Christmas is coming - a PageMaps layout

Christmas is coming - Christmas is coming!  Are you ready?  I've been thinking of Christmas for well over two months now.  I'm one 'of those' who has my Christmas tree up on the first of December without fail, and would probably have it up mid November if my husband would let me.  This year we haven't had much snow, in fact we didn't even have our first sighting of snow until nearing the end of November, so it's been more difficult for me to get into the Christmas spirit.  Crafting is high on my Christmas to-do list, from the handmade gift tags, to the multitude of Christmas cards I send out, to the individual hand made crafty gifts I give.  I enjoy my little Scrapping Corner in the evenings.

So, here is a layout I did for the Auntie Em's design team - using the PageMaps Calendar's December sketch and my favorite Christmas line of patterned papers Jovial from Basic Grey - yup, it's last year's paper, but it still remains my favorite!!

For my layout I choose a great photo of my daughter on her first Christmas. I fussy cut (and those of you who know me, know how much I *love* to fussy cut) some of the snowmen and snowflakes from one of the patterned papers and popped them up on some of the circles. I also used a Trinket from Bo Bunny and some Webster's Pages Trim. The poinsettias are about as old as my stash is, they must be at least 6 years old - lets put it this way they are older than when Prima started dating everything on their tins; and since they don't even use tins anymore - they are old LOL!!




The journaling I snagged from an AWESOME 600+ page book available at Auntie Em's called "Inspiration Station" it is just full of verses and quotes and poems. Also it has a whole section devoted to layout titles! Great if you are stuck for writing something or just want to add a little bit of sophistication to your page. You won't be disappointed with this book!  Again I used my sewing machine to stitch around the outside of my layout and inked with distress ink, um... just about everything!

Let me know what you think! Please leave a comment.

Two new Copic techniques

I was inspired to make a Vintage card by a very creative talent; Lacey Stephens - see her blog HERE.  I used her tip of stamping the image in brown ink instead of black.  It made a world of difference.  I would love to have made my card with the new Bo Bunny "Snowfall" collection, but I haven't got my hands on it yet... so I settled for their 2008 collection "Winter Whisper"   I'll tell you something, Bo Bunny has come a L-O-N-G way in three years ... from single sided very thin paper, to double sided cardstock and all the 'fixins'!  I love the brown and blue together, so it worked well to give the vintage feel I was going for on this card/image. 

I stamped a Magnolia image, Fairy Dust Tilda, and coloured her in all blues and browns.  I double mounted it with Spellbinders and a bit of Webster's Pages trim.  I used a Bo Bunny trinket which was originally a dark tarnished copper colour, and heat embossed it white.  A little bit of glitter and twine and finished.

My second card encompasses a totally different technique, it is called "no lines" colouring.  How you achieve this is by stamping the image in a very pale colour, usually blue.  However I don't have any light blue ink, but I do have a Stampin' Up ink called Pink Pirouette.  It worked very well for my needs.  Everything I was reading online suggested that this technique is very difficult.  I didn't find it as difficult as I feared ... but I will say that this first image is NOT my best work, and practice will make perfect (or at the very least, better)  I decorated this card with some various Prima flowers and a pebble.  Some very old paper from my stash, from one of those large packages the your non-scrapbooker friends give to you for Christmas thinking that this is an awesome gift because it is 100 sheets of scrapbook paper.  What they don't know is that you will be using the backs of the same paper for white backgrounds as the fronts of the paper are such a Dog's Breakfast of colours and shapes that you will never use more than 3 or 4 sheets.  Well I think this was sheet 5 out of that package.

Let me know what you think of these techniques, please leave a comment; they are free, just like smiles at McDonalds!

~Lorena~

Auntie Em's Scrapbooking August Reveal

Wow, is August really here?  Where did the summer go?  I must say, this year we vowed to spend more time at home in our own back yard rather than being on the go so much.  We have an outdoor fireplace and some Adirondack chairs set up beside the pool, right next to the kids sandbox and 'jumpy castle' and I tell ya, I have more fun here than I do driving for hours to spend money on an event just to drive home again.  My daughter calls her sandbox the 'beach', and when she is done at the beach we just jump right into the pool .... life is grand, and we have one more month of grand before the cool afternoons return and even colder nights ... and that dreaded four letter "S" word  {snow} 

The Scrapbook & Cards Today Calendar sketch for the month of August is just amazing, and both my co-designer Mellisa & I were really looking forward to it.  I am a huge fan of single photo layouts.  I loved this layout so much that I did it TWICE. 


