Layout Showcase- January

Hi there friends and happy Monday. I'm going to try something different this year. Since I don't design for a lot of companies anymore and I don't belong to any kit clubs, I thought that maybe I could use my experience of showcasing products while checking off some must document layouts and bring you a monthly installment of five layouts. I will pull together my own "kit" from my stash and create five layouts from it. I will also create some cards with the leftovers. My goal for this "project" is to ultimate make a dent in my scrapbook stash and get some family scrapbook pages created at the same time. I hope that you will find this new monthly addition to this blog inspiring and informative too. 

So without further adieu, here is a photo of the products that I've put together for my five layouts. I always start with pulling colors from my pictures so I am using a lot of bright and fun colored products to blend well with my images. As you can see, my "kit" is a mixture of brand new, never been opened/used items as well as sheets of stickers and rubons that I would like to finally use up. 

And because it's Monday and I usually post a video on this day, here's a video sharing tidbits on the five layouts that I've created...

and here they are in photo stills....

Celebrate Breakfast

Easter Fun 2011

Family Game Night

Maddie's K- Class

Leprechaun Trap

Sorry for the long post but I hope that my share brought some ideas for you to use in your next layout.

Let me know if you've enjoyed this share and if my idea of doing this every month sounds good to you.

Till next time,
Grace

Project 365 version 2014

So in 2012, I took on the challenge of capturing a photo each day. I did good for about half of the year and fizzled out at about September- October. Then because I felt like a failure in it, I took a break in 2013. Halfway through the year, I looked back at all of the images that I've captured and part of me felt like, although it was not as successful as I hoped it would be, it was still pretty priceless. Imagine being able to go back to your year through 365 different images, how cool is that? 

So with that I'm committed to see this year through with photos. I am getting back in the saddle and tackling Project 365 once again. Before I jumped in the bandwagon, I decided that this time, I will do some research in hopes that 2014 will be more successful. With my research (mostly through Pinterest) I found a few sites and links that I thought is worthy to share and pass along to my fellow Project 365-ers...

You know the saying "there's an app for that"? Well it truly is interesting to note that there IS REALLY an app for everything. There's an application that you can download on your phones that will allow you to organize your images for project 365. I personally don't know if I'm going to use this as I intend to use my dslr with capturing this year's images but the app sounds really cook. 

One of my goals for project 365 is to get better at my photography skills. And I think being able to create an image that is different from the prior days/weeks/months will be the big challenge here. That's why this link for tips was a great one. I will definitely take them into account when I'm lacking ideas and inspiration. 

Here's another link with ideas on what to photograph during the course of the year. I love the "selfie" tip. That's one of my goals this year. I am hardly in our photos because I'm always behind the camera. 

What's cool about this project is that it has become such a big part of people's lives that there's even a website dedicated to it. A quick look at this site and you will find some neat ideas and monthly challenges to help you along with your photo journey. 

And finally a quote for you (and mostly for me) to remember that it's not in the finish line that we find the joy...it's in the journey.

So now that I've shared with you my goal and how I will try to achieve it, I want to know.....are you doing some kind of project 365 this year as well? We need to create a "support group" *wink*

Till next time,
Grace

New Year, New Video

Happy Monday crafty friends. I am so excited to share with you my new video share of 2014. I have been trying to be as productive as I can in my scrappy room over the Winter break and I was able to create a few videos. Here's one of them and I hope you like it. 

We all have storage ideas that are inexpensive or even free and in this video I share a few of my favorite ways to organize my supplies with minimal expense.

Thanks for stopping by and if you have any storage ideas that uses odds and ends, please do share. I am always on the hunt for inexpensive or DIY ideas.

Have a great Monday.

Till next time,
Grace

Christmas festivities 2013

Hello there dear friends. I know this is a tad late but with the holiday break, it was hard to find the time to get on the computer and make a blog post of our "fun". Anyways here's what we did to celebrate Christmas home and away from family...

