Destination Create: Part II

What to Pack for a Crop...

I'm not a great mobile scrapper, I'll admit it. I do most of my scrapbooking at my kitchen table after my family is in bed, so packing up my scrap tote to scrap away from home is a challenge! Being faced with what to bring along and what to leave at home, I started a list; I thought I would share it with you. Here's a bit of a peek into my rolling tote, packed and ready for Destination Create:

Papers - cardstock, patterned papers and paper collections, scrapbooking kit club kits, die cut and specialty papers, specialty cardstock
Photos - don't want to forget these! :-)
Cutting Tools - portable trimmer, cutting mat, ruler, craft knife and extra blades, circle cutter, corner rounder, border punches, shape punches
Die Cutting Tools - die cutter, fonts and shapes, embossing folders
Stamping Tools - alpha and decorative stamps, inks, paints, embossing ink and heat tool, embossing powders, stamp cleaner or wipes, stamping blocks/press, watercolour paints or pencils, paint brushes, foam brushes
Adhesives - ATG gun and refill, glue dots, foam pop-up dots, liquid adhesive, Glossy Accents clear liquid adhesive, mod podge, glue stick, skinny glue pen
Writing Tools - pencils, pens, markers
Altering Supplies - mini-albums, Heidi Swapp clock face
Distressing Tools - sandpaper, Basic Grey file kit, Making Memories distressing kit, emery board
Lettering Supplies - letter stickers and alignment template, chipboard letters, letter rub-ons, Thickers, ghost letters. Since I'm not bringing a computer or printer, I'm bringing some pre-print journaling, and LOTS of tiny letter stickers by Making Memories, in tons of colours
Embellishments - ribbons, flowers, brads, Maya Road sheer journaling spots and chipboard shapes, rhinestones, transparent overlays, Grungeboard, any other cool items you've purchased and haven't take out of the package yet! ;-)
Camera Bag - camera, extra memory card and batteries (what fun is a crop if you can't take photos to scrap later?)
Inspiration - sketches, magazines, idea books, journals or notes - whatever inspires you!

Well, I think that covers it, although I suspect once I've arrived, I'll realize I've forgotten something - hopefully not anything crucial! Feel free to use this list to bag your own scrappy tote, or leave a comment if you think of something I've forgotten. Happy cropping!

Run, Don't Walk!

If you can envision how you would like to alter a shadow box similar to the Collector's Box by Martha Stewart Crafts, pictured at left, then get moving!

Michael's is currently clearing out most of these in a variety of colours and sizes.

I bought a few from the Michael's near me that are 8.5" wide x 11" high x 1.5" deep and were originally priced at $27.99. I paid $2.50 each for them!

I haven't quite determined what exactly I'm going to be doing with these, but at that price, it doesn't matter! Run, don't walk! They're lovely, and they won't last long!


photo from marthstewartcrafts.com

Destination Create: Part I

I'm terrifically excited right now.

You see, for National Scrapbook Day, I will be at a wonderful event called Destination Create. Hosted by the fantastic gals at The Scrapping Nook, DC is going to be a great time, with classes, cropping, shopping, visiting with online friends and trying new things! I can't wait. One of the new things I'm excited about trying isn't all that new - it's the Basic Grey Magnetic Precision mat.


This terrific tool was released quite a while ago, but to me it's still new - in fact, mine still in it's original packaging. When it arrived on the scrapping scene, this 15" square magnetic cutting mat sounded like just the thing for me - and I still think it is! My challenge is that I'm usually so pressured for time when I scrap that I don't try my innovative new purchases. Instead, I rely on my tried and true methods and tools. And I have a number of wonderful, unopened packages to prove it!

Well, I'm so convinced that BG's Precision Mat will be a tool that I love, that I have already packed it in my rolling tote for the crop. I'm determined to start using it. How will it work for me? Stay tuned; I'll let you know after Destination Create!

Family Photo Tribute

When we were at Stephen's Mom's house during Easter, I finally managed to take a picture of this memorial photo tribute I put together for Stephen's grandparent's memorial in late 2006. It matches the memorial layouts I created and posted previously
here and here.

