Chronicles of a driveby page - Day 4, 5 & 6

In case you don't remember.

Day 1

Day 2

I also thought to spare you individual posts.

Even I couldn't take it. LOL.

Day 3

DAY 4

And here we are making some progress now that I liked the "base".

I keep a box of precut diecuts  and orphans laying around to pick through

at times like this.

Its also a great way to jumpstart the mojo by just randomly

picking out papers and diecut shapes and commencing to whacking.

IN that box 

I found a black circle, a 1" circle, a star and feather.

I quite like that little cluster but.......I'm not married to it.

I then decided that some red was necessary and added some washi

tape barely peeking through
under the photo bottom left and right under the notebook punch along

with a bit of burlap for texture.

DAY 5

Concentrating on the bottom half - I decided that I wasn't crazy

about the star and changed it to a heart and

found the stamped "hello" in the box from another

project where it didn't work out.

So that brought the white and black from the circle down.

The heart also brought the red down.

Of course the white and black needed to be repeated at the top
and I found a photo corner - another project reject and tucked it in

and then curled the thread around to make it more

threadier.

Broke out some red homemade enamel dots.

I used some vintage photo ink around all the edges to give

the different embellishments some cohesiveness.

And I let that sit as company came a-calling.

DAY 6

As I happened by my desk I found I wasn't buying the red heart thing.

It was then I remembered I had some 7 Gypsies

hardware - Why did that take so long you ask? Well....

its been awhile since those type of embellishments were called

for I actually forgot I had them.

I used to use the 7G's stuff on almost every page.

And then I moved on-more or less.

I dug into the bag and found some bronzey 

"cogs" and placed them around -
highlighting them with my homemade enamel dots

Nothing has been glued down as yet - but its getting closer.

Shocking I know.

And as you know - titles do not come easily - so........

I'll be pondering that - 
I appreciate you staying tuned.
:)

Cutest little mini album ever

Thanks to Connie over at Crafty Goodies.

She posted this adorable accordian fold instagram album

and mentioned she was teaching this mini by Bo Bunny in a class -

and since I live in Florida and she lives in Texas well....

I couldn't resist.

I chose not to do accordian fold - 

because I don't do

accordian fold well therefore I adapted it into a regular mini and

it worked very well.

 My base is a light chipboard and the size I chose is 6x6

The green EK Success corner rounder

rounded out the corners on all the pages including

the light chipboard.

 Then using Simple Stories 6x6 paper pack I had laying around

I adhered them to the remaining chipboard pages.

Poked holes after the papers were adhered with my 7Gypsies Binderie -

best investment ever. 

 Added an assortment of embellishments.

 With some gorgeous pictures and

a pocket page with 9 strips of paper that Cavin

can journal on.

And this last page is Simple Stories as well - not kidding

and isn't that perfect.

This is going to be so much fun because I can see

making it girlie as well 

and tayloring it to just about anyone.

As if the background paper wasn't busy enough

Are you sensing a pattern here?

Me too.

And I love it. 

So here's the Basic Grey paper and I'm really

loving this line - its an old one.

Boy I believe.

Anyhoo, I gessoed it and added a stencil with

some ranger ink.

Vintage photo.

 Of course with a busy background layers are required.

 And I had a great time doing that. using a variety of papers

because BG works so well with a lot of lines.

 I used the tails from the fishtail banners and made them arrows.

Love that.

What more can I say. 

I love it - its as chaotic as a 2 year old playing a 

harmonica on the streets of New York.

I'm thinkin' he'll be a star.

Really really soon.

Basic Grey, Shimelle, Paper Issues Swag Bag and a

library card I had forever....

Last kit - not done at the crop

And this one as well I kept to the script.

It was fun.

Pinks and greys and black.

Simple Stories - 

I'm almost done with my 6x6 pack.

The teal with arrow cut out was used on another page

and that's a fairly new punch and its sooooo adorable.

You'll be seeing it around.

 Broke out the Paper Issues swag bag and a Shimelle sticker.

It is a perfect fit and makes a great subtitle.

I don't use subtitles as much as I probably should as
they do bring a bit more insight and can also add to the journaling.

 Used my last pink and grey bow - more stash gone.

Yes there's more stash - no worries there.

One day when the mojo's low - I'll die cut and assemble some more
of those sweet bows.

Love having them pre-done.

 Love this photo and Amelia is quite the fashion diva.

And there is her sidekick keeping her company.

I made some fishtail banners, still using some layers and mats behind the photo
and I love that it gives a different edge to the page.

I didn't weave them because no one would see since it
would be behind the photo
and I'm not really good at the weaving thing.

I love how they look on the page.

