The First "Oh Scrap!" of 2014!!

What's up Lifers!?

It's time, once again, for a little "Oh Scrap!"

Today, I want to inspire and encourage you to scrap those pictures and events that might not be "perfect." They are still worth remembering. 

Let's start with a little "Hello Reality"

This layout features:  Pink Paislee's Hey Kid Collection  . 

I'm sure if you're a parent...you can relate. You pay all this money for a photo shoot so you can have fabulous pictures for your Christmas card and when you get them back, you are only partially shocked that out of 50 family pics, there is not ONE where the whole family looks good (in our case..that would be 5 people perfectly posed at one time.)

So...instead of being upset about...we rolled with it. My husband actually came up with the idea of adding the little bubbles and the idea of "what were we really thinking during that picture?" I decided to take it a little farther and write a little Christmas poem to make everyone giggle during the stressful holidays.

This layout is all about playing up the playfulness of the Christmas card with crazy lines, clustered embellishments and arrows pointing everywhere (which is pretty much how that photo shoot felt! LOL!)

Next up...let's talk about my youngest apparent animosity toward peeps...

"Where My Peeps At?"

Yes...this actually happened this past Easter. My youngest (who will be 4 next month) ate JUST the heads off of an entire box of peeps. Houston...I think we have a problem. :)

For this layout, I wanted to focus on bright, fun colors of Easter, so Pink Paislee's Spring Jubilee was perfect for my accent papers. My background was made with Pink Paislee's Artisan Collection Mistables Paper and Tattered Angels paints in coordinating colors.

For texture, I added some rosettes, gems (which are kind of hard to see on the left side by the "where") and feathers were, of course, necessary!

I kept my title a little zany by mixing up American Crafts Thickers in different fonts and textures, with some Pink Paislee Wood Shop letters. 

I hope you have giggled along with me at my crazy little life and are inspired to keep it real! Not every scrapbook picture has to be a professional head shot...or perfectly posed. This is life! It's messy, funny and rarely perfect, but it's all our's. 

Until next time...remember to make your creativity a choice...not an afterthought. 

XOXO,

KERI

Feeling Sketchy Post for Susan K Weckesser!

Yesterday was my day on the Susan K Weckesser Blog My Sweet Earth!

Normally, I am not a scrapbook sketch person, but when I saw this one on The Paper Issues Instagram feed, I knew I had to use it:

I saw those triangles and I immediately thought: Susan's Celebrate the Simple Stamps for Unity Stamps!

Here is what i came up with:

I used Basic Grey's Persimmon line because I thought the colors went so well with my vintage photo (and yes...that is me WAY back in 1983!)

Wanna see more?

Click Here to head over to Susan's Blog!

Until Next time Friends!!

XOXO

KERI

Want 2 Scrap Guest Post!!

I have been sitting on this project for over a month so I am so happy to finally share!! 

Head on over to Want 2 Scrap's blog for full details and more yummy pics!! 

http://want2scrap.com/blog/guest-designer-keri-woodall-sallee/

Until next time...Stay Creative!!

Xoxo-Keri

One Pic Wonders

Recently I was going through some scrapbook layout pictures for a design team call (fingers crossed! LOL) and I noticed a trend...I tend to only scrap 1 picture on a layout.

I tried to figure out why I do this and here's the 2 answers I came up with: 

1) I like products...so, if I have too many pictures, it just doesn't leave a lot of play room.

2) I tend to only print out pictures that I absolutely LOVE, so I don't usually have multiples from one event on hand when I start a project (and who wants to stop working to run and pick up pics from a 1 hour place!?)

Here are 2 of my most recent "One Pic Wonders!"

"Cheryl"

The Beautiful Lady in this picture with me is the fabulous Cheryl Boglioli. I met her a few CHA's ago and there was an instant connection. She is my birthday twin (March 13th!), my soul sister and my mentor. She has been amazing to answer all my questions as I jumped into trying to "be creative" for a living. She has supported me in taking steps that were scary and is just all around fabulous.

I used Glitz's Design's "Color Me Happy" line because the name and colors were just so appropriate! 

I wanted to layout to feel like it was a bunch of pictures kind of just thrown on a desk, so I cut my paper all in similar sizes and shapes to my picture.

Getting the whole story of us on a page was going to be a little difficult, but I didn't want to do "hidden journaling" since the whole purpose of this layout was to tell about us. So I decided to journal in sections around the center focus and then connect them with a "follow" arrow, to make it easier to read the journaling in order.

