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Day 8 of 30 Days of Thankful

Today I'm grateful for traditions. After being in Gainesville yesterday for the game and looking at the pictures like the Bell Tower it got me to thinking about traditions. We usually think about traditions during holidays but there are a lot of traditions that are not holiday related. The traditions you learn at college and traditions you start with your children like the one my son and I have had for years. Ever since he was little every time a new Star Wars movie comes out we go see it together. Even though he is 30 years old we already have IMAX tickets for the opening night of the new movie and it is over a month away. We always have so much fun. I love these little traditions that start without you even trying to start one. Those are usually the best ones. #cz30daysofthankful

Day 7 of 30 Days of Thanksful

Today I'm grateful for...college football, my Florida Gators to be exact. LOL Today me, my son and my daughter-in-law went to a Gator game which is the second game this season we went to but it had been about 20 years since we went to a game.  We are always watching on TV though.  It's not really the football I'm thankful for although I love watching my Gators.  It's really about social gatherings.  The time you spend doing things with friends and family while having fun.  It's meeting new people and experiencing new things.  It's about having an adventure and living life to its fullest.  Here's to many more adventures to come!!!

Day 6 of 30 Days of Thankful

Today I'm grateful for the conveniences we experience everyday. This morning my blow dryer died so I had to go buy a new one today. After going to the store after work and buying a blow dryer it got me to thinking about all the conveniences we have that we take for granted. Appliances, stores around every corner, restaurants everywhere, cars, planes, etc. Can you imagine living back in the horse and buggy era? Heck just having indoor plumbing should be enough to make you grateful! LOL  #cz30daysofthankful

Days 4 and 5 of my 30 Days of Thankful

Well yesterday I was so busy that I was exhausted and did do my post yesterday. So here are both days 4 and 5 of my 30 Days of Thankful. 

Day 4: Today I'm grateful for technology. I love and hate technology depending on what is going on at the time. But overall I am grateful for it. In so many ways it makes our lives easier. I can't imagine not having technology at my job. It would take several people to do what I handle everyday with the help of technology. I love my computer, iPhone, digital camera, and of course Wifi. 

Day 5: Today I am thankful for the beauty God gives us each and every day. We are given a gift each day and we should stop for a moment each day and appreciate the beauty he gives us. Whether it is a beautiful sunny day or a rainy day. Sunrise or Sunset. There is so much beauty but we get so busy and caught up in our little lives that we don't appreciate what is around us. 

Stop and be thankful today!

Day 3 - 30 Days of Thankful

Day 3 of my 30 Days of Thankful and today I'm grateful for the little things in life. Those little things that we overlook or take for granted like this little note my friend put in my car to remind me. Those little things can add up in a day, week, month or year. We need to not overlook those little things or dismiss them easily. The saying "The little things in life are what is important in the end" is so very true. The caring note. The person who lets you go before them in the checkout line. The smell of a pretty flower or the sound of waves at the beach. So many little things to enjoy so lets start enjoying them each and every day! #cz30daysofthankful

Day 2 - 30 Days of Thankful

On day 2 of my 30 Days of Thankful I am grateful for my Starbucks Chai Tea. Latte, Iced, or frappuccino it doesn't matter. I like them all.  I am not a coffee drinker. I don't like the smell or taste of coffee. I don't like coffee flavored anything even if it is just a little bit. I can't stand coffee. I know that is against the norm but to me it is extremely bitter and no matter how much sugar and cream you add to it, it still tastes bitter. But my chai tea makes my whole day better. I'm not normally a big tea drinker either but I love the spice in the chai tea.

A few years ago, my daughter went to pick up a friend early in the morning. She knew he would not be awake and ready to go so she stopped at Starbucks and got two chai tea lattes. She was right. He was not up and ready to go. She gave him the latte and he asked what it was and she told him. He was a die hard coffee drinker. The first thing he said was "you brought me a girlie drink?" She told him to shut up and drink it. After the first sip he said "OMG...this tastes like heaven!" That is how I feel every time I have one thanks to my sister who got me hooked on them and she's a coffee drinker too.

