Loving templates and my little man

Good Evening All - Whilst I have had every intention of keeping up with the blogging it appears life decided to come in and remind me that it remains in charge!  It is not as if I have not had anything to post but then something like the usb cord to connect the camera to the computer goes walkabout! Or when you go to take some photos the camera is out in the car with your husband or when you do have said camera the batteries go flat and the last person to change them over didn't charge them! haha!

So onto the layout - I decided a great way to put together all my favourite photos of Eli was to do a collage of them and do one for every couple of months.  To do this I have used Kerri Bradford's storyboards. I discovered these great timesavers through Laura Vegas and fell in love.  Also here is a link to Kerri's blog. The storyboards are so easy to use and you do not have to put photos in each section either if you don't want to - instead block it out or write something in there. This is Eli 2 to 4 months which actually covered quite a lot including his first plane flight (and his second and third for that matter) when I had a work conference on that was close enough (read 5 hours drive) to extend the stay and go on to visit his Great Grandparents.  The green patterned paper and border sticker is from the Bo Bunny On The Go collection - couldn't go past it.  The journalling looks really dark in the photo but it isn't in person - sorry about that.  I did cut the photo into 3 so that it broke it down a little and show off a bit more of the paper.

For most of us Aussies winter is upon us and the snow is falling in the Alpine regions - wishing I was over there especially in Rutherglen, Victoria because it is Winery Walkabout weekend!  Always a fun time visiting all the wineries and markets.  It holds a special place in my heart too because that is where my husband proposed 5 years ago.  So if you are in the area and have never been - it is a great day out! 

Have a great weekend everyone - whatever it may be that you have planned!

Direction of Dreams

Lately our little family has been contemplating what our plans are - what direction we are going to move towards.  Are we happy where we are and with what we are doing?  For me as I eluded to earlier I am going to dedicate time to myself to do what I love - be that scrapbooking, card making or photography to name a few and I want to share it here on my blog!

For both of us about 6.5 months ago our lives changed forever in the best way possible. It began before then but it was very very real by that point!  Elijah was born healthy at the end of October last year.  This beautiful little man melts everyones hearts and continues to everyday.  Naturally with 2 snap happy parents we would have 1000's of photos wouldn't we?  The answer to that is we do now but that first few weeks not really we were far too busy staring in wonder and smiling at our little man.  Here is one for you - this was when he was 2 weeks old.

Apart from adding to my ever growing list of pages I want to create and of course looking at a whole new range of crafty items suitable for boys this little man makes you reconsider your dreams because now you find yourself focusing on what dreams you also want for him!

This beautiful card above would have to be one of my favourites I have made, yes it took some time with punching and sticking each heart down one at a time but I think it was very much worth it in the end!  The words of course I love and one of the reasons I purchased the stamp set (StampinUp) in the first place many years ago.  The patterned paper is new - I know shock horror...it is Memory Box Brioche.  The inside of the card also has a strip of it.

  So a card and a bit of catch up news from here - hope you are all enjoying and having a great weekend!

Rach

Damo & His Mum!

Damo and his family are very close - and I am also lucky enough to be a part of such a wonderful family! Before moving to WA we lived in the same town as them for 3 years so it was quite an adjustment going from dinner once a week to being 5000kms away! In May this year his parents and grandparents came to visit us and a 2 week stay turned into a month....we tried to make them stay longer! The photo used is of Damo and his mum - we were up the top of a hill to have some nibbles, drinks and watch the sunset which I always say is the best time of day in NorthWest WA as the colours really come out and its just beautiful! Sunrise also ins't that bad!

So this layout is actually for Damo - I gave it too him this morning and he loves it (thats a relief...haha)!

I have taken inspiration for the layout from Makeesha's Sketch Challenge #13 (I love that sketch) but I have turned it around and the squares are not overlapped by the photo. The sash part is also not going down the photo but across it so I could do some journaling. Very similar in concept and if my photo was 5"x7" it would have been just right! The idea to put the sketch into a layout was taken from the very talented Chantelle and you can see that here. I have actually never done an 8"x8" page so this is also a first for me!

There will also be lots more photos from their stay as I (eventually) get around to scrapping them. We went to some beautiful places together like Karajini National Park but I will leave that for another time!

Ingredient List:

Stampin Up:

Night of Navy CS for Base, Pumpkin Pie around photo and squares, Very Vanilla for squares, Wild Wasabi for the journal strip

Boho Background Stamp coloured in Not Quite Navy, Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie and Ruby Red - the middle square does have this stamped but very faint.

Journalling written in Old Olive marker - names and date in Not Quite Navy

Silver Brads on each corner

Other:

D & M stickers (unknown)