a Royal Hawaiian Luau...

I took several photos of the Luau we went to at our hotel, The Royal Hawaiian, on Christmas Eve...it was a served meal, so different from other types of Luau...but the meal was delicious even still!

I really like this sketch for this event, I could have increased the number of photos, but in the evening, it was difficult to get great shots of the event so I decided to touch on the highlights of the evening instead!

Close To My Heart came out with a stamp set many many moons ago called 'Extreme Happiness'. It went with a paper pack called Moon Doggie...which was very tropical...now the paper is no longer available and the stamp set is not either unfortunately...but how smart am I to recognize that this stamp set is a keeper! I've used it many times over with different paper lines...and I love it here as well!!!

The musical notes paper is from Bazzill Basics and the other patterned papers are from Echo Park's collection called Paradise Beach.

All of the wooden bits are from Close To My Heart's new 'Trinkets Wooden Shapes'...there are 57 mini stampable, laser-cut wooden bits and I am loving using them! I'm actually going to need to re-order them as I am using them right up and I'm not ready for them to be all gone yet! :)

Here's the Lets Scrap sketch for this week: 

 

Thanks so much for stopping in today, if you have any questions about some of the products I've used, feel free to message me! Have a Fantastic Day!

Happy Monday and Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Yes, every year I get another year older and I get another notch on my belt, so to speak, no avoiding it so I might as well enjoy it!!!

I was able to get some scrapbooking done this past weekend and I also worked on my Project Life pages...fun to play with paper and glue for a while and get some scrappy Design Team business done too!

Today being Monday means another great sketch from Scrapbook Challenges!

This was from our trip to DisneyWorld in March 2010...the kids wanted solo pictures with each of the characters so I'll end up adding this photo to Olivia's personal album instead of the Disney Holiday album.

I've added some fantastic wide Burlab Ribbon from Close To My Heart, great embellishment and texture for your projects...I also decided to fussy cut some Hot Air balloons out of the patterned paper for some fun and dimension :)

I dug into some of my stash of punched flowers and bits and pieces to create this cluster of embellies, even found a CTMH journalling pocket for some hidden journalling :)

Here's the sketch! Enjoy!

Scrap Your Story sketch

Hello! Happy to have you here :)

Just wanted to share this fun new challenge site and sketch with you this afternoon...ScrapYour Story is a new place to find challenges and last week they had a sketch for us to play with!!! While I was a dollar short and a penny late for entering this challenge I still created a layout with the sketch and wanted to share it with all of you!

 Fun photos of my son tubing on Osoyoos Lake in BC a couple summer vacations ago! Using up some of my Bo Bunny papers and embellies to whip up this layout!!!

Once again, showing the convenience of purchasing those matching sticker sheets that have embellishments and letters on them! Make the title work fast and it all looks great together :)

The chipboard bits are from my leftover Footloose pack from Close To My Heart...colours worked well together and I'm a few embellishments less in my thousand plus STASH!!!

Why don't you grab a couple photos and some papers and do a quick page? This one will be done up in no time and you are guaranteed to feel great after completing it! 

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Hello Lovlies!

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Click the link above to start following me via Bloglovin, I'd love to continue our Bloggin' relationship with you! You can also get my posts when they happen by signing up by email...look to your right to see where you add your email address and when I upload a new post here, it automatically comes to your email inbox! Easy Peasy lemon squeezy!

Project Life integrated...

Hello! SO glad you've stopped in!!!

I have been sorting through my photos and I'm getting them into albums! I've decided that of all the plastic containers I have of certain events full of photos, I know that I have already scrapbooked my favourites. 

How do I know this? 

Well if I've printed these events out months and months ago, and I've already scrapbooked some of the photos from the event...then it stands to reason that while I might like the extra photos (because I chose them to print in the first place) I am done scrapbooking it in my mind already! So that being said...I've pulled out my Becky Higgins photo sleeves, trimmed my remaining photos and added bits of left over papers and stickers and now I have the whole event in an album! Yeah for me!!!

Want to see? ok...

