Another sketch challenge

Well, I found another website called Sisterhood of Scrap and they have sketches there too. They had one this week that looked pretty easy and kind of fit in with my way of doing pages, so I thought that I would give it a try. So here is my take on their sketchhttp://www.sisterhoodofscrap.blogspot.com/

I did another page too that used some of the wild and colorful paper that I have received in my kits that I get from Scrapdango. As I said before, I have a difficult time doing pages with such vivid and bold colors, not to mention the big prints!! But this one was kind of fun, I suppose because it is of Amanda and her auntie and mommy being silly with her and her new baby bans sunglasses!!

This child already seems to have a great sense of humor and even though she isn't a year old yet, can ham it up for the camera when she wants to!!

Isn't she Cute?

With her little pink nose and pink cheeks, doesn't she just look sooooo very cute? Amanda got to try out her new jacket and hat the other day. I think that pink certainly is her color! I can hardly wait until she sees snow for the first time. She says "wow" quite clearly now whenever she looks at certain things and can imitate a cat's meow too. Do I sound like a proud grandma or what!!!!! I just have to scrapbook this photo but haven't decided on the title yet, any suggestions?

Halloween visitor

We don't get many trick or treaters out here on the acreage, only a few stop by. But this year we had one very special little visitor show up. Here is our little Amanda all dressed up in her penguin costume for her first Halloween. She was so cute! Unfortunately it was getting close to her bedtime and she was alittle tired. Grampa got a couple of smiles out of her though. I didn't catch them with the camera
but they were there!!

some more about the weekend

This one is for Jenn's album that I started years ago and then just sort of abandoned. I figured I should at least get their school photos done and into it. I think I have from grade 6 to 12 done but for some reason I didn't get the beginning years into the album. I will get right on that! I am not sure I like the letters on the side but they are going to stay. I need to keep the momentum going.

This photo has that orange tone to it that so many have that were taken in these years. I totally scraplifted this layout from Leica's blog. She had a photo of herself that had this orange look to it and she used the turquoise color with it and I thought it looked pretty good.

This photo is one from 1984, so you see I am going way back in my little pile of photos!!! I haven't even scratched the surface of pics that we took. I do have some scrapbooked but there are soooo many more. I think I will try to do some of the really old photos, like of my grandparents next. I just wanted to get the formal ones done and in an album. Looking at this layout as I write I am seeing that maybe I should have put that little pink flower down lower to follow the flow of flowers down the side of the page. Oh well, guess I can add another one down there, funny what you see after you look at something for awhile!!

So this is another one of the layouts that I got done. I put some scribbles glitter on and so had to lay it somewhere to dry, that was hard because we had lots of stuff on our table!! It went together fairly easily once I sat down and started.
So, those are the ones that I got finished at the crop. I started some other ones but couldn't put them together totally so will work on those this week sometime. I was so proud of myself, I used everything from my own stash. I went looking in the stores a few times but didn't buy anything, that's right....nothing. I convinced myself that I had enough stuff and I didn't need any more. They had some beautiful frames there that you could paint and decorate for home decor, along with huge letters, they were all cut out of MDF board. I looked at those for along time before I could convince myself that I didn't need them. I really wanted the Big Shot that Stampin Up had there, but I have a cuttlebug already, so I couldn't really justify getting it. And someone told me that you can put most of the dies through the cuttlebug so maybe will get the one that I like the most and try it and if it works, well, we will have to see what happens!!! so have a good week everyone, happy Halloween!

What a Great Weekend

I was at an all day crop on Saturday, hosted by the talented Leica Forrest. This was a precursor to the Crop and Cruise that she will be teaching on in 2009. I unfortunately won't be able to go on that cruise but if Sat. was any indication of the fun that they have on them, it should be a great time. I took Leica's layout class and these are the 3 layouts that we did. The paper is by Kaisercraft, an Austrailian company that she teaches for and this paper is brand new, it won't even be in Canada for 3-4 months!! Cool, eh?

