dear chicago,

I regret to inform you that come next month I will be departing your lovely city and heading West. While I adore your charms...such as that magnificent lake that does look quite a bit like an ocean, your warm summer nights, your seven storied Macy's and of course...the parks...ahh, the parks, I've never been quite comfortable stuck in the middle. Therefore, I am returning from whence I came. Perhaps you've heard this song and dance before, but it's not you, it's me. You see I was born near an ocean...a real one, and despite the opportunities, I find I can't seem to stray very far from that particular large body of water. So what, you ask, holds such a claim on my heart? The beautiful Pacific Northwest, of course. Nothing quite compares to that delightful mix of trees, water, mountains and gloom. Grey is my favorite color after all. So, with every intention of keeping this missive short and sweet, I wanted to thank you for your patience. I have been a moody resident and you have dealt with me splendidly. I have nothing but praise for the windy city, and I will always feel a wee bit smug that I managed to survive your icy winter. So keep well Chicago...I hope that we remain friends.

Warm Regards,

france

Postscript: I just wanted to send a shout out to the New Yorker for warning me about the "big one," I've been living on one fault line or another my whole life so, while it wouldn't be ideal, it would be a fitting way for me to go!

Gossamer Blue | July

This month's Gossamer Blue release was all about adventure. It's one of those themes that I find to be so versatile. Adventure isn't just about far flung destinations...they exist in our everyday life and this month's kit was a great way to celebrate that. One of the layouts I created was about Ronin...the pup we got three years ago. If you've ever had the joy of raising a puppy, you know it is quite the adventure.

Using some simple white cardstock and those awesome alpha stickers from the Main kit plus layers from the 6x6 paper pad, tags and a sticker that came in the Bits and Pieces kit I put together a simple multi photo page. I cut apart the "happy camper" stamp from the Life Pages kit and used it on a file tab to create my own little embellishment.

Visit the Gossamer Blue blog this month to find plenty of inspiration to document your own adventures great and small.

ok...so here's the thing

Before I start saying crazy stuff like..."I can't believe it, I'm so excited, this is amazing," and making some people wanna puke. I'll say this...

I really AM excited.

You see, I'm not much of a sharer. I am a sporadic blogger at best. I can go weeks without an Insta anything, there is often radio silence on my Pinterest page and more often than not I forget about Twitter. I totally get the value of those things but I can be reticent.  It's not that I'm shy or anything...I'm just a mind my own beeswax type. I'm an observer rather than a participator and while some think one is better than the other, I'm just fine with who I am.

When the kind folks at Gossamer Blue asked me to be a part of their design team...they essentially said...we dig you and what you do and we just want you to do more of it...with us, and duh, I said yes. I said yes because I want to make more stuff and sometimes I need an impetus to do so. I said yes because I've been a part of this community since the 90's...since we ladies said no to scrubs and yes to scrunchies, I said yes because I love the Gossamer Blue kits and because I thought it would be a welcome challenge. Mostly I said yes because I want to participate and share and inspire, I want to get pictures off my hard drive and write stories down on paper. I simply want to MAKE. So thanks Gossamer Blue for choosing me, thanks all you folks who still visit this blog, thanks to all those friends who never made fun of my scrapbooking, thanks to my mom who started this by teaching me the importance of storytelling and buying me more markers, spiral notebooks and Hello Kitty stickers than any one girl should need, thanks to my siblings for always acting like anything I made was the best ever and thanks to Keith...who always reminds me..."do you, boo. I got you."

freebie friday

In honor of (Inter)national Scrapbooking Day, I am giving away a downloadable version of some of my favorite journal cards. These were designed by moi and are variations of bits and pieces I've sold over the years. For all you non-scrapbook Listers and Planners...you can use these too! Simply print out the pdf file onto the cardstock of your choice and cut out.

This weekend I have a lot of big plans...Catch up on Project LIfe, Finish up my #listersgottalist April book...so I can start May, and Play with the new One Little Bird Serendipity kit. I have also neglected my poor little Get Messy journal...and I'm itching to get back to that as well. EEK! so many crafts so little time. All of that and the sun is shining in Chicago! How will I manage to stay at my desk? Hopefully candy and hip hop will help me get stuff done!

A note about the printables...like I said, these are free. You can print them and reprint them times infinity. Just don't sell them...cuz that would be mean, and just don't tell the world you made them. If you make something with them and post them online...a lil credit would be nice, but no big deal. I really just want you to make things...lots of things and don't sell them. for  real. don't:)

Happy Crafting!

get messy art journal blog hop

This inaugural get messy art journal season was the perfect way to get back into the groove after my long holiday break. It has been so awesome being part of such a supportive and inspirational community.

