Fun Frame!

Okay...we all know that mittens, rosy cheeks and snow days are right around the corner, and I think I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to the winter season.  I love playing outside in the snow and my kids are definitely "lemme outside" kind of kids...so I was excited when Kristy asked if I could help out, along with a few fellow "stealers" with today's steal...I had just the photo I ***needed*** to get out there on display!
I am a sucker for displaying my own photos in my house as artwork...we haven't invested a ton of money in decorating yet...so maybe it's just an excuse to get something (anything) up on the wall or sitting on the mantle, but give me a super cute pic of my kids over a Picasso anyday.

I started with spray painting the frame base in silver.  For the winter/Christmas season, I loooooove the look of cool blues, whites and silvers over the traditional red, green and gold...so I was already eying up Echo Park's Wintertime (one of my favourite EP lines) to cut into for this frame.

I used my pink ATG to line the outside edge with adhesive and cut my base paper to fit.  I trimmed off any excess with my x-acto knife and was left with a very neat and tidy covered frame.  Maybe a little too neat and tidy, lol, because I used my Imaginisce D-Stress tool to give the edges a bit of a worn look.  I added a few cute stickers (and made them pop with pop dots) along with an appropriate title for the photo I had in mind, some twine to "tie" the mitts together and added a bit of bling to the snowflake.  I had originally left the base blank with just the matching paper, but added the button, twine and pearls to give it a little something extra...

I was having some trouble getting just the right picture, so you're stuck looking at two...lol!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

Totally Topaz!!!

Sorry about the repeats...and the mass post with no explanations, but I'm just in need of a place to post my 10 Topaz layouts for www.scrapbooksteals.com.  I'm pleased with all of them except for #10...I guess you can't love them all, but scrapping at midnight is DEFINITELY not my forte.  :(  Here they are from #1 to #10.  :)

Whew! Thanks for looking! :) Now, I've got some scrap room organizing to do...lol...looks like a tornado went through!!!

Monday Card Madness #49!

So very much NOT a card maker over here, but this was the little push I needed to make a card for a friend who may need a little boost in the near future.  I love Kristy Lee's sketch from www.scrapbooksteals.com for MCM #49.  Here's the sketch...

I am super happy that I actually used ONLY scraps for this card...even the main piece for the card was a scrap from the Cricut.  :)  I had a bit of a mishap with my inking on the blue polka-dotted scrap, but oh well...lol!  I tried to cover it.  ;) None of the paper is really identifiable...the only thing I know for sure is that the pink ribbon is American Crafts, and the tiny bling added to the MS butterfly punch is I-Rock bling. Even the swirly bling was cut off from a larger swirl that I used on a different project.

Thanks for lookin'!  

Best Ever Hiding Place

I have had this collection in my posession for what seems like FOREVER!!!  I'm so excited to finally have found the perfect set of photos to scrap using WRMK Geo-Hectic.  It's a really cute collection, and when I was playing around with the colours of these photos in Picnik, I thought they looked a little retro (I'm sure our retro kitchen cabinets didn't hurt) and I think Geo-Hectic has a bit of a retro vibe to it...so it seemed like a perfect match!

I used Kristy Lee's sketch from www.scrapbooksteals.com (Topaz #5) for this layout...

Here's my layout!

In addition to some of the Geo-Hectic collection, I used some I-Rock bling, Thickers, Sassafras letters, twine (can't get enough) and my Ranger Espresso ink.  OH, and I JUST that day had gotten 7 rolls of washi tape in the mail that I had ordered from Etsy...you see a bit of that too.  I wasn't sure how I would feel about the washi tape in person, but I love it!  Just a little something to add!

Thanks for checking me out! ;)

Canmore 2011

I found this sketch (perfect for Joely's Canmore layout) through one of my crafty groups and I'm so glad I did!  I really love its simplicity, but it was not an easy sketch for me to execute...at all!  LOL!  I actually ended up completely tossing my first version...wasting a bunch of time and a bunch of I-Rock gems...lol!  Oh well, I'm so much happier with the way the second layout turned out!  I bought this Martha Stewart butterfly punch last week from Michael's (for 25% off) and I've been waiting for the perfect, simple layout to use it on!  This was the one!  Glad it only took a week to find!  I love these little butterflies!  Here's the sketch from the Sweet Peach Crop Shop blog (2nd August Sketch)...

