Anything But a Card Challenge #50-Celebrate!

Hello! I'm so glad you came by to visit today!  My post is filled with mixed emotions as I am sharing my creation for our very final challenge at Anything But a Card.  I have loved being a member of this wonderful team of artists from the very beginning.  I still remember the surge of excitement I had when Carla (the original creator) asked me to be a part of the team! Over the years, I have seen so many amazing creations and 'met' so many talented people.  Our team also changed during those years, and Susan has been such an awesome leader.  She keeps us on track, and let me tell you that's not easy with a group of creative minds going in so many directions!!  While I am sad to see the challenges go, I'm thankful that it's happening at a time when I could actually use the break to focus on other things.  It has been a wonderful ride and I wouldn't have changed a thing!

Enough of my personal monologue!  Our final challenge is Celebrate and we are asking you to share any non-card creation with us that fits this theme!  You could do holidays, special occasions, or just about anything that shows how you celebrate!

My project is a gift box to hold note cards and while it may not look a lot like celebrating, it is a gift for my mom's 80th birthday and that is definitely worth celebrating!

The box is actually pretty simple to create and it's especially easy if you have really pretty paper to start with!  I cut a 12x12 piece of DCWV royal garden paper to 8 1/2 x 11.  The 8 1/2 side is scored at 1" and 7 1/2".  Then I turned the paper and scored at 2", 3", 7 1/2" and 8 1/2". Once all of the scored lines had been folded, I cut in at the 1" line on all four score lines.  Finally, I attached the flaps with sticky strip leaving the top flap loose so you can get into the box!  Because the paper was so pretty, I just added a little layered label, a gold ribbon, and called it done!

In this photo you can see the open flap and a peek at the note cards inside.  These were simply more papers from this stack that I cut into 4 1/4 x 11 and scored at 5 1/2 to make the cards.  The papers are so beautiful that I didn't even embellish them-just left them as simple blank cards for my mom to fill out as she wishes.

This is the back of the gift box and you can really see the wonderful print of the paper.  I attached the gold ribbon on this side so it would stay with the box without being in the way.

I hope you were inspired to create your own gift box for your next celebration, and we would be thrilled if you would join us for our last challenge!  Thanks so much for visiting!

Anything But a Card Challenge 49- Anything Goes!!

Hello! I'm so glad you stopped by to visit today!  This month Anything But a Card Challenges has an open theme, so that means ANYTHING GOES! Well, almost anything-no cards please!!

I was in the mood for something inky and messy this time and my quotes journal was the perfect place to do it.  In my mind, I saw all of these muddy, grungy browns working together and while I had a momentary thought of chocolate, it was quickly replaced with coffee.  So I pulled out all of my browns and started smearing and sponging.  We have a small pickers style store in the town next to us and I found some wonderfully used office stamps one day.  You can see the 'special delivery' made it to this page.  I wanted something to represent coffee mug rings and a quick trip to my recycling bags gave me a milk jug cap. Perfect!

I've had the 'two cup day' sentiment for quite a while and thought it would go well with this super caffeinated page, so it finally saw some ink.  I also used the stamp set Perfect Blend (was so super bummed when this hit the retired list...) to make my cups and the rule the world sentiment.  There was this 'hole' in the top right corner of the page.  Hole is in accents because there was so much ink on this page it wasn't really a blank space, but seemed like it needed something more.  I found an old enamel sticker that would work, but when I put it on the page it was too shiny for such a earthy page.  So I pulled out the rock candy crackle paint and aged it a little bit.  Now there's another completed page in my journal, one that shares a bit about my favorite drink!

I truly hope you have been inspired to create something and share it with us!  We would love to see what you've been up to!  Thanks so much again, for visiting!  Have a marvelous week!

Take a Hike! with Anything But a Card

No, I'm not telling you to get lost (unless you enjoy doing that on a hike!) or anything like that!  I'm sharing my creation for Anything But a Card's challenge 'Out and About'.  We are inviting all of you creative people to share what you love about the outdoors.  It could be celebrating the seasons, nature, your favorite place, vacations, cookouts, or any outdoor activities!  The choices of inspiration are as big as the great outdoors themselves!

