True Colors

I took this photo with my digital camera from my front porch. I really didn't expect it to turn out at all much less scrap worthy. The transparencies don't look near this obvious IRL but I'm still thinking I might replace them with rubons if I can find the right style and size letters.

Grace loves to play restaurant so I made her a name badge and got her a sales book to take orders. She gives us a new name every night depending what I fix for dinner and makes announcements to our customers. One night we were "Gravy's". She cracks me up.

I scrapped THREE layouts today

Wowza, I got on a roll and couldn't get off. LOL! Here are today's pages.

Some of the pictures from Olivia's visit with us last summer. Sketch was inspired by a layout in last year's Scrapbooks Etc. Made in Minutes.



















Olivia LOVES to paint. She calls herself an artist not a painter. Here she is creating some of her masterpieces last summer.



















Grace wearing grampa's fishing hat (it says Grandpa's Bait Shop) before one of their fishing trips last fall.

Oh My Gosh - I Caught One!

Gracie's first fish on her own purple fishing pole. She had a blast fishing till she actually landed one. When the fish flopped she flew outta there so fast I almost didn't get her in the picture!

I scrapped my Wishblade!

Ironicly, I didn't even use the Wishblade on this layout! LOL.

Dream Come True -

Journaling reads:
Never in a million years did I think I’d ever be the proud owner of one of these little gems when they first came on the market a couple of years ago for $500-600. No way was that big a purchase ever going to be within my scrapping budget. And it still isn’t.

When Shop at Home TV went out of business they had a liquidation sale on their website. As some items sold out they’d add more here and there over a period of several days. I checked the website periodically thinking I might get lucky and pick up a few punches or stamps and giving no thought at all to snagging a die cutting machine as I was not even in the market for one. I’m perfectly happy with my QuicKutz Black Squeeze and growing collection of alphabet die sets.

One day, however, someone posted on the message board that SAH had listed the Wishblade in their liquidation inventory. I hopped over there without a second thought, put one in my shopping cart, supplied my credit card info and clicked submit. I nearly broke out in a cold sweat when I realized I had just purchased a Wishblade….and for $240!! It was a dream come true.

Oh my gosh, I have a Wishblade!!!!

Seattle Waterfront

I've been meaning to scrap these photos since the first day I started scrapping over 4 years ago. As you can see, the colors are beginning to fade. Though they weren't the best of pics to begin with, even then I knew I needed panoramic photos of this view. (The photos across the top of the two pages line up to form one long image.) I used the retro squares paper to mimic the highs and lows of the skyline. This was the view in July 1991. Click on the pics to see larger images.

Journaling reads:
When the kids were still kids we used to drive the 30 minutes or so from home to Bremerton, leave the car for the day, and take the ferry to the Seattle waterfront at least a few times every summer. The route over was always so serine and I love the view of the waterfront from the ferry as we pulled up to dock in Seattle.

We’d have lunch of Ivar’s famous clam chowder at Ivar’s Fish Bar on the water and browse all the shops. Our favorites were the import market and the Olde Curiosity Shoppe. And sometimes we’d walk up the hundreds of stairs (ok, it seemed like hundreds) to The Public Market at Pike Place. Watching the guys toss fish was always fun, the aromas from the tea and coffee shops were always intriguing, and the sights and sounds were captivating. The kids loved the brass pig and the costumed characters outside the café luring in customers, but I think I miss riding the ferry most of all.

Lake Roosevelt

I used the journaling for a pocket and tucked in the remaining 12 pictures I took at the cabin. For the title, I used QK Studio Classic dies and cut the letters from the trim pieces I cut from the small photos of Grace on the beach. The panorama photo across the top is actually two photos I took side by side then matched them up to make a 12" photo.

