Better late then never...

Hi all! So last month I did a post about the 2013 Scrapbook & Cards Calendar and my intention was to complete a layout each month based on the sketch/layout they featured for each month. 

Well with February almost gone, I figured I should get on that! :D

So this is what the example and sketch looked like in the calendar...

 And here is what I came up with...

Now I have to admit, I really was having troubles liking this layout at first. I just couldn't get my layout to look like I hadn't just thrown stuff on and said done.

But with one of my cute nephews on it, it is slowly growing on me! :D

I also said I would show you what I was upto for my sister's shower that I hosted a couple weekends ago. (I know, I'm a little slow getting posts on my blog this month and I said I would have them up sooner. Sorry for the delay!)

I love the idea of diaper cakes! I think it is a great way to present the new mother with items they will NEED and make it look so cute! I loved they way this cake turned out and it was relatively quite easy to do. Just make sure you have tons of good elastics!

 

I had alot of fun doing up these wood letters in cute, girly colors!

I also made up this card for my sister but these photos just don't do it justice! No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the pics to show all the dimension on the card. So you will just have to trust me when I say it really wasn't so flat looking!

And here is a cutey pic of my little niece wearing the cute dress I bought her for her debut at the shower! When I saw the dress in the store, I knew I had to buy it. It is hard to tell in the pics but it is covered in those fabulous fabric rosettes that are so popular in scrapbooking and it just spoke to my scrappy nature.

Awww... Time for some Aunty cuddles!

 Well I better get my butt in gear and get some house work done!
Thanks for stoppin in!
~Cayla~

Proud Aunty...

Good morning! Just a quick post this morning, as I am busily getting last minute details together for my sister's baby shower this Saturday!

I am so excited to go visit and meet my new little niece, Lily this weekend. This little bundle of cuteness was born in the early morning on January 27th and I have yet to go see her as my sister lives a few hours away from me :( But just one more day and I will be on my way! Yahooooo!

I have to say that I gave my sister a hard time during her pregnancy, telling her this has to be a girl!!! She drove me nuts when she said her and her husband were not going to find out the sex at the ultrasound! You see, we have not had a baby girl born into the family in almost 12 years (which was my middle child, Abby) and I was dieing to buy some cute girl things! My four nephews and my son have been the last kids to be born and quite frankly, I am sick of buying boy things! I wanted a niece so badly, to spoil and buy cute little outfits and shoes for! So when my sister phoned to say it had been a girl, I was ecstatic!

So this weekend I am hosting a baby shower for Carmen and baby Lily and I wanted to share a couple of sneak peaks of what I have been working on! I can't show you all, for my sister has no idea of what I have been upto (other then I am planning a shower! :D)

First, let me introduce the guest of honor (cause really, the baby is really what is important :D)...

 (Photo taken by  Crystal Jackson Kowal)

(Photo taken by  Crystal Jackson Kowal)

 

Isn't she just precious!!

Now for the sneak peeks! I promise to post the full pics next weekend after the shower! :D

I know, I'm a tease! :D But I will show it all soon!

Thanks for stopping in!

~Cayla~

Cheery, sun shiny cards for the winter blues...

I hate winter! Especially when it gets to January and we have had snow on the ground since October and it's freezing outside and there doesn't seem to be an end coming anytime soon! :(

So to get myself out of these winter blues, I decided to play with my new Spellbinders hexagon die set and make a bright cheery card!

I bought this die set a few months ago and I have been excited to give it a try! 

 

I got the idea for this card from page 49 of the Fall 2012 issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine. I love hexagons and this card was so cute! In the magazine they mentioned using a punch (which I would love to get my hands on ! :D) but I just used my new dies! The great thing about the dies is that they range in sizes and you can place them anywhere, where as the punch can only reach so far and your stuck with one size.

http://www.scrapbookandcards.com/issues/2012/fall/SCT_Fall_2012_issue/Scrapbook_and_Cards_Fall_2012_V2.html#/50/

So first I cut a card base of 5.5" x 8.5" from white cardstock and folded it in half. I then cut another white cardstock piece that is 4" x 5.25" and cut hexagons out of it. 

 

I then cut a piece of pattern paper that is slightly smaller then the white cardstock piece. I adhered the pattern piece to my card base and using pop-dots (3-D dimensional foam adhesive) I adhered the white cardstock piece on top of the pattern paper.

