Project Life - Week of February 20 - 26, 2012

I tried a new experiment this week with my Project Life Layout. I picked a color scheme in advance, and cut background papers. I went with the Clementine colors. Here's how my week started out looking (sorry for the glare - aargh)...

It was the first week that I added an insert. First tho, here's how the layout looks without the insert (click to see the details)...


Left side...I loved having a color scheme to work with! Ephemera includes a piece of a sock that I wore a hole in and the label off of a roll of fun tape that I used for the first time. The top left is a photo of Chris Cornell performing a tribute to Whitney Houston. I happened on the video and found it very touching, so I included it here. I also included an old photo from 1987 of our dog Suzie (just cuz I was thinking of her), my cloud stamps, and an alphabet stamp set that I received this week (I had to buy it after being inspired by this layout of Patricia's). The quote on the bottom in the middle is from pinterest.


Right side...
Ephemera includes an email that I got from Gina Armfield, letting me know that I won her drawing for a free class!!! (I'm so excited - more on that later). I also included an ATC that I received in a swap from a Sistv friend, Kim Maxey, in 2008. Can I just say AGAIN how much I love having a place to put ATCs where they will be seen?!!! The highlight of the week was celebrating Sue and Stan's (Michael's parents) 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday. (Now there's a true love story).


Sue and Stan's anniversary celebration is also the subject of my insert for the week. Here's the layout with the insert in place...

And here's a closeup of the insert. This is the invitation for their party. I used a WeR Memory Keepers 5.5x8.5" page protector...

And here's the layout with the insert flipped over...

The backside holds the announcement that was in the paper for Sue and Stan.
I am going to continue on with picking a color scheme for my Project Life layout at the beginning of the week! It really made it a lot of fun!

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

The New Challenge is up at Scrapping The Music!

The fourth Monday of the month is movie week at Scrapping The Music! This month we are paying tribute to the movie "Final Fantasy" by featuring the song "Every Time We Touch" by Cascada! To be honest, I never saw the movie, BUT the song is great for scrapping!!!

Here's what I created for the challenge...
I was so excited to capture this photo of Willie watching TV with Michael. His little paw on Michael's arm is so expressive of his love for his "dad."

I used my Noel Mignon Charm School kit for this one.

Come on over and check out the challenge! We'd love to have you play along with us!!!

Thanks so much for visiting! I will be back tomorrow with a Project Life update. See you then!

Stamp Carving 101 and a Scrappy Weekend Update...

The Stamp Carving 101 Class is over, but I am still plugging away at my lessons and loving it! I'm on Lesson 5 (out of ten). This lesson was all about learning to do points and curves. I've been wanting to carve my own cloud stamps, so I thought this was the perfect time to try it. I had so much fun! Here's how they turned out...



I haven't shown you all much of my daily journal pages, cuz they are mostly just writing; but I always record the weather. Now I can use my very own stamps for cloudy days! See...
Next up is Lesson 6, which is all about carving a complex design. Still deciding what I want to do for that one, but I will keep you posted.

If you want to check out the class, you still can. Julie is a fantastic teacher! Click here for more info or to register.

I'm very excited because over the weekend I signed up for Ali Edwards' "One Little Word" class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It goes all year long, and each month you have prompts to work with your "word" for the year. At the end of the year you have a completed album. My word this year is "peace." I'm so excited to start working with it. I'm extra-excited because I'm going to use a journal that I thought I wasn't going to have any use for! I can't wait to show it to you. As soon as I complete the first prompt I will do that.

If you are looking for something scrappy to do today, there's still time to play along with this week's Scrapping The Music challenge! The deadline is tonight (Sunday) at midnight. Click here to check it out!

Alrighty, I'm off to do some scrappy stuff. See you again soon!

A Year In The Life of an Art Journal... "Favorite Things"

The latest prompt at "A Year In The Life of an Art Journal" is as follows:

THE PROMPT: My Favorite Things
ie: a few of the things you LOVE about someone you love. Can be alive or dead.
THE STUFF: Lists and ephemera
ie: have a few tokens from that someone? Maybe the cover of the CD with "your song" or a napkin from the restaurant you both love to eat at...
THE TECHNIQUE: Pockets
ie: Use pockets to store those "things" on your page.


