kristine Mckay Designs

So, it's time to get real!  I've been working on my building my site for over a year now.  In the meantime I've just been using this beta version (which let's just be honest . . . it aint pretty lol)  I've gone through two website builders and I keep changing my mind as to what and how I want to do it.  It's been paralyzing.  There are sooo many things that I want to get up and running. I've got some great ideas for new projects and downloads as well as working on products for my Etsy store and starting a consistent blog.  But I've been putting it off until I get my site "just perfect".   Today I decided NO MORE!  I've got to get going.  So, I gave my web builder the go ahead to just get it up.  I can change it around later if I need to.  Something is better than nothing.  I am hoping it should be ready in the next couple of weeks.  So, here are a few things that I am working on in the meantime.                          

 Studio 5                                                                                                             -

May 28th-  Inspiration Challenge.  There will be three contestents given 5 scrapbook projects that they have 1 hour to complete a finished project.  Throuought the hour we will be showing their progress and discussing where they find inspriation

June 4th- Kids summer crafts.  I am so excited about this segment.  I've got some great ideas and I am working on a free downloadable e-book with all sorts of fun projects to do with your kids.

June 11th- Father's day crafts.  Fun practical gifts for Dad (that he'll actually use lol)

Kmckaydesign Projects

I am playing with resins and epoxy projects.  I am sourcing a bunch of cool items that you can use for your epoxy crafts.  Pendants, rings, business card holders, brads, etc.  I can't wait! 

I am working on items for my Etsy shop.  Lots of women power ephemora.  Gift tags, cards, card kits, jewelry, cool notebook purses with paper-flowers, coasters, DIY kits, etc.  This is a huge work in progress, but one that I am excited about

Whew, did I also mention that I am a wife and mother and that my house is a mess and my family actually expects dinner to be served each evening lol.  As always, I love to hear your comments. 

 

For my March 5th segment on Studio 5 I was given the challenge to find inspiration outside of the craftstore.  One of the places I found was the office supply store.  This has ALWAYS been a favorite of mine.  There are thousands of trinkets that you can use to embellish your pages, from staples, brads, clips, and tags.  However, this time I decided to focus on mediums.  My top three favorite mediums are Avery's full sheet clear labels, Avery's printable fabric, and Hp clear transparencies.  I LOVE the full sheet clear  labels.  They are fabulous for making your own custom stickers and clear embellishments.  I have provided a free download on the project page with fun generic words that always come in handy on any scrapbook page. Next, I selected Avery's printable fabric.  I'll be honest . . usually I just use iron-on paper (another favorite of mine from Avery . . . but I will save it for another day).  However, the printable fabric worked great and it was perfect for fabric page embellishments.  I also included a download for these as well.  Printing photos on the fabric it a fun way to give your pages an EXTRA POP!  Last, but not least, I selected  HP clear transparency paper.  "Clear" anything is HOT in scrapbooking right now.  Especially overlays.  However, they can be expensive.  With transparencies, you can design and print your very own.  Not only is it less expensive . . . it is customized for your project.  I created some fun 4X6 overlays that you can dowload on the project page as well.  If you have any questions, please let me know! kmckaydesigns.com

