Getting into the Christmas mood...

Hi there!

Today I just wanted to share with you a couple layouts that I did up a couple weeks ago using the new Bo Bunny Christmas lines.

I was once again inspired by layouts that I saw in magazines. The first layout can be found in the September 2009 issue of Scrapbook Trends on page 113.

I loved how the circle came out from behind the picture and how it circled the title and brought your eye back to the picture.

In my layout I chose to do the circle with rhinestones using a template I have called Dots All Around from Crafters Workshop. I used the rhinestone because I thought that it would add that Christmas sparkle.The paper is from the Mistletoe line.

This second layout was also scrap-lifted from a magazine from the Scrapbook Trends magazine (Sorry, I couldn't remember which one and I don't have the time at the moment to search through my magazines to find it! And have I ever mentioned that I love this magazine? Check it out if you haven't yet! It costs a little more then most magazines but it is well worth with loads of ideas and has next to no ads!!!)

And the paper used for this layout was from the Rejoice line

My son and nephew was super excited about getting to be the "Elves" this year and hand out all the presents to everyone on Christmas eve, which is when we open our gifts. They even stuffed little pillows into their shirts to get the round belly!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Cayla~

A Little Pinterest Inspiration...

So while at Crop & Create last weekend I did some amazing projects. So as promised in my last post, here is my favorite project I completed!

I took an excellent class call Xryon Pinterest Inspiration taught by the talented Beth Kingston and it was an amazing class! Although I had heard of the Xyron adhesive products, I had never really used them or understand exactly how easy they could make your craftly life!!

In the class we created several little projects, most of which I did not finish in the actual class but took home and put the finishing touches on them.

My favorite project was this awesome ornament star! 

In the class Beth should us how to cut strips of paper and run them through the Xyron Creative Station to create instant sticky backed strips! It was so simple and way easier then using Modge Podge and there is no drying time!
You can find the star and other shaped ornaments at Micheals for a very reasonable price.

After covering the star completely with the strips of paper, I chose two Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists to color the star (I used an olive green and a blue).

I then just chose some coordinating flowers and hot glued them on and added other matching embellishments.

I fell in love with Maya Road this weekend and all their super cute little embellishments. It is kind of hard to see in this picture but I added one of there Mini Bottle Caps and placed a rhinestone in the middle.

The green flowers were just plain white flowers that I used glimmer mist on to match and I purchased them at Dollarama. The blue flowers are by Prima Marketing.

The cute little pins sticking out of the star where also made during the glass with the exception of the leaf pin which is another Maya Road product. To make the star and the tree we just used punched out pattern paper and layered them over the pins.
Beth had an excellent suggestion and told us to use regular threading needles which can be found cheap at just about anywhere!
 Love it!!!!

Beth was full of great knowledge and I wish I had had the foresight to have brought a pen and jotted down some of her crafty suggestions! But one thing I do remember was how to make your own foam adhesive! Micheals carries a ton of craft foam in the kids craft section. Some of which has adhesive already on the one side! Beth suggested to buy the adhesive backed foam and run the other side through the Xyron Creative Station and poof... you have your own foam adhesive for super cheap!
I unfortunately do not have a Xyron Creative station but in the class Xyron sent a Teresa Collins Sticker Maker which will run 1 1/2" strips through! So that should work just fine and I would have to cut the foam down anyway, right?
I have to say a huge thanks to Beth and to Xyron for the great class! I really enjoyed it and if you ever get the opportunity to take one, do it! you won't be disappointed!

Crop & Create

Well I survived my first Crop & Create Event with success!

Here are a few pics of what I was upto!

Look at us cute and fun ladies!

I must say that the goody bags waiting at our table were fantastic!! Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine had some great sponsors that filled our goody bags with scrappy goodness!

There were also some amazing make 'n takes! Some of the companies that sponsored this event sent out some great ladies to show us their products and how to use them! 

I have to say, my fave make 'n take was one that Beth Kingston (from Xyron) did with us. It was a beautiful and oh so simple necklace. I love when the make 'n takes are not just about scrapbooking. All we did was stamp a partial butterfly onto a small 1x1" square of pattern paper and then place it onto a square metal pendent on a chain. We then placed a clear square epoxy bubble over it, which was held on by a small drop of Glossy Accents. 

