Just be Me

This is going to take awhile to get posted properly. There are more pictures and a lot of text coming, but I wanted to get this part at least up. This little mini album featuring Lily Bee paper has been my project of the last few days. This was HARD! I do not know why blogger keeps flipping my images either...
I can't seem to get these rotated the right way and it's driving me crackers. But I do love the book itself. If you click on the individual pictures, you can see the pages in larger detail. I used paper from both the French Couture and the Three Little Birds paper lines. My original intent had been to cover the binding tape as well, but then I loved the look of the tape with the paper so I left it exposed in places.

The one photo of me was taken many years ago (one of two I have left from before the hurricane) and it is one of my favorite pictures of me. The whole series was wonderful but this is the only one I still have. I played around with some different techniques as well as some different media on this project and really had a blast. The last page (the one with the polka dots and feathers) is my favourite bit of journaling in the book but the page itself was a little too stark. So I added the feathers and then thinned out some paint and mixed in some PearlEx powder and misted the page. It tinted the feathers just a little and aged the page with a little shimmer. While the page was still wet, I let the book close so the feathers would stamp onto the opposing page. I really like how that came out. The monogram and frame stamps are from Scrappy Cat and I used a variety of inks throughout the book. Distress Inks in Vintage Linen, Peeled Paint and Faded Denim, and Worn Lipstick, Tsukineko Dew Drop brilliance inks in Cosmic Copper and Galaxy Gold and ColorBox Liquid chalk inks in Chestnut Roan, Dark Brown and Creamy Brown. My favourite journaling pens are Micron and Kon I Noor both of which I used here. The copper wire for the bird on a wire page is from Wild Wire, the mirror pendant from Manor House and the Journey pendant is from Lost and Found. Ribbon and wired twine were just scraps I had in my collection. I did the paper mounting with Tombow mono adhesive, poop dots for the bird on a wire, and Glossy Accents for all the metal. The book base is from K and Company. I truly love making books.
I love paper... all kinds of paper. I love patterns and textures and the weight of it. I have to say that this is the first time I've worked with Lily Bee papers and the quality is excellent! Double sided cardstock with a perfect weight for shapind and sanding. I'm glad I didn't use all of the paper for this project and I'll definitely be getting more. I was able to find Lily Bee papers at a reasonable price for both the paper and the shipping at www.paperhouse.com .

Finishing the project has left me with that crafter afterglow... can't believe how good it felt, can't believe it's over...
On another note, I took pictures of the shoebox I craft in in all it's towering piles of glory. I'm hoping that it will motivate me to post before and after pictures as I clean out my space and get it set up so that I can really work in the space. I'll keep you posted.

Blog Giveaway Winner...

Random Number Generator picked: # 45
Tami B.

Tami B. said...

I think it would be so hard to pick just one card, but I do love Nancy Maxwell James post for the bloghop. She shares her family history of men in the military with some beautiful photos. I was so touched by that. Your cards are so thoughtful.

Please send me an email at

fourwalls.nowindows@gmail.com with your name and address so I can get your package off to you. If you have a colour preferrence for the beaded brads, let me know and I'll be happy to try to make the colours you request.

And a little something else...
Victoria B and Bekah, if you'll also email your address and a colour preferrence, I'd like to send you some of my beaded brads as well.

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful comments And I sure hope to see you around here more often!

Quick update on Cards for Heroes giveaway

Hey all, thanks for all the wonderful comments! This was sure a lot of fun. It took me two days to get through all the blogs on the hop and there were some amazing cards and stories out there. I'll be accepting comments for my little giveaway up until 11:00 p.m. central time. I will use a random generator to pick the winner. I had to make this little card, too... Took all of about fifteen minutes, unless you count the hour or so I spent looking for a heart shaped punch or stickers... had neither, bought both, but went with the SandyLion epoxy glitter hearts.
Dumptruck die is Cuttlebug, alphabets by Mrs. Grossman's Stickers. The card is a white Halcraft blank that I inked with Faded Denim Distress Ink, the grass is from a Golf paper by Paper House (why do I own golf paper? no clue, but I sure love that I had some Grass!) The road was cut from brown handmade paper. Super easy and not at all feminine!

www.cardsforheroes.org Bloghop

Welcome to my stop on the Bloghop! I want to thank http://cardsforheroes.org/bloghop/ for setting this up and I hope you all are having a wonderful time. Please consider joining in their summer challenge and get cards to those folks who bravely and proudly defend your freedoms. Also please scroll down a few posts for a look at why this is important to me. Unfortunately for me, I have to work all weekend long, so I'll be catching up when I can. I made a very simple card for this project but I have some others on the table, still being worked on that I will send on to cardsforheroes when I send this one in. I love ribbon borders!

