S.W.A.T Challenge: One Word for 2014- Choose

Hello friends. 2014 has started off fast for us. The boys are both back in school (well, one is home sick today so...) and classes have started out with lots of homework already. Nathan is a driving fool...okay don't take that literally. Hopefully he is using his wisdom and making good driving decisions right?? Anyway, he is off to the races and loving his freedom. His brother is liking it too. I guess it's cooler to be toted around by his sibling than his mother. I have taken advantage of it by having him run a few little errands for me. I know the newness will wear off and he will start complaining about running around for me so I'll take it while I have it.

I started last year with choosing one word that I would let be my word for the year instead of setting multiple goals. My word last year was connect. Having moved again it was something that I needed to do both physically with the new area around me, emotionally with the feelings I was having after all the changes the last few years, and spiritually as all the moving had made me a little numb, not gonna lie. I also needed to work through the feelings dealing with my nerve issues and the implant that would be taking place. I feel like connect was a good word for me last year and one that I can continue to embrace. This year I have chosen a new word. It is one that has been very big in my mind and one that I knew was my word but took awhile to embrace  because it requires a lot from me. My word for this year is Choose... as in choose my attitude and where it will take me. Life has definitely been full of ups and downs this last year. It has been very good in some respects and super hard in others. What I've found is that too often it is way too easy to let our circumstances dictate the emotions and responses I have...oftentimes for the worse. It is easy to wallow in hopelessness or disappointments and let those choose the next steps you take. I have found that, for me, I have to learn to make a determined effort to look beyond the moment and what's happening right then and choose to respond in a different way. I am going to work on setting my mind on things above (Col 3:2). Just a few verses down,
Colossians 3:12-14 sums up the choices I want to make perfectly. 12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. I have a choice. I can choose how I will face life... I can choose my attitude.

Lucky for me, the new January challenge on the S.W.A.T blog was to create a layout, art journal page or whatever would help you to document the one word you have for the year. I did this last year and loved the visual reminder of why I chose that word. I have more pages in mind to add to this over the year and will share them as they come. For today here is the layout that I created for the challenge.

Do you have a word for the year or a list of goals to attain. I would love for you to join us in our challenge. There is a $20 gift certificate to 2 Peas for the winner of this month's challenges. Now that is incentive!

Share with me your word or one specific goal in the comments below. I would love to hear what you are working on.
Lisa

Top Ten of 2013: A Look Back Before Jumping Ahead!

Happy New Year's Eve! I can't believe we are at the end of another year. I am ready though. Ready to start fresh, ready to tackle new adventures and to hopefully experience a year that isn't filled with as many hard things. It has been a year of ups and downs, each of those bringing us new perspective and helping us to grow, but man...I'm hoping for more of the ups and less of the downs as we take on 2014.

Before doing that, I thought I would take a look back at my favorite projects from 2013. Today's post on S.W.A.T. takes a look at each of the design teams favorite creations from the drills we've had throughout the year. I have so loved being a part of the team and am excited to continue with them this year. We have so many fabulous challenges each month and the scrappy friends I've "met" through our interactions online are priceless. If you haven't checked out S.W.A.T. or participated in any of the drills you should really come take a look. The prizes are always incredible and the inspiration is amazing. This is the layout I picked to showcase as my favorite of all the drills this year. Honestly, I think this one is my absolute favorite out of all I created this year. I love the colors and the how the paint circles and splatters just come together so well.

Here are 10 others that top the list of faves this year:

 The title of this one says it all!

Some of my favorite pictures taken as we were walking back to the car after a photo shoot. So fun!

 This was my first of what I hope to be many canvas'. Had so much fun with this.

 That face! I just love how the black and white photo looks on this.

 My amazing nephew's senior picture. Fits his personality perfectly.

Twenty years and still in love. Can't ask for better than that.

Just love how this brings the true football feel out. Makes me excited for next season.

 I couldn't have asked for a more perfect line of paper to showcase this photo. Fancy Pants was just what it needed :)

My favorite card this year. Love the combo of colors.

 I don't know if it's the mix of papers, the colors or just the fabulous people, but this is one of my favorite two pagers this year. Love the frames.

Thanks for checking out this long post. Here's to 2014 and some fabulous scrapping to come. If you have a post with your faves (I've seen a lot of them floating around out there!) link it up in the comments section. I would love to drop by and take a look.

Lisa

Santa Time

Oh, how I miss the days when my boys still believed in Santa and we took time to visit him each year. It was our tradition to always go on Nathan's birthday. This year I pulled out a very old picture of the boys on Santa's lap for our latest S.W.A.T challenge using a new sketch with the twist of Santa on the page. Here is my take and below you will find the sketch.

This brings back so many memories with Chris and his broken femur. Didn't stop him from sitting on Santa's lap though. I think Santa was a little scared he might break him though. He seemed relieved when David picked him back up and moved him back to his wheelchair. 

The sketch we used for this challenge was a Page Maps sketch. I followed the basics of it, though I didn't use the long piece of patterned paper and I didn't use a banner since there was  already a design in the upper right hand corner. I used a mix of My Mind's Eye and Carta Bella paper and finished it off with some cute enamel dots from MME, a journaling sticker from Basic Grey, and a chipboard piece from Echo Park.

Are you ready to give it a try? Head over to the S.W.A.T. sight and take a peek at the rest of the design team's work and then make sure you create your own and link it up. The prize this month is a pack of the MME that I used for this project. SCORE!

