Monday Inspiration

I followed the new "Sketch It 5" challenge over at the Scrapbookin' Adventures Facebook page and came up with this:

This uses a lot off different papers and embellishments from my stash.  Having it stored the way I do now, I go for colour or matching a multi-colour rather than worry a lot about which manufacturer I'm grabbing (but I definately still have my favs!!).  The yellow is Close to My Heart, blue and multi is October Afternoon.  Green is Basic Grey.  The stickers are all Echo Park from the masculine This & That collection. The tag and banners are from MME "On The Bright Side" collection 12x12 die cut sheets.

These are WalMart pics of my eldest at 9 months old.  The right picture is actually a 5x7 horizontal but I tucked it behind the vertical picture as all that is missing is empty space and a picnic basket. I'm not much on "props" in pictures so didn't mind hiding that! I didn't want it in the first place and only ordered that print cause of his cute expression.  He had been so exciting when she was taking his picture he was giggling and flapping his arms around :)  He LOVED getting his picture taken!

Have a great day!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Boy in a Box

Sorry for the bad picture but I did this this evening and it's very dark outside!! This was as good as it got for 9pm and with my iPhone (and with me tired, haha).  This follows the LilyBee Design sketch from Monday (October 22nd) and uses up some REALLY old paper from Cherry Arte.  Their sketch had banners in the top left, paint splatters and a design cluster in the middle right side... so this paper did most of that for me!!

I added some MME words in the top left as well as an asterick from the same AC Thickers font as "boy" and "box".  The flag is from Bella Blvd and the wood banner is MME Fun Day collection.  The circle in the bottom right and by the wood banner I made myself to replicate the top left on the paper.  Looks like a pretty decent copy, if I do say so myself :)  That bottom right corner has a MME arrow, Jillibean Soup word and another one of those astericks from the Thickers.  They were pretty close to the "splats" on the paper and helped pull the lettering in a bit more.

Here's to a wonderful and creative week ahead!!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

#20 - I did it!!!

Here's the last layout!! I changed it up a bit as I didn't have quite enough paper to do it the way it was supposed to.  But that worked out ok as I had a LOT to say and so I was left with a lot of room to say it!! This is a pretty simple layout for me but the pictures are the star attraction so I'm okay with that.

#19... coming into the home stretch

I made a commitment to myself to get the last few layouts from the crop in Parksville DONE rather than letting them sit and I am so very very close!  This is #19 of the 20 total.  Found these gorgeous flowers in an old kit and wow, love them a lot.

Sorry, that's a really crappy picture.  It's really grey and dark here today. I'll try to take another tomorrow and replace it.

Jen

#18 - Getting so close to finishing

I had to leave the crop I've been talking about all week early to drive back to Victoria (and thank goodness we did as we hit a detour due to a horrendous accident!) so I've been working on the last 4 layouts I needed to finish.  This is #18 and I'm off to maybe work on #19 now.  (or I might do a sketch challenge from Noel Mignon... haven't decided yet)

This isn't my FAV layout of all time but was working OUTSIDE my comfort zone with the colours so that might be it.  BUT... check out the Weekender Thickers... oh love, oh to die for, oh so glad I bought them in two colours (cause I bought 5 new sets at the store during the crop... shhh)

Unrelated... I went to the Madonna concert in Vancouver a few weekends ago. I now seem incapable of scrapping without Madonna on...  Revolver and Girls Gone Wild are my favs but... even the song I thought was "gross" at the concert is in my head... I think it's called "Bang Bang" and she sings "Bang Bang, I shot my lover in the head..." which is gross but... the dang song is super catchy and I caught myself singing it the other day!!

Have a super day! It's rainy and dreary here but with Madonna telling me to go wild and all my pretty paper... I'm doing just fine :)

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

#17 - Another day, another layout

Well, with all my prep I was off to a rough start on actually DOING my layout a day challenge but more than managed to catch up at the crop!  And here is my layout for today.  This is #17 from the Sunday workshop at the Scrapbookin' Adventures crop that I did from start to finish at home.  I made a few changed but followed Jennifer's "pattern" fairly closely.

