It has been too long...

Its hard to believe that it has been a year since I last posted on this blog.  My life looks so different now than it did when I first started chronicling my journey with art .  Back then, I wasn't sure who I was as a creative being.  I just felt an overwhelming compulsion to make pretty things.  I began to explore all kinds of mediums, searching to find an authentic voice of expression. It wasn't until art school that I let go of my own expectations and just allowed myself to do what came naturally.  Up until then, I felt this absurd pressure to unleash some kind of hidden talent inside of me.  Formal art instruction taught me that art is work.  For most, art requires a willingness to be one of many.  Not the best artist in the room and not the worst.  Just an individual expressing themselves.  Yes, technical training and focus add to the finer details, but artistic honesty means quieting the chatter and giving yourself to your work.

I have been scrapbooking and photo-archiving for the last 8 years as a profession.  I have been blessed with a steady stream of clients and an abundance of projects that vary in scope.

Over the last year I have been working on identical scrapbook albums for my client's twins.  Its a massive undertaking since I started with over a 2000 digital images to sort through.  I filtered those photos to 500 and then had my client give me an overview of the stories for each of the photos sets.  From there, I developed 2 copies of the 500 photos and started making the layouts with titles and journalling gleaned from her notes.  See layouts below (I took these pics with my phone so the color, orientation and light are super wonky):

The sun is one of the layers on the Imagine Cartridge; "Imagine More" pg 4.  The top font is the shadow of a layer on the Imagine Cartridge; "Blast Off" and the bottom font is from"Cuttin' Up".

For this layout I used the doghouse image from the Imagine Cartridge; "Best Friends," page 18 and I printed the paw prints from Imagine Cartridge; "Imagine More," pg 8 which I made into bubble stickers with Epiphany Crafts Bubble Caps. This was so much more difficult than it needed to be because I had to print (not cut) that layer, large and the punch out the paw part of the image.  This is why I decided to create a cheat sheet with Page Numbers.  I flipped through all of the books trying to find paw prints to no avail.  Once I had finished the spreadsheet with the cartridges I own, I found paw prints in Car Decals, Word Collage and Life's a Party.

The title font "The Toy Snake" is from "Life's a Party". The T-shirt  (from "Formal Occasion" -pg 47, Layer 2 + shift) and skirt (pg 30) on "The Shirt Says it All".  I used design studio to place the phrase that is cut on the t-shirt.

I made all of the flowers by hand with flowers on a variety of cartridges mixed together with some Sizzix flower die cut.

The hats where made from "Simply Charmed" pg 57, layer 2 as the base.  the details, I did by hand.

 I used the circle shape that comes loaded on the Imagine to use on the Portable Play Mat. The Hungry title on the left page is from Baby Steps, pg 57.

I used the baby girl and boy die cut images from "Baby Steps," pages 27 and 47.  I used paper that coordinated with the photo outfits. The Out in the Stroller layout was tricky.  I knew I wanted to use strollers as my "L"s on the title.  I manipulated "Stretch Your Imagination" pg 71 to make it work.  The title font is from "Life's a Party"

The Grandpa cut out is from "My Community" pg 21.  I manipulated it to look like the person in the photo.

This project is now winding down.  I'll miss it when I'm done. I have to declare that I couldn't have done it without my Cricut.  My Cricut (I have an Imagine) has allowed me to customize many of the embellishments to match the photographs and allowed me to create just about anything I could conjure up with my imagination.