Scrapfest, Part 1:

Since I've been so busy lately, I thought I would at least show you some things that I've done lately. So I'm setting up four posts- three about scrapfest and one about other things I've done lately. Hopefully I'll have them all up by the end of next week. :) Here are some things that I have been going on in my life lately:

-I had portfolio review to get into my graphic design major... and passed. The last year of my life was not in vain, thank God.
-I went to scrapfest and had a ton of fun; I even got to meet Kelly Purkey and Jennifer McGuire. So exciting.
-I got a job at the Minnesota Daily- our campus newspaper and the largest student-run newspaper in the country. I'm just a lowly intern now, but I still get to design adds and am surrounded by awesomely creative people. I love my job, even if I get paid next to nothing. :/
-I've decided that my goal in life is to own my our invitation/ fine printing company. The more I learn about it, the more excited I get. More on that later, though.
-I got my gold Toms shoes. I wear them way to often, and I love it.

So I went to scrapfest. It was awesome. The lines for the make-and-takes were long, but I went for a whole day, so I took advantage of my day to myself and waited in lines for my favorite ones. Here are my favorites from the day- let me know if you want any more info about the products used, and I can hook you up with a link or two. :)

Hambly
(I love the combination of all these colors together. Hambly always comes out with the richest-looking products. Amazing.)

Prima
(These divine products all are super high-quality, and the base is packaging from a prima flower set. I love how they taught us what to do with the packaging.)

American Crafts
(I've never used AC flair before, but I really enjoy it- I'm definitely going to need to pick up a pack or two.)

Basic Grey
(These colors from the Indian Summer collection are divine. Enough said.)

QuicKutz
(I had never actually used a die this intricate before, and I have to say, I really enjoy the sophisticated look. I so want to add ink and make this card more "messy", though.)

Hero Arts
(This may have been my favorite make-and-take for two reasons. 1) It's Hero Arts. and 2) It's just absolutely perfect. All of the colors work so well together. Awesome job on the idea, Hero Arts!)

Overall, my experience with the Scrapfest make-and-takes was incredibly positive. The only part I didn't like were the impatient ladies I always seemed to be next to in line. Waiting to get to try out products you never have before is all part of the process! I kind of enjoyed the downtime.

Up next: I'm going to bed. But after that: inside the Hero Arts class.

I hope you're all doing well, and I hope to get back from falling off the face of the earth someday. What have you been up to lately? What's your favorite make-and-take you've ever done?

Love.

Brit

Update. Life as I know it. :)

As predicted, the last couple weeks have been a complete whirlwind. I would say I was going at about 30 mph all summer, and then as soon as I got back to the twin cities, I was thrown into a 80 mph environment. That's a lot of adjusting to do! I thought I would do a quick update on some random things going on. I'm dying to share my cute apartment with you and other things I've been working on, but that's for another day. (A day that I hope is very, very soon!)

1. We're all moved in to our apartment, and love it here. Here are all four of us- aren't the girls I live with adorable?
L to R: Emma, Jen, Me, and Alex

2. With coming back to campus means ample oppurtunity to celebrate... uh, college life. Like at the toga party we went to last Friday. First Toga Party = now I'm a real college student. I thought we looked pretty cute:
(I'll definitely edit that picture when I get a moment. I just wanted to show you!)

3. I've been... errr... drawing lately. Well, drawing in the broadest sense of the word. It's been a while, but here's part of an assignment I had to turn in yesterday. We had to draw a composition of eggs and show "depth" and "shallowness"- I think I did alright, but we were only supposed to spend two hours on the whole thing, so this is what I could do in that time:

Shallowness

Depth

4. The Office tonight was amaaaazing. So glad it's back for another season, and so glad about Pam and Jim. :)

5. I'm going to Scrapfest tomorrow! I get to meet Jennifer McGuire and Kelly Purkey, and I'm so flipping excited. I think they're both wonderful! I'll make sure to tell you all about it when I get back. :) I have to leave for that in about 8 hours, though, so I think it's time to be for me. Must get good sleep!

6. I really promise that I'll be back to share some cute things later. Promise.

Have a wonderful day! Hope to see you around soon. :)

Love.

Brit

All sorts of love.

