Travelers Notebook - Hello Beautiful

This started with multiple project life cards

that totally fit this particular photo.

And it didn't quite need an entire page to celebrate.

Actually it's quite fun.

I also made that fuzzy paperclip - because it's fun.

 And there's the flip side - OUR NEW FRIDGE!

Which is beautiful.

And a long time coming.

We left last week to zip up to Lazy Days in Wildwood to

get a new fridge installed.

It was supposed to be 2 days - we stayed a week.

Of course.

The fridges that they make for RVs are really bad - 

REAL BAD.

They are tiny.

They don't keep a steady temperature.

They ruin food.

They make you crazy because they aren't reliable.

SO....

we had a residential fridge installed.

Yay!

However, because of that we also needed a new inverter

to keep the fridge cold when we are not plugged in.

It had to be ordered.

It had to be installed.

It happened to be the wrong part.

It had to be reordered.

It had to be installed.

It had taken a week total.

BUT, we were able to camp in the parking lot.

And we did whatever we wanted during the day and had

a spot overnight.

This fridge is a game changer.

It's the little things or in this case the big things.

Really old Studio Calico, Tim Holtz, WM puffy hearts

Travelers Notebook - double page spread

Superbowl Sunday - we had a blast!

Hanging out with our friends and what a delish spread

we had going on.

When I first put the TN together - I whacked up a lot of white pages

and then decided to toss in some colored pages.

I think they work pretty good together.

There is also a transparent overlay "good times" that I've had 

stashed FOREVER.

Watercolor album pages - scrapped!

Well I know you've seen these before.

Several times I'm sure.

However, they were so much fun I decided that

in some cases photos are now required to grace the pages.

Since I had an extra photo of our campsite and since  it

just fit perfectly on this page

that had already been stamped with a title

made it very easy to pull this page together.

 My psychedelic

winged granddaughter was perfect for

this wildly colored page.
Love the sentimentsand I handcut the title.

I KNOW.  

I've been totally watching way too

much of Lisa Fonseca on u-tube.

LOOK HER UP.

She hand-draws 

EVERYTHING.

and everything is stinkin'

ADORABLE.

But it works with the psychedelic vibe
 - LIKE totally.

I cannot express how hard it was for me to put that handmade title out there
because it's not "perfect."
(Like my pages are perfect LOL, but.....)

But I'm over that now and may do it more often.

 And the music man worked because it was already

titled "dream a little dream".

Owen could be a rockstar if

he keeps working at it  and practicing
one day he'll be a gifted musician.

Guitar, keyboard, sax (to name a few).

This book has been really fun.

From creating the watercolor pages to finding

the perfect photos to grace the pages

along with the perfect embellishments.

So stamps and diecuts and thickers and words and stickers.

Oh my........

Traveler's Notebook - surgery

Nothing life shattering - but carpral tunnel.

In both hands - no less - but I have been typing

for over 30 years and mousing forever - so there ya have it.

Anyway pictures were taken during surgery - it was laparoscopic.

In the second photo - that's the knife splitting the tendon.

Both hands were done within 2 weeks of each other

and is healing quite nicely.

No tingling, no sharp pain.

Now if there was only a simple solution for the dupuytrens

or viking hand. 

Fun stuff

😜

My new Traveler's Notebook.

Finally finished the previous one and needed to begin

a new one. I really like creating them myself 

because I can make it the size I want - but most importantly.

RINGS.

It allows for dimension, which I love,

however, I'm reallyreallyreally trying to keep it to a minimum.

😂 

Using some transparencies from the "I have no clue department

as to the mfg" 

but they look cool and go with the washi-tape.

I used some old cardboard box "lids" -

not quite "fitting" the size I want to roll with, so I've

used washi tape

around the edges to "finish" it.

I'm going to try to document more, better journaling.

Some to be seen, some to be hidden.

Hidden in this case means - NO room on the page

if I get windy LOL. 

 I decided layers would be fun - but I wanted

this post to be a bit private.

(yet I'm sharing with you).

 Love those layers, and the envelop for journaling.

This is to document the spreading of my mom's ashes

that was a long time coming.

All the pages are held together by that adorable butterfly

so you have to undo them to see what's behind the layers.

 I printed random, small photos, that may or

may have nothing to do with anything.

Concentrating on better journaling,

 taking random photos taken on the fly

or those photos I've stopped and taken

my time to get to go with the better journaling.

