Going on a Horsie Hunt

going on a horsie hunt
Originally uploaded by akchristyn

You know sometimes it's the simplest pages and pictures that make me smile. This one tells the story about a stroll S and I took along the Highline Canal in October. Our mission was to find some horses and we met a couple of beautiful creatures as we enjoyed a fabulous fall day. I knew as soon as I saw the red and brown papers from Jenni Bowlin they would be perfect for this page. So happy with the way it turned out. Now if only I could get my hands on some more of these corrugated letters from Jillibean, yes I know I have a paper crimper and could make them myself, but where's the fun in that?

Friday Fill-ins and a Layout

1. You get what you deserve.
2. You gotta fight for your right to party. (yep, vintage beastie boys proof my brain can be pretty random)
3. It's hammer time.
4. That my brain is thinking in musical answers is pretty ridiculous!
5. I feel more of the holiday spirit this year than the past few.
6. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a...goodnight! (ok a little early on that one)

7. And as for the weekend, I vegged Friday night, today my plans include breakfast with Houston and a little crafting and Sunday, I want to watch the Broncos hand it to the Chiefs!

And now for a little layout, pretty happy with the way this one turned out. So many times, I'm afraid to cute paper up, it's just too cute...That was the case with the blue gingham, the other side looks like a reading primer from the 50's...after being in the stash for a couple of months, I finally allowed myself to cut it, and I'm so glad I did.

everyday moments

DSC_0005
Originally uploaded by akchristyn

Another layout from November Studio Calico goodies...one of my favorite things about kits I that they stretch my creativity, determined to get the most out of each one, I use things I wouldn't normally buy for myself like the paper I cut the weekly tabs out of or the flower card from Sassafrass. In the end, I'm grateful for the stretch, the pages turn out so much cuter---having a cutie like this to scrap doesn't hurt either.
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey(Green), Studio Calico(Daily Tabs)
Flower Card: Sassafrass
Brad: Basic Grey
Alphas: AC (green), Crate Paper(Yellow)

Ponder

Lots to Ponder...

How long will it take all of the snow to melt?

What happened to the Broncos?

When visiting friends why the dog jumps their fence and ends up in the neighbors yard, but won't jump back?

To take a nap or read a book for the last precious hours of a Sunday afternoon?

If I don't go to the grocery store today, will there be enough Halloween candy to sustain me for the night?

How did this girl get to be so cute?


I wish I could take credit for this page, but I lifted the combo from this layout by ArlaMo at Studio Calico.

Kraft Girls Kits --- Reveal Day!

I feel like I've only scratched the surface with this kit, can't wait to get deeper in throughout the month...

I know if Sienna wasn't on this page, you might wonder if it was really a Christyn creation...I'm in the midst of a mist addiction (cheesy I know, but I couldn't resist the word play). Until this layout the mist had been contained to chipboard and flowers, but Houston challenged me to spray a whole layout and so I did, plus a little misted bubble wrap ala Rhonda.


This layout is all about 'mr. man's' visit to the vet after he caused a fight at doggie daycare. The report card is one of 6 that combine to make one super fun piece of paper.


I love so many things about this picture, it needed a special layout. I 'borrowed' Rhonda's idea and made flowers with the text paper from Jenni Bowlin included in this kit.


Finally one with a cute picture of my dad and Sienna 'driving the boat', I love the grin on his face.

Sunday Scraps

pigtails

Now you know I don't really do New Year's resolutions, but I love my friend Arleigh's idea of monthly resolutions. A few months ago I decided that Sunday's would be my day to sort my scraps from projects created over the week. It's my one small step to keeping my scrappy studio in order. Occasionally, as was the case a couple of weeks ago before life got totally crazy, in the process I get inspired by combinations of papers in their color family. The papers in this fun layout all came out of the blue bag and I love the combo. I also love that this page came together in under an hour(super fast for me), of course this cutie pic of the little one doesn't hurt.

Hope you have a great week!

Video Fun

but not the usual kind you find here in Christyn land, but instead one made by me! Today is my first day to host the blog in kraft girl land and I wanted to do something special. The aha moment occurred about 8 am on Sunday...make a video... So, I sat down on Sunday and was determined to master iMovie and while 'master' might be a stretch at this point, I'm pretty happy with the results, happy enough to show off in two places...

