Tender Loving Care Remembered

Today marks the unfortunate passing of one of my favorite relatives. Aunt Lisa was and will always be remembered as a warm, giving woman who gave generously to many her broad smile and genuine laughter. As a teacher, she touched the lives of many. As a cherished wife and dependable mother, she will always be missed. As my cousins continue to mourn her too-soon passing, we look to the moon and hear her voice, rich and full of love, saying as she often did, "I love you to the moon and back... and so much more."
Seeing Kaitlyn Hermson's vibrant photo posted on the Key Peninsula Facebook page one morning, I knew it would be the perfect pairing to a heartfelt outpouring of grief rendered online by Lisa's daughter just days before.
I chose to hide this journaling just as that anguish is often hidden by her family and friends; there beneath the surface but only accessible to those who seek to share the sentiments expressed.
Losing a loved one reminds me of the light of the moon, which shines both brilliantly in the night sky, illuminating our planet while remaining distant, out of reach, fading in and out of sight as time passes, so do those memories of our departed. Some are too lovely to even bear thinking on... texts, voicemails, personal effects, photos of a life well lived, and a legacy of love and laughter; each are reminders to live every day to the fullest.

Lest We Forget: Veteran's Keepsakes

  Last night the Friends of the Key Center Library sponsored another CraftWithAnna class: Veteran's Keepsakes. All anyone had to do was stop by with a photo or a story to share and I brought all kinds of crafty goodies for participants to create with.
We even had special guest stop by, a member of our local Key Peninsula Veteran's Association that I'd met earlier in the day at Evergreen Elementary's assembly. He and our Storytime librarian, Carol, shared that although they did not fight over seas during their service years, they were still honored that the youth was showing their appreciation for the sacrifice of time away from their family. A lot of times the glorified versions of Hollywood war times don't match up to the real life experience of estrangement from loved ones, the fear of the unknown, and of course that drill sergeant barking orders at you. Ok, maybe that last one the movies usually DO do a pretty good job of showing.  I made sure to give the layout I had made to our librarian at the end of the night; I was so touched by her sentiments, and it's always interesting to find out something new about a person you spend a lot of time around.
As usual, my students for the evening showed me a thing or two as they made their tributes. We talked about what service to our country means, and I think I made a good point when I mentioned, how much can change in a person's life in just four years. How many moments with our family we would miss out on if we didn't live with them, or maybe lived nearby but not close enough to come home every night. We talked about how the families left behind make sacrifices for our country too. Moms and Dads alike take care of families while the other parent works over seas for undetermined amounts of time.
Another point I made is that, sometimes Veteran's don't want to talk about their experience. What a treasure their words are when they choose to share them, and how, as the recipients of that knowledge, we should honor them by not forgetting their stories and the lessons they contain. We talked about how those stories are actually part of our family's legends and history. And how we can document that history in all sorts of ways! But, that just like a soldier returning home may have a hard time "putting it all out there," we may have a hard time expressing what it really means to us that they did all that they did in the name of God, Honor, and Country.

Enter one of my favorite techniques: hidden journaling!  Using an old greeting card with a ship on the cover was an excellent place to write a note to grandpa in appreciation for his time in the Navy. This wall hanging features anchor print paper, gold chevron washi tape (donated by Queen & Co.) and Amy Tangerine thickers that spell out Grandpa. What a neat way to show some love!

 

Thank you to all the families who made their way to the library and stopped to CraftWithAnna! Our next event will be Saturday, December 19th from 2-4pm; I'll bring everything we need to make some awesome Holiday Greeters. Could be a card, could be a wine bottle topper- it's up to your imagination :-)
To my friends and family who have served for us all, thank you for your time and dedication. And if you have any pic of yourself in uniform, I'd love to scrap 'em! Happy Veteran's day.