I put my own twist on this one, and made mine about the online artsy community. I made a list, and used a tag instead of a pocket. Here's how my page turned out...
The base for this page is from an old country-western music magazine. If you look closely, you can still see a man in a white cowboy hat in the middle of the page. The earth is cut from an ATC I made a long time ago for earth day. I've been loving using old ATC's lately!

Here's what it looks like with the tag flipped open...

I can't believe how much my world has changed as a result of discovering the online arts community! I never get over how amazing it is to be able to connect with people all over the world and share our love of crafting!

If you want to check out the Year In the Life of an Art Journal prompt - click here to go to the challenge.

Thanks for visiting and I will see you soon!

Caro Emerald at Scrapping The Music...

I had never heard of Caro Emerald until Design Team Member Frauke suggested we do "That Man" as a Scrapping The Music Challenge. I'm so glad she did cuz it's a super fun, catchy song and great for scrapping! It's our challenge this week, and here's how my layout turned out...

This photo was taken on Honeymoon 5 this past October. We were standing in line for the Harry Potter ride and it was soooooo hot and crowded; but we were still EXCITED for the much-talked about ride! I used my Studio Calico "Handmade" kit. The wooden letters got a spritz of Mr. Huey in Heirloom blue (one of my fave colors).

Come on along and scrap with us! We'd love to have you! Check out the challenge here!

Project Life - Week of February 13 - 19, 2012...

Hey there and happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I worked on my Project Life spread a little each day this week, and it worked out great! I can't believe it's already done! Here's how it turned out...
Noted this week: Valentines day flowers and date, Michael's computer tower, some art I created, movies on Netflix and other every day things.

Left side closeup...
The one that cracks me up this week is the photo of Johnny with Willie's fur hanging out of his mouth. They had been fighting, and I broke it up. I had to laugh when he was looking at me like "what? I didn't do anything" and that big hunk of fur was hanging out of his mouth - ha. I also included some of the fur. I also found an ATC that I received from Cait Durham in a swap a long time ago. It fit the theme this week so I included it. Thanks Cait!


Right side closeup...
The boys have been having alot of trouble with hairballs recently, so we got some Petromalt - a gooey, sticky substance that they lick right off your finger. It's supposed to prevent hairballs. Let me tell you they are CRAZY for it! So, I had to include a piece of the box. The Netflix collage was done in photoshop elements. I created a 4x6 canvas with a grid, and dragged the movie poster images around on it til they fit. The Faith ATC is one I created a couple of years ago. The Good Carma badge is actually a magnet someone put on my car door while it was parked downtown at a meter. I thought it was cute.

This week I might try pre-cutting background cards from patterned cardstock, to create a color palette for the week. It's fun to try different things to see how they work.

In other news, the slideshow for our "Art" challenge is up at Scrapping The Music! Come on over and check it out!

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

A Year In The Life of an Art Journal... "Imagine"

I had so much fun with this page for the "A Year In The Life of an Art Journal" group! The guidelines for the challenge were:

THE PROMPT: Imagine
ie: what's in your imagination or where do you imagine yourself
THE STUFF: Pictures or words from magazines/newspapers etc
ie: Words, letters or images that develop your idea
THE TEChNIQUE: mask/stencils
ie: can be anything from flowers, letters, rubberbands or professional mask or stencils

I ended up doing my page in my Vintage Record Album Journal, on one of the LP Sleeves. Here's how it turned out...

My journaling reads: "Let the images in your head spill onto the page without judgment. Follow your "what ifs" to find out the answer. Let your imagination run free."

The model in the magazine image had a slicked back ponytail, so I fixed her up a bit to be more of a flower child, with a china marker, acrylic paint and a rub-ons from Basic Grey.

The masking and stenciling may be hard to pick out. I used masking fluid from Maya Road on the bottom layer - there are some words on the bottom, a doodled border and scallops around the hole in the middle of the sleeve. I used a stencil to make the "bubbles" floating out of the urn in the middle of the page. The black and white illustration is done by one of my all-time fave artists, Maxfield Parrish.

