Happy 2010

Happy New Year everyone! Ryan and I wish everyone the best for the new year. We had a great night with June and Brian and hope that you all celebrated as well! (I can't believe I actually made it till midnight!)

I'm hoping to post my 10 favourite layouts of 2009 tomorrow..... check back.

Sweet Find

While in WalMart today I picked up these cool dumbbells. They are 2 pound weights that work with my Wii. Pretty excited to try them out.

My name is....

So I'm looking on etsy to find a new collar for Mack... I've officially decided to agree that he has outgrown his baby collar. It has been stretched as big as it can go, and I'm just going to have to deal with that. Ryan has been telling me for 2 months that he needs a new collar....

Anyhow, on my search for a cool and unique dog collar, I came across this tag. How funny is that? I'm tempted to buy. Poor Mack tries so hard to be good, but it just doesn't work out. Come to think of it, they both could use one of these tags.

For your viewing pleasure....

My two favourite songs from my new favourite show:

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day! I still am yet to have my official Christmas... Ryan comes home on Monday. I did share a great day with friends and had 2 delicious meals. I forgot to pull the camera out at the first one (oops!). Here's a semi-decent shot of dinner..... we were too hungry to try for a better one!

P.S. Crystal we'll have to get Jen to teach us about our cameras for sure.... look how grainy this is!

Some layouts finally

These are still layouts I completed at crop in September..... I do have a growing stack of layouts here that need to be scanned for me to share. I'm debating not scanning more of my baby book layouts until they are all done, so I get them all on the same disk. I have 12 pages otherwise, so it's not enough to fill a disk, but I may do it anyway.

This layout is of my first birthday party! I had so many photos to use and really wanted to use this crazy Sassafras paper. It turned out well, but looks much better in real life. You lose all the dimension in the scan.

I struggled so much with the placement on this one. I like it in the end. I'm happy I have so much of mom's handwriting in this book.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. I love the colours, I think it is just missing a little something... maybe a flourish in the bottom left. I don't know. Done is done.

Santa is coming!

We are running out of days until Santa is here.... I am all ready finally. Are you? My Christmas cards are finally in the mail - sorry if they come a little late. There was a ribbon fiasco, I'd care not to talk about.
Steve and Mack have visited Santa this year! Last year Steve did, but Mack got to join in too. Luckily my dear friend Michelle was able to help me take them, or it wouldn't have been possible. They are crazy!! When we opened the car, both dogs ran out, and began playing in the parking lot! Very scary thing to do at the mall, 3 Saturdays before Christmas. Michelle apparently is some sort of crazy lady, and she tackled them both down for me. When we got into the mall there were dogs everywhere. And mine are huge, so we were being pulled every which way. When it was finally our turn the dogs would not go near the Christmas tree! The end result is a photo with a crappy background (the beautiful stuff was on the other side of Santa) and 2 dogs that aren't really looking. It's still pretty funny though.
I was noticing the other day that my most favourite image of Santa is from Coca-Cola. When I picture Santa, I picture a vintage version like this one. Maybe, when I was growing up, there were a lot of Santa Coke commercials, and they've brainwashed me. I hope not! I hope that Coke has just gotten it right. What kind of Santa do you picture?

Surprised Cat

June, even you have to think this is cute.

Cherish Frame

I've been a bad blogger lately, I'll admit. School and Christmas and all that have been really catching up to me. One more week of school until January though! I am quite excited to have a few weeks of relaxation.... Last night, while procrastinating homework I completed this frame for Mom and Dad for Christmas:

The photo is one taken last Christmas. The frame is clear... it has no backing, so your wall colour shows through. Clear projects totally freak me out! Had I known this Fancy Pants frame was clear when I purchased it, I may not have. That being said, with the help of Crystal I totally pulled it off, and may attempt another one. (I actually want to keep this for myself, it will be quite hard to give it away!) We ended up sewing (well, Crystal did) for some texture. I struggled for a while with how to cover up the seam between the two pieces of transparency (the frame is 18" long and scrapbook paper is only 12"). The photo covers it nicely, and the border along the bottom covers up a bit of a paper trimmer mishap.

