I didn't disappear...I've been under the weather and so, it appears,  has my laptop.  I left the poor infected baby with my daughter this past week who has been doing her best to rid it of a particularly stubborn malware.   Hopefully we'll have this situation licked soon. 

In the meantime, I thought I better use this small window of opportunity to get a layout posted... 

Another page of my eldest grandson's graduation album here.  Jacob and Jessica at the Powder Puff football game last year at homecoming.

I used some snips and left over pieces from the page I did of him ready to go to the dance (um, yeah I don't scrap in chronological order so... just happened to have the pieces laying about on my desk.)  Also used another piece of denim printed paper from Authentique, and several cuts from Basic Grey's Clippings line.  Added two wood veneer words (from Studio Calico), and a couple of stickers from the Clippings kit, a staple here and there and the title (which was also the alpha from the clippings kit).  The last thing I did was add the penwork  around the photo and paper layers and the journaling.

Even with his goofy buzz cut, he was still a pretty darn good lookin' kid (not that Nana is biased at all...)!    

ok, back to the Packer game, now...
Cheryl

Having acquiesced to the fact that the weather now has a definite chill in it, football is in full swing, and the leaves are even beginning to change, I might as well go all the way and post a pumpkin pickin' layout! 

She was all dressed for Sunday afternoon football here in Wisconsin and I had such a hard time getting papers/colors to work with the Packers colors and yet make it about picking out a pumpkin.  (Packer colors are a wee bit hard to ignore, so going with just orange wasn't going to cut it! And, rather than fight the colors and the theme(s), I figured I had to try to find a way to make the colors work together. 

I was working from my stash on this one.  Pulled out some Basic Grey, an old travel collection called Wander, for the colors.  The B side of the papers had some of the dark hunter green and gold, but it wasn't so in your face, green and gold.  The distressed background paper; yep, another oldie, from the Paper Loft this time.  I kept several of their papers when I did my big purge--because they had such great distressed looking papers--just loved those. 

Once the papers and photos were arranged, I went digging for embellishments and picked out several pieces from a pad of Simple Stories Snap collection, a couple of orange felt flowers and some wood grain buttons.  The little October tab is from a Crate Paper ephemera pack and I also used a wood veneer camera, plus a couple of banner and label type stickers from My Minds Eye and Jillibean Soup.  Title letters are from October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type. 

And there she was, our little Pumpkin Pickin' Packer, out on Sunday afternoon to pick out her pumpkin then home in time for the big game, or a nap, whichever. 

Cheryl
(who is kind of getting a taste for some pumpkin bread, go figure)
  

Not really a football layout, in that none of these boys were playing.... Jacob and friends were in the eighth grade and had gone to the high school game and apparently thought they would show their team spirit by painting "R. A. M. S." on their tummies...  h-mmmm  kind of at a loss for words on this one. 

Anyhow, I decided to post this layout since we were at my daughters this past weekend for her birthday and Jacob and his dorm-mate, Colin came for dinner.  The young man sporting the "S" in the photo stopped by briefly... his last day home.  "Tofur" (his nickname) was leaving that same afternoon to begin his career with the Marines.  We wish him God speed and hope that he remains safe and sound wherever his life in the service takes him. 

I used a (Heidi Swapp) stencils and some gesso for a quick (and messy) background on a distressed blue background paper.  Trimmed it down a bit to center it on navy blue  tone on tone paper.  Then just layered the photo with several blue and taupe patterned papers, as well as a kraft colored tag.  I did adhere the papers together, but also used my Tim's Tiny Attacher to staple a few of the layers.  Added washi tape, some wood veneer chevrons, a couple of punched arrows, and some large silver star sequins. 

I wanted the title to fit in a box type formation and the navy blue letters were going to be too large if I used only those, so I mixed in another font in a lighter shade of blue.  Kind of like the look of using two slightly different shades of the same color.  Gonna have to try and remember to try this again.

all the best,
Cheryl

O.K. I give Mr. Weatherman... It's fall.  I wimped out and turned the heat on.

And since I am giving in to fall, today I am posting a football layout done for Jacob's graduation album.  It was from last year's homecoming game.  His mom gave almost all of the senior boys on the team their requested goofy buzz cuts.  (Hence that shaved stripe down the middle of his head.) 

This was also their last football game of the season and the senior boys last football game.  After the game, we all waited by the gate and welcomed them all off the field.  That's his Uncle Matthew in the background, Jacob is holding little Jackson and then that's stepdad Nick in there too. 

This is a totally scrap-lifted layout from Tonya Gibbs at Psychomoms Scrapbooks Blogspot.  http://psychomomscrapbooks.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-06-05T03:00:00-04:00&max-results=7&start=21&by-date=false 

I used the backside of an old Creative Imaginations paper for it's royal blue tone-on-tone pattern for then I dug around looking for masculine patterns in blue tones.  What ended up on the page was quite the mish mash of old Basic Grey (Boxer and Vagabond), Creative Imaginations (can't remember the name, but it was a 4th of July, Americana print), Echo Park (A Boy's Life) and Authentique. 

