A Monkey of a Birthday Card

I made this card for Cole to give to Kelsey for her birthday. The sentiment was perfect and was a fitting match to the sock monkey paper I'd bought ages ago with Kelsey in mind!

It also worked for Use it Tuesday's latest challenge to use two hoarded items. First, there's the monkey paper I'd already mentioned. Then, there's the die-cut quote which came from a sheet of birthday die-cuts that have sat forgotten in my embellie folder for years. The buttons are also old, from a Basic Grey kit of long-ago. The orange patterned paper and baker's twine are both new, but still leftover scraps from recent layouts. So that brings the tally to three hoarded items, two scrap items. Not bad for a little card!

Scrapbooking as Therapy

On a school morning, not that long ago, I had some issues getting Cole off the computer. Transitions have been particularly tricky lately and this day was a prime example. Even so, his outburst caught me off guard and rattled me more than usual.

Neither the quiet drive back home nor the scenic-yet-heart-pumping dog walk afterwards could calm me down. There was a layout brewing in my troubled, shaken mind. I had a title, I had tidbits of the journaling. I did not have the sketch mapped out, but I knew there had to be paint and ink and I wanted my hands coated in both before it was done.

I made the scalloped borders with my Cricut (the actual cartridge, I'm unsure of at the moment). I thought they looked a little like rainbows. So I misted them with rainbow colours, but made sure they were in splotches instead of long, symmetrical ribbons. I felt this represented my mood, and autism in general, more accurately. The hand started out as a sideways fist, as if it were pounding on the wall, but that didn't show up too well.

I left the journaling to the end. Originally, I wanted to write directly onto the page and use 1/3 to 1/2 of the page for it. Yes, I had that much to say. But all of the inking, painting, misting, the mess and the creating focused and refined what I needed to say. Using the journaling cards allowed me to use a stamp I have that my broken rainbows reminded me of, "Count your rainbows, not your thunderstorms." And just like that my tone and perspective changed:

I goofed up, slacked off a bit. It happens.

He freaked out. It happens. Sometimes it happens even when he's given ample time and warning.

Really, it comes down to having the tools to cope; sure-fire ways to stay calm or calm down and release the tension, anger, frustration, disappointment and all-around deflated self-worth. I, for one, have a few tricks up my sleeve. Music helps, walking is good, but it's my problem solving hobbies that wield the most success lately, and that would be gardening and scrapbooking. The messier the better.

Yes, I called scrapbooking a problem solving hobby. You have a message, a moment in time, maybe some pictures. You want to put them all together, make them look pretty, make them tell a story. How are you going to achieve this goal? Therein lies the problem to be solved.

Often, I don't scrap about whatever is bothering me. There is just this unspoken need to take some quiet time where I can create, get messy and make something pretty. Other times, it is about literally working through whatever my troubles are. Either way, I find it very therapeutic and very necessary. I won't even try to sell it as being cheaper than traditional therapy. I'm not truly convinced that it is. But it is far more satisfying for me!

Just to clarify, I don't often talk about Cole's autism. He was diagnosed as mild-to-moderate autistic and I know our struggles are equally mild compared to what many other parents have to face. So I try not to whine and complain, but I do need to work on admitting that while it could be a lot tougher, what I go through sometimes is pretty tough all the same.

Keeping perspective is key to me. Autism explains his behaviour at times, it is not to blame and it does not solely define him as a person. Neither will it define me as a parent.

Oh yes. I have, on occasion, given the finger right back to autism!

Double Inspiration for Double Trouble.

I quite fancy this layout of mine. Maybe it's the subject matter, maybe it's all the wonderful product, maybe I'm just so happy I got this picture and captured this story. Then again, maybe it's all three!

Ok, a little info about the product first. I love, love, love Bo Bunny's Double Dot line! This is the second or third layout where I've used it as the background paper. The colours are yummy and the patterns are perfectly neutral (or maybe it's more understated and distressed) for backgrounds, matting or diecutting/paper piecing.
Then there's My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose. I've been drooling over this line for a while and finally broke down on my last shopping trip and grabbed my favourites, two of which I used on this layout.
And the matte for my title? That's from the Simple Stories line, which just started showing up at my LSS's and I'm assuming is a new company. This matte was from a sheet of flash cards. So far, I'm really liking their stuff!
Now, you can see Double Trouble in the picture; that would be Scott and Cole. But the double inspiration I'll have to explain a little. See, this layout has inspiration from two different sources. First off, I used this Pagemaps sketch from waaaaayyyy back in November of 2009 to get started:

I've used my sketch book a bit more lately, as I've been having troubles getting started on some recent layouts. My Pagemaps archives have been particularily helpful!

The second bit of inspiration would be in the title. Last month, Lora did a blog post on using her Dymo label maker and mine has been on my mind ever since. This just seemed like the perfect place to add a little Dymo magic!

Oh, and something that is just all me: "finger painted" inking in the background of the title block.

Supplies I Can Recall: Paper - BoBunny, My Mind's Eye, American Crafts, Simple Stories. Stamps - BoBunny and unknown stars. Twine and Paperclip - Making Memories. Button - Basic Grey. Ink - Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress inks. Fonts - Cricut and Dymo. Ricrac ribbon - superdooper thrift store find.

Practice

This is Kelsey's first season of softball. Scott is very excited about this. He loves that the kids have both taken an interest in one of his passions, something he can teach them a thing or two about. I snapped these pics while watching them from the porch.
Admittedly, baseball isn't one of my passions, but that didn't stop me from having fun creating this layout! I put some scrap cardstock through a crimper, grazed it over my Versamark pad and embossed it for a rough, corrugated cardboard look and then tore along the edges. The title is chipboard letters that I inked.

The scrap paper I used while inking the letters ended up looking really cool, so I just had to use it for a journaling block!

Products I Can Recall: Patterned paper: Echo Park. Cardstock: American Crafts. Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door. Chipboard letters: Making Memories. Embossing powder: Zing.

Coach Dad

So, in my last post, I shared the troubles I was having with my spending freeze and the decision I made to lift it. On Thursday, I made the trip out to one of my favourite LSS's with a list of layouts I needed supplies for, including the one of Scott's year as Cole's assistant ball coach. I'm very happy with the results: All the paper, except for the navy cardstock, is new Bo Bunny. The journaling tag is from a Jenny Bowlin set I found in the sale bin. The Thickers were already in my stash.

It feels really good to have finally completed this page with results I'm so happy with.

The Challenge....Revisited.

It was 17 days ago. That's when I posted about my scrappy spending freeze challenge. Friday night I sat in my studio, feeling quite defeated. I wanted to scrap. I was out of new pics. So, I decided to tackle the layout of Scott's year as Cole's assistant ball coach, that Scott has not-so-patiently been waiting for.

There's still a ton of cardstock and patterned paper. Not one scrap of it would work. It was either the wrong colour, wrong pattern or wrong dimension. None of my inks, paints or mists could sufficiently alter any of it. Every idea I came up with to "make it work" just did not make me happy. They all felt like too much of a compromise.

I later shared my disappointing news with Scott. He simply told me, "I guess we'll have to get you out for some scrapbook shopping this week."

Huh? "But I'm on a spending freeze." I argued. "I feel bad. There's still so much stuff up there!"

"You told me you weren't going to buy any more until you'd used up what you could of what you had. Obviously, you've used up what you can."

Normally, I would have argued this point further. But truth be told, he was right in this instance and the only thought I had was how I really needed to learn to think more like a guy sometimes.

"Well," I thought outloud, "maybe I've got so much stuff because I need to do a better job purging out the old stuff I'll never use."

Silence. That's code for "You got it!" Ok, sometimes it's code for, "I'm giving up on this because you're going to argue no matter what I say" but this time I'm pretty sure it was the first option.

So, does this mean failure? I'm not sure. I spent 17 days without even feeling the need to purchase any scrappy items and in that same time created roughly 5 layouts (I never thought to keep count). That's pretty good. And there's still future layouts I could easily make with the supplies I have on hand. The stuff I want to keep. That's good too.

But baseball layouts? No. And with both kids playing ball this year, I will at least need more paper to work with.

I'm not saying I've given up completely on my challenge. It just needs a bit of a reassessment. My studio needs a serious purge. I need to be making mindful purchases, such as individual sheets of patterned paper I love, over kits that I will tire of before they're used up. I also need to cut myself a little slack when the deal of the day sites all get it right at the same time and allow me to stock up on the basics for cheap.

So I'm going to stop calling it a spending freeze. Instead, I'll call it mindful spending and it will no longer be a timed challenge, but an ongoing effort. Anyways, being consistently diligent in my spending and using up of scrapbooking supplies will get me a lot further in the long run than short spurts of freezing my spending.
In theory, anyways!

Do Less. Do It Better.

Saturday was a very productive and enjoyable day for me. It was beautiful outside and I'd heard reports of rain on Sunday, so I got to some yard work I'd been itching to do for a while. Because it was so nice out, I decided to take breaks between my chores on our beautiful new patio furniture, under the shade of the gazebo. This whole work/play rotation brought a balance to my day that I haven't felt in a long, long time. I couldn't put it into words, but it just felt good!

During one of these breaks, I brought out my laptop. While reading an article on Paperclipping I happened on this link recommended by Noell. Now, normally I'd steer clear of any blog named The Happiest Mom (I have this fear and high suspicion of anything that even remotely hints at some June Cleaver-esque euphoria), but the title caught my attention. And there it was; the exact words to what had made my day so perfect. Do fewer things. Do things better. Well smack my head and hand me a V8, why, oh why couldn't I put something as simple as that into words?

And just like that, the ideas started brewing for a layout. Here's the journaling:

On a sunny, warm Saturday, I took advantage of the weather and my family being busy. I did dog duty in the backyard. I raked the front garden. I did some dishes and some extra loads of laundry. I took care of what needed to be done. And that was enough.

When that was all done I again took advantage of the weather and my family being busy. I set up the patio furniture cushions. I made more coffee. I read the paper, surfed the net and snuggled with Lilah on the patio. And that was alright.

Admission: this picture was not taken on the date shown on this layout. It was taken a week or two before, just after we set up the furniture. Lilah came and jumped up to test out it's comfiness with me so I got Kelsey to snap the shot. However, it was perfect for this layout.






And see that flower? You don't know how long it's taken me to figure those darn things out! All this time I was trying to glue the ends together completely wrong!

Other tidbits: I Glimmer Misted the Thickers, which started out leaf green. All of the paper is a combination of Basic Grey's Ambrosia and My Mind Eye's Meadowlark collections, including the diamond which is actually a MME die-cut frame.