STORY + DESIGN: Get It Scrappped Class

I did a thing. A very exciting thing.  I am extremely honored to be a guest designer in the Get It Scrapped December STORY + DESIGN class.  My very first class contribution! :D

I joined THE Debbie Hodge, Amy Kingsford, and Jennifer Davis in telling stories of INTENTION using the design concept of CONTRAST to support the story.  There is a 71 page ebook chock full of inspiration and design tips, videos where we each talk about how we interpreted this topic and go through our process in creating our layouts, and even sketches based on our pages!  

I wrote about the ongoing roller coaster of setting goals and resolutions. #thestruggleisreal  It was cathartic to put my feelings into words and take the time for introspection.  I think it helped me work out some issues and I am hopeful moving forward.  

Lots of fun colors and black and white photos make this a playful page.  That butterfly is actually a REALLY OLD Mrs. Grossman's sticker! 

If you are not a member of Get It Scrapped, now is a great time to join and take advantage of the humongous library of ebooks, classes, webinars, sketches, and templates from the past 7 years.  There is a 20% discount in December and you always have 30 days to cancel.

Thanks for stopping by,

xxx whimsy

WHK | December sketch layout | Love This

Here is the full reveal of my layout for the Wild Hare Kit December Sketch challenge.  There is a full writeup at the WHK blog here, and I did manage to post a process video.  I think this is going on record as one of my all time favorite layouts I've ever made!

Oh one thing I forgot to mention in the writeup and video, I totally forgot to add the little tab on the right, which I'd planned for all along.  Ooops! LOL  I'll probably do that soon - with the date, or a little roller stamp phrase - when put away the layouts that need to go into albums.  I want to go through my stack of layouts I've made this year - more than any year before - and film a little flip-through video and share my thoughts on how joining challenges and design teams has spurred my creativity.  :)

Here are the process video and pretty pictures. xxx Iris

Papers: Pinkfresh Studio "December Days"; AC "Sweater Weather"
Embellishments: Pinkfresh Studio "December Days"; AC "Sweater Weather", Bella Blvd "Ice Mix"
Sketch made by me, see previous post

My very first Scrapbook Sketch!!!

I'm pretty savvy at Photoshop, and I like to play around, but one thing I never thought I'd ever make was a sketch.  But now I've gone and done just that!  

At The Wild Hare Kits, we have a sketch challenge every month, and different design team members have been volunteering to make the sketches.  No one had done one for December and since I had a sketch post due right at the beginning of the month, I thought I might as well give it a try.  That way I could tailor it to what I actually wanted to do with my kit! ;)

The hardest part was coming up with the concept.  I wanted to do a circular layout, but didn't want to use circles or wreaths.  I had a vague memory of a layout I'd seen some years ago with triangles pointed inward forming a circle that I'd always wanted to try.  And I have a quilt pattern that's similar that I also have been wanting to try. So I started with that.

Once I did a rough sketch on 12 x 12 graph paper, I measured out the triangles and figured out that if I cut a rectangle at 1 1/2" x 2 3/4", marked off the midpoint of one of the short sides, and then cut from the corners to the midpoint, I would have triangles that fit the layout.  I used the shape tool to approximate that, and then had the tedious job of replicating it 16 times and coloring them four separate shades of grey.  After that, the rest was easy peasy. I LOVE the result!

I have a hard time doing things half measure, so I even designed myself a little signature logo. :)  I'll be sharing my resulting layout soon!

Get It Scrapped: Contrast in Title - Style

Hello Scrappy Peeps! I am so unbelievably excited to see one of my layouts on the GIS blog!

DREAM. COME. TRUE.

Here is the link to see my writeup there (different info than here), and the other fabulous layouts showing four ways to add contrast in your titles: https://debbiehodge.com/2017/11/scrapbook-page-titles-with-contrast/

Daddy’s Little Gamer Buddies by Iris Fox | Supplies: Papers: Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Crate Paper, Lawn Fawn, DCWV, Paper Pizazz; Embellishments: Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Crate Paper, KandCompany; Fonts: Game Over Shaded, Orange Juice

It all started out with the assignment to make a contrasting title and with some REALLY OLD KandCompany gaming dimensional stickers.

Needing to come up with a high contrasting title, I perused my fonts and settled upon the Game Over font.  It's very pixelated, bulky, and shaded, and I knew it could contrast with just about anything.  So I pulled out the old gaming stickers, found some photos of my husband playing (many, many hours) with the girls.

