“Being fully present is the best guarantee for a bright future.”
–Guy Finley
I read this quote last week and it has stuck with me. I actually can’t stop thinking about it, which is a sure sign that it was something I desperately needed to here. I really have a lot going on in my life. Probably too much. But there isn’t really anything I can take off my plate. In my quest for finding balance, enjoying my life and not feeling guilt … I have realized that I have have to be present. What does that mean for me? Well, I have started to compartmentalize my life. When I am working, I am working. I have been trying to block out very specific times where I dedicate myself completely to the work I have to get done. When I’m working, there is no play. There is no Facebooking. There is no distractions. I am fully present. This has been huge for me. I can accomplish so much more when I just ignore everything else in my life and work …. and I can do it in less time and with less heartache.
I’ve also applied this to my kids and family. When I’m done working I completely disconnect from work and turn all of my attention to my family. I have so enjoyed the time with my kids the last few weeks, as I’ve stopped checking email, blogging or doing anything that doesn’t have to do with them. I get on the floor. I roll around with my baby boy. I chase my big girl. I laugh. I feel so much less stress. I’m present and I enjoy it. And I’ve stopped feeling frustrated, because I’m not multi-tasking myself to death.
When I think about crafting, I think aout another area in my life that’s neglected and where I’m often not fully present. I had the awesome opportunity to attend Creative Escape last week with Jennifer, two of her cousins and another girlfriend from high school. We spent four days enjoying time together and being creative. I feel so recharged and ready to focus on doing things that make me happy and being present when I’m creating. I signed up for an online class fromJessica Sprague. Thanks to the class I took from Claudine Hellmuth Iknow know how I’m going to finish a painting I’ve been working on for months. I have already started on Christmas presents for my mom and my mother-in-law.
I feel like a whole new person. Isn’t it amazing what being fully present can do for you (or me in this case)? I challenge you to make a goal to be more present in your life. It’s not easy, but it’s so worth it.
I haven’t met a mini book I didn’t love. I love mini books. I love the size. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finish one. I love giving them as presents. In short, I love them.
This mini book, from Amber Zimmerman, is no exception. She took all the goodies from the August 2010 Main Kit and made the most adorable mini book ever. It’s so simple, but so sweet. Love it. Check it out:
To see more photos from Amber’s mini book, visit our Gallery.
The August Kits should have arrived to you by now and it’s time to get busy! Need some ideas on how to use your kit? Well, here’s a look at some layouts created by our design team.
First up? A little inspiration thanks to Miss Mara:
Now, here are some goodies from Katie Turner. I love, love Katie’s quirky style.
Check out more layouts from our design team the August Kits in our Gallery.
I’ve always been one to try different techniques on my pages to make them interesting. One of the things I like using is scrapbooking mask by Tim Holtz,and Heidi Swapp. Unfortunately, some people are afraid to try them because they can be expensive.
This month I got creative. Using my Cricut machine (picture above) I cut my very own custom stencil. I cut out the days of the week just the way I wanted them displayed on my layout.
Using the negative space of the stencil, I taped down all 4 sides so It wouldn’t slide around when using my paint. I also glued down the negative space of the letters. Using the paint (you can also use glimmer mist, inks) I painted (picture above) over the days of the week.
This is what the finished product looks like (picture above). Making your own stencil/mask allows you to be creative in so many ways. This was a great way to accent my title without having to use big letters from a alphabet set. Here’s the finished layout:
It’s August. Wow! This summer has flown by. I’m sad to see it go, but I know that my daugther is excited to go back to school and it’ll be nice to get into our school-time routine.
I’m in Denmark right now, along with my husband. We have had some great adventures and have enjoyed our time as grown-ups without kiddos (though I always miss my babies when I am away from them). We have decided we need to make couple’s time a priority as it’s good for everyone if mom and dad are happy.
Since I’m in Denmark right now, I thought I’d share the four things I love best about Denmark.
1. The bread: I can seriously eat my weight in bread while in Denmark. Every day there are baskets and baskets of fresh bread. Bread with breakfast. Bread with lunch. Bread with dinner. I think I gain about 20 pounds each time I visit Denmark, but it’s so worth it.
