I AM GOING TO HEAL SAYS MITCHELL

I found this template challenge at Designer's Digitals and knew I wanted to use it for this story. Don and Mitchell were wrestling one day and when Mitchell said this, we all laughed. The other funny part of this picture is that Everett was on the floor crying because he was scared of the fighting! I'm pretty sure he will be joining them soon.

Thought I would show you one of the pictures I started with:

 The black and white pictures were done using Coffee Shop's Coconut BW action, one of my favourites. 

I had fun with this page, but have to admit the angling was really challenging and probably makes the journaling harder to read, but I still love how it turned out! I also wanted to give this a cartoon feel, thus the word bubbles from eNKay Designs, Comic Kit found at the DigiChick.  This page makes me happy and I'm grateful to be able to document these memories. I'm thankful that Don has one son that he can wrestle with, play soccer with, eat pizza with and love!! These days are going so fast, he's almost as tall as his Dad....

MESSY PIANO

I've been wanting to scrap this page after seeing Hannah Clark's Shabby Melody kit, just had to find the right pictures. Although all of my kids have played piano, Vanessa was the one who practised without being asked or told to... and who went the farthest in lessons. I really do love to hear the piano, no matter what stage they are at. I know some people wince at the "plunk, plunk" of the new little ones but I always loved listening to them. My favourite time of the day was making supper while one of my kids was practising piano in the background....it made everything right in the world!

My advice, start them early, not too early but once they are teenagers too many other things take precedence and the piano gets forgotten. During the elementary years, piano music makes your house a home!

Scrapbooking Notes:

HClark Shabby Melody Kit
KPertiet Starglows No1
Fonts: Impact, Century Gothic

Not sure I would fill the word again if I have a blended photo...thinking it looks too busy. I loved Hannah's frame and was happy with how it framed Vanessa. I'm using Cathy Zieske's Tips for Better Types when I journal which has helped a lot.

PERU PAINTING

 This was one of my favourite pictures of Don and Melodie that I was able to take when we were visiting Mel in Peru! We had so much fun and were amazed at the beautiful Peruvian architecture. I thought this  watercolour technique would do this picture justice and bring it to life. This brings back wonderful memories of seeing our missionary daughter, Hermana Mathieson for the first time in 18 months...it was an amazing, joyful trip!!

Supplies:

Lynn Grieveson In Distress Papers

KPertiet Defining Words No4

KPertiet Starglow No1

LMurphy Discovery Elements

SPCom Festival Village Frame

WWC Malihini Solid Papers

Fonts: Impact, Georgia, Beautiful ES, Century Gothic

PICTURE MAKE OVER

I took this picture of my Mitchell and Rebecca at the park and love how it turned out. What was even better is that Rebecca liked it!

Using a tutorial, I decided to boost the colour and contrast and add an embossed stroke with a drop shadow. I think it really emphasizes how much they look alike! Funny to see how these last two (the tallest in the family), who used to fight all the time are good friends and they talk and hang out together. Makes all the time outs, go to your rooms and "quit bugging each other rants" almost worthwhile. It also makes me wonder what the future will bring....my last 2 babies!

DADS AGAINST DAUGHTERS DATING

A friend of Don's sent him a picture of the new movie ad for Arnold Schwarzenegger's "The Last Stand" and said it reminded him of Don. It made me laugh but as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make this page! It took some work and a couple of tries but I am happy with the end result.

This is a picture I took of Don years ago in our living room and I had fun extracting it and putting in on a new manly background. As the father of 4 girls, 3 of them married, he's fighting a losing battle but he still keeps trying! I have a feeling his 3 sons-in-law are going to just laugh at this picture....

Supplies:
Lynn Grieveson In Distress Paper
Fonts: Century Copperplate Light, Century Gothic

BEAUTIFUL OREGON

I was so happy to have this picture even though it was taken accidentally! I wanted some shots of the kids boarding in the ocean while we were in Oregon, but because the sun was behind them the pictures came out really dark! I decided to try and make them silhouettes and they turned out wonderful. So I decided to scrap them! I've been wanting to use Hannah Clark's scrapbooking kits that she has recently designed and her Butterfly Bliss kit had some beautiful colours that fit perfectly! Thanks Hannah....

I thought you might like to see the original picture....

Here is the layout I made. I made my own template using 8 rectangles and moved them apart. I then clipped the same picture to each one and put a drop shadow on the rectangle. When I added the paper behind I reduced the opacity and I loved how it turned out! I added some embellishments from Hannah's kit, a starglow from Katie Pertiet and now I have a page that makes me happy. It really was a memorable vacation.... have any of you visited Oregon? Any favourite memories out there....