The Velvet Lemon

And another one...

2012-02-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

Challenge that is...!

At Scrap Your Crap, where the challenge was to use your stamps! Which we did. And now that we've assuaged our guilt over our forgotten and neglected stamps in one fell swoop, we'll be all ready to justify another stamp purchase or two in the near future!

Shh...did I say that out loud??

Anyway, here's the layout I did. I used many MANY stamps and clear embossing powder to create a resist background and then spritzed, sprayed and sponged with ink over that to create all the color.

But that wasn't enough. Oh no. Then I made myself draw circles and HANDstitch them. As if all the tasks on my To Do List had all been completed. And cut a flourish out of dictionary paper and stitch it too!

@@ (Those are eye rolls. I'm hoping if I use those often enough as symbols it'll be come a thing.) I know. I irritate myself too with all this overachieving.

So, yeah that's it. One measly photo for the whole post. I'd be asking myself if it was worth coming all the way over here for that!

Anyway. What's done is done. And that's what this post is!

After I remind you to head on over to Scrap My Crap and check out all the other DT inspo. And if you get inspired to do a card or layout as well, post it there so we can love it up, and then you can reward yourself with some guilt-free new stash. Stamps maybe.

:-D

Two new challenges!!

2012-02-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

The first one is up at Challenge Me Happy and the idea is to create something on the subject of "10 years ago". This layout shows a couple photos of our current reality. Something that was still only a dream 10 years ago....and not even sure then than it would/could ever happen...that we would one day be living in AZ.

It was fun to create this layout. I punched holes in the whole thing, then backed the holes with patterned paper and stitched around the edges to hold them in place. The canvas flourish is die cut with a Sizzix die. (It was pretty fragile until it got glued down!) And of course I had to add some of my current faves, dictionary paper and mist splats!

Our sponsor this month is Scrapbook Outlet NZ and the prize includes some fabby K&CO Smash goodness so make sure you make time to play with us!

As well, I've posted a mid month challenge at Love is in the Details! The focus of this one is to use Pinterest for your inspiration.

Here is the Pinterest pin that called my name and demanded to be turned into a layout!

I used a similar color scheme as well as the blocking design to create this:

Come on over and check us out and join in our challenges!!

Happy Hearts and Flowers Day!!

2012-02-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

I went a little pink-and-red-and-hearts-and-balloons-crazy this weekend and this is the result! (Also a tutorial on the My Little Shoebox blog today.)

It started like this....

Got looking like this...

Took a little of this....

To finally reach this point!

My daughter got in on the action too, with the cookies!! Which no longer exist, sadly.

An important thing to remember on Valentines Day is that too much of a good thing....is just about right!

One Little Word

2012-02-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

Do you have one? A word that reminds you and helps you focus on a particular aspect of your life that needs attention?

My word for this year is ReVitalize. I used to know what it was like to be full of vim and vinegar, but I'm at the stage in my life where getting one errand done in a day feels like an accomplishment. I know I'm too young to settle for feeling like this for the rest of my life so it's time to take myself in hand to regain the energy I once had.

That is the challenge at All About Me this month and here is the layout I did to focus on this word for myself. Not that all the other areas of my life are perfectly balanced, but this is the place to start for now.

I hope you'll stop by the All About Me blog and get inspired by the other layouts posted by the rest of the design team!!

CHA Winter 2012 - Very photo heavy!

2012-02-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

It was big. It was amazing. And noisy and busy and totally rockin'!!

I went, I saw, I want.

And so without further ado, in the words of

The My Little Shoebox booth

Our small but fearless leader Helen Chu!!

Every morning the bell rings and the doors open and it signals the beginning of another day of fun!

Kinda like Wall St trading.

But WAY more fun.

Ok, so let me show you a little bit of what I saw and loved!

Here are some things I can't wait to get my hands on!!

We R Memory Keepers Lucky 8 punches!! The only hard part will be picking a favorite to buy first!!

The Crafter's Workshop stencils...LOVE the new designs!!

Of course! DIY Thickers! Now you can make 'em any color you want!!

Means I might need a couple more colors of misters, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Jolee's Boutique

Washi tapes....everyone seems to be making them this year, and they're ALL cute...LOVE the selection of colors We R Memory Keepers has!

Crocheted flowers. Still not tired of them.

Text ANYthing is awesome, but text buttons just rock everything else!!

I'm not much of a frou-frou flower girl, but these Prima ones are in that natural color palette I like, so I'm pretty sure I need them.

Petaloo is going to knock it out of the park again with their chipboard laser cut shapes. Love.

Story Teller wood frames

Hemptique Trade Marker

7 Gypsies

Grant Archival

Studio Calico

I forget....lol

Demos were everywhere, make and takes too...

LaBlanche

Everyone loves a My Little Shoebox class!

Now it's time for some good fun COLOR!!

Never a time when COLOR is inappropriate in a blog post, right?

Let me tell you, it's a good thing I can barely knit or crochet, or I would have been in so much trouble in many more booths than I already got in trouble in!!

Crocheted chair covers? Oh my. Yes please!

Pretty certain I'm going to need to make this some day.

Maybe next summer.

For the cottage, yes?

A knitted tree. All the cool kids have them.

Knit leaf dresses too!

Feathers. Yeah. There must be a reason to need these!

It justifies it's existence just by being so pretty.

Ways With Zippers 101. Cool, huh?

I just know there's a joke about the Princess and the Pea in here somewhere.

Let me know if you find it.

Remember the button dress from CHA Chicago? Paper, beads and flowers this time!!

Or Duck tape garments for Prom.

I have to tell you about my favorite booth!!

Well, one of them. Canvas Corp! Or Canvas Home Basics.

Their whole look is my favorite style lately. Burlap, canvas, text paper and torn cardboard. Those colors and textures really make me happy. So this booth was a drool-fest to be sure.

(Yes you already saw this photo from the LaBlanche booth, but it's what I'm talkin' bout!)

Cool clock.

And now I've found the source for the burlap tablecloth I wanted for my Thanksgiving table last year.

Next year.

And finally....just because they're too pretty not to share....also because pretty things are inspiring...I've already thought of a few things I want to make!

And then there were the pretty booths...

Heidi Sonboul's line - Oh Happy Day for GCD.

It was starting look like this about an hour before closing time....

Until finally it looked like this and the only thing left to do was head to the airport and fly home for a nap.

Thanks for taking this tour with me! I hope you found a couple of things to drool over too! Leave a comment and tell what you just can't wait for!!

Something from My Little Shoebox...

2012-02-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

They went up on the MLS blog yesterday, so it's time to show you the cards I made from the Pretty Little Things line! This is such a fun and versatile collection with it's little girls and flowers and garden images! The cards I made this month are quick, clean and simple because MLS makes it so easy to do that!

This one uses a piece from the die cut paper (Seed Packets), zigzag stitched for some fun, pop-dotted flower pot stickers and some of the glitter glazed alphabet stickers.

This get well card uses 3 journal tags for it's base, with stitching around the edges, a Cricut cut sentiment (from Beyond Birthdays) and more pop-dotted flower stickers.

These leaves are so easy to make - just hand cut some randomly shaped leaves, layer 2 or more together and stitch through all layers. Ink the edges and fold along the stitch line to create dimension.

This card has a matted journal square (Seed Packets) with some white glitter glaze alphabets (Snowflake), and a little girl sticker from the sticker sheet. Some added paper lace and you have a cute but quick card for the occasion of your choice! (The background paper is Grown With Love.)

More images from the sticker sheet! The clouds and sun are from the punch out die cut sheet and the cloud background paper is Seed Packets. The fence is pop-dotted and the whole card is stitched around and photo corner adorned.

Always love the simplicity and basic awesomeness that color blocking provides! These patterned papers are the b-sides of Just Add Water, Seed Packets and Lovely Lady. They are "joined" by zigzag stitching, with a flower sticker, some buttons and a rub-on sentiment added.

All Things Beautiful is one of my favorite patterns of this line! I made the graphics the focal point of the card by cutting the paper to include as much of the clothesline as possible, and stitching jute over the printed clothesline. Add a "punny" sentiment and some photo corners and you have a very quick and easy card!

Thanks for stopping back again, and I promise the very next post will be a CHA review! Maybe even today yet!!

Home from CHA...

2012-02-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

I'm home. Suitcase is empty, laundry is started. You were hoping to see pics of CHA weren't you.... So sorry to disappoint, but check back later...that task IS at the top of my to-do list.

First though, since we didn't have the working intranets at our hotel, I couldn't post the latest challenges you needa know about. So lets take care of that!

First up is Challenge Me Happy with a recipe challenge!! Love those!! Heartistry is our sponsor for this challenge and the very generous prize pack includes some fun and fabulous items!!

This challenge was to use:

1 photo

2 different cardstocks

3 journaling spots or tags

4 word title

5 different patterned papers

6 butterflies

Here is what I did.

I made a stab at making my own "resist paper" with some Rubbernecker background stamps and Studio Calico spray/mist. I'm giving in again, to my current love of banners. And chevrons too actually, to the point of setting my sewing machine on zigzag and leaving it there! Also, just letting you know, I'm not tired of butterflies yet either...