It all started with my rereading the "featured post"

at the top of and to side of my blog.

I had no idea how waxed poetic I was with that

post and found I really liked it.

Of course it may be an unrealistic goal but

what the hey - I have time,

if only the brain will start cranking. LOL.

Love that fish popping its head out of the water 

 determined to get the food being tossed by my

main man mostly to stir them up.

I documented that somewhere else, but I like

using the photo to document how long we've been

"on the road" - taking our house with us

wherever we go and taking our time

 to stop and smell the roses and breathing.

Enjoying the sights and scenes 

while flying down the highways and byways.

I've been using lots of leftover scraps, negative 

punched out papers, and hopefully using up one 6x6

paper pad at a time.

Mixed Media - Make a wish

This page with the black lines was done for the Monkey Man page.

The monkey was going to dangle on the page

and well it looked..stupid.

I abandoned this page until I came upon this photo

of my brother's birthday party rolling around in my embellishment bin.

 I am also using stash from my embellishment/die cut extravaganza and

these primary colored flowers are perfect for the photo.

The photo was actually printed on regular paper because I had

visions of using it in a junk journal. 

Since I'm not doing well with the junk journal thing it was perfect

for this page. 

Sadly, all I know in this photo is my brother (with the black 

suspender look) and I'm the cranky looking one

jealous of the attention he's getting. LOL.

Evidently I'm in trouble because everyone's looking my way.

Love the buttons galore tossed about. I happen to have

a jar in just primary colors.

Shazam.

Love the sequins and those itty bitty red bits. 

Adding a bit of color.

And no page is complete without some Tim Holtz words

topping it off. 

Project Life - Meteor Crater

This was such a cool site.

Privately owned by the Barringer family because

the patriarch back in the day thought he'd

find the actual meteor to mine.

Fooled him.

The meteor disintegrated.

I really love this PL page. 

It's easy to print the right size photo, I love

using Tim Holtz word strips and I got Tom in the pix.

Woohoo!

Project Life - Joshua Tree

I have had that screen forEVER, given to me

by my pal Holli for a project that it didn't make to.

It's perfect here.

 Used my funStudio Calico Stamps to create this fun journaling space.

 Added some Tim Holtz word strips.

I need to remember to start taking some "portrait" photos 

to fit into those pockets LOL.

Highlights from our trip into the park.

So many pretty sights and the infamous 4 wheelin' road.

It was a long drive.

Project Life page for Goldwell Open Air Museum

If you read my last post, it never alluded to the weird

size the project life pages are. 

This is the back side of Death Valley.

 The Last Supper and vignette of the crucifiction

just pulled me in.

The artist's rendition is soooo hauntingly beautiful.

This museum was on the way from Rhyolite on the

way to Death Valley........

Put all three on your bucket list.

Project lifestyle - Titan Missile Museum

It was really cool to see. 

How the cold war was kept at bay.

I used some Studio Calico envelope for the journaling

and to add the sticker I found at the gift shop.

 Funny story. 

I actually was supposed to have a blue tag

that came out sideways and you could

read it easily.

Well.

I mixed up the journaling because I happened

to be doing the 2 pages at the same time.

 Almost quite the multitasker so

when I discovered what I did, I switched tags.

 Fortunately the blue tag goes well with the new one.

Anyway, this missile site is the last one of it's nature

still standing.

Never firing, but still standing.

There were a bunch around Arizona and surrounding states

they have all be removed except for this one.

Really cool history.

Peace through deterence.

TN - Christmas and Grandkids

Using some Tim Holtz and Hip Kit club stuff

I made a double spread.

Combining most all the grandkids in a 

couple of photos.

I actually jumped around in the notebook 

to find papers that would be perfect with the theme.

Looks like everyone was ready for Santa's visit.

Mini Wedding Album

Of course it's the one on the beach and of course

I'm using beachy stuff.

I totally had an ah-ha moment when I first started.

I glued paper to the front page, didn't like it

and ripped it off.

AND THEN - it became a shabby chic moment.
Since it was a gift, I added 

ALL MY FAVORITE PICTURES.

 Mostly, because I could of course, and because

there were a finite number of pages 

(or it gets cumbersome and ugly) 

I wanted to get everyone in and tell a story.

 I'm not going to mention here that one of the 

pages got flipped and was now out of order so I'm

rolling with I planned it that way 😏

 Those really are shells and I'm worried about

their shelf life, but paper ones just didn't look the same.

