* Sweet Girl *

This is the last project I created for ScrapGal. I had the Dear Lizzy Enchanted line to work with for March and it made me think of this photo. I do not typically scrap "professional portrait photos", but I had an extra one.

Journaling - As I look at this photo taken almost four years ago, I can't help but be amazed at how much you have grown. But some things haven't changed. And that is a good thing.


You still have that sweet smile that makes your eyes sparkle!
You still love your baby dolls.
You can be such a girl girl, but a tomboy at the same time. 
You aren't afraid to get rough and tumble if necessary, but love your twirly skirts and princess dress-up clothes.
You are so, so sweet to everyone.


One thing that has definitely changed is your hair! 
No longer short and straight, but so long and curly.
You are so lucky to have such beautiful hair.
And it's so funny that when you look at photos like this one from when you were younger, that you alwasy think you look like a boy because your hair is so short and straight.
You have literally told me, "Mom, I look like a boy."
I have to laugh when you say that.
One thing that will never change though, is how much I love you!

I wanted to share what I wrote here because just this weekend, she said it again!
Erin saw the layout sitting on my counter and said, "Mom, I look like a boy in that picture."
And she is starting to worry about what boys thing :-O
She loves to play with her best friend Sam, the little boy down the street.
They have literally grown up together.
And the other day we were all playing in the park. I was running around with Sam and Erin, while Mike played ball with Evan and Sam's sister Kate (those two are the same age and have grown up together, too!)

Well, Erin fell in some mud and became really quiet. She didn't want to go back over by Sam.
When I asked what was wrong, she said, "Mom, I don't want Sammy to see me like this. I look ridiculous!"
WHA????! Where in the world did that come from? And she is only 4 1/2!
But I told her, real friends won't care. Real friends accept you just the way you are :)
And so we went back over to Sam, and they kept playing for a little longer.

What can I say :) She is my sweet, sweet girl!

And for the Family :)

 
Another phone photo from yesterday at the park. Erin was picking dandelions which she calls "wishes" :)
It was so cute because she came over and gave me one. Then she made a wish and blew.
Her wish: For Sammy. Her friend from the story above. She wished that he could come over to play :)

What's On Your Workspace Wednesday (WOYWW)

I've seen this done every Wednesday by some of my favorite blogger friends and decided to join in this week! :0) All the blogs are linked here.

Basically, I just finished making a card out of scraps. Mine is the one with the jar :)
While working on my card, Erin made her own card which you can see there on the left with the butterflies.
It's always fun to "scrapbook together" as she likes to call it!

I also have a bunch of miscellaneous tools that will get picked up tomorrow. My tombow glue adhesive is that blue capped bottle. Perfect for adhering hole punch size confetti to a project. If you look closely at the jar, you can see that I put some "confetti" in there so it wouldn't look so empty! Not my original idea, but one I borrowed it from Madeline over at 2p's. You can see her layout here. I need to add some more to mine so it is still a work in progress.

I also have two photos from the plane ride over to Ireland on a trip Mike and I took summer of 2009. Creating my mother-in-law's Ireland album has made me want to work some more on our trip. So I think those photos will be my next project :)

For the Family
I know my sister-in-law Kathi likes to read my blog for news about the kids and not just scrapbooking, so I am going to try and share a photo a post for her and any other family who are still reading :)

On a bike ride in the park Sunday, Erin kept stopping to pick "flowers" for me and her Mimi. I just love having a phone on my camera, because I am able to capture moments I probably wouldn't get a chance to otherwise. It really comes in handy!
She is getting so big!

I'm Back! :)

That was a much needed blog break last week!
With Evan finishing up his science fair project and the actual fair on Thursday, I was just needed elsewhere :)

This is a photo I took with my phone. But you can see his Earthquake experiment and board behind him, and the actual experiment in front. He was testing out better ways to earthquake proof buildings. One of his K'nex buildings has cross bracing and the other is without. They are both attached to a shaker board he put together with just a little help from Mike. You could really see the difference when the board was shaken. The building without cross bracing swayed a lot more!

Anyway, that was four months of research and reports and creating an experiment. It was a pretty big assignment for a nine year old, but he got through it! And we are so proud of him :)

In the world of scrapbooking ;), My Mind's Eye had a sketch challenge on their blog recently and I decided to participate.
Here is the sketch

And here is my take on the sketch...

