Our First Mini Family Adventure

Well we are back from our little adventure at FantasyLand Hotel and West Edmonton Mall! Actually, we got back Saturday night late but was so tired yesterday that I didn’t get a chance to blog till now about it all. So are you ready to hear about day 2 with some pics?

First thing we did Saturday morning after checking out of the hotel and having breakfast was to wait in line for the Build-a-bear Workshop to open! The night before we had checked out their website and shown Ally the different kinds of animals they had that you could make so she could think about what she wanted. And if you know her you’ll know what she picked, a puppy! lol, one that looks like Grandma and Grandpa’s dog Jessie. So here’s the new addition to Ally’s stuffy collection, Jessie…

Next we went to the other end of the mall and lined up for photos with the Easter Bunny! I wasn’t sure how Ally would do since she refuses to go anywhere near Santa Clause, but she was great! She hugged him, tickled him, and gave him a kiss on the nose. So we got Ally’s first professional photos! But I can’t show you the photo right now, I haven’t scanned it yet lol.

After all that we went to the Sea Lion show at noon! Ally loved it! And after the show she got to have her picture taken with one of the Sea Lions kissing the top of her head, it was so cute! Here’s the photos from the show!

After the Sea Lion show we had some lunch, then did some shopping. Or at least, that’s what we tried to do. A couple of stores we wanted to go to, were nowhere to be seen. The children’s clothing stores were way over priced. The craft store that I tried to find scrapbooking supplies at had just a small sampling of many different things including scrapbooking, painting, sketching, photography, kids’ arts and crafts, and many more. Which means they had very little of each. So I still have no scrapbooking supplies to try some hybrid projects. I can’t find anything around here to help me get started! The main thing I want are some Mat Stacks by Diecuts With a View, and I can’t find any anywhere around here! Ugh! So anyways, the shopping part of our trip was a bust. We got a few things but nothing we had hoped to find.

But overall, it was a great trip! We wanted to see how Ally would handle staying in a hotel for this summer’s planned big trip (5 days travel, 10 days visit with family, then 5 days travel back home!), and she passed the test with flying colors! She was great! So now we know that we won’t have any trouble this summer, and she’s even more excited than before too. So I think we’ll be doing yearly trips to the different things around here, Calgary Zoo, the dinosaur museums etc around Drumheller, and more!

So now more than ever I want to try my hand at a mini album, something for my DD to remember our First Mini Family Adventure. I think I’ll try my hand at a CD album, first I need to see if I can drill a hole in the CDs using hubby’s Dremel tool without cracking the CD. Then I’ll get scrapping, I think I’ll be able to print the circle layouts on 5×7 photos at Walmart. Now I just need to pick a kit, lol. You’ve seen some of the photos, what kit(s) would you recommend for my First Mini Family Adventure mini album? It will include pages for… the hotel photos, Build-a-bear Workshop, Easter Bunny photos, Sea Lions show, and Sea Life Caverns photos.

*Frames used are by Nancy Comelab!

Layout Recipe #41 ~ Tricycle

This week’s layout was found while browsing through the gallery at the Sweet Shoppe, it’s by Denise2987 and is entitled Tricycle! I love the multiple photos, the added stars and that quote is perfect for this layout! I hope you love it as much as I do! Please feel free to click on the image and leave this talented scrapper some praise!

Ingredients List:

• Spin Your Wheels by Julie Billingsley
• Net from MVP by Dani Mogstad
• Stitches by Dani Mogstad
• Tag and staple from Casual Friday by Miss Mint at Peppermint Creative
• Bead Alpha by Dirty Feet Designs

What was your inspiration for the layout’s theme or design?

My inspiration for this LO was actually the awesome kit, Spin Your Wheels, by Julie Billingsley. I fell in love with it so the next day I took my ds out to get some pictures with his new bike. I was also very inspired by Davita’s LO, I loved her layering! I love grunge so I added some more stars and messy stitching and stuff to make it my own.

What special techniques/actions/effects did you use if any in creating the layout?

I didn’t really use any special techniques or action on the actual LO but I did some editing in PSE to the pictures including a curves adjustment and a defog, which is my fave. PSE trick (unsharp mask at 20/60/0 – it takes the “haze” of your pictures that you never even knew was there lol).

Thank you to my readers for checking out my blog today, I hope this layout has inspired you to mix and match some great products, and stretch your creativity! Please click on the layout above and leave this great scrapper some love!

Don’t forget that you can subscribe to my blog’s feed on any blog reader, this way you will never miss any of the information and inspiration brought to you on a weekly basis! And if you’d like to suggest a layout for me to showcase in my weekly Layout Recipes post, just fill out a contact form on the Contact Me page! You can suggest a layout of your own or someone else’s (I always get permission from the scrapper who created the actual layout before using it). Just make sure the layout uses 5+ different products! Thanks!