***GIVEAWAY***

I am feeling grateful this week. 

 Soon to be surrounded by my small family and lots of good friends.  

I wanted to share this Christmas mini album with one lucky winner.

All you have to do is make a comment here.

You can also improve your chances by:

* Following me on Instagram

*Tag friends on Instagram

*Repost on Instagram

*Make a purchase through my ETSY store for 5 additional chances.

You can do them all if you would like to earn that many more opportunities!

I will randomly choose a name December 3rd.

Good Luck!

Family

It is my turn to post over at eclectic Paperie today and this is what I shared.....

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving last year, my mom, my sister and I were together.  It wasn't until last minute, when the sun had already gone down that we decide to capture a picture.  With the wrong lens (cause the right one was 4 hrs way!) I had my friend snap a few.  Even dark and dimly lit, you can tell that we were happy to be together.  I thank God daily for blessing me with two of my best friends.  

I created this layout with the amazingly beautiful Botanical Tea by Graphic 45.  You can probably tell by now, that something like Graphic 45 most often intimidates me.  This line, however, has got to be the best they have ever made.  It is stunning.  You have to see it to believe it.  Of course it is for sale in the shop!!

You can see here where I added a little gelato with water to create a small pink watercolor effect.  I also colored my Maya Road Butterfly with green gelato and water.  The stamps that you cut from the paper, are just delicious, back with foam tape for embellishment.

I added a few leftover Fancy Pants Resin Flowers and metal trinkets from Farmhouse Paper Company that I had in my stash.  A few drops of paint and my layout was complete.  

Thanks for looking.

Mary-Ann

Our family camping trip - 2013

When I was a kid, we went camping every summer.  Was it fun then?  I don't remember it being a bowl full of laughs but I remember lots of things about it.  Like the one time we saw a bear.  I stopped going when I grew up, went to college, moved away and had other fun things to do!  Since we have planted roots so close to home, we started going back with my family for two years now.  Is it fun now?  Not so much for me or so I pretend:o)  But the fun thing about it is spending time with family that I don't see often.  My husband and son love it and it makes them happy.  So, I guess I do like it but won't completely admit it.  We did see a bear our first year back but not last year.  I hate camp cooking.  Camp cleaning.  Sleeping where bears can get me.  Hiking through the woods where bears can eat me.  Packing up in the rain.  

So, I thought I would create this mini using a Farmhouse Paper Company mini album and Jillibean Soup paper collection called Cold Avocado Soup!  The colors in this collection were just perfect for my outdoor excursion.  I threw is a tad of twine, tags and enamel dots.  

Thanks for going along on my adventure.  Its almost time to submit reservations again for this year!

Mary-Ann

Thankful

There are so many reasons to be thankful.  I just wanted to focus on the "food" in this layout.  To give you a run-down, my favorite part of any holiday meal is the Pinapple Orange Salad.  It is my step-grandmother's (Avis) recipe.  Before she passed, she gave me the crystal dish that she used to serve it in.  To this day, for every holiday, I make this salad and only use this dish.  

Something else you may not know about me, or maybe you do, I am a dish horder.  See the red depression dishes in the picture, they come from a lady down the street that was trashing them.  Trashing them!!!  The beautiful blue dish holding the smashed taters, that comes from Spain.  So peeps, I am thankful for food, dishes, a house to hoard it all in, a husband who doesn't care, family, friends and a hobby that allows me to express my graditude any way I want!

What are you thankful for?  Be sure to scrap about it!  

Mary-Ann

Flair used in this layout:  

December 2013 Kraft Flair

Woodgrain 3

Splendor Fall Event

Welcome to the Fall Splendor Blog Hop with PaperHaus! We are celebrating the release of the new FALL edition of PaperHaus Magazine but also celebrating the 1 year anniversary of PaperHaus Magazine! We are excited to be part of this amazing celebration! Click below to check out the latest edition of this amazing magazine!  The Fall Splendor event is filled with inspiration from PaperHaus and the eclectic Paperie team so make sure you click through each blog for inspiration! Enjoy the hop and remember that the Fall Splendor Blog Hop runs from September 1st to the 15th so plenty of time to be inspired!

http://issuu.com/thepaperhaus/docs/paperhaus_fall_issue_5_2013r

During the fall, my house consists of many conversations regarding weekend hunting.  My boys are always trying to find time to fit it in.  It's not top on my list of things to do, but, I do love the captured photos of my boys doing something they love together.  

