Beautiful Girl of Mine

My daughter, Jillian, is an amazing artist.  She is constantly sketching and drawing, creating with polymer clay or origami-ish paper sculptures.  It has ben a pleasure to  see her explore different media in her art class elective in this first year of high school.  Not many of the projects make there way home as the class collection fills every bit of wall space in the school studio, so I was so giddy when she shared a little tidbit with me recently.

The challenge was to create a face as a contour line drawing, meaning drawn from one continuous line, trying not to trace back over any parts.  My immediate reaction was, "Oh!  This is beautiful!" I followed the line in awe; I studied the brilliance of the abstract suggestion of hair, the use of negative space.  I pulled back my gaze to take in the piece as a whole again, and was struck with the realization, "Oh!  This is YOU!"

"Yeah," she said with a soft chuckle.  Then she explained that the drawing was just Part 1 of the project.  Once the students created a contour line drawing of their visage, they were given a length of copper wire to bend and curve following the lines they'd drawn.

This is part of the collection now hanging in the front lobby of the school.  I loved looking at all the different faces, seeing where each person decided to start and end their sculpture.   Here's a closer look at my beautiful girl!

Thank you for visiting!

Toot-Toot! (That's My Horn)

Ok, I've got some NEWS!  You know that Reese's Peanut Butter Cup layout I made as part of a challenge from my local scrapbook store?

Well, that "challenge" was actually a little bigger than a just- for-kicks-maybe-I-could-win-a-button-for-my-blog-or-some-cute-paper-to-play-with kind of contest.  I was afraid to admit that I was really applying to be on Remember When's Design Team.  But, guess what!  I was selected!  I made the team!

Everyone, quick!  Cabbage Patch!  Chant with me!  

"Go, Lisa!  Go, Lisa!  Go, Lisa!  Go, Lisa!"

Thanks, James!  You sure know how to party!  

  I'm sure I'll be visiting http://www.jamesvandermemes.com/ in the future for more of you!

I can't tell you how excited I am!  We had our first team meeting yesterday, April 1st.  April FOOL's Day.    I had a little pit in my stomach that I was going to show up at the designated time and be humiliated. Punk'd scrappy style.  The part of my application where I admitted to loathing glitter?  That could have been used against me in the most craft-nightmare-ish way.  {{Shudder!}}

Whew!  It has not a horrible trick!  Instead, I found a lovely group of women, a smaller group than I imagined, meaning that my being a part of it is even more humbling.  Tonya, the store owner is fun, gracious, and a talented baker.  And Stephanie, the design team coordinator, is sweet  and perfectly organized, with infectious vision and motivation.  I am so looking forward to getting to know everyone as we work together to inspire others and stretch our creativity!  

Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity!  I'll be sure to post my Remember When creations here, and you can also check out work done by the other team members at www.rememberwhenscrap.blogspot.com and on Remember When's Facebook page.  "Like!" 

An Homage to H.B. Reese

Who is H.B. Reese?  WHO IS H.B. REESE???  Just the most brilliant confectioner of the 20th Century, or, dare I say, of ALL TIME!!  Harry Burnett Reese,  the inventor of the famed Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!  My hero!  My... I'm not afraid to say it aloud...my LOVE!

In following a creativity prompt issued by my local scrapbooking store I was pondering the phrase, "My favorite..."  Well, I am a lover of a lot of things.  Many genres of music co-habitate my iPod.  When I speak of books or movies, my favorites are usually relegated to a somewhat amorphous "top 5".  I thought about my favorite season, holiday, time of day, place to relax, my favorite shoes, jeans, sweater.  I even considered putting all the bickering to an end and finally picking a favorite child.  (Just kidding.  They don't bicker about it.  They know which one I like best.  Again, just kidding!)

Then I went a little further back in my personal history.  What has been a long standing, unchallenged, steadfast in my list of favorite things?  It came down to two things:  the song "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus, or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  With no pictures to document my gettin' down wif da funk, I decided an homage to Mr. Reese would make a lovely scrapbook page.

Papers: Cocoa Daisy January and February 2012 kits; Tape: Amy Tangerine and K&Company Smash;
Embellishments: Sassafras/Cocoa Daisy and handmade by me! ;)

Oh, and I'd better get this disclaimer out in the open right away:

Many Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were harmed/consumed
in the making of this layout.

I had such a blast creating embellishments for this.  I colored the tag with Distress Inks, wrapped a candy wrapper around it and used a paper piercing tool to poke around the Reese's logo.  Then I used brown embroidery thread to stitch it, and added a hand cut peanut butter cup silhouette to complete my title.

This Reese's wrapper rose was a bit of a challenge, as the paper is wax coated and even my heavy duty double-sided tape wouldn't stick to it in order to coil around the petals.  Tombow Mono liquid adhesive did the trick for me.  The leaves were easy to form from mini Reese's foils, and the little flowers there were pretty simple to create.

I painted a couple bottle caps to mimic the brown wrappers, hammering the edges out a bit to widen them up, and glued in a paper cut out to coordinate with the Sassafras patchwork flowers.