Now for some deets

Don't forget to check out the rest of the design team's inspiration and then jump in and play with us!!

Next up, we have a fun challenge from Southern Girls Challenge Blog! Magic and Mystery is the theme and you could use your faerie-slash-unicorn-slash-elf-stamps and make a card, or do a layout and add lots of sparkly faerie dust!

(I think faeries are ever-so-much more magical than your ordinary, run of the mill fairies, don't you?)

Our sponsors this fortnight are Delicious Doodles and The Paper Shelter! Check out the awesome projects posted by the rest of the design team and then link up your own design for a chance to win!!

Here's what I did for this challenge: A layout of my son and his girlfriend at her high school jr prom. A perfect occasion for some glitz and glitter both in real life and on the scrapbook page. That row of fuzzy flowers along the bottom? Elastic ribbon from this fanTAStic ribbon store right here near where I live!!

...and a few detail shots....

Thanks for stopping by today! Don't forget to check back later for some CHA review!!

Polka Doodles

2012-01-27T07:53:00.000-08:00

A new challenge is up at the Polka Doodles blog and this week the challenge is to use a template! Polka Doodles has so many cute ones, the toughest part was deciding which one to use! I opted for the cupcake and gave it my own special sauce by stitching beads on the icing for sprinkles!!

The template design is from the Paper Boutique III CD and the background paper is from the Pretty Tuff CD.

Make sure to stop by the PD blog to see all the other cute designs and see what you can win by joining us on this challenge!

Some October Afternoon deliciousness...

2012-01-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

I got to play with the Sidewalks line from October Afternoon recently, for Love is in the Details. How can this paper line just not make you happy, happy, happy!?

First some cards...

So, funny story. Way last summer I made a Facebook comment, that someone should tell the designers of such things, to make a punch that cuts hexagon shapes. And I was really hoping to find some revealed at CHA next week...!

Then a few weeks ago, my friend Aleks pointed out that long time ago, before I was ever paying attention, Creative Memories made just such a punch. In a variety of sizes no less. She even pointed it out with a link to eBay!!

Et voila!

How much fun is that, huh?

And finally an October Afternoon layout! I sewed the banner out of pieces of Sidewalks die cuts and strung them across.

(Please excuse the bulky/shaded scan.)

Project 365. Well, 366 this year.

2012-01-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

Meet my new best friend, Blurb. Kind of a funny name for a friend I know, but that hasn't gotten in the way of a budding new relationship that I just know will last longer than Element 117 or gum stuck to the sidewalk.

Since I started doing APAD in January of 2008 I've been trying to think of a way to showcase my photos for my own pleasure and for my family to see and enjoy as well. I even went to the effort of creating a hard cover photo book, with dates and a few explanations along the way but I didn't ever order it.

Even after all that work.

Because it still wasn't what I had in mind.

Then again in 2010 when I committed to the concept of capturing (at least) one photo every day, I kept trying to think of what format I would like to bring this project to life. It's all very well and good to have 47, 638 photos on your computer, but if no one gets to see them, or worse yet, your computer should crash....!?!

Turn the clock to January 2012 (apparently I am an even-year APADist) when I am committing again to this project and enough is enough. Time to think of something and do it. Then I had a full on frontal lobe idea. A small, (5"x5") soft cover book, with nothing more than a single photo on each page from January 1 to December 31. Trouble is, I couldn't find anyone that binds books that small and that thick.

Until I met Blurb. Blurb prints/publishes everything from a print run of ONE to hopeful best-sellers of oh, a LOT. Mine will be in the former category. Their smallest size is 7"x7" but now that I have it in my hands I realize it's the PERFECT size. And best of all, I could keep adding pages till I reached a year (and I could have gone further yet).

It arrived in the mail yesterday and let me tell you I could not be more pleased!! After a certain number of pages, they bump you down to the Not As Premium Paper, but honestly, I completely LOVE the quality of this book. And so does my family. And my friends. Who've been inspired to start Project 366's of their own!! That should tell you something!

So, I'm off to begin creating another one for 2010 and I can't wait to finish up this year and order ANOTHER one!! Always something to look forward to!!

Aiko

2012-01-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

Day 5 and the final day for My Little Shoebox Winter CHA reveals! Today we want to show you Aiko! How adorable is this line, right?? You'll want to go to the MLS blog to see the complete line in all its cuteness and to leave a comment for a chance to win this line yourself!!

Lovely Day

2012-01-19T10:19:00.000-08:00

Day 4 of the My Little Shoebox winter CHA reveals and today we're showing you Lovely Day! I got to play with this line and as I'm sure you can guess, the clouds, birds and cages and flower vines are a winning combination when it comes to creating cute projects!!

Here's a card I made with this line and I also have to tell you how much I love that all the new lines have coordinating solid card stock paper too!

Be sure to stop by the MLS blog to leave a comment for a chance to win this collection before it even hits the stores!!

Up in the Trees

2012-01-18T21:52:00.000-08:00

My Little Shoebox reveal Day 3!! And it's a keyUTE collection called Up in the Trees!! Check out the wood grain with the hearts in it!! Click on the link to see the whole collection and make sure to leave a comment on the MLS blog for a chance to win this collection for your own!!

Half 'n' Half

2012-01-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

Something old, something new...that's the challenge up at Scrap Your Crap this month! I'm sure you won't have any problems doing that right? In spite of all the old stash you haven't used, you've probably added to that stash recently, am I right??? Don't worry, that's only normal!! So we want you to use some of each in a LO and show it to us!!

On this layout I used:

Old Studio Calico tags, fabric strip, rub ons and mists, REALLY old Heidi Swapp alphabet masks, #2 sticker, SEI epoxy bubbles, "cute kid" fabric tag (and don't forget the photos - circa 2005!) and new Pink Paislee Nantucket die cuts and background paper.

You'll want to see the other layouts done by the DT to give you inspiration! And when you get done with this challenge, link it up so we can be inspired by you!

And before you go, check out today's My Little Shoebox reveal!! This collection is called Happy Go Lucky, and I don't know about you, but between the airmail stripes and the bicycles and clouds, I am feeling pretty Happy Go Lucky myself!!

Don't forget to pop over to the MLS blog and leave a comment for a chance to win this collection!!

My Little Shoebox reveal week!!

2012-01-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

YAAYYY!! It's almost CHA time!! I love this time of year!! And I'm SO EXCITED to be going again to help in the MLS booth!!

Today we're showing you the first reveal of the 5 lines coming out at CHA and if the first is anything to judge by, you're going to be drooling over these lines!!

Ladies and gentlemums, please put your hands together for KEEPSAKE!!

New for 2012! Keepsake Collection Kit

double sided patterned paper
double sided color cardstock
12x12 Cardstock Sticker sheet
3D Roll Up Flower
circle Die Cut

Also new for 2012, coordinating solid card stock!

And here's a lovely card made by Shemaine Smith using this collection.

Make sure to head over to the My Little Shoebox blog and leave a comment for a chance to win this collection before it ever hits the stores!!

Something NEW!

2012-01-14T22:56:00.000-08:00

A new challenge up at Challenge Me Happy today!! And the challenge is to use the word NEW in your title!

Should be easy enough to do in the January of the year, huh?

Here's the layout I did...pure 1975 right?

Been saving this photo to scrap this year exactly, when there are so many cute bicycle embellishments to choose from!

The one that made it to the page was from the Dear Lizzy American Crafts collection. Dear Lizzy, c'mon DOWN! *clap, clap, clap*

Most of the supplies for this layout come from the January Studio Calico kit, Country Fair! Studio Calico, C'MON DOWN!!! Whoooot!!

Before I leave you though, I just want to let you know that the sponsor for this challenge at CMH, is Little Yellow House kits. And that you need to go check out the other lovely, fabulous layouts by the design team. And then get your glue and scissors out and make something of your own with NEW in the title, (doesn't have to be English) and then link it up!

January Challenge at All My Memories and a Polka Doodles card.

2012-01-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

This month the challenge at All My Memories challenge blog is to make a layout about the one in your life who is truly the wind beneath your wings...your one and only, and what that means to you. Maybe it's your significant other, or a bestie, or your mom. But whoever it is and what they mean to you, tells something about the person you are too!

Here's the layout I did.

And you get to see the boy I fell in love with! Isn't he a hunka hunka burnin' love!?! (Hm, my spell checker doesn't like that. *shrug*)

The beautiful part is that he's so much more than that now, and maybe the looks have faded a little over the years....whose haven't?? But he's still the only one who can make my stomach drop from 30 paces!

Be sure and head over to the AMM blog to check out the other designer's layouts for more inspiration!

And this week it's a Vintage/Retro challenge at Polka Doodles!

I had fun exploring all the cds again and choosing these images and papers with which to create a vintage card. I love the soft subtle colors and the way they go so nicely with distressed edges and distress ink.

The buttons, pin, lace and chipboard butterfly are add ons from my own stash. There are so many gorgeous samples at the Polka Doodles blog for you to be inspired by! Go on over and check them out, as well as the sponsors for this challenge.

Show your Sparkle!!

