Craft With May

I’m trying to come to terms that because of my schedule this summer, I need to think about back to school… right now. It’s already JULY – the time is truly flying. I’m building a page of favorites on Amazon – you can check it out here. (affilate link used) I had SO much luck with some recent crafty stuff as well as travel stuff- wanted to share!

The Flaum family just returned from an epic 3 country European adventure that was all kinds of amazing. We had so much fun, experienced so many new things, and ate so many AMAZING FOODS!

I just finished ordering prints for my scrapbook – YAY! If you want to see ALL the Europe photos, stories, and adventures… well I’ll be scrapbooking this entire trip in my new class (link) – so join the fun!  I will also be posting a page FULL of our favorite places and such soon – watch for that link in my next around here post. What we’re all still talking about from the trip… honestly the food.

From daily gelato to bread and cured meats and amazing restaurants… oh Europe, (especially you, Paris) we LOVE YOU! Our trip took us from Disneyland Paris (great place to adjust & deal with jet lag!) to Paris to Barcelona to a cruise… and finally Rome. We saw so much – looking at the photos is unreal!

I am so glad that we had this opportunity and managed so many special things from climbing the tower of Pisa to a fancy french dinner… inspired by Disney movies!

The #1 thing that is in my mind? The ART. I’m not just talking about the paintings in museums either. From the artisan food shops to the architecture to the artful care of our hotel hosts… it was all around us. It really reminded me that I like to take the time to add the art, the craft, whatever word you want to use into the things that I do.  Favorite painting? The room of Monet water lillies. I’ve wanted to see that for so long!

So what’s up next and new around here? We saw the Incredibles (LOVED!), I’ve been watching Queer Eye (serious love for helping others find their truths/best selves!) and as I said at the start – I’m thinking about fall and school! I’ve got a work trip for Brother coming around the corner so now is definitely the time for me to get ahead and back to work!

Speaking of Brother – they’re giving away 6 ScanNCut machines! Check it out here. 

On the board for cool weather crafting (a girl can dream) is blanket cape/dresses. What am I talking about? Elizabeth and I are obsessed with THIS YouTube video and want to recreate it. Ha! Of course right now it’s far too hot to think of such things. So we’ll put that on the long term project list…

How has your summer been going? What are you up to? Do share!

If you haven’t already signed up for my all new online class – now would be a great time to do so! In about two weeks the “phase 2” part of class begins and the fun really kicks into gear! I am going to be going live – meaning that you’re going to come along with me as I scrapbook a big vacation. I’ll be sharing everything from organization to ordering pics to setting up a plan of attack… and executing it as well!

Above you can see the corner of my studio – the top shelf of that blue Raskog unit has been designated the “big vacation album” shelf. Papers, ephemera – anything specific to this class & album? It goes there! Keeping a bit of space dedicated should help me when I come in to work finding the things that I want to utilize specifically on this project.

Things I set aside:

• ephemera
• specifically purchased items
• items I have a key idea for
• themed items that I don’t want to forget I have

In other words – things I won’t be looking for when I make birthday cards or random scrapbook pages. Specific to the trip/scrapbook album only.

Things I won’t put in here include:

• solid color cardstock
• “general” or basic type items such as plain buttons, tags, cards
• alphabet stickers or general stamps
• tools (scissors, stapler, etc)

In other words – the things that I would want during times I’m crafting other things. Because this album (or albums – we’ll see!) will be created over many months I don’t want to hold too many things out for it. I also don’t want to be overwhelmed by the volume of product held aside! That could really slow me down.

Ah but this is just the beginning! I have so much more to share with you – so I hope you’ll join me in class!