Monday Ramblings

I like variety. I think the longer I live, the more variety I like. It's kinda crazy.

I mean, for one thing… when I eat out, it kinda hurts my heart not to ask for four different types of sauces for my chicken and french fries. If I had it my way, I would eat Zaxby's sauce, bbq sauce, ketchup, ranch, honey mustard, and Chick-fil-A sauce with every single meal that required sauces… it would be amazing. BUT, I don't. I usually go with one or two sauces. Depending where we're eating (some places have better sauce selections than others, you know). 

And if you walked in to my bathroom right now, you would find five or six different bottles of body wash. Different days require different scents, right?! I think that obsession came from working at Bath and Body Works. Just sayin', their body wash leaves the scent on your skin… and it is amazing. I love smelling my skin after I take a shower. :) 

Then comes MUSIC. Have I said I love variety?? Seriously, my iPad has so many different artists on it. I know I'm not as crazy as some people, but I still like different types of music. Currently my obsession is One Direction. A little late in the game, I know, but REALLY. I listen to "Kiss You" every. single. day. It's such a happy song! :) [Now that I wrote that, I totally had to play that song.] Then I love love LOVE me some Josh Turner and Michael Buble. Goodness gracious, those men's voices. I'm pretty sure I have every single cd of MB. I've been to see JT twice. I'll take some country songs every now and then too. Plus add in some Southern Gospel like Legacy Five and Brian Free & Assurance. Always love those two groups. Then add some Colbie Caillat. Now mix it all together. With a few more artists I haven't even mentioned. There… now you have my kind of music mix. 

Of course, my love of variety also spreads into my scrapbooking. Like, I don't even have a specific brand that I use most of the time (umm… cough cough… American Crafts and Crate Paper… cough cough). I do love lots of different manufacturers. I'm a sucker for signature collections (like, one designed by a person… for example Dear Lizzy, Allison Kreft, Amy Tangerine). Dude. A dream would be designing my own scrapbook line. That'd be CA-razy! I love taking pieces from different collections and mixing them. Kinda makes my heart happy when I do that.

So there ya go. You learned something about me today. I like variety. :) 

-Heather

I miss traveling.

I miss traveling. 

Yeah, like I've done a lot of that in my life. LOL I just love going to new places. I was looking through my pictures of San Francisco the other day and I felt kinda sad. That was almost a year ago. I need some new travel photos to share! For real! 

But until then, I'll share some my still-favorite photos of SF. 

I wanna go somewhere. :'-(

Memo

I'm sharing my last layout for the month of March over on the Scrapbooking from the Inside Out blog and so I get to share some  more behind-the-scenes bits about this layout here on my personal blog!

This month I really liked the divided-page look. By divided-page look, I mean using two different papers for the background. At the seam of the papers, I put my cluster of photos and papers. I actually used some pink gelatos to make an artsy base for my cluster. I thought that would bring some cohesion to the page. 

I love layering. It lets you use SO many different patterns on one page without it being too crazy! :) It also helps the focus stay on the photos and large background space. But yet you can still see the awesome patterns and colors. Like, I think this layout is very colorful, but I used the patterns in different sizes and portions. 

I used lots of wood veneer on this page. It's not included in the kit, but I still thought it was an awesome texture addition to the page. 

I used one of the awesome pockets included in the kit to house my journaling… I like that I can tuck that little pocket in-between the layers and 1) it adds so much more interest to the layers and 2) I get to hide my journaling in a cute way! Win- win! 

So there's a bit about this layout. You can check out more about this particular project on the SFTIO blog today!

-Heather

Currently

I feel so detached from blogging... so, I think I will share just some current things I'm doing. I love reading these on other people's blogs, so here I go.

Enjoying... life. And driving. And the beautiful weather. Can we say "convertible ride"? 

Thinking... about my future. Do you ever stop thinking about the future??

Hoping... I get a scholarship so I can attend college this fall. I find out by the end of the month! 

Listening... to my regular variety of music. Mostly Michael Buble, One Direction, and Legacy Five lately. Never get tired of those three artists. ;) Michael Buble is just awesome, One D for the times you need some energy, and Legacy Five for when you need some spiritually awesome songs. 

Reading... blogs, mostly. Also my Country Living magazines. My favorite!

Creating... projects with the amazing April kit from SFTIO. One down, three to go! 

Eating... whales. Whales crackers, that is. 

Drinking... lots of water. It makes me feel so much better when I'm hydrated.

Feeling... excited about going to Louisiana next weekend. I LOVE going places.

Wearing... lots of cute outfit ensembles to work. Sometimes it's nice to go, "I look cute!" :P My coworkers are always so sweet in complimenting me. :) 

Planning... oh goodness, what's planning?! I guess little favors for my brother's wedding next month. (yay!)

Dreaming... of having my own family one day. It's fun to think about. ;)

It's crazy how different stages in your life affect you different ways. Since I have graduated, I have been very uptight about life. I am happy to say that I am finally unwinding and learning to just ENJOY the ride that's called life. :) Not everything is perfect and never will be. And I'm learning to be okay with that. 

Happy Friday! And happy weekend!

-Heather

Story About Me

Yay! It's "Behind the Art" thursday! I get to share another layout that I made with the "Honesty" kit from SFTIO. I like this layout just because it has me and Laura on it. ;)

The "Honesty" kit has so many different cute polaroid frames in it that I KNEW I couldn't pass up the chance to use lots of them on a page this month. I love the mix of patterns and textures on this page. The Maya Road chipboard polaroids are some of my favorites. I think I ended up using all 3 that came in my kit! I thought about altering them, but I guess I just like the "raw" look!

