Scrap Busting Layout

After inundating my faithful readers with layouts and posts I took a break for both of us yesterday and today's post is a short and sweet one.

I discovered a bag of pretty scraps from the Elmwood Park kit that I decided to use up. I pulled a pair of photos of Miss Three from last year when she found my lipstick.

I played with this layout and tried adding quite a lot of embellishments and nothing worked so I pared it right back to the photos and the patterned paper stack. I tried a tip I saw from Lilith Eeckels and stapled my stack together using my tiny attacher and then adhered parts of that stack with my glue runner. I loved this technique and I will be using it again. I added a couple of puffy Amy Tangerine stickers top and bottom  of the stack and called it done.

I am so happy to have these photos the star of the layout as they show MT's personality so clearly. Her emotions are so mercurial and fast changing and these two shots really capture that.

I have matched a wedding photo to a piece of patterned paper but I am at a loss as to how to embellish the images. I would love to see anyone else's wedding layouts. If you have some that you love I would really appreciate a link in the comments.

I am totally looking forward to the weekend. We don't have anything planned but sometimes that is just what you need. I am hoping we might manage to hit the pool and get some family relaxation time in. Have a great weekend, wherever you spend it. Oh and Happy Mother's Day to those celebrating on Sunday.

ETA: This is linked up with Shimelle's NSD Use 4x6 photos challenge .

Perspectives on the Past

I have been thinking a great deal about life lately and how it is full of both unexpected pleasures and unexpected pain. There have been a couple of majorly painful moments in my life with my husband and at the time I wondered how we would ever go on living but here we are. We wake up in the morning and we get on with it. Years have passed and things are almost forgotten when something insignificant will cause all the memories and the feelings to come rushing back.

I am increasingly of the opinion that scrapbooking is a form of therapy for me. It enables me to revisit days both great and ordinary and really process the moment with the benefit of hindsight and sleep. There are chunks of my life which I have not scrapped but which I suspect I would benefit from revisiting with a scrapbooker's eye. Finding the beauty in the ordinary and the painful or discovering patterns that will help me to avoid foolish mistakes in the future might all be possible with a little thought and retrospection.

I guess overall it is making me think that while life is probably too short to dwell on the past too much unless you are going to learn something from it. It also reminded me of an ad that ran on New Zealand television a few years ago for the Post Office of all things. It is a really good reminder that petty squabbles shouldn't ruin relationships. The ad is a bit cheesy but it still brings a tear to my eye every time!

I have been revisiting the photos from our New Zealand holiday and worked on a very red layout of my sister Anne with Scarlett at a playground in a very small town called Geraldine. Geraldine plays a key role in our family history as my Nana in yesterday's layout grew up there and we spent many holidays with my Great Nana there as young children. 

This layout is based on sketch 96 from the Sketch Savvy blog. It is a sketch I can see myself using again and again. I love this blog for lots of single picture and simple sketches although they have some great multi picture examples too.

The papers and embellishments are primarily from my SC Elmwood Park kit along with some MME brads, Lilybee index cards and some BG paper from the new Clippings line.

I am getting really excited as Grandad arrives tomorrow for a month! My posts might be a little less frequent while he is here - or more likely activity rather than craft related. 

Like the Marie Celeste

I did not mean to abandon my blog quite so dramatically last week but ill health got the better of me! I have been battling a bad stomach for over a week but Friday it all took a definite downward turn and I was forced to spend the day in bed. I have started to feel a bit better over the weekend and today is the first day I have felt fully human.

All this lack of wellness has meant that I have completed my mini album of our road trip and a few new layouts so it wasn't time totally wasted.

Miss S had her visit to the specialist last week and the new regime of meds and soaps has seen her eczema all but disappear. So I am glad we waited to see the doctor as she knew exactly what to do and we now have a year long plan of attack to keep Scarlett's skin clear of the nasty stuff. Probably the only obstacle is a stubborn two year old but we are working through her impatience with moisturising and lack of bubbles in her bath!

In addition to working on the mini album of our New Zealand road trip, I have been making a few layouts of events and sights seen during our trip home.

This is just a very simple layout using some of about a dozen photos I took of the lake. The weather while we were in Tekapo was decidedly wintry and the lake was not its usual brilliant turquoise but it is still a lovely spot. Much of the lake edge is grass and at this time of the year it is covered in wild lupins. 

Much of the layout came from the SC kit Elmwood Park with a couple of scraps from Twisty Slide. I really wanted to use the Authentique navy patterned paper as the background but I had already taken a chunk from the top corner for another layout so I patched it with washi and the gorgeous red paper from Basic Grey. I inked up one of the wood veneer birds with some Spice Tin JBS ink and sealed it with some glossy accents for a bit of shine. The sticker arrow and heart are both from the original Amy Tangerine collection and I am down to the last couple of stickers from this set which makes me very sad. The round label is from OA.

I hope you all had a marvellous weekend. I am off to sort out some more PL photos and print off a couple of hundred prints from our Japan trip this year. I am not quite sure when I plan to scrap them all as my Dad arrives from New Zealand this week, which I suspect will seriously limit my crafting time!

Nature Baby

I had an absolutely frantic weekend which left no time for crafting. It was fun but a bit of a struggle to be honest, as I have been battling a bad tummy for a few days. Nothing really bad but enough to make me a bit miserable. Spending the day in bed on Friday certainly made the weekend much better!

I am definitely getting towards the end of my Elmwood Park SC kit. The layout I made today used up the last of my cardstock and finished off a couple of pieces of patterned paper too.

I just love those super sized letters but sadly my remaining ones won't spell much! The butterflies and the Muse Wooden Thickers are about the only things that do not come from my kit today. 