I use blanks from Halcraft because I love the 80lb weight. You can make a few mistakes with it and the paper is forgiving (no buckling from too much glue, little to no wrinkling from a difficult punch or pierce and it holds up well to being crumpled for distressing) The bue cardstock and white with silver star paper comes from Paper Company, the Red from Bazzill. The ribbon is Straight and Narrow, Ribbon punch from Magill, Tombow Adhesive. The hardest part of this card was aligning the cuts... and honestly that could have been much easier if I'd taken out my big cutter with the diagonal markers.

next stop: http://axesdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/05/memorial-day-blog-hop.html

I've only just discovered Magdalena through the hop and I love her sense of playfulness. You've got to check out the paper shoe she made! It is really awesome. Her blog is also bilingual which was really fun to read!

O.K. now for the fun part... One commenter will win a little goodie package. How did you find the bloghop? Did you find a new papercrafter who's work you love? Or just leave a little love.



How about:

Ranger Distress Ink in Vintage Linen

2 packages Paper Bliss Dimensional Journal Tags

(one in pastels, one in blues)

5 of my flower beaded brads

1 pair of Tim Holtz by Tonic Micro Serrated Blade scissors

Have a great time! Can't wait to see what you love.

And here's another one...
This is done on a textured blank from DCWV, embossed with the Cuttlebug.

I toned the background and the embossed music bars with Kimberly Walters watercolour pencils and then brushed them with water. The little letter stickers are from Making Memories, Chloe's Closet line. Though this looks like a lot of work, it really only took about 45 minutes, after I got over being afraid to mess it up.

Mom's birthday card

This was fun and a neat technique. In the window of the card is a paper quilt. It's a 2 inch square with 7 paper layers. The gem brad in the center is from Recollections. The text is printed in CkJacque font on Paper and Company beige cardstock which I tore and then used the Vintage Linen Distress Ink to age the edges. I received the cards and paper in a card kit and though these are not my favorite colours to work with, I really like the high contrast. This still feels as though it lacks something, but I couldn't decide what else I wanted to do with it so I'm calling it finished. Regardless of what I think, Mom will love it. That's what Mom's are best at... appreciating their children.

And here are my handmade beaded brads... The crystal brads are from Recollections, but the beaded flowers I do myself... Aren't they adorable? The Daisies are the easier of the two as they are simply strung and twisted to form the petals. The Poinsettia has to be done petal by petal and then attached together. I enjoy making them and they add such nice sparkle to cards and pages.

www.cardsforheroes.org

Pictures coming tomorrow, I hope... But I wanted to give you a heads up on this weekend's bloghop for http://www.cardsforheroes.org/ in which I'll be participating. This is a wonderful organization and I found them by accident but I'm so glad I did. I'm that person who thanks every soldier she sees even though I'm often nervous and somewhat embarrassed to do so. I say the same thing everytime... "You can't possibly hear this enough and we can't possibly say it enough but thanks for serving." I'm just old enough to remember the trauma of Vietnam and lucky enough to have been mostly unaffected by it (a dear friend of my mother's was killed there). I'm just young enough to have always been afraid of Nuclear War. I'm just lucky enough (or perhaps even just uninformed enough) to have never lost anyone I know personally who has served. I have a deep and abiding respect for only a very few professions-- for those who answer what I can think of as a calling to do something greater than any single (wo)man could ever be. Teachers, Clergy, and Armed Forces Personell are the ones that are right at the top of that list. Those who choose to minister, foster and aid the growth of our psyches and protect us inspire a sense of awe in me. So I'm participating in this bloghop to help promote http://www.cardsforheroes.org/ and hopefully encourage all of you to make some cards for our armed forces serving overseas. I especially like that anyone can make a card. You can be brand new at crafting or you can be one of those card making godesses like http://joanscreations.blogspot.com/ or http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/ . The bloghop is Saturday, may 23rd and for a change, I'll have to post early in the day. I have to work that afternoon and evening, so I won't see alot of your comments or creations until later that night.

took the week off... back now!

