On the slopes of Verbier

Continuing from the post Skiing in Verbier ...

I had this green die cut border for at least five years – maybe more. I realized that the theme was perfect for the alpine photos I was working on. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to be able finally to use this border! Since it was 12 inches long, the extra bit I cut off went above the photo. A rub-on title and the page was done!
The photographs form the corner in this layout. I would have liked to put a corner flourish at the centre right angle but could not find anything appropriate. So some journalling had to suffice. The alphabets are die cut using Quikutz. The little yellow dots are brad head decorative rub-ons from Creative Imaginations. Who still has these?

Another quick layout that can be finished in less than five minutes unless, like me, you want to spend too much time on the ‘THE’ and botch it up in the process! The article in the title is a fine example of why too much is not necessarily good. The title forms a very prominent border on the page. The thin red strip above the photographs continues the effect of the horizontal border. The big red alphabets are Thickers from American Crafts. Smalle alphabets are Paige die cuts by Quikutz. Prisma glitter is by Hero Arts and Golden Acrylics makes the mica flakes paint.

Two simple strips of ribbon border either side of the photographs, as does the journalling strip. The ribbons have been glued down. I put a little extra glue at the ends so the ribbon will not unravel. Starform stickers makes the sparkly alphabets. Font is Arno Pro. Ribbon is from my stash.

Just one flourish in the corner finished this page. I covered the flourish with Encore metallic silver pigment ink and then embossed it with Satin Pearl EP so that it would have the same frosty finish as the Elan Metallic paper. Self Adhesive graffiti by Art Warehouse / Creative Imaginations. Grungeboard Swirl by Tim Holtz Ideology.

Two photographs on opposite corners, journalling on the third corner and some stickers on the last corner and voila! A page completed in just under five minutes. The snowflakes stickers are by Sticklers. Font is Barefoot Professor downloaded from 2peas. Self Adhesive graffiti by Art Warehouse / Creative Imaginations.

Skiing in Verbier

In March 2008 Lily went skiing with her friends. Just over a week in the Swiss Alps. We were worried before she left that there would be not enough snow but we were wrong. It was perfect! As you will see from the photographs. I am now in the process of finishing her album. Luckily I had frosted cardstock from Worldwin and these were great for this album. They are called Elan Metallics Expressive Paper. The layouts below are from an article called 'Corners and Borders' at SS Reflections.

The blue border is cut with the Basic Grey tool. I lightly pencilled a line and then alternated the cuts on each side of the line to get the deep waves. The photograph is matted with Worldwin Red Ruche paper, and then I pierced holes around two edges for a border with fibre. While this looks like a difficult process, it is not. If you punch your holes large enough, threading the fiber through will not take even five minutes! Butterfly stickers, from Startform Stickers, on opposite corners have been first applied to white cardstock. Letters for 'SKI' are drawn and cut freehand.

Here is a page with just one photograph and not much else. There seemed to be too much space around so I enclosed it all with four borders. The thinner the border the better – it detracts less from the central photo. You could also stitch a thin line around, but stitching was not an option for me. I use both sides of the cardstock and stitching would show up on the reverse. The journalling block is by 7 Gypsies. I used glitter flakes on Terrifically Tacky tape placed around the border. The postage circular outline and wavy lines are rub-ons from Creative Imaginations. And some original postage stamps from Romania!

The photograph in this layout forms part of the border of the page whereas the journalling is at a corner. This is a simple design which can be used to showcase a special photograph. I would advise not being as lazy as me and actually doing the journalling on a computer if possible. It should not take more than five minutes to accomplish. The closer, even spacing of a computer font will make the corner design more stunning. The water effect stamp is by Inkadinkado. It is stamped with Encore blue pigment ink and Blue Pearl EP by Stampendous. Flourish stamped with Brilliance blue ink and outlined with a Zig marker in black. Journalling is done with Zig calligraphy pen in black.

LO: Sports Day '08

Layout done with Club Scrap Moody Blues kit, Paper Pizazz cardstock stickers, white rub-on alphabets, blue star brads, 2peas typo font,Zig pens in blue, dark blue & green.

Ricky last Sports Day at his primary school. It was all pretty simple stuff and Ricky enjoyed himself very much. I was surprised how good he was at dribbling the ball. I've never seen him pay football (or soccer as some call it). I had even more fun practicing how to get some decent 'action' shots.

Hopes to win Olympic gold with million dollar bike

Cycle maker Koga Miyata is hoping that a one million dollar bike built for Dutch track cyclist Theo Bos will secure him a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. Koga has spent three and a half years developing a revolutionary frame for Bos, who narrowly missed out on the gold medal at the Athens Olympics four years ago.