Another great part of this event was the amazing dessert buffet that was spread before us both evenings! There were all sorts of cookies, squares and cakes and a bunch of fruit for a chocolate fondue! I thought these little cakes were so cute. They reminded me of the little cakes that Alice ate to make herself small while in her journey through Wonderland!

I also signed up to take a class while I was at Crop & Create. There were several classes to choose from and they all sounded awesome. But because I am absolutely addicted to Pinterest, I decided to take the Xyron Pinterest Inspiration Station class created & taught by Beth Kingston. And I was so NOT disappointed in the class!

We created so many cute projects and Beth taught us some really great tips and techniques! I had never really used any of the Xryon products but was amazed at how well they worked and can see how they really could make your crafting easier! I highly recommend learning some more about the products if you haven't had a chance to yet! 

I am going to do another post in the next couple days once I have had a chance to gather my thoughts completely on this class and share with you some of the great suggestions Beth had to offer!

For now I am going to leave you with this little sneak at my favorite project of the weekend!

See you soon!

Below is a list of the companies that sponsored Crop & Create! Be sure to check them out!

Maya Road

Jillibean

Bazzill Basics Paper

Core'dinations

Xyron

Teresa Collins

BoBunny

American Crafts

Queen & Co.

My Minds Eye

Fancy Pants

Basic Grey

Scrapbook & Cards Today

Halloween aftermath...

Well I hope you all had a fabulous and fun Halloween! I know my kids did! I just wanted to share a few pics of my little goblins!

This was yesterday morning after I did up Danielle's hair. They don't actually get all dressed up until lunchtime but because I had to work a day shift yesterday, they only time I had to help with the hair was before school! But I think Danielle was okay with getting all the extra attention. :D

And this is the finished get-up! I was pretty impressed with how it all turned out. Danielle and a bunch of friends come to the house for lunch and managed to get her all done up WITHOUT turning the house into a disaster zone! That's an achievement all on it's own! Lol!

Sam is so obsessed with Star Wars at the moment and so this is my little Trooper guarding his loot from his Momma (who has a serious sweet tooth! LOL)

 

So I gotta run now. The kids are at school and I have some raiding to do! But lets keep that between you and me! :D

It's Been Awhile...

Hi All! Sorry it's been awhile. I have been busy, busy, busy!

I just wanted to share with you today a couple of layouts I have been working on. I have actually had some time in the last week to do some scrappin'!

My husband got a sequence of pictures showing my son jumping off a bale and this paper from the BoBunny Detour line went perfectly!

I also used some Jillibean corrugated alphas and some Prima wooden buttons from the Craftsman line to give it a more outdoorsy look.

I love this next layout of my nephew being adventurous! He was trying so hard to get up on the bales so he could run around and chase after his cousin!

 The pattern paper I used for the background was from the Echo Park Homemade line. I was really lucking out when I was working on these pages to have found such perfect paper!

To finish off the layout I just raided my stash and used bits and pieces of leftover stickers and rub-ons that I had been "collecting"!

I was kicking my self for not grabbing some of the straw from the bales to use in my scrapbooking! What kind of scrapbooker am I! LOL

Again this next layout is of another of my cutie nephews! Oh to just be able to curl up in someones arms all cozy like that and have a nap! That would be the life!

The chipboard clouds I used in this layout are by Petaloo. I contemplated painting them but then decided that they would look best left raw. So all I did to them is ink the edges using my Tim Holtz Blending tool and some Pumice Stone Distress Ink. Then I took my Pumice Stone Distress Marker and stitched around the edge!

Now this last layout I wanted to make special. The picture is of my daughter on the day of her 13th birthday! Up, officially a teenager! (EEK!)

I used a paper from the Studio Calico Elementary line and gathered a bunch of scraps of a bunch of things to finish it off! I also used a Chicken Wire stencil from Crafters Workshop and Pumice Stone distress ink on the background. It was a little tricky because the stencil was so thin but the effect was worth the effort! I think using a misting spray would have been easier but I didn't have the right color.

