proud to be a scrapbook artist...

I am proud to be a scrapbook artist. I will stand up and admit I love to take photos. I will admit I spend way too much time playing with paper, pens and paint. This is my family, my life and my art. It is who I am and who I might want to be in the future. It is who I love and what I think...

"An artist is one who looks at life. She's interested and interesting. When a person is interested, she asks herself questions about life. She's curious about her own philosophy. She studies what is in front of her and sees deeper than the outside shell. She wonders. Ponders. Hunts. Turns things over to see what makes them work and what value they are in the overall scheme of things. And when a person is interesting, she talks about what she has learned in an enjoyable way." Luci Swindoll

That's who scrapbookers are-artists interested in looking at and pondering their life.

Embrace your artist viewpoint today.

Wonder about your life and the life of those you love.

Play with your paper and tell your story.

dreams, plans, hopes...

I've been reading a new book-it's all about asking for what you want. Now, I'm an Iowa girl. Born and raised in small town Iowa with a cornfield in the backyard, school next door and a baseball diamond up the hill. Iowans work hard, stick together, and follow the rules. Iowans are not "in your face", we are giving, we think of others first, we know where we come from and don't always dream big about the future. Now, I LOVE living in Iowa. I love the sunsets, the rows of corn, the gently rolling hills. I love the tulips that bloom every year all over my hometown. I love the natural beauty that surrounds me. I love the people. Good people, who really truly care about you and love you. I love being near to our extended families. I love raising my children in a safe place with excellent schools and a vibrant church.

But, this book, encouraging me to ask for what I want and expect that I will get it. Learning to not take NO for an answer. Learning to plan specifically for the future. I have so many thoughts, so many ideas, and such a rich life already. I was not taught to ask for what I want. We were grateful, thankful, and humble for all we had been given. And, yet I have found as I have embarked on this business and art career that everytime I truly had a vision for the next big step, God has been there handing it to me. I may have worked hard, I may of asked lots of questions and placed myself in new "out of my comfort space" situations, but the reality is-my dreams of a paper line-happened. My dreams of a book-happened-much sooner than I ever dreamed. My dreams of bringing my classroom teaching to a bigger audience-it's all happening before my eyes. It's happened because I dared to dream bigger than I thought possible. It's happened because I asked. I asked my family and friends to help me. I asked to show my portfolio to people I had never met before. I asked people their name and what their job was. Asking is one of the hardest things in the world for me to do. We think we need to be able to do it all by ourselves. But, that's not the way this world works. We were created to live and work in community.

I feel compelled to keep revising my plans and thoughts for the future. I've been wanting to put together a visual dream book. A plan with pictures-what I want my studio to look like, the house of my dreams, dreams for my family, the path for my artistic future...but you know that seems so bold to me. It would be asking-thinking outside the framework that I currently know to be my life. It might push me out of the familiar, the "way we've always done things" and if you know anything about Iowans they love to do things "the way we've always done things". I'm used to scrapbooking the past-where we went, what we did, what I felt about that event, but today I feel led to scrapbook with passion about my future. Where do I want to go? What will it look like when I get there? Recording the past helps me to reflect on my life and prioritize what is important to me-that's what I love about scrapbooking-it focuses me. But, this book, this "my future life" book, well...it might take me places I've never been, it might stretch me to new heights, it might challenge me to be exactly who God meant me to be-rather than concerning myself with who everyone else thinks I should be. Now, I really probably shouldn't have told you all about this book, but one motivator I have learned over the years is that if I tell someone I'm going to do something, it actually gets done. And, so I'm going to keep painting (working on a series of tulip paintings right now and finishing up final edits of the book), and I'm going to focus on my future-with pictures in a scrapbook. Wanna make one too? I promise to show some peeks at "My Future Life" book on the blog in the future, but I want to see your pages/book. If you email me, I will post some "My Future Life" pages right here on my blog. Like always you can send me any cool stuff at scrapwpassion@iowatelecom.net.

