So…this is goodbye

Hey, friends, blog readers, if there are still any of you around.

I’ve been blogging for a long time. Eight years now. And the time has come for me to say goodbye. I considered just quietly going away and letting this blog just peter out, but I figured those of you who have been regular visitors and those of you who have been here for a while deserve better than that.

When I began blogging, it was a lot more fun than it is now. Blogs were all the rage. People actually read blogs and took the time to comment. Things are different now. The face of blogging has changed. People are more likely to respond on Instagram and Facebook. Those platforms are more visual, easier to interact with, etc. Blogs still have their place. But with things changing as they have, I found that a lot of time and energy goes into maintaining a blog with very little to no return on your time. It takes a ton of time to create your projects, photograph them, edit the photos, write the blog post, and then…nothing. A lot of times it feels like I’m talking to myself.

And you know what? I totally get it!! I rarely read blogs anymore either. And I used to read lots of them. I no longer take the time to leave comments. So believe me, I totally get it. Things simply have changed. Now I find that I enjoy the ease and simplicity of Instagram rather than a blog.

I will no longer be designing for Gossamer Blue. The last year with Gossamer Blue has been rather stressful, with lots of changes expected to take place. But with recent events that have been very disappointing, I don’t feel I will ever purchase or promote any Gossamer Blue products again. I just can no longer support them.

With all that has transpired over the last year, I’ve felt my joy and passion over paper crafting just pack up and leave. I need some time to find myself in this area again. I need to just be able to do things for me, for my own enjoyment. I’m not sure when that will be. But I hope I find my desire return sometime soon.

And that’s not the only thing. I’ve begun a new business that has been keeping me busy, and I plan to spend more time growing that. Right now I’m setting up a new Instagram site and website and thinking of ways to promote my little business. With that and my busy family, I find my days are quickly filled.

So, to all of you who have stopped by and read this blog over the years, Thank you! To all of you who have taken the time to comment and email and interact with me in various ways, thank you! To all of you who have pinned my projects and shown love and support that way, thank you! I truly do appreciate all the ways this blog has allowed me to connect with each of you, and I appreciate each one of you immensely. I will miss you.

You can still find me on Instagram, and I might still upload projects to my Studio Calico gallery, if and when I feel like it. So, if you’d like to keep in touch, you can follow me there.

Much Love!

 

 

 

Gossamer Blue June reveal

Hey, friends! I can’t believe it’s June!!

Today is the day for brand new kits from Gossamer Blue to go up for sale. It also happens to be my 20th wedding anniversary! Wow!!

Anyway, here’s my June projects.

Awesome page (main kit):

I really, really love the “awesome” patterned paper in the main kit. Not only the huge word, but the city scape images inside. I knew I had to use it to make a page about our recent NYC trip.

I knew I had to use some photos I took that just screamed NYC to me. So I chose a photo of yellow taxis all line up o the street outside the train station, flowers for sale on the sidewalk, and a cup of coffee at at the amazing Aroma cafe. These photos just say NYC to me.

A few embellishments here and there was all this page needed.

Favorite page (Life Pages kit):

Since I’m always looking for ways to use up some of the Life Pages cards, I chose to use a few here to document our favorite local ice cream joint. Their black raspberry ice cream is the bomb!

I love that wood veneer “favorite”, and the circular “I heart this” piece was cut from a Life Pages card as well.

Hello sunshine card:

Dies cuts and washi from the Life pages add-on #3, chipboard star accent and heart sticker from Life Pages kit,

High Five card (main kit):

Don’t you just love that super cute hot air balloon stamp? All the items you see here come from the main kit. Lovely lix of papers and accents.

I like those rubber embellishments a lot (high five banner). They are a little tricky to adhere, though. I did use some liquid glue once that seemed to hold them better than anything else. But you could also try stapling them on.

That’s all, folks. I hope you enjoyed these projects. I enjoyed making them.