I realized after I took the picture that I hadn't put one of my misted butterflies back on along the top pink banner so... pretend there is a bluish-grey one there :)

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Scrapbookin' Adventures 6th Anniversary Event!!

Hi everyone!  I wanted to share all my lovely creations from the crop I attended this weekend.  Fingers crossed this works!!  About 6 of these are my own design, the first 3 are from Summer Fullerton's class on  Saturday morning and the rest are from Jennifer Edwardson's "Use Your Own Product" workshops on the Friday night and Sunday morning.  See her blog HERE.  It was crazy, manic, fast and furious scrapbooking.  Or as I said yesterday, it was like the scrapbooking olympics :)  She gave us information to prep "kits" for each layout then at the workshop she showed us hers, gave us instructions and we had around 20 minutes each to use our kit and create.

Enjoy!!



Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Back!!

Sorry I've been gone so long!  I was super duper busy prepping for a crop I went to this weekend.  It was totally awesome and I got 26 layouts done!!  I'm working on a slide show for those for tomorrow but for today here are some picture of all my prep work for the layout classes put on by Jennifer Edwardson (HERE) on the Friday and Sunday of the crop.

Each kit had very specific instructions on paper, how much, sizes of photos, etc... and I needed to prep 20 of them!! So I started taking pictures of each "kit" as I prepped but... then I had to just put my head down and GO!!!  I even managed to prep about 10 other layouts too for any time I had leftover Saturday after my paid for class with Summer Fullerton (SWEET) and finishing up the first 10 layouts from Friday night... cause we had around 20 minutes each to get them as far along as we could.  

And truly... I was so prepared and was totally head down full out scrapping so I got really far in such a short amount of time on each. I had to go back to do finishing touches, journalling etc but each even had some embellishment on them after the 20 minutes.  whoot whoot...  It was like the Scrapbooking Olympics!

Here is all 20 prepped and ready to go Thursday night.  They all fit into this really awesome bag my mom's friend made me.  She knew I was a scrapbooker so made sure it was slightly larger than 12x12 :)

Back tomorrow with my slideshow of what I got done!!

Jen

Layout a day challenge

This month me and a few friends are challenging each other to do a layout a day!  We are all pretty busy moms with or without jobs so we aren't going to beat anyone who doesn't get that done.  We also are accepting prepped layouts or pictures each day of a layout in progress (or even a before and after of a room that was too messy to get anything done in that day til we cleaned it).  Just a kick in the butt to do SOMETHING creative each day.

So anyone out there in blogger land who wants to play along, let me know! We are posting on Facebook and I'll likely post here too.

Tomorrow I'll post a layout but for today... here is a pick of MY room that needs cleaned before I can do anything :)  I did just get my NM kit too (below with a few extra goodies I ordered!!)... whoot whoot so that is being used TODAY!!

Jen 

imagine.  create.  inspire.

Back on Monday!

I'm so busy prepping for my crop and to be away this weekend I am afraid I have nothing to share :(  Other than some exciting news!!

I am getting a layout published in Creating Keepsakes!! I am super, super excited about it.  It had been on the blog a while ago and now I got to put a very cool blinkie in it's place!!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Jen

Back to school crop - Part 3

Here's the last one I was able to get done, it's for the Wood Shop "class" in the crop.  We had an amazing time trying zip-lining for the first time so I was really excited to scrap these pictures.  We were out in the middle of nowhere with an amazing view of the interior mountains behind us and "zipping" over a canyon that is fed by the glacier we could see.  GORGEOUS!

And because Monday night was the return of Castle (my FAV tv show) I will also leave you today with something else that is GORGEOUS!! tee hee

Have great one. (try not to drool on your computer monitor)

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Back to school crop - Part Two

Here are two layouts I did yesterday for the Back to School crop! I am trying really hard to get a B+ (atleast 9 challenges done) cause I know I can't get that A+ I always liked when I was in elementary school.  No time to get all 13 done by today!  But I did pretty good.

