Have decided I need to take more pictures of myself. Here's one. 

This is my cat Sparta.. yeah I know, the quote is lame, but I couldn't resist. 

Have been able to get more pictures recently, which is nice. Keep thinking about scrapping some, but.. yeah. Not really there yet. Need to work on the mini for Jason.. need the inspiration to clean off the desk first.. maybe later.. 

Kinda hate this  "want to do all this stuff but.. don't feel like it" feeling.. hate being depressed. Hate knowing there's a lot of things going on that I can't change right now. Maybe I'll go off and write.. sometimes it's nice to live in a fantasy world for a while.. 

Current reads

Reading two books currently.. Both new-to-me authors, so we'll see how it goes.

Tarnished, by Karina Cooper 

Described as "Sexy steampunk intrigue" (Kady Cross), Tarnished is about Cherry St. Croix, a woman who "collects" people to support her expensive tastes. Set in an alternative Victorian London, the novel includes scientific gadgets as well as the intrigue of a double life. Have only read partway into the first chapter, am hoping it will be a good read. 

The Chalk Girl, by Carol O'Connell

From GoodReads : The little girl appeared in Central Park: red-haired, blue-eyed, smiling, perfect-except for the blood on her shoulder. It fell from the sky, she said, while she was looking for her uncle, who turned into a tree. Poor child, people thought. And then they found the body in the tree.For Mallory, newly returned to the Special Crimes Unit after three months' lost time, there is something about the girl that she understands. Mallory is damaged, they say, but she can tell a kindred spirit. And this one will lead her to a story of extraordinary crimes: murders stretching back fifteen years, blackmail and complicity and a particular cruelty that only someone with Mallory's history could fully recognize. In the next few weeks, she will deal with them all . . . in her own way.

So far there's been a stampede of whacked out rats, a bloody little girl that showed up out of nowhere, and a cleaning lady that took not only took out the predator that was going to take her, but stopped his killing spree as well.  And that's just in the first chapter!

What can I say, I like reading about murders and things like that. 

(What can I say...? Aside from work, there have been lots of other things going on, including a trip to the ER. Not sure anyone really cares to read this anyway.. but, feeling a need to write, and to get it down, here it is anyway.)

Rhi and I usually were stop at the merchandise table after one of Jason's shows, mostly to look for new t-shirts and things. Sometimes, if there isn't anyone else around, we'll stay and chat a bit. So after the Rushville show, we stopped by. One of the other things I wanted to find out was if there was a way to arrange a Meet and Greet with Jason at the Kirksville show.. we've been following him around this area for the last four years.. and while we haven't been to as many shows as some people, we've still been to quite a few. Spoke with Jonathan, who is a very nice man, who unfortunately didn't really have an answer for us. The radio stations mostly arrange the meet and greets. But, he said, he could check with the tour manager and see what he could do. He couldn't promise anything of course, but he said he wanted to try, since we were such big fans. He asked if we were going to for sure be at the show in Kirksville - I said absolutely, because it's only an hour or so away from us. Bought a tank and another copy of Numbers, and we left, because we still had a couple of hours drive ahead of us.

I didn't want to get my hopes up. I tried not to think about it, because sometimes, when you want something that badly, something happens to mess it all up. My daughter didn't ask, and as she had been paying more attention to the lights of the carnival rides I'm not sure how much of the conversation she followed. And I certainly didn't want her to think it was for sure going to happen, because, honestly, I didn't think it would.

So we had planned on spending the whole day at the fair, but the temperatures were really high (103) and we opted not to go early. My mom and son opted not to go at all, so once again, it was just Rhi and me. and a couple of hours before the show we headed out. Didn't want to drive into Kirksville, and I knew there was a way to get to Highway 11, which is the road the fair is on, so when we got to the sign, we turned. Yeah. Never trust the shortcut. Rhi had fun, as the road was all hills and curves... me, not so much. Had her take a picture of the road at one point.. I swear, this was the model for all those S-curve signs..

