Black and white with shades of gray

No, this isn't a black and white photo.  The page is really this color.

A couple of weeks ago, I challenged myself to do a page of all neutrals.  Today, I have an even greater challenge.  For LOAD today, we were encouraged to do a page in black and white.  That's tough for me as a color person.

My subject are the birds on our feeder in winter.  The photo on the left is of a Tow-hee, a beautiful bird in black and rust.  This was made 2 years ago as we haven't had any of those this winter.  The one on the right was taken just a few days ago.  And I think there are going to be more opportunities for taking snow photos this week.

For the page, I used gesso over a mask on the cardstock background.  I journaled with a white gel pen on some designer paper.  Normally, I use a white gel pen on cardstock.  It just glides beautifully on the designer paper.

The embellishments are some black printed plastic snowflakes I got in some blog candy a couple of years ago.  I wasn't sure what I would ever do with black snowflakes but they work here.  The rhinestone circle gave me a fit!  It has been ages since I applied on of these and apparently you should measure the diameter BEFORE you take it off the backing to get the circle round and in the right place.

Anyway, it worked out here in the video at YouTube:



Here's the new sketch for this page:

Last year's sketches are available by clicking on the link on the sidebar or here.

So I managed a page without color!  It was fun.  I don't think it will be my norm but nice to stretch the boundaries a bit.

Thanks for stopping by!

No Worries

Anyone who knows us knows that I'm the one who runs things around here.  This is no big secret.  It isn't that my husband doesn't get a say.  We make major decisions together and he makes his own business decisions, of course.  But when it comes to getting things done in the house, planning a trip or seeing to family matters, I'm the doer.  He's very laid back.

I'm also the worrier.  If there is a problem or even a potential problem, I'm the one who is going to check it out and fuss over it.  I often envy him his ability to just go with things.  He does have concerns but they never rule his life.  He's a happy, relaxed person.

So this background paper was perfect.  Actually he had a lot to do with the choices for this page and in that I'll say he was a bit uncomfortable.

Today's prompt for LOAD was to let someone else take over the control of your scrapbooking.  My way of doing that was to ask my husband to look through my Pages Pinterest board where I've pinned over 100 pages from various scrapbookers.  I pinnned pages where I liked the background, the subject, the way a particular embellishment was done.  He went through and chose three pages for these reasons:

A page by Sue Althouse using bright colors.  I liked Sue's page because she used Washi as a way to provide a backdrop over a busy paper for her titling.

Sarah Webb's page with a text background.  (The link is to my Pin - her original is out for publication.)

A page by Diane Payne with a distinctive half circle banner for journaling.

I scraplifted those ideas for the page above.  I started with these supplies including this text basked Bo Bunny paper that is perfect for my husband's laid back nature:

Here's Sue's idea of using Washi to give my journaling a place to rest:

A circle embellishment balances the page.  

My interpretation of the banner was more traditional than Diane's - her's is a technique I still want to try at some point, perhaps on a calmer background.

It was a fun page that came together really fast.  I didn't fuss over it too much.  Maybe he is rubbing off on my after all.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Journaling Only (Video)

My interpretation of today's LOAD challenge was to do a page with only journaling.  There are many times in my life where I have no photos.  My parents owned and operated a retail business that was open 65 hours a week and they had no employees so they were very busy.  Following me around and taking photos just wasn't part of the plan.  I remember getting a camera when I was in my early teens and I took some photos but I don't know what happened to them.  I wasn't very good at keeping up with things back then.  When I got to my 20's, I didn't do any better and so I don't have any photos of that time either.

Anyway there are plenty of stories to tell that either have to have a photo made now to make up or just go without.  The hammock we had in the yard is one of those.  The hammock is long gone but not my memory of the summer days.

Here's the journaling:

My dad hated that hammock.  It was stretched over a free-standing green metal frame in the yard.  He hated it because it was in his way mowing grass.  He would have to get off his mower, move it, mow and then repeat the process to put it back to wherever it was -usually near the pin oak closest to the shop.  But he set it up summer after summer when I was in elementary school because I used it.

