Cross Stitching

I was inspired by Jeannette Lyntons blog to make 6 of these thank you notes during some rare "free time" yesterday afternoon. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4b2X0faew4NgMHqP5xswnAULYJQzgvbWBsw4CXrRcAW0DhxTEPpVvwZiomPYPOioHFM9jXOu_fAaBlP54de45erHHnMhd9Y0TddX1ZvEJsplLK8NUlwieugeRHfe-NA7kIff98yppvcM/s1600/WOW_26-Dec_Card-2.jpg

The plain blue paper was sprayed with brown ink and stamped with a script verse in dark green. The clear floral buttons were laid over coloured paper to match the border of the square. I kind of like the funky kraft paper look with vibrant reds , browns, greens and yellows.

Christmas 2011

I really had fun doing 10 of these cards using prefolded kraft paper cards and matching envelopes by Close to My Heart. You cant see it in the photo, but there is a flap under the bottom of this card that is scallop edged and which folds up over the bottom edge of the card when closed. It helps the card stand upright better with a top fold . The paper is Elemental.

Serenity Butterflies

I had so much fun stamping the cardstock for the background on this card, and then creating the banner ribbons in beautiful matching papers with a vintage feel.

Eight of these were for my friend Bev, but I kept two for myself since they are so lovely.

Southampton

Southampton is a nice quiet village on the northwest coast of Lake Huron. Rick and I booked a bed and breakfast weekend with the intent to lay on the beach, golf, shop and bike for 2 days. Little did we know that an F3 tornado was on its way an hour to the south. Foregoing the beach, we managed to keep ourselves entertained between heavy rain downpour nonetheless. We particularly enjoyed biking around the little streets by the beach. The homes in Southampton are
picturesque beyond description. We also had a wonderful ride through the Lakeshore Trail at McGregor Point Provincial Park.
Southampton features many antique heritage homes so naturally I used a vintage theme for this layout. I had gorgeous sheet of ephemera paper with bicycles, umbrellas and wardrobes that fit the bill perfectly. My colour theme was rich browns, rose and buttercup. I love the faint handwriting on the You and Me Close to my Heart papers; and a detail shot shows me using yet another  Milepost corrugated shape for the ampersand . ("and" symbol)
I dont know if you can see the detail unless you click on the photo to enlarge, but there are some pennant shapes with tiny mocha opaque adhesive pearl gems that came with me You and Me Kit in July.
Believe me these kits are a value , I got a stamp set, ribbon, the gems, chipboard, and the papers with instructions for 4 layouts. Hello? I always purchase the kits on special.

Bliss on Dalrymple Beach

I keep saying, this summer was the best one that I can remember since childhood. Clear blue sunny skies and very little rain. There were no "indoor" days whatsoever other than the weekend of the tornado in August. In June, I had decided to plan some new units of study on rainy days and had lugged home all the curriculum documents and teaching guides.  In fact, by the time school was starting, I had not  cracked a book - nor had I gone to the school at at the week prior to .Labour Day. The weather was simply too nice for me to be inside. Of course I managed nicely but paid the price the first 3 weeks of September with 3 hours work at home per night. It was sooo worth it.

Dalrymple Beach is about a 20 minute bicycle ride from my home, on Lakeshore Road near Camlachie. It is very seldom used by a handful of people so very tranquil.
The beach itself is wide and open, with a very shallow gradually sloping sandy access to Lake Huron that makes the water warm . I find it similar to the beaches at the Pinery so I go there when I want to be in nature and experience solace.
Rick and I spent a few quiet hours in the afternoon in August soaking up some bliss together under crystal clear blue skies next to the waving beach grasses. I like the photo of our feet and of the big piece of driftwood.
You can see a few of the corrugated chipboard milepost  shapes incorporated. I also had fun playing with one of my new stamp sets, Vintage Type.
It is found on page 18 here:
http://www.closetomyheart.com/en/Products/Online_Idea_Book.aspx

Relax

Time to Relax

and be leisurely in the summer , in our amazing pool

the weather was perfect this year, with only 2 days of rain

the kids and i made the most of it and enjoyed the crystal

clear waters of our backyard pool

i used 4x4 squares in this design

with an emphasis on black and grey papers

the photos are dazzling enough on their own!

Daylilies in June

Because I took so many flower photos, I had all of these gorgeous blooming daylilies and wanted to showcase them in a unique way. Inspired by Ali Edwards monthly layout design , via my ambitiously scrapping friend Julia, who takes a photo of her son each month and has them all in sequence.

