5 Random Things

I love lists. Lists help keep me sane when life gets crazy. I love them even more when they are just for fun.

My five random things are little parts of my life right now, where I am, who I am, and who I would like to be. I am happy to share my list with you.

1. I like bluegrass cover songs.
Correction, I LOVE them. My current favorite is "Picking on Modest Mouse". I cannot stop listening to the picking on series. It reminds me of being young and the guitars coming out and sing alongs happening. I wish I played guitar, or could sing. Luckily, I can listen to picking on.

2. I'm going back to college.
My life has rewound to a few moons ago. I am working blocks from where I was, accepted to where I went, and stressing over financial aid. It is eerily similar, familiar, and odd. 

3. I usually feel like a hot mess.
Is that normal? I feel like its not. Adulting is something I have not really figured out although the clock keeps ticking. Were all the adults in my life faking it? I wonder if the myth of the new feminist is part of it. You can't have it all. You can have parts of it all, but eventually you have to lower your standards, or pay for someone to pick up some of the slack. And I don't like housework, so I find other things to fill time (see #2).

4. I love Tacoma.
When I interviewed for my program the interviewer asked about my earlier college, and stated "Well you haven't gone far". I haven't. I grew up in the south, so I have lived other places. However, I stayed close. It is gorgeous here. Drive 2 hours and you are in the mountains, or at the ocean. A win either way. If I thought leaving would help me find myself, I might be more interested, but now, I am here.

5. I want a Jeep to play in.
Mountains (see #4). 

SWAT challenges you to try your hand at 5 random things. We all took a different take. Take a look, and link up for a great prize!

SWAT! Drill 25 Black and White +1

It is time for another SWAT challenge. This time, use black and white and one other color. I chose kraft as my color. Is kraft a color? I'm not sure, but brown is, and I picked the soft brown of kraft and bags as my bonus color. Luckily, It is also the color of cork, which made for some fun on this layout.

 I created this little plaque as an embellishment piece. I loved the idea of compass as the title for this layout, since it is an awesome photo of us done by Michelle Buck Photography. She really caught some awesome moments, and this one reminds me of how our hearts are drawn together.

To create the embellishment, I used a Fancy Pants cork embellishment and sketched my design in pencil. I used a Papermate Flair pen to darken the lines once I liked the design. I used Authentique Paper, MME Kraft Funday, and found ephemera. To give the layout dimension, I fussy cut the flowers and added some pop foam layers.

Of course, we want to see your go at this challenge, so share with us at SWAT!
~Venetia

SWAT Drill 20

It is time for another SWAT Drill! This time, we have a sketch with a twist, feathers!

For my project, I chose a picture from my daughters' end of year celebration at school. They did a world traveler theme with Australia, France, and Rio! We got to pet a wallaby, play with French fashions, and make Carnivale masks!

Of course, my youngest had to have the pinkest, featheriest mask of them all. For this layout, I wanted to mirror her love of the feathers. I hand-made the title, pink princess, which is my daughter's self-proclaimed title.



The sketch was perfect for this project. As always, we want to see your take on the challenge. Make a project using the sketch and feathers, and link up to us at SWAT!

So shake your tailfeather, and share to enter to win the BoBunny prize this month.

~Venetia

Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop!! 7 Gypsies Vintage ATCs

I am so excited to be a part of the Scrapbook Steals blog hop for 7 Gypsies ATC Vintage ATC scrapbook supplies. These were so much fun, and I am really excited about the cards I was able to make with these products. You should be visiting me as the first stop after the Scrapbook Steals Blog.

I absolutely love making Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). I find they are a great way to try new techniques and to share with other artists.

For this card, I started with the 7 Gypsies Vintage ATC as a base with a touch of inking, and added my sentiment, some May Arts ribbon, and a die cut flower that I embellished with some Smooch.

I used another 7 Gypsies Vintage ATC for the base of this card. I stamped on the floral image, and colored it with Prismacolor colored pencils, then I added some Little B washi, a Basic Grey Brad, and finally altered a Studio Calico wood veener to add some dimension to the card. 