I now SERIOUSLY need to get going on prep for the crop I'm going to in Parksville in two weeks. More on that tomorrow!

A crazy layout for a crazy adventure when we arriving on Oahu for a family vacation.  Late flight, tired kids, lost in a rental car then locked out of the house with kids inside...  BUT a wonderful vacation!

My boys' first experience at Noodle Box.  (excuse the pictures, they are just paper "stand-ins" as I haven't gotten to the store to pick up my prints!!)

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Back to School Crop

Here's a couple layouts I did VERY QUICKLY for the Back to School crop over at Noel Mignon!!

I've been filling the holes in my 2012 album and it is so satisfying to take out all those sticky notes and slide in the layouts.  This year I am likely going to end up with THREE albums!!  WOW.

Enjoy :)

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

New design

I'm playing with the blog design trying out different stuff today.  Apologies for the random changes :)  Haven't quite figured it out!

But let me know what you think!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Busy!!

I do believe I have been scrapping busy this month!!  All these layouts were done between yesterday and August 25th!!

So today I am busy organizing them chronologically and putting them into albums! Yes, for the first time EVER (if you don't include the fact that I did separate albums for big trips like France, Greece, Hawaii, Disneyland...) I will have at least a 2 volume year!  hmmm... this somehow coincides with the fact that I'm a SAHM this year... hmmm.... :)

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

PS All those stars are the missing layouts to fill in what's missing.  We had an amazing and busy, BUSY summer!

A little "How-To"

I was watching the Glimmer Girl video over at 2Peas this week and the flat sticker she used (from the Ready Get Go collection by Amy Tangerine) inspired me to make a more 3D version!

Here is what it looks like:

I thought it looked a lot like circles of patterned paper with twine and a brad in the middle so set out to make my own :)  (they are on my Dance-Cleaning layout from 2 days ago!)  So I took a few pictures while making the second one for some friends and thought I'd share here.

Punch out a circle of patterned paper (I used three different sizes: 1 3/4", 1 3/8" and 1 1/4")

Punch a hole in approximately the middle (looks cool if slightly off centre too!) I used a 3/4" and 1/2" punch for the middles.

Wrap twine from the back around the circle through the hole.  I used some basic tape runner to hold the ends in place.  I used tone-on-tone twine but I'm sure it would look fine with any colour!  

Finish it off with a brad in the centre.  I'll be honest, my punched holes were slightly too big for my brads!  I just did this on the fly so should have checked my brads FIRST!  But, I'm nothing if not quick to fix or cover a mistake :)  So I punched a slightly larger circle from the same patterned paper, put the brad through that and adhered THAT to the back or front of the first circle.  Voila, can hardly tell I goofed :)

Here they are all done.  My blue brad was big enough to cover the hole so I put the red fix-it-circle behind and the yellow one in front so they were all just slightly different.  

I hand cut the leaves from some scrap green lined paper I had laying on the ground (no really!) and then bent them in half before I adhered them to give a bit of dimension.  And of course, I inked the edged of EVERYTHING cause I am NOT capable of NOT doing that :)  It's like naked buttons.  I can't do it.

Have a scrappy day!  Hope you enjoyed.

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Starting Points - Sisters

Hi all! Me again.  This was supposed to be Friday's post but.. I wanted to link it up and am being too lazy to go do it tomorrow :)

I used the Starting Point over at Shimelle.com to do this layout and the inspiration for the topic was from the 20th Century class over at the Back to School crop at Noel Mignon (check BOTH out if you have time!!).  For the 20th century class we needed to use pictures prior to 2000 and all I had digitally right now was from my wedding in 1997.  But I found this shot of my best friend since I was 7 and I've been thinking about her lots lately so wanted to do a page saying what she means to me.  We don't talk everyday and sometimes we can go months with no contact.  BUT... when the other needs us, it's like we KNOW!  Almost without fail if one of us has trouble or something big happening, we call the other or email and say "what's up??!!"  She called my house the day, no not the day, the HOUR I was delivering my first child cause she just felt like she needed to.  And we live on opposite sides of the country! (and this is before FB people, I didn't have a status of "holy crap, I'm in labour!")

