Lily's Letter

     I just finished a layout over at Let's Scrap using one of Cheri O'Neill's amazing sketches.   It was for a challenge our wonderful DT, Kay Wallace, gave us. She asked us to do a layout using metal embellishments on it. As most of the metal I have is made by Tim Holtz I felt that a heritage layout was in order. If you have been following me for a while you will be aware that I always try to use certain items on my heritage pages.  These items are a clock, butterfly, ticket and key.  Sometimes I use only one and other times, like with this layout I used all 4. The clock is set for 9 o'clock as it is the time my grandparents were married. The butterflies were cut from graphic 45 paper and covered with Glossy Accents. I picked the ticket with the word dream as it was Lily's dream to find love in this new country. The key with the word secret on it was picked because of my Great Grandmother's secrets in arranging this marriage.  The papers  used are made by Simple Stories and the flowers are by Prima.
     First I want to give you some background about my Grandparents. My grandfather Edwy Harrison, along with his sister Eva, brother Ernest and their families came to Canada from England in April 1907.  They  settled in Smiths Falls, Ontario.  His mother (my great grandmother Annie) had raised 6 stepchildren and 8 children and Edwy was her youngest. Annie worried about him in this strange land, so in mid 1907 she decided to join him and her other 2 children in Canada.

Edwy and his mother purchased a house on Chambers St. and things were going well until she decided in late 1913 that she wanted to return home to England.  She felt she couldn’t leave 29 year old Edwy with no one to cook and clean for him.  He was at the time courting a young lady that Annie didn’t care for, so she took it upon herself to send word to England that she was looking for a bride for her son. 

Although she didn’t know Annie or Edwy, 25 year old spinster Lilian (Lily) Milns decided that she would come to Canada at Annie’s request. Maybe she would find the love that she seeked in this far away land.  Annie’s son Ernest and a family friend traveled across the ocean to bring Lily her engagement ring.  The deal was to be that Lily's travel expenses would be paid and she would have 6 months of courting time with Edwy.  If she decided to marry him after this time, that was great. If she decided she didn’t want to then she could remain in Canada or if she wished to return to England her way home would be paid for. She also was told that she could keep her engagement ring no matter what she decided.

Lily arrived in Montreal, Canada on June 9, 1914.  Edwy had been waiting for 3 days for her ship to come in. He telegraphed his mother letting her know that they were starting their journey home and should arrive late the next day.  When they got to the house on Chambers St. they found the minister and several wedding guests waiting for them.  Lily didn’t have a wedding dress, because she hadn’t expected anything to happen for at least 6 months. So she and Edwy put on their best outfits and were married that night. 

The layout I made shows a copy of the first letter Lily wrote home to her sister after her arrival in Canada and subsequent marriage. The picture is the only one I have of their wedding day. The little cream colored clip on the left side of the 2nd page of the letter is attached to a page of hidden journaling, that tells their story as I wrote it above.
       Over 35 years ago I got a chance to make a photocopy of the original letter that Lily wrote. Back then photocopiers weren’t that great so it ended up making several black areas on the copy.  Since then I tried to get the original again so that I could make a clearer copy only to find out my cousin threw out this letter and some others Lily wrote along with many of the old photos. I have put the photocopy I have in a safe place and copied it here on cardstock. So at least now there are two copies of it.
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Here is what Lily wrote in her letter

June 14, 1914

My Dear Sister and Brother and Neace (Niece)

I am sure you will be very anxious to know how I am getting along. I hope you received the telegram quick as I felt more satisfied when I had sent it as I know you would have expected it before but sorry to say we did not get to Montreal until Tuesday and we sent it strait away.  You will be pleased to hear I enjoyed my trip on the water grand & was never sick & never mist (missed) one meal so think I was on of the lucky ones so if I ever get the chance I shall certainly come over to see you all. I am pleased to tell you we were married in the home at 9 o’clock on Wednesday night. Edwin had been at Montreal waiting for the boat since the Saturday so he had made all the arrangement for the big event we had quiet (quite) a nice wedding there where 20 people present so you can guess there was something going on.  Earnest (Ernest) gave me away.  Many of Edwins friends tried to play a few tricks in the bedroom but pleased to say they did not succeed very well as Edwin was quiet (quite) awake that night. I must say Dear I feel very happy & I feel sure we shall be very happy together as it is nice to have someone who cares for you. Of course the Minister told him he could not help but do so as I had come a long way to him but I find him very grateful for what I have done.  The Minister told me I was not to chop sticks or clean boots. 

