justem: little bits of this and that

Yogurt Love

Today I have my last Gossamer Blue February layout to share.  This is another "oops" layout! ;)  I made the entire thing and kept looking at it thinking something just didn't look right...

And when I finished all my layouts and put them in a pile...yup. This one was half an inch too wide. I guess using a ruler is not one of my greatest skills. ;)  At first I thought I'd just leave it, but it just bugged me! So I trimmed off the far left side and voila...a real 8.5x11 layout:

MUCH better!!  I've been working with the March kit and it's SO fun!  Here are a couple sneaks:

The full reveal will be Friday!!  Hope you are having a great day!

 

Miristyle

Happy Sunday! I have a Pebbles layout to share today. I made this almost a month ago...and I've been so excited to share it.  Last week's focus was the new Basics line.  I knew immediately that I *had* to have some kind of a rainbow in my layout...there are too many fun colors and patterns not to! I used the new cardmaking pads to punch squares, vs. cutting up my full sheets of paper. This is what I came up with:

(Published, Scrapbook Trends, January 2014)

If you are an instagram follower, you have seen my #miristyle photos tracking my daughter's awesome fashion sense! ;)  These are a few of my favorites!  Hope you are having a great weekend!

Ventage Tuesday: 5 on Instagram

If you follow me on Instagram (username: justemspahn), you've probably been keeping up with my #justemeveryday photos.  I, admittedly, have been horrible about updating that little album down there on the right! ;)  For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, these are photos of things OTHER than my kids that I notice during the day. My goal is to take one each day, a la "Project 365" which I successfully completed in 2010.  It's been fun, though there have been a few nights that I totally forgot to take picture, thus we have a few mail and random scrapbooking supply photos!!  This week's Ventage Tuesday topic is instagram...so here are five of my recent favorites!  It's funny that the flower photo and the snow photo were taken less than a week apart! That's the midwest for you! ;)

I'd love for to hop on over to say hi to my Ventage girlies: Angie, Barb, Katrina, and Stephanie.  Happy Tuesday!

a note...

Hi there, and happy Monday! For me it was a "3-day weekend Monday", which is the best kind of Monday! I just wanted to post a little "announcement" that I have decided to step down from my post at write.click.scrapbook. My life has been just crazy the past few months, and I don't foresee it slowing down any time soon. I was definitely not contributing to the extent that I should have been, and I wanted to let my spot go to someone more deserving and able to participate. It was a wonderful year, and I love all the scrappers there so much...they are truly some of the kindest people I have worked with in this industry. I'll be back tomorrow with some Ventage Tuesday action! ;)

If at first you don't succeed...

Happy Sunday!  Today I want to share with you one of my Gossamer Blue layouts for this month.  The Gossamer Blue kits come with so much goodness, and I try really hard each month to use the majority of the product on at least one layout, but sometimes it just doesn't work for me.  I started creating this particular layout one evening when I was out cropping with some friends. I wanted to include the cute Carta Bella alphabet stickers that were included in the Add-on Kit 2, but I just wasn't feeling the layout at ALL. The title didn't look right to me, and I had outlined the letters, only to screw a few of them up, of course. So now I had a layout that I not only didn't really like, but it also looked terrible!  Want to see... ;)
(Pardon the bad iPhone photo! Notice the top A...see...looks terrible!)

After hemming and hawing over it for awhile, I asked my friends what they would think about me just creating a large banner and completely covering the awful title.  My friend Barb, whose honesty I appreciate, said, "Well, I don't think it can get much worse!" ;)  So I did just that. Of course, this was not as easy at it seems because the outlined arrow on the original was showing under the bottom opening of the banner. I cut a tiny piece of matching patterned paper out and covered up the arrow right in the open triangle of the banner.  I raised up the ends of the banner to give it a little more detail, and I gave up completely on using the alphabet stickers and instead used my Cameo and a few other stickers that came in the kit!!  The result? MUCH better!!

