Busy, Busy, Busy ....

Hello there! I am trying to get motivated to go finish the many different things I have started (cleaning the toaster oven, the laundry, getting dressed, feeding my son who is home from school sick, finishing the birthday invites for my daughters birthday party this weekend, yada yada yada...) but I am lacking the "want to" today! So for the moment I will just type out a post for you all!

I had a fabulous weekend at work, with part two of the THINK PINK crop on Saturday. We did a approximate count of the money we raised and it is looking close to $4000! Way to go!! And a huge thank you to all you generous people and business who donated prizes, and another huge thank you to all who bought raffle tickets for all the great prizes!

For any who have been on my blog lately you may have noticed that my fancy, pretty background was gone. I am not to sure what happened (due to my lack of computer know how!) and it took some fooling around (well mainly guess work), but I was able to fix it up and have it looking pretty again! Yyyyaaayyyyy! 

And now for something else that is pretty!

This is a card I made for my dear friend Ivana who is off gallivanting in Europe after having her beautiful wedding in Croatia! (We miss you Ivana and can't wait to see you and some pictures!!)

I used some of the 6x6 papers from AUTHENTIQUE, which are just perfect for making cards or mini albums! The line of paper is called FREE BIRD and comes in numerous little coordinating groupings.

I have a cute punch from FISKARS that makes the beautiful scalloped hearts, which I then traced with my fine-tipped sharpie, inked the edges and crumpled for texture. I then adhered them so they were sticking out of the cute little paper bag from CANVAS CORP. I also inked up a doily and stamped a piece and cut it out for the background to give the card a more girly, shabby look.

And to finish it off, I stamped a sentiment to cut out and adhere to the front. I also tied a bow using some jute and stuck a hat pin through the knot and secured it to the card.

And now for those of you who did the TWINE FLOWER make 'n take at the crop, here is a link to the online tutorial. One of the steps on the tutorial is drawing lines on your chipboard circles. We skipped this step when we did the make 'n take but feel free to give it a try for a more precise placement of your pins. It will still work without doing this step though! I am going to post some pics soon of the projects I did using these super cute flowers soon!

Now I have to go feed my kid! I am pretty sure he will start complaining if I put this off much longer! Enjoy your day!

BACK TO ROUTINE!

Well summer officially come to an end in my household as I sent my kidlets off to school this morning! I can't say that I am happy to see the summer end but I am quite looking forward to getting back into a routine and having some time to myself! Running errands and checking off items on my "To Do" list just weren't a priority. It really is just to much hassle to try to do battle with my kids to cooperate while I tried to get the to do stuff done! So it all gets put aside for the time being. But now I have no excuse, so I better get some of it done! :D

First up on my list is to publish a post on my blog! Yup, you are all a priority for my first day to myself! :D This post won't be super long, cause like I said, I need to get some chores checked off!

One thing I wanted to mention first off is about the "THINK PINK" crop that the store will be having this coming Saturday and the following Saturday! I am super excited to be able to actually get a chance to play for the first crop and then I will work the second crop. If there are any of my scrappy peeps in Saskatoon that are still thinking of coming, there are three spots available for this Saturday's crop and I hope you will come join in. It is going to be a great time!! The event for the one day costs $50 and includes supper, lootbag, muffins in the morning, snacks throughout the day, make 'n takes, raffle table, button guess and loads of fun! All proceeds will go to the C95 Radio Marathon for Breast Cancer Research, a very worthwhile charity!

If you can't make it to the crop there is still a chance to help support this great cause! The raffle table and button guess will be available to anyone who comes into the store. I am not sure how much the tickets will be for the raffle prizes but I do know there are some GREAT prizes (that are not all just scrapbook related!) from companies such as Pampered Chef, Tupperware, Stampin Up, Close to My Heart, Lia Sophia and TONS more!!!!! So come check it out!
(Don't bother with entering your name into the Pampered Chef prizes, cause I am already going to win those ones!! LOL)

Now for just a couple pics of what I have been upto creatively this summer!

This layout was created using a mish mash of a companies such as My Minds Eye, Basic Grey and Simple Stories. I then I just added miscellaneous buttons, jute string, a journaling tag and sticker to finish it off.

 

I tore and sanded some of the edges to give it a roughed up, worn out look like the background wood paper.

I loved how this page turned out! This color green is not a color I would normally use but of course you've got to when scrappin about your fave football team!

There was another 12x12 pattern paper that actually said Roughriders, but since I didn't have enough pictures to do a two-page layout, I improvised! I created the rest of the title by taking some white letter stickers and tracing around them. I also traced the "Saskatchewan" letters with the same black marker to make everything look more uniform and stand out.

Here is another fall page using a new line from Simple Stories called Harvest Lane. I love this line! In fact, I love all of simple stories papers!

