Life | Scripted with Kal Barteski

I love how varied and fresh Studio Calico always is with their class offerings and February's class Life Scripted is definitely fresh and new.

Here's a little description directly from Studio Calico, "Bring creative play into your memory keeping with the art of brush script. In February, renowned artist, Kal Barteski, brings her popular class on brush script to the calico classrooms. Learn the ins and outs of brushes and inks to take a variety of projects to the next level with your own handwriting. Our Creative Team members & contributors will join in to inspire you how to incorporate your new skills into your pages and projects for 2014.  Class will officially being on February 1st. Until then, please feel free to visit the class message board and get to know your fellow students! We'd love to hear what you're looking forward to in this class. You also have access to the class digital files - a layered template with a script title from Shanna Noel, printables from Hello Forever, and digital die cut files from Hello Forever and Shanna Noel."

Here is a really great sample video that they have shared too



I have been a fan of Kal's work for awhile now and have two pieces of her art hanging in my home.  I absolutely love the simplicity of her pieces along with the bold brush stokes it really makes an impact.

I received my class materials a week or so ago and had some time the other day to play around.  It's addicting for sure and boy do I still need lots of practice but it sure was fun!

Click here to register today, because registration is closing at the end of January so you don't want to miss out!  While you are registering pick up some supplies so you are ready to go.  The three items that I think are key to starting this class are the brush, the paper and the paint.  The brush was amazing, and the paper is super smooth and allows the paint to move quite freely

I cannot wait to take this class and I hope to see you there as well!

For all the basketball moms....

About a week ago I received the nicest email from a lady named Staci who had seen my Soccer Journaling card on the blog but really needed a Basketball version.  After a few emails back and forth, I have one to share, completely inspired by Staci.

I'm providing two different downloads; a PDF sheet of 6 and a single .png file if you want to recolor in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

 

Full Sheet PDF download here

.png file download here

 

If you want to share this with other basketball loving friends that's great, I just ask that you redirect folks here for the downloads or hover over the image above and you'll see a Pinterest button to share it that way.  All I ask is that you please not post it anywhere else as a download or email the files around.

 

Thanks and I hope you enjoy it!

Project Life 2013 - week 52

It's done, I can't believe it! These albums were such a joy to work on, I really pushed myself to try many new things and to trust my gut on what it should look like and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out.

Here is the final week;

The spread came together with many leftover elements from both the Copper Mountain Project Life Kit and the Storm King add-on, both from Studio Calico. It seriously bugs me that there are typos on one card and since its the only one I have they have to stay...

The calendar page is from a new calendar that I purchased for 2014 that actually started with November 2013. I kept the two months that I tore off and realized they were the perfect size so hello title card.  I added two veneer brackets from Studio Calico that I embossed with Gold Glitter Zing.

I love that many of the photos I used here were already in my December Daily so the edits were pretty much done for me, I really only had to edit for size and print.

Because my spread went a bit long so I could end on the 31st I needed some extra room so I made an insert using the Design G protector.  I love this size, it's the perfect mix of horizontal, vertical and some 3x4's.

Last year was the first year that I closed my album with a year in numbers review. I loved it and decided to do it again this year.  Plus I loved this photo from our family photo shoot and it was the perfect choice to use for this. It doesn't take that long to count everything up and its super fun to see how the numbers changed vs. last year.   I'm having it printed as we speak so when its all done I'll cut this 12x12 image into the proper sections to fit into the back of my last page.  When its done I'll add another photo of it inside the protector.

here's a snap I posted on Instagram of me doing the counting this past Sunday during the football game.

Here is a look at the print after it was cut and placed in the protector.  I ended up cutting some plain cardstock that was a bit larger than 4 x 6 because the slots are a tiny smidgen bigger.  Because of that my photo was not lining up the way I liked and was looking off.  Having the 4 1/8" x 6 1/8" bases helped a lot for tightening up the alignment.  I made sure to attach those four sections to the very edge of the cardstock along the middle and top or bottom edge.  The center section of 4 x 3 photos were just slide into the protector as is.

I also had large size prints made for the last page of my volume one

and the first page of my volume two.

I haven't started anything for 2014 yet, not even my title page.  I needed a break and plan to get right back into it later this week so I'll post all of that soon.

As far as I know I'll keep the same plan in place as I did last year but who knows what might happen when I actually sit down to work on it.

Today I'm just relishing in the joy of these completed albums and how much fun it is to look back on the year and see all that we did, it certainly was a really great year.

December Daily 2013 - the rest of the days

I think this is the first year that I wasn't done with this project on December 26th and that's okay. It was a Christmas for the record books, having my family here was the greatest gift.  I decided to let myself off the hook and not take time away from being with them and waiting until after the dust settled to finish the last few days.

Sorry in advance for the massive amounts of photos to come....

Her first school holiday pageant, I was pretty excited about this.

A little matchy-matchy holiday attire for her and I from Hello Apparel and a really poorly lit snap of the family arrival that could only be saved by going black and white. I was too excited to take descent pictures, living in the moment instead of behind the camera.

With visiting family came and Elf and one for us too. It was fun for a week to have these two around and I'm looking forward to Twinkle returning next year for even more fun.

Our family skating night was so much fun, the kids skated and the adults watched and cheered. It was the perfect Christmas activity and these photos are at the top of my list of favorites this year.

I had to squeeze in a shot of the tree and all the stockings before the month got away from me.  The Yo print in the middle is from Tina Aszmus and I loved it so much I had to use it.  I printed my journaling directly on the back.

A perfectly timed Monday Night Football game and of course Kurt and Twinkle got in on the fun!  I found the Candlestick image online and turned it into a print and cut and used the Cameo Sticker Paper.  It was super easy. The journaling is printed on gold vellum.

The veneer family is from a recent Studio Calico kit and I used it as a tab to pull out another photo.

The day before Christmas and lots to include so I added a little envelope to hold the last bits of Elf fun and the day continues behind it.

The front of the Checklist card has some journaling from the day that I forgot to photograph.

I trimmed off two of the slots above so these two would lay on top and the transparency card would remain see through. I love how this looks.

The big day and a massive amount of photos meant I went super sized with my flip up.  I've never made one this big and I love it! The template is from Ali Edwards last year.

I made sure to set up my camera on a tripod for the group shot at the bottom and love this image. The outtakes were pretty hysterical and may need to be printed and added in the back in an envelope or something.

I had one last side to fill and added a image of an outing for coffee the day after. It was such a beautiful day and a great way to end the album.

Another year done and another album that I'm completely in love with and over the moon happy that I have this record of my favorite season, favorite holiday, favorite month.

Until next year December Daily!