The Top 2000 Songs of All Time - The Final Day!

It's the final day of Marit's Top 2000 party! This has been so much fun! I have been singing these songs all week, and it's so much fun to pay tribute to them on paper!

Today we are counting down from #272 to #1! My song choice is #40 - "Black" by Pearl Jam. I have loved Pearl Jam's music ever since they started, and I can't believe they have been around for over 20 years already! To me, Eddie Vedder's combination of poetic songwriting and super-emotive singing makes this song a masterpiece. Here's how my layout/poster turned out...
I tried to capture the idea from the lyrics of his world turning to black (at the love lost).

Edited to add: Linda asked how I did the combination color/black and white photo. Good question, and it's super simple! I just printed the photo twice - once in color, and once in black and white. Then I drew the dripping bit on the black and white; cut it out, lined it up, and pasted it on top of the color photo. Easy peasy!

I just love this video of Pearl Jam doing "Black" during an unplugged session on MTV. I hope you enjoy it too...




To see Marit's final blogpost for the party, and all of the other participants artwork for today, click here.

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! Thanks so much for visiting! Stay safe and I will see you again soon!

The Top 2000 Songs of All Time - Day Six!

I can't believe it's already the second to the last day of the Top 2000 Countdown! Eek! Where has this week gone??? Marit's Blog Party is still going strong! Today, we are counting down #586 - #273. The song I chose is #289: 1970's "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens.

I just love the depth of this song, and how Cat actually sounds when he's singing, like two different people having a conversation. It's one of my all-time favorite songs. Here's how my layout/poster turned out...



Here's Cat singing "Father and Son" live...



Click here to go to the blog party, and see the songs that all of the other participants chose. I think it's so much fun to see what everyone is coming up with!!! I hope you are having a great week, my friends! I will see you again tomorrow for the last day of the Top 2000 countdown!

The Top 2000 Songs of All Time - Day Five!

Today, for Marit's Blog Party - we are counting down from #893 to #586 of the Top 2000 Songs of all Time.

My choice is #716 - "Georgia on my Mind" by Ray Charles. What a beautiful, classic tune. Here's how my layout/poster turned out...
The image of Ray is a press photo and the bottom image is the Atlanta Skyline, as taken by dsigning.


I hope you enjoy this video of Ray singing this classic song...



I will be back tomorrow with day six of the countdown. If you want to find out more about Marit's Top 2000 blog party, click on the widget at the top of the sidebar.

Thanks so much for visiting and I will see you again tomorrow!

The Top 2000 Songs of All Time - Day Four!

Today we are counting down #1209 to #893 of the Top 2000 songs of all time! My choice for today is #1061 - "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette. Here's how my layout/poster turned out...

I remember the first time I heard this song, I was like WOAH this woman is TELLING IT LIKE IT IS! Ha! I loved that - YOU GO GIRL!!!

Here is the original video (censored version) from the 1995 release of "You Oughta Know..."


I hope you are enjoying Marit's Top 2000 countdown party! If you want to play along, it's not too late! Click on the widget at the top of the sidebar. To see everyone else's art for today's songs - click here.

See you again tomorrow! Thanks so much for visiting!!!

The Top 2000 Songs of All Time - Day Three!

The song I picked for today's layout comes in at #1214 in the Top 2000 songs of all time. It's "Peaceful Easy Feeling," by the Eagles.

Here's how my layout/poster turned out...
I love this old photo of the band - it's so 70's. The hair, the patchwork jeans, the embroidered shirt, and the beads - LOVE IT! The background paper is from the Sass Lass Sunshine broadcast line. The title is hand-drawn, and I put the lyrics around the edge of the page.

I was only 12 when this song came out in 1972, but I remember feeling much older than that - lol. Amazing how that works. Anyways, it marks the beginning of my love affair with singer/songwriter-style music.

Check out the video of the Eagles playing "Peaceful Easy Feeling" live...



You can see all the songs everyone else chose, along with their artwork on Marit's blog here!

I hope you are having a great week so far!

The Top 2000 Songs of All Time - Day Two!

