Friday Fun...

Say hello to my new friend...
He's a retro 70's bright orange typewriter!!!! How cool is that???
I was so excited to find this cute little typewriter on ebay (in my favorite color no less!), and even more excited when Michael helped me bid on it and win! It came in the mail yesterday - Yeayyyyyy! It's going to be so much fun to use it to type on journaling spots and layouts!

I can't stop using the June Studio Calico kit! It's so much fun! I did this layout tonight - it's for a couple of challenges - The Story Matters and The Next Step...
The Next Step is all about stitching on layouts this month, and The Story Matters' current challenge is hosted by my friend Sasha, and it's about what gives you inner motivation. I thought that was a great challenge!

So, do you have any scrappy plans for the weekend?

Silly You...

I finished my Lotus Paperie challenge layout tonight! The challenge this week is to scrap your crappy/blurry photos. What a great challenge! I had this pic of daughter Becca and her friend Nakole that I absolutely love, and it gave me the perfect opportunity to do something fun with it! Here's how it turned out...
I used the June Studio Calico kit, plus black dymo labeling, white thickers (my all-time fave style), Black Jenni Bowlin paper and a Tim Holtz "giggle" ticket.

The journaling reads: "Even tho this photo is blurry, I love it because it captures your friendship so well. Always having fun and laughing together."

Becky Higgins has a cool thing on her blog today. It's a free download template for making a book of your life story. It's a "fill-in-the-blank" style worksheet, so I can imagine you could either leave it just like it is or decorate it up as much as you want. There's a version for a teenager and one for an adult. Check it out here.

That's it for today, but I will be back tomorrow with more to share! I wish you a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Project 365 - Week 29...

Another week's photos ...

Monday, July 13: Sneak Peek Nite was fun at Studio Calico...
Tuesday, July 14: My beloved Gandalf the wizard sits on a shelf in my scraproom. I got him at an Art Fair in 1980. He's made of polymer clay and I just love him!

Wednesday, July 15: A little bunny hangin out on the neighborhood walking trail...

Thursday, July 16: It was one of those days when I was out driving around for work and the sky looked too beautiful to be real. Like it was just a big painting in the sky. Do you ever feel like that?

Friday, July 17: The state of my scraproom. Yipes...

Saturday, July 18: A pic from the Crop-A-Ganza...

Sunday, July 19: Michael and I went for a drive and saw these horses near Coon Lake. So pretty...

If you are doing Project 365 - how is it going? Are you still finding things to take pics of? I find myself forgetting sometimes, but I think all in all it's going pretty well.

I will be back tomorrow with another update! Have a fabulous Tuesday my friends!

Scrapping The Music and Crop-A-Ganza Projects...

I had so much fun at the Crop-A-Ganza! Oh my word! And I actually got a lot accomplished too! That hardly ever happens - LOL! Anyhoo, before I share my projects from the crop, I want to tell you about this week's Scrapping The Music song. The song is "If Today Was Your Last Day" by Nickelback - and I found it to be a very inspiring song to scrap with! Here's what I came up with...

The lyric I chose for this layout is "My best friend gave me the best advice. He said each day's a gift and not a given right. Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind; and try to take the road less traveled by." I love that!

I used the June Studio Calico kit, plus grungeboard wings, acrylic paint, glimmer mist, black ink, fancy pants corner stamp, Jenni Bowlin black star vintage paper, turquoise duct tape, and black and white journaling stamps.


So - on to the Crop-A-Ganza projects. First up is a layout for the current "Scrap The Boys" challenge. The challenge is to title your layout "Real Men ______." I thought it was perfect for this picture of Michael and his dad on father's day this year. I used the June Studio Calico kit, and here's what I came up with...The mat behind the photo is actually the inside cover paper from an antique book. It was in a big box of free vintage papers and ephemera at SiSversary. It's fun to be able to use it right away!

Next up is the 4 x 4 Mini-album from the class that Jenni Bowlin taught at SiSversary. I used it for some of my pics from SiSversary. I bought a few extra papers and embellies to customize it for my style a little bit - but most of what I used was included in the class kit. Remember you can click on the images to see the details better...













I started another layout (for the Lotus Paperie challenge), but it's not finished yet.

I hope you had a lovely weekend! I will be back tomorrow with a Project 365 update! Thanks for stopping by and for your comments - they really mean a lot to me!

Thingfinding Fun...

I just want to check in real quick-like, cuz I've got to get to bed, so I can get a good night's sleep before the big crop-a-ganza!

I had some fabulous luck with thing-finding this week! First of all I found this little gem lying in the road during one of Michael and my neighborhood walks...

isn't it oh-so-gorgeous? When I was making my bottlecap charms a couple of months ago, I had to BUY a bunch of root beer just to get the caps, and then spend time trying to smash them just right - and here, lying in the road was a genuine, beautifully-distressed bottlecap, already smashed into the perfect shape! and on top of it all - it's ORANGE! Yeayyyy! It will make a nice addition to an upcoming project of some sort.

