Fabulous February Crop

Posted on March 1, 2010 by daydesigns

Okay, okay. I know it’s March 1st today but I have been so crazy busy (and sick) that I am WAY behind on my blog posts. A week ago Saturday (Feb 20th) I went to my first ever all day crop. It went from 8:00am to midnight but I knew there was no way I could commit to that. LC is doing great taking milk from a bottle but I didn’t think she’d accept being apart from me (and my you-know-whats) for THAT long! I left Greg at 11-ish hoping that taking all 3 girls to Marley’s soccer game would be okay. He later took them plus one of Marley’s friends to the Richmond Ozone to experience some more Olympic excitement. Crazy? I thought so! Little did we know that Paige and Marley and I would be struck down with stomach flu later that evening. Paige ended up throwing up on the bus home, Marley in the bushes outside our door. Me? I had to leave the workshop I’d been waiting all day to do and drove home repeating the mantra “I will not throw up in the car”! It was NOT a fun night and Greg was AMAZING!! Poor guy. He had to deal with all the dirty sheets, pillows, towels, bowls, you name it, as I was out for the count!

I did manage to get several layouts finished which I wanted to share with you today. I specifically took Marley’s Baby Album to work on so was very pleased to get more pages added. Here they are:

This was the first time we took Marley to Victoria (Greg’s hometown) to show her off to friends and family there. It was her first ferry ride too – first of many!! While there we took her to the petting zoo at Beacon Hill Park. I think I was more interested in the goats than she was – LOL!
I took this picture of Marley one afternoon when she was napping because I thought it was hilarious! She slept in a cradle (the same cradle that her Uncles Matt, Dave & Paul slept in as babies) next to our bed until this picture was taken when we figured she’d finally outgrown it and moved her into her crib in her own room!
I don’t know if this is strictly an appropriate layout in include in Marley’s book or not but since it was probably her first “kid” birthday party, and it is for her cousin Matthew, I figure what the heck! There are no rules for what goes in the book and what doesn’t, right?
I got to play with a Cricut at the crop (thanks Jenn) so the lettering and the fun shapes were all made with the Cricut. I MAY have to ask Santa for one this Christmas!!
This last layout came together really easily and is probably one of my favourites so far. I cut the clothing lines out and it looks pretty neat. I took a close up of the last picture in this series because it is a classic! Marley asleep in her highchair after trying “solid” food for the first time!
I started another layout but didn’t bring enough paper and then ran out of adhesive so it is still “being worked on”. So to speak! The workshop I had to leave suddenly was for a mini album which is for someone so I will reveal that at a much later date! There was also a fun Make and Take which I haven’t taken pictures of either. It is a mini key chain/tag album with a Christmas theme. I haven’t added pictures yet and will have to think of who it will be for …

That’s all for now. Scrap-wise I will be working on my Project 12 layout for February and a special Olympics layout for my Project 12 album. It was such a fun filled 2 weeks that it needs a layout all of its own! Family post-wise I will post about Marley’s 6th Birthday, attended the Short Track that night and her Birthday Party (Soccer themed – made her dad so proud!!) So stay tuned everyone and thanks for checking in.

Posted in layout, Marley's Baby scrapbook, Scrapbook | 1 Comment

Joy! Ballerina Paige

Posted on February 12, 2010 by daydesigns

I posted a while back about a mystery contest that Sir Stampalot and Floral Fantasies are having (see their post here) … well I finally got my layout finished for the challenge. The deadline is tomorrow at midnight GMT which is in about … um … yeah, well I can’t figure that out but it’s soon!! Yikes! Talk about cutting it close!!
Because Sit Stampalot is celebrating the grand opening of their new store, the theme prompt for the challenge is “MOVING” – however we interpret that. I immediately thought I’d do something on when we moved into our new house a couple years ago but … I did this instead:

