The way I see it...

the bay

2010-09-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

Yokohama City, Japan

blue hallway

2010-09-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Osanbashi Pier, Yokohama, Japan

Buddha

2010-09-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Buddha... in a Buddhist Temple. Kamakura, Japan

Daisies

2010-09-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

Kamakura, Japan

Banners

2010-09-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

Taken at the Shinto Shrine in Kamakura, Japan.

Sunset over Utah Lake

2010-08-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

Millennium Park, Chicago

2010-08-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure why I like these two shots... I just do.

Virgin River

2010-06-24T17:32:00.001-07:00

Soft Water

2010-03-05T18:54:00.000-08:00

Vancouver, BC

Pieces of Crescent Beach

2010-03-02T23:35:00.000-08:00

Vancouver

2010-02-28T23:30:00.000-08:00

I LOVE this city! One of my favorite parts of the my 2010 Winter Olympic vacation was going downtown with my siblings for a late night photo shoot. Mike, Dan, Lisa and I set up tripods on the Stanley Park Seawall and got some pretty fun shots. Here are some of my favorites.

Schofield Lake

2010-02-16T23:28:00.000-08:00

Ice Hole

2010-02-16T23:24:00.000-08:00

Crush

2010-02-16T23:21:00.000-08:00

Tree

2010-01-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

Schofield, UT

Into the Woods

2009-12-30T23:18:00.000-08:00

Surrey, British Columbia95mm F5.3 1/8 sec

18mm F3.5 1/1.3 sec

29mm F4.2 1/2 sec

Vancouver Harbor

2009-12-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

60mm F5 1/250

Night Light

2009-12-29T23:11:00.000-08:00

75mm F 5.3 1.3 Sec

Market Fresh

2009-12-23T23:06:00.000-08:00

Just some photos from the Granville Island Market.

LETTERPRESS

2009-10-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

I La La LOVE this Letterpress tool by LifeStyle Crafts. We have been working on it for ages and it's finally here. Seriously, I have always loved the classy, high quality, unique look of letterpressed cards, but to do it yourself costs literally thousands of dollars and it's a huge mess. I love how simple the L Letterpress is and you can buy everything you need to get started including an Epic die cutting tool for $150. Pretty amazing, huh! Here's how it works:

Step 1: Place printing plate on clear lid of L Letterpress tool. There are currently 15 printing plate sets with fantastic designs that can be mixed and matched to create an unlimited number of projects!

Step 2: Use the ink brayer to ink the printing plate. There are currently 20 ink colors available which can also be mixed to create additional custom colors!

Step 3: Place paper on the base of the tool. The L Letterpress paper is specifically designed for the L Letterpress tool to achieve that fantastic impression and soft texture.

Step 4: Close the lid of the L Letterpress tool and roll through the Epic Six tool to simultaneously print and deboss your image.

I made all these fun projects with a prototype. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love my job?) This is definitley my new favorite thing. Now all the cards I give are letterpressed. I find myself making cookies to give to people, just so I can put a cute letterpressed tag on top... you might even say, the Letterpress makes me want to be a better person. :) I can't wait to host something where I can make letterpressed invitations and place settings and thank you treats. Here are some samples. Enjoy.

The Coffee Table Book

2009-10-11T22:48:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned my new love for photo books? I have been avoiding digital scrapbooking because I think it looks cheesy. Ribbons and brads are meant to add texture. Using a scan of a ribbon just defeats the whole purpose. In fact, I have always been trying to make my scrapbook pages look more like magazine layouts. I finally found the solution. Photo books. I have made photo books before, but I've felt limited by the selection of pre-made templates. It recently occured to me that I could just design my pages in photoshop and save them as their own jpgs. Thus giving me complete creative control to make my albums just my style. I tested my theory by creating an 8 1/2 x 11 album of my Italy trip. It's not perfect yet, but I loved the process of designing my simple layouts on a photoshop canvas and then saving it as a jpg. Then I just used the Shutterfly program to drop the photos into the book. It's perfect. Don't worry; This isn't the end of my scrapbooking days, though. I have enough holes to fill in from previous albums to keep me busy for quite some time.

Croproom Makeover

2009-06-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, so there's still some things I'd like to do. Hardwood floors would be nice, a real ceiling and some crown molding... maybe a mini fridge under the table... but a fresh coat of light blue paint helps a lot. I have been meaning to paint my croproom from the day we moved our offices to Lindon and I finally got it done!

Some details: These books were made a year ago to feature the new QuicKutz alphabet sets released at CHA Summer 2008 and are also featured on the cover of the QuicKutz School Idea Book. They now look perfect on the book shelf in my croproom.

I LOVE this humming bird shape. I cut it out twice and bent the wings back to give it a 3D effect, then hung them from ribbons in my bird cage. These are my kind of birds, cute, quiet, and clean.

