A Peek Into My Swirly Brain...

Hey everyone! Happy Thursday! I totally missed doing my Project 52 ATC yesterday because I got sidetracked by thoughts of my art journaling process, so I spent the evening thinking about it and writing about it in my journal. A family member, after reading this journal entry, told me my thought process is "swirly" which I thought was super funny but oh so accurate! In fact, I have compared my thought process to one of those carnival games where there's this huge funnel, and you throw a penny in the funnel, and it swirls around and around for what seems like forever, until finally it drops into the hole in the center and is on its way. That is me in a nutshell - LOL. So anyway, here's the journal entry - remember you can click on the pictures to see the details more clearly (ignore the to-do- lists):








So now the journal is complete and I get to start a new one! Yeayyy!!! Here's what it looks like all finished:


And here's the new one I am starting - this will be #3:
The journal itself came as part of the Hipster collection at SiSTV and I actually altered the cover back in June. It has been sitting on the shelf, just waiting for it's turn to be filled up! There's something so satisfying about finishing one journal and starting another, isn't there? I love that.

So now, I am off to make my Project 52 ATC for this week. I will be back tomorrow to share the result!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

It's Crop Suey Tuesday!

I'm blogging over at Crop Suey today - come on over and say hi!

A New Canvas plus Project 365 Week Three...

The new song at Scrapping The Music this week is "Colors" by Kira Willey - and I LOVE it!!! I was so inspired by this song I had to make a canvas. I love the idea of thinking of yourself as a color, and I truly feel like an ORANGE person! No matter what color you identify with it's a great song for creative inspiration! I hope you check it out and decide to play along with us! Anyways - here's what I came up with:It's a 16" x 20" canvas made with gesso, acrylic paint, oil crayon and sketch paper. I used the art journaling technique I learned in Dina Wakely's "Art Journaling 101" class to make the background. I hope you like it!

So - on to week three of Project 365!

Monday - We keep Willie and Johnny's cat toys in a bag full of catnip which we keep in a tin in the cabinet. When they get bored it's time for a new catnip toy! I let Johnny do the choosing this time...


Tuesday: I got this image from the web - I'm going to use it instead of a picture because it was the start of American Idol on Tuesday and we were EXCITED! Yeay!!!



Wednesday: Michael has a late nite treat of warm soymilk with cinnamon. Mmmm.... so good on a cold winter's nite.


Thursday: It was 15 below today which I thought was worth documenting - brrrrrrr!


Friday: A cold, quiet nite in the neighborhood.


Saturday: Gal time with Jess and Christina at our monthly crop!


Sunday: My new painting gets a home in our livingroom!

Have a groovy day everyone! Take care and I will see you tomorrow!

Haphazard Cropper...

This is so typical for me. I went to my monthly crop yesterday, right? Okay, I planned on finishing my 80's ATCs and I couldn't because I forgot my tulle. The second project I was going to do was finish my 90s ATCs but - lo and behold, I didn't have my plaid flannel. AARGH! I must become a better preparer for crops! LOL! But, honestly, it's no biggie because seriously - we don't get much done at crops anyway! We always laugh about how many hours its been and we've hardly accomplished anything! I've discovered crops are not really about cropping anyway - they are about GIRL TIME! It's so great to just see my girlfriends and update each other about what's going on in our lives, and laugh, and eat junk food. By that measure, the crop was a rousing success! Here's a pic of me with Jess and Christina yesterday:
It's great to have gal pals who scrap! I really appreciate them!

The "Pictures of You" slideshow is up at Scrapping The Music! We had a huge turnout this week - check out all the beautiful layouts! I can't wait til tonight when the new song goes up! I was so inspired by this song I made a canvas! I will be back tomorrow to show you the canvas - or head on over to Scrapping The Music later tonight when it will be posted, along with the new song and video!

Have a super Sunday everyone! I will see you all tomorrow!

My new favorite song...

(scroll down and pause the jukebox before you press play)

I just discovered this song by Nico Vega on Suziblu's blog and I LOVE IT! Thanks Suzi!