Cute, right!?  This was my take on it...

Plain white card stock, no name ribbon, BG buttons, Sass lettering for the title, Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe paper (the strip down the right-hand side, the butterflies and the journaling tag), I-Rock gems and Sew Easy made this layout work for me!  I'm pleased with the results!

A Year At A Glance...

I did a layout similar to this one and I just love to see how much can change in a year when it comes to seeing their photos month-by-month all laid out on one page!!

I used a sketch by Kristy Lee at www.scrapbooksteals.com (Topaz #4) and with a little modification of photo placement, I managed to finish Owen's year at a glance layout!

Here's the sketch...

Here's my take...

I used Crate Paper's Toy Box collection, which I got from my awesome swap buddy in the summer swap box exchange!  Super cute collection...I love the old school retro feel of it.  Added some AC Thickers and a few brads, buttons and ribbon from my own collection and VOILA!  I pretty pleased with how it turned out, even though I feel as though I could have embellished a bit more...however, it was time to step away from this layout...LOL!  

What a cute boy!!!

I'm adding this in...because it's just too funny!  This is the layout I did for Joely's "Growing Like A Weed" frist year page...totally different sketch...very similar results...lol!

This is Kristy Lee's sketch for MWM #2...from July 2010!!!

And this is where I took it!

LOL...look familiar!  

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Truly.  One of my favourite photos ever.  This photo (4x6) completely captures the mischievous side of Owen...and I love it.

Another EXCELLENT sketch from Kristy Lee at www.scrapbooksteals.com.  This is Topaz 2...I can't believe I'm all caught up!  A new Topaz (4) was posted today though...so I'd better get on it.  Here's Topaz 2...

And my layout...

I definitely strayed from the sketch because I just recently discovered picnik.com...it's a photo editing site and I just can't get enough!!!  You will probably see MANY edited photos, collages, etc. in the days to come.

I used plain red card stock for the background and layered and embellished with Sassafras Monstrosity.  I really had fun doing this layout, but I found the loooooooooong title especially satisfying.  I really enjoyed mixing up the Thickers and Remarks to get the look I was going for.  

Thanks for peeking in!

Me Too, Me Too!

There was the most AWESOME guest sketcher this week on www.scrapbooksteals.com, Kristina MacKeen, and all I can say is WOW!  She totally rocked it, had a fantastic collection to work with, and I jumped on it!  Here's the sketch...

And here's where I took it...

I snagged my first-ever Sassafras box sale after some scrappy friends recommended it!  They had been super happy with their last pick up from Sass!  I also realized that I only had one collection from Sassafras (Monstrosity) and I didn't know why, because I really like them!  So, a friend picked it up yesterday from the border store I had it shipped to and I dug in as soon as it was here!!!

I used primarily Cherry Delicious, with my background page from Mix and Match.  The only items used on this layout that don't belong to Sass are the buttons (basic grey and Crate Paper), brads (Imaginisce - To Love and Cherish, and again, basic grey) and pink Thickers for the second half of the title.  Oh, and of course the journaling strips are just Recollections plain white card stock inked with Espresso pigment ink.

Kristina, LOVE this sketch...thank you!

Worm Rescue

There were HUNDREDS of worms on our driveway after a crazy rainstorm in the area.  When we got home from our walk, I told Joely that worms belong in the grass or garden so that they're safe and she made it her mission to return them there!  It was crazy how many worms there were!  CRAZY!  She went through her three stage process with EVERY worm (pick it up, show mom, throw it in the grass)...I bet she did this for over an hour...and that was with me helping her return the worms to the grass!

I didn't follow a sketch for this layout, but I should have waited because today's guest sketcher on www.scrapbooksteals.com (Kristina MacKeen) drew out a perfect one for these photos...time to look for some more photos to scrap!

I used a combination of American Crafts Backyard and Blue Skies collections for this layout.  I just love the bold colours and patterns in all the AC collections.  Definitely one of my favourites! A Fiskars punch helped with with the edging and the Sew Easy stitched my two layering pieces together.  I just picked up a bunch of Thickers from M's on sale last week and it didn't take long for them to make their debut!  I also added a little 'x' stitch over each letter to make it look like I had stitched them on...did it work?  heehee.  I ruched some ribbon at the bottom of my 5x7 to ground it a bit and used to buttons in my stash to dress up the wormy words.

That worm.  Oh, that worm.  I found some worm clip art and felt that this was the most appropriate wormy to add a bit of fun to the page.  It was a bit of a challenge to get him printed out in the right size, but there he is.  I went over the black lines to darken them up and then using a Versamark pen, shaded in the brown segments and added some brown/copper embossing powder.  I'm really pleased with how he turned out.  The perfect slimy embellishment for this wormy layout!

Ride Junkie

I will honestly say that putting my two-year old on a roller coaster was not at the top of my list.  However, Pete is a die-hard ride-lover and there was no height requirement for this particular roller coaster at Marineland.  Off they went to wait in line, while I stayed with a sleeping Owen in the stroller.
I used Sketchy Thursday's 8.4 Sketch as my inspiration for this layout...

I started with a sheet of roughed up 12x12 Recollections Kraft paper and smeared some teal blue craft paint here and there.  The blue/green layering papers belong to Splash Dance by Imaginisce and the brown is a piece from Fancy Pants, Fine and Dandy (Snazzy).  I used my Sew Easy to make some loop-de-loops on the layout and to stitch down the Snazzy card stock.  The yellow trims also belong to Fine and Dandy (LOVE these kinds of trims...LOVE), a bit of twine, Pearls from my LSS, a random button from my stash, and, of course, Thickers for the title.  I doodled on a couple of the orange letters which hopefully adds a bit of interest to the plain Jane letters.  :)

Back in the "Now"

Here's my most recent layout featuring that sweet baby face of Owen's.  I just can't get enough of those chubby cheeks...and I know his hair is in his face now, but I just can't BEAR to cut it yet!  I love his little surfer, messy "do!"

This was our first monthly challenge posted in a scrappy group I belong to, where I've made some FANTASTIC friends!  This was Chloe's challenge...use NO patterned paper.  This was a tough one for me!  I LOVE PATTERNS...the crazier the better!  BUT, I'm thrilled with the way it came together!

I started with some basic white cardstock, and stitched the cloud shape around the outside edge using Sew Easy thread.  Then, I STAMPED, I know...crazy right?  I am not a confident stamper at all, but I had bought these swirly stamps from M's a while ago, and this was the perfect opportunity to use them.  I also stamped a pattern on the tree trunk to add a bit of dimension, but it definitely doesn't show up in the photo.  The flowers are American Crafts, and I used that Martha Stewart icicle punch for the grass (heehee...I've actually used it more for grass than icicles) and scrunched up the paper.  AC ribbon (green) and no name ribbon (blue) add a bit of fun to the page.  To give the owls a bit of dimension, I used my Espresso pigment ink pad on the back layer (lower owl) and the top layer (upper owl).  I used plain brown Thickers for the title, but used a marker to "stitch" a pattern around the outside edge.  They just looked too plain.  ;) I used the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge for the tree, and Create A Critter for the owls.  

I really enjoyed this little challenge.  I am SUCH a pattern-lover that it was fun to try something new!

Welcome Owen (oops...going back in time again)...

This was yet another sketch by Kristy Lee...

And here's my take using Little Sprout.  A very sweet, baby-friendly collection...

I actually used my Cricut (I know, rare) for some of the little swirlys, added a bit of bling from Dollarama, and Thickers for the title.  A very sweet, simple layout.

Oldie, but a goodie...

This layout features a photo from May 2010, but just looking at it makes me happy.  I know that those of you who use my blog to catch up on our most recent news are going to wonder why I'm going back in time...lol...

Sweet Slumber.

Yet another sketch from Kristy Lee...can you tell how much I just love playing along on the www.scrapbooksteals.com Facebook page?  It's a nice little scrapping family around there...just love it!

Here's Kristy's sketch...

And here's my sweet sleeping babes...I mean, really.  How often does this happen?  Of course I needed to take a pic and make a layout!

I went to town on the left-hand side with the Sew Easy...just love the little touches that the tool can add to a page!  I used some AC Patterned Paper - Metropolitan here...I love the patterns together.  Fun!  A Basic Grey button in the center of the flower, AC Remarks and Thickers make up the title (love mixing them up).  I love the ric-rac randomness on the left hand side and the little line of buttons, brads and pearls to throw a bit of randomness on the page.  I added the twine for a bit of interest, that that's about that!

Sweet little sleeping babies!  Love!

Long, lost passion...

Okay, I'll admit it.  Life has been absolutely nutty, embarrassingly busy, but I think I have things under control!  Time to catch up on my blog!  I feel the need to write a heartfelt apology to my blog.  So here it is.

Dear Will Work For Scraps,
I am a terrible blogger-person.  I have neglected you shamelessly due to another MAJOR commitment that is now wrapping up, but I WILL make it up to you.  I really did miss you.  Please accept this apology from the bottom of my heart.  This will not happen again.  :)
Much scrappy love,
Jana

Okay, I think we're on better terms now.
On a brighter note, I am one aerobics class (instructing it) away from becoming a qualified fitness instructor specialist!  This was the dark mistress who was keeping me from my blogging, but I am a fitter, happier, and soon-to-be employed person because of it.  :)

I need to give this blog some scrappy love!  Here are a few projects that snuck into my busy last few months...

Conquering The Bunny Hill

Were we crazy to bring our not-even-two-year-old out on the ski-hill?  Maybe.  But if people thought we were nuts, it only took them a minute to see this little natural out on the slopes was right at home!  Again!  Again!!  Joely absolutely LOVED hitting the slopes, and like any dedicated scrapbooker, I LOVED doing a layout featuring our littlest skier!  This was based on a sketch by the fabulous Kristy Lee at www.scrapbooksteals.com.  Here's her sketch...

Isn't she seriously amazing?

Here's my take on the sketch.  I actually stuck pretty close to her sketch because it worked so great with the photos I had along with the vision I had for working with this Echo Park collection, Wintertime.

The cardstock used is all from Wintertime, and I just LOVE the cool colours!  So perfect for scrapping so many of my photos...afterall, it seems like it's always winter up North! LOL!

The clear little snowflakes are actually from Imaginisce's Cottage Christmas, and the silver centres are from Dollarama!  I just knew those would come in handy one day! I've been waiting and waiting to use that Martha Stewart icicle punch.  A perfect little touch.  :) Thickers, some ink and ribbon round off this layout, and I almost forgot the Sew Easy to mark the little snowflakes at the top of the page. 

Just looking at this layout brings a smile to my face.  What a little trooper out there on the ski hill!  :D

New Year's Resolutions...

My New Year's Resolutions are pretty...unoriginal.  They include making the effort to lead a healthier lifestyle by eating more cooked-from-scratch meals, making sure we "eat a lot of colour" and continuing to do something active every day.  Not necessarily high-impact, but something...even if it's just my morning walk with Annie (who's become quite a challenge on her leash around other dogs) and the kids in the stroller (who have become quite a challenge to push in said stroller with every pound they gain...coughcoughOwencoughcough).

As for scrapbooking, my goals this year are to find a balance between creating an album for Pete and I and maintaing the albums for the kids.  This shouldn't be too hard, since I have only scrapped one page for us.  One.  Shameful.  Also, I have pretty much run out of photos of the kids to scrap.  Well, I probably could find a few of teeny, tiny, baby Owen that I should do (oh, and his first Christmas), but for the most part...my favourite site's sketches (www.scrapbooksteals.com) have been neglected because I have no photos of my little monkeys!

So, I started off this scrapping year with a bang and I've upped my "pages-of-us-scrapped" total by 3!!!  I'm actually feeling pretty great about it.

My second scrapbooking-related quest is to give myself a little more creative freedom with the sketches that I follow.  This one is tough for me.  When I see a sketch I like, I really want my layout to turn out exactly as sketched, but I realized that I was kind of losing the creative outlet that I loved...so I need to take that back.  I absolutely love working from sketches, so I can still do that...I just need to allow myself to incorporate my own twist!  That is what sketches are intended to do...get your creative juices flowing, but I just took them too literally...not anymore!  ;)

The first page (featuring Pete and I) is actually the very beginning.  Quite fitting, I think!  :)  Wow, it really seems like yesterday that Pete and I were living in two different cities attempting to form a relationship, but it's been five years...and a LOT has happened since then!  When I was looking back at our photos, I was a little disappointed in how few I actually have of the two of us!  Not to mention the poor quality of the photos compared to now (and it's not like it was 1950), but I'm trying to make the best of what I have.  Also, I wasn't a "scrapbooker" 5 years ago...I find I take photos more carefully now, fully aware that every photo I take might be my next best layout!

This layout was inspired by the great Kristy Lee at www.scrapbooksteals.com.  It's based on Mid-Week Mojo sketch #25.  Kristy's sketch was actually a two-page layout and I really like doing two-page layouts, but you have to have great photos, as they're usually showcasing full-sized photos as opposed to mini-prints.  With these photos, I need to print them as mini-prints in an attempt to disguise their terrible quality, but still preserve the memories in a layout!  :)

I really love the paper for this layout...it's got a lot going on with glitter and texture, but offset with muted colours...almost antique-y looking (My Mind's Eye Laundry Line - Natural, and some plain kraft card stock for the journaling tags).  Almost every layout of mine will have American Crafts Thickers for the title...love them.  Martha Stewart ink, Basic Grey buttons, Pebbles chips, Sew Easy Floss and some little pearls (love Dollarama...lol) round off the contents of this layout.  

My second layout is another sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.  I'm really liking this site...and it's nice to have a second sketch to work from because sometimes I do the Mid-Week Mojo on the day it's released, and then I'm itching to scrap, but need some more inspiration.  I decided to shift the journaling so that I could include my odd-shaped photos, instead of squaring them off.  

For this layout, I used Scenic Route Grafton line (love, love, love the gorgeous patterns and bold colours) and you also see American Crafts Thickers (outlined with black marker), Pebbles chips, Basic Grey buttons and Sew Easy floss.  I really want to get my hands on some coloured twine, but until I make the two-hour trip to my "local" scrapbooking store, my precious collection of floss will have to do!

My last layout uses Imaginisce Splash Dance.  This is just may be the cutest beachy-summery collection and I can't believe I'm just digging into it now!  I've had it sitting in my stash for about six months!  This is another Mid-Week Mojo (#22b) sketch from www.scrapbooksteals.com's blog.  You'll probably see me use quite a few of these sketches in the next few weeks...I have a lot to catch up on!  Another page featuring Pete and I during our first summer together actually living in the same city (Elliot Lake).  

American Crafts Thickers, Sew Easy floss (can you tell I'm really trying to master the Sew Easy...lol...it's pretty much been used in every layout since it arrived in my mailbox), sticker pearls, kraft card stock (Recollections) and some sticker embellishments that I found in my stash...I'm guessing they're probably Jolee's?  When I first started scrapbooking, that's what I thought it was all about.  Having coordinating stickers with the subject of your page...I've pretty much moved away from that, but these ones were just too perfect to leave out!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Deja "View"

Two posts in two days...look out blogging world...lol!
This layout is based on Sketchy Thursdays sketch for this week (1.6).  Both my munchkins napped at the same time today, which left me a bit of time to get this one started and finished (rare!).

I really like the look of the sketch...very pleasing to the eye, I think.  Unfortunately, I'm not as 'in love' with my final layout.  I definitely felt as though I really rushed it and I'm regretting using red as the background...it was between red and a more muted brown with dots...darn it.  Oh well, if I had all the time in the world, I'd redo it, but I don't have that luxury...lol!  I don't 'dislike' it, I just find it a bit super-hero-y...lol!  Anyway, I DO love the photos...too funny that I managed to capture them both doing the same thing at almost the same age.  Cuties.
I used American Crafts Abode (thank you scrapbooksteals.com).  I love the vibrant colours in this collection and I also love that it's not all homey and cooking patterns.  Some plain, everyday papers also, and I took advantage of them.

Okay...looking at it again...I kind of like it...lol!  I just have to learn not to rush.  My layout will still be there to work on during tomorrow's naptime!  :)

Sketchy Thursdays

I'm always looking for new sites/fan pages for inspiration...let's face it, we can all use a few creative tips!  I found a super cute blog and Facebook fan page called Sketchy Thursdays.  They have a ton of sketches on their blog and they are all so cute.  The greatest thing (aside from the little bit of inspiration) is that you can enter your sketch to randomly be selected to win a prize donated by various sponsors.  Who doesn't like the chance to win free stuff?  This site is definitely right up my alley!  Anyway, here is one of their latest sketches.  It's actually for a guest design spot, but I'm not really experienced enough to fit that bill, but I wanted to play along.

