Forgotten layouts

Hello everyone,

I'm presenting some forgotten layouts, both made with the Simple Stories Pumpkin Spice collection. The first one was featured in Creating with Sketches by Kristine Davidson, volume 4. The cut file is available on her Etsy Store. The backing of the cut file was a bit labour intensive, but I really like the end result. The boys were photographed during a family photo shoot and we were lucky to get such smiles as they were quite busy exploring the beautiful park.

This one was created with the same collection- it's all about our hiking trip to a National Park close by. I just love those Adirondack chairs place in the perfect spot for a beautiful view. The boys have more and more endurance as their legs get longer and we are able to do more trails than we ever have. We love the trail with the falls and cute bridges everywhere!

Ink!!

Hello,

This layout was made after Creative Scrappers owner Kristine Davidson made available a lovely printable on her Etsy shop. I was inspired to use tons of stamping and inking on the background, using some machine stitching to yield the background in. The photo was taken on the very last day of our camping trip in Maine. The cousins were having a good time around the fire pit. I cut apart the printable and pretty much stuck everything on! 

I'm in a summer mood- can't wait for sunshine!

A double pager!

This is a double layout I made mostly because I wanted to use every last delicious bit of this beautiful collection by Simple Stories. Our local orchard has a playwark, a pumpkin patch and some berry picking as well as the usual orchard full of apples. Fall is such a delicious time of year, with heavenly smells. I listed off our favourite things about October and Fall...

The left page is of DS#2 posing proudly in front of the pumpkins and tractor. We can take a tractor ride to the field to pick our very own pumpkins. The high bush blueberries are still being harvested at this time of year. 

The right page stars DS#1 and 3 posing in the fall decor.  We've listed our favourite fall activities on the journaling card, which includes picking apples and blueberries as well as pumpkins. We love to go hiking and Hallowe'en is always a highlight, of course.

TFL!

Summer layouts

Summer is coming!! Summer coming!!

I just can't wait! I love the bike rides, the warm weather, the occasional ice cream, the beach... pure bliss! And the photos make such great layouts!

Here are a few I created at Crop & Create this past March. I love this annual weekend as it is a chance to catch up with friends, get inspired and create some fun layouts.

Here are a few summer ones I started up at the crop, and finished at home.

This is how we sometimes motivate the kids to go bike riding... LOL!

This was made with American Crafts Amy Tangerine Rise & Shine. It was just a 6x6 paper pad, mounted on a single sheet of another collection I had. I love grids and should do this more often. The flair is Simple Stories.

This is a layout of the very same outing. I just can't resist a dirty face photo!

The papers are by Simple Stories Summer Vibe, and the flair is by Lime Citron.



This one is about the neighbour teaching the boys how to cast a fishing rod. They were practicing their new skills on the porch, hence the title: Porch Fishing.

This was made with the Simple Stories I Heart Summer collection. The flair is October afternoon, I think. 

Thanks for looking!

Just catching up!

It's been forever!! I haven't stopped scrapping, I just took a pause from blogging as I was mostly doing Christmas cards, mini albums and finishing up some projects. Those will be the subject of another blog post. Right now, I'll be showing you some summer layouts. After a long winter, there's nothing like a summery layout to lift the spirits. I brought a winter coat to the cleaners today, so that's a great sign!

I took a look at Creative Scrapper's new April sketch- sketch 305- and just made this page then and there. I put lots of techniques on this page: watercolours, stitching, cut files, stamping, typing... These are super old pictures from 2011 as the title clearly states, but I hadn't done a Canada Day layout EVER. I kind of like how it turned out.

Here is the sketch:

And here is my take:

We had gone into the city that day with 2 toddlers and the baby. The 2 older kids loved the games, bouncy castles, food merchants, musicians, etc. They were quite disappointed to leave as they were gaining quite a bit of momentum in the bouncy obstacle course. 

Thanks for looking, I'll be back soon.

October Reveal at Creative Scrappers!!

This month's challenge at Creative Scrappers is lots of fun, although it took a bit more effort for me to get 4 pictures on a layout...We're still somewhat in back to school mode here, and so first day of school pictures seemed appropriate. This month's sponsor is Cocoa Vanilla, a lovely paper company all the way from Australia. The collections were not easily available where I live, so I decided to get something done using their cut files. The collections have a soft feel to them. I decided to go with some Simple Stories Life in Color as I felt it softened up my pictures, but also like that they are not specifically back to school pictures....


Here is the sketch:

And here is my version:

It's a new school year and they are ready for grades 1, 3 and 5! I just love these cute flowers and love how the cut files complements them. I hope you enjoy this amazing Saturday...

