Breast Cancer Awareness Month- Free RAK from Amy Tara

A friend emailed me and asked me to help her spread the word that it is Breast Cancer awareness month. Amy Tara has a great RAK ( Random Act Of Kindness/ free stuff) up for grabs that you could win, just for listening to her.

I read her request and support her cause completely. This is something that effects everyone in one way or another. Breast Cancer affects men and women of all ages.

Yesterday my husband is watching football and there is a report about the players wearing pink shoes in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month. While watching the game we notice a few of the player are wearing Pink (Pepto Bismol Pink) shoes on the field in support of the cause. My husband asks " Why do you think the rest are not wearing the pink shoes?" Neither of us could come up with a reason??? What do you think?

A few of the players did have the pink ribbon emblem on their foot ball pants.

This is Amy Tara's blog

I will let you read her story and see her goals for us. I hope that you will get involved.

A brief story about my Mammogram journey.


I have had mammograms for a few years now. Honestly... do not like them, hated my first exam, but they are a part of life that is necessary.

About two years ago I went for my routine exam and about 10 days later I received a call to schedule a second exam. I scheduled the exam and again waited for the results that took another 10 day. I am elated that there were not issues, just scar tissue. I was surprised to find that insurance does not cover the second exam.


This year my mom convinced me to go with her to her doctor. Dr. Arlene M. Weinshelbaum's office schedules the appointment, provides the mammogram and reads the results before you leave her office. You walk away having all of the results and information that you need. I received my results with no issues, but they let my mom know that they needed to take a second scan. I am happy to report shehad the second scaN, waited for the results and there were no issues for her.

Take care of your self!! Schedule your exam today...... and go to the appointment.

Now.... go to Amy Tara's site read her story and everyone wins.



Have a wonderful fall day, this is my favorite time of the year.

I love this story -Read This!!!

I read this on Rebecca Sower's blog. check this out....interesting thinking when it comes to time...i wish there were more hours in my day....but i working on spending time with my golf balls creating being one of them...

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar...and the beer.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. Then he asked the class again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided. " I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions--things that if everyting else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. "The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first, " he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Spend time with those you love. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Spend time with old friends. Play another 18. There will be time to clean the house and fix the disposal."

"Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Have a good day taking care of your golf balls.

It will give you something to think about.

Somerset Memories- Fall issue and the funny thing that happened!!!

It finally came ....
I have been checking the mail the last few days looking for the new Somerset Memories Fall edition. Monday it finally arrived in my mail box.

I have two articles in the magazine. One is an article called "Chunky Layering" featuring my work with the wonderful Donna Salazar. I am so thrilled to be featured with her wonderful work.

Check out her blog here

I have a tendency to put lots of things on my pages as well as paints, sewing, fabric. Basically how ever I feel about the page or moment is going to be reflected in the design of the page. My friend Lucy and I have often talked about our pages and altered art. I realize that most scrapbook companies do not embrace my style of scrap booking. I have actually attempted to work on simpler pages with a more clean design. Looking thru a magazine I will find a simple layout out that I like with an abundance of white space. I will adapt the page to my design and stop when I have completed the look. But... more often than not I will come back and add painting, stamping or something to the page. While I love the look of the simpler look it is just not my design.

I tell you all of this because I am so grateful that some one appreciate my style. It feels even better to know that I did not have to adapt or conform to an established trend to be recognized. Thank you Stampington for seeing the individuality of our expressions and publishing them for others to see.

And now the funny thing that happened....
I handed the new Somerset Memories magazine to my husband Monday night when he got home. I had tagged each of the pages that had my work to make it easier for him. On page 87 he started laughing when he saw the photo of him as a boy with his mother(Martin 1957). They were in California just before boarding a ship for Guam where his father was stationed with the Air Force.

I have had numerous projects and pages published in the past, but never any pages with my immediate family.

This time there is another article about a wedding that my daughter was in as well an individual page about her.

My oldest son is pictured as a Young boy with his grandfather who is leading his on a pony. This page was actually put together about 4 years ago and my style has changed a little since then, but I love the photo. My husband's comment when he saw the photo of my oldest son was " Look at the Pocket Protector" in Papa's pocket.

My son piped up and said that is not a pocket protector that was his eye glass case.
This photo is over 20 years old and he remembered that eye glass case.

My daughter called last night and asked where she and her friend Ashley could get the magazine. My son told her to bring her copy next time she comes to visit and he will give her an autograph.

