That Thing You Do

Even though the girls are in so many dance throughout the competition season.  The days of competition are so rushed between work, and school, that I often don't get photos of all their costumes.  This is where other moms, and the studio directors come in, they often catch a group shot that I wasn't around for, and this is one of those photos.

This photo totally encapsulates the feel of the dance they did too.  They danced to The Wonders "That Thing You Do".  Such a catchy little tune.

I finally broke out my Evolution Advanced die cutting system by WeRMemory Keepers, and put this gorgeous Heidi Swapp file to use.  Just love how it's literally her hand writing.  It totally compliments the Pink Paislee Citrus Bliss collection too.

More hidden journaling.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the story is the most important thing on my layout.  All the layeres and ephemera in the world don't make up for the story behind the photos.  Years from now all the "stuff" on my pages will look old and dated, but the story will be as relevant then as it is today.  With so many untold stories that died with my mother, I am fiercely passionate about documenting the who, what, when and where behind my photos.

If you still haven't managed to get your hands on this collection, be sure to stop by the Paper Issues shop.  Use code: SHERRI at checkout to receive 20% off everything in your cart!

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Tap Fun *Paper Issues*

I am in love with the Rise & Shine collection by Amy Tangerine.  When I set all the papers from the collection out on my desk I instantly thought that a pie chart would allow me to show off a number of the fun designs all at the same time.  I toned down the contrast in my photograph, and chose the woodgrain background to help the colours in the collection pop.

I created templates of my pie charts to make it easier to replicate this design in the future and added some machine stitching for texture.  

 These teeny tiny phrases are adorable.  They come in a package of 8 sheets, two in each colour.

Recorded my journaling on a tag from the ephemera package. 

 I think epoxy stickers may be one of my new favourite embellishments.  They're like mini flair buttons, fun, with a little less bulk.

As always 3D foam adhesive for the win!

Have you played with this collection?  I had a few friends play along with me today on the Paper Issues blog.


At Paper Issues we love to see how our members are using their purchases, we even put together entire blog posts dedicated to link ups every Friday.  Remember you can also tag us on Instagram and Pinterest too, simply by using #paperissues.

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Pink Paislee & Pagemaps Partnership

The lucky girls of Pink Paislee had the opportunity to partner up with the super talented Becky Fleck this month for the June Pagemaps sketches.

Here is the sketch I worked with:

Here is my take on the sketch, created using the Pink Paislee Atlas Collection.

These photos were taken just before these girls took the stage for their Hip Hop Duo.  They looked amazing, and so much stronger than last year, that I really wanted to document it.  It's fun to look back, and see how much how girls grow in their dancing skills from one year to the next.

 I just love the look of typewritten journaling on vellum.

 Just because a collection is travle based, doesn't mean that it cannot be used for everyday type projects as well, this layout is a perfect example.  The puffy stickers and ephemera packs have plenty of versatile pieces in the collection.

I have been loving playing with the Insta Kits as part of my regular layouts.  One of these days I'll have to actually try using it as an actual kit for this super adorable Atlas Mini album I have been hoarding.

Cute right?  And I just love the cover of it.

I would encourage you to pop over to the Page Maps blog to see how the rest of the team knocked it out of the park with Becky's sketches, and the Atlas Collection.

Thanks for stopping by today friends!

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On Pointe

I have been holding onto this photo that my daughter snapped one day while watching her friends practice before Pointe class.

This photo perfectly sums up why it is that so many little girls want to grow up to become ballerinas.  There is just something so attractive about pretty, pink pointe shoes.  Pair them with a beautiful tutu, and we're sold.

The colours in the Paper Camellia March Kit are so soft and feminine it was finally time to scrap this memory.  I used some 3D adhesive to pop the tiny close up photo off the page, and added a little chipboard butterfly and gemstone to embellish it, making it stand apart just a bit.

I am a sucker for seam binding , and love the Ria includes it so frequently in her kits. Here all I did was weave a piece of thread through it with a needle and gathered it a bit creating a pletes.   I used my sewing machine to stitch it down.  I am only sad that I did not place it a little further down from the base of my photo, I miscalculated how much of the pointe shoes would be covered once the ribbon was stitched down.  Live and learn right?

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Spring Around Here

I had a layout up on the Fancy Pants blog a few days ago, and wanted to share it with you here too.  My task was to create a "Spring" themed layout.  For many Spring means sights of tulips, and daffodils, and budding trees, with signs of new life emerging all around.  Here in the middle of Canada, however, Spring looks more like Winter than it does like the beginning of Summer, and in our home it looks even more different.

