It's Just Hard...

Okay, Shimelle's challenges (pretty paper.true stories.) are fun; but, you know, they're hard!!  And what's really sad is that the finished product doesn't look like it was hard.  It just looks - done!  But that's okay.  It's just the MS making it hard.  I completed two layouts today. One was just difficult because every few minutes I wondered "What the hell am I doing?".   Losing train of thought, track of what I'm doing - losing my mind.  And then there's the worst part of all... Just losing stuff!    So while the 2nd layout was easy (and looks it because I was just tired and had the kids here) and I finally got it to the last detail with plenty of daylight still left, I couldn't finish because I needed my tickets to finish the layout.  I went to get them and.... they're not there!!  Now let's get this straight - I never throw away anything.... Nothing. But I do put things up; and then, I get a brilliant idea, and I put them up again somewhere better. Problem is that if I did it more than 5 minutes ago, I have no clue where my things are - they're in all of those places and none of those places.  Well, as usual, I spent hours searching high and low (over and over) for my prized possessions and they are no where to be found!!!  Prize Possessions.  Lost.  I did finally find them until after dark in a black box on the highest shelf of my closet.  (Of course, I still can't think for the life of me why in the world I would have ever put them there in the first place!)

 Anyway, here is the first one and you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see the other.

Challenge #10:  2 Photos on a Bold Background

Discussion:  After I finished the page, I wondered if I had interpreted this Challenge correctly.  Maybe it meant bold colors.  But I interpreted it as a bold choice.  A bold pattern.  So regardless of what was meant by the Challenge, this is my interpretation of the instruction.  (Oh, it was windy today, so snapping a picture of the layout was just sooo fun!  You should see all the discards that I had to go through to find something usable!)  This Anna Griffin paper has been in my stash forever, and I would never have thought about using it as background except for this Challenge - and actually it was the first thing I thought of when I read the Challenge.  But what would my subject be?  Well, only these wild and crazy girls could ever work on such a background.  These girls who have been friends since before they were born.  These girls who Skype everyday.  These girls who I never know what to expect - but know it will make me laugh.  It was such a fun layout to scrap - not because of technique, but because of all the things I thought about while I was making it.  And now that I look at it, there are things I would change except for those way-too-stuck Fiskars pop-squares.  But it is what it is... and it will always make me laugh everytime I see it.

Lest I be whining way too much let me tell you why my mind wasn't totally on the scrapbook page I made later this afternoon (you know, the one you can't see yet because it's dark outside but I have to tell you now because I'll totally forget when I post the page tomorrow... oh and well I payed very close attention when I started searching for those tickets!) - GiGi and JC came out to visit me this afternoon. They crack me up and JC is famous for the 1,000 questions still at 11 (and he was tired, you know how that is!). I love it when both or either come to visit.  But then JC left with his mom and it was just GiGi and me. Since her IPod was dead, she used my laptop - opening one tab on whatever she was doing and another one on a music station.  She's sitting here, playing away, with her earplug thing (I hate when I can't remember words!!) plugged into the laptop so all I can hear is GiGi singing away. So while I scrapped, I would frequently just stop to listen. It is the most joyous sound (I have no idea whether she's any good or not)! Who wouldn't just stop and listen? It was glorious!  And let me mention that while GiGi played on the computer, she jumped onto Blogger and said that I had a comment from Cynthia. Dear Cynthia... it made a wonderful moment perfect - thank you.
Now go create something that will make you smile.  Still not to late to do the Challenges at Pretty Papers.True Stories. 

Cheerio.

PS. I want to thank everyone again for such nice comments.  I hope to go everyone's blog tomorrow - it's hard to do more than one thing a day (I haven't read my email in days because of the scrapbooking!).  Also, I am just stupid some days (I wasn't always!!) and forget to hit the "reply" button when I thank you for your comment - but actually comment back (idiot!).  So please excuse me for this and know that I have actually replied but am too thought-challenged to do it correctly. 

"The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense."  - Pablo Picasso