Top layouts of 2014

Hello scrappy people!!

It's been my most productive scrappy year yet. I feel I'm getting better at managing my creative time, finding inspiration anywhere, and sometimes, completing a layout in my head way before it's time to assemble anything-so the actual scrapping is more productive.

I've only been blogging since last fall, although I've been scrapping since 2006. Styles have evolved and it's always fun to look back. I won't take you back to 2006, but this time of year just calls out for countdowns-

I've been fortunate to be able to participate in Let's Capture Our Memories Design Team for a third term. The sketches are fun, and Aurélie's coordinating skills are out of this world. I love her input and encouragement. Her enthusiasm is contagious. I wish her amazing singing voice was contagious as well... ;)

Most of my layouts are DT work for LCOM. The "homework" keeps me productive and motivated, and the sketches are fun so it never seems like a chore.

These are my favorite layouts of 2014.

Here's a Christmas layout made with some Jillibean Soup, the Winter Tortellini collection. I didn't really feel it at first- too much pink. However, it's the one winter/Christmas collection I've used to shreds. It's destroyed! Like 3 layouts and 8 Christmas cards...barely a scrap left! I love it! Santa and Mrs. Claus visit our workplace and this is a photo from 2012. The title translates to "The nice list".

Next up is a summer layout, my Baywatch layout! This Fancy Pants collection is fabulous, and perfect for this photo of DS#2 being funny- I have a few more layouts lined up with this one...

This page is of DS#3's wonderful grin. He's quite the little theatre man- he's expressive, funny, and likes to tease people. This photo captures his personality.

In keeping with this great collection by Fancy Pants, here's another layout done with the same papers, but to me looks totally different. DS#2 is posing sweetly before his first day of school.

DS#1 is a bike fiend- he loves going fast, never complains on a bike ride, like freedom warms his heart. This is a grungy layout about his new bike. He was trying to lift it over his head, like we do after a hard climb in a fun/different location.

Biking is a big part of this family's activities. We hope the boys learn to enjoy it as much as we do and keep on with this wonderful sport. This is a photo at an annual fundraiser for local schools.

In an effort to be in more of the pictures, without cutting anyone out, we're taking more selfies. Family of 5 selfies are a challenge... and not always the best picture, but they capture a moment and a mood... This was done as an August color spot challenge at Let's Capture Our Memories.

I love this fall theme paper by Simple Stories. We had a wonderful day trip at a local national park last fall, and this layout was also pretty fun to make.

We have a great time when outdoors- we love camping also. This layout was made about a camping trip where time was also spent in Freeport, Maine, at the L.L. Bean HQ. What a fun place...

I was lucky enough to be asked to be a guest designer at My Creative Scrapbook for the month of November. I got the main kit. I love these layouts because they are so different from what I usually do. My style has been described as rambunctious and loud. Changing things up is good sometimes... I also have to incorporate more layouts with the grand-parents. Great memories for the kiddos.

These are so much softer than my usual... Maggie Holmes Open Book collection.

My friend Kristine Davidson published a third sketch book this fall. Another book filled to the brim with inspiration at your fingertips. It's an amazing place, full of fun designs and examples. I was lucky to be asked to be a part of it. Here is my layout...

Well, that's it for now... Wishing you an amazing new year filled with health, joy, love and fun surprises!

Thanks for looking-

Christmas layout- sketch 103

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, more and more! There's nothing like Christmas papers and embellies to get me in the Jingle Bells mood. That and DS#1 hammering Deck The Halls on the piano every chance he gets. He really loves that song... After this layout was made, I went to town making some teacher cards from the kids. Apparently they were liked and appreciated- more on that later.

This week's Let's Capture Our Memories reveal is a sketch by Becky Fleck at Pagemaps. Its great and easy! What I like most about it is the fact it can be a great way to use up 6x6 paper strips. Sometimes I get these specifically for card making, but with an awesome sketch like this one, the 6x6 pads can make a lot more than cards.

