Clare's kitty

This was completed for Connie Prince's speed scrap over at Gotta Pixel.

Kit is Tiger & Sparky by simply.scraps

Family Dinner on Boxing Day

A rare occasion when everybody is sitting together enjoying a fabulous meal. All kids and grandkids are in this picture.

Kits:

Oh Snap! by coliescorner
Baked Goods by Jennifer Barrette

Men will be Boys!

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words.....I'll say no more!

I used Techno-Fabulous Templates and Plugged In kit, both by Connie Prince.

On the first day of our visit.....

....Owen and James went to Melonheads at Square One for haircuts. A really neat place for kids.


Kit is Crash Boom Pow by Connie Prince and Armina Designs.

It's a real thrill when you see the look of love and pride on a mother's face, especially if the mother is your daughter. I love seeing Kirsten watching her children, in this instance, James, at play. They take their children on regular outings and provide great experiences for them. Well done, Kirsten & John.


Kit is Toot Toot Woo Woo by simply.scraps


Here is James walking along the shore. He looks very intent on what is in his hands. Hope it's nothing 'yucky'.


Kit is Metallique by Silvia Romeo.

And, of course, here's Ava with her smiling face. Just say 'cheese' and she lights up like a candle. I took these pics with my new phone.


Kit is Emily by coliescorner.

'Tis the Season...

...for Christmas photos to be displayed.

Here you go, Kirsten! I just realized that I don't have any photos of James' first Christmas....bring some with you, please. I'll be delighted to make pages of him, too. And don't feel bad, your brother hasn't given me any of Ava's first Christmas, either!

Kit was Joy to the World by Connie Prince. The template was from Peace On Earth, also by Connie Prince. Both these items can be found in Connie's December 2009 Grab Bag.

Element Challenge

These are photos of my DDs having some fun in the snow with their Uncle Michael. We lived in Owen Sound, ON at the time and these were taken at Harrison Park. Afterwards we would go into the really quaint restaurant, sit by the fireplace and have hot chocolate and french fries. A real treat on a cold winter's day.

The kit is by Kathryn Estry and is entitled, "Penguin Playground".

A challenge LO and a surprise LO

I was cleaning out the closet in the spare bedroom and I found a shoebox of old photos. Here's one of me taken back in 1968 when I attended the Canadian Motorcycle Association's Endurance Run in Coboconk, Ontario. I met lots of wild and crazy people there and had a ball. I went with my cousin, Carol, and her husband, Hugh. He was a rider in the race and Carol and I went around to the checkpoints just to gab with other onlookers. Well, kids, what do you think of Mom now!


I used some papers from Planes, Trains & Cars by Julie Marie.


The page below was completed for the Speed Scrap today at Gotta Pixel, hosted by Connie Prince. It's always a blast trying to chat and scrap at the same time. The boys built a deck a couple of summers ago at Phil's house. Andrew was a huge help and it's always great to know your kids are willing to help each other when necessary.


For this layout, I used My Brother the Drama King by Connie Prince.

Here's a beautiful boy!

I couldn't wait to use my new kit by Captivated Visions entitled, Midnight Musings. This is a photo of James and it was taken during one of our outings while I was visiting them. It could have been the day we started to go to the London Zoo but ended up walking a very long way through Regent's Park and a tube ride, then on to The London Eye and across Westminster Bridge. It was a fabulous walk, but I think James should really have offered me his seat and let me nap! Or, it could have been taken when we visited his grandparents' home in Christchurce. Wherever it was taken, it's a beautiful picture of James.



And here's a picture of Owen at his first Christmas. It's a "quick page" by Connie Prince from the Deck The Halls collection.

Cook, clean, play.....I can do it all!

These photos were taken in England in 1975. The girls loved playing with the watering-cans and they even met a little girl from down the lane who came to play. Most of the people we met were amazed at the tans Tiffany and Kirsten were sporting because they were brown as berries and their hair was really blonde, especially Kirsten who was almost white-blonde. They were so sweet.
My second layout using the kit, Bear Hugs, by Kristmess.


Today I did three challenges at Gotta Pixel.

First there is Simply Sketchy where we're given a template to use. As I said in the forum, this template has more curves than I do, baby! I used the kit, Zippity Zoo Zah by Sara Ellis for this layout.



Next is the Tool Shed challenge. Here we're tasked with making our own background paper. Really cool, too. After making my own paper, I used elements from the kit Fall on the Farm by Julie Marie Designs.




And last, but not least, is the Speed Scrap I did tonight with Connie Prince as the host for said speed scrap. For this, I used the Holiday Whimsy products which are a collaboration by several designers and made available to Pixel Club members at the beginning of the month. If you are not a member, you can get the kit over the course of the month in a free daily download.

