Anne's 12 x 12 Step Program

Let's Scrap Blog Hop - Whoo Hoo!!!

2012-02-29T23:59:00.001-06:00

It's finally here!!!

The Let's Scrap Leap Around the World Blog Hop!!! 50 blogs strong and 1 month long!!!

Please note that this post is "sticky" and will stay on top of my blog through the 29th.

My blog is #23 and you should have arrived here from Sharon-Lee's blog. If you did not, Mindi Brown @ http://scrapchat-n-coffeetalk.blogspot.com/ has the hop order to help you find your way.

Welcome!!! It's great to have you here! You have landed in Wisconsin, USA. This is the great sketch I got to work with:

And here is the card I made. It's for my mom's 80th birthday and I used scraps (Bazzill and Kaisercraft and others) from my stash. Aren't cards a great way to use up those odds and ends you can't bear to throw out?

And...this is the blog candy I am offering as a prize for participating through my blog - some super fun stuff by 7 Gypsies!

It is so easy to enter my random drawing! Come on - do it!!!!! You know you want to!

Your can enter your name into the drawing ONE time by simply:

*Being or becoming a member of Let’s Scrap - which you can do by clicking here http://letsscrap.ning.com/ . It is free, easy and fast! Once you get there, I am sure you will love it! They've got great sketches, fun challenges, awesome tutorials and super creative members!

*Becoming a follower of my blog (current blog followers who are also Let's Scrap members - or join during this hop - count too)

*Leaving me a comment here and tell me what is the one thing that will always get your mojo moving.

And you can get a bonus entry in the drawing - just:

*Make a card from the sketch I have posted and upload it to the gallery at Let’s Scrap. Please tag it as 5-1-11, LEAP23

(Please note that LEAP is all capitals and there is a space after the comma. Proper tagging is important so everyone can be included in my drawing!)

*Leave a comment with a link to your card on Let’s Scrap.

The hop ends at 11:59 pm Central Standard time February 29th. You can track Central time using the clock on the main page of Let’s Scrap. Winners will be posted in early March on the Let's Scrap site and then I will post my winner here.

Thanks so much for stopping!

The next stop is #24 where your host is Michelle #24 at http://allthingsbling-michr.blogspot.com/. You're almost half way through the hop! Enjoy the rest of your journey and I'm looking forward to seeing all the fabulous cards you post!

anne

Leap Around the World Blog Hop - tomorrow!!!!!

2012-01-31T18:14:00.003-06:00

Feb. 1 marks the beginning of the Let's Scrap LEAP Around the World month long, 50 blog strong blog hop. All the hosts will have prizes - including me!!!

The drawings are for Let's Scrap members only so if you're not a member, check it out and sign up and get in on all the fun in Feb.

Let's Scrap has sketches, prizes, challenges, tutorials and wonderfully creative members.

Scrapping the Music #186 and Let's Scrap

2012-01-22T14:27:00.006-06:00

Hope everyone is having (had) a great weekend!

First I just have to share the sweetest card I received from my friends Michelle, Lynn and Christina letting me know they missed me on the retreat last weekend (kid issues kept me home). While I certainly missed the marathon scrapping, I know I missed their company more! What nice happy mail!!!!!

I was really stumped on the STM challenge this week - not a one of my ideas seemed to come together. Then I found an fabulous graphic in a Nature Conservatory ad in "O". It's hard to read but the words forming the "world" are "it's not my problem", over and over again. Wow. So I used it as the basis for my page. Someone at work was giving away free calendars they'd received from various organizations. I've scanned in all the awesome animal photos and choose a few for this page.

I also used this week's card sketch at Let's Scrap to create a LO - Christine in Hawaii from '07. She chose the word "inspired" for the title. The January challenge at Scrapbookers Anonymous
is to use a mask - which I did with paint. At first I was a little bummed that some areas got a little too much paint and it spread a bit but I decided I liked it.

Feb. 1 marks the beginning of the Let's Scrap LEAP Around the World month long, 50 blog strong blog hop. All the hosts will have prizes - including me!!! The drawings are for Let's Scrap members only so if you're not a member, check it out and sign up and get in on all the fun in Feb. Let's Scrap has sketches, prizes, challenges, tutorials and wonderfully creative members. Check it out!

stay warm and stay healthy! thanks for stopping!

anne

A home based scrapping retreat!

2012-01-14T11:15:00.005-06:00

This was the weekend for my little group's annual scrapping retreat - 4 days of scrapping fun and friendship. However, life had something else in store for me. My C., who has had the chronic pain issues, got a concussion in gym class Thursday. And KT, on her last weekend home before going back to college, got a bad stomach bug. So rather than field anxious phone calls from a few hours away and feeling guilty about being away from home, I decided to stay here and continue to re-organize my scrap room and try and get some pages completed.

I did a LO combining Scrapping the Music's challenge and Sketchy Thursday's last sketch (sad face). The song from STM was "Who says" by Selena Gomez.

I also used some sketches from Let's Scrap.

Two of these old photos were not in good shape so I scanned and re-printed as B/W.

And I finally used a partially completed page from a ScrapFest class last fall:

Heading out on the road to take Kate back to school - have a great day everyone! Thanks for visiting!

anne

Scrapping the Music and Let's Scrap

2012-01-08T14:25:00.006-06:00

The challenge this week at Scrapping the Music was Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart". I chose to use this photo of my just turned 17 yr old dd Christine. At about 18 mos she is surrounded by her favorite "feel good" must haves. I used this week's sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.

Last week I completed the sketch at the Let's Scrap community - a great 2-pager! I love using so many large photos! Last summer's Graphic 45 line was perfect for the marching show this year, which was a twisted, nightmare in OZ theme.

I've been using sketches from Let's Scrap for awhile but haven't been very active on the community site. However - that is changing and will change in a big way in February. Let's Scrap is hosting a 50 blog, month long blog hop and I am excited to be one of the blog hosts. I will have prizes that month for new followers, current followers and people who complete the sketch I was assigned. I'm hoping to make the rounds as well to as many other blogs as I can!

Be sure and stop on back!!!

And I am very busy organizing for my retreat this weekend! Can't wait for the fun with my friends and hours and hours and hours of scrappy time!

thanks for visiting and have a great day!

anne

Top 2000 New Year's Eve - end of the party!

2011-12-31T11:08:00.005-06:00

It's the end of the Top 2000 blog party at Marit's today - it's been great fun and I've enjoyed the music streaming from her blog all week as well as the incredible artwork! This is such a great way to wrap up the year and ease into the next one!

My last song chosen by random number generator was #147 the Cave by Mumford and Sons. Iused water color paint, glimmer mist, and a little acrylic paint on the final center sun. I'm making a simple book-ring bound book that should hold 7 pieces for the 2012 blog party too.

Today I am making an attempt to clean out and start re-organizing my scrap room. I started in one area and then I realized I should probably come up with a plan first! I'm also getting things ready to start Cathy Zielske's Move More, Eat Well class which kicks off tomorrow.

have a fabulous start t0 2012!

anne

Dec 30 Top 2000 and anticipating new classes

2011-12-30T09:08:00.005-06:00

Random number generator was kind to me today and chose a song I know and love for today's Top 2000. At #509 - Boys of Summer by Don Henley. I love these colors and textures. I'm wrapping up my final piece today.

To start the year off, I just signed up for a few classes at Big Picture Scrapbooking: Move more and eat well with Cathy Zielske which starts Jan. 1 and goes all year. I also signed up for 28 cards in 4 weeks with Aly Dosdall which kicks off in Feb. I am looking forward to both!!!

The end of the year is rapidly approaching. I will not be sorry to see 2011 go. A new year, new possibilities.

have a great day!

anne

Top 2000 Day 4 Percy Sledge "When a Man Loves a Woman"

2011-12-28T19:12:00.004-06:00

What a great day on Marit's Top 2000 blog party! It's so exciting that her party/blog are getting mentioned in media coverage of this event!!!

Random number generator choose #1070 for me today - Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman". I've continued my approach of focusing in on a few words or phrases as inspiration for my piece, instead of the song as a whole or the artist.

Thebackground on this piece is very pretty IRL - I layered paint and glimmer mist and it is very rich and shimmery. The rain drops are covered in gold leaf.

I'ts been a lot of fun to have these little projects to do, just for the pleasure of playing.

take care!

anne

Top 2000 Day 3

2011-12-27T05:02:00.004-06:00

Day 3 of Radio 2, Netherlands Top 2000 songs of all time - blog party hosted by Marit! Marit has some super exciting news too about her blog party and the media - congratulations, Marit!

Be sure and check out her blog, linked above, for some awesome pieces inspired by music!

Random number generator chose #1268 this time which turned out to be Cambodia by Kim Wilde. Have heard of Kim but not this song. I took a little twist on the intent of the lyrics. I used Tim Holtz world map stamp and retro-airplane stamps, an old key from who knows where and an image from some stationary that I'd scanned.

I had a hideously long day at work and am helping KT with her computer virus issues tonight so I think I will fall a little behind on the countdown pieces but I'm looking forward to seeing what's new tomorrow on Marit's blog.

Have a great day!

anne

Top 2000 Day 2 #1791

2011-12-26T07:56:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday! Always up early, I got to spend a few quiet hours in my scrap room working on Top 2000 ideas - well, quiet except for the streaming music from Radio 2, Netherlands! Also enjoyed a long walk in a state park on our unusually sunny and warm Christmas - so nice!

Random number generator came up with another song I've never heard of before - #1791, "The Old Fashioned Way" by Charles Aznavour. I pulled out lyrics that reminded me of a photo my step-daughter had done of her pregnant belly and the ultrasound photo.

Ultrasound baby on Christmas Eve (5 mos):

My favorite photo from Christmas - Cooper with his new stuffed friend "Ringo" who is as big as Cooper is:

It's back to the office tomorrow so I'm hoping to work on a few more Top 2000 pieces today. However...my office is a disaster of major proportions. I'd started moving everything to an empty bedroom across the hall so I could re-organize but we had a sudden, unexpected call from a kid who'd moved out and needed to move back home that night. So all my stuff got stuffed back in any old place. I have about a square foot of usable work space.

Time to start counting down soon for my scrappy group's weekend retreat in January. Big Smile!

Have a fabulous day! Thank you for visiting!

anne

Top 2000 Dec. 25 and Xmas ornaments

2011-12-25T11:20:00.000-06:00

I've anxiously been waiting for Marit's Top 2000 Blog Party - and it's finally here!!! Last year I chose songs that held personal memories for me. This year I took each days range of songs and used a random number generator to pick the song numbers for me.

So today I have song #1845 - Dolce Paola by Adamo. Yes - it's in Italian and while I don't entirely trust the free tranlator I used, the words dove and flower showed up a few times so I figured I was safe there! I used gel medium mixed with paint, 7 gypsies tape, stamps, brads and a paper scrap. I also covered the dove and the background with Distress crackle paint/rock candy but it doesn't show in the photo.

I spent my scrapping time this month working on an album for my mom's 80 birthday and making ornaments for everyone in my family. Here a few hanging on our small tree.

We had our family Christmas dinner/gifts last evening so today is a quiet day. Hope everyone builds special memories this holiday season!

And - it's been difficult - but I've kept my "use my stash/no purchasing vow" since 11/1.

thank you for visiting!

Anne

The Countdown has started!

2011-10-23T16:45:00.010-05:00

After an unexpected hiatus from blogs and challenges, I am gearing up to get back in the game! I am super excited. The past few months have been difficult and exhausting as K. had 2 surgeries and went off to college and C. spent several months in severe pain with no diagnosis. We still don't know the cause but are finally near the top of the waiting list for the pain clinic and have an appointment in a few weeks. Thankfully the pain has backed off enough that she can go to school and do most of her activities. And during all this I decided to start on another graduate degree.

While I haven't been doing challenges, I have been doing some projects. The biggest thing I did was create a baby's first year album for my step-daughter. She's quite the DIY mom but I think she's happy to have the ready made album for these first months. Here are a few of my favorite pages.

BTW - I get to babysit W. for a few hours on Friday's now that A. has gone back to work. Here he is helping me make apple crisp last Friday.

I am also working on 5 mini-albums for marching band. C. was in color guard and they give gifts to the departing seniors. I am using a kit from Pinecone Press for 3 albums and am making 2 with items I have on hand. Here is one kit in progress. The paper is Graphic 45's super cute Wizard of Oz theme. The marching show this year was titled "Somewhere Over the Nightmare" - a sort of twisted Wizard theme. They won state with this show (5th year in a row!!!) and C.'s guard won top honors. There are flip and pocket pages and I am altering them to include things from the show.

A decent video of the show is on youtube if you've never seen a marching band competitive field show. Between all the kids we've been involved every year since 2002.

While scrapping with my friends yesterday we got into a common discussion around the extent of "stash" we have on hand and speculating on long we live off it. Well I've decided to find out. I am committing - starting Nov. 1 - to working off of my stash for at least 1 year. My friend Lynn is joining me for the first 6 months. Allowable items are limited to adhesive, page protectors and albums. Lynn can purchase plain card stock 'cause she doesn't really have a stash of this. I do!
How long can I last???? What will I run out of first??? In a little more than 1 week I guess I will start finding out! (shhh...hope there are some super sales between now and then).

