Ya Ya Ladybug

It is a sure sign that after knowing me for 46 years (6years of going together plus 40 years of marriage) that my husband LOVES me enough to still do crazy things for me . . . and I am pretty sure that he knows that when there is a camera in my hand I will take millions of shots and scrapbook a lot of the pictures . . . he is however finally figuring out that I am sharing the pages that I have completed with the world and they are not all pictures of our granddaughter . . . so that being said, before we left for the Alaska Cruise I had signed up to take a class at PSB (layout unseen – however the layout was going to be designed by PSB owner Karen and I knew that I would love it) . . . and when I saw the “Charming” layout it just screamed for pictures of my husband that I had taken on the cruise . . . so here is the love of my life . . . “MY PRINCE CHARMING” . . .

Ya gotta love him . . . I know I sure do!!!!! . . . here is a close of the love of my life . . .

For those of you who have been wondering where the heck I have been lately (as it is soooooooo long since my last blog) . . . well hubby and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary by going on a cruise of the “Inside Passage” of Alaska . . .

We had a WONDERFUL time and I will be sharing (or boring you) with more pictures and tales of adventure later on . . . right now I have to get going to work (have to pay for all my baaaaad habits – like scrapbooking & crusin) . . . so till later . . . LindaB

The people over at the MY CREATIVE SCRAPBOOK site have been having a very unusual give-away . . .they are allowing you to scraplift any of the design teams’ layout and enter a contest to win oodles upon oodles of Prima flowers . . . wellllllll . . . I cannot pass up an opportunity like that so after looking at all the wonderful designers pages, cards & mini-albums I finally decided to “lift” Robbie Herrring’s May 2009 Main Kit design . . .

I was originally going to copy this layout only instead of a picture I was going to insert my mother-in-law’s names (Elizabeth Ellen Emmens Bates) and use it as the title page for her section of the scrapbook I am creating about my hubby’s family . . . welllllllll . . . I had one of those late, late, really late night change of hearts (about 1:30 in the morning) . . . Robbie’s layout just cried out for a vintage picture . . . soooooooooo . . . I remembered this picture that I wanted to do of me (okay I’m not vintage yet – but pretty close to it according to social security) . . . so here is the layout that I am submitting . . . it is of me at the age of two . . . I was not a very happy camper was I . . .

It’s not an exact “lift” of Robbie’s layout but is pretty darn close . . . I did try some new things with this layout . . . one of which as the picture is black & white (told you I was nearing vintage) . . . I used Tim Holtz’s “Alcohol Ink” and painted a very pale pink stain on the little romper I am wearing (I know the romper is pink because it is packed away in my hopeless chest) . . . and as I had the paint brush out I decided to paint glitter glue on some of the flowers . . . loved both techniques and I know that I will be using them again . . . well that’s all for now . . . thanks for stopping by . . . have a great day!!!!

P.S. . . one more thing . . . as I love to work in 2-page layouts . . . I will shortly be doing the companion page . . . I think I will did up pictures of my daughter and granddaughter crying also just to see if there really is a family resemblinish . . . tata . . .

This has been a very low key, laid-back Memorial Weekend at my house this year . . . instead of the usual trying to crowd a week into a 3-day weekend with activities or visiting relatives . . . my hubby and I decided the take it easy and just hang around the house . . . so after all the house cleaning chores were done I found some time to do a little scrapbooking . . . I finally completed the second page of a 2-page layout I was doing regarding my mother-in-law . . . so here is “page 2” of the Emmens layout . . . this is a picture of the “daughters of the house” – Elizabeth (my mother-in-law) is the oldest. . . Hope (who died shortly after this picture was taken) is in the middle and Faith (the toddler) . . .

Here is the 2-page layout that is going in the “Emmens” section of an album . . . for those of you who saw an earlier blog of mine you will note that I made a couple of little changes to the 1st page layout . . . I added a strip of lace and replaced a crocheted flower/leaf with a butterfly . . .

