Visions of birds & squirrels & butterflies - Layout No. 4 with the August Scraptastic Kit (Boys of Summer)

Hello there and happy Saturday!  I hope you are all well and having a lovely start to the weekend?  What are you up to this weekend?  Any scrappy plans?.  I missed posting on Thursday; I am pretty laid up with an awful flu bug (figured I would get it out of the way before the holidays LOL), so pretty much spent the day in bed with tea, soup and You Tube.  All of my weekend plans are cancelled and I will hopefully be doing a little scrapping between naps and soup.  The upside is that I get to watch such great process videos on You Tube and catch up with you all! Also, Jamie Oliver just posted a bunch of videos on his Food Tube channel, so if by some stretch of the imagination, I run out of process videos, I have a Plan B.

I am here to share the fourth layout I made with my Boys of Summer kit from Scraptastic. We are back in the country, with the kitties - Chopin and Sophie :

The inspiration for the basic set-up of this page came from Jen Schow's second process video on You Tube (Jen just recently started making videos, but is a total natural and her pages are awesome - go check her out !!).  the wide polka dot paper strip and the two narrower strips at the bottom, as well as the photo placement are pretty much scraplifted from her.  Then, I think I went my own way ....

The supplies : All of the paper, the cardstock, stickers and die-cuts come from the kit or its add-on.  The items pulled from my stash add-on are :

• I am having quite a bit of fun lately making up long (and I think clever LOL) titles. This layout is no exception.  I used alphas from the Simple Stories sn@p collection, Jillibean Soup alphabeans in tart teal, October afternoon sticky keys in peacock blue and Jillibean soup mini markets in pine cone.
• The bird wood veneers are from my stash and I am not quite sure who they are from.  They are not from Studio Calico but I have all my bird wood veneer together in a jar with the SC pack. I think they are either from Citrus Twist or were in a RAK I got from Nancy Sinclair last year (kittyscrapper on You Tube).

The story:  In the country, there is a large, very old style, bay window in the dining room (so terribly drafty in the winter LOL).  It has an extra large ledge and is just the perfect place for the kitties to watch the world go by.  And it is perfectly set up for them.  Just outside that window, there are a few bird feeders, a small ornamental garden, and a few trees, a couple of which are a little poorly.  So there there is a never ending stream of birds of all sorts, including woodpeckers pecking away at the trees that are sickly, butterflies, bees, squirrels and chipmunks (stealing all the pine cones).  They often spend time sitting in that window, watching, and chattering away together, and at all the critters.  It also makes for a great sunning spot in the afternoons.

So there you have it - I leave you with  visions of birds & squirrels & butterflies; or if you prefer chocolate and fudge LOL.  Have a lovely day and I will be back tomorrow with my layout in response to a challenge from Jen Box, who has reached over 500 subbies on You tube (I will tell you more about her and her lovely pages tomorrow).  Til then, be well and be happy.  Hugs xoxo

Amazing Daily Harvest, 12 X 12 layout with my Scraptastic August Boys of Summer Kit

Happy Saturday!!!  Thanks for popping in to spend a few minutes with me today.  How is your weekend going?  I hope you have some time for fun this weekend.  In my neck of the woods, it is going to be indoor fun today because outdoors is pretty rainy and windy. Although, I think I saw the sun for a few minutes LOL. I am getting some laundry out of the way, will do some cooking and scrapping.  A nice "homey" day !!

I am forging ahead with the August kit and really enjoying it.  It is so colourful and fun :). This second layout is meant to be a companion page to the first (see my last post) one.  It is not a double page spread but it is complementary - the two pages will live side-by-side in my album.  Basically the same colour scheme but in a different order as well as some of the same multi-coloured die-cuts, stars and alphas.

Without further ado:

Just like on the previous layout, I integrated one of the die-cuts into my title but I did not really try anything else new-to-me on this page.  

I seem to have developed a slight addiction to arrows.  I have been using them a lot lately and loving them.  I bought a new SU punch with two sizes of arrows, and there are quite a few die-cuts and stickers with arrows in the kit. I guess that explains it in part.  I like how arrows can easily help bring the focus to where you want it and also act as an embellishment. I like staggering them and mixing them up with banner shapes as well.

The supplies:  I integrated a few things from my stash add-on :

• I used Jillibean Soup Alphabeans in Blue Corn Navy and October Afternoon Sticky key in Honey for the title.
• the multi-coloured polka dot paper layer behind the photo, is a 6X6 sheet from the Fancy Pants Be Different paper pad
• the  wood veneer are left over from a previous kit, and
• the enamel dots are from My Mind's Eye

The story:  This photo was taken during my vacation month in the country, in our garden.  It is a very relaxing and peaceful month with very simple pleasures!  In the morning, right after breakfast, I would go and work in the garden for a couple of hours - weeding, pruning if needed, dead-heading the flowers, adjusting and adding stakes;  whatever little chores needed doing.  I enjoyed working early in the day, before the heat set in (although we did not have a very hot summer this year).  Then, I hit the shower, and headed back out to sit in the garden and admire the view LOL.  Just before lunch was harvest time!!!  I really enjoyed this part of the day - walking around with my basket and harvesting whatever was available that particular morning.  I could then plan out that day's menu - lunch and dinner from the garden.  There is nothing like garden fresh meals and letting the garden bounty inspire you!

There you have it - another day in the garden.

Thanks for being here and have a wonderful day, whereever you are!  I will be back later in the week with layout number 3, which I promise is not the garden this time.  We could be back to the furkids though LOL...  Hugs, xoxo

All that awesome was a treat - Layout No. 1 with the Scraptastic Boys of Summer Kit

Well, hello there and welcome !  I am always so glad when you take the time to stop by and there have been more and more of you doing so;  so I am doubly grateful.

I have started using the August Scraptastic Kit, the Boys of Summer Kit. I got the main kit and the add-on.  I must say that when I chose the kit, I was not really sure.  The colours are what convinced me to choose this one and in all honesty, the other kit was just too themey for me (it was the Celebration kit, a birthday themed kit).  But then this kit seemed geared to boys, young boys.  I don't have boys (except for the four-legged kind) and the "boys" in my family, and extended family, are either adults, young adults, or babies.  None of them are "gamey" types either.  I was sceptical .... BUT I was worried for nothing.  I loooove this kit so far. I have made 4 layouts and am not having trouble at all using all the fun stuff.  I got the extra wood veneer, from all the kits,  so that helps (the ones that are really geared toward games have been put in a give-away pile, but that still leaves me plenty to play with).  We also got a lovely gift of very useable flair and I bought extra flair.  Some of the die-cuts may need altering but all in all I am really happy with the kit.  Yay !

Here is the first layout I made :

What I did that was new to me :  I incorporated one of the large die-cuts into my title.  I love it and this is an example of "altering" the die-cut.  The bottom half of the die-cut is under the photo block.  The words continue with "in such a little kid".  That part was not useable for me.  The top part made an awesome beginning to my title and then I just continued using colourful little stickers from the Fancy Pants sticker sheet !  What do you think?

The supplies:  Since this is the first layout with the kit, everything on the page comes from the kit with very few exceptions.  I had a partial pack of the Fancy Pants Be Different 6 X 6 paper pad in my stash so added that to my homemade add-on since quite a bit of that collection is in the kit.  I used two sheets of the 6 X 6 pad for layering, the star and polka dot papers to the left and right of the photos.  The only other items from my own add-on are:

• the star wood veneer which came in one of my last Simon Says Stamp card kits,
• the gems which are from Bo Bunny (and part of the 10 embellishment packs I put aside for the October challenge over on our nicolejones911 Facebook group)
• The brads are from My Mind's Eye Lost and found 3 (Oliver) and also part of my challenge pack.

The story:  Planting garlic in our climate can be tricky.  It is a bulb so should be planted in the fall at the same time as tulips and other bulbs.  Some years are easier than others...The temperature needs to be cold enough that the plant will not sprout but not too cold to shock the bulb, or to make working the earth difficult.  It is often a very narrow window.  In 2012, we totally missed the window.  It was a terribly rainy autumn and then turned bitterly cold ... on days we thought we could plant, it poured!  I had read somewhere that there was a variety that could be planted in the spring.  So we had a fallback - phfewww!!! We diligently planted the garlic in the spring of 2013.  And, you ask?  MONUMENTAL FAIL!!! no garlic, not a one, nada.  As if that weren't enough, we missed the window again in the fall of 2013.  At that point, we just gave up.  But for some reason, we did not touch the area that had been planted in the spring when we planted the rest of the garden this year!  And .... drum roll .... LO AND BEHOLD...look what 2014 brought us!  A total surprise, a total treat - the best garlic EVER lol.  

