When we moved mom, my sister took the pocket from her front door at The Village and put it on her bedroom door in her house.  So I had to make a new LO for her door.

There was a free crop at the local scrapbook store this weekend and I decided to pop in there Sunday afternoon and just "play".  Lovely ladies.  So sweet!  I found the papers and the "cut work" dressforms and roses in the store.  These are very metallic - but don't show up in the photos.  3 layers, each layer a little differently cut and you stack them up, so lots of dimension to this page.

My friend, Kathy, gave me the bird bath, birds and bird cages, lace and bling.  I decided to try and incorporate them all into the page.

You have to look close to see that the lace holding up the bird cage is wrapped around the end of the hand-cut corner embellishment.  I wanted mom to have lots to look at and feel.

I even hand cut some self coloring paper into the shape of a dressform.  Another product I picked up at the local store.

I'd say this is breaking all the scrapbook rules and more like making a 12x12 sized card.  Quite fun.  Mostly just cut paper around an existing printed design to make the corners and borders.  OH, lots of stickles on the roses and other embellishments make the page just "pop" in real life.

Thanks to Design U'r Memories for a fun crop day!!!

His Glory

I could turn this into a whole discussion about right side/left side brained people. But for now, I'll talk about the right side - the artistic side. The side the loses all sense of time and being... when you allow yourself to just be there. I think it is the healing side of the brain. When I'm doing art, I don't think about anything else in the world. I just play. It is a place I can simply go and not think about surgery, or doctors, or anything else.

My brother is an amazing photographer and I saw this photo of his online yesterday. I had to scrap it.

There are moments in life when you see something and you simply say, “there is a story in that.” My brother took this photo. And when I saw it today, it seemed to fit my life. I am but a naked tree. Nothing to protect me. Nothing to cover me. Nothing to shelter me. Nothing but the grace of Jehovah Jesus Messiah. I am standing alone in the pasture. But I am not alone. I am surrounded by His presence. It is everywhere. In the sky, in the grass, in the distance and up close. It pulses through my very veins, it wraps me tight and keeps me safe. And then I close my eyes, open them again, take another look at the photo and I see Jehovah as THE Artist. He created each blade of wheat. He designed each twig on each branch on each limb of each tree. And He painted the sky with all of His glory. He has brought a shadow in the foreground of my life right now, but I can see beyond it and know that because I am wrapped safe in Him, no matter what happens, it will be ok. Praise Jehovah.

Do you see the shadow in the foreground of the photograph? And the clearing on the horizon in the background? Do you see the painted sky? Do you allow what you see to speak to you in so many ways? Do you see His Glory in everything around you?

Art. amazing, wonderful, healing therapy. Praise Jehovah!

FAITH

Just when I thought I was going to start telling the story about Cotopaxi....."life" smacked me up the side of the head and my path has taken a sharp turn around a bend that I'm just not so sure I want to go down! We found out on Monday that Kerry is in need of 5 bypasses.

FIVE! OK, that as a big "yikes" for both of us. And I have not had a single urge to do anything creative this week. Well, I haven't had time. We have been in and out of doctor's offices, labs, tests and next Tuesday, we meet with the heart surgeon and hopefully will have a date for surgery shortly after that.

Does he have options? Probably not. They did an angiogram last Monday and it shows multiple blockages in every artery. It's his diabetes. The cardiologist said it has chewed up all his arteries.

So I will post updates here from time to time. We are now forced to keep a low glycemic/heart healthy menu. That took a major chunk of my time this week - planning meals ahead of time. We have to eat on a schedule. No more being "retired" - it's back to 8, noon, and 5:30 pm.

While the risks are huge for him because he has had diabetes for most of his life, and other complications, I was thinking about "faith" today. Which I think is really trust. Trust that no matter what happens, it will be ok. And I honestly believe that. I also decided we needed a little humor in our life today and that inspired me to go find a photo that I scanned at his parents house years ago. Just looking at it totally cracks me up. I think it was a confirmation class in a Lutheran church. Kerry - in a white robe? Looking all innocent? You have to know the guy to know that there has never been an innocent bone in his body! Yet I think the photo is beyond adorable.

