Keys to Her Heart

As you know I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival in Calgary near the end of September. One of the stores that was there was Treasured Memories from Edmonton. They have this incredible line of 12X12 scrapbook paper and tags that is custom made with blackened edges. It is absolutely gorgeous and I just had to grab a couple of the pages and some of the tags. I haven't used the tags yet, but I have ideas and I picked this one sheet of paper because I knew I wanted to do an actual scrapbook page of my Mom. I wanted the paper to really be shown so the embellishments leave a lot of the paper showing, it is just beautiful!

The paper is white roses with handwriting in the background and the blackened edges. Treasured Memories has a number of designs in this paper and they are all so pretty.

 

I used the I Love You stamp from my Tim Holtz set (my signed one) and stamped some in Archival black to stand out a bit more and then stamped more in Hickory Smoke.

I painted my Southern Ridge Trading Company Leafy Frame

with Black Soot Distress Paint and then added some embossed spots with Emerald Creek Charred Gold

I used these roses in off white and yellow and the the heart and key represent my Dad in this flower and I got the I love you just in the right spot (okay that was a total fluke lol)

I edged the roses in Irridescent Shimmer Embossing Powder and added one of my favorite charms, the vintagey leaf from Emerald Creek.

And here all the other keys to her heart, a key for each of her children and grandchildren. I did some keys with turquoise and black alcohol ink, some with Charred gold and Oil Rubbed Bronze. I attached them to a chain from one of my Tim Holtz packs of hardware with jump rings from the same set.

And a little dragonfly in the corner to represent the grandson that is already with her.

Thank you so much for stopping by and having a look at this scrapbook page for my Mom, who I miss everyday.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Cathy

Supplies Used:

Tim Holtz Crazy Talk Stamp Set

Distress Paint in Black Soot

Distress Ink in Hickory Smoke

Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink in Turquoise and Black

Archival Black Ink
Southern Ridge Trading Company Paper Flowers

Southern Ridge Trading Company Leafy Frame

Emerald Creek Filagree Leaf Charm 

Emerald Creek Heart Brads 

Emerald Creek Dragonfly Brads 

Emerald Creek Metal Key Charms 

Emerald Creek Charred Gold Embossing Powder

Emerald Creek Oil Rubbed Bronze Embossing Powder

Emerald Creek Iridescent Shimmer Embossing Powder

Specialty 12X12 Scrapbook Paper from Treasured Memories

It's A Charmed Life and Thoughts of My Mom

My post is late this time around, was knocked off my feet for a few days thanks to an abcess tooth and the left side of my face being about 4 times bigger than it should be, but antibiotics, painkillers and finally some sleep have made me feel almost normal again!

The time is flying by it seems and Mother's Day is just around the corner again and it's time for a new challenge at Emerald Creek Dares!! I love spending Thursdays sharing some amazing Emerald Creek products and incredible inspiration from the Design Team, with all of you who stop by. At the end of my post there is a more personal note about my Mom and missing her and a poem my son wrote for her service.

For this project I used a frame that came in a Tim Holtz kit. I painted the the frame with Dylusions paint in London Blue, Dirty Martini and Fresh Lime. Around the corners I used Ranger Clear texture paste and a Tim Holtz stencil for some texture.

I used a 1" square punch to punch out the small pictures of my Mom and glued those on using the Distress Collage Medium. The line on the inside pic says "Though she be but little, she is fierce" and that was definitely my Mom.

And some amazing embossing powders from Emerald Creek are a must for projects, so many colours and so many textures!

For my large blue flower and the little tiny tattered florals I used the Irridescent Shimmer, for the leaves I used Vintage Ivy, for the heart center, Frosted Plum and on the bottom of my dressform the Hammered Metal.

 And a couple of the ephemera from the frame kit were perfect, the little robin, Mom always got excited to see the first robins of spring and the word piece that has Coney Isl on it, which was my Mom's favorite fish and chip place in White Rock.

Please join us for your chance to win a $25 gc to shop at Emerald Creek and try out these amazing embossing powders for yourself!

Please swing by and check out the Design Team creations, the talent is amazing from these ladies!!

