Play Hard (Getting things together)

So, it's been a while. Ok, that's enough Staind quoting. I've been recovering from bronchitis over the past month. A friggin' month. That's just what I get for ignoring a cold and my lungs being tight for how long before? You can see how many times I've mentioned not feeling well. But, did see doc earlier and she got me antibiotics and a new inhaler. I'm slowly getting back to normal. The girls have been here 24/7 since the start of March. They are not impressed. School has been an issue still for one because of her anxiety. Yes, they have been doing school online the past two weeks. The youngest has had 4-H meetings over Zoom in the evenings. State contest for Band was cancelled. I'm still working. This month I got another (not) Just for Boys kit. It's fun to get these and play with them.

 So, this came mostly out of stuff from the March kit I received. Yes, this layout is from the end of March. Reread above with bronchitis to explain why it took me so long to get this done. But this is from when the girls went with their high school band to BW the week before large group contest. The older is a percussionist while the youngest is a flutist. I chose the two papers for the college colors. I also added scraps using paper from Michael's along the bottom of the brown. The cutout came from the kit (I'd ordered a second cutout for future use because I knew I wanted this specifically for this story) and the papers that were used to fill it in came from a 6x6 Echo Park pad I got from the kit in February. The fabric chipboard BW and period came from one of the kits, along with the green and gold splatters, foil frame, and doily framing the picture of both girls. The music notes and treble clef came from a Walmart sticker set. The phrase under the play hard was the bottom portion of a tag from the April kit.

Stick It Down

First, I'm submitting this to Stick It Down for the single page layout. Yes, I flipped it upside down. I didn't like how the title looked when it was on top. It drew away from the pictures, which are the highlight. But, it still is a cool title. I also planned on putting the paper on the top to make the other ripple look, but I lost the scissors. Hey, the girls are here 24/7 now. It's mayhem with two teens and a college student. And I had fun using my new splattery mists for this. I did both spray them and tap after taking out the nozzle. I missed doing these.

#FF0056

I'm also submitting this to Festive Friday. This is another I've missed doing. They add a fun challenge to any of the sketches that I'm inspired by. I was so sure I was going to do one set, but ended up doing this result instead. I have the book with the one for the books phrase on the title. There is the foil frame around my one girl. The fabric is the BW letters and the period. Of course, the yellow is in the papers and some of the mysic notes. One of BW's colors is yellow.

I have so many pages to get together still. The issue is if I will run out of tape/glue/scissors. Or will the rest of the pictures be able to be printed since this last batch had to be done through CVS because the oldest moved the printer and now it can't be used! Mind you, the girls are using the computers usually so getting them ready to be printed is an issue too. Wait for that layout. I'll explain the dramas then. But, hope everyone enjoys this. Comments are welcome.

Bowling tournament

I got my first kit. I spent time picking all these black star pieces that I first thought spilled from the sequin package. Nope. Pulled the entire bag up and found more under the bag. It was hard to get in (I still had some static leftover from the job I had dine at work) and still got them in. I have fancy things to play with. I have unknown future plans for a few pieces, but one piece of paper serendipitiously (did I use it right?) was in there for the layout here. I was thinking of printing out another image for a lane. Gee, another bowling layout? Well, the season is over now. They ended at Sectionals on President's Day. Next up are drama show, band contests, banquet, and she still has to bowl for a chance at a scholarship. Then, both girls still have their birthdays and summer stuff. Nobody here really stops.

So, I made a double page layout. Yes, these were taken with them in their protectors. This was a few pictures that, minus the Snapchat one from her, I took at the bowling tournament. She and some of the others were complaining about how early they had to be up on a Sunday. They did get pizza and soda on break. And we both had coffee when we got there. Hilarious is that mine was charged as a senior coffee. I didn't find out until I got the receipt. Just because I don't color my hair.... And the grey is mostly at the temples. 

This is the right side of the layout. I used as the main paper what I got from Target. The bottom piece is from Carta Bella, from the kit. My journaling and title were printed on the compeuter. The word stickers, pizza slice, and big emoji face came from Walmart stickers. The remaining stickers came from my Dollar Tree stuff. The cut out stuff, minus the coffee that came from a Biggby flyer, all came from my paper pads from Michael's. The washi filmstrip came from my bought kit. The ticket was the actual admit ticket fot the tournament!

This side is the left side. Yes, I tried to make it look like a bowling ball rolling down the lane. The papers are the same.  The butterfly came from the same Walmart sticker set. I traced in black the roll lines with colored pencil. Using Aleene's Tacky Glue, I added quite a few of the small stars from the kit. Yes, there are still many left, but I made an effort already at using them up. And, for those interested, I DID draw the glue lines with the intention of them showing. I hand cut the rounded corners on the pictures.  

Stick It Down Double Page Layout

I am submitting this to Stick It Down. I had fun with the page. Yes, I changed the heart. The part the girl will say was a fail is that I didn't make the holes with the plugs. She has gotten annoyed that all bowling ball images have just the black holes and none have a white ring, which would be the plugs. But, my thought is that they are being covered by the pics. Maybe next year's layouts can get one done that way. 