My family and friends will crack up when they see this....but while that's the humor that I need today, I know each moment that Jehovah will take care of us, will provide for us, will guide us through this....and no matter what happens...it WILL be OK.

Come see us at CHA!

Linda, Jana and I are going to be in the Amaco booth at CHA, so come see us! I'll show you how to make these totally fun embellishments fit for any scrapbook project!

Obviously I just laid these on a piece of paper tonight.....who knows what I'll do with them! But I think they look just fine right here.

oh! these are made with Friendly Plastic pellets and Krafty Lady molds.

Let the pre-CHA fun begin!!!

1963

In 1963, in Indiana, we had a blizzard. It must have been a good one because they took pictures of just the snow! I do remember it - the snow covered the truck! And I remember it was cold! We lived in a little house - maybe 1000 square feet. All 7 of us - and just one bathroom! But I know we had fun!

Hard to imagine it's been 46 years since these photos were taken! Where did my life go?




Someone asked if I was ever going to do paper crafts again. Well, here you go! I love the snowflakes - they are from Creative Impressions. Just so much fun! Build them any way you want!

Inspired Creativity

They all took the very same class. They all had the very same paper/tools. They all did such an amazing job. Yes, there were more students.....but this is what I remembered to photograph!!!

Kristal is one of the store owners.....and look!  She made it to match what she is wearing!  Can you see the pliars in the kids hands?  LOL!

Angela.....great job!!!

 Angela, too..... (yes, it's really hard when you have 2 students with the same first name!) - absolutely love this!
And Lauren's first class ever!  WOW!!!

I am already exhausted and as I write this, National Scrapbook Day (weekend) is just about to start.  I am excited about the students and about our classes and about the endless, endless creative fun we are having here in the store.  I truly wish you could all be here!

It's a Monday!!!

Woke up to snow. Kerry was scheduled to fly home this morning so I got up and quickly cleaned up the house and then it happened - he paged me that the flight had been delayed! He told me to go to United online and watch the flight from there. I did. The web said the flight left 30 minutes ago!!! So I paged him back and he called me. He was on the plane, but it had not left the gate.

We decided that means if you get on the plane - the plane has left - whether it has or not.

So I thought - I'll open up that box of product over there and get my orders out to my students. (I have a little store here and will order things that the girls need to play with.) Guess what? Half the order was missing. I couldn't fill anything! So I emailed the vendor.

Snow. Delayed flight. Product missing. I think I should have just gone back to bed for the rest of the day!! LOLOL!!!!

But I did get my class samples done and boxed and shipped to Scrapbook Your Life! Kerry's plane got into DIA almost 2 hours late and we did get back home about 1:30 pm. And it quit snowing. But it really has been one of those days!

Back to last night's topic - forcing myself to go simple.

I really did stretch myself with this one. I love it...it might be the new "me"!



You have to look real close to see the faint white swirls and the penwork. It took about an hour to ink this one....And you can see the white work a whole lot better in person. Don't know why the photo looks crooked in the scan...it's perfectly straight on the layout - I actually had to go measure it after seeing the scan. LOL!

So, both girls were wearing hot pink, black and white....yet I've used totally different colors for their layouts. And that will be a class I teach - how to pick your colors and papers to go with your photos. I think it will be fun!

Grandpa's Girl

I did a couple of layouts today and I just love them both. One is drying....but this is Kerry's oldest granddaughter. What a cutie!



I normally don't do "simple" or "clean" - so trust me....I struggled with this one. And then I decided to make one with even LESS - can you believe that? I'll try to post it tomorrow - if it dries.

Kerry gets home tomorrow and I want to surprise him with layouts of the girls. I'm sure it will put a smile on his face!

