Reel Me In, Papa!

 Good Tuesday morning! Okay, now I am faking it. I'm a couple different kinds of yuck, but I'm working on feeling better. In the meantime, I'm grateful for the foresight to have taken pictures a few days ago.




 Last weekend, I was a crafting fool. I really like the birthday sketches at Creative Scrappers AND I was still excited about my new found method of adding more photos. I used it again for this page.

 For the past couple years, there have been quiet discussions and dreams of taking The Boy fishing. This Summer, it's supposed to become reality. Both The Boy and my dad are so excited. Dad pulled out his fishing rods to make sure they still worked. It looks like he had the perfect bait to catch a grandson.

 These are Basic Grey stamps, about 4 or 5 years old. I found them at the bottom of my drawer while looking for something else. Yay! Also, I like enamel dots but I haven't made a point of stocking up. Liquid Pearls to the rescue!

 I colored the cork alphas to make a title that would match AND stand out.
 Once again, I made an interactive page.  This time, I made sure my photos faced the right direction when flipped up.

And this is the sketch I used.

 Again, I saw DT member,  Danielle create something beautiful and knew I would try this sketch as well. , http://picsandcheesecake.blogspot.nl/2014/04/creative-scrappers-birthday-bash.html


 In this moment, I think I might spend the next two days working on a Friday Finds post. Through last week's blog hop, I discovered some amazing vendors and I want to talk about them. Till then, have a great week!

Gentle

Good Monday morning! Yes, I'm actually this chipper on a Monday. I'm weird. It seems that I'm still in a sharing mood, huh? I'll blame Spring. It's a happy refreshing time of year, why not?

Speaking of sharing, I'm going to share one of my favorite spots for scrappy inspiration, http://creativescrappers.blogspot.com/.

 I don't know exactly how their brand of magic works, but even when I'm down low with chemo side effects, I can look at their sketches and quickly know exactly how I could use each to make an amazing page. Sometimes, it will take me a few weeks to get the page done, but it feels so good to be energized and motivated to create. Last week, however, was a really good week. I've been cutting, inking, doodling, painting, writing and almost any other -ing you imagine.

Last Friday, Creative Scrappers celebrated their sixth birthday. There was an awesome blog hop. I learned about a few crafty stores that I hope to rave about this Friday. There was cake, even pony rides!  Okay, no ponies but definitely cake. As the day came to an end, they released 12 new sketches and an invitation to use them by May 30. If you share what you've made, you could maybe, possibly, who knows win a prize. Either way, I already got my prize by making this page.


Using this sketch:

When I saw Jody's interpretation here I knew I had to use it, too., http://creativeauthority.blogspot.ca/2014/04/creative-scrappers-birthday-bash.html

Now, since you can't see me in this moment, I'll let you know that there may, or may not, be some dorky clapping going on. Here's why. Several moons ago, I watched a tutorial by Glitter Girl. Her intent was to show how we can make the most of a 12x12 space, even with a large photo, multiple photos, a memoir's worth of journaling, OR just wanting to hide your journaling. I've mentioned before that I can struggle with fitting all of my desired photos on one page. Sometimes, even on a 2-pager. Watching this video was liberating.

 http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/gallery/projects/videos/1990056-glitter-girl-adventure-115-print-cut-it-out/

Tada! If you're like me, I'll add, I know, right?! Now I can have even more fun with the latest sketches, even if they call for a single photo because I have a way to add more. Now, if you wonder,  "Hey, Anne! That's great, but what about the page protector?" Glitter Girl thought of that, too. Watch this video when you have more time.

I remembered to take some close pictures this time. I even managed to score a celebrity appearance in a few.

 The ribbon is straight, but the dinosaur punches aren't. This is the paper from which I punched the dinosaurs for the layout, 7 Things About You.

 I painted the wood veneer cameras with Liquid Pearls. All chipboard pieces are from Crate Paper. I knew the collection name two seconds ago, I swear! Chemo Brain, man!

 The green striped candy dot is covering up a typo.

 Navy blue corrugated paper makes me happy!II used my long-ignored photo corner punch to make the navy corrugated pieces.  And, of course, here's the link to my gallery for a more detailed list of schtuff I've used:  crazy long list of goodies

 Can it be? A real Skylanders Giant came by to say hello. Welcome Eyebrawl. You can get off of my layout now. You're too dimensional to fit into the album.

 Alright, Eyebrawl. If you need to get that close, it may be time to see the optometrist.


I love that little boy!

The Annual Report

Good Sunday morning!

