MARRIED!!!

Whooo HOO!!!
I am now OFFICIALLY the Artist formerly known as Sarah Elliott...
I am now Sarah Cooper... and I couldn't be happier!
The 'official' pictures will come to us by the end of the week but he sent us a little preview so we'd have a wee something to share right away:

I'm getting married TOMORROW!!!!

*squeal*
I thought I better pop in here 1 more time as Sarah Elliott because 7-ishy PM tomorrow I'll be Sarah Cooper!
lol... the Artist formerly known as Sarah Elliott.
BIG day planned today:
Kilt pick-ups
Tux Shirt pick-ups
Bakery Buns for rehearsal & wedding day
Get my gift for Greg
Groomsmen gifts
etc...
etc...
etc...
Ending with the rehearsal here tonight!
(MUST clean, ugh!)
See you all on the Flip-Side of the Wedding!

OPH: Birthday

Happy Birthday!
This week Amy has selected the theme....
Birthday
It just so happens to be her birthday...so head over and wish her a great one! This week please create a piece with the theme birthday, it can be anyone's or anything's birthday, a very merry unbirthday, or whatever else your creative mind conjures. As always have fun and we can't wait to see what you come up with.

Sarah dreams of five tiered cakes for her sons upcoming birthday.


Birthday September 23rd:
Perfect timing! My youngest son is turning 6 on October 5th... I decided to make his Birthday Card.
He's a TeddyBear fan so I used this Coloring Book Image; I just love the tippy cake. :O)
The base of the card (4X7") is Glimmer Misted and edge inked. The next layer is this wonderful handmade paper I've been hoarding forever. It's covered in pastel 'gelly' stars and dots, I lightly misted it purple. Image is hand colored and the Quote is also misted and inked. Little Metal charm reads: Make a Wish. Inside has a simple Happy Birthday stamp.

3 Days til our Wedding...

...and I *think* I'm still sane! That is amazing in and of itself... lol.
We're into the final stages of getting perishable foods and picking up rentals.
I can safely say that anything I had to craft is DONE!!!!
This is the rest of it:

The Candle Favors:
It's a 7PM Candlelight Service and so everyone is getting their favor on the way in... when the Pastor lets people know it's time to start he'll ask them to turn on their Electric Candles. So we should be walking down to aisle to lots of our friends 'lighting the way' for us.I must say these turned out better than I had hoped. The original plan was metal wire holders but the store didn't have enough and couldn't get a reorder in time. These are IKEA glass holders... so the kids will be getting Glow-in-the-Dark Bracelets & Bubbles instead. ;O)
I was really thrilled that the stickers we had ordered were a PERFECT fit on the bottom.

The Card Box:
Another fluke... I grabbed this at the last minute when we were buying all the dinner sh-tuff (plates, cups, napkins, serving bowls, tongs etc...). It was a Plain-Jane white pop-together box. 12 X 12 X 12... ah ha! A Perfect Job for scrapbook paper! 5 matching sheets, a glue stick and a printed off label later and voila!

The Candy Buffet Baggies:

These turned out better than I had pictured! I had expected to be making them from brown bags but Micheal's had DARK GREEN! Small bit of ribbon in our other Wedding Color, Dark Blue... a sticker and Dragonfly stamped also in Dark Blue later and we have our bags. Simple yet Pretty.

Food Labels:
For the Candy, Dessert, Chip and Fruit & Cheese Buffets. Different people are bringing different things so I made them all blank and will have X-fine sharpies there for people to fill in what they brought, and wether it's Gluten/Nut/Diabetic Safe.

Activity Signs:
BRIGHT and Easy to see! We have several stations for people to do sh-tuff... no lazy guests allowed. :O) This way the activities are easy to spot around the room.

The OTHER reason I'm done crafting...
Greg's Grandmother, Cupper, treated me to some girl-y time yesterday. I got an eyebrow wax (ow!), pedicure... pretty pink tosies, and Acrylic 'Talons' as Greg's calling them. LOL. I must say they make most things a wee bit harder to do. But I really like them. My nails are very thin, tending to bend and break easy. I would so do Acrylics again, though not this long! They are friggen' indestructible at least compared to MY nails. lol

Wedding Time Capsules...

