Work In Progress

I spent virtually all day long in my scrap room yesterday.  You would think I would have had a bunch of layouts to show you today, but nope that's not the case.  It was grey outside, and rained all day, so unfortunately no photos.  I did, however think it would be kind of fun to show you what my space looks like at the end of the day.  I was working on the Member Inspiration Challenge from My Scrapbook Nook, which meant that I got to pull out some stuff I don't usually use, and get my hands, and my space good and messy.  Have a look for yourself.

It all looks pretty random, as it's pretty spread out, and some of it was already put away but this really is what it looks like as I work.  I have little piles everywhere.  I actually have one on the floor too, just forgot to take a photo of it.  It's a pile of all the collections I played with today (a little Dear Lizzy, a little Echo Park, and a little Pink Paislee, along with a stack of bubble wrap.  I know this is not the same as an actual project to show you, and I apologize for that.  Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates tomorrow, and I'll be able to get a some decent photos during the few minutes that the sun peeks out from behind the clouds. 

Today, is our last day of Spring Break, I'm sad it's over so soon.  But it sure was nice staying up late, sleeping in, playing a little Wii, and hanging with my girls, agenda free.  We're off to see The Lorax today, with my brother, and his family.  I can't wait to see my nephew, he's the cutest little brown boy I know!

Happy Friday friends, I hope you have a great weekend waiting for you.  Thanks as always for stopping by, I sure appreciate it!

♥ S. Pin It

My Scrapbook Nook - April Kit

My Scrapbook Nook's April kit is on sale now.  You really don't want to miss this.  If you've been thinking about joining, now is the time.  The kit is jam packed with the fabulous new Crate Storyteller collection.  Look at all those playful colours, perfect for both genders, and all ages.  Joining now gets you TWO FREE kits in addition to the 12 you'll receive with your one year subscription.  It also gets you a free April grab bag, valued at over $55.  You've got to check it out people, it's too good an offer to pass up.

We're off to visit friends today.  Thanks for stopping by!

♥ S. Pin It

Spring Break

It is finally here!

I know I've been somewhat delinquent around here this past week, and it looks like this week may see a little more of the same.  I promise you that I am working on some projects however, and will have some new stuff to show you soon.  I'm really hoping that I get at least a couple of days in to create this week while I have the break from running the kids back and forth to school and dance.

I'm up today over at Scrapping Everyday Miracles with a Praise Post.  If you're at all interested in learning a little bit of my spiritual journey I invite you to pop over and have a peek.  It's a very quick read.

In scrappy news I have two things to share with you today. One is that My Scrapbook Nook is having  another Design Team Call.  This place, is hands down, my favorite crafty inspired address on the web.  The women are incredibly talented, many of whom design for big name manufacturers.  The DT manager is one of the sweetest women I know, and also the one responsible for me really falling in love with this hobby, as she shared her designs, ideas, and a lot of her heart through both her personal blog, and The Nook blog.  The Forum is uplifting, and encouraging.  The classes/challengers are free, and run every month, and the gallery is always, always over-flowing with inspiration, and jaw-dropping creations.  I love this place, and have met many like-minded women from, literally all over the wold, who quickly become friends .  If you'd like to try out with me, you can find more details here.

News item number two is this email I received last week...

"Hello! We would like to publish your submission in the August 2012 issue of 

Scrapbook Trends..."  

Talk about through the roof excitement.  I literally couldn't stop smiling when I read the email.  I will actually have a layout published in a real live printed magazine read by thousands each moth.  I am still on the moon excited about it.  I realize it's a long way off, but I can not wait to see how they photograph it. You can be sure I'll show you once I can.

I'll leave you with a sneak of one of the projects I've been working on for a Guest Designer spot next month

Do you recognize that paper line?

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope your week is off to a great start!

♥ S. Pin It

Double Digits

We are celebrating 10 years of loving this girl today.

taken this past Fall

She is one of the most tenderhearted, creative little girls I know, and she's thrilled to be entering double digits today.  She came into this world such a peanut, at exactly 7 lbs, 0.5 oz, and 20 inches long.  She cried every evening for 9 weeks straight between week 3 and week 12, and then, almost over night, magically transformed into an easy going, music loving, sweet, and friendly (she use to say hello to everyone she'd see at one year old) little doll of a girl.

Today, she's a studious kid, who loves to read, and for whom drawing, story telling, acting, and dancing all come naturally.  It has been a wonderful experience being her mother.  As much as I have taught her about the ways of life, she has taught me just as much in return by the way she is wired.

Chesse cake for breakfast- yum!

We love this girl, and celebrate her today with all our hearts.  Happy Birthday sweet Théa Dene Funk.  We look forward to watching you continue to grow and spread your wings and  become more and more the person your Father in Heaven created you to be.

