Yes, I was ready for the trip to the beach!

I apologize for being slow to post this, but here is where I was one week ago today. Corona del Mar. I am having some life issues right now, so I don't know how soon I will be scrapbooking this photo and some others I took that day, although I'm looking forward to it. But the issues are really cutting into my mojo and my scrapbooking budget.

The financial issues almost kept us from going to the beach. We really didn't want to go unless we could carpool, but we were supposed to go. The top photo shows some of 202 people who were baptized by our church staff and ministry leaders in a cove at Corona del Mar. The church had asked other volunteers, including us and Alonzo, a young man who has befriended my husband, to help with showing others there for the baptism where to go. That meant we were supposed to get there half hour before everyone else so we could be familiarized with the setup. The three of us were among several volunteers, the rest able to get themselves there. Since the three of us needed to carpool de to financial issues, the church thought they had arranged one ride for Alonzo and another ride for Don and me. But both of our rides fell through, ours because of a miscommunication about what time we were supposed to meet our ride at a local mall, and Alonzo's because of the driver's illness. As our would-be-ride told us she was almost to the beach already, I was almost in tears. But as Don started to hang up with her, his cell phone beeped. It was Alonzo, explaining his situation, and asking if he and his roommate could ride with us. We know Alonzo and his roommate have financial issues too, so we asked them to come up with just $5. That would not cover even half the gas expense, but at least we would not have to fully fund our own trip. They did, and we went. We arrived, three hours after we were supposed to, but still in time to see most of the baptisms. And then to enjoy a fun day on the beach. Which is what I wanted. God is good.

Our trips to the beach

Photos of my stepdaughter and granddaughter at the beach - without us!

The dig your toes in the sand beach trip has to wait, at least for my husband and me. Before my stepdaughter made it to California, she uninvited Dad and me. We did see a beach again, Dockweiler Beach near LAX. We drove past it after missing the turn off the 110 Freeway for PCH a few miles east.

We did try to talk the kids into going onto the beach, but granddaughter's early bed time prevented this from being realistic. They instead went to a beach in Orange County on the last day of their trip, after parting ways with the parents.

We were uninvited because it seemed easier to my stepdaughter and son-in-law to fit their beach trip in while visiting my son-in-law's cousin, who already lives in the OC. And because the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles was closed that weekend, or at least when we had intended to go to the beach.

I have mixed feelings about it. I mean I really didn't want to do that whole jump in the ocean with nothing on but a bathing suit thing. I had the bathing suit on, under a shirt and shorts, at the pool party we had at my sister-in-law's house the day before the kids' beach party. I didn't get in the pool, nor did I take even the shirt off.

But, I did say on this blog I wanted to go to the beach. And whether I really meant I just wanted to get a little closer than we did to Dockweiler, or all the way down to the tide, that did not happen.

Stamping with Markers

There are many different forms of ink. This layout uses two that people may not have thought of to use for stamping, but I like the effect. The larger, darker green swirls on this page are Ranger's Distress Ink. (Peeled Paint). But the other two colors of swirls, the lighter green and the orange, are Le Plume markers, in the colors orange and light green.

When I bought my Le Plume markers, probably eight or nine years ago, it was back in the days when people were still doing decorative hand-drawn titles on their scrapbook pages. The Zig markers, which is another sizeable chunk of my collection of markers, probably were marketed with that purpose in mind. I also bought LePlume markers for this purpose, depending on which manufacturer had the best color and/or price.

But Le Plume markers were actually made for stamping. Their brush ends can cover a stamp as well as dabbing an ink pad can. And I'm glad, because while I am one of those die hards that still occasionally hand-cuts titles (and then definitely needs to marker up the edges!) I haven't hand written a title in awhile. So, I'm glad to put my Le Plume markers to the use they were intended!

Maybe I'm ready for a trip to the beach!

It is happening on July 16. It will be the first time in about 12 years that I really got down in the sand, although I've gone for walks above the shoreline in Coronado, Long Beach, Santa Monica (numerous times), San Diego and Catalina, and on short-hop cruises involving the latter two of those places since then. So these beach stamps get plenty of use, except for the lighthouse one that caused my husband Don to buy these stamps for me a few years ago. I made this one for World Stamping Week at Two Peas as well. Some things I did were create a water color background with water pencils (ask me more if you want), and add to the large micro-beaded starfish sticker I already had by glueing a starfish from my starfish stamp on top.

San Diego

One of the places I really like to go is San Diego. Don and I have probably been four or five times now. Our most recent trip was shortly after my cousin Jodi moved to Coronado. But that was only for a few hours. It's usually for a weekend. I hope we can do that again in the not too distant future.

Here is a card I just made with a left over photo of San Diego. Blue and purple is one of my favorite combos for beach photos. I used red here because of a color challenge on the World of Stamping Week challenges going on June 11-18 at Two Peas In A Bucket. When I did the layouts, I used blue, purple and orange on one, blue purple and grey on another.

Both the tree and the shell border are stamped in two colors. The key is to stamp the second color over the first as close as possible, but a little bit of shadow is OK. This is another challenge on WSW at Two Peas.

You can do this if you have clear stamps - or wood stamps with a stamp positioner. I used Marvy Uchida markers in blue and violet to ink my stamps. You could use ink just as well. If you have white ink, try it as the first color. There are some samples at Two Peas that do it this way.

This card actually meets five challenges in WSW. If you want to know more, check out www.twopeasinabucket.com

I feel like posting again

I see it has been more than a year. I was going to share the stampy projects on this, because I had an idea to sell stamps. But that didn't work out. I got discouraged. I even started another blog, more about real life. I can't remember the last time I posted on it either.

But you know, I still do some decent things with stamps. So, I'm going to share one with you. I stamped an entire background on this layout, with some outtake photos of my nephew's wedding. Enjoy.

The Two Peas Crop

Tonight, for the first time, I participated in the crop Two Peas in a Bucket.com hosts every few months, always on Friday nights I normally am at a meeting of my church's small group on Friday nights, but this is Good Friday, so small group did not meet. Making things even better, I got off work at 2 p.m. this afternoon and we had a large combination lunch/dinner after that.. Normally, I'm off work at 5 p.m. and then need to make dinner when I first get home. Doesn't leave much time for me to participate in a 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. crop!

In the past, I have looked at the challenges posted during the crop, then created my own layout incorporating as many as I can, at my leisure. Tonight, I did it before the crop was over (at this time, it still has about 20 minutes left.)

This is what I came up with. I am not sure I like it, but it was fun. I do like the stamped flower background.

The three challenges this time were to use a specific sketch (I've taken some liberties), stamp a background and do a layout inspired by something on Facebook or another social media. The journaling is one of my recent Facebook status updates.