This Little Art of Mine

A Hobby within a Hobby

2013-11-22T13:30:00.001-06:00

It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. Does the absence make my blogging heart grow fonder? LOL. This entry was done by me for Creating Keepsakes' blog last month, and it's time to post it here as well.

I generate enormous amounts of scraps when I scrapbook. Patterned paper is one of my enduring loves when it comes to scrapbooking supplies so even if a piece of paper is partially used, I still find it difficult to let go of the leftovers. My paper scrap stash is impressive and I am here to show you one of the ways that I reduce my stash: making ready-made paper piecings. I call this my hobby within the scrapbooking hobby or as my second child calls it “making animals.”

When I wrap up a layout, the papers on my table are at its most coordinated state. I often turn to my beloved Cricut or Cameo to make cuts and prepare the scraps for the next step. As you can see here, I have a stash of already made paper piecings that can be easily incorporated into a card by adding a sentiment and some additional papers. This is also an activity that my second child loves doing with me so there’s plenty of quality bonding time for us. Indeed, she also has a little box of her own where she keeps her “animals” with their given names on the back. I would say mine are better assembled than hers, but who’s judging?

Here are a few cards I’ve made with my paper scraps. I also used SRM Stickers and CTMH, My Favorite Things, and Cosmo Cricket sentiment stamps on them.

This is a good way to use up some scraps but of course it creates smaller scraps. Now if you have ideas on how to further deal with the smaller scraps, please let me know. I do put them into the recycle bin, but I’ve been known to fish some out because I am a weak-minded person when it comes to letting pretty papers go, however small the pieces might be!

It's That Time of the Year

2013-10-13T19:25:00.000-05:00

It's literally been three weeks since I stepped into my scrapbook room. I know I cannot fundamentally change who I am but my gosh the state of messiness gets on my own nerves. If only I can be more decisive when I purge! I almost hired someone to help me with this last year when I was asked to contribute to Creative Spaces. Believe me, my room would have needed a complete make-over! Anywhoo, the mess contributed to my lack of productivity, but snapping me out of it is the annual United Way fundraising drive at work. I spent part of the weekend busy making cards.

My favorite tool when it comes to making cards is my Cricut. The designer accents always add such lovely touches to any handmade card. Here are a few that I made or finished up this weekend to be added to the auction at work.

Sentiment stamp by Close to My Heart.

These two cards were started when I was visiting the Stampin' Up headquarters back in April. They've been sitting on my table so it's so nice to finally finish them and put them to good use. I think the weather is going to turn on us soon and the Vikings have made this fall quite unpleasant. I am still working out every day and as a result, I have found a new hobby: shopping at Athleta. I will work on a layout documenting this current obsession. LOL.

The Happenings...

2013-09-21T09:37:00.000-05:00

Several weeks have gone by, what have I been doing since my return from vacation? Before the euphoria wore off, this was announced by Creating Keepsakes. I am coming to terms with it still, processing, figuring out a few things. My initial feelings were that of doom and gloom, but thankfully, things are coming back into focus.

My thoughts go to the editors who lost their jobs. I feel a tremendous sense of loss and disappointment for them. Had I not had the chance to meet them and spent time with them in April this year, the whole event would have been more abstract. As it is, it feels like friends lost their jobs and that's just sadness all around.

I think the most important take-away for those of us who read, subscribe, and contribute to this magazine is that CK Media will continue to publish twelve print special issues each year. Each one of these print issues will be 132 pages, something we can hold in our hands!

As for me, I need to start scrapbooking again. Timing with my vacation and this announcement did put me in a mood of deflation, but I will snap out of it. This weekend is the annual Scrapfest at the Mall of America. I am neither working nor attending the event, but a dear friend has traveled all the way from New Jersey to Scrapfest. I saw it as my duty and took her to the October Afternoon warehouse sale happening concurrently with Scrapfest. The pile of goodies I bought should put me into the scrapbooking mood again soon!

We are headed out to Pine Tree Orchard for lunch and festivities today. It's appropriate that I post a layout of our last year's outing on this very day. This is published in the Sept/Oct 2013 issue of the Creating Keepsakes. It was a sketch project where I was required to follow the sketches exactly. With an abundance of photos, this came together super quickly! I had just received a box of Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and used their awesome self adhesive photo corners for a few additional details.

Two days ago, when we were looking through my vacation photos of Stanley Park and of the Lumberman's Arch, DH wondered if the tree growing on top was there when we visited 12 years earlier. I took out my album titled Summer 2001 and as I looked through it, I longed to create scrapbooks like that again. DH said that none of it is publication worthy, but I had captured the entire summer in an album full of memories... the way PL does today. Again, if you write it down, it's that much more likely to happen. So here it is: my goal is to finish a couple of scrapbooks for the Alaskan cruise in the PL fashion. A goal must have a deadline, so by the end of this year, album one must be done.

