Refering back to my previous blog, I went home last night with the the Scrap Simple layout called "hesitant" circling in my head. I was sooo excited to do a layout on white paper. I scrolled through my stash of scrapbooking supplies to find a lot of disappointment. I DIDN'T have ANY white paper that I liked...I was looking for white paper with a subtle texture, but everything I found had an ugly gloss finish to it. Boo Hoo! Although disappointed about my finds, I was eager to still attempt the layout from Scrap Simple. Here's what I came up with—

Enjoy!
Kelly

Just came across some pretty interesting news on the HOW Design blog:

Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, selected PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris as the color of the year for 2008.

"From a color forecasting perspective, we have chosen PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris as the color of the year, as it best represents color direction in 2008 for fashion, cosmetics and home products," explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. "As a reflection of the times, Blue Iris brings together the dependable aspect of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast. Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic. Look for it artfully combined with deeper plums, red-browns, yellow-greens, grapes and grays."

So much of scrapbooking is color inspiration. Finding a piece of paper or embellishment you love and then making a layout work around it. Perhaps we should all be keeping Blue Iris in mind when we're looking for some new inspiration. It will be interesting to see how this color enters the design world over the next year...

Eileen

Now that my niece and nephews are a little older, instead of gifts for birthdays and Christmas, I give them the option of having a special day with me. Just the two of us. Doing whatever they would like to do. Usually that involves a stop at a favorite restaurant (like Choo-Choos or Skyline), a trip to a museum or the aquarium, or maybe just crafting time at my house (so many stickers and foam dots to play with!). This year, my nine-year-old nephew opted for a sleepover. This weekend, we started out with dinner, a movie night (Transformers, since he is nine), and then we ended up talking until around 11:30pm.

Low-key, quality time events like these are ones I want to remember and scrapbook, but taking photos of us hanging out just didn’t feel quite natural. Luckily, he left behind a few mementos for me to scrap—like the Sunday-morning agenda he created (we both overslept). And I might include the cover of the movie or the book that I got him at the bookstore on Sunday (Gone with the Wind, believe it or not).

I think I have a least one or two trips to the aquarium in my future yet this holiday season, as well as a children’s museum in Wisconsin. Lots of opportunities for great photos to scrap. For this one, though, I good with scrapping the memories.

Until next time,
Christine

Tis the season to be  jolly and cold for that matter if you live in the Cincinnati aarea. My latest -n- greatest creation for the holidays (so far)... a couple of peace cards. I absolutely LOVE one of Ashley's layout ideas in her book    Scraptastic! The layout uses ribbon loops to add dimension and interest to the page. How innovative! I love it. I stole the idea to create a cross look on a peace card for my mom :) What do you think? This book is Fabulous! You'll be missing out if you don't pick up a copy! So many great ideas...

Happy Holidays,
Kelly

 
 

As I mentioned in a previous post, two North Light Craft editors have been holding a Knit-along for F+W employees interested in learning how to knit. Every Thursday a group of us gather in the lunchroom and these two talented knitters sit patiently, teaching the rest of us how to untangle our yarn in hopes of creating a finished piece. I've made scarves in the past. Very simple, straight stitch, no pearling, one color scarves. So, my knitting skills were pretty minimal. However, I dove right into the suggested hat project and it quickly consumed my life. Every day I felt an excited urgency to rush home from work so I could continue working on my hat! It took a few weeks, but when it was done, I was SO excited. That is, until I put it on my head and realized I had made it about 4 sizes too big!! Total bummer!

The hat itself turned out really nice though...so I knew I couldn't just throw it away. Jenny, one of our fabulous knitting gurus, suggested I donate the hat to a good cause. The Dulaan Project (Dulaan = warm) seeks to inspire the generous spirit of the knitting community to help meet the urgent needs of Mongolia's impoverished people. The project, based in Arizona, collects donated knitted items year round, then makes a once a year shipment to Mongolia with all the warm goods. It was the perfect place for my hat to go.

So today, before my hat heads west to Arizona, I thought I'd share it's story with you. Now, I'm onto the next one - this time paying a bit more attention to my measurements!

Have you ever had a project you were so excited about not turn out quite as you expected? Where did that project end up?

Eileen