Diary of a Renegade Scrapbooker

mini books galore

hey everyone! hope you are doing well!

today was a beautiful day here in seattle. i'm kinda bummed i didn't get out and do something fun. i did get some scrapbooking done, photos uploaded and am finally ready to share some new projects.

i have been cranking out the mini books out lately. i have four different ones to share over the next week so let's get started!

i snapped a photo of all of my favorite books. i love seeing my favorites all in one photo like that. so cool. you can see the new books that i will be sharing here on the blog in the photo!

 

i couldn't decide which book i wanted to share first! i love them all. but i decided on the one i finished up this morn. i named it "decor obsessed". i have been wanting to make a book like this for a looooong time. i am always saving home decor photos that i come across and that inspire me on my pc. when we get our next place, i finally want to decorate it the way i have always dreamed of. i can not freakin' wait! so i have been collecting all of these super inspiring photos and wanted a home for all of them in one place. something i can take with me even, when we start purchasing things for our new place. it will be cool to have it in the stores with me and be able to look at my ideas and what i want and see if something i am thinking of buying fits in with my theme. 

anyway, i am glad all of these wonderful little photos are all in one place now. just about all of the product i used for this mini is from studio calico. i love this line. it suited the book perfectly. this was my first order from studio calico. and it gotta say....i am hooked! i love the papers, stickers...the woodgrain alphas!!!! all of it. i am a huge fan now. 

my covers and some of the inside pages are adhered to 4x6 kraft chipboard. i love the way it adds some thickness to the book. i use chipboard and sometimes even cork throughout my mini's for that affect. 

gosh i love those papers. to get the title on my sticker i used for this cover, (i don't have a typewriter....yet. it's on my thrifting list!), i simply printed out what i wanted it to say on cardstock. then lined up my sticker on top and ran it through the printer again,then cut it out and glued it to my cover. a typewriter would make this whole process so much simpler for me so i am on a serious hunt for one. i would do all of my journaling on a typewriter if i had one. if you haven't noticed, i only use one font. teletype. i rarely stray from that font. it just works for me. and i like the unity it gives throughout my work and albums.

 

 

gosh i love it! adorableness. little books are my absolute favorite thing to make! 

i do have two layouts to share before i go. stop by tomorrow and check out my "adventures in seattle" mini book! have a great night.

     
            
 

sunday musings...........

hi y'all! hope your weekend has been absolutely fabulous. mine has been!

if you have a moment, go and check out for the luv of art. i will be designing for the site for the next six months. very excited about that!

make sure to check back here next week. i am going to be posting three different mini books i have made recently as well as techniques used in the books and some detailed info on the books. i can't wait to share them!!!!!

in the meantime here are two layouts i made while watching the real housewives of new jersey this morning! lol. i love that show. all reality tv really. 

  

sorry for the short post today....but i gotta run. don't forget to check back this week!

peace,

kate

really good day

i had a really good day today. besides the rain. it's been so yucky here for about a week now. i am so so so sick of rain. seriously.

i made this layout today for the first challenge up over at cartwheels in my mind.

 

 you really should take a moment and check out their blog. the girls on the design team are all so talented and the site overall is super inspiring. 

their first challenge:
 Creative Challenge 01:  Introduce yourself/say hello. Via layout, photo, poem, etc....anyway you want!

Idea Prompts:
1.  What's the story behind your name?
2.  Share a photo of your family home's welcome mat.
3.  Do you have a personal greeting? What's the story behind it?
4.  Create your own personal logo (not-business related) using scraps around you.
5.  Create a haiku describing yourself.

you guys should participate! i really like the vibe of the blog and think i am going to enjoy following along. and play along with the challenges.

i still never got that 12 x 12 scanned in. i am kinda unsure of how to scan the two sides and "stitch" them together. that's what it's called right?? maybe i will attempt to figure it out tomorrow.

i will be back tomorrow. i have some fun scrapbooking news to share! 

hope you had a great weekend!

peace,

kate

hello friday!

and the weekend. nice.

there is actually sunshine today! after a long week of rain and cloudy skies i am a very happy girl today. 

my creative streak has continued. i made four layouts since yesterday. and two are 12x12. i never scrapbook that size. but i wanted to try. i think i did pretty good. i will share those later. i need some help in scanning them in. once i do that, i will share them here. i am curious to see what y'all think of them. the size of the paper intimidated me. those took me a while. 

i have a lot of projects "in progress". lol. i start something, then will get inspired to start another project....and so on. right now i am working on a mini book i am going to call "adventures in seattle", some garland i saw on the hambly blog, my atc spinner and a mini book for my baby, elliott. sigh. i need to finish what i start before beginning a new project. 

i did finish these 2 layouts. 8 1/2 by 11. still my preferred size.