I know where the hammock sat because I was so often in it.  I loved the hammock.  I would be enveloped in its thickly woven fabric and look up at the clouds just watching them pass.  I loved the patterns they made.  My thoughts were free.  We had a large wide but fairly shallow yard with the neighbor’s cows in a pasture behind. They mooed sometimes.  More often noise came from our tar and gravel road that connected two state highways and was a short cut to the elementary school.  Individual cars passed often some stopped at the shop open until 8 each evening.

Our yard provided plenty of places to lay in the hammock or the grass and watch the sky.  It was usually fragrant from being cut at least weekly.  I rode my green bike endlessly from the playhouse my grandfather built me up one gravel and grass driveway, across a short distance of road and down through the shop parking lot over and over again. I never rode on the grass. I’d pretend that 3 rounds of this was the distance to work and 4 rounds the distance from my make believe house to the store.  My imagination flew along with my long blondish brown hair.  I was and still am a good rider.

The flat space of yard in front of the shop was the best spot for croquet which I could play for hours by myself.  Occasionally, Daddy, and more rarely Mother, played with me.  She was Mama then before I got high minded in junior high school and changed it to Mother.

The neighbor’s youngest daughter, Pam, came over to play some.  She was the one who discovered the echo of our little valley that you got when you stood in front of the bird bath in the lowest point of the yard and yelled at the top of your lungs.  The sound bounced off the mountain right back to you.  Mostly we played at her house and sometimes we laid in her yard and watched the clouds over her house. 

I don’t remember exactly when Daddy stopped putting up the hammock.  It was before we got a cat – or rather a cat got us – because I remember laying under that tree petting the cat in the summer.  And I sure don’t believe I’d have ever gotten a cat into a hammock.

For the page, I used watercolors and paint to create the background.  Originally, I didn't do the sun but added it along the way as I needed some more color.

 The border along the bottom is two strips of paper pieced in the middle with several October Afternoon stickers and some stamping in between.

Here's the process video at YouTube:


Do you have a lot of photos of your childhood?  If you have children or a child in your life, take photos!  And print them and save them!  I beg you.  I so wish I could turn back time and get my lovely memories in print.

My YouTube channel hit 1900 subscribers today!  I'm very excited and grateful for all who watch. Thanks for stopping by today!

3 Panel Mixed Media

(Caution:  Photo heavy post.)

When I took Christy Tomlinson's wonderful Behind the Art workshop last April, I had in mind doing something for my guestroom/scraproom.  I've had several other things hanging over the bed.  The last was a wall quilt I made but I removed it when I changed the bedding about 3 or 4 years ago and it didn't match.  Since then, this wall has been bare with only nail holes to remind me that it was time I dressed it up.

So after making a few mixed media canvases, I dived into this project. The concept was inspired by NC Weekend's logo.  This is a show on our PBS channel and they have a simple line drawn logo with mountains, to the city to the sea.  I didn't use city buildings but opted for houses instead and a whole lot of paint and color!

 I took a few photos along the way.  As I got toward the final coats, I forgot to take pictures.  This took me weeks of doing a bit at a time.  I'd spread everything out on my worktable, do a layer or two and then set it aside and stare at it off and on over the next week.  Then I'd try again the next weekend.

The first layer of designer papers and fabric pattern tissue paper.  I used the lines in the multi-size patterns to create mountains.

Added some paint and stenciling.

The houses without any detail - just paper.  The trees at this point are fiber paste colored with brown stamping ink refill and some green pattern papers.

All the basics in place but no shading.  The sky is pretty busy here and there are some 'flowers' too near the beach house.

As I got close to done, I went ahead and hung it to get a better view and decide what was missing.  It wasn't what was missing, it was that there was too much. I had the flower bushes (I guess that was what I was going for).  I finally pulled those off altogether and added another tree.  Also, I had too much color change in the sky so I toned that down a bit. I did add another stencil and yellow paint for more focus on the sun. I love paint.  You an just keep going over things until you are happy.

Well, I'm OK with it.  I'm not overjoyed.  There is still something that doesn't quit sit right with me.  I like many of the components.  I'm especially happy with the 'grass' area, the wording and the beach house. It just isn't quite the sum of its parts to me.

However, it is done.  My wall isn't bare anymore. Yeah!

A close up of the grown with the large stencil areas and some of the fabric pattern 'mountains.'

The quote is "The World is but a Canvas to the Imagination."  Thoreau.  

