Worth 1000 Words

Things have been busy around our house as all of the kids' activities have their year-end events and the school year comes to an end. To add to the pandemonium of the season, we've added a new member to our family.

Meet Merlin. Hopefully the pictures tell the story, because I'm too swamped to post much more! Cheers!

Wedding Wonders

I'm so excited that the Summer issue of Canadian Scrapbooker is hitting the newsstands. An article titled Wedding Wonders in this issue features the wedding album I created for Scrapalicious using a Fancy Pants mixed media book and the Basic Grey Wisteria collection. It's on page 67.


The album is also featured in full on Canadian Scrapbooker's website. Here's the link so you can take a look.








I had to pull all of the images of this album down when I submitted it for publication and I haven't re-posted them yet, but here's the slide show I put together when I finished the album.




Be sure to pick up your copy of this fantastic magazine soon. It's available at Scrapalicious. There are a ton of talented scrapbookers featured - at a glance I saw my awesome friends Connie, Sue and Jen (and possibly a few more once I read the whole thing!) Check it out!

Scrapalicious Designs

A fly on the wall at our house on a Saturday morning would find it hard to believe that our girls love dance. While they have a wonderful time once they are there, getting them out of bed, fed and in the car en route to the studio on a Saturday morning can be a real chore! They want to stay in bed, play video games, swing, watch TV - literally anything ahead of heading to dance class! They really do have a love for it, though, and even enjoy practicing.

On the above layout I stamped the heart directly onto the photo using paint. Journaling says "The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found by the heart". I love the girls' ballet studio, and while I take pics of them during jazz, I find the colours in that room aren't as pretty.

The lovely, mellow gold paint in the ballet studio is probably why I scrap more ballet photos than jazz, tap or acro. Here, the girls were rehearsing for their ballet exams. I love the formality of ballet - the strict rules about hair buns and properly rolled socks, the little flowing skirts; the precision of the hand and foot positions. I thought these sweet photos went well with the pretty Prima papers and florals here. I spritzed the banner and used baker's twine to string it up.

Despite the femininity of most of the Prima Madeline papers, I thought that this one went particularly well with masculine photos. Here, Evan is warming up after a swim, wrapped snugly in a towel and basking in the hear of the sun. Looking back at this photo, I realize that he hasn't changed much, other than the addition of glasses and longer hair! I love the wood grain look of these Thickers, and you'll notice I got a ton of use from them.

If you're local, these pages are on display now at Scrapalicious, where this product is all available. Stop by and say hello!

Do you have plans for the long weekend? I'm hoping that the weather will be better than it's been lately, how about you? We've been inundated with rain this spring, so hopefully Mother Nature allows us some sunshine over the next three days.

I'm planning on getting some scrapping done this weekend too. Believe it or not, I don't think I'm finished with the ballet layouts! And now that I'm hopelessly addicted to Skype, hopefully some Skypebooking is in order. :-}

ETA: I almost forgot to mention, I used a sketch from Jana Eubank's sketch blog for the Reach High layout. You can see her sketch blog here - take a peek for lots of inspiration!

Have a wonderful long weekend! Cheers!

Always Hopping...

I've been so swamped lately, I've had NO time to blog! Between family birthdays, wedding showers, 50th birthday parties, kids activities and skypebooking - my latest scrappy venture - so much has happened that I haven't blogged yet! So I'll start with a peek at my latest Scrapalicious designs.

I totally love the new Maya Road zipper ribbons. Creating the above zipper ribbon flower was so easy! The zipper ribbon was a great match to the Prima Madeline papers I received from Scrapalicious, but that doesn't mean that the papers are limited to girl pages - as shown at left.


Donna Downey's foam stamps are fantastic for paint and I couldn't resist picking up three when they arrived at Scrapalicious. I know they're selling fast, so I'm not sure what's left but if you can, snap some up. I love the heart I used here, but the foliage ones rock too!


Last year we hosted our girls' birthday party in June. This year I did it a bit earlier. (OK, I'll admit it - their birthday was in February - but at least I beat last year!) Wow - a kitchen full of 8 year old girls is really LOUD, but everyone had a great time, which is what matters most!

I can't believe a month has passed since I started 12 of 12! Marking it on the calendar worked really well (and a reminder from Lee helped, too!) and I remembered to photograph our day this month. Here's a peek at my morning. One of these months I'll post all 12, but I'm not there yet!


With a long weekend coming up, I'm planning on getting the Scrapalicious pages I mentioned above posted, so stay tuned for that. Have a wonderful Victoria Day weekend. Hopefully we'll (finally) see some sunny weather!

Sky's The Limit!

