March 30, 2009

USE YOUR STASH CHALLENGE - Patterned Paper

I have a couple drawers full of patterned paper scraps. I put several of my BasicGrey paper scraps to good use in this layout.

Title: Ready to Pounce
Supplies:
Cardstock (Prism)
Patterned Paper, Die Cuts, Stickers (BasicGrey)
Letter Masks (Heidi Swapp)
Sticker (BasicGrey)
Chalk (Craf-T)
Marker (Zig)
Adhesive (Ranger, Ad Tech)


Let's see what you can do with your patterned paper scraps!


The Rules: Projects must be NEWLY created for this challenge. Traditional or Hybrid OK. Deadline for this challenge: April 30th. Winner will be chosen randomly and receive a lovely RAK from me! :) Have fun!

MIX IT UP CHALLENGE #12

I created this page for Mixer #12 challenge to use this color scheme in a layout.

Title: Ride On
Supplies:
Cardstock (Prism)
Patterned Paper (American Crafts, Hambly)
Stickers (Doodlebug, Sassafras Lass, Stampin Up, Font Works)
Ink (Stampin Up)
Stamp (ScarletLime.com)
Chipboard (Heidi Swapp, Scenic Route)
Paint (Heidi Swapp)
Rub On (Hambly)


Journaling:
It was the middle of August and we were celebrating Cole's birthday. You two went off riding inthe electric Jeep.It was so nice to see you enjoying time together.

HEAD'S UP: Urban Anthology Design Star Challenge

I spotted this lovely site a month or two ago and fell in love! I am planning on participating in the challenge so stop on by Urban Anthology to cheer me on!


March 23, 2009

USE YOUR STASH CHALLENGE - Tags

This week's challenge involves tags. I bet you have lots of them stashed around just like I do. I lined up 12 tags to create my title. What a great way to use them up! The patterned paper was cut freehand and layered on the rose-colored paper with foam adhesive.

This layout features my best friend's daughter...isn't she darling???
Title: Pretty Hannah
Supplies:
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey)
Ink (Ranger, Tsukineko)
Flowers, Crystals (Prima)
Pearls (Creative Cafe)
Alpha (Scrap Works)
Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels)
Gold Strips (Paper Artsy)
Stamp (Hero Arts)
Watercolor Pencils, foam adhesive (Stampin' Up)
Chipboard (American Crafts)
Adhesive (Ad Tech)
Other: ribbon, tags


The Rules: Projects must be NEWLY created for this challenge. Traditional or Hybrid OK. Deadline for this challenge: March 31st. Winner will be chosen randomly and receive a lovely RAK from me! :D Have fun!

March 21, 2009

LAYOUT - Embrace Originality

I did this one for Serendipity Scrapbooks' Stick-em up Sticker Contest (altered stickers). I altered the stickers with a watercolor crayon wash and dots of Glossy Accents.

Title: Embrace Originality


March 20, 2009

THURSDAY THOUGHTS: This & That

It's Friday...thank God. Been a stressful week...lots of headaches, sick, tired, blah. Went to the doctor on Tuesday to talk about the anti-depressants not working for me anymore and he decided to have me stop one of them (Prozac) to see if I feel less tired. I'll go back in five weeks to either feel great or try out a new medication. *sigh*

Went to the orthodontist on Thursday. Three years of braces now under my belt. A couple teeth on the bottom are fighting at the roots so it's taking longer than expected. Apparently I have a stubborn jaw. This month we went with lavender rubber bands.

My Dad is facing sme surgery and going through lots of appointments this week. He will be having another leg bypass surgery very, very soon. Please say a little prayer that all goes well. If this bypass surgery doesn't work he may end up losing his foot.

Today I'm feeling more optimistic than I have most of the week and, thanks to some super-strong Ibuprofin from my coworker and resident drug-dude, I've been headache free for about 2 hours now...yay!! Tonight will be a scrapping night. I haven't done it in 6 days and I feel so deprived!

And one other thing to be happy about...I got two of my scrapbook pages picked up for the June/July issue of Ready, Set, Create ezine. WOOT!

Love to all!

March 16, 2009

USE YOUR STASH CHALLENGE - Alphabet Stickers

I have a SERIOUS alphabet sticker addiction! I should take a picture of my "alpha board" that is sorted by color and only contains a fraction of the alphas that I have. Yikes.

