literally

I just love Sage's vocabulary! When she learns a new word, she tends to use it a lot. Lately, the word is "literally." And I'm amazed that each time she uses it, it's in the proper context! So, I decided to make a layout to document this.

I also knew that I couldn't let the back of the beautiful sheet of patterned paper that I used for this layout go to waste, so I decided to make another layout on the back. This was tricky, because I'd stitched on the front of the layout. So I created a panel with white cardstock, to which I adhered my patterned paper and photo, then stitched on my machine, before adhering it to the background patterned paper.

I also used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Coloured Kissing.

I used PTI cardstock (soft stone), stamps (beautiful butterflies, bb:retro) & dies (pinking border, beautiful butterflies, block alphabet). I also used My Mind's Eye patterned paper & decorative brads.

Thanks for looking!

Another Triple Threat Challenge

... is up at MSS today. :)

This month's Triple Threat Challenge was to create a layout including:
1. ribbon (Flo)
2. flowers (me)
3. a pocket (Marcy)

Here's the layout I made, using a photo of Sage that I'd taken on her recent field trip to the Royal Canadian Mint:


I used Bazzill cardstock, The Girl's Paperie patterned paper, some green ribbon that was in my stash, Pink Paislee chipboard letters, Hero Arts stamp & bling, a Basic Grey fabric brad and a MME decorative brad.

For the pocket, I cut a slit in my patterned paper to make it, stitching along the sides and the bottom:



Thanks for looking!

A few things to share today....

#1. I have an Inspiration Post on the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog today. I posted an inspiration post and a layout to go with it.

#2. I also posted a layout on the MSS blog this afternoon for the June Featured Product Challenge.

#3. I had a bit of time this afternoon to attempt the Papertrey Ink Make It-Monday #21: Polaroid Two Step Masking. Here's the card that I made:


I used PTI Kraft cardstock, Fresh Snow ink, Daydreamer stamp set and Happy Trails stamp set (for the sentiment). The patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket.

Thanks for looking!

A little inspiration...

For an inspiration challenge at MSS , Marcy posted this:


Which, I must admit left me a little stumped. Should I scrap the design, with the windows as inspiration for photos/patterned paper in a grid? The colour scheme? Or maybe use my Crate Paper "books" patterned paper?

After quite a bit of pondering, I decided to scrap, in a sense, the theme of the photo, "reading." But since I'd done some "I love to read" type layouts in the past, I decided to open the theme up a little to pasttimes.


I had this Fancy Pants journaling card for a while, and even though I knew it didn't apply to me at all, I had held onto it. I cut it out and layered it onto a scrap of MME patterned paper that I cut using a PTI Mat Stack #4 die.



Here's a close up of the journaling:


I used Papertrey Ink cardstock, Mat Stack #4 die, black felt (that I used to cut out the letters for my title, with my Quickutz Cotton Candy alphabet dies) and Fancy Flourishes stamp. I also used The Girl's Paperie, My Mind's Eye and Fancy Pants patterned paper. The little bicycle is a Hero Arts stamp that I absolutely adore!

Thanks for looking!

SEM Challenge #2

Hey there!

I just wanted to share a layout and a couple of cards that I made recently for Scrapping Everyday Miracle's Challenge #2: Scrap the everyday blessings in our lives.

What are they? Who are they? Share what blessings are happening in your life right now. Look at your life and find the everyday blessings.

Scrap Twist: Use this quote by Young: "How blessings brighten as they take their flight!" Also use a banner of some sort.

For every project you complete for this challenge you will be entered to win a
$20 Gift Certificate to Ringo Crafts...



They have the cutest ribbon sculptures, felties and flowers! The design team members were blessed to be able to use them in our projects and I made a couple of cards with them that you'll see in a moment...

Here's the layout I made for the challenge:


I used Bazzill cardstock, My Mind's Eye & Stampin' up! patterned paper, a Creative Cafe stamp ("everyday"), Quickutz Cotton Candy alphabet dies, a Papertrey Ink Mat Stack #4 die, a PTI Woodgrain impression plate & a Little Yellow Bicycle journaling card.

A few detail shots:





And here are the cards I made with the adorable Ringo Crafts products I received:





Thanks for looking!

An "almost summer" Five for Friday

1. I have only one more day of work until Fall! So nice!

2. It was my turn to post a "Praise Post" on the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog. My first instinct was to praise God for the summertime, but upon reflection, I decided to praise Him for the good year I had this past year at work, as well. Here's the layout I made:


I used Papertrey Ink cardstock, Echo Park patterned paper, American Crafts thickers, Creative Cafe word stamps and My Mind's Eye doily stamps.

