SiSversary Rocks! and Project 365 Week 26

OMG SiSversary was so much fun! Meeting everyone in real life was surreal and amazing! I had so much fun! Learned a ton! Made new friends! Had a BLAST! I took 149 photos! I will be able to describe it more eloquently once I catch up on much needed sleep, but suffice to say it was a five-star weekend. I can't imagine it turning out any better.

Here's my project 365 photos for this past week:

Tuesday, June 23rd: Johnny relaxing in the scraproom - he loves playing with the paper that Michael makes at the mill...

Thursday, June 25: I arrived at the Embassy Suites in Franklin, TN. Got to meet a lot of people Thursday night - here are some of us having dinner at the hotel...

Friday, June 26: Waiting in line for registration - some of my fave gals - Julie (bmwgirl) Tucker-Wolek, Julie (lalscrap) Weiss, Sasha (GAgyrl formerly Sassy Sasha) Holloway, and Penny (smllchg) D'Autremont...

Saturday, June 27: My secret sister was Andrea! She is soooo sweet and spoiled me like CRAZY!!!! Thanks Andrea - you ROCK!!!

Saturday, June 27 #2: Julie took a liking to my plate girl creation - so I gave it to her. Now she will have a good home with a fab gal. It really touched me that she liked it so much!

Sunday, June 28: Me and my awesome roomies - Penny and Sandy. Sandy is Penny's Mother-in-law and they scrap together all the time - how cool is that!

Sunday, June 28 #2: JJ (aka Jeanette aka Big SiS) is sooooo sweet and funny - I just love her!

What a whirlwind, fabulous, inspiring, heartwarming weekend!

On Monday, Vicki, Marissa and I toured the Grand Ol' Opry before heading to the airport! That was a lot of fun - pics to come soon...

Now I am off to check out challenges and posts that I missed! Thanks so much for stopping by and I will see you tomorrow with another post!

Project 365 - Week Twenty-Five...

Good evening my friends! It's time for another installment of Project 365. We are almost half-way through the year already! It was another week where I took more than one pic on some days and no pics on other days...

Monday, June 15: Michael plays with Willie in the scraproom...
it's a plush goofy doll that came in a box of cereal...

such sweet friends...

Tuesday, June 16: Some of my books...

Thursday, June 18th: Willie likes to look in the grocery bags...

Saturday, June 20th: Time for a hi-lite! That's Donna - my wonderful hair wizard. She's been taking care of my hair for over 20 years now...

Sunday, June 21st: Happy Father's Day! Michael and his dad Stan. I just love this pic of them...

and a little chipmunk in Sue and Stan's yard - he was so cute!

And that's it! Another week gone by!

For more info on Project 365, click on the link in the right-hand column =====>

Thanks so much for stopping by! I wish you a wonderful Wednesday and I will see you soon!

Mixed Media Circle Journal Layout...

I finished my last circle journal layout! This one is for Peggy, and her theme is "Mixed Media Techniques." Here's what I came up with...
For my technique I chose layers. The layers I used are:

sheet music
gel medium
powder blue acrylic wash
layer of dark blue and green paint, partially rubbed off with baby wipe
gesso splatters
glimmer misted stars and magazine piece
orange glitter stars/gel medium
black oil crayon
stamped images and quote

Quote reads:
"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a Dancing Star." ~Friedrich Nietzsche

The process took numerous days - had to let each layer dry in between. Tons of fun with this one!

I have absolutely loved the Circle Journal process. I am definitely going to try this again! I can't wait to get together with everyone and exchange our pages! It will great to fill my journal with everyone's self-portraits in song!

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments - they really mean a lot to me! I wish you a terrific Tuesday!

J is for Just...

So, here's the art journal page I started the other night, to help me get through my artist's block. It's for my "A Year In The Life of an Art Journal" project. The project is actually up to the letter L, so I'm a little behind, but that's okay. The word for the letter J is Just. Here's what I did with it...
For this page I used acrylic paint, alpha stickers from K&Co, Love Elsie & Doodlebug, magazine image, postage stamp, dictionary paper, gesso, paper towel, vintage lace, gaffer tape, Purple sparkly felt, Border Word stamp (a gift from my online friend Linda), and butterfly embellishments that were made by Tammy Gray.

Journaling reads:
Art is simply self-expression. However it turns out will be exactly right. Just begin.

Quote is by Von Goethe and reads: "Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it."

