Happy Vintage New Year!

Happy New Year to Everyone!

May your 2011 be filled with joy, love,

happiness, good health and peace!!!

Here are a few vintage treats to help you ring in the New Year!

And courtesy of Crafty Secrets:

For more cool vintage images check out this BLOG - she has some fantastic vintage images for your scrapbook pages, cards and altered art! And this SITE has some funky vintage images for free download, as well!!

Happy 2011, everyone!!!

MIA

Well everyone, I have definitely been MIA for the past while and I am desperately trying to catch up! The Christmas season has been more than a little overwhelming, with the busy-ness and some health issues, things just got away from me.

This has been followed by a nasty surprise on Boxing Day - our guests (who were staying in their RV outside), came in to use the facilities at 6:30am and discovered 2 inches of water covering the entire main floor of our two story home. YIKES! Our toilet tank had cracked and water had been pouring into the house at a rate of 30 gallons per minute for about 6 hours!

Apparently Crane has been sued many times for this same type of incident - thankfully we have insurance and by 8am the insurance adjuster and flood restoration team had arrived.

Here are a few shots of the damage - at first we thought the carpets were ok - until we walked on them!!!

This last shot is of our front entry - the bathroom is at the back of the house and their was almost ankle deep water at the front door!

My scrap room got pretty wet - I am out of scrapping commission for at least a month - except for a few basic things I rescued before the restoration team packed everything up! Unfortunately I had some things on the floor and they got pretty damaged:

At least I will get a scrap room reno out of all this!!! YIPPEE!

So, for the past five days we have been listening to the constant hum of dryers trying to dry out the walls.

The carpets are gone, the lino is being scraped and the six of us are learning to appreciate living in a space half the size of what we are used to. Still, in all, we are so blessed - we have a home, we have insurance, we have wonderful, supportive friends and family to help us out over the next 6 - 8 weeks of renovations. Stay tuned for updates as we undergo the reno! And any suggestions for scraproom reno are gratefully accepted!!!

Merry Christmas!

A free photo slideshow by Smilebox

December Dailies Day 1!

Hey everyone! It is finally here!!! December has begun and with it the opportunity to document all of the wonderful-ness of life in December!!! Here is the intro I have made for my album this year:




I want to give you a few suggestions for taking photos through the month - you really want to have a photo each day to help you document ( or a piece of memorabilia works, too!!) So dust of the camera and have it handy - you want to capture both the special and everyday moments of this festive month!



Here are a few ideas to capture:



Decorating your home ( how about "before and after" shots??)

Your favourite decorations

Christmas baking

Opening the advent calendar

wrapping gifts

Christmas shopping

watching your favourite holiday specials on TV

Holiday concerts and other special events

Your pet all decked out for the holidays

Your kids all decked out for the holidays ;)

Favourite holiday foods

Snow ( if you have it, or how you feel about NOT having it!)

YOU ( get your kids/friend/spouse to take a photo of you at least 3 times!!!)

Writing letters to Santa

Writing or making holiday cards



As you can see, there are lots of ideas of things you can be thinking about to capture your month!

So all that is left is to get out there and take a few photos today - jot down some thoughts to go with your photos and then get busy putting the album together.



Some people do there album a week at time - I do mine everyday because I have a printer at home. I will be posting my pages each day - hopefully to inspire you to play along - and to inspire me to keep going, as well!!



Happy December - I can't wait to hear how you are doing with your album!

Almost ready??

December 1st is fast approaching!!! I have spent some time in the last few days going through my Christmas stash so I can be all ready for my Daily December Album! I went through a lot of my small embellishments, buttons and ribbon scraps and put them together in jars, so they are easily accessible when I am ready to embellish my little pages! This really streamlines the page making process - which is critical if you are actually going to complete the album!

Above is a photo of some of the pages I will be using in my album this year - and I will be adding a few as I go along, or switching them up, depending on the daily page theme.

I am working on my front cover right now, and should have it up and posted very soon. How is your hunting and gathering coming along!??

Stay tuned for more album ideas, as well as suggestions for journaling, photos, and other fun stuff in the upcoming weeks!! I love to have my friends creating right along with me!!

If you have a blog or gallery where you are posting your album pages, please put a link in a comment so we can all see your wonderful work, and get inspired by all of our collective creativity!

Happy Day, everyone!

Daily December Prep Week - Day One!!

This is the countdown week - just 8 days until December begins and we get to begin documenting all of our fantastic December moments ( and the not so fantastic ones, too!).

Hurray for everyday and holiday moments!