The new prompt at "A Year In The Life" just went up today. Check it out here!

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Project Life - The Fun Continues!

I finished my Project Life layout for February 6 - 12 last night. The last couple of weeks I've started taping the week's page protectors to my wall, and adding tidbits as the week progresses. It's really been helping to see it evolve that way.

Here's how the layout turned out (click the image to see the details)...
Please excuse the glare on these photos. I had a particularly hard time getting rid of it this week; and this is the best I could do.

Closeup of the left side...
The creativity quote is from pinterest. When I went to the dentist this week, I was delighted to see free coloring sheets on the kids table! I had to grab one, even if the other woman in the waiting room, did give me a funny look - ha. I love how the Cocoa Daisy kits always come with a little card with a quote on it. A nice little perk. :0)


And here's the right side...
I'd been meaning to order some of Aunt Lydia's crochet thread ever since Amy Tan recommended it at her Scrapfest class in September. I finally did it, and it came this week. Gorgeous colors and so cheap! The tissue paper on the Wednesday card was leftover from that day's art journal session. The quote is something I heard at work, and thought it was a very wise thing to remember. Not everything has to be perfect! I asked Michael if I could take a pic of him in his paper-making uniform and he reluctantly obliged - ha. The rest is pretty self-explanatory I think.

This week I'm going to try an experiment. Complete each day's Project Life addition by the following day. I will let you know how it goes...

I hope you are having a fabulous Valentines day my friends!!! Big hugs from me to you!!!

"Art" at Scrapping The Music - check it out!

The new song at Scrapping The Music is "Art" by Tanya Davis! I am super-excited about this one!!! I love the song AND the video, and of course, the subject matter is so close to my heart.

If you're not familiar with the song and video - you've gotta check it out! It's very unique - click here to go to the challenge.

I chose to do an art journal page for this one...
The lyrics to this song remind me of a journal entry, so I thought my art journal would be the perfect place for them! This is one of those pages that I turned to to get rid of extra paint after painting on other pages - do you do that too? For example - where it says "trust your heart," I had used that stencil on another page, and I just used this page to wipe the extra ink off the stencil. I actually ended up liking this image better than the intended one. Anyways, all I added to this page to finish it off was the photo of myself journaling, the lyrics, and the word "Art."

Come on over and play along with us at Scrapping The Music this week - we'd love to have you! Click here to go to the challenge!

Hand-Carved Stamps...

I'm currently on lesson 4 of Stamp Carving 101, and I'm having a blast! Check out my banner stamp set - I just finished it last night...

I bought some Speedy Carve to make these, cuz I found out the hard way that the Moo Carve I was using doesn't work well for detail work. It's too soft. I am LOVING the Speedy carve!

I still have lessons 5, 6, 7 and 8 to do to catch up - eeek, I better get busy!

Have a wonderful Sunday my friends! See you again soon!

New Project Life Setup...

Once again, I've rearranged a few things in the scraproom; and I've created a new Project Life Station that I love, love, love! I'm so excited to share it with you!

Here's an overview picture. The red table is from Ikea. (I couldn't find a link-sorry) The big white organizer thingy is from Making Memories (also discontinued, but here's something similar)...

I love it because it's organized, and everything is easy to see. It's also much more compact than my original setup. I also like that it has it's own table, with nothing else to mess it up...


Now for some closeups...


This is my most exciting discovery! I realized that BOTH of my Core kits - Cobalt AND Clementine fit into this 7 Gypsies Library Drawer! I used the monthly dividers to separate the kits. Everything fits here - the 4 x 6 cards, the stickers, the filler cards and the journaling cards. Plus there's room at the back for 6 x 6 pads, and room at the front for misc. printable journaling cards. It makes it so easy to just flip through and find exactly what I want!

To the left of the library tray is this Stampin Up organizer box. I use it to keep oversized things that I think will work especially well with PL. Rub-ons, stickers, alpha stamp sets, etc...
and right in front of that is a little paper mache box (from Michael's) with misc. goodies; such as Sassafras paper whimsies, printable month calendars, and Amy Tangerine Envelopes...


