Wishing You and Yours....

I have been busy all day preparing for Christmas. 

Last minute store runs. 

Cooking. 

Baking. 

Cleaning. 

And now, Phew! I have a while to sit and relax before our guests arrive. 

We didn't take a trip back home which I am a little sad about, but regardless, we will still be celebrating with friends. People that we care about and matter to us. 

So, with all this Christmas cheer in the air, I want to wish all of you a VERY Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! 

Thank you for making my 2008 a wonderful year!

You Gotta Go See the Genius

Just a quick one this morning, but I have to tell you about the amazing projects that my wonderful friend Anam Stubbington made with the Prima Build-A-Books. They'll blow you away. Totally.

See it here and here.

Go and see on here blog and the Fire & Ice blog. You will not be sorry!

Slooowly Updating....

This past weekend I sat at home and began a mission. I knew that my blog needed a serious makeover. I've known it for a while now and I finally got to it. 

I dusted off that little piece in my brain that housed my HTML knowledge (and good gosh it was dusty) and got my google on. 

So, here is the beginning. So far, so good heh?

There will be a few more things that I may add and subtract in the next little bit, but this is the gist.  

If you want to do a bit of polishing up on your blog too, I found a really great site that is pretty straightforward and tells you how to do a lot of things in blogspot. 

The Blog Doctor

See you soon with more posts!

Gathering in Warm Places, Sharing Fun Times

BBBRRRRR!

Tonight I am sitting in my warm chair by my Christmas tree and listening to my house creak and pop as it climatizes to the freezing cold of winter settling in. 

Alberta has finally settled into a deep freeze and it finally feels like Christmas is around the corner. 

Life has finally calmed down for me and I am thrilled to do a bit of relaxing. I am now going to look forward to baking cookies, spending time with my family. This year I am most definitely enjoying Jake really discovering the magic of the Christmas season and watching his excitement and anticipation at Santa's arrival. As a parent, playing the Santa games have a quality of fun and excitement for myself. However, with Trevor being away on a job, I have had to purchase Santa gifts in front of my child, my creativity flowing as I make up stories about the check out girl scanning them just so Santa knows exactly what he wants. Thank goodness the kiddo is young enough to be trusting of every word I say, as I suspect it won't be so easy in years to come. 

But despite all of this, I have a lot of things to catch up on....

The past week has been filled with doing up projects and preparing for a class. So, despite the cold temperatures and the impending Christmas preparations, I woke up my vehicle, braved the cold to spend time with the ladies from Scraps of Joy at the Crossroads Church in Red Deer. 

A special thank you to our hostess and coordinator Angela for putting together such an enjoyable day. 

The crop started off by us looking out the windows of the church as the CP Holiday Train rolled by. I was so happy to see it as I was really wanting to see it stop in Red Deer or Lacombe, but the schedule wouldn't allow it. So that was awesome!

US and Canadian ladies, if this train ever rolls into town, you really got to go see it, the lights and entertainment are a real Christmas treat. 

After a filling lunch, I taught a Christmas page class using some fun techniques using Prima Paintables, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and the ever so fun glitter glue for adults, Ranger Stickles! 

Here is the one of my ladies, Margrette and her son showing her handiwork!

And as far as me and crops, I never get anything done, I just go for good conversation. I never manage to get anything done! Which is fine, it gives me a chance to get to know some wonderful ladies who love scrapbooking!

Here's Shauna not trying to think of the cold and scrap some warm and sunny holiday photos.

Here's the bubbly Coralee working away on some projects she will be teaching at Scrapbooker's Paradise. Go check her stuff out and as well as other great teachers projects like my friend, Jessi Lute. 

I also met another enthusiastic and talented scrapbooker, Gail. I loved watching her work. She is absolutely resourceful and is giving me deep thoughts of doing so as well. Sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in buying products when with a little ingenuity and forethought, you can make truly unique pieces from scratch!

