FRAK-y Friday {giveaway closed - winner posted}

It's been a crazy week of sick days (mine and Avery's) and a million errands around here, and I'm ready for some downtime this weekend. But first, there's some business to take care of:

On this balmy March day, I'm offering a bright sunny FRAK to one lucky blog reader.

This is a jam-packed bag of double-sided paper, die-cuts and pennant flags from the Pink Paislee/House of Three Soiree collection. I've also thrown in some chipboard flowers and borders from Ruby Rock-It's Paper Girl collection because they looked so cute with the rest of the stuff.

Leave a comment by 5 p.m. Central on Monday, March 5, telling me what you're looking forward to this Spring. Be sure to include your email address in your comment if it's not already in your Blogger profile.

Good luck!

UPDATED 3/5: This week's winner is...

Congratulations LisaM! I'm not seeing an email in your blogger profile, so please email me at robmab at yahoo.com with your shipping address. Thanks!


FINE PRINT: If you don't have an email in your blogger profile (or you aren't sure what I'm talking about), please be sure to leave your email addy with your comment. After 5 p.m. Central on March 5, I will randomly draw a winner from the comments  on this post and list the winner's name/ comment at the bottom of this post. I will also contact the winner by email if possible. If you live outside the U.S., you are welcome to enter, but I'll ask that you cover the extra postage cost. Thanks for reading! 

Looking forward

This week is dragging. I knew it would. That always happens when there's something to look forward to for the weekend. I'm heading out to a scrappy retreat -- my first in many years!

The girls I'm going with are so good at planning out what they want to work on and putting together all their supplies into matching kits, etc. Me? I'm just going to throw a bunch of stuff in a bag and hope I get there with something I can work with. It'll be a Tim Gunn "Make-It-Work" weekend. Hopefully, they won't kick me out.

Before I begin my packing frenzy, here are a few projects I created for Epiphany Crafts, but never posted.

I used the Epiphany Crafts metal settings with the Round 14 shapes to top the layered punched flowers on the banner. The silver settings add a very vintage feel to the page.

On this one, I used the Epiphany Crafts Square shapes in between the hexagon chipboard shapes from Pink Paislee. The square tool is so versatile for creating borders!


Be sure to check back tomorrow for another F.R.A.K. -- I think you'll like it!

Dreams

Over Thanksgiving, my mom presented me with a battered folder stuffed full of my old artwork, report cards, writings, etc. from childhood. It was an interesting trip down memory lane, piecing together all the different things I wanted to be and do and see in my life...and realizing that I've experienced many of them. I guess you could say that those dreams came true. Of course, there are others that I still need to work on. But it was a nice reminder that, when you're a kid, no dream is too big.

Now that Avery is just a few weeks away from her 8th birthday -- and brimming with dreams and ideas of what she wants to do in her life -- I decided to create a repository to capture all those thoughts in her own words.

The book was a bit of an experiment. I created it by making a chipboard backing that I folded twice to make a spine. I punched holes in the top and bottom and bound with twine.

The inside pages/pockets are made from glassine bags that I folded at different increments to create a tabbed effect. The pockets are labeled: i want to be, i want to see, i want to live, i want to go.

The embellishment is pretty simple on each pocket. Just a strip of patterned paper, a strip of trim and a couple of pieces of ephemera with the label.

For each pocket, I created a small card for Avery to write on. I love that the cards show through the glassine for a hint of what's inside.

I can't wait to see what she writes on each card. And hopefully someday, many years from now, she'll thumb through it and see some dreams -- big dreams -- that came true.

Where's the fun?

The girls are away for a few days hanging out with my mom and aunt while school's out. And I miss them. A lot.

As much as I love having the house quiet and more time and space to get things done, the house really isn't the same. No one is laughing. There's no tears to comfort or fights to break up. And no one is repeatedly popping into whichever room I'm in to say "whatcha doin?"

Yeah, I miss 'em. Their energy, silliness and laughter are what make our house fun.

Take two

I try not to use the same photo on more than one layout. While some of my favorite photos do end up getting repeated in mini books and altered projects, it's very rare that I will use the exact same photo on two separate layouts. I made an exception for this one.

Why? First, because I love the photo. It so perfectly captures Cecily -- how her mood can change in the blink of an eye and you can sense it immediately by the expression on her face. And second, because I felt that the layout I did with this photo a few months ago really didn't do it justice. It didn't say anything about me as the maker or her as the subject.

This is the layout I wanted to do. Everything about it, from the color combinations to the slightly messy style, feels right to me.

Supplies: Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Round 14; Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Round 25; Epiphany Crafts Vintage Settings – Tea Room; Epiphany Crafts Vintage Settings - Cabana; Epiphany Crafts Star Flowers - Mint; Tattered Angels Chalkboard Mist – Inchworm; Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist – Pearl; Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam – Bordeaux; Pink Paislee patterned paper, ephemera, journaling spot, twine and wood letters; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers; American Crafts journaling pen

Yeah, I love this one.