A Few New Layouts

When I say that these are new pages, I'm speaking relatively, since I created these pages back during the National Scrapboook Day weekend, and just haven't had a moment to post them yet. In fact, I'm holding this layout (sans journaling) in my NSD post! I had just bought the Bloomers the week I made this page, and was so anxious to use them. I used Maya Mist and ink to colour the alabaster laquered paper, then distressed the edges.
This photo was taken back when the girls were in kindergarten. Vanessa lost a tooth that day at school, and when I arrived to pick them up that night, she wanted a photo, but wanted her sister in it too. So sweet! If you look closely, the Prima swirl extends onto the photo and wraps around the little tooth in her hand.
The photo on this page is very special. It is the only photo I have of my great-grandmother on my father's side. My cousin sent it to me when I was creating my Mom's 80th birthday scrapbook, and I've been meaning to scrapbook it ever since. My great-grandmother's name was Eftina, and the family resemblance I see in this photo to my aunts and grandmother (and even myself) is quite amazing. We don't have a date for this photo, but it is likely from the early 1900s.
Journaling on this page tells how much I wish I knew more of my Dad's family when I was growing up. Eftina died before I was born. My grandmother lived away when I was growing up and died when I was 12. I barely remember meeting her. I wish I had had more of a chance to know that side of my family.

Swatches Class with Donna Downey

Taking a class from Donna Downey was a fantastic experience, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to upload my photos and blog about it!

It was early June-ish when Sue and I took Donna's Swatches class, and it made me wish I was registered for the entire weekend of classes! The techniques we learned were completely new to us, and I really see them changing the way I use products and supplies when I create.
Along with having a fantastic sense of humour and - of course - an amazing degree of creative talent, Donna has a wonderful teaching style. I loved her interspersed product tips, anecdotes and advise. Sue also posted on her blog about this class and included lots of photos, so take a look here.

In this photo, Donna holds one of her finished Swatches as she discusses technique with us. Donna also taught a number of other classes while she was here, including an apron and inspiration journal. I would have loved to attended all of her classes. Looking through her personal inspiration journal was an amazing experience. If you have an opportunity to take a class from Donna, jump at it! You will thoroughly enjoy it and you'll learn a ton.

After class, we had a chance to chat with some awesome gals I met at Scrapfest, Karen and Dorrie. Then Jennifer met us for a yummy lunch at Red Lobster. It was great to see everyone.
I'm not finished framing my canvases yet but once I have, I will post them here. Donna has now discontinued this class, so we were very lucky to be the final students to have a chance to take it. I've now developed a love for gesso, pastels and molding paste! I can't wait to play with them some more.

Lots of Scrapalicious pages

I feel like it's been ages since I posted some layouts. Even though I haven't been posting all that much lately, I have been scrapping. I have quite a few layouts to post yet, but I'm going to start with my latest for Scrapalicious. This page features Basic Grey's Capella and Heidi Swapp Invisibles letter stickers. This layout is all about why I scrapbook - to enable my children to have a vivid history of their childhood; to help them remember.
I love these little Capella die cut tags, and clustered them together with some tiny pics. The word YES above is made with Invisibles stickers misted with chalkboard Glimmer Mist. In the bottom right corner a 7 Gypsies sticker says "What we remember from childhood, we remember forever".
Patterned paper for this layout is a vellum page from Webster's Pages, paired with a sheet of pink cardstock upon which I masked a Tim Holtz pattern with some Maya Mist. In the photo I am pouring birdseed into Vanessa's hand (no easy feat to do while trying to photograph it at the same time!) She loved feeding the birds at the park near Grandma & Grandpa's on Easter morning. Swirls of Prima's E-line pearls represent the birdseed.
Once again I used Heidi Swapp Invisibles letter stickers for the title. This time I inked them with chalk ink, which allowed the resist pattern to show up quite well. I tried misting, painting and inking these stickers, and I found the mist to be quite subtle, and ink to be more vibrant.
My Mom is the star of this page, which is a page I created for Scrapalicious (but a bit late for the Scrapalicious booth at Scrapfest) back in April. I used exclusively Chatterbox product for this page, including the alabaster laquered paper, some lace paper and patterned paper, as well as embellies of cork, chipboard, and transparency.

These are all vintage photos of my Mom that I scanned and printed.
All of these Chatterbox products go so well together, and they are available in sets at great prices at Scrapalicious.








I am lucky enough to have the world's most adorable niece, and I've managed to visit with her twice in the past year and will be able to document her changes and growth with the photos I've taken. Aeden is the daughter of my brother Chris and his wife Lisa. She is not only adorable, but smart too - she has Mommy and Daddy wrapped around her little finger!




I love love LOVE the Maya Road leaf pins I used here and - of course - these gorgeous Webster's Pages Bloomers in various colours. The papers for this layout are from October Afternoon.






Another page using the Basic Grey Capella paper line, Heidi Swapp Invisibles letter stickers and Webster's Pages Bloomers. While Capella was designed to be (and is) a wonderful wedding line, it is also so versatile and can be used for almost any type of page, even a girly layout. Here is our sweet Alicia, always making us laugh. On this page, I inked the title stickers and added a touch of pretty Stickles to "Kind" to add a bit of shimmer.
I loved mixing this line with Bloomers, ribbon, and folded, scalloped paper trim to add a feminine touch.
I had a blast creating this group of pages for Scrapalicious. Stop by the store if you are local and take a peek. This awesome product is available there, and some is listed in the online store too.

I still have pages that I created back at NSD to post sometime soon, as well as the scoop on my Donna Downey class details, so stay tuned!

Meeting Donna Downey

I can't believe that it's been more than a month since I took a class from the awesome Donna Downey and I haven't even posted about it yet. Sue and I thoroughly enjoyed the class and learned a TON! Donna is as adorable and brilliantly creative in person as I expected. Seeing her art up close was amazing!

I promise I'll post more about it soon!

My Little Scrapbook Room....

It was a nice treat on the morning of Canada Day to sit at my computer with my coffee, visit one of my favourite scrappy blog sites - ScrapScene - and see a picture of my scrapbook room featured in a post! :-}

Take a peek at the story here.

Sneak Peek at Scrapalicious Projects

Happy Canada Day, everyone! I hope you had a fantastic day. We spent most of the day with friends and the kids spent hours in the pool.

I managed to get a bit of creative time too, and I've made some projects for Scrapalicious which I will be posting soon. Here's a peek - stay tuned for more!