For more info or to join in on the "Year in the life of an art journal" project, click on the widget in the right hand column. =====>

I've also been having fun working on my last circle journal page tonight. It has lots of layers, so it's been taking awhile. I have to let each layer dry before starting the next one. I find that I really enjoy having two projects going at once. It creates a nice energy flow. So now that I am finished with the art journal page, and I have a layer drying on the circle journal layout, I think I will start my SiSversary Yearbook...

I hope you have a super sunshiney Saturday my friends! I will be back tomorrow with another update. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Inspired by Color...

Happy Happy Friday my friends!!!

I finished another circle journal layout! Yeayyy! I am feeling inspired again, which is good since Tracy's CJ theme is "Inspiration." I get alot of inspiration from color, so I decided to do a color mosaic.

I drew out the word Color on a piece of typing paper. Then I scribbled all over it to create the mosaic pattern. Then I traced the individual pieces onto patterned papers, cut them out and reassembled them back into the word color. It was kind of time-consuming, (kinda like putting together a puzzle), but alot of fun to do!

Here's how it turned out...

I can see that there will be more mosaic work in my future. It could be a great way to use up scraps too!

Last night I had a lot of fun working in my art journal too. I started a page, but it's not finished yet. I will post it as soon as I finish it.

There's a cool tutorial on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog for making a unique handmade flower. Click here to check it out. I wanted to try it tonight but I ran out of time.

Alrighty then, that's it for today. I must get some shut-eye. Thanks so much for stopping by and I will see you tomorrow with another update!!!

My First Layout and Other Nostalgia...

I learned (or should I say re-learned) a valuable lesson this week: - Always create to satisfy your own heart. Trying to create something for someone else's approval just plain doesn't work, and it's a sure way to come up with a bad case of artist's block. This is what happened to me this past week and it's been driving me crazy. Aargh.

Artist's block is something that happens to me every so often and each time it takes me awhile to come back to the same conclusion I noted above. I'm trying too hard. Once I realize that and let go I'm free again. It's getting to the point of realization that is sometimes the hard part. Each time I get a little better at it though, so that's progress, right?

I was reflecting on all this tonight and it made me think about my first scrapbooks. I've loved keeping scrapbooks since I was a kid, and back then I never gave much thought to how they looked. I just wanted to have a place to keep my memories. I love to go back and look at them. Here's a picture of my very first page in my very first scrapbook. It was 1971...

I think it's so funny that I felt the need to keep that article from my teeny bop magazine about David Cassidy's gall bladder surgery. I think it was in "Tiger Beat." Anyone remember that magazine? HA! And on the other page is my fifth grade class photo. Here's a closeup...

I'm the one in the second row, fifth from the left, with my eyes closed. Ha. You can see it a little better if you click on the image.

The other thing I always did as a kid was keep a bulletin board with poems, doodles, magazine clippings, song lyrics and anything else that was inspiring me at the time. When I moved out I took the stuff that was on that bulletin board and put it in this box...
Now it's like a treasure box full of memories. I'm so glad I have it.

How about you? Do you have scrapbooks or other memorabilia that you kept as a kid? Where do you keep it now?

I'm inspired now. I'm off to play in my art journal. Have a wonderful Thursday my friends and I will be back tomorrow with another update!

Project 365 - Week Twenty-Four...

Ohhhh I'm slipping up on the job here! It's week twenty-four and I was bad about taking pictures every day - eek!!! No matter tho, when I missed a day, I simply took two pictures the next day to make up for it. I don't want to keep doing that tho, cuz I really like the idea of having a picture to represent each day of the year. Oh well. Here goes...

Monday, June 8th: The layout I created for Scrapping The Music...

No photo on Tuesday, so

Wednesday, June 10th: My Studio Calico order arrives - Yeayyy!!!

and also on Wednesday, Johnny snuggles up to his brother for a nice little nap...

Thursday, June 11th: Michael made some of his FABULOUS chocolate cake. It's got pudding in the middle - YUM!!!

No photo on Friday so

Saturday, June 13th: Son Stevie and me at the family reunion...

and also on Saturday, Michael's sister and nephew...

Sunday, June 14th: Back at home, Johnny basks in the sunlight of the golden hour...
Once again, no layout this week - I'm going to have to catch up with the Project 365 layouts next month since I have so many deadlines this month.

For more information on Project 365, click on the link in the right-hand column. ===>

Now, on to my next Circle Journal layout. This one's theme is "Inspiration." Wish me luck!