Happy 21st Birthday

I got a kid alive to 21!?! Yeah, we BOTH deserve a drink for that. But, it also is making for a change in birthday celebrations in general. Not mine, of course. Mine is the day nobody remembers or remembers other family member who has it and always brings it up. That tradition will be permanent. But, the change with the kids is that now it is having dinner at a restaurant that that person chooses. It must be on that day also. Helps that none of my kids are big cake eaters. We would do thecake per child and what slice wasn't eaten that day would go bad. They also never liked getting a single dezsert with a candle for that day either. So, this seems the best to do. I'm curious where the younger two will pick.

This layout is for the boy's first drink. Of course, I rarely get pictures of him because he doesn't like them being taken. He goes out of his way to look bad in them. Can you believe there was a time where he LIKED to have pictures taken? I miss those days.

In the layout, I used background paper only from my Brewtiful Day paper pad. I took quite a few stickers from the Sticko stickers I got from Walmart. The square stickers came from Cobble Creek which I got at Marc's. I added a few green, red, gold, and blue sequins that I got on clearance from Dollar General. The journal square was from another Michael's paper pad. The bottle cap was interesting to get on. I ended up layering my foam in it to make it secure and tacked it on the page. Melt image is the particular restaurant he chose. We had a great waitress (Ashley). My receipt faded too much to add. Lastly, the gems at the top also came from Walmart because the photo got a spot where the ink didn't take and I needed it covered.

#FF0053

I'm submitting this to Festive Friday's latest challenge. I'm chuckling over the tidbit that this is not even a girl as a subject with the holiday being about girl scouts even though he has been mistaken as a girl from behind in the past. So, his favorite girl scout cookie is Thin Mints. Or is it the Chocolate peanut butter ones? I used to get both for him. But, how I encorporated the list was the brown background paper, green and blue in multiple places on the page, both the title and bottom sticker giving birthday sentiments, gold splashes, and the candle on the cupcake for the one sticker.
So, that's another layout down. The laundry piles ever higher and keeps feeling more depressing. I'm off to eat. Comment away.

We have Practice?!?

First things first. I HAVE A JOB! Ok. We may now go back to our regularly scheduled attitudes. I got called about it and went in. Immediately, my mind went, yes please say yes. So, I start this coming week. One last piece of paperwork and we are all good. Can you tell I'm still so happy to have work again?
I finally got the layout I've been waiting to do finished. The reason why I was waiting so long was because I am running low on white cardstock and needed it for this background. I did not like the look of the photo collage (all four games put together) on any of my patterned paper, especially with how I wanted to do the side. And I am so glad with how it turned out. I actually got the final layout to look like my brain pictured it.

So, I wrote the majority of the story to this layout on there. But, one of the kids texted a confused We have Practice to everyone else when the three of them were at the alley, which had them cracking up. They then discussed how many times that week it had already been brought up. Luckily, it was voluntary to be there. The first game, all three started out with the same first frame. The second, their first frame was one different from person to person. The youngest was only upset that there was one working can vending machine and pretty much all the flavors were sold out. The bar area was closed, so we couldn't get her a soda from there.

The layout was pretty simple. I pulled a free clip art of the bowling lane, pins, and ball. Each of them I cut out, popping a couple pins and the ball with my foam. The semi circle I made in draw and then wrote in the event info. I used puffy stickers from the dollar tree and one from dollar general. The rest of the items were all fussy cut from different papers, calendar, and Biggby coffee flyer in the mail. The longest part in this was figuring out where to have each pin fly. The one at the bottom showed up there because that cluster just felt incomplete.

Sketches in Thyme 403

This is the last of the sketches in thyme I am submitting to this month. It actually was the first one they put out for the month! I've been sitting on it the entire time. After that practice, I knew that this would be the one to do it. And since the kids provided the perfect title.... No, I didn't see the name of the kid who sent it. 

I will be keeping up with all of this with work, but I may actually do a couple less just because I'm not sure of the availability I will give myself during the week. I still have to provide time to get my weekly journal done along with everything else. That is the priority right now only because it is part of my mental health. 

Art with Teen

I just now am realising that I am actually starting what I had considered when I first thought of doing the weekly journal. My plan was if I had enough to make a "story or layout" I would do one picture for the week and then make a separate book with the more intensive date pictures. Of course, I don't expect too many, but this one certainly pertains. Only my youngest would decide to figure alternatives when she can't find something she needs immediately. She got picked on after by the oldest because "did everyone forget the semester I was an art major?" and didn't check if he had what she needed. That was his only semester where he was not a computer major. He does want to keep doing it as a hobby once he has room. Currently, his room is taken over by computer and tech stuff. My room doubles as her and my craft room. It is also the SMALLEST room in the house. I am including the bathroom. Oh joys of single wide mobile home.
But, it took a while for us to get him to take us to the store to get the pizza stuff. By then, she was done with her painting for the weekend. Instead of just washing the acrylics off of her hand, she decides that this is the perfect time to make her hand look frostbitten AND burnt. It came out pretty good. She got some looks at the store but she was proud of it until she got the paint to crack too much at her knuckles.

Here is the layout I made of the day. On the left, her hand is the final look. On the right, her hand was being the palette. There is a small photo in the middle of her doing the painting. I also got her to make the "doilies" behind the photos. I chose blue and red in the background because of her hand. I was trying to get contrast with the blue in the photo, not noticing that the red then blended into the scrapbook album. I remembered to date the layout surprisingly! I did writing both by hand and over the computer. You can't tell, but there are white triangles along the top and left bottom of the red rectangle. I added them while I was cutting the red and blue chevrons. Made those by cutting the outer border of the arrows on the dollar tree sticker sheet. So, I had leftover triangles and decided to use them instead of scrap them.

