In My Own Imagination

Just sharing...

2012-01-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

a couple of layouts and a card. I'm not a big fan of pinks and purples usually, but with all the different color combinations out lately, I seem to be attracted to these colors. Pink Paislee's "Vintage Vogue" collection is a great line that uses purples and pinks. Here's a layout using this line:

I didn't use a lot of embellishments (shocking for me!) on this layout, other than the diecuts from their ephemera package and their wooden spool buttons. I pop dotted some of the diecuts and squares for dimension too.

I made this birthday card for one of the girls at Urban (Roxanne) last week and this time I remembered to take a photo. My new favorite Memory Box die (until the new ones come in) is their twig and leaf die and I used it to make the wreath on the card. The twigs, leaves and berries are not attached when you cut out the die, so you can use any part of the die.

I used My Mind's Eye papers and Prima flowers and bird's nest.
And, because I'm still hooked on using that die, I decided to use it on Urban Scrapbook's next monthly challenge. The kits aren't up for sale until February 1st, but I'm cheating and showing you my layout early. Shhh, don't tell anyone! Truth is, I'm putting it on today because I will probably forget to do it next week, and I don't seem to post as often as I would like!

After searching for hours for the photos I wanted to use and not finding them, I decided to use these photos of Pat's daughter and my dad's puppy we gave him for his birthday. They were perfect for these papers from Basic Grey. There's my wreath made from the Memory Box die!
Next week the Urban Design Team layouts will be on display at the store and on our website. I haven't chosen the layout for the kit yet, I'm looking forward to seeing what our amazing design team has come up with!
Have a great week!

January Tag Challenge

2012-01-18T19:37:00.002-07:00

This month our group's challenge was to make a tag that represented our favorite winter activity. I hate being cold (and I live in Alberta!) so any winter activity for me involves indoors, fireplace, hot drink, and warm cozy clothes. Although, I do like taking winter photos and I love snow at Christmas but just not the cold temperatures. We have been extremely lucky this winter, breaking records for the warmest winter, and very little snow.... until this week. It has been in the low -30's to almost -40's, that's Celsius not Fahrenheit! At least it's perfect weather for scrapbooking and my favorite winter activity, reading. I read a lot throughout the year, but it's so nice to cuddle up with a good book when it's cold and snowing outside.
For my tags I used old book covers as the tag base. I buy used books for the inside pages, but I save the covers for future projects. Since the covers are harder than chipboard, I didn't want to chance ruining my tag die, so I cut them out with a craft knife, using a chipboard tag as a template.

The flowers were made with a Spellbinder's die(Spiral Blossom One) Tim Holtz Pinecone die, and the small leaves, flowers were from Memory Box.(Catalina border) I also dipped the bookpaper flowers in Utee and sprinkled on some clear glass glitter immediately. Some of the covers were plainer so I cut out a rectangle from the spine(included the title) and glued it onto the front of the tag. I printed my tickets from this website and added in my own words.
My photos aren't the greatest, the light isn't great this time of year, and I took them outside (very fast in the cold!) but here are a few closeups:

Today I had the day off, and because it was so cold out, I decided to stay home and scrapbook. Here's a layout I did with a line from My Mind's Eye called "Kraft Funday, Bright Days":

I added in some Tim Holtz Kraft Coredinations paper, Prima Wood buttons, a 7Gypsies ruler, a porcelain number (the photo was taken in 1982), Cosmo Cricket word sticker and My Mind's Eye matching kraft embellishments. I love the little package of circle garland!
That's all for today, stay warm!

Take a Tim Holtz District Market canvas and ....

2012-01-02T22:04:00.001-07:00

change it up! I love these new canvases but I decided to use the one I purchased as a base to scrapbook on. These Burlap Panels are so nice to work on, they are a solid board with the printed burlap wrapped around to the back. Here's a photo of my finished project as promised:

I used 7Gypsies printed papers, ruler, metal charm and pin. The red paper is from the Tim Holtz Kraft-Core collection. I embossed it with his Collage & Notebook Texture Fade and sanded it lightly, then colored rock Candy crackle paint and scraped it across so it filled in the recessed areas. I have been coloring the Rock Candy crackle paint, which is clear, by dabbing Distress Stain (I usually use 2 or 3 different colors)on my non-stick craft mat and mixing the little puddles with a plastic card (a used up plastic coffee card) into the crackle paint which I have put also on my mat. I don't mix them in very much, I like the paint to be uneven and have some clear spots. I also added a bit of snowcap paint on the edges. I had some left over rock candy paint, so I scraped it across some of the lower right corner of the canvas. If I did another canvas, I think I would like to cover the whole thing with the tinted rock candy, it gives a subtle dimension and richness to the canvas.

I used one of Urban's vintage pocket watches but Tim Holtz makes one almost the same. I covered the inside back with 7Gypsies paper, placed a metal Graphic45 flower, (in the center are some watch parts) then with melted Utee, I poured in enough to cover the bottom. I had stamped on some brown tissue with a Tim Holtz stamp (Going Somewhere collection) and cut out tiny words, placed them on the hardened Utee, and then poured more hot Utee up to the brim of the watch. The dress form is from Wendy Vecchi's Dress Form Art Parts (available at Urban) covered in 7Gypsies paper, stained on the edges, and painted with Rock Candy. Once the Rock Candy is dried, I swiped Distress stain on top and then baked it into the cracks with my heat gun (a tip from Tim's twelve tags of Christmas). The small piece of 7Gypsies gathered paper was made by sewing strips down the length of the paper using somewhat large stitches. I wet the paper, patted it with paper towel, and carefully gathered up each row. I usually clip the ends of the threads, but this time I left them and wound them around the envelope closures. I added in different rub-ons, a Jenni Bowlin flower (love these!) a Prima tile (I broke it in half, colored the inside and (you can't see it very well) put a 7Gypsies pin through the center and the ruler is from 7Gypsies. I guess I should explain that this photo is of my daughter, who lives in New York. She is a fashion designer (she just got an amazing new job designing for Steve Madden), hence the Dressmaker form and bits & pieces of New York embellishments. I thought the gathered paper looked like fabric too. She's been on quite the journey with lots of hard work to get her where she is today and we are very proud of her! The letters are Tim Holtz's Random Alpha parts and some of the stickers are from Tim Holtz too. Whew, that's a lot of explaining! I know my canvas is a bit more involved, but you really don't have to do a lot to make it more personal. It would make a great gift too. Hope this has inspired you!
Have a great Tuesday!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well, another year has come and gone already. Did I accomplish all the things I wanted to do? Of course not! I'll say the same thing I do every January 1st, maybe this year will be different. Maybe I'll actually scrapbook more and make a small dent in my supplies, maybe I'll start painting again, maybe I'll paint our living room, sew those curtains for the bedroom, and the list goes on. I think that should be my word for this year - Maybe. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I kind of like that word, no pressure, no promises, kind of mysterious, it could mean anything. I'll have to think about that....maybe.
Anyways, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I was pretty busy this Christmas, our family dinner is now at my house. It was tiring and busy but I hope everyone had a good time. It was over so fast! Our youngest son left for a holiday in Cuba on Christmas afternoon and so we have been babysitting his 7 month old sheltie. I forget how those puppies keep you on your toes! He helped himself to a portion of the wonderful cheesecake my mom made for dessert while we were in the family room. He could barely reach it on the table, but managed to nibble away the one side. It was pretty funny, actually, but I don't think my mom was too impressed.
Another year of monthly challenges has started at Urban Scrapbook and this year our theme is sketches.
We are starting with one photo for January and every month will see the addition of another photo. It could be very interesting in December with twelve photos. Here is my layout for this month:

We had this beautiful paper, stickers and rub-ons from Kaiser Craft to use this month. Kits are available at Urban Scrapbook starting tomorrow.
I have another project I finished today to show you, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Maybe. (this word could be addicting, lol) The light wasn't very good to take a photo of it today, so I'll try tomorrow.
Have a great Monday!

Happy Holidays and...

2011-12-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Santa Roxy is ready to celebrate the holidays too!

December Tag Swap

2011-12-16T11:45:00.001-07:00

It was my turn to think of the tag challenge this month, and I thought this one would be super easy. We all had to create a tag using either the title, a verse, words or just inspiration from the song "Believe" sung by Josh Groban from the movie"Polar Express". Did I say, I thought this would be easy? For some reason every idea I came up with turned out in a mess, so after a few attempts, I just gave up and did this one. How does Tim Holtz come up with those fabulous ideas every night for 12 days? Anyways, here's my tag:

Even my photo turned out kind of blurry! I used paper from Fancy Pants' new winter collection,Sizzix and Tim Holtz snowflake dies, a few of Tim's snowflake stamps, Tim's winter limited release inks, and acrylic for the back piece. The acrylic was embossed with a Tim Holtz snowflake embossing folder, then I tinted some Rock Candy crackle paint with Distress stain and scraped it on the acrylic. While it was still wet, I sprinkled green glass glitter and clear Mica flakes on top. The "Snow is softly falling" is a line from the song, which I printed directly on the paper. I print first on a piece of regular printer paper, then tape my tag with removable tape onto the paper, lining up where I want it to be printed and put through the printer again. I added a few diecut snowflakes (American Crafts glitter paper) a Memory Box diecut bell and ribbon. I glad I got these done, now onto my do-to list, which keeps getting longer!
Have a great weekend!

Tim Holtz Tags

2011-12-08T17:23:00.001-07:00

I am amazed I've actually been able to do four of Tim's 12 tags of Christmas. I have been so busy the last week, but at night, when I really need to take a break, instead of just watching t.v., I work on my tags. (and listen to the t.v.!) This 4th tag was a little more involved, but it was fun to do. I love anything to do with snowflakes! Here's my tag from day four:

I used pretty much the same things as Tim's tag on this one. I loved doing the background technique on this tag. The rock candy crackle paint technique is so cool, except I put way too much on in some parts, and the crackle came off and left some bare spots. I filled in those areas before I stained it and it was fine. I'll know better next time!
This is Tim's tag #6.

At first I wasn't sure about this one, but I think it was all the different colors of paint on the tag that didn't appeal to me. Still into the snowflake theme, I chose this Tim Holtz embossing folder. I used three colors of Ranger paint dabbers; pearl, silver and aqua. I used the aqua for the background, pearl for the snowflakes, and the silver was around the outer edges of the snowflakes. After burnishing the painted tag, I inked the whole tag with Twig Distress ink (from his Autumn collection). I really like how the color turned out! I forgot to mention, I didn't have any of his metal adhesive sheets, or should I say, I think I have them but after looking for half an hour, couldn't find them! I used one of Spellbinder's metal sheets (I did find those!) and glued it to my cardstock with Claudine Helmuth's Matt Medium (best glue, ever!) Instead of a charm, I die-cut a snowflake with chipboard and a Sookwang adhesive sheet on top. I then covered it with Craft & Glitz glitter. I love blending different colors of this glitter together, you can make your own custom colors. I used lime green, sand and gunsmoke blue for this combination. I then filled one of Tim Holtz's mini bottles with mica and attached the two to my ribbon. This was probably the easiest tag to make so far, it didn't take long at all!
Have a great Friday!

Tag #2

2011-12-04T16:01:00.001-07:00

This is a quick post today, I'm supposed to be decorating my house for Christmas. But, what am I doing? Tim Holtz tag #2. I have a huge mess right now, boxes are everywhere, ornaments on every surface, but those tags keeping distracting me! Here is my tag:

I didn't have his holiday resist papers, so I just stamped with clear embossing ink and one of his stamps. Instead of burlap, I used some linen I had tea stained (from an old cross-stitch project). That's all for today, I have to go empty out more boxes!

Tag #1

2011-12-02T17:29:00.001-07:00

Every year I follow Tim Holtz and his twelve tags of Christmas, but I never seem to have the time to make any of them. Well, I'm really going to try this year to make them. At least I have finished the first one, so that's better than the previous years!

The photo is not the greatest, it was so dark and gloomy this morning when I took it. Love this pinecone die, it's one of my favorites! Hopefully I can get the second one done tomorrow.

I'm off to the Festival of Trees. The Urban Scrapbook tree won 2nd place for Best Design!! We are all pretty excited at the store, they featured it on the local television station this morning.
Have a great weekend!

Those Urban girls...

2011-11-30T21:54:00.001-07:00

have been as busy as Santa's elves! Urban Scrapbook decided to donate a decorated tree at The Festival of Trees this year and we have been frantically making hundreds of flowers for the decorations. I think the tree turned out fabulous, what do you think?

All the flowers, garland and bird were made from white and red cardstock and lots of glitter! I think we will find glitter in all sorts of places for a couple of months! All the trees are auctioned off at the Snowflake Gala and the proceeds go to the Alberta University Hospital Foundation. If you live in Edmonton, make sure you get to the festival, the trees are all gorgeous!
After working with all that white, it was a nice change to use My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Christmas for Urban Scrapbook's December monthly challenge. Here's mine:

In our kit, we had different elements to alter; chipboard, wood, acrylic and metal. My favorite part was altering my Spellbinder metal sheet! I used a Memory Box die, alcohol ink, and a technique using archival ink, which usually is done on acrylic. The kits go on sale December 1st.

That's all for today, thanks for visiting!

It started with a card...

2011-11-16T22:54:00.001-07:00

I decided to start on my Christmas cards yesterday and after finishing one, I got a little sidetracked. I don't know how it happened, but I ended up making a little Christmas tree. I had been on Martha Stewart's website early and loved her newspaper tree so I was inspired to try one.

My tree definitely didn't turn out like hers, but I went for the more whimsical look(that's what I call it when everything is a little wonky or not perfect - it's whimsical!) and used a chipboard spool from Wendy Vecchi's art parts for the base. I covered the base with Authentique Christmas papers and hot glued my tree wire inside. I used book paper instead of newspaper for the tree. I also used Sage Distress stain and sprayed Tattered Angels Marshmallow, and Spanish Moss Glimmer Mist on the book pages before stringing on the tree.

The glitter snowflakes are chipboard snowflakes cut out with Tim Holtz's small snowflake die and then covered in silver glass glitter.

The thin silver wire is silver bullion wire that is tightly coiled and you pull it apart to wrap lightly around projects. I purchased this at Tinsel Trading. After the tree was put together, I sprayed it all with spray adhesive and sprinkled Shaved Ice and Tarnished Mica Flakes (both from Urban Scrapbook). I added a bit of Distress Stain dyed seam binding to the wire stem on the top and bottom of the tree too.
On the spool, I added some Tim Holtz mini bottles, filled with the Shaved Ice and a few acrylic snowflakes. There's my tree, but on the Martha Stewart website, she has a video showing how to put the tree together.
Here also, is the one card I got done!