My family loves to spend time camping and hiking, so my DT project is a scrapbook page about hiking in one of our favorite places.  We usually hike in the spring or fall when the weather is a little cooler, and the bugs are a little less active.  The photos I scrapped were from the fall, so I chose fall colors for my page.

I have not scrapped in a while and it took me a little while to get my muse in gear!  It took longer to pick out the papers than it did to put the thing together!!

I think most of the page is pretty easy to figure out.  The only thing that was a little more involved was the red leaf.  I used the autumn accents die to cut the leaf, creased the cut leaf in half and ran it through the woodgrain embossing folder.  I inked up all of the edges with some crumb cake ink to make it more earthy!  Easy peasy!

I hope you will make time to share a special outdoorsy project with us this week!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Anything But a Card Challenge 46 Fool's Gold

Well, hello! I am so glad you stopped by! Today I am sharing my DT creation for ABAC.  This month's challenge is Fool's Gold and we are challenging you to pull out all of the wonderful golden, gilded goodies that you have and make something wonderful to share with us!  I really hope you will be able to join us!

I have to admit that I don't use a lot of gold in my creating. I'm more partial to silver personally, but I did have some wonderful gold foil paper in my supplies and I thought it might be fun to create an ATC using this.

I ran the foil paper through an embossing folder and then patted it on top of an early espresso ink pad to give it an aged appearance.  I didn't want to cover up the pretty embossing, so I kept the embellishing pretty simple and uncluttered.

I want to apologize to my regular blogging friends for my lack of visiting.  Things have been pretty chaotic around here and I am counting the days til summer vacation!  It seems like there are less hours in the day lately...  I promise I will resume my regular posting and visiting in a few more weeks!

Thanks again for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my golden creation!  Have a fantastic week!

Anything But a Card Challenge 44-Friendship

It is week three of ABAC Challenges Friendship theme and my turn to share.  There has been a wonderfully creative showing from the team this month and I hope you stop by and check them out!  I have to admit that while this theme has so many options, I really struggled with coming up with something.  My brain kept going back to a Valentines style of project, but other than cards, I don't make many things for Valentines Day.  My inspiration hit when I was looking for a stamp set for a birthday card and I saw Blooming With Happiness.  I have used this for wedding and shower projects, and actually forgot about the friendship sentiment that came with this set until I saw it.  I decided to make another page for my art/quote journal using the umbrella and the sentiment.

It was a dreary wintry day when I made this and I think this led to my unusually bright color palette.  I must admit that looking at this page makes me long for the beautiful spring colors that will be making their appearance in about a month!

I used a heart and a dot mask to create the background.  The umbrella and sentiment were stamped on a scrap piece of very vanilla card stock, and I colored the image with melon mambo and daffodil delight markers.  Dazzling details and crystal effects were added to the umbrella.  I pulled out a remnant piece of pink organza, cut small square pieces, stacked them together, and randomly snipped the edges to make my tattered bloom.  A green glittery brad holds the layers together.  There is also a bit of the organza behind the panel with the image and sentiment.  I also added some pretty flowers (a gift from Hippie Aud), and a few leaves created with a MS punch.

You still have a few days left to join us in our Friendship challenge; I hope to see your project linked up with us!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Project Recipe: Paper-very vanilla, green from stash bucket, Ink-memento tuxedo black, melon mambo, daffodil delight, Stamp Set-Blooming With Happiness, Accessories-dazzling details, crystal effects, pink organza, paper flowers (Hippie Aud), polka dot and heart masks, MS leaf punch, assorted retired SU brads

Anything But a Card Challenge 43 -New Beginnings

Hello! It's week three of our New Beginnings challenge at Anything But a Card, and it's my turn to share.  New Beginnings is open to interpretation-using new items, new resolutions, wedding related, etc.  Just be sure to let us know what your 'new beginning' is when you link up!  We would love it if you would share with us!

I went with the more obvious 'resolution', but also slipped in a new to me stamp set as well!  I wanted to make something pretty that I would see every day that would remind me of the changes I want to make in my life.  This also needed to be a one layer project since it is going to be housed in a frame and hung on the wall.