So there you have the story of the garlic :).  What about this year?  It is shaping up to be a difficult one again .... it is 22 deg C today and has been all week!  But we almost planted last weekend because we had had a ground frost two weeks earlier.  The plan now is to plant on the 25th.  I will keep you posted (I know you just can't wait to know LOL).

Have a wonderful rest of the week and I will be back on the weekend with another layout and another silly story ! Hugs xo

A couple more layouts with the July Scraptastic Kit ... some travel, some cookin' :) :)

Happy Sunday to all !  It is a rainy one here so far.  But that's ok, the temperatures are back up to seasonal and I had a day indoors planned anyway - chores, cooking, scrapping and a little tennis watching.  And, lot of kitty cuddles :) :)

Hope you are having a great Sunday, doing what you like best and doing it with those you love most!!!  Have a couple of chuckles while you are at it !

Here are the 7th and 8th layouts I made with the July Either Way Kit.  I actually have 10 layouts completed and still have quite a bit of the kit and add-on left.  It may be a record breaking month - I think I might get 14 or 15 layouts.  Woot woot!!

For, the first layout, we are back to a travel theme.  Let me take you back to Amsterdam for a stroll along "Canal Street" ... 

The supplies:  Everything on this layout comes from the kit, or add-on, with very few exceptions :

• The "hello" die-cut comes from the Simple Stories 6 X 6 Good Day Sunshine paper pad.
• I used Dear Lizzy Foam thickers for the word "canal" in the title, and MME stickers for the word Amsterdam.  I used October Afternoon's Daily Flash for the year - 2005
• the airplane puffy stickers was the very last in the set from Amy Tangerine.

This layout came together quite quickly for me.  It is the first time I put a title sideways on a layout and I quite like the outcome.  The inspiration for this came from nicolejones911 - she does it quite a lot and I always love the way it looks on her layouts.

The story:  There really isn't any great big story with this one.  It is meant to convey how I love wandering the canal streets of Amsterdam.  It is such a pretty city.  And, to me, Amsterdam is a city to stroll - not walk, not run, not rush - but wander, and stroll, on foot or on a bicycle :)

Now let's wander back to this summer :

I thought I was quite clever with this title LOL :).

The supplies:  Again, everything came from the kit, with just a couple of items from my stash add-on:

• The doily is from my stash and I used Tattered Angel's glimmer mist, in Italian Sunset to colour it.  The colour is a little more peach, than the coral in the papers and embellishments but I still like the effect since the photo has lots of golden, peach, orange and reddish tones.
• I used my one inch circle punch to punch out the viewfinders from the Good Day Sunshine 6 X 6 paper pad
• The the subtitle uses MME word and alpha stickers.

The story:  This page will go in my summer garden/vacation album and is meant to record part of my vacation routine.  I just love stir-frying - it is so fast, healthy, yummy and it's the fastest clean-up around :) :).  It became an integral part of my vacation routine:  a long walk followed by garden work in the morning, garden salad for lunch, lazy afternoon under a tree, harvesting, reading, or scrapping.  And then a lovely stir fry for supper, again using garden fresh veggies.  I would add shrimp, or scallops, or tofu, or beans and voila ... Clean-up took all of 5 minutes and then I could settle in for an evening of You Tube or tennis watching, as well as puppy and kitty cuddles!!!  Bliss

So there you have - you have made to the end again!  Thanks so much.  Hugs xoxo

... so just call me the salad queen - 12 X 12 layout with the July Scraptastic kit

Good morning sweet friends and happy Sunday.  I hope this finds you well.  It is a little brisk where I am this morning but the sun is glorious.  I have been MIA for a couple of weeks; it is a busy time in the garden and I am there at least every second weekend.  Last weekend, we harvested the onions, thinned out the carrots, beets and turnips and mapped out the transplanting that will need to be done at the end of the month.  Next weekend, we will be canning the tomatoes - yay !!  But oh my that is a chore and a half heehee; my back is already protesting just thinking about it :)

I have still managed to get a few layouts done (priorities of course !!).  

