FROZEN - OUCH!

Last Saturday my sons needed to get to Philadelphia to a concert of Reel Big Fish.  As I had a few hours to kill waiting for them I looked for something to do.  I saw a beautiful clock tower and went to investigate.  There I discovered Rothman Rink at City Hall.  I have not been ice skating in many years and I have not fallen on skates in over 40 years.  I am used to skating in figure skates and with heavy socks.  As this was impromptu and required rental skates and I was not wearing heavy socks. I neglected to tie the ankles tight enough.  A few steps out onto the ice I landed HARD on my left butt cheek.  Needless to say, I was determined and I went to the bench, tightened up the laces around my ankles and proceeded to skate for well over an hour.  When the rink closed I sat on the bench to remove my skates and OUCH! For several days it has hurt but I saw no bruise.  Then, an extremely dark purple to black bruise developed from my tail bone all the way down my left leg.  It is a week later and it still hurts to sit!

Last night I created a layout using a few photos from that night.

I started with the sketch from Let's Get Sketchy Team B Week 4.

OOOPS!  Did this post when I had a migraine!  The sketch I actually used was for Let's Get Sketchy's magazine called Let's Get Inspired.  Here is the corrected sketch -

 

The January challenge over at Craft Hoarders Anonymous was called Choose Your Challenge. The challenge was to incorporate at least one item from each column in your creation.

Here is the board -

 

Coloring Medium	Fiber	Technique	Texture	Embellish
Ink	Twine or Cord	Coloring/ Watercolor	Sandpaper or Distressing Tool	Ephemera or Found Items
Markers or Colored Pencils	Fabric or Lace	Stamping	Embossing (heat, dry, paste, etc.)	Buttons
Spray Mist	Ribbon or Seam Binding	Die Cutting or Punching	Chipboard	Flowers
Paint	Burlap or Canvas	Folding and Scoring	Wood or Glass	Brads or Eyelets
Chalk or Pastels	Yarn, Thread, or Floss	Mixed Media	Metal or Wire	Bling**

From this board I chose the following:
Coloring Medium - Ink, Markers
Fiber - Twine, Fabric (snowman is felt)
Technique - Die cutting or punching
Texture - Distressing, Metal
Embellish - Ephemera, Bling

Here is my layout -

 

Here are some close-ups so that you can view the required items better -

 

Punch

 

 Fabric, Bling, Marker

 

 Ephemera, Twine, Metal, Inked edges

 

I am also entering this layout in Stacy's January 2015 Stash challenge at Sketches4all calls for using blue. 

I hope you have enjoyed my story and my creation.  This layout will also appear in Soul Scrappers on February 2.






 

IT'S BIRTHDAY TIME!!!

Today the creations I have to share with you are about birthdays past and present.  First is a layout that I did of my Mom's 85th birthday.  It was a treasure to find these photos as it was shortly after this time she started the downhill spiral into Alzheimer's and passed away two years later.

For this layout I started out with Let's Get Sketchy Team B January Week 4 sketch -

 

 

and the selections for Picture This! January 15th challenge calling for 3 photos + black & white + lace

I am also entering this into Rochelle's Celebration challenge at Sketches4All which called for celebration theme and border punch.

Here is my layout -

and some close ups -

 here's my lace

 and this is a double border punch topped with satin ribbon flowers

 

I thought these stickers would be cute but I wanted them to stand out so I stuck them onto black cardstock and then put them on with pop dots for dimension.

I thought it was fun to be able to use this cute little camera button I had which mimicked the one on the sketch.

These items are also pop dotted for dimension.

 

This weekend we are celebrating my son's girlfriend's 22nd birthday.  I absolutely love Kathryn and know that someday she will make a wonderful daughter-in-law.

 

I chose sketch #382 from Mojo Monday.  It called for using a tall & skinny card.

 

Here's the sketch -

 

and here is my card -

 

and a few close-ups-

 

 

 

I am also going to share these over at Word Art Wednesday for their challenge #168 Anything Goes.

 

I hope you have enjoyed celebrating these birthdays of the past and present with me today.  Thanks for stopping by.

 



 

 

 



 

 



A LITTLE BIT OF PAINT AND...

