My New FAVE Media!!

Pencil Crayon and Mineral Spirits. LOVE LOVE LOVE the technique. These two images were my first attempts using mineral spirits as a blending tool and did I mention that I LOVE the results??!!

I used Derwent pencil crayons for the candle girl and Prismacolours for the Dragon just to compare. Both worked well, the Prismas being slightly more challenging to blend. I stamped the images on Neenah, with Memento ink and the mineral spirts didn't touch the ink, no smudging of the image at all.

Sheila at Scrappin' Great Deals has been contemplating stocking pencil crayons and mineral spirits in the store. I hope she does, it is a technique I think that *GASP* rivals COPICS!!

Welcome Baby Girls!!

Welcome to the world little girls! A friend of mine had twin girls a month or so ago and I finally got around to making her a card. I am such a rotten friend. Her son is in my son's SK class and will be over for a play date this afternoon so I got my butt in gear last night and made a card. I used my favourite Whiff of Joy stamp and some swirly stamps, stamped in unknown gold ink and embossed the images with clear embossing powder. The paper is from the Road Show line from Fancy Pants. (Fast becoming my favourite Paper Co.) I coloured the image with pencil crayons, highlighted with an opaque white pen, added some pearls, used my one and only Martha Stewart border punch and voila!


Inside the card, a sentiment from the same paper line:

Next I need to work on still life photo taking! Have a fabulous day!!

Monkey See....Monkey Do

Or in this case Gremlin see...Gremlin Do, since Ben is our Gremlin! My little guy spent the weekend closely watching, following and imitating his beloved older brother Malcolm. Where Malcolm went, Ben had to go too; what Malcolm did, Ben tried it out too; what Malcolm had....yep, Ben wanted. Fortunately, Malcolm is pretty tolerant of Ben (or oblivious, being a typically self centered five year old!), but there were a few tears from both over the course of the weekend. Here they are though, contentedly playing side by side in our sand box:

I'll scrap this picture some day!!

My Wedding Reception Album

I am SO far behind in scrapbooking. I got married in 2003, and am just finishing up my wedding pictures. I like to scrap chronologically and I know if I skip ahead to my kids pages, that I will never go back and finish up the pre-kid pages.

We left cameras on the tables at our reception (at the oh so beautiful Sunningdale Golf Club), and this album showcases the best of those pics. We got a LOT of pictures of the floor!!! I used one template for the entire album, switching up the embellishments and colours of the designer paper.
I used a set of patterned paper from Creative Memories, Bazzill cardstock, cut out labels on the Cuttlebug (Label 4, spellbinders I think), embossed with the Cuttlebug as well, the lovely swirls were from a Cricut cartridge I borrowed at a crop ( I cut out a ton to make sure I had enough for the whole album!!), stamped a lot of swirls, lots of rub-on swirls, bling, dew drops, word stickers and rub ons.


The last page:
Now on to the honeymoon!!!

Stickers...Fast and Fun

When you are short on time, stickers can save the day!! A quick card I whipped up for my husband's birthday a couple months back. (He has a thing for zebras) I think it's cute, he liked it..no great masterpiece but when you don't have time, you don't have time!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I spent a wonderful day just hanging out with my two boys! A little tickle wrestling, lots of laughter....it was a good day. Cooked dinner for both my mom, my in-laws and my grandma. All in all a happy mother's day! I made identical cards for both moms:

You know I love the sepia tones!! I used some paper from the Cambridge line of SWR, some Paper Loft, from the Grandma's house line, Java cardstock, Prima flowers, dew drops, Martha Stewart punch. Everything can be found at Scrappin' Great Deals!!

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day too!!

A Birthday Card...by Malcolm

How cute is this card??!! My 5 yr old son coloured it for one of his best friends birthday last Saturday. It's a new Stampavie clear stamp that I got at Scrappin' Great Deals. (Stamped on Neenah, coloured with Crayola!!) As soon as I saw it I knew it was Malcolm and Alannah! Young love!

We Remember....

A hard day today, in my sister in law Julia's words:

"Today, in honour of Chris and the magnificence of your own
worlds, please take some time to reflect on why you're here.
Honour nature. Show someone extreme enthusiasm for one of
their ideas. Take a photo and send it around. Hug your kids,
hug your partner, hug your dog. Smile, or better yet, wave
fervently if an air-cooled Volkswagen drives by. Marvel at
technology. Celebrate good design. Raise a Guinness. Order
Shepherd's pie. Put your feet solidly on the ground and
walk ahead.

Chris passed away on May 4 2009 from a wickedly fast and
furious battle with metastatic Melanoma. At 10:53pm, a
year ago today, he jumped onto the next star. This
evening, please put a candle out - for Chris, and for
all the others who have left us too soon. On your front
porch, or your balcony, on your window sill, or just
simply - light one in your heart. He'll see the sign."

We love you. We miss you. Your spirit soars....

Lori, Karl, Malcolm & Ben