My Segment this week for Studio Five (1-22 at 11:00 a.m.) is on Journaling.  For me . . . scrapbooking is about the journaling.  The photos should simply illustrate the story.  Of course some photos can “say it all”.  However most often it is our thoughts and feelings behind the photo that envoke the strongest memories.  There are several reasons that journaling can be such a struggle.  A few of those reasons might include: hating our handwriting, uncertainty as to how or where to add journaling to a page without disrupting the artistic balance, or simply forgetting the details by the time we actually get around to scrapbooking that particular event.  A couple solutions if your not satisfied with your handwriting might include, printing your journaling from the computer (for a limited time you can download 10 free fonts at www.letteringdelights.com), making journal pockets that "hide" your journaling, or use alpha and phrase stickers.  Just remember that while you might not think your handwriting is "pretty"  . . . it really is the most meaningful to look back on.  A quick solution for asthetically including journaling on your layout is to handwrite around the photos, or including a tag or journaling card that doubles as a cute embellishment as well as a practical journal spot.  As far as forgetting details I only have one suggestion JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL lol.  I share this suggestion from my experience.  Nothing is worse than having your child ask you questions about when they were little and your mind going blank.  I've learned my lesson.  I take a notebook everywhere I go and jot down notes as I go.  Trust me, my notes aren't pretty.  They aren't meant to be.  When I sit down to create my page I can take the time to make them "pretty" if I choose to.  For now, I choose to live.  I live every day.  I live for every moment.  I write quick little notes that will spark my memory so I can record them when I have the time.  Some great tools for this can simply be a notebook, or they now have great Journaling notebooks that you can tear out the sheets and add to your scrapbook pages.  I believe Making Memories has them as well as Creative Imaginations.  What ever works best for you is what you should stick to.  At the end of the day it is about sharing our beautiful life stories illustrated with great every day photos.

I just wanted to tell everyone THANKS for your patience.  My "official" web-site will be launching next month.  I am so thrilled.  I appreciate everyone that has helped to make this a success.  This started out as a pet project and thanks to everyone that has posted links on their blogs and message boards I am now able to launch a new web-site that will have many great new features . . . and yes all of my projects and downloads from my studio 5 segments will still be free.  This is truly my passion and I am so thrilled to be able to share it.  While many may think it is simply "crafting" for me it is about CREATING.  It is about making something beautiful out of nothing.  There is so much power in that.  I love the joy that I feel when I create something new.  I want all women to feel the empowerment that comes from being an "architect of inspiration" (yes I just coined that phase . . . maybe I should trade mark it lol).  By that I simply mean that for some "crafting" is simply making some cute craft project.  For others . . . like myself, it is about being inspired by something that stirs my soul and then using paper or other media to create something tangible from what I feel in my heart.  I certainly don't mean to sound sappy or cheesy lol.  But for me its not crafting it's creating.  It is my passion and I feel the greatest passion when I am sharing it with others.  Thank you so much for all of the kind words of encouragement and thanks.  It means a lot.  You can continue to help by giving me feedback or comments.  I'd love to hear ideas of projects you'd like to see or features you'd like to see on my site.  I'd also LOVE to see some of your creations and you can email them to me at [email protected]. and as always links or posts to my site are ALWAYS appreciated.  Stay tuned for more information about my web-site.  If you would like to be notified as soon as it goes live, you can send me your email at [email protected] and I will send you a notification.  My new years resolution is to be more consistent with my blog.  So check back.  I am planning on posting every W

