Some inspired projects...

For this weekend's MSS online crop, Jen K. posted a card that we were challenged to use as an inspiration piece:


(She's a huge rainbow fan. ;) )

The first thing I thought of was creating a layout with a background punched with my new heart punch....

But then I realized I would need tons of hearts, so I made a card instead:



And, not to give up on the layout idea, I decided to use my new Martha Stewart punch and created this:



The journaling is a quote from a Mark Harris song:

"I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams
And that faith gives you the courage
To dare to do great things
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots
And help you find your wings."

Thanks for looking!

A few online crop layouts...

.... to share...

This first one, I made a couple of weeks ago with the MSS November kit:



I was really pleased with how the misting turned out for the title! For a step-by-step tutorial about I made the title, check out today's MSS blog post.

This layout was created for a copycat challenge. I was suppose to scraplift a layout on the first page of the MSS gallery, so I chose Flo's Give Thanks layout. I lifted the design and the Pink Paislee Artisan Frame as part of the title treatment.




This next layout, I created with some Crate goodness. No challenge involved, although I might post it later as one.





And this next layout I created for Flo's challenge to use three manufacturers on your layout: Crate Paper (all of the patterned paper), October Afternoon (the dark brown letter stickers) and American Crafts (the pink brad).



And what I'm thankful for today...

November 12th: Scrapbooking

I know, shocking isn't it?
But honestly, I love this hobby and I love that I still love it so much after 7.5 years!

Thanks for looking!

Peace

That's what I'm thankful for today: peace.

Peace in our country. Peace in our community. Peace (for the time being) in our home.

And more that that, for the peace that passes understanding that resides in me as I follow & trust in God. Amazing.

The no-worries, God will take care of things peace.

And for yesterday...

November 10th: veterans

I have such a sense of pride and thankfulness for our country all the time. But it seems magnified when Remembrance Day comes around.

I attended the Remembrance Day assembly at the high school yesterday and was almost brought to tears. Not during the speech that Mr. Butler made, although it was very good and educational (I never before knew why a ship's wheel and bell were displayed in our civic centre.)

No, it was when Darren Hoochuk, a grad from last year, stood in the middle of the gymnasium in his armed forces uniform. And Mr. Butler named him, along with other past grads who serve in our military (including C.J. Thiessen from our church, who is being deployed to Afghanistan later this month) and asked everyone to applaud in recognizing them.

Wonderful.

Which of course means also remembering those who served and gave their lives for the priviledges & freedom we enjoy.

So very, very thankful.

I don't have pictures to go along with these two days, but I thought I'd share a layout I made this summer, with a photo taken at the Assiniboine Zoo:



I posted it, along with two challenges at MSS today for our long-weekend online crop. If you'd like to check out the challenges I posted (& more!) click here.

Have a great weekend!

Lately...

Lately, we've been watching The Big Bang Theory before we go to bed.

Lately, even though I go to bed at 10:30 most evenings, I don't fall asleep for a long time.

Lately, I've been reading. I just finished Her Daughter's Dream by Francine Rivers and Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. (Two of my very favourite authors.) Right now, I'm re-reading And the Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers. Yes, re-reading. I re-read books that I love.

Lately, I've been trying to stay on top of things. Somedays, I'm fairly successful. Others, not so much. But I keep trying.

Lately, I've been getting nervous flutterings in my stomach when I think about testing for my black stripe in taekwondo on Friday evening.

Lately, I'm thankful...

November 8th: My job



I really do love my job as a substitute teacher at the high school. I only had one day booked this week, but the vice-principal called me to his office on Monday while I was working and asked if I could work Tuesday and Wednesday. Yes, I could!


November 9th: Learning opportunities



I took piano lessons as a child until I was fourteen. But now, with Austin taking lessons for the past 3+ years, I feel like I'm learning again along side of him. I hope to have the attitude of being a life-long learner.

What have you been up to lately?

December Daily 2010

This fall, I noticed that Ali Edwards had posted her December Daily for 2010 on her blog. I'd made a December Daily album in 2008 and enjoyed the process. I was sitting on the fence, however, on if I would make one for this year or not.

Then, I stopped at MSS and saw all of the lovely Tinsel & Twig line by The Girls' Paperie, including some stickers that were numbered, so they would work perfectly with a December Daily album.

