Blogapalooza Style!

Welcome to our Hop!

Chic Tags has teamed up with Media Butterflies to bring you a fantastic blog hop today.   There are many, MANY prizes and FREEBIES up for grabs along the way so be sure to visit each blog along the way.  It all ends at the Chic Tags blog, with  one amazing grand prize.  Veronica is so incredibly wonderful, and gracious, and she is extending that in a big way to one lucky hopper this week.  If you have arrived here from Corinne's blog then you're on the right track.  If this is your first stop on our hop, you'll want to go back to the Chic Tags blog to get your line up and follow along.

I have a layout using the recently released Road Trip Tags to share with you today.  The collection is perfect for all the photos I have of our recent trip to Calgary & Banff, Alberta for Spring Break.

I captured this shot while riding the gondola up Sunshine Mountain for the first time.  It's always so peaceful in the gondola.  There are barely any words spoken as everyone is always taking in the awe inspiring beauty of the magnificent snow capped mountains, the tall, full, beautiful spruce trees, and the glorious sunshine streaming all around. 

Despite the breath taking beauty there is a small bit of fear and anxiety as I anticipate the huge, steep hills that both terrify and electrify me at the top.  Journaling reads: I'm always a mix of excitement and anxiety as we go up the gondola.  So much beauty all around - but such big hills await."

To achieve that 3D effect on the Number Tag, I simply fussy cut out the arrow and used 3D foam adhesive to pop it up in the same spot it was cut from.

How about a giveaway?  One lucky winner from my blog will win themselves a package of Chic Tags recently released Birthday Cake collection.

Simply leave me a comment, along with your email address, and I will draw a winner on Thursday at 11:59PM EST.  All winners will be announced on the Social Media Butterflies blog on Friday, May 3rd.  Good luck!

Your next stop along our hop is Ellie.  Thanks for stopping by today, and playing along with us. Remember there are several prizes, and freebies along the hop, so be sure to stop at every blog along the way.  Happy Hopping friends!

Tags Used:

Road Trip Icons

Road Trip File ATCs

Road Trip Note Clips

Road Trip Number Tags

Road Trip Cards

Road Trip Snip'em Tags

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5th Monday Change Up

Another month with 5 Mondays....that means a change up for all of us at LGS.  This week we were to choose a colour pallet, and a sketch from anywhere that appealed to us.

This is the colour combo I went with.

For the sketch, I chose another one of Kristine's fabulous sketches from her latest book Creating With Sketches Vol 2.

And this is my layout

This was from our quick trip to Mexico in February.  I'd go back in a heart beat.  Journaling reads  "Just you and me away for OnX related work?  Best 4 day getaway ever.  The resort was A-mazing, and the evening events were so well done.  The only downer was the EPIC sunburn you got the last day.  Two hours in the water will do that to a person.  Feb 2013"

Hop on over to the blog to see how the rest of the team was inspired this week.  Hope you link up your own creation.  We always come by to leave love for those who do :) Pin It

Week In Review

It has been wonderfully busy over the past few days as the girls have started Dance Competition Season.  I have been witness to so many memorable moments, some joy-filled, and some accompanied by a few tears.  All of it is proof that we have a wonderful studio, run by two of the most encouraging, supportive, hard working individuals I know.

Here is an unedited snapshop of our past couple of days.

On the scrappy front.  I had this layout up on the Cre8tive Cre8tions blog this past week.  A new size for me.  I thought it would be great to use that fabulous chevron patterned paper as a full background  sheet.

That butterfly was created by using Martha Stewart textured paste over a Silhouette cut file.  I then sprayed it with some Heidi Swapp Color Shine.  All the tags are Chic Tags, my favourites.  Pop over here for even more eye candy from the super talented Design Team.

Happy Saturday friends!


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Gordon Ramsay Steak

Happy Friday!

Popping in to let you know that you still have a couple of days to get in on our Chic Tags Sunday Challenge for your chance to win $20 to the Chic Tags shop.