The bottom corner was looking a little empty, so I tucked this quote in. I've had it kicking around for a couple years so it was nice to use. Actually, it came from a book full of clear quotes, shapes, etc, and I might not be afraid to use them anymore.

Just a close up of the title. Crystal had a bit of crooked sewing, and I had a bit of crooked glueing, so between the two it looked terrible. I was rescued by Crystal once more, who sewed the "mother-you know what", out of it. I quite look the additional sewing.

Watersliding

If you looked outside today, the sky would look just like these pictures. Bright and sunny. I recommend not looking at the ground though, as it is lumpy and icy. I wish we could live in a place where it is always sunny. Although, then I would miss snow, and I would most definitely need to perfect my swimsuit body.
I love these photos of Erin and I. They may be some of my favorites from my baby book. I purchased Cosmo Cricket's snorkel line again for this page. See here and here and here for other Snorkel layouts. 6 pages with Snorkel! A record for me! I used to never use paper a second time, but I'm finding now, I love it so much, it just has to be used!
I'm off to go work on my homework. I've procrastinated enough of the day away. Steve and Mack are under my desk, nose in my armpit, trying to get me to play with them.... Anyone want to borrow two very cute dogs long enough for me to write a yearly overview?

The Christmas Pickle Story

Mary asked me what a Christmas Pickle was. This is a Christmas Pickle. The point is to put it on the tree on Christmas Eve and in the morning everyone races to see who is the first to find it. The person who finds the pickle wins an extra present, which I like to call the Christmas Pickle Present. I realize this is dumb with just me and Ryan in the house, but I really like the idea so I grabbed the pickle now. I mean, how often do you actually see a Christmas Pickle? You should get it while you can.


Here's another layout from my baby book. I like this one more in real life than I do the scanned version. I always thought I was falling in this photo and wondered why would my mother take a photo of me falling? But apparently, I am running. So that makes more sense. This was created almost entirely with My Minds Eye Bloom and Grow.

Ladies Day Out

June and I had a great day together! We went to Ladies Day Out and checked out several local/home based businesses. We each picked up a few items (I finally got my Christmas Pickle!) and I think have planned out a few purchases for later. It was all making me feel very Christmas-y right down to the Sugar Cookie hand scrub :) Thanks for all the fun Junie!
I haven't posted a layout in a while, because I had high hopes of creating computerized sketches for all these, but with school and life it just isn't happening. This is a very easy layout! I struggle with full page patterns like this so I chose to embrace it. I cut the clouds and sun from a second sheet, inked them, and popped them up for dimension. A couple strips of paper, a journal spot, and some gems and it was complete!

Happy Halloween!

About time I posted again. (And I'd like to mention that this is my 200th post!!!) I know there are a few people waiting to see some Halloween photos. This year Ryan and I were a couple costume. This has never happened before, and that is because I have NEVER seen Ryan dress up EVER! I'm glad he did though, because we had a really fun time.
I need to adjust the red eye in this photo, but I think it's pretty cute :)

Me and Toni (Red Riding Hood) at work.

At work again - Me, Kyle (Happy Gilmore), VG (we made him put on this hoodie, he's 60 something so it was pretty funny) and Kristen (Spiderman)
My photo of Dave, Michelle, Jason, Crystal and us isnt' the greatest, so hopefully someone else has a better one. Michelle and Dave were Bob and Doug Mckenzie, Crystal was an 80's girl and Jason was an anatomically correct skeleton :) I still can't get over how slimming that costume is on him. He looks tiny!

Close Knit

I've been getting in trouble for not blogging. So this is just for you Junie :) Another layout from crop. I think this one is possibly my most favourite. It just turned out perfectly. Normally I have one thing I'd like to change on a page, but not this one. I finally used these Heidi Swapp chipboard hearts with embossing on them. They added just a little extra texture and dimension to the page.
This is a photo of my Uncle Charlie and myself. I don't think there are too many of those. It's amazing how much him and my dad look the same.

Matt Good, I still love you

Just one more thing... I couldn't resist.

