Gearing up for the New Year

Although things are starting to quiet down here at my house after all the the Holiday Hulabaloo, things online are revving up for a fresh New Year. Projects are in the works at Imaginisce. Things are gearing up for Core-dinations hook up with Helmar.

And talk about sales. 3 Scrappy Boys is having a huge kit clear out, some great deals.

and My little Bit of Whimsy is having a whimsy sale. She has some fabulous new whimsies coming in the new year, like these beauties........For Momma's of boys like me............these are outta this world {giggle}.

Have fun all and we will see you in the New Year.

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Gearing up for the New Year

My favorite Christmas Tradition

 One of my favorite Traditions has always been Christmas Jammies.......this year when I started looking..............I did not see any that I really loved..........lots of skiing and snowboarding, monster trucks and super hero's.......but not a  lot of Christmas.  So this I year I decided to make some for both my boys and my niece.  I wanted them to co-ordinate but not match so I bought several different fabrics. Here was what I created!

One of the coolest things about these Jammies are the custom buttons that I made with my i-top. How cool is that???

My youngest got these Jammies, my eldest got a similar pair, but the pattern is more like hospital scrubs.

and this is my cutie patootie niece. I used this adorable Fa la la la la Material. So the boys had matching shirts, and the babies had matching pants.

I so wish that they would not grow so fast so these fit longer, I just love how they turned out. But I suppose that is the nature of children. I had a very Merry Christmas indeed and I hope you did too. Will share more soon!!

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My favorite Christmas Tradition

Fireside exuberance

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, well it looks like good ol Saint Nick and the Fabulous Team over at Imaginisce have sent me my Christmas wish a little early this year...............{and the little drummer boy is doing a drum roll} I made the Imaginisce Design Team...............

I am  ridiculously excited to be joining this team, they are a very inspiring bunch and the creative energy is overflowing on their blogs and their designers blogs..........I am so incredibly honored to get to be a part of it.

The house is all decked out and the stockings are hung by the fire. We have a real fire place and natuarally we need matches normally I keep the box on the mantle but the match box was ugly so I thought, "let's make it part of the decor. "

Here it is up close it is made with Imaginisce's Christmas cottage collection, I kept it fairly simple since it will get a lot of handling, but I did add a little sparkle with one of those awesome little snow flakes.

There are only 2 more sleeps until Christmas.......my boys are so excited, we finally put gifts under the tree and they can't wait to open them. They are in there peeking, seeing which ones have their names on them.  I love the magic in there eyes the excitement, it really is the best gift of all.

Hope that Santa is as good to you....................Merry Christmas

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Fireside exuberance

Tearing it up for the holidays

For the second day of Christmas, Core-dinations is featuring the tearing technique with my layout. I use this technique all the time to soften edges and this time I loved the idea of using the Whitewash collection to make snowballs, after tearing them I just sanded around them a little bit more to blend the color.

Be sure to pop over to the blog, there's a give away too!!

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Tearing it up for the holidays

That was fun!!!

What a weekend!!! This weekend we celebrated my birthday and my baby boys 3rd birthday. It was so much fun, we went and got our Christmas tree and then decorated it. We do this every year on my birthday and I love it.

I rarley get any photos of the tree decorating because I am so busy doing it, but this year I had an idea. As we begun to decorate the tree, I set up my camera nearby on a tripod, and used my remote to trigger it at random intervals. My son also took a turn with the remote, so there are some really fun poses, that made me laugh.

Every night for the last two months, my little one has had me read Ginger Bread Friends {by Jan Brett}. So for his birthday I did a ginger bread theme. I made little ginger bread signs and ginger bread hot tubs for hot chocolate and coffee. {you can click on them for close ups}

I also thought I would try a fondant cake this year, I now know why wedding cakes cost so much. LOL!!! It was a lot of fun though.

and today is the big day over on the Core-dinations blog, we've got 12 days of techniques happenning. Pop over there for lots of great tips for your paper, plus a few holiday give aways.

I hope that each of you are enjoying a very merry holiday season so far.

Big hugs!!

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That was fun!!!