This month we go to work with an amazing line from Bo Bunny called Gabrielle - full of peach and browns and teals - and tones of butterflies.  Oh what a fan!  Although I must say I am looking forward to seeing the Et Cetera line in person - it totally looks my style.


Your Radiant Smile

Supplies :

Patterned Paper = Bo Bunny - Gabrielle collection

Buttons & Charms = Bo Bunny Gabrielle collection

Flowers = Prima, Websters Pages

Trim = Websters Pages

Stamps = Martha Stewart & Harmonie

Ink = Distress Ink by Ranger

Other = handmade flower - canvas & distress ink on a Glueber

Peek-A-Boo

This photo was taken by my sister when she and my husband took the kids to the Tulip Festival in Ottawa earlier this year.  They are looking through the pillars to the Rideau River below.  What a great vantage point.  I colour washed this photo so that the bright colours in their outfits wouldn't detract from the rest of the layout.  I find that sometimes you need just a hint of colour in a photo, and don't want to do it completely Sepia.

Supplies :

Patterned Paper = Bo Bunny - Gabrielle collection

Buttons & Charms = Bo Bunny Gabrielle collection & Stampin Up

Flowers = Prima, Websters Pages

Ink = Distress Ink by Ranger

Journaling = my antique typewriter

Bling = dollar store

Be sure to check out the Auntie Em's Scrapbooking blog here, to see both Melissa's and my August Reveals!

Thanks for looking!

~Lorena~

March Monthly Inspiration Challenge at Auntie Em's Scrapbooking

In like a lamb ... man it was a beautiful day out there today!  Just below freezing, full sunshine, no wind to speak of ... a gentle lamb. I guess we will be in for a Lion in 30 short days!

Well, since March is here now, I will give you the reveal of my March project for Auntie Em's Scrapbooking.  We got to use some wonderful items from Webster's Pages this month.  Mellisa and I used the March sketch from the Scrapbook & Cards Today Page Maps calendar as inspiration.  It never ceases to amaze me that we can use the same sketch and the same papers and end up with such different ideas.

This month again I was stumped at how to use three photos.  This whole multiple photo thing is going to either make me snap or make me a better scrapbooker.  I hope it's the later, not the former!

I call this layout - Innocence of Youth 

I wanted to go on the March theme, and made a calendar out of a journaling card.  I chose the date that the photo was taken last year - which really has no significance.  I am really starting to love my I-rock tool, and moreover using a Sharpie to colour the gems. I loved the butterflies on this page I wanted to enhance them even more - so I stamped various butterflies with a Martha Stewart stamp in Staz On ink all over.  I used some Bloomers (ribbon trim) and Sparklers (buttons) to finish off the project. I made one of my signature handmade Cabbage Roses

Be sure to check out Auntie Em's Scrapbooking Blog here, and Mellisa's blog here for further details and if you comment here you will have a chance to win some Blog Candy that I'm putting together ... and check out Auntie Em's page, there might even be some Blog Candy over there too!

Baby Boy - Layout featuring - Curio by Basic Grey

Hello everybuggy!  I've been watching too much Treehouse TV again methinks!

Anyway, I did a fantastic layout on Tuesday night over at Candace's place.  This photo is one that my best friend Jennifer Carroll took for me of my son - this was his first photo shoot!  She is simply a fantastic photographer - look her up at her website here. 

I used Basic Grey's Curio line for this page and a little bit of Bo Bunny's Cambridge line and a couple of their Chiffon Rose trims.  Some Prima flowers (and the packaging from the flowers).  Some Webster's Pages trim.  Tattered Angel's made the key, and some Dew Drops (love these little beauties) by Robin's Nest. In the corner I stamped with a Tattered Angels stamp and then I used a piece of dollar store trim with some Distress Ink for the honeycomb effect.  I had seen that honeycomb effect done on another layout somewhere and LOVED it.  Last but not least I used two of my hand-made corsage pins.  OK, in the fourth photo I am showcasing my stitching again ... you may have to look hard, but it's there!  Love my Husqvarna sewing machine!!

Lemme know what you think!  Leave a comment - you don't need a Google account to leave me a comment.