Heather's Hints of Happiness

A "She" just for me...

2012-03-06T15:33:00.000-05:00

After making a few of these little beauties for some of my friends, I was finally able to create a "she" for me!!! It only took about 8 months!! lol

I was at the Scrapbox on Saturday for a crop and got creative with my crafty friends. Jenn decided to have a challenge for "altered" art or mixed media folk too instead of only papercrafting so it was a real good time!

If you know me, you know I LOVE a challenge. The altered/mixed media challenge was to use 11/22 items on the list on your art including the manditory use of a paperclip. There were such things on the challenge as crackle paint, tissue paper, rub-on, book print, Distress Stain, stencil, stamped image, image of a bird, vintage like button, fabric and ribbon...I could go on but I don't know if I could actually re-name all the items. But seeing as I was working on a canvas intended for me, I thought I should stay true to "me" and use ALL 22 of the items! And I did! And turned out great!

Thanks Jenn for such an awesome challenge! We had a great day! I think about 6 of the 13 ladies were doing mixed media art journaling, canvas or altered art...a real sign of the current interests and trends.

Here is my gal....I think she is pretty cute!

These are my vintage looking button and burlap fabric challenge items.

Thanks for looking!

A "She" art gift for someone special....

2012-02-24T13:57:00.001-05:00

One of my friends recently bought her first home!!! Yay!! She has a pretty big scraproom I hear, so I thought it might be fun for a housewarming gift, to make her some art!

We both took Christy Thomlinson's She art workshop and really, really enjoyed it!

I made her a little house canvas and a "She" art girl.

so much yummy texture.....

Thanks for looking!

It's a new challenge from the Paper Variety!

2012-02-15T12:16:00.001-05:00

Seems as the only bit of scrapbooking I have done lately is the last two challenges from the Paper Variety! You can check out the latest challenge here!!!

The challenge was to use the movie poster below as a jumping off point. Whether you are inspired by colour, theme (engagement), leap year, Ireland etc....lots of different ways to be inspired!

I decided to use the poster as a sketch! I love sketches!! I used the placeholders of the two people as a spot for two pictures. The text at the bottom of the poster was reflected in the rectangular area of little monsters and journaling at bottom of my layout. The small text on each side of poster was mimicked in the embellishments on each side of the layout.

I added some extra detail to the printed paper by faux hand stitching all around the semi-circles on the border around the page. I also applied glossy accents to all the little monsters to add some dimension to the page. I doodled around the letter stickers....I love all things doodle!! lol

I just love this "Monstrosity" paper line by Sassafras....I will be sad when I run out of it! (I bought the collection twice as I love it that much!!!)

Thanks for looking!

I am feeling the LOVE and passing it on!

2012-02-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

I have been awarded with the “Liebster Award”! Liebster is German and means ‘dearest’ or ‘beloved’ but it can also mean ‘favourite’. The idea of the Liebster award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers.

Thank you Kate!! I love that you thought of me!

Ok, so here is what I’ve learned about the Liebster Blog Award; “in German—“liebster” means “dear,” from the verb “lieber” [to love]“. The Liebster Blog Award, in essence, is all about recognizing worthy bloggers with less than 200 followers, and raising their blog visibility. In other words, spread the love. I am assuming that most of the blogs I read probably have more than 200 followers, so I did my best to recognize some bloggers that I feel more certain don’t have over 200 followers and are deserving recipients. I hope I don’t offend anyone if I was wrong, and they do have 200+ followers. Also, there is no obligation to continue this award. If you don’t want to participate, I won’t think anything of it, and I won’t stop following your blog.

One of the conditions in accepting the award is to pass it along to 3-5 more blogs. Here are my picks:

Coffee with Julie - http://www.julieharrison.ca/
Kataroo's Kitchen - http://katarooskitchen.blogspot.com/
Krista Wells - http://confessionsofatwentysomethingartist.blogspot.com/
Gabry Road - http://gabryroad.blogspot.com/

For those interested, the rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your picks for the award and let them know.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare-other bloggers.
5. Finally and the best rule of all……….have fun and spread the love!

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to leave some love on all the above mentioned blogs!!

The Paper Variety Sketch Challenge....

2012-02-02T11:33:00.000-05:00

I really liked the sketch at The Paper Variety this month and thought I would give it a quick whirl this morning!

I had some small pictures already printed from our visit to the Wild Bird Sanctuary and trail walk to feed the chickadees on the last day of Christmas vacation.

Andrew, Jason and a friend feeding the Chickadees at the Wild Bird Sanctuary.

I started by spraying the kraft cardstock with two colours of Adirondack colour wash in "Stream" and "Sailboat Blue". I then splattered (yes, a technical term!) Mister Huey "Calico White" across the page in random splatters and then allowed the sprays to dry before using the snowflake Crafter's Workshop template to create white mist snowflaskes all over the page.

I layered different snow flakes of all flakes and sizes and material, some bling and acrylic flakes as well (see top corner).

I ran out of letter "e's" and craftily made one out of a "c" and a piece of an "n"...can you spot it?? lol

Great sketch! Came together really quick...under an hour! I had a time crunch trying to get one busy 4yr old ready for school and out the door!!!

Thanks for looking!

Biotech Birthday Bash - a mini to share!

2012-01-30T16:52:00.000-05:00

Last May I turned 39 and some of my new and wonderful Ottawa peeps, my Biotechs, helped me celebrate with a soiree at my house!

We had a thoroughly raucous and highly memorable evening and I am in the preliminary planning stages of my 40th weekend celebration....it's only a few months away!!

I created this mini using the "Random" collection from Crate Paper. It works perfectly with our pictures! This is quite a "girly" scrapbooking project for me but we there were 8 girls at the event!

Please excuse the pictures...nothing could keep this mini open to get the shots! I used a technique borrowed from Heidi Swapp to make the album.....it is essentially paper adhered "back to back" to form the pages of the album.....tried to find the video, but gave up...

Thanks for looking!!!!

A very handy little printing tip for you....

2012-01-20T10:30:00.002-05:00

My good friend Kate Vickers at Scrapsation has posted a tutorial on her blog today for printing text directly onto labels or tags. She has great advice on how to do this with great ease! You should try it out! I know I am going to!!!

Happy Scrapping!

Back to School.....

2012-01-09T12:58:00.002-05:00

In honour of today being the first day back to school after what seemed like an extraordinarily long Christmas break, I thought I would share some "Back to School" layouts with pictures taken the first week of school but that I only scrapped on Saturday! I am like that.....I do this all out of order....I work on Summer in the Spring, Winter in the Fall etc, etc....kind of gets me in the mood to embrace what season is coming up next!!! lol

When first released I was not a fan at all of the LYB "Head of the Class" back to school line but once I printed out my pictures I realized how perfect it was!!! lol I love how the layouts turned out! lots of fun and bright colours for my little Junior Kindergardener and some black in there as well for my eldest son who is growing up way to fast!

This was a big year for Jason! He has been dying to go to the "Big kids" school for a few years, just like his big brother. He did attend pre-school for the last few years but he has been patiently waiting to ride the yellow school bus and hang out with his brother and friends!

Finally getting his very own turn to ride on Nancy's school bus!

"I'm 4"...Jason turned four the day before the first day of school and boy, was he ever proud!!!!

Next up, Valentine's day crafts for me and the kids!

Thanks for looking!

Crafty projects found on Pinterest!

2011-12-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

Whew!! I made it! I had a little wish list of ideas I saw on Pinterest and I somehow managed, despite all odds to get them all finished in time for some holiday festivities that will be occuring at our house! We are hosting brunch on Christmas Day and a dinner on the 28th (27 people-yikes!!!) At least they will have lots of handmade decorating to keep their eyes busy from spotting the dust bunnies!

I pretty much "lifted" all three of these projects as they were really just so perfect as they were!

from Echo Park blog and found on Pinterest - I modified it slightly as I had a bigger, square frame instead of the 4x6 rectangular they used.

found on Pinterest...very, very quick project took about 15mins tops! love it!

The last project is a mixed media canvas piece. It took a little longer but not long at all really. Just a couple of hours work with drying time extra.

Please excuse the horrid pink craft mat, it completely wrecks all the pictures...working on finding another solution! This is a fraction of the supplies I gathered to start this project.

I know the picture is sideways...can't fix it! lol

I picked these three papers to use as my base or background on the canvas....a little bit of detail in the patterns but still muted.

5+ sprays, stencils, white paint and white glitter with some glass bead gel medium in the white, snowy area at bottom of canvas.

I am a very messy crafter! This was a "cleaned" up shot!! ;)

Found on Pinterest - Tutorial can be found at link below...

I took both the "She has 3 hearts" and "She" online workshops from Christy Thomlinson this fall and they were fantastic. I learned so much. You can use all the techniques learned in the workshops and apply to any theme you want too! The tutorial for this particular canvas can be found here!http://christytomlinson.typepad.com/christytomlinson/2010/12/christmas-mixed-media-canvas-tutorial.html

aren't these little pressies darling?

I just love how the snowy sky and tree turned out!

Hope you enjoy all the little projects, check out Pinterest! Lots and lots of great ideas! You need an invite so let me know if you want one!

Thanks for looking!

