Lots of Fun New Projects!

Happy November! We've already hit our first round of snow, so it feels a bit more like January here in NJ.

I'm diving in head-first here with a whole bunch of new scrappy things going on.

1. Creative Soup is moving to bi-monthly challenges that will also be featured on our blog.
2. I'm going to be helping out as part of the Creative Team at Scrap Freak.
3. I'm going to be showcasing the December Daily project both on Scrap Freak and here on my blog
4. I'm also going to be working on Project Life in the upcoming year, and you can follow my progress here as well as on ScrapFreak.
5. Both December Daily and Project Life are new boards for me on Pinterest, you can follow both of them here:

I'm doing a December Daily trinkets giveaway over at ScrapFreak, come check it out! I have plenty of fun supplies to go around.

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Challenge: Your Personality

Today I'm going to share a layout with you. I've been putting forth an effort to scrap more about myself--in an abstract way.  I'm trying harder to document how I think about things, how I feel about things, what I want, etc.  This layout was inspired by a challenge over at www.thecreativesoup.com. 

From Jessica Bree: I love taking personality tests. They help you think about what makes you unique and about how you deal with others and the world in general. This week your challenge is to use a personality test or quiz to inspire a layout about an aspect of your personality. Anything can work from how you are introverted to how your attention to detail helps you in your job.

Requirements: Create a layout (or mini) about at least one aspect of your personality and journal (at least 50 words) about how this aspect impacts your life. Don't feel this has to be serious... its okay to make fun of ourselves sometimes

And here is my layout: Introverted and Intuitive

Thanks for stopping by, and please check out the great Mojo Monday challenges offered by Creative Soup. 

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Sketch #8

Sketch #8 is up! This is a great one for all those circular, die-cut papers that are out on the market now. You can choose to back it on a square, or just leave it as is.

Check out the lesson and great samples here: . 
http://www.thecreativesoup.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=1420

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Sketch #6

Oops! I totally forgot to blog Sketch #6 last Friday. So much going on at home that it completely slipped my mind.

Here is Sketch #6 -- A very basic, one large photo sketch with lots of white space for whatever might strike your fancy.

And here is my take on the sketch, all supplies came from the Studio Calico Boardwalk kit.

You can check out the lesson in its entirety here. Only six more sketches left! Thanks for playing along. 

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Sketch #7

We are half-way through Sketch: Back to Basics, and I really want to thank everyone for playing along. Here is Sketch #7---a great way to use up all of those 4x6 photos you have hanging around the house. 

Check out the .pdf and the fantastic samples here at Creative Soup: Sketch #7

PS: The Creative Soup 4th Quarter Creative Team call is up, check it all out here: www.thecreativesoup.com/. 

I would love to work with some great new and inspiring talent!

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Sketch: Back to Basics - Sketch #5

Sketch #5 is up! Check out the lesson here at Creative Soup: Back to Basics - Sketch #5

And my take on the sketch, using Studio Calico's Boardwalk kit. 

Thanks to everyone who is making Sketch: Back to Basics a possibility, I'm really loving creating inspiration for you all!

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Sketch: Back to Basics - Sketch #3

Welcome to Sketch: Back to Basics! Over the next 6 weeks, on Tuesdays and Fridays, I'll be providing 12 brand new sketches, along with great inspirational samples to get your mojo flowing. This class is provided totally free, and brought to you by the wonderful Creative Soup.

A new sketch will be provided in .pdf form, along with several samples and notes from each of the designers. You can pick up the .pdf here on my blog, or over at Creative Soup.

Here is Sketch #3

And my take on the Sketch, using October Afternoon's Rocket Age:

You can download the rest of the lesson here:

http://www.thecreativesoup.com/

Thanks for playing along, Sketch #4 will be up on Friday.

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Sketch: Back to Basics - Sketch #2

Welcome to Sketch: Back to Basics! Over the next 6 weeks, I'll be providing 12 brand new sketches, along with great inspirational samples to get your mojo flowing. This class is provided totally free, and brought to you by the wonderful Creative Soup.

A new sketch will be provided in .pdf form, along with several samples and notes from each of the designers. You can pick up the .pdf here on my blog, or over at Creative Soup.

Here is Sketch #2

And here is my take on the sketch. You can also check it out in the .pdf file, along with the other fantastic layouts from our designers. 

Head over to Creative Soup to join the discussion and play along with us! 

You can also download the .pdf here:

Sketch #2

Thanks for visiting, there will be a new sketch up on Tuesday! 

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Sketch: Back to Basics -- Sketch 1

Welcome to Sketch: Back to Basics! Over the next 6 weeks, I'll be providing 12 brand new sketches, along with great inspirational samples to get your mojo flowing. This class is provided totally free, and brought to you by the wonderful Creative Soup.

A new sketch will be provided in .pdf form, along with several samples and notes from each of the designers. You can pick up the .pdf here on my blog, or over at Creative Soup.

