Are you sure? (April Scrap the Girls Challenge)

Happy Saturday my blogging friends!

I finished this latest LO for the April Challenge over at Scrap the Girls.

Christina decided one day she wanted to have her ears pierced. Chloë, her older sister, had her ears pierced a while before, but Christina chickened out then ... I have to tell you, she's not good with pain, and I do mean any pain, big or small ... even the thought of pain is known to have triggered panic attacks ... well, all this to say we were pretty surprised when she asked for earrings! Giving what I just told you, I must have asked 10 times if she was really sure she wanted to do this (hence the title "Ben je zeker", which means "Are you sure?", and ... she was! So off to the store we went, and she was soooo confident, she had made up her mind not to cry and to totally go for it, as you can see in the first two pictures. The only thing the lady had used by then was something to desinfect her ears and a marker to pinpoint where to "shoot". Now I soooo totally love that third picture LOL, this is her expression when she first saw the tool they were going to use to actually make the holes. I was so sure she was going to back down by then, but she persevered ... The fourth picture was a lucky shot, I took it just as they were applying pressure ... can you tell she's totally regretting her decision by then LOL. Good thing they do both sides at the same time now, otherwise I'm sure she would have been walking around with just one earring LOL. Well, no need to explain the last picture I guess, this was the final result ... she let out a horrible scream and started crying uncontrollably. This lasted at least 10 minutes, and the after-crying (I don't know the english expression for that) lasted another 20. Don't worry, by then I had put down my camera to comfort her LOL. The lady in the shop must have thought I was the worst mother ever, taking pics of my little one like that LOL. Still, I'm so glad I took these pics. Mind you, Christina wasn't all that thrilled about me putting them on the net LOL.

The journaling reads, from left to right:
* Don't worry, I want this
* I'm sure!
* Oh my, are they going to use that device on me?
* Help!!!! They are pressing that thing onto my ears!
* Awwwww, I'm sure I so didn't want THIS!

Like I said, this is a very simple LO to make. I went for a simple horizontal design, because I really wanted to emphasize the sequence of the photos. I sanded the pics and double matted them. I distressed all the papers (I'm not sure but I think they were "My Mind's Eye") with my scissors and inked them with Ranger's Walnut Stain distress ink, and added some stitches to give the whole some texture. For the same reason, I pop-dotted some of the journaling circles. The alphas are American Thickers.

Thanks for looking!
Hugs xxx Peggy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA!!!!!

In my previous posts I mentioned Lisa, one of the most entertaining bloggers to be found in blogland. Her blog is awesome, her stories are funny, beautifully written and so easy to relate to, and more than that, she simply is a lovely lady.

To celebrate her birthday, she's giving away some blog candy. All she asks in return for a chance to win is to leave her a comment. Not obligatory, but I would highly recommend it, you won't regret it (I promise!!!) is to start following her blog. I hope all of my friends will do just that, I would love to see her number of followers hitting the roof!

Anyway, here's a link to her blog-candy-post. Just look at all those goodies that just might find their way to you ...
http://lisathoward.blogspot.com/2009/04/gift-for-you-to-celebrate-aka-rak.html

Happy birthday my friend!
xxx Peggy

Second LO for Songbird Scraps April Challenge

Hi everyone,

The lyrics for the second challenge this month over at Songbird Scraps are up, so be sure to check them out, you just might find the inspiration you need to make yourself a little masterpiece and win a prize while doing it!

Here's my example. I was inspired by these lyrics:
"I found the place I'm meant to be, I figured out my destiny at last" from the song "The Captain" by Kasey Chambers.


Not much to tell about the how-to of this LO, I layered, distressed and inked the papers, and for the fence I painted and inked some clothes-pegs.

I will try to translate my journaling for those who are interested:

When I was young, I only had one vision of the future: house, garden, tree, kids, ... But when I had it all, I started to doubt...

Staying at home to raise the kids wasn't my idea, but my husband refused even to think about children otherwise. Against all expectations (I really loved my work...) I loved staying at home and look after the children. Still, I felt guilty most of the time. To me, it felt like I was "being kept" by my husband, and though I worked long hours - that happens when you have 3 children in a 2,5 year period - I didn't feel at all comfortable with the fact I wasn't contributing anything financially and with being so totally dependant on my husband.

When my third child started school, I immediately took a job to go cleaning houses several times a week, nobody was going to blame me to be a lazy wife with too much spare time on her hands! However, my life started to not feel right ... I was always cleaning, if not someone else's house, I was cleaning my own ... had I gone to school and get a nice diploma for that? The domestic chores which in the past I liked doing didn't give me any satisfaction anymore. On the other hand, I was feeling so guilty about my own negative feelings about my life ... I had a home, 3 healthy children, a happy marriage, what more can you want?