Sketches in Thyme 405

So, I'm submitting this to Sketches in Thyme. I saw it and thought of her hand. I started with one idea with the pictures, but trying to fit as many pictures on one sheet of paper changed it. Especially when I said it would be one size and the final print was larger. So, I ended up this way. Upside, I figured how to glue over the gold! Use a napkin doily. Mwahahaha. But, I also used a bit of paper from a 2019 calendar by Amy Brown I have. I didn't do as much of the embellishing because it felt so busy already with the arrows and chevrons. Add in the pattern of the one side and my mind was saying this is enough. The title is just as playful using Dollar General stickers. I have most of the book left, yet don't really find much to use them in. 

Hope everyone is doing well. I still have a couple layouts to finish for challenges and to post the another with no challenges that I made. I enjoy getting these up and done.

Spring Fling

Another week with a Monday off for the girls. The weekend had the youngest continually bringing up the Schlieffen plan question from school. Finally got my boyfriend to discuss it with her and all was good. Plus, the oldest and youngest had a Minecraft day. The joys of snowy weekends and nobody enjoying snow. Sleeping late and staying up because of it can be quite interesting. Especially with us playing card games at night and getting noisy. But it makes for good pictures for general layouts and weekly journal entry. Have I mentioned that we have dark senses of humour at times?
Another thing about this weekend was me doing layouts for pictures and such. So, I currently have three layouts with no pictures on them. Plus, I found a paper pad that I seriously regret buying. I got it at the beginning on clearance and thought it would work. It was for planners really, but I figured wrong that it would be easy for me to use. So, I'm trying very hard to figure any way to use it. I've done coloring on one page, cut quite a few hectagons and shapes, and broken down pages to individual elements. I still have so many pages left though. I don't seem to complain about the other pads, but this one will be a challenge. Lesson learned though. Clearance is not always worth the cost.

So, remember last post where I mentioned having more layouts finished? Well, here is another that is for a challenge. It's another from the photo album. This is a general set of seniors, including me, of the band's last concert. This concert actually had set times of the entire music program, from fifth grade band and choir all the way to high school. It was given a theme (Cinemagic that year) and either you bought the tee to wear or you were to wear a similar shade one. It was the only concert where we all were allowed to wear jeans. Each senior got a trophy and certificate, along with a corsage to wear for the concert. We performed it in the high school gym (dances were not allowed in the high school gym but concerts were) which is now the community center. My kids knew of it as either the middle school or elementary school gym, depending on child. In a couple pictures, you can see the sports announcer booth and the painting of the old mascot. I told them about them. The youngest only remembered being told not to climb on it because it was old and falling apart so they could get hurt. She always referred to it as the elementary gym. They also were surprised to learn some of the schools we were in the same conference with in sports that they never played against. Of course, the conference is different and have different schools.

So, this is the right page. This actually had five photos. The middle photo is the one cut and placed vertically. I did remove a bit to make it as smooth of flow as possible. I also tried to include as few of the non seniors as possible in there. I used blue glitter stickers for the title that I got from Walmart. The music stickers also came from Walmart. The border paper was out of my Brewtiful Days pad. I used the blue and purple watercolors for splatter on the pages. The journaling I did on Draw and used a very light grey for the print. The purple background was because the school colors then were purple and white. By the time the kids went to school there, they changed it to purple, black, and grey. Please note, we all had regular waisted jeans back then, not low ones at all. I miss jeans having a comfortable waist area, even though I always had the back gap when sitting. Stupid hips requiring larger size than waist.

On the left side, we have more of the photos, but I did trim all of these. You can probably tell from how crooked I cut. I used the banners from two of the photos under the one image. Can we greatly appreciate that the image of me got the glare for those here to see? I scattered more of the music stickers on this page. I made sure to put the bass clefs by the guys who actually played instruments using the clef (trombonist and tuba) and I played clarinet. The other two were the percussionists. I added more of the watercolor splatter around these images. I wish there had been some flat signs, but the sharps worked fine.

Stick It Down double layout

I'm once again submitting to Stick It Down. I am glad I was able to use this sketch to get so many of the photos from this event on one layout. I do still have a couple left, but they all work for a story to tell within the event. It was even fun getting me to change the photos to fit the setup for the layout. I should add that there was a lot of dead space in those photos and everything was landscape, due to the camera used. I'm sure my family had no interest in turning the camera to take portrait style.
I'm getting pretty far along in going through this book. I have a couple pictures that it is so hard to see people in, so I may have to make notes on those just so that future family members will know who they are. Maybe I will even put an appendix(?) page listing each person in layouts. Advice is greatly appreciated on this. Especially since I JUST THIS WEEK figured out who the person on the roof was. Not me, but a certain exchange student. We don't need to be questioning that again in the future.

Watercolor insanity

So, I finally got a hand on the watercolors. I thought the girls just had the simple ones that one gets in a row. Nope, they had the tubes and pencils. So, I finished up some layouts. I have so much more respect for people who do this all the time. It was very time consuming and then dealing with the color drying out were learning experiences. The majority were just splatters, but one wasn't. So, the next few layouts will have that element added. On the other hand, I see myself doing more with this stuff with layouts. More options as I explore. I may have to see if I can pick up an inexpensive set of watercolor tubes and pencils for myself.