I literally finished this frame the morning it was needed, so never did manage to get a decent photo of it back then. To the left of the wedding photo is a photo of Stephen's grandparents celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary, just before Gramps died. The bottom centre photo shows Stephen's Mom and Uncle as kids, together with Babcha's siblings and their spouses. Grandchildren and great grandchildren are in the bottom corners - that's us in the lower right.

The prominent "m" in the word family represents the family's last name. As with the layouts, I used primarily Cosmo Cricket's Wanted collection for this project. I love it's old world feel. The transparency scroll is Hambly. This is eventually going to hang in Stephen's Mom's house together with the framed layouts. The hall just outside Babcha's bedroom has already been selected to house the memorial display.

It's Spring All Right!

So bright and fresh - that is what my newest DT kit from Scrapalicious is!

Bursting with colour, the latest My Mind's Eye release is as lively and fun as spring. Add to that a little SEI and a bit of Core'dinations cardstock, a touch of American Crafts Thickers, a pinch of Making Memories and the sweetest stamps from Inque Boutique, and you have fresh air in the making!


I can't wait to grab a few sunshiny photos and start digging into this kit. Stay tuned for the results in the next little while.

The Winter Blues are officially Over!

I can't believe it. Scraptivity's Scrap Away Your Winter Blues challenge ended last weekend, and I managed to complete all 12 layouts. I have to admit, it took a bit of a scrapping marathon last weekend, but I did it. The challenge for the first layout below, Week 12, was to use doodling. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think I have ever used doodling on a layout before, so this was truly a first for me.

I used a template from Paper Pizazz as a guide for the swirls, and I really like the result. This is one of my favourite photos of Vanessa.

Journaling says: Vanessa, It’s not just your love of all things girly that makes you such a beautiful person. Things like pretty dresses and colourful jewellery, wearing your long hair curly with lovely clips; yes, these things make you beautiful. But it is your compassion and caring, your kindness and selflessness that make you truly beautiful. 4 years old, May 2007
The challenge for Week 6 was colouring, and although I left this one to the end, I loved doing it. I coloured the background paper using watercolour pencils and Twinkling H2O watercolour paints. It was a lot of work, but I like the way it turned out. Journaling on the tag talks about how our dd loves flowers so much, including dandelions, and she gets upset if anyone tells her it’s a weed!
To see this KI Memories paper before I coloured it, scroll down here
I left the sewing challenge for Week 8 for last, and posted this page moments before the deadline. Evan really wanted piñata for his 6th birthday party. I stitched the line where the lanterns are hanging at the top of this layout. I love these K & Co. lanterns!

Journaling says: Evan, for your 6th birthday, all you wanted was a party with a piñata! I searched everywhere for a Star Wars one, but finally settled on Batman for you. You were thrilled! Happy Birthday, dude!
Week 11's challenge involved choosing an design from Scraptivity's digital elements, and I chose the bingo card for this page about how much the kids love playing games with their Grandma and Papa. I was working on this page at Scrapalicious crop when the kind lady sitting next to me won some American Crafts foam shapes in a draw. I was commenting on how adorable they were and we noticed how nicely they would fit on my page. She generously gave them to me! Scrappers are wonderful people!

Whew! While I'm suffering from scrapbooking exhaustion, I'm thrilled at the layouts I completed during this challenge, and am actually feeling a bit of withdrawal now that it's over. Thanks, Scraptivity and Canadian Scrapbooker for some wonderful scrappy inspiration over the past 12 weeks.

Coming up soon - stay tuned for a peek at the next set of exciting products I will be designing with in my latest Scrapalicious DT kit!

Outtakes!

Taking photos is a reasonably regular occurrence around our house, and most of the time a request to look nice in front of the camera is met with co-operation and a happy smile. There are occasionally, however, less than stellar moments in front of the lens in this house. When I was photographing the draw of the winning entry for my recent RAK, I met with a little bit of craziness!
Believe it or not, Vanessa is not actually in a bad mood in these shots. She is simply trying to have the world's biggest pout. If I didn't already know that Evan has a pout second to none, I may actually have called Guinness to see if she achieved some sort of World Record! The other two were giggling away while watching Vanessa's antics. I'm amazed we managed to complete the draw!