Thanks for takin a look today! See you again!

COMPUTER CHALLENGED!!!!

There is nothing more frustrating then creating a document that's three pages long, that also includes pictures, just to hit the wrong button and erase it all!!! That would be me though! Completely computer challenged!

So I have given up on getting what I was supposed to having completed along time ago and decided to get a post done instead!

I have had a few people lately ask me what the best marker/pen is for doing journaling or what I use when I make the fine borders around pages or other elements. Although there are some really great markers out there designed specifically for the papercrafter, I absolutely love Sharpies!! They come in a ton of awesome colors and they last a really long time! I have a black ultra fine-tip sharpie that I have been using for almost a year and it still hasn't shown any signs of quitting on me! And I can write on almost any type surface and the ones I have purchased are acid free (check packaging to be sure)!!! So the next time you need a journaling pen, check out the Sharpie!

Now I want to share a layout with you that I completed with a mini line by Echo Park called Sunshine. I have to say that lately, all the lines that Echo Park has put out have been awesome! And well worth checking out!

One of the 12x12 pattern papers from this line was just a sheet full of different types of borders and journaling cards which I cut up and used for embellishments. (Palm tree, surf boards, banner border at the top, fish, etc.)

I wish I could say that the down pointing arrows on the page were created in a quick and easy way... but unfortunately I can't. So I have given you step by step instruction on how I created them. If there is an easier way, I would love to hear about it!!!

1. First I lined my ruler up along the left edge of a 12" long strip of pattern paper (but you can easily customize your arrows to any paper size) and drew a line along the right side of the ruler. 

2. Next I lined my ruler up along the right side of the line I had just drawn and traced another line along the right side of the ruler. (For simplicity I just used the width of my ruler as a measuring guide, but you could mark out different measurement to get different widths and sizes for your arrows.)

3. I then turned my ruler and drew some horizontal lines, again using my ruler width for a measuring guide.

4. Next you want to draw some diagonal lines going from corner to center in both columns. (It is hard to see my diagonal lines on the right because they are going in the same direction as the stripes on the pattern paper.)

 5. You then want to trim along the furthest vertical line to get rid of the extra paper you won't be needing.

6. Then cut along each diagonal line to create your arrow pieces.

And here is a card I created using my arrow points! And if you look closely, you will notice that my fave Sharpie pen has made an appearance!!!

This is a fun way to add direction or movement to a project and I hope you will give it a try!!!

FUNDRAISING SUCCESS!

Good Morning!

Well it's Monday morning and my kids have returned after two weeks of silence and clean! I have to say it's a bit of a shock to my system! I mean I missed them and all, but having a clean house for longer then 24 hours was nice!!

Well this past weekend was a huge success for our fundraiser for the Saskatchewan Burn Fund! With over 30 ladies joining us at the store, it was a crazy & fun time!! I want to thank you all for coming and helping us support this great cause! Here are just a couple pics of the event!

A huge thank you to some very generous people and businesses for donating some great prizes!

A croproom full of fun!

A very sweet, funny and entertaining lady!! Thank you Lana for coming!

Jennifer cracking the whip!! Making sure everyone stays in line!!! LOL

Of course the husbands would stick around to make sure us wives behaved ourselves infront of the Firefighters!!! LOL!

Lana with the Firefighter that is featured on the cover of the calendar!!! 

My nephew got to sit up in the fire truck! He was so happy there and did not want to get out!! 

The Firefighters doing a "Fire Demo" with MY BBQ!

The Staff!! (Jennifer, Me and Laura)

Thanks once again to everyone for coming!! With your support we were able to raise almost $2000!!!!! Way to go!!

SUPPORTING A CAUSE...

Hi all! I just wanted to put a quick little post on to let you know about the event that will be happening at the STORE to raise funds for the Saskatchewan Burn Fund this Friday and Saturday! All details can be found by clicking HERE or by calling the SCRAPBOOK STUDIO.

It is sure to be a fabulous time and we hope you can come to help support such a great cause.

That's all for now!

 :D

MY TAKE

For this week I am completely kid free!! Wahooo!! 

With my daughters in Calgary with their dad and my son spending a week with Grandma, I have so much freedom that I am not sure quite what to do with it! 

Hahaha,  that's so not true! My list is endless with stuff I could be getting done without the constant craziness of a house full of kids! But who the heck wants to do housework and chores when I could be doing things like wasting my morning dying my hair, shaving my legs and scrapbooking!! Which is exactly what I did, without a single interruption!!!! Oh I could so get used to this!

So this is a layout I finished this morning using the new Simple Stories "AWESO[ME]" line!