3. Today was the last day of work for some of my co-workers, so I made a couple more "happy summer" cards for them. Here's one, using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Rock & Roll technique.


I used PTI cardstock (Raspberry Fizz, Kraft), Wildflower Garden stamp set (the flowers and the "friend" sentiment), Tag Its #3 sentiment, twine and button. The strip of patterned paper is My Mind's Eye and the punch is SU!

4. I started a Summer Sketch: 2011 Edition at My Scrap Shoppe today. You can click here to see the sketch and the layout I made.

5. In a week today, my brothers & their families are coming out for my mom's birthday. I'm so excited! This will be the first time that we're all together...... well, ever, really. We've never been all together in the same place since Tatiana joined our family a couple of years ago. This will be great!

What are you looking forward to?

100% enjoyment

I wanted to share a layout that I made for this week's Triple Threat Challenge at MSS. Here are the things we needed to include on our layout:

From Flo: A number of some sort
From Marcy: Mist (my nemesis-- ha!)
From me: Stitching


I used American Crafts cardstock and Crate patterned paper, chipboard accents and stickers. For the alphas, I cut them out of Crate patterned paper with my Quickutz Classic alphabet dies. For the mist, I used my SU! spritzer and markers (which I'm not enjoying very much. I just don't think I'm a misting kind of person.)

Thanks for looking!

A couple of challenges...

... to share with you today...

The first one is for the My Scrap Shoppe June DT challenge: alter your alphas.

When I was making this layout, I'd added my photo, patterned paper and embellishments. When I went looking for alphas to add, I liked these My Mind's Eye ones, but they're were too pale to go with my layout. Thankfully, I was scrapping with friends! Mandy suggested I ink them up to change the colour. I wasn't sure how well it would work with the letters being velvet, but I tried anyway (with a "?" I think!) I pressed each letter into my SU! Melon Mambo ink pad and was thrilled with the results!

Here's my layout:


I used My Mind's Eye, Crate and Scenic Route (another perk with scrapping with friends-- this piece was from Mandy's scraps!) patterned paper, MME chipboard letters, Papertrey Ink Button Boutique stamps and die, PTI Beautiful Blooms II dies and PTI buttons.

The second challenge that I want to share is Scrapping Everyday Miracle's first challenge: Little Things Challenge.

The challenge is to a layout showing what God is doing in your life, focusing on the little things....those everyday miracles!

What is an everyday miracle? An everyday miracle is something maybe you would have overlooked... something maybe we haven't looked at that way before... or something simple that reminds of us of how great our God is... It is that hug from God that says I'm here.... It is seeing God in the simple things-- everyday He has miracles all around us we just need to take the time to look.

Don't forget the Scrap Twist: use computer journaling and paint/mist.

Everyone that completes a layout for this challenge will be entered to win a
$15 Gift Certificate to Crafty Girl Crafts, our Challenge #1 sponsor.



When I was asked to join the Scrapping Everyday Miracle DT, the first two challenges were set without sponsors. So, I created my layout for the first challenge, focusing on the arrival of spring and how it reminds me that God always keeps His promises:




Then came the news that we got sponsors. However, because I live in Canada, I didn't receive my sponsored product until late last week (this isn't a punishment for where I live, it's just that things sent here from our neighbours in the US take a while to get here). I thought the feltie bird was adorable, but didn't see how I could include it on the layout I'd already made. So, I decided to make a card with it, instead.


I used Papertrey Ink cardstock, Woodgrain Impression plate and stamp sets: Turning a New Leaf, Signature Series: Cupcake & Wonderful Words and of course, the Crafty Girl Crafts feltie.

Please link your layout to the Challenge #1 post at Scrapping Everyday Miracle by June 30th.... and you could win a prize from our lovely sponsor Crafty Girl.... remember to stop by and check out all their fun products.

Not only can you win a $15 gift certificate from Crafty Girl Crafts but from all of the layouts submitted for June's Challenges the DT will pick their top 3 layouts.... and if you are our top favourite you will win a spot as our Guest Designer for August.


Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. We've had lots of cool, rainy weather lately. But on Wednesday, we saw the sun! And, it was my day off, too, so I made the most of it and worked in my yard.


I'm currently downsizing my perennial beds and have been busy transplanting what I want to keep, putting down some landscaping fabric and adding woodchips. The kids and I went to the town yard Wednesday and filled eight garbage bags full of wood chips. I spread them out that evening and still need more! Hopefully, I can get this project finished for/on the weekend...
I took these pictures yesterday morning, before the clouds arrived.

2. I posted another Spring Sketch on the MSS blog today.

For this week, I chose the Crate May 2011 edition sketch and made this layout with it:



I used Crate and American Crafts patterned paper, American Crafts thickers and Basic Grey & PTI buttons and the Papertrey Ink Simple Circles stamp set.

