Pre-Informal October LOAD Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Hop.  Here is the whole blog lineup:

                             Lisa:                        http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

                             Katherine:            http://www.csmoferret.blogspot.com

                             Tambur:            http://myhearties.blogspot.com

                             Pam:                          http://dailypamage.blogspot.com

You are Here:     Katrina:            http://k84mansramblings.blogspot.com

Next Stop:          Christie:            http://mrsingie.com

                             Lisa:                         http://lisamzepponi.blogspot.com

I am Katrina, also known as kskreations on Flickr which is short for my little crafty business Katrina's Kreations.  I am a widow & a mom of one, my DS Ryan who is turning 9 the 17th of October (I can't believe how fast time flies).  Do you already feel like you know him from my Layouts?  Feel like I've been scrapping my whole life, I did some scrappy kind of things with magazine pictures & cutouts of certain hearthrobs when I was a young teenager, in 1994 I did a whole album from a vacation I took in an old magnetic page album with only photos and ephemera I collected on the trip.  I started doing what we think of as scrapbooking when I did an album for my parents 30th Anniversary in 2001, and then started scrapping again after Ryan was born in 2002. When my husband died in April of 2003, it gave me an even greater motivation: preserve his memory for my son.  I haven't done a whole lot of pages about him recently, but I do at least one every LOAD-it's like Therapy for me.

 

I have been very busy working on the layouts for the Mother LOAD this month and will only have a few days off before Our Informal LOAD starts the first of October.  This will be my 4th LOAD including the MotherLOAD and I have enjoyed Every Single one so much!  

Now I don't usually do a whole lot of prep.  I have a gazillion photos in boxes in my studio or in my PSE Organizer (Or both sometimes) so I often just let the prompt inspire which page I do that day, but I wouldn't be able to do that if my photos weren't organized.  I haven't taken LOM, (but I do have the book Photo Freedom) so most of my photos are still stored chronologically.  

I have a big 12x12 album that all my LOAD LO's go in, then eventually I will move them to the individual albums they belong in.  I have several that are as follows:  Ryan's Baby Album (separate from the baby book but you knew that already right), Then 2 more Ryan Albums (one is full), which have pages from various ages.  An Album about my husband & my memories of him. I have an all about me album which has a surprisingly large number of pages.  I have a travel album, a disney album, and a misc for those pages that don't fit anywhere else, & a couple albums with no particular theme from when I first started scrapbooking.   

My Scraproom is my favorite place in my house, except that it usually looks like a paper truck exploded, so I am going to work on cleaning it up & organizing before LOAD starts too.  My supplies are mostly sorted by color.  I do have a whole bunch of binders with themed embellies stickers etc.  And some file drawers with themed paper.  (I have really been breaking into it a lot this month.  I have only done 1 digi layout so far, which is very unusual for me.)  I always make it my goal to use my stash & not buy anything new for LOAD.  It doesn't always happen, but I certainly have enough in my stash to keep me busy for a couple of years...even if LOAD was every month.  Sooo for those of you who have read this whole thing, if you want me to share some of my stash with you, leave me a comment saying so & I will randomly pick somebody (or depending how many comments I get maybe a couple somebodies) to share with.  I've got some great stuff, I promise, even if some of it is getting a little bit old, I also promise not to share anything I wouldn't use myself.

Enjoy the rest of the hop and enjoy LOAD.  I look forward to seeing all your wonderful pages. As well as hearing all the wonderful comments.  You are all so encouraging I just love it. Thank you so much! While I'm at it, Thank you Leslie for all of the hard work you have put into organizing the LOAD and Lisa for organizing the hop.  And of course, THANK YOU Lain for putting us all together in this wonderful community!!!

If you are interested in some of the place I get ideas for my LOs (besides from ScrapHappy) check out this earlier blog post: journaling & inspiration made easy.

Your next stop is  Christie:            http://mrsingie.com Be sure to stop by and show her some love.

See you October first.

