Breathe

Breathe...It's something I frequently need to tell myself.  I tend to be a fast mover...I talk too fast, work on far too many projects all at once, and have a hard time slowing down.  My husband once told me that I wouldn't be happy if I wasn't taking on more work than I can handle.  Those traits can be good for someone who needs to multi-task, especially mamas who also work, but I also have a habit of not paying enough attention to the things that really matter in life.  Take me to the Grand Canyon and I'd take a quick look and then ask what's next on the list...Cleary, I have issues...LOL!

So when I had a couple of free hours at home this past weekend I decided to forget about what I needed to do (clean my poor house) and instead do what I wanted to do...create with my kiddies!  We all got seriously inky and tried out the new Dylusions Ink Sprays and a few Distress Paints on every piece of paper that wasn't already committed to a project!  I think it took us three days to fully remove all of the paint!

I started my two-page journal spread by misting a few Dylusions Ink Sprays over the paper (start by misting your pages with water first).  I used After Midnight, Dirty Martini, and Squeezed Orange on my pages.  Once they were dry I grabbed the 12x12 Turkish Grunge stencil by Donna Downey (yes, having a craft store in your house can come in handy!) and the new White Linen Ink Spray and oh, the results...In love!  The White Linen is just perfect for that hint of color..kind of like a watermark.  Crafty perfection!

Next came a TCW Chevron stencil, which BTW may be discontinued in the 6x6 size...acckk...waiting to confirm that bit of news...and the Squeezed Orange to add a bit more color.

Then..it was...**cough, cough**...time to grab the Flossie stencil from Dylusions, which we are now more than fully stocked with, to add a girl to the left side of my journal pages.  I used Pitch Black paint to fill in the stencil image and then used the Picket Fence Distress Paint to add some swirly text to the body.  I liked the look of the white text so much I added more around both pages.  I then outlined by silhouette with a white gel pen.

You can see the text on this page...isn't it great how soft the images are...you can just barely see it, I love that!  I then grabbed one of my fav Papertreyink stamps and added the leaves all around both pages and added a few highlights with the gel pen.  I also used up a few of my rub ons, you can see the text on the first picture, next to the silhouette (you can click on the photo to enlarge)...along with the words "Life is Good."  A reminder to keep in my wee head... :-)

And then I needed to add a quote...and I need to invest in some big 'ol alpha stickers!  Until then I grabbed a Black Soot re-inker and that worked just perfectly!  I left myself with a reminder to slow down, breathe, and learn to pay more attention to all the little things (that are usually more important!) in life!

I hope you enjoyed today's pages...This is still a learning process for me and I'm not always sure where to stop or what to add but I'm having a blast experimenting!  And if the house never gets fully cleaned but I get more fun times with the kids...that's a-ok with me!