Now I love my life again and I'm feeling happier than ever. What has changed then? For starters, I've given up my cleaning work, and that has been my best decision ever! I'm back to enjoying my housework here in my own home, and I'm finally starting to realise that what I do here at home is important as well, and that how I feel and act has an effect on my entire family. Not everyone should stay at home to raise their children, but for us this has been the best solution, I realise that now. And should it ever be necessary financially for me to start working again, I'll try and find something I learned for, a place of work I can enjoy and which will satisfy me. I have spent to much time worrying about my duties, ignoring me in the process. I finally realise I matter in this family too. I'm finally making time for me (scrapping and fitness), something I haven't done for so long, and that has made all the difference in the world. I now realise how fortunate I am. I'm happy, my husband's happy, my children are happy ... I LOVE MY LIFE!

Well that's it. I wish I could have expressed myself a bit better, I'm not a very good writer, I tend to jump from one thought to the other without any structure at all, and that shows in my writing, but I think I've said it all here. This feeling of guilt about not going to work has been something I had been struggling for for years. There aren't all that many SAHM here in Belgium, and there have been times I was ashamed to admit I did not have a job. Long written conversations with some new-found scrapping American friends have made me come to terms with it though. More than that, they have made me realise how fortunate I am to be living the life I'm leading. I would especially like to thank April, Jodi and Marta, you have no idea how much impact you've had on my life! I feel so lucky to have met you!

Wow, I'm getting all emotional here. If you've made it all the way down here, thanks for listening, I appreciate it. Support has been given to me from such unexpected places, I feel so grateful to have met all you wonderful ladies.

xxx Peggy

Songbird Scraps April Challenge

The first lyrics for this month's challenge over at Songbird Scraps are up, go check it out, the girls of the design team have done their best to inspire you, and hopefully some of you will give this challenge a try... The April prize for the winner hasn't been revealed yet, but I'll keep you posted on that one!

April lyrics:

Pete Murray – Opportunity…
Don't be scared of what you cannot see
Your only fear is possibility
Never wonder what the hell went wrong
Your second chance may never come along
Hold on now your exits here
It's waiting just for you
Don't pause too long
It's fading nowIt's ending all too soon you'll see

Hunters and Collectors - Throw Your Arms Around Me...
I dreamed of you at night time
And I watched you in your sleep
I met you in high places
I touched your head and touched your feet
So if you disappear out of view
You know I will never say goodbye
And though I try to forget it
You will make me call your name
And I'll shout it to the blue summer sky

When I read the lyrics of this first song, it's first two sentences immediately made me think of this awesome quote by Marianne Williamson. I first heard this quote in the movie "Coach Carter" with Samuel L. Jackson, and I remember being so struck by this I just had to write it down in my little quote book. I definitely wanted to use this in my LO, and at first I intended to make a journaling tag, but later on decided to make it the main part of the LO and use it as a background. If you click on the pic, you should be able to read it.


Though it doesn't look like anything I've made before, I'm so happy with the way this LO turned out. I probably shouldn't say this about my own work, but I just love this one!

How to:

For the background, I started out with really ugly (and really cheap) pp featuring some kind of landscape and a huge blue skye. I really didn't like it and thought I'd never use it. To my own surprise, it was the first paper I reached out for, and though I didn't have a clear view of what I was going to do beforehand, when I saw this paper, inspiration hit me. I first layered some parts of the paper with a slight layer of gesso, just to make sure my paints would stick, but leaving some of the background visible. I then started masking the butterflies, first with blue, later on adding different colours. I was actually very surprised how easy it is to mask with paints, there's even no need to attach the mask to the page. I simply put it on and started painting, taking it away and putting it back on if I wanted to add another colour. I added some blues to the rest of the sky, just light touches, to give it some more depth.
I knew I wanted to use chipboard frames for the smaller pics, so I painted them in the same colours I had used for masking the butterflies. This presented the problem that the smaller pics had a beautiful frame, which left the big picture kind of lost on the LO, which is why I painted some sort of red "frame" on the background paper. It still looked a bit unbalanced, but a quick white doodled frame solved that problem.
There was still too much blue, overwhelming the LO, so I added some reds and yellows on top.
I was now ready to write down the quote, a pretty scary moment, so much can go wrong there! I decided to make straight lines and was pretty surprised to find that you can simply erase pencil lines off of the paint.
I had expected this pretty lengthy quote to go all the way down, but was left with a huge open space at the bottom. I thought about adding some flowers to give the LO some more texture (it's a pretty flat LO), but decided to stick with painting... I painted some green stripes, added some red and yellow dots and voila, my flowers were created. I actually felt proud that my childlike dabbering could turn out so perfect (in my eyes anyway LOL).

Now though I wanted this LO to be messy and chaotic, I just can't help myself, I need structure!!!!! Without some sort of frame around the LO, it just doesn't look finished in my eyes, so I started painting some of the edges in the corners and added some stamped swirls.

It's not so visible here, but on the large photo I added the first two lines of the lyrics. I deliberately used white because I wanted the lines to be in the LO, but I still wanted the main focus to be on the quote I used.

To finish it of, I wrote the title down on a cereals' box, cut it out and painted it, easy peasy.

Wow, quite a lengthy post, I think by now I've bored you long enough ... that can happen when you wake up at 5 in the morning and decide against going back to bed LOL, blame it on my insomnia!! Well, time to officially start my day and get some work done...

Love xxx Peggy