July 4th

Tara posted a challenge on her blog to share photos of our 4th of July celebration. Since we are Canadian, we did not celebrate the 4th of July, but I thought I'd share a couple of photos of what we did do today. 

We enjoyed some very yummy ice cream while sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather. 

Man of the House

The initial idea for this layout came about from the "That's Entertainment" challenge for Summerfest at The Scrapping Nook. We were given the option of getting inspiration from the works of either of two of the entertainers who passed away last week. I selected Farrah Fawcett and a movie she was in called "Man of the House". I initially wanted to do "The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars", but my toaster is definitely not brave nor has it ever been to Mars (I'm not even sure it has ever been out of Cambridge). So that is where the title came from.

The layout is based on a sketch by Allison Cope that was posted for Sketchy Saturday on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog. I love Ally's sketches!!!!! One of Tara's challenges on her blog was to use a sketch from the SCT blog. She also challenged us to use red, white and blue on a layout. So I made red, white and blue prominent colours on my layout.

The patterned paper is from Three Bugs In A Rug Playtime line. Letters are American Crafts Thickers. I punched out three different sizes of stars then layered them together.

Rain Dance

Summerfest at The Scrapping Nook is full of fabulous challenges. This week, one of them is a fantastic sketch from the Prima blog. 

The quote is from My Sketchworld and was part of a challenge on Tara's blog. As soon as I read the quote I knew which photos I wanted to use. I don't know who wrote the quote, so I can't give credit to the author.

Most of the papers are unknowns from my stash, although I did use a scrap from the American Crafts Backyard line. I also used my Fiskars border punch for the first. Letters are American Crafts Thickers. The umbrellas were hand cut and pop dotted.

Canada Day

One of the challenges for Summerfest at The Scrapping Nook this week is "This Land Is Our Land". In honour of Canada Day (and Independence Day in the U.S.A.) we were challenged to create something using the colours of our flag. For me that was red and white. 

I also combined a couple of other challenges into this layout for Tara's blog challenges. I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers for my inspiration and I created a fringe for my layout (below the row of photos).

The photos were taken last year on Canada Day. The journaling reads: What better way to celebrate Canada's birthday - fabulous weather, a wonderful friend, and a refreshing dip in the pool.

Papers are from Reminisce, Around The Block, Bazzill, and a Canada kit that I picked up last year but I don't remember the manufacturer.

Multi Challenge Layout

I was able to combine three challenges, from three different sites for this layout.

First, I came up with the idea for the immunity challenge at Two Scrapbook Friends this week. Our challenge was to create a layout about ourselves and have it uploaded by midnight last night. Due to my Mom having to go to Emergency (she's okay) last night, I didn't actually get to this until after 11 p.m. I think it turned out quite well for a hastily done layout. We had to include a photo of ourselves. I couldn't get one I liked of just me, so I used this one of myself with Sara.

Second, one of the challenges for Summerfest at The Scrapping Nook this week is "Big Title, Bit Impact" so I hauled out my Quickutz Diesel font (love that font!!!!) and created my title. I used Chocolate Box Coredinations paper for the title and sanded it to reveal the green colour. I really like how the big title draws attention to the layout.

Third, Tara challenged us to "Hide It" on her blog. That meant creating a layout with hidden journaling. I decided to take the Making Memories journaling paper, add a big flower folded in half to the front, and put my journaling on the back. The flower flips down to reveal the journaling.

The journaling was actually the most difficult part of this layout to do. I wanted to share a very personal part of myself, something that I haven't told everyone. Yet at the same time I didn't want to go into too much detail as some things are meant to be personal. So it is a bit of a personal glimpse into my life right now.

I didn't win immunity in the challenge, but I'm still very happy that I did the layout.