Oh Canada!

This has been an extremely busy week for me! Every day I have been digi-scrapping or doing the hunter/gatherer thing - buying, collecting, downloading, unzipping, sorting, backing-up and ogling my shiny new (or shabby worn) digi-scrap stuff; usually all of the above. :)

I've bought a number of fabulous new kits this week and have been really lucky to have won quite a few awesome things too. And I received a lovely RAK from TheDigiChicks! I haven't had this much fun since iNSBD in early May, lol. However, I haven't had time to actually update my blog. I'll have to go back and post a few on the days they were made (fortunately blogger lets you go back in time to post).

I made this page today with one of my purchases ~ a brand new kit called 'Oh Canada!' kit (by Kimeric Kreations). I also used one of Kim's templates from her brand spanking new 'Paper Lovers 4 (template pack)' (by Kimeric Kreations). Kim has been really helpful in explaining how to use PSD files in PSP to me.

I added all the elements in MyMemories Suite ... it was just easier for me to do it that way, because that's the program I am most comfortable with. I placed the fireworks burst over top of the sprinkler laying there on the grass in the photo (so it can either represent fireworks, or water, haha). This layout was sooooooo tricky for me. There are many, many layers and it took hours, but this is one of my favourite photos of "the boys" when they were young and I love the way this turned out.

My hubby and I are officially on vacation until July 17th. We're planning to do some fun day-trip things while my hubby has this time off. So hopefully I'll have some new photos to scrap very soon. :)

I Love Ketchup!

My grand-nephew Hayden REALLY loves ketchup. I love this photo of him and his Daddy ... it was taken two weeks ago at "Hutches on the Beach". This is an old diner that I ate at many times when I was a kid, and even more often as a teen ... and it's still going strong today.

Hutch's Restaurant is a classic! Since 1946, the restaurant has built a reputation for its fabulous fish and chips, hamburgers and hotdogs "with the works", milkshakes and its own delicious brand of French fries. The atmosphere inside is made warm and friendly by the classic diner-style booths, old sports pictures on the walls and 1950s music on the jukebox. Hutch's classic combination of great food, fast service and 1950's-style dining makes it one of the area's most popular eateries.

I used a number of elements from a variety of kits, including... 'Mom's Diner' (by Sweet Digi Scraps). Love, love, love this kit. I won a $5.00 coupon from Liz (the designer) and chose this (and I ended up buying another kit while I was there, lol). I'm a huge fan of diners. My first website back in the late 80's was called The Dabble Diner :)

The gorgeous background paper is from 'Cruising' (by Mel Hains). This was another amazing deal ... it was on sale earlier this month for $1.00 and it's super cute. I love that the painted paper reminds me of water, and since the restaurant is on the beach and the colour matched Hayden's shirt, I just had to use it.

The SVG wavy shape is from Barb at Albums to Remember. I filled it with black and white tiled paper because the diner actually has that floor, haha.

I also used a few bits from 'That's My Dad' (by Mye De Leon). It's an absolutely gorgeous kit that is on sale for $1.00. Mye has opened a new store and will be selling exclusively at Digital Design House. She is leaving MyMemories, GottaPixel and Scrapmatters and retiring over 70 products, so I picked up a bunch more of her $1.00 kits (reg. $5.99).

The Nautical cluster by Flower Scraps was a freebie. And finally I extracted the ketchup bottle (because only Heinz will do, lol); made the ketchup hearts and wordart; and added the Hutches logo to the drink cup.

Grammar Goofs

I have no spare time to scrap a page today ... but I have lots of new kits to unzip and sort. I thought I'd post this here for handy reference. My sister always calls me the Spelling & Grammar Police, lol. I love this.............. haha.


