The Easy Way

Today it's one of my little cousins birthdays; it's her 18th birthday, so I guess she's not all that little! I forgot to make her a card, and feel pretty bad about that, but did make a comment on her Facebook wall. I think I'm going to create a few non-discript cards, some male oriented and some really girly, just to have them on hand, so I can always send them out (although I did completely forget about her birthday until yesterday, so it still wouldn't have worked in this case!). I'm going to work on that this month. Another of my cousins birthday is on the 15th, so I'm going to get to work on that card right away. That will be a little side progect for me!

Do you ever have a lot going on, and just want to get a layout completed? That's how I've felt this week. Since initially we were taking today off, and heading out last Friday for camping, I was pushing myself all week to get this layout completed. I print my journalling (if I want type) at work, and knowing that I wouldn't be at home all of the weekend, my plan was to get it printed off early in the week, and slowly work on it. Wednesday came around, and I still hadn't done anything with the page, nothing printed; thankfully that's when we decided not to head off, wait for a better day since it was so wet and miserable out.

I had known for some time now I wanted to do a list, 25 things to do before my 26th birthday. I'd seen it done before (I think the first time was a post somewhere on Elise Flannigan's blog), then I saw the same thing done on Kelly Purkey's blog, and I loved how she scrapped the list. I asked if she would mind if I lifted the look, and she had no problem with it. Without further ado, your Monday Challenge.

On your next layout: scraplift a layout. (Always ask for permission first.)

This is Kellys original. What made me instantly fall in love with her page, besides the list, is how she did the journalling. Every point, all in it's separate little spot; I'm loving circles right now, so that was just an added bonus that each thought was it's own circle. I also really liked that she devided the page; between the photo and journalling there's a diffinative break, with the vertical strip.

Since I was nearing the end of my sticker sheet, and still wanted to use those alphas, I cut around the letter image on the backing sheet. Again, I've wanted to do this for a long time, and this was the perfect opportunity.

When I printed my journalling, (I knew I wanted to use the rest of the paper in my Tickled Spring kit, and only had scraps, which couldn't be fed through the printer without a fight), I printed it on transparencies. Which I just punched out and layered overtop of the punched paper circles. I wish I would have taken a little bit more time, and ensured the glue didn't show through, but I'm letting things like that go! I covered up a couple spots that I really didn't like with some buttons. (A little secret: I knew it was going to be tough to sew the button through a couple layers of transparency, so I stitched them onto a scrap paper, cut that out, and glued it onto the page.)

I seriously enjoy using stamping on my pages lately. I'm just on a stamping kick lately. When I was looking at the page, before I stamped or added the flowers I knew something else was missing. I had a big gap on the top right portion of the journalling area. I needed to cover some of that space with something. Originally I was going to stamp that floral design, but it was going the wrong direction. So I stamped that by the title, looking like it came out from under the photo; instead of having to remove my photo, I just masked off the area that would have gotten stamped. I also stamped the bee, part of which is on a transparency. I did not use a permanent ink, but it turned out okay. Only a little is off the paper, so it's okay. Once I'd finished stamping, and still something was missing from the area, I resorted to my standby: flowers; why re-invent the wheel, right?

Journalling says: (left to right) kiss for 10 minutes, don't eat sweets before noon, stay awake for a 24 hour period, win a blog contest, make 5 pieces of jewlery, get married August 21, 2010, find creative ways to document all 25, purchase Rhonna Farrer's 100 Creativity Exercises - do one every morning, visit 3 new states, take a selfie every Wednesday (52 weeks), make a new girlfriend, paint 2 walls (different rooms, different colours) in the house, swim in the ocean, paint a canvas (make art), donate my hair to Locks 4 Love, get at least 30 comments on one blog post, create a chalkboard, refinsh Grandma's dressers, plan a $20 date night once a month, loose 5 pounds stay at weight for three months, continue the Monday Challenges on my blog, get my elephant tattoo, go camping 20 times in the new trailer, go to a scrapbooking crop, for one day eat only fruit and water.

Yup, that's a big list to accomplish in a year! So far (it's been almost a month), I'm doing great on a few things; like taking a selfie on Wednesdays. I bought a book just for those pictures. Something that I'm not doing the greatest at: not eating sweets before noon. I do try not to, and some days I do succeed. There are those days (today for instance) that the chocolate makes its way into my mouth! Something to work on.