I picked the background paper because the circles reminded me of the way the interface of one of the games they all played together, Civilization, is laid out, showing the different territories.  Technically they were laid out in hexagons, but I'm claiming artistic license on this one. LOL

So anyway, the circles seemed like a good place to house some clusters of embellishments, and then I got the idea to make little pie charts within some of the circles.  They are symbolic of dividing up time between the different activities and games.

I wanted to use some of the empty circles to just list in a spiral a bunch of the different games they've played over the years, but that much black writing would have distracted too much from the title.  So I stuck to one semicircle of journaling.

This layout was pure fun to make!  I love the primary colors, the kid-like font and gamer font, the little bit of stitching to add texture, and all the cute embellishments.

AN AMAZING ANNOUNCEMENT

I haven't had a chance the past couple months to give this blog any attention. There's a whole long story about home repairs, selling not one but TWO houses, and finding my dream house.  I've shared bits and pieces on my Instagram and FB, though most days I'm just too exhausted and don't want to rehash all the nasty surprises, insane amount of work and repairs, and the drudgery of paperwork.  All boring stuff, and we're finally getting our keys tomorrow for dream home, and we currently are in escrow for the old home, so we are in the home stretch...

But today I had to come share this news that I've been dying to share.  I was asked to join the Get It Scrapped Creative Team for the upcoming year - #squeeeeeeeeeeeee - and the official announcement was today!

I'm still not exactly sure how this happened. I mean look at all those AMAZING creatives that have years and years of experience designing and teaching, and I'm a total newb.  I am beyond honored to be joining this inspirational team and look forward to a year of creative growth and play, and of sharing and connecting.

Get to know all these lovely ladies in this post. 

I'm seriously going to need to get this blog updated! LOL It's in the plans, honest.  Just have to get settled into the new house, which should be happening at the end of this month. 

xxx whimsy

August Roundup

Here are the projects that I've made for The Wild Hare Kit Club in August! Click on the link under each one to go to the corresponding process video, which also includes closeups. :)

https://youtu.be/HrZngvMKHPY

https://youtu.be/_k0u8wcmSjs

https://youtu.be/rXRftdX6ERE

https://youtu.be/6n7vzTsv5Oo

That time she made a process video.

This year has been quite a one for firsts!  Here is my very first scrapbooking process video. With my first The Wild Hare Kits kit.  On my first design team.  Woop, Woop!!!

Youtube roundup

Lots of updates and improvements will be needed to get my blog up all updated, but all that has to wait while we sell/buy/move (see my previous post).  So I thought I'd just do a quick roundup post of my Youtube videos.  Instagram link is on the sidebar.

Products from Ali Edwards' Story Camp 2017 #AEstorycamp 

The Wild Hare Kits Unboxing - first kit Aug 2017 

Mini Album: Only My Dad and Me - Part 1 

flip-thru | mini album | Only My Dad and Me | long version 

To Blog or Not to blog?

*dusts off the cobwebs*

Hello blog.  I know, I know, it's been a while.  It felt like we might be heading towards a breakup.  Many people have been turning towards the pretty pictures and quick fix of Instagram, and the interactivity that Youtube provides, myself included.

And life has just gotten so busy!  We had out of town guests for a month, then a pipe leak under our slab - the 3rd one we've had to deal with in 10 months.  Weeks later, thousands poorer, and many holes in the walls and cement floor later, THREE leaks have been repaired, we have running water, stove and washing machine are usable (though still pulled away from the walls because holes everywhere).  In the depths of despair - did I mention this is the THIRD pipe leak in less than a year - I decided I was through with this neighborhood that has pipes under the cement and shifty soil. Literally overnight two weeks ago I proposed we move, found a house we love, spent 3 days clearing out, painting, prepping my mom's house and got it to market. It's been cray cray!  Once we do move we will sell our house.  I just have to keep telling myself it will all be worth it in a few months when we've gotten through this tough time and are settled into our new home.  

Finding creative time has been a challenge.  Understatement of the year. But I must.  Because since my last post I have joined The Wild Hare Kits Design Team.  My first DT!!!! #SQUEEEEEEEEEE

###

Been dying to share this news! Beyond excited and honored to be part of the inaugural design team for @thewildharekits ❤️❤️❤️ This is going to be unlike any kit club out there - it's all about customizing it for you. Guys, this is my first design team! I'm jumping up and down like a madwoman!!! 😆 ... #Repost @thewildharekits ・・・ Drumroll please......Here they are! I'm so excited and humbled to share the talent of this amazing team of ladies with you. It's gonna be a great year! THANK YOU to everyone who applied. We had such an abundance of amazing applications that we will also be featuring a monthly Guest Designer on the website as well. If you haven't signed up for the email list yet, hop on over to www.thewildharekits.com and sign up today. #thewildharekits #designteam20172018 #wildhareisallaboutYOU

A post shared by Iris Fox (@whimsyfox) on Jun 9, 2017 at 7:31am PDT

###

And so the answer is: to blog.  At least a little.  I've started a Youtube and have a handful of videos up.  I feel it's personable in a level that blogging is not. This blog will be the hub and YT/IG will supplement the blog.  We're not breaking up after all, just expanding our family. 😉 

YUM

I made this layout for International Scrapbooking Day challenge #1 from Elle's Studio.  Use mixed media.  I think I'm growing fond of using distressed ink and mists on my layouts.

