Oh, the love! The love of thrift stores, that is. It had been a while since I visited my favorite thrift store, but a big sign that read “50% off everything store-wide” was too much to resist. And I’m so glad I went! Look at the beauty I discovered way in the back. There she was…right next to a bent up file cabinet and a wide array of 80s workout videos. Can you believe it? Even more exciting was the price tag. $5.00! That’s right. I walked away with this baby for 2 bucks and 50 cents. My deal of the year. Like I said…love rekindled.

Welcome to your new home!

Did you see the big announcement? Creating Keepsakes has selected the 2010 Dream Team! The members? Well, here they are:

Cindy Tobey
Deena Wuest
Jen Jockisch
Kim Watson
Laura Vegas
Maggie Holmes
Sara Winnick
Susan Weinroth
Suzy Plantamura
Wendy Sue Anderson

I still find myself shocked and amazed to see my name hidden in that list! What an incredible honor it was to be invited to serve the 2010 term as a Creating Keepsakes Dream Team girl! Wow. Not only do I love the magazine (this, of course, goes without saying) but the ladies there are the absolute sweetest you’ll find. I’m really looking forward to working with them more closely this year as well as getting to know all the (majorly talented) dream team members. To learn more about them, make sure you check out the Q&A session on the Creating Keepsakes Blog. Fun stuff!

Honestly, I feel completely blessed and humbled to have been able to work with CK for the last 2 1/2 years. So many great opportunities. So many friendships made. So many wonderful memories captured. I’m really looking forward to another great year! Thanks, CK!

Every time our five-year-old son sees an infommercial on tv he exclaims, “WE NEED THAT!” Now, the commercial could be for anything from a brownie pan to a steamer. It doesn’t matter. He truly believes we need it. I’m not so enthralled with the infommerical. For me, it’s product packaging. Is it weird that I get excited over boxes? Hmm. Maybe. While I doubt I would ever buy something for what’s outside of the box rather than what’s inside, still I am addicted to the clever beauty of packaging. All I know is that there are some pretty awesome designers out there. And they supply us with some pretty cool design inspiration.

As I was cleaning out my scrap room the other night, I came across a book I received when I left home for college some…<cough cough>…years ago.  Just holding it in my hands brought back so many memories of starting out on my own and learning to find my way. To this day, Life’s Little Instruction Book by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. is still one of my favorite feel-good reads. Such a great collection of simple observations and wonderful reminders. From time to time, I’ll pop in and leave one of my favorites for you all. In celebration of finding my beloved book, here is the first quotation of many to come…

Think big thoughts, but relish small pleasures.

Just popping in to share some design goodness with you all. Found this baby on the web and just loved the structured randomness of it all. Hope it inspires you as much as it does me! Along with the cool mixed title and vertically sliced layout design…

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I love how the designer took the objects out of their original context and used them to convey a completely different  message. So clever. Yes? What a great concept to use in our scrapbooks! This happens to be the inspiration piece I selected for the Simply Inspired Contest over at Designer Digitals so feel free to come play along!

Ah, yes. And don’t drink and drive.

Did you hear?!? The wonderfully brilliant, creative and hilarious Cathy Zielske is now selling digital templates! Woo hoo! No offense, my friend, but it’s about time! lol. We’ve been waiting a long time for this one. And you can bet I was the first one in the download line.

I remember the day I first saw one of her layouts in a magazine. It was as if a light bulb went off in my head and it completely changed the way I viewed scrapbooking. Over the years, her clean and simple style as well as her scrapbooking philosophy has influenced me beyond words.

New CZ Template

So in her honor, here’s a layout I created with her Layered Template No. 2 which will be in the store this weekend.

If you’re a CZ stalker…er…fan (like me), be sure to check out her collection of digital templates at Designer Digitals!

Seeing You
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS2
Template: Layered Template No. 2 by Cathy Zielske
Paper: Miranda Paper Pack by Michelle Martin
Brushes: Miranda Brushes and Stamps by Michelle Martin
Font: Avant Garde

Inspiration. It comes from anywhere and everywhere. You can be inspired by something as simple as a color scheme, something as small as a flower, or something as artistic as the way the light falls on a certain object. Lots of times inspiration can be found in the everyday… those little bits and pieces of our lives that are so easily passed over. Then there are those times when you see something so in-your-face bold, so cleverly cool that it can’t be ignored even if you tried. Enter :

the completely-cool & oh-so-clever billboard

Brilliant and wittingly funny at the same time. It makes me wonder what clever and creative mind came up with this concept. (And it makes me wish I could borrow his/her brain for a day). So how does this relate to scrapbooking? Good question. To be honest I’m not entirely sure. But I love it! It inspires me! It makes me want to drop what I’m doing and scrap! And to me, that’s what it’s all about. Be sure to check out the Simply Inspired Contest over at Designer Digitals this week! Create a layout based on this inspiration and you could win a $10 gift certificate to the store!

Hope you find this as inspiring as I do! In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be posting more random design pieces I find inspiring, cool or just plain funny.

Thanks for stopping by! Please pardon my dust as I’m still laying the foundation here. Feel free to check back in a few days! I can’t guarantee that anything you’ll read here will forever change your life, but you’ll get your fill of miscellaneous ramblings with a side of some pretty cool scrapbook inspiration.