GYPSY SISTERS

Most of the flowers were Making Memories. My 12 yo bought this Wii game for Xmas for his first girlfriend, Lauren. He kept it in his room all summer holidays and eventually gave it to her when school went back!

These girls INSPIRE me - Helen and Cathy - I love them to bits. Ribbon - unknown; Title - cut on computer; Punch - Fiskars.

Large circle scallop - Cuttlebug (Spellbinders); Buttons - Beutron.

Punch - Fiskars. The rest is by Kaiser.

Ribbon - my stash, Punch - Fiskars

OLDIES BUT GOODIES

I can't believe how sweet and YOUNG Tom looks here! Paper, Journalling Box - Sassafras lass; Alphas - Bella.

I am nothing if not efficient, if I come up with an easy page that comes up really well I will often do it twice. Efficiency!

Love my typewriter :-) White Alphas by Heidi Swapp; Glittery "S" - unknown.

I bought these papers FIRST then months later, bought the apron which I received for Mother's Day. That whole sentence is very strange isn't it, but I suppose many scrappers would relate to it whole heartedly. Title done on the Cuttlebug.

Those matching Kaiser brads were awesome - I wonder if they will bring them back? ;-)

Love this photo - it just landed on this perfect sheet of paper. Letters, badge, bird paper, ric rac, arrow from American Crafts, green animals from Target, Punch by Fiskars, Buttons by Making Memories. Even with all these products, the paper is the standout. (Or maybe the photo! Its a nice one)

Only just noticed I turned this piece "upside down". Alphas - American Crafts, Bike - EK, Calendar - Jenni Bowlin, Stickers - spotlight

This is the BACK of that gorgeous piece of yellow paper. No idea who the other products are by. Sorry!

This was up at the shop and sold an enormous pile of paper :-) Stamp is also by Kaiser - I ADORE that range of stamps, Title done on Cheryl-Lee's computer.

Foam Tape - gotta love it! I go through PACKETS and PACKETS of it.

Another example of my outstanding parenting skills - discovering my 2 and 4 year old playing with a full bucket of water, only I would run back inside and grab the camera, I suppose some mothers would tell them off and tip the bucket out. (Alphas - Making Memories, Stickers - Scenic Route). Notice I scrapped this photo with the Peachy Keen range of papers too - one layout for each child's album.

REWIND

This Yummy Yummy range of papers and goodies absolutely caught my eye - I think I bought one of everything. "Grannybena" is one of my favorite layouts. :-) Mist by Smooch!

Magic Mount/ Foam Tape, whatever you want to call it - I LOVE IT!

Letters - American Crafts

I wrote that a couple of years ago and I must have been feeling crabby about some comment or another I no doubt received in regards to having four boys. Some people act like I have done this to personally vex and irritate them! Sigh :-)

This is bad but in 31 years of parenting (my kids combined ages, does that even make sense? 13+11+5+3) I have NEVER attended a school swimming lesson or carnival ... bad mother yep I agree, but even worse it means no photos so I set this one up and am thrilled Luke has a record of what happened.

PRAIRIE LANE

The cake is always chocolate as its the only recipe I have in my head and I couldn't be bothered doing the whole "have we got such and such to go in the cake" thing! Brad by Heidi Swapp

Simon now aged 3.5 saw this one today and said "is that Andy?", "no, it's you", "I don't want to look like that!!!" and pointed to his mouth, I said "you were asleep" and he sort of perked up really!

OK, so cut out a framey matt, I just draw lines in pencil on the back and then use my paper trimmer, or you can use a craft knife, then scrape the edges inside and out with the blade of the scissors to rough them up, then add a touch of white paint but dont overdo it, when the paint is dry, please be patient then wrap ribbons round the edge, pop the whole shooting match up on magic mount :-)

I really think you have to hand stitch buttons on - finish what you start, glue dots just don't have the same look! BTW some of those negative letters were ON PURPOSE! I know! :-)

Oh Prairie Lane, these colours absolutely thrill me - chocolate brown with blues, really you cant go wrong with that. Well maybe you could if you added green or something, but luckily I didn't!

PRAIRIE LANE

If I may say so myself, I do love this sweet little layout - it's very very me! Simple, cute, using everyday photos. And look how I concealed Simon's rather bright trousers! (They look cute in other brighter layouts LOL). I chopped them off on one of the photos, but I really wanted the colouring book and the textas in the layout so I covered them up with one of the gorgeous tags and a little button I had floating around. I also added some spare brown ric rac.

EMPIRE

He is beautiful - What I love most about scrapping is celebrating my wonderful family and all that I love about them.

Buddies? Maybe not. Yesterday at soccer training, these guys were fighting! Oh dear! :-(

I am very sentimental about these layouts as they were my first effort on Cheryl-Lee's design team! I'll never forget this - I was up at the shop (no kids) and somehow I asked her "have you ever thought of having someone do some pages to sell some products" and she said "it's never really worked out" and I said "it might work with me" and with that she pulled out the ENTIRE range of new stuff for Empire and Prairie Lane and sent me home! I was so excited and I was really pleased with the results.

One of my focuses in this 6 page project was to use the lettering DIFFERENTLY - showcasing how what at first glance could be quite a feminine "floaty" type range can work for grungey boy layouts, right out to baby boy layouts and of course Mum with little boy layouts!  I sanded the letters, or I left them plain, or I sewed over them. And I love using the negatives (ahem when I ran out of e's as always! hehehe)