Michelle's Scrap bits

A Scrap Happy Weekend and some Challenges

2012-02-05T20:45:00.000-03:30

I absolutely love it when I get a stretch of 3-4 days off from work! I try to blow through the housework as fast as I can so I can settle into my little scrappy nest relatively guilt free! My first project this weekend was this super cute LO of my nephew, Nathan. As soon as I saw his adorable smile on his kindergarten picture, I knew why I'd been hoarding the G45 ABC Primer pps that dear KELLY had gifted me with when I visited back in October.

Lots of fussy cutting going on here. I just can't seem to scrap in one flat dimension anymore ...always gotta be manipulating pp and poking 3D dots under everything! I had a ton of these pps left over so I think I may do a mini album for Scott ...or a birdhouse that looks like a school house ...or...well , you'll just have to drop back and see. BTW, G45 has a Design Team call on right now. You can link to it HERE . Lots of other ongoing DT calls listed there too so check it out!

Well I absolutely ashamed to admit that I missed not one but TWO Sketchy challenges over at CANADIAN SCRAPBOOKER . I don't know why...time just seemed to have slipped away from me! Well I'm on top of it this month! Check out the latest sketchy challenge ...another great sketch by Jill Sarginson.

I thought it was so sweet and romantic...really lends itself to Valentine's day LOs doesn't it? Here's my take on this pretty sketch.

As you can see, I stuck pretty close to the sketch. Do you see anything missing from this LO? How about patterned paper???? This Lo was done with just cardstock ! I really enjoyed making all the little rolled flowers... I think I may have seen a tutorial for them { or a link to them ] over at GABRIELLE"S place. Very easy to make with just some scraps I had kicking around. The larger flowers were made with the Tim Holtz Tattered Flower dies. I like the subtle dot texture on the hearts. I used my Cuttlebug emboss folders and did a little inking on the edges. Here's a close up of the flowers....

The leaves were stamped with a Heartfelt Creations stamp. Still my favorite stamp by them to date.

Meanwhile, over at the THE PAPERIE blog, Meaghan had added the following PAGEMAPS card sketch to their Mojo Monday challenge.

I had some flowers leftover form my "Lucky" Lo so I used them to decorate my take on this challenge.

As you can see I chose to rotate the sketch and put the sentiment along a different side ...but , heh,. that's what sketches are for ...as a STARTING point right? I Think I'll send this to Mom and Dad for Valentine's Day ...shhhh...it's a secret.

Well , on that note , I think I'll sneak back down over the basement steps to my little womancave and finish working on another LO. I'm using the beautiful Glitz Vintage Blue kit that I got from ScrapThat a couple of months ago. I'm using a sketch from CREATIVE SCRAPPERS { #193 by Amarilys Doria}. Hopefully I'll get a chance to share that with you later this week. Thanks for dropping by and happy scrapping!

PS. I have the venue booked for my next crop day. Mark it on your calendars...April 1st. More details in the next few days. Toodles!

Check out this giveaway

2012-02-03T15:47:00.000-03:30

Northridge Publishing and Peachy Cheap have teamed up to have a great Friday giveaway. Check it out HERE

I buy from Peachy Cheap fairly regularly. You can get some awesome deals there! Have a scrappy day and good luck!

Lattice Cards

2012-01-22T16:58:00.000-03:30

Oh my goodness! It's been soooooo long since I've posted on my blog...I'm not sure if I remember how! LOL

Today I'd like to share with you these beautiful lattice{some call them trellis} cards that I made over the last few days. I was inspired by my friend Peggy {AKA Planktorin on Scrapbook.com }. She had posted a beautiful lattice card a couple of days ago and I was immediately smitten!

Aren't they pretty? I have used both Stampin' Up inks {the yellow and blue cards} and Distress inks {the pink card} and will give you the appropriate colours in the supplies list below. I buy my Stampin'Up products from my friend Kathy at her on line shop. Check out her lovely BLOG for lots of beautiful card inspirations too!

                                                SUPPLIES

Two 5x7 cards {you'll see why you need two in a minute]
Stampin Up Stamp sets "Fabulous Florets " and "Four Frames"
SU punch Decorative label extra lg
SU Embosslit "Beautiful Wings" {or butterfly punch of choice}
Cuttlebug or BigShot if using the SU Embosslit
Martha Stewart punch "Rose Leaf" {or leaf punch of choice}
Clear emboss powder
Versamark or Stazon black ink
Stickles {Wild Honey for yellow flowers} or SU Dazzling Diamonds
Mistable inks in corresponding colours to flowers
SU Dimensional dots/3D Dots
Hot glue gun or wet glue of choice
Temporary adhesive
Exacto knife/metal ruler or die cut machine of choice
Bamboo skewer or sm paint brush handle
Scrap of green cardstock for punching leaves
Paper trimmer
INKS: Yellow flowers: SU Barely Banana, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive
            Blue flowers    : SU Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Old Olive, and Black Versamark/Stazon
            Pink Flowers   : Distress Inks in Victorian Velvet, Aged Mahogany and Forest Moss

Okay ... Don't let the long list intimidate you... Most of these supplies can be substituted for stuff you already have in your stash!
Ready , set, okay! Let's go........................

1. Cut one of the 5x7 cards in half. Using one of these extra 5x7 pieces and your trimmer, cut as many 1/4" x 7" strips as you can. Set aside.
2. Using the temporary adhesive , glue the second extra 5x7 piece to the inside of the front of the card {unless you are waaaay more talented than me with an exacto knife and multiple layers of cs LOL}. On your cutting mat, cut an opening 3"wide x 4 1/2 " long into this double layered card front approximately 1" down from the top. This is quite easily done with the exacto knife and ruler. However if you want a fancier shape for your opening {like I did on the pink card}, then you must use your Cuttlebug and dies {I used a Spellbinders label die} or perhaps a Cricut machine. Set aside the extra 5x7 windowed piece. Ink the inside edge of the card front opening now with a corresponding ink. It makes a nice contrast to the lattice pieces on the finished card.

3. On the inside of the window , begin by gluing lattice strips diagonally in all one direction, snipping off the overlapping tails as necessary. I found it helpful to start across the center and go from there.

4. Begin the second layer by weaving the lattice strip in an alternating over/under pattern, again starting with the center strip. Make sure you do the opposite under/over with subsequent strips. This will give it a true weave. Trim off all overlapping tails. By now you card should look like this:

5. Remember the extra windowed 5x7 piece we set aside earlier? Glue this to the inside of your card front making a "sandwhich' with the strips in the middle. This makes it all neat and pretty on the inside . If you find my instructions difficult to follow , then check out this awesome video tutorial at Christina's place. Just click on video tutorials {in pink} on the left hand side of her opening page and then pick "Trellis Card" in the list of tuts.

6. Now to the fun floral part. With the SU Fabulous Florets stamp set, stamp three large open face flowers and four smaller open face flowers per card on white cs. Use Chocolate Chip ink for the yellow card or Stazon Black for the blue flower cards. Stamp one of the leaf spray from the set for each card...use Dusty Durango for the yellow card leaf spray and Night of Navy for the blue card. I actually stamped these leaf sprays on a scrap of cs that was slightly lighter than the Dusty Durango and Night of Navy inks , but it would be just as nice stamped on white cs using these inks. I then fussy cut out all these pieces. I did trim as close to the line as possible but found it sharpened up the images if I went back over the edges with the same colour ink on a little sponge afterwards. Then using either a Stampin'Up blender pen or just a plain old Q tip, I added colour to the centers of the flowers in a circular motion and little dabs of colour on the flower edges. Start with the lightest colour inks and work towards the darker colours. You'll know when to stop adding ink to your flowers.
7. Cup each flower one by one in your palm and using a rounded edge tool {Basic Grey has a great rub on tool that works well} or even the round finger hole at the end of a small pair of scissors, apply pressure in a circular motion to the center of the flower to help cup it up. Use a bamboo skewer or a small paint brush handle and run it under a few petals to round up the petals a little. I love my flowers to have a bit of 3D effect to them . But you could leave them perfectly flat if you are not comfortable with paper manipulation. Add a spot of Stickles or glue and Dazzling Diamonds to the centers of your flowers and set aside to dry.

8. Punch 15-20 leaf shapes from scrap of light green cs. Ink the edges with the green ink and using the bamboo skewer or brush handle round some of the leaves to give them a 3D effect too . Leave a few flat {or again, all of them if you're not comfy with paper manipulating}. Set aside.

9.Using a corresponding cs scrap {or a white cs scrap with ink sponged on it}, cut out butterflies with either the SU Embosslit set or a butterfly punch. Set aside.

10. Using the SU "Four Frames" stamp set stamp the label, sprinkle with clear emboss powder and heat set. Punch out with the corresponding SU punch. Ink edges with corresponding colour to flowers. You can stamp on a sentiment now if you know what you are using the card for. I left mine blank for a later date.

I found it best to do all this "busy work" at the same time . Now comes the fun part...ASSEMBLING!

11.Start by adhering the leaf shadow piece to the left hand side of the card . Add the flowers next. I used two large and three small in the bottom corner and one large and one small in the upper corner. I used a dimensional dot for one of the small flowers in each corner just to add to the 3D effect. Next tuck in your leaves as you see fit.
{A little hint: I had a scrap piece of paper under the lattice so no glue would get on the inside of the card. you do have to be careful of glue placement when adding your embellies.}

12. Finish by inking the outside edge of card in colour of choice and spritz a little ink on that extra 5x7 piece of cs and glue it to the inside of the card when dry. Alternately, you could add a piece of subtle patterned paper to the inside. This "colour" on the inside of the card really helps to show off the lattice pattern. Add the punched butterfly to the center of the lattice and add your sentiment label with a dimension dot. Here's a pic of the finished blue card. All done... PHEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW....

No I'm not really done! One last little note. The pink card flowers are obviously not Stampin'Up. They are handmade flowers with a sprinkling of small pink flowers punched with a retro flower punch. I shared how to make these flowers on a previous posting titled "A Study In White". You can check them out there. Thanks for dropping by today and happy scrapping!

Nov Sketchy Challenge

2011-11-06T19:22:00.000-03:30

The November Sketchy challenge is up over at Canadian Scrapbooker . All entries containing at least one Canadian supplier while be eligible for possible publication in an upcoming issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine. Go give it a try. Here's this month's sketch:

...and here's my take on this month's sketch...

Yes...yet another graduation LO. The little journaling spot is an idea I lifted from Gabrielle Pollacco on her recent 'Bliss" LO. You can check out her gorgeous work HERE .

The postage stamp edging was inspired by a recent posting by my dear friend Kelly , where she showed a tutorial on how she achieved this edge with a round punch. I think my edges are alot bigger ...wrong size punch I guess LOL. But it's a great idea and I actually used the half circle punched out pieces elsewhere on my LO. Can you find them?

I simply inked the edges and then tucked them under my circle edge.Another whole" layer" without all the bulk.

One of my Canadian products on this LO is the cork stickers from Magenta...

I really loved the look of them but found them fairly difficult to work with as they tore very easily being so delicate. After just a little cussing and swearing, I figured it out. I made several cuts with my craft knife { like at the base of a bunch of leaves} and took the stickers off in several pieces , lining up the edges again as I laid them on my paper. It was much easier [ and a helluva lot less frustrating!} to line up the cut edges as compared to the torn edges!

Here's one more close up:

So what are you waiting for? head on over to Canadian Scrapbooker and try your hand at this month's sketch! thanks for popping by! Toodles!

So how do you feel about 'cheating'? { and an easy peasy tutorial}

2011-11-03T15:46:00.001-02:30

Okay okay...I'm just kidding ! I'm not talking about cheating on exams or anything ....just talking about how to "help' an overwhelmed scrapper { moi!}. As I've already warned before, I took literally HUNDREDS of photos of Chelsea's graduation. Thank God I only had 151 developed! But that's still a HUGE amount of photos to scarp. So what's a girl to do? I know I don't have enough ideas{ or stamina!] to scrap that many photos yet I didn't want to stuff them away in a photo box . I wanted to find a way to incorporate them { or at least a fair number of them} into the album to better tell the story of those two hectic yet wonderful days. When I was in Edmonton with Kelly , she took me to her fav scrapbooking store, Urban, and I stumbled across these cool divided page protectors from We R Memory Keepers. They come in all kinds of configurations . So here's what I did..... a 12 x12 LO on one side and a divided page protector on the other side! I left a couple of the pockets devoid of photos so I could add a little scrappy accent/journaling spot to match the Lo . I'll apologize now for the poor quality photos ...I couldn't get the glare off the page protector side ...but you get the picture...yup...pun intended :) !

and just cuz I think its so pretty I'll show you the LO closer up ...

Chelsea, her cousin Alycia and friend, Emma were chosen to sing at the graduation ceremonies...such an honour. They were beautiful and made more than a few people cry! They sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".

Here's another double Lo using a 12x 12 Lo and a divided page protector...

                                                            Again...sorry about the glare.

                                                       And here's the 12x 12 side close up...

So here's the second part of my "cheating" ! I actually bought only one MME yellow swirl but once I had added it to the bottom of the picture , I kinda wished I'd had a second swirl to go up the side of the pic....Liquid Pearls to the rescue!! I've seen lots of different ways to extend our supplies in regards to these swirls ...here's how I did mine.

Supplies:

The left over acetate from a previously used swirl

needle type hole puncher

Liquid pearls { stickles works too but doesn't hold it's roundness as welll}

temporary adhesive

good light and a steady hand

Put a little temporary adhesive on an area of the acetate that you won't be punching and adhere it on your LO where you want your new swirl to be. Using the needle punch , carefully prick a small hole through both the acetate and the paper underneath. Don't worry, the liquid pearls will cover the holes.

Remove the acetate from your underpaper when you have punched all the holes. I held this piece of punched paper up to the window just to show the holes a little better but you won't have a problem seeing them.

Now start adding your Liquid Pearl dots to your pattern. I found it helpful to keep the acetate template

next to me as I worked on this ...by turning the acetate this way or that you can see the shadow of the different sized dots and you can apply as much Liquid Pearls as necessary to make your dots big or small.And that's it! Easy peasy...but don't throw out that acetate template ...you can use it over and over again .

Thanks for popping by today. Have a great weekend!

A Study in White { and love}

2011-10-31T22:25:00.000-02:30

WHITE doesn't seem to be the right colour to be talking about on Halloween but it's all around me today!Check out what greeted me this morning when I arose!

Hardly seems appropriate for today! But thankfully we only got 11 cms of the stuff so we fared a lot better than many along the eastern seaboard!

But what I really wanted to share with you today is an all white LO that I did last night. Everything ,except for the white vellum butterflies and the Dusty Attic hinge [ painted white of course!}, was created from plain white cardstock.

Earlier this summer, I stumbled across a fantastic paper artist by the name of Jeff Nishinaka. His work is phenomenal and you can check it out here. He works on quite a large scale using only white paper. Another artist I heard about just today is Elsa Mora. She also creates amazing work with mainly white paper and an exacto knife....except she does it on a much smaller scale! You can find her lovely work here.

Here's my work in white....

and here's a few close ups....

I absolutely love making my own flowers! I 'm amazed at how much plain old paper can be manipulated into various shapes. I've added a simple tutorial to show you how I made the two main flowers in this LO.

Here's what you'll need :

white cardstock

embossing folders of choice{I used Textile and Swiss dot}

retro flower punches small and medium size

2" and 1.5" round punches

Stickles { Star Dust}

Fabric tac { or glue of choice}

bamboo skewer/paint brush handle

leaf stamp

watermark ink and clear emboss powder

self adhesive pearls

For the sake of brevity, I've already stamped and embossed my leaf pattern onto cs, and also ran a few pieces through my Cuttlebug inTextile and Swiss Dot. I'm going to try and give directions for the two different size flowers a the same time....hope I don't confuse you!

Punch two med retro flowers and one small retro flower from the swiss dot cs.

Punch a 2"circle and one 1.5" circle from the textile cs. On the BACK of the punched circles , lightly draw five lines as shown. these will be your cut lines. Don't fret about being too perfect...it really doesn't need to be!

As you can see from the above photo, I've already cut out my stamped leaf and using the bamboo stick , have rounded and curled the leaves.

I tend to "cut off' the corners of the petals of the larger flower and sometimes take little snips along the top edges of the individual petals. Using the bamboo stick, I gentle curl the petals around it to "shape" my flower. The 2" circle above shows the layer that has been curled and the 1.5" hasn't been shaped yet.

On the smaller swiss dot flower, I curl the petals downward on the bottom layer and upwards on the middle layer { both punched with the medium retro punch]. I usually just use the flat end of the bamboo stick to press in the center of the smallest retro flower as I cup it in my hand. Some people spritz their pieces with water before shaping...I didn't on these as I felt they curled just fine without it. However I do recommend it for really thick papers. Of course you will need to air dry or use a heat gun on these layers if you choose to spritz.

Next , glue your layers together, making sure to stagger your petals. Finish with a pearl in the center of each flower. Paint tips of flowers with Stickles if desired...then assemble your leaves and flowers in an arrangement that is pleasing to you.

