Blog Neglect & New Stuff

I have shamefully neglected my blog. All I can say is that is has been a busy couple of weeks of Baby Showers, Consignment Sales, State Fairs and more Baby Showers. The DH's shift is about to explode in babies. I've got at least two more showers before the year is out.

In between all of that madness, I've been trying to squeeze in a bit of crafting. I've managed a layout, a mini-book and a cool dry erase board project. Mostly in just the last weekend. I picked up another mini book while I was dropping off my latest round of Design Team stuff at the LSS, so I should have blog fodder for weeks to come. Not to mention I haven't even blogged about last month's kit. Probably because I haven't TOUCHED last month's kit, but that's a whole 'nother story. :)

Onto the Design Team stuff. I'm going to start with the last projects first as I don't want the mini book to consume the first half of the post. So layout first. Create My Keepsake, one of my preferred scrappy forums, has started doing a Friday "Scrap Formula", in other words a sketch. They post them on Friday and in order to be eligible for their RAK drawing at the end of the month, you have to post them by Noon Sunday I believe. I know that it's such a limited time that odds are pretty high that I won't ever get it posted in time to be part of the drawing. Still, The Oct 3rd formula really sparked my imagination. It was a single page sketch, but I immediately saw how it could be a full 2 page layout. After many revisions and additions that took the better part of Monday, I finally ended up with a piece I really like. The more I see it, the more I like it. I figure by the end of the week, I'll love it. The papers, journaling cards and rubons are Fancy Pants Daily Grind, buttons from my hoard, Bazzill Blooms and bling from Prima.

I am constantly amazed by my daughter's ever growing imagination. This is an old, nearly defunct riding lawn mower. The DH used it to move the trailer around the back yard when he mows. Miss, on the other hand, considers it her 'tractor' and just loves to go sit on it and turn the wheel. I don't know where her imagination takes her, but I'm sure she's off riding into the sunset somewhere.



I can't really take credit for the conception of the next project. I saw a version of it on Mish's blog probably a month ago and I've just been waiting for the right products to make up a version of my own. 12x12 frames are not readily available in my area, so I went with an 11x14 clip frame. I had several ideas for how I wanted it to work out and I'm pleased to say everything came together far better than I hoped. The rubons are on the glass rather than on the paper, which means I can change out the paper and still keep those elements. I love the dimensional effect this gives, although it really doesn't come through on the picture.

I will say that you really have to want rubons on glass. It's one of those things that takes lots of elbow grease. Make sure your glass is clean. Just go ahead and clean it again to be on the safe side. It seems to help the rubons stick better when applying. Because it's glass, they're going to occasionally shift and tear. Just chalk it up to "rustic effect" because I couldn't NOT make it happen. I found for this particular design a black dry erase marker worked the best.



And the last project for the week, but certainly not the least. I got a comment on my blog a couple weeks back from my LSS owner asking if I would be interested in doing another word book. I really had a blast doing the Bo Bunny Happy book, so I figured what the heck. I called and she pointed me at the website for Heart of Texas Studios. She'd gotten a selection of their word books in stock and pretty much let me have my pick of book and paper. I waffled heavily between the OKLAHOMA book and the COWGIRL book. In the end, I decided on the COWGIRL one. She had some cute cowgirl papers, that I initially planned to use, but once I go there and started trying to make everything fall into place in my head, I knew they weren't going to work for me. While miss has loads of cowgirl attitude, I don't have any pictures of her in cowgirl gear, so the cowgirl focused papers didn't work.

After going through the store several times, I finally settled on another of my favored paper companies, BasicGrey. They've had some lines I haven't cared for but their last couple of releases have really rocked. The paper is from their Sultry line, which you wouldn't expect to work in a cowgirl theme. I'm pretty darn pleased with the results though. A lot of it has to do with the distressed/weathered look BasicGrey is known for on their papers. It meant that I had very little actual distressing to do myself. I pulled it more towards the western feel with silver heart buttons, a concho and some bright pink leather lacing. I use a combination of quotes and personal journaling to pull it all together. No tinted pictures this time. I kept each page to a double page layout style and put them in chronological order. The pictures span about 18 months.

Click the images to view them larger.

Journaling -

C - There's more than just boots and a hat to a cowgirl!

O - Rough and tough; snakes and snails and puppy dog tails; in that, sugar and spice, everything nice package.

W - you don't have to own a horse or live in the west to have the cowgirl spirit. A cowgirl attitude is a way of life. Cowgirls are independent and self-sufficient. They believe in old-fashioned values and command respect. They have a uniqueness and style that is all their own.

G - "Cowgirl is an attitude, really. A pioneer spirit, a special American brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head on, lives by her own lights, and makes no excuses. Cowgirls take stands. They speak up. They defend the things they hold dear. A cowgirl might be a rancher, or a barrel racer, or a bull rider, or an actress. But she's just as likely to be a checker at the local Winn Dixie, a full-time mother, a banker, an attorney, an astronaut." - Dale Evans Rogers, 1992

I - She'll ride to your rescue, into your heart and off into the sunset. Squealing "yeehaw!" along the way.

R - What's a cow girl without her side kick? He's not much good for anything but drooling just yet, but as soon as he starts crawling, they'll be off! The West (and the backyard) will never be the same.

L - Linsey has a cowgirl attitude. I don't know where she gets it. I guess she must have been born with it. She yearns for the great outdoors. Her imagination turns an old run down riding lawn mower into a tractor. She is wild at heart, sassy, sweet, courageous, strong and not even three yet.