Hybrid Collage Wall Frame

I made this a few months ago for The Daily Scrapper and am finally getting around to sharing it here on my own blog. You will find all the directions here, but please be sure to check out The Daily Scrapper for tons of scrapping and other hybrid ideas.

This is probably one of my favorite so far and I got the idea from my friend Kate. She has made a few already although she uses abstract art to put on the non photo areas where I used digital papers I printed. If you’re not a digital scrapper, regular scrap papers work just as well. And without further ado, here it is.

Wall Frame

And a few close-ups.

It’s really pretty easy to create. I used Love is Here by Jazzmin Designs. I did however decide I wanted a different frame for it, and I am still looking, but as soon as I find one I like that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, I will be switching it out. OK, so you want to know how to create this, don’t you? Here it is.

My family has a very special relationship and this is what I wanted to focus on with my project. I wanted to showcase the love, friendship, tenderness, and all around fun that we all have together and I think this managed to accomplish just that. Again, this is pretty straight forward and easy.

Supplies

Love Is Here digital kit by Jazzmin Designs

Frame

Paint

Tape runner and glue

Chipboard

I used HP Everyday Photo Paper (it has a slight gloss finish, which I wanted)

Corner rounder (optional)

Other scrap embellishments

1. The frame I got was 16×20, so I figured out how many squares I wanted to fit across and down on my frame and how large each square should be. I went with 20 of them, 3.5×3.5 each. I created a basic 3.5 square in PS and just used that for each new little layout and saved each one with an a,b,c, etc after the file name. For the photo, I did not add anything, just making them fit the square, showing only the parts I wanted to print. Then I found papers and a few elements/word-art that I liked from the kit and created some photo-less squares. After I was done with them all, I placed them on an 8.5×11 canvas, ready for printing and printed them all.

2. I cut them out along with cutting 20 squares from the chipboard. I used my tape runner to attach all my squares to the chipboard and then I used a corner rounder on each one. That is optional, just depends on your taste and how you want them to look.

3. I painted the backing from my frame because I didn’t like the color it was. While that was drying, I went through my stash looking for a few little embellishments to add and adhered them to my squares where I wanted them, laying them out and moving them around until I got a design that I was pleased with.

4. Once the paint dried, all I did was adhere the squares to the frame backing and placed it in the frame. I am leaving the glass off, because I like that look, but you can certainly replace the glass on it if you want and it still fits with the embellishments you added.

And there you have it, a collage type wall hanging showcasing exactly what you choose.

I am thinking of making these for family for Christmas this year. Don’t you think they would be awesome gifts?

Family and Connections

The most important connections I have are with family and extended family (those people that are in my life that I consider family). For most of my life, we all lived within 5 miles of each other, but that has changed in the last few years, the biggest being my Mom’s move to Florida this year. Now it is my one sister, my daughter and me living on one side of the state with my other sister and nieces across the state in our home town and my Mom of course in Florida. For the 3 of us in the same city, it is pretty easy to connect with one another, getting together and doing things, from going to the store or on an outing of bigger proportions. I love being so close and being able to get together face to face and I drove the 3 and a half hours to Racine quite a bit the last couple of years to visit with my sister and Mom and plan to do it again and again to see my sister and nieces. This is my preferred way, but of course there are many, many ways we can connect in this day and age.

There has always been the mail and I love getting a card or letter or the best, a package. Although those are few and far between now with the computer and cell phones. We have become used to instant gratification with email and cell phones. For the most part we are guaranteed success of reaching who we want on our cell phones.

Niki and her permanent attachment, lol.

Email is sent and lands in the inbox within seconds and we usually get a reply in the time it takes for snail mail to reach our intended recipient, if not sooner. Computers have made staying connected even easier with IMs and webcams and Skype. Making distances not so distant. I don’t know how I would have handled not being able to chat with my daughter online or send and receive emails the 2 times she was in Iraq. It was still hard having her so far away and in harms way, but this made it easier.

But the times she was away, even though we chatted almost daily, the thing she loved the most was the letters and packages we sent. And as I stated earlier, I still love getting real, hold it in my hands, mail. There is just something about being able to feel the paper and see the handwriting of the person, that makes it so much better than an email. And I have stopped sending them myself for the most part, it’s just so much easier to hop online and write an email or pick up the phone and make a call. And while a phone call is still up there as one of the top things, because I love hearing a voice, I am going to make an effort to send out more cards and little packages to the people I love. Because it is just one more way to stay connected and who doesn’t like going to the mail box and seeing something that isn’t a bill or junk mail addressed to them?

