the moments in between

washi workshop

hey everyone! we're doing a little blog hop today in honor of the upcoming washi workshop at studio calico. this class is taught by the fabulous megan hoeppner of creating keepsakes, and i'm one of eight contributors joining in on the fun. =)

washi is one of my favorite products right know. i love the colors, i love the texture, i love how dang easy it is to use. 

i love washi on presents.

i love washi for project life.

i love washi on my pages.

and i'll admit it, i even like just looking at it. it's so pretty, all lined up.

i've got a super fun washi technique that i'll be sharing in this class - and i can't wait to see what megan and all of the other contributors do as well! if YOU want to see that technique, you'll need to sign up for a spot in the workshop.

OR you could win one right here. sound good? to enter, just leave a comment here telling me your favorite roll of washi, and i'll draw a winner on wednesday, may 23rd. if you can't pick a favorite, that's okay too. i just tried and couldn't. =) to maximize your washi workshop chances, check out all of the blogs on the hop - the next two stops are nicole samuels & amy tan - but if you get lost along the way, you can check out  the creating keepsakes blog & the studio calico blog & they'll get you back on track.

happy thursday! hope there's a little washi in your life today. =)

memory keeping monday : sun & baseball

(sun & baseball // copyright www.twopeasinabucket.com)

it's my turn in the memory keeping monday rotation! this time i'm rambling about mixing and matching manufacturers, and the new super cool studio calico mistable thickers. you can find the video here - but grab a snack first, it's a long one. ;)

happy monday! i'm off to get my 2012 : captured class finished up - it goes up tomorrow! here's to a super productive start to the week. =)

piggyback

for all the complaining alex does about his annoying little brother, he's awfully tender hearted about the smallest dude. ;) i have no patience for sam's "i'm too tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiireeeeeeeeeeeeeed to walk" business, but he's got alex wrapped around his little finger. it really is just too sweet. my collection of alex piggybacking sam on the way home from school photos is growing like crazy, so i thought i'd use a couple on a page. i started with some veeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrry light misting, then cut a strip of fabrip and clustered my elements above and below it. the circles are cut from the new banners - i'm really loving using them one or two at a time.

this page comes with a challenge - break out the patterned paper backgrounds! you can find all of the details at the studio calico blog. i love that the subtle pattern on my background here keeps a fairly simple page from looking too sparse. you can find the full supply list here at SC or here at 2peas, depending on your shopping habits. ;)

happy wednesday! and happy early mother's day to me - matthew's making the trip to rescued junk to bring my shelves home. i'm a *wee* bit excited. =)

it's the last day....

...to sign up for the pieces of me workshop at 2peas and get my little album as a bonus PDF when the class goes live. if you sign up tomorrow, you'll get maggie's awesome class + albums from 3 other contributors - but you might as well do it today and get an extra one, right?? ;) here's a couple more tiny sneaks from my book :

(love that love tag from amy tangerine)

(ah, vellum. who knew who cool you could be after all these years?)

i'm working from my own stash, but there's an exclusive class kit you can pick up if you want to simplify the process - the stamps in it are adorable.

happy monday! i hope you had an awesome NSD. i wanted to share this make & take i did for 2peas - there's a blog post w/ a tutorial on creating a triangle background using the silhouette studio software, as well as some ideas for getting a similar look if you don't have a cameo. the new studio calico stamp set made just for 2peas is sold out right now, but i hear they'll be restocking. go and click "notify me" and you'll get an email when they come back in. ;)

a little bit funky

and now, my friends, for something a little different. in fact, when i finished this page yesterday, i texted it to kelly noel along with a message that basically said - i'm not sure this even looks like i made it, but i think i like it.

and on that note. welcome to the balzer designs / crafter's workshop blog hop! ;) when julie emailed me and asked me to join in, i was totally excited. i love her stencil designs and have wanted to play with them, so this was the perfect opportunity. this is the mask i got to play with - it's called funky tags.

i started my page with the idea of misting over patterned paper in various colors...  and it was a disaster. sometimes that happens. as i sat and pondered what i wanted to try next, i noticed the cardstock in my mist box - and thought it looked kind of cool. i had tried to mist a row of chevrons on it straight up and down and it slipped, and then i'd left it in the box while misting other tags. i repeated the row of chevrons from one of the tags on pieces of patterned paper, then started building the page on my crazy background. i love that a few misting mistakes made me look at the stencil differently and isolate some of the patterns rather than use a whole tag design.

InLinkz.com

this little blog hop definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and let me get in touch with my inner julie. ;) it was a fun way to try some new things - there's nothing as freeing as being willing to get a little messy and make a few mistakes. after all, it's only paper.  be sure to hop on and see some more fabulous inspirating using the funky tags stencil!! 

