Clearing Off My Workspace

I decided this week to clear off my workspace. How does it all pile up! I was once told that at the end of every project, you should clear your workspace before you start a new project. I have never been very good at that . Also it is the place I drop things that next to be put when there isn’t time to do it now.

So I moved everything from my work table to my dining room table. OK. It will have to get sorted now. Some things to throw out. Some things to give away. Sounds good. Oh but I could make a card from that. Where did that come from? That belonged to Matt when he was three. I can’t get rid of it. Now where does it really belong.

OK piles. I can put all the ribbon ends in the ribbon box. Feels good. Those stickers belong in Ganny’s Tickle bag for grandchildren crafts. Oh that would make a nice card.

Alright I didn’t get back to the piles and stopped and made this card. We need to create each day right. The card was made from left over scraps from a project I did last year and some Tim Holtz embellishments that my friend Kim gave me. I think it makes a nice masculine card to encourage someone special.

Well back to the table tomorrow and see what headway I can make. I think this will be a long process. I really don’t want to get rid of anything.
Created using My Mind’s Eye, Sunshine Memories Blossoms Paper from the Lost and Found Two series and Sprockets from the Tim Holtz idea-olgy Sprocket Gears.

What are you doing to make your space better this week?

Welcome to 2013

Well another year has come and gone. I am happy with my accomplishments for 2012.

• I gathered information of our family genealogy to pass on to my grandchildren.
• We took a cruise to Alaska with two of our grandchildren.
• We discovered KOA Camping Cabins and had two very interesting camping trips.
• I studied several really good books on faith with a group at our church. This later item has lead me on a different voyage.

I desire more joy in my life. The Bible gives us the promise that “the joy of the Lord is our strength” I work out with a trainer each week to try to keep my body strong. But there is a different kind of strength that we need in these turbulent times. The strength to seek peace when the world seems to spiral around us.  The inner strength to withstand sickness.  I am sure I will find many other forms of strength as I study this year.

I have decided to seek joy in 2013 since joy seems to be the root of strenth. I am not sure what this voyage will entail but I will seek to understand the meaning of joy and I am sure I will travel into creativity as I search.

January 1. Two years ago I got a painting set for Christmas. In the past 24 months I have not found the time or desire to open the box and try to paint something. Yesterday was the day of new beginnings so I took the plunge. It was a really enjoyable time. As I started with yellow in the top corner, I had no idea where it would lead. This is the result. I am well pleased in this beginning.

 

 

January 2nd Today I have started to build my own definition of joy. Here is one that I found on the internet.

Noun

A feeling of great pleasure and happiness.
A thing that causes joy.

Synonyms

delight – gladness – pleasure – mirth – rejoicing

 

I think this has more to do with rejoicing with gladness than it does in pleasure and mirth.  I look forward to seeing what this year will bring.

I look forward to hearing what others think about joy and its relationship to strenth.

Step Ten Join Me on a Journey

I seem to have lost my way. What with getting ready for Christmas, flu and colds, and basic busyness, I just got right off the path that I had been working on. This project has gone on longer than I had originally thought it would.

I want to have photographs of all of the grandparents that I have been writing about. I am looking for old albums that seem to be hidding somewhere. I remember a photograph of one of the weddings. It used to be hanging on my grandma’s dining room wall. I sent several emails out, and I finally know who has the picture. Now I am just trying to get a copy sent to me. I will continue to work on getting the photos together.

The next step for me was to put together a family tree. I thought of several different ways to do this. I could use some printed sheets and put on all the details dates etc. I decided that the easiest way, to begin,  was to just do the names.

I drew out all the grid and put in all the names with pencil. This way I was able to erase and make changes as I needed to. Then I created the background right over my writing on both pages with blue and yellow gelatos. When the colours were dry I went over all the lines and names with a black marker. To finish it off I used a blue big brush pen to embellish around the boxes. The final touch was to add the word “Family” and a little silver to the edge of the pages. . I thought that doing the page simply would make it easier for my grandchildren to follow and understand.

I am going to close off this project for now. I will come back to it next year and do the same steps for my husbands grandparents and then I will combine the two family trees. There is still much work to be done but I want to move onto some other things for 2013.

Watch for my postings on JOY!! this year. I feel a need to better understand joy. The Bible tells us that …”The joy of the Lord is our strength” I could sure use more strength in my life. I will be searching out the concept of joy as we move into 2013. I’m not totally sure what form that will take but I am ready to try.

Pre-Christmas Sale

A Special Invitation For You

To Our

online Pre-Christmas Sale

November 23 – Nov 30

Our Christmas Gift to You

Super Specials are limited items, so first come first served. Prices are as marked. Shop early so you won’t be disappointed.