Don’t forget to head on over to Gossamer Blue to check out all the kits and all the designer galleries.

Gossamer Blue June sneak

Hey guys!

I just wanted to pop in here real quick and share a few sneak for the Gossamer Blue June kits.  They go on sale on Wednesday, so look out for that!

It’s been a little bit crazy around her. Lots going on with the kids’ end of year school stuff, one high school grad this year, new ventures, life is moving quickly, trying to savor it all.

Look for the reveal of these projects on June 1.

 

Gossamer Blue May card set

I have a few more projects to share with you using the May kits form Gossamer Blue.

The Life Pages kit always has great insert cards in it in various sizes for pocket page scrapboooking. I usually love them so much that I just have to make something with them, even though I’m not doing much pocket page scrapbooking at the moment.

This month’s cards were so fun and colorful. I decided to uses few of them to make a set of small note cards.

hello card:

All of these were made with the 3″x4″ cards. This one also uses a wood veneer word and some tiny puffy  x stickers.

You got this card:

How cute is that wood veneer cactus? I paired it with a phrase die cut and a puffy heart sticker.

Yay card:

This one stayed simple with just a take out coffee cup die cut and a puffy sticker.

Delighted card:

I couldn’t resist going a little “punny” with this one. That light bulb die just fit so well with this delighted card. I also added some tiny stamped hearts from the Life Pages stamp set.

I thought about making little patterned paper envelopes to coordinate with these little cards, but didn’t get around to it. But how cute would that be? Even more so if you tie them all up with a bit of ribbon or twine for a sweet and easy little gift.

Again, here are your links for the month of May:

Main kit

Life Pages kit

add-ons

galleries:

Designer scrapbook gallery

Designer cards and projects gallery

Designer Life Pages gallery

Have an awesome day!

Gossamer Blue May reveal

Hey guys! Today’s the day that the new kits went up for sale in the Gossamer Blue shop. I hope you’ll head on over and check them all out if you haven’t yet.

Shine card (Main Kit):

I love the plastic “shine” piece that comes in the main kit. I paired it with some chipboard and a few die cut pieces (the frame, buttons, and tab).

I so love how that shine piece just, well…shines! It’s like a mirror. Pretty!

Hello there card (Main Kit):

I used the strips along the bottom of the patterned papers for this card. What are those strips called? I know they have a name, but it escapes me at the moment. Anyway, I cut a few off and added them haphazard-like to the card and added a few word stickers for good measure.

Those little stamped hellos are from the stamp set that comes in the kit. The stamp set has some super tiny and cute words and images in it, some that can be paired up together. Cute!

Be Kind card (Life Pages kit):

The life Pages kit has really been impressing me lately. This card is one of the 4″x6″ cards cut down just a bit to fit onto the front of a card. The tan color just seemed to beg me to pair it up with some pretty pinks and corals.

I paired up a sentiment tag with a stapes phrase. The tiny hearts are also from the Life Pages stamp set.

Here are your shopping links for this month. Have fun!!

May 2016 Main kit

May 2016 Life Pages kit

May 2016 add-ons

And your gallery links:

May scrapbook gallery

May cards and projects gallery

May Life Pages gallery

Gossamer Blue May sneak peek

What’s up?

I’ve been creating a few projects for the May release from Gossamer Blue. New kits go on sale on the first of the month.

Here’s a sneak at my May projects:

I hope you’re having a fabulous week!

More GB April projects

Hey friends. Golly, it’s been a while since I’ve been here. I kind of forgot about sharing the rest of the April projects I created for Gossamer Blue. But then my May kits came in the mail, and I was like, oh crap!

So anyway, now that I should be sharing sneak peeks of the newest kit, I’m finally getting around to sharing the last of my April projects.

Post Card holder (Bits & Pieces kit, Life Pages kit):

I really liked the large post card stamp that came in the April Bits & Pieces kit and thought it would make a fun project. So I created some post cards with a cute little holder to gift to someone, maybe someone leaving on a trip or to college or something like that. Then they have little post cards to send home.