The youngest had asked before about painting with acrylic on the bunk bed which I use as loft storage. She is working on the whole thing now. Apparently, this is a piece for me to keep permanently. I have a feeling she will change her mind. But, the first pole is done in a galaxy theme. It is pretty. I took pictures as she was doing it and am planning on scrapbooking it. She is planning a sunrise with butterflies along the top. I'm wondering what else she has planned for the other sections. My other concern is when she does the rest and keeping the wall clean. For all the oldest plans on being here a long time now, there still is the issue of pain on the walls. Of course, if we could paint the walls and then go back to the original color before they left, I would do that. I would love to have either a soft blue or light olive green. Oooh, stripes of both would be really nice.

 So, this layout is the first in a personal scrapbook that I am planning on making of my partner and me. This is the promised of our first trip together. I think I mentioned it in another entry. But, this was our overnight to Fort Knox, Kentucky to get his medical records. I didn't take many pictures and regret one set. They had gorgeous snowflake lights on the lightpoles on base. I just felt so guilty over being there and I can't explain why. It IS a beautiful place though.
For the layout, I started with plain white cardstock as the background. I used papers from all my paper pads (the Michaels ones in Brewtiful Day, Gilded Berry, North Pole News, and Floral Romance). The two word items came from my Celestial Seasonings tea box. I did stitching with DMC thread (I also have Coates, which I use in a future layout), which is annoying to me, but I seem to be doing much more of coming up. I used Dollar Tree stickers for the title. Pastels have reappeared for the rainbow on opposite corners. I once again did the paper to paper coloring. I'm sure there is a technical name, but I don't know it. The watercolor splatters were in Yellow Ochre, Vermilion, and Veridian. I added a snowflake gem for both the fact that it snowed, which made us leave early, and the lights on base.

#FF0050

This is getting submitted to Festive Friday for the above challenge. For this challenge, I used watercolor and stitching. I learned that doing running stitch is much easier than backstitch for paper. My corners have the pastel rainbows. Wait, there is a reason for the rainbows. We saw one both driving down and coming back up. I didn't feel like retyping above to add that in. I also had the inspirational sentiment with the quote. It makes me think of our relationship together and how we feel like we have everything because we both work to make this work.

Sketches in Thyme

I am also submitting this to Sketches in Thyme. It was fun doing this and learning to make tags. I know that I went off from it, but this was the inspiration. The splatters on there were the big reason why I went to the watercolors. It was fun doing this. I had the girls help me on it more as a second and third opinion on options. 

So, comments are appreciated. Remember, not all layouts I put are with challenges. Go check out more if you are curious. Who knows where I will experiment next. If you have suggestions, let me know.  

18 birthday cake

My brain is waiting for coffee to begin. It seems I have days where I can journal on end and then days where I seem to shut it off. All week, I've had entries floating around wanting to be told and today they are quiet. I'm waiting to hear from someone about a job. Well, two possible jobs. I shouldn't get too excited about it though. But, to have the ability to bring steady money in sounds so nice. Though being the recepient of a bottle of McCafe Cinnamon Cookie syrup (marked use by date was passed a few days ago so they had to waste the bottle) was a pleasant surprise. I hope they use it again next year as a flavor. I can see myself asking for it in a regular coffee when I go. Actually, I wish they would keep it all year, seeing as the peppermint mocha hasn't come back. 

Ok, a sip of coffee starts the brain. Neurons are firing and gearing to go. A good note ahead. I got more medicine when I mentioned that I was out and needed to reschedule my med appointment. They literally got me in after my counselor that day. Last minute cancellation. I told about the nightmares and they gave me a new medicine to add for bedtime. I'm still having them, but at least now I'm sleeping straight through the past two nights. The first night I woke up but was able to get back to sleep. I'm lucky in that my antidepressant works quickly in the way I need it to: stop the bad thoughts. The rest I can fight myself. In a way, scrapbooking is an art therapy for me. Doing the journal is making me look for good moments in the day and causing me to build on that. Doing my grandmother's album is letting me go over the memories and accept it happened and that I survived that year. It does bring up many bad memories, but I can see someone who was fighting and wasn't ready to give up.

I'm still figuring out lighting with doing the layouts. One of these days I should show a picture of the part of the room I am taking them in. The first of the two pictures is a better shot at the pastels I used for the background. The latter is a better overall shot. I am playing more with designing backgrounds and not just using patterned paper. Oh, I like the papers I have and have a few more layouts using them, but to have this in my options is quite enjoyable.

So, about the background of this layout and the issues I had doing this. I used three pastels for the background. I used a medium yellow, red, and dark green. The lines I drew are under the photo to get a halo effect. I also used those colors on the title, along with a blue, brown, orange, and black. Originally the title was white, which seemed too bright against that gold. This softened it and made it closer to the background image on the title card. With the background, I tried to blend the colors as they hit each other in the corners. I wanted to make sure that the predominant colors were on the background. All of this was done with a wad of toilet paper. Budget designing at its finest.

 I am having issues no matter what when it comes to gluing anything onto metallic paper. This time, I tried glue stick, double sided tape, and liquid glue. None held well. I may just have to admit that it can not be under another layer, just a top one. So limiting if so. Any advice?