I really like the Kaisercraft paper, but I am a swirls and flourishes lover, along with the flowers, I love the flowers. Anyway, I had a hard time focusing on Sat., I just couldn't get going, so I tried a make and take, maybe that would help. nope....so I tried making some cards at the Stampin Up booth (these ladies travelled all the way from Alberta!!!) Or maybe they just blew in!!LOL, joke about the wind on Sat, wow!! Anyway, that didn't help so by then it was lunch time, had to go and eat. Yummy salads, followed by cheesecake, and yes Julie, I forgot my camera, so there are no food shots!! I know you were wondering where the food shots were!!! Go over the April's blog, she has some!!!LOL Finally my daughter said, will you just sit down and DO something, anything!!!! So I tried for awhile, then it was time to start the classes that I had signed up for. One was by Trish Ladoucer(spelling???) with prima paintables, not finished that one so can't show it to you , maybe later, it was on canvases and with Glimmermist and masks. Then right after was the layout class by Leica. So I didn't get too much done. I am working on my older photos though and maybe that is what is stunting my mojo I don't know.

it's friday!

I have had alot of time to surf the web and check out a few new sites. Here is one that I found the other day, any of you card makers should check it out....... www.tayloredexpressions.blogspsot.com It's got some good ideas.

starting some of those older photos!

Okay, I am into some of the older photos, however, these are not taken by me!! These are some of the studio photos I had taken of the girls when they were growing up. This is number 1. I have been keeping my sore foot up and getting some scrapping done while also getting totally overwhelmed by the number of pics I have floating around in my scraproom!!! The first wave hit me and I had to just grab the top photo and leave the room!! There are so many pics in there. Not only my own but I inherited my mom's albums and shoeboxes after her death because I was the one who was"into" scrapbooking and other crafts. I did pull put out pics of my brothers and sister and I made each one of them albums of their pics that mom had. I did that quite a few years ago already. But there are soooo many more to go through. I had forgotten how many until I started going through them again today. Now I remember why I decided procrastination was a good option!!! However, I am again determined to try again. So here is a layout of Jenn when she was 17 months old. She is 27 now!!! I don't wait too long do I? The papers are from a kit from Noel Mignon. They are from Fancy Pants and Imaginice in the Madeleine Kit.

Not my regular style!

I must say that these pages are so not my regular style of scrapbooking! I am a very plain paper and few embellisments person. However, with subscribing to the kits from Scrapdango, I receive paper that really stretches my abilities to coordinate patterned paper. Lucky for me they have already put together coordinating colors, it is just a matter of putting them together in a pleasing fashion. I have used sketches from page maps for these pages, no idea which month they are from. I am really liking any of the sites that have sketches to try. I am really going to try and get some of my old photos scrapbooked, just the fact that I have sort of said this outloud publicly on this blog is going to be my much needed push (I hope anyway) to get started on this gigantic task!!! When I look at some of the really poor photos that I have I get alittle discouraged but I keep the thought that it is the memories that need to be written down and preserved. Well, I am off to the scrap room to see what I can get organized for the weekend.

card challenges

I decided that since I make most of the cards that I give away for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, etc, that maybe I should try some of the challenges on Splitcoaststampers to get ahead of the game and have a few extras lined up in my card box. So this past week I did just that. I have developed a tendonitis in my foot so have been trying to take it alittle more slow this last little while until I can actually get into a specialist and see what they have to say.

So here is 1 that I did and uploaded onto the scs website. The other thing that I did this last week that probably didn't do my foot any good because I was walking alot outside on uneven ground was empty out and clean up the fish pond. I had to drain it all, vacuum it out and refill it after catching all the fish (by net not pole!!) But my little buddies are all safely settled inside now for the winter. I seem to have lost afew of them over the summer, maybe to some hungry animals that live around here???? I have not fished any dead carcasses out of the pond so don't know where else they would have gone.

I tried to take some photos of the beautiful full moon the other night but I guess I need a tripod for nighttime pics. It sort of turned out but was pretty fuzzy because of the slow shutter speed. But on the other hand I have never been able to take night photos before so I was pretty excited even with the fuzziness. And this gives me something to put on my Christmas list that everybody says is usually non existant, mainly because I really don't need anything and my wants are all too expensive for my kids to afford!!!!! I will try and get some more scrapbook pages done this week. I have a Crop and Cruise to go this coming weekend so have to save something to do there!! I have so much trouble getting pages done at these things because I am usually too busy visiting and looking at everybody else's pages!! I am trying to be more organized that I usually am and only planning a certain number of pages to get done. I will try to have everything that I need only for thoses pages and not take my entire scraproom with me!!LOL It is a plan anyway!! Julie is inspiring me by doing her pages up year by year so I am going to start organizing my photos yet again and see if I can manage some pages from years gone by!

