Crop 'Til You Drop

Grr! Wanted to tell you about this sooner but have been ill. If you catch this, be sure you check out Scrapbookersplayground's Crop 'Til You Drop tonight at 7:00pm Eastern. Lots of goodies and lots of fun. We'll have designers dropping in throughout the evening and they'll be bringing goodies. Will try to stop by myself if I get to feeling better. Have fun!

This week's CT layouts

This week I have two more new kits by Carol Burns of Carol's Crafty Corner (found at SBP) and one from Cathie Alessia (also found at SBP).

Here are two layouts created with Carol's "Purple Passion" which can be found here:

http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&manufacturers_id=138&products_id=6859


Don't you love these delicate filigree ornaments? And such pretty papers!
In the layout below, I filled the banner with white so my letters would show better & also put a white background behind the photo. I wanted that delicate silver frame to show up well.

Carol calls the kit I used, in the three layouts below, "Josephine 2." It's a very interesting and dramatic kit with three shades in the red family. In the first layout, you will see a deep red that manages to be both similar to dark garnet but also close to deepest orange red. I don't know how to describe it better. Using silver frames and accents with garnet and dark gives a very dramatic look, don't you think? Find the kit here:
http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&manufacturers_id=138&products_id=6894

The layout that follows features the coppery satin background. Again, put black with it and you've got a look that's both vintage and dramatic. I especially love that bubble frame; it's so art deco!

This final layout with "Josephine 2" shows off a lovely black and white paper and the accents in what I'd call a red red. I took the red bubble frame and expanded it to an oval shape to hold this photo of my grandson at 14 months of age.

Next you'll see three layouts with Cathie's "Friendship 2" found here:

http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&manufacturers_id=65&products_id=6868

As soon as I saw the red, I knew I had to scrap something with my friend, Wanda, in it. Red is her favorite color and this is a fun it I know she'll love. So here below is a layout recalling one of our annual retreats to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show. The top photo shows me, my friend Sandy (Wanda's younger sister) and Wanda. In photo below that is of my mother and my Aunt Suzy (really Martha but we call her Suzy). This was about the last year Mom was able to go with us.

There are such cute elements to play with in this kit. I had to use the beads; they remind me of all our trips to bead shops and of making jewelry together.

Here's Cathie's kit again. The white paper is blending into my plain background; the paisley to the right side is a border on the paper. There are some beads again and to go with the darling flowers in the kit, I cut flowers from a blue paper to center the vintage photos on.

You've seen this layout before in my brief tribute to Walter. Here the paisleys aren't on the paper but I really like them as a border so added some of the individual paisley forms. The bead wrapped frame really sets off the page, doesn't it?

Next week

Don't know if I'm getting back on Sunday or Monday but when I do, there will be a featured artist of the week article. Next week's artist is Cherrie Webb better known as AfriDigiDiva. Please visit and read about her.

There will be free goodies for you too, I promise.

Free Holiday Printables from Lisa Vollrath

If you've never seen Lisa's countdown to Christmas offerings, you've been missing a good treat. Starting December first, she will post a holiday freebie to download each day until Christmas. Here is her link:
http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/

Don't forget to take a look at all the goodies Lisa makes and sells at TenTwoStudios.

Thank you Lisa for your holiday gifts!

Remembering Walter

If you visited on Sunday to read about my featured artist of the week and find a freebie, I disappointed you. Allow me to explain why.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, our friend, Walter Harris, who had been fighting prostate cancer and complications from diabetes and gout, took a fall at home. He was taken to the emergency room to check for possible broken bones. There were none, but fluid had built up around his heart and in his lungs so he was admitted. Further testing showed that the end was near and on Thanksgiving Day he was moved to hospice care. He died very early on 25 November with his wife at his side.

My husband met him when Walter worked for the local transit authority from which he retired a number of years ago. The Harrises were our friends are well as neighbors. They helped us move into our house, and we often met for meals and chat. Walter was well educated, a former teacher. He had a dry wit and eclectic tastes in reading material - everything from the classics to vampire stories. He rescued abused dogs and often said he found animals more enjoyable than people. It's hard not to imagine picking up the phone to hear his soft spoken mellow tones suggesting we meet for breakfast at "Shonenberger's" as he called Shoney's. His favorite phrase was "Who cares?" delivered in a tone that suggested a deep cynicism but which hid a soft heart.
Walter would be amazed to discover just how many people did care when they heard the news of his demise. He wanted no funeral, no service but later this week friends will gather for a small wake at one of his favorite eateries and lift a glass to his memory. We'll miss him.

A few layouts with me and my family

When my ex-husband and I divorced, we agreed he'd keep the photo albums for our son, who stayed with him to finish his senior year of high school. It seemed reasonable at the time as I was moving back in with my parents until I could find my own place and didn't have a lot of room. I took my son's baby book to keep, only later realizing how few photos it contained. Nearly twenty-five years of my life sort of disappeared. I mention this to explain the layout below.

