Summer's over already?????

What ??? What do you mean it's over already? I don't know about your neck of the woods, but summer was dismally short here in Nfld...practically non existent in July.Thank goodness August rose to the challenge!
So.....despite the lousy weather I spent most of the summer gardening, trying to repair the damage done by last year's "big dig" {the result of a basement leak}. As a result, I didn't do a lot of scrapping and have thoroughly neglected my blog! But let's face it, winter will soon be here and there will be LOTS of scrapping and blogging time then . 
In saying that, I have managed to do a couple of layouts and cards over the summer that I'd like to share with you today. 

First of all, I'll share a couple of layouts done for Canadian Scrapbooker Sketchy challenge. I am proud to say my awesome scrappy friend Kelly Klapstein has taken over design responsibilities for the Sketchy Challenge. Please make sure to check it out and give her some luv!

Here's August Sketch

and here's my take on it....

This is a layout that was hard to do...I've been trying to do it all summer. We lost our precious Jasper in June and I have wanted to scrap about it all summer but wasn't ready till now.
I switched out the diamond pattern in the sketch for hearts. I didn't have a heart stencil so I free hand cut one from scrap card stock and stenciled through that. 

I loved the cascade of leaves in the September Sketch...

 but I did something totally NON fall with this sketch ...

My son and I share a love of Minions {from the Despicable Me movies for the uninformed}. 
 I jokingly decorated with Minions for his 20 Th birthday {hoping that he wouldn't think I was too corny!}. He LOVED it and got a great kick out of it!
I love that he is comfortable enough in his twenty year old skin to  enjoy "kid' stuff and still be cool.
The minions were fussy cut from a sticker sheet that I picked up at Buck or Two earlier this summer.

So why don't you all give the Sketchy challenge an try and get back on your scrap booking track now that fall is setting in!

I also want to quickly share a couple of other layouts and cards I did over the summer. 

 Hubby and I were blessed to celebrate our 25 Th wedding anniversary in August and I wanted to do a soft,romantic layout to honor it. These stunning papers from Lemoncraft were perfect!!!!

 Here's a super cute layout featuring sock monkeys and my daughter's love of them!

The papers are from Daisy D {thanks to my buddy Susan who offered them up when I mentioned doing a sock monkey LO!}. The cute little monkey down in the corner is an IttyBitty stamp from UNITY Stamp Company . I wouldn't dare confess to you how many Unity Stamps I currently own { and I may or may not have another big order on the way ...shhhh... I can't resist a great sale! }

While in Georgia this past spring with hubby, I picked up a paper pack by Heidi Swapp that I realized afterwards was to be used with a day planner line she has out. Psshhhh... I don't have any plans for a day planner but I loved the paper. So far I have done a layout and two cards with it!

Yes...It's another "anniversary" layout...what can I say... I love the guy!

and two cards done with the same paper line...

I also purchased the Tim Holtz Bird Crazy line of stamps from ScrapShotz... a Canadian company that does awesome kits! I recently signed up for a six month kit subscription and can't wait to start playing with them!

Bird Crazy birthday card

 Papers used on this card are Madeline papers from Bo Bunny .

So that's about it for my creative endeavors over the summer. I think I may have done a few more cards but forgot to take pics of them. I hope you had an enjoyable summer whether you were creative or not and can't wait to see everyone's new creations now that fall has arrived and we are heading back to our craft rooms!
Toodles and thanks for dropping by today!

Madeline Bo Bunny Layout { and a little brag about my kitchen }

Seems like I never have time for scrapping anymore. Life just gets in the way.

I recently had two weeks off from work when I thought I would get sooooo much scrapping done but no such luck. I did however get my kitchen painted. It was badly in need of a freshening up . The cupboards were by far the most tedious part but I was pleased in the end. My family questioned my sanity when I said I was going to paint the tops and bottoms different colors, but I think it turned out nice!

Did you notice the one white chair at my table? That's a work in progress. These are 100 year old chairs that were my grandmother's. I decided to paint them with chalk paint and refinish the seats. Being 100 years old, they all need to have the tin in the seats replaced and also need to be re glued....a project for hubby. So as he does each chair, I will paint and recover them. I'm waiting somewhat patiently for him to do his part.

Here's a before and after shot of the one finished chair. Can't wait to get them done!

BEFORE

AFTER

But I digress. I actually did have time to do a little teeny bit of scrapping while I was off. 

I was asked to be a guest blogger over at CANADIAN SCRAPBOOKER a few days ago. 

I converted  their Sketchy Challenge from sketches for 12 x 12 pages to card sketches! You can check it out HERE .