I used the metal clips from the Life Pages kit to hold a few post card stamps in place. I was lucky enough to get some stamps that actually coordinated somewhat with the patterned paper designs.

The post cards are two layers stitched together. A layer of white card stock that I stamped with the post card stamp, then a patterned paper layer on the back. The patterned paper is white on the back side, so technically you could just stamp on that, but it would be pretty flimsy, especially for mailing it just so. The two layers together make it mush more durable for mailing.

Perfect & delightful card (Life Pages kit):

I always like to create something using some of the Life Pages cards each month. This time I used the 2″x2″ cards to make this long, unusually sized card.

The rub-ons, phrase sticker, and plastic heart are also all from the Life Pages kit.

You are my heart card (Main Kit):

Another simple and easy card, this one using elements from the Main Kit only. The die cuts in the Main kit are fabulous. I’m a sucker for flowers and leaves, so these were right up my alley.

Patterned papers were layered and torn at the edge for an interesting element.

And that’s all my April projects for Gossamer Blue.

In other news, I was up on the Gossamer Blue blog earlier this week sharing some fun ideas for using paint in your projects. You can see that here.

What I’m up to these days:

1. Thinking about this thing called blogging, and how I’ve been doing it for a long time, and do I want to continue? Sometimes, most times, it doesn’t really seem worth it. I like Instagram a lot better these days. It’s quick and easy, and you get much more interaction. I started blogging back when blogs were boss, and it was a lot more fun back then. These days it seems more like a chore. And when something no longer brings you joy you have to wonder if it’s worth having in your life.
2. I’m still in a weird creative funk. I feel like I am changing as a person (aren’t we all always changing?) and my desires are changing too. I’m still not sure what it looks like for me. But card making is probably not high on the list. I still enjoy scrapbooking, still enjoy photography. Still love being creative, although I haven’t been taking the time for it much lately. It’s really weird and hard to put into words. I feel like I’m rediscovering who I am. Finding a new path. And don’t you dare say it’s because I’m 40 now! 😉 It’s got nothing to do with it.
3. We just celebrated my oldest turning 17! What!?!? My baby. My teeny little boy! He’s grown up into an amazing, and very handsome, young man. He’ll be graduating this year and moving on to other things. Life is always evolving, never static. I love this stage with my kids. I love having teens. That kind of surprise me, because prior to having teens of my own, teens kind of scared me a little. But I love it. Love it so much! It’s incredibly fun and rewarding to catch a glimpse of the totally cool and awesome adults your kids are becoming.
4. I started running again. It’s been a while. I don’t enjoy running, but I needed some form of exercise, and this is the easiest and cheapest way to incorporate exercise into my day. I’m using the couch to 5k app. It’s a great way to ease into it. Hopefully I can keep it up, because running over the hot summer months sounds like pure torture. Maybe I’ll love it by then. Hahaha!!! I crack myself up!

And that’s all for now, folks. Hope you’re having a great week! If you’d like to catch some sneak peeks of the new kits from Gossamer Blue, I highly recommend you join our Facebook community. It’s fun and interactive and we’d love to have you. Check it out here.

Later!

Gossamer Blue April reveal

Hey guys! It’s time for another round of fabulous kits from Gossamer Blue.

The April kits are simply lovely, although I didn’t get as much time to work on them this time around. Plus, I’ve been in kind of a weird creative rut.

But I’ll show you a couple of pages today, and then some cards and another project next time, ok?

Beautiful Spring page (Main kit, Bits & Pieces kit):

I took this photo last weekend during an engagement shoot with my niece. I love tulip trees. I Love all kinds of flowering trees, and I couldn’t resist snapping a photo of the lovely blooms while I took photos of my niece and her fiancé.

A combination title of a word sticker and the foam alphabet stickers. I have a thing for white on white.