Here's the sketch:

And here is my interpretation:

These are photos from 2010, when DS#2 was in love with trucks, any truck. Amazingly enough, no matter what the truck looked like, to him, they were all cement trucks. Oh, his surprise was great when he saw his sitter bring him an actual cement truck as a present.

I made the background with the Tim Holtz Stars mask with platinum coloured ink by Tsukineko. I used silver thread stitching as an accent. Most of the strips have stitching on them, either neat of kind of messy back and forth lines. I added some snowflake accents, a sticker banner, some buttons and bling, and a hidden journaling tag bottom left. Doesn't he make a great kissy-face? Enjoy this sketch, I know I did...

Sketch 101 Reveal at Let's Capture Our Memories!

It's another amazing reveal at Let's Capture Our Memories! Sketch 101 is  multi photo sketch, and it's amazing to see how different everyone's interpretation is! The DT made really cool, detailed, fun layouts! I think this sketch is one of my favorites. Go take a peek at Let's Capture Our Memories!


This is the fun sketch by Emma Straface at Page Drafts:

Here's my layout-

I used tons of Fancy Pants Design's Happy Go Lucky collection. The alphas are also by Fancy Pants, the frames and canvas embellishments are by Basic Grey, the corrugated shapes and button are by Jillibean Soup. The wood veneer and cork shapes are by Studio Calico and the badge is by October Afternoon. I'm starting to dabble with stamps and masks, and this one is by Tim Holtz... Love these chevron shapes to punch up a background...

This layout is all about our camping trip in Maine and New Hampshire last summer. The time spent at L.L. Bean in Freeport during a shopping outing was an adventure in itself. What an amazing place! We took pictures outside and inside. The pond and aquarium were great, especially the spot where you can stick your head in a bubble shaped groove and almost be with the fish. We had a hard time getting the kiddos out of that one. We got some really cute moose molasses cookies, clothes, sleeping bags. We then had a very nice lunch at the pizzeria next door, when DS#3 proceeded to "read" the map in a oh-so-serious way... "where do they keep the ice cream here?..."

Photo collage tutorial

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to share a few things I've learned to make my scrappy life easier. If you know these little tricks, you know what I mean. I've not really gotten on board with Project Life yet- I did write yet- as I haven't been able to take the time to streamline the process enough to get started. I have started scrapping some PL inspired grids lately and I do love the effect. What I also love from Project Life is the simplicity in scrapping a few smaller photos, with small journalling cards and a few embellishments- an amazing way to tell a story. One of next year's resolutions is to incorporate more grids an PL type elements into my scrapping.

One of the things I really love about Project Life is the smaller photos (more of them!) to tell a story. Sometimes it's so hard to choose the best photo of a same event. Why choose? Sometimes, they all have a little something!

My tutorial is all about how to print smaller photos on a single 4x6 photo. It's clean, no fussing, no cutting. The photos are seamless as they have been placed in the grid before printing... And they obviously can be cut for placement...

Here is how:


I downloaded the free photo editing software Picmonkey. You choose collage in the tools over the picture, just to the right of the monkey.

As directed, I imported 3 photos I had previously changed to Black & White with the regular editing function.

The photo size is ALL WRONG to print a real 4x6 photo, so the size can be modified with the releasing the small padlock under the grid. 

To print a real 4x6 photo with a grid on it, the measurements should be 1800 x 1200, not the initial square 2000 x 2000. You can incorporate either 2 or 3 photos. Just click the "x" over the unwanted photo element to remove it.

Then the photos that were downloaded can be dragged into each square.

Save, print and use on a clean line layout! Photo credit: Laure Handfield.

This layout was created with the November Main Kit at My Creative Scrapbook. Go check out their cool kits on their blog. It's a really cool place to hang out!

And here is the fun kit:

Obviously I didn't invent this process. This is what I found works easiest and fastest for a busy scrapper Mom like me, and I just wanted to share!

I also referred to this video where Monica Bradford sums it up really nicely on a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=047wIcUWD9I

If your link is "iffy"- you just search for "How to print a 3x4 photo for Project Life"...