Even though I look at others who do beautiful layouts with tons of layers and think they are absolutely stunning, I myself don't normally scrapbook that way. But every once in a while I come across a picture that is worth some extra attention!

Now just some extra info you may be interested in...

There are still spots left for Crop & Create in Saskatoon for those of you who have yet to sign up! Just send me an email at cayla.gaudet@gmail.com and I can forward the info to you or click HERE! I am so looking forward to going this year and having some good times with friends and hopefully getting some layouts done!!!! I hope to see you there too!

Also be sure to sign up at the store for our 2nd Annual Christmas Round Robin! We are taking registration now! Last year we sold out so be sure to give us a call or stop in soon!

Have a fantastic day!!

ANOTHER STEP IN MY TECHNOLOGICAL JOURNEY...

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!!

I hope you all had a fabulous long weekend and are stuffed full of good food! I for one can say that I am a few pounds heavier I am sure and now have a fridge full of leftovers! I am feeling very blessed to have such an amazing family and be surrounded by loving friends!

So I have taken another step in my technological journey and created a Facebook page for my blog! I have to say that if anyone asked me a year ago to do anything on the computer I would have run away screaming and you would have found me in a dark corner weeping and hugging myself! Lol! But I have overcome MOST of my computer fears and managed to do the impossible (in my opinion), so I am very proud of myself! And all with very limited help from my computer programmer husband! Yippeee!! (I even fixed my pretty blog issue after he looked at it and didn't fix it! Hehehe!)

But please go check out my Facebook page and click "LIKE" and follow me on my journey!

A Day To Visit!

Hi all! I finally have a day off and I thought I could be lazy and scrap all day but that hasn't exactly happened! Things never go the way we plan do they! 

But I did get to have a good visit with some house guests that came down unexpectedly and I got to have a fabulously long chat with my dear friend Ivana. I was going through "Ivana withdrawals" because she has been gone for the last 5 weeks getting married in Croatia and touring Europe (insert a jealous sigh here). And it was so nice to have a chance to catch up (a little bit) and to hear some of her adventures! I hate flying, so I always have to live vicariously through other people who do travel. Someday maybe I'll work up the nerve to fly over that great big ocean, but for now I will just keep my feet on the ground.

I also wanted to let all my crafty friends now that I heard there is still spots available for the fabulous Crop & Create Retreat here in Saskatoon! This year will be my first year attending and I am sooooooooooo excited! The event is hosted by the lovely Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine and it is sure to be a memorable time! I am eagerly counting down the days until I can go! The crop is taking place in the beautiful Delta Bessborough Hotel in the heart of Saskatoon and is right along the South Saskatchewan River. The view over the river right now is breathtaking with all the Autumn colors in full swing and with the hotel being right downtown, there is access to some fabulous shops and restaurants.

 There are going to be some fantastic teachers from some of the leading companies in the scrapbooking industries teaching a variety classes that you don't want to miss!! So click HERE and get all the info and I hope to see you there!!

And now here is a layout that I completed a few weeks ago and I have meaning to get it on my blog! It is a page I scrap-lifted from the above mentioned Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine. As I had said in a previous post, I was going to do a better job at giving credit to the appropriate source.

I found this layout on page 28 in a later issue of the magazine (Winter 2008, Issue 12). It was such a cute layout and I thought it would be a good way for me to get out of my comfort zone. I really like things to be linear and straight, so I have a really hard time with angles and slanty things. 

But here I did it and it really looks cute! Or maybe it just my nephew that is cute!!

I used a line of paper from Bella BLVD called Sunshine & Happines. I also used some Authentique "Fresh" element stickers, Maya Road Pom Pom trim and Kaiser Craft Pearls.

The little hearts on the pattern paper were perfect to cut out and use foam dimensional adhesive to pop them up a bit!

Because the word stickers didn't have every word that I needed to do my journaling, I improvised and hand wrote some of the words in. I have always liked the way that mixed font titles and journaling look, so I was good with the way it all turned out!

But I have to run and do the thousand other things on my list! 

Have a great day!