Kickin' It with Kaisercraft

On Sunday, my baby boy turned 18.  Gulp.  Shocking but true.

BoyGenius on his FIRST birthday :)

We had lots of wonderful family time all weekend with him, and a very special guest showed up as a "Surprise!"

His Uncle Howard surprised him and flew in from Nicaragua to celebrate his birthday

His sister decorated the cake

Not a cake kinda guy...thus the chocolate strawberries.

Quite awhile ago I decided to work on birthday layouts right after they happened....when everything is fresh in my mind.  So I grabbed a photo of BoyGenius from Sunday and looked for papers.

The Kaisercraft "75 Cents" collection is perfect for a 'guy page.'

I also found this sketch on the Kaisercraft blog, for their April Saturday sketch challenge...

And here is my layout based on the sketch...

Those cool number tags are a TM Exclusives product from my local scrapbook store, Treasured Memories.

The keys are older K & Company, and I cut that heart from a scrap piece of corrugated cardboard. 

 The copper wire is Art-C, and the chevron stamp is Bo Bunny. I used both Clearsnap and Prima chalk inks for the edges and on the heart.

I used a fine-tipped Sharpie to draw faux stitches

If you would like to see how this layout came together, I made a video tutorial.

Click HERE to watch it on YouTube....and you can also subscribe to my channel if you'd like to watch more of my videos in the future.

I enjoyed designing with this Kaisercraft collection so much that I've already started another layout!  Stay tuned....

April Sketchy Challenge

Easter has come and gone, so it must be April!  And that means a new sketch from Sue Sykes over at Canadian Scrapbooker...

I decided to have some fun with the pretty collection "Vintage Bliss" from Simple Stories.

Here is my layout...

BabyOfTheFamily has a wonderful new friend in junior high who has the same goofy sense of humour.  When these two get together, there is lots of laughter and joking around.  I took these pics during one of their sleepovers, and they are both wearing the same 'onesies' pj's...piggy style.

This Simple Stories collection has wonderful patterned papers that I cut apart to embellish my layout. I think I stuck EVERYTHING down with Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Foam Squares!

I created that fun background with Maya Road twine and a hole punch.  If you would like to see how I did this and also watch how I put this layout together, you can watch this video tutorial.

You can also click HERE to go to YouTube and subscribe to my channel!

If you have a chance, design a layout using this sketch and upload it to the Canadian Scrapbooker Sketchy Challenge.  Click HERE to visit the gallery and find lots of inspiration!

Graphic 45 "March" Place in Time

I'm back from a warm and relaxing Spring Break vacation and am excited to get back into my studio!  Today I thought I would share my "March" Place in Time Graphic 45 vintage layout and a video featuring a technique for making watercolour flowers using Distress Markers.

My mother turns 85 in November, and I have decided to surprise her with a 12 x 12 photo album.  I'm using Graphic 45 "Place in Time" collection and duplicating photos from her vintage scrapbooks.  Mostly they are pictures of herself, friends and family around 1954 and 1955.  

I have already posted the January and February layouts, and I thought I'd share the album as I work on it.  So, here is March....

I was so excited to find these photos of my mother at a St. Patrick's Day party!  What luck!  Her roommate was Irish, so I can see why they had a party.

The technique featured on this layout is the watercolour flowers...

The flowers are cut with Spellbinders (Donna Salazar) "Rose Creations" die set

I made a video tutorial that shows how you can make these flowers, which I am thinking look like pansies or violets...either way they're purple flowers that match the floral images on the paper.

You can also click HERE to go to my YouTube channel and watch the video on a bigger screen.

I hope to be making more video tutorials in the future, so if you would like to "stay tuned" then click SUBSCRIBE while you are watching.  

I hope Winter is coming to an end wherever you live and that Spring weather has arrived!

March Sketchy Challenge

For this month's Sketchy Challenge at Canadian Scrapbooker, I decided to have some fun with another new Bo Bunny collection called "Family Is..."

I am POSITIVE that the paper designers at Bo Bunny had a real life peek inside MY family when they came up with these hilarious and playful stickers...

Here is Sue Sykes' awesome March sketch...

Immediately I thought of some recent pics of my teenagers.  Sure, I had one "good" shot of them together for DramaQueen's birthday, but why scrap that photo when I had 10 other funny outtakes?  

I love the colourful, bright patterns....a reflection of my chaotic, loud teens!

Using the card stock and chipboard stickers makes designing a breeze...

