I love these photos of Nate, he was sitting in the pram, (which is probably some of the last photos in it) we have now bought a stroller and he is just so independant, thank goodness for Coles at Riverlink, they have little kids trolleys, he runs around and puts heaps of things in it, but just wants to run around, so the confines of the big trolley are too restrictive too apparently.
In this layout Nate is eating the soup I made, I always tell him it is hot but of course he always has to check for himself, this occassion was no exception, but capturing this photo is precious to tell this story, priceless actually.
I bought Nate a money box from our bank, and he has so much fun adding money to it, I told him that once the monies were in there, they couldn't come out and this has worked so far, he actually in these photos got into my wallet and took out a $5 note and $14 in $1 & $2 coins and added them straight to his monies box, he just has no idea about it and it makes me laugh, he gets just as excited about a 5c coin that he does about a $2 coin. Wow I love these naive times and although I want him to continue to learn and grow, really wish these times right now could stay longer, he has just started watching dvd's and his talking is coming on strong and I just hope it doesn't go too quick.
I have been finding on nights when I have limited enthusiasm I just get out every embellishment (they are in 3 baskets) and just put the photos down and just add anything that I like, the page seems to come together quite quickly for me, there doesn't seem to be any particular colour scheme or limitations on anything I do this way and well, I love busy layouts as well as the opposite extreme the neat & tidy.
I love these photos of my escapee, a little too big to get under the gate these days (thank goodness) I actually stamped onto acetate and then painted underneath it to get the see through effect, and used my bird paper from Basic Grey, copied around a chipboard tree in PP that I got from Kat at The Scrappin Kats and then decided to journal inside it, then used my Pink Paislee alpha stickers. I cherish these memories, hard to believe he is already too big to escape, where has my fun gone.
We were at Sizzler for Uncle Craig's 39th birthday and he would reach for a smartie and go to put it in Nate's mouth then detour it into his own mouth and Nate was so cute he would look surprised, put his arms out and say "Gone", a fun game, Nate clapped his hands when a smartie made it to his mouth. He loves his Uncle Craig, used alot of scraps for this layout, the butterfly is a cutout from some Urban Lilly paper, some Basic Grey and MM paper also, concertina'd it, was happy with the result, got the design for the layout from my Simple scrapbooks magazine but am so dissappointed they are ceasing publication. That is my absolute favourite mag.
Well he loves to play dress ups, he is so cute, has a thing for hats, have about 10 pics of different things he puts on his head like a hat, this time one wasn't enough, although this time he is spidey, has to have the boots on also, I love everything about Nate at two, he is growing up just so fast and I treasure every moment, he is the best company ever and now he is saying mum all the time it is soooo gorgeous, It's 6.38am easter Sunday morning and the easter bunny has just been here and left him some eggs and some treasures, I have the camera by the bed so I can record his face when he sees his basket full and the Little People construction site beside it, when he went to bed we checked it with a torch and it was empty!!!These are the best times of my life, I love my little man. Oh, so many photos, so many layouts to complete, although I can feel the mojo starting to return, planned out two of Kat's sketches last night and was actually happy with what I did, finished off one of the Kit's also with those gorgeous Sassafrass Lass papers, had so much hand stitching on it, I just love doing it, but it takes soooo long. Playing around with my stamp of Tilda and the rabbit, it will be great for the easter layout, Jodie came over yesterday and Tracy came over on Wednesday and no scrapping was achieved either day, I have just been a little slack but with what I achieved last night combined with Jan coming over tonight and I just finished looking at the Gallery at The Kats I feel some Mojo returning. Gee the Design Team there is awesome and with Kel doing the cards now, suppose it inspires me to no end, it's raining here great day for scrapping too, better go an creep back to bed and wait for my bubba to awake and catch the expression. Hope you all have a fantastic Easter and Josey, sorry I didn't come down to Sydney this break, but I am so looking forward to coming when I have just a bit more notice, the spontanaity is all gone and I have Nate and 2 poodles to thank for that.
This is my favourite kind of page, 8.5" x 12", fits into the normal sleeves you buy at woolies and then just slips into my ringbinder as is, where you see black around the circles is actually hand stitching, so this took me hours to complete but I loved doing it, stitching is one of my favourite things to do on a layout, not sure why as I cannot sew to save myself, Nate is so amazing with his antics, so there will never be a shortage of crazy layouts in this house, I used Kat's new Gold Hero Arts Embossing powder on the letters, love love embossing, so much fun also, thank you so much Tracy for sharing with me the gorgeous ways I can use my powders.