Clear it out

It's Clear it out Challenge time again:  This week our challenge is to Alter something.  Our Sponsor is Karen's Needle. She is giving away a treat bag of some of her lovely crocheted flowers to one fortunate person who participates in the challenge.  Here is my Item:

Oops sorry, That's part of my sofa table.  Here's my Item:

 I crocheted those little pansies myself. It was such a pretty pattern.  A  little lace. a bit of ribbon,  a couple scraps of ecru cardstock, 3 acrylic tags,  some stamps & some Tim Holtz Distress ink and you have a little photo holder or place setting holder.  I enjoyed making it so much!  Don't forget to check out the Clear it out Challenge blog & link your project for a chance to win. 

My Studio (AKA Scrap Room)

I am in need of an organizing makeover in and I thought if I blogged about it maybe I would be more committed...Especially since I've been doing the MotherLOAD and using it every day...well we'll see.
My studio is Beautiful, when it's neat & tidy, but there's only space for one to work & I like to scrap with my friends too.  It's also frequently in a state of chaos.  I think perhaps my system is so complicated that I don't want to put things away, Or maybe I'm just lazy in that way because I'd rather be creating, but who wouldn't right?
Well here are some pictures.  Let me know what you think!

A PSE panorama of the South end of the Room

PSE Panorama of the Counter area

The Walk in Closet

My Themed Embellie Binders & Acrylic Stamps

 Now you might be thinking it looks great what's the problem?  The problem is that it never looks this good, in fact right now I can barely walk in there.  So Anyway I've blogged about it so next time yo see me ask if it's clean. Okay? Maybe then it will be.

LOAD Again Finally, Hooray!

So it's been  a crazy summer, and I don't know about you but I'm sad it's over (although glad that school has started yay!). I've been so busy that I haven't posted in a while. Instead of continuing to Suffer from LOAD withdrawal (ever since May), I've been taking the MotherLOAD at Big Picture classes-(Lain has never let me down yet) and yesterday being the first of September it was the first day of the LOAD portion.  ScrapHappy is doing an informal LOAD in October (If you don't know about ScrapHappy, you really should check it out), so I am going to get a whole lot of Scrapbooking done in the next 2 months.  Here is my Layout for today (Click on it for a bigger image):

I thought I'd share the journaling on here since it's the only way anyone will be able to read it:

So here's the story:

Since we have been learning Nepali for a few years now we decided while we were in New Jersey to visit the Hindi congregation in Edison.  (Hindi & Nepali being very similar so the Nepalese can often understand Hindi. And we got to wear our Sarees-Bonus!). So we went to the English meeting in Middletown in the morning and Dad came with Rebecca Lynn & I to the Hindi meeting in the Afternoon. (Ryan stayed with Grandma & Aunt Linda to can tomatoes).  After the meeting we met so many warm, loving brothers and sisters.  They even put us in touch with some who were at Bethel, & in the Hindi Congregation in Brooklyn. We also asked some sisters where the best places were to do some shopping.  I wanted a Kurta Sunwal- (aka Salwar Kameez) because, not being built like a woman from India, I never can find one in Colorado that fits me, And Rebecca Lynn was hoping to find a new one as well. We also mentioned this to a very helpful brother named Jay.

Apparently after we left Jay told his wife Olive.  So while we were standing looking at a menu in a restaurant, Olive called Rebecca Lynn.  When she found out where we were and that we had not ordered yet she said “come outside and wait there…we will come get you.” When they got there they told me to leave my car where it was.  Olive said that if we went shopping by ourselves “You are foreigners here, they will rip you off.” They first took us to a different restaurant. After speaking in Hindi to the woman behind the counter he told us-“Two meat entrees with rice are $10 and 2 vegetables with rice are $7.  Drinks are in a cooler over there.” After a few conversations with other customers, Olive found us a nice table. Once we had our food & beverages & were sitting, Jay said “We are going to a return visit and will be back for you soon.  If there is anything else you need they will take good care of you here.” And boy did they! For one thing they refused to take our money! Several times we tried to pay and they would not let us. We wondered if Jay had sneakily paid for us, but we found out that he had not. The entire staff came out to talk to us at some point or other.  They brought us dessert too. I felt like a celebrity.  I suppose they all wanted to know what these two white women were doing there, and in sarees no less.  Near the end of our visit a man from Nepal, who it turns out cooks the Chinese food (Wish we’d known about that sooner, sorry Dad), came out and talked to us. So we were able to practice our Nepali, and we went back later and gave him the What Does The Bible Really Teach Book and an invite to the Hindi Convention.  He gave us his number & address, and we gave it to Jay & Olive. Oh and the food was delicious, but too spicy for Dad so he couldn’t eat very much.