(picture taken by my daughter)

Got to the fair.. and figured what happened next pretty much clinched the "ain't gonna happen" feeling.. gates were not clearly marked and we ended up trying to go in the handicapped only gate. Got directions to go to where we needed to go.. aaand yeah. ended up with bad directions.. and more poorly marked gates. ended up not really lost, but having to drive around (on some rather new construction highway - that, incidentally, would have kept us from having to drive in Kirksville anyway, had I only known it was there!) until we found a place to turn around and go back. Not the best impression of the fair to start with. I wasn't worried about missing Jason's show, because we still had an hour, but we had wanted to walk around a little bit, and see the opening act... which was about to start when we finally parked the car.

(Pre Show stage. The merchandise tent is off of to the left and you can just see the bus behind it.)

Hopped a ride to get up to the gate, paid our way in, made our way over to the grandstand, and found the merchandise tent. Said hi to Jonathan, and asked if he remembered me (I could tell that he didn't), and said I had talked with him at Rushville. And then he smiled and said "yes! Let me go talk to Dave.." and off he went. When he came back, he told us that Dave had said that all the Meet and Greet spots were taken, but that since we were such big fans, why not? Jonathan could try to set it up. Yay! one step closer! "Come back after the opener," he said. So we went to sit and listen. Rhi was not impressed, as the guy, while new, had a more old-school country sound. Did a great job on Folsom Prison Blues tho.. At one point, she was thirsty, so we went out to get some cold water. Got an extra one for Jonathan. Not because I thought it would change anything, but I had noticed he didn't have anything cold to drink, and was hot, and I was grateful for the effort he was putting in to making something happen. He looked surprised when I handed him the bottle, and I just told him I thought he could use something cold to drink. Maybe that added a little karma point, I don't know. We sat in the bleachers and people-watched - at one point the fair queens headed back stage. I started to comment to Rhi that one of the advantages to being the fair queen was getting to go back and meet... (pause as I see Jason walking towards the bus) Jason! I fumbled for my camera, and she laughed and said she knew. And I said NO - Jason! and got a quick picture. 

After the opener, we headed up towards the stage. We were standing about halfway between the merchandise tent and the edge of the stage. Jonathan came over and asked me if we would mind watching the show from behind the fence. He thought it might be easier to make it happen.  (big grin) Of course not, not if it gave us a better chance. And, I said, we've seen lots of shows from up front. So he took us back around the fence.  As we started to step over the orange snow fence that was keeping people out, a security guy asked me what we were doing, and I pointed at Jonathan and said we were with him. Jonathan said we were ok, and back we went. Walked by the bus. Bigger grin.

 Ended standing near the ramp they moved the equipment on and off the stage with - between the stage and the bus. Yeah. Got a few pictures of the guys getting set up.. and then a whole bunch of people went onstage to make announcements. And here comes Jonathan again - "Do you want to try to get a picture now?" Even bigger grin.

(The maroon shirts were all people with the radio station.)

I will never in a million years forget what happened next. We followed Jonathan around the back of the bus - and there was Jason, surrounded by the band, getting ready to go on stage. He looked up, and smiled, that awesome big grin of his. And he said Hi and we got hugs, and even though he was minutes from having to go onstage, he was not in any hurry to rush off. Jonathan got the picture for us (LOL and he had a little trouble with my camera, and Jason called out "Just hold the button down!"  - yeah, I'm laughing again as I type this out).

Jason noticed that Rhi had a picture for him to sign - and then I realized I didn't bring a sharpie. And again, minutes before the show, so Jason could have just blown it off.. and what does he do? He goes back on the bus, just to get a sharpie to sign a picture. Talk about sweet. He asked Rhi her name, and made sure to spell it right! and once that was done, asked her if she wanted him to sign her shirt. Of course she said yes.