We had a very nice walk to see some very nice friends of Edwins that keep a big farm & and quiet (quite) a lot of anamals (animals) the Country around hear (here) is beautiful it is such a treat to walk round the Country. I am delited (delighted) with the nice home he as got for me everything is so nice and Mrs. Harrison is such a nice old Lady.  I only wish she could stay with us but thinks she will have to serve all alike.

I shall have to draw my letter to a close as we are going to Chapel. I hope this letter finds you all in good health & hope Dear Eilean (Eileen) is quiet (quite) well & that she does not miss her Auntie Lilian much.
Love to you all from your loving
Brother & Sister Edwin and Lily
xxxxx

We are sending you a little of the Cake and Alice will let you read the Voyage and also the photo at Smiths Falls

Dear Jessie I was so pleased to receave (receive) your letter this morning it releaves (relives) my mind a great deal to think you are looking on the bright side. Please remember me to the Miss Brigs & Mrs Shaw & tell them all how happy I am.

     You will notice that Lily never said anything to her sister about being surprised that they were married so quick. She later told her daughter (my Aunt) that she had been so impressed with the fact that Edwy had gone to all the trouble of making the arrangements for their marriage and she thought it was a sign that he loved her so much that he couldn't wait to make him her bride. She wouldn't learn until much later that Edwy was as surprised as she was that the wedding happened so quick. He too was expecting to have the 6 months to get to know her.  But his mother had other ideas. She wanted to get home to England and had no intention of waiting at least 6 more months. So when Edwy telegraphed her saying that they would arrive the next day, she scurried around and got everything arranged. My Aunt told me that the marriage turned out to be a relatively good one, but if her parents had a big fight Lily would often say "If I had, had those 6 months to decide I would never have married you" and Edwy would chime in "nor would I have married you."

     I find it interesting that although she had been married to Edwy for 4 days by the time she wrote the letter, Lily called him by Edwin throughout the letter. The fact that she didn't know his real name shows just how little she knew about her new husband. I also find it sad where she talks about going back to visit her sister if she gets a chance.  She never got that chance, and would never see her sisters or brothers again.
     I’m sure you will notice that there is no title on my layout.  That’s because I couldn’t decide what to call it.I have given my friends over at Let's Scrap the job of helping me come up with a suitable title.
     This letter and a few others I have copies of gives me a glimpse's of my grandparents and great grandmother and lets me feel a little closer to them. Because my family often reads my blog I thought it was a good way for them to get to know a little about their ancestors too. 

I Loved Last Weeks Let's Scrap Sketch

I loved the sketch that Cheri gave us last week over at Let's Scrap. I loved it so much that I just had to make two layouts with it.
Here is her amazing sketch

Isn't it fabulous. I especially love that it can be used for extra pictures by making a flip out page, which is what I did with my first layout.
The pictures were taken on the weekend.  My son Jason and his wife Amy were in her brothers wedding on Saturday.  Grandpa and I got to babysit our 5 month old Grandson Colton for the first time, while they were at the wedding. Before they headed out I got a chance to take some pictures of Amy and Jason together and then some of the 3 of them. Amy's Aunt was the wedding photographer and she was kind enough to send me the photos she took of them after the wedding, so that's why the pictures have different backgrounds.  Here's the layout I made.

Here is the second page with the extra flap open.

Of course while I was babysitting wee Colton I had to get some pictures of him.  I saw his little pajama's that worked perfectly for some Bo Bunny papers and embellishments I had.  He had actually outgrown the PJ's but I couldn't resist still taking the pictures of him in them.  He is such a ham for the camera, and  you can get him smiling and laughing without trying to hard. His smile just lights up the room.  Here is the layout I made.

I decided to not do the banner for this one, it looked better when I just put the embellishments all around the page. If you are wanting to have a better look at the pages, you can make them larger by clicking on them.