2012-01-05T16:08:00.000-08:00

With a new challenge up at Southern Girls Challenge blog! Our sponsors this month are Pink Gem Designs, Delicious Doodles, and Little Claire.

Now, you know me, I'm not big on glitter, but you know there are LOTS of other way to get some sparkle and shine without resorting to that wretched stuff, lol!!

Here's the layout I did. I punched out a few(!) flowers and glued them down and then Stickled the centers.

That satin rosette is one of last summer's obsessions! I think I made 400 at last count! Aren't they pretty?

There's also a bit of glitz and glamour added with the silver snowflakes and the pearls.

Be sure to head on over to Southern Girls and check out the rest of the DT's inspiration, as well as the sponsor links for this challenge!!

Happy New Year 2012!!

2012-01-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

I'm wishing you a year of health, happiness and just enough of what makes you count your blessings, and not too much of what you weren't hoping for!

Let's begin with a new challenge over at Challenge Me Happy! Freehand Scraps is our sponsor this month and they ship internationally too!!

Our challenge this month was to lift the talented and lovely Trina McClune of New Zealand. Here is her gorgeous layout.

And here is what I did to lift Trina's LO.

Some details...

When you do this challenge, be sure and link it up at the Challenge Me Happy blog so we can lay some love on your lift, and also to have the chance to win the Freehand Scraps prize!

In the mood for some cupcakes? Some snowball cupcakes? These are seriously the best tasting cupcakes I've had in a very long time, boutique OR homemade!! I made some over the holidays to fill a cute cupcake box I'd decorated. Giving someone an empty cupcake box is just not politically correct. Even if it IS decorated as cute as this. So making cupcakes seemed the only thing to do.

The box is from Love is in the Details and I used the My Little Shoebox Winter Wonderland line to create the scene on the top. (Lori also has some very cute individual kraft cupcake boxes in the store and you need to see how Chelsea decorated them here!)

And here's the recipe:

Coconut Snowball Cupcakes 

1 pkg white cake mix 

1 C water 

3/4 C Cream of Coconut (available in the cocktail mixers aisle at the grocery store.)

 3 egg whites

Combine in large bowl, beat on low for 30 seconds, and on medium for 2 mins. Bake according to the pkg directions for cupcakes.

Frosting 

1 pkg cream cheese 

1 tbsp sugar (or to taste) 

2 (or more) blocks white chocolate (melted in microwave) 

1 C whip cream (whipped, with 1 tsp almond extract added) 

1/4 C Cream of Coconut

Cream the cream cheese in a bowl with electric mixer. Add sugar, melted chocolate and cream of coconut and beat till smooth. Beat whip cream (with extract added) till stiff. Fold into cream cheese mixture and frost cupcakes. Sprinkle coconut and white crystal cake topping on top of cupcakes and watch them disappear! (Seriously. I watched two grown people fight over the last one!)

I also have some fun gift card packaging ideas to show you! These, as well as the cupcake box above are up at the Love is in the Details blog showcasing a few of the fun items Lori has in her store! This California Pizza Kitchen GC goes so perfectly in this Maya Road tin. I think it was alphabet sheers that came in it....

I just used the exacto knife to cut a partial line around the "Adore" shape, just wide enough for the GC to fit in and not slip down.

I used ONE sheet of paper from the Lost and Found - Sunshine line by My Mind's Eye, to make both the pillow box AND the tin liner. The designs on the paper work perfectly for that, and just minimal embellishments are all you need to add to call it done!

You can also find the awesomest burlap bags and muslin bags that make for fabulous gift card "envelopes"!

Right??

All I did to adorn this one was mat a big ol' honkin' snowflake sticker on brown cs, cut it out, tie it on and stick some buttons on the bottom!

(Totally in LOVE with these muslin bags!!) This one got stamped, an embossed chipboard frame, rosette and 2 leaves added to create something I'm finding hard to part with... The gift card is wrapped in French dictionary paper and tied up with jute and a little rusty snowflake.

Emptying the To-Show-You box....

2011-12-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

Gonna have it emptied out pretty soon!! I have a couple more today to show you....ones I did this last summer when I was at the lake. Remember the lake? *eyes closing* Ahhhhh, me too....

Anyway. Lets stay on task here. I have lots to do and so do you, right?

This one is of my nephew on the rope swing at the cottage. A fairly common sight. I incorporated the corrugated sprout on the bottom to signify how quickly he's growing and what a great kid he's growing into! Love those cork stars!!

And here's my nephew on the other side of the family! Little curly haired waif. The photo is a couple of years old, but the sentiment is still current. Wish I could stop time every day!! (Had to include some Mr Huey action too!)

This one was done last summer but it's about last summer!! I tried to go for a totally free and easy feel, but it's still impossible to capture quite how wonderfully free and easy this summer was!! Not sure it can ever be duplicated... And there are enough photos to fill another 2 calendar pages like this, but these are just a sampling.

Thanks for stopping by in the middle of your hectic holiday prep and countdown! I wish you and your families a SAFE and HAPPY Holiday Season, free from any kind of worry and stress!

Two for the price of one!

2011-12-19T08:58:00.000-08:00

Still tidying....still procrastinating... :-D

Today I have some 2 pagers to show you. That's all I ever used to do when it was all about getting the events documented. Now I've given myself the freedom to play and that means sometimes starting with paper or embellishments and finding photos to go with them, instead of the other way around, and choosing photos from any year I like!

But then I do a 2-pager again and I remember how much I still love to work on the expanded canvas that 2 sheets of 12x12 paper provide! You can use big photos...any excessive number of embellishments you like....or just showcase a LOT of photos at once. We've got something of each today!

Here's one I had to do for a challenge to scrap photos of myself. And as if that weren't hard enough I had to use photos of myself wearing RED! Not even kidding!! And 4 different pieces of patterned paper, a 4 word title and 4 strips of journaling. In the end it was a fun way to be pushed around, lol!

This one was done for a sketch that had to be mirrored. It's a layout focusing on Mr B and his realization of a long held dream of owning and flying a plane.

Oh look! Another layout about Mr B! This one was for another challenge. This one, to use 10 groups of 10 things. Ten letters in the title. Ten photos, 10 arrows, 10 numbers, 10 buttons, 10 (different) pieces of patterned paper, 10 words in the sub-title, 10 word/phrase stickers, 10 journal strips and one more thing that I've forgotten...!? Anyway, it's the story of Mr B felling a tree at the cottage this summer and the steps he took to do it right. He can be very methodical when he wants to be.

Aww? Me and Mr B! Another challenge! This one to use one b&w 8x10 photo that straddles 2 pages, has journaling written on it and used embellishments to replace words. Yup, that took some doing!

The journaling says: "I (heart) this sport so much! It's one I was sort of coerced into trying and believe me when I say it was no (piece of cake) to learn or master. But I struggled through and I'm so glad I did. I'm no (star) on the slopes even yet, but now the old sport of skiing doesn't hold a (candle) to the thrill of (snow)boarding. Even better, I love that it's something we do together as a couple and as a family."

That's it for today! But stop by again, there's more! Coming soon to a....yeah, you know.

Some My Little Shoebox catch up...

2011-12-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

One of the best procrastination efforts I know of, to employ when you have deadlines looming is to start cleaning. Which ultimately, is probably not good for one's blood pressure even if it results in a clean and tidy whatever.

But anyway.

I'm going to show you some My Little Shoebox bibs and bobs from the last little while, so I can put them away in their permanent homes.

And hopefully it won't be too weird seeing Halloween cards and paper in December!?

These are cards I made using the Trick or Treat line.

This was a layout done for a challenge on another site to scrap about something scary. Which kinda dictates Halloween themed paper, yes? So, more Trick or Treat!

And last month My Little Shoebox teamed up with The Scrapping Cottage who make die cuts that coordinate with MLS.

Here's a card I made using the dies from the Destination line.

and another card made with the dies from Enchanted Garden.

And finally a two-pager from last summer! I used a mix of papers from different Little Shoebox lines for it, and made word strips from the mini alphas and covered them with Glossy Accents for an epoxied look. The photos are from our anniversary trip to Northern Cali a couple of years ago.

Thanks for stopping by....more to show you tomorrow....!

B is for buttons and babies and boys...

2011-12-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

Buttons galore is the challenge freshly posted at Scrap Your Crap today!

And I'm pretty sure, if you're anything like me, you have a stash of buttons that would surpass anything your Grandmother ever collected! Am I right?

So this month we want you to use some buttons. More than a couple. A handful or more. Use them to make a frame or bouquet of flowers or fill in a shape or outline something. I'll let you decide!

Here's what I did with some buttons. I had a piece of canvas fabric laying around from another project and thought that would make a fun page base. And of course some Mr Huey got splattered. Can't call a layout complete until it has some Mr Huey!

I printed a big old honkin' "b" on a piece of printer paper, cut it out and used it to draw an outline with disappearing ink. You have less than 24 hours to work before it does disappear so for slow scrappers like me, that's a pressure cooker situation!

Some more deets:

You've got a month to work on this so I hope you'll find some time in the busy holiday season to sneak off and play with us! Be sure and link up your project so we can ooh and aah and leave you some love!

A new challenge!

