Bootiful Girls

This kit made the most of my October kit Masquerade Ball from Clique Kits, I used a ton of the ephemera as layering pieces, some stickers, one of those awesome glittery hearts you could get as an add on and I even discovered that the Shimelle rub-ons in the store will stick to that lovely glittery heart!! I used one of the exclusive journalling cards for my journalling (weird, I know) and those stickers, I just couldn't get enough of those October afternoon stickers... I gave up on keeping them straight because that just wasn't important to me... 

These were my pets in 2008. While the kitty Sayuri doesn't look thrilled, she actually liked wearing "clothes" perhaps shirts and things rather than this jingly jester collar... but they looked so cute together. I found my inspiration for the diagonal papers on the layout here at yt, but I also saw one of the CK designers got inspired with a similar layout from IG on yesterday's blog share.

I didn't know then (another page of "hard stuff")

I had some hard (and when I say hard I mean I had some emotional stuff that was trying to claw it's way out of my insides and I had to let it out so the words on the page may be hard to understand, unpleasant to read, etc...) stuff to scrap and I had been wanting some new papers and stuff to get my creative juices flowing. I found this kit club through google by just plugging in scrapbook kit clubs... it's Scrapbook Circle. The October Kit is called So Happy Together and it is just yummy! I was so excited to make something with this kit that I printed and scrapped a photo that I took in 2011 about a month before my late husband (God rest his soul) took his life. It's not as chunky and embellished as I normally do, but the soft color of the paper just lent itself to getting my emotional baggage out. It's weird. I can think and decide how I feel but unless I actually do something that counts as releasing (apparently that's actually scrapping or blogging in my therapy blog) it just sits and festers. I love that I got the emotions out. That I was able to release them. I do love that picture and I'm glad it now has a home in my scrapbook.

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.

Another Card down!

Did I mention that my work peeps think it's the greatest thing since Doughnut Wednesday that I'll make and deliver cards to work for them? I had NO IDEA that people would be so thrilled about this idea. My "scrap" book of scraps is dwindling and I'm getting to try new things and not just have pieces laying around. I found some 4inch copper squares at Joanns last week and since everything else in my cart was on sale, I used my coupon on these. It's Creative Metal by Walnut Hollow. They have other colors as well but the copper was my fav (and the most expensive of course) so that's what I picked. It worked out wonderfully in my Alterations dies. The four inch square was not big enough to get a birdcage out of, but worked great for the bird. I also used the Ornate just the edge die and so here are those cards:

The paper used is Making Memories Vintage Findings I believe the pattern is Wallpaper. Flower from Petaloo (this was in a free gift pack from Archivers for being one of the first 50 shoppers on a big make and take weekend earlier this year.) The Petaloo flower is similar to a Prima in that it does not come sticky...you will NEED GLUE DOTS! (nothing holds them better!) The bird is cut from the copper mentioned earlier. The blue border is not a punch, it's a doodlebug trim from a variety pack. The rick rack is from my stash. The brown paper was a free pack of Bazzill with however many dollar purchase from Archiver's. My Vintage Findings and Doodlebug goodies came from my lss Eclectica who I LOVE!!! And the Birdcage die came from the Paula Dean of Scrapbooking herself...Sudie Alexander from Unkit.

The polka dot paper is the "b" side of the Wallpaper from Vintage Findings collection. The Mother Stamp is from 7 gypsies. The ribbon is unlabeled but may be from the Vintage Findings collection as well (I just ordered two yards to be cut at my lss but I know there was a familiar label on it.) I did actually tie the ribbon all the way around the card and the knot is secured with Mini Glue Dots to keep it secure...love my Glue Dots! The cuts are both edges from the Ornate just the edge die...oh and the brown paper is Bazzill (also from a free gift pack from Archivers). I did use my Tim Holtz texture hammer (the little lines end) to give the copper some texture and I actually did this LIVE on VOKLE while at the UnKit Book Nook show this past Monday. If you don't normally watch UnKit on Mondays, you should it's too much fun!!!