Just a couple more quick comments about my white Lo. The title was cut with "Storybook" cart on my Cricut. I wanted it to have dimension too, so I cut the words five times and then glued each layer together before painting it with a layer of Star Dust Stickles for a bit of pretty shimmer. This photo of me and DH was taken two weeks ago...it has nothing to do with weddings, or Valentine's day etc{ altho this WOULD make a gorgeous wedding Lo wouldn't it?} It was just a fav pic of the two of us and I wanted a mushy LO of me and my DH...still love him soooooo much after 23 years together!

And speaking of long term love...I'll finish this post with a LO of my mom and Dad who celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary last weekend while visiting us here in Corner Brook.

Thanks Mom and Dad for setting such a wonderful example! Love you!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week...Toodles!

My Fab Trip and Oct Sketchy Challenge

2011-10-17T23:32:00.000-02:30

Canadian Scrapbooker has its October Sketchy Challenge up on its site. Check it out!

And here's my take on it! I obviously rotated the sketch but all's fair in love and war right? LOL

I chose to add my journaling around the edge of the page to help keep that "uncluttered" look. Now hurry on over to Canadian Scrapbooker and give it a go. All LOs will be put in their online gallery but only LOs using at least one piece of Canadian product will be eligible for a possible publish in an upcoming issue of CS magazine!

Well, as some of you may know, I recently came back from a trip to Edmonton to visit my dear sweet friend Kelly, who I originally met on scrapbook.com almost 2 years ago. OMG! From the minute I stepped off the plane I felt like I was with a friend I've known my whole life! I wish I'd had my camera handy { I didn't! GASP!} to show you the cute sign she had written on the backboard from a Martha Stewart score board ...it was a heart with the words nfldmichelle { My scrapbook.com name} ...yah right ...as if I wouldn't have recognized her! She was the hostess with the mostest! A beautiful home, a beautiful family and lots of yummy food! {Don't forget to email all those recipes that I forgot to take with me ...DUH!}. One of the BIG treats of the week was spending two full days at Canadian Scrapbooker's Scrap Carnival in Edmonton! What a BLAST!!!! From the awesome classes, to the fun contests and everything in between...those CS girls sure know how to have fun! Thanks Jackie and Katrina for calling me up to the front and giving me a little prezzie for having come from so far away!

Here's a snap of Kelly and I with the CS girls...

and another of Kelly and I at our scraptable...

One of the fun events at the carnival was a "Phototbooth' complete with silly props set up by Allison Orthner {who's Lights! Camera! Action! class was a lot of fun and very informative BTW!}
Kelly and I were first in line to ham it up and here's the LO to prove it! I used My Little ShoeBox "Audrey' line pps for this one and my new Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die.. I was so excited to discover I could use it in my little ole Cuttlebug!

and here's a close up of my first Timmie flower ....Thanks for the G45 brads that I used for the flower centers Kelly!

anyhoooo...that's it for tonight. I just want to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to dear Kelly for such a fabulous week. It makes me sad to think that we are now thousands of miles apart again . Sure wish she was just next door. Thank God for the Internet. Toodles!

Time Lines and a Sketchy challenge

2011-09-07T20:31:00.000-02:30

Happy beautiful fall day !It was so nice here today { after torrential rains and wind yesterday! 100 mm of rain!!!}. It was a great day for a walk in Margaret Bowater Park with hubby who decided to take the day off with me! I actually took some really nice pics in the park the other day and hope to get them scrapped real soon. Here's a sneak peak of the beauty that I get to walk through every day!

Today , though, I thought I'd share a couple of LOs with you involving time lines. The first first Lo is of Chelsea on her very first and very last day of school! Where the heck did thirteen years go? I used the Bo Bunny line "Timepiece" for this plus some yummy Dusty Attic chippie pieces...specifically the skeleton clock face and the pocket watch. These pps were from my ScrapThat kit from a few months ago.

TIME FLIES

I really liked the sheet of corrugated kraft paper that was included in the kit. I used it for my title and then backed it with some red card stock that I cut on an angle to give it a more shadowed 3D feeling.

Here's a few more close ups. The Dusty Attic pocket watch was painted with acrylic paint , gold bits are Perfect pearls gold and I added several layers of Stampin' Up crackle emboss to age the "glass' face.

My other "timeline ' LO looks at time from a different perspective....Scott's perspective ! LOL.

So naturally that has to do with wheels! This is actually my submission for a new monthly contest going on over at Canadian Scrapbooker called "Sketchy Challenge". This month's sketch is by the talented Jill Sarginson from Ottawa, Ontario. She designs for a lot of sketch sites. You can check out her blog here.

Here's the sketch

and here's my take on it!

THE [R]EVOLUTION OF A GUY'S WHEELS

I'm sure it was only last year that he was burning around the kitchen on his Little Tykes scooter!!!! and now he's a car owner!!!! { notice I said owner NOT driver! LOL} He bought a "fixer upper" ..."It's a project car for me and Dad to work on " he said. He doesn't even have his licence yet! I suspect it will make a lovely snow block in the driveway come winter. Thanks for dropping by and now go check out that sketch challenge. You may get published ! Woohoo!

Are 2 pages Better Than One?

2011-08-16T22:44:00.000-02:30

How long have you been scrapping? One year ? ten plus years? I'm always amazed by how much some things change in the scrappy world. I , myself, have been scrapping "in the modern form" LOL for about 10 years now. { like alot of you I've been saving scraps and gluing them in the old fashioned scrapbooks ALOT longer!}. One thing I've noticed over the last few years is the tendency to scrap only one pagers. When I started years ago , I did double LOs 99% of the time { and in 8 1/2 x 11 format too! Gasp!}. My first 400 pages were 8 1/2 x 11 mostly double pages...yup ! I said 400!!!! Both my kids have birth to kindergarten books with 200 pages a piece ! Needless to say they were MUCH simpler than some of the stuff I do now! { Do you ever go back and look at your beginner stuff for a laugh?}. Somewhere along the way { probably when I joined scrapbook.com } I started my shift toward one page "masterpieces" LOL. I couldn't seem to blend the "fancier' style I was now enjoying with the size of a two page spread. But sometimes a one pager is just not enough room! Right? So I've been experimenting with two pagers again lately in hopes of getting through the massive pile of graduation photos I took of Chelsea! While I still prefer the one pagers , I'm pretty pleased with how these two Los turned out!

This one features some GORGEOUS Dusty Attic pieces...the wrought iron like edgings, the leaves and the flowers which were soaked apart into three layers, inked with Distress ink, highlighted with abit of gold Perfect Pearls powder and then dried and re glued in a more "crumpled' version of the original. These were done following a great tutorial by Mistra over at http://www.dustyattic.ning.com/ . Here's a close up of mine!

I've been on a real Dusty Attic kick again lately. Seems like most of my Los lately have at least one piece on them! I've decided to stop hoarding all those gorgeous pieces and just start enjoying them on my LOs .There's no point admiring them in a box and not sharing them with everyone else is it?

My second 2 pager Lo was created using the gorgeous new Prima pps ... the Alla Collection sent to me by my sweet friend Kelly ,who thought they'd be just right for some of my grad photos...and boy! was she right! I really enjoyed playing with these over the last few days. The colours are so fresh and spring like! I used a total mish mash of flowers on this LO! Some Prima tea roses, beige flowers from Dollarama and some handmade ones using one of the other lovely patterns in the Alla collection. I had these cute little K and Company fabric brads pinned on my board for ages...and was tickled pink that they matched so well for my flower centers.

The banner was also handmade using very basic supplies! I cut the beige CS into a 1"x 12" strip with my trimmer ,then drew a center line down the 12'length on the WRONG side of the strip. I then cut the strip into 1 1/2 " lengths and using a pair of fine tipped scissors cut 'V' notches in each piece{ that's what the center line was for on the back of the strip!}. Next I glued the beige pieces onto teal CS, and eyeballing it trimmed the teal CS. I used a brown sharpie pen to add "stitching" to each piece. I glued down my banner pieces after playing with their positioning, added the Sticko letter stickers and then punched a line along the top of the banner to add the floss stitches. Easypeasy! Here's just the rt side of the Lo so you can see the banner a little better!

Well that's it for tonight! Drop me a line and let me know what you prefer..one pagers or two and why! Enquiring minds want to know ! LOL Thanks for stopping by! Toodles!

Full reveal at Berry71bleu!

2011-08-11T18:07:00.000-02:30

Ok ...so I'm a day late [ and a dollar short as the old saying goes LOL} Yesterday was reveal day over at Marivic's place, Berry71Bleu . I feel so honored to be chosen for her August guest DT! It was a pleasure to work/design with Marivic's gorgeous one of a kind tags!

This is Chelsea with her friend Josh. He was a fun guy to take to grad and a great sport!

This is my other Lo using one of Marivic's beautiful tags. This is Chelsea and her friend Ivy , and yes, they ARE wearing the same graduation dress! When we found this dress on a trip home to Grand Falls, Chelsea immediately fell in love with it! then she realized that it was probably the same dress her friend , Ivy already had! Thank goodness for cellphones with the internet LOL. Chelsea went to her school's Facebook grad dress page and realized , GULP! yup , it was the same dress. Oh dear ...now what? Chelsea texted Ivy and explained the predicament [ and the fact that it was a different colour] and thankfully, good friend that Ivy is , she was totally cool with it! So of course we had to have a pic of them together ! Chelsea, the grammer police , had a fit when she saw that I had spelled twins with a "z' instead of a "s'. too bad I say....I ran out of s's! LOL . Please pop on over to Marivic's BLOG and see the gorgeous projects my fellow Guest DT members, Iris Babae Uy of the Phillipines and Cynthia Renaud of Brazil have created.

Marivic also has a recipe challenge going on this month with a gorgeous prize . I'll post my take on the challenge tomorrow!

Be sure to check out Marivic's beautiful tags for sale at her Etsy shop . You won't be disappointed.

Sneek Peek!!!!

2011-07-19T20:34:00.000-02:30

I'm honoured to have been asked to be on the August guest DT by Marivic over at berry71bleu. She creates beautiful tags ..just the perfect finishing touch for your LOs. She has a lovely vintage, shabby chic style. Check her stuff out at her etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/berry71bleu . This pic is from one of Chelsea's graduation Los. You can see the edge of one of Marivic's beautiful tags to the side of the purple dress. Pretty eh? That's it for tonight ...thanks for popping by. BTW....I seem to have misplaced my mojo...anyone seen it???Please send it back to Corner Brook....I still have a zillion grad photos to scrap! Yikes!

Great day at the crop!

2011-06-19T13:45:00.000-02:30

OMG! Life is just waaaaay too busy, ya know what I mean. Last Sunday { yes! a WHOLE week ago!} I hosted my first ever crop!!! Now here I am a week later FINALLY getting to post something about it! It might have something to do with the fact that I'm up to my eyeballs getting ready for Chelsea's graduation this coming Wed and Thursday. Between painting a mural { for part of the grad decorating} and trying to get my weed infested garden up to "picture worthy standards" for Chelsea and her peeps...well let's just say that I'm a tad over stretched { and falling off the ladder and busting my knee while up painting the mural has done NOTHING to help me get all this 'stuff' accomplished!} But, again, I am way off track. Back to the crop... there was eleven of us there ( a few less than I had hoped for but not bad for my first crop }. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the make-n-take mini album that I taught them. We made that first, stopped for a quick lunch and then got down to some serious scrapping . And let me tell you, some of those ladies are quick , organized croppers who produced ALOT of beautiful LOs!

Gorgeous work ladies!

The girls had lots of fun, learned a few new things, LOVED all their prizes and new goodies, and are already asking me to organize the next one ! So I guess I can consider it a success! PHEW! I can admit now that I was very nervous ...mostly afraid of not living up to everyone's expectations...but lots of positive feedback makes me feel I did OK.

There were lots of little giveaways during the day . The three door prizes were won by Shirley B{ Texture Boutique and one embossing folder}, Susan B { Graphic 45 Once upon a Springtime kit from Scrapthat! Check out their gorgeous kits here }, and Inez C. won two free tickets for a beautiful cruise around the Bay of Islands that was generously donated by my BFF Tracey of Crystal Waters.

Here's some pics of the gang!

back l-r Tracy C,Tracey R, Shirley B, SusanB, Lisa H ,JuneE, Ann J,Shirley B

front l-r Yours truly, Inez C

{ missing from photo Catherine R who was a good girl and left to finish studying for her exams!}

I spent a very busy day teaching the mini, helping people with the Cricut and the Cuttlebug ,etc so I didn't get a heck of alot of scrapping done myself but I did manage to finish ONE LO 10 minutes before the crop ended [ literally 10 mins!].

Cute eh?

This is a pic from the early '50s of my Aunt Levinia { she's the littlest one}. I fell in love with these 'Merry January ' pps when I first spied them. I know they are supposed to be a "winter' paper but as you can see they work just fine for other topics too. I made the flowers in the corner. I KNOW it looks like a jar to the rt side of the pic { as several people have commented on my Scrapbook.com site} but really it's not LOL.

The 'family' square was cut from the accompanying embellie sheet from that paper line and then I cut a journal spot to fit behind it. For some reason I decided to round the corners of both pieces and thus it turned out looking like a jar! LOL. Doesn't help that the ribbon pull tab on the journaling spot is missing from these photos ...oh well!

Thanks so much to Tracey R for pushing me to do this, providing the venue and donating tickets for a door prize, to Katherine F, my Stampin' Up rep{check her out here} who popped by for moral support,offered lots of advice { plus chopped all those apples for the afternoon snack LOL} and to Kelly {{check out here blog here!} who has pushed me since last winter to get my arse in gear and just do this thing! {plus offered tonnes of advice! } Thanks ladies!

Well ,it's pouring down rain ,yet I have a TON of garden work to do so I guess I'd better get on my rubber boots and rain slicker and get to it! Thanks for dropping by!

Get Your Own Piggy!!!!!

2011-06-07T14:01:00.000-02:30

Happy June!!! I haven't been scrapping much lately but I did get the chance to whip up this cute Lo of DH and our niece, Laura last week. Rob is a terrible tease and would always chase Laura trying to snitch her stuffed piggy toy. Invariably it would end with Laura yelling " Get your own Piggy Uncle Rob! ". She outwitted him by buying him his very own piggy for his 44 th Bday a couple of years ago! Now he has no excuse ...but I'm sure he'll find other ways to tease her! I luuuuuuv all the new canvas products on the market but of course being just a tad isolated here on our little "Rock" , I can't always get my hands on something the minute I want it...sigh. I did however have tonnes of blank canvas left over from my painting days so I thought I'd play with that and see what I could accomplish. I cut out the individual canvas banner pieces by hand and then I machine stitched around the edges of each piece to halt the fraying. I'm sure you could also paint the edges with a "Fray Check" type of product ...which unfortunately I didn't have on hand at the time. Still and all , I was pleased with the results... Laura's mom { SIL KIM} phoned last night after I sent her a pic and informed me that she loved it and it made her cry! She's a real mushbag just like myself! LOL The cute little pigs were stamped using an older Hero arts stamp I had...seemed appropriate! To see a really amazing tutorial using sticky canvas to make a tree , check out my friend Kelly's blog here at www.kellycreates.blogspot.com You won't be disappointed . It's gorgeous! That's it for today . I'm busy trying to get everything ready for my crop on Sunday ! Only five more sleeps Woohoo!!!!oh ya... and happy sweet sixteenth birthday to my "Baby' Scott ....not such a baby anymore is he? please excuse my dirty kitchen window...I was too busy scrapping ! LOL Toodles!

Hope

2011-05-11T22:45:00.000-02:30

Well it seems it is the season of Cancer Relay for Life events in a lot of places this month. I was talking to Mom yesterday and she reminded me that her Relay was coming up soon and wouldn't I like to make a donation to her team? Hint hint wink wink...real subtle Mom LOL.Of course I made a donation but it also got me to thinking about a Relay back in 2005 when Mom was asked to be co- patron with Mr. Stoodley for that year's Relay. She was so nervous as she stood to the podium in front of all those people and told "her story". I sat there with tears in my eyes the whole time. So darn proud of her and so grateful that she was a SURVIVOR and could stand up there almost 20 yrs later and inspire others. And my mother is not just a cancer SURVIVOR but a cancer ACTIVIST! Mom has always been a big supporter of many charities but she goes above and beyond for the Cancer Society. She can be found selling daffodils at the stores for the daffodil fundraiser every year; she has particpated as a team member in many Relays for Life: and one of her greatest joys is singing with the CanSurmount choir...a choir made up entirely of cancer survivors. They perform at various charity events, fundraisers and church services throughout the year.And then I realized ...I had NEVER scrapped those photos! GASP!!! Well the time has come. Of course I really wanted to include daffodils on my LO . I couldn't find any pre-made ones so I had to come up with something on my own. I did a quick tutorial to share with you ladies so here goes:

I free hand drew the three petal shape on a post-it note and traced it out two times each for each individual flower.HINT: I just kept flipping the post-it note over each time I taced it with the pencil making my own "carbon/tracingpaper". Cut out these three petal pieces and using a stylus press "lines" into the petals.For the side view flower{ the top flower drapping over the photo} I also hand drew a cup shape cutting it a little wavey across the top . You will also need 5 daisy shapes{ EK Success daisy punch} punched for the front view daffodil and 1 or 2 for the side view daffodil. I then inked the edges of everything with both Barely Banana and then small dabs of Dusty Durango ink both by Stampin" UP.