I used Webster's Pages Holiday papers, Tim Holtz doily die, Spellbinders label die, and Memory Box snowflake die. The adhesive ribbon (love this ribbon!!!) is new at Urban and there's even adhesive lace ribbon. It is so nice for cards. The berries on the side of the card are also from Webster's Pages(last year). Hopefully I don't get too sidetracked again, and get more cards done! Till next time!

Winter...

2011-11-15T14:16:00.001-07:00

has officially arrived here. We had our second snowfall yesterday, this one making driving a little challenging. Last week we had just a dusting of snow, so it still felt like fall. Yesterday, it took me almost an hour to get home from work instead of 15 minutes. Now with this snow, it certainly is putting me in the Christmas mood. I might just start those Christmas cards early. Oh I know, most of you have had yours finished weeks ago, but I'm always scrambling to finish at the last moment. The amount I plan to make usually dwindles as I get closer to the deadline.
I still want to scrapbook some fall photos, and this week's color palette #84 at The Color Room was perfect. Here's my layout:

I used Bo Bunnies "Et Cetera" line, the colors were pretty close to the palette. I first lightly inked the background paper in the center with a chicken wire mask from The Crafter's Workshop. I then cut out some District Market tissue paper using my new Tim Holtz Sizzix Doily die. First I stained the tissue with a few different shades of brown Distress stain and after it dried, I folded the paper in half. I placed it on the die with the folded part on the edge where it wouldn't cut out so it would be a full circle. I then lightly brushed some Matt Medium (Claudine Helmuth) on the paper, placed the doily on top and brushed more matt medium on top, just enough to glue down the whole thing. I punched out a border on both sides of a strip of paper, using the EK punch "Aster". Down the center, I used the new We R Memory Keepers ribbon tool. This one is the leaf design - very easy to use! I added a 7Gypsies ruler, Bo Bunny brads & trinkets, Pink Paislee butterflies and some hemp string. The flower was made with 7Gypsies tissue paper and plastic netting that I had saved from somewhere (groceries, maybe?) There's also a small tissue flower and leaves cut out with Tim Holtz dies too. These two photos were taken in our car, looking up at the sun roof. When we were on the east coast last month, there was quite a rain storm, blowing leaves everywhere. When I looked up, I thought it looked cool with the leaves floating in the water and the trees above.
Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

Inspiration

2011-11-11T09:58:00.001-07:00

There is lots of inspiration over at Tammy Tutterow's blog and this week she had me excited to try her technique with embossing! I loved what she did with Ranger's Rock Candy crackle paint and embossing folders, so I sat down at my cluttered table (didn't I just clean this off the other day?) and pulled out my Tim Holtz snowflake folder. When I started, I was sure I remembered what she did, but of course, I didn't and forgot to stain my paper before I embossed. So I figured I'd try what I've been doing in the last week, put my medium on my non-stick craft sheet and adding color to it before I apply it. I added a bit of Peeled Paint and Broken China stain to my mat and added my Rock Candy, lightly mixing it in. It gives it a slight bit of color and still is transparent. Taking a small square piece of plastic, I scrapped it lightly over my embossed tag. Tammy gives a great step by step tutorial on her blog. Here is my finished tag:

After my embossed paper was dry, I stamped lightly with Tim Holtz's Holiday Wishes music note stamp. I used my Tim Holtz tag die and cut out my tag backing with light green American Crafts glitter paper. I then cut out a rectangle from my embossed paper slightly smaller than the tag and inked the edges (Broken China). Then, because I really wanted to use my new snowflake movers and shapers die (yet again, Tim Holtz) I cut out lots of printed tissue paper (District Market) but this time, I remembered to stain the paper with Broken China before I cut them out.
With matt medium, I glued a few of the snowflakes to the edges of the embossed paper and then adhered the embossed paper to my tag. I then strung the rest of the snowflakes on very thin florist wire, dabbed glossy accents on parts of the wire and snowflakes, and sprinkled mica flakes (love these!) over top. After the flakes were dry, I stuck the ends of the wire under each side of the tag, in between the two layers. I added some bling which I colored lightly with alcohol ink( I always color clear rhinestones to get the color I want, with alcohol ink) the "winter" mirrored acrylic piece from Prima, stained seam binding and tulle, which I dabbed Stickles on it to give some sparkle.
Thanks to Tammy for her great inspiration, I have a new technique that I love!
Have a great day!

November Tag Challenge

2011-11-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

I got my tags done early this month, yeah! Having "Christmas" as the challenge made it super easy. Here's what I came up with:

The patterned paper I used is the Christmas Collection from My Mind's Eye. The leaves, swirls and pine cone are cut out with Tim Holtz's Festive Greenery die and the "25" is also one of his dies. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the pine cone is cut out with dark brown glittered paper and then I glued tarnished mica fragments on top. Some ribbon, a word sticker (Simple Stories) and it's finished!
Now that those are finished, I can play with my new doily and snowflake Tim Holtz dies!
See you soon!

Catching up....

2011-11-05T22:56:00.001-06:00

on a few projects, or at least trying to. I have a bad habit of starting something and then when I'm in the middle of it, I get another idea or buy new stuff and start something else. I seem to have a lot of unfinished projects spread around my craft room, and it looks like one big disaster area! I managed to finish one of those layouts that has been sitting in pieces for months. I love this outdoors collection by Kaiser, it's perfect for those guy layouts too. My husband loves fishing, and has passed that love onto our sons too. It's just too bad they don't always have good luck in catching very many!

The stickers, tags, and large wood leaf are from Kaiser also. I colored the wood leaf with Distress stain and then used a 7Gypsies rub-on on one side. The leaves were cut out from grunge board and the Tim Holtz mini leaves die, dry embossed and embossed with Ranger gold embossing powder. The letters and leaf charm are from Prima.
Well, I'm on to the next project! Have a great weekend!

It's November 1st and that means...

2011-11-01T10:55:00.000-06:00

the Urban Design Team layouts are on display at the store. This month we had the challenge of using masks from Prima, along with the gorgeous Glitz collection, "Vintage Blue". Each kit also comes with a chalk inker from Prima's new Ingvild Bolme's ink and tool line. I really like this ink, the shape is designed for easier handling, which it is, and the color(we had a navy called Farmer's Jeans) is rich. I chose Heather C's layout to do instructions for the kit that is on sale at Urban, she did an amazing job! Check out Urban's gallery to see them all. Here is my layout:

I used modeling paste on my brick mask. Using a small paint spatula or plastic card I applied the paste on half of the mask, then carefully lifted the mask and applied to the other side, so it went across the whole page. I left out a few bricks too. After the paste dried, I squeezed small amounts ofTim Holtz Distress Stain on my craft sheet. I used Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap,Weathered Wood, Vintage Photo and Old Paper. With a Paint Brush I lightly colored the bricks. You don't need very much to stain these and they blend together just as you see them. I used a heat gun to dry them, they didn't seem to dry good on their own. I also alcohol inked the Prima resin window and the pin top. The blue flower was made with a Spellbinder die, Spiral Blossom One (Love this die!), the doily from a Cheery Lynn die and the banners are from Tim Holtz Sizzix. I also painted the bird and birdcage with Tim Holtz Crackle paint. My crackle paint is always drying up, whether because it's really really dry here or I just don't use it fast enough. So now I just buy white (Picket Fence) and color it with Distress Stain. I don't use much stain, the more you use, the thinner the paint, which I find doesn't crackle as much so put it on thicker.

When we were in Victoria, B.C. in July, we went to see this castle. It was originally a private residence and now is a college. We weren't able to go inside, there were classes going on, but the outside gardens were incredible. I want to take a course just so I can see the inside and enjoy the gardens!

Have a great day!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T11:02:00.000-06:00

It's spooky time in our house, how about you? Here's a Halloween layout using Kaiser's Halloween paper and embellishments:

Have A Safe and Happy Halloween!!

A Halloween Tag

2011-10-29T10:52:00.000-06:00

I've neglected this blog lately, and October is one of my favorite months. I usually am busy creating spooky and fun Halloween stuff but I haven't done much this year. Here is my tag for my monthly tag swap, that I was scrambling to finish. Someone was a little ambitious in choosing a theme, we won't mention any names (Nicole!!!) and we had to having moving parts and noise or something touchy,feely.
This one was pretty challenging, but this is what I came up with:

My tag base was some black chipboard (I wanted it to be sturdy enough to hold the little book on the front) which I covered the front and back(the back was put on last) with paper from Tim Holtz's Halloween resist paper. I inked and stained the paper with distress ink and stain.

I then drilled holes in a metal plate from Graphic45, on the left side (I used the Tim Holtz drill press, which went through this metal so easy!) I cut out some resist paper in the same shape and size as the plates for my book pages and another piece of chipboard for the back, attached everything with Tim Holtz charm rings. Before I put the book together, I alcohol inked purple and green on the plate and then sanded off some of the color. Then I stamped a web image(this one is from Basic Grey) on the front center with staz-on black ink.

For the Skeleton Door Knocker, I bought a skeleton head bracelet from the dollar store and took it apart. I cut a thin (about 1/4" wide and 2" long) strip of plastic from packaging, cut the top sides thinner (about 1/2 " in length) so it fit through the hole of head. I took some thin wire, twisted it in a coil, so it wouldn't fall through, and put it through the skeleton head. I then taped the plastic and wire together with Tim Holtz tape, covering the wire. If you find your tape isn't sticking well, I usually glue it on with Claudine Helmuth matt medium, and then it won't come undone. I then stuck the bottom of the plastic tab to my front cover with a glue dot, and then covered the bottom, front and back with an embossed and alcohol inked scrap piece of metal paper. This, I stuck on with Sookwang tape. I wanted to make sure this didn't fall off, as it will be moving when it is used as a knocker. I then used skeleton arms from a package of skeletons from the dollar store, attaching one to the ring and one(cut in half) to the side of the tag with a brad. This one can slide over to keep the book closed, because there was a hole between the bones on the arm part where I placed the brad. I then attached the book with longer brads through the chipboard back and then the chipboard tag. This is why I covered the back too, so you don't see the backs of the brads. I cut out a metal flower, using a flower die from Spellbinders and their metal paper, touching the edges with some alcohol ink. I then cut apart a Halloween spray from Prima and used one of their mini fall flowers. Cover the back and you are done!
I was inspired to make the metal plate into a book from Graphic45's blog, they have some really great ideas using their metal plates, flowers and door knobs!
Have a great weekend!

A canvas...

2011-10-08T21:15:00.001-06:00

full of techniques and inspiration. As I have said before, I really enjoyed Jennifer McGuire's on-line inspiration class. Lots of stamping techniques, some new ones I hadn't tried before and some old ones that I forgot about! This is my finished canvas,which I used an unfinished 11" x 14"wood one. Instead of doing hearts for each technique, I used tags. What I love about this canvas is; I can hang it up in my craft room and it's right there when I need inspiration!

I love decorating for Halloween, and hope to make a few decorations again this year. Not that I need any more! After creating my witch's hat for the Urban monthly kit, I'm in the mood to create more. Maybe a wreath or garland next. Garlands are always good for using stuff from the stash!

Have a great weekend!

It was a pink morning....

2011-10-03T23:04:00.000-06:00

yesterday for my husband and myself. I never imagined myself taking part in "The Run for the Cure," Edmonton's breast cancer annual walk, especially as a survivor. My life changed in December 2009, when they found a lump during a routine mammogram and it continued to change for almost the entire year following. After two surgeries, six months of chemo and a month of radiation, I was ready to get on with my life as a survivor. I walked last September for the first time and was overwhelmed, looking out at the crowd of people offering their support for friends, family and loved ones. Let's hope they find that cure soon, but in the meantime, check those boobies and have your annual mammogram!

We were on our way back and were amazed how many walkers were still coming!

And on a lighter note, I know I did say the other day, I was going to show a Halloween tag

that I had finished. Here it is:

I used a few techniques that I have learned from Jennifer McGuire's online inspiration class. The tag was made with glossy paper, embossed, and then the raised areas sanded. I then inked the whole tag with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap distress ink. The sanded areas become darker after the excess ink is wiped from the tag. I cut out a chipboard witch with my Tim Holtz die, covered it with Rocky Candy crackle paint and then after it was dry, wiped distress stain over top. The acrylic branch is from Kaiser, the potion circle is Echo Park, patterned paper is Pink Paislee(the accordion flower) and the wicked metal embellishment is from Tim Holtz.
Tomorrow I will show you my finished canvas from Jennifer's class! Have a great Tuesday!

And it's October....

2011-10-01T10:15:00.000-06:00

already! Where did September go? We've had a beautiful fall so far, with temperatures reaching in the high 20's, a few days of 30 C and lots of sunshine. Not our usual September, that's for sure. I love this time of year, the colors of the leaves, the crisp morning air and I even managed to go for a walk along the river in one of our favorite parks to take it all in before those leaves are gone!

I especially love decorating for Halloween, I think it's the colors that I enjoy. The Urban Scrapbook design team have been busy creating for our monthly challenge this month. We decided instead of layouts, to do a Halloween decoration. Here's mine:

I bought one of those paper mache witch's hats from a craft store and cut it in half. This way you can hang it up on the wall or put it in a wreath.

I cut out a piece of chipboard to fill in the back so it will be flat and then covered it with the kit's paper (Authentique's Glowing). I painted the underside of the brim, and then embellished with all the goodies in the kit. I printed the moon dust tag with the plain foundation paper and got the tag graphics from Love Manor's flickr site. Love these!

I gathered paper to make the trim, made a medallion with paper, crepe paper and stickles. I painted the Tim Holtz chipboard shapes then crackled with Rock Candy crackle paint, and painted over with Distress Stain. Tucked some tulle behind, added a few sticker stars and moons and I think that's it.
I decided I still had the other half and some product left so I made another one.

The flowers were made with crepe paper and paper. I used one of the new EK Success punches that you make flowers with. These are really nice! You can't tell very good by this photo but the bird was painted, dipped in clear Utee and then, very quickly while still sticky, I poured on colored Frantage Mica Fragments. These fragments are going to be showing up on a few projects, they are so cool! There's a few different colors, beautiful golds, pewters, bronzes, you will have to check them out, Urban Scrapbook just got them in.

We keep getting in the most amazing products in at the store (I'm am still so broke this month) and this week the dies from Memory Box were extremely hard to resist! Here's a card I made using the twiggy tree and leaf canopy dies.

This fall and halloween paper is also from Memory Box. There are three different leaf canopy dies and these cut out the opposite way, not sure if I'm explaining this properly. You use the negative cut? So your paper underneath shows through and then I pop dotted the tree trunk on top. Very simple and easy card to make! There are some gorgeous snowflake, Christmas, and winter dies too.
Well, that's all for today, I have a Halloween tag to show you but I will leave that for tomorrow. I'm going on the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk with Roxanne today, so I better get ready!
Have a great day!

September's Tag of the Month...

2011-09-21T22:49:00.000-06:00

was a tough one for me. It was Roxanne's turn to choose our challenge in our little "tag exchange" group which was, use a recycled item. I thought it was going to be easy, I came up with a great idea. But, it was one of those ideas that sound cool, but once I started making them nothing worked out the way I thought it would. I should have quit when the lid from my bottle of diamond glaze split open when I was squeezing it and I had the stuff everywhere! So I trashed that batch, and ended up with this:

I used an old book and cut out a lot of tags with Tim Holtz's tag die. I put his mini butterflies mover and shapers die inside the tag. I stamped on the top tag with Pink Paislee and Tim Holtz stamps. Using acrylic from packaging, I cut out a tag and then used rub-ons on the area where the butterflies were cut out. After stacking all the layers of tags with the acrylic one in the middle, I drilled holes in the four corners. I then used nylon screws (colored with alcohol ink) to secure them together. Taking a bunch of the butterflies that were left from the tag cutouts, I stamped the top one with versamark ink, embossed it with clear powder, inked with Forest Moss distress ink and stapled them together. I glued it on the tag, and finished it off with Forest Moss Distress stain, seam binding and tulle. In this next photo you can see how many layers of paper I used (about 1/4 thick).

I haven't been working on any layouts lately, I've been having fun playing with stamps! I signed up for Jennifer Mcguire's online class "Inspiration Showcase". I'm lovin' this class! Lots of inspiration, tips and techniques, great videos and Jennifer is a great instructor. If she offers this class again, I would highly recommend it. This is what I've done so far:

Each tag is a different technique, and there will be five rows when I'm done. Her samples are heart shaped but I decided to do tag shapes and I had this wood "canvas" so I decided to use it instead of a white canvas. I put a light white wash over it, but I think I might put another one on before I adhere all the tags. I haven't decided if I'm going to put a hole and ribbon in the tops of the tags. What do you think? I think it's a great idea to put all these techniques on a canvas, so I can just look at it on the wall for inspiration and so I can remember what the heck I did! Well, I'm off to finish another row...
Have a great week!

Not much time....

2011-09-07T17:25:00.000-06:00

for scrapbooking lately, the weather's been too nice! My long weekend was spent finishing up our backyard project which started in July and unfortunately has dragged on for the whole summer. We decided to replace our concrete patio this year with a new one, and replace an ugly grass area with shrubs; which we thought would take just a week or two. Ha! What were we thinking! Anyways, it's almost done and hopefully the nice weather will continue for a while so we can enjoy our patio for a few weeks.
I did get a layout done last week for The Color Room's #73 palette, which again I was able to use some of my new My Mind's Eye "Lost and Found" paper. These papers are from the "Rosy" collection.

This photo is of my mother-in-law. I also used some diecuts from Pink Paislee and one of their mistable journaling spots. The piece of paper behind the photo is from a Making Memories notepad. I like buying these little journaling or notebooks when they come with a line of paper. They are great when you need a small piece of paper, but they usually have interesting shapes or borders to add interest to your page. I crocheted a strip using baker's twine and attached the dimensional stickers. The little sticker letters are from Girls Paperie.

The large flower was made with Tim Holtz's tattered flower die using "Rosy" paper and tulle. The center is one the the decorative brads in this line. The smaller ones are made from Rosy paper with a brad and glitter in the middle. I almost forgot, I used the tattered lace die from Tim Holtz for the little accordion flower and the strip beside the photo.
Hopefully I can get a few projects done this week. With all this new product coming in (for some reason, this year all the scrapbook companies decided to ship everything in late August and early September) it's hard to keep up! Every time I work, there's new product delivered, which only means one thing - I'm not bringing home a paycheck! I tell my husband he should be grateful I don't work in a furniture store, now that could be expensive!

It's September 1st...

2011-09-01T17:34:00.002-06:00

and that means it's time for Urban Scrapbook's monthly challenge. The kits are now on sale so drop by the store or check on Urban's website to see what the design team have come up with. This month the kits were full of Bo Bunny's Autumn Gatherings line, the colors are gorgeous! Our technique this month was all about "Fussy Cutting" and I was surprised that I did not hear any grumbling! Here's my layout:

It certainly feels like fall here the past couple of days, I'm sure it won't be long before the leaves start changing. Fall is my favorite time of year, it's too bad it doesn't last longer here. I always say I'm going to take more photos but before I know it, the leaves are all gone!
Enjoy the long weekend!

He's done it again...

2011-08-29T16:53:00.000-06:00

That Tim Holtz and his Alterations dies! We got in a few of his new ones last week at Urban Scrapbook and I couldn't wait to try out his "Autumn Gatherings" one. I think this one is going to be used a lot! All those little leaves are perfect for flowers or altogether as I used them on this tag:

I first stamped my manilla tag with his Book Cover stamp(the large one) with clear ink and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. This acts like a relief and then you just ink all over the tag with whatever color you want. Only the parts that are not embossed will have ink stay on them. I then inked the leaves and twigs (cut out with manilla smooth cardstock) with various colors of distress ink and adhered them to my tag. The Autumn letters are from a Tim Holtz Seasonal sticker book and the seambinding was dyed with distress stains and water. I added some brown tulle with the ribbon and I was done.
This Autumn die and the Christmas one are a must for all you card makers, the size of all the pieces are perfect for cards!
Have a great day!

I couldn't wait...

2011-08-23T18:36:00.000-06:00

to use my new "Lost and Found 2"papers by My Minds Eye. The Rosy line was pretty close to this week's Color Room #72 palette so I was happy to use these gorgeous papers. Although, this happened last time with their first Lost and Found release; the papers are so beautiful, I didn't want to cut into them! How sad is that?! I ended up using some of them on this layout:

Can you tell I just used some of the plainer papers? I couldn't use my favorite ones just yet! The flower centers, title and brads are from that line too. The banner stamp is from the Lost & Found "Blush" line, a green Prima flower and yellow Pink Paislee flower.
The photos are of Fisherman's Wharf in the inner harbor of Victoria. It's a quaint little community of houseboats, where people have shops on the main floor or front and they live above. Wouldn't it be nice to have an art studio on the main floor and your living quarters upstairs?

I'm supposed to be working on my September Urban Scrapbook layout, but I got sidetracked! I better go work on that before I look at that Lost and Found again!
Have a great week!

It's all because of....

2011-08-16T18:41:00.001-06:00

Lynette's (Urban Scrapbook) choice for our monthly tag swap. I think I have mentioned it before, there are five of us participating in a monthly tag swap, each taking turns to choose the challenge. This month, Lynette's challenge was for us to use only a 12 x 12 piece of white cardstock when making each tag. We were allowed to ink, mist, etc. Well, ever since making my tags, I'm addicted to using white cardstock, which I don't normally use a lot of. I like color, probably because we are surrounded by that ugly white stuff called snow for way too many months! Anyways, I was inspired by work done by one of my favorite papercutting artists, the amazing Elsa Mora. Sometimes, she includes a small piece of colored paper in her white creations, which I love. I'm always amazed at how intricate her pieces are, especially when you realize they are all cut out with a knife or scissors and how small they are. I know what you are thinking but no, I didn't even try and attempt to cut out everything by hand, I have my trusty Slice machine! Even using my machine, I messed up many times! So here's my tag, but the picture isn't that great. I discovered it's not that easy to take a photo of something that is all white!

I embossed my tag(Tim Holtz die) with his woodgrain embossing folder and the flower next to the bird is cut with Cuttlebug's Chrysanthemum die and quilling set. Everything else is cut with my Slice; the Aviary cartridge for the feathers, birdhouse, bird and a few different ones for the flowers and leaves.
While I was still on the white cardstock kick, I did this layout for Color Room's #70 palette last week:

I also used Pink Paislee's "Soiree" paper and dimensional stickers, older Pink Paislee green glitter chipboard letters, Glitz pink mini letters, Ranger Adirondack Butterscotch spray, and another addiction - my Cheery Lynn doily dies. Sorry, it's not a very good photo!

I was asked what these little "sticks" were. They are actually the candles from the package of Pink Paislee "Soiree" dimensional stickers.

And then, this week's palette #71 at The Color Room had white in it again. Hmmm, just one more layout, maybe. I tell you, it's addicting!

This is my layout, full of Slice cutouts!
There's one flower and two banners from Tim Holtz dies too. After cutting out the shapes, I slightly mold them with a curved object (usually anything I can find on my messy desk). I also used Webster's Pages netting and letters, pink tissue paper, some old Collage Press paper, and Little Yellow Bicycle paper ribbon.

That's it for my white cardstock for a while, I have to get started on my monthly Urban kit! Have a great week!

Doilies and Butterflies!

2011-08-12T21:04:00.000-06:00

I'm hooked on doilies and butterflies lately, so why not combine the two! I love these new dies that Urban Scrapbook got in, especially the doilies. This color combination is The Color Room's #69 color palette.

The background paper is Pink Paislee's new mistables paper.
Love this paper! It's a little bit heavier, like a cardstock so it can take the mists and inks without warping. There are different patterns, but all are a white, or cream base. My big butterfly is cut from a die from Urban's Accucut collection at the store. I covered it with paper, stamps, paint, ink and tissue tape. I then cut out a doily from a Sookwang adhesive sheet, cut it to fit the butterfly shape, peeled of the backing on one side, and stuck it on the edge. After peeling off the top backing, I cut the center part from the backing and put it back on top of the sticky part, like a mask. I covered with fine bronze glitter, tapped off the excess, and then peeled off the middle part, covering with silver glass glitter. The other half of the doily piece was used on the left hand side. The other papers used were from Tim Holtz's crowded attic paper pad and Bo Bunny's Gabrielle line. The book paper butterflies were cut out using Urban's Cheery Lynn dies too. My flower was made from Webster's tulle and white tissue. Let's see what else... the mini letters were from Girl's Paperie and the little butterflies were from Pink Paislee, Ruby Rocket and Bo Bunny. The Black letters were from Tim Holtz. I think that's it!

Urban Scrapbook just got in all the new BoBunny and Simple Stories lines and they were too beautiful to resist! In BoBunny, the Et Cetera line is my favorite, but the colors in Forever Fall and Garden Girl are gorgeous! The Simple Stories baby line is stunning too. I don't know how it happened, but quite a bit seemed to come home with me! I know what I'll be doing this weekend! Have a great one!

I can't believe...

2011-08-04T23:28:00.000-06:00

It's been a whole month since my last post. I've been on a short holiday and haven't had a chance to scrapbook much this past month. My husband had to go out to Vancouver Island on business, so I decided to join him, to get away from all our bad weather and rain. Just our luck, it rained everyday and was colder than here. It didn't get off to a good start either, the highway was closed for 15 hours due to very bad accident involving a tanker and the only way around it(we discovered after searching six hours) was going over a horrendous logging road up and around a mountain. Let's just say, it's a trip we won't forget soon. We did manage to go to one of my favorite places, The Butchart Gardens in Victoria. It just gets better and better every time I go.

Isn't this the most incredible hedge? Can you imagine having to trim this one? My husband and I had a good laugh about this. Lucky for them, he's not the one doing it, it would only be a foot high. He has a tendency to over-trim things, he never knows when to stop!

It is time for Urban Scrapbook's Monthly Layout Challenge kit which has to include hidden journaling. Here's my layout:

The suitcase(included in the kit) is made from grunge paper and Tim Holtz's suitcase die.

When opened, there's space for journaling (I haven't done that yet) and with seam binding I made a kind of pocket to hold extra photos.

On the top photo, I made three copies, covering the small pocket with one. The tag is covered with another and the back. I only glued three side of the bottom photo, so the tag(journaling on the back) could slip in. The other girls came up with some really creative ideas, so if you are in the store, check out all our layouts. They are also on Urban's website under each designer's name.

That's all for today, I'll be back soon with my monthly tag!

Have a great weekend!

I just couldn't wait...

2011-07-04T23:08:00.001-06:00

to play with the new Authentique's papers. Lately I've been drawn to yellows, so the "Blissful" line is my favorite of the three releases.

That gold metal doily is made with spellbinder's metal craft foil, alcohol inks, and one of the gorgeous new doily dies that Urban Scrapbook got in. The tissue(7 Gypsies) and netting(Webster's Pages)flower is made with Tim Holtz's tattered flower die. The letters I used for my title are Basic Grey's mini sticker letters.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

My Final Project

2011-06-29T22:14:00.000-06:00

This layout is my final project for The Little Black Dress Kit club. After a lot of thought, I decided to step down from the design team. I loved working with these kits, but I think it's time to ease up on a few commitments. After spending so much time at home last year with my illness, I want to enjoy what little summer we have!

It's time for Urban Scrapbook's July kit. This month's challenge is all about dry embossing. The kit is filled with Simple Stories new summer line,"100 Days of Summer" paper, sticker letters, a Tim Holtz embossing folder, and lots of fun embellishments. I embossed the center of my paper by wrapping the sides around my machine's platform plate. Your paper will crease where it was folded, but I just think it adds to the distressed look. I also inked my embossing folder before I put in my paper, and then embossed it(the yellow paper beside the photo). I love the different effect you get!

Check out Urban Scrapbook's website to see what the design team has come up with this month! The layouts are all on display at the store too, along with the kits for sale.
Have a great Thursday!

For those of you...

2011-06-21T20:40:00.000-06:00

who scrapbook the boys or men in your life, Basic Grey's new Oxford line is perfect. I love the rich colors and plaids in this line and it also has a school theme. This week's palette for The Color Room matched perfectly with some of these papers, so I came up with this layout:

My youngest son is always wearing some kind of hat, but his university graduation cap is my favorite! He graduated last year from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Design degree. He's had a good start in his career, just recently he and his two friends designed an interactive children's room in our Provincial Art Gallery(called Drawn Outside).
I used the Color Room's sketch this time, and just turned it around. The sketch had a decorative edge or ribbon on the one side, but I decided to make a "guy" type of ribbon. I used chain, which I glued to my page. Then I put a layer of Crackle Accents (Ranger) along the edge of the chain. Before the crackle dried, I placed mini puzzle pieces and lots of tiny watch parts on top. I then added more crackle accents on top to hold all the tiny pieces. Both of these, the puzzles pieces and bags of miniature watch parts are from Urban Scrapbook.

The gears are cut out with chipboard, using the new Tim Holtz mini gears die. I then painted them with a light blue paint dauber and while it was wet, placed tissue paper (7Gypsies) cut out with the gears die also. The paint kind of seeped through the tissue in some places which gave it a cool look. The metal pieces are from Tim Holtz and 7Gypsies, and I had some vintage bullion angel hair (the coiled wire) that I stretched and wrapped around the gear. The sticker letters were from Simple Stories, and the stickers are also from the Oxford line.

Thanks for looking! The sun is finally shining here, I'm going for a walk!