Writing this post has been therapeutic. I feel a sense of excitement about my new goal. The weekend is full of promises and fun happenings ahead. Who knows, I might even dig into my newly acquired Travel Girl!

Summer Vacation Quick Review

2013-09-02T14:44:00.000-05:00

One can always count on time flying by on vacation! We had a wonderful time and created some beautiful memories on our trip. It is good to be home on this Labor Day weekend when we can catch up on sleeping, working out and sorting through 4,000 some pictures. I am going to post just a few here.

Our Alaskan cruise started in Vancouver where we visited the Capilano Suspension Bridge park. We spent the majority of the day there walking and taking in the sights.

Here the kids are getting onto the Cliff Walk in the park. That was some engineering feat and very enjoyable to walk through. If you are a fan of nature and its preservation, I highly recommend this very family friendly park in North Vancouver.

Canada Place was next. We came here for the view, to scout out where the cruise terminals are and to find out where we would go the next day.

Stanley Park is celebrating its 125th year this year. I would have loved to walk the 5+ miles around the park but these two critters' legs couldn't keep up! In fact our hotel provides a map to run around the park starting and ending at the hotel, about 8 miles. I really wanted to do it but that did not happen. I ended up on the treadmill in the hotel, oh well, lol.

Ship embarkation went very smoothly. We were in line for a total of one hour from dropping off the luggage till we are aboard the ship. We headed to the Windjammer for lunch immediately. Let the eating begin! We did a lot of eating but I am happy to report that there was no weight gain in the family. First Born reported a loss. We were very active walking and doing various activities. I also hit the gym five days on board out of seven.

The kids and I posed in the Solarium pool for a bit of fun after lunch. This would be my most favorite place on the cruise ship. It was open to family (aka, kids) twice a day. I would take a nap or play games while the kids had their fun. This was the only time I got into the pool.

As for the second most favorite place on the ship: Shipshape Center's shower/sauna/steam room. It's beyond spacious compared to a cruise stateroom's shower. I thoroughly enjoyed that space after my run on the treadmill.

We wasted no time in getting onto the rock! What breathtaking scenery surrounded us! Only one person can go at a time so the waiting was long at times. It's fun to look around atop of the rock to see one so high above the ocean!

Now onto our cruise ports... Our first stop was in Ketchikan. It was a rainy/misty day but temperature in Alaska in general was very pleasant for us. We are from Minnesota after all, 50s or 60s with proper clothing is very enjoyable.

We stopped on our flight tour to take some pictures of the Misty Fjords.

Then we headed into town to do the historical route and saw lots of salmons in the streams. Can you see the one jumping in this photo?

Next day... Guess where we are at in this photo? :)

Alaskan amber brew + half a Dungeness crab = happiness.

We are gathered here in the Capital City!

Several pods of humpback whales greeted us with their majestic breaths and tails! And these orcas were such treat to see in the wild! We learned that they don't eat fish but mammals!

Mendenhall Glacier is in the background. Next time, we have to go on a trekking tour on the glacier!

Our last port was...

We drove through parts of British Columbia and ended up in the Yukon Territory where everything is larger than life!

On the last day of our Alaskan cruise, we cruised to the Hubbard Glacier. The little yellow boat was the cruise personnel getting a piece of 600 years old ice for an ice carving on board. What a view it was!

And then our vacation ended and we are back at home. Here's to the final frontier Alaska and the fantastic cruise we enjoyed on board of Radiance of the Seas. Now it's time for me to plan our next vacation!

Daddy the Baker Recipe Album

2013-08-21T08:32:00.000-05:00

I've showcased a few posts here on the blog regarding my daddy dearest's baking. When I received the assignment to create a mini-album using a recipe box, I naturally turned to him and his many baked goods. It just seemed like such a natural choice of mini-album selection with the subject matter. This album is now published in the All About Albums Special Issue by Creating Keepsakes.

I am super happy with how this album turned out. It was pure coincidence that Cosmo Cricket had just released their TV Dinner collection and I was able to use it for this project. Many thanks to Cosmo Cricket!

I had also just received Close to My Heart's Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge with some matching stamps. I used it to create the labels you see on the front of the box and the top of the lid.

I had a lot of fun using some of the older Cosmo Cricket's chipboard elements with the newly released chipboard alphas from TV Dinner. I like to hoard beautiful products but nothing beats using these products on projects that I love!

Open up the box, you can flip through the pages just like recipes. Take one out to read it but I must hold back the drooling, lol.

Here are the four pages that are in the album right now.

The ultimate awesomeness of this album and approach is that I can continue to add to the album effortlessly. Daddy continues to bake and I continue to photograph his gorgeous baked goods. There are times that the impulse of diving into eating overcomes the drive to photograph and document!

Today we are off on our big trip of this summer! I am headed to the YMCA for one last pre-cruise workout! I will miss my classes but I intend to run an hour a day on the ship. Given the fact that I have no self control, there will be over-eating while aboard the ship. All right, off I go with my travel journal! 49th state, here we come!

Wrote It Down and Now It's Happened

2013-08-02T09:10:00.000-05:00

In my last blog post, I mentioned the goal setting theory that if you write it down and make it public, it is more likely to happen. It has in fact happened! Here is my travel journal in preparation for my upcoming family vacation!

The cover uses Uncharted Waters from Glitz Design. Obviously the nautical theme is too perfect for this travel journal. The die-cut cruise ship and the word "cruise" are both from the Pack Your Bags cartridge.

I chose Fancy Pants' Artist Edition Spiral Brag Book for this album for the following reasons:

This book has 12 sections. It is perfect for 12 months of the year, or in my case, a 10 day vacation plus a couple of extra sections.
Each section has 5 sheets + 1 pocket page + 1 acetate page that can fit four 4x6 photos. I can add to the pages by adding an accordion or more pockets onto the page. I can subtract pages by removing them from the spiral bound.
The sheets of this book are lined on one side (perfect for journaling) and blank on the other side (perfect for more creative layouts or just photos).

Without actual photos and trip materials, it was quite the daunting task. However, it is really important to get a few pages started to provide some structure. I know if I just bring a blank journal on my trip, it'd be still blank at the end of the trip. Since I know where we will be each day, I have the "title" pages for each day stubbed out. On the trip, I plan to write my journaling and leave plenty of spaces for photos. I will bring some throw away photos of various sizes and put them onto the page and journal around them to save spaces for photos.

My other grand idea is to make a travel journal for both of the kids, but let's get real! I think I will share mine by giving them a "Kid's Corner" in every section of this journal. The can write a few lines and draw some pictures of what is memorable to them. I will bring some Mama supplies that are typically vertoben to them to add to the appeal, lol.

I am very looking forward to this upcoming vacation. If at the end of it, I would have an almost-complete album that needs just a few photos and some embellies, all the better it will be!

Licorice Mustache

2013-07-20T12:01:00.002-05:00

This morning was the second annual family blueberry picking event. To entice everyone to head out the door as early as possible to make it to the farm by 8, donuts were served in the car for breakfast. Second Child is definitely a lazy bone who typically rise around 8 a.m.. Initially she was grumpy and uncooperative, but the donut cheered her up quickly. We filled two gallon sized pails in an hour and half. Had we been ambitious enough, we could have made it to the YMCA for BodyPump! LOL.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a box of Fancy Pants products and as usual, I love and adore everything that company makes! So here's a layout using its Wonderful Day collection. Back in April, Megan gave us a welcome sack full of goodies that included a licorice mustache. Knowing the market is full of mustache related products, I had Second Child model it for me. In the end, I am not even using mustache products for these photos, but it is a fun one and I enjoy it immensely.

I paired the collection with some Fancy Pants die-cut letters. Even though I have both the Cricut and the Cameo, sometimes, it is nice to have out-of-the-box ready to use products on hand!

Lastly, Fancy Pants have put out some lovely self-adhesive cork embellishments that I used on this layout. Cork seems to be everywhere and I imagine we will all be incorporating its usage into our projects. Another company that has amazing cork products is Little Yellow Bicycle! The stuff is so much fun!

Lunch is calling and then we are headed to the Mall of America this afternoon. I am finally going to make it to the store to return my Athleta purchase and check out the new lines available.

My other big plan is to make a travel journal for our upcoming trip. They say it is more likely to happen if one writes it down. Since I think I'm all about the idea and not about the execution, I am putting it down hoping to improve the odds of me actually getting to the journal.

CK Summer Camp

2013-07-16T13:58:00.000-05:00

The heat is on and so is Creating Keepsakes' Summer Camp!

When I was assigned to create something for pocket scrapbooking, I was quite excited. Ever since the CK team got some lovely products from We R Memory Keepers including pocket pages, I have been wanting to dig into it. In fact, I went to my local Archiver’s and bought several albums and many styles of page protectors. This was the final push to get me to start.

Now, I have always known that I wouldn’t do page scrapbooking for Project Life. I am much more of an event scrapbooker who prints her photos once a month en masse. However, I have always thought pocket scrapbooking would be perfect for a travel album. Since it’s summer, I decided to do my first pocket page scrapbooking from a summer trip two years ago.

Here is my process: First I brought out the photos I had for a specific day. Based on the sizes of the photos, I chose the pocket pages that matched them best. There are so many options in pocket pages that one will find something suitable to fit their needs for sure. I placed the photos into the pockets as soon as I had selected them and then the holes became spaces for journaling, title, and other embellishments. I have also started on the backside of these photos. Again, I plan to insert the photos that I have immediately. Inevitably, there will be spots where one or more photos are needed, I can print them once I have determined the size and orientation for them on the page.

The major take-away for me is that this type of scrapbooking really suits me as I prefer to have stacks of photos printed after a trip. Again, I suggest inserting the photos and memorabilia into the pockets before working on the other aspects of the page.