I have a specific way of eating a regular sized Reese's.  The third bite (step 4) is pivotal to proper enjoyment, getting as close to that ridged edge while maintaining the integrity of the curve is crucial.  More often than not there is breakage.  Thankfully, there are two tries per package. (And Von's is currently running a sale, Buy 2 Get 2 Free.  They may still have some in stock.  Please refer to above disclaimer.)

I took photos of each step, and used PhotoScape to turn them into pencil drawings.

So there you have it!  A page about one of my favorite things!  And, as luck would have it, the day I finished this layout, Challenge Me Happy posted their latest which happens to be "Make Your Own Embellishment"!  Perfect!  So happy to be playing along! :)

Thank you for visiting!

Stamp Carving Frenzy

I have a new crafty hobby/pastime!  Carving my own rubber stamps!  I have been taking an online class, Stamp Carving 101, from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, and I. Am. Hooked!  It is a self-paced class that you can join anytime, so if you are interested, you can check it out here.

Here is a sampling of some stamps I've made and some tags I created from them.

And, finally, here is a layout I made that incorporated a few of them, including heavy use of that alphabet set:

Thanks for visiting!  I'm still carving away, so will share more at a later date!

Local Girl Triumphs

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Laugh if you must.  I've lived in the Los Angeles area for almost 18 years.  And the first three years I had a job that required me to drive to a lot of different areas.  I am really good at driving from A to B.  But if I have to get from B to C, it'd be best for me if I drove back to A and then headed out to C.  I'm a homing pigeon of sorts, I guess.  Also, my A point in those days was the LAPD Crime Lab, so if you need any directions, I'll have to send you there for a layover before heading you out to your final destination.  Except, now that I think about it, they have since relocated the Crime Lab.  So, unless they've also moved the duck slaughtering facility that was next door to the lab :-(  , and Chinatown adjacent, you're better off asking somebody else for directions. 

Which is why this seemingly trivial event is really a notable achievement for me, and I felt kinda like a local for the first time. 

Here's the story:

 

And here are those girls!  My daughter, Jillian, is there in the middle,

dressed as a favorite character, Lichtenstein, from the anime Hetalia.

It really IS the little things! 

Thank you for sharing in this triumph with me! ♥

Ich Liebe Dich, Auch!

"Ich liebe dich, auch!" means "I love you, too!" in German.  And today I am "liebe-dich-auch-ing" Miae of Making Scrap Up,  who has basically said she loves me by bestowing upon me the great honor of a blog award! 

"Liebster" is a German word meaning dearest, beloved or favorite, and the Liebster Award is sort of a chain letter among bloggers that's intended to showcase exceptional up-and-coming blogs (typically, those with 200 or fewer followers).  There's no evaluation committee or formal award process for the Liebster, but in a way it's even nicer - it's recognition that a peer has noticed and appreciated your hard work.

Here are the rules:

Choose 5 up and coming blogs of fewer than 200 followers to award the Liebster to.

Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

Post the award on your blog.  Link back to the blogs you have given the Liebster to so everyone else can pay them a visit.

And now I am sharing and passing on the award to five wonderful blogs that I am sure you will want to stop by for a visit:

Alisa     http://doucette.typepad.com/

Jenny    http://startingoverstudio.blogspot.com/

Debbie     http://scraphappyvalley.blogspot.com/

Kerry     http://www.socksandscrapbooks.blogspot.com/

and last, but not least,

Lis     http://lifeinsegments.blogspot.com/

The common thread that ties these blogs together (besides me liking them!) is that they are very personal.  I hope you will enjoy visiting them, too!  Thank you again, Miae, for your bloggy love and encouragement! 

Thank You, Scrap Fairy!

I'm a bad person.  And it's NOT my mom's fault.  She raised me right; I know what good manners are.  But, I rarely send thank you notes.  Even though writing them was an essential part of my upbringing.

I know:  I'M HORRIBLE!

I am not ungrateful, however.  I remember giving my husband an earful when we were dating for not saying thank you to someone.  His response, "I exude appreciation."  My jaw dropped open--the NERVE!  And yet, here I am twenty-plus years into that relationship, not sending thank you notes.  His lack of articulated acknowledgment is by no means his convention, and I don't believe this is a practice I've adopted, so much as another I've abandoned. (He truly is one of the kindest people I've ever known.)

Well, something happened.  I received a HUGE, HUGE gift: a box of scrappy goodness that you can't even begin to imagine!!  TWENTY-FOUR POUNDS of beautiful papers (Prima, Authentique, Echo Park, Websters, s.e.i), alphas, embellishments, flowers, bling, pearls, and dies.  The DIES!  So many Nestabilities for a girl who had zero!  Whoa!  The gift was from my lovely Mother-in-Law and her very generous friend, the Scrap Fairy.  The thing is, I don't have direct contact with the Scrap Fairy, so there was no phone call to make, or email to send, or visible means of exuding my immense appreciation with a hug or even a knowing glance.  

It would have to be a card.

So, there they are.  A card for each, my Mother-in-Law and the Scrap Fairy.  I truly enjoyed making them and expressing my gratitude in them.  And I know I need to get back into the practice and habit--the civilized and proper etiquette--of sending Thank You notes. 

THANK YOU for visiting!  I am exuding appreciation! ;)