What a day!

Did you watch the news today and see that we got hammered with snow? It's not a joke! I had 15" of fresh powder on top of the jacuzzi about 5 pm. What the camera didn't pick up were the gadzillion tiny flakes coming down.....and it's still coming down tonight!  The airport and all the major roads have been shut down....even the malls (gasp)!!!



I skyped Kerry and showed him what's going on here. He decided to cancel his flight home tomorrow and I don't really blame him. He'll be coming in Monday now. So that means the "cat's" away a little bit longer.....and this mouse is gonna play a little harder!

Now, with 15" of the white stuff on the ground....and our little chihuahuas are not even 8" tall (the little one is not even 5" tall), there is no way they were even going to attempt to step out the back door. OK - I couldn't even get the screen door to open out.....that's how heavy this snow is! So the pups and I are bound to get cabin fever in a couple of days!!!

Sweet Susan emailed and asked if I had enough food (ok, I could walk to the store from here if I really needed to!) and Kathy offered to drive over (which of course I declared she was nuts!) But see, what better family than this? Oh, and Linda and I have been skyping off and on all day long - it's like having her right here. (OK, Linda, be thankful I didn't take a snapshot of you today! LOLOL!!!)

I had these "family" elements left over and decided to turn this into my "creative family".  B&W photos and lots of stuff going on with the background and papers

There are pockets that open up, there are file folders to stick notes down into, there are clocks with spinners on them......


And there are folders that fold down.  Yep, another class.  We're going to be using the color wheel to make our colored paper work with black and white photos.  I'll do a color photo class as well....but I really seem to get a ton of requests for B&W photos....and today was my day to play with them.  And I'm going to teach my students how to take any sentiment.....and "fix" it so they can use it.  Yep, here the word "family" was turned into "my creative family" and I write about how my artistic friends are just as close to me as my family is.

For this layout, I'll again use the color wheel to match scraps for background matting and show how to tell a story no matter what the embellishment says.  This is my dad.  And it says "Family established".  Well - he did establish this family and while he's been gone a number of years now, I still see glimpses of him in each of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  It's like he never left.

Years ago, Jim Croce wrote a song titled "Photographs & Memories".  One of the lines was this:

Photographs and memories

All the love you gave to me

Somehow it just can't be true

That's all I've left of you.

I am so thankful for photographs and memories, for whiteout blizzards, for time to play, for my family and my family of friends, and for Kerry who can entertain me while he's a thousand miles away.

Master's degree in cricut - already!

OK, I think I've already earned my master's degree in cricut! LOL!!! What do you think?



I used only Ranger's Distress Ink today and blended to match the background paper. Not too bad, huh? But it looked a little different before I started with the inks. Yes, I'm sharing secrets here....I sort of create my "picture" from all white:




35 diecuts here....and that's just part of it!!! But I like cutting in white 80# cardstock as I can flip them and use the reverse side if it works better.



And the mountains were cut in 3 different sizes and then I cut up the strips to postition them where I needed them!



OK, go check out that top photo again! LOL! Look how closely I matched those mountains to the background paper behind it! Not too bad! This is another LO from mom's door. The poem at the bottom reads:

When I was just a little girl, I had a horse to ride.
All I ever wanted to do was spend my time outside!
I moved out west and raise my kids and painted pictures, too.
Grew some flowers, hiked the hills...always had something to do.
And now I'm here with all my friends making cards and painting scenes.
But I still think I need to "work"...it must be in my genes!!!

Notice the flower garden to the left of the pic of mom and her horse? I just really had a blast deciding what to use on this one. Everything came from the dress up cartridge, so how cool is that? Hope mom will like!!!

Happily Happy!

Now just look what you can do with a cricut! All those diecuts I cut yesterday.....all are in white paper except for 2 castles....I just inked them up. This time, I used Colorbox Queues. Love them! Then I layered them altogether:



And I decided this one doesn't need a single thing except the words that were on the paper.....Happily Ever After.....

