Hmmmm.....

.... do you think that maybe I need to get some new albums?



This is the basket in my scrap area where I put completed layouts. It is overflowing.
(By the way, the layout on top was made using the MSS July kit, so it's a bit of a sneak peek of the kit. For more sneaks, you can check out .... my post on the MSS blog.)

Do you put your layouts in albums right away? Do you have an overflowing basket like mine? Or are you somewhere in between?

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

{A photo taken using my tripod and timer and many attempts. I think my neighbour is thinking I'm a little nuts. ;) }

5 random things

1. I made this layout last weekend and wanted to share it. I used Bazzill cardstock, a strip of MME pp (the stars), Jillibean Soup alphas and everything else is Crate Paper.

2. Jonah's baseball tournament was cancelled this weekend, which was really too bad, because it turned out to be a gorgeous day. Baseball was also cancelled tonight because of rain.

3. I subbed today for the last time until fall. I'm so happy with my choice to be on the sub list for the high school. I've really enjoyed it and am looking forward to going back in the fall. Seriously.

4. We have a summer to-do list going. It's mental right now, but I will write it down. It will probably become a layout, knowing me. ;)
On it so far:
aaaa1. trip to Minneapolis
aaaa2. swimming lessons at the beach
aaaa3. a trip to the zoo
aaaa4. attend the Lego exhibit in Wpg in July
And today we added #5: go bowling, because for the p.e. class I subbed today, we went bowling in Winkler and my kids were jealous.
See? Didn't I tell you I had a great job? ;)

5. I really need to set aside some time to scrap. I want to make some more layouts with the July MSS kit and some cards for my kids' teachers. Good thing I'll have the summer off from work.

Thanks for looking!

her

Sometimes I feel quite repetitive in my scrapbook pages, in the way I'll describe my kids and what they mean to me.

But then I figure, when they'll look back at my layouts when they're older, it will just be confirmed over and over again how much I adore them.

And that can't be a bad thing, right?

I created this layout about Sage last night for the MSS June Challenge.
This month's challenge was to:
1. use a corner rounder
2. use at least one 4x6 photo
3. incorporate at least three patterned papers
4. to doodle on your layout.

Can you guess which aspect of the challenge I struggled the most with? ;)

Here's my layout, using mostly AC Dear Lizzy supplies.



If you guessed the doodling, then ding, ding, ding, you are correct! LOL!
I ended up tracing the banner with a thin brown marker. Seriously challenging for me.

Thanks for looking!

A productive weekend....

...scrappy-wise, that is. ;)

Thanks to the MSS online crop and some sketches that I found online, I was able to get four layouts done this weekend.



For this one, I used Bazzill cardstock, everything else October Afternoon and a Pink Paislee Sunday Sketch.



Then, I was attempting to create a layout in less than 20 minutes for a challenge I posted at MSS, and failed miserably. This one took me over an hour! I used Creative Scrappers' sketch #107.



Another attempt at the 20 minutes or less challenge, and again, it took me over an hour. I used Creative Scrappers' sketch #105.



One last attempt at the 20 minutes or less-- this one took me 30 minutes! (Close enough, I figure.) I used a sketch from The Color Room #9.

So, two things I learned:
1. I am not a fast scrapper.
2. I was very inspired by scrapping pictures of Jonah this weekend.

Thanks for looking!

Friday's five

Five things I'm looking forward to this weekend:

1. Going for a couple of walks with some friends.

2. Taking some senior portraits of my friend, Anna.

3. A wiener roast at the farm tomorrow evening.

4. Our R.O.X. photo scavenger hunt Sunday morning.

5. Participating in My Scrap Shoppe's online crop this weekend.
(You can check out the challenges here if you'd like to play along and win a RAK. (Or if you're just looking for some scrappy inspiration.))

Here's a layout I made for the crop:



What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Something new

I love opportunities to try something new.... especially something creative.

I've been subbing lots at the high school lately and this week there was an announcement that whoever wanted to try their hand at pottery could come down at lunch on Thursday.

So, this morning, I stopped by the art room and asked the teacher if I, too, could come.

She said, sure, but students would go first.

Well, I ate my lunch and arrived just in time to get some instructions. There were five wheels and four students waiting for a turn. Ms. Rigaux said that I could have the fifth wheel.

What an experience. Totally fun and tactile and messy and new. I was such a beginner it wasn't even funny, but a couple of the students and one of the artists there helped me out and in the end, I made a small bowl.

But no photos. :(

I had taken my old camera along but had gotten so caught up in the process that I didn't take any photos. Which is okay.

Because I'll always have the bowl to remember it by. :)

Duet

Jonah and Austin played "Yankee Doodle" as a duet together for this year's Morden Festival of the Arts. When they were practising at home, the first time they nailed it, I felt so happy inside! Such an accomplishment to work together on something like that!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend. We have a few outside activities planned, so I hope the rain/thudershowers that are forecasted pass us by!

I also posted on the MSS blog if you'd like to check it out.

Thanks for looking!

Backyard photoshoot

I read these two articles online yesterday (Painting with the Sun- Masters of Natural Lighting -Michelle Moore and Painting with the Sun- Masters of Natural Lighting -- Beth Jansen) and thought I'd try out some of their techniques in my backyard after school. I bribed my kids with popsicles to cooperate. ;)











The last two photos I changed to black and white to camouflage Sage's purple lips. LOL!

Thanks for looking!

It's June!

Definitely one of my favourite months of the year. I love looking forward to nicer (hopefully!) weather, school being done & year-end festivities.

The June kit at MSS this year is definitely a prelude to summer. Fun summery colours and embellishments. It totally inspired me to scrap some of my photos from last summer.









Looking foward to taking more summer pictures in 2010!
Thanks for looking!

His first catch

Just a quick layout that I made this afternoon for Marcy's Wednesday challenge to use brads in a creative way. (I clustered three mini-brads for the one flower centre.) I used Bazzill cardstock, October Afternoon pp, Jillibean Soup cardstock letters, OA journaling card and sticker, brads: MME, Pink Paislee and Crate, flowers from the May kit (I forget who makes them), all from the Shoppe.

I'm off for a bike ride with my boys.
Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Thanks for looking!

A week in the life 2010 layout

I posted pictures that I took everyday for a week her on my blog back in April.

Now I thought I'd show you what I ended up doing with those pictures.

With my Congo album on the go, the thought of making another album right now overwhelmed me (that and the fact with working almost full time lately has seriously put a crimp in my scrappy time.)

So I decided to make a two page layout with my pictures and here it is....





Thanks for looking!

7 things

....that I did on the long weekend.

1. My friend, Beth, asked me to come to her church and photograph the women from her College and Career group. They were having a formal "mystery supper" and Beth thought photos of the girls in their grad/bridesmaid dresses would be fun. I also helped serve the meal and got to eat as well.



2. We went to Kids Zone, which is put on by the Winkler Bible Camp. The kids enjoy 1.5 hours there and I enjoy going for a walk/garage saling with Beth.

3. The Canadian Fossil Dsicovery Centre had the Official Launch of the 2010 Fossil Dig Season on Saturday. Only kids 8 and older were allowed to go to the site and dig, so Jonah & Sage stayed back at the museum while Austin and I rode with Cameron (who was driving the shuttle bus back and forth) to the site. We dug for over an hour but unfortunately didn't find any fossils. I did, however, come home with a pocket full of Pembina Valley diamonds...



4. Because of the rain, we watched a couple of movies: Hotel for Dogs and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

5. Cameron took the kids fishing on Sunday afternoon. I tagged along and read a book on the beach. Jonah caught his first fish-- very exciting! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera along, so we took pictures in the backyard when we got home.



6. I spent a good part of Monday cleaning out our summerhouse/sunroom. The storage area at the back of our house. We can now move our bikes in and out with greater ease.

7. And, again, because of the poor weather, I was able to squeeze in some scrapbooking. I made four layouts with the upcoming MSS June kit. And I made this layout for Marcy's Wednesday Challenge at MSS -- using a one word title, and using a sketch on the Pink Paislee blog .



Thanks for looking!

Having fun....

... with the American Crafts Dear Lizzy products.

I've posted a tutorial on how I made the tissue paper flower at the bottom of the layout on the MSS blog, if you'd like to check it out.

Thanks for looking!

Confessions of a field trip junkie

Okay, I admit it....

I love going on field trips with my kids!

Yesterday, I got to go with Jonah's grade 2 class to Winnipeg to the Royal Canadian Mint and the Imax.

Here are a few pictures at the mint....







(I can't believe that I grew up less than 3 kilometres away from the mint and have never been there before!)

Then off to the Imax to watch Coral Reef Adventure.



Just a great day to spend time with one of my best guys!

Thanks for looking!

Yellow? Really??

If you were to look at the many, many layouts that I've created over the years, you'd find that I don't use a lot of yellow.

Until recently.

I'm not sure when it happened, but lately, I'm very drawn to the colour yellow and have been using it more and more.

Here are two examples, both using yellow Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper.


This first one I made at SSD last month. It was very quick and easy.


This one I made for the May DT challenge at My Scrap Shoppe which was to use: more than one photo, a tag, to cut something from patterned paper and you guessed it, yellow. I cut the flowers out of the diecut pp that were behind the photos and layered them overtop.

Well, I'm going to head back outside and spend some time in my much-neglected yard!
Enjoy the sunshine!

Thanks for looking!

New things....

These guys..



We picked them up on Monday and so far, so good. Their names are Fairy (the pale feeder), Blood Tooth (the white and orange goldfish) and No Name as of Yet (the orange goldfish). Can you guess who belongs to who?



Austin and I passed our promotion test on Saturday and got our red stripes at Monday's taekwondo class. After red stripe is red, then black stripe and then.... black!



And Jonah and Sage started baseball this week. I love this picture of Jonah--what a ham! He's just posing for me, there wasn't really a ball coming. ;)

Thanks for looking!

Where I got to go....

... two weekends ago.

My older brother, Trevor, turned 40 at the end of April, and to help him celebrate, my mom, twin brother and I flew to Montreal to visit him. We had such a great time!

I got to play memory and Crazy Eights (the Quebec version) with my nephew, Noah. He is so adorable!



We also went to Old Montreal, enjoyed the amazing 40th birthday party that Tatiana threw for Trevor and went to the St. Denis market and Little Italy.

Trevor took us up to Mont Royal, too, where I took these photos.





Tatiana's mom took us out for Syrian food Sunday evening. A new experience!



And my one request over the weekend.... a trip to IKEA!



Thanks again, Trevor and Tat for a fabulous weekend!

It's May 1st...

... which means that I have some new layouts to share that I made using the My Scrap Shoppe May kit.

The papers in this kit worked really well with some of my pictures from last summer...





They also went really well with all of Jonah's birthday pictures, so I made three layouts for that special occasion.











And one more of one of Jonah's new activities...




And I also made a couple of birthday cards with the kit....



(I added some sevens from my stash of numbers: American Crafts thickers and Pink Paislee stickers.)



Thanks for looking!