It's Not What You Look At...

It's reveal day at Nuts About Sketches.  Here's my interpretation of Sketch #256.  I really do love working with Shawn's sketches - they're so fluid and user friendly.  My Nuts About Sketches projects always turn out great because Shawn's already done all the thinking. I just have to pull out the product and put it together.

I've got a mix of old and new here. The flowers are Primas and have been in my stash forever. The papers are Kaisercraft and are new. The letters come from Graphic45 and they're old. 

Another "old" is the man in the photos - my darling husband of 24 years now.  Every year with him just gets better.  I could not have found a more perfect life companion - he is the string to my kite, keeping me grounded, helping me achieve my dreams by making them more realistic realities.  He is a great conversationalist, has a warm, kind, and loving heart, and has a fun sense of adventure.  Every day with him is a new discovery.  

The photos are from a visit to Blue River last year. I was doing a scrapbook series on the 23rd Psalm and I had a "still waters" image in my head that only THIS particular place could make work.  True to his adventurous spirit, Tom agreed to a day drive, and off we went, taking Cowboy along of course.     

We had a great time. I had my new camera and was learning how to play with the features, but I think Tom had more fun than I did.  He took a quick skinny dip under the bridge. Me, I sat on the bank and played lookout.  I told you he was an adventurous soul!  

Nuts About Sketches - Design Team Round Two!

I love working with Shawn and using her sketches to create beautiful projects, so I'm honored and excited to be invited to continue with my Design Team position at Nuts About Sketches.  This layout is one that I turned in with my application.  

My mom, age 74, retired before personal computers were standard issue for teachers, and she really only uses her home computer to play solitaire. But recently my sister and I decided that her rich knowledge of the Bible and her incredible teaching ability needed to be out in the world.

Mom has, for years, wanted to write, but her health issues with her cancer recovery and an old heart surgery, coupled with her age, make sitting at a desk for long periods not really an option. Blogging seemed to be a perfect solution. But to do that, she was going to have to enter the computer age and buy a laptop. My sister said, "ONLY a Mac - nothing else. And you'll have to talk her into it. She won't listen to me." So, it fell to me to bring mom into the computer age.

At first, she resisted the idea, but surprisingly, only for a couple of minutes. I told her, "we'll get you a laptop, and a lap desk, and you can do it from your recliner. You sit there watching television anyway, and you can do this at the same time." Then there was a whole conversation about the logistics. Mom, and if you knew her you'd laugh, had very clear ideas of what her keyboard and her screen needed to look like. I said, "ok, let's just go to the Apple store and see what's there, and we'll find what you need."

I did a quick internet search for lap desks, and found that one that would work that we could pick up in the same mall as the Apple store, so I met mom in Tulsa and we looked first at the Mac Books. Mom got a little excited when she saw how simple they would be to use. But before we bought it, we measured it and then went upstairs to Brookstone to check the lap desks. I almost lost her when I sat her down in the big massage chair to rest a few minutes. She took a sales tag and asked the sales clerk, "do you deliver..."

The lap desk was perfect -which I knew because I'd researched and found the #1 best one out there - and she bought it. Then we went back down to Apple and she bought her MacBook Pro 15 inch retinal display, top of the line model. Then she signed up for the One to One program.

Since early December, I've been driving to Tulsa one day a week, meeting mom for lunch, and going with her to her One to One lesson so that when she forgets what her tech tells her, she can call me and I can help her with it. But she's a good student, and she is learning fast.

This photo is of her and her favorite tech, Josh, who looks for her name on the list when he's scheduled because if she's on there, he wants to work with her. I think that makes him one of the sweetest guys on the entire planet.

And as a pure bonus for me. When my DH asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said, "A MacBook Pro" and he took me to the store and bought me one. So now I do a little one-to-one myself.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for listening to me ramble on (and on and on).

Paper Mixing Bowl - Red Velvet Cake

It's reveal day at the Paper Mixing Bowl.   

Wow, what a great sketch and recipe card this month!  It's a Red Velvet Cake with oodles of gooey frosting, spills, and stains.  I had a great time playing with the sketch.  I knew as soon as I saw it exactly how I wanted my project to turn out.  I'm so excited to show you my February "Valentine," even though the photographs are from last Christmas.  
  




Here's the recipe card.

