One Week Later...

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last posted!  I've been busy with school as well as with lots of scrappy endeavors. Though I can't share everything just yet, here's a peek at a few things that have been keeping me occupied: 

I created this page for a Two Peas in a Bucket feature on Jillibean Soup.  This is a line that, at first glance, seems to be oriented to the domestic sphere, but it can also be used for not-so-domestic topics, like this visit to the Waikiki Aquarium.  Versatility is always a plus when it comes to any line.  

I have a feeling that this is the Year of the Button for me. I can't get enough of them. 

I've also had my hands (happily) full with the new Jenni Bowlin November kits, which feature the latest Red and Black Extension.  The full reveal is right around the corner -- on the 31st -- but in the meantime, here are a few sneaks: 

Those JBS letter stamps have me giddygiddygiddy.

I've also been playing with LOTS of Halloween lines, including the new JBS, Bella Blvd., My Little Shoebox, and American Crafts.  'Tis the season, right?  Today I put together some very simple cards for Z's teachers.  

Well, I'm off to go mend Z's Halloween costume.  She's going as Dr. Horrible, but the coat is way too long right now.  I'm not sure if I can figure out how to sew something other than paper. We'll see!  

Saturday Acrostic

Scrapfest continues on the JBS message board all weekend!  Though weekday traffic made me late for Thursday's chat and caused me to miss Friday's chat altogether, I will most definitely be at tonight's chat.  Even if you can't make the chats, you simply must stop by to check out the challenges and giveaways. My contribution to the list o' challenges is a journaling challenge: fill no less than 1/3 of a layout with journaling.  Here's my attempt:

All Scrapfest challenge participants are eligible for a very special participation "perk" -- at the end of the weekend, the design team will be  selecting the December JBS Mercantile guest designer from among the participants! Previously, the winner was Briana Johnson, who not only ended up being an amazing guest designer, but also ended up joining the design team.


This weekend I am also immersing myself in the wonder that is the JBS Mercantile November kit.  I just received my box o' scrappy-happiness in the mail yesterday, and I nearly lost my mind marveling over its contents.   We're talking about a brand new JBS line, stamps, and accents -- all of which are just perfect.  This is my favorite JBS line ever -- and I'm not just saying that.  This line speaks to my scrappy soul, I kid you not.  My husband and daughter exchanged the "oh, she's crazy" look numerous times as I sifted through the contents of the box, oohing and aahing.   Stay tuned for peeks soon!


Unfortunately, I've hit a little road block with my October mini-album.  I fell behind this week, due to stacks of papers to grade, a house inspection (and the cleaning associated with it), a flu shot that left my entire arm aching and my head pounding, and a misplaced point-and-shoot camera.   I'll get back on track soon (I hope), and will hopefully complete the album before next October.  Ha.


"R" is the title of the layout that I shared this week on the October Afternoon blog, where Amy Heller and I teamed up for the "Thursday Sketch: Rethinking the Grid" feature.

Doing sketch-based layouts always seems to make the process go a little more quickly than usual.  I have had the idea of a twine-based grid in my head for a while, and I worked it into the following sketch:  

I like the idea of items being loosely embedded in the grid, peeking over and under it.  

Another OA post this week included a card that I put together using the new Sidewalks Flower Sack.

I covered the front of the card with die-cut shapes and then misted over the shapes using one of the Sidewalks Sprinklers in Hopscotch. I then rearranged the shapes and sized them down one; for instance, I placed a medium-sized flower over a large negative space. There is actually a giveaway still going on, I believe, so if you'd like a chance to win a Flower Sack set, be sure to check out this post.


You also might enjoy wandering over to Two Peas in a Bucket to check out the Stamping A to Z event.  I've been inspired daily!  October is stamping month at Two Peas, and this special event devotes each day to a letter, highlighting products and techniques related to that letter.   Yesterday's letter was "L," and I contributed a layout that plays with the technique of layering stamps:

More details can be found at Two Peas in a Bucket.  

Have a happy Saturday!

Scrapfest Time!

I have so been looking forward to this, and now it's finally here!

The JBS Scrapfest features four consecutive days of online chats, challenges, and giveaways.  The first of the challenges will be up tomorrow, and the first chat will be at 9:00 CST tomorrow evening.  I'll be hosting Saturday evening's chat, and I'll also be posting a journaling challenge.

I always have so much fun at these events.  Seriously.  The chat threads always have me in stitches, and I love seeing how everyone interprets the challenges.  Whether you will be among the die-hards who have trouble stepping away for even five minutes for fear that they will miss a moment, or among those who just pop in to say hello from time to time during the weekend, I know we would all love it if you could join us!

Since we're on one of my favorite topics -- JBS -- I have a layout to share from one of this week's posts on the JBS Inspiration blog.  Throughout the month of October, the team has been drawing inspiration from Jenni's layouts and style.  Here is my Jenni-inspired layout:

More details can be found on the original post.  

Ooh, and there's more Jenni love to share -- have you seen these?  I've been dreaming of JBS letter stamps for(like)ever, and now, well, they're a dream come true.  Happy sigh. 

I hope to see you at Scrapfest!

And the Party Guest Is...

Congrats, Manda!   


As for the Pico de Gallo paper, I must agree -- it belongs on a dress! 

Actually, I recently used a wee bit of it on a recent layout for Two Peas in a Bucket.  

More details can be found right here. 

Congrats again, Manda, and thank you to all who contributed some dress-worthy patterns to the mix!  

Party at Shimelle's! Wanna Come?

