I am SO happy to be returning as a member of the October Afternoon design team! The new team was announced today on the OA blog, and here is the list of rock-star scrappers I will be working with for the next year:
Amy Heller
Becky Novacek
Danni Reid
Jaime Warren
Jill Sprott
Kinsey Wilson
Lexi Bridges
Roree Rumph
Vivian Masket
Wilna Furstenburg
The blog is going to be jam-packed with inspiring, challenging content every day with the new team and the new blog!
And because I hate to post without a photo, here’s a layout I did with October Afternoon’s new 5 and Dime collection:
Have a great day!
You don’t have to twist my arm to get me to do some stitching on pretty paper…I love a stitching challenge! I posted another stitched layout yesterday, so scroll down if you want to see it. 
And here’s a stitched card:
In case you are wondering, the red rub-on alphas are from Heidi Grace Design…they haven’t been made for years, but I absolutely love them and use my significant stash of them sparingly. Paper, stickers, and corrugated shapes from both projects are from Jillibean Soup. There are a few Making Memories stickers scattered about as well.
I’m looking forward to making some more cards with the scraps that are scattered all over my desk…sometimes the most fun cards I make come from a pile of scraps!
Have a great Wednesday! I hope you are adjusting to the time change better than I am.
I was having a creative block.
Staring at pretty paper.
No ideas.
But then…I played.
And came up with something that makes me smile:
I realize that there should be a comma after “stuff,” but “he” should also be capitalized.
I am the Grammar Police.
I decide when the rules don’t apply.
Like right now.
Tidbit:
I’ve been a mother for almost 16 years, and today is the very first time I have found a melted crayon in my dryer.
I’m working on a year-long project called PCC (Project Calendar Collections). I posted this at the Coordinates Collections blog about two weeks ago:
Disclaimer:
After reading over my opening comments, I’m thinking that I could scare some people off. Please remember – my dysfunction is not your dysfunction. You can enjoy this process without getting bogged down with needing to know how it’s going to end. (And I think I can, too. It’s just going to take some…something.)
On to PCC with me:
Before you get the wrong idea, I am not looking for a “perfect” project. But I tend to lean toward the perfectionist failing of needing to know exactly how the thing is going to go (or I can’t move – the indecision can almost paralyze me)…and I don’t really welcome the spontaneity of changing my design, papers, or approach halfway through the project just because in JULY I figure out what I really want the project to look like! I need consistency, and I kind of need it to be guaranteed.
I’ve done a lot of mental pacing because of this project!Back and forth, around and around…trying to visualize what I really want my finished project to look like next January when I complete December’s entry. I thought I had it figured out, but then I started actually working on it. Uh-oh.
Some of my “for-sure” plans are:
1. Weekly entries, so there should be 52. (Well, 52… PLUS 12 monthly title pages?)
2. 8X8 format.
3. Every week will have a lovely literary quote. (The first quote is from Jane Austen.)
4. Color scheme will center around the Life Documented kit from the CC Store.
5. It will be flat. No buttons, gems (well, maybe just a few), or layered chipboard. If I were doing a monthly-entry album, I’d be lumping and bumping it up like usual, but with 52-plus pages, I need to keep it flat, I think.
6. Um, that’s all I can settle on…
The “variables” are:
1. One page per week? Or a two-page layout per week? (8X8 is small!) Will my book hold that much? Sometimes one page, sometimes two?
2. Consistent design throughout (like a sketch)? Or do I want to vary the design depending on the type of week it was? This mostly affects whether I do one photo, a photo strip, collage of photos, etc.
3. I’d like to give each week a word – you know, like a word that sort of “sums up” the week…but I wonder if I can come up with 52 unique words when many of my weeks might be mostly just comprised of me running around like a chicken with my head cut off. (I am picturing myself running out of synonyms for the word “chaos.”)
