Planning Out JUNE {me & my BIG ideas}

Since I have two big trips this next month, I thought that I could use my HAPPY PLANNER™ to lay out the month and organize everything visually. 

I used matching arrow stickers and watercolor strokes to to map out the start and end of a trip. I also boxed off my "free" days in the month with a green box using my watercolors and a water brush. As you can see, there are very few of those! 

I used some travel quote stickers from the We're on Vacation sticker pack. I really love all the cute adventure-themed quotes in that particular pack. I want to put them on everything Paris/Berlin/Oregon/summer trip themed. :) 

I also used little sticky notes for the events that I wasn't sure about. Not "penciling it in," I'm "sticky notin' it in." ;) 

Project Life: APRIL

Happy Friday! It's getting closer and closer to my month of fun AKA June. :) I am so busy with, I guess, life! Haha. I'm SO excited about this summer though. Like, seriously. 

While I'm about to hyperventilate from happiness, here's my April Project Life spreads. I have yet to start May's (just found out that I'm almost out of printer ink and paper! Noooo!), but I want to get all caught up before I leave on June 2nd. 

DOCUMENTED: Easter and Cameron coming over to our house (the little boy). :) 

The right side is a mini 6x8 scrapbook page. Seems like forever since I've made a scrapbook layout, so I wanted to change things up. 

DOCUMENTED: Everyday things. A new shirt (that has a special meaning :P) from MarLeah, a project I did in my graphic design class at college, my first pair of Vans, and eating Stix Japanese food with Dad and Laura. 

DOCUMENTED: sister shoe selfie, family photo with Pete, and ice cream

PRODUCTS USED: Studio Calico Park Ave. Project Life kit and some awesome Kelly Purkey/ Hero Arts Clearly Kelly stamps

DOCUMENTED: Our church's annual Singing, buying my passport

PRODUCTS USED: Older Amy Tangerine "Cut & Paste" line, Studio Calico embellishments, Kelly Purkey J'adore line for Basic Grey

DOCUMENTED: Comforting my friend, Makenna, when her boyfriend broke up with her, picking strawberries, scrapbooking, getting my passport (yay!)

PRODUCTS USED: me & my BIG ideas products

Hope you have a great long weekend! I'm pretty excited that I'm off work on Monday(!!!!!!!).

Keep Going {The Cut Shoppe}

Today I'm sharing my last project for The Cut Shoppe on the TCS blog and on here. :( Sadness. I thought it would be good for me to take a break from the team and let some other awesome ladies step in. :) I've already seen some future projects from The Cut Shoppe team and they are AH-mazing! And just because I'm leaving the team doesn't mean I'll stop using Ashley's cut files. They are too awesome to leave behind! 

For my last project for The Cut Shoppe, I made a page about where I'm at right now. I feel like I have learned a lot in the past couple of years (It's CRAZY to think it's been two years since I've graduated! Like. Really weird. Seems like yesterday I was posting about my graduation!). I've learned to go with the flow and to KEEP GOING. Don't focus on years down the road, focus on what you can do right now, during this day. Stop worrying about things-- God has it all in his control. :)

So this page is just a little commemoration of my current state in life. I love getting back in the groove of making layouts about myself. Hint hint. Something along the lines of that coming soon. :)

So there ya go! My last page for The Cut Shoppe. Check out the TCS blog for more about this project. 

PL Shaker Pocket {mambi}

I have a fun Project Life spread to share with you today! This spread features cards and embellishments from me & my BIG ideas and includes a shaker pocket! I added some chipboard and puffy accents in the pocket too. I thought something different would be fun. Now it's not just an ordinary shaker pocket. It's an EMBELLISHED shaker pocket. ;) 

 I even made a little tutorial for the pocket. 

1. Pour sequins into page protector pocket.

2. Stick two chipboard or puffy shapes back-to-back to create a double-sided embellishment for your shaker pocket. 

3. Stick chipboard sticker on patterned paper and trim excess paper.

 4. Place sticker accents in pocket and seal pocket with machine stitching (or washi tape). 

And here is what the back of the pocket looks like... I have yet to make the next spread, but it will be so fun to have the pocket included on that spread as well! :)

Filling Up My Album...

My first 6x8 album that I'm using for Project Life this year is almost full! I have been debating on whether to switch sizes or not. I really like the 6x12 size that Kelly Purkey does, and sometimes I like the 9x12 too. I like smaller sizes though, so I'd probably go for the 6x12. 

When I bought this black 6x8 Studio Calico album, I bought two of them. I thought that that would do me for the whole year. Well, so far I have only January-April in this album and it's almost ticking full. I'm not particularly fond of the quality of the Studio Calico page protectors (some of them are so foggy!), and so that is one of the reasons I'm tempted to switch sizes. I mean, I can always use that extra 6x8 album for something, right?! I have lots of Becky Higgins 12x12 divided page protectors left over from PL 2013, so I could totally cut those down to 6x12 and they'd work perfectly. 

So, guess I'm just thinking aloud. But, what do you think? Should I go ahead and switch sizes? It really wouldn't bother me having two different sizes for my 2015 PL. I switched sizes in 2013 as well! I went from a 6x8 size to a 12x12 size (12x12 is just too big for me for PL!). I'd love to hear your thoughts! :)

Hello Cactus Card {The Cut Shoppe}

Today I'm sharing one of my favorite cards ever on The Cut Shoppe blog!!

