Stacked Stones Studio!

Ok...this week's word over at the One Little Word Challenge is* automatic .* Had me scratching my head for awhile...first all I could think of was that I drive an " automatic ." That sounded old. Then I thought about something my mother always said when I was a little girl..."Saying 'thank you' should be automatic ." That sounded preachy (but great advise). And then this afternoon, I saw squirrels out in my yard trying to bury nuts in the ground (which is a whole OTHER story because my yard is all ROCKS) -- and I automatically reached for my camera....aha! Finally -- my one little word could become a layout. Decided to play a bit outside my normal style. Have been seeing some cool "funky frames" on the Scrap In Style tv site....and wanted to see what would happen if I tried to create one myself. Have been waiting for a fun project to use a wonderful kit filled with Tinkering Ink goodies from Scrap It! Online....so all these things j...

My guy really loves "peace." Not that I like conflict -- but he would almost rather go to the dentist for a root canal! It is a true sign of his love and commitment to me that he is willing to weather the storms that come in relationship. I so appreciate and love that about him! This is from the Scrap In Style TV July kit called I "heart" Candy Town. Hope everyone is off to a great weekend -- I am glad to be back in Nashville -- this was a long week -- and I say again, VERY long week!

My friend Renee just handed me a picture and said, "do you want to scrap this?" Obviously, the answer was YES! How cute is Miss Sweet P? Of course, I had to take the comical route on it. As you who know her know -- she LOVES everything "princess." When I saw her pensive look and the red, white and blue of her outfit -- I couldn't help but compose a fairy tale where she just found out that America doesn't have "princesses" so she decides she has to become President instead. Ok -- at least it amused me! Am looking forward to being home on Friday...too many days away from home and from my scrap table. Hope you all are having a great week.

Today is the anniversary of my Mom going home to be with the Lord. It has been a year of processing lots of things. I decided to do a layout to contain some of my reflections...most are hidden in the envelope -- but the tag reads...I miss you, Mom. I do. We struggled most of the time with our relationship. Probably for reasons on both sides. Still -- when all is said and done -- I miss her. She poured a lot into my life that I am grateful for: 1. Love 2. Faith 3. Love of literature and the English language 4. Creativity 5. Adopting me and giving me a home and a heritage. 6. A sense of right and wrong 7. Love for my sister 8. Appreciation of nature. 9. Imagination -- she is the one that showed me that a refrigerator box could become a personal clubhouse. 10. Sense of humor. I know she is at home with the Lord -- and I am so grateful that she is no longer sick -- nor hurting. Honestly, I wish we had been able to get everything worked out so we could have been friends -- isn'...

OK ...so I never thought I would be scrapping THIS picture. Oh sure...I loved it when I took it...who could resist a baby face -- even if that face IS an orangutan !?!?! But scrap it?!?! Good grief. However, it was as irrresitable as that face when the One Little Word Challenge was the word sIMPlicity. The journaling reads: Have you ever watched the monkeys in the zoo? Not much bothers them. They are happy and very content. Their life is simple. No email...no text messages, but they still manage to be content. I guess I need to live more s IMP ly. OK I also can't resist a good play on words...and I really do want to add simplicity to my everyday life? How about you?

What shows did you love to watch when you were younger? Of course, like most kids, I loved to watch TV -- but if I had to narrow it down my list was definitely filled with funny women: Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, and Doris Day. I had saved this copy of the Saturday Evening Post from 1976 -- (yes, I realize MANY of you weren't even BORN then, much less starting to SAVE things) with Carol Burnett on the cover. Hadn't really known what I would do with it -- just wanted to keep it. Then a few days ago, there was a challenge on Scrap In Style tv -- that was to use something for your background other than patterned paper or cardstock. There are LOTS of great responses...ranging from clear hambly layouts -- to glass. I loved the creative things people came up with. This was my response to the challenge. I took the whole magazine -- mod podged the first eight pages together (leaving the article about Carol intact) and then used a picture of me from the year the magazine was from (yes ...

