Merry Christmas to All...

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had a wonderful day....  Here are a few random pics from over the past few weeks.  December was a crazy busy month for us with festivities every weekend as well as school plays, parties and more!

 Singing their song at the school Christmas Concert.

 Little guy stole the show! So cute!

 Sorry, majorly biast here but can you say "Gap Ad"??

 Festival of lights at Vandeusen Gardens - so amazing!

 Our one day dump of snow! So fun while it lasted...gone the next day...

 Fun times with my gals!

Hosted a gift exchange and had a great time with some amazing ladies!

We got in our Christmas Eve Day walk with the family - loved it and adore this hat on her! (I want one!!)

 My sweet boys!

We made it to our destination! A little treat at Starbucks for everyone!

 Mom's office party at the local pub - even Santa came for a visit!

The morning after the office party.  Was feeling a LITTLE icky... but what a spread we had - love my gals!

 Santa made someone VERY happy this morning!! Cannot WAIT to start playing with this crazy toy!

...And to all a Good Night!

Last Guest Post for Inkido

Santa's coming tonight!!!  For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful year in 2014! What a ride it has been this past year with so many things to celebrate and so many milestones that have been met.

For my last post as a Guest Designer with Inkido, I wanted to share a layout with you using their always gorgeous Happy Christmas Collection.  I love challenging myself to use themed papers (aka, Christmas) in a non-themed way. 

I looooved the cool tones in the faux wood finish paper and decided to pair with the darker musical notes for a totally different and edgy look.

As always, I added in heaps of layers of papers as well as different textures found in my metal items, ribbon, left over packaging and bling.

I also added in some stamped images with black archival ink to help tie in the darker tones in the black papers.

Thank you so much for stopping in today.  Wishing you all a wonderful Holiday Season and a safe and exciting New Year!!

A Little Stroll Down Memory Lane

Hope you are all having a fantastic December so far!  It finally snowed here today! I am soooo excited - hope this evening we get a little bit so the kids can at least play in it for awhile before it melts.  Today I have another layout to share with you using the gorgeous Happy Christmas Collection from Inkido!

There are so many rich and beautiful reds in this collection - perfect for your holiday photos.  Normally, I prefer to design with black and white photos so that they aren't in competition with bold patterns and colours from the papers but I loved adding in a hint of red with this photo of my daughter.



The beautiful gold, crochet flowers were so beautiful and complimented the rich, warm tones in the reds.  To stretch the life of your embellishments, don't be afraid to cut them into smaller pieces.  I've done this with most of the flowers you see on this page.

More paper layering as well as the pop of neutral from the newsprint.  I have always had a tough time with 'whitespace' but adding in too many patterned papers can sometimes look too busy.  The subtle pattern in newsprint adds the perfect neutral tones and just a bit of busy at the same time.  Its been my go to 'filler' for quite some time now.

A few fussy cut blooms tucked in behind some papers and added to your 3D flowers can give a great opportunity to introduce different deapths and textures to your project.

Thank you so much for your visit today!! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Supplies:
Patterned Papers: Happy Christmas Collection/Inkido
Flowers: Inkido
Edge Scraper: Making Memories
Border Punch: Martha Stewart
Ribbon: May Arts
Metal Hinges: Graphic 45
Misc: Doilies, newsprint

Peace

It is FINALLY December!! The holiday season is fast approaching and I have sooo many more things to do - EEK!!  Thankfully, my crafty time helps me to slow down and refocus on the important things in my life; the calm, peaceful moments that are often missed in our haste to complete a million tasks on our to do lists.

I created this layout featuring a photo of two of my little ones in full on snuggle mode (a RARE sighting for sure!)  The papers are from the Happy Christmas Collection from Inkido which I adore!  SO versatile and perfectly suited for my shabby, vintage scrapping style.

I inked the edges of each of the Inkido flowers to help them pop a little more against the otherwise monochromatic tones in this project.  I also tucked in some darker toned petals within the white bloom to add a little dimension.  Did you notice the Inkido packaging behind my photo!?

I added a few things of my own as well like the crochet doilies, newsprint and a few other blooms I had in my stash.  Love how the different textures (wood, paper, flowers, bling, lace) and multiple layers add to the overall shabby feel of this project.

Thank you so much for your visit today!  I'll be back again next week with another festive project to share with you all!! Have a great week.

Products:
Patterned Papers: Happy Christmas/Inkido
Flowers: Inkido, from my stash
Pigment Ink: ColorBox
Metal Elements: Graphic 45
Edge Scraper: Making Memories
Scallop Circle Punch: Marvy
Tacky Glue: Aleene's
Filmstrip: Ranger
Misc: Doilies, newsprint, wooden word, twine