I really missed the blog world but just didn't have the energy to participate - can't wait to catch up on what's been happening by visiting your blogs!

Thank you for visiting! : )

Anne

Scrapping the Music #170 Good Days, Sketchy Thursdays

2011-04-19T17:38:00.005-05:00

Had a great day scrapping Saturday with my friends - and it was extra fun because we had extra friends with us!!! Karla hasn't been able to scrap with us for almost a year and I'm so glad she made it!!!! Debbie was also with us for a bit and Lynn, who doesn't scrap, brought her 9 yr old daughter and adorable little baby. Despite all the conversation and laughing I'm happy to say I got 14 pages done! Yeah - graduation is only weeks away...

Sketchy Thursdays has a 2 page LO I used it a few times - I almost always do 2 page LOs and was so excited to see this one! This is my favorite of the two I did (the other needs some tweaking). The photos are from a video Kate made while on the Dumbo's last month. I love seeing these oh-so-grown up 18 year olds be as excited as 5 year olds!

Turning the clock back 18 years for my LO for Scrapping The Music and the song "Good Days".

I thought of this picture right away when I heard the song lyrics. The photo turned out really bad (really need a new camera - the focus on this one is dying) but its a lot cuter IRL! I did a lot of hand stitching with embroidery floss so it's heavier than machine sewing.

Thanks for visiting! Hope you have a terrific day!

anne

Hanging by a Moment, latest STM challenge; 21 Secrets

2011-04-02T09:46:00.007-05:00

The new challenge is posted at Scrapping The Music. "Hanging By A Moment". This is an awesome song with so many interesting lyrics that can be interpreted in different ways. Here my LO. The paper is super old but I really liked the colors and how it picked up my daughter's blue fleece jacket (she is holding a sign and looking back towards the camera). I've lived in Wisconsin for 9 years now and it always struck me as stable, kind of boring, "just there" state (beautiful scenary in many places though...). Except for the Packers, it doesn't get much national attention. But this past winter with a change in the political climate it seems all Hell broke loose. It's been very interesting watching my high school daughters pay attention to politics, debate, form their own opinions and take action.

On this LO the photo flips up and I wrote Christine's Facebook status from that day

The 21 Secrets playground opened yesterday and I choose to start with the Playing with Patterns workshop by Debra Cooper. She is showing us techniques for making our own patterned paper with paint, stamps and stencils. There are so many intriguing choices it was hard to know where to start. But I am having a lot of fun with this one and hope that have a nice stack of hand painted paper before the weekend is over. Not sure what I'll do with it yet but I bet I get ideas in other workshops. Here are a few of my favorite papers and a flower that I made with my "clean the brush and stamp" paper. It turned out looking like madras plaid.

STM Closer to Fine

2011-03-28T21:17:00.005-05:00

I feel so behind on so many fronts right now - yikes. After a non-stop, no sleep week in Orlando with the high school bands, I got to spend a fun Sunday afternoon with my scrapping friends (yeah!) but my daughter got sick that evening and we ended up at the emergency room at 4 a.m. with surgery following a few hours later for her appendix (I am so very grateful that it didn't blow up while we were on the 30 hour bus trip home). And then I got her as settled as I could and flew out for a work conference (I was presenting or would have probably skipped it). I have been very tired and not the least bit creative.

But I did enjoy making the rounds of the Closer to Fine entries at STM. I think that is just what I needed to get the spark going again!!! What fabulous pages and fun interpretations! A little more blog catching up this week and I think I might be ready to play again. My "one little word" for the year is Release and I created this page for my OLW journal. The lyrics are a perfect reminder to me of release on many different levels. I was also taking a class called Embrace Imperfection when I was working on this and I resisted re-doing the writing and a few other things that didn't turn out as I envisioned - which is good because it fits into my theme better anyway! The colors are a little more saturated IRL too. Anyway - the color inspiration is from Buffalo Wild Wings. I pass one of their restaurants everyday on the bus and I have always loved their color scheme and branding and have been looking for an opportunity to play with it.

thanks for visiting! have a terrific week!

Springtime on the LO! Scrapbookers Anon and Bella/Mona Lisa

2011-03-12T09:40:00.004-06:00

Woke up to more snow and some gusty winds - oh joy!!! Thankfully I get to leave tomorrow for Orlando. I am one of the chaperones for the high school band trip. Looking forward to a week of blue skies, real flowers and green grass and if I'm lucky - a little sun-kissed skin to contrast with the northern climate, winter pallor!

I recently joined the Bella Creations community and the Ah La Mona Lisa group there - yeah! More sketches! I love the vintage, shabby look and haven't done much with it so am looking forward to learning a lot. I also incorporated the "use 7 or more flowers from your stash" March challenge at Scrapbookers Anonymous. My flowers on this page range from 6mos to 6 years old but all fell into the "they are too pretty to use" trap. I love them here - just the right page.

The sketch is actually from Sassy Lil' Sketches.

Off to finish crossing items off the to-do list - have a great day!!!

Sketchy Thursday "North Shore 2007"

2011-03-08T18:51:00.002-06:00

Dug deep into my stash for this LO based on Sketchy Thursdays latest sketch. The LO is from 2007 and I'm pretty sure that's when I bought the paper too. We spent Labor Day weekend way up on the North Shore, near Canada. Our exchange student had just arrived so it was a good time for everyone to get to her and vice versa. All six of our girls plus one boyfriend were along and all six of those girls spent most of their time complaining that they couldn't get signals for their cell phones. Crazy!!!

thanks for visiting - don't forget to check out Scrapping The Music's latest challenge!

anne

Scrapbook Challenges and Scrap and Stamp

2011-03-03T18:37:00.003-06:00

It's been a very long time since I've had time to scrap during the week (must have something to do with my youngest getting her license so I don't have to play taxi driver every night) - this is nice way to relax.

I used Scrapbook Challenges sketch 243 for this LO and combined it with the challenge at Scrap and Stamp which was to create a black and white LO with only 1 accent color. This page is for Christine's album - I realize most people probably don't have photos of grocery store trucks in their album but there was a Sainsbury up the street from our hotel where we'd pick up breakfast and lunch. Funny what memories really stick for kids!

The hearts are stamped - and the flowers I made using nested flowers (Cricut) and some new tools from McGill to make 3D flowers. Need to practice. But I think there's potential. Lots of steps but I like the samples I've seen. I did pick up some of Cosmo Crickets new Glubbers for making fabric flowers. Something to play with this weekend.

Hop on over to Scrapping The Music - the newest song is Chances Are from Five for Fighting. Great lyrics to inspire your next project!

thanks for visiting!!!!

Embracing Imperfection, Scrapping the Music and Painted Petals

2011-02-28T20:33:00.013-06:00

Whoo Hoo - it's March!!!! Can spring be far behind??? Well, where I am it can be but I'm choosing to be optimistic today and forgetting that just a week ago we had another 20 " of new snow.

I just completed a short class at Big Picture Classes called "Embracing Imperfection". Goodness knows my life and my scrapping is filled with just that - and rather than fighting it, agonizing over it, and generally making myself crazy, I thought a little attitude adjustment was in order. I also thought it fit into my 2011 word - Release. Karen Grunberg, the instructor, suggested making a mini-journal on the subject. She says she keeps hers handy in her workspace to remind her to keep things in perspective. I thought I'd share a few pages of mine.

Last fall I took a Melody Ross class at ScrapFest. We used her Chip Art products to emboss the cover of a little chipboard album. We didn't get very far in class - just the pounding and a little painting and it's been sitting in a drawer ever since. Since this had been a new technique with new tools for me (and I was rushed) my embossing was far from perfect so I figured this was the "perfect" little journal to use for this project. I also made a few pages based on a P!nk song, and a quote.

I made the flower above from some fabric I got from a friend and the bird below from some old linen pants. My current self-imposed challenge is to use fabric on as many projects as I can.

Sunday I was able to take an Archiver's class with my sister-in-law called Painted Petals. We used reverse stamps, embossing powder and painted with Distress Ink and water pens. Very fun. This is one of the cards I made. I love the water color effect. Will definately play more with this - years ago I got some water pens in a kit but didn't know what to do with them.
There is a new challenge up at Scrapping the Music. They very kindly asked me to be a guest designer for March and April. Yikes! Totally freaking out over being in the company of this fabulous design team. The first song for March is "Chances Are" by Five for Fighting. I created this for DD-2's (Christine) album from our London/Paris vacation from a few years ago. She loves vintage clothes and accessories so I thought I'd go a little shabby chic for her album.

I made the two smaller flowers from some fabric I took from an old comforter and created the double image photo by pure accident while trying to improve my very limited photo editing skills. I based my LO on Sketch 141 at Creative Scrappers. I had great fun with this challenge and I can't wait to see what everyone does with it.

thanks for visiting!!! have a wonderful day!!!

anne

Sketchy Thursdays

2011-02-14T10:29:00.005-06:00

I use the sketches from Sketchy Thursdays a lot - but not usually the week they're live : )

This time I managed it though - this page is going to open a short section in Kate's album on a vacation from 2005 when we were joined by her older half-brother, and aunts/uncles/cousins/

grandparents. I realize a lot of families vacation this way but mine does not. This was the one and only time. Not cause we don't get along but more about schedules and different vacation interests.

have a terrific day!!

anne

Scrapping the Music #165

2011-02-13T10:43:00.005-06:00

When I saw that the STM challenge was "New Shoes" I knew I had to use a xmas photo of Kate with her yellow Converse. She begged for these shoes for months and was disappointed when they didn't show up in a gift on her birthday. But some things are worth waiting for!

And speaking of waiting - I've been waiting for weeks and weeks and weeks for a day when I could take photos outside. And it's finally here!!!! It's still before noon and the temp is almost 40. Whoo and 2-Hoo's!!! Just a few days ago I was waiting for the bus with a temp of 2 above 0 and a windchill of 25 below zero. Had to stand at an odd angle because of the sun (and there are still a few odd shadows on the photo) but who cares! Not me!!!

For this LO I scrap lifted from a Jan. xoxo LO by Alaina Erickson.

have a terrific day!

anne

STM "Things Have Changed"

2011-01-10T13:52:00.003-06:00

Was the song choice intentional?? There have been some changes at Scrapping The Music including a new Guest Designer and some new Design Team members. "Things have Changed" by Bob Dylan.

One thing that hasn't changed is the great prompts, terrific DT examples and the fun!

I focused on the song lyrics "gonna fly high" for this LO for Kate's London/Paris album - which has a few other LOs completed but will be the focus of my upcoming 4 day scrappy retreat with Michelle and Christina! 4 days...Yeah!!!

thanks for visiting!

anne

Very Cool Idea for all my Artsy friends!

2011-01-08T08:15:00.004-06:00

Just read an article in my local newspaper called : Wanted: Six Word Stories with Art. A local artist and writer had teamed up for 2010 and wrote/created artwork everyday for 6 word stories. The idea came from a Hemingway quote. They have started a website and are inviting people from around the world to play along. Here is one example of something they did last year.

Made me think of all my talented and creative friends so I thought I would share it with you. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/113085629.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUsX

Top 2000 special art journal

2010-12-26T17:14:00.006-06:00

From Christmas to New Year's Day I am playing along with a special blog party over at Marit's. A radio station in the Netherlands plays the listener generated Top 2000 songs of all time. For more about this special event - be sure and check out Marit's blog. It's been super fun and there is a very interesting array of pages each day. She's also linked the radio station to her blog so you can listen live to the broadcast as you look at the art!

I chose to focus on songs that have special meaning to me and use them as a journaling prompt - sort of a soundtrack for different parts of my life. I'm not one to scrap about myself - but I've created a few art journals this past year that are sort of visual diaries about my life or things that are important to me.

For Dec. 25 I chose The Rolling Stones' "Get off of my cloud". Whenever I hear this song I think about a special night from a college study abroad program and that's what my brief story is about for this page (dancing all night in a club in Berlin).

On Dec. 26 I chose Paul Simon's "Kodachrome". I used to dream about being a photojournalist - think "Life" or "National Geographic". Again - a song with a strong memory attached!

My Dec. 27 page is about my wonderful friend Betha - we lived together during grad school but have lost touch. She introduced me to the artist for this page - Alison Moyet. We'd listen to her cassette tapes as we drove into the city in Betha's little old Ford Fiesta for a night at the clubs(I remember gas being .90 a gallon and how we complained about gas prices using up our club money...). Anyway - this page is about Betha. I can't find the photo I want for it but saved a space. The image on the bottom right is from an envelope of vintage travel cards. The picture reminds of Betha.

thanks for visiting!!!

anne

Scrapping the Music #163 Times Like These

2010-12-21T20:52:00.004-06:00

The day of 1,000 interruptions but I've finally completed my page for STM. It's such a simple page it really should not have taken so long...

The song this week is by the Foo Fighters - Times Like These. I chose the lyrics "hang a star upon tonight" since Christmas is fast approaching. I really love the reminders about peace, love, simple pleasures, and traditions that are a part of the holiday season (although we have more than enough snow, thank you very much, for the whole white Christmas thing).

