I said it before on my video unboxing the SCT Sampler for June... I really didn't think I needed Vicki Boutin's Let's Wander collection, until I got the sampler. What fun papers! What fun embellishments! I had so much fun playing with it. I did a layout today and got out my Caran d'Ache watercolour crayons to create a background, and then chopped up one of the papers and did some stitching. Then I fussycut (Yes I said FUSSY CUT!!) the flowers out from one of the papers. This was so much fun to create. I also followed along with a Creative Embellishment challenge for June. Here's their mood board this month:
I loved the vine with cherry blossoms. I didn't have any chipboard for that exactly, but the chipboard that I used, and sprayed with Citron Color Shine spray added just the right touch to the layout I think.
I needed a bright pop of green to match one of the papers, and it did the job! Enjoy some of the closeups.
I used Color Shine sprays on a black cardstock page to create my own galaxy effect, and threw in some stars made of bark by Prima, just for good measure. Hope you like it!
So glad you could be here with me today. I wanted to share a beautiful layout that I made of my inlaws when we last visited in October. Boy that seems so far away now, and it really is. But the feelings from these photos are just as fresh in my mind as ever. I didn't have the perfect background, and I didn't have the perfect lighting but it was the perfect moment to take these snapshots.
Snapshots. We all have them. Do you scrapbook them or think that they aren't worthy of a page. Because I did. And then I realized that I have boxes of snapshots with no story attached to them, and I needed to document them. So I started here.
If you want to see how I made this page, using the sketch I found at Cookin' Up Creations, then check out the process video below.
And be sure to subscribe to the channel to see how I'm going to be using my new Challenge Jar (which is really just a mug). I explain all about how that will work in this video below, where I create a homemade scrapbook kit.
Hi everyone! I have a quick process video for you today. I recently found a great scrapbook challenge blog called Scrap the Boys. Here's their monthly challenge for May called Baby It's Hot Outside!
You can click on the image above to get to the challenge. And here's my take on the challenge this month:
I used some older Carta Bella papers from the Beach Boardwalk collection kit, and some chipboard from Creative Embellishments. Check out the process video below for a quick look at how to scraplift this layout from the sketch I used.
It's been a while since I pulled out texture paste, and glass bead gel. It's been forever since I used roller stamps and just randomly stamped around a page mark making. And it FELT SO GOOD! I know that being back to this style of scrapbooking and creativity is right for me, because it speaks to my heart.
I can't wait for you to see my latest creation here:
If you want to create beautiful pages, watch my process and learn new techniques, then start now by subscribing to my YouTube channel so that you don't miss any new projects.
It's been a beautiful weekend here in the Pacific Northwest. Hot and sunny! I hope you enjoyed yours! My husband and I celebrated 15 years of marriage this week, and he bought me some lovely gifts to be used in my craft room. I cannot wait until my new project case arrives. I'll be able to craft more freely, being able to bring incomplete projects from one room to the next, so that I can finish them while watching TV or when I want to be in the dining room instead of isolated from my family. It's been a wonderful stress reliever, being able to get into doing something creative, while this pandemic rolls on. It's given me stress relief, my own space away when I feel overwhelmed, and just a place to be me, on my own. Once in a while we need that, right?
I know that very soon, I'm going to throw art journaling back into the mix as well, because it gives me a voice. Scrapbooking is wonderful, don't get me wrong! But I find it hard to journal out emotions on pretty pages about events that have nothing to do with how I am feeling in THIS moment. That needs another outlet; enter art journaling. When I did art journaling in the past, it was an act of pure creativity, abandoning perfection and an idea of what the end product should look like. And I could just sit, and add layer after layer, being mindful, and work through emotions in my own head, in my own space. That's how titles for pages would often come out. Something random would pop into my head, and end up on the page. Now that I'm reading about Morning Pages, I realize that I had been doing them in my own way in the past as art journal pages.
Now though, I'm scrapbooking again because I have so many memories to get down on pages. After my mother died almost two and a half years ago, I realized that there were so many of her pictures that I had seen, but I didn't know the story behind them. And there was no journaling. My mother had been a bit of a scrapbooker in her single days but decorated her pages, and not done any storytelling. And I inherited these pages, and that changed how I look at scrapbooking. Originally I had viewed it as another beautiful form of creative expression, art really. Now I see them as so much more. A legacy. Someone will read these once I'm gone. I need to tell the story. So you will definitely see a transformation in my pages in the near future. I will still do artsy pages believe me. I have too many beautiful embellishments to use.
Which takes me to my latest layout. Here's a masculine layout with feminine touches. Who says that scrapbooking the boys and men in our lives has to be snips and snails and puppy dog tails? It can be an eclectic mix of metals and woods, along side flowers and flourishes. Want to see what I mean? Here's the process video for you. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, please subscribe and share it with friends.
So check in with me next post to see a storytelling page and see if you think I'm on the right track.
