Trikathon

Good Monday Morning! How was your weekend? How's your tea? How's your coffee? Ready to take on the world? I think my son is, but the jury's still out on me. Is it just me, or is 5:30 AM too early to be yelled for? I thought so. Anyway, I'm up and I have something to share. I've started to take an interest in a few new (to me) sketch sites. This one from Sassy Lil Sketches seemed to fit perfectly for a series of photos I had printed out for a different sketch. I still like the other and want to use it soon, but this spoke stronger to me this weekend:



And this is what I made:



The daycare/pre-school my son attends hosts an annual trikathon to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network. It is so stinking cute to see 50 kids on bikes and trikes, plus a dozen infants in multi-seat strollers gather together and try to take off all too son. They've been doing this for 20 years, but it was a brand new experience for my son. He's had that trike for a couple years, but used it all of three or four times. It squeaks horribly and loses it's fun factor fast. You may notice that he's too big for it now, but there was no time to get him a new bike. I was proud of him for ignoring all that and lapping the school three times before abandoning the trike in the crowd.... instead walking around the school with one of his favorite teachers.

Part of the design was also inspired by the Friday challenge at Frosted Designs -- use only one color plus black and white. It was something I'd been kicking around for a few pages, so how could I pass up the opportunity to finally give it a go?


This was my first focus on keeping the limey green shade going. Rather than actual stitches, I broke out the Stickles and doodled them on.



I REALLY wanted to use this tricycle embellie (Crate Paper, Toy Box), but the red they used wasn't going to cut it for the Frosted Designs challenge. Ergo, more Stickles!


Sorry for the blur! Since I had my Toy Box goodies out, I perused my options and found this sticker. I decided to fold it up like a ribbon.

And that is all I have for now. I'm a lot less grumpy and my son needs a playmate for a little while. Again, thank you for stopping by!

Always Time to Snuggle

Good Saturday Morning! .... Okay, even as I type that I'd like to make myself go back to bed (it's 6:15 AM!), but I won't. It's a big day and I have lots to do. One of those things is share an adorable moment between my son and my father. It happened on Father's Day; just a simple desire to snuggle; and is based on the current sketch at Twisted Sketches:



And here is my take:



Adorabibble, right? I've seen so many amazing pages, created by Nancy, based on these sketches, that I finally decided to give it a try. Of course, as I was creating, I also wondered how I could try to include fun and unexpected details, like she does. I tried to be like Nancy.... Until I finally remembered that I'm NOT Nancy and went back to having fun with it. I LOVE looking at pages that are chock full of detail -- so full you could actually spend a half hour looking at the page, in order to find it all. I LIKE making pages that have at least a thick border of negative space and a single cluster of embellishment. It feels like a pair of properly fitting jeans to me, but I keep forgetting that.

Details?

I used Glimmer Mist (Dragonfly) to mask some Dusty Attic gears.

Tim Holtz clock face and spinner. My son actually had fun with this element when I finally let him near it. Evidently, he also really likes my glue dots. Super!

This gear clock is Scrap FX. Initially, I slathered it with Distress Ink, then the Dragonfly Glimmer Mist. If you get to look at the actual page, it really changes color nicely as you move it around. Not so obvious with the camera, though.


I wanted to highlight the "four" on the clock, since it's the age of my son at the time of these photos. I probably should have chosen a brighter shade of Stickles.

This is what I have today. Now, it's time to get spiffy for company and a highly anticipated shopping trip with my son.

High Class

Good Tuesday Afternoon! I wanted to create a quick post of a page I made over the past few days. It was inspired by this week's palette at The Color Room:




I thought it was a hard one. I know I didn't nail it, but this selection DID finally get me to scrap a photo I've been hanging onto for a couple years:


This is my son; a little over two years old. Like the journaling says, I don't know WHERE his pants got to, but I do remember thinking one thing as soon as I saw him sitting there. This would make a perfect photo to share with his prom date 16 years down the road! Yeah, I aspire to be that kind of mom.

The goodies used are mixed from a few companies. I often try to use just one collection on my pages that it was a personal challenge for me to find mish-mashed pieces to use together. It was kinda fun!

The red paper is from a Fall stack by DCWV.

The die cut car (that I managed to cover up while playing with other stuff) is a piece of grunge paper, cut out with a background car shape on the Cricut cartridge, Summer In Paris. It was a total fluke that I created weeks ago. I was trying to cut out car shapes my son might like to use on his Father's Day card, but was wrong about exactly which direction would be four inches. I was hoping it would be bumper-to-bumper, but it was roof-to-floor. Waste not, want not!...

