Family Portrait

What a Terrific Tuesday! I have a some fun and wonderful news... Several things actually!

First off I am going to be a stinker and share with you all my new layout first... hehe. This is one I did this weekend over at Coordinates Collections March Madness Cyber Crop (MMCC). Which brings me to my first set of good news... I know I cant keep quiet... I said I would share later but this is exciting for me too. I won the grand prize for the crop and get two free kits from them!!! Got to love that. They are really a great bunch of ladies over there and if you have not checked their message boards yet, and want a relaxing and fun place to hang out and get inspired, you need to head on over. Background:
All these papers are from the Memory Stor. I love this bulk pack I got at COSTCO!!! Yes it is thick double sided cardstock and came in a great accordion file case. LOVE IT!
The main 12 x 12 is actually the blue denim style textured paper. I then layered the brown texture over that as a frame. I simply cut a 6 x 6 hole out of the center of the brown. Before adhering it to the blue I stitched around the edge in three colors and inked the edges with a brown ink. The only other layer of patterned paper is the stripe boarder. I created this with a boarder punch and four 1 1/4 " pieces of paper. I also trimmed these down to 11" long. I lined them up and mitered the corners. Inked the edges with the brown ink I used already and glued them together to create the frame. Before adhering it to the brown paper I laced the ribbon. Tied the ribbon in two corners. Then tacked it down to the background papers.
Embellishments:
These are simply leaves and flowers cut on coordinating cardstock with the cricut. I added a few sheer prima flowers behind the navy cardstock flowers. I took my gold marker and went to town doodling.
Title:
The word family was cut out of navy cardstock and traced with the gold Zig painty marker I love so much. The "portrait" was created with some stamps and coordinating patterned paper that was used to finish the grunge board plate.
Journaling:
I had wrote about the day and MeMaw taking the pics along the small brown strip ... it is in tone on tone ink pen so hard to see in this pic. But that is how I like my journaling... quietly there.

I have more from the crop I will add as the week goes on. Thanks to Coordinates Collections for such a fun weekend. I got my mom in CO to attend and we cyber cropped together over the internet and phone... hehe.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the announcement of the day!!! You might have noticed a new little logo in the upper right hand corner of my blog. Last week I was approached by Marisol Jiminez from Scrapbook News and Review. She offered me a staff position on their wonderful online magazine. I needed to chat over the decision with my hubby who was out of town at the time. She let me see how well they work under the pressure of a deadline this weekend and I must say I was really impressed. Lots of long hard tireless hours put into every issue and yet they still remain pleasant and respectful to each other. As of yesterday when all of the dust had settled from the March Issue debut, I emailed her to let her know I was ready to accept the staff position.

There it is folks... I am officially a...

Staff Member for Scrapbook News and Review!!!

You can find me on the Message Boards!!!

You can be published too... check out what projects and layouts we are looking for in our April Issue!!!

ALS Graduation

The Scrappiest did it again. Liz always has a way to challenge my creativity. As soon as I saw this wonderful sketch I knew I had just the pics for it... funny thing is I always have a hard time scrapping my Hubby's military moments. Maybe it is the importance of the event or the protocol of the military that keeps me from wanting to scrap these career milestones. These three have been in my "In Progress" file for almost a month now and every time I took them out I just could not do it.
I remember this night vividly. This was my first ever major military event and the beauty of the traditions were just amazing. The ceremony began with the presentation of the colors. The color guard airmen entered from the back of the room. You could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. The intensity of emotion in the room became overwhelming as everyone in attendance filled with pride for our country. The color guard presented the colors at the front of the room and the National Anthem was played. Fallowed by a moment of silence for the fallen heroes. Which they had a table set off to the side in the front of the room reserved for the memory of those who have given their life from every branch of the military. I am getting choked up right now just going through this memory.
We went to the graduation and had no idea he would have been acknowledged for any special award. As they began they did the graduation ceremony.They did the awards next and my hubby received the Distinguished Graduate award for scoring in the top 10% of his class of over 150 students. I was extremely proud. I was the happiest wife in the room. They finished up the awards with three specialty awards given and decided on by their instructors and nominated by their piers. He was only one of two graduates to receive multiple awards. You should have seen me ... beaming ear to ear... I was now the proudest wife on Travis Air Force Base at that moment.

Journaling:
I was able to convince my Hubby to write this journaling. I typed it up and love that he had input on this layout. I typed it up and played with the lettering of the title on Microsoft word. Printed it out and colored it in with coordinating markers.

Details:
Background:
This is a fairly simple LO for me. I started with a chocolate brown cardstock and added some chocolate brown in to it just to create a soft tone on tone texture. I added the stripe rectangle with lighter tones then the rest of the page. The was to create some contrast with out adding to much to the layout. I edged it in my Zig gold ink pen. I hand drew the bracket shape with a few measurements on the back of the navy and star paper. Once this was cut I used it as a template to create the same curves on the red and the white papers. I edged each layer with the gold Zig pen.
Top Left: The detail here is simply the finish on the grungeboard by Tim Holtz. I just took my thyme green colored ink pad and pressed the grungeboard lightly on top of it with no rubbing, just blotting. Then instead of putting brads inside these pre-punched holes I took my large gold paint marker and colored the inside edges of each hole. This created a nice rivet/eyelet look.

Top Right: The detail here is just the printed title and how I colored it in with all the coordinating markers for this layout. Notice the flag though. It is a laser cut die cut and I chalked the white and red pieces to soften them to a more muted color for this page. I have had that for years and never used it...hehe. It is a stash piece.

Bottom Right: This flourish is also a piece of the grungeboard set by Tim Holtz. I did the same finish with the thyme colored ink yet I only doodled the gold dots on it. I added the USA letters in the antique brass and I love the simplicity of it all.

Thanks for viewing this layout and I want to thank everyone who is reading this if you are a military family member, an active duty member or retired... Thank you for serving I am proud to stand next to you as a military spouse and be a part of the entire military family. Salute!