Let me show you how these pages are going to sit in my 'Everyday Life' album for 2012...starting with page one of our trip to the Zoo. I took my nieces and my son and daughter and it was so much fun that I took waaaaay too many photos ;)

page 1&2 

page 3&4

page 5&6

page 7&8

and here's a few close ups:

Now after all that I still had a couple photos I wanted to created a page from! Imagine that! and I still had some scraps of paper from this great Echo Park 'Fall Fever' line to create this:

This layout will go into my 'All About Marissa' album...seeing as it's all about my daughter's relationship with her cousin, I thought it would be nice to add to her personal album.

It just so happens that this layout was created from today's sketch release from Scrapbook Challenges as well :) So after this really long post you are rewarded with a new sketch to play with!!! 

Pinterest Challenge

Good Morning! Are you up for a fun challenge???

It's my turn over at Scrapbook Challenges to host this month's Pinterest Challenge. 

In March we are focussing 'All About Me'...not me specifically, but me meaning each of us!

{Photo Credit}

Your job is to take any inspiration from this photo and create a layout with it! You can see that I was focussing on all the wood and used a barn board pattern for my base.

Of course the first thing that drew me to this photo was those gorgeous paper lanterns!

So I wanted to mimic the circles and add some depth by layering  the different sizes on top of each other.

I've used an older sketch from SBC and there was a hot air balloon in it...so that gave me the idea to dig out my Studio Calico stamp from way back when and voila!

This is a photo from many years ago. My family was on vacation and we stopped at Lake Louise...not sure any details other than that! So it goes to show that we need to document each of our stories...only you can tell your story best...I hope you create a layout this month just about YOU...something your kids can cherish in years to come :)

Thanks for stopping by and of course as usual, I'd love it if you played along with us over at Scrapbook Challenges!

the Mad Hatters...

This was so much fun! I go several times a year with my girls to different hat stores...this trip was when we were away in Hawaii this past Christmas with my husband's family...my adorable nieces are so photogenic anyway, but little Sadie was really enjoying this store AND Auntie Kristine taking so many photos of her too! It was nice to see my son Matthew getting into it too, seeing as he's usually not interested in joining me and the girls for our shopping trips throughout the year!

This week's sketch from Let's Scrap was a great fit for all these photos...and all the embellishments from my package of Pink Paislee 'Portfolio' collection worked great to jazz this page up!

I love to use my Sizzix to cut felt! and these bits are a perfect addition to add some more texture to this layout!

I added some more of those Close To My Heart wooden shapes from the 'garden collection' because I like these kinds of flowers...not the other kinds ;) and if you noticed, I had to 'make' a second letter 't' from a 'L'...pretty sneaky of me huh?!!!

Here's the sketch:

You might have also have noticed that I made this sketch work for me...make sure you use your sketches as starting off points and don't worry about every little detail...these sketches are here to help you get creative, not for you to worry about following perfectly! that is if you don't want too!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in today, I hope you have a crafty day!

need inspiration?

So glad you've stopped in!

I have found another fantastic scrappy site! Great sketches and Design Team inspiration...some great prizes up for grabs too! Check out inspired Blueprints !

I know it may sound funny, but I love how they present their sketches...nice and clean with the basic skeleton of the sketch...I prefer this as I find I don't obsess over the paper patterns in the sketch or try to duplicate them...I just look at the basic design and find photos and papers I want to work with...this makes the design and assembly so much simpler for many scrapbookers!

I took my nieces and kids to the Greater Vancouver Zoo in September last year...took oodles of photos of course but this is what I made from the sketch...

I've used three (3) sheets of 'Fall Fever' by Echo Park, CTMH cardstock (Juniper and Colonial White) and one sheet of CTMH patterned paper (wood plank background), assorted Twinery twine

You'll have noticed that I used two 4x6 photos instead of the one larger 6x8...always use your sketch as your starting off point...it's intended to help you with general design...not hinder you...so don't worry about 'exact' when you are looking at sketches...look at it from the perspective of "Do I like this sketch?" and "Can I work with this?"

I know it was crazy...but I fussy cut each leaf and owl...I just had to because they were the perfect accent from the scraps of paper I had left. These pictures aren't the greatest as we've had rain and more rain these past couple of days which makes everything dark and gloomy.

