... just Laura

Kerri Bradford Studio: Even Better Here With You

 

Hey everyone! I'm back with another puppy themed project that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. We have only had our new little puppy for a few months now, but the camera roll on my phone is filled with photos of him.

 

 

I wanted to pick out a few of my favorite photos to create a photo collage, to use as part of a travelers notebook sized spread. I picked out a template from Kerri's Travelers Templates: Wander kit, and got to work adding my photos. 

 

 

I then had the idea to add a few digital stamps to one or two of the openings on the template, using the new Blocks of Togetherness digital stamp kit. Digital stamps are great, since you can size the stamps to fit your exact needs.

 

 

I don't have many pet themed scrapbook products, but I remembered Kerri's older A Dog's Life cut file kit (no longer available), and I knew I could use the PNG files digitally to add "embellishments" to my page. 

 

 

I had full intentions of having a full page photo collage on one side of the spread, and a title/journaling combo on the opposite page. But once I got going, I decided to use the same collage template for both sides of the spread.

 

 

I rotated the template 180 degrees to create the second collage, kept filling up the template openings with a mix of photos, digital patterned papers, digital stamped phrases/words, PNG images for the embellishments, and my journaling. 

 

 

When I was happy with my collages, I printed them both out onto photo paper and trimmed them down. I added a single enamel heart to my otherwise all-digital spread. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Milo & The Love

 

Hey everyone! I have a few new projects that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio that I've been meaning to share. We welcomed a new addition to our family several months ago - a cute little Maltipoo puppy named Milo - and I figured it was about time to start documenting his cute little self on paper. I decided to go with travelers notebook sized pages, which I will be adding to his own Life Crafted album (from Citrus Twist). 

 

 

For his first official layout, I kept it every simple. I used a full page photo on the left side of the spread, adding his name using Kerri's new Headline Lower XL stamps. I like stamping chunkier font alpha stamps individually, and fussy cutting them out. Not only does this give me more control over placement on my project (I'm not the straightest stamper!), but it also adds a little texture to my pages, since I like to keep them relatively flat. Since I stamped my letters using yellow ink, to match the yellow patterned paper on the opposite page, I used a fine tip pen to lightly outline each letter to help them stand out.

 

 

For the right side of the spread, I printed out my journaling (copied and pasted from an Instagram post), and added a few pieces of patterned paper. 

 

 

The second layout features a couple of cute photos that my youngest daughter, Sarah, took with Milo a few weeks after we got him. I printed the photos as 3x4's, adhering one on either page of the spread.

 

 

I stamped the word "love" using the Headline Lower XL stamp set, fussy cutting out each letter individually to adhere on the top half of the left page. I then stamped "the", taken from the same stamp set, directly to the page above "love" to complete my title.

 

 

I also stamped a few phrases from the new Blocks of Togetherness stamp set around the edges of the first photo. After adding a few stamped ink blotches to the white cardstock background, using Kerri's Inked stamp set, I finished off the spread with a few puffy star stickers and enamel dots.

 

 

I don't scrap in the travelers notebook size regularly, so I often forget how quick these little pages can go together. I think this size will be perfect for creating simple pages about our newest family member, and documenting his little stories.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Happy & Simple Habits Mini Album

 

Hey everyone! I had a new little project go up at Kerri Bradford Studio this week. I actually created this mini album way back at the end of October. It sort of slipped thru the cracks since then. I forgot about it, Kerri forgot about it, we both forgot about it again, etc. Lol. So this "write-up"/description was written about 4 months ago ;)

 

This has been a rough year for so many of us, am I right? I will fully admit that the last 7-8 months have been hard on me. And most of it isn't even related to the fact that we're all living thru a pandemic. Although that hasn't helped either. 

 

 

I realized that there are a handful of things that have been helping me thru the difficult times lately. Some are "habits" of sorts. Some are routines or things that I do on a daily basis without really thinking. When you get right down to it, they are all just simple little things that I've been doing to keep my mind off of the crappy parts of life, and allow myself to add a little sunshine into my days. 

 

 

I had the idea to create a quick and simple little mini album devoted to this hard time in life. I used an old 4x4" felt KI Memories mini album that I've had sitting around for years, and kept things super simple by not including photos at all. Just words and pretty papers. And a little stamping, of course ;)

 

 

 

I used Kerri's new Jordan Lower SM stamp set, along with some office tags, to create a tag for each "habit" that I wanted to document. To go along with my simple formula, I used the same color ink (navy blue) for all of my stamping.

 

 

I also used the new Jordan Numbers XL stamp set to help create my little title page, stamping "12" onto two tags, as I ended up with 12 "habits" that I included in the album. 

 

 

I simply adhered each tag onto a piece of patterned paper, adding a coordinating fiber (remember how they were all the rage years ago?) to each tag.

 

 

My patterned paper/tag combo went on the left side of each spread, and my journaling page went on the right side of each spread. For my journaling pages, I used a template from the Four By Four album set by CZ Design. 

 

 

I rarely make mini albums. But when I do, I usually follow the same design format throughout the entire album.

 

 

By sticking with this simple design, I was able to complete this entire little album in one sitting - which rarely happens with any of my projects ;)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Love These 2

 

Hey all! I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio. When I saw Kerri's new love themed stamps, I knew it was about time that I created a layout about Alyssa and her boyfriend, Andy.

 

 

I rounded up some of my favorite photos of the two of them and created a photo collage using Kerri's Snapshots #1 template kit. I decided to print the collage in black and white, which can be helpful when you have an assortment of photos with different colors and looks.

 

 

This also gives you unlimited options when it comes to picking patterned papers and colors for the page. My patterned papers are all from Dear Lizzy collections, as well as the two little stitched heart embellishments.

 

 

I found this fun diagonal patterned paper that I thought would work great down the left side of the page, adding a few other patterned papers above and below my photo collage. I stamped the little row of tiny hearts along my green patterned paper, using the Love Is Everywhere stamp set, and adhered my photo collage above the stamped border.

 

 

I stamped the word "love" from Kerri's So Much Love stamp set and fussy cut each letter, adhering them along one of the diagonal rows. To complete my title, I used the new Better Together stamp set, stamping each letter/number onto a scrap piece of white cardstock and trimming each letter/number into an individual block, adhering them below the word "love". 

