List Yourself #11-Let's Get Excited!!

List Yourself #11

Life can be a rollercoaster, can't it? 

One minute your chugging up hill, struggling the whole way and the next minute your coasting down, the wind in your face and butterflies in your stomach.

So today...let's focus on the EXCITING PART!

Here's my list:

* That moment, after the last push, when I heard each of my 3 kids cry for the first time

* The moment I crossed the finish line of my first half-marathon

* The First time I saw my husband...I can still tell you exactly what he was wearing and what he was doing

* The moment my husband got down on one knee in the middle of Steak N Shake (where we had our first date) and asked me to marry him

* The moment I finally let go of the anger over being adopted.

* Putting in my notice at my last job-the skies became the limits!

* Every time I get a new "like" on The Creative Life Studios Facebook page!

What about you?

What are some of your most amazingly, exciting, stupendously exhilarating moments?

I would love to hear about them! Leave me a comment!

Until next time creative friends...staying exciting...and stay creative!!

XOXO,

KERI 

Blog Hopping with the Susan K Weckesser Crew!!

  2013 Susan K Weckesser Back to School Blog Hop!

Welcome to the 2013 Susan K Weckesser Inc Design Team Back 2 School Blog Hop.  Our Design Team and Guest Designers have created a week’s worth of great projects to bring you inspiration and fun -- all themed around Back 2 School. 

We encourage you to visit each member’s blog, leave a comment and maybe find a new blog to follow.

 After you have visited all participating team member’s blogs, go back to THE STARTING POST at Susan K Weckesser’s My Sweet Earth Blog and leave a comment letting us know which project either inspired you or touched your heart.

 Don’t worry, you have all week to take your time and go through the blogs. We’ll feature a few each day at Susan K Weckesser Inc, but will draw names from comments left on THE STARTING POST for our grand prize.

Here is the list for ALL team members, but again don’t panic, we will highlight a few each day so you can come back and visit a few at a time if you want because we know how busy you Moms – and Dads – are! You have until Saturday night 11:55 PM CST to leave a comment at Susan K Weckesser’s My Sweet Earth.

Here is the entire blog hop list:

Here is the entire blog hop list:

Susan K Weckesser
Rita Barakat – Design Team Member
Lynne Mizera – Design Team Member
Jeanie Dickinson – Guest Designer
Tracy Easson – Design Team Member
Tatiana Allen  - Guest Designer
Einat Kessler – Design Team Member
Jaine Drake – Guest Designer
Julie Short – Design Team Member
JJ Sobey - Design Team Member
Allie Gower – Guest Designer
Keri Sallee – Guest Designer

HERE WE GO!!!!

I'm so excited to be an All-Star Guest Designer with Susan K. Weckesser and this week the designers and guest designers in her crew are having a little back to school blog hop!

You can't have "Back to School" with out first having an AMAZING summer, right? So I wanted to gather all of our summer fun in one place.

Here is my little project:

This sweet little album measures just 4.75 x 4.75, but holds an amazing 18 pictures! 

How you ask?

ENVELOPES!!!

By chaining envelopes together, you can form a versatile album in any size and shape you need!

Click HERE for a full tutorial I did on my blog last year on the basics of making an envelope album.

As you can see, it folds out into a fun according shape that makes it easy to display.

This is how you get 18 pictures in such a small album! Hidden behind each picture is a card that holds 2 more pictures and journaling. I fell in LOVE with these square envelopes I found at Hobby Lobby! Adding my 4x4 square Instagram pictures made this album go together in a snap because there was no picture trimming! I didn't even have to cut paper for my inserts...I simply cut the cards in half that came with my envelopes. Easy Peasy! 

 I wanted to keep things simple because the pictures and paper were so great. I used a little Washi Tape (My Mind's Eye, Carta Bella and Queen and Company) and some wooden pieces (Studio Calico and Hobby Lobby) to accent the fun prints and colors of Susan's Paper. Using Susan's stamps from Unity Stamp Company on the wooden pieces gave them instant character!