I told him I had wanted to bring my scrapbook for him to sign, but it wouldn't have done well with the heat.. and that I had one for him too but it wasn't finished yet. Maybe next time, he said. I said yeah, we were going to try to get to the other Missouri shows in August, and he said "Good!"  We got more hugs (and I have to say - he was wearing one of the softest shirts I've ever slid my hand across.) and then he had to go. We went back up to our spot near the stage until the security guy came and kicked us out. Not that we minded. We were both still grinning like idiots at that point.

(I love that he is always grinning, you can tell he has just as much, if not more, fun as the rest of us)

And then the show started. Had couple of little girls in front of us with signs that made getting pictures challenging, but ended up with.. yeah. a lot of pictures.

I love the continuous mode on the camera, and since I don't use the flash, and have it set to low light settings, I never really know how many decent pictures I'll end up.

 So I take a LOT of pictures. Sometimes I get lucky (grins).

 I love this crowd shot - I like the coloring, I like how he is looking off to the crowd.. He always tries to make sure everyone there is having a good time..

At one point, someone yelled out from the crowd that Jason should turn around more so they can see his butt. He was quiet for a moment, grinning, then said "You know, I don't even know what to say to that. But if y'all came here just for that, I'm gonna have to give your money back, cos I don't have that nice of a butt." Pretty sure there's a lot of people in the crowd that disagreed with that. 

                                    Another favorite... yummy.. 

 I really like the composition of this one.. 

And this one... I think he was singing Stray at this point...

(Lookin' at me )

 The stage was high enough, and with it being roped off, he couldn't sign autographs like he usually does. But he still managed to get close enough to touch people's hands. And.. then off the stage he goes, and into the crowd. I love it when he does that. It's one of the reasons I love his shows so much (aside of course from the awesome music, and the booty shaking ;) ) He likes to involve his fans in the show.

At one point, between songs, he was talking about some of his influences, and how he always wanted to be a good entertainer. He is most definitely that. After he had gone back on stage (making comments about how high the stage actually was) he started a fake run like he was going to crowd surf - and then laughed and said something about ending up in a video on youtube.

(Nah... he doesn't have any fun doing this... lol)

He played a lot of my favorites, including Cheyenne (George Strait) Prince's Purple Rain (His momma's favorite song. "And she'll ask me if I sang it.")  He ended with Living Our Love Song and talking about Brittany - I think it's awesome that he does so much to help kids and promotes Brittany's Battle. I think every concert I have been to, in 4 years of concerts - this is always the way it ends.

(The new bus.. I wonder if this one is named Brittany too?)

After the show someone was setting off fireworks on the other side of the bus, got even more pictures of those, laughing the whole time. Rhi thought at one point she had seen Jason in the bus window.

Fireworks being set off behind the bus. And boy, somebody was having fun with that. It was almost as big a show as the one we saw on the 4th of July!

Once they were done, we stopped back over by the merchandise tent, and said Thank You's again to Jonathan, who I believe went out of his way to make this happen. He could have said "eh, too bad, all the slots are full." Same for the tour manager. Jonathan had said he had really wanted to try to make this happen, and he did. Kinda restores my faith in people, a little bit. Certainly made this the best concert yet.

(Rhi and Jonathan. THANK YOU for making two JMC fans really really happy.)

Can't believe it's taken me so long to post this.. and this is just a mini post, still going through and re-sizing and watermarking pictures.. but for those of you that know anything about me.. you know how much this means to me.

There's a story to be told, and people to thank (again), and I'll try to get to that tomorrow.

Been a long time. And boy how things change...

There has been very little scrapping being done here.. Had a lovely, very special, very time consuming gift that was made, for a good friend's mother, for a special occasion. Still need to blog that at some point, because it was (forgive me if I do say so myself) it was pretty freaking awesome. Haven't yet because unfortunately that friendship, which I treasured, has somehow.. stopped... and it still hurts to think about it.

