November 29th Journal Page and Project 365 Catch-Up...

Today is the last day of the November Promp-A-Day class! I'm anxious to see what's coming up for December! In the meantime, here's my page from yesterday...

November 29...

Now - on to the subject of Project 365 - EEK I'm really starting to struggle! I keep forgetting to take pictures! I know I can keep it up til the end of the year - I just have to!!! Anyhoo, what I'm doing is just trying to take as many pictures as I can. Some days I take a bunch to make up for not taking any on other days. In the end I WILL have 365 photos! This is a good exercise in stick-to-it-iveness! So, here are some photos to catch you up:

Tuesday, November 10th: Willie - portrait of a scraproom cat...

and Johnny with the packing paper from my latest shipment of scrap supplies. I think he likes it when I get happy mail, even more than I do!

Friday, November 20: A scene from inside my favorite thrift store. They have treasures galore!

Friday, November 20: After doing the art journal page about how I was always the kid with the loud pants, I came across this old picture of me as a kid wearing LOUD pants!

Tuesday, November 24th: It was a grey day, but beautiful to see the geese flying in formation on my way to Chisago City...

It was my first time going to Chisago City - what a cute little town it is!

Thursday, November 26: The atmosphere was festive at the Rydell family Thanksgiving gathering...

Sunday, November 29th: I finally broke down and ordered some happy tape. I have been wanting some of this stuff for a long time. I got this set of plaids...
and this set of black and whites. I can't wait to use them! (Photos borrowed from the happy tape website)...

So, that is it for now. I am re-commiting myself to finish out the year strong with my Project 365 photos! It's only five more weeks til the end of the year!

Alrighty then - the next thing on my list is to do a challenge! Hmmmmm, I'm off to check out some challenge blogs and find something to participate in!

Have a fabulous Monday my friends, and I will be back tomorrow with another update - thanks so much for visiting!

November 28th Journal Page...

Michael and I finally rented "Twilight" and we both thought it was great fun! I hadn't read any of the books, but was anxious to find out what the deal was and now I get it! I can't wait to see "New Moon" in the theatres - maybe on our next date night...

I'm still busily working on my projects. I finished my layout for the TATS blog, but I can't share it until December hits - drat. Oh well. I can share my latest art journal page:

November 28...

as I move into the new December "Prompt-a-Day" class, I am thinking that I will follow the painting and collage prompts more and more loosely, so that by the end of the month, I am doing those parts completely on my own. That will help me make the transition to doing my own thing come January. I am LOVING and NEEDING the journaling prompts tho, and I will stick with them til the end. My plan is to start a journal jar during December. During the month I will collect and think up prompts, and put them in the jar. Then when January comes I can use the jar to grab my prompts from - it should be fun!

Okay, I'm off to catch a few zzzzz's. See you tomorrow!

What a Fun, Relaxing Weekend!

It's 2:20 am and I'm creating like crazy while watching tv on Hulu.com. I'm currently checking out the remake from the 1990s of the soap opera "Dark Shadows." I didn't even know there was a remake! It's kinda corny so far, but fun cuz the original was my favorite as a little kid - I thought it was so scary! Barnabas Collins the vampire and his brother Quentin Collins the werewolf were the main characters. Do any of you remember that show? Okay, I digress...

I finished two more art journal pages from Kelly's class...

November 27th...

and November 26th...

and also my Project 52 ATCs for October (weeks 40 - 43). For these I used photos from Honeymoon three, and as the base of my cards, I used four hotel keys from our trip!




Tonight was reveal night at Studio Calico, which was also fun! I actually resisted getting any add-on kits this month, but I did get some of their new calendar pages, which I think will be PERFECT for Project 12 2010! They also have some super cute months of the year stamps that I will go perfect with the calendar pages! You can see the calendar pages here, and the months stamps here. Yeayyy!

Alrighty then - the next project on my list is my layout for the December TATS sketch. I'm off to get started on it! I hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

My Fave Decade...