The pinwheel, title spot, plane and fire truck are from the Crate Paper collection, Toy Box. I had to start rooting through my son's toy stash to find them, too! He's starting to swipe my goodies.

The pop bottle is from Cosmo Cricket's collection, Boyfriend.

The journal spot and bingo card are part of a collection by Memory Makers, 100 Days of Summer.

Like, I said, quick post. I didn't opt for close ups because I didn't do any great technique work here. My main goal was to distract myself for a little while. Mission accomplished. Now to see how my son reacts 16 years from now....

Sandbox

Happy Sunday! By a feet of sheer will, I have kept my son entertained and I have another page to share. This one was inspired by this week's challenge at The Color Room:



And this is what I created:


I have to admit, this WAS a challenge for me. I was excited to try a monochromatic palette that I'd hardly ever think to try on my own. I have plent of orange items in my stash to make this work.... but did I do it right? LOL My biggest challenge was remembering to have fun! Seriously, I need to spend more time playing with my son. He gets this whole "have fun before worrying about the rules" thing better than I do.


The chipboard circle is another of the Technique Tuesday tiles. At first, I had it coated with Glimmer Mist; and I liked it.... Then, the patterned paper behind it started bugging my eyes, so I decided to just paint the inside of the circle solid orange....I'm a sloppy painter...I'm also grateful for Distressed Stickles (Orange Peel, I think). After it dried, I noticed how it kinda complimented the sandbox/gritty theme in the photos. Yay!


Woohoo for having just a few orange gems in my Prima E Line stash! And I thought I'd never use this particular pack.


I happened upon some festival ride tickets that went unused last year. They made for some easy journal spots today. I struggled with the decision of where to put a title on this page. I was too lazy to create alphas. I didn't have enough orange or white ones in my stash. Why not just write it over and over again along the border? Well, I thought I was clever. I think these are the last of my orange flowers. Lucky me, huh? I wonder of Prima has made any more....

I do believe this is all I have for now. If I have uncompleted pages hanging around, I can't find them. Thank you for taking the time to read. Have a good week!

Hello, Handsome!

And hello, again! If for no other reason, these extra off weeks sure have been productive for me. I wandered around the blogosphere more than I've been able to do for the past couple months. When I took a moment to stop in at Sketches In Thyme, I noticed something special. They now design their own sketches for use. How awesome is that? How fun does this sketch look?



I like the cute colors, and it seems I've had a thing for the simplicity of circles lately:


One of the many things I love about my husband is his smile. He has a couple of them, at least. Normally, his loved ones get the cheesy grin that follows a remark showing off his smart-mouthed charm. When you actually try to get him to smile for a photograph, it will look like he's under duress. And sometimes.... Sometimes if you look fast enough and have been blessed, you'll see him really smile. He has one of those "light up the room and twenty feet around you" smiles when it's real like that. There's a sparkle in his eyes. There's honesty and hope. It's as hard to capture that smile with a camera as getting a butterfly to stay put for the same reason. I know it's hard to see all of that in this photo, with his sunglasses on, but I know that was the kind of smile I got in that moment.



I don't know if it was the act of watching Elizabeth Town while pondering this page...or hormones because, I did bawl (and wish for a very special road map all my own)... or just simply noticing I do A LOT of blue/green pages lately... but I felt compelled to keep this page as green as possible. The chipboard circle (Technique Tuesday) is coated generously in Distress Ink and Distress Stickles. I like how the Stickles somehow lubricates the ink to truely go every where because there were spots that were still white before adding the the pretty sparkles.



The bingo card behind the photo is from Tattered Angels. I've hung onto it for quite some time and swore I was going to use it. Well, it took over a year, but tada! The original title on the card is Family, but I had wanted a more accurate title. Luckily, I recalled a few sheets of Scrabble tiles I had printed (and found on the blog of Scrapperlicious). It was a bit bigger than the card, but I like it. Above my husband's head is his age. I decided to coat it with glossy accents and frame it with some more of the Distressed Stickles.

OH! Speaking of Scrapperlicious (and all the cool things that can be found on her blog), she is celebrating her millionth hit this month. Click on this link to see how she's chosen to celebrate!

Hmm, I guess I'm feeling a little tired, but good....And, I'm wondering what my little boy is up to right about now. Thanks for stopping by! One more project I'm working on, some cards that are looking kinda cute, too! Think I'll get a chance to share?

Some Days....

Good Saturday Morning! How does this day find you? We're kinda gloomy, and I think I'm the only one missing the days of 90 degree heat, but otherwise all is well. So many parties and festivities and weekend wishes going on. Normally, I'd be freaking out, trying to figure out how to fit them all in with some level of quality time at each. Now, I'm often sleepy enough that it's much easier to chill and take life as it comes. Because somedays...

