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??