I woke up at 3:00 am this moning and was so excited about my long weekend of scrapping that I had to get up - I couldn't sleep! I feel like a kid at Christmas! HA! So now it's only 7:47 am and I finished my Fave Decade layout - The decade I chose is probably no surprise to those who know me...
I was in my teens in the 70's and I still love so much about those years. I used the Studio Calico "Yearbook" kit for this layout, and the image of Elton John is from the cover of Time Magazine's June 1975 issue. I kept it all these years because I loved the illustration! I think the reason it took me so long to finish this layout is because there is So MUCH I love about the 70's it was hard to figure out how to sum it all up. I finished before the deadline for the Fave Things challenge tho, so it's all good.

I hope you all have an awesome Friday, and if you are in the U.S. and participate in Black Friday shopping - I wish you fabulous deals!

A Thursday Hello to You...

Oh my - I've been doing so much art journaling lately, that now I am having a hard time getting back into doing layouts! I mean, I WANT to, and I'm trying to, but, I'm having a hard time coming up with anything! I have been working on my "Fave Decade" layout for three evenings now, and it's been a struggle! I finally got something going, but it's now almost 4 am and I must get some sleep! AARGH!

So, in the meantime, I am excited to share my journal page for November 25...


I'm getting excited to actually finish my current journal and start another one - yeayyyyyy! I have all these journals I've made that have been just sitting on my shelf, and now I get to use them - I LOVE IT!!!

Alrighty then - I must get some sleep. Have a wonderful Thursday everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate the holiday! See you tomorrow!

Developing A Ritual...

Yesterday I signed up for the December edition of "A Prompt-A-Day" (Kelly Kilmer's Art Journaling class). Like I told Kelly, I've been wanting to get a daily art-journaling ritual going, and I am actually doing it now - thanks to her class! My goal for December is to learn as much during the month as I can, about what works for me, so that I can continue on with my own art journaling ritual after December is over. Yeayyy!

So, here are my pages from the last three days:

November 22...

November 23...

November 24...
The journaling on this one is hard to follow - lol. It says...

"I could spend hours and hours creating in my scraproom. I never tire of making stuff."

I've got all of my backgrounds done for the rest of the month, and tonight I am working ahead on the collages. Then I can do the journaling on a daily basis, and hopefully, will have enough focus to also complete my scrapbook layouts!

So, what about you? Are you able to jump from one type of project to another in one evening? Or do you also have to focus on one thing at a time? I'd love to hear your approach to things!

I will be back tomorrow with another update - thanks for visiting!!!

Thinking About 2010...

I've been working on my "Fave Decade" layout for the Fave Things blog, which of course required me pulling out my trunk of memorabilia from my childhood, and I came across one of my earliest drawings. I made this for the cover of the junior high newsletter back in the early '70s. I used to love to draw little people with different outfits on. I thought it would be fun to share...
P.S. Those yellow marks in the corners are what happens when you use regular tape to tape things into your albums. The tape lost it's adhesive quality and fell off years ago, but it left these nice yellow marks. Ha.

So, it's the time of year when I start obsessing over how to organize my journals and scrapbooks for the upcoming year. How will I document my life? Should I reorganize my scrapbooking system? What should my creative goals be??? It drives me crazy and I love it at the same time.

I've been debating a lot about Project 365. I have enjoyed taking my photo every day this year, and it's going to be AWESOME to have my album to look back on. At the same time, I don't know that I could keep that momentum going for another year.

I definitely want to get in on Davinie Fiero's Project 12 this year. This project is where you do one layout that sums up each month. There is no kit, so the designing part is up to you. This creative freedom is more what I need right now I think.

So, I think in terms of documenting life, I am going to continue to take tons of photos, but trade in my Project 365 hat for a Project 12 one. And as far as blogging the photos - I may still do a weekly update - just no layout or book.

Okay, one decision down, 7 billion to go...

Okay, I'm off to finish a few projects. I will be back tomorrow with another update! Thanks so much for visiting!

A Greeting from Me and Willie, Plus New Stuff to Share...

