love it.

That’s my bottom line, and only real rule when I’m crafting. I have to love what I’m doing, it has to come from a happy place in my heart. If I’m meeting that requirement, than whatever I’m doing – lovely, ugly, painful, wonderful, or anywhere in between is good. I do jump all over the board too – it’s wild. Like this page I’ve been working on today:

Miss Rebecca just over a year ago. Most things here are from the Girl’s Loft August kit, but I added my own stuff as needed. You do know that’s totally ok, right? To add in ANYTHING your heart desires when working with a kit for your own enjoyment & personal use? There are no rules – heck you could rip it apart if you wanted! Not that I did here- there were too many polka dots and lovelies and I kept that kit together just as it should be!

I loved making polka-dottie butterflies. I was totally just playing around with this. No major story to tell, just wanting to fiddle around making a pretty girly page.

I loved using this chipboard as a stencil + Glimmer Mist. I’ve never tried other brands – mostly because my 2 bottles of Glimmer mist was an impulse buy about a year or two ago at an LSS and I never use them so I feel bad and don’t buy more. (know what I mean?)

Then I pull it out and have SO much fun I wonder why I don’t play more often. Coffee Shop and Pink Ink are the two colors I have.

Did I mention this was fun? I don’t think it’s the best planned page I’ve ever done. Uh, but can I tell you something? I didn’t have a plan outside “ooh, lace, butterflies, polka dots, pink… me like”  And I do like it.

I happen to think that the play + photo has an important part in my craft life. It’s where I let myself experiment more and be less concerned than usual with the outcome and if it’ll be “good” or not.

That said, telling stories is another very important part of my crafting life – especially scrapbooking.  

I have always wanted to take a class from Ali Edwards, and after much internal debate (over time mostly) I decided to go for it. I don’t know if or when she’ll do a Big Picture class again, and I know darn well I’m not flying anywhere to take a class from her so I figured I oughta jump in. This morning I made myself this journal to hold listings of the stories I want to tell for class.

Just a moleskine journal – and the butterflies are back. This time I used one of the actual chipboard butterflies.  I’m excited about getting new ideas & inspiration for telling my life’s stories (past and present) and now that I’m all signed up I see a lot of friendly faces in class – very cool!

That’s it from me for now. Just two very different projects crafted with same basic supplies that have very different purposes – because sometimes it’s about the words, and sometimes it’s just not.

Happy Crafting!

~ May

(sigh/FTC disclaimer/disclosure/whatever: That’s the same Girls Loft kit I mentioned in my last blog post, which was given to me very generously by the Girls Loft. That butterfly punch was also given to me at some point while I’ve been working with Fiskars. Tattered Angels has never heard of me I’m betting, and I’m a regular paying student in Ali’s class. I think that just about covers the whole she bang. We’ll talk more about the FTC some other time…)