The flyness of flair (buttons)

Guess how long I've been dying to add the word "fly" (as in AWESOME) to a post title?
Forever!
WOOOOT!
Today I want to share a couple of pages that will be going up over at the A Flair For Buttons blog.
I. LOVE. Flair Buttons.
Thankfully mine come with no strings attached.
Unlike:

How NOT to use flair. Jennifer Anniston in Office Space. 

Guuurl I KNOW how you feel- work place MADNESS!
But that was then- this is NOW. (Now is ALL the awesome AND some sauce on the side).

First page up:

Sunday Sunshine Baby- that's my nephew Kaine when he was just a year old.
Materials: A Flair for Buttons woodgrain Days of the Week, Gauche Alchemy corrugated board, woodgrain punchinella and sequins, Sassafras Lass paper, stickers and die cuts, Crate Paper alphas and a Prima newsprint vine- oh and chevron and mini banner dies from "My Favorite Stamps".

How about this one?:

Capture Happy.
This was  a page I made for Gauche Alchemy last year and I remember thinking how I wish I had some plain white
word buttons- funny how life works out huh?
Materials: Gauche alchemy White mixed media color kit and clear punchinella, A Flair For Buttons Cameras flair pin and Word flair button, Happy pin from Joann's, Maya Road corrugated clouds and straight pins. 

I think you should swing by A Flair for Buttons blog and check out what the new Design Team (me included!) has come up with.
There is something for everyone- clean and simple scrappers, retro or altered item makers, romantic style scrappers, graphic designers of all types- Shelley has something for everyone.

Some project detail shots:

Mono chrome pages- I need to make more! They are FABULOUS.

I liked the plain wood print on the back of the letter "K" so I flipped it over but had to cut
parts off. It looks wonky but the color works. Sassafras!!! I MISS YOU! Come back! 

Brown cream and yellow together- it was by pure chance but I LOVE how the
girlie flower stuff got layered on there and the page is still pretty gender neutral.
Those A Flair For Buttons woodgrain days of the week? TOO AWESOME!

You go on and have a great weekend you hear?
My sister is in town- YAAAY!
We are gonna paint the town several shades of sunny yellow! I will take ALL the photos! And make ALL the happy sisters together pages. (woot!)

Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. This was my favorite piece. Someone
ripped the black subway poster backing right off the wall and took it home- smart cookie!

MuChOS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Vellum circles ROOOOCK!

Over the weekend I had sort of a mini scrappy break down.

I gave away 3 boxes worth of stuff to my aunt who wants to get into scrapbooking.

I threw out a lot of "scraps" I had been saving for Project 360.

Have you noticed I haven't posted a Project 360 page in over 6 weeks?

It's just so much effort!

I think I will re-imagine the project as simple paper and photos- no matching embellishments. 

Just till I get back into the swing of things. 

I LOVE looking at the 8 pages I have from January but they took several days each to complete.

Here is a quick page I made while Miss Lola napped for today.

Materials: Crate Paper, Gauche Alchemy washi tape, Ormolu fabric strips and journaling spots,
Ali Edwards sentiment stamp (I wish my hand writing looked like that), Fancy Pants coffee filters,
Smash arrow clips (LOVE!!), vellum and Fiskars circle punches. Also the new K & Co label maker.
 I LOVE that thing!! It's so easy to use!!!

This is just a fun page to get the creative juices flowing.

I only made 4 original pages in May! 

Scrappy disaster! Everything else was a redo- all I see in my pages lately are the mistakes.

The photos on this page were taken with the Photobooth app. 

The photos are incredibly well defined for low rez so I think I will be using that app more often- each photo in the strip is 600dpi do you can enlarge them to 3 by 4 with very little noise.

A few detail shots:

Loving turquoise and red together lately.
K and Co arrow shaped paper clips will need to come home in multiples.
They are so tiny and perfect!

Punching vellum should have occurred to me sooner! I love using transparent items on my
pages because they add so much detail without cluttering things up. I'm given to adding
and adding till I just can't fit anything else so making pages like this is new for me.

So what did you accomplish this lovely long weekend?

The Eastern Oracle by Heather Hart over at The Brooklyn Museum.
You get to climb a roof! Awesome sauce!

MuChOs SmOoChEs!

Michelle

Gauche Alchemy Goodness- color, pages, messy fun-ness

Once again I am struggling with lack of mojo.
Not because the ideas aren't there but because when I approach the table, my mind goes completely blank!
How could this be?

