CK + Big Picture...Living the Dream Class :)

Creating Keepsakes has paired up with BPS for a fun 20-day class all about scrapbooking your dreams, and I would like to offer a spot to one blog reader in it for FREE!! Here is a tiny snippet of my project (as seen on the BPS class site...check it out for more info!):We each chose a different topic to use for our projects, so there are sure to be lots of different ways to interpret the theme of the class...something for everyone!

Here's a quick snippet on how it works:
First you'll receive ten days of inspirational emails that will give you a photo prompt and a journaling prompt. This will help you really think about what your dreams are, and where those dreams started. During the next ten days you'll receive a handout from each Dream Team teacher that will give you the instructions and inspiration to complete a layout that documents the different ways that you're living your dream.

Make sure you check the BPS Class Site for more details...you get LOTS of info in this one, and it's such a great value for $20!! Check it out:

• Supply suggestions in each email (using supplies that you most likely have on hand)
  
• 10 inspirational emails with photo and journaling prompts (one from each Dream Team member)
  
• 10 colorful handouts with layout ideas and examples
  
• 10 layout sketches, available as a PDF and a PSD layered template
  
• Expert instruction and techniques to try on your layouts
  
• A gallery full of additional layout inspiration from each Dream Team member
  
• Welcome message and welcome audio from Jennafer Martin, Editor-in-Chief of Creating Keepsakes magazine

Please leave a comment here that mentions something you'd like to tackle in your scrapbooking...it could be anything from using your handwriting/journaling/use more photos/get caught up, you name it. I will draw a winner on Mon. June 4 and will forward your info on to the BPS Team (if your name happens to be drawn twice by any of us, a replacement will be selected...only 1 class per person).

LOTS of chances to win...check out these 2 blogs:

• Piradee Talvanna

• Stacy Cohen

Again, check out the details on this one...it's going to be GREAT!!

Studio Calico So Cal layouts with the June kit.

like I mentioned in my last post, it had been awhile since I made this many layouts that i absolutely LOVE...each for different reasons, but I love every single one.

It's funny when you finish a project and it just makes you smile, kwim??

Main Kit only layout below...the fun die cuts (i made myself use the one on the left side with the stripes, as my intention was to hoard it because i love it so much), the exclusive papers and the woodgrain cardstock had me reeling. LOVE how the woodgrain shows up if you swipe just a bit of Chalk Ink lightly over the top of the cardstock. (you can see it better HERE on the border just to the left of the twine and the hearts at the bottom of the photo) I bought 2 packets of the White Woodgrain...It will be used over and over again.

a fun birthday card for my girl...came together lickety split thanks to those super cool hex stamps in the Malibu add-on. I stamped onto the cardstock base, then stamped onto the patterned paper and cut inside the inner line so that those were just slightly smaller than the stamped image. added some foam to the back of the cut hex shapes to pop them up and voila.

this one here was made after i dropped her off at school on her 13th birthday...so i was feeling a bit emotional. ;) I knew when i saw the stamp set from the Venice Beach add-on that i wanted to use them all on one page...so i started stamping them onto some ledger paper using the Wet Cement ink by Hero Arts, and then cut them out. I hadn't really used the Shadow Inks by Hero Arts very much, but they worked PERFECTLY for stamps like this...where the stamp is kind of a large solid area, with the words cut out. I love my chalk inks more than anything, but they weren't really 'crisp' enough for this set...enter, the Shadow Inks.

I. Love. Frames. As in, anything I can make into a frame and 'fill' with bits and pieces. The size of the hex stamps were BEGGING for this treatment, lol!! I even filled one with confetti that I threw into one of the glassine envelopes that an embellishment came in...super easy!!

saving my fave for last.

again with those dang stamps.

;)

THIS was what I had in mind when i first saw the set.

it was the last layout i did with the kit before putting it away this month, and my heart is all over it.

i used my Cameo to cut the title at the bottom of the kraft cardstock, then backed each letter with a different piece of scrap laying on my desk. to get the placement of the stamps right so that they fit into the text, i stamped each one right onto the kraft cardstock with Versamark ink...knowing i had planned to stamp with Wet Cement with the same images and just place them right over it after i had typed it all out.

the Versamark is subtle enough that even if you lift up the grey word bubbles, you can hardly see it. after i stamped all 9 of them, i fed the cardstock into my old typewriter and just started hitting the keys. the journaling wasn't thought out at all...no planning, no notes on a scrap piece of paper. i let the word bubble stamps guide me while i typed away, which may be why it seems kind of random if you read through it, lol.

After I finished my typing, i spritzed the whole page with some Calico Shine, then added the stamped images with foam dots. This one was ALL about the words...and it may be the most meaningful page I've ever done.

Yeah, this one means an awful lot to me.

i can tell, because i still tear up when i read the journaling lol...sigh.

hope you love So Cal as much as i did!

:)

InLinkz.com

Studio Calico...you nailed it this month.

I mean, as far as kit making is concerned...this one takes the cake.

Maybe it's because I made 5 projects that I absolutely love.

that doesn't always happen, right?

maybe it's the stamps.

