Moleskine® Adventures: BPC

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

What do you do when a Tropical Storm hits on a 3 1/2 day weekend?

You get your "CRAFTY" on! Ah yes with the direct landfall of Tropical Storm Lee on Louisiana threatening my long holiday weekend, I decided to make the best of it....

** warning - posts is pretty photo heavy and long because i got a lot done! **

Although Friday wasn't my normal half day (for being on call) at work, AG decided to let us all leave at noon to start tour holiday weekends.   Love when work does this.....   Around 10 am we got the weather update that the weather disturbance out in the gulf was officially a Tropical Depression and would be Tropical Storm Lee before it made landfall on Louisiana sometime Sunday morning. Work was now in "Emergency Preparation" mode.   I do computer work for a grocery distribution company that services the entire gulf coast, so any small threat puts the tension high.   All this meant for me (because I was on call for the week) was that i just had to keep updated and be ready if any computer problems arises.

So i spent my Friday half day picking up items around the outside of my house and getting ready for the storm.   I was also able to get my things packed for my LSS "Summer Challenge" crop being held on Saturday. I packed thinking i would assess the weather situation in the morning and determine if a drive to praireiville would be a smart move.

Besides a little rain and wind on Saturday morning, the weather was too bad. Well then the power went out. OK that was a sign. I packed the car and headed to my LSS. Knowing they had power and Internet, I could spend a couple of hours there and the crop and deal with work when there was issues. Although only three of us showed up the crop, I chatted with good friends and managed to make some progress on Isabelle's dance album.   If you remember this post here, I had started on her dance album from this past year at our annual family beach trip in May. I will admit since then and with only a couple of pages at the NSD crop at Micheals, I haven't really touched the album. I didn't get it finished, only 4 pages left, but got a pretty good bit done. Here is the latest pages....

"Creep" - company dance

"Creep"- company dance

"Sound of Silence"- company dance

"Fame"- company dance

"Hey Jupiter" - contemporary

"Hey Jupiter" - Contemporary

"Fire on the Dance Floor" - Hip Hop

"Jewels" - Ballet

"Dock of the Bay" - Lyrical

"Ocean Waves" - Tap

"River Deep, Mountain High" - Jazz

Debbie Allen's

"All the Right Moves"

What's left is the rest of Debbie Allen, Master classes with Dion and NTG's Final Event. The goal is to get it done before the first competition this year. Well that's in November, so one more crop at my LSS should do it.

The crop ended around 3 and I headed home to hopefully a house with power. Power was on, so i took the rest of the afternoon to get laundry and some house cleaning done, in case the power went out again during the weekend. Just a few small glitches here and there.

Sunday was yet another day of wind and rain, Tropical Storm Lee was pounding Louisiana. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon helping my mom clean her house. I owed her big time after she the rest of my family helped me move into the new house. It took me the entire month of August to move!

I spent the rest of Sunday and all of Monday working on crafty projects (Trying to get a head start on Halloween) and layouts for LOAD.

On a side Note...... I have been enrolled in BPC's "The Mother Load and haven't quite been keeping up with the warm up part. I was taking both Finding Photo Freedom and starting Mother Load, along with the move all in the same month and was just stretched too thin! The first of September started the LOAD part (Layout a Day). I will admit, going into this class I knew that a layout a day was just not possible for me. I took the class for the daily prompts in hoping that I could get out of my comfort zone of just scrapping events. My goal was have 7 layouts in a week done. Using my weekends and Wednesday afternoons to catch up on previous days prompts. I do spend a couple of minutes a day, brainstorming on the prompts just to get my thoughts together on what i want the layout to look like. This helps so when i sit down on the weekends and actually crop, the layouts come together pretty fast.

Out of the 5 prompts from the start of the class, I followed 2 completely, 1 partially, but also completed 4 additional layouts along with a set of cards.

LOAD #1: scrapbook a goal or aspiration

"Keep It Clean" - journaling reads: "Now that I have moved into the new house & have my craft space all set up, My goal is to "Keep It Clean" and pick up after each project". This pictures are from my old craft room in the Ave B house right after it was re-organized. It never stayed this way, but hopes with the way the area is set up in the new house, I should have not issues with keeping it clean. I am not quite finish with the craft area in the new house but plan to posts pics as soon as its done.

