the moments in between

studio calico roundabout sneaks

there is a lot of paper + glue happening in my workspace right now... i've got both the studio calico june kits and the happy little moments class kits out on my desk, and am flipping between working on projects. i will be sharing lots of sneaks of both in the coming days - starting with some roundabout sneaks today.

this is the roundabout scrapbook kit only. it's a two pager - it's been a while since i've done one of those! this page is a bit of an overview of our minnesota trip last summer. i'm thrilled with the mix of the embellishments in the main this month. i turned some of the printed transparency raindrops into geotags by using a hole punch.

this one is the roundabout project life kit only. apparently i'm digging the hole punches this month...  i used one on the cameras, and then filled the "lenses" in with glossy accents.  i'm still playing catchup with project life... i have 6.5 weeks missing from my 2013 album.

my favorite add-on this month is navy pier. those crate alphas and slide frames are beyond awesome. and the basic grey ticket paper from carte postal is perfect. i can't wait to get my hands on more of that line.

now it's time to print more photos so i can make more projects.... ;)

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project life 2013 // week 19

week 19 // may 4-10 : ben's birthday. free comic book day. teeball. a lot of pizza. a mother's day brunch, iron man 3 and a dead car battery.

can we talk about how long i've been waiting for the right project for those darling dear calendar pockets to appear? they're perfect to hold a little birthday journaling.

i love the impact of the enlarged photo - it's a good way to illustrate that this is a very important week. hello, 10.

lots of stars and arrows this week. they continue to be my go to shapes. and one nice big flower, courtesy of the name tag sam made for the mother's day brunch.

i used lots of punches this week - check out my challenge on the studio calico blog. =) i'd love to have you play along!

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happy monday! it's the last monday of the school year here..  i'm off to make it count.

that sinking feeling

i was outside planting some hostas when alex got home from school yesterday. i watched him come up the block, loaded with school stuff (it had been locker clean out day), expecting him to be excited. yesterday was the last regular day of school this week - the 6th graders were scheduled to spend thursday and friday camping.

instead, he came up to me with a look of panic. his eye had started itching in reading and he thought it was allergies but now he was worried he had pink eye and what did i think? ummm... as a mama of three, i've played this game before, and yes, it did look like pink eye. ACK. and there it was..  that sinking feeling when they bring you a problem that you can't solve for them. or give them advice to help solve. or really do much of ANYTHING about.

we got him into the pediatrician. matthew took him, since i was covered in mud. the nurse told him at least he'd get a day off school and then realized from the look on his face that that's not.what.he.wanted.at.ALL. and i think we all felt that heartbreak with him.

four doses of eyedrops, a lot of hot compresses and some advil later, they cleared him to go. we got there just after 1 - about 3.5hours after the rest of the kids. he dumped his gear and a teacher took him to find his group. and this mama exhaled for the first time since he'd come home the day before.

i can't wait to hear the stories he comes home with.

wordless wednesday : pursuit

project life 2013 // weeks 8 & 15

we're hitting the time of year where i get more and more behind. and where i try my best not to panic about it. between baseball and end of school activities, i find myself with lots to document and little time to actually sit down and do it. i did manage to put together two weeks with the studio calico planetarium kit - and i've got two more in progress on my desk. here's to taking a deep breath and moving forward - and trying not to worry about all those missing weeks!

week 8 // feb 16-22 : ah... gotta love any week that includes swinging in hoodies AND a two snow days. ;)

the dino insert is in a 6x12in page protector that was cut down a bit. this may be my fave insert yet. =) i added a couple of printables to accent the top.

week 15 // april 6-12 : i had a lot of photos and a lot of journaling this week. i typically tuck a tag behind my photos when that happens, but there were so many cute journaling cards i wanted to use! i decided to use my circle punch on a couple of photos to create a notch that i could place the cards behind. love the effect. alex thought i was crazy when i asked for his broken guitar string, but i think it's my favorite part of the whole spread!

these spreads are mostly items from the studio calico planetarium kits + add-ons, with a few other products : 

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happy tuesday!

getting sketchy with shimelle

i've always had a tense relationship with sketches. they stress me out a bit, because i'm not all that good at following them - but i generally love the end result. and this page is no exception to that. i recently got to work with a cool sketch for a post over on shimelle's blog, and i hope you'll head over and see my page and shimelle's awesome tips : line up small embellishments on your scrapbook page.

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happy thursday! i'm feeling totally overwhelmed by the end of the school year calendar this morning. breakfasts and bbqs and picnics and camping trips and field days and egg drops and and and.. OY. i think they want us to be glad when school is out. ;)

wordless wednesday // ten

 

#NSDatSC

NSD may technically be over.... but we have a whooooooooole line up of challenges over on the Studio Calico blog that are open through next monday. You can find all of the details in this post - there's a $100 GC as the grand prize, so it's definitely worth trying a challenge or three! I took on two of the challenges - it was the perfect way to use up a bit more of my Planetarium kits and play with the new Atlantic collection.

PL team challenge #2 : put it in a pocket | this team

I think we've all been in a position of wanting to record certain thoughts on a page without them beind front and center. For this page, I wanted to jot down some thoughts about how much we love our current ball team, but part of that reflection included some past struggles with teams. Hiding the journaling lets me focus on this amazing team of boys and their coaches.

I had a little extra room at the bottom of my glassine bag and was going to just trim it down and stitch it shut when I decided it would make an awesome place for some confetti.

Scrapbook team challenge #2 : break out the buttons | PL 2013 wk 16

Once upon a time, I couldn't finish ANY project without buttons. Time went on, and decorative brads, enamel dots and sequins came into my life, and my poor button stash has spent a lot of time on a shelf in a jar (where it looks super cute, so at least it has that going for it!). As I worked on this PL spread, I realized that buttons fit right in with my beloved enamel dots, and I really like the two of them mixed together! They're also not too bulky in the pocket pages. Maybe I'd better move that button jar a little closer to my desk...

This is half of my week 16... I'm working on finishing it up this week. =)

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happy monday! my week is off to a rocky start - sam and i went out to leave for school and realized the car battery was d-e-a-d. sam's enjoying the unexpected day off. i'm trying to not be too frazzled by it. ;)

more happy little moments

i'm thrilled to be joining maggie and marcy as a contributor to their more happy little moments class at studio calico! maggie taught the first version of this class early last year, and we're excited to have marcy co-teaching this time around so we can show how each of them take the same altered book concept and make it their own. my role in the class is to take their ideas and show how to adapt them to a Handbook format. i think it will be a fun twist on the class, and hopefully some of what i share will adapt well into a project life album as well.

i spent a bit of time thinking about whether i wanted to stay with a general "happy" theme, or to do something more specific. in the end, i've decided to look for photos that show happy little moments in my boys' relationships with each other. some of these will be photos i've used other places, but i love the idea of having them all together in one happy album.

maggie and marcy have both built kits for this class  - and i get to work with both of them. while buying two kits (or even one!) isn't a class requirement, we wanted to be able to show how well these very different kits can work together. i can also tell you that these are WAY cute in person. =) here's where you can find them : maggie's kit | marcy's kit

my book is still pretty incomplete, and i'll be sharing more sneaks as i work on it. i can already tell this is going to be a really fun project to pull together, and i hope you'll join me in the class! 

studio calico planetarium

another month, another reveal. =) this time we're heading to the planetarium. star charts and hearts and the loveliest of color combos... not to mention some rocking stamp sets. as of right now, the scrapbook kit, card kit and lyra add-on are still available. here's a look at the layouts i made this month : 

this won't last // ah, those sweep naptime snuggles. as my littlest gets older, they're definitely something to savor - even when they're not at the best times. =)

i started this page by putting the blocks of patterened paper on the background, then i placed my mask on top and misted over them with the gray mini mist from neverland and mister huey's shine. i stitched around each block for a quilted look, then added a few elements over the misted paper. and i couldn't resist breaking out the mini anchor punch on an accent strip of patterned paper.

up // the stamp set in halley's comet is a new favorite, and as soon as i saw the "happy place" sentiment i thought of this photo. =)  i stampedthe messy circle in  different colors on the ledgers from big dipper, and then painted some water color circles on the same paper. i cut them out, randomly stitched them to my background, and then stacked some patterned papers to make the photo mat.

now & then // when we got ben's uniform for this year (SDSU Aztec #2!), i had to dig up photos from his very first teeball season when he was the same team & same number. (and incidentally, he still wears that shirt. it finally fits. HA).

i started the title with the ghost letters.. and then lost an "N" to The Mess. ack. minor moment of panic. then i grabbed my scissors and handcut a new one using the one I had as a guide, and did a few other letters (both alone and layered), to make it look intentional. gotta love happy accidents. =)

i punched the circles along the side of the cosmo paper for something else, but i loved the look of the negatives along the edge.i put a couple of foam adhesive dots under it to pop it up and added embellishments underneath.

currents @12 //i love these currents cards - they're a great way to work in a little journaling from other people. i used one to capture alex's favorites at 12.

i used some of the mixed tape neon huey on the background, then went over it with shine to tone it down a smidge. one of the wood veneer frames from lyra was a perfect way to make sure the photo was the focus of the page.

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i'm not feeling quite done with this kit.... i'm planning to spend a bit more time working with it. perhaps for the upcoming studio calico NSD challenges?? ;)