Funky!

Here's a layout using this weeks Scrapping the Music #149 Love Shack and Pencil Lines Sketch 202.

This is a photo of Zach this summer juggling with a fleece contraption he made out of scraps of fabric. He's so creative and once he gets an idea in his head he just goes for it. I love that view on life.

The red frames are the negatives from my iron fence border punch. I doodled anywhere I felt was too bland :o)

Art Journaling Week at Balzer Designs

Last week was Art Journaling week at Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog. I took this opportunity to once again try out art journaling.

My first attempt was this page:

I made this after reading Linda Tieu's post. The background was made by first dripping aquamarine and sage green paint all over the page and then brushing it out. I then filled in the white bits with orange and blue watercolor pencils. I'm not pleased with the black crackle sticker. But it is what it is. I started to jot down random thoughts similar to Julie's example and Judy Wise's style (so love her blog)! I'll be honest, I'm not terribly confident in this style. I think more practice is in order.

I made this second page at work on Friday:

I haven't been sleeping well (thus the My mind conspires against me) and Friday morning I woke after an unusual dream; I started randomly writing my thoughts. I then just outlined the string of text... I liked it before the lines. Again, I will need to try this again sometime. I like to just write whatever comes to mind in any random way. I do that often... just never in an "art journal".

This last page is what I made this morning:

This was made after reading this post by Julie. I had the most fun with this style. This William Butler Yeats poem was made into a song by one of my fave magical groups, Elvendrums. We love the song and my daughter gave me the idea to use it on the page. I saw the photo in a magazine and thought he needed wings... that was as far as I had planned the page. Next time I think I need to blend the photo edges into the page more... especially at the bottom.

All in all, this was fun and I'll be making moar (yes, moar, not more! gaming has ruined me and I give up trying to fix this) pages in the future. I won a spot in Marit's Let It Loose workshop and I can't wait to learn moar techniques. Once I've got the technique to apply what goes on in my brain I'll be all set :o)

Scrap Paper Mini Albums

A few months ago I saw a tutorial on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog on binding mini albums. I gave it a go and made these two for some friends (I actually made these as soon as I saw the tutorial in March but I'm so bad about updating my blog).

This one for Liz and Erica's trip to the Grand Canyon:

And this one for Kathleen's new furbaby:

My favorite thing was that I got to use scraps of paper from other projects. On Liz and Erica's album, you can see that I covered the spine after thoroughly destroying it. I did a bit better with Wyatt's so left it exposed :o) I used a 7 Gypsies cover for one and the covers of a Cosmo Cricket album for the other. Check out Julie's tutorial and give it a whirl.

I'm Still Gonna Shine

Here's a layout I made for the Scrapping the Music #147 - Remedy by Jason Mraz and Pencil Lines #200. This week's PL Sketch also had a color palette to inspire us.

Here are the sketch and color palette:

And here is my layout:

The photo is kind of dark and you can see the brown pillow I propped it on for the photo. I need to take the layout into work to get a better photo on our light table! I'll do that tomorrow :o)

These are some photos of Zach over the past year. When I read the lyrics, "You can turn off the sun but I'm still gonna shine" I immediately thought of him and how he refuses to give in to society norms. He likes to push people's perceptions and make them rethink how they judge people. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's a great kid with a great head on his shoulders. He is so very caring and fun and funny and smart... and I'm not just saying that because he's my son... others will tell you the same. He just so happens to love coloring his hair and wearing rainbow clothes and prancing through parking lots :o)

The hidden journaling tag reads: At 15 you STILL know who you are. Not many kids your age can say that. Don't ever let anyone get in the way of you being you. You are loving, funny, fun and smart. Keeping shining through all the dark moments life will throw at you. Love you always <3 Mommy

Let Go, Jump In

Here is my latest layout inspired by this week's Scrapping the Music 146 Let Go. I used Pencil Lines sketch 199.

Journaling says: Zach broke out in dance and showed the world even teenagers can have old-fashioned fun.
Hidden journaling says: This photo is Zach at last year's Relay for Life, 2009. The kids cooled off by hitting up the Spray Park at Look Park. Here he is dancing in one of the up-sprays :o) I love this photo of him!

Shiny Happy People

Here is a layout inspired by this week's Scrapping the Music challenge #145, Shiny Happy People. The photo is Gwen from last summer's Relay for Life at Look Park. The second day of the Relay was crazy hot so the kids would make pit stops at the Spray Park. They really let loose and had a lot of fun. I just re-found these photos and can't wait to scrap one of Zach's... he's dancing in the middle of one of the up-sprays.