I then cut some flowers out of some left over pattern paper and used them on the card an embellishment. My sentiment is stamped onto vellum.

 Now with the leftover hexagon shapes that I had after cutting out the pattern for the previous card, I was able to use them to make another card!

The pattern papers I used in both of these cards are from the Everyday Moments collection by Teresa Collins (one of my most favorites!!) This was one of those lines that you use over and over for so many different projects and you can bare to through away any of the leftover bits because the papers were just to gorgeous!

The butterflies are a stamp by Kaiser Crafts and are stamped onto vellum using Jet Black Stazon Ink. This is a great permanent ink for stamping onto non-porous surfaces like vellum, transparencies, glossy paper, metal, glass and basically any other slippery surfaces. I also like it for stamping onto paper because I always seem to get a nice clear, crisp image.  I also added a bit of metal to this card by stapling in a few places using my super cute Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher and I then drew a border around the front using my fine-tipped Sharpie marker.

So there you have some nice sun shiny cards!

Thanks for stopping in!

~Cayla~

Calendar Challenge...

Good day all! 

I know... It has been to long again! I really do have good intentions of blogging as often as possible! I just get distracted to easily. :( Well hopefully this long post will make up for it! :D

So recently I purchased the new 2013 PageMaps Sketch Calendar that is put out by Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine.

 

It is a calendar that is full of great sketches and fantastic layouts! There are also a few techniques throughout the calendar as well.

So I purchased the calendar and decided that every month I would do up a layout and/or cards based on the sketch for that particular month. I then am going to post them on my blog!

For this month I have several projects. The is a 13-month calendar and it started December 2012. So I am going to show you two months for this post!

This is my take on the December's layout and sketch...

The papers I used for this layout were from a Pink Paislee line called "Secret Crush".

I am normally not a valentinesy, lovey dovey kind of person, but since I was working on my little sister's wedding it just sorta worked!

 

To get the white outline on the pictures, I just took a filing tool that I had accidently broke the tip off of and scratched the lines into the photo.

 

 

I added the stitching to the heart using a black fine-tip sharpie pen.

And here is January's layout & sketch...

And now it's my turn!

This layout was created using "Ruby" from the Lost & Found 3 collection that is made by My Minds Eye.

To create my focal point, I matted the middle picture and used 3-D foam adhesive to add dimension.

I also added some of the leftover die-cuts from the previous layout which was great! Gotta love when you can use up leftovers!

Now this calendar is great! Not only are you given a great sketch and layout every month, you also get a page full of bonus sketches at the back! This is one of the sketches...

I love, love, love hexagons and it is so exciting to see them trending in scrapbooking & paper crafting projects! So when I saw this sketch I new that I would create something fantastic from it! I also had an excuse to use my new Spellbinders Hexagon die that I had recently purchased!

So instead of doing a layout (like the sketch), I decided to create a card!

To add dimension to the card, I pop-dotted some of the hexagon shapes and traced them with my good old fine-tip sharpie!

Ok, so I have one more project to show you! (This should make up for not blogging in a while! :D)

This is another layout & sketch you get when you first open the calendar (another bonus!)

This layout of me and my husband was made using "Love Letters" from BoBunny.

I loved the banner on the original sketch but I just couldn't get it to look right by drooping it across my page. So I just went with a clean line along the top.

 

I also have to mention this new photo editing site (well new to me anyway!) that my lovely friend Ivana told me about called Pic Monkey! It is a fabulous site for those of you like me that really are computer challenged! It is VERY user friendly and has a ton of editing options! You can check it out for free or you can pay $4.99 a month (which is what I do cause I use it all the time!) and get to use all of their editing tools!

Now your probably wondering why I brought that up! Well when this pic was take, my husband had a nasty cold sore on his lip! But viola!! Using the "Blemish" editing tool it is now gone! LOVE IT!!!

Wow! Lots going on in this post! Lol! But it's time to pick the kidlets up from school and get ready for work! Enjoy the rest of your day!

~ Cayla ~

Desperate Measures...

First off, a very Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this holiday! I hope that no matter what your beliefs are, you are surrounded by friends, family and joy!

