It’s been quite a while since I last posted here. So much has happened over the last year and this little blog has taken a back seat to everything else happening in my life. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and finally decided it’s time to dust off my little corner of the internet and begin posting again. I’ve been creating a lot over the last several months and have enjoyed every minute of it. I’m planning to continue to create regularly and thought it would be fun to share some of my projects here again.

I also have some fun news to share. I was recently invited to be a member of the Hip Kit Club Design Team! This is my first Design Team gig and to say I’m excited is definitely an understatement! It’s such an honor to be a part of this group and I still have to pinch myself when I see my photo next to these super talented women. I’m so thrilled for this wonderful opportunity!

 

I love seeing others’ Workspace Wednesday posts on the internet and thought I would join them this week.  As part of my series of 40 PEEKS, I’m sharing a little view into my scrapbook room today.  Specifically, I thought I’d share the huge stack of unfinished layouts I have on my work table.  Does anyone else have a pile like this?  I know, it looks crazy.  All of these layouts are at different stages of completion.  Some are almost done and just need some journaling.  Others need a photo.  And some have most of the components all together but the page needs to be assembled.  A lot of times I start working with a kit, get to a certain point and then have to put it all away for some reason or another.  Or, I take supplies to a crop, work on some pages, pack my stuff to bring home but then somehow never get back to finishing those pages.  And then new supplies tempt me.  And sometimes it’s just about what I feel like working on and what I’m motivated to complete.  I’ll definitely get back to these pages one of these days and hope to complete all of them this year.  Well see!  🙂

I decided to participate in Studio Calico’s Sunday Sketch challenge last week and used the sketch provided to create the layout below.  A while back, I posted my goals for the new year and thought it would be fun to create a layout about them too.  I loved the grid design of the sketch and all the paper layers and used some papers that coordinated with the photo of my fluorescent pink Filofax.  I used Thickers for my title, added some journaling to one of the squares and used some washi tape and a cute arrow paper clip as embellishments.  It was actually a pretty simple page to put together but I love the end result.  I really love grid designs and see more of them in my future!

This week I’ve been sharing layouts I’ve lifted using Crate Paper’s Kiss Kiss collection.  These have been some of my favorite pages to make because of the designs I’ve lifted and the papers used.  Today’s layout is one I lifted from Allie Stewart.  I think my jaw dropped when I first saw her page and it immediately went on my list to lift.  Allie’s page is gorgeous and I wanted to recreate it as closely as possible to her original.  I was even going to use the same title but somehow I lost the little “Always” die cut.  I was at a weekend crop and went from one table to another and somewhere along the way, I lost that little piece of vellum!  So I decided to use “Forever” instead and you know what?  Forever is just perfect because that’s exactly how long I expect to be with my husband so it’s a great title for this page.  The photo was taken in Rome last Spring in a garden area by The Forum.  Such a beautiful little spot!  Here’s “Forever”:

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great weekend!

 

I often surf through the Studio Calico member gallery for inspiration and for my next layout to lift (because let’s be real – almost every layout I create is lifted from someone else).  There’s so much fabulous inspiration out there and I definitely take advantage of it.  Plus, lifting layouts gets me to use my supplies and it feels really good to use stuff up!

Recently, I found a layout by Laetitia Poissy in the gallery and loved the simplicity of the design and all the white space.  I also love how she used the tags and incorporated many other little details she throughout the page.  I wanted to use more of my Crate Paper Kiss Kiss collection and Laetitia’s layout was another one I was excited to recreate.  Here’s my version of her design:

Simple and easy and just perfect.  Love pages like this that easily come together!  I’ve got one more Kiss Kiss layout to share this week so come back tomorrow to check it out!  🙂

As soon as Crate Paper’s Kiss Kiss line came out, I fell in love with it immediately.  I pretty much love all of Crate Paper’s lines but their Valentine’s Day ones are always my favorite!  Over the past week, I lifted a few layouts I found online using this collection.  The first one I’m sharing today is lifted from Anabelle O’Malley.  I absolutely love how she clustered so many embellishments and created this fun page.  I used a photo that Dhimant and I took on Valentine’s Day this year which fit the theme perfectly.

This year, we went to a party at a friend’s house on Valentine’s Day and made a bunch of treat boxes for all of the kids.  One of the items we put in the boxes were cute little heart shaped sunglasses.  We had a few pairs leftover at the end so of course we tried them on and took some selfies!  They’re obviously too small for us since they were kiddie glasses but we still had fun anyway!  Plus, the selfie we took came in handy for this layout!

I’ll be sharing the other two layouts I made with the Kiss Kiss collection over the next few days so please come back to check them out!