Oh, and then I stopped at the thrift store, and found this fabulous super old matchbox! It was actually falling apart, but it was so cool looking I had to have it - only 50 cents! HA - a steal! I took it home and covered it with gel medium, and now it's strong enough to stand up to anything! I think I will line it with some sort of cute fabric and use it to house some ATC's!


I have been preparing for my crop tonight, so no new projects. It's always more work to prepare for these things than I think it's going to be. Note to self: next time do it in small steps throughout the week. Don't wait til the last minute.

Alrighty then - I'm off for some snoozing. I hope you have a fantastic Saturday - whatever you do! I will see you tomorrow - thanks for stopping by!

Eclecticity...

I can't believe it's Friday already! Woah. I know I need to quit commenting on the quick passage of time, but I am truly continuously amazed by it. HA.

So, I've been in a phase lately of jumping around to different projects - trying this and that - and I absolutely LOVE it. I'm learning so much in my art journal class, and I am loving having the freedom to do a bunch of challenges. It seems I usually am up to my ears in swaps and other commitments, so I don't have time, but lately that hasn't been the case. Yeayyyyyyy!!!!! Challenges are one of my favorite things in the creative world, because they always get me to stretch my horizons. Sometimes just a little and sometimes ALOT. But it's always inspiring.

Tonight I created this layout for the current Lotus Paperie sketch challenge. It is a 6 x 12, and I turned it on it's ear and changed it up a little bit. I also decided to tackle the current technique prompt at The Next Step, which is stitching on a layout. I used the June Studio Calico kit...

Along with the kit, I used my fave Jenni Bowlin black patterned paper, embroidery floss, a Stampin Up "moments" stamp and MM gingham ribbon. (click on the image to see more detail).

Tonight it's time to prepare for tomorrow's crop-a-ganza! Yeayyyyy! How are your weekend plans shaping up? Do you have any creative time carved out?

Works In Progress...

Hidey ho and happy Thursday! I've been working in my art journal again and altho I don't have any more finished pages, I thought it would be fun to share how the pages are coming along. They are just a bunch of messy experiments at this point - but that's what art journals are for, right? So as I build layer by layer, here's some examples of what I've got so far (remember to click on the image to see them close up)...











Later, when they are done I will share again. I've been having so much fun painting on all of these different surfaces that I collected in this journal. Brochures, paper bags, file folders, along with actual watercolor paper mixed in here and there.

There was a sale tonight at Michaels, so I picked up a big pad of watercolor paper and a jug of magenta paint for 40% off!!! Yeayyyy!!!

The other thing I did tonight was start printing off current challenges from various challenge blogs to work on this weekend at my crop. So far I have seven different ones. Now what I think I will do is go drift off to sleep while visions of layout possibilities dance in my head. HA. Do you ever do that? I find that sometimes if I go to sleep thinking about layouts, I wake up with new designs in my head - almost like magic!

Thanks for stopping by my friends and I will see you tomorrow with another update. Wow, it's almost Friday!

First Finished Page for Dina's Class...

Hellooooooo out there! Wednesday greetings to you! I'm so excited that I finally finished my first art journal entry for my "Masterful Art Journaling" class! OMG I know I keep saying it but this class is sooooo much fun and PACKED with exercises and learning! I can't say enough about it!

Okay, so the first artist we are studying is Van Gogh. This entry is inspired by Van Gogh's painting called "The Bedroom." The two things that inspired me the most about his painting were the exaggerated perspective and the emotion of the painting - so that is what I focused on for my page. For the right-hand page, I drew our bedroom onto tracing paper and then painted the back side of it. I tried to create a magical, peaceful, tranquil feeling, because that's how I feel about our bedroom...


here's a closeup of how the tracing paper looks. I attached it to the page with a layer of gel medium underneath.
The class is going to be available in Archived format, so you can still sign up if you are interested. Here's a link for more info.

Sneak Peeks for the August kits are up at Studio Calico. They look really fun! Now I can't wait for Reveal Nite!

Alrighty, off to bed for me. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments - I really appreciate it sooooo much!

Project 365 Week 28

After all the excitement of SiSversary, last week was relatively quiet...

Monday, July 6: So proud of my full ATC ribbon. It holds my Project 52 cards for 26 weeks!

Tuesday, July 7: There is something about a sleeping cat that is so comforting...

Wednesday, July 8: A lone Pigeon and the State Capitol, as seen from a parking ramp in St. Paul...