2011-12-15T07:49:00.000-08:00

At Challenge Me Happy blog today. (Well yesterday already I guess.....man, this time zone thing between NZ and USA is so confusing for a bear of little brain!!)

We worked with a fun sketch this time and this is the layout I came up with.

The journaling strip says "When the art needs come out, even the microwave is a canvas." Referring to the graphic design student who lives here and who has taken scribbling on the walls to a new level.

For my LO, I translated the clouds on the sketch somewhat and pulled out my (fairly ridiculous) collection of paper tapes, aka: Norine's-all-time-favorite-trend-of-2011!

Make sure to head over to Challenge Me Happy and be inspired by all the other great takes on this sketch!!

Some Enchanted things...

2011-12-14T08:04:00.000-08:00

are posted today at My Little Shoebox!

These are the cards I made using the Enchanted Garden line this month. I think Enchanted Garden is topping out at my FAVE line yet. At least until the next one I work with...

On this card I dropped dots of Glossy Accents on the polka dots to give them some oomph! And that burlap ribbon? Ohmygoodness I am all about the burlap these days!

Be sure to check the MLS blog and see Keely's Enchanted Garden cards too!

Quick and Easy....

2011-12-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

If that's your mantra these days leading up to Christmas, you'll like the card challenge up today at Polka Doodles! You'll want to head over there for some fantastic ideas to finish up your card-making!! Here are two I did, using papers printed from the Magical Winter 2 cd.

Join us for this challenge and don't forget to link us up to your blog or gallery.

The winner of this challenge will receive a gift voucher for the Polkadoodles shop worth £10, so make sure you're in it to win it!!

My brand...

2011-12-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

That's the theme of the very first challenge at the freshly! re-minted! new! and improved! All About Me challenge blog! The DT was challenged to create a LO that reflects who and what we are through the use of color, symbolism, graphics and journaling.

Sure!

Yikes.

Where do I start.....

Ultimately though, that's what I love the most about this blog, is the way the challenges make us dig deep inside ourselves to examine what we're really about.

So, this is what I came up with...

My favorite personal philosophy quote, lots of camera graphics, a photo of my favorite sport - snowboarding, and another of a stack of books I love, some Canadian postage stamps to represent my nationality, and a variety of rub-ons that focus on the creative side of my personality.

And ok, it might be just a few facets of my multi-layered self, (who of us isn't, after all?) but it's a start at capturing something of myself on paper and I challenge you to try it on too! You have the whole month to work on it, and there's a sponsor and a prize and everything. Go here to check out the rest of the DT inspiration, and find out the deets for real.

Dream...

2011-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

My November project is up at the My Little Shoebox blog today! I used the Enchanted Garden line and I gotta tell you, this line is just so dang pretty your projects will practically make themselves! Mine did!!

Wouldn't this ever be cute for a little girl's bedroom??

I bought the thin wood rectangle pieces from Hobby Lobby and the letters themselves from Michaels. The papers are all Mod Podged (pretty sure you can make Mod Podge a verb) onto the wood and allowed to dry overnight. After I trimmed around the edges, I filed the edges with a piece of sandpaper, and then chalk inked the edges of the paper, and painted (with thinned down paint) the edges of the wood. To make sure the letters stayed on the wood squares and that the wood squares all stayed nice and fixed to each other, I used wood glue - Liquid Nails. The flowers are all from the sticker sheet, pop dotted and baby powdered so they won't stick to anything else, and the clouds and the banner pieces are all from the die cut sheet. And the buttons are a miscellaneous assortment I found in my stash. Oh yeah, and I used the Crop-a-Dile to punch the holes for the ribbon that is poked through and knotted.

Some things to show you...

2011-12-01T12:30:00.002-08:00

It's December 1st! Last month of 2011!! All-that-noise-about-where-has-this-year-gone!? On to other stuff!

So, today is a fresh challenge at Southern Girls, and it's one I particularly enjoyed!! Use your ribbons! Alright, I will.

This is the card I made, using a digi stamp from Tickled Pink. I think I'm finally figuring out the best way to color images destined for cards....pick the papers I want to use first, including the embellishments and then color the image to match that. I know, duh, for most of you, but it took me a bit to finally have the light go on!

And now, for some random LO show and tell....

Here's a layout I did recently for a challenge at Colorful Creations. It was part of the ongoing so-you-think-you-can-scrap challenge. This was from week 12 where we had to scrap a photo-less LO using 12 of the same embellishments and pp from at least 3 different manufacturers.

This is the story about my daughter's missed opportunity to attend her graduation ceremony. Because of only finishing her last semester at the Christian HS in the town near where we lived, she hadn't had a chance to get 2 religion credits that the school required for graduation. As far as the province was concerned she'd met the reqs for graduating but if she couldn't wear the cap and gown and march with her friends to receive a diploma, she wasn't going to go. I don't blame her but I still feel sad that she missed that opportunity.

And one more... This one's kind of cool! It has just been published in the current Creating Keepsakes Holidays and Celebrations Special Issue! Page 65. Check it out!

All the supplies used for this LO are My Little Shoebox - Heartfelt line.

Some deets:

pink and green and mint and brown and rose

2011-11-30T09:53:00.000-08:00

equals one fun color scheme challenge at Challenge Me Happy, up today!

I used my old Technique Tuesday Timberline stamps to create the patterned paper title letters. Felt good to pull them out again after so long...

And because it was a beach photo I wanted to add the Prima gem things to imitate the look of beach glass, even though a lake in Northern Saskatchewan is about the last place any beach glass will show up. An inconvenient detail I didn't let stop me!!

There's a ton more awesome inspo at the Challenge Me Happy blog that you MUST go check out, including a guest designer and a fun prize for someone who does the challenge and links it up!!

An Italian Christmas

2011-11-25T00:30:00.000-08:00

That's the theme for today's challenge up at Polka Doodles! To make a Christmas card using the colors of the Italian flag. Which makes for a very pretty card, I think! I used a holly image from the Polka Doodle Sundae of Seasons cd, as well as the red polka dot paper from that cd. The scallop circle is made with a Spellbinders die and the rest is card stock. You could put a greeting on the front or do like me and leave it clean, putting the greeting on the inside. Pretty quick and simple, huh?

Be sure and drop by the Polka Doodles blog for scads more lovely ideas for Christmas cards! Then make sure to link up your own card for a chance to win!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T12:16:00.000-08:00

I'm wishing all my American friends a healthy and happy Thanksgiving day!! We're having our turkey tomorrow and it will be our 2nd one this fall! We've actually already celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with turkey and the fixin's back in Oct! Here's guessing round 2 will be just as yummy and wonderful!!

Remember the Winter Wonderland blog hop on Monday? Random Generator dot com randomly generated a winner and it is LORNA!

Lorna said...

Your DD did an amazing job on your blog Norine! She is just like her Momma....very talented!

Love the product and love what you did with it! WTG!

November 21, 2011 4:40 PM

Lorna, I'll be in contact with you!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max:

Result:

22Powered by RANDOM.ORG

A Winter Wonderland Blog hop and a giveaway and an unveiling!!

2011-11-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

Last things first.

Check out my blog re-design! Unless you're my mom or......my mom, you probably don't come here often enough to detect the change, so I'm pointing it out for you. Isn't it pretty?? My daughter did it for me from about 5000 miles away cuz she's totally awesome like that!! She didn't once complain when I asked her to change one thing or another. (No, try this shade. No, I like the last one better. Wait, can you go back to the first one you tried? And now can you...)

You can check out her work here. She's not only cute and stylin' but a FAB Photog as well!

Now, then.

Welcome to My Little Shoebox's Winter Wonderland blog hop!! You should have arrived here from sweet Erin's blog, but if you just happened along randomly you'll want to go here and start at the beginning so you don't miss anything!!

I live in Arizona now, but once I lived most of my life in the Great White North, aka Canada. Now that I don't have to shovel anything but sunshine I can enjoy the season ever so much more!! And the icing on THAT piece of cake, is this new My Little Shoebox line, Winter Wonderland!! The colors and patterns are SO awesome to work with; a little different than the traditional and that's part of what makes it so fun! And the die-cut stickers and the co-branded Unity stamps that complete the set are SO fun!! And if you were looking for some of your own, you came to the right place! Leave a comment and 2 names will be randomly drawn to win the collection for your own! That announcement will be made on the MLS blog on Tues, Nov 22.

So here's a sampling of what I've already made with this line.

This one has modeling paste applied to the snow line on the paper and then Martha Stewart crystal snow stuck to it. I like it, but not as much as

this one where I used Crystal Lacquer and sprinkled another Martha Stewart sparkly snow product on it. It dried clear and looks kinda pretty! If I do say so myself.

And here's a gift tag I made with the snowman stamp from the Winter Wonderland stamp set. Does he not just melt your heart?

Oh look!! Here's a bunch of them! If one is cute, 8 has got to be awesome right?!

You like?

You want?

Ok, leave a comment and I'll try and pull YOUR name out of the hat to send you a set of 8 snowmen gift tags. That ought to lighten your seasonal task list a little, right?

Now back to the administration side of things. Your next stop will be Becky's blog. If there should be a kink in the chain and you get lost, here's the list to follow.

