Finding Sweetness

I'm sure most of us at one time or another in our parental career have had that horrible experience of a lost child. Even if it's just for a few minutes it's heart-wrenching isn't it? We had one of those moments a few months ago and the terror of it still haunts me when I look at this photo which was taken soon after.

We were at an outdoor wedding, on the grounds of a beautiful farm. The Man was doing his usual sound engineering stuff and so we were seperate for most of the event, but the kids wandered back and forth between us. We all gathered around for the speeches, and Munchy went down the front so she could see better. I caught The Man's eye at one point and we communicated in gestures and 'sign language'. "Have you got Moodles?" I ask, realising I hadn't seen her in a while. "No, haven't you?" he answered.

Oh no! That aweful second when you realise she's nowhere to be seen. And the following second when you realise that there's at least two lakes she can easily access, not to mention the highway out the front. And the crowd of people who could help you search are in the middle of celebratory speeches that you would really prefer not to interupt.

 The four or five people in our immediate vicinity who realised what was going on quickly helped us silently search. It probably only took about 5 minutes for someone to locate her, but oh-my-goodness they were scary minutes! She was crying hysterically, alone in the carpark. And when she was brought to me I snatched her up and she held me soooo tight.

Later on we all consolled ourselves with fabulous desserts, and that's when I snapped this picture. It's a good reminder to me about appreciating how precious my kids are. Not as though I didn't know it beforehand, but the scare of losing them was almost too much to bear. The realisation of savouring every moment, and finding the sweetness in everything is what this layout is all about.


Flourish With a Bling Pearls:

FWAB Adhesive Pearls: Blue	FWAB Adhesive Pearls: Purple	FWAB Adhesive Pearls: Olive Green	FWAB Adhesive Pearls: Pink
FWAB Adhesive Pearls: Teal	FWAB Adhesive Pearls: Mango

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A Touch of Neon

This post first appeared on the Scrap Friends blog. All the supplies for this page can be found in the Scrap Friends store (all the links are at the bottom) But now it's time to share it here too :-)

As you might be aware by now, I'm really making an effort this year to include more memorabilia onto my scrapbook pages. And my most favourite thing to include is my own children's artwork.

My eldest daughter is 5, and like most children she likes drawing with bright colours and bold designs and they're usually done on A4 pieces of paper. These types of drawings can sometimes be a little bit challenging at first when you think about how you're going to go about mixing them into a more traditional layout.



In this video I'll share with you some tips on how to do this as I make this layout before your eyes :-) Can you believe it not only includes 3 whole A4 drawings, but 3 photos as well?!

• Use plenty of neutral colours in your layout to balance the bright colours in your children's drawing.
• On the other hand, include some neon highlights to draw the eye back to the bright drawings.
• You only have to show off your favourite snippets of the whole drawing, whilst folding the rest of the piece away behind itself.

• Painting over the top of your children's drawing with gesso will give you a good grounding to stamp over the top whilst not losing the design itself.
• If you "frame" the drawings you can imagine they're just like photos when you're planning your layout design.
• Carry the theme of handmade art into your products choices by using pieces from the Sketchbook collection by Amy Tangerine for example.

Hope that helps you with some ideas on how you include more "art" into your scrapbooking?

Supplies:

Bo Bunny Et Cetera Ledger	Studio Calico Take Note Cubicle	Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Garmine Collage	Websters Pages Alpha Stickers Ladies & Gents
Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Remarks Palette	Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Clear Stamps	Heidi Swapp Sugar Chic Buzz Words	Heidi Swapp Vintage Instaframes
Cosmo Cricket Tiny Text Art Stickers	Candi Dotty Wedding Silver	Evalicious Vintage Labels Buttons	Jenni Bowlin Magpie Hodge Podge Stickers
Heidi Swapp Day Glo Neon Washi Tapes	American Crafts Magenta Chevron Ribbon	Gesso

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Girls Day Out

Munchy calls it the "cimeta" (instead of 'cinema') and she's regularly asking if she can go to one. It's her new favourite special treat. And when she specifically asked one week if I could take her to the cimeta for a mummy and daughter day, it was difficult to refuse.

I took a few Instagram photos of the special day of course. And this little collection was immediately what I thought of scrapping when I saw the new fabulous sketch challenge at Scrap Friends. Probably because the sketch itself includes a film-role embellishement I'd say.

Given that it was Munchy's idea for the girl-date she also got full control of movie choice. I was kinda hoping she would chose The Muppets, or Toy Story 3 (which were also on at the same time) but The Chipmunks is what we went to see.

I saved our ticket stubs which both got included on this layout too. Adds in a nice bit of the same teal colour that was in all the Heidi Swapp embellishments I used.

I had to laugh when The Man commented on how this layout was outside of my normal style. He said "it's so much more..... whiter than normal". And here I was thinking proudly of my ability to leave more negative space whilst also trying out a funky different colour scheme! Sometimes it might just be better to stick with what you know best.

Oh yeah, so I promptly added some stencilled stars, paint splatters, scattered Candi dots, messy stitching and more of my "normal" style. Heee hee!

And speaking of fabulous embellishments ;-) check out the prize we're offering for the Random winner of the Sketch Challenge! Not to mention that the 3 entrants with the highest votes also get to come back as Guest Designers. WOoo hoo! Check out all the details over on the Scrap Friends blog.

Supplies:

Teresa Collins Everyday Moments Calendar	Teresa Collins Everyday Moments diecut sheet 3	Websters Pages Alpha Stickers Ladies & Gents	Crate Paper Paper Heart Delicate
Heidi Swapp Photo Captions	Heidi Swapp Vintage Instaframes	Heidi Swapp Sugar Chic Buzz Words	Jenni Bowlin Vintage Printed Tags
Crate Paper Paper Heart Phrase Stickers	Crate Paper Paper Heart Border Stickers	Evalicious Vintage Labels Buttons	Candi Dotty Wedding Silver
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Dusty Concord	Glimmermist Starfish

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