This post was inspired by Madeline Bea and and The Sunday Creative.

Life is a Circle

No matter where you start.

Yesterday we were all gathered at my daughter’s home for a cook out. Family and friends having a good time despite the rain and humidity. And as is always the case once summer hits, I had my hair up, and so did my daughter. I hate my hair, it is unruly and frizzy, and has a little curl that drives me nuts, with all these little stragglers that curl out and won’t go up. My daughter and I go to the same stylist and as we were sitting there chatting yesterday, Niki says how much she hates the little bit of curl in her hair, and how the other day, when Christine was doing her hair she stated that Niki really has her mother’s hair. Now I think my daughter has gorgeous hair, nothing at all like mine, but I guess there is a little of me in there after all.

This made me think back to a few months ago when I did a scrapbook page with a photo of Niki and I both as babies, and for the first time I realized, that yes, she does look like me in some ways. For years I thought she looked nothing like me. When I was young everyone always said I looked just like my Dad, and I did. But now that I am older, when I look in the mirror, I see my Mom. And when Niki was just a baby and my Mom would have her for the day or when we visited were she worked, everyone always said Niki could be her’s. Now I see all the likenesses between us when I see a photo of all three of us together and I love it, because while we are not all the same, there are some things that connect us, that show we belong together. That we are family.

Me, Mom, and Niki

As kids, I think we all hate having to do chores and being told what to do. And we rebel. And give our parents a hard time. I know I did. And then I had my own child. I found myself saying some of the same things my mother always said to me. Then my daughter started rebelling. I remember very clearly the day I apologized to my Mom for being such a trial to her as I dealt with Niki, and  wondered how she had stayed sane and didn’t kill me. We all lived.

Then my daughter moved out on her own. With her second apartment, she lived with a male co-worker, and her boyfriend was there a good deal of the time. One day she says to me, “Every time the boys do the dishes, I have to tell them it includes wiping down the stove, the counters, and cleaning out the sink!” And almost every time she had to go behind them and do the a fore mentioned things. I laughed. And then laughed some more.  And wondered.  Did my Mom laugh when I said the same thing to her whenever Niki did the dishes when she was younger? Because I sure remember her telling us the same exact thing when we were kids.

I taught Niki to say please, thank you, and excuse me and to respect her elders. The same things I was taught and that I felt important for her to know. She is 26 now and married. They are in no hurry to have kids, there are things they want to do and buy before that. And there are many, many times when we are out together and we see unruly, snotty kids that she turns to me and says, “This is why I am not sure I want any.”

I hope she reads this. Maybe she will finally understand what I always tell her when she says that. It’s all in how you raise them. My mom raised me with the same values and morals she was raised with. And I in turn raised Niki with the same ideals. When we are all together; my grandma, my mom, aunts and uncles, and sisters and nieces and cousins, I see it in every one of us. I know that when Niki does decide to have kids, they will be taught the same things my Mom, me and she were taught. Her kids will not be unruly or obnoxious. And they will have some of the same characteristics that we all have. And they will belong to this wonderful line of people we call family.

Life is a circle.

This post is written as part of the Bigger Picture. You can join in this week at Corinne’s Blog.

Twilight and Other Things

In January of 2009 Niki asked me if I wanted to go see Twilight with her. She had read the books and already seen the movie once, and mainly because she was leaving for a year in Iraq, and I wanted to get as much time in with her before she left, I went. I had heard about the books and movie, but up to that point hadn’t been all that interested. So she, a friend of her’s who hadn’t seen it yet either, and I headed to the theatre. Now I have been to many movies with my daughter and not once have I ever seen her skip/walk fast, almost bouncing,  to get from the car to the theatre. Her excitement  contagious as I went to see this phenomenon that is Twilight. WOW is all I could say when we walked to the car after wards. The very next day I borrowed the books from her and read every last one in 4 days. And I can now be considered on Team Edward. Not because I think what’s his name who plays him in the movie is hot, but because WOW, to have a man like that love you? It would be heaven.

