Rough and Tumble

I finally scrapped some pictures I had been wanting to get to! Purging my photo box was a huge weight off my shoulder and really has helped me get back into this scrapbooking "thing"!

This first layout features a series of pictures I took of my son when he was having a tantrum. I could have stopped what I was doing and helped him out but it was one of those I want what I can't have fits and taking his picture actually distracted him quicker than anything else would have!

Such a sweet moment to capture! ;)

I love these next photos. It was that brief period of time when just one of his top front teeth had come through. So cute! This layout was "Pinspired" by one I had seen on the Doodlebug blog. You can see it here: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/53761789275327603/.

The papers, rub-ons and journal cards I used for both of these layouts are Fancy Pant's Designs older collection called "Rough and Tumble." I just love the doodled look it has and I know I am going to wish that I had more. I find myself really drawn to papers with that doodled feel.

Those Awkward Years.....

Oh my goodness. This is a pretty embarrassing layout. But it was also a lot of fun to do! Scrapbookin' Adventures' latest facebook challenge was to scrap yourself. Well I had this idea that's been brewing for a few months, so I decided to take the plunge!

There I am. In all my awkward, teenage glory. Seriously though, it's a great way to document those school pictures that our buried away in an envelope or album somewhere.

Thanks for checking it out and I challenge you to give it a try too! And share a link with me if you do!

{be Inspired}

I am slowly starting to get back into my favorite past time again. I did a huge purge of my supplies and sorted through the photo box FULL of photos. The ones I don't want to scrap are now in albums and I have about 1/3 of the box left to scrap. I may even get around to printing off 2013 photos before the year ends! Anyways, this purge has really helped me want to get crafty again. The amount of stuff I had was just too overwhelming.

Today I have card I made for a special lady's birthday. I also decided to join in the Unity Stamp Company monthly {be Inspired} challenge, since I was going to be using one of their stamp set.

My inspiration from this card came the the {be Inspired} colour challenge and also from a card I had seen on Pinterest. You can see the card here: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/53761789275673715/. The Unity challenge is here: http://www.theunitystampco-challenge.blogspot.ca/2013/10/octobernovember-brand-new-be-inspired.html. I think you still have a few days to join in!

I even decided to pretty the inside up a little. (Mostly to hide the green marker that had bled through from the wine bottle!) I used the Unity "Time for Wine" stamp set and Echo Park Paper's "So Happy Together" collection. Plus a little ribbon and bling from my stash.

Thanks for checking out my card! I'll be back soon with a couple of new layouts I have been working on!

I'm still scrapping...

Ya, ya, ya!

Wow! That was a long break from scrapping! I'm trying my hardest to get on a roll again. I've done 4 layouts in the past couple of weeks, but I only took pictures of this last one. The others I put away in albums today, forgetting that I needed pics. So you may or may not see those :)

Today's layout was inspired by my desire to finally be done with 2011 pictures, the October Colour Suite challenge from Scrapbooks & Cards Today, and the bi-weekly facebook challenge from Scrapbookin' Adventures. It was easy to combine the gorgeous fall colours from the Colour Suite with the Fall theme challenge.

Oh wait! I did take a picture of the layout I did for Scrapbookin' Adventures precious challenge. It was a sketch, and my take looks like this:

Hopefully I can keep the momentum and keep posting!

Love me a giveaway!

Do you love giveaway??? I sure do!!!

There is a great giveaway over at Studio 49 Deals. They are a new daily deal site for crafting goodies! Info is on their blog here.

                                  

Such an awesome prize!


*fingers crossed*

I'm on a roll!

Look at me go! I was able to focus and do 3 layouts today! They all feature Fancy Pant's Down by the Shore collection. I'm really focusing on using up some of the product in my stash. Not necessarily so that I can get more, more so that I can put more of it away! I've made a really good dent in this collection. Not too much left!

All three of these layouts were done for the Scrapbookin' Adventures facebook page challenge #14, which is to scraplift an entry from a previous week's challenge. If you want to see where I got my inspiration from, go check out my entries on their wall. I provide the link to the originals there. There are still two more layouts that I hope to get to today or tomorrow.

This first layout was also done for the CropChocolate.com's weekly challenge which is to use washi tape on a project.