Oh my!
We're down to 8 days before the Wedding... SOON.
Yesterday was the day of the pay we had designated to deal with the rest of the non-food items for the wedding... shopping, shopping, shopping.
I now hove every thing I need to complete the Candle Favors, Bags for the Candy Buffet and the Time Capsules. I got the Time Capsules completed tonight.
I wanted to keep them Simple, yet Elegant.
I started with clean, brand-new paint cans from Home Depot ($4.97/Canadian each) and covered them with paper from K&Company's Blue Awning line. I bought the paper last year to tuck away (before it disappeared!) because it's poi-fect!
Our wedding is Celtic and the color theme is Green and Blue. I just loved the worn designs in this pack. Kinda wish I'd though to grab another one for scrappin' the wedding.
The Numbers are Free-Printable Table Numbers from THIS Site.

I Inked the Number Labels to match the papers we have printed off for each year, mounted them on black cardstock and added 2 gems to each label (in the middle of the swirls).
Bit of Lace to trim them off in a 4 leaf Clover Pattern.

Inside our Program it reads:
Inside this Program are four pieces of paper, they’re for our Time Capsules
(One, Five, Twenty-Five and Fifty Years).
Please write us a note, make a prediction… anything you like!
These can then be put in the appropriate cans at the Reception.

William's Home!!!

Another non-crafty Post.
Yesterday we had our final meetings at CHEO and William's dismissal meeting.
I must say the final meeting was... surreal.
Imagine a conference room that can hold 16. We were 12.
6 doctors and other health care professionals on one side.
Down the other side:
2 parents
Crossroads worker
School Principal
William's classroom Teacher
and the school's Resource Officer.
(...and a partridge in a pear tree! lol)
A LOT of people for 1 little boy.
We came home with multiple copies of all the final reports to pass along to the required parties. LOTS to read & re-read ourselves. Mind boggling really the material. Dr's like to talk a lot... lol. I find reading all this they like to to repeat, repeat, repeat... most of these reports could be 1/2 the length or less if they just wrote it once. So my head feels like it's going to explode with information.
The basics though are the diagnosis is correct:
ADHD, ODD and some anxiety with violent tendencies.
He's now on 2 new meds and one was kept the same. There are new morning & nighttime routines that involves a parent being almost exclusively 1 on 1 with him. THAT will be harder because Greg is usually gone from 3-4 in the afternoon til 2-3 in the morning, then he sleeps til noon. I will do my damnest but I am only 1 person. I only wish Me, Myself & I could split up and each take a piece. LOL
But my little Boy is home again and that is the really important part.
Tomorrow is his Birthday too!

Life is rolling along...

The Studio and the rest of my poor, over-cluttered house have been in overdrive!
We are at 12 days and counting down til the wedding.

PLUS
Good News!!!
William's in-patient program went better than expected,
he's coming home Tuesday night... to stay!
There have been some new Therapy options put forth and a major medication change. We have a full-run-down discharge meeting all of tomorrow afternoon.
We'll know more then.

In the meantime, back at the ranch...
Plans are still being hurriedly yanked together for our Wedding on the 25th.
Most of the things I have to make we can't afford the supplies for until the 16th so I'll have more pictures after that. At present I'm assembling 'boxes' for each table at the reception. It's not a sit-down but a Dessert/Chip/Cheese/Apples/Candy Buffet. We will have very minimal Guest seating, enough for the older folks and for people to drop for a bit between dances and stop to nibble, then move on.
LOTS of activities planned.
There will be a KIDS ONLY table stuffed with bubbles, markers, coloring pages and a few other little treats.
My Mother generously agreed to pack that up and store it at her place. There are 4 sets of lil'boy prying eyes and more importantly prying fingers in this house! lol
The other tables will have sign-able photo mats, time capsules and another with photos & an array of scrapbook pages/projects I've made about 'US'.
I still need to buy the 4 paint cans to make the Time Capsules but I WILL post pictures when they're done.
The only Boxes packed so far are the 4 RubberMaid Totes with the Candy Buffet. Greg and I spent an evening playing with candy, containers and arrangements and finally came up with this rough plan:

The 2 bowls in the center-middle are missing the Diabetic safe Candy and Fortune Cookies. We have black tongs to put out and silver scoops too. The arrangement will be a little more compressed so we can put the Favor Boxes along both sides. We figure there will be a bit of nibbling at the Reception but most people will fill a box to take home. There will also be a sign that says 'Love is Sweet, Take a Treat'.
The Table cloth will be a Darker Blue, so the 15 electric candles will show a bit better.

