Thursday Trending: Tilted Patterns

So every now and then, I find a technique or embellie that I love.  (Think banners!) I might have a tendency to use it over and over.  I switch it up a bit, but you can tell that I am in love. 

Such is the case with using tilted, patterned papers overlapped in a diagonal fashion.  I love how it adds a bunch of colors and patterns, but doesn't become overwhelming.  The only drawback is that it is recognizable...maybe too repetitive?  Hopefully, not boring.

I used this techique to make a Halloween layout using Teresa Collins Haunted Hallows.  I love this collection!  Awesome for the holiday and fall!  I have loved adding red to this collection through embellies or alphabets.

This technique is quite easy..I just layer strips of paper, some thick, some thin using a diagonal approach on a sheet of paper about 11X 11 or smaller.  Then I adhere the strips and cut the ends off.  For this layout, I actually tucked the ends under the frame.  

As always, I love to create clusters near my photos.  I hand cut the pumpkin shape and the word tags, popping them with foam squares from Thermoweb.  I layered with Teresa's Blingage!

Speaking of Halloween, I shared a couple of layouts over at the Teresa Collins Design Team blog.  I offered some tips about capturing Halloween!  Here are some sneaks:

Go check them out!

Then, remember to create something you love today...predictable or not!

Teaming Up with Glue Arts

The Webster's Pages team had the opportunity to pair up with Glue Arts this month...what a treat to receive so many awesome goodies!

I really loved the Glue Glider Pro and the dimensional glue dots.  My favorite product is the U Cut It Foam Blanks.  They are large so you can customize the size to fit your project.  I used it to give the Webster's Fabric Tickets a pop and make them sturdy.  It looks awesome in real life!

Here is my layout:

To learn more about my layout and see what my super talented teammates created, go to the Webster's Pages blog.  There are giveaways.... Be sure to visit Glue Arts blog as well!

I have been taking a few days off...editing photos and watching TV.  I have been wiped from life in general and need to recharge my scrappy energy.  Such is life!  I am also gearing up for this:

Should be a blast!!!  Happy Wednesday!

Monday Musings: Building Them Up

So how do you build them up all while teaching them right from wrong?  How do you discipline and teach, yet not have them feel bad about themselves?  My two kids are great overall...well-mannered, helpful, and hard working.  But they still find themselves in trouble.  Nathan needs two reminders on the bus or he throws a glass bottle into the recycling bin and misses...sending glass everywhere.  Ella fights for my attention so much that she will blatantly ignore my requests to "wait one second please".  When they earn that consequence you told them that they would get, they start to say things like..."I am a terrible kid.  I can't do anything right."

Steve and I have never said anything like that to them.  The rational side of me knows that is their way of avoiding the situation and playing on our sympathy.  But I want to ensure that they are getting the lesson in a way that builds them up.  Parenting is so hard.

She is my best friend most moments.  I find that if I hug her and shower her with kisses, she is more willing to be cooperative.  I just think that she wants my attention...good or bad.  So I am trying to use that on her.  If I give good attention, she rises up.  I had a long talk with her tonight about being strong-willed.  We talked about how it is a good thing, but sometimes...she needs to give up that will and just listen.  Because there is much to be learned from others. 

She sure tries to bat those eyelashes...

(Supplies:  Teresa Collins World Traveler paper, die-cuts, Webster's Pages flower, Maya Road metal charm)

I want her to realize it is her inner spirit that matters the most. Her brain is her most powerful tool.

I want both of them to know how special they are.  Even when they make mistakes.  It is all the process of learning.

At Home: Entry Way

What a weekend....I have been so inspired to organize, purge and clean!  I also painted my hallway...I must rid of all the dark brownish-gold that covered every surface (thanks Ma!).  Spending time decorating and making the house ours is one of my favorite things to do.

I find myself walking around and thinking, I love this house.  It is a good feeling. 

So onward to my entryway.  There used to be a red tile with a blue insert.  It did not match the new kitchen and direction so it went!  I had a hard time finding the just right entryway table to fit my space.  There is enough room, but I couldn't go too long, too high or too deep because of my stairs.  I think it has come together nicely with new tile, a coat of paint and new decor.  This is what it looks like upon entering the house.  Don't mind the tan trim along the stairs...that has to be painted next!

The table that fell into my hands.  I walked into a friend's house and thought, "hmm...this is perfect.  I gotta ask where she got it."  Little did I know, she was getting rid of it!  Score!

I love mixing old pieces with new.  This is one of the baskets left behind by my mother-in-law.  I got lucky in that she left other things besides that terrible tan paint...many good things!  I love to decorate with books as it adds a homey, lived in feel.

Now, the gallery wall!  I love eclectic gallery walls I see all over Pinterest.  I am a serious collector of images and my favorites include a mix of different elements.  I love when the frames don't match and when there is a bit of unexpected.  The day I decided to do this I was short on time and money.  So instead of waiting for the right time to buy Pottery Barn frames of mixed styles and colors, I went shopping in my basement.

