Love That Grin

For this page, I used a sketch from Bella Blvd, and the supplies are from My Own Kit, July 2013. One of my favorite techniques is to use stencils with ink like I did on this page with that gorgeous shade of Stampin' Up! pink to create those bubbly circles. I hope to do more with stencils on future layouts.

In the D

Another one with My Own Kit, July 2013. I "built" from the ground up, selecting the two 3x4 cards first, and basing the rest of the design on that. I didn't originally plan for design to fill most of the page, but as I worked, that's what appealed to me. When everything else was done, the page looked a bit ungrounded, so I added the ink from Stampin' Up! and called it done.

Remembering

One year ago today, my nephew was diagnosed with leukemia. He'd been sick, and on the 23rd he went to urgent care, where blood was drawn. The technician at the lab called him and said get to the ER, something's terribly wrong. The ER doctor suspected it was leukemia, and the oncologist confirmed it the next day.

I still have the text my nephew sent me that Sunday morning, March 24, 2013. Leukemia is a scary word.

I told him in his hospital room that day, the people who survive cancer are the people who decide to survive cancer. I didn't know what to say to this 20-year-old kid who had already had a difficult enough life, who had just started to build a future for himself, only to have it all fall to rubble with one terrible word and its accompanying reality.

Leukemia.

One year later, I am emotional when I think of all we've been through. I watched him fight for his life, cocooned in a cylindrical bed when he got pneumonia. I watched him endure the indignities of chemo side effects, countless blood and platelet transfusions, and so many other miseries cancer causes.

And I saw him do it with strength, with stamina, with courage reminiscent of his grandfather's.

Today, one whole year after that terrifying diagnosis, he is recovering from the bone marrow transplant that will give him back his life. He is not done just yet, but from what we can tell, he is through the worst of it.

Remembering those dark days, the diagnosis, the long nights as he lay in ICU sedated and medically paralyzed to help him heal, I don't know the words to clearly express how grateful I am to my nephew for fighting so hard and so strong and to the many people who fought with him, fought for him to live.

I know not everyone beats leukemia. I know how lucky we are that DJ did.

Reading Rocks

I had a blast creating this page. I used My Own Kit, July 2013, along with stamps from TPC Studios, My Mind's Eye, Technique Tuesday, and Stamps of Life. The ink is from Ranger and Stampin' Up!

Once I've made several layouts with a kit and the supplies are starting to get sparse, that's when I am the most challenged in my creativity, and that's when it's the most fun for me. My inspiration piece for this page was the 3x4 card to the left of the photo, especially because it coordinates with the blue dress that my adorable niece is wearing. I also wanted to use the library themed journaling card to accompany the theme of the photo, Olivia dressed up as a book character. Those three elements became the basis of the rest of the design, which came together beautifully and gave me the chance to use bits and pieces of patterned paper leftover, as well as create fun embellishments with a variety of stamps.

See & Say

Using My Own Kit, July 2013, some Core'dinations card stock, and some ink from Stampin' Up!, I created this layout to add to a scrapbook I'm making for my mother, a collection of memories for her to flip through. The butterflies were plain chipboard that I colored with a perfectly matching pink ink, and the tag came from a free printable.

You Plus Me

Last year, I took the Hello Story class from Ali Edwards at Big Picture Classes. (That class is being offered again, so click here to register.) One story strategy from the class was mathematics, and this layout was inspired by that. I used My Own Kit, July 2013, along with a stamp from Pinkfresh Studio and Ranger ink.

What's New With Me

March is more than half over, already! And given that my last post here was February 20th, it looks like I'm posting about once a month, which is much less than I intended when I started this blog, but I suppose one post is better than no posts per month.

Right?

Once in awhile I like to do a post about what's been going on in my world and share some things I'm enjoying right now.

First: the weather, because who hasn't had a lot to talk about weather-wise this crazy year? Yesterday, was the first day of spring, and while my surroundings no longer look like that winter wonderland in the picture, there are still piles of half-melted refrozen snow nearby, and it was chilly enough to wear my winter coat most of the day. I used to live in Minnesota, and I don't think I've ever experienced a winter like the one we just survived. I am ready for some warm temperatures and sunny days. Bring on spring!

The month of March has been a bit turbulent as my family adjusts to my mother living in a nursing home. Trust me, it was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make, and it's been difficult to adjust as we transition to taking care of her in our home to sharing the caregiving with the staff where she lives. The good news? Mom is adjusting MUCH better than I could have imagined. The other day, which was a particularly difficult day for her, as we were walking her back to her room from dining, she said, "I love this place." That put a huge smile on my face and reassured me that, just maybe, everything will be okay with this new chapter in her life and in ours.

Last weekend, for the first time in a long, long time, my sweetheart and I got away. One night, nearby, at a lovely boutique hotel, just us two. A bit of heaven, complete with room service. If I hadn't had a cold, which I likely caught from Mom's sick roommate, it would have been perfect. Even sniffling, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful, restful atmosphere. We want to do that again. Soon!

I've had a little time for scrapbooking in March, and I'll be sharing more about that in posts to come. I'm taking two classes, one by May Flaum called Stamping for Scrapbookers that is packed full of ideas and tutorials and explanations about stamps and inks and how to use different types of stamps and May's process. Truly an awesome class that inspired this page:

(Details soon!)

And I'm taking a class at Big Picture called Scrapbooking Outside the Pocket, which is about making traditional scrapbook pages with pocket page cards. Here's a layout I made inspired by that class content:

(More details on this one soon, too!)

During my two sick days this week, I worked on planning pages since I didn't feel like doing anything else, and I'm hoping that the days ahead can be productive, that I can get lots of stories told and lots of pages made. Maybe I will do the 30 in 30 Scrapbooking Challenge next month...

As warmer temperatures hopefully arrive, I have plans to complete many items on a very long to-do list. It's time to clean out and organize and create more time and space for creating. Here's to sunshine days and warm breezes and all the hope and opportunities of spring.

So...what's new with you?