REBECCA'S BLESSING DRESS

What fun it was to gather as a family in Langley the beginning of March to celebrate the birth of our new granddaughter, Kaia Renee Pederson born January 27, 2013. Now that we have 3 married daughters it is harder to get together but it's always wonderful when we do! I just have to remember to take pictures! This was Kaia's blessing day in our church.

This moment was also special because we were able to use Rebecca's blessing dress that my friend Nancy Hill made for her 16 years ago! I was so happy that we could use it again. It was a treasure to scrap and I love the memories it brings back....

So this page (using Jana Morton's, All Star Graphics class)  is for Danielle, Rebecca, Kaia and my special friend Nancy from Oregon, who I still miss!

Rebecca and Kaia!

Baby Kaia!

5 Mathieson Girls!

Proud Papa, Tim Pederson!

The Mathieson Kids....

The Mathieson Kids with Spouses....

The Mathieson Family now....

BASKETBALL CHAMPS

Mitchell's team, the Grade 8 Brocklehurst Broncs not only won the city championships this year but were able to attend a provincial tournament in Pitt Meadows where they placed 15th. We were proud of their team and how hard they worked. It's been fun to be a "basketball" Mom and watch 4 of my kids play basketball and I have to admit it's one of my favourite sports to watch. It's always fast paced and every year they seem to get better. Now that Mitchell is playing I'm seeing a definite difference in the level of play between boys and girls at this age! I'm also thankful for all the wonderful team skills he has been learning because this is such a good group of boys!!

When I read that Jana Morton was doing an All Star Graphics class, I signed up right away! I'm happy to be using all of my sports pictures in a new way!! Look for some more of these coming.....

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....

THE MANY FACES OF MEL!

So happy to sit down last night and scrap again. I haven't actually done a page in awhile... I read lots and study lots but sometimes just need to sit down and do it. I need to learn to quit working on every detail as well. This is for my Melodie! So happy that her and Kevin live in town now and that we can see them more!

I saw this template on my Jessica Sprague Digi in Deeper in Deeper class and decided to give it a try. It was fun to go back and look at new techniques. I used some of her ideas but made the page my own.
There's not as much journaling as I usually like but it was still fun. I made the brackets into stickers, the main picture into a graph and tried clustering again. The fun script font is CK Legacy.

I'm looking forward to another class being offered by Jessica Sprague called Motography being offered in November! It's another iPhone class that's supposed to "rock your camera phone!" Should be fun!

Here's my new layout:

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

GRANDPA'S KEYS

I'm in a scrapbooking mood lately and have been working on more projects than I have in a while. I found this picture today and had to laugh when I saw it....knew it would make a fun layout! I used some of Hannah Clark's new kit, Shabby Melody and then added some embellishments from some other digital supplies that I have from Katie Pertiet (using her "Painting in Progress tutorial) , the Ettes and LMurphy. I struggled with some aspects of this page but eventually decided that I had spent enough time on it and I like it the way it is. My cute grandson, who is not very happy in this picture...I think it was because he was tired of Grandma taking pictures!!!

 I'm trying to increase my Blog membership, feel free to join my site!

WEDDING INVITATIONS... LAMBS

JULY 18, 2012

Congratulations to Mike Lamb and Emma Dudley who will be getting married in the CARDSTON, ALBERTA, TEMPLE this Friday, July 20! We are so happy for them and their families. We have known the Lambs for years, in fact our kids pretty much grew up together! This is the invitation I made a few weeks ago and I was so happy with how it turned out. They used a template that I already had which made it easier. 

We are looking forward to their wedding reception here in Kamloops on July 28... it will be fun to see the whole Lamb family!

DUNE BUGGIES

Well here is another update from our vacation last week! Now that I'm home it's been a little busier, but I really wanted to scrap a few pages of our fun day quadding. Of course, that took longer than I expected what with working, painting, and driving Mitchell to basketball camp. Just don't take a close look at my yard, it is seriously getting forgotten.....

I still enjoy using Tiffany Tillman's Modern Master Template Collection and continue to use Jana Morton's Blending and Extraction techniques. Happy to have these....

If anyone out there has good memories of Oregon, would love to hear about them! Just leave a note in my comments.....

