New Beginnings..

hello friends ;) if you follow me on Twitter you'll know that something BIG is brewing here. Something that has me excited & liberated and so busy i havnt had time to stop, breathe, blink, sleep or blog. well, last wednesday (my birthday- WOOT!) seriously, OUT OF THE BLUE (having never really kicked an idea such as this around before) J and I decided we are ready for a change. Colorado is incredible, but was never our FOREVER location. while we love it here (our friends, family, its gorgeous beyond words, fabulous events in Denver, etc) it was just time for us to make a change. we are both highly motivated, inspired people. both with heaps of ambitions and goals we want to see ourselves & each other achieve. so we mutually agreed within a split second- lets do this. go big or go home -we decided to sell the house. and quickly. we made the decision wednesday afternoon, had a realtor by the evening. we met with them thursday, i began the cleaning/sorting/packing project friday, had our home inspection saturday... everything is on track to sell our house in about 30 days.

next you ask? well here's where the full liberation comes into play. what has us endlessly excited. my life goal has to always been to be east (New England/NYC, etc) and thats where i want to be, espcially for my career. so i decided my son & i are going to spend the spring & summer in my hometown of Tulsa (ALLISON!! its going to be AMAZING!!) it will be the best ever- loads of my friends are there & all of my family is there. i'll continue school there, BBQs, the river, Drillers games, picnics, weekend trips, CKC- endless good times. J is going to spend the summer backpacking with his BFF (something they have had planned for ages) and then join us in Tulsa and we'll take it from there. Be in Tulsa all together a bit longer, then find ourselves building our new lives on the East Coast and never looking back :) we are so happy and excited. new beginnings. here's the kicker (hence my Twitter countdown) the boy & I are leaving for Tulsa MAY FIRST! 3 & half weeks from The Decision, now 3 full weeks from yesterday. I have to get this 3000 sq foot, 4 bedroom & 4 bath house 100% packed up, all while keeping some normalcy about our schedule to the end (going to the gym, hot tubbing, bowling, dinners, book club, 30 Seconds to Mars concert, several goodbye parties) So basically no sleep for this girl :) you guys know me, i THRIVE on chaos. on my birthday, in the morning i sat down with my notebook & hot pink sharpie pen and made my 28 List. later that night, after The Decision and i had managed to get my hurricane of thoughts to sub-side, i pulled my list back out and said" i can and i WILL still do/accomplish every bit of this" (which i will blog at a later date) i am seriously so happy, so motivated, so inspired. i cannot wait to see where this adventure takes myself, my boy & J. thanks for listening! XOXO Leigh

Sketchbook: Sketch 1

everyone loves scrapbooker extraordinaire, the fabulous Miss Kelly Purkey. every single page she creates is amazing beyond words, she's one creative lady and inspires me all the time. when my dear friend Jamie asked Miss KP if she would be having another Sketchbook class and Kelly said YES, i knew i was ON BOARD. i've been looking fwd to it beginning for a few weeks now & was thrilled to recieve my first skstch pdf yesterday. i got right to work during the afternoon and i love my page :)

"Date Night" i love this page :) i love the pink & red Studio Calico bird rub-ons, accented by the red alphas & pink dotted paper- all on top of the faaaaabulous soft green teal Studio Calico grid. also, i loved the space that allowed to tell the full accidental date night story.

keep checking back- i am in full creative Sketchbook swing, there be new pages and posts every couple of days :) XOXO Leigh

Campy Trails!

hi loves! Last January during all the big CHA-W reveals, I was lucky enough to win the entire brand new release "Campy Trails" from my favorite scrap company, American Crafts. I was (am!) THRILLED. TO. BITS. The line itself is amazing- perfect realistic woodgrain everywhere, fun retro vibe, fab color scheme, versatile papers, I could go on & on.. I sat down with my giant box of goodies a few weeks ago and made 3 layouts & 2 cards in no time flat. I love them, and with SO many goodies- I have plans for several more! But of course i wanted to share these :)

"Comin' Round The Mountain" I loved using the de-bossed brown circle paper :) and that Thickers border is my favorite thing EVER! So CUTE!

"Garden of the Gods" it's kind of hard to see J all tucked away in the nooks & crannies of the rock formations ;) For the tree stamping across the top, i used JBS "Stick Candy" ink, then heat embossed over it with clear ZING!

"Lookin' Good"as I've said before, the best part of American Crafts paper is the perforated strip across the bottom. Cutting that bit off its my major crafty pet peeve. A double bonus is each strip is printed with its own fabulous border. And I WENT TO TOWN with them on this layout- haha! I threw another Thickers border in for good measure. Its alot and I love it all!

"The Early Bird.." card 2 words: woodgrain stamp. I used 2 "Just Write" journaling cards for the inside

"Camping We Will Go" carda simple card: four squares of PP, a phrase sticker, Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edge, voila!

