two headers are better than one!

in the last month i had the honor of being asked by not one but *TWO* of my very favorite ladies if i would make them new blog headers. which, of course i said yes, because i am always willing to help a friend...especially when the word "help" is defined as, "play about happily with digi-stuffs"!!!

i know you'll be surprised to see a much more minimalist vibe than i usually go for... or at least... a much LESS maximalist vibe! both of these were collaborations with the ladies in question, because of course a blog header should reflect the AUTHOR and not the designer...but i think there's a bit of me in there, too! ;)

(patterned paper: faux bois wild by andrea victoria, designer digitals; flower brushes: paper meadow by jofia devoe, after five designs; fonts: "cafe rojo" & "plastique"; created in broderbund printshop & edited in adobe photoshop elements)

ok, so the first one is for my very very dear friend trish's blog. in addition to being one of the smartest and most thoughtful people sho's ever been born, trish is an amazing knitter & quilter, full-time career-woman AND mom to the cutest kids on the planet who are not actually related to me. she writes about all of those things (& occasionally about the search for LUSCIOUS yarn at discount prices...which she usually FINDS!) quite hilariously on her blog, ONE MOM'S UNBALANCED LIFE. if you are a crafty working mom, you will definitely recognize the feeling of being pulled in a zillion directions at once, and be amazed by HOW MUCH she gets done on any given day!

(this is the first time i've made a background from scratch in photoshop: i wanted those nice overlapping translucent layers of circles, which coordinate pretty nicely (if i do say so myself!) with amy's existing blog badges; there are no designer product here, just shapes from photoshop, sparkles from printshop, and a font called "ck nitelite")

if you're a papercrafter, you may recognize the second header already: yes, it is the banner above the brand-new blog for the already awesome series of "look how far we've come" challenges that the amazin' amy tsuruta was hosting on her own blog TSURUTA DESIGNS during 2010; that feature became SO very popular that this year she's fired it up in its very own corner of t'internet, the FLASHBACK FRIDAY CHALLENGE blog!!! if you haven't been there yet, you should *definitely* check it out because the premise is quite brilliant: every two weeks or so, amy dares us to share something from our own personal creative time capsules; the first cards we ever posted publicly, the first layouts we ever shared online, etc; and did i mention there are PRIZES??!?! version 7.0 is going live this friday, 1/14 and you don't want to miss it!