Chalkboard style elements are a HUGE trend, and when I saw the black 7 Gypsies Tab Divider in black, I had to try my own take at the trend. The paper is perfect for a chalkboard feel, and a white Prismacolor pencil worked perfectly for the chalk look. I varied the pressure to allow the grain of the tab divider to show through. I hand drew this letter, but if you aren't sure about drawing, find a font you like, print it out, heavily pencil the back, place it over the tab divider, and then trace over the printout. Finally, use a white pencil or pen to trace over the image.

The 7 Gypsies Vintage folders are perfect for making a gift card holder. Recently, our Starbucks added a Clover machine, and they have reserve coffee to brew. I used a card from the reserve coffee for the image, used Smooch to alter the folder, and embellished with ribbon, rhinestones, and flowers. Inside, you can see a coffee card peeking out, waiting for the perfect coffee break.



I was surprised at the versatility of the products. There are so many uses: ATCs, gift card holders, journaling tags, mini albums, recipe albums, and more. Don't forget to comment, so you are entered into the Scrapbook Steals gift card giveaway, and please follow me if you found some inspiration.

Thanks for visiting. Next, you get to visit Lisa and see her amazing work!

In case you get lost here is today's lineup:

Me ---->Venetia Holbrook - http://www.atomicvenetia.blogspot.com/

 

Lisa Kitzke - www.chatnscrap.blogspot.com

Michelle Cunningham - http://currentcreekdesign.blogspot.com/

Abbey Colbert - http://theothersink.blogspot.com

Cristine Redmond - http://onescrappynovice.blogspot.com

Staci Jones - http://scrapbookingischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com/

 

Happy Hopping

~Venetia

 

Scrapbook Steals Birthday Blog Hop!

Happy Birthday Scrapbook Steals! I am so happy to be a part of your birthday blog hop!
You should be visiting from my wonderful friend Cristine!

I'm happy to take a turn on all four birthday challenges!

Challenge #1 - happy 4th birthday – use 4 items
Use four items and ONLY four items for your project.

My four items are:
Washi
Paper
Ink (pads and mist)
Pen

I chose to make a layout celebrating my sweet love, Gregory. He is a reluctant photography subject, but he has a sweet smile that melts my heart. The journaling is hidden in the folder.



Challenge #2 – 2009
Since we launched in 2009, do a project remembering your favorite part of the year.

2009 was the year I married my husband, and we became our unique little blended family. Later that year, my youngest was born. For my family, 2009 was a big deal. I've wanted a canvas celebrating our year, but never made one. Luckily, this challenge was the perfect motivation. I want to frame this black and hang it.



Challenge #3 – Favorite Vendor
Choose your favorite scrapbookSTEALS.com vendor and create a project using their products.

It's not a surprise that my favorite Scrapbook Steals vendor is Authentique, and their steals with Scrapbook Steals have been nothing less than amazing! They have offered many mega packs that I have stolen. This layout uses papers from several of those steals, highlighting the beauty of many Authentique lines. Bridget, my youngest, put stickers on her dad and I. I thought the picture was too cute not to scrap. I adore playing with her, and our matching stickers were fun to model in a photo.


Challenge #4 – Washi Fever
Create a project using everyone's newest obsession, washi tape. On this project you must use 4 different tapes (since we are celebrating our 4th birthday).

I chose to do a mixed-media plaque for my washi project. "Love" is a word that came to mind often when working on a project for Scrapbook Steals! I used washi as part of this project, and the four types are zebra, red print, turquoise print, and turquoise stripe.  I used washi to finish the edges of this plaque, and it finished this project nicely.

 

 

Of course, there are prizes! Create your take on any or all of the four challenges, and link up your projects to Scrapbook Steals by Wendesday at Midnight Mountain Time. Also, follow my blog and comment on this post, and you will be entered to win a mystery 4 pack grab bag! Comments posted before Wednesday at Midnight Mountain Time will be entered to win!

