Lovin' this.

I love finishing projects just as much (if not more) than making them, and today I finished two.

1. My moleskine journal. I use it to write my favorites whenever I think of it. I'm shooting for once a month, but I'm a totally sporadic journaler. I wanted to make the cover something really happy, so I just kept adding and adding and adding layers. I LOVE IT! It's different than my usual style, but I have a feeling that this new layered style is going to be showing up a little more often now. :)
close-upppp
Supplies: Journal- Moleskine, Patterned Paper- Sassafras (Lines) and American Crafts (Floral), Cardstock- Bazzill, Black Ink- StazOn by Tsukineko, Embossing Ink and Powder- Ranger, Colored Pencils- Prisma (Grey) and Crayola (all others), Paper Flowers- Prima, Stamps- Hero Arts, Chipboard Letter- Basic Grey, Paint- Making Memories, Thread- DMC.

2. My 2007 Disney mini album. I finished putting it together today and now I just have to decorate the interior pages. It won't be much, though- it's already sooo thick. I love it, though. It's the perfect way to scrap all of my vacation photos. I promise I'll share more pages when they're completely done. There are a lot of pages. :)

Cover:
Side view:
Cover Supplies: Cardstock- American Crafts (Peach) and The Paper Studio (Kraft), Ribbon- Offray, Thickers- American Crafts, Number Stickers- Making Memories, Flower- Prima, Patterned Paper- American Crafts, Pen- Signo, Ink- StazOn by Tsukineko, Brad- Unknown.

3. Don't forget to check out my giveaway on the post below this. Tell your friends.

4. This Jennifer McGuire class- "Thinking Inking" over at Two Peas has me obsesed with inking things. I'm going out to buy some more colors of distress ink tomorrow. Colors on my list- Broken China, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, and Mustard Seed.

5. The Hero Arts Blog is absolutely inspirational this week. Each of the win-a-day winners has their day this week, and their styles are so unique and gorgeous. One of my favorites that I definitely need to use as inspiration is by Lucy Abrams. I adore her work so much!

Hope you're inspired to create today. Thank you very much for stopping by!

Love.

Brit

Shares. :)

I've been creating, and I love it. :)

I signed up for the Cards For Heroes blog hop. Check it out and see if it's something you're interested in. If not, stop by this weekend and take a peek at some the the fabulous blogs that will be part of it.

1. The "Go Green" challenge this week at Hero Arts and the corresponding Flickr Pool really inspired me to create something. Here's an altered mint tin that I finished this morning:

Front view:

Side View:

Supplies: Stamps: Hero Arts, Paper- The Paper Studio (white), Patterned Paper- Daiso Japan (from this etsy seller: JapanKawaiiYa), Ink- Stazon by Tsukineko and Colorbox Chalk, Embroidery Thread- DMC, Colored Pencils- Prisma, Glitter- Art Institute Glitter, Diamond Glaze- Judikins.

Recycled things and notes:
-The pink backround is actually 5 to 6 layers of recycled tissue paper, then covered in Diamond Glaze for more shine and strength.
-The flower was simply sketched out on newspaper in 6 different sizes and then cut out. I inked the edges, covered every other layer in the Houndstooth stamp, and stiched the six layers together with a button and thread.
-The tin is from mints from Disney World and is the perfect fit for a gift card. Needless to say, this will go to use shortly, I'm sure.

Now, two more weeks for 52Q. I'm determined to catch up... eventually. (One of my cards was featured on her blog the other day- exciting!)

1. Week #7: What if you knew you could not fail?

Supplies: Cardstock- Archiver's (Blue), The Paper Studio (Kraft) and DCWV (Green), Patterned Paper- Making Memories, Paint Pen- ZIG, Ink- StazOn by Tsukineko.

2. Week #8: What is the last thing that made you laugh out loud?

Supplies: Cardstock- Archiver's (Green) and The Paper Studio (Kraft and White), Patterned Paper- Making Memories, Ink- Tsukineko, Border Punch- Martha Stewart, Foam Letters- Thickers by American Crafts, White Pen- Sakura.

I figured I'd share what I wrote on the back (it's not pretty, it's more about getting down the idea on the back for me), so I'll type it here:

"Last night was the finale of American Idol Season 8- Adam Lambert versus Kris Allen (Kris won! :) ) I laughed until I cried on just about a half dozen occasions, How ca you not giggle when Adam sang with KISS in super-high platform shoes? It was awkward, startling, and absolutely PERFECT."

Thanks for stopping by today- I'm glad you did. If you feel up to it, leave a comment telling me about what you're doing creatively this week. Did you do the green challenge for Hero Arts?

Love.

Brit

Party time?

It's the weirdest feeling in the world when you've constantly exherted all of your energy on classes trying to stay caught up, trying to catch up, and then trying to get good grades. Oh, the all-nighters, the late-nighters, and many, many energy drinks (rockstar is my personal drink of choice). Then, one day, you're caught up. On everything.

Seriously, I don't even have one of my classes this entire week. I have one assignment left in Graphic Design, one test next week for American Indian Studies, and nothing due for drawing ever again. We're literally going to the zoo during class tomorrow.

Needless to say, I have no idea what to do. I guess that means more things for you to look at. :)

A project I did last night for this challenge:

Altered Moleskin notebook using my absolute favorite paper:

A close-up of the dimension I used (which reminds me that I really need to buy another package of foam squares- I'm almost out):

The pendant I made to go with it. I'm not completely satisfied yet with it- I think I need to add paint and another layer of Diamond Glaze before it's done. Oh, and a real jewerly finding and chain:

The two together:

Supplies: Moleskine Notebook (purchased from Barnes and Noble), Cardstock- The Paper Studio, PP- Basic Grey (purpple and green dots) and Hambly (gold), Transparency- Hambly, Rubon- Hambly, Gemstones- The Paper Studio, Stamp- Hero Arts, Marker- ZIG, Chipboard Heart- Basic Grey , Colored Pencils- Crayola, Border Punch- Fiskars, Diamond Glaze- Judikins, Ribbon- Offray.

