Craft With May

1. www.apeekintoyesterday. Not only do they carry the only cardstock I like to use (Prism), but they are fast on orders and have great service. I *need* some cardstock ASAP… I ordered it an hour ago and already have a ship notice! “peek” rocks!!
2. Sugared. Not only is sugar my favorite food group, but Basic Grey named this collection after it, AND made it yummy colors I can’t resist. (not that I normally resist anything from BG)
3. heidi grace heart (rain-dot like) accents. I love them SO much… I can’t even give any extras away. seriously. I’m sick. I love them too much. When I find a source for them I’ll share for sure. You can see 3 of them on the layout below (rigth next to the ‘beautiful’ sticker)…
4. making round layouts from dinner plates. craft knife + dinner plate = round layout. perfect. simple. no circle cutting tools required.

(the round layout is using Heidi Grace ‘little birds tale), which is sitting atop a heidi grace ‘baby’ page…)

I’m off to continue packing, photograph the process, and I’ll report back soon.

 

My brain is bursting to the point of breaking. I have so many deep thoughts, crafting revelations, links, information, secrets, and projects I want to share with you all. But right now, at this moment all I have to say is this.

donut, good.

Thanks to Jason for bringing home our quarterly donuts. Yes, I said quarterly. About every 3-4 months he stops at the Krispy Kreme he passes coming home from work in the morning and brings us over-sugared, highly fatty treats. Thank you. Much needed.

I promise to get back to quality posts about the random minutia of my highly glamourous life, but first there is a stinky diaper and lunch requests to fill and dishes to be scrubbed…

About a week ago I got a really nice e-mail. It was from someone who had taken ‘crazy about kits’ (my BPS class) last fall. She was telling me how she had pulled out the class handouts again and was really utilizing them to prepare for a big National Scrapbook Day weekend. Inspired by her note, I pulled out the handouts and reminded myself how I want to pack for the upcoming trip!

Now, I won’t share all the secrets of my class (wink) but I will tell you how I’m going about packing for this scrapbook long weekend. This post is kind of ‘part 1’- it does take a LOT for me to select stuff to bring, and I like to do it in little parts…

1. Photos. Start with photos. I’m packing approximately 3x more ‘layouts worth’ than I can possibly do. This will ensure that I’ve got things I want to work on, and if I’m hyper productive I still won’t run out. As I choose photos I want to scrap, I write down the Layout subjects, colors, and 1 page, 2 page, or way more than 2 pages. Once I’ve got all my photos I want then I look at product. This way, I don’t pack product that can’t possibly go with photos. For example- I left all the halloween photos at home so that I don’t have to bring a bunch of Halloween for one page. Know what I mean?

2. The lighter you pack, the better. What I mean is, unless you’re going to a 3 day crop… bringing too much can actually slow you down.

3. Kits are your friends! Whether you bring home-made kits or purchased ones (or both!) coordinated product is good. 🙂

This is a 2-page class that I just taught at I’m a Scrapbook Addict’s retreat in Sacramento. I focused the material for someone at a crop/retreat and had it so that they could be very flexible in how it goes together. Also- there is a sheet with tips/tricks/ideas as well. Hmmm. I have 1 or 2 extra kits that don’t have a home here. I wonder, would you like one? Just leave a comment here and I’ll pick tomorrow.

Well it’s Sunday, and that means laundry folding, house cleaning, and maybe we can talk Jason into some BBQ…

About a week ago I got a really nice e-mail. It was from someone who had taken ‘crazy about kits’ (my BPS class) last fall. She was telling me how she had pulled out the class handouts again and was really utilizing them to prepare for a big National Scrapbook Day weekend. Inspired by her note, I pulled out the handouts and reminded myself how I want to pack for the upcoming trip!

