Saturday 29 November 2014

11th and final layout with the Scraptastic August Boys of Summer Kit :) :)

Good morning and happy Saturday to you all!  I hope you are having a great day so far!!  I have a fair amount on my plate today - making bread (well OK, the machine makes it but still ... LOL), making chili,  getting some December Documented stuff done, planning out the layouts than I will make to give as Christmas gifts (more about that in another post); and tonight is my work Christmas party!

So I thought I would quickly pop in and post my last layout with the Boys of Summer kit. Remember when I posted the first layout and I was a little afraid that I would have trouble with this kit since it was so "little boy" specific?... Well, I guess I got over that LOL.  I am so happy that I really got a lot out of this kit and was able to adapt many of the die-cuts.

Without further ado: 


See what I mean about adapting the die-cuts!!!  If you are thinking "that die-cut has nothing whatsoever to do with that page" ... you are right LOL.  But I decided to use it simply because the critter is making the same goofy face I am on the photo and his arms are spread out like mine!  Reason enough I say, plus the colours match!

The supplies:  I was really down to scraps for this layout.  The background cardstock is from my stash as I did not have a single piece of 12X12, cardstock or paper, left.  
  • The burlap stickers were left over from the Either Way kit, as were a couple of the other stickers
  • I am not sure if the hello wood veneer was from this kit or a left over from another, but the spread you wings was from my stash
  • The little gold circular pieces were left over from those totally yummy gold thickers we got with the Either Way kit
  • I used Glimmer Mist on the corners
The story:  There is no real story to this one. It is an everyday photo from my year-long backpacking trip to Europe.  I spent two weeks in Sevilla, Spain in November of 2005 and loved every minute of it.  I have shared quite a few pages from this portion of the trip already.  On this photo, I simply wanted to show the size of the tree.  If you know me a little, you know I am a nature lover and yes I admit, somewhat of a tree-hugger ;).  This tree was not in a park or anything;  just there along a wide-alley walkway, in the center of town.  The only other place I have seen trees this size was in the California Redwoods area!!!

So there you have it, just a quick visit from me today... For once, I am sparing you from my usual ramblings LOL, but never fear, it is a short respite.  I will be back, ramblings and all shortly; maybe even tomorrow if I can get my DD act together.  

Thanks for stopping by as always and have a wonderful scrap-filled day.  Hugs xo


Sunday 23 November 2014

December documented - a page, an embelli, a tag and a few ramblings ;)

Happy Sunday to you all !!! Well, we seem to be out of the deep freeze for a few days but it is very cloudy and we are to get rain for two solid days Monday and Tuesday.  But having a choice between snow and rain, I will take the rain for now.  I love snow but starting around mid-December LOL... Yes, I know I live in southern Quebec and it snows in November but a girl can hope and dream, no?

On to the subject at hand before I bore you to tears ...

First up, I made my first page.  I apologise for the lighting.  I finished this page last night and took the photo straight away because I wanted to get this page into the album :



It says November 7 & 8 doesn't it?  ... That's not December?  You are right.  Because of my work schedule, I do a lot in November to get ready for Christmas.  I take the first week of December off to bake, decorate, send all my Christmas cards, do all the present shopping and even wrap the presents.  When the 15th or so rolls around, I work ... work and work pretty much solidly until 4 pm on the 24th.  So all my personal stuff has to be done and ready - the freezer has to have food so I can eat LOL, and my nephew (who happens to be my boss) has to have enough wine to keep me happy !!  So I start my season in November and therefore my December Documented will need a Prologue ;) :) ... Watch for that "cover" page soon.

Every year, on the first or second weekend of November, my local scrappy friends and I get together  for a Christmas crop.  It kicks the season off for me.  I love Christmas so an extra-long Christmas season is fine by me.

My second little project for today is a wood veneer snowflake.  The packaging called them wood veneer doilies (silly of them to make such a mistake isn't it?) :


I started by painting the bare wood veneer with some semi-gloss blank canvas acrylic paint by Claudine Hellmuth.  It gave it just a touch of sheen.  I then hapharzardly applied some gold ink (I used Brilliance) and then several layers of clear and glitterly embossing powder.  I think I did four layers.  This embellishment was originally intended for the cover of my album; it didn't make it but will definitely be in the album.

And last up for me today is my tag in response to the challenge over on our Facebook DD Inspiration Group, as well as on Sue's You Tube channel (shiles728).  The challenge is closed now. I am so amazed with the wonderful tags everyone created and posted.  Here is my little contribution :


 It is quite a simple tag :  I used a scrap of red cardstock to create the tag which is about 3 X 5 so I can fit it nicely into a 4 X 6 pocket.  I stamped and clear heat embossed the snow flakes on the background.  I then die-cut some smaller snowflakes out of white glitter paper (I used a Spellbinders die) and glued them to the tag.  I put small red star shaped gems in the center of each of those snowflakes and added the letters NOEL in silver alphas.  The hole reinforcer is also out of white glitter paper.  Lastly I added red and white twine, along with 1/8 inch silver ribbon.

