Jax Sketchabilities #104

Meet my adorable new grandson Jaxon James Browning. He finally made his appearance (ten days overdue) on Nov. 30th at 11:23 am after a very long night of horrible back labor. Unfortunately my daughter Jessie had to undergo a Caesarean section as Jax's heartbeat kept dropping but both mother and baby are doing fine.

 Isn't he priceless! Biased grandma that I am lol. I used Maja Design Vintage Basic Spring for this layout. This layout was based on sketch #104 from Sketchabilities.

 

 Did a some dry brushing with Gesso for the base and then added paint splatters in various colors. I also used a Bo Bunny and Kaisercraft stamp before I applied the paint. You can also see some moulding paste here.

My little banner held up with two heart brads from Prima's delight collection.

Additional masking done with a Chevron mask and some moulding paste. You can expect to see many layouts featuring this little guy as he lives only six houses away from me! :) I can't wait for the holidays when I am taking my two oldest granddaughters for two weeks the pictures I plan on taking of the three of them together! Well that's it for now.

 

We are getting creamed with snow flurries! Got a foot overnight and it is coming down fast and thick. Apparently we are going to get 35 cm every twelve hours! Ah life in the North. At least I got my hot bath in and a coffee in hand before we lose the power (if we lose the power). All the best! :)

Maja Design Giveaway!

There is a great giveaway happening at Marilyn Rivera's blog from Maja Design. They are giving away a complete line of their Vintage Frost Basics! If you want a chance visit her blog at

http://marilynrivera.blogspot.ca/2013/12/december-mood-board-and-maja-design.html#comment-form

check out her beautiful layout!

All the best! :)



Christmas Advent Calendar

 

I bought this advent calendar kit from Swirlydoos over a year ago and only recently put it together and I have to say wow time consuming! The video tutorials were awesome Krissy you did a fantastic job.

The papers are from Kaisercraft's Just Believe collection.

The little jewels are from Prima The black numbers are from Tim Holtz and the white ones are from Thickers. The Thickers were initially brown so I sanded them down then painted them with Gesso. After the Gesso dried I sprayed them with Champagne Glimmer Mist and added glitter and left them to dry then sprayed them with hairspray to set.

The chipboard is from Dusty Attic (Christmas trees, flourish and the mini holly) and the reindeer from Tim Holtz. I love the technique used to add snow to the trees! I also learned what Ferro is and how awesome it is!

Here is a good shot of what the Ferro looks like when it's dried awesome isn't it? The flowers and berries are from Petaloo.

The centerpiece! This shall sit on my fireplace mantle! Unless of course it gets "removed" by one of my daughters lol! Well it's the beginning of the festive season and there is so much to do! It is especially hard seeing as I have a new project on my hands

And all I want to do is hold him:) Isn't he gorgeous?

All the best! :)

 



He's Here!!!!!

Just a quick note to let you all know that at 11:23 am this morning I became a grandmother for the fourth time!!I have a beautiful new grandson who weighed in at 7.22 pounds. Meet Jaxson James Browning.

 I am bleary eyed after being up for 36 hours but just had to share! I am so proud of my baby girl for the amazing job she did giving birth to this little guy! This is the new little family :)

Thanks for dropping by I am off to sleep! All the best:)



Young Love: Kisses for Keaton

Another Kisses for Keaton layout called Young Love. I absolutely love this picture of Kiki with her older sister Mika, sharing a hug during a day in the park. I used Maja Design's gorgeous Vintage Autumn collection. Maja Design is the biggest sponsor of Kisses for Keaton and I am so grateful! Their papers are so gorgeous and wonderful to work with.

I love the graphics in this line most especially the air balloons! You can see the Dusty Attic frame here with the little butterfly on it. I cut the butterflies out of the paper May 6 from the Vintage Spring line (very popular paper among scrappers!). I primed the DA piece with Gesso and then went over it with metallic gold paint. Also used some moulding paste and the Prima damask mask for a little texture in the corners.

Homemade flowers mixed with some flowers from Prima & Petaloo surround a clock I fussy cut out of one of the papers from Vintage Autumn and then framed it with a metal clock frame from Prima. The little heart is from Pink Paislee and I inked it with Victorian Velvet ink from the Tim Holtz collection.

I used the same ink here to try and bring out the small border of floral paper along the frame. I used letters from Websters pages and traced them onto dark blue cardstock for the title. Hand stitched around the layout, wow is this paper thick! My poor fingers!

 Last close-up of the flower cluster at the top of the layout. Again I fussy cut out a clock but framed this one with a chipboard cog. I can't say enough how much I love these papers! I'm hitting up my girls for the Vintage Frost collection for my Birthday in December!

 

Well we are still waiting for our little baby boy to make his arrival. He is now officially five days overdue and his poor mom is so pooped out. I'm hoping we have him here before the weekend. Today's ultrasound says he is already 8lbs! I can't wait to meet my first grandson!

