My Favorite Layouts of 2012

I thought it would be fun to play along and share a post with all of my favorite layouts from 2012.  I realized as I looked over my blog posts from this past year. that I made very few cards and altered art/home decor projects.  I know I used to do a lot more altered art/home decor in the past, but I think I stopped doing so many of them because I was running out of room for all of them!  Anyone else ever felt that way?!  




 










As I look over these layouts I see:
1. Color and lots of it, especially yellow and turquoise!!!
2. Mostly one photo layouts.
3.  A variety of different styles from clean and graphic to a bit more artsy.
4.  The use of mixed media products including mists, stencils, gesso and molding paste.
5.  Happy scrapping and play!

I hope 2013 is full of more fun scrappy play!  I have a feeling that I will be adding more mixed media techniques to my layouts and projects in this new year.  Clean and graphic are fine, but I sometimes feel like I am missing something on these layouts.  I especially love the ones with more texture and the use of stencils and my mixed media supplies.  I have been playing with my Dylusions Ink Sprays and stencils from The Crafter's Workshop that I got for Christmas and it has been so enjoyable!  It has also been a bit messy as I am still not sure what to use to get the ink off my hands!  I haven't gone out to buy anything that was suggested when I asked on FB, and I have yet to find anything in my house that will work.  If you have any suggestions, please share! 

Thank you for stopping by today and all of your visits this past year!  I can't wait to see what 2013 holds for me as I begin a new life in a new city!

HAPPY NEW YEAR HUGS!!!
juliana
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Online Classes

I have been looking for some online creative classes and I have recently come across two options.  The first one called Creative Jump Start Summit 2013 caught my attention because it is FREE. Who doesn't love something that is FREE?!  So...I signed up and I am planning to play along as best I can with what they have planned.  I am looking forward to it since it has a great line up of talent and I am sure I will be inspired in some way!  This is being put together by Nathalie Kalbach and you can check out more about it HERE.


This one is a series that Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is starting.  It is not free, but the cost seems quite reasonable to me and I am always inspired by her. I also like that she has shared the different topics she will be discussing and that she gives you the option of buying only the one you want or buying them all as a bundle with a little discount!  There are several that caught my attention and I am planning on check out a few of them!  You can check out more details about her classes HERE.


So how about you?  Will you be giving any of these a try? Do you have an links you can share with me for online classes? Thanks for stopping by!

HUGS!!!
juliana
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Dear Santa | Bo Bunny

With Christmas just four days away are you ready? Are the stockings hung and the presents wrapped? As of the day I am writing this, I have to admit that I am not ready. Our move and my recent change in plans because of my sinus infection really threw off my schedule. All of my Christmas cards are still at home and since I spent the time to make them I have decided I will still send them, but they will be sent after Christmas. Hopefully during the next couple days I will get it done and that by the time this is posted on my blog I will be able to say that I am ready!!!

The layout I have to share with you today is for Bo Bunny using the new Mistletoe collection! It has such a fun & whimsical feel! I found it the perfect collection to scrap this photo of my niece with Santa. The colors went perfectly with the photo, but the style of the collection just seems perfect to scrap Christmas photos of little ones!!!

We were asked to add a touch of sparkle to our projects and I have been drawn to gold & silver a lot lately. I was excited to find glitter paper at my local craft store and I enjoyed adding punched strips of it to this layout for a bit of sparkle & shine.




I also added a bit of sparkle with the addition of Bo Bunny Jewels to the chipboard pieces. I also used my Silhouette to cut the snowflakes placed behind the photo and title. I used the Silhouette cut file Snowflake Doily 2 by Loni Stevens. You can find it HERE if you are interested.





Thank you for stopping by today!
HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!!!
Juliana
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Art Journaling | My Way

So I am giving art journaling a try. I am not so good at the journaling or writing part, but I have been enjoying the painting and drawing part! I started this after getting "stuck" in Cleveland because of my sinus infection. I knew I was going to need something to do to pass my time during the day while Danny was at work. My wheels started spinning. I have been reading Julie Fei-Fen Balzer's blog lately and she has really been inspiring me to step outside my comfort zone and to try some new things. Granted some of them will have to wait until we get settled in and I can start scrapping again. But, for now I am beginning with this. I hope the writing will come, but I think some of it is me becoming comfortable putting into writing more personal thoughts and feelings. Time will tell.
For now, here is one of the pages I feel comfortable sharing as it has more of a non-personal theme. I have seen so many cute Christmas tree canvases and these inspired me to create the version you see here.
The supplies I am using are simple and not too expensive. I bought the cheapest pack of acrylic paints and water soluble wax crayons at a local craft store. I then bought Liquitex Gesso and Matte Medium, Folkart Glitter paint in gold and silver (LOVE these!!!) and paint markers in white and black. Those glitter paints are super fun. I love mixing them with other paint colors or just wasting them over the surface for touch of sparkle without the mess of glitter! I also used a couple punches that I bought at Archivers when they had a recent sale on them. I have a huge attraction to stars lately!!!

So do you art journal? I'd love to see what you are creating & sharing!
HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!!!
Juliana









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Something Old, Something New | Jillibean Soup

I love Christmas and I actually love to scrap my Christmas photos. I have had discussions with people who love to take the photos and "collect" the Christmas scrappy goodies, but they have a hard time scrapping the photos because they feel overwhelmed by all the photos. I don't worry about that because the more photos I have the more scrappy stuff I get to play with right?!
I was dong just that when I created these two layouts. I had been hoarding Jillibean Soup's Christmas Eve Chowder and their first Christmas collection called Grandma's Christmas Soup. These two collections mixed together well and this first layout was the end result.





