News from the Studio

Hello all! I realized it has been May since I've updated you all on what is going on in our lives!  The living room is all done, as are all the garden planting (well, not really because a lady at church gave me some of her castoffs!), and we have been busy on the laundry room remodel that will turn it into my studio office.  I'm so excited!  If all goes well, we should be moving furniture into it today or tomorrow.  Needless to say, not a lot of scrapping has been going on as the house is in complete disarray.  Both minions did cross country so they have not had a lot of extra time, but it is over this week so I'm hoping to enjoy a few perks of them being here.  In the mean time, I have a huge backlog of layouts that I have not shared, so I'll keep on with those.

At parent-teacher conference last night I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the boys' teachers who is also a scrapper, love it!

Keep scrapping & keep happy!

News from the Studio

Good morning!!  Hope this fine, fall morning greets you well.  Action Items from last post:

• Stopped working on mom's album page.  I moved 3 rooms of the house around so that we could get better "flow" as the realtor would say.  Now each boy has their own room, but I lost my studio.  I'm now a part of the living room.  Not entirely sure how I feel about this.  It makes it hard to do any work, because I don't want it to look messy.  But maybe it will be worth it in the long run.  I did, however, finally strip down the poster boards from her funeral and get those pictures filed away in the proper categories.  So that is good.  The realtor has encouraged me to reduce the clutter so all 3 of us have been going through things, and it has resulted in 2 trips to the Goodwill hut, and a couple of trash bags, and even some things sold on Amazon.  So I think that is good too.  Just a few touch up items from the move and then he can come out and take new pictures.
• Started working on my next kit.  Not sure when it will be done for release.

Looking forward

• Started working on a canvas for my secret sister at church.  She is a delightful lady, and the mom of a good friend of mine from high school.  I'm going to take their last name, and then using those letters, plug in their kid's, kid's spouses, and grandkid's names.  I've sketched it out, with some help from 014 to get the names all in their nicely and it looks a bit like a crossword.  Can't decide if I should do fancy letters, or block.
• Continue working on new kit
• Work on a mom page

News from the Studio

Good morning all!  Action Items from last post:

• Digital Santa's Helpers and PaperPakZ are done - I know the blues look off, but I promise the correct color is the printed out one.  Amazon also has the kit
• Started working on mom's pictures.  It is so funny to see baby pictures of her.  I hope someday my boys look at mine with the same fondness.  Just sorted through the baby pictures and tried to get in some semblance of an order.

Looking forward

• Getting 1 page done of mom's album
• Work on my next kit.  Wonder what it will be???

News from the Studio

Good Morning everyone!  I've been a busy little bee around here!  I'm sure you all saw this last week, but in case you didn't, I have a new Christmas CollectionZ available out on the Etsy Store, you can just click the link to go there.  It is a good sized kit, lost of fun elements and bright colors.  I don't have all the digital work done yet, but I'll be making papers for it soon.  If you prefer the Amazon store, it will be there soon as well.

I also started, last night, a task that I've been putting off a bit, starting my mom's albums.  It is just so big and overwhelming, so many pictures, I've just not had the energy and I don't really know how to go about doing it. Then I just told myself that it is no different than my pictures and I just have to dive in there.  So that is what I did last night.  I pulled out a box of her childhood pictures, and just tried to start getting them into some sort of chronological order.  Because there are so many, I've decided to do pocket pages as much as I can.  She had also started working on some of it, and I will preserve those pages as is.  They are 12" and so they will fit nicely.  Plus, even though they won't be the same style, I do not want to loose what she did.

So fun stuff ahead, just bits and pieces of the elephant at a time.  I think it will be OK.  And I'm excited about it now.  Which is cool!

Enjoy the autumn weather we've had lately and I'll check in with you again soon!

Layout Share - Truly Believe

Good morning!  Boy has God been blessing us with some amazing weather and beautiful sunrises here in Indiana.  Love it!    I've been working in the studio with the windows open serenaded by the birds and crickets.  Sweet music!

I know, I'm even a little late for the Christmas in July, and no one really wants to stop and think about winter right now.  It will be here soon enough.  It seems like just yesterday the trees were getting their leaves.

This is a layout I did a few years ago, with pictures from 1999.  Some of it was hard material.  Before we were married, let alone divorced.  When my mom was still alive (though right after her biopsy) and still very much herself.  But that is what this business is all about right?  Story-telling and therapy and healing.  It is a simple one, but that is OK.

Papers are Stampin' Up!, I don't remember who the stickers are, sorry.  And the Star BlockZ you can get here as acrylic and here as cardstock and here as digital.  Look for the acrylic and cardstock to be combined soon! 

Thanks so much for checking it out!

News from the Studio

A lot has been going on around here, but not much in the way of Studio creating!  Sorry about that.  I graduated on June 13, started an advanced course for 2 weeks the next Monday, went on vacation the week after, and now I'm back home recuperating for my next advanced class next week! LOL  I don't normally share a lot of personal information here, I normally do that over at my other blog, if you are ever interested.

I am hoping once I get done with this class, and get my state board tests passed, I can start spending a small amount of time again creating.  There has been a lot bubbling around in my head, so I need to get it out before I boil over!