International Scrapbooking Day is here!!!

Woop woop! International Scrapbooking Day is here! And I am so excited to be a part of it by hosting a challenge over at The Scrapgals' Facebook Group!!!

So if you're here and it's 7pm pacific/9pm central, then "Celebrate You" is live.  I don't know about y'all, but I have worked hard to be happy with photos of myself.  It's a bit uncomfortable, you know, staring at a photo of myself staring back! But I deserve to be in my scrapbooks and so do all of you awesome scrappy gals (guys too). So for this challenge, go scrap yourself!  Whether it's the latest sassy selfie, a photo of you completing a goal, you being silly, or a photo on one of your birthdays - make a page that celebrates you!  I chose to do a birthday layout, because today IS my birthday! 😆 

So, here are some pretty pictures and a little bit about how I put it together. Scroll all the way down for a freebie and givaway...

The main color that stands out in my photos is the purple in my hair, so I wanted to play that up.  For this layout, I wanted to do something artsy. Mists. Some stamping. I admire the current trend of using white cardstock backgrounds, especially to make colors pop when doing mixed media projects, but I love color. I chose a solid background, but went for this very dark grey, which is "cardstock" from a Felicity Jane kit.

To make the purple (and a secondary accent of blue) pop, I kept the rest in blacks, whites and greys.  I had this idea that it would be cool to have some messy thread bundles and could swear I had a grey paper with white swirls that could mirror that.  I looked and looked and couldn't find it until it hit me - it's a fabric in my quilting stash!  That works; adds texture and is even more a reflection of me.

Another thing I wanted to incorporate was typed journaling directly on the background.  Yeah, that's where the dark cardstock was tricky.  I got this brilliant idea - use the white correction tape on my typewriter.  So I pulled it out, spent way too long changing the ribbon - had it backwards at first - fixing the alignment, writing my draft, and then attempting to type it.  No joy.  The correction tape already had spots where it had been used, and the letters were spotty.  I thought I'd have to do the obvious and type my journaling on some other paper and add it on.  Then my Silhouette Cameo to the rescue.  It took some, fiddling, trial and error, and learning how to fill in a font with the offset function, but I finally got what I wanted!

The little crown brads have been in my stash since around 2007!  I still love brads. I guess they fell out of style for a long time, possibly because they were so fiddly to put on?  Well, recently I learned a trick that has me pull them out more. I clip off the prongs with a wire cutter and stick a glue dot on the back instead.  Love to sprinkle them in with the more trendy enamel dots and sequins. 

I also slipped on a very old metal ribbon slide - I think that's what they were called.  Really am challenging myself to use up some of those old metal embellies.

Oh flair, how I love thee... and here I used two that I never thought I'd use! That's one "best day ever" used, a couple dozen more to go! 😂  This one is from a Felicity Jane kit as well.  Sadly, I'm not sure where the "me, myself and I" came from.  

 I cut the title from one of my favorite fonts.  It wasn't popping enough as a solid white, so I did some distress ink smooshing and painting to get a bit of a dip-dyed effect.

Speaking of titles, I decided to make this a freebie in honor of iNSD, in addition to a few other words that might suit your layout.  Click here to get the .studio3 file, which is all ready for cutting.

Aaaand, for added fun, I will randomly select a winner from all the submissions to my "Celebrate You" challenge to send a little happy mail.  Just post your submission in this thread at The Scrapgals FB group.  You have 24 hrs - until Sunday May 7th, 7pm pacific/9pm central.  I'll announce the winner shortly after!  Have fun and remember to make it all about you! 💜

Project Life - 2017 edition

I have a confession to make.  I have a love/hate relationship with Project Life.  I it the first time in 2011: 1 core kit; Design A page protectors; Ali Edwards day overlays and rounded corners on every single photo.  Easy Peasy and I love my album.  But I got burnt out, stopped scrapping for a few years.  In 2015 I tried again.  All sorts of page protectors.  More decorations.  I quit after 6 weeks.  It just wasn't working.  Tried again last year.  I took several days just making the spread for week one. That's as far as I got.

