IOD

a quick share

Had to get a quick layout out of my system. You know how it is, anyone creative knows how this is. It can be a painting, a sewing project, scrapping, the list goes on, but the point is we all know how this feels. We're busy as all get out, life is SCREAMING at us from all directions "Look over here, I need your attention!" "NO! Look this way you're VERY close to missing this deadline!" "If you don't DO this you WILL be sorry!!" AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! 

Shew. sorry. Don't know where that came from. Ok, what I'm trying to say is, no matter how busy we are the little creative voice inside of us says... "Don't you have a few minutes? Just a few to throw down a photo and write what your heart feels?" And so I did. When I only have a few minutes to get creative that's when I go digi. So here's the result. What actually put me over the edge of HAVING to make time to do this was finding this gals blog. I must be in a cave to have missed seeing her great stuff, but I stumbled upon it today. I was overcome with inspiration and so I lifted one of her most fabulous layouts and here is my version of it:

 

So, I most certainly should have been working on deadlines during this rare quiet moment I was granted, but I just had to get that out of my system. You know what? I'm glad I did.

a peaceful sunday evening...

I sit here on the eve of a new week anticipating as much as possible the unexpected, planning for the expected and thinking through what I might be forgetting altogether. It's quiet and peaceful, the kids are all in bed. The calm before the storm. 

It's been a full and fabulous weekend. Some scrap time at the Green Tangerine on Friday night. Didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but do we ever my scrap friends? Then on Saturday morning at 9am, Abby had a soccer game and for the first time this season the Flamingos won their game 3-2! But the real victory?? Mom got some amazing photos, lol! Here are some of them... (mostly untouched, haven't had time to really play with them in photoshop yet)

 

Abby in all her sweaty glory!

 

Why is the child's mama letting her eat dirty watermelon?? 

 

It's hard to beat early morning light for great pics!

Thanks for enjoying my pictures with me. You'll see them in a layout soon! I have my most recent Green Tangerine Kit Club projects and turned them into the store before taking pictures, so next time I see them, I'll take pics and post :-) 

I'm also working on a hybrid everyday album that is really fun and I'm feeling such a sense of accomplishment because I've been wanting to do this album forEVA! Truly, I believe this particular album solely based on content will be one that is cherished for years to come. 

I'm working on a really awesome photobook project that has been so fun from a graphics standpoint. It satisfies a completely different creative side of me. Not at all "scrapbooky" it has a strong graphic feel and I am really enjoying the process. I can't talk about exactly what it is because it's a gift, but as soon as I've given it to the recipient I'll post pictures of the final product. I think I'm going to go through shutterfly. It'll be my first photobook, and I know they have a great reputation.

By the way, some of you may not know this, but the IOD portfolio site is live on the web now! You can go check it out if you'd like...

www.ironorchiddesigns.com

It's simply a portfolio site right now, but more to come tease, tease, wink, wink...lol. it's also kind of in process, there are a few glitches that need to be tweaked. I had alot of fun designing it and it was my first web design project ever, so let me know what you think! 

Have a wonderful finish to your weekend and we'll talk soon! 

IOD PRIMA sale!!!

Happy Friday to everyone!

So, I had a couple of classes that I had to cancel recently along with accumulating a ton of leftovers along the way. My original idea was to put them into kits and sell them. You may have seen a few of those. the truth is I just don't have time to coordinate everything and put together projects in this way right now. So, I've decided to sell all of my IOD by Prima products just on their own.

 So, if you live in the area and would like to come over and see what i've got, I'm selling things below wholesale because I simply have to recoup my cost before my husband sees my credit card bill :-O did I just say that out loud? no? I wrote it? ok.

Please call me if you'd like to set up a time to come over, chat, have a cup of coffee and look through IOD lovelies :-)

(916)783-0480 sally

a few of the things I have a lot of (but I have other stuff too, if there's something specific you're looking for let me know!)

paintables

flowers

pattern paper

gems

brads

acrylic albums

paintables

paintables

paintables (did I mention I have paintables?) lol

so give me a call, I'd love to say hi and have a visit and use this as an excuse! :-)

Good blustery morning to everyone!

Those of you in NorCal are enjoying this wonderful weather with me. Rainy and blustery. Candle weather. I have funny ideas about certain things. I won't light candles in my home until the weather is appropriate. So today I am lighting my candles for the first time this season! 

 

So I'm having a hot steamy cup of pumpkin spice flavored coffee, designing some IOD lovelies for the summer 2010 release and listening to John foreman radio on pandora. (when solid theology meets exceptional music it's perfection, I highly recommend some Pandora regardless of your taste in music. They'll customize a "station" just for you, it's heaven.

So, I know that my scrappin' friends have had their fill of all of my blog posts full of personal stuff and very little scrap goodness, so this ones for you :-).......

This hybrid project was something I've been wanting to do for a VERY long time! It's an album for my girls called "Proof of Love". pictures and stories about how they love eachother for those moments they forget. 

this is the cover, I'll show some pics of what I did for the cover in a bit. I'm learning quickly to pay closer attention to the sturdiness of my mini albums. So much work and love goes in that it's a shame if they start to fall apart.

This is the dedication page.

 

 

a couple of the inside pages

 

closing thoughts

 

back cover

Here is how I did the cover, followed by a supply list. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me at salogris@gmail.com 

 

I took one of my girls' books (shhh don't tell, because even though they never read this book, it would suddenly be their "FAVORITE BOOK" if they know I repurposed it :-))

This album is 5.5x8.5. I created it this size with intention to keep the pages easy to print and trim with an 8.5x11 matte photo paper. So the book I chose was perfect for this size. (hint: the standard dr.seuss books are this size. In no way is that an admittance to destroying a treasured dr. seuss book.) 

 

I then took an exacto knife and finding the joint of the cover, I seperated it from the rest of the book.

 

Do the same for the back cover and then trim off any excess.

 

Your covers should then look as above

 

I used black matte acrylic paint to paint the outer edges of the covers (remember I'll be putting a photo pretty much to the edges, so no need to paint the entire cover.) Because of the glossiness of the covers I used two or three coats, but a more clever crafter could probably figure out how to counter act the glossiness so that the paint would better adhere.

 

I used fabritac to adhere my picture to the cover. 

Here are the supplies I used:

Green Tangerines July Kit

Fabritac adhesives

Epson matte supreme photopaper (printed borderless)

Staz on black ink

Funky vintage digital frames by Nancie Rowe Janitz at Scrapartist 

Zutter Bind it all

I hope that is helpful! Again, let me know if I can answer any questions if you want to try one of your own :-) 

Have a great week!

 

I interrupt your day for something so RAD

I don't know if you have the iphone, if not, get one. Do whatever you have to to get one. they are the next best thing to having your own sven. So here's what's so RAD:

I'm browsing my latest edition of scrapbooks etc. mag and I run across an ad with a picture of an Iphone. My brain got confusied for a sec and I thought, wait is this the apple mag, or ? I flip to the cover and sure enough it is my SE mag. hmmm I read on. A scrap app. That's what the ad was for. Scrapbooks etc. has come out with their own app for the Iphone! How cool is that? check it out

So, ofcourse I had to run right over to my laptop, get into Itunes and buy this fabulous technology. I've tried it out and let me tell you, it's super cool! It has page sketches (I got to page 20 and there were still more, and each page has 4, so that's atleast 80 sketches) color palettes, and you can even make little layouts with your pics and papers they have complete with journaling! This feature i can see getting better with time as right now it's fairly simple, just a photo against your chosen paper and some journaling (but you can choose a font and font size :-)

So go check it out and tell me what you think! (oh, btw, the papers as you're browsing them look slightly distorted, but they straighten out when in full screen :-)

with my apologies

nothing scandalous to apologize for, sorry to disappoint you who are lookie loos seeking a train wreck to watch :-O

nope, this is simply an apology to my family for serving them this for dinner 

It looks so much worse than it tastes, really. I thought it was decently tasty. it was a dish that I kind of tweaked to make my own from a campbell's recipe and now that it's my own, I think I'll discard it. lol. chicken/brown rice (this was the mistake, using brown rice in place of white apparently doesn't work)/cheese/broccoli. Olivia REFUSED to even taste it. she said and I quote " I HATE this food and I won't taste it. I will NEVER taste it."  Usually I have rules about atleast trying something. In this case, I simply made her eat two helpings of her salad and called it good. Waddaya gonna do, right? LOL. 

My most recent favorite pic

Not one of her finer moments, this is the face of a girl who is welcoming her one year molars. If your friends with me on facebook, then you know that I've been concerned about her having the flu. Symptoms being high fever, not sleeping, not eating, fussy as all get out, runny nose etc.. etc. It only took me 4 days to realize she was cutting teeth. (no, she doesn't have a bad haircut, it's just her hair got mussied)

This is my latest mom success! I went to the dollar store, got a fishbowl and a few bags of these pebbles. I decorated the bowl with my scrap supplies to jazz it up and make it special, labeling it the "GRIZ BOWL" and the pebbles are "GRIZ TOKENS" . Whenever I notice them doing anything fabulous, extraordinary or above and beyond, they get a certain number of tokens. The rule is that I have to notice it on my own, they can't bring it to my attention (this keeps them from going over board with contrived good deeds, lol). Once the bowl is full we get to go to Jon's incredible Pizza for dinner. That one was a surprise to my husband (probably seeing dollar signs) tried to talk the girls into leatherby's instead. Hmmm... rollercoasters and endless dessert, or icecream. Anyhow, it's working Fabulously and the girls are so excited to see thier bowl filling up. On the flip side, I've been using the nose in the corner gig for consequences again (not sure how I forgot about this no fail consequence) and it's working wonderfully too. Just having a go to consequence is key for me. 

So that's what's been going on around our place lately. how about yours? Feel free to comment or send me a note :-) 

On the scrap side of things, I've got a deadline for our IOD stuff due out this winter that I'm thrilled about. So, i'll be working away on my puter tonight after the kids go to bed. I usually work during PJ's naps, but those have been non existent. Once I'm done with this I'll spend some quality time with my latest Green Tangerine Kit (I'll show pics when done as usual) and then I've got some work on a TOP SECRET project for IOD that we're working on. You'll LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it. I promise NOT to disappoint! So that's it for now, meet ya back here soon!

no animals were harmed in the making of this post

except for the cat in the picture. You'll be happy to know that he and olivia are actually quite close friends these days. He has a short term memory. Probably from being dropped on his head.

I promise I helped him out right after I got the picture. Actually, the picture may be deceiving, he was really trying hard to do a hand stand, but was struggling and along came his good buddy Olivia to help him out. Ok, ok, I'm done. The truth is he does remember all the torture of being tooooooo loved by Olivia when she was a toddler, and Phoebe has gotten the brunt of that memory. If she so much as looks at him cross eyed she gets scratched. lol. I wasn't kidding though, that he really loves Olivia now. He prefers her over everyone. I guess negative attention is better than no attention, lol. She really does love him so much though. I'll have to do a layout on that relationship soon :-)

Enjoy your Sunday everyone! We'll see you back here soon!

learning...

Things I'm learning right now...

The biggest thing is something that God's teaching me right now, and it's simple, but it's huge and it effects all areas of my life. I guess you could say it's become my mantra for the time being. It's this: It's NOT about ME.  I told you it was simple. Simple isn't always easy though, is it? 

The thought hit my one afternoon as I was growing slowly more and more bitter because my time was being swallowed up by one tiny person need after another. I had hoped to have some scrap time at some point that day and as it became clear to me that my entire day was going to consist of just being mom and wife I started to feel sorry for myself. Then I was being grumpy and ugly to everyone. The ugly thoughts were filling up my mind and I was marinating in the bitter juice of self. 

Then suddenly, and I know it came directly from my Lord, the thought popped into my head "It's not about you, Sally" GASP! wow. Ok, but here's the cool thing. It was releasing. Really. To let all that anxiety and burden go was such a good thing. My peace came flooding back and I ENJOYED being a mom and wife and serving my family instead of resenting it. All because of a simple change in perspective. So, I pray that God will continue to bring me back to that truth. Life and peace comes from being God centered and others focused. It's not about being a doormat. It's actually quite the opposite, it's about strength of character. 

The other things I'm learning aren't quite as deep, lol. 

One load of laundry a day is a great way to stay on top of it and even on days that are chaotic, you feel like you've accomplished something! 

I've finally gotten in the habit that I've talked about forever, doing one load of laundry a day. Now, it might be different for you if your family is different size. I have five in my fam.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to add a little fall decorating to your home.

I was at the mall today with phoebe and my mom in law ( two kids in school all day isn't so bad, lol) and happened into Pottery barn. We were oogling over all the gorgeous fall decorating and I was feeling like I really wanted to incorporate some of that into my own house. With those prices, I couldn't unless I wanted to spend a couple HUNDOs. Or could I? hmmmm. I got a little bee in my bonnet and on the way home I picked up a bunch of pumpkins, little tiny ones and small ones. Then, when  got home I gathered some things I already had and voila! I created this...

It's simple, but I really like it. I didn't get a pic of this, but I also filled a large hurricane with little tiny pumpkins (that was a direct copy from pottery barn! thanks pottery barn :-)

Thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts with you today. Have a great saturday and I'll meet you back here! I leave you with some recent pics of my girlios....

IOD altered mini album kit available :-)

good morning everyone! I'm so excited to have gotten this done yesterday! I've had alot of requests for more altered mini album kits, so i had a blast using some yummy IOD products including some of my all time favorite IOD papers and the oh so fun make your own epoxy chipboard "chipmates". take a look! The kit included everything you see in the album plus an extra sheet of the "Joli" paper to add your own touch. The cost is $35 and included pictures and instructions. There is embossed chipboard cover, plain chipboard back and 2 embossed chipboard pieces inside to keep the album nice and sturdy. There are 14 pages including the inside back and cover (8 layouts and 6 journal pages) 

This album make a great gift album, Me album, baby album(girl, lol) wedding etc.... etc... and is quick to put together! paper will come cut into 6x6's making it quick to make the remaining trims. flowers, brads, gem colors and embossing on the cover will vary, but always coordinate and be gorgeous :-) Shipping will be additional, but should be reasonable considering I can use a flat rate box, i'll post specifics once I find out.  I've pictured below the supplies that I used to complete the album. If you have any questions feel free to email me salogris@gmail.com . 

 

goodbye vacation....

Well, it's time to say a farewell to a fabulous 3 weeks of vacation time with my beau. That is my man, my better half, the carrots to my peas. You get the drift. Fact is he's headin' back to the office tomorrow and the girls start their full days back up. It'll just be pj and I hear at the homestead until three or so when I pick up the girls from school. Weird. A new season. I'm not sure how it will go and how much time I'll have really to concentrate on work while PJ naps. The reason I'm not sure is because, well, she's NOT been napping much at all! Not sure what's going on with that. My thought is she might be ready to transition to one nap, though it's a bit early for that. I think I might give that a try. The other reason could be the triple shot carmel macchiato's I've been known to down right before nursing..... JK. kind of. I don't drink them RIGHT before nursing, lol. I'm supposed to be weening, and I shall, especially now that everyone's back on routine tomorrow... OOPS, how did I stumble into too much 411'ville??? sorry 'bout that, no more nursing talk. lol. 

Here's a couple of pics I took today. I love my D50. I can always count on a few good pics, cause I take like 1000, hee hee. then ofcourse, there's photoshop to take care of what might be lacking. 

I visited my favorite place today, The Green Tangerine, to take advantage of their Labor day sale, which was AMAZING. Almost everything was on sale! and Not the "Don't waste my time" 20% junk either. We're talking 30-50% off. Now that's a sale. Truly, I don't even take a second look unless it's 30% or more. I know, I know, I'm starting to sound like my mother. Sorry mom. 

The other reason I was in was to drop off my layouts using the July kit club, one of which you've seen and the others? Well, I forgot to take pictures of them!! Can you believe that nonsense?? So, I guess I'll just have to go in AGAIN. Hee hee. 

I'll leave you with this: Newest song/artist discovery..... John Foreman "Behind your eyes" AMAZING SONG, AMAZING ARTIST!!!! He's the lead singer of switchfoot and it looks like he's got his own thing now too, or instead? not sure, don't care, just bought Behind your eyes off itunes. go check it out....I'd link you but I can't seem to figure out how to link to itunes. weird huh? lol.

Enjoy the rest of your labor day everyone! I'll meet you back here tomorrow!