Hello Beautiful

Back in October Molly cut off all her long hair into a punk pixie.  I don't know about the rest of the world, but this is not a common thing for 8th graders here in lovely Cleveland-ish Ohio.

I took the before and after shots the day of the haircut, and printed them out that same day, and started a layout the next day.  It's been 2½ months, so the details are fuzzy, but it was pretty atrocious, so I ditched the start of that layout and "started" fresh.  Startin fresh consisted of taking out a new sheet of white cardstock, putting the photos and the words "short" and "long" cut from the Silhouette on the cardstock and walking away.

I only meant to walk away until I had some more free time, but it ended up being longer than that.  I just didn't feel like scrapbooking.  I didn't have time, but more than that I didn't have any mojo.  And I sort of wanted to have mojo, but at the same time I was sort of okay with just focusing on other things for a while.  Well, the craziness of Christmas in retail seems to be over, and I have two weeks off from tutoring.  Yes, there was Christmas, and company, and other craziness, but finally, finally I had time and mojo.  Yay!

I decided to dump the original "the long and short of it" title and go with "hello Beautiful" instead.  I used a heart background from the Silhouette store, 2Peas flair and Bella Blvd paper.

LOL.  I just noticed that the glare on the flair makes it look like it says "hell Beautiful."  Oops.

Some details:

I sort of wish everyone flipping through my album saw this layout in harsh sunlight, just so those shadows would be there. :P

I was an assistant manager at Archiver's for about 16 months and (at least when I was there) rhinestones were pretty much mandatory on every layout.  Here, I'm just trying to correct a mistake, but every mistake is fixed even better with bling. Right?

The Theresa Collins letters end up looking okay, but I'm still not pleased with them. (Insert grumpy noise here)  And the messiness here is more due to the fact that I had to pry them up and shift them to right to make room for the picture.  If I weren't so lazy I'd run it through my sewing machine, because it doesn't exactly look permanent...but...yeah...that's so much work.  :P

So, I mentioned in the process video that I had a "thing" I need to work on that might keep me from scrapbooking for a while and hinted that I'd talk about here, so I feel obligated to address that.  If you visit my blog, you might have seen the last post about my interviewing for a teaching position recently.  I didn't get it, but the whole process reminded me that I do want to be a teacher.  I'm not certain what snapped in me when I finished my student teaching experience, but I basically dug in my heals and said (in so many words) "I'm not going to teach."  Which is pretty silly, since it's something that I've wanted and worked towards for a long time.  But no is the time for me to get serious.  That interview fell into my lap, and as a private school they were willing and able to take me without my having passed The Exam.  But that was a one time occurrence: schools will not contact me, and they won't even look twice at me without being fully certified.  So I really have to buckle down and take my exams.

There are two: one in my subject (7-12th grade math) and the other in pedagogy (the theories and methods of teaching).  I have every confidence that I will ace the math exam on my first try.  However, the pedagogy test is scary - I took those classes first and have had plenty of time to forget which theorists thought what.  I sort of half-heartedly started studying in October, Now I really need to hunker down and make a steady go it.

I hope to take the tests in late February or early March.  So in the meantime I'll be spending my spare time taking notes, making flash cards and quizzing myself.  Doesn't that sound like fun??

Today is New Years Day.  The first day of 2015!  I hope that we all (me included!) have a healthy, prosperous and creative year!  Thank you for visiting!

It's a party up in here!

Okay, not really, but I've got tons to share today!

First, we've begun our journey to rid the world of scrapbook police! First stop: Paige Evans!  Go here. Now. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Just go.

That was a risky move on my part.  Because that layout is GORGEOUS and there's a huge chance that you'll get sucked into her black hole of creativity, never to return.  Seriously, the page she shares is amazing and inspiring.  And so is the message.

Second:
As I write, there is a SECOND (holy cow!) process video uploading to YouTube!  Yay!  Did you subscribe to my channel?  22 of you have, and that's about 21 more than I expected!  Anyway, if you haven't, you should!  ;)

Here's a look at the layout that's going up:

The video is about 13 minutes long.  Grab a beer or coffee (time of day dependent...I suppose. :P)  and give it a watch.

And lastly, I have a (VERY) humble plea.  My oldest daughter is heading back to school in a couple of weeks and is in dire need of new computer.  She is working her tail off this summer to earn the money to cover her living expenses - her food, gas, utilities for the year.  She works two jobs on campus.  She brought home straight A's this year.  In short, she's pretty amazing.  Her mother, on the other hand, is a bit of a deadbeat.  No! I'm just kidding!  I've been going to school for the last four years to get certified to teach high school math.  In January I quit my full time job to do my student teaching.  When my student teaching ended, I got two part time jobs and things were tight, but we were scrapping by.  Then I fell and broke my arm and I've been out of work for going on 4 weeks.  Most of my savings went toward covering my living expenses while I did my student teaching.  The rest is dwindling fast while I have no income.  Meanwhile, we're ramping up to back to school and I know she needs that computer.  Torn about how to help her, I decided to see if I could raise some money by starting a GoFundMe campaign.  This is not how I'd prefer to do things, but I'll happily swallow my pride if it means I can help my daughter.  I've been divorced for 8 years now, and I still find myself scrambling.  My biggest wish for her is that she never finds herself in this position. Her education (and this computer) will ensure that she never does.

Please consider making a donation....even a little one.  $5 or $10...it all adds up.

You have have my gratitude for even thinking about it.  And if you decide that you'd like to help, or if you'd like to read more about why this computer is important to her, more information can be found here: Maggie's GoFundMe.

And just because you need to know who you'd be helping:

Maggie is the big eye'd kid in the middle.  Eating cotton candy.  (circa 2011)

THANK YOU for stopping by!  I hope you checked out the video and enjoyed it!

Throwback Thursday: Three Wishes

Looking through my old layouts has really helped me understand why the Silhouette was destined to be my best mechanical friend:

This layout is from 2003 and looks like it's been through the ringer.  But that title...  Even back in the day, the title was the thing for me.  If I was feeling lazy, I'd print something out on the computer, but most of the time I'd find an appropriate font, get it sized the way I wanted and print a mirrored version on the back side of my cardstock and cut it out with an Exact-o knife and micro-tip scissors.

Molly just turned 14 and I just shared the layout about her making her cake, so this seemed appropriate to go along with that.  She was such a beautiful little girl.  Blond hair, chubby cheeks, big brown eyes...  And dear lord, was she feisty!  Well, some things haven't changed.

I'm going to put the journaling here because it's really hard to read, even on the layout itself.  At least this way if it continues to fade I'll have a record of it.

Three wishes, one for each candle on your cake.  Health: I want you to be strong and healthy, both physically and mentally...eat healthy, exercise, get lots of rest.  Be confident in who you are. Trust your judgement. Know who to trust in life (hint: Mom and Dad! We always have your best interest at heart!) Happiness: I want you to know joy on a daily basis.  Some days will be hard, but even in the toughest times there is pleasure if you remember to open your eyes and heart to let it in.  Laughter: Let humor be your safety net. Take yourself seriously, always try to be the best you can be, but don't forget to laugh often.  Find humor in everything you can, including yourself! If you can manage to laugh , health and happiness won't ever be far off!

Thanks for stopping by!  

Taste the Rainbow

Molly turned 14 earlier this month.  Specifically, five days after I broke my arm. Lucky her.  (#sarcasm) She'll just have to wait to get beat at putt-putt golf.

Instead, we had a DIY b-day celebration.  I picked up some Duff's Tie-Dye Cake Mix from Target and crossed my fingers that little Miss Moody, er, wow, did I say that outloud?? Yikes. I crossed my fingers that little Miss Molly would find the idea of making her own cake acceptable.  Luckily, she did.  Plus, her sister Maggie hung around to help (thank goodness...I was in my very helpless days back then).  But Maggie's presence always helps Molly's mood.  (I feel like that's one m-word away from being a killer tongue-twister)

They set to work in the kitchen, I curled up on the sofa with an ice pack and Kerig took over photographer duties.  God bless him, because if there's food being made, he's there to document the shit out of that occasion!

The cake prep involved no less than 12 small bowls for tinted cake mix, 200 hand strokes of the batter, and 13 readings of the directions.  I was bracing for a hot mess and had to remind myself that even brown Easter eggs make tasty egg salad.  And let's face it: chocolate cake is brown, and no one has a beef with that, right?

Guess who was wrong?

The cake actually turned out very cool looking!  There was probably 4 times as much frosting on there than I would have preferred, but it was apparently necessary for the overall design aesthetic.  Or something like that.

I wanted the layout to convey the same joyful exuberance that the cake did - lots of colors and sprinkles everywhere.  Had I thought about it at the time, actual sugar might have been used.

I used tons of Bella Blvd papers from their Scattered Sprinkles, Summer Squeeze and Classic Calendars line.  The font for "rainbow" is called Blackout and I've gotten a lot of use out of it.  (See: here  & here)  The font comes the way you see here - with the blocks already cut out around the letters.  I've used the letters themselves as well as the negative space frame, like here.  I love it.  I used my old standby SNF Lollihop  for the word taste.  Truth be told, I don't love it here.  The word taste should be - well, I don't want to say smaller...I think I want to say "less bold".  It's just so visually large, but honestly, I did the title towards the end and I was just plain and simple running out of steam at that point. I did cut it out with a rainbow of cardstock colors for underneath, but you had to be viewing at just the right angle and have perfect close up vision to see it.  Lord knows, that detail is lost to me, but my daughter swears she can see it.  Either way, the word is too big, but I give myself a sold B for the effort.

I also used a very old Heidi Swapp mask and some new(ish) Heidi Swapp color shine sprays to break up the starkness of the plain white background.  I was on the fence about how it came out, but on the finish page, the actual design gets lost (probably a good thing) and you're just left with some blobs of color...and that's okay.

This layout has EIGHT photos on it.  Holy cow.  That's a lot.  And I haven't done a two page spread in years and years.  it was weird, trying to remember how to work all of this.  But I like so many of the photos and I had a hard enough time working it down to just these few, so I'm really glad I came up with a way to squeeze them all on.

Thanks for stopping by!

Drive by posting

I have to work early tomorrow morning, so I should really be heading to bed 20 minutes ago, but it's my birthday and my girls are in the kitchen frosting cupcakes. So I'm typing as fast as I can in a race to the creative finish! May the best woman win!  :P

This is from Molly's softball game last week.  The opposing teams pitcher didn't get off to the best start and was throwing balls left and right (quite literally).  I managed to catch the one shot with the ball bouncing just in front of home plate.  Molly was pretty good about not wildly swinging at everything (even balls that were less obvious than that one) and ended up getting walked.  

Kerig listened to the Paperclipping Roundtable last week when I was on.  One of the questions that was asked was "What's your favorite part of the process?" and I talked about that moment just after you have the "a-ha" moment and you have something that grounds you and gives you direction, so you still have lots of little decisions to make, but the big decision is made.  While I was working on this layout he kept asking me "Did you have your a-ha moment yet?" and honestly, it took a while.  But I was scrolling through my Silhouette library and saw the word "Calm" and everything jiggled into place.  While I think "Keep calm..." is way played out right now, I liked the idea of using it since it tied into the idea that Molly was, in fact, remaining calm and doing what she needed to get on base.  (And if you haven't watched the movie Moneyball, you should!)  For this, the color scheme was nice and easy. So it was just a matter of coming up with a title and some decorative space fillers!

For the millionth time I used the stacking technique for the title where I did the bottom layers in a fun color and the top in black.  I should find a new trick pony to ride, but I just love the way this looks!  

You can't see it in this photo, but I used two photo corners that I colored black with a Sharpie.  I talk about this technique in a blog post here, and while it's the world's simplest thing, I love that one package of photo corners has managed to be used so many times without feeling like I'm compromising because of the color.  And I was really pleased when my oldest daughter looked at the layout she specifically pointed them out and said she liked the way they looked.  Oh, la, la! They got a notice by a real live art person.  (Maggie is studying industrial design, which is sort of like if an artist and an engineer had a baby.  One day she'll design some funky lamp or clock or children's toy that you look at and say "ooh, that's cool!")

Okay, this has rambled all over the place!  And for the record, the "best woman" was Molly and Maggie.  The cupcakes were delicious! And now it's way past my bedtime!  Thanks for stopping by!  