Happy weekend!

A trip to NYC

It that time again, time for a new reveal and sketch challenge at Creative Scrappers- sketch 298 is up on the Creative Scrappers blog and it's a fun one. I love the circle and the opportunity for multiple photos. This is a layout about a trip to NYC, fun times to see landmarks, and run in Central Park. We have been there a few times and always try to get a run in Central Park done. I love to go up to the Plaza, just to get that Home Alone vibe, or even Eloise at the Plaza... I once saw Lenny Kravitz getting out of a cab. There are just so many people and things to see. We have barely scratched the surface, and I can't wait to go back and spend a bit more time away from the conference Hubby attends, to bike ride in Brooklyn, or even visit Staten Island. We only see the statue from afar.

Here's the sketch:




and here is my take:




I used some My Mind's Eye Market Street Nob Hill collection and some wonderful flair badges from Cuts 2 Luv. I saw the NYC themed ones and just knew what layout to make.

Go check out the blog, and enter your take on the challenge for some great badges from Cuts 2 Luv!!

Creative scrappers sketch 297

Summer is ON!! And I love it! The beach, the heat, the road trips, the camping... Love it all! A recent road trip to my grand-father's town for his birthday left me some idle hands time during the drive, and so I got inspired and hand stitched like I never have before. 

This is a photo of our kids and our camping buddies at a waterpark last year. Amazing fun. They play so well together. We watched them hold hands while we were making our way to the lunch area. So fun... We had tons of fun and especially loved the wave pool. The kids had a blast. This oversized Adirondack chair for photos is just icing on the cake.

For August, Creative Scrappers teamed up with The Cut Shoppe with Ashley Horton. This is our fun sketch:

We could choose any cut file from Ashley's online boutique, The Cut Shoppe. Ohhhh, the choices!! So hard as I love so many of them! I finally settled for a swirly one called Spinning Spirals and went to work... I chose some papers that could fit nicely as a colourful background. I flipped my photo added embellishments and voilà:

I love this bokeh paper from Simple Stories Summer Vibe. Most of these papers came from the 6x6 paper pad. I was saving this up for a special occasion... It's just so soft and captures the colourful bathing suits...

I admit the stitching was a bit ambitious, but that road trip served more than one purpose. And the conversation with hubby while stitching was way better than me sitting there reading of surfing the web...

Creative Scrappers sketch 296 and free cutfile!

Happy Canada Day everyone!! Family gatherings, BBQ, fireworks and awesome weather! I hope you all have fun!!

It's a great day for a reveal!!

Sketch 296 is up on the Creative Scrappers blog and we have a new sponsor!! It's Just Nick Studio and owner Nicole Nowosad has generously donated a free cutfile for the challenge. Deadline is July 31st- details and free cut file coupon on the Creative Scrappers Blog!

Here's the fun sketch:

Here's the free cut file:

And here is my take on it:

We were visiting the village at the ski resort and the boys decided to goof off in front of the Inukshuk. When I was a kid, there was an old Heritage Canada add on television where the Inuit were explaining the reason behind the building of these Inukshuk- "To let the people know we were here..." Oh how we use the phrase everytime we see one...

   It was a lot of fun to let the lettering from this fun paper peek through the cut file. The papers are by Simple Stories. After making 4 full pocket pages about this mini vacation, I was able to make a layout, and there are a few more pages to be made from this mini kit.

I hope you have a great Canada Day and find a moment to join us and participate in this fun challenge!

Creative Scrappers first reveal of 2016!!!

I'm so excited Creative Scrappers is back!! After a bit of a hiatus, Kristine has restarted the blog with a new sketch challenge with a sponsorship from Jillibean Soup. Creative Scrappers was one of my very first regular places for inspiration. The amazing sketches and the fun and so very different interpretations from the Design Team are so great to discover. It's a great place to get inspired and creative.

Here's a link to the rest of the party: Creative Scrappers June Reveal

And here's the sketch:

And here is my interpretation:

I hope you find some inspiration today to get some pages scrapped... Jillibean Soup is offering a prize to a lucky winner this month. Come play along!

2 recent layouts

With the Crop & Create event held in my town in April and NSD held a few weeks ago, inspiration has been everywhere. I especially have been excited at the fact that Creative Scrappers is back!!!
And I'm part of the team!! This website was the very reason I started this blog as a way to keep my layouts and cards in one neat place.


