Days 19-30 this is a looooooooong one, picture heavy ;)

Keep it rolling!!!

DAY 19::::::::::::::::::: a VB Lazy Day :)

 DAY 20::::::::::::::::::: Happy Easter!

 DAY 21:::::::::::::::::Friggin stalker bird knocking on the bathroom window.  every. single. day.

DAY 22::::::::::::::  I just don't know.  

 Day 23::::::::::::::::::  Car stick figures - are they prostitutes? zombies? you be the judge.    and another truck, with a skeleton attached to the front.  Why?  I have no idea.  But to see  both of these things in the same day?  Very entertaining.

 Day 24:::::::::::: Googly eyes only.  Just because I could ;)

Day 25:::::::::::::::::  No, that is not an incorrect number.  300+.  Yes, it was just as ridiculous as you can imagine that it was.   Incidentally, I LOVE the chalk marker -- friggin awesome.

 Day 26::::::::::::::::  By the way, the total for this day (cell phone only) was 176.  No, I'm not exaggerating.

 DAY 27:::::::::::::::::::::::  I was actually LOVING the white pen on the black painted chipboard pages.  LOVE THEM...

 DAY 28::::::::::::::::::::::  um....201 total this day.  But I was busy on this aspect.  Sure was.  So there.

 Day 29::::::::::::::::  WOOHOO the spring band concert for the younger two chickens!

 and a pocket for the program

 DAY 30:::::::::::::::  Boomer...so sleepy and old...and snore-y  LOL

This has been an AWESOME ride this year ----- UP NEXT...I'll post the covers (back/front) because those are always my favorites and usually done after everything else is complete.

A3C 16-18

Day 16::::::: Lots of colors here.  I have no idea what was going on --- other than a lot ;)

DAY 17:::::::::::::::::::::::  I used the leftovers of some alpha cut-outs that Lynn sent me waaaay back, used them as STENCILS to be exact - with a simple permanent marker and then outlined with sharpie.  I felt brilliant...except when the whole word had to get jammed in because I didn't judge well.   Ah well - goes with the rest of "me"  *snort*

 and I TOTALLY did not do this on purpose, the photos printed in B&W totally by accident because I didn't pay attention to the grayscale that I had switched on.  So this had a "different" look with all of the splashes of colors I have flying around.

DAY 18:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::   Boom.  Traffic again.  Not like the last time, but bad enough to eek out a tear or two if necessary!

A3C Days 4 - 7

Love it when a project feels good.   This one certainly feels that way! The only thing I'm hoping for is some more "fun" to speak of.  Work days are tending to suck the verbosity away *gasp* say it isn't so??

DAY 4:::::::::::::::::;;  

 DAY 5:::::::::::::::::::::

 DAY 6::::::::::::::::::

DAY 7::::::::::::::::

And the beat goes on...

A3C the intro and Days 1-3

Ooooookay!!!   I'm having SO SO SO much fun with this for 2014!!   I must say, the acrylic paint on chipboard?? AWESOME IDEA!!  *bowing humbly and graciously*

Ahem*

Let's get to it!

I have decided that I was brilliant, yet again, with the "let's not do the covers yet" plan.   I've cooked up a zillion (or maybe less) ideas already and, therefore, am glad that I didn't make anything permanent yet.

INTRO PAGE::::

 DAY 1:::::: (kinda "boring", but I literally did ... not much that day)

DAY 2:::::: (a list because work was involved ha)

 DAY 3:::::  with an added "pocket" page made with transparency (Hambly Prints of old):: 

I really and sincerely hope it looks like I'm having a blast with this - - because I reallllly am :)   I need to kick life up a notch though because I  am realizing that I tend to lead a mundane existence if I allow it. ;)

Until next update ~ Muah

WHAT TIME IS IT?? Challenge time??? A3C you say???

It's THAT TIME AGAIN!!!!

I try to keep up with things.  My Mojo has gone AWOL since....about May? of last year maybe??

I've been trying to scrap things.  I've done some pages (YES I HAVE).  and of course Lynn likes to keep me updated on scrappy things, sometimes daily in fact, so that I don't feel out of the loop.  I have appreciated that more and more as time without scrapping or crafting has drudged on.    But then, suddenly, about a week and a half ago ---- BAM.  We had a ManicMonday of scrapping at Scrap N Chat and it felt GOOD.

SO, with that goodness, I've been able to complete about six layouts!   ANNNNNNNNNNNNNND...that brings me to the purpose of this post!   A3C aka April's Artistic April Challenge circa 2014!   My FOURTH YEAR of an artistic journal approach to the whole month of April.   2012 was kind of frightening (in that I bombed it, pretty much completely).   Last year was awesome with a SmashBook *contented sigh*

THIS YEAR:     Chipboard and Paint!!!

I had MULTIPLE versions of chipboard mini album kits.  I think there were about five of them that I ripped out of their packaging to smash together for this book.   and it felt GOOD.   The "A" mini chipboard is Studio-G.    The others are Colorbok albums (square, scalloped square and large circle).  

The painting part made me SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy.  (enough "O"s?? I think not).   Some of it was MakingMemories...like a blast from the past going into that box, for sure. 