For the rest of the layout, I used triangle scraps from other pieces that I made flags out of or were the edges that I cut from other layouts. The flowers were fussy cut by me while the girl had fussy cut the butterflies from a sheet from my Michael's paper pad. She needs to finish that sheet because I am running low on those and want to add them to another page. I also added a couple drops of black glitter paint among the triangles. The butterflies were propped up with foam from Dollar General. It held the photo to the paper that way. The donut paper was from Dollar Tree, while the other two were from paper pads from Michael's. I ended up running my old gold ink pad around the edges of the cardstock to give it a finished look. Sometimes, layouts look nice without, but this just seemed to need it.

Let's Get Sketchy

Once again, I'm submitting to the Let's Get Sketchy challenge. It's funny because this time I really was hesitant on doing it because I'm not confident in the finished design itself. If you notice, I didn't even tell why that picture was taken. Like I mentioned above, doing scrapbooking on these old photos are a bit like personal therapy. Maybe that is the real reason behind my unease on this one. The funny part is that I also have a bit of pride with this one that I hadn't in others. So, submitting it anyway. Sjoot away with whatever you will.

Weekly Journal

Rule one for manga in this house: Read the last page first! Just kidding. But, as you will see below, I added the list of topics for a reading challenge. I have a reading partner for this. My youngest discovered it and saw it as a reason to finish more books. She handed me her one manga for the series prompt. Approximately one book a week should be manageable.

So, I thought when I first was looking at forms of scrapbooking that the whole Project Life format looked interesting. But, that rabbit hole started to panic me when I saw how people were going about how much work it was and how quickly they were falling behind on it. That made me decide not to go that route. But, I really liked the idea of documenting overviews of every week with scrapbooking. So, I wasn't sure how to go about it. In the end, I realised that I am really liking making different layouts and can use them to do the documenting. So, with a basic binder and sheet protectors, I'm off. Now, I get to make layouts in two different sizes! At least this one is completely for my use. I will use it at times for challenges, but more just to get the good things from each day in the specific week.

In the layout, I used part of a patterned paper from one of the pads from Michael's. I lined the bottom with part of a planner banner sticker from Dollar General. The week was printed out on my computer with a free font I picked up. Yes, I love finding fonts to use that are not the basic ones from the respective programs/OS. The main paper was the remainder of the watercolor paper I used to make the background on the previous layout. I liked how it looked and fit with the snowflakes. The white on the gray background for the images is actually from when I cut out a page of hexagons. I still have a couple more sections of it I have plans to use on larger layouts. The art in the background of the bottom picture was done by my oldest. All three are artistic.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch

I'm submitting the layout to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge because it gave me the inspiration to start. It was funny my mind was arguing about how to start as in should I just go Day 1-7 or add in the end of the previous year. Honestly, I wanted to have this as just this year. Seeing the sketch, my mind immediately said this would make it work. Three rows for pictures means a full week wouldn't work. But, I could do it for a partial week to document. If not for them, I don't think I would have started. So, thank you ladies.

I thought I'd show the entire week. This is the sketch layout with a companion page just having some extra documentation of things about the week. I put a picture of the book I'm working on first along with the list. I also put the goals I have that I see are achievable. I tied the pages together by using a scrap of the snowflake paper in the corner and the rest of the banner strip on top. Just for why I used that paper. We had snow New Year's Day and no way would I take a picture of that. So, what type of journaling do you do, if any?

Is there such a thing as too much at once?

Ok, and we're off. First, getting some Heidi Swapp ribbon for a dollar is a good deal, right? It looks like a little got used, buy not much. I see it as more supplies. I was hoping to find watercolor paper, but nope. Going to cut down some other paper to get the right size and also be able to do decorating on the paper itself. I'm doing a weekly photo journal to see the things that are good or make me happy. I'm also putting writing in it with lists. At least I have a cute binder for it. I've never been good with journals before, but hoping if I spend the week taking the pictures and setting the page in general together that I will keep it up.
I am currently doing well on the photo book. I realised something though. You know how scrapbooks come with so many protectors in them? Well, the way I am going, I will be filling a whole one of those with layouts. Where there is a story from the pictures, I am writing it out. But, I realise that there are some pictures I have no recollection of or else who everyone is. Thinking of an upcoming layout and asking for information now. Is it common to find scrapbook papers for St Patrick's Day with just four leaf clovers? If not, I may have to look for paper on a certain organization site and hope for the best. At least I'm not asking for FFA papers. Laughs nervously.
I have discovered the girls' chalk pastels. Hmmm, what can I do with them? Why did I discover them? Caution Will Robinson! The background of this layout is what happens when I go looking for one thing (watercolor paints that have disappeared) and open a drawer that has been closed a while. No, I did not find the watercolor paints. I'm still looking for them. But, finding these got me to looking online on using them. I have discovered something I like the look of for backgrounds. Still want to try watercolor backgrounds, but still.

So, I just told about the top part of the background. I used scraps from making the layout to go under the main image and to border the journaling. For some reason, I wanted to put the striped paper in as many variations as possible. The bottom half of the background came from a Halloween stamp set I got at Michael's at the end of the season for $1.00! All my patterned papers came from different paper pads from Michael's. The striped was from a Halloween 8×8 pack no less. Of course, all of my stickers came from the dollar store. And I only half fussy cut one sticker so the black stripe wouldn'tbe hidden. But, guess what I remembered? I used some of my Tim Holtz rub ons. 

