Cathy Zielske's Blog

Sponsor Giveaway: wine a seat in Building Color Confidence

One blog reader will win a spot in Building Color Confidence with Cilenia Curtis at reneepearson.com.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP: Color is Cilenia Curtis’ first love! During this 3-week class Cilenia will help you learn to confidently work with color, no matter what kind of project you want to create. She will give you the tools and knowledge you need to choose colors confidently, so you can mix and match your digital stash while creating layouts and art. Get your color on in Building Color Confidence. 

What students say about Cilenia Curtis and Building Color Confidence:

“Cilenia is a wonderful teacher and so very creative. I loved everything she had to offer. The color wheel psd's she provided, and the color inspiration cards were phenomenal.”

 “I loved how Cilenia showed us how she made her papers and brushes. She did an excellent job. I've taken other classes that promised to do this and they fell short.’

“I like Cielenia. She is down to earth and can communicate what is easy for her but hard for me . I love color and now know a little more about it. I see variations everywhere. This is more than just scrapping.”

TO ENTER: Leave me a message and tell me what your most go-to color is for scrapbooking. I'll choose a winner on Sunday night.

Comments are now closed. Check back to see if you're a winner.

Project Life, Week Thirty-Four

OBSERVATIONS: I want to go back and live last week. Can I say that? Last week we had so many things going for it. Deliciously cool weather, fun, and a few days with no deadlines or laundry.

Summer is truly winding down (though you'd never know it by the hellatiously hot weather we've had this week.) Still, school starts next Tuesday, and so it will be back to business as usual for the kids (though not so usual for Cole, who begins middle school and a whole new chapter of his life.)

As I plow through work this week (lots of cool stuff on the horizon, class-wise this fall), slowing down to do my Project Life pages really does remind me to be grateful and as present as I possibly can be.

Here are my pages from the past week:

Aside from being up at our family cabin for Sunday and Monday, the other highlight of the week was The Walking Dead night at the Saint Paul Saints' baseball park. I wrote a separate journal card about Cole and his preparations for the big night.

Sigh. I hope he never loses that chutzpah.

Here's my journal card for the week:

And now it's back to work for me. Deadlines are looming.

SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

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Project Life, created by Becky Higgins, is a flexible, easy-to-use, highly customizable way to save your memories in a fun, stress-free way. Learn more about getting started with Project Life by clicking here.

The winner of the seat in Project Real Life is…

Jennifer, congratulations! And you know what, I hope this class inspires you to see your life in a new way! Email me at czdesign@comcast.net today and I'll get you set up with the class.

This workshop is being offered through Big Picture Classes in October as one of their 12-week, Four Expert Series workshop. Learn more about Project Real Life today!

Special Class Giveaway: Project Real Life with Becky Higgins

The fabulous Becky Higgins is bringing her Project Life vision to Big Picture Classes in October for a 12-week, Four Expert Series workshop called Project Real Life.

As a huge fan of Project Life, I think the timing of this workshop is perfect for people who want to jump in and learn how Becky's system works and how it extends to her entire memory-keeping philosophy. Or, it's a great bonus for people, like me, who already love and use the system.

I'm excited to be able to give one seat in this workshop to one of my blog readers. 

TO ENTER: Leave me a comment today and tell me what your number one challenge is in your memory keeping process. I will close comments on Wednesday morning and choose a winner. Good luck!

To learn more about Becky's upcoming workshop, click here.

Comments are now closed. Check back to see if you're a winner!

Project Life, Week Thirty-Three

OBSERVATIONS: Week Thirty-Three? I've been doing Project Life for Thirty-Three consecutive weeks? Get out! I know there are many of you out there who are considering jumping in for 2013 and I say, by all means do! Especially considering Becky's annoucement of new kits, new designs (Olive and Seafoam) and new themes, including Baby themes! I'm leaning towards using Seafoam as my base kit for next year. 