The layouts all use papers from Down By the Shore. Other items used include AC kraft cardstock, Um Wow Studio chipboard, Doodlebug alphas, thickers, LYB canvas tags and cork butterflies, Michael's brand starfish brads and wooden anchor, and twine.

Scrap Liftin' Fun!

I love to get ideas and inspiration from all the amazing scrapbooking and cardmaking work that is out there for all us to enjoy! Sometimes I just take away an idea but sometimes I just have to recreate the project!

I have quite a few layouts and cards pinned that I hope to recreate at some point and this week I knocked two off of my to do list!

This first layout is pinned from the My Mind's Eye blog. You can see the original here.

And here is my version:

The Fancy Pant's Design line, Down by the Shore is just perfect for these pictures of my son from 2011. Love his chubby legs and crabby bum!

The card I scraplifted can be seen here.

Here is my version:

Such a fun birthday card!

Um Wow July Sketch

If you have not had the pleasure of checking out UmWow Studio and their awesome chipboard pieces, then you must! They have now also added new FLAIR pieces which are so nice. I love the quality of them! You never know what they will come out with next (she's already added some more flair sets that I love)!  UmWow Studio also has a blog with a monthly sketch challenge. Since I have a couple of orders of delicious chipboard and a set of flair (wildflower, if you were curious), I decided to join in.

I had seen DeeDee post a layout not long ago and loved the design of it so I was excited to see that the sketch was based off of that layout!

This is the sketch:

And this is my layout:

I love how this looks! As you can see, I used a much larger photo than the sketch called for. I decided to make that center white paper from the sketch into a photo. But then my photo wasn't quite tall enough so added patterned paper to the top and bottom to fill in that same space. I also shifted the title and embellishment down and to the right. I think keeping the side paper parts and the vertical strip embellishment really gives my version the same feel as the sketch.

Here you can see my Um Wow Studio embellishments. I used the layered butterfly frames and backed them with paper and added two tiny hearts from the heart confetti. I used a polaroid frame also with some confetti hearts inside. And I used a flair from the wildflower set.

The papers and other embellishments used are all from the Pebbles 'Sunny Side' collection. One of my current faves. I can't wait to use it some more!

Layout Fun!

Happy Saturday everyone!

It is a long weekend here in Canada (Happy Canada Day long weekend!!), and I am happy to report that the We(s)t Coast is finally seeing some June sunshine and blue skies! What a wet, cold start to summer we have had!

I thought today would be a good day to share some layouts I made with the Scrapbook and Card's Today Summer Crop & Create Delivered box that I received a couple of weeks ago!

The box was packed full of fun papers and embellies and even an exclusive stamp set!

 These first two layouts were made following the sketches and instruction sheets included with the kit. It's fun to follow these and make a layout or two that maybe isn't your usual style.

This beachy layout I have shared already. I used a sketch that was in the kit and added the super fun Kraftin' Kimmie Summer Fun stamp set to it. I'm still really wishing I had cut those 3 vertical strips to have a banner notch in the end. I wonder if I could carefully do that without ruining the whole thing.....

This last layout I made using my own sketch that I drew after playing around with the paper pieces that I had left. These two sheets (the navy dot and the yellow hearts) are my absolute favorites from the kit so I wanted to use as much as I could. The other paper strips are scraps and those little bottom border strips that some double sided papers have. I covered some Maya Road chipboard hearts that were included, with washi tape from my stash. Love how they look! And I also added those beautiful Bella Blvd feathers and tied them with some yellow paper twine from the kit. I really love how this turned out but I feel like could add a brad or something at the the top and/or bottom 'love you' paper strip area. Hmmm, I received my order of UmWow Studio chipboard yesterday, with some confetti hearts included. I think I'm going to have to play around and see how that would look!

Did anyone else out there order the Crop & Create Delivered kit? I'd love to see what you have created if you would like to leave me a link!!!

A Krafty Challenge

Oh happy days! I received my Scrapbook and Cards Today Summer Crop & Create Delivered box with the mail on tuesday. I decided yesterday that I would focus on making the layout projects included with it and really put the goodies to good use. I finished my third layout with it today (I made two yesterday). Yesterday's layouts really stuck to the plan that was included in the kit, but today I used the sketch to create and layout and decided I needed to use a few goodies from my stash with it. So I pulled out my Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps and got busy with their new Summer Lovin' set (which is so awesome! If you are in the market for a new stamp set, get it!!).