I hope that you are all having a great week.  Don't forget to check into Let's Scrap tomorrow to see what the new sketch looks like.  Happy Scrapping!

I've Reached My Goal

     Over at Let's Scrap we are challenging everyone to do 100 layouts (pages) in 2011.  I have had a lot of problems with my mojo lately and I was beginning to worry that I wouldn't make the challenge. Woo Hoo today with this layout I have finally met the goal and I am so thrilled. I have now upped my goal to 125 pages in hopes that I can meet it too.
     This week Cheri posted the Design Team Challenge and she showed us several different techniques and we were to pick one and do a layout or card using the technique and a Let's Scrap sketch.  I picked the technique where you change circles into squares for a unique look for your layouts. If you would like to learn how to do this you can check out a tutorial here. Here is the layout that I did using a photo of my wonderful sister Rose and her family taken in October 2010.

     I made the leaves myself and thought I would share a mini tutorial on how I did them.

To make the leaf shape I used a Spellbinders Shapeablilities Nested Maple Leaf die and my Cuttlebug.

The way the die is made I could have put it back through the Cuttlebug and embossed it but the embossing would have only made a small edge around the whole leaf. I didn't want it to look that way.  Instead I preferred to make them with the veins in the leaves like you see in real leaves.  I don't have a stylus to do the embossing and I tried different little tools that I had in my scrap bag but they would either make the veins to thick or they would rip my paper.  But then I had a brain wave.  Why not take one of the "fake" fabric leaves from a fall decoration and use it to emboss with.  The leaf had a plastic stem and plastic veins attached to it.  So I laid the fabric leaf on the "A" plate of my Cuttlebug, then put my cut out paper leaf on top of it, then the rubber mat and my two "B" plates on top of that. I didn't use any shims in between which you usually have to use because I didn't want the embossing to be to pronounced.  I then ran it through my Cuttlebug.
Here is what it looked like before embossing

here is how I placed them together before running them through the Cuttlebug.

and here is how it looked like afterwards

Then I  used some rangers inks (mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Dried Marigold) and inked the leaves.  I also used some of my cat's eye inks to add a bit more color.  After I was done all that I then sprayed the leaves with Tattered Angles Iridescent Glimmer Mist to give them a bit of a shine.  While they were still wet I scrunched them up a bit so they weren't laying flat. Here is a close up of how they looked when they were done.

 If I was doing it again I would be a bit more careful when scrunching them as I found that they wrinkled a bit more then I would have liked where the veins are, but all and all I am thrilled with how they turned out and will definitely be trying the technique again.

I hope you found this tutorial interesting and will give the idea a try.

My New Grandson

I wanted to share a couple of things with my blogging friends.  First I wanted to let you all know that my Grandson, Colton Jason Orr arrived on Sept. 17th, at 10:pm, weighing 9lbs 3oz, and measuring 22 inches.  He is such a sweet little guy and I can't believe how alert and happy he has been right from the very beginning. Here is a photo of him taken at 2 days old

As far as scrapbooking I seem to have been in a real slump with it lately.  I think someone stole my Mojo and I would really like them to give it back. LOL.  Three weeks ago I started a layout on the birth of my Granddaughter Ava.. My plan had been to get caught up on her layouts so when Colton arrived I would be able to get right at his. But I didn't finish it until today.  Hopefully I will find my mojo soon and will get back to scrapping like I used to. 

I did this layout for a Julie Bonnor sketch challenge over at Let's Scrap. The flourishes and doily were from some wonderful items I was gifted by Enmarc Crafts.  I decided to use some micro glitter on the flourishes but not sure I will do that again.  I have glitter all over me, my floors and my furniture.  I think I will be months trying to clean it all up. LOL

Happy scrapping everyone and I hope to be back soon with some more layouts.