okay, I have discovered the world of sketches, well, I knew about pagemaps already but i have actively been looking for new sites of sketches to try. I discovered Pink Sketches from April and decided maybe I should try it and maybe submit it to the site. So my plan is to put it here first and then try to link it to their site. Wish me luck, I am new to trying this stuff http://pinksketches.typepad.com/ . So this is my take on their sketch #8

some more photos

obviously I have to learn more about adding photos to my blog and the writing about them, I can't seem to have them match up. Anyway, here are some more of the pics that I took of the leaves with the sun on them. I tried to get the glitter of the frost. I can see it on my screen when the pics are bigger so maybe it will show up on the actual blog. I will have to make a trip to my LSS to check out all the new papers that are coming in and see if there is any for fall foliage pics. If I am going to take all these photos I guess I should scrap some of them!!!

pretty fall colours

I was sitting in the kitchen, drinking my first cup of coffee and gazing out the window when it struck me that the sunlight of the sunrise was just beautiful on the remaining leaves of our apple tree, and since my blogging buddy Julie has told me to "just get out there and take pictures" in order to learn about my wonderful new camera I dashed out the door into the frosty morning in my housecoat to take some pics of the leaves on the tree, I changed the aperture and the shutter speed afew times, going by the light meter(just like you said Julie) and then I looked for some other things to take pics of. There's not much except trees and the way the light fell on them and with the frost glittering abit, I tried and few overexposed and underexposed just to see what it looked like. Here's a couple of the tries.

New Camera!!

I have been walking around my yard trying to find things to take pictures of with my brand new Canon EOS 40D SLR camera!!! Julie, you were so very correct in saying that it is great to have one of these cameras. I need alot of practise though, I will be taking many more walks around the countryside trying to get the hang of all the different settings. I spent most of Monday reading the instruction manual and then I had to work yesterday,sigh, so started out this morning wandering around looking for things close by to take pics of. Here are a couple of macro shots, with the auto settings on the camera, I haven't been brave enough (or smart enough) to try setting the manual stuff yet.

Amanda again

Amanda and Grandpa checking out bugs on the deck!
Doesn't she look like she understands everything that Grandpa is saying to her? She pays such close attention when you talk to her, it's like she's taking in everything you have to say about something.

so this is one of my really quick and simple pages, and i do alot of them!! I think the photo printing guys know me by name. I really should get one of those photo printers so I can just print them here at home as I need them! I tend to go and get a few done at a time. I have so many older photos to scrapbook, doing this way makes it less overwhelming to me. I have a few hundred photos on my computer but they aren't cluttering up my scraproom or looking for places to rest while I scrapbook the newer pics instead of catching up with my old ones. I admire you Julie, you are starting to do that. I keep up with our trips usually but other than that, I have fallen way far behind. I started scrapbooks for my 2 daughters years ago but I haven't really kept going with them either. I am probably the queen of procrastination when it comes to really big projects like that. And also, because I started them when I first started this hobby, I don't really like the pages that I did. Well, I am never totally satisfied with any of my pages but I am learning to just get it done, for the memories, not the artwork. I must go and get a few things done around here so that I can play this evening, DH isn't at home so I have the entire evening to myself and my scraproom. See ya.

some of my pages

Okay, here are some of the pages I have done with some of the many photos I have taken of my cutie pie. Don't ask me what company the paper is from, I know some of it is basic gray, some of it is from my stash, and alot of it is in the kits that I get from Scrapdango, an online kit company that I signed up for(like I need more paper!!) sigh. Sometimes I don't know what I'm thinking!!! The last page is a scraplift from Leica Forrest. And I think the middle one is a sketch that I saw on pagemaps. I don't usually scrap 1 photo to a page but I only had alittle bit of time yesterday so I took pics of these pages first. I will try and get some more done this week.

about the last post

Okay, I haven't quite got the hang of adding pictures yet. My comments didn't match up with the right photos, but I will learn! Just go with it for now. We had a great walk, I got some really nice pictures. Someday I will have a better camera to take pictures with, I am saving up for it and almost have enough money for the one I want! Have a great weekend everybody.

autumn walk

This is Amanda, she was excited to be going for a walk.

I decided that it was time to go for a walk along the riverbank yesterday and convinced my daughter and granddaughter to go with me. We started at the new riverlanding behind Persephone theatre and walked to the 25th street bridge and back. It was beautiful.

Starting something new for me

I never thought that I would start a blog, I am quite content to lurk in cyberspace and read everyone else's but a blogging friend said I should do this as yet another way to brag about my sweetheart of a granddaughter! Oh ya, and to show off some of the scrapbook pages I have made about her! So here you go Julie, I am officially blogging now!!! We will see where this goes.