Gossamer Blue July

First, thank you so much for your kind words regarding my previous post.  I really hesitated putting it all out there, but it helped to write it down and look at it.  Life sure is precious.  And unpredictable.  The whole "enjoy every moment" takes on a new meaning when you realize how little control you really do have sometimes.  

I managed to get a bit of my groove back in time for the July kit from Gossamer Blue, and I'm so glad I did!  It felt good to get creative again and I really like how my projects turned out.  

The first layout I want to share was made with the main kit only:

We bought a ski boat and have taken it out several times already this summer.  We have hesitated for years, sometimes wanting a fishing boat, sometimes wanting to do without a payment, but an opportunity presented itself to go in with friends on a used boat, and we jumped for it.  So far it has worked out perfectly!  We have taken it out together, and taken turns.  Our friends were a perfect choice because not only do we love them like family, our schedules also mesh.  Because of Steve's career with the Fire Department, and my soon-to-be career in schools, we aren't weekend people.  We can often go out on a Wednesday, etc.  Our friends, on the other hand, are M-F people.  So it's been great.

We got a new tube for the kids to try, and in order to build up some bravery, we have to driver really really slow.  They'd rather stop and swim.  But we are working on it.  And we have been having a lot of fun.  

To create the bubble background, I started with this image from the Silhouette store.

You could create this yourself but I went with easy.  I resized it a bit smaller than 12x12 because I have issues with lining things up perfectly on my machine.  After I cut it out of the yellow print designed by Mitchel Kraft for GB, I started arranging my photos and decided to cut into it to make it a more interesting design element.  

I just cut circles away until I was happy with the layout and then adhered.  

After that, I trimmed some circles from cardstock and mounted them on pop dots, and then added alphas, embellishments, and of course, tons of stitching for texture.  The digital elements for the main kit weren't available to me when I created this layout.  

My next project features only new release products from Fancy Pants Designs.  

Every once in a while the kids play together with smiles and enjoy how lucky they are to have each other.  It's rare, but it happens.

The title was created with my Silhouette and the Pacifico font.  I love many cursive fonts, but this one welds together the best for cutting which is why I stick with it.

Another fun product from Fancy Pants is that chalkboard tape.  The roll is HUGE and should last a long time.  That was fun to play with.  

This last layout was created with a mix of products from the kits this month:

I've stared at that photo a few times with confusion.  I can't believe how old Payton looks in this photo! Her legs are so long!  

I love the trend using die cut images on a square/rectangle piece of paper so layered a few pieces for this layout.  I also had to mix in some chevrons, the gray are hand cut, and added some fun buttons too. I put the layout under my sewing machine and winged it for the stitching around the heart.  I didn't always get it quite in the right spot, but that's one thing I like about stitching.  I'm not looking for perfection.  

Did you like what you saw in the kit?  Check out this link from the Fancy Pants Designs blog for a chance to win the July 2013 kit.

Check out this link to the Gossamer Blue blog to have a chance at this Fancy Pants Designs prize pack:

The deadline for the prizes is July 17.

Thank you for stopping by!  I will be back soon with some Project 12 updates.  Suffice it to say, the past few months have been tough and documenting the little details has been a bit of a challenge.  But I'm anxious to get back to it!  I adore this challenge so much.  As you know, Project 12 is a monthly take on documenting the everyday.

You can read more about Project 12 via the tab above and also at the Gossamer Blue blog here.  

XOXO.  Davinie

Project 12 February in March

Well, February certainly swooped in and out like a flash, lol.  You wouldn't think 2-3 days off the end of the month would make such an impact but they certainly do.  

I was happy to have an opportunity to use Basic Grey's True Love paper pad for my layout this month. I adore any color palette that includes a shade of teal.  I'm not a huge red person, so this was a great mix for me.  

I had more photos than I thought I would to choose from this month.  Most were taken with my phone. I still made sure to get out my Canon to make sure I had higher quality digital photos in the record books as well.  On Valentines Day I took a photo of my girls holding a cardstock heart with both, to make sure I had images from both places.  

I got a very special note from a very special friend in my class at school this month.  I am so glad I have a great way to preserve it.  It was just a little heart on a folded piece of paper but my heart about split in two and doubled, it touched me so.  It's proof that I'm totally doing the right thing with school.  I get so much out of knowing I'm making a difference.