I think I like....

2011-06-18T16:23:00.000-06:00

this rainy weather, at least for a few days. I''m not accomplishing much, but does it matter?! I did finish this layout for palette #62 at The Color Room. The whole palette was orange tones, which I thought might be hard to scrapbook, but turns out I had a quite a few things in my stash in the color orange. I think that's my favorite thing about using palettes, you go through your stash and use old stuff! Imagine that, actually using older product! Feels pretty good! There's some old Basic Grey rub-ons, a circle diecut from Collage Press, stickers from BoBunny and this Prima background paper (which, as I was inking, realized that it is textured in the bottom corner-how come I didn't know this when I bought it?) I embossed the lower corner with my Tim Holtz brick embossing folder. Now, I don't think you can do this with any diecut machine (maybe you can, not sure) but with The Vagabond (Tim Holtz machine) it is possible. For those of you who need a certain amount of reasons to buy something, here's another one to put on the list for purchasing this machine! I just slipped my paper in between the bottom corner and wrapped the paper around my diecutting plate. On the Vagabond, the edges where your die goes through have a hinged flap, and I think this helps your paper not get creased as much. There is a slight crease, but it comes out after awhile. Seems to me, that Tim Holtz talked about this on one of his tutorials. The paper inside the circle is from one of Tim Holtz paper pads but I sprayed a texture spray on it called Goosebumps from Tsukineko which dries into an acrylic type resist. I haven't tried it with masks yet, but it is very cool stuff. The photo was from one of Urban Scrapbook's photowalks. I think Sheri took this one for me, loved how it was taken on a slant. We had a lot of fun doing these walks, maybe we should do another one this summer!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Usually....

2011-06-16T14:25:00.000-06:00

I hate gloomy, rainy days, but today I'm lovin' it! I have the day off, I did all my running around, groceries, etc. on Tuesday, so I have my "cozy" clothes on and I'm not leaving the house! My husband just got home from out of town this morning, and brought me my "Timmies" coffee, could it get any better? I'm just scrapbooking (well, going to scrapbook, ... I better!) I've spent the morning looking for photos, playing with photos, checking out blogs, so now I should be inspired enough! What to you do to get inspired? If any of you have any great ideas or wonderful websites/blogs I'd love to hear about them.
For those of you that are searching for teacher gift ideas, check out Amy Heller's blog where she has made these cute apple shaped books:

Or, if you're really ambitious, check out what Roxanne has made for teacher gifts. Seriously, Roxanne? You must really love your kid's teachers! These books are amazing! I don't think I would want to give them up! If you have checked out her blog, you will also notice the tag she has made for demo night at Urban Scrapbook. If you have nothing to do tonight, drop by the store to make one!
Here's another layout for The Little Black Dress Kit Club June kit:

Yes, I know, I am obsessed with butterflies lately! It was that "all over the page" Martha Stewart butterfly punch that got me started! Then I saw the punch with two little butterflies and one larger one used by some of the gals at the store, so I had to get that one. That filigree one started calling my name soon after, so I brought that one home too. That's the problem with working at a scrapbook store, you end up bringing something home everytime you work!
Anyways, I'm just warning you, there will be more layouts with butterflies!
This photo is of my husband's grandparents, shortly after they were married. I was contacted by a woman in Wales, from Ancestory.com (another obsession) asking if we were in some way researching the same family. Turns out we were, and she invited me to look at her family tree and her photos. She has researched my mother-in-laws' family back into the 1700's, and had lots of old photos. One of them was this photo which my mother-in-law had never seen of her parents before(love how her mom is standing on the step to be taller, she was barely 5 ft. tall). Unfortunately, her father died suddenly when he was around forty, she was only eight years old, so she doesn't have very many photos of him. I gave her a copy of this one and a few of him when he was a boy, she was so excited! After looking at old photos, there's one thing that I noticed. I love the ones that are taken informally, they might not be the greatest photo but you can see more of the person's personality. I like looking at their surroundings, it makes for a more interesting photo, I think. I wonder what our families will think when they look at all our photos years from now? I know mine will be laughing hysterically at some of my hairstyles, that's for sure!
That's it for today, I'm off to my scrapbook room. Have a great day!

I had a very good reason....

2011-06-13T18:42:00.000-06:00

to buy some of BoBunny's new Barefoot line,(not that I need one!) with the Color Room's palette last week. I had some photos of our visit to Melbourne's aquarium that I hadn't scrapbooked yet so these papers were pretty close to the palette colors, along with my green background sheet from Glitz.

This is such a great summer line with lots of embellishments for those summer photos. And of course, I can't seem to do a layout without some "fussy" cutting!

Last week my layout, "Summer Days" was featured on a website called, Craft Gossip. I hadn't heard of this site before, but I was pleasantly surprised when I went on it. Lots of inspiration, tutorials, free downloads, a great site to check out!

I'm off to catch up on some projects, have a great week!

It's been awhile....

2011-06-05T17:35:00.000-06:00

since I have posted anything. Seems like my days get busier everyday and I just don't have time or the energy to post here! I should be doing all my laundry right now, but I'm avoiding that growing pile! No kids at home any more, so why do I still have so much?
We had our visit to New York to visit our daughter. Here's some photos I took from the plane. It was a nice clear day, so we had a great view of the city.

She's a pretty busy young woman (two jobs) but we managed to see her as much as possible. We stayed in a hotel this time, our son and his girlfriend stayed with her in her teeny tiny apartment. It was a great hotel - The Hampton Inn in Chelsea, two blocks from her apartment. Plus, it was just down from an antique store and across the street was a flea market on the weekend. The antique store had shelves of door knobs, door plates, all that stuff you could use for altered items! But unfortunately New York prices! We did come home with some gorgeous door handles.

Our first day, we went to meet our daughter for lunch near her work place, but on the way we stopped at my first "wish list destination" which wasn't too far from our hotel either, "Tinsel Trading". I haven't been able to get there before, so I was determined this time. A whole store of ribbons, trims, vintage ribbons, buttons, etc. There are some incredible vintage ribbons in glass cases that are so beautiful but extremely expensive. But this isn't the only notions store in the garment district. There is store after store of trims, ribbons, buttons, in this area. I could have stayed there all day, but my husband, for some reason, didn't share the same enthusiasm!

One of Urban's customers, Brenda, recommended we check out the "Frick Gallery" which was breathtaking. It is an art gallery in the "Frick Family"home that is the most beautiful mansion I have ever seen. Thank you, Brenda for recommending it! If you haven't been to this gallery when in New York, I would definitely make the trip.
Other than eating, eating, and more eating (the food is so good) and shopping, we walked along the "High Line" park, which is made from an abandoned rail line above the street level. I'm not sure how many blocks it goes for, but they were just opening the next section a week after we were there. It is such a cool idea, instead of demolishing the rail line, to turn it into a walking trail park, with shrubs, flowers and grasses where the tracks are.

The weather wasn't great, we only had two nice sunny days, so our trip to Central Park was short and sweet.

And here's a view of Union Square from inside the biggest and busiest DSW shoe store I have ever seen.

So that's a little bit of my trip and a few photos.(I didn't take as many this time, it was raining quite a bit) I think I'm still tired from all that walking!
Now, back to scrapbooking! I do have a couple of projects to share.
First, from May's kit for The Little Black Dress Kit club, I made this little book using the Glitz chipboard book covers that were included. I have lots of photos from Fort Edmonton and I put some of my favorites in here:

I used my Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder on the cover and cut out the center with a Tim Holtz die, then inked and distressed stained it.

This next layout is for Little Black Dresse's June kit. It seems like I just get their monthly kit finished, and then the next one is here!

We have an old birdhouse in one of our trees that is practically falling apart, but every year there are birds nesting in it one after the other. I love it when I can catch those little babies feeding! A close-up of the flower that I made using a Martha Stewart "All over the Page" pinking circle punch, Graphic45 metal flower, and the little center spikes are exclamation marks from the American Crafts letters included in the kit. That's all I have finished so far for their June kit, still working on the rest.

Next is my monthly layout for Urban's June page kit. The kit included papers from Pink Paislee's Hometown collection. This paper line is designed by the owner/designer of Collage Press (was one of my favorite companies) who is now just designing for Pink Paislee. It is all about borders in this kit:

Check out what the other Urban designers have come up with, they are all fantastic!

And if I didn't have enough to do, I joined up with a few of the other girls at work and Nicole in a tag exchange! Actually, I think we are all enjoying making these tags, there's only five of us, so there's not many to do. These are my May and June tags:

May's tag had to be monochromatic and include a quote. June's tag had to be masculine and include a zipper.

And now I have left the best news for last! I was asked to do a layout for Canadian Scrapbooker and it made the cover! I was given this photo and had to come up with an 8 1/2 x 11 page. I've never done a layout in this size, it was a bit of a challenge. You know me, I put a lot on my pages. It felt kind of weird scrapbooking a photo of people you have no idea who they are, but I was so inspired by their clothing in this beautiful photo. There's still some magazines left at the store, but they sell out fast!

This ended up being a very long post, didn't it?! A whole month's worth of news, I guess. I had better start that laundry, though! Take care and have a great week!

A quick post...

2011-05-10T22:52:00.000-06:00

with a layout from The Little Black Dress May kit. For those of you who love October Afternoon, there's some of their latest release in this month's kit! Lots of goodies in this one! This layout is of my daughter's first time she rode a two-wheeler. It was the day of her playschool graduation and she was anxiously waiting for the afternoon, so she decided to try and ride her bike. She was so excited when she finally got it! I was too, but also relieved that there was no wipe-out and scrapes and bruises! There will be more projects coming later.

For those of you with boys, who have a hard time finding inspiration for layouts, there's a great blog called
Scrap the Boys. Check it out, they have challenges too!
Have a great week!

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

2011-05-07T15:15:00.000-06:00

Mother's Day and National Scrapbook Day all in one weekend! I hope everyone has a chance to do a little scrapbooking this weekend. I have a few projects I need to finish in the next couple of days, so hopefully I can get those done.
It's been awhile since my last post, I've been in a creative funk lately. I don't know if it's the weather, lots on my mind, or just everyday life that's been getting to me, but hopefully it comes back soon!
My husband and I are taking a trip to New York to visit our daughter, whom we haven't seen for over a year, so I am looking forward to that! Maybe that's what I need, just to get away! After being stuck at home last year with my cancer, I think a change of scenery will do my good.
Last month we got one of those phone calls every parent dreads.... my daughter's friend was phoning from an ambulance that was taking my daughter to the hospital. She had been crossing the street and was hit by car. A lady was turning left, wasn't paying attention, and hit her. Thankfully she wasn't seriously hurt, just badly bruised and scraped up, her back and neck are a little out of whack from being thrown & hitting pavement, and she was pretty shaken up by the whole experience.
It was the worst feeling, being so far away and not able to rush to the hospital immediately. We both felt sick just waiting to hear what the doctors said after all her tests. We were ready to book a flight immediately! I think that's been on my mind lately, just wanting to give her a big hug and seeing her, making sure she's o.k. It doesn't matter how old your children are, you still worry about them all the time, don't you? That's what us mothers do best, worry!
Here's my projects from April's "Little Black Dress Kit Club".

This little book was in my Grandmother's sewing basket that I got when she passed away (30years ago) and I've always treasured it. She was a beautiful seamstress and would make us outfits just from pictures she had clipped out from magazines. In the book are all her granddaughter's measurements over the years, & little notes and clippings from magazines.
In the kit there was some corrugated cardboard, which I cut out a dressform using my new Tim Holtz die. I then cut out another one from paper, glued it on top of the cardboard, ripped a bit off on the edge so the cardboard shows through, and then stained the edges with Tim Holtz honey distress stain. The flowers were made with my Slice, and most of the papers & embellishments here are all from Glitz.

I seem to have a lot of photos of my kids looking or pretending to read books! Must have thought they looked cute! By the looks of these photos, they were tired of me watching them, and just decided they might as well pose and get it over with! There was some vintage book papers in the kit, which I cut one out with the Tim Holtz clock die. The 7Gypsies paper under the photos was machine stitched, wet, and gathered on the bottom.

This is where I just couldn't figure out what to do next with the kit. I think it was because, as much as I love all this new paper line from Glitz, after putting together Urban Scrapbook's April kit with the same papers, kitting all of the design teams kits, and customer kits, I was tired of it! So, I finally came up with a garland.

I cut out the banners with chipboard, from an AccuCut die that Urban Scrapbook has. I then covered them with the different papers and embellishments in the kit.

The letters were cut out from paper using my Slice. I tore a strip of cotton fabric to hang the banners on and cut small strips to knot in between each banner. I did staple underneath on the inside, the fabric and banner so each banner wouldn't slip. That's all I managed to get done. Unfortunately, it takes usually a month for my kit to get here from the States and by the time I get it, everyone else on the design team is working on their next month's kit! I think the gal from France gets hers faster than me! I'm sure it sits in Customs for weeks. Anyone else have that problem with our postal service?

This layout was one I did awhile ago for "The Color Room". I laugh when I look at this photo of my older sister and I. "Now I Know" ... why we both hate wearing hats. I wonder if we liked these ones?

The papers used were from Graphic45, Lily Bee, and Echo Park. The embellishments were Echo Park, Basic Grey, and Pink Paislee.

That's all I've got for you today, I think I'll go and scrapbook for awhile! Hopefully I'll accomplish something instead of just staring at my stuff on the table!

Have a great Mother's Day tomorrow!

I have to start....

2011-04-08T21:05:00.000-06:00

using some of this new product to make room! I'm getting overwhelmed with all these items that somehow mysteriously make their way home with me. At work we all have drawers with our names on them to keep our stuff in, well actually they mostly hold future purchases. I don't usually work on the day when our orders come in, so whoever is working usually sticks in my drawer what they think I should or would like to buy. Lately, that drawer has been pretty full when I come in to work, but yesterday it was so full it barely closed. Tim Holtz arrived on Wednesday. Need I say more? I'm broke. I might as well just hand over my paycheck broke. Girl's Paperie and more Pink Paislee arrived. I'm weak, more broke, but.... happy! It's all sitting on my desk right now, I don't know about you, but I can't bring myself to put it away. I have to have it there for me to look at over and over first. Nothing like new papers and embellishments to get those creative juices going! Or, I could just sit there and look at it all!
I did get a layout done this week. I haven't had a chance to play along with "The Color Room" for awhile, so I was determined to finish this. Not sure if I liked this week's color palette #52, but here it is:

I used some new Webster's Pages for the background, Glitz for the pink flower,Bo-Bunny Gabrielle chipboard, Prima ribbon, and Pink Paislee paper embellishments. The little letters are from Basic Grey. This farmhouse belongs to my husband's relatives in Wales. The white farmhouse is over 200 years old, that's the new house. The original stone farmhouse is across the field and I have no idea how old it is. Their grandson lives in it. We stayed there(in the white house) on our trip to Wales. The walls are almost two feet thick and the doorways are only five feet tall. We felt really tall when we stayed there!
That's all I have to share today, hopefully I can do a bit of scrapbooking this weekend. Have a great weekend!

