I Heart Valentine's Day!

My kids absolutely adore Valentine's cards (and candies!), so this year I wanted to make something special for them to keep thier most treasured ones safe inside and I came up with this.  I made two pockets, one out of paper (top right) and one out of attaching a canvas square on three sides to the bottom.  Then I attached mini clothespins so she can hang her favourites on the outside if she wants.

I used a 12x12 burlap stretched frame (Canvas Creations - amazing)
6x6 square of canvas (Canvas Creations)
and the BoBunny Smoochable paper line and the trinkets
Tim Holtz Stains (Peeled Paint, dusty concord)
Tattered Angels Spray Mist (Pink Cadillac)
Paper Flowers (No-name)
Prima Flower
Dollar Store Ribbon
Harmonie Ribbon (with the ruler print)
Prima corner mask
Ranger white paint dauber
Tim Holtz tiny attacher
Canvas Creations wooden push pins
Canvas Creations raspberry clothespins

I masked the canvas square and used the white paint dauber and then sprayed the pink mist over the top.  The hearts are masked too, just cut out of a scrap piece of paper...
The flowers I daubed with the Tim Holtz stains and then sprayed liberally with water to allow the colours to mix and fade a bit. 
What fun!  Now to make one for my son... that might be a bit tricky!

I made this Little Yellow Bicycle mini album for my cute “Before the Christmas Concert” shots.  I had two chipboard covers (6 x 6) and then just cut pages out of the paper and glued two together to form each page (then they were double-sided and thick enough).  Then I punched holes using my Crop-A-Dile and found some ribbon and voila!

I used the following supplies:

--LYB Christmas line (can’t remember the name)

--LYB Cardstock stickers that matched

--Tim Holtz vintage stains in: fired brick, peeled paint, picket fence, and vintage photo

--Tim Holtz vintage ink in Walnut Stain

--Tim Holtz Christmas 2 x 12” strip die

--Tim Holtz Reindeer Die

--Tim Holtz Accordian Flower die

--Tim Holtz 25 and Mini Reindeer die

--Tim Holtz Tattered Florals

--Tim Holtz Elegant Flourishes

--Tim Holtz baubles

--Stickles in Candy Cane

--Canvas Creations Burlap Tag

--Assorted ribbons, twine, tulle, paper flowers and bling

--garland pipe cleaners from the Dollar Store

--Harmonie circles chipboard and silver peel-offs

--Crackle Paint in pewter

--Glossy Accents

--Sookwang tape

--WRMK Sew Ribbon and red ribbon package

I am actually really surprised when I see all the materials that I used!  I die cut everything out of cereal boxes or old packaging and then coloured using the stains, Stickles, or Crackle Paint.  I coloured all the paper flowers with stain as well.  It was neat to see the variance in colour applying stain to different colours of paper and different levels of absorbency.  Some things needed a few coats to look right!  Some never did end up looking quite the way I had imagined, but I learned a lot!

Got this old Cosmo Cricket line on sale at my LSS.  It is just too cute and perfect for camping!  I sprayed a piece of a cereal box for the picture matte.  I cut out all the little pieces from a piece of glitter paper and bunched them together.

Some more camping layouts from the beginning of the summer.  This one is a two-pager.  The most exciting thing about this one is that I cut out some of the flowers using my Sook Wang tape and then used microbeads on top and it really stuck!

My first attempt at using my Marjolaine paper line from Basic Grey.  I don't love working with it as much as I had thought I would, but often find a whole full pack of papers and embellishments more challenging to work with than just the bits at the end since there are so many more choices to make!

More soon!  I just got back from a retreat and have a few LOs that turned out great!

Goodbye Summer, Hello School!

What a wonderful summer it has been!  OK, maybe not the weather so much, but as a family we have had the most wonderful times... mostly!  But it has been busy, vacations, parks, pools, playdates, movies, camping and boating!  But I am starting to carve out some time for some serious scrapbooking.  I cannot believe how many photos I have of the summer just waiting to be cropped!