The sketches Kristine creates are such an inspiration to me. I also love the deadlines as it obviously motivates me to scrap more... let's face it, it's more of an excuse to make more time to scrap. It's such a fun and creative way to relax.

The first reveal is June 1st!

Yay!!!

In the meantime, here are 2 recent layouts:

This was made with a fun cut file from The Cut Shoppe. I used up most of my leftover Crate Paper Neighbourhood collection. Hubby had difficulty with semi-serious selfies on Easter morning. I think it's the bunny ears. 

This layout was made at the Crop & Create event. DS#3 was being extra cute during the daycare photo shoot and this is what I got from it. I just had to scrap this sweet picture. The papers are Echo Park A Boy's Life. 

More to come soon- Happy Scrapping!!

MercyTiara's 27 Day May Challenge!

I'm just so excited (as I've said before) that Creative Scrappers is back! But I'm also excited to be a part of Mercy Tiara's 27 Challenges! It started in February of 2016- Tracy posts a Youtube video with the 27 Day Challenge of the month. Then, we see all sorts of awesomeness from participants from all over the world!

Then, Tracy picks a winner for the challenge, at random. This winner usually gets a ton of encouragement, and maybe some stash prizes, and the chance to pick the next challenge! Just tons of fun- a great place to create!!

If you haven't checked out her amazing, inspirational Youtube videos, check them out here:

The May challenge is to use 3 or more pictures, one of which should be a 4x6 picture!

Here's mine:

This has the pictures taken from the soccer game we saw last summer as part of the Fifa Women's World Cup! The field pictures were a little dark and hard to see, but our selfies documenting the experience turned out great. As you can see, I also kept the tickets from the double header we saw...

This was made with Simple Stories 24/seven. It's such a fun, colourful collection! I had yet to break into it, but I feel it was perfect for these pictures!

Happy Scrapping!

Cards! Cards! Cards!

I've been busy creating a bit more lately, a few layouts here and there, and lots of cards. Here's an update on these cards, I hope you like them...

Here's a Valentine's Day card for my son, a school request. I really don't ever mind an occasion to tell the kids how much I love them.

Here are 2 birthday cards with some leftover Imaginisce papers: 

I've go 2 cards for Administrative Assistant's Day:

Here are 2 sympathy cards made with the I am collection by Simple Stories as well. I can't believe how versatile this lovely collection is!

Well, that's all for now folks! I hope you like them...Happy scrapping!

Back with some Creative Scrappers inspiration!

I'm so glad Creative Scrappers is up and running again! I'm so looking forward to scrapping along and finding some inspiration at this fun, lovely site again. I love seeing everyone's take on the sketch and I just love the sketches!

Here's a loud, rambunctious layout I made with the My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy collection. It's about DS#3 having a ball at his cousin's birthday party last summer. We had had a terrible winter, and this was just about the first time we'd seen enough sunshine to melt the snow and have fun at the park.

I hope you have a great, scrappy week!

Catching up!

It's been awhile... I've neglected you blog...I feel like the hiatus is over... I needed a break I guess... Regardless, here we are...

I've been away from the blog, but have still been scrapping. I've made some pocket pages, some cards, some layouts, etc... more to come soon.

In the meantime, here are a few layouts I've made.

I had a great time making this one, about DS#3's love for Batman. Any excuse was good to be Batman for awhile. Batman is pretty awesome in our house. Lego Batman gets a lot of points too. This layout was made after getting some inspiration on the Paper Issues Blog, layout by owner Cassie Box. I love how it came out. It's a mix of Studio Calico papers, some Jillibean Soup Staples and some cool stamps.

"Always be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Then always be Batman." Love that!

Here's another:

It was made for the Let's Capture Our Memories September 2015 color spot, and realized I had never shared it here. I must have a picture with DH sleeping with each of the kids at some point or another. I love the fact that DS#3 was sleeping with some costume eyeglasses. 

Here's one made with So Rad by Simple Stories... A lot of stitching on this one. You should see the back...  a real mess! But I really like how all the stitching brings out the photo. The kids were hamming it up on the soccer field after a game. 

These next ones were made to bust out some stash. It was part of the Mercy Tiara 27 day challenge. Look it up on Youtube and Facebook. It's great fun! It started in February, with a stash busting challenge. The winner (random draw) gets some fun stuff and the chance to pick the next challenge...

Here is another, just as I decide to finish off this Crate Paper Toy Box Collection from 2011... There are just a few die cuts left over...

This was a Creative Scrappers sketch, a great source for inspiration. He's a climber for sure! This spider web play park is reserved for 7+ and little buddy was 4 1/2 on this... close supervision required. 