The sketch was PERFECT for three photos that have been sitting on my desk since Thanksgiving.  I was wondering if they were ever going to get their chance to shine...lol! 

We entered Joely in a 100m 5 & Under fun run in Guelph on Thanksgiving Monday (I was running the 5km) and it was so. cute.  She totally rocked her little race setting a new personal best at 1m13s.  She was a bit hesitant at first (there were a lot of kids lined up at the starting line...and all much bigger than her), but once the gun went off and everyone started running...she was all for it!  Once the little race was over, she just wanted to run...no more walking...lol!  It was really cute.  I love her.  I'm hoping, since we're always in Elmira for Thanksgiving, that this race series will become a little tradition for our family...hopefully Pete will run it with me this year!

Another take...on my sketch!

I used Imaginisce's Cottage Christmas for this layout!  This is actually how I envisioned the original sketch, but I didn't have enough photos for a layout...lol!  Joely's Christmas page was the perfect solution!

Scrapbook Steals!!!

Somebody pinch me!  Am I dreaming?

When Kristy asked me to be a guest designer...I was BEYOND excited!  I'm not worthy!  Let's face it, I'm pretty new to these scraptastic adventures (relatively speaking)!  I'm coming up on my two-year anniversary of scrapping...I just needed a "subject" to get me going (enter my 21 month old little girly)!  While I've loved every minute, thank goodness for Scrapbook Steals (Kristy, Melodee and all the amazing fans) to help guide me along the way!

After I asked Kristy if she was sure...(I mean, really, you're serious?), I didn't think scrappy life could get any better!  AND THEN Kristy let me in on which kit they might be sending me...I nearly passed out!
I love all-things-American-Crafts...and omgoodness, Letterbox did not disappoint!  I can't believe all the amazing scrappy goodness included in this collection.  The Thickers alone had me SWOONING (seriously, I have an addiction)!  Also, besides creating scrapbooking layouts with Letterbox, this kit is definitely a card maker's dream with all the sweet rub-ons (I snuck a few in Owen's journaling, and one in Joely's title)!  There's so much paper included in this kit that I've managed to do two full layouts (and I'm not shy when it comes to using as much paper as I can in a collection), cover the frame with the scraps and I still have more than three quarters of the paper left!  WHAT?  Yah, I know!  Bring on my next project!!!

While I flipped through the awesome-ness of this kit, I was pretty sure that I was going to do a couple of layouts for Joely...I mean, it's got a pretty girly vibe.  After a second look, nuh-uh, no way...I was totally going to use my sketch to do a layout for each of my little monkeys!  There is some serious boy potential in this kit!

For Joely's layout, I wish, wish, wish I had put her in a pink shirt this day, but instead she's wearing her ridiculously cute Andee Lew bright RED shirt from kidsteals.com (super cute shirt, not a great match for my layout)!  I could have chosen another photo (I mean, let's be serious...every little girl has a billion photos featuring pink clothing), but I'm madly in love with this photo, so black and white was my solution!  I think it turned out great.  The only add-ons that I used that aren't included in the kit were the two pieces of ribbon (also American Crafts), Martha Stewart inks, and the Sew Easy floss (ahem, all three were previous steals)!

Little Owen's layout...this little dude gets cuter and cuter every day (I'm not even biased...)!  We were so lucky to get his coy little smile on camera...this was one photo that wasn't going to sit in my scrappy space unscrapped for long!  I can't believe how well the colours all worked for this layout!  For those of you looking for some neutral, un-girly pages...rejoice!  It just goes to show the versatility that this collection has!  The add-ons again include the AC ribbon, MS ink, Sew Easy floss and Basic Grey buttons (which I can NEVER get enough of)!

I have had soooooooooo much fun with this kit...a huge thanks to Kristy and Melodee for giving me this fantastic opportunity!  I can't WAIT to see what all you awesome ladies come up with!

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy this kit once you get it!  It's so stinkin' cute!  I might have to steal a second one! <3