Saturday July 11: Willie figures he is sure to get attention if he sits right IN my collage bits box...

also Saturday, July 11: His brother Johnny is not necessarily looking for attention. He just likes hanging out in my kit boxes...

Sunday, July 12: Beautiful sunflowers at the community garden. Sunflowers always remind me of Maude from the movie Harold and Maude...

also Sunday, July 12: Another shot of the community garden...

Last night I finished my Scrapping The Music layout for this coming Sunday, using the June Studio Calico kit. I had ALOT of fun with it! Wish I could share it now, but I must wait til Sunday nite. Drat. I'm not that good at waiting. :0)

In anticipation of a 16-hour crop-a-ganza this weekend, my plan is to print out every challenge blog that looks interesting this week, make a plan for what photos and kits will work for each challenge and slowly gather things together all week. Then, at the crop I can work on nothing but challenges! Doesn't that sound like fun?!!! I love challenges! They can be so fun and inspiring!

Well, that's it for today, but I will be back tomorrow, hopefully with some art journaling pages finally done. I am still working on lesson two and I think the class is already up to lesson five - yipes!

See you tomorrow and thanks for stopping by!

Evidence of a Fun, Scrappy Weekend...

The new song is up at Scrapping the Music! It's "What I Like About You" by The Romantics. This song was my absolute favorite for a short time back in the day - I was going to bars and parties, and loved to dress in skinny ties and black jeans. Yes, indeed it brings me back. HA. When I saw the current challenge at BASB, which is to scrap a friendship that came about because of this hobby - I figured this song was the perfect opportunity! Here's what I came up with...
The paper I used was actually a very muted carnation pink with dark brown shading around the edges (Basic Grey I think), but I did a color wash over it with pink and orange to brighten it up. On the bottom I glued some fabulous fabric that I got from my secret sister Andrea. Other materials used include gesso for the handpainted title, ribbon, some Jenni Bowlin black vintage star paper (I swear a little bit of that stuff finishes ANY layout off nicely!) and black and white sharpies. Click to read the journaling and see more details.

This next one was another one done with the June Studio Calico kit, which I am LOVING by the way. It is also my second layout for the Scraplifting game over at SiSTV this past weekend. The layout I was assigned to lift is called "Fly" and it's a beautiful digi done by Shadesofbliss. You can see it along with all the info about the game right here. Anyhoo, the layout subject matter was brought about by a challenge on Elizabeth Kartchner's blog to take a photo of whatever you were doing on 07/08/09 @ 10:11:12. Kinda fun! Here's what I came up with...
Along with the SC kit, I used pink Bubblegum Glimmer Mist, Terracotta Adirondack Spray Ink, More of the fab Jenni Bowlin paper, and colored pencils. The journaling is about getting ready to get my annual mammogram - click for more details. :0)

Thanks to everyone who referred me to various kit clubs! I appreciate it so much, and I checked into each and every one of them! They all looked wonderful - each one with a different personality of sorts! If I had the money I would most certainly buy one of each!!! Now wouldn't that be a festival of scrappy supplies!

Anyhoo, I thought about it all weekend, and then suddenly, intuitively, I knew what I wanted to do - without a doubt! I subscribed to Studio Calico! I am so excited about it! After working with their kits this weekend I was really sold! It was so much fun - they are packed full of goodies, colorful and very inspiring! I like how they include exclusive patterned papers and stamps with each kit too - that is wayyyyy cool.

So, now it's the wee hours of Monday morning, and it's time to catch some zzzzzzz's. Here's wishing you a Marvelous Monday! Don't forget to come on over to Scrapping The Music and play along with us - we'd love to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by my friends!

Houndstooth Winners and a Layout...

Hello and welcome to Sunday my friends!

Here are the three random winners of the 12 x 12 piece of houndstooth fabric:

Beth Perry
Judean and
Moonlightgrrl

Send me your addy you three, and I will get the fabric loveliness off to you this week! Thanks everyone for your comments! I'm sure there will be more fabric to give away in the future!

I've been scrapping away this weekend, and so far have completed two things. The first one is for tonight's song at Scrapping The Music - so I have to wait to share that one. The other is my first layout with my June Studio Calico kit, and I must say I AM LOVING THIS KIT! It is super fun to work with!

The second layout is for the scraplifting game over at SiSTV called "You Lift Me Up." In the game we are given random numbers - one for the page in the gallery and a second one for the picture number on the page. My layout to lift was an awesome one called "A Long Time Ago" by Retrojulie. You can see more about the game here.For the subject matter, I decided to use the current challenge at Scrapping Out Loud - to scrap your fave recipe.

Here's how it turned out...

Now I have to decide whether to go to bed or start another layout. Hmmmm.... It's only 1:33 am. I think I will start on something and see how far I get before the eyes start to get heavy...

I hope you are having a super Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!