I think it is good to get outside your comfort zone and try new things....occasionally! *smile* I have seen several very talented ladies scrapping 6 x 12 for a few weeks now -- and I thought I would give it a whirl. Turns out -- I love it. It is a really manageable size -- immediately gives you two different orientations that have really different possibilities...you can use wallet size photos and still fill the page...and it seems to come together quickly. I'm not saying I am giving up 12 x 12 or 8 x 8, but it is a fun option to throw into the mix. Here are a couple of layouts I created -- the first is of Weston when he was building a Carpetball table (which if you haven't played is a TON of fun -- kind of like shuffle board on carpet with pool balls)...really got out on the limb with this one -- using cardboard to give it a rougher look. (Cosmo Cricket paper) The second one is from a Scrap It!! kit with Urban Lily. Loved the papers...wonderful kit! Have a great day ...

to be back at my scrap table... Here are a couple of lo from my time today. My house was clean (no distractions), the CD player was blaring a new CD from Desperation Band...and my hands and mind were busy. So good! I arrive home to find the Scrap In Style tv kit waiting for me...just so delicious...it is called Shabby Rockstar....has a great mixture of Hambly, Jenni Bowlin and Lil Davis...along with some absolutely unique embellishments. I immediately thought of this picture of a friend of mine's little girl in total abandon in a recent rainstorm. I am working on a collection of "scrapping your faith" layouts and this one just about put itself together. Hope you have had a great weekend...relaxing, creative, energizing or whatever you needed it to be. Have a great week!

Then I would like to suggest that you consider neurosurgery! I am convinced this generation of text messagers and im'ers has a future of carpel tunnel syndrome ahead of them! *laughing* I was doing a photo shoot with Weston for a project I am working on -- and I had to laugh when I sat down to review the shots...because about every eighth photo had him either checking his cell phone or replying to a message....totally cracked me up. Note to self: remove cell phone from general vacinity of any future photoshoot! This is a little mini-album I did for my nephew...inspired by an album that Ali Edwards had done...Gotta love the Hambly. Hope you all had a good fourth of July week....I am happy to be back from my conference...and using the weekend to get caught up. Blessings...

These beautiful and sophisticated flower have been created for several hundreds of year by "ladies in the know." They used them to create personalized jewlry that coordinated with their lovely gowns....or as one story tell to signal to a particular beau that she was open to his proposal of marriage. Now, it is time for that knowledge to be passed on to the next generation. Prepare well, ladies...for the burden is great to bear...and the cost...oh the cost... -- well it is actually almost non existent -- but that doesn't go very well with our line about burdens and costs now does it?!??! Few simple supplies 1.Quarter yard of organza fabrics in 2-3 coordinated colors. I chose to brilliant blues (one dark, one light) a pale pink and an off white. Lots of combinations available for those. 2. A drafters circle template to draw out the multi-tudenous number of circles you will need. Three sizes 1.75 " 1.5" amd 1". Make as many of each as you want to end up with ...

Well folks...those of you that have been doing the One Little Word blog challenge know that this week's word is MY. Two letters...inspiring lots of thought. Since I have been reading a lot lately about collage and altered art...and have been beginning an album on scrapping my faith -- I decided to do a combined challenge that would work for all three...(nothing like piling it on huh?!?!) Soooooooo....my "MY" layout is called...My Point of View. The journaling reads: I think there is a reason that God has us start out in this world as small children. As a child, we can't help but look up for ansers. We don't think we know it all. Children lift their arms up to be picked up and comforted. They know that things will be better in the arms of their parents. As we grow, we seem to outgrow that knowledge. We begin to think that we somehow have to figure out the answer to all of life's questions ourselves...when our Heavenly Father is waiting for us to raise our ha...

Cover of the book that I did for my niece to record all the things she loved when she was eight. The cover was made by ironing velvet squares over rubber stamps (fluffy side toward stamp) -- you really want to use a fairly simple design stamp to do this as detail doesn't show up well. This is the next two pages...more color correct that the next two...used the Love, Elsie fabric paper with adhesive back to make flower petals with wire in them. Page 3 and four (love the journaling cards from Jenni Bowlin) Back cover...

You know I love words...I am a writer at heart....so you KNOW I love the One Little Word blog with its challenges to use single words as a starting point for a layout. But I was totally surprised today when they announced their "favorites" for the last challenge word -- STOP...and my layout was on the list. Wow. cool. Fun challenge -- try it. There will be a new word on Wednesday!