Paper Christmas Trees

2011-12-10T10:04:00.000-05:00

I completed these little beauties last year during the holidays but never posted the photos! The project was easy enough but a little time consuming and a bit sticky!!! lol

Three paper trees and little snow men friends....

I used 3/4" and 1" wide strips of paper about 2.5" long. I cut the edges with pinking shears to add some texture and slightly rolled the ends of the tree around a pencil to curl up the ends. On the middle tree I stickled all the different colours of berries and leaves to add some glitter and shine! This was the tedious part I was talking about but completely worth it! It is not easy to see in the picture.

I started the project by glueing the paper to the styrofoam cone but it melted the cone??!! lol I then tried straight flat head pins to hold the paper on the cone which add a little sparkle as well!

My mom gave me these cute little snow men quite a few years ago and they are perfect for this little vignette on my piano!

I have a few more projects in the work that I need to complete this week! Hopefully my little men will comply!

Thanks for looking!

Kaisercraft Advent Calendar

2011-12-05T10:18:00.008-05:00

Yay!!! Finally I got to the the Scrapbox to take pics of the Advent Calendar I created for Jenn to display at the store. I finished the project nearly a month ago but silly me forgot to take pictures before I handed it over!

The finished product - Supplies used Lily Bee "Jingle" papers; Echo Park "Season's Greetings" chipboard; MME Merry Christmas Chipboard banner;, Tim Holtz "Composer" tissue paper; TA Glimmer Mists "Apple" and Red Velvet; Bo Bunny "Blitzen" brads; Authentique "Wonder" die-cuts; Dew Drops; Stickles "Platinum", "Christmas Red" and "Patina"; Misc embellishments: Jenni Bowlin, MM, LYB, the Twinery twine.

The list of items used is a long one! I used many, many different companies, some old some new. To begin with I spray painted the entire project in Ivory. I wanted the box to be very neutral to blend with decor anywhere I decided to put it in my house. The design concept was inspired by the Kaisercraft wooden tree that I altered using paints, stains, ink, script stamp and stickles.

I painted the tree in various colours and then stamped a script image all over tree and base and layered different mediums on the tree.

You can't see it (because I forgot to take a picture of it!) but I painted each individual box in three colours - green, cranberry and ivory - using a dry brush technique so that when you pull a box out it looks pretty from all angles.

I used my Silhouette SD to create the jumping deer, green frame border on inside of large square area, and pine trees. I picked the scroll design for the deer to compliment the scroll work of the wooden tree. I cut the paper pine trees in various sizes of the same design and a couple of different paper choices to show depth. I used different heights of pop-dots to help the forest have a more realistic look. The green border framing the inside of the area was made using a layering technique. I made the cut 6 times each per side and stuck on top of each other to make the frame thicker.

I really didn't care for the large chipboard numbers that come with the advent calendar. They are too distracting and leave no room for decorating the individual boxes so I created my own set of numbers in MS Word using complimentary colours. As the numbers are much smaller in size it also makes it more of a game to hunt for the day's little box. I also placed the boxes in random order, the same as most commercial chocolate advent calendars do, again to make the search for the right day more fun!!!

For the music sheet background I used a technique I learned from Vicki Boutin in her class from Scrapfest. I sprayed the Tim Holtz tissue paper with two colours of glimmer mist, a red and a apple green. I dried the tissue paper with a heat gun and then applied it to the wood background using glossy Decou-page by Deco Art. As you are applying the tissue paper create folds and wrinkles in the tissue to add dimension and interest. When this dries it is nice and shiny and interesting to look at.

I popped this chipboard banner up using 3 pop-dots on top of each other to really make it stand out. I added some red baker's twine from the Twinery behind the banner for it to hang off of. I LOVE how this turned out. I also used Glossy Accents of just the red letters of each banner piece to add some shine and dimension.

In all it was a long journey to get this project completed but completely worth all the planning and effort. I absolutely love how it turned out and my family will enjoy this for years to come!

Thanks for looking!

New recycled Christmas Decor project

2011-11-23T08:35:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, Kerri Bradford offered up this one day "freebie" and I snagged it! I had been contemplating creating the same sort of thing myself but her idea was perfect! I believe you can still get this download for a very small price...you should check it out!

My mom had given me this horrendous ornate, brassy framed print of a cat of all things...(sorry mom and sorry cat lovers), who wants prints of cats on their walls??!! Anywho....I ripped out the print and sprayed the frame with satin finish black spray paint and printed up the lovely red Christmas subway art and voila!!!

It looks really awesome!!

I forgot to take before pictures but trust me, this is a HUGE improvement!! lol

Very quick and simple to do! I have lots of other little projects lined up so hopefully I will get them done now that the birthday week of my son and husband is over for a few days! One more family party on Sunday! Only 15 people for dinner so this one is an easy-peasy!! Usually it is in the 20s...

Thanks for looking!

Altered Halloween Printers Tray

2011-11-11T12:35:00.001-05:00

I began this project at Scrapfest and managed to get it finished and hung on the wall for Halloween but then came two very sick little boys and a project that needed to be completed for the Scrapbox (which I hope to be able to share with you very soon!!!) so I never got around to taking pictures until today!

Echo Park "Apothecary Emporium" and Teresa Collins " Haunted Hallows" as well as a whole lot of goodies from my stash!

I coloured the bottlecap in with my orange copic marker and then placed the Tim Holtz spider charm inside and filled up the cap with Glossy Accents. Once dry, it took well over a day, I coloured the entire thing again with the copic.

Don't ya just love this halloween ticket made using a custom ink pad??

I love this skeleton and sparkly spiders!

I had so much fun working on this! Thanks for looking!

Vicki Boutin Mixed Media Art Board Class Project

2011-10-21T15:23:00.001-04:00

This class was one of two classes I took at Scrapfest in Oshawa last weekend. It was awesome!! If you ever get the chance to take one of Vicki's classes you should!! She is the best teacher!! I took one of her mini album classes at Scrapfest last April and it was awesome too!!!

We used lots of product on these art boards. Tissue paper, decoupage glue, Adirondack colour wash, Viva inka-gold paints (OMG!!! I love these little jars of goodness) gesso, distress inks, metal accents, rub-ons, gaffers tape etc...

I absolutely love the finished result...not my usual thing but I have a sneaking suspicion my "usual" is a changing!!! ;)

The finished product hanging out on my new ever-so-lovely 7gypsies easel!!!

Close-up of the "Viva Inka-gold" green and gold pots of creamy paints! So cool! They are the shimmery colours layered on top of tissue paper.

The 8x8 piece was a collage of 7gypsies paper with some gesso scraped on and some "Stream" Adirondack colour wash splashed on. Actually the colour wash was sprayed on craft mat and then we gently pressed art board to the wash to more effectively control where the mist was applied! Great tip!!!

Thanks for looking!

Scrapfest Oshawa 2011

2011-10-18T14:50:00.003-04:00

Where do I begin?? It was a fun-filled weekend!! I had great company on the drive to Brockville with Natasha to pick up Sharon. Brockville is simply gorgeous this time of year....I am sure all year round but man oh man....beautiful!!! We pit stopped in Marchant's in Kingston where we met up with the rest of our posse, Lou Lou, Luce and Stephanie and did some pre-shopping before arriving at the Scrapfest Marketplace! I love this store and stop there every time I pass through Kingston.

We arrived in Oshawa pretty darn hungry as we had been on the road since 7:30am and it was now 1:30pm when we checked into our hotel in Oshawa! The lovely Lorrie met us for lunch and a visit and it was really good to see her!!! I miss her troublesome self and she has only been gone less than a month!!! :(

We arrived at the venue around 5pm and got situated in the cropping area, and headed off to shop before our 6pm "mini masterpieces" class with Christy Riopel from Canadian Scrapbooker magazine. This was a great class using lots of neat mixed media techniques on 8 mini art board pieces of various sizes. Really enjoyed this class and Christy was lots of fun! My kind of girl!! lol

After class we headed back down to shop some more and then I settled in to start working on my project at the crop. I am working on a Halloween Printers tray, I got a great start to it this weekend but will have to hurry up and finish it this weekend!!! Natasha, Sharon, Stephanie and I stayed until midnight and then headed back to the hotel to get some rest before Saturday's activities.

Natasha, Sharon and I each had our own King size rooms with Natasha somehow managing to get some sort of VIP suite with a lounge as we liked to refer to it. We were woken around 6am by a hotel manager greeting guests as the entered the Breakfast room!!! Melissa Frances!!! man, that really pissed me off!! 6am on my day away from the kids!!!

We cropped and shopped all day long and found tons of beautiful things to buy! The Art House Studio from Kitchener had the best stamps ever!!! and all the Crafter's Workshop templates in both sizes. Karen, the owner, has actually designed some herself for the company! She was teaching students all day both days in her classroom in her booth. She also had all the Faber-Castel Mixed Media sampler sets and Pitt pens and such!!! YUMMY!!! I know quite a few people had a really hard time resisting these!! Just sayin' *wink, wink*

Canadian Scrapbooker was sponsoring the Layout Contest based on the theme "Pick of the Crop!" So fall photos, pumpkin patch, apple orchard or a visit to the farm layouts were eligible for entry for the contest!

