Little Red Wagon and My Little Little Shoebox

You know when see product and it just screams "BUY ME!!" and you know you just HAVE to have it so you spend your hard earned money and bring it home. And then it sits there for awhile. You pick it up. and put it down on a regular basis and you finally come the thought of, "what the heck am I ever going to do with this stuff?" That is how it happened with this turtle and apple line from My Little Shoebox. I ordered it from an online store on the other side of the country more than a year ago and it has sat in my patterned paper baskets since then.

SO- last night I dug it out and decided to use it!! Little Red Wagon has a "Birthday" challenge this week so I joined in the fun:



After all that stitching was done on my card I moved onto a layout. This photo was captured at a recent family photoshoot. Camden was sick of getting his picture taken so I gave him my cell to keep him busy in between poses. Big mistake. Now my cell is in every one of the photos we had taken that day.



I love the look of glee on Cam's face. His big sister is so bored and big brother thinks it's hilarious. Too funny. I used the title "Cellophone" because that is what the kids call my cell. Cute, eh?

Project 12 for the Month of April and "Engaged"

I have been trying to use the Project 12 sketches each month to create a layout that uses the photos that are cute, but otherwise wouldn't call for their own layout. Here is the sketch for April:




And here is my interpretation. I used one of my favourite lines from Imaginisce, "Twitterpated" and I was glad to be able to use a whole sheet of the adorable animal paper included in the collection.




My little sister became engaged to her boyfriend at the beginning of May. They took a little vacation to NYC and Wayne popped the question in Central Park. Now she has a lovely diamnond ring and I am getting another brother-in-law!!



I recently bought a copy of this magazine. While creating this layout, I challenged myself to use at least 2 techniques found in the mag. The first technique I tried was the use of laser-cut paper through a peek-a-boo opening. I even stitched around the opening just like they suggested. The second technique I tried was to create a funky photo border using a row of scalloped half-circles. I really like how this border brings the photo into prominence even though there is a large hot pink butterfly in the opposite corner!!







Thanks for stopping by!! ( Hey look, Meghan!! You're on the blog!!)

"Sketchy Thursdays" & Flower Photography

I found another challenge blog!! Hurray! This one is called "Sketchy Thursdays" and yes, they post a new sketch each week for all of us scrap-addicted crazies.

I recently bought a new camera and I was just getting to know it when I took B&A to Ottawa to visit my sister. While walking in a pretty cemetery near her home, I tried out my camera's Macro to snap these flower photos.



I really like the close-up of the orange tulip. Actually, I had a lot of nice close-ups of the gardens but I wanted only one focal point photo for this layout.

My Mind's Eye Sketch Challenge

Here I am again, with another challenge brought to us by My Mind's Eye. When I saw this sketch I knew exactly what photos and papers I wanted to use.

The photos are from early spring when Kevin and I began digging gardens around our new house. Camden thought he would help us out by giving the soil a texture test with his hands and his MOUTH! Eewwwww yuck!!

Here is the sketch:



And here is my layout:



And some close-ups:







All papers and die-cuts are MME. The rub-ons are from Kaisercraft.

The Inspired Scrapper Challenge - A Sketch

Oohh!  I am having so much fun doing challenges lately.  I love how it widens my horizons.  This week at www.theinspiredscrapper.blogspot.com they issued a sketch challenge featuring a sketch by Becky Fleck. 

My two older children and I recently took a trip to Ottawa to visit my sister.  We had so many exciting adventures over the 3 days that I think I am going to make an 8x8 album out of the pictures I took.

 I used Becky's sketch to get started on some cute pictures I took at the Museum of Civilization.  In these pictures they kids are trying on theatrical costumes in the staging area of the kid's museum .

I added an extra photo and kept my embellishments to a minimum.  Simple and streamlined.  

Bo Bunny and Being a Mommy

Bo Bunny (one of my favourite paper manufacturers)issued a challenge right around Mother's Day.  Simply put, they wanted a layout that celebrated Motherhood.

I thought for days about what facet of Motherhood I wanted to touch on and I came up with the idea to describe how I came up with each of my kids' middle names.  Don't get me wrong, Kevin helped choose them, but really, I made the suggestions and he either agreed or vetoed my choices.  : ) 

Here is the layout:

Choosing the perfect names for my babies was a huge decision for me. They had to be different, but not strange, pleasing to the ear, go well with our last name, follow our theme ( British names like mine and my husband's) and look nice when written out.  ( I know that last one sounds funny, but I REALLY did write out each child's name over and over until I found a combo that I liked the sound of and liked how it looked!)

Here are some close-ups on  the info about each child's name:

Thanks for looking!!

Busy Saturday

Our day started like this:



Do you know what these are??

They are the 12 posts set into cement that will help hold up our new 16 x 20 deck!! I am so excited! Now that the posts are in, hubby Kevin and my almost-bro-in-law are going to build the deck next weekend!! More pics of that in futures blog posts......


After a visit to the gym, I made these:



Camden gives them a thumbs up!!



Then, Bryn and Afton helped Daddy:





To make this:



Do you know what it is?
It is a new concept in vegetable gardening that we are going to try out. Basically, we have to plant vegetables in each square foot depending on the size each type of veggie will reach upon maturation. For instance, a pepper plant needs a whole square foot and 16 carrots can grow in one square foot. We are using "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew as a guidebook. He claims that his technique will give us a greater yield in less space. Kevin and I are very excited to see what we will produce over this growing season.

At the end of the day, Camden did this:



While Kevin was trying to do this:


Too funny, eh??

It's an Imaginisce Sketch Challenge!!

I have been doing lots of online scrapping challenges lately. I am really finding it is sparking my creativity. I am using products I may never have tried, I am bravely trying new techniques with my papers and I am going out of my comfort zone in terms of layout and design.

Here is the sketch given at "Imaginisce" as their May Sketch challenge:




I interpreted it like this:

The hardest part of this sketch was coming up with a creative way to mimic the large flower. So,  I turned on my "kindergarten teacher" mind and made a flower just like the ones we used in a recent classroom craft.  I folded and inked the edges of the petals and adhered the centre using pop dots.  My title is a rub-on that I cut apart and adhered in the circular shape. 

The other flowers are punched circles that I spiraled with ribbon (attached with ribbon tape).

My butterflies are rub-ons from Imaginisce, too.  I LOVE this Twitterpated line!

Thanks for looking!

The Inspired Scrapper & Mom!!

I never really realized how much time and energy my mom put into raising my two sisters and I (with the help of my dad, of course!) until I had three kids of my own. She took 12 years off of her teaching career in order to be there every step of the way for us. I know she'll be the first to tell you that those years were the most challenging and the most meaningful of her life.

I wanted to celebrate my mother in a layout, paralleling her time with us and my time with my three munchkins. I came up with this:









I used Cosmo Cricket's "Material Girl" line as a tribute to my mother's sewing, knitting and crafting prowress. I hope I continue to get as much joy out of crafting as she still does!!

Pink, Green and Flowers - Three of my Favourite Things!!

I love all colour but my absolute favourite is pink - in any shade or tint. I love a pale blushy pink right up to an eye-catching fucshia (fuschia??)). In fact, when I got married almost 8 years ago, my bridesmaids wore a shocking shade of pink that even today, I am glad I chose.

I created this card to meet the colour challenge laid out by "Little Red Wagon." This week we are challenged to use a pink and green combination. What a perfect pair of colours!



I tried a new style of paper flower. This one is created by cutting a circle into a spiral, then twisting it into a tight ring. The leaves are made using a Doodlebug stamp in a paisley shape. My sentiment rub-on is from Pebbles.

Thanks for looking. Please leave a comment.

Bo Bunny & Inspired Scrapper Challenge

I love it when I can kill 2 birds with 1 stone!! I had planned earlier this week to create a layout for a BoBunny sketch challenge. I had to use this sketch:



Then lo and behold, within days, I found another challenge posted at a site called "The Inspired Scrapper." For their challenge I had to use this photo as colour inspiration:




Do you see how this is all coming together?

So once I had selected a photo of my daughter to print, I chose BoBunny papers that fit the feel of the picture and the colours of the challenge.

This is what I came up with:






All the products are BoBunny (new and old) except for the letter stickers (Jillibean), the bling (Kaisercraft) and various ribbons (from who knows where? )

Thanks for looking!

Mini-Book for my "Other Mom"

Recently I have put together this chipboard mini-album for my Mother-in-law as a gift for Mother's Day.  I used mostly Cosmo Cricket's "Early Bird" line and threw in some  Scenic Route chipboard for good measure.  The photos are taken over the span of the last 6 months.  I just chose my favourite shots and made sure I had included equal amounts of each of my 3 kids!!













Thanks for looking!