Rain Rain

My boys love the rain.  We don't sing "rain rain go away" in our house!  We ask for it, we pray for it and when we get it we PLAY in it!  They thank God on rainy days, slip on their rain boots, grab an umbrella (sometimes) and go dance in the rain and the puddles.  Thunderstorms are especially entertaining for them but also frustrating as for some reason their Mama won't let them run around with a metal object in the rain during a thunderstorm.  My oldest tells me when he gets bigger and can make his own rules he will run around in thunderstorms.  I smile and say "we'll see" while thinking in my heart - I hope that day never comes!

The Heart 2 Heart challenge this week was to find something that inspired you and then make a project from that inspiration.  Will you allow me to bunny trail for a moment?  Thanks you are too kind!  The mention of Heart 2 Heart reminded me that I was selected as one of the top ten for the June Challenges!  I am so encouraged that these very talented ladies found my work worthy of that honor.  So Ladies, if you are reading this, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Now back to this week's challenge . . . Before I entered the world of blogging, Simple Scrapbooks Magazine was my inspiration {besides my children, the things they say and my precious, large and loud family- We aren't Greek but we might as well be).  Specifically Cathy Zielske and her amazing designs.  I was so heart broken when Simple Scrapbooks went out of print - boo!  When that happened I went on-line and ordered Clean and Simple Scrapbooking and its sequel.  I eagerly waited for my order from Amazon of Cathy's books.  I read through them both in one day and then got to work being totally inspired.  Then I found blogs.  Blog challenges especially inspire me and looking at everyone else who enters and seeing all their beautiful work.  The inspiration is endless and so I am back in my creative mood.  I found Cathy's blog and found this free template.  Check out her blog to download your own template and find a wealth of resources for scrapbooking!

This template/sketch along with Just Us Girls challenge to make your own paper buttons was my inspiration this week.

And I came up with this page . . .

And then added to it to make this layout . . .

Here are some closer pictures of the paper buttons.

And a short and sweet tutorial of how I did the clouds and rain on the page.  I of course used Liquid Glass which is my new best friend.  But I also used another of my favorite products from Close To My Heart and that is the blending pen.  This small and sometimes under-appreciated item is so very valuable!  You can use this pen with ANY INK you have to color in stamped images ( like I did with the clouds stamped with Staz On Ink), to fix a smudge, carry on a stamped image to make it larger (like with flourish stamps), etc.  I love that one pen will work with any color and when you are done you just wipe it on scrap paper until the color is gone and reuse if later with any color of your choosing!

After using the blending pen on the lines and raindrops (which I drew first with a pencil) I went over them with liquid glass.