I've got lot of different types of love for you today. Some Papertrey Ink love, some Ikea love, and some crafty love... just to name a few. I'd better get started! :)

Papertrey Ink Love

I finally had the chance to sit down and play for a while with my new Papertrey Ink order. Holy wow- everything is so amazing! I'm in awe of the quality of all of the products that I recieved- the stamps, the paper, and the buttons are all wonderful. Here's a card that I made while playing around last night:
I can't wait to spend more time playing around with everything. Love the tone-on-tone look with clear embossing powder and the Polka Dot Basics II stamp set. Wonderful!

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Vanilla) and Unknown (blue), Colored Pencils- Prismacolor, Ink- Tsukineko, Stamps- Papertrey Ink (In Bloom and Polka Dot Basics II), Embossing power and ink- Ranger, Dimensional Adhesive- EK Success, Buttons- Papertrey Ink, Thread- DMC, Ribbon- Martha Stewart for EK Success.

Ikea Love

Since I'm moving into my apartment in less than 48 hours (holy cow! Time's moving so very fast), I've been doing a lot of prep for the big move. We still have a ton of things left to buy for our space, so we're turning to Ikea for a little help. So inevitable- they have everything there. Here are a couple items that I think we might need to pick up:
Love. This. Comforter. The orange is one of my favorite colors, and I think it would go perfectly in our room. Best part? Only 14.99. Perfect for my minuscule college budget.
Super simple bath rug. I think I love this color for the bathroom. Nothing like a bright green to wake you up in the morning, eh?
These fabrics match absolutely nothing any of us own, but I love the simple patterns and shapes. This is total scrapbooking inspiration at its finest. Now if they just made this in a lime green/ orange color scheme, I'd be all over this.

I'll definitely keep you updated on what we end up getting. All at once, this is so exciting and overwhelming. I feel like there are five thousand things I have to do, and I don't even know what half of them are yet. I need to make more lists.

Crafty Love

So in my massive pile of things to do, I keep adding on with things that are completely unnecessary but oh-so-fun... like this project that I found this morning.
It's simple- you just cut down the center and around the collar of a t-shirt, sew a simple hem, thread it with ribbon, and tie. My sewing machine is totally calling my name right now! (Full, simple tutorial here.)

Copic Love

Copics are all the rage right now in the scrapbooking world. Over at two peas alone, there are a ton of threads started about them. The other day, Jennifer McGuire posted this awesome link on her blog. Soo much information about copics, including recommended colors for getting started. I need to use what I have for now, but I can't wait to start collecting copics when the time is right. (Like when I "need" them for a design class I'm taking...) I'm in love with the quality of the colored images. Amazing! Oh, and here's a reference sheet of all of the Copic colors that might come in handy. I may or may not have printed one off to circle my favorites. Maybe.

Cat Love

I stumbled upon this cute cat article yesterday named "Guidelines for Cats", and it gave me a good laugh. If you have cats (or just are a cat person in general), check it out- it's hilarious. One of my favorite parts:

"The humans would have you believe that those lumps under the covers are their feet and hands. They are lying. They are actually Bed Mice, rumored to be the most delicious of all the mice in the world, though no cat has ever been able to catch one. Rumor also has it that only the most ferocious attack can stun them long enough for you to dive under the covers to get them. Maybe YOU can be the first to taste the Bed Mouse!"

Our youngest cat has a habit of jumping on my mom's toes in the middle of the night, indubitably waking her up in a state of alert and confusion. My cat's crazy. :)

Okay, I'm all loved out for now. I should probably get back to packing my endless amount of things... sadly, I think today's the day for putting away the scrapbooking stuff. Sigh- see you again soon, creativity.

Love.

Brit

A cupcake garden.

All I want to do is create, even though I know I should be packing. It's a double-edged sword, though. If I get things done and pack, that means all of my scrapbooking things will be put away. I guess I can manage for a few days. I guess. :)

I finished this card today for the Hero Art's weekly challenge to bring out the colors and start adding to project with colored pencils, inks, and other mediums. I love coloring stamped images with colored pencils, so I couldn't wait to try something new with this week's challenge. Here's what I came up with:

Here are a couple of new things that I tried out on this card that you could try out on your next project:
1. Use a background stamp (like this one- the cling I used with all the cupcakes) and cut out all of the images individually after coloring them in.
2. Clear-emboss a pattern on the background cardstock for added interest, even if it's where the "sky" should be.
3. Ink up a sheet of white cardstock (a la Jennifer McQuire) with distress ink, flick little droplets of water on it, and then trace and cut out leaves in varying sizes for extra interest.
4. Adhere tons of items with various levels of foam adhesive- it adds so much dimension and life.
5. Use the same colored pencils used for coloring to write the sentiment- it'll tie the card together.