Matt Good, I love you

Remember when Matt made music videos? I know he thinks its a waste of money, but I love them just so much.

I wanted to post Apparitions on here, but couldn't find a version with an embed code. So I leave you with Strange Days and suggest you go watch Apparitions on youtube as it is my favourite.

2 Cute Secretaries

This is another layout I completed at crop. I really like this one! The things that attract me to it most are
1) I used Christmas paper - the stripe - can you believe it?
2) My mix of products - thanks June for selecting the MM butterflies
I am excited for the completion of my baby book - although it seems to have been set aside. So many christmas projects to create! I have already finished two minibooks and a calendar and am currently working on my cards! I haven't even decorated my house for halloween yet (maybe tomorrow) but already am excited for the holiday season! It's been so cold and snowy that I've just been put in the mood for mittens and hot chocolate!

A wintery day....

It's cold and snowy here today, and I'm still not quite ready for it. The mitts and toques have been calling to come out of the closet for a while. Maybe today will be their day. I thought I'd share this layout today because it fit with the weather.
This is one of many you will start to see from my baby book. That's right - that is me! I created this layout with Cosmo's new Jolly by Golly line. I love this stuff! I am always a sucker for snowflake paper, so it's nice to actually use some of it. The clear snowflakes are Heidi Swapp, rubbed in white ink, embossed with glitter powder.

Butterfly Delight

This layout is a pretty close copy of one seen in Scrapbook Trends. I don't buy this magazine, but often check out Crystal's stash. Because of this I couldn't tell you which issue it is from... I do know that it is a one page layout as well, and the child is holding a caterpillar (I think...)
I don't have much to say about this one. I used a random mix of product here. This is my first page where my title is only an initial. I also really like the single bracket to highlight her hands.... although that is something I copied from the inspiration layout.

Guest Designer: Crystal Dutchak

This is Crystal's second layout using the sketch mentioned in my post below. I feel that since I gave her this product it is okay for me to post this layout on my blog before she posts it on hers. This one is a lot more true to the original sketch than any of the others.
If you'd like to see more of Crystal's work visit her blog here. She now has many scanned layouts and will be posting very soon!

One sketch, many layouts

In order to prepare for our weekend crop Crystal and I kitted many layouts and included a sketch with each one. We've decided to save those sketches and turn them into our own personal book. What do you think?

This particular sketch made it's way onto several layouts! Crystal has another layout done with this sketch I'll have to link up to later....

Here's my version. These are from camping at Kiskatinaw, using an old hand eggbeater. We had too much fun with this thing! I called my layout "Kiss the Cook" only because I wanted to use the "cook" stickers from the sticker sheet. In order to fit it on the page, I had to switch where my journaling and title are from the sketch. My photos are also different sizes.... For me a sketch is often just a guideline... something to start from so I don't have to think too much. You can still see the similarities I think.

Crystal stole (haha) these photos from my baby book collection to create this layout for a class at the local scrapbook store. They went perfectly with the paper she had to use and "needed" them. Obviously, I gladly let her scrapbook my photos. She did a beautiful job at that! She followed the sketch fairly closely. Her paper strips are a little wider, and she added an additional strip vertically on the first page. I love all the details on this, including her signature ric rac.

2 Bandits

I'm sharing this layout on a fitting day. My puppy was a bandit today. I don't want to say anything more than that as it will make me very angry. He's lucky he is so cute.

Ichabod

I realized I hadn't ever posted this layout.... Do you remember Baby Ichabod Crane? I first blogged about him here. Here is the completed layout. I journaled quite a bit on this one as I thought it was a cool story to tell.
For embellishment I used Ki Memories baby stickers, and punched circles of my background paper. The bird paper is by Basic Grey from the Pheobe line. I didn't know what I was going to use to dress this page up, so I went with more paper. That was actually a great way to embellish with little effort, and no extra money. The circles are inked, and some are popped up for extra detail.

Goodbye Scenic Route

Oh no! Scenic Route is closing their doors. I don't always pick up their papers.... although there are many I have definitely enjoyed using. So sad to see them go....

