Nuts About Sketches 230 - Life begins

There is a great new sketch up at Nuts About Sketches today, I really enjoyed working with this one!

This past Friday (7th) was my birthday. My 40th birthday. The saying goes "Life begins at 40", and for me right now that is very true. A whole new life, in a new country, meeting new people, doing new things and having new adventures. I have started to exercise more - I started the Couch to 5K program, and although the first couple of days almost killed me, I am starting to get into it.

The photographs were taken at a photoshoot I was given as a Mother's Day present, by the extremely talented Mandy Hunter.  She has mad PhotoShop skills too ;). I usually hate any photo of me, but these ones, I kinda like lol. The purple one is just so cool - I actually have this framed on the wall lol.

I took the purple colours from the main photo as a starter for my colour scheme, and I found some Bo Bunny papers to match - they are actually a Christmas collection called "Winter Joy". But the purple was perfect and the shade of green is one of my favourite colours just now. So I went with it :)

The day of my birthday I was taken to a Bosnian coffee shop for cake and coffee by some friends, and then in the evening we went for a family meal out at Chili's - their Sparkling Pomegranate Margarita is to die for ;) The kids got me a huge cookie and ice-cream cake from Publix, and spoiled me with some chocolate, flowers and some new workout clothes :) I don't like a big fuss, so my day was just about perfect for me. Age is only a number after all....

Nuts About Sketches 229 - Abe by night

I am so excited to be back on the Nuts About Sketches Design Team! Shawn designs the most fantastic sketches, and I love working with them. I have missed them so much!

So, this weeks sketch is a two-pager. The original sketch called for three 5x7 inch photos, but I had way more photos, so I got a little creative...

So, this is the layout. All about our night-time visit to see Abraham Lincoln when we were in Washington, D.C in June. Tom said the one thing he would like to see on our trip was the man that sat in the big chair. Anyone who has seen "Night at the Museum 2" will remember President Lincoln coming to life at night, but if he was the night we went, he was sitting very, very still lol.

It was an amazing experience. The Lincoln memorial is truly one of the most reverent places I have ever been to. The atmosphere inside was undescribable - the respect the US has for this man is enormous. The night we went, there were plenty of other visitors. I even saw girls in prom dresses, posing on the steps with their dates.

I made little mini foldout books and added my extra photos. I wanted to add the photos of the engraved speeches, especially as Tom sat down and read every single word of them. He was sat, cross legged on the floor with people swarming about him, and he didn't move until he had finished reading all of it.

I also had more journalling than I had space for, so I made that into a mini book too :)

I used the scraps I had left over from my Scrapbook Generation kit - Echo Park 4th July papers - and added some Basic grey (red) and Chatterbox (blue) for the circles. The title I cut using my Cricut, and added some Frosted Lace Stickles for a bit of dimension. The red, white and blue dots are from Craftwork Cards.

The rest of the team have done a great job with the sketch, head on over to the blog, and have a look!

Let Freedom Ring

We were pleased that we were going to be in the US for 4th July. It is obviously a big thing for them, being Independence Day and all. The neighbourhood turned into a wash of red, white and blue, with the Stars and Stripes proudly flying outside many homes. We were interested to see how the day was celebrated.
Being the "enemy" in the whole Independence thing, we tried to fit in as much as we could. The theme of the day was red, white and blue, but we made sure we didn't go out in anything Union Jack, as that really wouldn't be a good thing to do, ya think? Jemma and I donned our red, white and blue and headed down to Eagle Harbor Parkway - the main thoroughfare of the neighbourhood - to watch the annual parade. There were fire trucks, and other emergency vehicles, with sirens and lights blaring. There were also floats, with Girl Scouts on, throwing bead necklaces and candy to the spectators. There were also members of the community - in cars, in golf carts, in boats (on trailers) and on bikes. All decorated with the stars and stripes and all things red, white and blue. It was a great little parade. And they threw candy. Lots of candy. We didn't go prepared, unlike some other kids who had huge bags to collect candy in, so any bits Jemma picked up ended up in my camera bag! We then went home, to share it with Tom, who was feeling a bit under the weather.

Later, we went to the community pool and had BBQ - pulled pork sandwiches, yum! - and enjoyed the sunny afternoon hopping in and out of the water. We were invited to an evening BBQ too, at Jorge's house. Jorge is a Chilean exchange pilot at NAS Jax. He invited other exchange families - from Chile, Equador and Argentina - and his neighbours who are American and Canadian. There was definitely an International flavour to the evening. There was also a bit of a British element to the evening, as just as Jorge was ready to start cooking on the BBQ, the heavens opened. So he cooked with an umbrella in one hand. We told him that was how we always BBQ'd back in the UK... Later on, when the rain had stopped the men got a large box of fireworks out and let them off in the front yard. They had great fun. After a while, some of us ladies went inside to watch the huge firework display that happened downtown on the TV lol.