20% off all regular priced items -Your invoice will be discounted and a copy sent to you before payment. This is a great time to stock up on staples like adhesives and cardstock.

Clearance Section Prices are clearly marked on the website 50% – 70% markdowns

● Assortment packages regular $19.99 now only $5.00
● My Little Shoebox selected collection – 50% OFF

Flat fee of $10. for Canada Post Shipping on all orders during this sale. Orders will all be shipped on Nov 30.

Pay by paypal, cheque, COD ($8.00 charge), email transfer, or cash

Arrangements can be made to pick up your order, after Nov 30th ,in the Ottawa area or Petawawa area

Just go to http://www.croptopia.com to start shopping.

Croptopia Scrapbooking will be closed from Dec 1 to Dec 31.so that we can prepare and celebrate Christmas with our families. All orders placed during that time will be processed on January 1st.

Check out the calendar on Meetup.com for 2013 schedule. We have now added events in Vars and Pembroke. More events will be added as the details become known.

May the Christmas Season
be a time of Joy and Relaxation for you and your family.

Susan and Matt and our families.

—

An Attitude of Gratitude

On November 1st, 2012 a friend of mine started a very interesting blog. It is entitled “An Attitude of Gratitude” Each day she publishes an inspirational message to encourage thanksgiving and creativity. A Bible verse and a technique are posted with each message. I have been following this although I got behind at the first. Today I will publish the first seven days now that I have completed them. I started by creating a 6 x 6 paper bag album. This is the cover that I made using papers from Canvas Corps.

Cover of journal

My challenge for Nov 1 was to use a colour that I didn’t usually use. I chose red which I incorporated into the background. I journaled about things that give me joy.

On Nov 2, I was challenged to make more of the moment and use circles or squares to create the page. I used circles and put a clock face on each one. To make the most of each moment we need to move slower and take a deep breath.

In Nov 3 we were encouraged to use free hand drawing to exemplify creativity. I started by decorating a pocket page. I answered questions about creativity on the backs of three tags and popped them into the pocket.

On the opposite page our challenge was to do a free hand drawing. I drew a picture of my hands working on a quilt. I thank God for the creativity He has put in me.

Nov 4 was a day to focus on the verse “A time to every purpose”. I used a tree stamp and stamped the tree in the four seasons. I used my pens to colour in the leaves, flowers and snow flakes.

Nov 5 For this page I used spray inks for the back ground and then stamped over with archival black ink. I then tried to use a wet brush to lift off the centre of the flowers. It didn’t work too well, so I painted in the petals and put Stickles in the middle. The verse reminds us to give thanks to the Lord.

Nov 6 We reminded to be thankful for the technology that makes out life so much easier. For the page, I started by spraying the background with green. The kraft paper already had words running across. Then I used a mask to over spray with red. While the mask was still wet, I turned it over and stamped the other side of the page. Then I put my message on craft paper and wrote the verse and title with white pen.

I really enjoyed working on this project this week. Watch next Thursday for me to upload the next week. Please comment and let me know what you think of what I have done here.

Step Nine: Join Me On A Journey

This has been an interesting couple of weeks. Life got busy and I totally missed last Friday. But I am back on track today.
I have comleted adding the vital statistics to my memories of my grandparents. Some of them were listed in the old family Bible I received from my sister. The rest I got by contacting a cousin who is into genealogy. I thought my grandparents had been married in England before they came to Canada and was surprised to learn they had not been married until they moved to Winnipeg Manitoba. I think there is a story in there but I am not sure at this point how to go about finding out the details.
The next step in the journey will be to start going through old albums and getting copies of photographs of these dear people. I will also contact family members to see what they have.

I haven’t worked on my art journaling much lately but finally got down to it last night. I find it very interesting to watch the page develope. I don’t really know where I am going until it is finished.

First I covered the background in shades of yellows with my gelatos. I find them so much fun to use and I love the results. Then I used several masks to first put some muted blue squares and then some prominent spots on the page. I used my Sew Easy Stamper to put a scallop down the left side. It then seemed that a funny little butterfly was needed.

At this point I had no idea where I was going. I thought I would try a person. I cut some patterned paper and tried to decide how I would draw the arms, legs and head. I drew a head and put on a face and penned in some hair. I did not like the face at all. I then cut some wings from the scraps on my table and went to be.
I woke up in the morning and knew exactly what I wanted. I cut out a face of my grand-daughter. It looked cute but her face didn’t cover the hair I had penned in. This little circle with a heart was sitting on the table. When I put the face peeking though, it was just what I wanted.