So, I decided to make one. Because I found product I loved.

Crazy, I know.

This year, I decided to go with a 4x6 upright format. All of my pages are 4x6 and the idea is that I will take a photo each day in December, print it as a 4x6 upright photo and put two of them back to back to correspond with each page.

Here's the book:



Title page: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & poinsetta embellishment. The "12" was already on the paper, so all I did was run it through my printer to add the "/10" for the date.



A photo will go on the chipboard side.

1: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. The "1" is Jillibean Soup.



2: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & date sticker. The "2" is a Pink Paislee sticker and the stamp is Autumn Leaves.

3: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. I used my heart punch to punch from the typed patterned paper and placed a sticker behind it with the date. The lined pp can be pulled out of the pocket to journal on it.



4: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. The "4" is Heidi Swapp chipboard.

5. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper. An autumn Leaves stamp. October Afternoon "5".



6: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper. I cut a tag from cardstock, placed a Heidi Swapp chibboard "6" on it and misted over it. Then I removed the six and used the tag on the page. The brad is Basic Grey.

7: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. The journaling tag is printed on cardstock from my computer.



8: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & circle sticker. The "8" is a velvet BoBunny sticker.

9: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, a Making Memories stamp and the "6" that I misted on Day 6.



10: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & flower. The "10" is velvet BoBunny stickers. The stamp is Autumn Leaves.

11. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & square sticker. The chipboard star is Heidi Swapp, which I covered with The Girls' Paperie patterned paper. The other patterned paper is Fancy Pants.



12. Same idea and products as Day 6. The chipboard star is Heidi Swapp, which I covered with The Girls' Paperie patterned paper.

13. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & circle sticker. BoBunny velvet numbers. The 13 opens up to reveal the journaling.





14. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & circle embellishment. Again, the journaling can be removed from the pocket. The "14" is October Afternoon stickers.

15. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, Heidi Swapp chipboard, misted green and Autumn Leaves journaling stamp.



18. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & stickers. A Making Memories stamp.

19. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. My Mind's eye numbers. Again, the 19 opens to reveal the journaling.





20. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. Printed journaling lines on cardstock.

21. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker.



22. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & Heidi Swapp chipboard numbers. An Autumn Leaves journaling stamp.

23. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & stickers.



24. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. The "24" is Jillibean Soup.

25. Another pocket to hold the journaling. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. A Heidi Swapp chipboard heart, covered with patterned paper.



26. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, misted green and a Making Memories stamp.

27. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, flower embellishment & sticker.



28: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, Pink Paislee stickers and Autumn Leaves buttons. I made a little matchbook cover that opens to reveal the journaling.

29: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & a Pink Paislee stamp.



30: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. Pink Paislee numbers. An Autum Leaves stamp.

31: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & stickers. October Afternoon numbers.



The back cover, to match the front cover: 29: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper.

For the binder rings: I was searching for large red binder rings but couldn't find any. So I purchases some silver ones from Staples and painted them red with my "Marooned on the Subway" OPI nail polish.

Thanks for looking!

An attitude of gratitude

Here are the things for which I've been thankful for the past few days...

November 5th: These two "buddies"



Whether it's recounting a story about how they joined arms and ran together across the school yard after school or having a sleepover on Sage's floor on Friday night, these two just get along so well. It's so nice!


November 6th: Kids Zone



The Winkler Bible Camp runs a Saturday morning program for grades 1 to 6 at WES on Saturday mornings and my kids love attending it! They learn Bible stories, verses and values that reinforce what we're trying to teach/live out at home.

November 7th: New albums

Marcy sent me an email this week that the albums I've been waiting for since February were finally in! Yay!


(Photo by Austin)

I bought six of them and set to work this afternoon sorting my completed albums that hadn't been put away yet, along with reorganizing my old albums so that they weren't so full and would sit better on my shelves. A big job, but such a feeling of accomplishment in completing it. (Except, I was short on albums and page protectors, so I'll have to pick up some more before I can say the job is really completed. ;) )

For what are you thankful this weekend?

Random stuff....

A few things to share today....

Starting with my "attitude of gratitude" stuff...

November 3rd: the gorgeous weather we've been having.



Here in southern Manitoba, we often get snow shortly after Halloween, if not beforehand! But this month, so far had been nice and sunny and mild.

