68 S/BOOK PAGES DONE IN 3 WEEKS!!!!

I got all of my pic's out of the photo book from my mission onto L/O's now. I started Easter w/end when DH was in Conn.I finished last week. I have them all matted & placed on PP. I will do more titles & tags this summer.
The big key was organizing my paper scraps in Jan. into sizes & color families. I was able to walk to scraps to mat most of my pic's w/o having to cut the mats out. Other mats were easy cut from scraps that were a little bigger. I saved a lot of money here since I didn't use new sheets of c/stock.
I chose what type of PP to use thru the book. This saved a lot of decisions & agonizing over L/O's.STICK TO THIS!!! It will help on speeding up the process.
I only used seasonal paper for holidays etc. I used floral PP for Butchart Garden tour in Canada.
I made some of my own PP using some of my stamps in my stash.This stopped me from trying to hunt the theme PP in a store or online.
I used a tip from Splitcoasters to mix different types of lettering on a title. It gave me a way to use my lettering in my stash. I also got some cool effects doing this.I also got out my stencils to make letters I didn't have. I filled in the outlines w/ Glaze pen,Stickles ,glitter or embossing powder.
I CAN'T BELIEVE I PULLED THIS OFF!!! I started this project 3 years ago. It got shove away for a year on a shelf.Vol I is done & packed to give to my son for a late gift.10 years ago I would had laughed @ s/one if they told me I would do s/thing like this. "Old dogs can learn new tricks",3 cheers for me.!!!!
Resources on the web have been my teacher since I'm housebound .Learning to think outside of the box is a big key. Using UR scraps & items in UR stash is another key. Oangizing UR supplies so U know where everything when the creative juices get going.

Laura's wierd card set

These are ATC's I got in a swap. I made them into a card set for my DD's late C-mas gift. I used my new watercolor crayons on them for my b/ground. I luv how easy they color onto the media c/stock. Then I put a small amount of water on them w/ a small paint brush to blend the colors. I luv the vibrant colors I got. a little goes a long ways. I took care to paint from the inside out so I didn't get a muddy look. I had a scrap of paper on the edges to brush off on when doing the border.
I cut open a bottle of Stickles to get dwon to the last of it & put it on the black witch card for a sparkly effect.

Katya's card

She loved to dance to the N/cracker ballet as a young child when she visted us in DFW area

Need new perspective

Almost 2 weeks w/this Vertigo. the 1st week was the hardest, The room would spin so bad I would get so disoriented,forget what I was doing. I would end up going back to bed to sleep the med. off. It's an antihistamine so U get sleepy. I was dopey I couldn't function. I couldn't watch TV,read a book or work on my cards.This week I hadn't taken my med to go to a Dr's appt. the movement in the car going around curves was unsettling. On top of it the elevator came to a sudden jolt.That made me more dizzy. I had a bunch of sheets to fill out @ the Dr's office to update. I couldn't really see the fine print & I was tired.Plus the nerve pain in 2 fingers makes it hard for me to hold a pen Allen had to help me fill the papers out.
The heart dr. told me the echo showed some more heart weakness. My pumping capacity has dropped down from 5 to 10 %. that explains the fatigue I'm getting upon on exertion trying to get out to a Dr's appt.i get to the Dr's office already tired. I couldn't even look @my card mag's in my bag this week,just to wiped out. I have to remember to write e/thing down in detail to give to the Dr or I'm to tire to tell them.
This is really cutting into my c/making time. This is my busiest time of the year. I have d/lines to meet for C-mas cards for my GI's. I still don't know how long it takes cards to get to Kuwait.I still haven't heard from 2 of my contacts yet.
My c/making is my sanity valve. Not being able to work in there I don't have a chance to work out my frustrations. I'm having to look 2 what is a priority for that day. If I don't get up & cook 1st thing when I get up I don't have the energy to cook later on. I having to think who is the setting the d/lines. Is this one I'm putting on myself?
I've to come up w/ a comprise on my c-mas cards. Last year I did 2 s/ments of cards. 1 for them to send home to family etc. I have to get them in the mail by 1st of Nov., the latest for them to send back to the states. I can see I'm not going to be able to do that. I don't have anything ready for C-mas this year.
In order to make peace w/myself I decided I can only do 1 s/ment of cards. I decided to focus in on the ones to go to them for C-mas day. I have already been experimenting w/ w/color pencil wash for a b/ground. If I have to I may do an alcohol ink or a chalk b/ground that would be quicker. I want to do a deer card. I found a magnificent buck I printed off & have chalked them. I have some trees stamped off for the b/ground. I also want to use my l/house stamp Jan gave me for some state C-mas cards. I do have items collected ready to collage. I found C-mas brads on E-bay for cheap.It just getting the energy & time to work in ther.
I have finished up my fall cards. My VT cards went in the mail early this week. I just put the rest of the material for fall card away instead of getting frustrated on not making more of them. I did make some vintage T-giving cards the other nite I couldn't sleep. Polly's scraps ,she gave me came in handy both for my fall & T-giving cards.
I have been surfing the web look for free digi's to color. sitting still @ the computer is a way to deal w/ the dizziness. If I sit still, it doesn't spin on me.I found some vintage beehives I printed off for Jenny,my DIL. I also found some cute bee's I printed off. I put yellow Stickles on the wings. I distressed the c/stock w/ Ranger 's ink. I also used some of my core-nation choc. that I sanded down to use as b/ground for the inside.she like bees,her n/name is Jennie Bee.
On top of it Allen has had a rough week. His blood sugar crashed bad @ work this week. the same day we went to the heart dr. Going out to an appt. means I come home & crash in my recliner. I t takes all the energy & sleep I need to just get out the door.
They put him on a new med to better regulate his blood sugar. Plus he's having problems w/blurred vision & light sensitivity. to the point it's making it hard for him to see the screen @ work to program.He's trying to find out if any of his med's may be doing this,his allergy shots etc. It's been a rough week for both of us
My concern is what am I'm going to do as I lose more heart strength & my fatigue level goes up. I have a Puritan work ethic.I always focus in on s/thing to look for ward to get thru the bad times.My scared cow, "my cards" already been compromised. i thought I could deal w/ this when it happened but not really when I'm here & have to accept the fact my heart isn't going to bounce back this time. I go in for a 24 hr holster in early Nov. to look for irregular heart beats. A lot of PVC's showed up on my sleep study & ER visit but none on the EKG @ Dr's office.also will check the blood flow to my legs. How are Allen & I going to deal w/ this when I can't hire anyone to help since I don't get SSD???
+++ side is I have had 4 1/2 years they said I wouldn't had, I did get 100 cards sent out to my GI's in early Sept. I did get to have A RS class @ my house for stamping. I was on a Thur, nite, The mystery heart episode was on Sun. ER visit was Mon am.