I wish you a glorious Wednesday my friends! Thanks for stopping by and for your comments - I really appreciate them! I will be back tomorrow with another update!

Circle Journals and Amos...

I finished another circle journal layout! This one for CeCe, and her theme is "Guilty Pleasures." I had a hard time deciding what my guilty pleasures were, but then once I started to roll with it, I had a hard time narrowing it down to what would fit on a page! HA. Anyhoo, here's what I ended up making: (click on the picture to see more details and read my confessions)...
I used the SiSTV "Girly Girl" collection for this, plus the cat which I cut from a greeting card. I just knew she would come in handy for something.

So, I hope you are enjoying the Amos Lee song over at Scrapping The Music this week! Thanks for all the nice comments on my layout. I really appreciate them soooo much! For me, the simple guitar and voice songs are the best kind. When I say simple I mean not over produced. Clear and clean. The ones that have you really listening to the lyrics. Amos' songs are all like that. So heartfelt. His first album (the one that Keep It Loose is on) is one of those albums that I played over and over until I knew all the songs by heart. If you haven't headed over to Scrapping The Music to check it out yet, come on over!!! I'd absolutely love it if we got a huge participation turnout this week! In the meantime, while I am on an Amos kick, here's another one of my faves off of his first album...

Arms of a Woman

That's it for today - I will be back tomorrow with a Project 365 update. Have an awesome Tuesday my friends! Thanks for stopping by!

Amos Lee At Scrapping The Music!

I finally can share my layout for this week's song at Scrapping The Music! The song is "Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight," by Amos Lee, and it is one of my all time fave songs ever! Did anyone guess it ahead of time? I hope you like it! Here's my take on the song...
I chose the lyric "We All Need a Place that We Can go and feel Over the Rainbow..."

This is also my entry for this week's challenge at The Next Step, which was to alter patterned paper. I altered this Fancy Pants paper by painting, and then doodling around the edge, and also adding pieces of dictionary paper to the insides of the clouds for added texture.

Other materials used include SiS gaffer tape, acrylic paint, journaling pens, and a MAMBI epoxy peace sign.

The journaling reads:
Northern Minnesota is breathtakingly beautiful in the fall, and this was our first trip together which made everything even more magical. I remember this moment. We had been climbing around on the rocks taking pictures, and you had me in stitches with your video narration of our trip to the lighthouse. We stopped to take in the view of Lake Superior. It was peaceful and serene. Grand Marais will always be an "over the rainbow" place for us.

This song is so inspirational for me. I can envision numerous other art projects inspired by this song in my future...

I hope you will come over and play along with us this week!

I will see you tomorrow with another update. Take care and have a marvelous Monday my friends!

Home...

Happy Saturday! It's 3:46 a.m. here in Minnesota, and I am finally starting to get my mojo back! Yeayyyy! I had lots of fun tonight and if it wasn't so late, I would stay up and make another layout! In any case, I finished one. It's another Circle Journal layout - this time for Denise. Her theme is "Home" and whatever that means to you. The layout has to be a double 6x6. Here's what I came up with...I used my new Cosmo Cricket "Girl Friday" goodies (thanks Secret Sister!), plus a little black vintage Jenni Bowlin paper, and a journaling pen. The title quote is from the song "Homeward Bound" by Simon & Garfunkel. Click on the image to read the writing and see more of the details.

Okay, I will give you another hint about tomorrow's song at Scrapping The Music. Ummm... Okay two hints. 1) It's a person as opposed to a band. 2) The title has six words.
Any ideas? Only one more day...

I'm off to get a little shut eye. Tomorrow's a busy day! Have a stupendous Saturday everybody! I will be back tomorrow with another update!

Awesome Happy Mail and Yummy Dessert...

My RAK came today from The Next Step! How fun is that?!! This week has been a festival of awesome scrap supplies! In true Next Step fashion, this RAK is a mixed media lover's dream! Along with some funky and fun patterned paper, there is fabric, fishnet, fibers and ribbons, tags and frames, flowers and buttons and a simply gorgeous bird! And it's all so bright and beautiful! Thank you so much Lucy, Bethany and Gayle! I really love the inspiration these women provide every week! If you haven't checked The Next Step out, I highly encourage it! They post every Monday with new ideas for mixed media techniques. It's a really unique challenge blog, and lots of fun! After all, who can't use a reason to look forward to Mondays?!

