her vision. family. art.

very cool

I want to share something very special.      I receive *a lot of personal emails, and appreciate every one of them. People inspire and drive me to push my creative passion constantly. I know we get into the scrapbook concept for our families;   future generations to treasure and enjoy, and along the way we find it to be very theraputic, as well as obtain new and fab friendships. As we get into this faB faD, we all find our own style that mirrors our uniquenesses. Some of my artwork inspires people to push the limits on their own, some it doesn't appeal to, and others see my artwork simply as eyecandy. Yesterday I received an email that gave me goosebumps. I'm posting a portion of the email here

Hi Steph,

Just a wee note, I have commented on your blog but wanted to say thanks for all the inspiration you have given over your blog, I read it every day and just pour over your layouts, I love your work.

Six months ago I had an accident and haven't walked since I used to scrap all the time and haven't since then at all, but since finding your blog, however I have been a "secret fan" for a long time, you have made me want to get back into it!!

this is good for my soul.

this, my friends, makes me happy. not just the content of her email, but the fact that she took the time to share with me her personal experience and how i've helped her through visuals of my art. 

it's real.

it's effective.

and i appreciate you *S

pushing the deadline

as usual...   my grandma's 07 altered calendar is finished, and i was at the PO 15min before closing tonight Xpressing this to get it to her for Christmas! i'm getting ready to walk up to the counter, and realize that i forgot to photograph the final pages!  so i run over to a side counter and with the calendar spread  out on the floor, i pull  my mini digital out and start shooting these really bad visuals! i had to laugh, because the janitor was mopping the floor (that's how far i pushed the doors closing) and he was watching me like i was a FREAK. have to laugh about it!!

no matter how hard Gram trys to understand exactly what i do... (the tin journal i made for her last year *so cool, about sent her over the edge because she couldn't figure out how to open it!)  she just doesn't get the full capacity, so i tried to incorporate write ups that she's never seen- IE: october layout. the very cool thing about this calendar is she will look at every page-every day. this first visual; june, is my grandma's birthday month- the small images i took of her this summer. the top is a print out of me doing a recent photo shoot at the plaza here in KC...   i didn't know until after i was finished that a friend of mine was shooting me as i was shooting photos of her family!! pretty cool. this layout focuses on my grandma's inspirational imprint on my life. she's the most beautiful woman i know; inside and out. i was truely blessed with her.

july is eth's birthday month. august is bobby. i had fun with these pages- throughout the calendar i marked special dates using acrylic and a paint cap. i just smeared the paint along the edge of the cap, and pressed the circles around dates. just a fun *pop. october is mine and aly's birthday month. on the top i collaged pieces of articles i've written, and write ups, then over the top/center i placed a 4 generation photo of my great-grandmother, grandma, mom and myself that i printed onto acetate. this is probably my most favorite layout, because that layout symbolizes the strong women in my gene pool who have, and continue to inspire me in what i do.

sept *josie's,nov and dec are going to be no-shows.the photos turned even worse than these. the lights in the PO were seriously bright.

so...               i have pushed the christmas shopping deadline as well, and now will be out fighting the out of control public all weekend! i've never waited this late to do my shopping, and ethan is about to go out of his mind because i have not one present under the tree! -and he's 16, and still gets totally excited about Christmas! that's cool. it's all good- and i'm looking forward to a great pre-Christmas weekend/Christmas day with my boys/family, and friends.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Peace, Love, and be Safe. slm.

under pressure

TO GET THIS FINISHED!   i'm on calendar burn-out, and have 3 more months to alter- deep breath. i'm hoping to get the energy to finish this by end of weekend.  who knows. i'm always stoked to get started on big projects, but get burned out right before i finish. never fails. ok...    this is my niece, Sophie. her birthday is in january, but somehow i didn't put that into play when i was designing jan's layout!! Sophie will be ONE/jan07. i mainly used acrylics here with bubble wrap creating the pattern on top.

march is a random month/no fam birthdays. this was inspired by lynn perella's artwork- layering notebook paper and layering acrylic and stain. these photos are of a great aunt of mine.

april is completely junked up! another random month, and i got a little out of control here! the bottom images are of my grandad and another great aunt.

may is my bro's birthday month. the top is the SPORT ART paper i designed for captured elements. it's actually designed with mostly images of my brother's high school newspaper clippings. the top right football photo is my dad's little league football championship team (dad in the center-front; holding the football). the bottom of may is recent photos of my bro at work, and with my 2 nieces Aly and Josie.

i have june, august, sept, oct and dec in the works, but not complete.

now. back to work.

late

my head is spinning with ideas for this calendar, and i feel so overwhelmed that i just can't put it all into play fast enough! there just isn't enough time in the day. i've been working on this like mad so i can mail it in time-  beat the postal CHRISTMAS delivery RUSH.! anyway, i'm approx. halfway finished with this, but have been jumping around from month to month adding photos,etc. here-there. i'll be glad when it all comes together. so this is january of the altered calendar i'm making for my grandma for Christmas. she's not going to get it/laff. but it's pretty much a cool layout. the female image is embellished with snowflakes. this thought came from this amazing female. she featured a piece similar last year on her blog. on scraps of acetate i stamped angel wings with white acrylic, then added ultra thick embossing powder and put the heat gun to it. i love the randomness of the wings. the acetate is ripped and very un-even-ish ;-) the concept of this calendar is to add photos of my boys and my nieces throughout the whole calendar, and here i've added a pix of my niece Aly. it's an older photo, but the hat sold the photo here! i spray painted over the hks snowflake mask with silver. here's some more visuals

i love what this says " i could hope to read my fortune ". how cool is that for january; new year, new outlook.

if you've never used spray paint I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. love the over-spray.

the Holiday gift making marathon

is ON! sheesh...   my life would be so much smoother if i would make gifts randomly throughout the year. would be nice, yes. however, i could never christmas shop too early because i can't stand it and am too excited to wait to give! the same with my art...     when i make something for someone, i can't stand it and have to give it to them NOW. i did that very thing this week with the hunting journal i posted images of in my last post. it was a christmas gift and i presented it thursday-       NOV30TH   oh well. i have to admit, i have always been the one to snoop out my christmas gifts as a child and as an adult! i think you'd have to classify that as a patience issue! (wink) anyway, i made this canvas for my brother/sis-n-law for christmas. it's one of my very fav photos i took of the girls right after Sophie was born. so cute of all 3 of my nieces. i used modeling paste, and just layered acrylics. it'll match the decor/color scheme of their house. they'll love it. last night i started on an altered calendar for my grandma. it's been so cold in KC/ice and snow the past 3 days that i've pretty much been staying inside and getting on this stuff. several years ago i made my grandma a photo calendar with fam photos throughout the year. she loved it, and has talked about it since. seriously, she still mentions it. and what a better gift for her ?!  i was inspired to make her another one when i picked up the dec/jan issue of Legacy mag and saw the same concept shown in the upcoming issue section. an artist by the name of mou saha. so this morning i pilfered through this years photos ( i take way too many photographs ), and got started on the calendar. i should have pages ready to photograph and post this weekend sometime.

eth's first wrestling tourney of the season was yesterday, so it was all day; bleecher-butt by 7PM. his team won the championship so it was worth it! then it's all good with enjoying a saturday night at home ..watching a good chic flick and working on artwork!

back to the calendar now, but i wanted to touch base.

slm