I {heart} Amy Tangerine!

On the eve of my last day as an attorney and just a week before our big cross country move in 2011, I emailed Amy Tan (of Amy Tangerine).  I was directionless, scared, and yearning for advice and guidance.  I wrote: 

"I'm one of your amazingly loyal fans and here I am asking for any bit of advice or encouragement you might have.  I'm a big firm lawyer but today is actually my very last day of work.  My husband is in the Navy and is getting relocated to the east coast.  After our daughter was born (2.5 months premature) and while I was on maternity leave, I found a lot of peace in scrapbooking.  It has quickly become as passion and I have the hope to be able to turn that into some sort of career/business.  The entrepreneurial spirit is certainly ingrained in my family and I've known the value of hard work from day one.  I think I have to tools (or the ability to find the tools) to succeed.  I just don't have ANY idea on where to start.  Do you have any tidbits of advice?"

And can you believe it, but she actually responded.  She guided me to The Purpose of Your Life which helped in her career transition, she encouraged me to start a blog and to continuously create , and she advised me to become a part an active voice in the scrapbooking community.

While that advice in and of itself was hugely welcome, I was most touched by the fact that she took the time to respond to my plea for mentoring, advice and support.  I have hung on tightly to her words and with the continued mentoring by other awesome women in the industry, I now have the confidence to continue crafting.

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure and honor of finally meeting Amy Tan in real life!!!  She was teaching a class at the Mapunapuna Ben Franklin.  I was so giddy and I thought I was going to hyperventilate.  I get so star struck.  But Amy was the epitome of calm and kindness and I had the most amazing time.

Here is Amy talking to everyone at the beginning of the class.  She is so tiny even with the baby bump!

A packed class with super excited crafters!

This is the mini album that we are going to make using some new products from Amy's Yes, Please Collection by American Crafts! 

Here are some photos of my work space.  I obviously had my Xyron Mega Runner on hand to adhere everything together.  :)

And here are some of those posed shots.  Okay...me and AMY!!!!!!  SHUT UP!!!  I think I'm still hyperventilating.  :)

I also got to finally meet Joscelyne Cutchen (Owner of Bossy Joscie Crafty Flair, 2012 Paper Crafts Gallery Idol Winner, fellow Navy wife and all around super awesome crafter).

And here I am with Nicole and Jessica, my crafting friends/ milspouses/ preschool mommys.  I love these ladies so much and am SO GLAD that Jessica organized everything so that we could attend the class!!!! 

If you want to see more pictures of the class, check out this blog post by Joscie.  She took some fantastic photos.

As always, mahalo for stopping by!!!

We Are Finally There {a scrapbook layout}

For those that have been following this blog, you know that we recently completed a cross country adventure from San Diego, California to Newport, Rhode Island with a two week stop over in Dahlgren, Virginia.  The photo in this layout was shot minutes after we unloaded our car and checked into our hotel.  This hotel room would be our home for two weeks and we were so excited to finally be done (for at least a little bit).  Just like the little sticker says, "Smiles All Around!"

Since this layout commemorates our trip across the United States, it's my play on stars (see that blue star paper) and {chevron} stripes.  But I do know that there is a lot going on that probably needs some explanation (for better or for worse). 

First, I used this amazing sketch from the 10.27 Sketch Thursday Challenge as my starting point.  I've watched a LOT of amazing scrapbookers play along each week.  I finally took the plunge and decided to play along too.

Second, the title.  "...we are finally there."  I swear I speak good English.  :)  

It's a response on the age-old whiny road trip question: "are we there yet?"  Every time Charlotte got fussy or angry during our drive, I imagined that if she could talk, she would be screaming:  "GET ME THERE ALREADY!" 

Third, check out this banner. 

I used map paper from the American Crafts Amy Tangerine collection.  Amazingly enough, the paper actually includes a large chunk of the route we drove through Arizona to Virginia.  The little blue brads are actually placed to mark some of the cities we stopped to visit (like Albuquerque, Amarillo, Memphis...)

The bottom of the layout includes another portion of the map tracking some additional cities we visited through Virginia (highlighted in the orange brads). 

What I initially hoped was to create a layered look of banner pennants.  However, the map pennants effectively covered the bottom layer of kraft pennats that I stamped with Lawn Fawn Teeny Tiny Backdrops.  Since they were so cute, I wanted to show you anyways.

Fourth, I added some hand stitching to incorporate more of that orange color.

And finally, for the journaling, I used Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type to write out the following along the perimeter of the layout: 

"We left San Diego bright and early on September 20.  After 9 states, 14 days of travelling, over 2800 miles of driving and only 1 mommy meltdown...we are finally there."

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Update 11/3:  Thanks for all the lovely comments!   Happy to say that this layout was chosen as a Sketchy Thursday Fave!  Aw...it's the little things that totally make my day.  :)