Crouching Dog Graphics

I just loved the ‘naturalness’ of this pic and couldn’t wait to scrap it.  It’s a beautiful photo of my younger son, Tony and his wee babe, Xavier.  Both fell asleep in the chair.  What a precious moment.  I’m so pleased that Amber took the time to grab her camera and preserve that moment for them both.  Thanks Ams.  However after a bit of a disasterous scrapping day yesterday when just nothing fell together or ‘worked’ for me I was wondering if I should start this one this morning.  Now it’s finished I kinda like it.  It was inspired by a LO done by Kristina Collett here http://www.kristinacollett.stampinup.net.

For those that ‘know’ me this page is so NOT me.  I’m not really into butterflies or hearts, but they just seemed to work on this LO because they are dreamy and my subjects are certainly ‘dreamy’.

The other exciting thing about this LO is that it uses the ‘dreamy’ paper from SAB, Everyday Enchantment together with  an SAB stamp set, Fresh Vintage.   Oooooooeeeeee these are both very ‘dreamy’.  I loves them muchly.

Please leave me a message and tell me what you think of my two dreamboats and the LO.

Recipe for success:

Cardstock – Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade

Stamp Set – Fresh Vintage

Ink – Calypso Coral

DSP – Everyday Enchantment

Ribbon – Ruffled – Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade and Pool party

Accessories – Big Shot, Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die, Perfect Polka Dot embossing folder, Timeless junior alpha die

Until next time stay happy and stay stampin’

Jacqui

I just love spending time with my beautiful Grand daughter, Tannikah.  She comes and visits with us most school holidays.  Tannikah commenced high school this year so I guess it won’t be long before she’ll prefer to spend time during the holidays with her friends.  So I relish every holiday that she visits.  During the last holidays we needed to go to the Gold Coast for Dennis to see an eye specialist.  There’s this fabulous coffee shop nearby and I love to visit and sample their delicious muffins.  On this occasion Tannikah decided to try breakfast.  This is breakfast?  I thought to myself when they put it in front of her!!!!  Not where I was raised, was that ever breakfast.  However Miss TK enjoyed every morsel.

I hear gasps of fear about this LO.  It’s certainly not one that you’d commence after a couple of alcoholic drinks, and yes when you finish it you have deserved several alcoholic drinks!!!!  It’s yet another LO from Vicki McBride, SU demonstrator in Kyogle.  It was a bit of work however I just love the result and love that I can stand back and vividly remember the laughter and good fun that we had that morning.

One improvement I’d make to this LO next time is to do both pages together, that way getting the perfect mirror image would be easier, also I’d put the heading to read right across the LO rather than reading from one page to other completely.  Do you know what I mean?  But all in all I’m happy with it.

This is the first page of the DLO.

Second page of DLO.

Recipe for success.

Cardstock- Whisper White, Pacific Point, Basic Black

DSP – Pacific Point DSP, Mocha Morning

Stamp Set – Circle Circus (kindly on loan from Sue Haynes from Casino)

Punches – Lots of Circles! Lace Ribbon Border, Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer

Accessories – Circle Scissors, Big Shot and Timeless Type Junior Alphabet

Hope you love this DLO as much as I had doing it!

Until next time stay happy and stay stampin’

Jacqui

……………..i’m glad that I’m a Stampin’Up! Demonstrator.  A friend had a birthday recently (all the beautiful people are born in February aren’t they???) and she is one friend that I enjoy creating something quite gorgeous for, because I know that she just loves pretty things especially cards.  So it always a pleasure to create for her.  Well I’ve had a bit of a down week and my mojo got up and left.  So I turned to my Pinterest boards and came up with this.

This is CASED/inspired from this lovely lady http://monicas-passions.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/training-passionettes.html  I’m so glad that I found her blog.  Monica is obviously very talented and what better inspiration can a person have at a down time than this???  I just so admire those people that can ‘think outside the square’ and come up with brilliant and different things to do with our stamp sets.  You can also see in this photograph that I’ve decorated the envelope.  It’s a kinda sweet thing to do.  If you’ve not done that before give it a try.  SU envelopes come in white and cream and stamp beautifully.  I think that if you go to a bit of trouble creating an amazing card then why put it in a cheap envelope????

I love both these stamp sets and not used the Aviary one for so long.  Must get it out of it’s wee case more often, because it is such a cutie to use.

Well, it’s not long now until SU convention.  We meet up this year in Canberra at the end of May!  Hmmm may be a tad chilly, but then so is Tenterfield.  So this week saw me registered to go, I’m motoring down this year with two of my downlines.  The amazing Marion Benfield from Inverell and Therese (Miss T) Azzopardi from Tamworth.  We will then meet up with another two of the Bent Inklinations at Canberra.  Sue Haynes from Casino and Keira Hector from Stroud.   OMG!  I’m anticipating all the chatter and noise that’s going to be happening.  How excitement!!!!!  I can barely wait.

