December It's a Sketchy Challenge

Jill Sarginson designed a really neat sketch for the December sketch challenge over at Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  I actually followed it pretty completely!  LOL  Totally out of character for me but it sure does speed things up.  All the details here if you want to play along with the challenge and have a chance to get published in CS magazine.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my take of the sketch using the wonderful Cosmo Cricket Christmas line!  I cut a couple of snowflakes with a Cricut die cutting machine, then dabbed them with Diamond Glaze so that Sparkly Fibers by Clearsnap would stick and add a little bling to the layout.  The title letter stickers are some American Crafts thickers.  

Little Black Dress

For my third (and last) month as a guest designer for ScrapShotz, the kit was primarily comprised of products from Basic Grey's Little Black Dress line.  Now I'll just go back to being a regular subscriber.  When I opened the box, I was not excited.  I don't know why, probably because I am usually drawn to happy, bright colours, and the kit papers were greys, blacks and browns....  


Just goes to show you why it is good to step out of your comfort zone (why I truly love monthly kits) and create with something that you would have never purchased in the store yourself.  I really love all the layouts I made with the kit and could not believe how versatile the papers really were.  Have a look - I used vintage photos in a couple, but also used pictures of my cat Rusty and photos from this spring.  The kit also featured Glubers, a really big glue dot from Cosmo Cricket.  I ran out of Glubers pretty quickly, and just hand cut some circles from a sheet of Sookwang Tape I had in my stash to get more or less the same effect.  On the top card, I just tied a knot in some American Crafts grosgrain ribbon, stuck it in the middle of the Gluber and wound and twisted around and around until I ran out of glue dot.  Stick pins are Maya Road. Love them for adding a little extra to cards!

I was looking around for some different things to try with my Glubers and my eye caught a roll of tulle I picked up at a second hand store once.  Perfect!  Same technique as the ribbon, just tied a knot in one end, plunked it in the middle of the glue and started winding around it.  To add a little colour, I dunked some tulle in a glass of water that I had added a few drops of a Distress Ink reinker (faded lipstick, I think).  Worked great for adding some subtle pink to the tulle.

Close up of the Tulle Flowers

my thrift store tulle - the whole roll cost somebody $9.95 once, but I think I bought it for 50 cents

some of my my fantabulous friends at my surprise 50th birthday party

I used a Spellbinders diamond Nestability die to cut the shapes.  And don't you love the leopard or cheetah pattern with a cat picture?  LOL  The beautiful textured coppery paper is from Canvas Corp.

 

I think this is my favourite layout from the bunch.  The papers worked perfectly for some old photos of my uncle who passed away a few years ago.  I also use Scrapbook Adhesives photo corners for these kinds of photos so they could potentially be removed and duplicated in future.  Not sure if any other copies exist besides these.

Some Quick Christmas Cards

I am running on warp speed these days, but that is not unusual.   I have a tendency to take on too much and try to do too many things.  Christmas cards kind of fell through the cracks this year - I don't make or send a lot of them any more, but still like to put together at least a few handmade cards for special people.  This morning, while waiting for the UPS delivery guy (who did NOT show up as promised) I starting thinking about making a few quick christmas cards using old supplies in my christmas box.  Way in the bottom, I dug out some Gin-X stuff.  I really miss Gin-X products.  I suppose it's been years since they have been in business, but I still have part of a pizza box full of their paper and chipboard coasters.  Always such great colours and fun to work with.

Anyway, I had a couple of more or less intact sheets of Christmas chipboard coasters from Gin-X.  And I was in a hurry.  So, I put together a half dozen of 'five-minute' Christmas cards.  I like them.  I got to use up 'vintage' supplies, the cards look nice and they hardly took any time at all.  
So if you are a collector of christmas supplies like me, dig to the bottom of your box, fancy the products up with a little dry embossing or sewing and put together some quick cards.  It feels good.

I embossed a piece of cardstock with a Stampin Up poinsettia embossing folder, stitched around it, glued it onto the card and stuck on bits of Gin-X chipboard with dimensional foam adhesive by Scrapbook Adhesives.

 

These ones are pretty much the same, minus the ribbon but plus an Anna Griffin 3-d sticker I also found in the bottom of my box.  I think I have enough Gin-x chipboard for a couple more cards, and if I can't find any more stickers, I can stamp something christmassy or print out a vintage image from the internet and pop it up.

Done. Time to move onto something else. The men in my house have been asking about Christmas cookies. ;-)

Sixteen Days of Giving! Win! Win! Win!

Well - if you like to enter contests for free scrapbooking supplies, get on over to Jackie's blog.   Canadian Scrapbooker magazine is hosting a fantastic series of Christmas giveaways!!  Something new and scrumptious every day for sixteen days.......  starting yesterday, December 5.

Here's how it works:
Each day for 16 days in a row Canadian Scrapbooker will be sharing a Christmas project with you along with a prize package. Leave a message under the blog post or under the facebook post for each post in order to be entered for all 16 prizes. Names will be drawn randomly and you can win more then once if you enter your name for more then one prize package!  Deadline is midnight on December 20, with winners will be announced on Dec 21st!


Here's today's project and prize package.  Isn't this great?
 

 
 
ooh, and here's yesterdays prize package that you could win too!!!  Gorgeous!!!!  Go enter!  And check back on the blog or facebook page every single day until December 20 for a new project and prize package!!!  Good luck!
 

A Graphic 45 Cone Advent Calendar

I purchased a petal cone Sizzix die from Stampin Up this summer and it inspired me to make this advent calendar.  It was photographed in the winter 2011 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker but you can't see all of it, so I've reassembled it for my kids and photographed it.  Not an easy thing to photograph, but here's some bits.    I used the Graphic 45 Christmas Past paper collection - it is actually so beautiful that I almost hated to cut it up, but the paper does look nice in a cone shape too!   I decorated each paper cone with odds and ends - lace and trim and ribbon and such, and did the numbers with Technique Tuesday number stamps and Stampin Up ink and punches.  This advent calendar goes together pretty fast.  I played around a little with the trims - they were too 'white' for the paper, I needed an aged look, so I dipped them all in some cold brewed tea (then wrung them out and air-dried) for a perfect vintage browny shade.

I hung the cones on a dead tree branch - this one in the picture is not as branched as my original model, but daylight is short, the wind is howling and I just grabbed what was handy.  You could also hang the cones other ways - maybe from a rope garland and attached with clothes pins?

 My kids just love it, and the cones are big enough to hide a Kinder Egg or an individually wrapped Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  I have also put a loonie or a few quarters in some of the cones and anything else I could think of that was smallish and fun.

Why not just rip out the playground?

From the Wye School website:

Playground Expectations Update:

In order to clarify some recent playground miscommunications, the staff at Wye has reviewed the following expectations with their students:


Due to safety concerns we have discussed the following games: Red Rover, Sand Man, and any Tag games played on and around the playground equipment. (slides, climbing structures etc.)

Students are allowed to play Sand Man during their Physical Education classes.


This actually clarifies nothing.  Sounds to me like running is still banned on the sand since that's what is around the playground equipment.  And it also leaves me wondering if SandMan is such a dangerous game, why is it allowed during phys ed but not recess??? 
It's a ghost playground. The kids aren't playing on it because they are not allowed to run on or near it and they get chastized for doing anything that looks like running. I have heard reports of girls reprimanded for dancing and cartwheels on the sand.   So stupid and so frustrating.

Frugal Travel Stuff

Some layouts from the Frugal Scrapbooker article I wrote for the winter 2011 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker. 

I think this is my favourite project.  The paper is from the Bo Bunny Mamarazzi line.  It's one of my all time faves.  Just love the colours and designs, it seems to go with everything.  I cut the tree with my Cricut, but it wouldn't be too hard to just hand sketch a simple tree trunk with a few branches.  The grass at the base of the tree is some very cute chipboard by Magenta.  I think I've used up my whole package now.  It adds a nice finishing touch, especially when painted with some Clearsnap Smooch.  The film strip in the upper right is by Tim Holtz, and I used google image search for pictures of some of my son's favourite books.  I saved the images and printed them out as index prints to tuck under the film strip.  I used a vellum spray adhesive to adhere one to the other......  it worked not bad, but I added a few staples just to make sure nothing fell apart.  I printed the quote right on the paper using an Epson photo printer.  I'm afraid I don't use my large format printer very often.  I bought it a few years ago at a fantastic sale price, thinking I needed a 12x12 printer, but I only rarely print directly on a full-sized scrapbook page.  And I really hate buying ink for this printer.  It stops working completely when it 'thinks' it is out of any colour (it won't even print black if it is out of cyan or magenta or something)  and each ink cartridge is $21 plus tax.  Ouch.  At six colours, I start to approach the cost of a new printer everytime I replace the ink.

