All The Things, Not Really

It's been 5 whole years since I last looked around this space.

Everything has changed- the paper crafts industry, how we communicate via Social Media, Politics (don't get me started). 

Most of my favorite scrappers have stopped fussy cutting and gluing paper.

I couldn't sit down long enough to do it myself. 

Who cares? I would ask.

But I still love paper and I still love taking photos. 

My family moved to Utah 9 years ago.

We struggled for a while trying to get our footing on a vastly different cultural landscape.

We bought a new computer so I could get back into the swing of things but I relied on someone who made many promises about his tech skills- he promptly deleted all the photos on my old Mac hard drive. 

Flickr became a paid space and I lost most of my digital archive.

On and on.

Thank goodness I got into scrapbooking and had many photos printed.

This is why the hobby is valuable. 

No need to make it stressful. 

I don't have an amount of pages I need to get done or an amount of photos I need to get into an album. I just take it one project at a time.

Some pages from like 3 to 4 years ago:

The kid is now in 4th grade. 😁

This we REALLY LOVE now: Camping and National Parks
You're gonna get a see a lot written about both.

Utah is seriously beautiful. Brooklyn is exciting, current and beautiful but the quiet of the desert and the sight of fresh snow on the Wasatch Mountains has totally done me in.

And I picked up another long term expensive & totally engrossing hobby:

Gardening

This was last Summer's final harvest after a full season of frustration.
Between bugs, too cold, too hot, too much water then no water for three months I was glad to get this.
Gardening is not for the Pessimistic.

The kid:

Then

Now

So that's the update. I'l be checking in more often now. 

Maybe I'll even pick up some new web design skills so I can update this page. 

Watch this space!

Great Salt Lake Park Marina is currently growing salt crystal formations usually only seen in Mars or Antarctica.
So go see them.

Michelle.

Inspiration Elevator Challenge- scrappy layers

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond the mundane.
You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges at on Facebook .

 This month's challenge is issued by the creative Katherine Sutton. Katharine has a fabulous, eclectic style where she showcases all kinds of mediums and keeps the focus on her great photos. This month she has a warm seasonal challenge for us. Here it is in her own words:

" 'cos Autumn is all about layers of leaves and layers of jumpers (in the northern hemisphere) I would like to challenge you to add lots of layers to your page....this could be layers of paints, inks, stamps, papers, glassine paper, acetate....lots of lovely layers."

 My page started as a mass of pop dot clusters all over the page but I realized I wanted a more clean look because I wanted to display this page in my office..

Papers, die cuts and chipboard are all Crate Paper. Flair is from A Flair For Buttons on Etsy.

I lost my precious iPod Touch a couple of weeks back so I had very little material to work with.
Thankfully a friend who lost her entire photo library last year (THE HORROR!!!) convinced me to back-up everything up into iCloud so my photos are safe.
I just don't have access to them till I buy a new Mac device and since I refuse to pay outrageous data charges or buy a new iTouch with an inferior camera it's gonna be a while before I can print my pix.

Die cuts are the easy way to create layers. 

We encourage you to check out each designer's creation this month: here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!

 Katherine Sutton

Lisa Moen

Lisa Speigel

Ann Jobes

Michelle Hernandez 

Jayne Morgan

Christa Uttley 

Wendy Robinson

Why not give the challenge a try yourself? Then pop by our Facebook page and share with us what you created!

I have a second back up- Flickr. So this fall photo is safe.

Thanks for swinging by!

Inspiration Elevator Challenge- Scrapping loss

This week's Inspiration Elevator theme- surviving loss really speaks to me.

As scrapbookers, journalists in our own lives, image creators via social media, we often forgo
getting real for keeping things light and positive.
There's something to be said for that, after all, those who love you already know your trials.

But talking publicly about what's really happening in your life is also a fantastic means for catharsis. And for finding out how you really feel.
Sometimes the most important stories are the saddest.
Those are the stories that show personal heroism and tenacity- true character.

Journaling, photographing, getting creative with talking about the hard times helps me immensely.
The main benefit is in helping me work out how I truly feel.
It keeps the negative inner talk to a minimum and helps me gain perspective.
Most importantly, it makes those little moments most precious.

As usual, I worked on this late at night so my lighting for the photo is way off- my apologies.
My page is about my marriage. Lately our communication has been fraught with negativity.
I wonder about the nature of our bond, is it strong enough to withstand all the external frustration we feel in our current economic and housing situation?
 Am I doing all I can to keep it strong? Could I lose the central relationship in my life?
That second questions scares me because I've always thought my marriage was strong.
I waited a very long time and made sure I was emotionally ready for the marathon.
My page isn't about loss.
It's about the fear losing something precious engenders.
I realized love doesn't change in a relationship but it can take second place over ever changing challenges if you let it.
I won't let it. And I made a page to remind myself.

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond the mundane.
You can catch us on Facebook  and share your creations there; we'd love to see how we have inspired you!

This month we are thrilled to welcome back as a guest designer with our team, the artistic and genteel, Scarlett Salomone. Her creative works are as lovely as she is!

