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