I was actually going to do a girly page with a photo of Erin for this one, but changed my mind :) I had this photo of Evan sitting on my workspace that I have been wanting to scrap for him. So I did. And following the challenge guidelines, I would say 80% of the product used is definitely My Mind's Eye. The only things that are not, would be the cloud and star chipboard and the strip of heart paper.

You can see the actual blog post with the whole challenge here.

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Taking a week off all blogging.
Lots going on and just not really in the mood.
Hope to see you next Monday :)

Family Picnic in the Park :)

This is the layout I had published in the April 2012 issue of Scrapbooks Etc...
I saw it on their website today, so I am assuming it's ok to post it here on my blog now :)
I made this last year for a Scrapgal design team assignment and decided to send it in for a Spring call that appeared a few months after.
I am not one to create layouts just for a call.
Typically, I just submit layouts I have on hand that fit what they are looking for.
And this felt like Spring to me.
I am glad they thought so, too :)

My avatar pic on Facebook right now...

Taken on our trip to Ireland summer of 2009 at Croagh Patrick!
Some day I will go back and make it to the top of that mountain!

Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Sweet! :)

A layout just for fun! :) I finally scrapped these photos I took last year around this time. I absolutely love this little candy store they put in right next to a local playground. Pretty smart if you ask me. And Erin was pretty happy as well!

For this layout, I used some of the new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line, plus a few stickers from October Afternoon. The chipboard "simply" in the title was actually intended the "Create Art" layout I made for my misting project, but changed my mind. So I decided to use it here since her she was wearing purple.

Now off to enjoy the beautiful weather here! :)

Us :)

A quick layout I put together using a sketch from the owner of My Scraps and More. A really fun site :)
Originally I was planning on trying out for their design team. One of the requirements was to create a layout using the sketch provided. After some debating, I decided not to try out for the team at this time. I think I am going to take a break from design team work for a little bit while the kids finish out the school yeat. I am enjoying the freedom of scrapbooking without deadlines or assignments. And no requirements to fulfill!

But I decided to use the sketch anyway because I really liked it. Along with the new My Mind's Eye papers, stickers, die-cut's and rub-on's I used.

And I really love this photo of Mike and I. It represents a time of freedom and relaxation when we went on a short trip together for our anniversary trip this past October. We really had a great time! And I am glad I have that memory in a layout :)
I will always remember this trip!

Misting with Masks!

Misting with masks is my absolute favorite way to use mists! And I have yet to actually use a company made mask. Although I do have this cute one by Studio Calico...

I love butterflies and this will be perfect to use one day :)

But for my projects so far using masks, they have all been "home made". I like to find product within my scrap supplies that will make great masks.


This is actually an 8x8 page I made for a "5 Things" album I am creating about my husband. Another page is "Five U2 songs that make me think of you" :)
Anyway, I had that giant manilla envelope and tag from Melissa Frances to use for a DT assignment. I thought the envelope would make a great "pocket" to hold my tag with my list of reasons, but it was too plain.

Digging into my stash, I decided to try some of these Doodlebug border stickers with the Tattered Angels glimmer mist. Since it was a thicker material than patterned paper, the envelope didn't curl up when I sprayed it a few times with the glimmer mist over the border stickers. I actually started to peel the stickers up when they were still a tiny bit damp and came up with the effect you see in the layout.

This layout also uses stickers as a mask. Some of my favorite stickers ever! Thickers by American Crafts. I was inspired by my love of Thickers to try this idea, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. And I actually had to start over from scratch once! The first time I sprayed too much mist over the same areas with each color and it just looked brownish. The second time, I made sure to cover the areas where I wanted just one color to show. I also placed two rectangles of plain white scrap paper in the sizes of my photo and journaling block so they would stay white and I could add the words later.

A tip - do not use the foam Thickers. They were a pain to peel off. I found the ones that didn't have as much adhesive on the back worked better as well. Easier to pull off after everything was dry.

For this layout, I used a sweet piece of lacy trim as my a mask to embellish my tag a little. Trims are great for masks. Especially the fancier, lacy ones :)

I actually used a piece of patterned paper to create the star mask for this layout of my nephews.

By cutting out three of the stars on the right, I had the perfect mask. I was able to just lay it right on my cardstock and spray away with two different colors. I like to layer colors a lot it seems :)
Then I turned around and use the stars I had cut out...

on this layout of my two :) I have to say though, I felt like I was a little heavy handed on the mist for this one. And I may redo the base someday, but it's not high on my list of priorities. Now I try to mist as lightly as possible when spraying my backgrounds. For me, less is more :)

And my last project this week is one you have seen recently, but it goes along with my home made mask theme today...

