Life A’int Always Beautiful…

but Life is a BEAUTIFUL Ride! NO truer words have ever been spoken than these lyrics by Gary Allan.
Hi Y’all! Misty here to share a new layout. Since the death of my son in 2016, the words of this song have hit harder than ever before. I was a blubbering mess all of 2016…a walking zombie and I don’t know how I made it through. Over the years, I have slowly been able to resemble a person again, and I am still not certain how I found happiness. This photo is from my wedding day caught me in a seemingly beautiful moment lost in thought. On the outside, it is a photographer’s perfect shot. On the inside, I was secretly fighting back the tears. It was such a happy day and I was marrying an amazing man, but I missed my son so very much. With my One year anniversary in just over a week, I decided that I wanted to document this photo and my thoughts.

White On White On white!

Since I am featuring White and Ivory cardstocks, I first have to admit that you can’t realy tell much of a difference in the photo. However, In person, These are so beautifully contrasted and perfectly complimentary of the other colors that I used! I used so many white and ivory colors on top of each other, I honestly did not expect it to look SO FREAKING GOOD! I hope that you will be able to see in some of the close-ups later in the post. Regardless, here are the white/ivory cardstocks that I used:

The Bits and Pieces:

I began by cutting out all the bits and pieces that I thought I might use. I wanted to create a color-blocked quilt that had a handmade look, representing how I have pieced my life back together after the death of my son. While I am not perfect or “whole”, I have found a way to make those pieces of my life work. Because of this, I wanted the quilt to show the imperfections, the frayed and tattered squares and even some missing threads. It needed to look worn and weathered, but still beautiful once all the pieces of it come together. I used Stardream Metallic Punch and Stardream Metallic Lagoon mixed in with some Prima papers and Curious Metallic Poison Ivory. I used my paper trimmer to form the 2 inch squares that I needed.

Cutting It all Out

Now it was time to fire up my handy dandy Cricut and cut some stuff up! I truly enjoy cutting paper, and the sound of my Cricut doing it for me is music to my ears! The end result always makes me smile!

I wanted to lift the title off the page a bit, but I had run out of foam tape. What do you do when you run out of something at 11:30pm and no craft stores are open? You improvise! I found some foam sheets stashed away from when my kids were in elementary school. My BABY is a senior in high school y’all! I think it is time to use up the foam sheets! LOL. SO, I cut one into tiny strips, used a quick drying wet glue, and Ta-Da! I now have DIY foam tape! It worked magnificently!

Decisions~Decisions

I added a lace ribbon border and started assembling my page once the “quilt squares” were distressed and pieced together. There were still other photos out on my desk, so I went though and placed a few others to see if the one I chose was truly the right one for the layout. After going through a whole stack of black and whites from my wedding, I knew that the one of me sitting alone was truly the right one to use.

At this point, all that was left was deciding what additional elements to add. Nuvo Drops or stickles, Twine or ribbon, visible journialing or hidden? I decided…Why not use it all!! I mean, there is no right or wrong way to scrapbook! So, that’s exactly what I did. I added nuvo drops and stickles around the leaf clusters. I already had the lace ribbon on the perimiter of the quilt, and I tied a twine bow around the “T” in the title. Finally, I added some journaling strips to the layout with some of the song lyrics, and I made a journaling card to write on and hide behind the layers of the page. The Pop Tone Whipped Cream was perfect for running through the printer for the journaling strips a well as journaling directly onto it.

Done

Scrapbooking the fun moments and happy times in life is easy, it’s the sorrow and sadness that tends to get omitted from the albums. The journaling on my hidden card will convey to the reader just how much I missed my son that day. I cried while I was writing it, and I am choking back tears now as I am typing. It is a part of my life that I can not avoid, and it is something that I want my kids and theirs to know about me. Not only did I love my son in his lifetime, but I never stopped loving him after his death.
I know that my wedding anniversary is a weird link to journaling this. Unfortunatley, we have no control over when our emotions overwhelm us.
I encourage you to set aside time and make a scrapbook page or two. You don’t have to “know how” and it certainly doesn’t have to be perfect. Just grab your photos and some Cut Cardstock, and you have all that you truly need.