The photo was taken alongside Lake Tekapo in the Central South Island of New Zealand. The lupins are so colourful and Scarlett was happy to have lots of photos taken sitting in amongst them. I love this photo as she is so happy. We loved Tekapo. It really was my favourite stop on our trip.


I have decided to take a nap when Scarlett does today so I am looking forward to catching up on some rest. Happy Monday all!

Silly Aunty Punzel

My sister Anne loves being an Aunty and regularly complains about the fact that we live so far away. When she does get the chance to spend time with her niece she certainly makes the most of it. We have a load of photos of her wearing Scarlett's clothes and generally acting like a little girl herself.

Lately, Anne has been growing her hair and has been encouraging Scarlett to call her Aunty Rapunzel. Now she is known as Aunty Punzel, as Rapunzel is a bit of a mouthful when you are two.

This layout is mainly from SC's Elmwood Park with a little of the Twisty Slide add on thrown in. I have also added in some OA tidbits and letter stickers from the Cakewalk collection and some MME brads. Is it wrong that the Doo Dads and Tidbits are the things I am most excited about with the new OA collections? Althoughthe washi and letter stickers are also pretty exciting!

Monkey is down for an early nap today so she can catch up with her best buddies. They are off to Australia for their Aunty's wedding so we won't see them for a few weeks. Expat children have very full passports!

Happy Thursday!

Her Favourite Person

We are in the home stretch. In less than 18 hours Daddy will be home. It has gone quite quickly to be fair. Scarlett has been very good and we have had a pretty fun week. I even managed to do a bit of crafting.

I had a wee play with Elmwood Park this morning and ended up with this layout. This is one of my favourite photos of my Dad and Scarlett. Scarlett is a man's girl. She gravitates to men and her two favourite people are my Dad and her Daddy closely followed by Uncle Shinya. She is my Dad's shadow when they are together and she is beyond excited that he will be here with us in three weeks! This photo was taken on Christmas afternoon after a very large lunch. We had one of the few sunny warm days of our trip and Dad's garden was looking pretty lovely.

I started off working with the kit but ended up adding lots of non kit things including the banner and journalling block from Basic Grey's Clippings line. More SC veneer people, Hello Forever flair, and MME stickers rounded it out.This layout started off on white dotted cardstock but I just couldn't get it to work. Once I turned the white into a photo mount and added the coloured cardstock it all fell into place.

I am trying to keep myself alert today as it is Studio Calico presale at midnight Singapore time. I have my eye on a couple of add ons and a couple of shop items so I know I need to stay up. Coffee with diet coke chasers today, obviously. Is anyone else doing the same? I love hearing what people have in mind to buy!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Wearing Her Out

I believe I am a bit of a Mean Mummy. I find I run a tighter ship when Tet is away. Scarlett goes to bed earlier. She is expected to do a little more when she is getting ready for school or an outing. It is so worth it though. She is sleeping at least 90 minutes more a day this week and we have had a lot of fun. There is nothing better than a child who wakes up with big smile on her face!

Yes she really has been waking up happy!

Scarlett does not go to school on Tuesdays. We always try to do something fun on those days. She decided she wanted to go to a park a bus ride away from our house. She loves the bus. She would ride the bus with me everyday if she could. She smiles at and talks to the other passengers, talks about all the things she can see out the windows and just loves every aspect of public transport. 

Tiong Bahru Park has a really great playground. It has a big train climbing contraption which is all on a lean. Scarlett loves the "wobbly train" even if she is too scared to do too much in there. She loves the slides and the ladders though and it keeps her happy and occupied. We left our trip a little late and some of the equipment was too hot to touch by the time we reached the playground. There is a lot of grass and winding paths to explore so we were kept more than occupied for a good ninety minutes. Scarlett especially likes standing on the little bridge and watching the turtles.

I was amazed that we had the entire playground to ourselves for the length of time we were there. There were a number of people using the wider park facilities but no other children. It was very warm though.

Scarlett loved running around and exploring... and I like to let her think she is unsupervised. I can always see her but I think it is good to give her a sense of freedom. It is a joy living in a country where children are so safe. 

She is a very sporty wee tot. She loves to swim, take gym classes and ride her scooter. She will start ballet next month and she can hardly wait. I made a layout this week to celebrate her active self.

I love the look of the stacked paper squares. I find it is my go to technique especially when I love so many patterned papers in a kit. The Elmwood Park kit is just chock full of beautiful patterned paper. I am in love with all the reds this time around.

Miss S will be home from school soon. I had best get a snack ready and try and get another couple of mini book pages completed before she returns. We have been making a lot of smoothies lately. She loves putting all the fruit and yogurt into the blender and turning the blender on. Two year olds and noisy machines - surely a match made in heaven!

Instagram Love

I still wonder what I did before my iPhone and Instagram. I rarely pull out my camera to take a photo as my iPhone pictures are generally every bit as good.  I love the Instagram community too; such a fun, positive online space.

I worry a little that I occasionally flood the feed with pictures of Scarlett but I do try and show some restraint. If you can cope with a fair few shots of Miss S then please follow my feed @clairetomonaga.

Today's layout is very simple. I love this little photo of Scarlett and her two best friends hugging/collapsing together. The three of them really do love each other.

Most of this layout is from SC Twisty Slide add on with a few pieces from the Elmwood Park main kit. The LOVE title is a Dear Lizzy piece from American Crafts. I am in love with the brighter colours this month and really excited about working further with this one. 

I am expecting a bit of a lighter crafting week this week as Tet is away in Indonesia all week so I am the 24/7 parent. Thank goodness for pre school! It did not start well as Miss S woke at 1 am convinced it was time to get up. It took me a couple of hours to fall back to sleep and then Poppy decided she needed breakfast at 4.30am. Needless to say I am a bit slow today!