I started with a piece of watercolor paper and wrote my life goals using a gold Sharpie.  Then I stamped the background with various images from Kinda Eclectic.  This is probably one of the easiest (and cleanest) projects I have made in a long time, and I'm really happy with the soft colors-perfect for a gentle reminder!

The design team has once again come up with a wonderful variety of creations and we would love it if you would stop by and check them out.  It would be even more awesome if you joined us and linked up your own creation!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Project Recipe: Paper-watercolor paper, Ink-crumb cake, so saffron, soft sky, gold Sharpie, Stamp Set-Kinda Eclectic

Wish upon a star... with Anything But a Card Challenges

Hello! It is week number three of our 'Celestial' challenge and my turn to share.  It was so hard for me to narrow down the direction I wanted to go with this theme.  With Christmas right around the corner, I could go with a Christmas star creation, or maybe something with angels and the heavens... But in the end I decided on something a little motivating to place in my crafty work area to remind me of where I am and the direction I would like to go.  I created an ATC to add to my growing collection (really need to do something special with them...) and decided to play with some long neglected supplies too.  Once again, I have found my photography skills severely lacking.  This really sparkles with the gold and glitter, but the photo turned out very 'eh'.

I colored the background of a piece of watercolor paper with some black, purple, and blue pastels.  Then I pulled out my stars mask and dug out my bottle of gold Smooch that I've had for ages.  After the ink dried, I stamped my mantra words for the coming year.  The whole thing was treated to a smearing of dazzling details to give it just a little more sparkle.

The three words are a gentle reminder to slow down and not allow myself to become so busy that I don't have time for dreaming, creating, and inspiring.

I will leave you with a quote and the hope that you will find time to play along with us at Anything But a Card.  You still have a week left to share your inspiration with us! Have a wonderful week!

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ABAC Challenge 40-Springing into Fall

Hello there! Fall is in it's full glory in southern Indiana and I couldn't be happier!  This is my favorite season for so many reasons.  I love the beautiful colors that seem to appear overnight; the air is somehow 'cleaner' and cooler, and it is the perfect time for campfires. So needless to say, I chose to do a fall project for Anything But a Card's Autumn Magic Spring Wonder challenge.  Of course, if you are on the other side of the globe, Spring may be inspiring you to make something equally colorful but in a different way!  I hope you will join us in celebrating both Spring and Autumn with a project of your own!

I knew immediately what my project would be.  We have two wonderful friends who have done so much to help us over the past year, and while I know I can't repay their kindness, I can reciprocate with a special thank you gift!  I bought an unfinished wood birdhouse to alter for a fall decoration.

I started with a base of light blue acrylic paint to match the mixer in their kitchen.  DD#1 took one look and said "Isn't her mixer more of a greenish color?" AHHHH! So on went a coat of Bahama Blue acrylic paint which is a cross between mint and turquoise.  This was deemed closer to the shade of the mixer. The roof was painted with Antique Copper metallic acrylic paint and the base was painted espresso brown.

I glued a large piece of aluminum foil to some printer paper, then cut the pieces to fit the dimensions of the roofs.  These were painted with the antique copper paint, set off to dry, then ran through the Fancy Fan embossing folder. It made a pretty cool shingle-like pattern.  I added some bahama blue accents to the foil roof to give the oxidation effect.  The blue/green house was given a generous coat of clear rock candy crackle paint to age the paint job to match the roof.  When the crackling was finished, I brushed on some crumb cake ink to fill in the cracks and age it a bit more.

My final touches were adding a few punched leaves in pumpkin pie, real red, and chocolate chip dsp. and some buttons.  I rubbed a little of the copper paint onto two vintage buttons and threaded some coastal cabana bakers twine through the holes.

The ultimate compliment came when DH declared the house to be really cool! He couldn't believe that I made the roof. :)  

Whether you prefer Spring or Fall, I hope you will join us in this month's challenge.  We would love to see your creations!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a fantastic week!

Steampunk Therapy

Hello! I am so glad to be back to my blog and creating once again!  I've been in a bit of a funk lately. Too many things keeping me busy and no time to create can make a girl grumpy!  I am so glad that it is my turn to share at Anything But a Card.  Gave me a good excuse to bypass laundry and cleaning since I 'had' to make something!

