Believe

For the team challenge at Cottage Arts we were to do a page about Christmas Tree Traditions. I was very stumped on this until this morning. Here's what I wrote -

This morning I had gotten up early and just turned the lights on the Nativity on. I went about my business and as I started to cross through the living room to the kitchen a little later the only light on my path was the glow of the Nativity. I paused to look at the beautiful, softly lit sight before me.

When you are away from family and friends it's easy to let the magic of this season pass you by. You can, as I tried, to convince yourself there is no need to decorate, to hang lights or have a tree. Paul protested and said even though there are only the two of us we need to make it feel like Christmas. We decided not to buy the traditional Christmas tree but instead opted for this gorgeous Poinsettia. I placed it on the mantle and laid the Nativity beneath it. This in itself is a special Christmas memory for me. Years ago when Grandma GiGi was taking ceramics Momma had her make this touching Nativity for my birthday. I really received a double gift that year because it was made by the hand of my 'extra Momma' and given by my own.

So as I gazed upon this softly lit scene this morning my heart became happy and I was glad we decided to put up our own 'tree' and decorations. Christmas 2009

I used the Shabby Christmas Page Pak from Cottage Arts for this page

My Family Nativity

Click on photos for larger view

This was such a fun project. Cottage Arts just released a new kit Manger Medley which I altered just a tad. I replaced the kits faces with those of the family. The 'Wise Men' are my son and son-in-laws, The Angel is Zoie, Mary is Pyper, Joseph is Eddie, Baby Jesus is Baby Brynn, The Shepard is Derik. I added bling stones to the Wise Mens crowns, Glossy Accents to the horns on the sheep and the shepards staff and glitter here and there. The donkey's tail was replaced with some jute cording. I put easel backs on them so they can stand them up however they choose.

Devil or Angel

Here's my littlest sweetie pie all dressed up in her first Christmas Dress. For a complete list of the supplies used check my gallery at Cottage Arts.

A Day at the Corn Maze

Zoie and Pyper with their Mom and Dad went to the Corn Maze, I just love the picture where they are walking into it. All supplies from Cottage Arts

My Granddaughters

Just had to post this adorable picture of my three Granddaughters, Zoie - Pyper and Brynn.

Deck The Halls

Alessandra Designs - Merry Xmas Kit at Digitals -- Font Curlz

Fall In Zion

The new Harvest Medley Papers and Elements kits at Cottage Arts were just perfect for my Zion Park pictures I took last week. How nice to be able to walk the trails with out lots of tourists like in the summer months. Such a beautiful park!

In Your Dreams - DST Weekend Gallery Standout

My sister took these great shots of a Raccoon in her holly tree, of course I just had to play. I wonder if this is really what puppies dream about????

All supplies from Cottage Arts

UPDATE How exciting, my page was picked by Jimea as a Weekend Gallery Standout at Digi Shop Talk! What fun, thanks Jimea!!

Christmas Princess

Ale (Alessandra Designs) has released a new kit called Merry Xmas Kit. Loved this picture of Pyper and with a little PS magic was able to give her a crown and put her arm through the packages. Thanks Ale for letting me play!

The Heart Sings - LOTD at Digtials!!

My wonderful friends at Digitals have just named this page LOTD! Thanks everyone.

It is a joy beyond words to watch a new one enter our world, when you are approaching your 99th birthday the joy is even greater. Great Grandma Coulter has waited with open arms to hold Brynn Fyona. As I watched Brynn, not even a week old, reach up towards this beautiful woman, my heart swelled knowing that in the innocence of childhood a baby knows instinctively whose arms hold unconditional love.

Supplies from Cottage Arts

Beautiful Baby

Here's my new Granddaughter - Brynn. This was taken only a few days after her birth. Such an amazing thing, a new little life!

Supplies from Cottage Arts

Aunty Bea's Oatmeal Cookies

Through the wonder of memory some things stay with you a lifetime, and if preserved well, travel forward through generation after generation. Family traditions and recipes are one of the most memorable things in our family to pass forward. Here my Aunty Bea as a young mother is holding my cousin Arlene. I remember her wonderful Oatmeal cookies, a favorite to be passed forward and savored by many a hungry tummy for years to come.

Supplies from Cottage Arts.

Great Grandmother's Chilli Sauce

I was hunting for a vintage recipe for a team challenge at Cottage Arts when I remembered Grandma Coulter's old green wooden recipe box. In it was this recipe from her mother, Eva. I did the family tree on the right side so that generations from now could make the connection between this beautiful lady and myself.

All supplies are from Cottage Arts.

She has arrived

I know I know I'm really lagging behind here but real life has just been busy! Brynn made her safe arrival into the world on September 7th. And she is the most beautiful baby ever.

Waiting for Brynn

Baby Brynn is due September 23rd, but has been trying to make her entrance into the world since August 7th. Since I'm just hanging out at her Mommy's house until she comes I thought a peek into her room would create some fun memories for her scrapbook.

Word art reads (from Cottage Arts):
I hope for you a life of
much joy and blessings
to have all the love you need
to be able to nurture your gifts
to be blessed with good health
in order to be all you
are meant to be

Gammy couldn't have said it better herself!!

All supplies from Cottage Arts

On The Water

Finally a new page of my son in law and oldest Granddaughter Zoie

All supplies from Cottage Arts

Mr. Blue Bird

Fly away, bluebird fly away for me
To a place somewhere far across the sea
Fly away, far away, don't look back, go today
The waves that crash upon the sand
Another place, a far off land
And every day, I have to stay, but you are free
You could fly away
But it's only make believe
Jeff Lynne

supplies Cottage Arts

Colorado Floral

Loved all the beautiful flowers while visiting Colorado, here's a glimpse of a few. Supplies from Cottage Arts.

Steamboat Springs

Here's the first for our recent trip to Colorado. These pictures were taken at Steamboat Springs Colorado. All Supplies are from Cottage Arts, check out my gallery there for a list.

Fishy Face

Here's the other Granddaughter caught making one of her notorious Fishy Faces. All supplies from Cottage Arts.

Off To Wonderland

This just kept growing! I started with this picture of Pyper at her recent soccer game. I used lots of bits and pieces from kits at Cottage Arts. Check my gallery posting there for a complete list.

Hush

This is Evie my Great-Great Niece
(she is pretty Great huh)
Supplies from Cottage Arts.

Puppy Pal

A few weeks ago Amber had to make the hard decision to put Raine to sleep. Raine was adopted from a shelter in AZ soon after Amber moved there over 10 years ago now. She was her constant companion yielding just love and demanding nothing more. She saw her through tears and laughter and the addition of another Kitty - Katie and a pooch named Mushu. Raine always knew she ruled the roost no matter what they thought. I thought this kit from Cottage Arts called Puppy Love Page Pak would be just perfect to tell this story. (And on another note it was featured as a Gallery Standout today at Digi Shop Talk!)

Spring Flowers

I was trying out the new tutorials at Cottage Arts for Masks and Gradients. Even though I use a lot of masks and sometimes gradients I find that I always learn something new when reading through tuts. You can find them here if you are interested. If you're interested in the supplies I used check them out here.

Here's my technique for achieving this look - The photo was enlarged to fill the whole page, placed above the Photo Mask 3 and duplicated. The top layer was blended to luminosity, the layer directly above the mask to screen. I added a layer above with the Blanc De Noir Paper 09 adding a Gradient Map of Magenta/Yellow (included with PS CS3 - Color Harmonies 2) Opacity set to 99% Fill set to 43%, a mask was added and the center brushed out with a soft brush

Sissy and Me

All supplies for this from Cottage Arts. This is Carol and I when we were both a tad younger!

Adventure - Featured in Scrap Street Magazine

This page is being featured on page 35 of the May edition of Scrap Street Magazine, which is a free E-Zine, check it out here.

Supplies: Digital Kit: Life’s Journey by Swissaroo at Scrap Street Fonts: Myraid Pro, Minion Pro.

Journaling: My roots come from Europe, my Great Grandparents were from England and Germany, my dream would be to visit where my heritage began, to walk the land, smell the flowers and get a feel for them. If it had not been for an adventurous young man in his early teens that set off on a Merchant ship from England to Canada in the early 1900's to join his brothers, I may never have been. That was my Grandfather Fred, sailing from England to St Josephs Island, Canada. Later he would meet my Grandmother Clara and together they would begin a family in the Eastern part of Washington and Oregon. Eventually my family ended up in SW Washington a far distance from the lands in which my blood began. I look at me today and wonder if I would have had the nerve to leave my family behind, knowing in my heart of hearts I would never see them again for lands so far away. It was lives full of long days and hard work to carve out homes for themselves. I wish I had known my Grandfather, to be able to hear his stories of home and family, to get a sense of me.

My Grandmother Clara (Kiehl) came from Kiel Germany. I do not know as much about them, but when Amber was in High School she had the opportunity to stay with a German family and they in turn took her to visit her Ancestors area. I have seen pictures of the beauty here, much like my Pacific Northwest and I hope that perhaps someday I will be able to see it firsthand as well.

Design notes: The shapes of the continents made great photo masks for the pictures of my family

Woo Hoo, It's the Digitals NSD Art Doll Challenge

Want to come have some fun??? How about create a new you, you doll face you! That's right join Beth Rimmer at Digitals for NSD and get the kit below to make your 'doll'. Click on the photo to go to the forum and get the low down, but hurry, tools for creating your doll will only be available until Midnight May 5th!


Want a little inspiration? Here I am, me and my Alter Ego!!!

