Some Christmas Cheer!

Things have been so crazy here, getting ready for the holiday season. Everyone having Christmas parties and holiday concerts, not to mention the shopping! Don't even get me started about the wrapping. It is the one thing that I don't look forward to but I am always very happy with the results. 

So today I thought I would share a few Christmas projects. 

The first is an advent calender. I love when you start to see homemade advent calendars start to pop up on peoples blogs, so I thought this year I would give it a try.

I am happy with the way it turned out. No two pockets are the same. Most of the supplies are Doodlebug. The bar that I hung them on was from Ikea, got to love them. It was from their Christmas section, for hanging ornaments on.

Now a fun layout of my kids. One day in November I was trying to get some work done and the kids would not leave me alone. So my wonderful husband took them to the park to take some Christmas photos. I love them and him for doing it!

Enjoy! Chris

Baby It's Cold Outside

So it is a little chill outside here today ! So I thought I would share a fun summer layout. I know I was sharing hockey before the snow was falling and now summer. But I love these photos of my son and our dog. Laika our beloved dog passed away this fall which makes this layout that much more special.

This layout shows how much these two love the lake. There were many an hour you could find these two right here. All the product on the layout are from Bella Blvd. 

Enjoy your day no matter the weather! Chris

Last Day of Scrapper's Club Week

So for the last day of the week I decide to share a page that the members of the club haven't even seen yet. They will get to see it at tonight's session! Shhhh! It is one of the layouts that they can choose from for next month. I love the way it turned out. My daughter had a pink cast at the end of the summer post surgery so there are lots of pink in my pages in that time frame.

She has lots of Instagram photos so it was fun to be able to add so many here. I really like the way the layout turned out. Thanks for spending the week with me!
Enjoy! Chris

Scrapper's Club day four

Day four and another Scrapper's Club page or two. Toady I am posting a few pages from the summer. The first is a fun sunshine ray covering the two pages. The paper had a total summer feeling. To create the layout I found it easiest to make a template. Then everyone use the template, it worked like a puzzle.

The second page I love because of the color combination! This page I spent a lot of time putting together all the little embellishments. There are so many little details I love!

It is hard to believe the week is almost over. I have been having fun I hope you have too.
Enjoy! Chris

Scrapper's Club day three

We are now half way through Scrapper's Club week. I am really enjoy sharing the pages so far. It is a bit like travelling down memory lane. Here is a slightly older page.

This is not a very complicated page but everyone had fun working on it. It was nice because it features one photo but you are able to add lots of photos to the page. This is a layout that highlight a fun event in my sons school year. They have a few practice speed skating then they get to go to the MTS Center (where the Jet play) to race the other kids in the city.

Enjoy! Chris 

Scrapper's Club day two

So the layout I pick for the day two reveal is a very recent page. Last month I believe! But it is one of my favorite pages from Scrapper's Club. When I am creating pages for this club there are several things that have to be taking into account. You have to create a page that can be duplicated with relative ease, that has a broad base appeal, just to name a few.
Some of my favorite things about this layout are... I love the color contrast, the pie charts (super hot right now and so fun!)

I always love when there is a tip that goes along with the layout. So for the pie charts I cut the circles together and then when it was time to cut them into parts I cut them at the same time. That made it really easy to exchange the pieces to create a varied pattern.
So fun! Enjoy! Chris

Scrapper's Club Week!

As some of you may know and some of you may not...I have been designing for what is lovingly called Scrapper's Club for several years now. It is a local group and once a month we get together and scrap. I do the design work for them. They come armed with a their own pictures and get to work. I have never shared any of the pages I have design here. So I thought it might be fun to have a Scrapper's Club reveal week. I will post a layout a day all week. I have had a good time looking back and picking the layouts. I thought as we are starting to think about our photos for the family Christmas card, this layout would be a fun one to share.

At each evening session they would come armed with their photos and a few tools and at the end of the night they go home with four completed pages ( two layouts). One of my favorite parts is to see how different everyone's pages turn out.
Enjoy! Chris

The other side

I just realized that I didn't share the other half of the hockey page I shared a few weeks ago. So as the weather cools off and hockey season is back in full swing I guess it is time to share!

I had so much fun playing around with my Cameo on this page. It has been awhile since I played around with a title with lots of layers. It takes a bit of time and concentration but I always love the result. The product I used was mostly from Simple Stories Sn@p!. I love all the bright colours.
Enjoy! Chris

Productive Weekend

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a scrapbooking retreat this past weekend. It is at a camp and it was a wonderful weekend away. It was the first time in several years I was able to attend as a guest and not a host. You are just beginning to feel the fall in the air here so it is the perfect time to be inside cozy and working away. Here are some of the pages I was able to finish this weekend.