  

i have a really great idea for a mini book class. i am putting together product and ideas and will let you know here once i have a coherent plan! :) i am really excited to do an online class again. they are my favorite.

i find that when i have a lot on my mind i become even more creative. i get lost in it. the art. the creating. and escape, sometimes, is a good thing. i have some things in my life that i need to face right now. i have a few rather large decisions that need to be made. about my life. and the direction of it. and i am struggling with those decisions. i sit down and start making stuff, and a few hours later i have a few pages done or a mini book and i also have a clear head. so this creative streak of late, has been very much needed.

i might be back later tonight with those 12x12s. hope you have a great friday and a great weekend!

leaving you with a few photographs.........

  

    

in a funk today

can't quite understand why but i just feel blah. one of those days.

i had a pretty good weekend. quiet. i cooked a lot. ate a lot. watched a lot of tv. i saw that movie "adventureland" and i thought it was really really good. that was pretty much my weekend. scrapbooking too of course. i have a lot of projects "in progress". lol. hopefully i will get them finished up this week so i can share them here on the blog.

however i do have a few new layouts to share! hope you had a great weekend. i will be back by soon.

this one didn't scan all that well. it's a little bulky with the photo corner and letters.

 

peace! 

scrapbooking and other randomness

i am back again. so soon. i don't know if i can keep up my blogging stamina! lol. but lately i have been in such a creative mood and then i want to share what i make. so as long as the creative streak keeps up i guess you can expect to see me around here a lot. :)

i have had a nice lazy morning. listening to alicia keys on repeat. love that song "a woman's worth". just love it. it kinda inspired one of the layouts i am sharing today. this one.....

the journaling is about learning to love oneself. this is something i have struggled with the past few years. i was carrying around all this guilt over mistakes made in life, had been worn down from the demise of my marriage and what i went through with that....and was just feeling really really down about myself and who i was as a woman. and i started to accept treatment from others that i did not deserve. i stopped standing up for myself and allowed myself to be in an unhealthy relationship. to be walked all over. and it took me a long time, and the help of my therapist to realize it was because i didn't love myself anymore. this saying is oh so true.......

 

it's been a long hard journey getting back to a place of loving myself, who i am, again. and i'm still walking that path. still not completely where i want to be. but at least i am working on myself with an awareness now that i have to figure all this stuff out. these open wounds within myself have to be healed so that i can move on in peace. and having awareness is the first step towards fixing anything in life. you have to be aware there is a problem in the first place and what that problem is before you can do anything about it.

but i am SO thankful i am in a much better place now. things are moving in such a positive direction in my life and even though i still have a lot of work to do, i do love myself again. i had to let go of the past. let go of my mistakes and stop punishing myself for them. learn to stop worrying so much about the future and to enjoy the present moment. and most importantly, i had to learn to forgive myself. and all those who hurt me. 

alrighty then. enough deep stuffs! :) this layout of lily bean makes me SMILE! she's always good for that. i just looooooooooove how it came out.

  

and one for my boys.......

 

well i guess that's it this time around. see you soon! 

peace!
 

i had a lovely day

i hope you did as well!

the day started out with some sunshine. but very quickly turned to rain. as usual! :)

i scrapbooked and wanted to share two of the layouts that i made.

see you soon!  

hello monday......

how was your weekend??? mine was boring. and rainy. but i did get a lot of scrapbooking done!

i am having some trouble adjusting to the "summer" here. summer starts in louisiana around april. it's really warm down there by now. usually i would have a pretty good tan going on. yet here, it's still rainy and chilly. no tan in site. i hope that changes soon. but i gotta admit...when it's a nice day here....it's really really nice. just beautiful. there might be a week of rain, then bam...a nice day. and that nice day is gorgeous. blue skies with mountains in view pretty much almost anywhere you drive. lake washington. it's worth it i guess. here are a few photos i have taken lately of the prettiness that spring brings here....