Kristine Baron Berc
Mandy Kay Starner
Ilene Tell
Erin Yamabe
You Are Here
Becky Nearing Williams
Linda Kretz
Pattie Beltran
Beckie Dreyer
Shelly Berg
Keely Yowler
Nicole Wragge
Shemaine Smith

Melinda Spinks

Thanks for joining us today for our Winter Wonderland inspirational card hop. Don't forget there will be 2 Winter Wonderland collections given away to a random commenter on one of the participating blogs and the winners will be announced on the My Little Shoebox blog on Tuesday, November 22.

Aaaand...they're back!!

2011-11-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

Scrap Your Crap challenge blog took a hiatus for a while, but now they're back, with a shiny new DT and a whack of exciting challenges lined up!

For the first challenge, we want you to pull out your mists. At least 3 different colors. Or paints, if you haven't yet fallen into the big deep misting pit!! I have, but I'm not trying very hard to climb out, I have to say. Almost every LO gets a spritz or two!!

Here's the layout I made for the challenge:

And some deets. (Weird the difference in color between the scanner and a camera, huh? The yellow is closer to the actual color tone.)

For the title block, I laid down some old (kinda ugly) letter stickers I didn't want to use anymore, but liked the shape of well enough. Then I blocked around the stickers with scrap paper and went to town with several different colors of Mr Huey and Maya Road mists. After everything dries, it's easy enough to lift off the letter stickers and this is what you get!

Now we want to see what you do with your mists! Link up back at the SYC blog and show us so we can oooh and ahhhh all over you!!

Challenge Me Happy!

2011-11-14T12:10:00.001-08:00

New challenge today folks! Head on over to Challenge Me Happy to find out the deets! This fortnight, we have this photo to use for inspiration!

And this is the LO I created with that inspo. As soon as I saw the photo I thought of this paper from Sassafrass. Innit yummy?

Also check out my crazy mad photoshop skillz!! I don't have any kind of fancy pants iphone, but I love the hipstamatic photo app like all the cool kids are doing. So I just asked my friend Google (you're welcome, you can thank me later.) how to make this photo

LOOK like that and several hours later, I had this photo.

(The fact that the photo edit took longer than creating the layout did is in no way, a reflection on my parents, from who's gene pool the lifeguard would have expelled me.)

But who's a cool kid now, huh??

So yeah, what was I saying? Oh right, the inspo. I also loved those grid like letters so I pawed through my paper stash to find something that made me think of that. That's Cosmo Cricket paper.

Oh and hey! This yummy hand-dyed ribbon?

I die, right!?

I got it here!

So anyway, we'd love to see what this photo inspires YOU to create!! Link it up over there; awesome prizes are in your future!!

Some halloween hijinks!

2011-11-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

Well not really, just halloween layouts, but I like the word hijinks and I think it gets short shrift in literary life! So I like to use it whenever I can.

These layouts are up at the My Little Shoebox blog featuring the Trick or Treat line today too, so I thought I'd also show you some details.

First up is this layout of my BIL and SIL a couple of years ago (ok more than a couple, but who's counting.) at a Halloween party. Mirror images. Get it? I know, lol. I left the roll up flower die cuts flat for this layout 'cuz I like that look too!

And then there's the year we went all out carving pumpkins!

It might have had something to do with a certain visitor from Australia we were collectively trying to impress....

or it might just have been a new set of carving tools that got us all amped up.

Or!

Maybe my philosophy that "anything worth doing is worth over-doing" is infecting the people I live with too...!? I wish this infection would also work with the philosophy that kitchens look nicer when the dirty dishes are in the dishwasher and the cupboard doors are all shut!

That only seems irrelevant to anything if you have not looked at my kitchen today.

Sigh, but anyway, lets look at this layout! I did a fun thing with it. See all those spider web lines?

I drew over them with a glue pen and then sprinkled black embossing powder around like some kind of demented Tinker Bell and heated things up with a heat tool! Voila! I thought it looked kinda great!

And on the subject of kinda great, there's those fun roll up flowers again. Not much they don't improve!!

Thanks for stopping by, you gorgeous things!!

SURPRISE!!

2011-11-06T01:21:00.000-07:00

Another design team gig!! For Love is in the Details!!

This one is very special to me because it's an online store and forum based in Miami, Manitoba and that's my home and native land! Well, Manitoba is. And the girls there are my peeps who I talk to everyday and even if we've never actually all met in person, it's an awesome community of caring girls! (They're the ones who keep me up to date on what important things are going on my home town, such as snow storms and good restaurants.) And Lori, whose store it is, is the most fabulous in all the land! She does it all! Runs a thriving scrapbooking mail order biz, throws amazing themed crops, (and scraps a mean layout herself!) caters, sells meals from her home kitchen and personally exemplifies what her business name means!

So when out of the blue one day, she phones me up (and it's worth pointing out, that even though we're quite close in age, Lori has the voice of a 25 year old. It's uncanny. And also a little bit unfair.) to ask me if I'd like to join her design team, I was all, um, ye-ah!

Didn't even need to think about that one!

So I'll be joining Chelsea, Lisa and Nola to help bring more fun and fresh ideas and inspiration to an already fun and friendly place!

Wouldn't it be so fun if you came over and joined us!?

So here's a couple layouts and tag cards made with product available at Love is in the Details.

Supplies used: Basic Grey - Out of Print, Dressmaker shape, bitty bags like these and these, BoBunny buttons like these, chipboard embellies, Tim Holtz ink and a few things from the stash.

Polkadoodles Shaped cards

2011-11-04T02:10:00.000-07:00

A fresh challenge is up for you at Polkadoodles!! Here's the card I made for the shaped cards (no squares or rectangles) challenge. I printed a few digital paper designs from the Pretty Sweet collection, and used that for the flower shape and the leaves which I cut with the Walk in my Garden Cricut cartridge. The sentiment is one of MANY cute and useful you can choose from and a 2" circle punch makes a complete little embellishment! I added some lace and hand stitching to the center and look at that - quick and simple!!

Be sure and head over to Polkadoodles to see the rest of the DT inspo!

Can you hear the music....?

2011-11-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

That's the theme of the challenge that just went up at Southern Girls Challenge Blog! There's prizes for this challenge too, depending on what part of the world you call home!

I used a digi stamp from Sassy Studio Designs (who are also the prize sponsor for any peeps not living in Australasia) for this card, and used the title of that old John Denver tune! Colored the image with Copics, et voila!

Come on over and join us for this fun challenge!!

Challenge Me Happy

2011-10-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

Challenge #10 is up today and it's a fun one - Anything Goes!! Go check it out, and see if the prize from Molly's Scrapbooking doesn't tempt you to make something for this challenge!! Here's my LO for the challenge...and there's plenty of more inspiration from the other design team girls too! Now go!

Also!! I have two winners for the Unity/My Little Shoebox hop over the weekend!! #19 and #13 as chose by the Random Generator! That's Marilyn and Miss ScrapALot! Yaaayyyyy YOU TWO!! (I'll be in touch!)

Hip Hop!

2011-10-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome back! It's blog hop day!

My Little Shoebox has co-branded with Unity Stamp Company to come up with an overload of CUTIFUL!! If you've happened here by accident, I invite you to start at the beginning at Unity's blog! If you've just come from Christi's blog, you're right on schedule! And, just like last week's blog hop there are prizes to be won!!

For today's giveaway, a random commenter will be chosen by Unity to win a prize package of stamps! You must do the hop and leave a comment on each blog to be entered to win.

Comments close the 30^th at MIDNIGHT. Winner posted the 31^st on Unity blog.

In addition to Unity's prize I'ma do a little giveaway myself! Leave me a comment and click on the "join" button and I will pull a couple (yes TWO!) names out of the hat to win y'all some My Little Shoebox! I will send 2 commenters a package of 3 complete (and current!) MLS lines - paper, stickers, die cuts, alpha sticker, the whole shebang!

Here's a card I made using the Audrey line by MLS and the Audrey stamp set by Unity Stamp Company.

Now you need to head to Jen's blog for more inspiring designs!

In case you get lost along the way, here's the list of links for this hop!

Unity Blog - http://theunitystampco.blogspot.com/

Angie Blom – http://angieblomdesigns.blogspot.com/

Nicole Wragge - http://beingoutoftheboxcreative.blogspot.com/

Christi Snow – http://www.alteredambitions.blogspot.com/

Norine Borys- http://www.thevelvetlemon.blogspot.com/

Jen Buck – http://thebuckstampshere.blogspot.com/

Pattie Beltran- http://www.pattiebeltran.blogspot.com/

Jimmi Mayo – http://www.stampingwithjimmi.blogspot.com/

Pearl Liu- http://maisymary.blogspot.com/

Lisa Arana – http://dahlhouse-designs.com/

Rocio Duran - http://www.chiotaz.blogspot.com/

Maren Benedict – http://zanynotcrazy.blogspot.com/

Ro Philippsen - http://www.scrapbyrophilippsen.blogspot.com/

Natalie Dever – http://www.dougnat.blogspot.com/

Shelly Berg – http://shellyberg.blogspot.com/

Shemaine Smith – http://www.shemainesmith.blogspot.com/

Zoe Nemburt - http://ceydaboo.blogspot.com/

Stephanie Muzzulin - http://handmade75.blogspot.com/

My Little Shoebox Blog - http://www.mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/

mmmmyummy!

