I Love Misting!

I wanted to get one more layout done before The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide class' second week starts tomorrow.  I love misting.  Its so easy if you follow May's guidelines.  Spray lightly, let dry, spray again, dry, repeat until you reach the desired shade.  Now if I could just get layering!  

Weekend layout

I'm taking The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide with May Flaum again at Big Picture Classes.  This class is so full of techniques, products and ideas to use what you have that I had to take it again.  I didn't end up spending as much time in my craft room as I would have like but I did get this layout done.
Week 1 is all about misting and I put mine to good use!  I didn't have any Easter/spring printed paper so I created my own.
Hoping to have some exciting news to share with you later today or tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

One Little Word 2013 and more

Over the last couple of months my One Little Word (OLW) for 2012 JOY was in the forefront of mind as we enjoyed the holidays and a new word for 2013 started making its presence known.  At first the word was complete and that was perfectly understandable as I took a record number of Big Picture Classes in 2012 and ended up not finishing several.  I also have several books to finish, picture frames that need pictures, other projects that remain unfinished and so on.  As I began researching and learning more about the word complete it didn't seem to cover enough of what I was hoping for in 2013 so as one word led to another to another I have chosen the word SEEK for 2013.  I'll be working on learning more about this word as I begin preparing for OLW 2013.
As 2013 is shaping up to be a year of completing, repeating and re-taking classes and projects I'm also planning on taking May Flaum's The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide.  I loved this class last year - one of the classes I actually finished except for the final project.  I want to repeat this class for a couple of reasons.  First, May is an enthusiastic teacher and is very inspiring.  By the end of the class I was really becoming more adventurous and doing more mixed media types of art then ever before so I'm hoping to continue that type of work and incorporating it into my scrapbook pages.

I would really like to integrate my OLW 2013 journey into my everyday Project Life or if that doesn't seem possible an album that really helps me focus on those things I am seeking.  I'm really looking for a process that helps move me forward.  Helps me be more accountable to what I'm looking for in 2013.  I'd love to hear your ideas and plans for 2013.                                                          

The red albums are my OLW and Move More, Eat Well albums.
The pink album is an 8 x 8 album that I haven't used yet.
My Twelve and Finding Photo Freedrom notebooks
are on the chest of drawers as well as
I try to get organized for the new year!

Double Take Week 1 Sketch 1

One of the best things about Double Take is the number of photos I'm getting onto layouts!  Most of the sketches are for 5-9 photos on the 2 page layouts.  For this layout I took orange cardstock and since I'm trying to use more printed paper on my layouts I pulled out the soccer stuff I had.  I had several soccer print papers but I chose this one and cut the soccer balls out and put them on the orange cardstock - I love the way the colors all stand out.  I cut a few banner out of some other soccer print paper and added some black dewdrops.  Pretty simple and I love it!

National Scrapbook Day Recovery

Wow, what a great weekend!

Use a library pocket on your page,

  There's nothing like getting into a creative zone and having a blast with it.  I was a little slow out of the gate (I did take time on Saturday to watch the Kentucky Derby - with 2 veterinarians that specialize in horses in the family its kind of mandatory.) on Saturday morning.  I was trying really hard to get my Week in the Life/Project Life album current before Big Picture Classes' Creative Crop started at noon.  I got almost all the photos in but need to go back & do the journaling and add bits & pieces.  I was also getting some paper and tags misted that I hoped to use to create some pages I wanted to get done.  I was hoping that they would work for some of the challenges and they did so I was glad I got a head start on those and they had time to dry.
I completed 8 out of the 12 challenges between Saturday and Sunday which I was very happy with.  I'll be sharing those over the next few days.  I never did get over to scrapbook.com to do their NSD challenges.  I have some ideas for next year that will hopefully better prepare me to do both events.  Besides creating layouts for the challenges I did catch 2 of the live chats - one with Stacy Julian and one with Ali Edwards.  I also participated in another chat (with just typing back & forth) with Nic Howard.  I was especially happy to be in that chat as I'll be taking the Double Take class with Nic and May Flaum (can't wait to be back in a class with May!).  With the chat I felt like I had "met" Nic.  I wasn't planning on taking Double Take as I have quite a list of Big Picture Classes (BPC)  that I'm already taking & felt I should focus on those.  However, I had participated in last week's BPC week-long giveaway contests and won a spot in Double Take!  WooHoo!  Very happy.  Really added to the festive feel of the weekend.

I did the photo at the top for the challenge "Use a library pocket on your page".  I had a package of these blue library cards so I used one of those.  I added the kraft card "GROW" and wrote a little note to my grandson, Owen on it.  I decided to decorate the card as well using crushed velvet to make the snowbank and Liquid Pearls to mimic snowflakes. The rest of the page came together quite quickly.  I cut a sheet of corrugated cardboard paper (from Michael's) into strips and adhered those onto a sheet of kraft cardstock. I was trying to mimic the look of the fence behind Owen.