I had to go see New Moon without her because she was in Iraq when it came out, and I had to tease her a little about the fact that I had seen it and she hadn’t, but I did miss being able to go with her. So when she asked me 3 weeks ago if I wanted to go see Eclipse, opening night with her, I said yes. I wasn’t thrilled with the price tag, but I love doing things with her. So for the first time ever last night I went to a midnight showing of a movie. I live a very short, maybe 2 minute drive from the theatre, so I said I would head over about 10 and see what it looked like and decide if we needed to go then instead of 11 PM like she thought. This is what I saw.

The start of the line

So I called and told her to get her butt down there and join me in line. I was there about half an hour before she and Shelly got there and I would say we were about the middle of the line. These are not the best photos, but here we are.

Me, Niki and Shelly

And then the rest of the line right before we started moving when they opened the doors.

It’s kind of hard to really see how far that line really went, but trust me, it was long.

The movie was awesome! I am going to read the books again and I might even go see the movie again, after I watch the first 2 once more, as I wait for the last one to come out. Or will it be 2? I have heard that they may split the last book into 2 movies. Will I go the midnight showing of those as well? I will if Niki wants to!

I have a couple pages to show you today. I love my Memory Log Book and these are pages from a couple of the prompts. The first is a few of the most memorable moments. You can as always click on them for credits and if you can’t read the journaling and wish to do so.

Moments to Remember

And the next is a few thoughts on freedom. I have lived in Racine for most of my life, and they have the largest 4th of July parade in the mid-west. And every year they have a float with men dressed up and sprayed bronze recreating the famous photo of Iwo Jima. It’s an awesome, awesome float and always gives me goose bumps. So I decided to use a couple of photos I took of them a few years ago. I used actions from Pioneer Woman on the photos.

Freedom

As we head into the holiday weekend, remember to be safe and have a fabulous 4th! And as always, thanks so much for stopping by!

A Matter of Perspective

Yesterday I was at my daughter’s, dog-sitting again. Her house is about a block from the Mississippi River and the airport is a little farther down the road or the river, whichever way you want to look at it. There was an air show yesterday and we have seen and heard the jet flying around the area for the past few days as the pilot practiced. I didn’t really want to go to the show itself, to many people for me but I did get to see the jet since it was so close to the house. I wasn’t sure when it started so I kept my ears open for the sound of the jet so I could go out and hopefully get a couple pictures, which I did. These 2 are the best I think.

I swear I can almost see the pilot.

I love watching airshows or most times it usually just the practice runs I see because I have never been to an actual air show. It is more than what they are doing. It is what they represent to me. As they fly overhead and the engines reverberate through the sky and my heart I am reminded of what they really do. These men and women are charged with keeping us safe and defending this great nation, and I always feel pride when I see the planes. I don’t see them very often, usually just around this time of year and I am always excited to hear them in the skys.

My daughter and her husband on the other hand have a more jaded perspective. Or maybe it’s just the fact that as she said to me the other day, “We heard that every day while we were in Iraq.” I can’t imagine that, being an every day thing. I am lucky to live in a place that this is not an every day sound for me. Would I feel any less patriotic if heard them every day? When we visited my Aunt and Uncle in Virginia, near Norfolk, we heard those fighter jets taking off and landing the whole time we were there. We commented how that must be hard living with that, to which someone replied, “we are used to it, and most of the time, don’t even really hear it.” I hope I never stop hearing it.

And while I had my camera pointed to the sky, waiting for the plane to come back into sight, I decided to get a few of the clouds, which truth be told, I hadn’t really seen so close before. They looked awesome.

I actually have a page to show today. This one was inspired by week 24 of  The Memory Logbook.

Clicking on it will take you to the gallery and you can see the credits and journaling if you are so inclined.

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

A Day at the Water Park

Went to Noah’s Ark on Sunday. It is Military week there, so Niki and Dana got in free and the rest of us only had to pay half price. I like when companies do things like that for the military. We did ok and had lots of fun and I think we did my Mom proud with our lunch. Sandwiches, fruit, and cookies, and then we were ready to head back for more fun in the water. This is my favorite photo from the day. I think it captured the fun.