Utensils I used : 
*Layers - I think there are twelve layers in this project, counting the layer of paint from the Martha Stewart doily silk screen and the title font letters.  
*Frosting - I used a gloss gel medium to get enough sticky for those glass beads to want to stay on my page.  I kind of globbed and smeared it like frosting along the top to look like drips.
*Pairs - Two pairs of photos:one pair looks left, one pair looks right.  Two pairs of small roses in each cluster.  One pair of white tulle in each flower cluster.  A pair of spilled beads, one spill on the top, one on the bottom.  A pair of doilies.  A pair of glitter heart brads. 
*Postage Items - I used a Post Card stamp.  It's stamped in brown and embossed in clear.  
*Spills - I misted my photo mat paper really heavily and then stood it on end so that it would run down the paper and look like a spill.  I spilled mist onto my craft mat and used it to wet my paper so that I could crinkle it up and then dry it out flat to create all those beautiful creases.  I spilled the glass beads all into the gloss gel.  And I tried hard to create a look of spilled frosting along the top margin of the paper.  
*Hearts and Flowers - Large and small roses, metal and glitter heart brads.  
*Multi-Photo - My muse is my beautiful older daughter, being herself, last Christmas.  

I went with the journaling prompts of "love letter" and "poem."  The mat and post card papers are word prints.  And the poem -- well, it's kind of a subjective interpretation, but I kept hearing the theme song from Lady In Red with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts...It inspired my title and that swinging red dress charm.  

Canvas Art - Swirlydoos Round 4 Project

So, as promised, here's my canvas project from last week's Swirlydoos Ultimate Designer Challenge.  

I've never even attempted such a project before, but Lisa is an awesome teacher and the video tutorials that she put up were AMAZINGly helpful for a total novice like me. It's a credit to HER that I was able to create this piece of pretty.  Thanks so much Lisa, for helping me get this project out of my head onto the canvas. 

Before I explain HOW I did it, let me tell you what it is and WHY I did it...

This canvas is a gift for my mother.

I am one of five children, four living. My parents lost a baby to SIDS at nine days old. Her name was Amy Susan and she died the day before my fifth birthday. She would be 52 this year. My younger daughter is named after her.

She was here such a brief time and it was so long ago that it's almost like she was never here at all. We never mention her, and yet her small but short life made a major impact on my parents.

My mother was 23 years old, my dad 31. Daddy was a US Marine, a fighter pilot, in charge of a squadron of other pilots, competent and sure of everything. Mom was busy keeping house and raising children, teaching Sunday School, hosting teas for other officer's wives.

Before Amy, my parents had a very clear idea how things were supposed to be. They expected life to follow certain rules and order. They had plans for the future - both theirs and their children's. After Amy, they both realized that sometimes children don't live to grow up. Their perspective about the future changed, and they both became better parents. My 'father' became my 'daddy,' and my mother found time to sit and play and hug us every opportunity she had.

As my mom has gotten older, she has begun talking about Amy, about how this little angel changed her life - how in one second, everything she knew for sure became nothing for sure at all. How the few short days she was with us changed ALL of us for the better, in spite of the incredible pain of loss.

There are no photographs of my second sister. The only mementos of her life are a photo of her grave and a small piece of ribbon, left over from the dress my mother buried her in.  A few years ago, I asked my mother for the ribbon from that dress. 

I had this idea in my head - just an idea really, nothing solid or formed - but some way to create a small memory of a short life that was part of my life, just for a few days, but made everything about the way I grew up different than it might have been if she had lived.

So to start, I chose a small canvas (8x8) to create my project - as a symbol of a small life, gone much too soon, before it even had a chance to BE a life really.  The ribbon on the bottom is the ribbon from her dress. And on the back, just for my mom to read, are these words...

What kind of place would heaven be with all its streets of gold,

if all the souls, that dwell up there like yours and mine were old?

How strange would heaven’s music sound when harps begin to ring,

if children were not gathered round to help the angels sing.

The children that God sends to us are only just a loan,

He knows we need their sunshine to make the house a home.

We need the inspiration of a baby’s blessed smile,

He doesn’t say they’ve come to stay, just lends them for awhile.

Sometimes it takes them years to do the work for which they come.

Sometimes in just a day or two our Father calls them home.

I like to think some souls up there bear not one sinful scar.