The song I chose for today is #1651 "Refugee" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers!

Here's how my layout/poster turned out...
"Refugee" was released in 1979 - I was 19, and Tom Petty was my rock god! I just loved the rebellious sound of his songs. The photobooth pics of Tom were an insert in his first album (that I still have). I think of this song and I think of the color red, cuz the album (Damn The Torpedoes) had a red cover. Just hearing it brings back so many good memories of those days! Isn't it amazing how music is so strongly connected to our memories? I will never stop being fascinated by that.


Here's Tom, doing "Refugee" live in 1979...


To see everyone's song picks and artwork for day two click here!

See you again tomorrow for day three of the top 2000!

P.S. for more info and/or to play along - click on the badge at the top of my sidebar!

The Top 2000 Songs of All Time - Day One!

It's time for the Netherlands Top 2000 Party!!!! Are you playing? I've played along with Marit for the last two years, and it's been so much fun! This year promises to be the best year ever!

The way it works is like this. There is a Netherlands Radio Station (Radio 2) that has a vote each year to determine the "Top 2000 Songs of All Time," and then they publish the list; and for the last week of the year, they count down the songs on the radio.

So, for each day of the countdown, I am going to join Marit by creating a layout inspired by one of the songs that will be played that day. I add the following additional guidelines for myself...

1. The layout is about the song itself (as opposed to something about my life that is "inspired" by the song) if that makes sense...

2. The artist must be represented on the layout in some way...

and this year I've decided to go with the style of a poster - advertising the song.

So, here we go!

Today's list goes from #1843 to #2000.

The song I chose is #1881 - "As Long As You Love Me," by none other than the Backstreet Boys!

Here's how my poster turned out...
What I love about the Backstreet Boys is the smooth, flowing sound of their songs, so I tried to portray that with the background lines. The thing that stood out to me in this song's video, was the beautiful colors, especially the intense blues, so I used colors to reflect that.

"As Long As You Love Me" was released in 1997, and spent 56 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. The lyrics talk about a man who professes to love his girl no matter what she has done in her past. Hmmm, it's a romantic notion, but it does make me wonder what she did that he's willing to overlook? Especially when he says "it doesn't really matter if you're on the run, it seems like it's meant to be..." Interesting!

Check out the video and see if you can't help singing along - I know I can't!



It's not too late to play along with the party! Check out all the info on Marit's blog by clicking here!

I will see you tomorrow for day two of the countdown!

December Daily Update and Getting Ready for the Top 2000!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I have a little December Daily update for you today. This one is from December 15 and 16...

I was at the grocery store on the 15th and they had the cutest Olivia the Pig coloring and activity book. I had to buy it of course! and I included one of the stickers on my page...
The woodgrain stencil is from Crafter's workshop, and the papers are from October afternoon.


On the 16th I received the most adorable handmade santa ornament from my coworker Claire! The christmas card is from a group home that I work with. I just loved them both so much! The trees are cut from giftwrap...

Tomorrow - December 25th, is the start of Marit's Top 2000 Blog party! Are you going to play along? I am! It's going to be a lot of fun! Here's my plan:

Each day from December 25th through 31st I will post one layout.
The layout will honor one song that will be played that day from the top 2000 songs of all time list.

I've already got my songs picked out!

You can check out my previous Top 2000 layouts here:
2010
2009

I will see you back here tomorrow for day one of the 2011 Top 2000 party!!!

2011 Artwork Collage...

The "No More Excuses" assignment for December is to make a collage of all of your NME assigments for the year. I didn't actually do that, but it gave me another idea...

I decided to make a collage of some of my art projects of the last year to put in my planner. It was easy and a lot of fun to do! Here's how it turned out (click on the image to see it larger)...
It's kinda fun to look back over the year and see the mosaic of pieces as a brand new whole!

Here's how I did it...

I opened a blank canvas in photoshop the size of my planner page.
Turned on the grid feature.
"Placed" each of my project photos on the canvas, and drag to resize the photo to fit in the grid.
"Flattened" the image.
Saved.
Printed and trimmed to fit my planner page.