(Link)

Lithuanian baby crawling race

Lithuanian babies compete in a crawling race to mark International Child Protection Day. 25 infants took part in Lithuania's annual baby crawling contest held in Vilnius to find the 'fastest crawler in the land.'

(Reuters)

Watch people chasing cheese downhill!

Maye next year you can join in too! Perhaps not as famous or as exhilarating as chasing bulls in Pamplona, but this activity has its excitement and its participants from all over the world too.

The wind and rain didn't stop thousands of people watching the annual cheese roll in Gloucestershire, England. Competitors from around the world flocked to Gloucestershire to take part in a sporting event with a difference, the giant cheese roll. As the cheese rolled down the hill, dozens of people ran, slipped and tumbled after it. Paramedics were on the scene to assist the injured and mud-covered competitors.

Cheese rolling is thought to date back centuries. During rationing between 1941 and 1954, the wheel of cheese had to be substituted with a wooden circle containing a token piece of cheese inside. (Reuters)

Skater Girl

First layout done with Club Scrap Heritage II kit from June 2000. 7 Gypsies quote panel, a rub on, chipboard swirl, Rhonna Farrer swirl stamps, Gelatin alpha stamps & Penny Black alpha stamps.

Second layout uses paper by Heidi Grace, Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas, MSE alpha stamps and 7 Gypsies stickers.

Is it not strange how, if you wait for a while before scrapping some photographs, circumstances change completely? I'll admit that I waited more than a 'while'. These photographs are from a Christmas dinner in 2000 in Italy. This is a work related gathering and so I guess I was not too excited to scrap the event. Another boring dinner. And the photos did not really turn out that nice. All very blah and so the photos got pushed to the back of the box.
Now when I look at these photos I am amazed at how things turned sour. Everything just disintegrated (work related, nothing personal). And so I had to finally scrap these photos because I had a story to tell. Not such a nice tale either therefore the red 'Void' as an indication of negativity.

Lily learning how to roller blade.

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Luc's first lemon

And the Fruitcake lady - she has me in splits!! What a pity I never saw her shows and so Viva You Tube!

Hit the Road

First layout done with Crate Papers Seaweed Collection and an Art Warehouse sticker.

Second layout done with Club Scrap Fruit & Vine kit from September 2001.

Summer 1992: My in-laws are usually not very adventurous folks and do not like to move out of the house too much. But this time my father in law decided he wanted to take me to a beautiful town called Santo Stefano d'Aveto near Genoa.

I was pregnant with Lily and in my first trimester. I did not have morning sickness but I could not handle the twisting and turning on the mountainous roads. So we stopped often, especially when we came across 'fontanas' or water springs. These are very common all over Italy and France (Evian and San Pellegrino come to mind). The water is sparkling clean and ice cold. the frequent stops helped me not get too sick during the drive.

Zio (uncle in Italian) Renato was so funny! He has a very dry humor and all through the trip he kept us in splits. Trust him to spot this tree and request us very seriously to take a photograph of him with the strange tree tumors!

Moto GP Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. Photos with Chris Vermeullen, Marco Melandri, Lucio C. Eliza P & a very interesting photo of Sete Gibernau. I have one of him without a shirt but I will not be sharing that one with you ladies ;-)

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I have to admit this bit of 'Mathematics' had my jaw dropping! A lot of thought must have gone into it! It is called 'Hillbilly Math'

And a really cool video about Stencil Graffiti Art:

Rugby Sevens!

I tried to keep both layouts as flourish free and 'sporty' like as possible. Which meant simple to me. First layout done with Club Scrap Weather kit from April 2003 and Hero Arts alpha stamps. This is a kit I fell in love with at first sight but strangely enough never used except to make one wall hanging.

Papers for the second layout are from the Shortcake Collection by Paper Heart Studio. And some QK alphas. The design is inspired by a layout from the current CK magazine.

The Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong has to be the most popular and anticipated sports event here every year. Teams from all over the Rugby playing world attend. The teams are only seven a side. This makes the games fast and furious. It is amazing to watch! For three days the audience is held in a thrall of action and movement. Because the games are so short, the players give it their best. It is really one of the most fun sporting events for the spectators. Almost as exciting as football!

And some people can actually sleep with all the noise around them! Amazing!! Joe gets only a single page layout. Folks that sleep at games do not merit double page layouts! So there!

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Keeping to the 'Sports' theme, here is a very strange Table Tennis match!

And an ever stranger race!

Team Yamaha!

First two layouts done with Club Scrap Mosaic Twist kit from January 2005. I choose this kit just for the colours, which are a perfect match for the Yamaha colours. One rub-one word, Sticko alphas, CM alpha stickers and alpha stamps complete these two layouts.