I will absolutely admit to being a scrap-lifter!! I could not scrapbook without the help of magazines, Google, Pinterest and all of my super talented scrappy friends! Don't get me wrong, I have my moments of creative genius without the help of my inspirations! But for the most part it is nice to have resources to look upon and help get the creative mojo going! The majority of the time my projects don't even turn out to look anything like the original and sometimes they do!

 So with this post I decided to just fess up and show you how I get it done!

I started with my photo and finding the best paper to go with the photo. I then grabbed some magazines and started flipping through until I found something that I liked!

For instants, this is the layout that I chose for a picture of my super cutie nephew! This layout can be found on page 76 of Scrapbook Etc's very last issue (BOOOOO!!!! I will miss you Scrapbook Etc!!!). 

What caught my eye the most about this layout is the super plain background with all the color kind of centered in the middle and of course the cute banners! (I love banners!)

And now here is my version of the layout!! 

This is one of those times where my layout pretty much looks like the original and I am ok with that! I would never try to pass off anything that I had copied as my own either (I will do a better job at trying to give credit where credit is due in my next posts)! People work hard to be creative and original and they deserve the credit! If it wasn't for them, I would take forever to scrapbook a single layout! Lol!

Now in the original, buttons, twine and other embellishments were added, but this is why I love Simple Stories papers! Everything you need to scrapbook a page can be found on all their papers! I think this is why they never go overboard on creating all the extras that most companies put out with their paper lines. Don't get me wrong, sometimes you just need that different texture of buttons and stickers and other embellishments. But Everything on this particular layout was created by cutting out bits and pieces from the pattern papers.

The only thing that I added that was not paper was the brown border I traced around some of the edges and the inking I did on most of the edges. I used pop-dots to add dimension as well!

Now I'm off to do more of nothing and enjoy the silence of my house!!

Thanks for stopping by!

SUMMER

Well summer as hit my home full on and that means that some things get put on the back burner, such as housework, scrapbooking, my blog... There is just so much to do to enjoy this weather while it is here, so sitting indoors just doesn't happen alot! But I started catching up yesterday on the things that have been forgotten, such as my filthy bathroom and some vacuuming! Having only one bathroom at the moment (as my husband renovates the other) is a little tricky. I am just thankful my daughters aren't home for this month or there could be all out war!

The last few weeks I have been busy with the yard work, keeping my son entertained, enjoying the sun, planning summer getaways and coordinating a crop at the store. Yyyaaayyyy!! At the end of this month we will be having a two-day retreat as a fundraiser for the Saskatchewan Burn Fund. It is going to be an awesome event!! Just what we need... an excuse to scrapbook and help a great cause at the same time! For anyone who is interested in attending, please let me know or stop by the store to register. 

You can get the full details for this event by clicking HERE!

I never realized just how much work goes into fundraising and I now have a new respect for the amazing people that do it all the time! But it has been exciting to get it all prepped and I am looking forward to seeing it all come together.

If you are unable to come to the event there are still opportunities that you can contribute and get in on some of the fun! There will be a basket of handmade cards at the store that will be for sale throughout this month with all the money going towards the Burn Fund. Also, on the day of the crop we will have a raffle table set up with loads of awesome prizes, so stop in and purchase some tickets and get your name in for a chance to win!!

We are also working on getting a BBQ organized so be sure to keep an eye out for more details on that!

And now for some projects that I was able to get done before school ended and summer took over my life! 

The Teresa Collins Everyday Moments collections is one of my absolute favorite lines ever!!! I love the yellow, blue, grey and white color combo! I would probably have to say that Teresa Collins is one of my most favorite scrapbook product designers!

This picture was taken last summer while on vacation in Manitoba visiting my bother & sister-n-law. And the paper worked perfectly with the colors in the photo.

I love being able to cut out different elements from the pattern papers and using them as embellishments. I am just not a sticker person, so paper elements work great for me! And then this way you can make embellishments that match perfectly with the rest of your layout.

The banners in the above picture are actually tucked under the quote that was on the background paper. I just cut slits in the paper using a craft knife above and below the words and slid the banner through. That way I still can see the quote.

The next piece was something I did up for the store using Inky Antics Honeycombe paper. I have to admit that when I first saw this unique paper, all I could think of was those tacky wedding bell decorations you see at weddings. It wasn't until I watched a Tim Holtz video on YouTube that I was able to see the possibilities!

The background of the canvas was made by laying down a chicken wire stencil from Crafters Workshop and spraying with a glimmer mist. I then painted on some glimmer glam from Tattered Angels.

I cut the dress form from chipboard and then from the honeycombe paper. I colored the chipboard piece with a brown ink and then attached the honeycombe dress form piece.

I inked the dress form with brown ink and then adhered tulle and lace using a hot-glue gun to make the skirt (the tulle is under the lace to make it a little more poofy) and tied on some hemp string for a finishing touch.

So give this product a try and I would love to know what you think of it!

Thanks for stopping by!