Day 23: Happy Days!

Today's topic was 'Playground', I twisted it a little to talk about some of the happiest times in my life.

Growing up my parents spent most of their free time (except for winter) at a hippy-esk marina. It was an island in the middle of a small lake not far from Amsterdam. It was heaven for us kids. We would spend all day building huts, climbing trees, rowinig through little water ways or out on the water swimming and learning how to wind surf. It was really amazing growing up like that. For me, that lake and island are my playground.

I've used a whole bunch of different digi stuff here. If there's anything you want to know just ask.

Day 22: Sign of the times

Today's prompt was Sign-O-the times. Made me immediately think about Prince of course. Whom was definitely one of my favourite artists when I was a teenager. I ended up doing a layout about my 'agenda's'  though.

The defining possession of my teenage/secondary school years has to be the 'Agenda' or date book. Leaf through any of them and you will be able to pin down whom I liked, disliked and what I was into. And of course who I was in a class with, who my teachers were and my grades. It was great to dig these out again today.

The layout came together pretty quickly with a Misty Cato template and papers and embellishments by Eric Zane (See Jane Play). I can't trace down where the title is from.

Do you still have your secondary school diaries?

LOAD Day 21: Feeling happy and artsy today, well it is my birthday:-)

Today is my birthday and I have a had a lovely day so far: lots of flowers, presents, well wishes and lots of crafting too. I have been itching to make somehting a little bit more artsty for a few days now. I have been dabling with some card backgrounds but really wanted to make something a bit bigger. For the last few days various pieces of colourful cardstock, tissue paper en stamps have been accumulating on my desk. Today I put them all together into this:

When all the paint and glue has dried off I'm going to frame it and put it somewhere I can look at it often. Hope you have a great day too.

LOAD20: Going to Church

Getting my layout done early today. I usually listen to Lain's dulcit tones first thing in the morning. SOmetime I'm still in bed. Nice way to wake up. Today's prompt was about your religious activities when you were younger. Well I had some pictures about being in the children's choir in church when I grew up. And one of an outing we had with our Confirmation Study Group. There is quite a bit I want to say about this (all good, don't worry;-) but I will do it somewhere else. It doesn't fit on the page. Too happy about that huge faux-stained glass window:-) 

I used my Silhouette to cut this beautiful design by Petty Young Designs. I first used it as a stencil to colour in with Distress Ink. Then turned it over to use as a border. Love it!

Paula's design: <a href="http://www.silhouetteonlinestore.com/?page=view-shape&id=32005" rel="nofollow">www.silhouetteonlinestore.com/?page=view-shape&id=32005</a>

More time travel: LOAD 16-19

This has to be the year I look back and move forward. I took a great course earlier this year called Before your story' by Jennifer Wilson of Simple Scrapper. She has a great approach to making one book about the time before you became a mom. Which is often when people get into scrapping and then it is all about your kid(s). I have still to get properly going on the course but I thought I would use this LOAD to make a bunch of layouts that suit that album.

I already have a lovely album I got at HEMA and bought a paper pack to match: Elegance by Kaiserkraft so I try to use a similar colour palette on these pages but found that it lacked a bit of punch so I added a pinky red to the palette to give it some POP.

Day 16's prompt was about the 'TIME OUT' or disiplining. I was uncomfortable writing just about disciplining kids. It seemed to be only one side of a story. The story about why we have to set boundaries, why we say no and why we need to put kids in time-out to give them a chance to think. It's one tool if you will to use in the grand project of raising our children. It's not the whole story. So I decided to write a letter to my almost 5 yo son (to read when he is a bit older I suppose) to tell him why we sometimes need to tell him no or put him in time-out. What we aim for as we are raising him. And also that it isn't easy, that we might not have had the best examples ourselves, And neither did our parents. But that we are trying to take our responsibility to raise him as a happy, healthy, responsible and self-reliant young man. And that means we need to tell him no sometimes;-) Let's hope he appriciates it!

 

Day 17: The influence of television while you were younger. I did a digi page this time so that I could easily use a whole bunch of pictures I got from Google. Goodness me people. It still took me hours to get this layout done. Even though the main design (all the clustered stars) is a template by Cindy Schneider. Just so tired when I got home from work. But I got it done and this is really is a rather important moment to document. Because for me English (or rather American) spoken tv programs in my early teens have really helped me learn English. I think I am susceptible for languages anyway but it does need some inspiration and stimulation. And for me it was cartoons like Inspector Gadget, Tranformers, Care Bears and Jem!

Day 18: The prompt was about the dentist. Since I had already covered the braces issue on Day 14 I decided to finish a layout I had done some work for a while ago. The background of this layout is a piece of one of my favorite shirts I ever owned. I got it at least 5 years ago but last year little holes started appearing in it. I love it so I would wear it anyway, but April of this year the holes had really become too big so it had to go. I decided to cut a hole-free bit out and iron-ed it onto some cardstock with Bondaweb with the idea of making a layout with it and today I finally got around to doing it. I had to search the backup drive for some pictures of me wearing and then had the Silhouette cut the black mat with faux stich marks. Finished up with some white journalling around the edges.

Day 19: What did you want to be when you grew up. Very excited about this prompt. And as it turned out, very enlightening too. When I started pulling pictures of the web of careers I had dreamed of when I was young I couldn't help notice they all wear a lovely uniform/suit! I made this while listening to Lain on Creative Life and used one of the sketches in her handout. Came together in no time!

LOAD DAY 15: Who's that girl

Today's prompt was FashionVictim and Growing up in the eighties MADONNA was most girl's idol. Mine as well. So when I was 11 and got the chance to take part in a talent show I had to be Madonna. My mom made the outfit (I think she re-worked a tiger costume I had worn in a circus performance in kindergarten onze...) and I did the accessorizing. Don't you just love those pink socks in the yellow shoes?!

I think I was singing 'Bordeline', look at that intense tortured expression on my face:-)))

LOAD 14: Braces

Today's prompt was 'Sick Day' and I was going to scrap about a stay in the hospital while I was little. But while looking for some memorabilia ( I knew there wouldn't be a picture of it but I do have the admissions letter) I came across some receipts for all the orthodontic work that had been done on my teeth. And I knew there were a few pictures of me anxiously keeping my mouth closed when pictures were taken because of those aweful braces!

At least four yearsI have had to wear braces, 4 permanent molers were removed tocreate room in mu very small jaw and also one milk tooth got pulled at the same time to make sure the permanent one would be there with the braces. All in the space of 2 weeks. I had a mouth with 4 gaping holes in it when I ws about 10 years old. Now all this was peanuts compared to the years before this when I needed to where this 'cap' and mouth piece to get my top and bottom jaw aligned, they were 11 cm's apart. I felt so embarassed and ugly with a cap over the back of my head and a gigantic piece of plastic in my mouth so I could hardly speak. And every two weeks or so my horribly strict orthodontist would tighten it up a bit. Which meant a lot of pain as my teeth and jaw adjusted. Luckily after the worst was over I only had to wear it at night and not at school anyore.
Now I am very happy I had it done, my teeth look great and I smile all the time. But then I felt pretty sorry for myself.

I made the title and cute 'smile with braces' with my Silhouette. I decided to make some room on my desk to put my Silhouette. It was kind of hidden so I didn't use it much. Which is a shame because it's a great machine!

Have you scrapped any health stories?