Basking in the Sun

 Ahh fall, I know you're not long gone, but I sure do miss you! I miss the crispness in the air, the warmth of the afternoon sun in the windows, and I still have a lot of fall embellishments from 2013 to use...
but wait, this is Washington's warmest winter on record! And the air is still crisp and the warm days have kept on coming! Oh yeah, and I STILL have a lot of fall stuff in my stash lol.

When I saw Rainier getting a sun tan on the living room floor, it reminded me so much of a few pictures of myself at just about her age, doing the same thing on the deck of what would become a sunroom on the house I grew up in. In my mind's eye I can still feel my puffy purple coat cushioning my back as my big poodle mix Daisy sniffed about me.

Rainie loves to get her Vitamin D au 'natural, and we look forward to playing with the sun as it falls through our living rooms picture window. Have you ever had a scoop of sunshine poured over your head? Or drank a warm cup of sunlight tea? Those are just a couple of the cute ways she's taught me to enjoy God's radiant light. That love is echoed with the border strip punched with hearts running down the page. I'm a fan of Jen Gallagher who usually includeds a tied piece of twine on her borders somewhere. I'm an even bigger fan of lifting cute ideas like that so with all those bordering bits I figured this was as good a layout as any to attempt that look. (Success!)

I had to reflect some of the sunlight's sparkle on my page and there were a few items in my stash that I've been holding out on using due to their high glitter content, like those bright green thickers.  Long titles can be tricky, so I tried to use complimentaryy colors there, as well as the natural cork thickers to balance all that glittery goodness.  I was also mindful of stacking my phrases so that all the letters fit into a block shape of sorts. You know I love to use my trash, so look up at the top of my title and see how I used my paper's manufacture's strip as part of that design.

Part of the reason embellishments like that large subway-art typography piece doesn't usually work for me is that I feel like the words all have to be relevant to my family or the pictures I'm working with. Don't know why I hadn't thought to do it before, but I simply used some sticker phrases to cover up words that didn't fit my layout and voila! I had the perfect glitter backed piece to include on this page.

There is a little hidden journaling card as well. There isn't really anything on there that needs to be hidden; no super sentimental gushings or words I'd rather not have read by the average lookyLou, but with so much text already on the page, I felt it best to tuck my handwriting away. I've had that little envelope on my desk since last spring anyway so it was time to find it a home!

Do you remember sun filled days from your youth? Does it seem like you were a lot younger even just a few months ago? Go digging in your supplies for some sun themed embellishments and brighten up a winter day with sparkly memories. Or, find a picture that is the epitomy of a good time for you and touch it up with a photo flare! There's an app for that- I like to play with Android's LightEffects.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you get inspired to punch a border, tie a twine, or stack some fonting! Hey, if it's crafty, its good, right? And if it brightens your day, that's the best kind of crafty there is :-D

Late Nights Finish Early In the Morning

Those late nights can lead to some really fun mornings! Staying up late scrappin' the night away is one of my greatest pleasures. Well, to be honest, it doesn't matter what time of day it is, if I'm scrapping, I'm happy! When I can finally make myself go to bed the wheels on my creative mind are continuing to roll, and sometimes it seems like I've just kept on working til the dawn's early light :-0

Not a bad experience!

In my last post, I showed you  the starts to three pages I worked on late Sunday night. Here are a few photo collages to show you a few of the additional finishing touches I've added before tucking them into bed (sheet protectors haha).

I did end up going with the title, "Annie get your Gun" on this single page layout to the left. I used a mix of different alphabets, including but not pictured, some old, patterned chipboard letters which happened to match the colors in the Glitz Design sticker banner perfectly. See how I added brads in between the "Love is a Gamble" banner, and then hung some Close To My Heart metal I-don't-know-what-they're-calleds embellished with tiny brown sparkles, and some knotted baker's twine for extra texture and a bit of whimsy.

My journaling is not hidden, but it's not meant for easy reading, either. Writing on a patterned paper background is a fabulous way to write what you want with less fear of judgement lol. The story I wanted to tell was how Ray came home with a new gun, which I promptly declared to have been bought for my own enjoyment. Or Zombie killing. Whatever comes my way. It's just an air rifle! The funny story that I'm internally implying through my sticker phrasing, is that a woman with a gun can be hard to leave... as in, don't even think about it, Mr.! That might explain the somewhat maniacal expression on my face?