Still no creating from me! It's only been three days, but it feels like much longer! Today I was happily distracted by Michael's gloriously fantastic chocolate cake. I am blessed to have a hubby who bakes the most scrumptious desserts you could ever imagine. And when he married me, he learned how to bake vegan!!! How lucky am I?!!! Sooo yummy.

But seriously, I must get busy and start making stuff! EEEK - time's a wasting!

I will be back tomorrow and I hope hope hope to have a new project to share! Thanks so much for stopping by, and for your comments - they really mean a lot to me!

Studio Calico and a Sneaky Peeky...

My Studio Calico kits arrived!!! YEAYYYY and super YEAYYY! I love the way each kit came packaged individually with cute little labels on each bag...


Johnny had fun with the packaging paper (as always, it's his favorite part of the whole happy mail process)...
Here's the main kit - called "Soda Fountain." I think my favorite parts of this kit are the exclusive alpha patterned paper, the cherry paper, and how all the patterns go together! So fun...

Here's the first add-on. It's called "Shirley Temple." I love the lush pinks and oranges of this kit, plus those yummy numbers stamps...
and here's the second add-on kit I got - it's called "Cherry Pop." I LOVE those alpha stamps, and the little adhesive gems are fantastic in real life!...
and all because I won a $15 gift certificate for Studio Calico from the BASB challenge blog! I love getting introduced to new things, and the Studio Calico site is a cool kit club and a super-nice community too. Check it out here!

Okay - a number of people are really curious about the song that's coming up at Scrapping The Music, since I mentioned it was one of my faves of all time. I have to say I'm not sure how well known this song is, but I hope you will like it! Here's a sneak peek of my layout for the song...

does this give you any ideas??? Only three days to wait...

My plan was to complete two projects a night this week to get caught up with all my deadlines, and so far the only project I managed to complete was the Scrapping The Music one. Aargh! Work has been super busy, and my scraproom has been a mess which always seems to clutter my brain. Now that I've had a little break tho, I'm feeling pumped to do some creating!

I hope this week has you feeling inspired! I will be back tomorrow with an update and hopefully a new project to share!

Project 365 - Week Twenty-Three...

I finished my layout tonight for this coming Sunday's Scrapping The Music song, and I just have to say it's one of my ALL-TIME favorite songs by one of my VERY FAVORITE artists! I'm so excited about it! Wish I could share, but I have to wait until Sunday evening to post it.

So, here we go on Project 365, week twenty-three...

Monday, June 1st: I love calendar-changing day...

Tuesday, June 2nd: My childhood home was on this block. I was in the area for work, so I drove past it for old time's sake. See that freeway fence? That is why we had to move. They were widening the freeway, so we had to sell our house to the city, and it was torn down. Now that fence stands where all of our houses on that side of the street used to be. I was in seventh grade at the time and soooo bummed that we had to move...

Wednesday, June 3rd: What could be cuter than a cat foot on your keyboard? Johnny was taking a nap next to the computer...

Thursday, June 4th: The throw pillows on our bed...

I didn't take any pictures on Friday, which turned out great, because I took two for Saturday!

Christina and me at our crop...

and the happy mail I got from my secret sister...

Sunday, June 7th: A snuggly moment for Johnny and Michael...

I didn't do a layout for the week yet, cuz I've been busy with a bunch of projects with deadlines. I figure as long as I keep taking my pictures, I can pop in the journaling cards later, right?

For more info about Project 365, click on the link in the right-hand column. =====>

I thought I was getting my Studio Calico kits today, but it turns out I have to wait until Wednesday. Ohhhh the suspense of it all!!!

Alrighty then, time for me to get some shuteye. I wish you a terrific Tuesday my friends! Thanks for stopping by, and thank you so much for your nice comments! They really make my day!

Happy Mail From My Secret Sister!!!

I came home late Saturday night from my crop and there in my mail was a package from my secret sister! Look at all the loveliness that was in the box!!!!!Patterned papers, stickers, and ribbons from the AWESOME Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday line, plus gorgeous thickers and coordinating cardstock! I am so thrilled! Thank you so much secret sister!!!

Speaking of secrets - I spent all day decorating my plate for the SiStv "mystery item" contest. The way it works is: 20 people signed up to be in a contest - all we knew was that we were going to get a "mystery item" to decorate. Once the sign-ups were complete we got to see what the item was. We were given a little tin plate - about 3.5" wide and told to decorate it any way we want. Then we send it in with just our given number on the back - no name. Then there is blind judging. It's going to be so much fun to see what everyone comes up with! I wish I could share what I did but I guess that will have to wait!

