Beautiful new releases from Hambly this winter. They have some new products that I haven’t seen yet, colored patterned cardstock and new colored mini overlays for journaling. LOVE! absolutely loving the Printers type overlay (above). I added some cream cardstock underneath.

The little mini book embellie is an old mini picture frame book that i wrapped in a scrap of the Uncharted paper (left over from the layout below). Love how it adds more to the story in the layout.

Simple and sweet using the Uncharted papers. the man. he’s the king.

broke out the dusty slice for this one. those crowns are a fav.

in other news the Little man is home with a sore throat and icky croupy cough. going around the class apparently so i’m not surprised that he got it. Lots of snuggles, Cars2 and hot chocolate should help.

happy wednesday!
x0

one of the things that i really love about JBS is that there is a secondary dt gallery update each month. i usually get a few pages finished before the end of the month deadline but often still have things that aren’t quite finished yet, or that i haven’t made but have plans to make with the kit. enter the 10th gallery update, and these projects. it’s so nice to know and not be stressed that every single thing has to be done by the last day of the month. you can see more pics and get some more info on these projects in the dt gallery or in my flickr gallery {link in the left sidebar}.

we’re heading out tonight to the school posting party, they post class lists, have a carnival and then at dusk show a movie on a huge inflatable screen, tonight it’s gnomeo & juliet {which the littles have seen but i haven’t}. such a great way to spend one of the last nights of summer, reconnecting with other families and then kids get to see what teacher they have next tuesday and which of their friends are in their classes. hopefully we’ll have no tears as both have besties they want to stay in the same classroom with. crossing my fingers for them!

happy thursday!
x0

a few months ago my sweet friend amy asked me to submit a project for the birthday issue for her amazing online magazine, inspired ideas. amy is amazing, as i’m sure most of you know and has inspired me countless times with the sweet little things she makes. and, being a huge lover of previous issues {they are amazing!} as well as knowing her ever since i participated in on of her first club little house swaps i of course i said yes! yes. yes. yes!!

well, the day has finally come and the latest issue, 245 pages of beautiful birthday inspired projects, has been released. you can find it hear and i’m a little amazed that it’s only 3.30, that’s less that my online version of martha and inspired ideas doesn’t have any advertisements!

i know everyone involved put so much love and time & energy into their projects, it’s obvious when you see it {the peek of my birthday bouquet project is above} but i just want to send a HUGE thank you out to amy, and to our sweet friend pamela because i know the work and hours they put in was incredible, and it’s obvious from the beauty of the final pages.

happy friday!
x0

i’ve finally jumped in with both feet and started training myself on the hubs mac that he got last year. it’s been intimidating me for a while now but illustrator has been trying to woo me over for a even longer. it keeps whispering sweet nothings in my ear about vector this and beautiful graphics that. so, i figured if i was going to spend the time this spring watching tutorials online to learn illustrator i might as well spend the time getting myself aquainted with it on a mac.

and now? i’m addicted.

i still haven’t cracked into illustrator at all. dude. HUGE learning curve for this self trained photoshop girl. but i have been playing in ps on the mac and i’m sold. it might have something to do with that beautiful ginormous screen. oh goodness. LOVE! or it might have something to do with how easy it is to use. LOVE LOVE!! but the end result is that it’s gotten me cracking away designing new kenner road digital kits for 2peas. i decided march was it. either sit down and get started or shut the frack up.

personal pressure drives me.

the thing is, i’m a visual learner and visuals on the mac are freakin’ gorgeous. i kept trying to tell the hubs how giddy using the mac all day yesterday made me. we were having show and tell last night, after the littles were fast asleep. he showed me his programming work at his design firm and i was showing him the 36 papers i cranked out yesterday afternoon for a new kit. i do not kid. 6 designs. 6 colorways = 36 papers. the colorways honestly don’t really count because once i had them picked out & planned it was just switch & save. but it felt a little like a digi design olympics. with pretty images on a big beautiful monitor. oh… how wonderful it was.

ahem. back to my point.

i kept trying to explain to him that i can’t simply sit and read a book to teach myself how to do something new. i have to watch someone, then immediately walk myself through it in order for it to sink in. this was how i learned photoshop in the beginning when i was selling vintage clothing, waaaayyyy back in the pre-kids, pre-marriage, day. i owe it all to the hubs. he’d sit and show me how to render things and then i’d play around, designing the site graphics, images, etc.

the hubs? i can’t tell you how many nights i’ve walked into the family room and he’s sitting there with a 1,823 page code book where he’s learning new tricks to incorporate into his work. LEARNING from a book. it always impresses me, that he’s that type of student. he’s learning asp.net or c++ or whatever those other code terms are. dude. my eyes are going blurry at the my mere mention of them. but that’s how he learns. that’s how he “gets” it.

but me? hands on. that’s me. see & do. i’m sure some of you have to do this too. yes? i’m sure the fact that i learn that way goes hand in hand with the passion to create and make. must. make.

and that lovely little paper in the pic above? just a little sneak peek at the end results of what i’ve been learning and part of the two new kits being released next tuesday at 2peas. woot!

happy wednesday!
xo