Life Outside the Fishbowl

One Little Word

Check out Ali Edwards's post on her word for 2009. The concept behind this is that each year you choose one word to focus on. For 2008 my word was accomplish. And I did accomplish things, but in some cases I got things started and then just didn't follow through.

So, for 2009 my word is STRENGTH. 

From dictionary.com:

1.	the quality or state of being strong; bodily or muscular power; vigor.

2.	mental power, force, or vigor.

3.	moral power, firmness, or courage.

Strength to stick with things, to finish things, to complete things -- and just strength as getting stronger. I could really use some work in the willpower direction (umm.. especially around the Christmas cookies).

Method Playground - Ir-resistable

Our next challenge up at Method Playground is a good old-fashioned resist technique. Pamela's challenge is to pick up some crayons and paint -- take them from your kids -- and make something. 

I did a little twist on the challenge: stamping with versamark then embossing with clear embossing powder before painting over the stamps with watered-down acrylic paint.  I used material from the December Studio Calico kit for this layout. The acrylic frame was painted with alcohol inks - I used a green first, then layered silver over it. I adhered it with the painted side down.

Blown Away over here

It's a wicked windy day today.  We've been staring out the back windows watching the trees sway back and forth - and keeping an eye out on the couple of pine trees reaaaaally leaning over towards the neighbors yard and praying they don't topple over. 

Rachel's moved from asking us five times a day when the snow will come (so she can use the purple sled Santa brought her) to asking about going to the movies. Might not be a bad day for it.

In the meantime, here's the last layout I did for Scrapbooks Plus this month. I picked out a Sheer Delight sheet by KI Memories for the kit that's full of cream snowflakes. It's a fun twist on a transparency and I love the die cut edges. I decided to layer it over a red sheet of cardstock to form the background of a layout.

This is another fun layout - just look at my pictures! This is a corner gas station near us and I wish I could've included ALL the various decorations, lighted trees, etc. they have. If it's inflatable or lights up, they've probably got it. And one of the fun things they do is play seasonal music and have all their lights timed to the music.

I used my Slice and the Fa La La cartride to cut a few shapes as accents. Since my photos are so busy I didn't want to overwhelm the page.

More Christmas Projects

I picked up a few thin wooden forms at Michaels after Thanksgiving -- a tree, a snowman and a snowflake -- to decorate. They're all around 12" tall - a nice size for display. We have a picture grouping just inside our front door that I like to replace with holiday pictures & wreaths. This year I wanted to add to the pictures I made last year. I'm also planning to copy the yarn & ornament wreath that Starbucks has this year, but I'm still looking for the right yarn.

I used the tree  as a pattern to cut out paper for a Christmas layout, which I'll put together as soon as I get my hands on more ink. Remind me again NOT to print out newsletter pictures at home at the last minute - but that's another story.

The snowflake I covered with Pink Paislee paper from our December kit. I cut a rough circle from white felt and stitched around it several times before adhering Thickers. I used a button chipboard shape from a Cosmo Cricket packet and covered it with more Pink Paislee, then coated it with Glossy Accents by Ranger.  The paper snowflake and brad are from a Making Memories packet I picked up at Scrapbooks Plus. I stuck the button on top a wooden ornament from Michaels that I coated with glitter.  I'll be taking this to the store this week to display, but until then it looks great on my wall!

 

On the second day of Christmas....

Thomas finished putting together his Lego AT-TE Walker -- the big toy that Santa brought him this year. And he did it pretty much by himself. All 799 pieces. He's spent countless hours since Christmas morning working on it, with very little help from us (we were limited to helping him sort and find the right pieces). And doesn't he look pleased with his work?

 

Holiday Cards

A trio of cards made with the Scrapbooks Plus December kit:

If only getting our own cards out the door went as fast as these! I used rub-ons, circle punches and scraps to make these quick cards. For a little extra oomph, I embossed the paper circles on the wreath with clear embossing powder.

Merry Christmas

and I hope that Santa brought you everything you asked for.

As for us, opening the presents was the easy part - and the quickest. Getting the toys out of those darned boxes, twist-ties and other medieval devices contrived to drive parents nuts took up a good chunk of our day.

A Four-Year Old's Theology

So Rachel says to us over dinner tonight: "I think that the world is really God's sister's dollhouse."

December Layouts

Well, I'm taking a break from cutting Christmas pictures to post a few layouts I made with the December Scrapbooks Plus kit. Remind me next year that even if we have the *ability* to print out picture cards, it's not always the best idea to do it ourselves.  Grrrr.....

So, this month's kit was a mix of Pink Paislee and My Mind's Eye, with a fun KI Sheer Delight sheet, Thickers, chipboard from Scenic Route, and a handful of other things I picked up. 

My first layout -- what do you do with all those Santa pictures you get at the mall? While I love how the impromptu session turned out, I always hate the backdrops and cheesy borders that get added. So I decided to make my own mat. I used a digital frame and really stretched it out to use as a cutting guide. The blue was covered in Icicle stickles. I took the Pink Paislee bracket-edged paper and gave it a third bracket by tracing from an extra sheet.  I even dragged out the sewing machine (and knocked down all our camping gear in the process).

And a double-paged layout. These are photos from a snow-day last year. I shot lots & lots of pictures that morning and I just love how her pink outfit (really she was still in her jammies) stands out against the white snow of our backyard.  I chose to keep this one simpler; it just worked better with these photos. I cut a corner of the KI Memories Sheer Delights to place under my title, the rest of the paper is Pink Paislee.

Cross-Stitching & December Kits

The current challenge at Method Playground went up on Monday.  We're thrilled to have Scarlet Namvong from Studio Calico guest host for us and she's chosen a good challenge - cross stitching. I have to admit this challenge had me stumped for a while. It's been many years since I did any cross-stitching. But I finally got some inspiration from die cutting chipboard trees for the December DT kit - a layout - at Scrapbooks Plus.

I mostly used our December DT kit for this layout, plus some great dotted paper from Sassafras Lass which let me easily mark the tree for stitching. I used the chipboard as a mask to ink inside for my tree's edges, then cut it out. After stitching with floss, I added a little pink bling I had laying around and a fabric flower from a Studio Calico kit.

Speaking of the December kit, this was my month as designer of the month. I got to pick out the kit all the DT gals used. Here's a shot of the kit: the Tinsel Town line from Pink Paislee, a bit of the Be Merry collection from My Mind's Eye, Thickers, Scenic Route chipboard, and a snowflake Sheer Delight from KI Memories.