A Little Something

Fear.

2009-05-19T08:24:00.005-05:00

I love Ali Edwards blog! The other day she had a post about creative fear. I had never thought of it like that. Here is a little of what she said:

What are we afraid of in our creative lives?

1. Messing up.
2. Thinking this is the one and only chance to tell this story so it simply must be perfect.
3. People not appreciating what we create.
4. Being seen as selfish or extravagant for indulging yourself in your creative endeavor.
5. Not getting anything done.

I totally feel like I have to get it perfect! I defiantly want to be a perfectionist. I gave up being a perfectionist mother a while ago. I was going nuts! I realized that my house will never be really clean or even somewhat clean. Someones hair is going to be messy no matter if I fixed it or we totally don't have time to check out each kid before they walk out the door. I never wanted to have a messy kid in public! I realized that my van will usually be another source of food storage because there are always snacks and crumbs in there enough to feed a starving country. I even found a crusty cheese stick one time. I guess I need to let go of my perfectionist self when I create.

Do you have issues when you are creating? Check out the rest of the post here.

PS - The artwork in the photo was done by my kids. They had fun painting the canvases. I think they are such a great examples of getting things right.

They laugh as they work.

They make friends easily.

They get over being hurt very fast.

Floppy flowers.

2009-05-13T08:19:00.007-05:00

I have been a little obsessed with J Crew lately. I got their catalog and I just love it! They designs are amazing. I love how they put colors togethor in such unique ways. I am really loving their floppy flowers. They have all these beautiful flowers on shirts, belts, shoes, and headbands.

I still have been meaning to make the headbands from Design Mom. Oh, by the way check out her photo shoot of her family by Candice Stringham. Seriously it is sooooo cute! I love how they are dressed! Check out the how they propped it with cupcakes too!

So I saw this on Katie Did. She has a tutorial on how to make these floppy flowers. It is super easy. I am totally going to make them. I am going to try to make a J Crew inspired belt. I got a Shade dress for Mothers Day. I love it! I saw it a while ago and emailed my husband with the link. I didn't think he was getting it because I never saw a package. He was in Salt Lake a few days before and bought it there. I was totally suprised! It is a super comfotable dress too. I think it would take the dress up a notch by having a flower belt. I am going to make some headband for my girls too. I will let you guys know how it turns out. Let me know if you make them!

Layout for Designer Digitals.

2009-05-01T08:13:00.006-05:00

I have been having so much fun over there. They have some great freebies! I downloaded some Ali E tags that are super cute. Here is a layout I did for a website challenge. This is the inspiration:

I love this! Here is my layout based off it. My style less cluttered so I simplified it. I love the grungy feel of it. I am so happy because it is a multi photo layout and it is a major event! For some reason those are totally had for me.

I hope you guys have a great weekend!

This is better than doughnuts.

2009-04-24T08:24:00.006-05:00

It really is! KI has just release a bunch of their papers in a digital format! Ya! They even have some Elsie stuff. That is a serious dream of mine!

Designer digitals is having their big sale this weekend. Everything is marked down 30%! They are chatting all day long and giving away a bunch of freebies! Ali Edwards has all her digital stuff over there. They have a bunch of other fabulous stuff. Check out their cute freebies. I will defiantly be there on Saturday.

Heres some layouts.

2009-04-16T23:57:00.005-05:00

Well we have been super busy like usual. Does it ever slow down? Here was our week.

swim lessons

hubby got back from youth conference on Saturday afternoon

colored eggs with kids

couldn't do a hunt because it was going to rain

went to bed early because we were so tired (hubby didn't sleep well in a tent)

Easter

kids loved the goodies in their baskets

went to church

Easter egg hunt

ham

gymnastics

PTA Meeting

Dr appt

mutual

Kindergarten registration (my 3rd is going this fall, that will leave me with one at home and it will be weird)

This seems like the standard for us. Tommorrow we are renting a movie and having pizza. :)

Here are a couple of layouts I did this week. Crystal has a great digi freebie for April! Go check it out! I used that and a few of her other things too.

Have a good weekend!

Multi photo layout.

