A Beautiful Day

It is an absolutely gorgeous day here.  Not only is it the kiddos last day of school but it is Rascal's very last day of elementary school.  He is moving over to middle school in the fall.  Another milestone has been reached...

It worked out that I could be home from work today to pick up the kiddos so I am going to drag along my camera and see if I can get a decent pic of the kiddos last day.  Knowing my munchkins, I will be lucky to get even one of them smiling or looking at the camera.

Since I am home alone this morning, I decided that I was going to take the time to play.  I love colouring whether it is with Copics, Tombows, Distress Markers or just watercolours.  It is one of the easiest ways to make a homemade custom card and Tim Holtz's June tag is demonstrating this technique with his Distress Markers.  I only needed to figure out what stamps I wanted to use.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Prism Simply Smooth cardstock, Tim Holtz stamps, Archival ink, Distress ink, Distress markers, Jenni Bowlin paint dauber, and Distress stain.

The card turned out well and it is a very literal interpretation of Tim's Tag.  I decided that I wasn't going to deviate too much this time.

I am still playing with art journalling but my last couple of experiments haven't turned out as I had hoped.  They are unbalanced and seem to be lacking something.  I haven't been able to figure out what that something is yet.  I play a little with them, leave them for a while and then play a bit more.  I seem to be stuck.  I think it might be time to go back to working on layouts.  I have tons of new photos to play with -- from ComicCon, Rascal's birthday, the Star Wars Identities exhibit, Rascal's graduation from elementary school, Pumpkin's ballet and so much more...

Have a good Thursday and hopefully I will have a layout or two to share in the next couple of days.

Happy Birthday Rascal

Happy Birthday to my slightly wacky and always adorable Rascal.

Eleven years and counting.

The Month of May....

First things first, here is my May tag for the Tim Holtz's tags.  This was pretty much the only creative thing that I did this month.  I am just happy that I am still on track. So I am giving myself a pat on the back for at least getting this done.  Yay.

I honestly have no idea what I used this time around.  I just kind of grabbed a bunch of stuff and went and played.  I liked the idea of using rubons as resists.  I had some really nice white rubons that I want to try using.  Instead of using the film ribbon, I thought I would use an acetate silhouette of birds on a tree branch instead.  The only thing I am not sure about is the yellow lace.  It looks better IRL but looking at it now, I am not sure.

Anyway...the reason why I have not been very creative this month is because....this happened:

My parents came and visited.  One of the many things that we did while they were here was to try out a friend's restaurant.  It was amazing but I can't take my kids anywhere.

 

Thankfully, we pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves.

Then we did this:

 

And this:

And this...which was so cool.  And yes that is Nathan Fillon shaking hands with my daughter although you can't see her because of my back.

And then, I met him:

And then, her:

And then I ran into this kiddo and brought him home:

The kiddos raised these:

And over the long weekend, this happened:

Which was also incredible cool.  We missed seeing the first one emerge but we did see the second one.

Spring finally arrived this month and my lilacs were gorgeous:

We had lots of rehearsals preparing for my daughter's end of the year ballet.  The second set of grandparents came up to see her dance.

She was a woodland fairy in Peter Pan and she also had to do a character dance in the showcase.

And while the second set of grandparents were here, we had an early celebration for this kiddo.  Who is turning eleven very, very soon....too soon.  How did that happen?

I am not ready for him to be eleven yet.  Oh well.....bring on June and hopefully, more time to be creative.

Just Under the Wire

I almost dropped the ball this month.  The end of April just seemed to get here so fast.  I swear that yesterday was April 1st.  Crazy...that May is only one day away.  But happily, I did manage to get this month's Tim Holtz tag finished.

I need to thank Tim and Mario once again as well as Simon Says Stamps.  The gift certificate that I won on Tim's blog last year was the one I used to buy the stamp set used on this month's card.  I love this butterfly.

The marbling background is an interesting technique.  I think next time I will dilute the paints a bit more to give a more translucent look.

Even though May is going to be a busier month than April was, I am hoping to be able to keep up with the Tags.  At least I am keeping my finger's crossed.

Happy Tuesday.

A Star Wars Ballad

In a totally non-craft oriented post, I wanted to share my son's ballad that he wrote with his best friend.  They presented it in the Poetry Cafe at the school a while back.  These kiddos have talent:

Star Wars Ballad by R. and N.

In a galaxy far, far away
a cruiser went astray
Flew into Imperial space
Left, without a trace.

Two droids were on that ship
as it fell in a dip.
And the crucial plans
were put in their hands.

They got into a pod
Launched with a nod
Some troops saw them flee
To a planet with no sea.

They were put into captivity
As they past city to city
Finally sold to Owen Lars
They'd been freed from iron bars.

Met Luke Skywalker
Who was really a talker.
They found an old jedi
So they wouldn't have to die.

Followed a guide to Alderaan
But the planet got blown to sand
To rescue Leia was their mission
They returned to their position.

They blew up the station
To save their nation
But this wasn't the end of the empire
For they do not tire.

In a galaxy far, far away
A cruiser went astray
Flew into Rebel space
Left without a trace.

This boy just makes my geek heart so proud. :-)