My latest creation...

Here's my latest!! The papers I used are Basic Grey's Urban Couture, the chipboard scroll is by Fancy Pants, the large brackets are Technique Tuesday's Functuation, the title is Pressed Petals Chip Chatter, the flowers are American Crafts, the little label is Lil'Davis, the small brackets are My Mind's Eye Magnolia transparency.

My inspiration for this came from one of our members at 2SS's. The link is Here .

My sister took this picture of my daughter over a year ago. Mary has a great eye for photography, and I always love to use her work on my layouts.

Today, I will say goodbye to my friend...

I will have a tough day ahead of me. Today, I will be bringing my friend of 15 years to her deathbed. It sounds so ominous and creepy. And I feel like I have to keep explaining myself, and justifying this decision. Somehow, it just doesn't seem right, and yet I don't want her to suffer any more. This mental struggle is one I have been wrestling with for over a month, and while my head knows that it is the most humane thing to do for her, my heart is having trouble with letting her go.

My friend has been sick for a while. She has kidney failure, and has been in a slow decline. Although her good-natured temperment has never wavered, I can see her change as this disease has progressed. She has lost weight, and is no longer the pleasingly plump little kitty she used to be. The interest in food isn't as captivating as the desire for water. She will constantly stalk the house for the freshest water. Including her water bowls, which get freshened several times a day, she will seek out water in the toilet bowls, the drops of water left in the tub after a shower, she will stalk the kitchen sink for bowls or dishes with water left in them. I even saw her licking the melted snow off the floor when the kids came in after a snow storm.

I will spare all of the unsanitary details of living with a kitty with renal failure, but in my selfish mind this was the deciding factor to my ultimate decision.

After I bring her to the vet, I will bring her home again, and provide a proper burial for her. She will be under a tree, out near the garden, and in view of a birdhouse...a most pleasant setting.

I am selfishly glad to be home alone with her for her last few hours.

Today, I will say goodbye to my friend...

Better late than never...

Well, I was supposed to load the pictures of the new papers my lss gave me to work with, but my life got outta hand and I didn't have time to load them. So here are the finished products of some store displays and my upcoming class. Unfortunately my pics came out all wonky, so you'll just have to pretend they are pristine!! :)

This first one is using American Crafts a la Carte papers. The little felt flowers are also American Crafts, with some added button centers. The title I did using my Cricut, and then layered the two different fonts. I also broke out my trusty Signo Uni-ball pen, and made white dots around the pp's.


These papers are SEI's Citrus kick. I absolutely love the colors in these papers, and this photo does not do them justice. The cardstock is supposed to be a deep rich peacock color, but instead it looks all faded and muddy. Anyway, I also used some Bazzill wings flowers, a Junkitz flower, my new set of acrylic stamps by Art Warehouse (see the link in another post), some alcohol inks to dye the chipboard file tabs, and again my Cricut for the title. This one will probably be my next class for April.






I was intimidated by these papers at first, but the color combination was just so fabulous, I couldn't resist. These papers are 3BugsInARug Seeing Stars. I also used new my Art Warehouse stamps for this lo (see other post for link), my Crafter's Workshop Dots and Circles template, and some Tulip Slick Dimensional Paint in white.


Just as an aside...a little pet peeve of mine is posting layouts without pictures...It drives me crazy, and I don't like it!! It looks so unfinished...ok, I got that outta my system now!

Get outta town!

We took a little 2-day "get outta town" trip with the kids, where we spent the night at Mohegan Sun, and played some arcade games, went for a swim, had dinner at Johnny Rocket's, and just generally hung out.

Look at what Olivia won in the arcade! You know those games that have the giant mechanical claw that is on a remote control and comes down to grab the animal out of a heap of plush toys? You know the ones...they're nearly impossible to win at...Matt took one turn on it, I took one turn, and Olivia took one turn and wham-o!!! Jackpot!! She scores a big headed dog! She was happy as a clam, and wanted to bring him everywhere we went...Too bad she isnt old enough to play the craps table!! LOL!


From the casino, we went to Mystic Aquarium, and spent the day exploring, and checking out all the animals and fish they had there...Here is just one of the many cool things we saw when we were visiting the aquarium this past weekend. This is a beluga whale.





Here is a jellyfish

This is my favorite picture from the weekend(well, that I am willing to share at this point)!! I thought for sure I would get wicked glare/distortion from the tanks, but it wasn't too bad...Although dangerous, they are so beautiful and graceful!!


I have been gettin' busy with crafting since we've been home, I have a deadline with ilove2create, and I still have a couple more things left to do. I am planning on using another picture from our weekend away, but you will have to check back later to see what it is!

It's a good thing!!

In my creative flurry today, I was doing a little photo editing, and look what I discovered...radial blur! This is a really subtle use of it, but I love the way this picture of Olivia turned out, and I just had to share it right away! I have a layout planned for it already, but in my excitement, I had to post my discovery, pronto! Check back to see how I used this picture on my layout.

oh, by the way, if you click on the picture, it will enlarge, and you can see the radial blur effect even better!








