Sunday, November 30, 2008

Scrappy stuff to share

This past month, I was the guest designer at CMK and, as such, I received some Jenni Bowlin goodies in the mail to play with.

So, here's what I created:









And apparently Sage liked the goodies I got in the mail, as she decided to help herself to some of the paper to make a mini-book. And, being the good scrapbooking mom that I am, I didn't get mad, I just grabbed my camera. LOL!

This week is my week to post on the MSS blog. Today's post is about my new stamp storage system.
Happy Sunday!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Look

what I got this week!!



New glasses! Woohoo!!

I haven't had a new pair since right after Sage was born... four years ago!

They updated my perscription, too, which is great-- I can see clearly now. LOL!

What do you think? ;)

Monday, November 24, 2008

Project 366, week 47

Here are my photos of the day for the past week:



Tuesday, Nov. 18th: Sage, playing in our basement.



*Because of a comment, I've removed this picture from my blog. I apologize for posting it without asking permission from all the parents. I have permission from Austin's class's parents to take pictures and post them, but not from the whole school. Again, I'm sorry for if I've offended anyone.

Wednesday, Nov. 19th: Austin's school voluntary choir participate in ChoralFest in Winnipeg and sang three songs. Sage and I drove in to watch them (& do a little shopping.)


Thursday, Nov. 20th: We volunteered in Jonah's class in the afternoon. I'm so proud of how well he's doing!



Friday, Nov. 21st: Game night in the Penner household.




Saturday, Nov. 22nd: A layout that I made using the Scrappy Formula at Create My Keepsake.


Sunday, Nov. 23rd: I love watching these two wrestle in the snow! Such a "brother thing" to do!


Monday, Nov. 24th: Austin played O Canada for his Monday morning assembly at school for the first time!

Any favourites?

Thanks for looking!

Tagged

Renee tagged me on her blog to play along with some randomness. Seven items of randomness to be exact. ;)

So, here we go.

1. I am waiting to put up our Christmas decoration until December, mostly because, as much as I like them, they feel a lot like clutter to me, which I'm not a fan of, so I'd rather have them up for not a very long time. Also, I plan on using the pictures of us setting up the decorations & tree in my December Daily album. ;)

2. I start diets on almost every Monday. And they usually last somewhere between Tuesday & Thursday. However, I started on last Monday and am still on it, so that's eight days in a row, which might be a new record for 2008.

3. I spend way too much time on the computer! I'm constantly running downstairs throughout the day to check my email. It's crazy!

4. I took tae kwon do as a teenager for about a year and a half.

5. Austin and I signed up for tae kwon do last month and I am loving it! I didn't really think about how much I liked it as a teen, but I'm really enjoying it now! And it's great to get out three evenings a week, with my son, to work out.

6. I'm hosting a Stampin' Up! party at my house tomorrow evening, which should be fun. I've got my eye on a scalloped edge punch.

7. I'm also thinking about getting some embossing powders and maybe a heat gun (not necessarily through SU!) and trying that out.

There, seven things.

That wasn't so hard.

So, now, I'm suppose to tag some people and let them know on their blogs that they've been tagged.

So, I'm tagging:

Marcy

Juliana

Heather

Eva

Staci

Anne

Liz

Happy Monday (what's left of it! ;) )

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Tobogganing

on Sunday afternoon.

We've had snow for a couple of weeks now. I'm not crazy about snow or winter, I'm really more of a summer kind of gal. However, the weather was nice this afternoon, so we decided to walk to the park with the kids to go sledding.





We had such a great time! I just love to hear my kids laugh and see them smile and enjoy themselves so much. :)

And, while I'm in a snowy mood, I'll share a layout I made yesterday. This photo is from December 2005 -- I can't believe that's three years ago! Look at my toddler boy and baby girl! What happened to them??



I know you might think this is old Scenic Route patterned paper that I've had for a while, but I just bought it last week at MSS -- I'd already had the photo printed and when I spotted it, I knew it would be absolutely perfect for this layout. (The circles that I punched from the coordinating paper were old though -- I found them in my scraps!) I love SR pp-- it's so classic!

The journaling says: "How can it be that this picture was taken almost three years ago? Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday that the two of you were my cute little toddler boy and sweet baby girl. Now, you’re my grade one boy and my “big” preschooler, respectively. When did that happen?? It’s crazy how fast the time is going, but one thing is sure, I wouldn’t trade a moment of it for anything! You guys fill my life with so many cuddles, hugs, kisses, smiles & laughs. So sign me up for this crazy ride, be-cause I want to enjoy every day of it to the full with you, even if it does go…so fast"

Okay, I had warmed up from sledding, but now I'm feeling cold again. Off to make some hot chocolate... ;)

Friday, November 21, 2008

I won, I won,

I won!

I won the Gr8 Creative Idol Contest at Just Cre8!!!

The prize: a $100 gift basket, three months on their Design Team (starting in January) and a gift certificate to their store!!!!

I am so excited!!!!!!! (Can you tell? ;) )

I love how this contest was set up. There were five rounds, with a challenge of some sort for each round. The challenges were posted on Saturday morning and everyone had until Wednesday evening to post their layout. The gallery was hidden from everyone's view until all the layouts were entered. Then, no one could comment until the judges were finished judging that round.

The judges were Catherine Tachdjian and Kerry McRorie from Scrapbook and Cards Today, Leica Forrest, from Canadian Scrapbooker and Vicki Boutin & Greta Hammond, 2007 CK Hall of Famers!


Each design was judged on the following criteria:

1. originality
2. design
3. photography
4. journaling
5. relevance to challenge topic


Every participant received one point, for participation. The judges then picked their top 5 picks, in order of preference and awarded the additional points per judge as following: 1st place - 5 pts, 2nd place - 4 pts, 3rd place -3 pts, etc...