Olive came back without Jay (Their call had turned into a study & she left him & another sister there). She took us to several shops.  In,  walk around, look a bit “You don’t see anything you like-lets go” On to the next one…The last place she took us was a little shopping center that had 3 different shops, so she dropped us there & went back for Jay.  When they came back We found what we wanted.  Rebecca Lynn’s was marked $130 and the 2 I liked had no price at all on the tags.  Olive told us to let Jay negotiate the price. So Jay starts the negotiation.  He asks her to give them to us for $50 each.  The lady shakes her head no vigorously & says “I honest lady, give you bottom price see (pointing to a sign advertising a 14^th anniversary sale) my shop here 14 years” She shows us how good the material is and talks about that it is quality work, and the embroidery & pattern woven in make us agree. But she would not go low enough for Jay.  They start talking (sometimes almost shouting) in Hindi.  (Rebecca Lynn understands a bit because it is similar to Nepali) This is approximately what was said:

He says “Don’t rip them off”

She tells him “They are Americans they have lots of money”

“They are servants of God, they don’t have any money”

“They can’t afford that they have no money”

 “God will bless you if you give them a good deal”

We are starting to think it’s too much & she won’t go low enough, not to mention being somewhat embarrassed, okay mortified, by what he is saying about us, so Olive & I start to walk out the door.  She calls us back and shows a price on her calculator (so her other customers can’t see what a good price she’s giving us I suppose) of $75 each.  Now that we could manage, since we really did like the outfits very much. 

After all of that Jay gave her an invitation to the Hindi District Convention in Brooklyn and she says she might come.So I guess it was friendly after all.

When we got home and told this story to Mom & Aunt Linda we were laughing so hard by the end we could hardly stand up.  All in all it was a wonderful experience and I hope we can go back next summer.

And here is yesterday's page:

 And a Closeup:

Hope You enjoy.  More soon Including a new Challenge at Clear It Out on Tuesday.

Clear It Out

I have joined the design team for Clear It Out! Check it out here: http://clearitoutchallenge.blogspot.com/
On the first and third Tuesdays of every month there is a new challenge...and even prizes. Here is my card for the "Anything Goes" challenge:

The Hot air balloon is a Glitterbabe digi stamp. You still have until Monday to enter. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with...See you there.

Cards & other Pretty Stuff

First up a reminder that there's still time to comment on my One Little Word post for May and be entered to win!

Edited 5/16 My projects below were picked so that I am the DT Spotlight Designer today Yay!  Thank you Jenn! 

My items for this month's SCF-DT were made from these Beautiful digital stamps by Lil Ellaboudy-Design at mygrafico.  The set is called Natural Beauties:

I was so inspired by how lovely they are that I just kept on making more, and even a scrapbook page (Look at my last post to see).

I was also inspired by another cute  stamp  this one is the Pick a Flower stamp by JD Digi Designs, also at my grafico. 

The challenge blog at A Day for Daisies had a challenge about babies last week and I made this card:

And although I missed the cutoff for entering it in the challenge, I still wanted to share it, cause it's so Purty.  The poem continues inside & is called "Time Well Spent" by Joanna Fuchs.





In other news, One of my Items on Etsy,  the Elegant Silk Scarf was chosen to be included in Plum Creek 22's Medley of Teal Delights treasury.  I am so honored.  Thank you!

Elegant Silk Scarf

I will be back with more LOAD pages in a few days.

More LOAD Layouts

I have had a busy month so far & it promises to get busier still.  Ryan's last day of school is the 23rd (Whose idea was it to make the last day of school a Monday?) But here are the pages I promised to share:

Day 6 This started as a companion page for day 5-but I wanted to use all the pics.  (Can you tell the title is "Smoke" from the smokestack on the train?) The prompt was about alignment.