I like to think of heaven as a place where babies are.

**********

Now, here's how I did it. 

I prepped the canvas with glimmer mist in Snow Angel, Sunkissed Peach, Frost, and Patina. I was going for an "earth to heaven" color blend. 

I used molding paste for the wings, created with a stencil. The stuff on the bottom is called glass bead gel, bought at Michaels in the art and paint section. It's my NEW favorite goop!

I set it aside for the night to dry.

When everything was dry, I dry brushed the wings and the Bead Gel with some Metallic Pearl White paint by Folk Art. I also used some Baby Pink Metallic by Martha Stewart as well.

I stamped the clocks and embossed them with a soft peach embossing enamel. The cherub is a transparency print. I knew it would bleed a bit when I sealed the canvas, but I think that I like the way it ended up, soft at the bottom and clear at the top.

I sealed with Martha Stewart's glitter finish, another really COOL goopy item!

And another drying wait.

Then I top dressed the wings again with the Metallic White and finally used a white gelato stick on both the wings and the bead gel.

The chipboard is prepped with DecoArt Metallic Festive Green paint, run through my dotted swiss embossing folder.  Then I sanded the tops down, used some Peeled Paint ink and then some Metallic Chalk Rub to finish.

The fiber is a medical gauze roll. I pulled the fibers apart to make it more wispy and then treated it with a Baby Pink metallic paint wash. I tied the little dress ribbon in a bow, then tacked down the ends, kind of bunching and gluing as I went.

The little crochet butterflies started life white, but I gave them a bit of a dressing with some Picked Raspberry ink. The pearl bling finished everything up and I was done.

I am so pleased with how this turned out. I cannot wait to give it to my mom.

Swirlydoos Ultimate Design Challenge Week 3

Want to see what's been keeping me busy this week?  I mean besides substitute teaching and feeding everything with a mouth around here?

I made the Round 3 cut for the Swirlydoos Ultimate Design Challenge and got to play for another week.  This week's project was courtesy of Miranda - who expected us to ::GASP:: work with METAL!  Oh dear.  Does she not know about my long standing feud with all things steam punky and industrial?  In fact, I have such a hard time with this particular genre' that I've invented my own signature style and named it "Country Punk" just in desperation to prevent being laughed out of next county. 

No matter.  Metal foil tape, embossing, and altered items.  That was the assignment, so up with the rolling of the sleeves, and down with the lump in my throat, and into the mucky mess with my fingers, and out came ....

this.  Which is not so bad, if I say so myself.  Turns out - it really was super fun.  But once again, steam punk and I have agreed to part ways in favor of a more "country" flair.  My signature "Country Punk" strikes again!  

It's a metal coated mini album covered with bits and pieces of things I love and things that I mostly wanted to get out of my bottomless stash of bits and pieces of things.  

The little wood fence lifts up.  Under, there is a little red glittered heart and some ribbon grass.  Eventually, this will have a picture of Cowboy as well. 

The little flower in the heart is one of Amy's earrings.  I found it in the bathroom drawer after she moved out.  There was only one, not a pair, and I could not bear to throw it out.  I knew I'd find a use for it.   Turns out...















The little metal butterfly is tethered to the family word.  I think that's kind of symbolic.  Everyone needs to find their wings, but our family keeps us stable and secure and grounded when the wind gets too strong and we need a safe resting place. 



The feathers are courtesy of my chickens and the bluebirds that live here in the summer.  The bingo numbers - lucked out with those.  They're our house number! 

  

The Best of 2012

I love this time of year.  It's a time of looking forward to a new year with hope and optimism, as well as looking backward in reflection and contemplation. 

*And it seems that there's a movement afoot to encourage the rest of the scrappy community to post their favorites.  Stacey at Oh Schwiet Scrap is hosting an informal blog hop for participants of a top ten favorites.  The idea is to list your favorite ten layouts or projects, then share it with her in the comments section of her blog.  She'll compile all the posts and send out a RAK to one lucky participant.  

Here's the link to Stacey's blog post - which also includes her list and tutorials - so you can check it out and join the fun.  Stacey has some pretty amazing talent - and her creative ideas are always fun. 