Hello everyone! It's so great to be back on my blog again. I've really missed being about to chat with you all about my creative life. A lot has happened since I posted last. I'm living on the West Coast now with my husband, dog and two cats. How did that happen? Well I took an early retirement from my job, and got to purging what we didn't need in our townhouse, bought a new vehicle and drove across the country. What an amazing trip that was! I fully intend on scrapbooking some of the photos we took very soon and get to making that album.
We've been here now for a little less than four years, and it's been the best move possible for us. It brought us closer to both our parents. My mother moved out here about 3 years before we did. And of course, my husband Paul was missing the Pacific Northwest life and his parents. I'm so thrilled that we finally got to move here for his sake. I know that he missed his family dearly, and until I took my retirement, we really had no plans to move out here due to our finances and being stuck in the day-to-day.
What have this move and these four years taught me? Hold onto your dreams. Heck, have a dream! I realized that in terms of where I wanted our family to be in the near future, five years, ten years down the road...I didn't have any clue! Now if I had given it some serious thought after we got married, and we sat down to discuss our family plans, we probably would have been out here much sooner. That in itself has taught me that you need to take time to actually dream. Don't just daydream when it's convenient, but actually make time to dream, and work toward that dream. It's also taught me that no dream is too big. Honestly. I would never have thought that we could make a move almost five thousand kilometres away.
So now I dream a little more. I still have to try and make time for it. And I have to silence my inner critic who thinks it's silly to dream. We all have one, right? Now to set those dreams into motion, I have to set some goals. Ugh. I really hate that word. It sounds like work. But goals aren't work. Not really. They are just this abstract thing you want to accomplish, but they themselves don't mean any work. What did someone say about goals and plans? That if you don't create a plan, with tasks (work), then it's just a dream? That is not going to be my life any more. I am going to give myself work, even if it's difficult, to reach for my dream.
Here I am again, on my blog, starting on the plan. I'm back sharing some of my latest scrapbook layouts, perhaps some art journal pages, and more creative works. What's my dream? Honestly, I'm still working on nailing it down. Right now it's a lot like a feeling, a yearning. I know that it feels right when I get back to creating. So for now I'm going to say that I'm dreaming about being more free to create.
I've ventured into different ways to explore that creativity, including a new YouTube channel. And the videos will be primarily scrapbook and art journal process videos. But I'll be back here regularly posting updates on my creative life, twists and turns it might take, and give my creativity another voice by sharing it with you.
I'd love to hear your opinion on my latest videos as I get started out on YouTube, and would love it if you'd subscribe or share them. Thanks for sticking around and I look forward to your comments.
I'll see you again soon with a creative update. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy (look for a blog post on the current pandemic soon)!
It's April and you know how the saying goes....April showers bring May flowers. But not in Ottawa. It's snowing. In fact it's more than snowing; it's a blizzard out there. It's pretty typical to get a late March snow storm but I think this is the first storm in April that I remember when the snow actually stayed and accumulated on the ground, again.
So needless to say April hasn't been off to a great start, which is why I've designed these new printable stickers yesterday for The Happy Planner. Blustery Spring hints at the rains, the winds and eventually, the pretty flowers that it brings.
Like it? Check it out in my Etsy store and get your planner looking a little more Spring-like.
It's been a busy time for me, very busy. Lately I've been on a planning kick. I wanted to start organizing my life, and getting into a routine, keeping track of my exercise, days I work, doctor's appointments and more. Last year I bought an Erin Condren Life Planner and I loved it. It was easy to use, and fun to decorate. But I really didn't like how it was divided into Morning, Afternoon and Evening, especially when my life just isn't organized that way. I needed more flexibility.
Enter planner decorating. After investigating and joining a few Facebook planner groups I discovered this world of decorating your planner using stickers! What a fantastic concept! I could now update my Erin Condren and cover over the headers I didn't like. And the added bonus was that I was documenting my life in a pretty way, almost like merging my planner with a scrapbook.
After a while, Me & My Big Ideas launched their new Happy Planner and I fell in love. The layout was very similar to the Erin Condren, but without the titles on the headers. But what drew me in was the discbound system. Instead of having to buy clips or fold extra papers into envelopes in the back, with The Happy Planner, I could punch my papers and put them right into the week I needed them. I already had a punch from Levenger that worked with discbound systems, and it worked for my Happy Planner too.
I started out decorating my THP with free stickers which I found on a number of great sites. All I needed to do was print onto sticker paper, or the more economical full sheet label paper, and cut out what I wanted. In some cases, I could download a Studio file for the Silhouette Cameo and cut them out that way. The community was very generous. But I still couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I decided to make my own, and people liked them. So because I already had an Etsy shop and had uploaded some of my older digital scrapbook design kits, I decided to launch a new section, the Printable Stickers. The one thing I think that sets mine apart is the fact that I have a sticker for each day of the week to track my sleep, mood and pain. I found a lot of people looking for that, so it's pretty much a staple on my sticker sheets, with few exceptions. Here are a few examples of what I've done.
It's been a lot of fun making these using some of my older digital scrapbooking kits that I've designed. Now I'm using my Happy Planner more often, especially organizing things like our upcoming move to the West Coast, it's been easier to get organized, and keep on track of things. I hope you enjoy these. I'll be dropping some freebies here in the future as well from time to time. And if you have suggestions or requests for particular stickers, please leave a comment and I'll get to them bit by bit.
Hi everyone! Is Spring finally here? I don't know for sure, but I definitely have cabin fever. So I've been creating things that I can really use - like my own daily docket faux-dori insert.
I couldn't find anything that really suited my own needs. I wanted to have a place to sketch or mark down things that were inspiring, write my goals for the day, my gratitude journal, my spiritual goals and more. Tough list I know.
So I got to creating one myself, and I have to say I really like it.
I have a new obsession. Planners. Recently I bought an Erin Condren planner to help me with my business and myriad of appointments. I love it. It's pretty, but I find it too big to carry with me every day.
Then I saw a friend of mine post her fauxdori on Facebook and I had to know what it was. What followed was a plethora of Google searches on Midori Traveller's Notebooks, and their DIY versions, along with insert. I found that I could have a planner, a journal, a sketchbook and more all in one lovely purse-sized notebook.
So I did some research on YouTube and other areas, and found Ray Blake, and decided to use his method for making a cover. Instead of leather, I decided to go with some denim that I glued to scrapbook paper for reinforcing. I sprayed it with sprays and painted some feathers through stencils too. I used several different embellishments that I had laying around, namely Tim Holtz charms, clips and chain, some washi tape, a Simple Stories Snap Album insert, some metallic elastic, and journal cards.
I made my own inserts for my bullet journal using Ray Blake's inserts that he has generously put on his blog for download, and went to town making my own fauxdori.
I made a pen loop from duct tape and a brad, and it holds my pen quite nicely.
I love how thick and juicy it is without being cumbersome. And the discovery of a bullet journal works for me! So easy to keep notes, lists, and a brain dump all in one spot. Hope you like the project and I've listed links below to the places where I found my inspiration and downloads. Inserts: Ray's insert downloads Plastic pocket inserts Cover: Ray Blake's DIY notebook cover which inspired my cover Other great resources for your own notebook on YouTube: Rhomany's Rhealm Jennifer Harvey
Hi everyone! I shared my recent project on the Gauche Alchemy blog. Did you catch it there? No?? Here it is!
Kiki here with my first project for Gauche Alchemy. As you’ll soon find out, I love grungy texture. No, scrap that. I have an OBSESSION with texture. I cannot seem to create without it, and look at the project and say I’m done. The more texture the better. And the more unusual the texture, the more fun it is to play with it.
This month for the February Challenge, I put a lot of different textures into the project. I love grunge. Love isn’t always pretty, soft and lacey. Sometimes it’s messy, chaotic and dirty! LOL
Want to see what I mean?
There’s so much texture in there I get giddy. I used gesso and drywall tape, inked up canvas, washi tape, paper scraps, cardboard, wood, cork, thread….ahhhhhh.
So what did you get out of the monthly challenge inspiration? I’d love to see your projects so make sure to play along, and please link me up to them so that I can go and leave you some love!
I love days like this - where the sky is grey and looks so cold but I set out to do something creative and productive. I dug out my art journal supplies and loaded them into a box I had and brought them downstairs to the kitchen table. Then I started on a page with splatters and streaks of colour.
It felt so good to dive into the stencils and textures, and get my fingers into gesso, and sprays. And so the name of the page - Return. In hindsight, I did notice a little something on the page that might be an alternate title. See if you see it as well.
Did you notice the title that popped off the page? Return Ticket. I thought that was kind of fun. I had no intention of that going together but they did.
This page really is like a return to art journaling for me. A return to my roots of journaling with textures, sprays, stencils, inked canvas and cardboard. I definitely live for the grunge when it comes to journaling.
I hope you enjoyed looking at this and get to journaling too sometime this week. It's a great way to clear your head after a week of craziness.
I recently went to a fundraising crop just outside of the city with friends whose company I adore. It was a very productive day for me. I made some mixed media bookmarks and a total of 5 layouts. Of course I brought my favourite Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays with me, including a couple of the sprays from the November challenge, Sweet Violet Purple Teal and A Bit o'Bubbly, and some Red Hot Poker Orange. I did add a few splashes of orange and teal as well to most of my projects. Take a look!
I spray my wood veneers with Lindy's sprays. Love the effect!
One of my favourites ever! Not sure if I can give this one away!
Yes, you do!
I love the combination of the purple with teal and some dashes of dark colour.
I painted the burgundy flower with Lindy's sprays to get it to match Natalie's coat.
I struggled with the design a bit, but I love how it turned out!
One of the last photos of my grandparents that I have. Love this layout.
This is such a fun kit - Ahoy There by Carta Bella, that you can order from Tina's Scrapbooking
Another maritime layout, but this is a work in progress. Still want to embellish it!
I hope you enjoyed these! Have a productive weekend!
Seems like it's been a while since I've posted anything that I've been working on here on my blog. Time to catch up. These are just a few of the projects I worked on recently this past weekend.
I have to say, I still love Prima for my mixed media layouts. Hope you enjoyed these and if you have any questions about the projects, just comment below! Have a great week!