Take Two.

Last night I sat down and wrote a big ol' post but when I hit preview there was nothing there.  I hit back and there was nothing there, either. YIKES.  Oh well.  So let's try this again.

I mentioned in my last post that there was a layout I did a couple of weeks ago but never photographed, so let's do that one first:

Molly got her hair cut a month or so ago.  In the past haircuts have been about trimming off the yucky stuff at the bottom but keeping it long and ponytail friendly.  Not this time! While it still has to be ponytail friendly (softball season is almost here, after all!), but this time it was about style. Long layers, side swept bangs and enough product to make the bottom spike-y with a badass punk rock feel.  Molly is going through (what I hope is) a phase - listening to music that no one likes, eye balling Doc Martens and asking for a pierced lip for her birthday -- "It's the only thing I want!"  Yeah, well, it's among the many things you're NOT getting.  So the slightly punk hairdo was the easiest to accommodate option of her "I need to express myself" desires.

I like all the fun colors, and I think that patterned paper is semi-perfect for teenage girls.  They all embrace "peace" and the peace sign.  But I'm old enough to remember the original peace culture.  So it's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of using "peace" paper (which recalls hippies) on a page where the kid listens to metal and wants to pierce her face.  But if I let go of the 70s connotation....yeah, it's perfect. :P

Can you tell I had just gotten sequins?  There are certain trends that I have a hard time with (I struggle with twine and never quite got ribbon), but flair and sequins?  Those I like!

Next, I've got a couple of layouts from this week.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I think sport pages are very challenging.  And when I finish one that I like, that feels serious and manly and does Ted's effort justice, well, then I'm happy.  And I'm happy.

The title for this actually came from a text I sent him after this game.  I know how he is after his team loses - he's quiet and thoughtful.  It might look grumpy from the outside, but I know he's running game reels of every play that could have gone better.  I respect that reflection, he's not dwelling or wallowing, he's learning.  I love that.  But this game. Wow.  It was a playoff game and both teams were playing very, very well.  He pitched the entire game, which I think is incredible, but even more so when you factor in that he's a freshman on the varsity team.  That's a lot of pressure.  He's up against a lot of talent.  And to hold that team to 3 runs?  That's impressive.  So I sent him a text telling how impressed I was and how with experiences like these he was going to be a beast in his junior and senior years.  Once the pictures were printed I knew what the title should be.

But know what the title will say and how it should look are two entirely different things. My first instinct with titles is always to go to the Silhouette.  Always. So I went to the software, wrote out the word beast and scrolled through my font options.  When I came to the stencil font it clicked: use the Silhouette stencil material and spray mist to create a title that looks stamped on.  The stencil material is easy to use, and I just squirted a couple shots of spray mist into a plastic container and used a cotton ball to dab it on.  I really love the way it turned out - it's masculine and really seems to fit the mood of the layout.

And last:

After my stencil success on the beast layout, I decided to try the stencil material again.  So I used this 6x8 hexagon design, ungrouped it and started deleting hexagons all willy-nilly like.   And I really like the matte medium people are using.  But...I never know what to buy...and then when I see the price my cheap side takes over.  So I McGyver'd it.  I used my Nori paste (which I love and use for my wood veneers) - put a spoonful into a plastic container, spritzed it with powder blue Mr. Huey, gave it a good stir and smooshed it into the stencil with an old gift card.  I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I sprinkled a tiny bit of blue glitter on the design while it was still wet.  I'd love it if some real matte medium would show up on my doorstep, but in the meantime, I'm pleased with my homemade version.

When Molly was a toddler she was always on the move UP.  We'd have to pull her down from precarious positions constantly.  We couldn't turn our back on her for a second.  So she was dubbed Mountain Goat Molly.  Eventually she was re-dubbed Coinslot Molly because she couldn't keep her pants up and we were constantly eyeballing her butt crack.  Hopefully there won't be a "Coinslot Molly" page in our futures. ;)

Anyway, on Mother's Day we went for a walk around downtown Cleveland.  This was a go-to activity back when I was super poor, and this was our first time doing this with Kerig.  We had a great time and found a whole bunch of new places.  This was taken at the Sailors and Soldiers monument.  While the rest of us were walking around looking UP at all the sculptures and reading the plaques, Molly had perched herself up on this ledge.  She was definitely waiting to be photographed.  And she even suggested the title. Sort of.  She seemed to recall that we called her monkey, but that was easily fixed. ;)

So that's it for today! I hope you have a happy  Friday!  Thanks (as always) for stopping by.

Chilly, Sheldon and 65

Ok!  Raise your hand if you're not sorry to see the end of the 2013!  Raise your other hand if you're hoping that 2014 has more ups and fewer downs.  Yep.  Me too.  Now put your hands down.  You look silly.   :P

I thought I'd sneak in one last post for the year, and it's a two-fer.  Because I was over taken by some nasty malware (which I'm not thoroughly convinced is gone.  If you have a suggestion for an ass-kicking malware detector, by all means, pass it on in the comment section!) -- anyway, because of malware, I was rescheduled on the Silhouette blog and by some fluke I was on both yesterday and today. It feels like all-Caroline-all-the-time over there right now. :P

First up, Chilly:

As is so often the case: I like this in real life more.  IRL it doesn't appear so lopsided - that element at the top looks like it was cut off in the scan here, but it looks more purposeful in person.  That said, I don't love this layout. However, there is one detail that I do swoon over:

I love the way the circles cut from the vellum look.  It reminds me of the snow in the Charlie Brown Christmas special, when all the kids are outside skating.  It just makes me happy.  It didn't show up well in the whole-page shot, but you can see it better in person. And here. ;)

Next up, a goofy layout featuring Sheldon, from The Big Bang Theory:

I realize this looks silly and made up, but I promise, this is a memory for us.  Kerig spent a couple of hours shooting our "tree" (really a spider plant with a silver silver ball hanging from it), the Christmas presents, the Christmas lights and other assorted shots with christmas light bokeh as the background.  I will look at this shot and remember him laying on the ground, fussing with his tripod, breaking out different lenses for different effects.

And I love my CAMEO:

There's something about that crisp, clean cut, the red against the white that makes my heart sing a little.  Can you imagine trying to hunt down a store bought title for this goofy picture? I think not.