What are you thankful for today?  #cz30daysofthankful

30 Days of Thankful by Cathy Zielske

Well it has been a while since I have posted anything. I have been so busy at work getting ready for our inter-national accreditation (1st time) that I haven't had much time for anything else. The assessors were here all last week and we achieved 100 of the 104 standards (which includes the sub-standards). Yeah!!! Now all we have to do is make some changes and upload them in the next 30 days and hopefully get the other 4. Of course we will not know anything until around April or May 2016. Ugh!!!

But I have plenty to keep me busy and hopefully some of that will be crafty. I have a couple of items I did mange to get done but haven't taken pictures and upload it here yet but I will soon. My first crafty project going into November is going to be Cathy Zielske's 30 Days of Thankful.You don't have to scrap everyday if you don't want to. She has a journal that you can print where you can jot down what you are thankful for on that day. Take a picture each day and when you have time you can sit down and scrap it.  It can be done on your computer, handwritten, and even completely digital. The choice is up to you.

If you are interested in doing her class you can sign up on Cathy's website.

Today I'm grateful for my loving fur babies! No matter what my day is like, no matter if I'm happy or sad, no matter what...my fur babies are always happy to see me and love me. There is nothing like coming home from a hard day at work to the love of an animal. Here are two of mine who happen to be loving on me this evening. The other two were not in good spots where I could get decent pictures.

Hope you join us in documenting what you are grateful for.  #cz30daysofthankful

Hello Waves

For this layout I used a very old picture of my kids when they were a lot younger and of my MIL at hour beach around Thanksgiving time. So it was a little too cool to be going into the water. I love this picture because they were having so much fun with such a little thing and that made me very happy.  It reminds me that the seemingly little things are the things that can make us the happiest.  Happy Scrapping!!!

Who Says You Can't Go Home

A layout that was done for a challenge. I used by Can't Go Home kit from Scraptastic.  The challenge was to use 3 pattern papers, 1 cardstock, use the colors teal and gray, 3 arrows, a chipboard element, something older than a year old, and at least 1 travel themed embellishment.  I got the Can't Go Home kit from Scraptastic because I knew I would be going to Las Vegas in July and well I am just now starting to scrap my trip.  I don't have a ton to scrap because the trip was business but there were times where we could go do some exploring. So since the challenge was to use something travel related I thought it was a perfect time to start scrapping my trip. The layout will actually be the last page of my trip because as you can imagine my the title it is about coming home. 

For the pattern papers I used October Afternoon Moaning Cavern and the others were Scraptastic exclusives. The multi-colored striped paper and the paper with the stars are the A and B side of one sheet of Scraptastic exclusive pattern paper. As well as the 'Who Says You Can't Go Home', the red arrows, and the numbers strip which was one sheet and I cut the different strips from it. The cardstock was from my stash and was a teal color.  I used both the teal and gray as stated in the challenge but I used varying shades of both in different elements. The papers were edged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Weathered Wood for another grayish element and to makes some of the papers stand out more.  The chipboard elements were AC Thickers Hipster chipboard letters and the geo tag from the Pink Paislee Atlas chipboard sticker embellishments which were both from the kit.  I also used from the kit a tag, the silver airplane punchout, and the globe from the Pink Paislee Atlas ephemera pack, cork arrow embellishment, the orange arrow from MME Hello World travel stickers, and the Hello and Goodbye from the Can't Go Home Scraptastic stamp set. The ink splatters are HS Color Shine in teal and gold and also Mister Huey's Color Mist in Water Cooler.  I used some enamel dots from my stash and I really don't know how old they are so I'm not counting those as older than a year but the travel sticker is from MM words and phrases travel set and then cards, coat check ticket and the chips are from Paper Wishes and all those are older than 5 years.  So nice to use up some of my stash and it goes with the theme of my pictures.  I also used a Freckled Fawn cork calendar sticker and some Freckled Fawn enamel stars.