Our challenge this month is Steampunk and those of you who know me well, know that this is quite out of my comfort zone.  I had never made anything Steampunky before joining this team, but the ladies at ABAC are so supportive and encourage everyone to grow, so I can happily say this is my second Steampunk creation.  I still struggle with getting what I want in my head transferred to paper, but it is a lot of fun and a good excuse to buy new things or dig through your treasures for something that will work.

I honestly had NO clue what this was going to be when I started.  I'm still not sure I know exactly what it is, but it was a lot of fun to play!  All I can tell you it is an ATC that features some industrial flower- like things growing in an imperfect garden!

I started with a piece of watercolor paper since I wasn't sure how inky it would get and I wanted it to be sturdy with the metal that was sure to appear on a steampunk piece.  I used the dots mask and a stipple brush to apply so saffron,  crumb cake, and soft suede inks.  Then I added the background stamp Backgrounds Rule in soft suede.  I was sure I had some images or embellishments that would work, but couldn't come up with anything that I liked together. I had this cog image in my head at this point and had zero 'gears' stuff to use.  I improvised with the spoked wheel of a bicycle stamp.  When I finished stamping a row of them, they looked more like flowers than cogs... That got my muse going! Flowers aren't very industrial-unless they have metal centers and copper stems! I also came across a left-over die cut flower and colored it with a copper sharpie and stippled soft suede ink over it to dull it down a bit.  An old button and some metal brads gave the flowers just the right touch of punk, and the copper sharpie made some nice little stems too.  I thought the Tim Holtz tag was the perfect mantra for this piece.  Not everyone can make flowers from bicycle wheels...

I hope you have been inspired to step out of your comfort zone or at the very least, find a new way to use your stamps!  I also hope you will join us at Anything But a Card this month!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Project Recipe: watercolor paper, Inks-so saffron, crumb cake, soft suede, early espresso, Stamps-backgrounds rule, bicycle from Paper Pumpkin kit, metal brads, crochet trim, TH metal tag, button from antique/collectable shop, copper Sharpie

Design Team Call!!

Hello! I don't have a new creation to share with you but I do have an invitation to share YOUR creations with us!  Anything But a Card is having a design team call and we would love to hear from YOU!!!

You can find the details here if you are interested.  Having been a team member from the beginning, I can say that this is a fabulous group of people to work with.  No drama, and lots of support and love!  It would be awesome to add some of my wonderful friends to this team too!  We are open to a huge assortment of creations and creativity.  The only thing we don't create on this team is cards, but you can share tags, scrapbook pages, jewelry, sewing, canvas, mixed media, anything else!  We also have a wonderful mix of skill levels.

I hope you will take the time to check out the details and I would love to hear that you are interested in joining us!

Have a wonderful week!

Challenge 38 Patterns-Bending the Rules!

Hello! I am so glad you stopped in today!  I am sharing my project for Anything But a Card's Challenge #38 which is to use patterns.  Originally, the plan was to make it Zentangling, but we decided to make it a little more open.  

I love to doodle and have made zentanglesque pieces (new word!) without really knowing what I was doing.  However, I haven't made an actual project where this was the intent and I thought it would be fun to try.  My original plan was to go with the traditional black and white, but after I stamped my flowers, I changed my mind and used three different colors for my patterns.  I also bent the rules of patterns by using my new star mask.  The stars are very random-no pattern there!

 

I've had a pretty stress filled month so far and making all of those dots was very therapeutic!  When I finished, I was looking at all of the white space around the flowers and while I know it doesn't fit the Zentagle design to leave it, I really didn't want to 'over-doodle' this.  The quote was one that I saved from a card I received many years ago and I love the message of hope it delivers.  Is there anything more inspiring than knowing that even in the barest soils, we can grow a garden?  Quite fitting for our return to school too!

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, I am so sorry I haven't been around!  We've had some family medical issues added to my already busy  back-to-school schedule.  Everything is going fine now,but it's going to take me a bit to catch up.  Hope to see your blogs soon!