Julia

Katelyn

Claudia

Shilpa

Pam

Our amazing leader, Kim

Products Used 

Emerald Creek Metal Brad Hearts 

Emerald Creek Flower Link Charms

Emerald Creek Vintage Ivy Embossing Powder

Emerald Creek Hammered Metal Embossing Powder

Emerald Creek Frosted Plum Embossing Powder

Emerald Creek Cardstock in Arctic white

Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peacock Blue and Twisted Citron

Dylusions Paints in London Blue, Dirty Martini and Fresh Lime

Ranger Ink Clear Texture Paste

Distress Collage Medium 

Challenges Entered 
Frilly and Funkie: It's not Easy Being Green -upcycled a picture frame and used paper scraps to do my tiny tattered florals and my dressform.

On a more personal note, this is my 3rd Mother's Day without my Mom. It does not seem to get any easier to get through the day. I still have moments when things happen that I reach for my phone to call her, then just as quickly remember that she isn't here anymore. Small things that have changed make me cry, like a couple of her cardigans that I kept and hung on my bedroom door, sounds crazy I know, but they don't smell like her anymore, now they're just sweaters. But I still haven't been able to get rid of them, maybe one day.

Last year, on my way to work, The Dance by Garth Brooks came on the radio which is one of the songs Mom wanted played at her funeral. So the day started teary and didn't get much better. I just got home from work, put on my jammies and wanted to just forget what day it was. Then my kids reminded me I am a Mom and my son took his sister and myself out to dinner in White Rock (one of my fave places) and he took us to Coney Island (my Mom's fave fish and chip place). 

My Mom was very close to my kids and they loved her beyond measure. She was the most important person in their lives after me. My daughter sometimes still sleeps with the housecoat Mom always wore. My son had a dream about her just before Christmas and I think may have made some peace with losing her. 

The night after my Mom passed away my son wrote a poem, I still can't read it without crying and he said he could not read it a her service, so the officiant added it to his readings. And I can tell you when he read this poem, I heard some grown men lose it. I think it took alot of people by surprise that a 17 year old boy (almost 18 since his birthday was 8 days after he lost his Grandma) would sit and write. I've attached a pic of Lucas's poem that he wrote for his Grandma, with his permission.

Thank you for visiting and if you read this far, thank you for that too.

Cathy 

Life Book and Life

Wow....the days and weeks just seem to be going so fast lately. I have worked on and completed a few more of my Life Book 2015 lessons! I am really looking forward to working on the ones I have waiting for me. So many new things to learn and so many techniques to work on getting better at. And the supplies!!! Oh lordy I need 5 jobs so I can shop for art stuff whenever I want too!! You all know what I'm talking about! LOL Especially now that I'm actually using the supplies that I have been "collecting" for so long, I need to replenish the basics regularly!

As for life....well it's the everyday ups and downs. March 15 would have been my Dad and Mom's 42nd anniversary, but this was the second one without her. Mom has been gone for a year and a half now, some days it still feels like it happened yesterday and some days it's not as painful, for me. For my Dad it's always painful and he misses her and still cries almost everyday for her. He keeps busy and looks after his littlest grandsons (7 and 3) and they keep him on his toes and he does things for his Mom (93) and his brother so he's on the go alot, and I'm lucky that I get to spend time with too and with the little ones. But somedays he just mentions Mom and he tears up, or he forgets the words to a song he wants to teach the little ones and cries because he says Mom would remember all the words. I know everyone in my family struggles with the loss still, but we all had our own lives, but for Dad his whole life was wrapped up with my Mom's.
I miss her every day, I know people say it gets easier, I haven't found that yet. It's just different. I miss showing my Mom all the things I make or create, she was my biggest fan when it came to my creative stuff. And she was usually the recipient of all the new things I came up with. My kids miss her, they were very close to her and there was no one in the world aside from me that my son was more loyal too. It broke my heart that his 18th birthday (legal in Alberta) had to be celebrated just 8 days after my Mom passed and 4 days after her service. He didn't want to celebrate at all, but we had to remind him...if Grandma was here she'd be all over taking him to a pub and buying him his first legal drink and I think it helped that my Dad said he was coming out. The things family does to protect and help the ones they love. I still have days where I just don't feel like it's real and I have days where I'm angry and days where the littlest thing or a song makes me cry and then there are the moments when someone says something about Mom and we all laugh. Those are the best moments, doesn't mean I don't miss her, but it's nice to laugh when we talk about her sometimes too.

