New Year....New design team at TSF

I almost felt like spring was in bloom when I was creating with this month's design team kit from Three Bugs in a Rug. The colours and prints felt like a breath of fresh (not freezing!) air. There was so much to work with in this month's kit I could have kept on creating, as it was I made 3 cards and 3 layouts with loads of product to spare.

For the first card I added some BoBunny pink dot cardstock (one of my faves that I always have on hand in many colours), wide grosgrain ribbon and a little scrap of green cardstock.

This card was all from the kit except the ribbon and blue cardstock

Again the pattern paper and sticker were from the kit, I added some cardstock and ribbon. I borrowed the scallop punches from TSF's crop space and I am thinking I need to add them to my ever-growing wish list of tools!

For this 'Sisters' layout I added the BoBunny dot in blue ( I told you it was a fave!), the base cardstock, chipboard swirls, ribbon, fabric flowers and bling. It was my first time working with Glamour dust and I was really happy with the effect. I first painted Craft n' Craftin chipboard swirls with white paint then while the paint was still wet I sprinkled on the dust. I added a thin coat of Glossy Accents on top and voila, sparkly swirls! The frame was cut out on the Cricut.

I used the same technique for the centers on the hand cut and fabric flowers.
(thanks to Jessica for the picture of her beautiful daughters Emma & Kate)



One of my favourite things to do with the boys is go for hikes on the many nature trails in the area. It's always a great opportunity for photos like this one of Holden this past summer. I chose to use a black and white to make it work better with these colours. I do this often when I have a colour scheme in mind and the photo clashes with it.

I used some faux stitching rubons which is such an easy way to get the sewn look for us 'non-sewers' out there! I cut out the 'Happy Trails' circle on the Cricut and used a 'my Mind's eye' diecut circle phrase to emphasize the hiking theme. That little bling bug has been in my stash since they first arrived at TSF and I have been waiting for the right project to use it. The colours worked perfectly so it finally got to 'crawl' onto a layout! Pop dots under the hand cut flowers and 'where to?' diecut add dimension.

When I saw this picture of my friend Darcy's little girl, Oceane, I knew it was perfect for these papers. I stuck with a tight colour scheme to really focus the layout on the flower face painting. The orange floral paper was cut on the Expression. I love that you can cut out really large shapes that mimic diecut papers.

I inked Kaisercraft chipboard letters in vintage photo ink then covered in Glossy Accents for the title. I added the diecut flowers and buttons, everything else was from the kit.

So much fun working with all of these Spring looking colours this month.

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to the new members of the design team.

Be sure to check out their beautiful creations over on the TSF gallery.

Thanks for taking a look and Happy New Year!!!

twas the night before Christmas...

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

and away they all flew like the down from a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim 'ere he drove out of sight

"Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas and all the best in 2010

Christmas craftiness

"More glue Mom!" I kept hearing that yesterday as we made some sparkly Christmas trees. My boys are following in my footsteps when it comes to scissors, glue and all things glittery. They love to make crafts and display them proudly around the house. I used to cringe at the mess but now I throw down some old sheets and let them go for it.

There was some serious concentration on where to put the pom poms and other shiny bits.

I imagine there will be more craft creating as we fill our school vacation days.

mmmm what's that smell?

Every now and then I come across a product that I really love and I found one yesterday and had to share it. When my husband and I go shopping we each take a kid and a cart and cover as much territory as we can in the least amount of time. At the end of a trip to Walmart yesterday I came up behind him and found him spraying something all over the place. I figured it must be a new cleaning product as he does have a strange affection for all things bleach/amonia etc. Then I got a whiff of what he was spraying and WOW. We've had air freshners before but I've always found they smell very 'chemically' and they all gave me headaches. Well now we have one that I have been spraying like a maniac all over the house. It's made by AirWick and it's called 'warm apple cinnamon medley' and it smells like heaven all for the bargain price of $2!!
I know it's crazy to be so excited over an air freshner but the scent conjures up all sorts of warm fuzzies for me.

I wish my blog had a scratch & sniff option because then you might understand what all the fuss is about!

veggie pizza

I made a cold veggie pizza for the crop today and it is my 'go to' recipe for potluck type meals. It's easy and yummy and might be the perfect appetizer to make over the holidays.

Here's the recipe:
2 pkgs crescent rolls
Spread out on to cookie sheet, pressing seams together and forming a crust around the edges
bake as directed til golden brown
remove from oven and let cool

Cream together
1/2 cup Miracle Whip
1 tub of cream cheese (you can use light, doesn't affect the taste at all)
1 pkg of Hidden Valley Ranch powdered dressing mix. This can be hard to find but Zehr's usually has it. I tend to use only 3/4 of the pkg as it gets a bit strong

Spread over cooled dough and top with veggies of your choice such as pepper, brocoli, shredded carrots etc
Top with grated cheese and/or bacon
Cut into squares
Serve chilled
Enjoy!

Cookie crop

Today I went to a 'cookie swap' crop with a great group of scrapping ladies. I cannot think of a better way to spend a cold, rainy afternoon. We all brought something for a potluck lunch and each brought a dozen cookies to swap.
Here's a little sampling of what we walked away with..YUMMY!

Surprisingly enough I even managed to get something accomplished between munching on meatballs, fruit, veggie pizza, cheese, banana bread etc

I made these two layouts as the beginning part of a gift for a great friend of mine who just recently gave birth to her third daughter. She is a scrapbooker and one of her worries was not being able to devote the same time to her third as she did to her other two. I decided that being that she's the third girl there wasn't much she needed as far as clothes or toys so I am going to start her book as a gift.

It is great fun to do baby layouts again and of course to work with some pink!

I can't wait to see them once she's added pics of her beautiful little girl!

I hope you like them...you know who you are!

Weekend scrappin'

Friday night I attended the Jingle Bell crop at TSF. It was a lot of fun. I managed to not only finish a layout I started at the retreat in November but complete another one too.

This layout of my nephew, Cole, was based on a sketch by Karan Gerber who just happened to be sitting beside me. NO PRESSURE AT ALL! lol

It really is a tribute to some of the things I love about Karan's work from the layers, bling, twine and crinkled strip of paper to my cardboard Christmas trees sprayed with Glimmer Mist. One tip, when trying to make teeny, tiny paper bows have lots of chocolate around!

I started this layout at the Fall retreat. For those of you sitting near me you may recall my vowing to 'Never do this again'. THIS meaning: cutting out so many letters in so many different fonts on the Cricut. However now that it is done I am glad I did because they really are the feature of this layout about what Holden adores at 3.

Early sat morning I was still in the groove and finished these two cards for a friend who had requested "manly" thank you cards. Do you think they fit the bill??

I'm still feeling the mojo today so maybe, just maybe, after all the shopping and cleaning is done I might get to sneak back into my scraproom to play again!

thank you

Thank you to Karan for the festive decorating of my blog. Without her guidance I may never have had a blog to begin with. I am grateful for her computer knowledge and sharing it with me!

little projects...

Sometimes it's nice to work on something other than a layout. A friend requested some cards so I've been working away on those. This one is using up some scraps from Glitz papers:

I also created this little Christmas can for a Secret Santa crop. Joanne, from TSF, showed how to make these on the TSF blog a while back and I had a little Prima can hanging in my room just waiting for this project. I filled the can with flowers and added some candy cane Hershey's kisses to the lid. It's a great way to reduce, reuse, recycle your packaging.

When the layout mojo might not be flowing it's great to keep creative with little projects like these.