I've had this blog for a year now - my intent was to challenge myself to try new things and get out of the box I was in. Boy what a year it was! My friend Michelle introduced me to Scrapping the Music and thru this blog I discovered so many others and so very many wonderful and inspirational people. It's "times like these" when I reflect on then and now that leave me feeling amazed and grateful. Thank you to everyone who has inspired me with their work, shared kind comments here and extended a virtual hand of friendship! You're all amazing and I count myself so fortunate to be a part of creative communities!!!!!!

I wish you all joy, peace and love in the days and years ahead!

anne

STM and Sketchy Thursday

2010-12-12T19:44:00.005-06:00

It's been so long since I've posted - I've been scrapping (just not doing challenges) and wrapping up a great class with Marit and Michelle. And I had major computer issues - oh well. Feels good to be back on challenges. I love sketches and prompts - I end up with LOs I love and LOs I might never have made if it hadn't been for a specific prompt.

Challenge 161 at Scrapping the Music is "Suds in the Bucket". What a fun song!!! I ended up doing 2 LOs and I have ideas for a few more at some later point.

I couldn't resist this one - maybe because we had a blizzard this weekend. It was fun to think about summer! I shredded the grass a little on the ends to give it a shaggy feel and did double writing on the journaling to try and give it a wispy, blowing away in the wind feel. Anyway - one of my growing up, summer memories is clothes and sheets drying in the sunlight. I was thinking about how that's gone out of style. My kids have never known how wonderful the sheets smell after drying on the line...This LO is for my random theme personal memory lane album.

I paraphrased one of the lyrics for this LO with my daughter's graduation pictures. I also used this weeks sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays. Where did the years go???

A little news we've been celebrating. Kate (above) was accepted into one college and we're waiting to hear from a few others. She is quite relieved (and not so crabby now) and life is good! Also - my step-daughter Ashley, who got married last summer, is pregnant. It's our first grandchild and we're very excited. However, we can't tell anyone because they want to announce it to relatives at Christmas. So I'm telling you guys because I have to tell someone (and my scrap day with my friends was blizzard-ed out). Guess I get to start on some baby books!

thanks for visiting! have a wonderful day!!!

anne

Scrapping The Music and Mixed Emotions

2010-11-07T08:10:00.005-06:00

Scrapping the Music extended it's challenge for another week so I did get to play along with "Keeping the Faith". I incorporated lyrics into my "Love" page for Mixed Emotions. For this lesson we used watercolors and resist techniques.

I didn't like how my writing was turning out with the crayon on my draft so I decided to use stamps and watermark ink for most of my writing in keeping with the resist theme (although it didn't work as well as the crayon). I choose yellow and red ink because they are warm colors for a warm emotion. It's darker to the left and lighter as it moves down and across - darker with the first part of the title and lighter for the last. I highlighted a few words with embossing powder to make them stand out for an additional message. I thinned the ink with water and splashed it at the page for drips (tears).

My younger daughter wrote a speech on the love of power vs the power of love and how the simple juxtaposition of the words has such a profound effect on the meaning. So I picked that theme up here, added "the world waits" and "it's never too late". I've been so disgusted with politics in this country and the recent elections/ad campaigns on all sides. I know there are good people with good intentions in politics but the machines behind them seem to be so much more about power and control, it makes me sick. Add the violence, war, terrorism, discrimination, genocides, corruption preventing basic aid getting to desperate people.... Anyway - no more ranting.

Other lessons have been on Joy (paperwearving technique):

Loneliness (photo transfer):

And Fear (hidden journaling):

It's been fun and inspiring to see all the different interpretations of emotions across the workshop members. It's made me think about how many days I am really out of touch with my feelings (other than rushed and overwhelmed). Marit and Michelle are fabulous teachers!!!!

hope you all have a terrific day - thank you for visiting!

Scrapping the Music #156 and a Mixed Emotions page

2010-10-26T18:31:00.004-05:00

The song this week at STM is "Bubbly" - and although I tend to dislike perky songs I now have to give due credit to this song for giving me the perfect prompt for photos I've been looking at for months. I knew I wanted to do something fun but it just didn't click until I visited STM and didn't quite hit the mute button fast enough!!! I was happy to find the "wet" looking letters on the sale rack! That little baby is turning 18 in less than a week - sniff/sigh.

My Mixed Emotions art journaling class started last week and the first lesson was "courage". I focused on things I sometimes - or often - need to summon up my courage for. I am one of those women, as many of you probably are, that have Strong Woman Syndrome. And, as I reflected on the word, I realized that sometimes it takes more courage to lay down the shield and armour and be the one who isn't strong and lets others care for her. I like being strong and independent but it does have its drawbacks.

thanks for visiting!!! have a great day!!!!

STM and Sketchy Thursday

2010-10-12T12:30:00.005-05:00

I used this week's sketch from Sketchy Thursday for my Scrapping the Music LO based on the song "This is Home" from "The Chronicles of Narnia".

The photos are from my DD last day of 2nd grade in her old school, before we moved. She took a camera to school that day. I was very happy to find a use for my 3 apple buttons! They came in a kit a long time ago.

None of the LOs for her albums have much journaling on them. She's very private and, to be honest, lukewarm about the whole scrapbook idea. I'm typing up the stories about the photos and putting them on the back of the pages. That way it's there if she wants it someday - and if she doesn't tear it off herself, it will be there for the future too.

thanks for visiting!!! : )

Scrapbookers Anonymous

2010-10-05T19:03:00.003-05:00

My scrap time was a bit limited this weekend as I was off hiking with my husband and puppy for a long weekend. Had lots of fun with my new camera (not my dream camera but a perfectly adequate fill-in). We went up to Minnesota's "North Shore" along Lake Superior. For us land locked mid-westerners, it's a touch of New England/ocean.

The weather was perfect although most of the fall color was past its peak. That's ok. It was still time away with wonderful clean and crisp air, beautiful skies, waterfalls and the rocky coastline.

Since I was eager to play with some new fall photos I used the October prompt over at Scrapbookers Anonymous. The challenge was to use stash paper from 3 or more manufacturers, the older - the better. I also loved the sketch they posted for a DT call so grabbed on to that too. I used paper from Basic Grey, Fancy Pants and Little Yellow Bicycle. I admit freely that none of them were "old" but the BG and FP were leftover scraps. The LYB - well, I got these St. Patrick's Day themed papers in a kit last winter and didn't have a clue how I would ever use them. Not that they weren't lovely - I just couldn't "see". Anyway, I was rummaging thru my stash and decided that today was the day. I'd make it work. The leaf and dragonfly were leftovers from a class I took ages ago at a CKC. My supply of the month in October is paint so I used that on the title (I have this list of supplies like ribbon, stamps, eyelets, etc. by month and I have to use that supply on all my LOs in that month - a self imposed challenge!). Anyway - I'm quite happy with my reminder of a wonderful weekend!

thanks for visiting and I hope you have time to do something creative today!

Scrapbookers Anon, Sk Thurs, Fav Things - Poem

2010-09-26T21:04:00.010-05:00

Had a good weekend - hope you all did too! Did somethings around the house, made yummy apple crisp, went to a marching band competition and scrapped!!!

Julie TW mentioned a new scrap challenge blog in a post last week so I checked it out and it sounds like a lot of fun! Scrapbookers Anonymous focuses on using your stash! How great is that??? I've really been been focusing on doing that these past months (with the exception of Scrap Fest!) so I'm excited about another "nudge" and more ideas about getting creative with my stash. I self-define "stash" as stuff over 6 mos. old or leftovers from a completed project. The current challenge is to somehow use a template. I ended up doing 2 LOs this weekend for this challenge.

In this first LO I used an super old blocking template I got back in 2004 soon after I started scrapping. I used it to plan the placment of my background paper squares. All the paper I used in this LO is either super old or from my scraps box. The handprint stamp is one I got quite a long time ago. The store has been closed for at least 3 years. The letters,borders and photo corners are leftovers.

Then I used the negatives I'd saved from some chipboard letters to mist the title on my next LO. Again - old and left over paper. I made the flowers - 2 are fabric (the purple one is actually an off white linen that I misted) and one is a paper flower made from scraps. Brads and pearls are from my stash as well. The thin mat under the photos got a little wrinkled from over misting but I decided to embrace the flaw and call it texture!

Sketchy Thursdays has an awesome multi-photo sketch to play with this week. I scaled back for my LO but I love 2 page, "use lots of photos" LOs and I know I'll use this one again.

One I've finally taken the time to play with These Are a Few of My Favorite Things! Fav Poem is the topic this time. I knew what I wanted to do right away. This is my absolute favorite poem ever. The version I have doesn't give it a title but I call it "Lost". It's based on a Northwest Indian teaching story. An elder answers the question "What do I do when I'm lost in the forest?" Some of my fav lines are "Wherever you are is called here"; "If what a tree or a branch does is lost on you, then you are surely lost" and "Stand still. The forest knows where you are. You must let it find you". Anyway - in the spirit of stash, all the trees in my forest are from scraps. I wrote the poem on a transparency and gave it a little white wash on the back to help the words stand out. Scattered here and there on the page are words from the poem. They are barely visible IRL and I don't think they show on the photo - in the poem the forest whispers and these are my whispers.

hope it is a good week! do something creative everyday!

New Blog Button!!!!

2010-09-23T22:50:00.009-05:00

I just have to say a huge thank you to Sandi (be sure to check out her blog Maximum Embellishment!). A few weeks ago I won a prize on her blog during Scrapbook Challenges Season of Change blog hop. The prize was a button or blinkie designed by Susie. Look! My new button is just over on the left! Isn't it fabulous!!!!! Susie actually took a LO I'd posted on my blog as the background and added the super awesome vintage elements. I love it!!!!

A million thanks to both Sandi and Susie!!!

Susie's 1st Floor Flat sites:
Web
Etsy
Blogs: 1st Floor Flat
1st Floor Flat Freebies
1st Floor Flat Blogology

Blog: http://www.bladerubberstamps-blog.com/

Scrap Fest 2010

2010-09-19T20:31:00.016-05:00

Scrap Fest 2010 is now history (sad face)...what a great time with my friends and all the fabulous, creative people sharing their ideas and techniques!! Lots of focus on handmade flower embellishments and ruffles! You know those free paper rulers from IKEA? They make awesome ruffles! Saw a lot of paper lines with very saturated colors too -

I was very lucky for a change and won several prizes - like a Basic Grey paperpack (wander collection), a new crop-a-dile and eyelets, and a few others.

Took a great class from awesome Julie Comstock and very funny Lindsey (cosmo cricket) - Julie played Oprah and gave everyone a fabulous pack of pixie-licious stuff. We also did the cosmo cricket crop and got more wonderful stuff from them - boy were they generous!!! Here is 1 LO from my time with cosmo cricket.

Also took a class with Heidi Swapp(wow what energy). Because of the time limit we were "speed misting" and worked on glimmer misting pages and embellishments. I really like the crepe paper we misted - will have to find some more of that. I'm going to be creating a little mini album for me of our trip to Paris last summer.

Worked on a cool flashcard style mini-album with October Afternoon (this one will feature photos from London since the album includes papers with vintage maps of the city):

Also had a class with Melody Ross (loved her!). Used her chipboard embossing tools and worked on a mini-album cover. No photo - haven't gotten back to that one to work on it anymore. Did you know about her Brave Girls club? Check it out - way cool!

A super fun class with Tim Holtz (love him - omg! i swear that man was surrounded by adoring women all weekend!) who also gave us a lot of awesome free stuff! This project we actually finished in the 45 min class! Totally due to Tim and I assume his helpers, doing the cutting and hole punching prep work.

On Saturday night we cropped in our hotel room and did a round robin LO. We each had a photo of the 4 of us at Scrap Fest and chose our own paper. Then we rotated the LOs every 15 minutes so that each of us added something to every LO. Very fun and special!!

I also took classes with American Crafts (using a Dear Lizzy line), Basic Grey (Max and Whiskers line), and a class called Vintage Blue from We R Memory Keepers.

Can't wait for next year!!!

thanks for visiting!!!

Reg. open for exciting art journaling class, Sketchy Thursdays, Creative Scrappers

2010-09-08T18:15:00.009-05:00

Happy Wednesday!

I have a really cool opportunity I want to share with you. Registration is open for an exciting art journaling class:

This is the description from the registration website:

Teachers: Marit Barentsen & Michelle LaPoint Rydell

Art journaling focuses on putting your personal thoughts and emotions on paper and you don’t always have to use words to do that! Even if you're not a writer you can create meaningful art journal pages because an emotion can be expressed through a photograph, a color, a material or a particular technique. In this workshop we will explore one specific emotion each lesson, and take that emotion as the basis to create a personal art journal page. What does each specific emotion mean to you? You are encouraged to explore your inner world and your perception of your emotions and turn them into art journal pages. Each lesson also explains a different technique, step-by-step, through photos or an instructional video.
The techniques are consistent with the emotion.

Techniques include gel medium photo transfer, paper weaving, writing meaningful journaling, using paint on the page etc. Inspiration videos stuffed with art, layouts, quotes and music will help to get the ideas flowing and set the creative process in motion. The lessons also contain printable collage sheets with photos, quotes and images for you to use in your work. You are challenged to explore your inner self and take a step further in your creativity. This is your opportunity to learn new approaches to self-expression. Do you dare to explore your emotions?

Doesn't that sound awesome??? I've taken 2 art journaling workshops with Marit - had never done anything like that before. It was so much fun! I couldn't wait for each new lesson. Marit creates a wonderful community and has created interersting lessons that will stretch your creativity and your spirit. Check out Marit's blog!! I can't wait to join her again in this new class. I haven't taken any workshops with Michelle but I know her and scrap with her IRL and she creates amazing art journals. She is warm, cheerful, supportive and I know she is going to be a fabulous teacher. Check out Michelle's blog!!! Join me next month for what is sure to be an incredible experience!! Even if you've never done art journaling before - lots of techniques can be used for scrap pages and you may just find another outlet for your creative spirit!

I did complete a few other challenges over the long weekend but I put off posting because the photos are so bad. But alas, the camera issue is far from resolved. going on a weekend trip in a few weeks though so have to figure something out!

This is based on Sketchy Thursday's sketch this week. IRL the colors are more intense!

And for Creative Scrappers I did a 2pager - the first page flipped the sketch on its side and the 2nd page is the original sketch. Again - looks much better IRL!

One quick rant to close...I hate this disposable world we live in where it is cheaper to buy new than to fix something that is broken...sad face on the price quote I got for sending my camera in to be fixed. sigh. going to go walk the dog before it gets dark.

have a great evening! thanks for visiting!!! really - check out that art journaling class!!!

Blog giveaway winner and Scrapping the Music

2010-09-07T05:25:00.003-05:00

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during the Scrapbook Challenges Seasons of Change blog hop! I had a great time participating and I hope you did too! Boy is there a lot of talent and inspiration out there!! A special thanks to everyone who signed up as a follower of my blog! I appreciate it!!!!

The winner of the vintage paper pak is becnalec!!!! Congratuations! I will send you a message on Scrapbook Challenges so we can connect and I can get the pak off in the mail to you.

This week's challenge on Scrapping the Music is "We are going to be friends" by the White Stripes, theme song from Napolean Dynamite. Fabulous lyrics to work with! If you're not familiar with them, please go check them out!! STM is an awesome challenge site!!

I choose " and we don't notice any time pass" for a LO of my daughters with their cousin Erin. Erin joined us for a vacation in 2006. The photo is quite washed out, esp on the bottom right. My camera is going on the fritz and over exposing portions of photos. Anyone have any suggestions on a replacement?? Been wanting to upgrade to a digital SLR.

thanks for visiting!! have a wonderful day!

Seasons of Change blog hop and a giveaway from me!

2010-09-04T21:10:00.009-05:00

I've been participating in Scrapbook Challenges Season's of Change blog hop - hoppin around to meet the new design team and say good-bye to the out going team members. I love this site! The sketches are amazing and there's always extra stuff going on too. Members were invited to join the blog hop by completing the hop sketch and posting it on their own blog.

Join the fun and do some hopping of your own this weekend! There are super fabulous prizes waiting to be won and some really inspiring work to be seen! All the necessary links are at the bottom of this posting.

This is the sketch:

And this is my LO - it's for my DD Kaitlyn's album. She's graduating this year and all my LOs lately have been for her albums. She is all about bright colors! Sometimes I picture people needing their sunglasses when they look at her albums! Anyway, it helps so much to have sites like Scrapbook Challenges - new ideas giving variety to my LOs; really helps me from getting stale! And it's so much fun to see how different people interpret the sketch!

In the spirit of the hop I will give away a small prize to anyone (hopping or not)who leaves a comment and is or becomes a follower. Randomly generated winner to be chosen at 5am central time, Tuesday morning. Although I haven't been using it in my work lately, I love old, vintagy stuff!! And so I am giving away a pak of vintage papers (sheet music, pages from books and old magazines) and animal gin rummy cards - I purchased all the items in a local charity based re-sale shop:

Now to the all important links!!!

To start the blog hop - visit the fabulous Pamela Young's blog. I've been following for awhile now and enjoy her work - check it out!

Click on Scrapbook Challenges to check this great site!

And this link goes back to the Hop On! section on the Scrapbook Challenges site for anyone participating in the extra hops.

thanks for visiting!!!

vintage jewelry give away - passing the word!

2010-09-03T20:45:00.001-05:00

Have to share this posting on Vintage Moth - they are giving away vintage jewelry. You have to visit the blog for photos - beautiful pieces!!!!!

good luck to us all!!!

Use Your Stash class

2010-09-03T18:06:00.005-05:00

I signed up for a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking called Use Your Stash, lead by May Flaum. Class started yesterday - large international group, active chat, great LOs being added to the gallery!

The name of the class attracted my right away - if the only think I could buy was adhesive, paper protecters and albums, I could scrap for a very long time before my supplies ran dry!!! (Maybe I should actually try that...) Anyway - I've been working on 3 LOs based on May's prompts and loosely on her examples. With the exception (I think) of some alphas I got in kit's last winter, everything is at least 3 years old - and several papers/items are 5+ yrs old. For example, I know I bought the zipper in a little craft store in Cross Lake, MN. I haven't even been in that area for 4 years and our last 2 trips up there included guests who I know didn't shop with us. So...at least 6 years on the zipper. (Probably very sad that I can recall that store and other things I bought that day...)

I added some journaling in the little border spaces as well as repeating some words from my title.

And I actually got the sewing machine out again...maybe I'll get the hang of it faster if I actually take it out of the box!

Got to use lots of chipboard on this one...and I used some scraps from my journaling paper to make flowers. Yeah for not adding to stash!

Anway - I'm looking forward to seeing how this class unfolds!

thanks for visiting!!

Sketchy Thursdays and Scrapbook Challenges

2010-08-31T13:26:00.013-05:00

Couldn't put the scrapping away after my Saturday crop and completed a few more pages.

For the current sketch from Sketchy Thursdays - hard to see in the photo but the top and bottom doodled frame contain the title words ove and over again. On the right hand side it says "Kaitlyn and Barney". Date is on the left.

I also added a few photos to my Scrapbook Challenges page. I did both the 1 and 2 page versions of sketch #215. Photos are from the same trip so will be together in the album.

thanks for visiting!!!

A great day of scrapping!!

2010-08-29T08:08:00.007-05:00

What a fun day yesterday with my friends! It's good to laugh and see what other's are working on...and be inspired by their creativity!

My first LO is for Scrapping the Music - "Love Shack" (awesome song) and I used sketch #116 from Creative Scrappers. Now that my DD baby book is 75% (ok maybe 50%) done, I'm bouncing around. This photo from 1999 is from our annual summer vacation at the lake or "up north" in Minnesota-speak. We had a teeny, tiny little 1 room cabin with a teeny, tiny, ancient window air conditioner and temps around 100 (and higher) all week. Too hot to play, too hot to go to town, too hot for anything but sitting in the water with a popsicle. Our entire vacation that year is summer is summed up in that one photo.

I also worked with sketches from Scrapbook Challenges. Sketch #214 became a little reminder of an unusually warm day in Novemember. I love that that the photo includes some of the toys they dragged out onto to the deck - Barbie's and Pickachu. I gave the LO a summery feel because it was so darn warm when it is often icy and snowy out.

I also used sketch #213 from the same site, turned it on it's side and did a mirror LO on the right. Again, Kate's book. Some photos of our first vacation. The kids had never travelled before (except to Grandma and Grandpa's) and I was newly divorced and determined that my single parent status wasn't going to stop me from giving my kids the experiences I wanted them to have. So I loaded a 5yr old and a 3 yr old on a plane and headed to Florida. Someday I'll scrap my most vivid memory from the trip - changing planes in Atlanta, the crowds, the short lay over and having to change terminals while holding onto 2 hands and 3 carry-ons. What was I thinking??

This LO is based on sketch #54 from Inspired Blueprints -

Lastly, I finally scrapped some photos I've been wanting to work with since I found them in a marathon photo-sorting session a few months ago. Kate's Kindergarten and 1st grade circus. these kids are all so grown up now. It was fun to remember her old friends. Haven't seen most of them since 2001 when we moved.

thanks for visiting - have a great day!!!

STM/Creative Scrappers and Scrapbook Challenges

2010-08-24T08:23:00.006-05:00

I took the day off from work yesterday, dropped the kids/friends off at the amusement park and spent my day at a near-by Archiver's for my favorite "amusement". Had the workroom to myself almost all day! I could have used all 6 tables! But I was content with scattering my things over 1...

Great lyrics on this week's STM's challenge #148 "What I love about Sundays". I focused on cat-napping. I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers. I like the look of banners on other people's pages but never felt the urge to put them on my own - but they were on the sketch and I decided it was as good a time as any to give 'em a try. Hey - Creative Scrappers has a give-away this week from a new store that has fun kits. Scraptures is giving away a kit to someone who leaves a comment on the Creative Scrappers blog.

I also posted a page on Scrapbook Challenges, sketch #212. My baby is starting her last year of high school, turning 18 in a few short months and I've finally scrapped her first b-day portraits! Yeah!!

Another of the pages I did yesterday - but not for a current challenge - I just like how it turned out! I used some real cake-sprinkles on 3 of the cupcakes. Hard to see on the photo - on the frosting of the cupcake next to the word sprinkled, on the die cut cupcake and on the cupcake liner under the flowers near the top right.

Looking forward to scrapping with my group on Saturday - my sister in law is going to be there too for a few hours. And ScrapFest Sept 17!!! 3 days of get-away fun with my scrappy friends! Yeah - we all live within easy driving distance but Michelle had the great idea of turning this into a retreat so we're camping out in a hotel suite across the street from the Mall of America!! 3 days of classes, a crop with Cosmo Cricket and friend time...definately time for a count down!

thanks for visiting!! have a terrific day!

STM, Sk Thurs, Scrap Chall, Inspired Blue...

2010-08-08T14:35:00.010-05:00

Had a great weekend of scrapping at home - actually completed some current challenges!

First off - Scrapbook Challenges #211 and Scrapping the Music "Let Go..." I made the two fabric flowers with the 3 pearls and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out:

Next up is my Sketchy Thursdays LO:

And Inspired Blueprints:

At Out of the Hat, the criteria drawn were use homemade buttons, glimmermist and 2 arrows. I modified a sketch from Pencil Lines:

And I have a couple others I want to share just because...

Earlier this summer Michelle gave a little tutorial on how to create handwritten titles in her uber-cool style. I gave it a try here and am pretty happy with it. It was hard to let go of the fear of ruining my LO but after reading about Marit's up-coming Let it Loose workshop (being an alum of the last one!) I decided to just do it and stop worrying. I was also inspired by my friend Lynn's interactive pages and made a slit in the paper protector so the 2nd page of letter can be opened and read. The inside flap is also decorated with a photo and embellishments.

And lastly I have a LO I just loved based on an old Scrapbook Challenges sketch. My nearly 18 yr old daughter, who otherwise has pretty darn good taste in music, didn't get the lyrical reference of the title on the LO for her baby album so obviously there are holes in her musical education. Maybe the early 70's are just too far back for her...

I had a great weekend, hope you did too!! Thanks for visiting!

vintage postcards - eye candy!!!

2010-08-04T17:58:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday I scrapped with my regular, monthly group. Always special! Lynn gave each of us a wonderful gift that I wanted to share - I am still so excited.

Out of her bag she pulls a huge stack of vintage postcards that her dad had collected and she found in her basement. She wasn't interested in them but thought we might be. We each drooled and choose a few and then she says - please, take more! What a wonderful and generous friend!! I told her she should look at similar items on ebay and sell what she had left - if she's really really sure she doesn't want them. Don't think I could give them all up.

They are all wonderful and I don't have a clue how I'll use them but I know I need to save them for the right project.

I think this one with the girl in the bubble is one of my favorites...

and this one about the tasty article!

need to take the pup for a walk - have a great day!!

Scrap and Stamp - Paper Piecing

2010-08-02T18:22:00.004-05:00

The challenge at Scrap and Stamp this week is to use a paper piecing element - and of course, a stamp.

Last Saturday, when I got to enjoy a fabulous scrappy day with Christina, Michelle and Lynn, I made this LO of Kate and her first bath. I'm working away on her baby album and she told me she doesn't want any soft colors - bold and bright and no pink unless it's almost neon!

The bath tub is pieced from cricut pieces. And the word "bath" is stamped.

have a great day! thanks for visiting.

15 Free Fonts...

2010-07-09T08:37:00.005-05:00

Scrap N Fonts is giving away 15 free fonts - no purchase necessary! They're not listing an end date. Email notice I received about this said to feel free to Twitter and Facebook this freebie - you don't need to be a previous customer!

http://www.scrapnfonts.com/home.php

7.1 Sketchy Thurs and would have been Scrapping the Music "Home"

2010-07-07T13:23:00.002-05:00

For this week's Sketchy Thursday sketch I did a LO for my oldest's album about her first "home" - I was also building off Scrapping the Music's challenge this week which was Daughtry's song "Home". But I didn't get it posted in time for that challenge.

The reason I didn't this posted for Scrapping the Music is this little guy - his name is Cooper, he is a cockapoo and he is 8 weeks old. No - no long standing plans to get a puppy. It's all Jack's fault. Jack is Ashley and Matt's puppy who stayed with us last week while they were on their honeymoon. I knew by the 2nd day that my husband wanted a dog ( a few years ago we went thru this when our dog died but at that time he didn't feel like he wanted to make another long commitment to a pet). We found a local breeder and went out last night to "visit" and "see" if we wanted one of their pups...this pup's mom is their "mission" dog. The fees for all of her pups go to mission groups around the world. Our fee is going to a group in Asia.

thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Scrapping the Music #140 and Sketchy Thursday 6.24- 2 for 1!

2010-06-28T21:14:00.004-05:00

The song this week at Scrapping the Music is "Feelin' Good" - a fun song for getting back in the swing with STM! I used this week's Sketchy Thursday's sketch as a starting point. We're still in post-wedding after glow around here! The colors IRL are much brighter than they appear in the photo. I choose elements that were more whimsical because they fit the fun, vibrant personality of the couple.

Here's the awesome sketch:

And my page:

thanks for stopping by! have a terrific day!

Wedding dress page

2010-06-27T17:22:00.003-05:00

My step-daughter got married yesterday and wore her grandmother's dress (from 1960). It had also been worn by an aunt in 1976. The dress wasn't cleaned properly and was stored in an attic from 1976 to 2009 and was in pretty rough shape. Ashley never knew her dad's parents as they died well before she was born but she liked the idea of wearing the dress and honoring her grandparents. The dress first under went an extensive restoration and cleaning process by a company that restores garments for museums. Then it was altered to bring it more up to date. So many family members who had been to the 2 previous weddings had asked about the process that my husband asked me to make an album about the history of the dress and the restoration. It was whisked away before all the adhesive had dried but I did get one photo.

Ashley's colors were truffle brown and green so I tried to play those up. Her grandmother's color was baby blue and the aunt chose mint green and forest green so I used those colors on their pages. There were also several before and after pages. Each page in the album has some lace and/or tulle from the original gown, left over scraps from the alterations.

Unfortunately during the reception someone hugging Ashley stepped on the dress and there was a huge tear in the tulle and lace across the front. Hopefully it can be repaired.

She was a beautiful and happy bride and her new husband is pretty darn terrific! They are best friends and their personalities compliment each other well. It was a meaningful and lovely celebration!

thanks for visiting ~ have a wonderful day!!!

A Creative Art Journey Surrealism and Abstract

2010-06-17T13:08:00.003-05:00

The end is near for Marit's Creative Art Journey workshop (sad face!). It's been a fabulous experience and more than I hoped for when I started 2010 with the intention of broadening my horizons and learning/trying new things. Marit puts so much caring into her workshops - care for the subject matter, for her students and the community she creates. Can't thank you enough Marit!!!!

For the lesson on surrealism I choose to work with distorted images - I altered 2 photos, 1 of my daughters and the other of an iris in my backyard. I used a twirling effect for the alteration. I'm calling this page Time Warp. Time in various forms has been on my mind a lot lately. Here I'm thinking about how fast the years have gone - I loved my girls when they were little and will always cherish those memories but I really enjoy them as teens when so much more of their uniqueness shows. Lots of changes are in store as my oldest prepares for her senior year - and I have mixed feelings. I used a flower image with this photo of the girls because you can see the passage of time so vividly in the bud, bloom and dying of an individual flower.

For the abstract lesson I choose the prompt where you close your eyes, listen a random song and move your marker to the music. I let i-tunes shuffle and listened to 2 songs - a Kenny Loggins and a number from the Mamma Mia soundtrack came up (got off lucky as I share my i-tunes with my daughters and there are soooo many songs there that I wouldn't chose to listen to - although maybe I'll do this again some day with their music and see what happens!). It was hard to let go and just flow with the music - but a good exercise for me!!! I colored in bits and pieces.

I sometimes left limited with the canvas album but overall I'm glad I used it - never worked with a base like this before. But I love the added texture.

thanks for visiting!!

Fav things - shoes!

2010-06-06T11:45:00.005-05:00

The current challenge at the super cool and published These Are a Few of My Favorite Things is Shoes. I know I am an odd duck but I'm not into shoes at all. I hate shoe shopping. The only New Year's resolution I've ever kept is "I will never wear uncomfortable shoes again". But I do love my metaphorical travelin' shoes!!!! So I've featured "them" instead. The journaling is a line from the Feel Good Tanya's "Littlest Birds" (which I heard for the first time over at Scrapping the Music). The image is from an envelope of a set of vintage style cards. I distressed it with sanding, ink and tearing, crumpled it and even ironed it out (thank goodness the kids were still sleeping or they'd have thought I had gone over the edge). The trunk tag I distressed with a technique from Tim Holtz's new book A Compendium of Curiosities.

I hate journaling about myself and there are certainly very few pictures of me - one reason I love Fav Things is that I can create an album about me, someday someone may be curious, in a way that is a lot more comfortable.

thanks for visiting!!!

Creative Art History Expressionism and Cubism

2010-06-06T08:47:00.005-05:00

Marit did a wonderful job again taking us through Expressionism and Cubism with so many interesting and challenging prompts.

My prevailing mood these last weeks has been "rushed" followed by "overwhelmed" so I choose to express this on my "Expressionism" page. The lyrics are from The Guess Who. I used several bright colors of paint to create a chaotic background and edited a photo of Big Ben. I had some old watch faces which I paired with stamps and die cut wings, and I stitched on the right hand side. I started adding a label for each page on the previous ones I've completed and did so here on the left. I like being busy and get really restless (and crabby) if I'm not busy - just haven't had much time lately to recharge myself.

I haven't done anything with collage yet in this workshop and couldn't resist it for Cubism! I used several of my distress ink pads to create squares for the background. I've got 3 people of different proportions sitting on a piece of outdoor furniture (it has square pillows!) I liked the angles of the bodies so didn't alter those although I did try to cut them out with just straight lines. The first lady in blue was featured in a 2 page ad spread so I layered a different photo on her face and angled it. The baby was from a milk ad and also featured it's twin and mother. So I used the twins face and the mother's mouth. The girl had a brother in the ad and I used part of his face. The cubism style of portraying people always makes me think of fractured people who have experienced a deeply traumatic something (as I think we all do at some point in life) and have glued their lives back together. And they're not the same people they were before. Anyway - that's where I was going with using similar but different faces. The squares underneath the quote are mirrors. If you look straight down at the page, into the mirrors you can see yourself in strange Picasso-esque pieces. That's my favorite part of the page.

Can't wait to see what Marit has in store next!

Have a wonderful day! Thank you for visiting!

A creative art journey lessons 4-7

2010-06-03T05:20:00.004-05:00

A little catch up time. All I've been doing in my limited hobby time has been Marit's class and scanning photos (should have gone digital earlier!). Work has been beyond super busy, then there's all the end of school year stuff, stupid construction has added to my commute, getting the house and yard ready for a grad party, extra exercising so I can fit into my dress for my step-daughter's wedding later this month...time just flies by! (the next piece I need to work on for Marit's class is for the Expressionism period and my emotion is going to be "rushed"). Every new lesson continues to amaze me with the level of detail in the art history and the super creative prompts that help us bring elements of the period into our work (and there are so many prompts to choose from!) Amazing!!! There's a link to the left for Marit's site - check it out!!!

Lesson 4 was on the Renaissance. I choose Marit's prompt based on Raphael's Madonnas and wrote a message to my birth mother. I was adopted into the most wonderful family as an infant and my parents are absolutely the best. But sometimes I feel an empty place. May - with my birthday and Mother's Day - is kind of a prime month for thoughts and feelings to be churned up so I used that here. I did ransom note letters for all the "you"s because she is lost to me (I won't ramble on about how unfair I think the laws are here that won't allow me access to records about me - those in power are holding it hostage). The Raphael painting in Marit's lesson had these awesome clouds and cherubs so I tried to replicate that a bit too.

Lesson 5 was Baroque. I love the music and architecture of this period and it was fun to pull elements from Baroque art on to a page. I used an old piece of wallpaper as the base and made a frame out of embossed paper. The girl with the pearl earring image and curtain came from a fabulous Graphic 45 line. I added some old sheet music, and colored stones secured with a pin. Otherwise the stones hang loose. They had moved a bit when I was taking the photo but they do hang straight IRL. When they came in a kit I couldn't imagine how I'd ever use them! I tried spraying glimmer mist on a flourish mask and using it as a stamp - didn't work out real well - got some on her face which I didn't intend. The quote from Anais Nin reads "And then the day came when the risk to remain in a tight bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

Lesson 6 was Impressionism - love the art from this period. Saw a wonderful Monet exhibit in London last summer. I played around with a few ideas and decided to use the Degas prompt - using dance as the theme. I chalked my canvas with a peachy pink my daughter calls "ballet pink". I printed her current ballet photo - softened with my photo editer - on vellum and put 2 ballet stickers behind it. I used a pearlescent beige ink on top of the photo and behind the words for a little more soft color and shimmer although it doesn't come across here. I wanted everything to be very soft like in Degas' painting. The ribbon is velvet for a little soft texture. The ribbon loop on the bottom left has a staple on it for a little harder element. I outlined a few words from the quote with a souffle pen. The words got a little smeared - as did the photo - while printing but I decided to leave it for more softness.

And now for something completely different - Lesson 7 and Art Nouveau. I followed the doodle prompt this time and used some of the templates Marit provided for the basis of my page. In the Let it Loose class I couldn't make myself completely fill the page with doodles so took on the challenge here. I tried to imitate the Theodorus poster and minimize the color palette. I had to keep resting because my hand is not used to so much work with a pen! But is was very fun!!

Marit's classes are fun, supportive and challenging - I highly recommend!!!

thanks for visiting ~ have a super day!!

A Creative Art Journey, lessons 2 and 3

2010-05-17T19:57:00.006-05:00

Been super busy at work, bringing "homework" home most every night and then went on a long, and short (long distance, short time) road trip over the weekend with my daughter to Indiana. Should have only been an 8 1/2 hour drive one way but road construction...and who knew there would be that much traffic around Chicago at 1030 pm on a Friday night (or Sunday afternoon for that matter!). Not an experience I want to repeat anytime soon. Anyway - am barely keeping up with Marit's class at this point! Thank goodness for it though or I wouldn't be doing anything relaxing or creative!

Lesson 2 was the Classic Period - Greek and Roman art. I used the Greek mytholoigcal nymphs as the prompt for my layout. I inked a background, painted over it and used silver rub-on's for a top and bottom frame. The "nymph" is from a vingtage clipart site, printed her on vellum and overlayed her on a photo I had. I did some alterations to the nymph and tree photo with lighting effects, decreasing the saturation and adding sunburst to the nymph. Next to "see" is a stamp of an eye but it is hard to see in the photo. On the top left corner on the nymph I used a "stone" that reminded me of the sun or moon. I've always liked mythical creatures, stories of magic and gods. I think, in the Western world anyway, we've lost something. Sometimes we need to believe before we can see the magic and mystical. So -that's where I was coming from and what I wanted to capture in my art journal.

Lesson 3 was on the Middle Ages. Oh how this lesson reminded me of Sr. Margretta and my study abroad program in college. I swear she toured us through every important church in Germany (and many "unimportant" ones too). Anyway, Marit provided us with so many interesting prompts (again! how does she do it???). I choose to try my hand at a mosaic page and at a stained glass page. I did these both after I got back home from my whirlwind road trip so am blaming my "skewed" stained glass and "not quite what I wanted" mosaic on sheer exhaustion! But both were fun and I learned some things and I can enjoy them anyway! The quote on this page says "Cultivate the garden within".
And the quote here says "You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose" (I. Gandhi) I found some old beads/pieces of sea glass I forgot I had (sometimes it pays to be a pack rat). It's one of my favorite ocean pictures. I cut the rock formations out and replaced the blue ocean with a variety of beads. I wish I'd had more of certain ones so I could have created more pattern. I also crushed some buttons in various shades of blue. I used some extra pieces to make a frame for my "Y" as the first letter of my quote.

thanks for visiting - have a terrific day!!!

Fav Things - Musical Style/A Creatuve Art Journey

2010-05-10T21:00:00.007-05:00

This one stumped me for awhile but once I got going, it was fun. I've never done a total B/W LO before and I kind of like it! I pulled song titles off of my playlist. I tend to use the "oh I love that song" rather liberally!! I have Disney movie soundtrack music, country, pop, classic rock, '80's, and some songs I don't know "what" they are.

Last Friday I started another class with Marit (a b-day gift to myself!). This one is called "A Creative Art Journey". We're using art from different periods as inspiration for prompts/pages. The prompt I choose played off of decorated skulls created by primitve tribes. The prompt was to use the pattern of the skull/carved head as the basis for an art journal page - using swirls and doodling. I love the colors and texture in simple imagery in primitive art. The lesson got me thinking about how many, many years this art work has survived and although created by people so different from us - we can still connect spiritually and emotionally too it. The lesson got me thinking about constancy and change - how we feel like change is coming faster and faster yet some things don't change, like the need to create, to capture what we feel, think and see in art. So...I incorporated designs found on the skull in the prompt with doodling I use in my work. The person in the middle is a design off of some souvenir Hawaiian "petroglyphs" that usually sit on my desk at work. They are my favorite thing to play with when I'm thinking. I'm using a canvas album and pages for this class.

thanks for visiting!!

