Phuket - part 1

This month - through my husband's work - we had an incredible opportunity: to go to Thailand. So off we went, left on a Sunday, flew back on the next Sunday. 3 planes each way, 7 hours time difference, jet lag that kept us awake when we should be sleeping and sleepy when we should be enjoying ourselves. And it was worth it,  the holiday of a lifetime.

Parties, tours, an amazing hotel, everything was taken care of and we only had to decide what we wanted to do. If we left to the children, we would have spend every minute either in the beach or in the most beautiful swimming pool I'd ever seen. But we managed to squeeze a bit of sightseeing too.

I still have to take a photo of the album I made, but here's a separate scrapbooking page I made, about one of our favourite memories, lighting lanterns on the beach. Hundreds in the air, an amazing sight!

* Cardstock: Bazzill
* Patterned Paper: Basic Grey
* Mist: Studio Calico
* Pen: Uniball Signo
*Punch: Fiskars
*Other: sequins
*Photo by Markus Perkins Photography

The children got souvenirs for their friends, little doll keyrings for the girls, wooden elephant keyrings for the boys. There were a few doll keyrings left and that was I did with them:

Sadly I didn't bring anything written in Thai, the only thing in Thai I had was a litle leaflet I got in the airport, and I used it for the background.
The frame is from IKEA.

Isn't good when...

...when you manage to combine a few good things in one single project?

Like helping to organise her stuff, use old photographs and also contributing a little bit to an appeal? And everything done very quickly?

Well, I was doing my regular tidying-my-children's-bedroom, mumbling why can't they be more tidy, bla bla bla, when it ocurred to me that my daughter usually keeps her bedroom very tidy,that is her bed, the floor and her desk. It is inside the wardrobe that is the problem. So, maybe if I put some labels on where to put what, it would help her to know where things go?

I wanted something pretty - that's when I remembered something I saw in this appeal. I'd bought the quotes kit initially, but now I thought I needed the frames:

And with that, I went to my box of unused photos (test photos, surplus photos that didn't make to the album) and found a few of my daughter's.
I resized the frame to fit the photos, labelled them and printed them out. Then cut around and inside them, put the photos inside, added a bit of cardboard to the back to make it sturdy. And they're done!

I've attached magnetic strips on the back - the ones that were to label tin boxes. And just glued  the one that were to label plastic boxes.

As my son would say, easy peasy lemon squeezy!

My daughter's first communion and Sept 2010 summary

I had already made a layout about my daughter's First Communion. That time I had used a photo that I had taken. The second version uses the official photography, which is no doubt much better technically and also a much better composed photography. But I thought it was too formal for my scrapbooking style.

But finally I decided to used it - adding a bit of vintage-style to my normal page...

* Cardstock: Bazzill
* Die cut: Ki Memories
* Frame: Sassafras (white)
* Flower: Prima Marketing
* Butterflies: Making Memories
* Ribbon: Prima Marketing (from packaging)
* Pearls: Kaiser
* Also: blue frame, date stamp, tissue paper

Since I don't do vintage, I had to adapt my existing stash to suit. Both the lacy die cut and the frame are back to front. The die cut is pink on the right side and the frame has a wood pattern. The blue are flower petals that I took apart and the ribbon was stolen from its original packaging.

And here's my September 2010 summary.

* Cardstock: Bazzill
*Patterned Paper: Studio Calico
*Border Sticker: Crate Paper
*Journaling Tag: Paislee Press and One Little Bird

A significant birthday and January 2011 summary

 My husband's birthday was last week. We celebrated twice - on the day with the children and my mother in law. Saturday, my husband invited a few of our friends to one of our favourite restaurants. Great food, even better company and no washing up. Perfect!

I am so late with Project 12 that I decided to skip a few months get straight into January 2011.  The idea of Project 12 is simple, one scrapbook page (or double page), per month. Davinie Fiero started on her blog and brought the idea with her to Scrapbook & Cards Today. There's sketch that you might use or not.  I really liked the January sketch and thought it would fit the photos I wanted to use.

*Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (map) Making Memories (text), Studio Calico (city name circles)
*Stickers: Making Memories (journaling tag), Jenni Bowlin Studios (letters)
*Ink: Colorbox
*Mist: Studio Calico
*Font: Underwood Champion
*Other: Thread

This is the original sketch, by Becky Fleck, as seen in the original post:

I squeezed the original two pages into a single one - I am surprised how well it worked.

Between our holidays and my husband business trips, there were a lot of travel last month. Rio, Miami and Madrid. I went looking for a Studio Calico paper scrap with city names and discovered that both Rio and Madrid were feature, as well as our city of Dublin. It left me wondering  if Miami was originally there. Anyway, I settled for Paris - we were technically there, was it was a stop over on our flight to Brazil.
TFL!

My girl - her dress and the snow

It's over a year since I promissed my daughter that she could get her Irish Dancing dress. We asked her teacher, but she was unable to get a good second hand one her size, but finally the time came last year. It was a bit bitter sweet. Sweet because she got to wear it for the first time when her friends also got theirs. Bitter because she's having a break from Irish dancing after almost 5 year.




It wasn't her choice, it was mine. I felt that she was under pressure, between school, flu, playdates and the likes and decided that a break from extra-school activities would be good for her. But I am sure she'll go back after a while.

It is busy layout for a simple scrapper like me, but I think it suits the theme.

 I wanted 3 standard size (6x4) photos in a 8.5x11 format - I layered the photos so that you can see there's more photos.

*Patterned Paper: Studio Calico (red), Sassafras (cream/yellow), Making Memories (stripes)

*Sticker: Crate Paper (lacy border), Jenni Bowlin(letters)

*Stamps: Studio Calico

*Ink: Colorbox

*Font: Little Days

The next one is my DT entry for Shimelle digital kits in 2peas.

* Digital Template: Pretty  Paper Basics by Shimelle Laine @ Two Peas in a Bucket
* Font:  Stencil and Adler

Liebster Blog award

 Jackie is one of the most creative cardmakers I know, besides being a truly generous and charming person. She awarded me this:

 

The idea behind this award is to give it to people whose talent you admire but feel they do not get the recognition  they deserve, 

so please do not award this to anyone with say 1,000 followers.

If you have been TAGGED and would like to take part, all you have to do is post the blog award above on your blog and link the person who gave you the award ( also let them know you are accepting the award by posting on their blog ).

Then you can choose 3-5 people who you think deserve the award and post their name and blog links on your blog.

 

 Here's my choice:

 

Wendy http://wendymade.blogspot.com/

Trinh http://cardediem.com/

Khalinne http://lesrecresdekhalinne.blogspot.com/

Sabrina http://mymiscellany-cook22.blogspot.com/ 

Mandy http://crafty-angel.blogspot.com/

Go and check them blogs, they're beautiful!

Thanks Jackie, you made my day!

Star Reader and December summary

My son always loved books and now he's starting to read by himself. I knew he'd learn fast, because he showed an interest in the written words very early.

He loves Mr. Men books, so I got him a Christmas themed one in a booksale at my children's school. And one weekend morning, just before Christmas, he woke up, sat in our bed and started diligently reading the book. Slowing, getting some words right, struggling with others. And how cool it is, he was wearing Mr Men PJ!

While I sometimes make busier and "lumpier" layouts, the simple ones are the ones that I like most. Like this one.

I stitched at  the top and bottom of the photo, it is hard so see in the photo, but it added a little something to the layout.

*Patterned paper: Making Memories
*Letter stickers: Sassafras (yellow), October Afternoon (small/cream)
*Chipboard: Heidi Swapp
*Journaling tag: Ali Edwards @ Designer Digitals
*Font:  Underwood Champion

Recently Dulce Silva, another Brazilian expat, posted this layout in the Studio Calico gallery. I was amazed how similar it is with the layout above. They both  are 8.5x11, with a large photo going all the width of the layout, papers strips at the top & bottom and 3 stars.

And Project 12/ December 2010. I really don't want to give in this project - i have to get my act together, I am missing 3 months in 2010...

A photo-less layout. Copied the idea from something that Ali Edwards make a few Christmas ago. It's a way to keep some of the Christmas cards. The little drawings on top of the December label are by my kiddies - their contribution for their respective classes' Christmas card.