I heartily recommend watching Tonya's video as she created her layout.  While I used different papers, I really followed her layout almost to the letter.  Loved, loved, loved this layout and the video.  It would totally work for scrapping any sport; baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball...and of course football. 

Goodbye summer, hello fall. 

Today is September 11.

Thirteen years later and I still cannot find sufficient words. 

I've collected photos from this date and other historical days with the intent of putting together an album one day--not necessarily dedicated to 9/11, but more about my thoughts and memories of having lived during this time period in history.  Because we forget that this is history---and I want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to know more than what gets printed in a text book. 

I was nine when JFK was killed and I remember watching the funeral on TV and hearing that cadence, seeing the rider-less horse.  It was only a couple of years later that I remember watching our space program---watched each launch and held my breath during it's take-off and then again when the capsule would re-enter earth's orbit and finally splash down....  oh, it was thrilling. 

But this is where I will start. 

Today is September 11....

Cheryl

A small homemade enamel dot update...  I bought some cheapie "melty" beads at Walmart (yea, I succumbed due to the low price I heard about and went into Walmart).  And they did NOT melt well at all.  At, all.  Awful.  I went back to Michaels and bought the name brand Perler beads and they melted great.  (So I've added aqua, darker turquoise and lime green to my cache of enamel dots, hurray!)  ok, moving on,

It's getting cooler at night, something about the air that feels fall-ish, and I hear the geese honking overhead.  But, bear with me while I indulge myself yet with a few more layouts that speak to me of summer. 

Really wanted a soft, light summery feel to this page.  Didn't want to over power the softness of the flowers or the bright clear colors, so I chose a white cardstock background and added some textural interest by using modeling paste and a honeycomb stencil.   Pattered papers are from the super saver 8-1/2x11 $5 packs of Maggie Holmes and Amy Tangerine that I had purchased a while back (except the top piece, that's a scrap of Basic Grey from maybe Lime Rickey?...maybe.)  Added some buttons, cut a couple of banners. 

The sticker that says Pure Goodness is from a Maggie Holmes sticker book and the tag and "best" is from a Heidi Swapp ephemera pack.  I added a flower and some hot pink pearls, stamped the date (did the multiple stamping thing) and thought I better stop before I over work things.  (Me? over work something---do too much of a good thing...uhh yea, I do that, so I stopped). 

here's to making that summer feeling last a little while longer...
Cheryl

There have been quite a number of items posted on pinterest about making your own enamel dots.  After reading different versions, I decided on baking perler beads.  Perler beads are a children's craft item and can be found at Walmart (although I have a healthy aversion to shopping there), Michael's, and various online sites.  I bought a small set I found on clearance that had three colors of blue, two shades of yellow and an orange in the set.

I found that the hardest part was snipping the little devils in half so as to get a smaller enamel dot.  But even with my RA, it was very do-able (even if I did have to chase a few that launched themselves right off the end of the scissors and shot across the room--much to the surprise of the cat).  I stacked a few of them to get a larger size, left some as they were and cut a bunch down. 

Since I didn't have any parchment paper to bake them on, I used my Teflon craft sheet (folded in half to fit it on my baking sheet (I used an old baking sheet though--just in case).  Set the oven to 300 degrees and the timer to 15 minutes.

Just like baking cookies, the length of baking time will differ depending on your oven, how many beads you have on a baking sheet and how many are stacked.  The good news is, even if I did leave them in longer to melt the double stacked ones more--the smaller ones did not seem to burn.  There was no noxious odor and no residue left on my Teflon craft mat. 

 And this is what the blue ones looked like after baking...

Pretty easy... I'll probably make more... now the hardest thing will be to decide what colors to do next. 

Of course I hade to use a couple on a layout right away...  Papers are from Dear Lizzy, the Lucky Charm collection as well as the noted sticker and the little hearts sticker in the middle of the doily.  Kind-a don't remember where the "Special" die dut came from--it was laying in one of the little dishes on my desk, a leftover or cast-off from another page.  The "Life is Sweet" sticker came from Jillibean Soup and the fabric yo-yo's were part of a $.99 pack of nine of them... Two received a decorative fabric covered brad through the center and the third one got a white flower shaped button to cover the center.   Title letters are Thickers, but they were too, too yellow; so I dabbed on some Picket Fence white distress stain to tone the yellow down, and that worked quite nicely.  A piece or two of black striped washi tape and my own homemade enamel dots finished the page. 

So, what colors are next?  Could use some red, black, gray, pink of course, light green, bright green, dark green, brown, oh white too...