Stick It Down

Once again, this was made for the sketch challenge for Stick It Down. I wasn't sure if I was going to do it or not, but I just thought it was cute. So, off I went. I really was inspired to use the striped paper due to sketch. I had a hard time though trying to figure out paper because I just was not impressed with what I had and the picture. Building the framing of the pictures was easy and fun though. I even popped the one quadrilateral and the other half of the other photo with foam. I'm learning to play because of these. I just want to say thanks for these.
Like always, constructive criticism is so welcome. One last question. Do people like having conversations in the comments? I just don't know if someone would respond if I was to. This is me trying to be social.

Nathalie Come! Aka bird training dog

Happy early New Year's. There isnt much on plan for this year, but I do plan on taking at least one shot to document the day. The girls go back to school the day after New Year's, which irritates them since so many others don't go back until the Monday after. I remember when we waited until then also. They changed it while I was in school, due to state requirements on amount of days for the year. Of course, their school is one of the first to end the year, which they DON'T complain about.
Well, two more pictures fell out of the book, so they were the next layout. Once again Nathalie shows up. But, we all swore the bird had a sadistic side by making her come to him and do obedience work. If we could have had him do it in a show, I'm sure people would have been shocked to see how well behaved she could be for him. One of the permanently missing photos is of him peeking out of my hair, which he had a regular thing of doing. He was technically my father's, but he decided he was mine.

In this layout, I actually trimmed both of the photos to fit the blue cardstock. Of course, that stuff was more just blankish space of walls and top of cage. I wrote the date and some journalibg, this time remembering to add lines so that my handwriting would be straighter. I only used one piece of patterned paper. I just could not find the right one. The final decision seems right to me. I also took two tags and cut them to make the three. Three, you say? Yes, I turned the one tag into two tags. I used three different colors of sequins on this one and really liked how they are on the page. The butterfly I fussy cut, but the flower was fussy cut by my youngest. She was bored and decided to do some for me, then declared the page we were cutting from hers to work on only! The Hello Lovely came from another paper pad. He would always tell her hello, so that seemed appropriate. Most of the stickers were from the Dollar Tree, but the Nathalie was from Dollar General.

 Sketches in Thyme Dec 15 sketch

This is the sketch I used for this layout. I didn't expect to do a challenge for these pictures, but I saw it and said it could work. I ended up flipping the layout to a vertical, which added to the story on how I could show those two. After looking at the sketch again, I realise that I flipped where the other two clusters were supposed to be. It makes my title fit better. I'm learning still. But, I'm finding confidence in doing them.

Last note, I am so sorry about the one comment being deleted. I type this on my phone due to better connection than the landline/crappy keyboard. My phone claimed I touched the delete when I was trying to enlarge the screen. It absolutely was NOT on purpose. 

High school me and Nathalie

Tonight's post is brought to you by rum ans orange crush. I will not buy that rum again. This is an alcoholic soda mix that apparently can not just be any rum. Either that or I just do not like coconut. Or both; let's go with that. Those of us who have made it refer to it as a dreamsicle in liquid form. This one does have the creaminess, but it just doesn't go right. The best has been to find a vanilla rum, but that has been a pain in this area. We normally stick to Malibu coconut for closest, but not this time. I'm still getting over the gagging. Otherwise, it was normal Saturday homemade pizza night. The kids prefer them to delivery or store bought. I easily conply since everyone gets what they want and don't have to share or fight for pieces. My boyfriend agreed that we will continue this when I am living with him.
Hope everyone's Christmas was good. Mine was a laugh. I have a couple layouts about it planned, but here's the tl;dr. My dad went into the hospital, my grandfather did too and is now with my aunt and uncle, and I lost what little I had bought for the girls. I even talked to more family than ever and will leave it at that.
This layout has a reason beyond challenges for being made. My grandmother made me a photo book of my senior year that she gave to me as I was about to go to college. The book is falling apart and I have already lost a couple pictures. So, instead of buying a new book, I will be doing layouts. The fun part will be remembering the dates on a few. And this one is two different times; the start and end of my senior year showing Nathalie.

I used papers from two different paper pads. I did some tearing to give some texture as it was looking too pointy, even for me. I also put some foam behind the dog cutout. On it, I added a snowflake because she could act just like a snowflake at times. We swore this dog had both anxiety and ADHD. I wrote some journaling in green permanent marker and the date in purple. The title of Doggie was done with dollar tree letters that I am almost finished with! I also put on three sequins from my Christmas present to finish it off. 

Studio challenges

I used this sketch to build my layout. I moved some around because I wanted to hide part of the one pixture. Then I lost a couple pieces before gluing everything down. So, I adapted. Everything is a learning experience.

Challenge YOUrself

This challenge I am adding to because I am in it even though they are old pictures. The theme was snowflakes. I found it appropriate because it described Nathalie so well. Not only is there the snowflake on the dog cutout, but one of the papers was snowflakes. 

Some days I miss that airhead. Smart as all get out, but she had her snowflake moments. Chuckles. Well, back to the rum. Yes, I'm giving it the side eye.

The Joined the Conspiracy!

