It's the Simple Things

Don't you love it when it doesn't take a lot to put a big smile on someone's face. For my boys, it quite often revolves around spending one-on-one time with me. These days that time doesn't come by easily as they are both involved in either swimming or tennis every afternoon after school. Recently though, swimming training was called off so while Mitchell was at tennis, I took Lachie out for afternoon tea. His choice was sushi and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of him with my phone.

Love creating memories like these.
S xoxo

Scrap the Boys - March

This month's challenge is a colour challenge requiring you to create a layout using the following colours: GREEN, BLUE, YELLOW. Don't forget to check out the blog to see what the other talented design team members have created as well as the awesome prizes up for grabs. Don't forget to that entries need to be in by midnight March 31 and need to be created for this challenge only.
Here is my take on the challenge:

I look forward to seeing your creations for this month's challenge.
Thanks for playing along,
S xoxoxox

More Wedding Shares

The only paper gracing my desk over the last few weeks has been either exams or assignments. Most nights have been filled with marking and weekends have been spent watching the boys at various swimming carnivals. Needless to say, scrapping as has blogging even though there were layouts to share. I am using today as an attempt to get 'caught up' on sharing, starting with more layouts from my sister's wedding last year.

Layout One: The Happiest Walk of Her Life

This layout is based on one of my favourite layouts of all time which was itself, a layout lifted by my favourite youtube scrapper, Mercy Tiara. As with most of the wedding layouts, I have made sure to use lots of blue, my sister's favourite colour.

And some close-ups:

I was naughty and added in splashes of pink with misting, inking wood veneers, stitching, flair, punches, stickers and enamel dots. I am sure she won't mind ... too much ;)

Layout Two: Life is Better with You

I completed this layout when scrapping with Donna recently. She challenged me to create a layout using project life cards instead of patterned papers. Lucky for me, the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party PL mini kit features lots of blue. I have scrapped this photo before but I love it. I count myself very lucky to have my older sister in my life.

And some close-ups. I backed all of the PL cards onto vellum. I really liked the idea of using the PL cards and I might even have to try it again soon.

That's it for now.

Thanks for stopping by.

S xoxo

A 'Challenging' Week ...

... sums up my life of late, both literally and metaphorically. I have spent the last few weeks re-assessing my life and made the decision to drop back to part-time work for a few months. This was a very difficult decision to make, not because of the money but because of my perpetual fear of letting people down. I have spent most of my life preferring to dig a deep hole for myself (physically and mentally) rather than know that I have let someone down. But for the first time in a LONG time, I have decided that I need to put myself first - and that is a challenge in itself, however, I am sure that it will all work out in the end.
I have made the most of my free time making sure that I actually have 'me' time by taking up a few scrapping challenges - both official and unofficial. My official challenges were for the February challenges at Scrapbooking From Scratch. Peta and her awesome design team have cut back the amount of challenges per month to 2 - a sketch challenge and a pocket page challenge. I am hoping that these monthly challenges will be just the thing to keep me working towards my goal of clearing my mind and enjoying all that life has to offer.
Here are my takes on this month's challenges - nothing like leaving it to the last minute hehehe.
Share One - Charm's Sketch:

Which was just perfect for scrapping this special moment in Lachie's life - the first time he has broken a record at a swimming carnival. 

The second challenge was to complete a double layout using two different types of pocket pages. At first I was stumped with what to do with this as I only had one style of pocket pages ... that is until I remembered a set of Becky Higgins variety pages I received as part of a prize. A few little slits and a trip through the sewing machine was all one of the pages needed to be a pocket page. Next problem - what photos to use. This wasn't really a problem as I took a truckload of photos at the boys' school swimming carnival recently. They had an awesome day, both winning age champions for their respective age group and swimming quite a few new PB's. I am sure I will scrap individual pages for the boys but this was a great way of getting it all down while the memories were still fresh.

And close-ups of the individual pages: 

Well, that's it for now ... and just in the nick of time, as the deadline is midnight. I really must try and get these challenges done earlier in the month next time around lol.
Cheers
S xoxo

Have you Scrap(ped) the Boys this Month?

This month over at Scrap the Boys, the challenge is to create a layout featuring your boy/s and someone special in their life. 
I decided to create a layout about the bond between my husband and our sons. My husband is a farmer and I am sure he would love nothing more than for both of the boys to have jobs involving farming of some sort when they get older. Here is what I created:

And some close-ups: 

Went 'old school' and dug out my Creative Memories circle cutters and blades to make the circles. 

Journalling is important to me but with all of the circles on the layout, I felt the journalling directly on the layout would have been too much. Thankfully the trust manilla shipping tags came to the rescue again.

So, go on. I dare you to head over to Scrap the Boys and take up this month's challenge. Don't forget that you need to create a layout specific for this challenge and not combine it with other challenges. Link up your layout using the Linky tool for the chance to be in running for some great prizes.
S xoxo

How many?

When you look at your scrapbooks, how often do you see yourself? Are you like me and avoid the camera at all costs or do you make a point of making sure you are 'present' in your albums?

This year, I am determined to put myself more into my layouts. When I look at the many albums on my shelves I am visibly absent from almost all of them. I need to get past the way I look and forget about how much I really don't like myself and remember that it is important the boys have a record of my life with them. I want them to remember me for more than just that person who cooked their meals, washed their clothes, drove them all over the country-side to various sporting activities and sat beside them while they did their homework. I want them to remember me for doing stuff with them, not just for them. This is not going to be easy as I really hate having my photo taken, but I am definitely going to try.

While this photo isn't about the boys as such, it is about a time when we were all together - going out to celebrate my birthday earlier this month. Only Lachie and I are in the photo but I will remember the laughing and joking from everyone in the car as I was trying to take a selfie while Tony was driving us to town, and hitting EVERY bump along the way, not to mention Lachie doing his best to photo-bomb my selfie.

And some close-ups: 

Thanks for stopping by.

S xoxox

Diamonds are forever ...

... unless you don't like the setting that is. This layout is based on the story of a ring that my husband bought me for Christmas in 2012. It was a nice ring - a Ceylon Sapphire surrounded by a cluster of diamonds - and it definitely wasn't cheap and nasty BUT it was totally not 'me'. As much as I tried to like it, I just couldn't do it or even pretend to like it. It broke my heart to admit the truth to my husband but I thought honesty was better than having all that money sit in the box, never to be worn. With his blessing, I exchanged the ring and ended up with a beautiful white gold and diamond set which I wear almost every day.

And some close ups:
I originally wrote the journalling on the layout itself but I messed it up big time. No use panicking - all I did was smooch some gesso over it and added more mist splatters. I then used a circle punch to cut a semi-circle from the top left-hand corner to make a feature for some tags. To keep the tags in place, I created a little pocket on the back of the layout with foam tape and scraps of patterned paper. These are the tags lying on top of the layout. 

And this is how they tuck behind the layout: 

Lots of layers - I am loving layers at the moment. 

I may have done my dash in the jewellery stakes though as my husband gave me a gift voucher for Christmas lol.
S xoxoxo