I also used her "Celebration of Simple" pennant stamps by Unity Stamp Company to create my journaling spots on each page. Creative NOTE: Changing the placement of each spot keeps the album from feeling uniform when you reuse an  image like I did!

Here is a little side-view!

Here is a complete list of products used on this project:

Flowers: Michaels, Prima Marketing, Petalloo, Hobby Lobby

Envelopes and Inserts: Hobby Lobby

Twine and Adhesive: Canvas Corp

Paper: Susie B Studios (Susan K Weckesser)

Washi Tape: My Mind's Eye, Carta Bella and Queen and Company

Wooden Pieces: Studio Calico and Hobby Lobby

Pens: Sharpie and Sakuro

Ink: Ranger

Stamps: Susan K Weckesser for Unity Stamp Company

Rub-Ons: Fancy Pants Designs

Alpha Stickers: American Crafts

I hope you enjoyed my little project and it inspires you to remember all the summer fun you had now that the craziness of back to school is here!

Until next time creative friends, happy hopping!

XOXO,

KERI

List Yourself #10-It's a Strange, Strange World

How are your lists going? 

Are you learning a lot about yourself? Are you remembering things that have been buried that made you smile or laugh or maybe cry a little?

Today...we are going to remember the craziness in our lives...or should I say...the strangeness! :)

Even though it's not my strangest place, anytime I think "strange place" I automatically think of my husband's last trip to Thailand. While he was there, he sent me this picture:

The story was that they were at a place where you got to "pick" your food....like Red Lobster where you pick your lobster out of the tank, except this was eel.

What he didn't show me until he got back was these...

Yup....that is a racoon and snakes....just waiting for someone to make them into lunch.

Still makes me cringe and shiver!!

What strangeness have you encountered?

I'd love to hear about it!

XOXO

KERI

Bloom Where You're Planted

I have the awesome privilege of being a Guest Designer for Susan K Weckesser and today is my day to show off on her blog!

Check out more about this project on her

My Sweet Earth Blog Today!!!

List Yourself #9-Getting it Out

As you're reading this, the horrors of 9/11 were 12 years and 3 days ago. 

During this week of reflection and remembrance, I can't help but wonder if those who were left behind ever still have those moments of "If only I had told them..."

So today...we are going to do that. 

I know our lists are usually fun and make you laugh, but in order to really discover ourselves, sometimes we have to dig into the painful places. And yes...some are more painful that others, but if you are holding onto words in your mind that need to be freed, then you are taking up space that could be filled with the happiness of your present self instead of being held captive by your past. 

Think about it...pray about it...meditate on it. Whatever you need to do to be real with yourself. 

If your worlds are angry...allow yourself to be angry. If they're sad...be sad. BUT...once they're on the paper...let them go. Burn the paper if you need to. 

Be free and in freedom, you'll find more of yourself you never knew existed. 

Until next time friends...

Xoxo

Keri

To keep it simple or not? Why do we have to choose!!??

As a creative person, you know a question that always makes me blubber like an idiot? 

"Describe your style?"

WHAT? UUMmm...well..ya...you see...

That is pretty much what my brain does when it's asked that question.

Really...my "style" depends on my subject! If' I'm scrapping, my subject is/are the picture(s.) If I'm doing a canvas, it's the paper or the phrase I have in mind for the project. If it's a gift, it's the person who is going to receive it.

I guess you could say, I like to keep it interesting!

Today, I wanted to share with you a few scrapbook layouts that were all done by me, but are all VERY different in their composition.

This has got to be one of the "simplest" layouts I have ever done, but one of my favs. It consists of: paper from Hobby Lobby (the butterflies were "pre-embellished"), foam Thickers, journaling spot from Jillibean Soup and a little paper trim from Doodlebug to "frame" the picture. That's it! I probably had it done in 10 minutes. Sometimes it worth paying a little bit more for your paper if it's going to make your job easier.

