April News and April Showers...

Hello and Happy April Showers...not sure where you are but in my neck of the woods we've been blessed with glorious warm sunshine, spring flowers blooming and of course April rain showers...while you have to be someone who loves or at least tolerates some rain to live on the WestCoast in British Columbia...I do love it! Strange I'm sure you're thinking but with rain comes the smell of wet pavement, green grass, brightened yard colours and packed down mulch! Yup! I've been busy cleaning my yard of leaves and trimming/edging the grass along the flower beds, lightly pruning old growth off my shrubs...AND spreading half a dump truck load of Organic Bark Mulch!!! Fun stuff...sore back, but the yard is starting to look great :)

Last week was also a terribly sad week. One of my daughter Marissa's close friends decided to end her own life...just tragic. My heart has been heavy for many days and Marissa was away on her school trip to Thailand when she found out, so I was also sad to not be able to be there with her when she found out...dealing with death is very hard...dealing with the death of a young person is very hard...dealing with teen suicide is terrible...as a parent, trying to talk to your own children about this is difficult and it's also hard not to be angry. I've been feeling it all over the past couple of weeks but last weekend was the memorial service for Marissa's friend and to say that was tough would be an understatement. I was very proud of Marissa though as she was able to go infront of everyone and read a speech she wrote about her friend.  I am glad she was able to share her special moments, I'm sure it is a way of coping and dealing with the loss of a precious friend.

Marissa giving her friend a ride! One of her favourite photos even though its blurry and taken with her phone.

Now...lets move on as we all need to...right?!

With the current April showers here I have been kicked out of the backyard and I'm into the house! Which for those of you that know me means Scrapbooking!!!

I've created a 'numbers' challenge over at Scrapbook Challenges for this month. April is all about 'everyday moments' at SBC and with the coming of the fourth month I thought I'd challenge all of you to work with the number FOUR :) Head on over to my Blog post there to see what's involved and hopefully you'll have a moment to play along with any one of the great challenges we'll be featuring this month!

This is my challenge layout featuring FOUR photos, FOUR patterned papers, at least FOUR embellies and a couple sheets of cardstock, easy peasy right?!! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

then & now

I'm just pluggin away at some of these '20 Layouts' layouts from one of the classes Jennifer Edwardson taught back a few months back, if you remember me mentioning these classes in previous posts, she teaches a super fast paced, guided 'boot camp' style class, where she walks you through using up some of your stash and creating some really cute layouts in the process...this is one of the ones I've just finished:

I've had these two photos on the left printed out for years and years and when I saw this recent photo of Olivia and Courtney from a party I thought that a layout showing them from then to now would be neat and a great way to incorporate these single photos I've had printed for so long!

I found these fluffy, velvet Thickers alphabet sheet set and even though they are super messy, loosing their stick {needed to add some adhesive myself}, I thought they complimented these papers :)

this is the layout that Jennifer had as her example for us to follow:

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today, I love meeting new followers and hearing from you, so thank you again for hanging out with me!!!

Swap Layouts are in the Mail!

Lots of trimming, but they are all done :) I've really enjoyed working on these Funky Swap layouts but I'm glad they're done...now it's time to get busy on next weeks Workshops and my weekend retreat at Timberline! I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the work in progress...

I absolutely can not scrapboook without my Ranger blending tools by Tim Holtz...that and the craft sheet that you can use for so many things...I like how my blending tool glides along the craft mat and allows me to ink the edges softly.

Just a  little bit of trimming involved there...I love how the titles turned out...little rock n' rollin' with Honey, Olive and Smoothie inks...

This is for the Female Child layout...the base page is with CTMH's new Kraft cardstock...I'm lovin' it

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Cardstock; Kraft, Colonial White, Chocolate, Smoothie 

B&T Duos; Mayberry paper collection

Stamp Sets; True Happiness (D1365), Over The Rainbow (D1426)

Punches; EK border, SU

This is for the Female Adult layout...I've used the Wings paper collection, I really liked how this layout for my CTMH Consultant's Swap turned out...5 spots are for 3"X 3"photos and 1 spot for a 5"x 5"...or a little larger as the Juniper mat is 6"X 6"...this design is featured in the MAGIC how-to-book, page 116, Magician's Choice...I'm afraid I can't take credit for this design...just my interpretation of one of the many great designs in Jeannette Lynton's newest book...MAGIC

I incorporated small words to capture my feelings about my friend in this layout...I could have used the black rectangle on the right side page to put some journalling as well, but I liked the random words scattered here and there instead...this way I am leading the reader from picture to picture...

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Cardstock; Vineyard Berry, White Daisy, Black, Juniper

B&T Duos; Wings paper collection

Stamp Sets; Bohemian Alphabet (E1019), Dreams Come True (D1470), Take a Picture (C1440)

Embellishments; Opaques Licorice, Green Asst. brads, Mini-Medley Black, Level 2 Asst. Wings

Punches; 2"Round Scallop & 1.25" round punch, EK border, Martha Stewart butterflys

Check out these Crafty Places!

Good Morning...I've been spending far too much time surfing the World Wide Web aka. www.

But luckily for you and me, I have found some great sites for inspiration, challenges (don't we all need some of those to get the fires a burnin') and layout and card maps!

You might have noticed the two links on the right column that

 I'm a Member of: Big Red Scraps & Let's Scrap...

Big Red Scraps is a site created by fellow Close To My Heart Consultant, Leisa Hubley, for sharing your Close To My Heart creations.  Big Red Scraps, Paper Creations using CTMH products is a searchable CTMH gallery site for everyone to share their CTMH artwork.

Isn't she the greatest for setting up a gallery for all of us to use?...on there you will find Consultant Artwork and Artwork by other CTMH fans...I love this site because it allows me to see what other creative ladies have done with stamp sets, colour combinations and paper collections...usually products that I have and sometimes I find it challenging to use everything I have in a new and different way...looking to this site often provides me just the right amount of inspiration to get creatin'. 

Check out Big Red Scraps now to just look around or become a member too and you can share your creations and be inspired!

Big Red Blog Candy 

Leisa from Big Red Scraps is celebrating 200 followers! 

Congratulations Leisa! 

To celebrate she is giving away some yummy candy:

Drop by her personal blog, she is SO talented!

Now Let's Scrap!

I am also a new Member of Let's Scrap, it offers inspiration and support galore! Since joining two days ago, I've been IM'd by all of their DT ladies offering info and insight into this site...I think it just might be one of my newest favorite places to hang-out, share my Artwork and get inspired with all of their Weekly challenges...join as a member or just stop by to see what all the fuss is about...I hope you participate in the challenges and become a member so you can upload your Artwork for all of us to be inspired from too. 

When you are part of a scrapbooking community, no matter where you live, you are connecting with people that share the same interest as you...you'd be surprised with how great it is to talk to people you've never met before through some of these Scrapbooking Forums, sharing with others your common interests and tidbits of your lives is actually very rewarding. Whether you are meeting others in person, through Monthly Workshop Clubs (like mine :)) or through the World Wide Web...you're enriching your life through these connections and after all we are all Scrapin' Sisters and Brothers aren't we?