Lots to do with Christmas fast approaching. I dread the Christmas cleaning (all the carpets in the house get steam cleaned) ugh. On the brighter side there is the shopping and choosing the cookies for this years tins! A tradition of mine! Every year I make each family member a big tin of cookies and truffles. Everything is homemade and there are usually five or six different kinds of cookies plus truffles and fudge! That doesn't include the two or three sheets of chocolate shortbread I make that disappear every single year before they even hit the tins lol!

 

Take care and see you soon! All the best :)

 

WHOOPS! Scrap Around the World

This month at Scrap Around the World it was all about rainbows and bright colors which totally dragged me out of my comfort zone but here is my layout WHOOPS!

 This was the color palette and sketch we had to follow this month

I turned the sketch sideways and scrapped one of my favourite pics of my granddaughter Lilly. This photo was taken on the day of my mom's funeral. We were in the backyard of my mom's house and trying to relax after the burial. We gave the girls free reign to play and they chose the water hose as their toy of the day. Well needless to say Lilly lost!

She managed the impossible and managed to make me smile on such a tough day. I love her expression! I divided the page into a grid and painted all the embellies according to the rainbow.

A mix of Prima flowers in the same colors as the grid rainbow.

 

I even tried to keep the title consistent! I have to admit this was hard for me as I am not used to bright colors but I gave it a shot.  Hope you enjoyed! I am somewhat distracted these days as I am awaiting the arrival of my fourth grandchild a boy! He is due now and I worry about my daughter as she has had many complications with this pregnancy one of them being a huge kidney stone which is causing her great pain and kidney infections. I apologize if I seem way out there but my thoughts are with her and little Jax. In the meantime I will trudge on! All the best and TFL! :)

Bald is Beautiful-Sketchabilities #102

 

 A layout done for Sketchabilities #102.

This is a Kisses for Keaton page. This is a picture of Keaton's mom and three of her friends who shaved their heads in the charity event Bald is Beautiful. Stephanie wanted to put herself at her daughter's level as Kiki lost all her hair so she shaved her head. I am in awe of this woman!



 These three wonderful women shaved their heads as well and donated their hair to a children's charity. The commitment they showed to Kiki and her mom is amazing.

I stamped around the edges and then heat embossed the border. Papers are from Pink Paislee's Hope Chest collection. The flowers are Prima's lyric collection.

The border around Stephanie's picture says Be Forever True to Your Heart which couldn't be more appropriate as Stephanie lives by heart and is an exceptional person.

Last close-up focusing in on the heart of the page which is this wonderful woman who has a two year old daughter with cancer and spends her every waking moment fighting to help her daughter regain her health and still finds time to encourage and support other families in the same position.

 

If you haven't already visit Kisses for Keaton's facebook page. It is a humbling experience.

All the best:)

 

Age of Innocence-Kisses for Keaton Sponsored by Maja Designs

(Kiki and her sister Mika prior to Kiki's diagnosis)

 Before the hospital stays, the bone marrow aspirations, before the chemo and countless procedures there was just life. A normal life of a two year old. Princesses and castles, ice cream and balloons, swinging in the park, playing on the beach, goofing around with your sister this is what life was for you. It was an age of innocence. Then the nightmare of having cancer invaded your life and everything changed. Now life involves doctors visits, needles, surgery and chemo. It is harder to play because you are exhausted from the treatments you must have and ice cream may not taste very good because the chemo has affected your taste buds. Going out to play now runs the risk of exposing you to infections that your body can't fight very well right now. And yet through it all you have managed to maintain your sweet smile. A very brave little girl who could teach the world a lesson in humility. I pray for you everyday sweetheart. I pray that you make a full recovery and rediscover a world with princesses and castles, of ice cream and balloons. I pray that you can run through the park freely without worrying about contracting a virus from another child. I pray everyday that you return to an age of innocence. Be brave little one!

Handmade flowers using Maja Design papers. Maja Design has made a considerable donation to the Kisses for Keaton album and we are so grateful for their generosity! Thank-you! I used papers from their Vintage Summer and Vintage Spring lines.

Title was made using letters from Websters Pages.

Today Kiki's parents are facing a very difficult decision. They must chose between two treatment options for Kiki and the decision process is tormenting them. I ask that you send them your prayers and support letting them know that what ever they decide it's the right decision because it was made with love. Kisses for Keaton can be found on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kisses-for-Keaton/148650585296073 .

 

Have a great weekend! All the best! :)

 

Johnston's Cranberry Marsh

This month at My creative Sketches the challenge involved a double page layout. I haven't done one of these in years and forgot how fun and rewarding it is! You can tell more of a story on a two page layout. I decided to do mine on the cranberry harvest that happens up here in Bala every October.

 

 

I dug deep into my stash and pulled out some golden oldies from Basic Grey. I used their Stella Ruby and Indian Summer lines. I wanted to compliment the beautiful reds you see when you go into the cranberry marsh. I learned so much on my visit there this year. I didn't know that cranberries grow on small evergreen bushes and that the farmer floods the land until it becomes a marsh as it is easier to harvest the cranberries when they are floating on top of the water!