We've got a colour combo for you today.

Gorgeous right?  I was able to round up some great Studio Calico papers to match perfectly for my layout.

The photo is less than fabulous, unfortunately.  I can't wait until summer when the sun makes it's daily return to our great city.  The photo was taken on our way to Gordon Ramsay Steak in Las Vegas.  Oh. My. Goodness.  That was the absolute best meal I've have ever had.  Ever!  If we ever get the chance to head back to Vegas together, we are definitely heading back there.

Link up your layout here for your chance to win. Pin It

One Proud Mamma

The Challenge over at Use It Tuesday this week is called "Flowers For Mom".  We challenge you to create a mom themed project, and/or use flowers on your project.  I decided to incorporate both into my layout.

I chose to focus on my own mother's heart and document the most recent photo of my girls all in one shot.

Everything used on this layout is from my stash of 2 year old Crate Paper papers and chipboard, with the exception of the jute and that tenny tiny My Mind's Eye enamel dot.  That what I love best about this group, that the whole challenge evolves around using up your stash.  I'm pleased to say that this layout actually killed off the rest of these Farmhouse and Random collections.  Feels good to have nothing but scraps to clean up.  What collection do you still have kicking around that you'd love to kill off?  This may be a great week to make it happen.  Pop over here to see what the rest of the team created with the challenge, and link up your own take. Pin It

Sometimes

Another great sketch reveal up at Let's Get Sketchy today.

Here's my take.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to create that background pattern, and then cut it apart here and there.  I like the less boxy feel of it this way.

Bev's original sketch looked like this.

As you can see I switched it up a bit, but kept the elements pretty much the same.  Loved these photos of Isabelle with her daddy.    It was so nice to see her spontaneously show her daddy some love in the parkade on our way into church a few weeks ago.

Journaling read: Sometimes she forgets she's too cool for us.  The time is just flying by with this girl.  It wasn't all that long ago that she was just a funny little toddler making us laugh with her crazy little antics.  Now she stands before us a gorgeous teenager, who loves to dance, loves her friends, performs well in school and occasionally lets us know she appreciates us.  She has our heart.  We are still smitten by every inch of her.


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Thankful

Happy Friday friends!

This little hobby of scrapping that we all share is so much more than just pretty paper, and embellishments.  I have really enjoyed meeting some wonderful people all around the world because of it.  The internet is what brings us all together.  Just think how many scrappers were out there 20 years ago off in their corner of the world wondering if they were the only ones who loved playing with photos, and paper so much.

Meet my friends Carla, and Lee-Anne.

I recently had a chance to connect with both of them at one time.  It happened during my trip to Calgary for Spring break a few weeks ago.  They live about an hour apart from one another, they hadn't met in person before, but they knew each other through online crafting sites/blogs.  Of course I had to meet up with them.  It turns out I was staying in the same neighbourhood where Carla lives, so she graciously offered to come and pick me up.  Together we set out to meet up with the ever adorable Lee-Ann at a restaurant around the mid-way point for all of us.  A great meal, and a wonderful opportunity to get to know two sweet women who love this hobby as much as I do.  I am so grateful to the World Wide Web for introducing me to these ladies.  It has been a joy serving on different design teams with both of them.  I have don't doubt that we'll meet up again one day.

Chic Tags Used:
Hollo Months
Road Trip Number tags
Fall Date Banners

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Getting Glitzed!

It's humpday, hooray!

I was finally was able to use some of the new Glitz Design Color Me Happy Collection I picked up about a month ago.  I could't resist the bright pops of colour, the giant rhinestones, the roller stamp, and the super cute rainbow alphabet stickers.  Everything fit perfectly with this photo of D and I on our last night in Mexico back in February.

The journaling up top reads: Enjoying our last night in Mexico

Created this for the Colour Challenge at Crop & Create Winnipeg, and won - yay!