So here it is: (and may I say it's fun to work with pink!)

Thanks for stopping by!! Send me your blog address or a comment so I can come check out what you are working on!!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

And ode... to Dance-Cleaning...

Yes, dance-cleaning.  Yes, I just made that up :)  But that is what I do!  I crank up the tunes and clean.  Makes it way more fun for me and Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars is my fav.  I ALWAYS start with that song on.  I'm lucky enough to have speakers wired into my kitchen so I can plug in my iPhone and hit play.

And here's a layout I did to document this quirk of mine (that I have been doing since I was a teenager!!).  It was a challenge over at Noel Mignon to use song lyrics on a page.  I am very sure she didn't mean like this but this song immediately popped into my head and I had the really funny idea to make this layout.  I ALSO (multi-tasking mama) scrap-lifted a Pea (the weekly challenge over at Two Peas in a Bucket) in making this layout and the original layout by hollystar is HERE.

Enjoy and have a scrappy day!!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

A few new MUST GETS...

So trolling at CHA time and watching the new creations coming out now, I wanted to share a few of my new MUST GETS (not must have, it's I need to track these down and GET them!!)

Jillibean Soup (ALL the new labels, die cuts plus these) alphabeans in all the new colours (confession, already bought all the new alphabeans...)



Lily Bee Designs (love the Persnicky collection) Index Journalling cards

Jenni Bowlin flag tags:



AC Weekender chipboard thickers (also come in Truffle):

Echo Park: For The Record 2 (Documented) Love the colours!! (this was in my Noel Mignon kit for August so LOTS of creations in here using this collection).


October Afternoon Witch Hazel collection (love the whole thing!)
But I always get their label stickers and doo-dads and love their new mini alphas!! OA always has great designs but I honestly love their fantastic B-sides with the stripe, dot, etc.

Studio Calico wood veneer (honorable mention to Mistable stars!!)

And last but NOT least:
Queen & Co trend tapes - here's the new ones! These are so affordable and so colourful.  Love the arrows and diagonal stripes. (the film strip is really really cute too!)



Have a scrappy day!!  Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Friends (or Cuckoo for...)

Here's the layout I did for the September sketch challenge over at Noel Mignon. I followed the sketch fairly closely but made it pretty goofy :)  I had thought when I pulled the photos from my printed pile that they looked "cuckoo" to me and when I went looking for a multi-colour pattern and spotted  that bird paper... (Lime Rickety from BG) I was madly inking and adhering and embellishing!!  I still have a few bits left and the 12x12 sticker sheet from that collection (including those orange bananas that very handily cover up the rest of the print that was on the die cut page) was perfect to help.  That big yellow goofy-looking bird... priceless!!

So here's Julie's sketch:

 

And here is mine.  I moved my title and put the "flower" embellishment down near the bottom. (or I guess the bananas could count).

Have an awesome day!!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

A few of our favourite things...

Okay, first, here in Canada we spell favourite with a "u" but... I'm gonna let it go cause I can't find a "u" small enough to add. BUT I'm still looking. So I guess I'm not really letting it go :)

Next, this was a FAST layout, again I'm still trying to do some right now without thinking too hard about it and just using the supplies on the top of my desk (and all over the floor, oops).  Which is mainly using up my August Noel Mignon kit!! AWESOME that I have gotten so so many layouts from this.  I have to count as I have done so many I truly don't know how many.

 Yes, I also did the hold it up and snap it with Instagram picture again.  My Nikon is still MIA and I've called again (AGAIN) as it's 2 weeks overdue being done.