Now comes the fun part. CK wants to see your take on this style of memory keeping.

CK Summer Camp Challenge #1: Pocket Scrapbooking

Create a layout (single page or 2 page spread) using pocket page protectors, like these ones from We R Memory Keepers. There isn’t a specific theme, so feel free to scrapbook about whatever inspires you.

Once you’ve completed your layout,upload your project to our pocket scrapbooking Flickr board by midnight, Friday July 19th for a chance to win the grand prize.

***Please include an email address in the description area so we can email your merit badge to you.

Independence Break

2013-07-07T15:12:00.002-05:00

This was a lovely long weekend for me since Independence Day fell on a Thursday. I took Friday off and we went strawberry picking. We came home with 31 lbs of strawberries which meant that we spent most of the rest of the day hulling, washing, placing them on cookie sheets for freezing, and of course, eating! I am glad that we went and now my summer feels complete. As the kids get older, it has become more about the strawberries than the outing itself. This family does depend on the summer haul to sustain smoothie making for the rest of the year, so we accomplished that!

On the scrapbooking front, I did this layout for the Color Room a while ago and finally getting around to posting it. It's a super simple layout using a cute photo of the kids from February.

I stamped on this adorable Fancy Pants tag and added some stickers, flair and other elements around it. It's fun to be whimsical.

A package from Fancy Pants just came and I was blown away by it. The colors of the Wonderful Day is so fantastic in person. Thankfully it is too hot outside to do much so I have dug into it immediately.

A second package was my long awaited order from Athleta and I was disappointed with its sizing! In no reasonable universe am I a size Small. It was my fault to not trust the sizing guide provided on its website, but my gosh, I don't wear small in anything else! grrr.... Oh the hassle of returning and exchanging! Okay, my First World rant is over, and time to get back to the regularly scheduled programming... scrapbooking!

Friends from Afar

2013-06-27T19:21:00.000-05:00

Confucius says: Isn't it delightful when friends from afar visit? Indeed, indeed!

Dear Cheese and her two daughters came to visit us, here in the fly-over country, last week. What a delightful time we had! Look at us, my gosh, we look like twins! LOL.

We will make those dearest and nearest to us pose, pose, and pose again!

Here's a sign that describes her well. Smart cookie who loves to take pictures in an obsessive way. Hey, I just described myself! :)

While they were here, we went on some fun rides.

cooked a little... enjoyed some baked goods...

Went to witness the Guiness World Record breaking longest sundae made...

We also ate stuff...

played with each other.

and got ourselves wet and wild!
What a great time we had with friends. Confucius was so right!

Father's Day Post

2013-06-16T16:31:00.002-05:00

In honor of Father's Day, here's to my dad, one of the family gardeners! Speaking of gardens, how is yours coming? Other than the Chinese chives which apparently cannot be killed, we haven't eaten anything from ours yet. The season did start a little late but I think it won't be long for the strawberries now. Just as I am typing these words, someone just walked into the house with a bunch of cilantro! I believe he is making me a avocado cherry salad on Father's Day. Yay me!
As seen in Scrapbooking Boys and Men, special issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

It is so much fun to create titles using my Cameo. The software definitely makes it easier than what the Cricut stand-alone offers.

In just three days, Cheese and the girls are coming to stay with us for a few days. It's unbelievable since Minnesota is fly-over country. No one has ever visited me, so this is quite an event. On the other hand, what do people do here? Lord knows I wouldn't choose it as my touristic destination so I count my blessings twice that they are coming to see us!!! I do have a few activities planned including several trips to the YMCA. She said that she wanted to relax so relax we will, after a hard workout! Meanwhile, please let the air mattress fit in my scrapbook room, lol.

I have also been pouring over the internet researching everything and anything related to our upcoming Alaskan cruise. It's safe to say that after this trip, most everything will appear inexpensive in contrast! The line is drawn in the snow when it comes to dog sledding on the glacier. At $550 per person for 2 hours, my children are welcome to pay for that excursion when they visit Alaska on their own. I will, however, look into booking something up north of Minnesota for a dog sledding trip this winter, something I had never considered before researching this cruise!

The house is starting to smell good. I'd better go help prepare dinner being it's not my day after all :)

Tasty, the Father Baker

2013-06-09T14:25:00.000-05:00

I have been so delinquent in the blogsphere lately. When I find myself falling asleep and waking up to thoughts of an all consuming project at work, everything else just falls by the wayside.

Father's Day is right around the corner. Along with a couple of layouts published in the Scrapbooking Boys and Men, I have a few projects to show in the next couple of weeks. First is this layout I did for the Creating Keepsakes' blog, taking inspiration from Mandi Buchanan's layout.

The photo was from last fall when my dad decided to taking on baking which ended in many tasty treats and expanded waist for us. He took his skills back to Shanghai and his braided breads became extremely celebrated among all the friends and relatives.

