Hands Then, Hands Now Circle Journal Entry

This month's circle journal was Denise's. Her theme was Then and Now. I immediatly thought of my kids, but decided that focusing on just a part of them would be more interesting, so I chose their hands. When Arch was a baby and Kat was two, I used Kat's handprints and Arch's footprints to make a painting for my mom for Mother's Day. I took a picture of that last time I was at their house, then I drove my kids nuts getting pictures of their hands doing other things. (I must confess, the flute picture is just zoomed in from one Christa took for senior pics.) I love the collage feature in Picasa! It makes combining images so easy.

This layout is a lift from one in the March/April Creating Keepsakes. I loved the laced look with the flowers at the end, so I stretched it into a two pager. The two papers seemed to combine a heritage look with a modern look to me. The title is cut with the Cricut using Songbird, Stone Script, Ashlyn's Alphabet, and Jubilee.

An Ending and a Beginning

I have just finished 2 layouts for circle journals. The first is the last album in the Truth or Dare circle journal I was involved in last year. My friend Cheri "dared" me to do a layout with a monochromatic theme. The "truth" that she had for me was "if you could have one do-over in life what would it be?" So I decided to do one based on my lack of musical skills.

The papers are K&Company, Paper Studios and some wonderful Metallic paper my awesome friend Nancyroo sent me. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink, paper flowers, and brads. Oh and the photo is of my daughter's hands playing a piano piece she wrote several years ago. Her left hand is a blur because she was really moving! So I changed it to sepia tone and set it as a soft focus and it works.

The second layout is my own personal layout from my new Ode to Joy circle journal. I chose to focus on my kids (of course).

I did several of the technique challenges, including using textured words. These are some wooden words I was given as gift several years ago. I ran them through my Cuttlebug and was able to texturize them. I then used Tim Holtz Distress Ink to bring out the texture. The papers are various scraps I've had a while, along with some ribbon, flowers, buttons.

Inspiration

I know sermons are SUPPOSED to inspire us, but this morning's sermon had a secondary inspiration: a layout. I took these pictures (and more) at an old cemetary near here that was covered with bluebonnets, irises and other flowers recently. I just haven't had time to do anything with the pictures yet. So when I opened my Bible and read this morning's scripture, my mind started going. Yes, I paid attention to the sermon as well. It was very good. I flipped over the outline of the sermon that was in the bulletin and sketched out this layout. Then this afternoon, I put it all together. The scripture quoted is excerpted from Colossians 3:15-24. It says: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him...Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord...

I'm hoping to get several LO's done the next couple of weeks, so check back often, I might just get something done!

Scrap Whispers Next Challenge

This challenge for Scrap Whispers was fun and easy to do. Use flowers. Now I have flowers, boy do I have flowers, in my stash. So this was a good way to use up some of those flowers. These pictures are of a trip the kids took with family this past summer. They went to Inks Lake near Austin and just had fun in the water. Archie even did a little cliff diving!

Scrap Whispers Challenge/Truth or Dare Challenge Layout

This layout is a "kill 2 birds with 1 stone" layout. The Scrap Whispers challenge for this week was to spend time journaling. My Truth or Dare challenge for my own T or D Circle Journal was to "create a layout using photos of reflections." I cut the title with Cricut Design Studio using the Old West cartridge. The journaling comes in 2 parts. On the left page is a Bible verse: And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's Glory are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18. The other part says: "It has always been my goal to lead my children in their faith so that they will reflect the Lord in their lives. I often thought that meant the future, but so often that meant the future, but so often right now, I see it as they go about their normal lives. They have such reflected glory."

The pictures are from a photo challenge last year. Oh and if anyone wants to say I didn't follow my own rules in putting my picture with the journaling in the layout, look behind the flash in the top photo. That's me!

Challenges 1 and 2

My next several posts will be about scrap challenges I'm working on. I have several projects going on and this weekend I've been working on some challenges that Mon and Marylouwho have posted on the General Scrapbooking board at Scrapjazz. They have us working on New Year's challenges and I've completed several.

The first challenge was to "use stamping or rubons, buttons, a heart or a star and pink or blue." On this one I used some flocked pp and some embossed pp from Me and My Big Ideas, a stamped journaling star, some vintage buttons and blue letters from The Paper Studio along with some stickers from my stash I'm trying to use up. The theme is this past year's One Act Play, "The Diviner's" The journaling reads, "Kat was 'Goldie' and Arch was an Alternate. Kat was named to All Star Cast at Zone." Challenge 2 was to do a Christmas LO or one with red, do some type of stitching, brads or eyelets, and a circle. This layout uses some green cardstock from my stash, some Basic Grey "cupcakes" pp, a journaling block from Anna Griffin, two green brads, a wooden word from Plaid and some machine stiching in the circle. The kids were playing on my Sister-in-law's trampoline and we just managed to get some fun shots. More LO's in other posts.