Hope you have a Beachy Birthday & Blog Candy!

Earlier this week it was my mom's birthday. She is so wonderful and one of my closest friends. Ever since I was little, we have made summer trips to the beach or to California to visit my grandparents. Most often, and my favorite, were trips to Cannon Beach, Oregon to see the Sand Castle Fesivals. I have wonderful, wonderful memories of this. I remember one time on the way home (to Spokane mind you- LONG drive) from one of these trips, we were about 15 minutes from home, my mom had a headache, I was sick and I think my brother and I were fighting and the car ran out of gas! Only 15 minutes away, she was just trying to get us there- poor mom!
Since 2000, little towns around Lincoln City, Oregon have been glass blowing floats. Floats are glass balls they used to use to hold up fishing nets a long time ago, that were glass, blown in blue or green and made in Japan and are quite the find if they wash up on a US beach- you can find them in antique stores, etc. So since the millenium they started blowing these in wonderful color combos and hide them on the beach- like easter eggs! So we have gone every year since to look for these. Sometimes, I get a little grumpy at my mom, like "lets just enjoy the beach" but mostly I let her go with her obsession. I have to admit she has found 5 or 6 floats over those years, one of which I supposedly found..."keep looking Katie, I bet you'll find one!" This is what she tells me as I circle the same driftwood log again and again. But if you ask her, she swears she didn't help me find it. ;) That's a good mom for you.
Anyway, you are probably wondering what my point it, well it is that I wanted to make her this word album because I knew it would be really special to her. So I did and this last weekend, we went to the beach for our annual trip and I gave it to her. She loved it. :)

I have to admit, this was tricky to do. You have to make the paper a little smaller than the letters and use special glue. Then you sand and ink up the edges and embellish. The hardest parts were getting the paper just right and inking up the corners. I have some inking boo-boos, but I tried to blend it in so you couldn't tell and I think it was fairly sucessful.

Here is my beautiful mom below- can you believe she is 61?! Isn't the paper perfect.

Here we are on one of several trips combing the beach. That woman has a whole beach/shell/float room even though she lives in Coeur'd Alene, ID (aka inland).

The picture on the left is her and her boyfriend at a dinner. It is hard to see but says, "have fun &..." the next page says, "build a sandcastle." This is a picture of my mom, me and my husband. I journaled about how the trips to the sandcastle festivals are some of my favorite memories.

These next two pages were a little difficult for me for some reason. First I had a hard time with the paper, but finally settled on pink. I sponged the clouds on. The page on the left initially had some other things on the top, but I ripped it off and this is what I have. My mom, loves the beach and with that come galloshes, so it says, "oh my gallosh, its raining!" The page on the right is a picture of us cut out with the SU top note die. I journaled around it about how much I love spending her birthday's with her on the beach. The kites were actually paper I was going to use but decided against, so ended up cutting them out. That was a LOT of work, but worth it. Two more closer pics below.

OK, now this last page is my favorite, first because I love pirates and it is a treasure map. Second, because I love that my daughter is in it. :0 Third because it is about family. This was my daughter's first trip to the beach (we didn't go last year because she was so little) and she loved it. I know my mom comes to look for floats, but the sentiment says, "Family, the best kind of treasure." And it is true and my mom agreed, she loves every minute with Sophie.

Oh and ps- my husband wanted me to put an eye patch on my mom's boyfriend's eye as a joke, but I decided against it. :) Technically they have been together for about 20 years, so not really her boyfriend, but they aren't married, so whatever.

Anyway, I really enjoyed doing this for my mom and as I said she really loved it. I hope you enjoy it too!

One final thing.- Char from So Cal commented on my last post and mentioned she was my 1000th visitor. I think that deserves a little blog candy, don't you?! Char email me or leave your email in the comments and I will send you some Stampin' Up! DSP and ribbon. :)