So everywhere I go the holidays are in full swing.............both in the online world and locally. Christmas Music is everywhere.........and I cannot get all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth {by the chipmunks no less} and Melekeliki Makah {you know the Hawaiian one} out of my head.  They are stuck!!!  Watching Chevy Chases Christmas Vacation did not help.

Ok so I admit, I've had worse things clanging around in this brain of mine. But I think that right now it's on over load so it is resorting to cheesy old Christmas tunes.

This week, there is so much happening...........If you have not popped over to the Core-dinations blog this week, it should be at the top of your nice list. There are some sensational cards and layouts featuring graphic 45 and Core-dinations. This was the layout that I did.

Over at ...... 3 Scrappy boys they are having 12 days of inspiration. With ideas and crafts for everyone in the family. The boys and I made these fun hand print Mittens.

Also big news over at My little bit of Whimsy, I was asked to join there design team and I am over the moon excited, you know how much I love these adorable little creations and fabulous texture buttons. I can't wait!! Stephanie {the owner} has been working like a Christmas elf coming up with tons of new sampler packs, just in time for the holiday season. Santa, these would be perfect in a stocking {wink} this one is my newest favorite.

and who could resist this little guy.

Well I hope you are all being crafty and enjoying some family fun this season.

Joy to you and yours!

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Welcome December

I love December, this is such a busy month with all the family, decorating traditions and celebrations. I always find it so hard to take pictures at this time of year because it is so busy and I want to be part of the action not on the side taking photos. So my Holiday goal this year is to try and take more photos during the time leading up to Christmas.

Have you got any Holiday goals this year?? Usually we reserve "goals" for New Years but right now seems like a better time for me to start.

 This layout does not have a lot of journalling, the photo is pretty self explanatory and so I wanted to keep it really simple.

Merry Christmas everyone { I am so glad that I can say this now without being shot}

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Welcome December

See yah later fall

Ooooh It is almost December, tommorrow is the big day!! The start of advent in our house is a big deal, we all clean up and decorate and if we are good the house elf leaves a specail treat in our countdown box's.

But before we get to the winter Holiday stuff here is one more fall layout.

The large Polka dot button is a my little bit of whimsy button and the papers are a mix of this years and last year MME Halloween collections.

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See yah later fall

Wyld Retreat

Well I am home from my retreat in Qualicum at the Wyldflower Scrapbooking B&B, and if I had to describe it in one word, that word would be AWESOME. This beautiful B&B was spacious, we all got our own 6 ft table, the food was spectacular, and the creative vibe was fantastic. If you live anywhere near Vancouver Island this is on my list of HIGHLY recommended, her rates are incredibly reasonable, I felt like I got my money's worth and then some.

This is our hostess Jocelyn, her kindness and cooking were warm and welcoming. The entire B&B is tastefully decorated in warm fall tones {some of my favorites} which make for a very inspiring place to create. There is even a small store for you if you need something. I really could go on and on.

Here are a couple of picture of my gals and the work space.

There was lots of light and the tables are in a great configuration for social scrapping. 

Don't forget our Holiday Blog Hop

Looking forward to all the awesome Holiday Inspiration coming up!!

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Wyld Retreat

Prepping and packing

I am so excited about my retreat this weekend!! So this week I am printing my photos planning a number of layouts and pulling together the pattern papers. In essence I create little kits. It is a bit of work, but then I have to take less with me and can spend more time gabbing and less time looking for stuff.

People always ask me "What do you take to a retreat?" and I mostly say the things you use the most and tons of adhesive.

The second thing that I always take with me are my cardstock packs. I bring my Core-dinations Sugar and Spice pack and Ebony and Ivory Pack. This is a quick no worries grab, because between those two packs I have every color I would need , the white wash guarantees that I have every neutral shade and if you are a fan of browns like I am the sugar and spice pack really has you covered.

In addition to prepping for this I am also getting ready for my sons third birthday coming in December, this year his theme is Gingerbread Men. He loves them!! So I have a ton of really cool ideas. I am trying to get plenty of stuff done in advance cause this year I really want to go all out, for as cheap as possible. Which always means there is a lot of do it yourself stuff. First was this banner.

Here is a close up of the first letter.

There will be lots more photos, of all the neat stuff I am creating after his birthday. I have been so inspired by this awesome site called Tomcat Studio, these gals really know how to throw a party.