The products are mostly Creative Memories, some very old and some from the last campaign. It was nice to use up some of the older product and fun to use the new products too.

Enjoy! Chris

Project Life-page one!

This will not be a long post but I promised to come back with some pictures from my first ever week of Project Life. I will say it is not the fastest layout I have ever put together  but I assume that is all a learning process. Trying something new is always a challenge. (or maybe that is just me!)

 It was fun! I am really happy with how it turned out. All of papers are from Bella Blvd. along with lots of the embellishments. I didn't have any of there washi tapes so I added in some others for a fun element. Here is a close up of each side of the page.

I have to say I am almost out of all the Bella Blvd paper I ordered! Maybe time to refill!

Enjoy! Chris

 

Quick gift idea with Bella Blvd

Every year my anniversary seems to sneak up on me! You would think as it is always the same day I would be more prepared. But it is right in the middle of the back to school craziness, hockey try outs and the beginning of dance classes. So here we are another and I had no gift? I had an idea so this weekend I set to work. I grabbed a  99cent Tolsby frame from Ikea. (Yes I said 99 cents-just don't tell my husband!) And set to work. I collect my new Bella Blvd papers and embellishments.
This is what my desk looked like before-

 

I set to work with an idea in my head and I am quite happy with how the whole thing turned out.

This is a shot of the individual pages. I picked a couple of different lengths and added some tabs on the side with the border stickers to vary the shapes.

 

 

And this is the whole think put together.

 

He loved it and it is proudly sitting on his desk today.

Enjoy! Chris

 

First attempt at Project Life

So I am dipping my toe in and trying something new! Project Life- if you are curious to read about Becky Higgins' revolution in the scrapbook market- there is a little description here on her blog.
I have decided to start slow I picked up a set of page dividers I thought I would like to work with the most and a new corner rounder, and set out to give it a try.

And here is a shot of my first page.

 

I will post more when it is all finished. I am enjoying the process so far. Messy but I think my desk is always like that when I am scrapbooking.

Enjoy! Chris

 

Can you say published!!!!

Well I am beyond excited to finally be able to say that I have been published for the first time. The layout that I designed appear in the August Cricut Families Idea Book. I have been very patiently waiting (not really) for the magazine to be in print. But they have very recently changed to a completely digital edition. What a great idea! I have so many old magazines collection dust. I have had fun slowly changing my magazines over to digital copies.
The pages is a page that I designed after our family portraits last year. It was the first time in several years we had a chance to collect all the cousins to have some fun!

They had so much fun trying to all jump at the same time. I have to say there were quite a few funny shots in this series. It took awhile to get them all together.

Enjoy! Chris

Road Trip

So I know I have been quiet but I have been working on some things that I can not show you yet. Soon I promise but I placed an order for some scrapbook supplies! Not that I needed any more stuff but do any of us really need more supplies. The box arrived from 2Peas and I set to work.
Here is a peek in my box! Shhh!

 

As soon as I can share what I did with the pretty stuff in the box I will. But in the meantime I will share a page that I did of a hockey road trip to Minneapolis. The picture inside the waterpark were not the best but it is really hard to get a good shot in a waterpark.

Most of the product is Simple Stories- Snap! It was lots of fun to play with. I just love the bright, fun colors. Off to play some more!

Enjoy!- Chris

Some more hockey?

Just in case you didn't get enough the other day. I did some more pages with the Creative Memories Sporty Stack. This paper is WSL so get it while you can. I can say the colors are great and could go with anything not just sports.

This is the same event. I like the fact that none of the pages are the same but they all go together. I kept the groups of embellishments similar but a bit different on each page.

To make it even better they won the whole event! It was a crazy rough tournament, not the kind I like to watch. So Dad took all the photos for me. Thanks, Dad!
Enjoy! Chris

Some hockey anyone?

I know I know we are finally in full blown summer and I am talking about ice hockey. The sad part is we are just a few days away from a regular scheduled hockey. I know you can call me Hockey Mom.
These pages are all created with Creative Memories Sporty Paper Stack.

This was an outdoor 4x4 tournament last spring. Let's just say the boy had some fun. I am quite enjoying playing with the paper stack. There are lots of bright patterns to pick from.

Enjoy! Chris

 

 

 

Working on workflow!

So I am been missing for a bit. As some of you know my daughter has had some pretty major surgery. I will spare you the details as it would make some a bit queasy ! She is doing quite well now but that way a long road. This is her in the hospital. She looks better then she feels.

Then there was a week of lots and lots of special care from her parents! She had a rough recovery period, but the doctor was happy with how all the bone work went.

