It's the Small Things

Happy Halloween

My family is at the park giving me a few moments to myself before friends join us to trick-or-treat. The boys are really looking forward to dressing up and heading outside to walk the neighborhood. I just love all things Fall; from Crisp falling leaves, apples and pumpkins to Halloween to New Years. I love Fall clothes, Fall foods and Fall colors. I think I'm happiest in the Fall. 

This year my boys are going to be Harry Potter and Indiana Jones. I'm looking forward to getting some great photos and scrapbooking them. Last year and the year before Dylan insisted on being Cat in the Hat. I tried to convince him to be something different last year. Unfortunately, he wasn't too concerned about his Mama and her having to scrapbook the same costume two years in a row. Ha! Two years before, Dylan was going to be a monkey. I put his costume on and he burst out crying. Seriously! These were the only photos I got that night. I couldn't stomach the crying. Turns out, he was getting sick with a nasty cold. We didn't trick-or-treat, which at that age, was fine by me and him. 

 

 

So, last year Brody got to be the monkey. He was pretty thrilled about it. He thought he was super cool and was really excited to go out and trick or treat with his big brother. The year before, he wanted nothing to do with trick-or-treating, so we were excited for him. I did this layout to remember that moment. 

 

I had the honor of being featured on The Everyday Scrapper site. This is a great little site with lots of tips, techniques and sketches. There is a ton to look through and it's worth it. Below is the layout I did for the feature. 

If you celebrate Halloween, I hope you have a safe and fun one! 

Lori

More Halloween Inspiration

I, along with some of the gals from my Altered Art group, am participating in a Halloween blog party all month. It's a great way to get some scrappy inspiration from mixed media friends. Mixed media is my go to inspiration when my mojo runs dry. Here are the details:

You Are Invited to The Altered Art Diva's Black Hat Society Tea Party!

Please join us for our month long Halloween Celebration! Each of us will be posting and featuring Halloween Goodies all month long! Halloween Art, recipes, links...and all sorts of Halloween goodies! Come join the fun , follow the links on the right to enjoy the fun and visit often!!!

Blog Hoppers:

Angela

Aileen

Jackie

Beth

Cat

Christy

Kathy

Karen

If you are looking for even more inspiration check out the Scrapbook Trends Magazine blog. They are featuring 13 days of halloween inspiration and it's really fun. They are even doing some giveaways. 

There is, also, some Halloween inspiration on the Creative Imaginations blog. Here is a little teaser of a layout I did for the blog. 

And, lastly, not Halloween, but a Lily Bee layout. We did a sketch for the blog this past week. Here is my take on the sketch. You can see the other team members interpretations here. 

We are getting ready to head to the pumpkin patch. I'm so excited to go. My kids love it there. I'm hoping to get some fun pictures of the day, too. I hope you have a great weekend full of Fall fun! 

Lori

Some Creative Therapy

This week's Creative Therapy catalyst is "what's the one thing you never thought you could do?".

Here is my take on the challenge:

Lori Says:

For me it was to stay at home when I had children. I was afraid I’d be a terrible Mom. I had a great career and just assumed I’d keep climbing that ladder. I really could not imagine not making an income. Staying home is the best decision I’ve ever made that went against everything I was feeling at the time.

 

Journaling Reads:

I never thought I could be a stay-at-home Mom. I grew up believing that I would have a big corporate career. That I would contribute equally to my family if I was to have one. I have always struggled with a lack of patience. I just knew that I would not want to stay home with my kids. I had always, and still do, associated being a good Mom with patience. Once I was pregnant, I was filled with all sorts of fears, but started having a strong desire to leave work. I realized that I wanted to be the one who was home with my new baby. I wanted to be there for everything. I never thought I could. I thought I would be terrible. I’m so grateful I did.

 

Technique Highlight:

I traced and cut a heart out of patterned paper. Then cut it into thin strips horizontally. I removed every other strip after placing it on my page. I then sewed in between each strip and around the heart.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Happy Sunday,

Lori

Halloween Fun

I had a lot of fun making some Halloween goodies for this year. I made a banner to hang in my home and some tussie mussie treat bags for an upcoming Halloween party. 

