Mo Mhadra Beag

I totally outdid myself with the scrunching on this layout - even the background paper is scrunched!  I love the effect it creates - it often looks like fabric instead of paper.  

I was clearing out Saoirse's wardrobe and one of my favourite dresses had a girl and dog motif and so I just HAD to cut them out and use them.  It was a wool dress and had a little hole in it so I did not feel too bad about not passing it on to someone.  I'm very sentimental and love the idea of using motifs or pieces from our childrens' outgrown clothes on layouts or quilts, etc.

I then came across this photo of Saoirse at 6 and Noodle at 6 months old and decided to put them all together and here is the completed layout.  

By the way, my children are Irish speakers and so the title is in Irish and means "my little dog".

Check out the super cool dog bone paper clips given to me by a friend Irene!  Thanks Irene, they are so very cute!

Workshop Tutor

I was really delighted to be asked by Annamarie of The Scrapbook Store to design and tutor a workshop in May using the Webster's Pages Sunday Picnic collection.  

I was given 2 each of the Sunday Picnic die cut scallop, Blanket of Poppies and Rainbow Sky papers and 2 fabric tickets.

A very cheap way to add embellishments to layouts is to use doilies, scanned images and free printables (printed on acid free cardstock of course!).  I scanned a vintage envelope from my stash and found beautiful  rose themed free printables on Pinterest (check out my Printables board on Pinterest).  I also raided my ribbon, button and flower stash and came up with the following 3 layouts and a card made up from the leftover scraps.

The workshop was full and on the night everyone seemed to like the layouts so it was off to a good start.  Tutoring was great fun!  It was very busy with lots of fussy cutting, distressing, inking and scrunching.  Practically everyone went home with two layouts completed and the third to complete at home.  It was great to see the photos used and to hear the stories behind them and the ladies all seemed pleased with their layouts.  I was so excited when I first discovered free printables online and it was wonderful to be able to pass this information on to others at the workshop.  

The duplicate of each of the pages was used to cut out the flowers and rainbow, scrunch and layer on top of the original to create texture and depth.  The leftover paper was used to create tags, clouds, kite and for matting and layering - so there was no waste.  

I used my McGill 3" file tab punch, Tim Holtz's distresser tool and Carnivale die cut alphabet, Simple Stories alphabet stickers, Fiskars cloud punches, Martha Stewart's doily lace punch and one of my two favourite inks VersaColor Bamboo.

All Boy

Hello friends!  I'm back in the land of blog.  I know a few of you have been checking for updates and have quite rightly given out to me for not blogging.  Thank you so much for your interest in my little projects.

I completed this layout today at our monthly crop.  I love this photo of Oisin with his hands in his pockets, it is so him and all boy.

I used Simple Stories Awesome collection, star Nestabilities, Tim Holtz filmstrip ribbon, Sizzix Tim Holtz on the edge file tabs, Fiskars notebook border punch, American Crafts Thickers Darling chipboard letter stickers, vintage photo distress ink, corrugated card, twine, buttons, kraft paper and lots of 3D foam.