I've Got a New Blog!

Well friends, I finally did it. I made the move to WordPress, after talking about doing it for over a year now. I hope you'll come with me to the new A Love Affair With Paper.  My first post is up - & I can't wait wait for you to join me. And don't forget to change your RSS feed/blog reader.

See you at the new blog!

Hello July

Hi friends. So it's been a bit since I last posted. I've been super busy with my day job & then coming home to work on my side hustle. Exciting news on that front - I just signed on a third client a week and half ago! Slowly but surely, I'm making my dream of becoming self-employed a reality. Maybe not as fast as I want. I had several really close calls with thinking I was going to be able to give my two weeks notice & then the opportunities fell through at the last minute. But, that just means that something better is on the way, right?

So this month is all about moving forward while staying positive. I also realize that I've only been at this for 3 months, which is really a short amount of time when you think about it. People work years in The After Five Club. I'm grateful for being on the cusp of leaving my job. So if you know of anyone who needs a rock star virtual assistant, send them my way. Some of my skills include: writing blog posts/other documents, social media management, and brand building.  

I have more exciting news to share. I have a WordPress site almost all ready to go. I just have to tweak a few things & then I'll be ready to go live. I was fortunate to connect with Crissy, the founder/creator/superstar of Indie Biz Chicks.com and she completely set me up for a blog makeover. Many many thanks to her.

July you are on notice - I'm kicking ass & taking names (I'm not even sure what that means but I like it).

Time Flies as You Get Older & Handmade Cards

5 more months left to the year...that doesn't even seem possible.  I read an explanation for why time passes more quickly as an adult than when you're a child and I can't remember the specifics exactly, but it had to do with memories. When you're young, you experience all these first-time events (first kiss, first job, first child) which make lasting impressions. As we get older, we repeat these events & so the memories become less unique and less memorable.

Speaking of getting older...Monday, July 1st is my 37th birthday. Thank goodness I've been recently told I looked in my late 20s. Lol. We're celebrating by going to Ikea. I've never been before even though it's been here for 6 years now. So to say I'm excited would be an understatement. July is always a good month, birthday aside. My 3rd year blogiversary is on the 7th and M & I are coming up on our 11th Anniversary. So there's a lot of celebrating going on in the Nelson household.

Also wanted to share two of my most recent handmade cards. One for Father's Day & one for a friend who recently graduated from grad school.

I think I've said this before, but I have a hard
time making cards for the men in my life. Even
though this was simple, it took me a long time
because I had trouble picking out male
appropriate colors. 

I dipped a paintbrush in my mist bottle (instead of
spraying it) & painted it on. Then I used an embossing
pen to write out both sentiments & added different
embossing powders.

This is the graduation card. I used my go-to craft
supply of choice - washi. Also, Heidi Swapp banners,
a cute Studio Calico wood veneer, which I colored pink
 & a stamp.

I misted over some chipboard alpha stickers just
on the bottom portion of the card.

 Have a wonderful weekend friends & thanks as always for reading.

Creative Project: Altered Journal Journal Round Robin 2013

I wanted to share the latest spreads I made for the altered journal round robin. We're on the last round now so there will only be one more update after this.

1st spread. 

Have to admit that I wasn't feeling this & I'm still
not. The washi tape background was supposed to
be something else that didn't work out.

I like this side much better but I wish
that the other side wasn't so colorful and busy. 

2nd spread. I used this Color Shine mist & a Studio
Calico mask for the background.

Then I added a quote card, washi &
chipboard embellishments. 

This weekend we'll be celebrating Father's Day by taking my Dad out for breakfast because we were busy last weekend with a work event for M. And hopefully going to see either Star Trek or Man of Steel too. What are your plans? 

Right Now

Around here lately:

Having visitors. M's Uncle Jake stayed with us last week. He makes an annual motorcycle trip across the country & we've been lucky enough to have him visit 3 times so far.

And this guy. We think he lives right by our garage. He was sunbathing when we pulled up to our house & he was kind enough to stay still so I could take pics. But as soon as I opened my car door to get a little closer, he took off.

 Getting back into my office this week to create. Working on altered journal spreads for the round robin I'm participating in.

 Playing with mists and masks for this altered journal spread.  And making cards in the pic below.

Receiving my first Quarterly Co. box from No More Dirty Looks. This service is pretty cool. You can pick from a wide variety of contributors like Chris Guillebeau to Pharrell Williams and once a quarter the company sends you physical items that the contributor picked out. 

