:: park love ::

I'm up on the Paper Issues blog today!!!  Woot woot! I never get tired of saying that!  I'm lucky to be a PI girl! Paper Issues is my online happy place. 

  

There have been a zillion new things coming in to the Paper Issues store, and I buy all the things, so I grabbed the Color Chaos collection from Bella and got to work!  These photos are of my daughter's first park visit of the year! I love the bright & happy colors in this collection and I extra love how they worked with the photos!

To get in a little more fun, I made 5 of the 6 squares on the layout flip up to reveal either journaling, another photo, or just some fun papers and embellishments. I did this by using a cut file that I made in the Silhouette software.  Because I love you, that file is available to you for free here.  Here are a few photos of the flaps closed, and then opened:

 

(don't you love that shaker!!!! vellum + sewing + embellishment + sequins + fun)

 If you are interested in the Color Chaos collection (or just about anything else) I bet Paper Issues has it!  And rumor has it that there are a few more Swag Bags left!  Grab what you need (including the free cut file) and use the code orangegearle at checkout for  20% off your entire purchase!

..::photo walk :: squeezing the most out of mother nature::..

We had a picnic.

Jack Frost painted our view.

We ran, jumped and climbed.

There was swinging and just plain silliness.

We got our feet muddy and gooey.

But this was my favorite.

My scrappy time has been limited this week, partly because the weather has been so glorious.  The weatherman is suggesting I may get some inside time...very soon. 

~ makes me smile ~

Everyone says that you should write down the stories, so that later, when you scrap 'em, you remember them.  They also say that to do that you should have places to write it down available at all times.  I found this cute, striped, hard-cover, little notebook, added some washi and text and voila, I now have something to write down the stories that "make me smile".

Soon I will update you all on my park mini book progress.  I've sorta been at a stalemate because I've been trying to make a decision about just how to scrap the last time we took Mikaela to the park with us.  I made some decisions and progress over the last few days and hope to update soon.  I have family coming to town tomorrow and I've really been trying to spend as much quality time with B. as possible, so I've backed off a bit on the blog and the crafty projects!  If you recall, my mini book has mostly pink, green, a hint of blue, and orange (of course), with all orange stitching.  Well, one decision I made was that this page would have purple for Mikaela.  

Here are a few photos of my sweet B. over the last couple of days.  (I LOVE INSTAGRAM, BTW)!

~ summertime with a mini ~

School's out (yay!), but I'm not (boo)!  When I moved from classroom teacher to title one reading teacher, to literacy coach I made a gradual shift to more leadership duties.  As literacy coach I have an extended contract (only a few days) and end up working most of June (and did I mention that I am also taking graduate classes this summer?).  However, it's some of my favorite work and it's much more flexible time-wise, for that I am grateful! This means I also have a bit of time to think about projects and even a little time to do them!  Right now I have several things going at once, but I'll stick with one for now.  I hope to be able to share more often now that summer is here!  And with July just around the corner, I am optimistic about getting more crafty funness into my life!

Since Mikaela's accident we haven't gone to the park as often.  I'm not really sure why, it's not like we took her with us all the time or something that would make it more difficult.  I suppose some of it is related to going with her that last time, but I'm not sure. I also think that much of it is because we have a beautiful oasis in our own back yard!!

 

The rush of park visits early in the season, however,  have been enough to keep me busy with my park mini book!  I think I've found a pattern to this mini book that I like! With the exception of the first page or two I think my mini will have mostly the same format: a full 6x6 photo and four photos in a grid pattern for each event (Apparently, I'm into grids lately -- see this post).  Sometimes I will throw in a bonus (smaller) insert between them, and I hope to do a full 12x6 spread now and again.  Here is my first progress report on this project, it's hard to believe that I haven't worked on this since April 21st!

It's getting a bit thicker and stuff is sticking out!  I love it when stuff sticks out!


And here are the new pages (with products linked below):

This straight, to zig zag, to straight stitch, made it to my non-manifesto!
For the above page, I journaled right in the patterned paper.

Thanks for stopping by!
..::non-manifesto progress::..
stamped on washi :: zig zag stitch in the middle of straight stitch ::

Products used:
(most of the Washi is Recollections from Michaels, but I couldn't find it online to link it up, and the pink "climber" letters are from eksuccess/sticko found at Target, but not found to link either)  UPDATE:  for some reason the inLinkz  links aren't working!  Elise's stamp is here.  October afternoon is here. Ormolu custom flair is here.

~ in progress ~

I have so many things in progress right now; it's the end of the school year, my graduate class is wrapping up, I've started a few new work projects, I'm continuing with my OLW, and it's spring!  But, the main thing I would like to share today is the progress I've made on the minibook that I am working on.  I am excited about it and learning so much while I do this for the first time!  As mentioned in my last post, I chose a 6x6 format, and I am really happy with that!  Good choice, o.g.! One of the things that I really like about reading other people's blogs is the photographs, so you get photos!  I also like it when people talk about mistakes that they've made along the way -- and how they fix them! So, I will also include some of those.  And finally, I am also going to share the stuff that I learned on this new adventure (I'm certain some of that will overlap with the mistakes)!

The short version:

1.  Made many mistakes, some of which I was able to cover up without much to do, others were a pain in the rear end!

2.  Learned how to stitch in the backy-forthy way, and adjust the tension and length of stitches on my sewing machine.
3.  Decided to use all orange thread with stitching throughout this book; fits with my color scheme, makes me not have to change the thread and bobbin thingy, and it helps that it's my favorite color.
5.  Used mostly Bo Bunny's paper so far -- later you'll see some other patterned papers.

6.  Loving this project.

7.  Doing what I want.

(Keep reading for details and photos - click on any photo to make it bigger)

First of all, I had a difficult time starting this entire mini book because I was trying to figure out how many pages to allow for each outing to the park.  I take way too many photos (and I really stink at making silly, often unimportant in the big scheme of things, decisions)!  I got stressed out enough about it that I even emailed Elise Blaha for advice (I did get many of my "mini" ideas from her BIG mini workshop).  Of course she said exactly what I thought she would say -- it's your book, do what you want!  So I did.

I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to make the cover awesome, so let's start on the inside:

I made the title page first, and then remade it later (one of my learning experiences). First, I printed out the text and punched the right side with this American Crafts Knockout punch.  Then I moved on to the next page because I wasn't sure what I wanted for my title -- but I knew I wanted something along the side! Later,  I settled on "B loves the park" as my title.  I wrote 'B loves' on washi tape (that I purchased at Target and cut in half) used pink (pink for B) alpha stickers (also from Target) for "the park''.   This worked out well because I did make mistakes on this page (described later) -- and fixed the mistakes before I settled on the title text (no wasting the alphas, Yay)!

I discovered if I put the first photo over on the far left of page one and stitched around it, it would be totally cool because it would go around the text on the other side (the title page) perfectly, including the title I eventually put along the side.  So I did that. Enter first oops!  When I stitched the photo onto the page, it looked great -- then I flipped it over.  The stitching on the other side didn't look good at all.  I was right about the placement, but the back side of the stitching itself looked horrible on my title page.  I knew that it was probably something to do with tension or something on my sewing machine, but I know nothing about using the darn thing (proof, and a kinda funny story about that here).  So I started over, new photo, new title page, etc. For the final product, I ended up sewing around the photo before I glued it down.   Then I sewed the title page (also before I glued down the photo on the other side)...so it looks like I might've known what I was doing, but, I didn't.  Before I could do any of that I had to go to my LSS and pick up more paper (because I also printed it wrong several times, used the punch on the wrong side, and other silly, over-forty-brain issues), so I did the right side of the two page spread first, then went back and fixed my boo boo. Don't even get me started on the journaling!  Let's just say, it took several takes.  I ended up using my handwriting, but I tried it many ways!

For page two (close up on the left) I wanted to highlight my daughter and my one true love -- specifically the way they were looking at each other.  So I used the arrows (I like that part).  I just cut them 'free hand' out of some patterned paper.  Also,  I ended up really wanting to put in three swinging photos, and only two really fit, so I hid one! I used my cricut to cut out the text "just love this" (Opposites Attract cartridge).  To protect the hidden photo a bit, I put it in plastic (found some packaging laying around, cut it to size and sewed around it). 

On we go (and yes we are still on the first visit to the park...but I'm doing what I want).

This is actually a two page spread with a little insert (another way to get in a few more photos of this first day of the park season).  The left side is just an instagram iPhone photo printed 6x6 with an added sticker from one of my scrapbook circle kits.  I used a filter on the photo to make it look older (the filter is called 1977 and its included right in instagram).  I liked this photo because my soul mate threw the ball to B, and I took the photo just in time to catch it in the air.  I think it looks like a red balloon.  The right side is just two more photos from the red slide (she loved it that day).  I sewed on a "play" flash card from October Afternoon (Sidewalks) and some small alpha stickers (from another scrapbook circle kit).

The insert is from after the park.  We went to the orange leaf (a chain, frozen yogurt shop that recently opened on our side of town).  The decor at the store is very modern, and quite rad, if I must say so!  The  ice cream is...eh.  But I loved all the orange and green (of course).  They have these cute little orange spoons -- I brought one home thinking I might put it in the book.  I tried, but it was just too bulky for my taste, so I took a photo of it, fussy cut around it and used that instead. The other photos are iPhone photos that my better half took.  I printed them to look like they could be from a photo booth.  I stuck the photo strip and the spoon photo in a piece of plastic that I cut from something (packaging I think?), sewed around it, punched it with myWe R Memory Keepers Crop-o-dile  II, and then inserted it between the two pages.

