Good Times

Good Times

So I had today off, I had one more "sick" day to use up and I took it. Seeing as how we don't get paid for any left over and we don't get to roll them over, I figured what the heck why not?

So I spend the day cleaning, shopping, and cooking.

I went to AC Moore, Party City, JcPenny's, and Wegmans. I made this week's menu, seeing as how I am crazy and need my life to be more organized. I am slowly losing my sanity as the graduation party for my son gets closer and the thought of him leaving shortly after threatens the horizon.

So I was looking through old photos of the kids and I came across this one. Both of my kids are making the photo session more painful then it has to be. They are both trying real hard not to let me have a good picture.

So this is a quick layout I made the other day, with the photo.

I used papers are from The Paper Loft®. I love their papers, they look vintage and weathered. 

Recollections® has these new embellishments out that are street lights and hot air balloons. On this layout I used the hot air balloon. I really like them, they are made of metal and are very eye catching.

The flowers are Prima®. And the stamp I used in the lower left corner is by Inkadinkado®. 

I did use another stamp of a compass, they are really old, like the very fist acrylic stamps that came out by Inkadinkado®. The chain of hearts, is made from some random piece of raspberry colored paper and they are cut out with the dies that you hammer! If you can believe that. I never got rid of this one specifically because I love the size and shape of it. I have used it many times, on several of my projects. I stapled the hearts together with a mini stapler, then backed every other one with a pop dot. I torn a piece of scrap paper that looked like old newspaper. Then added chicken wire, which is made by Dusty Attic®. I love the chicken wire, I have two sheets and still have a ton left of the first sheet and I have used it on at least 4 projects if not more. The pretty butterfly is off a scrap piece of paper, I just fussy cut it out and then added matte glaze to it. The finishing touch is the cranberry/raspberry colored Stickles® that I used on the tail of the title, I felt like that color needed to be carried to one more spot on the page to create a visual triangle. The page becomes more appealing that way.

I hope you like my layout. It didn't take me very long to make, it was a simple layout to do on a weeknight when I didn't have hours to give up.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you have a wonderful day.

B is for boy

B is for boy

Here is the other layout I wanted to share with you this week. My son played tennis two years ago, but I never scrapped them because, well, he didn't really like it all that much. (Even though at the time, it sure looked like he was having fun.) 

Starting from the base, I used Paper Loft paper with small brown stars on it. Then I took my stamp that looks like sewing and stamped various lengths of lines horizontally and vertically. Making sure to also vary the width in between each line.

Then I cut two four inch circles out of brown patterned paper and using my Fiskars®

circle punch, I made two doily look alikes.

I took two cards out of a deck that is missing a few other cards and colored them with my light brown inks.

I made a file folder with my Making Memories Slice Machine®, added two stickers to it. "My Favorite" and the tennis racks, and I drew thin brown frames around them with my Martha Stewart® pen.

The chicken wire is by Dusty Attic®, I cut just a strip of it and framed the words "is for boy" with one of the spaces. 

The green strip of paper is out of my scrap bin, which had colors I needed for the layout, I just inked the edges with brown ink.

The white and brown star is made with the Slice® machine, then I added a white penned outline. 

All the stickers are from Echo Park Paper Co.®, from the This & That line. I just love this sheet of stickers. They are awesome. I used them all over. 

The circle embellishment is also a sticker on pop dots, that I added a metal embellishment to that has been in my collection of hoarded stuff for a long while.

The "B is for boy" is a sticker that I cut in half and inked the edge of.

I really like way this layout turned out. And it kind of all fell together with the stickers and the pictures that I hadn't used yet.

This week has been super rainy here in NY. I hate to be inside this much without being able to take my daily walk outside, but it's great scrapping weather.

How is your summer so far? 

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Have a great weekend.

Eternal Love

Eternal Love

So today was a crazy day. On my drive to work, I was thinking about how long it's been since I got upset about my son leaving, and you would think with it getting closer and closer, I would be crying alot more frequently. I was giving myself a good old pat on the back. Well, that stretch only last until I got to work today. And something happened, which in hindsight set me off but was really silly. Anyways, I ended up being super emotional at work, and kind of lost it. Not a good day. Ugh.

So here is one of the layouts I was going on about earlier this morning. Of course, it's featuring my cute puppy Roo.

I started with a piece of patterned paper by pink paislee and then topped that with My Mind's Eye paper. Underneath, I added a little burlap and then stitched around the circumference of the layout a couple times, being sure not to stitch perfectly.

A couple of the pieces of this layout, I already had made up, because I had started to use them on a different layout, and it just wasn't working. I stared at the layout for over a month and it was driving me batty. Sometimes, no matter what vision you have in your head, it sometimes can not be pulled out properly (at least in my case) and imposed onto the visual landscape. I, sometimes, can't make it happen and I find myself getting frustrated.