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend an evening with amazing Canadian artist Amy Sky. Amy was singing at an concert event benefiting
Interim Place, which is the very worthwhile charity that we've been supporting at work since 2006. It was a fantastic performance!

But guess what was the icing on the cake for me - the official photographer for the function, a wonderful and talented man named John Goldstein was kind enough to take me under his wing and let me take some shots of the concert from right beside him backstage.

It was a fantastic learning opportunity. In the shot to the left, I spent some time adjusting ISO and shutter speed to try to partially illuminate the audience. John was very helpful. Having much experience shooting in the dark, he carried a tiny flashlight to help him see camera settings in the dark!

Brilliant - I've now stowed one in my camera bag! It was a fantastic night - I enjoyed some wonderful music, supported a great cause and definitely had a fun photography experience. Thanks, John!

If you're not familiar with Amy Sky, see her youtube channel here. To learn more about the wonderful work of Interim Place, click here.

Prima Projects for Scrapalicious

I'm very happy with how my projects for Scrapalicious with Prima's Madeline collection have turned out so far. The first project I created was this image transfer canvas. I used gel medium to transfer a colour copy of this photo of Alicia directly onto the canvas. I like the aged and distressed look it created.

You can see in this close up, the image almost looks like it was painted onto the canvas! The green foliage is a Donna Downey for Prima foam stamp. The letters for BLOOM in the title are grungeboard inked with Staz-On. The full title is Bloom where you're Planted.

I brushed Perfect Pearls on the Maya Road crown, spritzed a white Prima crocheted flower with Glimmer Mist to match the project, and surrounded the canvas with matching ribbon. These fun little altered art projects make our house feel so happy!

Butterflies, which are so prominent in this collection, are so fun and feminine that I knew my first few projects had to be girly.

I created this page from a sketch challenge at Scrap That! I printed it off and intended to submit, but time got away from me and the deadline slipped past - typical of me lately! Isn't it a great sketch, though?



This page features Vanessa, both solo as well as in her roles of daughter, sister and twin. Beneath her name, the journaling says "beautiful, inside and out".

I have more creations coming with this kit, so stay tuned!

Scrapalicious Sneak Peek

I have projects almost ready to share with you from Prima's Madeline collection. This collection is gorgeous; perfect for feminine pages, vintage projects - anything pretty. Here is a peek at one of my creations about our sweet Vanessa.

I'll be posting more soon, so stay tuned! Have a great week!

April's 12 of 12

I've been trying to do Project 365 for a number of years now, and haven't managed to make it all the way through the year. I was so inspired, though, by an idea I saw on Lee's blog - 12 of 12. Twelve photos, taken on the 12th of the month, each month for 12 months - what a great overview of daily life over the course of the year. So I decided to make it my next project.

Since the April 12th was a Tuesday, work was on the agenda for me, as well as school, piano practice and French class for the kids. I documented morning, work day, dinner time and evening, so I'm quite pleased with how my first attempt went. The photo above shows the passenger seat of my van. Since I spend a lot of time driving (what working Mom doesn't?) I keep a stash of necessary supplies at my fingertips: wipes, kleenex, hand lotion, chapsick and lip gloss, a comb, reading material for the inevitable time spent waiting to pick kids up, and plenty of audio books. Right now I am listening to Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed. It's looooooong - 19 discs - and I'm about halfway through.

There is always a snack for the drive handy today. Lately I've been keeping my diet quite healthy, so an apple made the cut on Tuesday. I haven't had time to edit and upload the rest of my photos, so this one will represent my 12 for this month.

Look for this to become a monthly tradition on my blog from now on. I think this will definitely be easier to keep up than a photo a day!

March Break at Niagara Falls

I mentioned last time that I would have a peek at the Scrapalicious projects I'm working on. We took a family trip to Niagara Falls over March Break, and I thought Best Creation's Travel Forever would be the perfect collection for a travel mini-album. Here's a sneak peek at the cover, more to follow soon!

This is the first time in recent years that we have visited Niagara Falls and not stayed at Great Wolf Lodge. The kids love it there, but we tend to spend our entire time at the resort and don't venture out to show the kids the falls. So we did it differently this time, and stayed close to the falls.

Despite what an absolute breathtaking wonder the falls are - we take them for granted, living so close, don't you think? - there is only so much time the kids want to spend looking at them. We decided to take in a magic show at the Greg Frewin theatre. Definitely worth doing if you get the chance.

We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and after the show we went up on stage and had our photo taken with one of the tigers. The kids were a bit nervous. Notice that there seems to be a common lean in my direction and away from the tiger?! Regardless, we had fun up on the stage and the kids couldn't wait to see our photo. (In case you were wondering, yes, there is a barrier between us and the tiger!)