Here is what I came up with:

Super cute! I just wish had trimmed the 3 paper strips to have flag ends, but this is how the sketch had them. I had 3 different photos that I wanted to use on this LO so I may have to do it again with that change.

The sandcastle and the bucket with shovel are from the Kraftin Kimmie Stamps set. I had a set of cute flip flops cut and coloured for the LO too but they just looked too big next to the sand castle. I also used my clear glitter pen and added some to the sandcastle and the sand in the bucket (and the polka dots on the flip flops).

An update!

All has been quiet around here. I haven't been doing a lot of crafting lately. Mostly been working on house and yard stuff :P

BUT, I did have a chance to join in on May Arts Ribbons latest ribbon challenge. When I saw the theme of it, I just new I had to get a spot! The post is up today so go on over and check it out!

I just love how this banner turned out! I mostly used bits and pieces from Fancy Pant's By the Shore collection. Love it! Plus the great May Arts ribbons that I chose and a few other bits and bobbles.

Sketch Challenge!

My doing well with my refocus on layouts! I am so far behind how many I had done by this time last year....

PageMaps is celebrating their 7th anniversary and hosting all sorts of contests and challenges for the month of May. I love sketch challenges so you know I will be posting a few!

Here is the first one I have done.

The sketch:

My layout!

Hmmm, I think may need to add a little something in the upper left corner. I'm also wishing I had distressed the edges of the beige paper. Darn.

Products:

Echo Park: Paradise Beach paper

Fancy Pants: Beach Bum & Beach Babe brads

MM: Vintage Findings tags

My very last CC Design Team post...

*insert sad face here*

This is it. My very last Crop Chocolate design team post. We do  not know what the future will hold for our beloved Crop Chocolate, but we do know that they are working hard to think of ways to keep the social side open. But we all know that even just that requires a lot of time, energy and still some expense. So we will all just have to sit back and hope for the best.

For our last project the design team swapped sides. Those who were on the altered project side, swapped with the cards/layouts team. I was happy to have a 'break' and do a layout! And now since this is my final project for the team, I am really glad that it showcased what I love to do: scrapbook family moments and memories.

I also included a super easy tutorial on how I make washi tape feathers!

Check out my blog post here or go straight to the tutorial on Instructagram!

The layout:

Thank you for all of your kind words and encouragement as I learned and grew as a part of the design team. I'm going to work really hard on "catching up" on my scrapbooks!!! Well at least tackle the few hundred pictures I had printed a few weeks ago!

National Scrapbooking Day!

I'm back again today to share the entries I made for the National Scrapbooking Day challenges hosted by CropChocolate.com.


Challenge #1: Homage to Summer! Incorporate a sunburst into your project.

I absolutely LOVE how this layout turned out! It was a bit tricky because I was also making this for the current facebook challenge at the Scrapbookin' Adventures facebook page. And that challenge was tricky! We could ONLY USE patterened paper, alpha stickers, ink, chipboard and twine. And of course whatever tools and adhesive we needed, but no other products!

I LOVE this! I used Echo Park's Splash collection for the paper. (That frame is a leftover from a piece I cut with my Cricut last year and just new I would be able to use someday!). I also used some Maya Road chipboard for the banner, the hearts and stars and under the beach ball. Distress Ink for the edges and white ink for the little hearts and stars. And then some MME Miss Caroline twine on the banner.

Challenge #2, #4 and #5

I combined my own tic tac toe challenge with the Bling, Bling, Bling challenge (use 2 different types of bling) and the BUG challenge (use a bug and do something outside of your comfort zone).

I picked the lace, patterened paper, and heart row from the tic tac toe challenge. For the Bug challenge I added tiny little butterfly brads and the outside my comfort zone is the 8x8 size of this layout. I find it so hard to get everything I want onto the smaller size! And the two types of bling are some glitter glue I added to a flower and the little flags at the top and the glitter Thickers.

Products: MME Miss Caroline 'Howdy Doody' papers and brads; Thickers 'rainboots'; MS glitter glue; MM butterfly brads; lace from my stash.