I had fun creating the printables for this month's layout too.  I used the color palette in the Bits & Pieces Add-on to influence the look of these two pieces.  

As you can see on my layout I always trim a big border around my cards.  I also like to add layers and attach embellishments and stitching to my cards as well.

The quote is a fun one.  As always, I shopped my "Words" board on Pinterest for just the right quote to use.  Of course I was looking for something love related this month, and found this quote by Jack Karouac to be a perfect choice.  

You can download both printables together or individually here:

Calendar and Quote

Calendar

Quote

I am excited to use the March Bits & Pieces Add-on for my next monthly spread.  I like the paper pads a lot.  For March it was Color Me Happy from Glitz Designs.  FUN.  You can check out my layout and Michiko's layout using the March kit on my blog post here.

My friends at SCT are playing along this month with a fun prize which includes Cards Map and a subscription to SCT.  Having these issues in your hands is always a fun treat so it's a good prize!

Thank you for playing along and supporting this challenge!  I am working on getting .png files for my calendar and quote cards, so let me know if that interests you and whether you have any trouble with these items.

Davinie

Project 12 January 2013

Hi!

I'm excited to share my January Project 12 layout with you.  You can also check it out on the Gossamer Blue blog here.

January flew by.  As I've mentioned before I'm currently in my final student teaching placement before I get my teaching and Master's degree.  That means school all day and homework at night and kids in between.  It has been a big undertaking but my family is a house of rock stars so with....  86 days until graduation, the end of the tunnel is near and we are all very excited about that!

I got a new iPhone for Christmas and have been taking a lot more photos now that I have a better camera.  I take all the event photos with my Canon, but the everyday stuff that tells a deeper story of us is usually captured with my phone.

In planning my layout for the month, I started by emailing myself all the photos I wanted to use from my camera roll.  I use a standard Earlybird wash for my photos, and anything I hadn't uploaded to IG was edited and sent.

Tip:  Put your phone on Airplane Mode, edit, and it'll save the photo to your camera roll without flooding the IG gallery.  IG says the upload failed but still saves the photo.  

I print all of my IG photos at 2.5 x 2.5.  I had 8 photos this month.  I laid out my page protectors and then organized my photos from there.  I wanted to be chronological without bunching the photos up.  One of the reasons it takes me so long to get my layouts done is because I'm actually really methodical about how I do things.  I wish I could be more spontaneous but it just isn't in me, lol.  

Once my camera photos were organized I went to my digital files for other photos that told our story.  Morgan's birthday monopolized our month so I had to pick between them.  I took a lot of portrait shots on her birthday so that made a photo easy to choose as I had to pick between the horizontal shots for a 4x6 slot.  I then chose two other photos of my girls that also told our story.  As you can see by their placement on the layout, I'm intentional about those two.  Two words:  visual triangle.  I'm all about having a visual triangle without it being obvious.  

I created a card for my layout "title".  I'm going to have it on the upper left of every layout.

I was then equally intentional about patterned paper placement.  I think I'm going to use this same layout in my page protectors all year.  I chose several prints from my Gossamer Blue January kit leftovers as well as bits from my stash.  I'm all about using up bits from my stash.  I like letting the prints be seen so that future generations will know what design was like "back in the day" and such.  In fact, in one 4x6 slot it's nothing but a piece of Pink Paislee patterned paper.  I love the color palette and the overall design and didn't see a reason to add to it.  Like I said, photos were scarce this month and I didn't want the whole layout to be about Morgan's birthday weekend.  I am planning layouts and mini albums with all of those photos.  

I also had to include kid art.  Payton draws the best dogs.  She told me this was the best dog profile she had ever done so of course I had to include it.

I also have to make a quick note about grief.  We lost our pup Cooper this summer as you know.  The kids seemed to recover quickly unlike their parents.  As time has gone on, however, Cooper has started to come up more and more often.  Grief works in mysterious ways.  They really miss him.  We all do.  I still think I hear him outside sometimes and things happen all the time that remind us of a story with him in it.  That stinker.  

I also included a quote on my layout.  One of my favorite Pinterest boards is my "Words" board, and I want to start including some of the fun quotes I come across.





