Discover the Ocean

Another Hawaii page I did last night. I really have to quit these late nights. The clock on my blog is supposed to remind me that "hey you got to be up at 6:45 am tomorrow morning girl!" but it doesn't seem to be working. Addicted? Ralna what have you done to us!! hehe

scrapbook challange

LOL - I have a challenge for all of you scrapbookers. Today I was thumbing through some pages that haven't made it into albums yet and I came across the first layout I ever did. It is a two pager. I had never scrap booked in my life and I signed up for a beginner class...and I was hooked of course. But I looked at this first page today and I had to laugh...how many stickers can you get on one page!! Remember cutting out the pictures? And all those fancy scissors to choose from? Okay - so your turn - I want to see your very first scrapbook page!

So that was the very first page and now here is the last one I did yesterday.

Looking forward to seeing your pages!

Hawaii

Finally - some of my layouts of our trip to Hawaii (click for a link to my photos).

My new reno must be inspiring me...or maybe I just know where all my supplies are now that they are organized again. Hawaii is so very beautiful and I am anxious to return and explore it further. If you have not been and have thought some day you would like to go, I would encourage you to go for it. There is so much to see and so much to do, or you can just lie on the beach and play in the ocean. Here are some of our photos from Hawaii.

It was a fabulous vacation!

This is paper Ralna ordered right from Hawaii - so it is really Hawaiian. :) The sunsets and sunrises (yes I got up for a few) were breathtaking. I came home with well over 500 photos -and those were the ones I didn't delete.


We spent the day and evening at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was lots of fun, we learned so much and we laughed a whole bunch. This layout to the left was the presentation on the people of the Island of Samoa - they are known as the happy people and this guy was down right hilarious!

Another meal near the ocean - we had such fun together!

This is a photo Mark took of Honolulu late at night. If you double click on it you can get a closer look - it is really a great picture.

I have uploaded some of my Hawaii pictures. Click here if you want to take a look.

Thanks for visiting!

Thanks!

Thanks for all your encouraging comments everyone....and what a priviledge to be on Wilna's blog. Thanks for the link Wilna!

Well I turned 50 last week. I thought I would take it fairly well, practical, down to earth person that I am. I have so much to be thankful for - a wonderful husband and four children almost all launched and on their way. No Grandchildren yet. But I think I found it a little harder than expected to move into a new decade on the other side closer to 100!
I was sitting in my tiny den/office/library/srcapboook/computer room feeling sorry for myself (isn't it so easy to do that even when we know we are blessed). I was thinking how uninspiring, crowded, messy, cluttered and downright dirty the room was - wish I had some photos to show you just how cluttered it was. It had marked up green walls, old dirty and smelly carpet and just way too much stuff in it. The dumping ground for the whole house. I was blaming my self centered 'feel sorry for myself' thoughts on the room and I decided I needed a pick-me-up, so I just started taking EVERYTHING out of the room! It took the whole day - what a workout - three huge bookshelves full of books, all my computer and photography paraphenalia AND all my scrapbook supplies. Was it ever nice to pull that old carpet out of there! The family room, diningroom and hallway were full of all the stuff now - a dilema I would deal with later.

Off to J&H builders for two hours and I had the paint, two new lighting fixtures and new laminate flooring purchased (all on sale - this was meant to be!). I painted all evening and the next day - was up at 4am to finish the painting (had to work that day) and my son then installed the flooring. Spent my lunch hours and any off time looking for the perfect desk - found a floor model discounted and came in on budget!! Umm...but I won't be buying myself that new wideangle lens for my 50th! haha. I'll keep dreaming. Here are the after pictures - you can only imaging the before pictures! This is a small room but I made it work! I love my new bold wall colour and photos on my wall!







I love my new work room - it is better than I imagined but this reno stuff is really interferring with my scrapbooking. I really have to set some time aside to get more pages done - so many photos waiting for their spot on the page!
Thanks for looking!

Not Wedding Layouts

And now for something completely different.......

.....................a layout that is NOT from the wedding album.

Here are a few of my favorite layouts.

This is my son Mark - Cpl Cortens - in Gari Dupatta,Pakistan. He was serving as as Signals Operator with the DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) there in November 2005 after their huge earthquake. This page and the two following it were published in summer 2006 Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine. ....my only claim to fame!

My Dad is 82 years old now. This is a photo of him taken in 1938 when he was 14 years old. In the small frame is a photo of him when he was four. This is a simple layout, but I like to look at it and be reminded that my Dad was really 13 once and very handsome - he still is!. :)

And another heritage page - I love doing heritage pages - this one tells the story of my Dad's training and experience in the Canadian Armed Forces. I sent the pictures to him by e-mail a couple of years ago and asked him to tell me about his experiences. I was so blessed with all he wrote and placed it word for word on this page. You never know when your parents or Grandparents will be leaving this world, so find time to sit down with them, go through the family photos and either write down or record all they have to say, getting all the interesting little stories - when they are gone, all those interesting details will be gone as well - forever!

Thanks for looking.

more wedding layouts

I am posting this first layout at Angie's request - hope it is the right one - she saw it in the store and of course I have taken them all down now to put them in the album. So here it is. So what can I say about this layout....didn't use a whole lot of product. he he But I did do some photo editing in Photo Shop. There was a whole bunch of clutter (read mess) in the back ground - ie my son's basement apartment which is teeny and four guys were staying there - so you can only imagine! So this is the guys getting ready. Isn't it wonderful how six 4x6 photos fit so neatly on a 12x12 page?

Here is another easy one - great paper, a photo and a few rub-ons.

Allie had such an exquisite dress and it looked so beautiful on her - had to get this photo of the back of her dress! Little bit of flash glare when I digitalized this layout.

This page was very easy. The paper is beautifully embossed with the words "dearly beloved" and "forever yours" in silver. I added silver photo corners, flowers and the hearts - and a little bling in the center of the flowers.

Thanks for looking!

Wedding pages

Hi - just enough time here to upload a few more pages from the wedding album. Thanks for looking.

Thanks for your comments

Hi again. Thanks for your comments Angie and Allie. It is always nice to know somone is interested. :) Here are a few more pages from Paul and Allie's wedding album. This one didn't work out so well when I made the digital - the word 'anticipation' really is straight on the page. :) But I really like this picture of Allie looking out the window moments before leaving for the church.

This page has their wedding vows on it - I put them on in Photoshop before printing the photo. The P&A are a little hard to see. I used alcohol inks on plastic letters to get the color I wanted. Alcohol inks are fun!

This page is pretty simple. Love to use bling! especially for wedding pages.

Thanks for looking!