Christmas Smiles

Over the past couple of years I've have become more diligent about including more "real life" pages into my scrapbooks.  I want my scrapbooks to reflect a good sense of what life was really like for us through these years.  So often it's easiest to scrap the happy occasions, and fun moments and memories.  But, that's not all life is made up of over the course of the 365 days of the year, and I really want to be able to look back over the years and remember all that life was really made of: the good, the bad, and everything inbetween.

This photo of the Darwin and I brings a mix of emotions to my mind and my heart.  This past year was not all that we had envisioned for our family.  There were some ups, and many downs for both of us, but especially in his world.  This photo of us standing strong alongside one another, at this emotional time of year is such an example to our kids of what a healthy marriage is all about.  Not perfection, but love, and respect, and support in all seasons. It doesn't mean everything works out perfectly in the end, but is sure helps to sail the rough waters.

This photo and all the emotions it holds will find it's place among my Christmas pages. The joy of Christmas is ultimately found in HOPE, great big LOVE, and FAMILY, and I am so happy he's a part of mine.

The Silver & Gold Christmas set is such a beautiful compliment to the colours of the Pink Paislee Merry & Bright collection.  

I love how classy, and elegant they are.  The others in the set will likely find their way onto a New Year's Eve page in the very near future.

You can get your hands on these and other Christmas flair, including several new vintage styles in the A Flair For Buttons Etsy shop right here.

This will be my last post before Christmas, so on behalf of me, and my family, I wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas season, in hopes that family will be at the center of it all. Pin It

On The Slopes

Who would have ever guessed that the Funks would have become a ski family?  It's only too bad that we live so far from the mountains?  It's one of the major reasons why living in Calgary is a dream we have.  To be able to wake up and be on the slopes in just over an hour would be such a treat.  Not sure if it will ever happen for us, but we can always dream.

I found a way to use us some older A Flair For Buttons badges and combined them with the Oh Deer Collection by Fancy Pants and created a winter themed layout.

Seeing this photo makes me even more anxious to get my gear on and get back out there. here's hoping that we may be able to get back to Banff at some point this year. 

Thanks for stopping by today friends! Pin It

It's a Hop!

Welcome to the A Flair For Buttons/The Cut Shoppe blog hop.  We are so glad you are joining us in gathering some fun inspo using two of my favourite scrapbook go tos, flair buttons and cut files. Both Ashley and Shelley create fun and easy to incorporate designs.

I loved this Cross My Heart background cut file the first time I saw it in The Cut Shoppe Etsy store.  I had this photo of my two guys waiting to be scrapped, and this worked perfectly.  I was itching to create a black and white layout too.  I had picked up these paper from my local LSS a while back so it felt good to pull them out and finally put them to use.

 Needless to say our Toy Poodle is more of a toy than a canine in our home :)

 Ashley created some super fun flair that worked great with my chosen colour scheme and design.

I think I will always be a sucker for camera, and heart flair, and this sweet button has both those elements.

For my 2nd layout I really wanted to use this photo my oldest daughter got of my youngest daughter and I.  it was somewhat of a candid as she was just testing out the settings of the camera before the guest of honor arrived at the wedding shower we were helping to put on last weekend.  The soft, feminine tones of the Girl Flair, and the Freeze Frame cute file were a perfect match.

I really can't believe how quickly my girls are growing up.  This one looks more like 13 than she does 11.  I've learned that "they" were right all along, it really does go much too fast.

Now for the fun stuff:
1. Just for hopping along with us today Shelley at {aflairforbuttons}is offering 10% off all orders with coupon code:BLOGHOP2014.  In addition to those savings Ashley at The Cut Shoppe is offering 25% off her cut files with coupon code: SAVE25 (both discounts valid between November 21-28).

2. Leave a comment on my blog post and/or any/all blogs posts in the hop and you could win the awesome black and white flair set created by Ashley Horton.

3. Leaving a comment will also put you in the running to win at $15 gift certificate to The Cut Shoppe.

WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON THEIR RESPECTIVE BLOG ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27TH.