The white frames are actually Pottery Barn.  Wedding gifts...gotta love it!  For the other pieces of art, I just looked for common colors.  My thoughts were either black frames or dark wood.  Dark wood won because I had more of them in my stash.  I laid it all out of the floor first to be sure that I like the arrangement!

Notice how the dark wood frames as well as the art don't match.  They do, however, coordinate.

I hope to find some vintage pieces, alphabet letters, rug beaters that I can begin to intersperse.  But I think it looks good for now!

The view from my living room:

I love Pinterest and the ideas it has given me.  I feel free when I decorate.  I know that if I don't have it, I can make it.  And I know that I don't have to follow rules, I just have to follow my own eye to make my home uniquely mine.

Before I leave, I wanted to let you know that the Webster's Pages girls teamed up with Glue Arts.  We will be showing projects all week!  There products + Webster's = heaven.  Here is a sneak of my project. 

Happy Sunday!

Behind the Page: Titles

Where do your title ideas come from?  and in what order?  Do you do title, photo, paper or photo, paper, title?

It has always helped me to have a title prior to the page.  Mainly with photos in mind, but I have also come up with a whole page concept prior to have any pictures to go with it.  My favorite title inspiration comes from the products I am working with.  I love seeing a piece of chipboard with the right words or a journaling block that gives me an idea.  This is one of the reasons I love working with Teresa Collins stuff!  Her typography rocks!

Case in point:

I love all the poison bottle labels and thought that combining them would help my titlework come together.  I love that great big Danger label!  It triggered the idea of Danger: "Excited Kids".  I could hear the robotic announcement repeating over and over in my head.  Teresa put that great chevron print in this collection and I decided to make it into a banner.  This is the Haunted Hallows line!

Then, where to put the title.  Why not on a curve, sitting on the banner?  Titles are so important...why not give them star treatment.

A look at some details.  I had to stamp twice because my first attempt didn't work so well.  I ended up tracing the edges with dots to make it stand out more!

Titles capture the essence of a page.  Even if the words are creative (Excited kids? come on...), the placement and thought can be!

Happy Saturday!

Thursday Trending

When I think back to my scrappy style just two years ago, I would have called myself clean and linear.  I had to have straight lines.  As in the kind you measure to ensure they are perfectly straight and level.  I always added something to give it a pop, but at some point, it started to feel static. 

The whole concept of free, artsy, and scattered has really taken off lately.  Even in fashion, I see so much mixing of color and pattern.  Unexpected shoes or a sweater you wouldn't think works!  I love it...but I am not sure I can do it.

I can only go so far away from linear so you won't see too much tilt or messiness on my pages.  I do want movement and interest though. Bottom line...on a 12 X 12 space that has been done a million times, how do you do something unique?  For me, I have been adding in a bit of randomness.  A bit of scatter.  I still need my button holes to line up vertically or horizontally, but I can now move outside of the box.

Case in point...

Those stars are hard for me to do...random, scattered.  But I do like the feel they give the page!

To add even more movement, a circle near my title.  Because this title starts with Once Upon A Time.

I have so many Disney pictures and think the Winter Fairy Tales line from Webster's really works with them!  The whole dream a dream, fairies and once upon a time thing...but in a random, unexpected way!

So if I start to try some of this freedom stuff with scrappy pages, do you think it will translate to a better sense of fashion?

Or do I leave that to Pinterest!?

Tuesday's Musings...

well, they have to be on Tuesday because I had no computer on Sunday or Monday!  Can you say major virsus?  It put me in a panic...the thought of no pinning, no Photoshop, no blogging made me crazy.  But, I digress!

What I really want to reflect upon is the concept of friends.  Friends who see right through you, friends who have your back, friends you can trust to tell you the good and the bad.  Good friends are hard to come by.  And I am one who is totally and completely guilty of not keeping up with my friendships on a regular enough basis.  Life just gets busy.  I get tired.  I mean to call, mean to check in more, mean to call this one or that one for coffee.  But it doesn't get done.

Thank goodness for Facebook and email.  Thank goodness for online communities and trips to Chicago.  Although I may need to make improvements in the friendship communication area, I really do appreciate my friends.  I know that I am surrounded by wonderful women who raise me up when I need it.  They give me the hard truth and allow me to expose myself.

This page is about a particular friend.  A mentor.  The first to give me a break in this industry.  She is my biggest cheerleader, personally and professionally.  She represents many friends who I cherish!

I used the Jillibean Soup Sweet and Sour collection...this collection rocks!  I also added some other Jillibean goodies and random stuff from my stash!

Today, I am thankful for all of my friends...near, far, those made in childhood, those just found.  I am truly blessed...

Behind the Page: Using It All Up

Happy Saturday!  I am so craving the weekend today!  I hope to scrap a bit and take a ton of photos!  I wanted to share a page and give some background about how it was built.  I always love reading about how others construct their pages!  Everyone has a different take and it is interesting to get inside the creative mind!

