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.

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.

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.

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

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

Happy Camping...

And ironic title if I ever did one.  This layout is from our July long weekend trip with my husbands brother's family.  We had my nephew break his leg the week before we went (effectively cutting off most of the activites we had planned for the kids), it was cold and rainy, my BIL was NOT feeling well at all (ended up he was actually quite sick!), etc, etc, etc... But despite all that we still had fun, got in some mini golf, had awesome camping food and time to relax.  Again, I am still in love with my tent trailer (and more specifically the furnace in said tent trailer).   After this camping trip it got HOT and stayed hot for more than 6 weeks.  Go figure!!

All the photos were taken in my iPhome with Instagram using the Kelvin filter - thus the white edges and slight yellowish tones. It was very grey out those days so that helped a bit but now on my layout they do look really yellow.  (oh well, they are scrapped!!).  I used the Echo Park mini theme "The Great Outdoors" for almost the entire layout.  The light brown woodgrain is a leftover Stampin Up pp as I was out of the fabulous dark woodgrain that comes with the kit (other side of the plaid).  I also used those fabulous woodgrain Thickers (I LOVE THICKERS, in case no one noticed yet) and the small round "Happy" is October Afternoon Mini Markets which are also fabulous.

Start to finish...

I always like to see how people build their layouts so I took a few as this one was progressing.  I could have fiddled with the embellishments for another 3 days (and may still fiddle) but it's finished for now.

Here's how it started...

Then I worked on it more and moved stuff around:

And here is the end result... that I think is finished :)

Take the time to do something scrappy today!!

Jen