I also,{in between all that dang painting}managed to squeeze in one 12 x 12 layout. I had purchased this gorgeous Madeline paper  from Bo Bunny last fall while visiting KELLY in Edmonton and finally got to play with it. 

This is a photo of Chelsea singing her first year with Stage West Theater in their production of " A Fine Tyme", a show of Newfoundland music. She's just been asked back for her fifth season!

Close up of the flower cluster. My 3 D flowers matched well with the flat printed flowers. I think my favorite sheet in this paper pack was the sheet of frames which I fussy cut this frame from.

Side view showing  the various layers and subtle texture added with a stencil and molding paste and a few enamel dots.

As I had doubles of all the papers , I cut out a couple of the birds along the bottom and popped them up with a few foam dots. 

I also added a zipper which I thought framed my peek a boo nicely.

I love shabby chic layouts and had so much fun playing with this one. Anyone who knows her, will recognize the influence of Gabrielle Pollacco on my shabby chic layouts. I just love her style so much.

Thanks for popping by today. I must get cracking and finish my Mother's Day gift for my mom. Happy early Mother's Day to all you moms out there. Toodles!

A Few Graduation LOs and Kelly's Double the Fun Sketch

I'd like to share a few graduation LOs with you today. {WARNING! WARNING!! This post is photo heavy!} I've been busy as a beaver working on them and am finally getting around to posting a few. I've gone with two really different looks with these LOs. The school colors are black and gold and as all the 'Cap and Gown' day photos are of Scott and his buddies, I've stuck to a more neutral palette and a masculine feel.

 

My first LO is a 2 pager that I made based on KELLY'S awesome sketch for CANADIAN SCRAPBOOKER 's Double the Fun challenge. There's still time for you to do a LO based on this great sketch and submit it to Canadian Scrapbooker before the August 15th deadline! You never know...you just might get published!

 

So here is Kelly's great sketch:

 

 ...and here's my take on it!

 



 

These guys have been best buds for many years and have had a lot of fun {and only a little trouble lol} together!

 

Here's a few more of the more masculine LOs. I really love this one ! It is so much simpler {read less cluttered haha} than my usual LOs. I find it hard to leave negative space so this is a breakthrough for me!

 

 



 

 

and a LO with the grandparents...

 

 

Check out these cool dudes heading off to graduation in fine style!

 

 

 

 I think this may be one of my favs!

 Little story behind it ...as you can see, there are photos of three of these guys on their first day of Junior high back in 2007. I had done a LO of them at that time and for some reason that LO popped into my mind on Graduation Day and I ran into the house, grabbed my old scrapbook and got the guys to do the same poses. I thought it made for a really sweet now and then type of LO. Don't you agree?

 

 

 

This next LO is based on the June Sketchy challenge over at CANADIAN SCRAPBOOKER by SUE SYKES

 

 

Here's my interpretation...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day of Graduation was the Grand March/dance day. Scott's date wore a beautiful fuchsia gown and this allowed me to play with more color and to make these LOs a little more feminine! I couldn't wait to use the BO BUNNY 'Prairie Chic' papers for these LOs. The colors in this collection were perfect! I've only done a couple of LOs of this more formal day {yet!. There'll be more I can assure you! :) }.
This first LO is based on the July Sketchy challenge at CANADIAN SCRAPBOOKER ....another design by the talented SUE SYKES .

and my take on it...

 

 

Another LO using those gorgeous Bo Bunny Prairie Chic papers....

Last one I PROMISE!!!!! Look at those gorgeous eyes!

 

 

 

 So there you have it. This is what I've been up to the last two months. Hope you've enjoyed looking at my "baby's" grad LOs. I'm sure I'll squeeze out a few more ...grand march, dancing with his momma,...yup. ...definitely can come up with a few more yet! Thanks for stopping by today! Toodles!

CS Nov Sketchy Challenge

I know ...I know ...it's DECEMBER!{gasp} and Dec 's Sketchy Challenge is on line over at Canadian Scrapbooker but I'm a little behind so I thought I'd share November's Sketchy Challenge today ..and hopefully get to play with Dec's challenge tonight.

Sue Sykes designed a 2 page sketch for Nov 's Sketchy challenge!

I actually did not one but TWO versions of this sketch this month! I have really gotten away from doing double pages in the last few years so this was a nice break. I also really enjoy doing Kelly Klapstein's  Double the Fun challenge at Canadian Scrapbooker . Another chance to get published ladies. So go check out both!