Challenge #3: Buttons & Bows

This is another entry that I just LOVE! I had pinned this card months ago and I know I will be making more cards like this!

I used MME Happy Go Lucky; a Fancy Pants button; MME twine; Unity Stamp Co stamp for the clouds and Craft's Meow Stamps for the owl and branch.

Challenge # 6 Add a Window and #7 Neverending Card

Confession: I only made the base for this card and let my sick 9 year old do the embellishing! I helped her find a spot for the window, sun and clouds and she did the rest (oh and I tied the ribbon into bows...).

We used Echo Park's Hello Summer collection for all of the paper and embellishments and just added some sheer, white striped ribbon for the bows.

Challenge #8 A Sketch plus use something old and something new

My something old is the Bo Bunny Blast Off collection that I still love! And my something new is a tab and alpha stickers from the new Fancy Pants Down by the Shore collection.

And those are my challenge entries done!!!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!!

Well! Let's start this post with some GOOD NEWS!

Saturday May 4th is National Scrapbooking Day! You will find 8 different challenges you can participate in over at CropChocolate.com.

All of the current Design Team members teamed up and created the challenges.

I teamed up with Julie, and this is what we came up with:

So come on over and join in the fun!



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Now for the sad news.....

My very favorite website is closing it's retail doors. Crop Chocolate has become so much more than just an online store. There is a close-knit community there of loving, like-minded (most of the time!) people. We are very hopeful that some form of the on-line community will remain, but May 10th will be the last opportunity to place an order. I placed my final order yesterday and it was a sad moment.

So thank you Crop Chocolate, for so many things. Friends, supplies and my first (and second) opportunity to join a design team. We have seen so many good things come out of you and look forward to what the future will bring you and us.

*sniff, sniff*


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Okay, enough with the sad and sappy!

Go create something beautiful and help CropChocolate celebrate it's final retail days and the amazing community that has grown from it!!

CropChocolate.com April Design Team Project

Come on over to the CropChocolate.com blog to see what I made with these gorgeous My Mind'e Eye papers, a canvas, and a bottle of Mod-Podge!

Kraftin' Kimmie ~ Springtime Krafty Krop part 4

This will be my final post for the Springtime crop challenges with Kraftin' Kimmie. You can check them out at the Kraftin' Kimmie Blog.

I made this card for the first challenge ~ Bling It On, the fifth challenge ~ Gettin' Sketchy, and the sixth challenge ~ Colour Inspiration.

I may have strayed *slightly* from the sketch...... ;)


Products:
Kraftin Kimmie stamp
Cosmo Cricket 'Salt Air' papers
MME Lime Twist 'Life of the Party' (dark brown wood grain paper)
Bling

Kraftin' Kimmie ~ Springtime Krafty Krop Part 3

My last post for the day, and my favorite! You'll have to excuse the pictures. My camera is just not cooperating with me tonight. This was the best I could get.

This card is for both the Fun Fold challenge (thanks Karen!) and for the Kraftin' Kimmie weekly challenge (Flowers!).

I don't know what I am going to use this card for but I love it!


Products:
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps - Cinderella
Bazzil Basics Paper - Vintage Market
Making Memories - brad
lace and ribbon from stash

Kraftin' Kimmie ~ Springtime Krafty Krop Part 2

My second card of the day (see previous post) is for the Happy Birthday Challenge.

There is no birthday sentiment on the front, but I stamped one of the Kraftin' Kimmie Birthday Trinkets on the inside!

This card seems pretty plain, but it's hard to find the right embellishments for a man card. I tried out one of the those nifty slip knots that I had seen posted on the May Art's blog a little while ago. Very nautical (I think)!

Products:
Kraftin Kimmie Stamps - Captain Hook
Kraftin Kimmie Stamps - Birthday Trinkets (on inside)
MME - 'On the Bright Side' 6x6 paper
Hemptique Hempcord

Kraftin' Kimmie ~ Springtime Krafty Krop Part 1

One of my favorite stamp company's is having a crafty fun day today! So I will (hopefully) be posting a few time for the different challenges! You have a week to enter so if you want to join in the fun, you can find the info on the Kraftin' Kimmie blog!

