RETREAT!!!!!

I am the person at the retreat doing more talking than scrapping. I am the person at the retreat making all of her own embellishments. I am the person at the retreat who only gets 3 pages done in 2 days!  I am a scrap booking RE RE! However I am very pleased with the way that these pages have turned out and so I will continue to take 4 hours to complete one page. I will continue to paint and water and everything else that makes my pages mine. I will not give in to punches and matting and simple pages. No sir! I stand by my technique and all of it's tedious tendencies.

 The above page was scrapped this weekend on Friday night. This was my first attempt at using the water distressing technique from swirlydoos.com.  I used a Martha Stewart punch on the brown CS on the left side. The font was cut from designer's calendar on the Cricut and then covered with liquid glass. The stars are cut from George and Basic Shapes and distressed with Tim Holtz distress ink. I had a blast making this page. The water technique was a little difficult but I was sitting at a table with a squirt bottle instead of beside a sink of running water. The picture is of my DH and some friends of his playing paintball. He's the second from the left with all the camo on. He started paintball back in 2006 and it only lasted a couple of years but he really enjoyed it when he did it.

 This page was again inspired by Swirlydoos.com.  Due to my recent surgery I was unable to pack my usual entourage of stuff and was limited in my supplies. I didn't have an addition piece of the cardstock with me. I decided to cut the mat out from behind the circle. I figured I would optimize my paper while at the same time being a little green. The result? My matte was too small! I was ruined. My entire LO was ruined and I didn't posses the supplies to be able to correct what I had done wrong. The result? I had to improvise and change my original design. Let me tell you...that's hard for me to do.  The paper is My Mind's Eye(MMW) Love Nest. I made the rose using the Swirlydoos technique for the 3 layer rose. I made the pearls using puff paint on an acrylic (again...thank you Swirlydoos) and I made the shadowbox on my cricut. It's difficult to tell but it turned out really cool. Especially since the butterfly is pretty big.  The stamp is Close to My Heart. One of my purchases this weekend. LOVE IT!!

My final completed LO from this weekend is scraplifted from Scrapbooks ETC. I loved the title (U R My Heart) and the way to get all the pictures on one page.  The paper is MME Twinkle Twinkle Little Boy. I used a Martha Stewart punch for the blue card stock.  I made the swirls using puff paint on acrylic and used a white marker on the title to get the reflected look before covering with liquid glass. The result...totally cute. These are various pictures of my kids from 2007 and 2008.  I would have loved to do something more recent but this is what was printed. Still so adorable.

I hope Lee can see these from Heaven. I loved to share my most recent works with her. She was always the one that I could go to and get an honest opinion of what to do with a page.

Love long, laugh much.
Andiepants

Loved and Lost

Today I found out that one of my closest and dearest friends has passed away. She was only person who was as obsessed(or more obsessed) with scrapping as I am. We used to take Sunday afternoon trips to scrapbooking stores together and  constantly shared our ideas. She had applied to be a designer for Bo Bunny which was one of her most favorite paper companies. I will always think of her when I use K & Co because that also was one of her favorites. Unfortunately right now I am supposed to be sketching and packing for a weekend retreat and instead I can't seem to find the motivation to tear myself away from the computer. Probably because scrapping makes me think of her. This weekend I will be attending a retreat that she and I attended together last year. Oh how I miss her. I just spoke with her last week. I knew she was tired and busy and thought I should give her a call the middle of this week...guess I was too late.

I love you Lee and miss you. Praise God that you are with Him, healthy, and beautiful beyond imagine.

Just the Beginning...

I have been scrapbooking since 2006 and belly dancing since 2007. I love both things passionately.  The best part is I get to scrapbook my belly dancing! My other fave topic is my wonderful children. They are such a blessing in my life.

For my first blog *clears her throat* I will post some of what is already in my computer.

This first image is a page I did last year (or the year before). It's actually done on the back of a pizza box! I wanted to be able to use lots of paint and stamping. This was one of my first "out of scrapping" experiences and I loved every minute. The image quality is poor because this was taken on my iphone.

The following was my first digital scrapbook page ever. It was done with a kit from Peppermintcreative.com called Miss Mint. You should check out their digi kits, they are definitely fantastic. Although I have no interest in becoming a full blown digi scrapper, I do have the desire to become an effective hybrid. The first thing to do is learn the techniques so essentially this page was practice.

There were tons of digital pages that were just breathtaking and nothing that you could do with real paper and adhesive. I loved the graphic look of those pages and thought I would try them out myself. The following page was made using PSE8. I used a picture that my husband took at the butterfly house on Mackinac island with my Nikon D40. I used a paint crackle effect in the software and layered with my image. Truthfully this was so easy to make it was unreal.

Thanks for checking out my blog. Please feel free to leave any comments you wish. Happy scrapping.