I loved the simplistic but balanced appearance of the two pages I created using the Storytellers "Delightful" set of die cuts. Not much was added to either page, but it's all the little things that made me feel that they are complete. Little touches like the ribbon and ribbon slide behind the "Good" die cut, the sprinkle of tiny gems directly on a photo, the brad berries I created, as well as some journaling to tell the story of the photos.  I added some hidden journaling behind the top title block, and dressed up a tab die with some hand drawn fancy numbers for the date.

See those brads under the numbers? I did not add them, they are printed on the tab! Pretty easy to use embellishments that are dressed up for you beforehand! Hmmm, now that I think of it, these die cuts are inspiring me to add some brads to my next project...

Thanks for taking a look at how my late night scrapping turned out the following day... Don't forget to come back throughout the month to see how I'm incorporating my large stash of die cuts into my creations.

The latest edition of DieCutCrazy is available today and includes loads of inspiration as well! On the 15th, my fellow contributors and I are having a Birthday inspired BlogHop! Sounds like a prize will be available too, hip hip hooray!

Happy (Inter) National Scrapbooking Day!

Creating cards with my friend yesterday was the perfect way to get my craft mojo fired up for my favorite holiday, (see blog post title).

Last night Sunday and I got to spend some quality craft time with my mom, and as soon as little one retired for the night,  two layouts AND another little card literally flew out of my carry-around stash!

This morning I spent a little time scrolling for inspiration on Instagram. Isn't it just terrifically amazing how much creative energy there is in the crafters community to tap into!? I loved seeing what everyone was getting their glue sticks on in honor of NSD. I'll be working just about the entire day and night through, so being able to tap in and participate by looking will be a big bonus for my day. I mean, who wants to miss out on the fun, right!?

These photos from the last time my in-laws were out are so special to me. I really wanted to do some heartfelt journalling to echo those warm, fuzzy feelings :-) Sometimes, list style journalling can make it easy to get some of those more mushy gushy feelings onto the layout. The little cards in many paper collections out there have great prompts too if you just can't get there on your own.

These photos are so special because they highlight visually some of the really lovely ways my "parents" indulge our family when they visit our coast. There is always a lap available for cuddling. They help me see a different side of my Mr., through stories of their youth -and his! I love that they actually read the things I painstakingly write on the albums and albums worth of layouts they look through!

This last visit I got that great shot of Mr., Sr. Printing up some prose for his grandaughter at my command! Lol what a treasure that will be for us later in life. What a treasure these two are for me, now in life. I can't wait til they come out again... maybe I can even get them scrapbooking this visit!
Enjoy your day, and get scrappy!

Another Holiday Scrapped to Completion

One of my dilemmas in scrapbooking has got to be the creative limbo of not being able to move forward until a section of life has been scrapped in its entirety.

Now trust me, its not something that holds me back, as Im perfectly content to scrap any photo for any reason at any time. Easter pics at Christmas time? Birthday photos of my youth mixed in with ski vacations! Sometimes it can even be a good challenge to use seasonal papers for something other than the season they were printed for. A lot of striking color combinations within that mix up.

Still, there are all those stacks of photos that want glory in 12x12 form. Dress me up! they seem to scream. Yes, my photos talk to me, dont yours?

I went on a tear around my craft room the last week, tidying up albums, rearranging loose pages into their chronologically held place amongst bursting d-rings -and the dreaded post holders!

Id love to finish up my Christmas section, but first I whizzed back in time on my broomstick again to Halloween of last year.

This was such a fun part of 2013. I went with my mom to some terrific friends Monster Mash, and my costume was entirely inappropriate.  Score one for mom on the loose lol. My friend Stephanie dressed up as Babe the blue ox and covered her face with blue eyeshadow. Now that's commitment to a costume lol! of course, my mom with a big bling Bindhi was pretty off the chart too.