Supplies: Studio Calico Kit - "Boardwalk", Sassafras Sunshine Broadcast PP "Flourish" (11481), Create Paper Studio C PP, SC Chipboard Alpha (CA004), Basic Grey Brads "Out of Print" (3341)

LOAD #2: Laughter-tell a story that made you laugh really big

"Laughter" - this one tells the story from our road trip in California two summers ago. I have never laughed so hard. These kids say the cutest things!

Supplies: Studio Calico Kit - "Boardwalk", SC PP "Boroughs" (SCPP0069), SC Chipboard Alpha (CA004), My Mind's Eye -Lime Twist "Fly a Kite" Spring Twine (LT1053)

LOAD #3 - was to use one of your snack bags of supplies, I never did this assignment!

LOAD #4 - Minimal Scrapbooking + gotta scrap photo - your requirements for a page to be considered a successful layout. this was hard for me to put together as a list.

Mine are basically the following:

cardstock/patterned paper background
title
one photo
minimal journaling
few embellishments

"Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun" - this is minimal for me!

Supplies: American Crafts "Boo" collection, PP "Barbara R. Bones" (35188), "Jack T. Skullinski" (35191), "Van D. Helsing" (35195), Details "Fright" (78035), Minimarks "Ghoulish" (43382), Remarks "Ghostly" (42167), Thickers Borders "Bones" (53106)

LOAD #5 - Throw out your requirements, break your rules and do the opposite. This one throws me for a loop and not sure what to do. I tend to scrap however the pics move me.

Sometimes its...

multiple photos or a single photo
single page or double page
12x12, 8.5 x 11, or 8x8
just cardstock, patterned paper
from a kit or just wanna use supplies
small amount of journal, long paragraph

I don't stick to just one set of rules, but like the challenge for those who do!

The next two layouts and set of cards were completed because I liked working the AC's "Boo" collection and wanted to get last year's trick or treat pics scrapped for display. I like to display last year's layout in a 12x12 photo box with the rest of my holiday decor.

"Party at Ave B" -pics from last year's trick or treat party at my house

Supplies: American Crafts' "Boo" Collection, PP - "Vladimir E. Bite" (35193), "Inga H. Mumm" (35187), "Charlotte A. Weaver" (35184), "Lydia J. Fungus" (35194), Just Write "Boo" (64002), Thickers "Bones" (53094)(53097), Borders "Bones" (53106), Remarks "Ghostly" (42167), "Superstitious" (42169), Minimarks "Ghoulish" (43382)

"Spooky Decor" - since it was the first year having trick or treat at my house, i decided to decorate with diy crafty decor. Had so much fun doing this! Plan is to add more decor for this year's party.

Supplies: American Crafts' "Boo" Collection - PP "Elizabeth B. Stein" (35190), Thickers "Bones" (53097), Rmearks "Ghostly" (42167), Minimarks "Ghoulish" (43382), Just Write "Boo" (64002)

"Boo Cards" - Finished off the Halloween trend with two card to be used closer to Halloween and sent to my little buddy and her family.

Supplies: American Crafts' "Boo" collection, PP - "Van D. Helsing" (35195), Flair "Happy Halloween" (70063), Minimarks "Ghoulish" (43382), Remarks "Superstitious" (42169), "Igor" (42168), Thickers Borders "Bones" (53106), Just Write "Boo" (64002)

While putting away the leftovers from this collection (see working on my "keep it clean" goal), I discovered in my stash AC's "Confetti" collection. I had gotten the entire collection off of a steal site before i moved and had completely forgotten about it.

I pulled the whole collection out and managed to get two more layouts done before going to bed last night.

"Happy 12 Birthday" - favorite pic from Noah's 12th birthday this past may

Supplies: American Crafts' "Confetti" collection, PP - "Holly Hazelnut"(border piece) (35323) "Banana Cream Brady" (35326), Remarks - "Pin the Tail" (42186), "Musical Chairs" (42188), "Surprise" (42185), Bits - "Tags" (85533), Thickers "Dots" (53237)

"Pool Jam" - during his pool party, Noah and his friends brought our their instruments and started playing for everyone. So cute to see him in his Fedora rocking it out!