 I did send everyone all my pix so they can pick and choose

their favs and are so not stuck with mine.

Of course the back needed just a little something.

This was a mix of paint, papers (I can't ID - but either

Studio Calico or Pink Fresh or Basic Grey

it's all I have in my stash and assorted stamps, 

Tim Holtz words and seashells, netting and sea glass from M's.

The bride and groom loved it.

Whew.

Rocking the gold - Rawr

There are times I have trouble working with gold

while others just plunk it down and go on.

Well....

When I saw this photo, the gold word title that came

in the kit was perfect.

And shazam there was the perfect paper too.

Love these three photos of the faces of Sam

who is now five.

He does love his super heroes.

Nothing special going on.

Backed the photos with tissue paper and a frame.

Studio Calico, Tim Hotz words.

White thread and splatters

I have used my sewing machine before

but this is the first time I just ran it around on the

pages making out of control circles.

Me and Nick - another throwback photo.
(it's not that dark in real life)

Love how it turned out - really simple and fun

with the circles.

Using the chipboard as a title next to some

Tim Holtz words.

Studio Calico.

Foam stamps and enamel paint

I have a ton of them because at one point

foam stamps were totally 

en vogue for scrappers everywhere.

So, I broke out an old, old set that came as a 

kit of the month, named as "Not your ordinary stamp set."

It has everything in it, from month stamps, flowers and 

stuff in all shapes and sizes.

 I then took out my studio calico color theory paints

and wa-la (except for white) that I wasn't using much and

look at those vibrant colors.

I need to work on my painting skills but I do love the result. 

Nuvo drops in gold are the flower centers.

So wild, bold, and colorful on kraft paper.

I love kraft paper.

I made a mat cluster with that amazing gold doily

(doily and tag people LOL)

to highlight the small photo

of my gram with my favorite eldest son - so

that would be his great grandmother -Mammy - he

had trouble with G's. 

Mom, Nick and I were bringing Mammy back to Florida

for a visit and Nick just needed out of his

car seat for a moment - and of course she sat in the

back with him.

It was fun to have her with us.

The title doesn't stand out here but works in real life.

Tim Holtz words that say it all.

And, could I resist another doily

Um, no.

No buttons though.

This page sort of just happened starting

with me cutting our the word "love" from the 

specialty paper from the candyland kit.

 Because I obssess about the goofiest things

I had to put strips across the top there even though

it was a sort of fade.

I neeeeeeed to have something on those type of lines.

 Little die cut cluster going on to the left.

Wedding photos of me and the hubs - I think I've only done

one other photo. I took a bunch but these few say it all.

We did have a small honeymoon and I took photos but this

was back in the day of non-digital cameras so

the quality of some of them is not so hot and I have

since taken better shots.

I didn't splatter this one either.

Hmm...I could change that and looking

at it, it could use some enamel dots.

These just say it all.

Studio Calico.

Did some layering

It just sort of evolved after layering PL cards all together

with no other plan in mind except

I did want a grid design with 3 sets.

 I even added all the embellishments and without

worrying about if it would be too weird

to have a pig on the page.

An adorable pig but a pig nonetheless.

 So after everything was on the page I realized

hmmm where was the title to go and

journaling. Tim Holtz tiny words to the rescue for journaling!

And then, the title just rolled and I found photos of

Miss Amelia when she was a tot (she's gonna be 7 soon)

sheesh, but these photos of her exploring the

beach was a good one to go with the tag
because how adorable is she.

I love these tags and there's more to come.

I know you're excited.

Studio Calico.

I just love this ant paper

that seriously, who loves ants really LOL!

Anyway its totally cute and

since I didn't have a picnic photo to go with

which would be totally too predictable.

So.....

 So what goes well with black and white?

RED.

I love red. 

It's my favorite color but you wouldn't know it

by looking in my closet.

Love this photo of Annie and Owen in the woods

and Owen giving Annie a brotherly smooch.

Since I couldn't find the word smooch the size of kiss

well........there ya go.

Studio Calico, Tim Holtz, Spellbinder die and punch.

Love this paper with 6x12 size

This paper is very fun, I love the bright colors.

I changed up the size because of the size

of the photo which is 3.5x5 it stands out more.

 I kept the embellishments simple and

backed everything on navy blue card stock.

Adorable photo of Lou and I love the jaunty tilt of his hat.