2009-04-10T00:23:00.003-05:00

My husband is going next week to his Grandma's 90th birthday party in Maryland. He is taken the girls with him. They are so excited to go see their grandparents. I will just have the boys at home so it should be ok. I usually do a project each time Scott leaves just to keep me busy and make the time go by fast. I have to figure out my project soon! I actually have a huge list of things to do around the house to keep me busy while I am not able to work out for 6 weeks. I love working out as much as I love scrapbooking. I love the post work out good feeling. I have to channel that into something else. I did organize my sewing bin last week. I probably won't do that again for 10 more years. :)

Here is a layout I did for Grandma. I am going to frame it. It a multi photo layout that I did based off of Ali D template. It is a free template so go on over and download it. I love the whole layout so I just lifted it. I love the clean lines! Thanks Ali!

I think one of the hardest things about multi photo layouts is making sure they don't look like a train wreck. Ali's layout has nice clean lines that maintain order. Another hard part of putting lots of photo's on a page is that the focal point is lost. I love that she made one picture bigger then the rest which helps with that.

The Daily Digi.

2009-03-31T14:45:00.012-05:00

I meant to post this last week but we had a seriously crazy week. I had surgery on Friday. It went really well. Just things I needed to take care of for a while. I should have a better quality of life now :) So the whole week I wanted to make sure I got the house in order and then guess what? I found lice in my 7 year olds hair! We got it 2 times last year. This is our 3rd time. I do not wish lice on my worst enemy! She cried so hard when I bagged up her stuffed animals. Onto a happier topic :)

One of my favorite blogs is the Daily Digi. It has tutorials, designers, and just cute stuff. I went there the other day and Janet was talking about sharpening images for the web. I guess the web softens images after uploading it. I had no idea I needed to sharpen my images! Does anyone do this? I was thinking it is a good idea for paper scrappers too. It is super easy too. Click on the link and she will show you exactly how to do it. Ok, I am going to try it, here goes:

Before

After

It is very subtle. I think on this layout I notice it the most on the journaling and title. I do like how it kind of cleaned it up. Here it is on a photo.

Before

After

After another sharpening

I thought it wasn't quite there so I unsharped it again by pumping up the radius to 1.8. I think it makes a big difference. This is what the picture looks like in real life. Maybe one size fits all will not always work but now that I know what it is suppose to look like I can adjust it pretty easily.

We took this on our trip to Seattle (just my husband and I). I love this sculpture!

A fun layout.

2009-03-25T21:18:00.006-05:00

I got some great frames from Kitchy. I changed the color in Photoshop from gold to a bright pink. I think the frames are super modern in crazy colors. I just realized last week that the 2Peas Garden Girls do a weekly challenge. I don't know why I didn't know that :). Sometime I wonder about myself :) .

I thought it would be fun to do the challenge. This week is about clustering, putting embellishments or whatever in a group. I love embellishments but I also like to keep things simple. My clustering is just some clocks near the photo that I lowered the opacity on to make them blend more into the background. I usually like to keep each brush on a separate layer so that I can move each individual element around and change things like scale, opacity, and color.

My big dilemma.

2009-03-22T20:24:00.006-05:00

My husband and I decided a couple years ago that we were going to redo our bedroom for our anniversary. Our room was the dumping ground for toys and whatever else could land there. Our builders used horrible flat paint. There were permenent fingerprints all over the walls.

I am happy to say that after a couple of years, that is usually how our projects go, the room is done! I got the idea of this headboard from a magazine, it might have been Domino. In the magazine the headboards were just stained. I wanted to go for a different look so I thought I could just get cheap wood and faux wood stain it. I did that to a plexiglass frame and it turned out super cool. Well, the headboard didn't turn out like I thought it would. That has happened to me before. I tried to live with it thinking I was just being silly but I couldn't get over it. Then I found this amazing wallpaper in Target and I knew that it would solve my problems. After wallpapering the headboard I must say I never want to wallpaper anything ever again! I can't imagine the horror of doing a whole room. I would lose it! Of coarse I did this while my husband was on a business trip and I think wallpapering put me over the edge.

