Life is taking over!

As much as I fully intend to update my blog on a regular basis, it often falls by the wayside. I may have too many methods of capturing my thoughts. When I started this blog, I intended it to be a replacement for my hand-written journal. However, I can't take my computer with me everywhere I go and I can take a journal. So, in the end, I still use that more.

I've been a little crafty but more gamer lately. Here's a layout I did for Scrapping the Music #166 (take two?). The song is Wide Open Spaces. Head over to their blog to play along to this song until 02-27.

Gwen was the typical 10-year-old-bundle-of-energy last summer and A was her perfect partner. He was always there for her, ready to be as goofy as she, and sometimes more! He's a great uncle and she flourishes in his unerring support.

STM #166 New Shoes

Loved making this layout for Scrapping the Music #165 New Shoes by Paulo Nutini. I got to play with paper in the way I love and I'm entirely delighted with the results.

I knew I wanted to play off of the amazing water in the photo and it was just a matter of figuring out what to do. I tore strips of cardstock and sprayed both sides in my spray box. The great thing about my spray box is that after a couple years of using it, anything wet that goes in picks up a mix of old inks. The result is slight variations of color (I use blues and greens most often so that is usually what is lifted form the box).

I cut a sun out of some Studio Calico paper but wasn't happy with the size... I wanted the sun to be substantial! So cut off the rays and added them to a Pink Paislee journal spot. I'm pretty happy with my sun :o)

Head on over to play along with this round :o)

Pages from Marit's Class

I took the Let it Loose art journal workshop over at Marit's Paper World last year and never got around to sharing my pages. It was a fun community and her instruction was great! We got PDFs of each lesson and most times at least one supplemental PDF to help us along.

I love the softness of this one... spritzing onto very wet paper makes me happy... makes me feel cozy.

The writing on this was a middle-of-the-night rambling. I am not terribly fond of the deep texture I added but was pleased to learn that heating gesso makes it bubble... I'm very impatient :o)

I love my shrooms... even if I was trying to make trees when I started, lol! My son walked in while I was decorating and said, "Cool shrooms". And since he said it that's all I see :o)

This one was inspired by a post on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog. She posted about how people can really only have about 5 priorities in life. That inspired me to journal mine.

This page is about the sounds I used to hear out of my bedroom window each morning. I was very unhappy with how this started but eventually toned the pink circle down enough that I could live with it. It was an experiment and I'm glad I did it!

This was a summary of Marit's class. She really opened my eyes to being able to play with what's around me and not worry so much about how pretty I or others may think a journal page is. It's my journal and I'll play how I like in it!

I was slightly delusional while making this page :o) I have been struggling to sleep well for about 6 months. Every 6 weeks or so I get a great night in but I'm otherwise struggling with myself to stay asleep. This was a small piece of venting and while not super creative, it was something I felt was important to capture.

LOVED making this page. I painted the top with acrylics and scratched the top image of the tree into the paper. It took FOREVER but I really love how it looks and the texture is amazing. I had done this to photos before, without the added layer of paint and it was so much harder with that extra, thin layer of paint. But once started, I had to finish :o) I'm glad I did.

Thanks for stopping by :o)

STM #165

I've been slacking at posting on my blog. Not that that is anything new! I have great intentions and then live keeps on moving on and I go days without even touching my computer. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I sit in front of a computer all day at work. Or, when I do sit down at my home computer, playing games is more fun than trying to get out what's in. I tend to journal right before bed... it seems to be the time my mind is most relaxed.

Anyway, I'm here now so here is a layout I made for Scrapping the Music #165 Stand by Me. I immediately thought of Gray's family and how they're wonderfully welcoming, helpful and all around so fun to be a part of.

#166 will be revealed tomorrow so stop by the Scrapping the Music blog to check it out and play along.

Dukes + Duchies = ?

DOMINANCE!!!

Gwen gave Zach Dominion - Intrigue for Christmas and we played a few games during our time off. The first game gave us Dukes, Scouts, Secret Chambers and Tribute. Since I was using Scouts and Secret Chambers to cycle through my Dukes and Duchies, Zach's generous use of Tribute was driving him mad! Few action cards in my deck mean few extra actions by him. I'm not usually that great at devising a plan of attack in Domion but this was my best game ever so I had to share it here. The final score was 113 -15. The poor kid didn't stand a chance!

Though he did whollop me in the next game we played :o)

Scrapping the Music 164 Times Like These

I was asked to be a guest designer for Scrapping the Music and am absolutely delighted! You can see my layout and those of the design team here. My first layout is of Gray and Gwen swimming in Spain.

Gwen didn't know how to swim when we got there but with much encouragement and many tips by everyone, she was swimming by the end of the first day. Here she is on the second day swimming on her back with Graham. I love this photo of them side-by-side :o)

Thank you Bernice!

I got out of work late, not getting home until 6:30, and I was exhausted. On the way home, Gray told me a package had arrived for me. It was the Dylusions paints and sprays that I ordered a while ago! I totally forgot about them and let me tell you... they are delish! Vanilla custard, mmmmm.

I've been home for 25 minutes and can't stop playing. I have done up a quick page just playing with everything and effervescent came to mind. And with effervescent come thoughts of my son. He is truly a magical person.

My photography skills, or lack thereof, do not do these colors justice! The background is sprayed with a bit of Hot Pink and Post Box Red and a lot of Vanilla Custard. Then I used a random used up gift card to scrape the teal and pink paints all over. Highlighted the droplets of spray with silver, found a photo of my son swimming last summer and made him a little hat. I love being so inspired by a few paints and sprays :o)

Dyan's fun products just made my Monday and that's hard to do!