Some exciting news...

I couldn't resist playing along with this month's From Screen To Scrap Challenge (and just managed to enter it within the deadline... some things never change LOL). Just take a look at this gorgeous poster for inspiration:

I immediately fell in love with the poster, so much so, that I decided to just copy it. I mean, the orange stripes, the green title, the goofy couple LOL, it was just too awesome too change it.

These are my mom and dad when my mom was pregnant with me back in december 1971. My dad was acting silly again, like I was able to witness myself for many times to come once I was born LOL. I decided to give the LO a humourous touch and add some silly journaling and a silly title. For one reason or another, I had "responsible young drivers" in my head (isn't it funny how the mind works sometimes?)... Hence the title. I love the LO, my parents love it (yes, even my dad), so thanks for another great challenge Shazz!

Now for my exciting news ... Shazza graciously offered me a DT position on her ARTastic Challenge Team, which I happily accepted. Those of you who follow my blog know already how much I love her challenges, and I do hope that by being on the team I will inspire some of you to play along.

This month's inspirations comes from a Frida Kahlo painting, "Self Portrait with Monkey":


Now, I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of this painting, nor of the artist. I don't particularly like her work, but ... Shazza managed to draw inspiration from it and came up with rather easy criteria to win extra voting points:
1. A photo of you or your family member(s) with your pet(s)
2. Use shades of brown and orange
3. A single tropical flower or plant

Keeping these criteria in mind, following LO just made itself, and I'm totally in love with it!!

This is a picture of my husband Kurt and our German Shepherd Jenny, who passed away a little over 2 years ago now. Kurt and Jenny had a very special bond, which I think is truly visible in this picture.

I cut out the leaves and flowers from a piece of patterned fabric and hand stitched them to the page... this took me some time, but the result is so worth the effort, it looks awesome in real life! It doesn't exactly show in this picture, but I tried something different with my stitching this time.

This is a close up of my original stitching, which was pretty enough, but it thought it looked a bit too "clean".

So, I sanded the stitching ...


Again, it doesn't show well in this picture (and it's a bit blurry ... sorry!), but I assure you, it looks great in real life! It gives the stitching a kind of "dreamy" look, which went better with the feel of the page I was looking for. You should try it some time ... just make sure you don't sand too much, or you'll break the thread.

I used the same technique in one of my last year's LO's as well, which gives a clearer picture of the result:

Just click on the LO, and you'll see the effect of the sanding very clearly! I used a different type of thread here, which came apart more easily than the one in the "kind eyes" LO, this is why the result is slightly different...

So, I hope to see some of you play along this month, and if you do, don't forget to mention I sent you :-)))) You have until the 28th of September, midnight, to mail your entries to shazzaalleyes@hotmail.com.

Oh, and I almost forgot: thank you so much to all of you who took the time and made the effort to vote for the Tourette's advertisement, I so appreciate that! It didn't win, but it did help us gain some exposure for this syndrome, which is a good thing as well! So thank you my friends!

xxx Peggy