The Tale of the Lonely Lollypop

Between family and a trip to the Mall of America, our weekend was a full one. We spent some time yesterday perusing the mall. I took Ethan to the new Nickelodeon Amusement Park inside the mall. He's not "big enough" to ride the rides, but he still enjoys the scenery; lots and lots of kids, noise, food galore, lego land, toy stores, and more. It's a big place. Enough stimulation to last a kid a few days. While we were there, he rode the super mini merry-go-round (for wee little ones), stared in awe at all the rides, played with Thomas the Train at one of the local toy stores, hung out at lego land, and brought home a balloon and lollypop. You would of thought after all the action at the mall, that he would of konked out in the car on the way home..not so much.  Instead, he removed the outer packaging from his lollypop and got busy eating it. When we got home, he played outside some and while on one of his driving adventures, he unloaded his gigantic lollypop and set it on the driveway. He couldn't resist going back to it, but mom retired the lollypop to the garbage. I caught the whole event on camera and wanted to share some of the photos with you guys..here's how the story unfolds:

  

Bye, Bye Lollypop! He did enjoy it while it lasted. I suppose I could of removed the remaining wrapper and broke off the part touching the pavement..oh well, less sugar for later. Silly kid.

I did this layout for Prima over the weekend. Trying to finish some of my Summer theme layouts before September arrives. Like many of you, I have enough Summer pictures to last me two Winters, but most of them will end up in a standard photo album. I'm going to send a bunch off to be printed so I don't have to think about them. It's a great way to wrap up seasonal photos.

I went the "Blue" route with this layout. Actually, the photo of this layout has strong blue overtones, which I only mildly corrected using Photoshop. It's really not as "intense" as it looks. It has a lighter feel in person. Because these two girls spent most of the day swimming before I took this shot, I used a water theme for the layout. The background paper is Prima. I layered it with dark turquoise and pink paper. I then covered the pink area with hand cut bubbles using Heidi Grace pattern paper. I went on to add the photo and other embellishments, which you can see below:

Note the Paper Source Velour paper that I used on the layout? I used a small section of it only..with this kind of paper, less is better than more. I attempted to use "flocking" for a third time. The first two attempts weren't successful. Instead of using glue this time, I used Making Memories paint only and guess what, flocking sticks to that stuff like cement! The paint has to be "wet" in order for the flocking to adhere to it, but it works a ton better than glue. I used my pencil eraser as a stamp to create the dots before adding the flocking. I pressed the flocking into the paint and shook the remaining flocking from the page (you think glitter makes a mess, try flocking..holy cow! Can anyone say static cling?!).

These are some of my all time favorite flowers from Prima. They're sold in this packaging and are available in a variety of colors. I love the embossing on the flowers. It feels quirky and fun to me. You could easily paint or ink the embossed areas of the flower for added effect. I didn't do either this time around, but may give it a try next time I use these flowers. I layered the flowers using various size dark and light blue sprites. The combination of the two colors in an off/on pattern fits right in with the feel of the layout. I finished the large flower by topping it off with a "ripple" like button that resembles water.

The "Celebrate" chipboard title is also from Prima..notice a trend here? Laugh. I sanded it, distressed it with ink, and added Diamond Glaze to the title to make it appear "wet". It's hard to tell in the photo above, but instead of looking like a plain ol' piece of chipboard, it looks like a large epoxy sticker. Using Diamond Glaze is an economical way to create your own epoxy elements.

The word "Two" was created using some old Scenic Route large letter stickers. I've had them forever and I finally got around to using them. Feels good to use old product.

More Diamond Glaze, but this time on bubbles. Be warned though before using Diamond Glaze on anything distressed with ink, the Diamond Glaze can turn colors! Some of my Diamond Glaze dots look like mud puddles. Oops!

Off to conquer some online chores. Don't forget to leave a comment for the paper drawing in the post below. Thank you to those that have left comments! Can't wait to give away some Paper Source paper.