Thursday, December 13, 2007

YEAH FOR ME!

Alright, why am I excited? Well, I may not have won the contest, but I was still asked to join ScrapStreet. I'm glad to join for alot of reasons, but as I read through there website, I am staying for one. ORGANIZATION!!!!!!! They have rules for Quality with a capital "Q." Wow, other places I've seen, this doesn't seem to matter as much, so I feel like this is a good fit for me right now.

The holidays are really close now, and it's not that I feel overwhelmed by any means, I just feel like I'm not able to enjoy them like I want to. Lately I don't have TIME to be with my family. Maybe it's just up to me to get that back. We need a Family Day. I want to scrapbook, with paper, with my daughter.

She is so grown up now, only 3.5, but god, she's not my baby any more. I finally bought her big girl bed lastnight and we're dismantling the crib tonight and putting together her bed so she can sleep comfortably. It makes me tear up a little, not just because she will now be able to get up at 3am if she feels the urge, although we're putting up the gate in front of her door again simply as a precaution. But, it signals the very end of anything baby. No more high chair, diapers and pull ups have been gone for 6 months, sippy cups are on there way out. Sitting on my lap has been done for about 2 years, and now the finality is a bummer. But, now we'll be able to go into her room and really see a Big Girl! My big girl. No more Goobie, now "I'm Stella!"

Thursday, December 6, 2007

What I've Been Up To.

So I entered a contest over at ScrapStreet.com and while I really enjoyed myself, it was probably the most strenuous thing I've done in a long time. I wish I'd had the chance to be involved in this contest and not have to work a regular job. It was just very hard to find good solid blocks of time to do what I wanted. I feel like I would have been able to do better work if I'd been able to give myself more time. So, here are the other pieces I designed for this contest. I won't know how I faired until tomorrow, but all I need is for someone to like what I do, that's enough for me. Because, if you have enough people that like your work, well then you have a following, now don't you.






















My designs are the papers sort of in the background. I really like the trend of the office style papers, so I just put my own spin on them, by using none tradish colors and adding some cool elements simply made from many dots of different sizes. This round of the contest was done to collaborate with another designer to create a combo kit. I think it was pretty successful when combined with the cool Rusty Memory elements created by S&C Designs.






















This round I needed to create a kit using a specific number of elements, solid papers and patterned papers. The inspiration from this came from my little brother whom is a musician and the color palette was one I've just always liked. Typically both the color palette and theme come about simultaneously. Not always, but about 95% of the time. I was really happy with this and don't care what comes of the contest, I am proud of what I've accomplished.























The last challenge was to create an alphabet and number 1-10 for kit. I just wanted my alpha & #'s to match my wood grain and look "Well Worn" with holes in them. I think I achieved the look I was going for and again I am proud. We also had to create 2 layouts, one using another persons kit and one using our new kit.
























I used CactusMANGO Designs Urban Tropics kit for this twist on the tradish Christmas layout. I really like it, and feel like it doesn't need to be red & green to show me it's Christmas time.























And finally, here is the layout using my kit, obviously featuring my inspiration, my brother Joe. He is a really amazing person and hope that he finds true happiness someday. On this layout I used a very cool Photoshop action to achieve the photo collage look. It can be found at www.panosfx.com

So, you can wish me luck if you like, but really, I'm just happy when I am able to create, and simply telling me if you like my work, puts just as big a smile on my face as if I were to win the Mega Millions lottery.
Thanks.