I knew just what to work on for the Best Journaling win as I had a terrific story to tell of Andrew's first visit (or non-visit) to the pumpkin patch! I worked on the layout the weekend before the crop as I wanted to incorporate some current trends using some mixed media products like modeling paste, glass beads, liquitex inks and templates and I didn't want to bring all of those items with me. I love how the layout turned out. Lots of detail in the title and groupings of embellishments. Thanks to Mellisa for listening to me work it all out!!!

And I did it!! I won for Best journaling on a layout!!! Yahoo!!!! I couldn't be happier, I won the overall layout contest last October so I am now 2 for 2!!! (yes, I am bragging, but this is my blog so I am allowed to!!) We were in the middle of Vicki Boutin's fantastic Mixed Media class (which I love and will post pictures of it as soon as I am finished it!!) when Christy Riopel and Sue Sykes interrupted the class to present our prizes. Stephanie won best overall layout so it was doubling exciting to win with my friend!!

This is one of the funniest moments Allan and I have experienced as parents! We love having this great story to tell!

I cut the word "patch" out four times using my Silhouette SD and simply layered them on top of each for dimension and interest. I also made the "P" playing card using a "print and cut" image from Silhouette and covered it in glossy accents for shine and dimension.

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Tinted modelling paste and the punchinella CW template and tinted glass beads with lines pressed in to form the ridges in the pumpkin.

My awesome gift basket full of scrapping goodies! I can finally open it now that I got the pictures taken!

It was a really great girly, scrappy weekend and I can't wait for Scrapfest Kitchener in April 2012. I know Sharon and Natasha are going with me and I hope the rest of the girls are going too!!!

Thanks for looking!

Spooky Halloween Canvas - Part Deux

2011-09-28T09:48:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I was able to finish my two companion 6x12 canvases for our new Halloween wall decorations!! It was fun to do! I used a few different paint colours and finishes i.e. flat and metallic paint, as well as some Tim Holtz Distress Stains, and Glimmer Mista and Glams and Glazes.

I first painted the canvases and then created a stamping subway art block with various acrylic stamps and heat embossed with clear embossing powder to use as a resist on the canvas.

After I heat embossed I sprayed a light layer of black Glimmer Mist over the whole canvas and let it dry just a little and then wiped the canvas down with paper towel to reveal the resist. I did this a few times until I got the colour saturation I wanted.

Then I sprayed the whole canvas with Krylon "Workable Fixative" to seal the glimmer mist and to prevent smudging and smearing when I Glimmer Glammed the canvas.

I then used Glimmer glaze for a fine shimmer on the Witch / Skeleton and Glimmer Glammed the frame for a larger, chunkier glitter effect.

I used Glossy Accents on both the frame and the witch / skeleton and called it done!!! I love the results!! So much fun!!

Thanks for looking!

By the way, I cannot figure out why Blogger is rotate some of the images and not the others.....*sigh*....

Spooky Halloween Canvas....

2011-09-18T11:10:00.001-04:00

Decorating the house for holidays and celebrations is really something we all love to do around here. We really love Halloween at this house! My husband and I spend hours, and I mean hours getting the outdoors ready for the big night!! We have 5 huge rubbermaid containers full of decorations and props and buy more and more every year. We are the "Griswalds" of Halloween. Our neighbors across the street are almost as crazy as us but can't quite keep up!!!

So, in wanting to add some spooktacular to the inside of the house I decided to create some of my own decorations using some of the new techniques and products I have learned and bought for my new love of art journalling, "She" art canvases and mixed media canvases. It was a crop weekend at The Scrapbox this weekend so I sketched out what I wanted to do and got to work.

I first cut all the images for the canvas using my Silhouette SD Digital cutter. I gesso'd the canvas using black gesso and then used a few shades of purple acrylic paint, glimmer mist, and Distress stains to create the purple night sky. I used some black glimmer glam on the bottom to create some shine and sparkle. I then altered the house, tree, and graveyard scene with some black Staz-on ink, Distress stains, crackle paint, glimmer mist, and clear embossing powder stamped images. I sprayed the items with a fixatif so that the glimmer would stay put should I try to do any other altering as the stains and mist are not permanent and they will smudge or rub off if you try and paint or brush anything on top of them.

I used a piece of packaging for the "windows" and coloured it yellow with a copic marker and placed a piece of chipboard behind the "glass" to make the windows look lit up from inside in two of the windows to add some characted and depth. Thanks Jenn for this idea!!! I stamped some black images of a chandelier and a candelabra in two of the windows and used a rub-on of a skeleton for the front door.

I used some black painted cardboard to pop-up the graveyard scene for dimension. I also left parts of each image not glued down to the canvas to add dimension as well. This really adds interest to the canvas. I stamped a iron fence on the graveyard scene using clear embossing powder and added a spider web to the top left corner and little stamped images of some of the tombstones.

I absolutely love the finished result!!!! I had a terrific time at the crop and got to share and trade lots of Halloween goodies with my crazy scrapping buddy Sha-Nasty!!! lol (She has crazy amounts of Halloween goodness!!!!) I am working on two additional canvas to add to the decor so stay tuned!!!

Balzer Designs - Stencil 101 Free Class

2011-09-12T10:46:00.001-04:00

My good buddy FF blogged about a free on-line class this morning and I wanted to share it with you too!! Julie Balzer from Balzer Designs will be hosting the online classes (8 sessions) using her new Crafter's Workshop stencils (which I LOVE) beginning on Sept. 19, 2011.

For more information click here! You need to send her an e-mail for class access!

Here is a peek of what will be created!!!!

So looking forward to this!

Creative Scrappers Sketch Challenge #172

2011-09-10T08:50:00.004-04:00

I couldn't get to last Sunday's sketch until last night. My youngest turned 4 on Monday and we had 23 people for dinner on Sunday night!! And then school started on Tuesday and the week flew by from there...

Here is the sketch...

And here is my layout...

On the last Friday of summer vacation, myself and two other friends and their kids headed to the beach....it was glorious day of sun, sand and relaxation!!! I kick myself now for not heading there more often...hmmm, maybe we should pack up and go again today....it was just so much fun!

I picked up a boatload of AC "ZING" embossing powder on one of the daily steals a few weeks back (amazing score, lots of great colours and finishes) so I tried a couple of powders out to mimic the large circle from the sketch as I didn't really want to lose the background image of this Bo Bunny paper. I created two slightly overlapping circles to add some dimension without being too distracting. I also ripped a border sticker from the sticker sheet that comes with the paper pak on each end to make it look like "washi tape". I love the result!!!

Happy weekend and thanks for looking,

Creative Scrappers Sketch Challenge #171

2011-08-31T07:49:00.001-04:00

While looking for a scrapbooking challenge for my friends and I this past weekend I decided on this sketch:

My addition to the sketch was to use bright and summery colours or pictures as it was a very gloomy, rainy Sunday with the effects of Hurricane Irene hovering in the skies.

I really love the "Hometown Summer" by College Press for Pink Paislee line and was happy to use up some of their more pink and feminine elements so I scrapped some of my scrapping buddies enjoying Dairy Queen ice cream at a crop one Saturday!

Thanks for looking!

FINALLY!!!

2011-08-25T15:04:00.003-04:00

It's happening....ALL toys are leaving the family room!!! ALLELUIA!!!! It has been almost 7 years since my lovely family room was invaded by toys, baby chairs and playthings etc.... My husband and I decided at breakfast that the kids have a HUGE playroom in the basement and spacious bedrooms and that it was time to reclaim the "Family" room!!!

Since our house is an open concept home toys on the floor in the family room creep to the kitchen, eating area and front hall quite innocently but it drives me bananas! Lego is moving upstairs so I don't have to step on it and injure myself on those sharp little pointy blocks anymore.....

The boys seem to be embracing it too....we will see how long it lasts but the storage shelves and containers are leaving today....

This is before with small toy bins...

And after with Griffin's dog bed in place....our boy is getting old and can't manage the stairs anymore so he is sleeping downstairs by himself now.... :(

A Road Trip mini to share....

2011-08-22T14:36:00.001-04:00

With all the rain this weekend I actually had some time to scrap!!! We recently went on an impromptu trip to Burlington to meet our new nephew(who is the cutest new baby!) We had also planned a trip to Marineland with a few of our friends and family! There were 4 adults and 7 kids ranging in age from 3 to 8 so it was a busy day!

Thanks for looking!

apparently Summer is sucking up all of my time....

2011-08-20T08:52:00.000-04:00

and I am not creating much to share with you!!

Actually, I have been doing lots of art journalling but I can't show you anything....maybe get something started today but I think I am simply going to continue to play with the kids in water as we have been doing all summer long....

Hope you are all having as much fun as we are!

"Superhero" canvases...

2011-07-24T11:13:00.001-04:00

I was at the Scrapbox this weekend with my peeps working on some canvases for my boys. They told me that the "Monsters" and "Space" ones were "too babyish for us mom"!!! lol They are 3.5 and 6.5!!! So I played around with some "superhero" shapes and words and completed two very similar (so they won't fight over them) canvases but are different enough for each of my boys.