My other dilemma with the room was getting some cute decorative pillows. I wanted certain colors and a certain pattern which I guess does not exist. I wanted pillows to go with the room but not be so matchy matchy. I wanted them to have a geometric pattern that was modern with certain colors being dominant. I can go on and on. I guess a girl can ask for too much in this life. :) Then I found Craft Chi. She was like just make your own. I said ok!

I designed the pattern in Photoshop and went to JoAnn's and got the printable fabric. Then I printed it out. I was suprised that the design came out well. The fabric didn't turn out stiff either. I kept my pillows little because I didn't want to wipe out my printer. I still havn't checked the ink levels out of fear. I backed the pillows in a different fabric so I could save ink too. It is a really an easy project. I guess a girl can get exactly what she wants!

Here is it is all made up and pretty. My husband actually makes up our bed everyday. I totally appreciate him doing that because I have the hardest time finding the time. It makes such a big difference when I walk in and it is made up.

Here is the design from PS.

We have places to sit!

Some cute finds.

2009-03-15T20:49:00.005-05:00

I was looking around the other day and found some great stuff! This girl is incredible. Her name is Larissa and she rocks. She is designing for Kitchy. Here's some of her stuff. I didn't even know paper could do this.

My roomate from Ricks college sent me this link of cute stuff that friend makes. She makes adorable shirts that she calls scrapshirts. She also makes super cute hats. You can customize the size and whatever else. To buy one, email her at jolli_jenni@hotmail.com .

Flickr Friday.

2009-03-13T15:55:00.008-05:00

So last week when I did this it was so nice and sunny. I had to dig though boxes to find shorts for my kids. We opened our windows. I loved it! Of coarse it did not last. It has been rainy for days now. Our weeds in our lawn are going to be 8ft tall by the time it is over! It is totally freezing too. I really hate having to deal with jackets and bundling up. My husband and I have talked about moving to CO for his job and because it is so beautiful. I just don't know if I could handle the winter! I have become such a whimp!

Rainy in my heart

Memory of Rain

Ice age is here

Take a look.

2009-03-12T14:41:00.005-05:00

I decided a long time ago that I was going to try to be better at sending our Grandma's cards. Our Grandpas all have passed and I know the Grandmas must be lonely. I just get so caught up with other things that I totally forget people who don't read blogs or have email. So I thought maybe every other month I could update them and send pictures. I think this seems like a reasonable goal, huh? Then I was at Target and I saw cute cards at the 1$ spot, which is another ingenious plan of some marketer at Target to get me to spend more money even though I think I am just spending a dollar. Well I have run out of those cards, I should have spent another dollar and gotten another pack :) .

I have been wanting to design some cards that I could sent over to Winkflash. They are having a sale now on their cards and prints. I love a good sale! I made some designs so now I just have to upload them and wait for my package to come.

Oh, I love cards that don't have a message on the front. I always run out of birhday cards but then I only have thank you cards. I can try and rig it but really. Plus I like cards being like little peices of art. It makes me happy.

This was not posed.

2009-03-09T20:21:00.006-05:00

This is a shout out to Domino since March is the last issue. Look, even toddlers love it! It really has been one of my favorite magazines ever. The designs are amazings. I have no idea what to replace it with. If anyone has an ideas, let me know. Thank goodness I have kept a lot of the issues. I hope that one day they will come back.

PS- His Daddy is really nervous because he also likes to wear my shoes and use a green furry purse that says princess. Any advice in this area would be great :)

Flickr Fridays.

2009-03-06T15:15:00.010-06:00

I have had the craziest week! It has been one thing after the other. I meant to update on Wednesday and then everything went nuts. I thought it would be fun to have Fridays be a dedicated Flickr day. I love great photography! I wish I was better at it.

Since it is 80 degrees here, I know I am wearing sandles today which I wasn't ready for so I had to paint my toes super fast this morning. I thought I would focus on spring/ summer photos. Here are a few I found.

Jenae

Oh this makes me happy. I love yellow!

Isn't this so pretty!

dontaylor

This doesn't really fit into the theme but I really like it. I love the texture! I love how close up it is. I use macro a lot on flowers but I have not thought about using it for texture type of things. I will have to give that a try.

A little crafty something.