I used my new inks from A Beautiful Mess to color the cactus. How, you might ask? Well, all I did was put some of the ink on an acrylic block (like what you put clear stamps on) and then used a water brush to blend the colors onto the diecut! I used two colors, grass and peas, to color the cactus. I think this is one of my new favorite go-to techniques because now I have lots of pretty inks to use! For the background, I used basic watercolors. I wanted an ombre sunset look, and I think I achieved that! I added in washi strips and machine sewing in-between the paint swatch looking diecuts to add some texture to the card. 

I don't think I ever would have imagined a card basically made up of diecuts turning out to be one of my favorite cards, but it is! I think all the different textures is what draws me to this card. I just love texture! 

Be sure to stop by The Cut Shoppe blog, where I share more about this card there! 

Hand Painted Cards

Recently I've had the urge to paint designs on my cards. Add just a little bit of cutesy-ness to my cardmaking. ;) I'm going all trendy and painting pineapples and cacti, both of which will probably not be "cool" in a few months. LOL 

A simple watercolored background with a scripted sentiment: 

PINEAPPLE! :)  

And cacti. :) I didn't have a fine enough brush for the little details, but hey-- they're still cute.  

CURRENTLY

I haven't done a post like this in a while, mostly because I haven't had the time to sit down and type it out! So I'm taking the time now. 

This is just a little update about me and my life. :)

(photo from last week... High five for self timer shots!)

I just finished my second semester of college. I'm half way to my associate's degree in visual communications! Yay! I can't decide whether or not I will continue on at a four-year school to get a bachelor's degree after next year… I will deal with that decision closer to the end of my schooling. ;) This past Wednesday was my last day and seriously, I love that I'm already "out for the summer" and it's only the beginning of May. Pure happiness.

I am also staying busy working at the preschool/ daycare that I worked at when I was in high school (roughly two years ago!). I love my 3-year-olds. :) I am working in the afternoons every day for the month of May. We will see if that stresses me out because when I was in college, I worked only Tuesday, Thursday, Friday because of my classes on Monday and Wednesday. I also sub for the morning teachers if they need to be off for any reason. Last week I worked Thursday and Friday all day. Good for the paycheck, not for the stress levels! LOL Sometimes I have way too many kids for just one person. Like, sometimes I have as many as 15 or 16 by myself. Yep. Craziness. I don't like that part about my job. :\

And I am going to have a SUPER awesome month of June. Why? Because one, I'M GOING TO PARIS! Yes, I decided to take a trip to Paris this summer. It's actually a 10-day trip with a school around here (not the high school I went to) and it's a tour to Berlin, Germany, and Paris, France. There are about 15 people going (half adults, half high school students) and I don't know any of them! :P I suppose I will know them after this trip though! It is my dream come true to visit Paris. The tour is a World War II tour and so we are visiting Normandy and other places where major events happened during the war. I'm no history guru, but I would have to say that if I picked a favorite time period of history, it'd be WWII. AND I get to see all of the awesome architectural buildings that I have read about in my Art books in college (hello Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral!). Excited is actually an understatement. I leave in 28 days. Just sayin'. 

Then when I get back from Paris, I will be home for a few days and then I take off on a week-long trip to Oregon! This will be the first time I've been there, so I'm really excited about that too. There is a church camp meeting and youth retreat that I'm attending up there. So pretty much all of June I will be gone on adventures. :) :) :) :) :) :) 

So yeah. There's the exciting things going on in my life. I'm single and lovin' it. :) 

NSD Layout

In case you didn't know, yesterday was National Scrapbook Day! There are lots of challenges and giveaways going on, and I just wanted to let you know that there is a free cut file set and challenge over at The Cut Shoppe this weekend! Visit The Cut Shoppe's blog to find out more about what you have to do to enter the giveaway. 

Here is a layout that I made specifically with this free NSD cut file set. I just loved the hearts with the arrow going through them shape. I decided to cut a few of those out and make those the focus of my page. I used the new "Fine & Dandy" line from Dear Lizzy for this page. I just love the pinks and reds in this collection! 

I added some paint strokes behind the diecuts because I didn't like the plain white background. At first I was going to make myself use the plain cardstock, but then I decided I couldn't leave it so blank and sad looking. ;) 

I hope you join in the challenge over at The Cut Shoppe today! :)

Fancy Pants + The Cut Shoppe Team-Up

This week, The Cut Shoppe is teaming up with Fancy Pants Designs to bring you lots of awesome inspiration using cut files and Fancy Pants products! 

Visit The Cut Shoppe blog HERE.

Visit the Fancy Pants blog HERE.

I used the Office Suite from FP for this layout. I just LOVE the pastel colors paired with the basic black and white patterns. This is really an awesome collection. I also love the "Heart Burst" cut file from The Cut Shoppe and knew I needed to use that shape with this gorgeous line. The "splendid" part of the title is from the "Splendid Spring" set of cut files. I love how the phrase was divided so I was able to break it apart to fit it on the heart. 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Friday!