I used lemon and honey by Paint the Moon Designs on this photo

I was a little leery about the weather because it was cloudy and only supposed to be in the low 70′s. Turned out to be perfect, not crowded and no lines. The no lines thing is great, however at a water park, every ride is at the top of hill. Normally there are lines of people and the ascent is gradual and the many, many landings of stairs is one or two steps at a time. With no lines, you go uphill and up every step as fast as you can. I worked muscles that haven’t been called on lately to do much. And after doing all that work to get to the top, makes it very difficult to change your mind and chicken out. I almost did once, but I sucked it up and screamed the whole way down. FUN.

We all slept good that night.

Being like my Mom

I have to preface this whole post with the statement that my Mom is still with us. But I miss her. She just moved to Florida a couple months ago and today is one of those days when I miss her being so close. We are going to Noah’s Ark tomorrow. My sister, 2 nieces, my daughter, and me. In summers past my Mom would have been going with us. As I try and prepare for our fun filled day, I am thinking of all the things she always did to make it that much more enjoyable or maybe it’s just the practical things she always did that makes me wonder if I am anything at all like her. Going to the store and getting sandwich meat, bread,chips, fruit, tea, water, and a couple of treats like cookies and then packing it all up in the cooler so we can take a break and go outside the park and have lunch or a late dinner, is just one of those things. Making sure we have towels, sun block, aspirin, a brush, and all sorts of other stuff that escapes me right now. And she does it all way ahead of time. I need to go to the store for the stuff to eat, and so don’t feel like doing it. I will probably wait until I am done working tonight at midnight. I don’t particularly want to go this afternoon before work. Is that just because I don’t want to take over these things yet? Or is it that I am just missing having her come with us? Whatever the reason, I am feeling sadly lacking and like I am nothing like her.at.all.

Join Me for Some Sweet Talking!

We’re kicking off a month-long challenge at one of my favorite sites today … the Sweet Talk Journaling Challenge at Log Your Memory!

I hope you’ll come on over and check it out today … there will be an entire month of scrapbooking challenges with a focus on “real life” journaling, plus the chance to earn points and prizes along the way! And if you’ve never visited before, you’re in for a treat! We have a wonderful group of friendly, helpful scrapbookers just waiting to say hello and show you around!

Get started by visiting the Log Your Memory Blog HERE and get ready to journal your way to becoming a Log Your Memory Sweet Talker!

(And tell them Winkasheart sent you!)

Life in Limbo

Ever feel like you are in limbo? That is how I feel right now. I am still looking for my own apartment. I am still waiting to hear when Niki and Rocky will be home. I am still waiting to pack up my stuff, the things I use daily. I have been cruising around the web today, checking out blogs and all the wonderful things people are creating and I want to play! But I can’t, not really, because most of my crafty things are all packed up in the garage in the freezing cold and I just don’t feel like going and hunting. And have you ever noticed that whatever it is you are looking for is always at the bottom of the pile, the last box you look, or just plain hiding on you? I can not wait to have a whole area again just for all my pens, paints, papers, books, inks, stencils, ribbons, scraps, and other fun things. Whether it is a whole room, which is my wish, or just an entire wall, I can’t wait! I want my table to be full of papers, glitter, glue, scissors, rubber stamps, and other fun finds I have out, waiting to be used or in the process of drying or just waiting for inspiration. For the most part this past year I have not done a whole lot of things in the real, touching the paper kind of craft and I have missed that. I have done a few hybrid items for the Daily Scrapper, but that is about it and I am ready to play again!

I am working on using my Memory Log Book and that is the closest I have come in a long time to putting pen to paper, or ink and paint, or cutting and pasting, or adding tid-bits to a journal and I am loving it! It is actually pretty boring still, but I plan to change that in the next few days, once I find my colored pencils and water colors. By the end of the month I want to see little parts of my life when I open that book, like I have done in the past.

I have always loved putting the things I pick up when out doing something during the day into my monthly planner, and now I have a daily one with the Log Book, and it has so much room to grow in. This book will be a treasure trove of ideas for scrap pages and I should never again have a problem remembering the moments I want to scrap again.

And on that note, here is my latest from one of the sparks in week 2 of the log book. I used Captured mini kit, Paper Perfection vol.6, (and today is the last day to get these 2 for only $1.00!) and Glittersplat Frames for this one, by Karen Lewis Designs at GP. I really love that little date stamp in the corner.

