4th of July

Here's a sneak peak at some of the product that I'm getting ready for the Scrappage Etsy store. There's no product in the store yet, but we're busy getting it all ready for your scrappaging creations. Coming Soon!

letter to Martha - tags

These tags are inspired by a letter that George Washington wrote to Martha. I copied the letter from the book 1776. I love how the letter is adressed... My dearest

art journaling on the road

On my birthday, my hubby and I packed up the mini van & the girls, a bunch of DVD's and started an unexpected road trip to Portland, OR. He was asked to go back to a job in Vancouver, B.C., and so he asked if I wanted him to drop off me and the girls with my family in Oregon before he headed up there! If he was going to get to the job in time, I had an hour to pack, take the fish to Deedee's house, and off we went. I brought some of my art supplies with me in the car, and the girls colored their own pictures in the back seat. Here's a picture of me art journaling on the road. This really has been the most relaxing road trip I've ever been on. The girls have been amazing, Adriaan and I have had lots of time to talk, and it's been refreshing and refueling. Now, the girls are playing with their cousins, and we've got about a week to hang out with family and friends. Whoohoo!!!

Is this much fun legal?

List of crazy fun:

1)  Here we are posing in front of the Narnia sign at the movies like teenage girls (after dropping off the kiddos!)

2)  Starbucks after sniffing candles at Yankees.

3)  Panera bagels - where we had a "true confessions" session - very theraputic.

4)  Spent our "movie" money at the scrapbook store.  We put lots of things in the basket, then put most of it back before leaving.  :-)

5)  Talked about our good intentions of tracking how much we spend, but deciding to focus on what we're really good at... SPENDING!!!

6)  Oh yeah, we're totally going to make a Narnia page together where we're two of the amazing characters on the Dawn Treader.  Gotta read that book 'cause we can't wait till December.

7)  Laughed so hard - would have totally embarressed the kiddos.  (We even clapped and did happy dances.)  FOR REAL.

Me and Kyle...my new page

The reason I love to make scrapbook pages, is that I'm able to say things with pictures that I don't have words for. This page is about a suprise visit from my brother Kyle last summer. No one told me he was coming, and I was super suprised. It was a wonderful visit.

Crazy Iowa weather...

This morning, there's been a number of tornado warnings. We've been down in the basement huddled at least three times. As my family is new to Iowa, we haven't yet experienced a tornado, but the weather is a lot more dramatic than we're used to. So, it was a perfect morning to flip through and read bits of my new favorite business book... I just love business books with beautiful, inspiring pictures. Seriously though, I read the entire Handmade Marketplace yesterday, and it's such a great book. It's especially handy, as Deedee and I are working on branding for Scrappage. We hope to post product on our etsy store by later next week, so we're busy designing our packaging. (You can see our new logo we designed earlier this week at the top of our blog!) Later this afternoon, we're taking the kids to Toy Story 3, as it's coming out today. My brave husband is going in with the kiddos, and Deedee and I think we'd rather spend our movie money at Archivers. It's the perfect remedy for weather like this. Hope you're either enjoying gorgeous weather where you are, or that you're tucking in with a good inspiring book.

Aeva drawing page

I'm just loving making scrapbook pages, where photography is the base of the design.  This is actually a digital collage.  I took a photo of Aeva drawing, and then another layer of an aerial photo of trees to give it more dimension.  When Emma saw the picture, she said, "Aeva draws just like you do!"  I had printed the collage and given it to Deedee.  Last night, Deedee asked me if I wanted to make a scrapbook page with her.  I didn't have any photos with me, but I saw the print out sitting on top of her scrapbook papers.  I asked her if I could replace her print, and use the collage on a page.  It was so much fun to take it out of it's original format, and make a scrapbook page around it.  The extra papers give it so much more dimension and tell a more whimsical story.  I always try new things with Deedee, and come home with a head full of ideas.  I love combining the clouds and the flowers.  This is one of the flowers I made the other day.  They're so much fun.