Leave a comment, with a link to your layout using the challenge. What is something you're working on changing about yourself?

A New Month, A New Kit

This one, I've been working on for some time. I've slowly been adding to it; a patterened paper here, ink there. I'm in love with these colours, and papers too. I forced myself to finish one more page with the old kit, (the page I'll show for tomorrows Monday Challenge), then I could break into this one. Now, the only problem is the fact that I'm mostly all caught up with my pages (just that one pesky New Years party layout left, which won't work with these summery colours), and I haven't taken anymore recent pictures. This year I'm scrapbooking differently, all the pages are documenting this year, in chronological order - so I can't go back and dig up some old photos. I'll just have to wait to use it!

That one stamp set, the one with the guy grilling gave me the inspiration for the whole kit. Every item I bought was based on a feeling of being outside, on the patio, beside the grill. Justin's the one that grills, so I'd be there waiting with a cocktail!

(Items in my May kit "BBQ Season": specialty paper - My Mind's Eye Lush Brown Diamonds; paper - Crate Paper Brook Collection Downstream, Branch and Ripple; Basic Grey Nook & Pantry Lemon Meringue Pie; Basic Grey Origins Sea Salt and Renew; SEI Jocelyn BFF and Aqua Shock; Kraiser Scrapbook Esther's Guestlist Abigail; alphabets - Scrap With In Reach Paper Boy; American Crafts Thickers Delight Fabric Letters; journalling aid - Tattered Angels Bingo Boards and Calling Cards Outdoor; Pink Paislee Punchouts Queen Bee; stamps - My Favorite Things Just Delightful Clear Stamps Who's That Grillin' Guy?; Hampton Art Foot Longs Woodland Animals; stickers - Crate Paper Title Stickers Brook Collection; Scrap With In Reach Paper Boy; Studio Calico Fab Rips (Sticky Fabric Strips) Anthology; Basic Grey Canvas Tags Origins; brads - My Mind's Eye Lush Decorative Brads Brown; ink/mist - SEI Chalk Ink Block mint; Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Frozen Lake)

More From Our Wet & Rainy Day

Originally I was staying at work today for lunch. I brought my soup and hamburger/mashed potato/creamed corn mess with me when I left the house this morning. Justin called me, wondering if I could check the sump pump, and of course I said yes. So, I grabbed my containers and away I went.

I didn't take the same way home as I did this morning when I went to work, so it may have been like this earlier, but there was an enourmous amount of water in the ditches and partially covering some roads.

I'm not sure if this will tell show what I was hoping for, but my steering wheel was at such an angle just to go down the road straight. It's blowing at least 90km/h right now. It's driving me crazy at work; I sit next to a garage door, basically, and the wind is whipping and howling out, rattling the door. Driving me crazy!
Instead of working today, I'd rather be doing this:

Thankfully, the sump pump is working properly. Justin's heard many horror stories lately from guys he works with about theirs not working and flooding thier houses. We don't need that right now, so we check it frequently. Other peoples pumps work very often (we've heard about some running every five mintutes), ours has never ran, other than when we lifted the float to check to see if it's still working. I think our house is a little bit higher than others around it; this is a very nice blessing!

One of our neighbours recently leveled an area for his garage to be built. Then the ran came. I think he should be looking into building a swimming pool instead.

I planned my route back to work the same way, just so I could get a photo of the "lake" that was covering part of the roadway.

I really like to document days like this. Days that are out of the ordinary; days that make you thankful for what you have (electricity for example).

This Is Just The Beginning

Yet again, most of Southern Alberta is under a winter storm warning (although we're in the spring month, apparently they still refer to it as a "winter" storm warning because it's winter condtions). I honestly thought we'd be waking up to snow again this morning, thankfully it's just huge puddles (some might even call them ponds!). For the past two nights I've been awoken to the noice of the rain/ice pelting our bedroom window. Last night was especially bad; the whole house shook. Since watching Lost so much lately, I was a little rattled myself when that happened; thankfully I went right back to sleep though.

Our poor mud pit yard in front of our house.

The snow on the back of the Blazer was mostly slush thankfully. Temperatures are about 1 degree, thankfully it isn't colder, or else this would have been rock hard.