The sky is blue!

2011-04-02T11:41:00.000-06:00

Yesterday a customer told me that her daughter looked out the window the day before and yelled out, "Mom, the sky is blue!" That's pretty much how we have all felt around here for the past few months. Even though our winters are long and cold, we usually have sunny skies quite a bit(sunny Alberta!). But this winter has been gloomy, which I find harder to take. Last week, I think, the weather was getting to everybody, we were all grouchy! For me, I just bought more scrapbook supplies, to get over the weather blues! It's not good for the wallet, to work in a scrapbook store, especially when all the new product from CHA is coming in every week. My favorite two, Pink Paislee and Glitz Designs arrived, and they did not disappoint!
I did another layout for Little Black Dress March kit:

Their March kits are sold out, but most of the papers and embellishments used were from Glitz's new collection, "Love Games". Love their packages of "Paper Layers", which are like small book pages. This is one of them, the paper with the banner. I extended the banner by drawing on my background paper with felt pen, coloring in with diluted distress ink, and cutting out a few triangles from pieces of paper. There was a string of pearl beaded ribbon in the kit, which I pulled through cut out flowers from the patterned paper. To adhere the end swirled part, I just stitched it in a couple of places instead of glueing it. This photo is of my husband's grandmother and her cousin in the early 1900's, ready to play tennis! Not exactly the same attire, women wear now!

Well, it's already April and time for Urban Scrapbook's April Challenge kit of the month. This month we were given the challenge of using stamps on our layouts. The paper and stamps are from Glitz's new line,"Laced with Grace." I love the colors in this line, the oranges and greens are gorgeous!

I was in a dilemma, (does this sound familiar?) I loved the green striped paper, but I really wanted to use the other side; distressed cream with a bit of words on the edges. So I decided to make my own distressed cream background with the plain cream cardstock in the kit. I inked the edges with forest moss, honey, and a bit of photo distress ink. The best way, I find, to get that soft look, is to use my Tim Holtz blending tool, and non-stick craft sheet. Place your paper on the sheet and with your inked blending tool start swirling on the craft sheet, close to the paper, and lightly work your way onto the paper. This way, you don't get starting lines from your tool, and it looks softer. Next, I inked the words stamp from the Glitz stamp package (included in the kit), dab a bit off parts of the stamp with a piece of paper towel, and lightly stamp on a piece of scrap paper. Then stamp your cardstock. Your stamped image is lighter this way. The top stamped image in the right corner was stamped and embossed(with Ranger's antique gold), then I ironed the paper(place paper between brown paper) which removes the embossed powder, leaving an interesting texture on your paper. It's hard to explain, but the color of the embossing powder is still there, it's just not raised anymore. My layout is in the store, if you want to check out how it looks. I also stamped on my collection card with clear ink and clear embossing powder, and covered the card with forest moss distress stain. The embossed part works like a relief. When I saw the card "collection", in my kit, I thought perfect for me, I'm a collector! I have collected over the years, a few birdhouses; but last week I started a new collection, birds! I saw these Jim Mullan birds a couple of years ago, while visiting my daughter in New York and fell in love. I was ready to bring one home for myself and my sister Pat, but when I saw the price, those birds stayed there! My favorite store, Wellington Gardens, opened back up last week and what did they have, but those birds! I have been hoarding a gift certificate for over a year that my husband gave me, and this was the perfect time to use it! I love my bird! I don't know if I'll ever get another one like this, but I'm on the lookout for birds now. Oh, and Pat, you'll have to buy your own bird, sorry!
The Design Team layouts are on display at the store (and eventually on Urban's website), check them out to see what everyone has come up with! We were late getting our product in this month so most of the girls just got their kits on Wednesday, so not all of them have finished yet. I'm always amazed at the different ideas and layouts we all end up with from the same kit!
Have a great weekend!

It's been....

2011-03-25T10:20:00.000-06:00

a quiet week. After the last two weeks, I really needed it! It's funny how you can function at a fast pace, accomplishing lots, (especially when you are on a deadline) and then as soon as it stops; it hits you! Do you ever ask yourself, how did I get all that done? Because this week, nothing was done!
I did finally receive my March "Little Black Dress Kit" on Tuesday. It was mailed February 12th, more than a month ago! I wonder where it's been all this time? See, nothing or nobody wants to come here, with this miserable weather! For those of you that don't live here in Alberta, it's been snowing all week and still cold. I have never seen so much snow in all my life. I think we are all starting to wonder when it will ever melt and if we will see the grass again.
March's kit is called,"Black Tie Love Affair". Love this kit, lots of new Glitz!

I've just got one layout done, so far.
Here it is:

I used my new Martha Stewart all around the page punch, Wild Flowers.
Love this punch! On the left side, I stamped Tim Holtz's new book plate stamp on patterned paper and embossed with clear powder, so I got that embossed resist look. I then inked over it, wiped away the ink from the embossed part, and then just the parts in between are left inked.
I'm still working on the rest of my projects, hopefully those will be done this weekend!
Take care and have a great weekend!

It was an amazing....

2011-03-15T17:58:00.000-06:00

weekend! Where do I begin?! Actually it started two weeks ago when I was asked if I would like to do some samples for a big wholesale event here in Edmonton. I was so honored to be asked, and I immediately said yes. But never did I think that Tim Holtz would want some of them in his booth! My configuration box sat there beside his configuration tray and my layout next to his!!

How cool was that?! There was something that I used in my configuration box that inspired him, so you might see it as one of his products in the future(can you believe that? Amazing!) I was over the top about that, but the weekend just got better and better. Our first class Saturday Morning was with Tim Holtz and I have to tell you, he is an amazing instructor. Best class, ever! I learned so much more about his products and techniques, I can hardly wait to pull out all my stuff and try everything.
Pat, Roxanne and I had so much fun all weekend, I don't think we ever stopped laughing. We had classes with BoBunny, Copic, Graphic45(loved this class), Little Yellow Bicycle, We R Memory Keepers, and best of all, the two classes with Tim Holtz. Lindsey and Julie of Cosmo Cricket left us in their booth doing Make-n-Takes while they were doing an interview, and let's just say we don't follow rules very good! Especially loved talking to Margie Romney of Girl's Paperie and Cathy from Fancy Pants.
And if that's not enough, Tim, Mario, Margie Romney (Girl's Paperie), Fran & Mona (Bazzill) joined our group for dinner and then went over to Urban Scrapbook to surprise our staff and croppers! It was so much fun to sit down and talk to these incredibly talented and creative people about our hobby. I have so much respect for these people; for all the hard work and time they put into their companies, to give us the best product they can.

Here are some of my projects that I did for this event:

I used Tim Holtz Wild West stamps on this layout; the wild west words, the gun, and the cowboy on the horse (on the acrylic). The paper was from BoBunny's line "Timepiece".

I did another butterfly bouquet, (these are so easy to make and make a great gift) and a layout, using Making Memories new line "Dilly Dally". I'm not sure when this line will be in the stores, but it is a fun Spring one.

This shadow box is from Maya Road. There are some chipboard squares included, which you can do lots of different things with. It's hard to tell here in the photos, but I slanted the inside ones so the squares are higher towards the middle. I made a handle from grunge board, using my Tim Holtz die and painted it with crackle paint. That's my daughter and her cousin Kayla (Pat's daughter).

This layout is made with the new "Fiesta" line from We R Memory Keepers. It's the perfect collection for those of you with Mexico photos! I didn't have any, so I used photos from Pat's vacation. This paper makes the best looking rosette flowers! Some of the papers are flocked, like the red background one here, and are so vibrant. That orange flower is from Making Memories.

This mini album is from My Mind's Eye Lush collection. It went perfect with BoBunny's new collection, Ad Lib. The brown frame is from Little Yellow Bicycle's Twig line. I've used Pat's photos again here! The buttons, resin flowers, journalings spots, stickers, and ribbons are all from BoBunny, My Mind's Eye, Making Memories, Bazzill, and Little Yellow Bicycle. The wire rings are from 7Gypsies, which I tinted with blue alcohol ink.

This next project was my favorite! It all started with a vintage circus peanut bag that I had bought a few years ago. When I saw Graphic45's "Le Cirque" paper, I knew I had to do something with that bag! This was so much fun to create! I found a couple of vintage circus photos online, used 7gypsies, Tim Holtz, Graphic45, Making Memories, and Maya Road embellishments. I hate cutting up that one wonderful paper that is always a full scene from Graphic45's collections. So I adhered it to the back of my tray and made it look like it was a poster hidden underneath paper ripped away. Even though no one can see it if it's put on the wall, I know it's there!

I know this is a long post, but I had lots to tell and show, hope I didn't bore you! I just want to thank Trudy ( our wholesaler) and all her staff for putting on a fabulous weekend, we had such a great time!

This blog has been pretty quiet....

2011-03-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

the past few weeks, but I have been soooo busy. I have lot's to share, which I will do in the next couple of days. But this morning I'm going to start my day with this amazing and talented person!!!!

Pat, Roxanne, and I are attending a Retailer's Event and we get to take a class from Tim Holtz!!!! Is that not the best way to start a Saturday morning?
I will share more pictures later, but I better get ready, don't want to be late for Tim!

Just a quick post...

2011-02-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

and my last one for February! It's hard to believe that it's March 1st on Tuesday and still cold and snowing!! It's been snowing for two days and the temperature has dropped again. I'm so glad that I have this hobby to keep me busy. I've been scrapbooking with summer, garden and flower photos to get my mind off this awful weather. Here's another layout I've done with The Little Black Dress February kit.

The photos are of my mother-in-law's garden. She can make anything grow!
I was going to make some rosette flowers, but instead used the folded paper around my circle. I stitched around the circle first before I adhered the accordion folded paper behind it.

I also made a birthday card with leftover paper. I used a Martha Stewart punch on the purple paper and my Slice for the happy birthday, scalloped ovals and flower.

Here's my layout for the March Urban Scrapbook kit. Our technique this month is all about punches. The layouts will be up at the store on Tuesday, so come and check them out! The paper and embellishments in the kit are from Little Yellow Bicycle.

I punched out the edge of my paper before I made my rosette flower with the Martha Stewart Crown punch. The blue border was punched out with a border punch on both sides. It ended up being about an inch wide. There were two rows of small holes so I placed the thin ribbon in the middle and laced the twine across. This photo is from when we lived on Vancouver Island. There were lots of trails around so on hot days, I would call my friend and tell her to pack a lunch and we would head off with our kids to hike in the cool shade of the huge trees. The kids had such a great time, as you can see by this photo, and have great memories!

That's all for now, have a great week! And for all of you here in Edmonton, keep warm!

This month...

2011-02-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

seems to be flying by for me! (that's my excuse for not posting in awhile!) I have managed to get a few projects done from the February kit for The Little Black Dress Kit Club. It's called Patterns of Class and here's a photo of everything in the kit.

The butterfly paper from GCD was one of my favorites, and this is what I did with some of it:

I thought of making a paper flower bouquet, but after looking at all the butterflies, I decided to do this. For the box I used an empty japanese tea box, which I had saved because it was a nice heavy cardboard. It already had a nice yellow rim on top so this paper from Crate was perfect for covering it. I used the turquoise ribbon and felt flower from my kit to decorate it. I then cut a block of florist foam for the inside. I attached wire to my cut out butterflies with a hot glue gun and stuck them in the foam. I cut up some white tissue with my Martha Stewart fringe scissors and crumpled it for the filling on top. Right now it's sitting on my desk, so when I look at it, I forget about this cold and all the snow we have here.

How can you tell, I'm anxious for spring and summer! A photo of an Allium from my mother-in-law's garden. I cut out some of the tags and the title using my Slice and the lock and key is cut from a Tim Holtz die. With the lock and key, I cut out several using book pages and layered them with the patterned paper on top. I then wet the edges, curling them up and then inked. This close-up photo isn't that great but you can see what I mean. My hand stitching was done using my We R Memory Keepers stitching tool. This tool is so easy to use! I know there are a lot of scrapbookers waiting for it to come in at the store, but unfortunately it won't be until the end of March. They are releasing some new pattern attachments, which I am looking forward to using.

I found these old photo booth photos in a box the other day, so I had to scrapbook them. I don't even remember when the kids posed for these! I wish we had done this more, they are so funny to look at, now that the kids are grown up. It's funny to see what faces they made, when given a limited time to pose. I wasn't sure how I was going to use the pompoms on a string (Glitz) that were in the kit. One fell of the end, so I used it as the center of my pinwheel flower(cut from my Slice), and I tied the string around the photo and paper. The cards were cut out from a piece of Crate paper, the little brown birds are Studio Calico rub-ons.

That's all I've managed to get done, I'm in the middle of another layout, so hopefully I can finish that tonight. I really want to get these projects done, I have some wonderful new Prima product that came home with me today and I can hardly wait to use it. Urban also got in some really cool vintage pocket watch pieces and watch parts in today. I feel another configuration box idea coming!! At least this cold weather is great scrapbooking weather!
Take care and have a great weekend!

I think I'm addicted....

2011-02-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

to Martha Stewart punches. I love her "Around the Page" punch sets and I have just purchased one of her "All Over the Page" punches. These punches come in two pieces; the base, which goes under your paper, and the top piece. The two snap together with magnets when the notched sides match, and you press down to punch.

I purchased the butterfly punch and used it on this layout.

I adhered "Glitz Love Nest" patterned paper underneath the negative spaces. The background paper is from Pink Paislee's Anthology line which I inked and misted.

The flower and leaves were cut out from the Love Nest paper, as well as the rosette center. The "beautiful" sticker is from KI Memories (it was black but I used Sequin Stickles and went over it). The heart journaling spot is from Girl's Paperie. It's hard to believe that beautiful baby girl of mine will be 29 next week!
Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

A few Valentine projects...

2011-02-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

that I have been working on. I don't usually make a lot of things for Valentine's Day, but after seeing what Linda Albrecht made, I just had to make this heart like the beautiful one she made. The photo isn't that great, it's been pretty gloomy here lately. Love the garland she made too, I might have to try that next. I have lots of old patterns, I might as well use them up, seeing as how the only sewing I seem to be doing is on paper!

I used Making Memories "Je t'adore" paper for this and the embellishments are from the "Je t'adore" embellishment box.

Which I used the box and made this...

