Taking inspiration...

Evening all.  I have a confession.  My little happy morning routine (almost every morning) is to grab a cup of coffee (or when I'm super lucky my hubbie BRINGS it to me!) and sit in bed and watch YouTube videos about scrapbooking.  I'm not a rise-and-shiner.  I don't wake up ready to face the day and JUMP out of bed ready to take on the world. What I am is a slow-to-wake, need a bit of time to get my brain functioning, person.  I need some caffeine and I don't need someone talking at me.  Well, at least not so I have to talk back at least.  So this little routine for 10-20 minutes sipping my coffee and soaking in some scrappy inspiration works very awesome for me :)

This morning I was watching the Two Peas videos (hurray there is a new one almost every day... special request for a Sunday one too, please...LOL) and today's particular one wasn't my "style" but I am learning to watch them anyways as while I might not want to do an exact scraplift (which I am completely incapable of... but that's another blog post in itself...) I do always pull something from each and every video I watch.

So, I super hope she doesn't mind (or take offense) but I wanted to post todays and what I pulled from it. Here is today's layout from Celine Navarro (see it HERE in the 213 in 2013 video series).

And here is what I pulled from this layout (which is a LOT when I typed it all out):

1. 6 horiztonal photos in a collage taking up approx 1/3 of the page.
2. Could print two sets of these on a 12x12 print and save $$ but also get 2 layouts from it OR a double layout.
3. This would be a very easy convert to a double layout.
4. Mixing the colour and B&W shots looks really cool.  Need to try!
5. Layering PL-style cards.  Would be a very easy layout to get done and/or to use up extra PL cards.  While watching I had an immediate idea to do this top and bottom and layer my title over it.  Must try!
6. BIG title on the Silhouette is super striking.  Like the mix of fonts too.
7. Not a colour scheme I might have tried on my own but love the mix of bold green, yellow, black, white, grey and hints of the teal.  
8. The camera welded onto the title lettering is super cute.  Can't say I would have thought to do that.
9. Mating the entire layout on that red background.  Rather than centering it she's justified it to the left and just see the red top/bottom/right.  NEVER done that but like it. 

Think that's it but likely later something else will fly into my mind when I least expect it :)  If it does, I'll try to come back and add it.

***EDIT: Sept 3, 2013

Ended up having a brain wave with a layout that has been sitting out for a while and used elements from this to finish it.  Can you see what I pulled?

Happy scrapping!

Jen

Summer of Colour - Video #3

So I THOUGHT I hadn't done a layout for this video and then realized I HAD!  I had watched her video about using neutrals or black to go with a photo that had a lot of colour or you really wanted to empathsize, and then shortly afterward I was participating in a crop and wanted to use this picture that my husband took on a camping trip recently:

The challenge was to include stars in the layout and I wanted to do a twist on that and I really wanted the fire to stand out the way it does when you are out camping and darkness falls.  So I did this layout below.  I can tell you very honestly I have NEVER used black cardstock as a base for a layout before. EVER.  Not even on a Halloween page! 

After several tries I used mist to mimic the night sky on black cardstock (Heidi Swapp Gold Lame mist).  It was very hard to photograph but in person... I think it's wow.  Even my 9-year-old son said "Mommy, how did you find paper that looks like the sky at night?"  When I told him I made it look like that.. well, he was pretty impressed with me :)

Have a scrappy day!!

Jen

Summer of Colour

Morning all.  I have been watching Lilith Eeckel's Summer Video series since July and playing along to most (I'm still bit stumped on #3 & #4!!) and forgot to post any of them.  So I will share them here with you today and link them all up.  I only have a short bit to get the rest done so hope I get some scrappy inspiration :)

Video #1 - Summer colours, making them work

I used lots of the Pier collection from Crate Paper which was my ALL TIME FAV summer collection this year.  I was sort of hoarding it so... I did it!! I used it :)

Video #2 - Pick 2 colours with a neutral.  I find I do this alot but this one fits the bill well.

This is Elle's Studio paper with some of my own stash.  I left the branding strip on the bottom and cut off the top as I thought it was a good match to all the colour in the background of the photo.

Video #5 - 2 main colours with accents.  This was a stretch for me and I LOVE being challenged.  I wasn't sure about it at ALL when I was finished but... I really like it now.

Mainly the blue and yellow which I drew from the pictures with a few accents of the red and pink.  My inspiration for this layout was HERE

Video #6 - Ombre!  I created this layout of my niece using yellowy-cream thru to darker pink and love how soft and pretty it is!

Video #7 - Mix colour with black.  I did this rainbow of colour and wanted a bit long title so mixed all my black Thickers and they really popped on all that colour underneath.

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.

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.

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.

Yee- ha... rodeo...

Okay, it's a bike rodeo not a rodeo rodeo but still, it's fun to say Yee-HA!  My boys are in different schools as a result of our move in December so I went and volunteered at both rodeos. Result... next to impossible to help and take pictures at the same time.  End result... totally crap pictures :)  But I managed one of each boy on their bikes and thus made the best of it.

This is mainly using the Summer Wind kit from Noel Mignon (bought limited edition, sorry don't know what month!) which was fabulous.  Lots of My Minds Eye which I love.  MME and Pink Paislee are really catching my eye lately!!

Fairly simple layout this time with an approx 10.5x10.5 block of pp and a mat for the 2-4x6 photos.  I layered in a few cards, some border strips, a piece of washi tape to hide that my photo didn't quite fit properly (oops on the cutting) and done.

imagine. create. inspire.

Jen