Two more NSD challenges

Hurrah!  At last Blogger is back up, I was twitching with the withdrawal!

I have 2 layouts to share here, both were challenges for National Scrapbooking Day on Shimelle's blog.

This one is "A story behind the photo".

I called this "1 Photo" as it is the only picture I have of my being pregnant with our first baby Sammy.  I was 6 weeks pregnant in this photo and we were visiting friend's in France on the way to a rugby match in Toulouse.  I started to get morning sickness while we were there and I found it hard to find anything to eat that I either fancied or could have.  That was over 6 years ago and we've not visited France since and I still can't stomach the thought of anything that reminds me of the food on that trip.  Sadly at almost 16 weeks a scan showed no heartbeat.  Without any warning all our hopes and dreams exploded in front of us.  Our baby girl had various problems with her brain development and another problem called exomphalos which is a defect in the abdominal wall.  We were able to hold our little girl and she has a little grave in a special baby area where people are able to put toys and windmills etc.  Since then we have been blessed with 2 wonderful children but Sammy will always be part of our lives.  She was obviously very tiny and her little face looked like the man in the moon so I always think of her when the moon is full.

 My mother-in-law sent us sunflowers after we lost Sammy and they became a symbol of her, both in the time of year and with the sunshine that she had brought on us.  We wrote her a letter to go with her and addressed it to Sammy Sunshine so the sun and moon are constant reminders that she is with us and I wanted to include something on my layout relating to that.  I bought the 2 different French papers with this photo in mind but I wanted to put some pink and some sunshine on it too.  The journalling, when I work out what I want to say, will go in this cool little envelope, called a Scrap-a-lope.

I tried to join in with Kirsty Wiseman's online crop sketch but I was forcing the photo and the papers and it wouldn't work.  I kept the idea of the twiddly bit down one side and of the strips though and I'll use the sketch more closely at another time.

The second layout was completed at one of Paula's classes.  This is the one where I was struggling to find the right papers the other day.  I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out in the end so once again I've started with something I didn't think I would like and ended with something I love.  Luckily it also fits with another of Shimelle's challenges from the weekend, "a border between two photos".

I flocked the title, which could be neater, and I embossed the dragonflies.

I also used some of that lovely aqua fibre ribbon which is yummy but a bit messy!

You can see the finished article with whatever I come back from Scrap-a-Mia with, hopefully on Sunday evening if I'm not too wiped out.  And on that note, I had better get some sleep.  This weekend is going to be full on!

Bye for now
xx