I had lots of fun experimenting with Liquitex "Glass Beads" textured Gel (OMG!! I freakin' love this stuff) and Liquitex "Liquid Acrylics"!!! Thought I could avoid those little inks but Sha-Nasty showed me the error of my ways and I AM SOLD!!!

Thanks for looking!

So ya, about my new addiction....

2011-07-17T17:35:00.001-04:00

Never would I have believed that I would love MIXED MEDIA art journalling, canvases or anything else so much!!! It feels so good to get dirty and creative! I should have known really....I am a completely messy scrapper!!! lol Piles and piles of stuff strewn about while I create but then I am terribly anal about cleaning up between projects. I like to start completely fresh with all my supplies back their appropriate places!! (Complete Type A personality).

Last week I was cropping with my scrappy friends at the Scrapbox and a few of us decided to mainly work on our versions of Christy Thomlinson's "She" art canvases. If you are looking for an intro into canvases or mixed media or art journalling this is really a great place to start. Now I will admit I was very skeptical at first but decided to give it a go and give it some honest effort. It was hard for me to get all the videos watched at the same pace as my fellow online classmates but I got it done and was really happy that I did. I can't show you my first foray into this crazy new world as I did it in my friend Katie's art journal, remember the circle journal group I joined, so it is a secret until we are done all 12 journals and have a big reveal.

Back to the canvas, I don't particularily enjoy the "she's" but I was able to transfer all that I learned to create other types of themes. Sharon was the first to show us her Robots and man, I was completely blown away!!! Great idea!! I knew my boys would love something similar so I gathered some supplies and got to work!! The canvases below are all ones I have done this week!!! I have plans to do some Star Wars and Harry Potter for my eldest son this weekend at another crop at the Scrapbox!!

Thanks for looking!

hOLY cRApoLi!!!!

2011-06-30T13:56:00.000-04:00

I have joined an art journal circle group recently and I completed my first journal entry this morning!!! I was sooooo nervous about doing this and watched in admiration my friends start on this creative journey with a little awe, and a little envy that they could simply "let go" and create.

I am a planner, an organized, type A, follow the rules kind of gal and this idea of just creating something "because" was pretty foreign to me...

I decided "What the hell"!!! School's out for my kids so why not me? I am in, I committed to doing a journal entry for 11 others. I am ready! I am prepared!! I AM EXCITED!!!!

We are supposed to be keeping all the artwork a secret until it is revealed at the end of this journey but I am in such a rebellious mood today that I am writing about it for all of my readers (not that there are that many) to see!!!

This is what I did for the 2nd and 3rd pages of my journal. It is a representation of the most sacred people in my life. My husband and two sons. All you need is love, to embrace and celebrate the good and be there when you are weathering the bad. I am keeping the very first page a secret until my art journal buddies see it.

Happy Canada Day!

Thanks for looking!!!

End of school Teacher's gifts!

2011-06-18T15:28:00.000-04:00

I had such a great time creating my boys Christmas gifts for their teacher's this year that I started planning the end of school gifts a little early just to make sure I could get it all done!

I can't take full credit for this idea as I saw it on www.tipjunkie.com. I did alter the design of the label to suit me. I created the label/card in MS Word and cut an apple from my Silhouette SD for some added interest and reference to the teacher theme.

The card reads "thank you for quenching my thirst for knowledge!!". I put two single serving packages of lemonade in each cup. Each cup was $5 at Loblaw's and the pck of "Country Time Lemonade" was $2.99 for 10 single servings. I used scrap red cardstock for the apple and reg. comp paper for label and matted it on scrap navy cardstock. It cost me about $25 for 4 gifts! Perfect in my book!!! I always want to give a useful, practical gift and these cups are such a new trend that I had to do something with them!

Thanks for looking!

Not gonna happen....

2011-06-09T09:36:00.000-04:00

My last post was all about the excitement of the Donna Downey event at the Scrapbox....well, the event is over, excitement fizzled pretty quick and the projects will most likely never see the light of day or hit my blog.... :( Oh well, I can say I was there!! That's something, right??!! As always the company was AWESOME!!!! And the girls more than made up for the disappointing classes...this is just one scrappy girl's opinion though...you will hear lots of ooohing, ahhhing, and gushing from some others...just not me!!! Now back to scrapbooking, that's where my passion lies!

It's Down and Dirty with Donna Downey time!!!

2011-06-03T15:00:00.003-04:00

Woo Hoo!!! The day is finally here that Donna Downey is coming to Ottawa to teach the girls of The Scrapbox all her tricks! Stay tuned for some pics after the event!!!

My Mind's Eye Blog Challenge #23 - updated

2011-05-15T13:15:00.003-04:00

Well, I didn't win! Waiting for the next challenge to be posted!! Who's going to join me??

It's that time again....The monthly MME blog challenge and they have an amazing prize pack! The winner will receive three ENTIRE collections of their choice and the honorable mention winner will win one collection of their choice!! Can't beat that!

Here is their sketch for this month's challenge....

Blog Challenge #23 due May 19, 2011 (My Birthday!!! Hope that gives me some extra luck!!!!)

And my layout....

Jason enjoying the spring weather

I made all the flower and circular embellishments on this layout. The journalling spot and flower above it I made using my Silhouette SD digital cutter. The fabric rolled flower I made using the new Cosmo Cricket Gluber (are ya happy now Jenn??!! *wink*) and the layered paper rosette using my bone folder and paper trimmer groove. I made the layered circular flower using two sizes of circle punches and then hand trimmed one of each size circle and distressed the edge to hide some of my not so perfect trimming! Moral of the story is that I used 5 floral or feminine elements on a page of my little boy enjoying the downspout of rain coming off the roof!! Who knew??!! lol

I also want to mention that I used the new IMAGINISCE I-bond cordless glue gun to make the layered rosette and adhere the glazed brad to the top of the fabric flower. This is such a handy little tool! I love that there is no cord to mess around with and it heats up fast and I use rechargeable batteries so it isn't costly!! I am so pleased with this purchase!!

Thanks for looking!

National Scrapbook Day - Mega Crop for the Cure!

2011-05-09T13:51:00.001-04:00

After weeks of preparation from prizes, donations, challenges, logistics, layout kits, to seating arrangements and you name it, the weekend came off amazingly well in my opinion.

Jenn and Adrian worked really hard planning the hard stuff for this event and deserve a HUGE round of applause! Stephanie was faced with the challenges of the seating plan and if anyone has ever planned a wedding, you know how gruelling this can be and that you can't please everyone!!! *wink, wink* Tammy held down the fort at the Scrapbox and I bet they all had a good time too!!

Adrian was hosting the crop to raise funds for her entry fee to walk in theWweekend to End Women's cancers. She told us that in 6 yrs of participating in the walk, her and her team have raised over $115,000.00!!!!! THAT IS SIMPLY AMAZING!!!! You guys rock!! Poor Adrian had to walk 22km on Sunday as well as part of her training after such a busy weekend!!!

Me and almost all of my peeps, bitches and biotechs got to sit together and we made sure to share our excitement with everyone!!! Unfortunately, not everyone seemed to relish in the crazy excitement as much as we did...oh well, what can you do, put 25-20 people in a room and it will get loud....doesn't matter who it is or where you are!

I had a blast getting all the challenges completed!!! Yes, that's right folks, I did them ALL plus half a mini book for my mom for Mother's Day.

There was two colour challenges, a recipe challenge, a sketch challenge and a Bingo challenge. I don't have pics of the recipe challenge Mother's Day card I made as I have already given it to my mom but it had 15 different elements that had to be used on one project. I had shared my ideas with some others before the crop and heard a little protesting that it was too hard, too many things....NOT TRUE PEOPLE!! The spiteful girl in me said, "I will show you" and so I put them all on a card!! (I will have to get the card back to blog it)

This was a colour combo challenge - mauve, blue, yellow, green, orange and pink!

This was a single colour layout - PINK - for Breast Cancer awareness (I added the pink and green flower today as I wasn't allowed as per the challenge on Saturday :P )

This was a challenge issued to Katie's FB friends to do for the crop! I was really happy she picked a double! ;)

And this is my take on the above sketch!

This was the sketch challenge - Use any sketch from Pagemaps Oct. 2010 seeing as October is Cancer awareness month.

Thanks for looking and I hope you were able to get your scrap on this weekend too!!

Toot! Toot! My first publication!

2011-05-02T10:13:00.000-04:00

It's here the May edition of Scrapstreet Magazine!!! It's my first publication of any kind so I am thrilled of course!!! And the best thing is they approached me to use my layout in their online magazine! I was very flattered of course and agreed right away! Have a look at my adorable son selling apple's for his Beaver Troop!

Apple Day Layout. Scroll down, it is the 2nd layout on the page!!!

You can also keep on scrolling the next pages looking for my good friend Kate Vickers's submission as well. I suggested she submit her fabulous family tree layout and it was picked up too!! We get to share the excitement of our first publications together!!!

She is on a roll folks!! First this, then she was picked as winner for the Little Yellow Bicycle sketch challenge last month (thank you to all who voted for her) and most recently she was named Guest Design Team Member at Inspired to Scrap!! Yeah Kate...I can say "I knew you when...". Congrats again to you!

Thanks for looking!

Easter weekend in pictures...