I hope that you and yours are having a blessed summer so far.  If any of  you are the praying kind, please keep the farmers of this area (Indiana) in your prayers.  We have been in a flood state for over 4 weeks now.  Many, many sad looking crops, and many fields with large, washed out areas.  It will be a touch time to market this fall, I am afraid.

News from the Studio

Good morning!  Well, it has been an exciting couple of weeks around here.  I had just finished up my newest addition to the CollectionsZ family, when I lost my external hard drive where i store everything.  And stupidly had no backup.  Thanks to lots of hours, and my techie knowledge, I was able to get the information off of the drive and it is all good!  YEA!  But talk about majorly scary!  So look next week for that to be up on the shop.

So, the moral of the story is, yes it can happen to you, so PLEASE make some sort of archive of your precious pictures, layouts, data, etc.  You'll thank me later! ;)

Have a blessed day!

Update from the Studio

Well, we are a bit buried in here by Winter Storm Linus.  I'm hoping once the sun comes out I can go assess what the driveway looks like and get it cleaned out.  The wind will be the big factor, as it is coming from the north, and we have both an east-west, and a north-south driveway.  It is L shaped, in other words.  The wind is not supposed to let up until almost supper time, so that may mean I get a bit of extra studio time today whilst I wait.

Wishing you a blessed day!

Update from the Studio

Good morning all!  I've been getting custom/Christmas orders in, so if you have something in mind you know you'll want, now is a good time to get that started.  I've also been busy making items for my new line, Paper PackZ.  For years, I've thought I should add papers to my CollectionZ offerings, and I'm finally getting that done.  It has been super fun, and I have to say, I've learned so much more about Photoshop.  I love it when that happens!  I still have a handful to get done, and then I will switch back to making new kits.  I appreciate your patience while I get this done.

I have had to raise my shipping costs on Etsy due to increased costs being charged to me.  I apologize for this, however, it just seems to be the reality.

As always, if you have questions, or have something special you would like me to do, just drop me a note.

Have a blessed day!
Elle

News from the Studio

Well, I've made some changes around in this little cottage of mine!  The boys needed a bigger room, with a closet, so I let them take my studio.  Now my studio is the little bedroom off of my room, where they used to be.  While we had them moved out, we built a closet in here, and included a built in desk area.  I painted it a very lovely sea foam green, the closet build is a very crisp white and it complements nicely with the green & dark brown accents that I had before.  However, it is a smaller room, even to start with, so it has been challenging.  I had to give up my old craft table that I got from my mom.  I'm going to have to purge some of my supplies.

I did however, find this very lovely Bretford Book Truck to keep my Library of Memories binders on the bottom 2 shelves.  It had to be this one as the shelves are 13" apart, just big enough for a standard binder to fit.  On the top 2 shelves, I used 4 of these Cropper Hopper vertical paper holders to put all of my patterned paper pads in.  I put them in upside down so that I can flip through them & see the papers.  Some of the binders, and the paper holders hang off the edges a bit, so it is wider than the 18" listed, but it is not enough of an overhang to cause anything to tip.  So far, I am very pleased with it.  Since it is on casters, it makes it incredibly easy to store it & then move it around, if need be.

For those of you who have placed orders, now that I'm back to being mostly functional again, that is my top priority, thanks so much for being patient!

Studio Remake - 2013

As many of you know, I've shared my studio for 4+ years with my not-so-little anymore little ones.  They've been moving out.  I've been purging tons of old, old, old stuff and they've been cleaning out their stuff they don't use anymore.  No, they are not leaving me, but they just don't need or want the space anymore.  So it has given me a chance to re-arrange a bit, downsize a bit, simplify a bit.  I've got a new 9 cube cubbie from Real Simple I need to put together, I'm waiting on the canvas totes & extras I ordered.  You can get it at www.bedbathandbeyond.com and I have a book truck coming as well.  It will be a better way of storing my patterned paper so that I can see it.  Right now, it sits in the bottom of the kitchen cabinet (OLD from my mom) that I like to scrap on (because it reminds me of her) but I can't see into the bottom of it.  Maybe only stuff I don't use so often should go in there.  Anyway, I'm excited! Can't wait to put it all back together.  And I finally have a left-handed desk, had to do it myself!

Hope you are enjoying your day!

News from the studio

So just a quick update this AM... I've been busy in the studio cleaning & working on various digital projects.  As many of you know, I subscribe to the Library of Memories system.  Which I love, love, love!  I had Jan-Oct 2012 pictures printed out earlier this year, and so I've been busy getting those put into the catagories i like to use.  And of course each time I do this, I find new stories, and better ways of organizing my photos & memorabilia and so it is just fun to see the connections that come out.

I am participating in the Secret Sister program again this year at church and want to make a canvas mixed-media present for my sister.

Other than that, of course I have about 30 pages kitted up to scrap, wondering how long that will take me & some other smaller projects.

Help me stay on track!  

i'm insane!

ok, so i'm trying to get the make it merry project done for the Adorn It blog hop & also decided it was a good time to re-do the studio a bit.  hellloooooo, what am i thinking..... oh, and i'm prepping the message for sunday and getting really nervous.  i think i'll post it monday over on the other blog.... also found some great stuff on clearance at hobby lobby last night.  love that store.  love the fact that 008 wanted a sketch journal of his own, rock on bro!