Life sometimes gets in the way...

I am well aware that living life is what makes creating art about it possible.  But sometimes I really wish the world would disappear for a week and all I had to do was create while someone periodically brought me food and coffee drinks.  Alas that is not the case so I'm trying to create things in between other obligations, like laundry, or weddings, or baby things (no not mine).  Of course me being me, I keep signing up for more projects on a particular swap because it just sounds fun so there!  Well here is a preview of a few of the projects I've done for said swap and here's hoping the rest will be completed tonight when a friend of mine is coming over to scrap.  We will see, I'm not very productive when others are here :-)  After that maybe I can finish up week 3 of the art journal challenge (seriously 4 weeks behind, or is it 5) then start packing for the next wedding and oh yeah take care of that baby I said I would...
And PS, thanks to my sister and her family for the pack of Valentines goodies!

Altered key

Made the labels with cardstock and a stamp

Punched a circle from pretty paper to make a charm

First try at a stuffed heart, think I like paper better

Yes, I like paper better

Sorry I forgot to take a picture pre-package

My favorite

My love and I at the wedding this past weekend

New York Love

So I'm back from glorious, snowy New York!  I was very sad to leave since my cousin and I had a great time finding Irish pubs and seeing the sights.  The hotel room had a beautiful view of Times Square and Central Park covered in snow is so beautiful.  It hasn't been the best of return weeks either, although I did miss my pets, husband and warm weather.  I'm recovering from a horrid stomach bug and sadly we just lost my grandmother yesterday, a day after her 84th birthday.  She was a wonderful woman and we will all really miss her.  I'm horridly behind on all the art journal prompts from the Journal 52 project as well as laundry.  I am now prepping some pieces and parts for a swap I'm doing so I'll hopefully have something new to show you with those soon.
In the meantime here are the photos as promised of the gifts I made for my cousin.  I made her a photo album for her to put pictures from our trip in.  I used a photo I took a little over a year ago when Truman and I went to New York on the cover.  There were 20 pages!  I couldn't load all the pictures so I just chose a few of my favorites.  I also made her a wine cork keychain (inspired by my sisters gift to me).  She likes navy blue, wine, and football so I tried to incorporate it all.  Lastly I'm including a few photos from the trip just so you can have a peek ;-)  Enjoy this Valentines Day and your weekend!

Birthday keychain

8X8 Photo Album

A close up on one of the pages

We had pizza and beer under the Brooklyn Bridge

Fish and Chips at an Irish Pub off Broadway

Our favorite pub off of Wall Street

Off to Old New York

So I am off to New York with my cousin for her birthday!  It will be a fantastic albeit cold trip that I am throughly looking forward to.  So before I go finish the last minute packing heres a few pictures of my finished scrapbook layout and some fun backgrounds I made with my new Gelli plate.  Talk to you all next week!

From my first trip to New York

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Fun backgrounds

Another one