Fabulous.

I could easily take another month like this and only get snow mid-December. That would be awesome.

November 4th: a day off

I love my job. It's true. I look forward to going in to work when they call me in substitute teach at the high school. And I get a little stressed about the days when I'm not called in. Because, as much as I like being at home, I would rather be at work, earning money.

But a day off is something for which I can be thankful. Because it allows me to trust in God, that He will take care of our needs.

And, it allows me some time alone at home to catch up (so far today I've cleaned, baked two batches of cookies, picked my kids up for lunch and did some online shopping for Xmas/birthday gifts) And I really want to squeeze in some craft time, too.




And I also wanted to share a photo of my new patterned paper storage system:



I'm quite pleased with it. You can see more details on my post on the MSS blog here.

Thanks for looking!

An attitude of gratitude

I noticed on my friend, Jessi's blog, that she is posting something everyday for the month of November, focusing on gratitude. So 30 things for which she is thankful. I love this idea and think it would translate well into a a layout (or mini-book) or addition to my "thankful album" that I started several years ago.

So, I think I'll be a copycat and do the same thing: post something for which I'm thankful every day for the month of November. However, I don't think I'll stress myself about having to post every day, so if I miss a day, I can post two or three things in one post.

Here we go...

November 1st: My caring girl.

Sage is so good at loving me & caring for me. She tells me daily that she loves me, that I'm the best mom or that I'm her best friend. And if this wasn't enough, almost daily, I receive a note or picture from her telling me one or more of the above.

And she is so helpful. I started taking vitamins this summer and she is the one who fills my compartments with such precision each week.



November 2nd: That we don't have any overdue books at the library.

(This is a little unheard of for us and I couldn't help rejoicing over this news this afternoon when Bonnie, our librarian, informed us of this.)

For what are you grateful today?

Layouts....

... that I made with the November MSS kit:







A couple of 8x10 photos and lots of Crate Paper goodness in there!
Thanks for looking!

Carving Pumpkins

On Friday, we took advantage of the fact that there was no school to carve our pumpkins for Halloween.

Sage was right in there from the beginning, willing to cut and scoop. (She ended up letting me cut for her though.)



Jonah definitely didn't want to cut or scoop, but I managed to talk him into drawing the face that he wanted and that I would cut it out for him.



A picture of Sage working hard at scooping out the seeds from her pumpkin.



Austin decided that for his pumpkin, he wanted to cut. So he cut the top off the pumpkin and then let me scoop it out (what a guy!) He had printed the silhouette of a wolf howling off of the computer, cut it out, traced it onto the pumpkin and then cut it out himself. I was very proud!



And a couple of pictures of the end results:



Jonah's pumpkin is a shark and Sage's pumpkin is an owl (like their costumes).



And after rinsing the seeds and letting them sit overnight to dry, I made Pioneer Woman's Pepitas (a.k.a. roasted pumpkin seeds).



So the pumpkins are carved, the seeds are roasted, the costumes are completed (Sage's & the boys') and the candy is purchased (& not all eaten... yet! ;) )

All that's left to do is go trick or treating tonight.

Have a happy (& safe!) Halloween!

Halloween costumes 2010, part 2

I already shared Sage's costume in the Part 1 post. Today, I thought I'd share Austin & Jonah's costumes.

Once again, I was inspired by this link from Fiskars to make their Halloween costumes.

I loved that their ideas stemmed from using already made clothing and adding to it. So much easier (& cheaper!) than starting from scratch!

For the boys, I lucked out at the Thrift Store and found a black hoodie for Austin and a grey one for Jonah. A trip to Michael's took care of the felt (both regular and the stiff kind) and after a little bit of cutting, pinning and sewing, I ended up with these:



Jonah is a grey shark and Austin is a killer whale. Very easy and comfy to wear, too.

Thanks for looking!

A SSD layout and some sneak peeks...

.... of the November MSS kit.

First the layout...



I made it last Saturday at SSD, using a Pencil Lines sketch and some Crate Paper goodies, some October Afternoon rub-ons, some Pink Paislee foam letters & a Maya Road Chipboard snowflake.

For the snowflake, I inked it all over with white ink and then pressed a Hero Arts handwriting stamp into the ink while it was still wet.



And here are my sneaks from the MSS November kit:







Thanks for looking!