Then even more of Real Life became difficult and unhappy, and the inspiration simply dried up. And the desk piled up. And since the lens on the camera was broken, there weren't really any decent pictures to change that. It's been easier to find other mindless things to do.. Depression does that to a person.

RL is still a pain. The desk is still piled up. And I'm still depressed. But the camera lens has been replaced, and the stirrings of inspiration have started up again.. so maybe.. just maybe.. I'll get back to it at some point.

Have found myself very interested in steampunk lately. Very. Looking into doing something with that for Halloween, at the very least. One of the things I want to work on/blog about is the costume design and progress, though it will be slow. Money's tight, so it definitely won't be done all in one go.

Had a chance to see Jason in concert again one June 30th, so we went, despite the 100 degree weather. Had a great time. My daughter almost passed out from the heat, but she was smart enough to say something when she started to feel funny, and that was avoided.  Got some great pics - oh, Rebel, how I missed you.

So maybe, if nothing else.. at least I can start taking pictures again. We all have to start somewhere, right?

My favorite picture from the concert - Jason always signs autographs during the show - people pass up everything from pictures, t-shirts, boots, phones.. to things like skoal cans.. We have gotten pretty lucky at most shows and been able to be up front. This picture is of Jason autographing pictures taken at previous shows. And he grinned when he saw them, which totally made my night (along with him returning my daughter's "peace" gesture and winking at her, which totally made HER night).

We have another show later this week, at the NEMO county fair in Kirksville.. so excited.

Saw some pretty awesome fireworks on the 4th.. and with the new lens.. ended up with almost 1000 pictures trying to get some really decent ones. This one, from the finale, is one of my favorites.

One other thing I want to add into the blog.. is books. I do a lot of reading. Mostly I just want somewhere to record all that. Probably won't be very much in a scrappy way, unless I get a little more inspiration for that.. but.. maybe someday..

So pardon my dust, as I revamp, reorganize, etc etc.

On friendship... and a very special album

Last post I mentioned an album that I made for a very dear friend of mine. And while I promised him there wouldn't be a lot of personal details, there are some things I want to say to help you understand the process behind making this album, and why I made it in the first place. (This will be a rather long post, but I did not want to split it up, so.. deal. :)  )

When I was a kid, my father was in the Air Force. The best thing about that was being able to see a lot of the country. The worst thing? The constant moving. The longest we stayed in one place was three years. The shortest was 6 months. Doesn't make it easy to keep friends for any length of time. Add into that a divorce and moving to yet another part of the country - only this time to a place where everyone else has been together since kindergarten.. well, kids can be mean to new people. When you move around a lot as a kid, one of two things will happen - you will either learn to make friends easily, and lots of them - or you will become shyer and hold back - because you know it won't last. People won't write you back once you leave, and a lot of times the kid that moves away is easily forgotten. I think it is easier on the bases - because at least all the kids understand about the moving around. In the real world, this is not the case.

I definitely fit into the latter group. More of the shy non-popular type than the outgoing sports type, it was harder to make good friends than not. Add into that that I was very focused on what I wanted to do with my life, and I wasn't much into partying and drinking.. well. I was "different". Even now, when I have been working at the same place for 12 years... it is so hard for me to believe that I have known a couple of the people I work with for that long. With my current situation though, I work the 5 to midnight shift... which is great for my family situation, but which makes it really hard to have a good friend relationship with people that work normal hours. Lately it seems I have more friends in other countries than I do here.. because they are the ones that tend to be awake when I am.

A little over a year ago, I started playing a Facebook game called Ghost Trappers (GT for short). Have met some really nice people through the game, mostly through the GT chat services - started going in to get advice about the game.. kept going because the people I found there were (mostly) just great people. One of them was Heath, who is pretty much the best friend I have right now, and has been for the last 8 months. Because of this, I wanted to do something nice for him for Christmas, and I thought an album using the fishing pictures he had shown me would be a great idea. I have done some neat things with fishing pages before.. using little hooks and line on them.. only problem with that is he lives in Australia.. so who knows what customs will let through and what they won't. Since I would have to download his pictures, I asked if he was ok with the gift before starting it, and showed him some of the other things I had made. He thought it would be a cool gift, so I started gathering supplies.

