She's Sixteen

Have you played along with the Paper Issues Sketchy Saturday sketch yet?

I used the remnants of my Simple Stories I Am collection to document Isabelle's 16th birthday celebration with a few of her friends.

The girls had a blast.  We rented a limo for them to be chauffeured downtown to a fantastic new restaurant called Across The Board where you can have dinner and enjoy one or more of their 1500 board games with your group over the course of a 3 hour table booking.  They came back here later for cake and snacks, hot tubbing, giggles, and chit chat.  I loved that it was more of a grown up birthday party.

This collection comes with so many embellishments that it was easy to layer to my hearts content.

Here is the sketch created by the talented Amy Coose. 

For a chance to a Paper Issues gift certificate get over to the Paper Issues Friends and Fans Facebook page and link up your take on the sketch in the January Album.

Thanks for stopping by today friends! Pin It

Wrapping Up Christmas 2015

I spent some time over the past couple of days with my good friends Netflix, pretty papers, and glue.  It felt great to get our Christmas photos documented, there may not have been many, but they're all scrapped now.  I used a lot of Simple Stories Claus & Co collection, some Shimelle Christmas Magic, and Pink Paislee Yuletide goodies

This guy. He may be the least photogenic person I know, but he's all mine folks.  He can almost never pose for a photo without making a funny face.

Purchasing a tree from Ikea for a cool $20 has been our tradition over the past few years. It's like shooting an arrow blindfolded, and hoping to hit the mark.  This year, we hit it. We only had to sweep up needles a few times throughout the month of December.  Score!

My baby girl spent most of our Christmas Eve family gathering cuddling this fluffball puppy.  You've seen several photos of our little guy Wilson; this is his mama Brevae.

My whole heart is right here, in these three beautiful girls of mine (I guess the little guy Wilson has a bit of it too). 
Christmas afternoon, we snuck a quick moment to head downstairs and capture a quick photo of just the girls.  They are my very best gift ever, ever.

And with that, Christmas 2015 draws to a close.   The house has been de-Christmasized, and returned to it's quazie borning state.  The Christmas wreath has been replaced by the winter wreath, and we have hunkered down for the long haul of cold, and snow and multiple weekend practices in preparation for the Spring Dance Competitions.  Only 4 months until the snow is gone, the days get longer, and the grass becomes visible again. Spring can't come soon enough for this warm weather girl.

Thank you for stopping by today friends, here's to a fabulous 2016! Pin It

My 15 Favourite Projects of 2015

Happy New Year everyone!

It's become a bit of a tradition to document my favourite layouts of the past year.  This year on the Paper Issues Blog the DT have posted their top 15 favourite projects of the year, and links to their personal site so you can have a closer look.  Here are mine at a glance.

Below, I've enlarged them all for a better look, in no particular order my favourites of 2015 are as follows:

I remember feeling "good" in this photo.  Fresh hair, a gorgeous day, and feeling younger than I am.  And this Bella Rouge collection was so wonderful to create with.

Belle and I went for brunch one morning with her friend and her mother.  As I sat across from her waiting for our brunch dates I was so taken with her beauty.  Those lashes, they jump out at you as soon as she looks at you.

This girl, she is such a joy, so easy going, and creative, and funny.  She is our quintessential middle child, with an agenda all her own, marching to the beat of her own drum as they say.

Loved this photo Belle took of her friends practicing one afternoon before Pointe class.  Loved this Paper Camellia kit, ribbon will always have a soft spot in my heart among crafting trends and techniques.

These pretty tags were the very first projects I created for my role on the Pink Paislee DT.

Another beautiful Paper Camellia Kit.  This photo of Eden and Maggy make me happy.  I love scrapping everyday photos.

This one was a lift from one of my fellow Pink Paislee DT members.  Love the huge bow behind the photo, and that ampersand.

Still hard to believe this kid will complete High School in just one more year.

Eden's 13 birthday party, made for some fun photo ops in the backyard, and again during their fun wall climbing session at Vertical Adventures.

A very recent layout I completed using Simple Stories Claus & Co collection.  I really love the black mixed in with the tradition red & green.

This woven background was so fun to create, angling it made it a little more original than the usual.

Pinkfresh Studio has some great papers and designs.  This sheet was one of my favourites, it was easy to make it look whimsical with just a tad bit of stitching and embellishments.

