The Honeysuckles are Smiling......

Son of a gun, the little dude did it.... He got his photo with the one and only Claudine Hellmuth. He is still smiling, singing, and smelling all the honeysuckles. He even managed to help me in this wonderful technique tag book workshop.

We ended up making 13 different tags with 13 different techniques. This was a great refresher course along with learning some new stuff. Yes you can teach these two old dogs (me and Harley) new tricks when we are in the right frame of mind! Nope, Harley is not amused with the last comment. He has probably sniffed way too many honeysuckles.

The techniques ranged from Faux Batik, Embossed Paper Tinting, Embossing on her Claudine Hellmuth (CH) Studio Sticky-Back-Canvas (so cool), Paint Transfer, Gesso Transfer, Photo Tinting using her brand new-to-me CH Studio Extra Time slow-dry medium (I love this and so much better than any competition around), Peeled Paper, and on and on... I think you get the idea.

I like what we did with the CH Studio Peeled Paper: One tag, one dictionary page, peel that baby, and on the left side we stained the tag with CH Studio paint (altered orange): (1) on the left side we used Extra Time Medium with the paint; (2) on the right side we used the paint watered down; and (3) on the bottom we used the paint at full strength:


I really like the CH Studio Gesso Transfer. I really liked the image that Claudine shared with us of the tree. I had to use her landscape green paint on that tag. Let me say this about Claudine's paints. Many will look at the 2 fl. oz jar and think that's it? Well, let me tell you from experience, these paints last a long time. You don't need a lot of it because the paint is so rich, creamy, and luscious... trust me. Yes, I also know it depends on what you are doing and how much you need. For my needs, I can cut this paint with water, with extra time slow-dry medium, etc. I guess you get the idea I love them...

As always in Claudine's classes, the atmosphere is relaxed,

You know a little whooping and hollering and clapping never hurt anyone! Try it. (OK, my Okie background is showing....) She is a great artist and teacher who cares for her students and their experience in her workshop.

Yes, I admit it - the more paint on the hands the happier I am..... and while we are at it, I admit I am a Claudine groupie. I would stand backstage to get her autograph. OH YEA, I have it on almost every piece of Claudine items I have.... well, I would still stand backstage....

And so another day in the Breeze. Good news - I made it home before the rains came and it is a goodly rain out there (OKIE alert).....

See you tomorrow with more London adventures in our continuing saga of the photo sleeve album. Huggies to you all.... and remember that is hugs not ..........

The Queen is Not Amused? Do Tell my Honeys

Sorry I missed you yesterday, but I was tuckered out after a busy week and late night tennis. Oh, well, we all have our excuses, don't we -- I'm not sure what Harley is up to - in hysteria or sleepy too. Yes, we are going to recline in bed and watch the Ghost Adventurers very soon. We have a great workshop planned tomorrow with Claudine Hellmuth and Harley is wanting to go to have his photo made with her. Yes, I'm thinking about it!

OK, I am shooing Harley away here and we will head back to London, while there one should always try to have tea with the Queen, don't you think? The gates around Buckingham Palace are enormous and of course the Queen's Ladies are always in waiting whatever that may mean....

William Shakespeare said, "It is a wise father who knows his own child." Not sure who Will was talking about - could be Hamlet or Ophelia, or Juliet, or Romeo. But nevertheless, it is a wise father.... I have always loved this photo of a young Queen Elizabeth taking on the heavy crown shortly after her father died way too young.

One cannot have a layout of the Palace without bringing in the Red Queen and her famous quote, "Off with Their Heads." I have to admit that I did use her one more time in a Tower of London lay out in front of the Traitors Gate.....

Just a reminder that the photo sleeve album does do really good with the four sleeve layout on two pages. I have shown you many layouts vertically because I am drawn toward that and it gives me the greatest challenge:

Well, my little honeysuckles, I am hearing the Ghostie Boys calling... so will quickly wrap this up with one last layout....