Now this one...is what you would call BUSY! LOL. There are paint splatters, chipboard circles, washi and glitter tape, butterflies, stamps, journaling...there is a lot going on! The reason? I wanted to convey the fun of CHA and my EXCITEMENT over being there. The pictures are kept in a circular pattern so that not one is highlighted and circles in the background help support that idea, along with keeping up the fun without going CRAZY with the color. (and yes...that is the FABULOUS Becky Higgins, along with Maggie (aka Mid-Western Sewing Girl) and Lindsey both of Heidi Swapp's Media team and Trisha of Artsy Adventure!)

This layout, to me, is "middle of the road." Yes...there are "clusters" of a lot going on, but the colors are all uniform in tone, compliment each other without one particular one sticking out (the patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye's Miss Caroline line.) Even using the bold chevron from Heidi Swapp in the background isn't overpowering because the color itself is very soft and it blends well with the other colors. 

I do have to do a shout out on this one...see those ADORABLE little bows? They were designed for AccuCut by my friend Vicki Chrisman. They were so easy to make and really added to the feminine feel of this whole layout.

So there you go...three layouts...all very different, but all from the same mind (as crazy as it may be! LOL!)

If you like simple, then be simple. If you like crazy, then be crazy! If you wanna do it all, then do it all and let your individual project be your guide.

Be you...be true and be creative.

Until Next time friends...

XOXO

KERI

Remembering 9/11

I originally had another post planned, but the more I thought about the significance of today, the more I really felt it would be disrespectful to do any thing other than this...

Like the generation of Pearl Harbor, I will never forget where I was when the news came down and pictures flashed on the screen...we had been attacked on our own soil and at the time, we didn't know how many were affected or who to blame.

As the pieces of the puzzle began to form the picture of that day and the events leading up to it and following it, we began as a nation to do something that hadn't happened in a long time...we put aside differences and worked together. We didn't care where you were from, what color your skin was, who your parents were, how much money you made...all we cared about was that we were Americans and we were stronger than any terrorist group who had nothing but hate in their hearts. 

I will never even begin to try to understand the fear of those trapped in the rubble of buildings.

I will never attempt to comprehend the pain of the widows, widowers and orphans it created or the sorrow of so many empty chairs at Thanksgiving.

I will never grasp the longing in the hearts of all the 9/11 babies who will celebrate birthday after birthday with only a picture of the man who makes up half of who they are.

I can't say that I will ever fully understand the true significance should I ever have the privilege of standing in the empty foot steps of the Twin Towers in New York.

But...what I do know is this...we are a country of fighters...a melting pot of people from all over this planet who have chosen to live together and should ANYONE threaten us, we will prevail and  not hide.

My prayers go out to all those who are hit the hardest on this anniversary day. I pray the pain is a little less...your life feels a little less empty and your heart a little more full with each passing year.

We will never forget your loved ones sacrifice and we will never forget you...the living champions of their gift.

Double Whammy Saturday: List Yourself #8 and a Guest Blog!

I am so excited today!

I have a DOUBLE bit of fun on The Creative Life Blog today!

First, I have the awesome privilege of being a guest blogger for Artsy Addicts.

Check out the Artsy Addicts Blog for much more about this project!!

List Yourself Saturday!!

I loved thinking about my childhood doing last week's list, so I thought we would spend a little more time there this week.

Here's my list!

Gumbo (I'm southern!)

Fried Catfish

Fried Pickles

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Popeye's Chicken

Chicken and Rice with Gravy (my mama's Sunday staple)

Fried Eggplant

Mama's Mac and Cheese

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Butterfinger Blizzard

Great...I've made myself hungry! LOL!

What about you? What makes your stomach growl just thinking about?

Leave your list in the comments!

Until next time my creative friends....

XOXO

KERI