So there it is.  This is my 65th post this year.  I had sent a pie-in-the-sky goal of 76 (twice what I did in 2012 and 2011) and I honestly didn't think I'd come this close.  Thank you for stopping by.  I hope that your 2014 is your best year yet!

My day up on the SIlhouette blog

Which means I get to share here and add my 2¢.

So, I talk about most of the Silhouette-y stuff over at their blog, so I'm going to skip that stuff. ;)  Problem is, when I write the post for them I'm thinking "Oh, I want to talk about this on my blog.  And this, too!" But a week and a half later I can't remember doodley.

Except:

So, the one thing that I wanted to mention is that I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive for this technique and I really think it made a world of difference.  I can't think of another adhesive that would have been this quick and this rock solid.  I gently folded the leaves and had a blob of the Quick Dry on a piece of scrap paper and I just dipped them in and put them on the page.  I was able to scooch them around for maybe 10 or 20 seconds, but then after that they were pretty well stuck.  I was worried that the glue - which is white - would be super obvious.  But it dried clear.  You can see it if there are big globs of it, but fortunately I was tidy. ;)

The other thing that I want to point out is that I LOVE THIS TOOL:

It's the Silhouette Spatula and it's pretty amazing.  I don't get all goo goo about everything that comes my way, and in the interest of full disclosure: this was given to me by Silhouette. And I'm sooo glad they did!  Obviously it's main purpose is to lift things off the cutting mat.  And it does an excellent job at that.  It has saved me from ripping all kinds of intricate cuts.  I can't explain why it's so fantastic, but it is. There's something about the way it curves into a point - it allows you to work it under the thin, delicate parts of the design to gently pry it up.

But it's useful for other things, as well.  For instance, the leaves up there are fairly small.  I couldn't quite bend them easily with my chubby fingers.  I used the spatula tool and bent the leaves around it.  Made life so much easier.  AND, I've been working on another project that will go up next week and there's a TON of glitter involved.  TONS.  Ever notice that when you sprinkle glitter some of it that doesn't land in the glue sticks around? FOREVER? I'm finding this tool very handy for removing glitter that gets stuck in crevices.  I'll point this out when I have a decent example that I can share.  But it's just another reason why I love this tool.

So that's that.  I loved so many pictures from this afternoon, and I hope to do at least two more layouts.  I hope that I can squeeze them in before I love my autumn-mojo.  Does that happen to anyone else??  The two layouts that I want to do are story based and have nothing to do with the time of year, but naturally the color scheme will still reflect that.  But once the season passes, I find it harder and harder to get motivated to do "out of season" layouts. Hmmm.

I think I feel safe in saying that I won't be posting again before Thanksgiving, so I feel comfortable in wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving.  

Halloween Prep, y'all.

(I don't know what exactly the "y'all" is about.  I'm feeling sort of punchy at the moment, I guess.)

A couple of weekends ago our big Sunday fun was carving pumpkins.  Here's a little full disclosure for you: I hadn't really planned on carving pumpkins this year.  The kids spend the week with their dad so it seems sort of silly to go to the expense for something they'd see twice.  Plus, they're getting to that age where holidays just aren't as big a deal as they used to be.  Or so I thought.  So when Molly asked if we were carving pumpkins I didn't think to consult Kerig, I just said no.  It was a decision I'd already made.  Although, Kerig had apparently made his own decision about the situation, and as soon as he heard me say no, he chimed in with "Yes, we are."  Well, okay then.  It hadn't occurred to me that maybe he was looking forward to this.  So I was happily overruled.

We went to the local pumpkin patch  nursery garden center and chose our pumpkins. Ted, Kerig and I chose moderate sized pumpkins - something big enough for carving room, but not so large as to be a pain in the neck to carry upstairs.  Molly, on the other hand, bought into BIGGER IS BETTER and picked out one of the biggest ones they had.

At home we washed them off, spread some newspaper, cranked Pandora's Halloween station and went to work.  Molly had already picked out her design from the pattern book that came with the tools - a ghoul at a graveyard spookily raising his hand.  Since I really wasn't super into it, I just went with a standard jack-o-lantern face, with rounded features.  Kerig contemplated his design for quite some time and settled in on a menacing jack-o-lantern face with sizable fangs.

Ted, however, was the man this year.  I don't think of Ted as being super artistic, but he's very good with the fixing/building/figuring out of things.  He decided that he wanted to do Snoopy asleep on his doghouse.  He asked to borrow my laptop and searched google images until he found something suitable to use as a guide.  And I'll be darned if he didn't make it work!

It's really nice having Kerig around.  He's quick to pick up a camera and he's good at it, too.  He stepped right in, made certain there was a picture of everyone working as well as final product shots, and lots of other details.  It was hard to not use all the pictures, but I managed to whittle it down to just 6 pictures and then printed them relatively small.

And then I carefully crammed them all onto one page:

Since I struggle when using more than one picture on a page, I feel rather triumphant that I was able to semi-effectively cram 6 pictures on here.  Go me!

Hey, so, uh, this was up on the Silhouette blog yesterday.  If you're so inclined, you can click this link and check it out again over there.  Cuz yeah. Why not?
.

Mwahahaha

That, my friends, is a pathetic attempt at a Vincent Price-esque scary laugh.  It loses a little in print, no?

At the end of last month we went on the Willhoughby Ghost Walk. I really had fun*.  Which is different than "I had fun!" and even "I had fun."  I would have had more fun if it weren't $15 a person.  I would have had more fun if we got to go into one or two of the creepy places we were hearing about.  I would have had tons of fun if something had tapped me on the shoulder or appeared in misty form.  But alas, the spirits were all well behaved that night.

We did get to go into the local cemetery, which is always spooky fun at night.  We walked down to the Willhoghby Coal Supply store and heard about how one of the owners allegedly killed the other and how the place has had lots of unexplained activity over the years.  It was interesting to listen to the stories and the story teller was great - she acted all scared to stand in front of the windows, as if something might come out and get her.

One of the last stops on the walk was at a bed and breakfast.  She never told the story of how the place got haunted (the initial death story) but had tales of workers renovating it reporting all kinds of weird things happening.  After this tour I'm firmly convinced that ghosts think it's a real hoot to make off with construction worker's tools.  Oh, Casper, you crazy ghost!  I was kind of blowing the place off as being not truly haunted, because none of the activity was that ghostly.  But then she told us that the place is so creepy that the owners moved out after living there only a short time and they don't even spend the night when they have overnight visitors.  The place is beautiful, but even when there are guests the owners make the food and feed them, make sure they're set for the night and then leave them, locking the door behind them.  Guests have reported all manor of unexplained sounds, from foot steps in the hall to doors being scratched on.

After the tour we headed back to the car and I dared Ted and Molly to sit on the stairs of the B&B and have their picture taken.  They didn't seem like it was any big deal, but there was no way I would have sat with my back to the front door.  I'm a bona fide chicken.  And even though I think most of what we heard is just crazy stories with logical explanations, I do sort of believe in ghosts.  And one is better safe than sorry in that regard.

I'm not going to lie: my most favorite thing about this layout is the little spooky fun box!  It was part of the package that Kathleen sent.  It's a wood veneer piece and it was a little too start as naked wood, but I just used a black Sharpie to color it in and then used a sanding block to rough it up a little.  Also, I've never successfully managed to cut vellum on my Silhouette before (and then I quit trying) so I was super excited that this worked out.  The word 'ghost" is cut from the Silhouette (shocker!) using the font LD Petticoat Black, which I got in the Silhouette store. Some months I feel like my subscription money is best spent of fonts that I know will cut well.  The fact that it sort of works with my layout is just a bonus.

Just like me.

Not much to say today.  I started this layout a week ago.  I've been super run down lately, so I might walk past my drafting table and fuss for a minute or two, but I'd quickly lose interest. Vegging on the sofa has been so much more appealing lately.  On Sunday we put the movie Jack Reacher in, and I (erroneously) figured that I wouldn't have any interest in it.   This finally gave me the get-up-and-go to finally finish this.  

A post or two ago I mentioned that I was really inspired by the ombre painting effect I saw on twopeasinabucket.com recently.  I actually did the background of this about 15 minutes after posting that.  It was super easy and even though I'll probably never use this technique again, but it's always cool to put another trick in the bag. 

I sort of stink at you using clear acrylic stamps.  I really have a hard time getting a crisp, clean image.  I love the idea of some of the stamps that are coming out, but boy, I just have a hard time diving in when my success rate is so low.  

That said, I really love the frosty blue enamel dot.  It came in a package from my friend Kathleen, by way of Freckled Fawn.  I dig the idea of enamel dots in general, but the frost nature makes these dots especially beautiful.  

Alrighty then! I have a test in the morning, so I suppose I should mosey on to bed soon.  I should have another post up in a day or two.  If the light cooperates, that is.  

Thanks for stopping by!  

so lucky

Hello! It was a busy two weeks, so I'm happy to have a minute and a layout to share!

"So," I said to myself, "I seem to like those template thingees.  And I like using them 'my' way - where I paint the stencil with the inks and then press it into the paper, rather than laying it on the paper and spraying or painting over the template.   But I probably need to 'invest' in another one or two styles."  

So I did.

"And," I said to myself, "I like the way people are smashing that paste-y looking stuff into the templates.  It looks cool, and texture-y.  I want to try that. BUT, there's no way I'm buying something new.  There's got to be a way to use what I've got to do something fun/cool/new (to me) with these templates.

So put the template at the top of cardstock and used my fingertips to smear in some Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, and then I sprinkled a little bit of two of my Martha Stewart hairy glitters and a little of my Martha Steward beads into the glue while it was drying.  Sadly, I thought the glue was dry at one point and wiped the damn thing with a paper towel.  Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either.  Up until that point the chevron design was very apparent.  But I decided that the messy look was okay and I was too cheap to abandon another sheet of American Crafts white cardstock.  

Things I like about this layout: that it was created using nothing but scraps from recent layouts.  I like the muted but still-happy colors.  I like the hearts, especially on the newsprint.  I like those hearts on the newsprint so much that I didn't even take off the branding strip.  Thanks, Simple Stories, for a fun and unexpected design element. ;)

Things I don't like about this layout: It's a little light in the journaling area.  But there wasn't too much I wanted to say.  We've been trying to get out and about every Sunday, but other than saying where we were, I was able to narrow it down to three memory joggers: acorns, big snake and chili.  For those of us that were there that day we'll know which walk in the park it was.  I figure that's enough, but I still wish I had something deep and meaningful to say.  

(gratuitous detail shot of "title" and "journaling")(feel free to make exaggerated air quotes while reading that)

Other item to note: friend Kathleen D sent me some Lawn Fawn baubles as well as a gift certificate to Lawn Fawn's site.  I can't thank you enough, Mama Du! While I only managed to use one of the baubles (the YAY fabric covered brad) from the original package, the washi tape, aqua-ish enamel dots and the blue bird at the bottom were from their site.  As it turns out, I may love Lawn Fawn, which is news to me because they hadn't even blipped on my radar screen yet.  You're like the match.com of the scrapbooking world. ;)

And lastly, looking forward: I really want to try this:

It maybe hard to tell from this shot, and if you're curious to see what I'm talking about you can watch the video that shows it better here.

At any rate, she paints spray mist onto the background, right in the center, but then adds a spritz or two of water and paints a little on either side of the original swath and then adds more water and paints on the outside.  The final effect is a subtle ombre wash over the background.  It's so soft and yet adds a nice base.

Ok.  I think that's all I've got and things are starting to get hectic around me.  I guess I should quit goofing off and work a little. 

Good Times here

So, this is how my day started:


At first I was like "Huh??" then I was like "What??"

Apparently one of our customers had a little problem turning off her car and sort of bumped into our front door.  I had the day off yesterday (I miss all the fun) so imagine my "What the ...???" reaction when I pulled into the parking lot this morning.

The day took several more interesting turns, but those are 'get you in trouble' details that shouldn't be posted on a blog.  But I will say this: I hope that after I am gone, only flattering pictures of me are shared.  I have to imagine that we are all - at some level - a little vain.  I would think that if we could ask those that we've lost "Can I/Should I share this image of you that paints you in a light that is less than flattering?" the answer would be "No."  I would hope that we wouldn't even ask.  I'd thought it was common sense, until recently.

Can you tell that what I've seen has had an affect on me?

Let's shake it off:

These pictures are 2 years old!  I am not at all "up to date" in my scrapping, but I've just sort of swept all the old stuff out of the way and I've mostly been playing with new pictures.  So this is a fun surprise for me.  These may not be the best pictures, but I do love them.  First, I have really enjoyed going to minor league baseball games - the park is intimate with not a bad seat in the house; it's super affordable; and I love watching these kids trying to break into the big leagues.  Right now they're underdogs, and I can get behind that.  Second, I love that the three of them have so much fun together and that they all want to go to these games.

I'm wrestling with some thoughts lately.  I feel like my pages are all starting to look the same.  They're not, but I think that part of my issue is that on an 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock there's only so many ways of arranging elements.  It's crowded, yo.  A suppose the white cardstock that I use constantly doesn't help, either.  But it's just so much easier to lay down a sheet of white cardstock and say "This is what I'm using" than labor over color choices for an hour.  It's exhausting and not in a fun way.  Now there's the layering, and even though you dig through scraps and baubles to find new stuff every time, it sort of feels the same just because it's there.

So part of that wrestle is thinking "Maybe I should switch back to 12x12?"  I only switched to 8.5x11 because I was doing Layout a Day and I wanted the ease of flopping the layout on a scanner bed, because I couldn't commit to taking decent pictures at 11:58 p.m.  But now I don't feel pressed to record a layout the minute I first decide it's finished.  I wonder if that bigger piece of real estate would solve all my problems and make me a truly happy person?  No.  Just kidding.  But I do wonder about the space, and how it would give me more wiggle room.

But that's about where it ends, because I'm just not willing to give up the things that I like about 8.5x11:
The albums aren't enormous.
I can computer journal right on my page.  (Not that I exercise this option a lot, but it's nice to know it's there)
The scraps. Oh, I love me some good scraps.
I don't have to feel guilty about only using one picture on a page.  And I do that alot.

And, I have to believe that it's more economical.  Here's why:  a 12x12 layout has an extra 50 square inches of space.  Even if I didn't embellish more because there's a bigger space to cover, the cardstock would still cost more just because it's bigger.  But the fact of the matter is I would embellish more - I may be comfortable with white space, but I still feel a certain amount of the page has to be used lest it look awkward.  So using a bigger piece of cardstock would cost me more just because I'd motor through supplies faster.

Oh.  That would mean I could justify shopping more.

Might have to rethink this...

Be vewy vewy quiet...

we're hunting seaglass.

The weekend before last we took Kerig to Headlands for the first time.  At about a mile from end to end, I think it's the biggest natural sand beach in Ohio.  After wading our way from the parking lot to the water's edge, Molly plunked down in the small rocks of the high tide mark and started looking for seaglass.  

I have to say - it's a highly contagious and addicting activity. It wasn't long before Ted and I were in on it, too.  Kerig was the official glass keeper and photographer.  It's nice to have one of those around!  

I have been using these teal-ish blues all summer long.  I don't know if it's a trend or a crutch at this point.  But at least time it has a basis in the photos... sort of. 

The papers are all new from last week's Archiver's run, as are the letter stickers and the ticket-y looking things.   I don't know if it's a good thing that I'm using everything that I got right away or if it's causing me to ignore the already-huge stash of papers that I already have.  

In my last post I made a comment about maybe selling banners and word based cuts on Etsy.  That wasn't a fleeting thought that I threw out there to see how it sounded.  I've actually spent a fair amount of free time making designs.  You can't just buy shapes from the Silhouette store, but them out in bulk and sell them.  The designs are Silhouette's intellectual property, and can't be used like that.  But I can design my own things and cut and sell them.  I'm no artist, that's for certain.  But I think I can make this work.  The "amazing" banner and the little marker with the three red hearts are (a tiny little) part of what I've come up with so far. 

I think that's all I've got for today.  

One full year of blogging, crammed into a mere 8½ (ish) months!

I started this blog in November of 2009 and squeezed in a whopping 5 posts before the end of the year.  In 2010 I was breaking a sweat with 21 entries.  Somewhere in 2011 I had this epiphany: if you're going to have a blog, you actually have to post.  Colloquially: Shit or get off the pot. So I ramped it up a bit, and logged 38 posts.  In 2012 I joined the Cord Scrapbook Studio Design Team and became sort of a regular blogger.  I had more to say, more to share, and a reason.  I wasn't just talking into the abyss, it was expected.  (I loooove having a good 'excuse' for things!) But then the year of academic hell broke loose and at that point most of my posts were me whining about school.  Wah. Wah. Wah.

Once school let out this spring, I was itching to scrapbook!  I've had a couple of busy patches, but I've been steadier lately.  And happier about scrapbooking than I've been in a long time.  I would do the design team again in a heartbeat, but I'm enjoying the freedom - now it doesn't matter where things were bought or whether there still available.  If I like it, boom, no second thoughts!  That's nice, ya know?

This is a good example.  The background paper on top is actually KIMemories - that weird clear, heavy plastic stuff that was sort of like a placemat.  I think that was out in 2009? Maybe early 2010?  And there's a clear acrylic flower on the picture of just Molly (it's hard to see) - that was circa 2005 or 06.  I had to bust open the package to use it.  I found it in the move and it's been sitting on top of my desk for the last two months.  My version of a creative threat: USE THIS PRODUCT NOW, YOU WASTEFUL WENCH!  Of course, I should probably start using the two huges vases of ribbon that I accumulated in my Cord days, but you can call me a wench all you want, it's just not going to happen.

So here's a little ditty about using old stuff.  So the little orange beads in the center of the flower? Cute, huh?  I used a little squirt of KI Gloo (long discontinued, I'd imagine) to hold the flower down and another little squirt in the hole in the center of the flower and sprinkled the little Martha Stewart beads into the glue.  Cute.  Naturally more little orange beads came out of the vial than what was needed.  I tried to just be patient and let the excess little orange beads stay on the page while I worked, but I couldn't let them.  At this point (almost) everything was adhered to the page, so I just dumped the little beads right into my scrap table trash can.

Only, not everything was adhered to the page.

And I had just unclogged a bottle of glue into my trash can.

So the little green bird fell right into a massive glop of K&Co white glue.  And like your slice of peanut butter bread, it fell "good side" down. I gingerly picked it out of the trash, and half-heartedly wiped the blob of glue off.

I had just finished listening to a Paperclipping Roundtable episode where Wilna Furstenberg talked about accidentally spilling an entire bottle of paint on her page, and how she made it work.  At the time, I snorted, because - while I love Wilna F's work - most of her pages look as though there was an accidentally spilled bottle of, well...something.  So I guessed this was karma.  And I figured, if dumb ole Wilna F could make it work, I could surely go to my basket of glitter and put that spilled glue to use.

And let me tell you, the beads and the glitter are probably going on 4 years old, too.  And I gotta say.  I'm not in love with this layout, but I flipping love that dumb sparkly bird.

Let's hear it for screw ups!

(*I feel compelled to note that I love Wilna Furstenberg's work and calling her 'dumb ole Wilna F' was my version of kicking the dirt in envy.  I'd start spilling shit left and right if I thought that would make my pages more like hers)(Not that I really want my pages to be more like hers.  I don't.  But she's mad talented.)

Escaping to my happy place

As I begin to write this, the store has only been open for about an hour.  We've only had a handful of customers, but the tone is set: It's going to one of those days.  It's not a day where money will change hands.  It'll be a day of "why is this not working the way I think it should."  Which sometimes appeals the problem solver in me, but...sometimes not.

(I just gave the address and a phone number for a school uniform place that's in the next city over.)(Not the kind of thing that appeals to my inner problem solver.)(Although, when I'm in a better mood, I think of the scene in Miracle on 34th street where the Macy's Santa refers someone to Gimble's and the Gimble's exec have a fit.)

I might also mention that many of these posts are written at work.  My boss knows, she's sitting right next to me, so it's not taboo or anything.  So between customers, this is sometimes how I kill time.  This might explain some of the choppiness, dropped words and sentences that look like maybe they were started and finished by two different people. :P  But today, this blog is my escape, my happy place.  My oasis of sanity, where no one will thrust their problems at me and expect a tactful, hand-holding response.    And no one here will call me Charlene.  Ok?

Ok.

This is sort of all over the place.  I started it, stopped to make dinner, futzed with it a little after dinner, took Molly to her summer band camp concert, watched Project Runway and then finished it late in the evening.  Somehow I lost all my journaling room, but I think that what I ended up sums it up nicely - I love having a kid who's adventuresome enough to try some foods that others in her age bracket (and gene pool) might find to gross to sample.

By the way, the stars are something that I made in the Silhouette software.  It wasn't hard by any means, but I couldn't find anything quite like them in the Silhouette store.  If you want the file feel free to send me an email and I'll send it to you: cnd3167 at yahoo dot com.  I'm sort of half heartedly trying to figure out how to share files from here, but I keep coming across roadblocks.

Alrighty.  That's all I've got for now.  My 'i' key is sticking.  I think I've caught most of the i-less words, but if you spot one or two, that's why.

Thanks for stopping by!

Explore

It was hot yesterday and I'm broke.  And except for a brief stint where Ian came over for some math help, I was alone for the day.  So I did what any scrapper would do: I broke down and put on the A/C, listened to the latest episode of Paperclipping Roundtable and played with pictures and paper and my Cameo:

I think I'm in love with this whole sewing thing.  Which is ironic, since I spent a good deal of time fishing wadded up bits of thread out of the bobbin casing. I still don't know how to sew worth a damn, but I can sure take apart and reassemble that housing with ease. :P

And even though its a craptastic mess, I like it.  It's funny...in general, I don't care for country-ish stuff.  And the sewn edges reminds me of that primitive/country feel, and yet some how I'm giving it a pass.

That may be the smallest title ever. I didn't realize that I'd sized it so tiny, but it cut cleanly and I decided that I liked the way it looked right on the photo.    The tree is two triangles, the bottom one has inked edges and the top one got run through the cuttlebug with a texture plate.  I dig it.  And the tiny little bird - so cute.

Look how cute Molly is in her braids. She's since chopped off about a foot of her hair and gotten "bangs."  In quotes because they're not traditional bangs, but the new fangled long, side swept bangs.  Which look great if your beauty strategy has more steps than wash, condition, comb, go to bed with wet hair. *sigh*

That's all I've got today.  I'm waiting for another batch of pictures to come in from the printer - any minute now!  And I'm waiting for my Mr. to come home.  He's been gone for two (long, rough) weeks now.  I can't wait for him to walk through the door tomorrow.

hello 12

The move into the new place is nearly complete.  But I think that moving must be a lot like losing weight - that first bit comes easy, but those last 10 pounds/5 boxes take for-ev-er.  It's driving me a little nuts, because I just want a place for everything and everything its place.  Even if that place is the complex dumpster. :P

And even though it's not finished, I needed to take a break and play last night.  Or, as I said on Instagram, I needed to take my new scrap desk for a test drive.

The space needs some serious tweaking.  I used to have two 6 foot tables in an L shape, so I've lost a lot of surface area.  The table is a good size, but the computer takes up too much room (and I need the PC for the Cameo...and, apparently, YouTube videos).  I like the depth of the table, and having the drawers right there helps keep commonly used things at my finger tips.  BUT, the bin of adhesives is heavy, and it sort of crushes the drawers and makes it hard to open them.  I've found a solution:

This is one of the Bisley 5 drawer cabinets in an assortment of kicky colors. I love the idea of this.  They also have drawer organizers, so it would be perfect for all the little itty bitty things that we scrappers love. They're steel and 11x15x13, which would be perfect for my spot.  Two would be even better for my spot, but at $99 a pop, that's not happening anytime soon.  But this is definitely on my Christmas wish-list.  

So yeah.  Anyway...  I did actually do a page last night.  I feel like I lost a little of the momentum that I had built up before the move, but it's a good getting started point:

These pictures are a year old. eek.  I suck at scrapbooking birthdays.  Heck, truth be told, I don't like doing special occasion stuff.  I'm not certain what the hang up is, but I know I'm not alone in this.  However, the birthday-ees tend to feel a little slighted when pictures from their big day sit in an envelope for more than a year. :P  I figured since Molly is turning 13 next week I'd better get my ass in gear. 