In bed? GENIUS IDEA! OMG can't wait to wake up tomorrow and get started!
In the park with Miss Lola? AWESOME motif and journaling ideas! Can't wait to get home and KICK PAPER BOOTY!
In the shower. woo hooo paper pattern combo to die for!!! Lemme just finish washing my hair...
While I'm walking. Oooo! PHOTO! PHOTO!!! layering technique madness!
IDEAS! Flow! Excitement!
Step up to the plate?
blankness
seas of white
tv static- brain ones

The secret to get over it (I've heard and have started putting into practice) is to work through it.
NO! Don't throw away that perfectly hideous piece!
Stop
Look at it.
Why did you feel the need to add that color?
Why did you choose that photo?
The papers or embellishments?
If you find your temples thrumming take a step back.
Ok walk away entirely and do something else for a while.
But try to come back, ok?
There is a reason for everything.
You may not find out why you made that first version of your project but you may dig up a kernel of something you can work on next time.
So here are 2 "first drafts" (which I really like)

Why is this a first draft?
 I love the color and that I used a photo that was printed on the wrong side of the paper by mistake (hence the title) but the design is lacking (or frankly, non-existent). I thought I should paint a window in the Hambly transparency but soon realized I would have to use a craft knife to make a blank space for the photo but my hand cutting skills are severely lacking so I chickened out. Next time I'll take this to the next level and cut that window out.

A page using the Gauche Alchemy Monstrous Mutant Robots from Outer Space Kit and some blue punchinella.
This is up over at the Gauche blog today. I've used washi tape on both these pages to make random lines- I love that design element. I also love triangles and arrows so they go in. This is actually a SECOND draft. The first one was too strange looking. Here I ignored the crowded print and decided to just flow with the robots and add as much color to the page as I could. There is a more effective design solution for this- I haven't found it yet.

WHOA! Now that I see the pages together I see I've scrap lifted myself! That happens a lot lately- I really need to start making sketches in advance.
Also? LOVING the strips of circles or arrows!! Will be doing that more!
See? Already winning!

And you?
What are some mojo kick starters or pages you think are "almost there"?
Leave a comment!
 I can swing by and help you out (or most likely- leave raving love all over your blog)

Street poster- so cool!!!

Thanks for spending time here!
Michelle

Explaining yourself. Don't do it.

Now that I'm on Pinterest I see thousands of awesomely designed meme quotes.
Apparently these have been around for a while.
I just wasn't plugged into Tumblr or other digi spaces where graphic designers get open on quotes and make them into fun bits you can share.

Here's one:

And another:

A run-in with a friend this week has taught me- when someone steps in the crap...
Call them.
Tell them they stepped in the crap.
Listen. listen. listen.
If they get huffy just say you will call them back and go away for a while.

DON'T- DO. NOT. try to explain why you are angry over email.
Don't do it three times.
Most people- friends, family, your kids, your co-workers- humans in general- will not read the email the way you intended it.
They will read this: "You suck. much. suckage. lots. you. forever."
You could be the most eloquent.
The MOST fair.
The MOST righteous.
But being right isn't the point in a relationship- especially a long term one.

And perhaps you (me- always me- me me me) are in an altered state due to whatever stuff you managed to dredge up from the bottomless depths.
This "stuff" is great for creativity and originality but also puts the "crazy" in
"That (Colloquial Feminine Term) is (Out)house rat KEE RAY RAY!"

You might not have an idea how angry you are until someone (your sister. who reads Shakespeare. who knows all about people who think in poison daggers)
This person of truth says:
"DUUUDE- you're like- AGGRO. all. the. time. these days!"
To this you say- "WHAAAAT? Insert LAAAME-O excuse here!"
Add another one for good measure: "Lameity, lame, lame!!"
The lady doth protest too much.

You thought you were happy. ????? You tell everyone you are SO. HAPPY!
Diane Keaton in "First Wives Club" SO. HAAAPPYYY!!!!

"Doing GREAT! Couldn't be BETTER!!!"

What. is. up?
You take mental inventory:
"On my (BLEEEP!) list..."
Holy COW!
EVERYONE!!!!

You (remember- ME- I mean ME) get into a MAJOR tiff with someone you love and want to keep around because they are generally awesome if a bit judgey pants (but only sometimes).... (and only because they care).... (and because they value different things)
Which is WHY these different type people are valued and loved and appreciated.
 (silently apparently???).
So that "tiff" turns into a nasty fight.
And before you know it.
No more friend.

So the question is- how many times does this happen before you realize the problem is you?
You could blame the friend (or the family member or the co-worker)
You could get all huffy and post emo FB statuses that put-off EVERYONE.
You could say you are trying to stay real and only want people around who really appreciate you.
But in the end, you are alone.
REAL, but alone.