On Christmas Eve the kids were begging us to allow them to open their presents. They were never this anxious before because on Christmas Eve we were always at my Uncle's house in California and they get to open presents there. Because this year was a bit different, they couldn't get their minds off of the presents underneath the tree. Finally we caved and allowed them to open one present, which were their new house robes. In years past, the kids always gets a new pair of pajamas before Christmas. This year we saw some cool robes and they were willing to trade their new jammies for some robes. Both kids were super excited about them and it made them relax a bit about the need to open anymore presents and everyone went to sleep. :)

The following morning, the kids got up earlier than usual and were super excited to finally open all of their presents. So with bed hair and still in our jammies, we all crowded the living room and handed out the presents. Everyone seemed to be happy with all of their presents, especially Mitch who I surprised with a new set of sunglasses. He wasn't "entirely" thrilled with the style but because I was smart enough to add a gift receipt with it, he was able to return the glasses and get a style that he'd rather prefer. 

Madelyn got some cool toys and an MP3 player. Yes, I have a child that's going to be walking around with headphones from here on out. She also got a robotic cat which purred and made sounds ALL-DAY-LONG! Good thing it's not the real thing and had an off switch button. Gotta love technology!

Marcus got the Skylander's swap force and Disney Infinity. We were able to score both games for a steal during the Black Friday shopping. He also got another character for Skylander and another WII game. He was pretty stoked with the money he got from Grandma and Grandpa as well. 

I know someone will ask so, I too got some gifts. I got a deep fryer so I can make homemade doughnuts and french fries. I also got some new shoes. You know it's time to rethink your shoe collection when you try on a pair of shoes with insoles built in it and would rather wear that than your stylishly cute flats that are just not comfortable anymore. Yes I'm getting old and I can't help but pick comfort over fashion. I also got some Christmas money which will be fun to take to the scrapbook store. *wink*

After everyone opened their presents (which didn't take that long) our front room was filled with torn up wrappers and containers, but all had that special "Christmas morning" smiles on their faces. 

For breakfast we had our "annual" breakfast casserole. I say annual because we only tend to make/eat it at Christmas morning. We also had cinnamon rolls and tangerine. 

The rest of the day was quiet uneventful. The kids enjoyed playing with their new toys. Mitch and I both did our phone call rounds making sure to greet our dear family members and then the family went for a walk. We also played our new board game, "Apples to Apples" that afternoon. It was so low key that at the end of the day it didn't feel quite like Christmas day. 

For dinner we heated up some leftover ham. Yes I served leftovers for Christmas and I'm quiet unashamed about that. I paired it up with some mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls. We drank some sparkling cider to make this meal "fancy".

Mitch had to work the rest of the week so we didn't do anymore celebrating till the following Saturday. I had made the suggestion that we try a local indoor pool in our town. This center was used to be owned by the city but was sold to the local YMCA. They were offering a family pack admission for $25 and we thought that was a reasonable price for all four of us. We packed some lunch and headed to the pool....

On this particular day that we came to swim, they had closed their wave pool because it had a high content of chlorine. That was  bummer but the kids still had loads of fun. And because we came at an off season day, it wasn't crowded at all, just the way we like it.

We brought our smaller camera so the above photos of the family sliding down weren't as crisp as if we would have taken it with the d7000. That's the camera enthusiast in me talking. I'm sure that no one cares if these photos were a bit blurry. It still captured some fun times for the fam.

This trip definitely got a thumbs up from all the family members

And here's me trying to do some "selfies". I have realized that I wasn't in a lot of pictures of our family in 2013. I'm trying to change that for 2014.

And one final image. We like to get the kids new "church" outfits as part of their Christmas gifts. We are not shy to say that we got both kids' ensembles at the "Arc" thrift store. In the past few years we have seen the savings when we go to our thrift stores for clothes and shoes than buying them new. I love how we were able to score a nice piece of suit jacket for Marcus for $7. Maddie's dress was 50% off so we got it for $6. I love how I can style my family for not a lot of money.

So there you have it. A look back at how we celebrated the holiday. It was definitely not like the other years but because we were all together....it was still very memorable.