Most of the supplies came from my stash - I think it is fun to mix things from different sources and suppliers. I started with an 8x8 acrylic tabbed album from Clear Scraps - left over from my design team days, and the perfect size for a gift. Enough room to DO something with the page, but not a full sized album. I wanted to add chipboard pages in between, and found some pre-cut 8x8 chipboard pages (both kraft and white). Wanted to experiment a little bit with some of the pictures, so they were printed on other materials besides photo papers - will go over that more with each page. The album ended up way thicker than I originally intended though, because I kept finding pictures I couldn't leave out, so I also added several  6x6 chipboard and acrylic pages as well. I eventually ended up with 3 rough divisions - family photos, fishing photos.. and fun ones. I say rough divisions because since I started with a smaller album, then added more pages after I had already scrapped some.. well you'll see. All the pictures in the album were provided by Heath, unless otherwise noted.

Papers are from My Mind's Eye (29th Street Market, and Breaking Free) and DCWV (the Immortal stack, and cardstock.) I used Zip Dry adhesive almost exclusively - I wanted to make sure nothing would fall apart in transit. The only other adhesives I used were glue dots and foam tape/pop dots. Almost all the pages are distressed, using either StazOn Black (on the acrylic pages) or Tim's Vintage Photo Distress Ink (pretty much everything else). I'm an edger too, so most of the cardstock and stickers have distressed edges. I'll try to list supplies as the pages go, if I remember them :p No promises there, since a lot of my stuff is stored out of package since I don't submit anything anymore. I tried to avoid a lot of metal (a personal difficulty), and natural materials since it would have to go through customs. And, needless to say, it did not get there in time for Christmas.. but it made a nice only-slightly-late birthday present :)

I am proud of this album for several reasons - It is the largest "mini album" project I have done.. and the first I have done after a lengthy no-mojo non-scrappy break. And judging from his response, right on with the quotes and things. (My favorite part about giving albums to people is seeing their response when they see the pages, and Heath was gracious enough to skype me so I could watch him open it up.) But I do apologize in advance, I have been having some trouble with the autofocus on my lens, so some of the pictures are not as clear as I would like them to be. As always, click on the pictures if you need to see a larger version. 

The photo on the cover was printed on a very light pink piece of Bazzill cardstock. I really like the texture, and I thought it would hold up better on the front than a regular photo would.  (This is also one of my favorite photos in the whole album.) I found the metal letters at Hobby Lobby in the framing shop - they are self adhesive and made by Amanda Blu (who, incidentally is who makes the 12x12 page protectors I use - they are slightly larger, and much better for the super dimensional pages I make).  The friend quote was sent as a RAK from a friend, a long time ago..  and I think it's from K & Co. The green strips are also Bazzill. Fish sticker was edged and placed up on a  pop dot. (Quote reads: A friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.)

I tried really hard not to include flowers... LOL. But.. ah well. Letter and flourish stickers are from EK Success. Flowers and screw brad are from the Paper Studio, photo corners from 3L, and the "Live out loud" sticker is 7 gypsies. (I love their 97% Complete sticker sets - awesome for themed projects)

This is one of the photos that insisted on being in the album. Lol. Why? Just because he is being silly. The B letter sticker is from Tim's Idea-ology set and is set up on a popdot. The "9/5" is making memories rubons, and the rest of the pieces are from various ephemera packs.

 Every November, Heath helps with a fundraiser to help support research and raise awareness for prostate cancer and men's depression. (If you want to learn more about Movember, check out their website HERE.) The "Movember thanks you" and "touch of class" were printed from their website. The edges of this page were inked, painted and distressed, and the rubons are from basic gray. The "touch of class" strip is on pop dots, and the metal "brads" are actually just metal dot stickers.

