It's not always easy to get a decent photo of three munchkins where none of them are blinking their eyes, making a face or otherwise acting the monkey.  Difficult, but not impossible.

One day in May 2005 I had the afternoon off work, the weather was glorious without being too hot, so I packed the kids into the car and headed off to a nearby village for a walk on the riverbank.  The kids were in great form and were delighted to play on the sports equipment which dotted the pathway.  A 30 minute walk lasted all afternoon, all in good spirits and cheerfulness.  Aidan's sandal strap broke part-way through the afternoon, so we ended up buying him new shoes before we headed home.  Nothing wonderfully exciting in the afternoon, just one of those simple, straighforward, happy, relaxed childhood days.

I wanted my page to reflect that simple afternoon, to portray a childlike, innocent air to the page I made.  I opted for felt  in bright, cheerful colours and I deliberately kept the layout simple: stylised trees reminiscent of fairy-tale illustrations, simple diasy-like flowers dotted here and there and a strip of 'grass' reminiscent of children's drawings.

I was so lucky to find felt in just the right shade of blue to match the magnificent sky we had that day!





Prima bitty flowers, various coloured felts, scraps of paper from my leftovers box and the title cut with my sizzix 'Bloom' alphabet.

This month La Compagnie du Tampon are spoiling us:  They are going to regularly post techniques for making ATC's throughout the month, so I'm hoping to have a go at some new techniques.  The first challenge, proposed by Charlotte, involves playing around with paint and inks.  Not really my thing, but in the name of participating I decided to have a go.

First two cards were a little inconvlusive as my inks bled when I applied the stickles



However, not willing to quit on a downer, I had another go, which turned out a bit better:


The next challenge, by Ninie, is to make a felt ATC, and stitch it to the card.  Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend.

I and my daughter also caught up on some rather late New Year cards, which we cunningly disguisedd by calling them 'Winter Wishes' cards:


I got to use my new Fiskars border punch on that one, I love it!

And finally I changed the box for the mini album of my sister's wedding.  I think the floral printout of her bouquet looks much better with the album than the papers I had originally chosen: