Blues Skies and Summer Flowers

This month’s theme at GCD Studios is all about blue skies and summer days.  

I immediately thought of my very favorite flower photograph I took a few summers ago with a big bright blue sky background.   I love this photo so much, I keep it posted on an inspiration board in my studio.

To create the layout, I brainstormed for words describing all the things that come to mind when I see this sunflower photo. Then I used those words to make a word collage instead of using just one title.

I started by adding Sunflower Mist to the background, created a matte for my photo and word collage, threw in some borders and sprinkled with a few embellishments.  To me, it looks like sunshine on a scrapbook page!

Supplies List:
Papers: Ava Collection by Melody Ross
Embellishments: Die Cut Boarders, Epoxy Stickers, Clear Stickers, Crochet Flowers, Metal Rimmed Glass Brads all from the Arsty Urban Collection by Melody Ross
Letter Stickers:  Thickers by American Crafts, Mini Market Stickers by October Afternoon, Making Memories and Sassafrass
Gems: Basic Grey and The Beadery
Punches: Ek Success
Ink: Maya Mist- Sunflower Metallic & Turquoise Metallic

I hope you have some beautiful, bright-blue skies where you are today!
Leslie

Summer goodness

We are in full summer mode here, up early every morning for swim team practice. While I don't enjoy the early part, it does help make the most of each day. I also discovered I could take full advantage of the cooler temperatures to go for a quick run while the kids are practicing. 

We made our first swim meet this week and they did really good. (They both chose to skip the first one to attend other social events.) They were happy with their times and ribbons and hope to improve each week. 

In between shuttling the kids around, I've been busy finishing up my July projects for GCD Studios'.   It's so my nature to want to immediately share my creations.  I think that's the hardest part of the job. My post days are the 8th and the 24th. I'd love for you to check them out then! :)

I do have this to share.  I couldn't post it sooner, because I know my Dad visits my blog, at least occasionally. :)

I was very much inspired by Ali Edward's Cocoa Daisy printer's tray kit.  While I knew I couldn't get my hands on a printer's tray in time for Father's Day, I made the best of what I could find locally.  I used bits and pieces from my stash, some recent, but mostly old bits I've loved for a while.  It feels so rewarding to use products I've been hording.  ;)

Richard was home for the weekend and I did my best to spoil him, in honor of Father's Day with all his favorite foods: homemade spaghetti and meat sauce,  baby back ribs and steak fajitas. It should come to no surprise that I do believe "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach". lol   And he was quite happy. :)

We had a good day today, Father's Day.  Church in the morning, a quick lunch at McAlister's and a afternoon matinee- Toy Story 3.
 
It was such a touching and heartwarming story.   I highly recommend seeing this movie! (Though, I could have done without the 3D.)  We have been Toy Story fans from the very beginning of the series. Miles grew up with Woody and he had several versions of Buzz Lightyear in his toy chest. This story line hit very close to home with him now 15.  All the toys of his youth have either been packed up or given away.

I clearly remember what a highlight it was on our first Disney Trip to meet them in person. Ah, such sweet memories.  I sure hope there's a Woody and Buzz packed away in our attic.

Ebony and Ivory

All this week we are dog-sitting my friend and neighbor's goldendoodle, Sophie. It's been such fun!  She is so adorable, but quite the opposite of Tucker in so many ways besides the obvious, the hair color and texture.

Tucker is completely and utterly, food motivated. Sophie is all about play.  She greets you with toy in mouth every single time we come home from running errands.  She shadows any movement in the house. If someone's doing something or going somewhere she's there, but if all is quiet, she's right by my side.  Tucker, will come and visit you, but may or may not stay. He prefers his favorite resting spots: the sofa and our bed. (Gasp.... I know. He's so spoiled.)

She drinks her water very prissy like from the edge of her big bowl, and he slops it all over the floor.  He gobbles his food the moment it's put in front of him and she snacks for a while, a little here, a little there.

He's thick and muscular (like a football player) and has mellowed and she's kind of thin, smaller boned and still has a bit of puppy in her.

Besides the eating and drinking, Tucker has a kind of "air" about him.  I think it's the way he lays down, very proper, like lion-like. When he's happy, he wags his tail above his back, it reminds me of the big plumes you see on fancy uniforms soldiers in England wear.  She is kind of goofy, but very relaxed in her movements and she's got this tail with a cute little curl on the end. She wags it side to side and it becomes this weapon when she's happy. lol

They've been having lots of fun too! Walks and a swim yesterday afternoon.  Thankfully when they play out side, he loves the Frisbee and she likes everything else. ;)

In between swim team practices and playing with the dogs, I've had some time for scrapbooking!  I really felt I needed to delve more into my April Studio Calico kit.  I've had these photos in my "to scrapbook" photo album for quite a while.  I thought the bright colors of the kit, aptly named, Joyland worked perfectly.