The note paper  journal spot is actually a page from a Jenni Bowlin mini album - I left it blank for Heath to fill in the details. Had to make him do a little work on the album ;) The Relaxing sticker is from Pebble's Inc. Music tape and book plate are from Tim's Idea-ology collection. I have a love/hate relationship with Tim's tape... it does not like to stick well to textured cardstock, although to be fair (being the perfectionist I am...) I repositioned it a couple of times. But it is easy to use, and let me add musical bits to this page. The other guy in the picture is Scott, he is part of an Aussie band called Tripod - they are freakin' awesome! They are a great musical comedy group, check them out HERE and HERE and HERE. (I suppose I should say, that while Heath and I find them very funny, people that are very easily offended may not... The first link is a very funny song, the other two are information only.)

This is one of the pages that made the album late - I wasn't happy with the original  and had to redo it. That will teach me to try to scrap when I'm tired and not really in a scrappy mood lol.  MUCH happier with the redo.. The music paper is from the DCWV Immortal stack. Dream ticket from Tim's collection. Wish Tip sticker is 7 Gypsies and the other stickers are from.. erm.. somewhere lol. Picked them up at Hobby Lobby - They are fabulous raised metallic stickers.

LOL these pictures don't really fit here, but I couldn't leave the pups out.. The brindle one is Molly, and the little one is Rocky. They are awesome little creatures. The title spot came in a pack. Spoiled sticker from the Paper Studio.

Molly again, wearing Heath's headphones. LOL. The sticker at the top is 7 gypsies, and reads "Life is too important to be taken seriously. The "like owner" sticker is a clear one that I put on cardstock just so it could be seen better and came from the same set as the spoiled sticker on the previous page.

The other major redo page. Took FOREVER to get the paper off so I could redo it.. that is one of the things about Zip Dry.. better make sure you have stuff where you want it, otherwise it will be STUCK. Music Maker and note stickers and flower from the Paper Studio. Music paper from the Immortal stack. Gem swirls from Prima. Ticket from Tim. The rubon border is from (I think) Basic Grey.

This picture is one of the reasons we started talking about things other than just the game. One of those fluke pictures you don't realize you got until you develop the pictures - he managed to catch a shooting star (the little tiny white line in the picture lol). The quote sticker is another clear one, so I put it on paper to pop out the dark letters. It says: "Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, and to work, and to play, and to look up at the stars." The flourish and edges are were done with paint.

This is Heath with his best friend - so a "must be included" photo. A really simple page - just the photo and the sticker (from Deja Views). Edges are inked with StazOn.

Another super simple one - the rubons are from Making Memories. 

Another fun picture.. I printed it out on canvas which I think made it look even cooler. The urban legend sticker is 7 Gypsies. Don't remember who made the other one. (I know, I really should keep track of these things better...) It reads: In the true man there is a child concealed who wants to play.

Stamps and key plate are from Tim's collection - the man with umbrella stamp is one of my favorites. I used Tsukineko Brilliance black ink - has just a bit of a shimmer to it. Stickers from the Paper Studio and Pebble's Inc. The corrugated strips were actually cut from some packaging from some chipboard letters. The wildlife sticker made us both laugh. 

The next two pages are picture-less because he didn't get me pictures of his mom and sister. So.. in an effort to not get in trouble with his mom for not including her ;) I made the pages and told him he had to add the pictures later.  The squares with the roses are really old - they look dimensional but they aren't - but it lets me get the look of dried roses without the mess. 

I like the layered look, and tucking things beneath photo mats is a great way to do that. The flourished piece at the top is just a small piece cut from a frame - I like cutting them up because then I can stretch them farther, especially since I don't use frames often, and it keeps the pages from getting TOO thick. I added the black gems - they were cut from the same Prima flourish as the bits by the flower. Flower and gem from the Paper Studio.

