Ons Familie

I lived in South Africa for 10 years, where I met and married my South African husband.  We now live in my home country Ireland and love going back to South Africa to see our "SA family". 

On one of our trips home to SA we decided it would be a great idea to have a family portrait taken.  The photography session started off well, the children were photographed together and with their Ouma (Grandmother), however, it all started to unravel!  It became too much for my daughter and she started crying and my son's eczema started to flare up with the heat of the studio and we had to hold his hands to prevent him from scratching. 

I think they both did really well considering all the travelling, new faces and places and especially the heat!  So, for my "SA family" - remember this...?

Our Family

The flower lifts to unfold the journaling tag.

Mayhem!  My husband and I are holding a very distressed daughter, my brother-in-law is holding my son and trying to prevent him from scratching, my sister-in-law is holding her daughter who is looking at mine and also looking a little fed up and all the while everyone else smiles for the camera!

A very proud Ouma with her grandchildren!



My husband with his Mum and sister.

Just love our son's two bottom teeth!

Such a happy photo!

Our nieces Cassidy and Delaney known jointly as "Casilane"!

Our curly head!

I can't for the life of me remember the brand name of the patterned paper!  For continuity the muted patterned paper is to the left and very patterned paper to the right.  I used vintage postcards, flowers buttons,, ribbons and stamped tags throughout the mini-album and finished it off with lots of distressing!

The parenthesis chipboard album is from Docrafts Papermania.  I used Tim Holtz's Sizzix Tattered Florals to die cut the flowers and covered them (and the curled tags behind the photos) using the Crisp, Crude and Happy collections from Basic Grey.  The brads are from Docrafts V&A Hanoverian.  The vintage postcards are from Cavallini & Co.  The scrap-a-holic stamp is from Kaisercraft and the scroll stamp is from Blade Rubber.



Tender Moment

It's not always easy being a stay at home Mum but there are days when a fleeting tender moment between my children makes it all worthwhile!

While our children had THEIR play date a friend introduced me to needle felting at her kitchen table over a cup of tea and home made scones.  It was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed OUR play date!   Isn't it so nice to make our own embellishments for our layouts?  Not only is this layout about my children, but when I look at the felt mushrooms, clouds and the little felt flower my friend made, it is a reminder of a lovely afternoon learning something new.  Thank you Emma!

The mushroom patterned paper and chipboard elements are from DCWV's The Green Stack collection.  The yellow polka dot paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird collection.  I used Tim Holtz's Sizzix Carnivale Vintage Market alphabet to die cut the title, Fiskars' postal stamp border punch and McGill's 3" file tab punch.

I Can Sometimes Resist Temptation, BUT NEVER MISCHIEF!

My son Oisin can sleep anywhere - on the stairs, floor, between two chairs, on the toilet and at the table as he chats away to me!  I love being there with him to capture these everyday moments!

I love Kraft cardstock for layouts as the colours just seem to pop.  The patterned paper, envelope, chipboard and stamps used in this layout are from Kaisercraft's Up, Up and Away collection.  I also used  cloud squeeze punches from Fiskars, Tim Holtz's Idea-ology filmstrip ribbon and mini safety pin, East of India's  tape measure and the quotes on vellum are from DCWV's Quote Stack Boy.