I've only recetly noticed how nice an green the grass is. And, while driving this morning, I noticed the trees have that "green glow" to them and are starting to bud out.

All day yesterday was rainy. I'm not sure the ground can absorb any more moisture.

My Olympic mittens are keeping me warm and happy. It's funny, on the day of the closing ceremonies (and more importantly the gold medal mens hockey game), February 28, we had the patio door open (screen closed so Lowie wouldn't escape) and the weather was beautiful! Yes, we've kyboshed our plans of going camping this weekend; we'll do that another time, when we have warm weather again!

Alpha Sticker Trick

Let's get right to it, shall we?

On you next layout: use a patterned paper that's given you grief; you know, the sheet that you can't seem to make work for you - use that one!

Ever since I put together my "Tickled Spring" kit, I've been wondering what layout would work for this green paper with scissors on it. I don't sew (although I'd like to try that on my pages), well I haven't for a long while, anyways. Everytime I pulled it out, it didn't seem to work on whatever project I was working on. Even when I started on this layout, with pictures of my cousin and I, I thought I'd eventually give up. When I came up with the title "snippits of me and you," all of a sudden it all worked. Those scissors fit and added character and charm to my page!

This title was a little bit tricky to make work for me. When I first figured out if I had the right amounts of letters to make the words I wanted to, I miscounted on of the U/N's (they're the same in lower case - just flip). I didn't get upset once I looked at the sticker sheet; I saw an H, and just chopped it up a little, using the other U/N as my guide, to make it the same size. (It's the U in "you" that I made.) Also, I was originally planning on stamping the "of" on the layout. When I tried that, it looked really tiny, and un-noticeable. (I covered that up with a second vertical strip of beige paper). I again looked at my sticker sheet, and realized I didn't have a F. Thinking of how ingeneous I had just been, I decided to see if I could create another letter. I though first to use a C as the hook for the top of the F. I then looked at the J, which looked like it would work better. I added the base of a I, and added another arm branch - and voila, a F! You can't even tell, unless you look really closely, but I always tell my secrets! (I've been known to turn a K side ways to make a C and cover up the top with a flower!)


Journalling says: Always, whenever Brittany and I get together, there's crazy photos of us. These are from our spontaneous trip to the big city (we decided Thursday night and went Saturday). We left right after Justin was done worl, spent the night and came home Sunday. Totally worth it - just for these photos!

Keep this trick in mind the next time you start running out of alphas! Don't forget to leave a comment, with a link to your layout using the challenge!

Hearts, Flowers and Pearls Oh My!

I had another weekend challenge for myself to get two layouts completed (the other one will be for tomorrow's Monday Challenge). Our plan for this upcoming weekend is to take Monday off, and head out camping - so I want to have all my layouts done; that way when I get home, I can scrap the trip. Now, I only have two more pages left to finish - still the one from our New Years celebration, and a second about my birthday. I'm hoping to get at least one of these done this week, before we leave.

I had a brilliant idea last year: to take a self portrait of Justin and I every Friday from August 21 2009 until the same date in 2010 - our wedding. It got to be a bit overbearing, so we stopped that (I try not to be upset that this didn't work out). Then, when the six month mark came around, I decided once a month wouldn't be so bad; so every month, on the 21st I'm determined to take a photo of the two of us. Last Wednesday, I was at my desk at work when I realized it was only four months until our wedding. I got a little bit emotional, and cried a tear or two; I can't believe how fast it's come, and how soon that day will be here. Late that night, I remembered to take the picture, so there we were, sitting in bed talking about how our day had been. Click!

Journalling says: watching Lost on DVD; laying in bed talking about our day; digging trenches for gas/elecricity to garage - and making 2 trips to Walmart to buy shovels; our relaxation right now. 4 months 'til wedding.

More stitching (second time I've attempted this). I'm not nearly as happy this time as last time, but I'm still learning!

I really loved these flowers that Elizabeth Kartchner did on this page when I saw them originally. She made a video tutorial on how she made them. It's really simple, would have been even easier with a glue gun (don't have one). And, I've been wanting to make a tissue paper flower for a long time too (punched same sized circles from lots of layers of tissue paper, stacked them on top of one another, and sewed a button to the center). This was as good a place as any! I'm always on the look out for new ways I can add dimention to my pages. I'm not a big fan of "flat" layouts!

