Hello Wednesday -- Can You Guess Why?

To all of you Americans out there.........HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!  And may we never forget that the kind of freedom we enjoy does require fighting.  May we always appreciate those who've sacrificed and may we be willing to make the sacrifice again if necessary so that people can be free indeed!

I have a whole lot of washi, as you may know. But here is a batch that holds particular significance.  Can you guess why???

You'll have to wait, but you'll know very soon!

On the other hand, here is some news that I am able to share and am sooooo happy about.  You may have heard that Scrapbook Circle had a DT call recently.  Well, guess who got invited to join with their amazing team of designers!!!  Yep, it was Yours Truly!  Couldn't.  Be.  Happier.  They put together beautiful kits and are wonderful to work for.

You may remember that I had the opportunity to guest for them a few months back.  I thought I'd share one of those projects with you again today so you can be reminded of how beautiful their kits are.  Make sure you check out their website and see who all the other amazing team members are. I am anticipating a LOT of fun working with these kits.  My only regret is that I wasn't there in time for the July kits!

Here is the kit I worked with for my guest spot, Remember This.

And here is my favorite layout from that particular collection of goodies.  

And now, for a continuation of my story......

So it was decided that I would travel with my father and step-mother 'Out West' in their Chevy Truck and Airstream trailer.  Sounds like a great adventure doesn't it.

It was 1984 and we were going across the country.  I'd never been to the West before so the only notion I had of it had come from 'Bonanza' and 'Little House on the Prairie' (which it turns out wasn't really West at all).   

Not only that, but I was anticipating my first airplane trip when I returned home after Daddy and BJ got settled in to their new home.  

We planned our trek before the school year was even over, which was another bonus.  I was still attending the small private school, which was a self-paced program so it worked out perfectly.

The three of us rode together in the cab of the Chevy Silverado.  I don't honestly remember a lot of details, but I do recall that we would end our day of travel each night at a KOA campground.  Up to that point in my life, I had always stayed in nice campgrounds so this seemed about right from my 11 year old perspective.

The first memory I have of those campgrounds is how we made a game of paying attention to the signs for when one would come up.  For a kid, that helps pass the time and gave me a little boost when I could 'discover' one.  I'd pour over the map looking for the little KOA symbol which had been cleverly included.  I believe it was second or third night on the road when we stayed at one which had a very special visitor.

We'd pulled into camp and were all set up when we decided to take a walk around the grounds.  What do you think was staying in one of the sites near us?  

A baby bear.  

Seriously, I kid you not.

Somehow, this family owned a baby bear and they were traveling with it.  It was very small, perhaps weighing 20-30 lbs and it was super friendly.  I plopped myself down immediately to play with and love on that sweet little cub.  But it wasn't long before I realized that even a baby bear has formidable claws.  Even so, that may be one of my favorite memories ever.  I have such a love for mammals and bears are at the top of that list.  What a treasure that memory remains.

Perhaps that was a little gift God allowed me to hold me through the coming storm.

We'd been on the road a few days, and as I'm sure you know, tempers can get heated when people are in close proximity to one another day in and day out.  I'm almost certain that BJ wasn't a big fan of kids to begin with ,so I'm sure that didn't help matters.

Somehow, BJ decided that I was not to sit near my father or hug him more than once per day.  Of course, that was absolutely out of the norm for us. And I'm not sure that she ever told my Daddy about this rule.  What began to happen was that each time we'd stop for a restroom break, she'd begin to bawl me out in the bathroom for being to 'lovey dovey' with my father.  She told me that I was acting like a baby and that girls my age didn't hug and kiss their father's like I was doing.

The climax came when she progressed from yelling to slapping me at one of the stops.  She was so angry that I would dare to touch him and when I argued with her, she just hauled off and slapped me across the face several times for being such a disrespectful, disobedient girl.

By this time, we were almost all the way through Texas.  Thinking my father would put a stop to her ridiculous behavior, I immediately ran out to 'tell on her'.  This was the first time I would come to understand that my dad's beliefs would change according to the beliefs that his woman held.

He told me that I wasn't respecting BJ's wishes and so I'd have to go back home.  We continued to El Paso where my dad took me straight to the airport and put me on the next plane to Tampa.  I was being punished for wanting affection.

He'd been unable to raise my mother and so he'd called my friend Mandy's father, John Holmes and asked him to collect me from the airport and then bring me home to my mother.

I don't know if I can describe just how crushed I was.  It was devastating to be abused by my step-mother.  But to then be rejected by my beloved father.............. that was agony.  I had always believed that my daddy really did love me so much.  This caused me to question that love a great deal.  

Any joy I might have had in a plane ride home was completely lost.  How does an 11 year old girl reconcile that her father is okay with sending her away for loving him too much while he continues with a terrible, evil woman who manipulates him continually.  (there are more stories about that which I haven't taken the time to share.)  It was just too much for me to understand.

Seven hours later, at 11PM, I arrived in the Tampa airport, afraid of how I'd get where I needed to be.  Luckily, John was there to meet me so I didn't have to worry for long.  John was a quiet man and really didn't say much at all.  He had arranged for us to stay with a friend of his family's for the night.  We would drive back to Homosassa Springs in the morning.

