Thursday, March 7, 2013

get it scrapped! pow!

i made this layout for "retro branding," an article that just went up today at get it scrapped!  it's a simple one to replicate, i think.  just one 4x4 photo, three squares of 4x4 mini papers, three large punched circles, a nice block-y title, and a few scattered embellishments.  easy and fun and the two color palette really lets the patterns shine i think.

and now for the calvinball update:
i have a page in progress.  i think it might turn out pretty cool, so i don't want to rush it.  that just leaves me one point for blogging today, so i checked the bonus list to see what else i might do.  list my fellow players for an extra point?!  yes!!!  i'm just going to list the calvinblogger roll call though as the full list would be too long!  it's an awesome group and we're having an awesome good time.  YOU can still join us as there are more than enough bonus points (and more added every day) to get you caught up in no time!

the calvinbloggers:
betsy sammarco
christy strickler
evie aka artfulscrapbooking
lori at legacy studios
lydia smith
natalie elphinstone
rita timmons
sharyn tormanen

calvinscraps - 9
calvinblogs - 7
calvinbonus - 12

total - 28

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

project life: tennessee aquarium

this spread is from the second and third of february when we took the cub scouts to the tennessee aquarium in chattanooga.  i highly recommend it if you're a local.  the aquarium has two buildings, one salt water and the other fresh and focuses more on the smaller animals, although it does have some bigger ones.  they had a ton of seahorses, all varieties, and so interesting.  the penguins i hear were popular.  g's favorites were the stingrays, sturgeons, and horseshoe crabs as they were in the "petting ponds."  i mean, how cool is it to say you've touched a sturgeon just like the guy off river monsters?  my favorites were the jellyfish tanks.  they had quite a few of those too and i believe i could have watched them all day.  they were so relaxing.  if i was rich and lived in vegas, i'd call the guys from tanked to come install me my very own.

on this page:  mostly pictures here, the backside of the lunchbox card, tickets, old martha steward labels, and some other old stuff from my stash.

on this page: my favorite jellyfish shots, more washi, and an allison kreft for echo park (cut apart) journaling card.  i'm really loving her cards for project life.  the scale of her graphics is just lovely.

this was my first non-12x12 page protector.  i used a 6x12 because i wanted to the entire spread on the flip side to be of the aquarium.  so on the left here are just a couple random things, g finally learning to tie his shoes while i worked a basketball game and my addiction to fish bites.  on the right is a page protector with four 6x6 pockets.  it holds my haiku and collage from january.  on the reverse i'll have any of those type things i do for february.  i'm thinking to stick one of these in every couple months.

on this page:  i knew i had that blue bubbly print in the bottom pocket because i had been saving it for something fishy or beachy.  i had a heck of a time finding it though.  it wasn't in my blues where i thought it should be.  i'd actually put it in my project life tray because the a-side was a sheet of cut apart journaling cards.  the little shine flower in the middle is one of them.  it's a whimsical piece from prima that i bought on a whim at my lss.

here's a close-up of the shoe and fish mcbites cards. i pulled them out of the sleeve for the photograph.  i wanted you to see the eyelets (so old school but perfect for the shoe tying) and mention how i did my journaling on the fish mcbites one.

see i am a lazy girl, especially when it comes to using the computer.  i pulled my journaling straight of my randoms post from last month.  when i found it would fit on the little journaling card, even front and back, i improvised.  i taped the journaling card to the paper over my test copy and ran it back through my printer, then i just cut the journaling from the rest of the test copy, folded it to fit, and taped it to the background card. with washi tape.  you can pull it out and flip it up to read the rest of the story if it's that interesting to you.  the little tab even tells you there's "more," lol.  so easy and stress free.  just how i like it.

on this page:  just random prints from my stash.  i mounted all my instagram pics on white cardstock before attaching them to the background.  i printed out my little haiku on regular copy paper, adhered them, and stitched a border around the whole thing.  i like it.  i thought the look blended well with my collage there.

and the calvinball update:
i finally finished another scrappy!  woot!  and i blogged again (obviously)!  woot!  looking good!

