elements of design

i wanted to just post something for you all on this beautiful sunday. it was a good day today. we finished up our operation christmas child shoe boxes (17 of them, not the 30 i wanted to do but still a good amount) and was able to deliver them to a drop off center. it has always been important for us to give back to others but even more so this year with noah in our lives. we have so many blessings in our lives.

as i was packing the shoe boxes, i remembered what i was reading about all these shoe boxes and the intended recipents. from what i understand, the organization makes sure they put some hard candies in each box (lollipops, etc) b/c for some kids, this will be the only sweets they get the whole year. wow. reading that statistic took my breath away. i mean, i can buy candy whenever i want and eat it whenever i want and these kids are probably joyous from the ones they get in these shoeboxes...so this year, we made sure to buy a 5 lb bag of jolly ranchers and each of the boxes got a big bag full.

and thanks again to everyone who purchased my bottlecaps kits, we will be making a $200 donation b/c of your generosity.

now back to design. whenever i work on projects using MR stuff, i know that it is hard b/c we don't make everything. often times, i will find that our products fit into the overall layout or project as an element of design. so to capture all the small elements. i took some photos of some of the LOs i have done in the last week or so to show you what you can do with our ribbons and chipboards and sheers, etc.

you can take bits of MR stuff and make a BIG impact on your projects and pages. the important thing is to play. to me scrapbooking is not about rules you need to follow. it is important to play b/c that is what expands your creativity and your horizons to take you to different levels. and yeah not all my projects and LOs come out perfect. does that matter?

not at all! b/c experimentation makes you see things with different eyes. for example, i sometimes leave chipboard pieces unpainted. it has that raw look i like (and it is quick and easy). or i will cut bits and pieces of ribbons to form frames for my pictures. there is no right or wrong way to do things.

so with that, enjoy these bits and pieces of my LOs.