This was a quick "cut them up and fit them together" page.  I wrote right onto the layout (gasp) and even included a pic of me in my goofy floppy hat.  That hat has gone to Mexico, Hawaii and Greece. It's a famous and well-traveled hat!  It will go to the Caribbean in March too :) And it cost me about $10 at SuperStore... This very pale girl burns!!  I would love to find a teal or turquoise edition too.

Jen
PS the stickers in the middle are covering a "whoopsy-doodle" that I cut the pic of Connor's "smile" too short and I had a gap.  Doesn't look too bad though :)

imagine. create. inspire.

Get Real

I've been participating at the Big Idea Festival over at Big Picture Classes.  Day 6 is to "Get Real" with your scrapbooking and do a layout with some real life stuff in it.  I used a few random pics of things I photograph all the time just because but never ever scrap!!  So glad I did once I wrote them down!!

This was "quickie" layout too.  Mostly done in about 20 minutes once I'd picked the pictures!!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Happy.

Yup, that's me :)  It was taken out on our whale watching tour in early August.  It captures pretty well my total joy of: being on a boat, being on the water, the spray in my face, our amazement as seeing the orcas... I LOVE the ocean and when I saw this I thought: boy, I look happy.  And I was.  And I am.  So I did a little layout about it.  I had fun with some Jillibean Hexies too.  (cause if I'm gonna do a little layout, I also wanna play a little too!!)  Got these recently and with my turquoise hoodie it worked out so well with the soup staples paper and hexies I just had to!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Little Niagara Falls

Me again :)  Here's another layout I did this week.  I love the pictures in this but sorry, it's not a great picture.  My Nikon D90 is STILL in the shop (promised I'd have it back in 7-10 days... it's been a month).  BUT hopefully you get the idea.  I wanted the pictures to be the star here so worked with a limited palette of colours in cool blue and grey to make the green in the pictures pop. I kinda love the little circle around the kids rock climbing.  There was a little extra story there so I tucked more journaling behind that flag that reads "Hello the cave!".  haha.  

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Happy 8th Birthday

Hi folks.  Here's a layout I finished just before school started.  It's my son on his 8th birthday which was in July.  It's my take on the Jillibean Soup sketch from August.  I love how colourful it is!  His fav colour is orange but he likes all bright colours so I made sure orange was in there (my new orange alphabeans... LOVE <3 br="br">

 I was going to submit this for something but... HUGE oops... it was on the floor in my scrap room and I RAN OVER IT with my chair. I never, ever do that so... let's say I'm a wee bit upset with myself.

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Rathtrevor Beach

Another layout with Evening Stroll.  And there are MORE coming!!  Forgot I had this pic so I'm sneaking onto my computer to post this quickly on a Saturday morning :)  It's fairly simple but I like my pictures to be front and centre on my layouts so... I like fairly simple!  I thought the background paper was just a gorgeous shade of blue and thought the simplicity of the cream grid really made it pop without taking away from my pictures.

An FYI, Rathtrevor Beach is 1 kilometre long when the tide is out, like in these pictures.  It was quite a hike out to the water.  No really!! The adults were even kidding "are we there YET??!!" haha.  It was lovely to wade in the water and look for sand dollars with my boys.  And then we trekked back up the beach to another adventure.  Got my exercise that day :)

Jen

Flutter-by

A quick post on yet ANOTHER Evening Stroll layout.  LOVE this kit.  (in case I didn't say that enough!!) We went to the butterfly gardens here in Victoria which are stunning and my husband (who had firm dibs on the camera and I never did get it away from him... think we need two!!) took some truly amazing pictures.  Here are only 3 and it was incredibly hard to narrow it down.  I am putting in a 6 x 12 photo sleeve with more pictures!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Jen

Last Day

I will say up front... this isn't my favourite layout...  I was trying something new, following a sketch from a blog and... meh... but I love the pictures and I love parts of it so... I'm sharing it anyways.  That's what scrapbooking is all about.  Getting your stories down and trying new things.  I love all the bits separately :)  Just not happy with it combined.  I think the background is too busy for me.  I should have broken it up cause  I LOVE this Jillibean Soup paper (just sad I didn't do a great job with it) and used 3 different sets of their alphabeans which I also love (I have at least 6 different colours of them now... ok, ok, likely more).