Project Recipe: Quotes Journal, Stamp Set-Time Well Spent (ret), Ink-Memento Tuxedo Black, Crisp Cantelope, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron, Baked Brown Sugar, Stampin' Write marker, Accessories- Star Mask

Anything Goes at Anything But a Card Challenges # 37

Hi! I am so glad you stopped by today! It's my turn to share a project for Anything But a Card Challenges.  We are having an 'anything goes' theme this month which means you can share just about anything under the sun with us! Gotta love that!

I have been doing some major cleaning and purging of my home this summer and came across some cardboard jewelry boxes. They weren't anything fancy, just plain white boxes with the store's logo.  I'm not sure what my original plan was when I saved them, but they were the perfect size for gift cards, so they were covered and decorated to be used as pretty packages for some thank you gifts.  

Rather than cover the entire lid and base with paper, I cut scraps to cover the top of the lid and glued ribbon to the sides.  Then I added a strip of paper around the base.  This kept them from getting too bulky.  I colored a couple of stamped clay pieces that I made ages ago, added some punched leaves and a few candy dots.

This one seemed like it needed a little pizazz, so I added

stickles to the flower in the center of the clay piece, and 

some cherry cobbler dazzling details to the candy dots.

This one had a more masculine feel, so I left it pretty basic.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my repurposing project and we would love to see what you have been creating this month!  Please stop by the challenge blog and share your creation with us-as long as it's not a card, you're set!  Have a fabulous week!

Project recipe:  Paper-Junior Varsity and Summer Smooches dsp (both retired), Stamp Set-Riveting (ret), Ink-old olive, real red, daffodil delight, rich razzleberry, Accessories-simply pressed clay, real red grosgrain and old olive scallop dot ribbons (both ret.), brights candy dots, cherry cobbler dazzling details, non SU leaf punch, non SU yellow stickles

Gimme Five- 5th Sunday Challenge at ABAC

Hello! I am so glad you are here!  Today is the fifth Sunday of the month and that means it's time for a special challenge at Anything But a Card Challenges.  Any time a month has five Sundays we do a 'five' challenge.  Your creation can have the number five, five embellishments, five stamps, five anything!  As long as it has something to do with five and is NOT a card, you're good!

I decided to do another page in my quotes journal and used five flower stamps to create my garden.  I found a quote by Hemingway "When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead." and I thought this was a great reminder to not take life so seriously.  I also wanted to make a fun page to go with the quote so out came the bright colors and a stamp set that I have not used in a very long time.  I had a lot of fun using the blender pen to 'paint' the flowers and the butterfly.  I also used pastels to create the sky.

I hope that you decide to do something for fun and join us in our Five Challenge!  Have a wonderful week!

Project Recipe: Stamp Set-Time Well Spent, Ink- assorted inks from the brights collection, Tuxedo black (memento), blender pen, pastels

Anything But a Card Challenge-Summer Lovin'

Hi! I am so happy you stopped by today!  It's my turn to share my project for the Summer Lovin' challenge at Anything But a Card Challenges.  I am sure that for most people, summer brings to mind beaches, barbecues, and swimming. Those are all marvelous summer activities, but in our household, summer has always meant SOFTBALL!  So I created a scrapbook page of DD#2 playing softball.  

This was her second year of softball-back when it was all about the cute socks, visor that matched the uniform, and picking clover in the outfield.  Now she is much less concerned about the socks, traded her visor for ultra cool sunglasses, and enjoys the constant activity of playing third base.  Of course, you can still catch her and her teammates giggling in the dugout, probably about boys... Sigh...

I started with a softball themed dp which made the background quite simple.  I did dress up the letter o in softball with a handmade softball embellishment.  I also added 'stitching' to the yellow mat.  The softballs on the journaling card were made using the retired stamp set, Home Run.

I hope my softball page has encouraged you to document your favorite summer activity too!  If you're not into scrapbooking, why not try an ATC, art journal page, mixed media, or just about anything else you can think of!  We would love for you to link up with us!!

Page Recipe: Paper-softball dp (not sure of creator), crumb cake, yellow cardstock from my stash, Stamp Set-Home Run, Just Journaling, Ink-crumb cake, real red, Accessories-1 3/8" circle punch, 1" circle punch, real red stitched ribbon

Anything But a Card Challenge 35-Live Simply

Hello! I am so glad you stopped by!  We are in week three of the challenge at Anything But a Card and it is my turn to share!  We are changing things up a bit with a color challenge this month!

