It's the Small Things

Projects for 2012

Hello blogger friends. I've been on a self-imposed creative break. I knew I needed to take a small break to restore my creative side. I just didn't realize I would need such a long one. After spending the summer doing nothing creative, I finally feel rejuvinated. I'm excited to get back into my tiny space and craft away. I decided that for 2012 I would pick some projects to focus on doing. I've picked out three projects to do for the year; One Little Word 2012 with Ali Edwards, Move More, Eat Well with Cathy Zielske and Project Life with Becky Higgins. I'll start with the first two and come back with a post for the last in a day or two.

1. My word for 2012 is "action". I have two very specific goals I want to accomplish this year. I can only do this by taking action, step by step, decision by decsion. This word really resonates with me and keeping it in the front of my mind each day will help me when things get tough because they will get tough. I'm excited to get started and really see where I can go with it.

I used some of the recent Crate Paper releases for the little title card. While I no longer design for this fabulous company, I am still obsessed with each and every release. They just do it right each and every time!

2. Move More, Eat Well. Yep. That's basically goal #1 this year. I need to get healthy. I need to change my self talk. I love that Cathy is doing a class on this. She very bravely posted her journey for moving more and eating less on her own blog last year. She posted the good, the bad and the ugly. I respect anyone who can be real and put it out there.

This class is a year-long class and it's about inspiration and motivation. I like that I'll be hanging out with a big group of gals all trying to reach their own personal goals with their own ways of getting there. I love that Cathy will be creating templates to help us document the journey.

I will be chaning my way of eating completely. I will be exercising regularly for the first time in 10 years. This is a huge, life changing goal and I plan to take it one decision at a time, day by day. This isn't the kind of project for me that needs to be creative or more than it is. I plan to just follow her design plan and put my effort on working hard on my goals. Basically, this isn't something I plan to get creative with, it's something I am doing to keep a record and to stay motivated.

I plan to follow Natalia Rose's Detox 4 Women plan in January, then move forward with her overall way of life after that. I need to detox and her way of doing it makes sense to me. It's not all fruit juice and other crazy ideas that just sound bad. It's simple and it's something I know I can do.

My husband and I will be starting P90X in January, too. This program is insane and I love it. It is hard, but it feels so good. It's amazing how fast I went from feeling weak and pain to feeling strong and sore when we starting it this past summer. We failed at keeping up with it, but we are determined and will do it in January. 

It's hard to believe it's so close to Christmas and the New Year. I'm excited to have goals, despite my usual avoidance of them.

Anyway, thanks for continuing to check out my blog despite my long absense. I hope you are enjoying your Holiday time with your families and that this time of year is a blessing for you.

Lori

 

Crate Paper's Wedding Week

Crate Paper's Wedding Week has debuted. I'm loving the inspiration so much, it makes me want to plan another wedding. There are so many lovely ideas to think over. I can imagine using some of these ideas for other parties, too.

I have a project on today's post. It's the seating chart (using escort cards) for the reception. You can see a close and an explanation on the blog.

For those who feel inspired, there is a challenge with some great prizes. The deadline to enter the challenge is this Friday, June 11th.

The kiddos are almost out for the summer. It's crunch time for end of the year stuff, but it's all good. I'm looking forward to summer and relaxing with the boys!

Have a wonderful day!

Lori

 

Wedding Week at Crate Paper

Crate Paper has a really, really exciting week coming up; Wedding Week. The design team has been working really hard on wedding specific creations for every aspect of a wedding and we cannot wait to share them with you.

This event starts Monday, June 6th and ends Monday, June 13th.

Not only will there be daily wedding inspiration, but Crate Paper will be giving away four prize packs, as well. Be sure to mark it on your calendars, as I truly believe this will be a not to miss week long blog event. See you over there!

Lori

Crate Paper Giveaway for NSD and Mother's Day

How sweet is this Floral Button Bouquet by Davinie Fiero? I think it's darling and Davinie shares a how-to tutorial on the Crate Paper blog. Not only can you find the tutorial, but if you leave a comment about the following question on Crate's blog, you can win two huge baskets filled with Crate Paper products (one for you and one for your Mom):

If you were to scrapbook a favorite moment from that of your childhood shared with "mom", what would it be?

Head on over to Crate's blog and answer the question to be entered into the drawing. The winner will be announced on Monday. It's a fun way to celebrate both National Scrapbooking Day AND Mother's Day!

Crate Paper has Spring Fever

 

Crate Paper is celebrating Spring on their blog. For the next three days they will be sharing some fabulous Spring themed inspiration and are running give aways! You don't want to miss out on the opportunity to be inspired and to possibly win some great product, so head on over and check it out.

In other news, I've been really busy helping my son's elemtary school with their auction. Public schools everywhere are hurting for money and ours is no different. We live in a wonderful community with amazing parents who care deeply about what is happening to our public school system.

When I volunteered to be the data base girl for our auction, I really had no idea that it would be a full time job the few weeks before the event. It was a ton of work, but the pay off was huge. Even though, it took over my life, it was nice to feel like I was working, again, and using my brian in a way I had not since leaving my career. Best of, was the opportunity to become close to so many wonderful people. It was very rewarding to work toward the goal of helping our children and to see it come together in such a successful way.

I hope you enjoy your weekend.

