A Birthday Layout

We recently celebrated our baby hitting double digits.  Eden is the third of 3 girls, therefore making it a little difficult to know what to get her for Christmases an birthdays.  This year, however was an exception.  Eden is a HUGE Taylor Swift fan, and Taylor just happened to be coming to Winnipeg the weekend after Eden's birthday.  We decided to splurge on our baby, and get her a gift she wouldn't forget for a while: a couple of tickets to the show.

Even though I prefer the look of only one or two photos on a page, I just had to make an exception and scrap all of these photos on the same page.  The look of sheer elation on her face was so perfect I wanted to include the series of photos on my layout.  The Chic Tags Birthday Cake Collection was, of course, just perfect to document this big occasion in our home.

Here are a few close ups.

I just love the way this one turned out.  Just one piece of patterned paper, some chipboard pieces from the Crate Paper The Pier Collection, and some Chic Tags.

I also used a few of the Birthday Cake Tags to make our teacher Thank You cards for the year.  Same sentiment, so I figured why not.

And with that we officially begin our Summer Holidays.  So far July looks pretty packed, a possible trip out to Saskatchewan and Calgary for all of us and 3 days later a trip to CHA in Vegas for me.  It'll be here before I know it.  Any of my bloggy friends going to be there?  I have a few more projects waiting to make their way onto the blog so keep your eyes open for them.

Have a wonderful day all!

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I'm Diving In

If you've been following me since last January you will remember that I tried my hand at Project Life, or The Moments In Between as I called it.  That lasted a mere 3 weeks.  Our local photo lab closed down for renos for 5 weeks, and I let that totally throw me off course.

Well I'm back at it.  Largely due to the fact that Scraptastic Kit Club has released a brand new, super fun Project Life collection of cards, stamps, flair, and other fabulous little bits.  I fell in love with the product, and was especially inspired by the way I saw others on the DT using the kit.  Here is what I did a couple of weeks ago (it's been so crazy around here I haven't had the tim to post it until today, sorry).

Because I only jumped on the bandwagon late in the game I have not used the June Kit from Scraptastic, which sold out before reveal day, by the way.  Instead I used an older Scraptastic kit that I loved, but had only bits and pieces left.  That's another great thing about PL, it allows you to use up a collection almost in it's entirety, as you don't require large pieces of paper or cardstock, and there is always room for bits and pieces of embellishments throughout the page.  This kit featured the gorgeous Pink Paislee Portfolie collection.

Left Side:

 The only "issue" I have with Project Life is photographing the layouts.  The pape protectors create such a glare when photographing and sometimes the image itself looks warped.  The only alternative that makes sense to avoid the glare would be to lay each piece out separately side by side to make it look like it was in the protector and photograph that way.  That system is far too much work in my opinion, and would be much less effective for me as I generally photograph my layouts outside on the front step for better light.  Can't you just see me running all over my front lawn chasing down little 3x4 pictures and journal spots, haha.  Plus I figure my readers are intelligent enough to know what the photo really looks like in real life.  Thanks in advance for letting me off the hook on this one.  As you can see I'm really liking the EK Success label maker for this project.

Right Side:

Lots of journaling here, it's the most important part in my opinion, with some stamping using the Scraptastic Stamps that came in the June kit.  Ranger's Archival Ink is THE BEST for stamping directly onto your photos by the way.  Some tags from Chic Tags (perfect for PL too), and some bits and pieces of other goodies, and I'm done.

So who else is on the Project Life bandwagon.  I'd love to pop by and see how you are doing with yours.  Leave me a link, and I'll leave you some love.

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Shine On

Yesterday, I had my last reveal for Let's Get Sketchy.  Today I'm saying goodbye to Use It Tuesday with this selfie layout.

the quote is one that popped up in my IG feed, sorry I can't remember who posted it.

I think this is my favourite layout made for this Design Team.  The challenge is called Bring On The Sunshine.  I decided to go with a layout that featured a sunshine-y feel to it.  I used a ton of hoarded stash on this one.  Some call it hoarded, some call it forgotten, either way it was just hanging around, and now it's finally being put to good use.

All those lovely fabric hexagons we giving to me ages ago by my sweet friend Tara.  I inked them up with Tim Holtz distress, and some Prima Marketing chalk ink.  

Those yellow Sassafras alphabets are my absolute faves.  I've been hanging onto them for ages.  I just love that shade of yellow, and the size of these guys.  They were a perfect match, however, so I just had to use them on this layout too.  The cardstock stickers are also old Crate Paper stash.