And here is my creation with that cool photo...These papers are from the March kit at ilove2create, they are A2ZEssentials.

I worked my tail off today!

Let me start by saying i have a love-hate relationship with Yankee Candle...I am totally in love with their products, and I have even visited their flagship store in Deerfield, MA--FUN!!! So many delicious flavors to choose from, and tons for every season. Yes, I'll have one of everything, please!!

But right now, I am so NOT feelin' the love!! Our school is doing a YC fundraiser, and in a brief moment of insanity sometime in Feb., I agreed to Chair this fundraiser. Today was the end of the sales period, and the day we tallied our sales. That means we (four of us volunteers) were inundated with wacked-out order forms that had scratched out items and arrows pointing every which way from crazed parents trying to get their kids packets in before the deadline (and yes Heather, I am talking about you :) !! Order forms where addition was incorrect, some sellers with multiple order forms that would take Einstein a week to wade through... We received checks, cash, IOU's and yes, even change to make up the total amounts due. Can you see where I'm going with this? Can you see why I am not feelin' the love for YC right now? I think I need to self-medicate with some adult beverages right now.

Fundraising is such a sticky business, and yet, we do it for the benefit of our kids. I have to remember to keep repeating that mantra..."We do it for the benefit of our kids. We do it for the benefit of our kids. We do it for the benefit of our kids". After this fundraiser is over, I will have a new mantra, "Don't Chair anymore fundraisers".

All of this whining really has nothing to do with Yankee Candle, themselves. They always have superior products and a stellar reputation, that I am sure (ok, i'm crossing my fingers here!) everything will run smoothly from here on out. I will be one happy camper when my $105 worth of candles arrives in April, and who knows, perhaps this will be like the pain of childbirth...they say you forget it after a while.

So when all was said and done, and we wrapped up our little YC pow-wow this morning, I high-tailed it out of there, went to get the oil changed in my car, and filled 'er up with some gas. I also got some laundry done, dinner made, helped the kids with their homework, dropped off the money from the YC fundraiser to the PTO treasurer, wrote some notes to the kids' teachers, and generally picked up the big chunks of clutter around the house.....All this, because tomorrow I AM GETTIN' CRAFTY!!! Do you hear me people?! and I DO NOT want any interruptions!!! Geesh!! What's a girl got to do to get some crafty time?!

Tomorrow, you know where to find me!

What's in a name?

I have given my blog a catchy new name...A Life Artist's Type Culture.

"What the hell is that?", you may ask.

Hmmm...let us ponder this for a while. While we, our little sub-culture, are more commonly known as scrapbookers, many of us who tell our life's stories have adopted the more accurate name of "Life Artist", as coined by Ali Edwards.

She seems to have summed it up quite nicely:

...gave a little presentation about my scrapbooking philosophy and introduced my new name for scrapbookers/creative people who are into celebrating life through art: life artist. "Scrapbooker" just doesn't cut it - it is so much more than that name implies.

So, life artist it is.

So who is a life artist? Do you take photos of your family, yourself, your environment, your world? Do you tell stories? Do you bring them all together onto paper, into your computer, onto a canvas (or some other cool concoction)? Do you create art journals with all kinds of wonderfully interesting pieces of your life and thoughts and emotions? Do you celebrate your life through your art?

You are a life artist.

I am a life artist."

.

So it is. I tell my story through my artwork. Through my photos, and my words, and my thoughts and my hands. It all comes together in a flurry of cutting and pasting, whether in the tangible sense, or digital, it has my stamp on it. It is my story, and I'm telling it as i see it.

Let us now dissect the phrase, "type culture". Webster's definition is: (n) a viable culture of an organism that is directly descended from the strain or isolation on which the original description of the organism is based.

In my warped little mind, I see myself as an adaptation of the original...and yet, an original in my own right. Sort of an evolution of what is commonly known. As a Biology major that analogy to the scientific is just, well, damn good! Plus, let's not forget the fact that I have played on the word "type", as I am only able to keep this blog alive through my type, and that blogging is a total sub-culture in itself.

I get so jazzed over playing with words like that. Maybe I am a little idiosyncratic, and maybe it goes unappreciated by most, but hey, it makes me happy!

...and here's something else that makes me happy...don't know why, but this guy makes me smile! :)

Hey, Turkey!!

I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by. Here is a turkey vulture perched on my neighbors (the Hines') chimney. He sat there for over an hour! I couldn't figure out why he was perched there for so long...Was there a nest of babies in the chimney? Was there a critter in there he was waiting to snack on? Or was it just a warm spot to perch, cuz baby, it's cold outside!?

Anyhow, I couldn't let that moment pass without saving it for future use...I haven't quite figured out how to scrap these yet...any suggestions? To find out more on Turkey Vultures, and how really nasty they are, go to the Turkey Vulture Society LOL! Yes, they really do exist!


