Sometimes I Wonder????

I don't know if it is just because she is a teenager or what, but sometimes my daughter really makes me wonder.....

She is 13 and has never shown any particular interest in ANY subject matter. She worked hard at all of them, but she didn't really "like" any one alone. She also had not discussed a career at all......... THEN.........

She started watching BONES. You know, that wonderful television show with the forensic anthropologist and team who can ALWAYS figure out how a person died.....



ANYWAY.......

She has now become obsessed with the show, with the study of dead bodies, and is talking about being a coroner or a forensic anthropologist... Go figure....

This girl who has NEVER really felt that she was good at science.....
This girl who still says she isn't good at science....
This girl who is terrified of spiders........

Has suddenly started saying that bugs are "neat" and wants to spend her days analyzing skeletons and wounds.....

That really makes me WONDER??? If she gets hooked on a television show about astronauts do you think she will want to go into space??? LOL!

Regardless, I have documented this sudden interest in a layout...

Time for some FUN!!!

Every now and then you just want to let things wait....... You know, those everyday things like washing dishes, doing laundry, grading papers??? Yep, you just want to let them wait and go have some fun!

After a LONG week last week and academic competition all day Saturday I felt that I deserved a little bit of playtime. I happened to see a layout on page 34 of the new April issue of Scrapbooks etc. that arrived in my mailbox last week. Put that together with a color challenge from Challenge Masters and I allowed myself to play with some scrap paper and a photo of Kari.



I LOVE the way this page turned out and it was so simple!!! It didn't hurt that I had such a fun photo to use... that's Kari proving that she can text and hoola hoop at the same time. Now that's multi-tasking!!

Page Maps Scrapping Contest

Have I told you lately that I LOVE sketches???

They are truly one on the biggest inspirations I have when it comes to my scrapbooking. I really like the ones on Page Maps. Every month I hurry to their webpage for the newest set of sketches that are always released. I've also been checking out their blog.

I was thrilled to discover their latest Basic Grey Sketch contest. Becky Fleck posted this great sketch:



Once I saw the sketch and the GREAT prize that was being offered I was EXTRA inspired to see what I could create. A few days later, a little creative sweat, some inky fingers, and voila.....I created this:



Those two sweet people are my parents, who have married for close to 50 years. I can't imagine my life without one or both of them. They have both had some health problems in recent months, and that provided an emotional connection that helped me create this page.

The background is KRAFT cardstock spritzed with "Coffee Shop" glimmer mist. I used two different shades of distress ink to age the edges of the papers and then tore the edges of the blue cardstock behind my photo. I really wanted something kind of "vintage" looking for the edges of the patterned paper, so I searched through my laces and trims. When I couldn't find what I wanted I purchased some brown crochet thread and used it to add a scalloped trim at the top and some cross stitches along the sides and bottom. When I added the rubon, I was kind of disappointed because I couldn't find a brown one in my stash. Then when I applied it to the cardstock it kind of tore in spots. I think that just adds to the aged look though.

All in all, I think it is another successful layout for my albums!

It's COLD Here!!!

We got more snow last night and the temps dropped down into the single digits. It's supposed to get back into the single digits again tonight.... BRRRR.....

Luckily I was tucked up, nice and warm, here at home... Scrapbooking!

One page that I finished today seemed to fit in naturally with the weather.



Can't you just feel how cold it was??? When Kari looked at the photo she said, "Mom, I look PURPLE!" While some of that can probably be blamed on the quality of the photo, part of it is because it was simply COLD that day!!

As for the layout, see those clear letters? Those were cut from TRASH! Yep! Trash! I had a package of Spellbinders dies that I had not opened. As I was flipping through some things I came across the package. The plastic that the dies were encased in was nice and sturdy. Hmm... I thought.... I can cut clear letters from that! I cut out the front and back of the package so that I had 2 flat sheets of plastic. I attached it to my Cricut mat using tape around the edges of the sheet and loaded my deep cut blade. Seconds later I had my letters AND a couple of snowflakes. Some white paint around the edges and a little bit of Stickles to make it sparkle and voila! a lovely, cold wintery page.

One More Quick Project

I had just a few more minutes of craft time left tonight, so I whipped up a tag for the tag challenge. Our task was to create a "vintage Valentine" so here's what I came up with:



I took a plain old packing tag and inked it with 3 different colors of Tim Holtz distress ink. Then I wrapped a small paper doily around the side of the tag and started stamping images. I used Stampin Up's Soft Suede ink to stamp a variety of images that I thought evoked a feeling of vintage love and then added one small Cherry Cobbler heart as an accent. I ran a chipboard heart through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder and then used the same Cherry Cobbler ink to ink it so that the dots "popped".

I really like the way it turned out, though I kind of felt like it needed something "more"; I just couldn't figure out what....

Some New Layouts and a Surprise!

Hey there!
Just thought I would take a minute to share one of my latest layouts. As for the surprise.... you'll have to stick around a bit to hear that.

One of this week's challenges over at Challenge Masters is to scrap things that you dislike. I had already created a layout in the past that features 100 things I dislike; I actually use that layout each year to inspire my art students as they create an "All About Me" art project.

I decided that I could use a sign for my classroom though, so I set about creating a list of things that the teacher in my doesn't like.

Here is the resulting page:



A few things about this page:
I made it 8 1/2 X 11, rather than my usual 12 X 12, so I can frame it for display in my classroom. That chipboard apple started out as a chipboard leaf. I used my scissors to handcut the "point" of the leaf off and reshape it to look like an apple. The patterned papers came from a small 4 X 4 pack of paper that I got somewhere in a swap or a sale. The alphabet letters are some REALLY old stickers that I've had hanging around for quite a while. About the only "new" thing that I used was the stamp that created the journaling lines.

Now for the surprise.....

You've seen me posting about Challenge Masters for a little while now. I discovered them during one of my scrapping "slumps" and I've been joining in on their fun for a couple of months. Well, imagine my surprise a week or so back when I got a message from Terri, one of the Challenge Masters moderators, asking me if I would consider joining in the group this spring as a "Diva"!

I'll be helping to post some of the challenges and other fun activities. I'm so excited and flattered that they would consider me good enough to be inspirational. Expect to hear more about all of the fun that we are having over there. Sure hope that some of you can join us!