Then Rainier, dressed as Fancy Nancy, went trick or treating with her dad (Momar Ghadafi). I was in the car dressed as one of his "bodyguards"- google that one-, watching over sleeping baby sister. We got out and met up with them down the! block just in time for a picture of them ringing the bell. You can see that process here:

Following the tricking we went to another friends party and of course more picture taking ensued. My favorite series is this of my youngest playing with a bag of candy as her dad watches on mildly. Good thing they dont yet know what poisen lurks within heheh.

My pages all have a very cohesive look because I made one kit and worked out of it for all the layouts. A cut apart sheet like this one by DieCutsWithAView takes all the guesswork out of titles and color scheming. Just arrange a few pieces here and there, add photos and a few other themed embellies like brad and ribbon, and youll be saying sayonara to another set of photos in no time.

Thanks for taking a look at what Ive been working on this week- still trying to incorporate washi tape on every project, but somehow I feel like I'm failing miserably. Perhaps this is because I made a sh*t ton of stuff outside of my normal output, mostly a lot of cards at the beginning of the month, and not much of that got washi-fied. Ah well, that's why it's called a challenge!

Toilet Paper Vertical Mini Album

I made this darling little min album for my Aunt Jody, who very kindly sent me some beautiful clothes last week. They fit perfectly and made me feel so glamourous- a description Ive always thought fit her in the three decades Ive known her :-)

Jody has this soft spoken, demureness but she is quick with her quips too! Her hair is always blown to perfection and my Uncle must have known early on what a knock out he'd have for a life partner!

I filled the album with pics I gleaned off facebook of my cousins and their families. I know it will be an egg-stra special reminder of my love and appreciation for the thoughtfulness of her gifts to me.

Happy Easter to Friends and Family who found their way here today- "He is risen! Alleluia" :-D

Using Your Christmas Cards

What to do with all those beautiful Christmas cards received each year... some I admit are easier to toss than others, but really, what good do they do in a box in the closet, never to be looked at again. Aha! I finally found a home for three of them! The top left purple with silver ornaments actually came from PartyLite. How did they know to send me a card in my favorite colors?! The card behind the girls came all the way from Ed and BJ in New Jersey, and the Christmas Wishes sentiment was cut from the front of a card, complete with popped-up letters!

If you watched my recent Album Review movie on YouTube, you know that one of my favorite layouts ever created was one of Rainier in front of the Christmas tree at my bank last year. My Little Christmas Angel has grown up quite a bit in the last year and has a new sister to pose with as well... which meant, back to the bank for a photo shoot this year!

She walked right over to the tree (shedding outerwear all through the lobby as she went) and turned on the charm for my camera;  highly unusual behavior for her! Of course I didn't have the camera ready, but I still managed to snap a lot of great photos of her and Sunday. I love the way the tree shimmered and twinkled behind them. After our shoot those two amused themselves and the tellers by touching as many of the ornaments as possible.

I really wanted the focus of this layout to be on Rainier and the look on her face. I did get a photo of her with a great big smile, but this kind of look is more "her." Using a CTMH flip flap sleeve allowed me to hide her sister and the journaling in one place. I'll carefully slice through the page protector and this page will become interactive.

 If you look carefully in the border near the bottom of the page, you'll see I continued my baker's twine theme for this month in green and white, lime green and white, and purple with white. A little washi tape on the back of my layout keeps the twine in place just fine. Another goal of mine this year is to use my supplies, and I'm happy to report that another sticker sheet went in the garbage after this! So long, Teresa Collins fabrication stickers!

What do you do with your old holiday cards, or birthday, Mother's Day, etc.? I'm looking for a way to house the hundreds of cards Ray has been fortunate enough to receive from me over the last five years- any ideas? I'd love to hear them! Leave a comment below and you could win a repurposed card from me. What you choose to do with it afterwards is up to you :-)