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*

Four score and eleventy-seven-hundred seconds ago...or something like that

I figure it's been a long time since I've written on here, when the "click the orange pencil to get started blogging" ... decides not to work.    I know, it's been "forever" in blog terms.  Gimme a break, I've been busy with a lot of ... life and ... just stuff!

I think I had a story line in my head -- good intentions and all of that jazz -- but for now I'm just over this typing business.  Especially since it took me FIVE TRIES to edit this post after blogger accepted the title of it, but didn't produce a place for the content to go.   Now, THAT was odd.   The interenet's own way of Karma.  You ignore it long enough, then return to it and get your punishment.  

As the SoupNazi (from Seinfield) said..."NO SOUP FOR YOU!"...I think I had my own "NO BLOG FOR YOU!" version.    Did you yell that in your head like I did when I typed it?? I hope so.  At least I'm entertaining to myself if nothing else!

August: Stupidest description of a challenge...maybe EVER.

So.   I knew that I wanted to give the journaling challenge at SNC a bump...a bump meaning, I wanted to have a lot of words.  I had a lot to say.     So, did I call this "journal without a photo"? or "journal a one-month synopsis"?  Nope.  Not me.    That would be ... sensical?   I have dubbed this, "journal with A LOT OF WORDS".  *moment of silence*

Okay, I guess you can possibly refer to it as the other two things as well, but the fact that the description that I "had to" stick with was so flippin' stupid??  That's what I'm going with.  OH and to top it all off??? the photo is sideways and REFUSES TO BE FIXED.   totally irritating. 

NEEEEEEEEEEEXT:

ATC/TAG Challenge, which has been on vacation a bit...

The challenge is to use WATERCOLORS on your tag.  I used some watercolors for the background, did some sewing (ugly job with a mini-machine that I found in the garage, and promptly donated), and then stamped with bubble wrap.    

The words are in honor of my new job :) :) :)  

which I had orientation for today (is it proper to feel kind of disoriented after orientation? what?)

Three things done in one week???

Say it isn't so. 

Three layouts done in a week. One for my own Journaling challenge - and one for a scraplift challenge - and one for a sketch challenge.  WOOO!!!

Now, onward to my hideous pictures of my wonderful layouts ;)

 The Lovely Diana added this lovely Sketchabilities (by Karan Gerber) sketch for her July challenge at ScrapNChat

Which I made into this...

...and Barb found THIS awesome layout by Laura Whitaker from the Fancy Pants Design Facebook page for our July scraplift.    I LOVE the colors all in there together, so ....

Mine became "just call me CRASH"...making light of the Rav4 crunching accident that the kids got to experience on day #2 of their 3 week visit with their dad/grandma.  Everyone walked away from the hospital that day - which is a miracle after being hit in the back by a truck going 50 when their vehicle was stopped.   I have a longer more detailed version of things on the back, but it didn't need to be on the front.  Yes, I'm thankful to have been so blessed for all to have been okay, so don't get on my case about "poking fun at a sensitive subject".   Arent the bandaids cool though???? a canvas-like paper and CS created those ;)

July Journal Challenge! Wait...what? I mean, wasn't it just June?

Yep.  April does it again.   Another month (and a half, as if I'm counting) goes by, and there's another challenge due.   Well, technically, I've blown up my own ATC/Tag thing...and literally just remembered that as I typed the word "due".  *insert heavy siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

As my helpful friend LYNN assisted with the following quote, when I asked her for some ideas to shove me off of a proverbial scrapping/journaling cliff...

Vincent Van Gogh said, "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

Well, well, well...let's just say that this screamed at me.  I've been "blocked" forever it seems.  Two layouts since...April??  So, to break through my own mental scrap/craft/journal blockage (which isn't just creativity-blockage actually, I've been a flippin' mess)...I sat down at the computer and decided to just TYPE something.   So, essentially, I had no page design in mind, no color scheme, no theme, NOTHING.  The page was born - because the journaling allowed it to be.   So - give you......

The typing reads as follows: 

July 2013. 

    These photos were taken on the day that I gathered my chickens from their father. They had been there for their very first time of “three week visitation block” (one of two for the summer). 

    Even though we had first separated in August 2008, this was the first time for either of the kids to be with their father for longer than a three-day stretch.  He hadn’t ever requested any longer of an amount of time for visits, as he had always thought he was unable to “entertain” the kids for that long. 

    At the end, the kids seemed to be no worse for the visit (with Brendan‘s exception of staying at my parents for a total of 11 days out of the three weeks, but who‘s counting?). Though, really,  nobody seems to be in a rush about hurrying toward the second three-week-block.
    What *I* learned for the three weeks apart was…I have absolutely NO IDEA what to do with myself.  I missed them both, not in a “woe-is-me” kind of way - and I didn’t barrage them with phone calls missing them horribly.  I did, however, feel like a hunk of myself was “not fitting right” - for the whole time.  Everything was “blocked”…I couldn’t scrap, I didn’t do anything exciting and new - or even just exciting.  Worst mental block EVER. 
    On to the next three week block - I’m determined it’ll be a different “me” the second time around!                  

HOPEFULLY this will work as a break-through for me.  You know, I've missed having a "voice" with creating things, remembering tidbits, celebrating the every-day things, recording stories...I've missed THIS.  A lot.   I know I've said it before, and just because I've said it before doesn't make it untrue.   The psyche is a weird and wonderful thing most of the time, until it gets clogged and creates a back up.  I've been blocked for a long time, so let's cross our fingers, raise our glasses and cheer for another beginning :)

June Journaling Challenge...It's about time.

I've been MIA --- I'll have to update that later...or not.  I could pretend like I have no idea about the passing of time HAHAHA.  Whichever.

ANYWAY, here is the LO for the challenge.

 PROBLEM with this being, there's NOT MUCH JOURNALING ON HERE.    Problem? Not usually --- EXCEPT THAT THIS IS THE EXAMPLE FOR THE JOURNAL CHALLENGE, APRIL.  

Okay - let me explain just a little about the WHY this is my example.  
I wanted to do a tribute to my Gram for a challenge.  Couldn't do it.   So, with me already having not so much mojo, I was taxing myself to come up with something...ANYTHING that I would be able to scrap.  I've had a ridiculous time with it (room construction/travel/end of school all contributing to a "physical" extent along with the mental block).  

Pick a group HERITAGE photo - and I'm hoping for "as old as you can find" (mine, circa 1951).  TELL THE STORY. 

My hope is this -- that you have a story to tell, no matter where/who you got the story from.   My reason behind it is this -- This photo that I used, the Schake family - is actually my Great Grandmother's family.   I met my Great Gram (mother of my Gram that just passed), but I never met anyone else in this photo.  The thing that squeezed my heart when I found the photo, is the fact that I HAVE no story, other than names. I got those from my Grandma a few years ago when she gave me a box of photos (knowing me like she does, and thinking I would be the only one that would care about them).  any photos without names on the back, I got her to give me names...if there was a "what/when/where/why/how" that she knew, she gave it to me.    This photo - other than giving me the names, and telling me that it was "a reunion/gathering type thing" - it has no further story.  

Though my absence from the site (and my blog for that matter) does not prove this to be true -- I love scrapbooking.  I love the journaling.  I treasure the photos.  I hoard the stories.   I toss all of this together as art-therapy, and I think that all of these things will be treasured in the future.  I want to be able to preserve the essence of the past with snippets of voices/tales/anecdotes.   So, show us your family's past...and I'll cheer you on as I read any story you can gather and put to the page.