My first Lo with Sue's Nov sketch is a hockey LO. I've had these sweet street hockey pics of Scott and Rob in my "To do " box forever and just never seemed to get around to it. Sue's sketch suited them perfectly. I was more true to the sketch in this LO ...right down to the hexagons.

                                                                                                                  BETWEEN THE POSTS

oooo... I find it sooooo hard not to add flowers ...girl LOs are so much easier! I have tried ordering the cool Chicken wire stencil from Crafter's Workshop several times now from my wholesaler and can never manage to strike when it's in stock  :( . However.... I DO have a chicken wire chippie piece from DUSTY ATTIC so I used that as my stencil, thus saving my precious chippie piece for another day. Necessity is the mother of invention after all.

My second Lo using Sue's sketch is a fall Lo using all BO BUNNY 's adorable Apple Cider line. This LO features one of the many funny little adventures that KELLY and I had when she visited me in Nfld back in September. We had gone for a walk around the gorgeous Margaret Bowater Park here in the middle of Corner Brook. As we were nearing the end of our walk we noticed this crab apple tree that was laden with fruit. Kelly was bound and determined to get some of those apples { me , being considerably short than Kelly, opted to stand back and let her do all the hard work! }. As tall as she is , Kelly really had to stretch to get some apples. Such hard work...and all for not, because in the end the apples were pretty darn sour and we only had a bite each.lol...oh well, it made for fun photos!

                                                                                                                       AN APPLE A DAY...

 So there you go...two completely different looking Los all inspired by the same sketch. I know some people are very reluctant to use sketches as they think it stifles them but you know, there are NO  layout police. You can pretty much take what you want from a sketch.A great creativity booster when your mojo is lacking!

Hmmmm...seems like I recall a couple of compromising photos of Kelly with a cod fish, some Nfld Screech and an ugly stick...perhaps I should dig them out to embarrass...err scrap.. of her! Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you are all getting caught up in the Christmas spirit...and staying on Santa's nice list! Toodles!

Happy Mother's Day

Hi everyone and a great big Happy Mother's day to all you mothers out there! I hope you all had a lovely day ! I did...cooking dinner, doing laundry, basically doing Mom things LOL. But I did receive lovely presents from my kiddos! A beautiful picture frame with the quote " All because two people fell in love..." on it, a new WEB CAM { cuz Kelly misses me and wants to start skyping...great... more dang technology that I'm gonna have to conquer! sigh.......} and a Crunchie bar { Chelsea assures me that we are starting our diet TOMORROW! } and my dear hubby gave me a beautiful bouquet of tulips...so pretty! Also went to my MIL's house for supper along with all the rest of Rob's siblings who were in town...thanks for springing for the Kentucky Fried chicken Elizabeth....no mom was harmed in the preparation of this meal heehee.

I actually had a chance to squeeze in a few minutes of scrapping today and FINALLY finished a baby LO of Scott that I've been picking at for the whole week! I had done a cute baby LO of Chelsea a couple of weeks ago using G45's Little Darlings pps...remember this one?

Well it seemed only fair to do one of Scott as a baby. I had been playing with Bo Bunny Country Garden  and as that was still spread all over my scrap table, I decided to just go with it. Funny enough though...they both ended up with a lot of yellow in them and I think will look quite cute next to each other in my album!

I know its a boy LO but I couldn't help myself and snuck in a few handmade flowers...what a terrible mother! LOL But I did try and balance it by adding the rocking horse. I cut the horse with my Cricut using the Heritage cartridge { as were the swirls behind the flowers}. I coated it with a layer of Diamond Glaze and left it to dry overnight. The diamond glaze layer essentially turns it into an epoxy-like sticker. Here's a close up.

I used a lot of different punches on this LO: Martha Stewart rose leaf , MS punch around the page set { called Eyelet lace}, both a 1 1/2" and a 1" circle punch from Fiskars for the flowers,and an EK Success punch for the flower centers . But my fave punch that I used on this LO was the adorable banner punch  for the title. This little cutie is from Stampin' Up . I purchased it from my friend Kathy. Check out her blog with a link to her Stampin' Up site. Here's a close up.

I added some cute little 1/8" navy eyelets to the banner corners to thread my twine through. Can't believe that I am so late jumping on the eyelet bandwagon. This scrapping staple has been around forever but I've never bothered to use them till lately! Weird eh?

Well that's about it for tonight...think I'll take my Crunchie bar and sneak off to the scrap room and squeeze in a little scrappy ME time before I hit the bunk. Happy Mother's Day . Toodles!