It may bot be easily noticeable, but my poor guy was suffering from heat stroke in this shot.  After spend a couple of hours in the water (and re-applying sunscreen), he ended up still getting burned to a crisp.  I've never seen anyone burn so bad.  We ended up leaving the party shortly after this pic, because he just needed to get himself to bed, before our flight out the next morning.  Good times.  Painful for one of us.  But a fabulous little 4 day getaway.

On another note, I apologize for not being around much lately.  I've started a new business, and have been focusing on getting that ramped up.  I won't disappear completely, I promise, but I definitely have not been in my scrap room as much over that past couple of weeks.  And speaking of scrapping.  I got a wonderful surprise email the other day, offering me a really great opportunity.  I can't wait to share it with you, but it will be a few weeks before I'm able to let the cat out of the bag.  Until then, you can continue to follow along with my blog via Bloglovin.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a wonderful Wednesday friends! Pin It

Hybrid Titles - Masking

Morning all!

Thought I'd share a tutorial that I had up on the Chic Tags blog with all of you today.

I often use multiple style stickers and/or fonts for my titles, but in this case I decided to incorporate multiple medias as well.

I have no doubt that we all have at least one package of these sitting around.

Look familiar?  Old alphabet stickers we've had for years, that are now falling loose in their packaging.  Creating a masked title is a great way to use these guys up.

The first thing I did was lay down all my elements on the page in my preferred design.  Don't be afraid to lightly press your alphabet stickers down, as there is so little adhesive left on oldies that they remove quite easily once masked.

Once I knew where things were generally going to be, I removed everything I did not want to be masked.

Using my gorgeous Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Primrose I sprayed over my title area, as well as on the bottom right of where my photo/embellished cluster would sit.  Next I splattered a few Mr. Huey's in Lemonade (a nice soft yellow) around the page.

Once all my misting was complete I used my Making Memories tweezers to remove the letters (this keeps my hands clean of all the mist laying on top of the alphabet stickers).

Now I am free to adhere the rest of my page elements.  The word "love" is a Silhoutte cut file that I've sprayed with Taxi colour Mr. Huey's.

After adding the journaling to my hidden Chic Tag, my layout was complete.  But looking at it, I felt it was still looking a little plain Jane.  To fix the situation I added one more shade of Mr. Huey's splatters in Bluegrass, it's pretty much a perfect match to the blue/green shade in the Road Trip Collection.

And this is the finished layout.

Hope you're feeling inspired to give masking and/or a hybrid title a go.  Feel free to pop over the the Chic Tags blog to see links to all the tags I've used on this project.

That's it for me.  As always thanks for popping in today, I hope you're in for a great weekend. Pin It

I'm moving

With the news that Google reader is shutting down, I've decided to move my blog over to Bloglovin.  I would love it if you would come and follow me there.  It will make it much easier for you to keep up to date with all my new scrappy creations and the tidbits of new regarding my real life adventures.  Just click on the Bloglovin' icon on the right of this post -------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hope to see you there!

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Playing With Water Colours

A quick share today.

The Sunday Challenge over at Chic Tags for the week is to use water colours.  The challenge was inspired by our Guest Designer for the month, the lovely Ms Lilith Eeckels.  I'll be honest I was pretty freaked out by it.  I am not an artist, and painting, with a brush, and diluting Heidi Swapp Color Shine, to me equals art.  I sucked it up, however, and summoned up some courage to just jump in and give it a go.

Here is what was born.

I simply used a paint brush to paint wide strokes across the page in smooth strokes from side to side.  I added a few bolder streaks here and there, and finished off the background with just a few mist blotches.

The cut file is from the Silhouette store.  I cut it out 12x12, and simply cut out a small piece to work with.  The rest I have saved for another project.

Not too shabby for my first time, I think.  Not sure I'll do it again.  But if there's anything I've learned in this life it's to never say never.

Have a great day, thanks so much for popping in! Pin It