One Little Word Blog Hop 2012 Edition begins 2/1/12 at 11am ET

Title page

JOY

Hello!  Welcome to my blog.  I am very excited to be participating again this year in Ali Edwards' One Little Word(OLW) and Margie's OLW Blog Hop.    I can already tell that my second year is going to be a very different experience and that I've grown (personally and artistically) from the first year.  The word JOY chose me this year.  Its been hanging around me for several months and popping up almost every where I look.  I'm looking forward to finding & enjoying the JOY present in everyday life - the small and not so small moments that can be easily missed in our busy lives.  At this stage in my life I am not where I planned or expected to be & there are many things I can't change.  So rather than feeling fustrated or unhappy (been there, done that) I am looking for the JOY that is in my life.  And the JOY that I can invite into my life.  On to my project for this month.....

I want to start off by letting you know that the piece looks better in person than in the photos.  The sun had been shining aIl day here until I got home from work!  So I lost my natural light for the photo taking.  Also the Prisma glitter looks slightly yellow rather than silver in some of the photos because of my lighting.  Because of all the glitter I did not want to put the piece in my scanner.  On to the details of my creation....

I started preparing my "canvases" to go into the 9 pocket page when I decided to go in a slightly different direction.  I took my 9 pieces of cardstock, chipboard and paper and adhered them to a piece of white cardstock.  My color choices for last year were red, black, white and gold to go with my red We R Memory Keepers 8 1/2" x 11" 3 ring album.  This year I changed it a little going with red, white and silver.  I was so happy with the collage at this point it was amazing!  I took Claudine Hellmuth's Composition for Collage class at Big Picture Classes last year and decided to continue working on this as a grid collage piece.  In the middle rectangle (white paper with red dots) I did add some Close To My Heart's Liquid Glass to each dot for a dimensional effect.

I used Claudine Hellmuth's Studio acrylic paint to cover my chipboard letter pieces and then sprinkled the letters with Prisma Glitter (also from Close To My Heart) while the paint was still wet.  I love how creamy and smooth Claudine's paint is and it covers easily and quickly.  Dries fast too!

I then added my defintion, quote and  invitation to the piece.

For the synonyms I typed them out in Word, printed them on white cardstock and cut them out.  At first I was just going to add them to the piece the same way I did the definition, invitation and quote. 



Synonyms and definition



Synonyms & quote



Synonyms and invitation

Then I saw these metal rimmed circle tags in my stash and decided to use those. I had some silver ribbon I added and then I used silver stickles to the rim to continue the glittery look on the tags.  After I added the synonyms to the inside part of the tags I used a little glue on the white part of the tag and sprinkled a little more Prisma glitter on them.  And here's the finished piece....

I'm pIacing my collage in a frame to hang on the wall in my studio as I feel such JOY just looking at this. I encourage you to make your own grid collage with your word.  As I have time I'll recreate this in my 9 pocket page protector. 

You most likely got here from Jill's blog so your next stop will be Jenn's blog at

www.studiojenn.blogspot.com

Here is the full list of all 46 blog hop participants for you to visit.  I know I'll have to work on visiting all these talented ladies over the next few days. 

Margie             http://xnomads.typepad.com/

Sharyn            www.lavieenchic.com           

Jill                   http://jillconyers.com/

Lynn                www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Jenn                www.studiojenn.blogspot.com

Carmen            http://www.carmenpaulsorthner.com/

Marilee            http://rose-brier.blogspot.com      

Kristina            http://hrinspirationfromthe403.blogspot.com/

Cindy C            http://www.cynthiacrysdale.com/

Kelly                 http://mindingmynest.com

Cheri                 http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Amanda            http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

Cindy                http://seriousplay.typepad.com/

Brooke              http://www.everysnapshot.com/

Naomi               http://www.poeticaperture.com/

Melissa             http://www.smudgetime.com/

Karen                http://breathenowsmile.blogspot.com/

Melissa S          http://blog.mshanhun.com

Devon                http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com

Donna                http://holimess.blogspot.com/

Dawn                 sunshineandcreativity.com

Katrina               http://www.katrinasimeck.com/

Sam                   http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/

Monica               http://scrapinspired.com/

Kimberlee           http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com

Missus W           http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/

Kaylea                http://www.myscrappylife.com/

Nikki                   Www.inkyart.com.au

Erin                     http://erinsparkes.typepad.com/optimstic-fascination/

Jo                        www.curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com

Coley                   http://coleybelle.blogspot.com/2012/01/focus-word-for-2012.html

Beth                     http://www.thesingularlyordinary.blogspot.com/

Veronica               www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Jamie                    http://jmpgirl.blogspot.com/

Monica B              http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/

Lisa                http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog

Rebekah         http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/

Jan                 http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com

Veronica               http://www.veronicanorris.typepad.com/

Cate                      www.lifebehindthepurpledoor.com

Stephanie              www.scrapworthylives.com

Orange Gearle        http://orangegearle.blogspot.com

Tere                 http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

Junelle             http://yesandamenblog.blogspot.com/ 

Ruth                 http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com

Becky              http://www.becky-handforth.blogspot.com/

Thanks for visiting!  Please leave a comment if you can - I love them!  If you want to follow my/our progress through the year sign up to follow my blog.  I plan on sharing projects from various Big Picture Classes including Reclaiming My Time, Project Life, Move More, Eat Well, Library of Memories/Finding Photo Freedom, Twelve, and  the Curious Scapbooker's Field Guide as well as layouts for my various albums. Other projects I hope to work on this year include doing a photo tray, a Wendy Vecchi type project and a Tim Holtz configurations piece. Hope to see you soon.