One of Gail's favorite papers and embellishments are My Mind's Eye. I wanted to show you all the fabulous work that she does with it. 

Blew me away.

 Here she created a mini album from scratch. It is for her mother and inside she placed some breathtaking photos and some of her mother's favorite Bible passages. 

So a great day had by all! I need to go back and have another visit and I will. 

And earlier this week, I made a fun project using Prima's Voila! Felt. Remember, there are many other options than just black. Turn it upside down and I'll show you what I mean........

If you have ever worked with the Voila! Felt, then you know that it has an adhesive back. So peel off the protective backing and lay a foil transfer to the felt's adhesive, like Stix2 Transfer Foils. Lift off the transfer and what results is a metallic accent without weight and bulk in a cool die cut shape.

And lastly, I have a little toot, that I am extremely excited about. One of my very first hybrid pages that I ever made is in the latest issue of Canadian Scarpbooker Magazine. Don't forget to check it and other awesome projects. Oh, and I must make a little shout out to Ms. Stubbington, whom I often speak of here and never get to see enough, had her ad debut in the same issue and it is a FULL PAGER! That's right. too cool. Kudos chickie, good on ya. 

And that's it for now! See you later!

Like Fall Things are Winding Down.

Hey there. 

Tonight I am sitting here in my living room and letting my mind wander. Doing that has been few and far between lately, I feel like I am always needing to do something. Actually, this evening I definitely have something to do, but I'm giving that a rest for a short while. 

I have lots of little things on my mind and the first one is how bitterly cold it is getting outside. I know that I we've been lucky here in Alberta as far as the weather is concerned, but regardless I still feel sad that the snow is setting in. On the other hand with Christmas coming up it just wouldn't seem the same with the fluffy white stuff. 

Although I do remember a time about 10 years ago that Christmas came and went and I was wearing a light sweater and no snow to be found. It was the craziest thing. I think Mother Nature was just being gracious to my family that was up visiting from California. hee hee

It was kinda funny too, as the weather set in I had a deadline that has wrapped up as well. It was a biggie and I think I did alright. In fact, I cross my fingers that it is better than alright as it was a tough thing to do. I'll let you know when it materializes, but it will be a bit from now. Think spring. 

As a little send off for fall I did a page for Prima's December Build-A-Page sketch by Miss Anam Stubbington. They are from a series of pictures I took of Jacob a couple of years ago. 

I cut up a Prima Clear Paintable and painted it with some Claudine Hellmuth Acrylic paint. 

Oh, and if you haven't bought any of this stuff, you should. Best. Paint. Ever.  

Then I accented with those lovely, glittery Ranger Stickles. 

I actually went quite Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist crazy on this page. I have a lot of fun mucky-mucking around with them. 

First cool thing, see the piece of cotton lace that is below the pictures? Yeah, the lace's original color is a soft blue. I colored it with Olive Vine Glimmer Mist.

I sprayed the leaves as well. It is hard to see but there is a nice Glimmer to them. 

And look! Love these Prima Pebbles. They are full of vintage-kitsch goodness. 

I also used the Glimmer Mists on my title. Then I accented them with the Distressed Stickles from Ranger. They are cool. I love the texture they add. The Glimmer is very muted. If you aren't much for a lot of sparkle but want to try Stickles, this is a good start. 

And now before I forget, I wanted to thank Anam, Ian, Lily and Miss Fay for the wonderful birthday party. Jake and I made a special trip to have some fun and wish little Miss Fay a Happy Birthday! We had a blast. 

 

As for this weekend I know it will be a busy one. I have to decorate the house with some Christmas cheer and want to bake some sugar cookies with the kiddo. I already got most of my shopping done, I just have easy presents and stocking stuffers to get. No, I lie, I have to get Trevor his gift too. But I don't have to leave the house to get it. Hee hee. 

So that's my story and I am sticking to it. Have a wonderful day!