This is my layout for the 4th :) I used another layout kit from my Scrapbook Generation Super Saver Club Kit - the Echo Park papers were just perfect!!! This was a Debbie Sanders sketch.

 

 

I loved the banners on this sketch. I know I will use the sketch again. And again. LOL. I love, love, LOVE the gals at SG :)

 



You are my Sunshine

 

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey.... I remember the Muppets singing this song, and now I am going to have it stuck in my head for the rest of the day hahaha.

 

The title is from a Scrapbook Generation Super Sketch Club layout. I have been a fan of Allison Davis sketches for ages, and was a little disappointed when the Sketch Support site ceased to be. I had looked into joining the SSC, but couldn't justify the international shipping costs, but now I am in the US, the shipping rates are much lower, so I signed up to get the kit - to kick start my scrapping again, and to get my Allison Davis fix LOL. But, in her family it is not only Allison who is a talented sketch designer and scrapbooker - her Mum Debbie does some fantastic sketches too! And this is one of her layouts from the kit. This is the Super Saver bit of the kit - Debbie shows you how to make 3 double layouts using minimal supplies, and provides a cutting guide to get the most out of your stash. This layout uses the Simple Stories Summer Fresh collection, and I love it's vintage, country feel.

 

I decided to use some heritage photos. I'm not too sure that you could describe my baby photos as being "heritage" - although in a few weeks they will be 40 years old (eek), so I suppose in a way they are LOL. But they are delightfully 70s, and they seemed to fit with the paper.

 



 

 

The photos show me (in the pushchair) with my parents on a leisurely stroll. I'm guessing around 1973 (I was born Sept 72, so I think I look about 6 months or so in the photos). And we are... somewhere...lol. I know, a bit pants. But I love the design, and I love the papers, and I love the expression on my Dad's face... I was the original Daddy's girl, before my little sister came and stole the title from me.... And I think the title fits in with that too :)

 

A sweet birthday card

Today, we are going out to celebrate another friend's birthday - talk about being party people LOL.

This card I did using the latest sketch from the Sugar Bowl :)

I used one of my favourite Sugar Nellie Stamps from the Gorjuss girls range. An oldie, but a goodie :) I coloured the image with ProMarkers.
Papers are from My Mind's Eye - Darling Dear - another bargain 6x6 pad.... The sentiment is a Paula Pascual stamp from Personal Impressions. I went to town again with the distressing tool - I am a bit obsessed with things distressed just now...lol.

And as a gift for this friend, we went and bought Birthday cake flavoured Vodka - yep, that's right. And it tastes just like cake too, with a bit of an after shock of course, if you catch my drift...

I foresee a few sore heads in the morning....

Beads and cards

Very unoriginal title I'm afraid lol.

Tomorrow we are off to dinner, to celebrate with our friends Monica and Chris on the occasion of their daughter's birthday. Leslie is now a Senior at High School, so I wanted to give her something a bit different for her birthday. I am not sure whether she will like it or not, but nothing ventured, nothing gained...

I got the beads from my local Michael's - gotta love that store. And even better, it is 5 minutes drive from my house. Maybe my husband doesn't agree that it is quite so appealing to our bank balance though...

And here is the card I made.

I used a sketch from the Sugar Bowl , and the image is a Lili of the Valley stamp, coloured in with ProMarkers. The papers are from My Mind's Eye - a bargain I found at a Home Goods store, as the 6x6 paper pad only cost me $2.00...   The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards, and I used my Spellbinders to make a lollipop flower. I went to town with my distressing tool, distressing all the edges - I looked like I had a bad case of dandruff afterwards lol.

I must go and make the dessert I am taking round for dinner - my Gran's pineapple cheesecake. I even found proper digestive biscuits at Publix for the base - no Graham crackers for MY cheesecake....

Squirls...

Back in February, I decided not to reapply for my spot on the Nuts About Sketches Design Team, as I knew we were going to be moving and that my scrapbooking stuff was going to leave before I did! I loved the sketches that Shawn produced every week, and I really did miss working with them. Fast forward to August, where I am in my new house, in a new country, and I have all my supplies to hand. I saw the NAS Design Team call, applied, and was delighted to be chosen to go back on the team :)

This is the layout I did for the call.

I really, really should have called this layout "Squirls" - as that is what we now call squirrels. When the kids were smaller, they were always "squiggles" - hence the title. My doggie "nephew" Eddie has a thing for chasing squirrels, in fact my brother and sister-in-law refer to them as "SQs" as he goes mad if you even say the word squirrel. I posted one of these photos onto his FaceBook page (yes, the dog has a FB page lol) and he said how much he would love to chase them...
These are squirrels that were bounding about under the trees at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. We didn't expect to see anything like this at all, seeing as it is right in the middle of D.C. But we are finding that expecting the unexpected is pretty much the norm around here LOL.
We have quite a few squirrels living here in Eagle Harbor, so maybe there will be another installment - "SQs of Fleming Island" anyone???