Japanese Gardens

A layout I did with pictures from the Japanese Garden at Devonian Botanical Garden near Edmonton.  The gorgeous patterned papers are all by Kaisercraft, as are the wooden birdies that I modified with a bit of ink.    Perfect for a layout with Eastern flair.  And I googled for a free oriental style font to make the title (which was printed on a scrap of transparency and tucked into the layout).

The Road to Work....

so it rained again early this morning (big surprise ;-)), a big huge ear shattering thunderstorm.  And then it moved on, as thunderstorms do, and I drove to work.  Sunny on my west side, thunderous on my east side.  I grabbed my camera with me on my way out of the door though because I am enamored of the prairie landscape and just love taking photographs of canola fields in full bloom.  Normally I putter to work down a country road for 20 miles or so - so much more interesting than a four line highway, although I do have to keep a sharp eye out for deer.

I think I might have to get one of these canola photos blown up to a 16x20 canvas so I can hang it on my wall.  Since I discovered Groupon, I have purchased a few coupons for a company called 44 wide in Toronto.  I have been so very impressed with their products - the canvases they produce from my photographs are absolutely gorgeous.  And it's wonderful to get your favourite photos out of the computer or photo album and onto the wall where you can admire them.

A Little Soggy

This June it rained.  And rained.  And rained.   For days.  My empty ice cream pails that sat in the yard filled up with water and my rain guage over floweth.  I still can't walk in the garden without sinking a few inches and my vision of hoeing up weeds just won't work in the mud.  Potatoes aren't going to get hilled this year, just not possible.   As hardy prairie people, we're not used to downpours that last much longer than 20 minutes.  ;-)

Apparently the only dry spot in the yard for Charlie cat.

A good view from up here, though.

We actually had ducks take up residence on the lawn.  Weird.   There was so much water in the low spot next to the road that it turned into a lake.  Every time we walked by there would be the flap of wings and loud quacking noises as the ducks took flight.  It took us a while to get used to the idea  that there was a wetlands where a normal lawn used to be.  ;-)

It's Wednesday again!!!!

Glad Canadian Scrapbooker magazine always reminds me, because most weeks I have trouble remembering what day it is!!!!  And this week is no exception..........  crazy around here with the first full week of school holidays and a frantically busy time at work.

Look what's up for grabs this week!!!

So head over to the Canadian Scrapbooker facebook page here, and leave a comment under the Why not Win Wednesday thread for your chance to receive this awesome Graphic 45 package!!!  Good luck!!!!!

Napkins on Scrapbook Pages

There are such gorgeous napkins out there and it is a joy to use them on your scrapbooking projects.  They are usually so bright and happy!   And they're typically cheap, too (if you haven't, be sure to check out the selection at Dollarama), so this was a great topic to feature in The Frugal Scrapbooker article in the summer 2011 Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  Check it out for ideas and instructions.

Here's a couple of the projects that are featured in the article:

This layout was inspired by the cover of this company report shown below.  I thought it was a really neat design so I incorporated it into my scrapbook layout.  Inspiration is everywhere!

Then I found some cocktail size napkins that had pictures of lobsters and crabs on them.  Perfect for a layout about eating my first whole lobster! 

I adhered a bunch of these lobster guys to cardstock and cut them out for page embellishments.  When playing around with this, I tried a technique I read about on the internet.  It involves plastic wrap and ironing to melt the plastic to bond the napkin to cardstock.  It works well except it is too complicated for me.  And it involves ironing, not one of my favourite activities.  Only some plastic wraps will work (I had to to try three brands that I had in the house before one of them would melt appropriately to fuse the napkin to the cardstock) and it is potentially messy and stinky if you accidentally melt some plastic wrap onto your iron.
I put my iron away and grabbed a can of spray adhesive instead.   Quick, simple and no fuss.  I am using up my can of Scrapper's Spray by Creative Imaginations (which I adore, but they apparently stopped making) but other spray adhesives should work fine.  Helmar has a vellum spray out which I have purchased but not yet tried.

Patterned paper here is all by Nikki Sivils - the colours were perfect!  I cut it apart and added some baker's twine from The Twinery and stitching.  By the way, when cutting out my lobsters, I didn't want to mess around with the interior finicky parts, so I just coloured them in with a black marker.  When mounted on black cardstock, you can't tell that I cheated with the scissors.  ;-)

This card just makes me happy!  Feels so spring like.  Just a daisy napkin dressed up with a bit of ribbon and these lovely stick pins from Maya Road.  Quick and easy, and with a selection of napkins at your disposal, very versatile too! 

Happy Canada Day!!!