 Next, you get to visit my extremely talented friend, Cyndee!

Happy Birthday Scrapbook Steals!
~Venetia


In case you are lost, here is the whole line up!

Cathy Caines:   www.inthecatcave.com.

Cristine Redmond: http://onescrappynovice.blogspot.com

Venetia Holbrook:  www.atomicvenetia.blogspot.com

Cyndee Kawa:  http://scrappydaylily.blogspot.com/

Heather Conklin: http://goldiecar.blogspot.com/

Van Nguyen: http://likethecar.blogspot.com

Staci Jones: http://scrapbookingischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com/

Charissa Miller: http://www.akihasmommascraps.com

Brenda Smith: http://theimperfectscrapper.blogspot.com

Erin Colby: http://oursliceofcheese.blogspot.com                                

Erica Bass: http://stampingstarlette.blogspot.com

Kristy Lee: http://lifescrapped.blogspot.com/

Kiwi Lane Designs- May Blog Hop!!

Hooray! Hooray! It's the third of May, which means it is time for the Kiwi Lane Blog Hop! I am lucky enough to be the first hop after the Kiwi Lane Blog. If you are new here, welcome! I'm Venetia, and I make stuff!

I got to play with the Brackets Designer Template for my go at the blog hop, and I am so excited to share my scrapbooking ideas with you.

The Brackets Designer templates are a great multi-use tool. I am pretty particular about my supplies, I like to be able to get a lot of use out of tools. For this blog hop I created a layout, a mini-album, and a Mixed-Media Canvas using the Brackets. I can also see using them in the future as misting masks, card templates, and for creating custom gift bags.

For the layout, I used the Bracket and Scallops designer templates. Using the Kiwi Lane templates helped to tie together these papers from different collections into a fun layout celebrating my oldest and her missing front tooth. I especially like how the layering adds dimension to the layout.

For my youngest, I decided to make a mini. I used all three brackets templates to design the mini.

I traced the templates on plain chipboard and added straight lines to the middle templates to elongate them so they would fit a picture.

Then, I cut the chipboard, and covered it using papers in my daughter's favorite colors and patterns.




For the embellishments, I made sure that I had a ton of flowers, sparkles, and ribbon. My youngest loves frilly, sparkly things, and using the templates was the perfect way to make a mini fit for my little princess.




This mini is her new favorite book. She loves looking at her pictures and telling me what she is doing in each.









Finally, I integrated brackets into art journaling, and created an art journaling canvas using the bracket and scallops templates. The templates definitely added great touches to the final project, I love how they worked for the brackets around the heart.

 

Kiwi Lane is giving away a $25 Gift Certificate for the Kiwi Lane Shop to a random commenter from one of the participating blogs. I am adding to the fun and giving away a different $25 Kiwi Lane gift card to a random follower of my blog!  So if you aren't a follower now, join the fun so you can be entered by using the Google Connect or Networked blogs widgets.

 

Next, I am so incredibly happy to send you off to the wonderfully talented Heather Conklin. I love her dearly, and she is amazingly talented. All the stops have really done amazing things for the Kiwi Lane Hop, so have fun hopping!

 

 

Kiwi Lane Blog Hop Lineup--------

 



Kiwi Lane

 You are here ----->Venetia Holbrook www.atomicvenetia.blogspot.com

Heather Conklin http://goldiecar.blogspot.com
Jana Eubank http://www.janaeubank.wordpress.com
Jen McDermott http://wonkywares.blogspot.com
Jennifer Budge: http://www.thingsthaticreate.wordpress.com
Catherine Povec www.tybearsmom.blogspot.com
Gail Owens www.glowormdesigns.blogspot.com
Erin Schultz www.trailofscraps.blogspot.com
Jenn Nicholes http://craftingmoments.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

Finished Sketch- Just Me

Journaling... "One of the very hardest things to learn in life is to love yourself without letting it go to your head." I wanted to document where I am in life for my girls, but get down to the real essence of where I am at. Focusing on what brings me joy has made me rethink of how I perceive myself. Self-confidence is a fine line. Not enough, and you dwell in self-hatred, too much, and you become self-involved, self-righteous, and self-centered. Learning to accept my flaws, and try to improve, as well as embracing my strengths has been a good process for me.