Hi all... sorry... it's been a rough week balancing Mom and Work and life. I made my way to the keyboard but simply couldn't get antyhing constructive down here, so i chose not to post at all. Hope I didn't disappoint anyone. I have been busy this week making paper quilt squares and working on my beaded flower brads. I'm hoping to get a spot as an outside artist over at http://www.shopmyki.com/ and that has kept me busy. I did make the Winnie the pooh character magnets for my little one and he managed to pull them all apart within an hour... that leaves a bit to be said about the quality of the laminate/magnet for Xyron, but I suppose it was truly my fault. I should have added an extra adhesive layer knowing how much he loves to pick and pull at things. I've been busy with a birthday card for my Mom (hence the paper quilting) and I'll get pics posted soon. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

almost mother's day

It's 11:30 at night and tomorrow is Mother's Day... there are still moments in every day that I would rather be me again, and not so responsible for another life. I did get a card made and int he mail to mom and I finished this baby page. This is done with the Die Cuts With a View baby boy series except for the ribbon, (Bobbin Ribbon), the swiss dot mat and photo corners (Anna Griffin papers) and the bright blue back paper, which i think is paper company, but I could be wrong. There is so much paper in my stash that I often don't know what is from whom! I was a little horizontally challenged on this one and my edges don't quite line up. By the time I noticed that I was a bit crooked I decided that I didn't want to start over. I love this picture of him sleeping. He still (at nearly 21 months) is sleep challenged and it's a rare night that he sleeps til morning. I also made some baby pooh character magnets today for him to play with on a magnetic board. He loves to play with stickers but still likes to tear pages from his books so I thought that a board and magnets might have more longevity. I'll post pics soon. While working on the baby characters, I've found that a toothpick is my best friend. I'm working at a 3 inch size which makes the detail cuts tiny and difficult but a toothpick cleans them right out. Most pieces I run through the Xyron sticker maker for ease and the tinier pieces i use my little Tombo adhesive runner. I need to spend some time organizing again as I get a new project idea before I get everything cleared off the craft table. I would love a little more storage space and I would really love a little more room but I do like that this space forces me to clean up after myself and organize on a regular basis.

Just a little chitter today...

the weather has turned to spring here and I so love not being not cold. The little guy is rapidly approaching 21 months and he amazes me daily. I am so inspired by his simple will. There was a challenge this week over at www.scrapbook.com that I have failed to get myself involved in... I can no longer remember if the deadline is tomorrow or Mother's Day but I'll have to check. The Layout has to be about a day in your life... either a particular day or a regular old "this is my routine" day. A. I have no pics of my daily life and I'll be darned if I'm gonna show y'all pictures of my sink overflowing with dishes that need to be cleaned, window seat overflowing with clothes that need to be put away, scraproom overflowing with um... EVERYTHING... but it occurs to me as I think about not doing this challenge that one of the most amazing things happens most every morning... my little boy wakes before we do and he reaches over and pats me on the face and says "hi, hi, hi!" as though finding me there is the most wonderful thing in the world to him. And I think, in the only we can as adults think, that that is likely true. Finding me there IS still a surprise to him. Object permanence has yet to really take hold so in his world it is completely possible that I might be not there. Though I hate being woken at 5:00, or 6:00 and some days even 6:30 is still pretty hairy, that gentle pat on the face and the excitement in his voice shove my aggravated "mommy still needs to sleep" feelings away very easily. I am thinking about using some of my ideas for SuperMom meets The Real World for a day in the life page... so if it is still going on this weekend, I might actually get it done and entered into the challenge. If not, look forward to a SuperMom meets The Real World chipboard book coming soon! Sorry no pics today but (for a change) it's late and I'm tired.

krikey it's 1:00 a.m.

Somedays, I just have no idea where the time goes. The last thing I really remember was making Tacos for lunch at three this afternoon... And now, here it is 1:00 a.m. And here is the stupid uploader turning my pics sideways again... only right now I'm too tired to fix it. This is an 8 x 8 two page layout I just finished. I had a great time on this one but I've got to tell you, the paper piecing involved on the cricut cut for the baby pooh bathing was a lot of work... not for the shaky... or busy! I'll add more information about this later but for now, this mama has to get to bed.

Late but...

It's getting on 11:00 p.m. here which is a little on the late side for me since the little one gets me up anywhere between 2 and 6 a.m. No time for pics today but I did get the mother's day card made and also one for my boss for Mother's Day as well. Being a female manager is a tough thing to do so I wanted to give her some recognition on Mother's Day for the support and encouragement she gives us. As she is a mom to a big ol' chocolate lab but not children (except us and we can certainly be a bunch of babies now and again) I thought it would be nice to recognize her on Mother's Day. I actually have Mother's day weekend off which is a nice surprise for me. Now I have to just get working on a couple of challenges that I'm participating in and continue cleaning up my office and work space. I'm a clutter monkey.