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Light Blue), and The Paper Studio (White), Stamps- Hero Arts (F5158, S5208, CL231, CG110), Colored Pencils- Prismacolor, Ink- Tsukineko (Black) and Tim Holtz for Ranger (Shabby Shutters, Broken China, and Peeled Paint).

Thanks for stopping by, loves! Hopefully I'll be back once more before I move, but if not, I'll see you in a few days from a whole different state. Minnesota, here I come (againnnn)!

Love.

Brit

Vlog- A.K.A.- Me being really excited about stuff I just bought. :)

After seeing Courtney's second vlog the other day about stuff she picked up recently, I thought it looked like a lot of fun, so I decided to give it a try. I did a little shopping today to make my wisdom teeth feel better... haha. I totally giggle a lot in the video, but I'll blame that on the pain meds. Ha! I might be a little quiet, but I was trying not to wake my family up. Hehe. Without any further ado, here's me talking about lots of random fun stuff. It's yummy, I promise!



Haha. What did you think? Can you hear my Wisconsin accent?

Thanks for stopping by. <3

Love.

Brit

P.S.- I'll add links in the morning. I'm super tired tonight!

Today's card.

I love these colors for challenge #15 from Dawn McVey. These PTI colors are some of my favorites. I can't wait to get my order from them in a couple of days! Everything on this card was more or less an experiment, from the inking the edges white to seeing what color would happen when I clear-embossed the pink paper. I think I'll have to try another one for this week's challenge, though, just so I can get the colors perfectly right. These seem a little off to me. Regardless, enjoy! Thanks for stopping by. :)


Supplies: Cardstock: Archiver's (Pink), Bazzill (Green), DCWV (Melon) and The Paper Studio (Creme), Border Punch- Fiskars, Corner Rounder- Fiskars, Embossing Powder and Ink- Ranger, Ink- Tim Holtz for Ranger (Shabby Shutters) and Tsukineko (White Brilliance), Stamps- Hero Arts (K5175 and CL231), Thread- DMC, other- Buttons and Ribbon.

Love.

Brit

I {heart} scrapbooking.

It's been a while since I've scrapped, but I've cranked out two layouts in the last 24 hours. I just had to let everything go- I can't be afraid to use or not use something. Just do it. Just tell the story. I like this feeling of freedom. :)

Layout #1: About the Twins game I went to in May. This one only took an hour and five minutes to complete, from start to finish. I'm so proud of myself- I think this is the quickest layout I've ever done, and I love it. This is my interpretation of Ali Edwards' style. Super simple and beautiful.. (love her!)
My favorite part:
Journaling (almost always handwritten, because I like the memories...):
Supplies: Cardstock- The Paper Studio, White Pen- Signo Uniball, Foam Letters- Thickers by American Crafts, Corner Rounder- The Paper Studio, Thread- DMC, Other- Buttons.

Layout #2: St. Patrick's day (I miss my college friends so much... only 9 days left until I see them again!) This started out with me not wanting to fuss over the photo arrangement, so I just plopped them down at different levels. I love this look. :) Then, everything just kind of evolved from there. I had no idea what I was doing when I first looked at the photos, but everything just happened. The journaling is around the outside, because I felt like it. Ha. This one only took my an hour and a half. Sooo quick today!
Dimension is my favorite:
Supplies: Cardstock- The Paper Studio, Patterned Paper- Basic Grey (Argyle and floral) and October Afternoon (green polka dot), Letter stickers and "remember" sticker- October Afternoon, Pen- Signo Uniball, Circle Punch- EK Success, Corner Rounder- Fiskars, Dimensional Adhesive- EK Success, Ink- Tim Holtz for Ranger (Shabby Shutters), Thread- DMC, Other- Buttons.

Everything's changing around me, but now I'm ready for it. Bring it on. :)

What do you think of the layouts? I forgot how much I love scrapbooking- it's so rewarding. Thanks for stopping by, loves!

Love.

Brit