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, Isabelle & Eden Pin It

Getting Sketchy

Jeannine is up today at Scrapping Everyday Miracles with a fun and and versatile sketch.  There were so many ways to work it, that I had a fun time shuffling paper around until I found what I liked best.  This month instead of sharing the sketch with you here, I thought I'd tease you and only show you my reveal.

Details:

I used my lovey new typewriter again and cut the strips out.  I also pulled out an old set of flourish stamps I have and used black embossing powder to heat embossed them.

This photo is of Eden and me at Disney in front of the Nemo theatre.  The Lily Bee papers are from My Scrapbook Nook's February kit. 

I encourage you to head over to Scrapping Everyday Miracles to see the sketch first hand, and have a peek at the other reveals.  While you're there you may want to check out the monthly challenge also, called "This is me".

Did you know there are TWO great prizes up for grabs this month?  Not only will you be eligible for a bundle of crepe paper fringe from Dot & Whimsy, you'll also be eligible for a spot in the upcoming Ashes to Beauty class.

I'd like to thank each of you who joined us for our impromptu blog hop this past weekend in honor of Nicole, our team leader.  She was very touched by all the messages of love and encouragement.  I used random.org to select the winner of my RAK.  Congratulations to...

Rosalind, I will send  you an email using the address the left.  I'll give you until Friday to get back to me.  Congratulations once again, I look forward to hearing from you soon.





Now head on over  the Scrapping Everyday Miracles to check out the Sketch Challenge.  I hope to see some of you playing along :)

Happy Monday friends!

♥ S. Pin It

Happy Birthday Nicole

This weekend, all of us over at Scrapping Everyday Miracles are celebrating the birthday of the beautiful woman who created the SEM blog, Nicole Brenna.  In celebration of her special day tomorrow, we thought we'd start the party early, and put together a little blog hop for you to enjoy.  If this was your first stop you'll want to go back here to get started.  If you're well on your way then, you should have arrived here from Jeannine's blog.

What would a proper birthday celebration be without a card...and a gift?  This is the card I sent to Nic (who lives in Norway, so I really hope it makes it in time). 

Some of you may have seen this one before.

To keep things fresh, I decided to make a second card to show you using the brand spanking new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line that I got from Tanya over at Let's Capture Our Memories (as part of a scrappy secret I've been keeping).  This line screams 'girly-girl'.  It gave me an excuse to break out my Piglet Mr.Huey's I recently purchased.  I heat embossed the sentiment onto one of the little tags in from line, and added a doily, some Bazzill tulle, some pins, and a button.

The sentiment reads "sending you smiles"

SEM has become a second home to me on the world wide web.  It's something that is dear to my heart as a place for those who love to scrap, but want to include our spirituality, and relationship with Jesus as the foundation for why we do what we do.  It's a place where we can be real with one another, sharing our joys, and our hurts, and most importantly sharing what God is doing in us and through us everyday, not just in the way we scrapbook, and document the important details of our lives, but in all the little stuff in between.  I am so thankful thank Nic followed the promptings of the Holy Spirit to start this blog, it has brought so many women together.  And, I am even more grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it as a design team member.  Scripture talks about the church as more than the four walls of your place of worship.  It also talks about how our neighbours are not just the people who live on either side of us.  This blog, and the Facebook page are exactly that.  Believers and non-believers walking the path of life together even though we may be thousands of miles apart.  I have some pretty great 'neigbours' in my life.

So Nicole...cheers to you my friend.  Thank you for all you do for SEM.  Thank you for the privilege of serving the Lord right alongside you, in this fun and creative way.  I celebrate YOU today, and hope that in your corner of the world many are coming around you to do the same.  Happy, happy birthday my friend!

Now, onto the gift part.  In honor of Nicole's birthday I am giving away a RAK (open to North American residents only please, sorry but shipping over seas is atrocious, ).  All you have to do is hop on over to Nic's blog and wish her a happy birthday (trust me you'll be happy you did).  Just leave me a comment telling me you've done so and I'll enter you to win.  Here's what's up for grabs.

You may be the winner of a fun selection of My Mind's Eye goodies.  A selection of 6x6 Stella & Rose papers, a full package of rub-ons, and twine form the Miss Caroline line, as well as an assortment of trim, pins, and buttons, along with a MME wood butterfly, and a package of Jenni Bowlin bingo cards.

Kline will be your last host on this hop. So off you go.

See you Monday over at SEM for Jeannine's March Sketch Challenge, and your chance at the Dot & Whimsy prize pack.  And, don't forget to pop back here to see if you're my lucky winner.

Happy Saturday friends,

Sherri

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This girl

she makes me laugh.  out loud. every time we're together.
she makes me see myself in a new light with the way she loves, and appreciates me. 
she makes me want to be a better mom.
she makes me realize that perfection is overrated.
she makes me want to deepen my relationship with my Lord.
she makes me want to remember the everyday little things better.
she makes me want to grow old doing this journey called life right along with her.
i love this girl.
her name is Angela.
and i'm so blessed to know her.

Using the March Kit from My Scrapbook Nook featuring My Mind's Eye

i discovered the quote on Pinterest.  it was perfect for this photo of the two of us.  The author is unknown.

Happy Wednesday friends,

♥ S.

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Been lifting

Last week My Scrapbook Nook hosted a "lift the person above you" game.  Sometimes we all need a little creative inspiration, and lifting is just one way to get it.  In this case I lifted both a card and a layout.  What I love most about lifting is that it gives you a chance to break out of your regular rut style and try something you wouldn't necessarily have tried all on your own.

Here is the layout by Jessy that I chose as my card inspiration.

I really liked the sun bursts, and this was the perfect excuse to try them out.  Here is the card I created with these little guys as my inspiration.

Lilith is one of the most talented scrappers I know.  I adore her style, the way she constantly works outside the box.  I chose this layout of hers to work with.

And this is my take on it.

It's hard to see because it's white, but the circle next to "your" says "love"

I still have a love for doilies as you can see, and managed to overcome my dislike of rubons for this layout too.  I'm grateful to both Jessy, and Lilith for the creative inspiration.  Because of them I've added a couple more fun, and creative projects to my collection.

To see what others were inspired by, and what they came up with check out this thread (for layouts), and this one for cards.  There's plenty of inspiration to get the creative juices flowing, I promise.

Thanks for stopping by friends.  I hope you've been inspired.

♥ S. Pin It

Neighbours

Meet Craig & Kristine.  They are our neighbours.  We consider ourselves extremely lucky to share a cul-de-sac with them.  Our kids get along well, we enjoy spending time with each other, and we even go to the same church.  Lucky indeed.  Who wouldn't want to live in a neighbourhood where you know the people who live next door, and across the street from you?  One where if something were to happen you knew you were only a phone call away from a help.  That exact thing happened just last week.  My van broke down at the school after picking the girls up.  It worked fine on the way there, but when I went to start it up after they jumped in, the engine just wouldn't turn over, all it did was make a clicking sound.  I knew Kristine would probably be just getting home from picking up her own kids, and may be available to come by and grab us.  Sure enough she was, and she did.  What a relief.  It was a huge help to get a ride, especially since we had the dog with us, but no leash, added to the fact that it  was  snowing,  and chilly.  Plus the kids had 45  minutes to get to the Dance Studio.  She was a real life saver that afternoon.  We are so grateful to have each other as neighbours.  I love that I can peek out my window and see her house, and I know she feels the exact same way.

I got to play a little more withe the new Echo Park This & That Graceful line,and knew this photo wold be a great fit with the colours. 

To adhere the twine I used a few glue dots under the loops and a tiny bit of Glossy Accents along the length of it.  To get the phrase strips to pop up off the page a bit I used tiny bits of Sookwang double sided  tape at various spots along the length of the strip.  The flowers are all layered, two using pop dots for dimension, and one is glued right to the paper.  Each have a brad through the center.

I think it would be so great to get to know the rest of my neighbours enough over the next few years, that I would eventually have photos of each of them too.

Enjoy your day friends, thanks for stopping by,

♥ S. Pin It

The Olivetti

Thanks to my sweet, and loving mother-in-law, and the help of The Trading Post I now have my very own Olivetti.  Just look at how cute it is.  In great shape, works like a charm and a full ribbon cartridge.  I was so excited when mom opened her trunk to reveal this 30 year old treasure.  Typewriters have been all the rage in the scrapbooking world over the past couple of years.  I mentioned in a previous post how I almost always buck the trend, no matter  what it is, not sure why, I just do.  If you are familiar with my scrapping, you've seen that I hand-write quite frequently on my scrapbook pages.  To me the picture, and the pretty paper isn't what it's all about.  To me, the whole reason that I take the time to arrange my photos in this way is to preserve the memories, record the stories, and leave a legacy for those who come after me.  I believe the journaling is a key element to scrapping.  Sometimes the photo and title really do say it all, but more times than not, there's a story to be told.  Handwriting takes a lot of space, even for those of us who write tiny and neatly.  That's where typewriters come in.  They help to fit a lot of writing into a very small space.  The layout I shared yesterday had a lot of writing on the tags.  I never could have hand written all of that on my own.  There is the option of running my pages and/or tags through my printer.  It works, but is not time efficient, and uses twice the amount of ink as the typewriter, as you must print everything twice.  Once to give you a guide for your tag, and then once again with your tag fixed over the original spot to get the printing exactly where it needs to be on the tag.  I am so happy to have this little guy around.  It fits perfectly on my shelf next to my sewing machine.  I am so thankful to mom for doing the legwork (or I guess in this case phone work, as she received several calls offering up a typewriter for sale), and scoring me this little beauty.  Oh, and the best part ... it was FREE.  That's right.  It turns out the woman who called ended up being someone mom knew from back in the day.  When this lady found out who mom was wanting it for, and what I was using it for, she offered to simply give it to me.  Let's just say she made my day.  I'm hoping that the gift set of handmade thank you cards she'll be receiving from me will make her day right back.

