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.

Creating My Keepsakes- Layout of the day!

My layout The Ring was chosen as layout of the day at Creating My Kepsakes. Thanks you very much for noticing my work, and my beautiful daughter. I am really happy that it was selected, since it is one of my favorite layouts I have created. My daughter actually wanted me to Photo Shop some of her freckles out of this photo. ing. I told her I would look for any blemishes and adjust them, but the freckles were stay. Take the time to visit the Creating Keepsakes site if you have never visited them. They are a very active team and recognize and encourage participation on their site.



Monday is my normal day off, but I had to go in for a 4 hour class today. I was talking to my friend Lucy on the way home and relating it to our new venture. It was actually a good class that reviewed skills that I had learned earlier in my career.

Positive reinforcement brings positive change......sometimes it is a slow change.

Negative reinforcement or scolding only brings momentary change.

Something to think about.

The Face of an Angel- Websters Papers Sewing Challenge

I had fun working with this paper, it is just beautiful and the details are perfect. I stitched around the edge of the paper and some of the flowers, to give it a little more detail. I added french knots down the right side of the lace frame. This is the left half of a two page spread. My daughter was recently married and these are some photos's I took. My friend Lucy and I were working on pages for the Scrapping to the Music site. When she saw this lay out, she suggested the title.

Make a Wish- using Webster's Papers for the Scrapping the Music Challenge

This is the right side of my two page layout. This page has stitching around the outside of the page and cotton decorative stitching on the tag and the flower.

I love the new Webster's papers, I added an old sheet of brown paper around the edge and some flowers. Left the journaling tag for my daughter to fill in.

I am sure she will have memories to record. We planned this day for many months and then she was ver sick the night before the wedding and the day of the wedding.

Thanks for looking,

This page is a submission for Websters pages and Scrapping the Music #78 White Horse.

The Ring- Mrs. Allen Cockrill -Sewing and stitching project

The photo is of my daughter and her now Husband Allen.

Allen spent alot of time looking for an engagement ring and planning the perfect day to give it to her.

This is her web site she is recording every thing. Blogs living an on line Journal
of life. Who knew it would ever come to this.



The honeymooned in Prague and they have photos of everything. Especially the menus.... very unusual food. They said the food was expensive and they were unwilling to pay for food that did not sound good.


In this photo Meghan wanted me to photo shop the freckles from her face. Of course you can look at the photo and see" I do everything" she says. I love the FRECKLES!!!

I think they make her beautiful blue eyes stand out even more.




On this page I wound heavy thread on the bobbin and sewed on the page. The thread I used is a heavy crewel thread, of course you could use embroidery floss or yarn.
The only trick is you have to sew on the rerverse side of the paper. This allows the bobbin thread to show on top.

I then stitched around the photo because it is recessed in the page, and the frame around the photoo had a tendency to lift up. Scrappin on the go, very little planning. I then kind of went stitch crazy on right side of the page.

Scrapping the Music- 3 Boys BIG Noise

The wedding is over, lots of photos to scrap and alter, so it is time to get busy. This week I decided it was time to join in some of the fun, so my first submission this week Is for Scrappin the Music.

Each week they give you a phrase from a song and you have a week to create a project. On Sunday you will get a song for the next week.
Check out their web site-
http://scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/2009/03/challenge-77-we-will-rock-you.html


I know this song well ( best played with very high Volume).

As a mother of 2 sons, I know noise well, and I am sure my sister in law Leslie is experiencing the same thing right about now.

SIX children 3 Boys. This is a photo of her sons, John, Walker and Tillman.

Tried to convey the noise and confusion that boys so often create.

Thanks for looking and visiting my blog!!

Basic Grey Contest - Baby Blue Eyes

My daughter Meghan got married on March 7th and I did not get to take alot of photos but I was able to get a few. All of Meghan's cousins were in the wedding, there are 6 of them. She had 2 flower girls, 2 jr bridesmaids, 4 brides maids and her maid of honor. Her color for the brides maids and flower girls was orange. Bailey was one of the flower girls and their dresses were white with beautiful orange sashes and 2 roses. The flower girls wore one in their hair and one on the dress. She found the dresses on line and they were a beautiful and a great price. I will have to post the link here. Meghan searched for months looking for a dress she liked that would work for the jr bridesmaids as well.

They are home from Prague.

My daughter called last night as they were driving home to Gainesville from Atlanta, Ga.

They had a wonderful time in Prague, but were not too fond of the local cuisine. They did find a McDonalds, KFC and Pizza while they were there. She said the food all looked awful. They were not willing to spend alot of money of food that did not look like something they would eat.

