Day One & Two!

Those good intentions get me every time!!  December the 2nd and already I am behind on my album!  How does this happen!  Life, that is what, but I am okay with that!  I spent last night getting in the Christmas spirit by decorating out at Scrappin' Great Deals, in preparation for their big Anniversay Event that happens tomorrow!

Anyway, I will now show you the interior of the first two pages of my album, minus the photos and journalling!  At least I am part of the way there!!!

A little close up of the holly along the side of the journal card:

I discovered Platinum stickles!  How did I not know that this colour existed!  Totally in love with it! So that is it for today!  Stay tuned for more!

By the way, if you are interested in learning more about the concept of a December Daily album, this incredible artist - Ali Edwards, is I believe, the originator of the idea. She has some amazing ideas to share!!

'Tis the Start of the Season!!

Welcome December!  The most wonderful time of the year!!  Today is the release of Scrappin' Great Deals December Kits, and I have the Scrapbooking Kit to share with you today!  It's theme: An Enchanted Christmas!!

(Full details about this magical kit and the kit clubs can be found here!)

I blogged earlier about using the kit to create my very first December Daily Album. Today I have a little snippet to show you of the first page of it:

Love this cute little guy popping out of a box!!! He is another fabulous Mo Manning Image by Stamping Bella! I coloured him with my pencil crayons and mineral spirits.  The number one is chipboard coloured with a fabulous new colour of Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze - Chianti!!  Add a little Tsukineko champagne metallic ink to the edges and it is perfection!! The holly is cut from a Tim Holtz mover & shaker die - Tree & Holly, and has also been treated to a little champagne!!  

I will show you the whole page after I add the pictures I took this morning of my two boys opening their Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar.  (I might be missing the Christmas connection there?? When did Star Wars = Christmas???) Ah well, they were both happy!  And that is part of the Christmas spirit at least! 

Enjoy your day!

December Daily Albums

Good morning everyone!! It is non stop rain here in Southwestern Ontario! I can't believe how much it has rained since last night! It is a great day to cuddle in and do some blog hopping! I did some of that last week and what I found reminded me of a project that I had planned to start ages ago. (Ages being years!) Have you heard of a December Daily Album?? I was on the Fancy Pants blog last week and the design team were showcasing their takes on it. (You can read it here.)

Basically a December Daily Album is a journal, notebook, or album that you prepare prior to December 1, leaving spaces for pictures, journalling, letters to Santa, etc., that you add during the month of December giving you a complete documentation of the holiday season! The theory being you are less busy in October/November so you do the bulk of the work before the craziness of the holidays begin!

This is my year to start this tradition that if all goes according to plan, I will continue for many years to come!! I decided to take Scrappin' Great Deals' December's Scrapbooking Kit and make my first December Daily Album!! Here is a glimpse at the kit that will be released later this week:


On Saturday at Scrappin' Great Deals' all day crop I was able to get my album pages cut out, the front and back cover are chipboard covered in patterned paper, and then I used the Cinch to cut the holes in preparation for it to be bound. I then started working on the front cover:


Needless to say I am still working on the rest!! I have two more days until December 1st!! It will be a busy couple of nights I have to admit. I hope you come back in December when I will start showing the interior!!

Have a fantastic day!!

Christmas Colouring Page

Remember those colouring contests you used to enter as a child, at Easter, Valentines Day, Christmas?  Well I got to make a Christmas colouring page for the company my husband works for!  (I did one back at Easter as well, you can have a look at it here!)  It's a cute little page with the company mascot - Smart Dough Joe - all dressed up for the holidays! 

Happy Holidays!!

He Dreams of Australia!

This is the latest layout that I have had the privilege of having published in Canadian Scrapbooker!  It is in the Winter 2011 issue that was just delivered to my door yesterday and will be in stores December 1!!  I made this layout as a guest designer at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, using one of her "Travelling Girls" titled "Donna", (coincidently she is on sale right now!! 40% off!!)

JOY

Good morning everyone!! I hope you are having a great start to the week!  I just wanted to thank all the lovely ladies who took my Scrapbooking Techniques class last Friday! It was wonderful working with you all and I hoped you enjoyed the class! The technique this time was "Fussy Cutting". We practiced using both scissors and cutting blades. Both have their pros and cons, but in the end both are necessary to make the most of the technique. After we practiced, I handed out some Christmas paper and we worked on putting together a little 6 x 6 collage using our fussy cut pieces.