I also did a fast forward video of how this layout came together. [You can click HERE to go to YouTube and watch on a bigger screen.  You can also click "Subscribe" if you'd like to watch all my videos]

I hope you can join in the fun over at the Sketchy gallery this month!  It's a friendly online community with lots of inspiration!

Time Travel

Today I thought I'd share a few layouts I designed for my "Time Travel" article in the Spring issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.

Creating heritage pages and vintage designs is one of my favourite styles of scrapbooking.

FabScraps was perfect to use for this layout "Farm Girls,"  featuring a photo of my mom and her cousin in the farm yard.  Why are they wearing pretty white dresses and playing outside?? It's probably Sunday!

I used The Crafter's Workshop chicken wire stencil and Stephanie Barnard/Clearsnap black spray on the background paper.

The title was cut with a Cricut.

The crocheted doily was bought at a garage sale last summer.

I coloured the chipboard elements with inks.

My next layout is made with beautiful Melissa Frances products....

The photo is my cousin Cindy who grew up on the same farm as my mom did!

To make this flower, I just covered a chipboard circle with liquid adhesive and wound the ribbon around.  Then I added a pretty pearl bling centre.

I also made some simple spiral roses...

The alphabet stickers and white resin pieces are also Melissa Frances.

This last layout was designed with the gorgeous Graphic 45 "A Ladies Diary" collection....

My mom's 27th birthday!  Love her dress.

Here are some close-ups. 

I fussy cut these roses and leaves from the patterned paper.

The alphabet stickers are Graphic 45 too, and the pearls are Stampin' Up

A very sweet friend of mine, Michelle Marks, also used Ladies Diary and designed this gorgeous vintage tea box and mailed it to me for my birthday....

Click HERE to visit Michelle's blog and see a tutorial on how to make this tea box.  

I love it, Michelle!  Thank you so much.

And thank you, Canadian Scrapbooker, for giving me the opportunity to design and write "Time Travel." 

My heritage pages are precious to me, and I really enjoy sharing them with all of you.

More news is GOOD news!

This seems to be a week of announcements and new opportunities for me!

I'm so excited to say that I have a layout published in Kristine Davidson's new sketch book, that is now for sale!

Many of you are familiar with Kristine's amazing sketches and her website "Creative Scrappers."  Lucky for us, she decided to design Volume 2!

It's packed with 125 sketches and wonderful designers' layouts based on ALL the sketches!  WOW.

I am so fortunate to be part of this fantastic sketch book, and here is my double page layout based on one of her sketches....

These are DramaQueen's back to school photos, taken last fall.  First year of high school!  yikes.

You've probably noticed that I have been loving the new Bo Bunny collections lately.  This is made with Isabella....beautiful greys and pinks!

Lucky for me, DQ has decided she likes PINK again! woohoooo!  So she has "allowed" me to scrapbook with pink papers.  Ironically, her previous fave colour has been grey....so the perfect match was made!

And lucky for YOU....I have a coupon code so you can purchase your own sketch book today for only $8.  So instead of buying yourself 2 frappa mocha caramel skinny vanilla latte with whip coffees.....you can own this sketch book and have a ton of inspiration at your fingertips! 

Your coupon code for a digital version you can download is  CWS2Discount.

You can also order a printed version even if you live halfway around the world!

Click HERE to shop at the Creative Scrappers store and buy the best Sketch book ever :)

Awesome Announcements!

I think everyone knows by now that I feel so lucky to be part of the team at Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  Writing and designing for this wonderful publication is a dream come true!

When the Spring 2013 issue was released this past week, I was surprised and thrilled to see my little head on the cover, along with my name and article title "Time Travel."  wow.  This blew me away!

A big shout out to Christy Dean who took this head shot.  She is so talented!

I also have a second regular feature article called "Double the Fun."  

Here is my new  Double the Fun sketch for the Fall 2013 issue....

And my layout sample (you can see both on the Canadian Scrapbooker website Home page).

Featuring BabyOfTheFamily and Bo Bunny's new "Prairie Chic" collection.

I'd love for you to use my sketch and submit your layouts!  Click HERE to see the submissions page online at the magazine.

As well, today on the Canadian Scrapbooker blog, it's Tuesday with the Team, and my studio tour is posted there.  

If you'd like to take a look into my scrap space, click HERE to visit the CS blog.  I'm not super organized, but I love my studio :)

My final announcement is the WINNER of the Crop Circles blog hop......drum roll.......

it's NATASHA CONNOLLY!!!!!!!

Congratulations, Natasha! 

Whew...that is a lot of announcing...but I am not done.  Stay tuned for more news later this week :)