I was messing around with Photo Booth again and made this ridiculously short video to share with you...



Next time I post a video, I will try to have more content - LOL. At least I know how to do it now. :0)

I finished my "S is for Song" page for "A Year In The Life of an Art Journal." The idea was to share a lyric from a song you love. This is one of my favorite lyrics and I found it so true in my life. The song is called "Duck and Cover" and it's by Glen Phillips...

Since I could only fit one line on the page, I thought I would share the whole song with you here since I love it so much! Check out this video of Glen doing "Duck and Cover" live...



Someone's in the back yard, banging on the door
Daddy's gone away, he's coming back no more
His baby's curled up on a stranger's floor
Mama's thinking family dinners weren't too much to ask for

Everybody here's got a story to tell
Everybody's been through their own hell
There's nothing too special about getting hurt
Getting over it, that takes the work

Cause one way or another, we'll all need each other
Nothing's gonna turn out the way you thought it would
But friends and lovers, don't you duck and cover
Cause everything comes out the way it should

Blessed are the humble, blessed are the meek
Blessed are the hungry, blessed are the weak
Blessed are the ones on the other side
Blessed are we for just being alive

One day I stopped wanting anything at all
The heavens opened up like a waterfall
No use in worrying about when it ends
Just for now be thankful for what i get

Cause one way or another, a man's gonna suffer
It makes no difference the way you wanted it
But friends and lovers, don't you duck and cover
Cause everything comes out the way it should in the end

Seems like life is a palindrome
You cry when you die, you cry when you're born
In between it's all about the ups and downs
Add 'em all together, they cancel each other out

Cause one way or another
One way or another
You won't get what you wanted
You'll get enough, for sure
One way or another
Winter pays for the summer
Won't get what you wanted
What you got'll be good

Someone's in the back yard, banging on the door
Daddy's gone away, he's coming back no more
His baby's curled up on a stranger's floor
Mama's thinking happy endings weren't too much to ask for
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Sigh. Love that song.


Anyhoo, moving on - here's my Prompt-A-Day page for November 21st...
and that's about it for today!

I'm off to work on my "Fave Decade" layout for the These are a Few of My Favorite Things blog! Take care and I hope your weekend is fantastic!

A New Page and Thrift Store Treasures...

I can't believe it's already November 21st! EEK! That means only 9 more days of my Prompt-A-Day class! I hope we find out soon about December's class! I'm having so much fun with this, I would hate to see it end! Anyhoo, here's my page for yesterday...

Friday, November 20:
I have been finding some FABULOUS treasures at the thrift store lately! Here's a pic of what I got today and the last time I went...
The Herb Alpert album will make a great journal cover, cuz I my parents had that album when I was a kid and I remember it so well! I also love the white guest book cuz the inside pages are cool and vintage looking. I think I will use it as either a mini-album or a future art journal.

The most exciting find tho, was this vintage train case!!! Check it out...

I've been looking for one of these since I started my Autumn=Love class, because one of the projects is a Craft Travel kit, and I thought one of these would be perfect for it. I've been looking online and they are expensive and hard to find, and then here was this beauty at the thrift store for only $3.99! Yeayyyyy! I'm going to clean it up and decorate it and it will be so fun!!!

The inside has a mirror that's in great shape, and a divided tray...
The tray comes out and there are three zipper pouches (perfect for journaling pens and the like!) I'm so EXCITED!!!

And here's the last thing I bought at the thrift store today. I think I may have mentioned before that I haven't been able to focus on reading for a long time. Well, I am hoping that this will bring me out of my reading slump...
Stephen King was always my favorite, and I remember wanting to get this trilogy and I never did. Now to just find the time...

Alrighty then, I got about halfway through my "S is for Song" page last night, so tonight I am going to finish it. I hope to be back tomorrow to show you how it turned out!

Have a wonderful Saturday, and thanks for visiting me!!!

November 18th and 19th Pages...

