New Lo and SVG Freebie!

This is one of those layouts of mine that I just really like. I've been carrying a notebook around with me lately and it is quite the handy tool to use. In spare time I can write down my thoughts and ideas which is immensely helpful for a person like me. I get SO many ideas and actually remember so few of them. It's helping relieve some this weird anxiety that I get by being overwhelmed by the way my brain processes...not very organized. I run lists of chores and priorities through my head and worry about whether I will remember what I need to do, it creates paralysis on my part rather than action or solution. It's frustrating, but it feels good to be taking some action to avoid some of that. Anyway the whole point that I was trying to make is that I also have been drawing some sketches for layouts in said notebook and I made this lo from one of the sketches that I drew when I was bored and waiting for something.

Owen, Ella and Connor hang out together practically every day, this picture captures so well, the way they are. Owen turning his head, rebelling, doing his own thing, Connor, smiling and being pleasant and Ella poking her head in between them, not wanting to miss a thing. I made this lo using an older paper pack I have by Me and My Big Ideas. I cut the strips of paper by first cutting out a template and then tracing that on the pattern paper and then cutting it out. I used a fair bit of stitching on this lo, which also happened to be the theme at one of my favourite challenge blog s this month ( The Next Step)),stitching.

I used my cricut and my SCAL software to make the two cuts that I used on this page. You can download these two plus two additional (pictured above)l .svg files for free HERE . I hope you like them, I would love to hear any feedback from anyone who actually uses them.

I also wanted to note to my friends and family that I'm sorry about all of this "svg" and "cricut" nonsense, I know you don't really come to this blog for scrapbooking, but I get more people interested in the scrapbooking stuff so I figured that this would be a good way to get it all done in one shot . SO just ignore the parts you don't "get" and feel free to just check out the pictures.

Here are some recent pictures of our roof that got done this weekend and a few other bits and pieces.

Something to share

I just wanted to share this beautiful piece that I like by Marianne Williamson:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

This is so true if you really think about it. Are you letting your light shine?

Weather still crazy...CHECK

I had some great pictures that I had from Owen's friend's birthday party a couple of weeks ago so I decided to make a layout for her mom. I used a sketch from this month's Pagemaps. I also came up with a new idea while I was thinking about doing my page. I wanted to print the journaling and digital brushes right onto the cardstock but wasn't sure how to get everything lined up right. That's when I thought of opening the sketch in photoshop and adjusting the opacity so that I could line up my digital elements to the sketch. This is a perfect method for me as I don't have any technical knowledge of formatting and stuff. This is how I did it:

-i went onto the pagemaps page and saved the image of the sketch that i wanted to use
-i opened the sketch in photoshop along with a new 12 x 8 1/2 canvas.
-i changed the sketch opacity to about 30% so that i could see my canvas through it
- i dragged the sketch onto the blank canvas and then free transformed it so that it was the same size as the canvas, just make sure the bottom part is lined up.
-then i made a new layer and just picked the appropriate brushes that i wanted and lined them up in the same spot as the translucent sketch. I did the same thing for the journaling. Once everything was all lined up, i deleted the sketch layer and flattened.
-cut white cardstock to 8 1/2" X 12" and printed.

For the butterflies, I cut them using my Cricut and the SCAL s/w.

You can download the .svg files that I used to cut the butterflies as well as a frame that I made HERE