Here is Owen and Jackson with Santa on their first Christmas in 2006. Which reminds me that I do not have a pictures of James or Ava on their first Christmas. I need to fix that situation, pronto!



Okay, I'm done, tired, grumpy and I'm going to watch some TV now. Oh, and I almost forgot, I cooked dinner AND cleaned out the balcony today, as well. Just call me Superwoman today. Tomorrow I will take it easy.

December Calendar

I'm going to use this on my desktop this month. I used the kit, Deck the Halls by Connie Prince and one of the calendars from Kristmess' Mini Calendars 2010. I had to use a month that started on a Tuesday, erased the words June 2010, and added December 2009.

Uncle Arthur's House

Aren't they just the sweetest little girls? Well, I think so and that's what counts. We took the girls to meet their paternal grandparents in 1975. While there we also went to visit Uncle Arthur and Aunt Faye. They had this huge teddy bear and it amused the girls for quite a while. Before we said goodbye to Arthur, he took us to his place of business: a TOY STORE and both girls were allowed to pick out a toy to keep. Talk about being let loose in a toy store......squeals of delight were everywhere.

The kit is entitled Bear Hugs by Kristmess. Go take a look, you may need to get this one.

Tonight's Speed Scrap

When we lived in Thunder Bay, it was a lovely street with great neighbours. In 2006, it was decided to have a parade on Canada Day. All the men agreed to 'pimp-up' their John Deere lawn tractors and drive around the street. Afterward, we all gathered at one of the neighbours and celebrated fully the birth of our country!

The kit is Tool Shed by coliescorner.

Pirates & Monkeys - what a pair

See, Kirsten, I was just waiting for the right kit to be available before using this photo. I'm going to make another page with a different kit for the little Cheeky Monkey! Stay tuned for that.....here it is now, just for James!

Kits:
Pirate Play by minicake of She's Full of Scrap
Mr. Cuddle Monkey by Bella Gypsy & Meredith Cardall

Just for you, Honey!

Do you remember this visit to Avonlea Village?

Catch up day....

I think I've made about three or four pages since my last post, so today is "catch-up" day.

First we have a layout created for the Blast From the Past challenge. This is my parents 25th wedding anniversary. I remember this day so well. We had a huge gathering and we all went to The Town & Country, a very fancy dining establishment, for a buffet meal. That was the 'fashion' then. My sister bought my parents an automatic washer, new-fangled equipment back then. I thought she was rich! These photos are of my parents and their children and their spouses.

All of the products used were made available to Gotta Pixel members "free" on the Blog Train. Apparently, this is a monthly deal and, well, being a new member, I can tell you I'm already looking forward to next month's Blog Train. What a ride!



The next page was created for a Speed Scrap with Mammacole, more widely known as 'coliescorner'. What a fabulous designer she is, too!
Of course, this is Jackson and the photos were taken by his Auntie Tiffany using a fab camera, Canon Rebel, which takes great action shots as evidenced in the picture.


I used the kit "Zoomsters" created by Sara Ellis for this challenge.

The layout below was completed during yet another Speed Scrap, this time with Connie Prince. It is amazing to see how everyone will interpret the exact same set of directions and come up with so many amazing pages. If your're interested in seeing the gallery, click here.


Here I used the kit "Emily" by coliescorner.

And now, for the best of the lot. Here is a layout created by my DH, John. He watches me digi-scrap and he is, I think, jealous of my "skills", such as they are. Anyway, he asked me for glue, scissors and an eraser and to take his picture, over his right shoulder while he was holding the eraser. Further than that, he would not explain or elaborate. Here is his very first creation; congratulations, John, you are now a digi-scrapper.

Just messin' around

These instructions were posted on Gotta Pixel, just for fun, so I tried it.

To do this:

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

my article was entitle "town crier"

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

my quote was "I dote on his very absence" ~ William Shakespeare

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

the picture is of the town Baynac in the Dordonne Region of France -- this town was used in the filming of Chocolat

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Here is my album cover:

Speed Scrap with Connie Prince @ Gotta Pixel

These are so much fun. Tonight I used the kit Life Is A Beautiful Thing by Connie Prince. I had to use the alpha for the word "FAR" from Connie's Starcastic kit, but it all works.

This is for Clare

How do you like your furbabies immortalized in a digi-scrapbook page?

Kit:
Silence I Can't Ignore by Bella Gypsy

Here are more pages from challenges.

Kit is Panda-monium by Connie Prince.

Sidda makes a great subject for a digital scrapbook page.


