Good Tidings and Cheer

Christmas is my favorite time of year. The merriment. The cheer. The use of my favorite colors on everything. The glowing lights. The family time. It's everything, I'm sure. From November until January 1st, every year, I'm in a perpetual state of stressful happiness. True to form, I have been this year also.

While I send out designed, picture-focused Christmas cards, I still crave to make things by hand. So I did. I made the sentiment ("good tidings and cheer" + shape) in Illustrator, printed them on luxuriously thick card stock, and cut out the shape using tiny scissors. After the 2D layers were placed, I stuck the sentiments on the cards with some sturdy pop-up tape so that the effect was 3D.

Let Christmas begin!

Thanksgiving is over, so it's time to put up the tree and get ready for Christmas, which I easily think is the best holiday ever. (Not to mitigate giving thanks.)

Christmas with my parents is during the Thanksgiving holiday this year, so we exchanged presents today. This card was made to be a money holder for my mom who is a sewer and embroiderer and wants to go to another Bernina class in Alabama this next year. Every little bit helps, so she asked for money specifically as her gift. Ask and you will receive!

Green paper by Amuse

Red glitter paper by Recollections

Stickers were a gift, but I assume they can be found at Michaels or A.C. Moore

Why I scrapbook

One of the wonderful things I love about my hobby is the use of colors and layers and textures. It's the ability to take your experiences and express them more than the pictures alone can. It is by no means an important hobby, but it's a wonderful outlet for me. It's a way I look into my past and remember the good times. Working with picture after picture reminds me to be thankful for what I do have.

And working with color and texture while I do so is happy!

Holiday Happy

I've been listening to Christmas music and making ornaments. Lots and lots of ornaments. It's been a great evening activity over the past few weeks. A couple of movies/tv shows, a little music, a mega paper-cutter, and a lot of patience.

They are really easy to make if you have a paper cutter and time. Cut your paper longways into 1/2" strips. If you want the curls to hold better, curl each strip with scissors. Then wrap each strand into tight curls. I used washi tape and duct tape rollers to hold the spirals tight until it was time to put them in the ornaments. Then I stuffed the ornaments!

Paper = Martha Stewart Crafts - Woodland Collection - Christmas

Double-sided paper is key

4" fillable glass balls

Charleston: where history lives

I highly recommend Charleston, SC to anyone who has never been. It's slogan is Charleston, where history lives, and it has been named 2011 Top U.S. City at Condé Nast Traveler magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards this year.

[Click here and watch the video]

This is the south I know and love. Southern hospitality. Delicious food with rich personality. Beautiful, historic architecture. Houses shaded in pastels. Others with dark brick with white trim and black shutters. Cobblestone and brick as sidewalks and streets. Lush gardens, thickened by the moisture in the air. Intricately detailed rod iron gates. An unspoken value of living life well. Deep culture and deeply rooted traditions. Yes, there are some problems in the area too. The income disparity is impressive and depressing at once. It is in so many places around the world, and Charleston ranks among them.

But visit anyway. If you can't take heat, don't go from May - September. You'll find October - April is best. A bit chilly for my taste, but y'all would love it! So here you have it. A brief little view of a neighborhood, the Battery, in one of my favorite cities.

This last picture is of my Dad and Tom at the Battery.

The rest are from our walk in the area.

Happy Thanksgiving

I've been on a use-what-you have kick for months. Unfortunately for my new mantra and my budget, while I've been using what I have, I've also been tempted with way too many new things. For this project, I actually did use what I had! YAY! Go me! (Finally!) I bought one sheet of the fall paper a while back. I had no plans for it and had no idea how I would work that into a scrapbook since I never use florals. Plus I had these stickers from ages ago when I was obsessed with the Me&MyBigIdeas stickers. They are still adorable, but they aren't going in my books either. Solution? Thanksgiving cards! Perfect! What a great way to tell my impressively large family that I love them and am thankful for them!

They'll be in the mail soon!

Paper is Autumn Foliage by Chatter Box Inc.

Solid paper by A.muse

Stickers are Me and My Big Ideas Thanksgiving Kids (mambo minis)

Glitter paper + Embellishment strings & ribbons

Birthday wishes

This was a birthday card I made for a friend last week. I don't have a Cricut or Big Shot or a die cutter of any sort. I just printed out a star and cut it out myself.

Paper from a Recollections set

Let there be light!

This picture is from an Easter Sunday at home with my family a couple years back.

I love light neutrals and white on white because using colorless mediums emphasizes textures and layers and creativity that you don't get when you cave to color. It reminds me of something I read somewhere about wedding dresses. Not having color to work with forces the designer to be creative artistically with style and texture. I did that here but with a much smaller, less dramatic scale. And I did use color a little.

So here I used scraps. With lots of texture. Plus washi tape. With a fabric brad and lots of light neutrals. I'm in heaven.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

For 5 years, high school through early college, I worked at a breakfast and lunch cafe/bakery called Tiffany's. I loved that job. I hated the early mornings. Oh man, the early Saturday mornings were terrible! But the cream cheese brownies were fantastic. With little chocolate morsels. Delicious.

These pictures are of me and my boss. The page is going in one of my super old albums, so I made it somewhat simple to fit the style of the book.

Glitter houndstooth paper: Houndstooth black by American Crafts

Plaid paper by Me and my big ideas (2004)

Fleur de Lys by 7gypsies

Amplifed 8 track by American Crafts

Purple floral paper is Retro Collage by Recollections

Brad is K-OLOGY Hanna Stitched by K&Company

Letters by Amy Tangerine

Washi tape by Amuse

Basic Craft colored paper

Waban

My morning commute. I took this picture on Wednesday.

For a little one

One of my dear, dear friends growing up JUST had a little girl! It's crazy to think that her baby will grow up as a New Yorker. From the city. But she will!! May she be healthy and happy!

paper and ribbon are Ivory from Paper Tray Ink

Sentiment is 'baby girl' by makingmemories

Color Challenge

Color Q is having a color challenge. Red and tealish-indigo together are one of my favorite combos (see picture on right), but I didn't go my normal direction. I decided to make a masculine card for this challenge and went for woodsy instead of girly or art deco. Neutral with accents, like the lamp in the sample!

The paper is actually ivory from papertreyink.
All other items are from my stock.
Use what you have!

for the love of Charleston

I was here this weekend.

It was glorious.

More pictures to come.

Sometime.

I love Charleston.

text in picture inspired by debee campos