calvinscraps - 9
calvinblogs - 6
calvinbonus - 11

total - 26

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

get it scrapped!: good day, baby. love you

when i first heard of the sandy creek tragedy, i was at school, and, of course, my baby was at school.  it was him i thought of first.  it was my last words to him as i dropped him off that i thought to remember.  what were they?  did they say everything that was in my heart should i never see him again?

a couple years ago i noticed that i was in the bad habit of dropping him off late to school and fussing at him to hurry, hurry, hurry.  noticing made me sad and i changed.  i didn't change my habit of lateness, but i did change my reaction to it.  since this realization, no matter if we're early or late, i simply tell him, "good day, baby. love you."  i have never been more thankful for these words.

i snapped this photo as i dropped him off at school the day after.  i wanted to hold him close to me, but i could not.  i sent him off with a "good day, baby.  love you." and a prayer.  the photo is blurry and poorly composed, but in its imperfections it captures the transient nature of the moment and our lives.  life is brief, but love is eternal.  when he looks back at me, i hope his memories always tell him "good day, baby. love you."

this layout was created for an article on using stencils and paints over at get it scrapped.  it's a good one.

calvinball update:
i have a new page in progress.  i didn't quite finish as i had to stop to help g with his timeline project (bonus point awarded!).  and i blogged again!

calvinscraps - 8
calvinblogs - 5
calvinbonus - 11

total - 24

Monday, March 4, 2013

jbs mercantile: free spirit

wella wella wella.  when g and i got out of school this afternoon, i knew we had errands to run, but i still had high hopes of getting some calvinball action in this evening, not to mention tackling g's timeline project for bonus points.  i guess i hadn't reckoned on being gone till 8:00 this evening.  the "late" hour paired with the fact that i did the "wake up at 4:00 am and can't get back to sleep so i piddle with my phone till the alarm goes off at 6:00" thing this morning means that i am one tired puppy.  but i am sans "antique" glasses as the ophthalmologist called them, g got three new geronimo stilton books from the library, we ate at our favorite mexican restaurant, and g has new tennies and i even scored a new pair of flip flops.  we didn't make it to kroger, but oh well.  food is overrated, right?  and tomorrow is another day.

i was going to do another project life page tonight and share a couple spreads i finished yesterday, but that will have to wait till tomorrow.  luckily, i do have a new scrapbook page ready to share.  this one isn't even in my gallery yet!  it's mostly the march artisan add-on.  i especially love the two sets of word stickers in that one.

can't wait to see this pretty girl and the rest of the cousins next week!  yay spring break!  four. more. days.

at least i get a point for blogging!

calvinscraps - 8
calvinblogs - 4
calvinbonus - 10

total - 22

Sunday, March 3, 2013

project life: valentine's day

you may have noticed that my pages are not so much dated.  i decided pretty much right away that i couldn't handle the weekly format.  initially, it was the thought of having to make sure i had enough to fill a spread (or just a page) that was offsetting.  now that i'm in the midst of the happy chaos, i've also realized that the thought of forcing everything to fit in one spread (or deciding when i need inserts) is just as stressful.  i'm going with the loose-y goose-y approach which suits my ocd tendencies just fine.  whenever i get the urge to work on some project life, i first check my instagram feed, digital camera files, and any notes i've written in my dayplanner.  i then start printing pics and fitting them in like a fun little jigsaw puzzle.  i don't worry about the real estate of all those pocket pages too much.  whenever i get to the end of a month, i make a header for the next month in the next available pocket.  eventually i'm planning on adding side tabs as well.  the system is working well for me.  january had 3.5 pages and so far it looks like february will have five.  who knew the shortest month was so busy?  but i did have to devote an entire page to valentine's day.  it's such a fun holiday!

on this page:  the bulk of this product is from the january mini-album kit.  it was love themed and i hoarded most of it to use on this spread.  several of the bits were elle's studio valentine's day things and just charming.  the gold arrows were in the january antiquarian add-on.  love that jenni includes german foil in most of those. 