Well...I guess posting about them inspired me to get on the stick and finish this layout about my guys. It was fun...spray painting, wax and transparencies...all rolled into one!

Have I mentioned how blessed I feel to have these two men in my life, lately? Well -- it's about time doncha think? *smile* I don't know if you all know this -- but guys aren't like girls...not at all...nope -- not even a smidge like us. And I think that is a good thing. It certainly keeps things interesting...and me on my toes. I snapped this picture the other day when they were working on some Royal Ranger stuff...mano a mano. They were out there building fires. Lashing sticks together to make a table. Throwing a tomahawk at the trees and just having a hee-ho time. I loved watching them working on it all together. Just being guys. What a blessing to have a teenager that enjoys spending time with his Dad. I hope that means that their relationship will only get stronger from here -- and they will have years to do "guy" things together. Major cleaning going on at my house. My sister and nephew and niece are coming for a visit and bring the rest of the stuff f...

Ok...I had to keep playing with Jenni's kit...and then remembered the one little word challenge going on...so I decided to try and combine both...here is what I ended up with. Don't we as adults want time to slow down -- but when we were kids we couldn't wait for the hands to spin on the clock so we would be OLDER!?!?!?! What was up with that...boy talk about 20/20 hindsight! *smile*

I rewarded myself today...and boy did I deserve a BIG reward! Some of you may know that my sewer backed up in my house...for the second time. Let's leave it at ICK! Anyway, once it got fixed, there was a HUGE mess to clean up...and it was not a fun job. So I promised myself that I could open my Jenni Kit from May if and when I got it done. It was just the "carrot" I needed. I did my "office work" this morning...cleaned, cleaned, cleaned after lunch and then let myself PLAY! Oh I love this kit...so sweet...have so many ideas -- and I plan to keep on playing until every scrap is used! This is one of the lo's I got done -- several others in the works. Have a great weekend.

I so rarely do this...but I have taken today as a TOTAL day off. I don't even feel guilty! Royce called and made breakfast -- so I went over to his house for awhile...watched the Sopranos marathon. Then I came back to the house, turned on the Law and Order Criminal Intent marathon and went into my studio. I have created quite the mess! Paint, stamps, transparencies, watercolors, rubons, glitter, ink, paper, scissors, glue and of course PHOTOs. They are everywhere. It was total play. Trying new techniques...not trying to accomplish anything...just PLAY! I did actually complete one lo...this one about my nephew. I have plans to go back into the studio in a while and use some of my new things on some other los. I will keep you posted...unless of course you are on a play day of your own -- which means you won't be showing up here anytime soon. Enjoy your day -- wherever you may play!

I have found that not sitting down to my scrapbooking table for several days leads to two things. 1. Almost a hunger to touch paper and get my hands busy on creating SOMETHING. 2. Not always the best results. However, the satisfaction of just getting to get back to it is worth not totally LOVING the results...I still managed to capture what was in my heart...and while they won't win any prizes...they are qn expression both of creativity and the love I have for the process of journaling and capturing my thoughts about life, faith and the people I love. So here are the three I have done yesterday and today. I did really enjoy working on this one about my grandfather. While I was away, I was doing a lot of journaling about following your dreams...and trusting God with them. That got me thinking about my grandpa -- GRAMPS. One of the wisest men I have ever known...smart as all get out -- deeply in love with God, a great father husband, provider, grandparent, lover of life and histo...

Hello my dear friends... For the first time during a cruise, I had a room that had a porthole in it and I LOVED it! Every time I would walk into the room I had to go see what I could see. During the daytime when we were in port -- I had views like this----> At night, the ship would have lights shining down on the water and I could see the blue and white waves as the ship sailed to our next port of call. It was really quite intriguing and fun to see. The conference went really well -- and what a blessing to get to work with Royce. We had great worship leaders (Tommy Walker, Ross Parsley, Rita Springer and Jeff Deyo) and the conferees were superb. There are some inherent challenges in organizing a conference on a ship rather than at a hotel (since there isn't a Staples just down the road to grab what you forgot)...but the benefits of relaxation and visiting different cities while staying unpacked in one room far out weigh the challenges. (OK, perhaps I should mention that that who...