All I know is that this has been my favorite project undertaking as a whole. I've recorded so much of our everyday life in this thing. And that makes me really happy. 

Shall we?

This week, I did a lot dropping text onto photos. Because I print my photos at home, it's easy to do this on the fly and get the results I'm looking for.

I should mention that my HP Photosmart 8750 is being really temperamental these days when it comes to printing on 4 x 6 photo paper. As in, it's not. So I've been printing two 4 x 6 photos on one sheet of 8.5 x 11 and trimming them. While it's frustrating, because I've got this great stash of 4 x 6 paper, it does allow me to get exactly what I've designed to fit onto that 4 x 6 image. Why? Because by placing a 4 x 6 photo into a larger document, the document doesn't have to accommodate for the borderless printing. Ergo, nothing gets cut off. 

That's how I print my week in review cards every week. I drag all the layers from the digital file onto a new 8.5 x 11 document, then add some of my other things—card files and such—and print them all out on one sheet. (I did a video on this process. Watch it here.)

We've definitely been having fun with the whole McKayla is not impressed meme as well.

And another week is in the album. 

SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

Project Life, created by Becky Higgins, is a flexible, easy-to-use, highly customizable way to save your memories in a fun, stress-free way. Learn more about getting started with Project Life by clicking here.

Listening to… Cloud Cult

While I work to try and knock out my Project Life post for this week, I thought I'd share a video from an album that's been in non-stop rotatation at my house. The album is Light Chasers by Cloud Cult.

Cloud Cult are a Minnesota band who've been around since 1995. I've been vaguely familiar with them, but never really claimed myself to be a fan until Light Chasers came out. It came out in 2010, and Dan got hooked on it much sooner than I did. In fact, when he'd play it, I'd conveniently leave the room because I'll be honest with you: I didn't get it.

You know how sometimes a vocalist's style doesn't hit you right? Or the music just doesn't suck you in at first listen? That's been my story with this band.

Until about two months ago when I finally heard it.

I'm quite certain it's due in part to the therapy I've been involved in for the past few years. I've been working on changing so many parts of what makes me me. This process isn't easy and it's definitely not fun. If there is one thing I am learning, anyone who says they love to grow and change but isn't simulataneously experiencing a great deal of pain… well, maybe they aren't growing and changing as much as they'd like to. That's definitely been my experience.

But this process for me is definitely needed.

Light Chasers feels like a therapy session. Some of the song lyrics have ripped my heart right out of my chest, and then tossed it back in there, haphazardly and ill-placed, but they've given yet another perspective on my own inadequacies. Songs like this one:

 

I am a wrecking ball / I've run the guillotine /  I blame everything just to keep my hands clean.

But there are moments of such beauty and joy on the record as well. 

This song represents one of the epic, joyous moments. 

 

And we were running / for a reason / left our cubicles in little flaming piles
We were running / for a reason / I need to feel something different for just a little while. 

And this one:

 

Love your mother / yeah she's a good one / She'll build you armor; keep you warm as a hen / The stars may fall and the rains may pour / but I will love you evermore / cuz you were born.

Just wanted to share some music that's moving me right now.

Music is awesome.

Just keep paddling

I am feeling overwhelmed right now in my work life.

Now let me be clear:  this ain't no woe-is-me, I-can't-do-this kind of overwhelmed. This is simply having too many deadlines in too short of a time span and wishing like hell that I could have spread this work out over the summer.

But I can't. I have to git er done, as they say.

I used to like to curl up in a ball and feel sorry for myself when major deadlines loomed, or when it seemed I'd bitten off more than I could chew.

I don't like that old behavior much at all.

Today, I'm plodding through. Doing what needs to be done and knowing there is an end in sight.

Afterall, that's what a deadline is for.

It's funny, because we took a few days off to go up and relax up at our family's cabin over the weekend. Very much needed for both me and Dan even though we knew it'd put us both back this week.

Part of me wants to be back in that kayak right about now.

