Mega Crop with Younique

On January 21st, my scrapping friend Sandy and I were so excited to attend a MegaCrop in Guelph hosted by Younique Country Retreat. What a fabulous day! Heather and her team kept us well fed and entertained throughout the day...and we got lots of scrapping done as well. Here are my four favourite layouts from the day.

The first is a layout of my DD's friend Laura (Do I Feel Cold?). Rachel photoshopped the pic to add the snow, but it was such a cute picture screaming out for some great snowflake inspired papers. I love the blue/brown combination of this paper, and it was a great time to use my Maya Road chipboard snowflakes.

Another chilly layout, this time of DD Rachel and her friend Melissa and son Cayden. On New Year's Eve they took Cayden ice skating. I guess I was still in a blue/brown mood because I used the same colour scheme for this layout LOL.

I have started working on an album for my sister-in-law, capturing her twin daughters, Lorna and Heather, throughout their childhood. The "girls" are now in their 30s, but it was a lot of fun going through the photos and trying to figure out which one was which. There is still lots to do on this album, but these two pictures of the "dance days" were a great start. It was a lot of fun to choose the colours for these layouts...and a chance to use lots of bling - gotta love that!

For the first one I was able to find a paper that nearly matched perfectly the bodice of Heather's dance outfit. I punched along the edges and weaved embroidery thread through the loops to mimic a corset.

And for the last one, I wanted to add lots of bling to echo the bling on Lorna's oufit. For some reason, this pic called out to me for flowers (maybe I just pictured Lorna dancing in a meadow of flowers for some reason LOL), so I used these beautiful K&Company flowers that I had in my stash.

Well that's it for now. Sandy and I have already signed up for Younique's next MegaCrop on November 10th! Check out the link listed under my favourite places to visit to find out more about the November crop or Heather's B&B Scrapbooking Retreat Weekends!

Catching up

Time to get back to my long neglected blog! I can’t believe how much time has passed, and how quickly it has flown by. I am going to do a quick update covering the past 6 months and then hopefully be more consistent in my posting.

My term as a Design Team member of the Scrapping Turtle ended on December 31st. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, but am also looking forward to the extra time I’ll now have for more scrapping. I have posted some of my favourite DT layouts below. It was great to try out some new products and techniques, as well as share and learn from other members of the DT and the Turtle followers. We had a lot of fun at times and I’m in a little bit of withdrawal from the daily interactions that I was used to having over the months LOL.

In November, my scrapping friend Sandy and I travelled to the US for a scrapping retreat for a weekend at the Marienthal Inn. We scrapped, ate, scrapped, ate, scrapped, ate…well you get the idea. It was a lot of fun…I just can’t believe how much stuff we packed in the car LOL….and compared to the other ladies there, we were travelling light! It was a great experience to join these ladies who had invited us for the weekend. They have been scrapping together for quite some time and they made us feel very welcome. http://www.marienthalcountryinn.com/ The Marienthal Inn is currently renovating an old church on the property and have a lot of amazing and creative classes in a very quiet and relaxing atmosphere. Definitely worth checking out!

During the weekend I completed a few layouts. My DD was recently in a wedding so I did some layouts using pics taken on the day. I love her in this shade of blue. Here she was acting Sweet and Silly. I used a black lace applique to echo the rub-on flourishes.

Also from the wedding is this fun pic of the bride’s daughter chasing my DD down the hall. It was so cute I just had to scrap it.

I have a number of fav pics of my DD that I wanted to use on a double layout. Throughout the years my DD has had “those expressions” that are “so her!” LOL that I had to title this one Expressions of Rachel. Looking at these pics reminds me of how quickly time flies…24 years…wow!

Before we went away, my DD had asked me if I would do 3 layouts for a friend of hers that had lost her father 11 years ago. I ended up making the 3 layouts in a similar way, but used different colours and embellishments to make them each unique. The journaling is actually from her friend’s facebook post that expressed her feelings for her father.

This next layout was done as a challenge on the Turtle Forum – a Hallowe’en layout using non-Hallowe’en papers. This is a pic of my niece dressed as Wednesday Addams. I used a pink background paper and complimentary pink papers. I sewed a spider web on the page and embellished with black flowers.

This layout was another Turtle challenge – the 5 Rules Challenge. The 5 rules for this one were: must use ribbon (upper right corner); must use buttons (above upper right of photo); must use stitching (around the paisley printed flourish); must use ink (the stamped paisley flourish and on the edges of the cream cardstock); and must use something on the photo (a rub-on).