For the forward facing flower , layer two three petal flower pieces ,turning so that all petals are visable . Glue in place. I used a bamboo skewer at this point to make the petals slightly rounded. I then layered the 5 punched daisy shapes in the center of the daffodil alternating those tiny petals . After the glue sets up { I used a hotglue gun BTW} I used the tip of my craft knife to "fluff" up all the little petals . I also painted the tips of the center with a small amt of Stickles "Star Dust".
With the side view daffodil , you will need to cut out one of the petals from a three petal piece. Using a craft knife cut a rounded slit in the center of the whole three petal piece and slide the cup shape into it. Add the two petal piece behind, turning so that all five petals are showing.Now take the left over petal that you previously cut off and make a small bend along the bottom of it. Refer to above photo. This tab needs to now be tucked into the slit you made for the cup , keeping it on top of the cup piece. Glue all in place . Cut one of the small daisy punched pieces in half and then glue behind the wavey edge of the cup so just a little is poking up behind. Dab with the Star Dust stickles.

The stems were also cut freehand and inked along the egdes to add some dimension. Cut a few skinnier strips with pointy tips and roll tips around bamboo stick to replicate the leaves. I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. I'd love to see anything you create with these daffodils.send me a link!

Thanks for popping by and please support your local Cancer Relay for Life when it happens in your neck of the woods! Toodles!

Mini Album for upcoming crop I'm hosting.

2011-05-05T14:42:00.000-02:30

I realized today that I haven't posted in FOREVER!!! I've been so busy with work, some inside painting, grad dress shopping,blah,blah,blah. I have done a little scrapping but the last few days I've been busy designing a toilet paper roll mini for my first ever crop that I'm hosting at the Bay of Islands Yachet club on June 12 th! I'm so excited! There's been a huge void left in the scrapping scene here in Corner Brook since our only LSS closed last June and I really miss getting together with other scrappers. So I've taken the bull by the horns so to speak { with only a small amt of pushing form Tracey, Kris, DH Rob and Kelly LOL} and have organized a crop. Hopefully it is just the start ! So I thought I'd share with you the mini I designed to do with the ladies at the crop. I've used all Basic Grey Capella pps for this mini and Stampin' Up "chocolate chip" ink and cardstock. It's the perfect brown for the Capella pps!

Here's a quick tutorial on how I created this mini.
Supplies: spare chipboard sheet , three flattened toilet paper rolls, 12x 12 pp of your choice, crop-a-dile, two eyelets, book rings, ticket corner punch, embellies,ribbon, journaling spots{ I cut mine with Cricut} and ink colour of choice, embossing machine and patterned folder of choice { I used Cuttle bug "Textile"], punches of choice

1. Flatten TP rolls , use bone folder to sharpen the edges { I stored mine under heavy books while collecting}. Don't worry about scraps of paper left on rolls as you'll be covering them anyways. HINT: try to use the same brand of TP so all the rolls are uniform or you may have to trim them.

2.Cut 12 x12 pp into 4 6x6 pieces and then further trim them down to 6x4 3/4 pieces. Keep your trimmed off scraps to make your tags later.

Apply adhesive of choice to center of wrong side of 6x4 3/4 piece of pp and lay flattened TP roll on top. Cut small "v' s to each corner as shown in picture below.This helps to avoid tearing when tucking in your end pieces. Then adhere the pp along length first and then tuck end pieces inside the roll, gluing down all edges as you go.Repeat for other two rolls and set aside.

3: Now let's tackle the covers. Cut two pieces of chipboard 3 x 4.5 inches each. Using a brayer , add ink to the raised side of your embossing folder. Insert chipboard into inked folder and run through your embossing machine. The debossed side will now have ink down in the pattern.Flip over the chipboard and using a sponge /inking tool...gently add ink to the plain embossed side and also ink all edges of the chipboard covers inside and out. Holding the two pieces of chipboard together, punch two holes where you want your book rings to go and then set eyelets in the front cover holes to strenghthen. Proceed to place first TP roll under the front cover lining up the edges on the eyelet end, and use pencil to mark where you need to punch hole and punch with your crop-a-dile. This first TP roll becomes your template to punch the other two rolls. When all are punched, stack together and thread onto the two book rings. Your basic album is now complete. Proceed to decorate with whatever embellies you choose.

4. Now let's whip up those tags for inside your TP rolls. Remember those 6x2 1/2" scraps that were left over at the start? These can now be trimmed down to make tags to fit inside the paper rolls. I left mine sticking out about 1/2" longer than the roll itself. I used a Stampin" up ticket corner punch on the two outside corners of the tag and a hole punch on the center of the outside edge and thread a little ribbon through it to make it easier to pull out of the rolls. Add quotes, small pics or whatever you choose to your tags. And that's it!!
As you can see from the first pictures , I entitled mine "Time Flies" and I used all the wallet size photos of my DD Chelsea from Kindergarten to Grade 12.I can't believe she's graduating next month! This mini album would also be nice as an inspiration book filled with your fav quotes or Bible verses, a grandma's brag book etc. The sky's the limit! Thanks for popping by and an early Happy Mother's Day to all my mom friends out there! HUGS!

Thank God I'm a Pack Rat!!

2011-03-24T14:57:00.003-02:30

I "try" to curb my pack rat tendencies most of the time. I'm pretty good about everyday junk around the house { tho my hubby may beg to differ LOL}, but when it comes to sweet sentimental things by the kids ...well my good intentions go right out the door. When Chelsea was only 9 years old she wrote this sweet little poem about pussywillows on a scrap of paper...and I've held on to it ever since! When I saw these K and Co pps full of pussywillow images , I knew I had the perfect match! The photo of her was taken that same summer. Lots of punchwork on this one. MS "garden lattice" across the bottom , and a couple of EK Success punches also. The small daisy was used for the center of my flowers and a 1" scallop circle punch was used to decorate the edges of my red circle. The flowers were made using a pattern on Accent Essential cartridge. I fussy cut the butterfly and bees from coordinating K and Co paper { which is a Tim Coffey collection called Blossomwood BTW} . I painted all the wings with Stickles Star Dust for a little sparkle and curved the wings to give a little dimension. When I saw "paint with Stickles" I do actually mean paint. I don't always want a heavy layer with the stickles so I squirt a little Stickles on a scrap and then literally paint it on with a small artist's brush. Sometimes I'll add 2-3 layers depending on how much sparkle I want . This method also dries very quickly compared to squeezing on a thick layer. Good for me because I'm FAMOUS for forgetting I've added Stickles and then keep brushing my arm against it making a mess. I think I've discovered my new "favorite "font. I love the fancy handwritten look of these EK Success foam stickers that I used for the title. They are called " Alpha Mod script Black' and I'm pretty sure I had them at my local Walmart { sure hope so cuz I want to go get more!] Thanks for dropping by . Happy scrapping !

Overdosing on Graphic 45

2011-01-18T14:55:00.003-03:30

Well after a couple of clean and simple Los last week , I'm back in the shabby chic mode again and seem to be OD'ing on Graphic 45 ! I really enjoyed playing with two of the newer lines over the last few days...Once Upon a Springtime and Hollywood Vogue.The hardest part with Grahic 45 is getting up the nerve to cut things apart..the papers are always so beautiful in their own right and it almost seems like sacrilege to cut them up! LOL . Wouldn't you agree? Does anybody else have "issues" cutting up patterned papers? I've even been guilty of buying 2 of the same papers ...just so I can leave one uncut....sigh. That may be part of the reason why I have more paper stashed away then I will ever use in this lifetime!!! Two little things I'm kinda proud of on these LOs. On the "Once Upon a Springtime" Lo , I was really pleased with the three large flowers that I made..I feel the colours matched really well. You might also notice that when I did the fussy cutting on the peach flower vine, i cut out a few extra flowers and added them here and there with popdots to give it a little extra dimension.
On my Graceful Girl Lo , I looooove the Dusty Attic dress form. I inked it first with Dusty Concord distress ink, then spritzed it with a mix of white Perfect Pearls powder and a little water. The skirt was made from a little piece of mauve tulle and the silver belt is from the gorgeous pack of matching Hollywood vogue trims. Thanks for popping by ! Hope you are all off to a great start in the New Year!