Enjoy!

Some sightseeing stew for a biking layout-

It's already time for reveal sketch 99 at Let's Capture Our Memories and it's a cool one by Shirley Mijares Mascarina. I love how this sketch can be used different ways- the photos can be replaced by journaling elements, embellishments, there is tons to do with this sketch. And the background was begging for ink/ paint/ gesso... I'm not that comfortable with making a mess, and so I have lots to learn. I am however enjoying the learning process, and i actually broke out some gesso and a few masks for inking...

Here's the sketch:

And here is my take on the sketch. It's full of Jillibean Soup Sightseeing Stew.

I free stitched up the background after inking it up with some masks by Tim Holtz and Crafter's Workshop. I layered some of the 6x6 paper pad pieces under the picture and a cute Jillibean Soup placemat. I added a few brads and buttons and "Voilà!"

Here are a few details...

Hope you have fun with this one too!

Another beautiful sketch reveal!!

Happy sunny Saturday everyone! It's another sketch reveal at Let's Capture Our Memories and it's a really nice one! I just love Laura Whitaker's sketches- they always inspire me right away!

Isn't it beautiful? There's so much you can do with this one!! I knew right away which papers and which photo I wanted to use. It's been a crazy week here, and so I'm happy it all came together quickly!

I flipped it to suit my picture:

   And voilà!

It's a picture of DS#2 taken just before the first day of kindergarten, the journaling mentions his finer qualities- he's curious, helpful, happy, smiling, and lovable! I used just about the last of my Fancy Pants The Good Life collection. I've had an amazing run with this collection- it's just beautiful! I had no more solid pieces for a background, so out came the Jillibean Soup Staples III sheet! Hope you like it!

Guest Designer at My Creative Scrapbook!!!

A few weeks ago I was asked to be a Guest Designer at My Creative Scrapbook. Pam, the owner, puts together these amazing kits every month. In addition to being really cool kits, there is a ton of inspiration on the blog- http://mycreativescrapbook.blogspot.ca. It's an amazing place to find tutorials and examples of amazing layouts and projects.


I was assigned the main kit containing loads of papers and embellishments from Crate Paper- the Open Book collection by Maggie Holmes.

Here's an idea of how much pretty stuff you can make!

Here is what I came up with:

This is a September Photo shoot with the boys on the front steps, sitting on the wide ramp. It's getting to be quite the traditional spot for pictures. The journaling translates to "Sure our hands are full with a house full of active boys, but our house is also full of love.

These 2 pictures were taken at the Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom, after our DS#2 got a birthday cupcake and a Winnie the Pooh card from the waitress. Piglet came along and as the other 2 kiddos were all enthused at getting their picture taken with Piglet, DS#2 hid under the table, overwhelmed by either the pink, or all the activity. Lol... The initial pictures are very hazy as it's extraordinarily bright in that dining room. I just couldn't resist scrapping them, as it was a day to remember...

And this one, I think, is the most feminine layout I have ever done. Ever. It's of me and my Mom, while on a camping trip. We took a selfie by the pool, something we should do more often, so we ladies get more space in the scrapbooks. We're mostly holding the camera, right? What better way to include ourselves and ensure our little ones will remember that we were there right along with them. 

And then, I found the perfect papers to highlight this soft muted picture of DS#2 being very sweet. He is generous, gentle, kind and all around happy!

Well that is it for now-

Go check out the rest of the reveal at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Creative-Scrapbook/130352440344752

Visit the the blog for cool inspiration! Interested in a kit membership? Pam has amazing kits for every taste and style! You can click here and visit My Creative Scrapbook!


There's some pretty amazing inspiration!

Last sketch for the present team!!!

Well, it's the last sketch of the term for this Let's Capture Our Memories Design Team. I was part of Team A and had loads of fun with the wonderful sketches and Aurélie's great coordinating job! Can't wait to see how much fun we have next term, as again, I'm part of team A... 

