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!