There are online classes for everything these days, and Shimelle has been teaching online scrapbooking classes for years - but she's decided it's time to kick it up a bit and go from online class to a four-week online party, and you're invited.  Pretty Paper Party (http://www.shimelle.com/paper/1258/pretty-paper-party-a-new-online-scrapbooking-class/) is the party to attend if you have a collection of paper stacked up for a rainy day, if you have more scraps of paper than you know what to do with (but you know you don't want to throw them away!) and if you've ever put a piece of paper back in your stash because it was just too special for the photos at hand.  Through printable prompts and tutorial videos, Shimelle and dozens of special party guests will share beautiful and innovative techniques you can achieve with the paper you have already collected.

Not only does this party sound like my kind of party, but I also have the honor of being a special party guest!  


My mother taught me never to attend a party empty-handed, so here's a peek at what I'll be bringing: 

If you're curious about what I'll be doing with these, and you would like me to hook you up with an invite, too, then you have come to the right place!  


All you need to do to be entered for a chance to win a class pass to Pretty Paper Party is to leave a comment on this post, answering one simple question:  If you could turn any sheet of patterned paper into a party dress, what paper would it be?  Mention the name of the paper and the manufacturer (and a link, if you wish), and be sure to leave your email address too (if it isn't automatically linked to your name).  


One lucky winner will be chosen by 6:00 p.m. Hawaii time (11:00 p.m. CST) tomorrow, Monday, October 16, and will be announced shortly thereafter in a follow-up post.  


Though Shimelle's class officially begins tomorrow, she has assured me that it is perfectly acceptable to be fashionably late to this particular party.  There are no class deadlines and every member of the class receives permanent access to all materials.   


Just think -- by tomorrow evening, YOU may be that fashionably late guest entering the Pretty Paper Party, turning heads and making quite the impression.  Wuh oh.  That did it.   I'm picturing Molly Ringwald in a pink prom dress and hearing OMD on repeat now.   

October, Page by Page

Not long ago I mentioned that there was some buzz on the JBS Mercantile Forum regarding October daily mini-albums, and since then, the project has officially commenced.  Fellow JBS design team members Betsy, Waleska, and Briana have been sharing their mini-album ideas on their blogs (and I know that Doris has something in the works, too), and both the JBS gallery and the message board are full of great ideas and inspiration, too.  I love the cover on this album from Alexa Gill , as well as Julie's album pages (and that lovely bow on the cover).   If you've been working on an album, I'd love to see it!  Link me up!

As for me? Page by page, day by day, my album is coming together.  I even shared a few peeks at my pages and process in the JBS mid-month gallery and the October issue of the JBS Mercantile Gazette.

Fully aware of my procrastinating tendencies, I designed the album so that it would be low-maintenance: one photo a day, a minimum of one journaling blurb (written as a list of memory fragments), and the addition of one or two accents per page.  So far, so good!   At the end of the month I will assemble everything.

The mid-month gallery also features an additional layout I did with the antiquarian kit.  This one is...heavy.

This layout just might be the answer to a question that I was asked a few weeks back: "Do you ever create negative layouts?"

Certainly there is truth in fiction and vice-versa, but I don't want to "spin" a memory as positive if it isn't positive.  I want to put myself out there on the page, honestly, and if it comes across as negative, then it is what it is.   If I don't tell my stories the way that I remember them, then who else will tell them, and how will they tell them?  I say, life is messy; document the messy, too.

I want this layout to say, no, it is not okay that this happened to my family.  It is not okay that there was so much pretending and so much pain.  It is not okay that everyone in our family (with the exception, perhaps, of one) emerged from this time disillusioned, lacking in trust and feeling cheated.  It is not okay to dismiss this part of our lives with a flippant "it happens, marriages end, people get divorced, live with it" because the story is about the "living with it," and the story is about the learning from it, too.  So maybe it is negative,  or maybe it is honest, or maybe it is a positive thing that I finally said what I needed to say.

Remember Me?

I've fallen off the radar this week, as you may have noticed, judging my lack o' posting here.  It's been a hectic week, but a good kind of hectic.  All week, students have been in and out of my class at recess, lunch, and after school, since this week was their last chance to submit any absentee work, make final revisions to essays, and take any missed quizzes before the official end of the first quarter.  I've also been working with the speech team members, who had their first meet of the year today.  They did so well, and supported each other wonderfully.  It's going to be a good year. 

At the moment, though, now that all deadlines and competitions have passed (for now), I finally have a chance to be still, and it feels...odd.  The adrenaline rush has subsided, and I am sort of dazed.  Luckily, I now have time to pay attention to my much-neglected blog, and I have a scrappy share for you! 

Wednesday's October Afternoon blog post from fellow design team member Stacey Kingman featured the new October Afternoon fabric.  Stacey challenged me to create a layout incorporating the fabric, and I was all too happy to comply.  I worked it in on the background of a layout about my great-grandmother. 

This layout features a story that has been told in my family for three generations.  

The idea of my great-grandmother's ghost visiting my aunt used to frighten me when I was little, but as I got older, I came to understand that this was less of a ghost story and more of a love story.  My aunt swears that it was not a dream, and though I cannot say for sure whether I believe in ghosts or not, something in me believes this story.  

Where There Is Rain...

Today it started raining, and it continued raining all afternoon.
It's still drizzling now.

Can I just say how happy this makes me?
It has to be a sign of fall, for sure.
Where I live, fall = rain.
Well, winter = rain and spring = rain, too,
but this is different.
This is autumn rain. I just know it.
It makes the air feel crisp and clean.
It makes me want to crawl into bed at eight in the evening
and stay in bed until ten in the morning.

Granted, where there is rain,
there is also

wet dog.

Even so, I'm all about fall right now.

(Layout details may be found at Two Peas in a Bucket.) 

You can find more fall project inspiration right here as well.  

I'm off to embrace another aspect of fall that I love: fall TV!  

Gossip Girl, here I come...