Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #47--Forrest Gump

Okay, I had to play along this week! I love Forrest Gump! I watched it again recently and I realized what an incredible movie it is. The acting is fantastic and the story is beautiful. I cried and cried. You should go check out the other amazing creations at the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge site! (Also, watch for challenge #50--some great blog candy coming up soon!)



For this card, I went onto Facebook to find some flair. Thats right. I like flair. It is sort of a cross between a printable, a sticker and a cardstock die cut. Usually I can find the most perfect images to fit my project. As I was browsing through all the buttons, I copied and pasted my favorites into a word document. Then I printed them onto cardstock. Super easy. So I say. Of course as I was putting the card together, I had everything planned out and all of a sudden the piece of flair that I wanted to use was gone! GONE! I searched through all of my little papers but it was nowhere to be found. Fine. Well, it was too late to print another sheet of cardstock for just one piece of flair (I was up late finishing this card!) So I decided to use a black permanent marker and a blending pen and draw my own 'Peas and Carrots'. That's right, I drew 'em myself. I think they look alright.

{The rest of the story}
In July, I went to visit a friend for her bridal shower. During the shower I sat with Shelly. At first glance, Shelly was a little intimidating with her piercings and massive tattoos. She even has a gigantic mohawk (but it was combed down for the shower). When Shelly told me she was a metalsmith, I knew that she was a cool chic. And she was SUPER sweet! At 24, she has an art degree and now she works for a company in St. Louis that makes teeth--awesome!


Shelly and I talked about various things that afternoon, but I will never forget what she said about Nathan. Nathan was her fiance who passed away from cancer in May. Wow. It was so heartbreaking to hear her tell about how she watched him go into the hospital in March and never come out. She watched the love of her life die. She explained how perfect they were together--"We went together like peas and carrots," she said in the sweetest voice. Shelly said that it was painful to watch our friend Danielle getting shower gifts and planning her wedding because she knew that she wouldn't get to.

The movie Forest Gump makes me think about how people in my life affect me and how I leave an imprint on the people I meet. Of course, he lived a colorful life in a vibrant time in 'history' and I am just a small town girl in Missouri....but the stories I appreciate the most from the movie are the ones about love. I like to think that the love he shared with Jenny is always possible. And I cry every time I watch the part about Bubba...and Lt. Dan. '(Lt. Dan, ICE CREAM!!" Hehe.) I just knew that the 'peas and carrots' would be the perfect inspiration for my card this week. It is a beautiful movie and I really enjoyed making this card!

I used brown for the card base as one of the requirements for the challenge. The green cardstock is CTMH and the stickers and gems are Basic Grey. The stamps are from Ali Edwards.

Here is the inside:

Two Minis from CKC

Have I mentioned lately that CKC was awesome? Ha ha...I loved the classes and I made lots of great things at the crops. Here are a couple of mini books I worked on for the classes.

Acrylic Album, all products are S.E.I I can't wait to add pictures!



This album was called a 'Peek into My Week'. I am not sure where the album is from.

In my POST box

Ooh, fun goodies!! What an exciting package!


I got the most fabulous box of cards from a swap earlier this month!! Some beautiful cards indeed. Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!!

Another Mini Album

At CKC, I worked on my December Daily Album, but I also made a little mini album to showcase my memories from the weekend. I HAD to use some of the fun new papers and stickers that I got at the vendor fair. I can't wait to add pictures and journaling! Enjoy!!

December Daily 2009

Wow, this is such a fun project to create. I love looking back at last year's book. I love showing it to people. I keep it in one of those nice, plastic, zippered bags that curtains and sheets come in so that it doesn't get torn up. Eventually, I will put all my mini albums in a CTMH Memory Keeper Box.



At CKC this year, my goal was to work on my December Daily Album. (It is August, I know, but I have been creating Christmas Cards for weeks now...what do you expect!)




All year, I have been grabbing up Christmas stuff (stickers, rubons, embellishments) a little at a time so that I would have some fun goodies for my book. I got some wonderful flocked and glittered paper from Tuesday Morning that was perfect for the main pages of my book. I used tons of Hambly overlays. I think it is going to look so great with all the pictures and December goodies inside!!