This a 'not so' quick tutorial on making lace edges with various border punches. Hope you find it helpful.

It's Reveal Day

(in my head I can hear an HGTV host saying the title)

anyway...

If you've been visiting my blog over the past week, you know that I am over the moon with the August kit from Kraft Girls Kits . From the moment I peeked in the box through 4 layouts(yes 4! and to think usually I do 4 layouts in a month) and a special project, I cherished each element.

You can see all my projects along with others from the rest of the ubertalented design team on the KGK blog or our super duper brand new flicker group. We want to see your kit work there too!

Here's the first of my layouts, I think it's my favorite, but then again I still have lots of goodies to play with...

Be sure to check the main site, there's lots of goodies to come including...

• Instructions for this layout and projects from the other DT members (they might not be up yet, but will be very soon I'm sure)
  

• A chance to win a free kit! KGK will be sponsoring 52 weeks 52 Sketches the week of August 9^th and will be giving away one of the August Kits. (Although I would say you should plan on buying one too, really I could use two and I'm sure you could too. )
  

• There's will be a sketch contest for August, another chance to win goodies

• Plus there will be a chance to win a little goodie on the blog this weekend.

Seriously 3 chances for free goodies, who else does that?

But wait there's more...The November and December 2008 kits are 50% off and the March kit is 25% off. What are you waiting for, jump on over to the KGK site right now.

Sometimes...

Cleaning is a good thing, I was organizing my scraps last week and putting some pics away and came across these goodies...any chance of continued cleaning and organizing was out the window and instead my body found itself at the desk, when the mojo starts to roll, you've just got to go with it...I have the rest of my life to clean.

I think I may be the last scrapper on the planet to buy the Martha butterfly punch, I really don't know why I resisted so long...


Supplies: Pretty much everything from the BG Wisteria collection, ribbon from god knows where? and the aforementioned Martha punches.

Where oh where did my slick writer go?

Yay, I don't think there is a better feeling to finish with a project that has been in the works for a prolonged period of time. I started this little layout before my trip to Ak. I think I could have played it safe and mounted it on kraft or natural smooth and be done before I went to AK, but I really wanted to challenge myself to use a color background. Unfortunately the photos don't quite do it justice, so you may be saying 'she should have stuck with the kraft'...irl the cardstock is hot pink, super fun for summer.

This photo cracks me up, this is what Sienna's hair looks like post nap/pebbles styling when she manages to get the barrette or elastic out of her hair. I would journal all about it, if I could find my slick writer, off to buy a new one today, which is pretty much a guarantee I'll find my old one tomorrow. I have a couple of other 'favorite things' about this layout. First the butterfly, I used a spellbinder die to cut the butterfly and then dipped it in misted distress inks...want to do it yourself? Check out Jen McQuire's how-to video...careful it's addicting. Then I added glitter and sealed with super seal so the glitter would stay put. A little bling and some wire (salvaged from a bind it all project that went wrong) and this cutie comes to life. And just to show you how the ticket obsession is coming along, I layered the butterfly on top of a new SEI ticket that's glued to a Collage Press die cut ticket (it's a sickness, I tell you)


Speaking of things I can't get enough of...there's a Jenni Bowlin button in butterfly land, but was that enough...heck no! I cut three in half and used them along with small buttons to make a scallop border along the photo. Love how it turned out, no doubt this technique will show up on another layout at some point.


Supplies:
Patterned Paper: OA (stripe and polka dot), Studio Calico (Newsprint)
Embellies: Heidi Grace(pink journal square), SEI (bus ticket), Collage Press(blue ticket), Jenni Bowlin (buttons), AC (ribbon), Fancy Pants (colored buttons), Spellbinder(butterfly die cut), Kaiser (pink bling)

Hope your weekend was fantastic!

Let's pretend for a second that instead of the fabulous weather in Ak last week, it actually rained like I thought it would...I had planned to share these layouts, better late than never, right?

This one I did for Houston's birthday, I feel so blessed to have her as a friend.
Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket, Studio Calico, October Afternoon, Collage Press
Alphas: QK BeautyQueen, others hand cut from SC paper
Embellies: Making Memories, Collage Press, Jenni Bowlin


This layout is all about Sienna showing off her body parts...




Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants
Journaling Spot: Ali E brush from Designer Digitals printed on Kraft, Making Memories tiny alphas
Embellies: Fancy Pants Buttons, Bazzill Flower


She loves stuffed animals, so when I found these barrettes at a gift shop I knew they would be perfect, good thing I didn't expect them to stay in her hair very long...


Patterned Paper: Sassafrass
Alphas: American Crafts thickers
Journaling: Ali E. for Designer Digitals printed on kraft
Embellies: Tim Holtz tickets




This pic is actually from a few years ago, but it could have easily been last week, in fact if I hadn't done this layout right before I left I probably would have come home with an identical photo. More cosmo early bird, I love this paper, it makes me so happy every time I look at it, in this one I fussy cut the pinwheel paper to make it eyelet like.



Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket
Embellies: October Afternoon stickers, Making Memories frame and buttons, AC ribbon
Journaling Spot: Collage Press

Pretty Please with a Cherry on Top

What's not to love about a sticker with that phrase? I took the plunge and bought a Studio Calico kit this month...ok you caught me I bought 2 kits...the main and the Cherry Pop add on...I rationalized the second kit knowing the Houston really wanted it and fear that she didn't have internet access while in the wilds of Yosimite. I was prepared to give it all away and then...it came with it's bright cherry stickers and papers and well...we split the kit. Main kit is full of Cosmo goodness which I usually have a hard time cutting into, but since I had special ordered a full kit of just that I had now problem punching a few circles out of one of the papers...and the circles kept coming. This is one of those layouts that completely evolved as elements came together. It started with a polka dot background, color photo, a fussy cut flower, and punched circles. Polka dots got switched for kraft and I had polka dot letters but then the gingham ribbon practically jumped on the page by itself and I needed more red out with the chipboard letters and in with stamped letters...which didn't match the colors in the photo...finally at around 9 it all came together and I love it.
Patterned Paper:Cosmo Cricket
Alphas: AC Tickers (ooh peacock chip, yum!) OA stamps
Embellies: Jenni Bowlin(chipboard buttons), K&Co Bling, OA(Cherry, Polka stickers), QK (rings, leaves from re-use set)
Ribbon: Michaels

Monday Quote

“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.“ – Eleanor Roosevelt

Sunday is challenge day in designer digitals land...or at least it's the day I discover the challenges...the best thing about challenges there is that they come with freebies. Yay! Of course Sunday also has .25 cent items too, which have led me down a spending path the couple of weeks, who wants to charge .50 cents? Clearly I'm not alone, it must work out pretty well for the site or they have a great credit card contract that doesn't charge a fee for each purchase...I digress...the challenge is what this post is really supposed to be about. Secret Desires, what a perfect thing to think about, of course traveling immediately popped into my mind, perfect except that it's not much of a 'secret', so I altered the challenge just a bit.

This great overlay by Anna Aspnes was part of the challenge, it made for an easy page to come together...and who doesn't love an easy page?

Since it's so easy, I challenge all of you in bloggie land to scrap this topic, I promise it will be a fun one. Want to use the template? Go get it here. (you'll need a designer digitals community account to access it, I know one more account blah, blah, blah, but this one is TOTALLY worth it, I promise)
Hope you have a great week!

Ink-a-licious

You know it's a good weekend when your hands look like this at the end of the day on Sunday. With MK's birthday card I seem to have rediscovered my lost love of sponging and other ink and paper combos that I played with all weekend and now my hands look stained.


I also worked in a less mess format on this digi page about Sienna and her ever expanding vocabulary.

Patterned Paper: MTeresawa, Designer Digitals (Beautiful Day floral)
Elements: AEdwards, Designer Digitals (Details), KPertiet, Designer Digitals(Stacked Vintage frames) MTeresawa, Designer Digitals(Ric Rac, Sticker, Tab)


This age is one of my favorites as the vocab expands seemingly on a daily basis and the never ending struggle to decipher what she is really saying. I was also reminded how much toddlers thrive on routine. I stopped by to visit her at her Nana's on my way home from site visits on Friday and it took the poor thing 10 minutes to try and make sense of me at Nana's, that's never happened w/o one of her parents there at the same time.

And as the weekend fades away, I'm celebrating a goal met...check out the number of May posts...33 baby, I did it plus a couple of bonus entries. Yay Me! Bring on the new month...

Mix it up...

