design team reveal (early again!) and july product challenge

I just picked up my july product kit yesterday (thanks for holding it so long for me TSF!). I put it together today as I'll be gone by the end of the month. Some of the clouds, starfish and all the words are pop dotted which adds dimension you can't really see in the photo.

I am going to be away for the next little while so here are my design team projects, posted a bit early again. When I opened this month's kit I was a little afraid. It was very sports oriented which we most definitely are not! As I got going the ideas started flowing and here is what I came up with: Here is my card, You are my MVP. I used a stamp to create the banner on the inside of the card. Everything was in the kit except the green buttons.

Here's Holden having his first go at mini-golf. He had so much fun. Everything but thickers letters and brads were in the kit.

Here's my lovely niece Brooke in her professional photo from the team she played on last year. I made the soccer ball flowers by cutting out and painting chipboard. I used a prima crystal flourish (love these!) to make it 'girly'. I used Thickers letters again.

Last but not least here is my nephew Everett at his 9th birthday party. We all dressed up as rockstars and played Rock Band. So much fun. The brads were the only non-kit addition. I did lots of distressing and added stickles to the Scrap f/x title. Rock On!!

how fragile life is...

We've had quite an abundance of baby birds around our house lately and it's been incredible to watch. We discovered a rather unconventional nest under our playground slide in the backyard. A mother robin laid her eggs in a small indent in the ground, protected only by the slide and a few weeds we've let grow in to keep her safe. Yesterday the eggs hatched and I've never seen anything more fragile than these two little baby birds laying in the dirt. My heart broke when I saw them laying there, I thought they were dead. Then I saw them taking little shallow breaths and wiggling around. I was shocked that they were still alive. I moved away quickly so their mama could come back to keep them warm. I'm keeping the boys out of the backyard in hopes that by some miracle these little guys survive.

latest layouts

I did a few layouts last week, a few were from the impromptu friday night online crop at TSF. I love having a challenge to work with as it give you a starting point.

This layout was based on a sketch by Patti from the design team at TSF

For this layout I joined two pieces of paper together. Always have to try something new.

This was a sample for my challenge that I posted. The theme was 'things that go' and you had to use arrows somewhere on the page.

This is my layout for the week 2 Exile Island challenge. It was based on a sketch by Karan.

My scraproom looks like a tornado hit it but I got a lot accomplished!

sunday is family fun day...

We began our Sunday with what was supposed to be a nice leisurely stroll through the Huron Nature trail. We've been several times and taken different trails. We decided to take a new route this time and well, we got lost. I could feel myself getting angry as we got further and further into the bush. The trail became narrow and overgrown and we were being swarmed by vampiric mosquitoes. Wyatt thought it was great fun, "we're on an adventure" he kept saying. I lightened up a bit realizing that it was indeed an adventure. I knew we weren't in any real danger of being lost forever. We had drinks, snacks and even a cell phone so I relaxed and enjoyed the time together. Eventually we made our way to a road and figured out where we were. We stopped for a picnic under a shady tree and had a good laugh about our sad sense of direction. We all had a good nap that afternoon then spent the evening on our deck eating watermelon, dinner and ice cream. The boys had a waterfight and we tried to stay out of the way. It turned out to be a perfect family day, even with our slightly imperfect beginning!

More Survivor challenges..

Here is my take on this week's Survivor challenge. As the weeks go on the challenges are getting tougher in the race to outscrap the others. I am over on Exile just playing along for fun. This week's criteria were: a diecut shape as you background, lots of layers, a photo corner, brackets around title and there was a sketch by Karan to follow.
We are also having a blast over on Exile. In between mixing up drinks in our smuggled-in blender we are doing a little scrapping. Karan also created this sketch and the criteria was to use a circle, half ledger shape and to follow the sketch. I used the greenstack papers I love so much.

Having a great time participating in the Survivor challenges without the stress of the competition. These ladies are fierce and dedicated scrapbookers. Check out all their wonderful creations in the TSF gallery!

piles of fun..

How do you entertain two little boys for endless hours? Get a dump truck load of sand dumped in your yard! We did just that over Canada Day at the cottage. The boys were beside themselves and couldn't wait to dig in. It looked like so much fun I couldn't help myself and I jumped in too!

Looking forward to a fun, sandy summer!!