Today I am thankful for my online friends....

I want to thank my "online" friend Melissa for her wonderful post yesterday.  Melissa and I have not met in in-person yet but through her blog and classes that we have shared at Big Picture classes I feel like I know her.  Here is the link to Melissa's blog  "Daily Life - Bits & Pieces" so you can follow her:

http://melissagross.blogspot.com/

Only a few of my local in-person friends share my passion for all things paper and crafty so 5 years ago or so I was looking online for classes to spread my creative wings and found Big Picture Classes (BPC).  And I'm so glad I did!  Melissa was one of the first people that I met at BPC.  She was (and is) a coach for Stacy Julian's class Finding Photo Freedom. Along with Melissa, who is from Texas, I now count women from all over the world as my "friend".  And you know what?  We aren't all that different no matter where we live.

Here are a few more of my pages that I have completed.  I usually get my journaling done each day but the photo, either taking it or getting it developed takes a few days.  I'm never entirely "caught up" to the day but I'm not feeling anxious about it either.  I'm just thankful for forward motion each day.

We had our second snowfall of the year.  Not much either time and it didn't last past that day.  It amazes me that I still get a thrill when I see the snow start this time of the year and grateful that I still have that feeling.  

What are you thankful for today?

Ali Edwards/Xyron Giveaway

Yesterday I received a large package in the mail.  As always I get pretty excited when something other than bills arrive in the mail!

 Inside were the Xyron products I won in a giveaway over on Ali Edwards' blog at the beginning of December Daily.  As you can see I received the Creative Station which creates stickers (with both permanent and repositionable adhesive), magnets, laminates, and laminates with permanent adhesive on the bottom.  This is a step up from the 5" Create a Sticker that I had.  I also received a Xyron 510 in the new purple color (my old one is orange).  My first thought was to sell or give away my older items but I may keep them to hold the repositionable adhesive and keep the permanent adhesive in the newer items.  It will probably depend on the amount of space they all take up and whether its just easier to switch out the cartridges.  The other products are new to me and include the Xyron Mega Runner (have always wanted one of these), the Xyron Tape Runner and a Xyron Glue Stick.  This is also a permanent adhesive and the really cool thing with this is the fact that it is shaped for corners!  I think this will be really great for mixed media projects.  I plan to show these products in use in future blog posts.  Or you can check out the full line of Xyron products here:
http://www.xyron.com
And to check out Ali Edwards' blog:
aliedwards.com
I've followed Ali's blog for several years now and frequently leave comments both to share feedback and for giveaways (which are always amazing).  This is the first time I've won anything but I've gotten an incredible amount of information and inspiration from Ali over the years.  This includes December Daily, Photoshop, A Week in the Life, Project Life and so much more!
Thanks Ali!  Thanks Xyron!

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!

Project Life Blog Hop

Welcome back to our monthly blog hop and Happy National Scrapbook Day! 
Project Life has been a little bit of a challenge for me this year.  I've not taken a lot of photos this year at least yet.  There's been a few reasons for that.  For one, life has been pretty ordinary & I just didn't feel motivated to capture just the routine day in/day out things.  I use Week in the Life for that.  Secondly, I've become very conscious of how many albums I already have created and the space that they take up so I'm trying to find a balance between preserving the memories of my life (ordinary or not) with the amount of materials I'll leave behind to my children/grandchildren one day. So I switched to a monthly format for February through March instead of a weekly format.  In May I'll switch back to a weekly format as we have several things scheduled in May that will provide photos.
This is also the second year that I have done (or attempted) A Week in the Life (WITL) in my Project Life (PL) album.  Ali Edwards' set the last week in April for WITL.  I suprised myself and took 54 photos in one day which I think has to be a record for me.  However, there are days I only took 1-3.  I did pretty well with the journaling although I have some ideas for next time (I think Ali will be doing this again later this year) that I think will help prompt me to write down some other details.  I think I'll adapt Ali's journaling sheets for that. I want to add prompts to remind to write down what I'm reading, restaurants we go to, movies we watch, etc.
So here are my regular April pages.  I had hoped to have my Week in the Life pages done too but
I'm still working on them.