Now, I won’t share all the secrets of my class (wink) but I will tell you how I’m going about packing for this scrapbook long weekend. This post is kind of ‘part 1’- it does take a LOT for me to select stuff to bring, and I like to do it in little parts…

1. Photos. Start with photos. I’m packing approximately 3x more ‘layouts worth’ than I can possibly do. This will ensure that I’ve got things I want to work on, and if I’m hyper productive I still won’t run out. As I choose photos I want to scrap, I write down the Layout subjects, colors, and 1 page, 2 page, or way more than 2 pages. Once I’ve got all my photos I want then I look at product. This way, I don’t pack product that can’t possibly go with photos. For example- I left all the halloween photos at home so that I don’t have to bring a bunch of Halloween for one page. Know what I mean?

2. The lighter you pack, the better. What I mean is, unless you’re going to a 3 day crop… bringing too much can actually slow you down.

3. Kits are your friends! Whether you bring home-made kits or purchased ones (or both!) coordinated product is good. 🙂

This is a 2-page class that I just taught at I’m a Scrapbook Addict’s retreat in Sacramento. I focused the material for someone at a crop/retreat and had it so that they could be very flexible in how it goes together. Also- there is a sheet with tips/tricks/ideas as well. Hmmm. I have 1 or 2 extra kits that don’t have a home here. I wonder, would you like one? Just leave a comment here and I’ll pick tomorrow.

Well it’s Sunday, and that means laundry folding, house cleaning, and maybe we can talk Jason into some BBQ…

We spent the day in Monterey on Monday. I *love* this photo of Elizabeth watching a shark (and a BIG school of fishies!) in the million (yes, million!) gallon tank that is home to some HUGE and awesome fish. I could have stayed and watched the various fish for hours…

But, of course, there are other things to see. Here is one of the artful Jelly Fish exhibits. Such amazing creatures to watch- and so cool to photograph. I just wish there was less glare. I saw a few people taking flash photos and I wanted to tell them ‘dude. you’re just going to get glare!!!’ but instead I kept my thoughts to myself.

We had lunch at Bubba Gumps. The Hush pups (fried balls of goodness) were great, as was my ‘lava flow’ drink… everything else was just OK. Kind of a disappointment that the quality has gone down so low- but still good times.

and, no trip to Monterey would be complete without sharing some ice cream at the Ghirardelli soda shop. We got the “gold rush” complete with peanut butter and hot fudge. Oh yum.

Since then, it’s been quite the week. The Fisk-a-teer blog has been all wonky for… well… I dunno. Since Tuesday, I think. I can’t upload photos there, so I can’t blog really, and that’s totally been throwing my ‘blog mojo’ WAY off. So, rather than obsess about when that will be fixed I’ve been working hard off-line. It’s 2 weeks until National Scrapbook Day, and so preparations are in FULL swing. Want to see some stuff?

First- here is my desk at this very moment. (ok, so about 2hrs ago… but it took a while to upload photos and edit them. I barely have room to work- but I’ve been ON FIRE! (en fuego!) Seriously. In the last 20 hours I have made 8 layouts. No joke- EIGHT!!! I think that might be an all time high. I also think i’d better clean up this insane mess!!!

Here’s one using the Heidi Grace baby line that just started shipping…

My mom asked me “how can you be making a layout, watching a movie, and talking to me??” last night. I dunno. I guess I am just good at multi-tasking. My mom was visiting for a few days just to hang, but also so I could go teach a class at a retreat in Sacramento. (thanks mom!) Last night I couldn’t bring myself to cook- so we had girls night at Olive Garden. Elizabeth says ” I LOVE this place”. I mean- they have soup, olives, salad, bread, and pasta… it’s her dream come true and we never go there. (Jason isn’t a fan)

She looks a bit annoyed in the photo- I think it’s because her soup eating was interrupted!

Today has been a clean house/do laundry/make 5 layouts day… and I think it’s going to be an EARLY evening too. I’m tired, and I’ll work on (and tell you about!)  crop packing and goodie bags and extra goodies to share tomorrow…