The arrows really drew me in and I can only wish to achieve that kind of realism on a non-digital page! I imitated the look by using my Cameo and creating a negative space of the gray polka dot paper.

Summer officially arrived this week for the kids as they both tearfully said goodbye to another school year. Just the thought of summer bores them to death even though their schedules will be packed with many activities. First Born starts a three-weeks course at Summer Academy next week. Between summer piano lessons and YMCA swim team, she will barely finish reading one book a day. Second Child will go to day camp every afternoon. While her schedule will be less structured than her sister's, there's plenty of opportunity for excitement. To go out on a bang, we are taking them to Vancouver for an Alaskan cruise at the end of this summer, so their complaints of boredom annoys me to no end.

Tonight is the season finale of HBO's Game of Thrones. Last week's red wedding was every bit as awful as I imagined in my head and worse! Obviously nothing is totally resolved since we are still waiting for book 6 and 7 to be written. While I am not looking for a happy ending, but my gosh, let there be something cathartic please!

Piano and Scrapbook

2013-05-19T20:40:00.000-05:00

It's Sunday evening and I can finally relax a little. The weekend was a frantic one, mostly due to my own procrastination. Furiously did I work on my projects this weekend for CK between piano rehearsal, concert, and recital. I skipped both days' workout to make time for these activities. You know it's serious when I sacrifice a workout, let alone two days in a row!!

First Born performed in MMTA's Honors Concert last night. Her group's piece was about two minutes long but I enjoyed the two hours concert listening to various levels of piano performance. The two solo performances from the Senior Competition winner and the College Competition winner were really stunning and thoroughly inspiring. Jay and I also enjoyed looking at all the lovely dresses the female performers wore while they were taking their bows. Our verdict on our own daughter's dress is that it would fit her for at least three more years' worth of concerts if she makes it again, LOL.

On the scrapbooking font, I haven't shared this Color Room layout yet so here it is. More yellow and brown this time! I really adore this gorgeous palette of colors and right up my alley! The good ol' summer days are back in town. So I can look at these photos knowing that we can go pig out on DQ any time we want now, for a little while at least, and by "pig out" I mean a bite or two, lol.

That's it folks. It's Sunday night and when I play the game of thrones, I play to win! Good night! :)

Mother's Day

2013-05-12T11:00:00.002-05:00

It's Mother's Day and it is quite lovely outside. I am waiting for the winds to die down before heading out to have some casual pictures taken with the kids. They baked some delicious Dutch baby pancakes for me and I had to fight them for a fourth pancake. They each had two by that point so I had to share half of mine with them! Here I thought I would get it without saying on Mother's Day!

The long and perpetual winter will definitely delay the season of growth for us. The tulips are almost about to bloom and the vegetables seeds are just in the ground. I imagine we won't be picking strawberries till later in June and who knows when for blueberries. This is the first layout on blueberry picking from last year. I just got my hands on these incredibly beautiful WRMK and American Crafts papers The green is so soothing so I really wanted to focus on that for this layout.

WRMK has the best gromlets! I received some glittered ones and put them to use on this layout. I also got to use my Crop-a-dile to set them. I did have to rip out the first one I set but you can't even see my mistake on this close-up photo, can you?

The "Life documented" is Project Life card from WRMK. Not only perfect for PL stuff, they make wonderful instant embellishment for all projects! The little bee seems to agree with my assessment!

It is time to get ready for lunch and then off to BodyPump I will go. May your day be sunny and bright!

Countdown to National Scrapbooking Day

2013-05-01T18:51:00.002-05:00

To kick off the National Scrapbooking Day this Saturday, May 4, the CK Dream Team, contributing writers and contributing editors are posting to the CK blog all week to share some scraplifting inspirations based on projects featured in the May/June 2013 issue of Creating Keepsakes.

Yellow is all the rage in my book right now, so I was immediately drawn to this page by Christa Uttely. I know I wanted to do something with the yellow and shape them like ribbons. Not only is yellow a trendy color, it juxtaposes with the dark rich reds in the raspberries in my photo.

Today is May day and we had some snow flurries, can you believe it? At this rate, harvesting these delicious antioxidants will be a very long time off yet! I suppose I will just dream about them, the crown jewels, the cash crop of our garden, sigh...

They are indeed too good to be true because I simply never imagined in my life, living in the 'burbs, that I would have the opportunity to harvest such amazing fruits! The bounty that is the good earth... now all we need is consistent warm weather. How we all miss the gardens!

Please stop by Creating Keepsakes' blog and view more blog entries from the team and to enter to win many fabulous prizes this week! Good luck!

The Color Room 148

2013-04-25T18:16:00.001-05:00

Continuing from the last post, I am showing a few photos borrowed from others for this post. We visited Persnickety Prints during our CK trip. Laina asked me to do a jump outside of the store, and I enthusiastically obliged. One shot was all she took! Hilarious stuff! I do this jump on a very regular basis in workouts and am more than extremely happy to show it off on the street, LOL.

