Crafted Minutes Create {Altered Journal}

Five minutes here and there for some creative, inky fun are not exactly conducive to finishing fast, but the process is still full o' fun and smile worthy playtime!

I started with a composition book and shirt that my daughter has outgrown, then pulled supplies from there.  Three patterned papers, Tim Holtz stamps, and I broke out an unopened pack of Tim's masks.

Tim's sentiment stamps are so fabulous (I just LOVE them!) that I couldn't use only one.  So, I collage stamped all of the stamps in his Just Thoughts set on the mini polka patterned paper.

If you've read my blog for awhile, you might have noticed that I really enjoy a clean look, love my cardstock, don't use a lot of patterned paper (though I collect it! lol), and rarely ever collage (I think I've only collaged something once on here).  But, I am happy with how this came out! :>

I definitely gave myself my stamper's manicure for this project, as I inked the edges of my background paper, painted & inked (with white acrylic paint, white pigment ink, pink dye ink) the binding, used multiple, alternating layers of white acrylic paint & pink dye ink over the Tim Holtz "K" mask, and once the mask was removed, the open area was filled with multiple layers of dimensional adhesive.  Add in Fabri-Tac, Modge Podge, white glue, and I had sticky, inky, painty hands.  But, I like that.  It means I found time to play!

I cut out a couple of the hearts on my Princess' old shirt, as well as a rectangle, which I used the reverse side of.  Some clouds were detail cut from patterned paper and hand cut scallops from the large glittered polka paper made for a couple of borders. 

One last detail that isn't showing on camera, but does in real life is the extra sparkle added to the journal's front.  Using a clear Spica glitter pen, I traced clouds, the polkas on two clouds, and certain words in the collage stamping that I wanted to emphasize.  Sorry I couldn't get the camera to pick it up, but it does balance out the sparkle on the large polkas.

There is a ton of that shirt left, so I will save it for when I eventually get to scrapping some pages during the shirt's time in my wee girl's life.  I also have the cutest pair of jeans, with sweetly colored & shaped buttons, lining the front pockets, that I'm holding on to for a scrapbook page or two of her.

Do you do that?  Do you save a favorite piece of clothing (kidlets' or your own) for a creative project?

I'm playing along with some creative peeps today!  Come visit some of the linkups...I'll bet you'll be inspired.  I'm off to see some inspiration too!! :>

                

Supplies:

Paper:  Sky's the Limit - Follow the Cloud - My Little Shoebox;  Baby Girl Dots (mini polkas) - My Mind's Eye;  AnimalCrackers 12x12 Ella Glittered Dot - Making Memories

Paint - White - Delta Ceramcoat & Adirondack Paint Dabber

Ink - Positively Pink Classic (Dye), White Craft (pigment) - Stampin' Up!

Masks - "K" from Alpha set - Tim Holtz, idea-ology

Stamps - Just Thoughts - Tim Holtz for Stamper's Anonymous

Adhesive - Fabri-Tac, Modge Podge, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

Ribbon - Pink Ruffled Grosgrain - Stampin' Up!

Other - Composition Book - Target (wait for clearance after Back to School...30cents!); Fabric/Shirt - Old Navy

'Mater Moment

Our garden is growing with gusto and Hubby & I enjoyed the first tomato of the season, off the organic vine. 

Our sweet boy got so excited when he saw the first tomato turn red, that he promptly picked it....probably a couple of days early.  No worries, it ripened up the rest of the way on the counter.  Hubby sliced it up, passed around the sweetest tasters for all of us to try, and then made us BLTs for lunch with the rest of it.  Would you believe that was my very first BLT?!

Here's another question for you, what kind of tomato is this?!  We have no idea.  Its shaped like a heart, super red, sweet, and this one is almost, but not quite, the size of a tennis ball.  The vine is between four and five feet tall (its hard to tell because after it grew out the top of the tomato cage, it started following along the low 'fence' we have around the garden to keep the cats & critters out of it).  Whatever it is, its delish and producing like crazy.  Now, we're just waiting for more to turn red!

Oh yea....as spoiled as I am to be able to go outside to take pics most of the time, there is one challenging aspect...our kitty cat, Bonnie.  Bonnie, meet Tomato.  I'm sure she was mighty disappointed that what I had brought out was a treat for us and not her!

Does anyone have a tasty tomato recipe they want to share?  Please do!  It looks like we're going to have quite a bit this summer to slice, dice, and taste. :>

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If you were coming here, looking for something creative....say, that composition book that I said I started (in my last post)?!  It will be going up on Tuesday or Wednesday, so please do come back.  I think its coming out pretty cute! :>

Hula, Happy Dance, & Disney Playdate

Happy Friday!    

I know.  I just said Friday.  But, I still have Thursday on my mind, rattling on the front burner, throwing up a vivid picture show to entertain me, and sending little electrical pulses across my face, to make me smile!

Thursdays are busy run around, drive all over days...usually.  Thursdays are dance class days for wee girl.  For the summer, they are continuing the ballet, tap, and rhythm instruments they were learning all spring and now they are learning the hula as well.....all those little girls in their leotards, tights, ballet slippers and grass skirts are just too precious for words!

