Near the end of October, my co-worker agreed to have a family photo shoot with us in the woods. To say the least, they turned out fabulous!! Take a look at some of our photos on her blog here...
I couldn't wait to get some of the first photos scrapped since they were just so inspiring to me. This is what I am passionate about.....documenting "us". Although I do enjoy designing for others, I'm so glad when I get the time to do something for us. That is, after all, where my passion for scrapbooking began - documenting my babies, me, family life, grandmas and grandpas and love.
inbetween... I did a few other things... ;-)
More to come ...
NOTICE: I will only be taking custom orders for albums until 1 December, frames until 14 December. So, please place your order by then to insure timely completion and delivery. Thx, bye!
Yay.... I was finally able to scrap just for me. Although I truly LOVE designing for others, I sometimes miss time to do layouts just for me. I finally used one of my Studio Calico kits (May 2011). Have I mentioned that I just LOVE these kits!? There is just so much love that goes into putting them together and every month I'm so thrilled to get my package!!
Before I get to the stuff... Jenna was again invited to a birthday party and well....Danny wasn't so I decided to do something really special for him...especially with his good grades that he really worked very hard for. So, I took him to see Cars 2 in 3D. I was SO awesome! Not that it had very many 3D effects, but the scenery that they created was fascinating! Totally fell in love with "Porto Corsa". Hee... and Danny ate his sweet popcorn (yuck), got a cool cup and two cars from the movie theater. Said I was the best momma in the world. Now THAT felt good!
Anyhooo... the following two layouts are with photos from a little garden shoot I did in August of 2009 where Jenna was sick with Scarlet Fever for the umteenth time and I was trying to get her mind off of her throat and cheer her up and this is what came out.
AND... since there have been a few birthdays....I wanted to show you what cards I made lately...
What's great is that I never have to buy a card ;-)... but I also only make cards for people who appreciate the work I put into them. ;-)
Yayyy! I'm blogging! I'm so sorry it took this long, it's just been crazy like it always is after vacation and nearing school end with all the parties to prepare for and attend, plus I've been filling custom orders (which is not really a bad thing).
Anyway, I was asked to work with a little kit provided to me by Scrapbooking Stuttgart and this is what I came up with. I realized that I never really scrapped Jenna's 1st day of school (shame on me!!). So, these papers from Sassafrass were the perfect thing for that! So here goes nothing:
Products used from the kit:
Sassafrass Paper pad Amplify
Bazzill Basics Kraft Cardstock
Wooden Ornaments
Rayher Brads "Nail"
Rayher Brads "Screws"
Prima Marketing Craftable flowers white, 3 sizes
Other products used:
Distress Ink Tumbled Glass, Barn Door, Marmalade
Perfect Pearls powder Rust
All of these can also be found at the Scrapbooking Stuttgart Shop and the little kit is also for sale there for 10 Euros plus shipping!
These photos I took of a tickle attack on Jenna last weekend inspired me to a new layout. For this layout I used a filmstrip .png file and mostly Studio Calico supplies out of various of their kits.
What I wanted to talk to you about is color. We all know how important it is to match the colors of the photos to our pages/scrapbooking supplies. So, I wanted to show you how I chose my colors to match my photos.
Since the main colors in the photos are green and blue, I chose a subtle greenish-blue small patterned background first of all. Jenna's shirt contains black, which the filmstrip was perfect for. She also had some orange and pink on her shirt, so I thought I would pull that out and tie it into the layout.
To offset the blue & green in the photos, I backed them with a solid orange. For the title, I again chose black to pull together the black filmstrip and Jenna's shirt. I found some paper with several printed banners and this one was perfect as it had black, blue, green & several neutral pastel tones and was great to add some slight dimension and a border at the top.
In my stash, I also found some old jeans patterned paper, which I used as a small border atop the journaling block. To top it off, I found the little bird and a tag out of the Girl's Paperie collection, some Prima Pebbles and a few Teresa Collins chipboard flowers that matched perfectly in terms of color.
So, when matching your colors up, you can see how easy it can be. Don't be afraid to use too many different colors as long as they compliment your photos and don't take attention away from them.
Hope you enjoyed my color-coded explanation. Have fun with your next layout! ;-)
I have been wanting to blog for what seems like ages. All I've been able to do is post classes and send newsletters. Although I'm feeling like a chewed up rag, a little case of the flu, I neeeeeed to do this!
During the Halloween weekend I decided to take a spontaneous trip to see my parents with the kids. Since they have both been very sick this year, Dad with his 4th heart attack and quintuple bypass and Mom with a dangerous intestinal problem, followed by 2 operations, I thought it might be good for them to get to see their grandchildren and daughter. ;-) We were pretty lucky with the weather. It was cool, but sunny on Saturday (which is when the Air Base decided to do Halloween) and I took quite a few photos:
Danny makes such a cute Luke Skywalker and Jenna was adorable in her witch costume. Unfortunately, it was a little cool, so they had to cover them up. Most of the time I was the keeper of the laser sword. ;-)
This is Kindsbach Lake in the town in which my parents have lived since about 1977/78. I do believe this must be one of the best outdoor photos I've taken, but that is mostly due to the beautiful weather and gorgeous bright autumn colors. ;-) We had a short, but nice walk around the lake with Oma Lotte (Grandma), the grandkids and I. ;-)
Then, I wanted to get photos of them together...and this is what came out of that ;-)
Danny and Jenna can make some pretty goofy faces....I'll givem' that. Guess they didn't feel like getting their photo taken today. ;-)
Then I caught them from behind.... ha!
I love the color of the leaves in the forest and I wanted to catch a glimpse of my mom walking on this path.
The photo on the right warms my heart. Danny collected several leaves or rather ferns...and then went up to his grandma and put his arm around her waste and walked along side of her. So precious... just wants to make me almost cry. ;-)
Here are a few more impressions of our visit to Kindsbach....helping Oma in the garden...and "making stuff"
Danny is very good with his hands....not exactly sure what he made here, but it looks cool...just like this heart he made for me out of legos.... ahhhh... isn't he the sweetest kid??
and Jenna here helped Oma to get the leaves out from under the tree....I think she left a few hairs on some of those branches. ;-)
So now I want to show you my DREAM HOUSE. When we build a house, I want it to look just like this! An American family built it (as you might be able to tell due to the style) and it's right on the lake. Of course, it does get noisy during the sommer, but hey... they have that lake right out their front door and can jump in it any time they want! Cool deal. Unfortunately, they had to recently sell it. Sold it waaaay too cheap if you ask me! Anyhoo... here it 'tis...
It's simply amazing to me... I am so in awe of this house! Want it!!! Now!!
And here is what I have been up to scrapbooking-wise.....
A recent beginner scrapbooking class....
and a frame for my best friend's sister who's pup recently died....such a sweet sweet dog too. :-(
Unfortunately, another doggy in our family died too.... Oma Gitti's doggy Tanja. We're all very sad about that and miss her so!
And then yet another doggy died.... his name was Sam and belonged to one of the daycare teachers who has been bringing him for a few years now, so the children knew him quite well. He was only 6 years old.
... back to scrapbooking / card making / frames.....
I'm trying to make a decorative frame for every season/occasion....
Finally scrapped some old Kindergarten photos of my two sweeties and their "Red Group". They really enjoyed it there!
A masculine birthday card for my very good friend Frank...
and an envelope I decorated...
Address erased to protect the innocent ;-)...
A purple birthday card for a friend whom I happen to know likes purple.
A sympathy card...
a with compliments tag
and
An early X-mas tag for a customer I placed with her order
A minibook class I taught on Saturday...
Everybody have a great week!
P.S. Don't forget, next Saturday is a Christmas Card Class! If you're interested and have time, now is the time to register..
Good LORD! Time flies! I just checked my blog to see when the last time was.... how embarrassing! It's been close to a MONTH! I apologize profusely for not blogging sooner. Major stress at the day job. The days just whizz by and it's hard to slow down. Then my side-business here, well throw in the family with 2 kids and you can guess that I'm basically on the move 24 hours a day. I keep telling myself to BREATHE... but, there's no time! LOL
For the last 6-8 weeks I've had bursitis, an infection in my shoulder, which was irritating for one, but it also prevented me from doing TaeBo, which I really hated. Yesterday, I was finally able to go and although every muscle in my body seems to hurt, I'm SO GLAD that I finally get to go again! I missed it sooo much!
I just wanted to show you what I've been working on the past few weeks, so here goes!
I actually made this for a Cinch Mini-Album class and will be selling it on Etsy or Dawanda afterwards. Believe it or not... it was a "cinch" to make. LOL
I made this thank you card using one sheet of thick designer cardstock (DCWV Mariposa, 8x8), Ranger Dimensional Pearls, Jenni Bowlin Letter Stickers and a Martha Stewart Butterfly punch. The DCWV papers in this collection are SO pretty!!
A boy birthday card for my nephew....hope he ever got it since there was a gift certificate inside!!! Haven't heard from the little bugger yet. The red piece is 3D using 3D foam pads and is backed with a jeans design paper.
Just made this one a day or two ago...see, I can't even remember! Doh!.. Anyway... I wanted to protect the other mommy's kids, so that is why they are sensored. I used Tim Holtz design paper, prima felt stem, regular manila tag with walnut distress ink, flower made with dictionary paper, punched, distressed with various Holtz Distress inks, crumpled and stapled together. Looove those flowers! Martha stewart fence border punch, Tim Holtz ticket "dream", Ranger Dimensional pearls & Rock Candy, Prima Pebble, Journaling card from Yellow Bicycle.
Here is more detail on the flower:
So, now I have the munchies and I need to go to bed. Jenna has a little something she needs to do on stage in school for the 1st grader ceremony. She's so proud. :-)
I've been very busy this weekend, not only food shopping, washing, cooking, but also creating!! Lots to do and sooo little time! But, I love it or else I wouldn't make time to do it, am I right?
First of all... an ADHD story about my son, Danny, 8 years old. Yesterday, after my trip to IKEA for a new chair, I had left some scissors in the dining room after cutting off some tags. I remember putting them away and after a time I walked into the dining room and noticed a good piece of hair (blond) lying on the rug. I pick it up and look over at my son, who has this exact piece of hair missing from his bangs...now forehead showing through where there should have been hair. So, I ask him, I say "Danny, did you cut your hair?". He looks at me and says, "Me? No!...Huh??" And I say, "You're saying you didn't cut your hair." ...He says with big round eyes, "No, Mommy, I didn't!". So, I take him over to the mirror and say "Gee, that's odd...there seems to be hair missing from your bangs, now isn't THAT a coincidence!" ...Get this....he says, "But, I DIDN'T cut my hair." LOL Okay, this wouldn't be the first time he's so obviously caught in a fib and still won't admit it, even if you PROVE he did it. (ahh... life with ADD, never gets boring) He finally admitted it, but of course, could not tell me WHY he cut his hair. That's because no thought went into it. His brain said... ahhhh, scissors...cut.... hair, end of story. And then, he forgot he even did it. It was just sort of, well, the most natural and obvious thing to do. It's hard to even get mad at him for it, since he didn't do it for attention or to be mischievous. No bad thoughts behind it, just simple and unrestrained impulse. Now I know where all of those odd looking cuts in his shorts and pants are coming from...not on the knee part, but on the thigh cut at a 90° angle ("Mommy, I fell..."). Uh,...yeah, buddy, sure. But, I gotta tell you... it sure does not make it easy for me to leave him and his sister alone for any given amount of time. I'm always a bit afraid of what his impulse might tell him to do next. Know what I mean?
So...now to the creative part... here's what I've been doin'!
This is August's Sketch I designed for the www.simea.de website for this month...
And this is the matching layout with the sketch.
Gotta love those Prima Marketing pebbles, so gorgeous!!
This layout will also be featured on Simea's website at some point this month....It's about how I LOVE strawberries. The picture colors turned out weird, because my printer was acting up, but I used it anyway, since it had kind of a retro vintage look to it. lol
closeup of the beautiful prima rose....love the vivid colors!
Please never mind the odd looking...or rather missing faces. I wanted to make sure nobody got on the web, that didn't want to be on there. ;-) Kinda reminds me of the movie "The Ring" though...a little spooky there. I made this as a going away present from the daycare mothers for one of the childminders who is leaving to work in Munich this month. LOL
So..."The Ring" again... this time a card for one of the childminders from the daycare for all her hard work.
This card was for my wonderful friend Emel, a housewarming card. She'd invited us today to check out their new house.... niiiiccccee house! :-)
And THISSSS... is a card for my brother dear who will be turning FIFTY... still can't believe it!!! Did a bit of Tim Holtz on there... Love the BINGO card!
I made this tag for the inside of my brother's card...it looked so empty. ;-) Love Tim Holtz!!!.. no, wait.. I ADORE Tim Holtz!!
This was the first draft of the 50th birthday card below. Yes, I know, it looks so completely different. LOL That is because I wasn't aware that 30 people were supposed to sign it. ;-) I'm sure I can sell it or that there will be another 50th birthday where it'll be needed. Tim Holtz again with the Grungeboard swirl shape, Fired Brick Crackle Paint and Glossy Accents over the top of it.
Last...but never least LOL, is a card I made for my friend Emel to give to her co-worker who's turning 50. She needed a BIIIIGGGG card, so that lots of people have room to sign it. So, basically, it's a 12x12" piece of cardstock folded in half. Now, THAT...is BIG!
Whew... Not done yet though...still have quite a bit planned. Classes are coming up in September using the Cinch! More on the next post!!