Rainy Season

Hello my creative lovelies! I have a layout to share with you today that I created using some of Scraptastic kits from a few months ago. I took these pictures one afternoon because the clouds were so beautiful and then of course it came a downpour. Then I seen this saying on Facebook and I had to use it in my layout. It said Run it's a hurricane. Floridians are like...we call it the rainy season. That is so true! So I had to name my layout Rainy Season.  LOL

The background paper is a Scraptastic Club exclusive by Kaitlin Scheaffer called Candy Rain (perfect don't you think). I mounted the pictures on cardstock from my stash so that they would pop off the background paper. I inked the edges of the background paper with Tim Holtz distress ink in Weathered Wood. The acrylic cloud pieces and raindrops are Scraptastic exclusives also. The banner in the top right corner was from Authentique "Playful" Components, the tag piece behind it was from Jillibean Soup Coordinating Label Stickers Summer Red Raspberry South, and the enamel dots are homemade from my stash. The letters are Pink Paislee Bella Rouge, the tag in the bottom left hand corner is another Scraptastic exclusvive I believe while the banner I put on it is from Sn@p!. Both flower clusters were placed on foam adhesive and the small one is also from the Sn@p! collection and the larger one was from Dear Lizzy. The Raindrops came from the kits and I colored it with a Tim Holtz distress marker in broken china. I drew pen lines around the entire layout and the top banner to make it stand out a bit from the background.

A beachside themed pocket letter. I did this a couple of months ago and ...

Hello Waves

Getting very little scrapping or crafting of any kind done lately but I did manage to finally get one done. I used some of my Scraptastic Kits to make this layout. It is an older picture of my kids and my mother-in-law at the beach during the late fall. It wasn't a very sunny day which made the water in the picture have really deep colors. The kids were running from the waves because the tide was coming in and they were laughing and giggling and it just made me happy to watch everyone having so much fun. It reminds me to always enjoy the simple things in life and that in the end that is all that matters.

I did some mixed media on the layout to enhance the feel of the picture as well as using light colors to try and lighten the darker picture. I used some gesso and then some gelatos mixed with water using the cellophane method of applying it to the layout. Did a lot of layering and used some iridescent sequins around to represent the sparkle of water.

Tim Holtz inspired Pocket Letter

It has been a while since I have done anything that I can share. But I finally finished a Tim Holtz inspired pocket letter that I am mailing out today. The idea totally came from Vicky Papaioannou's YouTube channel. She is a very talented lady and when I seen the art journal page she did like this I had to try it. I want to eventually make me a canvas version to hang up so this was a good first run.

I really enjoyed making this. I made the background paper, the leaves, and the pumpkins.  I used the following Tim Holtz products:

Distress Stains:
Walnut Stain
Antiqued Bronze
Tarnished Brass
Distress Inks:
Walnut Ink
Aged Mahogany
Fired Brick
Spiced Marmalade
Forest Moss
Mustard Seed
Tim Holtz Collection Stencil: Dots
Adage Tickets
Mini Paper Clips
Crackle Medium

I hand drew the pumpkins and cut them out and I used gelatos to color them in. I used a baby wipe to blend the colors.

Hope you enjoyed it. Until next time Happy Scrapping!

You cannot blend in when you were born to shine CSI Case #165

I did this layout a few weeks ago for another challenge over at CSI but I am just now getting to posting it here. I really liked how this layout came out. This was a picture from my daughter's senior picture photo shoot. For this challenge we had to use the colors of light lemony yellow, ballerina pink, pale warm gray, white and black. Here is the challenge:

Scheme: Used all five required colors
Evidence: Polka dots, wood grain, tags, Polaroid frames, and tags with quotes.
Testimony: Used presentation, journaled on a tag

I used one of my Scraptastic Club Kits for this challenge. It had all the perfect colors in the papers and embellishments.   The items used were Scraptastic Club exclusive papers in Watercolor and the B side of Circles.  The flowers were from Pink Paislee Bella Rouge and the dies cuts were KaiserCraft Collectables Shine Bright collection. Also used Dear Lizzy Puffy Stickers, Doodlebug Design Sprinkles, and Sn@p! enamel dots. I also used some Heidi Swapp Sequin Rub Ons that were not in the kit. Everything else was in the kit. Here are some close-ups:

Hope you enjoyed and happy scrapping!

