Photo book created

Playing with creating a photo book as a test - made one for Jaco, thinking about having it printed for next month for him.

Anyway, here's the link:

Snapshots of Jaco's life

Swapping pictures

Interesting chat at SBB on Wednesday night! I just stopped by to see who was in, but it turned out the chatters were swapping pictures for others to scrap. I sent some snowboarding pictures to Tiffany, and she sent me one of her lovely baby girl, Alison.

I just love what Tiff did with the snowboarding pictures, adding arrows and funky colours! This will be a great page to share with the boys, of their day out with friends.
Go Snowboarding!

My layout of Alison wanted to be girlish, soft and pink, and her eyes fascinated me. So - the layout had to reflect the eyes.

There are really two layouts, basically the same, but one has an added glass rectangle in the title. Not sure which one I like. Here are the two links if you want to take a look:
First layout and the second one, with the glass rectangle.

Of hackers and stuff (Do It Digi)

On the post titled "Older layouts and sorting out stuff" on this blog, I mentioned going to a chatroom and having fun with people there. This was on the Do It Digi scrapbook gallery / forum / chat / challenge site (see below for links). Tried to go back a few times without luck. It took a few days to find out that they were hacked and had lost everything!

It makes me so angry! Why would people do that? Why create drama, upset, a sense of loss and all kinds of other emotions for people? But I guess that can be asked about all crimes. Yes, I see hacking for fun as a crime, just like breaking and entering or assault or something. You feel battered, bruised, your privacy was invaded, and worse.

The Do It Digi team is trying to bring things back online, but it is going slow. For now, I'll link my gallery to them to their main page, because the gallery is gone anyway. (Do It Digi )

Wendy and co - thinking of you and sending all kinds of coping vibes! Just wish there was a way of doing more.

A whole day scrapbooking!

What a great day - starting with scrapbooking as usual once a month with friends. We chat, we laugh, we share, we borrow, we eat, we swap recipes - it is just a wonderful time to be away from chores for a few hours. Especially on a day like today, when it rained softly all day. Everything is green and soft and lovely!

Sweet Dreams layout
I used the time to make another quickpage or scraplet (one where you just drop pictures in) for a digital swap on 3Scrapateers. This page features a basinette made out of the papers of the kit. The layout is here on 3Scrapateers if anyone wants to take a look. Yes, no pictures, because each swapper will add their own pictures to the layouts swapped and traded.

Photo Shoot Layout
Another layout made tonight, looks very different! It is called "Photo shoot" and was taken in the snow in March 2006. The camera wouldn't play with the self timer, we fell over in the knee-deep snow, etc. It was great fun, and we finally had a picture where everyone was smiling! That layout is in two galleries: one on Scrapmommies and the other on 3Scrapateers.



Oh yes, and Arno bought a new tree - my beloved tamarisk - for the back yard!

Older layouts and sorting out things

Been an interesting day ... I've had surgery on April 10th and was supposed to take it very easy for a while yet. No exercise for a month, for instance.
Anyway, went back to work on Tuesday and tried to be gentle, but today I must have done something somehow. I could feel it pull and being "not right" but nothing dramatic. Came home, tried to phone the doctor's office, but they take calls until 2pm on Friday - and it was 2pm on the dot. Refused to go to ER and sit there for 5 hours just to be told to "take bed rest" - just did it myself. I'm sure it is fine, though.

Spent the afternoon cruising some chatrooms and had a delightful hour with a group of crazy nutcases in the DoItDigi room - thanks for the fun, girls! There was "Bob" from Elora who made me think of this layout, so here it is linked now to the blog. Click on the pic to see the bigger layout, or go to the galleries on either RAKScraps or 3Scrapateers if you want a bigger view.

Tubing was wonderful, even though I ended up with a blue backside the first time, after an altercation with a rock! (yes, there is a picture somewhere ...)

Koeksisters and Rugby - South African traditions

Interesting day we had today! Theo's rugby match was fun. They lost, but they had a good game. I've managed to get some pictures of him tackling guys twice his size and hope to scrap them soon.

Tonight there was a heritage scrap over at The Daily Scrap - the challenge was to scrap some tradition or habit to remember. I thought koeksisters (a sweet sugar dumpling, for want of a better translation) would be a good subject!

The bigger layout can be seen here if you want to read more about this treat.

About the rugby - here is one small cutout of Theo tackling a guy very close to the posts - the blue in the background is the foot of one of the posts under which a try could be scored.

Oh - and not to look as if one son gets more attention than the other (LOL heaven forbid!) - Jaco was invited to get a Principal's award on Friday, for staying on the honours roll. Hope to get a picture there - they are usually very good and keep these awards ceremonies small enough for people to circulate and chat and get good bragbook pictures for the grandparents.