2009-03-02T14:29:00.005-06:00

I don't know about you guys but I have the hardest time deep cleaning my house. Let's be honest, I just have a hard time doing the basics. In my heart I want to swifer really badly. But at night (when I know it will stay clean for at least 8 hours), I just don't want to. I feel totally done for the day. I would rather watch Idol or scrap or relax in some way.

Lately I have noticed how deep down dirty our house is. But who has time to clean the baseboards or dust. A long time ago I started this family cleaning time that we have everyday. We all clean for a half hour togethor. I have assigned certain thing to certain days. Mondays we always fold and put away laundry.

I had the thought the other day that wouldn't it be great if we took one of those days and did a deep cleaning activity togethor. It would be cute if I a fun and cute system! I was thinking about a cute jar that they could draw out of it but I kind of wanted something different. I took one of the spinners from a game that the kids no longer play with and transformed it. I measured it so that when I opened Photoshop I could make it to the exact size.

Another thing I love about PS is that you can find so much free stuff on the internet. I wanted a clock brush because I thought it would be a fast way to put numbers on the design. I totally found a free one! I have found lots of free brushes through Google.

I also made a list of 12 jobs that I need to be done around the house. I am going to add more lists once we are done with this one. I am also going to put the dates when each job was completed. I think I will put all the lists in a cute folder and then rotate the lists.

Mega Blog.

2009-02-26T13:39:00.007-06:00

Ok, I have found the mother of all blogs. Wow! This one is amazing. I was on her sight yesterday and she had a giveaway for 3 $500 gift cards to Apple. Get this, there were over 16,000 comments! Her name is Dee and her site is called Pioneer Woman . She is a photographer and her picures are beautiful. She has some fabulous tips for all you Photoshop people!

She also cooks, decorates, and homeschools her 4 kids. Dee never expected to be a Mom of 4 on a ranch. Isn't that how life works! I have to remember that. I really like plans and schedules and I get stressed without them. I need to remember that unplanned things turn out great too. Look at this picture: (I think I really want her hair color, hmm i might ask my stylist for that)

Oh, House of 3 has a free blog header that is so cute! I am really into yellow lately. It is under the freebie section at the top of their site.

Do your kids do that?

2009-02-23T12:06:00.003-06:00

I do love Target.

2009-02-19T13:28:00.003-06:00

I think I need help. I love Target so much. There has got to be a Target Annyomous group for people who are obsessed with it. So last month I decided to stop going to Target because I wanted to see how much money I would save. I didn't think I was that obsessed until I looked at our account and realized how a little here and there can add up. I think I went 1 time in Januray to get some diapers. I seriously heard angels singing as I walked in the door. There were so many beautiful things! And the were clearancing out their home decor section! Of coarse I was in withdrawel so I really wanted to find something. I found some amazing wall paper. My project for the last year or so has been to make over my master bedroom, it has been a slow process :) . It has just been a dumping ground for kids stuff. It just looks junky. I got these 2 huge pieces of wood that have rounded outside corners. I did this finish on them that didn't turn out quite like I was thinking. This wallpaper could totally fix the situation. And it was half off! I will post a final picture when I get the boards up. PS, if you have never wallpapered don't attempt to do it by yourself or on the day your husband is finally getting home from a business trip, very stressful.

Here is another reason to love Target, Orla Kiely. I love her stuff! So colorful and modern, yummy! I also have an obession with pears. I love the lines and the color. She has a bunch of funky pear stuff.

2009-02-16T14:19:00.006-06:00

I love going over to 2 Peas and finding fun new stuff. Here is one of their new kits by Danielle Thompson. Isn't it so crazy cute! I just love how fun and bright her stuff is. It makes me really happy. I was totally inspired by her and I did a layout with some of her goodies.

I have noticed as I look at layouts, art work, and magazine covers that there is a common element that helps to make great art. It is having direction. As I look at the piece of art my eye is directed through the piece by elements, or a line, or the same color repeating in various places. There is a flow that occurs that leads my eye around the page. When I am doing a layout and having a hard time with it this is one of the elements that is usually out of balance. I was creating this layout and I put the picture on it and then I got the idea to frame it out with these cute fruit strips. I realized that there was a vertical line going on and that I should just go with that. So I put the other papers in strips above the cute little fruit. I didn't want the journaling to distract from the lines so I just put it on the paper to make it all flow. I had actually envisioned something else when I started the layout. That happens a lot but I just try to go with it.