My box didn't have the scalloped part on the bottom though, which made it easier to cover. There was a lid with plastic in the middle, which I took off and then I covered the edge with Tim Holtz tissue tape. After covering the inside and embellishing, I put the lid back on and taped it to the base at the back. I then covered the sides and back of the box. I adhered the ribbon and buckle(which was included in the kit) around the edges. I haven't decided whether I want to put a ribbon through the center at the top so I can hang it. That cute little lazar cut heart is wood and it's from Kaiser.

I decided to make another tissue paper garland like the one I made for Halloween. It's so easy with Martha Stewart fringe scissors!

That's all for me today, I'm working tomorrow and you never heard this from me, but.... Graphic45 is coming in!! Love their two new lines, Le Cirque and Curtain Call; Graphic45 never disappoints me!

Have a great Wednesday!

Urban Scrapbook monthly challenge...

2011-01-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

kits will be on sale February 1st. This month the kits are all about glitter! The design team has come up with some great creative ways to use it, so check out the layouts next week. Each kit has a jar of Craft & Glitz glitter, which is a very fine beautiful glitter. Here's my layout!

Unfortunately the glitter doesn't show up as well in a photo. I used it on the tulle, letters, and the hearts. Included in each kit is a sheet of Sookwang adhesive, which I cut out my hearts with on my Slice. If it doesn't cut all the way through, just repeat the cut twice. Here's a tip I received from the owner of Craft & Glitz; after applying your glitter, rub the glittered area with your finger. It will give your glitter a burnished effect! My rosettes were edged with the Martha Stewart Crown border punch. Love this punch! It also punches little tiny holes across, which I have threaded embroidery floss through. The papers in this kit are from Making Memories, which is my favorite Valentine's line.
I can't forget to mention my model here! I'm always amazed at how well she poses, she will just sit there and not move, while I'm snapping away! Could be, she knows there are always treats after!
Have a great weekend!

Sweet Bravery...

2011-01-24T23:44:00.001-07:00

is the name of January's kit for The Little Black Dress Kit Club. They were inspired with Melody Ross and her Brave Girls Daily Truths. If you check out the Little Black Dress blog, there is a link where you can sign up to receive your own Daily Truth by email. These daily truths are sent out to remind us just how brave, strong, and wonderful we are. I love getting mine everyday, I think I'm going to put them all in a binder or journal.
Here's what I've done with my kit:

I love this Glitz yellow stripe paper and the brown dot paper is Pink Paislee. I don't have tons of photos when the kids were little (it was before digital!) but there seems to be quite a few of my oldest son "reading" to his sister or brother. It's always interesting to look at what he has chosen to read to them! Cass looks pretty interested there, anything about fashion in National Geographic?
I cut out the fairy from the Webster's paper and the stack of books were cut out from the striped side, using my fall Slice cartridge. I took a thin strip of the striped paper, sewed a basting stitch in the middle, wet the paper, and then gathered it quite tight. It's hard to tell, not a great photo, but that's what is on top of the sparkly ribbon.

In this layout, I used the My Mind's Eye Lost and Found paper for the background. The floral paper is Basic Grey's Curio line, which I cut into a diecut shape. The cards that were included in the kit, are from GCD and are designed by Melody Ross (Daily Truth's), and have great sayings on them. These ones seemed to describe my daughter perfectly! She just started her own clothing company and has been working so hard to make it successful. I hope all her hard work pays off!

I think I'm being a brave girl here, just showing everyone a photo of my bald head! I really felt these cards needed to be scrapbooked with this photo. Journaling reads: 2010 - my year to be courageous. Cancer is a terrifying word, just thinking about it, fills you with panic. Chemo and Radiation were just something I had to do, to put cancer behind me. I may have lost a breast and all my hair, but I think I have gained a new attitude towards life. My priorities have definitely changed.
I love these Pink Paislee papers, it was hard to pick which side to use! I also used my new Martha Stewart "all over the page" butterfly punch. This punch is going to be used a lot! It is so easy to use. There are two parts; one goes under the paper and the other on top, both snap together with magnets, you push down and your paper is punched out.
I also made two cards with the kit.

That's all I've managed to get done with the kit so far, I could get a couple more layouts yet.

For all you who are in the Edmonton area, be sure to check out the Ice Sculpture display on Whyte avenue. We took my cousin there last week before she headed back to Brisbane, Australia. Actually, we almost ran through the displays, it was so cold. She was freezing, poor thing, not used to -32C weather, just the opposite +32C! I'd like to go back, now that it has warmed up, and they have finished sculpting them, here's a couple of photos.

Have a great Tuesday!

It's give away time....

2011-01-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

over at The Little Black Dress Kit Club blog! Or stop by their Facebook Page and leave a comment, there's still some fabulous goodies to be won! Their January's kit is called "Sweet Bravery" and it has some wonderful papers and embellishments. Unfortunately, my kit was lost in the Christmas rush, and I just received it yesterday, so I will try and work on that right away! I'm lovin' the Pink Paislee papers that are included!

In the meantime, here's a couple of "Color Room" layouts that I've done.
In this one, I've used paper and embellishments from Ruby Rock-It, an Australian company.
I hope they have some new lines at CHA, I really like their paper and alphabets. The green frame is theirs too and is lazer-cut felt. When we were in Sydney, Australia a couple of years ago, my cousin took us to the Sydney Zoo which is an amazing zoo. This is the view we had when we were watching a bird show! I also did the hand stitching using my new WRMK stitching tool. I think you will be seeing lots of hand-stitching on my layouts in the future!
I used the sketch that was included for palette #39 on this layout, too. They have great sketches for each palette, so if you need some inspiration, these are nice to use.
This layout is for the most recent palette, #40.

I used My Mind's Eye, Lost and Found papers & brads, Pink Paislee chipboard elements(which I embossed), Graphic 45 envelope & stamp paper, metal butterfly & flower from Making Memories, Basic Grey sticker letters and the flowers were made with old paper that I can't remember the name! I love this old photo of my husband's grandparents, in the middle of a farmer's field. They came to Canada as newlyweds and worked on farms to earn money.

That's all for today! I was working on a few things for our Valentines' display at the store so I had better finish those up before I start on my kit projects. With all this snow and cold weather we are having here, it's a good time to be scrapbooking!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

I'm ready for a brand new year, time to put 2010 behind me and move on. I've noticed in the scrapbook world, everyone is busy choosing their word for the year; at least those who follow Ali Edwards . I was thinking about choosing a word to follow throughout this year, but I couldn't seem to settle on one. A friend of mine sent me three ceramic words for Christmas, "Live, Laugh and Love" and these words just seem to fit in my life right now. So, I think these will be my words for the year 2011.

I was spoiled by my husband this Christmas, he bought me a ScrapBox EZ View Desk! It took two days of cleaning my room and shuffling things around to fit the desk in, but I love it! I will take some photos and post them soon! I still want to go through all my stuff, sort out everything and reorganize.

Here is my layout for Urban Scrapbook's January kit. This year, every month the kit will be about using a different technique. January's kit is about using glimmer mist so be sure to check out what the rest of the design team have done with the included mist!

I had "Frost" glimmer mist in my kit, which I masked the chipboard snowflakes in the kit, my Tim Holtz ribbon, the Pink Paislee elements, the journalling card, felt Queen & Co. snowflakes, and I painted a small amount on my American Crafts letters. I also colored some of my ribbon with distress ink (red and green) by stamping the ink directly on my craft mat, spritzing with water and dragging the ribbon through it. Love how vibrant the ribbon turns out! I took this photo on Boxing Day, when we went for a walk (out at Lake Isle) and three deer ran across the road in front of us. The same thing happened to me last year!

After I cleaned up my scrapbook room, I was inspired to create something yesterday. I've been wanting to do something with my Tim Holtz "Configuration Box" for awhile, so I decided to work on it. I covered all the edges with his tissue tape (love that stuff!) and decided to use Basic Grey's Curio paper and some of the embellishments. Funny thing, the tape wasn't sticking as well as I wanted, and I was kind of stuck on how I wanted the boxes, so I decided to see if there were any ideas on the internet. I couldn't find anything on Tim Holtz's blog using the boxes, and I saw only a couple of them made up on other sites; so I went back to work. After dinner, I decided to check on some websites before I went back to my scrapbook room and there, on Tim's blog were two videos about using his boxes! He must have read my mind! Lol! He had some great tips, one of which was using Claudine Hellmeth's "Matte Multi-Medium to secure the tape better and use as a glue. I never thought of using this, and I had a jar of this too! Anyways, I went and fixed all the tape and used it to glue the paper, which worked really well!

I would highly recommend using this product, I even used it to glue on the metal legs, as Tim suggested and it held really well! Here's my finished project:

I did something a little different with the side and back, not sure if I like it. What do you think?

I had a bird theme going on here, this little black wire bird started it!

I took some of the boxes out, so my bird would fit and it wouldn't look as cluttered. I had so much fun doing this, I think I might pick up a few more!

That's all for now, have a great week!

December 15?!!!!

2010-12-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it is December 15th already. It feels like it's still the first week of December. I've been busy decorating, shopping, mailing parcels and cards (store bought - did I just admit that?!) and I'm just about done. I still haven't finished the cards I am making, I was hoping to finish that yesterday. I always plan to make all of my cards, and then the closer to Christmas, the list just keeps shrinking! Are any of you like that?
This December is a lot different for me than last year. It was a year on December 2nd, that my journey with breast cancer began and I spent the entire holiday, waiting for my results, which I never received until the first week of January. In my heart, I knew that the results weren't going to be good, but I tried to keep positive. It was really hard to enjoy the holidays, especially since I didn't tell anyone, except my husband and my sister Pat. I am so grateful and happy that I am here, healthy and ready to appreciate life; the good and the bad, so I am enjoying all the little things that December brings too. Even this blizzard we are having today! I know that sounds weird, but I love looking outside when I'm in my scrapbook room, or snuggled up with a good book or watching t.v. Is there anyone else out there that likes this, or am I the only weird one?

My sister Pat, her daughter Kayla, and I enjoy going to the "Festival of Trees" every year to start off our holiday season. We love looking at all the decorated trees. I usually go home and want to buy more decorations!

Last Sunday night, my husband, son and his girlfriend, and I went to Devonian Garden's Luminaria. It's on for two evenings in their Japanese Gardens. They light all the pathways with candles in Luminary bags. This is the first time we have gone, but I don't know if we would go again. It was so packed with people, you couldn't really enjoy the beauty of being out in the garden with just the light of the candles. They had carolers, but we heard them sing just one song, and we didn't see the wood sprites (lit up with twinkling lights) wandering around the garden. There were bonfires going, but a lot of people were gathered around, trying to keep warm. I am glad we went though, I always wanted to check it out but never seemed to make the time to go. That's the trouble, sometimes, when an event is so popular, it gets way too crowded. I took my camera, but managed to get only one good photo. Note to self: preset the camera in the light, so you can see what you are doing! It was so dark I couldn't see the settings! Seems I wasn't the only one with that problem! I did take my monopod(my son bought it for me last Christmas) instead of my tripod, which is so handy! It's easy to carry and I just rest it against something to stabilize it.

This Friday is our staff Christmas Party, which we all look forward to.

It's just us girls from the store, no husbands! I hate to admit it, but I think we all have a better time with just us girls. Pat and Lori make the most amazing hors d'oeuvres and that's what we eat, all evening!

Speaking of Urban Scrapbook, check out their blog . They have been giving away prizes everyday!

Here are my projects for December's kit from "The Little Black Dress Kit Club". This month's kit was full of bright and colorful papers and embellishments!

This is the first layout. I used my Slice (again!) for the snowflakes, bell, stars and poinsettia. We moved out to the small town of Gibbons, when we were starting our family. Every Christmas Santa would arrive on the town's fire truck, and hand out candy to every house. The kids loved this!

Did you know that when your kids grow up and leave home, you are reduced to dressing up the family pet so you can take christmas photos? At least she will sit still and pose for the camera! Actually she will do anything for a treat. I cut out the poinsettias on this layout, using my Tim Holtz flower die. On one of his 12 tags of Christmas, he showed how to cut apart the flower and make a poinsettia. Great idea, so check this out and his other amazing techniques. I cut out the corrugated paper with my Sizzix snowflake die and reversed the snowflakes to the backside, used some stickles to sparkle them and pop dotted them. Love these mini letters from Glitz too.

Seeing as how some of the papers were Teresa Collins' birthday collection and the rest were so colorful, I decided to do a few birthday related projects. This is my oldest son, Reece at his 2nd birthday party.

He was pretty excited after blowing out the candles on his Bert and Ernie cake. Love all the vintage cards that were in this kit!

A birthday card. I loved this orange trim from Making Memories that was in the kit. I wish they made it in other colors! I added in some crepe paper(it wasn't in the kit) gathered, stickled the edges with Tiara Glitz Stickles. This color is my favorite, it's more sparkly and kind of vintage colored. I cut out the "Happy Birthday" with my Slice.

Next, is a project that took me longer than I had planned, a birthday party hat gift box.

I took a papermache round box (about 4 or 5 inches in diameter). Cut out a cone shape out of brown paper or cardstock. I found this template on the internet and played around with the size. The website is Creativepartyblog

I attached the cone to the top of the box, using strips from a brown paper bag and white glue. This attaches the cone securely. I then painted the rim and underside of the top, and the bottom and inside of the box with white paint. Next cut out a cone with patterned paper.

This paper from the kit, was Teresa Collins. Glue this onto the brown cone. I've done the two layers to make it stronger, just like the box.

Next, cover the bottom with patterned or colored paper. This green paper is from Glitz.

To make the ruffle, I cut three strips of paper, machine stitched a large gathering stitch down the center of each strip. Next, wet the strips and dab with a paper towel. This is the only way to gather your paper, take care not to tear it when gathering. I find it's easier with the thicker paper, it doesn't tear as easy when it's wet. Let the strips dry, then ink the edges. I sewed a gathering stitch down the center of some crepe paper (the rolls found in party supplies) and gathered.

I dipped the edges of the ruffled crepe paper in white glue and then dipped in glitter. Adhere the crepe paper ruffle to the rim of the boxtop, then the paper ruffle. I then cut three strips (1/4" wide) pleated these strips, and adhered to the center of the ruffle. You could also use thin ribbon, but there wasn't a long enough piece in this kit to do that, so I used paper. I cut out a star and the matching shadow with my slice, and used the Glitz big rhinestones down the middle. I used the tulle that was in the kit, for the top and a bit of ribbon. For the banner that's inside the box, I covered the Jenni Bowlin chipboard shapes with paper, and used the Glitz letter stickers to spell out Happy Birthday. I punch two little holes on each banner and strung them on some embroidery floss. And there you have a gift box. If I'm giving a gift card or money as a gift, I try and make or find a cool box to give it in, so it feels more like a gift.

Those are my projects for this month's kit, hope you enjoyed the little tutorial.

This is a long post! That's what happens when you haven't done it for awhile! I better go work on those Christmas cards! I have to get those done, before I work on my December Daily, which I'm falling behind!

