1 march challenges at the two most awesome challenge blogs in the world …

Over at another Freaking scrappy challenge … here is the prompt we are giving our followers:

March is the month where school children have a spring break in Canada.  Scrap some memories of a spring break (or another school break) that you experienced. We never travelled in our family for school breaks, but I did always enjoy the time outside or reading and just relaxing.

I scrapped about visits to my Mémère and Pépère`s house in summers – my mother`s parents home.  Dad was military, so we spent many of our summers visiting either his or my mother`s family, as we usually lived quite far from either families. I used Cosmo Cricket Earth Love Borders and Remember papers.  The photo is my siblings and I, my grandfather and Uncle Edouard, and my Mémère in front of her farmhouse.

Now, over at the other FABULOUS challenge blog, Scrapbookers Anonymous, the lovely Theresa and Lea are challenging their followers to  create a collage with stickers – using a minimum of 11 stickers!! I scrapped a photo of my son Chris Pennington and used Bo bunny Grease Monkey Gears paper.

Anne Pennington

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if only time had stood still …

… that’s how I often feel when I remember my twin brother, Gary, who died when we were only 35.  He lay dying in hospital in Toronto, while I lay in my hospital bed in Belleville very sick the last month of my pregnancy with our son Chris.  We lied to each other every day when we called each other to chat – oh yes, we were both doing very fine we would say.  Gary died August 9th.  When they brought me the news that evening (I knew inside all day that he had died and I was screaming inside that no one in my family came to tell me – don’t tell me there is no deep bond between twins) I went immediately into labour for Chris.  A labour in shock and grief with a sick mother and baby is not a good thing, but that is another story.

My journalling reads:  “You were my friend my whole life, always with me – you were my buddy since the womb.  You had always been with me, my friend I brought with me whenever we moved with Mom and Dad. We were both in hospital miles apart that last month of your life after having had a wonderful weekend camping at Presqu’ile in early July.  You were never to come out of that hospital, and I left my hospital with Christopher Gary Ronald Robert in my arms.  He was named Gary for you. I didn’t think I’d ever recover that loss, but time helped strengthen me. I had another child to add to my family.  I dressed them both in the sweater and hat you made for Chris and snuggled them in the blanket you made. I wish they’d have known you too!  Attending our 40th high school reunion this year was so sad without you!! I’ll never forget you, my twin!!! ”

Here is my layout using the prompt word “Time” from Bird is the Word and Crate Paper School Spirit Collection Geometry paper, a Cosmo Cricket embellishment (My Best Friend scroll) and Heidi Snapp clock faces. I love to use sunburst design papers, they give so much energy to a layout.  Please go to my posting here at my challenge blog another Freaking scrappy challenge … for a tutorial on how to use these papers.   I meant to get this done sooner, but as you can imagine it was a hard layout to tackle, sometimes the emotions still run very deep.

design by Anne Pennington

kiosk summer 2010

Our son Chris Pennington was an Ontario Parks Ranger in the summer of 2010.  An experience he will never forgot.  They transported the boys when they needed vehicles with trucks, where they passed the time of day on the way to leisure or work time that they could not access via canoe.  Here is a photo of Chris and his friend Jordan that I found hilarious, and decided to have a bit of fun scrapping.  I used SandyLion rouge de garance Truckin’ Along paper for this layout. I also used the sketch this week from Sketchy Thursdays as my inspiration!!

Joy!!!

Don’t forget our launch is on the 30th for another freaking scrappy challenge... We’ve already launched our technique twenty-second – go on over here to check it out!!

Sketchy Thursdays has a challenge on right now for a guest DT member. Here is their sketch for the challenge:

Here is my interpretation of the sketch using Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Sea Garden and Cosmo Cricket Upcycle Repeat. The layout features my daughter Mary Pennington at Mazinaw Lake at Bon Echo Provincial Park.

Splash fun !!!

This layout is my first first as a design team member for Little Shop of Sketches,  Tanya Leigh’s awesome sketch blog.  We used her Sketch 87 for our layouts:

For my layout I used Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Coral Bloom, Salt Air Sea Garden and Salt Air Elements, along with Salt Air chipboard embellishments.  I love that line of paper.  The green of Sea Garden is a gorgeous muted green.  My fishing net is an onion bag from my kitchen – I love it. The swimmer in my pool is my son Chris Pennington, photos taken in June 2009.  Seems so long ago, he has changed so much.

 

by Anne Pennington