Twice as nice

A few posts back, I told you about my scrapping day at Auntie Em's in Cornwall. When I went to the crop, I really didn't have a few select photos to choose from to scrapbook. I had quite a few prints with me from our latest trip to Quebec. I had already scrapped one, but I thought I'd pull out a couple more that I liked and make a more elaborate page with them.

Only once I got home did I realize that I had already scrapped one of the photos with the same Prima Song Bird collection. At first I thought "Doh!" but then I realized that I guess that says that I really love that photo, and cherish that moment. So it's not a foible after all. It's just twice as nice.

Have you ever made more than one layout using the same photo? On purpose? What were your reasons?

What a lovely evening, spent reminiscing

It's been a gloriously quiet night here at home so far. I don't think I can remember a night this quiet in our neighbourhood in a long time. It got me to thinking about some of the simple things in life, like a beautiful sunset, the songs of the crickets, and a sweet song that I used to sing to my niece when she was a baby.

It's a wonderful tune by Natalie Merchant that I heard once on a talk show. I instantly fell in love with it -- its simplicity, its melody, its whimsy. I bought the children's CD and listened to that song over and over. And when my niece was born, it was the first lullaby I ever sang to her.

I hope one day to teach her the song so that she can sing it to a special little girl as well.

Here are the lyrics:

I once loved a sailor, once a sailor loved me,
But he was not a sailor, who sailed on the wide blue sea
He sailed in an airship, sailed like a bird on the wind
And every evening at midnight, he would come to my window and sing:

Come take a trip in my airship, come sail away to the stars.
We'll travel to Venus, we'll sail away to Mars.
Noone will see while we’re kissing, noone will know as we swoon.
So come take a trip in my airship, and we’ll visit the man in the moon.

One night sailing a-way from the clouds
We passed through the milky white way.
While idly drifting and watching the crowds
he asked if I’d name the day.
Just by the dipper I gave him my heart. 
The sun shone on our honeymoon.
We swore to each other we never would part
And we’d teach all the babies this tune:

Come take a trip in my airship, come sail away to the stars.
We'll travel to Venus, we'll sail away to Mars.
Noone will see while we’re kissing, noone will know as we swoon.
So come take a trip in my airship, and we’ll visit the man in the moon.


Have a listen, and have a great weekend!

Weekend fun...I need another weekend to recoup

Who knew that scrapbooking all day could be so tiring? I certainly didn't. But I will tell you, it was totally worth the 1.5 hr drive, and the Sunday to rest and recover. Visiting Auntie Em's Scrapbooking store in Cornwall was the most fun I have had in a long time. It was a blast! And I got so much done, both projects and learning. 

Prima was sponsoring this crop and provided a beautiful goodie bag for our donation. And I did most of my projects using what I got from that bag of scrapbooking goodness. 

Of course I had to bring a notebook with me to alter. So I used the Prima Annalee paper we got, as well as just a few of the flowers, some Prima crystals, and lace.

Altered Composition Notebook

 And of course, I had to try my hand at a tag. This one uses Prima's Songbird stamp and Prima flowers, as well as Annalee paper that I distressed on the edges.

Art tag

 Then I pulled out some of the Moulin Rouge papers, and more flowers to scrap my dog Nanouk. He's so photogenic!

And last but not least, I used another Annalee paper and fussy cut my husband and I out of a picture that had a busy background, and did a layout of our latest trip to Quebec. Gotta love the Starbucks at the Chateau Frontenac!

I also did a layout using the Song bird collection of papers, flowers, alphas, etc. that I brought to the crop. I'll show that one off a little later.

I'm so glad that I attended the crop because I found a wonderful store (somewhat local) and met some amazing ladies that day. It was a long day but so worth it in the end!

Oh so romantic Quebec!

This past week I had printed off a few photos at Costco with the intention of actually scrapbooking them, rather than be satisfied with only digital copies of the pictures, and some digital layouts. And I really wanted to scrapbook our last visit to Quebec with my husband's father. He took some really nice photographs of us, which we rarely get, and it was high time to have something of the two of us on paper.

I really like this photograph of the two of us, ready to head out on another day, our last in Quebec, just inside the walls. There were tons of potted flowers hanging from the walls, and old lamps and buildings. It just oozes romance in Quebec. Hence the title of the page.

I used the Song Bird collection from Prima, primarily because it's so soft and romantic, and I happened to stock up on it when it was released. I love the colour scheme and the delicate patterns.

 The only thing that I'm not thrilled with is that Costco doesn't print small prints. The smallest print size is 4X6 inches. That's okay, but I have to consider how I'm going to crop the photo afterwards. So I printed this one off my inkjet printer at home instead.

I'd really like to work with some Instagram photos and some of the cute sizes, like 3X3 inches, with a small polaroid-like frame. I'm on the hunt for an online company that does it.

The bottom cluster. I had to use a bit of pink!

Do you scrapbook romantic pictures? Do you frame them, or just keep them in an album? And if you know of an online print company that prints odd-sized photos and ships to Canada, I'd really love to hear about them.

Have an amazing Sunday and I hope you all have a great week ahead of you!

Get the mojo back with a quick project!

Had those days when you feel like you've lost your creative mojo? Boy have I! Here's a little project I did, just to get me going again. Have you ever considered doing something as simple as altering a notebook? This notebook was created for a swap I recently took part in.

A simple notebook altered with scrapbook paper and
clusters of elements 

closeup of the top cluster. I adore the little butterflies!

Detail of the bottom cluster

I primarily used the Plumeria line for this altered project. It is part of the July kit and add-on from Scrap'n with Flair. You may still be able to get one if they have a couple in stock. And of course I had to use a lot of Prima flowers. Love them!

So when your mojo has run away, bring it back running with a quick altered notebook project.

Photogenic: Loving Nanouk

How could I not scrapbook this gorgeous photo of our photogenic Nanouk. He makes every page more beautiful!

Using Scrap'n with Flair's July kit: Basic Grey Plumeria, Prima flowers
pebbles, crystals, and button and I am Roses flowers.

Hope you are enjoying an amazing long weekend!

Friendship blooms

I'm playing this week with The Color Room for the first time. This ning site gives you sketches and colour palettes to work with for inspiration. And it was a lot of fun working with the palette for this week!

Naturally, I used my July Scrap'n with Flair kit to create an art journal page to play along. I created a composition notebook art journal for a swap a couple weeks ago, and used some of the scraps of paper left over from that to the first couple pages. The title of the page actually came to me last night, and I got out of bed, went to my craft room and wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it.

I hope you have a safe and happy long weekend!