Introducing Friday Photo Love

click to see larger image - original photo courtesy of Mary Falvo

I am super excited to introduce a new feature on my blog - Friday Photo Love. Every Friday I'll be posting photos that speak to me. Some will be my own photos. Some will be photos that have been shared under a Creative Commons license. All will be photos that speak to me.

I hope they will speak to you, too.

Good Morning Sunshine

 

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Some thoughts on my morning routine...

• My Blackberry is like an extension of me. I feel horrible, like something is missing if I accidentally leave this precious device at home or (God forbid) anywhere else. Not only is it a phone, email delivery system, web browser and camera but also it is my alarm clock!  

• I like a lot of time to get up and moving around. I want to be able to lounge, catch up on email and read all of my favorite blogs. Ali's blog always sparks my creative mind, but I'm also inspired by DesignWorkLife and Studio Calico. To get my pop culture fix, I turn to MamaPop. And Someecards never fails to make me laugh uncontrollably.

• If it is a really good day, my hair will just naturally flow easily into tangle-free, wavy curls. But that never happens. Like most naturally curly hair,  mine requires a smoothing, anti-frizz serum, a good diffuser for blow drying on low and a quick prayer to the hair gods. I use this serum to achieve curl greatness.

• I am a lip gloss kind of girl. Lip gloss, not lipstick. I am currently using this for an everyday gloss. My shade? B Sexy. 'Nuff said.

• I live in Nebraska. In case you are unfamiliar, it gets extremely cold here during the winter. This year, my feet have been saved by wearing my Ugg slipper boots on a near constant basis. The boots are heavenly. So soft and so comfy. My feet stay warm and feel good, too.

• I don't really come alive until I have had my morning coffee. It's not the caffeine. Ok, it might be a little bit the caffeine. But I truly love the experience of drinking a Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte as I start my day. I am lucky because we have a Starbucks in the lobby at work. It's a habit and an expense but it never ceases to make me smile and appreciate my day. That's worth quite a bit.

What's your favorite morning routine?

PS I used this digital layered template by Ali Edwards to create my scrapbook page. The majority of the papers come from a kit designed by Jessica Sprague that came with one of her classes. Other paper came from Kate Pertiet and Jesse Edwards at Designer Digitals.

Blogging For Scrapbookers

Remember all those times that I said I was going to be a better blogger?

Blogging Research Wordle, originally uploaded by Kristina B 

Yes. I know that I've said it a few times but believe me it's harder than it seems at first glance to come up with new and fresh topics. And it is even harder to find the time to actually sit down and write. But I still aspire to be better...

Enter Shimelle Laine and her fabulous class Blogging for Scrapbookers.

I plan on using the daily prompts to guide new and exciting content. And hopefully, I can pick up a few tips on organization & time management as they pertain to blogging. I know that I have lots of areas that can be improved so I am very interested in how to make these changes.

And honestly? I absolutely love learning new things.

So, here's to a wonderful adventure. What's something new that you look forward to this year?

I've Got the Luck of the Irish

Here's wishing all of you a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Photo courtesy of En Pointe Photography

Cover Me

Just a quick post tonight to share an album cover that I recently created. A friend of mine is getting married and last weekend was her bridal shower. I knew that I wanted to make something for her gift. After hemming and hawing about what I was going to do, I finally decided to make her a memory book of the actual bridal shower.

I have had a Prima Canvas album in my stash for almost a year. It is a super cool album - both the cover and 5 insert pages are made of thick canvas fabric. It also comes with 5 plastic page protectors. The canvas comes undecorated- so I'll admit that I was a little bit intimidated to work on such blank space. Here's a photo of the album without any alteration.

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See what I mean? Intimidating...

To begin the album, I used her wedding colors of pink and green  to build a background. Then I added layers of paint, dictionary page, paper flowers, chipboard butterflies, metal flower brads, stickers and fabric brads to further customize. I made similar collages on the inside canvas pages, building around a central focal photograph from the couple's engagement photos. I used the page protectors to hold basic 8x8 background cardstock, again using the wedding colors. I printed out decorative journaling cards personalized with the bride's name. As each guest arrived at the shower, she was given a card and asked to write down her best marital advice for the couple. I used my Fuji Instax instant camera to snap a photo. While the other guests played typical shower games, I adhered each advice cards next to a photo of the author on the cardstock. I was able to perfectly fit 2 cards/photos per page. At the conclusion of the shower, the bride was took home a fully completed memory book.

