Happy Sunday ! Hang on for a long post !

I know for many of us this time of year is so busy. We are women trying to keep up with the demands of others, working full or part time jobs, having one or several kids involved in sports or extra school activities, keeping our homes running and trying to make time for ourselves to do what we love most. The last of these items seems to be the one that gets put on the rear burner. I have been in that  boat for a few weeks, so what ends up suffering for me is sleep. I tend to stay up later, wake up earlier, and spend my days wondering why I am so tired. I am driven to get it all done and do it all well. I have managed to finish a couple of projects this week and would love to share it with you. First is a frame that I made for my Aunt who is here visiting for a week. She is failing in health and recently lost her husband so I wanted to do something special for her. I know she will love it and it will brighten her day.

The frame is a MDF frame that I picked up at the craft store. I painted the edges with Maya Mist Amethyst, and then covered it with one of the papers from the Kaiser Craft Lilac Avenue Paper Pack. I had some chipboard alphabets and Lace that I sprayed with Maya Mist Pink Grapefruit. I then painted some Prima flowers with both the Amethyst and the Grapefruit . The leaves were sprayed with Maya Mist Iridescent pearl, and then all of it was hot glued to the frame. I added some purple bling to both the paper and the lace to finish it off. Once everything was attached to the frame I then sprayed the entire thing with the Iridescent spray to give it a wonderful shimmer. I Love how it turned out and will be delighted to give it to her.

The next project is the Punky Sprout Album. I was not sure about how to go about this, but once I got started it all seem to flow.

This is the cover, and I started with the Jades Garden Paper Pack. The bird cage and bird are the Sizzix Tim Holtz Dies and they are sprayed with TA Sand, and Maya Mist Teal . I added bling to the bottom of the bird cage and then some flowers and a chain onto the bird cage. I used the Kaiser Craft Friends Rub ons throughout the album.

I created a pocket and tag for the bottom of the page, and left the  top of the pocket open to add another tag. Both tags are Sizzix dies. The Circle is embossed with a cuttlebug embosser and then rubbed with rusty hinge distress ink The flowers a made from the 3-D Sizzix die and then sprayed with Maya Mist. I surrounded the circle with some chain pearls and added some Prima leaves.

The flower on this page is the Tattered Floral Die From Sizzix and it is placed on a mini doily that I found at the second hand store. There Is a simple mat for a picture and a rub on to finish the page
The page on the right is canvas and I was unsure of how to work with it, I sprayed the page with GM and then  decided to try stamping on it. Then painted the flowers and stems with some GM and dotted the centers with some glitter mixed with some glue. And then finished it off with some oval Tags sprayed with Maya Mist and a rub on, which worked quite well on the canvas.

The back side of the canvas page was sprayed with Maya Mist and the Butterfly lace was sprayed with Gm and then I added a flower made with wired lace, and small prima flowers.

Its hard to see but the page with the black frames is an acrylic page. I stamped the frames onto it using Stazon in, and then added a rub on and some charms. The frames show through to the back side of the page, so that worked for doing both sides of the acrylic.

I created a pocket using a legal size envelope and then covered it with the packaging from one of the prima stamps, I cut out flowers from a page of the Jades garden paper and added it to the side. The tag is cut using the Sizzix Super Crescent Tag die, and then stamped with the Prima Notary Stamp, and then a rub on was added to the bottom of the page.

The frame is a Sizzix die and is cut out of chipboard , sprayed with GM and then surrounded with string pearls. The page on the right is another canvas page it is sprayed with GM, stamped with small flowers  and then I created a paper mat, added the hinge from the Tim Holtz Hardware findings and  the Lock and Key from Sizzix, they are all cut out of chipboard and sprayed with GM. More rub ons are added to both pages

The back side of the canvas page was sprayed with Sand GM and then I took some Glitter and mixed it with scotch glue and water and then painted over the entire page with it to give it some shine. I cut out the bracket album from Sizzix, embossed it using a cuttlebug die (this is chipboard and the embossing worked great on it)

Then I rubbed it with rusty hinge distress ink. The flowers are sprayed with GM and of course there are more rub ons. Torn papers, rub ons, a large flower folded, two small flowers and a pearl stem finish off these pages.

The back is just coved with paper and a rub on added. The album is finished with ribbons added to the spiral spine. I had so much fun on this album as it stretched my imagination, allowed me to use different techniques that I had not done, and allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and enlarge its perimeters.

Well I know this has been a long post, Thanks for sticking with me. I will be away for a few days to spend some time at my moms to help her take care of my Aunt while she is there. I hope you all have a week that allows you to take some time just for you.

Blessings Carol