Good Bye September

This month has been a blur, and on the last day I am squeaking in my September Sketchy Challenge for Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.

Here is Sue Sykes' wonderful sketch:

I used the RSVP collection from Basic Grey, including the sticker sheets.

The butterflies were cut using this pretty Spellbinders die set:

I added Crystal Stickles to make them sparkly.

The sparkly leaves were created with Hampton Art green glitter and new Designer Shapes from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L.  

This layout is actually being featured on the Crafty Power blog, and you can click HERE to see how I made these pretty glitter leaves.

My layout doesn't really look much like September, does it?  That is because I went to Phoenix, Arizona, for 5 days with my dear friend, Michelle Marks, a couple weeks ago. 

We visited the beautiful Desert Botanical Gardens and were delighted to walk around and see so many incredible desert landscapes and vegetation. This is where I took the photos of the cactus flowers on my layout.

I never knew that cactus could be so pretty!

Our other memorable part of this trip was visiting the Grand Canyon.  This was Michelle's first time here and my second. 

Words cannot describe the breathtaking panorama of this wonder of the world.

Along with lots of shopping and sunshine, this was a fantastic, relaxing getaway.  

I definitely needed some down time with the two Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnivals taking place in September too.  

My cropping cowgirls: Michelle, Roni and Sandra

I taught a "Double the Fun" layout class in both Edmonton and Calgary and had a great time meeting lots of wonderful scrappers. 

My Calgary class

Of course, it's always tons of fun to hang out with the Canadian Scrapbooker team. 

Katharina Doyle and Connie Nichol

Never a dull moment with this bunch!

Jackie and Madeline Ludlage

Jayme Loge and Cathie Allan

Christy Riopel

So good bye September, it's been a blast!  Next up...the October Sketchy challenge! Hope you play along and upload your layout to the Sketchy gallery....click HERE to check it out.

Back To School !

It's that time of the year when all parents are kicking up their heels because it's Back to School! This summer I did enjoy not rushing around in the morning, worrying about missing the bus, forgetting books and lunches and telling the girls, "No, you can't wear  THAT to school!" ha ha

But routine is good for us, too, and now I will have more of a routine time to blog and scrapbook.

Here is a layout I designed for the Create & Connect trade show in Vegas, and it's up on The Crafty Power blog. I used 4 of the 3D foam Designer Shapes:  wings, stars, heart, and rectangle/frame:

I have a simple tutorial on how I made those red stars....so click HERE to visit their blog and check it out.  The papers are FancyPants Designs and the stamps are Stampin' Up! and Graphic 45 (alphabet). The silver glitter is EK Success/Martha Stewart.

Confession:  The photo is from last year's first day of school.  Here is this year's pics from last week:

BabyOfTheFamily is in Grade 8

DramaQueen is in Grade 11

BoyGenius heads off to University

Oh well, two out of three isn't bad. Ha!  

New Double the Fun!

My new Double the Fun layout and sketch are up on the Canadian Scrapbooker website for your scrapbooking entertainment!  And yes....this is for the SPRING 2014 page call.  Yikes.

I took these pics of BabyOfTheFamily and her sweet friend "B" while they were making flower headbands for their friends, one weekend afternoon a couple of months ago.  These two girls together always have so much fun, and they are both really crafty, which makes me happy :)

The yellow background papers are DCWV, but everything else is from Webster's Pages (papers, stickers, twine, resin).

I just love the fresh patterns and colours of this Allison Kreft "Composition & Color" collection and already have plans for future layouts!

I hope you have a chance to design a double layout based on my sketch...and remember to submit it to Canadian Scrapbooker magazine!