The masking was created using my Silhouette Cameo and some Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in Mustard.  My failed attempt at using Modeling Paste to Mask in white beneath the spray ink is still somewhat visible, but it certainly doesn't look like I had intended.  I simply used too much.   And the flower was made by cutting up a coffee filter and spraying the strips with different shades of yellow, then adhering them all in layers to a Gluber, another longtime unused item.  And that center piece, now that is something that I truly have been legitimately been hoarding for a long, long time.  I can't even remember where I got that resin flower, I think it was a freebie from a crop or something.  It felt good to actually use it up, the flower is my favourite part of this layout.

So that's it for me.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Siobhan, Heather, and the rest of the girls, especially my girl Danielle.  They were all so welcoming when I came on board, it was an easy team to serve with them.  I am thankful to have had the opportunity and look forward to seeing where the team goes from here.  I wish them all the very best.

To link up with them, by creating your own "Sunny" project using mostly items from your stash, and to see the rest of the DT projects, just jump over here.

Thanks for stopping by today friends.  Only 4 more day of school left here. The countdown is on. Pin It

Goodbye Let's Get Sketchy

These photos are from our trip to Disney World last February.  Seems like a lifetime ago now.  Here is my layout for this week.

I used one of the free cut files from Chic Tags, you can download it for yourself here.  The other cut files  are from the Silhouette store.  The rest is pretty much all older product I've had hanging around.

Here is Bev's sketch that we were to work with.

I haven't scrapped two 4x6 photos in ages, and ages.  This sketch was perfect for these photos that I had printed out shortly after our return to put into my Project Life pages (the album that was not to be, haha).  I made a joke to the girls on the DT that this layout is proof that they really have rubbed off on me in the past 6 months, notice the lack of white space.

This will be my last reveal for Let's Get Sketchy, there is a great new team in place, but I am taking this opportunity to say goodbye.  It is a bittersweet thing, as I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the team with these ladies, they truly are some of the sweetest girls I've met in the online scrappy online community.  I will miss keeping up with their day-to-day lives, and seeing their creations long before reveal, and especially hearing all about their scrappy secrets.  I will be forever grateful to Brenshevia for giving me the opportunity to design for her.  It is because of her that I leave here with a handful of wonderful memories, and some great new friends from far and wide.  I hope to still play along with the team from time to time, and invite you to do the same.  In the meantime hop over here to check out how the rest of the the team was inspired by Bev's sketch. Pin It

Chic Tags - Challenge Sunday

I love mixing and matching manufacturers and old and new product together so much.  That's exactly what I did for this week's Instagram Challenge over at Chic Tags.

A little masking, and misting.

Some old Pink Paislee trim with some new Everyday Life II Chic Tags, and new My Mind's Eye Enamel Dots.

I created this cut title using my Silhouette Cameo

It was so cool meeting Jennifer Putnum (Stricker) for the first time in MSP.  We are IG friends who both love to scrap.  She saw that I ws coming to Minneapolis for Belle's Dance Competition, and offered to hook up with me.  She introduced me to the wonderful boutique type store known as Typo (where this pic was taken by her hubby).  We also hit up Archiver's.  Two hours of fun together.

Create a layout using an Instagram photo and link it up to our Challenge.  You could win yourself a little shopping spree to the Chic Tags store.  Hop over here to get the deets and see what the rest of our super talented DT created. Pin It

Dream Big

Happy Friday friends!

The countdown in officially on at our house 4 more days of school.  Here in Manitoba the kids are kept until the very bitter end.  The past 2 weeks have been packed with field trips, special events, and assemblies like crazy.  Nothing like saving it all up until the end. I've been in the school a lot, hence the crickets chirping on the blog lately, my apologies.  My kids, and family, however will always come ahead of my hobby.

We spent the tail end of April, and better part of May in Dance Competitions.  Here is my beautiful Belle in her Jazz Dance costume.  It was a wonderfully, playfully genius choreographed piece by their teacher Lori Watson.  It was called Pretty In Pink and, the girls were dressed to look like flamingos with little flamingos on their arms.  They looks positively stunning and danced well enough to earn themselves an Elite Gold, and tie for 1st in their category.

As I often do I hid the journaling behind the photo.  It reads: Watching how beautifully you danced this Flamingo dance made me swell with pride for you.  All your hard work to catch up to your peers over the past year totally paid off!  You looked amazing!  Beautiful lines, and full of grace.  Way to go Belle!

Love this little cluster of Pink Paislee die cuts

Added a few Studio Calico sequins, and a My Mind's Eye brad

As always lots of layers all over the page

It had been ages since I had completed a layout just for me.  And this one came together super quick.  It always helps to have inspiring product and photos.

In support of my bloggy friend Leslie, I am linking this up to Whimsical Wednesday at The Memory Nest.

Now, how about an AMAZING FREEBIE to kick off the weekend?  Catherine sent this to those of us featured in the Summer issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today.

She is kicking off the release of this issue with a BANG.  Not only is it the release of the Summer Issue, but it is also the 30th Issue of her sweet magazine, that wasn't much more than a dream not too long ago.  Giveaways, prizes, challenges, and much, much more await you on their blog.  I strongly encourage you to take the time to pop over and check out all the goodness going on, the party starts right here.  You'll start with receiving your very own e-copy of the newly released Summer Issue (where you'll find my layout too).

That's it for me.  I'm really looking forward to the weekend.  I have 2 girls going off to a friend's cottage for the weekend, while the other has a date with Daddy for the Taylor Swift concert on Saturday.  Oh check out her face when she opened the tickets last Thursday for her birthday.  Priceless!

She could not have been more surprised, or more grateful.

As for me: I have a crop on Friday night, work on Saturday, then all evening to myself - YAY!  And Sunday, I think we'll take this little one out for breakfast, just the 3 of us.  How about you?  What's up in your corner of the world for the weekend?

As always I really appreciate you're stopping by.  I hope you've been inspired to go and make the day beautiful.

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A Scraptastic Challenge and a Free Cut File

I'm up over at the Scraptastic Blog today with a Thursday Challenge.  Here is a little sneak for you...

Can you guess what the challenge is?  Enticed to see the rest of it?  You'll have to pop over to the blog to see the completed layout, and get the scoop on how to join us in our monthly challenges.  There is a $20 gift certificate to the Scraptastic Store up for grabs for those who play along.

I have also made the background file I created with my Silhouette Cameo available for you to download today.  It may look complex but it all began with one little row of 3 triangles, flipped around and copied here and there on the page.   

You may download the file here.  

This is my own personal creation made available for your own personal use only.  I would very much appreciate it if you would please respect that, and link back to me if and when you use it.  

Hope you'll play along with us.  And if you haven't yet you really should check out the kits.  Every single month Jessica knocks it out of the park, and with Kaitlin's fabulous custom flair, and now entire Project Life kit you can't find a better kit out there for the price.  This month's Funk Town kit that I used here is currently sold out, but there is a whole store full of goodies to check out.  And while you're there you may want to get yourself on the Member's List for July.  Sneaks are going out right away.  It's a great kit club with kits selling as low as $28/month, and no commitment, meaning you may skip a kit for a month or two, or cancel at any time without penalty.  Great deal right?  Check out the amazing kits here.

Thanks for stopping in today friends.  I'll be back tomorrow with a just for fun layout using the luscious Cottage Farm line by Pink Paislee.

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Oh Baby!

Did you know that Chic Tags has some really cute baby themed tags?  They are part of a recently released collection called Oh Baby!  There is a pink line for girls and a blue line for boys.  It's been a while since I have heard the pitter patter of little feet in my home, but I just had to use these sweet tags on a layout.  

This is where sweet, sweet Ella comes in.

This little lady sure knows how to light up a room.  She's so intelligent, and cuter than a button.  Her mom sent me this adorable photo of her loving her new pink tutu, a perfect match for the Oh Baby! collection.

Because I didn't really have the exact shade of pink in any of my patterned papers, I decided to go with a variety of pinks, mixed with some black, white, and off white.  I really like the end result.

If you know my scrappy style, you know how much I love office supply tags.  How cute are these Oh Baby! ones, shown here tucked behind the "Sweet Baby Girl Icon"

That super cute chevron card is also form the collection

See that circle/star cut file?  It's a Chic Tags cut file, you can grab it yourself for FREE right here.

I many no longer have babies to raise, but I am not going to let that stop me from using the adorable Oh Baby collection.

Hope you feel inspired to create something beautiful today!

Tags Used
Oh Baby! Girl Icons
Oh Baby! Girl Mini Tags
Oh Baby! Girl Milestones
Circle/Star Cluster Cut File

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Double Digits!

Celebrating this girl today.

xx waking up to 10 years old xx

When you look up the meaning of her name, the definition is "full of life".  There is no better way to describe this baby of mine.  She brings so much light and life into our family.  She arrived on scene earlier than expected and never lets us forget she's around.  She's full of passion for life and all that comes with it.  Sometimes that passion comes out in the form her compassion, and empathy for those around her, and sometimes is comes out in frustration and disapproval with those around her, haha.  She is the full spectrum of emotion and although it requires directing and reigning in from time to time, we wouldn't have it any other way.  She is the girl who makes friends everywhere she goes.  People, big and small love to be around Eden.  That "life" in her draws others toward her.  She is a loyal friend who wears her heart on her sleeve.  I adore this girl with all my heart.  And am overjoyed to be celebrating her life today.  She was the gift I never knew I wanted.  She has taught me so much about myself, as I see my own character traits play out in her, it makes me aware of the things in myself that are pure, and full of love, and the not so great things that still need the loving and moulding hands of my Creator to refine in me.  Through her I am growing, and learning as a mother and a friend.  