And since it's Tuesday, here are some important links for you:

1. Ali Edwards helped design this kit from Songbird Avenue. It's only $8.00, and not only does the purchase of the kit itself donate money to the Autism Speaks Foundation, but Ali Edwards (some things she did with the kit here) AND Jessica Sprague are also donating $2.00 each per kit sold. That's a HUGE donation for such an adorable kit. More than $2,000 has already been raised, so if you like the kit or just want to do a good thing today, I highly recommend taking part in this. :) Here's a layout I did with a couple things from the kit (I, ahem, I am by no means a digi scrapper, I was just messing around...)

Supplies: Background- Crystal Jeffrey Rieger, Buttons, "grow" frame, and buttons- SongbirdAvenue.com "Bloom & Grow" kit, Flowers and label from ShabbyPrincess.com "Happy Go Lucky" collection, Frame- own design, Font- "B-Swizzle"- own design.

2. Stacy Julian's post on color theory in scrapbooking. This quiz that she links to in her post is really fun. I scored almost completely Yellow, and that totally fits me (even though I don't scrap with yellow very often). She also asks what your "happy colors" are right now. Here are mine:

What are your happy colors?

3. This article at Creativity Prompt makes me want to buy every Tim Holtz ink made. Seriously.

4. Mac users- did you know that when you minimize or click on a window that has been minimized in the dock and hold shift, it moves in slow-motion? (Learned that from Kristina Werner on twitter the other day.) Here are some more fun Mac tricks. Go ahead, let the geek out. :)
If you have a cool link to share, leave a comment and I'll add it in to next week's post along with a link to your blog.

I think that's about it for now. I'm going to go make something. Maybe a layout? Who knows.

Love.

Brit

Life is changing...

Have you ever had that feeling that life is completely changing? There's nothing you can do about it- just sit back and watch it change before your eyes. You are never the same. Life is never the same. That's how I feel right now.

And I have to say, it's not necessarily a bad feeling.

I have a couple things to share with you today, so prepare yourselves!

1. Pamela is giving away a Scarlet Lime August project kit. Her mini album that she did with it is awesome! Good luck :). Here's a link to her blog.

2. Altered letters for my roommate, Gretchen, and myself:

Supplies: paper mache letters- Hobby Lobby, embossing powder and ink- Ranger, stamps- Autumn Leaves and Scrappy Cat, rub-ons- The Paper Studio, ribbon- Offray, Adornments by EK Success, unknown, thread- DMC, paint and button-unknown

3. COCOA challenge for this week. We had to use a lot of scraps. I really like how this layout turned out (plus, who knew I could write like that? I'm pretty amused by that.):

Supplies: pp- KI Memories (blue and grey stripe), My Mind's Eye (blue floral) and Basic Grey (everything else), cs- Bazzill, chipboard- Basic Grey and Heidi Swapp, white pen- Sakura, grey pen- ZIG, white ink- Tsukineko, green button bows- from this store - this item

4. Quick layout I whipped up for color inspiration challenge #19: (this is also a scraplift of Cheryl Overton from the CKMB- her layout was so cute that I had to replicate it!)

Supplies: pp- KI Memories, cs- American Crafts (grey), Bazzill Basics (blue) and The Paper Studio (white), ink- StazOn by Tsukineko, letter stickers- Scrapworks (black) and The Paper Studio (white), chipboard brackets- Basic Grey

Okay, enough excitement for today. I have this morning off of work in order to start packing and so far I have not done any... Oops. I'll start after lunch ;). I can't believe I leave on Tuesday (that means Jamba juice in 4 days! :) )and move in on Wednesday. Good thing I start classes the day after Labor Day- that seems like enough time to adjust. I'll be back!

Love.

Brit

Miles long...

My project to-do list is escalating to monumental proportions, but everything is on hold while I wait for pictures and my computer to come in. Well, and I'm not really that motivated.


Today is a weird day. There's something weird in the air. Maybe I get this feeling from seeing an entire wedding party crashing Applebee's today to go to the bathroom for 10 minutes. Everyone was dressed up to the nines- the bride in her gorgeous gown and the bridesmaids in theirs... the men in stunning suits. I had this overwhelming feeling that I was watching life happen before my eyes: a day these people will remember for the rest of their lives, and I'm a spectator to its glamor. The bridesmaids' dresses were GORGEOUS- something like this only cream with an expresso brown bow around the waist (the picture is from http://www.edenbridals.com/7169-p-963.html):

That's absolutely inspiring to me. I want one.. lol.

I also did a random project after starting a fresh composition notebook for notes on organization I would like to use after reading Heidi Swapp's blog today (http://heidiswapp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/06/a-peek-inside.html). One look at the undecorated cover, and this blank canvas became one more place to express my feminity with bright pink and silver. Love it!

Simple and to the point using Anna Griffin pp, random letter stickers and rubons (American crafts, etc.) and silver embossing powder and ink. It took me all of 20 minutes... most of which was determining where to place the stickers. :-)


Now, for things that are on my list... I'm almost done with this layout, but here's a sneak peak. I'm just waiting for the pictures to appear in my mailbox:

I'm really digging the turquoise and red combo. Hopefully I'll have that done on Monday!


Next, I pulled out all the supplies I might use on my best friend's graduation present:Then, I started the title page. Here's a peak of a project I've worked for 10 minutes on. lol When pictures come, this baby will be done in no time:Sorry about all of the teases, but I can't wait to have these projects done and share them for real. It's going to be a very productive week next week!


Brit