 

 

I also used the script "I love you" stamp from the So Much Love stamp set, and stamped it along another diagonal row on my patterned paper. I also stamped a few of the striped hearts from the same set, and fussy cut them out to help embellish the page, adding them alongside buttons and paper hearts. 

 

 

While I had everything out, I stamped an extra "love" using the So Much Love stamp set, and using a scrap of my patterned paper, created a quick card to coordinate with my layout!

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Books I Read 2020

 

Hey everyone! I had a new project go up at Kerri Bradford Studio last week, and wanted to pop in and share it here as well. I love having a wide variety of alphabet stamps to work into my projects, and I am excited to add all of Kerri's new Max alphabet stamps into my mix. I used the Max alpha stamp set to create a title for my 6x8" spread. 

 

 

I've never been great at lining up stamps all even and perfect, so I usually avoid stamping directly on the page when it comes to titles. I l like to either stamp each letter onto a small block of cardstock to use individually, or I will stamp each letter and fussy cut each one out to arrange individually - which is what I did for my title here. 

 

 

All of the patterned papers on this spread are from Dear Lizzy. Her papers have been my go-to papers for many, many years, and I can almost always find what I'm looking for in her collections. 

 

 

I used Kerri's Outnumbered (One) stamp set, which coordinates perfectly with Max, to stamp the numbers for the year "2020".

 

 

I created a tag using the new Fill In The Blank stamp set, stamping "29" (using the Brooklyn Etc stamp set) to represent the number of books that I read in 2020. I "hung" my tag from the top of the page with string, and embellished the page with a few stars.

 

 

I'll be back tomorrow and the following day to share the rest of the pages in my 2020 reading album ;)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Starry Night

 

Hey everyone! I had a new project up at Kerri Bradford Studio a few days ago, and wanted to pop in and share it here as well. I decided to create a small album giving an updated look into some of the ways that we celebrate Christmas. I created a similar album way back in 2007, and it's so fun to look back and see what "traditions" have changed and which ones are the same. 

 

 

This little spread is decorating - when and how I start decorating for the Christmas holiday. And my journaling is so true. The part where I say it's not unusual for the trees to be up with just lights for a week or two before I put on the decorations. We have two Christmas trees, and while one has been decorated for two weeks - the other has sat without decorations up until today, and even as I type this, it only has about 10 decorations on it. Lol. I'll finish eventually ;)

 

 

I love using stars as embellishments, so I couldn't wait to use Kerri's new Starry Night kit.

 

 

I die cut two sets of the stars from white cardstock using my Cameo, and then arranged them on my 4" x 8.25" page. I'm a huge fan of white-on-white for backgrounds! I spritzed on a little silver misting spray and also added some fun silver star outline stickers that were in my Christmas stash from years and years ago. 

 

 

For my title, I used Kerri's Printers Block | Letters stamp set to stamp my title in black ink on white cardstock, trimming each letter individually and adhering vertically on the page, tucking the ends under the ribbon just a little bit. 

 

 

I printed the black and white "merry & bright" piece from Kerri's Christmas Cheer kit, and adhered it on the left page along with my journaling. I had a few die cut stars left over, so I adhered them on the red and white patterned paper on the bottom of the page. 

 

 

I'm hoping to create additional pages to add to my album over the next few weeks. The small page size, and the fact that I'm not worrying about including photos, should help make them doable. Quick little projects that I can fit in when I have a short amount of time.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Very Merry Christmas

 

Hey everyone! I have a few new projects up at Kerri Bradford Studio today, as part of her 12 Days of Christmas event! Each of the 12 days, there is a new design that you can download for free - for that day only. If you happen to miss out on any of the free downloads, you can still purchase them for a very low price starting the following day ;)

 

 

Very Merry Christmas is the today's free design (Friday, December 4th only), and the first design that I picked to work with for our little event. I had full intentions of using the "Very Merry Christmas" phrase to create some holiday cards, but then came up with a new plan once I started die cutting the words.

 

 

I love to watch everyone document their Christmas holidays in projects like December Daily, but I have to admit that I am not one to create many holiday projects (other than a layout or two each Christmas).

 

 

One Christmas project that I did participate in, way back in 2007, was Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas. The album that I created didn't contain a single photo - just pretty paper and little stories to document the ways that we celebrate the holiday.

 

 

I thought it was about time to create an updated look at some of the same topics I included in that album, all those years ago. I decided on doing Travelers Notebook sized pages, which I'll add into a Life Crafted album from Citrus Twist. I used Kerri's Very Merry Christmas kit to create two spreads for this album - an intro spread and a spread about our holiday photo tradition. 

 

 

I die cut both words included in the kit - "Very Merry Christmas" and "Holiday Photo" - from black cardstock using my Cameo. I also die cut a circle background from white cardstock, using the Background Basics kit, so that I could create white-on-white background on which to adhere my die cut titles. 

 

 

My pages are 4" x 8.25" in size, and I dug deep into my Christmas supplies for patterned papers to add to the pages, along with my title pieces and my journaling blocks.

 

 

I have jars and jars of ribbons that I haven't used in years, and added a piece of ribbon to each spread, adding metal brads to the ends of the ribbons. 

 

 

I came across a die cut rose (from Kerri's Roses kit) on one of my cutting mats that I didn't end up using on an old project, and figured I would toss that onto my "Holiday Photo" spread.

 

 

I also printed a few elements from Kerri's Fa La La Labels kit and her Merry Little Words kit to help embellish the spreads. 

 

 

These little pages were so fun to put together, and by not worrying about including photos (although photos would be a great addition if I had them), they came together in no time.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Little Wins

 

Hey everyone! Kerri Bradford Studio and Everyday Explorers Co teamed up last week to bring you inspiration and fun projects that pair up stamps and products from both companies. I had a new 6x8" pocket page spread go up last week, which can be seen HERE, and wanted to pop in and share it here with you all as well. 

 

 

I chose to work with Everyday Explorers Co.'s Little Wins stamp set and I paired it with Kerri's Jordan Lower SM alphabet stamp set to document a few "little wins" of my own over the last few months. 

