justem: little bits of this and that

Books, Yay! {Gossamer Blue Pinspired Layout}

Hello blog readers...all two of you. ;)  Happy New Year! I would love to say that one of my goals this year is to really try to bring back my blog, but let's be realistic...it's probably not going to happen. I will try to blog more often though, really, I will! ;)  To start off the year with a bang, I have a fun photoless Pinspired layout to share. This was featured today on the Gossamer Blue Blog. It was fun to make a layout without having to worry about a photo or journaling!  Not to mention, these Seven Paper journaling cards were so fun to use!!  This layout basically "lists" all of the books I read in 2015. In 2014 I started reading again after taking a five year "break" of being busy parenting and working. I read seven books in 2014 and challenged myself to double that in 2015. I met my goal and read 19 books last year - though only 18 are on the list because one was a terrible book club read that I'd prefer not to remember, ha!  Here she is...

Be sure to stop by the GB Blog for some more info about how I made my layout and a peek at the original inspiration!  Have a great weekend!

Buddies {Gossamer Blue Pinspired}

 Another layout in my alphabetical catch-up! I'm a bit concerned that this is my third post, and we are still in the "B"s!  This layout was for my monthly Pinspired challenge on the Gossamer Blue blog back in March.  I adore this photo of my son and his friend - and their jacket colors worked perfectly with the blues and greens in the March kits!

This is yet another "stuff" layout. It seems to be something I find myself doing more and more lately...and I can't say that it bothers me! ;) I like stuff...and I like stuff on my layouts, ha!  To see the original inspiration piece, check out the post on the GB blog! Have a great day! :)

Swim {Citrus Twist Guest Designer}

Hello!  Happy Monday! Today is the day that many of my IL friends head back to school. For the first time in twelve years I won't be there!!  It's a little emotional!  Here in Wisconsin, the kids will be going back after Labor Day so we have a couple of more weeks left of summer...including our last week of swimming lessons!  My big kids have been in swimming for the past five weeks!! They have an amazing swimming program in our town and they've had a blast and learned a ton!  I use some photos from swimming lessons in one of my Citrus Twist guest designer layouts!  This layout was made as part of their Sunday Sketch feature:

 

I actually stayed pretty true to the sketch, which is unusual for me. The colors in the photos gave me a pretty distinct color scheme to work with...it's a good thing it's one of my favorites!  I was also determined to fit this piece of gold star vellum in my layout somewhere, which gave me the opportunity to add some more gold elements!

For more information, including the original sketch, be sure to check out the post on the Citrus Twist blog!  Have a great day!

Summer Adventures {Gossamer Blue August}

Good Morning! Today I have another Gossamer Blue layout to share with you. This was made a mix of the different add-on kits + the main kit.  I will admit...this layout was one that did come together well. Sometimes I sit down with a plan and it works perfectly. Sometimes...not so much. I was pushing things around and adding elements and this is the final result. While I love so many individual parts of this layout (music paper?!, the black and white, those awesome Basic Grey flowers), I don't love the layout as a whole.    You win some...you lose some, I guess! ;)

Five and Fabulous {Gossamer Blue Pinspired}

Have you ever taken a layout "gamble"??  Where you have an idea in your head...and it might be cool and it might be a flop?  But you give it a shot and hope for the best? That would be the case with my latest Gossamer Blue Pinspired layout, which went up on the GB Blog on Friday.  The layout is VERY out of the box..."like a mile down the road from the box" is what I said on the blog. ;)  I knew it was pretty crazy, and I wasn't sure how people would react to it - but the response has been overwhelmingly positive, which, of course, puts a smile on my face!!  

For more information about my Pinterest inspriration and my process, check out the original post on the Gossamer Blue blog! Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day! :)

Hey, Rain!

Hi!  Happy Tuesday! Today I have another Gossamer Blue May layout to share.  This layout is an example of what happens when a good idea goes very wrong. ;)  I started out envisioning a diagonal title across the page with smaller photos above and below it. I placed my title along the gray strip (the blue hadn't been layered yet) and moved pictures and shifted things around trying to make it look right...it just looked bad.  Finally I gave up on using four photos, stuck a blue chunk of paper over the entire diagonal, and ended up with something totally different.  Sometimes you just have to know when to give up and move in a new direction! ;)

My favorite part of this months kits is all the bits of black and white!  Whenever I make a layout, I try to incorporate colors and elements through various parts of the layout. In this case I used the black and white chipboard letters, the strip of paper, the clear tag, and other black elements.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day! 

Always Enjoy {Gossamer Blue May Reveal!}

Happy May Day! Do you celebrate May Day? When I was a kid, we would make May baskets and leave them on the doors of all our neighbors. I'm not sure if this is something that people still do or not! Maybe next year when we know some more of our neighbors we will have to give it a go. ;)  May 1st also means a new kit from Gossamer Blue! This month's kit is filled with a great mix of bright colors and black & white products.  It's super fun!  This is my "Main Kit Only" layout.  If you look closely, you can see that there is a little something up with the photo.  I enlarged and cropped a single photo into four pieces and then overlapped them to create this effect.  I'll be honest, I was hoping to have a bigger photo, and the whole thing would have probably worked better had I used a "profile" oriented photo, but I loved this one so much I just had to use it!! I might try this technique again sometime with an even larger photo!

I am totally in love with those Pink Paislee chipboard letter. In. Love.  

And, how cute is this exclusive Happy flair?!

Be sure to check out all of the other talented Gossamer Blue design team members, and have a great day!!

I Love You Crazy

Good Saturday morning!!  Today I have another Gossamer Blue layout to share. This month's kits and add-ons included a LOT of my current favorite color - aqua (or seafoam or teal or whatever...clearly I'm not well-versed on correct color names!).  I collected a bunch of these elements together and created a fun mono-chromatic layout!

This might be my new favorite photo of the three kids. It's perfectly THEM. I love that this layout includes (if I counted correctly) products from six different manufacturers, but they all go together perfectly well!

I realized after I took the photos of my layout that I had forgotten to add a date to the photo frame. Oops. ;)

Have a great weekend!! :)

NYE Brunch

In honor of the last day of September, I have one final Gossamer Blue layout from this month to share!  It's a super simple, super quick layout that I made featuring four instagram shots I took back on New Year's Eve day when I met my friend Kelly for brunch.  I've been trying really hard lately to make some layouts for ME that are about things other than my kids!  I had printed these photos out a few months ago, but finally got around to using them on this layout. Those aqua Heidi Swapp letters from the Bits and Pieces kit were quite possibly my favorite thing in all the September kits!  LOVE.

All right...bring on October!! ;)

messy happiness

My third Gossamer Blue layout is up today!  This one uses the new Heidi Swapp color mists that are available inthe GB shop. I'm a pretty new "mister"...I don't really ever use any techniques  other than "drips in the corners!"  My colors are always pretty basic, too, but I took a chance on this one and included three different colors. It turned out pretty well. I love how the mists shimmer and shine!  Have a great Friday!