I've also entered this page in the 'Scrap Your Story'  Animals Challenge for this week :) You'll remember that I posted about this new Challenge site last week, four challenges a month and prizes up for grabs as well!!! What better incentive do you need? Check them out too :)

Now I mentioned earlier that I took oodles of photos of our Zoo visit...to add more photos with this layout and to be able to still journal about the day, I've incorporated some Project Life sleeves into my 'Everyday Life' album along with this layout above...here's how they look together:

I worked on this layout and four (4) PL sleeves to add to this event in my album for about 2 hours last night! I still need to add some journalling, but I wanted to show you how I'm starting to add these sleeves to my regular albums...

The 'You're a Hoot' came from the reverse side of the papers, the benefit of picking patterned paper with sentiments and cards on them.

I just know that I can't scrapbook everything I take photos of...so instead I'm just scrapbooking some of my favourite pictures and using Project Life for the rest...this way I can take bits of paper and stickers etc. and add them as well...it all still ties it together and looks fantastic too! But best of all I'm getting these photos into albums for people to enjoy instead of sitting on my computer!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a scrap-tastic week full of goodness!

Like my new look?!!!

Like my new look?!!! I was needing to lighten my mood and the look on my blog, so after several hours of fiddling, some curse words and lots of trial and error...more error than I'd like...this is it!

Happy Monday everyone! 
As usual, I have a sketch for you, this one is sketch #335 from Scrapbook Challenges!

Nice and easy, lemon squeezy...great papers from Studio Calico, banner from Basic Grey and tags from Crate Paper...an OLD overlay from My Mind's Eye that I was so happy to add to this layout!

I keep my odds n' sodds in a basket and love it when I can grab that random item and incorporate it into my layout!

This clear overlay from MME has been in my stash for at least five years!

This stitched banner was from a sheet of banners that Basic Grey has just recently produced, I got it in a grab bag of goodies from CherryLane Scrapbook Shoppe...a local scrappy place!

I hope you have a chance to get crafty this week and also play along with the sketches I'll be revealing this week! It's a great way to use up your stash!!!
Check back Wednesday and again on Friday for more goodness!

 Thanks for stopping by!

...and the award goes to....

What a pleasant surprise! Val from Val-Belle's Ramblings, has nominated me for a Liebster award! Thanks Val :)

Val is a super inspiring papercrafter who loves to teach other papercrafters in her hometown in South Africa AND she is on several Design Teams! We have shared a couple DT terms on Lets Scrap as well !!! Make sure you check out her blog too.

While I have received this award in the past, it is still always so lovely to know that others enjoy your Blog! I have many Blogs I like to follow, some I have even signed up to get email posts of their updates...something I like to do when I don't want to miss one of their posts!

About the Award-

This award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. Once you have been nominated, you award it to blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers to encourage new visitors/followers to these blogs!

Rules for Acceptance-

Thank the person who gave you the award and link it back to their blog.

Post the award onto your blog.

Give the award to 5 Bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers.

Leave a comment on their blog to let them know that you have given them this award.

So here are the five that inspire me: 

(in no particular order) 

• Kim is a fellow CTMH chickie and I really like her clean style and creative cards, you can find her at    http://agirlandherstamps.blogspot.ca/
• Kathy is always working with great sketches and products, she is 'just my style', you can find her at   http://kathyskou.blogspot.ca/
• Lee-Anne is a fellow Canadian & Design Team chickie with me at Scrapbook Challenges and she is always inspiring me, you can find her at   http://lee-annelovethejourney.blogspot.ca/
• Jo is someone I just discovered, she loves scrapping, photography and books, and her loves are greatly reflected on her blog which you can find here at   http://mrsbeee.blogspot.co.uk/
• Donelda is a fellow Canadian also & I just found some of her crafty creations, love her use of mists in her work, you can find her at   http://wiggysworldofcrafts.blogspot.ca/

Now through these lovely ladies I've discovered other creative people, great new challenge and sketch sites and lots of creative goodness...which is why we love to follow along, RIGHT?

Ok, so off you go, check out their blogs, follow them if you want to and check out their artwork, challenge creations and great links to other bloggers, other sites and goodies!

and remember...to leave some love when you see something you like! There's nothing more lovely than knowing we've received a visitor to our blogs!!!