Big Idea Festival - Live, Moment, Embrace, Play

I got a little behind on this, but used my "LOAD" time to finish up these layouts:

For all of these I went with watercolor backgrounds.  Images are stamped except for the "moment" layout which is rub-ons.  In the last one, I colored in the stamped images with Pitt Artist Pens.

Big Idea Festival - Free

When you have some "free" time, don't forget to enter my 500th post giveaway here!

Big Idea Festival - Cherish

Big Idea Festival - Enjoy

I enjoyed playing with this one!

Don't forget to enter my 500th post giveaway here!

Big Idea Festival - Nest

Saturday's word for the Big Idea Festival was "nest."  At first the word left me stone-cold stumped - totally devoid of any creative inspiration.  But I really wanted to just go with it.  And when I let go, and leaned into my discomfort with the word, the inspiration came:

My inspiration for the tree came from here. The page is a mixture of watercolors and acrylics and highlights and shadowing with Pitt Artist Pens.

The inspiration is totally appropriate and timely.  As I was creating this page, Sarah was busily packing for college.  Today she left.

I'm really happy for her because I know how badly she wanted to go - how ready she was to fly the nest - and I totally understand and empathize. She is so ready to be an adult and to take the world by storm. And I'm sure some sharp recruiter will snap her up before graduation.  Any employer would be lucky to have her.  But I miss her already.

Today marked phase two of a three-phase return to "normal."  Phase one occurred a week ago when Jay returned to work.  Phase two was today.  Phase three occurs one week from now, when Rachel and Becca return to school.  Today was the hard part. A week from now the heavens will open and choirs of angels will sing and I'll be doing a happy dance the likes of which you have never seen (and probably you'll be grateful for that!).

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway here!

Big Idea Festival - Give

Today's word was "Give".

My layout is totally digital.

background paper and winged clock from ScrapbookGraphics "Impressions of Time" collab kit. The hand was sourced here.

Big Idea Festival - Less

Wednesday's word, "Less", sparks a real chord with me.

A couple of years ago I started the process of decluttering. My closet and my dresser have been thoroughly cleared of anything unnecessary or unused. It makes it so much easier to dress in the morning!  Although you might not know it to look at my scrap space, I sold and gave away more "stuff" than you could begin to imagine. And I honestly haven't missed much of it (the only things I miss are the formerly totally unused stencils and stamps that I got rid of before I embarked upon mixed media).  Owning "less" is truly a blessing. The less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to clean up and around.  Less clutter = more calm.  Less stuff = more time to play.  Less definitely IS More!

In keeping with the "less is more" idea, I kept this layout very simple. A splash of watercolor, inked edges, a single embellishment.

Big Idea Festival - Wonder

The word of the day prompted not one, but two layouts today! Plus I created an intro page for my mini album:

BPC supplied a download for the title square - the rest of it was simply inspired!

Page 1 with today's word "Wonder" - totally digital.  Life is miracle and magic - oh yeah baby!

Page #2 - hybrid. I printed the template on matte photo paper.  I hand wrote the quote. Used inks, misted with water and blown with a straw for the color splash and filled in with chalk inks at the bottom.  Butterfly was stamped first in red chalk ink and then in black Staz-On.

I was attempting to honor the quote by painting and playing a little today!

Big Idea Festival - Share

Big Picture Classes Big Idea Festival starts today! This is a freebie - with twelve days of twelve ideas from twelve of Big Picture's teachers!  You can still sign up here.  Did I mention it is free???  And even if right now isn't a good time for you to participate, the links will always remain in your BPC account, so you can go back at any time to partake of the inspiration.

So, the word for today was "Share."  It is a word I like ... a LOT.  The world is just a better place when people Share, right?

Here is my layout using the share template provided by Amy Tan:

I decided to keep it really simple and just added a quote that really speaks to me.  The quote reads:  "Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.  Happiness never decreases by being shared."  Buddha.  

If the inspiration from the Big Idea Festival keeps me going in this direction, I just may be creating a 6x6 album of my favorite quotes!  Which totally goes with the Festival theme - "Words to Live By".  

What is your favorite quote???