I've Got a Secret

I'm going to be brave today. In public photos I seldom wear glasses, I never show my full body, and I never show that I use oxygen. Our first challenge for the Design Team this month was to do a layout about ourselves. I decided to scrapbook the biggest thing that is going on in my life right now. I finally, after many years of dismissing it, decided this past summer to pursue weight loss surgery (gastric bypass).  For the past few months, I have been going through the preliminaries - appointments with the dietitian, psychologist, surgeon, cardiologist, as well as getting clearances from my regular physician, my pulmonologist and my hematologist (Whew!) I've had to have an echocardiogram, a stress test and a trans-esophogeal echocardiogram. I'm finally at the point where I have been cleared by everyone and I have my appointment this coming Tuesday with the surgeon to set the date. While part of me is scared to death, part of me is very hopeful about the future. I'm hoping that a major weight loss will help me breathe better, move better and with less pain. I don't want to get my hopes too high, but I am hoping that I have a whole new life ahead of me. Watch out world - if my energy level skyrockets, who knows what I can accomplish?!  

I started out with a concept of the two pictures, and then having the grid taper down at the sides, like I hope that my body will taper! In looking for a patterned paper to use, I found this Color Me butterfly paper from Hot Off the Press - I liked the symbolism of the butterfly and my change. I cut the paper down to 11 1/8" to fit the 10 squares of the grid. And I colored the paper blue to match my eyes!  But then - dilemma!  How to make this a mosaic piece! So I decided to use a second piece of navy grid paper on top. 

I cut this second piece down to 8 squares wide and then tapered the bottom squares of the grid just a tad. I used a craft knife to cut around the butterflies so that they could remain on top of the design and I lifted the bottom butterfly up with foam tape. By the way, the butterflies are colored with colored pencil and gamsol to blend.

Finally, for my journaling, I thought about the Special K commercial when they say "What will you gain when you lose?" and made a list of some of the things I hope to get rid of and some of the things I hope to gain. I then added a few rhinestones and Stickles on the butterflies for a little bling (gotta have bling!) And I added one of the laser-cut 2013 pieces available from Snap N Crop to finish the layout.