CatScrap Blog Hop

Whooo hooo.  Another Catscrap Blog Hop!!  Did you see the new Catwalk.  Soooooo Lush and Goooorg!
 And who doesn't need a pack of Journal cards!!

Sooooo here is my offering:

 I made it with Ju Kneipp's Always Spring and Little Butterfly Wing's Grandma's Garden.  I just adore them both!!  You can grab it here:  https://www.box.com/s/b2ce04d4799ba19dbc5d

Now run on off to Lilja's beautiful blog!  http://liljatr.blogspot.com/

Hope you have a lovely spring and ENJOY the hop!!

Project Life and Other Awesome Endeavors

I have been busy busy. As maybe you can tell by the lack of postings. First off, I want to show off my Project Life week 5. Sure it is late, but what else have you come to expect from me. No trick ponies this time. I'm trying to catch up (well and play with other things :)).

Just so you can maybe squint and read some journaling (maybe....):

One of the things I have truly enjoyed for this project is being able to use my old stash of digital goodies. See that RACING and the Flame thing next to it. Isn't that cool!! Both are by Chere Kaye Edwards (whom is just one of the nicest!!). That flame thing is from the coolest kit called Superfly!! So much fun!!

Anywhooooo...the real reason I am late is that I have a artist crush...on Balzer Design annnnnnd she has this super cool stamping class. (If you want to join in...you will find the link to her classes on her blog. It's fun!! It will make you Happy!!) Well I am just one of those people that have to make things super hard, and super mine. So taking a stamping class was right up my alley!! And let me show off a little of what I have been doing:
Lesson 1:

Made this with them:


Lesson 2:

Yeah I haven't made anything yet. But I love them anyway and have plans...no time...just plans.

Lesson 3:

Made this:

Yes. That is a paper layout. And yes....I am super proud of myself. There are 3 chevron's used...the bottom and top edge, and these two beauties:

Well and of course I am super proud of my son too. #2 in a National Competition ROCKS. Not easy folks. Definitely worthy of a paper layout!!!

Are you still there? Thanks for looking!

Project Life Week 4-Lots of Pictures

Did you ever think you would see me so soon? Well okay...a little secret...I did these two weeks almost simultaneously. It's okay to do that right? Well it worked for me.

















































And this week brought a whole new crazy challenge...what to do with too many photos. I know...jealous right? It doesn't usually happen this way. But this week I had two events happen that I took lots of pictures. So I applied not one but two solutions...
Solution one - I made a little mini album. We actually go to the zoo lots of times throughout the year, but this does not mean that I don't want to remember all the fun things we do there. However, this is project life...and I wanted to keep this so super simon. So basically I added a little lineage and words to a 4x6 picture, added a cover, stapled the whole thing and called it a day.

The best part is how much Rosie adores her little book!

Second solution is to make a collage. One thing I adore about this solution is that because I am adding an insert in the middle, I have both the back and front to fit photos. In total, I had 21 photos! Going for simple simon again...I did grab a basic block template (which I modified a tad). The words and paper are from Karah Frederickson's Chi Chi Chilly Mini Kit. Using one digital kit that coordinated and a template really made this process fast fast.

Project Life - Week 3 (and a small feebie)

So yes apparently I am on my own little schedule. And yes, I realize that if it takes me 2 weeks (or more) to finish one week...I'm up a creek. But I don't care. As sweet Andrea said "I'm My Own Boss". There. That's all I have to say about that.

This week I did more on using my digital stash. I have an incredible amount of fun frames to use and could not resist this "Happy Moments" frame I found...so perfect for the picture. I also used a text box on a picture. I had not used that treatment before and found it super easy. That will probably show up more often on my pages. It does seem to be easier than actually physically writing on the pictures since I have been printing in Glossy.






















In addition, this week...I finally had a need to include some schtuff! Yay. My daughter got an international package and I COULD NOT resist saving the postage. It was way cool. But how, how, how. I found my inspiration on one of Jasmin's pages...a pocket! So I took one of Becky's cards, cut off the circle, stapled it to another card and voila!




And finally...this week I also found a need to hide some journaling. I have to admit, this is way to fun since I have not been able to do this digitally for years. But I didn't really want to go the pocket route again...so I made up some fun digitally.

Now I did have to make a little protector for us, a la Ali Edwards. And although at first it was a super pain, I realized my mistake was using a dull needle. That is the secret...sharp needle. After that it was so easy peasy I know that I will so be doing small protectors ALOT more!

And since I had to make up a digital piece for this...I thought why not share. If you likie and want to use...feel free to grab this

HERE: http://www.box.com/s/io5c61dg00crteren23i

There is no TOU so use and abuse to your pleasure how you see fit. Just leave me a little comment of appreciation so my ego gets a little lovin.

A little direction though you say --- Type where you want. To hide the journaling type on the big arrow and to the left of it. Then cut it all out. Fold in the arrow and paste the arrow (with the black line around the inside) on top of the arrow. HTH

It Is Done --


I have finished my Traci Bautista's Doodles Unleashed class at Strathmore. And I have to say it was SUCH fun!! I've always loved doodling but it's really been educational to push them to all new limits.

This last lesson started with making the background for the final piece. Basically it was starting out with writing on the page, coloring it up with acrylics and then throwing in some cool texture just for the fun of it. Well color and I were in perfect harmony that day. I am not usually a red person, but for some reason it totally called to me and oooooh yay.
























Now I was not as prepared as Traci with my texture stuff, but yay for me for saving some dry wall tape. I also grabbed some tin foil, crinkled up which created some of the grungy goodness. Yes. I am so in love with this, I definitely took the time to photo it for some digital fun.

The next lesson was about doing a face. So terrified. I mean, I have had lessons on this but in like Middle School. So I practiced :):
The next step was truly scary...paint on the background I love.

That took guts let me tell you!

Then it was modge podging the doodles -- Complicated in it's own right since the flower over her ear was to big and needed to be cut up:
Oh and I must have done the mouth like 15 times! Loved the eye here, but the mouth was buggin me. Next was to add details (and redo the mouth again!)

At this point I stopped playing with it for a day and then when I got back from grocery shopping, I realized the eye looked really odd. Like it is suppose to be open but maybe she is possessed. I like the lips though.

The next day it was time to get out the markers and pencils for final touch ups. This is really the funnest part of all and the most low stress. Doodling is my friend :). And ta da -

I do like the eye better but it's still not my favorite. If anybody has any ideas on how to fix it, let me know!

Eeeees a CATWALK time. And that means it's time for a CatScrap Catwalk Blog Hop. And let me just say I am a lucky lucky girl to be able to play with the designers work. This Catwalk is soooooo now! Hearts, romantic, snow, winter...yup it's all covered.

And here is ma page with it:

I used Aja Abney's New kit Renewal and Mellybird's La Belle Epoque. So cute!

And JUST FOR YOU...
You can download it here: http://www.box.com/s/oddaf2n2etkvctgalky8

OH wait and cause you wondered over to MY little space...you can grab Cythia (limoncello's) Quick Page too!

Obviously we could not keep our hands off of Aja Abney's Renewal! You can grab Cynthia's page here: http://www.4shared.com/zip/zbuYgfwb/Winter_CatWalk_2012_Cynthia_QP.html

With your arms full, I'm shoo shooing you off to Mi's blog (shhhhhh....I've heard she is hosting two QPs too). Go on now and click here: http://scrapmimonteiro.blogspot.com/ .

Have a great CATWALK!!

Project Life Week 2 - The Bad Made Good

Well yes...I suppose I did loose a week somewhere. Completed week 2 of the art journaling and now week 2 of Project Life. At this rate, I'm right on time according to life by Claire.

Anywho...
The complicated thing about this week was the lack of photos. I don't know what happened but about the time Thursday rolled around, I realized I was gettin' a little lazy with the camera. What this meant ultimately was I would need more filler.

Now filler seems odd to me. I mean I am spending my hard earned time on this right. So I want every little part of it to have some meaning. I am not sure I will like "filler" later. So what I concentrated on instead was making the story bigger and better.
Filler Ideas --
1. In the first picture, I used the Facebook Logo, downloaded directly from my computer. Facebook is a big part of our lives (for better or for worse) and little Rosie wants to be a part of that phenomenon. Now I am not saying you should just download whatever you want from the internet. Make sure you are not violating any copywrite laws. But you could do the same thing by scanning in packaging logos. Then you can blow them up or reduce them down.

2. The second picture really did not need any extensive journaling. I just wanted to convey how cute my oldest and youngest were together. So I grabbed some of my fav. digital images and put it all together. (In case you are wondering. Creashens- Three Little Birds rocks my boat.)

3. The third picture is an example where I expanded on a story already in my highlights. I actually did not take that picture the day she got her Ocarina in the mail, but who really needs to know that.

4. This picture is a demonstration of hidden journaling. I really wanted to document my feelings about my son's wrestling experience that week. But I wanted these feelings to not be quite so out in the open. So again I turned to my digital stash, folded it in half and sewed two sides. You could also totally fold a larger Project Life Kit card in two and sew two sides too. I wanted to be able to access the journaling easily, so I put this in a top loading pocket. However, if you really wanted to keep things private, you could require the reader to pull the whole thing out.

Well I hope my fail at picture taking on Week 2 has inspired you to think about how to fill those pages when you too forget the camera. (I'm not the only one right...?!)