KP nailed it this month fo sho.

maybe it's the orange/pink paper in the Venice Beach add-on that I used on every project except my Main only layout.

for whatever reason...this month had me reeling.

here we go...these images are from my Instagram feed :)

my Main kit sneak...cool exclusive diecuts + paper + stamps. i am in LOVE with the More White Woodgrain (you get a piece in this Main kit...buy more, because you WILL want it) and love how cool it looks with just a bit of Chalk Ink rubbed lightly onto it.

this was my final layout I made this month...and it's my favorite. tons of words + that dang word bubble stamp set I can't get enough of from the Venice Beach add-on + Cameo title work. my heart is on this layout, i swear...as in, i choked up while making it.

(i am a confessed softie lol)

Confession #2: if i can make a window/frame out of something, i'm a happy camper. the hex stamps in the Malibu add-on are WAY underrated, simply because of all of the other awesome stamp sets this month i think, lol. I stamped a few onto the woodgrain cardstock, grabbed my craft knife and started filling up those frames. confetti was involved...you can't see it in this pic.

fun birthday card for last week's birthday girl. she loved it :) 

what's not to love about hex stamps & shapes??

and here again is that orange/pink BG paper...sigh.

another layout using what shall heretoforth be known as 'THE stamp set'...ink is Wet Cement by Hero Arts, available in the SC Shop. and can i profess how happy i am to have this printed vellum?? all i did was layer it over the woodgrain cardstock...BAM.

and what is that below it?

that would be the orange/pink BG paper again. 

;)

sigh.

like i said, they NAILED it this month.

:)

InLinkz.com

hello there, teenager.

Wow.
Yes, it was 650AM when I took this photo this morning, so she was just about 47 minutes shy of being a teenager...and she hadn't quite rubbed all of the sleep from her eyes, there is a soccer ball in the background there and it was freezing outside. But she played along for me...and I started snapping a few pics.

And it hit me.
She is a teenager.
Whoa.

Forget the fact that I can still remember feeling totally in awe and CLUELESS 13 years ago when they placed her in my arms. I was terrified. What the heck did I know about taking care of a babe? I mean, I knew the values I wanted to teach her...the limits we would set, the places we wanted her to see. But as far as physically caring for a newborn?
I. was. lost.
I hit the nurse call button because she was hiccuping...and she was kind and explained that would happen every now and then, lol. We chuckled and I took a deep breath and told myself I could do it, this mama thing.

And then she had her first cold at 6 months old, and we raced her to the ER at 1 AM because I panicked. If you've never waltzed into an ER and announced 'MY BABY ISN'T BREATHING RIGHT'...trust me, you WILL get attention. So they looked her over, diagnosed her with a cold and we chuckled together...the ER staff and Mike + I.

She gave us a run for our money at bedtime starting around 2.5 years old.
We'd put her down, she'd lay there for literally 5 seconds and then we'd hear her little feet thumping across the floor to come back out and smile at us.
Which is cute, until you JUST need her to SLEEP.
(note: if your pediatrician casually mentions: 'how is bedtime going?' at your next appointment, CONSIDER IT A WARNING...how the heck did he KNOW it was coming?!)
We talked it over at her next appointment, he gave me the perfect advice and we chuckled.

She begged to go to preschool before I was ready to send her.
Then she begged to go 4 days a week instead of 2.
Hard to say no to that when plenty of mamas were leaving the drop-off zone in tears because their babe was screaming about NOT wanting to go.

Then it was kindergarten.
She thrived there as well.
Man, did she thrive.
She walked in and never looked back...not once.
Me?
I walked away and made it to my car before the tears fell.

Then came soccer camp...5 nights away in a college dorm with her friends.
I made it 10 minutes away from campus before I fell apart.
(Mike was proud of me for making it that far)
And middle school orientation.
Once again, she handled all of it like a champ.
Never ONCE feeling nervous or afraid.
She has the confidence I had hoped for...something that her mama hasn't ever quite managed.

She is the girl who hurts for her friends, and never lets them cry alone. (that one is all me)
Her heart is wide open...which sets her up for disappointment in people here and there. (again...me)
She has a passion for soccer that I wouldn't have ever thought possible (that one's all Mike)
She has my hair/freckles/fair skin.
She has Mike's kewpie doll lips/chin/nose.
She is all of the best parts of both of us...with a few added touches.

You see, her entire life has been a series of growth. Baby steps toward developing into this beautiful young woman who has stolen our hearts with her smile. She isn't perfect...lord knows, we have our moments where I can't see straight from frustration.
But she is learning.
Man, is she learning.
To respect herself above all else...because without that, the rest falls apart.
How to be kind. To love. To be a good friend. To wear just the right amount of lip gloss. To sneak a book under the covers because she's caught up in a part she can't put down. To be a straight A honors student. To play the best defensive game she can in 90 minutes. To never wear white shoes because she just can't keep them clean. To handle a solo at a choir concert in front of hundreds of people. To keep her emotions in check until she can talk it out with me. To be grateful that she is so unbelievably close to her Grandma.

All of these steps/milestones are normal, I get that.
But when you add them all up and type them out...it's hard for me to grasp.
13.
My girl is a teenager.
And I am more in awe of her today than when they first placed her tiny self in my arms.