Yep...think about it! If I were a little girl in a huge castle with all that glitter.....and trees and flowers and a crown on my head and swirls in the sky and I lived on a hill.......

What could I possibly add to this one???

LOL!

I've made this for Elaine who lives in mom's retirement center....I hope it will make her happy! I used the Dress Up cartridge for everything except the swirls and they are from the Home Accents Solution cartridge.

Who knew diecuts could be this much fun???

You're the best!

I've been at mom's this week, playing with watercolor paints. Not sure I've learned a whole lot, but I've sure been having a blast!

So today, I wanted to see if I could paint a picture to match the paper I was using. So here's what the original piece of paper looked like it's Scenic Route Paper, Sonoma, Red Bouquet. You can click on it to make it bigger:



I did a small (4x6) watercolor painting to match the flowers in the paper. Tucked it behind the flowers that I cut out. Notice that I even extended the leaves from the paper onto the watercolor paper. Then I inked pieces of daisies from the sheet of paper I used a couple of nights ago. This is a glitter lasercut sheet of paper in white. Love it! Then I used a Cricut to diecut the daisies in the center. You really can't tell much difference from those and the ones from the lasercut sheet. I also used the Cricut to create my title. I used a Heidi Swapp stencil to add flourishes on the background, my white pen to doodle and dot around them.



I gave this to one of mom's neighbors, Elaine - because she IS "the best"!

There is just nothing quite so fun as coming to mom's retirement center, playing with her and all her friends and neighbors, and understanding fully where I will be in 20 short years. YIKES! I best play hard while I can!!!

celebrate

My youngest sister teaches a watercolor painting class every Tuesday at mom's retirement home. It's really quite amazing how she can get someone who has never painted before to turn a flat piece of white paper into something so wonderful. That's April - an amazing teacher. Colleen and I were there this week for her class - painting sunflowers. Colleen was going to toss her painting into the trash....but I decided to turn it into a fun collage. I even cut some dead ferns in the front of mom's house and added them!



One of the resident's received a Cricut as a gift, so I put it together and cut out the 3 little sunflowers above the bottom sentiment. I must say, from the box to finished product - less than 10 minutes. I was extremely impressed!

So once again - something that was going into the trash....is now going on mom's front door!

Imagine the difference!

Imagination is more important than knowledge. But sometimes, what we know is just plain funny.



Look at that chubby little me on the left in the lower photo! I am soooooo dark!!! If I didn't KNOW that we were sisters, I'd never imagine we were even related! And it's not a fluke of the camera because mom got 2 photos that day. I am really, really (ok, REALLY) dark when I get out in the sun. And I have the curliest hair ever! And she is just so white - we tell her not to show her legs even today - we need sunglasses to look at them! LOL!!!

KNOWLEDGE:
I'm dark, she's fair
I'm brunette, she's blonde
My hair is curly, hers i straighter
We were born to the same parents
Grew up on the same farm
We are only 1 year apart in age

IMAGINE
the life we've shared together
for over 55 years!!!

And you should also know that when I started looking at the photo on the top, I thought those were dish towels hanging on the line to dry. Grandma Myrtle was a school cook. Imagine my surprise when I realized those are all DIAPERS! Because at this age, Elaine was a newborn, so mom had 3 little girls all in diapers.

IMAGINE washing that many diapers! Hanging them on the line to dry. Changing that many diapers! I was a little over 2, Colleen was just over 1 and Elaine a newborn. c 1954.

Imagine a hot summer afternoon in the Indiana humidity, 3 babies, mom and dad lived with her mom in the old farm house....mom's brother, Reese, was still at home, probably in high school about then, dad worked and farmed. One bathroom for everyone to share. I think mom & dad and all 3 of us girls all had 1 bedroom to share.

Imagine my shock when I learned as an adult that we were poor as kids! I had no clue. I thought life was pretty wonderful!

