samples....

Hooray for play days! No, not the kind where you do sack races and balloon tosses. I'm talking about the days where I get to work on store samples. I am so lucky to get to play around with new products and hopefully they provide some inspiration.


Here are two from the new BoBunny lines. Bobunny always does a fantastic job but these two collections in particular are outstanding.

Midnight Frost is all cool blues and greys with tiny hints of purple and green.

I crinkled up some wired ribbon and added some mini pom pom trim (they reminded me of snowballs) then used staples and glue dots to stick it down.

Crazy Love is simply adorable.

Pink and brown combined with birds and flowers, what more could you ask for?

*thanks to Cheryl for this pic of her beautiful daughter Meghan!

This collection from The Paper Loft is ideal for all of your heritage/family history layouts.

For this layout I used an old photo of my mom. The journalling reads:

"At first glance this picture is just another retro, poor quality photo. What it is to me is a connection to my mother and our shared love of photography. I can't imagine how happy she would have been to experience digital cameras!"

I must have been in the mood to crinkle and smoosh paper and trim today since there seems to be a bit of a trend with these layouts!

Anyhoo, how's that Christmas shopping going??

Pinecone Press

Over the last couple of months we have been getting these really great paper crafting kits from Pinecone Press. Each kit comes with a full colour booklet that tells you how to make loads of different projects. Since I'm the 'sample girl' I get to play with all of these fun kits and make up some of the ideas. Something I really like about these packages is that you can follow their ideas exactly or add your own creativity to them. I just finished two very different kits and thought I would share them with you.

These little holders are great for Hot Chocolate but could be used for lots of other ideas like gift cards to a favourite Coffee shop.

(If you look closely you just might notice some liquid applique on those marshmallows!!)

This holder has 4 pockets and is SUPER easy to put together. The red paper and pockets are already scored and ready to go.

How cute are these penguins?!?!?

Within each kit you will find premium papers either from Pinecone Press or other well known companies like My Mind's Eye or as in the case of the next projects, Graphic 45.

All the pieces you need to make this banner come in the kit, including the yardstick to mount it on. There are loads of details on this vintage Christmas banner. The directions give you step by step instructions on how to make the rosettes and how to put it all together. I added some Glossy Accents, a bell and some Stickles for sparkle.

Here is a closer view of some of the squares:

Something else really great about these kits is that even after making the 'main' project there are lots of leftovers to make other goodies like this gift card holder:

These kits come flat in 12X12 packages so you may not notice them when you wander the store so feel free to ask about them and watch for future kits too.

Oh and PHEW am I ever glad I don't live in London (south western Ontario or in England!) right now...although I'm sure my boys would love all the snow they are getting.

Thanks for having a peek :)

mmmmmm

I've been feeling rather domestic lately which is really unlike me. Although I am technically a stay at home Mom, I've never really embraced the stereotype (haha). However I've learned to enjoy baking over the last few months. I'm still not very adventuresome, sticking to easy recipes, but I've been happy with what I've made. This past week I made 4 enormous batches of banana chocolate chip muffins and mini-loaves. Last week was Pumpkin muffins and breads. I like the idea of having something homemade to put in the boys' lunches and it sure does make the house smell amazing! I drop them off to neighbours and bring them to the store because if I didn't they would be consumed quickly by ME!

I like to make the minis for the boys because they think it's great to have 2 or 3

I even managed to get some into the freezer this time!

Maybe I'll even attempt a cake again. The last cake I made was for Wyatt's second birthday and it fell apart into 5 pieces!

Christmas craftiness and a few samples....

I spent 12 lovely hours at a crop this past Saturday and I decided to work on some non-layout projects. I bought this Kaisercraft tree last year and never got around to finishing it but it's done now! I used some double dot paper and little bits from the Echo Park Christmas line. I added buttons, raffia and ribbon and used the good ole' Alphalicious cartridge (I use this cartridge a LOT!) for the numbers.

I also created this little curly wreath using Echo Park's other Christmas collection. I've seen a few variations of it online and wanted to try one out. Super simple and not overly time comsuming. This one is pretty small and I'm hoping to make a much bigger one for our front door sometime before Christmas.

When I was all done attaching the curls I took it outside, sprayed it with adhesive and sprinkled it with Glamour Dust for just a little sparkle.

Things have gotten back to 'normal' around the store so I've had a bit of time to whip up some samples of the new lines that have come in.

We R Memory Keepers ~ Merry January

Such a pretty, wintery line that I had to 'grunge' up for my boy! lol

I thought the coodinations paper was perfect to sand for a snowy look. I added some snowflake buttons (have you checked out all the cool new buttons yet?) with some Stickles on top.

Echo Park is quickly becoming one of my favourite companies. I love that they have two holiday lines. Look at how cute Kate is in this cup!! (kind of hard to see but there's lots of Stickles on here too..gotta have glitter at Christmas!)

American Crafts

New arrivals in blue and pink! Such sweet collections of chipboard, stickers and embossed papers.

New for dogs and cats. Super cute dimensional stickers and felties along with patterned papers that work for more than just the animals in your life!

Lots of layers and buttons! I tried out my new Sew Easy tool too.

It sold out super quick at the store but there's more coming!

Thanks for taking a peek and I hope all your Holiday crafts are coming along nicely!

mysterious ways...

Every now and then something happens to make my spine tingle a little bit. Tonight, after a tough day, I decided to take a very long bath and finish up a book I've been reading for the last few weeks. When I got to the end, for some reason, I decided to read the acknowledgements which is something I rarely do. This is what they said at the very end ....

And thank you, always, forever, in extremis, to Heather Feather, for her love, support, friendship and positive life force....to my singing, skipping daughter Shelby, who fills our house with sunshine each and every day.

