The Story of Leah

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The journaling reads: "The story of Leah who came all the way

from China to live in this strange new world.  She had to put up with food
that she had never tasted before; words coming out of people's mouths
that she did not know. and visits to doctors who pricked her arm,
poked at her tummy and bound her feet and legs in plaster
making it difficult to get around. It would be years before she'd

understand this was all done for love for this sweet little girl so she
could walk tall and free.

Our granddaughter is having non surgical treatments for her club feet.

Her legs are in casts that have to be changed each week.

This first week she appears to be doing fine.

Another paper from my upcoming kit. The the frame with stitching isn't included.

The free stitches were made by GUNHILD STOREIDE

and found on her website: Gunhild Storeide

Leah so cute

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More papers for my next give away kit. The frame and recolored curly ribbons are not included.

They are free graphics made by the talented Gunhild Storeide

and found on her website: Gunhild Storeide

The frame is found on page 19, and the ribbon (Gingham Bows) are on page 2

Leah's Second Birthday

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Using my daughter and granddaughter to show one of the papers I've been working on. 

These past few years I've been getting all girlie and pretty! I used to love grunge and gritty.

Oh, the flowers in the paper are from a photo I took outside a McDonald's in Hazleton Pa.

"Dylan slept here" Chelsea in the 1950's

This paper and ribbon is offered as a freebie along with some other jeweled toned papers. Arty Chelsea in in the 50's was my inspiration.

Dylan Thomas slept here

London's Chelsea was once the place of writers and artists and a bit of Bohemia. My sister, Marie and her husband fit well as they made their home here before they moved to Rio de Janeiro in the fifties. Marie told me a story of the time she woke up one morning after Bill, her husband, had left for work and discovered one of his drinking buddies asleep on the couch. When he got up he wanted to make conversation, but being pretty upset with Bill, she made him leave. A few days later he arrived at her doorstep with a bunch of flowers that looked like they'd been picked from someone's garden, and they were tied with a shoelace. She said if she's known he was the famed poet, she'd have kept the lace, I told her I would have kept the couch and labeled it "Dylan slept here"


Sorry, the Digital Paper Freebies are no longer available. 
~~ chris

Sunday afternoon in Hyde Park

The paper from my paper pack giveaway below.
Tags are from KPertiet at Designer Digitals
Couldn't resist lifting PeppermintG's page at

PeppermintG 

Springtime Hyde Park

FREE PAPER PACK
I finally finished my first freebie. It's amazing how fiddly it is trying to get the final papers done. I have another 100 or so papers on my desktop all waiting to be processed.
When doing papers for my own pages it was simple and didn't matter if there were imperfections or didn't have the perfect texture, because I could fix as needed. Giving them to other people though - even if it's only a couple of folks, I had to make sure the design was centered and correct, the texture was subtle and not like a rocky beach when viewed at full view, the overlap was trimmed etc, etc.
I have to admit these are a little safe and sedate and not the wild grunge I usually like, but at least it's a start. Now to find out how to zip, name and upload to the proper place. Advice is invited.

Well duh!! After searching the web,and even asking on twitter where to get a zip program on my Mac (I used to have one on Windows) A kindly gentleman told me it w as already on my mac but called the archive!


Sorry, the Digital Paper Freebies are no longer available. 
~~ chris

Dance little lady

Ally's dance lesson.
The background paper and dancing dolls are by chris (me), the clipping mask is from Annna Aspnes kit : 12X12PageHPFotoBlendz2_.

There's this British paper cutting artist that does wonderful paper sculptures coming out of books. Seeing them was an inspiration for doing my - more stylized paper dolls.

Su Blackwell: http://sublackwell.blogspot.com/

George

My brother George.

I saw a movie-star grid like this on the net so made one for my brother's photos.
I need to give credit for the texture background - will hunt it down.

Life on Silver Lake

We sit and watch nature do its thing as people play in their party boats
and the camp children maneuver their bright blue kayaks out of the way.
The occasional seaplane disrupts the quiet as it positions itself to span the breadth of the lake.
We watch an eagle scoop its supper with a single plunge as the camera gets ready to open its eye. . . .not soon enough.
The ducks also sense the click and so dance a little ditty as they scamper on their way.
Yes we watch while the heron. . . .or is that a crane? sweeps down to find a spot amongst the reeds.
We sit, we wait, and we watch. . . .


I've used my words about our visits to Silver Lake before, also the photo but Anna Aspnes Fun Play kit brought them together in a different way.

Joey skateboard

Meeting Santa

Meeting up with my daughter and two of her children and her two grandchildren at the mall. It was over an hour wait the little ones did well in line until we were almost at the end. The little one, Bria, spilled her drink all over her tights and Brooke, who was so excited before, decided she didn't want to meet Santa. Fortunately there was a Gymboree close by so I rushed and bought an overall and Linda just changed her in time. Couldn't get a smile from them!

I made the bubbles from a web tutorial