I had to winnow out from a massive total of 156 completed projects.  I was a busy busy girl in 2012!  I think 2013 will see me slowing down a bit.  I've resigned from my job at my LSS and won't be creating projects for teaching classes any longer.  I'll miss seeing my students every month, but I'll still have time to take a class or two, and I'm pretty sure that I'll have plenty of scrapping time with my design team duties for Paper Mixing Bowl and Nuts About Sketches. 

Anyway - enough of that.  Here are MY favorite 12 projects for 2012.  And I hope your new year is safe and happy!   

Ahhh!  That's The Spot!

Bobby Dawg

Celebrate Life (with Root Beer)

Hilton Head

Make A Joyful Noise

Odd Coincidences 

Oh, To Be In Paris In May

Porch Swing

 Seamstress

 Shell Seekers

 The Lord Is My Shepherd

Wings

Harmony

The word harmony originates in a pair of old Greek words - one a noun that defines a joint agreement, the other a verb that means to fit or join together. 

Normally, when we think of harmony, we think of the way music sounds - of contrasted notes and vertical progressions - one higher, one lower - blending together to create a single element of beautiful sound.  The melodies may be different, but the music that the contrasting notes follow along their separate paths fits together in a perfect way. 

I can think of no better way to describe my parents relationship.  They are very different people, my mom and my dad, but they complement one another in a way that fits together in a beautiful example of what a marriage should be. 

The church my parents attend updates the church photo directory every couple of years.  This year was an update year, so I have this wonderful photo.  They'll celebrate their 57th anniversary this year. 

Mom, Dad, this one is for you.  I love you both! 
  

Harmony

My Mark On The World

Wow.  It's Monday, and it's another blog post from ME!  Unbelievable.  

I wanted to post my most recent project for Nuts About Sketches.  I haven't been very faithful to Shawn on this blog - neglecting to put my DT work up here.  She's got my scrapbook.com gallery linked on the NAS site, so it's not been too big a deal.  And besides, I know that this blog doesn't see a whole lot of traffic, so I've not been too concerned about it. 

But I think, now that I'll have Paper Mixing Bowl duties starting in January, I'd best get IN the habit of dropping my projects here, and probably doing a little more in the way of photographing them instead of just "point and shoot and upload." 

Here's Sketch #242

And here's what I did with it.  

The papers are Prima's Almanac Collection.  The little crochet fan came from Mandy Harrell's etsy shop.  

I took the little fan apart and put my own handmade floral on it so it would match my page a little better.  Then I created a sort of vine of similar buds with some floral wire and stuck them in behind the fan.  

The right hand photo has some text work done on the bricks - nothing amazing, just an invisible text box and some black text before printing.  

Thanks for taking a stop by.   I'd love to hear comments - the crickets are chirping pretty loud in the room here.  

Janie's Buddy

This horse was a throw-away. You can read his story in my Scrapbook Dot Com  gallery under the photo "Pasture Ornament." Go ahead, I'll wait. It's kind of important background to understand this photograph.

Pasture Ornament

My mom is a breast cancer survivor, but the treatments to save her life ravaged her body. She now has neuropathy (damage to nerves of the peripheral nervous system), tremors, and add to all that, she's 74 years old. 

She has begun developing an interest in my horses and I've sort of hoped that I could offer her an opportunity to ride at some point.  But horses are ... horses, which means anything can happen, and usually does, so I've not really felt comfortable with the idea. Much as I love Java and Charlie, she's my MOM, right?

Well, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, I decided that I would get on Buddy and see just how broke he was. And in short - he's amazing. Sane, quiet, unflappable. Just like I hoped he would be. In fact, he's BETTER than I hoped he would be. I called mom and told her, "I finally have a horse that I can trust with you. His name is Buddy, and if you want to, you can ride him this Thanksgiving."

Thanksgiving dinner came, and after the dishes were cleaned up and the men were watching football, Mom said, "let's go out and see Buddy." And on the way to the pasture she said, "if you'll saddle him, I'll ride him." She told my niece, "you better take a good picture because this is the last time I'll ever ride a horse."

I helped her up onto the mounting block and helped her get into the saddle. I handed her the reins and explained that all she needed to do was point her thumb the direction she wanted to go and give him a hug with her legs. Her first words were, "He does what I TELL him!"

If you're a horse person, you'll probably notice that she's riding this horse with nothing but a halter and some reins hooked into the nose band. And her shoes aren't "regulation" or the least appropriate. And no helmet - I know.