She visited a 80 year old lady that still carves hand puppet out of wood. They purchase one for them selves and a small one for me. I love dolls and collect them so, this will be a wonderful addition. In my old house I had a doll room and Allen did not like the room, he said there were too many little eyes looking at him.

I think the movie Chuckie, spoiled it for alot of children.

The Windham family at Meghan and Allen's wedding

My brother John(Bubba to me) and his wife Leslie have 6 children 3 are boys, this is a photo of them with the girls.

Meet my family

This is my sister and her family, that came from Ohio for the wedding. Their three daughters were in the wedding.

On April 20th my baby, Meghan will be 25 years old, she was born in Miami, Florida at Baptist Hospital. Meghan is eight years younger than her 2 brothers. She has her father's dark hair, sense of humor, and our blue eyes. Allen her husband is the oldest of 3 children and has dark hair and brown eyes.

Their wedding was beautiful, and their friends and family were all there. The only thing that would have made it more perfect, would have been for her not to have suffered with a headache. I was very sad that she had to inherit this trait from me and that they decided to rear their face on her wedding week end.

We skipped the evening out and mini shower with friends and family.

The bridesmaids wore orange

March 7th Wedding

My youngest child and only daughter got married on March7,2oo9 in Orlando,Fl. Meghan and Allen have been dating for 2 years. They met while Meghan was attending the University of Florida, they are both still there.

They went on their honeymoon to Prague or Praha as she says the locals call it. She said the hoteled in whilein Prague treated them like royalty.

The photographer has not finished editing the photos but took a few of my own.

Thankful page using Webster's Papers

Happy BIRTHDAY to my Brother John ( BUBBA to me, my sister says I should call him John.................some how that is not working for me).When she was last here from Ohio she kept talking to me about John and I actually seriously ask her who John was. When she told me I asked why she was calling him John now? Some 40 odd years later????? She told me he now has a doctor's office and she thought his name should be a little more professional and it was time for us to change.................Uuuuhhhhh No, just can not do it....sorry.

Any way John Geary was Born Jan 21 on a cold winter's day in beautiful Lake City, Fl previously know as Alligator at Lake Shore Hospital.

This is a photo of my brother and me, we are 14 months apart. My poor mother! We were both hyper kids that did not sleep alot, some things never change. My brother was known to eat pure sugar out of the sugar bowl.

He is now married and has 6 children, he never likes to be alone. I did not inherit that trait. You will see his children in lots of my pages. My daughter says they are in more of my pages than my own children.

Can we say willing subjects. Think I over exposed my own children.

Great Embossing idea shared on Scrappy Papers

Great idea Gail shared on her blog, she is an avid stamper and has great ideas.

Thanks, Gail #1
(Her family calls me Gayle #2)

http://scrappypapers.blogspot.com/

Tidbits
Take a sheet of cardboard and cover it with tin foil. Use this when you heat emboss. Place your stamped and powdered image on the foil. Heat image from the top and the foil will heat image from bottom giving you and evenly distributed heat. Your embossing will cure faster and you will have less warping of your paper.

I like to store embossing powders that I use alot of in resealable plastic containers. If the item you are embossing is small enough you can just dip it in the container and spool the powder over the paper. Great for white, clear, black or any other color that you use alot of. You can pick up Glad containers or a knock of brand for storage.


No need to try and save the excess and pour it back in to a small bottle.

Wish made with Webster's Pages

This photo is from my daughter's engagement shoot and I love this picture. I combined it with some of the Webster's Papers, they are all so beautiful if t is hard to choose a favorite.

http://www.websterspages.com
Check out their new lines that are coming out at CHA, I hope our local scrapbook shop http://scrappypapers.blogspot.com/ is ordering them or I will be shopping on line.

Whooping Crane's are an endangered species

These are Whooping Cranes and they are following the Sand Cranes. There are thousands of Sand Cranes and only 12 Whooping Cranes.

Sand Cranes at Payne's Prairie

We arrived at the park about 10 am and the weather was just beautiful in the mid 80's. Can you believe this is winter in Florida. We started at the beginning of the park, and the sounds of the birds was audible from the moment we got out of the car. This could not even prepare us for the outragous amount of birds that we would see and hear.

The trails led us on a trip of about 3-4 miles in to the marsh area, where we saw dozens of alligators of every size sunning them selves on the banks of the trail. There were alligators of every shape and size from little babies to 14 foot gators

I have so many photos of the day to share with you!