The Easy Way

Today it's one of my little cousins birthdays; it's her 18th birthday, so I guess she's not all that little! I forgot to make her a card, and feel pretty bad about that, but did make a comment on her Facebook wall. I think I'm going to create a few non-discript cards, some male oriented and some really girly, just to have them on hand, so I can always send them out (although I did completely forget about her birthday until yesterday, so it still wouldn't have worked in this case!). I'm going to work on that this month. Another of my cousins birthday is on the 15th, so I'm going to get to work on that card right away. That will be a little side progect for me!

Do you ever have a lot going on, and just want to get a layout completed? That's how I've felt this week. Since initially we were taking today off, and heading out last Friday for camping, I was pushing myself all week to get this layout completed. I print my journalling (if I want type) at work, and knowing that I wouldn't be at home all of the weekend, my plan was to get it printed off early in the week, and slowly work on it. Wednesday came around, and I still hadn't done anything with the page, nothing printed; thankfully that's when we decided not to head off, wait for a better day since it was so wet and miserable out.

I had known for some time now I wanted to do a list, 25 things to do before my 26th birthday. I'd seen it done before (I think the first time was a post somewhere on Elise Flannigan's blog), then I saw the same thing done on Kelly Purkey's blog, and I loved how she scrapped the list. I asked if she would mind if I lifted the look, and she had no problem with it. Without further ado, your Monday Challenge.

On your next layout: scraplift a layout. (Always ask for permission first.)

This is Kellys original. What made me instantly fall in love with her page, besides the list, is how she did the journalling. Every point, all in it's separate little spot; I'm loving circles right now, so that was just an added bonus that each thought was it's own circle. I also really liked that she devided the page; between the photo and journalling there's a diffinative break, with the vertical strip.

Since I was nearing the end of my sticker sheet, and still wanted to use those alphas, I cut around the letter image on the backing sheet. Again, I've wanted to do this for a long time, and this was the perfect opportunity.

When I printed my journalling, (I knew I wanted to use the rest of the paper in my Tickled Spring kit, and only had scraps, which couldn't be fed through the printer without a fight), I printed it on transparencies. Which I just punched out and layered overtop of the punched paper circles. I wish I would have taken a little bit more time, and ensured the glue didn't show through, but I'm letting things like that go! I covered up a couple spots that I really didn't like with some buttons. (A little secret: I knew it was going to be tough to sew the button through a couple layers of transparency, so I stitched them onto a scrap paper, cut that out, and glued it onto the page.)

I seriously enjoy using stamping on my pages lately. I'm just on a stamping kick lately. When I was looking at the page, before I stamped or added the flowers I knew something else was missing. I had a big gap on the top right portion of the journalling area. I needed to cover some of that space with something. Originally I was going to stamp that floral design, but it was going the wrong direction. So I stamped that by the title, looking like it came out from under the photo; instead of having to remove my photo, I just masked off the area that would have gotten stamped. I also stamped the bee, part of which is on a transparency. I did not use a permanent ink, but it turned out okay. Only a little is off the paper, so it's okay. Once I'd finished stamping, and still something was missing from the area, I resorted to my standby: flowers; why re-invent the wheel, right?

Journalling says: (left to right) kiss for 10 minutes, don't eat sweets before noon, stay awake for a 24 hour period, win a blog contest, make 5 pieces of jewlery, get married August 21, 2010, find creative ways to document all 25, purchase Rhonna Farrer's 100 Creativity Exercises - do one every morning, visit 3 new states, take a selfie every Wednesday (52 weeks), make a new girlfriend, paint 2 walls (different rooms, different colours) in the house, swim in the ocean, paint a canvas (make art), donate my hair to Locks 4 Love, get at least 30 comments on one blog post, create a chalkboard, refinsh Grandma's dressers, plan a $20 date night once a month, loose 5 pounds stay at weight for three months, continue the Monday Challenges on my blog, get my elephant tattoo, go camping 20 times in the new trailer, go to a scrapbooking crop, for one day eat only fruit and water.

Yup, that's a big list to accomplish in a year! So far (it's been almost a month), I'm doing great on a few things; like taking a selfie on Wednesdays. I bought a book just for those pictures. Something that I'm not doing the greatest at: not eating sweets before noon. I do try not to, and some days I do succeed. There are those days (today for instance) that the chocolate makes its way into my mouth! Something to work on.

Leave a comment, with a link to your layout using the challenge. What is something you're working on changing about yourself?