Starting Over

I am starting over and with some fabulous news.

 

Find me here at An Altered Life

This Blog is a Mess

So my blog is a right mess. It came together ok when I imported everything but since then my images have gone wonky or disappeared. Plus they are not nice and clear.

I don’t even know how to fix it anymore, nor if I have the energy to go back through years of posts and try to redo all the images and update things.

Should I close it down. Hearing that is a no-no it the web world and it would be a shame to lose a lot of the info on here. Should I keep it going – ugly as it is? Should I leave it here with a redirect to a new blog?

After all I can still see people reading and downloading the digital freebies I offer – even though there have been no comments for months, even on the download pages. 🙂

Part of me just wants to give it up and get rid of it. It does not make me happy looking at it. However all the good stuff here and the lovely friends who have supported me make it a little harder than it would seem.

What would you do?

 

Happy Day

My trip to the USA is at an end. I am home and very jet lagged. Our bags arrived home 4 days after us which meant plenty of time before I needed to tackle the laundry. We had done most of it before we left America so I knew it would not be too bad.

Being as tired as I am and wake all hours gave me some time to start going through all my photo’s and scrap a few of my happy day memories while they are still fresh. Here is just one of them for today.

The photo was taken in Galveston Texas at a shell store that is built out over the water on a dock. Pretty cool place and it had a vast selection of shopping to make anyone happy. Even Minnie Pearl would have been happy at the selection of hats complete with sales tags still hanging off.

I have used Happy Day Scrapbook Kit from Quirky Twerp for this one. Just perfect I would say for a memory of a very happy day. (Hot too – it was a stinker there with the unusually long hot and humid heat wave they had in the USA this year.)

Whirlwind Tour of the USA

I know I have been slack in not posting for a while. Life got so busy and then we were headed off on our trip for summer in the USA. So please forgive the lack of posts. We have been on our trip now for nearly three weeks and it seems to have gone by in a blur. It is not a whirlwind tour but we have seen and done a lot in that time.

We do stop every now and then to catch our breath and this helps some with the busyness of driving and seeing the sights. So far we have traveled through 9 states, countless counties and seen many wonderful things.

Here is a layout with our “once in a lifetime” tour of a swamp in Louisiana. Hubby has always wanted to do this so we made sure to schedule it in.

Our eldest son was quite game to feed the alligators and really enjoyed the adrenaline thrill.

I have used the new Digichick Collab kit Around the World which is just perfect for any sort of holiday vacation or trip anywhere. It will get some use this trip!

It also made this really cool title page which is still a work in progress. The road sign is Tortuga Template # 138 from Kellie Mize

All Clear – Sort Of

I have been given the all clear though they say there is an abnormality that is fine. They want me to come back in 6 months though for another ultrasound to keep a check on it.

As you can imagine I am relieved and so thankful for everyone’s thoughts and prayers. It was so much appreciated!

🙂

In the Works

So much has happened over the last few weeks in my at home life that the blog and hobbies had to take a break for a while. It has been good for me and helped us make some decisions about time, priorities and balance.

It really started back in Feb with the finding of one of those “lumps” that all woman must hope we never have to find. The process to get to the bottom of it is still not over though last week brought good news that the initial lump, which required a biopsy (after mammogram and ultrasound found it to have some irregulairites), was ok.

Now ongoing investigation is required for another area that was discovered during the biopsy but was too hard to access. The surgeon did try but didn’t want to cause further damage. I am scheduled for a MRI next, and then hopefully that will be the end of it.

My faith is enabling me to keep focus and I am thankful to have Him to lean on. It would have been so much tougher without that in my life.

Something like this can sure be a kick in the behind, and my one little word balance has proved to be a rather apt one this year.

So where next?

After considering my options with the blog it seemed easier for now to import it all here. Having all my work and blogging in one place will be nice – and easier too. There will be a few changes and a bit of a mess perhaps for a while with some posts being deleted or updated. I am looking to give it a makeover at some stage. 🙂 Please bear with me as these changes happen.

So now it will be blogging as and when I feel like it. Working on projects with my kids, pulling out some old photo’s and getting them into layouts. My printer bowed out this week so I have an excuse to work on “real” photo’s for a while. Mind you I have plenty that nee

Less pressure, more life. Less planning, more doing. Making sweet precious memories with my hubby and kids. Living each day for each day. Taking the time to appreciate what is here right now.

Stopping to smell the roses if you like!

How do you stop and smell the roses when life sometimes gets too much – or even just because you can?