This year I was determined to try again.  Maybe a loosey-goosey monthly approach, since I tend to get hung up on fitting everything I want in one week.  I'd heard of the Collect App, and now that I switched back to iPhone, I started playing with it in October.  I'm hooked.  So easy and fun to add a photo (or 2) a day, with journaling.  Loving the little polaroid styles.  I thought to myself "this will simplify things".

Yeah, it's just not that easy.  There are always those photos that mean a little bit more, that deserve a larger size and longer journaling.  And there are all those digital files I've accumulated over the years.  And the many physical cards to go through.  And the fact that I can't stick to a particular 'kit', I like to mix old and new products.  And while I admire spreads that have tons of white space, clean and simple, I LOVE COLOR.  I just can't help myself making things harder.  LOL.

Without further ado, here are my January pages.

The acrylic "Fox" is an Ali Edward's One Little Word custom order.  I'm happy I got it in black instead of white, though I kinda wish I'd asked for a lowercase F.  Oh well, maybe next year.

I am using a mixture of page protectors. In some cases I'm using the fuse tool - my new best friend!!! - to close some 4x6 slots down to 3x4, in other spots where I have a 4x6 on one side and two 3x4's on the back, I just adhere them together so the 3x4's don't shift around.

Overall I'm happy with how these pages turned out.   Everything is in chronological order, but I didn't attempt to keep any certain amount of days within a particular spread or number of pages.  I will actually be starting February on a right hand side, which works great for separation.  Here are a few of my favorite details.

I enjoyed spicing things up with elements outside the page.  Foam Thickers are my absolute fave, I like the look and feel of them.  This 'kitty power' flair is part of the "Always Stronger Together" set that Kelly Purkey is offering as a fundraiser. (the designs in the set were part of a collaboration).  I got two sets and gave one of the kitty to my oldest who marched with me in the local Women's March.  Such an uplifting experience, and a perfect set of flair to document it! That thin pink washi was a fab find at Michaels.  I found several sets of thin washi and some cute little phrase stickers and tile letter stickers, helping restore my faith in them.

I think this is my absolute favorite little grouping in this month's pages.  That Harriet Hippo card from a set Brandi Kincaid designed for Feed Your Craft is just perfect. C's first lovey was a hippo, named appropriately Hippy, and they have acquired an extensive hippo collection the past 13 years. I've been buying every Harriet product Brandi has created because there are alot of hippo related photos I still have to document!

That's it.  I started February's pages, changing my approach just a tiny bit, and we'll see how that goes.

xxx whimsy

BREATHE | one little word

I'm a OLW flunkie from the 2012 BPC class.  I did the prompts through March, then totally went scatterbrained. (and my word was focus - hah!) I hadn't felt drawn to this class by Ali Edwards at all in the ensuing years, hadn't seen the power of picking a word, but at the end of November, out of the blue, a word just hit me. BREATHE. 

Transparency - Ali Edwards' One Little Word digital files (come with the class)
Chipboard Cloud - Maya Road (embossed)
Enamel Heart - Cocoa Vanilla

So much bad stuff went on in 2016 for me and my family personally (as well as all the political and world issues). The anxiety I felt at times was suffocating. 

Cloud - washi and punch
Enamel Dot - Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith

I need to be mindful and purposeful, to slow down and take things in and breathe.  I need to complete things that keep swirling in my brain but I never get around to doing so that my brain can breathe. I need to rearrange and declutter my house and let it breathe. I need to shift my mindset from having 2 little kids to a teen and tween, and explore new directions with my husband so our relationships can breathe.  And yes, I need to get back on track with health and fitness, so my clothes fit looser to help me breathe. 

Cards - Ali Edwards' One Little Word digital files (I altered the titles with My Dear Santa font)
'move forward' - Ali Edwards' OLW silkscreen & stencil bundle

When this word hit me, I literally gasped in a deep breath and felt light and hope for the first time all year. That's what I want for 2017. Lightness. Hope.  But I feel that in order to get there I need to relearn how to BREATHE.

'fresh start' card - Elle's Studio
plus symbols - Studio Calico checklist roller stamp

I chose a cloud as a symbol, something I could use aesthetically throughout the year.  Any excuse to use clouds, really, as they are one of my favorite icons!  

I also ordered a necklace with my word.  Not sure how much I will actually wear it, lately ornamentation has been bugging me, I haven't even worn my wedding ring most of the year, but it makes me happy to see it hanging in my craft room.  

Custom necklace - theforksforest on Etsy
'This is Me Right Now' digital brush - Ali Edwards