I had actually seven different daylilies blooming in June, but did not have a photo of the yellow ones to add to this layout. I used irresistible make it count numbers by Close to My Heart, which I inked in 3 different colours: vineyard berry, desert sand, and twilight. I used a sponge dauber to apply the ink lightly.
I then journalled across the top of each background paper.
"Daylilies bloomed in profusion . They are the first to bloom, colourful and vigourous".

October Chalet Crop

I spent the weekend scrapbooking with 3 wonderful ladies . I am blessed to have a generous sister in law who invites me to share in this event each year at her chalet near Talisman resort. Our mutual friend Julia is a great inspiration and muse, our own version of Ali Edwards. Her influence can be seen in the first layout, SPRING . Blocked photos and paper strips ; opposing rounded tops and bottom edges; handwritten journalling.
"My garden is my joy. Every detail entices me."
There is a visual pun in the layout : Look closely and you can see some hardware "springs" on vellum paper next to the barn board and yellow print papers. thanks Leslie D for the ephemera books.

Life's good

I really like this stamp set! VERY versatile.

There are 6 of these cards altogether, which I made as a gift for a special friend who moonlights as a guardian angel.

The Graduate

Just another take on graduation, with a report card file folder/ antique ephemera / notebook paper theme going on. The shots are of my son receiving his diploma with a very special teacher, Mr Billy Reid, of St Christophers CSS. Mr Reid was always encouraging , and willing to be an example of spirituality, health, and positive focus to all of us.
Colton just found out that he was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top scholarship worth $3500 each year for 4 years . It was created to ensure that hard working students who earn top marks at Ontario High Schools receive special recognition and support. He was selected as one of the top students at his high school and I am proud of him.

Wings Serenity

Butterflies have been a long time favorite symbol of mine.
The wings paper goes well with the Serenity Prayer.
I got the tiny white flowers from Amy L when she was clearing out
her  wedding stationary inventory online on Facebook last week.
I will be making a set of 20 cards for Bev T. with these papers. This is the first
batch of 4 cards.

Cap and Gown

Grad pics are a lot of fun to scrapbook because they are such a happy occasion. I left room for a picture and some journalling to be added. This is my usual inneffective tactic of, get the page done now/ journal later strategy. I better write something down soon before my mind loses its memory of that day!! Summer seems to be keeping me outside almost every day.

Colton heads off to university in 3 weeks. He will be missed!

Deal of the Decade

When you buy the new Art Philosophy Cricut cartride for 109$ you receive

700 shapes, a font, and 3D elements including flowers and boxes ;

3 coordinating stamp sets and 3 sheets chipboard dimensional elements:

already a huge value of over $140 in products.

Because you spent over $85 you also get the Pair a Phrase Stamp Set: a DOUBLE

set of coordinating stamps!! FREE!

Plus because you spent over $55 you can get the August Stamp of the month WICKED

for just $5.50... and that qualifies you to get the Typeface font FREE!!!

Deal of the decade, as far as i am concerned.

Drop me an email to order or call to book your party!

you live, you learn

the words to this layout title are from a song by Alannis Morissette that reflect the poignancy of both good times and bad in our life voyage of growth .

you live you learn

you love you learn
you cry you learn
you lose you learn
you bleed you learn
you scream you learn

you grieve you learn

you choke you learn
you laugh you learn
you choose you learn
you pray you learn
you ask you learn
pretty succint, huh?
i topped the photos with cricut lettering for the word YOU on gypsy purple and used my stamps to dress up the plain cardstock. I like the flow of the font on the bottom .

Prom May 2011

More of my son Colton's prom layouts. Formal themes like proms and weddings call for simplicity and in many cases use larger pictures so one or 2 photos per page is enough. I stuck with black and white and gypsy purple and amethyst cardstock throughout the layouts for consistency. Placing the photos first that I wanted over two 12 x12 white pages, I came up with ideas. The larger picture simply called for a double matt and mount on the background. Flourishes finish it nicely and the amount of white space makes the photo even more dazzling. When photos have to be cropped square, then square shapes become part of the layout design. Here, in the second layout, I created square boxes in amethyst the same size as the photos and matted all of the pieces onto a large square to get this look. The empty spaces will be used for journalling using a calligrapy pen. Flourishes were stamped into the corners.

Prom : Hope you had the Time of your Life!

My youngest son's prom was in May, and I have over 70 photos... not that I will scrap that many, but there were a lot of different friends and teams to take pictures of at the pre prom parties.