Open House Fun

Scrapalicious' second store is now officially open in Oakville, and the Open House on Friday night was fantastic! A great group of friendly scrapbookers were there, anxious to check out the latest, greatest arrivals from winter CHA - and the awesome, new product was everywhere, as were familiar faces! The Open House ran from 6pm to 9pm, and the store was rocking the whole time!
The freshly remodeled store looks fantastic in its signature colours of pink and brown. Of course, Lancia was colour co-ordinated to match the store. While we're on the topic of great colours, stop by and check out the great new Core'dinations cardstock - beautiful new textured cardstock with a coloured core. Sand, tear or emboss it to reveal the matching inner colour. It's really cool stuff.
I snapped some photos of Lancia, Mike, Virginia and the rest of the crew, which includes Cathy and Adriana - hello to all! I also bumped into a few friends as I shopped. While I arrived too late to see Jen, I managed to meet Angie's Mom and adorable new daughter, and ran into Lee who I used to scrap with when I first started out (I'm waving ferociously - Hi Lee!!)
So if you're local to Oakville, drop by and check out the newest Making Memories, Basic Grey, Maya Road, My Mind's Eye, SEI, new Chatterbox (they're back!), a great selection of Inque Boutique stamps, Core-dinations cardstock and so much more. And if you're not local, don't despair. I picked up my newest Design Team kit, so I'll be showing you some of this great product soon.


There are more Open House photos, as well as important details such as the store's hours and location on Virginia's blog, here.

It's Date Night!

I have a blind date tonight....

with my favourite scrapping store's newest location. If you haven't heard yet, tonight there is an Open House at the awesome new Scrapalicious Oakville! Join in on the fun from 6pm - 9pm. See more details on Virginia's blog, and get directions here. It'll be my first time there, too, so don't be shy - drop by!

I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

A Blast from the Past!

It's a busy birthday time around our house, so (slightly belated) Happy Birthday wishes are coming a number of people's way today!

Not only did my darling husband just have a birthday, but so did his Uncle Danny, our good friend Nicole, and my sweet friend and former co-worker, Heidi (left). Since I left Consilium behind just over 3 years ago, I haven't made the loonnnng trek out there very often - but Heidi's birthday was definitely a good reason, so last week I paid a visit!
Visiting with my former colleagues was wonderful, and it's funny how sitting and chatting with them makes it feel like it's been ages, yet just yesterday - both at the same time. Sadly, my camera wasn't in my purse that day, so I was forced to dig out some older photos for this post. These are from 2004 and 2005.

In the second photo, Jane is posing with me and a few pictures that Evan made to thank her for some little gifts that she sent home with me for him back then. Suitably, the photo I'm holding is his sketch of the office building we're standing in. Isn't it cute? Jane was kind enough to give it back to me when I left, so I'll be able to scrap it one day!

It was great seeing Heidi, Jane, Michele C., Candace, Robin I., Michael G., Josie, Wendy and Andrew, talking to Lisa on the phone (I hope you're feeling better now), and waving to a number of others while they worked. And Laura-Lea, I can't believe I missed you again, but we'll definitely hook up soon!

On a blogging note, technology has not been my friend lately - I've had some blogger access issues, in addition to problems with my slide account and with my access to gmail. Grrr! So those of you I owe e-mails, RAKs or other things to, please bear with me. My head's above water, but barely!

Next post, I will update you on the four final layouts I created for the Scrap Away the Winter Blues challenge at Scraptivity. And yes, I created all four in a frenzied scrapping marathon last weekend! More on that to follow, so stay tuned. :-)

Another Scrapalicious Layout

I've created another layout with my latest DT kit from Scrapalicious. For this page I added watercolour paints to a white cardstock background and layered it behind this wonderful, die cut Making Memories 5th Avenue paper. The coloured flowers have a bit of shimmer from the cool LuminArts' Twinkling H2O watercolour paints I used here. It was my first time trying them and I am definitely adding them to my wish list. Vanessa was two years old in this photo of her in her Easter dress.

