Its Thursday again

And I’m excited to share some great things I’ve found online in the last 2 weeks. My TILT bookmark’s folder just keeps growing and growing. Lots of great content these last two weeks, some fun new music, some helpful tutorials and some sweet pictures. Welcome Thursday!!

>>>> 4 of my favorite instagram images this last week. Scrip writing and photostrips have my heart. 1//2//3//4

>>>> Thanks to these two tweets and these two ladies I have discovered Branches music. I’ve got all their music streaming from their bandcamp site and love their voices, harmonies and eclectic music mixes. Still haven’t picked a favorite song yet… You should listen and tell me which one you like the best.

>>>> Shane of Whispering Sweet Nothings did a post last week about blogging faux pas and the Ten Commandments of Blogging. I especially love #3: Thou shall put careful thought and consideration into your comments. Its something everyone appreciates and should be best practice for giving and receiving comments.

>>>> This post by Jen of Punky and the City really struck a cord with me. As bloggers we record life so we shouldn’t feel guilty when we’re out living instead of inside blogging. Be inspired by life. Be grateful. Truth! Great post.

>>>> Found this clothing company called Idyllec through a giveaway on Story of My Life blog and I just love them. My favorite is the painted bird shirt.

>>>> Friendship shapes us into who we are. Post via The Conversation blog.

>>>> I attended my very first BlogBrunch this last Saturday and I was so inspired by it! It is a live conversation on twitter where bloggers from all over tweet in response to pre-posted questions. The most recent one was all about content with the theme “The Power of the Post". Lots of great ideas shared regarding developing series ideas and overcoming creative blocks. I made so many new blogging friends and after the hour was over felt a renewed spark for blogging once again. Come join us next month!

>>>> I am loving all the Adobe Photoshop Elements tutorials showing up in blogland. Elsie and Emma of A Beautiful Mess are Ambassadors for company currently and their most recent tutorial was like a huge “aha!” moment for me. Come check out this super easy way to create vibrant colors in your images. I have a feeling I’ll be using this a ton!

Have you found any great tutorials online lately?
Have any new music to share with me this week?
What do you {love} today?

Alt + Bing = free learning

The last couple years I’ve been watching online as many of my favorite bloggers attend the Alt Design Summit. Its an event for bloggers of all types to gather together, share ideas, take classes, and grow their blog and network…to make their blog better and to be better bloggers. I think I just used the word blog like 27 times. (hehe)

Anyway…the next one is scheduled for January 2013, but this summer Alt is offering a ton of blogging classes online. And partnering up with Bing’s Summer Of Doing to offer a couple for free! How neat is that?!

There are so many great classes, but the ones I’m hoping to take are:

• Content Is King
• How to Win at Business Cards
• Graphic Design for Bloggers
• Designing Inspiration Boards

Totally things that will help me in my own blogging and in moving forward with designing for other bloggers. I’m really excited.

Want to learn how to qualify for the free classes? More information on the Alt Blog and see all the classes available here. I love Bing’s Summer Of Doing concept as a way to celebrate the summertime. There is a daily search word to inspire more doing, and I love that they’ve gotten bloggers involved. We “do” and then we blog! Pretty perfect match. #thanksbing

Yay for summertime and free learning!

What classes would you sign up for?
Have you ever been to Alt?

Scrapbooking Inspiration

Back when I first started this blog I was a serious scrapbooker, and a lot of what I blogged about was the pages I created for various challenge sites, design teams, etc. I also worked a two different scrapbooking stores since I started this blog. Loved that!! And I had a blast serving on the Scrapbooking from the Inside Out design team for the second half of 2010. I made some of my favorite pages those months. Inside Out’s concept is still dear to my heart: scrapbooking about yourself with a kit created around a theme or emotion each month. If you like to scrapbook, you should check them out. This month is all about communication. Cool, right?

So today, while reminiscing about my scrapbooking days cuz its been so long since I created a page, I thought I might put together a couple of my favorite techniques to use on my pages, just as inspiration… for me to pull out some pictures and paper and start creating again, and for you too.  

Here are 3 of my go-to things I like to use on my scrapbook pages and I’ve used 3 layouts from my Inside Out days as demonstration. First up is a page I created from the “Acceptance” kit.

This kit came with this amazing hexagon die cut paper that had a really cool pattern on the other side. But to me it screamed out “turn me over and cut me into flowers!” So I did!  I always tray to do something a little unexpected if I have a neat or different paper. I like to play with mixing patterns too…usually ones that others would be scared to pair together. I like to think that’s something I’m really good at.

The next page was created using the “Purpose” kit. I pulled this one out of the box and just fell in love with the colors. They were very Shaina!

