And She's Back!

Well, to answer your question...yes, I'm still alive.  In fact, I'm more alive than ever!!  This takes a bit of explaining though.  Now ordinarily I don't like to use my blog to talk about my personal life, it's main purpose is to be my creative sounding board.  I just can't keep this one inside.  My husband and I are about to take a drastic turn in this journey so called life.  We are about to end our eleven-year old relationship with the United States Navy and begin a new chapter in our lives.  We are about to set free and have our creative minds and love for each being unleashed upon the free world! Our entire marriage has been lived out as a military family, and it is almost as if we are going through a divorce.  Mounds of paperwork and signatures being thrown here and there, classes and seminars.  It's been a whirlwind, but we are embracing the change and letting fate guide our paths.  First stop, California!  Jay will live out a long held dream of attending film school in San Francisco and I'll be continuing with my creative endeavors.  In fact, I've been feeling more creative and energized than ever!  I can't lie, living the military lifestyle has at times sucked the passion out of me and it was completely lost for several years.  Now, the sky's the limit and nothing can hold me back.  This turn of life was not planned or expected, their are certain circumstances that took us where we are now. I live by a personal philosophy in life and in scrapbooking and that is..."There are no mistakes, only happy accidents!"  Everything happens for a reason and when one door closes another one opens.  In this I am a true believer!

So, onto the fun stuff.  Just because I haven't blogged in over a month doesn't mean that I wasn't still creating.  I made quite a few layouts during my absence and now I'd love to share them with you!

This layout "Joy Ride" is created with Kiki-Art's Magica papers, glitter chipboard, buttons, bling, trim, and fun tape.  Letters are American Crafts Thickers.  This is one of my favorite pictures with my daughter.  She has a thing for carousels, as I'm sure most little girls do.  We've  even started a little photo collection of our carousel riding adventures!

And here below is another layout created with the bright and cheerful papers of Kiki-Art.  On this one I used paper from the Familia line, the glitter puzzle piece chipboard, glittered swoosh chipboard, lace, and over sized white buttons.  I also used a bit of DCWV paper, and again one of my favorite supplies that I just cannot live without...my thickers!

This next layout was just recently up on the Kiki-Art blog. You can read my entry here and get some ideas on how to cut out your own paper embellishments from these super fun papers!

The final layout I have to share that I've created in the last month is yet another example of my design team work with Kiki-Art.  I used Kiki-Art's April sketch for my inspiration and you'll be able to see this layout and others, as well as the sketch, on the Kiki-Art blog coming this Friday, April 9th.

I hope you enjoyed what I had to share today and I promise not to be so much of a stranger! I'll be back soon to share with you what I'm working on.  Happy scrapping!