New and exciting things continue to happen at a fast pace over at Scrapalicious, so check out Virigina's blog and Scrapalicious.ca for the latest news. The new Oakville location will be celebrating its grand opening soon, and you won't want to miss it. Stay tuned!

Around Our House Lately

If you aren't familiar with the latest Bakugan craze, then you haven't been to our house lately. In addition to my scrap supplies, which have temporarily taken over the dining room due to a recent scrap challenge I'm participating in, these round, magnetic creatures have taken over our home. They can keep Evan occupied for hours some days!

Our house has been a busy place lately. A combination of school field trips, work activities, hockey tournaments and scrapbooking contests have taken precedent over much of the routine household tasks - which I will accomplish at some point, when I can catch my breath. The past week was particularly filled with non-stop activity, and I will be updating the blog with much of it soon.

We had a wonderful visit with cousins Sierra and Kristian over the Easter weekend, and the kids had a wonderful time together. There are a few of my favourite shots below, so take a peek. Have a great week!

A Momentous Page

I've had this page in my head ever since I bought the MM scalloped heart around Valentine's Day last year!

Well, I finally put it all together, inspired by Scraptivity's Winter Blues challenge. Week 5's topic was hand cut designs, so this swirl paper was perfect for it. I love playing with my titles, so just imagine my excitement when I realized that the word "momentous" had not only the word "moment" in it, but also "mom to u"! What fun! Evan took this photo of me moments after the girls surprised me with a Mother's Day bouquet of lilacs. The journaling (on the tag under the picture) tells the story:

"This photo of me was taken on Mother’s Day, 2006. I remember the day so well. We were visiting and playing in the playground behind Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Evan decided that he wanted to take a picture of me on Mother’s Day. So I gave him the camera and a few tips. Just as he was about to take the photo, Alicia and Vanessa surprised me with a bouquet of lilacs. They chose them because they were my favourite colour, purple.

I took the flowers from the girls and inhaled the beautiful lilac fragrance for just a moment – and at that precise moment, Evan snapped the photo. He did such a great job. I love it. That moment was a big one for me. As I stood there, with my big boy using a camera and my girls picking the perfect flowers for me, I realized – my kids are not babies anymore. They’ve grown so much, and they are only going to keep growing faster and faster. Wow. I’m such a lucky Mom.

I want to savour every moment. Happy Mother’s Day to Me!"

There are only five days remaining to complete layouts for the Winter Blues challenge in order to be eligible for all of the prizes. Guess who still has four layouts to catch up on!? Somehow :-) I'm doubtful that I will complete that many by this weekend, but stay tuned and I will post whatever I do manage to finish!

Lace Cardstock makes me Happy!

I'm still having a great time with the KI lace cardstock from my latest Scrapalicious DT kit. This time I didn't have the right colour to match my layout, so I flipped it over and used the white side on the back. I paired it up with flocked paper from Heidi Grace for a more elegant look to accommodate this wedding photo of my brother-in-law Justin and his beautiful wife Rosa. Look closely and you can see little hearts in some of the flocked circles - so sweet. I added a bit of Heidi Swapp chipboard and plastic letters for the title.

On the topic of happy things, I'm so thrilled that Scrapalicious is opening a second location in Oakville this month. I can't think of anything more wonderful than multiplying such a fantastic store times two! Check the Scrapalicious blog for the latest updates and see you there!

We have a Winner!

Thanks to everyone who left a stamping tip on my blogoversary RAK post. Today I finally had a chance to get all of the names cut out and into a basket for my kids to do the draw. Once my daughter drew a name I had to try a few times to get a decent photo with it. I may post the outtakes from the draw when I get a chance - they're quite funny! Congratulations to Mandiannie - you've won!
Mandiannie said:
Fiskars products are the best. I personally haven't gotten one of these yet and would love a chance to win one. I did give one to my sister for Christmas last year even though I badly wanted to keep it for myself.
Thanks again to everyone who left a comment, and thanks also for making my blog a part of your daily routine.

