2012 Top Ten List

Time for my favorite layouts of 2012!  I struggled with Mojo for much of the year, it seems, but managed to still create quite a few things I live.  Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

I notice a few trends here.  First, I really love single-photo layouts, but in most cases I use a fairly large photo (4x6 or greater).  Second, I used Mit/Paint/Ink on each of these.  Third, I like bright, bold colors.  Fourth, my fussy cutting habit is alive and well!  It’s interested to look at a collection of your work and see what defines it, isn’t it?

Thanks so much to all of the companies and design teams that sent my products and creatively supported me this year: Want2Scrap, Little Black Dress Kits, Pretty Little Studio, and The Curtsey Boutique.  I’m looking forward to what 2013 will bring!

~Alyssa~

A Little Bubble Joy

My now 5-year-old got a new bubble blower for his birthday (more on that next week), and my daughter was using it for the first time when I captured this photo.  It’s raw, unfocused, and completely spontaneous, which is why I love it so much.  It captured JOY, a hard thing to do from behind the camera. 
I saw the new Crate Paper Color Challenge at the same time I was editing these photos, and immediately thought of the two as a perfect pairing.  After all, NO ONE loves pink more then the girl in the photo. 
Here’s the inspiration board:

And here’s my take, using Crate Paper Products of course!

You can see all the details of the Color Challenge and enter HERE, on the CP Blog.  Thanks Tara for the inspiration!

Leaving Impressions

I have really been trying to stretch myself recently, to create with a challenge, or a specific idea in mind.  Making myself try new things is really how I notice my art changing, growing, and my style evolving.  I shared a layout a few days ago where I chose to use all neutrals.  This layout, I decided to use black and brown together in the same layout.  It used to be a hard-and-fast rule: NEVER wear black and brown together.  I remember my mother telling me that many times when I’d try to wear a black belt with brown shoes. 

That doesn’t seem to be the rule as much anymore.  As I write this, I am wearing a brown shirt with a black design on it.  So I decided to break this age-old rule and put the two colors together.  When I got started, I realized the BasicGrey helped my along by breaking the rule too (and in one of my favorite BG collections, no less!).  I used a lot of “Origins” to put this page together, with a few embellishments from other companies.

I have tried to use that Echo Park car sticker about 12 times, but it finally worked on a page.  Since the photos are of the construction of our garage, it seemed to fit.  Yay!

Have a creative weekend! 

~Alyssa~

It was a great summer…

I can’t believe it’s over!  Fall is here, and the nights are getting colder.  I thought it would be a good idea to get some of those summer photos in a mini album before NEXT summer. 

I created this album with a Punky Sprouts album, and a mix of Pink Paislee and Crate Papers (mostly) with some October Afternoon stickers, and other little bits and pieces.  I was going for eclectic and colorful. 

Now, there is one problem.  The last page.  I want to do some kind of journaling here, but I have no idea how to do it.  Handwriting?  Type and glue it in?  How do I make a full page of journaling eclectic enough to jive with the rest of the album?  Might have to look back at the Jazzy Journaling class from Tessa Buys for some ideas!

Thanks for taking a peek!

~Alyssa~

Athletic Prowess?

 Today is the first day of Labor Day weekend here in the States. I hope that for me that means lots of creating and not too much cleaning and cooking.  At the top of my creative list are the 2 color palettes I shared with you yesterday from Design Seeds, and the new palette from the Color Room.  We're also planning an outing to the soccer field to fly kits.  That should be a great photo op for mom, right?  :)

While I am off enjoying the weekend, here's a layout for you to take a peek at.  It's more BasicGrey Hello Luscious.  It's on my desk now, and I just adore it.  Don't know why I hoarded it for 6 months before finally cutting in.  I need to by using this stuff!!

The photo is of my daughter before her very first T-Ball game.  She's such a new athlete we don't really know yet if she'll be good at it, so hence the title.

Thanks for coming by,  I hope you have a great rest this weekend with lots of great photos and memories.
~Alyssa~