Happy, Happy Birthday Eden!  Thank you for completing our family, and for bringing so much passion, and life with you.  Daddy and I love you more than the sun, and the moon, and the stars in the sky!

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I'm Being Featured

I was humbled to receive an email from Ruth Bonser at Life.Paper.Scrapbook a few weeks ago, saying that they would like to feature me and my work on their blog.

If you are new to my blog, or if you would simply like to get to know a little bit more about me you can find me featured here today.

A huge thank you to Ruth for having me!

A busy day here getting ready for a certain someone's 10th birthday tomorrow.  Happy Hump Day friends, thanks for stopping by today! Pin It

I Still Do

It's the second Tuesday of the month which means it's time for another Challenge at Use It Tuesday.

This week, in the spirit of Father's Day we are challenging you to create something with a "masculine" feel to it.  I probably should have done Father's Day cards, since I need those anyway, but I opted instead to use up these gorgeous rich blue sheets of patterned paper by Teresa Collins, My Mind's Eye, and Studio Calico.

Took this photo this past New Year's Eve (aka: our 17th wedding anniversary)

Lots of hoarded goodies used up here, in addition to the papers, I have a couple of sets of alphas that I've had for quite a while, as well as the My Mind's Eye ticket tucked under the photo, and the Crate brad that is at least 3 years old, and the Studio Calico washi that is 2 years old.

The flair button is from Panda Eight Designs, and the label maker is by EK Success

I can't believe it's really been that long.  I still think we both look so young, that it just doesn't seem right that we've really been together for nearly two decades.

Love the way the lime green just pops off the page.  I also chose deliberately to print the image in black and white to add to the masculine feel of it, and allow that green to really pop.

I found that wooden star shape at Michael's and inked to with a little Prima chalk ink, then covered it with Glossy Accents to add a little shine (even though it doesn't show up so great in the pic

Even though it didn't turn out quite as nice as I had envisioned I took a close up of the hand stitching I did around the masked shapes   Because the masking wasn't as bold as I had hoped, I thought it would help add texture to them by outlining them with embroidery thread.  Next time I would use white pait rather than white Gesso to mask on such a dark background.

I am so lucky to have this man in my life.  He's not only a great husband, and father to our girls.  He is my best friend.  He's always in my corner, always supports me in all my endeavours (crafty and otherwise), picks me when he has a choice of who to go to football games with, never complains about a messy house, or breakfast for supper, and best of all love Jesus like I do.  I am so glad my girls get to see a fine example of how a spouse, and partner in life should be like

Are you feeling inspired to play along?  I sure hope so.  Check out the rest of the team's projects and find the link to add you own here on the blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  And a special thank you for your comments, they really do give me the energy I need to keep this blog up. Pin It

Let's Get Sketchy Reveal

We have a brand new sketch for you up at Let's Get Sketchy today.  Ashley Horton is not only a fabulous designer, but she creates some pretty mean sketches as well.  Here is what I've done with this week's sketch.

The photos are of our quick trip to Minneapolis at the beginning of May.  It was such a nice time to be alone with only Isabelle.  We haven't been just the 3 of us for over 11 years. We got in some shopping, strolled downtown Minneapolis (ate at the amazing Hell's Kitchen restaurant, best lunch I've had in a long time), spent some time in the pool.  I even got to meet up with a scrappy friend I made online through Instagram.  She introduced me the gem of the store known as Typo, spent a lot of time in there,  so much fun stuff to look at.  We then hit Archiver's for a few scrappy purchases, of course we did.  And after all that we did actually go and spend some time watching Belle actually dance.  She only danced one day, but we had to be there a few days prior, so a mini vacation with our first born was most definitely in order.

Here is Ashley's original sketch.

I used the new Fancy Pants Park Bench Collection, and some brand new Pebbles alphas that I won at Crop & Create Winnipeg.

I hid the journaling on a shipping tag behind the photo.  This flair is a Cre8tive Cre8tions flair piece, you can find the set in Andrea's shop here.  The moustache flair piece is from The Paper Bakery.  Sara create some fabulous flair also.  You can see her sets here.

We've had some really great entries lately, must be all the great sketches, it would be great to see you link up with us.  You can check out what the rest of the DT did with this week's sketch here on the blog.

Thanks so much for popping in today friends, I hope your week is off to a good start. Pin It