With this layout, I finished the sketch I started yesterday. As I figured, the way I chose to embellish changed the sketch quite a bit. I am happy that I picked a picture of myself, because I so rarely do that. The photo is from a hot day last summer when I was playing around with the phone. The color is off, but not filtered. I truly captured a moment of my life in July of last summer. I tried to incorporate things that represent me, hence the hand drawn title, flowers, bold title, and use of blacks and greys.

Here is the sketch in case you missed it yesterday.

Try documenting your own found truth. Have fun with it.

~Venetia

Scrapbook Sketch- trying a new approach

I have mentioned that I usually start with my pictures or paper, and not a sketch, unless I am doing a challenge. This week, I am trying to start from my own sketch. I was inspired by a packaging design for this sketch, so I adapted it a little, and will see what happens.

So far, this has been a fun process, especially because the sketch is pretty plain, so it is wide open to interpretation. I hope to share the finished layout with you soon!

 

What is your usual process? Do you ever switch it up?

 

~Venetia

Scrapbook Sketch- Face

 It is always fun to see what a layout looks like in a sketch. Usually, when I do mine, I do the layout first, and draw the sketch after. Soon, I am going to try the opposite, and see what happens, because I always have to mix it up.

Here is the sketch from the layout I shared earlier in the week. I thought you might like to have something to play with over the weekend, especially those of you looking for winter to finally pack it's bags and leave!

~Venetia

Scrapbook Sketches From March

Here are all of March's Sketches in one place:

Scrapbook Steals Mid Week Mojo- Melodee's first back!!

I used to play along with the Mid-Week Mojos at Scrapbook Steals.com religiously. Then, I decided to start doing my own thing. Well, Melodee is a dear friend, and I can't help but play along, because I adore her, and she is extremely talented. Here is my interpretation of this week's sketch:

My anniversary was last week, 4 whole years. Greg and I have had a rough go of stuff lately, and it just reminds me how much I adore him. Despite everything, we've kept our humor, our love, and the fun in our relationship. That is precious to me. I wanted to scrap a happy memory of ours, and commemorate this anniversary. And they said it wouldn't last... well they probably said way worse than that. In any case, happy anniversary love.

Here is the sketch from scrabooksteals.com.

~Venetia

Scrapbook Layout- Budgie

My usual starting point for a layout is the pictures. Sometimes, it is the paper. This time, I chose to start with a pile left over from the other projects I had been working on recently.  I've been seeing a lot of layouts using stacked banners, and I thought that I might try that, but didn't want to work from a sketch, so I just played. 

I read an article this week that said over planning kills creativity. It specifically mentioned how creating long lists of items to blog or create kills spontaneity that can bring amazing work by allowing inspiration to lead you. I decided to just let the ideas floating around take shape and see what happened.
My Process:
I started by cutting the banner pieces, and arranging on the page.  I added the black to anchor the circle, and the bottom banner to balance the circle. Then, I decided on my photo, and because it was black and white, I decided to matte it with a pink paper.  I decided the title needed to be black to balance the circle. When it came time to journal, I decided to use the black circle, and mimic the print. I used gesso to create a writing surface, and a black pen to journal. Finally, I faux stitched my edges, and misted the layout.

 

Once it was finished, I was a surprised at how much I liked it.  I was also surprised at how some of the art journaling I've done recently has infused into my layout.  So try approaching your scrapbooking from a different beginning point.  It doesn't matter how you change your approach, just try starting somewhere new.