Studio Calico, Simple Stories round it out.

A page with my homemade enamel dots.

I did a tutorial over at Off the Rails on homemade enamel dots.

Mostly its a here's what I did and what 

could possibly go wrong.

So after slaving over a hot stove - I think these dots came out pretty good.

 So here's one of my pages using the dots.

 In several places.

 I love the assortment of colors I now have.

And there are about 1,000 now give or take.

 If you look back over the last few blog posts - you'll find more.

There's a bit of everything going on here.

Some Shimelle, Studio Calico, Lawn Fawn, Simple Stories.

Making a page with a 5x7 Photo collage

This is a great photo collage of the lil Miss

eating a donut.

And enjoying the donut.

Becoming one with the donut.

I love the everday moment.

And a sweet treat.

Its an instagram collage that I printed out on my canon printer as a 5x7.

I wanted all of the pictures in the collage to be seen and with

 a 4x6 you'd be getting eye strain.

There's doilies and a frame peeking from behind the photo

and I just started layering on the gesso and watercolors.

Then Kaiser Craft bits and pieces, that I gessoed over to tone down 

the black and beige. 

Broke out my lil girlie stamp and painted her up. 

Thanks to soaphouse mama I'm getting the hang of incorporating

those kind of stamps on my pages.

 I love all the layering and even managed

to work in the very girly ribbony crepe paper

that can be very trying with sticky fingers.

And doesn't the adorable bow in the corner make you swoon.

Handwritten titles - go for it

I had a lack of mojo yesterday and was frustrated.

I forgot all about this page as I try to add them to my album immediately.

When I was adding another page to the album I found this one.

Geez. Talk about oldheimers. 

Love this photo of Connor and Christopher and wanted to make it special.

It was also Christopher's birthday on the 30th and wasn't I surprised.

Even after I had been warned by my calendar notifications for a few days in advance.

Sigh. 

Heavy Sigh.

Love the Studio Calico and bits and pieces of Basic Grey

and Pink Paislee AND Simple Stories.

I wanted the title to be simple so I handwrote their names and

called it a day.

I have a love/hate relationship with my handwriting.

When its not important - my writing rocks (say that 3 times fast)

and when I put it on a page - my writing stinks.

I decided to roll with it anyway.

Whenever I find handwriting from my ancestors, the first thing I do is swoon.

And then I felt so thrilled to have that connection.

Back in the snail mail day, I couldn't wait to get mail from family

and friends and I would always recognize their handwriting

without looking at the return address.

Always and it never failed to thrill.

NOT ONCE, NO NEVER have I ever said 

OMG...their handwriting stinks.

It never occurred to me. 

Because to me it was beautiful. 

So I decided to throw caution to the wind and hope somewhere

down the line, my kids will recognize my writing and be 

thrilled too. Not only that it totally worked on this page.

Therefore, in addition to handwriting your journaling as much as you can,

-----go for the title as well.

Going green with the color green

The color green!!!

It just sort of happened and of course it works well with wood.

Like that's a stretch.

However, it just seemed to work especially with the different greens.

There was a time when if the greens had not matched perfectly I'd be quite

neurotic about it. 

But not any more and its quite freeing.

Like Lou having a ball.

bwahahahaha!

He's just too stinkin' cute.

Scrappin' with scraps

Every now and then I get overwhelmed by all the hacked up

half-used papers in my "hacked up half-used paper basket.

All these awesome papers whacked up in the name 

of creativity.

That happened the other day.

Therefore I grabbed some white cardstock (on which I'm running sadly low-although

I have about 10 lbs of all colors of the rainbow cardstock lying around) 

because white is white and said to go with everything.

I also grabbed other stuff in the box - but not being really picky about any of it.

Instead of just laying it out - I adhered it as I went.

GASP!

Then I decided that my sadly and often forgotten to be used grey gelato (and most all 6 gelatoes

I'm in possession of) was applied around and about. 

I decided grey was blah! and how about some orange mist.

That turned sort of muddy.

I then yanked out the watercolors so I could make things run.

As you can see the direction of where I was going with page is in the paint running.

And I changed my mind on the orientation.

GASP! again.

And it wasn't because of the photo as I didn't have one in mind yet.

However, when I did choose one.

Magically it all worked out.

I could say I planned it - but it would be a lie.

Studio Calico, bazzil c/s, simple stories, authentique.

That paper you're afraid to cut into

This blue and yellow paper called to me when I first opened

up my Studio Calico kit.

I loved it.

I cherished it.

I was afraid to use it.

I finally decided to man up.

But there were still decisions.

HOW?

Use the blue as a bit of background?

NO NO the YELLOW.

A mat, a half, a third.

