In 2011...

I made 354 posts on my blog
--- that's almost one per day!--
the most I've ever posted.

.............................

I created about 100 layouts
and a whole whack of cards.

.............................








I was sad to end a 5.5 year
term as a DT member for My Scrap
Shoppe when Marcy sold her store
and closed the forum and gallery.

.............................


I tested for my 1st Dan
(1st degree black belt)
in taekwondo.
.............................


I discovered a new online stamping store
which has provided me with not only lots of
wonderful product, but also with many new
wonderful online friends.

.............................


I fell in love with the Harry Potter
book series (which I read through twice--
the first time in July and again in December).
I also watched all eight movies with Austin
(& the first three again a second time).

.............................

I worked quite a bit and continued to
struggle with finding a balance
between working and being at home.
Because of this, my word
for 2012 will thrive.

.............................

I played, laughed, sang,
took photos, prayed, cried,
groaned, kissed, hugged,
thought, felt, tried,
learned & grew.

.............................

And, I made a layout to document it all:


I used PTI cardstock (rustic cream) & die (fillagree border), Simple Stories patterned paper and Pink Paislee chipboard letters.

Happy New Year!
Thanks for looking!

2011 top 11

As 2011 comes to a close, I thought I'd post my favourite layouts that I made during the past year...

I don't think my style changed very much, but my tools certainly did. This time last year, I got a Cuttlebug die cutting machine and immediately wondered why I hadn't gotten one sooner. The first couple of months of 2011 saw me adding Alphabet dies to my stash and in March, I discovered Papertrey Ink & many of their lovely dies and stamps (& paper & buttons & felt & impression plates & twine...) came to live at my house!

I made this layout for using a sketch from Page Maps:



I used some lovely Crate Paper for this layout, along with a sketch from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 3 class and it was featured on the Crate blog:



A layout using more Crate Paper and felt, dies & stamps from PTI:



The first layout I made as part of the Scrapping Everyday Miracles DT:



I had won some of the Rocket Age products on the October Afternoon blog and was really happy with this layout that I made with them:



My very favourite line from 2011-- My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose -- Mabel and a photo of one of my very favourite boys-- they go perfectly together:



I loved this self-timer photo I took of Austin & I reading the Harry Potter series at the beach:



One of my favourite things about scrapbooking-- documenting little stories that make me smile that I don't want to forget:



I love how the colours, patterned paper and stamps came together for this great photo of my three favourite people:



It's not often that I know what I want to do with a piece of patterned paper when I see it in the store, but with this one, I did. And look, it's a layout about me:



And one final layout, that I made earlier this week:



Thanks so much for looking!

A few holiday layouts

I thought I'd share a few layouts I made with some December photos...


For this one, I used Bazzill (green embossed) & PTI (white) cardstock, PTI, My Mind's Eye & Simple Stories patterned paper, PTI felt, twine, stamps (2011 holiday tags) & dies (fillable frames #9, damask snoflake, mat stack #5).


I don't know where this shimmer cardstock came from but I found it in my stash and was pleased with how well it matched the PTI & Simple Stories patterned paper. I also used PTI stamps (think big favourites #10) & dies (block alphabet, Christmas poinsettia). The little green brads are MME.

And for this one, of some photos of Cameron and me, I used American Crafts cardstock (white), PTI cardstock (kraft), stamps (love & marriage, happy day) and dies (happy day, fillagree border.) The large brad is MME, the smaller one is Pink Paisllee and the patterned papers are MME & Simple Stories.

Thanks for looking!

My secret Santa gift

For the past few years, with Cameron's sister's family, we've been choosing names to exchange gifts for each other and calling it a Secret Santa. We have a few rules we follow...

The gift can be:
1. under $6
2. regifted
3. homemade
4. second hand
5. a "time spent with" gift

This year, I got Jonah. And as soon as I read his name, I knew exactly what I would make for him.

Last year, I made Sage a quilt for Christmas. After she'd opened it, Jonah was looking around under the tree. When I asked him what he was looking for, he said: "Where's mine?"

"Where's your what?"

"Where's my quilt?"

"You want me to make you a quilt?"

"Yes."

So, we went shopping at a few fabric stores to find some fabric to make his quilt. And I cut out the squares.... but that's as far as I got.

So, in November & December, I've been working away on Jonah's quilt in my basement, the whole while keeping it a secret from everyone else (this was trickier than it sounds!) And, a few days before Christmas, I got it done:


It's a twin size quilt. And here's how I made the back:


Jonah was quite happy when he got it (he'd been a little worried he'd been missed, as he didn't get it until later in the exchange!)


Now to find some time to work on one for Austin....

Thanks for looking!

PTI December Blog Hop

Once again, I've decided to play along with this month's PTI blog hop. This month's challenge is their traditional "Holiday Leftovers Challenge": to use some of the left-over wrapping paper, bows, ribbon, tags, canceled postage from holiday cards you have received, photos from holiday cards and anything else you might have laying around after the holiday preparations have ended to create a project.

I was honestly a little stumped by this challenge, until I was helping Sage wrap a present and some of the left-over wrapping paper caught my eye. I decided to run the scrap through my Cuttlebug with a Tag Sale #5 die and make a tag for my mom's Christmas gift:


I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (kraft, soft stone), stamps (tremendous treats: Christmas), twine, button and dies (Tag Sale#5, double ended banner).

Thanks for looking!

Playing with new goodies -- part II

I got some new PTI goodies in the mail on Friday and decided to make two more tags using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag.