2. Public transportation: It’s super easy to get around Denmark. Jump on a train. Hop on the bus. Hail a cab. No matter what you want to do, you can get there in no time with few, if any, complications.
3. The Hoptimist: In 1968, furniture designer Gustav Ehrenreich created the Hoptimists (above). In accordance with the trends of the time, his figures were characterized by their bright and positive colors and appealing shapes. These little fellows do nothing more than bring a smile to my face. The bounce around and look like they are giggling. I bought one for my husband my last trip to Denmark and it’s a favorite trinket on his work desk. No one can walk past without giving the Hoptimist a tap and then they always walk away with a smile.
4. The Ice Cream: Much like the bread in Denmark, the ice cream is freshly made each day and uses real ingredients (like real cream) to make some of the world’s yummiest ice cream. Even if it’s snowing you’ll finding me walking down the street with my daily ice cream cone. Love, love, love it. Interesting fact, you can get licorice ice cream in Denmark. They are serious about their licorice, it’s like their national flavor!
Is there a place you went this summer that you love? Tell us about it, we want to hear. Better yet, scrap about it and then send us some pictures of your finished pages to kimberly@crazydaisykits.com.
Have you noticed the trend of flowers on projects lately? I have, and I’m loving it. When it comes to embellishments I’m always looking for something different, cute, and easy to make. Take a look at this layout made with handmade tissue paper flowers I made. It was so quick and easy!
This is what you’ll need:
- 3 to 4 sheets of white or color tissue paper
- pencil
- scissors
Step 1:
With all sheets together in a stack, free hand the shape and size you would like (photo below). I made 3 different sizes for more dimension.
Step 2: Holding all sheets in hand, cut out your flowers (photo below).
Step 3: You’re going to wad up each flower shape individually. This helps create that textured look.
Step 4: Now layer your flowers. Add button, brad, or any other embellishment to the center of your flower.
** To give your tissue flowers a different look you can ink, glimmer mist or even paint your tissue paper before starting***
Every time I think my life might slow down, it doesn’t. It only seems to get crazier! But, as my husband reminded me last night, I have to find the good in it all and be thankful.
As I give thanks for the blessed life I live … I do daydream of a few thinks I want, but certainly don’t need. Come on, we all do this.
1. A quick trip to Malta.
A killer view off the coast of Malta
I have a trip to Europe planned for August. It’s a business trip, but my husband is coming along for the ride, so it mill be a bit more entertaining than normal. As we plan our trip we are trying to figure out if we can fit a short trip to Malta into our plans. Why Malta? Why not?
2. Hair extensions.
I cut my hair about 8 weeks ago. I chopped quite a bit off. I instantly had regret. Every picture I look out with my previously long, flowing hair … I’m sad. I don’t want to wait for my hair to grow out. I want long, long hair. Now. I’m dreaming of hair extensions, but they aren’t practical and are pretty much a waste of money in my mind. I mean, come on, should I really be spending $400 to $500 on hair extensions? That pretty much ends that daydream!
3. Fall mini kits
Vintage Old Maid cards purchased on Etsy
Normally, most of the kit designing for Crazy Daisy is done by Jennifer. She is the one who pulls everything together. I make suggestions and if we’re together (like at CHA) we make major decisions as a team. However, she really is the one who is repsonsible for making the kits happen. But, for the fall I’m working on some fun mini kits and I can’t stop thinging about all the faulous things I could put in them. For starters? I scoured Etsy and found some yummy vintage paper ephemra. I can’t wait to use it myself and I know you all will love it.
4. CHA Summer Show Releases
Have you seen some of the CHA goodies from this summer’s show? There are a few things I’m really excited about and I can share a few lines that will be making their way into kits this fall. My Mind’s Eye “Lost and Found” collection and Crate Paper’s “Restoration” line. Love ‘em. I’m also looking forward to getting my hands on some of the House of 3 goodies from Pink Paislee.
