This Moment

The Gossamer Blue November kits go on sale TOMORROW at noon central for subscribers.  If I were you?  I'd have my trigger finger ready!  I'm sure they will go faster than fast.  This is my second attempt at a Main Kit Only layout; The first one just didn't read "me" when I was finished, so I went for round two.  What do you think?

There's some gorgeous Maggie Holmes, Gossamer Blue exclusives and fun Thickers in that main kit.  Don't miss out!

It's not my day

Computer updates and my Selphy printer do. not. mix.  My incredibly smart and talented husband has had to put way too many hours into trying to get that printer to stop making iPhoto mad. And still, it's just not gelling. Ugh!

I was able to get my layouts finished for Gossamer Blue, but I have several more layouts that need completed, not to mention I haven't even dug into the new GB lines!  Why oh why must you taunt me technology?!?!?!

Fun Fun!

My hubs and I took a quick over-night trip to Denver on Tuesday.  Clay's favorite band of all time in the history of forever, The Slackers, played a show at the Bluebird.  I stood for 5 hours in a pair of Toms shoes and my feet still hurt, but going to this show with Clay was worth all the aches and pains my feet have endured :)

We took our first trip to Ikea as well, talk about being over-whelmed!  You kind of feel like  you will never find the exit...and then the checkout line was about a mile long.  My friend Rebekah sent a shopping list with me, so make sure to check out her blog and see the awesomeness she posts with her Ikea purchases!  I got another Raskog cart and an artist easel for Miss Q (shhhh....it's a Christmas present!).

I'll be making an announcement sometime next week that I am super pumped about!  Make sure to check back and see what fun I'll be sharing.

Discovery Part 1

My November Gossamer Blue kits arrived the other day; so much pretty in that box, yet I feel at a loss as to what I will create.  Does that happen to you?  (please tell me that it does)  You have all this great product and it's all just so gorgeous, but you're totally stumped.  The same thing happened with the new Gossamer Blue lines!  It's all so lovely yet I can't bring myself to cut into it.

I hosted my first Super Secret Scrappers night (aka: Get Shit Done night).  Several gals I met through MOMS Club came over and we created and gabbed.  I had lots of creative energy flowing in my basement and I just couldn't find my direction.  It's like my head has an idea but my hands aren't listening; what's going on in my brain is not coming out right at all.  So frustrating.

My response to this awful block is zipping around the internet trying to find something that sends me back down my creative path.  In searching, I feel like I have realized what I'm NOT into, so here's a quick list of what I feel isn't me:

1. Stitching on layouts.  I love the look, I wish I could do it, but when I've tried it comes out as a wonky mess.
2. Watercolor backgrounds.  I'm too impatient for it to dry.  I'm too impatient to let the colors do their thing.  Apparently I'm impatient.  (side note:  I had a friend who always wrote "inpatient" instead of impatient.  Funny stuff.)  Is it worth trying again?
3. Misting.  I try and I try and I try.  I will continue to try because I love the look, so this probably doesn't belong on the list.  But sometimes it just comes out all wrong.  Can someone teach me how to flick already?
4. Straight lines/grid patterns.  I.  Cannot.  Cut.  Straight.  Even with a paper trimmer (I like to blame the trimmer).  Or line things up straight.  I'm an eye-baller, I don't have time for T-rulers and getting things all perfectly centered.
5. Solid card stock.  When I look at a blank sheet of card stock my eyes get all buggy and I am completely stumped.  I get an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach and reach for some lovely patterns.

I think, to challenge myself, the key is to give it all of the above a try again.  Except sewing, I'm not a sewer.  Ok, maybe I will try that one again.  Or maybe not.  Indecisive much?

I've found some beautiful work on the interwebs that ISN'T ME but it just blows me away and thought I would share.  Maybe if I stare at these photos long enough something fantastic will work it's way out of me...

Mixed Media isn't my thing (yet?), but this is a GORGEOUS layout found on My Mind's Eye blog.

Solid card stock.  Lots of white space from Stephane Bryan.

Blissful simplicity by the amazing and kind Stephanie Howell.  And the humor!  Love the idea behind that layout.

The flicking.  The misting.  How does Mel Blackburn get it so right?

One of the kindest internet friends I have, and she can do it all!  Heather Conklin is just. so. good.

Gossamer Blue Blog Hop

Hello!  You should have arrived here from the amazing (and awesomely named) Jill Cornell's blog!  If there is any confusion along the way, just head back to the Gossamer Blue blog for the full hop list.

