Wednesday, December 22, 2010

What's on your wish list?

Happy Holidays friends!!! We are counting down the hours (yes we are down to hours in our house) until the man in red slides down the chimney.

This is our second year away from family which makes me a little sad but we have so many fabulous friends to celebrate the holiday season with. We have friends coming over Christmas eve for a big vegetarian Christmas dinner and then a quiet day on Christmas day. We then have all sorts of company popping by throughout the week and then we are hosting our first New Years eve party. This will be a kid friendly party. I'm so excited. I just have to say having such good friends around makes being away from family so much easier.
So I was over at the Studio Calico blog and they have a little contest to post your Studio Calico wish list. For me this was so easy since I LOVE SC!!!! So here is my wish list, brace yourself it's a big one ; )
A year subscription to SC kits
Labels Stamp set
Jet setter stamp set
Mister Huey's Dark Calico
Mister Huey's Warm Calico
Mister Huey's Classic Calico
Mister Huey's Cream
Mister Huey's White
Mister Huey's Lunch Tray
Mister Huey's Sunshine
Mister Huey's Schoolhouse
Mister Huey's Applejack
Mister Huey's Atmosphere
All of the JB paint daubers
SC Veneer Alpha
SC Veneer Frames
SC veneer Stars
The new Country Side Collection from SC

See not that bad : )

I know I will get the year subscription to the SC kits because my husband loves me soooo much. The other stuff I will just have to hope Santa can pick up 1 or 2 of the items.

I also wanted to mention one of my favourite blog challenges These are a few of my Favourite Things has their last challenge of the year. It is to pick your favourite layout!
I chose this one:
I love this one so much because it was inspired by one of my favourite designers Kaori Watanabe. You still have time to play along. Go here for details.

Well, I probably won't be bloging much over the holidays, so I wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and a joyful New Year!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Project 12 November


Believe it or not I was on the ball this month and actually had my layout done in the 1st week of December.
I can't believe that we are down to our last few months. Is it just me or did this year whiz by?
Here is the November sketch:
and my layout:
I used Basic Grey Jovial (love this line so much) as well as a piece of My Minds Eye (Giant red scallop piece) and a few odds and ends. After I downloaded the picture I discovered that I forgot to put my sparkly gems on the owls eyes : (
There you have it!!! November has come and gone and December is going fast.
You can still play along with Project 12 here.


Thursday, December 16, 2010

I love a challenge

Well the week is coming to an end and we are now in holiday mode. Sadie had her preschool Christmas party/concert and oh my it was sooooooo cute.

Onto scrapbooking business, Most know that I am head over heels for Studio Calico. They are seriously one of my favourite scrapbooking manufacturers. This week their weekly challenge was to do a layout using 2 supplies or less. So this is the layout I came up with.


I used Sassafras Mix and Mend (from my Studio Calico kit) as well as some Thickers which also came from one of my Studio Calico kits.
If this challenge is calling your name, you can hop on over to their blog for all of the details.

Monday, December 13, 2010

In other news...

Well friends, as I've heard many of you have been or are in the midst of being sick. I was a little optimistic that it would not find me but I have been beaten down with the flu. So not much to post lately so I will post what my daughter and I created last week for Christmas gifts.

That's right, little miss Sadie and I bought a bunch of glass balls at Michaels and using this fantastic video from Ranger we created wonderful Christmas gifts for friends and family.
Sadie was a natural!

Look at that concentration!

So this is what they looked like once we inked them. I opted out of using the perfect pearls since I had limited time. Lets face it, a 3 year old can only concentrate for so long and we had 12 balls to do : )

and the finished product. I inked "Believe" with one of Tim Holtz Christmas stamps with some Stayz On. We finished them off with a Christmas tag and some twine ( I forgot to take pictures of that).
Sadie was thrilled when they were done and we had a blast crafting together.
Hope everyone is doing well and for all of those sharing in the sickness with me... get better soon.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

XOXO

It's that time again. The new layouts are posted over at XOXO. This month I used Studio Calico Mister Hueys in their gorgeous creme. I love it sooooooo much. I also used the new Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 which I love, love, love.

As always, we want you to scraplift our creations. So head on over to XOXO to see all of the fabulous work the Design team did and pick one or all of them to scraplift. Super easy and super fun! This months prize comes from Candy Shop Designs!!!!!!

Monday, December 6, 2010

A tutorial

Happy Monday everyone!!! I figured it was time to do a little tutorial for everyone. Back in the summer I had tons of fabulous comments on this layout:
I also got a lot of people asking how I did it. Since I never took pictures of the process I decided to make another layout using the same technique. I got the idea for this technique from Dina Wakely and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. These two ladies inspire me so much and I encourage you to check out their blogs because they offer fabulous online classes that are sooooo worth taking. They do a similar technique using Gesso but I thought it would be fun to try something a little different using Gel Medium. So here is my first ever online tutorial!!!!