Well there you have - as the title says - a page, an embelli, a tag and a lot of ramling LOL.

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking time out of your day for me.  I truly appreciate it.  I love reading all your comments.  

I will be back soon with a layout - my 11th and final layout with the August Scraptastic Boys of summer kit.  Until then, stay warm (or cool if you are down south, or in the southern hemisphere) and be well.  Hugs xo

Thursday 20 November 2014

December Documented cover, supplies and a few ramblings :)

Good morning all !  I hope you are having a lovely morning so far (or whatever time of day it is where you are :) :).  As I mentioned on Sunday, we had the first snow fall... it was pretty ... it turned ugly LOL.  This week has been brutal.  We have had high winds, actually warnings on Monday and Tuesday (gusts hitting 90 km), below freezing temperatures (and with that wind, the feel was even worse).  The snow turned to ice and therefore my "walking like a penguin" season has started.  Not a happy camper!  It is a little too early. Thankfully, they are announcing a return to normalcy next week so that we should get a little reprieve before the "real" winter starts.

So, let's talk December Documented... that is what I will be calling my project this year.  Many of you are more familiar with, or are doing, a December Daily but I don't think I will be able to record something every single day since there are days that all I will be doing is work (it is the very busy season for us), or where there is nothing special going on ...

I want to focus on traditions, memories, activities (baking, Christmas shopping, decorations ....) so some days there may be "nothing to report" whereas others there may be 2 or 3 pages worth.  There will be fun little tidbits - our local garden center has a beautiful Christmas boutique and outside they have an "Elf crossing" which I think is just too cute so that will be in the album.  My mom is 86 years old and still going pretty strong but I don't know how many more Christmasses we will be lucky enough to have her so that will be in the book.  Muffins and martinis will be in the book, pretty snow, and grumlings about snow will be in the book, prayers and thanks will be in the book, the fur-kids will be in the book, presents will be in the book, movies too.... You get the picture.

I will blog about the whole experience on a regular basis, since it is my first December Documented.  Please share if you are doing a December Daily, December documented, 25 Memories or whatever else you may be doing at this time of the year !!

It does not have to be an expensive project - so far I have not bought one single thing.  I had a 6 X 8 Bo Bunny Misc Me album in my stash together with enough page protectors (I think anyway LOL).  I had two perfect-for-the-occasion 6 X 6 paper pads from 2012 :


and then I shopped my stash for alphas, buttons, washi, enamel dots, stickles, punches, ribbons and twine ....




 And I decorated the album cover ... just to get things rolling.  It is a fairly simple decoration but I like the outcome.  It is not at all what I had in mind when I was thinking about the front cover but my heart and hands just made this LOL .... and I love it: 


So there you have .... LET DECEMBER DOCUMENTED BEGIN!  YAY.

Now for a few news items :  There is a DD inspiration group that is the brainchild of my friend Susan Hiles.  And there is so much going on ... challenges, inspiration, motivation etc...  There are two ways to finds us.  The main focus will be You Tube - so go on over and subscribe to Sue's channel if you haven't already (she is shiles728 on You Tube).  She already has a few videos up and each one has links to other group members, so it is like a treasure hunt LOL.  Sue also has a challenge going, until Nov. 29th for your DD cover.  Secondly, we have formed a Facebook group called December Daily Inspiration Group - Anything goes.  Come on over and join in the fun!!

So that about does it for me today LOL... True to my title, including the ramblings :)
Thanks for stopping by and spending some of your precious time with me today.  I will be back soon with more.

Sunday 16 November 2014

First ever mixed media scrapbook layout (well sort of LOL) ... 12 X 12

Good morning friends!  Hope you are well and having a lovely Sunday so far (or had a lovely Sunday should it already be over where you are).  I woke up to the first snow fall of the year this morning.  It is still snowing and so far it is staying.  I have mixed feelings about that:  it is pretty and I don't have to shovel, nor do I drive but I walk; I walk a lot and that can be quite treacherous at times during the winter...but still, it is pretty as you will see in my photo below from last year.

So on to the layout ... I took a break from my Scraptastic kit (although the background cardstock is from the August Boys of summer kit) to play with some of my December Documented stash.  This layout is in response to a weekly challenge by my friends Roni and Megan (Ronisuescrapper and Crafty Meggy on You Tube; more about my friends below).  Their challenge this week was mixed media.  I have never ever done a mixed media layout so it was a challenge indeed.  So much so that my first attempt at a background was a total, monumental and epic fail LOL.  Not even my cat would play with the wrinkled up paper (that says a lot because Chopin is not at all fussy when it comes to playing with paper - anything that flies off the trimmer will do)!!  Oh well, so back to the drawing board I went.  And this time, I am really chuffed with the results - I love it and I had so much fun doing this page.  Now, before you get all excited, it is not mixed media like many of you do but it is a start - baby steps.