Today we are going to look at the "bones" of the album and you can begin to search your stash for what you need! I like to use up what I have on hand - but you may wish to purchase something special for your project, particularly if you prefer a more unified look!

My albums tend to be really eclectic, with pages from a lot of different sources and made from a wide variety of materials. I use a combo of chipboard, acrylic, envelopes, fabric, transparencies, journal pages - you name it - you can use it!!! Others prefer to use a chipboard mini, or a 6 x 6 or 8 x 8 album with page protectors - the choice is up to you! You will need 25 - 31 pages, plus a cover and back - the number depends on whether you are scrapping only until December 25th, or the whole month through.

To bind your album I recommend rings - the largest you can find - because when you begin to add in your various thicknesses of pages and ephemera and photos from your December life, it will get very thick. Two are usually sufficient for an approximately 6 x 6 album.

This is really the "hunter/gatherer" stage - hunt through your stash to see what you can find for these base pages. They can be all one colour, a mish mash of everything, or something in between - it really is up to your imagination and personal scrappy style.

Once we have everything gathered - we can look through the week at numbers, layouts and designing your cover!! So head into your scrappy area (whether it is a bag, a box, a cupboard or a studio) and see what you can find!

Happy Day everyone - keep checking back for more tips, hints and ideas to make your Daily December album YOUR favourite album!

Daily December - Are you Playing???

It is that time of year again everyone - my annual Daily December Album prep time and supply gathering!!! If you didn't play along last year, or if you don't know what I am talking about here is the 411!!!

Daily December albums capture the little moments of each day in December. I think it was Ali Edwards who began the tradition a number of years ago and she still does one each year!! It is a great way to make a mini book that really focuses on and celebrates the holiday moments and other cool stuff that happens in December. I have been doing this now for 3 years, and my Daily December Albums are by far my favourite albums!!!

I prep my album in advance so it is ready to add a photo(s) and some journaling each day in December . Other people prefer to make a page a day - whatever works for you. Last year one fabulous woman did an entire 12 x 12 album!!! ( Dawn you are a rockstar!) Here is a sample of a blank page from last year:

The process is fairly straight forward once you have your book assembled!!! You just add photos AND journaling ( very important!!! ) and a few embellishments and you are done!

Beginning next week on November 22nd, I will be posting each day of my Prep Week - to help you (and me) get ready for Daily December!

Watch for your supply list coming tomorrow!!! I hope you will join me!!

Happy Day everyone!!!

We Remember

Today we remember all those who lost their lives in war, and pray for peace.

Last year I did this layout about my mom's brother, who died in WWII, and was buried in Holland. I had no photo of him- I used a photo and information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which keeps records of where soldiers are buried and has photos of the various cemeteries around the world.


Please take time today to remember and to think about how you can work for peace in our world. For me, that is the best tribute we can offer those who gave their lives so that we can be free to work for peace and justice around the globe.

Unfinished projects. . . .

I am teaching a card class at Scrapbook Parade's December retreat (YIPPEE - a retreat!), and I finally got it finished! These are meant to be fairly quick and simple "just because" cards, with a couple of little techniques thrown in for fun! I still have a double layout class and a mini book to design, but I am almost caught up!

Speaking of catching up. . .

I also FINALLY completed some of my projects from when Trisha Ladouceur came for her Weekend to Unwind Event. It was an amazing weekend - however, I was unable to attend any of the classes because mark was in Houston! So I have been playing catch up with her incredible designs and am so happy with the results these are definitely far more labour intensive - but it was a labour of love- Thanks Trisha - you designed some incredible projects!!! Please check out her BLOG for more great inspiration!

First a wall canvas:
And a special mini book - which I am filling with all my favourite inspirational quotes, because I cannot bear to give it away!

Now I just have to get at those Christmas cards. . . . . .

Happy day everyone!

Happy November!

It is really hard to believe that November is upon us already!!! The fall is flying by and I cannot believe that Christmas is just around the corner!.

I wanted to share a couple of things today - mostly I have been finishing up unfinished projects and trying out Christmas card ideas!

This layout uses an old photo of my mom, with the Restoration collection from Crate Paper - I am absolutely obsessed with vintage these days!

This card is my attempt to actually use my Cuttlebug and many embossing folders in a Christmas card!
I love the look of embossing - just need to do it more often!

Over the next little while I will be sharing some of my Christmas projects, cards and the prep for my annual Daily December Album! I am hoping that you will want to play along this year and document the little bits of your family life in the midst of a busy holiday season!

Happy day everyone!