The first project is the banner. I like to add photos to my banners to give them that personal touch. I used our costume photos starting in 2006 when my second was a newborn. The great thing about banners is that I can continue to add flags, so I can keep mine current with each new year of photos. 

 

 

I used the gorgeous Lily Bee Design Audrey paper and flowers for the banner, along with the new Maya Road Scallop Banner book and Chandelier Trinkets. I love how the Audrey tulle flowers pop the letters right off the banner. 

And, this is how the banner actually looks in my home. It's above a little table where our Halloween "guys" hang out. The lighting is terrible here, but I wanted to share where it really hangs in my home. 

Finally, I made these fun tussie mussie treat bags. We host a Halloween party each year and this year I'm to make one of these for each of the kids. I'm putting their first initial on them, so they can find their own after the party. I used the Lily Bee Design Audrey paper for this, as well. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Lori

Halloween Cabinet Card Fun

I'm participating in a Halloween Cabinet Card swap with my altered art group. I'm so excited about this swap. Halloween is my all time favorite holiday and I love all of the crafts associated with it. This is my very first altered cabinet card. 

I started with this image. I found it for free from this adorable site, Carol Anne's Boutique.

 

Then I added some rockin' photoshop brushes. I cannot rave enough about 5th Muse brushes. They are my favorite brushes because they are so sophisticated and unique. I used three of her brushes on the image:

 

Lastly, I printed them out and altered them. I used water color pencils to add in color. I colored the little girl's skin green, as well, as the outside border of the image. I hand drew funky bat wings and colored them blue, white and gold. I used the new Basic Grey Halloween stamp on the bottom of the image and added a flower for her to hold. I used my Making Memories Slice machine to cut of the witch hat and embellished it with some crystals. 

I made 18 of these lovelies and will get back one of mine and 17 unique others. I cannot wait to get them!!! The group is so talented and their cards seriously blow mine away. They are amazing. When I get them in the mail, I'll post them along with the fabric banners I had promised to post. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Lori

A little behind

Who knew that Kindergarten would make me a busier Mom? I thought it would give me a tad more freedom, but that was just dreaming, apparently. Dylan is loving Kindergarten. He is having a ton of fun and is really enjoying learning. I am so grateful we waited to send him. He is so in the ready zone, as far as being engaged and wanting to learn. It's just amazing to witness. One of my biggest fears was around his coloring and drawing. He always hated to color. He would just scribble and run away. It's not his thing. I figured that it's cool, since I am big on breaking the rules. It never occurred to me that when he went to school he'd have to draw and color "pretty". You know, in the lines. So, when I heard this at Kindergarten orientation, I figured I'd be hearing about his coloring pretty quickly from his teacher. He has really surprised me and done just the opposite. He is loving coloring and is really good at it now. In fact, he will grab paper and crayons and sit and make his own creations. This is just one example of why I'm loving Kindergarten. It's bringing out some amazing things in him. 

I admit I'm still adjusting to having a fixed schedule every day. I miss those days when I could just decide what we were doing in the morning or even cancel what we were going to do if needed. Now I have to be somewhere and on time, every day of the week. I love routine, but this one is taking some time to get used to. 

On the scrapbooking front, well, I'm busy. I have several assignments that I'm in the middle of finishing up, but I'm trying my best to balance my assignments with other things I want to do for me. One thing I'm doing, right now, that I LOVE, is taking a Photoshop Brushes class from Tiffany Tillman. I signed up without even reading the description because I love her work. I am blown away by the first week of class. It is so detailed, I wanted to cry (in a very good way). I am a hacker in photoshop. I know I do things the hard way. I've learned so many things about brushes in just the first week, that I'm beside myself with joy. Seriously! If you want to learn about brushes, I suggest taking this class. It's awesome and I'm only 1/3 of the way in. 

Lastly, some catch up work. For Lily Bee I had the challenge of doing a quick and easy page for our blog. I have to admit, I really struggled with this. Quick and easy to me is painting and sewing. It takes me forever to figure out what I want to do, but once I've decided it usually takes me between 20 minutes and an hour to finish a page. I don't worry about making mistakes. I just run with it or cover it up. I think that helps me just power through it. I had read once that "taking your brain" out of the artist process really helps you be more artistic. I wish I could get there, but when I finally figure out what to do, I just do it and try not to think about it. I'm working on it still. But, when I did this blog post, I didn't think people would buy it, if I sewed and painted, which I fully understand. So, this is what I did: 

This page was really quick and easy. I used the die cut to trace the border. I used the die cut for background instead of cutting up paper to layer behind the photo and I used our 12x12 large rub-on for a title. I, also, journaled on my photo instead of using computer journaling. You can read more about some quick and easy ideas on our blog. 