Happy Birthday!!!

It's what we call "Birthday Weekend" around here. Two of my closest friends and I all have birthdays within 3 days of each other. We celebrated together at my house Sat. with cheesecake & more!!! Brenda designed this adorable clipboard as my birthday present. It says "True Blue Friend"-I was so excited when she showed it to me-of course she was teaching the class how to make it last weekend and I was sitting in on the class and raving about it and she finally said "Well, it IS your birthday present!!!" A girl couldn't ask for better friends... :)


And, just because I can...here is what I made for Brenda. We were actually scrapbook store shopping together when I found the jumbo letters and I showed them to her. "Look here is a Big 'B'!" She looked at me and said "What would I do with something like that!?!" Well, I bought it anyway...simply because once I get an idea in my head, I just need to carry it out. She said she loved it...guess you'll have to ask her for sure (sometime when I'm not around!!!!)

I'd show you photos from the party, but I can't. Yah-we have secret parties around here. Drew said to me while I was getting ready "Mom, are you having a girly, girl party?!?" Oh YES we did!!!

JDRF Crop for the Cure

We had such a blast in Des Moines this weekend teaching classes at the Crop for the Cure event. It was FABULOUS getting to meet all of you and sharing the new papers with you. If you didn't get to make it this year-this is definately an event to mark your calendars for next year. Brenda and I taught 2 classes each. She taught the adorable Big and Small Clipboard classes and I taught a Scrapbook with Passion Photo Canvas class and a layout class where we completed 3 one page layouts. I promised to post some samples from our classes so HERE THEY ARE...

Big Clipboard using the new Girl papers...


Photo Canvas class-This layout is adhered to a Fredrix 12 x 12 canvas.


Scrapbook with Passion Layouts






I had lots of questions this weekend like "where can we buy the papers here in Iowa?" "When are they going to be here?" and
"When are you teaching more classes???" Everything is so NEW that I just got the paper myself on Monday!!! Hang tight...papers and classes will be coming soon to a scrapbook store near you!:)

It takes t i m e ...

I was listening to an interview with Angie Peterson on the Designer Zine site this week. She was telling the story of writing her first book. I think she said she signed the contract in late August and had to have everything done like 2 months later-including all the scrapbook pages for her "Book of Me". WOW! So different from my experience...I've been working on my book with Lark for over a year now! They met me and expressed interest last Jan. at CHA in Atlanta. I worked up a book proposal, which I sent in March. By late April, we finalized the contact and I wrote my first chapter in the summer. I remember sending my first pages to be scanned right before summer CHA in Chicago. At that same summer CHA, I met the guys at Sugar Tree and they expressed interest in doing the paper line. They came and visited the studio in September and I had the first lines to them in early Dec. By January I was sending off the last of the layouts and the last painted papers.

And now, it is March 1. The paper came Monday-a box landed in my garage. I sent off the last chapters to be edited on Monday as well. The photo shoot for the book is scheduled for March 6 & 7 and I have a convention to teach at this weekend. (Can't wait to teach my first classes with the Scrapbook with Passion paper!!!!!!!!!)

The point of all this storytelling is that "things take TIME"! Yes, when designing in the scrapbook world you have to keep working, keep doing what you do and things will happen. The thing that is great about this is that I can design and still "have a life". I think balance is so important. I don't want to be one of the "tortured artists" who has a lifestyle and family out of control. Not that I've always got it together around here-that is SO FAR from the truth (I DO have 3 boys in my house!!!), but I work hard for balance. I don't want my kids to suffer because I'm too busy for them, but I also refuse to stop creating just because I have a family. Scrapbooking, painting, paper are a part of who I am. It helps make me "me". Everyday is a delicate balance-a push and a pull from all the different facets of my life wanting and needing my attention.

Enough introspection...I have some class samples to do, and a visit to the studio of one of my favorite local artists-I can't wait!!!