Jacob Love's Trains

I have a group over at Let's Scrap called Let's Scrap Our Stash.  We try to encourage each other to use the stash we have instead of buying new things.  We also post a couple of challenges each month that use up lots of stash. Because I wasn't feeling the greatest for a while and then life got real busy  I have been very fortunate the past few months to have my good friend Kathy Perry posting the challenges for me.  I figured it was about time that I gave Kathy a break and I did the challenge for a change.
For the challenge this time around I wanted the members to use lots of chipboard and use at least different techniques on them to alter the look of them.  I was very fortunate to have been gifted a lot of the Enmarc Crafts white chipboard pieces "chippies" last month. Enmarc is a business in South Africa and they have amazing products.  They started a scrapping group a couple of months ago and each month they have a sketch challenge. You can find there group here. So I decided to use this months sketch and several of their "chippies" for the Scrap our Stash Challenge.
Here is what there sketch looks like:

and here is the layout I made using it

     Where I live there is a rail line right beside us so there are trains passing by several times a day.  My grandson has always been fascinated with them and every time he hears one he runs to the window to see it.  I decided that he was finally old enough to go visit the Railway Museum that we have here in town.  Although it was one of the hottest days this summer that we picked to visit he still had a fantastic time.  He got to go inside a bunch of the old trains and check out the buttons and phones.  He also got to see a huge  train set that they had all set up there and loved watching all the different trains traveling around all the houses and people.
     I was thrilled that Enmarc had sent me the train mini album because it worked perfectly to hold my journaling in and was light enough to be attached to the layout.  I also loved all the chipboard gears they sent.   I used different techniques to color all the chipboard.  Some I used embossing powders on, some I painted, others I stickled and I even used markers on one of them.  I find the "chippies" so versatile that you can use just about anything on them.  I also decided to use the Timeworks Tim Holtz masks on my background paper because they looked like gears and used blue skys glimmer mist to make them show up.  I had a blast doing the layout.
I hope all of you are having a great week and Happy Scrapping.

Canada Day 2011

     It seems like such a long time since I have done any scrapping but lift just got in the way.  I finally got around to finishing this Canada Day layout for a challenge going on over at Let Scrap I also used one of Cheri's fantastic sketches for it. The photo's are from our recent Canada Day celebration.  My husband, son's, DIL's.  grandchildren and myself when we went to the celebrations being held at a park here in town.
     For the challenge we had to use papers that were only red, white and/or blue.  We also had to use at least 10 buttons in the same colors and chipboard for the title.
     I recently received an amazing gift from Enmarc Crafts  which is a company from South Africa.  They sent me several of their chipboard embellishments so that I could join in on the fun on their site. Wasn't that so sweet of them.  The Canada title is one of their fantastic pieces.  I used Ranger distress ink and Color Box Cat's Eye Inks to color the chipboard and then applied glossy accents to it.
     Here's my layout

Two Best Friends means Two Best Men

     I've done several layouts of Amy and the ladies in the wedding party so though it was time I did one for Jason and his Best Men.
     When it became time for Jason to decide on his best man for the wedding he found it very difficult.  He had two best friends who he had known for years.  While his many other friends disappeared after his accident these two wonderful guys stuck around visiting  him while in hospital and rehab and after his discharge taking him fishing, coming to the house to play video games or to accompany him to the rugby. He knew that picking one of them would hurt the others feelings and that is one thing he would never want to do. So he finally decided to have two best men. 
     I used one of Cheri O'Neill's sketches from my favorite group Let's Scrap. 

and here is the layout I made with it.

It's getting really busy around here trying to get all my decorations up, buying and wrapping last minuite gifts and planning the meal for 13 of us on Christmas day.  I hope everyone's plans are coming together and that you have a very Happy Holiday.

You Can Run But You Can't Hide

     It's Wednesday and that means there is a new sketch up at Let's Scrap.  Cheri never ceases to amaze me with all the great sketches she gives us. Here's what this weeks looks like.

     Isn't it great.  I decided to do another layout from my Son's wedding but this time I used some of the fun pictures that were taken throughout the day.  They just seemed to work well together and gave me a bit of a laugh. 

And here is a closeup of each of the pages

      I've noticed lots of you are using your sewing machine to sew on your layouts so I decided to dust off my Mom's old machine and give it a try.  I love how it looks even though I did hid a lot of it with the pictures. I will definitely will be using it again.  The punch I used is one of the Martha Stewart ones that I punched in the two different colors.  I really love her punches.

