Likes and dislikes

You know what I like? Sunshine, a good cup of coffee, time in my scrap studio, the smell of a new book, creative inspiration from my friends, laughing. Pretty simple pleasures. You know what I don't like? HOA's, ridiculous rules, sneaky stalkers, double standards, one dimensional people. These little irritants are like sand in your bikini bottom. They rub you till you are raw and want to vow never to go to the beach again. And, for the most part, they are unnecessary, that is the biggest irritant of all.

Now for more chipper topics because in all honesty, I feel great this morning, sand or no sand. I spent SIX hours in the studio last night and I created for me. You know those moments where you just go and let yourself out on whatever medium in front of you? That feels amazing. I completed one layout and one tag and I need to print journaling for the second layout. After I was done, I realized that I do not stamp as often as I should, because I love it and all the possibilities of it. I also realized that while blue and green are two of my all time favorite colors, I don't focus on them in my art very often.

This layout is one that I had already started sketching in my head when I got the hot air balloon from a RAK I won at For The Love of Art (FTLOA). When I purchased the Prima roses on Saturday, read the weekly challenge at FTLOA and the C-A-M-P-E-R challenge at Scrap-Friendzy, it all fell into place. That is another thing I like, when the idea becomes reality with little to no issue.

This week's challenge at FTLOA is to use paint, glimmer sprays, ink, etc to a project. Here I used Glimmer Mist on the doily punch strips and on the background of the card stock, though it doesn't really show in the photo. Scrap-Friendzy is hosting this awesome event called Camp-Friendzy, which is a scrapping based online "camp" running this summer. There are weekly projects, badges to earn, games to play, etc. One of the first challenges was to create a project using the recipe below.

C- Card stock (I used Co'redinations for the base and cs for the punches and stamped title)

A- Use the word "adore," "admire," "amaze," or "awesome" in the title

M- Use metal on the LO (the bling brads in the center of the hydrangeas and under the title)

P- Use a punch or punches on the page (LOVE that MS doily border punch!)

E- Emboss an element of the page ("adored" in title)

R- Use ribbon (anchored the photo)

Head over and check out both Scrap-Friendzy and FTLOA. Both are wonderful communities full of very talented and inspiring people. 

The photo is of my grandmother and her father. I never knew him, he died shortly before I was born, but I know my grandmother thought he was one of the greatest people to ever be on this Earth and that speaks volumes to me. She called him "daddy" her whole life and while that usually kind of creeps me out, when she said it, I wasn't. There was a different reverence in her voice. I wish I had been able to know him.

This second little project is a tag. I wanted to try out the new Chalkboard Glimmer Mist I got on Saturday, so I made this little guy.

 

I pulled out some Crafty Secrets stamps that I have never used and when I looked at the finished product, I wondered why I don't stamp more. I love them and all that you can do with them, but I just don't reach for them very often. I am going to make a point of changing that. The blue section of the tag is the Chalkboard Glimmer, but I think I made a mistake of wiping it before I allowed it to chalk up. Still, I love this little guy and will have to add it to a LO in the future.