JUMP RIGHT IN

Ahhhh summer, how I miss you already. We got back from holidays about midnight on Monday, spent Tuesday running around like a chicken with my head cut off and then got my oldest off for his first day of school on Wednesday.

So much to share...

1. our holidays started out not so well when my Mom fell and broke her hip, but it ended up with a fabulous week at a lake with some special friends.
2. APOS! got a new Inspiration Team and I am excited to see all the new changes coming down the line with that! Be sure to check out the blogs of the fabulously talented DIANA, MEG, TAMMY, CHERYL, VALERIE and BETHANY (who is working on a blog so stay tuned for the link!!)
   
3. And some new changes happening in my life that I am really happy about but just not ready to share quite yet!

Look for some online crops happening soon over on the APOS! forum - but in the meantime, enjoy a few of the vacation pictures!

DESIGN TEAM REVEAL AT A PILE OF SCRAP!

We had our design team reveal at A PILE OF SCRAP! on Wednesday and once again, I was blown away by how talented the design team is!

We were all given a different colour of the Lush line by My Mind's Eye - gorgeous paper that comes in both patterned and flocked designs - and asked to create a mixed media mini-album.... and I love all the different ideas each scrappy gal came up with! I decided to do a mini-album called "Miss D. at 3 (and a half)" all about my baby girl. When I was done, I decided I really want to do one for each of my kids every year... so I am now halfway through another one!
I was thrilled to receive the red line and quickly discovered that Red Velvet Glimmer Mist goes with it beautifully - as did denim! Hope you enjoy it :)

THE COVER

I ended up cutting a pair of my son's brand new jeans that were way too short (and I couldn't find the receipt) and had saved them in the scrappy pile as I knew they would come to good use one day!) I made the flower out of tulle and some heat - will post how to make it later this week! And of course, you know I had to finish it off with a little Glimmer Mist!

FIRST PAGE


FIRST PAGE (with acrylic overlay)
We had done this with a Fancy Pants class that I took a while back - painted the outside edge of an acrylic/acetate overlay and put it over a full page photo - and I loved it. I took it a step further and stamped into the wet paint and removed the stamped image. Sorry about the sun shining in it... but it is great to say that the sun is shining here!


FIRST PAGE (just the photo)
Just a little bit of ink around the edges.



SECOND PAGE



SECOND PAGE (left)
This is some of the gorgeous flocked paper that comes with the line. I tried to do the whole album neat and clean but when I was done, just had to add the ink....because that is just me!
The ribbon is also from the line and the gems are from a Prima stamp that is used later in the album. I embossed the "Dream" right on the photo but be very careful if you do this as it is really easy to overheat and ruin your photo!



SECOND PAGE (right)
Done on denim that is over chipboard. I stitched the paper onto the denim before gluing it down to make it easier on my machine. The bling brads are also a part of the line- such amazing embellishments!



THIRD PAGE



THIRD PAGE (left)
My 6 year old son took this pic of my daughter and I, isn't he good with a camera?! The little chipboard piece is from Magenta and glimmer misted with Red Velvet. The brad is part of the line.



THIRD PAGE (right)
Done on an acetate/acrylic piece. The stitching is done by machine.



FOURTH PAGE


FOURTH PAGE (left)
Ugh...sorry the shadows are so bad on this picture. The was done so that you cannot see it from the front side of the acrylic piece. The ribbon is part of the line.



FOURTH PAGE (right)
One of my new favourite stamps from Magenta - I always thought of it for card-making but it went perfectly in this album. Of course I had to grunge it up... just a little...



FIFTH PAGE



FIFTH PAGE (left)
I like how this page looks, with the flocked images cut out from the paper but I just feel as though it needs a little something more...but I haven't figured out what just yet. It is hard to tell from the picture but there are splashes of glimmer mist on there too.


FIFTH PAGE (right)
A plain piece of chipboard glimmer misted out and stamped with a Heidi Swapp stamp.



LAST PAGE


LAST PAGE (left)
My favourite photo of my daughter - she was giggling and it just melts my heart this picture.... The background was stamped with a Prima stamp (LOVE it!) and the flower started off white before being met with more of that Red Velvet glimmer mist.
Oh and if you have noticed the Dymo labeller throughout my project, it is a new one called the Dymo Caption Maker that I got last week that I am loving! It has 3 different cartridges so you can do 3 different fonts and even has some doodles on it - hoping they come out with more!


And if you made it all the way to the end, thanks for looking! We will be running a little contest over on the forum all about mini-albums so hope you can come join us! Be sure to check out what Cheryl and Candace did with the green Lush and what Jen and Valerie did with the pink!

SOTW April 5-11, 2010

What a fabulous week it was......... I love holidays!! I had a fantastic Spring Break with my kids with a few kid playdates and even an adult playdate thrown in for fun!

I had a fantastic all-day crop with some really fun ladies and even managed to get a few layouts done (a first for me!)
And...I finished up my Design Team reveal for A PILE OF SCRAP! and am quite pleased with it. I will take pics out in the beautiful sunshine and post tomorrow. We had a fabulous Easter - the Easter bunny was crazy enough to leave hockey sticks for the kids but so far so good!
And without further ado, here is the SOTW - happy creating!

Hurray for Holidays and a SOTW!

Oh holidays, how I have missed you....
It is Spring Break here and the weather couldn't be better!! We spent the day at the park today and running some errands and it felt so good to be in capri pants and sandals! (although, I do have to admit that this is Alberta and I could be pulling out the snow pants by next week). Since the summer of 2008, I haven't had more than a day or two off in a row and it feels really great to sleep in, eat at irregular times and just see where the day takes us. I do miss my dayhome kidlets though so we are setting up some playdates and planning some fun.

For the SOTW and COTW this week, I basically did one sketch and then used it to make a smaller version for a card. I have really been doing a lot of one photo layouts lately so need to challenge myself to try to use a few more photos on a layout...hence this week's sketch!

A little take off from SOTW, but your challenge is to make a SQUARE card - so make it 4 x 4 or 3 x 3 .... just make it square!


Tune in tomorrow for our Design Team Reveal for APOS. I created a cool new flower and liked it so much that I made another one and glued it to my daughter's headband - here is a sneak peek!

And now I am off to go play out in the sunshine a bit more - have a great week!!

Wednesday Words (and a SOTW)

A quick update and SOTW that I forgot to post on Monday.... I have no idea why I manage to do that so often?

Things are rolling along here - I have a canvas class next week at the LSS and a Glimmer and Distress class 2 weeks after that so all my deadlines have been met so far! I am working on a project for Mother's Day and finishing up my DT stuff for A PILE OF SCRAP! - look out for that one because we are really being challenged this month and I am going a little crazy!!! I even pulled out the sewing machine and the Crop-a-dile.... EEK!

Speaking of A PILE OF SCRAP!, the girls are having a retreat this weekend and it will be my first time not going :( I am surviving but sad to be missing out on the ridiculous amounts of fun that we all seem to have. They don't have internet access while they are at the retreat so I think I will have to liven up the forum a bit while a lot of them are away - come join in the fun!

And last but not least, 2 quick sketches using Cosmo Cricket's brand new "Garden Variety" line... use up your scraps!!

SKETCH OF THE WEEK:



CARD OF THE WEEK:
And that is my update - have yourselves a fabulous week!

FEBRUARY DESIGN TEAM REVEAL AT APOS!

Well nothing like leaving everything to the last minute.... It has been a crazy busy hectic time around here, thank goodness for scrapbooking to take my mind off of things!

This month, the Design Team at A PILE OF SCRAP! all got some different Valentine's lines and decided we wanted to do our reveal a bit early to send out some inspiration for those looking to create a unique gift for the big day. I was thrilled to receive My Mind's Eye's "Irresistable" line - a great mix of classic and funky! I will apologize in advance for some of the pics as my camera batteries were dying and the lighting is not the best in my scrap area - I am hoping to retake some of the pics at some point. I ended up with 2 cards and 4 layouts and still have some paper left to create more if I can squeeze it in.

First up, I decided to play with my new Spellbinder's dies and some glimmer mist/stamps to alter a white flower.
I adore this stamp! And although it looks like holes around the scallop in the picture it is actually black bling. I ended up giving this card away to my son's little friend who is moving next week.


Then I did a little card that was inspired by a layout at LOAD that I absolutely adored. This is a great card for scraps that are left sitting in your scrap area!
This is her layout (her name is Errlee on LOAD but she doesn't have a blog as of yet)


And here is my card:

This layout came together very quickly
BLISS IS FOUND
Oh those Jenny Bowlin bingo cards.... LOVE THEM! And the little Maya Road pins too! I added a wee bit of Basic Grey's Indian Summer line to change it up a little and a little bit of the Kaisercraft tiny alphabets always add a nice touch.

My next layout came together thanks to a LOAD challenge to use our stash.
SURPRISE
these were 2 scraps in to top of the scrap box and I opened an embelly drawer and found a box of old Making Memories flowers...so I used the whole box in one shot!


My next layout took quite a while for me...
LOVE STORY
This is one of the photos that I inherited from my Grandparents and they have sat there for a while as I was feeling quite intimidated by them...but am finally starting to scrap them. I have noticed however that I put the wrong year in the journal tag as it is actually 1940 - this is my Grandma and Grandpa and my Dad the day that my Grandpa left for the war. I have only put the photo down lightly as I want to scan it and save the original. This also has some 7 Gypsies paper and Jenny Bowlin C'oredinations cardstock on it. The flower was originally a newsprint beigey Prima one....a few different shades of Glimmer Mist and some ink to change it up a bit.