One final photo by Megan before we all boarded our planes. Is it me or does Gretchen's suitcase look like it can swallow the other three? lol.

Here's looking at us: creative time at Stampin' Up!

I have more photos so I'm going to milk it! There will be a next time :)

Now onto something I have not done in a long time: a Color Room layout! How I have missed doing these so I am back participating with the palettes! Lydell has done an amazing job running and keeping up the Color Room. She is my hero and I really am glad to be able to contribute what little I can. One tiny sad note: I thought the sage green was gray, oh well!

I was immediately reminded of the reasons why I love doing these palettes: it's just pure fun. Find a photo, match some colors, say something if I want to, nothing if I don't. Dig through the stash, use up some products, enjoy myself! I love scrapbooking!

Back from Creating Keepsakes

2013-04-19T17:09:00.002-05:00

This week, I had the pleasure of attending the annual Creating Keepsakes' editorial board meetings in Salt Lake City, Utah. I spent three glorious days evaluating the magazine issues from the past year, discussing trends of today, brainstorming ideas for upcoming issues with fellow Dream Team members and CK's editorial team. It was all work and all fun at the same time. There was plenty of good eats and creative time too. It is so cool to see how things work behind the scenes and to be given the opportunity to understand the business side of the magazine.

Some great changes are being made to Creating Keepsakes, digital editions are available and a substantial expansion of the digital portion of the magazine is coming to subscribers. The magazine is definitely taking steps to adapt to the environment, both economically and also technology-wise. Adaptability is a key to long term business viability so it is a good thing that the management is actively taking these necessary steps.

Here are some photos from the three glorious days: Jennifer, editor-in-chief, at the helm, leading us through three days worth of meeting agenda.

This is a hint as to where we did our creative time!

The whole gang inside the headquarter of Stampin' Up!

We also visited another little spot... WOWsER!

Lastly, here we are with Joannie in the CK office!

The last 48 hours were far from glorious. Due to flight cancellations and bad weather, Jana and I traveled for two days to finally get home, even spending a night in Spokane! I need to get the dust off me to attend a birthday celebration for my father-in-law. Have a wonderful weekend and I shall be back with more photos of this fun trip.

Miao Headdress

2013-04-14T18:23:00.002-05:00

What a week this had been! The weather really played a number on our situation, to go or not to go, that was the question. First Born suggested to her daddy that he should make a pros and cons list regarding his intended business trip to Wisconsin. We had a huge laugh over that suggestion. She was serious though, as the next day, she handed me a pros and cons list on playing violin. LOL!! + oh no!

Here is a layout I did for Creating Keepsakes' blog using Glitz Design's Love You Madly. I am so in love this glorious collection, the soft colors are so delightful.

This is a major milestone for me, using washi tape on a layout for the first time! They are quite fun to use especially when they are so very pretty! I did some misting on this layout too, using this really cool stencil from Crafter's Workshop called Cell Theory.

As for this layout, it is about this lovely headdress my parents got for Second Child, leaving me having to explain the injustice and unfairness of this world to First Born! Oh well!

I am headed to Salt Lake City tomorrow at the crack of dawn to attend meetings at Creating Keepsakes headquarters! Meeting all the editors and fellow dream team members will be a dream come true in of itself! I'd better sign off and keep on packing, I will report back when I return!

Splash Fun

2013-04-07T14:23:00.000-05:00

I am totally excited to dive into these beautiful and bright colors of Sweet Girl by Echo Park. They really perfectly complement the crazy colors of summer fun! The rainbow paper of this collection was particularly fun and I basically cut it up first and designed the rest of page around the cut-outs. The snow has almost melted but it is a long way from this kind of splash fun for us, so I reminisce and anticipate by doing this page!

Here is a close up photo of the 3-d elements on this page. I think I am reverting back to my flatter page days so I have to actually think about adding accents that are dimensional. Also, all the amazing Project Life products out there are like a flat girl's dream come true!

This close-up photo shows the lovely rainbow paper and the sticker title I added to it.

This upcoming week is going to be an interesting one. DH is out of town for a business trip so I have to take over the kids' daily routine! I will have to get them breakfast and prepare their lunches! I don't know how their father does it every day! Just typing it makes me tired! LOL. I have planned a few fun excursions for us, mostly involving the mall and restaurants. Who would have thought that I would one day love to shop for workout clothes?! Gone are the days of frumpy look, that's for work and home! At the gym, I shall look like I own a franchise of Lucy Activeware, LOL!

Today was the launch of BodyPump 85 for me and I thought the bicep track was a killer. Much ado about nothing was made about the Lunges track due to the jumps onto the step. Fortunately, I am very accustomed to doing them for BodyStep so I survived admirably. It's always good to change things up and I think I will be happy to do this release for three weeks.

Here's to a great day for all of us. Night gathers, and now my watch begins. Waiting for Dark Wings Dark Words!