Merry Almost Christmas: A Lock and Keynote Scholarship Fundraiser

2010-12-09T21:05:00.000-03:30

Just wanted to share this cute promotional video that my daughter Chelsea is in for an upcoming Christmas show...it's all lip synced but very cute. In case ya don't recognize her from all my scrap pages , she's the cutie with all the long red curly hair. Merry Christmas!

simple open face stamp flowers

2010-09-21T19:57:00.003-02:30

I really like these little flowers that I used on both my Grandparents Lo and on the leftover cards that I made yesterday. They're super easy to make and I like them because they have a bit of a 3D effect to them yet aren't as bulky as some of the flowers we've all been making lately...speaking of bulky flowers, has anyone come up with a good way to store these LOs??? but I digress... These little guys are super easy to make! You'll need:
1}an open style flower design stamp{ mine is Autumn leaves brand but any open one will do}
2) ink of choice
3} emboss powder { I used clear as I wanted my brown ink to show}
4} heat gun
5} scissors, small hole punch, a bamboo skewer/sm paint brush
6} stickles in your choice of colour

Ok , stamp flower on scraps of pp in ink of choice , sprinkle with emboss powder and heat set . Allow to cool and then cut out close to edge of stamped pattern . You could omit the emboss /heat step if you want but I like the raised image and the little bit of sparkle that the emboss powder gives it.
Next cup the flower in the palm of your hand and using something round { I used my Basic Grey rub on tool }rub in the center of the flower to create a cupped shape.
Now using your skewer/paint brush handle or similiar round stick , gently roll back the individual flower peatals.
Next I punched a small circle in a corresponding paper pattern with a regular office hole punch and glued this in the center of the flower down in the cup portion. I then applied a thin bead of stickles around the edge of this small center circle . Set aside to dry . Use a pop dot to attach to your project so that it lifts to accomodate the petal curls ...and that's it . You could, of course , also decorate the flower center with just stickles or a gem of your choice. Thanks so much for popping by!

A Fortunate Mistake

2010-09-05T12:08:00.003-02:30

Hi everyone! Have you ever noticed that sometimes a "mistake" turns out to be the best thing that ever happened? Ok ...it's not like I won the lottery or anything because of a mistake but I did end up with some pretty good looking flowers! I was playing with some distress mists when I was trying to decide what colour to mist my flowers for this LO. I was spraying on a discarded piece of cardstock and I had first tried a blue mist which I discarded as too dark. I then decided to spritz my flowers with a vintage photo/bronze Perfect pearls mix { I'm cheap and mix my own colours!] ...but I wasn't very careful and the wet edge of my vintage photo flower touched against the still wet puddle of sapphire chip mist.At first I was dismayed but then I really liked the effect as the blue spread across the vintage photo ...so ended up doing all the tips of my flowers like it...a FORTUNATE mistake! These pics were taken last week when Rob and I went for a romantic night for our 20 th Anniversary.We had rented a suite at the beautiful Candlelite Bay Inn in nearby York Hrb. After a fantastic supper we decided to go for a stroll on the beach. As we sat on a couple of large rocks admiring the view of the ocean I happened to glance down and saw this grey rock with the shape of a heart in quartz running through it ! I couldn't believe it ...definitely a sign to us ...a sign of love ! I thought it was a pretty wonderful omen to find on a romantic stroll on your twentieth anniversary ...don't you? Everything except for the blue flowers , the blue string pearls and the TH inks are from SCRATHAT's July kit www.scrapthat.ca . Thanks for popping by!
PS. The rock now resides in my garden!

Handmade blooms tutorial /wedding Lo #2

2010-08-03T16:45:00.003-02:30

Good sunny day fellow scrap addicts! Well I felt it wasn't "fair" to have done a wedding LO of Hubby's parents and not one of mine {plus I had ALOT of BG Capella left to use up! } ...so last night I created this LO of my parents on their wedding day almost 44 years ago! Mom had just turned 19 and Dad was 27. Mom is sitting in Dad's lap in this pic...my dad is NOT abnormally short haha ! I LOVE the little branch and pair of birds across the bottom of the photo. This was actually a cheap stencil that I found at Dollarama a few weeks ago ...I just thought it was adorable. I simply traced it out on chocolate chip cs from Stampin' Up , fussy cut it , painted it with 'Vintage Photo'Stickles and then added a glossy layer using the same medium from my last epoxy letter tutorial. I thought the two little birds was so appropriate for a wedding Lo..love birds maybe? But what I really wanted to show you was how I made those cute little flowers that are on the branch. Here's what you'll need : Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch
Ek Success 5 petal punch { it's about 3/4"}
Scraps of printed paper{I used both sides of BG 'Bravo' from Capella}
1/2 pearl sticky gems
Choc. chip Stampin'Up ink
White glue of choice
1}Punch hydrangea from the peach side of PP 2 times as you will need 2 of the larger size flowers.
2}Punch one of the 5 petal flower. I tried to make sure I punched a spot on the paper with dark areas in it for contrast.
3}Ink the edges of JUST the two larger hydrangea pieces . Fold the petals of 5 petal flower and the small hydrangea piece in toward the center to create a small bowl shape with these two layers.
4} glue the 2 larger hydrangea pieces together with a 1/2 turn so that all 8 petals are now showing
5] glue in first, the 5 petal flower and then add the smallest hydrangea piece on top of the 5 petal layer. Finish off with a 1/2 pearl in the center.
I found it helpful to 'fluff up' the layers of the top 2 flower pieces with the tip of my craft knife to help maintain a more 3D look to the flower. Allow to dry and use as desired. I thought they were the perfect little blossom to add to my love birds branch. Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!

Wedding Lo and Homemade Epoxy Aphas

2010-07-29T13:55:00.003-02:30

Well I finally got a chance to play with the new Basic Grey Capella papers that have been sitting on my desk for 2 weeks! I love them! Very beautiful and perfect for wedding LOs. I decided it was time to pay some attention to Rob's side of the family as I have a tendency to scrap only my side {oops} . I decided to start with his parents wedding photo. I didn't have alphas that I felt went with the Lo so using my Cricut and some glossy glaze I created a perfect match ! I simply cut my words twice using the jasmine font. I cut the darker background letter using the shawdow feature on my Cricut to have a wider letter , then re-cut in regular mode on the light blue paper. I glued both layers together and then painted it with FolkArt Papier glass finish {Walmart} and left my letters to dry overnight . I really like the thickness and epoxy-like finish...they remind me of Thickers. Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!

I love & gypsies!

2010-07-17T23:05:00.000-02:30

Check out this youtube video from 7 gypsy!

Maggie

2010-05-27T20:11:00.003-02:30

I've been playing with the Dusty Attic again...I loved this lantern from DA...it looks so old fashioned and I thought it would look lovely on this Lo about my greatgrandmother. I inked it with Tim Hotlz "vintage photo" and then spritzed it with my homemade glimmer mist-frayed burlap{ one dropper full of Tim Holtz distress ink, one scoop of bronze perfect pearls powder and a little water..got that recipe straight off tim holtz videos...check them out on Youtube}. I backed it with a little yellow cardstock to give it a glow effect.I'm also in love with the new "Heritage" cartridge from Cricut. The hat { inspired by Bluedragonfly at scrapbook.com} was cut 5 times and layers glued together plus a seperate one cut so that I could cut the stand as an individual piece, slit the hat and fit it inside to give it a more 3 D look. I could have just cut one layer from chipboard but I'm having difficulties with cutting chipboard despite a deep housing blade for my cricut{ any advice???} I also love the little button up boots...They're also from "heritage" . I inked/spritzed them the same and added the buttons with black Stickles.The flowers are from an awesome tutorial from Gabrielle Pollacco[ check her awseome designs out here www.gabriellepollacco.blogspot.com }which you can find at www.mycreativescrapbook.blogspot.com . I've used them before on my "Serious Soul " lo. They are so versatile and I love that they have dimension yet aren't too bulky on a LO. You may be seeing a few more of these vintage style Los cuz I'm having soooo much fun with them. I did extensive family tree work for many years and have lots of older photos I'd like to do Los with. Thanks for popping by!

Got Me some Dusty Attic!!! WooHoo!!!

