiration strikes!

As far as those of you who really are keeping up :), I thought I'd share a layout I created a couple of weeks ago.  It's an Easter layout, so it's perfect, since you'll be working with this most recent holiday now.... ;)  And for those of us who are not so caught up, feel free to be inspired to create a layout for any Easter you have photos for!  That's what I did.  I used photos from a couple of Easters ago, since that's when Delaney created her "Peep Army."  Seeing this cut on the Silhouette Online store inspired me on this one.  I remembered taking photos of Delaney dipping tons of Peeps in chocolate and lining them up on a plate.  We all know there are times when a product or memory inspires us to create a page.  So, when I have time to go back & create a Project Life album for 2011, I can slip this layout in the Easter section.  Until then, I'll happily slide it into my family's album of miscellaneous memories...after it comes down off the wall at the store, anyway!

Here's some Easter inspiration for you...

For this layout, I used a bright, "Spring-y" paper with a pattern for my background.  The glazed & glittered paper from Best Creations gave a pop to my simple layout and perfectly matched my Peeps die cut.  When I saw the "Me & My Peeps" cut in the Sihouette store, I knew just which photos I had to go with it.  I cut the title out of some deep dark chocolate paper from American Crafts and found some super bright, non-textured cardstock in my stash to match the colors of actual Peeps.  I added an outline to the cut in order to have a place to mount the peeps and cut it from non-textured white cardstock.  After cutting the cute little Peeps, I inked the entire surface of each one with Versamark watermark ink and embossed with an old jar of embossing powder that says "turquoise sparkle" on the label.  I'm not going to lie, embossing the entire surface of the little guys was a challenge...I ended up with a couple burned fingers...but the overall look was worth my pain...cute little sparkly, sugared Peeps!

With such a large embellishment and four large photos, I decided on a step by step sort of layout, I put the photos on my layout in a clockwise fashion after mounting them on white non-textured cardstock, to help them stand out.  At this point, I thought my layout needed a little extra something...so I used one of my favorite stamps right now, the arrow from Technique Tuesday's "Awesome" stamp set to help guide the eye through my sequence of photos.

I ended up with a little extra space on the right side and decided to add a turquoise vellum tag stamped with the date of my photos as a finishing touch.

So, whether this layout inspires you to create pages for Easter 2013 or another holiday entirely, remember that however you choose to scrapbook your memories is the "right" way!  Really, the choices are endless...chronological albums, albums for each member of your family, digital albums, photobooks, Project Life, mini albums for special events...they are all ways of recording our memories to share with others!!!

Check out my fun idea and TONS of other amazing ideas over at the link party on Today's Creative Blog!  Tuesday is 'Get Your Craft On' day!  You'll find SO many cool ideas there every week, you'll wonder why you hadn't found it before!  Oh, be sure to tell Kim (Creator & Diva of TCB) HI and that Julie from JulieChats sent you!

Silhouette Class...Lesson 1

OK, I was more than EXCITED to have WON a Silhouette Cameo from Kim over at Today's Creative, back in January!  If you've got one on your Wish List, you'll want to move it to the top, as quickly as you can!  And remember to check over on Kim's blog, she just gave another one away last week and who knows when there might be another giveaway!  (Follow my JulieChats Facebook page & I'll be sure to let you know when I see another giveaway!)

Since receiving the machine, I've created some small projects...pieces for kits I'm designing for a workshop series at the store, some cute Project Life cards (no, I'm not doing PL, but these cards are TOO cute to pass up) and I even created some theme party items for my daughter's 11 birthday Rock Climbing Party.  I promise to share all the details of the Rock Climbing Party in a separate post, very soon!  There are just too many photos and details to create a post right now.

After some experimentation with my brand new Silhouette Cameo, I read a Facebook post from the Queen of Online Digital Scrapbook Classes...Jessica Sprague where she announced that Kerri Bradford would be teaching a Silhouette class.  The class is called Silhouette: Getting to Know You and you can find it HERE.  I signed up for the class and started Lesson 1 today.  Right now, the class is on sale for $19 and it's a bargain!  You have access to it FOREVER and it comes with tons of great Silhouette patterns too!

Now, being a person who gave her best effort with the Pazzle machine (The store where I work owns one and I had it at home for year and wished I could throw it out the window at least a couple times a week!)  So I did have a rudimentary knowledge of the type of program that comes with the Silhouette.  So I moved very quickly through the first few parts of Lesson 1.  But WOW, there were so many tips and new things to learn about organizing my files, the Silhouette store (I didn't know there were files on sale each week!  HELLO!) and I learned some great things about the program that I didn't know before that will make using it SO easy!

Well, at the end of Lesson 1, we cut out a circular flower card and the sentiment Thanks.  Given my current love of mist (I used Luminarte Radiant Rain mists in Ginger Flower and Blue Flame), I couldn't resist misting the petals (they were meant as negative space to be tossed out) and sticking them back over the die cut card.  I also inked the edges of the card with some fun Eggplant chalk ink from Inkadinkado.  I cut my card from some white card stock with small white flecks in it...not sure where it came from...and my Thanks. out of some amazing shimmering purple cardstock from Peterson Arne...don't have any details on it either....

I think the card turned out pretty cute and I can't wait to get to Lesson 2 of the class!  I'll try to share my creation after I complete that step too!

If you own a Silhouette, you should definitely give this class a try!

Here are some step by step photos of my little card...

Such a fun little card!  It would also be cute for Christmas, as a card or gift tag!

