Aunt Tee's Gang of Munchkins

These are my grand-nieces and -nephews. Lily is the oldest, then Bridget, then Michael (those 3 are brother and sisters), then Anastacia (their cousin), then Isaac (brother to Lily, Bridget, and Michael). I only get to see them a few times a year, but I love them all dearly and enjoy spending time with them.

This layout is the third in my series of color spectrum layouts, in which I have used the same set of patterned papers. The first two layouts are out for publication (yah me!) on Scrapbooking.com, and will be published online on July 1. I have placeholders for them here on my blog.

I really enjoy seeing how many ways I can use those sheets of paper. I don't know what made me think of this design, but it just came to me. I think we used to make these woven paper baskets when I was a kid, or maybe my kids did it when they were much younger???

I cut out the photos as silhouette shapes and used foam tape squares to adhere them to the design.

The base and the white woven part are Bazill cardstock, the papers are an assortment that I chose from my stash for their colors, and most of the embellishments are assorted things I had laying around. The blue gems are K & Company, and the rub-on letters are American Crafts Mini-Marks. The large black chipboard letters are from Colorbok - I painted them black with Ceramcoat black acrylic paint by Delta.

Thanks for stopping by!

Grandma's Gaggle

This is my Mom, my son Chris, and just a few of the gaggle of various sorts of ducks and geese that have made themselves my Mom's pets. When my Dad was sick with cancer, my Mom started going down to the pond everyday to feed the ducks and geese - that was her way to get away from the stress of caring for my Dad, if only for a few minutes. My Dad passed away a few months ago, but she still goes to the pond every evening around 5 pm, and her pets scurry over from wherever they are - most of them are usually there waiting for her arrival (or maybe the food's arrival).

I made this layout from my May kit from A Kiss On the Chic. It features October Afternoon papers, Bazzill cardstock, Thickers, Pink Paislee letters, and various other embellishments that came with the kit. The alphabets and the lacing string were the only things I used that were not in the kit.

Here are a few closeups of the details:







Thanks for stopping by!

Wheee! (redux)

Okay, so I just wasn't satisfied with the Wheee! layout the first go around, so I had to go back and fiddle with it a bit and add some things. I thought the big green title in the center of the page, with very little other green, just wasn't balanced. So I added some Heidi Swapp butterfly masks with the same green paint, and went back in with some stickles around the masked images and added some Stickle flourishes. I think it looks better now - still not my favorite, but I think the photo saves it! The photo is priceless!!!

Wheee!!!

I visited my family in Arkansas around Easter. One of my favorite things to do is spend time with my niece and nephews (who are all now adults), so now my Auntiness is directed toward my grand-nieces (11, 7, and 2.5) and -nephews (9, 3, and 6 months). They are all such adorable dolls!

This is Anastacia - she was a preemie, weighing only 1 lb 6 oz when she was born. She is now 2 1/2 years old and runs around like the Tasmanian Devil - wish I had just a fraction of that energy! My parents' house is across the street from the elementary school, so I took Anastacia and one of my grand-nephews, Michael, over to play on the playground after we had our Easter egg hunt. They both LOVED the slides, and I had a grand time shooting as many photos as I could, hoping a few would turn out well. This turned out to be my favorite of Anastacia! You just know she is having the best time ever!

I've had this package of Daisy D's papers for a while now, and thought this was the perfect opportunity to use up some of those bright, funky colors! I used Heidi Swapp alphabet masks and Pebbles Inc. paint for the title. Everything else is miscellaneous embellishments I had in my flower, button, and ribbon jars up on the shelf.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fairytale Princess

I got these fabulous My Mind's Eye papers (the Bella Bella collection) in a kit from A Kiss On the Chic last month, and finally got around to playing with them. Fell in love with the paper with the fairytales and things on it, so cut a piece out and highlighted it with some metallic watercolors I bought about a year ago and never used (now you know why I call myself a procrastinator)!