If you are an alpha hoarder like me then I bet you have a TON of partial sheets of unused letters. For this week's challenge I used up several old sheets of alpha stickers and placed them on a piece of dark green cardstock.
Then I covered the entire page with black acrylic paint. Once dry I carefully peeled off each of the letters. Lesson learned here: cardstock weight stickers work MUCH better than the other varieties which tended to tear the paper when I tried to remove it. And here's the result:

Title: She Loves to Get Messy.
Supplies:
Cardstock (Prism)
Patterned Paper (Heidi Swapp, Urban Lily)
Alpha Stickers (3 Bugs in a Rug, Pebbles, Mustard Moon, Making Memories)
Die Cut Alpha (BasicGrey, Tinkering Ink)
Epoxy Stickers (American Crafts)
Rub Ons (Pink Paislee)



Let's see what you can do with your alphabet stickers!


The Rules: Projects must be NEWLY created for this challenge. Traditional or Hybrid OK. Deadline for this challenge: March 31st. Winner will be chosen randomly and receive a lovely RAK from me! :D Have fun!

March 9, 2009

DSI: Suspect Celine Navarro

I created this for the Divine Scrapbooking Investigation challenge blog. They examined a layout created by Celine Navarro and went over the strong design characteristics. Our assignment was to take those lessons and apply them to our own scrapbook page.

Title: Lil' Baby Hands
Supplies:
Patterned Paper (My Mind's Eye, Theresa Collins)
Felt-alpha, foam shapes-hands (American Crafts)
Crackle Paint (Ranger)
Mask (Tattered Angels)
Metallic Rub Ons (Craf-T)
Punch (Stampin Up-scallop circle)
Journaling Page (Making Memories)
Die Cut (Cosmo Cricket)
Adhesive (Ad Tech)


Design Elements
1. Used a black and white photo.
2. I used red as my group of 5 accent.
3. Page has dimension--not flat.
4. Title on the side.
5. Used a bold, dark patterned paper.

Thanks for taking a peek!! BTW, this is a pic of my best friend's newborn son.


MIX IT UP CHALLENGE #9

I created this for the Mix It Up Blog Challenge #9. The challenge was to "go green" and use a recycled item on our scrapbook page. I used a negative chipboard frame for my layout. I sprayed the chipboard with Tattered Angels Patina spray, layered the patterned papers, cardstock, photo and sparkly ribbon under the frame openings. I created my title using rub ons, and added tons of old chipboard, flowers and rhinestones. I placed a full sheet of cardstock in the back to give everything a gluing surface and to add stability. It didn't scan the greatest because of the many chipboard layers.

Title: Beautiful Sunset
Supplies:
Cardstock
Chipboard Frame Negative (Fancy Pants)
Patterned Paper (Sassafras Lass & other misc. scraps)
Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels-Patina)
Rub Ons (Making Memories-alpha, Daisy D's-grunge border)
Chipboard (Lil Davis-flowers and swirls, American Crafts-ladybug, Scenic Route-"wonder")

Felt (American Crafts-"&")
Flowers (Prima)

Rhinestones (Me & My Big Ideas and Misc. from my stash)
Ribbon

Journaling Card (October Afternoon)
Border Punch (Fiskars)

Adhesive (Ad Tech, Stampin Up)

Thanks for looking!!


USE YOUR STASH CHALLENGE: Felt

If you saw last week's challenge you may remember that I had a little stockpile of Fancy Pants' 12" x 12" chipboard...well, I couldn't resist that same splurge when their 12" x 12" packs of felt came out...loved it, but, lots to use up! So, here's what I did with it this week.

Title: Sandy Shoes
Supplies:
Cardstock (Prism)
Felt (Fancy Pants)
Sticker (3 Bugs in a Rug)
Die Cut Alpha (Tinkering Ink)
Acrylic Paint (Making Memories)
Punch (Fiskars)
Other: journaling tag, circle tag, buttons, small die cut alpha
Adhesive (Ad Tech, Scotch)

Journaling:
5/2/05
Monday morning you had some trouble finding your hiking boots, but once you found them you brought them into your bedroom where I was waiting to put them on. Daddy came in to see if he could help when you turned the shoe upside down high in the air and began shaking it.

"There is a lot of sand in my shoe!" you tell us.

I laugh because you're doing this over your bedroom carpet, and it's too late for me to stop it.

Thankfully this morning your shoes were not full of sand. That's quite unusual. About a week ago I went to put your shoes on and sand POURED out all over the carpet. I'm not even sure how you had your feet in there! I reminded you that last time I took them outside and dumped the sand into the grass. Ah well, these are little things and I'm proud of myself for laughing instead of worrying.

The carpet will be vacuumed eventually.


The Rules: Projects must be NEWLY created for this challenge. Traditional or Hybrid OK. Deadline for this challenge: March 31st. Winner will be chosen randomly and receive a lovely RAK from me! :D Have fun!

