I am the proud new Nanna to Jack William born on the 23rd of January at 9:31pm.  He is 20" long and weight 7lbs 1 oz.  It does my heart good that he was named after my father who passed away in January of 2012, but very sad that my father never got to see him.  I can't wait until June when I will be able to go back home to the US and see my new grand son.

Me & My Girls - Thankful For you

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to share another layout of my son and 3 Grand Daughter's picking apples back in October.  

"Me & My Girls - Thankful for you" scrapbook page created using We R Memory Keepers Designer Scrapbook Pad Autumn Splendor, Stickles, Cricut Cartridge "Stretch Your Imagination" for the Tree, Sizzix die for the apples, Bakers Twine, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Rub On Letters

Thank you for looking!

Noosa - Entry for Pagemaps Fancy Pants Love Notes Sketch Contest

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to add a project that I just completed for the www.pagemaps.blogspot.com.au Sketch Challenge "Fancy Pants Love Note".  The sketch that we were to use is:

My take on the sketch is below:

The products that I used were:

DCWV Paper Stack "The Endless Summer"

Jenny B Memory Makers 3D Stickers

SCAL for the Alphabet

Singer Sewing Machine

Stickles Picket Fence

Decorative Edge Scissors

Tim Holtz Rusty Hinge Distress Ink

These are photos of my grandson Flynn taken at the Beach at Noosa in November 2012.  He just looked so darn cute when he got "ready" for the beach I had to put it in a layout.

I used two sheets of the paper stack and cut flowers out of the second sheet to pop up on the bottom layer.  Some of the leaves and swirls on the bottom sheet, I cut around them so that I could slip the matted photo under them.  I used stickles on the title.  I used my sewing machine and the vine with leaves stitch to stitch the circle around the photos and paper strips and then distressed the stitches with Tim Holtz Rusty Hinge distress ink

Thank you for looking.

Handmade Shadow Box

I wanted to share another project I finished in December.  This is a shadow box of my son and daughter-in-law with their 3rd baby girl Suri.  I did not have a shadow box and could not find one locally so I took a wooden frame that I had and then decided how many sections I wanted in it and then I glued a piece of chipboard to the back and drew out the sections I wanted on a piece of paper and then transferred the frame sections to cardboard so that it would be all one piece - I didn't want to cut strips and piece them together - I wanted the divider to be all one piece so I would not have to worry about seams.  I cut several of the strip dividers out of corrugated cardboard and glued them on top of each other to get the height I wanted and because the cardboard had the corrugation inside, when I was gluing them on top of each other I "smushed" some sections lower than others to give it a rather uneven look.  I decoupaged Collections Elements Tissue paper inside of the sections and then added some Tim Holtz tissue tape to the divider sections.  The heart in the top left corner I stamped with a Stampin' up stamp (don't remember the name of it) on tracing paper and then just added touches of color with Tim Holtz distress markers and then covered the top of it with glossy accents.  I took a piece of wire, wound it around a pencil several times to make a spiral and then attached a "love" charm and another dragonfly wing charm to it.  One of the butterflies sits on top of a button that I melted gold and silver embossing powder onto it.  Another butterfly sits on a piece of air dry clay that I also melted gold embossing powder on.  The Lock and key were brass colored and I wanted it to be silver and old and rusty looking so I painted them with silver paint and then melted silver embossing powder on them and when the heat was applied, the powder melted and the paint bubbled and then I distressed them with "Rusty Hinge" distress ink to give them a rusty appearance.  The half moon fan shape behind the lock and key was made from the Sizzix decorative strip die Mini Paper Rosettes and I just cut a portion of it off and glued it in a fan shape to the edge of the opening.  I also made the flower in the bottom right hand corner with that same die.  For the center of the flower, I also used a metal brad and heated it then dipped it in silver embossing power then spritzed it and the flower with glimmer mist Burnt Red and Haunted shadow.  The smaller photos were printed in black and white and I adhered them to the back of the frame with a couple of layers of cheesecloth behind them and then I printed words on a transparency sheet and glued it over the opening of both of the smaller photos.

Thanks For looking!

Halloween in Wonderland paper by Graphic 45

Hi Everyone,

I haven't had a chance to post anything recently as I have been cross stitching a baby blanket for my new grandson due the end of January.  I will post a photo of the blanket when I finish.  I do have the cross stitching finished but I just need to wait to add name and birth information before I add batting and backing to it.

Here is a project I finished in November that I am going to give to my son.  He was born on Halloween so that holiday has always been special in our house and he also has always loved Alice in Wonderland, even now as an adult.  Sooooo - I had the Graphic 45 Paper line Called Halloween in Wonderland and had been saving it trying to decide what I wanted to do with it and this is what I came up with.

This box was a Kaisercraft storage unit that I have had for quite some time and I decided that was what I would decorate for my son.  The box came flat packed so I glued the box together and then I painted everything black.  I then sanded around the edges in places where it would get worn if it was in constant use and then added Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink to those sanded parts.  I fussy cut pieces out of the Graphic 45 paper, glued them onto several layers of very thin chipboard and cut around them and decoupaged them onto the drawer fronts.  On the top and bottom drawers I added some die cut pieces and then dry brushed over them with cream colored paint.  Then I sprayed a matt finish varnish over the whole piece.

Thank you for looking.