Giveaway Winner

Alright guys... I wrote out every one's on little slips of paper and gave them to the baby; the one he didn't shred up is the winner. Just Kidding... but the name I drew is PhotoLuv. Congrats. Email me with your name and address and I'll get your package out to you as soon as possible. (I have to go to the post on Wednesday, so if you're fast, it'll be in the mail then.) Email is fourwalls.nowindows@gmail.com . Thanks all for playing along. This was fun. I think I'll do another one at the end of the month. Michaels has a sale on Disney Cricut Cartridges this week... 29.99 . That's about the best deal I've ever seen so if you have a local Michaels and want any of the Disney cartridges, now's the time. Speaking of which, I keep meaning to make some die cuts for my son and just haven't sat down to do it, so I might get on that tonight. And I really do need to finish that Mother's day card (by which I mean start it lol). Hope every one is having a great day.

Giveaway closed

Hey all... it's 12:02 a.m. here and the giveaway is closed. There are 13 new comments on the blog for which I thank you all. So I'll pick one of the 13 as a winner tomorrow night-- luck of the draw and I'll post the winner's name. I hope everyone had a wonderful time with National Scrapbooking Day, and if you didn't get your fill, check out http://creativeimaginations.typepad.com/creative_imaginations_blo/ for a contest that runs through 5/7 .

NSBD at scrapbook.com

What a day it has been. I did win one of the challenges so I'm totally looking forward to new supplies. The above pic is for the all day challenge. I don't have the best camera and I do have a caffeine problem so steady pics are not my forte! I'm still hoping I'll get a few more comments so that I'll have more to choose from for my little giveaway. My layout for the all day challenge uses that flourish mask that is in my giveaway.


The journaling in this one was interesting...

The ribbon across the bottom is printed with Xyron design runner to read this is just how you see me, not who i am. The journal tags were cut on the cricut and the inking is (of course) distress inks. Yes, you can ink on black paper and have it show. I sand the paper a bit before to give the ink something to grab. I had wanted to make pockets for each of these tags and just let the one over the picture be visible but I really ran out of time. My men (the grown up and the baby) were very gracious about giving me time today to do the challenges and the layout. I wanted to have time to do the 2ps one as well, but I just don't think i have it in me today to do anything else.

A little jaunt into my altered art territory

Okay... so I also do altered art stuff as well... though more aptly altered objects. This is the 8x8 Mulberry Album from Pioneer (also available as a 12 x 12 and each album is slightly different in color and leaves/flower petals). I'm a texture kind of girl. I used to describe my wardrobe as "if it doesn't feel good, I don't own it." Of course, Hurricane Katrina took my collections of absolutely everything so there went the velvets, chenille, brushed cotton and linen, silk and the rest of it. Mulberry paper feels good in the hands. It is soft and nubby and you just KNOW you are holding something someone made... but it is a little too feminine for my tastes so... here's how this happened. I wanted a new journal and nothing I saw in the stores I was grabbing me. This album however kept finding it's way into my hands. I love the feel of it. "Ah, but it's an album," my brain would say and I would dutifully put it back on the shelf and walk away. And then, as I was learning to use the Tim Holtz Masks, I thought... "wow, I bet this would look cool on Mulberry paper." While green is not usually one of my favs in colour choices, the leaves in this paper really caught my eye so I purchased it. I sanded the paper a bit to create an even more textured surface so that the ink would not be uniform in it's application. The ink (Craft Smart, green) I applied straight from the pad. While it was drying, I outlined the edges with a Micron dark green pen to give some extra definition to the shape. Once dry, the green was too green for me, so I took the VersaMagic chalk ink in Aloe Vera and sponged that over the surface and highlighted some of the curves. The Life Unscripted Stamp (Hampton Art) is stamped on with Soot Black Distress Ink.
Then it was just a simple replace the plastic scrapbook sleeve pages with paper and I now have a journal that suits me. For more on Pioneer, check them out at http://www.memoryscrapbooks.com/ . You'll likely be surprised at how many albums you already love are from them. I also have to give a plug for their military medallions which are truly beautiful. I have a deep respect for those who choose to serve this country and protect our freedoms and I think it's great to have scrapbook embellishments that really are impressive. (for more on military scrapbooking, K and Company also has a great line).
Now, I'm generally a fast scrapper. It usually takes me more time to clean my workspace and find my supplies than it does to actually create a project or layout but this one took some time. Mulberry paper is absorbent, so the dry time was excruciatingly long for me. I also spent a lot of time trying to decide on text for the cover and finally gave up. One night while I was organizing the stamps at work, I saw this one and I knew it was the right thing. So this project had a completion time of well over a month, but the actual work was about two hours; the drying time was about 36 hours. And here's my last plug for my National Scrapbooking Day giveaway. Post a comment anywhere on my blog to be eligible to win my little giveaway.