The very first photo I printed out for this mini book was this one:

And I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted it for a two page spread.  Initially, I thought I would write all over it; do all of my journaling on this photo, but then I decided on just a quote.  Another uh-oh happened on this one.  When I stitched the "play" card onto the previous page, it looked horrible on this side.  So I covered it with a sticker and added the date!

Finally on to the second visit; a two page spread with a little something in the middle:

For the photos: I took my favorite photo from this day, made it 6x6 for a whole left page.  Next, the right side is just four photos from the day, made square in photoshop, then placed on the page in a grid.  Then I just machine stitched around it (and the backside looks normal - woot).  I think I might put some text in the middle, even if it's just a word, something similar to this.  But I haven't decided yet.  Any ideas?  I am completely serious when I say leave a suggestion in the comments, I'm currently stumped.

The something in the middle is the story! I cut a 12x12 overlay from Hambly Screen Prints into about 6x3 and then stitched it to my story (doubled sided story, printed using the printer).  THE STITCHING WAS NEW!  I didn't know how to stitch in that crooked, backy-forthy way (I'm sure those are the technical words for it).   While I was busy figuring it out, I also figured out how to fix the tension on my sewing machine!! WOOT!  (Lets just not mention that it was right in front of my face the whole time, and not difficult).  This means that I might actually be able to stitch something and use both sides of the stitch the way normal people do it!  Success!  (high five to me!)

I've been taking photos and writing down notes of the other park visits so far this year.  The hardest part is narrowing down the photos!  I think I'm six or seven visits behind.  I'm not sure if I will put every single one in the minibook.  That's what I set out to do, but I may need to back off on that a bit. It's April, and we've been at least eight or nine times!  If I can, I'd like to limit each visit to a two page spread...uhh..but I'm already eight pages in with only two visits documented, yikes!

Whew!  Congratulations to you if you made it through that long post!

~ park minibook ~

I'm not sure if it's wise or not but I've begun a new project!  A while back I downloaded Elise Blaha Cripe's BIG mini workshop.  Apparently I am obsessed with her stuff.  I've never created my very own mini book from start to finish -- so we'll see how this goes!  Woot!  Go me!

The idea started with a very early spring!  We are four to six weeks ahead of schedule in the weather department. This is really good news if you are B.  Why?  B. LOVES just about anything outside, but especially PARKS! With such beautiful weather, we have already gone to several different parks on multiple occasions. In fact, when I pick her up from daycare some of the first words I hear from her on a regular basis are, "Let's go to the park!".  When we go to the park, I usually have my camera and always have my iPhone, so pictures are taken, often too many.  Some of them are actually kinda good.  I decided I was going to have to do something with all these photos, and the mini book idea was born!

I revisited the BIG mini PDF that I downloaded from Elise and then watched a few of her Vimeo videos. She makes everything look so easy.  If you haven't checked out her blog, her etsy shop, or her workshops, you should give them a looksy.  I also like that she shows how to deal with mistakes.  She's probably almost 20 years younger than me (at least 15), but I could learn a few things from her in the "don't stress about it, just do it" department!

I've made some decisions (I know, hard to believe)!  I decided on a 6x6 mini book so that I can use 4x6 photos easily in both landscape and portrait form.  I also like the idea of a square mini book because I've become a bit addicted to Instagram, (easily follow me here) and most of my iPhone photos will be square, which works. I've also decided on a color scheme.  Orange (of course), pink (for B.), green (for my one true love), and I will likely throw in a bit of blue now and again.  I'm contemplating a chipboard cover, with funness inspired by this post by Elizabeth Kartchner.

I took a bit of time today to sort through my stash, gather and cut some papers to size, and I began the process of putting the papers together.  I also started looking through my photos and picking out my favorites.  I've even learned a few new things in photoshop, helping me get a few ready to print on the printer that I bought last month, when odd sizes are required.  I've only begun to think about the other photos that will be 4x6 and easily sent out for printing.  Because this is an ongoing project, lasting until the snow flies again, I imagine, it is going to be difficult to keep from making it too fat!  I think it may also be difficult to not get boring (there are only so many things at parks)!  To help with that, I decided (look at me, decisions all around!) that I will also include photos that I take of nature (and other stuff) while we are playing at these beautiful parks.

I have something rolling around in my head that I would love advice on, if someone is actually reading this!  Does anyone else worry about the fact that the mini book isn't really protected?  My traditional scrapbook layouts have plastic page protectors over each page.  But mini books seem so vulnerable!  Thoughts?  What do you do?