Wednesday 27 February 2013

Life is Good


 This first layout is one I did for Treasured Memories a few months ago.

I love woodgrain papers and this one from Studio Calico just looked like a perfect frame to me. I hung some of my favourite pictures on a clothesline made of rafia and added some homemade pinwheels. I secured it with these cute paperclips. I added some butterflies that I fussy-cut, my title and sub-title and some of this beautiful blue lace.



If you'd like to see more of the layouts I've made for them lately, here's a post on their  inspiration blog with a few.

Again, check out that woodgrain... the title and the mat for my focal photo are both different patterns and colours of woodgrain. 

I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper, Glitz stickers, Studio Calico and Cosmo Cricket alphas and some burlap and gold ribbon from my stash.


This is another layout from our Europe trip. I'm slowly getting some of them scrapped. Park Guell is in Barcelona and was a park designed by the architect Gaudi to be an outdoor wonderland and it really was. It was also scorching hot, which takes a little bit of the pleasure out of the experience for a 3 year old, her 7 months pregnant mom, and her dad who has to put up with them both ;) but we loved it.

30 minutes or less

I've been enjoying Elizabeth Kartchner's new blog, Paper Party (http://www.lizzypaperparty.com/)
and was inspired by the Time's Up posts with Stephanie Howell, so I decided to make a few layouts only giving myself half an hour to create them from start to finish.

This is something I've done before. I don't have a ton of time (who does) so it fits my schedule perfectly and it makes a dent in my scrapbooking stash and my photo pile. 

And, because I can't decide which season I want to scrapbook, I'm jumping from Christmas to spring-y colours, to fall leaves....


I did this one in 3, 10 minute chunks of time. I chose paper, embellishments, and photos in my first ten minutes, then quickly layed things out on the page in the manner I thought looked best in my next 10. My last 10 minutes was spent adhering everything to the page, adding a title, journaling and ripping a few pieces of washi tape off to add. 

I love how it turned out. Instagram pictures add such a neat look to layouts, too. 

washi tape: Glitz Designs, chipboard stickers: MME, paper: Heidi Swapp and Studio Calico, alphas: Cosmo Cricket, Pink Paislee, and Sassafrass Lass.


This one I did in one sitting. I had a chunk of time when both girls were asleep, Brad was watching hockey, and I had the kitchen table to myself. 

I love this background paper from Simple Stories and I thought these cute pictures of Gracie playing in the leaves in Portugal would look good on it, so I started from there. I went into my scrap bag and pulled out little pieces of orange-y brown paper and layered them behind, then I added the stickers. 

patterned paper: MME, Simple Stories, stickers: American Crafts, Echo Park, cardstock: Bazzill.

You may notice I always like to make visual triangles by clustering elements in the three corners of an imaginary triangle on my page. I think using a simple plan like this helps keep your layouts looking clean when you're on the clock.



Last glimpse of Christmas

The March through our December Daily album continues. 
Here we are. One of the big days we celebrated in December, Christmas!! 


She was hardly excited... didn't like any of her gifts and wanted to stay in her room all day. Ha! She was scratching at the door, waiting to get out Christmas morning and dove into the stockings, presents, and sheer joy of Christmas.


Testing out the goods.


Decorating a gingerbread house got a little sticky. If you try to hide the decorating smarties in your hand, they will melt, and then you're bound to accidentally wipe the melted smarties on your eyebrow, because you hoarded them so long, you forgot about them, too. This is why I love you, Gracie.


 We braved freezing temperatures to enjoy the lights on Candy Cane Lane.


We enjoyed turkey supper leftovers and a Christmas donut.


 Welcome Emma! Our little December Daughter kept us waiting, but managed to avoid Christmas day and all of her relatives birthdays to create her own special day on the 28th!


Here's where this little project got a little neglected. We weren't really being 'festive' after this point. You might say we were merry, but not very bright, due to lack of sleep, so we just enjoyed the greatest gift of the season: family. Gracie met Emma for the first time on the 29th, along with Grand dad and Papa. Grams and GG got to meet her the night before.


And we got to head home with our new bundle.


What better way to complete the year??