This was the layout where I used the heart shape from a Maya Road Acrylic key chain to create a mask. I traced three connecting hearts on a scrap of cardstock and then cut it out.
So like I said, I really like to make my own masks! And I think it is something I will continue to do as long as I am misting on projects :)

Misting Tip from the Internet
One more thing I would like to share is this great tip I found on soaphousemama's blog this week! She had a great tip on using a Tim Holtz distress pad, paintbrush and water to create droplets on a layout in place of mist. You can see her post here! She has a great step by step description of how she created her layout and talks about the tip in there. I love reading her blog because of her step by step's :)

Thanks so much for coming by this week! I really enjoyed putting this series together and hope everyone was able to take away at least new misting tip :)
Have a great weekend!

The Misting Continues!

Today I am sharing part two of misting week...
Using Mists in place of Paint or Inks
My first two projects are going to show you how mists can be used to replace paint,

starting with one of my final  projects created for ScrapGal.

My son loves to draw. And when I say loves, I mean LOVES! It is literally his passion. I wanted to scrap a page about it because his talent is such an important part of who he is right now. So I scanned a few of his latest creations, created a 5x7 collage of the photos in Picasa, and cut them apart. I was actually inspired by a chipboard word key chain by Maya Road

and decided to use two of the words for my title. Thankfully, I had the purple and green mists on hand. The purple is a Tim Holtz color wash and the green is by Studio Calico. With just a few spritzes, the words were covered perfectly. A lot quicker than if I would have pulled out my paints, grabbed a paintbrush and painted each word with a few coats.
Next I decided to add a few droplets of each color to the page for a more artsy feel. And to coordinate with the color of my title and the paper I used to mat each photo.
I would say the most time consuming part of this layout was scanning the photos and creating the collage. Everything else came together quickly.

Next project...

You are probably wondering, where on earth did she mist here? But once again I pulled out my trusty white Studio Calico mist to cover the two end pieces of the Maya Road chipboard album I turned into a banner. I have to admit that the white mist can be a little tacky, and take a while to fully dry. But it was still quicker than using a few coats of white paint!

Now for two examples where mists can replace inks!

This layout is a good example of using mists to color embellishments. This paper flower was a creamy white. But I was really hoping to match the color with the little bit of her sash you can see on her flower girl dress.

I grabbed my Bubblegum Metallic and Sunflower Yellow mists by Maya Road and sprayed until the color matched. I started with pink and then sprayed yellow over it. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but I did end up with the perfect orange/rust color. Talk about a successful experiment! That doesn't happen to often in crafting for me :)

For this layout, I literally sprayed my acrylic stamp lightly with four different color mists and stamped onto white cardstock. Then I hand cut out each image and used it as a frame for the different parts of my layout.
One thing I have learned about mists and stamping is that it can be a little hard to control the amount sprayed onto stamps, so you are not going to typically get a clean, stamped image. But I was ok with that for this layout, because of the word bubbles on the patterned paper. I liked the cartoonish feel of the stamped image, and I wasn't looking for perfection.

As for mists themselves, so far I have only used mists by Maya Road, Studio Calico, Tattered Angels and Tim Holtz. I have yet to try the October Afternoon Sprinklers, but plan to soon. Would love to know your thoughts on the OA mists if you have used them!

*EXTRA TIP* I have noticed that the Tattered Angels and Tim Holtz mists *will* make you papers curl up. Especially if sprayed on the background. I did  not have that problem with the Studio Calico and Maya Road  mists. So any kind of  large surface or background spraying will be reserved for my SC and MR mists!
But the Tattered Angels and Tim Holtz work really well as a "paint" substitute or for droplets. And that is probably what I will use them for most. I especially love the Tattered Angels glimmer mists for coloring chipboard since it has such a nice shimmer to it.

And again, I would love to see any projects you have done or plan to do using mists in place of paint or ink!
On Friday, I will be discussing one of my favorite ways to use mists - Masking!

Just Plain Misting and Droplets!

I don't know if you are like me, but I was a little late to the misting bandwagon.
I am not typically a *messy* scrapper.
I like things neat, organized and *clean*. Which surprises people sometimes when they find out I was a preschool teacher and used to deal with all kinds of fun messy, messes :)

Mists are definitely messy.
And every once in a while I like to step out of my comfort zone to try something new.
So I challenged myself last year to start using mists a little more on my projects.
Going back through my work from the last year, I was surprised at how many times I did actually use mists.

