A Moment to Treasure

I've been a busy bee this week. Today, I would like to share the LO I finished last night.

This LO really started in the Fall. DH and I sat and watched the movie, "UP," and just loved it! We both got misty eyed. I know we both saw parallels in our lives together with the life Carl and Ellie had together. At that time, I just knew there was a LO in there somewhere.

Just after Christmas, DH traveled to AZ to help his dad open up the winter house. While he was gone, I purchased a DVD of the movie. I sat and watched it. Once again, I was all teary eyed. I took notes as I watched the movie. I knew I needed info from the movie and wouldn't be able to watch it when DH was home. That would ruin his surprise!

Months passed. My wheels kept turning as I pondered the LO in the back of my mind. I knew which PP to use with the house on it. I was unhappy with all the cloud papers out there until I saw this one. Because it had grass and trees, I thought it was perfect to ground my LO.

Last night, I sequestered myself in my scrap room and started assembling all the precut pieces. What you see is the final result. Now that DH has been given his surprise gift of love, I've pulled the DVD from the pocket behind the house and replaced it with a love letter to DH. When DH saw the LO, he got all misty eyed! It really touched his heart!

Some of the balloons are elevated on pop dots. I didn't like the clouds as they seemed lost on the paper. By sewing around the perimeters of the clouds, they became more visible. There is a little heart where the strings tie. It says, "Made with Love." I added some bling to the flower centers and took a phrase from the movie for my title - "Thanks for the Adventure." TFL!

Thanks for the Adventure

Thanks again for stopping by! Love you guys!

Blessings,

Chris

Spellbinder Nestabilities Storage Idea

Hello from a very hot southern Utah! It's supposed to be 110° by the weekend. Too hot to do a single thing!

I wanted to share with you how I store my Nestabilities. Yes, I tried the clear plastic CD boxes, but even all those little clear plastic cases took up way too much space. I wasn't pleased with the result at all. Then, one day, I was going through my music CDs which are stored in a small metal carrier with a sturdy lock and handle. The lightbulb in my mind went off and my Nestabilities storage issue was solved in such a nice way!

Below is a photo of the carrier. It is filled with about 180 pockets - four pockets on each side of the page (8 per page). Well, why not use it for the Nestabilities? I kept them on their backing cardstock - the taped one - which came in the packages when purchased. I did, however, cut them down and curve the edges so that they would fit better in each pocket. The flaps fold over the opening. For the larger Nestabilities, the super long ones, I have used two pockets. One end goes in a pocket and the other end goes into the adjacent pocket. Because I have so many larger ones, I stick another set in the second pocket and reverse the process.

I cannot tell you how delighted I am with this! Here's a look:

I have filled almost all of the pages, LOL! It is so wonderful having all my Nestabilities in one place. The case is so strong that it can take the weight of all those sets. When I fill the entire case (which won't be too long), I'll start a second one. It is a compact way of storing a ton of metal Nestabiities.

Next, I'd like to share a LO I did of DS. I used OA papers and elevated a ton of the components using foam dots. I love how this turned out. It's just so happy! DS is about three in this photo. My mom had given him a Mickey Mouse phone for Christmas. He had her number memorized right away! The phone spent years on the dresser next to his bed. I miss my mom. I miss DS. I wish he lived closer.

Thank you for stopping by. I'm fighting a migraine and am going to hit the hay! I hope you are well. I love that you cared enough to come by. Thank you for that. You are wonderful!

XO,

Chris

How Was Your 4th of July?

Did you have fun? Was the long weekend a good one? Ours was quiet. It is just too hot to go out. Over the past couple of months, I've already whined enough about the heat. I honestly feel guilty with having the air conditioner run as much as it does to keep us cool. We don't run any major appliances during the peak hours - washer, dryer, oven, etc. I guess I'm helping out a little bit by not doing that. I try to use the crockpot to minimize cooking and heating up the kitchen. My scrap room is very hot. I have a fan going in there whenever I'm in there scrapping. I'm still warm even with that blowing directly on me. Come on November!

I did a LO yesterday that is just so so. I don't know what else I could have done to make it better. If you have any ideas, I'm open for them! I thought the theme might be something our son might appreciate some day - or not, LOL.

That is me in the photo. My mom and my aunt told me that the coat and hat were a beautiful emerald green. I used that info to make this monochromatic LO. It's too much, huh? The photo was in black and white. Using Photoshop, I made the coat and hat green. The rest of the photo is still in the black and white. Sometimes, I just surprise myself with what I can do in Photoshop! I am strictly a trial and error person when it comes to Photoshop!

In the pocket are strips. Each strip has two tiny photos. One photo is of something from my childhood that we had in our home or I remember from my grandparents' homes. The other photo is the modern component. If you look carefully, the photo in the center of the pocket has something that looks like a "V." That was our refrigerator when I was growing up. If you pulled down on one side of the "V," the door would open from one side. If you pulled down on the other side of the "V," the door would open from the other side! It was sooooo cool! My mom was just tickled when she got it. So, the counterpart photo is the beautiful stainless double fridge and freezer in my kitchen. The tiny photo you see in the right, back, looks like a fly swatter. It is a photo of a carpet beater! I remember my grandmother taking the rugs out into her back yard, hanging them over the clothes line, and then whacking all the dust out of it with the carpet beater. Sometimes, I would even get to do it. The matching photo is of our Dyson vacuum. I thought it would be fun to record these things. Each strip also has some written journaling regarding the items in the photos. The ticket under the clockface says "Always Remember."

Then and Now

Thanks for stopping by! I'll have something more to share really soon.

Blessings,

Chris

Visiting Teaching Lesson & Idea, July 2010

The new July Visiting Teaching Idea is up on my Visiting Teaching blog. If you are on this site thinking that you're at the right place, please go HERE (it's a pretty good one!)

Thanks for stopping by, though! :o)

Blessings,

Chris