Thanks for reading!

Testing email update

Testing to see if email updates to the Blog works.

I'd like to post about Theo's rugby match, Jaco's invite for another
principal's award, and a new scrapbook page made, featuring koeksisters. But
for now, this is just a test and I might delete this post in a few minutes.

Of rugby, swimming and summer jobs

Right, so let's see if an updated post can be placed, about daily life or news!

Rugby
Theo is playing a rugby match today (position - Nr 2, like his grandfather). He started playing rugby in high school last year and made the team, even though he was only a freshman and didn't have his growth spurt yet. Today, he said he might have to play the whole match, as the other guy had some tattoo on his back and might not be put in. Will see how it goes!

Layout is here, made last year during the rugby season and pictures taken at Theo's first match. Of course rugby is bigger in South Africa than it is here in Canada, so it was interesting that Theo chose that as his sport of choice!

Lifeguarding & Swim instruction
Jaco started volunteering at the rec centre as soon as he was old enough, became assistant swim instructor and then full instructor and life guard after training and age 16. He enjoys working with the kids, and seems to have a knack to teach people things.

This layout, also made with the Muted Masculine kit as above, can be seen in bigger view here if you want to comment or take a closer look.

Info about the fonts, etc. can be seen on the galleries. (Personal info was smudged for privacy.)

Summer jobs

Jaco was offered a summer job at Professor's Lake here in town. He would have to do more training, but it is an excellent way of gaining especially waterfront experience.

Theo's summer job will be at the big theme park, Paramount Canada's Wonderland. He is really looking forward to that!

Both boys are growing up too fast ...

Trilliums - scraplift challenge

Trilliums, the provincial flower of Ontario, are really magnificent! They have three strong leaves, and you see flashes of white in the forest in spring. Sometimes there are hints of darker red in between, but that is not as common.

These pictures, taken during spring 2005 in a patch of forest near our house, seemed to be perfect for a scraplift challenge on Gotta Pixel! If you want to see the layout in bigger size, read the credits or leave comments, please go to the Gotta Pixel gallery here (also here in the 3Scrapateers gallery).

(Elements by me, from my Think Pink kit. Hat is from a photograph of a hat with quilling I made for a teddy bear wearing an Easter hat.)

Taste of Tangerine - plus freebies

Everyone loves freebies, right?
The pages and frames in this layout were donated as a freebie gift in the April 2006 edition of the SBE newsletter, and can only be given if you were/are a subscriber to that free newsletter. (I left SBE as designer during Easter 2006, because of pressures in Real Life.)

A layout made with some of the "Taste of Tangerine" papers and elements can be seen here and here if you want to take a look or leave comments, or ask questions.

However, some quickpages* were created using some of those elements, and can be downloaded for free if you want them. Click on the links below - the link should stay live for a while yet. You're welcome to send others to this blog to pick up the link as well! A text file included with the quickpages give more information about sharing.

There might be more links to add freebies to the quickpages in the next few days, depending on time!

(*Quickpages = already assembled pages for you to just drop your pictures on, add journaling and/or text, and you're done!)


Please be sure to read the included text file once you have unzipped!

To download two quickpages in 12x12 inch (30 cm x 30cm; square), click here (or right-click and "save target as" on a PC).


To download two quickpages in 8.5 x 11 inch (letter size; rectangular), please click here (or right-click and "save target as" on a PC).

If you use the freebie pages in a layout and upload to a gallery, please post a comment here with the link so we can take a look! It is great to see what different people do. (And if you post a comment with a link to your layout, I'll send you another link to another freebie that goes with the pages if you want it.)

Enjoy!

Oscar is Dynamite! (Colour challenge)

Layout of our feisty ginger cat, Oscar (because he's so golden, see?) trying to take on one of the cheeky backyard squirrels.

If you want to take a closer look, you can see the layout here in the SBB gallery (also here on 3Scrapateers).

This one was made for a colour challenge on SBB. Papers from the "A Child's Circus" kit and recoloured bottlecaps - they were originally brown, called Marlene's Bottlecaps Uppercase. Rest of credits on the layout.

Cherry On Top - Sketch Challenge

In December 2005, Arno and I celebrated our 20th anniversary. It seemed to be the perfect picture to use for this single-picture sketch challenge on Scrapmommies! The layout is here if you want to take a look or leave a comment.

Credits: All elements by me, from the "Cherries for Gabby" kit.
Sketch by Traci from Scrapmommies. Fonts and other info on the layout.

Testing as a first post

Trying to create this blog, but it must be a steep learning curve!