There is just something about this one that makes it one of my most favourites for the year.  It's fun to create at 8.5x11 format every once in awhile.  Not sure I'll ever stop using tags, vellum, and flair buttons.

Cedar Lane by Pink Paislee had so many beautiful elements with which to create.

Now, that I see this layout I realize that I have yet to create a layout celebrating 42.  Perhaps that's because then it would be official, haha.  I certainly do not feel as though I am already well into my forties.

That's it folks, a handful of layouts that jump out at me when I look through the dozens, and dozens projects I created this past year.  Have you created a blog post of your favourites?  If you leave me your blog link in the comments I would love to stop by and leave you some love, it's a privilege to encourage one another in this wonderful hobby we all love so much.

Happy first day of a brand new year friends! Pin It

Believe In Magic

For us, it's not Magic Kingdom that is the Happiest Place on Earth, but Universal Studios!

I love that this place has my girls living unleashed, and with abandon.  Free to have fun, without reservation, or concern of what other people may think about their love for pure kid-like fun.

These pix of Belle make me so happy.  I love that even at 16 she is not embarrassed to have her photo taken with the Grinch.  She was thrilled, in fact to pose for a photo.

Look at the sheer joy on her face in the photo above.  She was tickled pink for the moment she had, just her and the Grinch.

The hidden journaling records my feelings about this brief moment in time.

I just love this Say Cheese II Collection by Simple Stories.  It is perfection for documenting all things Disney.

I sincerely hope there is at least one more trip to this magical place in this family's future!

Thanks for popping by today friends!

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Silent Night

With the hustle and bustle of this team of year, one of my favourite things is to sit quietly with this guy, no tv, no music, and just the lights of the tree to keep us company.

I am glad he's such a cuddler in moments like this.

I used the cute new Wish Seasons to create this layout.  The ephemera pack, once again is my favourite.  So many great tags to choose from in all different sizes and shapes. And that striped paper, actually looks like it's been splattered with gold paint.  Gorgeous.  You can still get your hands on some of this collection in the Paper Issues store.  Use my code:SHERRI at checkout to save 20% off of everything you place in your cart.

Thanks for stopping by today friends, and a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

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A Christmas layout with Claus & Co

Can you tell it's been a busy season around here.  It happens every year; three birthdays, Christmas, church, New Year's Eve and extra dance practices, all add up to a very full few weeks to close out the year.

I scrapped for the first time in 3 weeks the other day, and it felt GREAT!

Simple Stories Claus & Co. collection has so many wonderful patterned papers I didn't want to use any of them up before I had all my photos for the season taken, in order to choose just the right combo of photo and patterned paper.

I took the opportunity with this layout to combine coordinating bits and pieces from past Simple Stories collections to complete my page.  The polka dot frame is from the I Am Collection, and the clips are from the Say Cheese II collection.

Because I usually do not scrap Christmas until after the big day, I tend to ration my Christmas collections.  Here, I've used the smallest pieces of patterned paper to preserve my stash, as well as a couple of tear strips from the bottom of 2 different pieces to add just a tad more colour to my page.

I'm anxious to use up the rest of this fantastic Simple Stories Claus & Co collection.

You can still get your hands on plenty of Christmas themed product right here in the Paper Issues store.  Use my code to save 20% off your entire order of holiday and non-holiday themed goodies.

Thanks for popping in today friends! Pin It

Halloween Throwback

I've been meaning to share these layouts for a couple of weeks.

These photos are from last year's Halloween, as is the Bella Blvd Halloween Magic collection.  I stored them for a full year without putting them to use.  Better late than never as they say right?

Théa wanted to go as a Biker, but I thought her outfit looked more like a Rocker than a biker (plus of course I hope to not see her on the back of a motorcycle anytime soon, lol)

I saw this amazing stitching technique done by the amazing Paige Evans, and just have to give it a shot.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to draw the star with white ink onto the patterned paper and then covered it with folded strips of the coordinating patterned papers.

This next layout was created for the "Orange" challenge at our last Paper Issues on-line crop.  

My nephew's costume was the perfect springboard for it.

The rest was easy to pull together drawing on all of the orange stickers and papers in the collection.

As much as I love layered, and stitched goodness, sometimes plain and simple fills me with just as much joy.

Thanks for popping in today friends! Pin It