Found this photo of my daughter Michelle, who will be 24 years old this summer (yikes), and thought it was a perfect match for the papers and the colors. Of course, I have to say here how proud I am of my daughter - she is in medical school, just about to finish her second year. She has always been a hard worker and dedicated to whatever she sets her mind to. She is a wonderful young woman, and I know she will be a fantastic doctor and whatever else she decided to be in life. I knew she was something special even way back then 23 years ago when this photo was taken - she's laying on my waterbed, her favorite place to snooze!

The flowers are Prima, the "fairytale" letters are from DaisyD's, the "princess" letters are Cosmo Cricket rubons, but the papers and all other embellishments are from the kit. There is a link to AKOTC here on my blog under "Other Sites 2 Enjoy".

Here are a couple of closeups of the layout:





Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Simply Scrapping Blog Candy

Simply Scrapping's blog is offering some awesome blog candy. All you have to do is hop on over to the blog at http://simplyscrapping.blogspot.com/, leave a comment, link the blog to your blog (if you have one), and join the Simply Scrapping community! It's that simple, and doesn't cost you a thing! Judy has put together a fast-growing community of scrappers from all over the world who just want to have some fun, share ideas, and learn more about the craft. So come on over and have some fun, and maybe even win these awesome goodies from Glitz Design, Prima Flowers, Kaiser Gems, Bo Bunny, Pink Paislee, and Bazzill Cardstock!

But hurry, the blog candy ends on May 31st!

My Mom Through My Dad's Camera Lens

Happy National Scrapbooking Day! In an effort to work on not being a procrastinator, I decided to get busy and actually complete an entire layout in honr of the day, so here it is.

This is my Mom, Hazel. My dad took this photo in 1952, shortly before they got married. This is my favorite photo of her - she just looks so confident!

I had the half of the round paper left over from the layout I did of Brandy, so I got the idea to make a fan from it. Then I had these new K&Co Madeline papers and elements, so decided I need to go with a vintage look, and what better to go with a vintage look than a vintage photo? So that's how I came up with the idea. Then I just started arranging stuff around until I decided I liked it.

Everything is from K&Co except for the American Crafts round paper that the fan is made from, the flowers (which are all Prima), the ribbon, the Stickles, and the stamped image on the fan which is from Fancy Pants.







I think I might find a couple of stemmed flowers to put up in that top left corner with the tulle sticking out, but otherwise I am happy with my National Scrapbooking Day project.

Thanks for popping in!

My G(u)ARD(ia)EN Angel

Brandy was my little Pomeranian princess who died last August from just being too old. She was such a sweetie - she fought hard those last few months to stay with us, but the old age and heart problems finally got the best of her. If there was ever a dog who deserved to be in Heaven, it is certainly Brandy.

I took this photo May or June 2008 while we were having some renovations done on the house. Brandy hated all the noise they made, especially the nail guns, so she spent most of her days out back on the deck, lounging on the chaise in the shade. Of course, she waited until I wasn't looking, and everyday would sneak off down the street to inspect the neighbors' yards for invading critters. Brandy was my constant companion and I miss her terribly.

I had some new Crate Papers, and along with some Prima pearls, my Martha Stewart border punch, my set of Paper Shaper retro flower punches, and various flowers, bangles, buttons, and beads put together this layout. I also journaled around the outer edge of the layout with a white Uniball Signo broad pen - the edges of the green background paper were already distressed white, so the journaling blends in somewhat, but in person it is easily readable, but not obtrusive.

This is a closeup that shows the stitching and the little "angel" charm that I got in a kit from Laura over at A Kiss on the Chic - she puts together awesome kits, so you should check her blog out.



The white letters are Thickers, the letters spelling G(u)ARD(ia)EN are from sei, the glittery blue letters are from Making Memories, and the little crown is from Heidi Swapp, which I embellished with Turquoise and Crystal Stickles.

I started this layout yesterday and finished it this morning after I cleaned the downstairs of the house and chaffeured my son to a carwash and ate Burger King, so I am officially declaring this my "National Scrapbooking Day" layout. Maybe I'll be industrious and finish another project today in honor of the event.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.