So to make this page, I just got out all the cute frames and overlays and started playing. I ended up going with a collage-type design going diagonally across the page. That way I could use lots of different products. Once I knew where the frames were going, I used my white mist to splatter some white drops on the page. Then while those were drying, I printed my photos the correct sizes to fit into the frames. Once I had all the photos and frames adhered, I added some embellishments and my journaling. Simple as that! 

This page is a little more simple that I normally do, but I still really like it because it gets my point across. Read about what I tried to convey on this page on the SFTIO blog! 

Thanks for stopping by! :)

-Heather

This Happened

Just poppin' in to share this layout I made with a Paper Bakery sketch! I haven't played along with their sketch challenges in a while, so I thought I would use my new "Plus One" products and some recent photos to make a page! 

Happy Friday! 

-Heather

100% Me

Hellooooooo! Today I'm sharing another one of my FAVORITE pages made with the March SFTIO kit entitled, "Honesty." I'm sharing some about the emotional side to this page over on the SFTIO blog today, but here on my blog I'm going to share a bit about the making of this page.

Every month, I decide on one medium to use on my pages. This month is the month for white mist. In the past, I've used gesso, gelatos, paint, etc. Something artsy. 

For this page, I reallllly wanted to use the awesome viewfinder stencil included in the kit. So, I used it as a mask and misted over it. Then I picked up the mask and realized there was a LOT of mist on the stencil, so who not just flip it over and use it like a stamp? So that's what I did! I think it's cool that it showcases the negative of the viewfinder and also actually has the shape of the viewfinder on one page! Then of course I splattered some more mist drops on the page. I love the effect of it! Not too bold. Nice and subtle. 

As soon as I saw the "Ring Ring" paper from the Pebbles line From Me to You included in the kit, I KNEW I had to fussy cut those little phone dials! They're too cute not to! Side note: I'm totally loving all the mint blue-green in this kit. Totally tickles my fancy. :) Ok-- back on topic. No, the dials are not perfect circles, but what did someone say-- "It adds to the homemade effect"? Yeah, I like that. It's made by ME, not a machine. So it's not going to be 'perfect.' I'm ok with that. ;)

So there's a little bit about page #2 for this month! Thanks for stopping by! :) Be sure to check out more about this page here. 

-Heather

Some Cards for a Saturday

Well, I have been making lots of cards in the past couple of days. Lots of thank you cards and just regular "hello" cards. 

The Dear Lizzy "Daydreamer" line is one of my new favorites. I love all the different patterns and colors. So springy. It's so easy for me to use! And I always love what I make with it! It's crazy how some lines are so inspiring! Liz, you did it again! :)

I also bought some of the awesome "Plus One" collection from Amy Tan. LOVE all the boldness. But I'm almost convinced that I don't know how to use bold patterns! Every time I take it out, I go, "Oh, I'll just go back to my Daydreamer stuff. This is too intimidating." So, I made these two cards with the Plus One line, but I'm not crazy about them. I know someday I'll make something with this line that I LOVE, but right now… my brain can't handle it. LOL I'm thinking I might mix the black and white patterns with other lines. I think that would help tone down the boldness.

Alright! That's it for today! Which one is your favorite? I think mine is the "THANK YOU" one with all the tags. That's the very first one I made, and I just love it. But that's just me. :)

-Heather

First Layout with the March SFTIO Kit

SO excited to start sharing my March Scrapbooking from the Inside Out "Honesty" projects!

So this is one of my favorites: 

So, I am going to share a little "behind the scenes" look at the making of this page. If you want to know more about the journaling, etc. then visit the SFTIO blog today. :)

I originally wanted to diecut the "say what you think" and back the negative lettering with different papers. Well, I forgot that my Silhouette mat is still really sticky and when I tried to take off the whole 12x12 paper, it ripped a lot of the letters. 

[sad face]

I didn't want to throw the paper away because the sunburst was just too awesome. So I measured the white circle space and then diecut a circle from the grey cardstock included in the kit. Then I covered all of the mess-up. (And notice... I didn't get the saying centered in the middle of the circle anyway... oops) I still had the letters that I diecut from the "Envelope" paper so I used the same diecuts to put the quote on top of the grey cardstock. Some of the letters look the same flipped over, so I mixed it up a bit, adding some more grey to the page. 

Originally, I wanted to handstitch some of the sun rays, but I wasn't feelin' it once I started making the page. So, instead, I used some of the strips leftover from the bottom edges of some of the 12x12 papers.. 

I topped it off with some white mist (my color medium of choice this month!) along with some white machine stitching. 

So that's it for this page! It's one of my favorite projects I made this month. :)

March SFTIO Kit Reveal

Check this out.

It's the newest kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out entitled "Honesty." 

Honestly, it's amazing. ;)

This kit is FULL of the "From Me to You" line 

from Pebbles, Amy Tangerine's "Cut & Paste" line, and the "Naturals" collection from Authentique (super cool-- I haven't used Authentique in such a long time!). BEAUTIFUL mix of colors. And embellishments? Absolutely awesome. :) 

Just a few of the embellishments include wood veneer cards from Amy Tangerine (I've wanted to use these so bad and just never bought them!), arrow paper clips from Webster's Pages (always love me some paper clips!), and some awesome frames from Basic Grey, Pebbles, and Maya Road. And that's not even half of it. Seriously. It's ah--mazing. If you want to see the whole kit contents, check out the Scrapbooking from the Inside Out website. 

And here are the projects I made with the kit this month! More on these to come! :)

-Heather