A Night Spent At Nonna's House

I had both Lily and Alistair stay over last weekend - what a tiring time... but so worth every moment. Lily was as cute as she always is - even when she lets one rip and coyly says "I farted!" with the biggest grin on her face (is she the only child to ever be able to fart on command?). Anyway, Alistair took a little while to get used to his Nonna feeding him and telling him that he was gorgeous (rather than his mummy being there to do it) - but when he did, he was so adorable! He even smiled at me (and, no, it really wasn't wind! lol). I took so many photographs of both my grandchildren... and of course had to have a new layout of Baby Alistair, because he's changed so much in the past month. The photograph I chose probably isn't the most cute one... but I love the expression on his face, as if to show that he was as surprised as me for him to be spending the night at my home.

I used Tim Holtz and Basic Grey (Snow Queen) papers, and stamped along the bottom using an Artemio stamp and on the top left using a Sheena Douglass stamp (A Little Bit Sketchy 2 - "Faith"), with Papermania bright teal and Color Box Chalk Prussian Blue inks. I embossed the bird on a branch and one stalk of meadow flowers with a clear embossing powder. I cut ovals out of the papers and distressed the edges (Tim Holtz distressing tool) and used Broken China distress ink to colour the edges a bit - the photograph also. Stitching by hand with embroidery threads and also cotton was used to add a little texture and interest to the photograph of Alistair, and also to highlight a circle around the letter "A". This letter is a glitter cardboard from Dovecraft. I inked it with the Broken China ink and then used Weathered Wood distress embossing powder over it... then added a little more ink when it was dried fully.

I had quite a few of my handmade flowers left over to match this layout, and I also added some Prima flowers from the Pastiche collection. There were literally hundreds of brads to choose from... and some of the best to match this layout were from Doodlecraft Designs Inc - the Boutique collection, Swimming Pool assortment. There are also Dovecraft brads, and some blue buttons. Some buttons are from the Capsule Collection, but most are plain, everyday buttons - as well as a pretty little blue glittery rocking horse button I just had to use!

The butterflies are called Fly Stickers by a company called KandyToys... they are very similar to the ones you can get from Anita's - but they come in a variety of sizes. I don't like the holographic patterned edges, so I cut them off - this makes the plastic backing quite difficult to peel off, but it is worth it if, like I feel, the sparkly backing doesn't match with your layout design.

I think that's about it - apart from the little blue roses which I buy from a local bookstore that has a small crafting section. They cost £1 for 28 blooms - not a bad price at all. I quite enjoyed the little finishing touches - like all the buttons being hand sewn onto the layout... it was a relaxing process after running around after the grandchildren!