Missing - but busy!

There are not enough hours in the day at the moment.  Can't really complain as I have been having so much fun with my photography and a little crafting when I can find the time.

I've done two newborn baby shoots - two cousins!  A styled sweet shoot for a sweet company that I had so much fun setting out and photographing for my own fun only - but my friend had a mission to get accomplished and she would have been finished early but for me putting my ideas out there and we ended up doing a few different looks - but here is a sneak peek of one of them.

 The kids just could not believe all these sweets were in our house and it was such fun playing with the layout and tweaking the designs.  If only life could be this sweet everyday!  Lots of leftovers to keep kids happy after too!

Below is a special card, for a special friend who had a Birthday just after mine.  This card started off slowly and took me time to finish, but I was happy with the end result.  Lovely papers from Handmade Hannah's shop, which came from one of her famous "Grab Boxes" that we hope she will start doing again!

This precious princess was a charm to photograph and this shot was just a good catch as she was not happy or comfortable in the sling, but I managed to get this shot of her looking happy and smiling!  She is only 12 days old, and 7lb in weight, so really no chance of her smiling yet!  Just good wind!

On to two LO's that I made recently - These have been waiting for me to get some time to photograph them - and I finally got a moment to sort thru my memory cards and get these up here.

 This LO is a collection of really good photos I took of Lea at The Botanic Gardens one Sunday morning.  I these were the start of the session and she started off really grumpy and then relaxed into the shoot, the other photos will be scrapbooked and maybe even a canvas as there are some stunning ones of her.

On the same day I was trying to get a photo of my teenager, I have so few shots of her because she runs when I get my camera out, and it was starting to worry me that she will look back in a few years and think that she was nowhere to be seen during those years.  So, I had to think of a way to get her to allow me photograph her and money ended up being the method - I offered her a nominal sitting fee if she allowed me photograph her and a bonus if she listened to me and the shots were good!  BINGO! It worked!  I got what I wanted and she got the money off me!  Wonderful negotiations!

All the makings of the LO above came from the July kit from Handmade Hannah Scrap shop!  I highly suggest you pay her a visit - her paper choices are just fab and the kits are amazing!  There is still more of the kit left, and I've made loads with it!  Right back to editing....

Night all!  Michelle

Papertrey Ink Obsession!

My name is Michelle La Grue and I think I have an obsession that I need treatment for!  I cannot stay away from The Papertrey Ink site!  Currently I have over $150 of dies and stamps and stunning ink pads in my cart, but not sure if I can press the send button as my crafty spend is kinda huge at the moment!

Recently I had to make a Wedding Acceptance card and a With Sympathy card.  For the first card I used my my new Papertrey Ink dies and stamps.  I think there are 6 Papertrey Ink items on this one card!  (Scallop Die, Small Scallop Circle Die, Butterfly Die, Edge Die, Banner Die and sentiment stamp)

This second card is one for a really good old family friend who recently died, he was such a fab man and always been a very good friend to our family.  Last year he send me a gift of money out of the blue, and this enabled me to buy my new 24 - 70mm f/2.8L Canon lens - so everytime I pick up my camera I think of him!

The funny thing about this card is that the twill ribbon came from the wrapping on a throw I bought for the couch!  The beads came from ends of Christmas Crackers a few years ago and I have been using them every since.

This last item was a gift to my aunt who visited recently.  She has 3 stunning grandchildren who she is so proud of so this was a fun little gift for her.  I made some frames to go around the sentiments (old Rusty Pickle paper) and embellished with the TH die flowers.  The whole item got a coat of paint to bring it together.

So thats it for today - I have 2 LO's waiting to be photographed, 2 cards on my desk for finishing!

Finally I wanted to share a photo that I took at a new baby shoot that I did last week.  Meet baby S!  He was 8 days old when I met him and he really made my hormones (whats left of them!) jump around a little...

First cut is the deepest!

Not too sure if this happens to anyone else - but when I get a new kit, or new papers I have to sit with them and look at them an stroke them and examine them deeply before I can get a scissors or trimmer to them.  I may be a little mad, but thats what I am and am happy to admit it!

Hannah sent me her July kit to play with, it came beautifully wrapped, covered it tissue paper with a lovely handmade (embellishment removed and already recycled to another project!! LOL).  The kit contains mainly Glitz Papers, and journalling spots, which are lovely sturdy card, with fab lime green, teal (yum!) and pink demask.  Really lovely Prima canvas style flowers, some small pearls, bakers twine (fab colour!) Some Jenni Bowlin stickers, alpha and number (always handy!), resin flowers (so nice I hate using them up).  There are some kraft printed doilies, and loads of card stock (a must have) and a set of cream Thickers.

Being the fair mum I try to be, I make an effort to scrap photos of the kids, making sure that everyone gets a layout and keeping the numbers even (believe me, my teen does comment - although I am not allowed to photograph her and the last time I had to pay her to allow me take her photo).

Recently I bought a Martha Steward small scalloped circle punch from Hannah, and made really good use of it on the LO.  I cut a circle using a side plate, distressed the edges and inked it up.  Used Glossy Accents to stick the bakers twine on the outside then added some stitches with some of my own black floss.  I used the flowers in the kit as a starting point and then added some hand rolled roses, some crumpled Tim Holtz Tattered Floras flowers and some resin ones too.  I embellished them with the pearls.