YOU MAKE MY HEART SING
And my last layout - Is this not the freakin cutest paper ever?!!!!!!!!
I only got one sheet so I cut out a heart from behind the photo in order to pop it up. I also used some Jenny Bowlin notebook cards and my ever favourite Heidi Swapp alphabets (who says I don't like stickers?!)

Hope you liked my projects - make sure you head on over to see

• Cheryl's stunning "Smiles" layout (along with her other goodies!)
• the gorgeous stuff Candace did with Little Yellow Bicycle!
• Jen's magical memories with Making Memories!
• and Valerie's adorable Bo Bunny creations!
  

How Does it Happen?

How on earth does a whole month go by in the blink of an eye?! I got a gentle reminder yesterday that I haven't updated in a while...and I honestly thought it was maybe 2 weeks at the most...OOPS!
Life continues on here - haven't done a lot of scrapping for myself but still getting some stuff done. My boss at the LSS is down at CHA and will be back tomorrow - I am excited to hear about all the good stuff to come! I like to look online but find it just isn't the same as seeing it in real life. I am pretty excited about Tim Holtz's new paper to come out as I love the look of it! There is a new cutter from Craftwell that looks mighty interesting and last night discovered that Slice has some pretty cool tricks up their sleeve too!
In other news, I took my middle son to see a specialist about a concern with his foot and am waiting to get some tests and results back so trying to stay positive about it all. It is amazing how supportive online friends can be - prayers and hugs are always a nice thing!
I am off this weekend so we decided to do an online crop over at A PILE OF SCRAP! - come on over and join in the fun!
And a few sketches for the week - a SOTW and new this year, a card sketch of the week as well! Hope you are having a great week!

The SOTW has very limited patterned paper in it...something I am trying to do more of this year - what do you think?
And the COTW, a quick little sketch....would love to see more layers addedto this plain old sketch tho! I think I may actually do this one tonight as it would give me a good reason to clean up the scrap area in preparation for the online crop this weekend!

BLOG HOP WINNER!

Thanks to everyone for playing along, it was great fun!
Things are winding down a bit here - I hope you all had an amazing holiday season with your loved ones. I tried to pry my kids away from their toys long enough to help me pull a winner out of a hat video but no such luck... so thanks to random.org, we have a winner!!

Congrats Tams! A gift certificate awaits you!!

HAPPY BLOGHOP!!

Welcome to A PILE OF SCRAP'S! first ever bloghop! You are almost at the end of the hop, I hope you have enjoyed all the girls' creations.

Hopefully you have made your way along the path and linked here from Vicki's blog... if not, make sure you go back to Valerie's blog and follow your way through the links! If you have left a comment on everyone's blog and follow the instructions at the end of the post, your name will be entered for a scrappy prize!

First up, the card sketch:
I asked all the girls to stick with this colour combo - but they were welcome to use any shade of the colours... I opted to make my own coloured paper with 4 different shades of Glimmer Mist as none of the cardstock I had on hand matched! And since I was sparkly already, I figured stamping with a little glitter wouldn't hurt! And this was the perfect opportunity to use my new Spellbinder's die that I picked up...
And the second sketch was for a layout - this is a pretty plain sketch for me but I really wanted the girls to show their styles!
And so.......I scrapped!!! Yep, I did! For me!!!!! I haven't had a chance to do that in way too long and it really felt good! And to top it off, my scrap area is now cleaned up so I may get to do a little more over the holidays! Not only did I scrap, but I actually scrapped holiday pictures!!!! It's a Christmas Miracle!!!!! (I honestly tend to avoid all holiday pictures as I feel there is too much pressure...but I am happy with how this turned out). We had a little scrappy swap on the forum and I received my parcel today...so I had to use my new Starfish Glimmer Mist and the pretty red bling from Bazzill - thanks so much Cheryl for my goodies :)

I hope you all enjoyed our very first blog hop! Make sure you head on over to the forum and look for a post called "Blog Hop Finish Line" and leave your final comment there for a chance at the prize!

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!

I wish I was singing...

I wish I was singing a couple of different songs....like maybe
Summer Loving had me a bl-ast...because then maybe I wouldn't notice THE SNOW OUTSIDE! (insert grumpy face here).

Or maybe I wish I was singing...
All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go ........

But the little problem with that is... MY BAGS ARE NOT YET PACKED (insert panicky face here)

But the good news is that I can sing the other part of that song !!

I'm leavin' on a jet plane (insert happy face here!).

Because the count down is on and I am getting on an airplane and heading to New Brunswick tonight to hang out with some scrappy peeps this weekend! A PILE OF SCRAP! was oh so generous and is flying me out for the retreat AND I get to teach a couple of classes while I'm there! I am looking forward to seeing some of the gals again and meeting some new ones. It will be a HOOT, I am sure of it!
Until then, my chickies, I'm outta here!!

