#roadtrip

When it was announced that Ali Edwards was going to offer Story Kits, I signed up. Right then. No questions asked. And it has been, so far, the best scrappy product I have ever bought. Not kidding.

 

When I opened the first kit, I was beyond amazed. But the real gem, is the class content that you get with it. One word: INSPIRING. The class moves your focus to the story as opposed to the product or photos and it is such a refreshing perspective.

 

For my first layout using the December kit, which has the theme of "Firsts," I went with a very literal approach-my first Texas roadtrip.



 

 

I have had this picture since June, but hadn't touched it. Actually, I hadn't even decided if I was going to even use it. Yet, I thought of this picture right away while viewing Ali's video because the story behind this grainy Instagram photo was important. 

 

 

Another quality to these kits is that for me they are more of a supplemental supply, meaning that I can pick from my supplies and then supplement with Ali's kit. Both the grey diamond and word stickers in the following two pictures are examples.

 

 

 

Have you tried or are you considering purchasing Ali's kits? If so, how are you using them? Link me up-I would love to see your projects!

 

Michelle

Happy Christmas

Christmas scrapping for me has been notorious for falling into the cracks, meaning once Jan. 2 arrives, I toss all interest for holiday scrapping into a 12x12 Iris case and push it far underneath my bed. And that box will not be brought out again until next November. I am all for packing things up and moving onward with the new year, but that means all those lovely holiday memories go unscrapped and stories go untold.

I set out to change that this year and I was successful. I set a goal to have Christmas 2014 scrapped by January 31st and I met that goal-early!

"Hello Christmas" is the opening layout for Christmas morning at our house....

 

 

Part of what made my goal achievable was to make my holiday scrapping simple and fast. I also incorporated pocket pages so I could easily fit in the overwhelming amount of pictures that I wanted to work in.  Because lets face it, if I dedicate a page to only one or two photos at a time I would be working at it forever.

 

How about you? Have your finished your holiday scrapping? How do you keep on top of it during the busy holiday season? Would love to hear your thoughts and ideas :).

 

Now since the holiday is officially scrapped, I can look forward to spring with a clear conscious!

 

Michelle

Memories

Hi! Happy Wednesday. About a month ago, I took on the task of scrapping a favorite photo of my son. I don't know about everyone else, but this ups the pressure a little bit for me when it comes to creating a page to match the love that I have for a particular photo. This time though, I put my big girl pants on, lost the self-imposed expectations, and had some fun. Here is what I did:

 

My son is all his glory! This picture so perfectly captured my son pre-game. I call it his "beast mode" which is accurate because every awards banquet I have ever attended always includes some sort statement from the coaches that he is an animal/beast and/or crazy on the field or court. I couldn't be more proud! LOL. 

 

 

 

I used a mix of products, pulling from stash and they include Basic Grey, Studio Calico, Maggie Holmes, and Gossamer Blue. I basically pulled out all the goldish yellow, black, and gold products I could find and went from there. Just looking at this page makes me all sort of happy :).

 

Michelle

I Love Right Now

When Shimelle announced her new class Inspired By a few months ago, I immediately purchased it even though I knew there was no way I was going to get around to starting it during the holidays. Well, the holidays have passed and I have dived in. Actually to be more accurate, I have waded in because I have only made it through lesson one and the resulting layout is what I am sharing today.

 

Without revealing too much about the class, the task in general for the lesson was to be inspired by the photo. I chose to focus on the creams/golds in the photo and the woodgrain textures from the entertainment center and the wood of the tree.

 



 

 

 

Well what do you think? Do you like to take scrapbooking classes? Do you take them to learn a particular technique or are you like me, and use them more as a jumping off point for your projects?

 

Michelle

Tortoise vs. Dog and Two Princesses in Muddy Puddles

Ha!  Like my title for today's post?? Sounds a bit like a fable, don't you think? But you know, if I really sit back and look at my little life, everyday around here is pretty similar to that of a fairy tale. Princess dresses, make believe, adventures, and animals are a regular theme in my daily life and I love it! 

 

For #Frenemies, I piled on the patterned paper-8 sheets to be exact-for a scrappy challenge at Studio Calico.  At first I was a little alarmed--eight is a lot when you sit down (actually, I stand up!) to do it, but I stuck with as many neutrals as I could and added color is small doses. I think it works--I mean I like it, so its all good :).

 



 

 

This next layout, Everyday,  was also inspired by a challenge at Studio Calico; this time I worked with a sketch.

 

 

Again, I went with neutrals and a little bit of color. The kraft alphas from Amy Tangerines Stitched collection are awesome by the way ;).