Kit is Winter Days by Connie Prince and the cluster is a freebie by I. Mendez.

A couple of new creations!

This is for the Nov '09 Brag Book Challenge at Gotta Pixel. All participants make one page, 6" x 4", send them to Sara Ellis as .png files. Sara will then place all the pages in one spot and the participants will be able to go and download all the pages and fill them with their own photos. Fabulous idea. The kit we used was a freebie designed by Sara Ellis and it coordinates perfectly with I Love Cor-DUH-roy kit, a collaborative effort by Sara and Connie Prince. You can see it here.

Completed a Speed Scrap hosted by "colie" last night. Some speed scrap that was; I changed my mind four....count 'em....four times before I was happy with the papers, elements and alpha. And that was within the hour we were receiving instructions. It was terrific and totally adrenalin=charging! The kit I ended up using was Ladybug Love by CDR. I'm sorry I can't link to it, but it's no longer available in the store at Gotta Pixel.

Birthday Pics

Birthday Pictures & OOB Technique

I'm sure you get 'birthday pictures' but are probably wondering what the heck is OOB. It is an acronym, of course, for 'out-of-bounds', also known as 'extraction'. You choose a part of a photograph and make it look like it's coming out of the frame, or off the page. I suppose it is similar to watching a movie in 3D, but this is a photo, not a movie. Okay, enough of the explanation. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.


Here we have Ava trying to share a half-eaten cracker with Grandma. Such a sweetie, but I think I only pretended to take a bite. When I remember the supplies I used to create this layout, I'll come back to edit the post and give proper credits.

Next is a picture of Ava's first birthday party. It was November 14th and there were loads of people wishing her well.


Is this picture worth a thousand words? I hope so because I don't know what to say about it.
I used several different kits for this layout. They are as follows: the background paper is from Time To Bed. The party hat and present are from coliescorner BdayBBExhange, the balloons and cupcakes are from Doohickey Designs Birthday Brag Mini, the candle is from Kathryn Estry GP Nov Brag Book and the glitter behind candle is from SDS BdBB.

And, finally, here is a LO created for a challenge using a one-word title.


The kit is a collaborative kit entitled "Life is Grand" by Kathryn Estry, Kristmess, Sara Meyer and She's Full of Scrap.

Truth or Dare!

Ever done a Truth or Dare game? Well I did my first one last night at Gotta Pixel in the Chat room. I laughed so much my sides ache. We were asked a question, eg. "what colour to you hate to scrap with?". My answer was 'purple'. Then we were challenged to complete a layout using your 'hated' colour and your favourite colour....and on and on it went for over an hour. The upshot is that there were seven questions and we have until 9:00 p.m. EST on Friday the 13th to complete them and upload them to Gotta Pixel.....I've completed two so far and I'm exhausted, but here they are.

Here are the Dares: (I will add the layouts to this post as I complete them)

Dare 1: Scrap a layout using 10 of your HAVE to have elements.



Kit is Panda-monium by Connie Prince.

Dare 2: Scrap a layout about your 5 favorite things right now.

Dare 3: Scrap a layout with ONLY your hated color and your favorite color


The kit I used is I'm Not a Lion by Connie Prince -- go check it out.

Dare 4: Scrap the only thing you have always wanted to try, but yet to do


The kit is "Wonky Winter" by Sara Ellis

Dare 5: Scrap a layout for the album (type photos) you are most behind on

Dare 6: Scrap a story telling layout about your funniest moment caught on camera


This is a mini-kit Southern Sunday by Julie Marie. I can't direct you to the kit because it's only available to Pixel Club members. Sorry.

Dare 7: Take your Guilty Pleasure Movie, and draw inspiration from it to scrap. Whether about your love for the movie, or use a line for journaling for it.

Midnight Speed Scrap Results!!

Those folks at Gotta Pixel are craaazzy! They do speed scraps at midnight! Well, at least it was midnight where I live, but I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of digi-scrappers for whom midnight EST is a perfectly acceptable hour in their time zone. Anyway, when I woke up this morning and visited Gotta Pixel, I see that we were allowed until 11:59 a.m. today to post our layouts. That was all I needed. I went for it and here is my layout for the Speed Scrap with Sara Ellis that actually happened at midnight for some, early morning for me. Thanks, Sara, for allowing us that time to post. I appreciate it very much.



This is a sting-ray that loved to be photographed. It was taken at the aquariam that is just outside The Cheesecake Factory at the Shops at the Forum which is located at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. While waiting for our table to be readied, I was mesmerized by the fish in the aquarium and amazed that this sting-ray just stayed up against the glass. He appeared to be watching US take pictures of HIM!

