Sunday, February 22, 2009

operation 52: RESOLUTIONS

wouldja believe...

(can i get a drumroll here? or maybe a trumpetty fanfare thingie?? yeah...a fanfare's probably better!)


i have *FINISHED* paper adventure!!!

ok, so it was a one-year project which took me 14 months. i don't care. as far as i know, there is no statute of limitations on papercrafting. i am just pleased and proud to have DONE IT...and especially to have picked it back up after it totally got away from me at the end of october.

the final assignment, from the last week of 2008, was appropriately enough, "RESOLUTIONS". for the last couple of years i have semi-jokingly made a new year's resolution to be more selfish! not in a nasty, self-absorbed way... (hopefully!) ...just to try to stop falling into little traps i have a habit of setting for myself, such as feeling like i am responsible for helping out anyone remotely in my orbit, with any project or endeavor, at the expense of my own time and energy. or being "guilted" into taking on something i'd rather not do. (heck, sometimes i guilt *MYSELF* into doing things i'd rather not do!) or just generally being so critical of myself that nothing i do ever seems good enough. which is ridiculous, since i would never THINK of treating anyone else like that!

all this seemed like rich fodder for the very last page in my big fat bulgy paper adventure book; and being quite wordy, i thought it'd make a nice digi-word-art type o'thing...so i broke out some of the many distress/grunge fonts i have been collecting...and the cool chandelier brushes i enabled amy into (in a manouever which totally boomeranged!) and just basically went a bit nuts...and i am actually quite pleased with the result!

(software & background graphics: broderbund printshop; chandelier brushes: scrap-n-fonts; fonts: bleeding cowboys, jamai stevie, mom's typewriter, pea stacy doodle script, sidewalk, cocaine sans, pea missy unicase; photo paper: kodak premium)

text reads, "2009: the year i FINALLY, once-and-for-all, learn how to give myself a break and treat myself as nicely as i treat others. (the OTHER golden rule!)"

in conclusion, i would like to thank the miraculously wise and amazingly talented miss elise blaha for devising and playing hostess for such a great year-long adventure. i had fun, i learned A LOT of things, and best of all...i now have THIS little baby, to keep forever:

(can i get another, more conclusionary fanfare thingie? thanks!!!)


miss elise has said she'll be leaving up the prompts for this project indefinitely, so why not check them out here? if you want--for some reason--to see ALL of my pages, you can click this link...or the "paper adventure" label below. there is a flickr group (to which i must finish uploading) with pages from the many cool people who PA'd last year, and it is here.

12 comments:

  1. Ker-Plunk! That is me hitting the floor or if we were face-2-face I'd say "Shut Up!" and do a "friendly Elaine shove" {please tell me you know what I'm talking about....}. Absolutely and totally magnificent my dear....what a fitting way to end your paper adventure...with a gorgeous chandelier....come on....chandeliers are like bling and glitter...a girl can never have too much.....congrats on completing your project!!!!! BTW, I don't have a single chandlier in my home but a good blogging friend of mine mentioned that I should hang a couple decorative ones in my "design studio"...lol...glorified hallway...

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  2. Congrats on fininishing your book! I have enjoyed your pages. Your resolution page is fantstic - I love what you had to say and you DO deseve all the best!!! debb

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  3. Yaaah!!!!Fabulous as ever my dear friend...Your creations are a treasure...
    Enjoy the rest of your weekend Lauren:)~X~

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  4. omg...this is wickedly fantastic.
    Good for you for finishing, I do not have the dedication to do one of these-I wish I did!!

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  5. I am so jealous you had the stick-to-it-tive-ness to complete the project. YAY for YOU! It will be a lovely reminder in years to come.

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  6. Woohoo-wahoopdido ... good for you. And a good resolution ... because you my dear are the best friend, cheerleader, pick-me-upper person I have ever known ... so here's a big woo-hoo-ha for you.

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  7. Stef took my WAHOO! But I'm sending you a ginormous WAHOO!!! too.

    Your book is beautiful. And the "other golden rule"? Too true. That is the best resolution I have ever heard. Mind if I try it out for myself?

    I LOVE your pink & black, the chandalier, and those wonderful fonts!

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  8. Yay!! Congrats Lauren! What an absolutely fabulous project and this gorgeous page is the perfect way to finish it off!

    (-: Heidi

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  9. OH. MY. WORD!!!!! This is probably most favouritest PA page EVAH!!!! Three cheers for Miss Lauren.....I am so proud of you for sticking it out and finishing it...especially considering I never even got started :) I'm also proud of you for realising that OTHER golden rule...I totally get where you are coming from there sister...for a long time that was a BIG problem for me too! BUT it is OK to be *selfish* like that...even if other people suddenly don't like it...that's only because you stop being a pushover and giving in to them...heck, I could write a book on this...do it & you will feel so liberated and you will love & appreciate the things that you DO choose to do for others, because they are really what you WANT to do. OK....getting off my soapbox now and going off to ramble in the comments section of someone else's blog.
    YAY LAUREN {just one more WOOOOHOOO for the road!}

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  10. YAY!!! How nice to have such a MASTERPIECE to look back on...
    Congrats for finishing a very HUGE goal!!

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  11. You know that is a recognised medical condition, right? Well, as medical as things get when being arranged by three women drinking champagne in Fortnum & Mason for five hours ;-)

    It was identified as 'an impulse to generosity' by my cousin and means that we identify and then feel obligated to help people in our immediate vicinity in any way, shape or form regardless of whether we have time, energy, money or real inclination to do so. So....... I say HURRAH for deciding to be more self-ish in 2009!

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  12. this is awesome! i enjoyed all of your paper adventure pages... what are you going to do with all of that extra time now ...?:)

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