 This photo shows the box after the petals were removed!  Remember to always mist in a box,

and for an even shimmer of color, spray at the BACK of the box

and let the mist "rain" down on your die cuts.

I LOVE the finished product!  A few of these tied with a ribbon would make great teacher gifts!

2012...Be Inspired, Get Organized, LEARN

Wow, it's sure been a while since I've blogged...maybe it's about a lack of time or maybe it's about a lack of inspiration...maybe it's a bit of both.

But, as I attempt my first Roundup (I'm inspired by Katie Nelson, just took a class from her at Big Picture Classes, check out the Roundup section on her blog for more info.), of January 2012, I took a few minutes to read through some emails I've been meaning to get to.  I had 5 emails from the Ali Edwards series 52 Creative Lifts that I had been waiting to read.  While my January photos uploaded to Costco, seemed like the perfect time to get to them.  Reading through these weekly emails, inspired me to head over here and write a post about what I'm up to this year.

First, I began January thinking about my One Little Word for 2012.  WAY back in 2010, I decided on BELIEVE and ACHIEVE for my word(s) :).  I set goals for myself that had to do with blogging, losing weight and working on my finances.  I have to say that, as is usually my habit, I began with a strong focus on my goals and LIFE got in the way.  When it was time for 2011, I had helped my finances by taking a 2nd part time job, but doing so had squeezed out time to concentrate on blogging or anything else.  It seems to take me quite a while to "right my ship" when I encounter a big change like this, so here I am in 2012, forcing myself to make time to be creative (that might even include some blogging here & there).  With Jake in preschool, even for only 2 mornings a week, I can do some of my second job (transcription) during the mornings and not just into the wee hours of the night.  Getting just a little more sleep sure helps with the creativity and motivation!

So back to that 2012 word....mine is LEARN!

One of my huge goals is to learn Photoshop!  I purchased two online classes at Jessica Sprague .com and now I have to make the time to go through them so I feel like I have a better handle on Photoshop.  I would LOVE to use it in my regular scrapbooking AND to get started with some digi scrapbooking (I bought a subscription to The Digi Game over at The Daily Digi last year and I'm SO excited about all the great digi items I get for only $7.50 a month).  I have used a few of my digi elements to create invitations and some other fun little projects, but I have yet to complete a real scrapbook layout!  So I really need to get to those PS classes! (I did make my LEARN tag with PS and a kit from the Digi Game, but it took me forever and I can't figure out how to just use the part I want and not a rectangle background...time for the classes!)

As a part of my effort to create enough time to LEARN in 2012, I thought I'd better get organized!  I have read Katie's blog for a few years and have always admired how she rounds up each month at the beginning of the next month and then moves on.  (Read how Katie explains Roundups HERE on her blog!)I took her Roundup Class in January, over at Big Picture Classes and it inspired me to design a Monthly Roundup Workshop at Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio, where I'm in charge of all the marketing, while also teaching & designing.  I wanted to share Katie's basic technique and help the participants form a sort of support group that will meet each month to create a Roundup layout and also discuss the different ways that we can incorporate Katie's technique in regular paper scrapbooking in many different forms.  I want to share the ideas I am finding on creativity, inspiration and organizing with the group.  So, I guess, here I am using my LEARN to teach and share too!

In the first couple days of 2012, LEARNing Photoshop was a major goal of mine, and then it was pushed slightly aside when I was the LUCKY winner of a Silhouette Cameo die cutting machine on The Today's Creative Blog!  I was SO excited to win, that organizing my scrapbook studio and making a space for my new toy on my crowded tables became a more urgent goal!  And, now that the Silhouette has arrived, LEARNing it's software has become my most pressing creative goal!  I am SO happy that the software is easy to use (I have previously used the Pazzles Pro software, so it may have come quicker to me that it might to others).  I LOVE being able to download cool designs right from the Silhouette website for only 99 cents!  I have used the $10 download card included with my machine to grab a few die cuts for my Roundup workshop and I'm excited to share them with everyone who attends!

Now that my studio is more organized, I find it's easier to run up here and cut a few shapes or finish a project.  (Another goal of mine is to finish some projects that are half finished and filling a box under my table...having that box empty at the end of 2012, would be an amazing accomplishment!)  I am also hoping that having things more organized will allow me to get started on a project I have been procrastinating since November.  I am creating a custom album for a friend, I think I my reasons for procrastinating are both emotional and then just plain procrastination.  This album is very personal to me, being a celebration of a close friend's life.  Brent died in 2003 and thinking about creating this album gives me feelings of joy, being able to honor someone who is so important to my family and feelings of sadness at the memories being in the past.  But now that I have the perfect space, I will press on and find joy in remembering someone so special.

I'm confident the book will turn out beautiful and hope that it will be the beginning of a new chapter for me, creating custom albums at home in my studio.

In order to keep my word, LEARN, foremost in my mind during 2012, I have signed up for the One Little Word class, taught by Ali Edwards, over at Big Picture Classes.  I signed up a bit late, so I'm still getting my book started, but I think that the little exercises aimed at getting to know my word and making it part of my life will be perfect lessons for this year!  I am excited at the idea of exploring my word a little bit each month!  I promise to share what I'm "learning" about my word this year.  I'd love to know what your word is for 2012 too!  So leave me a comment & we can chat! ;)

I've also decided that I need to LEARN to knit this year!  During January, I have been able to learn one stitch...the knit stitch.  I'm not pushing myself and I'm not sure how far I will get on this journey this year, but I'll keep you updated!