SCRAPBOOKING ... COWBOYS DANCE

So happy to be scrapbooking again! I used pictures that Russell and Jennifer McCue took at Melodie's wedding reception and used them on this layout. I'm taking a Jana Morton class from Creative Passion called "Blueprints: The Angles of Photoshop" and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm learning how to use extractions and angles in photoshop. This page took way longer than I thought and I certainly learned that you should never extract ROPE!!! I really loved this pictures that were taken in a "photo booth" at the reception. Also had to include this because Melodie and Kevin both LOVE to dance so this was them at their best.

THY MOTHER'S GLASS

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom! It's hard to visit when she's so far away (my Mom, Reina Granger lives in Coldbrook, Nova Scotia) so thank goodness for the phone. I was so grateful to be with her last month at my brother's funeral. Not only can we talk and laugh together but we were able to grieve together. She was heartbroken and in shock...there is nothing harder than losing your child. I have lots of wonderful memories of my mother and how hard working she was....she held our farm together when Dad was out working. Can't say I ever milked a cow, but I know she did!! So this page is for my MOM:

My list of supplies:

Thy Mother's Glass

KPertiet Fairy Dreamer Paper

KPertiet Starglows 2

KPertiet Oversprayed Love

KLewis Just Another Day

Carina Gardiner Daisy Flower

Taylormade Expression Family

Scraplifted from Jana Morton's Cowgirls Page!  http://janamorton.blogspot.ca/2011/10/framing-without-frame.html

Thanks for looking!! 

TOMORROW THE GROOM

As you can see, having fun with Melodie's wedding pictures! I remembered taking this picture of Mitchell years ago and wanted to compare the two....hard to believe the difference in 6 years. He was definitely the cutest groomsman according to his mother 6 years ago at Danielle's wedding and here he is looking tall and handsome at Melodie's wedding.

When I started working on his picture I decided to extract him out to emphasize how tall he has become!  Most of the elements come from a fun kit that I got from the Daily Digi (http://thedailydigi.com/) called "ON THIS DAY" by Christine Chodil. http://thedailydigi.com/christine-chodil-mostly-good/comment-page-1/#comment-38609

DREAMS COME TRUE

I was so happy to have scrapbooking time again now that the wedding of Kevin and Melodie is over. This was a picture of them taken outside the Vancouver BC Temple, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As mother of the bride, I didn't have a lot of picture taking time so I am anxiously awaiting the professional ones. I loved these ones though and had a fun time making this page. This will be a wedding present when they get home from their honeymoon.

I'm still using Jana Morton's blending techniques (http://creativepassionclasses.com/workshops/jana-morton/) and this page uses a lot of Katie Pertiet's ArtistrydeBlanco Digital Scrapbooking kit  (http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/product_info.php/products_id/12542).

Bill White

I haven't been able to blog about it ...it's been so hard to just talk about it and next week will be even harder. I found out this last Wednesday morning that my brother Billy died. Just like that over night, he had a heart attack and his boss found him on the floor the next morning when he went looking for Bill  because he didn't show up for work.

Mom called to tell me and she was completely distraught and I knew it was bad. It doesn't seem real, every time I think about it or talk about it...it's hard not to cry. The funeral is next Tuesday and I fly out Monday morning to Moncton, NB to be with my family. I am so grateful I can go...it's so far but I would always regret if I wasn't there. It's been hard to write but I was finally able to write some thoughts today and look at some pictures. There are so many regrets when someone dies suddenly, these are mine....

HAPPINESS IS...

I've been wanting to scrap these cute pocketbooth pictures I've been taking on my Iphone. "Pocketbooth" is a super fun app that acts like a photo booth. It takes 4 rapid pictures in a row and has several settings that you can use. You have to warn your models because everyone thinks you are giving them 4 seconds when you count down but you are actually taking their picture 4 times! It can be kind of funny because I usually have to do it a couple of times for them to catch on.

Mel and Kevin had fun making goofy faces and when I found this other one, I knew it would match this pocketbooth set. I decided to make a totally artsy page and used Lynn Grieveson's Madras scrapbooking to embellish it. We are looking forward to this wedding because as you can see, Kevin is as crazy as our Melodie and life is never dull with these two around!!

Happiness truly is... marrying your best friend!!

THREE PROMISES

Decided to use one of my favourite engagement pictures for a template challenge that I saw on Designer Digitals. Then as I was designing it, the gift journaling came to me and I was so happy with the idea. I'm hoping Kevin and Melodie like it! I changed the blending modes on the rose, made all the blocks a different opacity and had fun with the title making it reflective. Honestly, I get a lot of my ideas from other pages that I see!! So grateful for all the other scrapbookers out there, it's an industry where it's an honour to be copied (or in digi vernacular, to have your page "lifted"!!) 

Taking more pictures lately has made me aware of how fun props can be. This picture was taken when Kevin and Melodie were warming up in the truck and to pass the time I decided to take some pictures of the ring. When I put the ring in the rose and then on the chair, I was so happy with it. It also worked out amazing because these were all gifts that Kevin gave to Mel, so that just made my page. I better get back to scrapping the rest of my family or they are going to feel left out! 

Journaling reads: 

The Chair: A promise to build and to work and to provide for his bride!

The Rose: A promise to remember and to give and to cherish his bride!

The Ring: A promise to admire and to adore and to love his bride until the end of time!

So feel free to lift this page for any scrapbookers out there, I would love to see your take on it!!

Happy Leap Day....

JANUARY MONTH IN PHOTOS

Rebecca Cooper in her blog, Simple As That gives away a collage template to do a "month in photos" and I'm going to try it this year! Doing a page a month is doable for me, any more than that right now would be overwhelming I think. I will still scrap other pages but this will be for keeping track of our family pictures for the year. Doing the round up every month will help as well because then I'm already picking out the pictures I want to use.
I also just included text right on the picture, will see how that looks. Might do more writing but for now this will do. Trying to keep things easy with the wedding around the corner!
So here are my January pages for 2012...

January ROUND UP

I like "Katie the Scrapbook Lady"'s idea of a monthly round up! She answers all kinds of questions but I think I'm going to start by rounding up my favourite pictures at the end of each month. I'm hoping it will help me to focus on not only taking better pictures but taking them more often. They bring back all kinds of memories and maybe doing this will help me to actually scrap a yearly album! So here are my favourites for JANUARY 2012, and believe me it was hard to stay to 12.....

Visited Kelowna for New Year's and took some pictures at the Edis house...I was not happy with how they turned out but I did get one cute one of Rebecca with one of her best friends Michelle, of them doing the heart sign.

 Have to admit lots of my favourites include this little cutie, my grandson Everett! Now that he and Danielle are staying with us for a little while (Tim is in school in Calgary), we are getting to know him better and I am getting more pictures!!

 The newly engaged couple having fun with the presents that Tim and Danielle brought from Calgary! A little too much kissing going on according to Papa!!

 Happy, happy Melodie who scored a case of INKA KOLA that Tim and Danielle found in Calgary! This is the major beverage in Peru and it's pretty hard to find here in Canada!!

 Couldn't resist this shot of Daddy reading to Everett...scrapped this page last year, might have to do a side by side shot.

 Had fun taking pictures of these flowers Tim bought Danielle for her 25th birthday on January 6th.

 Mitchell and his team the Brocklehurst Broncs won their first tournament! Some pretty happy ball players...

 Had fun scrapping this page, my kids all together for the first time in ages. It was pretty funny to find out that tallest to shortest goes from youngest to oldest...which Mitchell is quite happy about!

I love this picture because it just shows Mitchell's height. He has grown so much in the last year, hard to believe but he now wears a size 11 shoe. Of course, this certainly helps him in basketball!

 Fun picture of Grandpa with Everett! Grandpa reflexes are being tested daily with a little grandson around, from stroller tipping to spitting up...Don is learning to move fast again!!

 We had to laugh when Everett eagerly joined the big kids in dancing to "Just Dance!"

 This month has been busy and fun with lots of family dinners. I never know how many will be sitting down at the table, but I do know that no matter how much food I make if we don't eat it that night...the leftovers will go the next day with all these men around!! Lots of laughing, visiting and discussions around our table again!!