You can see more {aflairforbuttons} designs here.   You'll find all of Ashley's cut files in her Etsy shop here.

There is more inspiration waiting for you along the hop, here is the list:

Els Brige

Amy Coose

Diane Payne

Gina Lideros

Sherri Funk <<< you are here

Allie Stewart

Mary Ann Maldonado

Stephanie Strader

Katrina Hunt

Missy Whidden

Daniela Dobson

The Cut Shoppe

A Flair for Buttons

Thanks for hopping along, good luck and happy shopping!

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Oh Deer **Product Spotlight**

It's that time of the year where the sights and smells and sounds of the Christmas season are making their appearance all around us.  As the Christmas collections were being revealed the Oh Deer Collection by Fancy Pants made the short list in my books for cutest collection.  There are so many sweet elements to it I just had to create a project designed to use as many embellishment pieces as possible on one page.

This page using tiny prints of each of my girls showing off a favourite gift from last year allowed to me use a combination of several pieces from the button set, the ephemera pack, and the 6x6 pad.

How about you?  Have you started on your December projects?  Would you like a chance to win some of this collection for yourself?  If so, hop over to this post on the Paper Issues blog, and leave a comment telling us what your favourite holiday movie is.  One winner will be chosen to receive this collection of goodies courtesy of Paper Issues.

Winner will be announced in my next Product Spotlight blog post on the Paper Issues blog on November 26th. 

This is the first of several Christmas projects I have completed over the past few weeks.  I have been keeping a little secret, that I'll soon be able to let you in on *wink*.

In addition to this cute collection, there are still several Christmas collections available in the Paper Issues shop. Use code:SHERRI to save yourself 20% off your goodies.  And remember all orders over $60 prior to discount ship for free within the US.

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Summer so far

Happy Friday friends,

I certainly hope you will forgive me for how absent I've been around here lately.  It seems like this past year has only gotten busier, and busier.  I thought that things would slow down when Dance Competition and recital were finished.  I was wrong.  I have finally come to believe that this is just the way our life is going to look for the next season.  Summer looks a little different than I thought it would so far this summer, beginning with my heading back to work 5 days a week.  It's been about 10 years since I've done that, and let's just say I'm pooped.  My hats off to all you full time working moms out there, it is no joke spinning so many plates at once.  The girls, on the otherhand are having a wonderful summer thus far.  I'll be picking the youngest two up tonight from their grandparent's home out of town where they've been staying for the past week, as they attended an Art Camp hosted by the super sweet, and maga talented CD Muckosky.  And Isabelle has spent the week with her friend at the lake for the past 7 days.  It has been so quiet around here.  You'd think I would love the quiet, but it's honestly just a tad too quiet, especially these past 2 nights with Darwin out of town too.  No puppy shadow following me around, no fighting, and reminders to pick things up around the house...makes me truly thankful for the sometimes craziness that is my family.  I am blessed to be a wife and a mom, as tired as those roles and their duties make me at times, I couldn't be more happy to fulfill them.

On to my layout.

You may recognize these photos, as I've already scrapped one of them just recently.  Because I get so few photos of this particular child however, I am using every opportunity to scrap and re-scrap the few good ones I get.  That, and they matched the papers from the July Either Way Scraptastic Kit so well.

Had a lot of fun using my new sewing machine on this one.  There are so many lush patterned papers in this month's kit that I had to find a way to use as many of them as possible on one single layout.

With so many patterns, I needed the title to pop off the page, so I used some 3D adhesive to make it happen.

The Scraptastic stamps are always so fabulous, and reliable, no practice stamping necessary, they always work the first time around.

There you have it, a little personal update on my life, and something fun to set you on your way for the upcoming weekend.  Have a great one friends!

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My Love

Finally broke into my box of Adrianne Looman goodies she sent a couple of weeks ago.  I also received these cork flair buttons from {aflairforbuttons} last week.  I seriously love these buttons. I could use them over and over again on layout, after layout.

