bout time I shared huh!

I have to be so super quick. I'm supposed to be in bed by midnight at the latest... I have three minutes and still need to load the dishwasher!

First up... My January DT layout for Scrap Pile. Working with the rather gorgeous Chatterbox Sunroom kit. Oh I love Chatterbox... still. I just don't get sick of it. It's still so easy to work with. Things just fall together so easily. I loved this pic, so kept the layout pretty clean. I like it. Makes me smile. Look at that gorgeous little face.

This one is 9x9. I printed out the photo, but forgot to resize it, and it chopped off the side next to Liam. I was going to throw it in the bin and start over, but I decided to just chop off the other side and go with a closer crop to balance it out a bit. I am SO IN LOVE with that green spotty paper! It's MME Signature Suite. I'm hording all the little scraps of it. I already kinda had this one planned and Maree set her challenge for the Scrap Pile Cyber Crop on Friday, and this kind of fitted. I just hadn't planned on scrunching and inking the scalloped piece. I would never have thought to do that to it. But I like it too. Again... makes me smile :) It's got nice heartfelt journalling hidden behind the photo too. It's kind of a follow on from the last 9x9 I did, about planning to resign etc. This one tells how that went, how life has been since, and what our plans are for the future, with Liam going off to school, me being self employed now, Brett taking on a management roll at work... and Ethy being Ethy... an ever so precious part of our family.

This one (I am SO slack!) is my DT layout for Scrapbook Station. It was loaded a few weeks ago. I loved doing this one. Its about my hopes and dreams to become a photographer and how it all began... way, way back, when it was just a glimmer of an idea, and I hoped I'd be able to find something to do that meant I didn't have to leave my kiddos and could work around them. I never really thought back then that I'd be doing it now... well, I wouldn't have. I couldn't even take an in focus photo back then! LOL. As I said I loved putting this all together. If came together quite quickly and easily once I started. Then just as I was finishing, I for some reason had to stop. I was sick, or one of the kids was? Not sure now. But I left it on my desk overnight. When I got up in the morning I went to scan it, and didn't notice anything unusual about it... then as I took it out of the scanner I realised some of the text had gotten wet and smudged! There was no way I could fix it. The journalling was printed on the stripe piece, which was UNDERNEATH everything else! Thankfully when Brett had shut down the computer that night, he had saved the journalling doc I had open and I was able to bring it back up, reprint it, stick a manilla tag over the section that had smudged, run it through the printer again, remove the tag, and put it in place over the smudged journalling. So there you go... given away all my secrets. And you thought I'd been creative huh. LOL you were wrong LOL But I love it.

THIS ONE I LOVE!
How cute is that photo! Had to get a pic of it. It was the night before Liam's birthday party, and B's dad came over to lend a hand. He decided to whippersnipper. E hates the noise, but didn't want to let Poppy out of his sight, so he decided to stick his fingers in his ears. Brett and I were laughing so hard. We've never seen him do that before.





Finally, my DT challenge layout for Scrap Piles Cyber Crop last Friday night. My topic was polka dots. Originally I used the MM foam stamps to stamp dots on kraft cardstock at the top. I wasn't happy with it, and Cass confirmed for me that it sucked (well, she would never say that LOL), but I decided VERY last minute to rip it off, punch holes in another piece, glue it back on, and call it done. I used a stylus to paint the dots on the HS letters - Lisa LeRay style *thanks for the inspiration darl*. I love how they came out. And I love the photo too. Not sure if he's actually giving me a greasy or not... but I think he's cute!

Opps - I usually alternate a page each for the boys. I'd better pull out some photos of Liam! Now I am definatly past my three minutes! Eeeek. Better get moving.