********

With a landslide of conflicting emotions we have decided to close the doors at Scenic Route. Our last 6 years doing business in the scrapbook industry have been both fun and challenging. Through the years I have learned so much, I know that we can do anything we set our hearts on with a little creativity and a lot of hard work. With that, I am looking forward my next creative adventure.

Thanks to you, Scenic Route had growth year after year culminating in our best month ever in August 2008. Unfortunately, September 2008 brought economic hardships to our company, the scrapbook industry, and this nation.

Thank you so much to all of you who have taken this journey with us and supported our efforts to bring fun and innovative products to the scrapbook industry.

Retreat Weekend!

We had tons of fun this weekend scrapbooking! Michelle, June, Crystal and I totally knocked out the layouts and worked our way through a ton of awesome pages. There was some great bonding time as we fumbled about in the dark, drove out to the camp, chatted over pages, and whispered quietly at night.... Here are a few shots.Crystal had a brad accident. It turned into a cool picture.

Who is this dork? haha.

Me and June. She looks beautiful, and I look all lumpy (and chunky right ladies?)

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Matthew Good is coming to Dawson Creek! Who's coming with me? November 13th!!! He always sings for me close to my birthday!

A "Family" Photo?

Again, I have fallen in love with Cosmo Cricket. Basic Grey used to be my number one, but I'm sorry, I think they have been bumped. Julie and Lindsay, I'm not sure which one of you I can side on this one: Girl Friday or Snorkel.... I've used them both so many times. What great work you have done designing fresh, unique paper.
Here's yet another layout using Cosmo's Girl Friday....

First Day Back To School

I start school today.... Elementary Language Arts is my only class. Is it wrong to hope it's easy so I have lots of time to scrapbook still? I am looking forward to school though. I'll have to let you know tomorrow what I think....


This is my completed layout from Mom and Dad's Surprise 25th Anniversary party. The papers are from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie line. Although this paper is from last year, I've been using it all up lately. My Avalon Mist layout is made with the same papers, as is my Snickers page.
I included a pocket on this page where the invitation slides in and out. I didn't have room to just place it on the page, as I had so many photos I wanted to include. This way, it is there, and actually, the most important info is still visible even when it is in the pocket.
I chose to include names on this page, as these aren't all people you will find in my scrapbooks normally. I really believe that one of the main reasons to scrapbook is to preserve the past, and I would like future generations to know who these people are. In hindsight, I should have included last names for some one them, but I think it will be okay.

You Melt My Heart

I love this photo of my babies! Ryan took this while we were camping over on Texada Island. I selected the paper for this layout by simply sorting through my paper stacks. I sort my paper by colour. When I came across the trees paper it looked awesome so I went through my stash and collected up other pieces from Basic Grey's Offbeat line.
The result is a bit of an eclectic mix. I wouldn't pair all this together normally, but hey, it's from the same line so it has to go, right?
The arrow is a Maya Road chipboard piece, that is actually a page from a minibook. Crystal handed it to me, and I inked it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
The while along the edges (and around the edge of the main page) is paint. White ink just doesn't show up in the way I'd like it to. I wanted something bold.
I have so many photos of my babies, but it is hard to get one of them together. This one is special. I think I might frame this somewhere in the house as well.

A grey day....

The weather is still terrible around here! Only 9 degrees! Brrr! I guess Labor Day really does signal the end of summer...
I've been working on many layouts lately and have decided that I should start sharing some tips to go along with them. Impart my wisdom, you know? Haha.

This layout started as a sketch - I do believe it was from CK, but I did it at Crystal's so I can't say for sure. It's okay to start from someone else's idea... sometimes you just need that boost. What attracted me to this layout was the grid style - there is 12 photos on this page - TWELVE! And big ones too. (I'm currently working on a camping layout with 12 photos, but they are all much smaller). I couldn't have ever jammed all these photos on a page with out help.
Sometimes you need to think a bit to make your embellishments work. Even though these epoxy stickers match some of the background paper they couldn't just be stuck down. They were too "see through" and just didn't have enough oomph. I had to back them in cardstock and cut them out. You can see now they really pop off the page.
Finally, look at individual products, not at a line on the whole. The letters on this page are K&Co's Actopus to Zelaphant line... definitely not Western! But the woodgrain makes them work.