     I have been having a bit of trouble finding paper that goes well with the bridesmaid dresses.  I bought several packages of the paper I used in the layout from CTMH quit a while back because I thought it would match well. But I was wrong, the girls dresses are more bronze then I realized and although there is a cream sash it doesn't tend to show up in a lot of the pictures.  I'm hoping to come across a line of paper that will compliment the pictures better.

     After having such a problem with the paper I contacted my oldest son's girlfriend and told her that when they get married that she has to pick out the perfect scrapbooking paper for her album and then she can find bridesmaid dresses to match.  Can't you just see the lady in the bridelshop when a bride to be walks in with scrapbooking paper and says ok I want dresses to match this LOL. 

    I have been having so much fun scrapping this week but have made a real mess of my scrapbooking room. So I think I better get back to cleaning it up.  I hope you are all having a great week and Happy Scrapping.

Our Little Pumpkin

Cheri Johnson O'Neill's gave us another amazing sketch this week over at Let's Scrap . Here is what it looks like, don't you love how many photo's she is able to get incorporate into one sketch.

and here is my take on the sketch

This is my little Grandson Jacob and his Mom Katie.  They came over to carve the pumpkins Grandpa had gotten for him.  Although he is still a little young to actully get into the carving he did have some fun helping cleaning it out.  He also got a kick out the play hats I bought for him. 

It sure feels good to be back scrapping again.  I've missed it and also missed visiting all my favorite blogs so I'm off to see what all of you have been up to this week.  

I hope everyone has had a great week and Happy Scrapping.

Dreams Do Come True

     Woo hoo, I finally got time to scrap.  I feel like I have been away from it for such a long time even thought it has only been a few weeks.  So I worked on two different projects this week. 
     The first one is a layout I did using Cheri's fantastic sketch, over at Let's Scrap. Here is what the sketch looked like.

     Don't you just love the little pocket to put your Cd of photo's in.  I thought I better get started on the wedding album I'm doing for Jason and Amy.  I used some photo's of her taken at her Mom's house prior to the wedding and some of her accessories.

    The next project I did was for Karien's challenge this week over at Let's Scrap.  You had to make a shape card.  I tried to make one from scratch but soon realized I wasn't that handy lol.  So I used my cricut to cut out the truck from a file I had and made the card with it. Sorry I'm not sure who actually made the file or I would gladly give credit for it.  I also used a couple of Tim Holtz's gears for the hubcaps. Here is what it turned out like. 

It's great to be back and hopefully I will have lots more wedding layouts to show you soon.  Happy Scrapping.

Autumn Memories

Here is this weeks sketch over at Let's Scrap.

I thought it was a perfect sketch for the pictures I had of my beautiful neice Beth and her family.  The pictures were taken in the fall of 2009. Here is my layout.

I was having some trouble trying to do this layout because the pictures had so much yellow in them but the only autumn type paper I had didn't. Then Brenda's from Let's Scrap posted a challenge to use glimmer mist on a layout.  It was just what I needed to pull it all together. I used 4 different glimmer mists, including yellow, to change the color of my cardstock and I also glimmer misted the flowers and leaves.  I love how it turned out.
Thank you for sharing your pictures with me Beth and I can't wait to see you and your beautiful family at the wedding in a couple of week's.
Happy Scrapping!

Dog Tired

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days. I've been waiting for blogger to help me with the problems I was having.  A very nice gentleman gave me some suggestions some of which worked but couldn't figure out why I was still having trouble with correctly spelled works being highlighted.  So he has referred in on further.  I haven't heard any more so thought I would go ahead and try posting again.  You can be sure I won't be touching any spell check buttons. So here is what I was up to yesturday.

The challenge last week over at Let's Scrap was to do a layout about an ordinary day.  I decided to do it on my two dogs Harley and Daisy.  An ordinary day for them is sleeping, sleeping and sleeping some more.  Often they can be found curled up together on a chair or our bed but if one or the other isn't available they  well  sleep with my  pink puppy slippers.

I followed one of Cheri's great sketches to do the layout. Here is her sketch.

And here is the layout I did about my two lovable pets.                

   

Although posting still wasn't as easy as it had been under the older version of blogger it looks like this time it has worked better.  Hopefully it will continue that way.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and Happy Scrapping.

