It Aint Easy…

I just finished the week 6 layout for The Mother LOAD class over at Big Picture Classes. This was a good one, because it’s about creating a layout around the journaling (instead of the other way around). I need to get things off my chest now and then, and this is a pretty good way to do it. I could actually write a lot more, which I think I may do at a later time, but this is a good start. And on this layout, I’m really just trying to use up some left-over embellishments, so it’s not a super-fantastic-OMG-to-die-for creation that some scrapbook company just made a pretty penny off of. Words, a photo, a little something extra.

To every mother out there who has weathered raising teenagers: I salute you.

On a different note, I also finished the last layout of my ‘Colour! Or is it Color?’ class. We ended the session with neutrals, a personal favorite. Black, white, and kraft.

Majestic. Photo by Robert Bryant.

I’m still working on my Week In the Life documentation, and I should have something to post next week. Stay tuned!

Design challenges 2 & 3

This is a great class to get those creative juices going again. Our instructor, Elizabeth Dillow, offers a challenge prompt every so many days, to create something we may have never tried or thought of before. It’s been really fun, so far. Here are challenges 2 and 3 (number 1 I’ve posted previously.)

using a photo as a background page. This is my silly daughter.

Using orange as the primary color on a page. Never would have thought of it.

Sometimes, stepping outside of our comfort zones is good for us, whether it’s in reference to being artistic and creative, or in other areas of life. Here, it is good for me because part of my love for scrapbooking involves learning and growing. The classes I am taking at Big Picture Classes certainly nurture this. Go ahead and try something different next time you do something crafty. I’ll bet you’ll love it! Happy Scrapping!

…And on to the Mother LOAD!

As in, LayOut A Day, the next BPC class I am now working on, taught by Lain Ehmann.  Come September, I will be in scrapbook “boot camp”, creating a layout every day for 26 days in that month. I’ll get whipped into shape as far as using my time wisely, being productive, using up old supplies that are currently collecting dust, learning new, time-saving techniques, and generally getting my motivational and creative butt kicked. It will be so awesome! For now, we are getting “warmed up” in class…this week we are organizing our scrap spaces, and using some old products and/or photos to help clean things up. A much-needed exercise, indeed. Here is my layout for this week:

Bo Bunny paper and stickers; Paislee Press green patterned paper. Noelle at 7.

You know, using up old supplies makes room for new ones! Don’t tell my husband I said that. I’ll be back for round 3 in a little while!

Layout do-over

What do you do when you are not completely happy with something you’ve done? Do it over. And do it better, if you can. I am a firm believer in do-overs, and that’s what I’ve done this evening. Doing digital layouts is fun, easy, and makes no mess, but for me, there’s nothing quite like working with papers, adhesive, embellishments and the like. I wasn’t thrilled with the layout I did last night (excuse #1: I was tired.), which was done digitally. Tonight, I was perusing Ali Edwards’ blog looking for inspiration, and something to blog about, when I came across one of her layouts, and inspiration smacked me in the face. I love what she did, and this gave me the oomph to do another layout with the photo of Hubby that I so love. I think the photo deserves it.

Ali’s layout:

My layout:

[My black and white photos never scan well; the photo does not really look this green or muddy]

Now, I could never hope in a trillion years for my layouts to be anywhere near as good as Ali’s (she’s a genius), but I love trying, and I think it looks better than last nights:

A little too blah, a little too monochromatic. Being unique and eclectic is more fun, in my opinion. So, go back to some of those layouts you may have been unhappy and be not afraid to just do it all over again. You may be happy that you did. Happy scrappin’!

Watch out, everyone…

Mr. Jewish Mafia is here. I had a bad day. I am out of sorts today. Oh well, who wants to hear about that? Not me.

I had a great photo of hubby that I did some fiddling with this evening….I love recoloring in Photoshop. So, here’s what I came up with for this evening’s post.

Wordless Wednesday.

“There is no distance on this earth as far away as yesterday.”

~ Robert Nathan.

 

 

Digital gridlock

I didn’t know what to write about today. I just know that my blog posts don’t feel complete without a photo, and as I have mentioned before here, when I don’t know what to say, I go fishing through my photos to see what inspires me. I love this photo of my nephew and my brother’s dog; I “stole” it from my brother’s Picasa web album with the intention of putting it into a layout. So tonight, I didn’t quite know how to do it justice (I guess I must be tired), so I started playing around with templates I have not used yet, and different photo effects to see what would happen. It would be interesting to take one great photo, and see how many ways it can be manipulated into new pieces of art. Some day. For tonight, this is what I did: I wanted to combine black and white with the original color photo. I love grids, and I love word art. So here you go; nothing special, but it was a learning experience nonetheless. Until next time, everyone.