That's Retirement

I finished that second page. And here it is, my second made with the Clique Kits May 2015 Kit... Carnival. I painted this background paper myself with Gesso and then Doodled with a Sakura Gel Pen that came in my original Clique Kits Agenda kit. I have one other photo from this event, but it's special on a different level and I want it on a page by itself. The photos in the stack, the cake is on top, but the rest of the photos have my Daddy and different family and friends who were at the party.

There are a couple of "blank" labels right now.  I don't remember the year of the party right now I can get close based on the shirt I have on ( I'm not sure if that's good or bad), but I'm going to ask some other family members about the year and so I wanted to have some extra space for the year and possibly a few more words (I know, I have a lot to say sometimes.)

I decided the best way to really let you see these is with a short video.

Here is a link to another two page spread using photo stacks if you'd like to see another.

Try Again

I've been debating in my head if I should share this layout or not, but I've had it ready to post for a few weeks, I used my September Clique Kits to put it together. I haven't had a lot of sunny days for photographing when I haven't been at work lately so I'm behind taking pics, but I have some more things to post very soon, including a PRIZE WINNING LAYOUT from a crop I attended in Tennessee!

This layout is based around a copy of an email that I was sent about not quite making the cut for a design team, I've scribbled my feelings around it and the fact that I'm going to keep applying! I love how this turned out, and I have to admit I was very sad to not make it, but it's ok, it just means it isn't my time!

Everything in this layout was from the September Clique Kit except the unicorn, I stamped this unicorn from Critters Ever After by Lawnfawn and watercolored it one day when I just felt like stamping and coloring, I had made some New Year's cards from the images but this unicorn was left over so I used it on my layout. I love that unicorn!

Bee Happy, You are my dad!

Father's Day is this weekend and I'm sending out my card to my Daddy today. I combined SEVERAL stamp sets from Paper Smooches and Lawn Fawn for both the background and building the sentiment. The heart is a "page" out of a Maya Road Canvas book, The "washi" is fabric tape from Maya Road as well (can anyone say ... warehouse sale). The background paper is from and old K &Company paper pad I've been hoarding for several years now. I edged everything with distress ink in vintage photo.

Breaking down the Lawn Fawn:

 bee, trail and "happy" ... Hello Sunshine

dad and ! ... Say Cheese Too

Breaking down the Paper Smooches:

you are ... Chit Chat

my ... Hooties

background honeycomb ... Geo Graphic

The background is done with Gelatos and the black ink is a Faber-Castell Big Brush pen. I added my own comma. I love the super handmade look... I think my Daddy will love this card!

Now that I'm in a stamping mood, let me share with you the Summer School kit from Clique Kits AND some stamps I pulled from my stash to use with it (possibly).

At the Diner

Diners, love them or hate them... they are everywhere in this area. I really enjoy the fact that they have a variety of food, and that they all look so interesting. The closest diner to my current home is called the Jukebox and it has a bit of a nostalgic rock n roll 1950's-60's type of decor. I love it! I learned a trick with my coffee spoon over the weekend and decided to document a little about the diner. 

I LOVED using the colors in Field Trip to document this diner, because I feel like that pink just fits right in with the photos. That is an ACTUAL slide used as an embellishment and I borrowed the cutest little heart punch from my friend and went to town on a scratch piece of paper from the kit to make those little tiny hearts I then stuck everywhere. Those eggs look yummy right now! They are piled on top of a pile of cooked veggies, broccoli, onions, squash, etc... oh and there is cheese. YUM! Along with paper and letter stickers and cut files cut from the gold paper in the kit, I added buttons from the matching button set by Fancy Pants (the As You Wish collection buttons, Flowers from Maya Road, a postage style coffee stamp and some steam stamps borrowed from a friend, stickers from the As You Wish collection pack and Thickers.

Friend Canvas

I was working on some pockets for a Denim Pocket Swap I'm doing with my crafty friends in TN, and decided to send the hostess a little canvas. Man I miss scrapping with her!

It's a 3x3 little canvas painted with black Gesso, Stencilled with Graphite colored Ferro over a cityscape stencil from The Crafter's Workshop. I added a Heidi Swapp Chipboard heart that I misted with some Mr. Huey's mist. The tiny type is from Cosmo Cricket and the flower is by Sassafras Lass. 

As a side note, it's almost my birthday and I got this in the mail on Thursday, May 22nd:

A Pocket Page about Bees and the White House

I've done several pages already about my friend Monica's visit from February like these and this one and I've had this one partially sorted into a pocket page protector (this one is from Echo Park, I ordered one of their Photo Freedom collections last year) but had never finished with the embellishing and journalling until NSD10K got me into gear! Here is the completed page... it covers our walk by the White House and our trip to an awesome bakery!

