Challenge 11

Hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the race. It seems to have gone so fast. I'm not sure about that 13th blinkie that the race website refers to - maybe we get a 13th layout to do - will be interesting to see.

Here's my take on challenge 11. Challenge 12 is a two person challenge so looking forward to that.

Challenge 9

Finally finished challenge 9 - I'm not sure why I had so much difficulty with this - this is probably my 3rd attempt at the layout. This photo was taken at Christmas 2008 of my niece and her great aunt - they absolutely adore each other and I think this photo reflects that.

Challenge 10

First let me just say what a wonderful layout no. 9 Chris has done - just blew me away - love everything about it and I really hope that someone recognises her brother and nephew and gets them back in touch.



In Challenge 10 I got the chance to interview Chris - and I apologise for some of my silly questions. The layouts had me laughing out loud and with what she told me I had the easiest time doing the layout. Was interesting restricting myself to just two colours. I decided to do the layout as a double pager and do it as a magazine interview. Of course I have left you hanging on some of the answers to some of the questions I asked Chris and I am sorry to say there will not be a follow up layout so you will just have to wonder what the answers were. Click on the layout to take you to NDSIB if you want to read the contents of the interview:

Challenge 9 - Lost Generations

This was a really interesting challenge for me, and I'm so glad I took some time to ponder it, otherwise I might never have scrapped this page.

The photos are of my brother Pat and his son Sam, and we haven't seen or heard from them since Sam was two years old. Despite frequent attempts to trace them, I've no idea where they are. So creating this page gave me a chance to express that sense of loss a little, and I guess, some part of me is hoping that if I put this out there - someone might recognise them and get in touch???

Click on the picture for credits and journalling.

Challenges 7 and 8

I'm a bit slow on the uptake this week. It seemed to take me a while to work out what I wanted to do with challenge 7. I loved Chris' take on the kit, changing the colours and how she made it work, but I decided to try and stick with just the kit (very difficult for me) and this is what I came up with:




















Challenge 8 was so hard - there are so many amazing scrappers out there that I admire and to pick just one and then only one of their layouts to lift - so so hard. I ended up picking She_ - she has some amazing layouts, however I ended up lifting her layout called Autumn Treasures - I loved everything about this and in fact she had scraplifted it from another of her layouts:

Here is my take on it:




















I love Chris' Challenge 8 and had a chuckle at the song. what a great memory. Well I am now off to bed - it is 1.05am and have been working at layout 8 for what seems like hours.

Challenge 8

Another tricky challenge - another scraplift - aaargh! I am not particularly fond of scraplifts, basically because I'm pretty useless at them lol! Anyway, there are a handful of people whose scrapping I really admire - but whose creations are mostly way beyond my abilities to imitate (including my partner, but I've already scraplifted you Mag so I thought I'd best go choose another victim lol!)

So I went surfing through some 'idol' galleries, hoping against hope that I'd find something I could cope with...when I stumbled across this awesome layout of Amanda's daughter Bella. I remember when she first posted it, and I was struck by how stunningly simple it was, and how crisp and clean and fresh it looked.


So here's my take, I've tried to keep it as simple as possible, and as luck would have it while I was struggling to find something for the border edge of the photo, Karen Stimson launched her new Eyelet Lace Action - and it was perfect!!!

The picture was taken when my mum came to visit us in 2006 - just a few months after we moved to Canada. It was a huge trip for her coming from Dublin, but I was so thrilled she came, and we had such fun in Victoria taking snaps with all the Spirit Bears - of which this was my favourite. Waltzing with Bears is a reference to a rather whimsical ditty by Tommy Makem, whom we both loved, and we found ourselves humming it as we went 'hunting' for bears to snap, so here's a little taster...

Our Uncle Walter's not right in the head
He's been that way all his life, my mother said
Its not that he's violent or falls down the stairs
Its just he goes waltzing, waltzing with bears
He goes wa wa wa waltzing, waltzing with bears
Raggy bears, shaggy bears, baggy bears too
There's nothing on earth Uncle Walter won't do
So he can go waltzing, wa wa wa waltzing
He can go waltzing, waltzing with bears

Cheery!!!

Challenge 7

I must admit I thought I was going to struggle with this one, but once I got started it went rather well. The photo was taken during our trip to Canada in 2004, actually it was just before we were due to fly home. We'd fallen in love with Canada in 1997 and dreamed of moving here, and when we began to seriously plan in 2004, we came back to see if we still felt the same way...and we fell in love all over again.