4. Do I want to focus on the entire family or is it to be just a personal story?
5. What papers will I add in?
These are some of the questions that have been keeping me awake at night. (Not really keeping me awake…other things keep me awake, like the cat meowing and me coughing because I’m not quite over the cough that arrived with the flu last week. So the project isn’t truly keeping me awake, but I do think about it a lot.) Since I am ready to begin (okay, not really ready – just required because it’s “time to get started”) – without having my questions answered (!) – here’s what I’m going to do for January (and most likely February)…
Resolutions to my issues:
1. One page per week, at least for now (the indecision here still makes me cringe internally, but I am pretending not to care).
2. Alternating between photo strips and single-photo pages – mostly due to the amount of photos available.
3. Word for the Week – yes, I think I can do this 52 times.
4. It will be a record of the entire family, but the observations and focus will be strictly from my point of view. So…it will be a sort of personal journal that is a reflection of our home and family. (I think I have this sorted out in my head.)
5. The papers. Okay, I am going to go with this: Obviously, the Life Documented kit. Adding in papers from the Crate Paper Restoration collection (I bought bookoos of it when the CC Store got it in!). I’ll spread the Restoration papers out to use thoughout the entire book and add in others (like some of the Echo Park Life is Good papers) that I like as Jamie orders new stuff though the year. I think this will give me the consistency that I seem to require.
My January entry, so far:
Yep, that’s it! One page. The flu has really slowed my life down to a crawl…the virus itself was awful, and recovery is slow and slower. All I can say is that I am looking forward to starting a brand new month. GOOD-BYE, February!
Check back because the rest of my January entry is “in progress,” and I will add the rest of the January pages this weekend. Here’s a peek of Week 2′s entry:
Have a great weekend!
Why am I scrapping photos from 6 years ago? They were there.
I’m following along with a free sketch class at Two Peas called “Stretch Your Sketch.” This is the first layout I made…I might get a lot of scrapping done this way because it was easy! (All of the paper and stickers are from October Afternoon.)
I’m also doing the “4X6 Photo Love” class (also free)…so far, I think it is harder – which is really silly, but I’m just having trouble hopping out of my scrappy “box”…
Oh, my gosh, I just remembered that I have three large loads of laundry sitting on my bed…I better get folding if I want to sleep in there.
{It is to be square—a span long and a span wide—and folded double. Exodus 28:16}
Since four out of the six of us woke up with fever and misery on Valentine’s Day, we did not “celebrate” Valentine’s Day at my house. And that’s mostly because the mommy (that’s me) does the “fun stuff” and I was unable and even unwilling (sad to say, I know).
So…I think we’ll have “Belated Valentine’s Day” on Monday. Basically, that means heart decorations that magically appear while the kids are sleeping and sugary breakfast (something we avoid pretty much any other day of the year!) with a fun surprise for everyone and a crafty card from me with handmade cards from the kids. It’s a sweet morning and I guess I can see why my youngest woke up on the 14th and cried real tears because the disappointment was so awful.
But I was too miserable to feel very sorry…the flu will do that to an otherwise sensitive and self-sacrificing mommy.
The layouts and cards in this post are some projects I made with the Coordinates Collections February Song Birds kit. I love all of the birds and hearts and banners…it was a fun kit to play with, and I still have a ton of stuff left over! (It’s sold out, sorry…)
Today’s quote (below) made me laugh because it sounds kind of like my state of frustration with having been sick and cooped up with sick people all week…but it is actually about love. (smile)
Have a great weekend!
“This sensation of listlessness, weariness, stupidity, this disinclination to sit down and employ myself, this feeling of everything’s being dull and insipid in this house! I must be in love.” -Emma (Jane Austen)
It’s weird, something about having the flu made me want to update my blog. I think it has something to do with not running in 40 different directions at once…
This is my favorite layout I made from my favorite new October Afternoon collection from the CHA Winter release. The collection is called Five and Dime, and you can see it here. I haven’t gotten the new Sticky Keys and Sprinklers yet, but I really look forward to using them – they are pretty much right up my alley. (smile)
Here are a couple of quick cards I made with Five and Dime:
And a tag:
I hadn’t noticed how blurry they were until now! Sorry…
This was my Facebook status today:
If you are driving near my house, and you think you might smell Lysol…well, you probably do smell Lysol!