Next to that I have another paper mache box filled with ATC-sized goodies, such as October Afternoon wild cards, tiny bags and tickets. Next to that is a vintage bowl filled with OA flower sack, and other punched bits. Next to that are two Stampin Up tiny alpha stamp sets. In the white drawers behind them are various numbers to use as dates - chipboard, epoxy, stickers, etc...
In the Making Memories organizer, I've got the Clementine Cardstock papers, plus rub-ons, and misc other doo-dads that fit in the pockets. Those Ormolu number badges are one of my favorite things!!!


And lastly, my vintage Olympiette typewriter. My pride and joy has a handy spot so I can type on the journal cards when the occasion calls for it.
So that's my little Project Life Station. If you are doing Project Life, how are you organizing your stuff? I'd love to see!

Thanks for visiting, and I will be back soon!

Project Life - Week of January 30 - February 5, 2012...

I've decided to quit counting which week it is of Project Life (as in "week 2, week 3, etc") because I already lost track (Ha). I just finished the spread for January 30 - February 5, 2012. I had a lot of fun with this one, but it took an enormous amount of time...

I am loving using all the different styles of page protectors! It's like a game figuring out how to fill all the little pockets!

Here's how it turned out...
It was a super busy, hectic week, but no big events to speak of. I used a couple of pieces from the cobalt kit this week, but everything else is from my stash.


Closeup of left side...
Bottom left corner is my Project 12 page for January. I decided to keep them very simple, and to put them in my daily writing/chronicles journal. (Still working on a post that talks more about that journal process). I included an ATC that I made a long time ago (middle row - second from right). I never quite knew what to do with my ATCs, and I am ecstatic that they fit so nicely in these pockets! Yeayyy! The dog is a drawing I did in a 2006 journal. I was going through my old journals this weekend and found him. I had never posted him anywhere, so I thought he deserved a little place of his own on this week's spread.

Here's a closeup...


and here's a closeup of the right side...

I hope you are having fun with your project life (if you are doing one). This week I am going to try to do a little each day, so it's not such a big project at the end of the week.

Thanks for visiting and I will be back again soon!

Hey Soul Sister is at Scrapping The Music...

It's a super fun week at Scrapping The Music! The new challenge just went up and the featured song is "Hey Soul Sister" by Train! Here's how my layout turned out...

My favorite lyric in the song is "Ain't that Mister Mister on the radio?" It's just so random and quirky! I thought about incorporating an actual Mister Mister song in my layout, but then I remembered this photo of my sweet hubby Michael and his dad Stan - it was the perfect match for the lyric. There they are - Mister Rydell and Mister Rydell. So alike inside and out!

Come on over to Scrapping The Music and check out the challenge! I hope you will want to play along!

Thanks so much for visiting and I will be back soon!

February Collage...

Hi everyone! Gosh it's been a busy week! I've been running full speed ahead all week, with barely any time to create! EEK! Thank heavens, yesterday was my monthly girlfriends crop. It was just what I needed. Time to slow down, spend time with my friends, and create. I finished my February collage and envelope. Here's how it turned out...

click on image to enlarge

I took my time and used tons of stuff. Sheet music, magazine images, scrapbook paper, wallpaper, painty paper towels, washi tape, 7 gypsies printed tissue paper and some Basic Grey rub-ons from the Lauderdale and Wander lines. The right side is the front of a 6x9" manila envelope, which I will use to hold my receipts, online class materials, and other miscellaneous stuff from the month.

Here's the back of the envelope and the other side of the collage...
This is all part of the daily writing/smashbook style journal ritual that I am developing. I am planning a post to show you more of the details of that whole process. It's evolving as it goes and I am totally loving it!

I'm finishing up my Project Life spread for the week. Should be able to share that tomorrow.

Oh, and I'm also working on re-numbering all of my journals! It's a big process, but it will be so worth it when I'm done! I will share my progress soon...

Thanks so much for visiting and for your comments! Have a fabulous Sunday my friends! I will be back soon!