Mini Book of Big Love and Framed 3D Class

I am getting sooo excited as my crop draws nearer. I already have eleven ladies signed up in the first few days of advertising! I could actually fit 30 in total if I really squeeze them in there LOL. It sure would be fun to have a full house.
 
At my last crop I taught a simple mini that I had designed. It was well received . This time I thought I'd try something a little different. It is a little hard to teach to a bigger group so I'm going to have a couple of items on display and people can sign up for a project to be taught at my home {and to a smaller group} at a later date. I feel I'll be able to give more attention to the ladies in smaller groups. 
  
My first project that I'd like to teach is this sweet little mini album that I made for hubby for Valentine's Day this year.This book is made from chipboard and was soooo easy to construct. I found the original directions on a Memory Makers blog posting but can't seem to get the link to open up here tonight..GRRRRR. I did, however, have the foresight to actually print off the directions when I originally came across it... I can make you a photocopy if you would like one. Hubby was really touched by this little book and thought it was a lovely Valentine's day gift.

I used a combo of some ATD papers that I purchased at Walmart and some of the gorgeous Bonjour line of pps from KAISER.

Here's a few more close ups....

I added a pocket to each page and the matching little book of tags that corresponded with the Bonjour pps was perfect for my journaling spots. I hand wrote a little love quote on each tag before tucking them in the book. This was a very easy project ..and easy to adjust size-wise too. The original was a 3x3  book but I enlarged it to 4x4 with minimal fuss.

My second project that I'm offering as a class is this adorable 3D frame I created using BO BUNNY

 Gabrielle pps. I must mention that I was inspired to design this after drooling over a gorgeous off-the-page project created by my dear friend KELLY that she taught at her LSS, The Urban Scrapbook, in Edmonton a few months ago. Check out her blog posting for Dec 2nd, 2011 and drool over her gorgeous creation too {make sure to wipe the moisture off your keyboard! LOL}. So without further ado...here's my 3D frame!

And here's a few close ups...

The resist inking on this tag is one of the techniques I'll be sharing in this class.

These little flowers were made using the Tim Holtz tattered flowers die. Leaves are cut with my Cricut and I made the cute little pin tucked in amongst the flowers too!

 And finally here's a close up of the gorgeous shabby chic banner that I've made for this project. This banner was the brain child of Mandy {aka Craftysprinkles} and you can check out her awesome tutorial on how to make this little lovely!

Well that's it for today . Give me a call or email me at m.marks@nl.rogers.com if you'd like to join us on our crop on April 1st! I'll hold a spot for you! Toodles and thanks for dropping by!

Time Lines and a Sketchy challenge

Happy beautiful fall day !It was so nice here today { after torrential rains and wind yesterday! 100 mm of rain!!!}. It was a great day for a walk in Margaret Bowater Park with hubby who decided to take the day off with me!  I actually took some really nice pics in the park the other day and hope to get them scrapped real soon. Here's a sneak peak of the beauty that I get to walk through every day! 

 Today , though, I thought I'd share a couple of LOs with you involving time lines.  The first first Lo is of Chelsea on her very first and very last day of school! Where the heck did thirteen years go? I used the Bo Bunny line "Timepiece" for this plus some yummy Dusty Attic chippie pieces...specifically the skeleton clock face and the pocket watch. These pps were from my ScrapThat kit from a few months ago.

TIME FLIES

 I really liked the sheet of corrugated kraft paper that was included in the kit. I used it for my title and then backed it with some red card stock that I cut on an angle to give it a more shadowed 3D feeling.

Here's a few more close ups. The Dusty Attic pocket watch was painted with acrylic paint , gold bits are Perfect pearls gold and I added several layers of Stampin' Up crackle emboss to age the "glass' face.

 My other "timeline ' LO looks at time from a different perspective....Scott's perspective ! LOL.

So naturally that has to do with wheels! This is actually my submission for a new monthly contest going on over at Canadian Scrapbooker called "Sketchy Challenge". This month's sketch is by the talented Jill Sarginson from Ottawa, Ontario.  She designs for a lot of sketch sites. You can check out her blog here.

Here's the sketch

and here's my take on it!

THE [R]EVOLUTION OF A GUY'S WHEELS

I'm sure it was only last year that he was burning around the kitchen on his Little Tykes scooter!!!! and now he's a car owner!!!! { notice I said owner NOT driver! LOL} He bought a "fixer upper" ..."It's a project car for me and Dad to work on " he said. He doesn't even have his licence yet!  I suspect it will make a lovely snow block in the driveway come winter. Thanks for dropping by and now go check out that sketch challenge. You may get published ! Woohoo!