Balance and perspective.
That is what is required.
You make that call.
You make the obligatory apology.
Then you wait and hope the offended party..
 (who admittedly started the whole thing but really, who's counting? You ARE 38, right? Not 8! You wish you were 8. 8 would mean it's still socially acceptable to throw a tantrum. Tantrums are ALL the awesome sauce- but only when YOU do it. If someone throws a tantrum and you happen to be around, it's ALL the suck)
...hope the offended party comes back.

Did you learn from this experience?
Will it happen again?
You have a toddler.
Will you let it happen when she's 10? When she's 15?
When she's 21?
You have a husband.
He said do not write emails.
He said do not go on Facebook.
He said look! SQUIRREL!
But you did not go chase the squirrel.
You let the dogs out and they pooped all over your friendship.
Pick up the pieces.
pieces pieces pieces.
Put them back together again.
paste paste paste.
Oh no! I see the cracks!
But in some circles, that's called texture.
It adds character to the work.
Your life.

Two sides to everything. Two sides.

MuChos SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Funny story. WHY HAMBLY??? WHY? And also, SWAG!

A card made with Gauche Alchemy's Neon Color Kit.

Happy Monday folks!
The plan was to get all emo with my latest dramz but all that has to be pushed aside because frankly- who the heck wants to hear all that nonsense, right?
We ALL have trials and tribulations.
I was in the subway yesterday and this dude was asking for money and his story reached "The Iliad"proportions so I gave him a dollar and a smile.

I usually avoid the smiles when I had over the duckets (that's a link to the Urban dictionary- read definition number 5 and laugh yer tail right off)
Smiling signifies an approachable nature and before you know it, you are listening to a smelly dude talk about space aliens zapping people to make them compliant.
TRUE. STORY.

By the way- were you one of the lucky ones who got to see the partial solar eclipse yesterday?
LUCKY YOU!!!!!!
Am I gonna get to see a photo?
LINK IT UUUUP, YO!

Nasa' s "projection" of what you got to see if you lived in
the western part of the US. I won't hate on you TOO much.

Anyway, back to my story...
So about a year ago, this smelly homeless guy sits next to me as Lola and I rode the subway to Central Park. He talks very closely and  intensely about aliens and their culinary particulars for 4 entire stations. (The equivalent of an eternity in terms of nasal comfort).
All because MISS LOLA was all cute and cuddly and smiled at him and said "GOOO!"
BETRAYED by my toddler!
I managed a hasty: excusemeIgottagothanksfortheveryinterestinginformationbutthisismystop...
as I got up and rammed our cheap 35 dollar Chicco stroller into a random pair of ankles in my NEED to expeditiously extricate myself from said conversation.
BING BONG! Slam! went the subway car doors behind me.
Whew! SAFE!
MISS LOLA! NO MORE STARING AT DUDES ON THE SUBWAY!

The smile that attracts thousands- not MINE! Hers!

So I don't smile.
I wear the dog face.
Luckily, the new and improved terrible Twos Lola (or LOLZ 2.0) is more interested in screaming at the top of her lungs that she MUST walk around the subway car and impersonate a human pin ball right this very SECOND! NOW! NOW!! NOW!!!
Which does WONDERS for magically rendering subway seats empty and cancels out the yammering of alien tale-tellers (but not the smell- alas).

So I give up the goods if someone impresses me with their personal version of Paul Bunyan's flap jacks.
Some people would say I'm a fool to encourage that behavior.
Well, I love me a good story and this guy had a major brain disease, Iraq War veteran status, 3 hungry kids (WHY always 3? ALWAYS!) and an electric bill to pay. (electric bill? POINTS FOR RANDOM!)
But WAIT that's NOT all!
He had gotten stabbed several times and was showing the wounds to anyone interested.
HELLO! Positively Homer-rific!
So I paid up.
It's what you do when you live in the city.

By now you are all "I've lost 10 minutes of my scrap blog reading time! WTG MICHELLE!"
Sorry guys.
Maybe you are all: "Why all the emo, Chellster?"
(You can call me that- it would make me happy)

Hambly has decided to call it quits.
If I can't get emo about that I don't know WHAT is worth a good cry.
I've heard rumors that Art Director Allison Kreft Abad is now teaming up with Echo Park so it's not ALL ruin and devastation.
If you can confirm this piece of news for me I would GREATLY appreciate it.
AS IF Echo Park could possibly get MORE awesome!

Also this (which cancels most of the regularly scheduled emo):

I KNOW! Right?
Totes SWAGADOCIOUS!
(NOPE! I did NOT make that up- you can look it up in the Urban Dictionary- my source of choice)

I went to the Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum last weekend.
If you have the chance you should go. 

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle