Arting lately...

Not so much. I haven't been able to find a moment's pause to get the paint and brushes out. I write in my book every now and again, but not a feverishly as I was only a couple of months ago. Early nights and early mornings don't make for much art time for me. I'm having trouble enough keeping up with my regularly scheduled tasks. But maybe next month...

later loves

The Last Starfighter

I figured I should post the last of my "Colouring Book" pages before I start posting pages from "The Wedding Book" (which is coming along nicely, I might add).

 On this layout I used the big rain drops stencil put out by my fave Julie FFB. I also "made my own" stencil by laying pieces of washi tape over the right page in a grid fashion before spraying over it. It was fun, even though the effect is super subtle.

 The person here was drawn on watercolour paper then glued into the book, while the "halo" was painted directly into the book. I like both looks, but I am going to try and paint only 'in book' with the next journal. Something about the background texture coming through...

On this last page I made use of that chevron stamp I made awhile back. See this post for more.

And that's all she wrote, people. This ended up being a place filled with love and gratitude. Sure I "worked things out" in here, but only in a positive way. No complaining, no ARGH moments. Lots of happy thoughts and smiles.

later loves


p.s. Happy Anniversary Hun! Nine years...oh my! Have "fun" at your board meeting tonight!

Sweet Sweet Nothings

This month I filled my "colouring book" with blessings and gratitude, and positive thoughts. It's my favourite journal yet!

 I was going to post the rest of the pages here, but there are a lot more than I remember! So the rest will be shared later.

 

 until then...

"...and there was such a sweep to the celestial orbit of the moving earth that you could almost hear the heavens humming in glad unison to the rushing movement of it."
(from Stephen Leacock's "The Transit of Venus")

later loves

Inspiration...or whatever

I "hacked" the TM Inspiration Blog one week ago today - while I was texting my buddy the finer points of Higgs Boson, a thesaurus, and Chuck Norris - to post these lovelies.

Enjoy!

 

The finer points...
- Perfect Pearls Mist on the background through a perfect Studio Calico sheet of paper. I love when one thing does double-duty yo!
- Cut up your honeycomb pattern paper. You won't regret it.
- Copic + Sharpie doodles may be my second new best friend (DD is the first...hence the texting)
- When in doubt, cut stuff apart and hope it falls back together in some sort of semblance of awesomeness. By the way, it usually does.

 

 Also...

I like My Mind's Eye stuff and I like sticking my tongue out.

So sue me.

Sweet & Lovely Sunset

I have a thing for taking photos of sunsets. The camera will never catch the colours right, but even if I capture a shadow of what the reality was, the moment will live on in my memory.

These three photos were taken on our big road trip this summer. The one in top right was taken in Ontario, and the other two are Alberta/Saskatchewan.

 

Here's a little Copic Doodle for you, but you won't find it on any TM Printable. I created this one especially for this layout. I love my Copics for adding a title in just the right colour, and just the right font...in this case, my own handwriting!!

And I was also really keen on getting my grubby hands on the new burlap and canvas shapes that came in to TM a couple of weeks ago. Canvas Corp is a new company for us, and it's quickly becoming a favourite.

It's in the details...

Burlap panel (Canvas Corp)

Sweet & Lovely cloud (Sassafras/Sunshine Broadcast)

Paper Flowers: Top (Sassafras/Sunshine Broadcast) & Bottom (Crate Paper/Random Vintage)

Map paper (American Crafts/Amy Tangerine)

Blue paper strips & the background (Crate Paper/Random Graphic)

"Ray of Sunshine" (Studio Calico/Countryside)

Hello Son

I made this layout awhile back, when TM was having a big sale...but I never finished it. And then I moved some stuff around in my room and it found its way to the bottom of a tall pile. I cleaned up that pile, and low and behold, like the archaeologist I was trained to be, I found a great treasure!

I haven't added the journaling yet, but I know what I want to write. It's a little too personal to be on display at the store though, so that will have to wait.

I wanted to experiment with shapes and layers. I haven't cut my photos in to shapes in many (many) years, but this felt okay. I was so hesitant to lose the backgrounds at first, but I think his face tells the story in each photo and that is what I wanted to focus on. The feet picture is just an added bonus! HA!

Need some extra details?

Heart and "XO" (Treasured Memories/Celebrate Boy printable)

Hello flower (American Crafts/Garden Cafe)

Letters (American Crafts/Amy Tangerine)

Falling Leaves stamps (Stampers Anonymous)

Paper: brown woodgrain (American Crafts/Campy Trails), gold woodgrain (Hambly), blocks (Studio Calico/State Fair), mulit-coloured (Kaiser Craft)

September TM Kit...Road Trip

We took a lot of photos on our road trip...close to 1200! And I would never dream of scrapbooking all of them! But I would like to print lots of them and display them in my album with some layouts of special moments. I've decided to print most of them in a 3.5x5 size to put in these page protectors (see this post) and scrapbook the really cool photos or big sights. I thought the idea of doing "City Title Pages" would be a neat way to introduce each city, include a bunch of smaller photos and get a bunch of memories/moments scrapped on the same page!

So, here is our road trip in title pages!!

"Minneapolis" is probably my least favourite out of all of them. The colours on the Copic title didn't turn out like I'd hoped. Ditto for the starbursts. I really like the Toronto one, especially since I got two nice photos of the boys on there!

These types of layouts are great if you took a big trip, hitting multiple cities/locations and want to have some scrapbooked layouts in among your printed photos. If you were doing a 12x12 album, you could fit even more photos on each layout!

Additions to the kit: Copic markers, ivory cardstock, Scattered Straw Distress Ink, Walnut Stain Distress Ink, black pen, staples.

I think that's it for the September Kit Layouts. If you missed any, you can click on the links below...
Show Me
Valley Zoo
Father's Day
Love the Mist
New Favourite...Forest of Legs
6x11 Layouts: Wrigley Field, the Shiny Bean, Forest of Legs
Memories Made
Last Day of Kindergarten

What's gotten in to me?

Even after we have learned so much about ourselves, made mistakes and moved on, we still go back to old patterns and frack up every now and again.

In other words, I have no idea what got into  me on Monday! That post was a little bit harsh...so I deleted most of it.

And now I'm moving on.

Here are some photos I took downtown on the weekend, my "looking through a tourist's eyes" moment.

Clockwise from left: Muttart Conservatory in the foreground and Gallagher Hill full of Folk Festers in the background. The Telus building, you can see the strands of Christmas lights criss-crossing upwards. The Crowne Plaza, aka Chateau Lacombe (Russ & I wonder what the rooms look like, shaped like that). McDougall Church puts up funny signs to "advertise" their weekly sermons, which makes me laugh considering how historic this church is! (This week it read: Friends, Enemies, Frenemies)

I have been "busy" reading the Harry Potter Series this week, and not doing much else! I am looking at the books in a whole new way, reading them over again as an older (and wiser?) adult. They are still good, like really good. Lucas is in camp in the mornings, and I only had to work two days. I'm kind of bored-slash-exhausted!

In the creative department, I haven't up to much other than the usual...TM layouts, designing Make & Takes for the Crops, and filling up my Smash book. I bought some more Copic markers and have been playing with those guys (where have they been all my life!?) and I started a fairly informal "art journal". I wanted to have something artsy that I could work on everyday with no pressure and no expectations.

This week I am moving upwards and onwards. I am seeing things through my eyes, and I am enjoying every minute of it! I'm thinking of more creative things to do, as I feel sort of lost without them. Maybe do some painting, or a Week in My Life project, or something equally wonderful. Did I ever tell you I cleaned up my studio? Unfortunately, every time I go in there, it gets a little messier, so a terrible side effect of the clean up has been my inability, or lack of desire to go in there and get some art done!

So blah blah blah...I'm done here.

Crafty Thursday

These layouts were originally meant for the TM Inspiration Blog, but due to some technology setbacks, they aren't going up there. But I still want to show them off! So I present to you the

Jenni Bowlin Challenge Layout Series

I think this might be my favourite layout from the batch I did using the newest Jenni Bowlin line (Haven). I added some old Jenni Bowlin in, as well as some Webster's Pages (the cabouchon), Basic Grey "lace" paper, and Copic doodles (the circles and flowers).

I've got a bunch more layouts to post this month, and I think my newest Challenge Kit layouts will go up on the TM Inspiration Blog this month as well. Chantel has a great plan to revamp this blog and get it up to "TM Standards". I can't wait to see what she has in store!

On a side note, I've already finished putting together my September Month Kit for TM. I will admit that I'm kind of being a "keener" here, as it's not technically due until the 15th. But I couldn't wait! I love choosing papers and colours that no one else might have put together, and showing our customers how to use their supplies in a new way. I haven't decided on a name for the kit - the rest of the girls are so much better at this than I am - so I might have to enlist Jill, Kirsten and Victoria's help on that front!

Thanks for stopping by. I'll see you next Thursday for another edition of the Jenni Bowlin Challenge Layout Series.