Shortly after buying my new Canon Rebel T1i, Paige had her first ballet class of the new year so I took my camera along and “played” while watching her. I had printed off a few pictures intending to use them on my Project 12 January 2010 layout but they got left on the cutting room table (so to speak!) Greg had picked one up and said how cute it was and I knew I wanted to use them but the question was how? Then Sketchy Thursday’s latest sketch popped into my head and the rest was easy!
Here are some detail shots:
There was no spot on the sketch for journalling so I tucked a card in behind one of the pictures.
I figure by the time I actually get around to working on Paige`s album, it`ll be half done already! Of course, at the rate I`m going, Paige will be a Grandma by the time I finish Marley`s album and am ready to work on hers!!!
Today I am grateful for …
… ProD days …
… wearing pj`s until 10am …
… babies that take 2 hour morning naps and allow Mama to start and finish an entire layout!
Posted in challenges, layout, Paige, Scrapbook | 14 Comments

Project 12 – January 2010

Posted on February 10, 2010 by daydesigns

I read about Project 12 here which is a year long challenge put on by Scrapbook & Cards Today. Basically at the end of each month you make one layout (or more if you’ve had a busy month which I expect February to be!) that summarizes your month. They give you a sketch to use as a starting point (or to completely reject – whatever your preference) and you have until the 20th of the following month to upload your layout. There are monthly prizes too! This year the sketches are all from Becky Fleck of PageMaps and so far they are awesome! You can check out the Januray sketch here. (I used this sketch once already – for Marley’s Baby Shower layout here.) This time I actually reversed it as I found it worked better with my pictures that way.

The papers (except for the kraft, pink and chocolate cardstock) are from a couple different Martha Stewart packs that I found at Homesense – one of which came with a coordinating album which I figure is perfect to hold the whole project. I need to come up with a cover page but that can wait a while I think!
Here are some pictures of the details:
The flowers I made with my Cuttlebug (thanks Sandra!) and the Flowers Die. I used 3 different papers then just by combining shapes and colours and using a Basic Grey brad to hold them all together I got some pretty neat results. I also glued some of the flower shapes onto the layout first then attached my flower on top for a larger total embellishment. You can see in this one below that I also attached some ribbon.
I figure I can try to add pictures of the girls (like these ones below) to every months layout as a kind of record of change. Not that Paige and Marley change too much on a month to month basis but LC sure does!
You may have noticed that even though I have the large journalling card I also added little comments on the pictures. I figured this was a good way to make it more personal. No matter how big the journalling block, I can always find more to say!! And some things just need to be written right on the pictures like the one at the bottom of LC grabbing Charlie’s bum – it needed a little funny comment so I wrote “Grabbing some hiney!”
Thanks for checking out my latest layout!
Today I am grateful for …
… cooler temperatures which MAY mean some actual snow on the local mountains for the Olympics (keep praying everybody!) …
… my health and the ability to run …
… my parents, who had a dream of emmigrating to Canada because they heard it was so beautiful and now I get to experience something so amazing as the Olympic Games here!
Posted in challenges, layout, Project 12, Scrapbook | 1 Comment

Baby Shower LO

Posted on February 7, 2010 by daydesigns

Time for another scrapbook layout for Marley’s Baby Album.

Sorry to all the folks out there (anyone? anyone? Bueller? Bueller?) that check this blog for updates on the daily lives of the Days. I’m in a scrapping-zone at the moment and there really hasn’t been too much exciting/blog worthy to report. The Olympics start next weekend and the torch is running through Delta on Tuesday so … stay tuned! There’s BOUND to be excitement then!! Oh, and for anyone keeping track, Marley will be turning 6 in a few weeks so there’s sure to be a party or something to blog about!! Probably. She DOES have her first loose tooth right now which is incredibly exciting for her but which Greg and I are already getting sick of hearing about! Kids have a way of grabbing onto a subject and talking it to death, don’t they?