This tag is for mother-in-law who will celebrate her birthday tomorrow.

I used my new Happy Day & Rosie Posie stamp sets as well as some new dies:




Thanks for looking!

Playing with new goodies -- part I

I got some new PTI goodies in the mail on Friday and decided to make two more tags using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag.

This tag is for my sister-in-law's mother-in-law who will be at our family gathering tomorrow. I thought she might enjoy a little something to open...

I used my new Happy Day stamp set and dies:




Thanks for looking!

12 Days of Christmas Tags -- Day 12

Merry Christmas!

I hope you're enjoying this day with friends and family!

I just wanted to pop in and share my last tag for my 12 Days of Christmas Tags. I made this one for Austin, using October Afternoon patterned paper, PTI cardstock (rustic cream, white) and dies (love live here: holidays, picket fence). I also added some SU! Daxxling Details, which might have been a mistake in hindsight, but what's Christmas without a little glitter, right?


And again, I used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag.


Thanks so much for looking!

12 Days of Christmas Tags -- Day 11

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve!

Today, I need to tidy up the house, bake some cinnamon buns for brunch tomorrow, as well as make a fruit salad, ice & decorate the cake for tomorrow night's dessert and my dressing for the turkey. I also need to make two more gift tags & some place cards. Hopefully, there'll be some time in there to relax before our Christmas Eve service tonight...

But before I run off to tackle these tasks, I wanted to share the tag that I made for Jonah's gift. Once again, I used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag:


I used PTI cardstock (rustic white, white), stamps (holiday lights, postmarks), button, twine and dies (picket fence, tag sale #3). The teal cardstock is SU!



Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday: The Christmas edition

1. This felt like a great week in terms of getting things accomplished!

I worked on Monday, but on Tuesday, I didn't, so I took advantage of my empty house to wrap gifts, make tags and work on my Secret Santa gift. I got almost all of my gifts wrapped, including all the stuff for the teachers' gifts and my gift tags.

We also went to Winkler in the evening and picked up some skates for Sage & Austin (Austin's old skates thankfully fit Jonah this year), so there all set for ice skating my sister-in-law's Christmas gathering. I also picked up some pretty plaid napkins and a new tablecloth for Christmas supper. And, we got a turkey. This is our first Christmas at home (not counting the year that Sage, Cameron & I had the flu-- there was no nice Christmas supper that year, let me tell you!), so I'm hoping to make it a nice memorable day. :)

On Wednesday evening, I stayed up late to finish my Secret Santa gift (I was tempted to share some pictures, but I think I'll wait until next week... Hee!) and got it wrapped.

On Thursday, I volunteered at Sage's & Jonah's school in the am, which thrilled them to no end.... In the afternoon, I tackled some prep for food for the weekend (sunshine salad dressing, carmalized pecans, a cheese ball, and the cake to make a version of Martha Stewart's Gingerbread House Cake...) So much to do, but it'll be fun, I know it!

2. I wanted to share the card sets that I made for my kids' classroom teachers this year, using PTI cardstock and the Happy Trails stamp set:








They each got two of each card.

3. And here's how I packaged the sets, using my left-over PTI stamp boxes, by Nichole Heady, some PTI cardstock (vintage cream, spring moss, autumn rose, scarlet jewel) & dies (Christmas label, Christmas Poinsettia):



And some close-ups...






Once again, I used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag:



4. I also decided to use a similar packaging idea to wrap up some homemade cards for my friend, Val:


The supplies are the same as above, although I added some Christmas labels & Holiday Lights stamps.

I gave her the cards (which she loved!) on Wednesday, along with these (which she also loved!)

5.

Sage had her class assembly on Wednesday and was so excited that I was able to attend. She played the part of Dancer the Reindeer in the skit they presented and did a fabulous job!

Thanks for looking!

12 Days of Christmas Tags -- Day 9-- Part II

I didn't realize that I had more than twelve days worth of Christmas tags to share, so I'm doubling up today. You can see today's Part I post here.

This is the tag I made for Sage's present, using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag.


I used PTI cardstock (stamper's select white, sweet blush), stamps (love lives here: holidays), twine and dies (damask snowflakes, double-ended banner).


Thanks for looking!

12 Days of Christmas Tags -- Day 9-- Part I

I made this tag for Cameron's gift, once again using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag.


I used PTI cardstock (rustic white), stamps (tremendous treats: Christmas, fillable frames #9) and die (mat stack #1).


Thanks for looking!

Ooops!

After school today, I was trying to organize the teacher gifts for the kids to take to school tomorrow. Austin came home from school and saw the Butter Crunch bags that I'd made for Jonah & Sage's gym teachers and asked where his were for his gym teacher and his health teacher.

Ooops, I guess I forgot a couple of teachers....

So, after supper, I whipped up another double batch of Butter Crunch. I was out of the small clear bags I'd used yesterday and wondered about making a trip to the store, when I remembered these cute containers I'd gotten at Walmart earlier this fall with exactly this purpose in mind.

And so, voilà:


Two more treat containers for Austin's teachers. Here's a close up of the tags, which I made super quickly with some pre-made blooms that I had on hand...


I used PTI cardstock (stamper's select white), stamps (BB:text style I, fillable frames #9), dies (tag sale #5, bloom builders #3), twine and buttons. The patterned paper on the blooms is Fancy Pants.

And because I love it so much, I used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag.



Thanks for looking!