And, last week's Creative Therapy was to "tell us about something you cherished as a child". When I don't have photos, I use my journal. Oddly enough, I'm not fond of painting in my journal. It tends to be more scrapbook-y than art journal-y, but it works for me. I'm so in love with the new Basic Grey Indian Summer line. Yummy! Here is mine:

Lori Says:

I know I cherished my parents and brother and spending time with our extended family. I certainly remember wanting things. The only toy I had that made me feel special was a green bear. He was my best friend for many years, but I don’t even have a photo with him. This catalyst just reinforces why I scrapbook for my family.

 

Journaling Reads:

I remember having a little green stuffed bear with me all the time. I named him “greenie” and he was my constant companion. I loved this little green bear so much, he never left my side. Soon he had no fur left and was really nubby instead. I wish I still had him. This is one of the few toys I would love to have kept.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Lori 

It's 9/11

I wanted to pause to remember. I wrote this on my blog a few years back. I have been meaning to expand on it and put it on a layout, as well.

Where were you? What do you remember?

Where was I?

Sleeping soundly like a baby. I remember feeling him nudge me on the shoulder. I remember hearing "Lor, you need to wake up". I remember looking into his eyes and thinking I lost someone. I remember getting out of bed and walking over to the television. I remember watching the second plane hit. I remember not thinking at all. I remember anger. I remember tears. I remember....

I hope each of you will take the time to reflect and to remember. Our country is a distinctly different country after this event. It should never be forgotten.

This month at Lily Bee is a big one for us. We are celebrating our first blog challenge, along with a new Ning site. 

The challenge this month is to create a layout using the new Audrey line and to upload it to our Ning gallery.  You can find the Audrey line at these stores:

A Million Little Things

A Million Memories

We are really excited to see what you come up with. The design team has been using the Audrey line for our blog posts this month and the blog is rocking with fun inspiration. Here is one of my layouts celebrating the Ning site. We made layouts with ning/ing titles. Fun! 

I was asked in an email if this is the paper I used for my wall hanging earlier. Yes. I thought the cut out shape left in the paper was fun and I wanted to use it on a future layout.

I hope you are planning to have a wonderful and fun-filled weekend. 

Lori

Where was I?

Sleeping soundly like a baby. I remember feeling him nudge me on the shoulder. I remember hearing "Lor, you need to wake up". I remember looking into his eyes and thinking I lost someone. I remember getting out of bed and walking over to the television. I remember watching the second plane hit. I remember not thinking at all. I remember anger. I remember tears. I remember....

I hope each of you will take the time to reflect and to remember. Our country is a distinctly different country after this event. It should never be forgotten.

This month at Lily Bee is a big one for us. We are celebrating our first blog challenge, along with a new Ning site. 

The challenge this month is to create a layout using the new Audrey line and to upload it to our Ning gallery.  You can find the Audrey line at these stores:

A Million Little Things

A Million Memories

We are really excited to see what you come up with. The design team has been using the Audrey line for our blog posts this month and the blog is rocking with fun inspiration. Here is one of my layouts celebrating the Ning site. We made layouts with ning/ing titles. Fun! 

I was asked in an email if this is the paper I used for my wall hanging earlier. Yes. I thought the cut out shape left in the paper was fun and I wanted to use it on a future layout.

I hope you are planning to have a wonderful and fun-filled weekend. 

Lori

More scrappy stuff

This weeks Creative Therapy is up! The catalyst is to make art around something you want to accomplish before you die. Here is my take (and by the way, the new prima canvas sheets are AWESOME):

Lori Says:

Since I was ten-years old, I have wanted to write books. I don’t know why there is fear there, but my life-long goal is to finally write my book. I don’t need it to be published, I just need it to be written.

 

Journaling Reads:

Before I die, I will write a fantasy novel. This is one thing I must accomplish.