::::::::::Some SNEAKY PREVIEWS:::::::::

THIS IS CRAZY!!!!    Truthfully, the front cover and back cover aren't decorated yet.   I've done enough "pages" for the inside, including cover page.  However, I'm saving the front/back cover for later (taking after 2011 and 2013 respectively.  Though come to think of it, there is no photo for 2013's completed covers. Brilliant blogging as usual April, brilliant)

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...until my next update with the A3C 2014 edtition *muah*

everyone say it together....AWWWWWWWWWWW

Aren't we absolutely adorable??? I think so *swoon*

Me and S-Man on Christmas Day 2010. This was done for a "scrap that tune" challenge over at TheMoments ---- check it out! The song was "Smile" by UncleKracker - suuuuper cute song :)

For this layout I used SPACKLING COMPOUND again ...ooooo love the texture and funkiness of it. Used Glimmer Mist, Mister Huey's Mist and the flower embelishments were made from watercolor paper, hand-drawn and watercolor painted with some glitter added for zesty bling ;) This is one of my fave layouts - the colors - the funkiness - love love love (that too)

Have you done anything cool and unusual lately? ? :)

Do tell!

and who knew that this stuff fixes more than just drywall????

SPACKLING compound. used it on a layout. YES.I.DID. I needed texture. .. it was an obsession...a scraplift of the "Summer Evening" layout by Kathie Link on pg 39 Spring 2011 Somerset Memories. Since I picked up this wonderful edition (which I have marked tons of pages in with mini post-its and scribbled notes/ideas for)...I have been obsessively drooling over this layout. I even had the perfect pictures in mind, because I remembered the photos of my mom and Brendan from 2000 (summer) and knew I wanted to do SOMETHING with them, just didn't have the right ideas...like ever (as they are coming up on 11 year old photos afterall) So the original artist - her supply list had "texture paste" for the stuff she used. Do I know what that is?? Ummmm...not really....but my brain's hamster wheel was whirlin' (ahhaahahahahaha...i can hear the squeak*)

Anyway - this was a SUPER simple LO to do, but the spacking compound???? seriously??? I actually didn't know it was going to turn out so AWESOME. The spackle that I had on hand had dried a bit, but I kept adding water little drops at a time and mixing and then - BAM!!! *sigh*

I did get a bit crazy with the misting (as usual) I tried to keep myself orderly, I used masking tape to make the hard lines, but didn't mask off the rest of the paper -- but I like mine like it is. A big hot contained mess *just like me*. Can't ever tell me that an artist doesn't put a bit of herself in her work (hahahahahaha)

I'm so using spackling compound again...watch me go ;)

A3C Two days at once :)

PIcture by ChickenLittle --- her friend has a turtle in a bucket - good photo op I suppose :)


And the A3C 25 & 26... Lots of mist in these...

Yesterday I felt icky -- like sicky icky so I actually came home from work and went to sleep for a good long nap. Today, well today is an odd-feeling kind of day and I didnt have much to add. *shrug* I guess it's just one of those things - some days I'll be busting with a bunch of everything and then days like today...blah.

A3C 22 & 23 and book flower wreath project!

Okay -- big post, only because I neglected to actually POST the one from friday and yesterday ON TIME. *sigh* Just now noticing of course that it's also past midnight and voila now I've missed posting 2 days. I am proud to proclaim though, that while I didn't post it on time, it was actually finished on time (personal goal, I know that whomever happens to be reading this is thinking, "uh, so what April, what is the big deal" -- but it seems to be one for me).
More watercolors - friday with the pencils and saturday with the crayons...love watercolors..love love love.

Remember the book flowers that I got the NEED to do from reading Lizzy's blogpost?? WELLLLLLL....I did them up good - with help from my sweetie's kids (as mine were with their father, or I'd have had an assembly line 4kids long muhahahahahahaha crafting minions!!) Mine have different sizes, and I added two birds to it ... one of the kids said "awwwwww...just like you and my dad" and that was so sweet to me - I couldn't disagree ;)

TOTALLY loving the project idea, thanks again Lizzy - have an idea for the next one which will involve glimmer mist (because that stuff is aaaawesome). and another idea for one involving styrofoam cone/tree shapes?? would that not be amazing??

Another project for another day...

A3C #19 and a frame...oh my!

Took pics of the frame that I spraypainted yesterday (VERY messy sloppy OMG can't believe you're leaving it that way)...and as messy as it is, I like it like this so it's staying.



Also, today's entry for my own challenge that I am patting myself very firmly on my back for participating in....not that much longer, and I've not skipped a day :) VERY big accomplishment! Thanks LYNN for playing along with me as well, even though you beg me to finish your entries daily (knock it off, I like yours so keep it up chickie). CUTE little stamps which were $1 at Michaels (studio G things: color your world/flowers/hearts) and some studio G glitter glue stuff which I managed to get ALL over the place. However, it had a friend with the mist that I also got all over the place HAHAHA. Ahem.

I've also done two layouts today, and BOTH of them are for challenges that I can't even show to anyone yet -- and that's HORRIBLE because I am SO excited about them and want to share!!

I will do some more projects tomorrow and hopefully that will keep my mind off of:

• the still mildly irritating remnants of the computer virus - oh, like the fact that I'm missing 1.5 years of photos (that's a folder for each month missing, I'm no math genius, but a LOT of stuff is missing according to my approximation).



• the 2 layouts that I can't post...boohoo



• to clean my attic or not (hahahahahhahaha not a difficult question LOL)

I promise one thing that is certain! More ramblings tomorrow....I know, I know. How WILL you rest until then?

A3C #10

Sunday :) a little help from Reader's Digest LOL Hahahaha I like to rip stuff apart and glaze it and glimmer it and stuff ;)