It’s getting old. Mother Nature> I’m talking to you

Here in Ottawa, every day feels like we're being punished by a schizophrenic Mother Nature, and I think it's putting me right off. It's a peaceful, sunny albeit cool, summer day one moment, then the next moment torrential winds are upon us. The skies darken and we wonder out loud, back and forth, "Jeez, it looks like it's coming this time", "Nah this one will pass", "No, no this is going to be the big one!", "Oh...there it is", "Quick, put the chairs in the garage" "Oh wait never mind, there's the sun again, take the chairs back out". GRRR! This weird, cold/rainy weather has been going on for quite a while now it seems, and I think it's driving me a low level crazy. I myself have been up and down like a toilet seat mood-wise today. It REALLY doesn't help that my entire yard is a grassless mud wasteland and my driveway is filled with two dump loads of partially weathered away top soil loads(the weathering due in part to our big lazy lab barney burrowing perfectly moulded lounging coves for himself, in part to our children living in in for the past week, and in part to the non-stop rain). A bi-product of the topsoil in the laneway is the line of ugly vehicles that we have parked all down our street, I know the neighbours are loving us. The BEST and by best I mean the most heinously heinous part is the fact that I am living in full on heinously muddy conditions, next level mud. You let the mud dry, then you sweep and then the mud is airborne. Somedays I can sit back and almost see the humour in it. Not today. Today I have been on the brink of madness. That's it for now. Just wanted to vent.

Moved to tears by this video

...one of my faves by Michael Jackson, Man in the Mirror, performed by Sieddah Garrett. She performed with the Agape International Choir, who are part of the Agape International Spiritual Center. I actually bawled as I watched this video, starting from the moment when this woman, who wrote the song "Man in the Mirror", movingly described her experience since Michael Jackson's death. Her stance that she has taken regarding the media looking for dirt, is inspiring and noble.

The words to this song have touched me since I was a young child. The meaning has cleared up quite a bit over the years as I have matured into a woman and into a mother. Even more recently, I have realized even deeper meaning to this concept. It resonates so much more integrally in my life now. I used to think that you had to think really "big" to make a big difference. Since I have learned through both observation and experience that this is simply not true. All around us there are opportunities to bring about change on every scale. We just have to start thinking differently, embracing change and difference, believing that it is possible.
We tend to sit too passively in our own lives, thinking up more excuses than solutions or actions. Let's all try to reach out and grab for what we want!

I highly recommend checking out the video below. You might want to grab a few kleenex first though.

New Layout and another FREEBIE

These are screen shots of the cut files that I am giving away. You can download this whole kit HERE .Please read the terms of use. You will need the Sure Cuts A Lot software for your cricut to be able to use these.

Here's the layout that I made using these cuts. It is a picture I took the other day when we were down fishing at the boat launch across the street from our house. We try to get down there often in the summer. It is amazing to sit there with my family and watch the sunset. I LOVE where we live!!! I actually made this layout to participate in The Next Step's theme this month of stitching. I stitched around the sun and it's beams, around the picture on the weeds, over the heart embellishment and at the top . Additionally, I tried to do one of Lucy's techniques that involves stitching, I decided it was for another time and tore it all out. I like the look of all the holes there so I made some more to add texture. You can see in the close ups. Also for the title, I added some glossy accents to make it stand out more.

Close-ups:

That's it for now. Just wanted to share the freebie, I will post a little later some recent pictures and stuff.

 

TFL!!!

SCAL .SVG FREEBIE and some pics

Download the .svg files that I created for this layout: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=faf7f70c8d355212312dbd5f2bdc5062e04e75f6e8ebb871 These files are for personal use only. Please read the terms of use for details. Below is are screen shots of the included files. Enjoy, and please share what you come up with.

If you have a Cricut and are interested in the software to cut any true type font and .svg files, save yourself LOADS of $$$$ and think about investing in Sure Cuts A Lot, it is less than Cricut's design studio, and it is way more versatile. Find out more HERE.

We went fishing down at the boat launch last night. It was a beautiful evening and we watched the sunset. The water was still and so peaceful. The kids even acted a little more serene than usual. We are so lucky because this is just across the street from us. It takes like 40 seconds to get there. We saw a bunch of water snakes as the evening wore on. They were hunting for their dinner so they were all over the place. They are HUGE. I was really surprised to see how big they are. When they are in the water they don't look that big, but then you see them on land and yikes!

Daddy caught an aggressive little pike that got himself hooked on all three hooks of David's lure.

Popsicles of course.