I just love this photo of Nate and my old dog Maxi, they are great friends, here you see Nate in his new pjamas which come with that bright ball attached. At night if I do scrapbooking Nate gets the chair from his special table and chair set and brings it out and scraps with me, this involves getting a pair of scissors (yes you heard right) he is very profficient too, but this particular night he decided to cut open that bright ball and see what was inside, then after the mess is made and the damage done he walked over to me and said "dooonnnne" which is Nate's GONE. It was so funny, and that was the short life of the bright blue ball.
I am still not fully recovered after 7 days with a severe chest infection, it has really knocked me for a 6, so no new layouts to show, but this is an amazing quilted mat (I guess that is what you call it) I was totally blown away by these talented quilters at a church fete I went to. The Scrappin Kats challenge this month is to design a layout based on something we have seen or are ispired by, the challenge is from Ames, she is what I call my Australian Ali Edwards, she really gets us all thinking, I love it, I am going to use this amazing quilt somehow, and am going to combine fabric into my layout. Stay tuned.
This layout I did approx 12 months ago, thought I might start adding some of them as a indication to see if my style has changed. I am so inconsistant with my style though I go from limited embellishments and lots of photos, to filling the whole page with stuff so guess I just haven't defined my particular style as yet, I love it all ways.
My favourite scrap magazine is Creating Keepsakes, I have to admit for me some of my favourite pages are ones I have lifted from this magazine, usually Ali Edwards original designed ones, although I haven't been able to quite grasp her concept to use only a few photos (select the best) I have heaps of trouble with this so I try to scrap them all. But I still appreciate the inspiration I get from attempting to copy her layout, usually turns out nothing like the original which to me is a good thing. This layout was one of the ones with me holding the camera in front of me and just snapping away whilst we were being silly. I love these times, we both laugh and carry on like fools. Hope he remembers these times.
Isn't this the most awesome card, I actually see this as a layout, Kellie Winnell, a Stampin Up! Distributor, which is awfully dangerous, as they have the most awesome stuff, has become guest designer at two different locations, do yourself a favour if you want to be spellbound by her awesome cards, I first met her at my favourite scrapping site, The Scrappin Kats, and she is a great person as well as a very talented lady. This card is just one of the many gorgeous cards she has made (she could make me 10 kits to make these cards and I would buy them) she is just that talented). I wish she lived closer but I would love to have a few days of paper crafts with this lady. Anyway just wanted to showcase this as the nicest card I have ever seen......Big comment - but this is Me.
This is my good friend Jan, she conveniently lives 8 houses up the road and loves scrapbooking but makes cards also. We usually see her every day and she has a wonderful husband who Nate calls Uncle Col, they are very special people so alot of pages are dedicated to them, just to remind Nate when he gets bigger.
I did this double layout as a tribute to my beautiful top dog Maxi Taxi, we call him hoggy for short as he loves his food, he would rather try any food first and then if it doesn't appeal to him, he just spits it out, whereas his son Stanley sniffs the food first, predetermines whether he will like it or not. We much prefer this option. Max is 12 now, I have had him to the vet Friday as he has 2 big lumps the size of ping pong balls (well just a tad smaller) under his front and back leg, after $102.00 antibiotics and $57.00 non medicare (lol) consultation fee the verdict is they are fat lumps, so that is a relief to the system. (My system especially as he has been through 12 years of my life - good times and bad times) and I don't want to lose my most trustworthy, best friend.
I made this clock about 12 months ago for Nate's room, now it has to be put out of harms way, he always looks at it through the door of the cabinet that I have it in, he is not 100% at the moment, I can tell because he doesn't pester me to read 6,387,000 books at night when he goes to bed. lol. He is actually asleep in my arms as I am typing this, there is a big storm with heaps of wind and rain in this one, as long as it doesn't destroy anything, that is fine. Hope it reaches the dry parts of our Country as well.
This layout is from a challenge at The Scrappin Kats, we swapped our photos and did a layout for that person, I had Kris who is on the Design Team and I was feeling a bit out of my comfort zone but she loves it, and the comments from the gallery are all good so I feel great about it now. A beautiful photo made it easier to pick papers, once again I just used a bit of everything. In hindsight, I hope we do another one of these, nothing like accepting a challenge.
