{Inter} National Scrapbooking Month!!!

Hello! It's that time again for us to celebrate National Scrapbooking Month in May...so in a few hours will the festivities, PRIZES, games and challenges begin over at Let's Scrap!

Join us for some scrappin' good fun and you might just get some of those memories scrapped and have some fun at the same time :)

Now we are calling it {Inter}National Scrapbooking Month because at Let's Scrap we are a membership of folks from all over the world!!! So we have some talent from all the reaches of the globe and of course we have made some special connections with people from all over too!

I will be keeping you posted with the challenges as they come out and give you my spin on these challenges too...stay tuned for some exciting scrapbooking starting tomorrow!!!

Welcome to Coolsville...

I've been having too much fun with Close To My Heart's new "Cruisin" paper collection, Silver Foil Stickers and Bottle Caps and when I saw this week's sketch at Let's Scrap I had to use it!

Aren't these Silver Foil stickers super cool!??

Now I've adapted this sketch a little, but not too much as I had just the photos for it...Olivia's Road Test...which comes with a story if you want to read my journalling which was too long to show on the layout so I created a pocket and just folded the printed paper and tucked it inside the pocket!

journalling reads:

Ok, so here’s the story...Olivia, after 12 months of ‘learning’ to drive was able to book her Road Test. We signed her up for Young Drivers of Canada which she did brilliantly with and as October 31st was soon approaching she needed to book her Road Test! Now in typical Olivia fashion, she procrastinated and then when she finally decided to go online to book her appointment (yes, it was that easy!) she wasn’t able to get into our local ICBC office until 2 weeks after the date she was legally able to take the test on! So, because Olivia is known for her patience, she started looking at alternate locations to go to take her ‘Road Test’...all of our local’ish offices had the same wait times give or take a day but Olivia was persistent and kept on searching...”Mom, is Prince George too far away?”...”What?!!! Olivia, Prince George is like 8-9 hours drive!!!” ...”Oh, so I guess you wouldn’t take me there then?”....”Ahhh, NO!”.....”What about Kelowna, I can take my test there on the 31st of October, it would be perfect! Will you take me there?”...”Ahhh, NO!”...”Why not? It’s only like 3 hours drive from here...that’s not too far...and it would be excellent driving practice for me too!”...”Olivia, you should have booked your test earlier and then you wouldn’t have this problem! I’m not driving you to Kelowna to take a road test when you could do it here, 5 minutes from home!”...”Moommm...Do you think Dad would take me?”...”Hah...you could ask him {LOL, not a chance}” 

So because this tale is funny I had to tell my parents that their [perfect} Granddaughter waited too long to register for her Road Test and now has to wait two more weeks! I also told them that she was busy trying to find another place to go...So my Mother pipes up and says, “Your Dad’s retired now, maybe he’ll take her to Kelowna?”...my Dad replies, “ Well we wouldn’t take my truck! We could take yours Kristine! and YOU’LL have to pay for the gas!” and so I’m like shocked at this point because it is plain to see that Olivia has her Grandparents right where she wants them! In the palm of her hand! {first Grandbaby syndrome, I guess} 

In the end, my father picked her up from school after her first class and drove her part way there, she drove the rest of the way. She had a lady test her and she passed...my Dad took her out for a late lunch/early supper and then they drove home! 

May I also note that I would never have gotten my parents to drive me a total of 7 hours to and from any appointment in my life! Especially when my own procrastination was the reason I couldn’t get my Road Test done locally...but I guess that this is a perfect example of the things we will do for our Grandkids! It’s OK to spoil them because you’ve already done a stand up job of raising your own...case in point...I didn’t drive her!!!

and finally a photo of my Dad resting up for the LONG drive home :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and hopefully Olivia's story made you smile :)

then & now

I'm just pluggin away at some of these '20 Layouts' layouts from one of the classes Jennifer Edwardson taught back a few months back, if you remember me mentioning these classes in previous posts, she teaches a super fast paced, guided 'boot camp' style class, where she walks you through using up some of your stash and creating some really cute layouts in the process...this is one of the ones I've just finished:

I've had these two photos on the left printed out for years and years and when I saw this recent photo of Olivia and Courtney from a party I thought that a layout showing them from then to now would be neat and a great way to incorporate these single photos I've had printed for so long!

I found these fluffy, velvet Thickers alphabet sheet set and even though they are super messy, loosing their stick {needed to add some adhesive myself}, I thought they complimented these papers :)

this is the layout that Jennifer had as her example for us to follow:

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today, I love meeting new followers and hearing from you, so thank you again for hanging out with me!!!

Dotty For You BlogHop!!!

Hello and welcome to our Dotty For You BlogHop...if you have arrived here from Katy Taylor's Blog then you're on the right track! You are sure to be inspired by the 38 CTMH Consultants that are creating with this paper collection so enjoy!

For those of you that aren't familiar with this month's Dotty For You special...here it is:

You are going to love this! Beginning April 17, you can purchase the Dotty for You paper pack for just $5 with a qualifying purchase on my website or in person.