The kit came with these neat corrugated cardboard arrows to really emphasize the theme that month. Purpose = directionality. So I used them to add visual interest while leading the viewers’ eye through the page from the journaling to the pictures to the quote. It’s a photography trick of leading lines that I find myself using quite often in my scrapbooking too.

This next page was also from the “Purpose” kit, but using lots of layers of vintage ephemera and my last favorite technique (which is actually something I used on all 3 of the pages I shared!).

I do this sooo often, and its probably my favorite way to add journaling to my layouts. Sometimes I computer generate and print off my words, but other times I’ll cut the paper strips and add my own handwriting. You know how much I’m a sucker for handwriting!!

Now that I have my office all set up and organized I hope to start scrapbooking regularly again. I’ve missed it a lot. But going through my archives to find layouts to share for the blog post has really inspired and motivated me again. Perhaps I’ll have some new pages to share soon.

Are you a scrapbooker?
Have you used any of these techniques on your pages?
What is one of your go-to techniques?

I would tell you

If you came over to visit today…

I would tell you that I didn’t couldn’t get out of bed yesterday until noon. I was in so much pain. And because I was hurting so bad I barely ate anything…just some toast around dinner time. Lately food scares me…to eat or not to eat and will eating this hurt me? Why did this hurt me today when my body seemed fine with it yesterday? Its all so confusing. And frustrating. And lonely.

I would tell you that our new neighbors mowed our lawn and did edging along our sidewalk for us while we were at work last week. And they apologized for their kids being in our backyard. They seem really nice, and I feel bad about my first impressions. Her dad is going to come out and help us both with our weed-filled backyards, so we’re excited about that.

I would tell you about the movie we watched the other night called “Little Bit of Heaven” with Kate Hudson. Her character finds out that she has colon cancer and the movie is about how she views life, how her perspective changes and how in the end she chooses to celebrate the life she has left with those she loves. It was a good cry movie, and felt really close to my heart right now with all that’s going on.

I would tell you that watching the lightning storm on Sunday night was incredible! Lighting jumping from cloud to cloud and illuminating the whole sky. Chris and I went outside to watch for awhile. I must say, God has the best fireworks!

I would tell you that I’m anxious about my job. It stresses me out so bad, and in the back of my mind I have this feeling that the business is not going to be able to stay open for much longer. Perhaps that would be a blessing…to be pushed to find something new. But I am grateful that I have this job since I’ve been sick. Anything else and I don’t think I would have been able to continue working through the really rough parts. I guess we’ll just wait and see what happens.

I would tell you that learning Russian has been a fun challenge so far. Chris has learned the alphabet a lot faster than me, but we’re having fun working on the language together.

I would tell you that sometimes having a good belly laugh with my husband is all I need to put things right in my head again.

If you came over to visit today what would you want to talk about?
What is weighing on your mind and heart today?

Favorite Fonts

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for typography and fonts of all sorts. Ever since working on my high school yearbook I’ve been drawn to them. Fonts are always what I see first…on buildings, in commercials on tv, business cards, movie intros and trailers and blogs of course! And I collect them like a crazy person…a “font hoarder” if you will. That would make for an interesting episode of that Hoarders show… Okay, just kidding. But I think my point is clear: I really like fonts.

And today I wanted to share 5 of my favorite fonts right now, why I like them and where I got them.

1. Baker Script: I love a good connecting font where the letters really look like cursive writing. This font is one of the best at that I’ve seen. I love the vintage feel of it and the “S”. I always look at the “S” first, cuz that’s what my name starts with, and this one is lovely. 2. Flip Serif: This is a new font I got a couple months ago from Creating Keepsakes. Every Friday they share one of their popular scrapbooking fonts for free on their FB page and this one jumped right out at me. Uniquely places serifs (the strokes that finish off some lines within the type) on this font add to its draw for me. I like different and unexpected. 3. Simply Glamorous: I found this font from a pin on Pinterest that had links to a ton of great fonts. This one caught my attention, you guessed it! Because of the “S”. I love the grandiose scripty capitals and the handwritten effect. I use it for my {things I love} Thursday post titles. Fun and unique. 4. Roskrift Clean: Oh be still my heart…this calligraphy font is just killer!! I want to use it in a blog design so bad, but I haven’t had the extra money to purchase the commercial license. Another one that I would LOVE to have is the Carolyna font. Its so whimsical and has a great handwritten feel to it. On the wish list for sure! 5. Pea Our Best Bites: This is a terrific font that I got from Kevin&Amanda. They have a ton of free scrapbooking fonts and also create fonts from people’s handwriting. And I love that! It adds such a personal touch to any project if you can use your handwriting, or “borrow” someone else’s! They’ve got so many great ones on their site.

Do you have a favorite font?
How do you source the fonts you use?
What letter or character do you find yourself drawn to?