2010-05-18T23:23:00.004-02:30

OOOO...I'm on cloud nine cuz I finally got my hands on some Dusty Attic laser chipboard this week...two different lots , two days in a row. On Monday I got my mail order from Tracy...check her out here : www.StayTrueToGod.com .She was an angel to deal with! The swirly vine on the left hand side of this 'Journey' Lo came from Tracy's shop. And then today another angel graced me with some more Dusty Attic! My friend, Catherine just got back from a 3 week trip to Australia/Fiji { lucky gal!} and being a real angel listened to my frantic begging via email while she was vacationing in Perth { home of Dusty Attic} and boot it to Tommorrow's Memories scrapstore there... with 45 mins to her flight!... and snagged me some awesome pieces{ including my much coveted wire dress form!!!} Now how's that for going above and beyond? Thanks Catherine! I can see that I'll be having more of this stuff cuz I'm in LUUUUUV! You can do just about anything with this product...ink, paint . mist... you name it. Check it out here: www.dustyattic.net.au . It 'll leave you drooling! my only problem now is that I love it so much that I don't want to use it all up! I'd like to tell you about a cute little cricut idea that I used here { wish I could give appropriate credit but I forget where I saw this ...if it was your idea let me know and I'll give kudos to ya!} I really wanted the "journey " title to have depth to it so I cut the same word out 5 times and glued them one on top of each other. I love the dimension it adds. I then inked and spritzed it the same colors as the Dusty Attic swirl! Thanks for popping by!

Same product/different looks

2010-05-07T12:58:00.003-02:30

Today I thought I'd share with you two recent Los that I've done using the same paper line but they are so different. I don't know about you ,but sometimes I look at products and think" I love it but it doesn't fit 'my style'." Altho I don't really think I have a style per say but I guess I do lean a little toward the vintage, shabby chic style ...I certainlt like to clutter up my pages ! LOL
I had picked up this Imaginesence line at my LSS the other day and thought it was really cute and playful. My first Lo using it was "Nana's Girl". I felt it really suited the playfulness of the pics of Chelsea and my mom fooling around a couple of summers ago in PEI. This Lo took HOURS! so much stitching { but hardly any inking GASP!}. When I was cleaning up my scraptable mess the next day {procrastinator extrodinaire!!!} I got to thinking that I had alot of left over bits and pieces and it seemed a sin to banish it to the scraps container . I wanted to do another Lo...but something waaaaay quicker than the night before. I chose a Becky Fleck Page map design.Follow Becky here www.pagemaps.com/blog.php . I ended up with this "Family" lo which I feel is very crisp and clean, uses negative space etc. Very uncluttered and so unlike me! {Practically had to sit on my hands to not add more!}But it just goes show how the same product can give diiferent looks...so don't always by pass what you think won't "suit your style". I'd like to wish everyone a great big Happy Mother's Day. Hope you have a wonderful day{ with no smoke alarms from the kids making you breakfast in bed :)} . Check Adrienne's blog for a fantastic Mother's day RAK she's giving away! You can find her here www.naptime-equals-scraptime.blogspot.com

Always a Girly Girl

2010-04-30T11:30:00.003-02:30

Hi everyone, can't believe how quickly spring is going! and I haven't even touched a thing in my garden yet...hmmmm... could it have something to do with the fact that I seem to spend all my waking hours in my scraproom??? Naw, couldn't be! :) . This is a LO I did of Chelsea yesterday that I've had in my head for a long time now. She's ALWAYS been enamoured with dresses, from a very young age. Even now at almost 17 , she still loves dresses and never passes up an opportunity to buy one if she can weedle the $$$$ outta me! The only time she would wear a pair of pants to school when she was little was on gym days...and that was only cuz she couldn't wiggle back into her tights herself! The pretty ribbon flower was made using a tutorial by Lisa-Nazario-Gregory . You can find her and all her beautiful work here: www.what-a-beautiful-mess.blogspot.com . The dress form is my own little creation! I can't find one around here {and don't have the patience to wait to order one in!} so I made do with what I had. I drew this one on white cardstock, added a little glue and glitter,{it sparkles more IRL} cut it out and used popdots to give it a bit of dimension on my LO. It's no Dusty Attic heehee but it'll do until I can get my hands on some of that stuff! Have you seen it ? Wow. It is the most gorgeous chipboard EVER! I'm pleased with the title too. I lucked into an awesome deal at "wallyworld' last week! There were boxes of Autumn Leaves stamps {7-8 stamp packages ...not just individual stamps!} on sale for $19.99!!!! It's about a $100 value! It also included some tags and a book. I decided to be greedy and pick up another one hoping that it would be all different stamps in the second box. Not exactly...the book was a different one and 3 outta the 7 stamp sets were different. I guess I 'll hand on the repeats to somebody else.But I digress [ as usual...flight of ideas!} ...what I started to tell you was about the title...The 'always ' was one of the words in this Autumn Leaves stamp set...there were others including the word "grin' . By stamping those two words a couple of times and cutting out individual letters, I was able to come up with all the letters for my title. I was pleased becuz it gave a consistent look to the title. I dressed up the "always ' with markers and lots of bling, then popdotted it also for dimension. Thanks for popping by! A great big Happy National Scrapbooking Day to you all this May 1st! Hope you all have a great scrappy day!

Happy Easter everyone!

2010-03-31T13:24:00.002-02:30

Just wanted to say Happy Easter to everyone and to share my "untraditional" Easter Lo. I know as an adult I should shudder at the thought of all the sugar in a pack of Peeps...but I'm 8 yrs old anytime I eat these. Scott shares a love of Peeps with me too... as matter of fact, I bought about six different packs of Peeps at different times to specifically take photos and do this LO and everytime I'd go to do it, Scott had already eaten them! I gotta get a better hiding place! Lots of cutting and inking on this Lo. I really liked the base paper of this Lo and didn't want to cover all the pretty pattern when I added my second layer of edged paper. Using my exacto knife I fussy cut along the pattern edge on both corners so I could slip the edged paper underneath...inking the cut edge helped it to jump out a bit more. The shaped edge was cut by hand after tracing another shaped patterned piece onto this Basic Grey pp...inking and my fake stitching{love Sharpie markers!} helped to define its shape. Two little things I'd like to share about this Lo are the little hand made chick down in the corner and the Peeps title. The chickie was sketched by me and handcut out of yellow cardstock. I then applied a thin layer of glue and some Stampin' Up glitter. A liitle brown gem for an eyeball finished him quite nicely.
The Peep title was made using a technique that I've employeed fairly often when I want something to look like a "brand" name. I simply copied a piece of the Peep box , blowing it up by 200% and printed in B/W...no sense wasting colored ink. Using graph paper, I traced the flipped over copy onto the back of black cardstock and then cut out with my exacto knife and viola! The corners looked a little bare{ I don't understand how people who use negative space so beautifully can practice such restaint!} so I cut a few black branches using Storybook cartridge from Cricut.The papers used in this Lo are all from the new "Origins" line by Basic Grey. Thanks for popping by ! Wishing you all a blessed and Happy Easter!

2010-02-28T16:28:00.002-03:30

Gorgeous Handmade Flowers

2010-02-20T15:07:00.003-03:30

Ok ...I just have to share these awesome flowers with you. They're just gorgeous and so easy to make. I can't take credit for them as I found the tutorial here
http://dawnmcvey.typepad.com . I had to tweek them a litle so I WILL take credit for that haha. I used bling instead of buttons for the centers and I did the inking two different ways... the white flowers with the edges colored were done by just flicking an inked sponge over the edges after they were made. The more solid colored flowers were created by inking each individual layer {both sides} before I assembled the flowers. So basically even tho these flowers are white , you can make then any color you want with various inks. Another thing I'd like to add is that in the tutorial Dawn uses scalloped punches to cut out each layer. I only had a large and a small scalloped punch but also wanted an in between size, so I punched medium size circles and then trimmed around the edges with scalloped scissors...doesn't have to be perfect cuz you'll never notice it once the flower is made. One word of advice ...wear a pair of latex gloves unless you don't mind your nails and fingertips being stained for a day or two! Thanks for dropping by and please share your flowers if you try this. i'd also love to see another types of homemade flowers you'd like to share!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-16T12:51:00.003-03:30

Ok ...so I'm a couple days late in wishing you this but still wanted to post my "stuff" anyways!Been a very busy week... mostly running Chelsea around as usual.I told her today she has to drop some activities cuz "I'M" exhausted!!!! The Winter Carnival Ambassador contest is finally over. She didn't win but man she blew them away with her rendition of 'Good Enough" by Evanesense! { watch for LO heehee]Anyhoooooo...back to heart day. Here's a couple cards I did and a Lo for dear hubby for Valentine's day. It's also my entry for the current sketch contest going on over at Pagemaps Blog. Go check it out at www.pagemaps.com. an awesome place to go when you got scrapper's block or just looking for some inspiration. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day filled with LUV! Thanks for popping by!