Well that's it for now. I'll be posting some more recent work shortly.

June DT Scrapping Turtle Layout - Kissing Cousins

I can't believe June is almost half over. I've finished 3 of my 4 layouts for the June DT projects. The first one features the product of the month - Quickutz border diecuts.

Kissing Cousins was done using BoBunny papers - Gabrielle line and BoBunny embellishments and chipboard accents.

I made the flower from a length of lace and a strip of screen material (yes...the screening in your window and sliding doors) that I ran a thread down one side and gathered it. I used one of the BoBunny embellies for the centre. I finished the layout with a couple of sheer butterflies and ZVA crystal flourishes.

Scrapping Day at Younique

My friend Sandy and I spent a fabulous day at Younique Country Retreat near Fergus yesterday. We arrived not long after 9a.m. and after 2 trips to the car we were unloaded for the day.  The day was Sandy's gift to me for my birthday this month...what a great gift! We scrapped all morning in the company of 8 women who were staying the weekend, had a lovely lunch prepared by Chef Jeff and our hostess Heather, then returned to the scraproom for more scrapping. Dinner was delicious, but then it was right back to scrapping for a few more hours. I gave up at 11p.m., but felt ok about it because I had completed 6 double-page l/o's. I'm working on an album of my DD's godson...he is such a cutie and so expressive.

My Buddha Impression- I love this pic...he looks like a little laughing Buddha LOL

Peek-a-Boo - Cayden seems lost in his oversized hoodie.

Share - I think he was sharing a pickle with his mom...and he looks quite put out that she took the last bite!

All Wrapped Up - Cayden looks so cute in his towel wraps after his bath.

Teething - We can all feel for a baby that is teething..and the joy of seeing those first teeth

Cool Shades - "Mom, Can I tell you a secret? We look cool in our shades". (I ran out of the letter "s" so have to pick one up this week to finish the word.

Born to Be a Storyteller - The expressions on his face look like he's telling some fantastic tales

May Scrapping projects

Well May has been a very busy month and I haven't had much time to add to my blog, so I'm playing catch-up now.

First, my Scrapping Turtle DT l/o for week 3 (technique-embossing) and week 4 (style-clustering). Both of these l/o feature papers by Best Creations "Let's Party", Bazill 1/2 borders, BoBunny chipboard and miscellaneous buttons and other embellishments.

This next l/o was for Scrapping Turtle's 5 rule challenge. Participants each suggest a rule and once 5 rules have been submitted you must design your l/o within the rules. The 5 Rules were:
1. Must contain the phrase "There is no greater gift than...." and you finish it with whatever word(s) you feel fit for you and your l/o.
2. Use 3 buttons on your l/o
3. Include a homemade paper flower
4. Must include journaling.
5. include one "blind" item - so an item that you just reach for in your supplies...it's ok if you know it's a piece of patterned paper etc (based on how you organize may be hard to be totally "blind") - but for one of the items just close your eyes and take the plunge and see where it takes you! (My blind item was the red flower stickers from Basic Grey. It dictated the dramatic black and red BoBunny paper which had a touch of green writing on it which I picked up with the flower and journaling background.)

My last l/o was a special request from my DD. She loves this pic of her godson and suggested the title and the use of playing cards on the l/o. I thought the black trim looked like a garter and fit the tux l/o.

I also used some flowers that I made to decorate a wrapped birthday present that I did for a colleague at work. I decorated the present using hand painted paper from India, gold tulle and tissue paper...and a few gold and pink butterflies.

Age Is Just A Number

I can't believe another month has gone by and the first week of May is almost over. This week, the DT for the Scrapping Turtle revealed its Product of the Month (POTM) l/o challenge. The POTM are filter papers from Fancy Pants. These are very versatile embellishments. For my first layout, I sprayed my filter paper with Smooch (last month's POTM) and then stamped a design on top. This layout features Best Creations "Let's Party" papers, Fancy Pants filter paper flowers, Bazzil Basics Paper Half the Edge cardstock strips and misc buttons and letters.

The photo is of me with my two best girlfriends celebrating one of our birthdays (I won't say which one, nor which age goes with which lady LOL).

Catching Up

I have been neglecting my posting for a few weeks, so am just playing catch up now. The first pic below is of the l/o I did for the Scrapping Turtle's inspiration challenge. It features Nikki Sivils "We Are Family" paper, Maya Road embellishments and Smooch Spritz.