Christmas Craftiness

You know the holidays are coming when
the house is covered in Prisma Glitter and quite a few other projects too.

Like this tray I bought at Dollarama - along with some red acrylic paint. A few scraps of paper and a stamp set later, I have a lovely tray for the season.
Of course I couldn't resist trying out the white StazOn ink on another of those Dollarama jars either.

Then there's this papercrafted pine cone. I found on here with some step by step instructions. I found 2.5 inch styrofoam balls at Dollarama - 8 in a package too!










How about another gate-fold card? I wondered if I used a couple of circles and the scallop edge of a corner rounder I might be able to make something that looks like a wreath. It's not too bad.

Here's the inside

I picked up a tip from the Stamp Goddess - mixing liquid glass & red re-inker - but then I also added in some pearly create a shade paint - just because it's like making mud pies and you have to play!
Here's another set of Christmas cards too.


I'm hoping to put together a couple of sessions for Christmas cards & paper crafting. If you'd like to join us, leave a comment!

Alfresco Cards

Just a quick card post tonight. I was inspired to use the stamp set Alfresco, with a gate fold card I'd seen on SplitCoast Stampers.

Despite having to use at least three stamped images for each card I loved the way it turned out and ended up making it with a few different colour combo's.

NABLOPOMO

I just wanted to let everyone who stops by know that this month, November, I am taking part in NaBloPoMo - but all of my posts are on my other blog KAGS Life. I will try to post anything creative here too - but for the most part I will be over there.

Christmas Cards #1

Tonight, was the last meeting this term, for one of my card clubs. Because I've been working away at Christmas cards, I gave them a little taster of what will be, the upcoming Christmas card workshops.

(And thanks to yesterdays musiquarium, the soundtrack in my scrappy room has been Take That! I've been singing away down there to all their CD's reminiscing - ok & a little bit of dancing!)


I've posted before pictures of the mess I make whilst I'm in the midst of working.
It gets cleaned up eventually.
Usually about 5 minutes before the group arrives.

I always pre-cut all the pieces for my groups. Then they can just have fun with the techniques, the stamping and adding the embellishments.
I just need to come up with two more cards to go with these and then we'll have round one of a Christmas card workshop.

Craftiness

Last night I had a new hostess group over for some craftiness. These guys will be putting together a scrapbook page and a card once a month. Last night I had a bit of a Halloween theme going on.

Reflections - Sampler, pieced

This layout is a favourite from the Reflections book - I guess with all those straight lines Cathy Zielske would be proud of me. I had them all getting in some heat embossing practice. The black works great with all the halloween stamps. My black embossing powder accidentally got some sparkly powder mixed in awhile ago, not that I'm complaining.

We also made this card, that I spotted on the artboard at CTMH. We made all the eyes from embossing an owl stamp and cutting around the eyes.

This one was last weeks class. I came up with this idea from an advertisement in the back of a scrapbooking magazine.
I knew Jenn & Tammi would love this - and I thought it would be a good display page. I'm planning to stick it to a 12x12 canvas.

Today was a little windy for taking pictures of scrapbook pages outside - and a couple of times this happened.

Now, what would I possibly want with reels of zebra-ish print ribbon?

Major Creating Going On Here!

Today was a bit of a catch up day for me - doing some jobs that have been on my to do list for a while - some for a very long while.

This stack of cards were made for school a request that was made - I can't say how long ago. When someone says "when you have time" there is no deadline. That doesn't work for me! The card design is from the Close To My Heart Originals card program
Next up these great underwear cards.

Now don't go thinking I'm the original designer of these - far from it. I got the idea from Stamp Owl where you'll also find the template that I used to make these.

I've have had lots of fun making a multi tude of bra & panties. They're great to send to your girl friends to say "thanks for the support" or maybe "you give me a lift"
But this is Breast Cancer awareness month too - wouldn't it be a great way to remind your girlfriends to pay a bit more attention to their boobs?

Great fun shading in the cleavage too - on both cards!!!!

Next, thanks to a little inspiration from Saucy and Jenn with their Dollarama finds and some unused StazOn in my stash I had the blinding flash of inspiration to create these jars.

So far I've delivered three today filled with yummy chocolate chip shortbread.

I think I'll be sending the Hallowe'en ones' to school for Daisy & Doodlebugs classrooms - filled with candy rather than the chocolate chip shortbread.

Now, I have to go and figure out my order for Shelley at Word To The Wall. I had a party here last week and thanks to everyone who came I have loads of writing for my walls to choose from.
I think I'm going to get this one. I thought I could put this one above my hall of fame in my scrap space and maybe I'll put this this one on the tile I get for hosting the party.