Sigh.

Well I went with thirds.

With the red branding strip.

Whew.

I canNOT tell you how tough that was.

And then the photo.

Modern, heritage, kidlets. YadaYA.

Heritage is the way it came out - especially with the doily.

I love the travel paper, and Jillybean soup.

Simple Stories.

It actually all works.

Shocked me too.

I decided I needed a banner and didn't want the same ole same ole.

Hearts seemed like a good choice for this.

My brother and I having a tender moment.

It's sweet and perfect for this paper I was afraid to cut into.

Revival of the watercolor pattern paper mess

Remember this disaster? 

Hard not to as I've been whining a lot about it alot lately.

Well.......

I decided to connect some watercolor dots so it wouldn't look so awkward and dumb. 

I've heard tell you can't screw up watercolors, but I showed them.

And out of the watercolor ashes comes a heritage page.

 I know.
 And dang if heritage doesn't rock the watercolors and gesso.

Would you believe that's me and mom. 

Check out the fashion - it appears that it hasn't changed for

kindergarteners in close to 2 decades. 

I used Original photos - I have them digitally saved if I need to use them again.

And if not. OOPS.

So Studio Calico once again rocks it and their fresh stickers

really do not take anything away from the heritage photos - which

honestly surprises me.
What do you think?

I like being surprised.

Printed a tri-photo photo

And say that 3 times fast. 

Instagram photo.

In the print section in Aperture, there is a choice to do 3 photos

in sequence that I thought was cool. 

It kind of gives you a taste of the photos or in my case 

actually focuses on the best part of the photo.

I printed it on 8.5x11 photo paper and trimmed the sides evenly

since one was wonkier than the other.

Yes, Nick I used Aperture because Lightroom is making me crazy.

I wanted a page that was a bit different than what I posted on my blog 

earlier on boondockin' and use some of the landscape

photos that I take in abundance but don't scrap much.

Why? I don't know.

If you've never been to the Great Smokey Mtns - you really need to

put it on your to do list.

October Afternoon is the background paper from my Studio Calico kit

as well as that tree trunk bole. I'm kinda proud how I worked that in.

Scraps of simple stories made it in there.

The alpha is deja view with some quickutz going on.

I used a background stamp that came out kindof lame and

covered most up.

And I made that tag. I KNOW. 

It's the little things.

AND WEDNESDAY IS THE BIG DAY - I'LL KEEP YOU POSTED.

Printer's tray challenge and 'lift' completed

Not bad for the first time out and I'm glad I had a blueprint

from the 2012 CK magazine.

I did learn a few things.

Spray paint the color on - to avoid streaks (thanks Lisa!)

unless you're going for the shabby chic look.

If you're going to cover up the sections - don't paint them.

If you're going to put papers on them - either make

the photos smaller OR just put the paper on a couple of sections.

Next time - I'm going to make the photos bigger

to avoid gaps.

I used simple stories patterned paper that you can't see except the outside

embellishments and straws because the photos covers them up.

Got some Studio Calico wood veneers, ticket and QK crab.

I'm really quite pleased. 

Hopefully Jill will be too.

*WHINING ALERT*

I completed this printer's tray under much duress - 

last night was not a good night.

And it was a LONG night.

I had restless boot syndrome all.night.long.

My foot itched, twitched and ached.

And no amount of iBprofen, aspercreme and icing helped.

And when I finally drifted off, I'd twitch like I was electrocuted 

and wake right up. I finally just gave it up.

So after a restless no-sleep night - I didn't work out because

I was meeting up with my best pal Barbara whom I 

haven't seen or talked to in - like forever and I didn't want

to sleep walk through that.

Stay tuned for the reveal on Off the Rails Scrapbooking challenge due tomorrow which I totally forgot about.

(Honestly I got my days all wrong).

Working on it.

Documenting the little moments over and over

Below are pages that could be construed as "documenting" moments.

And I'm sure it was deliberate.

If you'll note its the same cast of characters, except older, on the same couch in what appears to be the same kidlet order. Maybe. It's okay if they're not exactly placed because the same players are involved.

Only they are almost five months apart.

And when toddlers are involved that's alot of growing and changing. I love photos and pages like this. I even try to put them on the same page. However, I didn't remember I had this until I was trying to come up with a "schtick" for this post. As a matter of fact, I came up with the title "couch cousins" after I had posted the Christmas one that says "that magic moment." And it is magic because photographing kidlets is like herding cats.  I'm glad I got to use the second title. I'm sure I could've worked in somewhere. 

Studio Calico rocks again in patterned papers, alphas, tags, and puffy stars, with some Recollections Washi and Simple Stories and October afternoon journaling cards.