2011-04-25T19:39:00.000-04:00

What a week...what a weekend....Jason was sick for most of last week but he perked up just in time for a 4 day weekend. We had lots of fun activities planned and were able to do most things but we didn't make it to the movies...kids were pretty keen on seeing "Rio"...Jason wasn't up to 2hrs at a theatre so maybe next weekend?! Unfortunately I was flying solo as Allan had to work Friday -Monday but he did get home in time last night for dinner so at least we had that!!!

I took 183 pictures in 3 days and managed to shoot some really fun ones! We dyed eggs...let me tell ya, I was a little nervous having 5 containers of dye that really stains open and available to Mr. J but he did ok...one spill but I thankfully had a plastic tablecloth on my table....

getting it all setup

how pretty is this little vignette?? I crack myself up planning for my scrapping!

waiting for the eggs...

so cute!

poor guy had a fever of 103...he did really well

loving this Dollarama find from last year....very handy!

We also made an Easter Bunny gumdrop cake for dinner last night with the family! My boys love, love, love to cook!

Maybe all that yummy batter has something to do with it!!! lol

the finished products...

Easter egg hunt mania has begun....

We spent a ton of time outdoors too!! The weather was really good! Lots of fun with bubbles (thanks Aunt Jess) and lightsabres and soccer balls! I am sure glad we were outside most of the weekend because it is supposed to rain right through until next Saturday.... :(

Always happy.... :)

so is he....especially outside!

Andrew was pretty invested in this lightsabre duel!! lol

Jason discovered he loves basketball

some soccer skills practice...

serious cuteness right here!!!

Hope you all had very memorable Easter weekends too!!

"Blood...it's in you to give." A very special favour to ask...

2011-04-21T20:18:00.000-04:00

In honour of my little friend Gavin I am sending out this plea. Many of you know that I had a very special little friend Gavin. It would have been his 7th birthday tomorrow.

Gavin, while in hospital. Those necklaces on his neck are made up of "Bravery Beads", can you believe it, he earned EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE BEADS for having undergone a needle, a scan, a chemo treatment, etc....

He was in fact our very own Superhero for you see he had courageously fought a long, hard battle with two very rare blood diseases, LCH and HLH. He underwent a Bone marrow transplant at 3.5yrs old and we thought he had beat it, but the symptoms re-occurred and another Bone Marrow transplant was needed when he was 5. Sadly Superhero Gavin earned his angel wings in November 2009 at only 5.5yrs old. During his courageous battle there were many times when a transfusion was desperately needed and was not always readily available. I am hoping by sharing this story with you, you will understand the importance of giving blood. The following is an email I received from his mom today....

"Hello my friends. As we approach Gavin's birthday tomorrow, Don, Tyler and
I have been remembering all the smiles Gavin brought to this world. One
other message we learned was the importance of donating blood and being a
part of the One Match Bone Marrow registry. This year, instead of
organizing blood drives on specific dates in Gavin's memory, we are
encouraging people to call 1-888-2DONATE to book an appointment that works
for you! We are also challenging you to spread the word - try to find
someone who has never donated and share with them the benefits of being a
blood donor...

*         Apparently, only 4% of the population can actually donate....

*         One in every two Canadians will either need blood or know someone
who will...wouldn't you hope someone has taken the time to donate if it's
you who needs it?

*         And as we've all heard....it's in you to give......
Even if you cannot donate, you can help - encourage others to donate, go
with them, mind their children so that they can go.....

If you'd like, you can mention to the receptionist when you check in that
you are donating in Gavin Shaw's memory, as we have a 'Giving for Gavin' Partners
for Life group set up with annual goals and commitments for donations.

Thank you to our friends and family for sharing in this important mission!

Tracie, Don, Tyler and Nicholas"

I hope you are able to help my friends in their continued efforts to educate others in the importance of donating but also as mentioned to maybe simply help others to donate. I would gladly offer my assistance to anyone who needed a ride, babysitting or simply hand holding if this is something you aren't comfortable doing alone.

I really miss my little friend and maybe we can help other little superheroes just like him. Thank you.

Scrapfest - Recap - Part Deux....

2011-04-14T11:52:00.001-04:00

So I think I left off at the end of Day One. Kate and I were troopers! We cropped from 10am-midnight. With a small detour for lunch and out for Boston Pizza for dinner.

We got to hotel around 12:15am crashed hard but I was up and in the shower by 6:15am as there were two of us in the room and had to be in a class at 8:30am. This was way too early in my opinion for a class but we are so dedicated we got there with no time to spare. We were taking the Vicki Boutin 7gypsies mini album "For the love of Junk". It was an awesome class! Totally different look than I usually gravitate too but perfect for my Mother's Day gift to my mom. My parents travelled Italy last fall and their pictures will look great in this album!

We left the class around 12pm after some picture taking and chatting with Vicki.

Vicki and I

Kate, Vicki and I

Mr. Fancy Pants came to the cropping area and did tons of giveaways!! I got one of those super cute little Fancy Pants aprons that he is modelling!! I love the colours! The ladies really gave the poor guy a hard time...they seemed a little excited to have a young man in their midst!!! lol He and Miss Fancy Pants did tons of demos at the SCT interactive studio! It was awesome! I just love their new release "Beach Bum" and bought ALL OF IT!!!! Yeah!!!

Jodi and Jared - Miss and Mr. Fancy Pants

These are the rest of the layouts I did on Saturday. I did some more shopping!! SO WORTH IT! You really should try and go in October in Oshawa!! I know I am!

This Andrew, about 4 mos old.

Jason, watching Andrew play soccer. Just love this photo. Hard to see but some of the stars are popped and lots of glossy accents. I journalled on vellum, hard to see in the picture.

I had a super weekend followed on Sunday by some brunch with some of my girl cousins and new little cousins. I love you girls and miss you tons!!! Can't wait for the summer to meet Mair's new little bambino and get all the littles together! xo

Heading to the Scrapbox to crop this weekend with some of my favourite ladies!! See you tomorrow!

Scrapfest 2011 Kitchener - Recap

2011-04-12T09:29:00.002-04:00

What a weekend! It was great from beginning to end! I thoroughly enjoyed my 6hr drive all by my lonesome to Kitchener....cranked the tunes, sang, and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon. I arrived at 9pm and the sun had just gone down...perfect! (Except for the lone walk through creepy parking garage - totally freaked me out!!!)

If you look closed you can see that I have layered my glasses underneath my sunglasses....felt like an old lady driving like that....think it's time for some prescription sunglasses!!! lol

Went to bed pretty early to be up with the birds at the Aud for 9am....I was so excited I was there by 8:40am!!! lol I got in, went up to the registration desk and Sandra from Scrapfest said, "Hey, I recognize you! Heather from Ottawa, right??" Did you hear that folks? I am famous!! tee hee!! She recognized me from my profile pic on FB!!! lol

Got in line with some crazy ladies who obviously haven't learned the fine art of packing for a crop!! Lisa (owner of Scrapfest) was bringing people's stuff in on big dollies...crazy!!!

Lisa Sales Furtney - Owner of Scrapfest. working hard!!

Kate arrived and we anxiously waited for the doors to open. We got there early as we wanted to grab the ends of the table....no need to worry though, there ended up being only 4 of us at a table for eight!! SWEET! Our tablemates Heather and her mom Lorna Lee were the perfect companions!! They are from Brockville so I am sure we will meet up again!! Hopefully in Oshawa in October!

There were lots of great prize draws, a couple of Cinches, Bigshots, lots of G/C, misc prize packs!! Really great prizes but I came home empty handed...BOO!! lol

I entered two layout contests. One was the "Flower Power" challenge. Pick any song title or lyric from the 1960's and scrap it! I chose "Please Mr. Postman" by the Marvellettes. I decided to scrap about my fun relationship with my postal carrier, Wolf. We are on first name basis and I get sooooo excited when he pulls up with a new little package for me. This layout totally cracks me up!!!

I used my Silhouette to cut the shapes for the postman and a very chic and svelte version of moi!!! lol Never done that before....was a lot of work but fun!

The other contest was sponsored by Scrapbooking & Cards Today. It was a Becky Fleck sketch challenge. I love how it turned out. Catherine (from SCT) decided not to judge the contest this time as there were so many entries and did a random draw. It was a bit of a letdown for some, there was some really, really good work done!! It was really cool to see all the different takes on the sketches....lots of little ideas are percolating in my head!!

My friend Kate and her entry for the sketch challenge

Here are some of the other layouts I completed on Friday...Day 1...

As long as I have know my husband Allan he has had the ability to fall asleep ANYWHERE (even in his roast beef dinner! see above) and now it seems that Jason has inherited this trait as well!!! lol

Little Yellow Bicycle sketch challenge from their blog....I just love "Twig"

I think this is enough for today...I have tons of housework to do having been away for 3.5 days.....

One more sleep....

2011-04-06T15:33:00.001-04:00

..... and I am on my way to Scrapfest!!!

Woo Hoo!!!

Started my preparations today! I am a secret "Girly Girl" SSSSHHH!!! Don't tell anyone, k? I went for a mani/pedi today....got some delicious "Black Cherry Chutney" put on my nails! It is my signature shade of OPI!

