Snooze

Mack is a very spoiled dog. He basically gets what ever he wants. In this occasion, he stole my spot on the couch. He was just too cute to kick off, so I crawled on the floor and took this photo:

This layout is designed by Crystal, with a few changes from me.
3 things I like:
1) The colours - I don't use purple very often, but this layout is very soft because of it.
2) Flower ribbon - I LOVE this ribbon, but have only used it once before.
3) Painting behind my title. On occasion I do this when I just don't know how to anchor my title any other way. So simple!

Winter!

I really do like winter. I love snow and I love to watch it fall. I also like to shovel it, although, with Ryan being home this year, I did pass it off to him mostly. :) The heap of snow in front of our house this year is MONSTROUS! (Layout to come!) I must admit, now that it is nearly the end of March I am a bit tired of snow, and would like to see some sunnier days. This part is the worst for me, all the melting. The dogs get messy, and walking to work is dangerous! I only made it half way today, and then I called my boss and said "If you want me to make it to work alive, you're going to need to come get me". Lucky she likes me!

Here are some layouts of our favourite winter activities:

I struggled on this one for a bit. Lynette at our local scrapbook store suggested I add the brown dotted paper and that kind of connected it all and toned it down for me. Thanks Lynette!
3 things I like:
1) I used REALLY OLD paper - some of this is from like 2008!
2) I used a lot of photos
3) I used a bit of ribbon which I have been ignoring lately - although this ribbon came from June's stash, so perhaps that doesn't count.....

This is one of my most favourite layouts in a while. I love the colours and the textures. I also love how different it is from Crystal's version. We used the same photos and sketch, but so different!
3 things I like:
1) New stuff! Don't you love when you get something and are instantly inspired to use it? That way, it doesn't collect dust for, oh, 3 years until it sparks your interest again.
2) Tim Holtz distresser - it's this tiny circle with notches. In the notches are mini blades that rough up your paper. Love it!
3) Scrapbooking friends - thanks Crystal for the second "Snow" border sticker!

2 Water Dogs

This layout is a total mishmash of stuff. I pulled papers for this page based on colour. I was just looking for colours that went well with the photos. The sassafrass embellishments came last, because I was looking for some border strips. I think you can't use sass embellishments and papers all at once, it's just too much.

These are photos of the dogs swimming at Moberly Lake on May long. Steve LOVES to swim. He is really funny too, and makes this odd snorty, wheezing sound. He keeps the whole front end of his body out of the water, Adam calls him a motor boat.

I've never used a banner on my page before. It's a pretty big trend lately, and I had to try it out. I think I like it :)

Bunny Pups

I finished this layout last night. Other than some cardstock it is all Bo Bunny's new line Sophie. It took me a while to complete, but I like the way it turned out. The best part is, I have none of this paper left, and used all the chipboard pieces. There's only some of the 12x12 sticker sheet remaining. That means I bought the perfect amount!

Happy Easter

I bought these ears last year - but didn't use them. These are the best shots I could get. This first one is my favourite - total Mack attitude.

Steve is hilarious in this one. Mack is so happy, thinking this is a great time. Steve is thinking "why did Adam leave me here with these people?"

Easter Kisses!

Stinky Cookies

I finally finished this layout! When did I start it? January? Now that school, and my portfolio, are complete I have all this free time. I start work on Tuesday, but even then, it's amazing that I won't have anything to do in the evenings. How great! So, like I said - this page is finally finished. I didn't have much to do; I just added on the journaling and hearts.
This page is mostly Basic Grey Nook and Pantry. The orange puppy paper is from Adornit, and there are a few LYB dog stickers on there as well. Fairly simple page - just lots of paper layering. It's my typical 3 vertical 4x6 pictures layout. haha.

I also wanted to share this picture I took of Mack. He looks so grown up! My baby isn't a baby anymore... sniff! I was shocked he sat in one place long enough for me to get a photo I liked.

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.

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....

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.

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!

4 more...

I created the road sign background for my title using the Cricut and SCAL! The letter stickers are really old Chatterbox. All papers are October Afternoon.

My cousin's children! This uses Basic Grey's Lemonade line. Love the colours in this.

These photos are from the cabin. We always have so much fun up there. This is a mix of October Afternoon lines.

This layout is created mainly from the latest Studio Calico kit. Like my photo orientation on this one. It's a little different for me.

Not Doing it Right

This layout is from Mack and Steve's first time swimming. I created it to go beside the "I Wish I Wish" layout posted here. It's not really a double pager, but they are made with the exact same products.
This layout was really easy to create. No special techniques here - I just used up all my Snorkel scraps! I had such a hard time with the left hand side of this, it just looked so plain. I then turned over my 2 scraps of red paper to find the cute dots just the perfect size to tuck behind the photos and the page was complete!