This is the last sketch, and both teams have united to create some layouts and cards based on this card sketch by Ana Castro. It's great! I loved it. It's so versatile. I can see myself using it again and again!

And this is DS#3 sleeping away on the chair. He had quite the morning jumping in piles of leaves, checking out his favorites, just general good clean autumn fun! The papers are from Echo Park, For the Record 2. The mask is Tim Holtz and I was surprised at the quality of ColorBok's white ink. 

Hope you enjoy this great November day!

Sketch #94 is up at LCOM!

Hi everyone! We're just heading out to pack some awesome fall activities into this lovely Saturday! But just before the fun starts, here is my take on sketch #94, up at Let's Capture Our Memories! It's a sketch byVicki Von Richter (aka Princess Pea). Seeing it, I immediately thought of these pictures I'd taken of my 2 older boys who had been playing at the neighbour's house as it was raining pretty hard. One of them remembered that their toys were not put away. With 3 boys, toy cars and Legos and soldiers and action figures galore are everywhere. We somewhat layer ground rules that seem extreme, but then it would be a zoo in here otherwise. If the toys are not picked up, they go to the trash... The kids can't tell if we're serious or not, but they won't take that chance. Hehehe....

So, while they were playing, they had an "uh-oh" moment, ran back here under a borrowed umbrella, put away their toys, and walked back in unison under the umbrella. Priceless!

Here's the sketch:

And here's my interpretation:

It seems that My Mind's Eye Cut & Paste collection was perfect for these photos. Almost everything is from that collection. I also used a Maya Road clip, an October Afternoon flair badge and some Jillibean soup alphas. Hope you like it! The stamps are by Kesi Art and Elle's Studio.

Creating With Sketches Volume 3!!! It's here, it's here!!!

It's finally here!! And now I can share this layout I created for Creating With Sketches Volume 3- by the talented Kristine Davidson. It's full of amazing inspiration and talented designers' interpretation of tons of new sketches!! What's not to love!!!

I love that Kristine gave me this sketch that put me a bit out of my comfort zone. It was so linear, so much "naked patterned paper",  it was a little freaky at first, but then, as with all sketches, the photos and papers came together and I'm very happy with the result.

I didn't really have that third (make that fifth and sixth) photo to complete this layout- I felt the pictures were perfect but in the wrong orientation. I made them smaller, flipped them and replace a photo with a wonderful placemat  and Voilà!!!

This was taken on the last day of school in 2014- still a chilly day for June but you can tell they were itching for summer, wearing shorts all the same. I love the brotherly love that shows through on these photos. I'll treasure them always.

I used tons of Fancy Pants Design Happy Go Lucky collection.  I added some Jillibean soup alphas, a placemat and a corrugated heart. The clip and twine are by Maya Road and the wood veneer is by Studio Calico. Check out that cute Lime Citron flair badge.

But now enough about me! Think about where you'll get your next inspiring sketch! Get your own digital copy now with a coupon here:

To get a printed copy, go to  Creating With Sketches Volume 3 and pre-order before October 15th. It's amazing and so fun to leaf through it! My 2 other volumes are the first source of inspiring sketches for me and they have been since they came out. They're so easy and versatile, and they really prevent "Scrapper's block"... Lol!

Sketch #92 is up at Let's Capture Our Memories

It completely slipped my mind that I hadn't made this post yet!!! Oh well, better late than never, and this way, the yummy feeling of reveal day continues... Lol!

This is a fabulous sketch by Becky Fleck over at Pagemaps and it's a super nice one with lots of details and fun elements! I really enjoyed creating this layout about our little family at the beach- another "selfie of 5" for some long distance birthday wishes for my Grandfather, about 3 hours away.

And here is my version of it-

I used Fancy Pants Design Nautical papers and stickers, some wood veneers by Studio Calico and Queen & Co,  a Recollection enveloppe, a Maya Road paper clip, a cork badge by Studio Calico and a flair badge by Lime Citron. I love machine stitching with accent colours other than black, white or brown. It shakes it up a bit and offers variety. On this pic, the yellow stitching doesn't show up as much, but there it is...