Second layout is done with sei papers and stickers. The larger alphas are traced and cut from Gin-X Imagination Project extremely large alphas stickers.

Joe & Lily are great fans of MotoGP. The fact that they sometimes can join the teams during the races is great too. Especially for getting up close & personal with the mega motorcycle stars! It is always a thrill to meet Valentino Rossi. Lily is a huge fan. What we all love about The Doctor is that he has not let his unbeatable talent and incredible success go to his head. He is the nicest guy ever! He always has a ready smile and friendly word for everyone he meets. He is quite simply awesome! Colin Edwards, another Yamaha rider is a swell guy too! And of course both are incredibly talented riders. Yamaha have a great team now and we are rooting for them all the way!

A school play of Ricky's which I quite did not 'get'. All about gangsters, guns and the mafia. Shooting and driving stolen cars. The storyline quite escaped me too. Oh well ... the songs were very nice and the children were obviously enjoying themselves. Ricky looked so cute - a very suave and handsome mafia person, if you please. And he delivered his lines perfectly! Actually, even though I did not understand the whole thing, I quite enjoyed myself!

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A message from those very funny blue guys, whose show I could not get tickets to in Vegas, about Global Warming:

And a slightly longish video of a guy flying multiple kites. Okay ... so I watched only half of it. It was entertaining but it should have been shorter.

Rock Climbing

First layout done with Club Scrap Moody Blues kit from March 2002. There is something magical about this kit. I love every single layout I have seen with it ~ and not just mine! I used word stickers form Creative Imaginations which are almost of similar colour tones. A long sticker with the word 'courage' written on it and a green ribbon. The layout design is copied from this months' CK.

Second layout is done with base paper from Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter. Swirls are hand cut from 7 Gypsies Clermont & Saratoga papers (now I know that I do need the Bo Bunny 'whatsitcalled' tool to draw curves). Stickers from Art Warehouse and Nostalgique. Chipboard corner element painted with iridescent acrylic bronze paint.

Lily spent a week on the outlying islands of Hong Kong doing all kinds of crazy stuff. She enjoyed every minute of this week, organized by her school. Here she is at a place called Tung Lung. She is wearing bright green pants so in real life you can actually identify her in this photograph. She right on the rock face!!

Mel is a very good friend of mine. She got married in 1998 and does she not look radiant? And now I am scrapping the photograph, the marriage is already ended. She is the sweetest, kindest and funniest person I know. And that's not just because we share a birthday ... ;-) I knew from the beginning that the guy she married did not deserve to even know her, let alone have her love him. Which is why I chose to scrap the photo of her only.

Another 'Just for Laughs' video:

And another bit of useless information, but makes for slightly interesting watching:

Prank Call

This is so funny I had to share it! I did feel a bit sorry for this poor telemarketer.

And now for the page - Lily at her Activities Camp. I am always amazed at how much more fun school is these days. Nothing like what it was for us - the most we did was go for a class picnic once a year. And I am thrilled that Lily is so adventurous. She loves doing all kinds of outdoor activities. So a whole week spent doing these crazy swingings across the waves and jumping off cliffs was just her thing.

I used a page from the school newsletter in lieu of photos and journaling. Some RS embellishments from my very old stash and some Heidi Swapp rub-ons. This is the first time I used the fuzzy rub ons. I need a little more practice but I think it should not be that difficult to manage to get them placed and rubbed exactly as I want them. Any tips are always appreciated.

A Passion for Riding!

This layout is done using Club Scrap paper. I have been saving it for a while till I could get a decent photo of DD riding. These photos are not so good, but I decided to do the layout anyway while I practise some more my skills for taking action photos. I also need to invest in a new lens so I think it will be a while before I get really good shots. She wanted the layout now! Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, which I painted brown & interference copper. Making Memories definitions.

Journaling by the rider: I love horses! I love to ride and jump and just be with them. I feel free. I feel one with the horse. I feel like am flying and the world just stops and I am alone in the world; just me and my horse. I can feel its heart beating with mine. When I am on a horse I think of nothing else but riding - everything else just melts away…

Motorcycle Racing!

Joe really enjoys Formula One and the Motorcycle races. And whenever he gets a chance, he is at the circuit. Here he is in Kuala Lumpur, on two different occasions. And unless you are interested in motorcycle racing, you would not know who all these cute young men are. Anyway, they make a lot of money putting there lives on the line in a testosterone charged sport. Stoner, Rossi, Melandri, Capirossi ... all stars!

Papers are all from Club Scrap 'Varsity' kit. As are the ribbons. The titles are all made with alpha foam stamps. And I simply love those nailhead brads.