Happy weekend before Christmas.

Lisa

S.W.A.T- Holly Jolly Christmas

Good morning. Popping in with a quick share of our latest first December challenge at S.W.A.T. The challenge is to use a Christmas carol as the title of your layout. I am in the middle of getting pages done for the album I update each year for my in laws. Luckily I have several Christmas pages to get to so this challenge fit right in for me. Here is my page.

I used a sketch from Alison Davis at Scrapbook Generation for my inspiration.



Head over to the S.W.A.T. blog and check out the rest of the inspiration from the design team. There are some fabulous layouts to ogle over.

Lisa

Christmas Recipe Holder

Good morning. It is snowing and so cold in Colorado...4 degrees according to my car thermometer. This is the kind of day that makes me want to bundle up under a warm blanket and not venture outdoors. Unfortunately the kids still have school and I have an orientation for a subbing job I am starting.  

If you are here from the Practical Scrappers or S.W.A.T. blogs, welcome! Today I'm sharing a recipe card holder I made as a Christmas gift for a friend. What I love about this gift is that it's perfect for Christmas, but it is also usable all year long. 

I picked up a wooden block and tin set from a Pick Your Plum deal way back in the spring intending to find some way to use them for Mother's Day. That time obviously came and went and when I found the box of goodies on the back of my craft shelf I decided they would make perfect recipe holders. They are just the right size to sit on the counter and if you are like me, you find yourself looking for your recipe the whole time you are cooking because you are constantly moving it out of the way as you make a mess in the kitchen. Anyone or is that just me?! Well, problem solved. With the recipe clipped on this baby, my sweet friend will never lose a recipe again.

Totally thought this little bird was so adorable. This is an older Christmas line from Imaginisce that I had in my scrappy stash. So cute. After painting the wooden block I glued some scrap paper and  added the Love sign and the bird to give the block a cuter look.

At this point you may be wondering how this cute little holder fits in the kitchen the whole year round. Let me show you!

Here's a look at the back side. Just flip it around and you have a cute little holder for the rest of the year, yummy little cupcake and all. Again I dug into my stash and brought out another very old line. This time it's Bo Bunny. Can you tell that I'm a paper hoarder? I have had this paper for so long and have been waiting for the perfect food page, it just never came until now. See, there is good that comes from hoarding! (Try convincing my sweet hubby of that.)

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Off to tackle the snow with my handy Pilot. Today I am thankful for an SUV! 

Stay Warm

~Lisa~

Practical Scrappers: Pinterest Inspired

It's official. I have made my first Christmas craft for the year. That means it's really time to start thinking about the holidays. I can't put it off any longer. It has been so warm here that it doesn't feel like November is almost over. We finally had our first real snow yesterday and the temperatures plummeted so I guess reality struck there too!

Today we are sharing our Pinterest inspired crafts on the Practical Scrappers blog. (sidenote: Practical Scrappers was having some domain issues so be sure to click on the link I provided for the new web address and update any readers you may follow in.) I don't know about you, but I have to limit my time on Pinterest or I will find hours of my day just gone without even knowing it! While browsing the fabulous projects the other day I came across this little beauty.

Simple yet for some reason it just grabbed me. I liked the depth brought in with the different shades of paint and how the background had almost that woodgrainy feel to it. I have just recently started playing around with mixed media and painting and I thought this might be a fun painting to replicate for my Christmas decor. I wanted to keep the simplicity of it and work more on achieving some of the depth and texture onto my own canvas. This is what I came up with.

Please bear with me on the picture! I told you it was snowy yesterday and getting a great picture proved to be an  impossible experience. I will try to get a new one and update without the glare and hopefully with better representation of the color soon. Anyway, I started by applying gesso to the canvas to prepare. I then used a layer of gel medium. While the gel medium was still a little wet I applied my first layer of red with a 2 inch bristle brush. This allowed me to get the paint lines I wanted to see and create some of that woodgrain feel. When that was dry I added a small amount of black paint with a dry brush to add a little darkness in some areas. I didn't like how that looked so I went over it with a slightly wet brush that I had dipped in water to spread the black out a little. I finished by spraying a little bit of red Tim Holtz distress stain on top and brushing that in to get an even deeper shade of red in there. Finally I cut the word Joy using my Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge and applied it with gel medium. 

Overall I am happy with how it turned out. The final layer of stain added a sheen to the canvas that I am not too excited about but I guess that is a lesson learned. I love the simplicity which will go well with some of the other decorations I have. 

What do you think? Do you have any Pinterest inspired crafts to share or any on your list to make this year?

Lisa

Count Your Blessings

Happy Weekend! I can't believe it's the middle of November already. Fall was beautiful this year and the weather has continued to be pretty nice tricking me into not really thinking that Christmas is right around the corner. I love fall. The gorgeous colors, the still nice but not hot weather, football...there are just so many fun things about fall. Today I have a page I created for S.W.A.T. using both a sketch and the twist of feathers. I cut the feathers from my Cricut machine for this layout rather than using real ones. First, here is the Page Maps sketch we are using for this challenge:

And here is my take on it using a gorgeous picture I took during a recent ride we took on the Cog Rail to Pikes Peak.

I am also linking up to Paper Issues for their new Grateful issue and Creative Embellishments November Challenge. Check out their sites for more information and a chance at some fun prizes.

Have a super weekend.
Lisa