What a blog entry with no picture . . . . long story . . . grab the tissues lol.  So, this has been a very eventful and by "eventful" I mean pretty crappy year lol.  But  being the "Forever Optimist" I will just share a couple things that might be helpful to others so SOMETHING good can come from it.  In a nutshell earlier this year my desktop computer crashed . . . not to worry I had all of my photos backed up on an external hard-drive.  Well, a couple of weeks ago my external hard-drive crashed.  Not to worry . . . I had them on my laptop.  So, I bought a small portable external hardrive and transfered my pics onto that (LITTLE DID I KNOW THAT IT DID NOT TRANSFER ALL OF THE FILES ).  Not to worry they were still on my laptop right?  Well I decided to play it safe and create an on-line backup I tried Carbonite . . . check it out and let them know I refered you.  Well, the first backup takes several days.  On day two, I paused it so I could go up to Salt Lake with my husband.  He had court (he's an attorney) and I brought my laptop so I could get some work done.  Afterwards we went to lunch.  While we were at lunch someone came running in and said . . ."Hey do you have a white Escalade"  I was thinking "If you door dinged my brand new car your dead lol"  Well, I could only have wished that is what happened.  As it turns out someone decided to do a "Smash and Grab".  They smashed out my rear passenger window and stole my lap top, my husbands laptop, a bunch of camera equipment, my beloved i-pod, and my husbands wedding ring.  NOT TO MENTION OTHER VARIOUS THINGS."  Well, long story short, most of those things can be replaced.  However, guess what can't be?  All of my photos.  Yes the same photos I thought I had backed up on my smaller external drive.  The same photos that I was in the process of backing up on-line.  GONE!!!!!!  I am so sad that I could cry but it wouldn't do any good.  So, instead I will just give a little warning to everyone else out there.  External hard-drives are fine but it's not a matter of "IF" they will crash it is "WHEN" so please back up all of your photos with an on-line backup service such as Carbonite.  A sad sad tale I know lol.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like after 30 birthdays just aren't as much fun.  I remember as a child counting down the days.  Now it just seems like another day of the week.  This past year has brought so many difficult trials to my life.  I've decided that dreaming of being a grown up is a lot more fun than actually being one lol.  However, I don't think my kids would say that I've actually grown up yet : )  This year was an unusually difficult birthday.  With so much going on I had actually forgotten about it until the day before.  I didn't even mention it to anyone because I honestly just wanted it to pass by without any fan-fare.  However, from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to bed, little notes and cards showed up.  Nothing big.  Infact, the smaller the gesture the bigger the smile it brought to my face.  Our house is kind of the neighborhood hang out for all of the kids from 5-15.  My oldest are 11 (Kelsey) and 12 (Tanner).  Their friends all think I'm a much "cooler" mom than they do lol.  Anyway, one of Tanner's friends from school, an adorable jr. high girl, wrote me the silliest little birthday wish ever "We is friends, you cry, I cry.  You laugh, I laugh.  You hurt, I hurt. You jump off bridge . . .I gonna miss you."  It made me giggle.  The point is that nothing big happened.  No amazing expensive gifts, but the little things just kept adding up to what I needed to feel most . . .loved.  It made me evaluate the time that I take to let others know that I am thinking of them.  So, my challenge this week is to drop a note in the mail (no e-mail doesn't count lol) to 5 people and let them know that you are thinking of them and that they are loved.

Okay, seriously . . . I am going to get serious about my site.  It is just a jumbled mess lol.  Goal . . . hire someone this week.  I am so excited to get it up and running and somewhat asthetically pleasing : )  I had a blast on Good Things Utah this morning.  Check out the fun Halloween tree.  I'm exhausted! I had to pull an all nighter to get everything ready.  I've decided that I really need to have better time management.  I'll work on it just as soon as I have more time lol.  Anyway, for those of you that have stumbled upon my humble site . . . hang in there.  It will be completed by the end of the year!

 

So, just when I'm thinking what a crazy unorganized disaster I can be lol My 11 year old daughter hands me this drawing.  To know that through her eyes she sees me has totally organized and put together gives me hope : )


 

I just got back from Las Vegas.  I had an amazing time.  I love the energy that the city has and let's face it, there isn't a better place to "people watch". While I was there I went to see the Phantom.  It was one of the best events I've ever attended.  I have always loved the Phantom.  I have the soundtrack and the movie (you know it's bad when my son could sing all of the lyrics at age 5 lol).  One of the reasons it has such a special place in my heart is because of the song "That's all I ask of you".  My dearest childhood friend sang that at my Wedding over fifteen years ago.  Let me just say that there is no coincidence that the main character's name is Kristine.  As I listened to the words and thought back about that day it made me realize how easily we can take those around us that are the most important for granted.  Often, they are the ones that get put last because we know that they will "understand".  One day my husband saw me making a scrapbook for somone and he said, "you know, you've never made one for me."  You know what?  I haven't.  So my challenge this week is to make one.  It might be a little late in coming but I'm sure it will be none the less appreciated.  When it is completed I will post it!

I am strong

I need no one to define me

I define myself

I support the definition

Others make for themselves

I hope to inspire others

As they form their personal definitions

I hope to see greatness in others

That will help define my own greatness

Yet, I need no one

to ultimately see the greatness in myself.

-Kristine McKay