The Beautiful U.P.

Mark and I spent last weekend in the UP. We were hoping to see the beautiful fall colors, but all of Michigan is still mostly green... We still had a great time and I got some beautiful pictures. I especially love the ones of the Crisp Point Lighthouse, the most remote Lighthouse on Lake Superior. (Remote it was too... I thought we were going to end up having to ditch the car and walk there.) I'm really glad we went and am hoping to go back someday in the summer so we can do more hiking.

Ashley's Graduation Video

Well, the day has finally come... my baby is all grown up.

The first video is the class president. The third is the Salutatorian, Emily. The rest of the video clips are Ashley.

I'm so proud of this beautiful young lady and grateful that she is my daughter.

What I've been working on

As always, it's been a busy week- getting everyone ready to go back to school; and I HAD to get it done this week because my classes start on Monday and we have an out-of-town wedding next weekend. I told the kids whatever didn't get done now wasn't getting done and somehow they found the time to go shopping... lol. I am ALMOST done getting all my photos organized... just a little bit more to go. I will be so relieved when that's done. I feel like I just cannot scrapbook anything while my pictures are so disorganized. I make my books in chronological order, one for each year, and I can't put them together properly with pictures all over the place. Already I've found several sets of pictures that go in the middle of what I thought was a completed album, so I'll have to scrap those layouts and then take the album apart and put it back together... ugh. I did learn a lesson here (something good comes out of every situation, right?)- I will be very diligent with the organization of my photos from now on... I'll label not only what they are, but the month and year. You wouldn't believe how many pictures I had "organized" in envelopes that simply said "Up North"- well... when? Labor Day? Fourth of July? Memorial Day? And without a year, I've been having to look at my kids- haircuts, what swimsuit they had that summer, whether the braces are on or off their teeth, etc. to match them up to the proper year. What a nightmare! The other thing I MUST do is have a specific place to put doubles. I have spent HOURS going through pictures that I just don't know if they're doubles or the original pictures... so, once again, I have to look through everything- pictures in envelopes, scrapped pages- to see if they truly are doubles. Anyway, I should have it done by tomorrow- Yay! And I'll be the model of organization from now on! :) So, right now I'm taking a little break from the photo organizing and thought I'd upload some more pictures of what I've been working on lately.

This is the first stage of the second spread in the altered book I'm woking on.

Second stage- and all I've completed so far. I really like this... it's so vibrant and cheery. I think it will be a very fun page.

I can't wait to see where it goes from here!

This is an altered canvas that I made.

I made this card for a swap using the "gel" technique.

The little fish is behind a plastic baggie filled with hair gel- to give the illusion of water.

This is some textured paper that I made by gluing plastic wrap, masking tape and some mesh from an orange bag to heavy hard stock and then coloring it with alcohol inks and a little gold from my Krylon pen.

In real life, it is stunning.

I used a little bit of it to make some ATCs and now I'm saving the rest for something very special. (The "hoarder" in me shows up often when I'm dealing with art and scrapbook supplies!)

Another swap card... this time we had to make something in the shape of the letter B.

I decided to color glossy paper with alcohol inks and then stamp over it collage-style. I used brads as the center of the clocks and finished it off with a thin, glittery fiber down the side.

I broke out my watercolor pencils to color this simple but pretty "Thank You" card.

The background of this card was made using the bleach technique.

Another altered canvas. I made this as a gift for my best friend.

Playing with alcohol inks again... Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend- do something creative!!!

It's been SOOOO long

I know, I know... this is ridiculous. It's been MONTHS since I've posted here. I honestly contemplated just giving it up, but... We've had so much going on in our lives- some good, unfortunately a lot of bad, but we finally seem to be back on track so I'm hoping to be a little more regular with my blogging here. First off, I got accepted to nursing school! I start my clinicals on Aug. 25th. I'm very excited, but a little nervous too. I've got 24 hours of actual class time per week and then all the reading and studying. It's going to be an adjustment for all of us- especially since we just found out Mark is going to be moving to the afternoon shift the same day I start classes. There will be some juggling on how to get kids to and from school and the girls are going to have to pick up some evening slack- making dinner, helping Joey with homework, etc. But, it will all work out. We did a lot of projects around the house over the summer and I've been trying to get all of my photos organized. That's still on-going but I really want to have it completed before I go back to school. I haven't had as much time to create as I would like, but I've done some things and have many projects/pictures I'd like to share. I'll start off with the first spread of an altered book. I've never altered a book before and it has been loads of fun!

Trish, over at Next Generation Stampers, gave me the inspiration for this book.

For detailed instructions you can visit her at Trish Bee's ArtVenture- the link is on my home page.

This was step 1

Step 2

Complete!

I'm so pleased with how it came out- I can't wait to get started on the next two pages!

Another Messy Morning

Isn't making a mess FUN???

Trish issued another background challenge and I could hardly wait to try my hand at this one... Acrylic paints and an old credit card.

Here's what I came up with...

This is Rainbow Paint Scraping.

I used four unrelated colors to make all of these. The one above is my favorite. I used Studio 71 tube acrylics in: cadmium yellow, cadmium red, dark ultramarine and primary magenta.

You draw lines of each color paint side by side on scrap paper (like you're making a rainbow ink pad) and then put your credit card through it. Paint rainbows on your CS until it's covered.

Next was Random Paint Scraping.

Same idea, but using three colors (one light, one medium and one dark) from the same family. These were applied directly to the CS in goops- one at the top, one in the middle and one at the bottom- and then I scraped and smooshed (technical term- haha) the credit card through it until the CS was covered and I was happy with the results. I really enjoyed this technique because it was possible to lift some of the paint off to either discard or reapply it to other areas.

This is another variation of Random Paint Scraping.

Instead of using a light, medium and dark shade, I used two medium and one light shade. It produced a very pleasing monochromatic effect.

The two below are very similar since I used the same yellow and orange in each, but the top one is made with red and the bottom with magenta. It's hard to see in the scanss, but IRL they are very different and each is quite lovely.

As always, thanks for looking!

And if you'd like more inspiration, eye candy or more detailed instructions on what you've seen here, visit Trish's Art-Venture.

There's a link on the left side of my home page!

Goopy Glue and Other Fun Stuff

Trish gave us another backgound challenge on "Next Generation Stampers". This one involved randomly squirting plain white glue onto cardstock, allowing it to dry completely and then inking the CS up and rubbing it with a paper towel to remove the ink from the glue.

A very easy, but extremely pleasing technique!

If you would like to see more of what Trish does, or to get more complete instructions, visit her page at http://trishbee.co.uk/

Since I used Brilliance ink pads, this background is very shimmery.

I used Coffee Bean, Cosmic Copper and Galaxy Gold.

Colorbox "Paintbox"- 2 greens

Colorbox "Paintbox" - 2 blues.

I then covered the entire surface with Brilliance Perlescent Sky Blue.

Colorbox "Twilight" and then covered with Brilliance Perlescent Orchid.

Colorbox "Paintbox"- red and 2 oranges; covered with Brilliance Platinum Planet.

I made my very first "Gate-Fold" card the other day and was pleased to be able to use one of my "shining stone" backgrounds as the paper behind the flower!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day... let's all help keep the dream alive

Pick your socks by their color and your friends by their character. Picking your socks by their character is just stupid And picking your friends by their color UNTHINKABLE.

Quotes by Dr. King

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. -- "Stride Toward Freedom," 1958.

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The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -- "Strength to Love," 1963.

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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963.

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Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. -- "Strength to Love," 1963.