9th layout with the June 2014 Scraptastic Kit - 12 X 12 - Funtime

Happy Wednesday all !!!  I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are and whatever you are doing.  It is pouring here today but the temperature is so very pleasantly cool, after a few really hot and muggy ones LOL.

I had a bit of a brutal return to work - 5 days, 50 hours. I love my job though and everything went really well, so I am a little tired but happy to have two days off. Then, back at work for a day before a weekend off.  Next week, my schedule should get back to normal - I work three 10 hour days Mon-Wed; then a short 5-6 hour day on Fridays !!  Not bad huh?

Today, I am having a nice, quiet day with some scrapping, some reading, some cooking and watching a bit of tennis.  No chores - I will think about those tomorrow LOL.

I want to share the 9th layout I made with my June Scraptastic kit - the Best Day of my Life kit :

Lately, I enjoy working with two 4 X 4 photos and putting them slightly askew on the page.  They are generally 4 X 6 photos that I crop although I am getting the hang of printing IG photos in that format on my photo printer at home - slowly but surely LOL.

You may also notice that this page design is similar to a couple of other layouts I made this month.  In fact, it is quickly becoming a favourite of mine and a go-to design.  My style has been greatly influenced lately by Nancy Sinclair (kittyscrapper on You Tube) and nicolejones911 (Nicole uses the same name on pretty much all social media), Tracy Banks (mercytiara on You Tube and Scraptastic); and, of course Shimelle remains a favourite of mine.  But there are so many great new You Tubers out there, it is a scrapper's paradise. By the way, if you have not joined Nicole Jones facebook group, head on over there right now - the inspiration and motivation are utterly amazing! 

The supplies :  I am already down to patterned paper scraps, but pretty much everything on the page does come from the kit and its add-on.  I used the cut apart sheet in several different areas for the layering.  The only things that come from my own add-on are :

• The chipboard hearts, camera and stars are from the Studio Calico Essentials line
• The alphas I used for the title are from Jillibean Soup's Alphabeans in Grapefruit pink
• There were some enamel dots in the add-on kit but I also added some from my own stash

The story:  My  l'il sister has two cats and I have one (of course, we also have our puppy Oliver, the subject of a couple of layouts this month as well).  One of her cats is very grumpy and does not like anyone except for my BIL; she barely tolerates my sister LOL.  So when I go spend time there with my cat, we never see her.  She stays upstairs and grumbles.  If anyone of us, or worse, my cat goes near her, she hisses!!  But Deb's other cat, Sophie and my Chopin just get along famously.  They love to play together; they play chase and wrestle.  But it always seems to start with Sophie washing Chopin's ears and head, hence the photos on this layout.  When we leave to come home, Chopin is exhausted and just sleeps for a couple of days, although he searches for Sophie.  And Sophie also seems at a loss for a couple of days after Chopin leaves :).  True kitty love LOL.

As always, thanks for stopping by and reading all the way through :).  I will be back tomorrow with the tenth and final layout made with the June kit. Hugs xoxo

Layout in Response to Tuesdae Hubbard's 500+ You Tube subbies challenge

Goodmorning and happy Thursday to all!  We have sun, yes we do; oh my, how we have waited for this.  Yesterday we hit about 17 deg C and today we are headed for 19.  I can hardly believe it!!!  Yay, double yay!  I have my windows open and I can actually see buds on the trees out there (I have to squint a bit, but I can see them LOL).

Ok, so now for the subject at hand.  Do you know Tuesdae Hubbard on You Tube (you can find her here : https://www.youtube.com/user/thelonlaire/feed).  She makes lovely pages and great process videos to accompany them.  Her layouts are beautiful and colourful (well except for a little monochromatic stint recently, but she will tell you all about that on her channel) and I love her page designs.  You really have to go on over there and check her out because she is also a super sweet gal and she is having a 500+ challenge (it is open until May 12th, so you still have time to participate).

The rules to Tuesdae's challenge are really super easy:

• Be a subbie
• Scrap about your passion(s) !!  That is pretty much it LOL.  You can make a 12X12 layout, 8.5X11, anything really.
• You can make a process video, send her the picture via email, post it on Instagram and then let her know.
• Multiple entries are welcome.

I think it was a great idea to get us scrapping about our passions.  In fact, I am very thankful to Tuesdae because it made me sit back for a moment and just think about my passions in life and realise yet again that I am a very luck lady to have quite a few in addition to the obvious scrapbooking one of course : family and friends top the list but then I also love travel, animals,  gardening, cooking and preserving, tennis as well as walking and hiking.  Pretty big list huh?

So now, which to choose for the challenge?  I scrapped three layouts on NSD (two travel related and one of Chopin, my cat, when he was just a kitten) and posted them to our FB groups and said that I would choose one of those for Tuesdae's challenge and then one for Roni Sue Scrapper's challenge.  So based on their comments, I have made a choice.

Here is the page I chose to submit for Tuesdae's challenge :

This layout, well Chopin actually, got more comments and likes than any other, ever LOL.

The story:  Chopin's mother was heavily pregnant when she was rescued by my sister and BIL.  She had a litter of 5 and the only "smoky" coloured one was Chopin.  Within a few days he was the friendliest and cuddliest (is that a word?) of the bunch so my sister immediately said :  "that's MO`s cat".  Three months later he arrived!  He was a little terror as a kitten, tearing around the place like nobody's business, climbing curtains and me, nibbling toes, pouncing on me in bed .... but he oh so cuddly and lovable as well. The day after he arrived, as he was on a running mission, I put some music on.  I love Chopin.  My cat ran straight to the sound system and stopped abruptly and just stared, was totally quiet for the duration of the piece and then climbed up on my lap for a nap.  So Chopin he was named !

The supplies:

I used a lot of the scraps that were on my desk to create this layout; sometimes it is just more fun to use up those scraps than to tidy up, don't you think?.  

• The background cardstock is Stampin' Up's Daffodil delight and the patterned paper is also from and SU collection.
• the for the layering and banners I used some SU scraps as well as at least two 6 X 6 paper pads : My Mind's Eye Indie Chic Saffron and Dear Lizzy Day Dreamer
• I fussy cut those doilies, so they would act as die cuts
• I used Amy Tangerine puffy stickers, flair from my Citrus Twist Kit and enamel dots from Basic Grey
• I inked all the edges with Tim Holtz Black Soot

So there you have it!  Thanks so much Tuesdae for putting on such a fun challenge.  Again, if you haven't seen any of Tuesdae's videos, run on over to her channel, you will have a great time.  Thank-you all who have stuck with this post all the way to the end (I do go on don't I ?  but you know I just love it all)

Have a great day and I will be back soon with my page for Roni Sue Scrapper's challenge

Hugs, xx