Today's sketch features room for two 4x6 portrait photos, a strip along the right border, and some embellishments on the left side.  Feel free to change the sketch to suit your needs, flip it, add to it, take away from it, whatever helps you to create! Sketches are supposed to be the basic building block on which to start--and you can take it wherever you want!

You can download the lesson here:

Sketch #1

Please head over to Creative Soup and make sure the ladies who designed the fabulous samples know how much you appreciate them! 

And if you're interested in a Sketch: Back to Basics blog badge, you can pick one up right here!

Thanks for stopping by! A new sketch will be up on Friday. 

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Sketch: Back to Basics

September is here! There are just so many reasons to be excited. Football starts next week, as well as my totally free online sketch class.  Sketch: Back to Basics is brought to you by Creative Soup.  New sketches will be up every Tuesday and Friday starting next week, through the middle of October.  There are some really great tips for kickstarting your creative process through sketches, as well as some kick-ass samples from some really talented ladies!

I will be posting the lessons here on my blog as well.

I've also designed a couple of blog/forum badges. Feel free to take them and use them anywhere you'd like. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you join me next week for Sketch: Back to Basics!

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Sketch Time!

I have really gotten into making quick sketches lately. I like the idea of jotting down a quick outline of where things would look good, and then later on using that to jump start my creative process.

Here's a sketch I made for the "Fun in the Sun" crop over at Creative Soup. The crop lasts until Saturday night, so head over there for some really great challenges and a really great group of girls.

And here is my take on the layout.  I flipped around the side strips and the bottom panel; and used a 3x3 photo instead of 4x6, and filled the rest of the photo mat with patterned paper and my title. 

I'll be teaching a free sketch class coming up in September, in conjunction with Creative Soup. Stay tuned for details! 

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Mojo Monday - Get Meaningful: Your Personality

First off, let me wish all the Americans (and anyone else who needs a reason to celebrate) Happy Fourth of July!! We're down the shore this weekend, having a great time. But every monday brings another Mojo Monday challenge from Creative Soup. This week's challenge is about describing your own personality. I think being introverted is one of my biggest personality traits, I've included a closeup of the journaling below.

Supplies Used: Bazzil, The Girls Paperie, Cosmo Cricket, Fancy Pants, American Crafts Thickers,  Sassafrass Lass Flowers

Please remember to check out this great challenge over at Creative Soup. Thanks again for looking!

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Mojo Monday: 6.27 Get Crafty-- Fonts

Its Mojo Monday time again! Head on over to Creative Soup for a great challenge. This week's challenge comes from Kim, and its all about Fonts! 

Use a minimum of 5 fonts on your project. Try mixing fonts in the same word. This is a nice way to use us some of the alpha sets that you have where you are all out of a letter. Or how about putting emphasis on a certain words in your journaling by using a different font than the rest of the writing.

I loved this challenge. It came very naturally to me; I love using different typefaces on my pages and projects. Word art and typography are one of my favorite art forms. My layout is about my little stuffed pig (who is a die-hard NY Jets fan) and a picture I took of her during the NFL playoffs this past season. 

Supplies Used: KI Memories: Calendar Paper, Studio Calico: Fabrips, Pink Cloud Rub-ons, Day of the Week Rub-ons, Hambly: Purple Rub-ons, Sassafrass: Grid Letters,American Crafts: Thickers & Zing (leaf), Maya Road: Star Chipboard (Embossed with leaf Zing), Making Memories: Black letters, Washi Tape 

Check out the challenge here. The CT did such a great job with this challenge, and I hope you all love it as much as we did!

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Get Messy! - Day Six: Watercolors

download today's lesson here.

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope your week is going well.  Jeff and I are headed up to the new apartment this afternoon with a carload of boxes. And even though my sister took up a carload of boxes for us over the weekend, it still looks like we haven't put a dent in the place. We sure do have a lot of stuff. 


That being said, and before I get into Lesson Six of Get Messy, I'd like to ask if anyone is interested in any scrappy stuff? I have a lot of older (and some newer) stuff that needs a new home.  Some of it would be for the everyday scrapper, lots of good manufacturers stuff, but some of it is partially used, or loose.  I also have a bunch of older scrap stuff that would be great for little kids to play around with, to just glue down and whatnot. If you're at all interested in some stuff (for you or your kiddos) leave me a comment here, and tell me what you could use and I'll do a drawing over the weekend. 


Now, back to Get Messy! Lesson Six: Watercolors!


Today's lesson is all about watercolors! I've been loving watercolors so much lately, they have a permanent spot on my desk. 

We'll look at a couple different types of watercolors, and a bunch of great CT samples. Here's the page I made. Inside the lesson, there is a step-by-step tutorial on how to create the background.

You can download today's lesson here.

Remember to leave a comment and let me know if you'd like to win some stuff for yourself, or stuff for your kids (or a girl scout troop, etc). I have lots of stuff that I would love to send to a new home!

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Get Messy! - Day Five: Gesso

Welcome to Get Messy! - Lesson Five: Gesso

You can download today's lesson here.

Today's lesson is all about gesso! You're gonna want to have your aprons on, and your desks covered up, because we'll be getting messy again today.