Heh, how's that for a segue? I didn't have chemo this week (and will babble about that at the bottom) so I spent some time paper crafting. One of the pages I made was about a fun moment between my son and my brother:


My husband and I have been protective parents. My brother has been waiting for the moment he'd be allowed to rough house with my son to the point of turning him upside down. This photo makes me smile and laugh a little so I had to give it some love! It was inspired by sketch 159 at Creative Scrappers:


Pretty, huh?


I used Basic Grey alphas, part of the Oliver collection. Then, I felt playful so I coated them with Glossy accents. It's hard to see, isn't it?


I tried to use the Sew Easy again. It was a little better this time, but I'm not in love with the tool. It works best on single sheets of paper. I like to layer THEN stitch. Also, I'm pretty proud of the inking work; being stumped as to how to ink in such tight quarters on this jagged piece. Then, I figured out that all I had to do was bend the paper to get two edges at once. I felt smart for a moment.



Dusty Attic chipboard gears. I just love adding gears and skulls'n'crossbones to my projects. I REALLY want to find someone from which I can buy more! The woman who sold me these is on a temporary leave from her shop, so...


So, I have to get creative! I went rooting through Cricut cartridges at my disposal. It turns out one of them has a gear border. It's one of the cake cartridges -- can't recall the name right now -- and it occured to me to cut out the border then cut the border up. I think I'm falling in love with kraft paper, by the way!

And, unrelated to this post, I was delayed another week in my chemo. It was frustrating and I almost cried. That was mainly because I was in limbo on the results of a recent CAT scan and blood work. For all I knew, two extra weeks off of chemo was really hurting my body, but....

Yesterday, I met with my oncologist. My tumors are shrinking and my cancer marker (like, how much cancer I have) dropped from 9 to 4.5. Those are definitely steps in the right direction! He was also encouraged (and it was encouraging to me) that I've gained about seven pounds since we last met a couple weeks ago. He told me that all three of these are very good signs, because I would NOT be gaining weight if the cancer was hanging on.

Somedays!

Thanks for stopping by. I have another page and some links I would love to share today or tomorrow. Here's hoping those get done....and I REALLY get chemo next Tuesday.

Dude!

Hello! Hello! How does this day find you? I guess it finds me pretty well. Having an extra week off of chemo (this past week) seems to bode well for my desire to make pretty things; pages anyhow. On a whim, I checked out the most recent color combination from The Color Room.


Since I love pairing greens and blues, this was an absolute must for me! I even thought the sketch they provided was rockin'. So, this is what I made:



The photos are some I took with my phone, while waiting for my dad to pick up take out. At first, this boy was not a hat lover. Then he became strongly opposed to sun in his eyes. As you can see, he makes sure this will never happen again. Really, I wanted to use this page as an opportunity to simply tell him that he's a very goofy boy and that I love that about him. I have to say, I had a blast creating this page. It felt really true to me.



The top three gears are Dusty Attic chip board. At first I drenched them in Glimmer Mist (as well as the stamp frame), but it seemed too dark once it dried. To make up for it, I dabbed some Aqua Paint Dabbers on all four items. I think it helped. Evidently, the gears also needed a bit of pretteh-fying, hence the Prima E Line pearls.



The journal spot is half of the backing used for an old (and used) package of Prima flowers.



The skull-and-crossbones is a die cut from the Slice cartridge, Just Chillin'. I sprayed the lime green paper with Glimmer Mist (dragonfly)....then realized I was about to have entirely too much Lime Green Stickles in my stash. So, I covered the skull with a generous dollup of the bottle that had set up residence first. The gear below this is a metal one from Tim Holtz.

The stitching is thanks to a brand new toy for me -- Sew Easy. I'm still not sure if I love it. There seems to be a bit of a learning curve. Originally, I wanted to use lime green floss, but evidently I'm fresh out. The painted tribal looking thing is more of the Aqua Paint dabber.



The ribbon along the bottom was gifted to me from my SIL. The stamped stars below this are thanks to a stamp from Sassafrass Lass. The alphas are Echo Park.



The spinner/arrow is another piece from Tim Holtz and the frog above it (Prima) has been sitting in my stash for a year and a half. I finally tried to use it, but it wants to fall apart if I try to pull it off the film...So, I just cut out the clear film and attached THAT to my frame.

Well, that's pretty much it for today. I'm about to kick off a crazy week -- hopefully another round of chemo...and a meeting with my oncologist to review my progress and where we go from here. I might not be crafting at all in the following week or longer. I gotta say, I've enjoyed feeling this good. I hope to feel it again soon enough.