As you might remember I am taking May Flaum's BPC class The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide.  I am loving her class and having a lot of fun trying all the different techniques and products.  On the 2 tags shown here I'm using molding paste for the first time.  The top tag is for one of my grandson, Owen's, layouts.  I used so many different products I can't remember them all or what colors I used.  I used an alphabet stencil that I've had for a very long time and applied the molding paste covering the openings fairly thick.  I had already covered the tag with molding paste and left it thicker along the edges.  It started out more blue but I felt it was too light and then it ended up purplish blue.  I wish I had stopped when the outside of the letters still had the white of the molding paste still showing - there was a lot of contrast and I think the letters stood out more.  I added the metal piece - its actually a snap - I had to use my Crop A Dile to make a hole large enough for it.  I think I'm going to go back and use May's directions to color this as well.
For the "Believe" tag I used The Crafter's Workshop template (Harlequin) to create the first layer.  I used both Distress Ink and acrylic paint on this.  I also used Stickles to give it a little sparkle. Tomorrow is the beginning of Week 8 (of 12 weeks) so I can't wait to see what else May has in store for us!

I'm slowly finishing up some layouts I've been working on for awhile.

This is the second version of the "I Love You" layout.  Both have the same photo of Owen pointing  at the camera.  The title comes from his Mom.  I used the same Crafter's Workshop template as the previous layout but did the stenciling a little different.  I love working with paint but need to try misting with the stencils next and also using Distress Inks.
In case you are wondering I do two layouts of the same photos as I'm creating two albums of Owen's first year - one for him & one for me.  The second photo shows the dimension I created when I stacked the hearts.  For the hearts I started with white cardstock, embossed them with tiny hearts and then used Distress Ink to color them.  Which "I Love You" layout do you like best?

Owen's first visit to Santa Claus and 2 different layouts.  One of the best things about doing different layouts with the same photo is being able to try different things and see if you like the results.  Do you ever create 2 layouts with the same photos?

I had a lot of fun with this 2 page layout.  I matted the photos and used a white pen to add faux stitching around the mats to match the "stitching" already in the paper.

Cailan caught Owen crawling for this series of photos.

Close-ups of the two page layout.

I created this layout today for my Field Guide for Curious Scrapbooker's class with May Flaum over at BPC.

I am really loving May's class.  Its not just techniques but process and she explains why she does/doesn't do something.  I'm probably learning more in her class than any other class except for Stacy Julian's Finding

Photo Freedom class.  If you wish to follow May her blog address is

www.mayflaum.com  

She has regular giveaways.  She just emailed me that I won a Simon Says Scrapbook kit!! How cool is that?

This is another photo of Owen shortly before his first birthday.  Miss him like crazy!

The cardstock is from Close To My Heart (outdoor denim, I think, is the color).  I used Tim Holtz's Paint Dabber (Picket Fence) with The Crafter's Workshop Template (Trendy Bracket) to create the "frame"

for Owen's photo.  The "i" and "you" chipboard pieces are also from Close To My Heart.  My

original intention was to paint them but I liked how they looked on the page just plain.  The

heart is embossed with Close To My Heart embossing powder using an old Creative Memories

template.  That shows how long I have been scrapping since we use to use these templates to draw

shapes on our photos and then cut them out!!  I then added a little banner over the heart using my

Brother p-touch label maker.

Have you had a crafty St. Patrick's Day?

Second Floor Challenge

If you're interested in taking your art to a new level or just trying something out of your comfort zone, head over to Julie Balzer Fei-Fan's blog  http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/ to get started with the Second Floor Challenge!  It's a year long challege with prompts at different times to help inspire you. It starts today so go check it out!   Let me know if you plan to participate! 
I haven't been creating much lately as I'm still trying to get my photos sorted again in Picasa.  With my computer problems 2008 and 2009 photos have completely disappeared from Picasa although 2004, 2005 are there along with 2010 and 2011.  I haven't found any rhyme or reason as to why those groups of photos are missing.  Fortunately I have those two years on CD's but I'm wondering what might be missing that I haven't discovered yet.  This is going to take some time to straighten up so I've decided to work from Jan 2012 and keep up with that and as time allows go back and get the other years sorted out and tagged again.  Kind of discouraging though after all that work.  I'm hoping that I'll be spending a good part of my weekend in my art room although with temperatures approaching the 70's and sunshine predicted I may have to take occasional breaks outside!  Drying time will be short - might have to do some painting and spraying!  What are your crafty plans?

I'm back....I think....

Hello to my friends in blogland (is that a word?)!  I'm sorry that I've been absent from my blog for so long.  Its been a pretty crazy time the last 3-4 weeks.  First my laptop crashed and it spent time with the Geek Squad.  They were able to save most of my stuff (no I didn't have a good back-up) and put it on a new laptop that I purchased.  So old laptop is now my husband's.  He doesn't do too much on the computer other than email and watching for photos/videos of our grandson on FB.  I'm still working on getting my new laptop where I want it.  Still haven't installed the printer software and just realized I need to download Skype.  Tried to do that this morning without much success.  Its suprising how much time this all takes not to mention the fustration quotient when things don't work like they are suppose to!  My photos and files in Picasa are still a mess - that's going to be a lengthy project and I'm trying to keep from getting too upset about that.  Also need to decide on a back-up plan and decide what I think will work for me.  In the middle of all the laptop angst we put a bid on a house, put our house on the market and then walked away from a counterbid.  I've been cleaning out closets and cupboards, putting photos away, cleaning and doing all the things the "house staging" people on HGTV have said.  I've also been trying to keep up with all the classes I'm doing this quarter/year.  I've only done a few layouts for Twelve but I've done well with my stories I want to tell lists so I'm happy with that.  I'll get to the layouts when I can.  Move More, Eat Well is not going very well for me - I'm hoping that things will settle down and I can get fully engaged in this class.  Project Life - I'm keeping up with this but only because I'm not taking a large number of photos.  Doing a 2 page spread for every couple of weeks lately.  A little more journaling than usual.  One Little Word projects need some catching up.  Seeing a theme here?  The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide is going pretty well.  Have a few videos to watch but I'm spending a little time each day playing with the different mediums so that makes me happy!

I really want to take Tim Holtz's new online class and probably will sign up for it.  Its a self paced class so I can work at my own pace which right now is SLOW!  For more information on Tim's class go here
http://www.onlinecardclasses.com/timholtz/class-info/

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is part of this class 21 Secrets: An Art Journal Playground and I'm thinking of signing up for this as well.  Here is the description from Julie's blog  http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/
"21 SECRETS is an online, self guided, Art Journaling workshop that runs for a total of nine months where Art Journalers receive the opportunity to dive into different techniques, methods, and approaches to Art Journaling from a family of diverse, passionate, professional Artists. Each participant is able to choose which order of the 21 classes they take and have an active online community to share and grow with. All information including, pdf's, videos, and supportive text and photos are always available and teachers are present in a timely fashion to answer questions and share their comments" 
It begins April 1st and costs $59. 

So what classes are you doing?  What projects are you working on?  How are they going?  What's keeping you out of your craft/art room/studio?