left side

right side

left side

right side

Not too much going on - you can probably see the weather was back & forth.  Spring one day, winter the next. I used the journaling cards from the Cobalt kit along with some items from Simple Stories.  I can't remember if they were from Life Documented or year.ography sets.  A little Easter basket added to the photo of my cats. I also put the postcard for the Art of Observation class I received with my scrapbook.com order along with my Heidi Swapp Memory Files stuff.  So nothing fancy or exciting - just me and my life!  Thanks so much for hopping by!
If you've been hopping along from the start the next blogger to visit is Lois & you can find her here http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

     

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com   To start at the beginning START HERE

Devon http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com

Nikki www.inkyart.com.au

Laew www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Lois http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

Helen www.helen-mills.blogspot.com

Jennifer http://vogtstories.blogspot.com

Brighton www.dearbrighton.wordpress.com

Blogs, blogs and more blogs...

I follow & read several blogs daily. I like to get them sent right to my email inbox.  I save some for reference or inspiration.  I've found if they are sent via RSS feed I never get there to read them. Some of the bloggers have had quite an impact on my creative journey.  I thought I would share a few of them with you.

I'm a big fan of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and having been following her for a couple of years.  I started art journaling, using stencils and I am taking 21 Secrets because of her and the information she shares so generously on her blog.  Today her post title is "Tutorial:  Digital Photo Collages" and I wanted to direct those of you who are digi people to this.  Julie's tutorials are well done and easy to follow.  Check it out here   http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/
For anyone who is interested in stencils whether you use them regularly or are a beginner Julie has a lot of information regarding them including a free stencil workshop.  Julie also designs stencils for The Crafter's Workshop.  She also hosts Art Journal Every Day on her blog.

A diferent type of artist/blogger is Ali Edwards.  I've followed Ali for years.  I've been scrapbooking for about 14 years or so and used to read her articles faithfully in scrapbook magazines.  Now I read her blogs, take One Little Word, do December Daily & A Week in the Life and now I'll be taking her 31 Things class over at Big Picture Classes beginning in May.  You can find Ali here http://aliedwards.com/
She actually has two blogs on one website. 

More artist/bloggers tomorrow.

Whose blogs do you follow?

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?

A Week in the Life preparation

Notice the Details

stamped images

stamped images ready for A Week in the Life project

As I mentioned in a previous post Ali Edwards' A Week in the Life project will be coming up July 25th-31st.  While you can do A Week in the Life at any time most people do the same week that Ali does.  I'm putting some supplies together for my Week in the Life which I may actually do next week while we are on vacation.  It wouldn't be a true representation of a week in my life so I haven't decided for sure.  I may see how the week goes.  One of the items I plan to use (since I'm not yet into digital stuff like Ali is) is this stamp set (see photo at top) from Close To My Heart.  Notice the Details (D1378) has 41 stamps in the set.  The  wide variety of stamps will have many uses besides A Week in the Life.  The set is $22.95 and can be ordered from your Close To My Heart (CTMH) consultant. 
As you can see in the middle and last photo above I stamped the images on CTMH's Kraft Cardstock (Z1375).  I really like the look of the images on this cardstock.  It did not take long to cut the images out - a good project while watching a movie! 
I also will be using another CTMH stamp set called "On This Day" (see photo below)  Its D1468 and I believe it is also $22.95 from your CTMH consultant.  You can use the consultant locator on the Close To My Heart website to find one if you don't have one.  Many of them also have their own websites and you can order online through those.  I'm posting a photo of On This Day below. 


On This Day

I liked Notice the Details so well that I ordered a second stamp set before I found the first while looking for things I already had for A Week in the Life!  I'm selling the second one (brand new, original packaging) for $15 plus postage.  Email me at laew@aol.com if you are interested.

I'd like to hear if you are planning on doing A Week in the Life this year and if so are you making any plans for how you'll do it.

SMASH Book vs. Ditto Collection

I recently purchased a SMASH Book and a few of the little extras to get started.

SMASH Book by K & Co/EK Success
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PFsArr4Z1s

http://www.smashstoriesblog.com/

http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/kandcompany/SMASH/

and then I heard about the Ditto Collection by Hampton Arts from http://www.creationsbychristine/
so I wanted to find out more about both.  I'm sharing the links I found for both so you can check out these two great products.