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Prepping and packing

Finally feeling better

Well it seems like it has been forever since I last posted. After 3 months of dealing with the constant stream of colds and bugs my son brought home from Kindergarten, my body ran out of fight and succumbed to pneumonia. I have spent the last week on the couch keeping warm and taking anti-biotics and dealing with a cough so harsh it would stop me in my tracks. Today I am finally feeling a little more normal, still a little on the slow side but things are looking brighter.

Before I got all laid out, I was working on this layout of my super cute niece. That red hair just gets me every time.

Most of this layout was done with the very merry collection from October Afternoon, the cute little pup is from Fancy pants and I love love love how this Cosmo Core-impressions matched the papers perfectly.

Also I customized the teal button, with a technique that I love, I use paint and my stylus to make perfect dots, in the shape of a heart.

Thanks for all the well wishes last post, I am really hoping that my house hold has now been pre disastered for the Holidays.

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Finally feeling better

Feature Guest

Today I am the feature guest DT'er over at Creative Scrappers, this is an awesome sketch website. This place has a something for everyone. I love that it has several contributing sketch designers that way if somethings not quite your style, the next one is sure to grab you. Plus thier design team always have a ton of marvelous and creative examples.

For my layout I used the strip paper in Imagince's apple cider line. {Man I love that paper} Also used some Core Chocolate box and used my fiskars paper crimper to create the pumpkin leaf. A little sparkle from queen n co was the finishing touch.

Thanks for having me creative scrappers :)

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Feature Guest

Rainy Day Play

It has been pretty quite around here with the exception of the coughing. We are all still laid up with colds. So it makes for good indoor play, trains planes and auto mobiles, Movies and warm liquids. I created this layout to document some of the great one on one time that I have had with my youngest.

I made this little paper airplane to mimic the paper. I knew those notes in class would come in handy. LOL!!

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Rainy Day Play

Just Bee

So the Core ladies and I got some amazing goody box's this week and Maya Rd was extremely generous with some fabulous rub ons and chip board. I had been eyeing up this honey comb album ever since CHA and was over the moon excited when it arrived at my door step. It was the first thing that I dug into and here is what I created.

I used some of my all time favorite colors, collections and techniques.

Here is a close up of my crimper leaves and torn flower, isn't that torn edge gorgeous. The little bee is one of my faves from My little bit if whimsy.

The first pages are a little bit about remembering to slow down and just bee

The 2nd and 3rd page are about other very important things to bee.

Here is a close up of the Maya Rd Chipboard letters, I covered them in cardstock, sanded them and then just added a few stitches to them,

Here is a close up of some more chipboard. Maya Rd sent up some of there Mists. I have no idea what the name of the one they sent me was, but it is kinda an opaque white sparkle. So for many of the chipboard elements {title BEE and this heart and the little tree}, I used my Copic markers and colored them before spritzing them. That way I can have any color sparkle I want. YUP I love this!!!

Here is the final page. I used the fiskars texture plate to create the embossed honey comb pattern and the torn Chocolate box by Core was the perfect spot use the Maya Rd Rub-ons.

All the pattern papers and embellishments are by Jillibean Soup. Buttons are by My little bit of Whimsy. Photo corners are by Scrapbook adhesives.

Thanks for dropping by



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Just Bee

Quiet on the blog busy on the home front

I blinked and October was over, so here we are in November and I am waiting patiently for my kit from 3 Scrappy Boys. I am keeping busy and scrappy with all sorts of wonderful challenges. I feel like I am on a roll, I won the October Sketch Challenge at Imaginisce with this layout. I also won runner up in the Lil Red rocket Sketch Challenge. I have also spent the month working like crazy on all sorts of not so scrappy things including a Transformer Birthday cake.

My husband said that he wanted a shop for his birthday!! Wink!!

Halloween

and all the trimmings

There is also a ton of great scrappy stuff coming your way in the next day or so. This month I am so incredibly stoked about an upcoming retreat HERE. If you live on Vancouver Island or anywhere close, this place has a rockin deal on right now and so I am gonna check it out and there will be photos and a more detailed review at the end of the month.

So here we go into November looking forward to all sorts of new and wonderful things.

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Quiet on the blog busy on the home front