1. Start by painting or spritzing your background paper in the desired areas.
I used Tattered Angels Glimmer mist.

2. Let paint dry

3. Using your Gel Medium spread out a thin, smooth, even coat over the areas that you will be stamping.

4. Using stamp of your choice stamp an nice even pressure in desired area. *Make sure to not move stamp around. Due to the medium stamp can slide easily)*


5. Gently remove stamp.You can continuously stamp over areas as long as stamp doesn't have too much material in it. The cleaner the stamp the cleaner the image will be.
* If you are not happy with image simply smooth over and re stamp an image.


6. Let Gel Medium dry. It takes at least 12 hours to fully dry but I recommend leaving it for at least 24 hours. I live on the west coast so drying time takes FOREVER!!!! Some of the dryer areas of the world don't take this long.


7. Once dry you can start adding more colour. Choose mist colour of your choice and spritz over desired area. Gently rub over area with paper towel. Repeat process until happy with result.

For the clouds I used a lighter shade of blue first and a darker blue second. I did the same for the grass. When you choose your paint colours always start with the lighter shade.

*Gel Medium once dry acts as a resist. What ever colour is under the gel medium will remain that colour*
And here is mu finished page.

I hope you enjoyed this fun little tutorial.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Voting time

Come on over to XOXO to help us pick a winner from November. Fabulous layouts by everyone.
Go HERE to vote.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The best gift of all

I opened my email this morning to the most fabulous email ever.

My fabulous friend Catherine adopted that beautiful bird in my name! Can you believe it? I have never been so touched in my life : ) Catherine and I are both vegetarian so it means a lot to me that she did this wonderful gesture. For those that are not vegetarian it's okay : ) Being a vegetarian is not for everyone. I hope you still enjoy your wonderful Thanksgiving dinners.

I also wanted to share a layout I did playing along with the fabulous Design Dollies!!!!! I was fortunate to be a guest DT in October and loved every minute of it. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to play along with them since due to many visitors in the MacDonald household. Now that we are free of visitors I can get back on track and get my scrapping done!!!
So this week elements challenge was to do a clean and simple layout but to also use brads or beads in an obvious way. Here's what I did:

This is definitely clean and simple for me. The Dollies are so fun to play along. Go HERE to join the fun.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Featured

Happy Monday everyone! We are trying to stay warm inside today. Vancouver Island is receiving record snowfall and I was loving it but now I want it to return back to normal : (
Yesterday was my last class from my 6 week Techniques class at Scrapbook Parade. I had such a great time with al of the ladies in my class. One of the ladies even brought in cookies : )
I will be taking a few months off so that I don't have to risk driving the icy roads. Yesterday was a close call. I didn't think I would make it over the Mallahat but I made it in just fine. So now I will be working on designing more classes for the spring!!!
I wanted to share a little news. I was featured in 2 different places today. First off is over on the Club CK blog. They featured this layout:
I was also featured on the Ella blog today for the second time now. Liz picked this layout to feature on her Liz's Loves:


I am so honoured to be featured on two great sites. Thank you Erin and Liz. Please check out both places to see some other fabulous work from amazing and talented people.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Project 12 October and other stuff


Project 12 is due again. I can't believe how fast October went. October is my favourite month of the year. I love all of the fall colours and there is always lots of great activities to do all month long.
Here is the sketch:

and here is my layout:
You can still play along so head on over to Scrapbook and Cards Today to find all of the details.

I also attempted to make some cards for Theses are a few of my Favourite Things. The team is doing an amazing challenge this month to help out a couple of fellow scrappers. Go here to see the details. All I can say is they inspired me to do more things for others.
I would really encourage you to play along because this is just such a heartfelt challenge.

Lastly is the ongoing voting for my layout. You can vote daily, here is the link:

I still need lots of support : )

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Scrapbook Stash

One of my favourite online Scrapbook stores is Scrapbook Stash. They carry fabulous products (all of my favourite manufacturers and they are having a contest all about Echo Park!!!! So I did a double page layout which I haven't done much of lately with their gorgeous Christmas line "Everybody loves Christmas". This line is soooo stinkin' cute.
Here's my layout:
Everything on here is Echo Park except the white trim I added and the white cardstock. I also journaled around the edge of the green paper ( a little hard to see in the photo but I guarantee it looks awesome in person) : )
You can join in on the fun HERE.
I also wanted to post a little project I threw together last night. Artist trays are HUGE right now and I have been dying to get hands on one and my fabulous boss Carol got one for me (she's the best)!!! I used Crate Papers Restoration


Last note is I still need lots of votes for this layout:

You can vote daily, here is the link:

Hope everyone is having a great week!!!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Crafty kind of day

Today we had a rainy morning, so what better way to spend our time than crafting!!!! We are
in the process of decorating the girls rooms. I bought some wooden letters last week and thought if was the perfect time to paint them.

We are right in the middle of them here. Wet paint everywhere. Lola's are dark blue with pink (matches her room) and Sadie's is chartreuse green and light purple. I did them both with polka dots. I will post once they are all done.
On a side note... I still need votes for my layout that is in the running at Scrapbooks Etc.
You can vote daily, here is the link:

I also got a chance to stop in at one of my fabulous LSS the Scrapbook Parade. Carole just got in a boat load of new product (Cosmo Cricket and Dear Lizzy!!!). I was like a kid in a candy shop right Jacqueline????

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What a surprise!

I just got word that I am in the running for the holiday scrapbook page, but I need YOUR votes. Can you help me out? Go to this link http://photos.scrapbooksetc.com/category/vote/photo/588492

and vote for me. This is the layout I'm talking about!!!!!
*You can vote everyday. If you are able to that would be even more fantastic!!!*


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Some ideas

Hi everyone, happy Wednesday!!!! Well I thought I should post some layouts of things I've been working on. These 2 layouts are ideas for my spring classes at Scrapbook Parade in Langford (Victoria) BC. These are NOT the actual layouts but ideas for techniques for the classes.


For the above layout I used Tim Holtz masks and Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam and Glimmer Mists. Love these products!!!
For the following layout I stamped and flocked an image (Heidi Swapp and Trisha Ladouceur gave me the inspiration) and then Glimmer misted and used some glaze as well.


Let me know what you think. Also if you live on Vancouver Island please come and take a class from me. You can see all of the classes at Scrapbook Parade HERE and in the new year I will also be teaching at Treasured Memories in Duncan BC. Both stores will have completely different classes from me.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Not my day : (

Well it is a sad day in my home today. While working on some projects I went to use my 2 inch Marvy punch on something I shouldn't have ( don't ask) and I broke it. The worst part is I knew better but I thought I would try it anyways. I can't believe I even attempted something so dumb. Well I tried to see if I could fix it but I broke a plastic piece inside. Completely unrepairable.
on a good note, here is a little peak at something I was working on today. Yes this is the project that broke my punch. This is a picture of the absolute beginnings it really doesn't look anything like this now : )


So now I have to save my pennies to buy a new one. I guess this means a LOT more teaching. Oh well, at least I love it : )

Monday, November 8, 2010

November challenge

It's that time again. XOXO's November challenge is up and we have a fabulous sponsor (one of my favourite online scrappy stores).
So here's the deal. Go over to XOXO and pick a fabulous creation from one of us lipstick chicks. Scraplift one of our creations, post it and then you have a fabulous chance to win the November kit from...
That's right!!! How fabulous right? So here is my creation:


Please come join the fun and head over to XOXO to play along.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

where have I been?

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but I have been working on some crazy stuff lately!!! I was asked to teach at an event Spring 2011. I wasn't sure if I was going to do it but I decided to go ahead with it. I have been working a lot to decided what I will do for the classes and today I am happy to say the classes are decided!!! I'll give you a hint. One of them includes a black tote that will be altered with some Perfect Pearls mist : ) I think it will be pretty fun.
Can't wait to share more details!!!!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

We need your votes!

It's voting time over at XOXO. We lipstick chicks need you to come on over and help us pick the favourite. Go HERE to pick yours!

Friday, October 29, 2010

extra! extra!

I just discovered that 7 Gypsies just released some super fab new Christmas products products! Eeek!!!!!
I think this is my favourite:
It's their gypsy studio paper tape!!!! I love it! You can see their other new stuff HERE!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Have you heard?

About the fab little Etsy store Lil' Red Rocket? They have such adorable home made little embellishments. I love seeing al of their great pieces. Well They are celebrating their 1st birthday! Here is the sketch to use:
and this is what I came up with.

I used Bazzill paper (I can't remember what they call it, embossed???) Anyways, this paper resists mists!!!!!!! I love it!
Happy Birthday Lil' Red Rocket!!!!
You can join in on the celebrations too. Go HERE for the info : )

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Some layouts to share

I thought I should post a few layouts I have done recently. This first one is using the new Pink Paislee House of Three. I love my mists and it is just so fun to use on this paper. I highly recommend buying all of this paper!!!


This next 2 are using Studio Calico products. Love, love, love SC!!!!!
This is my sweet Sadie all bundled up : )


This last layout is using Studio Calico's October kit. I love this layout.


Getting ready for the Halloween festivities this weekend!!!