I am a complete novice to photoshop, so if I can do it, anyone can - believe me!

On another note, there is a new post up over at Scrapping The Music. It's a tribute to our awesome design team member Yvonne, who is stepping down from the team. Check out the slideshow of her beautiful work with STM here.

Erin asked in the comments, if I would do a post about my setup for Project Life. I am planning to do that in an upcoming post - thanks for the suggestion Erin!

I hope you are having a great week! Thanks for visiting!

December Daily for Dec 11 - 14...

I'm still truckin' along with my grungy December Daily. Here are a few more pages for you...

This t-shirt is a recent thrift store find. I was so excited that I saw it, and it was my size and everything - yeayyy!!!


I had this vision in my head of new black and white striped knee highs just a few days before finding these at Kohl's - no lie! Talk about synchronicity...P.S. The little sponge in the corner is just there to hold the book open. The pages are getting quite curly from the paint!

Loved this image of the two dogs that I found in the Oprah magazine recently. Thought it went with the theme pretty well...


I kinda went crazy buying baker's twine - ha. I'm calling it a gift from Santa to lessen my guilt. (grin)...

I'm preparing my Project Life workstation for January! So excited about this!!!

Speaking of Project Life, did you see that Studio Calico is offering a new online class? It's called "Photo-a-Day," and it looks like it will be great inspiration! The cost is only $12. Check it out here.

That's it for now. I hope your week is starting off great! Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!!!

Art Journal Progression, and a new blog for Scrapping The Music...

Hi everyone! I'm so excited because our new blog design went live on Scrapping The Music today! It's fun to start the new year with a new design! Click here to check it out! Thanks so much to Linda Phinney (aka Phin) for all of her help with the redesign. It was truly a team effort. Thanks Phin!!!

I've also got an art journal progression to share with you today. This is from December 7 - 10...

I forgot to take a picture after the first entry, but here are the entries for the 7th and 8th...
Turquoise duct tape was first, then I used some Tim Holtz Distress Stain for the background, along with some watered-down gesso. I covered the photo with packing tape, so I could wipe off any drips and make sure the photo still showed.

On the 9th I added some stamping, doodles, rub-ons and more tape...


On the 10th, I was messing around with possible slogans for the STM blog, so I added that here, along with some turquoise paint on the earth stamp. Journaling went around the edge of the right page...

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

December Daily for Dec 7th and 9th...

I've got a couple more December daily pages to share today. I'm keeping it super simple...

December 7th...
The huge #7 is a coaster - part of my Studio Calico December Daily kit. Also used Gaffer tapes from 7gypsies and Sistv. The photo of Willie and Johnny is 5 x 7, which gives you an idea of the album size.

This page is about as far as you can get from holiday-ish: Vampires and Sci Fi - LOL. But I thought it was a good thing to capture from our daily life...
The images are from the internet, and the alphas and Friday tag are from the December Daily kit. That's gesso spread on with my hands behind the images.

I've also got a completed art journal progression to share, but it will have to wait til this weekend, because it's got secrets about the new Scrapping The Music blog on it! I plan to get the blog up and running this weekend, so I will share after that. :0)

Tomorrow I REALLY hope to get my Project Life kits. YEAYYY. I've got a Project Life station all set up in my scraproom, just waiting for the kit to arrive so I can get started!!!

I hope your week is going well! Thanks for visiting!!!

December Daily for Dec 5th and 6th...

A couple more December Daily pages comin atcha today...

On December 5th I spent some time with my new "Log Your Memory" planner! I'm super excited about using it to plan my project life and other creative projects in 2012! (Look for an upcoming post about that). Anyways, here's how the page came out...
The gnome and fox is from a thrifted children's book. The date page is from my "365 days of peace" calendar that I got from my sister - Thanks Renee! And the star is from my October Afternoon Santa's sack package!

And here we have a page about the aforementioned Santa's Sack!
P.S. The Santa's Sacks are a great deal if you love October Afternoon products! I was so happy with mine!!! You can check it out here if you're interested.

