Cameron and Munchkin

I've been meaning to post this layout for a while. I created this layout for layout tag February layout tag at Kindred Creations. I was asked to lift this layout by Andrea, so I definitely wanted to go digital as well, and work off her great style!

I created this layout in GIMP.  I used elements from a KC Challenge Freebie by Lisa Habisreutinger; I adjusted the colours to better suit this layout.  I also added the stitched notebook page element from my own Majestic India kit (again, altering the colours), ribbon, string, brads, tickets, and paw print brush.  I extracted the top from one of the pictures.  I used the fonts Glider Girls, My Nerd, and Harting 2 Ultra Light.   I love how this layout turned out!

A New Courtyard

I created another digital layout.  The left side was actually completed for a rendition of layout tag, although I had many more pictures I wanted to use so I turned it into a 2 page layout.  The pictures are from my mission trip to the Dominican Republic where we worked on an addition to a school that is attended largely by Haitian nationals who do not have the means to attend public schools.  One of the projects we did was to replace the inner courtyard, the playground/gymnasium/classroom for the school.  At completion there were plans to have another playground on the roof of the school, although we did visit an inner city school that did not have any out door space.  I still have not finalized how I want to do the journaling on this page which it most certainly needs.  I used the SFS Signature Collection by Jessica Dixon as well as some elements I created myself.  Again I kept the style simple because it reflects the nature of the mission trip I'm trying to document and how poor these people in the Dominican Republic were.

Oome Joe and Tante Lies

I took a 12"x12" quick page I really liked that was designed by AVDESIGNS and resized it to 11x11.  Then I cut an 8x10 1/2" piece out around the picture and embellishment cluster and pasted into a new layer.  That allowed me to resize the brown patterned paper frame to 8 1/2x11".  Since the frame is very small the distortion to the patterned paper is hardly noticeable.  I found some great pictures of DH's aunt and uncle to add to the page.  I then added the title using the font Brock Script.  I stroked the title with a darker brown colour.  I then added 9 pearls to the top right hand corner.  I used a Delicious Scraps textured tag to create the tag I added the date to.  I then added a drop shadow to all the layers except the date.

We've got Class

I created this layout using the Die Cuts With A View Hittin' the Books 2 digital kit. I layer two of the papers over top of each other and stitched the right hand side using a zig zag stitch.  On the left hand side I added the green ribbon to which I added a buckle I created from a frame in the kit.  I added some bump mapping under the buckle to add realism to the ribbon.  I cut the title from another patterned paper in the kit.   I took buttons by Gunhild Storeid and covered them in patterned paper, and added them to the bottom left hand corner with a green ribbon bow also by Gunhild Storeid.  She also has some great cluster frames, one of which I turned on it's side and overlay with one of the patterned paper in the kit, and added pictures to it.  I then added my journaling using the font Kids First ABC.  Lastly I added the appropriate shadows to each layer.

Sweet Smile

I created another layout this week. Once again I went digital; the muffin toppers by JKCreations I found online were the perfect embellishments for this layout. I centered the picture on the page and added a dark blue mat I created, pulling the colours from the muffin toppers. I then took a brown from the muffin toppers and used that colour for the background of the layout. I then extracted 3 muffin toppers from the file and transferred them to the bottom right hand side of the layout and resized them so they would be slightly smaller. I added three white sticks to the muffin toppers and a bow created by Jessica Dixon that perfectly matched the blue in the muffin toppers. I then extracted the center of two more muffin toppers and used them to embellish the top right and bottom left of the page. I used the alphas in the Jessica Dixon's kit for the word Smile and the font Black Jack to create the word Sweet in white. I also used the same font for the date along the bottom left hand corner of the layout. I then finished up by adding dropped shadows to most of the layers, and adjusting the perspective on a few, to give realistic shadows to the layers.

Love in Action

Life has kept me busy, but I'm really looking forward to creating again. I have lots of ideas up my sleeve, I just need time and space to create. I do have a layout I created for Layout Tag to share. I was asked to lift this layout created by Merrilee. Incidentally I also used Merrilee's Misty Sunset kit for much of the layout. Merrilee's kit is available here.

I just had to go browsing through some Mother Theresa quotes for this layout, knowing I would probably find the perfect quote. These pictures are once again from my mission trip to the Dominican Republic. I found that this was an amazing experience. I always had a vision of these orphanages as dingy dirty over crowded places with very little love. What a delight it was to see this amazingly wonderful orphanage! Everything was bright and cheery, with the most wonderful toys, playground and educational resources. To round it out the love and affection shown to these children by the sisters was phenomenal! The only thing lacking was what they could not give these kids: family.

The face of poverty

Andrea challenged us to scrap our favourite picture of 2009. What a challenge to pick my favourite! Having spent time in a variety of gorgeous places last year I ended up with a multitude of stunning photographs. Maybe the events in Haiti are pulling on my heart strings, but I went back to a photograph I took while on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic to build a school for mainly Haitian refugees. While there we also visited some other schools and communities in the Santa Domingo area. I took this picture while we were visiting a very impoverished little Batey called Foa. I love this picture and I think it speaks volumes. I hope to create a book of pictures and memories of my trip so I chose to do this layout digitally. I kept it simple because I felt that anything else would undermine the poverty of these people.
All the elements used in this layout are my creations.