This month's challenge is issued by the talented Wendi Robinson. Her first time to issue a challenge for IE and it's a great one! Here is her challenge in her own words:

LOSS... One thing we as scrapbookers do is post about lots of happy things, wonderful moments, things that make us smile, and things we want to remember. Too many times we avoid scrapping the not so memorable, or sad times. Most of us have experienced a loss of some kind, whether is be a loved one- sometimes it's expected, sometimes the loss comes too soon and unexpected. Other times we lose a pet, a job, feel like we've failed at a situation, or loss of a friendship. This time, let's scrap those harder moments that come into our lives. Scrap about a LOSS of some kind.

Wendi Robinson

Katherine Sutton

Lisa Moen

Ann Jobes

Guest Designer: Scarlett Salamone

Wonderful challenge Wendi!
Swing by the blogs and see what the other designers have done to represent their personal challenges and triumphs.

I hope you are inspired and take a swing at the challenge for yourself.
Remember- little moments matter

Guess which pre-schooler is mine?

Inspiration Elevator- public display scrapbook challenge

Welcome to another month of Inspiration Elevator!

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond the mundane.

You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges at our blog and catch us on Facebook and Instagram (soon!) too.

This month's challenge is issued by the innovative Michelle Hernandez. Michelle's style is about telling the story with a clean and simple, yet artsy approach, an awareness of current trends, and garnished with her use of chipboard and often neutral colours.

Here is her challenge for us, in her own words:

The challenge for June 15th is- make a public scrapbook page. You are making a page to go up at work or to give away to a family member to put up in their space. In your blog post you will tell us how knowing this page isn't going in a book or in your home changed your style. Did you go all out and make something that is 3D? Did you suppress your love of a particular color or product? How do you feel about the page being public- outside your regular audience of scrapbook lovers who read your blog or open your books at home?



Sorry for the fuzzy page- I work off my ipop and apparently Blogger doesn't like
whatever programing language ipods use to display images.

When I thought up this challenge I had several family portrait projects in mind. Working on those made me realize how much my style changes when i'm working for someone else.

I tend to keep my palette low contrast and light.  I also stay away from messy techniques and mediums because I assume most people don't want a page with lots of paint spatter or wonky layers.

I made this for a co-worker who loves the color blue. Yes, I know.

I wanted to keep design time to an hour so I used a single collection pack and made my layers neat so she wouldn't mind putting it up in her cubicle. 



My co-worker's cubicle is full of photos. She really liked her page- it's very different from her style
but she assured me that was a good thing. WHEW!

I used the Twenty 3 collection from Cosmo Cricket- arguably one of the most challenging color combos I've ever come across- orange, pink, mustard yellow and grey. Or as far away from blue as possible.

This page will match our office decor and hopefully be quiet enough to allow her to use any horizontal 4x6 family photo. I plan to make a second page for her in her favorite color but that will come later- picking and matching items is what usually takes me hours to decide.

Here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!  We encourage you to check out each designer's creation this month, then come on back and give the challenge a try yourself!

                                                                Michelle Hernandez

Jayne Morgan

Wendi Robinson

                                                                  Katherine Sutton

Lisa Moen

Lisa Spiegel

Ann Jobes

Guest Designerchristyriopel.blogspot.ca- Christy Riopel 

We have a couple of regular artists taking a summer hiatus and look forward to the return of Joanne Burton and Christa Uttley in the fall.

Meantime, if you've wanted to participate as a guest designer with Inspiration Elevator, just contact team lead, Ann at ann jobes at bell dot net. 
 

Now it's your turn to get creating about art you share publicly, and share your blog link at the IE blog. We would love to see what you were inspired to make! 

Thanks for swinging by!

Michelle

A Flair For Buttons Scrapbook extraveganza!

Hello and welcome to the A Flair For Buttons Blog Hop!!

I'm so excited to be part of this team.

I genuinely love Shelley's flair- the color- the variety of designs and themes.

I love to add the word flair as part of a title or layering patterned ones to add pop to an otherwise flat page.

A Flair For Buttons Script Words Flair - Bright and Funky Flair
I used American Crafts die cuts, wood veneer and enamel dots from Cocoa Daisy kits and
paper from Crate's "DYI"collection which I bought for 5 bucks at TJ Maxx.

I love this pre-school portrait photo. Not sure Lola's 12 year old self will agree but I still love it.
A Flair For Buttons flair- Chalkboard School Days flair, and one of my all time most favorite sets ever
Paper Airplane Flair.
I love that fox sweater from Gymboree! Only now do I realize the Fox and Owl flair would have been perfect for this!

It's been great being part of this team for the last 2 years. 

Thanks Shelley for being so supportive!

On to creations by the rest of the team!

Erica Weinstock

Michelle Hernandez

Joy Taylor 

Mary Ann Maldonado

Ashli Oliver

Diane Payne

Els Brige

Sherri Funk

Daniela Dobson

{a flair for buttons}

Have a great weekend!

Michelle