TGIM

Thank God It's May! :)

I realise I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately, so when it started to rain while the kids were playing outside, I grabbed my camera. I thought one of them would be crying at getting wet (Ben is just as likely to get as emotional as Tess right now), but they were both out there dancing away in the downpour!

I had a baby shower this past weekend, and at our Friday night crop I threw together what I've come to call my 4-Hour Year in the Life New Parent's Scrapbook. One two-page LO (8x8) for each month, with instructions to take a photo each month next to a favorite stuffed animal or toy to chart baby's growth (Dad sometimes takes this over, and loves it). Oh, and a 2-pager at the start for hospital/family & friends photos, and a 2-pager Happy Birthday LO at the back. Easy-peasy and the mom-to-be always loves and appreciates it. I try not to worry about whether or not it actually gets used, since they take so little time to put together.

I just signed up for Marit's Creative Art Journey class, which starts May 7th. I love history, and never took an art history class, so this is perfect for me. I haven't decided yet whether I will do it digitally (since I just finished Digital Techniques for Art Journaling over at GIS) or on paper, or a mix of both. There will be multiple prompts for each lesson, so I can take my choice and decide from there.

I still need to catch up on A Year in the Life of an Art Journal prompts (I'm working on February 28th, I believe..."Silence," featuring inchies) but that is definitely paper, something to get me in my "studio" (feels funny calling it that, but that's what it is!) once a week or so.

The Color Room has grown to over 1,000 members, and with a new prompt every week, I haven't been able to keep up at all. The CT seems to like LOTS of layering and frou-frou LOs, not my style at all, although I see that in last week's winners there were at least two more simple, clean LOs (more my style). This week's combo seems very "fall/autumn" to me. I'll have to dig through my photos and see if I can come up with anything...

Very sad that SIStv will be no more as of May 15th. I ended up there thanks to PrairieWillow, via 2peas (again, never my favorite place to post) and stayed because the attitude was so friendly and positive. Some folks in the scrapping world (now-defunct ScrapSmack, I'm looking at you) found it fake, but after meeting so many real "SIStahs" in Franklin last June, I can attest that -- while you can't completely avoid Drama when it comes to a group of creative women -- the majority of gals I met I have stayed in touch with and found great long-distance friendships with.

Scrap in Style TV, you will be missed.

Spring Fever

My creative juices are flowing again. At Friday's crop, I finished up the journaling for my holiday layouts. The last couple of years I've done a mini album to commemorate the Christmas season, but this year I had all these extra Lickety-Slip pages - in fact, just enough - to put all my 4x6 holiday photos in order, with room for 4x6 title/journaling blocks. They aren't anything fancy, so I haven't taken a photo, but that is 2009 put to bed - always a good feeling.

Last night we had friends over for ping pong, so late in the afternoon I had a big mug of coffee...it kept me digi scrapping until 2 a.m.! I had to try Pattie's lesson #1 again - art journal backgrounds are just not my fave thing to create, I guess - before moving on to lesson #2, which was posted Thursday.

In this class we learned to make silhouettes from photos. Now this I really liked. I only got halfway through the lesson before I was off and running with an idea for an 8 1/2 x 11 layout for my son.

The black paper I put under my silhouette layer had the swirl on it (Cali Cool, by Valerie Foster) and I added other paper from that kit to pull it together. The title font is Book Jacket (a new fave of mine), the journaling was done in American Typewriter.


I used a photoshop action from Johnna -- 1970s Summer -- which turned the photo orange (without waiting 40 years! LOL) and added a flare (above Ben's head). I turned it B&W to be less distracting and put one of Katie Pertiet's deckled vintage frames behind it.

Speaking of Designer Digitals, they are extending their anniversary sale through 6 a.m. EST Tuesday. They have the CUTEST Dragon Trainer kit (I passed...it was HARD) and the most beautiful mermaid art kit that is perfect for me to finish up our Florida photos.

Just go to their "specials" page to see all 46 new items. And no, I'm not getting any kick backs from them, LOL. Just loving their stuff right now!

Better, thanks

The first prompt is up at Artful Amblings, and I immediately "saw" what I wanted to do. The negatives came quickly enough; covering them up was very healing and fulfilling :) I went with green (for "go") and the word "begin" came to mind, even though the prompt was "what is holding you back?" from art journaling, "just begin" became my battle cry. I'm looking forward to the next prompt.

While looking for a "wayback" portrait to post on facebook this week, I came across my very first art journaling pages, inspired by a Rhonna Farrar "21 days" challenge which I did not finish. I was proud to look back at these early pages and realize that I have begun before; the goal this year is to continue and finish!


I was inspired by Rachel's suggestion of taping pages of an old book together to make sections; my friend Christy gave me this 1973 desk diary ages ago and I've never used it. Turns out it was just the size I was looking for (5"x7") and just beat up enough for me to not feel bad about tearing out pages.

When Christy gave me this diary, I took a moment to copy the words to a song by Innocence Mission that she had had written out in the front pages...pages she went on to tear out, which is why this diary starts on January 31st...

The song is about a writer and a painter working out their weekdays and soaking up art on the weekends. Prophetic, huh?

I haven't done anything with the cover yet...I'd like to wait and see how this journal fills up first. I'm all about doing the cover last, anyway.

Sundays are my "day off" from family life; E takes the kids to his mom's and while I'm welcome to come along, I'd really rather have the day to myself. They can speak Russian without asking me if it's okay, and my MIL gets some quality time with her grandkids. That is something I did not have growing up; my dad's parents died early in my life (my paternal grandmother died years before I was born; my paternal grandfather died when I was just over a year old. I'm told he adored me and even liked to babysit me; he smoked cigars and the smell still makes me nostalgic). My mother was constantly battling with her parents (mostly her mother); her dad died when I was 12 and the battles continued, so any relationship with my grandmother were very strained; she was a difficult woman (and my mother, a difficult child!)...I love that my folks want to take the kids on a regular basis, and that they have a chance to visit with their Baba once a week.

I went to Michigan Book & Supply today and wandered the aisles upstairs (the art supply section). Finally bought myself some acrylic glaze and found a stamp carving kit/mounting set that I'm looking forward to using. I've been wanting to make some Russian letter stamps for years; this set is complete enough to get me started, and cheaply, I might add. We'll see what comes of that!

Setting worries aside

I'm having what I think are health issues and I've learned an interesting trick...when you start to turn a worry over and over in your mind, say to yourself, I am going to think about this at such-and-such time, I don't have time for it right now. I try to flood my mind with positive thoughts and move on. Hormonal issues have made this hard. At least I was finally able to schedule a mammography (my goal was to have this done by the end of January, my appointment is January 28th!) and that has helped ease the worry just a bit. Taking action is always recommended (at the set-aside time, of course) ;)

I have two issues working against me this week: the lack of sleep last weekend (which I wouldn't trade for anything, LOL) and totally PMS immersion...on Tuesday I was suicidal (not really...don't send me to the psyche ward yet!), Wednesday I was Miss Chatterbox/font of positivity, yesterday I was an emotional wreck again, whoo hoo, welcome to hormonal rollercoaster of your 40s!

I've always had some minor issues during my PMS cycle (who doesn't?!), but since having kids it is nastier, and lasting longer. Oh, and hitting me in the middle of my cycle, as well. Not fun.

I am looking forward to some art journaling soon...as therapy. Right now I'm off to choose my format (I have a really cool old 1973 diary I might alter...or I might use those 5x7 HS playing cards I got cheap, and bind them together later...hmmm...) Either way, it's a great distraction from worrying.