It has been a long while - Traveler's Notebook - It's a guy thing

 Favorite youngest son was able to meet up with us on the road.

Love when that happens.

However, this happened at 2 a.m.

I love the TN card - has a big SIGH on it.

LOL.

Of course I needed to include it.

 It was a lovely albeit short visit.

I made it to 4 a.m.

Not too bad but Shane had to hit the road.

Trying to get decent pix - he is quite the goof.

Won't he be shocked in the future. 

LOL.

Pink Fresh, Studio Calico.

Mixed Media - Monkey Man

If you been following, and I hope you have,

I posted yesterday all my homemade embellishments here

and I have made a page using one of the monkeys.

The monkeys are big and adorable and I love the googly eyes.

 In the background, I used smoke grey ink on

the Tim Holtz stencil "coffee stains"

with some red raspberry ink since the page
turned out to be almost monochromatic - but I wanted
to use red because of the heart in the quote
and it needs the red ink to tie it all together..

I tossed some buttons "galore" around

which have those itty bitty little fun pieces are well as sequins.

I was inspired by these two itty bitty photos

of Shane at 3 months that was rattling around in my
embellishment bin.

I've scrapped this photo before because it's really

a cute story about my baby having so much fun getting

his photo taken in Walmarts and laughing so loud 

everyone in the store came to see the fun he was having.

However, his nickname was monkeyman because he used

to curl his toes like monkeys do. LOL.

TH album - More ephemera

Raise your hand if you have a ton

of kidlet ephemera.

You know the stuff the kids made and you just

can't part with?

Well...I'm sure Shane had something to do with

this butterfly and it must've been in the early years

because it looks too good.

But I like it and it worked perfect on this page.

I've started using flowers again.

I missed flowers.

Splattered some watercolors around and I'm

running on a theme here that just happened.

So raise you hand if you have smaller pesky

photos that you may have scrapped as the bigger one.

Well they totally work perfect here.

They are now inn my book where I don't care if I did them before

because now they're protected.

Predominately Kraft & Fav Youngest Son

One of my favorite photos of Shane worked perfect 

for this page.

I designed it the page at first without a photo in mind loving all the kraft and

I love how the orange paper works with it.

 When me and my pal Holli hung out she had this hummingbird stamp

and she let me stamp a bunch and this page was 

basically designed with the birds in mind.

 Love how they look scattered over the page.

 No judging on the shape of the photo.

My mom - she was a great lover of shapes but when

I plunked it down I couldn't help but notice

it fit absolutely perfect.

Shane was just 3 months old and we were strolling 

through Walmarts when we came upon a photographer

with a really good deal. $9.99 for a package.

(you can snort and laugh here because whoever just paid 

the going package rate ever).

Anyway, his shirt was removed for his fake bath and he

was laughing so hard and so loud it echoed 

throughout WM and everyone stopped to laugh

with him and many came to see what was so funny and laughed with him.

He just lit up the entire store.

Oh and when I went to put his shirt back on - it was too small 😐.

LOL.

Studio Calico.

Got my grunge on!

I found, deep in my closet, a set of foam stamps

from way back in the day, and thought

why not?

I really miss making pages like that.

It was a "stamp of the month kit" - "not your ordinary stamps"

is the only I can find about them.

They have everything from months of the year, to huge flowers

and clocks and punctuation.

 The background stamps I used - the small circles and

big ones are about 12x12 size - the "brick" looking

ones and xo- aren't part of the set.

Also did a bit of mixed media in the background with watercolors.

And then there's that DOILY lol.

Couldn't help to be paired with the oversized tag.

Tags and doilies.

This is a photo of my favorite youngest - he and my

pal Barb would have dueling guitars going on when she came

to visit. We both loved her visits.

I fussy cut those letters from some specialty paper that

came in the candyland kit and you'll be seeing

those again. Along with tags and doilies LOL!!!

Sortof Studio Calico.

You can go your own way

That Journal Card is a perfect title for this page.

If you peer real real close you can see I used a Tim Holtz

stencil and modeling paste to lay

down those crazy arrows.

I splatted about some mists and fussy cut

a couple of arrows out in black so they could actually

been seen.

 It was fun trying to catch up with favorite youngest son on the road

and this time it was a Love's in Mississippi.