It's raining, it's pouring!

... there is no old man snoring here. I do have 2 very hyper dogs who just want to run around outside and get wet and muddy. I let them, since I have a new vacuum that suck up all the dirt! In hopes of banishing this terrible weather, (it feels too much like home!) here is a layout of some gorgeous weather.This layout is created from a mix of things. I had a Studio Calico kit with 2 sheets of Making Memories Great Escape paper. I had already purchased the tiny word stickers myself. Crystal shared with my some 6x6 papers from this line. The canvas tags and epoxy stickers are from last years Making Memories line - Passport. The ticket stubs also came in my Studio Calico kit, I think they were SEI. This layout was a struggle to make, I had a hard time fitting all the photos I wanted to fit, and making it balanced. It turned out great I think. The orange cardstock really goes well with the photos. It gives them a more sunset look than if I had used a different cardstock. It's interesting how different papers can give your photos a whole new feel.

Secret Scrapbook Society

Crystal, June and I really would like to start a monthly scrapbook night. Something similar to a book club where each member hosts a night at their home. The host would provide snacks, and a scrapbook challenge for the other members. We are hoping this club will take off, and be the first Friday of every month. Next month is my house - Friday October 2nd, 7 pm. We'll try to be a bit more organized for that go around.
Last night Crystal and I met together for our first evening. She challenged me to use felt on a layout. This is NOT something I am comfortable with. She even tried to get me to stitch a piece, but I think I had too big of dreams and it just didn't work out. The layout isn't finished yet, but here is a sneak peek, with my little felt hearts.

My new vacuum

Check out my new vacuum! This man knocked on the door last night and asked if he could shampoo a room in my house for free. I wasn't doing anything, and Mack had just puked in my scrapbook room that morning, so I said yes. Long story short, I bought a vacuum. In this photo it is set up to be the shampooer.

This is slightly embarassing, but the reason I bought the damn thing. This dirt all came from my teeny tiny scrapbook room. Eew yuck!

This new vacuum cleans 6 to 8 inches deep, so it cleans right to the subfloor basically. I was shocked at how much dirt was still in my carpet. It actually takes the dog fur off my couch too! What a great day to go and clean everything I own!

Studio Calico labels

Just thought I'd let you know I went through my blog posts and added a new label. Any posting with a Studio Calico kit in it is now labeled. If you are a kit user and want inspiration, it'll be easy to find now!

A layout of "uglies"

I've finally scanned some more layouts! It was hard selecting from so many which I'd like to post first. I chose to post this one as it was a surprise for me how much I like it. The individual pieces were things I'd never buy ordinarily. But sometimes that turns out to be a good thing.
I needed some Kayak embellishment, and really, there isn't much of that out there. The only thing I could find was the Stickoptimus stickers on this layout. Stickopotimus really makes some low end stickers, they are thin, and the images aren't the best. But they are cheap. So I picked up these stickers and was determined to make them work.
The background paper of this layout is Sassafras. I got it in my most recent Studio Calico kit. I was disappointed as this is a slightly older line and I really didn't like the boy and dalmatian that are on the paper. Coincidentally it matched the kayak stickers perfectly! So I designed a layout to cover up the boy and the dog and here it is. I LOVE THIS LAYOUT!

Grandma Lee

I don't watch America's Got Talent, ever. I do like to watch Britain's Got Talent on You Tube. But tonight, I turned on the tv and AGT was on, so I watched it. This woman is hilarious. There was only one video on YouTube already and it's not the best, but you need to check her out. Before her act there's this story about how she spent her life with a husband in the military, moving around for town to town, raising her children. She says she is finally becoming herself and doing things for herself. What a funny old woman!

Great idea!

