I've run away with Tim

Tim Holtz that is. LOL! Oh and yes .. in my dreams! Fortunately for the both of us, I only want him for his creativity and good looks!!!! Oh and let's not forget his charm and great sense of humour. Plus his studio filled with vintage love. Sigh ..

Seriously though? I've been participating in his online class "Creative Chemistry 101" the past couple of weeks which has meant I've been busy 'studying' (ha ha) and doing 'homework' (OMG that's even funnier!) so I don't really have anything to share. Oh and I've been playing truant a lot too. We're nearly at the end of week two and I'm still only at about day 4 or 5 .. oops! I've a lot of catching up to do LOL!! But that's the beauty of these online classes .. you can do it all at your own pace.

Meanwhile my buddy Miriam (heh sunshine!) sets a monthly card challenge at ScrapChat and as I wanted to make something fresh and new for another friend's birthday, I decided to give it a bash. It was meant to be a punch art card and wouldn't you know it, halfway through I realised I was paper piecing!! D'oh!!!!! In any event out of the stash of products arose ..

Ozzie Stella Rose

products used:

cardstock - Bazzill

patterned paper - My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose - Mabel papers 6x6

embellishments - Wendy Irving Expressions rubons; Prima flowers; buttons; orange sewing machine thread

fun stuff - Kaiser white acrylic paint; Viva Decor Croco crackling color; Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Broken China and Spiced Marmalade); white Uniball Signo pen; 

other - Collections Elements Ozzie Owl (used as a template)

punches/dies - SU 1" and 3/4" circles and large oval; Sizzlits Flourish #9

Thanks for the challenge Miriam even if I did get it wrong!

What's next? I'm not exactly sure. I'd like to do my own March challenges at ScrapChat .. the all year round Christmas card challenge and my colour based layout challenge. I'd love to catch up on Tim's classes and get my tags (the 'homework') from each class up to date. In just a couple of days I'll be setting new challenges for April at ScrapChat. I'm running almost ridiculously late in a handmade embellishment swap, but that's mostly because I can't settle on what to make. I owe a friend a CJ which I really, really want to get done because that means I'll be finished with group one in that swap. Sigh .. LOL .. where to begin? Fingers crossed for a productive weekend!

Meanwhile, whatever you're up to this weekend .. enjoy!!!!   :)

"It's just a mish mash"

No, GB wasn't referring to the Monster Mash he was referring to my latest LO ..

published in Scrapbook Creations No. 94

At first I agreed with him, it did seem to be kind of a mish mash of 'stuff', but a couple of days later and it's now grown on me. I like it.  :)

Important .. would you prefer the long or short story of this LO? If you would prefer the short LOL, just scroll to the bottom of this post!!!

The long story ..

I haven't been able to create anything for nigh on a month and it has been driving me (and GB as a consequence LOL!) crazy. The hand which was healing oh so nicely, very inconveniently became infected and as a result slowed the recovery period. There is still a long road ahead before my hand is 100% back to normal but I can scrap again!!!!!

So anyways, not having been able to create for a while the above LO did become a bit of a mish mash. I wanted to play. I wanted to scrap this photo of Bear doing what he does best .. sitting back and observing what's going on around him (he's a Kelpie to his core!). I had some clean gauze left over in my dressings kit which I wanted to experiment with. Have I mentioned I wanted to play? Well play I did. After mixing up a watery base of glue and paint to soak the gauze in and force drying it on my cardstock, I kept on building my layers .. the texture gels, the paints, the recycled materials. The photo was on. Everything was looking great. But it needed something to the right of the photo. I had the perfect flourish rub-on. It wasn't a 'solid' rub-on so wouldn't be too heavy. About now is when I should have walked away!!!

Instead I decided to colour in the rub-on flourish with a pink marker. Big mistake .. huge!!! I sulked for a while until GB suggested I re-colour it in black. Brilliant idea GB. Perfect! Except it turned out the black marker wouldn't set. Plus, in the process of seeing just how wet it was, it smudged, badly. The LO was ruined. I was gutted. Seriously gutted. I couldn't sleep that night. Honestly. I woke up at 2am thinking about the LO and wondering how on earth I could fix it. I did not want to go back through all the stages of layering with mixed media all over again. At 4.30am I gave up, and got up. This LO was not going to get the best of me.

I figured out with a generous spray of Charms Creations 'Fabulous Flowers' and other embellishments I could cover the disgusting, smudgy mess for the most part. But what about the enormous (so it seemed LOL) part of the flourish in the clouds??? Finally it came to me. All I had to do was 'sponge' another cloud over the top. It sounds easy enough doesn't it? Wrong! The hideous, smudged flourish kept on shining through. Was I honestly going to have to throw this in the trash? It was at about 7am the answer came to me. Cut out a cloud and stick it on top of the whole bloomin' mess. So I did and it worked. Big sigh! Huge!!!

But then I stepped back and looked at the end result and, I admit, was disappointed. I had created a mish mash. But I was also tired. So very tired. After almost 12 hours (or so it seemed) of playing with this LO I was more than prepared for it to look like a mish mash. Yet I had so wanted the photo to be the focus of attention on this LO, and now it's practically half covered in flowers (as gorgeous as they are). I had really wanted the textures and mixed media to shine through, and now you can scarcely see (and if you can, recognise) the book page and gels. One thing I felt I had got right was the whimsical element. But it was done, and my hand had officially healed sufficiently for me to start scrapping again. I had scrapped .. and I was happy!

The short story .. I scrapped .. and I was happy!!!!!!!!!!

:)

Alien abductions and me

Okay so I haven't been abducted by aliens which isn't to say I do or don't believe in aliens or that they abduct people (and possibly dogs who think they're people!). A cool thought though to think someone or something else is 'out there'. But if you've been wondering where I am .. well they say a picture is worth a thousand words ..

**WARNING**

Turn away now if you don't like blood and stuff!

Have you turned away?

Personally I don't see the big deal but ..

don't say I didn't warn you!

My absence is self-explanatory really ..

day 6

carpal tunnel release surgery

right hand .. dominant hand .. NO scrapping

aargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In my experience (so far) the worst thing about having surgery on your dominant hand, presuming you are as useless as me with your non dominant hand, is you can't clean your teeth properly. Seriously! That and not being able to scrap. Plus, you'll never believe this, the day before my surgery (which I had less than a week's notice for!) I received Teresa Collins' latest collections in the mail .. Everyday Moments, Fabrications, and Spring Fling. Such torture!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways the recovery is going well. Heh I'm posting here aren't I LOL?! But the increasing finger movement 'stuff' which admittedly is awesome, is just the start of the long road I have ahead of me. Weight bearing and strength will take some time. One thing's for sure, I won't be doing much blending with my Distress Inks for a while!!! Hopefully though with the help of my osteo, and other hand therapy, I'll have a full recovery in record time. Otherwise don't be surprised if you're invited over to my place to scrap and end up doing my scrapping instead of your own LOL!!!!

So, until we meet again, keep smiling!   :)