This Thursday, however, after my sweet boy & I dropped wee girl off at Grammie's (its a Grammie & wee girl weekly activity), we headed out for a special playdate of our own.  To back up just a stitch, before we left, he packed his lunch. 

Let me say that again, he packed his own lunch.  He made his own GF/CF ham sandwich, gathered GF/CF pretzels, carrots, and a pickle & put them all in his school lunch box with an ice pack (to keep his preservative free ham cold!).  He packed his OWN lunch!  Mama was doing a Happy Dance, let me tell you!!

While we drove to our playdate, my sweet-made-his-own-lunch-boy ate that self made lunch (more like inhaled it!).  Why did he need to eat his lunch in the car??  We were headed to the theater to see Toy Story 3!!  He was bubbling with excitement upon arrival and I was wishing I had Elastigirl arms to keep us near each other (I just don't bounce and stretch like excited sweet boy does). 

Both of us enjoyed the movie, but I was very glad that sweet girl wasn't with us.  I think she would have been scared.  (In fact, we watched a little girl clinging to her daddy's neck being carried out at the very point that I thought would be too much for wee girl.)  Even my sweet boy, who wasn't afraid, had a vast array of questions as to why the mean character (won't say more than that for those that haven't seen it) was so mean.  But, it definitely gave us lots to talk about, in a good way.

I went looking for a composition book in my stacks o' stuff to alter and came  up with one I had already painted the first coat on sometime ago. So, I've painted the remaining coats to cover it and have the fabric I want to cut up for an embellie on it.  My crafty crystal ball sees me rummaging through my papers and then finishing it this weekend.  And that canvas that has been staring at me, giving me the evil eye, will be quite happy (I hope) when I put another couple layers of paint on it!

What's in store for you this weekend?  I'd love for you to come share! :>

New Friend Fridays

I've had a lot of fun hopping around blogland this week.  Coming across some great new blogs & sites, connecting with new peeps on Twitter (I'm a newbie on Twitter and am surprisingly, enjoying it...come say 'hi'!), gaining inspiration and enjoying a lot of laughter (there are some really funny & witty women out there!).  While doing the blogland dance, I came across a new hop:


 
The Girl Creative and Trendy Treehouse have teamed up for this hop, so click on the button, find some new blogs to enjoy, and meet some new peeps.  I plan to! :>

Revisiting Bedrock

I was going through some old MS Word files and came across the bit below.  Our refrigerator had gone out three years ago (right after we had stocked it no less!) and living out of a cooler made me a bit crazy, I admit.  My girlfriends are used to me coping with stress through writing.  Sometimes, I just rattle off a novel's worth in an email to them (oh their poor exhausted eyes!) and sometimes, I let the zaniness of the stress evolve into something else....a little like this:

"Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Waiting in Bedrock

Update from Bedrock:

The neighbors can hear the screams of the mad woman, she calls out, "Yabbadabbadoooooo!!!" Upon investigating, they learn that her trip to the future where she brought back this contraption called a refrigerator that keeps things cold all the time and even turns other things hard, cold, and like ice is nothing but a sham.

So distraught is she over having to live like the rest of us for two whole weeks now. She thought that she could live like what she called "normal people" live like in that future she visited. Her daughter never wore her hair high on her head anymore, her son stopped banging everything, and even more blasphemous, her husband stopped peddling his car to work everyday.....he drove something with an "engine" in it and his feet never touched the ground....can you believe it?

And while her neighbors think she has turned a corner towards madness, never to return, this woman says she has sent word to this future for help to fix her refrigerator. Neighbors anxiously awaited this futureboy last Saturday, but he was never to be seen. Is he a figment of this woman's imagination? Will her magic refrigerator ever make food cold again? Will there be ice in Bedrock in the heat of summer? Will this mad woman come to her senses?

Stay tuned to find out!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Still Waiting in Bedrock

The mad woman's refrigerator still does not work. Neither word nor repairperson from the future ever came last night. The people who control the time machine claim that he will make an appearance tomorrow. The mad woman and Bedrock citizens alike, all have great doubt. After spending several hours attempting to get actual results again, she is exhausted, has quite a headache and is now just waiting, yet again, for future boy to actually make that appearance tomorrow. Complaints are being registered everywhere she can think of. Bedrock citizens are concerned that if this contraption does not make her food cold and produce ice soon, Bedrock's men in white coats may have to come knocking on her door. Stay tuned to see if this woman's sanity and refrigerator can be saved."

After a month had passed, I had called just about every customer service rep in the company who we'd paid the service protection contract to when we bought the fridge....every day, spoken with supervisors and the supervisors' supervisors, almost a half dozen appointments that nobody showed up for or bothered to call to cancel, wrong parts had been ordered, sent back, and ordered again, our refrigerator was finally fixed.  And I tucked my mad woman from Bedrock away in the bits & chips of the computer.

Thankfully, all this time later, while I do remember the exasperation very well, I can now simply get a chuckle at where my mind travelled to.

Where does your mind travel to when life or appliances stress your nerves?