So speaking of turkeys, here's another turkey trying to take a self-portrait for her DT bio pix! I set my camera up on a tripod outside on our deck. Then I used the timer function so that I could focus on a paint can that was sitting on the railing behind me. Once I brought that into focus, I would press the shutter to activate the timer and then run into position and try to pose and look cute...I think I just look like a turkey!! :)



Needless to say, I didn't choose either of these pictures. My theory on focusing didn't work very well, and these pictures aren't as crisp and clear as I would have liked...they are a little too blurry to crop and resize to an avatar. Better luck next time!


They have closed the schools for today. We are supposed to have a wintry mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain all day long, and into tomorrow. Yikes!! I don't wanna shovel that heavy stuff!! Matt is still in bed. He is coming down with a cold...I think he should stay home with us today(so he can shovel, LOL)...we'll see.

Here is my list of things to do today. I seem to do better at accomplishing them when they are in writing. Let's see how many I can get done:

1. fold laundry
2. send out get well card to my neighbor
3. Bring Yankee Candle Fundraiser to Sue--she wants to buy!! :)
4. Work on the ilove2create kick-off challenges
5. Work on LM store displays
6. Pay bills

Look what I got today!!!

I have been away most of the day, between bringing the kids to school (had to bring in their rocket projects, and there is no way they'd survive the trip on the bus), going to Mahopac for my class at Lasting Memories, doing some shopping at LM (!!!!--i'll spill the beans in a few minutes), coming home, and hearing the weather report, "What!!! We're getting how many inches of snow?!", jumping on the computer really quick to whip up a reminder document for the Yankee Candle Fundraiser, zooming over to school and printing off copies and distributing them, bringing the kids home, and helping out with their homework, it is now 5 something PM, and I am just catching up with my daily web haunts. OK, so that was a terribly long run on sentence, and I was never a scholar when it came to grammar, but I got it all out, and you got the gist, right?

So after all that I stop in at 2 Sassy Scrappers, and lo and behold, my new Design Team Blinkie is waiting for me!! Isn't it cute?



Well, as far as making any money today off of the class I taught, that all went to hell in a handbasket when I saw the stamps that came in!! I got two new sets of acrylic stamps from ArtWarehouse Limited Edition, they are by Danelle Johnson...they are sooooo great!

Memories Interactive Circles Lg

Memories Interactive Journaling Circles Sm

YaY!! I can't wait to play! I will also post some links to the new papers I will be using for some of my upcoming classes...but for now, I gotta get busy! :D

Getting ready...

I am teaching a class tomorrow at my lss, Lasting Memories , and I am getting my supplies together. I am using the oh so cute Technique Tuesday stamp set Loves Me, Loves Me Not which I can't get enough of. I've also got my trusty spray paint out to spray some bottlecaps with, and a mallet so that we can smash them!! :)

I am definitely learning how to streamline my classes more so that we can keep things moving along, hence the chipboard templates. I have learned they are a great tool to use for tracing and cutting out shapes during class, fast and efficient!


So here is a picture of the finished product for my class for tomorrow, "You make my world go 'round"...I don't even know how many people have signed-up, or if I have enough supplies--YIKES! We'll figure it out, we always do! The papers I used are from The Crafter's Workshop (scroll down to see the Creamsicle line).




I am sure Barb and Julie are convinced that I've fallen off the edge of the earth, I have been flying under the radar lately with so many projects going on, and I haven't been around to see them or even answered emails...that's BAD! Mental note to self: work on communication skills :)

Speaking of projects, I have one of my challenges underway for the new ilove2create launch! If you are confused by the link, Scrapbooking Society is going through a transformation, and will emerge on March 20th as "ilove2create". There will be a whole lot crafting going on, and we are NOT just talkin' scrapbooking!

I have received my first assignment for the month of April for 2SassyScrappers. I will be using Cherry Arte's Kitty Lou papers. Now I just have to wait ever-so-patiently (that's a stretch for me!) for my package of goodies to arrive. If you'd like to join us on the message boards for 2SS's here's the link to chat. The message board is growing leaps and bounds, and there is always a lot of activity--there are some crazy folks over there!

... I have to get back to getting ready...

Let's try this again...

And here we have it...

With my latest development (don't worry, i'll get to that later), and with the transformation of ScrapbookSociety to ilove2create , I am again feeling the pressures of keeping a blog. I STILL cannot fathom what it is that I have to say that would be so interesting, that others would want to come and read about it. Dh says I should...He's all tech savvy and what-not, and has even created my own website... Are you kidding? I can barely keep up with the message boards I frequent, and he wants me to provide the content AND update my own site!!! Sheeesh!! The nerve of some people ;) Yeah, we will revisit that subject later.

Now on to the good stuff..

Wow!! Such exciting news! I submitted for a call for a new Design Team for 2 Sassy Scrappers...and out of 61 applicants, they liked me!! They really liked me!! I feel like Sally Field accepting her Oscar....kinda lame, I know. So, I am one of nine new DT members for a brand new online store opening on April 1st. www.2sassyscrappers.com
My gut instinct is telling me this is going to be a really great opportunity and just loads of fun...and I get to wallow in new product every month!!! Are you jealous? Oh, it feels so decadent!

Here is the work that I submitted to 2sassyscrappers for consideration:

For this one, I used kit contents from SBS's March kit