Escape

I need to escape. It's been a tough week. I found out a couple of days ago that the teacher Kayla was supposed to have next year passed away last week. She was 36 and to say it was a shock is a gross understatement. It makes me want to grab Glenn and the kids and just run away somewhere. I know that doesn't fix anything and all the work and stuff that overwhelms us daily will still be here when we returned, but it's a nice thought, right?

I'd love to go back to Paris. I love it there. So much history. It's funny because Kayla has never really asked to go to Disneyland, but she's asked several times to go to Paris. I do hope I can take her one day.

Until then, I'll just have to escape through crafting.

Splotted Distress

Just a quick post today. I've actually been scrapbooking quite a bit and so haven't had time to blog. There's irony for you, huh?? But I'm motivated and have gotten quite a few layouts done, so I'm happy!!!

This is one of my favorite techniques right now. Simply create a background using Distress Inks (I did it with my Ink Blending Tool) and then flick water. I always love how it turns out!

Slip Sliding Away

I am perpetually behind it seems. I never seem to be caught up with work and for sure am not caught up with my scrapbooking. It would be so easy to just give up and say whatever, except that I enjoy it and love the finished product. I think I like my paper pack club because then at least I'm "forced" to scrapbook generally at least once a month. But it's good because it gets me back into the groove!!

I was so busy in June that I didn't do my paper pack club and so I sat down this week to get going on at least doing it for July. I had done one layout a week or two ago but still wanted to do another two. I had to tell myself the other night that I would stop work at 8:30 and scrapbook and I did. I didn't finish my layout, but I started it. It was almost done other than the title and I even knew what I wanted for the title, but I couldn't make it work. I went back last night and figured it out and I even managed to do another layout. My awesome friend, Colleen, came over and we scrapbooked together and even though it was only a short time, we both got up afterwards and felt accomplished. I haven't taken the photo of that layout yet, but I will share it soon!!

In the meantime, here is one I did a couple of months ago. It's an easy layout and by changing the colours and papers, you could do this one several times over and have each one look different.

Distress Markers Organization

Anyone who knows me, knows that I can tend to lean towards the Type A, anal retentive side. As such, it was driving me nuts that I always pulled off the wrong cap of my Distress Markers.

Yes, I know that there are little symbols and words to indicate which is the pen end and which is the brush end, but I still pulled off the wrong cap almost every time!

Then, the lightbulb light up and I knew how I could solve it. I cut strips of Ranger's Sticky Back Canvas (I love that stuff) and coloured on each strip and then adhered the strip at the brush tip end. It turned out to be a double whammy since now I have the exact colour of marker and I know which end is the brush tip.

It was a very good day.

Kindergarten

I was doing so well and then life got in the way. Bloody having to work for money keeps getting in the way of playing and posting. Add in kids and it's like I'm screwed sometimes. But such is life and eventually I will come back.

Here is a quick layout I did for my paper pack club showcasing Eric's first and last day of Kindergarten.

I used my This or That pack and just used the embellishments in the pack, so it was a really quick layout which I always love!

6 Reasons

In my April paper pack it, the brads had numbers on them and I knew I'd have to do some kind of list. I ended up with a 6 Reasons I Love You Layout. It worked out great and was so easy to do.

4 Generations

In May, my paper pack club used Basic Grey: Plumeria as the kit. I really do love Basic Grey, but I hadn't used one of their kits in awhile (they're are just too many good companies to choose from!!) so I had fun with their papers. I wanted to do a simple layout showcasing the 4 generations. I've done a few of these layouts for the other kids and so I just wanted something simple (I think I've even done one for Nathalie when she was a baby).

I just took one of the papers from the kit and then started layering other papers and added some embellishments. It was quite quick to do in the end.