WEEK 28 - OUR COUNTRY

Hello everyone!  When my son had came to me and told me that he was ready to join the military, I was shocked at first.  I asked him why and he said because he wanted to serve his country.  So naturally I went through asking a list of questions that he answered and then I told him okay, if that is what you want to do then go ahead.  Being a mother I also informed him of some of the not so glorious times that he might experience and I said no matter what happens remember what I have told you and what your father and I have taught you, of course my husband was all happy with his decision.

In this photo is my son and my daughter who thought it would be cool to pose with her brother in his pre military training uniform (the army).  He had to prepare for 4 months prior to going to basic training.  He did really well and I was a proud mom for my son to be serving our country.

Do you have a member of your family that is in the military?  If so be proud and stand proud for them for serving our country.  I am proud of my son and I always will be for him serving our country.  I hope you enjoy the video!

I used some items from my stash and I sketched out this layout, wanted to preserve the United States pattern on the paper.  

SUPPLY LIST:

Pattern Paper: Doodle Bug; Patriotic Parade

Pattern Paper: Simple Stories, Stars and Stripes

Colored Cardstock: Bazzill

Acetate: Webster's Pages

Silver Stars: Freckled Fawn

Red, White, and Blue stars: Doodle Bug, star jewels

Enamel Dots: Doodle Bug

Thickers: Dear Lizzy foam

Mr Huey's White Calico

WEEK 24 - FOR THE LOVE OF THE BEACH

Hi everyone!  Here is my layout for the month of June.  I live on an island (albeit a very large one) and the part that I LOVE the most about that is having such easy access to the beach and the ocean at anytime I want.  I find visiting the ocean to be the most relaxing and stress-relieving thing in the world and whenever life gets to me... that is where I go.

This photo is from earlier in the spring but the message is how we all love the beach and that the weather has now improved so we can go again.  Don't get me wrong... we go year round here (and are grateful for that) but being able to go and be warm and not worry about layers is awesome. As is walking in the surf or day-dreaming on a log.

Here is my layout:

I wanted to keep this layout fairly simple although I will confess I had planned to use a heart stencil and modeling paste to add a few hearts or some texture behind my layers.  Oh well! I did however want to tone down my background paper so I applied a fairly liberal coat of gesso to it (thus the curly edges, sorry!).  I used a scraper to put it on and as it dries pretty quick I layered it on as I went just working from top corner to bottom corner and once I went back up to the top it was dry enough to add a bit more. I think I added it about 3 times to get to this level of opacity.

I also, as you can see in the video, used my very old Heidi Swapp distress tool on the edges of the top and bottom strips. I just didn't want them to be too flat.

And a few close ups:

And a video!!

Supplies List:
Patterned Paper: Webster's Pages Ocean Melody
Cardstock: Michael's
Vellum Frames and Tags: Webster's Pages Ocean Melody
Embellishments: Stickers -Webster's Pages; Puffy Stickers - Evalicious; Wood veneer - Evalicious; Burlap hearts - Simple Stories; Fabric hearts - Amy Tangerine; Enamel hearts - Lilibee Design; Arrows - Crate Paper.
Alphabet: Thickers - Alyx.
Pen: Project Life.
Date Stamp: Heidi Swapp.
Mist, Ink and Paint: Color Shine - Gold; Ranger - Pumice Stone distress ink; Ranger - Cracked Pistachio distress pain; Making Memories - Banana, acrylic paint.
Tool: Heidi Swapp - Edge Distressor.