SEPTEMBER DT REVEAL @ APOS!

Yikes September sure got away on me! We were given a beautiful package from A PILE OF SCRAP! this month with Bo Bunny's Calypso line, Heidi Swapp masks and invisible paper, and a Prima stamp. However, this month there was a twist as we were all informed that we could do anything other than altering items or 12 x 12 layouts! I really thought that the paper just screamed mini-album to me but I just ran out of time...but do hope to do one up soon!

The first layout I did was a 11.5 x 8 layout which seem to be all the rage lately. I have to admit that they are not my favourite but I think that may be due to the fact that we always do them for my kids' playschool albums at the end of the year and we always have to keep them fairly simple as we have a budget....however, when you have freedom to do whatever, it actually is fun!
MOMENT - I used the Bo Bunny paper on the right and the Heidi Swapp mask on the left and again on the corner of the photo. And I have to say just how much I love this particular Thickers font - isn't it beautiful? I think I need more!!!

And because I am a last minute kind of girl, I did these next two items today.... I had seen a layout in an old scrap mag that was hanging out in my bathroom last night and when I sat down to do one this morning, I had an email from the LOAD team telling me to go scraplift something...so I did! Really this layout doesn't much resemble the original but the one thing that stuck in my head was the ribbon through the photograph so that was what got lifted! The original layout is by Shelley Laming in Creating Keepsakes July 06 edition. I tried to find her blog but no luck so far? If anyone knows of it, please send it to me so I can give her a link.
NERD BIRD - a few scraps, some beautiful ribbon by Jilliebean Soup and some Smooch added to some dollar store foam letters. Simple yet I like the overall look!

And last but oh so not the least....

I finally got over my chicken-itis and did a canvas! I had it all thought out in my head....but trying to find chicken wire this morning was impossible so my idea changed a little bit.......but I am thrilled with the outcome!

This canvas has so much Glimmer Mist, paint and ink on it that I think it may have gained a few pounds! I added some masks and brushes to the photos in Photoshop, the black mesh is from a screen door replacement kit (because apparently people only buy chicken wire in 25 foot rolls!), the silver piece was in Michael's as I was wandering the aisles trying to find something to appease my chicken wire dream (it was in the jewelry making section-this is the back side of it as the front was way too shiny), the heart is Riff Raff (did I mention how much I LOVE Riff Raff??), a couple of eyelets and twine and believe it or not, that paper is from the Calypso line (it is amazing how grungy you can make things!) and was almost a florescent green when I first started! It is now hanging on my wall and I think canvases could become my new obsession!

Be sure to check out Cheryl's beautiful round wedding layout, Valerie's stunning mini album made from the Heidi Swapp invisible paper, Jen's gorgeous star album, Candace's funky and inspiring canvas, and Vicki's inspiring 8.5 x 11 layouts - great job ladies! Hope you enjoyed the reveal - have a great week!!

APOS DESIGN TEAM REVEAL FOR AUGUST

What a crazy month this has been! This month, we were all given various Crate Papers from A PILE OF SCRAP! - some cute lines with really great rub-ons and die cuts that really add to your creations. I was in a bit of a time crunch and only got started 2 days before the deadline but did manage to complete 4 projects (with one more almost done!).
Some of the goodies given to me included:

We had a little staff meeting/going away party/staff crop at work on Friday night so I quickly printed off some Canada Day pictures to work with. The only problem was that as I was holding this beautiful little 7 month old, he managed to grab a hold of my wine glass and spill it....getting a little bit on each picture....but it worked out okay as I managed to create some embellishment clusters to cover it up!
The first layout I did is my new fave....can you tell where the wine got on the picture?!

The squirrel is part of the glitter die cuts, how cute is he?!
And the next layout also had some wine spillage...any guesses where?

The owl, the journaling tag, and the "hoo's the little cutie" are also from the die cuts....I don't think I have ever bought die cuts before but they sure can add to a page! The chipboard heart was coloured with my new obsession (Smooch ink) and then stamped, and the Prima flower was inked and glimmer misted....after I took out the middle of it because I wasn't crazy about it.

Next up were two birthday cards for a little birthday party (for my dayhome kiddies) we went to yesterday. The kids had a great time and it was actually quite a relaxing birthday party! The cards were made from the rubons and snippets of paper and even a bit of the packaging from the rubons - can you tell where I used that?!

And that is my reveal - hope you enjoyed it! Make sure you check out Candace's unique "Beach Days" layout, Cheryl's super-cute "Monsters Under the Bed" layout, Vicki's adorable "1 Cute Shirt" layout, Valerie's beautiful flower box, and Jen's "Just Ducky" layout!!

Can't wait to see what this month brings us.... will be back later tonight with the Sketch of the Week!