Jenni Bowlin Studios| A Princess

 

This is my latest DT project for Jenni Bowlin Digital. This page features the Sunny Skies Paper Pack. 
I was excited to play around with this set of papers after I saw them, especially the blue floral paper (Can you tell I used it alot here?).  I wanted to echo the dreamy feeling of the photo (and the day).

I used some Jenni Bowlin patterned paper and ledger paper to create a neutral background.  I scraped a layer of gesso on top of that.  Then I just scribbled on top with some gelatos and blended them in with my water brush.  I've noticed that they don't blend well when applied directly to paper, unless I use my water brush.  That is fine by me because that a lot easier for me to use anyway (I keep it filled up in my pen case, so I don't have to leave my spot to get water, lol.)
While I was waiting for all that to dry I started printing out some of the digital papers. I created a few 3x4 cards with the blue airmail paper and yellow flower paper.  Then I printed out a sheet of the blue floral paper on vellum.  For some reason my printer decided it no longer wanted to print on vellum.  No problem, I just taped my vellum to a piece of cardstock and it went through like a charm.  See? I'm a problem solver. I just love how digital allows you to choose your medium and the vellum was just perfect with this design.  I fussy cut the flowers off to use as embellishments.  Jenni Bowlin herself recently posted a great how to video for rub ons.  She shared her idea for applying rubons to vellum.  I did that here with my leftover blue vellum paper.  I love the softness it adds.

Seven Weeks

Dear Lucky,

You are seriously growing every day. Your cheeks have filled out. Your limbs look longer all the time. 

Your eyes are just as big and bright as ever. You're a pensive soul. You thoughtfully study the ceiling fans,  the view of greenery from our living room window, and the raucous crash of your brother and sister. Every once in a while we even catch your eye and you look at me. I would love to know what you are thinking about.  Nana and Nani love to FaceTime with you, you can't really focus on the screen but they love seeing you on a regular basis. In fact, they practically insist on since they don't want to miss any changes in you from day to day.  They jumped at the chance to visit us in April too.

I love it when you grab and hold on to my hair. You have been grabbing for a few weeks now but my hair is the only thing that interests you. It's such a little thing, but it makes me feel closer to you.  Like if you could choose, you would choose me anyway.  It is nice to see you move with purpose.

Your favorite things are: to drink milk (of course), be snuggled up in the carrier and to take a bath. Bappi puts you in the sink and you just lay back and totally relax. It is a joy to watch.

You are sleeping a little better these days but you are not on board with my ideas of sleeping in.  For the most part you wait at least two three hours in between feedings now. This is a huge relief from the hourly or half hourly feedings we were doing for a while. You have gained another pound since your last check up.  Also great to know since we can't measure your intake in ounces.  It is nice to have the concrete validation of a number to go by.

We are also getting out more and more which feels so good. I hope we can start having more outings too and not just driving from school.  Thankfully you sleep well in your car seat.  People always seem stunned to see such a little baby. All the moms at dance class commented on how you can be seen in the carrier now instead of you being hidden inside all the time. 
Love you.

*life moves so fast, I want to record a little bit about you here whenever I get the chance so I have something to look back on. 

Project Life: YOLO

This week: Lakshman turned 2 (weeks, of course) and had his next doctor checkup.  We spent a lot of time at home. I took this cute set of name photos with my mismatched set of vintage wood blocks.  We did manage a quick outing over the weekend to the wildflower center, always a favorite.

 

First side: This week is bright and graphic, and I love it like that.  I used a few photos and fewer cards.  The sentiment cards are from the SC Sugar Rush kit.  The week 2 card is a free printable I found on pinterest.  Love the tone on tone chipboard with it.  I used some roller stamps to add the sentiments to Lakshman block photo.  Mainly the little Wanderlust roller stamp, which has such a great variety of phrases and little patterns that fit the sayings, and the red Valentine's roller stamp from Target.  It's on sale for like a dollar now, so definitely pick one up if you see it there.

What is special this week? I used one of the brush script cards I made on this spread.   I clean look of black and white combined with the interest of hand drawn lines.

 

Second side: For my transparent pocket, I cut one of these acetate sheets in half and stapled a couple of gold leaves on top.  The rest of these cards are also SC sugar rush.  I added a little tag from the Amy Tan sticker roll. Such a cute product.  I also added this glittered die cut banner to the top photo.  My kids are too young to know that much slang but I found it kinda hilarious. 

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with mostly Design A pages this year. I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.

Color Studio: Cool layouts

I have been so inspired by the Studio Calico Color Studio class this month.  In general I love to use a full rainbow of colors on my pages (hey, even my Etsy shop is named after my rainbow obsession), so I was definitely pushing myself to limit my pages to a cool color scheme only. 

 I scraplifted this design and color scheme from Ali Edward's.  She used mint on a white background for her class layout and I just fell in love.  I pretty much repeated the same thing, substituting kraft cardstock for the white.  You can see the template Ali used on her site here.  It was also a great excuse for me to pull out my cameo and make a whole bunch of die cuts.  I used a more colorful photo from Nandini's birthday, so the color scheme shifted from a cool one to more of a triphasic one. 

This is also a much simpler page than I generally do, but I love how it turned out.  Ali has such a good design eye that following her layout definitely made things easier.

 I decided to try and scraplift myself for the next project I did.  I love layering but feel it needs a little something extra to give the page depth.  In this case, I used punches and buttons that coordinated with the patterned paper to take the page beyond just layered strips. I really, really loved this layout when I made it but I'm not sure it has aged well.  Still, it was fun to have a second go at it.

I started with paper strips again for this layout.  I also wanted to use my new set of Mister Huey Watercolors on the background.  But, instead of reaching for white cardstock I decided to try the gold striped paper that came in SC Office Hours kit.  Wow! I just loved the effect.  The paint went on easily and still allowed the sheen of the gold to show through.  I love that.

I also snipped a piece of ledger paper and one of the color studio swatches.  Originally I was going to make the layout about Lakshman's sixth week (and 06 is Yes, Peas - a nice green which goes with the cool color scheme).  Then I switched gears to a more reflective theme.  More specifically, wouldn't it be nice to know you are in the good old days when you are in them?  Heck, maybe we are now. 

I punched some strips but ended up only using one of those on the layout.  I added a full pack of blue geotag rubons (in a non-literal sense) on the ledger page and added a little more watercolor.  I just love how rub ons act as a resist.  It's subtle but I like the definition it adds. 

After I added my journaling I filled in my letter loops with blue marker in the style of Jill Sprott.  Because it is gorgeous and something I've always wanted to try and also because she challenged us to try it on the JBS forum. 

Linked up with Paper Issues, Lucky stars edition.  How appropriate is that?

How about you guys? Have you made any projects from recent classes or scraplifted yourself lately?  Do share!

Project Life: Welcome home.

This week: I'm sharing two spreads today.  The first is not really a full week persay, just some tidbits left over from the hospital and our first few days at home.  Not necessarily chronological so I ended up with six total spreads for the month, ha!

First page: Studio Calico cards all, the Sugar Rush kit.  I love the Valerie Wibben's designs (the catch a falling star card here).  The lucky star sticker is just perfect here (Lakshman's nickname is Lucky).  The black foam heart thickers I used on the other side show perfectly well on the other side.  That gold and peach ribbon is from the Target dollar spot.  I have been loving their little scrappy goodies lately. 

Second side: A more random assortment of cards.  We had a little photo shoot at home when he was five days old, and most of these photos are from that.  I used one of the crate paper photo overlays for the gold edging.  Such a cool effect.  Also have a dear Lizzy card, and an old Studio Calico watercolor card and very old 'to the moon and back' card.  So famous when it came out.
I scattered the rest of the chalkboard clothespin circles around the page (which I started the spread before).  Hopefully it sort of unifies the two spreads and helps convey that it was all one week.  They really are too thick for PL pockets so I popped the circles off the clothespins.  I kept one half of the clothespin in place for some and just used the bare circle other places.

This week: The next is the week of Valentine's Day.  Other than doctor's visits we spent a lot of time at home.  Nandini did have her first day of school.  I got to go with Ryan to drop her off thankfully, but she was not a huge fan for the first few weeks.  Thankfully she loves it now.

First spread: This spread was definitely overtaken by red and pink.  I tried to keep things light but the red kind of took over.  The cards are again from Studio Calico, mostly Sugar Rush and some freebies they posted as well.  I love the chipboard stickers that came with the kit.  One more love and hearts overlay for Nana and Nandini.  I used a white chalk marker to doodle over the orange card to tone down the color a bit.  It's random and messy, but I just kept going until I filled up the space and that helped. 

Second side: I put in the Valentine Avinash and I made together.  He had a card exchange with his school friends but I totally kept one from a kid who didn't show up.  Ha! I also put in the tags we stamped on the actual day for Ryan's present.  I'm sure he won't miss the tag anyway ;) Love the comparison photo of Nandini and Lakshman on the same blanket.  Wow.  My open pocket is just a simple plastic paper clip.

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with multi-pack page protectors. I am linked up with the Mom Creative and Simon Says Stamp for my transparent pockets this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.

Just a little bit of luck.

 I am that girl who always took the phrase 'stop and smell the flowers' literally.  It's not uncommon to see me bent over random rose bushes, or pulling down lilac branches to have a good inhale.  Lately of course I have been getting all woozy over the smell of my newborn.  I love to just smell the top of his head or, weirdly enough, his breath.  It's like heaven and I want to savor it.

We were out taking a walk today after school.  Most of the plants around here are still pretty shriveled up and brown, including the lawns.  We aren't used to much cold weather and even though it wasn't that bad here relative to the rest of the country it seems it will take our plants a wile to recover.  Somehow, one house in our neighborhood has this gorgeous lush green lawn.  I stopped to admire it, because that is totally normal (what can I say? their grass really is greener) and I saw a four leaf clover right in front of me on the sidewalk.

I can't tell you how many times I have looked for four leaf clovers, especially with Avinash who is fascinated with them.  He is pretty happy whenever he finds a regular three leaf clover and will just rip one of the leaves in half to make four.  I however keep looking for a real one, but didn't know what the secret to finding one was.  When it finally happened, I was so so soo excited to find.  And, on St. Patrick's Day (also the day of Holi and my parent's anniversary) no less?  Wow.  I had the new baby in his carrier on my chest, so I'm sure his good luck had a lot to do with it. He is definitely our Lucky baby.

One good turn deserves another so I am offering a little project life freebie for my blog readers. I turned the brush script title I made for this "so lucky" layout into a card for PL.  Just right click the image and save it.
You can check out my other freebies here, or follow my Free Printables board on Pinterest.

 I also designed two other printable card sets, which are available for sale in my Etsy shop.  Thank you all for your support!  I try not to deluge this space with shop posts but I'm always tickled when someone leaves me a note with their order letting me know they are a blog reader.  A good way to get some extra goodies for sure ;)

Happy Birthday Gudiya!

It was amazing to see Nandini (aka Gudiya, our little doll) so excited about her birthday.  I decorated a little bit the night before so she would wake up to a surprise! She had early morning balloons and was all about being a princess so she got to wear her Cinderella dress all morning (while watching Cinderella and having tea parties with us of course).  When she got bored of princesses we went outside to play ball.  At night we went to a woodland fairy trail event at Zilker Botanical Garden.  Her cake wasn't exactly yellow but she didn't seem to mind, especially since it did have yellow candy on it to make up for it. 

Happy Birthday Nandini! You truly bring so much joy to our lives.  We didn't have our pi (e) fight yet, but it's coming and tomorrow we play Holi!  

So lucky: Trying my hand at Brush Script

I definitely enjoy playing with paint, so I figured I would give the life|Scripted class at Studio Calico a try. I bought some gauche, india ink and a bamboo brush as well.

I am also getting ready a set of brush script printables and a freebie for my blog readers as well.
(Avinash made this one, but isn't it cute?)

February 2.
This was literally my first attempt at brush script.  I don't even think I practiced.  Here I traced the letters out with pencil and painted over it with India Ink.  Not the ideal effect, but luckily all those cute hearts save it.  This layout uses mainly items from the SC Sugar Rush kit (and other than the brush script is a major Scraplift of Nicole S's layout).  I made a few extra hearts from patterned paper and washi tape (using the plastic hearts as a template for both).

So lucky.
This was a later attempt at brush script.  I really like how my letters are more fluid here.  At this point I realized that I need to dilute the india ink, so I started mixing it with with black watercolor and found it much easier to get a good flow.
The layout itself is more simple.  I cut out some pink, lime green and navy paper diamonds, along with a little black&white to tie in the script to use as accents and stitched them onto the page.  I also added some cloud printed transparency cut into diamonds, though you can't really see it in the photo. I scattered some wood veneer like confetti and added a strip of ribbon on the bottom to soften the page.  I just used a tag as a template to trim the photo.  Such a neat trick!

Linked up with Paper Issues, Lucky stars edition.  How appropriate is that?

Somehow I seem to spend all my time holding the baby and nursing him when he is awake, and scrapbooking about him when is asleep.  Is there anything better?

Project Life: Special Delivery

This week: Lakshman's birth.  This was obviously a very special week for us.  I choose to highlight just a few special moments and keep the whole spread looking very elegant and simple.  I used my Studio Calico kit and a few bits from my stash. 

First side:  I'm so excited that I saved this 'lucky' card from Studio Calico last year.  I guess we were meant to use it on St. Patrick's day but I never did.  It is so perfect for our 'Lucky' baby.  I had to wait forever to hold him, so I choose to use the use the picture of him first in my arms.

Second side: I really like having an open pocket on my spreads.  It's not a hard and fast rule, but it makes the whole thing feel lighter and is kind of a fun challenge to come up with new ways to do it. Here I used the Kal Barteski foam title thickers, which are amazing for more than one reason.  They work perfectly here because they are black on the back too so the effect is double sided.  Plus, because they are foam I could put them on the outside of the page protector and knew they would stay secure (actually, Nandini had the honor of putting these three hearts on the page - one each for my three babies).

Since Lakshman was born on Groundhog's day, I also included that card here.  Just have to finish up the actual journaling..

I included one picture of Lakshman in his bili bed, and talked about how Avinash would sit and console him.  It simultaneously warmed my heart and made me teary to see this scene.  

I used the 'glass slipper' color swatch to tell the story of Nandini's new shoe obsession.  I just can't enough of that little girl. 

And, I have one extra special card that I took a little extra time on.  I did week one with the stitched card, and here I used watercolors and paint daubers (mostly neon blue and tide pool, with the white mixed in).  Words can't express how happy it made me to have my best friend visit a few hours after his birth.  We have lived in different parts of the country for years now but it was amazing to have her be there.  Sigh, I love you Rachel.

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with multi-pack page protectors. I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week. Linked up with Paper Issues, Lucky stars edition too.  How appropriate is that?

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.