15 Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly :)

HONESTY & WISDOM ~ Inspirational ;)

This morning I made another page with 'Inspirational Frames 1' (by LLL Creations). After making the first one last night I continued to look through my War of 1812 re-enactment pics and found these. We see this man Jeff Wakefield (a.k.a. Sutler Cyrus) at all of the re-enactments and have enjoyed talking to him in the past, but I really didn't know much about him. I did a quick search and found a ton of info on him. He's a real Renaissance man with many talents and VERY entertaining, lol. It's because of Lil's frames that I started looking at my old pics with fresh eyes :)

The signs in the bottom pic that I'm "pointing at" (a bit hard to read on this smaller size image) says...
LEAVE A LOONEY
(OR MORE IF YOU WILL)
THE WEASEL WILL DANCE FOR YOU
NOT BAD FOR ROAD KILL

And the one below says...
PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH MY WEASEL! :)

Of couse it's not actually roadkill. And if you don't know, a "looney" is the nickname of a Canadian $1 coin.

And just for fun, here's Sutler Cyrus talking about the candy he sells... Cartridge Candy.

IMAGINE ~ Inspirational ;)

I bought these 'Inspirational Frames' (by LLL Creations) today because they reminded me of Motivational posters and I thought they would be fun to play with. I was looking through my photos to see what I could use with one of the frames (there's 12 different ones in the pack) and came across this pic.

Every few years we go to watch one of these 1812 re-enactments at Old Fort Erie (or sometimes to ones in Niagara-on-the-Lake). The battle re-enactments in Fort Erie are quite spectacular with actual musket and cannon fire from both sides (British and American), great special effects, noise and smoke, and they involve about 1000 people in period clothing. I have LOTS of photos from these events, but this one always makes me smile.

This year is the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Precious Sweet Baby Girl

My niece and her BFF were pregnant at the same time. Her girlfriend's baby was due the third week of May and my niece's baby was due the first week of June, about two weeks apart. However, my niece's son (Tyler) was born 6 weeks premature, on April 28th, 2012, and her friend had her baby girl (Shannyn) on May 23rd, 2012, soooooo Tyler, who SHOULD have been two weeks younger than Shannyn, is actually 1 month older than Shannyn (but he's still smaller than she is). Crazy!! But thank God they are both healthy, beautiful babies. :)

For this page I started with a QP called Bloomin' (by Down This Road Designs). But I edited it in PaintShop Pro (as usual, lol): changed up the colours so it would match the photo better; replaced some of the green to a soft purpley mauve colour; moved one of the leaves.

* I always check the designer's TOU to make sure it's OK to do that. For this QP Angie's TOU states, "YOU MAY: 1. You may recolor and/or adjust my items for your own personal use."

Then I added the beaded strings from 'Candy Fairway Pack' (Peppermint Creative), small pink ribbon from 'Baby Born' (Meta Wulandari Design), larger ribbon from 'Choochie Face' (LouCee Creations) kit now retired, tags from 'Dreams' (A Work in Progress) kit now retired, buttons from 'My Colors Buttons' (A Saxon Creation).

Monkey Love :)

This scrap page is the result of a happy series of events that occurred in the last few days.

June 17: my niece Shannon wrote this on my Facebook wall... "You should let me know of any kits that you have that you need pics for. Just tell me the theme and color... I am bound to have pics of the boys in outfits to match, lol. That last page you made was adorable!"

June 18: designer "mle Card: scraps by the brush" gave out nineteen $6.00 coupons when her Facebook fan page reached 1900 fans. I was one of the lucky 19 people who won. I chose her adorable new kit "Monkey Love" ($5.99). I had no idea what pics I was going to scrap with it, but I fell in love with the kit.

June 19: I sent five kit previews to Shannon of cute kits that I had, including the preview of the "Monkey Love" kit.

June 20: Shannon wrote back, "OMG! I was just looking at the kits you sent me and then realized the monkey kit looked familiar!! Look at his hat! (that's Hayden lol) I have a few pics of him wearing this!"

June 21: Shannon sent these three photos of Hayden to me at 9:30 pm. They were taken at his Newborn Photo Shoot on February 21, 2011, by Lemon Love Photography. Hayden was 2 1/2 weeks old.

June 22: I made this page. This may be one of my favourite pages ever!!! Thanks soooooo much to designer mle Card (Emily) for the fab kit and to my niece Shannon for sharing these gorgeous photos. They are a match made in Heaven :)

Kit: 'Monkey Love' (by mle Card: scraps by the brush).