Image sources: Heart Handmade UK | Creature Comforts | Creative Geisslein
For the love of all things scrapbooking. And Star Wars.
Color Me - Thistle, Powder Blue, and Violet
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
I still have several color palettes that I planned out before I cut back on my blog schedule, so I'll be dropping in one of those every once in a while, just so things won't be quite so quiet here!
Image sources: Heart Handmade UK | Creature Comforts | Creative Geisslein
Image sources: Heart Handmade UK | Creature Comforts | Creative Geisslein
Friday, April 11, 2014
Spring has finally decided to make an appearance here in Huntsville! This week I've been able to experience the joys of running outdoors without freezing my tail off, driving without the need for heated seats (though I'm still eternally grateful to Darren for that particular Christmas gift last year), and gardening. The Botanical Garden is having their annual Spring plant sale this weekend, and we went today and came home with a few choice bits of greenery to add to the gardens here at the house.
There's lots of green in the Project Life layout I'm posting today, too, including photos from a trip to the Gardens and flowers blooming in my front yard nearly two years ago. Some things will never change, thank goodness!
Supplies:
This layout was actually up on the Simple Stories blog a couple of weeks ago, and I turned the camera on and filmed while I was scrapping so I could put together a video of the process.
I simply adore Simple Stories' "A Charmed Life" collection, and as a St. Patrick's Day birthday girl it felt a little wrong to use it for something besides birthday photos the first time I cut into it. The greens, blues, and yellows were just perfect for these photos, though, and I'm sure I'll be using it again on St. Patrick's Day pictures before too long.
In a small and not-entirely-unrelated-to-my-recent-blog-silence bit of news, Darren (otherwise known as my husband and also as "he who installed the awesome heated seats that I mentioned above") has officially been accepted to medical school starting this fall! I'm thrilled for him since he's wanted this for a long, long time, but it's also brought on more than a few "so much to do and so little time" thoughts since the acceptance letter arrived. We have so many things we want to finish around the house, and basically only one summer left to do them all before he starts four years of school followed by four years of residency. The next three months are now or never time for getting those things done ourselves, and we'll definitely be staying busy!
There's lots of green in the Project Life layout I'm posting today, too, including photos from a trip to the Gardens and flowers blooming in my front yard nearly two years ago. Some things will never change, thank goodness!
Supplies:
This layout was actually up on the Simple Stories blog a couple of weeks ago, and I turned the camera on and filmed while I was scrapping so I could put together a video of the process.
I simply adore Simple Stories' "A Charmed Life" collection, and as a St. Patrick's Day birthday girl it felt a little wrong to use it for something besides birthday photos the first time I cut into it. The greens, blues, and yellows were just perfect for these photos, though, and I'm sure I'll be using it again on St. Patrick's Day pictures before too long.
In a small and not-entirely-unrelated-to-my-recent-blog-silence bit of news, Darren (otherwise known as my husband and also as "he who installed the awesome heated seats that I mentioned above") has officially been accepted to medical school starting this fall! I'm thrilled for him since he's wanted this for a long, long time, but it's also brought on more than a few "so much to do and so little time" thoughts since the acceptance letter arrived. We have so many things we want to finish around the house, and basically only one summer left to do them all before he starts four years of school followed by four years of residency. The next three months are now or never time for getting those things done ourselves, and we'll definitely be staying busy!
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
I still have a few of the regular posts that I wrote before I took a permanent break from my daily blogging schedule, and from time to time I'll drop one of them here. That's not to say that I'll never participate in something like Workspace Wednesday again, but it definitely won't be a weekly thing!
When something isn't getting used in my craft space, it usually means that it's not being stored where I can easily get to it and then just as easily put it away. Take my Sizzix Big Kick, for example. I love using it (especially with alphabet dies!), and I have a healthy collection of dies thanks to a year and a half spent on the Lawn Fawn design team and more than a slight addiction to Papertrey. Unfortunately, a manual die cutter does have a fairly big footprint, so it's not something I'm willing to just leave sitting out on my scrapping surface all the time. Instead, it and my Xyron were shoved onto out-of-the-way, inconvenient shelves, meaning they didn't come out to play very often.
Until now, that is!
When we built my new craft table last fall, I knew that die cutting tools were one of the things I wanted to have right within reach. This little space at the end of one of my craft table's shelves (you can see a full shot of the shelves here) is just perfect for housing both my Big Kick and my Xyron 900, which I often use to add adhesive to the backs papers before cutting them with alphabet dies. Unfortunately, the Xyron had been stored in an even more inconvenient place than the Big Kick, and I once actually lost it in my scrap room. I mean, who loses a huge Xyron 900?!? My scrap room is not that big!
Both machines are now right under the top of my craft table, so I can just pull them out when I need to use them and then put them right back. My dies are on a shelf right beside my Big Kick, and you can read more about how I store my thin metal dies here.
There are certain types of material such as felt and glitter paper that I normally only use when die cutting, so I've gathered all of those together to make them easy to find, too! That was actually a project that I tackled last October, and now, nearly 6 months later, the contents those three IKEA Alex drawers are staying organized and getting used, so I think I have a winner here! You can read more about how I organize these drawers here, but if you just want pretty photos, I took a new round to share. :)
My Silhouette sits on top of the Alex cart, and I'm actually reworking the large furniture pieces in this area right now, thanks to my new desk that I picked up on my last trip to IKEA. That should put my Silhouette in a spot where it's super easy to use, and I'll share that down the road as I have time.
When something isn't getting used in my craft space, it usually means that it's not being stored where I can easily get to it and then just as easily put it away. Take my Sizzix Big Kick, for example. I love using it (especially with alphabet dies!), and I have a healthy collection of dies thanks to a year and a half spent on the Lawn Fawn design team and more than a slight addiction to Papertrey. Unfortunately, a manual die cutter does have a fairly big footprint, so it's not something I'm willing to just leave sitting out on my scrapping surface all the time. Instead, it and my Xyron were shoved onto out-of-the-way, inconvenient shelves, meaning they didn't come out to play very often.
Until now, that is!
When we built my new craft table last fall, I knew that die cutting tools were one of the things I wanted to have right within reach. This little space at the end of one of my craft table's shelves (you can see a full shot of the shelves here) is just perfect for housing both my Big Kick and my Xyron 900, which I often use to add adhesive to the backs papers before cutting them with alphabet dies. Unfortunately, the Xyron had been stored in an even more inconvenient place than the Big Kick, and I once actually lost it in my scrap room. I mean, who loses a huge Xyron 900?!? My scrap room is not that big!
Both machines are now right under the top of my craft table, so I can just pull them out when I need to use them and then put them right back. My dies are on a shelf right beside my Big Kick, and you can read more about how I store my thin metal dies here.
There are certain types of material such as felt and glitter paper that I normally only use when die cutting, so I've gathered all of those together to make them easy to find, too! That was actually a project that I tackled last October, and now, nearly 6 months later, the contents those three IKEA Alex drawers are staying organized and getting used, so I think I have a winner here! You can read more about how I organize these drawers here, but if you just want pretty photos, I took a new round to share. :)
My Silhouette sits on top of the Alex cart, and I'm actually reworking the large furniture pieces in this area right now, thanks to my new desk that I picked up on my last trip to IKEA. That should put my Silhouette in a spot where it's super easy to use, and I'll share that down the road as I have time.