The Riding the Blue Line features the lovely Katharina Doyle and Susan Weckesser.  Makes me smile everytime I look at it.  We went on an 'adventure' in Chicago this summer and took the subway downtown.  I found a lovely map of the subway routes on the internet to remind me of the experience!  This layout is pretty much all Basic Grey - patterned paper, stickers and fabric covered brads.  And a 'souvenir' transit card from the trip.  I scanned it before I glued it onto the layout, just in case I ever need another one for a future project.

Disneyland - Day 1

The boys and I got to the airport in plenty of time for our flight to Los Angeles.  I am always expecting the worst - long lines at check-in, long lines at US Immigration, longest lines at security, but we pretty much saw no lines at all.  It was very quiet at the airport.  The only little hiccup was when the airport security folks picked Marty out to swab his hands for explosives, and pulled me aside for a full body pat down or the lovely full body x-ray machine.  I always choose the scanner, but it freaked the kids out a little, since there was no other adult to stay with them or explain what was going on when their mama went into a machine and stood with her hands above her head.  At least it was  over quickly (and not surprisingly, Marty tested negative for explosives residues).

Since we had so much time to kill before the airline departure, we stopped at the Starbucks (there ain't a lot of other options in the US departure lounge).  Marty deemed the hot chocolate completely delicious.  Ben insisted on a white chocolate mochachino (spelling?) and then found it too 'strong'.   Probably too much coffee in it and not enough hot chocolate and sugar.

Once in LA, we grabbed our suitcases and headed outside just as a Disneyland Express bus was pulling up.  Very serendipitous.  I love not waiting for buses, and we were the first family to be dropped off at our hotel once we reached Anaheim.

We stayed here.  It was fine.  I'd stay here again.  It is fantastically located about a five minute walk from the main gates of Disneyland and California Adventure, and there are plenty of restaurants like Denny's, IHOP and Tony Roma's very near.  Kids loved IHOP and Tony Roma's.  (Denny's overcooked the bacon, so was not on the loved list).   This Ramada is an old motel, like many of the others surrounding it, so it tends to look and smell old, at least the room that we had.  But it was reasonably clean and quiet and we didn't spend a lot of time in the room.  Breakfast was free, but it wasn't very good.  Toast, a couple kinds of cold cereal, instant oatmeal and donuts.....  that kind of breakfast.  I found the coffee undrinkable, a sip just made me shudder.  So I made coffee in the room, there was a nice little coffee maker, microwave and fridge.

As soon as we checked into the motel, the kids wanted to race over to Disneyland.  So we did.  It seemed warm, so we didn't really plan ahead and take hoodies, but we were pretty cold once the sun went down.  Once in the park gates for the first time we hopped on the train and did a quick circuit of the park, getting off in Fantasyland.  Space Mountain was our first ride.  We had to wait about 20 minutes, which seemed forever to me!  LOL, you can take a girl out of the country but........   The kids just loved this ride.  It's basically a roller coaster in the dark, whipping through space.  Gorgeous with all the constellations and planets and Milky Way and so on, although I didn't know that at the time.  I was worried about my glasses flying off around a tight corner, so I took them off for the ride.  Great strategy for not losing your glasses, but terrible for vision.  The whole thing was a really fast blur.  We did Space Mountain again the next day when I was wearing my contacts so that I could actually see the visuals on the ride.

Our first meal in California was at the pizza place below Space Mountain.  Three slices of pizza and three soft drinks =$30.  Ouch.  We spent the next few hours exploring and going on more rides such as the Buzz Lightyear Asteroid shooting one, Haunted Mansion and the Big Thunder Mountain Roller Coaster.  Such fun and no lines.  We basically just walked right on.  We tried the Fast Pass system for Star Tours, which was fantastic but made me motion sick.  I sent the kids on it by themselves the next day, not wanting to risk feeling ill for hours afterwards.  Funny how increasing age has made me so susceptible to getting sick.  I used to have a stomach of steel.



A Fantastic Book Sale!!

If you are a book lover or a book buyer, click here and go check out Book Closeouts right now!   It's an online store that I have used for years.   They have a great 'Black Friday' book sale on - half off the already discounted prices on thousands of books - and free shipping on purchases over $35.  I bought a bunch of books for Christmas presents, all at $1.99 or less (and a bunch for me, too).  :-)

I picked up a selection of learn to speak Spanish books, a dictionary, a few mysteries and cookbooks and a whole bunch of children's books.  I was tempted to buy some books by Sherrilyn Kenyon, an author highly recommended by my friend Jackie, but am not sure where to start - many books to choose from!  I think I will go do some research and place another order.  Hard to beat those prices.   Happy browsing!

A Short Rant

The school system is driving me crazy.  Recently, the elementary school where my kids have gone for years introduced new playground rules. 

NO running on the playground equipment
NO running on the sand
NO digging in the sand (even to make sand castles)
NO Red Rover or Sandman (an incredibly popular playground game which is basically a game of tag)

The school was kind of sneaky about it. They announced the rules to the kids on the day before the Thanksgiving long weekend. The rules have never been written down or communicated to parents. (As an aside, after last night's parent council meeting, that should change. The school administration said the children's understanding of the rules wasn't quite right, and they were going to clarify the rules and communicate them better to everybody. I can't wait to see this, since my kids are regularly yelled at for any running on the sand area, even when it's just to go over and say hi to a friend).

My boys came home from school that day before Thanksgiving more riled up and upset than I have ever seen them. They were frustrated and tearful that the school was forbidding any fun at recess. The kids had started a petition and making picket signs to protest the new rules, but these were ripped up by teachers. Ironic, isn't it, that the children are studying democracy in Social Studies in grade six? Such respect for the children and listening to their opinions (insert voice dripping with sarcasm here). Not a good learning experience, I'm afraid.
I wrote an email to the principal immediately expressing my concern about the new playground restrictions, but of course, since it was the long weekend, didn't hear anything back for a while. The vice principal called me at work after the holiday and assured me that the safety of the children was the primary concern even though there had been no injuries and no parental complaints or concerns to date. If it ain't broke, why are we fixing it? To prevent 'close calls"????

Enforcement is uneven, depending upon how sensible the lunchtime supervisors are, but generally, a child is chastisized for any running on the sand. Kindergarten kids are forbidden from making a sand castle. Perhaps we should just tear out the playground equipment? Somebody might get hurt, after all. (insert more sarcasm here). The children can stand around and play their Nintendo DS's and other electronics during recess......... I guess that's considered safe.

Children will adapt. They always do, but as a parent, I am vigorously opposed to unnecessary rules that discourage our kids from active play and generally being kids and having fun. In this generation of couch potatoes, how can you ban running? The big kids are on a separate playground from the little kids, and I have been assured that the playground is not crowded.

I believe we should let the kids run. Let them play. Let them have fun. Supervise and caution the out of control kids. And if they're not careful, let them hurt themselves a little bit. That's how they learn. If we wrap our kids in cotton and eliminate any activity in which they 'might get hurt' we are doing them a disservice.

Rant over for now. It just makes me sad. If you've got any experience or opinions on this, I'd be glad to hear it.

Fall Break

Guess where I was last week?

  For the last few years, our school division has taken a 'fall break'.  As a working mom, it drives me crazy.  I would much rather take my vacation days in August and have the kids start school after Labour Day than go to school in August and take a week off in November.  Sigh.  Oh well.

This year, instead of scrambling for child care options, I booked the time off work and took the kids to Disneyland.  Solo, since my husband could not get the time off work.  I think everyone should go to Disneyland at least once and experience the 'magic'.   We had a great time and although I was prepared for questioning by immigration and had a notarized consent letter for taking the children to the USA by myself, nobody on either side of the border even blinked.

Kudos to Westjet for on-time departures, early arrivals and generally good service.  Flights and parking at their Jetset parking facility in Edmonton were wonderful.  And when we got to LAX, we were lucky enough to not even have to wait for a Disneyland Express bus to take us to Anaheim.  Just got on, and off we went.

I have a few pictures and will post these and a quasi trip report in the next couple of days. 

Some love for dimensional adhesives

Lately, I seem to be using 3-d foam adhesive on almost every layout and card. I will pop up a photo......... or a journalling block...... or an embellishment or two or four, especially a stamped image. I think sometimes adding a little dimension can make all the difference between a good layout and a great layout, and it allows you to stick stuff behind things too! It's sometimes hard to see dimension in photographs and scans, but is noticeable and appreciated in real life.

My go to adhesive is always Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L.  I keep a few packages right at the top of my tool bag.  The little foam squares are easy to remove, sturdy and come in a couple of sizes and colours.  And if I need them even smaller for some fancy cut work like on this Quick Quotes paper, I just snip the foam pieces in smaller bits with scissors.  Or stack 'em up if I want extra dimension.