Zoo page

Check out this cool zoo page! I finished it at 2 a.m. the other morning. This is the best time to scrapbook because there are no interruptions. :-) I tweeked Angela's flowers and made my own design.

let your imagination soar...

Today, I got to play with my new Gingerbread die cuts by Quickutz, and my gorgeous new scrapbook paper - Que Sera Sera by K&Company.  It's double-sided and so rich in texture.  I found a few images in an old antiques magazine from 1964, and put those in.... plus the beautiful birds that Deedee cut out for me with from her Cricut - Heritage Cartridge - from the glossy paper with alcohol inks (you can see them in progress a few posts back.).  My oldest daughter worked on her own scrapbook, while I cut and played.  The twins played with their doll house and played lots of hide and seek.  It's been a rainy, thunder storm, crazy - stay inside if at all possible - kind of days.  Those are the perfect kind of days to let your imagination soar.

Finding Treasure

I've always been inspired by paper. The paper is what inspired this collage back in 2007.  The hills on the paper made me think of a treasure hunt, and so I found a photo of Emma collecting things to create this page.  I love how the decorative rub-ons make such a whimsical crown.  I also love how the vintage buttons give this collage so much extra depth.

Scrapbook page with flowers

Here's the scrapbook page I made with the vintage photos of the girls and some flower clouds I made.  I just love the distress inks, glitter glue, and glitter mist.  Wowie wow wow.  You can use them very subtle, and completely change the look of your page!  This page feels a whole lot like one of my journal pages.

Creating page elements...

Last night, I was looking at some wonderful scrapbook challenges and layouts.  I was especially struck by the layouts that have strong photography as the base of the story.  I had an spontaneous photo shoot with the girls last night, and they were so much fun.  We really connected while I took the photos, and I was so excited to see their personalities come through in the photos.  So, I'm taking each photo and making a story out of it.  I have an idea for a number of pages, and I'm collecting the page elements for them.  Here's a little peek at what I've done so far with one of the portraits of Emma.

Ideas in motion...

Seriously, I came home last night after my time at Deedee's house, and my mind was racing with ideas. The top label is one of her works in progress. I just love how Deedee's drawing looks she looks like she's dreaming. While throwing ideas back and forth, Deedee handed me a few pages of glossy paper and alcohol inks. She told me to fill the pages with color, and then she cut out birds, trees and tea pots out of my pages for me to collage with. Now, I'm brainstorming how to put some of this beauty together as scrapbook pages. These birds look gorgeous on some of the photo transfers I'm working on... I can't wait to create pages and stories out of them.

Creative Island...

Deedee has this great kitchen island that she transforms into a creative work space. Yesterday, our kids were playing tag and running around us, as we were looking at ideas in progress.

polymer clay tiles

Deedee has been making tiles out of polymer clay. She's collected all kinds of interesting materials to create impressions, marks, and textures on the tiles. Look at some of these rich tiles! My imagination can run wild with all the things you can do with these!

New tools in my red bag...

This morning I'm going to Deedee's house for our weekly creative get together.  I can't wait.  Deedee's been working with polymer clay, and I've been learning about all the die cut options, machines, and embossing powders.  Adriaan took me to Archivers this weekend, and told me to feel free to buy a die cut machine, so he watched the girls and I was able to demo their die cut machines.  I ended up coming home with a Big Shot Express, and a few die cuts to get me started.  The lady who helped me bought the other one they had in stock.  We were both sold.  I bought a few Tim Holtz dies and a Sizzix tag die cut.  So, here are the experiments I made last night, trying out my new die cuts, some of the color copies of the collages I've made, and my new embossing powders.  So, all my new tools are packed in this red bag, filled to the brim with my tools, papers, and new machinery.  I told Adriaan yesterday, that I was so excited about all the ideas swarming around my brain, that I was on the verge of tears.  I don't know if too much coffee was playing a role there, but either way... I'm excited.  I'll post some of the highlights of me and Deedee's day later!