Scraptastic had a couple of fun challenges during August, as they do every month.  It was my first time participating in two of them and I really enjoyed it.  There was a challenge for a "long title" that really got me thinking but then I sort of fell into it,  

That die cut with the quote from Julia Child was just so perfect !!!  Don't you love it when that happens.  I used it to start my title and then just continued on from there.

The supplies:   Everything on this layout comes from the July Either Way kit, except :

• The coral alpha Thickers are from Dear Lizzy and the aqua alphas are from October Afternoon's Daily flash (Mason Jar).
• The acetate butterfly is from June's kit
• the vellum with the gold hearts that I use as a mat is from my stash
• The love paper clip is from Freckled Fawn but I can't remember where I got it - likely a previous kit.
• The ribbon is from Stampin' Up - it is a 3/8 inch taffeta in Crumb Cake (their kraft colour).

The story:  It is quite simple really - I loooooove salads, I could live on salads and if I may say so myself, I make great salads heehee.  My friends and family call me the Salad Queen, as I seem to just gather up stuff from the garden and the pantry,  and turn it into a salad.  I create recipes, I invent and improvise.  Whenever, we have a get together, I am always called upon to bring, or make, the salad.  Whenever I invite friends or family over, I am told that there has to be salad as part of the meal.  So it seems I have a label and one I will gladly take on :) :)

Enjoy your Sunday everyone and thanks for stopping by.  

A Scraptastic layout, my hands, Bloglovin' and a few ramblings

Hello there and welcome! Summer has settled in here - fast and furious - but I am not complaining.  It is such a short season.  Today is very muggy though so I was out in the garden at 7 this morning and back in by 9h30 LOL.  This afternoon, I will find a tree to sit under with a book and hope there is a little breeze.

A quick note:  I have added the Bloglovin' button to my sidebar so if you feel inclined to follow me, I would surely appreciate it.  I love Bloglovin' - it doesn't clog up my inbox, one email a day and I can see what is going on with my favourite blogs.

Have you all been watching the "Tag - I'm it" videos on YouTube  lately.  The series started by Tuesdae Hubbard and Robin Voak?  OMG what fun - great questions and answers.  It is so nice to put a face to a voice, and to hands LOL.  I have watched every single one so far and loved each and every one as well.  So if you haven't had a chance - get right on it, you will be so happy you did.  Now, as you know, I don't do videos yet (hopefully I will get the nerve up and do one before year-end - keep calling me on it LOL).  But in the meantime, Angie Chiazzese (please go and check her out on You Tube) mentioned me in her video. I was so thrilled and prancing around the house like a kid LOL. She asked that I put a picture of my hands somewhere, either on our Facebook group (nicolejones911) or on my blog.  So before I get to my layout for today, here are a couple of shots of my hand (only one LOL since I was taking the picture) working on the layout: 

By the way, that piece of paper that I am tucking in at the top, doesn't actually make on the layout.  Oh my, those are not the hands of a 20 year old - but they are mine, garden weary, broken nails due to garden chores,  a couple of age spots and all !!!

Now, here is the finished layout, my 3rd with the June Scraptastic kit :

Pretty much everything came from the kit on this layout, but a couple of the items were leftover from last month's kit.  The alphas are from my own add-on (Jillibean alpha beans and MME).  I am struggling a bit with the vellum pieces but they are so lovely !

What do you think of the pop of yellow?  I added the enamel dots after realising that the paper strips I put in the lower LH corner had some yellow but that there was no yellow elsewhere on the layout. I like the pop of brightness it adds.  Leave me your comments, I would love to read them :)

The pictures are of my Rosehip plant - one in the garden and then other with petals drying before I put them in oil.  I infuse the oil with the petals for about a month and then filter them out.  The resultant oil is an ingredient in my homemade face cream.  This oil is great for sensitive skin. I do the same thing later in the season with calendula petals (I will also post a photo on here when the time comes).  In the fall, I prepare a big batch of moisturiser for myself, my mom and my l'il sister.  Stay tuned !

Well that about sums it up for today.  Thanks for being here.

I am off for some lunch and then to find that tree I mentioned earlier.  Hugs