Ok, here is a fabulous quote that I found in my planner (I finally entered the planner world and I love it).

"The artist is not a special kind of person, rather, each person is a special kind of artist." Coomaraswamy

I love that! I look around and see so many beautiful works of art and I think that I will never be so talented. This helps me remember not to compare myself with others. Each person can create a beautiful thing and it can be as simple as making someone laugh.

2009-02-12T14:00:00.004-06:00

When I first this Etsy vendor I thought I had died and gone to photo heaven! Seriously the details are divine. I love how she has processed them. Does it get any more yummy! If I could only have the talent that she has in her pinky finger I would be happy. Here are a couple I am thinking about buying for our home. The last one would be so cute for Valentine's Day. Check her out http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5064563

Heidi Swapp.

2009-02-09T15:04:00.004-06:00

Ok, I am going to highlight another person on my blog roll. Heidi Swapp is an amazing scrapbooker. Her blog http://heidiswapp.typepad.com/my_weblog/ is so inspiring. I have been following her for a while and I am always amazed by how much talent she has. Everything she touches is divine! She has her own line of scrapbooking products. She just started a line of digital stuff that I am so excited to try. Get this, she also just started a site called House of 3 http://www.houseof3.com/ . Wow! That is all I can say. They have blog backgrounds, digital elements, and just some stinkin cute ideas. Check her out, you will be blown away.

Why I love digital scrapbooking.

2009-02-04T13:03:00.012-06:00

I really love digital scrapbooking! It really has changed my life. I think I will bear my testimony of it. Here you go:

1. There is no mess! This possibly could be the best part! I think I have enough messes in my home that I don't need another mess, especially one that I make on top of the other messes that my kids make. Who needs that pressure to clean up one more thing! I also hate losing my scissors under mountains of scraps and embellishments. Seriously!

2. No Glue. For some reason I always run out of adhesive. Or I am in the middle of a super creative moment and my little adhesive pully thing (gosh it has been a long time since I have scrapped because I can't even remember the name of the thing) doesn't go any more. Who wants to run to Micheals then?

3. Everything is a free for all. I love being able to transform any embellishment into something else. I can change the color, the size, and how transparent it is. I can move it around on my layout until I am really happy. When I paper scrap it is really hard to move sticky things around a lot. Sometimes when a layout doesn't work I make embellishments bigger or smaller. I would have to spend a lot of money to have that flexiblity with paper. Here is a layout that I did where I did make the brush (its a stamp but in photoshop lingo it is called a brush) super big. I also made it gray to fit in with the color scheme. I don't think I could find a big gray bird in the paper world, but even if I did, by the time I ordered it I would seriously be over the layout. I would have moved on with my life!

4. Everything is reusable. Unlike before when I ran out of a letter sticker I would seriously cry. I love that when I download a kit I can change the color of the paper to whatever I want it to be. This makes the kit so flexible that it can go with anything. I can use the paper a million times if I want to.

I know that digital scrapbooking can change your life too. I have seen it work miracles in my life and my family. It has helped me over come the trial of messiness and adhesive despair. It can work miracles in your life too. Have faith that it can change your life. Remember who you are and who you can become with Photoshop. (said with tears and sobbing)

I thought it would be fun to post some tutorials so be looking out for that!

I added some new people!

2009-01-30T17:13:00.004-06:00

I finally got my blog roll up and going! If you look over there>>> you will see a bunch of categories. I thought it would be easier for people to find some great stuff with categories. Over the next couple of weeks I will be highlighing some of them so you can get to know why I love them!

Ok, here is a blog that I love! It actually reminds me why I love to scrapbook.

This girl's blog is full of amazing photos! I love that she adds the words with the photos and the whole thing is lovely! I love the simpleness of it. When I am scrapbooking I try to remember that it is not about the stuff on the page. Sometimes there can be so many embellishments that the picture and the thought are drowning. Just keep it simple. I need to work on that for my life too :)

Here's her site: (it is called Pretty Good in my design blog section)

http://www.itsprettygood.com/pretty_good/

Color Schemes.