This book is for my mother....she taught me absolutely everything I know about unconditional love. Thanks, Mom.

I am not skipping or singing lately but I thought it was pretty neat to read this, today of all days.

Oh and if you didn't know...my mom's name is Heather.

Hug your mom extra tight the next time you see her.

nine years...

A Mother’s love is binding
Unrelenting in its power
The glow from it so blinding
Beyond her final hour

Even after a Mother’s gone
Her love will see you through
A love to help you carry on
Because that’s what Mother’s do

I'm sure that my mom would hate that I posted this picture for everyone to see but it's important to me because you can still see light in her eyes even as she was facing the worst moments in her life.

Here is a pic of her from her younger days. I have no idea how old she is here, probably mid teens. This picture was in rough shape but my father-in-law restored this for me and did a fantastic job.

I really wish I had more pictures of my mom and should probably keep that in mind for my boys because I am ALWAYS behind the camera.

Missing you Mom.

to market, to market we go....

This time yesterday we were up enjoying the beautiful fall weather at the market. All the colours and smells .....mmmmm.

I had no idea that brussel sprouts grew on stalks!

Grandma and Grandpa, who are frequent market goers, supplied Holden with lots of grapes as we wandered around.

Of course Holden thought that was just awesome!

3 generations

It would be nice if every Saturday had this kind of weather so that trips to market would always be so enjoyable!

just in case you wondered...

If you've ever wondered what goes on at a Two Scrapbook Friends retreat here's a little peek inside one.

It's not just about creating layouts and cards it's really about getting together with a bunch of like-minded (read:crazy) women and enjoying some time away from the stresses of daily life.

Each table designed a tshirt which was then modelled by one of the participants.

These ladies had some serious skills on the catwalk!

I wish I had taped the 'model' showdown on the catwalk. Priceless!

As always a job well done by Carolyn and Joanne!

*I didn't get signed releases for this so I hope nobody minds!

and now for something a bit different....

I spent the weekend among 100+ creative women at the TSF retreat in Grand Bend. I had decided before going that I really needed to work on cards and get my Christmas tags done for the forum swap. For those of you who don't know, I am NOT typically a card maker. I will often throw something together last minute when I need a card.

I made a few cards on Friday night and completed a layout for one of many challenges going on throughout the weekend and then it happened. Emily, owner of Stamping Bella, was invited to join us at the retreat to demonstrate how to use Prismacolour pencils. She was doing a make and take which I thought I would try using a stamp, pencils and a little tube of something called 'liquid applique'. When I started colouring I felt a similar feeling to when I started scrapbooking. Uh-oh, I knew I was in trouble. It was so much fun especially when I saw what the liquid applique did. You apply this white liquid, almost like an opaque Glossy Accents, and then you apply a heat gun and that's when the magic happens!! It puffs up like marshmallows!!! Needless to say the big joke for the rest of the weekend was that I had gone a bit crazy on the applique.

I picked this little Santa up last year and thought it would be perfect to add a little applique to him

OOh I could use it on clouds too!

And for snow of course!

I made 17 of these cards! I used a Bella stamp, Memento ink, Prismas, Glossy Accents on the windows, Stickles and liquid applique to make snow under the tires. This is my first go at using Prismas and it was seriously fun! I suggest if Copics intimidate you (like they do me a bit) Prismas are such a great alternative.

It was a great weekend and I did get loads of cards made, so many that I'm not sure what I'll do with all of them. It was so much fun to work on something different and to learn a new technique.

Happy Halloween

I'm just about ready to leave for the TSF scrapbook retreat in Grand Bend but wanted to wish you all a Happy Halloween before I go. Hope all the ghosts and goblins have a great time and that the weather is kind to us!

Hopefully I'll get something accomplished this weekend so I have new pics to post next week.
Take care everyone!

BOO!

a few more....

I forgot to include these ones!

Little Yellow Bicycle

The naughty/nice chipboard has a moveable arrow to suit your photo(s) and there is a sheet that has HUGE holiday images to cut out. I added some pom poms cut from trim.

Jillibean Soup

Homey holiday papers on kraft backgrounds. Love these snowmen!

Imaginisce

Something non-holiday! Great dino line with all kinds of cool embellishments. Perfect for your dinosaur crazy kiddos!

These lines will be in store sometime in the near future, once everything is unpacked from Scrapfest!

samples

Scrapfest Oshawa is happening as I write this and I have been insanely busy creating 35 new page kits and samples for the booth at the show.

Some of these products are available instore now and the rest will be when Joanne and Carolyn return from the show.

We R Memory Keepers "Maple Grove" collection. Papers, embossed stickers and embellisments all in perfect fall colours.

Sassafras Lass latest collections

"Mix and Mend" has some very cool papers which look like loads of embellisments are already on them. I played it up by adding real crochet trim, buttons and staples. I also hand cut around some of the designs to make them appear even more 3D.

"Indie Girl" is lots of blues and green mixed with little bits of pink. I really like the chipboard flowers that Sass has come out with.

"Count me in" has really cute critters, papers and adhesive banners that can be used for lots of different things. Chipboard number packs work perfectly for dates, birthdays or this type of title.

BoBunny's 'Winter Joy' has gorgeous, non-traditional winter/holiday papers and embellishments. They have really expanded their trim to include fabric, velvet and even leather!

I love the pom pom trim that has come in with each of the new BoBunny lines.

Thanks to Darcy and Jessica for lending me pics of their girls, again!

If you don't get a chance to check all of these great new lines out at Scrapfest be sure to pop in sometime over the next few weeks. Just be forgiving....it takes a few days to get the store back in order after such a big event!