 It was also fun checking out Shane's new truck.

He is now a proud owner/operator and I couldn't be 

more proud of him.

He works hard.

Those sticker strips are either Bella Blvd or Doodlebug.

I think.

Fun page that'll include some journaling on

the back since I didn't leave

enough room on the front - and I didn't want to

write over all those arrows.

Finding forgotten kid art

Favorite youngest son came home for a few

days this past week and it was sooooo

good to see him.

He had previously dropped a ton of stuff he had

at the house since he became a truck driver

and had nowhere else to put his possesions. So when

he was home we went went through stuff in order to clean

up the spare room.

Well.

 During the clean up we came across this gem that

was in my mom's stuff as we were putting things up-

(he had one of her scrapbooks and we were putting it in one

of mom's many trunks for safekeeping).

Anyhow.

 Shane brought to my attention to this card he made for

his memaw and of course she kept it laying in plain sight

in her trunk. (I need to get in those trunks more)!

 I really didn't want to put the journaling on the actual card

but I couldn't figure out where to put it but

I think it worked out.

Shane would draw things anytime, any place, anywhere

and some of his drawings were kept.

In my journaling, since I didn't really know, I think memaw

at the time was scrapping and gave Shane something to do so.

He loved cars as all boys do, drew the car, fussy cut it out

and placed in on a map and gave it to

Memaw as a card.

If you look close the map is Hawaii. 

LOL.

Love it!

Of course it needed to be scrapped and the story told.

I just wish he had time to keep on drawing.

Studio Calico.

More magic from the wayback box

Love it.

So in looking for something else (I know you're surprised)

I found these photos of Shane & Nick (below)

and weren't they adorable as kidlets.

 So in some places I used the same cards because they

worked and these pages are front to back
so there ya have it.

Man time flew by sooooo fast - it seems like yesterday.

Love how this turned out.

Love that they are scrapped.

A couple of stories have been noted but for the

most part these are school photos.

Sadly, not all had dates on it however, there were a ton

in the package so I'm sure somewhere notes were made.

I have no idea on the cards except some are Studio Calico,

Paper Studio die cut words, MAMBI, Cosmo Cricket and Tim Holtz.

Black on White & Black

I hope everyone had a wonderful

Easter celebration!

We did and I have put together a PL page,

and hopefully I'll get it photographed tomorrow for your

viewing pleasure.

Love how these photos came together and it became

a drive-by page as Easter edged closer

I had some chores that need doing so the page

stayed on my desk and as I passed by

it sort of came alive.

 I loved the photos on black but I became bored with layering

if you know what I mean but the photos popped.

But I felt the black needed something, so I know Soaphouse Mama

and many others layer big mats on a 12x12

and this turned out perfect- and I used washi tape to 

bump it off the background page.

Favorite youngest son loves his job and his truck

and I couldn't be more proud.

After I put this together, I realized that I added

stars and some milky stars

that he does most of the driving at night.

Wish I could say that was deliberate on my part but alas,

the photos just looked good on black. LOL.

And yellow with black is always a good call.

So this is Studio Calico, with Paper studio, Quickutz and

Spellbinder die cuts.  

Sidetracked mission continued

If you read my previous blog (and I know you did)

whilst on missions in the wayback box

happening upon 

randomness of goodness has a way of preempting 

a mission.

A mission which I'm happy to say was completed.

Anyway substituting some basic grey

as I didn't have PL cards in the correct size

and using some up more BG stickers.

Anyway, random pix of my favorite youngest son

and I just noticed I don't have a "title card."

Gasp.

Background paper with preprinted title

You really can't go wrong when everything

is done for you.

I've been trying to do this page for awhile but

I was in one of those moods where I

couldn't make a decision.

I finally just went for it.

I kept everything to a minimum and

I did cut one of the photos down.

Journaling on the hidden tag and the photo/mat

has been popped up.

Found some old gears and arrows from Tim Holtz which was perfect.

And that little "check it out" brad I've had forever.

I have more.

And if I remember you'll see more.

No clue who the mfg is.

Anyway this is documenting my favorite youngest son's journey

to become a truck driver. After some things happened in

his life, he found a link hiring and training over

the road truckers and he signed up.

He's in Utah right now starting on Phase I

of his training. 