I know I've used my little chevron arrows a lot but I'm not tired of them yet, lol.  As you can see, they were intentionally placed too.  You can also tell by the colors used in the design that most things were placed with a purpose.

Bonus:

I'm going to be creating digital files every month for my Project 12 layouts, and thought I'd share my work with you!  Each month there will be a month card sized to fit in those 4x6 slots, as well as a quote card.  Right now my plan is for those to fit in a 3x4 space every month.  I always size my digital elements a little smaller, becuase I'm a girl who likes a border as well as a good fit, so I wanted to share that too.  You can download a copy of the printables here.

Have a great day!  Davinie

Gossamer Blue January and the February LookBook

I was super excited to Guest Design for Gossamer Blue for the month of January.  I've missed having a kit at my door and was really looking forward to working with coordinated products.  I don't have an LSS so it's always been nice to have a personal shopper.  It's been so long since I've felt inspired in that way.  It's been a long time since it felt like art and expression and telling a story.  

Of course my first layout of 2013 had to include a photo of myself in it.  For someone who doesn't like self-portraits I sure have my mug out there lately.  Not sure what that's all about.

Payton took this random photo one day and I thought it turned out really well so I have been using it all over the place.  This first layout includes the main kit only:

I really really liked the bokeh paper so had it include it.  That color palette is gorgeous.  Then it was just a matter of playing with some supplies I haven't touched in a while, like circle punches and my DMC floss.  I have been hand stitching long before it became popular on layouts.  I used to cross-stitch as a kid.  It's nice to see it getting so much attention in the industry now, and because it's so easy to do, I had to include it on my layout.

I love chipboard, and while I'm not a speech bubble person, I like the effect with the buttons on this page.

This next layout was made with photos we took at the Reindeer Ranch that is just 2 miles from our house.  These reindeer live there year round.  That has been an interesting conversation with the girls over the years (especially if they forget to tuck Santa's Sleigh in a storage building or something.  Must they leave it out for the kids to see every time we drive by?????)  We stopped by for a visit with a couple reindeer, hot cocoa, and a picture with Santa that supported a local high school sport team.  We also got our tree from their lot that day.  We were too busy to get to the hills on the weekend in December this year.  

I mixed a few prints from the kit in a patchwork of sorts along the bottom of this one.

The title was cut with my cameo.  I wasn't sure what I'd think at first, but the color kit and that gold pearl pen was SO FUN.  It's almost like puffy paint.  I applied it to the title and let it dry overnight to be sure it was set before I added it to my layout.  I also squeezed a few drops at the top.  I love that it dried with dimension.  It was more fun to use it than I anticipated.  I want another one in a different color!  

This next layout was fun too.  I made some wonky angles at the top and cut out that polka dot vellum from the color add-on, added a snowflake from the digital files that come with the main kit, and had fun with color.

Since my girls were babies they have gone over to Steve's parent's house to make Christmas cookies.  Many time it happened on a day where I had to work so Steve would take them over there and maybe take a phone photo or I'd see a photo they took at some point.  But I rarely have been there on a time when I also had a camera with me.  I was thinking about that tradition the other day so searched around and did manage to find a photo from 2010 documenting this event.

The kids really look forward to it every year.  This year we were too busy before Christmas to find a day to get them there (we were busy every weekend and kids were in school until the Friday before Christmas) so it was after Christmas before they got a chance to bake.  But we made it happen because it is important.  I am so lucky to have such involved extended family for my girls.  These are precious memories for them.  

With that, there are 3 contributions from me for the Gossamer Blue gallery this month.  It was a really nice kit to work with and had some of my favorite manufacturers included.

I loved the atmosphere and working with Lori so much that when the opportunity came up, of course I decided to keep my feet firmly planted and will remain on the team going forward.  I am so excited!  She is genuine and warm and has her finger on the pulse of the industry, makes customer service a priority, and has a beautiful vision on what products will work together.  Sure, I'm totally busy with school right now, but I graduate in just a few short months.  I finish student teaching with my first grade classroom in mid-April and then I graduate the first week in May.  So bear with me as I work to make time for this art I love.  I have a notebook filled with all sorts of ideas and inspiration.  I am just waiting for the time in order to be able to share what I've been thinking about.