I have been dying to try out these quilt like squares I've seen around the scrappy world for a while now.  What I really wanted to do was cut each 2" square into 4 pieces and sew each one onto the cardstock.  But for the sake of time (which seems in short supply at this time of year around here), I decided to do it this way, by only cutting each square in half on the diagonal, and overlapping them onto colour coordinated papers.

I really like the way the white & cork combo grounds the multi-coloured themes of the patterned papers.  This layout makes me happy, it was a nice date night with the hubbs just last week, great food, good conversation, and a few laughs as always.  Makes me happy to document it with pretty papers and flair.

Thanks for popping in today friends! Pin It

Little Dude {aflairforbuttons}

Popping in to share a page about the totally spoiled Canine in our home.

Wilson became a part of our family in April 2009.  I am a woman who learned almost promptly after having my first baby to "never say never".  I was never an animal person growing up, and never saw myself with a dog, but alas here we are.

He's smart, super cute, and totally loveable.  The fact that he allows us to dress him up, put props on him (especially at Christmas), and take pictures is just an added bonus.

As soon as I saw these woodgrain flair buttons in the {aflairforbuttons} Etsy shop, I knew I wanted to use them on a simple white background page so they'd pop.

I knew I needed to add a little more dimension to my page to balance out that of the flair buttons, so I used my Amy Tangerine stitching template, and my sewing machine to add a little tone on tone stitching, and voila, done.

I hope I've inspired you to create today.  Perhaps there's a pet layout in your near future.  Did you grow up with a four-legged love, or perhaps you're partial to another type of animal these days. Whatever it is I'd love to have a peek.  You can tag your projects on FB and/or Instagram with #aflairforbuttons and the team will be sure to see it.

Sets used on my layout:
Woodgrain 1
Here & Now

Thanks for popping in today friends! Pin It

Together

Happy Saturday friends,
Sherri here, with some everyday inspiration for you.  I love 'around the house, everyday moments' types of pages.  They are probably what make up the majority of my scrapbook.  They are, afterall the majority of what life is all about in between the big events like birthdays, anniversaries, recitals and such.

So when my daughter grabbed my phone from me while we were just laying together sharing some downtime one day last week and snapped this photo, I knew it would make it's way into my albums.

I used the March It's My Life kit Add On from Scraptastic for this one.

The Home2 Flair set was perfect for this layout.  I've been saving it for just such a layout as this.

I typed up my journaling on an elle's studio tag and tucked it behind my photo.

 The title was cut with my Silhouette Cameo.  

The March Scraptastic It's My Life Add On kit can be purchased here.  There are so many elle's studio tags in the kit, it was hard to even make a dent in them, despite having so many on my page.  Good bang for your buck I'd say.

As for the flair, Shelley has so many flair sets that would be perfect for documenting the everyday including this brand new Chalkboard Day In My Life set.

Have a wonderful weekend friends, now go and make some 'everyday moment' kinda memories.

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School House Rock

Here is a layout I shared on the Chic Tags blog the other day.

I was so happy when my girlfriend emailed me these photos of Eden.  This was her first day of Kindergarten 6 years ago.  She has always loved the camera...anybody's camera apparently.  These photos so wonderfully capture her sweetness, and spunk, and most of all her sheer excitement about FINALLY getting to go to school like her older sisters.

I've popped dotted one of the Photo Toppers, right over the File Card here, as well as the Mini Icon. The file cards are my absolute favourite Chic Tags product.  I considered making this one removable so I could include my journaling on it, but decided I liked the look of it sticking out the bottom of my paper strip too much.

 Another Photo Topper here, backed with one of the pennant stamps from the co-ordinating stamp set.

 A couple of the sweet hashtag stamps here.  I love stamping right onto my photo.  I find that Rangers Archival ink is the best ink for that.  And that strip of ruler paper is actually the top portion of a Mini Tag.

And the rub ons...oh the rub ons.  I'll be honest I gave up on rub ons years ago.  I gathered up the whole lot, including my pricy rub on tool and gave the entire bunch away at a crop several years ago.  I was tired of them cracking, and not coming off the backing nicely, and then leaving you with a mess to have to fix up on your layout.  But these rub ons....these are lovely.  They come off so nicely, and cleanly (the red stars and "FIRST DAY" are rub-ons), I found myself wanting to use them more and more as I scrapped the other night.  Veronica and Albert have done a wonderful job providing the industry with top of the line product all along, and these are no exception.  Each of the new collection has a co-ordinating package of rub ons.  Oh and that wonderful atlas flair is from A Flair For Buttons Etsy shop.