Two Other versions

2010-01-26T19:18:00.002-03:30

You realize by now that I truly am technologically challenged...and forgetful....I forgot to post the other two versions of the recycled envelope books...so here they are! Michelle

Recycled Envelope baby mini album

2010-01-26T18:40:00.005-03:30

First of all I can't take full credit for this recycled envelope idea...I stumbled across it on You tube and you can see the whole tutorial here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsRqOQ5gN4Q .
I made this baby book for a friend's upcoming baby shower. In each page envelope I have a tag with a quote about chilhood /little girls[ she knows what she's having}and on the other side of the tag I've left 2 sided sticky tabs so she can add her own pictures. Each page has a stamped journaling spot for the mom to add her own comments,etc. This basic little book is very adaptable to different topics. I've included 2 other pics of a Christmas book and a vintage book that I also made using the same basic pattern. Give it a try...very easy and unique gift idea!
Happy scrapping! Michelle

CHRISTMAS CARDS 2

2009-12-01T14:35:00.002-03:30

Okay...cuz I'm technologically challenged[ read barely above idiot when it comes to this stuff} I haven't figured out how to change the order of these postings ...so if ya wanna read about the motivation behind these cards , check out my last blog! Here's a few more cards! Michelle

Christmas cards

2009-12-01T14:02:00.002-03:30

Okay ...well this one is just for you , Susie Q ! who asked me to blog my cards. These cards were ALL inspired by my Stampin' Up demonstrator, Kathy, who started a contest, "The 12 Weeks of Christmas" for her customers. Check her out at htpp://inkinbythebay.stampinup.net Please , Santa, let me win the gift basket heehee... actually that WOULD be nice but I'm just grateful to Kathy for motivating me to get my cards done....and yes, I followed her golden rule ," always make two of everything". As Kathy pointed out , it's just as easy to cut two of everything as one. Pretty well everything in these cards are Stampin' Up{ paper, ink and stamps} except for the snowman stamp[ Wallyworld last year and the Santa flying his sleigh which is from Muse}. Get crackin ' people ! Christmas is only 24 days away...holy crap! what am I doin' blogging??? I got work to do!!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle's Scrap bits

2009-11-19T18:55:00.000-03:30

Michelle's Scrap bits

Olympic Relay LO

2009-11-16T22:02:00.002-03:30

See!!! told ya I'd get a LO finished by last night! Chelsea was really surprised when she got home from Port aux Basque at 11:30 pm!!! anywhooo...worked all day ...too tired to write anymore so just gonna post the pic...g'nite!

Olympic torch relay

2009-11-15T18:45:00.003-03:30

Woo Hoo! Olympic torch passed thru here today...what a unique experience! Awesome to see such a big display of Canadian pride! Chelsea's choir .The Chorale, was the choir picked to sing at the ceremonies today and they are following the torch all the way to Port aux Basque...gonna be a late night for them!I'm just attaching a couple of pics from this afternoon...will have a LO done about it by midnight I figure haha....I'm not kidding , I have one started already!

Where did October go????

2009-11-03T20:16:00.003-03:30

Holy smokes! I can't believe its November already!I'm not a very consistent blogger now am I? Oct was VERY busy and chaotic for me. Trip to St.John, NB for national dialysis convention, work, trying to get some renos done around here ...not to mention getting ready for Halloween! I got a reputation to uphold! My kids said kids at school were asking why I never had my Haunted house done up yet? I seem to have done WAY TOO MUCH scrap shopping lately. Bought tonnes at MIchael's in NB [ what's a girl to do...don't have access to a Michael's here!] plus ordered a crapload of stuff from Scrapbook.com , not to mention shopping at my LSS. I did manage to get a few Lo's done tho.... I really like this one I did yesterday. I'm very attached to "old stuff" and I'm very covetous of my christening dress...I don't mind lending it out but it always comes back to me! I wasn't really sure what I wanted from this LO, and wasn't sure how to start so I basically picked a bunch of pink, white and black stuff and played till I was happy with it. I really love those cute little Jenni Bowlin bingo cards and altho it wasn't planned, I seemed to have ended up using alot of Heidi Swapp on this LO. Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!

Sweet 16!

2009-10-06T21:45:00.002-02:30

Can't believe my little girl is sixteen already ! holy smokes ! Is time speeding up or what?? Did this LO last night in honor of her milestone. Been seeing alot of this color combo of tourquois and red lately and wanted to give it a try. Its a great color combo! Anybody else got any favorite color combos? I'm also partial to Blue/brown and pink/brown...you can never go wrong with those. Thanks for stopping by!

Rebecca's Birthday Present

2009-09-15T22:18:00.004-02:30

This is a cute banner I did for my liitle friend Rebeecca's birthday tomorrow. It's for her bedroom wall and I used the colors in her room. I cut the chipboard points from a pack of Colobok chipsheets. All papers were Little Yellow Bicycle except for the blue floral which is K and Co. The scallop across the top of each point is Martha Stewart punch....I think It's called lace doily.{ got it at Walmart}. butterfly punch is also Martha. Letters were cut with Storybook cartridge from cricut and decorated with a little pink cardstock and some bling.I haven't got a pic of it totally finished but I used eyelets on each and tied them together with a pink and green ribbon. { I'll try to get a pic tomorrow before I give it to her}. Hope she likes it...thanks for dropping by!

Butterflies and Bathing Beauties

2009-09-15T21:54:00.003-02:30

Well...after my little hissie fit with my new Kodak printer {which God love Staples they replaced on the spot no questions asked} I finally got around to this little mini album that was my original project of that night...mind you, I didn't go about it the way I had planned. Go figure!!!! My ORIGINAL plan was to cut out a butterfly shape from chipboard with my Cricut... that just caused another machine SNAFU... btw did ya know it's hard on the Cricut blade to try and cut chipboard ??? Take my advice and invest in the deeper blade made for that purpose... anyhoo{ yes I know I have random thought patterns!} I stumbled across these cute little PRECUT chipboard albums at Michael's for only $1 !!! almost as good as hitting the easy button at Staples! The albums { I did one for the lady who hosted us too} came together in a snap. How do you guys adhere paper to your chipboard? I'm a fan of Modge Podge myself tho my friend Lisa uses her Zyron...lucky for her, she has a ginormous one where as I have a little one only suitable for making 1" stickers. I'd love to hear any suggestions for adhering!I used all 2x2 pics on this mini album. The paper is all DCWV Citrus collection ...made the embellies from same paper. Thanks for dropping by!

Sisters Lo and just some venting

2009-08-23T11:42:00.000-02:30

OMG! why is it that whenever you wanna scrap, life gets in the way? I FINALLY sat down to get a few pages done last night when lo and behold my NEW Kodak printer broke AARRGGGG!!!! why Lord why?? This was after a two day marathon of house cleaning that just couldn't be ignored any longer...I was sorta turning a blind eye cuz as fast as I could clean, Rob was just makin' more mess with his renos...gyproc dust gets in the damndest places! I know...shut up complaining...at least my darling hubby does renovations...yah but I still gattoa clean up behind him. Any hooo.... I had intended to do this cute little mini book about our day at the Insectarium to visit the butterfly pavilion and then to a friend's for a swim... I was gonna call it Butterflies and Bathing Beauties...but between the printer dying and my Cricut not doing what I wanted.. I just gave up on the whole idea [for now]...somehow I ended up doing a LO on me and my two sissies...which had been in the back of my mind for a while anyways... I was pretty pleased with it. Funny how a day can end so differently than where you were aiming for! Oh well...
PS Does any body else spend way too much time looking at everyone else's work instead of just scrapping? I find I'm doing that ALOT lately...

Black and white

2009-08-16T16:38:00.000-02:30

I really love black and white patterns...they're so crisp and clean. I got a pretty good stash of B/W patterned papers yet for some reason I never seem to use them!!! Truth be told I got a BIG stash of patterned paper that will probably never be used...oh well , what can I say ...it's an addiction. Think there's a meeting for paper addicts anywhere? " Hello, my name is Michelle and I'm a paper whore [ or would that be hoarder?]" anyhoooo...thought I'd finally get around to trying an all white and black LO and the pic of Chelsea's hands on her piano keys seemed the perfect pic to use. I'm pleased with it... I showed you mine, now you show me yours!

a little about me

2009-08-16T15:59:00.000-02:30

Hi ...wow..never thought I'd get into this blogging stuff but here I am! and believe it or not I'm SEVERELY techno challenged. Just wanted to start this blog so I could share scrapbooking stuff. I'm a total addict who NEEDS to do something scrapbook related everyday. Some days it might just be cruising others work for a new idea/inspiration but always something. This is a card I recently made using leftovers from my July Scrapbook Sussies kit...cute eh?

I'm sooooo excited cuz I recently got notification that a LO of mine will be published in the Winter 2009 edition of Canadian Scrapbooker! my first publish ! WOOHOO!