I had a great time at my girlfriend's crop yesterday! I worked on my Scrapfest Smash Book. I will share when it's all done.

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

December Daily for Dec 3rd and 4th...

On Saturday December 3rd, Michael and I went to a fabulous play called "Joy" at the Interact Theater. Interact is a theater company where the actors are mostly people with disabilities. I've been to a number of their plays, and they have all been fantastic. This was the first time for Michael and he and I both just loved it.

So, here is Saturday's page(s) in my December Daily...
I photocopied the advertisement postcard so I could reduce it to fit on the page. The envelope holds a review from our local paper. The word joy is handcut.

on the next page I did some journaling, and taped the program right into the book with packing tape...




Here's December 4th's page. It was a day where not much happened, but those are some of the best kind of days for us!!!
The "snowflake" is a tissue embellishment from Studio Calico. I made the number four in the middle with my beloved Epiphany Crafts Shape maker tool. (I love that thing!) The word cozy was handdrawn and cut on dictionary paper.


Here's another view where you can see the back of the play's program that I taped into the book...


On another note, did you see that the Project Life Core kits are available now??? Yeayyy! I ordered one each of Cobalt and Clementine - I couldn't help myself!!! Click here to check them out.

My friend Linda Phinney and I are hard at work revamping the Scrapping The Music blog; so look for a reveal some time before the new year!

Oh, and speaking of music - my friend Marit is hosting her third annual "Top 2000 Blog Party" and I am excited to play along again! If you are not familiar with it, the basics are that there's a radio station in the Netherlands that counts down the top 2000 songs of all time (according to the voters) between Christmas and New Year's; and she invites everyone to pick one or more of the songs and create some art that is inspired by it. I've participated each year and it's always a lot of fun! I try to make one layout or journal page for each day of the party, but you don't have to. If you want to play along click here to check it out!

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

New Art Journal Progression...

I was inspired by this post by Nathalie Nayer over at Julie Balzer's blog; so I thought I'd try the technique with the masking fluid. I had some Maya Resist (which is basically masking fluid) on hand, so I used that. If you're not familiar with masking fluid, it's this stuff that comes out in liquid form, then dries to a rubber-like substance, which you can peel off. It's pretty cool. I glue-sticked (not a word, I know) a piece of paper from a 1902 Choir Club Notebook down first, then used the Maya Resist over the top, then covered it with acrylic paint and gesso. I Here's how it looked before I peeled the Maya Resist off:


And here it is after I rubbed the masking fluid off...


The next day I added some blue and red paint, scrapbook papers stamped with one of my new favorite stamps from Studio Calico, and a leftover photo from a different project. The journaling was done with a pink sharpie poster paint pen...

On the 5th, I added some Kaisercraft Rub Ons and a little piece of striped tape...
and on the 6th, I finished it up with some October Afternoon snowflake rub ons and the final bits of journaling. Do you see something funny about this finished spread?
Ummm, yeah.... I journaled for December 5th TWICE. LOL. I journaled on the 5th, and then on the morning of the sixth, I thought - oh I forgot to journal yesterday, better do it now. Nice memory Michelle. And the funny thing is - I wrote almost the exact same sentences. HA.

Anyways, another page done, and on to the next tomorrow! Thanks so much for visiting!!!

December Daily Journal...

I started my journal for December. I ended up making a very simple, ribbon bound journal. This cover is cotton fabric backed with Sticky Back Canvas that I misted. The inside pages are pieces of kraft paper - leftovers from Michael's paper mill. Here's how it turned out...


The cover is plain for now, but I plan to do some stitching on the front and decorate it more as the month goes on...

On the inside I used a variety of different blue and purple mists on the cover. It's just one signature - (pile of paper) that I folded in half; punched two holes with a cropadile, and strung ribbon through. Super simple!


Inside the back cover I used a moon and stars stencil I got ages ago from Stampin Up...

Here are the first two entries...

December 1

December 2

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Big News (and an Art Journal Progression)

I am soooooooo EXCITED to tell you (drumroll please)............................

