A New Start (and a little break from blogging)...

Hey there friends! I'm sorry I've been gone for a while...but it seems the holidays and preparing for a huge move across the country has totally consumed me lately (I didn't even get to finish my December Daily album again this year...uuuggghhh!) I'm also a little disappointed that I didn't have a chance to post my last Weekend in Review for 2011. But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, and let life take it's course. Anyway, I hope you all had a chance to enjoy the holidays with family and friends. And if you don't celebrate the holidays, then I still hope you've had the chance to spend time with loved ones and just enjoy life.

As I said before, I've been preparing for a big move, which is actually taking place tomorrow. It was a little over a month ago when I made the decision to pack up and move to sunny San Diego by the end of this year! A great opportunity presented itself to me, which I just couldn't pass up (not to mention that I've always wanted to try living on the west coast). Although, I can't believe this is happening, I think it's definitely going to be a turning point in my life and what better time than NOW- on the heels of the new year!

I know I don't usually get too personal here, but the second part of this year has been very difficult for me. From being laid off over the summer, to going through a separation with my husband and having to move back home with my family in September. It's been a whirlwind of craziness- a complete roller coaster ride, but I definitely know now for sure, that everything happens for a reason and regardless of what happens, in the end I will be OK. The hardships I've dealt with for the past 6 months have taught me many valuable lessons, that I would not have learned otherwise. I can now say that I'm a better, much stronger person thanks to these challenges and have the ability to pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again...

I'm excited for the new possibilities that 2012 will bring and looking forward to a much brighter and more successful future. I don't know where this new path will lead, but I'm absolutely ready for the journey. So with that said, I will be taking a break from blogging for a little while, until I'm more settled in California and my new surroundings. I can't really say how long I'll be away, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to this blog just as soon as I can- hopefully with a lot of fun and interesting things to share! So until then- stay well my friends and enjoy all that life has to offer, one day at a time! Happy New Year to you all! Sending best wishes of  much happiness, good health and love in 2012! *smile* xo

Weekend in Review Vol.#9- In the Bean

This weekend was spent catching up in Boston with family and friends. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to take pictures really, but I still wanted to document what I could. Above is a picture from an alley in Boston by Salem Design. I love it because it captures the city in such a beautiful way! It's getting really cold here now, and I'm hoping that we will experience a white Christmas this year.

I spent some time with the most adorable baby, my little cousin Audriana (who is already going on 4 months)! She is so precious, and I love that little hat so much- I  just had to get a picture of her in it!

And while getting in a little Christmas shopping yesterday at Kohl's, I cam across this wall art that I love- perfect words to live by! xo

December Daily 2011- Day 13

Supplies: Patterned Paper & Number Tag- Making Memories; Digital Tag- AE Studio;

Chipboard Accent- Echo Park; Glitter- Recollections; Gold Metallic Marker- American Crafts



So since there are NO RULES with scrapbooking or the December Daily project, last night I decided to focus on that day, instead of trying to catch up with days 7-12 that I haven't done yet. I don't want to get stuck worrying about catching up, because then I'm afraid I won't finish. I'm thinking that if I can try to keep up from here on out, once I get to the end and every page is done (except 7-12) then I will be able to finish those and have a complete book for 2011! So let's just hope this tactic works... *crossing fingers*

So day #13 is about the holiday cards that I mailed out yesterday morning. I took a picture of the cards in the mailbox and added one of Ali Edward's digital tags on top, along with the sentiment that is inside the cards. On the back of day #13, I used the front of my "prototype" card, to decorate my DD album and to have a keepsake of the card I created this year. I really like how it came out- simple yet effective! xo

Weekend in Review Vol.#8- It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Favorite Ornament Tag- AE Studios

My, how the weekends fly by! Everything is getting a little crazed around here for the holidays and time is definitely winding down! I'd have to say that December definitely goes by the fastest (out of all the 12 months of the year- for me)! This weekend I was able to catch up with my best friend, over dinner and then the Muppet's Movie, which was pretty cute! 