I found my good camera!  Thank the lord.  Just as I finally figured out what was wrong with the other one... but I am glad to have it back as I am just not a good photographer and I need all the help I can get.  So much for getting a new Fuji for my birthday...

My dear dad and grandma at our family reunion.  I used Curio by Basic Grey and added some Tim Holtz ribbon that I sprayed with Tattered Angels chalkboard spray (that stuff is the best), a dollar store doily, and a beautiful Kaiser Craft wooden bird that I covered with the new "sparly fluff" which is really so cool.  Then I stickled the letters in GRANDMA (but you can't really see that part).

My son's birthday at Chuck E Cheese with the Fancy Pants rocket/boy line.  As usual, the picture is bad.  I just glossy accented all the cardstock embellishments and then added some ribbon at the top and pop dotted the odd one.  I love the orange in this line though.

My son at the spray park with the Basic Grey Lauderdale line.  I sewed the side of the red piece in two different colours using the Sew Easy Blanket stitch.  I really like the look of the Sew Easy, but it definitely takes a bit of time to add to any page.  I think it is easier to add a bit here and there to the odd embellishmet, and use a sewing machine for the big jobs.  Sew not that easy, basically.  I always put flowers and sparkles on my poor boy's pages, but he loves it so far.  His dad?  Not so much.

What A Weekend!

Happy Canada Day! We had a pretty good weekend over here, and I actually got some scrapbooking done! 
This weekend I tackled a LO for my four-year-old son using ancient Bo Bunny papers (Extreme Teen, anyone?) and since I had no embellishments I made some of my own with the black glimmer glaze and an old cardboard box.  And of course, my Cuttlebug.



I am becoming obsessed about using up old stuff, but sometimes you simply must break into the new...  I bought a TON (if I had known how much I would not have probably bought it) of the MME little dancer line figuring that I have two little girls, both of whom dance (though only one in lessons)  and would use it up.  Firstly it is turning out to be a little "cutesy" for me (to quote my friend, Michelle), but the great thing is with so much stuff, the LOs take easily 10 minutes or less.  Sometimes, you just have to "bang" them out!!!  They are not great, but they are quick and look how much stuff I used!

More flowers...

To create these cool and cheap paper flowers, first start with two or three matching spray inks and a mini mister or other water sprayer.

Then randomly spray onto your Inksentials Crafters Mat ($19.99 at Scrapbooking Fanatics, WOW!) with blots of colour.  Spray the whole thing well with the water.

Blot up with your average paper towel and dry to crispiness with your heat tool.

Cut out using your die cutting machine or another template.

Cool, hey?

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere!

My kids and I made these flowers on Friday together.  Most are the roly roses by Imaginisce that I then painted/dripped Glimmer Glaze on top of.  Man, that stuff is great for anything!  The light blue top middle one is the Tim Holtz accordion flower.  They look so nice when they are done, but if I don't use the right weight of paper the perforations go right through!  It is always a gamble with that die in my little Cuttlebug!  The other two on the far left are using the new Glubers.  I used ribbon for the bottom one and fabric for the top.  Ribbon is definitely the harder of the two to use and the fabric makes the look a little more weathered and vintage.  I guess it depends on what look you are going for.

I then stuck all of our flowers and a few buttons on my previously ugly jar of buttons to fancy it up.  It turned out nice, but is still a pain to get buttons in and out of!

Finally, I finished my bird layout of my #1 crafter.  I am obviously all about the flowers this weekend.  I am working on another one of my husband with a couple of cool flower techniques on it and will post later!  The most exciting technique on this one was taking the brown corrugated coffee cup holders (from Starbucks or, my fave, 7-11) and using them for die cutting swirls and flowers.  Then I paint them with glimmer glaze and voila!  Cheap as borsche!  Scrapbooking doesn't always have to cost a fortune!  The paper is old, old MME but is still so cute and current with their colour scheme and bird motif!  I love when I can use up some of my old stash, although by the time I get through it all, all my new stuff will be old too!