My Granny May

This is my dear Granny May. She stood little more than 4.2 feet and I loved her dearly. I will always remember the smell of her home and all the little ziplock baggies she use to keep all her jewellry and journals safely organized in. I'm sure this is where I got my organizational skills! I really am beginning to scrap different kinds of photos ever since we started the So You Think You Can Scrap (SYTYCS) challenges over at Scrapaholics. I use to only ever scrap my daughter and immediate family events but I'm really enjoying pulling out my old photos and trying new things. I really need to journal more though. Afterall, documenting our family history is not only about preserving our photos but also journalling our story so that our future generations can really enjoy their ancestry and the stories we all have to share about the people we love. This is my gift to my daughter. A gift I know she will cherish when she is older and one I'm sure she will love sharing with her family.

SYTYCS Challenges 5 & 6

Over at Scrapaholics we are on to Challenge #7 already. Boy does time ever fly! I'm really hoping we'll do another series! For Challenge #5 we were to create a Monochromatic layout about ourselves, guess what colour I chose? lol And, for #6, we were to use a song title or lyrics from a song as our page title and we were not to use any patterned paper. I was inspired by Rod Stewart's song Forever Young. Ya.....sometimes I do feel old and it's my goal to stay forever young, at least in spirit! I pulled out my stamps and thread and went to town. I'm just loving these challenges as they are forcing me to dig out some old photos and scrap them and use some new tecniques. I've now started a book about me which I'm sure my daughter will really appreciate when she's older.

Photography

I have always loved the art of photography. I'm saving my pennies for a new SLR camera and am dying to take a photography course to learn how to use all the amazing features these cameras are capable of. Right now I have a little Canon point and shoot and it serves me well....for now. Lately I've been trying to look at things just a little differently and last night when we were at my sister in law's for Thanksgiving dinner I was inspired to take some photographs of her home. She has a lovely home and a real eye for design. I've started a new little slide show to the right of my blog where I'm going to post some of my more "artistic" photos. I think I'll be carrying my camera around with me a lot more now, which is a good thing!

Pageframes

One of the most exciting classes I took at Crop 4 Kids was Sonja McLean's Isn't She Lovely sponsored by Pageframe Design, Pick-of-the-Patch and Purple Onion Designs. I'd never used Acrylic in my scrapbooking before and this was a fabulous class to introduce it! Sonja designed the most beautiful layout that I now have hanging in our master bedroom.

I've been wanting to try to make an acrylic album for a long time so I bought my first one at Crop 4 Kids and I'm dying to play with it now. Ater seeing the beautiful cards that Izzy made in Sonja's Fanciful Flowers class using more Pageframes, I just had to purchase some myself. I haven't had a chance to make anything with them but I will be sure to post some photos when I do. I have so many fun projects that I want to work on, I just need to find the time! I'm still waiting for Izzy to tell me where I can get one of those booster packs!

Jo has invited Sonja to come teach an acrylic album class at our January crop and I am soooo excited! I hope it snows this year so I can take some great photos!

Week 3 Challenge at Scrapaholics

Here's my interpretation of the Romantic Style. We were to incorporate some of the following: lace, buttons, stitching/embroidery, cork, aging/antiquing of paper elements, old objects (letters, keys, lockets, etc.) I had SO much fun pulling this one together! I gathered all my vintage supplies and created some of my own like the little microscope slide with the key. I have always wanted to make one of these and bought the supplies a longgggg time ago but never had the inspiration to use them. This was the perfect opportunity! I think this is one of my most favourite layouts I've ever done!

More LOs from Debbie's Class

Here are the two other layouts I made from Debbie's design Feels Like Fall, sponsored by www.ScrapbookingFanatics.com This is the one I was talking about having so much fun ripping, tearing, crumpling and distressing the beautiful papers in her kit. This really adds dimension and texture and I know I'll be using this technique often! Thanks again Debbie for such great kits! I had a fabulous time and learned a lot!

My Layouts Album

I'm in the process up uploading my layouts to an album in my sidebar. Bear with me as I try to figure out how to widen my margins so that the whole layout shows in the previews. Thanks!

Two More Layouts From Debbie's Class

Here are the other two layouts that I did with the kit that Debbie Visser put together for one of her classes at C4K. This was an awesome kit as we made 3 layouts and still have lots left over to make at least one more. She sent us home with a sample layout which I will get to one of these days. I've added it to my Scrap Do List!