Design Your Life

Today sees the start of a new class at Big Picture Scrapbooking - Design Your Life with Cathy Zielske. I just managed to finish the pre class layout - just a few hours after the class started....not bad for me.
And yes that big lollipop says 40 sucks - but really, does it?

Hello Monday

Here I am back from a quick weekend trip to Edmonton with some girlfriends. It's amazing how much faster we the journey seems to go when there's no kids in the vehicle! It's also so much easier to spend ALOT of time in IKEA without the little darlings too.
I bought this huge canvas print called "Westminster Bridge" - it's a foggy, black & white featuring a London taxi cab and a routemaster bus in all it's red glory - fitting perfectly with our family room - and of course there is that connection with our old home too. I think the Doodlebug has a black cab and a red bus up in his room...I might borrow them for a shelf down here. Then all I'll need is an old telephone box!

Cathy Zielske has another gove away over on her blog today - so I'm off to leave a comment in the hopes of winning this one. I've signed up for Design Your Life - Cathy's three month long class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It starts this Thursday. I so want to get with the program and stick with this one. I've been waiting all year for Cathy's class.
Tomorrow see's the end of 30 Days hath September a class that Stacy Julian has been teaching as part of Have More Fun at BPS - and Jenn, I'm sorry, I totally bombed on this one. Hope you did better than me!
Ali Edwards is coaching us all along documenting "A Week in the Life". I think a week is much more managelble for someone with a little more attention than a goldfish (that would be me) so I might try that.

Celebrating Friendship

Miss Daisy's friends really enjoy coming over for a papercrafting party. This year they were all excited for more (do you know how excited a gaggle of girls at this age can be?).

Remember the invitations we made at the weekend. Each invited guest had to bring their invitations with them - so they could be used as part of the scrapbook page.
Martha Stewart's butterfly punch sure comes in handy concealing the girls identities. It's a 9x9 scrapbook page. Daisy's own album is just that size - so hers will fit in there perfectly.

They also decorated these pots. I've been collecting empty hot chocolate pots forever. I knew they would come in handy one day.
I think the girls were more exicted for the pots than the scrapbook page!

Yesterday, Cathy Zielske, was offering up tickets to CKC in St. Paul, MN. I know we're nowhere near there - but I figured it was worth a try. I added in my comments the story of my writing buddy & I, in the hope that would seal the deal.
Sadly, we didn't win - but I think CZ herself was over here last night checking out the blog, well someone from St Paul was - and she did that earlier this year when I one prizes on her blog. Remember? (You can see it here)

Invited?

It's Miss Nina's 11th birthday this week. The invitations went to school this morning.

Don't they look just a bit like cupcakes?
They're tiny too - just two & half inches high and three and a half wide. I used a pattern from the new Originals program.
I had the most trouble trying to tie those ribbon bows.
The cupcake stamp itself is on a much bigger stamp - so I just had to exclude the bits I didn't want.
The Fastenator staples were on sale on my last visit to the local scrapbook store - and the Nina insisted we use them for her birthday invites.

There was a shot of the inside of the invitation but you don't really need to know my telephone number and address.

Last year we had a scrappy party - and it was very successful - so of course it's back by popular demand (or maybe it should just read that it was demanded!!)
I'll let you know what we get up to!

Hang It Up!

In the new issue of Simple there's a few ideas for displaying finished layouts. Among them is the idea of hanging your finished pages from a curtain rod. Well guess who's been ahead of the game for the last six months then?

I manage to get around 12 layouts along this strip and now as I finish another layout then one has to come down and be put into one of my new Library albums.

I love the little shelf too. It's just wide enough to display cards and mini albums. It's like a mini gallery as you take the stairs down to the basemant and walk towards my scrapbook room at the end.

Oh look, there's that mini album I made the other day too. My room always manages to look clean and tidy just before guests come over. Any other time - it's a complete mess!

Play the Day Away

Have More Fun @ Big Picture is definately having an influence on me...I CAN just go and pick out some papers and put the pictures down with the story and BE DONE.

I originally posted these pictures on KAGSLife last summer - not long after we'd moved into our new house.

Having More fun

This mini - album was real quick and easy to make - I'm trying so hard to be all about the mini albums and photo album scrapbooking right now.
Stacy is a big believer in relieving the back log of photos by creating photo album scrapbooks and mini albums.
Did you get your copy of the Simple Scrapbooks Mini Albums in an Evening?

This one may have taken me a little longer than an evening - but not by much and only because I only really get 2 hours max to myself in an evening right now.
I am really pleased with the way it turned out.

What do you think?

I used the S from his name to prompt the tabbed sections. I will journal on the little pull outs about those topics.

Four girls came here Tuesday night and made one each. As always I love watching how each one turns out just a bit different as everyone puts their own twist on the original.

All Summer Long - Fabulous

I seem to be on a girly trip this week. Here's another Miss Daisy layout, again, I pulled photo's from different times & places - from the category drawers I now use thanks to the LOM class.





















I then created this one - in honor of the Daisy's first ever concert.
I'm currently signed up for Have More Fun at Big Picture - and the don't worry about it - just go and do it attitude of having more fun is just where I am right now. that's just what I did with this one - pulled a sheet from that Rock Star paper pack (is it DCWV?) and slapped the pictures down. Really, this only took half an hour - and I am really happy with it.

Call Me Kylie

Miss Nina has always been so proud of her pretty little derriere - and not afraid to shake it in the face of anyone close enough to appreciate it!

I managed to combine her special "talent" with the story of how I wanted to call her Daisy but wasn't allowed!

Crack Me Up

These here are more pictures taken on the same day as THESE .
Since participating in LOM earlier this year I haven't felt such a great need to put all the photo's from one event on the same layout.

In fact, with the pictures that I took that day, I have already created at least 3 layouts focusing on different things.

Anyhow, this layout, like the other one is also inspired by a Vicki Boutin layout that appeared in a spring edition of Scrapbooks etc.

I used three different paper packs from CTMH, loads of liquid glass and sparkley things (including my all time favourite - prisma glitter).

Ready to Use

What do you do with all those thin strips of cardstock?
You wanna know what I do?



Ready made journalling strips of course.
You know I love to use them and I love having them ready to go. White Daisy, Colonial White, Bamboo - I keep them all.

Pool Party Anyone?

How about this for the perfect pool party invitation? I was inspired by these instructions on SplitcoastStampers.

I found that I didn't have too much that would assist me in making pool themed cards - so I came up with making a swim ring out of cardstock - thanks go to my trusty coluzzle circle cutter, cardstock in fresh pool colours and sponge daubers that do such a great job at adding depth to a project.



Following the swim ring idea the kids then got an inflatable each to take home - rather than a candy filled treat bag!

I just posted this picture on my other blog HERE.

I am so happy to have found Tracy Joy and her beautiful camera bags. In fact, I think I could be starting a trend, right here in Saskatoon.
Kari is waiting for hers to arrive. It won't be long before Tami feels the need and then Jenn's got a birthday coming up pretty soon too.
I love messenger bags - can't be doing with anything that has to be constantly hoisted back up the shoulder - and I knew I wanted to be hands free while out and about with a camera and still have room to store a drink and a snack for at least a child!
Here's my Kristine bag today - loaded with a camera, "the big lens" a wallet, keys and my creative planner - oh and I found a Lego Star Wars clone head in there too!

Add this to your list.

One to look at today. I discovered this Saucy while reading over at Leica's blog. Since the very first day I've been hooked. There's always something going on, some fab ideas - all wrapped up with a good sense of humor. You should go there now and enjoy. Really.

Doodle inspiration

Mum sent Georgina this cute little top from Next (still love that store - so wish there was one here). It's so cute.

I couldn't resist taking little detail pictures too














and this one on the side of the hood.








Isn't it just perfect fir little girls? Couldn't you just use that design for a doodle on a girlie scrapbook page?

Randomness

This is what happens when you use several - or maybe a few more than that stamps and some black ink to create a random stamped paper. I love doing this. I always start with the largest stamp and place it a few times (randomly) across the paper, then I go down to a slightly smaller image and give it some more. The most engrossing fun comes with the smallest stamp you can find and trying to find another gap to fit it into. Somewhere in the middle of creating this you come to a point when you think - ugh this is not going to work breathe, relax, keep going - it'll look great - I promise.


With this one there was really no point in creating a pattern because I was about to cut it up!

I used it to create these cards.

The girls arrived for Card Club and loved what they saw - thinking the patterned paper was just that. Ha ha - I can't just make cards - there has to be some sort of hard work involved!

Hey, isn't there some new paper out that you can doodle and colour in? Save the bother and make your own! I think I might just sit down and colour one in with some pencils - just for fun - what do you think?

When your taking pictures with your dSLR do you mess with the focusing- I do - I try & make things look like what I see - withut my contact lenses in - you know - just for fun.



These random stamped papers really mess your eyes up - look! My brain (& I) get all confused and don't know whether or not to focus - and I can't remember if I'm wearing eye wear!