I'm sharing some information about my favorite layout from the October kits, Typewriter Love.  I was lucky enough to have a precious elderly couple answer my ad for a cursive font typewriter, and I think I struck gold with my Hermes 3000: excellent condition, works beautifully and got it for the price I wanted!

I backed the photo with a transparency, then used ephemera from My Mind's Eye Jubilee collection.  The die cut card was white, but I needed it to pop against the polka dot paper so I heat embossed it with gold powder.  I'm guilty of creating banners on at least one layout each month, and the ephemera was calling my name, so I went for it once again!  I'm typically not a red person, but nothing beats the black, red and white color combo with shiny gold accents.  Even after putting a ton of Jubilee ephemera on this page, I still had a bunch to use on another layout!

Keep hopping along to my favorite Aussie, Joy Taylor!

CSI

Gossamer Blue is sponsoring this month at CSI: color, stories, inspiration.  I had Case File No. 143 as my assignment.

I was a bit over-whelmed when I read the scheme, evidence and testimony the first time, but upon closer inspection (hee hee), I realized this was actually going to be a blast!  Not to mention a whole new way to approach a layout.  Then I looked at my beautiful Gossamer Blue October kits and thought, wow, how can I make these colors work for CSI?  I started checking out the B sides of the papers and found the delicious black and white stripe, then tore through the Jubilee ephemera for a bunch of red elements.  I printed out some of the exclusive printables and had the light blue color, then used more GB exclusives, acrylic bits, for the turquoise.  I was lacking gray, so I found some Thickers in my stash to use for the title.

The testimony I chose was something on my mind and handwriting journaling on my layout.  The whole layout is about my surprise at being asked to be on the GB Design Team, so I included a snippet of the email from Lori, a photo of myself taking a photo (kinda dorky, I know), and a photo of my dear Stella (my camera).  The journaling outlines my feelings about sometimes questioning if I'm good enough to be on a DT, and the Hell Yeah I Am pep talk I give myself during times of doubt.  The sketch was provided by CSI and I used it as-is; I love banners and felt this sketch was perfect!  

This was such a great challenge and I have since joined the CSI community because I enjoyed playing along so much!  Count on seeing more CSI-inspired layouts from me in the future.

October Rewind

I knew as soon as I opened the October kits that the Gossamer Blue exclusives were going to be the key to this month's Rewind. I immediately went to my August kits to pull some of the dreamy papers; I knew I wanted girly colors for the layout, as pink is my daughter's color of choice (well, for now anyways!). I decided to use August papers (Main Kit and Main Add-on) and October embellishments (Main Kit, Main Add-on and Main Add-on #2, Life Pages and Life Pages Main Add-on).

I used the lovely pink paper as my background and decided to mat my photo with the alphabet pattern and word pattern papers, which determined my color scheme for this Rewind. The vellum piece brings in more of the blue, and I love adding black on my layouts so I had to use the Live-Laugh-Love card.

The little squares were from a scrap I had leftover from the August kits, the colors worked with the layout and I thought that placing them on the paper in these positions helped create movement across the page from the top left to bottom right.

Next comes the October exclusives! Wood veneer is a favorite embellishment because it goes with everything, you can leave it as is or paint/ink/glitter/emboss, and it's just dang cute! I created a visual triangle with the veneer pieces; if you're ever in doubt the visual triangle is the easiest way to add embellishments. I also added some Teresa Collins tags from the October kits to add a bit more black on my layout.

The last few pieces were more Gossamer Blue exclusives from the Life Pages kit; these fun colored shapes were just what I needed to add a bit more color and pop, and the colors went great with the August kit papers.

I would love to see your kit Rewind's....play along and post in the Gossamer Blue Gallery.

Daily Reminders

Have you ever had a super idea for a layout, and no matter what you do it just doesn't come together the same way it did in your head?  Well, that's kinda how Daily Reminders worked out for me.  I just kept adding to it and probably should have done some taking-away instead.  But all layouts are GREAT LAYOUTS if you got the story across and the photos scrapped.

I used the Crate Paper rub-ons (FYI: these aren't your old-school rub-ons, these are way better quality than the rub-ons of the past!), flair badge and paper from the Gossamer Blue Main Kit.  The tags behind my photo are in Life Pages Main Add-on, the Teresa Collins file folders are from Bits & Pieces and letter stickers are in Life Pages Main Kit.  The September kits are so pretty!  I felt this layout just needed a bit of twine from the stash and it was done (or slightly over-done, as the case may be).

Let's just pretend this was a lovely PSA to remind you that not every layout will be perfection and that's totally ok!  The story and photos actually on paper and in the album are what's the most important!  Happy Scrapping :)