Today I want to share with you a few of my projects using just basic misting or droplets on your background.
My first layout...

"Got Mud" has some brown mist sprayed lightly at points around the yellow cardstock. I wanted to portray the "dirty" feeling of mud and thought the brown mist would be a good choice. If you click on the photo, you might be able to see it a little better, but the largest section of mist is around the brown and green chipboard embellishment.

For "Nature is a Great Place to Do Watercolors", I had the same idea. I wanted to portray the feeling of using watercolors, so I lightly sprayed some blue and yellow mist in the upper left and bottom right corners. One thing I have learned is that I was pretty heavy handed with mist in the beginning. But after practicing a few times, I learned that light, brief, gently sweeping strokes with my wrist made for the best misting :)

Then I discovered the white mist by Studio Calico! 

For "Can I Paint My Room?" I once again sprayed the background, but then decided to add a few droplets to go with the theme of "painting". As far as droplets go, for me the best way to do it is to remove the actual sprayer component, hold the nozzle in your hand and tap lightly on the tubing to release the mist. I felt like I had more control this way! It was a nice little tip I learned by watching Shimelle Lane's Glitter Girl video "The Mists of Magnitude" at 2p's in a Bucket.You can see it here. Just scroll down a bit and you can see where the video starts. I think there are some great tips in it!

I also decided to use droplets of white on "Happy Winter" when after completing it, the layout still felt like it was missing something. I thought the droplets would add a little more visual interest.

If you are new to misting, or have just been wanting to use the mists you have more, misting on your base or using droplets is one of the best places to start! I would love to see any projects you make using those techniques. So please link them on this blog post, whether it is in a gallery or on your blog, and I will be happy to come visit and leave a comment! :)

I will be back on Wednesday featuring one of my ScrapGal projects that uses droplets in colors other than white :) Plus I will be talking about replacing stamp ink and paint with mists on your projects.

Happy Misting!! :)

Bummed but Bouncing Back!

Well, after my last post, I was looking forward to a month full of misting at Scrapgal.
Unfortunately, I received an email from the owner yesterday with the sad news that they are closing effective immediately :(
I will just miss the daily chatting with my friends over there.
I will miss the support and challenges.
I will miss the opportunity to start the new design team term with Cheryl, Martine, Lisa and Elizabeth.
And I will really miss working with Michelle and Rita. They have been such supportive teammates from the start!
I am so grateful to Jenn for giving me the chance to design for her store not once but for three terms!

In the mean time, I still plan on sharing my March design teams projects I had made for Scrapgal.
And some misting tips, tutorials and techniques.
Starting with this mini album that you saw in the peek on Monday :)

It's all about *Letting Go*
I was inspired by this poem/print by Alisa Holland that I saw on Pinterest...

It really spoke to me at a time I needed it most. 2011 was a year of learning to let go of a lot of things, and it was such a relief! You can see more of her work and her blog here. I find her so inspirational.
For my mini, I wanted to use quotes from her poem and journal what it meant to me.

This page talks a little about where I found my inspiration and why I wanted to make this album.

"To Let Go Doesn't Mean to Stop Caring. It Means I Can't Do it For Someone Else"

To Let Go is Not to Care for, But Care About. To Let Go is Not to Fix, But to Be Supportive."

To Let Go is Not to Cut Myself Off. It's the Realization That I Can't Control Another."
This was the hardest for me I think. I have dealt with people in my life who think nothing of using people to cause pain. And this was the so hard for me to understand. The need to have that much control, to be that bitter and angry that there was such an intense need to hurt. But with the help of good people in my life, I learned that there are just things that I myself can't control. And dwelling helps no one. Including myself :)

"To Let Go is Not to Judge. But to Allow Another to be a Human Being"
We are all human beings and deserve love, support, respect, kindness and understanding. Try as I may, I know I will never be perfect. But I know that judging others is the opposite of how I want to express myself.
I would rather express myself in a positive way.

So there you have it.
My first project for the month of March.
And it did involve a bit of misting on the front and inside cover :)
The cover went a whole different direction then originally planned. I had it covered in a piece of patterned paper and it just wasn't working. Thanks to a layout I had created, I decided to scraplift myself and use mist droplets on the white cardstock for the cover! Then some white mist droplets on the inside to balance it.

Come back next week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for my own version of "Mist Madness"!