March 5, 2009

NOVEL: A tiny taste

Here's a little taste of what I wrote last. I'm particularly proud of this writing. It just sounds poetic to me.
The hurt that Alex felt was buried deep inside, locked away and forgotten. Like a piece of shrapnel that slices through its unintended victim, the injury could never be undone.

She was damaged goods. That is the way she was treated as a child and that, too, could never be undone. The hate she felt for her father welled up like a toilet about to overflow. Full of filth and turbulence, there was no stopping it.
This will be for the as yet untitled female heroine (Alex) novel.

My friend Gayle has a handy-dandy word count on her blog that is WAY ahead of where I am, but I thought it was a great idea, so I thought I'd do it too. Hats off to you Gayle!

#2 Heroine Alex: 6,244 words
#1 Jagged Mirror 7,218 words

THURSDAY THOUGHTS - Who Am I?

I'm just going to admit something right up front here. My motivation lately has been zero. It's been a struggle to do the daily things in life, and my desire for more is simply not there. I'd be okay sleeping the day away if I could. That is not the me I want to be.

I have been feeling that my anti-depressants are not working properly any longer. Last time I visited my doctor we increased the dosage to see if that would help. It hasn't. I will be seeing him again in a couple of weeks and we'll have to look at trying a new medication. I hate having to take pills, but I'm afraid I'm stuck with them forever.

My first and only prior bout with depression was over 14 years ago and it was MILD, so mild compared to what I'm dealing with now. It was gone and I was med free for 11 years and suddenly...WHAM....welcome to insanity. The doctors tell me that clinical depression can reappear over one's lifetime and each time it is often worse...I just can't take that chance. I want everyone to hear me on this: If you are not feeling happy then you need to get help! Therapy helps wonders. Believe me, I went for about 2 years before I started realizing it's benefits and now I am able to deal with these issues before things (me) get out of control. If you don't know my story and are dealing with these issues, I'd welcome an email to talk with you further. Suffice it to say that I have learned all of this the hard way.

Now, off of the depressing talk and on to happier things.

I've often wondered if it's possible to wake up one day and be an entirely different person. Have you ever felt like you just aren't the person you were meant to be? I have felt that way for awhile now. Actually since I really got into scrapbooking. I feel such a pull in the artistic direction but so much of my time and talent is spent elsewhere. I love my job and what I do, but it doesn't make my heart sing.

I dream of color, drawing and composition that is unique and free and fun, but when I sit down at my desk to scrap, I often feel stifled. I'm not sure how to break out of this other than to not "try" to create something but just "play" with it. (You know, not expecting to create a masterpiece.) I haven't quite gotten the hang of that yet. This is where I'd like to wake up one day and be free of my own inhibitions.

I want to be a writer. I mean a PUBLISHED writer. I've got two novels in the works but they are waiting for me to give them my full love and devotion. Writing is miraculous when it "flows" but awfully hard when it doesn't. I pray for divine intervention to come and take over my brain and give me the push to achieve this goal. In the meantime, I've been working hard to simplify my life to allow me to spend more time writing and less time wasting. Somehow in all of this I feel like a completed novel is something I'm meant to achieve, and therefore I don't feel a lot of pressure to produce quickly. This can be a great excuse to procrastinate and I'm apparently good at that!

But I just had an AHA! moment. I'd like to try songwriting. It combines two of my loves...writing and music. I have NO idea if I can write song lyrics, but I'd at least like to learn more about it and give it a try. The thought of it truly has made my heart burst with excitement. This is something I can work on at random moments throughout the day and don't have to worry about having the time to set aside for it. It will also keep me in a writer's mindset throughout much of the day and likely help out in the novel writing as well.

Let the ideas come, I am ready.

March 2, 2009

USE YOUR STASH CHALLENGE: Chipboard

I have a TON of chipboard. I just couldn't resist the big 12" x 12" packs sold by Fancy Pants. Problem is...there is a lot of chipboard left to use up! My solution...

Title: Gone BananasSupplies:
Cardstock (Prism)
Patterned Paper, Acrylic Paint (Making Memories)
Sticker (Sandylion, Adorn It)
Chipboard (Fancy Pants)
Die Cut Alpha (Tinkering Ink, BasicGrey)
Marker (Zig)
Flower (Scarlet Lime Kit Club)
Punch (Fiskars)
Adhesive (Ad Tech, Scotch)
Other: specialty paper, jeweled brads

Journaling:
Bananas are one of your favorite foods! This one was eaten at Grandma Kathy's. I'm not sure if you were enjoying eating or squishing it!

The Rules: Projects must be NEWLY created for this challenge. Traditional or Hybrid OK. Deadline for this challenge: March 31st. Winner will be chosen randomly and receive a lovely RAK from me! :D Have fun!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...