Till next time,
Grace

Die Versions last projects

Hello friends! It's been an honor to be part of the DieVersions team. I didn't reapply to be part of the team for next year so I'm here to share with you my last two projects featuring the December die release. 

Thanks, you’re the best card

Size: 5 ½ x 4 ¼”

 

Featuring:

Hearts Background- Whispers (DVW-306)

Love doily- Whispers (DVW-307)

This card is definitely “hearts” galore. I am in love with the “hearts background” die cut and I used it as a foundation on my card. I also used some tiny leftover hearts from the doily die as an element inside my “shaker” banner on the bottom of the card. I placed a few teeny tiny hearts in between two pieces of vellum before sewing around to close.

You and Me Forever layout

Size: 12 x12

Featuring:

Hearts Background- Whispers (DVW-306)

Love doily- Whispers (DVW-307)

With this layout, I used the heart background die cut as a mask. I placed it over a piece of white cardstock and misted it with a pink mist bottle. I also added the doily heart die plus some more of the teeny tiny hearts.

Thank you for stopping by. I wish you an inspirational day.

-Grace

Happy New Year....Cheers to 2014

Just a quick post wishing all of my friends and blog readers a great and prosperous New Year. Cheers!

Till next time,
Grace

My favorite projects of 2013

Since it's the last day of 2013, I think it is just appropriate for a crafter like me to look back at all of the projects I've created this year and do the hard task of picking my "favorites". It was definitely a difficult job...but someone's gotta do it. Right? Without further adieu, here are some of my faves from 2013....

This altered Halloween frame that I created as one of my first projects for Paper House was a blast to create. I am known to "save" items for that perfect project and this old picture frame was one of them. Adding some fun Paper House products made this project easy to put together.

Another thing I love to "save" are the negative spaces of papers that I've die cut a shape from. In this card, I used the round opening of the blue cardstock to show off some of my washi tape collection.

In this layout, I recently journaled what I've been feeling all year long. My kids are growing up way too fast and a quick look at how small they were in this photo (which was only from a couple of years ago) made my heart ache a bit. Part of me wants them to always be a child but I know that cannot be. So for now, the photos in this page are ones that I hope to never forget.

Here's another project created for Paper House. My favorite thing about this layout is the title and tabs, thanks to my new die cut machine...the Silhouette Cameo. I love how I can type up anything that I want and it can cut it. No more cartridges for me.

Another Cameo project. This one was my first attempt of using vinyl on a plate. It was no picnic and if you look closely, there are many rips on this project. But I've learned a lot and can't wait to give the next project a go.

Going with my "looking back" theme, I created this page with some random pictures of my daughter through the years. I created this for Die Versions and I love how the new doily die added some sweet subtle elements on this page. 

This layout was another favorite. Can you believe that I've had this layout in mind for over a year before I actually created it? I'm very grateful that I was able to take the whole month of November to jot down things that I'm thankful for and then turning those words into a layout. Here's the evidence of the power of "life documentation".

Here's another layout that is my fave from this year. This one was made for Inspired by Stamping and my favorite part on this layout, besides the images of a future chef (my son) is the bottom paper that I created with multiple inks and a background stamp. Love how I can personalize my pages with the use of stamps.

This card was created for Epiphany Crafts. Hexagons are a big rage right now and I'm so happy with how this one turned out. It had a mixture of punched out papers and ones that had some butterfly stickers added to them before adhering a bubble sticker over it.

This card was created for a GCD Studios blog hop. I love how the papers, die cut borders and buttons jived pretty well together. I'm a sucker for color and this card just makes me happy.

And finally this is a frame that I created for Inspired By Stamping. I used some banner stamps and the quote that keeps me inspired and "creating" when I look at it in my scrapbook room. 

So there you have it. Thank you for stopping by. Did you create some paper projects this year? Were they inspired by something you saw on this blog? If so, please share a link. I believe that we all inspire each other and I am honored that you got something from what I am passionately doing and creating.

Till next time,

Grace