 

 

I used the Little Wins stamp phrases to guide me in picking out a handful of photos, and little stories, to highlight for this spread. The pocket pages that I decided to use have lots of 2x2" openings, so I printed 2x2" photos, along with 1.75x1.75" journaling squares that I matted on 2x2" squares of patterned paper.

 

 

I stamped each of my Little Wins phrases onto a square of patterned paper as well.

 

 

I used Kerri's Find The Beauty printable kit for the black and white quote filler card, since I thought the "find the beauty in the simplest of things" quote tied in nicely with the theme of the spread. I decided to go with "little wins" as the title of my spread, inspired by the Little Wins stamp set name, and used Kerri's Jordan Lower SM alpha stamps to create my title. 

 

 

I loved using a stamp set as the starting point for a project, letting the stamps inspire which little stories that I wanted to include on my spread. I could have easily found a photo/story/little win to go along with each of the stamps in the Little Wins set - I may need to add another page in to highlight a few additional wins!

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Holiday Cards

Hey everyone! I have a few new cards up at Kerri Bradford Studio and wanted to quickly share them here as well. I've been really into card making these past few weeks, so when I saw Kerri's new Christmas stamps, I knew they would be great for whipping up some simple holiday cards. 

 

 

My style of card making is pretty clean and simple. I love a good white background for my cards, and will usually either run them thru an embossing folder or add a white die cut background on top of the card base for texture. I used a few stamps from the new Merry News and The Holidays stamp sets to create strips to go across the width of the card, adding in a small piece of diagonal striped patterned paper as well. 

 

 

I added a few of the fun wood veneer pieces that Kerri designed for Jessica at Color Cast Designs to each card, as well as a few black brads, to finish off these quick and easy cards.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Hey Beautiful Cards

 

Hey everyone! I had a few new cards go up at Kerri Bradford Studio last week. How gorgeous is the huge floral stamp in Kerri's new Big Blooms stamp set? As soon as I saw it, I knew what my first project would be with it. Cards.

 

 

I have never gotten into coloring when it comes to stamping, although this large floral stamp could be fun to color! Because it's such a large stamp, I knew simply stamping the outline in black ink onto patterned paper would work out great. 

 

 

I picked out several tone-on-tone polka dot patterned papers (all from Sunny Studio Stamps), stamped the floral image, and then fussy cut around the edges. I added a simple black and white patterned paper to my card bases, before adhering the floral pieces.

 

 

The black and white patterned paper did have a few ink splotches printed directly on the paper, but once I cut it down into smaller pieces, some of the cards didn't show any of the ink splotches. So I pulled out Kerri's Inked stamp set and quickly added a few stamped ink splotches of my own.

 

 

I used Kerri's new Jordan Lower alphabet stamps, along with a "beautiful" stamp from her Around The Block stamp set, to stamp my sentiment onto white tags and adhered them in the lower right corners. 

 

 

I am a huge fan of creating multiple cards at once, and it's something I do regularly, just to add to my card stash. I actually created these five cards for five special friends in my life that are always there for me, and I'm always there for them. I've relied on these amazing friends more than usual lately, so I wanted to send them a little something to let them know how much I appreciate their friendship. The Big Blooms stamp set made creating these cards a breeze and I love how they turned out!

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Baby Bear Cards

 

Hey everyone! I had a new project up at Kerri Bradford Studio last week and completely forgot to hop over here and share. When I saw Kerri's new Hello Baby stamp set, I knew exactly what my first project would be using them. Baby cards. I don't have any baby cards left in my card stash, and knowing that I have several friends and family members due to bring their new babies into the world over the next few months means that I want to have cards on hand for when the time comes. 

 

 

My card making style is pretty simple, and I almost always mass produce cards when I do sit down to make them. It just makes sense to me to duplicate all of the steps several times while I have all of my supplies and tools out - and then I assemble them all at the same time. 

 

 

I started by picking out a few patterned papers - pink for girls, aqua for boys, and a neutral yellow for those that choose to wait to find out the sex of their babies. After creating the base of my cards, I set to work on the stamping.

 

 

I used Kerri's new Jordan SM alphabet stamp set to stamp "baby" several times onto white cardstock, using my three colors (pink, aqua, and yellow), and then I used my scissors to cut apart each letter individually.

 

 

I inked the edges of each individual letter using black ink, so that they would stand out against the white dry embossed background. 

 

 

I stamped the adorable bear and the "sweet little face" phrase onto squares of white cardstock, and inked the edges of each with my coordinating ink colors, matting each square onto a piece of patterned paper. 

 

 

These cards were simple to make, and perfect to have on hand for when those precious little ones make their way into this crazy world.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Family BBQ

 

I've got another new layout for you, which I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. How awesome is Kerri's new Juniper collection of alphabet and number stamps? I'm a fan of tall and skinny letters, and I just love the variety of sizes. There's a size for any project!

 

 

We were supposed to have our annual family BBQ at my brother's last month, but Covid-19 has gone and ruined that :( So I figured I'd make up for it by pulling out the photos I took at last year's get-together and create a layout documenting the day. 

 

 

For my title card, I used the Juniper Alphabet XL and Juniper Alphabet SM stamps to create my title, stamping "family" onto a yellow metal rimmed tag. I added a little date label using Kerri's Today's The Day printable, and scribbled in the date. 

 

 

I had all of my photos already printed as 3x4's and 4x6's, so I went with my go-to grid design, arranging the photos across a traditional, two page 12x12 spread. I pulled out a few coordinating patterned papers (all from Amy Tangerine collections), trimming them into 3x4's pieces to fill the empty spaces, and one 4x6 piece for my title card.

 

 

I printed out my journaling onto two 3x4" cards, adding one to each side of the spread, and added a stamped phrase to the top of each using the new Block of Summertime stamp set. 

 

 

I recently printed out Kerri's Summer Mix printable, and wanted to include one on each piece of patterned paper. 

 

 

I trimmed a small 3x1.5" piece of black/white patterned paper to add along the bottom of each piece of patterned paper, and then adhered the small printed phrases, adding tiny staples where the papers meet. 

 

 

I then added a simple, single chipboard embellishment to each of my patterned paper pieces to finish off the spread. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Trips Out

 

Hey all! It's been a minute since I've shared anything here on the blog. I had a new project up over at Kerri Bradford Studio a week or so ago, and just totally forgot to schedule my own blog post. Oops. 