In the end I hope to share how scrapbooking can be included in the lives of regular people.  I'm not going to school to be a Graphic Designer.  I'm not fancy.  I live in a regular house in a small community.  I'm not trying to impress you with my grandeur.  I want to be a teacher.  I want to enrich the lives of children.  I am a hands-on person and feel I have so much to offer that I had to go back to school to make a difference.  There are schools in my community where most students qualify for free and reduced lunch.  My heart pulls me to those kids.  I am also a regular Mom who wanted to be on the same schedule as my family, who loves the outdoors and can't stay cooped up indoors all the time.  My husband doesn't work a M-F schedule, so for me to get on the same schedule as our kids frees up so much time for our family.  Holiday breaks and summer adventures.  Our family is SO excited at the possibilities for us going forward.  Most people live like me.  They are busy with their life and have to carve out time for hobbies  There is still a way to include art in a regular life though.  That's one reason I created the Project 12 challenge.  Freedom to live the life that you photograph.

It looks like there may be a few January Main Kits available.  As you contemplate that, check out the look book for what is coming up in February.  I am working with this kit right now and all I can tell you is:  Crate Paper Fourteen.  LOVE.    

Have a great day!  Take a photo with your kids as part of Aleida's challenge and take time to enjoy this precious life.    Davinie

ETA:  Had to include a Monday morning not wearing makeup letting the wrinkles hang out morning after a slumber party windy day wild kids in the backyard but this is us pic, with each of my girls:

                        

Project 12 - 2013

Yay!  It went live so I can share how I will be doing Project 12 this year.

Gossamer Blue, a wonderful scrapbook kit club you should definitely check out, is going to co-host the Project 12 challenge with me this year.  I couldn't be more excited!  Lori is one of the most supportive, gracious, and genuine people in the industry and I can't think of anyone I'd rather host this challenge with.  

Here's the epic post with details about Project 12:

Scrapbooking has always been about preserving your memories.  Art has become an additional way of expressing yourself on your pages, but traditionally, scrapbooking involved photos and memorabilia to document your life.  Becky Higgins brought the traditional form of scrapbooking to the forefront again with the concept of Project Life.  You can read more about Becky Higgins and her memory keeping system here.

I loved the idea of Project Life but knew it wasn’t going to be something I could commit to in the way it was intended. 

I am a busy Mom. 

I work outside the home. 

I have other hobbies.

I want to run a half-marathon this year.

I want to sew a quilt for my bed.

I want to knit a scarf.

I want to DIY some home décor projects.

I want to make things with my kids.

I want to read a book.

I need to be able to clean my house, make dinner, and do nothing if I want to. 

I am also a slow scrapbooker.  I knew that committing to something weekly wasn’t going to work for me and I’d quickly lose interest and motivation as I fell behind.

In 2009 I started hosting a challenge on my blog that took on Project Life in a different way.  I called it Project 12.

One two-page spread per month.  12 layouts per year. 

I have enough content to fill a two page layout per month, with photos to spare for regular scrapbook projects. 

I have time to commit to one 2-page layout per month. 

I have space for two 12x12 albums per year to house these layouts.

Traditionally, I created a two page layout.  In 2010 and 2011, I hosted the challenge on the SCT blog and Becky Fleck designed sketches for me.  

In 2013 I have decided to try something different.  I wanted to try something that allowed for more photos per layout on my 2-page spread.  I decided to utilize the divided page protectors and go back to scrapbooking’s roots.

The Project 12 challenge is simple:

Whether you take 1 photo or 100 photos per month, you have a life to document.  Each month, your challenge is to document your life on a layout.  I am going to be using divided page protectors and documenting our life on a 2-page spread.  I will have 12 2-page layouts per year that will be housed together in 12x12 albums and displayed so my family can look at them anytime they like.

This is what I came up with:

There are 14 photos on this layout!

I cut my title with my Cameo.  I created a vellum pocket and added confetti.  I layered the dots on top of the page protector.  I used 14 photos!  I'm thrilled that I used 14 photos.  

TIPS:

I use my phone a lot and will be using a lot more phone photos in 2013 for my Project 12 spreads. 

I use Instagram a lot.  I love the Earlybird wash (my username is Davinie).

I also love the Momento  app.  I can type in notes when we do something fun or my girls say something funny.  It also keeps track of my Instagram feed and Facebook updates too so that when I begin to put my layout together, I have all of our memories in one place.

I love this challenge because it allows you to share more of your story in a way that your family can easily enjoy.  You get a chronological look at your life.  The time commitment leaves an opportunity to do other things.  I don’t want to be tied to something.  This method of recordkeeping allows the flexibility to take a break and do other things while still filling your scrapbooks.

I hope you’ll join me!  Gossamer Blue will be a wonderful host.  There’s even a prize involved.  Check out the Gossamer Blue blog here for details on how you can play along and maybe even get a prize.  

Davinie

P.S.  I am also the Guest Designer for January a Gossamer Blue!
P.P.S.  I have read my letter for my Note to Self challenge! I am so glad I did this!  Check out more about that here.  I'll post my next spread tomorrow.

Project 12 REVIVAL

Helllooooooo.

So much to tell you but today I just have a little thing to say.  It's something I've been working on for a while, well, since 2009, and it's something that's going to be extra fun in 2013.  I'm excited about the change.

It's a PROJECT 12 REVIVAL.

Yes.  Project 12.  My baby.

When Project Life first received new life I was intrigued.  It's not a new idea.  I have scrapbooks with rubber cement from my childhood with bits of my life and photos mixed in.  My grandmother has scrapbooks documenting life.  But Becky Higgins sure knows how to make it look super cool and it has become a phenomenon.

I love love love Project Life, but doing a spread on a weekly basis is impossible for me.  Even when I worked part-time it was impossible.  I am not that fast.  I can't do fun things one day and record it in my scrapbook every. single. day.  I can't save it for the weekend.  That's a major family time.

It was just too hard.

I'm not that organized.

When would I do regular layouts?????

Documenting my life on a monthly basis has always been ideal.  And since 2009 it's been every single month.  It just works.  Not everyone is home all day.

When Scrapbook and Cards Today hosted the challenge with me and Becky Fleck created sketches for this challenge, that was a lot of fun too.  I never had to think about the design of my layout.  I just had to choose what to add.  But in 2012, it has been difficult, because having to choose from previous sketches didn't flow as easily for my design process, so the project lost it's sparkle.

BUT.  TADAAAAAA!!!!!

New inspiration has hit big time.  I have a new host and oh my goodness, I am totally excited.
I also have a new format.

I am totally inspired.

I can't reveal all today, but I've been thinking about it a lot and as I work on my December layout and my December Daily, I had to shout a little bit.

Speaking of which, I love my December Daily album and will be sharing that later this week.

Anyway, more later.  Just had to put it out there.  Davinie = inspired.  And Project 12 = the best way to document your life.

That is all.  :)

Have a great day!

Davinie

Project 12 March in April

BAM.  It had to go back.  There is no reason to change something if it is working just fine, and the traditional method for Project 12 works just fine.  So Becky doesn't do sketches for me anymore?  That's fine.  I have lots of previous sketches to choose from.  I still should document the month the way I document the month and have been documenting the month for the last few years.  It's so good to be back!  :)

For this month's challenge I chose a sketch from May 2011.  It looks like this:

And this is what I came up with:

A change for the challenge that I'm having fun with is the Color Suite monthly challenge.  You can check out the color palette for this month here. 

I wanted to create a fun design element for this layout, so punched out a couple of circles from vellum, as well as some confetti, and stitched it together.  As we had two birthdays in March, this adds a bit of festivity to the layout too.  Love that. 

I also love my journaling spot.  But you know that. 

For fun I thought I'd check out what I did with the May 2011 sketch when it originally came out.  You can check out that post here. 

Oh my, it feels good to be back in my comfort zone.  Doing that daily thing was driving me nuts, although I do need to find a better workflow as I have been keeping memorabilia and more daily photos with my phone.  I just don't know what that method is yet, and I'm still really happy with the monthly recap and so is my family.

I'll see you back here for Project 12 again on May 15.  If you want entered for a chance at a prize at SCT, check out my Project 12 post and link your layout there.  I randomly draw a winner.

ETA:  AND I forgot to add that I've already chosen the next sketch I'm going to use.  I'm going back to January 2010 for this one.



Davinie

Project 12 - life goes on

It would seem that my last post was a great quote to use.  Obviously Davinie is swamped and blogging is something that's taken a backseat.  It's a bummer because I have plenty to share...  I just don't always have time to sit down and do the sharing.