 

 

i love how colorful everything is here. and so much green! everything is so lush. pretty much year round. nice.

so scrapbooking....

a layout.

and a few of my favorite pages out of a mini book i made called "favorite photos"

 

 

   

 

 

you can see the entire album here.

i was wondering if y'all could give me a little feedback. since getting back into scrapbooking i see that the online community has died down a lot. sistv is gone. not a lot of places to hang out. share. learn. get inspired. i still have a strong urge to teach. i used to do small online classes. usually a mini book class with a kit put together by me. would that interest any of you? and if so what kind of classes would you be interested in? i have a lot of ideas floating around in this little head of mine and i am putting thoughts down on paper in hopes of coming up with a few good class and kit ideas. let me know what your thoughts are on that and the decline in the online scrapbooking community in general. 

     

ok peeps. i'm off to take care of shit on my to do list! have a simply pimptastic monday! lol! :)

why i scrapbook.......

that above layout.....that's why i scrapbook.

when i make something that is really, truly a part of myself....that to me is ART. some of my best work has been done when i have been struggling with something in life. when i am hurting, when i am going through something tough...it's almost instinct. i reach for the camera. the paper. the glue. i make something. something real. something tangible. my feelings and emotions documented on a page. ah. it's my own personal therapy. and that my friends, is why i scrapbook. i scrapbook for ME. 

the above layout is about my struggle with depression. the words are actually a poem i wrote. i journal. every single damn day. i fill up a composition book in about two weeks. i write poetry. i write random thoughts. and some of what i write turns into a scrapbook page. thus this poem.

depression is something that's almost taboo to talk about. there is this stigma attached to it. i know so many friends who deal with the same thing. yet they are afraid to talk about it. like it's a dirty word or something. i say bullshit! let's talk about it. and as women share our stories and struggles. an astonishing number of people in our country are dealing with depression. it's nothing new. it's almost the norm nowdays. which is something that intrigues me in and of itself. why? why so many people. but anyways.....i struggle with depression. and i am not ashamed of that. i am dealing with it. and this poem is about things that have been brought out during my therapy and in gaining a clearer understanding of what exactly this disease is and how to overcome it. 

i have never been a part of that "judgmental, look down your nose at others" clique. i have always been someone who tries to understand. i love meeting new people and hearing their stories. there is beauty in everyone's own personal story. and one of the best things about life, for me, is when someone opens up to me and really shares a part of themselves with me. i love connecting with others. i feel we are all the same. all struggling to make it in this life and what we all need is a little more understanding and a lot more LOVE!!!!!! so many people have emailed me in the past just to tell me that the little pieces of myself that i shared in my scrapbooking helped them in some way or another. and that's why i share what i make. to connect. to share my story. in the hopes that someone out there on the other side of the computer screen will relate. and will say........damn. i know exactly  what she is saying.

 

today feels like saturday.

for whatever reason i have felt off all day. feels like saturday. it's only wednesday. blah. 

sooooooooooo.........i don't know if all my blogging and scrapbooking friends know but we have been living in seattle for the last year. talk about a transition for my southern ass. it's been different. in a good way. new experiences are always good in some way or another. seattle, and washington state in general, is by FAR the most beautiful place i have ever seen or been to.

the drive here took six days and we went through 9 different states. each one becoming more beautiful along the way. you gotta understand....i had never seen a mountain in person until coming here. much less hills like this. or houses actually built on hills! it's been amazing. almost every day i drive on the freeway (yeah, they call them "freeways" here. back at home they are "interstates") and get to look at lake washington with the mountains and hills in the background. i have taken so many wonderful photographs since getting here and i wanted to share a few of my favorites.....

 

       
 

and yes, it really does rain a LOT here. but i find it quite suits me. it doesn't bother me at all.

 

it's just beautiful here. and the city is very very unique. i'm happy living here for now. but the possibility of moving closer to my parents is very real. we shall see what the future holds! :)

i have two layouts to share. and a peek of a mini book i made for a submission.

   
 i will show y'all the inside photos when i have a chance in a day or so. have a great day!