I put little silver glitter shoes on her and added glitter to the spots at the top of the page and pink glitter to the wings.

She is the angel that reminds me to smile. She is so filled with joy. And now I understand the butterfly. She loves butterflies. She is like a butterfly as she flits joyfully from one activity to another. I am well pleased with this page.

She is the angel that keeps me in the joy of the Lord.

I would love to see what you have been doing. Please add links in your comments to what has been keeping you busy these days.

Use It Tuesday

I have been following the blog of my friend Marjolaine Walker from Twelve Stones Scrapbooking for the last couple of months. Every Tuesday, she posts a challenge she has completed for Use It Tuesday. Yesterday, I finally followed the links and found a great site. Use It Tuesday encourages us all to complete a challenge every Tuesday, by using up products that we have been hoarding.

Challenge #42 was to use hoarded items, and in particular the colour “orange”.

This is what I came up with

I had a pile of strips left over from a previous project. I started by weaving these on the page. Then I added some bigger pieces. I had two left over titles that I had printed on sticky acetate. I used one of these for my titles. Then I added some photos taken earlier in the day of my 2 year old grand-daughter playing in the leaves. A couple of punched out leaves for a corner embellishment and it was complete. Everything I used was from the pile on my work table.

Join Me On A Journey – Step Eight

I finished my notes about my paternal grandfather. That completes all my grandparents. I have written a page about each of them, listing the things that I remember about each of them.

This week I will go back to the beginning and fill in the vital statistics for each one. I will search my family records for places and dates for births, marriages, deaths. I will also include baptism and church confirmations where I can find them.

At the same time I have been continuing to play with colours and create some art pages in my journal. In this one, I did a washed background of gelatos. I put a foggy sun in the sky and included a stock of wheat to remind me of Manitoba. I stamped on a house to represent the house my grandfather built and the reminder that a house should be built on a firm foundation. My grandfather built the house around 1920 and it still stands today.

The image isn’t very clear but the overall effect was kind of foggy, like an early morning haze.

I would love to hear the stories you are remembering about your grandparents. Be free to include them in a comment.

Life is Wonderful and Busy

Well for those of you who have been following this journey, I say I am sorry. I have missed a couple of weeks. It has been a busy time for us. My daughter and I took a week for ourselves. The men looked after the children and we attended a couple of crafting conferences. With a 9 year old boy, a 2 year old girl, a 1 year old boy and a baby on the way, there will not be many times in the next few years that we can get away together. Gramps went and helped keep house so that dad could go to work. It all went very well. Meanwhile Lisa and I attended Crop and Create put on by Scrapbooks and Cards Magazine, here in Ottawa. Then we went to Toronto for a few days to attend the Craft and Hobby Association Creative Conference. Marjolaine Walker from Twelve Stones joined us and we had a great time.
The next day I was up to Petawawa to celebrate our youngest grandson’s first birthday. Then on Sunday we were off to Bath Ontario where we received out ministry licenses from the Independent Assemblies of God. We worked for many years and were very pleased to finally reach this goal.

licencing 2012

As you can see I have been very busy but even with that I have still found time to craft. I have been knitting twisty scarves to sell at our senior’s center. I was not sure how I would like knitting these but I am enjoying it immensely. There are so many different yarns and colours to choose from and they are really very easy to make.

twisty scarves

I also completed a quilt for my grandson’s birthday. It has dinosaur print cotton on the top, stripped ruffle on the edge and the back picks up the green in the pattern in flannel.

working on micheal’s quilt

My daughter and I are making everything for his room out of the dinosaur decorated cloth. The room is going to look so cute when we are finished.

Join me again on Friday when I will have the eighth installment of my “Join Me on a Journey”.

Please comment and let me know what projects you have been working on.

Join Me on a Journey Step Seven

This week I journaled about my paternal grandmother. She is the one that I knew the best because I grew up living only a few blocks away from her. I will be adding memory pages about her for some time to come.

My art page for this week is a little different. I wanted to represent the love I felt for and from my grandmother and also the energy that she should in her life. I started by smudging the background with a baby wipe and red and orange Big Brush pens from Faber-Castell. I liked the muted affect that it gave to the page.

Then I used a mask to create blue and red dots on the page.

I decided to try a little zentangle up one side of the page and for the first time I put some colour in the doodle.

I used a piece of the mast to mat the cloud for my Bible message and added a stamp of a gentle woman in the background and a humming bird.


I hope the overall affect is one of energy and love. Again I am trying things for the first time and the balance is often not quite as I would like it but it is interesting to work on it.

I have one more grandparent to write about and then I will start getting into gathering some statistics.

Please comment and let me know what you are working on. Put in a link so I can see your work too.