the moments in between

LIFTED | my new studio calico class

it's been almost a year since i've taught, so i'm excited to announce that i'll be heading up the november class at studio calico. lifted is all about using the fabulous inspiration in the studio calico creative team gallery as a starting point for your own projects. here's more about the class : 

Need an inspiration pick me up? Enroll in LIFTED with Lisa Truesdell and explore the art of borrowing ideas by scraplifting. Lisa and her contributors will be using layouts from the Studio Calico Creative Team gallery and sharing how they bring the design, details, color scheme and theme to new projects.

i'll be joined by a fabulous group of contributors - these ladies vary widely in style, but they are all consistently amazing. i can't wait to share what they make for the class!

how about a little sneak? and oh yes, i broke into the disney photos. i do plan to limit the vacation snaps (it's not a "lisa scraps disney" class!), but i couldnt resist printing a couple favorites to start with.

the page about was made with the antiquary kits - and ALL of the class pages will be made with recent studio calico kits. so this class is a great way to dig into your kit stash and use some of them up!

lifted will feature daily PDFs from november 3rd-30th. i love the daily format for classes - it's a great way to be able to focus on / explore one idea at a time. each of those PDFs will contain a sketch, so you'll end the class with 28 new sketches.

the fabulous marcy penner of hello forever has put together some printables for the lifted classroom - they couldn't be more perfect. she'll also be making cut files, and i'll share those soon.

for those not familiar with studio classes, here's how it works. enrollment for lifted is open now through october 31st. i'll share more sneaks from myself and my contributors during october. once october is over, you will no longer be able to enroll, and the classroom will open on november 1st. i hope to see you there!

Studio Calico Antiquary

since my antiquary kits arrived, ben had pneumonia and was home sick for a week, and then we spent 8 days in florida. given that, i was a little short on paper + glue time. i did manage to make two pages and a PL spread - and i will definitely be revisiting this kit for an upcoming project i'm working on. if you're a subscriber, you can check out all of the kits and add-ons now. if you're not, that link will work at midnight tonight!

here's what i made with this month's kits : 

live creatively | i've been meaning to do a page about my work - and the live creatively stamp was the perfect jumping off point! i turned to a basic grid design for the main structure of my page, and tucked lots of little bits of paper here and there for more depth.

read | i'm loving the date stamp in the rome add-on, and wanted to use it as a starting point for this page. i stamped it in a rainbow of colors on white cardstock, and then watercolored in my date on the first one. i didn't love how that looked, so i ended up using a star punch over that to mark the date.

sam and i started reading the percy jackson series together after i had finished the journaling on this page, and he insisted that i add it to the list. since everything was already attached, i just went ahead and handwrote it below the typed journaling.

PL august 10-16 | confession : i was a photo slacker this week. i ended up consolidating it down to one page + a planned handbook insert on the 1st day of school - but i may do some digging on facebook and matthew's phone to see if i can come up with enough content to finish off a second 12x12 page.

to make the title card, i stamped the date stamp in navy and charcoal over an ombre watercolor background, and then watercolored over my dates in green.

there are some new shop items up at SC - i may have done a little shopping today as well. i just couldn't say no to sequins or the new cosmo paper pad. i'm a sucker for a little sparkle and basic papers! i thought the vellums in the cosmo paper would be a fun addition to my december daily. 

 

i feel like i have a TON to catch up on sharing here... including our trip (i haven't even started sorting through non-instagram pics)! but first, i have to catch up on sleep. we took a "we can sleep when we're at home" approach to our vacation. ;)

clearly

this boy reads all the time. books, store signs, boxes - anything that comes in front of him. no squinting, no straining, no struggling. so it was a bit of a shock to find out he was crazy far sighted in one eye - to the point where he couldn't ready anything below the "E" on the eye chart. 

we found ourselves at a pediatric opthamologist. and yes, he needed glasses. and no, he wasn't happy about it. but finally he settled on a pair of frames - and how cute are they on him?

i snapped a photo of sam while he was trying on glasses, and i knew it would be perfect for a layout about how we got to that point. i mixed studio calico's new thataway and storytime lines with some other bits and pieces that were on my desk (ie : it's easier to put it on a page then put it away ;))

this page is more about the story than anything else - once i typed out all that journaling, i knew the rest of it needed to be fairly simple.  i really wanted to record how we got to this moment.. a bit of layered paper, a few embellishments., a photo and a lot of words did the trick. you can see the supply list for this page in the studio calico gallery. 

and now, 6 weeks later, the glasses are a non issue. well, they get really dirty on a regular basis and he's temporarily lost them a couple times - but he puts them on first thing in the morning and doesn't mind wearing them. and he's still crazy cute in them. =)

PS : just a reminder that today is the last day to sign up for LETTERPRESS at studio calico! the class has already started and there is a ton of inspiration and techniques to try.

summer's end

since we're now almost 4 weeks into the school year, i guess it's time to say goodbye to summer. we didn't make it through the list, but we had a LOT of fun.

we saw a movie at midtown crossing.

we spent a lot of time at the pool. and it was pretty darn cold a lot of those days.

we spent a weekend in des moines - including a day at adventureland.

the big boys went to hummel camp, and got really, really dirty.

we spent a day in lincoln at the capitol and the children's museum.

we went to a stormchasers game, and matthew and his dad and the bigs went down to KC for a royals game.

and we did so much more. having that list up all summer pushed us to get out and check out some of the cool stuff our city has to offer. it gave us a plan for movie nights. it reminded us to balance those lazy days of summer with some cool adventures.

the list came down yesterday, and was replaced by a disney countdown. but as soon as that's done, sam wants to put up a fall list. i think he's on to something. =)

2013 December Daily™ - are you in?

yes, i know. it seems a litle crazy to be thinking ahead to the holidays when we've just barely gotten into the swing of back to school, and the temps are decidedly UNchristmas-y (high of 99 toay? UGH). but it's time to start making plans.

the 2013 december daily™ kit is up for preorder at studio calico. i got to see bits and pieces of this kit in person when i was in bowling green this summer, and i'm in love with the color palette. i'm also thrilled that the kit includes a handbook - having those little pockets to fill will be far easier for me than any other format. you can see more sneaks and preorder yours here. 

i've never finished a dd album. but i always try. why? because i love what i do record. because of photos like these. because taking the time to take notes every night reminds me to slow down at a very busy time of year. because time goes too fast, and i want to hold on to what i can.  

somehow it doesn't matter that these albums don't hold 25 days. they hold traditions, old and new. they hold snow days and making paper snowflakes when it just wouldn't snow. they hold favorite christmas movies, putting ornaments on the tree and making cookies. some of these events show up on pages or in my project life album, but they take on a different meaning when they're all grouped together.

so yes, i'm in for 2013. are you? 

lured into the mouse hole

in less than two weeks, we'll be making our first disney trip. as in, first ever, for all five of us. and the funny thing is, when we started planning this trip, we considered skipping disney all together.

we started talking about visiting florida because we wanted to go to universal and the wizarding world of harry potter. i've got three hogwarts fans, and at 12, 10 and 6, they're pretty much the perfect age to make a trip like this. our original plan was universal, beach, and MAYBE disney. the boys just aren't into disney characters, and we were uncertain if it would be worth it for us.

that, as you can imagine, made everyone say "you can't go to orlando without doing disney!!!!" - and so we reconsidered, and finally settled on booking two days at disney, a day at universal, and four days at the beach. we booked our orlando days at a disney resort, and found a hotel near cocoa beach.

and then the magic bands came. (for those that don't know, these bracelets serve as your room key / park admission / fast passes / restaurant reservation and can be tied to a credit card. they pretty much do it all. some of the resorts are currently testing them, and ours is one of them )and we started the nitty gritty planning that accompanies a trip like this. we're not to-the-minute disney planning, but wanted to show the boys the rides and make sure we hit what they wanted to do the most. lists were made. restaurants were considered.

suddenly, we're regretting not having more time at our resort. or time for epcot. and worrying about rainy days stuck in a hotel (WITH THREE BOYS) on the beach. and before you know it, we've cancelled the beach and are staying at disney for a week. just like that. i told matthew i was pretty sure the magic bands had been coated in disney crack.

we'll still do universal / harry potter. and we have a day scheduled just to hang around. we'll do a full on beach trip another year. but it's shaping up to be a very different trip than we first imagined.

we've been totally sucked in to the disney magic. and i can't wait.

basic grey blueprint | to the top

Basic Grey has been rocking my world lately - their Hey Boy & Hello lines made me fall in love at the start of the year, and releases like Hipster, Capture and Carte Postale are definitely keeping my crafty heart happy. I had a chance to play with some of their recent releases for a Blueprint post on their blog. You can see the piece that inspired this page and see a short q&a about me over at the BG blog!

wordless wednesday : three

oh me oh my...

....oh LETTERPRESS.

i have to admit - i'm more excited about this than i have been about any scrap product in a long, long time. and now that i have it in my hands? bliss.

studio calico is now stocking the lifestyle crafts l-letterpress platform, and has a collection of letterpress plates that work with it. and i have had such fun playing with it.

i put together a video for the studio calico blog that shows the platform in action. it really isn't hard, but there's a learning curve while you get the feel of working with the ink and how to line everything up. but the results? totally worth it.

tina aszmus is teaching a letterpress class at studio calico this month. the first lesson went up today, but due to delays in product coming in, enrollment is open till the 15th. i have a massive scrappy crush on tina and what she's producing for this class just confirms it. 

i will also be contributing to this class.. here's a peek at what i've made so far : 

if you're on the fence about letterpress, i'd recommend signing up for the class. you'll have access to the class material forever, and tina will be available on the class messageboard through 12.1.2013. seeing what this machine can do just might convert you. =)