And, I'm doing the Leo Challenge over at Willow Traders. We get a challenge every other day for the month of September. I'm going to try really hard to stay caught up, but I admit I'm struggling a bit. I don't scrap that much unless I "have" to, but I really want to do more, so I'm going for it. This layout is for the second challenge. We had to pick one of two color schemes and I picked this one because it was the Crate Lillian paper exactly. The photo is by Pascale Wowak. She took this at our annual photo shoot. We were at our park and she had a fun idea to take this shot. I love it. 

I hope you are enjoying the Holiday weekend! 

Lori

Scrapbook Royalty - part II

I am helping my sweet friend, Katie Watson, spread the word about an organization called Blue Star Mothers NC Foothills and their Cropping for our Troops event. If you follow Katie, then you already know she is one talented gal. You, also, know that she is a military wife. According to Katie, there are soldiers who don't have anyone to send them care packages. It's a double whammy if they work in a remote place in Afghanistan because they don't have a supply store where they can go to purchase things like gum or snacks. You can imagine how much those little things would mean to our troops, so the idea that there are soldiers who go without is distressing. You can help these soldiers receive care packages by donating to the organization or to the event. Katie did not give me permission to post her images, but they rock, so I'm doing it anyway. :) This is the stunning banner she created and donated to the Cropping for our Troops event. She used the Creative Imaginations Elain Pennat Ring Book. It's a really large banner book at 7.5 inches by 9 inches and one of my favorites. Scrapbook Royalty is accepting donations for this organization/event until 9/12. 

 

Scrapbook Royalty - can you spare $5?

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. I have posted this before on my blog, last year, in fact. It's important. I know this post is super long, but it's worth it to read through it. YOU NEED TO KNOW this information. You really, truly do. 

Last year I was a tiny part of an artist collaboration to create a dress form into a doll made of charms and altered ties. Go to the blog and take a look at the amazing list of artists who were involved with this project. You will see Tim Holtz, Michael deMeng, Sally Jean and many, many more. The doll turned out GORGEOUS. It is up for auction at Scrapbook Royalty. You can donate a tiny amount for a chance to have this doll in your home. You can even donate and ask NOT to be included in the auction of the doll. That's ok, too. We set a goal of $10000 by Sept. 30. At this point we have reached just a little over $4000. I urge you to take the time to really review the below information and see if you can't donate just $5 to support ovarian cancer research. 

The information below is directly from the Ties That Bind Blog:

Just in case you don't know....Ties That Bind is an art doll project to help raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fun(OCRF). It's a collaborative project with the help of almost 100 amazing artists. Our goal is to raise $10,000 dollars by the end of September which is Ovarian Cancer Month. At the end of September a lucky individuals' name will be drawn and they will win the amazing art doll. I know many people who hope to win her just so they can donate the doll, since not every body has room for her.

There are several ways you can help:

• 1. Buy tickets to win the doll- tickets are 1 for $5 or 6 for $20. The drawing will be 30 Sep 09.
• 2. Make a donation
• 3. Share with your friends and family. Print bookmarks or fliers HERE and HERE to help us spread the word.

4. And last but not least purchase a Ties That Bind Book (see photo above). You can view some of the pages of the book HERE! It's a 7x7 book with 68 pages of beautiful art, quotes and inspirational stories. 

Information on Ovarian Cancer:

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women. The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,650 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. in 2008 and about 15,520 women will die from the disease. It is an insidious disease that can strike without warning or cause.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose. There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms. In spite of this patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region. However, when ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

Until we have better early detection tools, all women should be educated about the disease so they can achieve early diagnosis and successful treatment. A woman's lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67. Listen to your body. Do not ignore symptoms.

Signs & Symptoms

• Vague but persistent and unexplained gastrointestinal complaints such as gas, nausea, and indigestion
• Abdominal bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, and/or feeling of fullness
• Unexplained change in bowel habits (constipation or diarrhea)
• Unexplained weight gain or loss
• Frequency and/or urgency of urination
• Unusual fatigue• Shortness of breath
• New and unexplained abnormal postmenopausal vaginal bleeding

For more information go to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund website. 

To watch a segment with Kelly Ripa on ovarian cancer go here.