If you jumped on the SCT blog on March 15, you would have seen a Project 12 post from me, but I haven't had a chance to share it here yet.  This is what I came up with for my March post:

It was based on the Feburary 2010 sketch Becky Fleck did for my challenge which can be found here.  They are in .pdf format and you can print the sketches right out.  That makes creating layouts much easier.  :) 

My layout was also inspired by the March Colour Suite challenge.  You can check out the challenge and the color palette here. 

I found I've been taking a lot of phone photos, so decided to only use phone photos to document the first half of March for this layout.  Everything is equally grainy, lol.  DANG I wish I had my husband's 4s.  If not for Siri that phone would be mine.  hmph. 

I still documented our everyday and used 16 photos on a single layout too.  We had baking and makeover,s birthday flowers and snow days, with some playdates and school mixed in too.  I think it captures our life well, but I really need to get Steve in front of that camera.  He's simply not a fan.  :)

To get the general and random thoughts down I have a monthly planner that I use for my Project 12 as well as my Project Life stuff.  Some days are monotonous, some days are hectic because I'm doing everything and dad is at the firestation for 48 hours, but this planner helps me remember what happened when, which also helps in organizing everything. 

Have you had sick kids lately?  Morgan has missed more school days this year than in all of her previous schooling combined.  She just gets hit with these low grade fevers that are too high to send her to school, and just lies around like a limp noodle or snookers me into playing Mario Brothers on the Wii.  Ack.  :)

I hope you are having a wonderful March!  It is now Spring Break at our house and we plan to camp next week and then celebrate a certain someone's 6th birthday on Friday.  Fun times ahead!  I hope the weather cooperates and it isn't raining the whole time, lol.  But if it's raining and we are stuck inside, let the campground at least have wifi.  ha!

Davinie

P.S.  Going to see the Hunger Games with the hubby this afternoon.  Woot!

P.P.S.  Back tomorrow with Studio Calico sneaks and a giveaway for a seat in Sketchbook 4!  You won't want to miss this class, and if you have purchased a seat already and win a spot, you can get your money back.  :) 



Project 12 February

Hello friends!  How was Valentine's Day?  I have a bit of a glitter glue hangover, but we had a great day in the Fiero household.  Morgan couldn't even sleep the night before, she was so excited, which put some added stress on me thinking I'd need to do something fabulous, lol.  So at 11pm Monday night, I was up making felt heart headbands for my girls to wear to school, which they both loved.  I also cut Morgan's sandwich in the shape of a heart for her lunch, and when I picked up Payton from Kindergarten and later Morgan from the bus stop, I handed them each one of those balloons on a stick you can get from the Dollar Tree.

Bam.  Valentine success.  :)  But now the youngest is home with the flu, lol.  Life goes on.

Because it's the 15th it's now the new date for sharing my latest Project 12 layout.  I'm working on February happenings, so looked through Becky's sketches from the SCT site to see which would work best, and thought October 2010 was a great starting point.  In the end I thought the big circle in the sketch could be a great big heart, but instead went with some doilies I had in my stash.

The sketch:

My layout:

Can you see the inspiration from the sketch?  This layout was also inspired by the February Colour Suite ( or color suite, in the US, lol).  You can check that out here.  There's a monthly challenge associated with the Colour Suite so check that out if you are interested.

Closeups:

The badge and journaling spot is from Marcy Penner's shop.  She made these badges and different journaling cards just for me and this challenge.  I love the large journaling spot, and you can also cut it in half and use it for Project Life.  Perfect!

Do you like the stamp set I used on Payton's Valentine?  It's from the Stepping Stone add-on that's out of stock at Studio Calico.  Due to overwhelming demand, however, that stamp set will be available one last time TODAY at 12 CST (I do believ that's 10am PST).  So if you are interested, jet over there fast! 

Stepping Stone alphas

Also restocked at Noon CST (10 AM PST) is the Awesome stamp set (but don't worry.  If these sell out they will be resotcked):

And while I'm in the sharing mood, if you are interested in the Happy :Little Moments class kit, word is that it's selling quickly.  With class starting March 1, if you want to get the kit, you might want to get on that too:

And that's it!  Have a great Wednesday!  Davinie

Working on: