just helen

In Honor of National Scrapbook Day...

I am fighting the urge to resist not doing a single, solitary thing that has to do with scrapbooking!  I know...that is a silly urge.  When you are talking about something that has become such a part of my life, why, you ask, would I not want to embrace the day just as I would my Mother on Mother's Day, which by the way, is just the day after?  (I think a mother may have had something to do with the location of THIS day of remembrance!)

I know of many ladies that will scrapbook, or shop for scrapbooking stuff, all day long.  I have done this in the past...shop for scrapbook stuff, that is.  This year?  Perish the thought!  When I have been invited to go to a girl's "crop" weekend, where all I would do is scrapbook, I recoil from the idea.  To me, that would be like asking a dentist friend to go away for a relaxing weekend of, say...filling cavities!  Nope, when I want to relax or do something fun, it has to be something different from the norm, like maybe go to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy or the Artichoke Festival in Castroville...if I want to leave the menfolk behind, I might venture to a quilt show or an art museum. 

Besides, I don't do well while being watched...I think it goes back to being expected to perform when I was a little girl [performing not being of the singing or dancing sort, but rather calling the dentist's office when I was three to schedule an appointment for my mother  - the "she's such a capable little girl" sort of performing].  It would be terrible if I didn't measure up to everybody's expectations.  What if the object of my creative abilities took too long or I seemed indecisive about placement of any particular embellishment or journaling.  It is far too tedious to be considered fun or relaxing.

So I thought I would just blast to the past when I was asked to be on the 2004 Design Team for Scrapbooks, etc.  I haven't done anything for them for years now, but back in the day, I was hot stuff...  
and I was always crazy about flowers!

 
This layout of my little niece, Marissa, was always a favorite, although I must apologize for the really bad photomerging - it looked much better when they photographed it for the article!

 
I was really happy with the torn vellum and the bits of sea glass used on the project.  That really was a long time ago.

Undoubtedly, I will probably need to make an "appearance"...no, not of the celebrity-type status (Helen who?) but just because I believe it is really important to support your local scrapbook stores and I really like the owners.  No one knows or cares about what I've done in the past.  Published names and designers of product are quickly forgotten.  I don't really care, either.  I have always done scrapbooking because I love it and it fills a creative need.  It would take far too long to go through the magazine issues and books I've been published in, if I could even recall most of them (senility setting in) and make a list.  You would be bored to tears...I would be in a similar state!  In this industry, you're only as good as your last layout...which would be this:

 
So, for National Scrapbook Day, I will leave it to all you enthusiasts.  For me?  I think I'll spend it writing a long letter to my Mom...and if I can't resist, maybe I'll make a Mother's Day card, specially for her!

 

A Rose By Any Other Name...

A fairly slow day today.  Scott and I went to the 99centsonly store, but we didn't find much.  I haven't found much lately, which means something good is just about due.  It works that way...the good deals come to those that wait and visit often.  I don't go as often as I used to before Megan found her new job, but if I have another reason to go up to the Square, I'm definitely going to go early so I don't miss out.  Today's double-duty trip was for crickets for the critters.

 
I've been playing around with making ribbon roses after I saw a Ribbon Roses tutorial on YouTube.  No matter how hard I try though, I can't get mine to look like hers.  But I like the way mine turned out...maybe it's the kind of ribbon I'm using, not that I'm having trouble following directions!  Maybe I'll make my own tutorial:)

 
Did you notice my funny "e"?  I ran out of the letter "e" a long time ago!  Actually I was out of the letter "i" as well.  So I cut up 2 unused "j"s - and crossed a "c" with part of one.  Make it do or do without!

I have decided that I will never finish my scrapbooking.  There will always be more photos to make pages with, thoughts to write down...even if I were to stop the world - or even pause my life - for just long enough to get caught up, my life would be long gone before I get could deal with the thousands of photos I've taken.  So I will just have to keep plugging away, one (or two...or three...or four!) photo at a time.  I think that Gena would be sad if I stopped coming into the store, but I really have a lot of stuff to use, as well.  I opened a drawer up to see what I had to use and it was like Christmas!  I need to open up my scrapbook drawers more often!

 
Easy and fun flowers and one cute little Lizzie!  The Crate Paper *Paper Doll Collection* has those colors that I just love and the patterns worked great with the ribbon flowers I made...before I picked the papers.  It always seems to work out when I do that.  Lucky me...in more than one way!

Scrap Busy

I have been wanting to post some scrapbook layouts, but I think I need to spend  a lot of time on the text in the post...oh well!  No one really cares what I have to say, right?  It's all in the pictures, huh!?!

