A knocken' was heard on the front door last Tuesday, and when I looked to see who it was, I found an American Crafts box on the porch. Inside, was a grand stash of Crate Paper products from their latest fall lines, Acorn Avenue and On Trend. Luckily, I was prepared for their arrival. I had spent the previous two nights rearranging the old Crate goods to an area specifically reserved for all things CP Made so that I had room to store the new stuff. Upon emptying the box, I transitioned the product to it's appropriate location, making sure that everything was neatly stacked and ready to go. Ethan then claimed the box. We both felt like we had won the lottery. Laugh.
Let me tell ya, there's nothing like a fresh pile of scrapbook supplies to motivate a gal to scrapbook! Crate's awesome "On Trend" beckoned I check it out, asap. I spent nearly all of Wednesday and Thursday, scrapbooking with On Trend about a subject near and dear to my heart; Memories of Eric.
I took this photo of Ethan, sitting near daddy's grave, last Spring. One of our traditions is to bring flowers with us to set on top of Eric's grave-site when visiting the cemetery. I have Ethan select a flower arrangement just prior, I then undo the wrapping, and Ethan walks the flowers to the site. We arrange them simply across the length of the stone. A few will then join us on the way home - I place them in a vase near the kitchen sink as a reminder of our beloved, Eric.
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Because this layout is scheduled to publish at the Crate Blog in the next day or two, I'll not delve too deep into the specifics. What I would like to mention is my sudden passion for Ranger's "Crackle" Accents. Lately, I've been using it on multiple surface types like paper die-cuts, printed chipboard designs, alpha stickers, distressed flowers and so forth. In most instances, I apply it directly from the container. The result is a thicker, deeper crackle appearance. Yesterday, I thought I'd try applying the medium with a wide brush, cutting the amount of crackle consumed, "in-half". I brushed a thin layer of Crackle Accent onto Crate's large B/W butterfly {above}. In looking closely at it, the crackle-effect is still readily apparent, though isn't as "dramatic" had the glaze coating been applied in the "traditional" sense.
My next experiment is to mix the crackle accents with spray mist. I plan to impliment a spray & rub-on application technique using the mists. It should be lots of fun!
Like me, you probably have more spray-able mists than you know what to do with, and yet, you can't stop collecting them!! Laugh. When I spotted Heidi Swapp's Color Shine Spritz at Archiver's Scrapfest a few weekends ago, I thought, "Seriously, how much colored mist does one girl need?!" I caved and bought one bottle, just for kicks! I opted to go the safe, neutral route and went with the spritz color, " Gold Lame". Originally, I thought the gold would be similar to Studio Calico's Mister Huey "Gold", but it turns out that they're totally different. HS's gold spritz is brilliantly shiny, highly opaque and has a nice, even spread. I love it! I now own six bottles of HS's Color Shine Spritz!!
There's certainly a tip to put forth as to this photo, but I'm saving it for the Crate Blog!! Stay tuned...
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Ethan has undergone a tremendous amount of change since having started Kindergarten a month ago. I can hardly believe he's the same kid!! Today, he was thrilled to have the day off from school, so I took him over to Toys 'R Us as part of a nice leisure afternoon out and about together. I let him select a toy using his allowance money and he opted for this ginormous train set. ..
He wasn't the only fan of it either...snuggles liked it a whole bunch, too!
Right after the toy store, we made our way to Lucky 13's, a delicious middle of the road restaurant that makes the best zesty cajan chicken pasta dish I've ever had in my life!! Great service, too! :) Wish I would of had my camera with me to take a picture of it. It was sooo good!!
I wish all of you a fantastic weekend!! I've church in the morning, so I'd better retire for the night! Don't forget to stop by the Crate blog to see the rest of the layout details..and stay tuned for Crate's "Blog Redo"!! Take care...
