Layout for Get Picky

I'm determined to enter at least one (preferably more) scrapbook challenges each week. Today I have a layout to show you that I did using a sketch from Get Picky.
Here's the sketch and my take on it.

I'm still working my way through my basket o' memories (see this picture) and these pictures seemed perfect for this sketch. I replaced the 3rd photo in the sketch with a journaling block.

I don't normally embellish my journaling blocks but this one was crying out for a couple touches so ... voila! 

And finding a piece of ribbon with the words "ma ma" on it was serendipitous to say the  least!

Close up of the title. I added the subtitle because I really wanted to high light that milestone in Paige's history.

This was a fun embellishment to make. I'd punched out 3 circles from a piece of transparent paper I found in my scrap drawer intending to use them as the sketch showed but felt this corner of the layout needed something ... more ... if you know what I mean. So I took a Jillibean Soup journaling spot and added the circles to it. Then it needed something in the centre so I started playing with another piece of the same ribbon from the journaling block and made this little rose bud type thing. Then I knew I needed to add one of my Twelve embellishments for Family Stories and found this orange flower in my tin. It all started coming together! Once the rose bud was glued on it looked a little lonely so I cut out some leaves and added them. 

There you have it. Thanks for stopping by!

Latest Twelve works

I'm not going to bombard you with a ton of angles of these layouts or even my thought/design processes, if you want that please visit my Flickr gallery. Quickly, here are the last two layouts I've completed this month. If you're keeping track, I'm up to 8 so far. Woo hoo!! Only 4 more to go to reach my Twelve goal of ... wait for it ... 12!!

Okay, this one is of Paige's first taste of "solid" food.

Wasn't she just so cute! Sigh.

This is for my Family Stories category.

The second layout is this one from Thanksgiving of 2006.

I realize that the colours look more Hallowe'en than Thanksgiving but I admit to fighting with it a bit. Anyway, this is for my Holidays category.

And now for some shots of life lately ...

Greg. Poor Greg. 

This was taken on Wednesday after he came home from work because he realized he was NOT as better as he thought he was! He had come down with a flu bug the Friday before and missed most of the week because of it. I think he is finally feeling human again but it's been a long slow recovery. I thought I was coming down with it this past Friday too but for whatever reason (maybe it was the 4 hour nap I took in the afternoon) I woke up Saturday feeling fine. Go figure! 

It's really a good thing ... you all know that Mom's just don't GET sick days!! 

Thursday was Paige's skating lesson day. She complained before leaving, fought me as I put on her skates and then spent most of the lesson skating on her own while the teacher focused on skaters worse than her. Sigh!

Love the tongue though!

Oh yeah, she also spent a huge amount of time on her butt on the ice! I swear she was a better skater last year when it was completely new to her! At least she's smiling!!

Marley and LC were very vocal cheer (or is that jeer) leaders.

Last night we got to hang out with the old Ultimate crowd. It's so nice and familiar and easy to get together with these people. We've known them for (in my case) 10 - 12 years (okay, except my brother!), we've all gotten married relatively close together and had our kids at approximately the same time so even if we don't see each other for months, conversations seem to start up where they left off. 

Of course, even though I took my camera, it sat unused in the diaper bag while I visited. Sometimes you have to get busy MAKING the memories rather than RECORDING them! Right?

Here is a sneak peak of what is new on my Stampin' Up! blog - it's a card for my niece who turns 3 tomorrow! Click the link above to see it in more detail.

Okay, thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Carpe Diem?

I just read an article that touched me. Why? Because I could totally see myself in the article. The haggard Mom at the checkout with kids running rampant, pulling candy off shelves, swinging from display cases and rifling through the Lost and Found umbrellas (true story!)  To read the full article, go here. This is my favourite passage though and kind of sums up what this whole parenting thing is all about ... for me anyway.

"I think parenting young children (and old ones, I've heard) is a little like climbing Mount Everest. Brave, adventurous souls try it because they've heard there's magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because during the climb, if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and it's hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard. These moments are so intense and unique that many people who reach the top start planning, almost immediately, to climb again. Even though any climber will tell you that most of the climb is treacherous, exhausting, killer. That they literally cried most of the way up.

And so I think that if there were people stationed, say, every thirty feet along Mount Everest yelling to the climbers -- "ARE YOU ENJOYING YOURSELF!? IF NOT, YOU SHOULD BE! ONE DAY YOU'LL BE SORRY YOU DIDN'T!" TRUST US!! IT'LL BE OVER TOO SOON! CARPE DIEM!" -- those well-meaning, nostalgic cheerleaders might be physically thrown from the mountain."

So true. Those old ladies in the grocery store who swoon over my girls and tell me to "enjoy every minute because it goes by so fast" have clearly forgotten all the dirty diapers, sleepless nights, throw up at 3:00AM, fights over dinner/clothing choices/activities/TV time/etc, and generally ALL the day to day drudgery that is parenthood. I was initially going to say Motherhood but to be honest, the Dads get it too!

So Moms and Dads out there ... as the author says, CARPE 15 MINUTES! 

CARPE those stolen moments that are gone so fast we wonder if they really happened at all! 

CARPE the quiet after all the kids are FINALLY asleep and you can hear your own thoughts for the first time that day!

CARPE a glass of wine in that quiet moment!! You know you want to!!

I for one am going to curl up on the couch with a book and nurse this flu that is slowly taking over my body (thanks Greg!!) and when I feel better, I will carpe something. Until then it's hot drinks, blankets and indulging in a little whining! :)

January's 12 on the 12th

Better late than never, right?
I realized that I didn't get 12 usable shots - mostly because I completely forgot to take pictures of the most exciting thing to happen that day - my Epicure party! Doh!! Anywhoo ... here's what I got. A wee slice of life around here (such as it is).