Since I'm in a sharing mood, I thought I would do it again.

It seems that I make a lot of pages to honor my son's birthday. There's the cover page for the new album, usually including x facts about him (x = his age, solve for pie...or brownies). There's the page that documents how he spent his birthday. There's also something I call the Annual Report. Basically, I make a page that shows what he looked like on all of his birthdays and the day he was born. Now that he's seven, I have 8 pictures that need arranging PLUS space for writing PLUS all the fun embellishments. This year, I struggled. Even after making a collage with the PicsArt app, it was still a challenge because there were still 8 photos. Then I saw a Sunday Reveal post from Creative Scrappers. 


It was beautiful! Magical! Perfect; especially if I expanded it into a 2-pager.

Again, I'm pretty cozy with my Fancy Pants stash. I added a couple buttons from Jillybean Soup. If you'd like to see product information, here's the link to my gallery:

 Annual Report

The little monsters in the photos are pieces of clipart that can be found when using the PicsArt app. I thought they would make a perfect match to the page design.


Overall, if you were to look at most of the pages I've made, you would see I try to include lots of pictures. Sometimes, it's a difficult challenge. Fortunately, I recently watched a tutorial on YouTube that has changed everything. I've used the trick on two pages I made yesterday. I look forward to sharing both of them very soon. I'm far too excited for my own good.


Until then, the iron is calling my name. I need to get ready for next week.

Milestones

Good Saturday morning! I have been truly blessed this past week with energy, creativity and, the ever-elusive time. The boy has finally started embracing independence and likes spending some time alone, doing his thing. Currently, his thing = learning about Skylanders Trap Team. Yep! I have a gamer.


 I also have time to do things like craft and drink coffee..... I think I forgot to make myself a cup of coffee! While I pop off to fix that, I will share a page I finished yesterday. It's the title page for a fresh album, since The Boy just turned seven recently. Care to tell me what you think?

 I didn't take any close-up photos because I forgot that people do that. Sorry. Many of the doodads and whirlygigs here are Fancy Pants (Be Different). I fell in love with the collection. If you look at the bottom (red trim), I even used the branding strip because it's a message that I want The Boy to remember. Being like everyone else can be a bad idea sometimes.


The tiny dinosaurs are actually 1 part Echo Park paper and 1 part random tiny dinosaur punch that I received in a RAK years ago.


While I still have plenty of energy, I am currently distracted by a visit from my dad. If anyone reads, and would like more information, just ask. I will swing by and check comments.

 Also, I've added product links to this page, as posted at scrapbook.com.   
7 things about you

Mmm, tasty coffee!

Maybe, *Just* Maybe, Trying Again

Hi!

Hello!

Howareya?

I have to admit, I'm laughing right now because I'm not even sure that anyone is going to read this.... ever... I used to view a few blogs daily.  I used to post blogs often.  It's been a couple years since I've tried.

When last I posted, I was a bit past my first year of fighting cancer.  By the end of July, 2012, I had undergone 10 months of chemotherapy, 1 major surgery, radiation and was beginning a different chemo cocktail.

Since that last post, I stuck with that chemo regimen for about nine months.  It wasn't the worst experience, but I didn't like it.  Upshot, I kept my hair.  Downshot, I got to experience a crazy sensitivity to cold (during a Michigan winter!) and neuropathy.  By my second Cancerversary (April), we had made as much progress as we were going to make and I was given a six week break....that lasted eight glorious months.  I did beautiful things.


I celebrated Mother's Day with my son and his Kindergarten class.

I watched him graduate from Kindergarten.

I planned, and my family went on a mini vacation to the Columbus Zoo.  We hadn't gone on
ANY vacation in about twelve years.

I planned, and my family went on our very first camping trip.  My husband has plenty of experience camping, but it was new to my son and I.

My son and I got to experience homework.  I've given it plenty of times, but this was an eye-opener!


We did ALL of the Fall things.


I prepared to celebrate one of the best Christmases EVER.....and then the giant ice storm brought all the change.


In Januaray of 2014, new growth was found and I've been back at the chemo clinic ever since.

But, hey!  I'm still here.  My feed are on *this* side of the grass.  Spring is upon us, even in Michigan.  It's time to renew and see what beauty is waiting to be held.

I should probably admit right now that this week has been an uncommon one.  I have much more energy in this "off" week than I have had in previous off weeks.  My oncologist and I are working on finding ways to get me living more.  That's exactly what I want to do; live MORE!  I want to get back to celebrating life.  It's a pretty darn beautiful thing indeed, is it not?