                                                              

Adorable

I've had fun this week doing a couple of layouts with Cheri's Sketch from Let's Scrap. Here is the sketch
This first layout is for my Grandson Jacob's album. Most of the paper and embellishments were made by Crate Paper - Little Sprout Collection plus I added a few other embellishments in my stash. The clouds were made using my cuttlebug, spiral folder and stickles. I'm very please with the way it turned out.
Here is the layout


The next layout was completed using the same sketch. The difference is that I also incorporated the Let's Scrap Design Team Challenge which was to do a layout with torn cardstock as the background. The pictures are of me (aren't I cute lol) between the ages of 3-8 taken while I was camping with my family at Silver Lake Park here in Ontario. I did some extra journaling which is on the tag hidden behind the last picture. I have many fond memories of my time spent camping there and did the page to put in my Book of Me album. I had never torn cardstock for a layout before so it was a new experience for me. I decided to do the whole background with this technique making the grass, beach, water and sky with the torn paper, most of which was the core-dination paper line. I also had fun using up a bunch of my stash of stickers and camping embellishments.

Here is the layout I made.

I hope you enjoyed both layouts and Happy Scrapping.

Mom's 75th Birthday Layout

Recently they had a challenge on Let's Scrap to do a layout in honor of Mothers Day, this challenge was to make a LO having to do with mothers. Either yourself as a mother, your mother or mother in law, could be a Mother to a litter of puppies or even Mother nature! I've had pictures of my Mom's 75th birthday from the year 2000 that I had really been wanting to scrap. The pictures mean a lot to me because Mom had been very ill prior to her party and we didn't expect her to be well enough to be discharged from hospital. Fortunately a couple of weeks before her birthday things turned around and she not only was able to attend the party but would have 3 more wonderful years with us.

I used this sketch from Let's Scrap as my inspiration.

Here is the layout






I used SEI's Juliette paper line to do the layout. I just love their paper especially this line. I also added some pearl bling and little fabric flowers that I had picked up quite some time ago. I was really please with the way the layout turned out.
The other part to the challenge was to make a card from the scraps left over from making the layout and this is the card I made.
It always feels good when you can make something from your scraps.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my layout and Happy Scrapping.

Let's Scrap NSD Blog Hop

As you all know I have been having so much fun doing challenges at Let's Scrap What you may not know is that Let's Scrap is celebrating National Scrapbooking Day all month with many different challenges. One of the things happening is a Design Team Blog Hop going on from May 7th - 21st. There are 10 Let's Scrap design team members who have challenges on their blog and at the end of the two weeks each blog will put the name of everyone who completed the challenge in the hat and draw for a prize. Not only that but if you complete all ten of the challenges you can have your name put in a draw to win a $50 gift certificate from Cherry On Top Scrapbook Store. Now how cool is that. But in order to have a chance to win any of these prizes you have to be a member of Let's Scrap because that is where your layouts and Cards will be uploaded to. You also have to be come a follower of each of the ladies blogs. So if you are interested in having a ton of fun and meeting some wonderful friendly, ladies then hop on over to Let's Scrap and find out all about it.

The challenge for Blog Hop #1 came from Susan's Blog Paper Daisy Dreams Here Is what Susan had to say about her challenge.
"I love shoes, I love purses, I love shopping. And today as I was contemplating what to do for my part of the challenge I received an email from a nationally known shoe store. The minute I saw this advertisement I knew two things.....1. I have to go get those purple sandals AND the bag, and 2. this would be the inspiration for my challenge. Sooo, having said that your challenge is a two-parter: Create a layout based on this Let's Scrap sketch...."

"and using this advertisement for color inspiration. (Aren't those purple shoes too cute? HAHA!)"


So here is my entry for Blog Hop #1

This beautiful young lady is my future DIL and she LOVES purses and shoes. She was nice enough to let me take a picture of her with just a small number of them. She has lots more but they are packed away while renovations are being done on the house.

I hope you liked the layout and I hopefully will have several more to share with you as I hop from blog to blog. I also am working on some other challenges that Let's Scrap are having so I will share them with you as I finish them.

I hope everyone enjoyed Mothers Day.