I am doing good with P365. Kind of, lol. If I miss a day, I make up for it the next day or I use a picture from one of the other days. I am actually trying to get in the habit of just taking photos so there have been a few days when I have taken a few pictures and then I have to choose which one to use for THE photo for the day, but I like that. And the others I can use another day or print out and put in my log book. Having a choice is freeing and fun. I thought I would share the Gotta Pixel blog with you also, the link will take you to the 365 category. I found this today and was thrilled! I have not seen anyone else doing a daily photo prompt like this and having this to go to when I am clueless as to what to take for the day, I will have some inspiration, and that makes me happy. Already there are 12 photo prompts and I am going to go and read each one and add them to my list.

Also, another link for you. If you haven’t checked out the forum yet at Log Your Memory, then get clickin’ and check it out! We even have a section for people doing Project 365 with a couple of freebies so far and more to come as we go through the year. We have also started a flickr group to post our photos and that is another great resource for ideas if you are stumped on what to snap for the day. That is where you will find my P365 photos. I knew I wouldn’t do well making a separate blog for that, I can barely keep this one at a weekly post, so Flickr seemed the easiest thing. I can post a comment if I feel like about my photo so it is there when I am ready to make a page and want to remember why I took it, lol. And as soon as figure out how to post my photo stream here, it will be up.

I want to leave you with this: don’t worry about what other people are taking photos of or how awesome their pictures are. Just keep taking them, at the end of the year it won’t matter how good or bad they are, you will have a fabulous slice of your life to look back on, even if they never get onto a scrap page.

Have a great day!

One Word

I have had a hard time deciding on my word for the year. A few days ago I thought I had it and I was going to go with believe and I even wrote this as a comment on Ali’s blog:
My word for the coming year is Believe. I need to believe in myself, that I am good, that I can accomplish what I set out to do and also to believe that God will provide for me and lead me in the right direction. If something doesn’t work out how I had envisioned, to accept that, knowing that God is working in my best interests. So I need to keep remembering to believe and not doubt.

And then the past few days so much has been going through my mind and I have had a hard time deciding where to start, what I want from this new year, will things work out as I want them to, what to do, where to go, and so on. Then I thought maybe my word should be focus. I really need to learn how to do that, take things one step at a time. Make a plan, lists, whatever it takes to stop this going around and around in my mind and therefore getting nothing done.

But then I re-read what I had posted as my word and I wasn’t sure that was it. But I think I have finally found it, Faith. Which is almost the same as believe. Almost. I am turning it around and starting with the second part of what I wrote above and changing it slightly to this: Faith in God, that He will provide for me and lead me in the right direction. Faith to know that when things don’t go as I had envisioned to remember that He is working in my best interests and this is how it should be, no matter what. Any and all obstacles are just a learning process and happen for a reason, and there is something I need to learn from it. And with this word I believe the first part of what I wrote about the word believe will follow. I will have the belief in myself to do the things I want to do, I will know that I am good, and I can accomplish what I set out to do.

I also think that by having this be my one word, the focus will come. I have faith that it will.

I am also going to do project 365 again this year and this time I will finish it. Last year I kind of fizzled out around summer time. I have a folder on my hard drive with just my pictures from those days and I love going through it and looking at the pictures. I also did about 4 layouts with a couple weeks using some of those photos and it saddens me I didn’t do more with project 365. So this year I am going to do the photos and the weekly pages so that at the end of this year I can have a whole book to look back on. I know I will enjoy it so much.

I have my Memory Log Book open and ready to use starting today. This is something else that will help me to accomplish project 365 along with getting things down that I want to remember such as photos I want to take, pages I want to create, and just tidbits of the days as I go. One place to put all this…amazing! If you haven’t gotten one I really suggest that you do, you won’t regret it.

So I leave you today with my first photo in this year long project. I worked yesterday until 8 pm. I had plans to join my sister and go out and paint the town red. But then I went home to get something to eat and change and it was just so cold out and I got all nice and warm that I decided to stay in. Plus I had been up until 2 am the night before reading Angels and Demons, lol, so I was kind of tired and really had a hard time keeping my eyes open until 12 am last night. However, I did stay awake that long and celebrated the old year ending and the new year coming in with the kitties. I even put on the head bands I had purchased for the night and took a photo. And then I went to bed, lol.

My wish for everyone in the new year is love, joy, laughter, and adventure!