I came across the sentiment "Be courageous and vulnerable" while purusing some of my favorite creative blogs. It was on retro printed poster. It spoke to me and I adopted it as my new mantra. I designed the whole layout on the Silhouette and cut it out in Crate Paper patterned paper. The dots pattern on the candle hurricane was etched using a stencil created with the Silhouette and vinyl and Etchall Glass Etching cream.

This is my newest addition. I LOVE that the Revolution cuts fabric! I used the nesting flower dies and cut out several fabric flowers. Using Strano Design RibbonStiff, I "sculpted" the flowers to give them a little more dimension. Then with a brad in the center of each flower, I hot glued them to my twigs and voila! a hand made flower arrangement.

Ok, so Anthropologie sells these awesome patterned light switch covers, only they are 30 bucks! Thanks to my friend, Nicki's brilliant, creative mind, some old Chatterbox paper, and a bottle of Mod Podge, we made these sweet covers for around $1. Here's to designing on a budget!

QK designer, Leisa Rice rocked this Birthday release last January. I love her bright colors and excellent composition. What a fun frame, I just had to display it.

RIBBONS!

I have been looking EVERYWHERE for a good ribbon storage solution. Come on, ribbon companies, I can't be the only one. I finally found this ribbon rack online. When it arrived, it discovered it was pretty ghetto. I could have (and should have) just made one myself. I had to repaint the wood, replace the bars and flirt with a few Home Depot men to get all the modifications I needed, but in the end, it did what I wanted it to do. So, I guess it was worth the time and money. I LOVE being able to see all my pretty ribbons (courtesy of American Crafts) when I'm making a project. It beats digging through my drawers.

Playlist

2009-03-23T20:22:00.001-07:00

Fixed it.

2009-02-27T15:57:00.000-08:00

You know when there's something wrong with the layout, but you just can't put your finger on it? I put my whole hand on it, tore it off and made a new one. The shape for the title just wasn't doing it for me. I'm pleased with the new results.

Panama City

2009-02-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

Lisa and I got together for Sisters Scrapbooking Weekend 2009. We have so much fun scrapbooking together and laughing about how our styles are so distinct. So here you go. Here are a few more typical Amy pages.

Temple Square

2009-02-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

Snow

2009-02-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

Georgia's Little Grand Canyon

2009-02-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

Air Force Museum

2008-11-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

Ohio Vacation of a Lifetime pages 3 and 5

2008-10-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Backpacking Trip

2008-09-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

I like the first spread. I'm satisfied with the second spread. I can't figure out how to fix the last spread. It's the colors, I think... this page may change.

Mom's Visit

2008-09-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

It's pretty plain, but I had fun doing a whole spread around one photo.

London

2008-08-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

Here it is! The opening page to my London collection. I have been waiting for ages to post this layout and finally the day has arrived. Usually when I finish a scrapbook page, I'm satisfied or even still annoyed by something that I just can't seem to place, but every once in a while you get a page where it just comes together. Then you stand back and say "Dang, I'm brilliant!" Ok, I know it won't be everyone's favorite; you don't have to like it. I don't even know why I like it so much more than any of my other pages, but I'm awarding it Amy's page of the year (can you award your own pages? That's pretty darn cocky, huh!) Well, don't expect anything better than this, this year. This years award has already gone out. Unfortunately there are three type-Os in there. THREE... maybe more! Why did I forget to run spell check before I printed those black pages? I haven't had the heart to pull it all up and fix it yet.

London

2008-06-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yippee! My whole three day London trip is done! There is one more layout in the series, but I won't be posting it until July. I'm sorry the quality is not so good. The scanner and I have not exactly been on good terms these days. And no, I have no idea why most of them will not enlarge.

Keep in Touch

2008-05-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is a layout that's on the QuicKutz website, but after I finished it, I liked it more than I thought I would. I think eventually I'll make a companion page for it... maybe something that has photos of all the family members. It will be sort of a snapshot in time of where everyone is living right now. It looks like we could use someone down in Arizona or up in New York to balance out our parallelogram... Mike? Brian? Anyway, if I ever get around to making it, I'll post the other page too.

The Single's Guide to Married Life

2008-04-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Everything you need to know about marriage, from those who have never experienced it.

I recently finished the second edition of this book. I made the first one for Dan and Amber. I contacted all their single friends and asked them for fun marriage advice in the following areas: Keeping the Spark Alive, Resolving Conflict, How to Care for a Pregnant Wife, When the Kids Come, Division of Labor and Money Management. It was such a hit as a wedding present that I decided to do the Second Edition for Jared and Ann. I'm getting better at recovering board books, so I spruced up the back cover of the second edition.

I Love Utah

2008-04-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

It's fun, every once in a while, to scrapbook something about who I am, rather than a specific event. I really do love Utah. There is so much to do. I can and will fill the companion page for this spread with different places I have been in Utah.

Thanksgiving

2008-02-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

This is a layout that I have been wanting to post for the last three months. I had to wait until CHA (which started today) where we (QuicKutz) were unveiling the new "Rockstar Mini" and "Mary Jane Grand" Alphabets. The background looks kind of greyish in the scan, but it's really a warmer chipboard brown.

Here's an old one. It's nothing specail, but it was kind of fun to do an 8.5x11.

2006 Timeline

2008-02-07T19:18:00.000-08:00

I have been excited about this layout for the cover page of my 2006 album for the last month. I printed all the photos for it a month ago and then they all disappeared until yesterday when I finally had time to clean my desk at work! Happy day! I went home and finally put it all together.

Ok, I made the right page about four years ago as an assignment for a freelance project. I FINALLY got around to creating the other half of the spread (which isn't easy when you can't find the same papers you used four years ago). I think it goes well enough and now, of course, I like the left side better than the right side. Maybe in a few years, I'll redo the right side.

White on Black

2008-01-17T16:24:00.000-08:00

A "How To" by Amy Walton

Ok, gather around everyone and I will unfold the mystery of the white on black journaling. The truth is you don't "print" white at all; That's impossible on most printers. Really, you're just printing out a whole lot of black on white paper and just leaving the words white. What a let down, I know, because in order to pull this off you have to have a really good printer and be willing to use a lot of ink. When I use this technique on large sections (ie. the last three layouts posted), I use my printer at work. It's a big fancy 'kinkos-style' Canon color printer. But, I also do it on my cheap, little, came-with-my-computer printer at home. I just do smaller sections like the brown tag on my Queen Elizabeth Park post.

If you're using word to try this out, draw a text box to your desired dimensions (that's in the drawing toolbar). Color the words white and fill the box with whatever color you want. If you need more colored space around the text, draw an additional box around the whole thing and make sure it goes behind your journaling. Because the color on your screen isn't always the color that comes out of your printer, I print out a series of swatches by drawing little boxes and filling them with various shades of that color to help me find the one that's going to match the paper I'm using.
Ink cartridges and Bazzill paper are my fundamental scrapbook supplies. Now, if they actually came out with an affordable printer that did that white embossed writing on black cardstock, I'd be all over that, but this works pretty well too.

Take the Lead

2008-01-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

Black is the new... black.

2008-01-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, black is the color of the month. I just like the way it looks with my outdoor photos. Plus I know it drives Mary insane with the mystery of my white on black writing. Come visit me in Utah, Mary, and I'll unfold to you the complicated secrets of my journaling.

This was a fun set of pages to do. I would look at the photos and break into giggles at the memory of that disgusting, stagnant, smelly water.

Album Tags

2007-12-09T13:19:00.001-08:00

I have been meaning to do this forever and I finally got it done. Chatterbox Fashion Albums are my favorite post-bound albums. They have a cute little ribbon that hangs off the top and normally holds a little chatterbox charm on the end. I replaced those charms with a little QuicKutz tag that has the year of the album. Now I can actually find the right album without opening it. I even added those ribbons to my Making Memories albums so they all match.

Step into my Office

2007-12-04T20:27:00.000-08:00

Lisa suggested I post a photo of my croproom at work. So here it is. This is where I spend my days... where they pay me to shop for scrapbook supplies ...where I get to play with the latest and greatest from QuicKutz. Lucky me!

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Nerd

2007-12-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

Ok, this one is not my typical style. In fact, if it hadn't been an assignment at work, I wouldn't have used the Silhouette doodling and font. Somehow, though, I love how it turned out. It reminds me so much of my high school note books, which of course goes perfectly with the photos and journaling. I did this page about a month ago, but I had to wait for the new Silhouette Digital Design Portfolios to release to consumers before I could post it. This page was created using "Sweetheart."

Halloween 2006

2007-11-10T17:43:00.001-08:00

Queen Elizabeth Park

2007-10-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

Yep, it looks pretty much like all my other pages.

Christmas Eve

2007-10-23T17:27:00.001-07:00

This one kind of goes with the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" one. It's been sitting half finished on my desk for weeks. I'm just glad to have it done.

Bon Voyage

2007-10-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here you go Lisa. Washington can be a little tricky to put together too. I'm never quite sure if I have it laid out right.

A few favorites

2007-10-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

Most of you have seen these before, but they are some of my favorites.

Memorial Weekend

2007-10-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Any event that includes my whole family is SO time consuming to scrapbook. I have to sort through photos from each sibling to find the ones I want... and in our family, that's a lot of photos.

I love this page. I totally scrap-lifted it out of a magzine and then added a little QuicKutz touch.

Maybe I went a little crazy with the brads, but I like the way it turned out.

Wakeboarding

2007-10-19T17:55:00.001-07:00

Christmas 2006!

2007-10-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Of course this isn't all the Christmas photos. I have at least three more spreads planned. Man, taking on Christmas can be such a project.

This one is not my favorite, but I got all of Christmas morning onto one spread, so I'm satisfied.

This one has a nice cream background, but it doesn't show up very well.

Some scrapbook pages... what else?

2007-10-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

I never do black backgrounds, but I really like it with these photos.

Each one of my books is a year, and each book starts with a page about me and what I'm into that year.