my 1st Apron

I've been in sewing mode.. again. Have to make a card tonight though. Stay tuned.

Tia's (aunt's) birthday is in a few days, so I made her an apron. I bought the teapot fabric in Portugal and thought it would be perfect for her, as she is from Portugal, was visiting when we were and ended up on the same return flight as us. bonus!
Anyhow, it was my 1st attempt at an apron. Was not what I had in mind and had to sleep on joining the top to the bottom. I know next time, it won't take as long.

Love the pocket and the orange thread.


Today is my baby's 3rd birthday. We skipped the party this year, as we celebrated with some of my husband's family a few days ago, and will celebrate again with my family when we go to Nova Scotia next week. how many parties can a kid have?! Her avo's (grandfather in Portuguese had a birthday also, and when we go down east, poppy will have one too. special to celebrate with both) She told me this morning that she is still 2 and will not be 3 until she sees nanny, b/c nanny is making her a white cake, with white icing and a purple butterfly. She already put in her order. lol I have convinced her during the day that she is now 3 and she has some to terms with it. little minds.
Wow, a lot of info there. She was happy in this picture, I interrupted her "finger poking the icing" obsession that Avo let her get into.
Happy birthday Waffle.


Thanks for looking,
Amanda

clay animals

Howdy!!
As I mentioned before, I've broadened my blurfing to blogs other than papercrafts and was excited to find my way to 4 Crazy Kings. She has awesome activities to do with the kids and I've done a few.

I found a stash of clay in my room. I had bought it from Dollarama a while back and thought it might work for this project.
I cased the whole thing... you can find the original here

The clay was a little more challenging to work with than the model magic. I'm going to look for some to try more things. When the clay did dry, it was brittle. Poor Neve's lion met it's demise as it fell to the floor. Shattered.


I love the colourful Fish that Rafael made. We did a plate background by watering down the paint and blowing it with a straw. they had fun with that one.


Neve's fish was looking colourful until her colours started to run into one another. The joys of no boundaries! I like her plate splat also.


Rafael's lion....


And my favorite is the owl. He painted the branch, then the backgrounds. it is night with a purple moon and the stars.


I highly recommend this activity. I would love to say that it took a long time, but it didn't. We did it in 2 sessions. Make animals and plate backgrounds in one and then painting them in the 2nd after they dried. Sometimes, I think it takes me longer to prepare the activity than it takes them to complete it. Thankfully, they like to paint. They were happy painting extra plates!

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

SU case

Here's the 1st card I cased to get my mojo going last week. I haven't stamped since then, so it's the last I have to show you until I get another hit of inspiration.

it's in the Stampin' Up! catalogue. Don't have it right now, i can't tell you what page it is on.
Of course, I had to change it up a bit. I used Quickutz revolution flowers die and Sizzix buttons die.


We spent the day at an indoor fair, complete with ferris wheel and mini train. It was an awesome day. it's an annual thing and our 3rd year going on May 1st. It's cool to note how each year, my daughter can do more and more. And my son is becoming a speed demon! Here's a special picture from today for my valued Mississauga reader. Beijinhos.


no plans tomorrow, I'm hoping to do some stamping. i finished the dress, but my model isn't being cooperative at present, so maybe another time. And I'm working on another dress.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

home in my arms

My daughter is a snuggler. Always wanting "tuddles". When we're out in the morning, we make it half way thru before she puts her thumb in her mouth and her hand up my sleeve or shirt, depending on what I'm doing. So I stop what I'm doing and have some "tuddle time" I know it won't last forever, so I go with it.


The swirl is chipboard painted white. Script is, "No matter where we are, in my arms you are always home."


I cut out the circle in the brown paper and wanted to use the Friskar's circle lace punch. I couldn't work it correctly, so I used my corner punch around the edge for a little scallop. that changed the flow for the rest of the layout.
The flowers are double sided stickers that I glittered with martha Stewart. Man oh man, I can't believe I used so much of it and had it flying everywhere. Guess my glitter fear is in the past. The house is Maya Road, I painted the back white and used the stickers for the house parts. Buttons from the buck store and the home letters from a pack from Wal mart. Bird from Prima.
Maybe one day I'll make a page of her without pink. I've been informed that her favorite colour is purple, thank you very much. :} So now my wall has her bright pink page and Rafael's cool blue page.


Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Sea Maiden

We took these pictures last summer on our visit to Shelbourne, Nova Scotia. It was a great sailing event and a lovely little town. hoping to make it an annual thing.


The title and the embellishments are not really coordinating. I have birds all over the place and then slap a nautical title. Oh well, I couldn't think of anything to call it.


The flowers are ones that I made, the green felt frame is from a flower coaster at Michael's, Red bird-Quickutz, acrylic bird-May road? I also bought a few houses. I added the buttons in that odd place as there is a hole there from the ball and chain it was on. Why do they do that? Do you have any of those chipboard outline people? They have a hole on the top of their head! What do you do with that? But I digress....The white writing is from Quickutz also. Paper- bought at the 2nd hand sale last week. Will find out the name later. They totally dictated and changed my plan for these pictures. I wanted to do a spread of my crochet flowers, but when I saw this paper, i just had to use it. it went with the colours in the photo.

It was a lovely day at my LSS, Scrapbook By Design. I attended a crop. Went late, as my printer ran out of ink and I had to get them printed at the grocery store. thank goodness for the instant digital prints eh? I left a little early, as i was feeling guilty, imagining my family home without me. You feel that too sometimes? Jokes on me, they weren't here when I got home! They were still out and about. They went to a maple sugar bush and had some fun. I think I'll make a little book out of the pics DH took.

K, thanks for looking,
AManda

pout much?

Whipped this layout up tonight, This is the photo I wanted to use my crochet flowers on. I've been making all kinds and shapes and sizes. But the other day, I bought this bazzil textured paper and had it on my desk. I also was looking thru my bucket of primas (bought at Stamping Bella) and had them on the paper. BAM! idea came to mind.


I was first thinking of putting different coloured thread in the buttons, but decided to make it monochromatic when I found this slippery cotton in my embroidery floss box. Yes, the picture is yellow. I special effect-ed it that way. Had I known I was going to do this layout, I probably would have antiqued it a bit or washed it out some more. The letters some from a stack, I mean , maybe over 75 pages of letter punchouts I bought at a 2nd hand sale for 2 bucks!! Colours galore!

I shall use this kind of layout again. I'm curious to try it with coloured thread.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Joy Joy!

At this time of year, I work with an agency and sing Christmas carols in various places around the city. My husband brought the kids to watch me and Neve was enthralled. She got daddy to come back twice before they actually left.

When I came home, she wanted to put on my costume. I managed to snap this picture before the doilie fell off.

I KNEW I had to scrap it. When I went to my friend Sarah's to play (www.sarahiscrafty.com) she let me loose with her Quickutz Silhouette cutting system. WOW! Great machine. Endless.....




I chose this Joy Ornament on real red SU cardstock. The black paper is from Making memories. It is in a pack of 6 black pages with various cutouts. I embossed around the opening using my enveloper as a guide. The snow flakes are SU and the brads in them are from Target. Got them a few years ago. The silver flowers on the snowflakes are also form SU. The ribbon is from Michael's, last year.
So tickled that the green CS matches the shirt.

her photo is not so washed out in Real Life. I braved the freezing cold and took it out on the walkway to get some light. It sure was bright today. And Cold. And windy. I chased that thing around the yard more than I wished. lol

I think I'm a think about it for a few days scrapper.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Bonita!

What a great night last night!

Went to a crop at my LSS, Scrapbooks by Design. Group of friends went. We all put out our wares of Quickutz, Nestabilities and Cuttlebug supplies and then created.

I felt so productive. I went with 2 layouts in mind and practically finished the 1st one in an hour, but then went to Starbucks for a tea run. Man, time sucker! Anyhow, here's one of my layouts:


The picture is of my daughter on Halloween. My friend brought this flamenco dress back from Spain this summer. And there are shoes to match!! Love them
I was so excited to find the background paper. The white swirls sold me on it. I had spent the previous night covering and sanding the chipboard swirls. that helped a lot in terms of time.

The title is Quickutz (sorry, don't know which one), the flower is the actual flower that was in her hair that I made of scrapbook supplies on hand. Then added a few jewels for the dot of the i and on the side of the B.