Have you received any nice little surprises lately?

Thanks for popping in today!

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Grateful

Scrapping Everyday Miracles Challenge #13  is live today.  This month Roulien challenged us all to come up with one word that describes who we are.  I found this a little difficult.  I've always found it difficult to describe myself in one word.  I guess it's because I feel like choosing just one word would put me in a box.  There are a number of words that would be appropriate today, that may not be appropriate next week, or next month perhaps.  There are times when I believe that the best way to describe myself would be to say that I am a contradiction.  Some days I am as predictable as snow in winter.  Other days I can take even myself by surprise with the choices I make.  What I chose to do rather, was consider all the ways my Lord would describe me.  As it turns out one of the devotions from Proverbs 31 Ministries last week focused on just that very thing.  The article spoke about the trouble we can have, especially as women, recognizing our worth outside of the role we fill for our spouse, our children, our bosses, etc. The writer went on to remind us of all the ways God sees us, the way He created us. I chose to use this as the basis of my layout.

Using My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart collection.  I sprayed the Pink Paislee mistable trim with pink Mr. Huey's and used a Gluber to make the large flower.

There are other words those close to me would use to describe me, and perhaps one day I'll do a layout focused on them.  This week, however it was humbling yet empowering to focus on the way my Creator sees me.  His Word is full of beautiful descriptions of how He sees all His children.  Scripture says that YOU are:
- created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)
- fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)
- precious and honored in His sight (Isaiah 43:4)
- redeemed and forgiven (Ephesians 1:7)
- a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)
- holy and blameless before God (Ephesians 1:4, 1 Corinthians 1:30)
- chosen by God (1 Peter 2:9)
- God's masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10)
- created with purpose to do good works for His Kingdom (Ephesians 2:10)
- and on, and on, and on...

For me, these promises serve as a wonderful reminder of not only who I am, but whose I am.  How about you?  How would you define yourself today if asked?

I encourage you to pop over to Scrapping Everyday Miracles to see what the rest of the team came up with.  There are some really gorgeous layouts to see.  Our sponsor this month is the sweet, and oh so funny Shelleye of Dot & Whimsy.  She has offered up a bundle of her fun and playful crepe paper fringe as a prize for this month's winner.  She has some really fun scrappy goodies in her Etsy shop, so be sure to pop over there and have a peek.  Remember you've got until the end of the month to complete the challenge and "define yourself".  Be sure to link me up if you do.

Happy Monday to you friends,

♥ S.




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He adores her

Happy Friday,

It feels like it's been a long week around here.  So happy that the weekend is finally here.  Tomorrow I have a breakfast date with one of the cutest 6 year olds I know.  Little Miss Nyah and I will be having a little girl time over chocolate chip pancakes somewhere.  I can't wait. 

I'll leave you with a layout I did about Isabelle and my father in law.  This was taken in Disney while we were waiting for the train at Animal Kingdom.  I just love the look on both their faces.  You just see the love.  These two have a very special relationship.  I think it has to do with the fact that for so long she was the only grandchild that lived here.  (My sister-in-law and her family lived away from Manitoba for several years).   My father-in-law, and mother in law would spoil this girl so much.  One instance that still manages to come up in conversation is when my father-in-law took Belle with him for coffee, once in the morning to Tim Horton's, and then again in the afternoon to Robin's.  Yup, spoiled. 

My Mind's Eye Fun Day line,  with random embellishments from my stash

Journaling reads: adore: verb: to regard with utmost esteem, love, and respect; honor, to like or admire very much. 

I love that they love each other so much, it's something I never got to experience as a child.  My girls,may not know it yet, but someday they'll realize how very lucky they are to have grandparents who are so present in their lives.

I've heard it said that being a grand parent is even more fun than being a parent.  I can only hope that I live to discover if it really is so.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you're in for a great weekend.

♥ S



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