Along with the above, we had dinner at a restaurant with singing servers, which was also a lot of fun. The hotel's pool didn't compare to the water slides at Great Wolf Lodge, but we still spend hours in the pool and had a great time.

Thanks to my friend Lee's recommendation, I read Brene Brown's book The Gift of Imperfection pretty much non-stop during the trip. I found it completely insightful. Use the link above to take a look. Brene's work is such perfect inspiration for the art journaling that I've been doing lately. You can also follow her blog here.

Speaking of memorable times, are you heading to Scrapfest this weekend? I hope to see many familiar faces there. I decided just to visit and shop; I'm not cropping this time, so there is no need for my blinged-up helmet! :-} I hope to see you there! Don't forget to drop by the Scrapalicious booth to say HI to everyone and check out the latest and greatest product!

Donna Downey Weekend

Two weekends ago (I know, I've been slow on the draw with this blog lately - I'm working on it!) I was lucky enough to take a Donna Downey workshop with my friends Sue, Lori and Lee. It was my 2nd Donna workshop, and I knew it would be inspiring, but it far exceeded my expectations!
The event was hosted by Karen Ellis at The Art House Studio in Kitchener. Karen is both a gracious and fun hostess, and she made everything about the weekend so wonderful! Here's a look at one of my pages from the Life's Artistry class. Yes - that is my own handwriting on the page! Donna made it all so easy, I had to try it!
After dinner on Saturday night, Sue and I were so inspired that we headed back to my house where we scrapped until - get this - 5AM! At left is my project from Donna's Swatches workshop last summer. I was nervous about writing on it last year, but after today's workshop I took the plunge and finished all 3 Swatches. More pics to follow soon.

With all of the fun I've been having with mixed media art lately, don't think I've forgotten about the gorgeous DT kit I have waiting from Scrapalicious. I've been playing with those gorgeous Prima and fun Best Creations papers too, and will have a peek to show you very soon. Thanks for stopping by!

The Latest from Scrapalicious

I can't wait to get creating with my latest DT kit from Scrapalicious. Along with a cool 7Gypsies accordion album, I have a wealth of brand new supplies from Prima's gorgeous Madeline collection, Best Creations latest Travel Forever collection and embellies from Imaginisce, Maya Road and MME.

I'm in the process of planning a travel album from one of our recent trips, along with some pretty ballet pages with the Madeline papers. Between work, school, hockey, piano, dance and Cubs, the kids keep me on the run pretty much 24/7, and I'm not left with lots of creative time lately - but I hope to make the most of the extra time I'll get at home since some activities are cancelled over March Break.

So stay tuned for some creations to come, and have a wonderful March Break!

Me: The Abridged Version

In late 2010 I took the Me: The Abridged Version class from Cathy Zielske through Big Picture Classes. This is the first time I've created an album totally about me, and finding photos of me wasn't easy! I'm usually behind the camera! But this album is as much about stories as it is about photos.

Based on Amy Krouse Rosenthal's book Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, this album is built in encyclopedia format, with entries under each letter focusing on words that are meaningful to me. The process of choosing my words, finding or taking photos to go along with each letter, and writing the journaling was quite time consuming, but well worth it.

A few weeks back I spent the weekend at my friend Leanne's awesome new scrap-loft and I worked for many hours on this album. It was fun, but very thought provoking and introspective at the same time. I'm not finished yet - I still have to create the journaling for many of the pages - but the photos and papers are already assembled, so once journaling is printed, the album will be ready. I've posted a pic the title page above. The papers are K & Co. I will share more of this album once it's complete.

If you've ever thought about taking this class, I encourage you to go for it. It's not available at the moment, but I believe BPC re-offers it each year.

By the way, Leanne is a leap year baby, so it was just her (almost) birthday earlier this week. Happy Birthday Leanne! Thanks for being my pal in both scrapbooking and procrastinating about scrapbooking - I don't know which is more fun!

Love According to Twitter Mini Album

I made this Twitter mini-album as a present to my sweet husband for Valentine's Day this year. The album itself is 7Gypsies, and all of the remaining supplies are from WRMK's Be My Valentine collection. The title Twitter came in an embellishment pack and I couldn't resist making it the topic of this album.

I included the character count for all of my journaling, keeping everything under 140 characters, Twitter style! Although it wasn't a surprise - my hubby saw the album in it's vary stages of completion - he loved the finished product.


Each of the journaled pages are embellished with a little bird and hearts cut from the Be My Valentine papers. I had fun tracking down and sorting out all of the photos of Stephen doing all of his favourite things. Here he is playing DJ at a friend's party.





I included photos of him with the kids.











I included photos of just the two of us.