Hmmm...so your challenge can be a comparison page, i.e.:

 documenting growth, 

comparing your children and grandchildren's 

looks at about the same age

 comparison pictures of you and your grandkids about the same age

comparison pix of you and your hubby as young'uns

etc. 

Another fun girly page

And isn't fun just rocking the girly stuff.

And I'm plowing through my new Studio Calico kit.

wooo hooo!!!

Not quite as blingy but girly none-the-less.

And just how girly over the top when daddy is painting her nails.

And it looks like both have their jobs down.

She is being so careful with the other hand. So adorable.

This was another page I built without a photo 

in mind and I changed things up by making the mats

portrait and that made finding a photo

an adventure because everyone mostly shoots in landscape.

However, instagram to the rescue and 4x4 rocked it.

Studio Calico and leftovers from my "I don't know what to do with"

dodad basket. Love that. 

Some Sassfrass Lass alphas and

the confetti courtesy of Studio Calico as well

and adhered with some gesso.

Which is why there are some blobs.

I left them and decided not to stress about them.

They're supposed to be FUN.

Layers and layers

I love layers. 

There are times you wouldn't know it though.

Probably because I become baffled by layers.

Because you have to cover stuff up in order to layer and I have trouble covering

stuff up. Especially if its really cool stuff.

My mind just doesn't get it.

So now I try to layer things that aren't that cute if there going

to be on the bottom layer and/or covered up.

Problem semi-solved.

What you won't see is that I used modeling paste for

some honeycombs and the photo entirely covered it up.

The watercolors made it through. Sort of.

Heavy sigh.

The majority is studio calico - March kit with some old stuff.

Kaiser kraft, recollections, simple stories and twine.

Little Miss Amelia with her rosy cheeks and red nose and of course,

the princess wave - even in the midst of a snow flurry.

And doesn't she have a ton of layers going on.

Future Olympic snowboarders

Otherwise known as shredding. 

And they got game.

Waiting to conquer the mountain.

If you'll notice there's a gocam on Q's head.

I need to figure out how to view them.

Although as the Grammy I probably don't want to look.

Like we need more adreneline junkies in the family.

I'm not one of them, although from

the photos it does look like fun and maybe 

one day I'll give it awhirl.

Mom did say that an eagle eye and bungy cord was necessary because

they were feeling the need for speed.

Again, like I needed to know that 

LOL.

Broke out my new Studio Calico kit, along with some Simple Stories

and thickers. Its 8x8 which means mom'll do the journaling and I wanted to have the

three of them on one page -

 and none could stand still long enough for one photo of three.

I have more.

I love quotes..

Because sometimes they say it so much better than I could. Or it just fits.  And this one is perfect. Not only does it work for kids at play but also scrapbookers or any other creative genius. This quote started out on a cut apart for Kaiser Craft. Did I think about photographing it before I hacked it up. Um....no. I've also embraced my inner scissors and not the trimmer. I like that. It adds a different flavor. Since this was an 8x8 the 4x3 card was a tad too big. And I love the quote. There's some Simple Stories and Studio Calico going on in there and the splat was a punch done by my pal Holli. I used a polka dot background stamp with some ranger distress ink.  I left a lot of room for journaling. And its the day before Q-man turns 5. Love the glow of the plane and he's clearly delighted with it. Me too.

I have been slacking, fighting fatique not only from CF workouts but a sinus infection that comes and goes. I take mucinex til I feel good then stop and I need to continue to take it a few more days after the "feel good" to knock it out for good. Nothing worse than a nose headache.

AND OMG....the Olympics. I napped through the curling yesterday. Sorry guys. And, I although I have always loved the figure skating, and the dance skating, but I have now added the snowboarding, and the ski slopestyle. Those athletes are totally insane. 

Love that.

Happy Birthday to my favorite eldest son

 Who's rockin' the facial hair. 

I can't decide if I like it.

So I kinda got my Ashli on - watched her video over

on the flair blog.

I love how she uses the washi tape with paint.

I didn't do that. But I love her placement of it so I sorta

followed that and the stamping.

And the bits and pieces. She brings them all together

like they're supposed to be.

I'm working on it. LOL!

 I did get to use my big antlered animal stamp from Studio Calico.

I can't decide if its moose or elk (I really wanted to say squirrell). 

I didn't come up with that until my go to title maker

came up with the title.

It was obvious when you think about it.

Obviously I wasn't thinking about it. 

I tucked in a tag for hidden journaling and some layering.

Anyway favorite eldest will be umm.....older. While

I'm still really WAY young. Lots younger.

Happy Birthday Nicki-poo!!!

Have an awesome day!