One of the acrylic divider pages. Quote is from a vellum pack and reads "It is the sweet simple things of life which are the real ones after all." (Laura Ingalls Wilder). The flourishes are also from Tim's collection and were stamped in the Brilliance ink. Letter stickers are Thickers. The flourish behind the letter stickers was a printed acetate piece that I cut in half, and placed part on each side of the acrylic tab. 

More flowers - sorry, I tried. lol. Rubon is from Basic Grey - an older one, so it didn't transfer well, but sometimes I like when that happens, I think it adds to the distressed look. The grids are another of Tim's stamps. Letter stickers from Making Memories (they say "drinky drinky"). The one in the upper corner of the photo is another 7 Gypsies one and says "It seemed like such a good idea at the time."

The stickers on this page were all from the 7 Gypsies collection. The strips say "Part of being sane is being a little crazy. Janet Long". The book page cracked me up - I found it in an ephemera pack. Just one of those great finds, it was perfect for these pictures. 

A fun page - and an awesome theme for a party! The cards paper came from the ephemera pack and was originally from a Bridge pad. Another Basic Grey rubon, Deja Views "fun" sticker, 7 Gypsies "silly" sticker. The heart is made from grungeboard and covered with paper from the Immortal stack, which is where the checkered paper came from too. Letters are the Heidi rubons from Making Memories. 

One of my favorite pictures :) Heath made the catepillar costume - rather clever, I think. Another piece of the flouish, a card from a RAK, a bit of mulberry paper, and more 7 Gypsies stickers. Used paint on this one as well. The quote is George Carlin (RIP) "Those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music."

More Bridge paper, 7 Gypsies stickers and PLAY ticket from Tim. The hand is a chipboard sticker from a Basic Grey pack. Quote " What makes life worth living? to be born with the gift of laughter & sense that the world is mad." Fitting for a March Hare. 

The "fun" tab page. Would have been earlier in the book, but it was done before more pages were added. Love the Peekaboo Effect on this one.. makes you want to turn the page and see what's next. The rubon is from Basic Grey. 

The pictures on the next few pages are another reason this isn't just a fish album. Heath was lucky enough to see Metallica in Adelaide, and I couldn't leave that out. The words were cut from a transparency frame  - they didn't quite set in the right place as the whole frame. But again, totally perfect for the pictures. 

This page was originally supposed to show more of the background, but.. oh well. I used a large music stamp and paint to make the background page. The blank spot is for his ticket. He suggested scanning in the ticket so I could print it out instead. (chuckle) I said no, just put the ticket there. Another effort to make him scrapbook lol. I thought if he didn't want to place the ticket there, he could journal about the concert instead.

One of my favorite pages. I went to Metallica's website hoping to find a logo to print out. I not only found the Death Magnetic logo - I found the set list for the show he went to. How awesome is that? The picture of the drummer is one that Heath took - all I did was paint the edges to set it apart from the other picture. Letter stickers are Thickers, with a bit of paint over the top. 

Another simple page, but the photos speak for themselves. The Metallica logo was printed from the Metallica website. 

The next few pages really show why I like working with acrylic. Clock face and arrow are from Tim's Idea-ology collection. Canvas piece and the sticker from my stash. I didn't want to use a lot of ribbon in the album (too girly) but this strip is hiding a distressing technique that I tried.. and really didn't like.  

Fish acrylic tab page. The compass acetate came in a pack, and the sticker is from Tim's collection. The  flourish rub on is from Basic Grey. The postcard journal spot and the quote are from K & Co. 

The back side of the acrylic page, another quote (Laughter is the best medicine), another journal spot, another Tim compass sticker. When I asked Heath what type of fish that was, he laughed and said "That is the world's smallest trevally!" So I had to quote him :)

Another favorite.. I use Paint.net a lot, and one of the things you can do is change pictures to either ink or pencil drawings. Depending on how it's set, it can look like anything from a barely there sketch to a very accurate almost black and white photo look. This one is about in the middle. I printed it on water color paper for a bit of texture and inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink. I almost didn't add the letter stickers at the top - I like that they are hidden when the acrylic page is over, but I also thought the page needed just a little embellishment. 

I had fun making this page. Lots of layering. The photo at the top is a pocket, and the tags were left blank for Heath to add information/thoughts/etc. The flourish rubons are from the Bohemia collection. Letters from Making Memories.  Kind of a funny story behind this one.. when I first made the page the letters were just on the paper.  He had been bugging me for pictures of the album, so I sent him one of this page to see what he thought. He told me it was excellent, and he loved it, but after a bit asked what the letters were. Rubons, I said. Which made him comment that they would not be easy to change then... yeah, it was spelled wrong. HIS fault, mind you, since I copied the information directly from his facebook gallery. He told me not to worry about it, it didn't really matter, but.. yeah. Me: "I'm a perfectionist, it matters."  Him: "I'm not. So no, it doesn't." (that might be a misquote lol I can't remember exactly what we said, but that was the gist of it.) But, again, being a perfectionist, and knowing he would be showing it to other people, I had to try. Luckily it was fixable, and I actually like it better this way anyway. 

Gorgeous photo of the ocean.. definitely "off the beaten path"... 

I love this picture of the poles from the charter trip. And as I was looking through a travel quote sticker book, I found the perfect quote "If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." (Doug Larson) This is one of the few times that I have bought a sticker set just for one quote - usually I make sure I will use at least 50% of them. 

Pretty much the same supplies on this page. I love the "How am I going to get this home?" sticker.  and from the conversations we've had about fishing - "It just doesn't get any better than this" is SO appropriate. 

More fish pictures :) The top one was Heath's facebook profile picture when we started talking. The bottom fish is an elephant shark. The date circle at the top is from Tim's sticker set. 

Another favorite picture. Rubons are from Fancy Pants. Beach bum sticker from 7 Gypsies.

Another word I double checked the spelling on before doing - at least this one would have been easier to fix since it was on a title block and not just on the background paper. (which, naturally meant it was spelled right). Used a little magic mesh on the sides just for something different. 

Another fun layered page. The blue part with the quote is a bit of chipboard which is covered with paper then sanded and inked. It fits right under the photo which I put up with foam tape. The quote was very fitting - the place they were fishing was just around the corner from his house. I hate the glare on the bottom photo. 

Another photo pocket - and this is one of my favorite pictures of him - especially since it is at the beach. The quote to the side says "the only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."  All the words on the background page are a rubon - I can't recall who made it, but it was one I had been saving for a while. I like how it just barely shows up on the dark paper, it's almost like a watermark. The tag was hand made from some chipboard and covered with lined Basic Grey paper - I wanted to have something more personal  in the album, but I put it on the tag so he could take it out if he didn't want anyone else to read it. The "dear friend" rubon is from Deja Views. The coffee stain stamp is my favorite - I can't remember who made it, but it came in a "thanks a latte" set and I picked it up at a stamp convention in St. Louis several years ago. I put it on with paint, and actually had people ask me if that was a mistake and had I set something on the paper. (chuckle)

The back page is mainly just a protective cover - the only thing one it are the two 7 Gypsies stickers, one which says "Limited edition 1 of 1" (the 1's being Making Memories rubons) and ""Made with love by:" which I signed. 

The album turned into quite an ambitious project, but one I am definitely glad I made. It took fully 2 1/2 months for me to get it done (tho keep in mind I work 40+ hours a week). Much of it was actually done at work, as I was stranded there due to bad weather and being on call - In fact the day I mailed it out, they had predicted the worst storm in the area for a long time. The album made it out of Quincy, but got stuck in Chicago for 5  days due to the snow. Still, after 10 days it got to Australia, made it through customs without any mishap, and was delivered safely to his door. He loved it, and that's all one can ask for.