Anyways, this is my oldest son on the last day of school in June.  He had a most fantastic 1/2 year at his new school here and I wanted to make sure I captured his principal and his teacher who were both so great with him and turned around his entire attitude about school.  Here's hoping it lasts!! (he's now at our neighbourhood school with an option to return to this school if needed)


Jen

Day at the Park

More Evening Stroll! (see previous post)  This one was from a layout I found while internet browsing (can I say too that following every scrapbook manufacturers twitter account has seriously paid off!!  No more random searching! LOVE IT!!) I am sorry I can't remember which this came from but if I find it again, I will link back to it! (I don't like to scrap lift and pretend it is mine!!)  I especially took the idea of the polaroid frame upside down highlighting a piece of the picture.  I added in the second picture though.  And I love arrows so I added lots :)  I'm thinking I might even add a couple more on that white space on the envelope.

These pictures are from our last visit to a favourite park in our old city last September. I can HARDLY believe these pictures are a year old.  This year as FLOWN by.  It's officially a year since my husband moved here.  December 17th will be mine and the kids' year.  (stupid house selling taking forever!!)

Hope you enjoy!! Leave me your blog in the comments so I can follow you too!!

Jen

Cathedral Grove

So I got my Evening Stroll kit from Noel Mignon and at the same time a friend arrived for a visit.  A scrappy friend!  You must know what that means... go to TOWN scrapping :)  Love these kits as they are full, full, full of stuff so the next SEVERAL posts are all from this kit!  Love the blues and yellows and pops of green. Occasionally I've added stuff from my not inconsiderable stash (my husband called my scrap room "Jen's Store") but almost all is from the kit only.

This one is from our anniversary trip (same trip as my "The End" layout).  On the drive back we wanted to make sure that we had as much fun as we had had on the way there... cause the end of a vacation can kinda suck, right?! So we went ziplining (wow, that is awesome... layout coming...) and we visited Cathedral Grove which is an old growth forest in the interior of Vancouver Island between Port Alberni and Parksville. Amazing, Fabulous, Stunning.  If you like trees.  Which I do.  A LOT! :)

It is amazingly hard to get perspective on just how huge these trees are so I asked my  husband to stand in front.  Even still... We saw one that had falled in a wind storm and they had marked the rings and that tree was big when Captain Cook discovered Vancouver Island!!!  Like for the very first time a Westerner set foot on it!!

Anyways, I loved this picture of him going "it's THIS big" and also the little picture of him doing a "I conquered the forest" pose.  I told him it's my job to put goofy pictures of him into our scrapbooks :)

Have a scrappy day!!

Jen

The End

I finished this layout on Friday afternoon.  It was one of those really tough ones. I was over thinking it and moving stuff around and around... finally I picked up all the pieces and dropped them :)  With very minor moving I glued them down.  I love that photo so much and really wanted to make the layout it went on special.  Problem was I was putting too much pressure on myself as really... if I decided later it wasn't right, I can change it or rip it up and reprint the picture.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and love the contrast with the brownish-grey and the turquoise.  The wood veneer butterflies went on at the very end when I really knew I needed something beside the camera sticker to cover the awkward end of the label sticker.  But I really like to flow of the butterflies down the page.  I think I will sprinkle just a touch of white paint on the diagonal line but... waiting for it to show up :)

imagine. create. inspire.

Jen

PS Wanna know how I got my "THE" in the title?  I cut my Amy Tangerine "Journal" thickers to make them shorter and then brushed them with white chalk ink.  In person it looks a bit distressed and a soft grey.