Supplies: American Crafts' "Confetti" Collection, PP - "Holly Hazelnut" (35323), Thickers "Cheer" (53154), Bits "Tags" (85533), Remarks "Muscial Chairs" (42188), "Pin the Tail" (42186)

That's the end of the layouts from the holiday weekend, but i did complete two more projects. I had pinned these to my pinterest during this past week in hopes of making ones of my own in the future.

"Keep Calm..." - from AC's blog

Here is mine:

"DIY Cheap Halloween Trays" - these are from Joy Hopes' blog . Thought this would be great for trick or treat party this year. Basically its silver trays and glass candle sticks spray painted. Had a little bit of sunshine and cool weather on Sunday afternoon, so the perfect time to get this project completed. Went to dollar tree and found three different style trays (oval, circle and rounded rectangle). Decided to do three: two in all black because my kitchen is black and red and one in orange and black for Halloween.

My version.....

FYI, while going to my local dollar tree in search of the supplies needed for the trays and frame, I discovered that they had just put out all of their Halloween/fall decor. I scoped up four huge spiders and webs, fun straws, test tube candy and pumpkin dollies. Since spray paint was used on the tray they are not safe to put food directly on them. I will be using the pumpkin dollies (pack of 35 for only $1) I found.

All in all a pretty productive 3 1/2 holiday weekend! When you are stuck inside all day, there is no excuse not to get your "CRAFT" on.

More Halloween/fall decor to come. In the meantime, you can check out my collection of ideas on pinterest.

Now off the the BPC board for "The Mother Load" to posts my layouts......

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Classes and Workshops

Well Amy Tangerine's "Get Those Creative Juices Flowing" workshop came to end this past friday. How sad! I really enjoyed this class and look forward to her next workshop in spring of 2011.

Dear Lizzy's "Unlock Your Story" workshop begins on Nov 1st. I received my kit in the mail early this week and can't wait for the class to start.

Starting Nov 22nd I will be taking Latrice's "Holiday Happenings" Workshop. We will be making a cute mini album! Registration offically opens on Monday morning but if you email her today, you can purchase the class($15) or the class + kit($42). Better hurry on the kits, she is only making 25 and if you are one of the first 15 to buy the kits, you get $25 scrapbooking kit for free. Now thats a deal! Hope to see you in class.

SYS: Throughout the Holiday Season and BPC ended yesterday. What a great class. Although class is over, I continue to use the box and index card system to house all my holiday ideas. I am hoping BPC offers the other two (Celebrations and Summer Travel) SYS classes again next year.

Cut The Crazy Out Of Christmas is still going on, but I find my self behind. I am a little over extended with the upcoming Halloween weekend so I have just assembled my binder but haven't done any of the assignments yet.

Donna Downey's Fun With Fabric is on Week 5. The class is currently creating a canas album. As stated in my previous posts about this class, I won a spot so I plan on getting everything printed and catching up on the projects later in next year. I do plan on completing the pretty ladies and apron once those weeks come around.

Get Great Photos with Any Camera started today and I am already behind. I think i have completed all my pre-assignment photos, I just have to dig through my iphoto library and upload them. I do want to try out the first three picture assignments during the halloween weekend.

So I am currently taking 3 BPC classes and two other workshops starting soon. No wonder i am overextended.

Friday, October 15, 2010

BPC Classes/Halloween Decorations

I am currently taking three classes at Big Picture Classes along with a Creativity class by Amy Tangerine. Here is an update on how the classes are going.

Class #1: Saving Your Santity: Throughout The Holiday Season - Jen Molher

This class has been great. The pre-class assignment was to alter a small memo pad to hold ideas and thoughts for the holiday season. Here is mine:

The first week we tackled putting together our Holiday Project box. It consists of Dividers and notecards to hold all the wished to-do ideas.

I think my dividers turned out real cute. The class only had instructions up through new years but i extended my dividers all the way to easter. Being from Louisiana, our holiday season falls well into April with Valentines Day, Mardi Gras and Easter.

Another great thing about this class is all the ideas that are shared on the message board for decorations, recipes, home decor and gifts. At the end of this post I will show you my Halloween crafts.

Week two consisted of Holday projects: cards, a fall wreath, and Christmas Canvas. I don't send out cards for halloween and i did a halloween wreath this year instead of a fall one. These two projects have been filed in my box as possiblities for next year. I have yet to do the canvas but its on my list to complete next month after all the halloween parties are over.

Week three just started and the first two assignments are a halloween tin gift and a shadow box decor. The tin holds a mini album and the shadow box is for thanksgiving. These are both being filed for next year also.   Before the class started I purchased the shadow box but decided to use it to display last years holiday layouts. Right now it holds trick or treat from 2009.

Class #2: Fun With Fabric - Donna Downey

Although we are will into week 3 of this class, I have yet to do one of the projects.   I have been following along with the videos and message board, but i am waiting for the week when we do the apron and fancy ladies. So more on this class to come.

Class #3: Cut The Crazy Out Of Christmas - Georgana Hall

This class just started this past thursday and already I am quite exicted. The premises behind the class is to put together a christmas binder to organize to-do lists for the upcoming season.   Plenty of print-outs are provided. I will post a picture as soon as my binder is decorated.

Amy Tangerine's "Get Those Creative Juices Flowing" Class

Amy is hosting an online class right for the next two weeks.   Already I have learned so much: How to sew a journal, make your own washi tape, and handsewn lettering on layouts. She has also shown us what she packs to scrap when she travels. I tried this on our last trip to california this past july. I brought way too much and had too high of expectations. Here is the link to the posts for my creations in the class: http://moleskineadventures.blogspot.com/2010/10/get-those-creative-juices-flowingday-1.html

I am in the process of putting together a scrap kit for Isabelle for her birthday coming up on the 23rd. More to come on this.....

And Finally HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS

With three upcoming halloween themed parties: Isabelle's B-day, My Sis's Costume Party and Trick Or Treat at my House, I have been having a pretty crafty month.

Isabelle's party will be halloween themed with costumes and a trip to the museum. I have been helping my aunt get ready for this!

My sister and her roomates are having a adult costume halloween party on the 30th. I offered to help with the decorating.

Trick or Treat this year is being held at my house in the neighborhood. I will be using the same decorations for both parties.

Below are pictures and links to instructions.   I will also include the recipes for the food i will be serving at the party.

Spooky Letters from AC Blog: http://americancrafts.typepad.com/studio/2009/10/spooky.html

I used American Crafts "Halloween" line to cover some bought white letters from Hobby Lobby. There are found in the home decor isles. Since they aren't flush on the bottom, I glued them to a painted 2x4.

Halloween Wreath: http://scrapbookandcardstodaymag.typepad.com/scrapbook_cards_today_blo/2010/10/are-you-ready-for-halloween-i-sure-am-it-is-one-of-my-familys-favourite-holidays-my-kids-have-been-begging-me-for-about.html

I used the same AC line to create the wreath

Candy Corn Garland: http://www.bhg.com/holidays/halloween/crafts/easy-to-make-candy-corn-halloween-garland/
This was mentioned on the message boards of the SYS BPC class. I was so easy to make. Instead of using the paper plates and paint, i just cut the circles out 12x12 cardstock and rounded the edges with my rounder punch from the Paper Studio. This would be a great craft at a school halloween party.

Halloween Hangups: http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/halloween-decorating-and-craft-templates#slide_19

I found this on Martha Stewarts blog. It includes the full supply list and instructions. It was a little time consuming with all the folding. But once complete they are the cutest thing ever.

Candy Corn Wreath: http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Family-Lifestyle/Holidays/Halloween-Craft-Candy-Corn-Wreath.html

This was also a suggestion from the SYS message board. It was very time consuming. In the beginning it was meant to be a gift for my aunt, but once complete I couldn't part with it. I am in the processing of making and 2nd one for her.

Treats on the table:

I covered some hershy bars very similar to this post from the AC Blog: http://americancrafts.typepad.com/studio/2009/10/halloween-party-with-beth.html

Monster Eyes: http://bethproudfoot.blogspot.com/2010/09/another-monster-idea.html
These are so easy and so cute but the last two times i have been to Michaels, I couldn't find the stickers. I will try once more this weekend.