 

Hey everyone! Isn't that crazy that it's August already? This is such a weird year. It almost feels like it was just yesterday when the state of California was issued a "stay-at-home" order back in March - but at the same time, it feels like that was ages ago. The reality is that it's been a little over four months (when writing this, which was almost a month ago) since that day. I, for one, have taken the "stay-at-home" order very seriously and only left my house or went anywhere when absolutely needed. While some of our restrictions were lifted/loosened at the start of June (and some were then tightened back up again in July), I still find myself not going anywhere. 

 

I started putting together a small 6x8" album to document some of our Covid-19 related stories, and thought it would be cool to document how little I've gone anywhere these past four months. In normal times, this might make me look a little like a loser. Lol. But seeing as how we're all living thru a pandemic, it makes me feel proud that I'm doing my part to keep those around me safe by staying home when possible. 

 

 

I didn't have any specific photos that I wanted to use for this spread, so I went photo-less, which is something I have no problem doing. There are basically 4 places that I have made trips to over the last four months - the only 4 places that I have gone outside of my house (although I have stopped by my parents house to pick up masks that my mom makes, but I'm not counting that). I knew that the 2x2" pocket page would work perfectly for this, as it has 12 little pockets, and I could use three pockets for each of the four places that I have gone. 

 

For each of those places - Safeway (grocery store), Target (no explanation needed, am I right ;)), Arco (gas station), and Costco (work) - I used one little pocket for the name of the place, one for the number of times I've been there over the last four months, and one for the journaling. I used Kerri's Juniper SM alphabet stamp set to stamp out the names of each place, squishing the letters together as needed to fit onto those little 2" squares. 

 

 

I then used her new Outnumbered (Two) stamp set to stamp out the number of times I've been to each place. I was originally going to stamp both the solid number (in a coordinating color) and the outline over it (in black), since I LOVE the look of them layered together - but since I ended up adding patterned papers into those same pockets, I decided to simply stamp the outline onto white cardstock. I then fussy cut out each number, adhering them onto the patterned paper squares. 

 

 

I used the fun "here and there" printable from Kerri's Tiny Details kit as one of my 3x4" filler cards, printing it out onto cardstock. After typing up my main 3x4" journaling card, I added a few fun icons along the top using the Iconic digital stamp set. I love having the digital versions of the stamp sets, as well as the physical, since I do all of my journaling in Photoshop and it's so easy to add digital stamps, sizing them as needed. 

 

 

I used the fun half-circle month stamps from Kerri's new Year Round stamp set around the edges of my title card - using March, April, May, and June, as those were the main months this story covered. Although technically, the "facts" for this story cover mid-March until mid-July ;) I drew some rough half-circles around the stamped months with a fine-tip pen, and then added my title using some chipboard alphas. 

 

Maybe one of these days, I'll venture out to a new store or a new place. But for now, I'm fairly content not really going anywhere. Which is weird. But then again, what's not weird about life right now?! 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: 5 Long Months

 

Hey everyone! It's been a minute since I've popped in with a new project, but I finally have something new to share - a 6x8" spread that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. 

 

I have always been a huge fan of large titles on my layouts. Most of my "layouts" these days are the smaller 6x8" pages, or pocket page style layouts, and Kerri's new Thick/Thin/Thick Outline + Number stamp line-up is perfect for creating large titles on smaller sized projects. I used a mix of the new stamps, as well as the new When stamp set, to create this fun little 6x8" spread about how long it's been since my last haircut.

 

 

I love that the Thick XL and Thick Etc XL stamps have the Thick Outline XL and Thick Etc Outline XL stamp sets as well, as they're just a fun way to make your alphas and numbers stand out. While I am a very clean and linear scrapper, who uses many, many rulers to always make sure things are straight and even - I love the perfectly imperfect look you can create with the outline stamps (although you can also line them up perfectly as well). 

 

 

I always have pages from Kerri's Label kit printed out and ready to grab for adding smaller stamped words/phrases, and I used them to stamp the month of my last hair appointment and the month of my next appointment using new When stamp set.  

 

 

I tucked little alpha stickers - oldies, but goodies, from Making Memories - above each of the labels for the "last appt" and "next appt". I was digging around for some sort of embellishment to add to my spread, knowing that it needed a little something, and I came across these old metal plaque embellishments from Making Memories and thought they'd be a fun addition.

 

 

My appointment is in less than two weeks and I'm not sure who's more excited - me or my hair! 

 

Update: I wasn't able to share this until today, and my appointment was scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday). But as of a week ago, the hair salons here in my part of California were shut back down. So no appointment :( And now a lot of the facts on this layout will all be a lie. Lol. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Covid-19 Themed Pages

 

Hey everyone. We celebrated (inter)National Scrapbook Day all last week over at Kerri Bradford Studio last week. I meant to get on here last week and share my projects, but Typepad wasn't letting me upload any images.

 

 

 

We're focusing on Kerri's Lay It All Out: Travelers Notebook kit this week. The first sentence in the kit's description reads "These templates are designed to help you get your memories down even faster than before" - and that's exactly what they did for me. 

 

 

After die cutting several of the templates from white cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo, I simply laid the templates over white cardstock cut to TN size (I create individual pages that I slip into my Life Crafted album as opposed to using an actual travelers notebook) and drew in my lines with a fine tip black pen. 

 

 

Once those lines are drawn out, you end up with a great start to your page, as you know where the journaling will go and you have empty spaces for photos and any other embellishing and/or title work that you want to add in.

 

 

 

So much of the thinking and decision making is already done for you, which simplifies the process and really lets you focus on getting your stories and memories down.

 

 

 

I am not one to use my own handwriting on my layouts - never have been if I'm being honest. But. I decided to go for it on these pages.

 

 

 

I have been wanting to document this crazy Covid-19 time that we're all in right now, and this was the perfect way to get started on some of those stories. I didn't want to spend a ton of time on these little spreads, and using my own handwriting really simplified my process. 

 

 

 

I worked a few of Kerri's new stamp sets - Denali, Denali XL and Denali Etc XL - into my pages, along with stamps from five other recent sets.