Day 7 (was also National Scrapbooking Day cool right!) I used some of the prompts from BPC's Creative Crop to make this page. As well as scraplifting the idea (but not the design) from one of the other LOADers.  Scraplifting was the prompt.

Day8 (Beginning of Color Week) prompt was to use Color to enhance the page's topic

I got to use up an old ScrapJammies kit from 2006 (not quite the waythey designed it though close), and used the Red & bright patterns to show the effervescent personality of my kiddo.

Day 9 she showed us a really neat ColorScope from Paper Source, & told us to pick a color we were drawn to & make a page. This color is called Papaya, and don't the peacocks pop off the page?

These pics were from Ryan's field trip to the zoo.  I asked him to write what he wanted to remember about the peacocks, and he made the cute doodle & wrote peacock (in his adorable 2nd grade spelling) over & over.  It really added to the page.  I also used a sketch from Lisa Day's 28 Days of sketches class at BPC.

Day 10 was to use a color combination from nature.  I used the colors from the peacock pictures I used the day before.

Don't you just love these butterflies!  They are from a set called Natural Beauties by Lil Ellaboudy Designs at mygrafico

I used a sketch from the CropStop Challenge Blog.  As well as the LYM challenge for this week. Which was to scrap the "gadgets" you use in everyday life. So this page about my Computer & PSE.

Day 11was Black & White:

I completely love this page!  I already had the B&W pic with the feet in color, & just hadn't figured out how to use it yet.  This was the perfect challenge.  And don't you just love baby feet?

Day 12 Pick a color you DON'T normally use on a page & combine it with a favorite:

I don't use green much except as a small accent, and though I Love pink, I don't use it that much either, so I had fun with this one. I also used the ScrapHappy sketch for May, adapted of course.

Day 13 I didn't really follow the prompt instead used another of Lisa's sketches:

A very busy page, showing the highlights from the zoo trip.  I wanted the focus to be on the story rather than any particular picture. And Ryan colored the snake because it was his favorite  out of all the animals we looked at.



I haven't done today's page yet.  Stay tuned for some more next week.

LOAD Day 5

Wow it's day 5 already & I haven't posted any layouts for you so here they are all in one shot:

Day 1 prompt-Basics, just Picture, Paper, Title, & Journaling 

 

 Day 2 Prompt: Contrast (show it using something other than color)

She said if you're going to contrast by making the element big- make it really big- so I did

I also did this week's LYM prompt here, which was to use a timeline. Tried to do some different things with this one, using a clustering technique I learned from TrueScrap (BTW truescrap2 is coming in OctoberYay!!) & bulky flowers don't scan too well, but I think it still looks okay.  Here are close ups of each side:

Day 3 prompt was Emphasis, Emphasize one thing over the others, don't try to emphasize everything not sure I did too well with that:

These are from Field Day- Just last Friday-Here are the  close ups:

Day 4 Prompt was white space again, I didn't leave too much white space, but I was in a bit of a hurry & used a template:

Close ups again- (BTW look how little Ryan was!):

And Day 5 prompt Visual triangle:

My nephew Aaron has just learned to crawl

Not sure why but this LO took nearly as long as the timeline one, probably because I really wanted to use the triangle to showcase those gorgeous Eyes, and so I fiddled with it a lot.

And when I finally looked at the LOAD message board this morning, I discovered that I won a prize on Day one from @thebigbluebarn...(not for the LO but for leaving lots of comments, I haven't had time to do that as much since that day, but hopefully tomorrow I can catch up on the LOs I've missed this week)I am really excited!! I will do my best to keep sharing my pages with you, at least weekly, the rest of the month. & speaking of prizes, don't forget to check out my May OLW blog hop post-There's a giveaway & you have until the 22nd to qualify.

One Little Word Blog Hop-May

Edited: Sorry There were some technical difficulties earlier but I think we're working now!