Life in general is......challenging. Still looking for work as my current job is not enough hours to survive. There has got to be the right job out there for me!! I just keep getting up everyday and trying and applying and really try to not let the negative take over....ans sometimes that is a job all on it's own! But I can't wallow in the bad stuff, it doesn't do me any good and it certainly won't make the day better.

I have been doing some work with The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and making a few steps forward with that. Trying to declutter and  organize was my first month's goals and my second one is too make a more concentrated effort on updating my blog at least weekly, sharing more of the creative things I love and find on my interent adventures and also to put myself out there and work on some projects and apply for some design teams! These are things that although I can't make them my job, they do make me happy and I love to create!

Thanks all for checking in and we'll talk soon!

Cathy

Has it really been two weeks?!

Wow!! Time sure does fly and some of it was fun!

We did Easter a day early because my sis and bro-in-law were going on a trip on their own, no kids. We colored eggs on Friday night and it was so much fun having little ones around to color eggs again. Although my grown kids colored eggs and so did the rest of the adults too. Egg decorating is some serious business in our family.

My daughter using the dip technique to get multi colored layers

My son did one egg with his fave band and it turned out great

You know shit just got serious when Dad puts on his glasses to decorate eggs!! LOL

 It was also another first.....our first Easter without my Mom. I found it very hard as I have with all the other "firsts" we've already gone through. I pulled out the cups that we used as kids and that my kids used for eons to color eggs and took them over for my sister's boys. They are only 6 and 2 so the Easter egg dyeing cups will get a few more years of use and that makes me happy.

Can you tell which one is used for the blue dye every year?! haha

Getting the dye ready and using Mom's old china cups ♥

Then on Saturday night we had a big dinner with family and my sis made the potato salad that Mom always made for Easter, I made the rice salad she used to make and Dad did alot of "Remember when..." and teared up a few times. But he did okay and then spent the following week looking after his little grandsons while their folks were having some time away.

Dad has gone back to PG and to give his notice this week. He is finally retiring at the end of May and moving down here, so it will be good to have him close to all of us.

Last week was busy busy with work and aches and pains but it seemed to fly by and my evenings were just gone with napping and lounging. Not terribly productive last week, but I'm hopefull this week will be a better one.

The weekend just past, my kids and I continued our "Sunday Afternoon Adventures" and went to a great little British Car Show in Fort Langley. I'll add pics of that tomorrow evening :)

Hope you all have had a wonderful start to a wonderful week!! And for all things glittery and creative, please go and check out Effy Wild's April Blog Along post, she is truly such an inspiration on so many levels

A Day At The Beach

Well it was a nice quiet Sunday. My kids and I decided that we were just going to go out and wander today. So we went out to White Rock Beach and walked the boardwalk and out to the end of the pier. I took a lot of pics, as I always do! So many things reminded me of my Mom while we were out there today, the beach itself, the daffodils blooming all over, just being out there.

One of my Mom's favorite flowers ♥

Heading onto the pier, love the arches

The train tracks that run along this part of the beach, have some ideas for more pics here

Seashells on the seashore, love the shells

After we strolled and chatted and had ice cream, well gelato, strawberry cheesecake for me, tiramisu for my son and peanut butter snickers for my daughter, we left the beach and headed out to a little spot called Fort Langley. We actually used to live in Fort Langley about 12 years ago, but moved away to Calgary. Love the little shops and artisans storefronts there. One of the best little places is in Gasoline Alley, called Cranberries..Naturally, great place!

Cranberries Naturally in Fort Langley, BC

Was a great idea to just go and get out of the house.....next Sunday maybe a new neighborhood out in Vancouver to adventure in?!

Hope everyone's week starts well :)