Adding a little washi tape (by Queen and Co and The Paper Studio) added some fun elements and a splash of color to finish it off.

"You're Never Blue When You have Cousins"

I made this layout for a color challenge for Scrapbook News and Review Magazine, but I wanted to go beyond the obvious of making it blue in color, but since BLUE can also mean sad, I had to think kinda hard to come up with some way to use it that wasn't depressing! LOL.

I came across this picture of my two oldest kiddos and my nephew and I love it because they are SSSOO HAPPY together...hhmm...I thought...happy is the opposite of sad...sad means blue...that was my angle!

I started with a sheet of Pink Paislee's Mistables Paper in a hexagon shape and used a couple colors of Tattered Angels mists to make my background. Using lighter and darker blues gave my background depth instead of one flat color. I also left some places white to give it a little bit of a distressed look.

For this layout, I dug in my stash and found some yummy embellies that I had owned for a while, but had never used:

* Acrylic Photo Cover from My Mind's Eye-It added my border and my flowers to my picture!

* Canvas tag by Basic Grey (on left side)-Added some great texture

* Metal "Happy" (Pink Paislee) and "Three" Tag (Jillibean Soup)-these act as almost a "second" title

* Metal Flowers Brads and Acrylic Letters-The Paper Studio

* Grunge Key (Tim Holtz) and Wooden Letters (Pink Paislee)

I finished it off with some sprinkled and splattered blue Tattered Angels glaze (because kids are messy right?) and these fantastic little silver dots from a company called Candi Dots (this is a company out of the UK...check 'em out!)

What about you? Are you a one pic wonder or a fill-the-page kind of scrapper?

I would love to see your style! 

Leave me a comment!

Until next time friends...stay ONE-derful and stay creative.

XOXO,

KERI

NEW Layout and NEW Book!!!

Did you think I had fallen of the blogger-sphere? :) 

Summer has begun in our world and that means 3 kiddos that need to be entertained. Sound familiar? But! I will still find time for me..or I might go crazy over the next 10 weeks. 

Wanna know one way I'm gonna do that?

I was browsing Barnes and Nobles one day and came across this book:

I was intrigued...list making as a way of self-discovery? And I thought...."I L-O-V-E lists! But how can it help me discover anything? My lists are usually To-Do lists." (which usually only helps me discover how little time there is in a day!)

But as I opened the cover and started reading some of the topics, I realized there were a lot of things I didn't know about myself. Like..list the biggest turning points in your life...list all the activities you would do if you weren't so afraid...list your biggest dream and most recurring nightmare. 

Have you ever thought of these things? I haven't. 

And not all of them are super deep..some are ways to remember what you've forgotten ... Like " list everything you can remember from your parent living room growing up" or "list some important things you lost over the years."

And some...well...they're just fun: List the types of people you think should never get behind the wheel or List this regular everyday items you wish you never had to buy again.

Are you ready? Let's do this journey together....

Today's List: List the situations that always make you cry.

My list: 

Break-ups in movies

Death of a child

People achieving their dreams

Feeling out of control 

I'm excited to take this journey and hope your excited to take it with me!

And now....you didn't think I would leave you without a little creative inspiration did you?  

Today on the Scrapbook News and Review Blog, it's Color Inspiration! 

Can you be inspired by this:

I loved the unique color combo so I chose to focus on that for this Layout called "It's a small world" about the worldwide friends I've made through CHA.

You can't go wrong with Heidi Swapp and Pink Paislee, right?

Until next time my friends, let's continue on this creative life together...and discover all we can be. 

God Bless.

New Layout and FIRST time on the SNR Blog!

I am so excited to be featured on the Scrapbook News and Review Blog today for their Color Palette of the Week.

This week SNR is focusing on the color NAVY!

Navy is such a classic and versatile color. Just by what you pair it with, you can go masculine...feminine...sophisticated or fun!

Here is this week's color palette:

I have to admit..the quilt is not something I would ever have in my house...it's just not me. LOL!

But, when I saw this color palette, I INSTANTLY remember a collection by Teresa Collins called Now and Then. 

To me, the collection was a muted, feminine version of the color palette I had to work with. The only thing missing was that golden/camel color at the beginning. So, I added a little My Mind's Eye Lost and Found hexagon paper and some Pink Paislee Wooden Letters painted gold.

Here's a quick tutorial on the flowers!

1) Cut your flowers from whatever die or punch you have available in 3-4 sizes. I used Tim Holtz's Tattered Flowers by Sizzix. The die has 4 different sizes on one block, so it made it super easy to cut a lot a one time.

2) Lightly spray your flowers with water and then scrunch them up.

3) Let them dry completely (hit them with a heat gun if you need to speed it up!)

4) Once they are completely dry, ink them if you want and layer them up! Plan out your flowers BEFORE gluing because you don't want to get to your last flower and realize you have 2 that are the same size or pattern.

5) I added 7Gypsies silver studs for my centers, but you can use buttons, crystals, stickers...what ever you have on hand. 

I hope you enjoyed this quick little post! I can't wait to show you more of my Creative Life!

NEW Memories...NEW Project...NEW Series!!

It's time for another round of NEW-ness here at The Creative Life!!

NEW MEMORIES!

This past Saturday I did something NEW...I ran my first 10k!

 I started running back in August with the app Count-to-5K for 2 reasons: (1) I wanted to be an example of a healthy lifestyle to my kids and (2) I had my SILs and some great friends who had started running and I was totally inspired by the confidence it had been giving them.

So I just...started running. The Couch-to-5k (and eventually the 5k-to-10k app) really helped hold my hand through the process. Being someone who's never been "sporty" I had no clue where to start.

I had a lot of cheerleaders like my SILs Kelly and Leslie, my sister Leslie, and my friends Kristen and Kelly, but my biggest was this girl right here!

My friend Deana has already run a half-marathon and a full-marathon and was my go-to person for all my questions, my "OMG...what am I doing?" moments and my confidence builder when I was injured a few weeks ago and wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to run at all.

We ran the 10K together and even though she finished about 10 minutes ahead of me, she made her way back on the course after she had crossed the finish line to run the last 1/4 mile with me. 

Here is my first metal:

And here is where my family and I went for my "victory" breakfast afterwards!!!

So what next? Well...this race was my "practice" race for a half-marathon I am scheduled to run in just 2 weeks. Since my injury put me behind on my training schedule (I had to take 2 weeks off), I am a little more nervous now than I was when I ran 10 miles 4 weeks ago, but I'm not going to give up!

NEW PROJECT...NEW SERIES!!!

Heidi Swapp's Color Pop is one of my FAVORITE new things out there in the paper-crafting world. I've always loved the "resist" products, but where as all other products resist white, Heidi has taken it up a notch and made her resists BRIGHT Colors and Fun, Bold Patterns.

In her Color Pop Collection, she has her trademark Memory Files in all sorts of yumminess like Teal Chevron, Pink Polk-Dot and Black Diagonal Stripes, shown here in front, which is what I used to make MY first ever Memory File!

I decided I wanted to do a fun Yellow and Black color scheme, so I used Tattered Angels' Jingle Bells Glimmer Mist on my folder.

I wanted my Memory File to be all about my hottie hubby and me, so I had this really cute picture my SIL had given me of us from a few years ago. From there it was just all about adding fun. I popped a lot of it up to give it a lot of depth and allow me to "tuck" embellishments here and there. (See below for a complete supply list!)

So fun, right? 

You can join me over the next few months in my NEW SERIES as I add to my File and join me in building more memories!

Until then my friends...enjoy YOUR Creative Life...where ever it may lead you.

Complete Supply list of today: Memory File: Heidi Swapp; Patterned Paper: Echo Park, Glitz Design and My Mind's Eye; Chipboard Arrows: Pink Paislee; Washi Tape: Sandy Lion and Recollections; Enamel Dots: Teresa Collins; Lace: May Arts; Title Card: Glitz Design; Stamps: Fiskars; Glitter Dots: Mark Richardson; Button: Teresa Collins; Gem: Paper Studio;  Paint: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Jingle Bell; Misc: Harlequin Felt (had it so long....no idea who made it! LOL!)

Winter CHA 2013 Recap!!

Last month I had the AMAZING privilege of attending my 2nd Craft and Hobby Association show...my first in Anaheim! 

If you've never had the opportunity, the experience is just beyond words, but I'll give it a try. :)

I was honored to be asked to work in the Canvas Corp Family booth, plus make a few projects for the booth.

Prep for CHA was a little (or a lot!) crazy! CHA moved the conference up about 2 weeks, so there was so little time between the holidays and the show to make projects and get them ready for the booth to ship. BUT...we go it done!

Here are a couple of my projects for the booth:

We had a "loose" dress code for each day of the show, so I had to plan my packing carefully. I tend to a be a HUGE over packer and this trip was no different! LOL

This is how I travel:

Houndstooth Skinnies, Black tall boots, black tunic and leather jacket.

I don't fly often so I'm still a little "kid in a candy store" when it comes to traveling by plane.

Fancy!! TV in flight!!!!

I have no idea where we were when I took this!

We landed in Anaheim! I was like "Get our of my way people!!"

This was the beautiful drive to the convention center...don't let the sunshine fool you. It was COLD the whole time. NOT the California experience I was expecting.

We went straight to the convention center and was greeted by this:

This was the first time all three companies shared a booth (Canvas Corp, 7 Gypsies and Tattered Angels.) I LOVE this sign that says it all:

The booth was a very unique...it blended all three companies, plus had "studio" space to give store owners a look at new and unique ways to use all three products.

I had the chance to wander around and see some of the other vendors. There are some FANTASTIC new things coming out...here are a few of my favs!

So cute!!! Technique Tuesday (as always!) had an amazing assortment of new stamps!

Who doesn't LOVE Authentique? This is one of their new "mini" lines.

Pink Paislee has gone Luxe! Think metallic golds and silvers and amazingly fun patterns.

This was my my FAVORITE mask from Clear Scraps. I want to Glimmer Mist with it sssoo bad!

Great abstract and background stamps from Hampton Arts.

As much fun as CHA is for seeing all the new products, it's the people you meet that really make it so fun and memorable.

My birthday twin, inspiration and fabulous friend, Cheryl Boglioli. She is an amazing talent and I am excited for future projects we have in the works!

Stopped by the Project Life Booth and met this fabulous lady! Becky Higgins was so sweet and gracious...plus I made my 2 sisters-in-law super jealous! LOL
(What is up with my hair tho!?)

I met some of my instafriends!!! (L) Lindsay Bateman and (R) Maggie Massey (AKA Midwestern Girl) are both amazingly talented girls who are part of Heidi Swapp's Media Team. They really are just two of the sweetest people you will ever meet. And did I mention GORGEOUS!!!???

My Canook friends, Trisha Ladouceur and Leica Forrest.

This is my favorite picture from the trip. It just shows that creativity does bring people together!
From Left to Right: Nic Klopper (South Africa) -ME (Arkansas, US)-Trisha Ladouceur (Canada)-Leica Forrest (Canada)-Justin Quinn (Utah, US)

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 So...that is my trip down Winter CHA 2013 Memory Lane.

It is really is as amazing as you would dream it to be and then some.

Until next time my friends....

Moving ON....with Purpose

Well....I didn't make the Jillibean Design Team, but..that's totally OK. :)

I had fun making my projects and NOW I get the fun of sharing them with you.

This is the one I did the sneak peek of. It has fun, hand-rolled flowers and the unexpected use of paint chips to add some bold, solid colors. I varied the texture of my flowers by using regular scissors for some and going old school with deco-edge scissors (yes...I still own them!) for others.
 I loved this whole "Miss Caroline" collection by My Mind's Eye and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it when this design team call came out!

7 Gypsies tray of my fantastically adorable family! All of our initials are "K.S." so we call our self the "KS5." I loved playing with embossing for the house and trees and figuring out fun little ways to make each section interesting. The only problem? Don't ask me which Jillibean collection I used! :) I used such a little bit of a bunch, I'm not sure I can name all of them.

I have to say...this is my favorite of all three. The bright colors of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, used with a Pink Paislee Mistables Screen are so me! I brightened up the Jillibean journaling spots by inking the edges in fun colors and pop-doted some at various heights to add some dimension. I used the negative space of the Jillibean  corrugated letters as a stencil for the "me", using modeling paste, colored with acrylic paint.

So...what now? I'm moving on...with purpose.

My history tends to make me take rejection to heart and take people's opinions way more personally than I should.

But..I've been striving to be selective on whose opinion I choose to allow to take root in my heart-not EVERYONE'S opinion is VALID. It doesn't make them wrong...I don't believe the people who picked the Jillibean Design Team where wrong in their decision not to choose me. They picked those who fit best with their format and how they want their team to look. It doesn't mean I am LESS talented because they didn't want me...I'm just not their type. :)

So..we stepped out in fear together and now, my friends, we will move on...with purpose...together.

Until next time...