I present to you another layout. This is finished minus the journaling. I plan on writing out the story behind it below the title. It will require a bit of space, so I'm getting this up without it. But, here's the jist of the story. We went to Columbus for both computer parts for the boy and to look at a possibility on loft bed for the older girl. Luckily, we didn't buy the bed because our place has ceilings too low for one. But, we got food there and they loved it. They said it was a conspiracy by Ikea to have good tasting food to get people to buy from them and turn them Swedish. There are more details that the journaling will have.

So, the page was made on plain white cardstock. I printed up the pictures of the girls. I made some gold lines and blue stars on Draw, along with the title. I added some dollar store stickers. I backed the photos with gold embossed paper from Michaels.

Single Page Layout Stick It Down

This is the layout sketch I used. I did mention on a previous that I would be submitting another to this site. The best part was that I wasn't sure how to do the pictures until I aaw this sketch. At that point, the two just snapped together in my mind. I enjoyed that it looked calm and I really wanted to keep it that way. I contemplated doing different stamps or ephemera, but once I started putting it together, it seemed to be best with that. Plus, now I have more room for the journaling.

Below is me being me. I am ok still, though it may not sound like it. This is what I need off my chest.

Some discussion as per usual. I find myself slipping more into depression again. I am feeling worse about job situation and being either ignored or turned down. I'm getting to the point of procrastinating over things. It doesn't help that the holidays are around the corner and everyone will be discussing their jobs and such. I know I will hear questions of why I'm not at work again and should I just go for a low pay job just to bring money in. These things I already am considering. Just another way to make my self esteem worse. My thoughts say I don't deserve a job paying a livable wage because I am not good enough for one.
I have another appointment in a couple weeks to see the counselor. I have already mentioned a bit of this to them already. But, I also have this urge to just start cancelling the appointments. I know not to, but it this is how it works. My boyfriend says I am strong, but I don't feel like it. I guess faking it is the best I can do.

Carlisle Reservation Holiday Lights

I got home from the trip and slept most of the day away. Total round trip for me riding was twelve hours. He had three more AND did all the driving. I informed him that I had no problem with him being so worn out from the drive down. So, I ended up taking almost no pictures. It didn't help that we had to leave in the morning earlier than planned because of the snow and we weren't sure how the roads would be. I discoved that as I got older, my ears pop worse from the altitude changes while driving. But, I also thought the drive itself was very pretty, especially with distant fog. He agreed about the view by trying to point it out. It's made us start a list of vacations we want to do in the future. So far, we have the Mohican, one of the state parks in Kentucky, and the Civil War fort in Kentucky. Three places for travel. We also are planning on future trips to the local zoo to see the holiday lights, possibly a yearly tradition.
There is now snow on the ground out here. The boy and I were discussing about going to the holiday lights again this year. We went with the girls once already, see layout below, and didn't take the pictures I wanted due to the cold and the people bunches on the photo stops. Yes, we all have varying degrees of issues with public groups and space. He said if the snow was still down, he didn't want to drive there. But, we may go to another set of holiday lights nearby and I will push a little harder for family pictures. The other place I have never been to either. So, this may end up something nice to start.

So, here is the layout I made of the event. Yes, I took a bad picture of it. It actually ended up being the best one I could do. I had a few challenges with this layout and it helped me make some decisions for future ideas. The entire page is laid out on that gold paper. It was a pain to stick the other papers on it. Another big challenge was the sewing. I did that by hand and found making the holes an issue and more time consuming than I wanted it to be. I played with more on Draw and printing on different paper with this layout. I ripped the ornament topper sections enough times I decided to cut my losses on that image. I also pulled some free clipart that I used with this layout. I need to grab some free fonts to do what I want for titles since I find that I like being able to print them up and stick them on. I just need my preferred ones to use. 

#FF0049

So, this challenge actually helped me very much with getting the layout down. I knew the images I had and the triangles I wanted to use, but was stumped elsewhere. So, with this I decided on the metallic background paper. It goes with both the gold and blue stripes on the smaller triangles, which I was originally having the issue with. Then, I couldn't figure what journaling I wanted to do. So, this helped by making each triangle interactive. The purple piece that is seen sticking out holds where and when the pictures were taken. The other three hold a hexagon cut out with favorite moment of the evening per girl and me. I backed the photo with a snowflake clipart background. I also added the snowflakes to hold the title. Along with my three pink snowflake ornaments, there is a sticker of a donut ornament. They had cookies instead of donuts at this event. Oh well.

Let's Get Sketchy

This is the other challenge I am submitting this to. I originally thought it looked simple to do. No. It was not. This now reminds me a lot of quilting. My youngest does that and gets frustrated over the imperfections. But, it is teaching me even more. I am really learning a lot with the sketch layouts as much as I am the inspiration ones. I'd even say that using them both together is teaching me a lot.
The pictures were from the one spot where it had an empty stop. It was setup as a Sant's workshop. The girls were laughing over the Ouija board being there. They were willing to camp it up for the shots. As soon as I got a couple, everyone started crowding in so we all went out as fast as we could. I couldn't get the boy to join in the picture to begin with. But, at least I got in one stop. It was a good start.