Thank you for stopping by! :) Happy Monday all! XOXO Leigh

Papertrey Ink cards

if you follow my Twitter feed, you know I am a complete Papertrey Ink junkie. stamps, dies, paper, embellies- i'm obsessed with it all. The obsession started with and continues to revolve completely around the Friendship Jar set and its 4 "companion" filler sets. i mean it,
O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D. love them.

i made a couple of quick cards over the weekend, using (of course) The Jar Stamps and just love them to bits.

LOVE THIS. its super simple and came out exactly how i wanted it. i cut a jar with my PTI Jar die & Bigshot, stamped the jar, stamped the dotted "filling" in rich, bright HOT PINK ink then heat embossed it with clear American Crafts ZING! i absolutely love it. i also cut the label with a PTI die, then used the label & a sentiment both from the Friendship Jar set.

whoa. crazy angle. i was trying to get the sunlight to reflect off the embossed ink/powder- i love that sheen!

this was SO FUN :) The sentiment & the pickle are both from the Friendship Jar Fillers set and they make me happy. i used Jenni Bowlin "Stick Candy" for the pickle- JBS inks are THE BEST plain & simple. if you're on the fence about them, DONT BE! you need them. all of them. wink! (i am a horrible enabler!) i also ran a tad of Tim Holtz Vinatge Photo distress ink around the PTI bitty dot paper- perfect little touch.

thanks for looking :) i adore my followers!
XOXO
Leigh

More Napa Valley!

hello loves! remember a couple months back when i went cuckoo-bananas with the Studio Calico "Napa Valley" kit and i knocked out SEVEN layouts & a card? well bc i just can't quit that kit (and it's add-on "Monterey"), i have two more to share! (seriously Studio Calico kits will change your life. really 9 LOs?! its an amazing feeling!)

"Pre-Show" without exaggeration, this is one of my favorite, favorite layouts i've ever done. i love the products here SO MUCH! and the photos make me smile :)

"NCO Club" i know, broken record.. but seriously. LOVE. the colors really came together here, to match the photos and the day perfectly. sigh!

thanks for popping in, i adore & appreciate you all! i have a few more projects to share and blog posts planned so keep checking back!
XOXO
Leigh

Metropolitan Madness

wow. another month, another fab Studio Calico kit, another slew of layouts produced. it is amazing how the creativity just POURS out of me once i open one of those brown boxes :)

Along with Metropolitan i got the "Park Bench" add on and so far i have six completed layouts to share, with three more that need some tweaking before i post. seriously. i LOVED this kit.

"A Good Day"
even tho i could prattle on ALL damn day how amazing all of the exclusive Studio Calico/Sassafras Lass papers are in this kit, i'll let all of the following pages speak for themselves. i used the crap out of them. and still have SO much leftover!
(this pic is my new darker-for-winter hair and i love it so much!)

"...Another Everything" (about my move to CO)
i used the faaaabulous Jett alpha stamp set to crank out that title, plus red Cupid Thickers from my stash

"Beverly Hills Lights"

Love this whole page. to BITS. its a crooked picture, which stinks. but it includes one of my favorite lyrics of all time "as i walk through the valley of the shadow of LA.." so it all works out ;) i'm obsessed with all the teals/torquoises of this kit!

"Estes Park Beauty" the second i saw THE woodgrain stamp in the sneaks, i lost it. had to have it. its massive- 4x6 & my new best friend. love it on this LO

"Clocktower Cabaret"
i used a bit of stsh here: Dusty Concord to ink the sheet music paper, an old Heidi Swapp clock stamp (that i heat embossed to pop just a little more) and the purple Sassafras Paper Whimsies.

"...Goodbye" this is my submission for the current Sunday Sketch at the Studio Calico blog. how AMAZING is the washi tape!? its really only about half a Metro/PB page. the pink dotted PP is American Crafts, the white PP is Basic Grey. i tossed in some yellow Niki Riki Thickers and distressed the thought bubble with some Walnut Stain distress ink.

whew! well, there's the first six! i hope to finish up the other 3 pages soon, but lets face it- I'm going to be seriously distracted with "Who's Who" for the net week or so ;)

thanks for stopping by!
XOXO
Leigh

Happy New Year

i'm excited for 2011. what i call "my new horizon". its full of hopes, dreams, goals & ambition. things that i will ACHIEVE.

New Years weekend was a four day for us, with our first snowfall of the season. we stayed home, kept everything low-key (esp after how bonkers xmas was this year) and had loads of together time. I managed to scrap the bulk of saturday & sunday, cranking out about 6 pages. it was amazing! i'm working on getting all of them uploaded & blogged- theres loads of Studio Calico goodness. hopefully tomorrow or thursday :)

i did get this one uploaded, This page is the title page for our 2011 album :)


it started with exclusice Studio calico paper + Sassafras paper whimsies from the "Napa Valley" kit (my favorite!), then came loads of Cherry Delicious from my stash, some Thickers and the raw Maya Road chipboard "Windows" circles from "Still Life", that i inked with Schoolhouse Red Mister Huey. i cannot sing the praises of "Mister Huey" enough. you need them in your life. trust me.

i sincerely wish all of you a fabulous & incredible New Years, i hope you're all as excited as me to see what the year will bring!
XOXO
Leigh