I have been hoarding that green Scenic Route paper for a very long time.  I don't know what it is, but I love that green on green wonky dot goodness.  I totally screwed up the top part of this layout.  Originally it was just white cardstock at the top.  I splattered some Mr. Huey's ... and one would think that it's splattering - it's supposed to look messy.  Only, it just looked dumb.  I tried to cover it up and just made it worse.  I ended up screwing up the top so badly that I broke out the scissors and hacked off the top of the page and fitted some Hambly transparency to make up the top portion.  And honestly, I really like the top piece now! Hooray for mistakes! 

Some notes about supplies: the "hello" is from the Silhouette store.  Love it. The "12" is the font SNF Miss Molly (how fitting!) that was purchased from the Silhouette store as well.  And the little letter stickers that spell MOLLY are from Kelly Purkey at Simon Says Stamp.  I love the size.  And I also love that when you pull off the "O" the inside stays on the sticker sheet so you don't have to find something to poke it out with.  I also love the colors they come in.  The downside is I had to pull off 3 Y's because the first 2 didn't have any sticky on them - like somehow I only lifted off the cardstock part and managed to leave the sticky behind.  Not cool.  I hope that was just a one time happening - I'd hate to think they're all defective. :(

So that's it for today.  I still haven't decided on the whole Christmas ornament thing.  Which probably means I'm a week behind already. Oops. Oh well.  

USP #7: Molly

Do you realize that we are one quarter the way through 2013 already??  Our weather has been monotonous at best, and rather January-like for the last three months, so it's hard to believe.  Maybe if spring weather would arrive in north east Ohio it would finally sink in that it's April already. All this means that I'm one quarter the way through the Ugly Sketch 1-15 Project.  I'm having so much fun with it.

And here's the April 1st entry:

I really like this one.  First, I absolutely love this picture of Molly.  So much so that I've been really paralyzed about scrapping it.  Does that happen to anyone else?  Those pictures that are just so ***** (insert: beautiful, special, one-of-kind, emotionally charged, etc) that everytime you go to scrap them you ***** (hit a creative wall/choke/make a really underwhelming layout) - and 9 times out of 10 I just give up and walk away. It's for that reason that I'm extra pleased with this.  Second, ...who needs a second with a first like that??

I've done a pretty good job at keeping my scrapbook shopping in check, but there have been a couple of things that been too big a temptation.  These little birds and this shamrock die from Ellen Hutson are a good example of said temptation. I know it seems silly that I buy these dies, when I can do the exact same thing on the Cameo, but (LOOKOUT: MASSIVE JUSTIFICATION AHEAD) I find that dies are a lovely way to use up scraps.  Yeah. That's the ticket! Scrap useage!

That's only half true.  The whole truth is: wafer thin dies are a great way to use scraps and I'm ever so slightly addicted to buying them because I think they're so flipping adorable I can't stop myself, they hop into my shopping cart and enter my mastercard number practically all by themselves.  Tricky bastards, they are.

Oh! And remember this? I mentioned that I had just used SNF Lollihop, and that's the font that I cut "Molly" from.  I really dig it.  And I'm really certain I got it for free somewhere along the way...I think I'm just too cheap to shell out for a font...even $4.  However, I'm now going to use the heck out of it because now I know it has a $4 street value. ☺

That about wraps up my blathering for the April 1st entry.  Which means now it's time to reveal (LOL, that word is a little drama-laden for this application) the sketch that I'll be working on for April 15th:

There she is. She looks a little square here.  However, I'm still gonna be an 8.5x11 scrapper.  I just need to work on drawing rectangles. :P  The little window-y thingy is for four Instagram shots. For once, I actually do have pictures in mind.  And can I just say? Dear Instagram, I ♥ you.  You make scrapbooking so much more fun for me.

Ugly Sketch 1-15 Project: 2

So pleased to have stuck with it.  Yes, I realize I did a layout, it's not like I'm dieting and exercising or even pinching pennies any more than usual.  So to say "I've stuck with it" elicits an eye roll even from me.  But it's winter and I feel blaaaaah, and sometimes on my day off I just want to stay in bed all day and even something as enjoyable as cutting and pasting cardstock is more than I want to do.

The photos on this are "3x5" - which are actually 3.5x5.  On an 8.5x11 layout, that means that the areas to the right of the top photo and to the left of the bottom photo are exactly 3.5 square.  I thought that would be kind of cool, because there are tons of square shapes in the Silhouette store.  At least I thought.  And of the ones that I found, some weren't theme appropriate and some wouldn't have cut right when sized that small.  So instead of having a huge selection like I thought, I had maybe 10 or so to chose from.  I'm not in love with the combination that I have here -- I've used the leaf one before and loved it, but the chunkiness of it juxtaposed with the more delicate fishtail lace - if just doesn't feel like it jives to me.  And in retrospect I might have cut that fishtail lace in one of two other colors and used the negative pieces to fill a couple of random holes on this, just to make it a little more modern and funky feeling.

I do love the title though, which is straight from the Silhouette store with no alterations except sizing it down to fit my needs.  It's funky and fresh and very Molly who declares way-too-many-things as being "awesome."  I also like that I was able to use the awesome word in the journaling - I think it lends a little cohesion to the page.

Not quite where I stand on the bird, which actually has a thematic tie in to the day (although, it's not mentioned or seen on the page at all), but the beak gets lost on the picture and it seems a little "out there."  But I'm not fussing with it at this point, just doing the 'what-if' post mortem, which is probably better suited to exams and hands of euchre and not scrapbook pages.

The only other take-away that I have is that I wasn't (am not) fond of the way the photos are positioned here.  It took a fair amount of will power to stick to the essence of the sketch.  And it's a sketch, it's not like I have to be literal about it, but by the same token, if I monkey with it too much I'm not doing what I set out to do - which is to save time and emotional effort in the layout process.  I'm just trying to eliminate one set of choices so as to make the scrapbooking process less cumbersome.

Here's the sketch I'll be cursing for February 1st:

My intention is to use a panoramic-y sort of picture on the page.  Do I have a panoramic-y picture in mind?  Nope.  Heck, I'm not even certain I have a picture that's suited to that kind of crop.  But we'll see.  And I'll wrestle it into submission one way or the other.

Thanks for stopping by.