Here you can see the irrigation system flooding the fields in early October. Fall here in Muskoka is absolutely stunning!

I used a ton of rub-ons from the Indian Summer line and rubbed them onto matching cardstock then cut them out as embellishments. The heavy chipboard you see is also from the Indian Summer line. The large flower is from Petaloo the tiny ones from Prima. You can also catch a glimpse of the coarse burlap I used to frame my pictures. I used six smaller pictures as there was so much I wanted to show in this layout!

 Cut the title out using my Silhouette and then added Glimmer Glam for a sheen. You can also see the Dusty Attic piece Bird in a Filed peeking up.

More Indian Summer chipboard.

On the left side of the page I did the same thing. Used rubons and also I stamped out some leaf images and colored them in to bring more orange into the page.

Another Dusty Attic piece Crane. These birds are abundant in the marsh and are so graceful and huge! When they take off they are all wings! Tired to match the colors to the cranes indigenous to our area.

I used moulding paste and a stencil from TCW to make the tree coming in from the side of the page. I used more rubons from Indian Summer to show the leaves falling from the tree.

Another animal indigenous to the area, deer! Lots and lots of deer. I cut the  grass with my Silhouette used a few rubons and added the deer. It was quite entertaining around here when it came time to do the deer. I did their coats with four different colors but they didn't look right without faces so my dear hubby decided that he was an artist and drew their faces. Needless to say I tired to fix it with white paint but the one deer has some facial issues lol. 

I really enjoyed doing this layout especially given that I was so amazed at what actually happens on a cranberry farm. Did you know in the winter they actually water the fields and plough all 27 acres to keep the snow off the ice so that it doesn't allow the water to warm up or it will kill the plants! Sorry I get all excited when I learn something new! Well that's it for now. This layout actually took me awhile as I kept having to put it to the side due to a funeral in the family followed by an influx of kids after the funeral who decided to all come home for the weekend. Hope you enjoyed!

All the best! :)

 



Pay it Forward Contest WInner!!!

 Sorry that I wasn't able to post the winner yesterday. My father-in-law passed away and we were out of town at the funeral. But trying to stay on top of things we have chosen the winner today. I thought it only appropriate that the actual Lillybean do the draw and here she is getting ready:

Set ready and go:

The winner is Mila Cris! Lilly wanted to make her own little sign. . .

So Mila Cris please send me your complete mailing address to claim your prize and congratulations! Thank-you to everyone who participated and sent love Kiki's way.

 At this point in time Kiki is not doing very well and is on the verge of being hospitalized again. Your continued prayers would be greatly appreciated! All the best! :)

Inspire : Creative Scrappers-Bird is the Word

For the Pay it Forward Contest please follow this link:

http://mybeaner.blogspot.ca/2013/09/pay-it-forward-contest.html

 

Over at Bird is the Word this month the word is Inspire. I immediately knew who I wanted to scrap. I am most Inspired by Gabrielle. 

 When I first started scrapbooking I was doing page kits that came with instructions and the right amount of supplies (Nina Brook Designs). Then one day I was browsing through Scrapbook.com and I saw the most beautiful layout so I went to the artists gallery and the rest as they say is history! Gabrielle Pollacco had me hooked! lol Over the years I came to know Gabrielle and found it a hoot that we had both lived in the same town until I moved away. We found we had a lot in common in regards to our heritage and families and over time  she became more than just a mentor she became my friend. What I find amazing about Gabrielle what inspires me is not only her creativity but her energy. She is positive and upbeat and even under the crushing load of work she has to do she stops and makes the time to write and encourage me. I know that Gabrielle has influenced people the world over and if ever there was an Oscar for scrapbooking she would be the one to get it! I thank-you my friend for all that you have taught me not only about scrapbooking but also about myself and what I can do! HUGS!

This is the sketch from Creative Scrappers that I followed.

I really wanted the word inspire to stand out so I cut the word out using my Silhouette and then traced over it. I punched holes along the lines at relatively even spaces and then stitched it in black. I used the LE Kit from My Creative Scrapbooking featuring the new Prima papers Delight.

I tried to get Gabi's name right. This is her signature copied from her blog as are the pictures which is why they aren't the greatest quality. I stitched her name as well. You can see the masking I did with moulding paste in the upper left and bottom right corners. You can also see that I used canvas fringe behind the photos and used moulding paste on it as well. Once it dried I went over the moulding paste with Perfect Pearls Mica Powder in Blue Patina.

For fun I added a Dusty Attic frame around the smaller picture and went over it with Tattered Rose crackle paint from Tim Holtz.

Last shot is the bottom right corner where I added a fussy cut piece from the paper and then placed a piece of Dusty Attic fence on top. I love the fluffy white look of the butterfly so I attached it to the fence. I know that Gabriele loves pastels so I tried to do this page in that theme.

So there you have it! One of the people who most inspires me in life is Gabrielle Pollacco.

 I am off to possibly do another Keaton page and would love to give a huge shout out to Maja Designs for their most generous donation of product to this cause. You people are amazing I love you thank-you!

All the best! :)