My Little Family Layout

Hello!!!

Sorry it's been so long, I've been working on a few projects at once this week and they all took FOREVER!!! One of them is finally finished and I'll show you in a moment.

Firstly a quick apology for not posting more often. I was happily posting every day or two there for a while but this last week or two has just been a nightmare for many different reasons--none of which I'll bore with you but lets just suffice it to say that by the time 9:30pm rolls around and both my beautiful girls are asleep, my "creat-ometer" is hitting below the red line!!
I sit at my craft table and think...'inspiration?! where are you now?!?!' and I usually end up watching some tv or a movie on my lap top AT my craft desk (is that blasphemous??) and I colour in some images with copics...and then the images never go further than that! Otherwise I'm chatting with the beautiful Linda from a2zscrapbookingsupplies.com--->>> see the link over there in pink?? CLICK!!! GO ON!! CLICK CLICK!! She's the best and it's shopping that helps a fantastic cause. So it's like you're not really spending at all, cause you're giving back too!! (That's what I'm telling myself...*wink*)
But don't you get too friendly with her now cause I might get jealous :) I'm not ready to share my new friend *hearts to Linda*

ANYHOO. Here is what took me about THREE days to get done. I kept walking by it during the day to see if inspiration hit and then finally after watching HEAPS of the genius-that-is-Nichol-Magouirk on youtube, I felt the tingling in my spine that sent me rushing to my desk to finish.

Sorry for the terrible photos yet again! I can't wait to get a light box for my photos!!

I've added a few pics of this so you can see the details.

This first pic is what the layout looked like when my inspiration waned... I liked it but didn't REALLY like it. It just felt kinda naked


The next one is the finished product:



Here are a few extras so you can see the details:





And here's my furbaby Toby sniffing my layout, no doubt wondering why the heck it's in the pot plant!! lol (outside light Toby, it's all about natural light :))




The products I used are WIDE & VARIED!! The ones I can name are:
green rosette: Bazzil cardstock & Kaisercraft brad
Blue Rosette & background paper: DCWV Garden Party Stack 12x12
Stamps ('Admit one' ticket, 'order' ticket & 'Original' and 'There is Noone like you'): PTI "It's official" and "Larkspurs" sets (both July release)
Green thickers: American Crafts "Rockabye"
Teal chipboard letters:chipz by Bella
Inks: Walnut Stain, Antique linen, Black Soot & Pumice stone Distress Inks Tim Holtz.
EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge punch (behind main photo).
String (or Jute Twine I think it's called): PTI
Spiral notebook page die (from Order ticket at top with handwritten journalling) PTI.

Besides these listed, the rest are from my stash. The journalling was printed onto standard printer paper, then inked & mounted on some pretty paper from the above paper pack.
One of the little details that I'm especially proud of is on the Admit One tickets (which I stamped on cream cardstock and distressed). I've used a perforator tool from Tonic to seperate the tickets so they look like the real tickets you find at a fair. (Well I assume so, we don't have fairs here in Australia!!) I crumpled them up and even wet them a little with my water spritzer to make them look as though they'd been crumpled up in someone's pocket all day while mad rollercoaster rides were taken & too much sugar was eaten. Actually, I don't have a ticket die yet, so these were just cut out with scissors and I used the edge of my corner chomper 'stub' side, to cut those little nibs out of the corners.

I started this layout planning a pretty & simple style but as usual, my shabby-chic/distressed tendencies took over, so I just went with it. I'm pretty happy & I plan on doing many more layouts in the future. I can't wait to get my flags stamp from Hero Arts--that little baby is going to be used till it falls apart I think!!!

Ok, I'm done!! Hope you like it, please leave me some feedback--if you have any ideas of how I could have improved this that's great too!!

Thanks so much for looking. I'll try to be back soon.