Yes, I did get carried away with Alice at the gates but she seemed to work in with it so well. Take care and I will be back tomorrow showing you what Claudine, me, and Harley create.... Harley better be careful or he may end up painted or mounted in a tag book.....

Peter Pan - Are We There Yet?

Needless to say Harley loved London and took to the tube the way a duck takes to water.... OK, I know I'm pushing it. Just be grateful I'm not putting a duck photo here, OK? When working on the Photo Sleeve Scrapbook, I "filed" all the photos on the pages where I thought I would use them. I had promised someone that I would find the Peter Pan Statue in London and take photos. You will also note in the scrapbook I have not done a lot of journaling - this was on purpose. I wanted the photo to visually tell you what the scene was,

Taking a photo of the bronze plate at the bottom of the statue told the story.

Try a rub-on (white flower) and a stamp - that is all this layout needed....

A chipboard vine accented with a little color. Chipboard on outside of sleeve - yes, just glued on.

I fell in love with this "fairy" tree near the statue and could only imagine what it was like in its spring greenery! I had stamped the two women on an odd piece of paper and decided it would work along with a small image of the Peter Pan statue cut out and glued to the photo. (Yes, we all do march to our own little drummer, don't we?)

And what would a few days in London be without a trip to the Theatre! One of my fav actors David Suchet (you will remember him from Hercule Poriot). The play was magnificent. As I have said before, this is a quick way to layout your vacation photos and, if you plan it and you don't want a lot of journaling, let the page tell it all visually. OK, boys and girls, I have to go back out and play come competitive tennis tonight. Late night - and a busy day tomorrow at work but we won't think of that right now (she says as she yawns!) .... You have a hunky dorey night, Okie Dokie?

WHAT - A photo sleeve Album? You gotta be kidding

Yes, that was my reaction when I started reading Stacy Julian's books. I couldn't get over the idea of a photo sleeve album.... come on, get real, and then I got hooked. OH my! I decided to experiment and do a London Album and here are just a few pages. This is a "quick and dirty" post since I need to do some other things related to - what else - tennis. LOL... Here is the original photo sleeve purchased at Target:


Add a black mat, a small cross stitch, and a little this and that:

What is fun about this cover is the cross stitch was bought in London at the Tower of London and I knew I wanted to use it someway with the photos. Inside cover:

What was challenging about the photo sleeves is the 4"x6" were suppose to be utilized with horizontal photos - so when in doubt print the photo larger and cut it in half and use two sleeves. LOL. Background paper and Transparency -- from Basic Gray. Bed and Breakfast Betsy, Ron, and I stayed at:
I also pulled out all of the "London" stamps I had along with some clip art....

And, of course, what would a trip be without Harley sitting on my travel journal. I do hope he wasn't doing other busy on it..... you know...

The layout above is a little crazy since it involves three photos of the same pub building printed in different sizes and then cut up to make the layout.....

And finally, one of my fav stamps is the "The Dapper Men" - just seemed sensible, in a British sort of way, to use the stamp with Big Ben at night! I hope you get an idea of how you can use your creative talent to face a challenge of using the photo sleeves. It did become a fun game to conquer this album. I know, I also fight windmills some days but why not. You all have a good evening and I will probably see you on Thursday for sure since we have a team match tomorrow night! Nighty night.... NCIS and Deadliest Catch, here I come...

Scrapbooking, HUH? Hmmmmm

During my delightful tea with Patty on Saturday we discussed a little about scrapbooking. . . Or, AKA, my story and how I started into this wonderful world of ours via Scrapbooking - the Creative Memories way. I am not saying that sarcastically, I think the movement started in Utah was a very important one in preserving our heritage within our families. My mother passed away in October 1998 and I ended up inheriting a lot of photos. You all have heard this same story before in other's lives. I had to do something with them and Creative Memories was the way to go at that time. It was also at the same time I ordered some stamps from a company called Stampin' Up ... and then migrated to card making, altered books, and whatever I do today.

I worked tirelessly (I was not playing tennis at that time) and got the years 1980-2002 scrapped. The plays:

Halloween....
(Yes, Patty - that is me as a nun. LOL) Sorry my little suckles - an inside joke....

The first Cruise,

And the day before Mother died with her sister, Aunt Mary,

And finally, the Grandmothers, The German one, Grandma,

And the Southern one, Momo,

Yes, I scrapped and then stopped. And started. And stopped. My tastes changed. I made smaller scrapbooks honoring special occasions like my brother's wedding to his second wife, a scrapbook for my niece sharing some of my life with her and sending her some more photos, some small tennis scrapbooks for friends, and so on.... So where is this post heading? Good question. I guess what I am trying to say - is this task of scrapbooking is very important. I explained to Patty that I read a book, on the recommendation of my good friend Korie (We Will Always Have Paris) and it changed my attitude toward the Creative Memories type of scrapping. It was quicker and was just as fun. AND, it provided the opportunity to be just as creative but "quicker." I will show that to you tomorrow. *wink* Yes, you can wait, boys and girls, but here are the books:

Photo Freedom and The Big Picture should be in every ones library! Go over and visit Korie's blog (link above) and you will see how she does a page-a-day...... She tried to suck me into that one time, I "just said NO"...... However, I need to finish my Paris photos, Berlin photos, Estonia photos, Crusie photos.... OH NO.....I did finish London. Photo Sleeve Scrapbooking? You betcha. OH my, I need to go debrief and watch mindless TV. See ya tomorrow!

Tea and Crumpets

Yes, it was another weekend of Tea and Crumpets and Tennis. However, no creating. Hmmmm, will get some of that done this week. As you know, I have one last Alphabet ATC to finish and will have it as a "completion" goal by next weekend! I am looking for the perfect image and I have another Z word. My dear friend Patty told me yesterday that the German word for Gypsy is also a Z word! I am leaning toward the "The Gypsy Heart" theme..... Patty, can you give me the German for that one?

Speaking of Patty. Patty has a very beautiful blog, Magpie's Nest, which was one of the first blogs I found right after I had started my blog. So since September-October 2008, I have been crusin' her blog and she mine. She is the one who got me started with my PaperWhimsy group and the Hilda Quotes - and then she kind of dropped out of that. I have been inspired by her creations even to the point of printing them off and putting them in an "inspiration" journal. When I hit a blank wall -- yes, I look at her creations to get me started again, and it works.

The fun thing about this story is that we live in the same area and took a class together a number of years ago on beeswaxing. I certainly was not blogging at that time and I am not sure if she was or not. My gut tells me no she wasn't. But then our paths never crossed again, or if they did, we didn't know it - funny since we frequent the same stamp store, Angela's Happy Stamper and before Angela's - we both frequented another store Artfully Scribed. So, you know, it had to be Kismet that we meet again in blogland and not in person. We were in Angela's once not long ago and passed by each other and didn't realize it. How did I know - someone walked back in the store and said, "I ran into Patty in the parking lot." Well, this just wasn't going to work.

As it is in blog land - we all get to know each other on a personal level of just reading what each other writes. We then email each other and get to share more of our stories. Patty and I made a date to meet for tea at a lovely tea house, Aylesbury Tea Room, in Leesburg, Virginia. We started tea at 1:00pm, we ate, we drank tea, we ate, we drank tea and chatted until 3:00pm when we decided to take in some antique stores in Leesburg. What an absolutely lovely day it was and we parted around 5:15 to head our separate ways.

I did not take photos of the tea service since we were both so excited to be able to sit and chat like long lost friends. We exchanged lovely gifts. I will show you the beautiful creations she gave me later this week - I am just so excited to have some Patty Originals. So I will share a few of our antiquing finds in our travels. Yes, we both bought and enjoyed shopping together. I loved this pillow and lamp.

And last but not least - this "crazed duck" who also had a "crazed mother duck" too...... Check the one eye - crazed if I have ever seen crazed...... nope, passed this baby by...

And then in closing, always, always, stop to smell the roses, real or otherwise! Yes, my little ones, all in a day's travels among the Honeysuckles!