We started out here with his date, for a few shots, and then moved on to the Brennans (one of his closest friends who lives 2 blocks away) for a bit larger of a group, and then on to Camlachie on the lake for the big pre prom party with 20 guys and 20 gals taking part.

Colton chose light purple for his vest and tie to accent his dates dress, so my layouts are elegant black and white and lilac, just like his tux. I am not embellishing with any florals or girlie things, just a simple black swirl here and there with lots of negative white space for the background. I put together the first 4 pages at the Scrapbook for Japan in the Grove event this weekend. Thank you Robin A for the use of your Cricut machine! I like the trapezoid shaped lettering.

Fathers Day Card

Eight of us made these this past Saturday at an event some girlguide leaders organised, Scrapping for Japan in the Grove. I love the way they turned out! We used Stazon to stamp the fleur de lis on the clear button!!

The card base is a basic 6x12 scored at 2, 4, 8 and 10 inches.

Hope for Japan. Beautiful idea.

Hope for Japan. What a great stamp set fo $5.00.

All proceeds go directly to the Red Cross Japan relief fund.

ART 2010

This 2 page layout is a showcase for my best art from the fall, which I photographed. I took a watercolour class with Kathy Rath while recovering from hip surgery. Having the time off work gave me the opportunity to finish an unfinished portrait my dad had sketched of my neice Natasha. It fell into place very quickly, almost by divine intervention. I felt almost equally as inspired painting the portrait of John Lennon. My confidence with paints is coming along , and I am proud of my art. Sorry for some reason I could not get the first page to post straight up and down... having attempted twice I decided to post sideways with an apology. Its a shame.

december 25: time for each other

Getting Christmas Day scrapbooked was so satisfying. This year, with a 19 year old and a 17 year old, we waited until 4 pm to take pictures and thereby had the opportunity for several poses from the two, who due to age and other lifestyle choices are not good for photos in the morning , or while opening gifts. So this year I just put the camera away, and enjoyed WATCHING them open gifts, and it was really great not to have to document the event, but to be in the event.

I got these papers from Basic Grey, Jovial, at Lasting Impressions. The neat thing about the papers, was that I fell in love with them a few months ago while browsing the Basic Grey papers online. The Jovial papers had just the nicest blend of vivid Christmas elements. So I was happy to match the cardstock stickers and papers with my photos.

As you can see, I left a nice spot for the journalling... the J word, as the ladies at Lasting Impressions referred to it. Being concise and evoking memories... not a simple task! what I usually do is pen a few sentences on a rough draft and then carefully edit and copy down... its a good idea in my case to do this sooner rather than later so that the memory doesnt fade!

I can describe our day :

11 am. breakfast: peameal bacon and eggs with waffles

12 am. opening stockings and gifts : I got a Susan Boyle CD, scented home and bath and beauty products, earrings, La Senza goodies, and a long awaited Latte machine

I gave the kids some gifts to unwrap, and also some cash rolled up with tissue paper and tinsel and stuffed into mini gift bags and mini stockings and hung on the tree

1 pm. movies on TV

4 pm . photo shoot

6 pm. turkey dinner with all the fixings

7 pm. watching a movie

9 pm. walking the dogs

10 pm. to bed for the grown ups

Time for Each Other... December 25... how fast it goes!

Kerlovich Family Christmas

We hosted our family Christmas on December 19. It was a good excuse for me to tidy up and decorate the basement rooms. Attacking the cobwebs with my new Dyson attachment was as fulfilling as hanging the lights and garlands . Blue LED light branches were the big hit amidst the more usual odds and ends in my Christmas array. Most of my family has to drive a good distance in order to visit so it is a treat when we can all be together at the same time. I had my crafting tables set up as a bar and snack area and made large 2 stars out of ice and sprigs as well as a shrimp tree which proved to be impressive for those who had not seen it before! Bobs cheese star was certainly a unique and artistic touch. The theme for this years Family Christmas was performance! Those of us who were able to contributed by reciting poetry, singing, doing magic tricks, doing a short skit, or playing a musical instrument. It proved to be an enjoyable afternoon and the meal was a hit too.
So I cant wait for next year!
As for the layout, with 20 people in my home, I had over 2 dozen photos printed to feature on this 2 page layout. I printed most of them wallet size (2x3) to cram them onto the page. I was overwhelmed by the number of pictures I wanted to include to tell the story, but quickly became ruthless in order to get on with the actual layout.
If I was better at digital layouts I might have found a better solution. I used a group picture as a large focal point, and selected what I could out of the rest. I used papers purchased on sale at the Town Scrapper and some gold metallic paper. I will journal this week by hand.