 

 

 

I added in a little patterned paper and a few simple embellishments and in no time at all, I had four spreads completed.

 

 

I can't wait to use the Lay It All Out: Travelers Notebook kit to create more pages documenting this weird time that we're all going through. 

 

Ready For Consumption

Hey all! I had a third travelers notebook sized layout in the works using Kerri Bradford's April stamp release, but due to some printer issues, it took me longer than planned to get it finished. And by "printer issues", I mean that my printer decided to take a full 4 days before it would actually print it. It does this to me quite often, and it's highly annoying. 

Anyways. I had wanted to use Kerri's new Eat stamp set, and randomly picked a recent photo that had a story attached to it. I used one of the templates from Kerri's Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit to print both my photo and my journaling. 

The template that I used had a small phrase above the journaling, which I turned off before printing, knowing that I wanted to add my own stamped phrase. I love using Kerri's Label kit for my stamped words/phrases on all sorts of projects, and have sheets of them already printed out and ready to go. 

For my patterned papers, I pulled out several older patterned papers from Echo Park. I specifically had the paper with all of the kitchen tools in mind. It took me a while to remember what manufacturer made it, and by the time I found it, I just picked two other papers that were mixed in with it. My photo was pretty neutral, color wise, which gave me more freedom for my color choices.

I love slipping these tiny layout spreads in my Life Crafted album. They're quick and easy, and perfect for little stories. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Loads Of Fun

Hey everyone. I'm popping in to share a quick look at another travelers notebook sized layout that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. 

I felt like this first page needed a little something added to it. There was a little too much empty white space for my liking. So I pulled out Kerri's Inked stamp set and stamped on a few ink blotches - both in the upper corner on the white cardstock, and down below on the green patterned paper. 

I stacked three different stamps from Kerri's new Blocks of Headlines stamp set, stamping them onto a white tag that was in my stash. 

I wanted to add a touch of blue to the first page, to tie in with the blue towels in my laundry basket, so I used one of Kerri's Borderlines stamps above my green patterned paper. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Love This Moment

 

Hey all! It's been a while since I've created any little travelers notebook sized layouts to add to my Life Crafted album (from Citrus Twist). I'm still new to creating these smaller sized spreads, but I really do love how easy they work for documenting little stories in a quick and easy way. 

 

When I sat down to create my next project for Kerri Bradford Studio, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to create a few of these little spreads. For my first layout, I printed out a photo I took while reading one morning. I printed it as a full page photo, which for TN's, is about 4.2" x 8.25". 

 

 

I picked out this gorgeous floral patterned paper from a Dear Lizzy collection for the right side of the spread, and added my journaling before moving on to the stamping.  

 

 

I picked out several stamps from Kerri's new Iconic stamp set - the books, coffee cup, and glasses - and stamped each one onto a colored metal rimmed tag. I've had these Making Memories tags in my stash forever, and they matched up perfectly with my patterned paper. I also added the "loving this moment" stamp from the new Block of Headlines stamp set and "today" from the All The Time stamp set. 

 

I'll be back tomorrow to share another TN sized spread with you ;)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Bryce Canyon

 

Hey everyone. I have a new digital layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio using her new Utah's Mighty Five digital stamp set. When Kerri first shared this new stamp set with me, my first thought was that I didn't have a need for it.

 

 

But then I thought about all of the camping my family did when I was a kid, and I knew that I could put this set to use with some old photos. 

 

 

I had my mom dig up some photos specific to Utah's National Parks, as we visited National Parks across the states for years, and she sent me these photos from a stop at Bryce Canyon. These photos were from 1983, so they're not the best quality to begin with - and then she scanned them to send to me. I knew they wouldn't print the best, so I decided to go with a digital layout. In my experience, I find that old photos tend to look a smidge better printed when they're worked into collage templates. 

 

 

I settled on an 8.5x11" two page spread, starting with a template from Kerri's Storyboard #4 kit for the right page. For the left page, I used a template from the Half Pints: Wander kit. While the Half Pint templates are 6x8" in size, I was able to easily crop one into an 8.5x11" size. I added my photos into the two templates, tweaking one of the photo openings on the first page to make it longer as I didn't want to crop too much out of the photo. 

 

 

I used the new Utah's Mighty Five digital stamp set to add my title along the top of the first page, as well as the arches, which I changed the color on to make it match the arches in my photos.

 

 

I used the Block Party digital stamp set to add the year, 1983, to the bottom of the first page, and used the PNG file from the Summer Vibes kit to add "summer" next to the year. Lastly, I used the And So The Adventure Begins kit to add a filler card to the center opening of the collage on the second page. 

 

This Is Our Happy Place

Hey all. I created this two page spread in my 6x8" personal album a few weeks ago, and I honestly have no clue why it's taken me so long to share it. There's kind of a funny story on how it even came about. 

Long story short. The house that we originally wanted and fell in love with last year, when we first decided to downsize, ended up back on the market a few weeks ago. I very randomly came across it just 2 days after it was listed. It's only about a mile from the house we ended up buying, and I think about it quite often. It's the one house that I have some regret over not getting (it was the one we put our first offer on, but we didn't get it), out of the main houses we were considering. And for a very hot minute, I was ready to put this house on the market and go after that first house. Lol. I know. It was crazy thinking on my part. 

I don't always create layouts about things like that, especially in that moment. But it crossed my mind that I should get that crazy story down, and that's how this layout came to be. I included the story about that other house, but I also focused on documenting the things that we truly love about this house. 

I dug through my files to find photos that I've taken around the house over the last year or so. I printed them as 2x2" photos and slipped them into a 6x8" divided page protector. 

I left three empty pockets on each side of the page protector, with plans to add small embellishments. I cut scraps of white cardstock to 2x2" and adhered an embellishment to each - using chipboard pieces and plastic houses, both from the Ali Edwards "Home" Story Kit. 

After picking out a coordinating house and chipboard piece for each side of the page, I was left with two more white 2x2" squares (1 for each side of the page) that needed a little something. I used the "Home" Story Stamp set to quickly add a stamped phrase to those two squares.

I used a digital journaling card from the Recorded Journaling Cards No. 3 kit, from In A Creative Bubble, to hold my journaling. The black filler card next to it is from the Home Story Kit. 