2011-10-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

Can your eyes believe all this delicious yumminess??? Hand dyed bias cut silk ribbon. Etsy! That's where I found it! Etsy makes it so easy to fulfill all your fondest desires to have pretty things!

Now I just have to find those mermaid pics I took while I was sleeping/dreaming on some white sandy beach somewhere that time! This ribbon will go SO perfectly with them!

And now back to reality. Not the can't-find-my-keys-or-wallet kind of reality. That's way too much of a downer! Plus that only happens to people around me. That's their reality.

This is just tidy-up and catch-up reality. Couple more LO's and cards to show you! From the last few months of My Little Shoebox assignments...

Supplies used: MLS Playtime line, Catch Me if You Can, Sidewalk Chalk, Toffee glitter alphas. Webster's Pages buttons, velvet trim and lace, Studio Calico Mr Huey, Prima leaf and homemade brown satin flower.

Supplies used: MLS Playtime line, all papers (Up in the Sky, Sunny Side Up), die cut stickers, glitter alpha stickers (Cherry Pie, Lake, Cornmeal) and mini alpha stickers (Carrot Juice). SEI and MM buttons, Crate Paper ribbons.

And some cards from June assignments!

Supplies used for all cards: MLS Home Tweet Home line. Also used: Imaginesce flowers, iRock tool and gems, Ranger Ink Stickles, assorted ribbon, Stazon ink.

Be sure to check back here tomorrow for a blog hop with My Little Shoebox and Unity Stamps!! Prizes, prizes, prizes!! That's all I'm gonna say!!

And one more!

2011-10-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

Announcement that is. But it will be the last one for awhile, I promise!

Got another DT gig!! This one for a fabulously FUN challenge blog called Challenge Me Happy!! Fresh, cool challenges are posted twice monthly and AWEsome prizes are given out, so you want to come over and check it out!! You'll be glad you did!

And time to post a couple more "catch up" layouts from the summer!

This one was done for a Love is in the Details summer crop challenge to use an old b&w photo, do an 8 1/2 x 11 layout and use some red! I've since converted the smaller LO into my standard 12x12 and the photo I used was the one we printed on my Dad's 80th birthday invitation this summer!

This one was also done for a LiitD challenge to use a piece of UGLY paper! Sorry Basic Grey, I love you to death but occasionally I gotta ask WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?? The scallop-py stuff at the top was the ugly paper I used. Tried to jazz it up a bit with some extra doodling, but anyway, it is what it is, lol! Oh, and the photo is of me and Mr B. We just marked 30 years 2 weeks ago. Yaayy us!!

Aaaaaand THIS one was done to meet a So You Think You Can Scrap challenge at Colorful Creations! We needed to make a LO using a time (clock-time, not era-time) as the title. The journaling says, "Sure it's pretty, but you have to be up before the birds to enjoy it!"

Thanks for stopping by my pretties!!

Gonna be BUSY!!

2011-10-21T20:09:00.001-07:00

And that's a good thing!!

Thankfully it's not the sort of busy that requires putting on pantihose and looking for files and briefcases before rushing out the door to work. Nor the kind that requires last minute cupcakes for a bake sale or needing to have multiple children at different soccer pitches across town from each other at the same time. So been there and done it! Nope, this is MY kind of busy! Its about getting accepted to THREE new design teams!!! After sending out apps hoping to get on ONE!

So without further ado...!

All About Me is challenge blog that helps us put some of the focus on the person who's generally behind the camera and doesn't often get much play in the photo albums. You all know I find that kind of scrapping hard, so when I found this challenge blog and saw the kinds of challenges Melissa does, it made it so easy to do! I'm really looking forward to stretching myself for this DT and thankful for the inspiration this blog will give me to do it!! Come on over and get inspired yourself!

Next up is Polkadoodles! Cute name or what, eh? This is a FUN challenge blog for card makers and stampers!! Everyone knows I'm a die hard stamper, right? I mean, there's that whole closet full of stamps... MUST mean I do a lot of it! And all those Copic markers??? Well, er...I am now!! I'm joining a pretty big team of fantastically talented stampers and I am going to have me some FUN! And alleviate some of the guilt from not stamping more while I'm at it. Come over and check us out!

And last but most definitely NOT least is a challenge blog that's close to my heart! Scrap Your Crap. I have enough of that to open a store. I just filled 2 huge boxes with paper and foam stamps and stickers and alphabets and more stuff that will be going to the local Community Center for their women's and children's programs, and that feels good but my WORD there's still too much in here!! So this DT is going to help me move some of it on OUT! I can't wait to get started!! I bet you could use a challenge to use some of your stash too, so come over and get inspired!!

A blog hop! (Week 1)

2011-10-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

My Little Shoebox and Unity Stamp Co. have co-branded and were having a little blog hop to share the fun! There are going to be some great prizes to be won so head on over here to begin!

And just because you were nice enough to stop by, here's something for you to look at! Mr B and I took a little mini getaway up to Sedona this week! He was feeling the need to fly somewhere and I was feeling the need to read a book uninterrupted. So we went and soaked in the scenery, did some recreational activities to balance out the calorie intake, read some books, added a couple rows onto my crocheted scarf (I did, he didn't) and relaxed.

And as if all that wasn't enough, we got to watch this spectacle from the airport restaurant the morning we left. To say Mr B was excited...well he was like a seagull with a french fry.

So, today we have....

2011-10-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Lots of catching up to do!! I've been home for 2 weeks today and it's been a whirlwind back-to-reality adjustment after the long lazy summer I'd been enjoying!

First thing is some good news!! I made the Design Team for the Southern Girls Challenge blog!!! Which gives me such a kick, cuz I'm also kinda a Southern Gal now, living in AZ! Not something this displaced Canadian ever thought she'd say! So check them out, they're a fun dynamic blog with awesome challenges and a brand shiny new DT!

And now for the catch up! I have not yet posted any of my My Little Shoebox CHA projects, so that's what I'm going to show you today!

First, some cards; the first two done with the Destination line. Can I say once again how much I LOVE the sheet of roll-up die-cut flowers that comes with each line?? SO awesome to be able to just punch them out and roll them up and have them coordinate so perfectly!!

And these next two done with the Enchanted Garden line which is just SO pretty and versatile you'll immediately fall in color and floral love!!

And then you will book a trip to Hawaii.

And speaking of Hawaii, I used this line to make a mini album of Mr B's and my first trip there. I still have to do the journaling but you get the idea right...?

And now for some Destinations line layouts. This cute travel line will easily cross over to work really well with boy/play projects and pictures. I love all the little boats, planes and mopeds, not to mention the signage! Totally fun and cute!!

Remember the laminated travel game book I posted back here? Destinations line. See how many fun things you can make with this??

And finally, a couple more layouts with the Enchanted Garden line.

High-five yourself if you made it all the way to the bottom of this photo heavy post!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Audrey

2011-10-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

is the name of the My Little Shoebox line I got to play with this month! Check out my projects posted on the My Little Shoebox blog!

This little mini album is done with a Melissa Frances paper album. I covered the chipboard covers with MLS paper and then used the other shaped papers as a pattern for the pretty Audrey papers. Racquel is my sweet, cutiful niece and I hope she likes this little album that I made for her!

The Audrey line also has a sheet of journaling squares which, when you cut them out and "zutter" one edge, make PERFECT little mini page add-ins to the album!

And a couple of cards too!

Audrey has some lovely LOVELY papers and card stock stickers that make projects come together with only the effort it takes to adhere this to that, and as well a matching stamp set from Unity Stamps, which I'll be back to show you in a week or so!

October challenge....

2011-10-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Crop Suey's challenge this month is to do a layout about you! It's not so easy sometimes. I quite often avoid it. And I really didn't know where to start with this one. So you can understand why I like that the background paper is so busy it takes some of the focus off me!!

Anyway, if you need a push to get your scrap on, head on over there and get some fab inspiration and when you're done, link up your layout for a chance to win some scrapalicious goodies!!

Happiness is...

2011-09-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

Another layout scrapped!

Happiness is also a WHOLE ENTIRE COMPLETE summer alone with Mr B at our cottage in Canada! We had a few visitors, but mostly we enjoyed each other's company exclusively. And it was a stellar summer!! Hot, (doors and windows open night and day) NO mosquitoes and very little rain!! I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than this!

This photo on this layout is not from this summer but it perfectly sums up how I feel about this summer. Happy. Content. Satisfied. Together.

I did this layout for a few different challenges. For a challenge to use "Happiness is" at the Love is in the Details summer online crop, and for the Paper Secrets Rahel Menig scraplift challenge, as well as the Bird is the Word challenge to use the word "Share" and finally for ScrapFit's weekend warm-up #14 challenge to use buttons!

Thanks for stopping by! We're packing up the cottage this week, but not just for the winter. For TEAR DOWN! Finally! Hoping to be rebuilding this winter and back here next summer to enjoy running water and mouse-free living after 10 years! And of course cruises on the lake on the paddle boat.