So one of the items in my package was this RGB nail polish, called Too Red. At first, I was a
little hesitant. I do not wear bright colors. I'm a dark polish girl & anything that starts with too and ends with a bright color makes me cringe. But I thought a change was in order, so here it is. I'm still adjusting. You can't tell in this pic but it's a tomato-y red. And did I mention that it's really bright?

What have you been up too these days?

Creative Project: Altered Journal Round Robin 2013

Here are the latest 2 spreads I completed for my altered journal round robin. Hard to believe that we only have 2 more rounds left. And harder to believe yet, is that we're almost to the halfway point of the year.

I've rediscovered my love of washi tape. These
spreads are very simple. 

I used washi, mists, acrylic paint, patterned paper,
a sticker & some chipboard embellishments

For this spread I used washi, mists, water colors, die cuts,
chipboard embellishments, stickers & the cutest
min wooden birds ever. 

I'm not usually a fan of pink, but something about
the color screams spring & summer to me. And
I just felt drawn to use it. 

Any weekend plans? M's Uncle will be visiting. He rides his motorcycle across the U.S. & we're his first stop on this year's journey. So we're looking forward to eating good food, having a belated birthday celebration for M with my family & of course relaxing. Have a wonderful weekend & thanks for stopping by.

Handmade Cards

Just wanted to pop in and share two cards I made. One for Mother's Day & the other for M's birthday.

Used 2 different washi tapes for the strips. The
x's, o's & hearts are a roller stamp. 

Used a pencil eraser for the yellow dots & made
the teal color from mixing acrylic paints.

Used some Mr. Huey mist in the background,
washi tape and stickers.

We celebrated M's 37th this past weekend by watching movies & eating good food. The Nelson's roll like that ;) The movies of note were Life of Pi, Cloud Atlas and Upstream Color. Upstream Color was really really good. It's classified as science fiction but if that's not your thing, trust me, it's more of a very unique, beautiful, yet slightly disturbing love story. Be forewarned if you are an animal lover that there are a few tough scenes.

Have any good movie recommendations to share?

Right Now

Taken in our driveway this morning on my
way to work

Around here lately:

• Trying to find a sense of balance between my day job & my virtual assistant business. Not sure that balance even exists. At least not in my world. But that doesn't meant I know what else to call it or that I don't strive for some shape or form of it. 
• Wanting to create more but choosing shadow comforts instead (credit to Jen Louden for that term). Speaking of which, here's a card I made for my parent's 40th anniversary that I never shared:

• Looking forward to seeing Sheryl WuDunn & America Ferrera tomorrow night. Even better, going with a good friend & getting to catch up. 
• Loving my boys

Do you believe balance can be achieved? 

Creative Project: Altered Journal Round Robin 2013

Today, I wanted to share my most recent altered journal spreads for the round robin I'm participating in.

1st spread

I used enamel dots, washi, Mister Huey's mists,
stickers, a Heidi Swapp tag sprayed with
her color shine & some patterned paper

For this page, I used 2 different patterned papers,
washi, some stickers and a die cut

2nd spread

This one used washi, paper, a Heidi Swapp
tag, several chip board stickers and a die cut

More patterned paper, the same washi I
used above, a Heidi Swapp frame misted with
her color shine & a bunch of die cuts & tags
layered over one another

What projects are you working on?

Creative Project: Project Life 2013

For those of you who have been following my blog for a bit, you know that I participated in Project Life last year & that it was my first time. I became hooked and really LOVE this project. Though the time commitment is not for the faint of heart. This year I've decided to change quite a few things I did in the past in order to make it more manageable for me.

First, I've switched up the size of the album I'm using from a 12x12 format to a Studio Calico Handbook, which is 8.75x9.75. I find this smaller style to be much easier & preferable. Second, I've let go of the weekly format to documenting monthly instead. More than I'd like to admit, I found myself adding pics or ephemera for the sake of it in order to fill the slots. Going by month, means I'm only adding the stories that truly mean something.

Here are my 2013 title page and January's title page. I'm a little behind this year already, and with my new business venture (which you can read about here), I'm finding less time for creating. But that's a post for a different day. I am still enthusiastic about Project Life & am collecting my stories & ephemera diligently. I think that the new changes I'm implementing this year will really help out with playing catch-up.

Title page

January title page - that pic is
from a post card I received with my
annual OLW egg purchase. 

Used gold embossing powder on the
bottom stamp

This is the album. I'm not sure how I'm going
to embellish it. I was thinking of using
chalkboard spray paint for cover.

Thanks for stopping by!