Back to the layout … This is of Marley’s baby shower that my sister-in-law threw for us. I used a PageMaps sketch again (actually for the January’s Project 12  over at Scrapbook and Cards today – I hope to participate in this challenge too) as I had a lot of pictures I wanted to try to fit on. I’m sort of in the habit right now of printing off the pictures I want to use in both a 4×6 size and a 2×3 size. That way I can mix and match them on a layout. I’ll figure out what to do with the leftovers at another time!! LOL! Oh, and this time I remembered to take a picture of the two pages together (after I started this post mind you!)

 
I had originally intended to use a piece of pink cardstock but when I put the orange down I liked the effect so much I kept it. The butterflies are more of the ones I got from Sandra – I used two joined in the centre by a piece of the Pop Dots “extra” (i.e. the sticky back foam that all those wonderful dots are housed in. I actually use this part to give dimension to a lot of my lo’s – can’t bear to waste perfectly good dimensional adhesive!) Once the two butterflies were stuck together I added a Martha Stewart blingy to, well, bling it up a little! Here is a closeup of the butterflies:
And more detail shots:
My sister-in-law Jo’s Mum (Amma Lynne) somehow managed to get Marley to fall asleep on her tummy and we got a picture. How cute is she, eh?! She never slept like that again though! Amma Lynne is magic!!
All right, off to scrap Marley’s First Easter!
Posted in layout, Marley's Baby scrapbook, Scrapbook | 1 Comment

More Pages Done!

Posted on February 4, 2010 by daydesigns

I just finished two more pages for Marley’s baby album – whooee! I’m on a roll!!
I am attending my very first crop in a couple weeks and have been inspired to get organized for it. Part of that organization is finally scrapping the last batch of pictures I’d printed of Marley’s first few weeks of life. The first page is of Marley’s first ride in a car and first walk in her stroller. Ah, that Graco stroller/travel system has seen a lot now!! But back then it was brand new. And so clean!!

When I was setting up for this LO I decided to do it a bit different than I normally do. Normally I spend ages picking paper and figuring out how to arrange pictures. Usually by the time I’ve sort of half finalized the layout, I’ve got just about every scrap of paper I own out on the table and have so confused myself that I have to step away from the project for a bit to regroup! Yesterday I looked at the 6 pictures I wanted to scrap and knew that the 4 above were in a similar vein so could work on one page. I then found a sketch I liked and looked for a piece of cardstock to use as the base. I said to myself that I would just pick one and go with it and I did! All in all the layout above took me maybe an hour or so to complete. Pretty quick for me!!
Are you diggin’ the glasses on us both? mmmm … Since then Greg’s had laser eye surgery and I’ve got a new pair of (I think) trendier specs! Eye surgery for me will come but since my eyes are so bad that it’s not going to be the “simple” procedure that Greg had, I think I will wait until I have the time (ha!) and money (double ha!) … so, like, never, right?! Digressions aside, the walk we took that day (2010 looks like it could have another warm, sunny late Feb too!!) was just around the block. That was when I realized that you really CAN’T push out a 9lb 4oz baby and expect to feel like walking a few days later!
The next page was of Marley’s One Week check up. I’ve titled it Dr. Lori as that is who our doctor was back then. She has since retired and we have a fabulous new doctor who delivered LC but Marley and I still miss “Dr. Lori”.
I was in the middle of working on this when the new Sketchy Thursday layout was posted so I decided to alter my original idea (which wasn’t very well formed anyway) and use their sketch. I think it is better now than whatever I would have come up with!
Alright, we’ve got her first week down … only …. a bunch more to go! LOL!
Today I am thankful for …
… sunshine!
… time to create …
… coffee (again – LC is sick and not sleeping well!)
Posted in challenges, layout, Marley's Baby scrapbook, Scrapbook | 5 Comments

Marley’s 1st Birthday

Posted on January 29, 2010 by daydesigns

Wow! Three posts in one day?! Hmmm … I wonder who was looking after my kids today? LOL!!

I said I’d try my hand at the Design Dollies Elements Challenge and so I did. It was to make something Birthday themed and I scrapped Marley’s 1st Birthday Party. I figure as long as I’m entering challenges I might as well make progress on Marley’s Baby Scrapbook at the same time! This is a double page LO but I realized that I did not actually take a picture of it as a double layout. Hmmm… may have to add it later! I’m also entering the first page into the PageMaps Basic Grey Challenge. How appropriate that my papers are all Basic Grey (Cupcake line – which I received from the Design Dollies as part of a blog candy win – thank you Dollies!!)

Left Hand page of LO
Right Hand page of LO
Some details: The #1 is from a set of alphas I found at Homesense of all places! I didn’t need another reason to shop there but … whatd’yaknow!!
This was my first (and only for that matter) birthday cake I’ve made for my kids (it’s been store bought or cupcakes since then!) – the icing around the outside was supposed to be pink in colour but … it didn’t really work out. Oh well. That’s what I get for trying to do everything from scratch! The duck looked pretty cool though. Oh, and it was a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting … YUM!
The pack of BG paper came with a page of sticker embellishments with a ready made title! Sweet! No wonder I could scrap the whole LO in only a couple hours!
I did a little poem as my journalling – it sort of just came out that way! It reads;
“Time flies when you’re having fun.
Can you believe that Marley is ONE?!
I made you a cake with a duck.
You blew out the candle for luck.
Cousins were there, fun was had, oh what a year!”
I received these green shiny alphas from Anne at BASB as part of an awesome (and totally unexpected – thought it was going to be a gift certificate) RAK and I just knew the colour would be perfect here! Marley has always loved parties – maybe it started here?
She even liked the cake!!
Well, there we go. Another 2 pages done in Marley’s album. Yay! Thanks for looking!
Posted in challenges, layout, Scrapbook | 1 Comment

Bath Time!

Posted on January 29, 2010 by daydesigns

Here is the new LO I promised …

Marley was our first baby and while we did get the “how to give your baby a bath” lessons in our prenatal classes AND watched the nurse at the hospital quite carefully, somehow once we were home and having to do it all on our own on a real live baby … not so much fun!! The pictures do not show me sitting on the floor in my bathrobe (I guess I was thinking she was going to splash me or something) crying that I was not fit to be a Mom ‘cus I couldn’t give my daughter a bath! They do show Greg’s arm (top right pic) because he ended up taking over! And you’ll probably notice we did all this in the kitchen sink – she got to bathe amidst the rice cooker, the coffee grinder, and all manner of potentially toxic things!  LOL! Ah, live and learn!! 3 kids later … bath time is a relatively painless process. Relatively!!
Here are some close ups of the details and journalling:
The flower was a decoration on a goodie bag our girls received at a wedding we went to in the summer. I KNEW I’d end up using it somewhere!! I cut out the letters from an old cereal box and glittered them myself so closeup you can kind of see the UPC code peaking through but … I’m going to pretend they’re perfect!! I drew and cut the waves out freehand – not too shabby, right? 🙂

This is for the Design Dollies Colour Challenge which was to use a monochromatic blue scheme. It was actually a tough challenge for me. Having 3 girls I have PILES of pink paper but surprisingly little blue. Go figure! I was a bit worried about it looking too “boy-ish” but I think the flower, the ribbon and the sparkly letters keep it “girly”. The sketch is actually a hybrid of last weeks Design Dollies sketch and last weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch which were eerily similar! I was hoping to finish the LO in time to enter it into both challenges but … life has a way of keeping me from my scrapping!

Okay, one more LO down for Marley’s Baby album … unknown number to go!! The Elements Challenge at Design Dollies is to make a Birthday inspired project so I may skip from week one in her life to her first birthday and attempt to enter another challenge. My goodness! Two challenges in one month?! Can she do it?! Stay tuned to find out!

Posted in challenges, layout, Marley's Baby scrapbook, Scrapbook | 2 Comments