The tree I added to replace those flowers.

Some house details.

A little calmer skies.

So I have something cheery over my guest bed.  And now I can finally film a scraproom tour video.  As soon as I clean up...

Using old product - 70's anyone?

(caution:  photo heavy post)

Today's challenge at Layout A Day has us digging into our stash for old scrapbook product, really old.  I still have scrapbook product and tools going back to 2001.  And if I can count the non-scrapbook specific crafting materials that I now repurpose for scrapbooking, I can go back to the 1970's.

That's right, the 70's.  That is when I did counted cross stitch and accumulated a lot of DMC embroidery floss.  In the '80's, I gave candlewicking a try and did one project.  But I still have the thread and it is in with my twines for scrapbooking.  So those went into this selection of old stuff.

The scrapbooking items here include stickers and large chipboard letters I bought at a scrapbook outlet about 2004.  There are Zig markers that I got when my husband took me scrapbook shopping for our first wedding anniversary in 2002.  There's mulberry paper, remember that?  The raw chipboard is the last of some I got from Oriental Trading so long ago they have finally stopped sending me catalogs.  I selected these things to use on my page:

Those huge letters on the left were bought about 2006, I think, and I've used two letters total, but there is only one of each letter of the alphabet so they are very limited.  What was I thinking?

I did not do a video today.  I took photos along the way so I'll go through a bit of my process for creating the page above with really old stuff.

For the background, I'm using something from my mulberry paper folder.  This is the weight of cardstock but has the textured look and feel front and back.  The backside is a chartreuse green and I have two pieces of it.  The letters are Oriental Trading.  I debated cutting my photo in a circle with my CM cutters (2001) that I still use all the time.  But I decided to keep something about this a bit more modern.

For the letters, I'm using a technique from Wilna Furstenberg's wonderful class heART class at Two Peas (the first one, haven't had time to take her 2nd one yet.)

I painted all the chipboard with a heavy layer of gesso.  She encouraged us 'glob' it on.  Then go over all of it with watercolors.  It really is a beautiful technique.  I also used this on some covered chipboard from K& Company that wasn't the right color for my project - but it is several years old too.  I outlined a few pieces with the old Zig markers.  The beauty of using old stuff is if you mess it up it doesn't matter.  It seemed to be hard on the pens - marking on the paint - but they recovered.

Just this morning I saw on Chantal Vanderburg's blog a layout where she used modeling paste on her chipboard 'waves.'  I decided to give it a try and used what was left of that Oriental Chipboard as a stencil. It turned out pretty but I thought a bit too white for the rest of my page so I gave it a coat of Heidi Swapp mint green mist with a paint brush leaving a little white showing through.

We're almost done!  I adhered the large "love" letters down and then glued all the other words over top.

To work in the DMC floss, I stitched around the photo very casually.  I didn't even use a punching template for this.  I'm getting brave here.

And here's the page again and the details:

There's no journaling.  I think this will be a title page for our 2013 album.

Worked in the candlewicking thread to hold together my tags.  I did have to sneak in a couple of wood veneer pieces.  The one on the bottom covers a seam in the yellow cardstock.

So that's my page!  The only products from this decade are modeling paste, mist, and the wood veneer hearts.

This was such a fun challenge.  I'm really glad I didn't have to time this one!  As you can tell, I save a lot of stuff.  Don't tell my husband that, OK?  I'm always after him to clean up.  :-)

Hope you have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by!

In under 30 minutes

I knew this one was coming - a LOAD prompt to do a page in a short amount of time.  Today is the day so I timed myself doing this page.  I already had the idea of what I wanted to do.  I spent 5 minutes gathering all the supplies except embellishment.  That is where I got a bit stumped.  Then I remembered a stamp set I'd recently gotten.

I typed up the journaling. The actual page took 13 minutes to do!  I didn't fuss over everything so the lettering isn't perfectly straight.  The story got told.

Journaling reads:

My mother always said she didn’t know how she would have gotten me fed in the morning if not for Captain Kangaroo.  She put my high chair in front of our only TV and I sat mesmerized by the Captain, Mr.  Green Jeans, Moose, the bunny rabbit and the falling ping pong balls as she scooped in baby food.