Take care and have a great day tomorrow!

It's December 1st and...

2010-12-01T23:05:00.000-07:00

I've decided this is the year I'm actually going to do a December Daily. I started preparing one for last December, but that's when I went for my mammogram and well, for those of you who know what I've been going through this year, you can understand why I really didn't feel like doing it. For anyone who doesn't know what a December Daily is, just check out Ali Edwards, who started doing this every December. I have so much to be grateful for and I really want to appreciate and enjoy the small things that this month brings. I think documenting something everyday will inspire me to enjoy each day. I used my 7Gypsies photoholder for this project. I bought all the different pages for this and never got around to doing anything, so I thought this would be perfect for this project. It's also a great way to use some of those Christmas embellishments and papers that I have been hoarding these past years!

I did this layout last night. It was nice to just sit down and create something that wasn't "homework", as my husband calls my scrapbooking for the store or design team. I used Basic Grey's Christmas "Jovial" papers and embellishments for this. The letters are "Ruby Rocket Designs"and the deer were cut out using my Tim Holtz die and grunge paper.

Have a great evening!

Tradition...

2010-11-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

is the word for Urban Scrapbook's December challenge kit. I'm sure we all have certain traditions that we do each year during the holiday season. This month the kit is filled with Teresa Collins paper and embellishments which is so easy to scrapbook with! We all had to do either a 2-page layout or a layout and two cards, so make sure you check out what the design team came up with!
Our family has a few traditions, but I think we all enjoy going out to Lake Isle every Boxing Day (that's our Canadian "Black Friday" on Dec. 26th) and just enjoying the peace and quiet. By that time we are all shopped out and need to get away from the commercial side of Christmas. There's usually a couple of patches of ice cleared on the lake for skating and hockey games, so depending how cold it is, some of us enjoy that. I love going for walks along the quiet roads. Last year, three deer ran across the road, right in front of me. Luckily I had my camera and managed to get a few fast photos! There's usually a crib game going on inside and someone always brings a puzzle for everyone to work on. We all get pretty determined to get that puzzle finished, as you can see by my photos on my layouts. The men seem to think that it's better when they stand while working on the puzzle! One year, nobody brought one out, but luckily our niece's daughters got a Miley Cyrus puzzle for Christmas. It was pretty funny to see all the men gathered around working on that puzzle!

We had a piece of gold vellum in our kits, so I stamped mine in spots with Staz-on ink and a music note stamp, then cut out snowflakes with punches, my Slice and Spellbinders. I also embossed the bottom strips of red cardstock with a Tim Holtz snowflake embossing folder. It's hard to see here in the photos, but it embossed so nice!
Tomorrow is December 1st and Tim Holtz starts his 12 days of Christmas Tags! Even if you don't do the tags, he has some amazing techniques and ideas, so be sure you check out his blog. I'm sure he will be using some of his new dies and embossing folders, so I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.
Also, starting tomorrow; Urban Scrapbook is having 12 days of Christmas specials - so check your emails! If you don't receive their emails, sign up - because that's the only way to get in on the specials!
Have a great day!

Some Little Black Dress....

2010-11-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

projects for their November kit. Love all the new Glitz paper and embellishments in this kit!

Love all these "Glitz" vintage looking cards. The papers used here are My Mind's Eye and The Girl's Paperie. I used my Slice Mistletoe cartridge for the gingerbread man and the snowflake. I circled the numbers; 3,7 and 9 on the bingo card 'cause that's how old my kids were!

The background paper here was Basic Grey, but I inked, masked and stamped it. I also cut out a square the same size as my Tim Holtz "Postcard" embossing folder from that same sheet (in that same spot you see it here on the layout) and put it through my Cuttlebug. I cut out two sheets of Glitz paper, each one a little bigger than the other and layered them underneath the embossed paper, sewed around the edge of the plain paper and distressed the edges. I then adhered that paper back over the area where the hole was, after I placed the photo and diecuts. I cut out the flowers with my Slice. This was the last time my daughter came home for Christmas, I wish she could come home every year! This year she's spending it in Italy! (Lucky girl!) In this next layout, she's 2 years old here, where did the time go?

Lots of inking, masking, misting, stamping and distressing here too! I used everything on this Glitz polka dot paper. I like to lightly stamp in the corners or different areas of the paper so you can barely see the stamp. Just like some papers that you buy already like that. In the kit, there are some vintage book pages and I tried to emboss one. But it kind of fell apart so I inked and glued all the pieces behind the polka dot paper. There's some Teresa Collins paper too in this layout, more Glitz diecuts, Jenni Bowlin chipboard button, and a Maya Road flower. I used my Slice again for the star, snowflakes and words.

More Glitz paper and diecuts here and the background paper is Pink Paislee's Anthology line(inked and misted). The deer are cut out using the new Tim Holtz deer alterations die, then embossed with Ranger's glitter embossing powder.

I had this unfinished wooden box, so I covered it in the My Mind's Eye,"Lost and Found" paper. I then used a flower from the kit, diecut, glitter tulle and flowers made with my Slice and decorated the top. It's always nice to give a gift certificate or giftcard in a special container, then it feels more like a gift!
Well, that's my projects for this month's kit. I still have some bits left, I might just try to do a few cards to use it all up.
Have a great weekend!

Time to move on....

2010-11-03T10:36:00.000-06:00

I packed up all my Halloween decorations yesterday, it's time to start thinking about Christmas. My house looks so bare right now, but it's way to early to decorate for Christmas. I am hoping to start earlier this year on my Christmas cards (I say this every year!) and actually make all of them instead of just for the Girls at Urban!
Here's my November page challenge for Urban Scrapbook. We all had to use the word "happy", in our title or journaling and this month's kit was filled with Fancy Pants papers and embellishments.

This layout is of my youngest son and his girlfriend. They both graduated from University with a Bachelor of Design Degree this June. Right now they are both in Shanghai. Devin has been there since August designing office furniture and he has sent us one email. Sarah joined him just over a week ago, and she has already emailed me, telling me all the news! I've told him many times, don't do anything to screw this up, she's a keeper!! He is so in love, I'm sure there won't be any chance of that! Anyways, this is my layout, check out what the rest of the girls have done at Urban. Speaking of Urban Scrapbook; I worked on Monday and it was the first day open at the new store. Other than not knowing where everything is now, it was so nice to be in the new location. They are planning a grand opening on Nov. 6th, so come and visit us and see our gorgeous new store!
Have a great day!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T16:47:00.000-06:00

Aren't these the coolest carved pumpkins! They are done by a master pumpkin carver, Ray Villafane , who even has a tutorial on his blog. Check out his other pumpkins, they are amazing!
Well, Pat and I made it to Spooktacular on Friday night, but we were so tired from moving the store all day, that we just couldn't stand in line to go in the haunted houses. After standing for more than an hour to get into the first house, and still not even close to getting in, we gave up. We sat and had hot chocolate while Pat's daughter and friends went in. It wasn't as good as last year, so we were a little disappointed. The gypsy fire dancers weren't there and the line-ups were so long for the haunted houses. I guess Saturday wasn't as bad but hopefully they fix it next year.

Here's a spooky photo of Pat as we were leaving, it got really foggy out when we were leaving! I added a few actions by JoesSisah to make it spookier.

Here's a photo of the zombies dancing to "Thriller" in the graveyard.

Urban Scrapbook is all moved and ready for business Monday morning. I am still amazed how fast we got everything done. All the staff showed up with their husbands on Saturday and we got everything put back. Come and check out the new store this week! Pat and Lori are also having a big grand opening, check out the store's blog and website for details.
Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat?

2010-10-28T18:09:00.000-06:00

Roxy has been practicing her tricks so she'll get lots of treats!

Are you ready for Halloween?
We've a bad week of weather (snow!) so hopefully it warms up a bit for Sunday. I don't get a lot of children, last year was probably the most I've had, around 50. I waited until yesterday to buy my treats, they seem to disappear before the 31st!
Here's a photo of a witch's boot that I made last year. I had quite a few people ask how I made it (it was on display at Urban Scrapbook) and I kept the template somewhere, but I can't remember where I put it.
I basically made template of a boot sole, complete with pointy toe, and one of a boot side(cut 2 of these). I didn't worry about them being perfect, as long as the length of the sole and the bottom of the side was about the same.
I made little cuts about 1/4 inch deep all around the sole and the bottom of the sides and turned them in. glue the backs of the two sides together and then the tip of the boot. Next glue the sole to the sides. I then sprayed the whole boot with glimmer mist, until the boot was saturated. I next molded the boot into the shape I wanted, let dry. For the heel, I sprayed leftover paper and twisted and played around with it until it resembled a heel. Spray the tongue and let these dry. Attach the tongue at the front of the boot, under the sides. I used some 7Gypsies paper fasteners with string slipped through them before pressing the fasteners closed to bring the two sides together. Attach the heel to the bottom. This boot isn't meant to be perfect looking! It was fun to experiment as I went along, I don't think you could ever get two exactly the same!

I love vintage looking Halloween decorations, and I seem to have more witch themed things than anything! Looks like I have accumulated a few witches! Here are some of my favorites!

Pat and I are going with her daughter and friend to Fort Edmonton's Spooktacular Friday night. We went last year and had a great time!
Our favorite part was the gypsy fire dancers who performed in the street and the zombies dancing in the graveyard to "Thriller". Maybe we will see some of our Urban customers there!
Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

The rest of...

2010-10-24T17:27:00.000-06:00

my Little Black Dress Kit Club projects. I still had a couple of cards to finish and since I had some product left still, I decided to do another layout. It's amazing how much is in those kits, and there are lots of cool vintage things that I really want to use, so I just don't stop!
Here's my two cards:

I really try and make at least two cards with these kits, so I actually have some on hand. I usually am making a card the last minute and I hate that! Now if I would just make some extra envelopes too that would even be better!
This layout is of my sister Pat (sorry, sis) a couple of Halloweens ago. We dressed up as witches at the store and had a lot of fun! Pat looked great in her costume, but drinking her coffee was a little difficult!
I wanted to use these number and time cards, so I came up with this title. I don't know about you, but I need my morning coffee! That's one of the things I missed the most when I was going through my chemo, it just didn't sit right in my stomach, and it tasted terrible! (everything had a metal taste, especially coffee)

The cauldron and star were cut from my Slice machine and the witch is one of Tim Holtz's new diecuts.
That's it for today, have a great week!

Little Black Dress ...

2010-10-21T22:53:00.001-06:00

Kit Club projects finally! I still have a couple of cards to finish, but I thought I'd better post these because before I know it, the next kit will be arriving.

Loved the colors in October's "Romance at Dusk" kit and lots of fun vintage embellishments!

First up, is a Halloween Cone, which I am giving directions.

I used a paper mache cone purchased from Michael's and covered it with patterned paper from Glitz (Hallowed Damask). I place the paper on the diagonal and use a glue stick to adhere it to the cone. You will have to piece a small part at the back of the cone, at the top; but you won't notice once the ribbon is in place. Instead of using different ribbons at the top, I used paper.

The top paper is black shiny cardstock punched with a Martha Stewart border bunch. Next one, I pleated paper, about 4 strips and sewed them together. The polka dot paper was sewn with a large running stitch down the center (3pieces). I then wet the paper, dab to remove the excess water, and carefully gather. Let the gathered strips dry and attach together. The yellow paper was just pleated and glued to the middle of the polka dot paper. Before I glued down the polka dot strip, I glued down the satin ruffled ribbon. The trick or treat medallion was made using tissue paper and music note paper gathered and tied in a circle. I then dipped the edges in white glue and dipped into glitter. Set aside to dry. The center was a journalling sticker, which I cut out the lined middle and stuck a book page behind. Attach your letters (these are Thickers) and glue to the gathered papers. Glue to the front of the cone. I cut a strip of paper, fringed it, rolled it and glued it to the bottom of the cone. Cover the end of the cone with ribbon. I punched holes on either side of the top of the cone and strung ribbon through, tying a knot on the end inside the cone. And that's your Halloween cone!
Here's some layouts, using the October Kit.

My son, Devin, loved to imitate Jim Carrey all the time. So when "The Mask" came out, that's all he wanted to be for Halloween.

Loved all the pumpkins at Prairie Gardens, especially the grey ones!

Can't have Halloween layouts without one of Roxy! This was from last year and I haven't had a chance to scrapbook it. The yellow, red and black colors were perfect for this photo!
I am always amazed how well she sits for these dress-up photos, she doesn't seem to mind wearing these outfits at all! Of course she knows there are always treats for her after!
Check out what the rest of the design team did with this kit and also their special guest, Elizabeth Kartchner (Dear Lizzy) here.
Have a great Friday!

Vintage Halloween Garland

2010-10-20T23:40:00.000-06:00

I had intended to post this last night but it was getting late, so I decided to wait until today. I had bought some vintage looking garland last year made out of tissue paper and thought it would be easy to make my own. When I started to make it, I realized that my Martha Stewart Fringe scissors would make this project even easier!
Here goes:

These are the scissors and garland!

I bought two packages of tissue paper, one black and one orange. I was looking for cream, but couldn't find any, so I went with two colors. Open up the sheets and layer, alternating the colors, making sure the edges line up.

Next, cut through all the layers (with regular scissors) a strip of about 2 - 2 1/2 inches in width, the entire length of the paper. Continue doing this until all the paper is cut into strips or how many you want to make.

Next, you are going to take the strips and sew down the middle of each one. I left some thread hanging on the ends so I could tie the garlands together.

Take your scissors (fringe scissors if you have them - makes it so easy and fast) and cut narrow strips toward the centre, taking care not to cut through the stitching.

Continue cutting all the way across and repeat on the other side.

This is what your fringed strip should look like.

Take the tissue strip in your hand and squish it until all the tissue is rumpled.

This is how your finished garland should look. Just tie as many together as you want, to get the length you would like. I usually tie three or four together. And there you have your vintage looking Halloween garland!

I have to show off my new purchase from the weekend! Pat, Kayla and I went to the Antique Mall on Saturday (our favorite place) and found a few treasures. This came home with me:

No, the spiders were not included!

I put spiders everywhere for Halloween; that's about as scary as I get! Loved this old typewriter and I also found an old Kodak camera with it's original leather case.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have my "Little Black Dress Kit Club" projects done so I can share!

Have a great Thursday!

Countdown to Halloween continues...

2010-10-19T00:07:00.000-06:00

or until I run out of ideas or projects to post! I'm on a roll right now, posting three days in a row! I started this "wastepaper basket lamp" awhile ago, it took a lot longer than I thought, only because I had no idea what I was doing or wanted to do! My sister Pat had seen this idea somewhere and I had seen a decorated chandelier class that sounded similar so we set off to Wellington Gardens to search for wire baskets. We don't really need an excuse to visit our favorite store, but I like to pretend I have a reason to go there, at least once a week! Anyways, we both found our baskets and after my husband turned mine into a lamp with a light socket and cord kit from Home Depot, I was all set to decorate. For the past month I have had every halloween embellishment, metal embellishment, letters, etc. all over my room trying to decide what to put on it. I decided I had better hurry up and finish this project before it was impossible to find my desk and even the floor! So here goes....