I also sent out a few holiday cards, we decorated the tree and some other areas of the house. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... I just wish time would slow down a little bit, so I can catch up with everything! Well, tis the season! *smile* xo

Photo taken by: Wahkuna



December Daily 2011- Days 4-6

The overlay quote reads: "Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold

everything is softer and more beautiful"~ Norman Vincent Peale

 Supplies: December Memories Tag- Ali Edwards; Smile Stamp- Technique Tuesday;

Patterned Paper- Making Memories

Happy Friday! I'm back today to share my December Daily day 4-6 with you! Day #4 is documenting our search for the perfect Christmas Tree as described in a recent post here. I love this picture of the four of us in front of the tree we chose and knew I wanted it to be the focus of this page. Now that we are all getting older, it's rare that we take photos like this (just the four of us), so it was definitely an important memory to capture!

  

 Supplies: Four Tag- Making Memories; Christmas Tree Accent- K&Company;

Rhinestones & Ribbon- Other

On the back of day #4 I added images from the Christmas tree search and the lyrics to O Christmas Tree (which was so fitting for the occasion). The Christmas tree accent was cut from K&Company patterned paper. I inked the edges in red distress ink, then added gold ribbon strips and rhinestones to dress it up!

 Supplies: Patterned Paper- Making Memories & Jenni Bowlin;

Glitter Alpha- Making Memories

Day #5 features my "little" Christmas list. The sentiments were stamped with black ink and then outlined with a gel pen. I also straight stitched underneath each word to add emphasis.

  

 Supplies: Patterned Paper- K&Company & Making Memories;

Alphas- Making Memories & American Crafts

On the back of day #5 is another Christmas wish of mine, for a fresh new start...soon, and very soon.

  

 

Supplies: Overlay- Hambly Studios; Overlay Title- K&Company; Flowers- Prima;

Brad- Echo Park; To/From Tag- Ali Edwards



 Supplies: Picnik photo software; Alphas- DCWV & Anna Griffin; Tags- Making Memories;

Button- Pebbles Inc.; Chipboard Accent- Echo Park

Day #6 is all about my holiday cards that I posted about here, along with the process of how they were made on the back.

I'm really enjoying this December Daily process of documenting my holiday memories, and I'm already so much further along compared to last year. *smile* xo

Photos taken by: Wahkuna



December Daily 2011- Days 1-3

 Supplies: Paper Flower- Prima; Glitter Alphas- White Blossom; Sticker and Tag- Making Memories 

I've been doing a bit of catching up on my December Daily album in the last day or so. Around this time of year, the days seem to get away from us, which makes it hard to keep up with a daily project such as this one. Nevertheless, I've finished a few more pages and wanted to share them with you. The image above, is the back of my first page shown here, where I decided to document the CMA Country Christmas special that I watched on TV that night (while creating my first DD page). I collaged images I found online from the show and then added my own personal touch. This year, I've decided that I'm going to try to document 2 events for each day. The front page being the main story and the back of that page, being the second story (which could be a movie I watched that day, or a poem, quote or song lyrics that pertain to that day's story). So far it's working out quite nicely!

 Supplies: Patterned Paper- Cloud 9 Design; Rhinestone Spiral; Want 2 Scrap;

Word Stickers & Circle Alpha Stickers- Authentique; Chipboard Accent- Echo Park

DD day #2 documents the Beyonce interview on 20/20 with Katie Couric that I watched with my cousin Faithe. I'm a HUGE Beyonce fan, so I just had to watch this interview! Here I also used pictures that I found online from the interview and Beyonce's Roseland Ballroom Concert (since they spoke about it during the interview). I absolutely adore this picture of Beyonce performing that I found here. To personalize it, I added some of the lyrics from her song Best Thing I Never Had and part of a rhinestone spiral from Want 2 Scrap.

  Supplies: Patterned Paper- K&Company; Number Tag- Making Memories

The back of day #2 is dedicated to the movie A Golden Christmas 2 (which is what I watched later that night). It was the cutest Christmas movie with a beautiful love story! *wink*

Supplies: Patterned Paper- K&Company and Jillibean Soup; Tag- Jenni Bowlin

On day #3 I went to the mall for the first time this season, and Santa was already in the building! Of course they also had all of the decor up, and I couldn't help but get a picture of the winter wonderland! The title is part of the patterned paper background that I used by K&Company. I wanted the pictures to look like Polaroids, so I created the Polaroid frames in adobe photoshop and placed them over the pictures before resizing and printed them for my DD. The quote at the bottom of the page says; "Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace & goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."- Calvin Coolidge