I hadn't noticed until I was nearly finished with the layout, that Emily is holding her very first and highly treasured baby doll while she rode on the horse.  So sweet. And that little boy, I could gobble him up!!

Next on my scrapbooking agenda, is to complete my Week in a Life project. I've got all my parts now.  My digital photo layouts are in from Scrapbook Pictures, (love them!)  I found the perfect album at Target and purchased page protectors, so it's time to bring it all together. :)

Finding Hidden Textures

Today is my day to post a technique for GCD Studios.

Since Father’s Day is just around the corner, I wanted to create a scrapbook page honoring my husband and his love for our children. 

Here’s the layout I created.

I was playing around with the papers I had in blue and found myself admiring, yet again, the back side of the foil embossed paper from GCD Studios and the wonderfully subtle texture.  It reminded me of the printed core embossed papers that are popping up everywhere right now. Here's a peek at the foil side.

To see how I used this paper, check out GCD Studios Blog!

The ending and beginning

So happy that I can say that summer is finally here!!  We've had some beautiful weather recently and it feels like summer!! I noticed on the way to church Sunday morning how blue the sky was.  Just a perfectly lovely day yesterday.

Emily had her big elementary school graduation on Friday and she is very happy to be moving on to middle school.

 We are very proud of her and know she will really shine at her new school. (I'm really hoping she'll be happier too!  Can I tell you how extremely tired we were of listening to her complain about the same kids in her class day after day?  I'm really hoping the shuffling of kids around each hour will help with this. )

After graduation we took her out to lunch and I must admit it is hard for me to grasp the fact that she is now a middle schooler and her time in elementary school has ended. So very bittersweet for me, and of course, it made me feel old. ;}

 Then Friday night we had our 3rd Annual Ice Cream Social in the cul de sac.  What a fun tradition!!  So good to visit with neighbors and kick off the summer. Oh, and the homemade ice cream and goodies are always good!  Kids were swarming the circle on scooters and bikes, but I think their favorite part of any neighborhood event is hide and go seek in the dark!!  They love that!!

On Saturday, the Miles and Emily were busy with their friends and so it ended up that Richard and I went to the pool by ourselves. It was really kind of weird- It felt like a cross between a date and a mini vacation. :)  Not long after we were at the pool the whistle was blown for adult swim, so we both hung out at the beach end of the pool and just chatted without swarms of children running around.  Nice time to relax and hang out before he left the next day for work.

I finished this layout over the weekend. Definitely feel like I'm coming out of the too busy and rushed creative rut I was in at the end of the school year.

I've wanted to use this masking technique with mists for a while now and it seemed appropriate to highlight the mileage from his Half Ironman!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Studio Calico, GCD Studios, Sassafrass.  Stickers: Studio Calico, October Afternoon. Stamps: Studio Calico & Hero Arts. Mask created with Making Memories Slice- Fa la la card.

The worst part...

The worst part of keeping  a blog is when you let too much time lapse between posts.  You don't know what to say, what to leave out and what someone might be interested in hearing about the time you've been absent. And the longer you let it go, the harder gets.

So I'll just throw a few things that have changed since a week ago.

1. The house is decidedly noisier.  No, not because the kids are out of school, that happens this Friday.  It is noisier because of Miles' birthday present, an electric guitar and amp.  And oh, how he's loving it.  I've told family members his "cool factor" went up exponentially after his birthday. :)

2. I can say I've biked to Cooper's Landing, a little dive along the Missouri River.  My friend Nancy organized a group of us women to brave the trail, chatting, enjoying beverages and snacking along the way. I packed my now famous homemade hummus and crackers.Yum!

3. Richard is starting a new position at work and will be traveling, a lot.  So happy he has this week off. I keep reminding myself that the kids are big and we can handle it. And we have really great, and really noisy, neighbors, so we'll be fine.

4. Went to the pool this weekend. Braved the first wearing of the swimsuit of the season.  Not feeling swimsuit ready by any means, but it's been done, so now I can mentally move on. ;)

5. I finally broke my 6 mile barrier today.  Ran 7.6 miles!  I realize now I was crashing because I needed to refuel.  Going to go buy me some of my own Gu Energy. It made a huge difference after I "drank" some at the 4 mile mark.

6. No scrapbooking to share, but that should change soon, like tomorrow. I've been kind of in a lull mojo wise and too busy with end of school year stuff.

7. Unfortunately, my poppies are all gone.  They were so very pretty while they lasted.