Let's go to Hawaii...

I try and make a mini album for all our vacations, the boys love to look through it and remember how much fun it was and all the new experiences they had.  This year we went to Hawaii and had a blast. 

 

I made the mini album from the Lily Bee Handmade Collection and my trusty Bind-It-All.

 

I love the wood frames from Studio Calico. They add so much texture and interest to my minis, I have to say I am a little addicted.

 

For the cover page I created a hibiscus flower from patterned paper and added a wood button and twine.

 

I love the bright colors of the Handmade collection, they go perfect with the bright colors of the photos.

 

 

 

This is the biggest mini I have made in a long time, it ended up being 22 pages and the book barely closes. I cherish being able to make these keepsakes for myself and my family.

 

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Sunshine and Happiness

Going to Savary with my friends is always lots of sunshine and happiness.  I always like to make our friends something to thank them for inviting us and this year I made them a quick mini album using the Simple Stories 4 x 6 journaling cards.

 

I wanted to create my own bokah look on the cover with sequins to give the cover a little more shimmer and shine.

 

 

I hole punched the journaling cards and used a binder ring to hold the mini album together.

 

 

For the inside pages I printed off some photos in wallet size and added some Simple Stories stickers to each page.

 

 

 

I put the mini album in a plain brown paper bag and added a fun tag I made using the simple stories paper to create sun rays to the outside.

They loved the mini album and I hope they bring it out and look at it often.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hibiscus

The Hibiscus has always been my favorite flower, it's so beautiful.  When we went to Hawaii this year I tried to take as many photos of hibiscus that I could, they came in so many beautiful colors it was amazing.

I made this layout using the Lily Bee Handmade papers.  I only had pieces left so I made the background a mix of all the pattern papers.

 

 I created my own Hibiscus flower for the layout by cutting out petals and layering them and finishing it off with twine threaded through a wooden button.

 

I also added some twine and buttons for some extra details to some of the panels.

 

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Project Happiness Week 10

I have really loved doing this happiness project and looking at all the little projects on my wall really does make me happy.   I decided I wanted to keep doing it for as long as I am enjoying it but will do only one for each week.

Week 10 was all about getting the kids ready for back to school which of course meant a trip across the border.  One of our favorite parts about gong to the US for shopping is having Ivar's fish and chips when we are there.  Yummy!

 

I used the American Crafts Shoreline paper, some October Afternoon letter stickers and an Elle's Studio tag.

You can find more about Christine Middlecamps project which inspires mine and see one of her finished projects on her blog here http://retrospection.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/06/nearly-a-month-ago-i-hauled-myself-to-the-self-help-section-of-the-local-bookstore-with-the-idea-that-somewhere-amongs.html .

Thanks for stopping by.

Summer

Summer is almost over, it's sad to see the days get shorter and the temperature get cooler.  I took so many great photos this summer I am sure I will be scrapping them well into the fall.

My son's favorite place to hang out in the summer is on the hammock or old swing with his best friend.  They sit and talk for hours.  It's so cute to watch them.

I added some fun pinwheels to this layout to give it a summery feel.

I also added a fun banner using patterned paper, burlap and twine.

I hope you had a wonderful summer like I did.  Thanks for stopping by.

Just Me

I have been meaning to do a layout about myself in a long time, it's always something that seems to get put on the back burner. When I saw a challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket I decided to play along.

I used the cute little jean pocket paper, cut it out and used it as an actual pocket for my journaling.

One of the challenges was to use some older product and I used some really old Prima Flowers from about 7 years ago.

I also added a quote from Mother Teresa to the layout in another pocket I created.

I had so much fun doing the challenge and love how this page turned out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Project Happiness Week 8

Week 8 for project happiness was a tough one to choose from.  We spent the week at Savary with our friends and as always having a blast.  The kids spent their days at the beach, riding their bikes, playing games, fishing, kayaking, building sand castles and beach combing.  It was really tough to choose which ones of these things make me happiest. 

For the first one I chose a photo of beach glass I had taken.  We would go on long beach walks together and look for beach glass it was really fun just walking and talking with the kids.

 

 I used the American Crafts Shoreline collection for this project, made a little scalloped border added some stickers and twine to finish it off.

 

For the second project I used a photo of the wooden path from the cabin to the beach.  I love this path it's like a path to happiness for me. 

 For this project I used the Simple Stories journaling card as a base added the "carefree" bingo card, mu photo and some stickers.

 

Being at Savary is always an amazing week for us.  I only hope that we will continue to do it year after year.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

You Are My Sunshine

I always think of this song when I am creating something with a sun ray on it so it was also the perfect sentiment for this card.

 

I used the Summer Fresh line by Simple Stories, I love the patterns and colors in this collection.

 

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Project Happiness Week 7

This was a crazy week, but then what weeks aren't right?  We went from one extreme to the other but both made me really happy.

for the first piece of happiness...It was our 21st wedding anniversary this week so we decided to head to Whistler for a few days of luxury at the Intrawest Resort, it was fabulous. I have never managed to get a nice picture of Mike and I but we managed to get one with my IPhone.  I added some light effects with PicFx and used Instagram for the wash, I really loved how this photo of us turned out.  I knew I would have to use it on my happiness project.

I used the American Crafts Shoreline collection which has amazing bright colors perfect for this photo.

I added a Pebbles mini clothespin, some My Minds Eye twine and of course some fussy cut flowers along the bottom of the photo.

The second piece of happiness came right after Whistler, we all headed to Savary Island for a week of rest and relaxation.  This photo was taken in Lund at the boat and the boys are posing like the Captain Morgan ad which they thought was hilarious. 

I used the Shoreline collection again.  I really love the stickers and papers that come in this collection.

I especially like the sun patterned paper which I cut out to use on this project, it just makes me smile.

 Well another week over and I am so happy to continue doing this project.

You can find more about Christine Middlecamps project which inspires mine and see one of her finished projects on her blog here http://retrospection.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/06/nearly-a-month-ago-i-hauled-myself-to-the-self-help-section-of-the-local-bookstore-with-the-idea-that-somewhere-amongs.html .
Thanks for stopping by.

It's the first day of school...

My oldest son starts High School today.  It's such an exciting (and nerve wracking) day for both of us.  They only go for a half day today so to try and make it a little special my youngest son and I made a card for him and we got a gift card for the local Fresh Slice so he can go have lunch with his friends.

 

To make the card I covered the card base with Jillibean soup paper that looks like the element chart.  Then I used the Clipboard die cut from Jillibean Soup to create the clipboard and added some old letter stickers for the sentiment. My son had a blast helping me and did a great job. 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Chalkboard Frames

I wanted to make the area where my kids hang their backpacks look a little nice so I made these chalkboard frames for above the hooks.

I spray painted some cheap Michael's frames with chalkboard paint and created a little robot scene inside the frame using some old patterned paper and Maya Road acrylic robots.

I love that you can wipe the chalk off and change the title. I plan on making these for my son's soccer coaches this year so they can keep a photo of their kids soccer team and write the team name and year on it and change it every year.

Thanks for stopping by.