November Scrapshotz Kit Projects

This month's kit featured Simple Stories 25 days line.  I loved working with it - typically I gravitate towards traditional bright Christmas colours, but the muted vintagey colors and designs in these papers were perfect for many of my photos.

I cut a christmas tree out of a piece of kit cardstock using my Cricut and decorated it with punched photos, gems and sparkly crochet cotton I had picked up at a thrift store.  The presents under the tree are partially stickers from the kit and extra 'present's I made by cutting rectangles of patterned paper and gluing on twine and thread to decorate.

This 'layout' is a number of pieces put into a WeRMemory Keeper's page protector.  The left hand side is a 6 x 12 layout (I do love doing these, they go so fast!) while the right hand side is a 4x6 photo and two 4x6 pieces of the Simple Stories patterned paper, decorated up with stickles and stickers.

Inspired by the November sketch by Jess Duerksen - everything from the kit, including a 4x6 transparency laid over the smaller photo.  These transparencies add a lovely touch to a picture.

I also made place card holders from the kit.  The patterned paper is just perfect for cutting 4x6 pieces for your dinner table.  I added stickers and sprayed the paper liberally with Goosebumps texture spray (by Tsukineko) and let it dry.  This added sturdiness, texture and glimmer to the place cards.  You've seen my wine corks before - just cut a slice off the bottom with a utility knife, and cut a slit in the middle to hold the card.

ScrapShotz monthly kits

I've been subscribing to these for well over a year now.  You can check them out here - ScrapShotz is based in Calgary.  I appreciate that they are Canadian and been around a long time.  There's nothing like getting a pizza box in the mail with a selection of gorgeous patterned papers, cardstock and coordinating embellishments.  They are perfect for trying something new because often the kits contain scrapbooking products that I would not have purchased at a store, but end up really enjoying.   And I love having everything together in a 12x12 ziplock bag - it makes inspiration quick and easy and so handy for taking to a crop or over to a friend's house. 

A couple of months ago, I was delighted to be asked to become a guest designer for a few months.  I do love the challenge and motivation that deadlines bring to me.   I get so much scrapbooking done in a short time!  Not sure where I find the time exactly, but somehow I always manage to get 'er done.

Here's my projects from the October Scrapshotz kit - it featured the gorgeous SEI Homestead line - perfect for fall photos.  I don't think I added anything besides a bit of machine stitching or a black pen, or a bit of raffia.  There was a full sized bottle of Tattered Angels glimmer mist in the kit, acrylic stamps and enough embellishments to give a variety of looks.

I used Tim Holtz chipboard alphas in the kit as a mask and sprayed glimmer mist all over the page.  I also scribbled a bit with an orange marker I found in the boys' desks.   The orange marker embellishment is a bit of clip art I downloaded from the internet.

Check out this Sony Photo Printer/Photo Frame

I admit I have a weakness for convenience and good technology, and the idea of having a portable photo printer just rocks my world.  And wait - even better - there is a photo printer by Sony that doubles as an 8" digital photo frame!  Or vice versa.  LOL  Quick, compact and gorgeous pictures at the push of a button but also the opportunity to view and display all your photos in slide shows and photo albums, as well as being able to play movies shot with your digital camera and camcorder.  Imagine how nice this would be in your scrapbook space, and you could easily take it with you on scrapbook weekends, or when you zip over to a friend's house for a few hours of cropping with a friend's house.  It weighs less than 4 lbs.

Right now there is an exclusive offer for Canadian Scrapbooker readers to receive 10% off the purchase price of this little baby, either online with free shipping or in store.  Pretty nice thing to put on your Christmas list!  Check out all the details here or follow the links on Jackie Ludlage's blog post about the Sony printer. 

A Beautiful Fall Day

It was amazing.  My car thermometer said 29C.  There was a lovely breeze blowing.  Many of the leaves are turning colour and it looks absolutely gorgeous!  Not Nova Scotia gorgeous, it's predominantly yellow and green out here, but pretty good for the prairies.  LOL  In one way autumn is sad, but I do love the smell of this season.  Not sure quite how to describe that unique odour of dead leaves crunching underfoot........... 

We managed to make it out to a provincial recreation area (Blackfoot) that is not too far away and do a short family hike. Next time we might take our bikes - wonderful trails for this. And it almost makes me wish we had a dog. We met a few dogs going for a hike, and they were having the time of their lives. :-)   Hope you're having a lovely autumn, where ever you are!

Even outhouses on the trail.  Imagine!

Very well signed.  Those with enough energy (and water) could go for many hours at this recreation area.  Love it.