Those plastic heart embellishments actually come in red, but i wanted them to pink. So I pulled out some acrylic paint and brushed it on those babies, and voila!

I really wanted to use some patterned paper on this page, but i also didn’t want to detract too much from the photo, so I added small torn strips of patterned paper along the top of the photo, just to add a little color and interest.

This Boy page (Life Pages kit, Main kit, Life Pages themed add-on):

I always try to use up at least some of my Life Pages cards each month, just because I like them a lot. I reeeeallllly need to get back into pocket scrapbooking, because I have so many fabulous cards that i just can’t get rid of.

I used 5 of them on this page, 2- 4″x6″, and 3- 3″ x4″. I did trim them down a little so they’d fit my design better. That colorful triangles one is my favorite.

This is a really old photo of my second son. He had the cutest nose and the most gorgeous eyes. He’s still a cutie, even though he towers over me now, and has a deep, masculine voice.

The stamped circles are from the exclusive Life Pages kit stamp. It’s a really cute stamp set with a lot of possibilities. I decided to jut use the circles on this page and add embellishments to some of them.

And here are your kit links for this month:

Main kit

Life Pages kit

add-ons

And the gallery links:

April designer scrapbook gallery

April designer cards and projects gallery

April designer Life Pages gallery

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you’re having a great week!

 

 

 

Gossamer Blue March day 4

I’ve got just a couple more projects to share using the Gossamer Blue March kits. These kits are amazing. I had such a fun time creating these projects.

Note: there will be a Gossamer Blue designer Instagram hop this afternoon instead of our usual monthly blog hop. I hope you’ll head over to Gossamer Blue on Instagram at 3:00 EST for that.

Lovely card:

I really liked the colored doilies that came in the kits. I divided mine up between a few of my projects, including this card. The rub-ons were a fun way to dress up the doily without adding more layers.

The twine is from my stash, and I also added the mist droplets. Isn’t that doily so pretty?

Work hard play hard card:

This one is a little unique. I cut out some phrases from the patterned paper in the 6×6 stack to create this focal element. I created the background with the To-do list stamp from Jen Hadfield. Everything on this card is from the Bits & Pieces kit except for the glitter enamel dots. those are from the life Pages add-on #3 kit.

Lots of great advice here on this card, wouldn’t  you say? Perfect to send to someone  embarking on a new journey in life, or a friend who just needs some encouragement to stay focused on a goal and keep pushing foreword.

Again, here are your links for March:

March Main kit

March Life Pages kit

March add-ons

March designer scrapbook gallery

March designer cards and projects gallery

March designer Life Pages gallery

Thanks for stopping by, and don’t forget about the Insta-hop this afternoon. We’d love to have you join in on the fun!

Gossamer Blue March day 3

Hey there! I’m back with a few more project shares using the March Gossamer Blue kits.

XOXO page (Using Bits & Pieces kit only):

The Bits & Pieces kit is often one of my favorites each month. This time was no exception. I loved the 6×6 paper pad and the dies cut package especially. They’re both by Maggie Holmes. I really wanted to use a lot of those pretty roses and leaves on a page. So I created some circles with my gelatos as a place to rest each grouping of die cuts and other embellishments. I also added a few sequins from my stash.

This was SUCH a fun page to make, and although it looks like it would have taken a while, it really didn’t.

This is one of my very favorite pages to date. I love the painted circles and the cluster of feminine embellishments.

Love This Dude page:

This is my middle child who loves acting goofy. He’s great at bringing smiles to people’s faces.

I used four of the 4×4 Life Pages cards on this page. Keeping with a grid pattern made it really easy.  I really love simple pages like this one. I have lots of photos to preserve and limited time to do so, so pages like this work well for me. This would work well for more than one photo as well. Simply swap out one of the cards for a photos or layer more photos on top of the cards.

I cropped my photo in a square before printing so it would fit nicely on one of the cards. A paper clip holds it in place.

Be sure to check out the latest kits here.

And the March galleries here.