I've been slacking off on the blog postings lately. Now that I know how great layouts look scanned, I'm hesitant to post them until I have enough to scan a CD of 20 photos (or 10 double layouts). I'm nearly there, and hope to go scan a bunch again on Thursday. Then I will spread out the postings and hopefully, by the time they are all up, I'll have a new batch scanned.
I just read this post over at Studio Calico's blog. What a great idea for using up rubons! I knew that the adhesive eraser would remove rubons, but I never thought to use them as a mask. I recommend you go to their blog now.

New Scrapbooks Etc!

Scrapbooks Etc has announced that they are redoing the look of their magazine. They are also going to 6 issues a year, one every 2 months. Although I am sad about the reduction in issues the re-do looks pretty cool. I'm excited for the larger photos of the layouts!
To read all about it check our Michelle's blog post here.

In Good Company

I picked up this Bo Bunny paper line when we were traveling through Langley. I knew that I liked it but wasn't sure when I'd use it. There were a lot of themed elements with this. When we were home, we ended up having a bbq, however, the actual photos of the bbq-ing didn't turn out that great.
I had fun using this stuff. It's pretty bright, but I toned it down with the brown cardstock. It was feeling kind of plain, but I solved that by cutting up the flourish stickers and placing them behind the flowers.
Crystal came up with the title for me. Thanks! Looking at it now, I think the "In Good" should be raised up higher or something, but oh well. A page done is a page done.

Camping!

As I create these layouts from our holiday I keep seeming to be faced with way too many photos! As a result I'm using little embellishment. I'm always trying to have my pages look different from one another so I guess that's okay once in a while. Here I used some of my last bits of Mr. Campy by Cosmo from last year. I love this paper line! No one seemed to come out with any really amazing camping lines this year (at least not that I saw). We're hoping to go camping again next week and I just don't have any more embellishment to use really. I'm going to have to be on the hunt from some different takes on camping pages.
Every year Ryan's family does a Family Camp on Texada Island. It's a lot of fun. Being that we live so far away now, it's great for us to get down there and visit everyone all in one spot. I keep saying that next time we go down we should just camp and make everyone come to us. It'd be so much more relaxing that way.

Avalon Mist

This is one of my favorite pages so far! I love how black can make bright colours pop, although I often forget that little trick. I tend to prefer browns, but black is so much more bold. This one sheet of October Afternoon cloud paper came to me in a Studio Calico kit I believe. I've been hoarding it for a few months, not willing to touch it. It works perfectly here! It's good to save things up (RIGHT Crystal?) for when they are absolutely necessary.
It was a little tricky to balance the right and left side. The first page is based on a sketch out of SBE. I had so wanted to do it and then realized afterwards that only one of my remaining photos was not a duplicate of those in the grid. Ooops. It worked out well anyway.
For "Avalon" I was able to pull out my Quickutz and use Beauty Queen one more time. Since the Cricut the QK has been ignored a little. Again, I do like having all the options so they never look stale or the same.
These photos are from a day on Dad's boat. It was so hot that day! If we were out any longer I would have burned, and I do not burn ever! The dogs were very well behaved and slept most of the time.

2 High Quality Dog Layouts

I haven't posted in a while because I knew I'd be scanning my layouts and I much prefer posting them scanned. The quality is so much better and you can see all the edges. Sometimes in photos I cut stuff out by accident. I'm planning on posting a few a day so stretch it out because I'm sure it won't be long until I have another CD of scanned layouts. I've also gone back and updated some trip layouts to scanned versions as well. Here's two layouts of curious dogs for today:

Steve had never seen crabs before. He was all about them. This is really old (and by that I mean, last year) Cosmo paper. I wanted this robot paper so badly but had no use for it. Glad its used up. I cut the title and the crabs with the Cricut. I traced another journaling spot to make this one. I also did a ring of Stickles around the crab in the large photo to highlight it. Those little crabs really do a good job of blending into the rocks.

Mack is so silly! Here he is peeking into Craig's tent. What a nosy little dog. The "Fragile" paper is Making Memories from last year. The red stuff that kinda looks like tents is exclusive Studio Calico from a couple of kits back. I added a couple of MME green rubons to the title strip for a bit of extra detail.

More trip layouts to come soon. Dont' forget you can click on them to look at a larger photo and read the journaling!