This layout is a pretty girly one (the flowers, the pearls used as bullet points in my journalling, the stamped embossed doily); the colours add to that "relaxed" vibe I was going for. I new making the photo black and white would allow me to use whatever colours I wanted (the top I was wearing is a very bright pink); this way the paper colours didn't compete with the photo colours.

What have you been working on this weekend?

Twice The Story

Originally when I started to think about designing this layout, I wanted a lot of journalling. The journalling is much more impressive than the photos are in conveying the story. When I went to scrap, I had something else I wanted to say too, something from a Canadian Tire commercial; something I said that day. The tone of that thought, and the "story" journalling were completely different (although I could have made it work). I've been thinking about using my calendar stamp as a journalling block (I saw this done somewhere, but can't remember where exactly). I thought this page would be a good place to use this technique, and to have the more casual writing there.

I used all sorts of products on this page: the big cream coloured paper and the striped paper are both scraps. The brown polk-a-dot sticker and red eyelet sticker are both from a Valentine's/love Making Memories sticker pack. It's nice to know that products can be used not for their intended purpose. (I've seemed to be stamping on all my layouts lately. It's good; I have a lot of stamps that I've never used on pages!)

When I stamped the calendar onto the page the days of the week didn't show up clearly (notice that part of the grid also didn't stamp properly). I got a little bit upset for a couple seconds (possibly minutes!), then thought of re-stamping it on another paper, and putting that on top of the image on the paper. I used the back of the striped paper for this, which coordinated perfectly (using up more of my scraps).

The journalling says: (in the calendar stamp) Wednesday April 14 for days like today we wish we had a generator. We would have been in the trailer all day watching DVD's! (on the transparency) Wet, heavy snow fell hard, blanketing most of Southern Alberta, knocking out the power to most of the city. Justin and I were sent home from work shortly after getting there (Justin was only at work ten minutes, and I was there for about an hour and a half). After being at home for an hour we stopped by mum's work, picked her up (dad drove her to work because of the road conditions) and went over to their house - most of the West side had power. We filled the Blazer up with gas; the station was rumored to be the only on with both gas and electricity. The lineup was incredible; it took close to 45 minutes. Mum made us a familiar lunch - Lipton's chicken noodle soup, baking soda bisquits and honey butter (it made me happy and made me think of coming home for lunch in elementary). When we got back to our house at about four, our power was back on. From what we can tell, our power came back on at noon. Even with living in Ontario, and with winters that used to involve a lot more snow, this was our first "snow day"!

Just goes to show, sometimes you just need to have another look at your stash, and see it in a different way. Also, it was pretty weird to be scrapbooking a page about snow, when it was about 25 degrees outside. I finished this layout on Tuesday, less than a week since that snow day, and it was beautiful out!

Today Marks The Beginning

Today, the ground was ripped up at our house. Justin dug the trenches for the gas and electrical lines to go to the garage. He got off work shortly after lunch to start the process with the ditch witch; when I got home it involved a couple trips to Walmart to get shovels to be able to dig out the dirt that had sunk back into the holes. (The ground is almost completely dried up from our freak snowstorm last Wednesday. It was 17 degrees on the weekend, and a beautiful temperature of 25 today!)

I knew I wanted to revive our "$20 date night" earlier today (after an ordeal this morning with my keys not being in my purse and a frantic search, which ended once I called Justin to see if he'd seen them; naturally he put them in the misc box in our entryway closet - the only place I didn't look!), and began making date plans before lunch. My original concept was going to the cheap movie theatre to watch The Crazies, since Justin's been wanting to watch it for awhile. But, when he called to say that he was going to be working on the yard, I knew that idea wouldn't work. So on the way home I stopped at Tim Horton's to buy a couple iced caps (every year when the weather warms up, I start my next addiction to these yummy drinks; I'd already had one at lunch that a friend dropped off to me! If I can't sleep tonight I only have myself to blame.).

Justin was working away when I surprised him with the drink.

During one of my trips out, I picked up a delicious (although not healthy) supper from 7 Eleven of potatoe wedges, chicken strips, chicken wings and chicken on a stick.

I had only 27 cents after all was said and done tonight from the twenty dollars. I'll count that as a successful date!