Guest designer!

2011-09-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

I'm honored and excited to have been asked to be a guest designer this week at Colorful Creations!

This challenge blog is one of the most active and dynamic sites I've come across! You definitely want to go check them out and dive in and play along too!!

Here's the sketch I worked with

And the resulting LO. I used some of the new Audrey line from My Little Shoebox for this layout. It's so sweet and soft and wonderful to work with!!

What have I been doing out here at the cottage, all alone you ask?

2011-09-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

Well, let me show you!!

This one was done for a challenge at Love is in the Details - to use something from nature as a mask, and using a Monday Mixer sketch challenge at Colorful Creations. The photo was one from a hike through Muir Woods Redwood forest in Northern CA.

This LO captures a bit of both things I've been able to do lately! Scrap and read to my hearts content!! Need to reduce that stack if I think I can buy any more books with a clear conscience!! The masking was done using a Bella Blvd chipboard letter set, with all the alphas punched out, of course. I did this layout for one of the summer online crop challenges at LiitD - to use at least 2 or more techniques on a layout - in this case, the misting, inking, sewing and splatting.

And another challenge at Colorful Creations. This one to do 2 do-it-yourself embellishments. In this case, the tissue paper flower (7 Gypsies), and the canvas clouds(Claudine Hellmuth Ranger Inc sticky back canvas and My Mind's Eye paper).

Thanks for stopping by to check up on me; I know you've been worried! The bears have been poking around but so far we haven't had to have a showdown!

So, yeah...

2011-09-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

I've been making some cards. Cards are such nice little canvases to combine pretty things on, don'cha think? These are mostly for some challenges over at Love is in the Details. The added b0nus is a fresh stash of cards for various occasions!

This one is using one of my singed satin flowers I've been making like cray zee.

And a bicycle stamp card (SO many cute bicycle stamps out there right now.)

Here's a cute masculine birthday card.

I'm loving the stained wrinkled seam binding ribbon lately too!!

And finally this thinking of you card that meets the challenge of using a bird and a swirl stamp as well as (some more of that nice) ribbon and bling.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you've seen something to inspire some paper crafting of your own!

Some Moxie Fab!

2011-09-09T18:30:00.000-07:00

This was the Tuesday trigger at Moxie Fab this week and the colors just hung on to me all week! How could they not really, sitting out here, surrounded by blue water and sky and green forest?You'd think I'd be getting tired of it already, but I'm not!

And I used this card sketch from Card Patterns for some more inspo.

All this great inspo, and this card pretty much made itself!

The papers are Basic Grey and Studio Calico, the flowers, leaves and frame are Prima; I misted the blue 7Gypsies ribbon with Atmosphere Mr Huey; the alphas are Bella Blvd and I totally forget where I got the green trim from. Thanks for stopping by!

Challenge Day!!

2011-09-05T06:15:00.000-07:00

Head on over to Crop Suey to get your inspo for the September challenge! This month we're prompting you to use your numbers. Get all algebraic on us!

My layout is done using two photos of my boys, an attempt to duplicated a photo taken many years ago. 1996. In a campground on Prince Edward Island. And 2011. At our cottage in Ontario. Many things have changed but the jammy face is still the same!

Don't forget to link up your LO at Crop Suey, for a chance to win some fabulous shwag!!

Destinations....

2011-08-24T12:51:00.001-07:00

Is the name of one of the newest My Little Shoebox lines and I got to play with it before CHA! Here is one of the fun projects I made using the travel papers and stickers.

I die-cut the car shape with the Cricut Boys will be Boys cartridge and then printed various games and activities on the less busy sides of the paper before laminating each car. Oh yeah, and added wheels to the front and back covers, as well as the name on the front of the book.

For one of the pages, I laminated some of the transportation stickers and glued magnets to the back of them. Underneath these magneted stickers are the names of each one, for a fun matching game.

Well ok, fun if you're 3!

There's a dry erase marker velcroed onto the back cover

and some fun, ball chains and eyelets to loop the whole thing together!

We did frequent car trips when our kids were little and I would have LOVED making these for them then, knowing how much fun they would have provided!

Thanks for stopping by to check out this MLS project!

Oats, peas, beans and barley grow....

2011-08-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

I love a good farmer's market. Pretty sure it goes back to my years of being a vendor at them. Loading the truck the night before and setting up in the dark and cold, early Saturday morning. Like 4:00 early. At least that's what it felt like. A nice thermos of coffee, seeing favorite customers coming in as soon as the dawn broke, pretty soon the cacophony of sounds and smells had you fully awake and it's just a good place to be!

I didn't have vegies to sell, nor baked goods or bunches of flowers.... Well, wait, yes I did, just not fresh flowers. More like dried floral wreathes and primitive folk art. But anyway, that was a long time ago, and now, I just like to be a shopper with my re-usable-eco-friendly-'cause-I'm-all-current-like-that, shopping bags at the farmer's market. And photographer.

So I went to one recently.... picked out some yellow beans, some bright orange carrots with just the tiniest bit of dirt still on them, some beets, cucumbers, new potatoes, but no tomatoes.

Not that day.

Maybe next time.

I also got some garden peas. As opposed to grocery store or frozen peas. I know they're all garden vegies, but garden just has to be part of the peas' name.

Then I got one of the men-children who live with me, to shell them. Just so's he could incorporate "shell peas" into his personal vocabulary and life experience.

A little while later, after some in and out, a bit of banging at the back, he brings me this. Like a cat with a mouse in her mouth.

He says he always wanted to know what this looked like.

2 Peas in a Bucket. Which any scrapper worth their salt, knows is a wonderful scrap-site with an inspirational gallery and design team, shopping and message boards that can provide the answers to any scrap question you might ever have. Not to mention interesting unrelated chitchat.

But how would HE know???

Apparently I have mentioned this once or twice.

Also, apparently, some of what I say is actually heard!?

Who knew.

I think I shall keep this lad.

And now, before you go, you should head on over to the My Little Shoebox blog and check out the Trick or Treat blog hop! I didn't play this time round, but I'm pretty sure you'll see some CUTE stuff. Pretty sure!

August Challenge at Crop Suey

2011-08-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

Lol, so apparently even my brain is on vacation! The challenge was posted 3 days ago at Crop Suey and I'm remembering today(!) that I should also post it here! Oh well. No one died.

So the challenge was to use this vintage ad for inspiration.

Which I used to come up with this:

More photos of the "hot" car that was loaned to my daughter to drive while she was "between" cars. And, I used Studio Calico's June Paper Moon kit. So head on over there to see what the other girls have done with this challenge and get some inspo to do a LO of your own!

Thanks for checking in here to see what's new!

CHA - Warning. The longest blog post I've ever posted.

2011-08-02T12:27:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I know I'm a bit of a Suzy-come-lately to the party, and that you've already seen a ton of sneak peaks from before and during CHA, of all the fun new product that's coming down the line, but what kind of a scrappy blog would this be if I didn't show you a couple of the things I can't wait to get my hot little hands on!?

K, but first?

I have to show you this.

I had not heard about this little detail of CHA...30 minutes before the doors open and the trade show officially begins, there is a parade of bag pipers followed by the officionadas of CHA - the committee executives, and they go up and down all the aisles and it's all very grand for someone like me who's easily impressed!

So now, without further ado....and in no particular order.....I can't wait to own/have/use:

Pink Paislee wood grain alphas

and these Pink Paislee hexagon chipboard shapes!!

Right? How cute are they?? Look how they arranged them at the bottom of the framed product board! Along with all the other yumminess they're releasing!

American Crafts/Amy Tangerine canvas paper

(Her cute section of the AC booth)

Ok, well anything and EVERYthing by American Crafts is on my must have list! They really knocked it out of the park this season with more Thickers

Peppermint!? Yes please.

Mmhmm? Did I not say?

And also, American Crafts CHALK BOARD PAPER from their Nightfall line!! (sorry no photo).

October Afternoon wants to keep me very happy with their wide array of mini alpha colors!!

Tim Holtz has some competition in Wendy Vecchi! I love her style!

(Better than TH even....did I say that out loud?)

And Dyan Reaveley too. Check out her new stamps!

It was watching her demo her stamps that I found out that this Ranger Heat It Craft Tool MAKES NO NOISE!!! Ok, you probably knew that already but I don't get out much.

Can you guess where I saw this?

And while I don't consider Martha Stewart a true authentic in the scrapbook industry, I do love some of the stuff her People create and market. These cupcake papers for example. I WILL have those. And make cupcakes in the ones that are left over after I've finished making this CUTIFUL cupcake papers floral bouquet!!!

Crafter's Workshop masks and templates

This photo isn't the greatest, so you really do have to go here and check out their new releases individually! Some seriously cool designs that bring them to the forefront of the paper crafting industry. I think.

In the completely fun category is this honeycomb paper from Inky Antics! You can make some super cute pop-up shapes for cards in an array of colors!

But on the days when we don't feel so cutesy, there is SO sophisticated La Blanche! Wow. Know I will be trying this 3-d technique with a stamp, ink and some Utee.

