April's Round up and Review

Hello friend. I want to tell you about my April. It was a wonderful month for me, as far as scrapping goes. There was a weekend crop and a day crop, in my home town, that I was able to participate in. The weekend one, coincided with a trade show that Lolly Pop Thrift Shop had a booth in, so I missed about 8 hours of paper play but that didn't hold me back. Seven layouts were in various states of completedness by Sunday afternoon. Then the next Saturday, I spent the afternoon with friends and as they pumped out cards, I worked on the partial pages and put together two more. Then last Sunday, I worked on setting up my studio at work. It is looking like this:

 Keep in mind, this move is all about minimizing my space used and product stored. Not sure where most things will end up, I have used painters tape to label drawers while I get things out of totes and boxes. As I recognize that something is higher or lower in importance to my style, I can switch the drawers up or down.  Hey! I can walk into the office now, instead of stepping over the stash.

 On the desk top. Totally Tiffany's Ditto tool caddy. Pampered Chef utensil stand for pens and such. Must haves: CTMH mat; CM personal trimmer; Westcot 12" Trimair, on the last shelf of the hutch.

 And just enough paper, kits, and cardstock to get started again. You can see I have one of my old CKC kits here. When it is done, I will bring another from home.

And how about some eye candy? Spring blossoms from Prima, I found at the weekend retreat.

Now that the space is ready to work in, (no complaints of poor lighting. All LED in this office!) today I was able to finish up all but one of the layouts from last month. But first, let's take a look at the April inspiration kit from  Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog.

Cocoa Daisy's February 2017 kit, Ashton Court

So bright and playful. Whimsical critters. Scripty words. Multi coloured alphas. What's not to love?

I have five layouts to show you that were drawn from this inspiration. Although my interpretation is more pinky than red. A couple of papers from Shimelle were my spring board and this is what happened:

 Girl you are amazing; Shine on you crazy diamond.

 At age 3 the favorite game to paly is "Make up a story about Piggy" Rebecca's stories go like this:
"Once upon a time, Piggy went to town. Then Piggy bought some groceries. Then Piggy went home. Then Piggy played outside. Then Piggy had a shower......THE END!!"
Emphatically declaring the end of the story is Rebecca's favourite part. After a round of giggles it's Grampa's turn to tell a piggy tale.

Is there an award for letter saves? "piggy" is all 5! Upside down d. Altered j. Two 6s turned over. And an altered x.

Next, another tale about Piggy and what happened when he got left behind. This one comes from gleaning facebook posts. Lately they have been showing what you posted last  year, or two or three years ago. I love it. If the story grabs my heart when I see it again, there's a good reason to get it into an album.

 Don't forget Piggy Love. April 21 2013 Naughty Piggy stayed an extra night at Gramma's. Rebecca had to call and help tuck him in.

Then I pulled together photos of Robin enjoying Rebecca (my granddaughter) and his granddaughter's. Putting together photos from different events is new to me. Think I did ok?

Thank Heaven for Grampa's girls. Rebecca (you are a diamond) Brooklyn (have vision for you life darling girl) and Sydney (shine your light, amazing girl!) Don't you just love that game of peek-a-boo going on in the bottom corner?

Then the last bits of the Shimelle paper was used up on this one. The photo comes from a Throwback Thursday post one of my daughters made. In it, Rebecca's mother, Nadine is standing next to her older sister. I bet you would have thought it was Rebecca, if I hadn't told you that.  Again....facebook is a treasure trove for story ideas.

A typical Sunday road trip takes us from Edmonton to the Borody farm in Richmond Park. Dinner is almost always chicken in dilled cream sauce. On the way home we stop at the Semrok farm in Perryvale for coffee. On this sunny day in August, Baba (Vera Borody) and the girls made a bouquet of sweet peas and marigolds for Oma (Irma Semrok) We love the Flower Girls.

On the scripty cards, I want to add "to" to tie them together as a thought. This is my day to make things happen. Also, I love the bit of paper with the repeated teeny, tiny type face word "Beautiful" that is on top left corner of the photo.

Number 6, also pulled from the inspiration kit but makes a departure with some graphic black and white paper to ground the elements. I checked in with Facebook again and found this photo of Rebecca greeting Cohen after a week apart. How excited she must be.The energy in her body language says it all.  Cohen who saw the joy in her face, and will remember it each time he sees this layout in his album. A reminder of just how much he is loved by his sister even if she claims otherwise, as they get older.

The photo is matted on paper that has multi coloured triangles much like the one in the inspiration kit. My favorite bit is how the colours on the die cut "HECK YES!" reflects what Rebecca is wearing.

Welcome back Cohen. Love this. Did Rebecca miss you? Heck Yes! Edmonton International Airport August 2016 with Codie and Lebron Jendruk

The last three layouts were made with page kits I made at a crop a couple of years ago. I had a handful of papers with me, and I kept sorting through a smattering of photos, trying to ignite an idea. With an obvious case of scrappers block, I changed my approach to opposite of what I usually do and started matching the papers to the photos. Tucked each photo with it's papers and any bits and bobs that I felt might go well with them, into separate Ziploc bags. I completed and shared some before, but here are the last three that were started on that day.

 Cloud Spotting

The sky is perfect blue. The clouds are perfect too. And here I am with you. -A.A.Milne

Michael has moved my 10,000+ photo collection to "The Cloud" So they are there......somewhere...

It's all about reflection and refraction of light. May there be just enough clouds in your life to make for a beautiful sunset.

 Shine

Any day spent with you is my favourite day. -A.A. Milne

Another glorious winter sunrise, looking east/southeast, on the deck. This view of the east side, crest of the Tawatinaw Valley has been a touchstone landmark for me for over 50 years. I never tire of it.

And finally, a casual portrait shot taken during the Christmas season of 2013. The filler card, says it all.

What a wonderful thought it is. Some of the best days of our lives haven't happened yet. Happy day at Athabasca Native Friendship Center.

And now it is time to say good bye to April's inspiration kit and get working with the next one. Why don't you join me in the fun?

Thanks for stopping by. Double thanks for comments.