a sunrise and some scrapbooking

Summer is drifting right along here.  

We returned from our annual vacation to Maine: sun, sea, sand, shops, and seafood (and lots of photos to edit and print). 

 I watched my first sunrise on the horizon.

These unedited photos don't come close to capturing the color and beauty.  It was a very moving experience.  A reminder of how blessed we are each day, how each day is a beautiful, new beginning.  It made me feel infinitely small, yet large and powerful.  

And since I came home to a nice clean house, I decided to sit down in my stUdio for a bit and create.

I picked up a rainbow of Faber Castell Gel Sticks on our trip.

From what I can tell, these are very much the same as the FC Gelatos: smooth, rich, blendable color and for a cheaper price (I paid $12 for the set of 12 colors in a toy shop in Portland, but you can get them online for even less.)

To wake up my creative mind (which may have still been lounging at the beach), I tuned into one of the Two Peas in a Bucket videos {this one}.  Lately, I've been loving watching the Garden Girls' videos to spark some creativity, even if I just have one playing in the background while I make a page, or clean up my space.

Techniques used:

1) using spray mist wand to draw heart (shown in video) and splatter ink

2) spraying mist on bubble wrap and stamping onto page

3) coloring gelatos on paper and blending with wet finger

4) lots of layers from leftover scraps

5) creating cut files in Silhouette Designer Edition software using arrows, a font and the weld feature

Thanks for stopping by!

getting stitchy

This summer I joined a club.

I love Wild Olive's fanciful designs and, I loved the concept of a weekly pattern emailed to me.

So I signed up without hesitating.  

Then I kind of regretted it.  

One thing I did not need was another project hanging over my head, another unfinished object staring at me from a basket.  I already had two crochet blankets in the works, a pair of slippers that I started two years ago, a December Daily album from 2009, an embroidery sampler from a class last year, and well, we all know how this year's Project Life is going.

But then Mollie's first pattern arrived in my inbox and I was in love.

I gathered some supplies from my stash

and got right to work stitching fabric hexagons (my first time doing paper piecing) and cutie Wild Olive summer motifs.

So I'm all in, stitching away these summer days, and hopeful that this is one project that will not end up in a basket of UFO's.  Being motivated by everyone else's progress on Instagram definitely helps.

(and stitching is the perfect little poolside project.)

I'm pretty sure you can still sign up here if you're interested.

What little crafty projects are you working on this sumer?