Wait! Do Ducks Fly? #163

I finished up another layout and this one had me laughing so hard it was hard to get it finished. So over at CSI one of the journaling prompts for this case challenge was to "Be More Funny" which redirected you to this list of funny things to journal about. On this list was 'Bird Poop' and I knew immediately what I wanted to do for this layout. Here is the case file:

For the scheme: I used all the required colors which were medium green, turquoise blue, banana yellow, porcelain white, and fallow brown.

From the evidence list I used: Frogs or other animals (bird veneers for the ducks of the story, washi tape, checkered pattern (on the washi), watercolor (splatters), jar (puffy sticker), and hearts.

Testimony: Be More Funny prompt: Bird Poop.

The papers I used were Amy Tangerine Rise & Shine and a couple of exclusive from Scraptastic. The stickers I used were Dear Lizzy Puffy Stickers (jar w/ flowers) and Webster's Pages #Happy. The letter stickers were We R Memory Keepers Alpha Block Stickers love notes and Teresa Collins. The birds, feathers, and arrow wood veneers were all Studio Calico and the floral type wood veneer in the corner was from Scraptastic. The flair and blue turquoise heart was also from Scraptastic while the cork heart from the the dollar bins at Michaels. The enamel dots and string was from my stash. The watercolor splatters were Niji Pearlescent Watercolors.

The journaling reads:

You know when you say or do something that you wish never happened and no one ever forgets about it? Well, that happened to Janna. At my office we have the large light poles in our parking lot. And these ducks from the ponds surrounding the building have been getting on top of the lights and then they poop all over the cars. I was telling her that if she came to the office to not park under the lights for any length of time or else she would have to deal with the bird poop. Then one Sunday we stopped by the office so I could get my sweater that I forgot because we were going to the movies and I always get cold. So as we were driving into the parking lot I was pointing out the ducks on top of the lights and out of no where she says "Wait! Do ducks fly?" OMG...I lost it. If ever there was a blonde moment from this highly intelligent girl this was it. I was laughing so hard I was crying. In between the tears I said "no, they climb up the poles with their web feet and wings like a monkey!" To this day, every time I think about it or tell someone about it I start laughing so hard I cry all over again! This is one of those moments that will never die! LMAO!!!

Feeling Love

Hi guys! Here to share another layout. The colors that I had to use for this challenge were periwinkle purple, bright pink, white, pale periwinkle purple and olive green. I really enjoyed doing this layout. The colors reminded me of the licorice pieces in one of the pictures which by the way I love! These pictures were from Mother's Day this year. My children were so thoughtful. I got a vintage camera (which I collect), vintage camera bulbs, some owl earrings and owl votive cups (love owls) and of course the licorice.

For the layout I used some watercolor paper and used water color pencils on some cellophane packaging and blotted on the paper. I seen this in some YT videos and it looked like a lot of fun.  Really liked how it came out.

The paper borders and banners were cut from papers from my stash and are quite old but still very pretty. The branches and leaves were cut from a Tim Holtz Sizzix die. The acrylic hearts, words, chipboard banner, and "love this" stamp and are Heidi Swapp. The crochet flowers and ribbon on the paper border were from the dollar bin at Michaels, and brads in the middle of the flowers are The Paper Studio, and the flair is from a scraptastic kit so I don't know the manufacturer. The wood owl came from the wood section at Hobby Lobby and I used the Wink of Stella pen on it to give it a little shimmer. And the the butterflies are 3D and I actually got them at a teacher-homeschool supply store.

The journaling reads:

There is no greater feeling than love and right now my heart is filled with love. The love that I feel for my children and feeling loved from them. When you receive a gift it means so much more when you know it came from the heart. It doesn’t have to cost a lot, be really extravagant or large. Just knowing that they chose that gift especially for you straight from the heart. My kids gave me such precious gifts this Mother’s Day. Chosen with love to make me feel loved. I am truly blessed! May 10, 2015.

Hope you enjoyed it and happy scrapping!