Again, this isn't every page, but it is a good preview of the highlights! As you can see, I used plenty of non-Christmas paper. I love it when everything comes together so beautifully. Thanks for reading!

On the [december daily]

Thanks Ali Edwards. I was inspired last December to create a Daily Album.


I used her idea for the 'mixed up mini'. The pages are created using bits of this and that....scraps, cardstock, felt, mini-book leftover pages, transparent photo protectors, ephemera, etc.

I kept a journal every day. I included songs, recipes, scraps of paper and all the wonderful little goodies that found their way into my days last December.





Part of the December Daily process is preparing a book or mini album beforehand. I will post more about my progress at CKC a little later. For now, I wanted to share with you my completed December Daily so that you might be inspired to create your own! Of course, I am not posting every page, I actually went from December 1st to January 5th. Enjoy!!

Layouts from CKC

The best part about CKC was taking classes from experienced teachers. As a teacher, I appreciated the classes from a pedagogy stand point. I watched the teachers and recognized how they conducted the classes. It was my goal to learn from them. I realized that people really do want to listen to my little tips and suggestions. Wow. This was a new concept for me. I usually assume that people want to get on with the 'creating' part of the lesson. It suddenly occurred to me that 'mini-lecutres' about inks, stamping techniques and craftmanship will make my workshops soar to new heights.

I really loved the classes where the instructors took the time to explain things or give tips and spent more talking even if it meant that we didn't get to finish the particular project....I enjoyed them even more than the classes where I just worked on my own.

Here are two layouts from the "Basic Gray: Latest and Greatest Class". The instructor gave tips like:
1. Outline stickers and journaling blocks with brown or black to make them pop.



2. Attach bows and ribbon with a glue dot. If the ribbon wraps all the way around the layout, secure it with tape on the back of the page.

3. If I want to make layouts before adding the photos, I can keep part of the adhesive backing on the sticker so that I will be able to easily put the picture underneath.

Thanks for reading!! Hope you are having a great week!!

A bag lady.

Whew!!! I am seriously trying to carry around fewer things with me every day, but it is so hard. I have to have my computer and lunch bag every day. I don't normally take my purse into school but I do carry it in the house when I get home from school. I have a bag that holds my planner, phone and a few other things I might need during the day called my 'school bag'. I also have a bag for shoes/teacher survival kit. This contains extra shoes.

My feet are wimpy. It takes me so long to break them in when school starts. My legs and back ache. My feet get blisters. It doesn't matter what shoes I am wearing...I can even wear tennis shoes and my feet always hurt for the first few weeks. I also try to wear dresses (so that I can establish my 'art teacher' persona with the kids) and I am forced to wear dressy shoes that kill my feet so I always keep some flip flops with me in case I start to die in the middle of the day.

Also, in my teacher survial kit I have things like bobby pins, lotion, and mints. I travel throughout the week and I don't always have everything I need at one school so it is nice to have some things with me.

I don't go anywhere without my camera. Some days I even make two trips from my car to carry arm fulls of student art work, examples and supplies. Whew!! I am such a bag lady. If you have any tips on how to simplify...please let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!!

A lovely little art book.

After the first day of school last week, I couldn't wait to make a little book for some of my classes. I quickly printed off a few pictures at the Sams Club one hour photo lab and I went to work. I stayed up late so I could finish. I included many pictures of my students in the book. I showed them cleaning, creating art and being safe in the art room.

Hehe...rule #1 We will listen to Mrs. Mitchell....they think it is so funny to see me in a book!



I used a Flip Flap from CTMH to include a couple of extra pictures on this 'safety' page. I have a special symbol by the paper cutter to keep kids safe!



A few pages don't explain rules or show any students, they are just for fun!



This was a fun book to make. I used a bunch of OLD patterned paper and cardstock and a few new rubons and stickers. I am forcing myself to use up things that I probably won't be using on any cards any time soon. Also, I got to use my Bind-it-All!