Ah, baby Brendan -- don't you just want to pinch his cheeks?? Those are actually times I'd like to remember...he is 13 now afterall LOL Little Gracie - such a cheeser! Had SO much fun doing this one -- STAMPING and lots of ink and tons of mist YUMMMMY! and the fact that the photo is A-Friggin-Dorable...you know, bonus lol

the coolest pencils.ever.

I am not sure about EVER, ever, but these are pretty friggin cool. I was leaving the studio early *sigh* and saw these --- triple looked and then went in the place. VERY cool, eclectic, rather artsy and original stuff they have in there. PENCILS THAT LOOK LIKE TREE BRANCHES??????? SERIOUSLY??? Is that not the COOLEST LOOKING THING??

AND NOW....this is my "new" scrap space. I have wonderful products...quite the collection (and HEAVENS no this isn't ALL of it) This is all of my paper and inks and then baskets for embellishments or whatever everything and stuff (hahahaha). I still have boxes of "other" stuff -- aka chipboard/paint/buttons/stuff to alter/and tons of stamps. howeverI want to keep this spot filled with my FAVORITES...yep the pencils are in there MUHAHAHAHAHAHA

to scrap or not to scrap...

and no I haven't been slacking...

well, I've been SCRAPPING, yet not blogging...so I guess I'm 1/2 way slacking LOL. I am uploading stuff that is recent, within the last few days, and two things that are older, but when I hopped in the waaaaaay back machine and went through some scrapbooks, they reached out and "awwwwwww"-ed me. LOVE it when that happens. Reminds me of why I do what I do when I do that stuff I do....anyway --->

Gracie at WhiteOak Park in PA - when she was 2 -- I made the flowers and I L.O.V.E. them and want to make more - wild bunches of insane looking funky flowers with buttons and clips and ink and paint and brads and ribbons and strings. *sigh* you get the rambling point...they're a riot ;)

Ah. Brendan's trail blazing with my mother once upon a few trips/years ago and takes sun rise/sun set pics...these are awesome, I have them framed in 5x7 somewhere in this house - and have through the last 2 houses as well! Soooo proud of the boy

THIS one is one that I stumbled upon in my scrapbook...Photo taken by gracie --- and I just like the FUNKY nature of it all together...STILL one of my faves...such a freestyle-everything-goes-and-did-get-stuck-to-the-page kind of deals LOVE the colors!

THIS one....*sigh*

I hardly know how to 'splain this one in words that make sense heehee

a while ago it was a challenge I'm sure...on a DT far-far-away. I did the photo on textured CS from a program that made the photos into a sort of "brochure" kind of format. All of the details still make me smile, though they do feel like they were so long ago ;)

ONWARD to new stuff today....thanks for catching up an walking down memory lane with me :)

Stumbled Upon....

I stumbled upon (and I am SO glad that I did). Sketchy Thursdays...LOVE the blog! and the sketch for this week caught my eye. Interested me so much that I kept going back to peek day after day. I wasn't planning on linking it up to the site to play along, but I had SOOO much fun creating it that I just HAD to do it! That is a great "stumble upon" in my opinion.

I used so much stuff:

• DreamStreet Papers "Gracie-Fireflies"
• Glimmer Mist (chalkboard)
• TimHoltz alcohol inks
• Prima flower
• 7gypsies fabric brad'
• MM Noteworthy
• Cloud9 transparency
• AC Thickers "venus"

I truly had such a great time doing this...one of my fave layouts in a while (makes me smile all stupid to look at it LOL). If you scrap and haven't checked out the Sketchy Thursdays blog....WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???

just another Manic Monday....

Lynn and I tag teaming again....neither of us got a lot done, chatting or scrapping, but it is still always a fun time :)
http://www.scrappingthemoments.com/


the first are photos that have been in a collage frame forEVER...moved to three houses, was getting kind of out-dated....but not for a layout!! :)

The second was in my head for days and days because of the firetruck paper that I found....nothing would fall together for me, and then suddenly .... BAM! like it when something just comes together outta nowhere, even something simple.