I live with 3 competitive dancers. Spring around here brings signs of super full schedules, innumerable dance classes and practices, cheque writing, costume fittings, 3 big Dance Competitions, a few hundred photos, and a million little things in between.  

I decided that it was time to create a bit of a keepsake to remember the craziness with which Spring begins for our family, so I grabbed, just a handful of photos from the 3 month experience, and the newly released Office Suite collection and set to work.

I knew I wanted a large title on my layout and these cardstock letters from the Office Suite collection were perfect.  To add a little more dimension to them I added some hand stitching with embroidery floss.

When I have a longer story to tell, I love to do it by running vellum through my typewriter, and laying it over a co-ordinating piece of patterned paper.

As beautiful as projects of traditional Spring are, with all their pretty colours and whispers of Summer on the horizon, I know I can't be the only one living in a climate where Spring is more of a thing that seems to arrive overnight and be gone 2 weeks later.  I hope you have been inspired to create something beautiful to document what Spring looks like in your corner of the world.

Thanks for popping in today friends!

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Tap Solo

For the past few years my girls have all been competing in different Dance Competitions.  I always buy the photos (yes, I'm that mom), as they don't allow you to take photos of videos during the competitions, and I just know how much I will love looking back at these in a few years.  Should they ever have a family of their own, I'm sure their kids would get a kick out of seeing these photos too.

This was Eden's first year competing in the Solo category, she was invited to perform a Tap Solo. She was so darn cute in that little outfit (that her male teacher hand selected for her), she had a bright smile, and performed so well.  She grew in confidence from the first competition in Regina to the last one here in Winnipeg.  What a treat it is to watch the girls perform, and shine with confidence as they do.  We will forever be grateful for all they have learned and how much Kickit Dance Studio has played a part in growing their confidence, and character.

These sweet Shimelle paper from Paper Issues, are so soft and sweet.  They worked nicely to document my girl.

You get your hands on this collection, and so much more in the Paper Issues shop.  Use my code and save yourself 20% off your entire order.

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The Scholarship

I've been wanting to scrap this photo since the day she received her scholarship.  Happy to be sharing the story and the layout with you today.

Our Théa had a wonderful Dance year in 2014.  Competition was once again a joy to attend, watching her "do her thing".  This year she was fortunate enough to win a scholarship for her Hip Hop Solo.  It was pretty fun listening to the adjudicator offer her his feedback.  He was practically gushing over her waves, he had so many wonderful things to say about her solo, my heart was bursting with pride listening to him recognize my girl's talent.  This photo was taken the evening of the Gala awards and show.  The show is filled with numbers from throughout the three week competition, all of which were top marks recipients, or adjudicator's choice.  Each scholarship has 3 recipients, but only 1 of of those are asked to perform in the Gala evening.  Théa was the lucky one chosen in her category.  She looked amazing and performed her solo perfectly.  It was a great way to end the competitive season for all of us.

Isn't that background paper awesome?  Especially for those, who like me, love the distressed look, but have never really gotten the hang of achieving it on our own.

I was a little surprised at the size of the burlap bows when they arrived.  I thought, somehow, that they would be smaller.  It just required a little "thinking out of the box" to figure out how to fit it into my design.  A simple 3/4" glue dot is all that I needed to tack it down to the page.

If you haven't yet, you can still get yourself some Burlap & Bouquets goodies here in the Paper Issues shop.  Use code:SHERRI and save yourself 20% off whatever you choose to order.

Thanks, as always for stopping by, have a great day friends!

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She's A Star (and a free cut file)

For weeks I had this idea for a welded start background in my head.  It took an evening to finally figure out exactly how I wanted it laid out, and then another few weeks to actually use it.  It's kinda how it goes during Dance Competition/Recital phase of our lives.

I do love the way it turned out, and as I was creating it, I knew this would be the photo I would use it with, backed with some Doodlebug vellum.

The photo is of Théa at the end of one her days at the Canadian National Dance Championship. She won a few things that day, including a judges choice award for her Hip Hop Solo, 2nd Place for said solo, and 2nd place for her Hip Hop Trio.  It was a good day for this kid.  The hidden journaling says all that.  The title is less of a quote of my personal opinion, and more a direct quote from none other than Mr Sean Cheesman himself when we attended a Dance Conference where he taught last november.

