Have My Cake and Paint It Too...

One of my most recent journal pages started out with a sweet theme and just got sweeter from there! With cake as the subject matter... can I really go wrong?

If you know me, any form of pink and teal or blue can be a predictable starting point. This time I thought I'd add a little brown and cream for good measure (a baking reference...get it!).

I had actually painted the cake on the page before the girl was there... part of my brave new strategy of just doing something and not worrying about how it will end up in the final composition. But, I have to confess that I liked it so much, I didn't want to cover it up.

So, of course when I added the girl, she had to be eyeing up that slice of chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. Mmmmmmm. I see that little smirk on her face! She's totally thinking.... MINE!

When I create these pages, I like to alternate painting, drawing, embellishing and pasting stuff on. I kinda sorta randomly pick from my ephemera pieces that just look good on the page... like this number 5 from a flash card. I think I chose this because the nicely aged cardstock went well with the polka-dotted scrapbook page next to it. And because 5-year-olds like cake!

But then i found this cute little spanish language flash card that had a 5 on it... and so I added that to the piece as well. And I just love sounding out (say it with me now...) OO-nah moó-CHA-chah.

Even more delightfully delicious ephemera kept finding its way to my cakey journal page and this one was probably my favorite. The celebratory birthday girl and boy were precisely placed over top of the music page so that the words "be good" appeared between them.

It's funny how when I'm working on a page, it feels like I'm on auto pilot. Not in a bad way. But I just make moves and then work with what's there. Then I make more moves and add more, tweak more and play more until the layout is pleasing to the eye.

But when I look back at all my detail photos, I see dozens upon dozens of carefully calculated decisions... a warm wash of paint here... some extra glitter there... a pencil scratch here... a candy wrapper there.... or the smallest of elements that really felt good at the time. And then I remember what a joy it is to create in the moment... even though my goal is a finished page.

So I guess I can have my cake and paint it too!

That's Affirmative...

In today's hurry-up-get-it-done-and-on-to-the-next-thing world, we often forget to pause and reflect on what is really important in our lives. I know that I am totally guilty of flitting from one task to the next, barely even taking a breath in-between. And my brain? Forgetaboutit! It's going a million miles a minute processing what I have to do, what order to get it done in, times the amout of days I don't have to get it done in... sheesh! Is it any wonder we're all stressed out?

So I took some of that oh-so-elusive time and made myself a few reminders. I wanted them to be a little more special than a note taped to my bathroom mirror, or an index card near the kitchen sink. So I found some corrugated cardboard boxes, cut them into rectangles and painted them with acrylics... each one having it's own personality for the affirmation it was boasting. I've placed them all around my house and they really do work. Go figure! Now that's affirmative.