I used this fun "Happy Home" card, from In A Creative Bubble's Indoorsy Journaling Card kit, as my title card. While I print most of my journaling cards on matte presentation paper, I go back and forth between printing filler cards like this on that same paper - or on soft gloss photo paper. It usually just depends what else I'm printing, as I'll just add cards to the same page. 

I see lots of my favorite designers adding vellum into their album projects, and thought it would be fun to try it on this project. I used Kerri Bradford's This Is Our Happy Place kit to print the phrase on a piece of vellum, trimming it to the same size as my page protectors. I ended up using two black and white Project Life filler cards to create tabs, which I adhered to the vellum where the album rings fall. 

I was actually short a few photos, as I was aiming to get 9 photos on each side of the page protector. And I had a few parts of the house that I wanted to be sure to include. So I snapped a few quick photos to add to the ones that I had already printed. 

I created a large journaling card of sorts, sized to 6x8", adding a digital stamp to the top using Ali Edward's What Today Looked Like kit. I typed up my crazy story, editing it quite a bit as I went, because I can get very long-winded in my story telling ;)

I originally printed this page with just the journaling and title, but I felt like it needed something else. I was scrolling Instagram, and I saw someone had added a faint digital image behind their journaling, and it gave me the idea to add a house behind mine. I used a digital house from the Digital Home Story Kit, changing the opacity to make it a little lighter and let the journaling stand out. 

And there it is. I can look back on this crazy story now and laugh about it. And years from now, I'll have proof of how crazy my mind works sometimes - just by looking back at this layout.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Sarah + Dom

Hey everyone! I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio. Kerri's new Me & You stamp set is perfect for documenting love, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to create a layout about my youngest daughter, Sarah, and her boyfriend of almost 3 years, Dom. 

I started by gathering any photos that I had of the two of them together, and used a storyboard template from the Picture That kit to create a photo collage of 12 of my favorites. 

I created the base of my page by piecing together my printed collage, a few patterned papers (from Dear Lizzy), and part of a die cut circle background that I made using my Silhouette Cameo and Kerri's Background Basics kit.

I added a few die cuts that coordinated with my patterned papers, along with adding my journaling strips along the top right corner of the page. 

I love the new Thick + Thin alphabet stamp set and knew it would be perfect for creating my title. I cut small strips of white cardstock and stamped each letter onto one of these strips using a navy blue ink, after which I dragged the edges of each strip along a pink ink pad so that they would stand out against the white background. I adhered these vertically along the left side of the page, tucking the bottom of each letter strip under the blue scalloped edged border. 

I pulled out a few tags from my supplies, as well as the sheet of black labels that I printed using Kerri's Label kit (I keep these sheets printed, as I love to use them for "housing" my stamped phrases), and stamped several phrases from the Me & You stamp set onto each tag/label.

I adhered them along the left edge of the page, adding a few navy blue enamel hearts for my final embellishing. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Christmas Day Trip

Happy New Year's everyone! I'm back with my first post of the year, sharing a project that I made for Kerri Bradford Studio. I've had these photos laying around for a little over a year now, taken on a little day trip that my family took the day after Christmas, back in 2018. 

While this wasn't technically a Christmas day trip, we took it the day after the holiday, while my sister was still in town - and the Christmas vibe was still found in the places we went. So I kept that Christmas theme going in my title and the patterned papers I picked out. 

I used one of my go-to page designs, arranging my 3x4 and 4x6 photos around the outside edges of the spread, and adding a white die cut background using Kerri's Background Basics kit across the center part of the spread.

I printed out a filler card to add alongside my journaling block, using the And So The Adventure Begins kit.

I'm loving Kerri's new stamps! Letters, numbers, days of the week, months, years - all of those little stamps are so versatile and I just love how you can arrange them together in different block configurations. Such a fun concept and the possibilities are endless!

I used the Printers Block | Letters stamp set for part of my title, stamping the letters onto cardstock and trimming each letter into an individual block. I then paired them up with my die cut "Christmas" word, taken from Kerri's December Twenty Five kit (no longer available). 

I then used the Block of Time stamp set to add the date to a white shipping tag, adding a piece of bakers twine to the top. 

I die cut a few stars from black cardstock (using the Christmas Calendar kit) to add some simple embellishing to the 3x4" pieces of patterned paper, adding a single button to the center of each star. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Merry + Bright

 

Happy December everyone! I hope you caught the 12 Days of Christmas celebration that was going on at Kerri Bradford Studio this month! I wanted to pop in and share the project that I created using a few of her daily freebies (that aren't free anymore, but you can purchase for just 99 cents in her store).

 

I have to admit, I don't do a ton of decorating when Christmas rolls around. I like to keep things fairly simple. I add a few decor pieces to my mantel, where I also hang the stockings up. I hang a wreath on the front door. I display a few simple decor pieces in the entrance, by the front door. And of course, I have a Christmas tree. I even added a second tree last year!

 

 

I guess my decorating style is sort of like my scrapbooking style these days - clean and fairly simple. I have really fallen in love with pocket pages, and not just for doing Project Life. I have several albums, in different sizes, where I create pocket pages on the regular. I love all of the fun new printable cards that Kerri's been designing, and decided to use her new Merrier cards to create a simple 6x12" pocket page spread to document some small glimpses into my holiday decorating. 

 

 

While I haven't actually finished putting my decorations up this year (why does it take me so long, when it's all SO simple?!?!), I pulled up a handful of photos that I had taken last year and printed them as 3x3's and a few 3x4's. I usually print my filler cards on presentation paper, but ended up adding the three Merrier cards in with my photos, so they're printed on photo paper.

 

 

I also printed a few cards, using The Nice List kit, printing those on presentation paper. Once I had played around with my photo/card placement, and settled on where they would all go, I ended up trimming a few of the filler cards to 3x3" squares to fit the smaller pockets on the right side of the spread. 

 

 

I pulled out Kerri's Looks Like Christmas stamp set to add a few stamped elements to my spread.

 

 

I used the larger "Merry + Bright" as my title, stamping it onto a white shipping tag. I used my finger to swipe a little bit of forest green paint around the edges of the tag, before adhering it to my 4x6" title card. I found this older, black corrugated paper in my stash and decided to use it for my 4x6 card, adding the red/white diagonal striped printable card, from The Nice List kit, along the left side. 