To celebrate National Scrapbooking Month in May, Close To My Heart has created this cute and contemporary, loaded with bright colours and patterns,  24 pack of double sided cardstock which was created exclusively for this special and will only be available from April 17 to May 31.

Want it for free? Earn the Dotty For You paper pack as a hostess of a $400 gathering (plus you’ll receive $60 or more in hostess rewards!) Online gatherings are a cinch, contact me to set one up.

You can also receive a free Dotty For You paper pack when you join my team as a Close to My Heart consultant.

There are three ways to earn this amazing paper pack! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have! 


Here's some of what I've created so far...

sketch from Frosted Designs

This is another layout for our Maya Riviera Holiday album...we were goofing around on the beach and my son was more than happy to participate as well!

I LOVE these Lots of Dots color-ready alphabet sheets! They can also ink up to exactly what you want and here you can see I wanted some Honey and Lagoon inks in my title, I used a zig-zag border piece to mask off half at a time so that my ink wouldn't rub into the other color :)

I inked this chipboard dimensional heart with Sunset and Cranberry ink...it was the perfect match until I  added the shine with the Liquid Glass...forgot that it can alter the colour...oops! Oh well, like it anyways :)

I made these tags by simply printing out my journalling onto my White Daisy cardstock, cutting the tags shape around it, punched a small circle and then hole punch through them both and attached the twine! popped  them up with 3D foam tape for some more dimension :)

This layout was created for the April stamp of the month BlogHop, you can see more here 

and this card was also created for the April stamp of the month Hop, you can see more here




Now off you go to Heather Schmuckal's Blog to see what she's created with this fabulous paper pack...enjoy the Hop everyone!

Complete Hoppers list below :)

Helen Onulak http://www.hookedonstamping.com/

Kathleen Androlewicz http://bowlofstamps.blogspot.com/

Dawn Ross http://iamahappystamper.blogspot.com/

Haley Dyer http://inkyscrapper.blogspot.com/

Wendy Kessler http://www.myscrapbookingblog.com/

Elizabeth Mindemann http://www.ejoym.blogspot.com

Shirley Ross www.momnmescrap.blogspot.com

Sheila Bennett http://sheila-bennett.blogspot.com/

Dawn Heuft http://www.stamptildawn.blogspot.com/

Traci Pasqualone http://scrapitraci.blogspot.com/

Wendy Coffman http://www.stampingrules.com/

Carol Loftus www.CarolLoftus.blogspot.com

Rachel Ventura http://www.happyscrappinsquad.com/

Tamytha Jenkins www.paperheartist.com

Jody Gustafson http://cre8nmemories.blogspot.com/

Kim Schnoor http://www.creativehands-hearts.blogspot.com/

Vicki Price http://priceofpaper.blogspot.com/

Adeline Brill www.adeline-brill.blogspot.com

Amy McVey http://www.clearlystamping.blogspot.com/

Julia Hammond http://youcancreatectmh.blogspot.com/

Krista Hershberger http://kristascraftycorner.blogspot.com/

Susan Brooks http://stampingintheopen.blogspot.com/

Judy Faye Garner http://judyfaye.blogspot.com

Lori Miller http://clearlyfromtheheart.blogspot.com/

Michelle Loncar http://www.michelleloncar.blogspot.com

Karen Fullam http://www.enrichingmemories.com/

Sheri Ballantyne http://sherisays-justscrapit.blogspot.ca/

Michelle Johns http://www.myflightsoffancy.com/blog

Misty Jackson http://misstscraps.blogspot.com

Judy Burger http://makingtimeformemories.blogspot.com/

Katy Donaldson Taylor http://www.scrappinkaty.blogspot.com/

Kristine Ponte http://www.kponte.blogspot.com

Heather Schmuckal http://www.heatherjanedesign.blogspot.com

Allisa Chilton http://www.rockymtnpapercrafts.blogspot.com/

Jen Rubio http://jenrubio.blogspot.com/

Jamia Bankhead http://papermadnessinc.blogspot.com

Gina Brandstetter http://gmbscrapper.blogspot.com/

Casandra Bennett http://casandra-scrappinbliss.blogspot.com/

FUN in the SUN

While I sit in my workshop looking out the window occasionally to enjoy the sunshine, I have been playing around with another Let's Scrap sketch from March!  I dug into some 'Fine and Dandy' paper from My Mind's Eye...hoping to have some takers for a class next weekend at the Ultimate Scrapbook Retreat at Loon Lake!

One day I will master my photography lighting to actually match the paper colours exactly, but in the meantime, these photos will have to do! This paper is nice and bright and perfect for summer, birthday or even everyday pictures...I chose our recent holiday to Mexico as I have oodles of photos to scrapbook to complete this album!!!

I decided to hand make my embellished sunshine and luckily I have a pair of great cloud punches to help me in this!

I've used some Close To My Heart pearl opaques and a paper butterfly to draw the eye to this journalling spot...

and my handy dandy Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge from CTMH was used to custom cut my 'sun' title...the flags were cut from plain white cardstock I printed from my computer to customize my title further :)

thanks so much for stopping by today, have a fantastic weekend and Happy Scrappin'

Let's Scrap with this new sketch!!!

Good Morning and I'm so glad you're taking a minute today to check out this fantastic sketch from Let's Scrap...as I'm now into my Design Team term by a couple weeks...I've been enjoying every minute of it and I'm having a grand time meeting some new lovely ladies in the process as well!

Here's this weeks sketch, I really hope you take some time this week to play with it :)

and this is what I did:

My Dad taking a ride down the mini-Zipline when we were 

in the Maya Riviera in December!

I've pulled out my older Kraft border strips from Close To My Heart, so simple, just peel the backing off and stick'er down!

All of the sticker embellishments are the cardstock stickers that coordinate with this Pemberley paper line from Close To My Heart. The wooden starburst piece is also from CTMH and it can be found in the Wooden Garden Shapes pkg., I carefully cut this flower in half with my scissors and inked it in Honey ink.

You can see slightly that I've also sanded the edges of my photos to have them stand off the page a little, almost gives them the look like they are finely matted.

Thanks for stopping by, and good luck creating with this week's sketch!

just play ball...

Good Morning everyone!

I've got another fantastic Let's Scrap layout here for all of you except that this time I get to present it to you as a new Design Team member! My DT term this time will run from April-July and I look forward to highlighting more fantastic sketches on a semi-regular basis once again :)  This Basic Grey paper that I used was a little intimidating as it is quite busy...but after trimming it into smaller pieces I really love how they all go together! 

Remember to click on the photos for even better close-ups :)

I grabbed some crocheted flowers from my LSS and it happened to match this paper perfectly, I've layered in some Close To My Heart pewter Filigree Charms and photo clips.

I love to cut felt with my Sizzix and this sandy coloured felt was just what I wanted to add some texture to this layout...layer onto that some more patterned paper and misc. embellishments and my little circle accents are complete!

I like to keep all of my buttons, felt bits and brads visible in my studio, so finding just what I was needing was easy...I always say that if I can't easily see it or find it, it's not going to get used!!!

In addition to that, I keep ALL my alphabet sheets together, filed in colour order in one large box...this way I can just look at the colours I was thinking of to find suitable letter stickers for my titles...I also keep my tiny word sheets together in the same box.

Here's this weeks Lets Scrap sketch!

Aren't these little wooden seaside embellies super cute! They are Close To My Heart and they come in a package of misc. designs and I need to order more!

Pull out your paper, scissors and glue and get craftin' with this weeks's great Let's Scrap sketch !

just walk away...

That's all I'm sayin'...sometimes when things just don't feel or look right we keep on playin' and this time I told myself to just walk away...

Found these really old pictures of my son playing Hockey with his little buddy. They were having a 'play date' and spent all their time in the garage, taking turns in the net...only broke for lunch if my memory serves me!

Now in putting glue to paper this time around, I just kept on adding things and sometimes I have to force myself to just 'stop!'

So while this doesn't feel 100% for me, I will walk away because I've journalled and embellished and these boys do look super cute just playing together and in the end that's what this crazy thing called scrapbooking is all about...the memories :)

Thanks for coming by and I hope you have a chance to just put some glue to paper today too!

Use your own stash...

Well some of you remember the layouts I've posted previously from a class I took called 'Use Your Own Stash', a 20 Layouts Workshop...I am just plugging away on putting the finishing touches and photos on some of these layouts.

The mastermind behind this class is Jennifer Edwardson, she owns a Scrapbook Store on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada...for those International followers out there...and she comes to events and other stores and teaches her class.

It is action packed, by this I mean you need to be organized (she sends you a class kit list) and ready to get things done! Now at a super-charged pace of about 20-30 minutes per layout, I only ever get the 'guts' as I like to refer to it, of a layout done. So that means I get the base papers done, photo matting if needed and photos down. All of the embellishing and title and journalling work gets done after or much later on my own time. Seeing as the embellishing is where I like to take my time to ponder placement, for those of you that know me {wink}, and those of you that don't know me so well...I've been known to take a minute or 10 or...just to put a brad or button in its final resting place! So this class really gets me stickin' er down and movin' on!!!

Now she is teaching this fun 20 layout class at a Fundraising Event here to benefit BC Children's Hospital, click here to see the details of this worthy event on May 5, 2012.

The wonderful thing about this class is you build your kits from your own stash of papers and embellishments. So each person ends up having their own individual layout based off her sketch. 

The colour in these photos aren't the greatest, but you get the idea :) I wanted to make sure to include a photo of my Mom and my daughter as well as the beautiful gift she bought her for her 16th Birthday. A friend of my Moms' makes these lovely reclaimed silver teaspoons into bracelets! Such clever people in the world :)

Yeah! another layout finished and more of my stash used up! Mission Complete!