Love the creative chaos of Manic Monday...though both of our manias were rather (extremely) low-key today *snort*

A Wrinkle In Time...

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA...or baseball season started which tosses a nice wrench into the works!!

However, I managed two pages tonight -- two of the challenges at http://www.scrappingthemoments.com/
-- fun little place to hang out, maybe get some inspiration? or feel like Lynn and I performed a scrap-by (cousin to the drive-by me thinks).


Family shots -- Spring 2008 -- Taken by the AmazingKelly (the other half of the ULTRA Awesome www.AprilKellyPhotography.smugmug.com (shaaaaameless plug *snort*).

And this one...awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (challenge to use NEW somewhere/somehow in your layout).... 2new...Great Grandma Ellie with Baby Brendan September 1997 and Baby Gracie July 2002 -- awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

Until tomorrow...MUHAHAHAHAHAHHAA

Style, thoughts, idea, challenge, it's all good

My “style” which I have called chaotic, is reminiscent of an art journal. I appreciate art journals – have wanted to start one – haven’t done it - didn’t think that I could. HOWEVER, I now believe that the reason that I CAN’T start an art journal is because my scrapbook pages are similar enough to an art journal that there is no need to separate the two! And also, this time around in my scrapping life (hahaha) I am seeing things for what they are and telling their stories accordingly. It’s the “little” things in life that are the ones that matter the most – so I am doing what I like and recording what I like, not necessarily what the COOLEST and BEST and NEWEST fads/fashion/trends are in the SB community. And ya know what?? I’m having the best time ever doing things this way!! Others don’t like it? That’s completely OKAY (thanks Ali E.) because it’s mine…if I find it meaningful or purposeful…it’s mine so it’s all good!

My newest project – all on my own, with the invitation for others to join in as well – is an “art journal/mini-book” that documents each day, either by pictures/words/doodles/quick notes/whatever. It can be a calendar page? Or a photojournalistic approach (which is what I did for the whole month of November a loooong time ago, and it is still one of my very favorite projects to have done…and I DID it…and it has meaning to me, how much more can you ask for?) My photos weren’t necessarily the best photographically – and that’s FINE – the point was, take a picture each day…and tell some kind of story with it. Whether it pertains directly to the picture, or whether a thought was provoked on that day….really it’s up to the person doing the project – it’s YOURS afterall!

I am doing this for the month of April. I will also do this another month, I’m thinking August will be the second go around if anyone would like to join me for that one (in case people are too chicken to start in April).

Who is brave enough to go along with me???

Just a few of them...

What made me say "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" today? One of my fave layouts from way-back (using that time machine again!). Simple, yet packing a powerful punch (in 8x8 size, very compact! lol)

What'd I do last night? learned myself how to make distressed flowers with scrapbook paper, and anything else I wanted to add in there!

What I do tonight?? Nothing artistical -- unless we are counting me getting a new Xacto knife and alcohol inks to be artistical....I guess it WILL be LOL

On the menu today...massive amounts of hyperbole...just take it, smile and say thank you...

weird title I know...stick with the post, it'll only feel slightly like blowing your nose into a magic eraser (and without the chemical burns that those things can give...did you know that??)...okay- - focusing.... Anyway.

Last night I felt the need to tell a story about G@3 or whatever her age was....the story was the focus LOL ------>

Sometimes i feel the need to stick my hands in ink and paint and get messy. Other times I feel the need to write a mini-novella and get it done. What I am trying to do is to get things out of my system. I am finding it very therapeutic to find pictures that aren't necessarily the BEST photography speaking, or the simple snapshots that capture US just being *US*. "A Day In The Life Of..." kind of things.