I started with the 6x6 Basic Grey Hipster paper pad and one sheet of Bazzill cardstock.  I wanted a strip of long paper at the bottom of my layout so I pieced two strips of paper together and added another to create an obvious seam.  I chose papers from this non-fall collection that actually went with my fall theme and started layering papers under my photos.  I hand cut leaves, sewed them together with my machine.  I decided that my white space needed color and I remember seeing a technique on pinterest about making your own water colors.  In a vintage metal jello dish, I added one squirt of spray ink and a touch of water, dug out my Tim Holtz Splatters layering stencil and added until I was content!

 I practiced on scrap first since my layout was pretty near complete.  This allowed me to see that the color was too wet and strong at first.  After wiping on paper a few times, it became the color that I was looking for.  I continued this process with three different colors.  Then, I colored my wood veneers from Studio Calico and Basic Grey with the same brown watercolor that I had already made.  Added a few Studio Calico sequins attached with Glue Dots, and tucked in metal FarmHouse Paper Company feather trinkets, a couple appropriate flair from A Flair for Buttons and I was done.  Or so I thought.  It needed more stitching.  Did you know that you can sew through veneer with a really sharp needle?  IT MUST BE SHARP and take it slow!

Thanks so much for stopping in.

Mary-Ann

Below are the products you can purchase at Eclectic Paperie:

Basic Grey - Hipster 6x6" Paper Pad	Basic Grey - Hipster - Wood Veneer Die Cuts	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Splatters	Dylusions Ink Spray - Squeezed Orange	Dylusions Ink Spray - Lemon Zest
Dylusions Ink Sprays - Melted Chocolate	Maya Road - Mini Wooden Clothes Pins	Scotch Foam Mounting Tape	Mono Adhesive Tape Runner - Permanent	Glue Dots� Memory Book Ultra Thin Clear 3/8" 252 pc Sheet
Inkssentials� Wonder Tape 1/8"

READ

I have always believed that reading to my boy is very important.    Since Roman was young, we would cuddle in his bed, he would twirl my hair and I would read.  Now that he is 8, he is reading to me.  I must admit that I miss the hair twirling!  Reading is definitely his strengthYou would know that if you were ever in our house during math homework!  Except this summer, time has snuck by, summer reading homework is not complete, and getting him to read in our time crunch is like pulling teeth.  So, on a long trip to the grandparents in Maine last weekend, we rented a couple audio books from the local library and voila, the problem is solved!  He was bored in the car, so listening and flipping pages filled the time gap! (You know if you have ever had an 8 yr old, this was still a struggle.)

For this layout, I knew which photo I wanted and needed a background color to anchor my "302" 6x6 papers from Farmhouse Paper Company.  I layered my papers, metals, tags, stickers, chipboards until I developed a collage that I liked.  Once my papers were glued down, I decided to add scattered stars using the Stars layering Stencil by Tim Holtz.  This stencil allowed me to place different size stars exactly where I wanted them.  I threw on some yellow punched stars (Studio Calico) I had on hand and some sequins (Michael's).  I stapled the sequins, to help bring in more metal for balance.  They were attached with Tim's Tiny Attacher and a long reach stapler from Staples.  I added stitching, foam tape behind items that needed dimension and a title cut from my Silhouette.  

Thank you for taking a peek at my layout.  Hope you are inspired to fill some more pages of your albums!

Mary-Ann
For Farmhouse Paper Company's"302" items shop HERE!

All other items used are from Eclectic Paperie:  

Farmhouse Paper Company - 302 6x6 Paper Pad	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Stars	Idea-ology - Tim Holtz - Remant Rubs - Numbers	Archival Ink - Jet Black Jumbo Ink Pad	Distress Ink Pad - Weathered Wood
Ranger Felt Applicator Tool	Idea-ology Tiny Attacher	Idea-ology Tiny Attacher Refills	Scotch Foam Mounting Tape	Mono Adhesive Tape Runner - Permanent
Beacon - Zip Dry