Clean and Simple:Almost

After visiting so many pretty blogs with all the card challenge links I have been really taken with the clean and simple style that some people do so well.

Which is the reason for these cards being a big departure from my usual style.

 

Short and Sweet today – suffering with the flu and it’s making it hard to concentrate long enough to write anything sensible. 🙂

Kraft Papers from Which Kraft: Bundle from Wishing Well Creations, Stamps from Pink Paislee/House of Three and Studio Calico, DMC Twine and CTMH Twill.

A Birthday Banner Tutorial

In this post some time back I mentioned showing you how I created part of a birthday banner for my son who is soon to be thirteen.

Life got in the way and somehow time slipped away from getting the post done.  Life is like that sometimes.

Anyhow – this next week is the special day so it was high time this got posted!

Birthday Banner Tutorial

Using  Industrial Collab from Viva Artistry and Studio Gypsy I printed off a couple of the awesome papers as well as one of banner templates from The Cutting Files which I had layered some more paper over.

Then all element pieces were adhered to some saved chipboard. After drying overnight I cut them out and inked up the edges.

I wanted to have loads of texture and grungy layers on this one so the handmade medallions added the extra height. These were made by a new technique discovered one night while craft blog surfing. It was bookmarked for reference but, not for the want of looking, I can’t find it. (Let me know if it was you as I would love to credit with a link!)

The medallion technique starts out like the usual way with a concertina folded strip of paper. For added grunge the edges of the paper have been pre-cut with a crinkly pair of scissors.

After folding it all up with the back side out two small notches are cut into either side of the pile.

Then I tied a loose weave twine around the middle, securing it tight on the top side where it would be visible.

Spread out the folds and adhere to edges to create this flatter type of medallion.  I like the way it looks and sits without needing a circle of cardstock behind. It seems more industrial and not so “girly”.

Then all the pieces were adhered to the banner template with hot glue. This helps get some height to the levels and is useful where there is only a slight edge to attach.The two number 13 strips were hole punched and added with a metal eyelet.

All the individual letters that make up the word thirteen on the banner are inked and added to a tag from the digital kit which is then layered over another banner template onto the bigger banner template which I enlarged slightly in photoshop.

Inking everything gave it that extra something. Real staples and metal pieces from Tim Holtz really brought the whole thing to life and gave it that wonderful added dimension of lifelike items.

Now lets hope he like it!

Boy Oh Boy!

Boy oh boy! What a week! Stay tuned at this week for some news on what I am up to.

This weeks Card Caravan hop over at The Digi Chick this week is Sweet Sunday Sketch #110.

This is the sketch.

which you can see I have flipped on it’s side.

It is very textured, grunged, inked, distressed and dimensional. Perfect for a male teenager!

Gotta love that banner popped up like that with little pop dots. So much dimension. Not to mention the Thickers!

The digital stamp and the kit are upcoming release from the fabulous designers over at The Digi Chic. Aren’t you lucky getting another sneak peak? You’ll need to stay tuned for more deets later in the week. 🙂

 

The Shabby Tea Room Turns One

The Shabby Tea Room is one of my favourite places to visit. Both for their fabulous challenges and the lovely inspirational cards that can be found there.

This week the Shabby Tea Room turns one and they are celebrating with a birthday bash. Which of course involves a challenge – to include something to do with a birthday.

To me that means a birthday cake, cupcakes, a gift, and of course some love – all wrapped up in that wonderful “shabbiness” we both find irresistible!

The birthday cake which has delicious glitter frosting appropriately includes just one pretty candle. It sits atop a glitz-ed and blinged cupcake that is as scrummy inside as it is outside.

Bite into that delectable cupcake by flipping the top up and you will find the …..

… perfect spot for a birthday gift card or tag. The little heart shining through pops out to the front to give a tiny hint of the love held inside.

Top it all off with some decorative stitching, inking and 3d embellishments and you have the perfect birthday celebration. Lot of luscious sweetness and love all wrapped up in one cute card.

Don’t forget to drop by the Shabby Tea Room birthday bash celebrations and join in on all the fun.

Made with Wish Big Digital Scrapbooking kit which is a collaboration from Sherwood Studio’s and Kimeric Kreations. Cupcake Card Template from Kelleigh Ratzlaff. The sentiment stamp is from Card Sentiment Digital Stamps by Arty Pants Digital Stamps. Card also includes, Making Memories Distressing Ink, Versa Colour Inks, Glitz, twill, Stampin up glitter, 3d Tape and Cotton DMC thread.