This week I broke from my normal pattern and decided to incorporate some digital elements. I know it seems strange, but digital art journaling is a thing. Sometimes I just don't have the time or the inclination to pull out the watercolors or stamps so going digital is a fun alternative. I don't look at it as replacing "real" watercoloring, rather I see it as building a whole different skill set where my supplies consist of a computer, software and a whole range of digi kits and brushes. I plan on doing some more in depth digital art journal pages, but for today I kept it pretty straightforward. I created a very muted background using some digital water color brushes in a bluish gray. I they created an overlay of text and knocked out the color to create a resist look. The words are lyrics to one of my favorite love songs..."Wild is the Wind"...the Nina Simone version.

One of my favorite lines from the song is "like a leaf clings to a tree, oh my darling cling to me." I liked the idea of recreating the leaf imagery...I wanted the leaves to appear as though they were blowing in the wind...but a bit more structured. I originally wanted to use real leaves that I had dried, but they crumbled in the process:( I then decided to choose some of my favorite digi paper patterns from One Little Bird and Paislee Press.

I printed them out on vellum and using a template I made, I cut my leaves out and adhered them to my art journal pages using some machine sewing. So yeah, that's it. This is one of my favorite art journal pages this season...not necessarily because it's the best, but because it reflected a lot of different loves for me...the song, Nina SImone, digital art, technology, words, and hand stitching.

In the spirit of this season of Love...please show some love to the other ladies participating in this blog hop and if you haven't registered for the Get Messy Art Journal Group...you can do so here.

1. Karyn
2. Lauren
3. Rebecca
4. Keshena
5. Kimberlee 
6. Nina
7. TC Larson

get messy | no. 05

Last week's prompts proved a little difficult for me. Some weeks I'm bursting with ideas and others...not so much. I love that the Get Messy philosophy is really about pushing through and making. While I know I can skip around and choose any prompt or just make something up...I really enjoy the challenge of creating with a framework. The prompts provide that frame.

I decided to do a page based on an author I love and a subject I love. Shakespeare and nature. Two of my favorites. Although this was loosely based on one of the prompts...I took some liberties as I always do. It's important for me to adapt the challenges and prompts to my liking rather than trying to adhere too strictly to what it says. This allows the ideas to flow a bit more freely. When it comes to art journaling I feel like I am always adapting and modifying my process. That's my favorite part...it changes as I change and becomes what I become.

This page consists of nothing more than watercolor. Last week really felt like Spring in the midwest. I didn't realize how hungry I was for the warmth. It has been bitterly cold and even a small bump in the temperature completely changed my mood. I wanted both the colors and the quote to reflect that. The orangey, coral and shock of blue reminds me of the outdoors and Springtime.

get messy | no. 04

This week I followed the prompts pretty literally. That's usually not the case. I tend to veer off in my own direction most of the time. Rather than focus on great acts of love in a historical sense, I decided to just focus on the concept of great acts. That led me to this wonderful quote by Victor Hugo.

The background was created using black, gray and white strips torn from a magazine. I wanted to focus on shades of a single color or non color rather and opted to cut the strips fairly thin. The background was really my interpretation of the quote. How great acts are usually the result of many small acts. I used the dark color palette to emphasize how these tremendous acts of love and kindness often occur in the shadows...in the darkness without witnesses and without praise.

living that 6x8 life

It's still pretty cold in Chicago right now...but I detect a change in the air. I can feel Spring in my bones and I really can't wait.  My work space in the new house...while way smaller than my previous office,  is functioning pretty well. It's a nook in my bedroom which is both good and bad. The toughest part is keeping Ronin out of my washi bin.

Not being completely settled made deciding to begin another pocket album a bit up in the air. I noticed everyone was changing sizes and albums...9x12 being the size du jour. I kind of wanted to as well. Why? No reason...sometimes I just shuffle ahead with the pack. I didn't really think too much about it because I wasn't even really sure any type of Project Life-esque memorykeeping was in the cards this year...that was until I unpacked my 2014 album in mid January.

Well...that little 6x8 binder was a revelation. So much stuff that I'd already forgotten. So many pictures that were no longer on my hard drive. It was my life laid out before me,  how could I not do it again? So I decided pretty readily that I would. No changes...still doing it monthly, still living that 6x8 life. I'm a girl that loves a well developed process. I like having a formula, an operating system. The 6x8 album is my system. It's pretty compact...it's not a major looker, but it keeps the focus on what's inside...and that's what counts.

In other news, I've switched to Squarespace. Blogger has been good to me but after 10 years of blogging...almost eight there and that Live Journal blog  that is thankfully no longer in existence, I was ready to move on. I'm not gonna worry about my archives...you can still find that here.  Done and done.

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