I DID manage to get the Programs done. Much hassle though!
I have a fancy smancy Photo Printer ($300) that refused to accept the pre-done Program bases. SOOOOOO frustrating! I had 2 other friends over working on their wedding stuff, they're getting married October 3rd. They watched me fight, jiggle, caress, sweet-talk, scream at... you name it to get the $%#@! printer to work. 6 hours I wasted, ugh. Good thing they brought booze with them... lol, Drunken Brides Club.
I swear that machine drove me to drink!
Popped the bases in our $30 'spare' printer and vvrrrrrrmmmm... out they came...
*siiiiiigh*
Thank-God for cheap printers! lol

Cover:
Back & Front
The center of the Cross will have a gemstone on it... need to buy those on the 16th too. :O)


Inside:
With Time Capsule Sheets attached.


Time Capsule Sheets


Inside:


All the Clip Art is courtesy of Aon Celtic Art.
FANTASTIC site with ample FreeWare images.
Beautiful!

OPH: How I spent my Summer Vacation

This week Peggy has selected the theme....

How I spent my Summer Vacation

How did you spend your summer vacation. Peggy spent her in the studio. Did you go to the beach? Catch up on some reading? Maybe you didn't get a vacation (grumble grumble). However you spent your time please create a piece that reflects that activity. As always have fun! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Well for me this has been a Creative Summer, continuing with my pledge to be more Creative this year.
I started with a mounted Canvas... glued the Quote on, then covered the remaining with tinted Texture Plaster.
The rest... basically if it was withing arms reach of my work area, it's on here!
Cogs (from dead runners) beads, chipboard, wood elements, buttons, buttons & more buttons, brads, brass thingies, spoon, lace, ribbon, flowers, book page, gems, Glimmer Mist and GLITTER! Oh my!
"In Art there are no mistakes, only opportunities for creativity."

Wedding... WOW!

I have the BEST-est Friends!!!

I saw this online:

Link Here!

And it's PERFECT for the Rustic-y Celtic feel we're going for at the Wedding.
lol... I am not a tool person and we live in a teeny townhouse with a postage-stamp backyard, so no trees... let alone one to spare! :O)
My friend Eric however lives on a pretty patch of forested swamp and has lots of trees, including a couple down already his wife was 'nudging' him to deal with soon.
So he got out his chainsaw and made us THIS:

I'm really floored... it's perfect!
There will be a 8-9" Dark Chocolate cake on top with our birdie topper:

Rising above a field of dark chocolate fondant covered cupcakes with 2 flat white birds pressed onto each one...
It's going to look great!
Thank-You Eric!!!!

Scrap That Poetry Challenge #23 Ode To the End of Summer

The Poem this week is:

Ode to the End of Summer
by Phyllis McGinley

I used a couple of pictures of Britannia Beach, abandoned once school started last year. It was so eerily quiet that day. No birds even...

Scrapping the Music: We are Going to be Friends...

The months just fly by, don't they?
It's already time for movie week again!
This month we are paying tribute to the movie "Napoleon Dynamite," with the song "We Are Going To Be Friends" by the White Stripes! We hope you enjoy the song as much as we did!!! - it's got a ton of scrappable lyrics, and the timing seems appropriate with school starting up again in September for lots of folks!

No surprise I've had William in the forefront of most things this past week.
The In-Patient program is going ok, he's not suffering. VERY much not suffering...
They try to make it as fun as possible between all the pokes, prod and tests. He's home for the weekend and crowing to his brothers about picking whatever he wants to eat (off a menu), a room to himself and tons of LEGO (no sharing!). There is still much to do in the next 2-3 weeks he's there but already the decided to try some alternate medication. He was "a bit much" the 1st 2 night. lol... we told them. I'm just happy to have him home, we even get and extra day because it's Labour Day Weekend.

I decided to scrapbook this picture of William. It's one of my favorites... our Nature Boy!
No matter where we go he's into the sidelines... poking around at plants and looking for bugs and other critters. Pocket check before laundry can be... um,... gross, some days. ;OP

ADHD is only part of ME... oh boy! Believe in Yourself.