I’m back today to share my first two Project Life spreads from February.  Both of these pages were made digitally using the Project Life app on my iPhone, the LetterGlow app (to add text) and a variety of digital supplies.  The first spread documents the Super Bowl and a get together we had at our house.  As the hostess, I didn’t get a chance to take a lot of photos but I did capture a few.  I also found an image online that included the teams that played in the Super Bowl that night so I took a screenshot to include on this page.

My second page for February documents a recent TV obsession.  After we finished watching the last season of Homeland at the beginning on January, we started watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix.  I got hooked instantly and we watched all 5 seasons in about a month.  (Lots of screenshots from the internet on this page!)  I also documented two of the books I’ve read so far this year.  I think it’ll be fun to look back years from now and see what we were watching and reading in 2015.Thanks for stopping by!  I’ll be back with more of my February spreads next week!  🙂

 

I’m back today to share my Project Life pages from January.  Creating digitally has been so much fun so far and I’m looking forward to continuing this process throughout the year.  I’m definitely not giving up paper scrapbooking (I love paper goodies WAY TOO MUCH!!!) but this is a nice way to mix things up and keep me motivated to stay current with my album.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m taking a monthly approach to my album this year which is making things a lot easier.  There are some weeks that I just don’t have enough photos to complete a full spread so the monthly approach gives me a lot of flexibility.  Here are the two spreads I created for January:

The first spread above uses a bunch of digital cards from Studio Calico and one from the Project Life Midnight Edition.  I also used the LetterGlow app on my phone to add text to some of the Studio Calico cards.  The second spread uses cards from Becky Higgins’ Strawberry Edition that is included in the Project Life App.  It’s fun to play around with different digital supplies and color combos and I look forward to experimenting more with future pages.

That’s it for January!  I’ll be sharing my February spreads soon too.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!  🙂

It’s been a while since I posted something under my “40 EATS” category and a big reason why is that I just haven’t been cooking that much lately.  This past weekend, however, we had some friends over for the Super Bowl and I made some of my favorite appetizers.  Unfortunately with all the craziness of trying to get everything ready by the time our guests arrived, I didn’t have a chance to take photos of everything I made.  I did take a few, however, and wanted to share one of my Mexican Shrimp Cocktail with you today.

I originally got the recipe for this appetizer from my cousin about ten years ago and have been making it ever since.  Unfortunately I don’t have the original source so if any of you have seen or tried this recipe before, please let me know where it’s from so I can give proper credit to the creator.  If you’re looking for a fun, fresh, light and festive appetizer, this is a great choice.  It’s easy to make and looks nice and colorful on the table.  I usually double the recipe for a crowd so that’s what you’re seeing in my photo.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.  Enjoy!  🙂

Mexican Shrimp Cocktail

1/2 cup Italian dressing

1/2 chopped tomato

1 can (4 oz.) chopped green chilies

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 1/2 teaspoons honey

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I use Frank’s Red Hot)

1 lb. medium shrimp, cleaned and cooked (I use cooked frozen shrimp from Costco)

2 teaspoons cilantro

Combine dressing, tomato, chilies, green onions, honey and pepper sauce.  Stir in shrimp.  Cover and marinate at least 2 hours.  Stir in cilantro before serving.

I’m on a roll with my “40 PAGES” series right now so I’ve decided to just go with it.  I still have plans to continue with the other categories in my 4 series of 40 but since I’m in a scrapbooking groove right now, I’ll keep going!  One of my goals this year is to use up the scrapbook kits that have been piling up so that’s what I’ve been working on over the past couple of weeks.  Today I’m sharing the 7th page I made with Studio Calico’s Park Ave kit and it feels so good to use up a kit.  I still have some supplies left but put them away and am calling this kit “used up”.  7 layouts from one kit sounds like a good number in my book!

When I first open a kit, I usually pick several layouts I want to scraplift and then figure out how to make it happen.  I often end up choosing several layouts that use the same paper or embellishments so it’s like a fun puzzle to figure out how I can divide up the supplies to create all of the layouts on my list.  With the Park Ave kit, the paper with the buildings was my favorite and a lot of the layouts I wanted to lift used that paper.  Somehow, I found a way to create all of the pages on my list with just one sheet of that paper.  All that’s left now is a little tiny scrap so I definitely got some good mileage out of it!

The page I’m sharing today is a lift of Natalie Elphinstone’s sweet page from her December gallery at Studio Calico.  I’ve become a big fan of Natalie’s work over the last year and have added many of her layouts to my inspiration board.  When I saw the single row of buildings she used towards the top of her layout, it reminded me of the Painted Ladies in San Francisco so I decided to pull a photo from our trip there several years ago.  The photo I chose was actually taken at the bottom of Lombard street rather than at the colorful row of houses but it’s still the same city and I think the reference still works.  I’m happy with how it turned out and really love that other designers’ work is inspiring me to scrapbook some older photos so they can be included in my albums!