I just realized I didn't do my project 52 ATC this week. I discovered I really like doing a monthly theme for these cards. My plan for June is to do a series of mixed media ATCs in honor of the Collage Couture class I'm taking.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend my friends! I will be back tomorrow with another update! Thanks for stopping by!

Playing with Paint...

The crop was fun and I am sooo tired! I decided to work on my art journals (I have two of them going) and it was a good decision. I brought a shoebox full of paint, gel medium and gesso, some brushes and a container full of collage materials, and just played all day. I painted a lot of backgrounds, cut alot of stuff out of magazines - no stress, no expectations. It was positively lovely. I only completed one thing - the title page for my "A Year In The Life" journal. Here's how it turned out...I just love that greyhound - doesn't he look happy!?! I discovered when I painted the words "art journal," that my heavy-body acrylic soaks into the thin paper of this journal and loses it's bright color. I had a little tube of orange-red gouache with me (fantastic stuff), and I put that over the top and it sat on top of the surface and stayed nice and bright red. Yeayyy! It's fun to play around with different types of paint and see what works best with what. Paint is just one big adventure if you ask me! (of course no one asked me, but that's beside the point...). The background on this spread is watercolor. The blue on the side is duct tape with stazon ink stamped over the top of it.

The bad news is I broke my funky reader glasses - aargh. Luckily I had the blue duct tape, so that went around the side and altho they were a little wonky-looking, they worked just fine for the rest of the night.

Here's a pic of Christina with her fashionable glasses and me with my wonky ones...
So that's all for today! I'm home and it's Sunday morning and I need to get a little shuteye. Later on today I want to work on the rest of my circle journal layouts.

I wish you a sunshiny Sunday! I will be back tomorrow with another update!

Yippee Skippy it's Friday!

Happy Friday my scrapparific friends! This week has flown by! I'm excited because tomorrow is my monthly girls crop! My plan is to get there at 10 am when they open, so we will have almost 12 hours of cropping time. One thing I am hoping to purchase is some of the new Early Bird line from Cosmo Cricket. I'm totally enamored with the smiling toaster!

Okay, so I finished my project for the current challenge at The Next Step, which is to reinvent your old patterned papers. I took this old, rather bland black and white paper, and added some new painted circles with the leftover paint from last night's layout - a mix of turquoise and lime. Then I outlined and doodled with a white Sharpie. It was fun and got me inspired to do more of this - I have a ton of old papers that need revamping! Here's the result...

Tonight after work will be spent getting ready for the crop. I think I might print off some challenges, and work on those - that's always fun and freeing!

I hope you have a fantastic Friday! I will be back tomorrow with another update - take care and thanks for stopping by!

Unconventional Music-Loving Goofy Mushbucket...

I finally got some time to scrap tonight and it felt fabulous! I finished another circle journal layout. This one is for Lori and her theme is "What Makes You You?" I don't usually combine projects, but I am also submitting this to the current BASB Challenge because it is all about doing a layout about your self, and this fits the bill exactly!
The self-portrait is a photograph I cropped and altered in Dina Wakely's art journaling class, but never had a chance to use on a layout until now! The title is handpainted and outlined with a sharpie.

The journaling reads:
I was the one in junior high that wore the loud pants with designs all over them. I've always loved bright colors and I still wear loud designs when I can get away with it. (wink). I love music of all kinds and love to get to know people thru the music they love. I love to laugh and my hubby and two cats keep me in stitches. I love to sing and dance... The kind where it doesn't matter what you sound or look like, it just matters that you FEEL it! The raven is my animal totem and I have one tattooed on my leg. I talk to inanimate objects all the time. When I was a kid I used to tell the bath bubbles I was sorry they had to go down the drain, and I never really got over that feeling that everything has feelings - LOL. I jump up and down when I'm excited - my hubby always says he knows its a good day if I'm jumping. I believe you have to take chances, be who you are, love as much as you possibly can, and don't be afraid to look foolish once in awhile - it keeps you grounded!

When I was done with this layout I still had a bunch of paint on my palette, so I worked on the current challenge at The Next Step, which is to alter old patterned paper to make it fresh and new again! I will share that project tomorrow.

I hope your week is going well! I wish you tons of inspiration and a positively thrilling Thursday! Thanks for stopping by!