Ditto Collection
3 ring binders (kraft cover with linen binding) with inserts; 2 sizes 8 x 8 or 8 1/2 x 11
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/userblogpost.asp?id=52737

http://www.hamptonart.com/Product_Details.aspx?prodid=314   This is the product list for all the various components available for the Ditto Collection

While these items are similar the inserts for the Ditto Collection include calendar pages where the SMASH Book has more of an art journal feel.  However, either product can be turned into what you want it to be!

Let me know if you have either one or are planning to purchase one!  I know I'll be getting more little goodies for my SMASH Book but I'll be ordering the Ditto Collection as well.  Both collections have items that I will use for A Week in the Life - especially the Ditto Collection stamp sets.

A Week in the Life, Composition for Collage, Finding Photo Freedom, Mother LOAD



Horizontal compositional structure - Composition for Collage



Three full storage binders - Finding Photo Freedom

I thought this would be a good time to provide an update with where I am with the Big Picture classes that I am taking this summer along with some of my other projects.   Top photo is my horizontal compositional piece that I finally finished.  I just really laugh every time I see that piece.  Kind of my view of how life goes - your sailing along just fine and then a duck comes along blocking your way!  Hope you enjoy it and get a laugh from it as well!  Just a fun piece and trying not to take it all so seriously!  This Thursday is then end of Composition for Collage - I'll be working on a grid compositional structure piece between now and then. 
Bottom photo is the 3 storage binders I have filled (more in them then there should be).  I've ordered 3 more binders from scrapbook.com and they should be here Tuesday.  I'm not sure at this point but I may need to order 1-2 more.  These are Pioneer 3-up storage binders.  In Finding Photo Freedom (formerly Library of Memories) storage binders are where the photos you want to scrapbook in the future go.  This is after purging & rating.  I'll try to remember to take a photo of the inside and talk a little more about this in the future.  I'm just keeping my head above water with the two classes these last 4 weeks but I'll try to go into more detail in the next few blog posts.
I need to finish up my postcards this next week for the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap - its due July 15th (where did June go?).  I'm trying to decide whether to use one of my compositional structure pieces from the Composition for Collage class or the piece I did for One Little Word this month.  Stay tuned!
Ali Edwards posted the code for this year's A Week in the Life if you want to pick that up for your blog.  Just go to http://www.aliedwards.com/ and check out her blog post for June 23rd.  She also posted links (same one I provided in my last blog post) to resources for A Week in the Life.  If you are thinking of doing Project Life in the future this is a great opportunity to see if you like this style of scrapbooking.  A Week in the Life is a more intense, in-depth type of Project Life. 
As Claudine Helmuth's Composition class ends, Lain Ehmann's MotherLOAD (Layout a Day) class will begin.  Very exciting!
Hope your finding creative time as summer swings into high gear!

Shopping Trip and A Week in the Life

This past Friday I was in Buffalo, NY (about one and a half hours away from my home) and I stopped into my favorite scrapbook store Buffalo Stamps.  In the top photo is are some of the items I got while I was there.  I also got $10 off my purchases for filling up my frequent shopper's card.  A modest day of shopping.  While I'll mention some of the other items over the next few days today I want to show you the item at the very top of the first photo.

These are Scribbles Glitter Borders Weekdays in Black (item # 4935).  The second photo down has a close-up of the one side of the package.  Saturday, Sunday and three phrases are on the back.  The 3 phrases are "a good day", "this week" and "enjoy today".  The 3rd photo has a close-up of the packaging top.  These looked similar to some of the digital stuff that Ali does and since I've not gotten into digital scrapbooking in a big way I thought these would be perfect for other paper scrapbookers!

These caught my eye as I am planning on doing Ali Edwards' A Week in the Life" this year.  She has it set for Monday, July 25th through Sunday, July 31st this year.  Here's the link to the basics about A Week in the Life http://aliedwards.com/2010/04/the-basics-of-documenting-a-week-in-your-life.html

Another link that has information on how to prepare for A Week in the Life is http://aliedwards.com/2010/01/week-in-the-life.html

The information provided on these 2 links will get you started & ready.  I'd also advise that you sign up to get Ali's emails from her blog so you'll have updated info delivered right to your mailbox.  She has tons of great info and I've learned so much from her.