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Well I'm off to a crop today! Hopefully I'll have new projects to share when I get back! Talk to you soon - peace!

Project 52 Week Two...

The word I chose for this week is FAITH. I really enjoyed making this little ATC. The background is an image from a magazine. I stamped the word "faith" with Pink Paislee alpha stamps - first in paint; and when that dried I stamped again over the top with stazon ink. The edges are light blue vintage glass glitter. That stuff is sharp - be careful if you work with it! I put clear glue around the edges of the card, and then dipped the card into the glitter. I put some paper over the top and then pressed it in so it stuck pretty well.

The journaling on the back is a line from the song "Hands" by Jewel:

I did not want to stick these ATCs away in a book - I wanted them out so I could see the collection grow! I couldn't decide how to do that, so I asked for advice from some of my SiSters at SiSTV and got alot of great ideas! In the end, this is what I came up with.
It's just a simple ribbon tied between two push pins on the wall of my scraproom. I had to put it high enough so the cats couldn't reach it! Here's a closeup:
It's a simple solution, but I really like it! It's going to be so fun to add to it each week! I don't know that all 52 cards will fit on it, but if they don't I will simply add another ribbon above or below to accommodate the rest!

How do you store and/or display your Artist Trading Cards? I'd love to hear about it!

Week Two of Project 365...

I found out, much to my chagrin, that my Project 365 kit is on backorder, and it will be four to six weeks til it ships. Oh well. At least I can stop stalking the mailman now. I guess I will just keep taking my photos and notes and keep them in a folder in iphoto til it comes. So, here's what I've got for week two:

Monday: A happy find. A new Scrapbook Shop in the neighborhood, and The Jenni Bowlin Black Vintage Star Patterned paper I've been looking for!

Tuesday: Michael models his new gaming headphones. Doesn't he look like a pilot? Cute.

Wednesday: A father-daughter moment as Michael helps Becca change the battery in her car. I love catching candids of Michael with the kids!

Thursday: My holiday card mini-album in the making.

Friday: Willie just loves this feathery toy.
If you blow on the feather he squeaks with excitement!

Saturday: My Project Catwalk prize package arrives!

Sunday: A late-nite snack. Grapefruit is my favorite fruit!

So that's it. Week Two is complete. This is fun!


I also want to share a layout with you that I did with the January Crop Suey kit. This kit is so much fun to work with! Everything in the layout is from the kit, except the black paint around the edges and the doodling marker across the top.

I've almost finished my ATC for week two of Project 52. I will be back tomorrow to show you the results! Until then - have a wonderful day my friends!

Overwhelmed and Grateful...

Hey everyone! My Project Catwalk Prize Package arrived over the weekend and it was so much more than I expected! I'm telling you - just the sheer size of the box had my heart palpitating! The cats couldn't believe it either...I was seriously overwhelmed. It was great to have Johnny and Willie there to celebrate with me as I took my goodies out of the box...

Once I got everything unwrapped I set it all up to take a pic to share with you! Note, the jacket I'm wearing is part of the prize - the red SIS letters are glittery! Yeayyy!!! Click on the picture and you can see it larger...
There were so many fun things in the box it was unbelievable! Vintage glass glitter in 7 colors! Claudine Hellmuth's new paints! An awesome new sturdy dispenser with 3 rolls of gaffer tape! Two different tote bags! A set of ALL the SiS papers! and so much more! I absolutely can't wait to start using all my new goodies!

I have to admit I got a little choked up while I was unwrapping everything. When Project Catwalk started I never in a million years thought I had a chance at winning. I just entered because I love doing scrapbook challenges, and I thought it would be super fun! And it was! But it was so much more than that. The inspiration that was flowing through the gallery each week, and the encouragement everyone had for each other was (at the risk of sounding corny) truly heartwarming. I feel so grateful that I got to be a part of it. I encourage all of you to try it next year if you have the inkling at all. It will stretch you as an artist - you will do things you never thought you could, and have ALOT OF FUN along the way!

