A White Valentine

As some of you already know, I have a very dear friend who lives far far away on the eastern coast of Canada in a magical place called Newfoundland.  A few months ago, Michelle invited me to join a Facebook group called "Crop Circles" where mostly Newfoundland scrapbookers meet and share.  Natasha Connolly set up this group, and I had the good fortune of meeting her last September as well. If you're a lucky Mainlander like me, you can manage to squeeze into the group and join in the fun.

This is Michelle's January Sketchy Challenge layout depicting my Screeching In when I visited her in Newfoundland.  And YES, I kissed that REAL fish!

There are lots of wonderful challenges at Crop Circles, and Michelle announced an all-white challenge for January.  Uh oh!  I've never designed anything with one colour, and card stock isn't always my first choice for scrapbooking.  I guess you could say I'm a colourful kind of girl.

Here is Michelle's all-white layout and a link to her blogpost where you will find a tutorial on those beautiful embossed flowers she made...

Click HERE to visit Michelle's blog.

But I'm up for a challenge and eager to try new ideas, and before the month could end, I promised myself to make something all white.

A layout was daunting, so I decided to make a card, a Valentine card actually....

The doily and heart dies are all Stampin' Up/Sizzix and the XO is from a Tim Holtz Sizzix die.  The ribbon is May Arts and the card stock is Bazzill.

The pearls are Stampin' Up!

Here are the 3 Stampin' Up dies I used. I just LOVE embosslits!

I had this XO die cut in Kraft paper left over from another project, so I painted it white with gesso and sprinkled it with Iridescent Diamonds Craft & Glitz glitter.

When I began making this card and pulled out all the white card stock from my stash, I quickly realized that there are many shades of white! Surprise!  So that's why my embossed hearts look a little grey, even though I used white card stock.  It's what I had on hand, and if you know me, I didn't want to start all over again! 

Do you think my husband will notice the different shades of white anyway?  uh. No.

So thank you Michelle for pushing me out of my creative comfort zone!  I should probably mail YOU this card instead (or maybe the Cod that I kissed :)

Winter Wishes from Echo Park

This year, Urban Scrapbook is going to create monthly kits with paper collections that correlate with a calendar theme.  So, January's kit is featuring the cutest collection from Echo Park called "Winter Wishes."

To get my scrappy brain in gear after our 2-week Christmas break, I turned to a PageMap sketch, from November 2012.

I was also inspired by Tracey Gregory's layout from this month's ScrapThat! kit club that has cut out circles in the design.  You can click HERE to visit Tracey's blog and see her wonderful layout.

Here is what I came up with...

There are a couple of ski hills right here in our city, and we sometimes go to the smallest one for some serious sledding action.  I took this photo of BabyOfTheFamily during on of our trips to the hill.  Sad to say, most of my sledding pics did not turn out great that day.

The kit includes this awesome sticker sheet, along with patterned papers, Bazzill card stock, ribbons, bling, glitter paper, vellum snowflakes....

A close up of the vellum snowflakes, cut with the new Tim Holtz die...

Here is a closer look at the cut-out circle windows...

I designed a winter scene with the stickers to create a title element...

I thought I'd share how I designed those circle windows..

My 'old school' Coluzzle....to cut out the circles.

Scrapbook Adhesives 3L 'Crafty Foam Tape' works really well to lift the entire piece.

Square pieces of Winter Wishes patterned paper.

The white paper with circles is placed on top.

A closer look at the circle windows

Then I just took my sticker sheet and went crazy adding sticker elements to each circle.

Prima Crystals are also in the kit...which I added to each circle window scene.

This January kit is now on sale at The Urban Scrapbook, so drop in or shop online to pick one up.

You can click HERE to visit the Urban blog where all the staff January layouts are on display.

January Sketchy Challenge

On January 5, DramaQueen turned 16! 

 Sorry...I just couldn't resist posting her "hand" photo! ha ha ha!

For those of you who are new to following or reading my blog, I should let you know that I refer to my children here using affectionate nicknames. My husband started calling our daughter Drama Queen quite a long time ago although she has been the easiest child to raise thus far and thinks it's pretty funny that we call her this.

Here is Sue Sykes' sketch for January over at the Canadian Scrapbooker Sketchy Gallery...

This sketch was perfect to feature a group of photos taken on DQ's birthday...

"Sweet Sixteen"

I took a risk with this layout...is it too cute for a 16-year-old?  Actually DQ told me that she didn't like ANY of her birthday photos, so I was NOT allowed to scrapbook them.  [oops]

These papers are from a couple of My Little Shoebox collections, along with the stickers and alphabets.

The title is all MLS stickers, plus I add Crystal Stickles to the number 16.

I drew a balloon template and then traced and cut out three.  I outlined them with a white pen and then Crystal Stickles.  They are tied with white embroidery thread.

These Peel-off adhesive flowers from Harmonie are so cool!  They are clear stickers with sticky tops that you can cover with glitter, microbeads, flocking, etc.  I used black Craft&Glitz microfine glitter.

This white flower frame is cut with my Cricut.

A journaling spot. [Dang! I wrote 2012, not 13!]

These 6 cards are cut right from one piece of My Little Shoebox patterned paper....an easy way to create a grid and mat photos!

How about starting the New Year off with a challenge?  Join the Sketchy Gallery and design a page based on Sue's sketch, then upload it to the Canadian Scrapbooker website HERE.

I'll see you over there!

Happy New Year!

I can't help it....I love the beginning of a year and totally buy into the idea of starting fresh, having resolutions [breaking them] and creating new opportunities.

One idea I had for a class to start off the New Year is to design an album using Graphic 45's "Place in Time" collection.

Here is the first layout of the album....I'll share the others as the months go by.

January

This is a photo of my mother back in 1955, in winter, headed out with her skates.  I didn't know my mother skated! 

Everyone thinks most Canadians skate, and I suppose many of us do...except for my daughters and me!  Yes, I took skating lessons as a child, but the ice and cold are not my friends, and my girls agree.

Some close-ups...

I layered these banner strips in the background.

Distressed and inked edges.

A snowflake Sizzix die and glitter

Glittered tags and dyed ribbon.

I am really excited about creating an entire 12x12 album with Graphic 45!  If you would like to join my class and live in the area, call The Urban Scrapbook or register online.  

If you live far far away and would like to take the class by purchasing a kit or registering for online videos, please get in touch with me by sending me an email at kelly@klapstein.com .