Easter Sunday Catch Up

2013-03-31T11:06:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter! The sun is trying to peak out from behind the clouds and it is having a hard time! The temperature is not as friendly as it was yesterday but at least the snow continues to melt.

It's been a couple of weeks since I updated the blog and during that time, I have been working on eating more super foods! The kids and I watched a documentary Food Matters while DH was away for a Saturday and I've been a little obsessed since then.

Interestingly enough, several years ago when First Born started to show asthmatic symptoms, DH started to research on what could help and many sources he had discovered pointed to the foods we eat. While we will never know whether what we eat did or did not help her in the end, but he started the family on the path of healthier eating. I remember him introducing quinoa to the family. I was simply intrigued by the fact that it rhymes with Chinois. It must be good!

Fast forward five years and two weeks ago, after watching this documentary, my third in one month, my obsessive personality kicked in and now I'm on a rampage to add superfoods into my diet! One extremely easy addition is chia seeds. I add a few teaspoons of this delightful food into my daily Noosa and I have not been hungry before my lunch work out every since! Second Child loves it with me! Hurray!

The other thing I am learning to eat is chocolate, the real and dark kind! After all, how many people have you met that do not like chocolate? I am one of these people and now I know why I didn't like chocolate! Most of the chocolates as we know them have so little cacao content that one is basically eating sugar. This woman is all about savory treats so sugar does nothing for me.

"Unbeknownst" to us, DH has been buying 72% cacao chocolates since 2009 and that stuff I don't mind. I have moved onto even darker chocolates and eating it to stave off any temptation at work when treats abound. Here are a couple that I really like: Alter Eco Dark Blackout 85% and Endangered species dark chocolate 88%. I can honestly tell you that three years ago I thought the 88% cacao content chocolate was inedible, but now I eat it because it is a super food! That and I sound more normal to people when I say "Oh yes, I eat chocolate too!" One square of the Endangered species dark chocolate was consumed in writing this post. I feel antioxidated! LOL.

On the scrapbooking front, I will share this layout that's published in the most recent CK magazine. My picture here was taken before everything was glued down. Technically, it is as seen in the magazine only this version is a little more crooked. Like I said earlier, the sun is trying to come out and spring is coming soon (we've been saying that for weeks). We (DH) are anxious to get planting started! There's no food so super than the ones grown in our own garden!

As seen in March/April 2013 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

Lastly, tonight is the long awaited premier of Season 3. I can't wait to see how book three part first half is interpreted by the production! Epic!

Happy Layout

2013-03-18T20:24:00.002-05:00

I made a layout about her first friends' birthday party and it's a 2-pager! I misted this huge background and I did machine stitching! These are techniques I have not tried in a long while so I'm extra proud of myself! A layout like this makes me wish for Project Life. I really need to try it!

Here I used an 8x8 paper pad from Glitz Design's Color Me Happy line. I tried to mimic the colors of this fun line by misting the background "Celtic Circle" on the Glitz paper. What fun it is to mist and what a mess it creates! I should try inking with a cat's eye for the next project to reduce the mess! It suffices to say that my scrapbook room is a disaster and I am not being a good role model to my children by leaving it like that!

Here is a close-up photo of the adorable Elle's Studio tag and I stamped the "twenty-thirteen" from a Technique Tuesday stamp set. Wowser, I am happy with how this layout turned out. These types of photos usually sit in my stash forever but I did them!! Rejoice!

Lastly, since winter does not seem to want to leave Minnesota, let it come! :) Two more weeks!!! Color me excited!!!

Soup and Stencil

2013-03-12T10:48:00.001-05:00

As new products roll in, I am so very anxious to try them all. There is not enough time to do everything I want to do or as quickly as I want to have them done. The kids are on spring break right now. Even though I am home for the day, my eyes are constantly being drawn to the clock thinking about the upcoming meal that I must prepare for them! Why must work of every sort interfere with creative time?!

I just finished this layout and braved the 20 degree weather outside to have the picture taken in relative daylight for a change! I combined a couple of brand new collections by Jillibean Soup: Irish Farm House Soup and Peeled Cucumber Soup. The only thing better than these two soups would be for Jillibean to come and make them for our lunches! I don't know how to describe it but the current trend of colors on the market tend toward a bit of hazy bright or muted bright? If only I understand art and/or color more, perhaps I would be more accurate in my description. No matter, these colors, me liketh.

I also used a brand new stencil from the Crafters Workshop called Subway art. It has been a while since I did any misting on my page so I was a bit scared. The page sat under a pile of heavy stuff after I did the misting to reduce the potential warping of my paper. This is another resolution I must make: to use my stencils and mist collections, to experiment more even if things don't turn out in the end.

First Born really loves winter but lately she's been lamenting the snow is preventing her from doing kick ball and riding her bike. The subconscious prompted me to dig out these photos and perhaps it will also influence the weather gods. lol. The close-up is a die-cut bicycle from Jillibean. I layered it over a couple of stickers. Now that I look at it, I forgot to add some die-cut arrows, lol. Haste haste haste...