STM #133, Out of the Hat and Butterfly Crafts

2010-05-06T17:11:00.003-05:00

Happy to be playing along with Scrapping the Music again! I've missed it! The song this week is Rainbow Connection from the Muppet Movie - too fun!!! I also incorporated a couple of other challenges. The Out of the Hat prompts for May are to sand something, use a quote and a triangle. I sanded the edges of the paper, used a photo corner for my triangle and of course the lyrics are my quote. I also followed the May sketch from Butterfly Crafts. And my personal challenge for May is to use chipboard on all my layouts - "me" on the LO.

The words on the clouds are more lyrics from the song and the journaling says: "You've always been a sunny, happy girl. Full of love and sweet dreams. Keep believing in rainbows and following your dreams. The sun will always come out and paint your sky. July 2000"

thanks for visiting - have a great day!

Scrap and Stamp - Summer!!

2010-05-06T10:04:00.003-05:00

The challenge at Scrap and Stamp this week is to scrap a summer LO or use the colors of summer. I thought about doing a flower LO but then remembered this LO I started months ago and had put it aside. I have (or will have!) a section of my Paris album called "Look Closer", with mosiac LOs of the flowers and architecture of this incredible city. I love how mosiacs help you see a level of detail that is easy to miss.

I used a couple of floral stamps for some filler squares (and finally used the couple of copic markers I'd splurged on awhile ago) and a portion of a vingtage sticker for another filler.

Every year I am responsible for the death of many lovely flowers; maybe that's why I love photographing the fruits of other's labor - they last so much longer!!!

have a great day and thanks for visiting!!!

Ntl Scrapbooking Day - what a great day!

2010-05-02T15:17:00.007-05:00

I had a great time scrapping with my friend Lynn yesterday and another person from work - Nancy. Nancy is pretty much a newbie and we helped her add some special touches to a cool album she's making of a 2-mo. volunteer mission trip in Mexico. Lynn and I opened and closed the store which was fun and a much needed "back to scrapping" shot in the arm for me!

I got one challenge completed - last week's 2 page sketch from Scrapbook Challenges. Here's the sketch and my LO.

Since my daughter won't share her photos files with me I have to grab them off of Facebook - where she has an album called "life of a band geek". The quote is also from her FB page "One good thing about music - when it hits you, you feel no pain" (Bob Marley)

I'm starting a series of pages documenting her favorite animated movie musicals - during our spring break college road trip, while listening to soundtrack cd's, we got into serious debates about songs. One such discussion was "who has the best villian song?". The debate was between Scar (Lion King) and Rasputin (Anastasia). The debate continues.

I used this week's sketh from Sketchy Thursdays for my intro page for the road trip photos.

And then gotta get the prom pics done!

I had a great day and I hope everyone was able to do something to honor this fabulous hobby/ obsession/creative outlet (however you look at it).

thanks for visiting!

Nothing new this week but a few wins...

2010-04-18T07:55:00.005-05:00

Been super busy at work with extra hours, during a week with extra kid stuff, during a week when the push is on to get my step-daughter's wedding invitations done (would help if some details didn't change...sigh). So - no challenges for me this week. I spent most of my crop day yesterday with my scrapping friends Michelle, Lynn and Christina working on those invitations. And our water pump for our well decided to die yesterday so I'll be without a scrap budget for awhile (at least I was at the crop and had already made my purchases : ) A good opportunity to use my stash I guess!! I'll give myself a challenge to used dated items in a creative way for the next few months. Woo Hoo!!

However, I did have a couple of challenge submissions recognized over at Scrap and Stamp recently - which is a lovely surprise!!! I love doing challenges because without them, my pages start to look the same and I find myself thinking about my topics a little differently or remembering memories/thoughts I really want to capture and preserve.

This one was for a "sporty challenge":

And this was a sketch challenge:

So many, many thanks to the fabulous people at Scrap and Stamp!!!! Check 'em out - there's a blinkie on the top left!! Your happy mail couldn't come at a better time!!!!! : )

thanks for visiting - have an amazing day!!!

STM "Footloose"

2010-04-11T09:11:00.003-05:00

Thanks STM for the trip down memory lane!!! I thought about people and places I haven't thought about in a long time!! Ahhh...memories! The hidden journaling card tells the story:

The night before my 8 a.m. biology final my roommates talked me into going to a drive-in movie -> Footloose, An Officer and a Gentleman and some other movie I can't remember. It was May so the movies probably started around 9:30 pm. They were done with finals but I still had two left. They badgered. I gave in. Hey - it was Kevin Bacon and Richard Gere. What would you have done?? We didn't get back to campus 'til close to 3 a.m. I was up at 6 for a final cram session. Got the A! Can't hear the music without remembering that night. I didn't treasure the days like I should have. Youth is wasted on the young!

thanks for visiting - have an awesome day! make some memories!!

Scrap and Stamp and Sketchy Thursday

2010-04-09T17:13:00.003-05:00

I created this LO for the Scrap and Stamp challenge - sports theme - and followed the Sketchy Thursday sketch. My daughter and others on her Color Guard squad have on-going arguments with some of the guys who don't think what they do is a sport or that the girls are athletes. I choose paper and elements that weren't too girly to underscore their views on this subject. My daughter returns home just as sweaty, stinky and filthy as my brother did from football practice! Anyway I wanted to acknowledge her point of view for her album. The journaling reads:
Color Guard: It's competetive; it requires strength; it requires conditioning; it requires speed; it requires flexibility. And it requires grace and showmanship. We start practicing over 5 months before our first competition. We spend more time practicing and sweating in the summer sun than the football team. Not a sport? Don't go there".

thanks for visiting! have a great day!

Fav Things - TV Show and Out of the Hat

2010-04-08T20:18:00.004-05:00

Just finished my page for These are a Few of my Favorite Things - and I also met the three criteria for the Out of the Hat challenge (use pop dots; use BW photos and a stamp). A few months back I'd submitted "pop-dots" and some other challenge elements and it was drawn this month. They're sending me a RAK - very nice! Thanks!!

My favorite TV show is Who Do You Think You Are? - a new show here, based on a British show I think. I cut the tree with my Cricut (it's actually a modified winnie the pooh tree!). The cloud photos are from a family slideshow from a long ago family reunion. One of them is simply labeled "old people" which always makes me laugh. Maybe I can ID them someday.

The journaling on the tree top says "I scrap to capture today's new memories - which become tomorrow's history. I am totally hooked on this show and inspired to research yesterday's memories - my history. Gaffney/Kinney from Ireland and Povolny/Hable from Bohemia and Palmer for my children."

There are some stamps that don't show on the photo, in the grass - birds and a combo blessings with flowers. Also the tree trunk says generations and traditions.

thanks for visiting!

STM #128 Fireflies

2010-04-06T19:25:00.004-05:00

Love, love, love the song this week at STM!!! Fireflies by Owl City. I had fun with it. I painted a background and made a collage of the world using magazine images. Some of the browns and blues are from magazine photos of dresses worn at the Oscars last month. There is an awesome lizard type thing as a green space in the north part of South America - which I love (as long as he is on paper only) and on North America I have a green and brown combo snippet I love - a hawk on a tree top. And than I doodled. My stickle fireflies on the bottom are very orderly! : )

Last month I challenged myself to use a stamp on every page/LO. This month it's buttons.

have a great day - thanks for stopping by!

Scrap and Stamp Challenge

2010-04-02T17:55:00.004-05:00

This week's challenge at Scrap and Stamp Saturday was to use a large title, torn paper, stripes and stamps. This page already has a mate in the facing page so I needed to coordinate the two in terms of design (yes, my facing pages in a themed album must always coordinate; I have very few absolutes but that is one of them). I tore the layered paper on the right side - both sides. I consider the rows of flowers as stripes so I hope that counts for others too, and I added small flower stamps to the top left and the larger stamp on the bottom left under the main photos. The title "ARC" is chipboard I painted and crackled, although the crackling doesn't show in the photo. It's a simple LO but gets me one page closer to finishing the album!!!

thanks for visiting! have a great day!

Inspired Blueprints Sketch #44 Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart

2010-03-29T22:05:00.005-05:00

Loved this double page sketch from Inspired Blueprints - definately a keeper!

The title is a lyric from a song from the animated movie Anastasia - which my girls love and they sang while we were in Paris. Of all the river side art photos I chose the Led Zepplin poster as my oldest is a big fan and my youngest loves ballet. All the elements have been in my stash for this album for awhile except for the cardboard flowers which I got in my March Two Chicks kit and the heart which I think was from Cocoa Daisy's Feb kit. A little glare on a few photos - tried a new spot, guess it didn't work!

thanks for visiting - have a great day!

STM #127 Just the Two of Us and Scrapbook Challenges sketch # 188

2010-03-27T22:03:00.005-05:00

STM chose Will Smith's version of Just the Two of Us for this week's song - great lyrics!!

In my on-going effort to get a childhood scrapbook done before my daughter graduates from high school (we spent spring break doing college tours which gives you an idea of how much time I have left!) I chose the lyrics where he talks about creeping into the baby's bedroom at night. Boy I remember creeping in to make sure she was still breathing! Anyway - I used a sketch from Scrapbook Challenges (link to the left) as my inspiration. She'll probably kill me for sticking her baby nickname into the corner but too bad!! At least I didn't go on and on about her love for that stuffed Barney! (ok, yeah - it will be another LO someday)

thanks for visiting!

STM #126 Free Me Joss Stone

2010-03-16T09:04:00.003-05:00

The challenge song this week at Scrapping The Music is Joss Stone's "Free Me". Super lyrics ~

I decided to start another art journal since I am already missing my Let it Loose class.

I used the words "i can, i will, i am, i feel, i've got to be" in the cupped hands tossing the flowers into the breeze. There's a little glare but it says 'free" to the right of the hands. Around the inner green paper it says "see me fly" over and over again.

Thanks for visiting!

STM #125 and Scrap and Stamp; Let it Loose bound journal

2010-03-13T21:20:00.004-06:00

Not much scrapping done this week although I did finish up my Let It Loose art journal - boy did time fly!!! This was truly a growth experience for me and fit in so well with my overall goals for the year. I did get one LO done for both STM #125 "Anyone Else but You" from super cool "Juno". I followed a sketch from Scrap and Stamp. From this quirky song I used part of the phrase "I kiss you on the brain in a shadow of a train". Coincidentally earlier in the week I'd been reminded about my daughter's obsession with Thomas and trains in general when she was 3ish. So I decided to scrap that memory for her album. The journaling reads: You LOVED Thomas and TRAINS in general. Loved ‘em, loved ‘em, loved ‘em. You happily watched episode after episode and played with your trains in between. When we went places you had to bring Thomas with you. Until one day you watched a new episode and something TERRIFIED you so badly that you never watched another – not even your old favorites. You NEVER played with trains again.

I finished binding my Let It Loose Journal today - the video Marit posted made it so easy! I love this technique. When I was at the craft store today I got more paper so I can start another journal sometime soon.

Thanks for visiting!

Inspired Blueprints Sketch 43

2010-03-07T12:49:00.003-06:00

Wrapping up the LOs I didn't quite get finished at the crop yesterday. This LO is based on the current Inspired Blueprints sketch.

The journaling stips have Taylor Swift song titles that I thought fit the photos and what this event meant to my daughter and her friends. Now it's off the to gym to make up for sitting and scrapping all day yesterday (and a good part of the morning today!)

Have a good one!!

Fav Things - Best Friends

2010-03-07T08:29:00.005-06:00

The current challenge at These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things is Best Friends.

I chose to focus on my best friend from High School - Karen. We swore we'd always be friends but after a few years of college we drifted apart. We've re-connected on Facebook and I enjoy getting a glimpse of her life and her family. With my own girls in High School, I'm finding that a lot of old memories get stirred up! OMG - were we silly, boy crazy, full of energy and anxious to take on life. Wouldn't mind capturing a little of that energy these days!!!! In this photo from (gulp) 1981 (holy smokes that's almost 30 yrs ago) we were in our local summer parade as part of the Miss Belle Plaine annual competition. Neither of us won but we didn't care!

I used a sketch from lotus paperie for inspiration:

My stamp for "stamp month" is on the lower left. Although it nearly caused physical pain, I cut up my awesome, yummy Melody Ross paper to the bird and flowers - boy I love that line!!!

Thanks for visiting - have a great day!

STM #124 What's so Bad about Feeling Good?

2010-03-06T23:16:00.004-06:00

The song this week at Scrapping the Music is Ben lee's "What's so Bad About Feeling Good?" I love this song and have some more LOs in mind - really, why do we sometimes feel guilty when we're happy and our lives are going well????

I pulled out lyrics that fit a LO I needed to do for my daughter's album - her weekend at a National Christian youth conference last Nov. She had a really great experience sharing energy, excitement, and faith.

In order to make good use of my stash of supplies and stop neglecting things, I'm starting a "supply of the month" plan. This month every LO I complete needs to include at least one stamp. I stamped the word "Believe" on the cross in the lower right.

Thanks for visiting!

Marit's Lesson 8 Doodling

2010-03-02T07:31:00.004-06:00

Somehow over the years I lost my ability to doodle and it was fun in this Let it Loose lesson to try again and re-claim the fun. The process reminded me of my best friend in high school which was nice timing since the new Fav Things challenge is BFFs. I couldn't quite get myself to fill up the whole page on this lesson though(maybe next time!) This much doodling was a first though!!

Quotes from left to right:
I think one must finally take one's life in one's arms.(Arthur Miller)
Hey! You're doodling! Woo Hoo. (me)
If you think you can do a thing or can't do a thing, you're right. (Henry Ford) Let it Loose (Marit), Let go and Go (me)
A woman cannot be comfortable without her own approval. (Mark Twain - gender changed by me).
Life: it goes on! (Robert Frost)
And at the bottom: If not now - when? (unknown)
Someday day is not a day of the week (I think I saw this in "O" magazine years ago)

Tried a new ribbon technique

2010-03-01T14:59:00.003-06:00

Aymee from Scrapbook Circle posted a tutorial on a cool ribbon technique that I tried out today on a sympathy card:

The scan is blurry I think b/c the flower prevented the cover from closing ( I had to un-squish it after) but I think you can see the effect. I liked it and I think I'd use it again. The link above takes you to the tutorial.

Prima giveaway~something big is coming!

2010-02-27T18:01:00.002-06:00

Copied from Prima's blog:

"Prima has something really big coming your way….

...but we can’t reveal it just yet! We know you’re going to love it! And don’t worry-we promise to share the big news with you soon. It’s really hard not to spill the beans, but we are sworn to secrecy. So, in the meantime, we have an exciting opportunity for you to win BIG and it’s open to everyone! There are two fabulous prize baskets worth $100 up for grabs. Prima will choose one winner from the US and one International winner.
Here is what you need to do to be considered for the drawing:

-Post about our Big Secret on your blog and include a link to our blog
within the post.

-Add a comment here under this post with a link to your blog.

-You have until Sunday night to enter

If you have done all of the above-you will be eligible for the drawings.

The winners will be chosen and posted on Monday, March 1st!

Good luck!"

STM #123 Better Way by Ben Harper

2010-02-25T11:51:00.003-06:00

This is such a powerful song about social justice (that's how I interpreted it anyway) I almost feel a little bad taking a totally not serious spin on it but...when you don't start scrapping until your kids are already teenagers/nearly teenagers you have to catch up on their baby years some day!!

I pulled out the lyrics "push me" and used it to document my daughter's fun with the airplane swing at her grandparent's house. The patterened paper, owls and journaling box come from CatScrap.com. I had fun with the gift certificate I won on STM last month!! I printed the elements out since I haven't learned to digiscrap yet. Very fun site!!

Marit's Let it Loose Lesson 7 collage!!

2010-02-23T21:58:00.002-06:00

So fun, so fun, so fun!! I loved this lesson - maybe my favorite so far! Wait - I think that every lesson. After reading the lesson and seeing Marit's fabulous examples I started thinking about the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo - an artist I was introduced to at the Louvre last summer (yeah, I know, my art history background is pretty darn limited). I love how he made people out of flowers, tree roots, kitchen utensils, books...it's amazing. So I decided to make a person out of flowers and put her in a collage garden. Can't wait for Thursday and the next new journey! New for me - I actually used a brayer to paint the background and did some sponge painting on top of that, I can't say I've never made a collage before but elementary school was a long time ago so I don't think it counts anymore - I certainly never made a collage person and I tried copying a new font with my handwriting.

Let it Loose Lesson 6 Gesso

2010-02-20T06:54:00.002-06:00

The latest fab lesson involved the use gesso - never heard of this stuff before! Marit had some great examples and I used those to jumpstart my ideas. While I love texture I've never played with objects with a lot of dimension (I don't even use pop-dots or chunky memorbilia). I like my LOs/albums to lay flat. But an art journal is the perfect place to try this out! (Maybe I'll even stop being so uptight and use a little dimension in my LOs someday! :)

I stole these awesome glittery, beaded branches out of a floral arrangement in my husband's office at xmas (I did wait until the flowers died but pounced before the florist could come back and take away the vase). Had no idea how I'd use 'em but they were pretty and I had to have them.

I primed the page with gesso, applied another thicker layer and arranged the letters for my quote (wish I'd had smaller chipboard alphas but oh well)and then gesso'd on top of that. I needed to build up some mounds of gesso to get the branch to stick (beautiful darn thing wouldn't lay flat). Painted and glittered it, decorated an acrylic snowflake to sort of coordinate with the awesome butterfly I found at Archiver's.

Lots new for me here: gesso, dimensional objects, painting a "wash". Very fun!!!

STM #122 and TAAFOMFT

2010-02-19T18:58:00.005-06:00

I finished a few challenges today while waiting ever so patiently for my Let it Loose art journal page to dry.

As I say in my blog description - my intention this year is to explore, play and try things I've never tried before. I decided to start keeping record here too of what is new and different so when the year is done I can go back and reflect!

The first is this week's Scrapping the Music Challenge, "I could not ask for more". I chose to focus on the line "these are the moments I know heaven must exist" and used one of my ocean photos from our last trip to Maui. I love Maui and I love the ocean (maybe that comes from being land locked in MN, WI and KS all my life; midway between the 2 coasts!) I could spend hours watching the waves - it is a very spiritual place for me. The "frame" is made of kleenex I misted with ink and glimmer mist. There is more texture and dimension IRL. I also used marshmallow and pearl glimmer mist on the paper/phot but it doesn't show very much. The paper is Prima from the Paradise City Collection. New for me: using tissue/gel medium on a scrap page and handwriting in a new style (both inspired by my Let it Loose class with Marit!)

This next LO is for the current These are a few of my Favorite Things challenge - Favorite memories. I made a LO for the final page of my 2-volume scrapbook of our vacation last summer. It really was a dream come true for me - I was able to travel to Europe in high school and college as part of study abroad/language programs. It changed my life. I really wanted to take my daughters there while they were in high school - and hopefully broaden their horizons and world view. We worked hard and saved for a long time and we had a great trip!! Besides more great memories then I could ever scrap, I've seen the payoff in their history and literature studies. The paper is teresa collins from the Friendship collection. New for me: doodling flowers and making my own journaling box.

It is based on this sketch from Scrapbook Challenges:

Marit's Let it Loose Lesson 5 Handwriting

2010-02-18T05:48:00.005-06:00

Lesson 5 was handwriting - yuck! I hate my handwriting. Several other classmates - who have created pages with fabulous handwriting - said the same thing so I don't feel alone on this one. Thankfully Marit, being a wonderful teacher she is, had a suggestion that got my attention and took all the stress out of this - carbon paper! I don't think I've seen this stuff since high school typing class. I choose several handwriting type fonts that I thought I might be able to manage (no antique or edwardian script for me) and printed out my journaling. I practiced a few times with the carbon paper and when my background was done I again use the nifty paper and traced my journaling following up with marker. Yeah! Not too dusty! I found a few fonts I really liked (#6,8,9) that I think I could play with again and maybe even get comfortable enough to let go of the carbon paper-training wheels.

I made a bucket list of sorts of some of the places I really, really want to go to someday. I found photos and cut them up to create the frame for the page. I glimmer misted the background and used glitter on "wish" because I think if you're really wishing and writing it down, "wish" needs something to make it more magical.

Great giveaway on Paper Craftin' with Erica

2010-02-14T08:17:00.001-06:00

Erica's giving away some super cute items on her blog - check it out!!

Scrapping the Music #121 Shrek theme song

2010-02-13T17:17:00.003-06:00

The challenge song for Scrapping the Music this week is Allstar by Smashmouth - the theme song for the first Shrek movie.

I used lily bee paper from the Cosmopolitan series and a picture of my daughter on her 16th birthday in her new VW ballcap to go with her first car - a blue beetle. She's had her license for over a year now and needless to say I've heard this question a few times!

Marit's Art Journal Lesson 4 Changing Colors

2010-02-13T09:07:00.005-06:00

In lesson 4 Marit has us changing the colors in a Gauguin-ish manner. Fun!! I really like his work and it was a stretching experience to try on his style. I had so much fun with my new best friend, gel medium, in the last lesson I brought it out again and thickened my paint so I could get a lot of texture onto my photo. The original photo is below my page.

I'm so glad I'm taking this class! It's fun, I'm learning new techniques and I'm gaining insight into and acceptance of my own style/abilities. Do we ever grow out of comparing ourselves to others and feeling like we fall short?????? I hope so. I'm learning to admire the work of others and acknowledge the wistful "I wish I could do that" without feeling bad.

Let it Loose Art Journal Class - Gel Medium and Tissue Paper

2010-02-09T07:16:00.003-06:00

This latest lesson from Marit was so, so much fun!!!!!! There is some glare on the photo underneath the quote so ignore that.

I found some awesome vintage maps that I used for a collage in the background. Then I used some spray ink and glimmer mist to ink up 2-ply paper towels. I pulled the layers apart after I sprayed the top and used some of both layers. The picture of the Grand Canyon is from a magazine ad for Arizona tourism. I loved the twig frame of their text area and the idea of the width of the Grand Canyon fit with my quote. I tried to mimic the colors of the Canyon in my ink and collage. I was rummaging for some ideas for something to add and came across the little metal face. I also added some gold leaf. IRL there is a little more gold leaf on the upper left, the photo is dark there and it doesn't show.

Gutter Girlz #33

2010-02-07T09:11:00.003-06:00

A Joan Jett song Bad Reputation and a Kiss My A$$ prompt:

I wanted to get a tattoo for over a year and everytime I got close to going thru with it I heard a voice say "What will the neighbors say? What will people think?" No offense to my parents but I got a strong message growing up that reputation was critical and fragile. When I got my tattoo I was in the 30's, married with 2 toddlers - it's not like I made a drunken, impulsive decision in some skanky bar. (not that there's anythiing wrong with those places - certainly been in a few!) I made a rational, well thought out decision. And I decided I didn't care what people thought. I didn't care what they said. I didn't care if this was totally out of other people's perception of who I was. I not only don't regret it, I got another one!

Scrapping the Music #120 Disneyland

2010-02-06T23:29:00.004-06:00

It was a great scrapping day with my creative buddies Lynn, Christina and Michelle!!!

Here is my take on the challenge for Scrapping the Music this week. "Disneyland" by Five for Fighting. I thought it was time to get back to scrapping our summer vacation so we woke up in Paris rather than Disneyland.

The journaling block on the right is packaging from some flower embellishments I'd gotten for this album and the 2 vintage Paris stickers I bought at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts when we went to see a traveling Lourve exhibit on new year's day. The "extra daughter" in the photos is Clementine - she was an exchange student with us a few years ago and she came up from the south of France where she lives to spend the week in Paris with us. Much fun was had by all! BTW - the raspberries on the fingers?? I have never seen such fresh, gorgeous fruit as we found in the street markets in Paris - the product at even our best farmer's market isn't nearly so yummy and visually appealing.

Let it Loose Art Journal Lesson 2

2010-02-05T20:16:00.003-06:00

Lesson 2 in Marit's Art Journal class is silhouettes. And here is my project:

I decided to pay tribute to my favorite scrapping music - anything by Ed Alleyne Johnson (also my favorite music to listen to at work). I was inspired by the album cover for his "Ultraviolet" cd. The cover shows rainbow music coming from the violin with a silhoutte of Ed in violet. He has composed several songs with colors as the title. Here's a youtube video if you're not familiar with Ed's music. It takes a few seconds to get going so be patient. He's playing "Orange" in Chester, England.

I tried thinning my paint with water which I've read about in other albums from others in the class and I used dimensional paint for the treble cleft - both new to me. I used chipboard shapes for the colors coming out of the violin.

I'm not entirely happy with this - my musical staff/journaling lines didn't turn out like I'd envisioned. Also think I should have stuck with just black lines here rather than using the color. Anyway - I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions. I really want to improve my design skills. Sometimes it's a hit and sometimes it's a swing and a miss.

I might play some more with both lesson 1 and 2 tomorrow during my 10 am to 11 pm crop and card class at Archiver's with my scrap buddies. Since I'm totally unprepared to work on anything else...my office is such a disaster!!! Job stuff and tax stuff competing for space with my scrap stuff.

Scrapperrocks Hit a milestone - 100th LO

2010-02-05T19:52:00.002-06:00

Mazlina Malaysia has been scrapping for just over a year and just posted her 100th LO. To celebrate, she's not only sharing her LO but sharing some of her stash. Check it out!

Thank you Marit for the Award!

2010-02-03T19:22:00.004-06:00

Marit kindly sent me this award:

Thank You Marit! I've just started a super cool art journal class with her - I wish I'd had teachers like her in school! When you visit her blog (linked above), check out her work - wow! If you have the chance to take a class with her - do it! You won't regret it.

Part of the award acceptance is listing 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting. When asked these kinds of questions I usually respond "there isn't anything interesting about me". But I will try to come up with something (7 isn't that big of a number - whew!)