The first card I made today is for the third challenge - Fussy Cut. I also made this one for the weekly challenge at CropChocolate.com - use bright colours with one neutral.

My card...

Love those fish! And some of you may recognize the fishbowl. It is actually a snowglobe stamp from Unity!


Products:
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps - Love 1
Unity Stamp Co - Snowglobe Wonderland
twine
kraft cardstock
Echo Park - 6x6 'So Happy Together' paper

Inky Challenge

Time for another weekly challenge at CropChocolate.com. This week we were challenged to Get Inky ~ inkier than we would normally get, that is.

I also made this card for the challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. This week's theme is the Great Outdoors.

My card...

I was excited to try my new grass die on this too! I always seem to colour in this image a little crazy, but I am happy with how it turned out!



Celeste did not want to be left out this week. She is still so proud of the time she won the weekly challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie! (You can see that post here).She made a (early) birthday card for her sister.

Pretty cute! And one of my favorite Kraftin' Kimmie stamps.


Products:
Kraftin' Kimmie - Springtime Lulu & Posey
Kraft cardstock
Fancy Pants "be You" paper
Tumbled Glass Distress Ink
ribbon and brad from stash
(and Recollections paper and crayola markers on Celeste's)

Washi Fun!

I had a lot of fun making this layout!

I'm still scrapping some pictures from a walk the girls went on with their daddy last May. If I remember correctly it was National Scrapbooking Day and I had kicked them out of the house so I could have some uninterrupted fun!

This layout was made for the CropChocolate.com's weekly challenge (make a flower); for Scrapbookin' Adventures weekly facebook challenge (Spring theme) and for Moxie Fab World's Washi Challenge! I haven't joined in with Moxie Fab World's challenges for a while so I am super excited to have made something for one of my favorite blogs.

As you can see, I made a pleated flower with a couple of leaves with some washi and I also made a trio of feathers! I love how easy they are and how fun they look!



Products:
Carta Bella kraft cardstock
Echo Park 'So Happy Together' papers
Thickers
MME washi (yellow and multi colour)
Bella Blvd washi (green)
hemp cord
button

Butterflies!

A quick post today to share a LO that I started months ago and finally finished! I had the photo matted and stuck to the die cut sheet but I never made it past that point. I just wasn't feeling it and was beginning to think that maybe I never would with this LO, so I decided to just push through and get it done. I started by sticking down the beautiful ribbon and tulle trim, thinking I would add a title in between them. But then my eyes landed on a package of die cut butterflies and this happened...

So tell me what you think??? Too much or just right??? I know what you think, Miwa!!!

Isn't this a great way to use up some of those MM die cut butterflies that I know A LOT OF YOU have in your stash?!


Supplies:
Bazzil cardstock
Webster's Pages die cut and pattern paper
Webster's Pages ribbon and trim
Making Memories die cut butterflies

A Unity Challenge!

I love Unity Stamp Co!!! They started a new sketch/colour challenge on their blog last month. I didn't get a chance to join in then (darn missing mojo....) but the new challenge was posted today and I am DONE! You can check it out here.

I am joining in on the LO sketch this time (I may give the beautiful colour challenge a go later). The sketch looks like this:

So cute! I love all those butterflies (and I have that stamp!!)!

Here is my LO:

Unity Stamps used:
-Wood Grain Script
-With Her Own Wings
- Insta Cute


I don't do much stamping on my layouts, but I am VERY happy with how this one turned out!!! I stamped the wood grain script first with distress ink and then I stamped the butterflies using gesso!


I did another LO yesterday with pictures from the same hike, using the same papers.

This LO I did for the weekly challenge at CropChocolate.com (Spring Break theme) and for the Facebook Challenge at Scrapbookin' Adventures (use the negative image from a die cut).

I have two more sets of pictures from this hike that I plan to scrap. I think I will stick with the same paper collection, so they all go together.

Products used:
Unity Stamps (listed above)
Echo Park Paper 'Everyday Eclectic' collection pack
Carta Bella Paper kraft cardstock
Thickers - forest
Distress Ink - old paper & walnut stain
Pink Paislee - wood arrow

March Flowers!

My March project is up today over at the Crop Chocolate Blog!

Come on over and check it out!