Fun- Scrapbook Sketch

My oldest is a rough and tumble girl, and I loved how this photo caught her intensity.  She adores being outside. She climbs, runs, and gets dirty. She’s always been this way.  She has so much energy, and she brings so much joy to anything she does. She definitely brings the sunshine into the many, many gray days we have in the Pacific Northwest.

With this layout, I wanted to capture the feel of my oldest.  I wanted it to be happy, and busy, and bright. Authentique is one of my favorite paper lines, and I love the teals and yellows in the papers.

I used a few circle embellishments to capture the feel of the bubbles, and if I can put a flower and button on something, it’s happening.

I have shared the sketch with you, Happy Monday!

~Venetia

Scrapbook Sketch- Glam

Sketch after the jump.

My youngest has taken to getting into my makeup. Her excuse is always that she's playing house and she's the Mommy, and she needs to be beautiful like Mommy. First, this kid knows how to work it, so I have to respect that. Second, I try to save the fights for the important stuff, so I let her be "beautiful".

Happy-Scrapbook Sketch

Keep reading! The layout sketch is after the jump.

 I don't usually work with all my papers from one collection. I like to mix and match from my stash. This layout is unusual in that I only used Teresa Collins Vintage Finds. I love her designs because they are graphic and clean. For a long time, she used a lot of Pink, Black and White, which was also a big plus for me.

Layout- Call Me Maybe?

 

 My youngest is getting a lot of attention lately on my blog, yes? She and I are bonding more lately, and I have been enjoying it. She is a funny kid, and very rarely messes up words or sentences, until it comes to songs, and then, it's a whole different thing.  One of her latest misheard lyrics is from "Call Me Maybe". You know the song, it was inescapable in 2012. If you don't know the song, you live under a rock, or hate technology, in either case, we can't be friends. For the rest of us, we know the line as "So here's my number, so call me maybe." For Budge, it is:

"So here's my Mama, so call me maybe"

This does two things. It cracks me the heck up, and it irritates her dad, because he seems to think that having a 3 year old helping me get numbers is not appropriate. Fun sucker.

Apparently,  the image of my daughter asking random people to call her because they saw her Mom is not a universally hilarious concept, despite my arguments to the contrary. It's funny because I said it is doesn't hold up in my house as well as it should.

I made this layout to celebrate her, and that funny line she sings. I pulled out a bunch of paper from my stash, and decided I wanted to make it work together. This was the result. I am glad this turned out sort of fun and ecltectic, because it really caught the spirit of what I was trying to capture.

And the sketch- For you!

~Venetia

Valentine

Oh Yes! There's a sketch! Keep Reading!

My youngest is a Girly-girl. She adores pink and all things pretty. We call her the pink princess, and she lives up to it. I enjoy this because my oldest is not at all girly, so I know my youngest comes by it naturally, despite, not because of, her mother. Of course when Valentine's comes into play, the pinker the better. I decided to make her a beautiful Valentine for tomorrow.  Budge is so funny when she gets any sort of card or gift because she is always extremely positive and excited.

Layout- Silly

 Have you missed my layouts?  I haven’t forgotten my paper crafting hobby! I am just sharing everything including my drawing and painting now. This layout is of my sweet baby (I’m a BIG GIRL Mommy!). I caught a happy face on camera as she played out on the deck last summer. She is wearing a dress, which is very much her, as she requires dresses daily. It was just a great little moment captured from the summer, and I was excited to get to do a layout with my girly about some of her favorite summer things.

I used My Mind’s Eye for this layout, and there are Stella and Rose, So Sophie, Lime Twist, and Kaleidoscope, and Life Stories elements! Yes, I know Kaleidoscope is circa 2005ish? I adore the pink paper from that collection. I bought way too many sheets back in the day, and I pull it out for special occasions, like this layout.

 

I altered (colored in- but doesn't altered sound more sophisticated) the Life stories journaling box to tie it into the layout using Prismacolor pencils. I also inked the edges of the Kalediscope paper to tie it into the darker Stella and Rose floral.

 

Here is the sketch, in case you like the elements together. Let me know if you use it!

 

~Venetia