I used a Dusty Attic chippie, that came in two pieces. I took the top piece and painted it with white gesso. Then layered it over the bottom piece, adding my puppy's picture in the center. 

At Michael's this weekend, I found a really awesome stamp. It's a stamp that makes cameos. It came with an oval shape and two different girl's heads. I wish there was a boy one also, maybe there was ans they were out, I don't know. Anyway, it was a dollar, so I couldn't pass it up. That is what I used to make the cameo on this layout. I used teal paper and white ink. When the white ink dried, I used stickles in White Lace. When that dried, I cut it out and added pop dots to the back of it.

I cut the title out using my Making Memories Slice machine. And added a strip of teal paper under it with burlap under that.

The butterfly on the layout, was actually part of the paper, that I just used an exacto knife to cut out only the wings, and I folded them up a little. Then I added Stickles in Tea Dye to the wings and body to make it pop out some more. 

The flowers are Prima, of course, aren't they beautiful? The teal ones are new, from the convention I just went too.

I hope you are enjoying my layout.

I enjoyed sharing it.

I hope you have a wonderful night.

Check back soon, for the next reveal.

Later today...

Later today...

I will have a new page or two to show you. I have been working on some designs the last couple of days.

There is one in particular that I really fell in love with, partly because I got to use a sticker sheet that I got at a convention recently. I currently love vintage stickers and papers, even if they are in new colors. I happened to pick up a sheet of stickers that was vintaged themed but had teals, greens and yellows, along with some wood grain. I know all the colors of the 70's. Ha! I even got to use a metal embellishment that I have been hoarding, for no other reason then I couldn't think of where to use it, but I really liked it and didn't want to throw it out.

I don't know about you, but I am a huge hoarder, especially when it comes to papers. And I have no idea why. Honestly I have so much paper, I would have to live to be 1000 just to use it all, and believe me that doesn't stop me from buying new stacks or sheets if I see something I like. Thing is, I use it. I used to say, "no, I can't use that it's too pretty" but if I don't use it, the paper will just sit there. So I try to push myself past that initial feeling of "hoarding" and move on to actually using it.

Anyway, I just wanted to write a little something before I head out to work. I will be posting one page today and the other page tomorrow or Thursday. I hope that you check back to see what I came up with.

Have a wonderful day.

Je'taime

Je'taime

Or I love you... if you don't speak French.

Lately I have been really interested in trying out my artistic side, but really the truth is I don't have one. I am very, how do you say, anal.... Lol! When it comes to putting things in their place or having some sense of balance, my brain doesn't let me free flow. It stops me short with inhibitions. 

So, this is my attempt on a artist layout. I started with white cardstock, then stamped some green vines & leaves and I drew some cross hatch with a black thin marker. 

I cut out the title with my Slice machine and then inked it with Colorbox inks, using the lighter color first then blending to the darker color. I like the look of it, it came out pretty good.

The pic I chose was one my daughter took of herself then used an editing app on her ipod on, I love that she loves photography as much as I do. She has been taking a lot of photos of the puppies on her own, and she has got some amazing shots of them.

Most of the embellishments on here are pictures that I nabbed of the internet. I am finding this has been my go to spot lately for extra things to go on my layouts. We only have a few stores where I live and all of them are chain stores, so they don't carry the really good stuff. I love all the options that you have on the internet, you just to be careful that the items aren't copyrighted. There is so much free stuff out there, the possibilities are endless.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

I hope you enjoy the layout I shared with you today. 

School is winding down and now my schedule isn't so busy. In a couple weeks, three, but who is counting, school will be out. Then for two weeks I will be busy, then my son will be leaving for boot camp, and I will have to cope some how. I am sure I will turn to scrapbooking and kayaking. Things that will keep me busy.

Explore

Explore

As soon as I saw you

I knew an adventure 

was going to happen.

--Winnie the Pooh

My son's first automobile was a 2002 Chevy Blazer. He got it from his grandpa as a gift.

Although it has needed some repairs, it has proved to be a faithful friend.

My son made many modifications to the Blazer. He put on a push bar, and wheel spacers.He installed a awesome stereo system. 

The truck as taken him on many adventures and I am sure there are more to come.

I chose the quote above by Winnie the Pooh because well I love Pooh and it fits my son and his truck so well. He has gone many places and seen many things in his truck, all of course within a safe distance from home. 

The amount of work and what he has learned to fix on his own, is an adventure itself.

Most of the papers used are from the Recollections line, called Memories Documented. I didn't have map paper so I printed some from the internet, I used it for the strips on the left of the photo and I rolled up some of it and tied it with jute.

The steering wheel I have been saving since before Brandon could drive, and I have just been itching to use it.

Most of the embellishments for this layout, we (my best friend and I) made. What do they say? Necessity is the mother of all invention. If you don't have it, it doesn't mean you have to go out and spend money on buying it.

I think it turned out really well.