Supplies: Patterned Paper- American Crafts; Paper Flowers- Prima; Tag- Making Memories;

Brad & Chipboard Accent- Echo Park; Decorative Punch- Martha Stewart Crafts

On the back of day #3 I added the song lyrics for It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (which coordinates with the title used on the front of the page- and the pictures). I printed the lyrics on brown kraft paper and flicked a small paint brush (dipped in Mister Huey's holly berry ink) over the page to create little ink splatters. I also inked the edges of the page with tea dye distress ink from Ranger Inks. The bottom edge was die cut using the eyelet lace punch from Martha Stewart.

Now to catch up on days 4-7! Gotta keep the December Daily flow going! *wink* xo


Album photos taken by: Wahkuna

Holiday Card Making 2011

This week, I've been working on my holiday cards! For this year's card- I was inspired by a design from Cards 2010 Christmas Card magazine. The inspiration was an image of a Christmas tree stamped out of green spirals, with the sentiment Merry Christmas stamped across the tree in red ink, about 3/4" down on the card. So for my own spin on this, I found a Christmas tree graphic made of birds from the Graphic's Fairy and added a Season's Greetings garland along with my own digital sparkle button with a red/white twine bow. Here's how the card was created;

First I created the design using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and printed it on 6"x8" blank white cards from Studio G (that I bought at Michael's for $1.50 for a set of 8 cards/envelopes).

After printing all of the cards, I used tacky glue along with a tooth pick for spreading/smoothing and created the base for fallen snow on some parts of the tree. Then I sprinkled extra fine white glitter over the patches of glue to make the snow.

Once all the glitter was completely dry, I used Fabri-Tac permanent adhesive glue to adhere red and green rhinestones used as ornaments on the tree. And here is the finished product;

There's a sentiment printed on the inside of the cards that says; "May the spirit of the season bring you love, happiness and joy!"

I made 24 of these cards to send to family and friends. There are a few more to finish up today and they will be in the mail by the end of the week! And soon this will be another holiday project crossed off the list. I'm slowly but steadily getting things done over here. *smile*

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my holiday card making process for 2011! Happy Holidays! xo

Supplies Used:

 

Photos taken by: Wahkuna

Weekend in Review Vol.#7- Our Christmas tree search

This weekend was full of holiday cheer! Christmas decorating is in the midst, and we also took a trip to A Quiet Place Tree Farm to find our lucky tree for 2011! We actually visited two tree farms, but the second one was the charm! We spotted our tree within 5 mins. of being there, and realized we lucked out this year with a beautiful white spruce!! Mom is totally excited, and I'm happy because it was my first time searching for a Christmas tree at a tree farm, of which I picked out (yyeeaayyyy!). While we were there, I also met the cutest little dog named Netty...she was so sweet and naturally had to be featured here on my blog! Anyway, there will be more pictures to come once our tree is up and decorated! I hope you're enjoying this festive time of year! Be back soon...xo



Photos take by: Wahkuna

December Daily 2011 Part 4- Getting Started

So yesterday was officially December 1st, and the December Daily days have finally arrived! Here are a couple images of my first page. Nothing much happend yesterday, so page one is all text with a little description of my thoughts on the holiday season and being joyful for the "everyday" blessings that we often overlook.

Today is another day, and another page...looking forward to the progression of it all. *smile*

A preview of my first digital scrapbooking collection!

My first digital kit sneak peak

First came my love for traditional scrapbooking while shopping the isles of a local craft store in early 2007 and then came my love for digital scrapbooking- once I joined a few online scrapbooking communities and discovered the beautiful digital creations of others! And if you know the software, then digital scrapbooking is just as creative as conventional scrapbooking, if not more! I say more, because you can easily manipulate paper and embellishment colors and customize anything to fit your style or whatever look your trying to achieve! I've dabbled in the world of digital for a few years now...more for my career in fashion design, but also for scrapbooking and have recently decided to create my own kit to incorporate into a baby memory book. It's been a slow process, but it has been going much better than I expected, so I'm pleasantly surprised! First I decided on a theme and then created an inspiration board and decided on a color palette;

Images on the inspiration board are from; Bump Smitten and On to Baby

And from there, I started to create my first digital scrapbook collection. I'm far from finished at this point, but very happy with the progress I've made. I'm looking forward to the finish product-a personal goal that will finally be accomplished!

