Gifts for the kids

Hey there peeps, 

I used to think using 'peeps' was a bit silly, but I've kinda embraced it recently. So, hello, peeps! 

Thought I'd share some gifts for the kids today. 

Well, they weren't really for the kids, but for the whole house. 

My brother has three sons (he's the only boy in our family and I always thought he needed a brother, mainly so he'd stop annoying me, and now he has three boys - it's kinda funny. He's good with them and makes up fun games and stuff. And of course wrestles and whatever. What's up with wrestling? Don't you know you can get hurt? Boys don't care).

(Pete and I in 1981)

When Pete's second son, Casey, was born, a friend of theirs took a photo of him at the hospital and scrapbooked it in a frame as a gift for them. 

My sister-in-law, Shaz, asked me if I could do a frame for Josiah, their number three. I said yes, got a few sizes of the photo developed and then put them in the cupboard for a while as you do. Gotta wait for the inspiration to hit, right?  

It did around Christmas, mainly because I thought it'd be a good gift! I did have the foresight to order a pack of paper a few months previous in preparation for inspiration hittage. 

When I have a project to make here's what I do:

(Do you do anything like this?)

1. I start looking around online to find some papers or a collection to use. Collections are a winner for me - no matching, it's all done. 

2. If I look for about 20 mins and find nothing, I walk away. I walk away very quickly. Wrong timing.  

3. I try again another time and if I still don't find anything then I walk away again. Again, wrong timing. 

I then move onto number 4. 

It's called waiting. 

I am very au fait with waiting. 

4. I wait for what I need to come to me. It sounds silly because paper can't walk, but honestly, it makes an  appearance eventually. I can't even remember when Shaz and I had the conversation about me making the frame. Was it in 2010? I wouldn't have a clue. Anyway, I just knew I was making it and I kept an eye out for papers when I was online etc.

And then one day I went onto Blue Bazaar and whammo - there was the pack. A few papers, a boy theme that I liked, some die cuts - $13. Sold. Thanks, BB. It's My Mind's Eye incidentally - what's it called? Alphabet Soup - the boy one. I got the collection pack. Those chipboard elements would've been good - didn't even know they existed. 

I bought the paper and put it away. 

Then, a few months later, guess what? 

I went to the cupboard to get the photos to start making the frame and found a photo of Jack (their number one) in there too. 

I knew this meant that I had said I was doing both...

I wasn't prepared for both! 

My eyes darted around and I took some deep breaths. 

Golly, it was Christmas, I was prepared for one frame, I'd had a big creative year, was bushed creatively and my tank was running on fumes. 

"What? I'm doing two? Oh, man..." 

I asked myself why I was making them when I didn't have the energy to do it. 

Because I love my brother, my sister-in-law and their kids. And because I said I would. 

So, late one night (when I could actually think) I started playing around with the paper to see what I could come up with. As is usual with a project for me, I started off by saying 'I'll just getting the basics sorted' and I then ended up doing the whole thing. 

Here's how it turned out. 

Pretty simple, I know, but these things never take 5 mins. I am totally amazed how long it takes to put something 'simple' together. Not that I was going for simple necessarily, I was going for nice and...well, simple actually.

Simple, as in clean, not simple as in 'I'm doing this in 5 mins because I don't care'. I cared.

I just realised I did have the conversation with her about doing the frame in 2010 because he was born in 2010. I'm thinking the conversation was around Easter.

(The project was nine months in the making, just like him. ha ha)

And here's a close up of the bits. The ticket label was on the die cut sheet and the other bits were from my stash. The letters are Kaisercraft. I did put 2010 on the page with them too.

Do you recognise the metal heart? Making Memories. Remember all those metal embellishments they did? And the blue and white button is MM too. Been holding onto that one, glad it found a good home.

On that note, I've always thought a scrapbooking museum would be so fun. Could you imagine walking through and seeing all the old punches, tools and paper lines? Not to mention all the old pages with deco scissored photos! I'm sure every scrapbooker would have something great/funny/embarrassing to contribute to the museum. Makes me smile just thinking about it.

I bought a shadow box frame for the page at Photo Continental (it's black). I need another for Jack's frame, so hopefully they'll come in soon.

Be back soon with Jack's version of this frame/layout/page thing!

:o)