Whew.....

An appropriate title for a crazy last week or so!

I had a little ... okay...kinda big... birthday.
This was the first time that I was not really happy about aging...but I am learning to embrace it.
And the weekend of my birthday, I ended up working about 20 hours in 2 days - just in case I didn't feel old with the birthday, I thought I would add some exhaustion in the mix and see how that felt too!
And then there were a few deadlines thrown in for good measure......
but all turned out well.

And then last night, I read a blog post. Sometimes those bloggers out there really know how to capture every emotion they are feeling and put it into words. And she did....
and made me feel - really feel - her tremendous heartache and overwhelming sadness.
And I didn't sleep very well because I was also feeling kind of overwhelmed by it.
So this morning, I went to send her a message, but she already had a new post up...and the title of it?

Chasing Happiness.

wow.

If that isn't a kick in the pants? A reminder that tragedy is all around us but to pick yourself back up and carry on.

And I felt ridiculous for caring about things like turning 40 or
searching forever to find the right blog background
or about all the other ridiculous things too.
And so today, I am going to chase happiness and see where it takes me (maybe Vancouver?!)

and onto lighter things - here is the SOTW...
The challenge this week is to cut up your die-cut paper but still use all of it - a new favourite thing for me to do! I will post my layout later today :)




Please note that I am not sharing the link for the blog post - if you want it, please send me a message and I will send it privately to you.

DESIGN TEAM REVEAL AT A PILE OF SCRAP!

We had our design team reveal at A PILE OF SCRAP! on Wednesday and once again, I was blown away by how talented the design team is!

We were all given a different colour of the Lush line by My Mind's Eye - gorgeous paper that comes in both patterned and flocked designs - and asked to create a mixed media mini-album.... and I love all the different ideas each scrappy gal came up with! I decided to do a mini-album called "Miss D. at 3 (and a half)" all about my baby girl. When I was done, I decided I really want to do one for each of my kids every year... so I am now halfway through another one!
I was thrilled to receive the red line and quickly discovered that Red Velvet Glimmer Mist goes with it beautifully - as did denim! Hope you enjoy it :)

THE COVER

I ended up cutting a pair of my son's brand new jeans that were way too short (and I couldn't find the receipt) and had saved them in the scrappy pile as I knew they would come to good use one day!) I made the flower out of tulle and some heat - will post how to make it later this week! And of course, you know I had to finish it off with a little Glimmer Mist!

FIRST PAGE


FIRST PAGE (with acrylic overlay)
We had done this with a Fancy Pants class that I took a while back - painted the outside edge of an acrylic/acetate overlay and put it over a full page photo - and I loved it. I took it a step further and stamped into the wet paint and removed the stamped image. Sorry about the sun shining in it... but it is great to say that the sun is shining here!


FIRST PAGE (just the photo)
Just a little bit of ink around the edges.



SECOND PAGE



SECOND PAGE (left)
This is some of the gorgeous flocked paper that comes with the line. I tried to do the whole album neat and clean but when I was done, just had to add the ink....because that is just me!
The ribbon is also from the line and the gems are from a Prima stamp that is used later in the album. I embossed the "Dream" right on the photo but be very careful if you do this as it is really easy to overheat and ruin your photo!



SECOND PAGE (right)
Done on denim that is over chipboard. I stitched the paper onto the denim before gluing it down to make it easier on my machine. The bling brads are also a part of the line- such amazing embellishments!



THIRD PAGE



THIRD PAGE (left)
My 6 year old son took this pic of my daughter and I, isn't he good with a camera?! The little chipboard piece is from Magenta and glimmer misted with Red Velvet. The brad is part of the line.



THIRD PAGE (right)
Done on an acetate/acrylic piece. The stitching is done by machine.



FOURTH PAGE


FOURTH PAGE (left)
Ugh...sorry the shadows are so bad on this picture. The was done so that you cannot see it from the front side of the acrylic piece. The ribbon is part of the line.



FOURTH PAGE (right)
One of my new favourite stamps from Magenta - I always thought of it for card-making but it went perfectly in this album. Of course I had to grunge it up... just a little...



FIFTH PAGE



FIFTH PAGE (left)
I like how this page looks, with the flocked images cut out from the paper but I just feel as though it needs a little something more...but I haven't figured out what just yet. It is hard to tell from the picture but there are splashes of glimmer mist on there too.


FIFTH PAGE (right)
A plain piece of chipboard glimmer misted out and stamped with a Heidi Swapp stamp.



LAST PAGE


LAST PAGE (left)
My favourite photo of my daughter - she was giggling and it just melts my heart this picture.... The background was stamped with a Prima stamp (LOVE it!) and the flower started off white before being met with more of that Red Velvet glimmer mist.
Oh and if you have noticed the Dymo labeller throughout my project, it is a new one called the Dymo Caption Maker that I got last week that I am loving! It has 3 different cartridges so you can do 3 different fonts and even has some doodles on it - hoping they come out with more!


And if you made it all the way to the end, thanks for looking! We will be running a little contest over on the forum all about mini-albums so hope you can come join us! Be sure to check out what Cheryl and Candace did with the green Lush and what Jen and Valerie did with the pink!

SOTW April 5-11, 2010

What a fabulous week it was......... I love holidays!! I had a fantastic Spring Break with my kids with a few kid playdates and even an adult playdate thrown in for fun!

I had a fantastic all-day crop with some really fun ladies and even managed to get a few layouts done (a first for me!)
And...I finished up my Design Team reveal for A PILE OF SCRAP! and am quite pleased with it. I will take pics out in the beautiful sunshine and post tomorrow. We had a fabulous Easter - the Easter bunny was crazy enough to leave hockey sticks for the kids but so far so good!
And without further ado, here is the SOTW - happy creating!