Do you ever try to snuggle up to someone you love and you find their shoulder isn't as soft as you imagined? Maybe their collar bone is pressing against your cheekbone in an uncomfortable way? Or the height of their chest makes your neck twist into an awkward angle?

You find yourself propping parts with pillows or scooting down trying to find that perfect spot. The spot where you fit with the person you love.

It's the best spot in the world, isn't it? That's what I wanted to capture in this collage.

I may seal the whole thing and glaze it with white to accentuate the gaps between some of the shapes. I think the glazing might take the hard edge off some of the cuts too. (My college professor always admonished me to hold my knife at a 45 degree angle toward the paper, but I still haven't learned!)

Mostly I'm just happy with how the shapes came together to make up the design. I worked hard to get that right before I started. Here's one of my original sketches. You'll notice, I changed the foot and removed the man's leg in the final piece. 

If you would like to try your hand at paper collage, may I recommend this blog post where I show you how to approach it with a really simple, beginner project: How to Create Pieced Paper Shapes for Mixed Media Collage.

Is it just me, or is 2013 going to be a great year?

This year, I will be happy.
This year, I will make people laugh.
This year, I will be creative. 
This year, I will conquer the world.

What will you do?


Card by Debbie Olson.... I love her and not just for her beautiful cards. She is an inspiring person all the way around!

Related articles

A Couple Cards By Debbie

CHA 5 Tips for Those Attending and Those Not

When I was a young kid I used to make penny banks out of salt containers. I loved how they "ate" the coins. But an interesting thing happened in Utah's culture in the late 80's, it was called food storage!

My parents decided that we needed two years worth of food, for the entire family, to be kept in our basement in case of emergency. This was no small task since there were seven of us. From that time on, I never saw salt containers. Now the salt I knew came in 5 pound bags like the old flour (the new flour came in 25 pound bags at least).
They say everything is bigger in Texas, but I assure you this does not include salt packaging. I am back to enjoying the cute, and to me, little containers that pour out the salt into your shaker. Having emptied my first one I was feeling nostalgic and just had to use it for a project.

She's not a penny bank though, she is a yarn keeper. My rolled up balls of yarn cannot escape her and roll across the floor. Besides that, she is so cute, don't you think?!

I opted for the window seat, passing up the extra leg room of the aisle simply so I could sit in the sunshine. As I rested my head on the window, listening to Sarah Jaffe, I imagined this mixed-media painting. 

I'm excited about how it turned out because for me, this is really loose. I painted this on a game box lid and made the mistake of using Gesso which didn't want to stick to it. Since I felt like it had been ruined from the beginnig, I treated it like a practice... not expectation, no need for it to work, no worries about messing it up. Somehow, I need to find that place everytime I sit down to paint!

I'm still contemplating adding a glaze of yellow ochre over the top of the hole thing. What do you think? 

Products used:
Sweet Disposition papers
Acrylic medium for gluing them down
Gesso
Acrylic paint 
Tim Holtz Sanding Block
Brushes 

Related articles

Honky Tonk Mixed Media

Paint Can Gift Boxes

Hi Everyone,

I'm off in 10 minutes and I'm not ready! But, the school lunches are packed.... good luck the rest of the week Eric.

Congrats go to our winner of the Mini Decks, Cynthia B who said, "Your tags look great! I'll go ahead and say good luck at the show...but I don't think you'll need it. I saw all the cool sneaks of your new lines, so I'm sure you'll have an awesome show!"

I don't really have time for anything else this morning, but I did make a cute bag I never showed on the blog. Look at it until I get you some photos from the show floor!

(There's still time to enter our random drawing for one of each new Mini Deck. See yesterday's post for details.)

Make and Takes collated v
Crafter's Home Presentation finessed v
Eyebrows waxed v
New shoes... well three out of four isn't bad right?!?!

I just couldn't find anything that I liked. It's all good though, except that my current shoes are a bit too high to be comfy and being 5' 10" in bare feet, posing for photos with most of you is best done in flats. Oh well, I just hope you'll understand if the photo of us shows your smiling face next to one of my "girls" while my head is cropped out of the frame.

On another note, as I was creating projects for the CHA booth, I realized just how far I've come since we started Cosmo Cricket six and a half years ago. I remember my very first layout. It was quite rumply because I had used Elmer's glue to stick things down. I didn't even know a tape runner existed!

Looking at my current work, I am amazed at how much I have learned. It occured to me that there are beginners out there, that trends change and that crafters come up with new tricks all the time. So, I hope these little graphics illustrating some of the tricks I've learned over the years help the beginners and spark the seasoned paper crafter's creativity too. 


Other tips for this layout:

I used two Gluber strips, one for the twisted part and also one for the other half that contains the few pleats. They are great for holding down ribbon! 

Leaving a white border on your photos will help them stand out against patterned backgrounds.

I made this page for a friend and so the journaling is left blank. I have been doing this a lot lately and I like that they can add their memories in their own handwriting.

You can finish your seams by pulling the threads to the backside of your project and taping them down, or like in this layout, just cut them a little long and add a dot of clear drying glue to the starting and stopping points. 

Related articles

Tips, Tricks & Trends: Summer Love Layout

8 Techniques for Gift Wrapping with Kraft

Easy, Less Messy Tips & Tricks for Using Glitter