so top left is one of the coke tags i made for g's teachers.  the middle column is of his class valentines.  then the right column is my contribution to one sheepish girls's heartbombing.

on this page:  the top row is aleida's challenge, middle row are a few of our favorites from g's valentines, bottom row is a cute little quote from g when he came home from school on valentine's day (he always saves me his tootsie rolls when trick-or-treating) and my valentine's day haiku.

and now calvinball pointage!

only 1.5 points for actual scrappies (a page and a half spread in project life) as i had a busy afternoon pruning the overgrown foliage in our yard and then taking the gman to the wilson county jail with the other bears in our pack (it was for a tour, not bad behavior!).  also giving myself a bonus point for using retro scrappy product (eyelets) and for thoroughly cleaning my scrapspace.  and i blogged again!  ;)

calvinscraps - 8
calvinblogs - 3
calvinbonus - 10

total - 21

Saturday, March 2, 2013

calvinball: april 2011 week in the life - DONE!

my week in the life project from last april (not quite a year ago!) is DONE!  woot!  i did two pages back in april and then it was packed away to collect dust.  i got it out last night and finished it off this morning.  36 more pages.  it went together quickly once i got started (i printed the pics last week using that new diptic app  i mentioned earlier) as i was using a jbs mercantile mini-album kit from last designed by shimelle. lots of great papers and stickers which were perfect for this amy tan daybook.

here are just a few of my favorite pages from the book.  it's a fun little look into what my life is like on a regular day to day basis.  coke.  lots of coke.

pretty pictures.  lots of pretty pictures.

chemistry.  no more chemistry, lol, that was an inclusion class i worked with last year.

students and teachers and school.

i may seem vindictive, especially since i posted about this in my randoms last month, but there's entirely not enough of this.  teenagers in faculty parking is so.not.cool.

now on to calvinball . . .

i awarded myself 4.5 points (instead of the normal 9) for the finished daybook as the pages were so small and simple.  i also finished the valentine's spread in my project life album for 2 more points.  another point for blogging.  and then a ton of bonus points . . . one for getting the reveal newsletter done before jenni asked for it, one for interrupting my scrapbooking to attend to domestic duties (dirty laundry and dirty dishes), one for eating chocolate while scrapbooking (hello dosidos), one for scrappy shopping (m's today - adhesives were 40% off, scrappy supplies 50% off, and basic grey fact or fiction clearanced for 70% off), one for tackling technology in the name of scrapbooking (finally installed the old printer so i can type and print project life text at home), and one for organizing a scrappy playdate (yay chelle!).

see what you're missing?  getting points for shopping and eating chocolate!  what a fun game!  join us!  you know you want to!

calvinscraps - 6.5
calvinblogs - 2
calvinbonus - 8

total - 16.5 (don't get excited may, i'm not calling it a night yet)

Friday, March 1, 2013

jbs mercantile march reveal! and calvinball!

the march gallery is up over at jbs mercantile.  it's beautiful.  with more to come.  this is my fourth contribution and is mostly from the mini-album kit (which is awesomesauce as the papercrafting kit is already sold out, eeps!).

now if you've glanced at the gallery already, you may be wondering where my second and third projects are.  well hmmm.  see, i am having both camera and memory issues.  i totally forgot to photograph my second layout and my third is a project life spread and my borrowed camera battery ran out of juice before i got to photograph it.  see my poor old rebel finally conked out and my hand-me-down rebel is missing its battery charger so i am just a rebel without a camera.  for the moment at least.  remind me to get on amazon tonight and order one, won't you?

now on to CALVINBALL!  girls!  if you're looking for a spot of fun this month HEAD ON OVER!  the ever evolving rules are explained a bit more now and are sure to confuse and delight.  you're all invited!  the more the merrier!


i shall be keeping up with my points here daily.  so here we go . . .

calvinscraps - 0 (the night is young)
calvinblogs - 1
calvinbonus - 2 (one for scrapbooking in public and the other for publicly admitting to scheming)