Saturday, August 22, 2009

God's Garden

Dedicated to our dear friend who lost his battle with cancer.
God's Garden
God looked around his garden and he found and empty space,
He then looked down upon this earth and saw your tired face.
He put his arms around you and lifted you to rest.
God's garden must be beautiful, He always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering, He knew that you were in pain.
He knew that you would never get well on earth again.
He saw that the road was getting rough and the hills were hard to climb,
So He closed your weary eyelids and whispherd "Peace be thine".
It broke our hearts to lose you, but you didnt go alone,
For parts of us went with you the day God called you home.

Author: unknown

Rest in peace friend!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

My *FIRST* Tutorial/ MLS Sept. Projects w/ Pencil Line Sketch

How to make your pattern paper work for your style

Have you ever told yourself that you cant play with certain papers due to their colors or style? Sometimes I find myself saying that, even though I am looking at a paper that I LOVE and must have. But it ends up sitting there in my stash cuz I am afraid to touch or cut into it or I just don't buy it....which breaks my heart.

So while playing with My Little Shoebox products for my assignments for the month of September, I thought I would give a tutorial for those of you that are afraid to try something new or out of your comfort zone. For example: My Little Shoebox is known for CUTESY papers. And not that its bad.... I know that there are people out there that will just say "oh no, that's not for me!" Are you one of those people? Well I want you to check this out and I will show you, that no matter what kind of paper you are working with...you can make it to work for you and your style.

I will be using this line as an example for today's tutorial, because it just happens to be my line to work with for the month of September. LOL
I wanted to create something vintage, romantic or a grungy looking page. And my dilemma was that the papers were too bright and cutesy. But I thought with a little distressing, inking and tearing I can make it work. So here is what I did:

1.) I picked a pattern paper that I wanted as a back ground. Used my scissors and distress the crap out of it, to make the all the edges of my paper get that torn up look. Crumpled it up and distressed through out the edges with my brown Chalk Ink to age it. I actually created a rip page on top and on the bottom and added some vintage ribbon trim for more depth as you can see below. I thought it was sweet lookin!
2.) I wanted to create more depth in my LO so I used a Heidi Swapp Flower Mask to add to my background. Of course you can use what best suits your page.
3.) I tried using my ink directly to the mask but it was coming out too dark. But I didn't have Tim Holtz tool (ink blender thingy).... so what did I do? I went to my laundry room and grab a used fabric softener sheet right out of my dryer. YUP! They work just fine as you can see below. Not that I want to take any business away from Tim (he is the MAN and I bow down) but, just in case you don't have one and you don't want to go running to your LSS and buy one in the middle of creating your page, you can use them and they work perfectly.

It created a soft color over the mask. You can make it as dark or as light as you want and the tool is free and you are recycling. Cool huh? Picture below is what the page looked like after finishing all the masking technique.

4) I added a couple of rub ons on each corner for added interest and depth.

5.) I knew I wanted some leaves or vines in page. But if you look at the entire line, I didn't have that option. I usually cut out designs from various PP and add to my pages. But since I didn't have that, I created my own. Using the same HS flower mask....I traced it with a pencil in a coordinating paper and cut it out.

Below picture shows what it looks like cut out. I didn't trace everything in the mask. I just chose a part of it that I liked and used that. Besides I wanted to save some time from all that cutting. I kept one long and the other apart. If you look closely you can tell they are the same pattern but that one is longer than the other.
And that's about it as far as the background paper for your page. You can now play with your picture, mat it, pick some embellishments to add to your page and just play around until you are happy at where everything is.
I happened to used a distressed corrugated board with cream paint as mat for my picture. Matted that with another PP from Imagine a Forest Line and inked all edges to match my page. Put my journaling on a Maya Road sheer journaling spot and used my own handwriting for my journaling. Added a couple of flowers to finish the page and I'm done!

Here is my finished project with detailed pictures:

Here are my other projects for My Little Shoebox for September.

We are so thrilled to be working with Pencil Lines for this month. They have provided all of the MLS Design Team with Sketches to work with. Here is my take on the sketch. Check out Pencil Lines and see all of the MLS DT's work as well as their DT's for this months sketches. Great inspiration to be seen.

Friday, August 14, 2009

12 Year Anniversary!

It's my 12 year anniversary today! Wooot wooot!
Well 12 years ago today we got married at the JOP (Justice of the Peace) in Fort Bragg, NC. and in 3 days the 16Th of Aug. is our church wedding anniversary. We don't normally celebrate both days but we do get to pick which one works best with our schedule. ; )
I cannot believe that it has been 12 years, it does not feel like its been that long. We got married at the tender age of 19. We were so young and naive. I know that not everyone get to have a long lasting marriage when they get married young, so I consider myself lucky. But with luck comes responsibility and hard work. It does not come in a perfect little package and a bow. We sure have gone through a lot and will continue to do so. I am just happy that the man I prayed for when I was a little girl is the one loving me today. I am truly a lucky girl to have such a wonderful husband. We are not perfect but dang close! LOL! I just wanted to share this special day to all of you.
Happy Anniversary baby! I wish the both of us many many many more years of happy marriage together. I love you so much and thank you for being so wonderful, loving, caring and just being yourself. I love you just the way you are. My best friend+partner in crime+husband+the pain in my ARSE! I LOVE YOU!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

IM HOME!

FINALLY! Wow, did that seem like a long vacation or what? But all in all it was all worth it. I stayed with my IN LAWS the whole time and got to spend some much needed time with family and friends, so it was great! It took us 17 hours to get home but I am just glad I am back. I have so many goodies from my trip and cannot wait to play with them all. I also have 2 kits from My Scrapbook Nook that I have yet to touch. So I am hoping to be able to scrap soon and play with all my goodies. I will take pics of all the goodies that I bought while there and hopefully my work using them.

Ok! So I have a lot of catching up to do. But first let me share with you guys what I have found online. I was blog hopping and found this blog http://www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com/ and if you look at her CHA Summer 2009 review you will see her critic for My Little Shoebox. If you look at the 3rd picture you will see a bunch of LO's that MLS Design Team have created. Two of my LO's are there and my card. If you look at the picture my LO is the one on the top left and 2nd LO is the bottom LO to the right. My card is the one all the way in the bottom a bit to the left and it has a big HI! on it. I don't really know where my other card is and my mini album is on the table. How cool is that? I am glad that she enjoyed all the Dt's work and cant help but be giddy since I am one of them. It's my first having my work at CHA and very intimidating since there are so many talented scrappers out there. Look at all of her critic from the many different companies that were there.

On another find on line......I just found out I won Elmers Glue giveaway at Lisa Day's blog. Wooo hoooo! I never win anything on those blog giveaways but it never stops me from putting my name in anyway. This time though it paid off and I cannot wait to get a hold of all these goodies. You see the pics below shows all the stuff that I will be receiving from Elmers Glue. YAY! I cant believe it, it is still such a freakin shock! I emailed Lisa today and she emailed me back letting me know that she contacted Elmers already and they will send me the prize giveaway. Woot woot!

Ok, that's it! Hubby went out to see an MMA fight tonight at a local bar and I think I will dig in to see all my goodies and start planning what I will do with the. I also have my box from MLS and will have to start creating my projects that are due by the end of the month and I also have a Pencil Line assignment that is due on the 20th of this month. Whew! I need to get going, I have a lot to do. YIKES!