The bunting is from the circle punch, inked, folded and those eagled eyed will see I used I's instead of 1's for the 2011 as there was not enough!

This card is made using my fav paper from the kit - the pink demask one.  I used some scrap pink card for the matting, I cut the doily in two and added some Distressed stickles to it.  Made the felt flowers from some spare pink felt and added twine and pearls from the kit.  I love it!  The butterfly is from Papertry Ink (swoon swoon swoon I am so in love with their products! - could just empty my credit card limit to them and still want more!)

This next card is from more scraps left over from making the layout....   Using the lime green dots, I punched 3 hearts using Fiskars heart squeeze punch, and added a strip of teal Glitz PP to the back.  Embelissed with some pearls.  Then I cut 4 small strips of the pink demask paper and used a border punch on them.  Then I spritzed them with water and ruffled them and stuck them on the underside of the hearts strip.  I sewed it all in place and stamped a Papertry Ink sentiment to the card.  Used one of the last resin flowers from the kit (2 left! Eeek!) and finally a tiny bit of twine again.  Two lovely cards that I would be happy to give to anyone!

I've cut well into the kit but there is more left for another 2 LO's and they may appear later this week or after the weekend if I find time.  Loving this kit, it can be inky and distressed or bright and happy, what ever your mood may be!

Catching up....

I realised that there are a few things that I have not yet shared, LO's and cards and other stuff and rather than put them all in one post, I will put a few up over the next few days.  

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 This LO is from the Handmade Hannah's Crafts kit, her first kit that I just adored as it had lovely Crate Paper Emma Collection in it.  I have had this photo of my daughter Shannon in my stash for ages, I knew what I wanted to do with it and never found the right LO, so when I saw the carsdstock in the kit I jumped to scrap this picture.  I have not written in the blank section yet, but will do it when I file it away in her scrap books.

 I used the Prima packaging for the matting layer for the photo!  Hate throwing things like that away when you can reuse them.  Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

Recently I bought a large amount of Melissa Frances paper, and chipboard.  The first thing I made was featured on the Melissa Frances Blog, and the second thing I made is this LO.  The paper is really ornate, very busy and if I had a second page I would have cut the bunting out and decoupaged it, but sadly there was only 1 sheet in the set.  The LO is really simple due to the paper, so I cut it down, matted it on cardstock and used the photo as the main focus.  I chose this photo as this was one I took on the day that my daughter Lea came out of  hospital after having her Nasal Gastric Feeding Tube removed and a Stomach Peg feeding system installed.  This is the first photo of her without tapes and tubes on her face and it means a lot to us.  

The poem on the side seemed fitting for the day and the memories surrounding this photo!

So many nice things have been happening to me recently, seems good karma surrounds and when things are going well I am so appreciative of it.  Last week I was asked if I might help out with some design work, and I am delighted to announce that I will be designing for Handmade Hannah's Crafts.  Such an easy job for me, as I love her kits, love the stuff she buys and getting to use great stash is such a fab job!  Actually, feel kinda guilty as it's such a lovely job to have!  So Thank You Hannah for asking me and for making my day & week & month!

Happy 4th of July!

This time last year we were celebrating with a big family BBQ in Boston.  Celebrations are very common for this time of the year in America, but for our family it was special as we are spaced so far apart lots in Dublin, some in Florida, some in North Carolina and only a few in Boston.  Timed to perfection, we had been in Florida for a holiday and travelled to Boston to see family.  My cousin drove to Boston from North Carolina (long drive!!!) with her 3 kids, 2 girls and a new baby boy.  Local family were given notice to be available for this party and we all pulled together and had a great day at my cousin Bronwyn's home.

I am an only child, and when I grew up my two cousins Bronwyn and Deirdre were around my age and they lived in Boston.  We spent a lot of time together as my mum  was raising me on her own, and she worked for Aer Lingus and her sister lived in Boston and also worked for Aer Lingus so it was easy for them to put us on a plane and sent us to Boston and Dublin during summer holidays.  I have the most amazing memories of snowy winters  playing in the drifts and sliding down the small hills in the Apple orchards, and hot winters trying not to get sunburned (blonde hair and white, white skin!), swimming for hours and hours every day and catching cat fish in the pond in the apple orchard.

Anyway, to catch up with my cousins, was great a but what I enjoyed most was staying with my aunt Imelda and getting to spend time with her.  OMG what a lovely time we had, my kids tried hard to trash her house and I was on constant alert to keep our bits and pieces to a minimum, but however hard I tried the two small girls did what they wanted and amused themselves throwing her yoga ball down the stairs and running laps of her house, up one set of stairs, through all the bedrooms and down another set of stairs!  Imelda walked our legs off, showing us around Harvard where she works, we fell in love with the area and the houses, the lovely quaint village athmosphere and Harvard Yard!

So today - on this 4th of July, 1 year later, I think fondly of that day, the family, the lovely weather, the kids running and playing, the lost shoes!!!  What fun it was and a new memory firmly embedded in the section of the brain saved for special happy days!

Happy 4th July!