The Monkey is off my back!!

FINALLY I finished s/bk Forest's of all the 15 b-days. I didn't get the last 4 b-days done to give to him when he came @ T-giving time. After 5 mo's of having Forest's birthday pic's in a red envelope sitting on my table & a stash of paper etc sitting on the dehumidifer,the stash is gone!!!
Scrapbooking is like a puzzle to me. It seems like I have to get all the pieces together 1st. It seems like it all has to gel together before I can plunge into the project. If I'm stressed out or have other deadlines to meet I can't scrap book. I can come up w/ideas easily enough for my cards. It's been 2 mo's sinceI last s/bk this project. I even had the paper picked out to make mats w/it to go w/ the photo's etc. I had the color theme picked out for each year w/paper clips & notes for what year etc.
I finally made myself sit down w/my lightbox on,start making mats for the photo's. This winter has really made my hands hurt. Somedays I can't do things that take coordination etc. It rained all day Wed.,it was gray,cloudy etc.I lose those days w/pain & fatigue.I put in 2 big sessions this week so I could put the pieces under the book press after using Yes Glue to dry overnite.
Last nite after sleeping for awhile in my recliner, I went into my room. I wanted to make sure pages weren't stuck together. after looking @ them I decides I wanted to put Stickles on some of the places. The pages have to dry s/where so the Stickles doesn't get smeared before it dries. I usually do this so it can dry overnite w/o smearing the wet Stickles.I then wanted to take pic's of them to upload on Flickr. 1 page still have some needed embellishments to balance out the page.
I have any l/over stickers back in my sticker n/book. Scraps are in my file folder. Whole sheets of paper are back in their spot.
My effort on cleaning up my room & swapping items in my stash has paid off. I forgot about the b/ful colorful fibers I got last fall in 2 swaps.I can find things now when I get in the creative mode wherre e/thing starts flying.Now I don't have to go digging thru items thinking I kanow I have this s/where. that really stresses me & I lose my creative edge when I can't locate the needed item.

4th of July cards

I finally d/loaded my vintage 4th of July c/art & printed it out Fri. I did it w/out Allen's help.I made sure I got ones I could print from the site instead of having to save it & having to have it reformatted. This is what I wanted the color printer cartridge for. I used up the 1st on alcohol ink pages. Allen used a gift certificate as a surprise for me so I could have it for my cards.
I doing my 1st swap,I needed s/thing Vintage. I used my Ranger Distress ink pads along the edges of the c/stock. I used the walnut,new Fired Brick pad & remembered I had denim in my drawer.Even analytical Allen thought they looked sharp.
I used the Stickles,gold,silver,Starry night on some firecracker patterned paper. It really added a pzazz Ialso used an old f/cracker stamp that I embossed,used some Stickles on it for the spark. I showed Allen these,so he could see why I wanted some more Stickles. He wanted to know how I did the f/crackers.

4 candle pours this week.

I poured candles,Wed. being my last day. I won't be making candles a/more. I'm on 0-2,Allen had to melt the big kettle of wax. It has to be watched & melted on low heat so wax doesn't catch on fire. He also had to spray the candle release into the molds o/side for me since it's smell bothers me. I don't have the patience or the fine dexitry to thread the wicks into the molds or to set up the votive molds(6 in a set.) I lost the Midas touch,my candles had pit marks on them which means I didn't get the melting temp. right
I made 3 container,12 molded & 24 votive candles. I also made green & red candle chunks to put into 1 pour of my candles.. I whipped some wax for 2 of the container candles. I made Laura a ice cream float using a Braums mug. She used to work there in H.S. It has a straw in it& the whipped wax looks like whipped cream on top.
Last night I got out the wax addtive for paints. I have 4 candles I poured clear for this purpose .
One has red & blue stripes,1 side left white,for July themed candle.Another multi-sided one has pink,purple blue& green colors w/ polka dots later added. The round pillar one I painted bright green. I later put a floral sticker border on it. I found some animated bug stickers on it. These will be fun for spring decorating in my L.rm. for small places. The last one I had some gold floral o/line stickers I put on Modge Podge to make sure they stay on. I added Diamond Stickles to the floral centers & a l/over blue jewel on a blossom.
All of my stuff is now packed up & ready to put up for sale. I want to sell it as a bundle,3 boxes of items. I need the money for supplies for my Iraq card project.