And then there is my baby boy on the page titled Blue Blanket. When he was about 18 years old my husband asked when I was going to stop refer to him as my baby? My response.... probably never. Yes he is in the magazine as well. He is the baby sucking his thumb holding his blue blanket. The page is titled Blue Blanket and the photo is mounted on quilt batting. My two sons were thumb suckers and blanket draggers. As they got older their blankets kept shrinking as I cut them smaller and smaller. Fortunately they both stopped sucking their thumbs at about 18 months. I on the other hand was about 10 years old before I quit. LOL

Thanks for reading all of this and sharing in my excitement once again!

Check out the Prima Product Picks

Prima Product Picks!
Ready for something FUN?

Something REALLY, REALLY Fun?

Prima has chosen some of their very favorite products, and put them together in a fantastic little ensemble below...what we want to do is to introduce you to a few of them...

and, THEN, get you involved!

Visiting the Prima Blog and saw their new Prima Product picks! Wow I love all of the new neutral products. I can see an entire project using these pieces, they are just gorgeous. Check them out on their blog!
http://prima.typepad.com/

Working with Vellum from Webster's

Both of these pages are from my daughter's wedding in February.

A Crazy Pair is on vellum paper from Webster's, This is my sister's daughter and my daughter. This is one of my favorite photos that was taken just after the ceremony.
I had a little difficulty photographing it but I love the page. I rolled Hambly overlays to make the bright pink flowers. The bird cages are cut outs from a Hambly transparency.

The Delight page is may daughter opening gifts from her brides maid just before the wedding. The expression on her face is priceless. I wonder what her brides maid got her??? I spritzed this page with Tatter Angels spray.

From Housework is Evil it must be stopped!!

Found this site on Facebook call Housework is evil it must be stopped.

My sister and I have discussed this before. She wanted to know where I got the clean gene. Discussion insued... my mother got offended...

Mom she is the one that pointed it out

Come to think of it... One of my mothers sister lacked that gene as well. It is not her fault!!!

I can actually remember as a child going to my Aunt Betty's house for a week in the summer and I would immediately start cleaning her house. In all fairness she worked at night full time and her kids liked to sleep.... On the plus side she spent lots of time with us we always had FUN. I think we had tuna sandwiches for lunch every day that we were at her house.

My Sister and Me-

She-
1)thinks house work is a waste of time
2)Is very organized and is a planner
3)Cleans her scraproom every day after she finished or before she starts a new project

Me-
1) Like things clean....(trying to break this habit)
2) NOT organized, want to be but it is just not in me. What plan, very impulsive!
3) Cleans the house before I scrap at the end of the week,
Scraproom....If it is not layered with 2 or 3 projects I can not create. If it is too clean, there is no disorganized mind to work with. I've tried organized it just does not. Some of my best projects are from the junk that is on my work space.

So which one are you?

Pearl is was my grandmother on her wedding day

This is a photo of my maternal grand mother on her wedding day. She married you and lost 2 babies before adopting my father, he was her only child. His father died when he was four years old.

I used the New Webster's paper abd bits of an older collection. I added some Graphic 45,Hambly, hand made flowers.I love to collect vintage laces, ribbons, fabrics, embroidered itmes and more. I used some old very wide lace topped with some older Prima lace.

TFL

Somerset Memories Autumn 2009- My Work is published

This is a look at the article and ideas from the early release of the Somerset Memories Autumn 2009. I have several works being published in this magazine as well as an article. I love this group of publications they contiune to reinforce my creativity and welcome my projects. This is an early look at the articles that will be in this upcoming magazine. You can check out the full release of their magazine at this link.

http://www.stampington.com/html/sm_autumn09.html

Scrapbooking.com- July Article

Have some of catching up to do this has been a busy time at work for me along with life challenges. But there have been some exciting things going on with my scrapbooking and altered art work.

First of all I have another tutorial and article published in Scrapbooking.com, thank you Jami for continuing to recognize me. This is the link to her monthly on line publication.








This is an older article that I wrote for Scrapbooking.com showing how to use sketches to design pages. Jami asked me to focus on showing how to build layers on a page. Their publication has some great tutorials showing steps to create beautiful scrap book pages.





Hope every one is having a great summer!