Please keep dropping by - it makes posting so much more fun to know that there are readers out there who enjoy a little bit of scrapping fun and a few tidbits about our corner of the world!

New Scrapalicious Designs

Here are two new pages I created for Scrapalicious. Front and centre is KI Memories's lace cardstock. This product is versatile and so much fun. The two pieces I used here are from the Pop Culture collection. The layout to the left also includes embossed cardstock from the Love, Elsie line, as well as some Making Memories tags.

Notice the sanded house in the title? Home is truly where the heart is, and my heart belongs to the wacky gang in this photo!
On the topic of wacky behaviour, get a load of the expression on this birthday boy's face! Around the time of his birthday last year, I was taking a photography course and set up my very first garage photo shoot. I wanted to take a picture of Evan with the seven. He absolutely did not want his picture taken that day!

I cajoled, I bribed, I tried everything I could think of. This was the best shot I could get. I warned him back then that I would use it. I don't think he believed me.


Do you think he will believe me next time? :-)

I have more Scrapalicious layouts coming soon using more lace cardstock and KI Pop Culture paper, as well as a little bit of Heidi Grace. I will also be posting the winner of my recent RAK drawing, so check back again soon!

Ribbon Joy

I'm still not caught up yet in Scraptivity's Winter Blues challenge, but I have once again completed the current week's layout. The challenge for Week 10 was to use three different kinds of ribbon. I've wanted to scrap this photo for a while now. It's a detail shot of the chairs set up for the family wedding we went to in Jamaica last November. I wanted the ribbon I used to mimic the ribbon tied around the chairs. This is more linear, graphic layout that I what I usually do, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Journaling says: Moments before Rosa walked down the aisle to marry Justin, I was struck by the beauty of these wonderful chairs waiting empty on the beach, wrapped in such beautifully draped white fabric with pink bows, awaiting the family and friends anxious to witness the joyful wedding.

Also, just a reminder, Monday August 24th is the final day to enter for a chance to win a Fiskars Easy Stamp Press RAK. If you haven't already, toss your name in the hat by giving me your best stamping tip on this previous post. You just might win!

Wishing a blessed and happy Easter to you and your family.

Scrapalicious Sneak Peek

I really enjoyed working with lace cardstock from KI Memories in my latest DT kit from Scrapalicious. There are just so many ways to use this cool product.

I will have a few pages ready soon, including this one, which features a photo of Evan taken for his 7th birthday. He was less than co-operative with his shutterbug mama that day. Despite my warnings that if he didn't smile, I would use the miserable poses I had, he continued to refuse to look happy. The result? Well, I guess no one can say that I only scrap the happy pictures, that's for sure!

Stay tuned for this layout and more, coming soon!

Scenic Summer

I miss summer, and looking at these photos doesn't help matters much! I love to watch the kids enjoy each others' company surrounded by beautiful flowers and the wonderful smell of a barbecued lunch. Summer is such fun; good thing it's on its way!

Speaking of fun, I had a blast creating this layout at a recent class that my friend Leanne and I took with Vicki Boutin. If you have a chance to take a class with Vicki, jump at it! Not only is she a fabulous scrapbooker, but her classes are a ton of fun, too.

The bird, flowers and hearts on this patterned paper immediately made me think of warmer weather and my kids' love of the pool, which is why I chose these photos for this layout. The entire layout, with the exception of the sequins, is from Scenic Route's Loveland collection. I hope this page gets you looking forward to warm weather, too!

Wishing for Spring

The Scrap Away Your Winter Blues challenge at Scraptivity this week is to create a mono-chromatic layout. Could it be that my desire for spring was behind my choice of colour for this one? My all green layout is about Alicia's love for picking flowers with her great-grandmother, Babcha, before Babcha passed away.

This layout is for week 9 of the challenge. I'm still behind on a few of the weekly layouts for this challenge due to our vacation in February. I have a layout almost complete for week 5, which focuses on hand cutting, so look for that soon. Weeks 6 and 8 will follow later. Then next week's challenge will be posted on Monday.

It sounds like I'm going to be doing a lot of scrapping in the next few weeks!