Recipe for success with this cute card is (all SU of course!):

Stamp Sets – Aviary, Thoughts and Prayers and You’re a Gem

Cardstock – Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder, Blushing Bride

Inks – Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade, Elegant Eggplant

Punchs – Eyelet Border and the Tiny Flower from the trio punch set

Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon and wee SU pearls

Thanks again Monica I hope I’ve done your card justice!!!!

Until next time stay happy and stay stampin’

Cheers

Jacqui

Since beginning this scrapbook journey that I’ve undertaken, I have learnt that some photographs are easier to scrap than others.  Amongst our children’s photos I found these pics.  They were taken by ‘Pixie’ photos.  I don’t know if they are still around, if they are I hope that they are using better quality photographic paper than these were developed on!!!!  All the colours are faded and there are a number of discoloured patches on the photo itself.  However they are precious memories and I’m grateful to have them.  This photo definately falls into the ‘difficult to scrap’ category for me.  However now that this page is finished I’m very happy with the result.

I used yet another sketch LO given to me by the lovely Vicki McBride.  Thanks heaps Vicki!!!  (At least you know I’m making good use of the stuff that you gave me)

I’ve used the gorgeous Paisley Petals DSP teamed with Bravo Burgundy cardstock.  I cannot believe that these kids have all grown up, this photo was taken in 1982.

Onto something completely different!  I have a scrapbook class to which three delightful girls attend.  It turns out that these girls share February, with me, as our birthmonth.  So each February we get together for a lunch and girly time.  Inspite of the age difference we all get along famously and I just love these three as if they were my own daughters.  As things happen we met up today for our ‘birthday’ lunches and it fell on Simone’s actual birthday.  Knowing how Simone has such a sweet tooth for all things sugary and knowing that in her childhood she just loved Napolean cake, Angela managed to bring along such cake and we celebrated in style.   Here is the lovely Simone ready to blow out her candle and get stuck into the cake.  Thanks for the lunch girls, good food, great company.  Can’t beat that!

Have  an amazing day Simone!

Until next time stay happy and stay stampin’

Jacqui

I recently had a downline staying for some team training.  Vicki McBride is a SU demonstrator in Kyogle who specialises in Scrapbooking.  Vick also does cards but she’s known in the area as one brilliant scrapper.  Anyways she was here recently picking up some tips on cardmaking and so I picked her brain on some ‘simple’ scrapbook layouts.  This is one of them.  It’s just lovely to showcase a single photo.

This pic was taken at Tony’s 18th birtday party.  So it’s a gorgeous photo of our eldest child, Sharon, and our youngest child, Tony.  I really wanted a simple LO that wouldn’t steal away the closeness in this photograph of the two together.   Also rather than going with the colours in the pic, I decided to ‘highlight’ the LO using the colour of Sharon blouse as the ‘feature’.  Clever trick!  (thanks Vicki!)

All the products are SU of course!

Recipe for success:

Cardstock – Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze, Not Quite Navy

DSP – Well worn (Oh how I’ve fallen in love with this!)

Stamp Set – French Foliage

Punches – Triple Doily Punch, Eyelet Border

Letters cut using the Big Shot and Simple Letters Alph Bigz Die

Until next time stay happy and stay stampin’

Jacqui

I must be nearing the bottom of the plastic tub with all Tony’s photographs.  I’ve completed his school pics and won’t bore you all to death with those however I’m still wading through the more interesting photos.  The one featured today was taken when he was in Kindergarten at St. Carthage’s in Lismore.  Tony and Dennis had just attended Father’s Day Mass and it happened to be Red Nose Day!!!  The Northerns Star often called me on Red Nose Day to find out where Tony was so that they could catch up with him and do a quick pic.  This photo was actually nominated for ‘Northern Star Photo of the Year’.  It didn’t win………………but we love it anyways.

For someone that doesn’t really like bright colours I sure am using lots of this DSP!  It just works so well.  Scrapping the kids photographs is such a ‘remembering’ thing to do. This pic in particular brought back lots of happy memories of Tony’s childhood and primary school years.

Recipe for success:

Cardstock – Taken with Teal, Whisper white, Real Red

DSP – Under the Big Top

Stamp Set – Under the Big Top (don’t you love it that SU’s stamps match the DSP????)

Colouring – Stampin’ Write Markers

Ribbon - Taken with Teal narrow grosgrain

Tony, Amber and Xavier leave this morning to return to Tamworth.  It’s been such fun having them and I’ve taken a few pics so do come back and check them out.

Until then stay happy and stay stampin’

Jacqui

I’m still struggling through this plastic tub of Tony’s scrapping as I go in between my usual household chores.  (which take me a lot longer lately since I pulled a hamstring behind my knee – ouch!)  However I’m on the mend and even doing a couple of short walks twice a day.  Anyhoo……….I’ve also a member of the Bent Inks arriving tomorrow afternoon for some team training.  Vicki McBride will arrive from Kyogle tomorrow and stay Thursday evening, so I thought I’d better post this pic before I get too busy chatting/stamping/scrapping etc.

I’ve always loved this pic of Tony.  I’ve no idea who took it but I know it was at my neices birthday in Ballina.  It was a very hot day and Dennis had taken the children down to Shaw’s Bay for a quick dip before lunch.  This photo is so very typical of Tony and how easy going and relaxed a kid that he was.  He’s still showing the effects of his prematurity in this photo it’s an interesting exercise to look back at how far he’s come……….and grown.  It’s also the pic that we had enlarged and gave it to the doctor that took such good care of me when I was pregnant with Tony (actually he delivered the first two of my children)  Dr. John Chadwick.  Dr. C as the kids called him was the typical family GP, he loved my kids and Tony was his smallest surviving babe.  He had a soft spot for him.  Dr. C was promoted to Glory a few years ago now, it was like loosing a special member of our family really.  So this page was special for me and I really like how it turned out.  What do you think?  Please leave me a comment.

Recipe for Success:

Cardstock – Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Whisper White

DSP – Letters from Santa

Stamp Set – Under the Big Top (I’m rooly loving this set – we received it at Regional Training in Brisbane)

Coloured with SU’s Stampin’ Write Markers

Large Old Olive buttons from the current Mini Catalogue

I’ll be back after the week end with more pages that I’ve finished.

Until then stay happy and stay stampin’

Jacqui

Well maybe not famous in the true sense of the word, but he’s famous in our family!

You probably wondering why I’m only scrapping pics of the youngest member of our family, Tony.  Well he’s not really the favourite (although Joe would argue about that point), it’s just that each of our children have a plastic tub at our home here and we are anxious to be rid of them.  You know what?  Kids never take their stuff.  They move out, get good jobs, get married, travel overseas, all this…………..but they never take their stuff!  2012 is going to see the Crouch kids take their stuff, so to facilitate that I’m beginning the long, long task of scrapping all their pics before their respective tub goes to their respective houses.  Tony’s tub happened to be the first one that my long suffering husband brought up from his shed.  See it’s really all his fault.  He wants his shed space back.

These pics were taken as part of the newspaper interview that Tony and I did when we formed a pre-term infants support group in Lismore.

The first page of the DLO.  Tony is really having input into this interview and concentrating so hard.

I really enjoyed doing this DLO.  Brought back lots of memories of that day and what a sweet, quiet loveable little boy he was.  wonder what happened?  (just kiddin’)

All products are SU of course.  However some are retired.

Recipe for success

Cardstock – More Mustard and Whisper White

DSP – Spice Cake – from the current mini catalogue

Ribbon – More Mustard scallop/dots

And a yummy large button from the current mini catalogue

Stamps – Triple Treat Flower

Large and small alphas and Big Shot

Thanks again for visiting me and until next time stay happy and stay stampin’

Cheers

Jacqui

Remember this song that Jimmy Little recorded?  I often sang it to myself when Tony was a wee boy.  As most of you know he was born at 25.5 weeks gestation.  Things were often ‘touch-and-go’ for him health wise.  He achieved his milestones in growth/development way behind the due dates, however achieve them he did, and often in grand style.  I remember thinking to myself “This kid must have a direct phone line to God!”

These are the two pages of DLO together.  It was such a joy to begin scrapping Tony’s infancy.  I found myself remembering all sorts of bits and pieces about him and then would find myself in tears.  Tears of joy, tears of relief, tears of achievement.  All sorts of tears.  Our family is just sooooo blessed to have him.  He is truly the icing on our family cake.

This is the first page of the DLO.  These pics were taken for a newspaper article about him.  He was so at home sitting on a desk in my office playing around on the old manual typewriter.  (perfect match for SU’s DSP).  All the product used in this DLO is from SU however a couple of bits are retired.

Do you know what I just love about this pic the most?  The fact that Tony’s concentrating so hard on the typewriter and attempting to master the art of pushing down the keys, but without even looking his other hand is holding onto my arm.  Like a little security hug.  Special moments!

Second page of the DLO.  The little tabs on the photos are like a ‘handle’ that turns the page to reveal ‘personal’ journalling.  Sometimes it really is necessary to write our feelings down, but it’s not necessary for everyone to read what we feel.  My journalling in this case is for Tony and for him to know my feelings for and about him at the time.  It’s like my own personal diary to him.

Thanks for visiting my space and until next time,

Stay happy and stay stampin’

Cheers and love

Jacqui