Snow much fun!

I have to say, I had one of those perfect Mom mornings today.... while most adults were dreading the arrival of the white stuff over night, for my kids this morning it was fantastic. Little voices woke me up, whispers, Josh... Josh??? Josh... look, shhhhh it SNOWED! Little feet hit the floor flying, and when I got out of bed, in true storybook fashion, there were my two youngest boys, with their noses pressed against the window... gazing at the snow. Their brother soon joined them, they suited up, and out they went, all dressed and ready to go BEFORE breakfast! Nice - a perfect moment in time, too bad I didn't get a photo of them. Pancake for breakfast, and off to school...

The rest of the day was pretty nice too, I'm working on some layouts for looming deadlines, but squeezing in some fun family stuff too.... and of course card making here and there.

This one seems like a good one to share today considering the weather AND my up coming Snow Much Fun class at Bizzy B's on Monday November 24th. There are still spots, so feel free to call the store and sign up. 416-203-0433 We're making 2 cards, 2 gifts cards, and 2 tags.. it's fun and you'll play with flocking and glitter!

Now for the card, and then back to work with me.


Card Recipe:
Prism Baby Blue Cardstock
May Arts Polka Dot Ribbon
Sunshine Designs Snow Man
Crystal Stickles
Tombow Watercolour Markers
Stazon Black Ink
Paint Brush

* Sorry for the crappy SCAN. I seem to make
lumpy cards, and that creates shadows... no matter what I do. I have tried everything! Guess it's better to photograph them.

Thanks for stopping by. Starting tomorrow, look for a card/project/layout a day PLUS a favourite holiday recipe too. I LOVE christmas.

'Tis the Season... for making gifts!

With only 41 days left until Christmas, there's no time like the present (no pun intended) to get started on some great homemade gifts! The Winter Issue of Canadian Scrapbooker will be in stores by December 1st and I am thrilled to say that I have some projects featured in the A Scrapbookers Gift Section. The Website has already been updated, and you can get a sneak peek, and even check out the pdf instructions for some of the projects. The templates will be available next week.... but you can get your supplies all ready to go now!

Now, onto today's CARD.. I made one, so I figure I should share it =)
My scanner is being a bit of apain and keeps making this terrible shadow on my cards - GRRR.. so it's wayyy cuter is real life!

Card Recipe:
Hero Arts Santa Owl
Hero Arts Stunning Snowflakes
May Arts Red Suede Ribbon
Marvy Scallop Punches
Frosted Lace Stickles
VersaMark Ink
Bazzill Cardstock

That's it for today... check back tomorrow, I'm trying to post something everyday! or subscribe to my RSS feed and you'll be notified when I do updates.

Home for the Holidays!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house! I spent the weekend working with my friend Cheryl Jackson on our Maya Road Home for the Holidays contest entry.

We spent hours, and hours and hours in an already incredibly busy weekend working on this project. It was so much fun, but boy am I tired tonight! Cheryl quilled her but off, can you believe ALL those candies, lollipops, wreath, pole and more is quilled! Man is she talented and PATIENT. I glittered, punched, puffed, painted, stickled, grouted and fiddled.. we made an excellent team. Take a look at my Picassa album for just a sample - and then wish us luck. If you love it, we are going to try and offer a Day long workshop over at Bizzy B's in December. We'll make a smaller house, and your learn the basics of quilling and some of our tricks to creating this calorie free treat!

Let me know what you think... I NEED more comments =)

Maya Road

I also bought a new toy - A bigshot! Whooohooo, I am pretty excited. I have some old sizzix dies that I've pulled out of storage, and I bought a BIGZ die to make little party favours. Of course I didn't get the extra cutting mat I needed, so I had to fiddle around to get it to work. Tried to pick up a mat today but bought the wrong thing - arghh.

Anyways, look for a fun new project tomorrow. I'm in the crafting spirit now.

Happy Holly Days

Another card from my card classes at Bizzy B's Stamp & Scrap, this one is always popular! I love this Holly Stamp, it can be coloured in so many different ways. I have another class running at the end of this month if you want to join in... 24 cards in 6 hours!



Card Recipe:
Black Stazon
Dove Blender
Ranger Red Embossing Powder
Versamark Ink

Craf T chalks
Stickles - Golden Rod & Red

Holly Stamp 1405 - Artful Stamper

Happy Holly Days Stamp
CHR013C - Stamp Barn




Want to sign up? Call Bizzy B's Stamp & Scrap at 416-203-0433 to reserve your spot.

Santa Baby! Card Camp - Santa Baby!

Card Camp 2008

Sunday was my first Card Camp of the season.. yep, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house! It was a marathon of fun at Bizzy B's Stamp & Scrap - Five hours, 24 cards and LOTS of stickles! There is another session scheduled for November 30, 2008 Noon-5pm. I highly recommend you bring something to snack on.... to keep your energy up!

This one was one of the favourites yesterday - I'll eventually post them all with instructions, but I'm on a deadline for something else and the kids are home on a PD Day, so this one will have to do for today!

Santa Baby Card Recipe:
Prism Card Stock

KI Memories PP
Inky Antics Stamp

Cotton Candy Stickles
Copic Gold Spica At You Pen
Tombow Watercolour Markers
Black Stazon Ink
Marvy Scalloped Square Punch

Happy Halloween!