Welcome to my blog!  I am Katrina and this is where I ramble about my life.  I am a single mother and professional crafter so this blog has lots of parenting as well as scrapbooking & crochet stuff.  If you came from Monica you are in the right place, if not, it is a circle so you can go on from here and circle back around and still hit all the blogs.  Margie is the organizer and founder of this hop as well as the first one on the list, she did a lot of work to put it together so be sure to check out her blog and say thanks!! Keep reading for the link to the next blog...

Wow can you believe it is May already? I can't, but it makes me happy because it means warmer weather is on its way!!! It also means the beginning of another LOAD.  If you've never done or heard of LOAD  I highly recommend you check it out.  It stands for Layout a Day-You get a prompt every day, which you can do or ignore at your choosing, and if you complete & upload a layout each day to the Flickr gallery not only do you get wonderful comments from the other LOADers but you also are eligible to win a grand prize at the end...plus there are little prizes throughout...And the best part is- you get a whole bunch of scrapbooking done!

In April our OLW challenge was to write a letter to your future self.  Mine gets pretty emotional so I will only share a part of it with you-


...I used to love April, all the little bits of spring that are starting to pop up, the trees are blooming, the grass is hinting at greenness...but for the past 8 years it has seemed like an old friend that betrayed me.  April always brought so much pain.  But each year it gets a little better.   My wish for you is that you love April again, and while it will probably always be somewhat melancholy, I hope there are more memories that make you smile each year and that you dwell less and less on the ones that make you cry...

We were also to get a photograph of ourselves again in April.  This was easy because I already had an appointment for family photos.  Here is the one of me:

My Little Man

Our Family of two

and here is my favorite:

 It's not because you can't see my face (as someone suggested) It's the EMOTION of this picture, just look at that sad little face! I am so privileged to be the comforter & champion of this sweet little boy.

April was a busy month and an emotional one so I am relieved that it is over...May will be better!!

I can hardly wait to see what our prompt is for May...

Last month we had a giveaway and only 3 people mentioned their favorite color or flower- but I decided to give everyone a shot anyway and our winner (thanks to the random number picker) is: #3 Julie Ann Shahin (she just happened to be one that gave her color too) Julie said: "Huge congrats on your DT's, that is fantastic! I'm so jealous of your crochet abilities. Sounds like you had a wonderful month. Best of luck in April. My favorite color is yellow! xoxo"

Thanks so much Julie! and congrats to you too!
I think the giveaways are so much fun that I am going to do it again!!! So as long as you don't mind waiting a month or so to get a bookmark from me (sorry Cassie- I promise to put it in the mail on Monday. I thought it was already sent, but I found it in my car yesterday) comment for me and you just might win. 
Don't forget to give some comment love to the other blog participants too.


BTW: there is a coupon in my sidebar that is good for free shipping from my ETSY store and there are some bookmarks you just might love.

Your next stop is: Julie Ann (Is that a coinkydink or what? It is, I promise)
And in case anyone gets lost-here is the whole shebang:

Margie	http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog
Lisa Allen	www.backtoallen.com/writers_blog
Abbey R	http://athomewiththerichardsfamily.blogspot.com/
Jill C.	http://jillconyers.typepad.com/
Sam	http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/
Amanda K.	http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com
Cheri A.	http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com
Rebekah P.	http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/
Lynn W.	http://crafty-creativity.blogspot.com
Nikki	http://www.inkyart.com.au
Monica B2	http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/
Chrissy	http://getcraftywithchrissy.blogspot.com/
Jen S.	www.byjen.com
Monica B1	http://www.Scraplifters.blogspot.com
Katrina	http://k84mansramblings.blogspot.com/	You	Are	Here
Julie Ann	http://julieannshahin.blogspot.com	Next
Jenn	www.studiojenn.blogspot.com
Donna B	http://www.donnabryantdurand.blogspot.com
Cindy	http://seriousplay.typepad.com
Jamie	http://jmpgirl.blogspot.com/
Karen D	http://womenontractors.blogspot.com/

Journaling & inspiration made easy.

Today I am thinking of SUMMER.  I am planning to visit family on the East Coast this summer and can hardly wait for some beach time.  As a busy mom I have to carve out time to scrapbook, and I don't always want to spend 7 hours moving things around on a layout or thinking about what to say.  Especially during summer (or whenever school is out).  But I do want to enjoy my scrapbooking time. So here are some of my favorite techniques for simplifying the process:

                  My Best Journaling tip is: If you don't know how to say it-

Let someone else say it for you.

  Sometimes you already know what you want to say, and sometimes explanations any your own words are important But often you can let someone else do the work. This can be done in many ways such as recording a conversation you had or overheard, you can use emails or texts, and once in a while you might even literally hand a page & pen to someone else and ask them to write.  Song Lyrics or Quotes (I love DCWV quote stacks. They are even pretty already) can make great titles or embellishments and can often "speak" your thoughts quite well.
One of my favorites is poetry. I love using poetry because it is about emotion-something I really try to capture in my layouts.

Made using Jennifer's Spring Break Page Kit (find it here )

For this page I used a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. He captured digging in the sand  far better than I ever could. One of my favorite websites for poetry is www.famouspoetsandpoems.com. I love that I can search by poet or by subject and find all kinds of ready made, emotional or not, journaling right there. It's easy to use as well- you can copy & paste it right into your word processing program or even Photoshop Elements text tool. I also love that all of my favorite classical poets are in one place.

I did the same with this card:

Papers & Elements from Jennifer's Waiting for Spring Page Kit.

In this case I only used one stanza out of the six in Wordsworth's poem. there is nothing wrong with taking the parts you want, and leave out the rest (if you are publishing your page or card, you should make sure that you let people know that in the credits). If you are leaving out something in the middle use ...

There are lots of quote & poem sites now, and song lyrics too. If you don't know where to look try your search bar- in this case I searched for "Spring Poems" and found just what I wanted.
 
I personally love to use scripture as well- one of my favorite examples is this page:

In this case the scripture just happens to be poetry as well. And it describes the beauty of fall perfectly, in my opinion.

         My best quick design tip is: If you don't want to spend hours trying to decide where to put your pictures-  

Let someone else do it for you!  

Wait a minute, didn't I just say that?  Okay so maybe these tips are kinda similar but really, you don't have to reinvent the wheel.  Just flip through your favorite magazine or turn to your favorite Layout gallery... There are so many talented scrapbookers and designers that you can get inspiration from. I know what you're thinking but repeat after me "Lifting is NOT cheating" okay now whenever you need to just remind yourself of that okay? okay.   Take your favorite Magazine for example: they have designers and ad execs who get paid big bucks for deciding what colors to put together and where things go best on a page.  I didn't go to design school, but I can be just as classy in my scrapbooks by using their experience to my advantage One of my favorite magazines is Real Simple.  I was flipping through and saw this ad:

Right away I liked it.  At first glance it doesn't scream "Scrapbook Layout" but I really liked the diagonal strip.  When you break it down into shapes & colors you can see a prominent title, a  journaling spot and places for 3 photos.  So here is what I did:

Made using Jennifer's Spring Break Page Kit (find it here )

In this case I really stayed true to the shapes & lines of the ad.  Another example is this layout:

Like the ripples?- Tutorial here

Would you ever think I got the idea from this ad:

I also like to lift other scrapbookers.  Check out my earlier post about the Lift it Up Challenge here.  I lifted another fabulous LO to get this one:

I used these papers by dilek designs and a digital stamp from this set by LaLa studio.  They are both  from MyGrafico who sponsors the design team I am on at http://scf-designteam.blogspot.com/

 (Post updated with this LO)

Page by Tambur McDonald- Thanks Tambur!

Challenges are also great ways to get inspired by other people.  There are many blogs that have challenge inspirations- sometimes they are contests and some are just for fun.  I think the best part is looking at what others have done with the same challenge. For the above I used the weekly challenge from Log Your Memory.

There are even some blogs that keep track of other blog challenges like Feline Playful and The Daily Dare.

And there are always sketches & templates too...So now it's your turn. I challenge you to use one of the above tips to create something and share a link in the comment section if you like.