When I saw Carol Burns' "Coffee Break" I knew I wanted to do something about my grad school days at Virginia Commonwealth University. When the layout was all but complete, I realized I didn't have any photos from that time! However, my ex-husband had just loaned me our old albums to scan so I went searching through them. Had to extract me from a photo around that time and play with VCU symbols to cover over what was missing but I think it turned out pretty well. You can't read the layout very well here but the notepaper reads: Secrets to surviving graduate school:
Always take a cup of coffee with you when you have to teach 8 o'clock classes
For grading papers late at night, have coffee and chocolate ready,; glance through quickly and put the worst on top to do first.
If no one shows up for office hours, take a coffee break with a friend
Keep emergency chocolate in the office (but hide it from your office mate)

I actually prefer tea to coffee but coffee was more readily available on campus. Four days of the week, I'd leave home at 7 am to teach 8am classes, then rush to my own classes, get a couple hours to rush home and see to my son, fix the family dinner, rush back to campus several nights at week for eveing classes, rush home to study and grade student papers often 'til 2am, then back up again. Fridays were a lighter day class wise so I crammed study and research time and chores in then. Friday night I crashed and was allowed to sleep in until 10:30. Looking back it's hard to believe that in my thirties I survived two graduate programs while teaching and managing family responsibilites! I was tough but I sure loved it and really miss teaching.

Here's Carol Burns' "Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend" kit again. The two couples seen below are really the same - me and my husband. The first photo taken when we dated in high school (we graduated in 1969). It's not a very good photo of John who was tall, dark, and handsome. He was 6'4" tall and clearly Italian (first generation It.Amer. on father's side, several generations in SicilianAmer. on mother's side). I was 5'6" tall and incredibly skinny. I weighed just 86 lbs. in this photo (& no, I was not anorexic or anything like that), pale in comparison (English & Irish background). People always commented on the contrast.
The next photo was taken in 1995 when we got back together again. John's still handsome but has put on some weight. I'm not longer skinny but a normal size (pre fibro!). In love again, we were practically sparkling that day at the German Diner.

This layout was created using Pyna's "Serenity" kit. Find it here:
http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&products_id=6796

This is several years after the photo above. We married in 1996 and about a year later his daughter married. Her son, Tyler Reid Caron, was born October 27, 1998 - our first grandchild. This is Tyler's proud Papa holding him when he was 3 days old. I wish I'd taken better photos so you could see John's expression. He loves children and was overjoyed with his grandson. Still is.

This layout, also made with "Serenity" shows a casual pose of my son taken in 1996 along with his graduation photo. This is typical Jeremy with T-shirt and flannel shirt topper.

That's all the family layouts for the moment.

Layouts With Photos From My Parent's Albums

A few months ago, I borrowed my parents' photo albuns from Dad and have been busily scanning them and making layouts off and on.

The first two layouts here were created with AMB Designz' "Beautiful Honey" available at Scrapbookersplayground (SBP):
http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&manufacturers_id=126&products_id=6839
This one was taken about 1950. In the top right photo is my father; he used to spell his name with "ie" instead of the usual "y" so I've done the same thing in my layouts. He would have been 22 then and was still very skinny. When I was younger and until about age 26, I could not gain weight no matter what I tried. Dad showed me old photos of himself saying he was so thin my grandmother would have to take in the seams of any pants he bought and the back pockets were pretty much touching. Today my son has the same problem and he's nearly 30.
The yound man in the middle of the layout (right side of photo bottom left) is my father's younger brother, my Uncle Bobby who died earlier this year. Don't know who the friend is with him.

More photos from the same time period. I'm guessing 1949 when my parents married or 1950. That's my parents in the left hand photo and their friends. Mary & Leroy Daniels in the right. Because of the corsages, I think these photos were taken at Easter. They were visiting Norfolk's Zoological Garden in downtown. It has a zoo, play area for children, gardens and greenhouse. It would have been a nice place for them to go for a stroll and chat with friends.

Here are some layouts made with Carol Burns' "Golden Splendor." You can find the kit here:

http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&products_id=6765

The one below looks like early summer time and I'm approximating that these were taken prior to my parents' marriage because here my parents were accompanied in their visit to the Hague by Mom's older sister, Agnes Nadine Lowe Jarvis (Dean). I think Aunt Dean was in her early 20's at this time & already married. I suppose her husband, Raymond Jarvis was working at this time as there were no photos of him this day. He was a Norfolk policeman. Mom would have been either 15 0r 16 depending on the month. She turned 16 July 30 and married Dad (he was 21) on August 6 of this year.

I thought this was a pretty photo of Mom. Such a sweet expression. I tinted the photo to go with the paper.

The next two layouts contain photos of my parents' local honeymoon. I used J3's "Rose Garden" for these. Find it here:
http://www.scrapbookersplayground.com/Cart/index.php?main_page=product_scrapbook_info&manufacturers_id=72&products_id=6806

The papers have a romantic feel and remind me of vintage wallpapers. Being young and not too financially secure, my parents honeymooned in Oceanview in Norfolk. At that time the area was something of a resort with beaches on the Chesapeake Bay, an amusement park with one of the nations tallest roller coasters (then) and nice resort hotels. This was before Virginia Beach and it's resort area was built up. People who lived in downtown Norfolk could ride the trolley car, often driven by my paternal great-grandfather, to Oceanview for a day's swimming or visit to the amusement park. The layout below shows the hotel Mom & Dad stayed in and my father standing in front of a ride at Oceanview.

The one below is a closer view of Dad & one of Mom standing by the sea wall at the park.
Weren't they cute?