Here is what I came up with:


My next class in the series will be in January. Keep an eye on the Scrappin' Great Deals website - crops and classes for further details!!

Have a fantastic day!!

Fussy Cutting

This coming Friday, November the 18th, I am teaching my second workshop of Scrapbook Techniques at Scrappin' Great Deals.  The first workshop, we went over methods to alter cardstock to create custom backgrounds. We stamped, embossing, misted and had a lot of fun! Some of my stamps have never seen such use!! This next workshop we will play with a technique called "fussy cutting". That is the term for finely cutting out details from patterned paper such as this, the butterflies were fussy cut from a piece of Bo-bunny patterned paper:

 

Fussy cut elements add dimension to your layouts, another layer of interest. It is not a difficult skill to learn; you just need practice, practice, practice, but it is quite time consuming. At the workshop, that is what we will do - practice practice practice!! We will go over what scissors to use, when to use an exacto blade, and perhaps most importantly, how to look at a piece of patterned paper and see it's full potential!!

If you would like to join us, there are a couple spots left! Just give the store a call at 519-473-5751 to register by Nov. 16.

Details: Friday, November 18, 2011 7-9pm
Price: $20.00 - BONUS - Stay to crop until midnight for free!!

Hope you can join us!!!

The Pumpkin Patch

This is my latest layout created using the November Scrapbooking Kit from Scrappin' Great Deals!  Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!!  My son Malcolm, my nephew Alex & I had a fantastic day at that farm petting animals, playing games and searching for the perfect pumpkin.  These pictures were way back from 2007, the boys look so young! 

A couple of close ups, (double layouts are so hard for me to photograph!)

I sure got a work out pulling two sleds full of pumpkins & three year olds!! It sure was a great day.  Really happy that I scrapped the pictures finally and remembered all the fun we had!

Natural Beauty

I simply can't stop looking at this layout!!  Actually at one of the pictures I used in the layout, how stunning is she? A forest princess, pixie, fairy child - you name it, she is it!

 

I don't think I could have gone wrong with this picture as the focus of my page.  In fact I probably could have just put it on a plain piece of cardstock and said "Done."  But of course I didn't and created this:

Love the blues and oranges together, that brown lace from May Arts- WOW, petaloo flowers, prima resin birdhouse, specks of glimmer glaze popped around, die cut leaves to mimic her crown, love love love! :)

Me & You Together

Welcome to November!!  I hope you had a fantastic Halloween and that it didn't rain too much on your trick or treaters!!

Scrappin' Great Deals is releasing their November Scrapbooking Kits today and here is the kit, with its theme Autumn Journeys:

Love all the bold colours and the mix of warm and cool tones.  Lots of paper in this kit, as always!!  And a ton of embellishments too!

Here is one of my layouts, titled "Me & You Together":

It uses some of the SEI paper that is in the kit along with Bazzill cardstock.  I used one of my new Spellbinders, Orchard Harvest, to create the maple leaves in the upper corner.  Included in the kit is a solid brass maple leaf made by Vintaj, a brand new product in the store. It is called a "blank" because it is meant to be embossed!!  That is right!!  I embossed it to create the lovely little veins that you see!!!  How awesome is that!  A little close up of it:

I used the cricut cartridge "Graphically Speaking" to cut out the title using cardstock.  I then used my Cowboy Glimmer Glaze (by Tattered Angels) on the brown cardstock to give it some texture & depth; love how it now looks metallic!

I will show you another double page layout that I also made with the kit in the next day or so (as soon as I finish it up!!  In the mean time you can pop over to the store's blog to see my layout titled "Natural Beauty", I gave you a sneak peak of it yesterday!! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Autumn Journeys

That is the theme of Scrappin' Great Deals November Scrapbooking Kit!  I love Autumn, it is my favourite season and I LOVE this months kit!  Can't wait to share it with you.  Here is a little sneak peak of the kit:

And a little peak at what I created with it:

Sheila was back this month creating with me, and WOW her layouts are spectacular!!  Come back tomorrow for the big reveal!!! 

Happy Halloween!!!

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