And there's the Tattered Angels Mistables by Pink Paislee, (paper, chipboard alphas, ribbon, masks, muslin flowers, tags, fuzzy stickers) and Crate Paper's Farmhouse collection and ohmyhelpus, Maya Road goodness that doesn't quit and more clouds and wood veneers and 2 new paper lines and chipboard shapes from Studio Calico and Unity Stamp Co. who has teamed up with so many cool companies including My Little Shoebox and Spellbinders (yes!) and then there's Spellbinders' new spiral blossom dies and I could go on and on and on! And I have a bad hunger now too for a Silhouette of my own.

Happily I can report that clouds and woodgrain are not going away yet (thank goodness; I'm not even close to getting tired of them), and silhouettes and cameos are coming on strong.

As well, there is plenty to feed my washi tape obsession!!

Now for a couple fun pics from various booths around the show....

yes, all ribbon!

yup, buttons!

Oh HAY! I know her! (Me with our fearless leader and creator, Helen Chu!)

And there's my pretty friend Shemaine, teaching a make-n-take in the MLS booth.

One more of the whole bunch of us in the MLS booth.

These are the girls who made the whole CHA experience an over-the-top-fun-time!

And who also introduced me to this not-to-miss Chicago treat - deep dish pizza!!

Oh. My. Word.

You do not want to go there if you're not sTaR-HaR-vInG!!

And as a final note...?

So glad I didn't get rid of my foam stamps....I KNEW they'd make a comeback!!! Thank you Jenni Bowlin!!

Blog? What blog?

2011-07-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

So between creating for CHA and packing up to spend the rest of the summer in Canada, I kinda forgot I had a blog. Happens, right?

Well it all got done. Thankfully. Projects got made. States were driven through to reach the little orange cottage by the lake. Three days of lolling about on the dock (not actually but the details of opening the cottage for the summer are boring) before getting on a plane for CHicAgo. All done.

And I wish I could tell you all the impressions I've had and all the fun, exciting new things I've seen, and the cool, smart, stylin', talented people I've met!! And show you some pics...well, that will come, but in the meantime I can show you some peaks of the projects made with 2 of the new lines My Little Shoebox is revealing at CHA! I got to work with Destinations - all travel, all cute bright colors, and Enchanted Garden - too much gorgeous to believe!

A laminated travel activity book...with dry erase marker.

a layout from the Destinations line.

Some of the die-cut rolly flowers that come with each collection!

and some more....

And finally, a couple photos of the apron I made to wear at the MLS booth. It's made with Enchanted Garden paper transferred onto Ranger Sticky-back Canvas, and die-cut into butterflies and rolly flowers. Misting with Mr Huey and Maya Mist. I'll try and get a photo of myself wearing the apron so you can see it IRL!

I wish I could truly convey how exciting and fabulous this whole CHA experience has been! If you've ever been I don't need to...I know you get it! If you haven't, I hope someday you get to go! Thank you to Helen and My Little Shoebox for the opportunity!!!! Mwah!

Precious Moment

2011-07-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

Awhile back I posted some sneaks of this page, but I forgot until now, to show you the whole thing! It was for my MLS June assignment and while I wouldn't really call my style fussy, ever, I think I fell into the abyss of fussiness with this layout and I kinda love it!

Those rolled roses (using the Sizzex rolled flowers die) are SO dreamy and delish! Thanks for stopping by to check it out!

Stamped Paper Piecing

2011-07-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

My tutorial for July is up at the My Little Shoebox blog today! Check it out to learn how to turn this

into this!

July challenge

2011-07-05T20:38:00.001-07:00

is up at Crop Suey today. This month we got dirty! Go check out the design team's work here.

The layout I did for this challenge is using all Studio Calico's June kit. And to get down and dirty, I schmeared the paint using a credit card! It was either that or use it for some online shopping! This produced a better result I think.

And now a couple pics of our July 4th!

It started with red, white and blue waffles!

And then developed into red, white and blue (sort of) rice crispie treats. Seemed like a logical next step...

With little streamer sticks to hold them by

et voila!

and my favorite fireworks shot of the night! Love the kids sitting on the truck in front. So down home right?

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T04:19:00.000-07:00

I hope you're having a lovely holiday 4th!! Play safe and don't forget to take some photos!

Happy Birthday Canada!!!

2011-07-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hope all my Canadian family and friends are having a wonderful day playing, resting, eating, socializing, and waiting for fireworks!!

Thanks for stopping by today...leave me a comment, I'd love to know what you have planned for the holiday!

A perfect day....

2011-06-26T00:29:00.000-07:00

Last fall our family was invited to the wedding of the daughter of some friends of ours. They are mother and daughter photographers and they hired my daughter to photograph the wedding, with myself as a 2nd shooter. So it was kinda nervewracking. If. You. Know. What. I Mean.

However Katie knows what she likes and excels at taking care of those little details. So many of them! You could watch the day unfold effortlessly without really appreciating the effort, planning and work behind them. But it made our job very easy! So often we caught our breath at the prettiness of something and there it was...another gorgeous photo op!

Here's a layout of some of the behind-the-scenes shots. The ones that never make it to the coffee table album but that have a story to tell, just the same! Mostly all My Little Shoebox product used.

And just for some photo fun...a few more of my faves from the day....

It's always good to have someone around for comic relief...

There she is! The real photog at work!

This here's my son and his girlfriend Amy. It was Amy's sister whose wedding we were all dressed up for!

The bride and her sister. Aren't they beautiful? Not hard to shoot good photos of these two!

The bride and groom!

More pretties...

2011-06-24T14:51:00.001-07:00

To see at the My Little Shoebox blog today!! Mandy, Rocio and I have some projects to show you!

I dug deep into my hot-glue-gunning, lace tea-dyeing crafty past to come up with the project that's being showcased today!

Have I shown you these?

2011-06-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

I think not, right?

The first is a card. For my mother.

Did she like it? I don't know, I haven't sent it yet. Lol.

The little birdie stick pin is made with a floral pin with the head cut off, and my trusty hot glue gun! The tutorial was posted a while back...

Every once in a while I make a stand-out favorite layout, and this one is currently it! The photo is of my daughter who lived in Perth Australia for a year back in 2004. All the product came from the April Studio Calico - Singing in the Rain kit. And the honkin' big yellow flower came to me in a flower swap from a gal at Sisterhood of Scrap!

Does it seem like there've been abundance of layouts featuring my daughter recently? Sometimes that's just how it has to be.

*shrug*

This one uses pictures from the archives! 1986! She doesn't look much like this anymore.

The edges of this one are wrapped with the Washi tape. Can. Not. Get. Enough. of that stuff!

More housekeeping....

2011-06-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

Tidying, tidying...

You've seen bits and pieces of these along the way , but here they are, all in one place and in their full images. These are the assignments I did for My Little Shoebox for May. I used the Oasis line - SUCH a cute one! It comes with a set of stamps that are super cute too!

I made this card "using up" a sheet of letter stickers. I could have used a whole bunch more stickers, but you have to know, My Little Shoebox is very generous with their design team. So I have lots. Don't worry.

This one was misted with My Huey (Bonnie Blue) and I fussy-cut a few more flowers from the patterned paper to add to the cherry blossom sticker.

Remember Princess Diana? (Who doesn't??) I loved the style she heralded in and so we have many photos of myself and my daughter puff sleeved, beribboned and bowed!! Love those MLS die-cut papers! (The brown background is actually the cushion behind....not part of the layout. Hard to capture though right?)

More photos from the archives. My daughter before she was even in school, but after she'd learned how to make mischief! I think this was her effort to fly a kite indoors.

And lastly, a back-to-school layout! The alphabets are MLS papers adhered to Basic Grey chipboard alphas.

And how clever was I to position the children exactly so that the shadows wouldn't fall across their faces, she says as if she knew anything about photography and this wasn't just a happy accident....(if I had an eye rolling icon, I'd insert it here.)

Stay tuned for upcoming MLS sneak peeks as we get closer to CHA!

Oh boy...!

2011-06-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything that didn't directly have to do with scrapbooking, so I thought I'd just provide you with a bit of a cautionary tale.

When you get up early of a morning and before coming fully awake, decide to do your kids a favor and make them a batch of granola bars for their long drive to California that afternoon, it's probably best to look closely at the buttons you are pressing on the microwave.

Or at least put on your glasses.

If you wear them.

Otherwise, this could happen.

After 20 years of making granola bars in this same bowl I was devastated.

Utterly destroyed.

Because I was sure the likelihood of Tupperware still making the That'sa Bowl were slim to none.

But! I was wrong and all the wrongs of the universe have righted themselves.

Well.

My universe anyway.

Yes, I am just that shallow.

Heartfelt

2011-06-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

I have something to show you today! Check it out at the My Little Shoebox blog!

And while I have you here, I'll just mention that CHA is coming up soon and MLS has 6, count 'em, SIX new lines to reveal! We'll have some sneaks for you next week!

And ON the subject of CHA....The Craft and Hobby Association summer trade show....

I will be able to check one more thing off my bucket list this summer, because I GET TO GO TO CHA!! A long held dream of mine!! I'm just a bit excited...!