So now as my family sits on, glaring at me for blogging on Christmas day, I must share this quick card that I just created! I was a bit desperate as all my scrapbooking stuff is in Saskatoon and I am not! But I scrounged my mother-in-law's house and found some crayola markers, glitter glue and glue stick from her teacher's stash, computer paper, scissors, some recycled packaging from one of my daughters gifts, ribbon found on my other daughters present and using the beautiful Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz stamps that my son gave me for Christmas I was able to create a last minute card to give to a family who was cooking us Christmas day dinner.

The background was made using the clear part of barbie packaging. The images were made by coloring the stamps with the Crayola markers, stamping them on plain old computer paper and cutting them out. I used a glue stick to stick everything on.

The snowflakes were adhered to the outside of the card and the snowman is adhered to the inside. I distressed the edges of the snowman piece with the markers as well.

I then tied a piece of present ribbon around the front cover and added some Crayola glitter glue to the center of the snowflakes! And there you have a desperate measures Christmas card!
:D

Happy Holidays to you all!
~Cayla~

Christmas Craft & Bake Sale...

Good Morning! 

This Saturday from 10am-2pm I will be at the

 Scrapbook Studio's First Annual Christmas Crafts & Bake Sale! 

So be sure to stop in and say "Hi"! 

You won't want to miss out on this!

There are going to be some very creative people with tables set up, selling some of their handmade craft items such as beautiful greeting cards, mini albums and home decor items that make excellent gifts for Christmas, handmade embellishment to add a unique touch to your crafty projects and of course some delicious home-baked items!

We will also have the very talented cupcake lady, Sasha Libby with her VERY awesome gourmet cupcakes! That alone would make stopping by well worth your trip!

So stop in and check it out!

Here is a sneak peak of some of the items I will have available at my table...

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

~Cayla~

Christmas Advent...

Every year for the past 4 years now, I have been doing this advent calendar. I bought it as a kit from Kaiser Craft and decorated it with white paint and a really old line from BoBunny (so old that I can't even remember the name of it!) I loved that in the end it was not at all the traditional Christmas colors and it looked all blingy and shiney!

The first year I did it, I filled the drawers with little things (chocolates, little toys and so on) that I had found at the local Dollarama... my kids hated it! They were bored of it within the first couple days! 

So the next year I did something a little different. I decided to make it like a puzzle that they had to solve. I bought a family movie night package for one of the local theatres and printed a picture of it. I then cut it up into 24 pieces and hid a piece in each drawer. So everyday my kids would have breakfast and then they could open a drawer and get a new piece to the puzzle! I had to be very strategic about this cause I didn't want them figuring out the puzzle in the first week! My kids loved this! They were excited about it every morning and couldn't wait to get another piece! I did the same thing last year only it was for a Family Fun Day at Fuddruckers/Ruckers.

This year I have changed it up again and made it into a word scramble. I cut letters from a diecut machine to make a 24 letter sentence. I colored the letters of each word all the same color so that it would make it easier for my kids to know which letters belonged together to form a word. If at the end they still can't figure it out I have a couple hints to give them! Then I placed a letter in each drawer which they will then get to open one drawer every morning! (I was a little behind this year and they just started it this morning! But since they got to open five drawers all at once so it was all good! Lol!)

But here is my advent calendar...

 I did have this sitting at the store for a bit so some of you may have seen it! My lovely co-worker Jennifer also has one done up at the store and they are both so different but just as equally lovely!

The store also has a few of the Kaiser Craft kits left for any who may be interested! :D

My tip for you if you are going to do one of these Kaiser advent calendars is paint/stain/glimmer mist the wood & chipboard when it is all flat and not put together. I didn't and it took a bit to get into all the little cracks and stuff. I think it would have been easier to do it before it was put together.

It's hard to tell but I used clear photo corners on the photo mat so that every year I can change the picture! Another thing that is not noticeable in the pics is how I did the little drawers. I actually never painted or did anything to the actual drawer except on the fronts of them, where I covered them with paper and added the numbers, rhinestones and ink of the edges. So the sides of the little drawers are just the plain raw color but you would never know because they really don't get seen!

The snowflakes were made using the Cricut (Sorry, I don't remember what the cartridge is called... I had borrowed it from a friend!) I cut several different sizes and layered them together after using Glimmer Mist on the top snowflakes.

So stop in at the store and check out Jennifer's advent calendar. It's beautiful in the more traditional Christmas colors of red and green!

Thanks for stoppin by!

~CAYLA~