Today I have a layout to share with you for the challenge over at Picture This!  The challenge calls for a sunburst, one photo and paint.  I had this paper that was perfect for this as there was already a sunburst on it.  I am continuing our trip to Gettysburg in 2003. 

I added Walnut acrylic paint on each side of the sunburst that was on the page.  On either side of the Walnut paint I added some brown tone patterned washi tape and to the area where the burst begins I added a chipboard circle which I cut according to the position on the page.  On top of the Walnut paint I also added some Rock Candy Distress Stickles.

 

 

And here is the layout -

The photo is my youngest sun with a statue of Abraham Lincoln that was in the center of town when we arrived.  (Rather timely as Lincoln's birthday is nearly upon us!)

I hope you have enjoyed continuing with me in our trip to Gettysburg!  More to follow...

BACK AGAIN WITH MORE FROM THE CIVIL WAR DAYS!

Today I have another layout to share from our visit to Rupp House Historical Museum in Gettysburg, PA when we were there for the 140th Reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg back in 2003.

I used sketch #381 from Scrapbook Challenges which I somehow mistakenly thought was the current sketch...which it is not.  :(

 

I turned the sketch upside down to accommodate my photos.

 

I am also entering this in Lasting Memories challenge #224 - Captured Memories, and Soul Scrappers Movie Marathon MM8 Thelma & Louise. 

 

 

For this challenge you needed to create a layout or card with this
criteria:

*   the colors blue and white must be predominant; and
*   I want you to use brads

And here is my layout:

and a close up of my brads -

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I hope that you have enjoyed my latest creation.  I will have some special things to share on February 1 also so please keep coming back!

 

PROUD MAMA

Today I am going to share the card I made for a very special occasion today.  Today is my eldest son's 3rd Anniversary of being clean and sober.  I am so proud of him.  He is only 22 years old.  He has been growing and changing for the better since, and this year especially he has made some great strides, moving to his own apartment with a friend.   He shares his story at meetings, has chaired meetings and done a lot in AA and has made some wonderful friends that are also living right.  It has also been a good example for my younger son who once told me during Robert's active addiction...'Don't worry Mommy, when I get to be a teenager I won't put you through what Robert put US through.' 

I chose sketch #381 from Mojo Monday.

 

I normally only do an outside, but tonite I am going to share the inside as well.

 

 





 

I am also entering this into Sketches4all Stacy's January 2015 Card Challenge - Something Blue or New and Word Art Wednesday challenge #167 Anything Goes.

 

And, I have another reason to be proud...I have been selected to be on the Design Team of Soul Scrappers.

 

 

 I will be sharing my first challenge on February 2nd.  My topic will be Using Up Scraps.  Hope that you will play along.

 

 

 



IT'S A TRIPLE HEADER!!!

The first time I went ocean fishing with my husband on my first cast I announced I had something.  As I had never been fishing they all thought I was crazy but I insisted.  Finally they told me to reel it in thinking I had a starfish or something like that...but...I had flounder...not only one...I had two!  A doubleheader! 

Well, today I have a tripleheader for you.  Not fish of course, but layouts.

My first layout was inspired by Stuck!Sketches January 15 challenge. 

Here's the sketch:

 



And my layout:

 

 

And here are a few close-ups of some of the fun details -

 

 

 

On this layout I used a lot of pop-dots to give some dimension.  In the close ups you can see the items that are lifted as I notice you can see some shadows!

 

My next layout is uses Bev Code's awesome sketch #22 for Scrap Our Stash. In addition to the sketch it said that you MUST use sequins. It was also inspired by Miriams Crafting Blog 20th monthly challenge - Mostly White!  The challenge calls for using at least 2 shades of white and having at least 50% of your project be white.  I went with all of it being shades of white with a few gold, metal and beige embellishments.

 

Here's the Sketch -

 

 

Here is my Layout -

 

 

I went to a crop yesterday and was only able to complete 2 layouts.  I spent a long time on each one - especially this one, going through the stash I had brought to find just the right elements.  I don't often use white so this was a real challenge for me.

 

Here are some close-ups -

 

 

I loved getting to use this felt border, SEI metal and Tim Holtz pins!

 

 

Here I have some Martha Stewart ivory stretchy ric-rac and my gold/copper colored sequins.

 



 

 I loved these laser cut wood frames.  I picked up a batch of them awhile back and had not found a good use for them until now.

 

Here you can see all the different shades of white/ivory/ecru I used.

 

And for my last share...I used a sketch from My Creative Sketches (which I didn't realize had a deadline of January 14), and the Tic Tac Toe board from Soul Scrappers challenge TTT1, and Stash challenge #22 from Scrap Our Stash.

 

The Sketch:

 

 

I chose to rotate the sketch 1/4 turn clockwise.

 

The Tic Tac Toe Board -

 

 

I chose the vertical row on the right.

 

The Stash challenge info -

 

The items I chose are:

 

T - Twine

W - White Zig Zags

I - Ink (on all the edges)

N - Nine (9) red flags in my banner

E - Eyelets

 

Here is my layout -

 





with my close ups showing my items for Tic Tac Toe and the Stash challenge.

 

(T)wine & (E)yelets

 

(W)hite zigzags & (I)nk

 

(N)ine red flags on my banner

 

And the library is closing any minute and is not open tomorrow so I will bid you all a good night!  Hope that you enjoyed see my latest creations!

 

1/20/15

I am sorry to anyone who visited today as when I arrived at the library I saw that all my photos had vanished.  I know they were there as I had some wonderful comments.  I HATE Internet Explorer.  I have always used Chrome and never had issues but here at the library they only allow IE.

 

 

 

 

 

T.G.I.F.!

Yes, Thank God it's Friday!  That means the library is open and I can share my creations with you!  I have 2 layouts to share today. 

The first uses the sketch from make It Monday #32 at The Memory Nest.

The Sketch:

 

And my Layout:

 

 

I modified it a bit so that I could use all my photos!  I am also entering this in Soul Scrappers MM3 Movie Marathon challenge - Movies from the 70's.

 

It was fun finally getting to scrap these photos from back in 2004 when I attended a live performance of Rocky Horror with my boyfriend at that time and his daughter who were both Rocky Horror fanatics.

 

My next layout uses Let's Get Sketchy Team A Week 1 sketch.

 

The Sketch:

 

 

And my Layout:

 

 

This is my son Thomas back in September 2000 at not quite 2 years old.  He has gone on to play guitar and is a total music junkie.

 

I am also entering this in Soul Scrappers challenge UUS13 Monochromatic and Sketches4all Stacy's Stash Challenge - Something Blue.

 

I hope you have enjoyed my latest creations.  I plan to have more soon as I am going to a crop tomorrow with my favorite scrapping buddy Maraline!  We haven't gotten to this crop in a year so we are looking forward to meeting up with all the ladies in Maryland!

A BLAST FROM THE PAST!

AND SOME "POINTERS"...LOL.  I used a photo of my youngest son taken back in 2003.  He is now 16!  and I chose a challenge called ABC with a Twist over at Soul Scrappers.  I of course read it so fast that I had only seen the part about the letter being A and to use the embellishment arrows - at least 4 of them (those are my pointers!) Of course, when I went to post my layout I also noticed that you needed to have an "A" word.  Lucky for me, the upper left corner I had a cluster of embellishments containing the word 'Adorable!'.  I used the Team B Week 2 sketch from Let's Get Sketchy to base my layout on.
 
Here is the sketch -
 

 

I rotated the sketch 1/4 turn clockwise.  I was thrilled to see the large spot for the photo as I had just taken out this 7x9 photo to work with when Brenshevia posted the sketch the other evening.

 

And here is my layout!

 

 

 

I thought you might like to see a few close ups -

 



 

(there is my A is for Adorable!) (and of course the music cleft is for his love of music, his guitar in particular.  Even as a toddler he had a toy guitar that he occasionally fell asleep with).

 

 

isn't it great when we uncover stash that we haven't used in forever?  like these fun scrabble tiles?  And when Thomas was little he simply loved all sorts of insects, little animals etc and probably still enjoys frogs when he fishes in a stream.

 

 

As mentioned Thomas loves music.  He is especially partial to classic rock and loves things from the hippy days. 

 

 

(this one is for me...I loved this ribbon and this is my favorite embossing folder I cut this from!)

 

I hope you have enjoyed this little blast from the past!