I started with the '50's clock' stencil from Crafter's Workshop on an ivory cardstock background.  I added Washi tape to the opposite corner and then built in the rest of the layers. The baby-themed stamps provided the embellishment.

Here's the SHORT process video at YouTube:


Here's the sketch for this page:

And all of 2013 sketches are available in one PDF for only $8.  Each page gives measurements and substitutions to stretch the sketches even further.  More details here.

I can't say I was looking forward to doing a fast page, but I do like the result.  I also learned some things about my stash and my process.  I truly do need to buy more embellishments.

Also, I need to declutter my adhesives.  I kept getting things out and then putting them up.  I wish I'd realized this before I went to the Container store last week.  I'm sure I can find or make something that will fix the problem. I never realized what a time waster my current system is.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Cookbook Memories

My very first cookbook was one published by the church I attended growing up.  It is still my favorite and the source of many treats.  One of those is our Christmas cheese ball. I've made that recipe almost every year since I was a teenager.

Today's LOAD prompt has us focusing on the small events of life.  I thought I was picking this one memory from Christmas.  When I started thinking and journaling, I really had 3 stories to tell with these photos.  So I included them all in the pocket behind the photos.

My aunt Betty recommended this particular recipe and gave me a tip to make it easier to make.  I've since learned that if you mix everything up in your mixer with the dough maker attachment, it is a snap to make.  I haven't learned how to take all the calories and cholesterol out so we just save this for the holidays.

I didn't have any cooking themed stamps or embellishments so I framed a little cutout from the pattern paper.

I had a friend who loved cheese ball and the recipe always makes me remember him.  I also journaled quite a bit about the cookbook.  I could have gone on and on about my early cooking efforts.  It is amazing what a photo or two can bring back.

For the page, I used a 3 photo sketch from my sketchbook PDF which you can find out more about here.

And the video is here or at YouTube:


Thanks for watching today.  LOAD continues and I'll do more videos but probably not every day.  I've got a class to get ready!

Welcome to February! Heritage page and video

Februarly is a busy, busy month here on the blog.

The 21st is my blogaversary.  5 years!  So I'll be having a giveaway a bit later in the month.  Be sure to stay tuned for that.

Soon I'll be announcing my next self-paced class.  I'll give you a hint - you can have twice the fun!

And today is the first day of LOAD214 - Layout A Day for February 2014.  I've already said I probably won't create a page every single day.  I do plan to do several of the prompts sent out by the organizer, Lain Ehmann.  So there may be more scrapbook pages and hopefully more videos coming along this month.

I finished my first page before noon today!   Today's prompt related to less than perfect photos.  I chose to interpret the prompt by using a photo that used to be just about perfect.  Everyone said what a wonderful photo it was of my grandmother and me.  It was made in one of those traveling photo booths that had setup in the supermarket parking lot one weekend in the late 1970's.  I don't know how anyone talked my grandmother into the photo but I remember it being taken.

The photo is now very faded and stained a bit on the side.  I found it in a box of her things in storage.  I've scanned it and am using the original on the layout as I can't think of a safer place for photos that scrapbook albums.

What I love about the photo is that my grandmother is smiling.  Here's the journaling:

Maw Maw rarely smiled.  She was a kind woman who’d had a hard life.  And she was a worrier. At the end of the day, she would often be sitting with her head resting on one hand looking so sad. I’d ask her what was wrong.  “I’m just worried, honey,” she’s reply.  I always thought what a waste of time it was to worry.  I didn’t understand her until I grew up and realized how easily worry can invade your thoughts and steal all your time and spirit.  I love this photo, not just because it is a rare photo of the two of us, but because she is smiling.  When she would smile, it was magic.  She was transformed from the worrying wife, mother and grandmother into a younger spirit.  

The page uses an older Stampin' Up! paper collection and matching stamp.  I did a lot of distressing to the edges of the papers and added some stitches.  To keep everything from being too matchy matchy, I used some very old book paper behind the journaling, for the embellishment and for the date.

Here's the process video at YouTube:


And here's the sketch.  I allocated the whole day for the first day of LOAD so I had enough time to do a new sketch for this one. Last year's sketches are available from the link on the sidebar to the right.

If you'd like to join in the LOAD fun, you can find all the info here:
Click here to view more details

Thanks for stopping by!