I would like to share with you the following layouts that are of the various times during my mother-in-laws life . . . this first layout has her baby picture, high school graduation picture (she graduated when she was 16), her engagement picture and a picture of her 1 month before she passed away . . . the layout is from a class that I had taken from Tracy (she is the niece of Karen-the owner of PSB) right before she moved to Chicago . . .

The next layout is from a class that the very talented Christie taught at PSB and was the perfect layout for the baby picture of my mother-in-law . . . in preparing these layouts for her memorial service I ran across a copy of her birth certificate (which I shrank down and placed behind the fame) and a loose page that had snippets of her hair . . . soooooo of course I had to included it . . .

This next layout (Karen helped me with this one) showcases my mother-in-law’s extraordinary talent . . . she was a “concert violinist” . . . she started playing at the age of 6 and continued through her freshman year of college . . . when she graduated from high school she had been offered a scholarship to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, however because she was only 17 her father said “no” . . . while at college (her father did let her go as long as she could still live at home) her professor submit her name to “Julliard” and again she was offered a full scholarship and again her father said “no” at which point she put away her violin and never played again . . .

The next layout is from a class that Karen taught (she is the talented owner of PSB) . . . its shows the next stage in my mother-in-law’s life . . . marriage and family (my hubby is in the lower right hand picture with his mother & older brother) . . .

So now you know a little of the history behind this very special woman . . . I want to give a big THANK YOU to Karen, Christie and Tracy for teaching classes that gave me the perfect layouts in which to honor my mother-in-law and my friend ELIZABETH ELLEN EMMENS BATES.

Just wanted to share a couple of “Make & Takes” that were actually completed this month and with pictures, no less . . .

This first M&T was made at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique at the Friday, May 1st pre NSD crop . . . Karen gave everyone a choice of 4 different “make & take” mini kits and after a half hour of trying to decide between 2 of them . . . I chose the one from K & Company to showcase a very special day in my family’s life . . . it was my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday and among all the “posed” pictures there was this one of just my kids, husband, myself & the birthday girl being silly . . . everything was in this kit except the pearls, glitter paint and chalk (I chalk everything that isn’t nailed down) . . . this picture hangs on my workplace wall and brings a smile and a wonderful memory every time I see it . . .

Now the 2nd M&T was completed at Magic Memories & Keepsakes in Chico this last Tuesday evening (May 19th) using Prima products . . . a representative from Prima was at the store earlier in the afternoon to demonstrate Prima’s “Clear Paintables” transparencies . . . the very nice representative left enough supplies behind so that those of us who worked during the day were able to learn how to paint the transparencies using Tim Holtz Adironack alcohol inks & blending solution . . . I added a glitter butterfly, a Prima flower and a Jenni Bowlin pearl flower . . . the picture is of my daughter, granddaughter and myself (taken at my brother-in-law’s on Mother’s Day this year) . . . Kyra is sure look pretty serious in this picture (I think she had enough of picture taking by this time) . . .

Well that’s all for now . . . thanks for stopping by . . . until next time . . .

WOW . . . you have got to stop everything and check out what is happening over at the Pebbles Inc. site. They have created a new line called “Lil’ Miss” and it is soooooooooooo cute and perfect for the little girls in your life. . . Pebbles Inc. is is also having a GIVEAWAY (yahoo) . . . that’s right they are picking one lucky person to received the full collection . . . and all you have to do is leave a comment on their blog . . . sooooooooo check them out and while you are there don’t forget to check out their boys line called “Lil’ Buddy” . . . till next time and thanks for stopping by . . .

Thanks for stopping by . . . and until next time have a great day . . .

A big THANK YOU to the three very brave ladies who showed up on Saturday, May 9th to take my crochet flower class at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique (this was the first time I ever taught a crocheting class). Everyone was given the patterns for making a single crochet flower (beginner); a triple crochet flower (intermediate) and a leaf (advanced) . . . Karen and Christie learned to make at a single crochet flower (it had been quite some time since they last crocheted) and Barbara made not only a single crochet flower, she also made a triple crochet flower . . . WELL DONE LADIES!!! . . . here they are busy crocheting . . .