Saturday morning. Sleeping in. I enjoyed it!
Actually, I’ve been sleeping in lately, but tomorrow is Sunday, so of course I’m up early, and after that, well, “real life” starts again. Piano lessons, dance, homeschool co-ops, choirs, youth group, bible study, ETC.
As much as I don’t really look forward to the busy-ness, I think the return to full-structure-mode will be good for me – for us.
Yesterday I finally got every bit of the Christmas decorating stuff into the attic. Phew, finally, and what an accomplishment after all that procrastinating and whining. I was feeling good. Had closure. Big task marked off my list. On to the next. All that good stuff.
And then last night as I was enjoying some creative time and listening to the Cotton Bowl, I glanced up at the top of my computer hutch and WHAT THE HECK??? And entire 3-foot-tall Christmas tree, complete with lights and big rusty stars…not in the attic. Not put away. How did I miss an entire tree?
So now I have to ask someone to move the boat out of the garage, and have someone move the hanging bicycle and pull down the attic stairs, and then I’ll haul that thing up to the attic. My part will only take 30 seconds, but the other stuff will be a pain for someone… Blech.
Here are a couple of layouts and a card I made with the Coordinates Collections December Vintage Attic kit:
Happy Saturday!
{How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? Proverbs 6:9}
I have allowed my house to sink deep into post-holiday depression. There are half-packed decorations all over the place, crumbs from yummy treats, wrapping paper and tissue and bags that need to be sorted and stored. Not pretty. Not festive. Kind of depressing…so I am determined to take care of it today. Today. To. Day.
And here are some thoughts about night owls that I posted several years ago. I think they bear repeating:
Have you ever noticed?
You may even be one who does it.
For obvious reasons, I do not do it.
Do? What?
Have you ever noticed that
Morning People
act as if they are
superior
to Non-morning People
a.k.a. Night Owls.
Morning People like to say how early they got up.
They like to make a pretty big deal out of it.
Especially if the Night Owl has had
a particularly productive evening
the night before
and they are still sleeping at 7 or 8 am (or whenever) the next morning
when the Morning Person had been up for a bit.
Some Morning People
are quieter about their feelings,
they don’t vocalize their self-righteous superiority,
but
the
attitude
is
there.
I have tried to be a morning person.
I am just so much more productive when
the house settles down for the evening
and I am the only one left awake.
This is when I really get stuff done!
Sometimes I scrap
but I can also clean
or read
catch up on email
organize-
pretty much anything!
But if I go to bed early,
set my alarm,
get up,
I can never get all that stuff done.
It’s okay.
And I’m here to say
Please
Be
Nice
To
The
Night
Owls
In
Your
Life!
They are not sloths.
Not lazy.
Just nocturnal.
{At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me. Jerimiah 31:26}
For the CC December Blog Hop, Jolaine said to create a layout with “sparkle.” I made tags…no layout, but rules are made to be broken, right? (Disclaimer: Not really, of course…rules are definitely NOT made to be broken, but to always be followed, usually for our safety and the safety of others – just in case my kids are reading this, hello kids … but in scrapbooking we can break the rules!)
So…here are my Christmas tags,made with October Afternoon Good Cheer papers, OA Christmas stamps, Fiskars punches, and sparkle that is courtesy of my gigantic stash of old Heidi Swapp self-adhesive rhinestone strips. Awesome green ribbon from Old Navy – if Old Navy sold that ribbon in the store again, I’d buy as much as I could get my hands on! Other ribbon from May Arts.
Happy Sparkly creating and blog hopping!
Love,
SK