We'll learn what gesso is, what kind to get, and a bunch of different ways to use it!

All our lessons will be provided in .pdf form. If you need to download a .pdf reader, you can get Adobe Reader http://get.adobe.com/reader/.

Here is a page that I created for this lesson. I have such a good time playing around with paint and color, its such a relaxing activity for me. If anyone is interested in topics for future tutorials, or classes, please let me know. I'm always interested in ideas and suggestions!

Once again, you can download the lesson here:  Lesson Five: Gesso

And if you've missed any of the previous lessons, you can catch up here:

Lesson One: Overview

Lesson Two: Misting

Lesson Three: Inking

Lesson Four: Acrylic Paints

PS -- Sorry for the low-quality pictures lately; I've been working with just my iPhone, the camera is packed up already. Another thing to look forward to after the move!

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Get Messy! - Day Four: Acrylic Paint

Welcome to Get Messy! - Lesson Four: Acrylic Paint

Today's lesson is all about acrylic paints! Here is where we start getting into the real messy part of the class! So get out your aprons, put down some wax paper, and get ready to make a little bit of a mess! Today we’re going to talk about acrylic paint. We’ll look at some tips for using paint on your projects, a step-by-step tutorial, & some fabulous samples from our Creative Team. Thanks again for participating in Get Messy!

All our lessons will be provided in .pdf form. If you need to download a .pdf reader, you can get Adobe Readerhttp://get.adobe.com/reader/.


Download the lesson here.

Tonight over at Creative Soup we are having a special live chat tonight at 9pm EDT. Link to live chat: http://www.thecreativesoup.com/mchat.php#m. Chat Bring questions if you have them, I'll be there to 
answer anything you'd like.


Here's the final product of my step-by-step painting page:

Thanks so much for playing along with me, I'm really having a great time with this class. Remember you can download the lesson here. Hope to see you at the live chat tonight! 

PS -- The Creative Soup Grand Re-Opening Gala kicks off tonight at 6pm; its going to be a blast! 

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Get Messy! - Day Three: Inking

Day three of Get Messy! is up and running.  Today's lesson is all about misting.  I talk about the various types of inks, a couple of different techniques, and a bunch of great samples from the Creative Soup CT. 

I also show a step-by-step tutorial on how to use different inks for your background with masking and multiple ink techniques for embellishing. Here is my final product: 

Thanks so much for participating! 

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Get Messy! - Day Two: Misting

Day two of Get Messy! is up and running.  Today's lesson is all about misting.  I talk about the various types of mists, a couple of different techniques for getting mists to do what you want, and a bunch of great samples from the Creative Soup CT. 

I also show a step-by-step tutorial on how to mist a background with masking and multiple mist colors. Here is my final product: 

Here is the link for today's lesson: Lesson Two: Misting

Remember all Get Messy! lessons are .pdf files, so you can save them, print them out, even view them on your iPhone, and please feel free to ask any questions!

Come over to www.thecreativesoup.com and join in the conversation about misting! 

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Get Messy! - Day One: Overview

Welcome to Get Messy! - Lesson One: Overview

Today's lesson is a quick overview of the class, an introduction to the team members, and some design principles and tips to keep in mind throughout the class! 

Our lessons will be provided in .pdf form. If you need to download a .pdf reader, you can get Adobe Reader http://get.adobe.com/reader/.

Please head over to www.thecreativesoup.com to check out the class and get started.

Lesson One Thread: http://www.thecreativesoup.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=574

Here are a couple badges for your blog, or anywhere else you might like to use them!

Thank you all so much for participating!

Any questions feel free to ask!! 

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Talk Tuesday -- Chores.

Good Morning! Every Tuesday over at Creative Soup, I put up a journaling prompt to help kick start the creative process from a writing perspective.  Today's topic is household chores. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/15802576/

How have the household chores you do (or delegate) changed over the course of your lifetime? What did you have to do as a child? Which chores do you do now? Which do you delegate out to others? Talk about the division of labor in your household

Right now in our house, there are certain things that I usually do, certain things that Jeff usually does, and then there's a bunch of stuff that kind of falls in the middle.  I cook--almost every meal; I'm big on cooking food from scratch, and leaving out as much of the processed stuff as I can.  Jeff does all the dishes and takes out all the trash.

We both pitch in to try to keep the house clean--but we're both very different in the way we clean. He'll do random little things here and there; whereas I'll want something to be clean or organized, and so I wind up cleaning 2 or 3 rooms top to bottom to get it done the way I like.

As a kid, I didn't have too many chores around the house. I had to keep my room clean, set the table for dinner, clean up after dinner, bring the trash cans to the back of the house after garbage day. I liked the dinner chores, I really enjoyed family dinner time.  Its still a pretty big deal for Jeff and I, and I'd really like it to be that way when we have kids.

What are chores like in your house?  Come join the conversation over at Creative Soup.

PS: Only 6 more days until the start of Get Messy!--My Brand-New, Totally Free, Online Class!!!!

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