Blood Pressure

I've never thought about my blood pressure.  Isn't that the topic of conversation in retirement homes?  Lately, it's on my mind because we have teenagers in the house.  Conversations that begin with, "Mom, don't freak out, but...." raise my blood pressure numbers, as does Call Display with the school's phone number.  Mostly it's my 16-year-old son, whom I'll affectionately call Boy Genius on this blog, who can really get my blood boiling.  Texting him about simplest things can turn into extraordinary bouts of frustration.  Example:  ME:  When are you going to be home?  HIM:  Never.  ME: Why don't you answer my texts??? HIM: (no answer).

A couple of days ago, I was cleaning his bathroom.  Even entering his bedroom and adjoining bathroom gives me heart palpitations now, and I wonder, "What undiscovered secret will I find that will put me over the edge?"  Opening his bathroom cupboard, I saw this:

Bathroom Beer

Yep...that's right.  Six unopened Heineken! Should I blame this on his father's German heritage?? What to do? What to do?  I walked over to his bookshelf and had a chat with Wise Ol' Teddy Bear (a Build-a-Bear no less). 

Bedroom Bear

How did this happen?  Where did my little boy go?  From Bear to Beer? 

Then I did what every self-respecting mother would do....I cracked a few bottles open ....and lowered my blood pressure.  [smile]  And this is why I scrapbook...to escape into a world of happy memories.

Almost Here!

I've wanted to start blogging for over a year now.  Sometimes I can be a perfectionist, so I think this has delayed my first post.  I've been researching blogging, visiting blogs, exploring blog designers online....mostly doing everything but blogging! ha ha! So I've decided to jump in and just start, even though I do not have a blog header or background picked out.  Can a person think too much?  I can! 

What will I blog about? Mostly scrapbooking, but I'm sure I'll add tidbits of daily life, my family, raising children and now teenagers and maybe even my writing.  I've started writing about 5 different novels over the past 15 years but haven't completed one yet.  There's a chance I will write a novel online through this blog too, posting a chapter a week, but first we'll see how it goes. Ultimately, if you visit my blog and somehow I've made your day a little lighter and brighter, I will be very very happy :)

Lately, my scrapbooking has been put on a back shelf because of a new work contract, but right now I have a little "breather" from my research/writing project, and it seems like good timing to begin my blogging life.

For my first post, I thought I'd include tutorials and detailed descriptions about how I created this 2-page layout with the Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime collection.  I teach classes and design at my local scrapbook store, Scrap-A-Lot, and this layout was designed for a technique class at the store a couple of months ago.This is one of the first layouts where I used professional photos, taken by Cindy Gannon Photography, of my youngest daughter Mila.

I seem to have a "thing" for trees in my designs.  As soon as I had these G45 papers in my hands, I knew I wanted to create a forest scene.  I tend to design lots of scenes on my layouts and call them "vignettes" and storyboards....alas, I do love a good story :) Last December, I watched a video tutorial by Jennifer McGuire at twopeasinabucket.com where she made a flower and small Christmas tree out of strips of Claudine Helmuth Sticky Back canvas. If you're not familiar with Jennifer McGuire, check her out because her video tutorials are amazing! 

I thought I could try her inked canvas technique on this tree.  First, I cut a template of a tree out of brown cardstock....the brown will hide any spots that are not covered by canvas.  Then I took a whole 12x12 sheet of the canvas and inked it with Frayed Burlap, Brushed Corduroy and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  Actually, this takes a long time, and you can achieve the same effect by spraying the canvas with a mist, and in the class I taught, we used Maya Mist "Latte".  (In this demo, I did not ink the entire canvas, but it should be completed inked or sprayed BEFORE you start snipping and ripping)

Ink or spray the entire canvas so it is completely coloured.

 After the ink/spray colour has dried, take your scissors and snip a 1/4" wide starting point where you will hold and just rip off....LOVE that about the canvas. 

 

Snip....

...and RIP!

 Add your canvas strip to the tree, crinkling, twisting and basically creating some dimension and texture with it on the trunk. Continue making snips and rip off strips, but be prepared for noise!  (Your kids might come running to see what all the racket is about, and this is definitely a technique that they can do for YOU! ha ha!)

Twist and crinkle canvas to cover tree template.

 After the entire tree and branches are covered with canvas strips, take a dark brown ink (I used Walnut Stain Distress Ink) and lightly run it across the raised bits of canvas here and there to give it dimension.  Here's where you can go wild with ink and add whatever other brown tones or colours to vary the shades of the tree trunk.  I'm a firm believer in modification....change things up to your own liking and go for it!  That is definitely my mantra in the classes I teach.  

The "writer" in me is getting out of hand, and I can go on and on with more details, but it's getting late, and I do want to post this tonight. Next post I'll explain the leaves on this layout and the techniques to create them.

Thanks for joining me on the first day of my blogging journey! Hope you come by again some time soon :)