Got my scrappin' bags packed with some extra little items that snuck in my crop bag while I was at The Scrapbox yesterday. Speaking of the Scrapbox and yesterday....it was my first official act as Jenn's unofficial and frequently fired/rehired PA (personal assistant not be be confused with Pain in the Ass)!!!! I think I did ok, answered a giggilion calls about the upcoming Donna Downey event (Yeah scrappers of the Scrabox, how lucky are we?!) took a call from Belgium (of course this call came in when Jenn wasn't there), surprised Jacquie Z. when she called and greeted Kimberly, Adrian and Susan gleefully with "Everything is on sale 50% off! (this was Lou Lou's idea, not mine, so fire her!!! lol). I enjoyed myself and would do it again! lol

I think I am really good and organized for my trip. I get three whole nights away from my babies....have 2 suitcases packed for each kid as they are staying at both sets of grandparents while I am away. I am pretty close to having myself packed clothing wise, just waiting on some laundry to be done....

I made up a bunch of detailed project kits over the last couple of weeks and have even sketched some ideas and notes for each kit! My good scrapping buddy Kate is meeting me there! We are doing the crop and a Vicki Boutin class we are really looking forward to although it is at 8:30am in the morning on Saturday. I am meeting up with some of my girl cousins and kids on Sunday for brunch and heading back! Wish me good driving and lots of great scrapping friends....CAN'T FREAKIN' WAIT!!!

Little bit of this, little bit of that....SCRAP! SCRAP!! SCRAP!!!

2011-03-21T14:25:00.000-04:00

Headed over to my favourite scrappy place, The Scrapbox on Friday and Saturday to do some cropping with my scrappy peeps....I probably did a whole lot more socializing than scrapping but managed to complete three new layouts, one being Natasha's "St. Paddy's Day" challenge! Probably my favourite of the weekend. My good scrapping buddy Sharon a.k.a "Sha-Nasty" as I like to call her, challenged me to another one...stay tuned...I am going to have to be very creative with this one - only white cardstock allowed, no patterned papers or other cardstock, any kinds of embellies and pictures. ACK!!! Only white cardstock...not part of my vocabulary!!! I love to layer papers....gave myself a week to get this done.

Linda, Dawn, Natasha, Sha-Nasty, Cathy were there and of course Rachel, a.k.a. FF,came on Saturday too! YEAH! Poor Cathy, she is dead to me now as she scared the living daylights out of me on Saturday morning.....*sigh* I used to LOVE her.......

Natasha's challenge - use green, the word "Lucky" and a shamrock (can you see mine - I hand-stitched it!)

Just one of Jason's many talents, lipstick application!!! lol

Jason's hangin' in the pool in Cancun

Thanks for looking!

Hello Cutie Challenge Blog - March photo challenge

2011-03-20T16:38:00.000-04:00

Hello Cutie Challenge Blog ('member Rachel is on the DT over there?) posted their 2nd challenge today. It is a photo inspiration challenge... take the photo and be inspired! Whether it's by the colors, the elements, or the way things are arranged.....make something!

Photo Challenge picture

I used the photo provided as a sketch for my layout!! I really LOVE it!!!

Thanks for looking!

Just a couple of layouts...

2011-03-16T13:53:00.000-04:00

Been hanging out a lot at the Scrapbox lately....I was there all by my lonesome last night and it was quite enjoyable. I completed one dble layout with products from the "Dear Diary" kit from Noel Mignon. Her kits are AMAZING!!!

And one more using Imaginisce papers. I copied their idea of paper candles and hand rolled them myself and finished them off with some simple string. Way more cost effective to use my scraps that pay for the pre-finished ones, they weren't cheap!! lol

Andrew and Allan's b-days are one day apart...lots of celebrating!

Thanks for looking!

Hello Cutie Challenge Blog - March colour challenge

2011-03-12T16:03:00.001-05:00

Whew!! That's a mouthful for sure!! lol

Two posts in one day??!! I completed the colour challenge for Hello Cutie this afternoon after bribing my kids with three new colours of Jell-o playdough (so easy to make and smells just like sorbet). This colour palette was a total stretch for me but I loved it! My good friend Rachel is a part of the design team at this new challenge blog. Any excuse for pink makes me happy with 3 men in my life!!! lol

These were the colours in the challenge! CRAZY!!!

And this is my layout!

Thanks for looking!

Scrapbooking and Cards Today - Summer Calls

2011-03-12T09:42:00.002-05:00

Scrapbooking and Cards Today put out their Summer Calls this week and there was a great sketch challenge using one of Becky Fleck's sketches to get a chance to have your layout published in their summer issue. I was at the Scrapbox last night with a few VERY CRAZY women (OMG, you seriously wouldn't believe the topics discussed last night!!!) and completed my take on the sketch.

Becky Fleck sketch

And here is what I did, I rotated the border strip part of the sketch to accomodate my portrait photograph instead of the sketches landscape one. I used tons of Glossy Accents on each flower in the border strip, on the "Remember" die-cut words, scrolls and edging as well as edging on the bracket border. The little dots are Viva dimensional Glitter-Liner.

my interpretation.....

It took a second glance but make sure you do because My Mind's Eye "Stella and Rose" Hattie is simply devine!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT and bought a whole lot of it!!!!! lol

Thanks for looking!

One Scrappy Tuesday....

2011-03-09T15:46:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned to you how much I *heart* that The Scrapbox is now opened on Tuesday??!! I really am soooooo happy about this! It is my husband's day off so I can escape my normal "mom" routine and do a little scrapping and some chatting at the Scrapbox. Yesterday Rachel FINALLY made it out on a Tuesday and we had a great afternoon.

I did another layout with "Twig" from LYB....I just love this product line. Works so perfectly with some backyard photos from last summer.

Jason playing in Gramps' rock pond

The other layout was a long overdue of Andrew's first swim! He loved it of course. Apparently I make fish babies because both of my kids really took to water, fast, like from their first bath. Any time they cried and I couldn't figure it out, in the bath they went.

Andrew's frst swim and he borrowed Gramps' hat!

Thanks for looking!

Layouts to share...

2011-03-06T08:10:00.002-05:00

It was a fairly hectic week as usual!! I managed to get two layouts done but hopefully might be able to do more today. Not too sure, have some groceries to do and meals to make for my folks who are returning home from a month in the sunny south and it's looks like they are going to get a pretty snowy welcome home!!! lol SERVES THEM RIGHT FOR LEAVING ME HERE!!! lol

The first is a layout using LYB's "Twig". LOVE, love, love this line. LYB's paper just feels so good, you know? The texture is awesome and such a huge range of embellies.

Cousins playing in my parent's rock pond.

The second is a layout based on this month's blog challenge on the MME blog. First prize wins THREE complete lines of their choice!!! How cool would that be??

My Mind's Eye - Blog Challenge # 21

My mom opening her gift in Cancun. She turned 70!!!!

PS You can't really see it in the picture but I "Glossy Accent"ed the heck out of this thing....every stitch line, the flower centres, the leaves and stems, the little tag at the bottom....it looks SO COOL in person.

Better go and get those kids fed and dressed....Dad's at work so it looks like we have a lot of shovelling to do!!!

Thanks for looking!

Layouts from "A Cherry on Top" online crop challenges.

2011-02-27T17:02:00.001-05:00

I was given a HUGE gift on Friday when my Father-in-law called and said he wanted the kids overnight Saturday to go skating and tobogganning. YES!!! YES!! THANK YOU!! (In fact I even said, "I Love You" to the man...now if you knew my sometimes rocky relationship with him you might wonder!) I spent the day yesterday with my BFF Jessica in the States and then watched some TV last night and today Natasha came over to crop! Yeah!!! Perfect weekend!!!

I completed two challenges from ACOT on line crop and here they are:

Challenge #1- use song lyrics and artist on a layout

Challenge #10 - based on white cardstock, use 1 picture, doodle/stitch around picture, use black/grey and ONE other colour and use a quote. My other colour was white....

I love how they both turned out and were completely made from my stash (except for a piece of charcoal scrap from Natasha!! thanks!)

Thanks for looking!

Productive Friday evening with the girls at the Box!

2011-02-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

Whew!! Finally got out of the house after 10 days home with a sick little guy. I headed to the Scrapbox for a late night crop. It was a pretty quiet group last night, some of the "usual (distracting) suspects" were missing but Natasha was there so I was happy!

I happily scrapped away and managed to get some more trip layouts created! I love them! Yeah!!

Hope you do too!!

Had a very scrappy week! Feels good!

2011-01-31T09:54:00.000-05:00

Phew! I finally got scrappin'!! That was the longest break I have had in a while. I got 5 layouts done this week and it feels great!!! It really helps having some great photos from our trip to work with!!

Got the itch to do some more today but I never know how my day will go!! Hopefully Allan will give me some time tonight seeing as how we haven't seen him all weekend!!! (yeah, that sucked!)

Don't ya just love that tree!!! I know I do!

Scraplift from 2peas....I had to do it!! LOVE this layout! the footprints were my only idea!!! lol

Another lift from 2peas....

My favourite scrapstore owner told me late Saturday night amongst all the giggles and head shaking with Stephanie, Jenn and I that I should scrap Allan and I on our trip, so here ya go!!