The current Challenge... Anything But a Card Challenge #35 - "Color Challenge"!! Last month was and open theme so this go round we are giving you a gorgeous color palette for your inspiration. Feel free to use one {and go monochromatic}, two or ALL of these colors to create whatever your muse desires... as long as it's anything but a card!

I decided to try using as many colors as I could and ended up with five out of the six offered!  While I loved the subtle shading in the inspiration photo, I ended up with a less 'blended' project.  My quotes journal received a new page and I had a great time playing with the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set to create a random background for my dahlia. I thought the three peachy shades worked pretty well for my flower.

I hope you will make the time to play with these colors and link up with us!  We would love to see how you were inspired!

I am preparing for my final week of school and can not wait to stay up late being crafty, without worrying about having to go to work the next morning!  I have some new stamping and coloring supplies that are begging to be used!

Have a wonderful week and I hope you find lots of time to play and be crafty!

Project Recipe: Stamp Sets-gorgeous grunge, trust God, regarding dahlias, Ink-midnight muse, wisteria wonder, crisp cantaloupe, calypso coral, blushing bride, pastels

ABAC Challenge 34-Spring Has Sprung!

Hello and Happy Easter! It is time again for me to share my DT project for Anything But a Card Challenges.  This month's challenge is to 'spring' into spring, and we would love to see your spring inspired creations!!  Be sure to check out all of the other team members wonderful interpretations too!

After what seemed like a never ending winter, it was so nice to see the crocus and daffodils beginning to bloom this month.  The robins have also decided that winter is over and have returned to eat all of the wonderful bugs who have also made their appearance known!  All of this activity inspired me to make a new page in my quotes journal.  I think the quote by Emily Dickenson is so appropriate for the change in seasons.  Spring is full of hope and promise, and I wanted my page to reflect this.  I used pastels for the background and then stamped the flowers and birds.  I also added just a hint of stickles to mimic the frosty dew that is often seen in spring.

 We have a spring tradition in my family.  On Palm Sunday, we receive green palm leaves during our church service.  For as long as I can remember, Palm Sunday meant folding and weaving these leaves into pyramids before they could dry and then placing them around the house as a reminder to celebrate Jesus.  Grandma taught Mom, Mom taught me, and now I'm attempting to teach my girls.  Here are our palms from this year...

I hope you will find time to join us and share your creation! You still have a week!!  Have a wonderful week and thanks so much for stopping by!!

**For my blogging friends- We are in full sport mode with both tennis and softball pulling us in different directions!  I hope to be back to a regular visiting and posting schedule within a month!  Until then, know that I am looking forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations as well!!

Anything But a Card-Sparkle!

Hello! My poor little blog is feeling a bit neglected lately!  But I do have a new creation to share with you!  We are on week three of our SPARKLE challenge at Anything But a Card, and for my DT contribution, I made a scrapbook layout of one of my favorite stars who always has a sparkle in her eye!

The pink background, pink flowers, and glitter spray are from Kellybell Designs.  I also used #16 from the Days to Remember DSP, black grosgrain ribbon, whisper white scallop edge punch, and going gray star punch.

The photos are from my daughter's debut in her first musical, Mame.  She was a member of the chorus and had five dance routines to learn.  The singing and being on stage was a normal occurrence, but she was a bit nervous about the dancing.  Of course, if I wasn't her mother, I wouldn't have known that she was nervous at all.  She loved the costume changes and really enjoyed the whole experience.  Her final dress was a sequined flapper with a matching headband. Her earrings were very sparkly as well.  I knew right away that these photos would be my inspiration for Sparkle! After all, I can't think of anything that sparkled more than her smile on opening night!

I would love it if you would share your Glitter! Sparkle! creation with us!  Here is a summary of our current challenge...

The Challenge... Anything But a Card Challenge #33 - the word"SPARKLE"!! What does the word sparkle represent to you? Sparkle can be a personality trait, or a physical appearance, or an attitude. You could be inspired with the written definition; go with a passage from a book or poem - or even quote a song... and of course we include going crazy with bling!

In the Spotlight...

Hello! Today I am excited to announce that I am Anything But a Card's Spotlight Designer!

I am so blessed to be a part of such a wonderfully talented team.  My fellow DT members have so many amazing talents and their creativity knows no bounds.  They're also a pretty awesome group of ladies that never fail to inspire me to reach higher.  I also have to admit that they sometimes intimidate the crap out of me... Like today when I am in the spotlight sharing something significant about my artistic talents.  Now, if my job was to point out what I think their special strengths are, I could rest easy.  But instead, I found myself trying to decide just what is it that I do best?  I don't really have any one artform where I excel; I'm more of a work in progress.  I actually stressed out a bit about this and then I realized that while I'm not the master of fabric, flowers, mold putty, recycled art, or steampunk (not even close!), I am pretty good at telling stories.

My first introduction into paper crafting was creating a scrapbook for my first baby.  Little did I know how this little project would spiral into a quest to document my family's lives and preserve our stories for future generations.  I started out making cute pages for a few baby pictures, but didn't have a lot of details and next to no personal stories.  Over the years I have learned that while those may be fresh in my mind, they will not be there for future family members, and if I'm going to spend the time to make a scrapbook, it better become a family heirloom!!

So my Spotlight Project is scrapbooking, but with the added challenge of sharing more than just the basic details.  I have shared several of my creations and a few tips about preserving memories at the challenge blog.  If you have a minute, I would love it if you would stop by and check them out.  I would be even more excited if you would join my challenge to create your own memory preserving project!

Tic Tac Love Challenge-A Cheesy Remake

Hello! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and feeling quite loved (It is Valentines weekend after all!).  Personally, we don't really do a lot for this holiday.  When the girls were in grade school they would make their own Valentines to share with their classmates, but now that they're getting older, there's not a lot of Valentine crafting happening.  So I was a little stumped on whether I wanted to make an actual Valentines project for this month's Anything But a Card Tic Tac Love Challenge, or go with an all purpose idea.  I compromised and made something that had a romantic feel but could be used for other occasions.  I decided to go with the top row.  Red, Recycle, Glitter.  Yes... I know my red is quite 'pink' but it is rose red so I'm pushing the envelope here!  I made up for my little act of rebellion by following the other squares to the letter.  My recycled container once held wedges of spreadable cheese, and I used both glass glitter and dazzling details for the glitter square.

I painted the cardboard container with vintage white acrylic paint and topped that with TH black soot distress crackle paint.  It's hard to see in the photo, but there are some fine crackle lines on there making it look just a bit aged.  I glued a circle of Junior Varsity DSP to cover the top of the container and used the spiral flower die to make the two larger blooms.  This was my first time using the die and while I'm ok with the results, I really need to play a lot more to get the rolling just right.  I inked the edges of the First Edition DSP with rose red ink before assembling the flowers, then added dazzling details to the edges of the petals.  I covered the seam around the rose red DSP with champagne glass glitter.  Then I decorated the top with the flowers and leaves.

 a close up of the sparkly flowers...

On a side note, these photos were taken with my new camera.  I would love to say this was a planned purchase, but unfortunately, my good ol' Canon bit the dust last week.  I was going to try to find a repair shop (none in our area) when my DH made the comment that it might be cheaper in the long run to just buy a new one.  WELL...Since you put it that way, twist my arm and I'll go pick out a new one!  I did some research, took advice from other shutterbugs, and finally decided to try a Nikon this time.  So far I really like it, although I must admit I don't have a clue what most of the buttons and settings do... :)  Hopefully, I will have some time to read the manual soon and learn a little more.

I hope you find some time to play along with our Tic Tac Love challenge; there's still a week left!  Have a wonderful week and thanks so much for stopping by!

Project Recipe:  empty cheese container, Junior Varsity DSP (ret), First Edition DSP (ret), circle framelits, spiral flower die, little leaves sizzlit, boho blossom punch, champagne glass glitter, dazzling details, vintage white acrylic paint, TH black soot distress crackle paint

ABAC Challenge- Balance

Hello! So glad you stopped by to visit!  It's my turn to share a project at Anything But a Card Challenges.  Our current theme is 'BALANCE' and you can share any type of project as long as it's not a card.  I love challenges like this because they are so open to personal interpretation.  What do you think of when you hear the word balance?