3. We're having our monthly online crop this weekend at MSS and here are some layouts that I've made to go with challenges I'm posting...

This layout is for my challenge to create a layout with a two word title:

I used Bazzill cardstock, Crate patterned paper, Pink Paislee letter stickers, Basic Grey & PTI buttons, the Papertrey Ink Simple Circles stamp set and a My Mind's Eye brad.

4. This layout's challenge is to create a layout using complementary colours :


I used Bazzill cardstock, Echo Park & My Mind's Eye patterned paper, a MME sticker, a MME key, Creative Cafe stamps ("a" & "good"), My Favorite Things die & stamps ("I'm so Grateful for you"), Papertrey Ink felt, PTI twine and PTI Beautiful Blooms II dies. The word "brother" was made with my Quickutz Classic alphabet dies.

5. And this challenge is to be inspired by a layout you've made to make a card..

The other evening, I had lots of fun getting out my new Wonderful Words dies and stamps (I swear I was almost giddy as I cut out my first word!) I made this layout, using a favourite photo of one of my favourite people:


I used Papertrey Ink cardstock, a PTI Wonderful Words die and stamp, my PTI Woodgrain impression plate, & a PTI button. The patterned paper, brads and die cut (adore) is all My Mind's Eye. I tucked the journaling behind the photo and attached it to the MME die cut to pull out and read.

After making the layout and seeing the patterned paper scraps lying there, I decided to "lift" myself and make a card:


I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper and Papertrey Ink Wonderful Words die and stamp & Woodgrain impression plate.

Happy Friday, everyone!
Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. I took a couple of days off this week. On Wednesday, I drove down to the States with my friend, Susan, to pick up our Papertrey Ink order. Then I spent the last two days reorganizing my stamps using this system. I love how it turned out and am looking forward to using it.



2. I also pulled out all of my inks and organized them into colour groups to restamp them into my book.




I left some spaces to add some new inks (not that I really need any.... ;) )


The second page in this photo is a print out of this Colour Swatch from Papertrey Ink. It's a nice reference for putting colours together.

3. I babysat in the morning for friends' 17-month old. Jonah asked me before he left for school if I knew how to change a diaper. I said: "Well, let's do the math... I had three babies who all wore diapers until they were over 3. With an average of 4 to 5 diaper changes a day, I think it's safe to say that I have changed over 15000 diapers!" That made his eyes go big! Ha!

4. I should have been working in my garden this week, while it was sunny, instead of organizing my scrap goodies (see #1 & #2) and now it's raining.... oh well... what can you do? ;)

5. I posted a Spring Sketch layout on the MSS blog today using Inspired Blueprints Sketch #73:


I decided to rotate the sketch to use it for my layout. I used My Mind's Eye & The Girl's Paperie patterned paper, Papertrey Ink dies, Studio Calico, PTI, SU!, AL & Hero Arts stamps, Basic Grey alphabet stickers & SU! build a brads.



Thanks for looking!

The difference....

... a year can make!

I've just been blown away by what a difference it is to go for bike rides with Sage this year. Last year, she would complain and often cry when we'd go. This year, she loves it-- which is so awesome because I love to ride my bike!

I made this layout using the MSS product challenge for May: twine. I've struggled to get into the baker's twine thing, but I found some off white and kraft coloured twine at Papertrey Ink and love them! So I used some of the off white here on my layout, on the little Crate Paper journaling tag, over the bike.

I added a PTI fancy flourishes stamp behind the bike, along with some flowers I diecut with the PTI beautiful Blooms dies. The buttons I added are also PTI.


I also used Little Yellow Bicycle & Crate patterned paper, October Afternoon letter stickers, a Hero Arts doily stamp & white embossing powder on the stamped images.

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. I'm so thankful for the great weather we've experienced this week! Warm and sunny-- so nice!

2. With the nice weather, we`ve been riding our bikes, playing tennis & jumping on our trampoline, so not a lot of crafting going on this week. Of course, with the forecast for rain this weekend, that could change. ;)

3. I`ve also been doing some work in my yard this week. Cameron took our our patio and sandbox and is planning on seeding these areas into grass. I asked, if he was already doing this, if we could also seed two-thirds of one of my perennial gardens into grass as well-- I`ve just felt overwhelmed with what I have to take care of (when I`d rather be crafting.) So, I`ve been transplanting some perennials I want to keep but have some to give away..... which leads me to /4...

4. If you are local, and would be interested in some perennials, let me know. If you would like to come and dig them up then you can have some free of charge.

5. And because I can`t post without a picture...

I posted a Spring Sketch that I created on the MSS blog...


...based on this layout:


I used AC cardstock, MME pp, Studio Calico letter stickers, a Hero Arts stamp and Papertrey Ink dies & ink.

Enjoy your long weekend!
Thanks for looking!

An inspiration challenge

It was my turn to post an inspiration challenge at MSS this month.

I chose this top from Ruche...



... and made this layout with it:


I was inspired by both the colours of the top and the layers of the ruffles on the page. I also just noticed that my theme was also about clothing. ;)

I used American Crafts cardstock, Crate Paper patterned paper, October Afternoon letter stickers, Papertrey Ink buttons, twine and scalloped die, SU! butterfly stamps, my MS butterfly punch and some fabric I picked up at our local quilting store.

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. Winding up a full week of working today. I worked every day this week (although two of the days were half days, which was good. Gave me a bit of a chance to catch up on housework and with friends.)

2. Excited about the Spring Carnival our church is hosting tonight. Austin & I are setting up a nerf gun booth where the kids will have to knock down popcans with the darts. Should be fun!

3. Super excited about tomorrow, too. I'll be testing for my black belt in tae kwon do at our Black and Colour Belt promotion test in Carman! We had a red & black belt class last night and got to practice some board breaking. I broke two boards with the same kicks that I attempted to break with at the tournament. It's totally helped my confidence level.

4. I made a card yesterday evening for my friend, Susan. I thought I'd try the Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: selective inking technique again. (Sorry about the poor photo-- I'd try to take it again, but I already gave the card away. ;) )


I used Papertrey cardstock (aqua mist), bird stamp (from the Grunge Me set) and sentiments stamps (from the Signature Series: Dress form set and from Think Big Favorites #3-- this is where I attempted the selective inking.) The grass stamp is SU! and the ink is Tim Holtz and VersaMagic.

5. I posted a Spring Sketch layout today on the MSS blog, using Sketch #53, from Inspired Blueprints:


I used Bazzill cardstock and MME products.

Thanks for looking!

Pretty Creative

It's nice to see creativity running in our family. My mom knits and used to do ceramics. I love to scrapbook and make cards. And Sage is showing huge signs of being creative.... love that!

I made this layout (showcasing the outfit Sage made for her Zhu-Zhu pet) for the MSS Triple Threat Challenge for May: we needed to include ribbon, doodling and a brad into a layout.


I used the ribbon I got from a gift bag from Fruits & Passion to make the flower (using the technique that Anne posted on her blog here and put a MME decorative brad in the centre. The patterned paper is Crate, the letters are American Crafts thickers and the cardstock is Bazzill. For the leaves, I used my PTI Turning a New Lead stamp set and dies and drew the veins on the leaves by hand for my doodling.

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. I worked four days this week, which is a good thing! I'm so thankful for my job! Today I'm subbing phys. ed, which isn't my favourite (okay, it's my least favourite to sub), but I have two classes in the classroom. We're suppose to go outside and play soccer this afternoon, so I'm hoping for nice, warm sunny weather for that. ;)

2. I have some exciting news to share... I noticed that on my friend, Elizabeth's blog, a link for a new challenge site Scrapping Everyday Miracles, which looked pretty cool. When I went to check it out, I noticed that they were having a DT call. I`d really enjoyed being on a DT for a challenge site in the past, so I thought I`d apply. Well, the next morning, I had an email in my inbox from Nicole Brenna, asking me to join their team!


I`m so excited! I love the cool look of the site, as well as the fact that they post challenges that encourage you to document how you`re seeing God in the everyday little things of your life. And then they combine this with scrapbooking technique challenges as well. I think it`s going to be a good time! And the bonus: I get to be on a DT with my friend, Elizabeth, again!

3. I posted this layout for the MSS May DT challenge: Take 5. We were suppose to use our five latest scrappy purchases on a layout. Here's what I made, using one of the sketches from KP's Sketchbook 3 class:


It's actually on the back of this layout, that I also made for the same KP sketch:



4. I posted a Spring Sketch on the MSS blog today. The sketch is from Stuck?! Sketches (March 15th) and here's the layout I made with it:


I used AC cardstock, MME patterned paper, brads, alphas & key (I love that key!) and PTI felt, stamps and dies.

A few detail shots...

I love this little key hanging from the flower centre!


And I tucked my journaling behind the patterned paper.



5. Austin & Jonah performed at their piano recital last night. They both did very well, although Austin commented on how few boys there were there (just him, Jonah and another boy-- the rest were girls. They`ve been practising a duet for months and finally performed it (& did a pretty good job!) at the recital, with the promise that I would never make them play it again. Ever. I think they`re happy to be done with it. ;)

Thanks for looking!