1. I have an "edges" brownie pan because the edges are the best part of the brownie!

2. I wish I lived by the ocean :(

3. I camped in a cave in Italy and scaled the walls of an old German fortress to sleep under the stars with the ghosts (probably lucky I didn't go to jail)

4. I have 2 tattoos - got both in my 30's when I was married with 2 toddlers. No drunken impulse (not that I haven't had those, just not in relation to my tattoos). They are flowers. One on my right ankle (a grounding sort of thing) and the other near my heart (a growing towards the light/heavens kind of thing)

5. I get up at 4:01 a.m. for work. I refuse to get up before 4 a.m. unless I am on my way to the airport for a fabulous vacation! I try to exercise before I go to work and I use the time to go on the computer, read, and most importantly not to have a "rush" at the beginning of the day.

6. I'd rather spend money on travel than updating my house (a source of disagreement with my husband...sorry, new carpet or repairing the driveway is just not as exciting and fulfilling as going somewhere).

7. I feel like I should wrap this up with something really good...and I've got nothing! Quick list of favs: Fav Book(s): Winter Solstice and The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher. I can open them on any page and just fall into a calming, peaceful story about interesting ordinary people. Maeve Binchey does the same thing for me. Fav Harry Potter book: Socerer's Stone and Deathly Hollows (I'm not good at the "1" fav thing!) Fav Beverage: Crystal Light Green Tea with Raspberry and Target Blackberry/Raspberry sparkling water. Fav scrap supply: adhesive (who knew there was a whole world of sticky stuff out there??) and ink pads.

I'm new to this whole blogging thing so I'm going to need to work on that list of 7 people to pass this award along to.

Marit's Let it Loose Workshop Lesson 1

2010-02-01T21:06:00.003-06:00

The first lesson in Marit's Let it Loose Art Journal orkshop was about journaling what you see outside your window. Just write and keep writing, go back and edit later. And then use the Michelle/Ravenea cool line thing to hand write your journaling.

I chose my kitchen window and looked outside this morning as the night turned into dawn and wrote about what I saw. I used blues and purples to paint the background and a bristle brush to blend it up a bit. The birds are stamps and glimmer mist.

The handwriting,doodling, line thing felt awkward at first. I did some on paper and then actually did a real page but didn't like how it turned out so tried again. I didn't go crazy with the lines - maybe I'm just to linnear of a person or maybe I need to loosen up some more. (I need smaller pages or a bigger scanner!!)

Anyway - this was a lot of fun!!!!! Can't wait for the next lesson!!

Favorite Things - Favorite Outfit

2010-01-31T17:08:00.003-06:00

This week's challenge of These are a Few of My Favorite Things is Favorite Outfit.

I have no style what so ever!! Super fashionably challenged! My kids think I need to go on What Not to Wear for a complete wardrobe make-over. So I used that as a starting point in honoring my truly favorite clothes - 2 pair of old, soft, slouchy, plaid flannel pajama pants. When I'm home - this is what I want to wear. And yes - just like all those women on the show, I have gone out in public with them on!!

My scanner doesn't do the colors justice at all (I need to do some research and see if there is a fix for this). I used super cute paper from Catscrap - the "felt" house and apple tree came there too. These were digital elements I printed. I also roughed up my paper - which I've been seeing and admiring on a lot of people's work across the various blogs I follow - to emphasize the worn nature of these fav comfy clothes.

Scrapping the Music #119 Give Me Your Eyes

2010-01-29T14:20:00.004-06:00

This week's challenge is the song "Give Me Your Eyes" - great lyrics!!

I focused in on the line about sudden stops and scrapped a LO on the experience my daughters had when their dad died a few years ago. The journaling says " I'd give anything to have spared you the experience and pain of losing your Dad."

Talk about a helpless feeling!! I know life as they knew it stopped that day and that it will never be the same. Other than making a wedding album so they would know a positive story about a marriage that didn't work out; I haven't scrapped about their dad - and certainly not his death. I realized recently that this leaves a big gap in their story and that's not fair to them. So...

I wanted to keep it very plain except for the skid marks and broken hearts. I'm not crazy about the journaling notebook paper - think I'll change that. It was leftover scratch paper from where I played with the tires/ink and while I like the subtle tire tread, notebook paper feels too casual or something. Anyway - I will tinker later.

Scrapping the Music #118 The Littlest Birds

2010-01-23T10:27:00.004-06:00

A beautiful, funky, slightly quirky song! The Littlest Birds by Be Good Tanyas.

I tried several takes on this song - put aside to work on other projects, which didn't go any better. I've had a hard time putting aside images from Haiti and I realized that I needed to use them.

The holes and incomplete stitching represent the holes in their lives and the love and work needed to stitch them back together.

I used paper from my Jan Simply Obsessed kit (Dream Street Papers), Close to My Heart stamps, and the little birdie button came from my Jan. Cocoa Daisy kit. The baby bird nest came from a victorian clip art site Vintage Holiday Crafts.

Inspired Blueprints #39

2010-01-17T14:52:00.004-06:00

This LO is based on a sketch at Inspired Blueprints.

And my interpretation:

In my daughter's album this will be the opening page for the marching band/color guard section. She took and edited the photos on Picnik. The lyrics on the left hand picture read "oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dreams". Kashmir by Led Zepplin was one of the songs in the their state championship performance. I know - Led Zepplin played by a marching band - I couldn't even imagine it until I heard it. The right hand photo is guard gloves resting on one of her flags.

Scrapping the Music #117 Say Hey - M Franti

2010-01-16T18:20:00.004-06:00

The Scrapping the Music Challenge this week was Michael Franti's "Say Hey" - I thought I didn't know this somg until I heard it and then, of course, I recognized it. Makes me think of rum punch and sand in my shoes.

I thought of a lot of different possibilities but kept coming back to the word "metaphysical" - maybe because it's still the new year, which is a time of reflection for me. So I decided to play with this small part of the song.

I edited the photo on Picnik (my daughter does the coolest stuff there...) which originally was clouds in the sky to try to capture the "abstract" part of the definition of metaphysical. I mixed 3 different embossing powders, used Bazzill diamond cardstock (can't really see the shimmer in the scan) and I used marshmallow and pearl glimmer mist on the flower (in the glimmer mist mood now following an awesome, fun glimmer mist album class at Archiver's today).

Scrapbook Challenges No Patterned Paper

2010-01-13T08:20:00.006-06:00

This challenge from Cathy at Scrapbook Challenges was "no patterned paper". I often don't use patterned paper in my travel albums because I'm trying to showcase so many photos and - for me - I find that patterned paper sometimes takes away from the photos. Of course I've seen lots of fabulous LO with patterned paper and great photos - I think it's just a personal style thing.

Anyway - this layout is from Normandy, France. The previous LO in the album was of the same region but focused on wartime and the rements of war that you can still see. I wanted a contrast of darkness with light. The light in Normandy is amazing!! Everything really is edged with gold. My photos capture some but not all of the effect. And the photo of this LO doesn't even capture that (sigh - I do need to save for a 12 x 12 scanner...). I used plain cream colored cardstock, edged the paper with gold chalk, also chalked the mesh. I used rub-on's from Fancy Free, stamps and gold ink. Normandy was one of my favorite places on this trip. I'd love to stay in one of the little sea side villages someday...

Dude, it's just food: the layout

2010-01-09T21:02:00.008-06:00

My latest addition to my Biggest Loser/Spark People art journal was inspired by a blogger on Spark People called TubbyHubby340 - he's since put his blog here on Blogspot:

Diary of a Big Fat Mess

It's funny, insightful and irreverent - parental warning for strong language. The posting title for this entry is "Dude, It's Just Food".
Anyway - these 2 should be side by side but I couldn't get a good photo so scanned them in. And I actually used a sewing machine! First time since 7th grade!!! Yeah, it's crooked but so what. That uptight home ec teacher isn't grading me anymore!!

Scrapping the Music #116 Golden Girls theme

2010-01-09T10:22:00.006-06:00

The Scrapping the Music challenge this week was the theme from the Golden Girls "Thank You for being a Friend". I decided to thank my daughters for the gift they have given to me thru the years - the gift of watching them grow into interesting, fun and unique young women. Christine on the left at 15 and Kaitlyn on the right at 17.

Here is each page individually:

I used K&Co paper (an old line I'm sure since it's been in my stash for a few years). I glimmer misted 2 white crocheted snowflakes (though the glimmer doesn't show) and put some gold ink over the top. the words, bird and present are from Lyrical Letters (cricut). Years ago when I was starting to scrap I went a little crazy buying random embellishments off ebay - didn't know what to do with them tho. Dug out the pebble type pieces - they have chinese or japenese characters or subtle faces on the them. Really cute and I'm glad I could finally use them. Wonder what else is in that junk drawer??

Scrapbook Challenges Jan 2010 Use the word "Journey" and Paper Piecing

2010-01-07T05:46:00.011-06:00

These layouts incorporate the 2 Jan. challenges at Scrapbook Challenges. From Tassie - use the word "Journey" somewhere in the layout. And from Debi - incorporate paper piecing. I did another layout for my Biggest Loser scrap/art journal (my hope is that this helps keep me on track and not losing my motivation). The first layout is in the Gutter Girlz blog post from 12/27/09.

This is a 2 page 7 x 7 LO. So use your imagination and put them side by side!

On page 1 the paper peicing elements are the sun (hand), the inner tube (cut w/ pazzles; image by M Reardon); and waves (cricut, zooballoo). The journaling paraphrases a quote from "The Spark" a new healthy lifestyle book from Chris Downe (sparkpeople.com). I'm disappointed that the shimmery blue paper doesn't shimmer when scanned but oh well. Page 2 brings in the word "journey". The lighthouse is Microsoft clipart. Mermaid tail is circut, paper doll dress up. Birds are stickles. On both pages I had the words in the waves break/start at the break and first swell of the new wave to represent a new "wave" of determination when I hit a "break"/falter in my efforts.

I tried writing on the page, in lines that weren't straight - my friend Michelle does this all the time and it looks great on her pages. It was hard for me to do but it's good to do things that are hard!

Scrapbook Challenges New Years Blog Hop

2010-01-03T12:39:00.007-06:00

Scrapbook Challenges

Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop

Loving the idea of the blog hop - my first! I love this sketch and will be holding on to it. Want to try it with bigger photos across a 2-page 12 x 12.

Here's my take on the sketch above. These photos are from a summer '09 trip to Paris and were all taken at/around Notre Dame. The title "Look Closer" reflects my photographic style. Sometimes - esp. when travelling - we get so caught up in the amazing "big" that we miss the beautiful detail. This layout will be the intro piece in my album for a section of mosaic layouts. The colors in the photo aren't very true but... oh well. The rub-on on the upper left says "The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found by the heart". An invitation to look even closer than the detail!

back to pamela's blog

Gutter Girlz Dec 15 Prompt #32 "I'm Only Fine"

2010-01-03T09:37:00.007-06:00

THE PROMPT: I'm Only Fine
THE SONG: It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing by Shania Twain PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: Mesh/Gauze

This is a 2 page, 7 x 7 layout. The first layout of my Biggest Loser Journal. I am participating in a workplace 12 week Biggest Loser competition. As I attempted to prepare myself to stick with this for the entire 12 weeks I realized that one missing ingredient in past weight loss/improve fitness and health attempts has been staying motivated. I decided to try and use my fav hobby to help me stay motivated.

The first page is the "before" - I found this story about tethered elephants in a new book by Chris Downe called "The Spark". I used black paper although in the photo it is showing more grey. I lightly highlighted some positive words in the story to remind myself that I've never totally given up and there is still a spark on which to build. The words on the photo represent my self-talk tethers. The second page has the lyrics from this song prompt, is on gold paper for lightness and freedom and in the now empty cage are positive self-talk messages - can, will, am!!, grow and live. (yeah - I know I mixed my metaphors. My english teachers might not be happy but I call it creative license!)

The beginning of the elephant story:

Elephant trainers tether a baby elephant by a thick rope to a stake hammered into the ground in order to limit his range. Whenever the elephant tries to escape, he is quickly restrained by the bond and he learns that he does not have the strength to break away. As the baby matures, the trainers reinforce the boundary set by this rope. By the time the elephant is an adult he is massive, weighing several tons and capable of enormous feats of strength. But now the trainer can tether him by a slender thread and he still would not try to escape. The elephant has grown so accustomed to being restrained that he has no idea of the strength he possesses to free himself (Chris Downe, "The Spark", sparkpeople.com)

This has been fun - I love this blog because it prompts self-reflection. I believe reflection is essential to our growth as human beings but I've never been good at keeping a written journal. Maybe I'll have better luck with a scrap journal!

Scrapping the Music Challenge #115 Christmas Vacation

2009-12-27T16:55:00.003-06:00

Ellen Griswold: “I don't know what to say; except it's Christmas and we're all in misery.”

Christmas 2009 at the Iehl/Gaffney/Palmer household. Stomach Flu runs rampant. Anne - in the midst of unclogging a v... filled sink - gets a splash of lye based drain opener in her eye and spends the afternoon of Christmas eve at the ER room.

Lysol, hand sanitzer, 7-Up and soda crackers...this year's Christmas favs!!

Label on left reads: "No LYE It's not 4 the Eye" with "Anne!" above the photo.
On the right - listed are "Gabi, Elena, Tim, Christine and Ashley" along with the plea around Raphie's head of "Can Santa can bring more hand sanitizer?"