I'm going back to lead the Scrapping The Music challenge blog again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited??? I am absolutely GIDDY about it!!! Back in June, I stepped down from the Scrapping the Music team, and I had such mixed emotions about it. You can see my post about it here. I hated to do it, but felt I had to with what was going on in my life at the time.

Well, I sure have missed it. I have missed the inspiration of working with such wonderful women artists, I've missed the music, and I've missed being inspired by the beautiful artwork we get from the participants. STM was a part of my heart, and I'm so glad to be back! We are taking December off for the holidays, but we will be back in January! The design team and I have been brainstorming some changes that we think you will like, and we can't wait to get the new year going! STM is going to be more fun than ever!!! Yeayyyyyyyy!!!! I hope you will want to join in on the party!!! I will keep you posted as our plans progress.

Now, on to art journaling...

I started this spread on my last day of Julie Balzer's "30 Days In Your Journal" class....
The background is an acrylic paint wash (paint plus water), dictionary paper and Cavallini paper tape on the bottom, and some huge stamps in the corners...



On the second day I added some teal paint and doodles...



and on the final day I added some images and rubons and white doodles. So much fun!

The class may be over, but I still have lots of pages left in the journal, so I plan to keep going until it's full.

Did you see the Project Life Binders are in at Amazon.com? I ordered two of the Clementine style and I should get them next week. I don't know why I'm so anxious for them, cuz I'm not starting Project Life til January 1st, but I can't wait!!!

Alrighty then - that's it for today. Thanks so much for visiting and I will see you again soon!!!

Designing an Alphabet...

I've got another art journal progression to share with you. It's our next spread in the "30 Days In Your Journal" class; and we designed our own alphabet! I showed you the first day here. Here are the rest of the days...




Super super super FUN!!! Who knew I would love creating journal pages in little steps so much? I'm used to thinking I have to finish a whole page in one sitting. Sometimes I will still want to do that, but what I've learned is that when I've got other things going on, I can still fit my art journaling in by just doing a few minutes a day. Yeayyy!!!

Today was our last day of class (sniff), and we started one more spread, which we will be finishing on our own. I will keep you posted on that one...

Thanks so much for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Smashbook Update November 22 - 27, 2011...

I've got a few more Smash book pages to share with you today...


This one has a photo of Johnny and Willie that I took with my new camera+ app on my iphone. I never get tired of seeing them snuggle together...



On this one, I just had to add my own two-cents to the knock knock joke! I used Golden Fluid Acrylics, Neocolor II Crayons, Stampin Up alpha stamps, and Poster Paint Sharpie markers...
A little page about our quiet thanksgiving. I am so in love with how Willie holds Michael's hand! Glad I captured it in a photo...

Speaking of in love, this horse is SOOOOO CUTE!!!! It's my favorite page in the whole book! I decided it was time for another "currently" check in...

Tomorrow is the last day of November - and the last day of this Smash Book! Now to decide what to use for December's journal...

Thanks for stopping by! Have an wonderful Wednesday my friends!

One More "30 Days" Page is finished, and another one starts...

I know I've said this before, but seriously - you know a class is good, when you simply can't wait for the next day's lesson!!! That's how it's been since day one of Julie Balzer's "30 Days in Your Journal" class! I'm having so much fun that it makes me sad to think that there are only five days left!

Anyhoo, I showed you the first day's progression of the following page in an earlier post
here. So here are the rest of the days entries...

November 21. I added neocolor II crayons for shading (I can't tell you enough how much I LOVE those things!), and a Sassafras Lass border stamp...


November 22. More neocolor II shading...

November 23. I added some marker for definition and tissue to knock the border stamp into the background a little more...

November 24. Finishing touches on the shading, and a quote with india ink. I must say I feel really good about how this spread turned out. I quite like my woman! :0)


So now, off we go onto the next spread! Here's the first day's progression. We are designing our own alphabet! Yeayyy!!!


That's it for today my friends! I will leave you with yesterday's photo of Willie and Johnny in the scraproom...
The three of us say bye for now, but we will be back soon!