I realize that 'balance' can be perceived many different ways: equality, the balance of composition in art,  or having/creating physical balance, for example.  But today, I am thinking in terms of 'finding balance'.  Probably because this is something that I am forever working to maintain in my life.  As soon as I saw this theme, I knew what I wanted to do.  So I set off to have a little photo shoot to capture the thoughts that were swirling in my head, and then I put them together on a digital scrapbook page using MDS.  I hadn't made one of these in a while and thought it would be good to use my computer for something other than blog surfing and pinterest...  I had a bit of a creative epiphany as I was trying to coach my daughter through framing the shot and deciding which pose looked best.  I had both girls do their own balancing act as I snapped pictures, and I absolutely love that none of us did it the same way!

Page Recipe: Background and white alphabet from Kellybell, Stampin' UP kits used were Get It Done and Keep in Touch, and the splatter stamp is A Split Second. 

I know that people love to talk about finding the balance between work and home, or other areas that require balance, but I also believe that there is so much more to this than budgeting your time.  I also think that this can be more difficult depending on who you are.

When my oldest was diagnosed with ADD, I read everything I could get my hands on in an effort to 'help' her.  What I found was that she didn't need my help.  She wasn't broken, she just had a different way of seeing and doing things.  I also realized that while I didn't have a professional diagnosis, I too had ADD.  This explains why I can completely throw myself into a project, totally lose track of time, and 'check out' from everything else that is going on around me.  It also explains a lot of my procrastination issues.  Somehow, in my case, my personality and strengths led me to focus on and enjoy academics (which is why this was never perceived as a school problem for me).

So what does this have to do with balance and my page?  While you can't see my journaling (on a separate paper to be attached to the back), I wrote about the way my balance (and my daughters' as well) is perceived and viewed by others.  I tend to commit on an extreme level when I do things.  If I'm on a committee or volunteering, that will be my primary focus and other things can just wait.  I know I'm like this, so I try to only sign up for things that I am passionate about.  After all, if it's taking away from family time or me time, shouldn't it be very important?! I've worked very hard on making the word 'no' a part of my vocabulary, even when others are telling me that I surely have a little time to help with (insert  latest event here).  "No" has become a necessity to my balance.

I also explored the idea that my balance isn't always about making things 'even' as much as it is prioritizing.  My daily balance is NEVER equal.  Some days I won't touch a thing in the house because I'm busy reading, creating, or doing something with family.  Other times, I might commit several days to cleaning and organizing. I need to embrace the fact that my definition of balance is taking care of the priority for that day and not feeling guilty about the things that didn't get accomplished.

I think the hardest part of understanding balance is that it doesn't look the same for everyone.  I have a friend who travels a lot through her job, volunteers often, and is constantly on the go with her kids activities.  My initial reaction is to shake my head at how she chooses to balance her life.  But she is not me.  She is incredibly organized to a fault, has an immaculate home, and lives to have everything on a schedule.  This makes her happy and her family is very happy as well.  On the other hand, she could view me as being very untidy, unorganized, and (gasp) lazy as I read and create instead of 'doing things'.  Perhaps she does, but she also knows that I can drop everything to be where I'm needed, a luxury she doesn't always have.  Our senses of balance are very different, but we are both happy.

This page really helped me think about the way my brain works and using that to my advantage instead of trying to make myself into someone I'm not.  I also realized that I need to sandwich those nasty priorities (like cleaning) in between the things I love to do.  Make a card, do a load of laundry, make a scrapbook page, sweep a floor, do a journal page, wash dishes (hmmm... maybe do 2 journal pages before this one...)  But even if I don't get all of the cleaning done, I will still be me and that's not such a bad thing after all...

Well, I didn't intend for this to be quite this long, and I hope that it wasn't too 'bunny trailed' for you to follow my train of thought.  I also hope that perhaps it will help someone who is at this moment being too critical of their own sense of balance.  Life is too short to spend it comparing yourself to someone who is nothing like you...    I will be back soon with a Shadow scrapbook page that was also inspired by balance.  Have a fabulous week and happy crafting!!