One of the challenges was to use photos from your iPhone and if you didn't have an iPhone to use everyday photos for you layout.  I used photos that I had taken during A Week in the Life of the department I work in.

Everyday Photos

Stop back tomorrow for more photos of the layouts I complete during the Creative Crop!

A little of this, a little of that...

The last 6 days have been pretty busy.  I've been taking lots of photos for A Week in the Life. On my best day I took 54 photos and another day I only took 2 or 3.  The rest of the days I took between 12-25 photos.  I stopped at the kiosk at CVS to get those printed & I'll pick them up tomorrow.  I'm using the downloadable sheets that Ali Edwards provides for the journaling and have kept up fairly well.  One of my biggest problems is that I work in Mammography & Ultrasound in a Women's Imaging Center.  As a Certified Breast Patient Navigator I can not photograph most of what I do at work. And frankly the rest of my week is not that interesting..however as Ali and Stacy (Julian) are fond of saying its just as important to document the everyday, small moments of life as it is the big ones so I took some photos that I normally would not. Frankly I was suprised to see that the one day had 54 photos.  I actually took more but weeded some poor shots out.  I'm hoping to work on getting my photos (& journaling in my Project Life album tomorrow. I combine the two projects as I try to limit the numbers of albums I create yearly to a minimum.
I've been playing with different parts of Heidi's Memory Files.  I'm waiting for more of her products to be delivered before I finish 3 Memory Files I have started.  It would be nice to keep up with the class but I don't want to rush these.  I am making these for a trip my husband & I are taking in September to see our oldest son & daughter-in-law.  We'll be visiting Lake Tahoe with them and I really excited about the trip!  I love that you can have so many photos in one Memory File with her system.  I hope to have some time tomorrow to work on this as well.
I'd also like to do one piece this weekend for May Flaum's class A Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide.  We are at the end of this 12 week class -sadly :(  I know May is going to repeat this class.  I can't say enough about May & this class.  It was amazing! I may even take it again even though it will be the same material.  By the time it runs again I will be in a different place creatively and I think I would still get a lot from it.
I hope that you have checked out Big Picture Classes upcoming FREE event - their National Scrapbook Day's Creative Crop.  I really enjoyed this last year and got quite a few pages done.  I need to straighten up my craft room when I'm done in there tomorrow so that I'm ready to go next Saturday.  To check it out or register, click on the Creative Crop badge to the right of this post.
What are you working on this weekend?  What classes are you taking right now?

The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide with May Flaum

Week 1 of May's class has been all about misting.  I have about 6 or 7 various mists and have tried it (sort of) a few times but didn't really feel like I knew what I was doing so it wasn't necessarily fun.  I've been misting a few tags and papers based on what we learned this week and I think I have a better idea of what I'm doing and how the mists work.  Here's the layout I did tonight......

I found a box that will even fit 12 x 12 sheets of paper for my misting.  I didn't
like cleaning up the mess misting made without it before.



I used a Tim Holtz mask from his Timeworks set.



I used Tattered Angels GlimmerMist - Creme de Chocolat to mist Close To My Heart cardstock (colonial white).
I added a 2 1/2 inch strip of textured brown cardstock (not sure where I got this paper.  I added ribbon above and below the paper strip.
The cardstock did curl after I misted it.  I'll have to put some weight on it to flatten it.  May also told us that
we could iron our items that curled.



Finished layout.  Added photo over cardstock/ribbon strip.  Added acrylic piece with "thankful" on it over the masked area.  Added cardstock brown Thickers to make the word "for".  Rub-ons added "family" and "happiness is..." from Close To My Heart.  I then added black DewDrops to bring the eye to the photo.


I was very happy with the look of the misting.  It covered the cardstock very evenly and I didn't have a lot of big splats or drops.  In the class May explained the various types of mist, what they are made of and how they work which helped me understand how to use them better.  She also said that its a matter of working with them -I should say playing with them and practicing the various techniques to get the look you want. 
My scrapbooking style is typically very basic, clean and simple and I like that I can stay true to that but add a feeling of more depth to my layout.
I can wait til Thursday's class!  Thanks, May!

May Flaum's Field Guide

I'm busy over on Big Picture Classes website today.  May Flaum's class The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide class started today and I'm really excited!  I can already tell that I'm going to learn how to get so much more out of my products.  Its not to late to sign up so check May's class here...

http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/fieldguide.php

and I hope you'll join us!  I've already watched two of the videos and learned so much about misting.  Techniques that I thought looked hard have been demystified!  I'll be busy getting inky and will have some finished art to show this weekend!  Its going to snow Friday and Saturday so I'm planning on creating in my studio or watching more of May's video's!