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/05/stencil-hop-funky-tags.html

Catherine Matthews-Scanlon
http://cmscanlon.blogspot.com/

Lisa Truesdell  <---------- you are here. ;)
http://gluestickgirl.typepad.com/

Dina Wakley
http://dinastamps.typepad.com/

happy thursday! we have nothing scheduled for this evening. and that makes me kind of giddy. in fact, i probably shouldn't have even said that, because now something will come up - ha! sometimes i think this time of year is busier than around the holidays.

free shipping at 2peas!

happy may day! it's not flowers or candy, i know, but i DO have a little something to share with all of you. i mean, a 2peas free shipping code is ALMOST as a good as a bouquet of daisies on your porch, right? Just use the code LTFS40 for free shipping on an order or $40 or more of non digital / non phaseout product. it expires on saturday - may 5th. sorry, the code isn't valid for international orders. 

if you haven't grabbed the exclusive oh happy day stamp set that studio calico made for 2peas - then this is a good time to do it. =) i've been sneaking some time here and there to get some project life done, and i can already tell that i'll be using this set a LOT.

i also wanted to share a NEW workshop that studio calico is doing with two peas - pieces of me. maggie holmes is teaching this one - it's a really fun mini album all about YOU.  he workshop is for sale now, but will start june 1st. 

and guess what? if you purchase the class by may 7th, you'll get exclusive access to MY pieces of me album + step-by-step instructions. this will be available on june 1st when the workshop is available for download. 

there's a class kit to go along with the workshop, but i'll be working from my stash. kind of wishing i was one of the kit contributors, because this is a gorgeous mix of product! 

happy tuesday!! after a wet and rainy weekend, it's sunny and warming up quickly today. i'm glad - we have teeball / baseball tonight and tomorrow, a field trip with sam's preschool tomorrow, and our elementary school's field day on thursday and carnival on friday. so hope the good weather holds for all of the fun!

studio calico 35mm

so. every month i blog my kit layouts ahead of time and schedule the post to go live with the kit. and i had it on my to do list. and it wasn't till 5 minutes before reveal that i realized that i hadn't actually gotten around to drafting the post this month. OOPS. =) so, slightly belatedly, let's say hello to 35mm.

i've got a LOT of pages of sam swinging, but i couldn't resist adding another. these photos were too fun not to scrap. i love that he's basically out of the frame on the second photo! i used my cameo to cut the title from my photo - kind of digging this technique right now. i backed it with the woodgrain pp and then arranged the photos on my background. from there, i added the hexagon diecuts around the page and then surrounded each with a variety of shapes, including the exclusive hexagon stamp and mistable thickers.

(35mm)

i've played with big numbers and the cameo before, and had to try it again. i thought this would make a fun intro page to all of ben's baseball LOs for this year - the season is just starting and i'm sure there will be more! i cut the 2 to hang off the page, then traced it onto another piece of cardstock. i added strips of patterned paper over the traced 2, then laid the negative from the 2 back over the top. you could easily recreate this with printing a large 2 and then using it as a guide to handcut.

(35mm + leica + brownie + holga + lomography)

as soon as i saw this diagram paper from the lomography addon, i knew it would be the perfect fit for these photos of alex building a bridge in the sand. all the blues and yellows in this month's kit are perfect for beach pictures. my background is misted with mister huey in gold, and my title letters were cut with my cameo. i mixed tone on tone cardstock with a couple of letters cut from the diagram paper, and then did the same with handcut triangles as accents. to make the banner, i cut pieces from several of the mistable banners, misted them with mister huey in heirloom blue, then pieced them back together.

(35mm + leica + lomography)

my friend becky and i recently spent the day at the offices of bhg scrapbooks etc - and i left totally amped up about this wonderful hobby. i plan to eventually do a mini book with all of the photos, but wanted to get the basic awesomeness of the day onto a page while the feeling was fresh! 

i'm kind of loving arrows right now, and cut out a few that matched the arrow from the heidi swapp stamp set to add to my page. i didn't want to waste the negative, so i added that as well. i misted both the arrows and the negative with shine to make them stand out a bit more.

(35mm + leica + brownie + holga + lomography)

once i'd finished my layouts, i couldn't resist putting together a quick card. i challenged myself to use only the scraps next to my paper trimmer - no new cuts!! the circle was already punched into the diagram paper, and it made a perfect frame for the hello there stamp from brownie. from there, i just crisscrossed some strips of pp and tape left over from my "2" layout, then added stitching and embellishments.

(35mm + leica + brownie + holga + lomography)

InLinkz.com

in addition to the may kits, studio calico released 3 new project life friendly stamp sets. i use the previous sets CONSTANTLY and am so excited to overwork these as well. =) "adventure" and "good stuff" are available at studio calico, and the "oh happy day" set is an exclusive for 2peas. if all goes well (cross your fingers), i'll have a project life update featuring the 2peas set later this week.

InLinkz.com

happy saturday! i'm making cinnamon rolls for ben's sleepover buddies (they went to coco key + spent the night as an early bday celebration) and refreshing the little league site to see if we'll play today or not. there's a lot of scrapping and baseball in my future. and hopefully a nap. but i doubt it. hope you all have a great weekend! 

35mm sneaks

35mm turned out to be one of those kits that practically scrapped itself.  i LOVE that. =) most of my favorite pieces this month were in the main - the new exclusive diecuts, the hello forever badges, the traingle confetti washi - and they showed up on most of my pages.

this one is my main only layout for the month. i started with the hexies and the circles, and just couldn't stop playing with shapes. i added in stars, tiny triangles, and asterisks. 

(35mm)

i know i say it all the time...  but i LOVE my cameo. big die cut + lots of paper strips here. it was fun to put together, and the finished product makes me smile.

(35mm + leica + brownie + holga + lomography)

a two pager!! the colors this month were perfect for some lake michigan pics i hadn't scrapped yet - and the gold mist played right to those colors. 

(35mm + leica + lomography)

this last one was just fun to do - cameo cuts and bling and stamping and banners. definitely a happy mix of elements.

(35mm + leica + brownie + holga + lomography)

InLinkz.com

happy wednesday! sam's heading to a buddy's house after preschool, so it's just me, myself and i this afternoon. well, me and my scraproom mess. i'm determined to tackle my floor piles today - i've got to get things in order before my new shelves come. it's time to crank up the tunes and get things done. =)

bunny ears

(bunny ears // copyright www.twopeasinabucket.com)

yes, more triangles. and arrows. and chevrons. which i believe is some sort of trendy trifecta right now. but i love repeating shapes, and these three complement each other so darn well! i've shared a few more thoughts on how this page came together over at 2peas. 

i snapped a few photos of the boys together on easter - and this was one of my favorites. the bunny ears come out every time the camera does - i've found it's easiest to let them get it out of their system. ;) rather than go with easter themed product, i used some slightly grungy neutrals and mixed in some bright pops of color - i love how they play off each other.

InLinkz.com

happy tuesday!! it's a big day here - sam's first teeball game!!! unfortunately, i'll miss it, as it's the same time as alex's swim lesson. and ben's playing ball at the same time, but at the same complex. we could use an extra parent tonight. ;) luckily, there will be lots more chances for me to see sam play. 

touring meredith / scrapbooks etc

on friday, becky novacek and i roadtripped to des moines to visit the bhg scrapbooks etc offices. that's the original meredith building above - built to house the first magazines about a hunderd years ago. it's now connected to another more modern building - things have expanded a little in all that time.

it was like the COOLEST creative field trip i've ever been on. as the day went on, i just got more and more amped up about paper + glue.

michelle rubin picked us up at the front desk and then proceeded to blow our minds with a tour of the buildings. there are a LOT of magazines headquartered there, including better homes and gardens, renovation style, traditional home, parents, family circle (etc etc etc). we saw where the test kitchens for BHG were - and there were some DIVINE smells in that hallway. we saw their show kitchen and test garden. but my absolute favorite part? the photography studio. it's huge, with little alcoves with sets in them everywhere. all this is surrounded by props galore - rooms filled with rolling pins and vases and plates and bowls arranged by color and furniture and just about anything you can think of. it was a little mind boggling!

up in the scrapbooks etc area, we got to see the august issue all mocked up. the pages are printed and hung on the wall for a final approval before it goes to press. it's a good issue. ;)

after getting to see all the inner workings and meets lots of the behind the scenes magicians, we headed out for lunch with some of the people behind SBE and the BHG creative collection pubs. it was a great chance to meet some amazing women. as if that wasn't good enough, michelle took us to two super cute stores - ephemera and domestica, before we headed back to the office. both places were filled with eye candy - i walked out with some cool arrow clips and a couple of prints.

we ended the day by meeting with the project life group they have in their office - they try to get together monthly to work on their albums. how cool is that to have a built in support group? i shared some ideas that will hopefully make PLing a little easier for them, and becky gave them some awesome photo tips. it was so inspiring to see how they're all coming at project life from their own angle, and it made me want to get home to work on my own book!

becky and i left feeling totally recharged creatively - and our day still wasn't over. we stopped at an amazing little vintage shop - rescued junk - on the way home. it's typically open one weekend a month, but we got an email earlier in the week that they'd also be open that friday. i did a lot of balancing "OMG I WANT" with practicality (the red lockers? a boy would totally lock another boy inside those), and came home with a new stool for my workspace and a cool fan. and a bit of an obsession about a piece that isn't pictured here. like, thought about it all weekend.

and guess what? it's going to be mine. =) i just heard back from the shop owner w/ the dimensions and it wwill work perfectly in my room. now to figure out the details of getting it from there to here. i.am.GIDDY.

there is so much about the day that i can't even put into words - it was just an amazing experience. an amazing place, amazing people, amazing energy - and an amazing road trip partner. ;) i think the positive energy from that day will carry me for a while!

happy monday! =)