Hope you enjoy this layout as much as I enjoyed making it- 

Another biking layout!

It's sketch reveal day at Let's Capture Our Memories and it's another multiple photo layout! I just love these, as I can add more photos and I can showcase all of my munchkins at once! I also feel 3 photos help tell more of a story. With portable phones, it's so easy to take snapshots everywhere, yet rarely are any of the photos perfect, and rarely do you "get everyone in the same shot"...

This week's sketch is by the talented Laura Whitaker...So here's to another glorious 3 photo layout:

And here's my take:

I just love this Urban Traveler collection from Simple Stories- it can be used in so many different ways. I love the rugged feel of it, and I love that it's great for layouts about movement, bicycling, or any fun activity. There's a bit of October Afternoon papers on there. The clips are by Maya Road and Tim Holtz. There are cork and wood veneer embellies by Studio Calico and the flair button is by Lime Citron. 

It was our third participation at the local bike ride fundraiser for the schools in the area. Great fun while being active!

Lime Citron September Challenge

I love finding new challenges and new inspiration sites, and this find was new to me, and so exciting! They are Lime Citron, out of Québec, and so full of fun products. For those of us who like to scrap en français, the products are great- they are beautiful, colourful and fun! They have amazing and unique stamps and really nice flair buttons, or badges. I really want them all!!

I found this challenge on Facebook and immediately thought it was entirely not complicated, although I'd never played with gesso before. I found some with a coupon, so no big loss if I hate it, but I really didn't. I can see the possibilities... I can't wait to use it again. I have to say my friend Aurélie did a bit of inspiring. We did this challenge together and had a fun time with her sisters as well. 

The challenge requested:

-White background

-Stars

-Gesso or paste

-Stencil or mask

-Stitching

and a Lime Citron product, they even offered some digital stamps to download!

Here's my take:

On Étoile de Mer (or Starfish), I used some Fancy Pants Nautical and Down By The Shore, some gesso and acrylic paint (don't know about that one...), some wood veneers by studio Calico, some stamps by October Afternoon, some floss and machine stitching... I hope you enjoy- I really had fun making it!

It's that time of the week again...

It's a beautiful Saturday and the sun is up! It's gonna be a nice day to make more memories... Sketch #88 is up on the Let's Capture Our Memories blog and it's a fun one! I love 3 photo sketches... maybe I'm a bit biased by the fact that my 3 kiddos fit nicely in such sketches. Sometimes I hate to choose which one to feature, and so, headache solved!

This is a beautiful sketch by Ana Castro. It's versatile, fun, flippable, you can convert it to one or 2 photos... It's flawless! Without any further delay:

To suit my needs, I flipped it to be horizontal or landscape. 

 And here's my take:

I love beach exploring, even if sand gets everywhere. There's always be time to clean up later. Beach time is fun time... we found a new beach where it's low tide always in one section, to dig clams or make sandcastles. And then, just beyond the dune, there are waves crashing in! Another bonus is that after a short walk, you can go fishing off the pier. It's a treasured spot! This is a layout of the boys getting wet and sandy. DS#2 is a collector and his favorite finds are Hermit crabs. This was done with loads of Bo Bunny Key Lime- love the colors!

A new sketch!!

It's that fun time of the week when we get to show off some brand new inspiration to get your scrappy mojo going! This sketch was no exception in my case- I saw it and immediately knew which papers and which photo I would use. I love all the little details on it- they really can make a photo pop! 

And here is my finished version of this amazing sketch by Emma Stafrace:

Photo credit: Laure Handfield


This was made with loads of Fancy Pants Design goodies, all from the new Nautical collection. The stars mask is by Tim Holtz and the stamp is Elle's Studio. There's a bit of Maya Road twine, a Studio Calico cork button and Queen & Co washi tape. I just love the Tsunineko platinum ink- amazing stamping stuff...

Go check out the Let's Capture Our Memories site for more inspiration!

Thanks for looking!