Month: October 2008

I fully admit I am strange. There will be something I know I will probably like- maybe even love- but I don’t go for it right away for one reason or another. I know it’s weird, and I don’t know why I do it. For more than 8 years I’ve been meaning to read the book Wicked, as I’ve always thought I’d like it. However, whenever it’s book purchasing time at Target or Borders or whatever there is always some other book that wins my attention and Wicked is set back down for ‘next time’

The last time I was at Borders I decided to force myself to purchase and read it before reading any more of my usually favored ‘chick lit’. It took 4 days, as I required brain breaks and couldn’t just read it through. To really get it you’ve got to give it your full attention- something most books I read don’t require. So it took a LOT longer than a 350 or so page novel takes me normally.

Did it drive me nuts all the questions raised that go unanswered? Um, YES!!!! AHHHRRRGGG. My brain feels like it’s back in English class interpreting what the author meant by ____, and what I think of ___, and what the symbolism of ___ is. Is it interesting, full of twists, and well worth a spot in my book collection? Absolutely.

Why do I bring this up now? Two reasons. 1) I just finished it yesterday so it’s swirling in my brain still. 2) I was in See’s chocolates a few days back and found they have boxes of chocolate with the wicked witch on the front like last year. I purchased one to go along with this wicked cool stash of Lil Davis Halloween goodies that I have to give away…

There are some Cloud 9 halloween treats in there too. Want the stash? Just leave a comment here. If you want to share the last really good book you read- great!

I know I’m quiet. In my mind I’m not- I’ve got about 20 blog posts brewing! But in time I am short as well as creative energy because I’m pouring everything I’ve got into my next BIG project. I can’t explain it just yet- but here are some SNEAKY PEEKS!!

In between being a mom and running household things I’m working hard on my next BPS class and of course spending time with the students in my current class. FUN AWESOME STUFF for sure. Just, you know, leaves me very little time to write about bookcovers and wicked and making titles and flowers. (all things for future posts…)

anyhow- now you know what I’m up to this weekend. I have *LOADS* of give aways to do next week (both in a fisk-a-teer on-line crop + right here!) so stay tuned. Right now I’m going to head back to making handouts…

• going on self induced semi-lockdown to finish up some details on weeks 1 and 2 of my next BPS class (winter 09!) FUN stuff- just trying to edit and make sure I’m totally happy with everything before I turn in!
• LeAnne wins the chipboard! CONGRATS! e-mail me mflaum@comcast.net to claim your prize.
• waiting for Lipstick Jungle to be over so I can watch it (DVR/no commerical style)
• having torrid flirtation with my amazon cart… so many books. want to read. NO! not until work is finished! I mustn’t!
• speaking of amazon must write blog post about how it knows what I will like…
• but first some much deserved veg-time and then good sleep. AH, sleep…

Here are the rest of the layouts I did as a guest for Scarlet lime…

The shirt I’m wearing in this layout is the owl shirt (that I copied for my owl in the ‘who’ page). This layout was fun- I did it last and was using any fun bits and pieces I still had that I wanted to see on a page. There is a beautiful brown sequins string in the kit, and I picked off the individual sequins to use as dots around my page. I had fun with this one FOR SURE!

This bear page… oh I just love how it came out. The journaling papers in the kit were great for a little longer journaling and I like how it added to the page. The circle flower embellishment I made (more on those later!) was way easy and fun, and I’m getting a wee bit obsessed with them, actually.

Last but not least is my she layout. The sassafrass paper used here gave me the sweats to use. Why? Because I was scared of cutting it!!! You’ve been there too, right? AHHH. I loved it SOOO much I was afraid of cutting it and messing it up. However- I’ve discovered chopping up a piece of paper (like this!) can be the best way to truly use and enjoy it. I was able ot get all my favorite parts to show up and I love this wild fun page. See the circle flowers? I told you I’m obsessed!

I also hand-wrote/cut the title on this one. I love how it turned out!

The flower on the bottom has a stitched edge of ribbon around it. I love those brown dimensional dots too.

Big THANK YOU again to Christy for having me as a guest. Had SOOO much fun!!! If you don’t already subscribe- I highly recommend it. I adore those kits!!

Ok, so I’ve got on my to-do list to make a post about my hand-written titles + my new circle flower obsession (I know it’s not new, but it’s new for me). First though I’ve got to dive into some stuff for BPS (last day to register!) and clean some things as well.

When Christy e-mailed me a while back and asked me if I’d be a guest designer for Scarlet Lime (www.scarletlime.com) I was over the moon excited!! I am a subscriber and totally LOVE her kits, and this last week playing with two October kits has been crazy fun.

You can check out all the fabulous-ness here: http://www.scarletlime.com/gallery.html

I’ll share all the layouts I did here on my blog + some info about the making of them. This one I think is my favorite. Note that the white paper background is NOT part of the layout- I just used it for the neutral background so you wouldn’t have to see concrete!

I bought this T-shirt at Target that says night owl mystery book store and has this big owl on it. LOVE the T-shirt because I do read mysteries, am a night owl on occasion, and I love grungy/distressed looking Ts. SOOO… I traced the owl onto tissue, then cut him out twice- once the background in dark brown and then in detail with the patterned paper. Add a bit of pen work and some white eyes and we’re good!

Making your own paper piecing from an existing image really is a simple art- and one that adds a one-of-a-kind embellishment to your page too. The title I used an old trick I did a lot back in the day- I wrote backwards (yes, I can do that, you can too) and then cut out the “Who” from cordouroy fabric that was in the kit. I’ll have to share my technique for this- it really is easy and it saves a lot of money and you can make unique titles.

The Basic Grey stickers (borders and flourishes) included in this kit are truly drool-worthy. LOVED working with all of them. Looking at this photo and thinking about how much the girls have grown- and how different the next trip to Disneyland will be- really blows my mind.

Finally today here’s some photos of the girls + my sister and me at a train museum in Portola, CA. The color palette of this kit was perfect for the photos and yes, that’s Matilda’s work you see (stitching). I love that Christy puts unique trims in her kits- the leaf and the lace were fun to work with. Oh- and see that ticket stamp? Another (yes, there are many) thing I love about Scarlet Lime kits is that she always puts exclusive stamps in there. This one is way cute for sure.

I have three more layouts, and I’ll share about them here tomorrow. Right now I’m heading over to check in at my BPS class and see what students have been creating. (still time to sign up!)

Have a great day!