This second layout mostly used Christmas Eve Chowder.




I love both of these layouts because they are of my nieces, but I feel the urge to add to the layouts to dress them up a bit more. They both seemed a little unfinished. I am always amazed at how different my layouts looks after they have been photographed. It really seems to give me a different perspective. I really feel like the first layout needs a little work on the edges of the large square/ rectangle pieces to soften them a bit. They seem too harsh. And the second one needs to be grounded to the sides, top and bottom a bit more. However, it is very unlikely that I "fix" them. I am pretty sure they will stay as they are and I will think about these things when I scrap in the future.
By the way....I really miss scrapping!!! But I have been art journaling to fill the crafty urge until I return in January to Illinois. I'll have to share some of my creations here soon.

HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!!!
Juliana
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Snow & Love & Bella Blvd

Today I have a couple Bella Blvd layouts to share with you! They are also up on the Bella Blvd blog as well! This first layout was snow much fun to create!!! I used my Silhouette to cut the snowflakes from white cardstock. I then backed to openings with pieces of patterned paper in various shades and patterns of blue paper. This is a photo of our house when we bought it last year during the first and one of the few snows we had last year. I am going to miss that old house and it has been a wonderful home for us this past year!!!

My second layout is one of my recent favorite photos of Danny. I wanted to use the new Kiss Me collection and the "I Love You" sticker and chipboard sticker called for me to record the little conversation we have on an almost daily basis. And of course, I always win!!!

I ask that you bear with me for my next few blog posts. I am doing them from an I pad and using the new Blogger app. It is not as robust as using it on a PC, but this is all I have to use right now.

HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!!!
Juliana



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Joy To The World & Sinus Infections!

I am "stuck" in Cleveland with a sinus infection! The stuck is good since I am with Danny, but I don't have "my things"...if you know what I mean. I came here packed for a week of visiting, not with the intention of staying for 3-4 weeks! I am getting better, but still not ready to fly and at this point it doesn't make much sense to try to fly back and forth with the holidays coming so soon. Soooo...I am going to stay here until after the new year and at that time I will return to Illinois and pack for our official move to Cleveland!
 
I have lots of things to be thankful for this time of the year! One of them being that I had a layout published in the winter issue of Scrapbooking & Beyond!!! The layout I had published is of my family (another thing that I am very thankful for!!!) at Christmas last year.
 
I had plans to give my extra copy away, but I have had a massive change in my plans since I first planned this post! I apologize for that, but the extra copy is in Illinois and I am in Cleveland! I also had images added to Blogger to pre-do some posts while I was gone last week. Since I got sick that got delayed and then when I tried to do this post on our Ipad I lost the image of my layout. So here is a picture of the layout in the magazine. Sounds like a bit of bad luck...but maybe someone knew I wasn't going home and wouldn't have been able to mail the magazine out anyway!!!
 
 


If you love winter and Christmas and all that goes with it, I highly recommend you check out this issue. It is packed full of wonderful ideas and inspiration!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!!
HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!!!
juliana
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Creative Scrappers Sketch # 238

I have another sketch up on the Creative Scrappers blog today!  I would have loved to have played along with this one, but time has been limited lately with our upcoming move.  Hopefully you will find some time during this busy holiday season to play along.  If you do, you could win a prize from our December sponsor Deena Ziegler!


Good luck!!!
HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!
juliana
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Christmas Card Extravaganza

I told you in my post yesterday that I needed to make my Christmas cards. Well, I did just that yesterday.  I think, no I know, that this is a record for me.  I can't believe I actually made 12 cards in one day!!!  Now, I can't take all of the credit for the ideas on all of the cards.  I was inspired with a few of them by the fabulous design team on the Paper Smooches Blog.  I had to have the Paper Smooches Christmas Sampler stamp set and since I had to have them so badly, I had to use them!  KWIM?!?!  So, I pulled out my Christmas scraps stash which contained a lot of Jillibean Soup and I went to town.  
I don't know about you, but I really have a very difficult time making cards from full sheets of paper.  I do much better with scraps and since these all coordinated really well it was pretty easy to put them together.  I did a little bit of playing using some punches and my Cuttlebug here & there.  But for the most part, I tried to keep it simple so that most of them would survive being sent in the mail. I am also still working on ink.  I LOVE my Distress Ink, but it didn't do so well when I compared it to my Ranger Archival Ink.  However, I only have that in black and I wanted to use different colors.  I probably should have tried my Stampin' Up ink, but it is getting old and I just didn't feel like pulling it out!  Call me lazy!!!  OK...so enough chit chat....here are the cards...



The snowflakes are some scraps that I cut with my Silhouette for an upcoming layout for Bella Blvd.



This is one of the card ideas that I definitely borrowed from the Paper Smooches blog.  The original card was designed by Betsy and you can see it here.






This one is loosely based on a card by Kalyn Kepner that you can see here. 


This one was a fun accident that I came across while playing with my stamps.  I stamped the words in one color and then stamped them again just slightly offsetting the stamp and got this fun look.  And look how the patterned paper goes perfect with the sentiment!  LOL!!!



And lastly one that got a bit more attention...I embossing, inked, layered and added a bit more bling. This is one that will not get put in the mail for sure!



I hoped you enjoyed my Christmas card extravaganza & thank you so very much for taking the time to stop by and say HI!
HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!!!
juliana
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