Raining Again

Another cool, rainy day. Woke up early (like 5am early) with a little guy with a sore throat who has been glommed onto me ever since.
Have to go help Dave in the barn shortly (unless he calls to tell me he managed himself), then rip into town to pick up a birthday gift for the birthday Will is going to at 1:30pm. I have a pile of stuff I could get done in town today but I doubt I'll have time for very much if we're going to be back in time.
My mom's birthday is on Monday and I have no clue what to get the woman. I go through this every year. She has re-gifted my gifts in the past, so you can understand my waffling. Something handmade usually wins out (because she can't really give that away) but again, can't decide on what to make. Boo.
Anyway.
On another note, this project was made with the Day By Day kit (sold out) from Noel Mignon. It was meant to be a sort of day planner/memory book for 2010 (I think), but I decided to use it for recording my scrappies. I usually start a new notebook each year that contains my supply lists for layouts and projects, some sketches, a running list of what I accomplished that year (I like to know how productive I was), etc.
I decided to keep the cover simple so that I can just remove the pages at the end of the year and use to cover again for another year. I used two colours of Distress Ink (Walnut Stain and Fired Brick) with my blending tools to create a leather-look effect. I love how it turned out. When I first started, I thought, "I just ruined this thing", but after layering and blending and layering and blending and layering and blending, the effect is even better than I had hoped.

I chose to use only a rub-on and my initials for the cover.

Inside, I used patterned paper for the covers. I cut the Hambly transparency into 4 pieces to use as dividers for Projects, Supplies, Sketches and ... can't remember what the 4th one is and the book is upstairs. You get the idea. For the sketch section, I've used the 4x6 page protectors. I'm going to have 4x6 scraps sitting next to the computer so that I can copy sketches and then just stick them in the slots. Yeah. I'm a genius. And I've got all the goodies from the kit leftover for layouts now.

This is just another quick layout I did last Saturday. Sometimes I see a cool die-cut paper and hate to cut it up or cover it.

Well, I'm off to break up a fight and figure out what poor stuffed animal is missing the stuffing that the dog has scattered all over the floor. It never ends, does it?