 

 So after a week she got a new cast. Very painful experience- by the way.

 

To make it even more exciting she turn 16 in the middle of this whole experience. So her brother tried to make it a bit better with a present to match her new cast.

We seem to be on the up swing now so now onto my next issue. Not a ton of work coming out of my office. So I am spending the day on workflow! So get ready there is some scraping happening so soon as I clean my scrapbook area!

Enjoy!- Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Memories Baby Blog Hop

Well all I can say is I am so excited to be taking part in my very first Blog Hop with the new Creative Memories Design Team. If you have arrived here you should be coming from Gretchen McElveen's blog. You have made your way about half way through and you have to agree Creative Memories has introduced a great baby line. Make sure to read all the way to the end for your clue.

When we were told the hop was going to take place the first thing that came to my mind was- "Hey, that's my birthday!". So I thought it would be a great way to celebrate the new baby line and my birthday with a page layout from when I was a baby.
There are not many pictures of me as a baby because my parents did not have a camera (hard to believe I know). The only pictures seem to be when someone came to visit. Thank goodness my parents were interested in showing me off to others.

The pictures in the layout are of my Grandma Pearl and myself, she was my Dad`s mom. Once I had grown I spent many an hour baking and crafting with her. It was always a special day when I got to have a sleepover and spend a wonderful girls day with her.

I used the new It's A Girl Digital Additions for StoryBook Creator and It's A Girl Digital Kit for StoryBook Creator as well as Cute As A Bug Digital Embellishments for StoryBook Creator.

This layout is pictures of my first airplane trip to visit my Grandparents. I was the first grandchild born on both side of the family. I am sure that has something to do with the nickname my Grandfather gave me, "Princess". Even though I don't remember the event the pictures bring back so many memories of wonderful visits and fun times.

There are so many great blog for you to visit, hope you enjoyed your time here. The next blog on the hop is, Ginger Williams. Before you leave your clue is "I". Thanks for having some fun with me!

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Happy Easter

Better late then never right! Easter was a bit different for us this year. It is a family tradition that we head to the mountains for some skiing with the kids for the school break. Nine years straight to be exact. This is the first time that it was Easter at the end of our vacation. We arrived home really late on Saturday night. So we ended up having Boston Pizza for Eater dinner as nothing was open here. Luckily, we had done our Eater crafts before we left. Here is the result posted on Creative Memories Project Centre.

It was such a great craft the kids worked on. They were plaster eggs that you created and the painted. There were even some sparkles for who ever wanted.  If you are interested in a full set of instructions they are here or click on the picture and it will take you there too.

Enjoy!

Beach days!

So this is the first week of spring? Really?? I think it is safe to say it has not made its way here yet. We are still heavy into snow. This is the way my house looked last week as the plough came down to clear the street- Nice, no getting up that! On the bright side the sun is shining. Haha!

The other good thing is it has meant some time for scrapbooking. I am going to share a beach page. My kids LOVE going to the beach. This day it was beautiful when we left the city, not so nice by the time we got there. It was super windy. I am pretty sure I didn't even go in the water that day. This is a page of Hannah dancing on the beach because anyone who knows her knows she dances wherever she goes!

There are lots of great Creative Memories goodies in there, but most of it is from the Enchanted Power Palette.

Enjoy! Chris

PS I Love You

I was able to sneak away this weekend and do a little scrapbooking. It is so lovely to spend the weekend at a B&B with nothing to worry about other then how many hours of scrapbooking you can get in. Haha! It is wonderful to arrive and find your room with the pressed sheets all ready for you. Then it is time to get to work!

This is a page from Valentine's Day last year. What a handsome young man-eh! This is the PS I Love You Ltd edition. If you like it you should get it before it is gone. The Ltd Edition products have been going quick. Some of the new product for January/ February is gone already so don't delay.
Enjoy!

Border Maker Love!

I was lucky enough to be able to escape to a B&B for the weekend. It was so crazy cold, I mean CRAZY cold. But it was that much better for a weekend of scrapbooking. There was nothing you had to worry about other then staying warm and how many pages you could scrapbook. It was very productive.

Here are some of the pages I worked on this weekend. You will see a repeated theme...the border maker from Creative Memories.

This is a fun Christmas page. I used three different border punches. That is one of my most
 thing is to layer the borders.

A super fun winter page. It is not a good sign when you need to clean off the slide but they were determined.

A track and field page with the new Hexagon Border Maker. This is one of my new favorites. Check it out here.

This is a birthday page. Yes pink for my boy what fun! This is also with the Hexagon Border Maker.

If you had not had a chance to check out the whole system, check it out here.

This is a must have tool.

Enjoy!