a soda fountain rundown

i loved the june studio calico kit. but this turned out to be my favorite project from the entire kit:





i was struggling, no creative juices flowing. then i remembered that i'd told ronda i'd make something for her sister chrissi's birthday celebration. see this post. since it was in a couple of days i did not want to fall into my "i should have done that" funk, i started punching butterflies. i got so engrossed in the project that i forgot to eat lunch. i was thrilled with how it turned out. and i made ronda cry, which was the greatest gift of all. i'm so grateful for my scrappy friends, and to have one so close, well that's just icing on the cake.

my next favorite, because it totally happened on accident, yet it's very me. i'd punched out all the tags from the collage press sheet and was planning on backing it with the SC paper, like i did, but i was going to use the whole thing. then i just started putting things down and the pictures didn't fit (i SWEAR i measured them before i printed them), i pouted. then i cut and started tilting (thank you lisa d.) and i ended up with the brown strip down the side and was so happy. it's fun when things work out when they really shouldn't have. this captures the fun day in boston i spent with my awesome MA friends paula, suzy, and debi.


i found this photo and happened to scan it when elizabeth dillow and i were discussing our childhood interest in star wars. she was C3PO for halloween one year. i got R2D2 underoos one year. we had an instant bond. now, i know i'm getting to be considered older by some, and so i thought it would be nice to expound upon the late 1970s phenomenon known as underoos. it was the cabbage patch doll of underwear. is that reference even too old? how about garbage pail kids? no? um, strawberry shortcake? i am searching my brain for something of modern significance. not doing well. underoos were cool, you got to BE the character on your underwear, even if you were wearing clothes OVER them (which you should do anyway, maybe this was the beginning of the showing off our underwear phase, i shouldn't roll my eyes at those boys who forgot to wear belts with their 14 sizes too big pants...). anyway, i really wanted them, and knowing my very non-frills parents, i didn't need them, so i didn't get them. i'm sure my mom whispered to my grandma and she graced us with these cool duds. i'm not doing a good job explaining them, so i'm linking you to wikipedia, should you want to explore the topic further, it really is a quick read, and quite interesting. i really made this layout for my dad. the fact that he agreed to have his photo taken with his girls in their underwear just tells you what a good dad he is. he's very big on modesty, so this was a big thing to overlook. i appreciate it because i don't have a lot of photos with him.



this is me, exploring my new found interest in collaging. annie and i were discussing this photo, i was trying to work in the "rose colored glasses" theme and it just wasn't working. i asked her if she remembered anything about this photo. the journaling is the result. this makes me happy, it's proof that not all pages have to have a good story.


i've always loved this photo, taken at the houston children's museum. my family used to live in houston and this was taken one year when we went down for christmas. it was so cute to have annie mimic the statue, especially since she used to the same thing when we'd ask her how big she was.


suzy and debi entering an archivers for the first time. i sprayed each small piece of paper with water, crinkled it up, then spread it out to dry again, it's a fun look.


i'd recommend getting this kit today. it's one of my favorites. it won't be around for long.

in other news: summer's here! so happy to have my kids home for a few months, i'm going to take advantage of it this year!