Oh, must I?

I hate when people talk about the way something MUST be. "Journaling on a scrapbook page is a MUST." Really? What's going to happen if I don't? What if I have nothing to say? What if looking at the picture is too painful for words and there are tears streaming down my face as I drag it onto the layout? What if I'm laughing to hard to type? Sometimes I journal on my pages. Sometimes not. Some thoughts are private! Scrapbooks are meant to be shared. There are no MUSTS in any kind of art, including scrapbooking. Just like people who will say I'm not a "real" quilter because I don't hand quilt. Guess what, asshole? I have nerve damage in my right arm. I'm left-handed, but you can't sew with just one hand. It takes both. Should I have to tell you that before you consider me a "real" quilter? No. Should I ever have to justify myself to someone else? No. Why do people feel like they get to make these kinds of stupid blanket statements like the world will come to an end if I don't jot down what's going on in this scrapbook page or if I use my wonderful Bernina to make my quilts instead of struggling to make a hand work that doesn't want to?

On that note, here is a random picture:

  

Wanna guess what they are?

A new kit!

These pages were made with Sofie's Mini Kit by One of a Kind Design Studio. I love her work! One of my best friends is a OTS for the Air Force and I've been scrapping the pictures she sends us. When she sees them she'll totally appreciate the pink kit, she LOVES pink!

Suzi Blu kits!!

The amazing Suzi Blu has made this wonderful witch kit!! Your sill come with paints and pencils and instructions - but since Suzi and I are best friends, she sent me the template to play with! How awesome is that?!? OK, here I started two witches - I worked on them simultaneously. A pretty witch and a freaky witch! Now, I know what you're thinking: "Does this crazy chick know how UGLY that green thing is? It looks like a frog!"

   

Putting her onto the canvas board does NOT make her look any less froggy...

  

And yet...somehow they both turn out pretty magical!

  

I really, really loved this. SO cute and simple, I made both of these at the same time. I did let the medium that I used to collage them on to the canvas boards dry overnight; so I did faces and gluing one day and finished them the next. Two finished paintings in two days - tell me they're not adorable! You know you love that froggy little face.

So says Liam

My son says a lot of silly or sweet or just plain funny stuff. I write a lot of it down - in my journals, here, on facebook. But in ten years, where will all of that stuff be? So I'm starting this series of "Liam says" pages. I'm kind of excited about it, I think they're going to be really cute!

These pages are all made with "Beautiful Me" by Sugar Pie Scraps. I really like the colors of this kit.

When September Ends

A cute kit from Un-leashed-ed Scraps:

In Minnesota there are a LOT of things to do in the fall: pick apples, corn and/or hay bale mazes, the Renaissance Festival. In Florida there's nothing. Of course, there WAS no fall in Florida, but still! Couldn't there have been a place to pick oranges or something? MN is fun!

This girl was an accident. Or she was drawn over an accident. However you wanna look at it. I went to Kelly's on the same day she had a very important phone call she'd been waiting for. So I let myself in and peeked out the back door and she was sitting out on the porch on the phone. Miraculously, the dogs didn't bark (they were koutside with her and didn't notice me) so I got some water and sat in the mitchen (so if the dogs looked in they wouldn't see me) and drew a REALLY pretty girl. Just pencil on the plain page but SO pretty. 

This is not her. My thought was I brayer white over her and add some strength to the page with the paint. I should have used a brush because the brayer puts paint on thicker than I would have and it COMPLETELY covered her. Cheap, white craft paint. Usually you can SEE THROUGH that stuff. Not this time. That paint was NOT messing around. So I was skarting with my peeps last night and I made her:

And that:

Oh, well. Sometimes things just don't work out they way you want them to!!

Doodles...

These are those pages that are difficult to spot doodling on and marking up and playing with. Every little doodle makes a difference, it's surprising. These pages were pretty ugly and I already moved on to the next pages but I came back and drew this little face peeking out and look how cute she is with the stars hiding in her hair.

This one has even more subtle things that made a big difference. The pages are mostly blue, obviously. But you see the little blue swirly thing? That's a mask, with alcohol ink sprayed over it. It's super fun and you can't even tell where the alcohol ink and paint merge.

Here's the spread. Not amazing, but just something to do while waiting for Liam to get off the bus. Something to "waste" my time with instead of TV. It makes me happy.