After days of waiting, finally Halloween arrived! We were a bit behind in our decorating this year as we were in France until the middle of October, then I was teaching at the Creative Festival. I taught a fun card class to a great group of women, I'll post pics of those soon, I promise.

After a day or so of recovering, we finally got down to the business at hand.. Halloween! Out from the crawlspace we pulled the 3 bins of Halloween decorations. Some seem to be missing though, can't find the screaming tomb-stone anywhere or the skeleton lights - hmm...

Everything else goes up, the giant spider we hang from the ceiling, the skeleton tray, the garland (purple), do not cross tape,a burping rat for a table centerpiece, the adorable squashed witch door decoration... and many other various things my kids have made in Nursery school and kindergarten over the last few years...

I set about organizing the menu - we have some standards that appear every year.

1. Bat Loaf - My meatloaf recipe cooked in a bat shaped meatloaf pan
2. Ghost Potatoes, - Mashed potatoes piped into ghost shapes
3. RIP sandwhiches

This year I added Mummies (Crescent roll wrapped Hot dogs) and Witches hats... totally cute little pizza pockets which I found on Better Homes and Gardens website.

From Paris!

Typing on a french keyboard, at an internet cafe near our apartment in the St. Germain neighborhood of Paris. Its been amazing so far... but this keyboard is hard to master! The boys loved visiting Napoleons Tomb; though not so much the crypt there, and also the Military Museum where they loved all those tanks and cannons... boys§ The crepes with nutella on the street was also popular, the croque monsieur, not a big hit surprisingly. James and I are planning a night out alone on Saturday - he will leave on Sunday night for Germany... more later time is expiring!

The Party of the year....

We finally got it done.. Jonathan had his 5th birthday party yesterday and it was a huge hit. When the boys turn FIVE we invite ALL their friends... it's a tradition James started... long story! Anyways, for Jonathan we had a Carnival sort of theme.. a rented Bouncy Castle, a cotton candy machine and a popcorn machine... yum! Add to that the duck fishing game, the decorate a cupcake station, face painting, and hmmm oh yes, prizes - it was a fun day for all....

I made the lion cake, and am happy to report, it may be my best one yet....

I've been trying to post that since Monday... so I will continue on with Tuesday... we are getting ready to leave for Paris on Sunday - it's quite the trip and we are all incredibly excited. Of course there is a ton of organizing to do, both at home and work before I go... so I spend a few hours today putting up some of my upcoming classes at Bizzy B's for October and November.

I even managed to include some photo's - I think that the Card Organizer is one of my favourites so far this season... and so easy! I had someone take the class a few weeks ago, and she's been back in to make FOUR more.. so I guess it was a success. Here is a photo... not the best shot, and I've made some changes to the actual design, BUT, you get the idea.

There is another class that goes really nicely with this one... we make 12 different cards. For the holidays it's mostly Christmas and Winter but the rest of the time we do an assortment, with Birthday, Thank You , Get Well, and that sort of thing. Great to give as a gift, equally
great to KEEP!! You'll always have handmade cards and you'll even be able to find them when you need them!

Want the calendar template? Just DOWNLOAD the pdf here.

Photo FREEDOM!

Have you read Photo Freedom: A Big Picture Approach to Organizing and Scrapbooking Your Photographs ? I just started last night, and it's amazing. I had intended to get a good night sleep, but I was so excited about the possibilities in this book, I was up until 2am!

Smart, well thought out, easy to implement ideas for getting yourself and your photo's organized. The whole time I was reading, I found myself nodding my head as Stacy "talked" to me... do I have too many photos (I sure do), do I spend hours looking for that ONE particular photo I NEED to scrap (OMG, I spend DAYS sometimes), do I feel overwhelmed - Um, yep of course! and on she goes, but step by step, you get walked through her sensible and really achievable storage and sorting sytem - designed to give you PHOTO Freedom (and it helps with the memorabilia too).

I love Stacy's writing style and her scrapbooking attitude. I heard her speak at a CKU convention a few years ago, read her first book, Big Picture Scrapbooking and was hooked.


I really enjoy her approach, and I actually don't feel swamped and behind anymore... now that I
don't scrap every photo, and I definitely don't scrap in order! Take a look at her book.. and you'll see what I mean.

It's been a Scrappy Weekend...

This was supposed to be Jonathan's birthday weekend... but Hurricane Ike put a hold on all that.
We postponed the bouncy castle and all the games, phoned all the guests, and didn't bake the cake we're going with a LION theme this year... (see photo) I'll do that next weekend!


I also had the extreme pleasure of having a fantastic weekend with my friend Katharina from Calgary who was here visiting for the weekend.

She was doing promo's for the latest book release Canadian Scrapbooker Basic Vol. 1 and visited some store in the area: A Scrapbookers Dream in Bolton, Bizzy B's Stamp & Scrap in Toronto, Scrapbooks By Design, and the Scrapping Turtle in St. Jacob's (still have to get there one of these days).

Now I am off to watch So You Think You Can Dance Canada and Play with my new stamps from Kelly Panacci's Birthday Line (LOVE IT)! I'll post the results tomorrow. Yes, I'm gonna blog every day I think!