Credits:
Harborlights by coliescorner (papers & most elements)
Fishy by Heather T. (splotch)
Christmascheer by Connie Prince (alpha)
Panda-monium by Connie Prince (string)
SBM CutecakesBB by Sara Meyer (staples)

Happy Birthday, Ava

This beautiful little girl is my granddaughter and she is one year old today! It's been an amazing journey watching her grow and get to know the world around her. Ava won't actually get this card until her birthday party on Saturday, but I hope her Daddy or Mommy will show it to her sometime today. Have a happy, happy birthday today, sweetheart.

Kit:
Princess Mini by Nikki Scott

A Perfect Pair

Don't you just love to see brothers playing happily? As their Grandma, I'm curious to know how long this lasted. Now that they are in a bigger house there is a lot more room for them to chase each other around and I'll bet they're having a ball.

Kit:
Perfect Pear by Connie Prince

Grab Bag Challenge @ Gotta Pixel

I had never done one of these challenges before. Here is the criteria for this challenge:

Gotta Pixel is turning 4, and what says birthday more than cake and ice cream? To carry the “four” theme even further, you’ll have 4 choices in each of 4 categories! Pick one in each category.

So, grab a flavor of cake here:
Chocolate
Marble - my choice
White
Yellow

Now, grab the frosting:
Chocolate Buttercream
Chocolate Ganache - my choice
Fluffy White
Vanilla Buttercream

Now, the finishing touch. What flavor of ice cream?
Chocolate
Neopolitan
Strawberry - my choice
Vanilla

Oh, almost forgot. Everyone gets 4 candles for the cake.
What color do you want them to be?
Blue
Red
White
Yellow - my choice

These translated into the following requirements:


Marble - my choice - use a sticker(s)
Chocolate Ganache - my choice - use a postage stamp(s)
Strawberry - my choice - use 2 fonts and an alpha
Yellow - my choice - use something yellow and/or gold

...then add four more elements of my own choosing:
Heart Locket
Hanger for heart locket
Flourish
Green Ribbon Wrap

Kit(s):
Life is Grand - Kathryn Estry, Kmess & others
Alpha - PDUmbrella by lliella
Fonts - Basic Font, Adorable

Gotta Pixel Challenges

Here's a layout for the November Blueprints Challenge at Gotta Pixel. As a member of the Pixel Club, I can download current and past kits and, because I don't have much Christmas style kits, I did just that.

Auntie Tiffany took Jack to a class/group to make a gingerbread house last year. Look at the expression of effort on his sweet little face. He must have worked so hard, but I bet Auntie Tiffany helped him out quite a bit.

Kit:
Season's Greetings by Sweet Digi Scraps (SDS)

This layout was created during a Speed Scrap with Sara Ellis, also at Gotta Pixel. They really do have some neat challenges and different from other sites I've seen. It's Gotta Pixel's 4th birthday this month and the theme of this speed scrap was, naturally, birthdays. Here's Jack on his 1st birthday.

Kit:
Topsy Turvier by Bella Gypsy Designs

What to do when your ISP has trouble?

Why, digi-scrapping of course! Yesterday (Sunday) I was going crazy checking my PC every 10 minutes to see if I could get online yet. No joy for the entire day. You all know it was the first day of a new month and that means CHALLENGES! I was suffering severe withdrawal symptons like a junkie, I'm sure. (I actually have no first-hand knowledge of this, just what I see on TV and thank goodness for that, I say.) Anyway, I produced three, count 'em, three layouts while waiting.

First up is a Scraplift Challenge from Gotta Pixel. It was the words "Live, Love, Laugh" that we needed to use on the layout. My DH, John, isn't thrilled with his picture, but you know what, I love it. It just seems to sum up his fun-filled personality. We have some great laughs together and I actually depend on that. Eureka moment, here!

Kit(s):
Silly Snowman Gang by Kathryn Estry

Then it was a Mini-Madness challenge at Inspiration Lane. When a designer creates a kit that makes you remember fond memories, they've done their job to perfection. This kit did it for me, making me remember good stuff even though the situation was difficult for many.

Kit(s):
Winter Blanket by Christie Lemon Designs (CLD)

And, finally, the Surprise Challenge at Elemental Scraps. The 'surprise' was to create a monochromatic layout in blacks, greys, creams or browns. I chose a brown/cream colour scheme using black and white photos.

Products:
Template: Sketchology - Word Salad #1 by Bella Gypsy
Papers:
Simply Solids, BSPP Tornworn by Sherri Tierney
Special Edition by BZB Designs

Not a bad day's work, I guess. Maybe if I applied the same efforts to housekeeping, I'd be a star!