Oh yes, inspiration for this layout came from Christine Drumheller at
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1409898

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

I did it!!

Yeah! I finally scrapped a page!! I've been wanting to like forever. I've been taking pictures with the intent to do it. I've been collecting scrapping stuff. And tonight... I did it!!
This layout is from Jennifer Akirk's blog. I discovered it while blurffing. I would go back everyday to see it, but realized that it she had stopped blogging in March!. But I love so many of her layouts. Here's the one in February.



The paper on the right side is SU. It was a little too white for the American Craft dotted paper, so i used creamy caramel chalk on it. Kinda hoping it matches one of the circles. And look!! I used glitter!! Lots of it. My room is a mess. My clothes are a mess! I haven't looked at my face yet. And I'm still here!! THe swirl is from a 2nd hand sale. Don't know who it is by, but I have almost 4 whole sheets of circles and swirls. Yeah. I used the martha Stewart glitter on it. The letters are from the dollar store. Can you believe it? 1 buck! Even better as my LSS didn't have brown. I better go buy more, now that I'm into this scrapping thing. :}


Instead of putting my journalling on white paper, I printed it on acetate. Then used the 3 teeny, tiny brads in the corners.

I'm so happy I actually did it. It's not heavily embellished or a lot of photos, but I like it. I printed off a few more photos and am looking at layouts to make more. Just not getting anywhere with the card thang. Maybe this is the change I need. I'll welcome it. :}

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

another thank you

Howdy!
I've been making a few things here and there, but I'm too lazy to take pics. I have a bunch of stuff I want to sell on Craigslist, too lazy! I mean, come on.. the opportunity to make money and I'm too lazy. Some stamp sets to sell on here and ebay. too lazy. I should probably stop falling asleep with the kids and waking up at 2 am with my 6 hours of sleep.
Anyhow,
here is a batch of thank you cards I made for my neighbour. Simple and no layers. The ink is chalk inks. I love the vibrancy of them.


We went on a leaf hunt expedition today. The sumach trees are on fire! the kids had a great time. I snapped a few photos, but love the angle of this one. i know that the light on her face is a little harsh, but the makeup of it calls to me. I think it's all the texture and business of the leaves and then the smooth solid colour of her coat. And the little blob of colour in her dollie that she is holding.


So, may be I'll get my butt in gear to take some photos....

thanks for looking,
Amanda

Darling Neve

Ok, I just had to show you. I couldn't keep this one to myself. Here is Neve so very proud of finally getting the spoon to herself. I HATE messy, messes and she is a messy eater! Her older brother was MUCH cleaner.
I wasn't sure what to grab, the facecloth or the camera. THe camera won this once. :}

I have a new scrapbook page and a few cards to show you tomorrow. It's for my friend's twin boys b-day. I can't show you now, as she may be reading this. Go to bed Jen!!

Oh yes, I WON blog candy. THanks Emily!! I'm also expecting my Stampin' Up demonstrator starter kit tomorrow or Tuesday, so it should be an exciting time here. Better clean my room!:}

Thanks for looking..
AManda

baby Neve

Here is one of the few scrapbook pages I've done. I feel overwhelmed with the size of the 12x12 page. I will share some pages I did later that are about the size of a card:} That I can handle.

These pics were taken after Valentine's day at our drop in centre. All of the Valentine crafts were put into the sensory bin. It looked like fun, so I just plunked Neve into it. Her brother was pouring the stuff over her head. They were having so much fun. Neve was 6 months old then.

The picture does not do justice to the colours. I'm looking into making a light box, so hopefully these poor lighting photos will be a thing of the past.

Pink background paper is bazzil, the red swirly paper from Absolute dollar.
All the brads, jewel hearts, ribbons and buttons also from the dollar store. The paper hearts from my LSS, Scrapbooks by Design. (they have online catalogue. check them out....www.scrapbooksbydesign.ca) Probably sizzex or quick kutz. THe stamp set is "So Very" bu Stampin' Up. Some primas layered in the middle and my white signo pen on the top of the page for the hearts.

Thanks for looking.

Have a great Labour Day. Hope you aren't labouring!

Amanda