Every 2-page spread is made up of a full-page photo and a smaller photo with journaling. This particular set of pages showcases our very first photo as a family of 5, alongside a similar photo taken 5 years later. I think this is my favourite page.


The back cover uses the title chipboard Valentine from the same pack of embellies as the front cover title. I think it finishes off the album nicely. The WRMK Be My Valentine line was so cute to work with. I think it's the perfect way to capture those Valentine's Day sentiments for your sweetheart!

If you are local, you can drop by Scrapalicious and take a peek at the album for yourself. Hope to see you there!

A Day for Lovebirds!

I'm so excited to finally reveal the Valentine's Day creations I've made for Scrapalicious. These four layouts, all from WRMK's Be My Valentine collection, are all very different from one another and they were all so much fun to create. On this lovely die-cut page I used a combination of die cut and chipboard word title. The Prima gems help highlight the love bird theme. There's no one else I'd rather be out on a limb with than my hubby!


Here is a close up of the birdies on a branch, along with a zoom of a couple of photos of me with my handsome man! :-}







With the word Adore as one of my chipboard titles, I couldn't help but do a page about our three children. I loved the photos from this shoot, and thought they were well suited to the Adore theme.











The little chipboard tag says "Love stays in bloom all year round". I love it!










To outline the heart on this layout of sweet Vanessa I used the new WRMK Sew Easy tool. I had a lot of fun using the remaining scraps from making my mini-album into a quilt to mat this layout. And the title Smitten suits how I feel about Vanessa to a T!








In this close-up photo you can see the gorgeous self-adhesive felt and the stunning stitched cardstock background that are part of the Be My Valentine collection.





This stitched cardstock was originally white. I misted it with a number of Glimmer Mists to create a watercolour washed-like background for all of these little index size prints. This layout was inspired by a layout by Karen Grunburg in which I loved her use of index prints and I had a ton left over from last fall's Donna Downey class, so I used them here. I used Stickles to add visibility to the title.


Here's a close up of my journaling. It says "We may not have the perfect marriage, a perfect house or perfect kids. What we have is better. We have perfect love." What a perfect sentiment for this Valentine's Day post. I'll be back soon with my Twitter mini-album, so be sure to check back.


Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Love According to Twitter

Happy Valentine's Day! Celebrating the important loves in our lives is such a wonderful occasion for a holiday, and I hope you all enjoy your day and are able to spend it with someone special!

Here is a peek at the Valentine mini-album I made for my hubby using WRMK's beautiful Be My Valentine line, available at Scrapalicious. If you are last minute shopping for that special someone, this collection has a ton of quick and easy embellishments, so check it out and make something today!

I have taken pics of this album but still have to upload them, so stay tuned. If you're local, check this album out, along with four more layouts (which I'm also posting soon) at Scrapalicious.

Is it Too Late...?

Is it too late to say Happy New Year? Seriously, I can't believe I haven't posted for 2011 yet. We've had a very hectic (but good!) past few weeks and I haven't been able to find a moment in between to update my blog. In addition to a slide show of 2010's December Daily photos, I have so much to catch up on posting.

Let's see. . . as you can probably tell from the above photo, we were lucky enough to have a somewhat last-minute trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida this month. So yes, I have over 500 photos to go through and edit from that trip. One of my favourites is above. Contrast that with our first trip there three years ago here, and you can really notice how much the kids have grown!

Additionally, I have a mini album and four layouts with WRMK's Be My Valentine collection that I've created for Scrapalicious to show you. Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and this line is so perfect for it!

I've also selected my word of the year for 2011 (unveiling to follow!) and joined Ali Edwards in her One Little Word class at Big Picture Classes, and I am very excited about it; (in fact my friend Leanne and I will be working on our album for this class up in cottage country this weekend). Leanne and I are also taking another BPC class in February from the amazing Karen Grunberg of Creative Therapy. Her theme is embracing perfection, and while registration for this workshop is closed, Karen is offering another online class in February that looks fantastic - it's called Finding Your Way. I'm still thinking whether I can squeeze this one in; I would sure love to!

And for those of you close by, registration for Scrapfest opens Wednesday, February 2nd, (so be ready - helmets optional!); I'm looking forward to chatting with Lee Currie and a wonderful group of scrap-minded women in a Creative Conversation in a few weeks; Donna Downey is coming to The Art House in March (Sue, Lori and I will be there!); Tricia Ladouceur is coming to Scrapalicious in March too, and so very much much more! 2011 is going to be a fun-filled year!

Stay tuned for all of this and more, coming soon.

Oh, and a huge, belated but heartfelt Happy 2011 to you all. Cheers!

From Everyone at Our House...

Wishing you a blessed Christmas and a joyous, peaceful 2011.