My Creative Scrapbook PEEKS

Ooohhh - so excited to share these with you all!! The kits I had the pleasure of working with for My Creative Scrapbook are beautiful! The Forum has the peeks all ready and waiting for you!

How about a shiny, sparkly, glittery kit? This one has it all!!! Lots of sparkle and shine for your favorite Christmas pictures. This one is loaded with everything you might wish for a Merry Christmas!!






The Main Kit features My Little Yellow Bicycle! It also has some fabulous Making Memories and Creative Imagination papers. Don't forget about the embellishments....

The album kit this month is equally beautiful and features Fancy Pants Christmas Magic.






Head on over to MCS and see for yourself!! The reveal is Dec 5th!!

TOP 10 Times Three @ Two Peas!

Okay, so normally I post all my layouts and projects on my blog as well as on Scrapbook.com for viewers, followers and family members to see. I've heard about Two Peas In A Bucket, but never thought of posting my layouts there as I figured it wasn't a big deal?

BOY WAS I WRONG!

Last night around 10pm, after having finished all my DT duties for the month, I decided to try posting some of my layouts to the Two Peas Gallery. In less than 24 hrs, 3 of my layouts (Pure Bliss, Mama's Boys & Cozy) are currently on the TOP 10 LIST!!!(This is apparantly a big deal!)

AND

My blog received over 235 hits today ALONE!

Thank you to all my new visitors from Two Peas and to whomever else has happened to stumble upon my little scrapbooking blog!! Welcome!

Lucky ME!!

I'm over the moon to announce that I have been given the wonderful opportunity to Guest Design for the month of December with My Creative Scrapbook.

This is a kit company that surpasses anything I've ever designed with. The main kit for December is simply gorgeous - not to mention the 2 add on kits - The Album Kit and the Creative Kit, which are equally as gigantic! I've had the pleasure of working with both the Main and Album kit and let me tell you, they are nothing short of AMAZING!!!

I may have to post a peek (or 2) in the next week to prove I'm not lying about how gorgeous they are.

Reveal day is December 1st - you don't want to miss out on what these designers have created!!

Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Just wanted to share a few festive layouts I created with Graphic 45's Christmas Past collection!

Here is a photo of my youngest son snuggling his teddy - such a sweet little guy and couldn't resist the innocence of this shot.



Ahhh my defiant one! I must have told her 10 times to get off of the table and she would just look straight into my eyes and stand up! Only 18 months and oh so challenging already! This layout was inspired by one of my dear friend LG's wonderful projects.

Toot, Toot!

Just wanted to share 2 little toots with ya'll! Just received my copies of Canadian Scrapbooker Basics Volume 5 and the Winter Issue of Canadian Scrapbooker.

Got a layout in each - go check 'em out!

Kit 'n' Kaboodles Kit Club

I had the pleasure of working with one of Kit 'n' Kaboodles monthly kits a little while back and can finally post the layouts in their entirety. I may have briefly posted and then took off my site once I realized I wasn't able to post quite so soon - oopsie!







Thanks to Scrapbook News & Review Magazine for the awesome opportunity!

Think its Been Long Enough

A little while back I created a bunch of layouts for Graphic 45 spotlight over at Scrapbook News & Review Magazine and I can now happily share them all!

Man, I love these papers - just so vintage with gorgeous colours and awesome designs.

Inside of the recipe box I altered.

I added some Prima ribbon and cut out the tags from one of the patterned papers that Graphic 45 is so famous for.

While I'm Waiting...

I am eagerly awaiting for a few new kits to arrive at my doorstep sometime this week (hopefully today) and patience is NOT one of my virtues. To keep my mind occupied, I completed the following layout last night of my dd having her first taste of chocolate icing. She was in HEAVEN!

The papers are from Pink Paislee and Bo Bunny. I tried to keep a certain softness to the layout and only added touches of brown here and there to accent.

Close up of some details. I am in love with this 3D fabric paint I found by Tulip - so easy to use!

I applied Glossy Accents to the butterflies (hard to tell in the pic) to give them a little more dimension. The gorgeous lace is from Prima.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Mini Album Madness!

Ok, so normally I'm a traditional 12x12 scrapper... until recently. 3 out of my last 4 projects have been mini albums! I blame it on Kate from Scrapbook News & Review Magazine!!

Anyhow, 2 of them are secrets (LOL) until the end of the month, but I'll show you this one now. I made it as a surprise for my mother in law (Judie, hope you aren't reading this) to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of her husband's passing.

The completed mini. I used the Amber Road papers from PinkPaislee (totally love them) and a bunch of embellies from fall flower bunches I found at Michaels.

I inked and painted some grungeboard for the front cover of the album. I added some rub ons to the heart after inking to dress it up a little. The wings were painted white first, mod podged and then inked a little to give them a little dimension.

With my nephew - the photo is a little light but wanted to catch how the sunlight was reflecting on the two of them.


I swirls I used on this page (and a few others) were from Riff Raff. Originally the swirl was huge and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it?? I ended up cutting it into smaller pieces and used as little accents on a few pages rather than one large swirl on a scrapbook page.


The title on this page is actually from an insulator sleeve from my last Grande Dark at Starbucks!!

With my son on his first Hallowe'en night.


The last page which reveals a hidden journaling tag of all the things I remember the most about him.


I think I need to find a way to make the albums a little less 3D however.... These are SUPER thick but so fun to do! If you have never tried one before, I dare you to stop at just one - they are addicting!

Warm and Cozy

I knew after taking those photos of my daughter the other day while feeding the ducks that I wouldn't take long to scrap them. I had intended on using other papers completely but ended up with what you see here - a little Pink Paislee mixed in with Bo Bunny and a few other manufacturers. After taking photos and uploading, the layout seemed a little bare to the right. I wasn't planning on journaling but decided to add some in digitally and I think it looks much better.

I used a scallop die cut from Making Memories, cut out the centre and left about an inch from the edge. I flipped it over, inked the scallops and then rolled up the edges to reveal the beautiful turquoise pattern on the front.

Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice papers are just so gorgeous. The perfect embellishment is right in the patterned paper and the colours are to die for! Thanks for stopping by today - enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Holiday Sampler Event is Tomorrow!

Join Scrapbook News & Review tomorrow for an awesome time at our holiday sampler event! We will have challenges, games and prizes!

Here are some of the manufacturers who will be hilighted:

Bo Bunny
Fancy Pants
Glitz Designs
Graphic 45
May Arts
My Little Yellow Bicycle
Stewart Superior
Technique Tuesday

Tune in every hour to see some creative projects, classes and great inspiration from our talented Staff Members!

Some Editing

I've been as busy as an elf getting my Holiday projects completed (of course, I can't show any of them to you just yet...)

In the mean time, it occured to me that little tips and tricks that I do automatically, may not be something any of you are use to doing. I started scrapping a little over a year ago and looking back, my style has changed dramatically!

This is one of the very first layouts I ever created.

I always find that I am drawn to layouts with beautiful photos. Simple adjusting of contrast and colour can make a huge difference in your photos. You don't necessarily need expensive software to achieve this effect either. The program I use is ancient and actually came with my computer when I first bought it years ago; "Microsoft Picture It". I LOVE it!! Wrinkles, blemishes, marks, stains, etc - be gone! Of course I never edit any of my 'own' photos ;>

Here is an example of some before and after photos. What a difference! The after photos may not look great in a regular photo album, but for layouts, they just stand out so much better against bold patterned paper.




For each of the after photos, I increased the contrast dramatically. Thereafter, I adjusted the photo colour to as bright as it would go - without losing the contrasting lines defining the facial features, etc.