Gardens Glorious

One inescapable beauty in Niagara-on-the-Lake is its superior gardens. Everywhere you go there are the most glorious gardens. Each planting boasting such a variety of flowers that it's doubtful one person could name them all. Well I certainly couldn't anyway.

My pages are inspired by the double-page sketch at Scrapmuch? designed by Laura Whitaker. There's a sketch every Friday so be sure to keep an eye on the site.

 

I used burlap, paper flowers and wood items for embellishment. I wanted to keep the whole earth and flowers theme consistent on my layout.

 

 

If you ever get an opportunity to see the gardens in Old Town, be sure to take your camera!

Niagara Falls

It doesn't matter how many times you visit Niagara Falls, the sheer force and beauty of what Mother Nature can create leaves you in awe.

The day I visited the falls this summer was a bit on the cloudy side. The benefit though was that the cloud cover brought out the rich teal and blue colours of the water beautifully.

I further emphasized those colours by using matching cardstock in the layout and keeping the page very simple so that the focus was immediately the photograph.

The inspiration for this layout was from the October 12th sketch at Let's Get Sketchy. They've a sketch every Monday so there's lots of opportunity to be creative every month.

I was lucky to find paper with Niagara Falls written on it. I didn't need to worry about a title. As I mentioned, to keep the focus on the photo, I used very little embellishment. The brass lock and keys on the lower corner and the matching brass brads on the upper corner did the trick for me.

Photo Bomb

Meet Eddie the horse. He doesn't like to share the limelight so when someone pulls out a camera he has to get as close as he can to it and smile. I'm in this picture somewhere but it's hard to see me with Eddie's teeth at the forefront. 

Not only does he need to learn to share when there's a photo, he needs to see a dentist.

On my birthday, which I spent in Niagara-on-the-Lake, I went for a carriage ride. It's been one of those things I've wanted to do and not gotten around to. That's how I met Eddie. The driver let him pick the route, and a nice one it was, but his price for a scenic ride is constant adoration and praise. He's a ham.

Smiling Eddie

The sketch is a great one from Scrapmuch?, by Laura Whitaker. Each Friday you'll find a sketch at Scrapmuch? designed to tempt your talents. This one seemed perfect for Eddie. There's lots of layers to him too.

 

I love this title I got from Silhouette. In my scrappy world I more often than not offset the letters with two or three colours. I think it adds 'pop' to my title. 

 

 

 

So if you're ever in Niagara-on-the-Lake and want a photo of your carriage ride, I'd think about giving Eddie a miss. On the other hand if you want a horse with character and a will of his own, Eddie's your guy.

Rocky Mountain Adventure

I'm Finished!

This is the last layout in my Vancouver 2012 album. Actually it turned out to be two albums and 80 layouts. It wasn't until I started putting it all together that I realized what a massive project it had turned into.

I've just come back from this years' vacation and promised myself no more than one album. Let's see how that works out. :)

The Rockies were so beautiful. Travelling up Whistler in the gondola gave me an fabulous opportunity to get pictures from a great vantage point.

 

 The layout is from the October Stick It Down double page sketch, designed by Ali Gage. I so enjoy participating with Stick It Down as one of their double page team Members.

For embellishment I used some "Sea to Sky" Highway 99 stickers I purchased at a shop on the mountain. I mounted them on chipboard so I was able to layer them in a grouping. I also added a BC button. It's amazing what trinkets you can find in gift shops to use on a layout.

 

 

Having fallen in love with this particular Bo Bunny paper from its Safari collection, I had to do the title in it as well. With layers of brown and grey behind the letters, the shaded "tin" look of the paper really popped.

 

 

There are also great single page and card layouts on the site. Whatever your fancy there's a sketch for it. Be sure to link up your design. The link is active until the end of October. 

 

It would be great to see your design chosen by the Design Team at the end of the month. With your design chosen you'll be back with us as one of our Guest Designers.

 



Pumpkin Patch

What great fun we had apple picking near Collingwood. It was a gorgeous day, and, being Xavier's 1st birthday, there were a lot of the  family around to help pick.

One of the things that captured the attention of the two little ones was the pumpkin patch. Ashlynn checked the pumpkins over, and pronouncing them quite alright, sat to enjoy her apple amongst them.

Xavier, who loves anything that makes noise, bravely approached his first pumpkin and gave it a pat. It returned his pat with that 'thump' kind of echo, as a pumpkin does, and he immediately went musical. Every pumpkin got a pat. You could say Xavier treated us to a rather unique recital.

 

 

This layout was inspired by two challenges.

The first the October 1st sketch by Stuck?!, designed by Laura Whitaker.

 

 

The other, Challenge #51 from Scrapping for Fun Challenges. The challenge was to incorporate pumpkins in your layout.

 

It was a "Great Pumpkin" kind of day!