It was a huge hit. 

I wish you could see it. I really do. However, I stupidly accidentally forgot to take any photos of the interior pages. But I did a couple of shots of the cover. This is how the finished album appeared:

Here's a close-up of the collage:

Lastly, here's what the journaling cards looked like:

 I really love making personalized gifts like this. What are some of your favorite crafty projects?

Soul Restoration Blog Hop or Better Late Than Never

Hi friends! As you might have noticed I was a little late posting for the SR Blog Hop. So, so sorry...I had it set up to post automatically yesterday morning but clearly my poor blog was struggling with technical difficulties. Anyway I am posting now in the hopes that all might be forgiven.

I was completely blown away by my experiences during the Soul Restoration workshop. It was intense, amazing, heart wrenching, cathartic, uplifting and majorly empowering. I would highly recommend this workshop for anyone longing to regain "the real me." Another session of Soul Restoration 1 is beginning April 5th and Soul Restoration 2 will then start June 7th. I will definitely be moving on with SR 2. More sharing about the curriculum and registration information can be found here.

Please check out the Brave Girls - you won't be sorry!

In this post, I shared some of my initial thoughts about the Soul Restoration workshop and a tutorial on the construction of my 'soul house' journal cover. Today, I thought I'd share some of my favorite journaling pages.

Next up in the Blog Hop is Dawn Hueser - check out her blog for more Soul Restoration goodness.

Feeling the Love

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I'm definitely seeing this concept in action in our lives right now. What a huge blessing...

PS I saw this amazing project on Beth Shaleben's blog. You should check it out.

OLW Blog Hop

Welcome friends! I am so excited to be participating in this month's One Little World Blog Hop. There are 44, yep that's right, I said 44 participants. So be sure to check out all of these fabulous ladies' blogs. You will be amazed at the creativity, humor, sentimentality, depth and joy that shines through on every single page.

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To anyone unfamiliar with the concept,  One Little Word was first introduced to me by Ali Edwards. As she explains, "I am a fan of welcoming the new year with open arms. I love fresh starts, new opportunities, clean slates, possibilities. Back in January 2007, as a way to celebrate these beginnings, I started a public tradition of choosing a single word to focus on over the course of the year." 

I have been choosing my own word of the year since 2008, but have only been blogging about my word since last year. In 2010, I kept my focus on hope. And in 2011 my head and heart are filled with dreams. The greatest hurdle in this process for me was to make sure that I took the time to acknowledge my dreams every day. Not just opening up and admitting that I have dreams but really believing that I deserve for all of my dreams to become truth. I am taking a class taught by Ali through Big Picture Classes exploring and focusing on my One Little World dream.

Last month, we completed the title page of our album. You can see mine here. We also used divided page protectors to house a series of nine cards created with words, clip art, quotes, patterned paper and embellishments. These cards exemplified and symbolized our One Little Word in graphic detail. Again, you can see my collage here.

For February, we also created two projects. First,we collected nine photographs that spoke to us of our word, in my case my visual interpretations of my dreams. These will go into the reverse of the divided page protector used n January. I thought long and hard about which concepts, ideas, wishes, fears and emotions that I wanted my photos to convey. Here's what I cam up with:

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For my second project, I knew I wanted to incorporate a photo enlargement as contrast to the various smaller images. To help simplify the concept of dreams; to see a beautiful reminder of my capacity for dreaming; and to aid in instilling the belief in me that I have the power to turn my dreams into reality; I created this print:

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Thanks for stopping by Studio Jenn! Please drop me a comment or any questions that you might have. Next up in the OLW February Blog Hop is Kathryn Lowe. Here's the link to her blog Stamping With Kathryn Lowe. Have a wonderful Tuesday - now go & do something that you love!

        PS In case you've gotten lost, all of the OLW February Blog Hop participants are listed here on Margie's blog.