Sunrise picks from our first morning in Cancun

All my boys on the beach! This layout was fun to do!!! I just forgot to journal before taking my pics!

Thanks for looking!

Cancun 2011

2011-01-17T12:33:00.002-05:00

This is what I saw when I looked out on the patio last Sunday morning....

Wasn't it just so beautiful...The boys and I saw the sunrise our first morning in Cancun....so cool to share this moment with them.

View from our Ocean view walkout patio - sun not up yet!

Sun just peakin up on horizon

Stunning, right?

Start of a glorious holiday

so excited to start of family holiday - sunrise a beautiful sign of things to come

We had a freakin' jacuzzi tub on the patio overlooking the beach and ocean!! DIVINE!

Just chillaxin'

Night view at main pool - there were 5 at this resort!

Photo taken morning we were leaving - impossible to get everyone looking at camera. We took like 50 shots!! lol

Despite 3 really stormy, cold days (16-20 degrees weather) we had an amazing family holiday in Cancun, Mexico with my whole family to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday!

Teacher's Christmas Gifts

2010-12-16T17:02:00.000-05:00

I saw this super cute idea after Christmas last year and have been patiently waiting to do it all year!! I LOVE how they turned out!!!

What do you get when you put a whisk and Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses together?

Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses

Whisk

SUPER CUTE TEACHER'S GIFT!!!

I KNOW!!! Totally cool gift, eh????

Merry Christmas Teachers!! Thank you so much for taking such good care of my favourite little people.

12 Tags of Christmas...

2010-12-06T10:53:00.001-05:00

Who knew that I would be joining the crazy world of "Tom's Tags"!!! (Just kidding! I know his name is Jim, oh, I mean T!M!!! little inside joke!!! lol)

I called Jenn, chief bottle washer and cook, at the Scrapbox, last week and said, "I really think you should do make 'n takes this weekend and every other weekend coming up of Tim's 12 Days of Christmas! I was so excited!!! I really don't know what came over me!

Now, you should all know that I have barely any of Tim's supplies. I am going to slowly make purchases based on NEED, not WANT!!! You hear that you MF BB MF PP selling friend of mine??!! ;) tee hee (actually more like ROTFLMAO!!!!)

At the crop on Saturday Karen so graciously decided that we could all use her ticket stamp which started a flurry of activity pulling together to gather all the misc items to make these

In the spirit of this wonderful Christmas season, Jenn donated the felt, the distress re-inkers and expertise, Karen the stamp, I donated the clear embossing powder and heat gun and we all got to work. Kathy let us use her ink for the Tag 2 and I am sure there was more that was missed but it was a total group effort and it felt so good!

Then we decided to make this tag, Day 2. I don't have any metal birds kicking about, go figure, so I will improvise...just not sure how yet....I also don't have a huge selection of ribbon, gasp - the horror - so will have to figure that out to...pretty good looking tag though....

This one is Tim's Day 5 tag...

And this is my take on his tag with different supplies on hand....

pretty please with my interpretation

Well, thanks for looking!

Christmas Scrappin'!

2010-12-03T10:36:00.001-05:00

I got my Noel Mignon - Bedford Falls kit yesterday and was so excited I ignored my kids (wink wink) after supper and I played with they got into all the tree ornament boxes and made quite the mess but who cares, I was scrapping!!!

I have been taking my December Daily pictures as well so hopefully I will get it all done!!! I love CHRISTMAS!!!!

Andrew was thrilled to get his very own camera 3yrs ago! I was pretty happy to that FP came out with these babies as he was always stealing my camera, mind you he is a pretty talented little photographer I was scared of him breaking it!!!

Heather

Edited* Had to add some faux stitching in the dark green circle and the word "My" to the title....

Imaginisce Blog Sketch Challenge for November

2010-11-17T14:27:00.000-05:00

Yep, another sketch challenge!! I love doing these! I get a lot done this way and get to try new stuff that isn't always "me"! 75% Imaginisce product usage is required.

I used the WRMK "Sew Easy" tool on this layout and it was super easy! I really see myself using it a lot!!

Thanks for looking!

Some layouts from this weekend...

2010-11-15T12:24:00.004-05:00

It was the third anniversary crop at the Scrapbox this weekend and this are a couple of layouts that I did. I did complete more but have to tweak them slightly and then take pictures.

My Mind's Eye - Blog Challenge 17
used my Silhouette for the large ornament and Christmas traditions title. I also gave Melissa Frances german glass glitter a try....very messy and a little frustrating but BIG impact.

These pictures are from an impromptu playdate with the cousins, sans Andrew as he was at school, on Thursday! I have to say I am loving that I am using my silhouette again (acorn and tree branch).

I had a lot of fun at the crop!! Thanks Sugartits!!! ;) ;) lol

it is a sad day indeed....

2010-11-14T12:24:00.001-05:00

when I learned that I can't refer to Rachel as my F#$%Face on my blog anymore....the cursing is blocking my blog for some of my readers and as I only have a handful, I have edited the swearing and she shall be only referred to FFace in all future posts....sniff, sniff!! Oh welll..... ;) This just means I will have to call her her nickname a lot more in real life....

Some M@$%#$@ F%$@#&# scrappies and more....

2010-11-09T08:56:00.007-05:00

I had totally planned on surprising FFace by showing up at the Melissa Frances class held by the Scrapbox on Saturday but she got the better of me and I caved and let her in on my little secret! And I was pissed!! Really, I tried so hard to surprise her but I couldn't....oh well....

I really enjoyed the class!! I am not a fan of vintage at all...well, didn't think I was! That was until it dawned on me that I indeed was a lot younger once and that maybe my "vintage" baby Christmas photos would look awesome in this album. And they do!! I can't wait to put it on display for our friends and family who will be gathering here for brunch on Christmas day and 33 for dinner on Boxing Day (but that will be another post for sure).

can't rotate this picture for the life of me ....sorry...

My sister, brother and I - 1981
My Aunt Jean and I - 1972

Apparently I was a big fan of sitting on Santa's knee, in fact, I remember this picture being taken and I was so unhappy about it!!!

Trying on my auntie May's shoes!!

Me - 1973
My sister and I - 1977 ish

Me - 1974 ish
My sister and Grandpa - 1975 ish

check out my crazy plaid pants!!!

This is a layout I did last night of me and my boy Andrew using the Noel Mignon "Dear Diary" kit!!! If you don't know about her, you need to really check her out!! Her kits are amazing....so full of so much stuff!! Honestly, they are the best!!!

Thanksgiving 2010 - Oh, how I love this boy....he is truly wonderful.

Thanks for looking!

witchy woman....

2010-11-02T21:07:00.002-04:00

I love Halloween! Perfect excuse to be witchy if only for a little while...insert witch cackle here...

I went shopping with FFace this morning and bought some lovely scrap goodies and couldn't wait to crank one out!

Thanks for looking!

Judges Award photos

2010-10-31T07:34:00.002-04:00

A little late in getting these but Lisa from Scrapfest was kind enough to send them to me last night!! I can't wait to scrap them....I can use pink....and I got me some lovely new "Restoration" from Crate Paper that just might work....

Catherine from Scrapbooking and Cards Today

H

ETA: Scrapped the layout this morning while my boys were distracted by their cousins who were here for a sleepover...

Thanks for looking!

Scrapfest Oshawa October 2010

2010-10-23T18:02:00.000-04:00

I have been wanting to post this all week but sick dog, two sick kids and life got in my way.

Scrapfest was great! Kate and I had a great time despite the lack of sleep and food. That was the only problem...no food provided and very hard to come by. That part sucked actually. We got up early on Saturday morning to hit the grocery store and bought a veggie tray, some apples and some hummus and pita to keep us going. Sleep was very hard to come by. Between Friday morning and Sunday night I had only had 7hrs of sleep....not enough!!! I was still pretty chipper as usual but Kate got a case of the grumpys! lol Sorry Kate but it's true!

There were tons of door prizes, random draws and contests, the prizes were pretty good too. I entered two of the contests, the Scraplift challenge-Scraplift any layout from the current "Scrapbooking and Cards Today" and the "Fall leaves me happy" layout contest sponsored by "Scrapbooking and Cards Today". The scraplift challenge was random draw and it wasn't mine name drawn but I WON THE LAYOUT CONTEST!!! HOW COOL IS THAT??!! I know I am shouting but I was so pleased!!!! Yeah me!!! lol The contest was judged by Scrapbooking and Cards Today. Apparently my layout will be featured on the Scrapbooking and Cards blog. I will have to keep checking that out! There was a 2nd part to this contest that was People's Choice too.

So here the creations I completed at Scrapfest Oshawa 2010! Thanks for looking!

Beaver "Apple Day"

Idea from Viginia N. of Scrapalicious

Thanksgiving 2010

Winning layout from "Fall leaves me happy" contest

Scraplift Challenge

Imaginisce October sketch challenge entry

2010-10-23T17:20:00.002-04:00

I found this sketch challenge over on the Imaginisce blog and decided to give it a go using their "Apple Cider" collection. Very hard to get it complete with two sick kids this week and not able to shop for 75% more IMAGINISCE product. lol Wish me luck!!

I found this perfect apple tree in my Silhouette images and hand cut the leaves from some more of the "Apple Cider" collection.