And part of me knows it's just life.

What do you do when the tasks at hand threaten to overwhelm?

Here's one thing I do: read blog comments wherein people tell me how they like to cope with stress.

Amen.

 

Become a master of type on your scrapbook pages

Let's face it: type on scrapbook pages is cool. If you use it and have ever wanted to be more proficient with your choices, join me in September for my mini workshop at Big Picture Classes, Ten Tips for Better Type.

The world of fonts is huge, but in this class, I boil it down to the core information to help you gain confidence in choosing and using fonts. Consider it an entry level type class for scrapbookers who want to make their pages go from nice to aw yeah! 

It's not about the latest and greatest techniques; it's about solid basics that will elevate the quality of your overall designs.

The class is just $14 and kicks off on September 6th. 

Think of it as going back to school for Scrapbooking Professional Development. The class includes instructional videos, handouts, an assignment, plus a video chat with me. 

I may not know everything about scrapbooking, but using type? That, dear scrapbooking friends, is one area that I have my master's in! I'd love to share what I know with you.

For more information, click here.

Hope to see in you class. 

Project Life, Week Thirty-Two

OBSERVATIONS: Week Thirty Two was all about two things: LeakyCon 2012 in Chicago, and new Project Life plastics. Most of last week was spent in the glorious city of Chicago where the kids attended this amazing four-day event for the fandom community of Harry Potter, teen lit, Nerdfighters and Starkids, just to name a few things you may or may not be familiar with.

We've had a pretty tight schedule this year, and planning any sort of vacation has been tricky from both a time and financial standpoint. Some years you've got the time and money, and some years you don't. But we were determined to get away for at least one weekend this year, and when the kids pitched the idea, we thought, "Why  not?"

I didn't take as many photos as one would think. Cole provided me with as many photos as I took, and you'll see that reflected in the shots this week. It was really fun to use some of the new Project Life page protectors (see my supplies links below.) Let's take a look at the pages.

We spent one night in Madison, Wisconsin, on our way to Chi Town. I love Madison. Such a cool downtown area. 

And now for the extra plastics.

I love how they all layer into the spread. I pulled them out to show you what they look like.

Yes, Glee fans, that is Darren Criss in the top center photo. Read more about that here.

These pages from both the Small Variety Packs 1 and 2. (Note: there is a defect in one of the page protectors in Variety Pack 1. It has been discounted for now, and new pages will be coming soon!)

If you look at the photo that says "COOL," that is me hanging with the graphic designers of all the Harry Potter film print materials. Think Daily Prophet or the Marauder's Map… that's what these two created. Talk about a dream job for print designers. You can learn more about their amazing work at their website or visit their newly launched Printorium site to buy amazing artwork culled from the movies.

I really love having the 5 x 7 size available, among others, just to highlight those favorite snapshots. 

Here's the journaling recap for the week.

And that is all I wrote for Week Thirty-Two.

SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

Project Life, created by Becky Higgins, is a flexible, easy-to-use, highly customizable way to save your memories in a fun, stress-free way. Learn more about getting started with Project Life by clicking here.

My Favorite Photo Bomb

Last week, we went to Chicago for a getaway. Specifically, we went so the kids could attend LeakyCon, a four-day conference dedicated to all things Harry Potter, StarKids, Nerdfighters and Teen Lit. There were over 4,000-plus attendees. It was like a CKU on steroids. Times ten. On Meth. And while I plan to share more images from our trip, I had to share one shot in particular.

Glee fans know Darren Criss who plays Blaine on the series, but you may not know that he got his start with StarKids and by writing and starring in A Very Potter Musical (which I totally plan to watch some day). He was in town to make an appearance with StarKids, and Cole managed to snag a shot of him as he was moving through the lobby.

And who is that in just the right open space between Darren and fellow StarKid Joe Moses?

Yeah. That'd be my old man. 

Never let it be said he doesn't know where the action is.

However, not everyone is going to be impressed.