Hope you enjoyed this mini. I've actually got two more that I haven't shown yet. Maybe one day, they'll appear here, too.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

'Tis the Season

Are you feeling Christmas-y yet? Ready for next December, even though it's February??


Here's the third instalment of our December Daily album. 


We did a lot of baking as you'll see. My doctor told me I hadn't gained any weight since my last check up so I took his advice to 'enjoy Christmas' literally and we ate well!
These fudgy cookies were my favourite new recipe of the Christmas season and are easy and fun for kids to help out with.


While the aforementioned cookies are easy and fun, sugar cookies are a 'must do item' for Christmas. If you have kids, you must experience the joy of baking sugar cookies at Christmas. Make sure you aim high and double the batch, or heck, why not triple it?? You need that much sugar, as do they and the rolling, cutting, decorating and baking won't take long with a three year old assistant...


But, if you're lucky, an accomplished assistant will arrive (Grams!) to help and make it really fun. The cookies will be so covered in sprinkles, you will be able to taste the colours! Three year old portion control.


Opening presents and reading stories.

You may notice that I included pages of all diferent sizes and shapes in this album. I like the layered look, but in the photos, you miss the depth. 


The response to Gracie's letter to Santa, straight from the North Pole.


And, I'll leave you in suspense. Christmas, donuts, and the best gift of all are still to come.


Sunday 24 February 2013

More of our Christmas album

Here we go again! 


 A little taste of how we made December merry!


A glistening tree, straight from IKEA and decorated by three complete amateurs who like clutter, chaos and kitsch.


Decorating sugar cookies with 5 kids under the age of 6 was exciting.


Playing in the snow, and the countdown to Christmas gets exciting: 12 Days!!


Santa sent Gracie a personalized video message. She loved it!


Skating parties with friends.



Sharing the gift of giving with the three year old who got mad at Santa for not bringing her fireworks to Brad's Christmas party.


We started a new tradition this year. We did the 12 days of Christmas Books. It's a great way to use those Christmas books that you got last year. We wrapped 12 and opened one a day, leading up to Christmas, just like an Advent Calendar. She loves to read, so this was exciting for her, and we got to cuddle up with a 'new' book each evening.


Skating and putting up Christmas lights. We're halfway through our month. 
Stick around to see more of our Christmas 2013 mini album.

Saturday 23 February 2013

December Daily Album

I got a night out last night with my scrapbooking buddy and got a few things done so I can actually show some scrapbooking on my 'Scrapbook Savvy' blog....

I like to make a little mini album each year of all the things we do in the month of December. It makes us go out and enjoy the festive season, and captures all of the exciting and ordinary things we do. This year was special, since we welcomed Emma on the 28th, so it was hard to be festive at nine months pregnant, especially when we had such a cold snap near Christmas, but we managed to have fun.


I make my albums out of all different things: papers of all sizes, envelopes, tags, paper bags, anything that catches my eye around November. Here are a few pages. I'll spread the album pictures out over a few posts because there are 31 pages (you don't want to see them all)



 Decorating the tree


Sending a letter to Santa



Heading out to a Christmas party


Visiting a Christmas light display


Gracie's Advent House


The tree all lit up


And baking (and sampling treats)

More to come! 

Thursday 21 February 2013

Photobooth Fun

I love this free App that I got from Starbucks. It's called Pocketbooth.

Here are a few of my recent favourites:






Fun in a photobooth without ever leaving home ;)

Friday 15 February 2013

Painting with Penguins

On Tuesday, we went to West Edmonton Mall and painted on a pirate ship with penguins!! 


We coloured a few pictures while they got organized. Gracie's friend, Berlyn was there to entertain her.


Here's part of the ship:


 And a quick look at one of Gracie's pictures:


The wings are the sides of her fists, and the rest was free hand ;)

The process:


This penguin painting above was a little more abstract. I think it was more about the glitter than anything else.


Then the Penguin Artist, Skadoo and his trainer took the stage.




Here's Skadoo getting ready to paint.


 The girls were watching closely:


In he dips, and then off he goes!


 His beautiful artwork:


He's an Oilers fan, so he chose orange, blue and white.


 The girls got to take a closer look at Skadoo's painting and pose with him (he's been in movies!! Their first movie star!)



What a fun day!