We woke the next morning, downed some cold cereal and piled into his truck.  John and I said very little during the trip home.  Instead,we just sat quietly, each turning over our own thoughts.  John did share with me that he'd still been unable to reach my mother.  But that is where we were headed all the same.

When we finally pulled up in front of the house, there was mama's car, sitting in its usual spot.  All looked to be normal.  John never even pulled into the driveway, just hopped out of his truck in the middle of the road, hefted my suitcase over the side of the truck, handed it to me and then jumped into his truck and sped off.  I stood there in the road, looking back toward the house.

I couldn't imagine how mama would feel about me showing up unexpectedly.  I thought she'd be pretty happy about it since she hadn't been too keen on my leaving in the first place.

Wrong again.

A little more Elle's Studio to share and more happy news.

I am so excited to share with you that I've been invited to join the Epiphany Crafts Design Team for 2012!  I've been using their fun tools and embellishments for a while now and I completely love them.  I can hardly wait to get my hands on the new goodies from CHA.  Check out the website and the blog at Epiphany Crafts if you haven't gotten to know them yet and I'll be showing you some fun ways to use their goodies on your projects in upcoming posts.  This promises to be a fun year working with some more fabulous designers over there!

I know that some of you may have already visited the Elle's Studio gallery in the last week, but for those of you who haven't, I thought I'd share the other two layouts from my gallery over there today.

I've been working with the Daydream Believer kit from Studio Calico quite a bit lately.  I love how being a part of DT's is keeping me consistent with creating and using up my kits.  (I tend to need pressure to get things done, LOL)  I still don't know how I'll ever use all the kits I've amassed but I'm at least starting to move them a bit more quickly.

For those of you who actually read, I'm going to offer a little giveaway, and I'll know if you're reading too, LOL.  Since I have too much product sitting unused, I've collected a few items that I know you will LOVE.  I'll send them to one lucky winner.  Here's how to enter:  Leave a normal comment and at the end of your comment, include your favorite color.  Everyone who shares their favorite color will be entered in the drawing.  I'll draw tomorrow. And be sure and leave me a way to contact you.

I can certainly tell you that I've been buying a lot less product recently.  I am soooo glad about this because I truly was going to run out of room any minute in my studio if I didn't slow myself down quickly.  My LSS closed and I stopped shopping in that way and somehow even Two Peas hasn't been able to tempt me too much!  Yay me!

So here are my two additional layouts.



This first one uses a butterfly which I originally said that I hated, but it just worked on this page and I had to eat my words.  Now, to find a way to use the other two in the kit.



Please try not to judge our silly photos.  Yes, we are very VERY silly around here!





And this was another one I was really happy with.  I love those floral die-cuts from Kesi-art.  And there's another little button from my 'Moments' Collection.  I'm wrapping up the details on that so I think the end of March is looking good for opening my shop.





I played with my Bombay Inks on this alot.  Love how the white ink played with the blue.  And Sequins......be still my heart!  OH, and note another tied bow from my thread ends.



I did wish I had more of those vintage checks!  So cool!  I'll have you know it pained me a bit to use it up, you know, because it's the only one I will have.





Here's wishing you a lovely Monday.  We are happily anticipating visitors this Wednesday and my kids have AIMS testing starting tomorrow so it promises to be a super full week!

December Daily - Day 1 and Day 2

Good morning ladies!  First off, I just wanted to say that I got some of the happiest of happy mail this past weekend and I cannot wait to share it with you!  Unfortunately, I have to be patient, and so do you.  But I am telling you, I had to pick myself up off the floor after it came!  I can hardly wait to spill the beans.

Oy!  I am starting to wonder how I am ever going to keep up with all the goings on!   The first few days of December have been super super busy.  And some of it even got cancelled. (for which I may be quite grateful)

As I work on the actual daily pages for my DD, I am trying to keep at the forefront of my mind the idea of story and simplicity.  This creative cat is usually super into the details, but if I try to accomplish that on this project I know I'll never have a complete album.  Soooo, I'm trying to be very straight-forward and focus on the photos and the story.

Take a peek and let me know if you think I have managed it.

The Intro page is all about my purpose.  I think I'd like to read it daily in order to keep myself focused in the right direction.  That would have to help wouldn't it?  This pages uses stash along with the Jenni Bowlin November Paper Crafting kit, Close To My Heart Letter stamps and some goodies from my stash.  And of course, my typewriter.



Day 1 -- note the wood veneer on the bottom of this page. I love working with this stuff, you can punch it because it is so thin.  Misted with Studio Calico Classic Calico Mister Huey.  I'm thinking I may try to make some Silhouette cut letters with it along the way.



More wood veneer and some items from the SC Ali Edwards DD kit.



Day 2  here is the full spread as it looks together.  I think I'll photograph it this way from now on and then include shots of the individual pages.







Tomorrow I'll be working on Day 3 and 4!  I'm loving the Ali Edwards overlays for the large photo. And did you see the Elle's Studio tags?  Dug those out of my journaling drawer with glee! I'll be using more of those for certain.