Band caroling and some rambling

I'm working on this post in a waiting room. Mom is getting regular blood work appointment right now. She made the comment before she went in of me being one of the youngest people in here who weren't in the pediatric area. Yes, I quietly rolled my eyes. But, the majority were around her age. Of course, yesterday I saw a cardiologist for the first time who was surprised at my age and that I was young to be there, especially with what I was experiencing. So far, everything looks good, so we are waiting on tests. I have to be honest and don't like going to doctors if I can avoid it, which is why I ignored it this long. Finally, it scared my kids enough that I am doing something about it.
On a fun note, my boyfriend and I get to have an overnight getaway coming up. I am looking forward to it. Mostly we will be driving, but it is time just the two of us and hopefully not much stress. Other weekend plans look like they are being cancelled because the older girl is busy with being a junior in band. The banquet is ran by them for the seniors. I want to figure another time to get a family picture at the holiday lights. I have until New Year's to get it done. Was wanting a picture of them with Santa also, but suspecting that won't happen. I have a Santa and Me picture frame with a picture of my oldest as a baby. That is the last time anyone got Santa pictures. Easter bunny, more because I had a family friend who dressed as one professionally, there are more of. But, this also is the first year I have tried to push for more family holiday events. We will see how it goes.
Last week, the band had their annual caroling in town. Both girls are in band, but only the youngest went. My older girl is known, even by the band, as the freeze baby. She decided it would be too cold to play. Hot chocolate and pizza would not change her mind. This is the same child who got out of marching the last few games because of how cold she got. Of course, people after were surprised just how cold she physically was even with hand warmers. Luckily, this performance was volunteer only. The social butterfly jumped at the chance, of course.
She tried to get both her brother and me to join in, but we declined. Towards the end, he was ready to. They quit at that point. It's been too many years for me, so I had no intention of playing. Instead, I took a few pics of them playing and hanging out. The boy took some videos on his fancy, special ipad. It was fun, cold, and not snowy.

This is another layout I am submitting for a challenge site. For me, these are teaching me new ways to build pages. It also is getting me to make reasons to take pictures and make it possible for me to document the stories behind the stories. I've discovered that as the family pictures get older, the kids don't recognise people or know why the picture was taken. This is a double page layout. I'm not certain which layout I like making most yet. I could see the benefits to both, though I also can see myself possibly doing more single because I feel nervous taking pictures at events. To explain, I feel like I am paying less attention when I am taking pictures than just observing. 

 This is the right side of the layout. This has the photos of the entire band, my youngest getting one of her THREE slices of pizza, a picture of some of the town lights, and one of the other band members dressing up as Santa. The paper in the background came from my paper pads. I also used more dollar store stickers. The black stars and the outer phrases were from my Tim Holtz rub ons. My outlines on some of the pictures are Elmer's glitter glue. The last set are commentary, statements made and a couple songs they played as outline on the pictures.

This is the left side. I used more of all of the same on this side. With this side, I put the title of Hot Cocoa in Dollar Tree lettering. For the purple cardstock, I rubbed the edges with my silver stamp pad, which made a smoky look. I drew silver on the one tree and added an attempt at a mercury glass tree topper. On the other purple tree, I put lines of red glitter dots. My middle tree had a hand drawn star topper. The top picture was from when she was trying to get her brother to play by sticking the first reed in his mouth that wasn't chipped. He had multiple that were chipped and was pointing out that those were from the last purge we made him do: in high school. The bottom picture is her with both the hot chocolate and her last piece of pizza. After that, everybody who was performing went back out for a last round of songs.

Stick It Down

This is the sketch layout that I went from. Once again, all constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. This site has multiple sketches running, and I plan on making another layout for this month for them. I so greatly appreciate all these people who run them because I am learning so much.

Molly and her girl

So, right now I'm getting a late night meal together for the boy and me. Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. Though I suspect I thinned out the spaghetti sauce too much for the kid. But, that's what happens when you go on fly of your pants. I may try to rethicken it with the ground up cheese. If anyone else can think of ways to rethicken jarred spaghetti sauce, put it in comments.
But, I came on today to show this layout I made up that is of a picture I love of Molly and my older girl when she was little. They are close and best friends. Now that they are both older, Molly no longer sleeps with her and that makes her a bit sad. At almost 15, we all have noticed that she jumps on beds much less than she used to. This picture was taken with them doing their infamous nose rubs.

For this layout, I'm even submitting it for a challenge. I don't expect much since I have seen how well everyone else who submits theirs have looked. But, my biggest thought is that the best way to get better is to do these and hope for good criticism. Again, I had printer issues. But I have learned if the printer won't work in one program, the other one will print it. 

With this layout, I tried a few different techniques. I should start by mentioning I do my photo editing in LibreOffice Draw while the photos are taken on my phone. I changed the photo, which I should mention is just as pretty in color, to black and white. I also added the pink border and the light pink font. The font is a standard font in the program, since I haven't made time to pick up some free ones I want. Lastly, I hand drew pink circles and dots around part of the page in marker. 

I used stickers from the Dollar Tree from Jot. My stamps for Molly (yes it smeared after I stamped it) came from Michaels as did the black ink. I used the papers from both Mischief Manor (black polka dot) and Uptown Chic paper pads. There was one Tim Holtz rub-on.

#FF0048

For the challenge, I did black and white. That would be both the image and border paper for picture. Also, I did pink and circles. Lastly, I did friendship theme since this to document the history of the friendship between Molly and her girl.
I can see myself doing more because it was fun to find a good inspiration for certain pictures I want to keep.