Getting into trouble.

Okay, the honest truth? I made him do this for a scrapbook page. I know, I've gone over the edge. How cute though! He'd better not get any ideas and do it unsupervised. Layout in a couple days!!!

Sometimes it's good to be a hoarder

Yet another puppy layout. I got inspiration for this one from this layout at 2peas. I had originally seen it in Scrapbooks Etc. Very cute idea. The following is a list of reasons why I like this layout:

1) It has my beloved Mackie in it.
2) I used really old paper. I mean really old. The baby blue lined stuff is Sassafrass from like 4 years ago. I've thought about purging it a few times, but hung on.
3) I didn't use pop dots. (Did that just for you Crystal).
4) Another old product - the little doggie in the flowers. That's from BG's Mellow line. About 2 years old.
5) I used another transparency.
6) I used my Cricut.

Thanks for looking!

You're the Coolest

I love it when you find paper that goes just perfectly with your photos. The green in Basic Grey's new Lime Rickey goes great with the walls in my bedroom! This layout was done in like half an hour. I did barely anything to it. The birdie paper was just so cute and I wanted to use a lot of it. I didn't really feel I could cover it up without making it look super busy. What do you think? Not too bad for half an hour. I never am that speedy!

Steve goes swimming

Yesterday we drove out to the Beaton river (thanks Crystal for the idea). There's actually a sign that says "NO DOGS ALLOWED" but we were the only people there so we went anyway. Steve is nearly 4 years old and he's never been swimming. Mack immediately ran in while Steve was a little timid. However, we think Mack scared himself and Steve ended up loving it! He cried and cried when we went to leave.

Snow Much Fun - Complete!

Remember back in January when I posted these? I have finally put photos on one of them! My Christmas layout is still without photos, but I'm getting there.... I have this ziploc back with unfinished layouts in it. It's only like 4, so that isn't too bad. One of them I actually just need to print the photo. It's been at that stage since last summer. How silly of me.

I like this layout quite a bit for 3 reasons:
1) I used old paper
2) I used a transparency
3) My title is not in the upper left

It's good to try things a little differently from time to time. Now that my desk is clear I can begin working on my board game for school. It's going to be excellent - I'll post photos when done.

Girl Friday AGAIN!

A second Girl Friday layout! I usually don't work with the same paper line twice in a row like that, but it just worked out that way. I have nearly any of this stuff left. That's rare, but good. These photos are Mackie's first day home. He was such a little baby then! This was a fun page to do, used a lot of cartoon-y elements here. I also finished off some old KI Memories paw print paper. I think that might be from 2 years ago, so it's good to get rid of. Hope you like it!

"Eggs"treme Makeover!

The layout is finally complete! It's actually been done for a few days, but I'm finally posting it. I'm pretty happy with the results. I used my cricut to cut "makeover", the easter eggs, and the title and journaling blocks. It was super easy to use. I'm happy to have finally used this paper, it's from last year. I even had matching rubons and brads saved away. Remind me though to never buy Imaginisce rubons again, they are terrible! Too hard to rubon. I also tried making flourishes out of Stickles as suggested by Heather Hopkins. I freehanded mine though, didn't fiddle around with poking holes like she suggested. I hated them when wet, but quite like the dry, finished look.

These are just a few photos for Ryan. Sorry I realise I forgot to turn them before I uploaded.

Life

Don't you wish you could be that relaxed? This is how my puppy sleeps. Major dork.

Just thought I'd give a quick update on my life. Still busy, even more so as school has started up again. I've come to realize that I think my life is meant to be hectic and that I bring it upon myself. I chose to work and go to school and live alone and take care of puppies and have hobbies and friends etc etc so I just need to deal with it and squeeze in as much as possible. Also, as much as I complain about being tired I wouldn't change my life for one where I sit around and do nothing all the time. So next time I whine about being busy tell me to shut up.

School is going okay. Again, I have no idea what the point of my course is. It's how to teach math, but so far we haven't really done anything and it's 1/6 over. We spent an hour estimating how many grains of rice were in a ziploc bag...... I'm hoping it will all make sense in the end.

Work has been good, lots to do there. I'm starting to do more orders for teams and stuff so it's more responsibility and things to learn. Sometimes I think Andrew is like "go away and stop asking me so many questions" but it's okay. I'd rather do things right.

The weather has been really nice here so I've been leaving the dogs outside. I hear from the neighbors that they dont' bark while I'm gone which is good. So many dogs on my street bark and howl and it's so annoying! I would never leave them outside if they were so rude.

Still working on my Easter layout. I did a bit more tonight, but I made the mistake of starting with Stickles which has to dry because I put my hand in some of it and smooshed it. I'm off to do some homework now. Bye bye!