My Breakfast of Champions ... newly discovered Lactose Intolerant Champions that is!

And the all important cup o' joe!

LC's post breakfast snack # I lost count - cantaloupe melon.

Poor sick Paige. She was home all day because of a fever and ear ache. This is taken at 8:38AM.

And here she is again at 4:01PM. Yes, she's still in her pj's!! 

And LC was caught with an extended snuggle with her "ditti" (blanket - supposed to be only for naps but Mommy was soft this day!)

Marley with her after-school snack of Banana Chocolate Chip muffin. I think she nuked it for too long, hence the oven mitts! Silly girl!

Dinner - a new Tuna Noodle Casserole recipe from one of our family favourite cookbooks, "Eat, Shrink and Be Merry". My taste buds liked it. The Lactaid I swallowed before eating it allowed me to temporarily enjoy it. All the creamy dips and the baked brie I ate at the Epicure party later didn't sit well with me that night or the next day. 

Sigh ... I miss cheese!

Gotta love the recipe names!

Well, there you have it. Thanks to my party guest orders I have some yumminess heading my way too which I know the family will enjoy. Now, if only their dips didn't all call for sour cream or yoghurt!!

And for you crafty types, here's a sneak of something you will find over on my Stampin' Up! blog ...

This might be my most favourite layout to date!!

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend!

OLW 2012 - Focus

In the interest of not boring my family with a million pictures of my scrapbook obsession, I am going to post a few pictures here and give you a link to my Flickr gallery where you can see them all.

I've been finding my focus (ha, ha! pun intended!!) falling on my scrapbooking lately. I am loving this! Let me tell you, the time I'm spending in my craft room has been fun and revealing. My 'homework' for Twelve (Big Picture Class with Stacey Julian) has had me delving into my old pictures (which are currently spread out all over the living room courtesy of 3 curious little girls) and thinking deep thoughts. It's kind of awesome! Greg and I were looking at old videos of Marley last night because I've reloaded old pictures onto my laptop. Gosh she was cute!!

Anyway, I've titled this post OLW so I'd better get to that!
Here are some pictures of my album so far - for more detailed shots please follow this link.

Ali asked us to use a different 4x6 photo pocket which has it's own adhesive strip along the long side but I don't have those (yet) so I made my own. It flips up to reveal the January photo. I'm okay with this. It's kind of fun. The only bummer is that you don't get a really good look at all the little cards all at once. But hey, that's a pretty minor thing!!

In my Flickr gallery I've included close ups of each little card so please head on over there and check it out.

And just to prove that I've been focusing (ha, ha! there it is again!!) and doing some homework for Twelve, here is my first official Twelve layout.

Yes, you've seen this picture before. 

Yes, I will be doing layouts of Paige and Christine's portraits too. 

No, you don't have a say in the matter! LOL!

I'm actually submitting this for publication so cross your fingers for me! The only difference is that I added the little yellow-green metal tag after I photographed it for submission! 

The tag is a reminder that this is part of my "People" file for Twelve. If you're taking the class you'll understand, if not, just know that I know it doesn't really fit but I don't care!

On a whim, I decided to climb on board the 12 on 12 band wagon. This is where you take 12 pictures from your day on the 12th of each month. Obviously the 12th isn't over yet so I'm not going to post any pictures but come back tomorrow (hopefully) and I'll show you what today looked like around here. Not too exciting as Paige is home with a fever today. Poor thing! Thank goodness for wonderful neighbours who can help with the school run for Marley!

Oh, and I've also been working on some fun Valentines cards for a card exchange with Lain Ehman's Scrap Happy group. I'll be posting them on my other blog so check them out here ... only not yet! Maybe later today but probably tomorrow!

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Project 12 - December 2011

I know it's only January 3rd and usually I procrastinate and wait until the very last day to post my Project 12 layout but ... I knew which photos I was going to use a couple weeks ago so figured, why wait?

Here's the sketch we were given:

And here's my interpretation:

As you can see, I stuck really close to the sketch this month. If the shots of Marley and Paige had been portrait instead of landscape it would have been even closer! As soon as I saw the sketch I thought of these pictures and knew that December was NOT going to be about Christmas (that's pretty well covered in my December Daily anyway), it was going to be about our first family pictures since Christine was born.

Here are close ups of each page and some of the embellishments. 

These were a lot of fun to make. I started with some plain grey card stock which I painted with Martha Stewart Glitter paint in Antique silver (I also painted it onto the purple border strip at the top of the layout.) I then inked the edges with Stampin' Up! Concord Crush ink (the title letters were also lightly brushed with this purple ink). The white flowers are old acrylic ones from my stash (I think they might be American Crafts) and the patterned paper flowers were punched out using two Stampin' Up! punches - 1 3/4" Scalloped Circle and the new Blossom Punch (from the Occasions Mini which goes live tomorrow). I inked the edges of them and curled them a bit with my fingers before attaching everything with a brad from my stash (probably Basic Grey).

Well, that's it. My Project 12 album for 2011 is done. Except for a title page which I hope to work on soon.

Scrapbook and Cards Today isn't going to be running this challenge in 2012 exactly as I've gotten used to it, but they have put out teasers about it coming back in a different format so I'll keep you posted on that. I for one really love making a month in review type page every month so I'll be continuing my own Project 12 for 2012. Once I see what SCT does (they are announcing on Jan 12th) I'll figure out what format I want to have. 

Until then, enjoy these pictures of my family one more time. I look forward to seeing your P12 layouts!