 

I love how easy this was to put together. And hopefully, when I get around to finishing my decorating, it will be just as easy to put together ;)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: 5 Things

Hey everyone! I had a new Travelers Notebook sized layout go up at Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday. I just love that Kerri added the Outnumbered (Two) XL Outline stamps, to go along with the Outnumbered (Two) XL stamps that I am already a huge fan of. I have so many ideas in my creative mind that the large number stamps can be paired up with, that it took me forever to settle on one of those ideas for my next project. So many ideas, so little time, am I right ;)

I finally decided to document 5 things - just 5 simple things that I'm thankful for right now. I settled on a TN sized spread, which I will add into my Life Crafted TN sized album from Citrus Twist. I printed the one fall themed photo that I have (we don't get much of a "fall" season where I live) to use as the left side of my page, knowing that it had some empty space along the top where I could add a few design elements. 

I used Kerri's Labels kit to list my 5 things, pulling up the labels in Photoshop, and adding my short journaling tidbits to them. I also used a few digital stamps, from the new Wild digital stamp set and the new Happiness Captured digital stamp set, sizing them to fit within my labels. Once I printed the labels out, I trimmed them down and added them to both sides of the spread. 

I stamped my solid "5" in navy blue ink, and stamped the outline in black. I love the look of the outline being slightly offset, so it's not perfectly lined up on top of the solid number. I fussy cut my "5" out and adhered it along the top of my second page. I used the Chicago alpha stamps to stamp "things" using an olive green ink, and stamped the "thankful" above it using the Thankful stamp set. I finished the top part of the page by adding a few stamped ink blotches using the Inked stamp set. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Christmas Gift Giving

 

Hey everyone! We've been doing a little early Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrating over at Kerri Bradford Studio this week, and the festivities will continue throughout the month. We're focusing on gift giving, sharing creative ideas using Kerri's new stamps, along with her other fabulous products.

 

 

When I think of handmade gift packaging, I think of tiny little packages - gift boxes, little treat bags, and envelopes. We don't exchange too many gifts in my family, but I do find myself gifting gift cards to quite a few people, and these small packages make gifting gift cards so much more fun. 

 

 

Kerri has so many awesome cut files for boxes, bags, and envelopes. I started by picking out 3 designs to focus on - Envelope: Tabbed, The Paper Bag, and Gift Box [Square] - and used my Silhouette to die cut each design from patterned paper.

 

 

Before I assembled them, I used Kerri's Inked stamp set to add some black ink splatters to my envelope and paper bag. Next, I assembled my little trio of packages. These are all so easy to assemble - just a few folds and a little bit of adhesive. 

 

 

I have several sheets of labels that I've printed using the Label kit, so I pulled out the black labels and added the "to you from me" phrase to several labels using the Looks Like Christmas stamp set.

 

 

I also pulled out some older vellum metal rimmed tags from my stash, and added a stamped sentiment/image to three tags - using the Looks Like Christmas stamp set and the Peace On earth stamp set - picking out sizes that would work on my packages. 

 

 

I added a stamped vellum tag to each package, along with a stamped label. I found some older Christmas themed embellishments - metal tags and a velvety leaf - and used them to add a little something extra to each package. 

 

 

 

Make sure to stop by Kerri's blog, and check out her October stamp release. It's a good one! The design team, along with some talented special guests, are sharing projects this week and into the month - and you don't want to miss all of the gorgeous projects they've created ;)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio + Color Cast: My Story TN Album

 

Hey everyone! I was so excited to hear that the Kerri Bradford Studio design team would be teaming up with the Color Cast design team, and I couldn't wait to play with some of their awesome products. Both teams are sharing projects all week long, and my completed project was up on Kerri's blog yesterday.

 

One of the items that I picked out was the gorgeous wood veneer "My Story" album cover. I tossed around a few ideas for what kind of album I wanted to create, while browsing thru Kerri's Travelers Templates kits.

 

 

I knew I wanted to include a collection of little stories in this album, so I looked for templates that had room for lots of journaling. When I came across a template in the Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit that had room for a single photo, a good space for journaling, and had the option to add the months along the top, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

 

 

It's been almost a year since we sold our house and moved into a smaller home, along with closing up my home daycare business and starting a new job outside the home. There's been a lot of emotions along the way, as we all adjust to these changes and how they trickle into big and little parts of our lives.

 

 

I wanted to focus on a few of those changes/emotions that I personally have dealt with over the last 12 months. I went thru my photos for each month, picking out a single photo for each month that could tell a story. 

 

 

I started by creating all of my photo/journaling pages, using the Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit. I added my photos, selected the correlating month, and typed up my journaling before printing all of them out on photo paper. 

 

 

Next, I picked out a few patterned papers to pair up with white cardstock to create the second half of my pages. I die cut several rose clusters from white cardstock, using Kerri's Roses kit, as I thought they would tie in nicely with the wood veneer album cover. I adhered these die cut roses to several of the pages, tucking them under the top of the patterned papers.

 

 

I laid out all of my pages in order, so that I could work on embellishing them all at the same time. I've always been a fan of the acrylic pieces from Color Cast, and had picked out the "view from here" piece and the "this feeling" piece, and luckily, they worked within the theme of this album perfectly.

 

 

I started with those 2 pieces, as they went to specific photos/stories. I love the wood veneer frames, as they're super thin (and I love that they have adhesive on them!), and picked out which pages I wanted those on next.

 

 

The ginormous acrylic stars are awesome, and I added those to several pages, adhering them to white shipping tags. 

 

 

My last step was to add some stamped phrases to several of the pages, using Kerri's stamps - Gather Together, Thankful, One Fine Day, Long Story Short, Oh Yeah (no longer available). 

 

 

I gathered several of her stamp sets, and searched for words/phrases that tied in with my stories, adding them to the centers of the wood veneer frames, as well as stamping them onto the black labels that I printed out using Kerri's Label kit. 

 

 

The last step was to assemble the album. I adhered my photo pages to the backsides of the patterned paper/cardstock pages, making sure they all fell in the right order. I punched holes along the left edge of each page, to line up with the holes on the wood veneer album cover. I used metal rings to hold it all together - they're a little bigger than I need, but the only other ones I had on hand were too small. 