So, this was the opening for our retreat last weekend - a layout showing how different 2 women can be, from birth til now - but showing the imagination and wonder of what we can do when we get together as a group of artists!

Today's my birthday.....

and I'm off having a roadtrip party! What fun! 3 of my friends and I are on our way down to mom's (2 hours south of here) to take her out to lunch. But of course, we plan to make a few stops along the way! Let's see, 1. Stamp of Excellence, 2. Holly Berry House, 3. Creative Impressions, 4. Simple Pleasures, 5. Black Bear Diner. So much to do an only one day!!!

Late last night, I realized I hadn't made a new layout for mom's door. I was going to try to do one every time I go down. So in less than an hour, I managed to pull this on off!!! Not bad for a rush job!



If the shoe fits:

When I was a young woman
I could rarely afford a shoe
I had five children
And barely knew what to do

I read the Bible daily
And thaught them how to pray.
I love them all so dearly
What more can I say?

Now I am an old woman,
My kids know what to do -
I'm glad I had each one of them
And happy I didn't live in a shoe!

I really should do more layouts!

Well, I have the camera with me, so expect to see photos of my birthday roadtrip tomorrow!

And tonight, a very warm and happy Rosh Hashanah to each of you. Rosh Hashanah is Hebrew for the head (rosh) or beginning of the New Year. It is a 10-day period of intense soul searching that begins on Sept. 29 at sundown and concludes with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Every piece of art has a story

Twinkle, twinkle Find Jehovah's star
Looking, seeing everywhere they are!

Snowflakes shining, each one with six sides
Star of David oh! Where do you hide?

Wondering if Jehovah's bright star
Is inside all The snowflakes there are

Wonder always how He could design
In the heavens this most perfect sign

Believe and see His artistic ways
Fall down, worship, all my live-long days.

We had 4 inches of snow last weekend and it reminded me of this layout that I did almost 3years ago. I've used this poem that I wrote in a new layout that's been published in the recent release "Flip, Spin & Play". But as you know by now, everything I do has a story behind it:

When I saw this collage that mom had made, it reminded me that when I was just a little girl, I drew stars with 6 points. I thought all the snowflakes that fell from heaven were stars. And since they all had six points (at
least that’s what dad said), I wanted my stars to look just like snowflakes. They were so easy to draw. I just made 2 triangles and each star turned out perfect. When I was in the 2nd grade, my teacher, Ms Leatha, told me that I was drawing them all wrong. She showed me how to draw a 5-pointed star without lifting my pencil off the paper. She told me that from now on, I had to draw my stars her way. I didn’t like that because I could never make them perfect. I always had one or two points bigger than the others. I didn’t draw many stars after that. In the photos, it looks like mom is telling my niece a story. I think she's telling her to draw whatever she wants exactly the way she wants to!

The photo of mom opens up with the star and inside is where I hid my story.

Every piece of art should have a story. Does yours?

Bringing life to childhood photos!

I'm not very good with animation, but I had so much fun the very first time I tried it. And I just thought..oh! if there were more pictures of us as little girls, I could bring us to life! I don't think anyone has any videos of us as kids....but this is a "second best"!

In the mid 50s, we played with tin can phones, our dolls, and kitty cats. We really didn't have much stuff back then, but we sure did have fun!!!


















In this layout, I took mini cans, added a rope and created our original tin can phones on top of the photo.

I have always loved lumpy, 3D, textural projects. This is one of the very first Layouts that I created and I think it's a good indication of where my style started....and how far it's come. Not very far! I still like lumpy, 3D, textural projects....I just tend to make more of my own background papers these days.




The background on this more recent project was created by painting Ranger's new one-step crackle paint on chipboard, heating it, then adding layers of distress ink over it. The very same process was used on the wood frame on the left.

If I can't animate a photo digitally, then I will "animate" it on the layout by adding texture, dimension, depth....notice the little car sitting on the wood frame? "I said, don't smile"....such a fun, fun project!