 

 

My stamping skills need some improvement! Lol. Sadly though, I have tried and tried and tried, but my goodness I cannot for the life of me conquer the date stamp!

 

Well, before I jump offline to go and pop in The Pearl Princess for Queen Elsa, I would like to wish you all a nice and happy weekend!

 

Michelle

For Like Ever

Happy Monday! I've been a little obsessive lately over 6x8 pages and gave myself permission to document all of my December stories in that size as opposed to 8.5 x 11.

 

One quality of scrapping in this small size, is that the page holds less. I know, that's pretty obvious, but what I mean is that I can put together these smaller layouts pretty fast because I don't have so much space to fill up. I generally pick a design element, in this case I went with a background made of paper strips, and work around it. I basically have less options as to where the picture, title, and journaling can fit, so I spend less time thinking and fiddling around with it all. The only drawback that I have ran into so far is that I am not having a lot of room to journal. I think I could definitely remedy this though by using the computer and printing my journaling onto the page useing a size 10 font.



 

 

So what do you think about scrapping in the smaller size? Up until a year ago, I thought I would be a 12x12 Lifer, but since switching to a 8.5x11 last January, I cannot imagine scrapping in a bigger size again. I have done a couple of 12x12's since the switch and it feels all wierd to work on such a big canvas. And by dropping the whole mentaility of "I can only scrap one size," I have had a lot of fun trying new sizes. In fact, I am considering trying out 8x8-its a square, but smaller :).

 

Michelle

Elle's Studio January Reveal

Today is Reveal Day at Elle's Studio for the new January Kit and Design Team Gallery. For those of you new to Elle's Studio, here is a little bit of information about Elle's exclusive kits......

Elle's Studio monthly kits are limited and once they sale out they will not be restocked! Look for a new kit each month on the 10th at 8:00 am PST, and as a special bonus to celebrate launch day, kits will be on sale for $9.99 for today only, regular price after that will be $11.99. These kits can ship first class: shipping for USA residents will start around $2.00 and go up from there, depending on the weight of what is in your cart. For overseas, it will run about $6+ depending on your location.

Monthly add-ons are also limited and while supplies last, and are made to coordinate with the kit.

 

Here is a look at the January Kit and a few of the co-ordinating add-ons....

 



 

And this is what I created for the January Design Team Gallery using the new, exclusive kits and add-ons....

 



 

For "Shine" I wanted to focus on a snow theme, so I pulled some blue and red tags from the kits to pair along with Elle's Good Cheer Collection. The journaling card. also from the January Kit, made for a perfect spot to tell the story about Allora and her love for sunglasses.

 





 

"Wonderful You" was built entirely around the heart journaling card found in January's Kit. I just loved that wonky pie chart heart and found that it worked perfectly with Elle's Love You More collection from last year! 

 

 

This one, "#myGirl" is my favorite. I loved all the grays and yellows from Elle's Sycamore Lane and thought that they sort of went with the almost glowy effect that my pictures have. For embellishments I used the exclusive January's Lots of Love wood veneer after first misting them with a gold spray.

 



 

"True Story" was a whole lot of fun to make and in my opinion, really highlights the versatility of Elle's Studio products. I pulled from two collections here: Sycamore Lane and Elle's most recent release, Hello 2015. First, they combined easily because the colors went together perfectly. Second, there is a variety of co-ordinating products that gave me plenty of options. And finally, I was able to complete my project with things from my own stash--which for me, always makes me happy. 

 

To see closeups of my layouts, my complete list of supplies that I used, and the rest of the design team's work, make sure and stop by the Design Team Gallery!

 

Michelle

Today

Today I am so thankful that I was able to capture this picture and then scrap it....

 

My son, he's a bit of an enigma in my scrapbooking. He's has the uncanny ability that only teenagers have to pretty much dodge every photo mom tries to take ;). But this time, I had the girls on my side and there was nothing he could do about it! Ha ha.

 

 

 

 



This layout is a bit of a mixture of some Amy Tangerine, Dear Lizzy, and a tiny bit of Shimelle all done up in a 6 x 8 format.   Speaking of Shimelle....is anyone as excited as I am for her new release?  I have been stalking the American Crafts blog lately in anticipation of its reveal. One of my favorite layouts of 2014 was made using her inaugeral line (you can check it out here--and be prepared, it's a DOUBLE PAGER-what?!)  I have already given myself the permission to purchase every single piece of it! Ha!

 

Wishing you the best!

 

Michelle

 

Elle's Studio Giveaway Winner

On Saturday the new 2015 Elle's Studio Design Team participated in an introductory blog hop to kick off the new year. Thanks to the generosity of Elle's Studio each of us team members were able to give away 4 of our favorite products and today I am back to announce a winner!