Check out what Grace did with the July 2010 Main Kit:
Layout #1 Beautiful Friend
In this layout, I used a bunch of the products in the kit. You will find rub ons, embellishments, paper and stickers in this layout. I because I ran out of the maroon “f”. I punched out a circle from a paper with the same color and layered the white/beige sticker on their. This technique still kept the word in the same color scheme. I punched out decorative borders from pattern papers and created a frame for my photo with it.
Layout#2 Cream Puff Heaven
This layout is pretty symmetrical. Everything was assembled in a “lined up” fashion. To break all the lines, I added some buttons, used a scallop edged journaling block sticker and added a cardstock strip with a border punch. I also liked the sugar/flour pattern paper. I thought it was the perfect thing to add to my cream puff layout.
Layout #3 Food trip
This is by far my favorite of all the layouts I made with this kit. I love it because I was able to play with the round scallop piece cut from the pattern paper. I was also inspired by the definitions rub on that I used it to describe our fun food “activity”. I added a strip of pattern paper to point to the title so that it’ll be connected to the rest of the layout.
Layout #4 Kindergarten Buddies
In this page I used the stars and the ruler ribbon to emphasize the “school” theme. I also used the a lot of “three” in the layout like the number of kids in my picture, the three stars in the bottom and the rub on three.
Layout #5 Swing me silly
In this page, I layered a lot of pattern papers. I added about four in this page. I also used the two sets of letter stickers and added a rubon bird. The journaling block sticker had some vintage edge that didn’t match really well with my page, so I cut out the unwanted frame before adding the block sticker to my page.
**********************************
For more photos of Grace’s work, visit our Gallery.
There’s lots to make me happy. I mean, it’s summer for Pete’s sake, how can you not be happy? But, if I were to narrow it down to four things I’d go with these things:
1. Our garden (and our huge harvest)
This monster-sized zucchini came from our garden. We have been taking great care of our garden. And we’ve started to reap the benefits. There are baby apples on one tree. Sweet basil that smells so good. Little cherry tomatoes starting to pop up. And zucchini … oh the zucchini. We harvest our very first zucchini this week and it was huge. Seriously. It was 3 pounds and half as tall as Cooper. How’s that for our first try at growing zucchini?
It’s important to note that we did nothing special with our garden. No fertilizer. No special tricks. Just water and sunshine. Shelby carried this sucker around the house like a baby until Daddy got home so she could show him our very fist zucchini.
2. Cooper’s curls
Does it get cuter than this? Cooper just hit 15 months and he’s so sweet and precious. I love his curls. I don’t think a day goes by that someone doesn’t ask me, “When are you going to cut his hair?” And every time some asks, I think, “Never!” But seriously, how long does he get to be a baby and have precious curls? Not longing enough, so for now I’ll just leave his curls. There is a very good chance I’ll cry when I end up cutting them off and giving him a “big” boy haircut.
3. Layouts.
I have producing about 4 layouts a week for the last month or so. Mostly thanks to the online class I’m taking with Shimelle. I feel more productive than I have in years. It’s actually quite therapeutic. I’ve been able to use a ton of photos and I feel like I am making a dent in my overflowing stack of photos! And, I’ve been learning all such of fun digi tricks, which makes my digi adventures so much easier.
4. Vacation.
Just before school starts again, I have a business trip to Europe planned. My hubby is going to come with me and we’re going to have one of our first “adults” only vacation in a very long time. Even though I have to work during part of the time, we’ll get to stay in a nice hotel, eat good food and hang out together. I’m looking forward to showing him all the things I do whenever I go to Denmark, since this will be his first trip there (with me). My daughter is going on a vacation of her own, all the way to Papa’s ranch in Idaho. She gets to fly on an airplane by herself for the very fist time and she is beyond thrilled. I’m sure both of us will have great stories at the end of our adventures.
Here are a few more pictures of what Amber did with the book.
**********************************
Here’s a look at what Katie Turner did with her mini book. She based her book on Effer Dares’ Dare 119 and created a book of graphs and charts that correspond with random bits of my life!
For more photos of Katie’s mini book, visit our gallery.
RSS