Well hello there out in Blogland! I've got two new art journal pages from Kelly's class to share with you, but first I want to show you the beautiful ATC that I got from my online friend Jeanet! She sent it along with the awesome prize she sent me for winning a round at the Fave Things Blog! I absolutely love the beautiful colors and shading on this...
Thank you so much Jeanet - that was an awesome surprise!


On to my next art journal pages. Here's the one for November 18th...
The journaling reads:
Oh patterned paper, you had me at hello. The very first time I saw you with your intoxicating colors, patterns & textures - I knew you were for me. No matter how much I have of you, I'm always wanting more.

And November 19th:

the image of the hands is cut from a collage sheet we got from the teacher (Kelly); and I used my pan pastels around the edges. The word Journey is stamped on a cocktail napkin.

So, I am really hoping to finish my "S is for Song" page tonight for my Year In The Life of an Art Journal Project. The rest of the group is already on "V" - yikes! Thanks for visiting and I will see you tomorrow!

Now I Just Have to Make Time for Layouts...

I'm doing pretty good at keeping up with the daily journal pages for Kelly's class, and I'm having a blast doing it! My intent was to do a journal page, and another project each day, and that hasn't really been working out. Oh well. I'm hoping the more pages I do, the quicker I will be at them. They really are so fun and stress-free! Here are the ones from the last two days...

November 16:

and November 17:
Now I must clarify that I realized an error in this story after I wrote it. My brother was already in the Navy when I was learning to drive, so he couldn't have been in the car with my dad - LOL. My memory plays tricks on me sometimes. Now I'm thinking - maybe it was my sister Renee in the car with him? Oh well.

I need to get busy on my Project 365 photos for last week too. I'm just curious - for those of you who are doing Project 365 this year, do you think you will continue for 2010? Becky Higgins kit looks super cute and fun, but I'm not sure I have the stamina to go another year. I definitely want to join in on Davinie Fiero's "Project 12" next year. I've been watching other's monthly layouts show up in the Studio Calico gallery, and thinking it looks like fun. I can't wait to get started with that!

Anyhoo, I'm off to work on the prompt for today. Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

My Pan Pastels Came!!!

After seeing this video by Teesha Moore, I got so inspired I absoutely HAD to order some pan pastels. Well, they came this week and I am in LOVE! Here are the colors I got...

and each container comes with a separate section on the bottom with little foam applicators - how cool is that?...

I tried them out and they are so intense with color it's amazing - you barely have to touch the applicator to the pan and you get tons of color - and no dusty mess!

I got them at Cheap Joe's Art Supplies - in case you are interested...

I've been busy catching up on my daily journal pages from Kelly's class...

I tried out the magenta pastel around the edges on this page for November 14. You can see it the most around the letter "I"...

and here's November 15...

I want to see if I can catch up tonight and I've got two to do still - wish me luck!

I will be back tomorrow with the results - thanks so much for stopping by!

Something Beautiful about Bucky...

Hey there and Happy Monday! The new song is up at Scrapping the Music, and it's "Something Beautiful" by the Newsboys. I'm so excited to be able to share my layout! I made this awhile ago, and it was so much fun! I used the November Studio Calico "Marketplace" kit. When I saw the red checked paper, it immediately made me think of doing a layout about my little friend Bucky the goat, who I met at the San Diego Zoo in October! So, here's how it turned out...
I used brown Maya Mist behind the word Beautiful to make it stand out a little more. I also added some Jenni Bowlin paper at the top; but other than that everything is from the kit.

Come on over to Scrapping The Music and play along with us this week - we'd love to have you!

I am just loving this Marketplace kit. I am also using it for the Mini-album I am working on. It's still not done. I am guessing it will be two more scrapping sessions after tonight to finish it, but I'm taking my time with it and having lots of fun, and that's what scrapping is all about, right?

Alrighty then, I am off to do some more scrapping and art journal background painting. I will be back tomorrow with another update. Thanks so much for visiting!

The Crop Was Awesome...