Here is look at what I am giving away:

 

 

And the winner is......Sweet Tooth! Yeah! Please email me at bodieandmichelle@yahoo.com with your mailing information and I will get that to Elle right away!!

 

AND a big, big thank you to all of you who left such sweet comments on my post. Made my day everytime my phone beeped to let me know a new comment had been left :). So, so excited to be a part of the team for 2015!

 

Michelle



Citrus Twist Kit Love

Today I want to share a closer look at some of my favorite products from the beautiful Citrus Twist January Main and Embellishment kits .

 

I don't know about you, but Crate Paper's new line Kiss, Kiss was love at first sight. And these tags from Kiss, Kiss are adorable. The gold touches are perfect.

 

 

 

I am a big fan of cork and We R Memory Keepers took them to a new level.

 

 

Hello beautiful brads, rose gold alphas, and gold glittered Thickers.



 

 

 

Lots of possiblities here with the fabric strip, stamps, and wood veneer!

 

 

 

From the Embellishment Kit, I really found myself liking these die cuts from Gossamer Blue.

 

 

This month was my first time using these organizing trays from Iris and I had to share what all the embellies looked like all organized and ready for me to play with :).

 



 

 

 

Well, what do you think? Aren't these kits awesome? If you would like to see more, head on over to the Citrus Twist gallery to see what the Design Team did with the kits. 

Michelle

 

 

Elle's Studio

I am beyond excited to finally be able to announce that I am officially a part of the Elle's Studio Design Team for 2015!

 

 

 Alissa Fast
Daniela Dobson

Danielle Flanders

Jennifer Chapin
Jessy Christopher

Jill Sprott
Kay Rogers
Lisa Dickinson
Meghann Andrew
Melissa Mann 
Michelle Wedertz
Pam Llaguno
Rachel Izakowicz
Stephanie Buice
Toni From
 

Elle's Studio is also delighted to announce the addition of Paige Evans to the list of Blog Contributors for 2015!

 

Jenni Hufford
Waleska
Megan Klauer
Paige Evans 

 

 

As a design team member, I am going to be working with all the latest Elle's Studio products along with Elle's exclusive monthly kits to bring you inspiration for your own papercrafting. New projects from myself and the rest of the design team will be going live on the Elle's Studio website on the 10th of each month, which also coinsides with the release of a new kit and fun extras. Here is a sneak peak of one of my projects for January's gallery:

 

 

In celebration of this fun new endeavor, each Design Team member is giving away 4 of their favorite Elle's Studio products on their blog! I have linked up each designer in the lists above, so make sure and visit each one for more chances to win :).  Here is what I am happily giving away:
 

 

Hello 2015-3x4 Calendar Cards

Hello 2015-Stickers

Sycamore Lane-Bits and Pieces

Letter & Number Stickers-Red

To be eligible for a chance to win these awesome goodies just leave a comment at the end of this blog post and I will post a winner on January 7th!

Michelle

 



 

 

 

 

 



Citrus Twist January Reveal

Happy New Year!  Yesterday was the first of January and that meant the reveal of the January kits at Citrus Twist Kits.  Yeah!  Great way to ring in the new year :).

This month, I once again created projects with both the January Main and Embellishment Kits which are full of new and pretty products from Maggie Holmes, Crate Paper, Gossamer Blue, and We R Memory Keepers. 

Here is a look at what I made using these kits (and a few of my own sequins):

 

 

Started out this layout with a basic grid design and kept the details minimal as to not compete with the gold foil background.

 

 

 

Again, I suprised myself by going a little more simple. This layout sat around for a while because I really wasn't comfortable with not layering patterned papers behind the photo. In the end however, I chose to leave it as it was and add detail with embellishments.



 

 



 

This layout was all about the photo and the story. I am often left out of my scrapbooking since I am usually the one taking the pictures--but this photo, with me and my kiddos, had to be treated specially just for that reason.

 

 

 

At the beginning of my daughter's preschool year I decided to devote an entire Handbook to documenting her first school experience and this 6x8 layout and co-ordinating pocket page are a part of that album.

 

 

 

 

Putting these layouts together was a lot of fun. The collection of products that Trina (owner of Citrus Twist) put together was beautiful and they made scrapping my photos and stories a breeze.

 

For more inspiration, please head on over to the Citrus Twist Gallery and take a look around at what the rest of the Design Team did.  For those of you wanting a more in depth look at the products, I will soon be sharing an up close and personal look at the kits I worked with both here and on the CT blog, so stay tuned!

 

Michelle