 

 

I love how this album came together, and love that I took the time to document some of the feelings and changes that I've gone thru over the last year. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: You Can Count On Me Cards

 

I have a few new cards up at Kerri Bradford Studio this week. I just love the large number cluster in the new A Numbered Account stamp set, and how it can work for so many card sentiments. For these two simple cards, I paired it up with the "you can count on me" from the same stamp set.

 

 

I stamped the number cluster onto white cardstock using black ink, trimmed it into a block, and distressed the edges using an edge scraper. I also stamped the number cluster on a scrap piece of cardstock and trimmed around the edges of the stamped image. I laid it over the top of the stamped image on my card, and used it as a mask when it came time to stamp my ink splatters, using the awesome Inked stamp set.

 

I love to use my misting sprays, but you just never know where those sprays are going to go. Lol. I love that with the Inked stamps, you have full control over where you put your ink splatters. 

 

 

I used Kerri's Label kit to print out the black labels, and stamped my sentiment onto the one that fit the best size-wise. After assembling my patterned papers (all from the Crafty Girl collection from Simple Stories) on the base of the card, I adhered my number cluster block using dimensional adhesive and adhered my sentiment label below. 

 

I think I'll use this same design to create a handful of birthday cards next :)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: The Countdown Is On

 

Hey everyone! I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio this week. I know that Travelers Notebooks have been all the rage for quite a while now, but I have yet to figure out how to work them into the way that I document. So when I saw the Life Crafted albums from Citrus Twist, I knew it would be the perfect solution for me. I can create the smaller TN sized pages/spreads as individual pages - and have the freedom to put them in small albums and move them around as needed. 

 

 

For my first ever TN sized spread, I pulled together a few photos that I've taken before heading into work. I thought they would work for the small story that came to mind when I saw the "the countdown is on" stamp in Kerri's new A Numbered Account stamp set. I get myself very fixated on time, especially on days that I work. How much time I have to do this, how much time I have to do that, how much time before I have to leave for work, and how much I want to get done in the time I have before I leave, etc, etc. 

 

 

I arranged several photos in a collage using a template from the Travelers Templates: Wander kit, and typed in my journaling before printing the page out. The template had a little phrase above the journaling, which I took out before printing. In it's place, I stamped the "the countdown is on" onto a piece of cardstock, trimmed it down, and adhered it above my journaling. 

 

 

On the opposite page, I stamped the large number cluster (from the A Numbered Account stamp set) along the top of the page, and also stamped it on a scrap piece of cardstock. I trimmed around the stamped image on the scrap paper, and used it as a mask when it came time to stamp my ink splatters, using the awesome Inked stamp set. I love how easy the smaller sized spreads are to put together, and can't wait to create more of them.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Everyday Cards

Hey everyone! I had a new set of cards up at Kerri Bradford Studio last week, and wanted to share them here with you all. I'm still working on upping my card stash these days, as I love having cards on hand for any and all occasions. When I first saw Kerri's Label kit, I knew all of those little labels would be awesome for holding my stamped sentiments for cards. 

I'm definitely a simple card maker, and usually aim to keep my cards fairly flat for easy mailing. While my design is basic - a piece of patterned paper on top, a stamped background pattern on the bottom, and a label holding a stamped sentiment in the middle - it's one that is easy to duplicate and mass produce, which is something I love to do when making cards. 

I printed the sheet of the navy labels, and stamped three different sentiments using the Happy Mail #1 and Happy Mail #2 stamp sets in black ink before trimming them apart.

I then picked out a few patterned papers that coordinated with the navy and added them to the tops of my card bases. All three of my patterned papers are from the Turn The Page collection by Paige Evans, for Pink Paislee.

I used Kerri's new Spot On background stamp for the bottom part of my cards, stamping it in coordinating colors onto white textured cardstock, which I then cut down and adhered to my card bases. 

I actually meant to use two of Kerri's other background stamps, but once I got stamping with the dots, I totally forgot and stamped all of them with the same background stamp. Lol.

I think this would be the perfect design to mass produce, and have sentiments for all different occasions. I can picture turning them into sets to give as gifts too. Hmmmm. Might just have to do that ;)

Kerri Bradford Studio: One More Cuddle

 

Hey everyone! I've got a new 6x8" spread up at Kerri Bradford Studio. As soon as I saw Kerri's new Hey Kiddo stamp set, I knew that it would be perfect for so many photos and stories that I still have to document. Late last year, I closed up my home daycare business after 17 years. While my daycare kiddos have moved on and are spending their days with new daycare providers and new friends, I still have some stories that I want to get down from my time with them. 

 

But first up, I decided to get some current feelings down on a page, about how much I miss them. In all honesty, I don't miss the job itself. But I most definitely miss those cute little humans! I used the digital Hey Kiddo stamp set to create a 6x8" spread digitally in Photoshop and then printed it out to add into my album. 

 

 

I used an enlarged 6x8" photo for the left side of the spread, picking out one of my favorite photos that sums up the cuddles that I miss from all of those kiddos. I used the digital "cuddle" stamp for my title, along with the heart stamp, changing them both to white and adding a drop shadow to help them stand out a little more. I also lowered the opacity on the heart to make it a bit more subtle, as to not distract from the title. 

 

 

I created a large "journaling card" for the right side of my spread, starting with Kerri's Journaling Template, which I cropped to a 6x8" size. I added a black and white diagonal stripe border across the top, using the Simple Staples kit. Then I got to work on my journaling, keeping in mind some of the Hey Kiddos digital stamp words/phrases that I wanted to work into my journaling.

 

 

I love how easy it is to tweak digital elements to fit your needs - like how I added an extra "s" to the "cutest human ever" phrase to have it read "cutest humans ever" (because I watched a lot of little humans!). 

 

 

I changed the colors on my digital stamps so that the words would stand out more, pulling the green and burgundy from my photo.

 

 

Once I had everything done to my liking, I printed the left page (my enlarged photo) on photo paper, and the right page (my journaling) on textured cardstock. Once trimmed, I simply slipped them into my 6x8" album. So happy to have documented some current feelings that have been on my mind!