Wee Fairy

My oldest sister Ardell was not only an amazing sister but also my best friend. Although she was 11 years older them me she let me tag along with her and her best friend Lynda where ever they went.  With 6 kids in the family we often had to share beds and Ardell was my bed mate. I can remember her reading to me every night before I went to sleep and even when she started dating she would make sure to read me a chapter from my favorite book before heading out on her date. We remained very close even after both of us were married and had our own families. We lost her suddenly 13 years ago and I still miss her terribly.

When I started scrapping I decided that I wanted to do a special page about her as a baby. I knew that the page had to have fairies on it because Fairy was the nickname that her Aunt Phyllis and Aunt Joyce gave her as a toddler.  They told me that Ardell would dance, flit and twirl around the room on her tiptoes and because she was so tiny it reminded them of a little fairy. She was obviously very special to both of them. I can remember many a time when Ardell would come into a room that one or both of them was in and you would hear them say “oh my look, it’s our wee fairy”

            Over the years I have picked up different papers and embellishments with fairies on them but they never seemed to be right for the page I wanted to do.  A while back I came across the Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime paper line.  I had finally found the paper I wanted to use. Even the title of the paper line seemed to fit as she was born in the late spring of 1944. But I really wanted to make the pages special and couldn’t decide exactly what I wanted to do with the papers.  So they sat in the drawer waiting for me to work with them.  I finally decided that I would try fussy cutting all the little fairies and flowers and popping them up so they looked 3D.  I have never done any fussy cutting before so I didn’t realize just how much work it would take, but like any labor of love it didn’t matter how long it took because I enjoyed every moment of it.  

            Ardell loved butterflies and since her passing everyone in her family thinks of her any time we see a butterfly.  So I had to add a couple of those for her too. 

Here is the layout that I made for her 

Some close-ups so you can see some of the detail

I hope you enjoyed seeing Ardell’s special page as much as I loved doing it.

Any of you that have been following my blog know that I have been doing a LOAD challenge over at Let’s Scrap.  LOAD stands for LayOut A Day.  So the idea was to make a layout each day in January.  Cathy van der Bruinhorst, the organizer of the challenge made it a bit easier on us by letting us count both layouts and cards.  I am thrilled to say that with a card I made today for the upcoming blog hop and the finishing of Ardells layout I have made 30 layouts and 11 cards in January, an all time high for me.  I’m so happy that I finished off this great month of scrapping with this special tribute to my sweet sister Ardell.

Heritage Layout - My Great Grandmother

It's taken me a lot longer to get this layout done than I had planned but I finally finished it tonight. It's another heritage layout, this time of my Great Grandmother Ann Brisco. As you may remember a while back I did a layout of my Great Grandfather who was Ann's husband. I had a lot of journaling to do and I was having trouble finding a way to hide it to make room to put another picture and keepsake on the layout. Retta, a friend in my Scrapbooking Class yahoo group, suggested a steamer trunk and was kind enough to make me a svg. that I could cut out with my Cricut. Its so nice to have friends who are willing to lend a hand when needed. Thanks Retta. I used grunge board paper and walnut distress ink for the straps on the trunk. The buckles, brads and lock were made to look rusted by using glossy accents and alcohol ink and then using the heat gun on them. I got the idea for the rusted look from this tutorial Magnets hold the buckles down and the bottom closed. I did a lot of distressing and some tearing of the paper. The paper is from the Graphic 45 line. I just love their paper for my heritage pages.

Karen, another cyber friend, had mentioned that when she did her heritage layouts that she was going to put a key of some sort on each layout to create some continuity. I loved the idea but couldn't decide which item from my Great Grandfathers layout to use for my Great Grandmothers so I used three items instead LOL. I put some butterflies, the ticket stub and if you look closely at the three flowers on the first page you will see a small clock in the centre of one of them.

Some of my siblings, nieces and nephew's are interested in the heritage layouts I do so I've put a close up of the journaling so that they can read a little about their ancestor. Anyone else that is interested please feel free to read it to. The pictures in the locket have yellowed quite a bit which is understandable as it was left to my grandfather in 1914 but was probably worn by Ann for many years before that. I hope that everyone enjoys the layout. I know I had lots of fun making it.

My Great Grandfathers Hertiage Scrapbook page

It's been a while since I last posted but have been very busy lately and also hurt my back which has made it hard to do any scrapbooking.
I went to a scrapbooking crop yesturday at my LSS, Memory Lane and had a great time scrapping and visiting with Verna and Wendy. I have been wanting to get started on my heritage album so did up a 2 page layout for my Great Grandfather. I used Graphics 45 paper and lots of distressing. The little butterflies were cut from the paper and then I put glossy accents on them. The key was from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Grunge board pack and I used the Drunken Scotch Tutorial I found here to make it look old and rusted. I'm really pleased with the way the layout turned out. I hope everyone is having a great day and hopefully I will be back soon with some more layouts.