Here's another:

This is made with the Scrapbook & Cards Today  Crop & Create Delivered kit. There are such happy things in that box... I love a day at the beach!

And last one for now...

Ahhh, the Silhouette Cameo... I'm taming the beast. I made one fatal error in the settings on my first cut, ruined the mat and it all went downhill fast. I got a new mat, and everything's been great since. I really love these papers from Fancy Pants Design. The layout was inspired by Mercy Tiara's 27 day Challenge- a masculine/boy page for this month. I have to admit that this present challenge is not much of a stretch for me, Mom to 3 boys...

Well, that's it  for now... I'll have to finish my mini album pictures, and we'll see you soon...

September Color Spot

I've been lucky enough to be invited to be featured for the September Color Spot at Let's Capture Our Memories. I had done one last year and it was a fun experience, with nothing to go on but a color swatch... This is what the owner Isabelle had to say about the post:

Hello September!

Wow!

I really had a hard time finding a color scheme for you this month. Nothing was standing out. As I was planning the crop schedule, I started looking at pictures on my phone and found some from my last trip to Scrapbook & Cards Today Crop & Create in Cornwall, Ontario last September. OH! the memories... the wonderful memories from the most amazing weekend event spent with a couple of my scrappy besties!! And as I'm getting ready to head back to Create & Create in a couple of weeks, I thought I'd share the some of the memories, the moments with you. Here's a picture I took of the a small sample of the goodies we get to savor at Crop & Create! Where has this year gone too!! I can't believe it's September already. We are busy getting the kids ready for school and dotting the i's and the crossing the t's on the activities schedule for the coming months!! Here, at LCOM, it's also the start of crop season!! My favorite season!

I asked my super scrappy friend Elisa Delora if she would have a go at this month's Color Spot and I was so happy she said yes!  I love her projects.  She is awesome a clustering and adding so much detail to her layouts.  It makes her photos and story pop up.

Here is what Elisa had to say about this month's Color Spot.

"When I first saw the September Color Spot , the first papers that came to mind were part of the Timbergrove collection by Fancy Pants Design. It almost matched perfectly,less the navy papers. For a house full of boys and boyish layouts, I realized I don't have much navy... I found a 6x6 paper pack in my stash by Fancy Pants Design, Down By The Shore, containing a navy sheet.  As usual, when you stick with the same company, most usually, the papers will match, or at least compliment each other. 

Now as you may know, Timbergrove is a winter/holiday collection, quite full of hot chocolate, mittens, snowflakes and snowmen. It however perfectly matched my cozy, sleepy photo. Daddy and DS#3 had fallen asleep on the couch in a pretty cute pose. Those glasses are part of a costume, you know, the set with the fake nose and fuzzy moustache... The nose broke off, and the kids wear them, looking pretty goofy...or dapper, however you may see it. "  - Elisa Delora

How amazing is that?!   I love the her stitching is carried all over her page and the sprinkle of little hearts here and there, love!  Just like one cherishes the first bite into the chocolate covered strawberry, one can only cherish the father/son bond!!  She nailed the color spot perfectly!!"

Well, as I said, it was a pretty fun spot to do...I enjoyed it a lot. I also enjoy seeing themed papers used for other ordinary layouts, just to think outside the box. I thought it would be fun to try it too...

Thanks for looking!

Reveal day 132 featuring some Simple Stories

This week, I broke out this amazing collection by Simple Stories! I just love it! It's so LOUD! Just like my boys sometimes... *sigh*

But seriously, it's the perfect collection to feature the fun, loud and colorful pictures taken at the skate park this summer. We had a great time biking to the skate park, playing around with the hills and inclines and jumps. DS#3 even found some awesome graffiti of his favorite superheroes. We then went back for some frozen yogurt. It was an amazing afternoon of family time...


The sketch is by Becky Fleck at Pagemaps:

Here's my take on it:

Everything is by Simple Stories, the So Rad collection, except a bit of washi tape...maybe Queen & Co... It was a very simple collection to work with, everything matches, comes together easily... Yay! TFL!

Reveal day!!!!

It's reveal day again at Let's Capture Our Memories! Today's sketch is by Shirley Mijares Mascarina. I made a beach layout as it's still very much summer in my head. Here in my neck of the woods, we have a week before school starts and we're still making the most of it, as much as we can. I just love beach time- all that exploring and treasures... so relaxing!

This was made with Fancy Pants Nautical collection. There are a few corrugated stars from Jillibean Soup. This one was pretty simple and straight forward. Thanks for looking!

And here's my interpretation: