justem: scrapbookery

Crazy cool. :)

A couple of months ago, I received an email from the fabulous Paige at Scrapbook Trends. I'm very lucky to regularly receive emails from her, but this one was special. She informed me that my layout had been chosen for the June cover!  Insanity! My first cover!! The only downfall?  They were going to switch out my photo and use a stock photo instead. I was  still about 95 percent excited and 5 percent sad, mostly because the photo itself told such an important story! In fact, the journaling even talked about how the photo was not technically the best, but meant so much.  I have been checking the Northridge Publishing site daily for the past week to see if the June issue was up yet, and finally yesterday it was unveiled. AND...they kept my photo!! They converted it to black and white, but it's still my sweet kids!  

Super excited. Super happy. :)

It's Kelsey!

Happy {almost} Friday!  I have a layout to share today that was up on the Pebbles blog on Monday.  It was Mix and Match day, so I created this layout using a couple of the current Pebbles lines.  The photo is one that is imperfect, yet tells a great story. This was one of my favorite moments as a new mom of two!  :)

I also just wanted to say thank you for all the kind comments on my previous post.  It means a lot. :)

photos that matter...

This month's gallery theme at write.click.scrapbook was "favorite photos"/"photos that matter." I chose to create a layout with a photo that matters.  It's not my favorite photo. In fact, it breaks my heart...but it was something I needed to do. 

If you are a friend on Facebook or a personal friend, you know that at the beginning of this year we lost our dog Maddie to lymphoma. She was diagnosed three months before she died. We tried various types of chemo therapy, but nothing worked. We discovered at the end that her cancer was resistant to therapy.  It was a horrible time for us. I probably cried every day for months.  I still cry.  She was six years old. Our baby.  She was every bit a part of our family as our kids.  

I blogged about it all (and sometimes still do) on my personal blog, but I don't talk that much about her out and about in the scrapbooking world. I know that there are a lot of people who just aren't "dog people." And I know there are a lot of people that have dogs but just don't have the same type of relationship with their dogs as I did with mine, so I don't want to bombard people who really don't understand or care with my feelings and sadness. That isn't meant to sound harsh...I truly don't expect people to understand...it's a very unique and personal thing.

All that being said, when this assignment came up, I knew immediately that it was time...time to make a layout about our sweet Maddie. I'd been putting it off...not wanting to deal with it. This picture was taken two days before she died. Her eyes are so sad. I wanted to make a layout that memorialized how amazing she was...not just how sad I am.  So, this is it.  I love the final result. I cried when I finished it and showed it to my husband. I may or may not be crying now as I type this.  That's how much I miss her. That's how special she was...

Happy.

I have another Gossamer Blue layout to share today! I used my Canon Selphy printer to print a ton of tiny photos of my kiddos and randomly arranged them in a collage. This is my favorite feature of that printer.  I feel like my scrapbooking has completely changed since I got it at the beginning of the year. I used to use almost all 4x6 pictures,.which meant at most two photos on a layout. I love using smaller photos now that I can print them easily!  The quote is from Anne Frank, found on Pinterest, of course!!

Be You.

I had a Pinterest-inspired layout up on the Pebbles blog on Friday! My inspiration piece:

(source: Sugar Paper)

and the inspired layout:

I absolutely love this sentiment. It goes so perectly with my bright, happy, unique daughter!  These are just a few of my favorite recent instagram shots of her. She's quite the character!!  Have a great Monday! :)

 

33

I have another Gossamer Blue layout to share with you today!  I really love the different layers on this layout. I must admit, the colors look a little wonky in this photo. I think it's actually a lot prettier in real life.  Also, there are gold elements (the hearts) that just look black in this picture.  It's definitely better in person!!

So, there's a bit of a funny story to go along with this layout.  As you know, my Cameo is new, and I'm still learning how to use it. When I got the Lori Whitlock cut files that come with the main kit I wasn't exactly sure how to use them. I used the *png file and then used my trace function and cut.  Well, I don't think it worked exactly like it was supposed to.  Yeah...pretty sure the little chevrons are supposed to be cut out completely. But, I actually really like it this way...see, even mistakes can turn themselves into something good!  Although I probably need to figure out how to actually USE the files in the future!  Have a great Monday!

Fall

November 1 also marked the reveal of a brand new Gossamer Blue kit. This kit was truly beautiful!!  I made five layouts, four that I loved. One that is so-so. In true Em fashion, I will save my least favorite for last... ;)  Today I have one of my favorites!  It doesn't exactly have a title, so I'll just call it "Fall"! I love that the Pink Paislee frames perfectly fit my Instagram photos!  !

I think the one item in the kit that I used up entirely on all my layouts was the set of Heidi Swapp epoxy words and shapes from the Bits and Pieces add-on.  LOVE them!  And that cute little stamp?  Made by Sodalicious in Poland.  I'm not much of a stamper, but I love the wood mounted stamps that come with the kit and add-ons!

I hope you have a great Saturday!!  It's gloomy here, and I'm hoping to get my scrap space cleaned up a bit! What are your weekend plans?

Favorite. {write.click.scrapbook.}

Today is the first day of November.  Crazy!! The first of the month is always exciting because it means a new gallery at write.click.scrapbook. This month's theme was "Favorite Colors."  I was super excited to create a color layout...because color is my favorite part of scrapbooking! I love coming up with color schemes and putting together papers and embellishments.  This layout uses my (current) favorite color scheme of orange, yellow, and aqua. I've been hoarding this Studio Calico Heyday paper for sometime now, and I'm so glad I finally had a good reason to use it! This was also the first layout I made with my Cameo! I haven't used it much...but I love it already! :)

Be sure to check out all my talented W.C.S. teammates in this month's gallery! Have a great Thursday!

You Say:

I had a layout up on the Pebbles blog yesterday!  This past week featured the very awesome new Seen & Noted collection.  I love this collection more than I can really put into words! ;)  It's bright, it's fun, and it works for everything! Kids, adults, girls, boys...everything!!  I wanted to document H's words right now...the funny thing is in the week since I've made the layout he's added a couple more words! :)  Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a great weekend!

Summer Style

I had a layout up on the Pebbles blog today!  All the products in this layout are part of the gorgeous new Walnut Grove line that Pebbles debuted at CHA summer.  It's so so pretty!  I love the great mix of patterns and colors. It's a line that matches without being matchy, if that makes any sense!!  This layout includes pictures of my silly girl at a local strawberry festival this summer. She takes her fashion and accessorizing very seriously!!  Thanks for stopping by!