2009-01-26T19:56:00.006-06:00

I love color! I go through these phases where I am in love with certain colors. Right now I love yellow! In the summer I loved it nice and buttery bright. The fall has made me love a deeper more golden yellow. I love finding great color schemes for scrapbook layouts, clothes, or whatever.

One of my favorite scrapbook sites is 2 Peas in a Bucket. This is a fantastic site. They have amazing designers and bunch of message boards. 2 Peas has a digital scrapbook challenge each week. This week is a color challenge. They are putting togethor grey, light blue, and red. I love their challenges because it gets me to actually scrapbook! They have lots of other challenges too. Here is a link to their challenge this week.

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/cg_display.asp?cmd=display&seed_id=28661

I found this other great color scheme on accident last week. I bought this fabulous yellow :) sweater. At the store I found this super cute navy blue headband. Well I took it out of the bag and put them both down. I looked at it I was like that is so cute togethor. I did not buy them thinking I would wear them togethor. I love when good accidents happen! Here they are:

Here was another great color scheme that I found from Real Simple. I love this magazine! I have gotten it for years and I just love it. Their covers are stunning. The are like pieces of art because their color schemes are so perfect. Well there are other things that make their covers works of art like they always have great movement, the pictures are fabulous, I really could go on and on. There have seriously mastered the art of amazing color schemes. Here is the recent issue:

I love brown with yellow or blue but to add them all togethor, that is great! Here is a layout I did based off that.

2009-01-21T15:06:00.005-06:00

Ok, I found out about this sight where you can design and print your own fabric. They have a blog too where they showcase other designs. I think you can order those designs too. You can also buy a test square to see if you really like the design you have made. How great is that! I have had this long dilemna of finding throw pillows for my bedroom. I want the fabric to have carmel, a little black, white, with a punch of grassy green. I also want it to be modern looking. I thought I found something on Etsy but it didn't work out. Well there is nothing like that at the fabric stores either. I think this would be so fun to really customize a look. The only thing I would have to do is actually sew the pillow after I get the fabric. In the office there is a pile of clothes to fix that has been there for a good year. Hmmm, maybe I should work on that. I also think this would be so fun for special occations too. Here's the link:

http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome

Here is another amazing site that I love! This girl has great recipes and crafty ideas! She is based out of Portland, love that place :) . I saw this cute idea that I have to make with my girls. I think these would be cute to make with the young woman at church. I might want to wear one too :)

Are't those crazy cute! She said they were super easy and inexpensive too. I guess there are similiar ones at J. Crew Kids. Here is the link for that.

http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/getting-crafty-flowered-head-bands/

Leigh Anne had originally seen them on this site which is pretty cute too!

http://www.designmom.com/2008/12/more-homemade-christmas-2008.html

Color Story.

2009-01-16T15:08:00.003-06:00

I found this blog that is absolutely stunning. This woman has worked as an art director for Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Kids. She talked about a color story. I love that! She put togethor a color story for a wedding.

I was thinking what a great idea that is to do when decorating a room, creating a scrapbook page, putting togethor an outfit. It would defiantly help give me direction when creating something. Here's her super beautiful blog:

http://inchmark.squarespace.com/inchmark/2009/1/8/jen-ray.html

Check it out!

2009-01-12T13:33:00.003-06:00

Welcome to my new art blog! I have been wanting to do this for a long time. I am so excited! I am going to post everything from design that inspires me, scrapbook layouts, cute crafty stuff, photographs, and whatever else makes me happy. I will keep up my other blog so that everyone can keep up on our super exciting adventures ;). So check this out. I have been submitting scrapbook pages to magazines and I got one in Simple Scrapbooks!

This is the January February issue that is being sold now.

This is the article I am in. The call was for things your obsessed with.

Heres my page! That is my leg after my triathlon. It hurt alot to hold that position.

Here is a better look at the page.

I also have 2 layouts in Scrapbook.com magazine. Here is the link : http://scrapbooking.com/article/72737