These photos aren't the greatest, it was kind of dark in the house, and I didn't want to use a flash. I have used an orange light bulb too.

I used Graphic45 Halloween paper and The Girl's Paperie. The small cards are made from the Graphic45 paper. After cutting out the cards from the paper, I matted each one on chipboard, distressed the edges, matted it again on doubled cardstock (two pieces glued back to back) that I pinked the edges. After that I glittered all around the edge of the card. The button garland is strung with very thin wire.
I cut strips of paper and randomly wove them through the wire basket. (they are stuck on the wire with glue dots) The string of words are made from The Girl's Paperie sticker book. There are two pages of all these halloween words in the book, and I just stuck my chosen ones back to back on a length of string ending it with a metal charm at the bottom. I also stuck two diecut witches (cut from my Tim Holtz witch diecut with corrugated cardboard) back to back on the string too. It's also a great way to use all the bits and pieces of halloween embellishments, metal embellishments (clocks, gears, hooks, metal letters, numbers) that you have left over. I also took a piece of Tim Holtz film strip, cover it with his halloween tissue tape, and then glued another film strip over top(2nd photo).
If you want a closer look, it's hanging up right now at Urban Scrapbook! Pat is still working on hers, but it's going to be an everyday lamp, can't wait to see it!
That's all for today! I think the next item I'll be showing, maybe tomorrow, is my halloween garland!
Have a great Tuesday!

Spooky!

2010-10-17T23:23:00.000-06:00

That's the name of this vintage looking Halloween box I made. I always wanted to try and make one like the ones I've seen in the Somerset magazines.

I bought an inexpensive wood box with a wood insert on the lid from Michael's and painted it black first. Then I used Ranger's Spice Marmalade, Broken China, Shabby Shutters crackle paint and lightly painted areas, letting some of the black show through. I didn't have any white crackle paint, so I painted with a cream paint, and then
a crackle medium. I then repeated the different colors and black lightly, then the cream again. After I was happy with the finished look, I used photo distress ink with a foam applicator and lightly inked.
I alcohol inked a metal muffin tin and then painted using the same paints. After that was dry, I screwed it to the bottom of the box. The inside was covered with Graphic45 Halloween paper and the door and edges were covered with Tim Holtz Halloween tissue tape.
For the outside of the box I used Pink Paislee Artisan Elements - Ornaments and alcohol inked them with a few different colors. I used a Pink Paislee rub-on (spooky) and glitter sticker (skeleton). I made an accordion flower (opened it halfway) and glued it behind the sticker.
Now, for the inside! I embossed some grunge paper, and cut out a tag shape, painting and inking it.
I glued some grunge board wings, painted and inked behind the tag. I used various, gears, a typewriter key in between the wings. In the middle of the tag, I used another Pink Paislee artisan element and a coffin charm (it opens up) in the middle. Behind the tag, on the back of the box, I used Tim Holtz metal numbers (alcohol inked)gears, and chain. I used a black foam piece at the back of the tag to make it stand out from the back of the box.
So that's my halloween box, next up will be a lamp that I made out of a wastepaper basket!
Have a great evening!

Are you ready.....

2010-10-16T23:19:00.000-06:00

for Halloween? It's hard to believe that October is half over already. I finally pulled all my Halloween stuff out, and it is all over my living room, waiting for me to get my act together and finish decorating. I have some wonderful vintage looking pieces that I have collected over the years, and it's always fun to see them again every Halloween. Maybe I'll share a few of my favorites after I clean up my mess!

I have been busy working on some Halloween projects for Urban Scrapbook, so I will be posting photos over the next two weeks. I will share these Halloween sticks with you today though!

I saw these stars on someone's blog (Sorry, I can't remember whose, but whoever you are, thanks for the inspiration!)and they were really easy to make. I made them with paper mache stars, dowels, ribbon and paper. I just covered the stars with patterned paper (Pink Paislee, and Girl's Paperie)distressed, inked the edges, and the centers were Pink Paislee embellishments over accordion flowers. I made a small hole in the bottom and stuffed the center of the strip of ribbons in before I stuck the dowel in. I then wrapped Tim Holtz Halloween tissue tape around the dowels and they were done!

Well, that's all for today, stay tuned for my next project - A spooky vintage looking box.

Monthly Challenge

2010-10-01T19:16:00.000-06:00

Here's my layout for Urban Scrapbook's monthly page kit challenge. We got to work with My Mind's Eye halloween paper this month and the word for October was "Beware".

My dog was quite fascinated with this crow that I had perched on a pumpkin. I thought for sure I would find it one day with the beak chewed off but I was really surprised when I caught her licking the beak like crazy. I love the guilty look on her face when she saw me snapping these photos. I haven't taken a pic of her dressed in her annual halloween costume yet, that's another layout! I know, pretty sad isn't it, when your kids are all grown up and there's no more costume photos. Lucky for me, mine doesn't mind being dressed up and photographed, she knows it always ends with treats!

We had these chandelier drops in our kits, so I turned mine into a "spider flower". I cut out two spider webs with my slice (last year's halloween card), then strung the drops (four large, four small) together with very thin wire. The small spider is from the diecut sheet. The crow was cut out from the same card, (it didn't cut all the way through the corrugated cardboard, which I cut on the backside and finished cutting with scissors) sanded and some glitter added to the wing section. It's hard to tell by the photo, but that dark part by the crow is black rose ribbon. I thought I would be the only one doing a layout of my dog, but seems some of the other girls had the same idea! The layouts are in the store, I'm not sure if Pat has had time to put them up on the website yet, they should up by Sunday or Monday. Pat and Lori have been busy with the store's booth at Scrapfest which ends tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

I don't know.....

2010-09-26T15:47:00.000-06:00

..where this month has gone, but it's almost over! Usually I have my house decorated for fall the beginning of September, but I haven't even started. I'm blaming it on the weather, it's been so cold here, it feels like the end of October! This weekend has been nice and warm, so hopefully it stays, and we have some nice fall weather.

Next weekend, on Sunday October 3rd, is the"CIBC Run for the Cure" for the Canadian Breast Cancer foundation. My sister Pat and her daughter decided to participate in honor of me, so I decided to join them(I won't be running, I'll be walking!). So if any of you scrapbooking ladies from Edmonton are going, we might see you there! If anyone would like to donate to the Canadian Breast Cancer foundation, Pat, Kayla and I are registered on their website, www.runforthecure.com under Pat or Kayla Carson and myself, Janice Hobbins. I'm hoping I'll be alright to go, it will be near the end of my radiation treatment, five more this week and three next week. Then I'm done! I have been feeling pretty good so far, just a bit tired, that's all. I have been doing a lot more though, working a few days a week and more everyday stuff. I still have no feeling in my fingertips or toes, I'm hoping that will go away soon! My hair is starting to grow back, unfortunately there seems to be some gray(darn!) and so far, it's growing mainly around the perimeter of my head(something like the Friar Tuck look! hmmm, a new look?) At least it's growing back, and hopefully my eyebrows and eyelashes will follow(I miss those!) I hope that one day they will find a cure for this horrible disease so that all our family, friends and future generations will not have to go through this. But in the meantime; remember ladies, check those boobies and get your mammograms!

I haven't had a chance to participate in "The Color Room" challenges lately, but I did do one last week for palette #24. Here's my layout:

I used for the background paper, Bo-Bunny's Mama-razzi paper, also some of the embellishments from this line. The yellow dot paper is from Pink Paislee, the blue patterned paper is from Creative Imaginations. The letters in the title are from the Girl's Paperie and the journaling circle is Basic Grey.

I made my flowers, accordion style and the blue center on the bottom one is from My Mind's Eye (lost and found collection). I wasn't sure if I liked the color combination in this palette, but once I chose my papers, I quite liked the blue, yellow and green combo. The photos are from last summer on Urban Scrapbook's photowalk. I really enjoyed the walk, hopefully we do some of these again, maybe next summer!

Other than that, I have been working on a few projects for Pat and next month's monthly layout challenge. Here is a sneak peek!

This is a busy week for Urban, Jen Starr, a certified Ranger educator, will be teaching all day at the store on Wednesday. Her classes are the same ones that Tim Holtz teaches at Ranger U. I think there are still some openings for the morning class and maybe one or two for the afternoon class. If you are interested, check with Urban Scrapbook. We are busy getting ready for the Edmonton Creative Stitches and Scrapbook show on October 1st and 2nd. We have a booth there, so come check us out! We won for best booth last year, so the pressure is on to come up with something just as fabulous! It's a great show to attend, especially if you are like me, I love sewing and scrapbooking! Two addictions in one place! Hope to see you all there!
Have a great week!

Little Black Dress ...

2010-09-14T21:07:00.000-06:00

September kits are fabulous (as always) this month!

It's always fun to see what vintage goodies are included in these kits and the paper assortment in this month's "Sweet Elegance" kit is amazing. Here are my projects this month:

Here's a layout of my daughter, Cassandra, on her first day of school (Grade 1). It's hard to believe she's now 28, where did the time go?!

The large cream flower was made from the October Afternoon paper. There will be a photo tutorial on how to make the pink flower on the Little Black Dress blog in the next couple of days.

In this layout, I used Sassafras Lass for the background paper and glimmer misted it. I made the bigger flower from the vintage book paper and tulle with my slice. The circle with the polka dot paper was

actually a poker chip that I put a hole through with my crop-a-dile and attached the paper with an eyelet.

My dog Roxy has the longest eyelashes I've ever seen! I had to trim them almost an inch, because they kept catching on her hair, and she was having problems opening her eyes. It's hard to see, but I gathered the tulle in the middle and attached the ends to the back of my layout.

I made two cards (the cardstock wasn't included in the kit). I like making cards with leftovers from these kits, because now I actually have a growing stash of cards. Usually I would be rushing to make a last minute card, so now I won't have to.

I have enough left from the kit for another couple of layouts, but I thought I had better get these posted, it will be October before I know it!
Be sure to check out the Little Black Dress blog for more fabulous ideas from their design team.
Bye for now!

Amazing!

2010-09-09T21:13:00.000-06:00

I'm posting two days in a row! Actually, I was getting too tired yesterday to finish my post so I decided to leave the rest until today.

Well, this morning was my first zap of radiation. Never mind worrying about the radiation, I think the worst part is trying to leave the house by 7:30 a.m. to get to the cancer clinic! It's been a long time since I've had to drive in early morning rush hour, but at least it's only for a month. It's not too bad getting zapped, it's just like getting an xray. The worst part is holding the same position (your arms above your head, holding a bar) for about 10 - 15 minutes. Ten minutes doesn't sound long, but it seems longer and of course some part of your body cramps up immediately! Just like when you're at the dentist and you get a tickle in your throat as soon as he starts working on you! Never fails!

Well, that's about all that's happening with me, now to show you the mini book Pat and I have created. Pat used the "leaves" mini album AccuCut diecuts from the store to cut out corrugated, chipboard, canvas, acrylic, wood, and cork paper.

The top cover is acrylic, edged with microbeads. The small leaves are diecut metal, acrylic, and paper. The leaves were then embossed, using Tim Holtz embossing folders. I then used alcohol ink to color the

acrylic and metal leaves.

The wood leaf page was spritzed with teal "Radiant Rain" shimmering mist. The letters were cut out, using cork paper, with the Tim Holtz alphabet diecut and then inked with green. The leaf was edged with smooch pumpkin paint.

This cardstock covered leaf is embellished with small diecut leaves. The cream colored one is canvas, embossed with a Tim Holtz folder. The chipboard one was painted orange and then the one side covered with three different colours of microbeads.

This corrugated leaf was edged with orange paint. The flowers were cut out with Tim Holtz flower diecut, using canvas paper. They were then embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder and lightly inked with purple and green ink.

This leaf was accented with metal and paper embossed leaves.

This corrugated leaf has embossed paper and acrylic leaves. I also used Tim Holtz tissue tape on the left side. This tape is great, it's very sticky and blends well into the paper. I just tore strips off and placed them side by side.

I embossed this small corrugated diecut leaf and lightly painted with orange paint. The chipboard leaf is covered with microdots and edged down the middle with smooch paint.

Cork paper covers this leaf. Alcohol inked acrylic leaves and a canvas flower accent.

Small embossed leaves are lightly inked. Tim Holtz tissue tape covers the left side.

I made my own masks using Tim Holtz blank mask sheets and my Slice machine. The leaves are from the slice cartridge "Fall Back to School".

The back of the book is covered with canvas paper and the edges inked. I used the leaf masks again, with different colors of ink. The bottom right side is Tim Holtz tissue tape again.

That's it for our fall book. It's a great way to showcase all those autumn photos! Once I started embossing the different papers, I didn't want to stop! I especially loved how the canvas paper looked, I was surprised it took so well to the embossing.

I now have to finish up my "Little Black Dress" kit club projects, I'm late with those!! Hopefully, I will be sharing those in the next couple of days.

Have a great day tomorrow!

Hello there...,

2010-09-08T21:55:00.001-06:00

I've neglected my blog the past couple of weeks and haven't done much scrapbooking, I just felt I needed a break. That, and I seemed to take longer getting over my last treatment, especially the numbness and pain in my fingers. Could be too that I'm just impatient to get this all behind me! It has been nice, the last week to be able to go out more, taste my food again, and best of all, work a few hours at Urban Scrapbook! It is tiring, but it feels good to surrounded by creative people(the ladies I work with are amazing scrapbookers) and we have the best customers! Everyone has been so thoughtful and kind; they all truly feel like friends rather than customers and work colleagues.

I haven't been feeling very creative lately, maybe being at the store again will get me going! I know I will definitely be trying to catch up on my buying, especially because all the new releases are arriving! Also, Jen Starr from Ranger Ink and Tattered Angels is coming to Urban on September 29th. She will be teaching three classes that day, so check out Urban's website for information. I believe these are the same classes that Tim Holtz teaches at Ranger U! I'm looking forward to learning new techniques!

I did manage to get my Urban Scrapbook September challenge layout done, using the wonderful new Sassafras lass. The photo is my daughter at around age 2. I laugh whenever I look at this photo, she always had to accessorize her outfits, even at this age; and she had her book upside down!

Our word this month was "Adore". I used the backside of the stickers (with the backing still on) as masks, and inked them on the canvas paper. These September kits are available at Urban, also check out the other fabulous layouts from the design team!

Tomorrow I will be posting a fall mini book that Pat started and I finished off.

Have a great evening!