I'll be back tomorrow, but until then I wish you peace, love and creativity!

The Online Crop Was Fun!

Yesterday's first Online Crop at the Crop Suey Blog/Forum was a success! We had so much fun taking turns posting challenges!

Bree and Camille's challenge was to use the colors red, black and teal and use something sparkly and make it pop! I came up with this 8 x 8 layout of the boys:
Kim's tutorial/challenge was to create a ribbon flower and add it to a layout, so I added it right on to my first layout above! It's the red lace with the white sculpted button! Thanks for the instructions Kim - I had never made a flower like that!

Next, I did Kristina's challenge, which was to use something old, new, borrowed and blue! For the borrowed part we were to scraplift someone on the DT. I chose Kristina's layout called Photos by Sam, and came up with this:

and my challenge for everyone was to create an intuitive collage from magazine images. The idea was to spend a few minutes thinking about your hopes and dreams for the coming year, and then tear images out of magazines to create a layout. Optional was to include a self-portrait. This is what I ended up with:
If you'd like to try one of these yourself, check out the blog for more details! It's too late to win prizes, but it's still fun to do!

The new song is up at Scrapping The Music! This week we are featuring "Pictures of You" by The Last Goodnight - perfect for scrapping! Head on over and check it out!

I will be back tomorrow, but until then have a wonderful evening everyone!

A New Mini, Plus It's Online Crop Day!

It's the weekend - yeayyyyy!!! And later today is the Crop Suey Online Crop! We are starting at 4pm Central Time and going through the night! We will have games and challenges and prizes! Come on over and join us for some laid-back scrapping fun!

I finished my mini-album last night and am excited to show it to you! There was a recent thread at SiSTV talking about different ideas for storing/displaying your holiday cards, and I was so inspired by nanbhack's pug album, I decided I needed to do something similar to keep our holiday photo and handmade cards in. Here's what I came up with:
I used the SiSTV "Girl Next Door" collection to make it. The covers are chipboard covered with cardstock and that red plaid border is actually packing tape - it comes with the collection! I drew the tree on patterned paper, and used woodgrain contact paper for the trunk.
I used the front of one of our greeting cards for the 2008 divider page,
and a very simple design for the contents - I just backed the cards with cardstock to make a mixed-size mini. That's our card on top. :0)
For the 2007 divider page, I added a pic of Michael and I from Christmas that year, plus my favorite Jenni Bowlin black patterned paper. The red square is a gel sticker that says "Let Christmas happen in your heart." This was so much fun to make, and it will be great to be able to add to it each year!

I've got happy mail coming and I can't wait! Any day now I am expecting my prize from Project Catwalk, my Qtea kit, and my Project 365 kit! I've been stalking the mailbox!

Alrighty then that's about it for this morning, but don't forget to stop over at the Crop Suey blog/forum this afternoon/evening for some fun! See you there!

First Week of Project 365...

While I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my "Project 365" kit, I thought I would share my first week's photos with you. It's kinda fun seeing them all together!

Monday, December 29th: Window Shopping at Balboa Island

Tuesday, December 30th: Checking out of our California hotel.


Wednesday, December 31st: A quiet New Year's Eve.


Thursday, January 1st: A visit with brother Matt and nephew Jackson who were here from Texas.


Friday, January 2nd: Singing happy birthday to Tony. (I love the joy of this photo!)

(I'm cheating and adding this photo of Tony with his candles as the journaling spot for Friday.)


Saturday, January 3rd: Cold feet and my new slippers.


Sunday, January 4th: My 2008 scrapbook is complete!

Don't forget - there's an online crop party at the Crop Suey forum this Saturday! We don't have the exact times yet, but we are thinking late afternoon and on through the nite! Stop by the forum and let us know you are coming! It's going to be fun!!!

I started a mini-album to house my holiday photo greeting cards, but I didn't finish it yet - hopefully I will be able to post it tomorrow!

Until then I wish you merriment, music and marvelous moments!