Bella Creations Tiny Dancer Tag

Good Thursday Morning! I thought I'd pop in quickly to put something pretty in this space. Many of you know already that I have a special love for the site, Bella Creations. It's such a rich source of inspiration for any kind of crafting you enjoy. If you haven't heard of them yet, I encourage you to check them out!

In the month of July, they've had loads of amazing challenges. I'm still working on some, but I'm pretty pleased with the tag I created, thanks to the Oh La La group.


The image of the weary ballerina is courtesy of Gecko Galz Scrapbooking -- loads of stunning digital images! At first, I found myself wondering why she was so tired; perhaps she danced just a little too much that evening. Perhaps she's been burning the candle at both ends, like so many Super Women on this rock. This sounds like a few of my closest friends.

Over the course of a few days, I thought about this image and my friends. Eventually, my thoughts lighted on a song by Cage the Elephant. It seemed a perfect fit; especially since one of my candle-burning friends has been telling me for fifteen years, "I'll sleep when I'm dead." This lead me to insert a piece inside the tag; just for her.


Below, I found the song on You Tube. If you like your music punky, I encourage you to click and enjoy for a few.

....It could be argued that this is a darker take on the challenge. I think I'd agree. I've been in a dark/funny/fighter frame of mind for a while now. It keeps me going.

The I Wanna's

Good Friday Afternoon! How is July treating all of you? Truthfully, it's treating me alright. We've had loads of sunshine and opportunities to explore outside.

I celebrated another birthday -- the big 3-5! I gotta say it was fairly well awesome. I got my wine and cheesecake. I made a page about it. It's gorgeous. I just have to find the will to photograph it to share. Until then, you can know....


For the sake of credit, I found this image thanks to this site here. It seems to be the top of my list of I Wanna's.

I wanna....

be crafty again. Before I got sick, I was able to whip out at least one, if not two, crafty items a day AND play with my son AND have a nice dinner on the table in the evening AND have at least one housekeeping item accomplished. It's the crafting I miss most. It's my creative and emotional outlet. It's my opportunity to learn and grow.

consistently create pieces that make other people say, "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" I want to make amazing cutesy kiddie pieces, vintage Victorian pieces, all out Rock N Roll pieces.

be focused and start in on an awesome card for my son's Pre-School Teacher. I'd also like to make a beginning-of-the-school year gift for her. I want to let her know she's appreciated from the beginning, because, well... I've met my son. I know what he's capable of -- amazing and dastardly.

participate in my son's upcoming education. I want to be "one of those mom's" who offers up the healthy snacks when it's her turn; comes to all the little events; is able to help the teacher in any manner necessary during the year. I think this is also because I'm realizng that I wanna...

still do all that fun teachery stuff myself. I used to teach; first through fourth grades. I got a wild hair this morning with my son to see if he understood WHY four was the "biggest" number (out of 1, 4, and 3) when prompted by Team Umi Zoomi. He couldn't tell me why he knew; just that he knew so I drew him to the table with the lure of chocolate goldfish, markers and paper. Once he caught on (like after the first attempt) that each number has a value attached to it, he was all good to go. It felt good to empower him with those details. It felt right. It felt like I wanted to do it again, but with more children.... just not a full classroom... nor a full night's worth of grading papers so I CAN'T spend time with my son.

I wanna have the best of all my worlds -- motherhood, career, crafting, being healthy and staying alive.

I wanna get back into a routine of cardio and strength training. It's clear I'm going to be fighting cancer long enough that being skinny but squishy is not going to be "okay" much longer.

I wanna be assured that this beautiful hazelnut coffee with caramel praline creamer AND two cookies are not going to strike back later. It's been a rough post-chemo week for me physically. It's been two weeks since I've really been able to feel like I've done something fulfilling with my time. I think that's why I just got all wiggy and started to create this rambling post.

That, and it's been long enough that I should point out I'm still alive. At the very least, I've got a starting point to create some objectives and plans for myself. I'm going to love the next six weeks of Summer and try to make the most of them. But I'm also already looking forward to Fall, and my son starting a new adventure of his own. It's been my survival mechanism -- looking forward -- to get through all the nonsense I'm dealing with right now.

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?