I was given these photos in June, and have been saving them until now to scrap them with the School House Collection I think the wait was worth it.  You can find the entire School House Collection in the Chic Tags store.

If you're interested my first post for A Flair For Buttons is up today.  Here's a little peek for you.

You can see the rest here if you'd like.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you leave inspired to create something beautiful!

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Goodbye Cre8tive Cre8tions

Andrea at Cre8tive Cre8tions has been on busy woman, and with that means not enough time to dedicate to a design team to show off her store product, including paper, stamps, and flair.  I have loved my time with her and some super talented women from all around the world.  I wish her all the success in the world and am grateful that I will be able to keep up with her adventures through Facebook and Instagram.

I thought that today I would share with you the last of my projects created for her back in June.

The other Mr. of our home, using some Pink Paislee and Silhouette cuts.

Some added Chic Tags goodies, and Silhouette cuts here.

All Cre8tive Cre8tions papers with some masking and Silhouette cuts.

Another opportunity come and gone.  I will always be grateful to Andrea and Thomas (her hubby and partner in the biz) for giving me the chance to work with their fun products and represent their business.

Thanks for stopping by friends.  I hope this weekend brings you rest, and lots of time with the ones you love most. Pin It

Sister Love

I've got a quick layout to share with you today using the new Memories Captured collection by Fancy Pants.  I happened to be working at the Scrapbook Store the day this line arrived, and fell in love with it as I was unpacking it from the box. 

The colours worked perfectly with these photos of the girls I had just printed up from our August long weekend away at the lake.  Because I was at work, I didn't have my regular tools and supplies on hand. So I worked with what I had and kept the design quite simple.  A few layered blocks, and a border punch and that's about it.

 I just love the extra large flair that Fancy Pants has come out with for their new collections.

The banner is actually made from stickers from the sticker sheet.  The sheet has a ton of elements to work with.

I was really impressed the the Fancy Pants booth at CHA, they have some really cute lines coming out, full of really fun elements like tags and flair.

What are you still anxiously awaiting from the new releases?  Link me up if you've created with some already, I would love to have a peek.

Thanks for stopping by today friends.  Have a wonderful day! Pin It

Guesting at Scrapbook & Cards Today

I have the awesome privilege of guest blogging over at Scrapbook & Cards Today.  I was thrilled when Catherine invited me to share what she calls my 'signature layering style' of scrapbooking with her readers.  Today is part one of two that will post this week on her blog, and I'm sharing with readers my take on the August Colour Suite.

The colours were a prefect match to The Pier Collection by Crate Paper, and the design elements in the ephemera package were a perfect start to introducing readers to how easy layering can be.  Here is a little peek at the layout I created.

I would love for you to pop over to the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog to see the rest of the layout, and have a peek at my post for today.  I'll be back there on Wednesday to break down my layering process if you're at all interested.

I hope you're enjoying this gorgeous Long Weekend.  Thanks for popping in today!

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Getting Sketchy with Scraptastic

Here is my take on this's month's Scraptastic Club sketch.

And here is Susan's awesome sketch.

Darwin and I love to go to Bomber games.  We love cheering them on (or should I say loved, seeing as they are really stinkin' it out this season, lol)  It's one of the few things we actually make time to do together.  This photo was taken at the last game we attended with friends.  It was exciting as it was our first time to the brand new stadium to watch the Bombers play.

This layout was made using mostly the I Found A Boy Add On kit found here, and the Stamp Add on found here

Hop over here to see what the rest of the DT did with the sketch.  Perhaps you'd like to play with it too?  You may win yourself a $10 gc to the Scrapstastic Store for playing along with us.  We have a few challenges every month.  The more you play the better your chances of winning.

Thanks for stopping by today friends! Pin It