Very proud of him and his decision and bonus round-

He Loves It.

It's a blessing in life when you love what you do.

Vellum on your whole page

In this case I used the whole piece

because the minute I saw it - I loved it, and

it was perfect for this photo of Shane.

I remember having a manual typewriter and having

papers turn out like this.

Hmmm if I had another piece I could do an entire page about that.

Anyhoo.....

the gold blobs. 

I have always wondered and, I know you have too,

how some scrappers can flick sweet little mists on by tapping 

with ONLY their index finger (while I, and others I'm sure,

 Have to Pound ON it to get said flicks).

Well after this "pound on it mist spreading adventure"

 -I found they were using Heidi Swapp mists.

Her mists flick so easy that you really have to pay attention.

So take heed and be warned.

 I cut out this heart from a cut apart as an added pop

and the gears and metal to make it manly

as well as the subtle "go for it."

It brings down the white and actually works.

I bought a pack of those feathers from HL and

there are different colors in the pack - I used the

gold because it worked with the overall page.

Studio Calico, my houndstooth Paper Issues (I neeeed more)

and bits and pieces.

Broke out the QK alphas for a title

Did a bit of cluster up in the mid corner

- I adore twine and you can probably find it

on the majority of my pages.

It used to be flowers.

A close up of the cluster I have going on 

in the upper left corner.

I love clusters - however, I do have my moments with them.

I like to have everything peek out and sometimes

it just doesn't work out that way.

 You can see I used a roller stamp around things as

it does add a bit more layers.

And a itty bitty cluster left bottom.

 And there's another tiny cluster near the title.

of which I have/had a ton of thickers

and while I love thickers - there are certain letters that

seem to go really really fast.

And its annoying - especially when I love the font.

 So......I remember back in the day (ahem)

when die cuts and not stickers were the in thing.

I have decided for the moment, because I'm annoyed,

that I'll been leaning toward my die cut alphas.

Until they annoy me LOL.

It also helps in using up excess stash.

Had fun with the favorite youngest son - please

keep him in your prayers :)

This is a mix of Studio Calico, Basic Grey and Doodle bug papers.

Hanging out with Favorite Youngest Son

Who just turned 24.

But who's counting LOL!

We stayed at Ochlocknee River Park again

and had lovely weather and campsites.

And here we have the pole sitter.

Watching over the camp.

Here is the famous white squirrel a genetic mutation of

the grey squirrels - and a tad shy.

This one did have grey on his head and a stripe down his back.

Really cool.

Shane and I trying to get the birthday selfies right.

 It took a few times - and then shazam.

Got one!

Seriously I really only have one chin.

Getting to love taking selfies

More or less.

I tend to shy away from the front of the camera

but I'm making myself get out there more.

Selfies are a good thing because you can see how you look,

and I can look really really bad (in my own head).

I see wrinkles, crinkles and rolls, oh my.

And honestly who cares about such things except me, so I'm making my

bad self get over it.

More or less.......... LOL.

 Got the new Studio Calico kit and the Paper Issues Swag bag

almost simultaneously. Doesn't get any better than that.

 I broke out my really old Creative Cafe circle and square stamps

along with my new Studio Calico rolling heart stamp.

 Layered a transparency over the 2 and love the measured paper.

Flung some sequins and mist around and love the Shimelle camera.

Kept it simple.

Yeah my boy is on my my mind. 

I'll probably add some hidden journaling.

He's an amazing young man doing a tough job right now.

And he can still smile.

Time flew when we visited but we had fun and he had a bit of a getaway

and so did we - camping is always relaxing.

I'm hopefully recovering from a sinus infection that is driving me crazy.

It's interfering with everything I love doing.

The drugs are working kinda slow.

So I'll be in and out. 

More or less.

:D

Went to see my favorite youngest son

We camped in Ochlockonee State Park.

(pronounced Oh Clock Knee)

 Views around the campsite.

 Setting up camp..

 A visitor in the campsite.

 Not an albino.

 My favorite youngest son...

who is also a goof.

 We took a short hike.

 And I got this one of my favorite youngest son SOOC. 

Swoon.

He's grown up so much and is quite an awesome young man.

Daddy long legs poser.

We had a most excellent time.

And you'll be seeing some of these on scrapbook pages.