Going to Scrapfest tomorrow!!!

2010-10-14T12:48:00.000-04:00

Looking forward to a weekend of scrappy goodness with my girl Kate!! I hope she doesn't start any fights at this crop, but with Kate, you never know....

More scrappies....I am a scrappin' machine lately....5 more days until SCRAPFEST!!!

2010-10-10T11:05:00.006-04:00

I went to a neighborhood crop with Kathy M. yesterday. Was pretty good, literally 2 minutes from my house which is very fortuitous for me as my baby brother (28) who was babysitting, texted me with the following, "I don't do poopy pants" bahahaha!! I had to run home and change Jason and hurry back!!! Too funny!

Got three good layouts done....it was good! Not as much fun as the Scrapbox of course but nice to be so close to home....we need a scrappy place in the West end for sure..

Jason's 2nd birthday last year

Jason helping his dad in true Jason fashion....hockey boots, pull-up and soother!

My 76yr old dad riding my nephew's new bike down the road at Winton's birthday party!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for looking!

whew....finally all caught up on Halloween pictures...

2010-10-09T07:52:00.000-04:00

...ready for this year!!! Got some yummy new product from "Echo Park"! So cute!!

These pictures of Jason were taken in 2008, he was only 13mos old! I found this shirt that said "Little Wild Man", how perfect is that??? lol

I crystal lacquered the monsters, the title the border on the journalling spots and stickle to green border and orange star. I have to tell ya, I am totally diggin' the crystal lacquer!

Thanks for looking!

Before and after.....

2010-10-06T17:18:00.001-04:00

Bought myself a fancy new i-rock heat setter and crystals from the Scrapbox with my earnings from the garage sale!!! Probably never would have bought such a thing but wanted to splurge on something fun!!! And boy is it fun, let me tell ya.....I am freakin' addicted!!! I love bling....yep, it's true....probably why I worked in a jewellery store to put myself through school (the 2nd time). I love shiny, sparkly, glitzy things!

I worked on this layout on Monday night and had only added bling to the skulls eyes but decided to go crazy with some stickles and more bling on this dreary Wednesday afternoon!

Thanks for looking!

ps Wanted to add that the skull and swirls were all pre-printed on a "Fancy Pants" overlay which makes it even more shiny IRL (in real life)!

BEFORE

AFTER

Minor adjustment...

2010-10-04T10:02:00.000-04:00

Felt like the "Waterboy" layout needed some tweaking. It doesn't really show up well in pictures but I put some Glossy Accents on all the swirls inside the circles and added some "Dew Drops" above the title on the right. I think it looks more finished now.

More layouts and some rambling....

2010-10-02T16:19:00.002-04:00

I have to tell you....I think I can finally say it out loud....sorry Burlington peeps but I just don't miss it anymore....We have been back in Ottawa for a year and a half now and it was so hard at first. I really missed my girls and family there but not so much anymore.

Now, of course, before she goes all "RAVEN" on me, I TOTALLY MISS YOU JEN!! I CAN BARELY COPE WITHOUT YOU ;) ;)

And Kate, well, you know I love ya and can't wait for our weekend at Scrapfest - 13 days baby!!!

I do still miss some of the old gang, but you know what, that dynamic has totally changed, in fact, some of those people changed (or maybe I just finally wised up, probably the latter actually.....). Luckily for me I perservered and "put myself out there" and have made some truly wonderful new friendships!!! You know who you are!!!! But if you don't it's you, yes you!! Jenn was the first.... I was sooooo excited to find her store the "Scrapbox" I was tripping all over my words on the phone and in person (I KNOW she thought I was totally kooky!! lol) Then next came Stephanie, she is just such a sweet person, very, very welcoming. And then she introduced me to some of her peeps....Rachel, my FFace, you da best; and Katie, you are so funny, I am giggling thinking of your flipping off the poor school kids!!! Lord woman, I think you might need a chaperone!!! lol And to all the rest of my "Scrapbox" friends, I love spending my "time away" with you, all of you, even the "nutters" ROTFLMAO!!!! *wink, wink*

These are some layouts from the crop yesterday! Thanks for looking!

Some layouts to share....

2010-09-30T14:35:00.000-04:00

As I am prepping my stuff getting ready to head to the Scrapbox tomorrow to hang out with my scrappy friends for the night (thanks mom - you are the best!!!) I thought I would share some layouts from the last crop!

Can't wait to see I get done tomorrow....thinking maybe a mini....because I hate minis so it would be challenge for me and you know, I LOVE CHALLENGES!!!

It's "Wiggles" time once again!!!

2010-09-14T10:53:00.002-04:00

WOO HOO!!! Call us crazy but we are soooo excited to go and see the "Wiggles" again!!! For the 3rd time! Yep, that's right....3rd time!!! We are a "Wiggly" family, that's for sure! Sitting in the hopefully, very swanky, VIP section *wink, wink*....forgot about tickets and went to do groceries with Jason. Remembered at 10:20am after tickets were already on sale and had to race back from Barrhaven and order the tickets. Only got 7th row, last time we were 3rd row, but oh well, kids won't care and I have a big ol zoom lens so it will be awesome!!

Now, I know some of you find the "Wiggles" annoying, but they are totally worth the money LIVE!! They really put on the best show! We have seen other shows, Diego, Backyardigans, but they are nothing compared to "the Wiggles". Andrew loves Murray and Jeff pronounced Jiff with an Australian accent and Jason and mommy love Anthony!! ;)

Whew!!! What a day!

2010-09-12T09:54:00.000-04:00

Well, I am pretty glad that yesterday is over and done with! That little terrorist of mine, Jason, decided that 3am was a perfectly reasonable time of day to rise and shine! And let me tell you, he shines!! All the time, the kid is perpetual happy and upbeat no matter how much or how little sleep he has. He has always been this way. Actually, Andrew too. I make happy babies, thank goodness, because if I had gotten any of those whiney, crying babies, I would have "returned to sender"!!! For reals.....lol

Of course, the day Jason decided sleeping was optional coincided with the same day that I was to babysit my friends little darlings!! Of course! It is always that way, isn't it? ;)

The kids were great, all of them. They are used to playing together, although usually at the beach! They are our beach buddies!! They dragged a variety of "IMAGINEXT" playsets upstairs and had an epic battle involving the Space Shuttle launcher, Dragon Castle, Gorrilla Jungle and Pirate Ship!

Who knew all these playsets could be used all together so harmoniously?? lol

Parents came just after 5pm and brought supper so that was a definite bonus for sure!!! It's their turn next time and Allan and I are already planning our escape!!!! Muhahahahahah!!!

First day of Nursery School!

2010-09-08T12:29:00.000-04:00

Well, the time has come! FINALLY!!!! tee hee! Jason's first day of nursery has arrived! He is very excited to be starting school just like his big brother!

We got all his stuff packed in his bag and picked out some yummy snacks! (on a side note, this is the first time I have heard of having to provide snack for pre-school....it was always done by the school before!!!???) Anyway, back to Jason and less whining from me......

He picked out a "Transmormers" aka "Transformers" backpack and a "Lightning McQueen" lunchbag. He definetely knows his characters!

My good buddy Rachel was giving me a tease on FB this morning about my 1.9 hrs of freedom that I would have three afternoons a week! Seriously! That is all I get!! Between being the bus for two different kids at two different school, 15min apart, that is all I get!! And, I pointed out that in the wintertime, it will only be 1.75hrs!!!! oh well, better than last year!

OOOPS!

Wanted to also mention a very big birthday wish to RACHEL!!!! Happy Birthday FuckFace!!! xoxoxo

We are being invaded and under attack!!!!

2010-09-05T10:24:00.001-04:00

AAAAcckkkk!!!! What was I thinking??!! We under under attack from a variety of talking characters this morning!! Jason is being thoroughly spoiled as is appropriate for a little guy's birthday!!

Autobots, Roll Out!!!!

Bumblebee, faithful member of the Autobots!

Megatron, leader of the Decepticons and all-round grumpy dude!!!

There is a battle brewing at our house but I think that the next toys Jason is about to receive will whip these Transformers into shape!!

Buzz Lightyear

Woody

My baby is turning 3 yrs old tomorrow!!!

2010-09-04T08:10:00.000-04:00

So my "baby" Jason is turning 3 yrs old tomorrow!! How does this happen? Where did 3 yrs go? I really can't believe it! We were so excited to welcome a new little boy to our family! Andrew was such a great big brother. He welcomed Jason with open arms and a loving heart, no jealousy at all.

We are having "Toy Story" birthday tomorrow with a "Buzz Year" cake! Can't wait to see the little guys excited face when he opens his gifts to find a talking "Woody and Buzz"

I took these pictures yesterday and they make me laugh so much. Jason desperately wanted to help Dad take out the garbage whether he was dressed or not! Enjoy!

What a crazy little dude - pull-up, soother and "hockey" boots on wrong feet no less!!! lol

Tuckered out after a busy day. Sleeping is about the only time you will see this guy still!

Under construction

2010-08-25T20:48:00.000-04:00

Very new to this whole "blogging" thing!! Trying to figure it all out! Thankfully Rachel got me all fixed up after the chaos I created starting this out on my own!