Back to life, back to reality...

I am currently in denial that School is about to start and that it's time for me to be back at work.  I've had the summer off and it was relaxing enough to make me feel refreshed and just busy enough that I didn't want to pull my hair out.  My oldest son starts grade three this year and he's happy to be going back to his old school and seeing his old friends that he's missed; my youngest son starts kindergarten this year and he can't wait for his school to start so he can ride the bus (meanwhile, mommy is still in denial that her baby is old enough to go to the 'big school'); and my little girl starts Headstart Preschool this fall as well and I can't believe how much she has grown this past year and the things she has picked up developmentally..sigh...can't we just keep them little forever :(. 
Strangely enough I'm looking forward to the teenager going back to school because I feel like we haven't seen much of him this summer and we seem to touch base more often and chat more often during our drives to/from school each day and I missed him even though he was right under our noses, I feel the need to reconnect.
Creatively I can't say as I've been taking advantage of these summer months to do much.  I didn't do much baking, crafting, or cardmaking.  About the only thing I took advantage of was my photography - taking wedding photos and vacation shots.  I made a summer to-do list and I procrastinated until the very end of summer in completing it (which is a good thing I guess since my priority was to hang out with my family, which I did!). 

I did finally get my creative juices flowing and finished two papercraft projects that I was very very happy with the final results.  I'll post the picture for the one project here: My Mad Hatter's Hat, which I will be teaching as a class for an upcoming crop.  At first I wasn't happy with the grungy modge podge look of it, but after a day or two I realized it worked for the final result and I'll keep it.

I loved the challenge of making this and the final result.  I made it completely from scratch using thin chipboard, papers, and embellishments.  So cute and it's inspired me to make a matching Hatbox to go with it!  I'll post pics when I get that project done.

Anyhow that's it for me this Friday afternoon, gonna enjoy my long weekend and hopefully get inspired to do a lot more crafting while the motivation and ideas are percolating in my brain.

Talk to you soon!!

Creatively Challenged!

It's a beautiful Friday morning here in High Level, Alberta..which isn't saying much because our weather is so typically Albertan that by this afternoon we could have thunder showers or even (dare I say it) snow!  You just never know.  Despite all that I love my hometown and I've always been proud to say that I hail from here. 

I've had a few other blogs and they just haven't seemed to stick so here's hoping better luck with this one.  The others weren't for me I think because they limited me, or rather I limited myself with themes, topics, and/or just used them to vent.  Not saying that I may not vent a time or two on here but for the most part I want this to be a positive virtual space where I can share all my many shades of creativity with you. 

To start I thought I would show you a project that creatively challenged me and was inspired by Susan Lui's 'Little Darlings' Mini Album on the G45 blog, you can see the post here.  http://g45papers.typepad.com/graphic45/2012/06/marvelously-magical-mini-albums-a-tutorial.html#entries

I loved the look of the mini album and wanted to figure out if I could do it myself.  I think that's where a large chunk of my personal creativity comes from..trying to figure out how things are done, put together, how different elements fit, and to be personally challenged to create something wonderful is truly a gift in itself.  I get so giddy when the end products actually look like I want them to or have worked out similar to the original inspiration.  I still doubt my skills a lot and I never seem to believe my stuff looks as good as the original but in the end, who cares.  I made it!

Anyhow here is the project I made, my very own 'A Ladies Diary' Mini Album.  My version is an 8x8 album made from the Graphic 45 'A Ladies' Diary' Paper Collection. I also made all the paper and ribbon flowers for the cover and I was very happy with the end result.  The album was made from scratch using Stampin' Up's Very Vanilla Cardstock, G45 papers, and various embellishments from Prima Marketing and Webster's Pages.  I love how it turned out in the end, now I just have to figure out what I'm going to add to the inside pages or who I'm going to gift it to..decisions decisions.

That's all for now, see you next time!

Tammy