Journaling reads:

March 2006
Randy was called to do some repair work on a cabin at Lake Roosevelt to ready it for the owners to put on the market. Cabin?? Ha!! It was bigger than our house. Grace was staying with us at the time and since Randy expected it would be an overnight job, it was decided we would all go. I was glad to get away for a mini-vacation. Grace was excited about "going to vacation" and must have asked a dozen times if we were at vacation yet. She still calls the cabin "vacation."

We no sooner unpacked the truck when at least ten deer come wandering through the yard. Joey scared them off before I could get pictures. The overnight job turned into 4 days and 3 nights. I was glad I packed some things in my scrap bag. Grace and I made cards in the evenings when it was too dark to be outside. We had a beautiful view of the lake from the dining room where we used the table for our scrap area. Our second day there it got very cold and then it snowed. And snowed. It was beautiful! The next day we took the bubble gun to the beach and Grace blew bubbles while Joey played on the sand.

Randy worked most of the time we were there, but was still able to enjoy the change of scenery. It was a fun little mini-vacation and the cabin sold the day after we got home.

Princess

Took this picture last summer when Olivia stayed with us. I can't get over how pretty she is. Sally is really going to have her hands full when her beautiful little girls grow up to be beautiful young women! Journaling reads: Playing dress-up at grama's house, Aug. 2005


Yesterday's page. The flower stickers have glitter on them which isn't showing in the scan. The largest ones are mounted on foam tape for a 3D effect. Journaling reads: making cookies with regular grama; adding the chocolate chips; I had fun at grama's house; summer vacation 2005

My Silly Girls

Only the second layout I've ever done of my daughters. Here they are making silly smiles for the camera. The picture was taken at Sally's baby shower for Mila two years ago. Love all the colors in Cyndi's sweater. Made it easy to choose papers for this layout. The ribbons are actually fabric strips. On the right of the photo the fabric ties are attached with staple bars using the fastenator. The bars read, sweet, smile, and fun. The corners of the layout are rounded, but have all been shaved off in the scan.

Cyndi, btw, is Grace and Jeffery's mom. Sally is mom to Olivia, Mila and Feliciano.

Dream

Took this picture last summer when Olivia stayed with us for the first time. I think this old grama wore her out! Poor Olivia was exhausted and conked out while still wearing her apron after we made cookies.

Gracie's New Pjs

Hand drawn doodles as well as the stitching around 3 sides of the pink (scanner shaved off the bottom, sorry). Title is QK Studio Classic; flowers I drew and cut freehand as I had no pattern or dies; doodling on the flowers was inspired by a layout I saw in a mag, but for the life of me I can't find the magazine I saw them in. Grace picked out the pink flannel princess fabric that I used to make her pj pants. She loves her new pjs, as if you can't tell by her pose in this pic. LOL On the chalkboard is a butterfly she drew. Click on the pic for a clearer image and I think you can see her toenails are painted red. She loves having her toes painted.

UPDATE: You can now see this layout in the Making Memories gallery!! http://www.makingmemories.com/ideas/image_gallery.cfm

BLUE eyes

Jeffery at 5. (Now, he'll be 13 in January.) Isn't he cute?? The scan doesn't do justice to this photo. Layout sketch design is a scraplift from a magazine cover. Buttons and ribbons from WM, title cut with the WB, flower traced and cut by hand. It's too bad the scanner shaves off all the edges. I used the large corner rounder on this and it looks very cool.

Patrick Park

Typically, I don't do layouts with lots of pictures on them but these didn't cry for pages of their own so I put them all together. It was a fun page, but it took nearly all day! The title is Patrick Park, though it isn't visible in the scan. It is printed in large outline letters with the journaling printed over the top of it. (If you click the image for the full size view, then click again on the bottom right when you get the arrow box you can actually see it. LOL) I do like how this turned out, though I'm wondering if the flowers are out of place....? It needed something but I'm not sure the flowers are it. Oh well. I'm calling it done. TFL ;)

Lily

Day Lilies from my garden.

Quote reads:
Life is like a flower. It grows more beautiful the more you care for it.