As difficult as it was four/five/six years ago to imagine myself feeling any kind of stability, I do feel that. I do have very special people in roles in my life that I didn't imagine. More to be done -- I've got some things to do. I HAVE, however, gotten some important things accomplished. I have come what feels like LIGHT YEARS away from where I was, in a lot of good ways. There are some things that I miss, but I would not change the things I've gone through. ....... hmmmmm .... wait.just.a.second...
.....take that back....maybe I'd change them so it didn't feel like I'd gone through massive brain surgery without anesthesia...or maybe a colonoscopy with a telescope...or a heart transplant with a box of rocks and lightbulbs in it's place? whichever... ;)

Ah, Yes. Hyperbole in mass amounts!! Yet another of my services, free of charge! Goes great with a side order of sarcasm and a twist of a cynical view for garnish.

Paint on Tuesday...

that was what I did. Used paint and MM in a layout. I ALSO did a weekly sketch challenge from http://www.scrappingthemoments.com/ for the one with the paint.


Thoughts of you...
Gracie loved this one. She's so mushy LOL
this is what I describe simple-freestyle. My fave style to scrap with...it yells ME....or was it ChaoticSimpleFreestyle?? HAHAHAHAHA

THANK YOU MY LYNN -- for the inspiration as usual! We could take over the world really...

we SO rocked this Manic Monday...

OH THAT LYNN!!!! SO normally we "virtual scrap" being that we have done this since like .... 2004???? Well, tonight we not only virtual scrapped, but we did so while YAKKING up a storm on the computer (courtesy of Yahoo messenger!) AWESOME! My scrapping buddy, made the creative mojo flow once again!

THREE layouts for me this evening and they were all nearly-painless. I had SUCH a good time tonight. THREE!! ;)

Wish...circa 2009

This was hilarious. One of my favorite photos goofing at the studio - I bought these Christmas cards and gave them to my close family and friends (ones with a sense of humor were on that list LOL) This was stress relief. I actually feel better having put it into art form o' scrapping as well.

I would give a supplies list....if I could. Cardstock is unknown, The paper? Ki? MM? I DON"T REMEMBER. I am a big fan of the texturized paper though. American Crafts alpha stickers (had to paint the red ones hahaha). Ranger ink...TimHoltz my imaginary baby-daddy (hahahahahahahahahaha). MM brads. tada! :)

One more memory down.....

Scrap mania continues...wow

I have no idea how we managed it...but last night was scrap-fest again. Not quite as manic, I was friggin tired~ haha.

Gracie loves to go to the photography studio - the photographers love to have her there too because she wants to play model. This was a whim of hers - and her pal Erin - to be kind of like a "garden girl". Pretty funny. It was G-forces idea to put the greenery on her head also - go figure ;)

Manic Monday was a BLAST!

School pix circa 08/09. it was a challenge dude. LOL

This one....Brendan at 5 yrs and Gracie at 2 months OMG this feels like FOREVER ago now :( That part does kind of make me sad. BUT I got to ink the crap outta something, and use lotsa STUFF too. A simplistic chaotic mess. ;)

here we have - from today (circa 11/2009) the 3 cousins. Take note of all of my word stickers which actually do kind of tell a rambling story -- pay attention to my details!!!

So this is sure to be "I am so friggin tired Tuesday" hahahahahahahha. I did a page, however, if I am up till 10 it'd be a miracle to behold.

LAST night http://www.scrappingthemoments.com/ -- true to manic form, Lynn and I got to play again. She is my awesomely talented SB partner. OMG is that like a civil union?? common law scrap partners?? *snort* I digress.. FUN from last night and today's layout cause I do not think I'm living large and playing with the big dawgs tonight.

In my down time today (hahahahahahaqhahahahahahahahahahaha that laugh hurt)...I set up a hubposting thing....I have yet to make a post. You can contribute, have an Amazon acct...if people click on links from your hub spot and buy something from an ad on your page, you get credit....hoping this works out. Will investigate that tomorrow, or at least "at a later time" because my brain cells are trying to continue holding my body in an upright position right now. It's a struggle for sure!