Actually, I usually have a lot to say, but it's a time issue.  I'm not the best with time management, but I love to scrapbook and sometimes it's easier to say it with pictures.  It's one of my favorite creative outlets and I can't seem to give it up.  I know that some of my friends would much rather read, but for me...it's all about color and color makes me happy - either observing it, mixing it or combining colors to form pleasing palates.

These colors were perfect for the colors in the photo, which was of my little friend Henry, at my daughter and son-in-law's (Christie and Matt) wedding open house.  The photo was taken by Alison Beachem!

I really love subtle patterns that can mix and mingle with each other to make a bright, cheerful page.

Everything about this layout compliments the cupcakes in the photo.   Believe it or not, the cupcakes came first!

This picture really takes me back!  Mike is graduating in a couple of  weeks, Tom is turning 16 at the end of the week, Heather is in college and everyone  else is BIG and playing football.  I love this picture and I miss being around these kids.

The papers are all Pinecone Press!

Meet Me at the Fair!

I had the opportunity to do something fun this year - be a judge at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar!  No...I'm not going to tell you what I was judging, just in case you entered something and don't agree with the judge!  But it was an interesting and educational opportunity.  I would love to have the opportunity again next year. Both Mike and Tom have also been working at the fair for set-up in the Home and Hobby department and they will continue to work there once the fair actually starts, after school and during the day when school is out. 

Now I'm going to have to do a serious plug for submitting in Home and Hobby.  Enter!  I have seen some wonderful arts and crafts that haven't been anywhere near the San Diego County Fair!  Did you know that there are cash prizes available?  Did you know that there are areas of submission for children?  We used to do this years ago with our children, things like Megan's Betty Boop collection and Jake's Lego creations.  It doesn't have to be anything massive, just a bunch of any type of item, like bottle caps, matchbooks or pigs or along a theme, like "I Love Lucy" merchandise.  It's a chance to strut your stuff!

On to scrapbooking...

I made this layout for a Pinecone Press upcoming Options kit with papers from the Artsy Urban Collection by Melody Ross.  They are really fun papers, and different from my normal style.  The butterfly was glossy and I cut it out of a sheet of paper.  I made the flowers (I will get a how-to video posted soon!) and sprayed some of the dictionary paper with Glimmer Mist...speaking of Glimmer Mist, I won their "Support Your Local Scrapbook Store" giveaway contest!  I am so excited!  All 12 colors of the new Chalkboard colors!  (it's on page 3 of their catalog...it takes a moment to open)  I can't wait to get my package in the mail...thanks, Liz and Tattered Angels!

Here are some close ups...

I love the little flowers!

I pleated the punched edge border and Glimmer Misted the tulle...fried the tulle a little when I tried to dry it fast with my heat tool :)  It's okay...adds to the whole altered-artsy-fartsy look.

I love spraying those dictionary pages with the Glimmer Mist...I will just have to restrain myself from doing that on all the pages! 

A Whole Bunch of Cuteness

I have to say that sometimes I get really frustrated with myself when I make dumb mistakes.  What makes me even MADDER is when I can't figure out what I did wrong...mad or crazy, which can be synonymous.  So I typed out almost an entire post, including photos, had to leave for a few minutes, which turned into a few hours and when I came back...I couldn't find it.  And the title was out of my head...which had been super cute.  Then I remembered that I had centered the whole blog around the word "cute"...beats me if I can remember a single sentence.  But it's been a long week and I'm only to Wednesday and I need to move on to the next task at hand...or at least to attack the list. 

Last week I got a wonderful box full of Cosmo Cricket's new line, DeLovely, in the mail.  I love the brilliant colors - the shades of green, turquoise, yellow and bright pink are some of my favorites colors ever and the combinations make me happy.  Anyway, last week was crazy busy and I had to set the box aside for a few days.  Once I got to it, I sure had fun.  Hopefully I will get to play more with it tomorrow!

I like to think of card making as warm-ups to my "creative exercise".  I will frequently start playing with a paper line by making a card.  Keep it simple!  I love the Elements because they provide so much inspiration.

That turquoise mesh stuff?  Found that in NYC a couple of years ago.  It's cool trim!   
 
While I like to think of myself as a fairly simple scrapbooker, there are some elements that are a must in my book:  buttons, lace and/or ribbon and stitching.  You also know that I love flowers.  When I was drooling over the DeLovely line over at the Cosmo Cricket blog, I came across this tutorial on how to make a really cute, simple flower, what Julie called a box flower...I had to make one!  Although mine is a single layer (I like dimension, but not too much!) it is one of the easiest flowers to make.  Take a minute to watch it and you'll be sold!

So here is my friend's cute little Leah.  She makes the paper even cuter still!

 
I couldn't stop...I had to make another card!

See that cute yellow fabric behind the card?  That's some Early Bird fabric that I am going to get busy on...SOON!  It's on the list!