Last week my ac went out in the middle of the night, I suffered thru. The next day was my day of from work and when it started hitting 85 degrees I was visiting friends and shopping. The repair main was not coming until the next day. Later that evening when it was a cool muggy 75 degrees, was complaining. My husband and son commented it was like camping. Only they had tv, video and bathrooms. yeah right!!! I am way past those days, spent many years camping with my children and never in Florida. I do not like to be hot and I don't like bugs.I am going to mom and dad's house. 70 degree ac, comfy bed, clean sheets, no screeching bird at 8 am or 5 dogs barking. Get out of my way. I work where it is 35 degrees every day and rarey am I cold. I do not do hot any more unless it involves a pool or beach.

Living in 2009- From Larissa

I got this today and just thought it would be cool to share it with you girls. It´s fun!


YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2009 when...

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2 You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7 Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12 You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list

AND NOW YOU ARE LAUGHING at yourself.

What I like about you- Scrapping the Music #94

This is for The Next Step Challenge Blog sewing on paper. The topic this week is sewing with out a machine on your pages. This page has a combination of both techniques.

Scrapping the Music - #92 Our Beautiful Story

I love the weekly challenge Scrapping the Music.


This week I scrapped my niece with her new baby brother. I used a combination of a couple of lines of Graphic 45 paper.


This is another page using Graphic 45 papers I white washed the back ground paper, added spackling compound to the paper and stitched around the photo!

Scrapping the Music - #91

Page Maps- Contest

This is a page that I worked on for Page Maps contest this week. There is a little glare on the photo, so I will have to try and retake this page. Problem is this is Florida and it is so darn sunny, glare on glossy photos are a problem. I guess I should have used matte paper for this one.

Christmas morning at my brother house 11 eggs hatched and there were baby chicks running all over the place. I love almost every photo I took that day, they are so cute. My brother has 6 children so there are lots of photos.

Create My Keepsakes- July Designer challenge

CMK has monthly challenges and I decided to play along this month.

I love this photo it is my nieces and nephew at Flagler Beach last summer. I am looking forward to my sister and her family coming to Florida in July.

I love seeing them and I always get some great opportunities to take photos!!!

Yeah new photos.

On the next step we talked this past month about altering old paper. The paper under the photo is some old K and Company that I doodles all over. Most of the rest of the paper is the opposite side of some patterned paper that I bought and never used.

I am person that usually works well under pressure... most of the time! I completed my layout last week end and planned to photograph my lay outs some time this week. The problems for me is this thing called work that keeps getting in my way. Staying up late, really late scrapping and playing, sleeping until the last minute before I have to get ready for work.

Sooo the photo did not happen until today. For some reason I can not access the gallery to post the photo and it has been that way for the entire week. I submitted a request for help since I do not have sufficient privileges to access. I am sure it is something I have done to screw things up.

So I am posting my layout here.

Pink Paislee contest submissions

Create My Keepsake has a Pink Paislee contest on their site. I created two pages for the challenge, the idea was to use the name of one of the paper lines in the title. If your are the winner for the category you win a collection of the particular named line of paper.

I have some of their products, but who doe not need more. I like working with challenges since they usually limit your options, but force you to get creative with their products.

Fascinating You is a mixture of 2-3 Pink Paislee lines. I cut the red flowers out and raised them with pop dots. Next I embroidered the stem and vines with #12 cotton thread that I got at the quilt store. I really like how the flowers swwm to flow with the lines of the photo. This photo is my daughter and husband on their wedding day.

Enchant is a mixture of a couple other Pink Paislee lines Office Lingo is th emain paper. I printed the defenition of enchant on the pink dotted paper. I cut out the other embellishments for the papers.

Rework REInvent,REdesign- The Next Step Challenge Blog

This month I started showing some of the ways that you can alter the paper stash you currently have. Each week we will update with a diffent challenge to alter that stash that makes you say- What was I thinking when I bought that paper.

My techniques focus on using pain, rub ons and stitching to alter your paper. Check out the blog to see more fun ways to change your current products.

Just Be Me- Lily Bee Contest

I got busy this week and created a Mini Book for the Lily Bee -Just Be Me contest. it was easy with the wonderful prize package I received from Erica at Your Scrapbook Stash. I am the guest designer for the month of June at their site. Be sure and visit their store and gallery.


So here is my submission for their challenge. The new Lily Bee paper is beautiful and was perfect for the them of this album.

Summer Fun- Quiet Time

Visiting a blog today and she asked you to post some of the things that you do with your children over the summer.

Their were all of the Disney, Disney land, Camping etc, all things that we did with our children. I emphasise did, they are all grown now.

This was something we did most summers to keep mom sane. I had two readers and one who did not like reading at all so.... comic books came in to the picture.

