My kids LOVE sports. I was never into sports too much as a kid. I played a season of baseball. I danced and did gymnastics from Junior high until college. It was all recreational though. My son lives and breathes football and my daughter is a softball junkie. For the past few weeks, my daughter has been playing on an All-Star team. We've traveled all over for her tournaments. Which means, a lot of time away from home. I don't know how people stay in hotels every week. It's just plain exhausting. Most of the time we preplan our meals to help reduce our spending. We usually pack a few giant ice chests with food. This works out well since we spend most of our time at parks. Even planning the meals is exhausting. Last weekend I was reminded of why I do it though. it's sooooo expensive eating out. Last weekend I decided to not pack an ice chest and seriously, our expenses for the weekend tripled. We did have a great time though.

Last week's PL consists mostly of sports since that is what we did. I used a combination of Cocoa Daisy & Scrapbook Circle to complete my spread.

I've been involved in scrapbooking for at least 20 years and I've had the pleasure of seeing the industry grow and evolve into what it is today.  Today I was working on a layout when a few things dawned on me.

1.) It's more artistic than it ever was.  Imagine putting gesso and paint on a page then...THE HORRORS!! The CM police would be having a witch hunt on your lawn and they'd for sure revoke your scrap card.
  
2.) Perfection is not necessary.  Back in the day, it was magic matters, and perfect layers...everything lined up neat and tidy.  Now imperfection is almost the norm.  We mess up and say, "It's all good, I'll work with it."
3.) Hoarding.  I used to  still do own every color, every pattern in just about every paper ever made.  I had to have multiple sheets of it too in case I ran out during a very important project.  Now I buy ONE sheet if I love it.  If I need to use it again, I order a new one!!!   I'm going through my old stash and finally purging my ginghams, plaids, dots, and other patterns from days long past.  It feels great too!

4.) Stickers.  Are. Freakin. Amazing.

5.) Seriously, stickers today are amazing. The textures, the depth, the color, the paper they are on.  I could go on and on and on and on.  I love the stickers today.

6.) Thickers. 'Nuff said. I may or may not have 38 UNIQUE designs of Thickers.  I may or may not have duplicates of some of my favorites.  ^^See post regarding hoarding.








I leave you with this tiny glimpse into my studio. :)

A few months ago I had the privilege to create this lil' masterpiece.

The background is essentially 6 little chipboard cards, covered with ephemera, lightly gessoed and then painted with watercolors.    All the gnomes and mushrooms are clip art that I printed multiple times and layered to create a three dimensional look.   I filled the tiny bottles with glitter and glue the stopper on.  For the bottle laying down, I added glue to the mix so that it wouldn't spill all over. I also added glossy accents to a few of the gnomes. 

As usual I played around with kits from Cocoa Daisy, Studio Calico, and Scrapbook Circle.  I will usually start with my weekly card, determine which colors I'm going to use for my spread and go from there.   I cut down my 12x12 papers into 4x12 strips.  I begin placing my photos and then placing the paper and embellishments in a pleasing manner.  I'm not a huge journaler, I never have been.  If needed, I'll usually add hidden journaling.

I think my favorite embellishments are my sewing machine and my Dymo labeler.  I use them on EVERYTHING.

For credits, see my post HERE.

Now for some detail shots.

A while ago I was inspired by the colors of Mexico and created this painting. I love everything about it.  The colors, the fact that the background is coming up through the skin, the hair, everything.   If I had to pick a favorite part, it would have to be the bun on the side of her head.   It's funky, totally out of place and I love it. Like most of my paintings, I sold this one to a dear friend who gifted it to another dear friend.  I'm delighted it has a new home and that someone loves it as much or even more than I do.


 Here's one more painting for you. A friend of mine asked me for a painting of a giraffe.   I have NEVER drawn or painted a giraffe, so this was a big of a challenge.  In my research I came across a giraffe that had a heart in her coat and I loved the idea so much, I included it here.   I love how the eyelashes came out. :) 

Don't go calling PETA or ASPCA on me, I love my pets, I really do.  They seriously pissed me off royally yesterday.   Both of them.   I may or may not have posted on my facebook page about needing cement shoes for both of them.

Here are the jerks:

 So what happened.  First this happened - quoted from my facebook page.

"I could cry. Chicken (my cat) spilled an entire glass of water on my layout. I'm sure I'll be able to salvage it but right now the damn cat better hide.

"So I'm sitting at my desk drying and ironing my scrapbook page the damn cat spilled water on when the cat jumps onto my desk followed by the dog. The cat takes off, the dog takes off, getting caught up in the cord for my amazing task lamps with the $25 daylight bulbs. Damn lamp goes side ways across the desk sweeping everything with it, I grab my phone and iPad before they go crashing to the floor only for the dog to come running towards me (all the way around the desk) with the extension cord literally wrapped around her body. One of my two lamps is broken, everything that was on my desk is now on the floor. Effin' dog is outside and effin' cat is probably shitting in my bed. Grrrrrrr."

So where did this layout start from?  Let me show you the process.



And then the cat ruined it.   It's still sitting on my desk.  I think I'm going to be able to salvage it, but there are definitely more wrinkles than I envisioned. :(