Happy 4th Of July! And: A New Layout (for real!)

Happy 4th of July!

When I was a little kid, a damn adorable little kid, I couldn't sleep before the 4th-  I was that excited to play with sparklers and firecracker 'chickens' and SNAKES.

I wish I could still be excited to light a smoke bomb and jump over the nasty smelling blue smoke.

Instead of possibly blowing off a finger, I decided to stop buying product and USE some of it...
That's right!  FOR REAL!  I sat down at my table and made a new page!

Last week, I was sending pics to Walgreen's for my boss- and threw in a few of my own.  She picked them up and brought them to me the next day.  I've been sitting, looking at them since-  you know how it is, you lay in bed reading blogs and listening to the TV and every so often- glancing at the pile of pictures you intend to work on- and then the moment passes and you find something else lazy and worthless to do...

Well, this morning, I woke up bright and early at 11am, full of the 4th of July spirit and sat down at my table.

First, I sat down on the floor and picked through a mountain of paper.  Most of which I had no memory buying.  I'd like to say that I flipped through paper at a bionic speed- but it actually took nearly an hour and thirty minutes to come up with that little stack of eye-catchers up there...

I should've timed myself-  It feels like this was a four hour process.  I sprayed, cut, stamped, moved and moved and moved things around.  The My Mind's Eye paper with the hexagons made many trial appearances in the work in progress but was eventually left behind.

I used the new 'Washers' border die from Mr. Holtz to cut a 'mask.'  Like I saw someone do somewhere- I'm thinking it was on the Sizzix blog- I'm pretty sure of it...  I love this die.  I recommend it- go buy it.

Here's my new page:

There's a little bit of everything on there-  the base is a piece of plain manila cardstock from Jo-Ann, misted with some Calico White Mister Huey and Frequent Flyer Sprinkler from October Afternoon.  Next layer is some ledger paper from 7gypsies.  The 'Numbers' paper was a 5 for a dollar Michael's brand special.  The light blue with dots and the bone sticker are from Echo Park's Mini Theme 'WOOF' kit.  More 'Numbers,' then a strip of light pink cardstock (I think it's from the Tim Holtz paper- but can't remember).  There's some washi tape, can't remember where it came from, some letters from Authentique- and of course, the photo is of my dearest child, Nelson.  May he rest in peace.

I seem to like to use my handwriting somewhere on every page-  I don't do much journalling, but I like to write something-

I like the way this stamp (from Michaels, the Hampton Art 3.99 big-ass wood mounted bargain stamps) turned out, stamped over the misting in Antique Linen Distress Ink.

Okay, that's it-  I bought a fresh bottle of mixer- uh, I mean, cranberry juice.  It's healthy, dammit.  Good for your... kidneys or something?  Well, adding a splash of it to a glass of vodka is a great way to enjoy the summer afternoon.  From the comforts of the air conditioned den.  And the vodka is healthy, too- it's like...mouthwash.  It's antibacterial or something.

Have a great 4th of July, everyone!

-kory