About a Boy:
William... though you
have ADHD & ODD you are
also the sweetest...
most curious... and yet
loving little boy.

...through the park, by the tree
we will rest upon the ground
and look at all the bugs we've found...

Oh Alice! Girly...

Oh Alice! CHAPTER 28: (taken from "Child of the Pure Unclouded Brow:
preface to "Through the Looking Glass"

hild of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy-tale.

I have not seen thy sunny face,
Nor heard thy silver laughter;
No thought of me shall find a place
In thy young life's hereafter -
Enough that now thou wilt not fail
To listen to my fairy-tale.

This week's theme is simply to make a card with a LITTLE GIRL theme:) Alice is such a whimsical free spirit and we LOVE that about her! Channel your inner girlie this week with this great (and free-to-be-you!) challenge!

I saw this challenge and though 'YEEPS!'... I'm in trouble!
With 4 boys and not really being a girly-girl myself I knew it would be a toughie.
So... here she is:
Time for Tea from Tiddly Inks Digi-Stamp.
Markers: Stampin'Up!
Rubber Stamps: Close to My Heart (lace and sentiment)
Bling-y Butterflies, flowers and stamps... gifted scrappin' supplies from a friend.

Macabre Monday HDH054: Creepy Cute

HDH054 - Creepy Cute

Ok, my little pretties... your challenge this week:
Creepy Cute

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween page, project or card using cute images, but on the darkside. Turn something adorable into something abominable... something delightful into something devious... something cute into something creepy. Or just grab one of TI's Gothic cute images and start coloring ;)

I didn't grab a Tiddly Inks Gothic Cute image...
BUT
I did use Tiddly Inks: Time for Tea!
I decided to take her from cute-to-creepy...
All coloring: Stampin' Up! powder pastel with a wet pen.
Chipboard Embellies: Scenic Route
Spiderweb Ribbon: Martha Stewart
Pattern Paper: Basic Grey

Is it Halloween Time yet????

OPH: Hitting the Books...

It's Thursday!!!
Time for the newest One Powerful Hour weekly Challenge...
This week it was MY pick:



Hitting the Books:
Back to School... Back to Books... and Teacher's Dirty Looks!
Make something 'Book' related... have fun!

One of the most visual quotes I've ever heard: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
~Sr Francis Bacon~
I created a Postcard for this weeks theme Hitting the Books.
All edges sanded and inked...
The back ground image was faded, then I hand colored in some of the key elements: napkin, cutlery & plate.
The books are mounted on cereal box board, 3D Crystal Lacquered and then attached (at 2 heights) with scrap EZ-mount foam.

ARTastic DT Project for September

pssssttt...
If your a newbie to ARTastic let Shazza know I sent you!
Then let me know by leaving a comment below...
I'm going to put together a Goodie Bag and draw from the list of anyone who does this. So what's to lose? Give it a go!

Septembers inspiration will come from the painting......

Frida Kahlo - Self Portrait with Monkey

Diva demand for an extra 6 bonus points, give me ......
1. A photo of you or family member with your pet/pets = 1pt
2. Shades of brown and orange on your layout = 2pts
3. A single tropical flower or plant = 3pts

This is an 'easy peasy' challenge this month, so it would be great to see some of our new followers have a go :)

Cant wait to see this months entries !!!
Please email your layouts compressed/resized for web viewing to shazzaalleyes@hotmail.com

I HAD to scrap my Brandy Gurl... she is my Baby Dog. My Daemon, always following me around.
This picture was taken *the* Christmas Day that Greg proposed. There was sooo much excitement going on around me and she wanted to be close, so she jumped up on the back of the couch and wrapped herself OVER my shoulders, like a puppy-fur collar. She has some claws on her I can tell you, ow! and she's no lap-dog. (husky-chow chow-lab mix)
Please excuse the Bunny nibble out of the bottom left corner... I think Hope was jealous I didn't scrap her. *giggle*
Chatterbox Chipboard tile title & corner pieces, puppy print strips cut from PP, Rub-Ons from Fancy Pants, 7 Gypsies ATC cards (dogs & list) orange Glimmer Misted, Felt flower is a coaster with the princess button in the middle and the Seed Packet was printed of Clip-Art (I cut it big and folded all the edges back to make it look like a 'real' packet... then ripped the corner so it looked used).