Challenge #6 - On Motherhood

Has it really been a month since we've last blogged or scrapped?! That's ok - that means we were out enjoying every minute of our summer and spending quality time with our families :) Since we took a break from scrapping, I'm going to make our next challenge very easy.

Back history on how I came up with this challenge. In a recent discussion with my mom, I was surprised to find out that she knows how to fix a leaky faucet & change a broken garage door. All because she was forced to learn when she was a Navy mom and raising us 3 kids by herself. She told me of the frustrations and challenges she had being a single mom for years at at time.

It got me thinking. How cool would it be to record our reflections on motherhood. You could scrap about your own mom, a mother figure or being a mom yourself.

Here is mine:

Journaling reads: "Half the time I don't know what I'm doing. At times I get so frustrated. Sometimes I doubt myself. A few times I have cried. But when I get one of these smiles, totally worth it. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Sept 2009"

Self Portrait Challenge

A Letter to Myself

This picture was taken at Heaven Sent in North Park. I'm drinking a Mexican hot chocolate!

These are actual mini scrabble tiles purchased from a junk bin at Paper Tales.

I just love the image of the little girl.

Materials:

• stamps by Technique Tuesday: Main Street lowercase letters
• Notebook card stock paper
• chipboard stickers by Cosmo Cricket: Early Bird
• Journal cards by Jenny Bowlin & Cosmo Cricket: Earth Love Elements
• red brad by Basic Grey
• chartreuse velvet ribbon

Dear Scrap Sisters,

I really enjoyed this challenge. Although, it took me awhile to get started. Every time Farley took a photo of me, I kept saying , "I'm too fat or too ugly. I need make-up." I know I'm my worst critic. So, I took Wena's advice and had Hubs snap a blurry photo. Fabulous idea! The laugh lines and wrinkles disappeared along with any other imperfections I pick at. Plus, I was over thinking the whole thing--the layout, the photo of myself , and what kind of journaling would I do.

But one night, this idea came to me. I was browsing through old journal entries from years ago. Just a mix of feelings and emotions. Silly. Melancholy. Angry. Joyful. And I noticed some of them were in letter form. I used to always write to myself or God or my sister. After that, it came very easy to me.

Thanks again for this reflective challenge and always giving me endless amounts of inspiration.

Forever yours,

Jeanette

challenge #5: self portrait:

life at 35 hi gals...i created the darn challenge, it's about time i finish it! if this looks mighty familiar to you, trust me, it is. it's a direct lift of stephanie howell's. ain't no shame in my game (as she would say)! i initially had doubts about lifting a LO for this specific challenge, but i remembered some advice a wise friend once told me, "your kids will never know you lifted it". and you know what? she's right. these LO's are created to capture a moment, a memory; and when we're long gone, i doubt it will matter :)
this was harder than i thought it would be. i had to think long & hard about this challenge: about what i wanted to accomplish, what "story" i wanted to tell, about what message i wanted to convey. i wanted to capture the NOW. after days of racking my brain, i decided the journaling was the most important aspect to me. hence, the lift. content, however, my own words (whew!) ...
i'm a new fan of the ali e. style of "self portrait". every scrapper seems to have one; so i decided to try one on for size since solo pictures are rare for me. i took about 30 shots, and this one worked -- blemishes & all. i used sc's 'documentary' kit (with pieces from add on's 2 & 3). i tried to make the rip strip flower, but to be honest with you - it was too darn hard & i just wanted to finish! maybe i'll add it on when i can find some time...

can't wait to see you all...thank you, thank you, for the constant inspiration! love, love, love you gals!

xo - W

p.s. the picture is crooked on purpose. i wanted to make sure the image "fit" the page moreso than the photo (does that make any sense?) . . . do i ever? :)

Self Portrait Challenge

Vince took this picture of me when we were at Sea World a few weeks ago. I have no idea what I was doing. I remember we were both waiting for Jeb and Olivia to finish an Elmo ride and Vince was taking pictures of them. So I was really delighted when I saw this on the camera. I didn't photoshop any bit of this picture. I love the over exposure and the half face picture. And when I saw this digital brush from Ali Edwards, I knew what I wanted to do with it. Really simple layout. I just misted over an old flower mask I had with turquoise and bits of gold. Added a butterfly from Making Memories. And then I printed the journaling on fabric photo paper. xoxo Jenny

happy birthday jen!

it's a crappy pic i took with my phone, so i will post a better one when i have the chance. just wanted to get this on here today so i could share. thought about making a card, but i felt she would appreciate this more, especially since she got me into scrapping in the first place :) it was {lovingly} lifted from stephanie howell (my new favorite scrapper). j - hope your day is full of happiness, relaxation, reflection & love! here's to many, many more!

love you - W

challenge #5:

self actualization in one page :)

well, not really...

summertime is so much fun & i know we've all filled our schedules with beach, park, pool & movie days. i've decided to make this one easy -

scrap a self portrait

a lot of times we scrap about our kids (mostly), our hubbys (sometimes), but do we ever scrap about "me"? for me the answer would be: out of forty one pages i have only 1 of just myself; that would be .02%. so gals - reflect, ponder, and relish in - YOU...this should be easy, right? :)

challenge #4: color + plastic sleeves:

mellow yellow

plastic sleeve is from close to my heart. i put the embellishments right on top of the page vs. inside the sleeve

jb cream rub-ons from this june's SC add-on kit #2 luckily i still had some yellow lullaby thickers left, that "e" is actually a "c" :)

the cork letters are mm (clearance from michael's!)

thanks to r - he did all the collages for me!
*note to self: LEARN PSE!
man, oh man, this challenge took me forever! i first started with brown, wanting to work around the "happy scrapping" cake photo; then i changed to red b/c of one of emma's project red jackets. i was going to attempt to be clever by doing things "red" -- well "read", inspi(red), da(red), yeah --lame idea. i finally decided to go with yellow & center it around one of our many trips to disneyland. this was fun, but a bit stressful (as usual, lol).

can you tell i'm struggling with trying not to be 'matchy'? i guess that's something i'll learn with time. i went with the polka-dot yellow paper b/c it reminded me of minnie mouse's red polka-dot skirt :)

xo - W