The papers here are just Kraft mixed with prints from Chickaniddy Crafts Date Night collection. I LOVE that paper from the 6x6 pad with the little dance footprints on it because we WALKED a LOT that day! I used the Wish You Were Here stamp set from Lawn Fawn to decorate one of my pockets... LOVE that stamp set!! Those kraft arrows are from Maya Road, The stickers and little epoxy hearts are from Chickaniddy Crafts, The slide frame is from Crate Paper, The Pier Colleciton, The flair is from October Afternoon.

I made it in April

So I've been clearing out my older papers and things in my stash. I got that Sugar Chic Paper Pad and immediately decided I had to USE IT! I hate HATE when I buy pretty things and "save" them. I stopped just buying things that made me gasp over a year ago, and started only buying if I had a project in mind... because my stash was getting unmanageable. I purged a LOT before I moved last November, but when I found out that Scrapbooks Plus was having a yardsale, I took another long hard look at my supplies and tried to be very tough on myself as to what things I would actually use. I filled up two boxes with papers (pads that I've never taken a sheet out of, or pads that I bought with a friend, then split the papers 50/50 and then never used one sheet of in a project), mostly intact 6x6 pads that I made many cards with but no longer felt inspired to use those papers, sticker sheets that I never used, embellishments I've been hoarding or purchased a ton of when they were on sale that I got burnt out using. If I found my stash to shop through at the yardsale, I'd be so excited!!! Whole packages of Maya Road stuff!!!

While going through my stuff, I went through the drawer of premade stuff (like minis and alterable items) and picked out this one that I've been saving for a couple of years and decided it was time to shape up or ship out :)!

I LOVE tis cluster on the "front" of the photo holder (I don't even know what to call this, it's just an accordian mini in a box... guess I do know what to call it.)For a closer look, watch this video:

I was watching my weekly Glitter Girl fix here and it got me to thinking. When I was sorting my photos earlier this year, I stuck all my wedding photos together to scrap one day. Since I'm now widowed, I have a different perspective on these photos... So I'm wondering if any of  you have an opinion on how you'd scrap this stuff. Do you think you'd scrap from a happy memory place, do you think you'd just skip scrapping them and put them in an album?

( I already know what I want to do... I'll surprise you, I just wondered what you'd do.)

Surprise Happy Mail

Okay, it's been a while since I played with my camera. So I decided to practice with it some more. I like this photo of the LO better than my previous one. You can really tell it was a patterned paper before it got saturated with Licorice Metallic Maya Mist. The background paper is Blue Sky from the new Woodland Park Collection by October Afternoon. I purchased both of these product from my LSS and linked the products to their website. I couldn't find the Mist available online, but if it's available they can order it for you :). The heart stickers I got a couple of years ago from the 1.00 spot in Archivers and I'd never used them. I think they were the perfect accent. I used my copic liner to journal black ink over the black metallic mist. The journalling is very sentimental regarding my late spouse (God rest his soul) and my trip to the Dark Knight Rises with someone else.

Now for some cheerier new :)

I recently went and perused the 12 Tags of 2012 by Tim Holtz. I hadn't gone anywhere near Timmy's blog since my spouse passed. I had enjoyed his Christmas tags for the last several years but felt I just couldn't face them for 2011. And just this month I went to visit one of my scrappy girlfriends and she asked me if I had seen the August tag. I admitted to her that I hadn't seen the first tag for the year. She fussed at me a bit but said I had to see the August tag because it was " SO CHARITY." I went and looked and agreed it was me, then I waited a few days and carefully went through all the tags from the year. I was awed and inspired and so I sent him an email to thank him.

Little did I know he would respond. 

He also wanted to send me the tag.

It came Saturday.

It's wonderful, and he signed the back! 

Who knew Rock Stars could be so precious???? 

My heart is really touched by his kind words and the fact that he sent me this awesome little tag. 

Tim Rocks!

I've been really creative and inspired lately. I even made a project and a video. If you need help using your stash, you should play along. This video is posted as a response to Tonya over at Psychomoms on yt.

Mini Swap with Deanna at LSH!

WARNING: this post is photo H-E-A-V-Y

So I was in another mini swap at LSH. Here is the mini that I sent to my partner (beware, I got a new tool and it "rocks" and so I talk about it quite a bit).

This is the mini I received:

The construction on this is amazing, I kept trying to figure out what kind of album it was...she made this out of chipboard, envelopes and masking tape...awesome!

Now for some still shots: (This is the full album, but I didn't pull out tags and stuff)

The next two are more detailed of the front cover: