Monday, May 31, 2010

And the race is on . . .



Here they go - Jiggles vs. her shepherd. She runs all over wherever he tends to be. So they decided to race around and back to the bucket. Know what we found out????

Jiggles Cheats!!!!! Silly Lamb - cheating isn't good. Her little shepherd is going down here and she won the race! She discovered that hitting behind the knees will bring down whoever is in front. However, she did come back to see him once she realized he was no longer with her.

If you want to see how Jiggles has grown, go back to January 2009 posts - that is when she was born. Sheering next week.

One Relaxed Cat (and boy)

Orange-o and his owner sacked out for a few zzzzz's on a Sunday afternoon. Sure wouldn't want to think the cat isn't comfortable.

Below is the new dog, Freddy. He is a Beagle/Basset mix and will hopefully train well and quickly to take over for Spot who is currently 15, and having quite a few health issues (we thought he would pass away last summer, but made it through with some TLC). However, we did need a new dog to take over Spot's duties of keeping animals out of the barn and garden. Fred is learning quick, but is still scared of the sheep, cows and ducks. He keeps coming to me when I try to snap photos another will come soon.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Keeping Busy

New Babies, Scrapbooking Fun Swaps and Practical Scrappers Challenge projects (scroll down for details :)).

New babies all around and swaps - yes, it has been busy. Helping with a petting zoo tomorrow, so the animals are all getting ready. Below you see Walnut (the little guy) and Peanut. Peanut is growing well and still gets excited to see her bottle. Walnut is now a bottle baby because his mother tried to kill him. She will be leaving soon. Walnut got his name because he will be bigger than a Peanut when he is grown.



Below are some layouts I created for my page sketch swap over at Scrapbooking Fun. I had a ton of fun putting them together and they will accommodate 4-7, 4x6 prints.

Beach Layout - created with the Cricut Life is a Beach cartridge. The blue polka-dot paper in the lower of the two images is removable - just there for photo placement. All the swaps have different backgrounds.Family/Heritage Layouts. Below is my starting sketch (it will be included with all swaps). I vary a bit, but not too much. When designing these pages, I have a stack of 4x6 photos on hand that I place upside down onto layouts for sizing. This layout allows for 6 photo's, easily, more if you scoot stuff around. This layout is also the first one of my pieces for a Patterned Paper challenge at Practical Scrappers I used three different patterns from the DCWV Indian Summer stacks. The other is below in the Primary Colors section





Nature Layout - I am having fun with the Whitewash Core'dinations papers. They really do well when trying to create understated embossed images. I also used some pre-glittered felt with these (as well as regular felt). My design studio comes in handy for titles. This sketch is very similar to the Heritage layout sketch, but I think that one large and two 4x6 would look best. However, it easily accommodates 4-6 4x6 photos.





Primary Colors Layouts - I enjoy mats for some pages, others, I don't. Lately I have been using a lot of Stazon and inking the edges of my photos or leaving a white edge on the photos rather than matting. You can see a small version of the sketch for the top two layouts in the second layout. The third layout is designed to handle 2 larger photos with memorabilia up near the top or 5, 4x6 photos. The Blue background layout is my second one for the patterned paper challenge over at Practical Scrappers . I enjoy using different patterned papers, though kept them pretty minimal here to maximize the user's ability to utilize the layout.




One regret with a few layouts - now I wish I had thought to do a bit more inking :(. Maybe next time.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Pretty Skittles/Dew Drops/Pebbles


The photo doesn't quite do these justice - they are so sparkly under the lights and make me smile.

I did a swap with these over at Scrapbooking Fun. Based on a few inquiries by friends - I will be offering them for sale. 15 different colors - 1/4 cup each packet - for $25.00 (includes priority shipping in USA). I will be listing on my website soon - just need to finish the new pages :).

Wednesday, May 5, 2010


Congratulations to Mimsymarie - winner of the BlogCation Challenge! Above is a part of her prize package! Once I recall where I put the other items, they may make it to the photo (ever do that?)

I also participated in some challenges over at Sketches 4 All - I won a RAK drawing with the following:


A few other challenge projects I participated in: