Home Sweet Home

I come from a military family and have spent most of my life moving from one place to the next. Sometimes it is sad to leave a place you've grown to love or some wonderful friends you've made, but it's always exciting to look forward to learning about the new location.

One thing about the move, though, is that I've never had to make it alone. As we all look forward to the great American holiday weekend coming up, let me tell you about a true American hero- my Daughter-in-law.

Her husband is deployed to Afghanistan and she recently got orders to move into quarters on Camp Lejeune. With only the help of two preschool boys and one very large dog, Jenny oversaw the move virtually by herself. Now if you have not moved very often, you may not realize what this entails. There is that small amount of time where you are in limbo with the old house packed up and the new house still empty, meanwhile living out of suitcases while you wait for the things to be picked up and delivered. There are the kids to feed, the dog to walk and of course, the old house must be scrubbed spotless if you want your deposit back. Don't forget to change your address on all your correspondence and newspaper subscriptions, or turn off the electric, water, and garbage. It's just too much for one person to do - never mind with the kids and the dog and worrying about your loved one's safety on a daily basis.

But she managed it and let the boys have some fun in all the boxes as she got it all unpacked and the boxes sent back to the moving company. I know the house will feel cozier when her husband comes home again. But for now - this is where my American Hero lives, this is her Home Sweet Home.

Good Times!

I've made a page for the Pile It On Challenge (http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/) three weeks in a row now. The challenge is to pile on as many challenges as you like in one layout. It gives me a lot of inspiration to work this way and it is something I have been doing for some time, so I really love this site. For this week the requirement was to use purple, as well as fulfill at least one other challenge.

In addition to using the purple color for Pile It On, I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers ( http://creativescrappers.blogspot.com/2009/06/design-team-call.html) as well as using the word 'Good' in the title as per One Little Word's challenge (http://onelittleword.typepad.com/olw/).

I thought this photo of me in my purple jumpsuit circa 1977 was perfect for this challenge. Plus I really like using these old pictures of myself, well - because I was so much hotter then! ha ha.

I handmade the little record albums. I think they were important to the LO for the time frame that I was scrapping. I also made the balloons out of some scraps of vellum with silver stickles for the string.

Here is a list of my other supplies.

Bazzill cardstock in black, red and some purples

DCWV Posies Glitter Print

Liquid Pearls - Pewter

Color Box Pigment Brush Pad - Silver

K.Onishi Japan Lace Decore Seal

Catch a Wave!

I made this LO for a number of challenges:
1. I used a sketch over at Dixie Pieces
2. I used 2 ribbons plus combined other challenges for Pile It On Challenge
3. I used a picture of one of the guys in my life for Tami's Love Our Guys challenge over at Back Porch Memories.
4. I used a photo of someone in sunglasses for Fablady's Cool Shades Challenge over at sb.com

Want to know how to do this journaling? It is soooo easy. Here is a quick tutorial:
1. Gather your supplies. You will need a piece of scrap paper, a pencil, a white eraser, a ruler and a gel pen.

2. Measure how much room you have on your LO for your journaling, and on a peice of scrap paper, draw a box that size.

3. Begin with pencil. Drawing freehand, draw some slighly wavy lines in the box. Don't be too fussy about how it looks. The beauty is in the randomness of the pattern.

4. Now print your journaling in capital letters. Each letter should touch the top line and the bottom line. Don't begin the first letter of each new line directly beneath the one above. The letters need to be staggered a bit so that you can read them. This will give you a guide as to how much wording will fit in the space you have. For example, you will need to draw 6 lines, for 5 lines of journaling.

5, Once you have an idea of the way it will look, draw your lines lightly in pencil on your orginal journaling block, or directly on your LO as I did in the example above.

6. Now go over all the pencil lines with the gel pen. If your pencil lines show through, erase them gently with a white eraser. Here is how mine looked before I erased the lines.

Now your journaling is a work of handmade art that hadds a special touch to your page! Here is another example of how great this journaling style looks.

Sunset

June Sketch Entries

There were some beautiful entries in the June Sketch Challenge but, this month, only one winner! Drum roll please ...

Congratulations Denny!

Send me a message with your address and I'll send you an RAK from Japan.
Thanks to everyone who played along and look for my next sketch challenge coming in July!

Memories Always - Forever

Do you have a passion for scrapbooking? I know you do! There is a great new site right here on the World Wide Web where you can share your passion, make new friends and find tons - yes tons!- of inspiration.
Please come join us. You are going to love it here!

Artists collaborating for a good cause.

I read over at Tim Holtz blog that he designed a charm that would be part of an art doll - a beautiful collaboration of many artists - to raise money for The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. 100% of the profit goes to the OCRF in support of their mission to help ovarian cancer patients and their loved ones. Take a look at the beautiful final creation here and consider a donation. Raffle tickets sell for only $5 each and the drawing is to be held in September.
http://www.scrapbookroyalty.com/tiesthatbind.html
What a wonderful cause to raise money for cancer awareness and, at the same time, tap into the creative minds of talented artists!

Money Laundering

I commemorated this fun visit to an Enoshima shrine with a layout from a sketch over at Scrap In Japan. It's not my usual style to leave so much blank space, but I really wanted to give it a try. I also used a non-stamped title for the challenge at the new site Pile it On. (http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/) The word Money is cut with my Wishblade and the word Laundering is printed with Microsoft Word then outlined with a Micron pen.
At this shrine, the water from the spring is said to purify and multiply your money. So who can resist giving coin washing (or zeniarai) a try? And to make sure your treasures are safe while they are out of your pocket, a huge serpent stands solemn guard.
I carry two wallets at all times: one for yen and one for dollars, which I have nicknamed yennies and pennies. Emptying both wallets into the baskets supplied, I washed them carefully, dried them and put them all back in their little pink pouches. The idea is to spend the coins within a week and wha-lah! -they come back to you double or triple. Soon my wallets will be overflowing with more yennies, and more pennies!
I'll be sure to let you know how this works out for me. (wink)

Supplies:
DCWV Far East Stack
DCWV Cardstock Stack, Neutrals
Bazzill black
Laundry Line journaling tag
Ranger Distress Ink - straw
Style-a-bility - trim
Color Box Chalk, Charcoal
Black Micron pen
White Jelly Roll pen
Chow Fun font from dafont.com