We overnighted in Toronto on the way home, and had dinner at the top of the CN Tower, and I think this was the night when we both finally admitted that this was what we wanted to do, and we haven't looked back since then really!

I 'borrowed' the restaurant logo and a snap of the tower at night, and I think Karen's Lace Bow Action really is the perfect finishing touch! Click the picture for credits and journalling.

If you ever find yourself in Toronto and looking for a perfect place for dinner, you can't beat 360 - the food is fabulous, the staff are fun and friendly and the view...well, it has to be seen to be believed!

Challenge 6 - Sunset Silks

Whew! This is a real relief, because I was really nervous about doing this one, but I think it turned out better than I expected lol! I had oodles of fun browsing through Mag's gallery...took me ages to choose a layout that I thought I could do a reasonable job of recreating, flipping and tilting...but I finally settled on very elegant and classy page:
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And here's my take on it...I do so love this view!!!


Click on either picture to see the credits and details, and feel free to leave a little love!

Challenge 5

Firstly, I am totally in awe of my partner...Mag your challenge 5 simply blew me right out of the water!!! I am sooooo glad to have you as my partner...and you're so much quicker than me too lol!!!

Anyway, here's my little effort, I actually had great fun with this because it gave me an excuse (not that much is needed) to go rifling through my digi stash...and then I ended up with so many frames I couldn't whittle them down to less than twelve!!! Which is how I ended up with this:

Click on the picture for credits and journalling...and if you look closely you'll see I've managed to sneak in a couple of my very own frames in there too lol!!!

Challenge 5

Boy that came around so fast. Thank you Chris for posting my challenge 4 layout - I absolutely love your "Wicked" layout and am going on a hunt for that book.

Those wonderful footprints are fantastic. Can see all sorts of uses for those.

I have posted my challenge 5 so here is the layout:

I am loving how these challenges are making me stretch my creative muscle. Not loving the journalling so much but am getting there.

I had forgotten to post my challenge 3 (Opps) so here's that one as well:

Challenge 4

It's taken me absolutely ages, but I'm finally finished Challenge 4! But first let's have a look at Mag's because this is absolutely stunning, and way better than my little effort!!! Click on the picture for credits and journalling in the gallery...and leave some love!


And now here's mine...no don't laugh! This was the best I could come up with, and it took me way longer than it should have because I'm never really sure what I should be doing for altered and artsy! Again, click the picture for credits and journalling:


I've just uploaded it and nipped into the forums quickly, and arrrgh! It's taken me so long to get this finished that Challenge 5 is up already....time to fire up Photoshop again!!!!

Challenge 3

Finally, seems like we've waited ages for Challenge 3 lol! Actually, this was kinda tough for me as I still like the original, but I like the re-worked version too...so I'm happy!

Click the pic for credits etc in the main gallery.

Mag - you beat me to posting at NDISB but I beat you to the blog lol! Love both of your layouts, the original and the challenge version...they're strikingly different but equally beautiful!!!

A little freebie as we wait for Challenge 3!

Firstly huge thanks & hugz Mag for getting us all uploaded and posted at NDISB...which then left me wondering what to do until Challenge 3 was posted...so here's what I came up with:

Yep, I was so enamoured of my little acrylic footprints in our Challenge 2 layout, that I decided to make some more and share them lol! These were created with Karen Stimson's very cool Acrylic Layer Styles. As anyone who knows me knows, I am a huge fan of Karen's work...and if you're curious to see why, just click on the Woolsweater Street blinkie on the right >>>

And if you'd like to snag the footprints, just click on the preview...that's all from me for now, roll on Challenge 3!

Challenge 2

Well it has taken us a couple of days to do the second challenge by Elemental Scraps. - A layout on Cabin Fever.

We chose a designer that we both had the same kit for - Krista Ringham. We used her Moody Blues kit mostly. Here is the end result

Challenge 1

Chris what a wonderful first layout you did. It is fantastic. Love everything about it.

Challenge 1 - Siblings

Yay!!!! Wonderful first page Mag...it's so intricately woven I keep seeing new little details in it - all I can say is I've still got a lot to learn!

So here's my first, I've kept it simple just to be sure I could get it finished and uploaded before we lost power again...hope you like it.

For credits and journalling, click on the photo to go to the details in the gallery.

The Race has started - first up is Hummie's World's challenge to create a page using a torn/ripped photo (into at least three pieces) and add journalling - yes that dreaded word "JOURNALLING"!

We won't talk about why I felt I had to finish the challenge in one sitting, or the fact that I then fiddled with it for I don't know know long but I have finally posted mine to NDISB.