Now it is time to think about what to make for lunch...

Face Paint

2013-03-06T20:10:00.005-06:00

Last week I received one of Bo Bunny's latest lines Mama-razzi 2. I still remember going absolutely bonkers over Mama-razzi. In fact I can still find a couple of sheets of them in my stash! No time is better than the present so I dug in and made this layout. Midway through the project, another package arrived with some of the most adorable tags on earth from Chic Tags. I decided to incorporate the two companies together onto this layout.

The pictures were from last fall when the girls and I got our face painted at a customer appreciation event. The girls have had their fair share of face paintings in their lives, but this was by far the most sophisticated and glamorous one. She picked out this particular design and I thought it looked absolutely fantastic.

Here is a major shout-out to Chic Tags. I am loving discovering this new-to-me company. Do take a look at its catalog, so chock full of absolutely darling tags of all shapes, sizes and colors! I am most delighted to have received the entire Road Trip collection. It's beyond cute and perfect for several projects I have had in mind for about a few years now, LOL. Here's to hoping I will finally get down to business and scrap those trips!!!

Here is a close up of a circle tag with Bo Bunny die-cuts from Mama-razzi 2.

Here is the most perfect camera tag to go with a layered Bo Bunny sticker! Seriously fun stuff!

Last and not least, I am completely in love with this beige colored cardstock from Close to My Heart. I think the color neutrality would work great for die-cuts of people's faces or other body parts, think Paper Doll. I need to get me more of it.

We got about eight inches of snow yesterday. One could say that March came in like a lion alright! The snow banks are at the highest point of this particular winter but they won't stay high too much longer! I look forward to Daylight Savings Time this weekend. It would be hard to lose an hour but it just might mean I will scrapbook during weekdays again with more sunlight!

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Many Cards are Close to My Heart

2013-03-02T08:53:00.000-06:00

Two weeks ago, I received some delightful products from Close to My Heart. Among the pile of goodies were the two Cricut collections by CTMH that I have been drooling over since they came out. The Philosophy collection has long been praised on 2peas as extremely versatile with tons of useful staple shapes. The Artiste collection is the more recent one and a wonderful encore of Philosophy. Most intriguingly for me was the fact that there were many stamp sets in CTMH that are of the matching shaping of the cuts on the cartridges!

I dug in last weekend and made a batch of cards. I even stamped in colors, imagine that! Stamping on die-cuts with coordinating stamps was all the fun I thought it would be. Also, with a little playing around, it's easy to find shapes that can accommodate pretty much all the stamps I received, as evidenced by the first card's die-cut shape and stamped sentiment.

I used a bit 3-d foam adhesive to prop the tails of my cut banners to help them stand out a little more.

I used the Chantilly collection for all these cards. It's such a pretty collection, perfect for the upcoming spring season, even if it is still completely covered in snow outside yet :) Here is an Easter card with several cuts from both Cricut collections including the rolled flowers.

Here's the second card with the label die-cut and stamped. I really love that look.

I used the negative space of the die-cut to assemble this particular card. With so many shapes to choose from, you can easily find a few that would stack well atop of each other.

Hopefully you can see the 3-dimensional effect in this photo.

One last card using a fancy frame and a sentiment die-cuts. Gosh, what fun it was to make these cards and I need to explore more with these cartridges! I can't wait to dive back in this weekend. Meanwhile, it is time to head to Cardio Kickboxing for another kind of thorough enjoyment! Have a good Saturday!

Independence National Historical Park

2013-02-22T10:36:00.002-06:00

This is a 2-pager I did last month for a sketch call by Creating Keepsakes. Even though the layout was not picked up, I really really love how it turned out. I feel that the sketch was phenomenally well designed, lending itself easily into an easy and good-looking layout.

There is a spot in the sketch that called for a 4x10 photo. I have a tip to share on what I did with that photo requirement.

Take a regular photo and sized it in Picasa (any photo editing tool would do) to be 4x10, call the photo A.
Size A into two photos:

Take the left most part of A and sized it to be 4x6, saved it.
Reverted A back to its original 4x10 size.
Take the right most part of A and sized it to be 4x6.
The two 4x6 photos have some overlap. Have the two 4x6 photos printed and cut them to form the bottom 4x10 photo that you see in this layout.

I realize most people have printers at home and print at will the size they want. However, there's gotta be at least one other person in this world like me who still has all her photos printed in a store online or somewhere? :)

I am proud to say that I had the kids dressed in red and blue for the express purpose of visiting the patriotic parts of Philadelphia! Why complicate my scrapbooking life when they can fit immediately into paper collections meant for the U.S. of A? :) They can wear purple when we go see a Barney show :)

I have been saving this particular collection, American Made, by MME for a couple of years. Talk about a classic collection that will never go out of style! I like it!

Winter is still raging on outside! I dream of summer and vacationing...