I made this layout recently with my October Nook kit!  It features My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Sunshine...I have to say that this color palette is amazing!  I have been attracted to soft, almost monochromatic layouts recently so I gave it a whirl.

I started this page with the photo and the background papers and kinda built it up.  It was a process of adding different sized rectangles or strips in the right places.  The jazzy gold with the circles is meant to bring the eye to the photo. 

I made my own chipboard frame.  I love the look it gives to the picture.  I simply grabbed the packaging from the MME brads and used my Elmer's Craft Knife to cut out a rectangle.  I adhered it with pop dots!

I decided to add handmade hearts.  I used the old fold-a-rectangle-in-half-and-cut-half-a-heart-on-the-not-folded-side.  You open it up and have a symmetrical heart!  I then cut the inside of the heart out and used it to overlap.  I purposefully placed it up top because I don't do that often and I like how it brings out the photo.  I added little touches like the brads and the pin to give it all texture.

This element is heavy so I needed balance on the other side.  That led me to the bottom cluster.  I knew I wanted to put the circular brad and the numeral 7.  But those things didn't have enough substance.  So I added the stamp.  I actually stamped right onto the page, but it didn't look right.  So I stamped again on a piece of cardstock, cut it out and placed it over the other image with pop-dots.  The banners and twine give it the final touch of balance.

The touches of blue are placed in a visual triangle.  And those dark brown strips are from the cut-off strip of the 12 X 12 paper.  I like to use up as many of my materials as possible.

What is your process?  Link me up...I would love to see!

Thursday: Trending

So I mentioned a while back that I want to add more structure to the blog.  I am going to try to add in some regular features.  Sunday At Home, Monday's Musings, Thursday:  Trending, and  Behind the Page post.  I have grand plans...LOL.  It is all in the implementation!

The topic of trending doesn't necessary have to mean "trend," like a fad.  Instead, I see is as what is getting attention, what is hot, what is catching my attention in a new way.  And how can that be incorporated into my crafting. 

One trend I have seen lately and have certainly engaged in is using little strips of paper instead of focusing on big blocks.  I made a move to this type of scrapping in an effort to shake things up and make my work more interesting.  I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like I am creating the same layout over and over.  It gets boring and I feel stuck.  So I like to move in a different direction.

I took the concept of strips and moved them away from the edges to the middle of the page.  I also went vertical instead of horizontal.  It shook things up just enough.

I used Crate Paper's Random here.  Gosh, I love Crate.  They had me at chipboard!  That orange and raspberry together...yummo!

A trend I can't get enough of is clouds...I adore them.  They added a final touch here!

I like the strips.  I like the vertical orientation.  The white space. 

What has caught your attention lately?  I would love to see!

Monday's Musings

I find myself stopping lately.
Right in the middle of a moment.
To tell myself to freeze it and live in it for a few minutes.
To look around as if I am watching from somewhere else.
and to be grateful.

It is pretty cool and helps me to appreciate how many blessings I have...

I am feeling very self-reflective lately. 

Proud of the goals I have set this past year and how I have achieved them.  I pledged to push the reset button at work and I have.  I have told myself to develop some consistency and I have.  I wanted to be a better mom...more getting down on their level, sharing hugs and telling them the good stuff. I have and will...

I have a few things to focus on.  Things that are big...
but I believe I can do it. 

Once lost, I feel found.

Calls for a layout...

I used the October kit from My Scrapbook Nook featuring My Mind's Eye...beautiful kit, beautiful collection!  I love the little touches of bling!  I found inspiration in the strip that has the collection's name on it.  Instantly knew that I had to do this layout!

It is as important to step back and think about your hard work, celebrate it...as it is to do the work!

There are many more musings to come!

At Home: Using Burlap

I love when things look finished...a good paint job, a dessert table, a scrapbook layout!  Everything around my home...

I picked up a couple of mums this weekend at the grocery store.  I knew we were hosting Nathan's party and thought they would add a bit a fall. 

When I put them out on the front porch, they looked like this:

pretty...but I hated the plastic pots!  I didn't have much time to replant so instead, I jazzed up those plastic pots with a bit of burlap.  Burlap is using to find and is cheap!

Here is what I did:

Cut long pieces of burlap, wide enough to cover the pot and long enough to wrap around and secure.

Grab the piece and wrap it around the pot.  If I had enough, I would have just tied the ends around the back!  Instead, I gathered the ends and overlapped them.

I grabbed a large safety pin (because I am all about pretty and easy!) and pinned the ends together!

To hid the ugly pin, I just flipped up a piece of burlap and tucked it over the pin...

Same pots, with a bit more class and a bit more interest:

And my front porch...it is a work in progress!  Pumpkins are needed!

Regardless, the burlap wrapped mums are pretty!  It is amazing how such a simple trick can make such a big impact!  It doesn't take a lot of time or money to make improvements!