Lori

Crate Paper Color Challege

Crate Paper is running a color challenge hosted by the fabulous Lucy Edson. The colors for this challenge are yellow, kraft and gray, which look so lovely together. If you click here, you can read the rules to learn how to participate in the challenge. The challenge runs through March 11th and a winner will be picked on March 14th.

This is my interpretation of the challenge. In hindsight, I should have cropped it to the edges, but I didn't want it to look like a layout because it's really a 13x13" canvas for my wall. I think I mentioned Pinterest earlier. It's my favorite website, right now. I love being able to find and "pin" images from everywhere into one organzied spot. One of the pins I saw was a sign by this fabulous Etsy seller. I fell in love with that saying, so I wanted to use it on my own canvas. I wish I could have used the whole saying, but I like what I could fit anyway.

For the butterfly, I printed out a coloring book image I found online onto white cardstock. I cut 1/2" strips of those various yellow Crate patterned papers and then glued them onto the butterfly layer after layer. Then I cut out the butterfly and sewed along the edges.

I decided to leave the canvas white. It's going up on a blue/grey wall and I think the white will help it stand out well. The colors in the room to compliment the wall are yellow and green. Fun! So, I'm excited about the canvas going up. Now I need to finish painting the room!

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Lori

Valentine's For Mommy

A few years ago, my kiddos made me these Valentine's. They used my scrapbook stash to do it and I was really touched.

I used the new Crate Paper Neighborhood and Toy Box collections on this layout. If you visit the link I share how I made the hearts.

Crate has a sketch challenge up, right now. If you love sketches, I highly recommend playing along. The rules are very flexible in that you can do anything you want with the sketch (it doesn't have to be a layout) and you only need to use 50% Crate Paper products on your project. Pretty cool, huh?

I have been watching friends on facebook go crazy posting "pins" to pinterest. I really didn't want to be sucked into yet another site, but I broke down and opened an account. If you love seeing collages of photos on other's blogs, then this site is for you. It's nothing but photo eye-candy. I am going to have to work hard to not spend all my free time there.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lori

New Crate Paper Toy Box

It's nearly show time. This weekend is the big show in Los Angeles, CA for crafters. Most of the manufacturers have shown their new collections for the Spring/Summer seasons. Crate Paper has knocked it out with FOUR stunning collections. Each one is unique, vintage, yet modern and oh so irresitible.

Crate Paper is generously giving you a chance to win a collection of your choice by leaving a comment on this post. You have until the end of the weekend to leave your comment and a winner will be chosen at random.

I created this layout using Crate Paper's new Toy Box collection. I adore every bit and piece and was especially pleased to see brand new buttons, trims and alphabets from Crate. It was pretty cool to open up my box and see the new product. My layout is about my son not being a rough and tough kid. He's much more into music, making movies, building with legos, than he is into trains, cars, trucks, etc. This collection works perfectly for him. I did a page previously with this pictures taken by my friend, Michelle Riddle, and that page goes in his school album. This one is going in our family book. I may even make a page next to it that will include mostly journaling about his "boy" personality. I think it's important to remember it. I, also, plan to nurture it. He told me he intends to direct Star Wars 7 and why on earth would I stop him from trying to do that?!

  

I used the new ribbon as the background for my photos. I love the layered look and it's a new thing I've been doing a lot of lately. As a quick tip, in order to adhere trims this way, you want to use a really excellent glue. One that dries clear and does not show through the ribbon. Nothing looks worse than seeing a big wet mark under some ribbon if that's not the look you are going for. I use Helmar's Quick Dry 450. It dries super fast and perfectly clear. I never worry about using this glue with ribbon.

I've been having a good week. I finished all of my show work on Sunday, after nearly two weeks of nonstop crafting, and have been doing NOTHING this week just to enjoy some free time for myself.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lori

Tutorials to share

In December I created two different tutorials. Pink Paislee and Petaloo ran a blog hop together. The Petaloo team was given Pink Paislee's Father Christmas collection much to our delight. I was asked to do an altered home decor item and so I decided to make an altered milk carton house inspired by my children's preschool projects. The little trees and clear mica are by Melissa Frances. The step by step tutorial is here on the Petaloo blog.

For the Crate Paper blog I did a tutorial for a layout. The layout is a Fall layout and I've been into the quilt look lately. I love little squares whether they have stitching or layers of texture. I think they are just really, really fun and make any layout look great. It's a great way to add lots of color and keep it controlled. You can see the step by step tutorial here on their blog.

For all of the Crate Paper fans out there, I hope you sent in your projects. This upcoming week is dedicated to you. It's Customer Appreciation Week on the blog and I know it's going to be full of all kinds of brilliant inspiration! I hope you'll join me over on the blog. I'm looking forward to the inspiration!

Lori

 

Crate Paper Blog Event

Have you been over to Crate Paper's Blog this week? If not, you'll really, really want to head over there now. All week Crate has been blogging holiday inspiration. I do mean serious, amazing inspiration. Not only that, but there are daily giveaways and winners will be announced on Dec. 22nd. Can you imagine winning a basket full of Crate Paper Products, a Crate & Barrel gift card or a Bath & Body Works gift card? Uh, YES! Head on over there and leave comments on each day, get inspired and share! It's a really fun week on the blog.

To hopefully entice you to head over there, I thought I'd share some detail shots of the project for today's tutorial. It's a simple to make, yet makes a BIG gift giving impact, wine bottle bag.

Have a fabulous time reading the Crate Paper blog!

Lori