Yesterday's crop with my girlfriends was so much fun! It was great to see Christina, Lynn and Anne and share ideas and inspiration! I wish I would have remembered to take a pic of all of us together! AAK. Oh well, I will do that next month for sure. I did get a lot done tho! I worked on my embroidery hoop mini-album the whole time, but it's not quite finished yet. Still, here's a sneak peek....

Today is going to be a fun day of painting the rest of my art journal backgrounds for Kelly's class...

and working on my mini in between while the pages are drying. Yeayyy!

How has your weekend been going?

I will be back tomorrow with the new Scrapping The Music layout I completed for this week's song - can't wait to share! Thanks for stopping by!

EEK - I'm on the Studio Calico Blog!!!

I was so excited to see one of my art journal pages featured on the Studio Calico blog today! What an honor and a huge surprise! Thanks Jenn, you made my day! Click here to check it out!

Okay, on to Friday's page from my prompt-a-day class...


Tomorrow is my monthly crop with the girls, and I'm so excited! I am planning to work on my embroidery hoop mini-album (an "Autumn=Love" project) ALL DAY LONG! I hope I can finish it, so I can share it with you tomorrow!

Take care til then and thanks so much for visiting!

November 12th Journal Page...

Hey there friends! I'm still having a blast with Kelly's Journaling Class! Here's my page for November 12th...
I can't wait to see what she has in store for December's class!

It's also the last week of Elsie and Rachel's Autumn=Love class! Eight weeks has gone fast, but I've gotten a lot of new ideas and tons of fun projects to last me through the year! It sounds like they are planning to do a new craft class soon, so keep your eye on Elsie's blog if you're interested.

And speaking of new classes - here's another art journaling one with Mary Ann Moss that looks fun - I don't know when exactly its going up or how much it will cost, but I am sure going to keep my eye on Mary Ann's blog to find out...

Tonight at midnight is when the sneak peeks for Studio Calico's December kits go live! It's always fun to get a glimpse into the new month - I can hardly wait!

I'm really hoping to get my second wind here so I can complete another project from my list, but I may just have to go catch a few zzzzzzz's instead. I'm going to give it a few minutes and see what happens.

Here's wishing you a fabulous Friday! I hope you come back and visit again tomorrow! Take care!

November 10th and 11th Art Journal Pages and the Results of my Second "Finish 'er Up Friday"

I had my second "Finish er Up Friday" and oh my gosh it is feeling so good to get some of my old projects done! I have a mini-album to share with you, but first - my "Prompt A Day" art journal pages for Tuesday and Wednesday...




Okay, so now - this is a mini-album I started way back in 2007. My friend Christina and I took a class from Elsie Flannigan at Scrapfest, and it was tons of fun! It was made with her "Toby" line. I got the book about 3/4 done and then quit, until last night! Here it is all finished up...

It's a book about a trip to Europe I took with my parents back in 1972. (That's me at 12 - the shy-looking one with the long blonde hair, and that's my mom next to me)






Trafalgar square still ranks up there with the highlights of my life! I just loved all those pigeons!


I can't remember the name of those buildings in the picture above the word "brussels." Does anyone know?

There were something like 200 steps up to that monument on Lion Hill. It took forever to climb to the top. Just thinking about it now makes me want to start working out. LOL.

The woman in the red jacket was a street artist in Paris and I bought a painting from her that was similar to the one you can see in between our heads - of a little 70's style girl...

I hear the security at the Louvre has tightened in recent years - but back then we were allowed to take pictures of a lot of the art - not the Mona Lisa tho.

And that's the end! What a feeling of satisfaction to be able to take one more project off of my "to finish" pile, and put it up in the livingroom on display! Yeayyy!

Oh - just a reminder: You've still got a couple of days to play along with the "Fave Vacation" challenge at the TAAFOMFT blog! It's my last challenge as guest designer and it would be really fun to see you there!

So now I'm off to start preparing supplies for my monthly crop with the gals on Saturday. I think I will work on the embroidery hoop album I started in Elsie and Rachel's Autumn online class.

I hope you are having a wonderful week! I will be back tomorrow with another update - thanks for visiting!