The first round's challenge was to create a layout using an advertising slogan:




The second challenge was to create a layout using a rebus:





The third challenge was an ad inspiration challenge. Here's the ad:




And my layout it inspired:



The fourth challenge was to create a gift. I made my counting book for Sage:



And the final challenge was "kind of bridal": Create a layout using
something old
something new
something borrowed
something blue
BUT, it couldn't be a wedding layout (thank goodness!)

Here's my layout:



Thanks again to Sue for organizing the contest, the judges (how hard that job must have been-- the other entries were just gorgeous!!) and all the other participants. It was such a blast!!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Shaped paper

I think my favourite scrapbooking thing lately is shaped backgrounds. :)

I created these two layouts this week:





And will al the Christmas stuff in the air, or wherever, I got this Easter egg layout done. LOL! I went through some of my photos from this past spring and decided to get them scrapped. Next up, Austin's birthday party... ;)







We're off to the city today to watch Austin sing with his voluntary choir and hopefully squeeze a little shopping in there, too.
Happy Wednesday!




Monday, November 17, 2008

Project 366, week 46

Here are my photos of the day for the past week:
(Upon uploading, I realized that this week is very Sage-heavy, so I'll try to get more varried in my subject matter next week. ;) )


Tuesday, Nov. 11th: A nice & quiet Remembrance Day at home. Jonah & Sage declared it pyjama day and Sage enjoyed dressing up as Super Butterfly Girl. (There's a butterfly sticker on her jammy top.)


Wednesday, Nov. 12: The counting book that I made for Sage was suppose to be a Christmas gift. I worked on it for three days straight and Sage never even noticed. Then, when I was photographing it, she says: "What's that, Mom?" So I replied: "It's a book I made for you." She was thrilled, to say the least. I'm thankful I had my camera there to capture her expression while she looked at it!

Thursday, Nov. 13: I didn't take a picture this day. :( Can you believe it? 11 months in, more than 300 days of pictures in a row, and I missed. It's shameful, really. Oh, well, moving on....



Friday, Nov. 14th: We signed up for Rock & Read at the library on Friday afternoons. Here is Sage doing the Reindeer Pokey.


Saturday, Nov. 15th: Back to the library for an all day crop.


Sunday, Nov. 16th: I brought my camera along to church to take pictures of the different small groups on their Coaches' Sunday and captured my lovely daughter in her Sunday School class.


Monday, Nov. 17th: I took a break from my usual Monday cleaning/laundry routine to play a game of Dora Go Fish with Sage.
Which one is your favourite?

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sunday scrap stuff

We've fallen into somewhat of a routine on Sundays.

We go to church and then Sunday School.

We come home and have lunch.

Cameron has a nap. The boys play GameCube. Sage watches Dora.

And I do some scrappy stuff.

I. Love. This.

:)

I hosted a crop at the library yesterday from 8:30 to 4. So fun!! Such a nice break to get out of the house, scrapbook and get to know some fellow scrappers a little better.

Here's one layout I created:



I used this week's Scrappy Formula at CMK. I've become quite fond of sketches (& the weekly formula) as a jumping off point for a layout. :)

Oh, and the last part of our Sunday routine: Austin & I will watch The Amazing Race together after supper.

I hope everyone is enjoying a great Sunday!
Thanks for looking!

P.S. Thanks for the overwhelming comments about my counting book!! Sage loves it and I'm very happy with it, too! And, yesterday, I got an email from Scrapbooks & Cards Today, requesting it for either their Spring issue or for their blog. :)

Friday, November 14, 2008

A counting book for Sage

Sage and I signed up for a "Rock & Read" class at the public library, where we learn songs and poems for part of the time and then for 45 minutes, the children play while the moms make a book.

I got the idea to make a counting book, but also wanted to make something Christmas-y during the class (since it has a Christmas theme). But the counting book idea stayed with me, so I made it this past week at home.

(It was suppose to be a Christmas gift, but she caught me taking pictures of it the other day, so I gave it to her right away. She loves it!)

I thought I'd share it with you.

It's a 6x6" chipboard book, where I cut the pieces of chipboard myself and glued the pages to it. The pages are made up mostly of patterned paper-- I think I used almost every brand there is! (What a super way to use up some scraps!)-- and chipboard. I also added some KI gems to page one.

I had planned to bind it with a bind-it-all, but it was too thick, so I used binder rings instead.





























Thanks for looking!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Counting down to Christmas...

42 days and counting...

My kids ask almost daily how many more days until Christmas. I guess they figure with the amount of snow we got last week that it should be right around the corner. LOL!

Our neighbours have already put up their Christmas tree and Austin told me that we should put ours up, too. I think I'll still wait until December....

On Sunday, Sage asked for a piece of paper and pen and told me that she was going to make a Christmas list. She was in the dining room, while I was making supper in the kitchen. She asked me: "Mom, what do we do at Christmastime?"

"Well, we buy presents."

And I hear: "Buy presents. Check. What else?"

"We bake cookies."

"Bake cookies. Check. What else?"

"Ummm, we sing songs.""Sing songs. Check."

And this continued for a few more things, until she came to show me her completed "Christmas list"-- listing all the things we do at Christmas!



Isn't that adorable?

And in keeping with the counting down to Christmas theme, I'm afraid that I contributed to it by making this:



I used a Karen Foster CD countdown calendar and decorated it with MM pp and metal signage. I'm going to use it for advent to put little treats or notes saying what fun Christmas activities we'll be doing that day (i.e. putting up the Christmas tree.) I like to give a few gifts over the month, like a game or DVD, so I'll put a note in there that says :"Play hot and cold to find the treat." My kids love that!

Thanks for looking!