But - the photo doesn't show EVERYTHING. I Photo Shopped out the lead rope and my right leg. The truth is, neither me nor the lead rope was the least bit necessary. Buddy took care of my mom as if he were walking on eggshells. He was - he IS - an unbelievable soul.

Mom had a great time. I know because she called me yesterday and said, "you know, I'd really like to come ride Buddy again." I said, "anytime. He's here for the rest of his life. I promise." 

As if there were ever any doubt.

***
This layout used the Nuts About Sketches Sketch #240. Come check out the NAS website and see how much fun you can have with a sketch a week!

Nuts About Sketches - Design Team!

Last month, I stepped out of my comfort zone and applied to be a member of the Nuts About Sketches design team.   Applicants were to take this sketch and create a layout from it.

Since I was working on my darling nephew's baby book, I took advantage of the sketch to create another Brady page for his first year album.  The sketch was amazingly easy to work with, and I was very pleased with the results.  I sent it in, thinking, "even if I'm not selected, I have another Brady page done, so that's a win-win either way."  

I found out right before Tom and I left for vacation that I've been accepted!  It's my first "away from home" gig, and I'm tremendously excited about the opportunity.    

Featured!

My most recent layout, titled "Temptation" was selected as a Featured Artist project at Let's Get Sketchy!  I was so surprised and so honored to have my little project recognized...but it was easy to create something pretty with the fabulous sketch that Let's Get Sketchy gave me to work with.

I had so much fun, I pulled the Sketch #7 down and have the beginnings of an idea for my next project.

I love this hobby.  It feeds my need to be creative while at the same time giving me a way to archive my family photos and memories.

Here's my Temptation Project.


The dog's name was Blitz, and he belonged to my father before my dad and mom ever met.

Daddy was a Captain in the Marine Corps, and he made sure that Blitz exercised self-discipline and esprit-de-corps as well as any boot camp private you'd ever meet.  That egg on the ground was as safe as if it had been in Fort Knox.  My dad was the one behind the camera and he told Blitz, "leave it."  That was the end of the discussion, even if the temptation was too much to bear.  

Poor Blitz.  It must have been hard being stripped of his rank as "man's best friend" and demoted to "the family dog."  Whenever Daddy was around, Blitz became man of the house, a job which he took on with his entire heart, and a job which frequently put him at odds with the milkman, the postman, and the preacher...  When he bit one of my uncle's friends who had come to visit Bill, that was the end of Blitz's time as our family dog.  My dad found a single Marine in his squadron who was willing to take Blitz and give him a good home.  ... in Okinawa.  I know Daddy was sad to see him go

We owned two other German Shepherds during the time I was growing up- but neither of them came close to Blitz in Daddy's heart.  He still mentions Blitzie from time to time - and he always smiles when his name comes up in conversation.  

A Pile of Coincidences

Yesterday, I found this photo in my jewelry box of all places, while I was digging for a necklace.  I'm not sure what it was doing in there; I thought it was in the family photo album.  I didn't think too much about it, figured it had teleported itself there with a request.  Scrap me!  Scrap ME!  So I grabbed it, scanned it, cropped it, resized it, and printed it off.  Just in case, you know? 

Well, as it turned out, I was also scheduled to work yesterday at my Local Scrapbook Store.  Now I don't normally work on Thursdays.  My classes are usually Tuesdays and Saturdays, and I have a standing work schedule for every other Wednesday as well.  And I wouldn't have been working yesterday either, except the boss and store manager have gone to quilt camp for the weekend.  There was a class going on last night - with Miss Sarah - so someone had to be available to cover the store and customers.  Pick me!  Pick ME! 

I hadn't signed up to take the class, and it was full so there weren't any kits left.  Darn - it was a super cute page too!  But I was there and the the project sample was ... right there ... begging.  Lift me.  Lift ME! 

It was just a matter of figuring out which paper to use.  And as it turned out, this Simple Stories Elementary paper line had just come in.  Choose me!  Choose ME! 

Talk about a load of coincidences - right?  So I managed not only to feature the store's new paper line, I got a wonderful had-forgotten-all-about-it photograph scrapped.  And to add to the fun - I got paid for playing!  Man, it just doesn't get any better than that!