Been a Busy Week...and new layouts!

Been really busy this week, both at work and home.

My eldest has moved in for a period of time as yet to be determined, with her daughter (my granddaughter!), and my youngest daughter will be coming back from school on Monday evening. So - I guess the quiet time is definitely over - and we'd gotten so used to it

I did get a couple of layouts done this week as well...
both are very out of style for me, but each has a special meaning.

First is the Hodge Podge Challenge at Creative Victorian...The theme was for Autumn - featuring my favorite (and only) grandaughter, Clarissa!














Next was the Altered Art Challenge...wanting for an advertisement, past, present or future. Dan was the inspiration behind this layout ...

and lastly was the Sketch Challenge - which I also diverted from my norm for. I'd been playing around with a double page spread for a while for New York...mostly cuz of the 9-11 anniversary, and my mom. So here's what I came up with:














I've taken the day off work...and am getting ready to play Wii with my 4 year old granddaughter...and I thoroughly expect her to kick my butt! she's really good at Mario Cart Coin Runners! Maybe I oughtta scrap that!

Challenges Met...

It's been a bit since I posted something, so I have all kinds of stuff today.

First, is the entry for Creative Victorian's October Design Challenge. This was done using a fixed pallette...I kinda got carried away with this one...
It's HUGE!
You can click on the preview to see a larger picture, and here are the download links.....

*** Links Deactivated ***

I worked hard creating this kit - please respect that and don't repost ... Send your friends to my blog to download!
















I also did the Heritage Challenge over at Creative Victorian, and as a twist, used the kit above to develop the pages. The Heritage Challenge for the first half of October was Children's Toys, and always "Heritage" is defined as pre-1970. These pages capture a handful of moments between 1960 and 1965, and feature me, along with my younger sister and brother...

I'm not at all sure what they're going to say about this!!! And further - I'm not sure I really care!

Then there's the pages I did of my youngest daughter, Amy, for the Altered Art Challenge....















The challenge was "funny faces" and there ain't too many funnier than her! On one side are pictures from her Graduation Party, and on the other from the night of her prom...and both almost resemble the bulletin board in her room - which provided inspiration!

And lastly, is another altered art kind of layout - this one for the Color Challenge. We were given Blue and copper as our colors, and this is what I came up with.

Many many moon ago, in a place far away from Southwest Florida, Amy was the Good Fairy Princess in her kindergarten school play. She spent half the play on stage with a handfull of glitter, and at just the right moment tossed it all up in the air over everyone, casting her good spell and making all right again with the world! I made her costume, with some really cool sheer multicolored material... and grandma and grandpa came to see the play and present the Diva of the Day with Roses!!

That's all I've got today...
I'd appreciate any comments or luvins you may decide to leave...

New Challenges Answered...

I've got the day off...that's a dangerous thing 'cuz i have a bad habit of sitting and feeding my need for creativity...
And Netta, at Creative Victorian, has posted the next round of challenges...
so here's a few things's I've been doing....

A Tribue to

Josephine and Charles

My Grandparents

For as long as I can remember my family made the trip to Queens, New York, and spent a week or two visiting with Grandma Josie and Grandpa Charlie. And for as long as I can remember, as Grandpa read his paper and commented on events of the day, he and my mom would ... discuss ... the stories of the day - usually very energetically.

And they never did seem to agree on much of anything!

This was done to answer the Heritage Challenge at Creative Victorian Designs Forum.

Once Upon a Time...

A couple of years ago Mom and I were talking and decided that it would be a great for her and dad to spend their 50th Anniversary on a cruise ship with their family. One year and 5 million emails and phone calls later, 15 of us boarded the Carnival Cruise ship Glory. Mom, Dad, my sister and brother, their significant others and children, and my husband and I and our children all managed to find our way every day to the dining room for the 6:30 dinner seating - otherwise we all pretty much went whichever way we wanted.

This was my first cruise - and my husband Dan was very supportive of my having custom outfits made up for formal nights, and buying whole bunch of new clothes for both of us. This is a picture of us from in the Dining room on Formal Night.

The page in all white was done to answer a Hodge Podge Challenge at Creative Victorian, and the page with Dan and I is going in the book next to it!

Netta is getting me to start working on pages with only one picture on them...something I'm not used to doing - and i guess can work better than I thought.