Lifelong Friends

Here's my Mom with best friends Bob and Virgina. They lived right next door to my sister when she was first married, and became extra grandparents to their 3 children as they came along. Over the years the two couples became even closer as they traveled together in their RVs and spent many evenings playing cards, Daddy and Big Bob giving each other the business. We've always called them Big Bob and Nina, and even to this day that's who they are to me. Momma recently went to see them, Big Bob's been ill and even though Mom seldom leaves her apartment complex she went to visit. It seems funny not to have Daddy in the picture, but he's been gone 18 years this year, how is that possible I wonder?

The journaling on the page reads:
Friends are such amazing creatures. They always seem to know when you need them and show up with support and love without being asked. They make wonderful traveling companions, sharing good times, laughter and new sights. That is what you have always been to one another. Such good friends. For over 50 years you have gathered together for special days and everyday moments. Over shared coffee and home baked goodies, great conversations have been had. Together you've played card games and dice, laughed and chatted under RV awnings, sat around campfires, hunted beaches for washed up treasures, the list goes on and on. How special to count yourselves as friends, just like a flower garden, forever sharing blossoms of love with one another.

I used Joyce de Jonges newest kit Wildflowers from Digitals, filled the background with a soft cream color and added a texture from Tonja Grams Textures and Overlays Vol 3 which I had colored a soft green and lowered the opacity so it sat on the background but didn't scream out at you.

The font is one from Fonts for Peas, called Pea Alesa. This is the first time I've used their fonts, they are all free. It's a cool site, all the fonts are ones that people have submitted with their handwriting and then they are turned into fonts. I'm always looking for handwritten fonts and hit the jackpot when I found this site!

Living Tree

Here are my four Grandkids and the 5th that's on her way. All supplies used from Cottage Arts, check out hte gallery link for a complete list.

Box of Memories

(click to enlarge to full view)

The Challenge this week for the Cottage Arts Team was to design a page using a Shadow box. This one was a 'challenge' to me but I love the outcome. Wander over to my gallery at Cottage Arts for a complete list of the supplies I used. The box on the right is Mom's, I've had it for years and it's always sat on my dresser. The little cigarette case on the far right front was my Grandma Moran's and it still holds one of the cigarette holders she so notoriously held (always). Not all the mementos shown in the shadow box came from my jewlery box, some are add ins from CA supplies.

Past Times

Past Times

Journaling Reads:

The Grays River Covered Bridge was built across the Grays River in western Wahkiakum County Washington 1905. It helped the local dairy farmers to get their goods to market. Repairs were made in 1988-1989 keeping with original design, hardware and siding as much as possible.

This is a composite of these two photos, the bridge described above, and the old car which was actually extracted from a photo I took last weekend in Springdale Utah. They just seemed to belong together.

(The photo of the bridge was taken this month by my daughter)

All supplies from
Cottage Arts

Thorns and Blossoms

This weeks challenge at Cottage Arts for the team members is to design a page using a text path. This is one that will be in the store within the week, super simple way to do it! Check out my gallery there for a complete list of supplies. Check out my Project 365 blog for more pictures of these beautiful cactus.

Just Like Brother

I used Michelle Pieters (Digitals) Gentle Whisper for this page. It was done for the iChallenge at Digitals where you were to have some sort of timeline. I thought the photos of the boy's diving accomplished my 3 second timeline!

Boy Dreamer

For the Designer Elements Challenge at Digitals using Beth Rimmers River of Dreams mini kit (freebie) from Challenge, Papers and Elements. This is Eddie extracted from a game of Sorry with his cousins, see the original photo below.

Pool Party

My Granddaughters, Zoie and Pyper always have a joint birthday party since their birthdays are only two weeks apart. This year they had it at a local pool. The pictures are all 4 of my Grandchildren! The splash on the right was snapped just as someone hit the pool. I used Michelle Pieters Garden of Dreams and Film Curls White - both from Digitals.

Fonts Lydian - Martina

Beach Doggy

OK this one was done for the Font Free 4 All Challenge this month at Digitals. You're given a choice of fonts to play with in your page. I chose Homework. The kit choice was the kicker though, Jen Maceyunas has these wonderful dog and cat kits and word art. Just perfect for my Grandpug, Mushu. The kit was No Bones About It and the word art (Wolf Wolf) was from Dog Quotables 3 .

Easter Sunday 1960

oh my the
memories this
photo brings back.
I remember the shoes,
white leather with very very pointed toes.
Gloves, hat and purse, I thought I was a
quite the little princess, such afashion
statement. And the bookcase behind me,
always filled with family photos, that’s my
Big Sissy in the photo behind me. On the
table is my Easter Basket, I wonder if this
was the year the ‘Easter Bunny’ hid them
behind the living room drapes. Such
wonderful childhood memories.

For the All in the Family Challenge this month at Digitals where you were to do a page of Easter Memories, this picture always comes to mind. I used Glenda Ketcham's Tattered Memories kit from Digitals.