Go! Go! Go!

Last weekend, my sister Teddy and I went to South Carolina to help my mom move back to Tennessee.  It was pretty uneventful, aside from two things.

1. We went to Tony's Famous Pizza in Georgetown, SC.  They have the best philly cheesesteak outside of PA.  All their food is good, but the philly is my favorite.  I used to work there when I was about 16 or 17.  It will always remain a special place to me, because its where I met my first boyfriend.  My parents were very strict, and didn't allow me to date, so Davey was my sneaky boyfriend...well, he wasn't sneaky, he was very nice...I guess I was sneaky...but it was a good memory.  He was the first boy that ever kissed me.  It was very awkward...as I assume most first kisses are.  But he was very sweet, and I am glad he was my first kiss.  Davey might not kiss you if you go eat at Tony's, but the delicious food will actually make sweet love to your mouth, so it is totally worth it.

2.  My mom actually drove away from a gas pump with the nozzle still in her tank.  Ripped the nozzle, hose and all, right off of the pump.  I saw the whole thing happen, and tried to yell at her to stop, but I was in the moving truck with the windows rolled up, and she didn't hear me.  I swear it happened in slow motion right up until the point where the hose actually pulled off the pump.  I guess there is a break-away feature, so she didn't completely destroy the thing, but they did have to hit the emergency shut off at a very busy gas station in northern South Carolina and call the fire department.  I really, really wanted to take pictures, but I also value life, so I refrained.  After I realized we weren't going to die, it was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

HILARIOUS!!!

This weekend, I am going to Ohio for my sister Jocelyn's son's high school graduation.  I am leaving tonight after work.  I bought some art supplies off of Amazon to take with me, as I won't be driving and I can practice in the car.

Prismacolor Premier colored pencils

These pencils are pretty awesome.  I only have experience with cheap-o colored pencils and these are very different in comparison!  I only got the 12 because I didn't know how different they would be, but even after messing with them for a couple minutes, I knew I should have gotten a bigger set.  

I actually went over this (poorly) with oil pastels...because of the white pencil issue...

I don't know if it is supposed to or not (I don't know why it would on purpose, but I am giving it the benefit of the doubt), but the white colored pencil in this set has a line of purple going through the entire thing.  You can see the really light purple markings all through the upper background and that is from the white pencil.  I think that is my one complaint...with these thus far.  I am going to see if I can find a store that sells individual prismacolors, so that I can see if all the white pencils have this going on...I will update you as soon as I know.

I LOVE THESE!!!

This is the other travel worthy thing I got from Amazon.  They are oil pastels, which I have never worked with before, but have figured out that I love.  I have read that cheap pastels aren't that easy to work with/they don't blend well, but for my purposes, these worked very well!  I am sure that if you could buy expensive pastels, they would be better, but for very little cash, these work great!

First time using oil pastels...pretty good results in my opinion...

I didn't take a lot of time in blending this, nor do I have experience, but for a first time, I think I did ok.

I accidentally grabbed the yellow one instead of the peach, so she looks a little jaundiced, but I like it anyway.

She looks kind of like Joan Rivers...

I did this on wet paper with water color pencils.  I was experimenting.  I think she looks like Joan Rivers.  

I am taking my oil pastels and prismacolors with me, so I should have some new things to share next week.  Oh, and I got a book called "Mixed Media Girls" (I think that's it) by Suzi Blu.  I haven't gotten to practice any with the instructions in the book, but I did read over it, and it is very good in my opinion.  She has a good way of writing that is pretty understandable.  I am taking it too, so hopefully I will improve my faces dramatically with her help!

What have you been doodling?

Have a great weekend!

~Sully

For Buttons

Disclaimer:  This has absolutely nothing to do with actual buttons...so if you are reading this title thinking "Huzzah!  I love buttons...I will check this out...", you will be sadly disappointed.  Just a warning!

Instead, this has to do with my younger sister, Teddy, who is pregnant.  Teddy and Buttons...  Buttons is what we are calling Teddy's baby.  She got tired of me calling her unborn baby 'it', and so from about a week after we found out she was preggo, we have called 'it' Buttons...  This Friday, we get to find out whether Buttons will be a girl or a boy!  (If Buttons cooperates, that is...)  I am excited, because I get to be there!  I can't have any kids of my own, so Teddy is lovingly letting me be a big part of her pregnancy experience.  So as a little surprise, I am giving Teddy a smash book.  (I almost called this post Baby Smash Book, but all I could think was how terrible baby smash sounded, so I decided against that...)

At any rate, smash books are kind of like a scrapbook that you fill with all kinds of ephemera and words and whatever you want.  You can definitely make your own if you were so inclined, and there are lots of cool tutorials for smash books/ junk journals all over the internet.  But I didn't want my limited paper crafting skills to get in the way on this present, so I went with the real deal from K & Company.

This one:



I also got her a bunch of little stickers and doodads to put in the book, gender neutral, as we won't find out till Friday what she is having.

To me a smash book is a very cool, easy way for her to keep track of what its like to be pregnant.  Teddy is one to notoriously put things off, and I don't want her to forget anything that happens.  The smash book seems like a good way to get her to record things, in just a few sentences if she wants, with pictures, or other memorabilia that she can just toss in when she feels like it.  To me a smash book is like a casual scrapbook...where you don't worry too much about how polished it looks if you don't want to.  They are also neat (especially for people like Teddy) because they have the little smash stick (which is a fine tip sharpie on one end and a glue stick on the other) attached right to the book.  That way if you are out somewhere, you can smash stuff right then and not forget about it...pretty smart...

To help Teddy get over the blank page jitters, I did the first page in her book.

Here is the blank page:

Before...

And here is the after:

And After...  Get it...a book about buttons...cause we call the baby Buttons... genius!

On a really cool side note, those button die cuts came from one of my other sisters, Jocelyn.  The library where she lives has a huge die cutting machine that you can use if you bring your own paper!  I checked out my local library, but they don't have one (which made me a sad panda).  But it may be worth checking into at your own local library.  Besides, libraries are awesome in general, so its not like the trip would be wasted.  Plus, some libraries keep a rack of old books and magazines for sale (mine does do this) year round that can be a great source for paper crafting supplies.

I also did the back of the page:

Good quotes!  The yellow is a pocket for a little card I am making...I will post that when I get it done...

I didn't go overboard on the whole decorating end of it.  Teddy is not super crafty, and I didn't want to freak her out with some crazy fancy whatever that would make it be intimidating for her to add to...  Also, while the thick layers of stuff look cool, in reality, it makes it difficult to do the pages that follow...so I kept it simple...  I am trying not to give her any excuse to not just 'smash' the crap out of this smash book!!!

What do you think of smash books?  Any thoughts, I would love to hear whatever you have to say!

~Sully