Once again, I'm finding so many fun things in my stash!

Hope your day is a good one.  I have a trip to the eye doctor, pulling out my Christmas decor and completing some DD pages on my agenda today, among other things.

My little bit of DD --- and a winner!

Last year was the first year that I attempted to do a December Daily album.  I say attempted because I only completed 8 days.  But I guess when you figure it's a 25 day project I completed almost 33%.  That sounds a little better.

Now, I'm left with trying to decide whether I should actually finish last years using last years photos and trying to remember what to journal from that long ago.  Or, should I just put a neat divider and start this year fresh and figure that my DD can have what it has and not worry so much about getting an entire month.

I am leaning toward the second option as I just am not good at doing previous projects.

At any rate, I thought I'd take a couple of days and show you what I did get accomplished for last year. I do have to say that I really love what I did now that I'm looking back at it.  FYI, it is 6 x 12 for those who care to know.

Here's a little look-see at the first few days.

The first page is basically just a transparency.  I folded some paper to create a margin to punch holes in so I didn't have to use more of my transparency.  This way, I could get two dividers out of each transparency and still have the width I needed.



The first couple of days I was extra zealous and did two pages each. (that did not continue, LOL)

  





 

You'll notice a fair bit of white space.  I liked leaving that.  It just felt like it left room and was comfortable.  I think this year, I may not want to feel like I have to print all the journaling as that ends up taking a lot more time and planning and really slowed me down last year.

I'll show you the rest tomorrow!  Hope it was fun.

And now for the winner of my little contest.  After all those answers, I really couldn't choose anything else but 'Chicken Dance'!  So our winner is mandyb!  Send me your mailing address Mandy and I'll get this Washi Pop in the mail to you.  Thanks to everyone for playing along!

Week in the Life Day 5 DONE!

I have one more day worth of Week in the Life to show you.  I'm plugging along and this is day 5!

I made two layouts for this but one of them I did a while back.  You've seen it before but I'll run it by you again quickly.

I was so stoked to get my typewriter going that I had to make a layout!



This is the second layout.  I love this picture so much.  I don't know how to explain why, but I do.







And here are all the pages together.  Intro Page



Spread 1


Spread 2



Spread 3



And up close and personal...









There you have it, 5 down, 2 to go!

And just because I know  you love to see things about washi tape. You must check out this link which is full of pictures of the MT Expo going on in Tokyo.

A day in my space

So I thought I'd share a couple things from my scrap cave.  Just in case you're curious about what my particular brand of mess looks like.

So here is a picture of my cave yesterday, before any cleaning could be done.



Let me explain what has happened.  I've had 9 extra people in my house, 7 of them for an entire week and so, as you can imagine, things became a bit willy-nilly in terms of.....placement.



Then, I got three orders of schtuff to add to my collection.  Of course, I had to open them, but I have yet to put them in their homes. And so, they are in stacks on my tables.

It is also the case that I don't actually have space for a single other thing in my space, and yet, I continue to purchase.  (what does that tell you about me???  Well........nevermind)


So this is what my desk looks like when it's playing catch all.  Which is really quite often.  (and when my DD has taken up residence!)

I actually clean my desk off after I finish every project because I can't stand to work in a terribly cluttered space.  I make it terribly cluttered while I'm working, but I clean it up again and then I can think!

So, since we are talking about why it's a mess, let me share my haul with you cause it's sometimes fun to see what is catching someone's eye.



There is the overview.  Below are the details



Amy Tan stickers, Studio Calico pads and wood asterisks, KI pockets and cards, Papertry Ink felt, Pebbles stamps, Technique Tuesday Stamps, Lawn Fawn stamps,



Pebbles paper, Glitz letter stickers, Studio Calico mists, MME brads



MME label stickers, Studio Calico Journal kit and border stickers in kraft, Papertrey ink white paper and label sticker sheets



Papertrey ink stamps, Lawn Fawn Stamps, Technique Tuesday stamps(Ali E)

So that's it.  I've already created with some of these products and I'm really excited about the letter stamps from Papertrey Ink.  Can't wait to try those!

Have a great day and let me know if this was at all interesting because I'd dearly hate to bore you.  Be brutal, I can take it!

Inky Fun

I have to admit that I'm not so much good at just getting out my stuff and getting messy.

Well, I do like getting messy, but as you may be aware, there are such a huge number of terrific techniques out there that I actually forget some of them from time to time.

That is definitely what happened this time around.  I've known about embossing and resist techniques for at least 8 years but somehow it had slipped to the back of my mind.  And THIS is why taking classes is such a great idea!

Boot Camp brought all that to the forefront once again and I was able to play with color and texture once again through embossing and resist.  The result is that amazing rainbow hued paper you see in the layout below.  Does anyone else get as much of a charge out of that as I do???

We were supposed to cut shapes from our embossed resisted piece, but I could not do it.  It was too lovely as is.

Not only that, but I learned about making titles using stamps so you get to see an example of that as well.

Loving the inspiration this week.  And look, I got another LO for my poor neglected son!







Still looking for followers, you know the drill.....take a lovely walk over to the right margin and click that button.  And a huge thank you for stopping by and sharing my life!