I apologise for the quality of the photo - another part of the snow that I don't like - bad lighting for photo taking LOL.  

What I did:  I started simply by covering the entire surface of a 12 X 12 Whisper White cardstock from Stampin' Up with Gesso.  I don't really have a lot of mixed media supplies - well none really - no Gelatos, no watercolours...but I did find some really old stuff in my stash, along with some more current mists and played away :

  • I used Nicole's and Irit's technique of mist on some packaging and then applied it to the page.  I used two colours of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist -  Patina and Italian Sunset, and then added a bit of Mister Huey's custard.  The custard mist looked nice on my try-out sheet when I sprayed it, but I found the packaging technique made it much too bright and bold so in the end I covered most of it up
  • I found "Archival Opaline pigment ink" in Glacial blue in my stash (must be at least 10 years old.  It is a Tsunkineko product.  I used a SSS stencil called Stars and Dots with the ink and painted in three spots - it is not really visible on the picture, sorry.
  • I misted the doily with the Glimmer Mists
  • I colourd the wood veneer doily (we will just call it a snowflake, OK?) with the Patina Glimmer Mist, painted over that with the Glacial Blue paint/ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.
  • The rest is pretty straight forward layering and embellishing.  The paper comes from Basic Grey; it is a 6X6 paper pad from 2012, called Aspen Frost.  You will see it a lot in my December Documented album.
The photo:  Every year in late December or early January we get one, or a couple of, ice storms.  This particular morning, I was headed to work very early  - the sun was just rising as you can see in the top RH corner of the photo.  It gave everything the "glacial blue" tone.  It was lovely, but oh so treacherous ... I had to walk like a penguin.  Luckily, we did not lose power but I did slip and slide around for a couple of days LOL

Well, there you have.  Let me know what you think of my first foray into mixed media.  I had such fun. I can certainly see how it can become addictive and of course now I need Gelatos, watercolours, modeling paste, and.... and...LOL

Roni and Megan were joined by Jennifer Cambridge (also her You Tube name I think) for the challenge and they each made such lovely layouts.  If you don't know  them yet, head on over to their channels to watch and subscribe.  Roni and Megan also just started a facebook group (Crafty Meggy and Roni) so there is another lovely place to share.  Next week's challenge is to use a monochromatic colour scheme.  Everyone is welcome to join in - the more, the scrappier :) :)

As always, thanks so much for stopping by. I will be back soon dear friends - until then, be well.  Hugs xo


Thursday 13 November 2014

12 X 12 layout - Sweet dreams filled with tickles ..., using the August Boys of Summer Kit from Scraptastic

Hello, welcome and happy Thursday to all !!  The sun is shining, the wind is blowing and the temperatures are down into the single digits... oh well, on the upside it means Xmas is approaching.  I love Christmas, don't you?  I am busier than a beaver but I do try to have fun throughout.  I will be back either tomorrow or on the weekend with the first post for my December Documented project.  In the meantime, I  today I want to share the ninth layout made using the Scraptastic August Boys of Summer kit. 

Oliver has reclaimed his bed ...


My last layout and post got him lots of great comments from y'all, a few laughs and he got lots of commiseration LOL.  So I thought I would let you know that all is right with the world - Oliver has regained the rights to his bed!  He just loves it too :).

The supplies :  I only have one full sheet of 12 X 12 paper left from this kit but did have quite a few great strips and scraps left, so made good use of them on this layout.  The background is from my stash and is a Stampin' Up (SU) cardstock called Smoky Slate.
  • All of the paper is from the kit except for the golden yellow woodplank layer behind the photo which comes from the Simple Stories 6X6 Good Day Sunshine paper pad.
  • the background stamping was with the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set from SU and I used Weathered Wood distress ink.
  • All of the alphas are from my stash:  the chipboard letters are from and older collection (Mint Julep by Basic Grey), the October Afternoon Sticky Keys are Peacock Blue and the tile letters are from the October Afternoon Daily Flash in Deep Sea.
  • The stickers and die-cuts are from all from the kit
  • The heart chipboard pieces are from the Studio Calico Essentials Collection
  • And finally, I used up a couple of packages of gems and brads for the October challenge over on the nicolejones911 FB group.
So there you have it - no real story here, just Oliver getting his bed back.  Oh and  maybe just to let you know that Cali is still comfortable though as she has claimed my best BIL's lap LOL.

I will be back on the weekend.  Be well my friends :)