Side bar-I had a tutor for one of my children tell me that Comics were a great way to help your child process information. The learn how things progress, evolve and they learn how to understand multiple instructions. You actually cut the cartoon out of the paper or book and cut each frame apart and have them arrange them in order. If you want more info on this let me know.

Back to my favorite summer fun.

My favorite summer activity was a read a thon. Who can read the most books over the summer. Any book will work including comic books. Who cares let them read. It is quiet time for you and fun for them.

Mine actually still have their comic collections. They also acquired some visiting antique shows and junk stores with us. We figured out if they were shopping along with us they would enjoy it more.Plus it gave them something to read in the car. We all know after a few hours in the car we just want to bribe them to be quiet.

My sons are grown now but they still have their collections boxed away.

Have a great reading summer.

So enjoy my favorite summer activity for my children READ A BOOK.

Just Beachy- AMM cardboard challenge

This is my submission for the A Million Memories - cardboard challenge. The card board was sprayed with my Lumiere Pigment Powder paints. The tutorial for creating your own misters is below.

This page actually started out as a page for the Graphic 45 sketch challenge!

Hey Kool Aid, Paint and Recycled Cardboard

Tonight I am playing with paint, Kool Aid and recycled card board. The Card board is for a challenge I want to enter over at AMM.


I plan to post a tutorial on my web site for the different methods on ways to alter cardboard.

I decided to try dyeing the cardboard watered down acrylic paint, pigment paints, and Kool Aid. We shall see what tomorrow brings, besides these multicolored hands.Pretty colors just not on your hands.

Not sure if you visited our challenge blog, we have some creative ideas posted for you to try. Next week I will be posting my projects! Tell your friends!!! We have 2 Rak's prizes for the month of May. Hope you play along with us!

Aleida's Challenge- on Flickr Groups and I hate my photos

Boy do I hate how I look in photos and I have to get over that. Yesterday my friend Lucy was taking photos of me. On a good day I hate my photos, but I literally have been sick for a week and the face defietly shows.

Today I am reading Emily Ahren's blog and found this interesting post on taking photos of yourself with your children. You must read this!

Aleida's Challenge

From Emily's blog-

Many scrapbookers knew Aleida Franklin. She was a wonderful wife and mother and a brilliant artist. I didn't know Aleida personally, but she taught me something I will never forget.


She emailed me last year to tell me she loved my blog and to ask if I like my short hair-cut. This lead to a series of emails which eventually led me to remark that I really loved how often she posted pictures of herself with her children on her blog. And she replied to me, "Have you ever seen a photograph of your own mother and thought to yourself how fat she looked? Or how she wasn't wearing make-up? Or wasn't dressed in a glamorous outfit?" Of course my answer was no.


She then responded with saying that she made it a goal to take a picture of herself with her children at least once every month. And that to use excuses about how we look, as women, is ridiculous, since our children will never care what we looked like, but only that we had physical evidence of the bond between mother and child. Aleida tragically and unexpectedly passed away last September, leaving 2 small children and a grieving husband. After she passed I thought of how those children must feel to have those precious photographs.

Emily says:
I have made it my personal goal to follow her wise suggestion and I now take photos of myself with my children....double chins, make-up free, bed-head and all.


I invite Mothers everywhere to take Aleida's Challenge. To photograph yourself with your children each and every month. And to post them here so that we can see Aleida's legacy unfolding. If you want to share your projects and get encouragement, join the new Aleida's Challenge Flickr Group.

A Million Memories Layout of the Week- Baby Blue

My Niece Bailey will be so proud she is in the layout of the week at A Million Memories. Bailey is rapidly becoming the most published family member and she loves it. I will let her father know she can hand out autographs again.
http://www.amillionmemories.com/

A BIG thank you to A Million Memories designers for selecting me!

The Next Step

This is a wonderful day and a dream come true for each of us. We love to experiment, teach and share new ideas.

A little over a year ago I started a blog and kept encouraging a very good friend Lucy to start one. This opened new doors to friends along the way that shared like ideas and goals. What a wonderful world blogging has create for us and new friend Bethany.

Since that time we have all played along on the weekly and monthly challenges that are available for scrapbookers and altered artists. Meeting new friends and sharing our experiences along the way has been the best part.

Realizing how much fun participants have playing along we discussed that this is definitely an area that we have something to offer.

We are an ambitious, creative and adventerous group that loves to try new thing, teach and share new ideas. We hope you will be play along with us weekly.

Join us and tell your friends...we have some great ideas and techniques to show you!!!

Creative Therapy #58 Favorite Word SMILE- the universal language

Creative Therapy challenge this week was create something around your favorite word. Or in my case the favorite word this week. I just transferred to a new management position in my company. I am now working with all new employees on a different time schedule. I have an entirely new set of peers working with me..... all men.

So this entire week.... I got sick Allergies or something.... I have been sick every day that I went to work.

The employees all could look at me and pretty much see that I did not feel well
(a lovely sight). To top it off, by the second day I could not talk, there was no voice.
My son said that I sounded like a man on the phone and my husband said I sounded like (some basket ball coach- I think the coach yells alot).

So my word this week was SMILE, because that is all I could do as I met 100's of new people.( and try not to cough on them).

My usual relaxation every night is to work on my projects or scrapbook and there was very little of that this week.

But here is my smile project!!!

See you next week!

Pencil Line Sketch and Color Combos Galore - Rare Occasion

This page is my submission for the weekly challenge at Pencil Lines Sketches #130 and Color Combo's Galore. I really like to try and participate in some of the weekly challenges and there are two of my favorites. There are no restricitons other than following their prompts.

In this photos my daughter is wearing braces for the second time around at 24 years old. She wore braces as a teenager for 2 1/2 years, but unfortunately there were lots of problems after the braces came off. Meghan had a huge gap between her two front teeth prior to getting braces. About one week after the braces came off the gap reappeared.

Meghan was graduating from high school and at that point she wanted absolutely no part of having braces put on her teeth again. No amount of persuasion would convince her to go thru braces again.

Once she was in college in Gainesville we talked to another orthodontist and she again decided to not have them put on her teeth. This dentist told her it would be another 2 year process and she was not read to commit to that. It took another 2 years before she sought another orthodontist and arranged to have them put on for a second time.

So this March 2009 she had her braces removed for the second time. Prior to that it was virtually impossible to get a photo of her smiling with her mouth open.

Terri Conrad Designs- Having a give away

Check out Terri Conrad's site she had posted some of her new items for CR Gibson and She is giving them away. They are soooo cute.
http://terriconraddesigns.typepad.com

Creative Therapy- Unconditional Love

If you have never participated in the Creative Therapy challenge you should check out their web site.

Their weekly challenge makes you think out side of the creative circle. I am going to try and participate in this challenge weekly and my goal is to work on altered projects as often as possible. Stretching the boundaries.

My project this last week was an altered book and a photo of my daughter and her new husband.

I started by cutting out an opening in thr front of an old book. I measured it off and used and xacto knife to cut thru the front cover. I then cut a decreasing set of frames in side that area.

I layered papers on the front of the book and then sprayed misting inks on the cover. I also added acrylic paints to the cover. Once the paints had dried, I accented the seams with a charcoal pencil. Along the frame edges I painted on crackle medium and let it dry. I then took a charcoal pencil and scribbled over the crackled areas. Next I took my finger and rubbed the charcoal in to the crack and wiped the excess off .

I had alot of fun playing with this weeks challenge. TFL

Emma-

This page was made using Luminart home made spray mists. Formula is below in the previous post. There are lots of other uses for them that we can discuss. But for now here is a page I created using Webster's papers and the paints.

Tomorrow I will try and post some of the other pages I have created using the spray paints.

I heard that LuminArt is either reducing inventory or going out of business. I also read that they offer a discount on the product if you ask. happy painting.

LuminArt Pigment Paint Sprays

Thanks for the response to my home made spray mists. I really would love some of the glimmer mists, but have about 20 colors of LuminArt pigment paints so I decided to make my own.

Luminart powders are very intense and create wonderful colors splashes. The can be used several different ways, but we can get in to that later.

To make the misters, I purchased Walmart travel size spray misters 98 cents each in the shampoo and deodorant section. While you are there purchase a bottle of inexpensive liquid hair spray ( Rave, White Rain, any of the liquid pourable types).

I added about 1/4 teaspoon of the pigment powder and then added 2 parts water and then added 1 part hair spray.I am not an exact science person, as you probably can tell. The hair spray helps the paint to dry quicker and prevents the mica from getting all over your project or photos. The hair spray acts as a fixative.

You can also sprinkle the pure powders over your projects or pages and then spray the pure hair spray over the spots of paint and it will liquefy the paint and cause it to fuse out on your page. Once it drys it will adhere the powder to your page.

I will post photos of some of my before and after pages and projects.

Have fun, the pigments will dye your hands so if that is an issue for you, wear gloves. Wipe up the spills and blot your pages with paper towels and use them for other projects.