Here's my lo that I finished the other day, my first using the cricut. I think this is going to prove to be a great investment.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

I am a Cricut owner and I like it!!!

Yipee!!!! I finally got myself a cricut. For those of you that don't know, it is a digital die cutting machine that cuts out letters and shapes for scrapbooking, I hooked myself up with the Sure Cuts a Lot software so now rather than buy expensive cartridges, I can cut any true type fonts and any .svg files on it. I have been playing around and OMG this is going to completely change the way I scrapbook. Not only that, but I have figured out how to make my own .svg files using Photoshop to do the designs and then using Inkscape to change the format to .svg. What this means is that anything that I can think of, I can make my machine cut for me. I will be posting projects and probably some .svg freebies in the near future.

I have loads of pictures to share from the past couple of weeks, but it is always such a daunting task to get them posted. I do my blog posts from Word and I haven't figured out a simple way to add pictures right in word. I can't figure it out and it drives me nuts. Anyone know how????

Here is a peek at a page that I am working on right now, it's not done, but I wanted to show what I have done with the cricut:

The awesome thing about the software that I got is that I can weld the letters together as in below, which is kind of a fun way to do titles:

This past weekend was Harbour Days here in Fitzroy Harbour. It's kind of a big deal out here. We went out on the Saturday for the Fireman's breakfast, it was a great turnout.

Auntie Andrea, Lauren and Mallory even joined us for the day which was great. I got this not so good picture of David and Mallory, because David went and snatched Mallory from her mom and brought her back to us in line. I thought it was both strange and cute, definitely out of character for Mr. Peever.

After breakfast, we went out for the parade. The kids got to go in the float this year. These are the dudes that designed and made the float, it was a Jurassic Park theme:

The parade taking off. The firetruck leads the way, then the float and then all the bikers.

The kids on the float:

There was a petting zoo:

This goat took a liking to David, not really, just the food in his hands. He was definitely on to the next sucker like literally the second he got all of the food into his mouth

Ray's reptiles were there, can't remember the type of snake this is, I think it was a reticulating something or other.

This snake felt amazing. He was pretty hungry though and he kept looking at me in a way that made me feel a little more than uncomfortable. This guy in the picture, who I'm going to go ahead and assume is "Ray" was a really nice guy, just don't ask him any questions that might make him feel defensive of the animals...ie. "Do you have to wash your hands after handling the snake?" It would seem that he gets a bit sensitive about this type of question. He was quick to inform that dogs are much dirtier and that you only need to wash your hands cuz of all the dirty kid germs that are on the snake. He also begrudgingly asked his assistant to get out the hand sanitizer cuz "people think the snake is full of bacteria". I personally asked him only because I was curious. He warmed up to me a lot after I asked him where the poo comes out. He said "that's usually a boy question", then he smiled and we were friends. Which was good, because he was getting pretty sulky. I then proceeded to ask questions about the sexual organs and I think he was ready to marry me. Just kidding.

Scorpion. I would actually die if I encountered one of these in the wild. Imagine this heinous beast crawling over your chest or something like that. Heart attack. Boom. Dead. Just like that.

Owen was enthralled with the darty tongue.

Mallory is crazy for freezies. Andrea let her have a lick and then she just went bananas. She started making these crazy guttural grunts, and kind of convulsing.

David felt no choice but to give her more, she was scary

not too impressed when she was told no more.

That night we got a sitter and went to the Harbour days dance. Carla came over to be my date, besides David. I did Carla's makeup and hair and then I insisted that we do a "photoshoot" She looked SO pretty:

A fun night was had by all, lots of dancing and drinking.

Couple of scrapbooking things to share:

Mini album I made for my mom, I never see her though, so it's just sitting around (yes mom, this is a not so subtle message to you)

David chillin with owen

solid

Here were some spy pics I took of Ella in her room a couple of weeks ago taking a "nap"

Well, that's it for right now. I will post some more cricut stuff soon.