The best part of scrapbooking for me is the tangible elements and how you can add so much texture and dimension to a flat page, but with the nature of digital scrapbooking, this gets a little more complex. But I've found that I love digital scrapbooking kits that are very realistic with a lot of dimension, texture and look as if they are popping right off the page. One of my favorite digital designers is Vinnie Pearce. Her work has a very realistic look to it, so I love working with a lot of her products. Unfortunately I don't scrapbook as often as I'd like (let alone digitally), but I still love to have all the options! I'm also a big fan of hybrid scrapbooking, where traditional meets digital scrapbooking. All the possibilities are awesome, which is why I love this hobby so much!

What are your thoughts on digital scrapbooking?





Weekend in Reveiw Vol.#6- Thanksgiving & my 100th post!

I can't even believe that Thanksgiving has already come and gone! We are now on the heels of December!! The holiday season has rushed upon us yet again! It's so crazy how this time of year always creeps up on us before we know it!

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving with family and/or friends. I know I sure did! It was quiet and really gave me time to reflect on what matters most in life- family. I came up with the menu this year; from appetizers to dessert and prepared the whole meal myself for the first time (with some guidance from mom of course). It was really fun and felt rewarding to sit at the table on Thursday afternoon, knowing how much hard work and love I put into everything that was there. I must say that the turkey, dressing and everything else came out pretty delicious (for a first timer). Everyone was proud, including me!

I'm also proud to announce that I've FINALLY made it to my 100th post! It's a little sad to say that it's taken me a couple years to make such a benchmark on my blog, but in another way, it's definitely something to celebrate- a sign of great progress (especially within the last couple months). Since taking the Blogging Your Way e-course by Holly Becker of Decor8, I've kept up with my posts much more often and feel that I've come a long way in such a short time! I highly recommend this course to anyone who has a blog and wants to learn new ways to improve it or if your someone who is interested in starting a blog, but haven't taken the plunge just yet! There are so many helpful lessons, filled with invaluable information and resources! So if you are the slightest bit interested, I suggest you check it out! *wink*

Thanks for stopping in and reading my 100th post! I appreciate YOU, the readers who take the time to visit and add feedback which is always welcome! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! xo



Photos taken by; Wahkuna

December Daily 2011 Part 3

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!! I'm popping in today really quick to show you the progress I made on my DD yesterday. I finalized the cover (except for a possible handwritten quote I might add to the bottom) and added a shiny textured "Christmasy" ribbon trim. It looks very festive (like a trim you'd see on a Christmas tree), I like it.

And here are some of my transparent overlays to go before each page. I designed most of them on the computer, except for the chicken wire and green circle overlays from Hambly Studios which came in my DD kit. I created the overlays in all different sizes, to mix it up a little and add variation to my DD.

Here are a few close-ups:

Yesterday my mom and I were both working on our December Daily together. It was really nice to spend quality time together while creating something that we will cherish for years to come. We also did this last year and plan to make a tradition of it! I'll be back later this week to share more photos of the DD progress... 

Right now we're off to finish our shopping for Thanksgiving dinner! I hope you all are enjoying your day so far! xo



Photos taken by: Wahkuna

December Daily 2011 Part 2

December daily is finally under way (for me)! A little late, but it's happening nonetheless! I spent some time yesterday afternoon planning the outside cover of my album, and this is what I came up with. I really like it so far- I'm a very traditional Christmas kind-of girl, so of course it's red & green. As I said in my previous post here, I'm using the December Daily kit by Ali Edwards & Studio Calico and I'm loving it! I'm also using some things from last year's Christmas stash that I still have, after all, that's what scrapbooking is all about right, using up those "scraps"!

The numbers and title in the above pictures are not stuck down yet...I'm still deciding if I want the cover arranged this way, or slightly different. But the general look will remain the same- even if some of the placement changes. The background paper is already adhered to the album, so that part is permanent! BTW, I strongly suggest that if you are doing a December Daily, and you're on Pinterest, check out all the DD inspiration there, because there's A LOT! Good luck with your DD, and I'll be back soon to post more updates with mine. *wink*



Photos taken by: Wahkuna