I thought perhaps some of you may like access to this fun background too.  Here is the background.  

I've also created the internal offsets for you too if you're interested.  You can find both here in my Dropbox.  Please use to your heart's content, I'd love it if you would simply link back to me though.  Enjoy!

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends!

ETA: as requested here is a V2 version of the file (I hope it works, as it was created in V3).

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Something Wonderful

I am loving the new Wonderful Collection by Teresa Collins.  I think it's the colour combination that I like best.  If you were to look through my most recent layouts you would discover that I scrap a lot of pink, aqua, white, cream, and yellow.  This collection has all of those colours, but also has bold reds, and blacks.

Aren't those enamel shapes the best?  I especially love the chevrons.  I need more of them in my life.  And that striped paper, just begged to be made into a giant chevron, I wish I would have ordered two pieces of that one.  In hindsight I see that the sticker journaling is a little hard to read along the bottom, it reads "they make me so very happy".

Still loving pinwheel emebllies.

I just love this photo of the girls.  So often we get asked if they are twins, and here I can see why people may think so.  I loved this costume, and this Jazz routine!

Love the collection too?  Use my code to save 20% off your next Paper Issues order.  Or any Paper Issues order for that matter, any time.

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Ready For The Stage

I was so proud of Eden as she tackled her very first Dance Solo ever this past April.  She was fortunate enough to be given a Tap Solo, for which she worked really hard to nail all the choreography she was giving.  When she took the stage she was shining like a diamond.  She had all the personality of a seasoned dancer, and me smiling from ear to ear with pride.

Here she is preparing to go backstage.  It was an early morning start for her category, and I think she was happy to have at least one other Kick It dancer there to help calm her nerves.  Jasmine is not only a ridiculously talented dancer, but a total sweetheart, I think her calm, and self-assuredness helped Eden to remain calm, and focused during their pre-dance prep.

I used a mask and some gesso to add a little more texture to the background paper.

I just had to add the label maker phrases by October Afternoon, they were perfect.

My love of hand stitching made a come back on this one too.

I have been loving all the past new releases by Fancy Pants Designs.  I loved cutting up the patterned papers, and layering all the bits and pieces of the ephemera package.  One of my favourite embellishments in all the new collections are these Library Cards & Pockets.

I think they are perfect for not only adding colour and design to the layout, but also for recording the story behind the layout, without having to really incorporate it into the design of the layout.

You can get your hands on more Fancy Pants products right here in the Paper Issues shop.  If you use my code you'll save 20% off your entire order, who doesn't love to save a little money?!

Thanks so much for stopping by today friends!

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Sneaks & Peeks

I have some sneaks for you friends, the June Scraptastic Kits are being boxed as I type.

This Life Noted Kit: Summery colours galore.

Sail Kit full of water themed colours and embellishments.

Best Day Of My Life

my fave this month with woodgrains, pinks, and mint greens.

You can check out previous kits here, and sign up for your own subscription here.

thankful for the short work week here, as we are still a couple of weeks away from finally wrapping up the Dance year.  The girls are smack dab in the middle of their last competition.  I've got a couple of those pix to share with you.

Eden: Tap Solo

Théa & Eden Jazz Line

Isabelle: Jazz Line

Isabelle: Lyrical Line

Théa & Eden: Tap Line

Théa: Tap Small Group

There are over 400 photos, these are from among the first 100 I have sorted through.  I'll have more to come later on.

Happy Tuesday friends, and thanks as always for stopping by.

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Creative Scrappers Reveal

Sketch #268 has been revealed today.  It's so fitting that it fits right in with my recent circle-obsessed scrapping.  The design was a good one for this recent set of photos I got of Théa and her sweet friend Haley.

Amy Tangerine Plus One papers, and embellishments

 Used some pop dots to help give a little dimension to the design.

The stitching also helps to add a little more visual interest to a flat design.  I just love my Amy Tangerine stitching templates.  And how cute are these girls anyway?

We have so much love for Miss Haley, we just love it when she comes over.  I can still remember encouraging Théa to over and say hello to the cute little girl playing at the sand table in the Kindergarten room.  Here we are 7 years later and they're just as close as ever despite being in different classes over the years.  Their love of Dance will likely keep them close for a long time to come.

Here is Jenny's sketch

Playing along this month will earn you a chance at a prize from our sponsor My Creative Scrapbook, you have until May 31st to link up your projects.

Hop over here for more inspiration using this sketch from the Creative Scrappers DT. Pin It