sweet november: handmade

Yesterday certainly did not go as planned! (keys locked inside the car fiasco, Costco's pharmacy at lunch time - yikes! ) By the time I finally got home the good light for taking photos had gone down, and I had nothing ready. Good news: I got to 7 posts before I missed one - that is impressive, for me at least. 

So, yesterdays word was: handmade

It was an easy enough prompt and I had thought it was about time for some scrapbooking anyways. I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of scrapbooking each and every week but I do like using the project life photo pages. You can utilize those plastic sheets in a number of ways, I used 2 with the theme of 'Fall.' This way you can include various sized photos, journaling/notes all without having to create multiple layouts and it makes scrapbooking a quick and simple!

(I combined photos from our trip to Sedona last month and the kids' photos from this week.) 

 I love this fabric page, really it's the fabric that I fell in love with and didn't want to cover it up with a photo. Just a simple sewn leaf tucked in between layers of fabric and a little Autumn quote.

I'm going to get back on track and get today's post ready tonight! Thanks for stopping in tonight and happy Saturday to you! 

xo~ Tara

Collage Journal, part 2

Well, I had every intention of coming back last week and posting these photos.... but it was my birthday and Peter surprised me with a new coffee table for my reading room (not really a surprise since I had already picked it out, but he did pay for it and that counts in my book!) And a new coffee table meant rearranging furniture and moving some wall art, which then lead to a massive deep cleaning of the entire house. Funny how that works! So here we are, Tuesday evening :) 

 I worked on these pages the week before we went up to Oregon. I ended up really liking that vintage bird book I found in Vacaville, and decided to keep up with the theme through these pages as well. I have probably one more collection of photos to share, but we'll start with these for now (plus, I need to finish up dinner!) Thanks for looking!!

  

Saturday Color Combo, collage pages

 

 

It's a kind of a tad bit late this evening, but I really wanted to get this post up at some point today! In between our running around, visiting family, trips to the park and evening walks looking for neighbor cats, I've managed to squeeze in a little creative time. Then today, after visiting our local farmers market for some organic fruit, a quick trip to the barber shop to get Chase a haircut and some very successful vintage book shopping, I headed back to my parents house to do some crafting and set up for a few photos. Fruit ~ old books ~ scrapbooking, could a Saturday afternoon possibly get any better?  

 

As for our color combination, at the start of the week we spent the day at Marine World where I took this photo of a pretty vintage style carousel and that's what I'm using as the inspiration for this weeks color combination!

 

 the color palette for the week is:

 

mermaid teal - Parisian pink - French custard - antique marigold 

 

I've been slowly working on my collage book this past week, collecting random papers and using my mom's dinosaur like sewing machine (seriously it's huge and bulky!) to sew the layers of papers together. I love this color combination, and when mixed with a few subtle patterns I think it's really pretty and perfect for summer!    

 

 

 

 

 

I spy with my little eye a mistake with this page.... do you see it?

 

Yep, I stamped the wrong date. So irritating and of course it looked right when I was setting it (because it's reversed on the stamp) and I'm not the patient type so testing it beforehand didn't happen. I just went for it, and then realized what I had done.....in black ink.... That's when you take a deep breath and say 'oh well.' I still like the page even with the wrong date!
 

I found a couple of interesting quotes referencing traveling/vacations while reading this week. Ultimately I went with the above quote but I also liked this one:

"When one is traveling, everything looks brighter and lovelier. That does not mean it is brighter and lovelier; it just means that sweet kindly home suffers in comparison to tarted up foreign places with all their jewels on." - Catherynne Valente

 

 I think that wraps up all of my project photos! Tomorrows plans include a trip to the rock shop (for my future gemologist Alaina) a trip to Chases favorite park here in town and I'll be making a peach tart made entirely of fruit picked from the trees in my mom's garden. (I'm thinking we could get use to this vacation schedule) Oh and some more photo editing, I want to post some of our vacation photos so far!

 

I hope you are having the loveliest of weekends! xo ~ Tara

 



Saturday Color Combination - Project Life

Hi there! Ready for another summer inspired color combination this weekend? Here's a slight twist on the traditional red-white-blue palette that we see this month.

 

petal pink - boysenberry - midnight blue - linen - ash grey

While I was working on the wedding book, I had this idea to do a color combination and instead of just a single layout I would do a Project Life inspired layout (not sure what else to call it!) and use some of those page protectors since I'm the proud new owner of an entire box. I'll admit I have no plans to actively participate in doing Project Life spreads each week, but I think every once in awhile, it could be fun to use the layouts to hold smaller scaled scrapbooking projects. 

 

I made these 2 pages about our very short brief stay in Oceanside, CA  back in May. I was able to use all of the extra photos that didn't make it onto a traditional 12x12 layout! 

Hope you enjoy the Color Combination! If you decide to create a little something, feel free to leave me a link so I can have a look at your work! 

Happy Saturday! 

xo ~ Tara

Road Trip Kit

It's official, the kids and I are traveling today which means.... summer vacation is here!

Spending the last couple of years away from home (and my awesome little craft room) means that I need to pack a mobile craft room of sorts to take on the road with us. Just a little box of things to give me something to do. I find that I tend to get bored on trips if I don't bring something creative to do. This time, I've packed a kit and have a perfect summer project in mind! 

Here's what I'm packing this year! 

1. Instax camera & film

2. envelope of stamps & tags

3. mini notebook
4. washi tapes
5. adhesive roller
6. date stamp
7. stapler & extra staples
8. paint brush (I'll purchase paint up there)
9. stamps & stamp pad
10. scissors 
11. painted journal titles
12. collage papers 

 I'm not really the journaling type, sure I like to create lists and record notes along the way, but lengthy stories of our travels, not so much. So, instead of a scrapbook or journal this year, I've created these collage books with simply two pieces of chipboard and filled with blank art paper. Ouick & easy! I hope to complete a collage every other day or so using little snips of paper and other collected paper bits and I did include a few journaling cards - just in case! ;) 

I also made an extra paper and collage book for a special crafty friend coming out to visit us! I thought it would be fun to have something creative to work on while she's visiting, like a girls craft retreat! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! If you get a chance to pop back in tomorrow, I have a color combination scheduled and some more scrapbooking projects!

Have a lovely day! ~ Tara