In fact, this is one of my favorite layouts made with the February kit!  This was actually a kit full of mishaps! ;) I'll share another one with you later this week! Hope you are having a great weekend! 

Gossamer Blue: March LookBook

Yesterday was the 15th, which means it's time for a new GB LookBook! This kit is so fun and colorful!  I admit, I've been so busy I haven't even had time to start working with it yet...but tonight is the night!  Have a great Saturday!

Silly Things...

Hi there! Today I have a layout to share that I created for the February gallery at write.click.scrapbook. This month's theme was "Conversations." The little "word bubble" (or whatever they are called!!) pads of paper that came in the Studio Calico The Register add-on were screaming to be used on this page!!  I wanted it to look a bit messy, so I only used a bit of adhesive and sewed the bubbles down.  Some of them are starting to curl on the edges, but I'm okay...that's the "imperfect" look I was going or!  This page also the Central High main kit!

Hope you had a great weekend!!

New Year's Eve

I have a "Pinspired" post up at Gossamer Blue today!  Check it out to see how a card inspired my layout! This is my main-kit only layout for February. I used the Silhouette to cut out the giant heart and the title.  This is a new montly feature at GB and you can play along for a chance to win a gift card!

Check out the blog post for more info about the challenge. :)  Have a great Friday!

Family Love

It's Love week on the Pebbles blog! I created this layout using a mix of lines and my favorite Stampin' Up! heart punch! It's somewhat of a self-scraplift, as I created another layout a few months ago using hears in a similar way. Hey, when you find something you like, use it over and over again!! ;)

Ventage Tuesday: 5 in my shopping cart.

This week's Ventage Tuesday gives you a peek into our shopping carts!!  We are pretty boring shoppers.  I was trying to think of some really fun things to show you that we buy, but seriously...we buy the same stuff every time, and it's really not at all exciting!! ;)  So, here are five items I buy EVERY time I go to the grocery store...guaranteed! ;)

1. Milk. We buy a ridiculous amount of milk.  I think the number one reason I go the store is to buy milk!!  Buying organic is something we are pretty serious about in our house.  I like the Horizon brand because we have a farmer family friend whose milk goes to Horizon. But, truly, I will buy whatever is the cheapest (shhh!). We send organic milk to daycare with the kiddos, too. Once one of my daughter's teachers asked why we brought "that kind of milk?" She wondered if maybe she just liked it better. I wasn't going to get into it with her... ;)

2. Yogurt. We like dairy in this house. Okay, three of the four of us like dairy. The fourth one is allergic. ;) I usually buy Chobani, the kids get Stoneyfield, and Justin gets Whole Soy.  We all eat it!!

3. Three Sisters Oatmeal.  I LOVE this stuff. I eat it every morning. Henry loves it, too. The kid eats a whole packet like it's a snack!!  Everyone in the family has their favorite flavor...except Miri...who doesn't like it. Weirdo.

4. Good Belly.  This is something new that we've been doing for the past few months. ;) Every night Justin and I drink a glass of Good Belly probiotic. I don't know if it's working or not. I prefer to think it is...because sometimes it's got a bit of a nasty aftertaste and gosh darn it...it better be working! ;)

5. Fruit. I admit, we are not the best at eating fresh vegetables in the Spahn household. Frozen, yes. Fresh, not so much. But fruit...we love. We've always got a huge selection of fruit on hand. Grapes, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, pears, and ABBOLS (as Henry says). Unless, of course, we ate it all... ;)
 

And of course there are all the other staples...bread, eggs, cheese, etc. etc.  See...I told you, nothing special at all. If Miri is shopping with us there will sure to be some Pirate's Booty tossed into the cart and maybe some Annie's bunny fruit snacks if she's really lucky! Otherwise, we are pretty boring!  To see the (hopefully more exciting) shopping carts of my fellow ventage girls, check out their blogs: Angie, Barb, Katrina, and Stephanie!