Just wanted to reassure all that despite my recent forays into the digi world, I'm just as content to push paper around for hours, and while this layout ended up being super simple, it sure didn't start out that way...I tried fussy cutting and then some pleating and I forgot what else, but in the end I came home to stacked flowers and tiny alphas, you just can't beat them for the perfect pop of color.

Patterned Paper: MME(dotted background), Cosmo(Title, Stripe)
Embellies: Primas, unknown button
Alpha: Making Memories

Bubbly Toes

So this was the layout I started a few days ago and mentioned that it wouldn't really fit with the blog. Distressed and vintage papers on a layout about modern tech just didn't jive, go figure remember I started working on after my bedtime, but with a picture of cute baby toes, what could be better?

Template: Katie Pertiet, Remembering You Designer Digitals
Patterned Paper: Jessica Sprague Thank You Kindly Kit(peachy floral), Rhonna Farrer 2 Peas(Brown Distressed) SBetc. Sweet Country
Elements: J Edwards Smoothie Shop Designer Digitals(Stitching), Ali Edwards Designer Digitals(Blessing of You)

Reflect

"Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some" Charles Dickens

This week my ever wonderful friends at google reader recommended the 'One Little Word(OLW)' blog, I love it! (totally stole the quote from OLW) I wonder if I've been under a rock or so lost my own little world to have missed it for so long. I met the lovely Rhonda P at Emily's house not so long ago, it was great to see more of her work and some other uber-talented scrappers. If you've missed it too, definitely worth checking out. This weeks word is reflect, couldn't be more perfect for my little space of cyberspace, with that as a jumping off point, I returned to my idea of a digi-page celebrating the 100th post and thinking about why I blog. I think it's a little funny to scrapbook a blog that's about scrapbooking.

Despite the fact that it feels like 'little old woman who swallowed a fly...' sound in my head to do this page, it was excellent to really think about this blog, what my goals are and remember why I spend the time to develop it. Hopefully it will be a reminder to me for 'those days' when the last thing I want to do it blog, those are the days I probably need to do it most. Reflection, indeed.

Patterned Papers: JEdwards Designer Digitals(Smoothie Shop:floral, stripe, hotpink) RFarrer 2 peas(green scallop)
Elements: MWise Designer Digitals(Reflect), SBetc(ribbon), JSprague(Scratchy overlay, recolored)

Basket Babe

Nothing says Easter like pink bling, right? This is another one of those layouts that's been in limbo, I started it at Emily's house month or so ago and just put the finishing touches on this past weekend. I think you can see the title better in real life, but maybe not.

Weather is starting to lean towards hot summer days, I was in Greeley yesterday and the carmometer said 95! Blah, spring can never last long enough for me, I would be so happy to live somewhere where it was spring all the time... maybe a week or two of fall and then back to spring...and lilacs and tulips bloom year round. Is there such a place? In my dreams...probably so

Hey Little Girl...

I honestly can't remember if I've shared this page or not, it's hard to believe that I haven't, it's become one of my favorites from the past couple of months. I love it so, because the photo so accurately portrays S for the fun, quirky, little girl she is quickly becoming. Often content to chatter away to herself, if no one else is listening.

Layout of the Day...

Do you ever feel like you get into a grove and you start to see particular patterns emerge everywhere you look, it happens to me quite often (perhaps because of the unusual amount of tetris I played in my younger days). Lately that pattern has been grids, everywhere I look...websites, scrappy mags, online galleries, I'm drawn to the grid. So I decided to try it on a layout myself(yep the layout I've been talking about since I began my foray into digi is the same layout) I also wanted to try out Emily's great tips on making pleated flowers she posted on the Studio Calico blog a couple of weeks ago(how time flies) oh yeah...and...I wanted to work in some stacked frames that I see Paula use all the time. And maybe that's the problem, individually I love all of the elements, together I'm not so sure...but two weeks is about the longest I've ever fussed with a layout and I'd say it's about time to lay down the cards on this one and walk away. Time to start something new, don't you think...


Note to self: I've been spoiled by my work machine with the full version of PS where cropping and straightening is a breeze. Trying to see if 'I can live with' just photoshop elements; definitely need to research how to do the perspective crop at some point.


Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Wisteria)
Frames: Katie Pertiet
Embellies:Tim Holtz (tickets), Making Memories (Button)