I can so scrap in a simple and efficient manner

I just choose not to because it is harder for me than my standard style. So this past weekend I along with hundreds of others were challenged by Amanda Lepage to make four layouts from 4 pieces of pattern paper, and 6 sheets of cardstock. Toss in a few flowers, a few brads (or in my case I used buttons - because I am such a rebel LOL LOL) a few letters of your chosing and Bingo! 4 layouts in 2 hours from start to finish (including chosing of photos and papers).

Oh I hear all you Nay sayers disbelieving my word so here is the living proof.





This weekend was very productive one for me with 8 pages of layouts, and an altered book but I am not done yet........I have until Thursday to complete the rest of the challenges and I am determined to do just that. So watch as I share and reveal more finished work and perhaps a tip, trick or technique or two.

Oh and get my new camera battery charger so I can take those photos.

Saskatchewan Talent Rocks!

Just went and picked up the summer edition of Canadian Scrapbooker and you are not going to believe the amount of amazing and talented Scrap artists from Saskatoon and area that are adorning the pages. You know what the best part of it all is........... I get to call them my good Friends.

I am so proud of this issue, did I mention that yet? Ah, right lets get on with the recognition of these amazing women.
Here are our top winners from Saskatoon Scraps Andrea Hipkin (right) and Sheryl Schmidt (center) with Canadian Scrapbooker Editor and Co-founder Jackie Ludlage. This is first time enteries for both girls and they just swept up the awards.

Look at this award winning layout and the this photo does it no justice (the magazine is better)
Sheryl Schmidt entered for the first time and not only this winning layout but several honourable mentions at the Saskatoon Scraps Event in March.

This cute and funny layout is by Amanda Lepage she won the Saskatoon Fall Crop'n Cruise Crop with this wonderful tribute to her family friend.

This darling little wild one is Corinne's first publication and it is so awesome. Using that 45 record was just the perfect touch for the title.

Leica Forrest is rocking out with her contributions to the magazine these two are my favourites of the several she had featured.
Karen Pidskalney is recognizing a first as she did an amazing job of taking photographs at Saskatoon Crops and provided these photos for Canadian Scrapbooker so congrats to her on her first publication.

I will also add that Jackie was very gracious to include a fantastic shot of the journal that I made for her and to add to my glowing face a wonderful photo showing all of the journals that were made for Saskatoon Crops. This is my first time to be published in print and I am flattered by it. Thank you Jackie for making my dream a reality.

Come and join all the fun at Just Cre8 for the 2009 Happy Be Scrappy Online Crop! It is a wonderful way to get your mojo flowing and meet some fantasic scrappers! You never know who will drop by and participate.

Maximize your Letter Stickers

Hi Everyone,

So today on The Paper Passion board one of the gals asked how to make a letter out of other letters. She was talking specifically about the thicker letters but many of these tricks will work with a lot of letter sets. I thought I would share my tricks here with you as well.

a = take a p turn it up side down nip off the excess and you have an "a"
b = take a "q" turn it around for a "b"
c = take an "o" and nip out a side piece for a "c" - save the piece for other letter creations
d = take a "p" turn it around for a "d"
e = take an "o" nip out the side, then glue the side piece in to make an "e", you can do this with a "c" and a spare bit you have. You can also get out your favourite sharpie and draw in the line if you are using black.
f = take a "j" turn it up side down and use extra bits for the line or use the sharpie pen
g = take a "b" or a "q" turn upside down, warm up the heat gun and after heating gently pull into shape (works for foam style thickers only) otherwise just clip the stem and curve it to the side.
h = take an "m" trim to one hump, then use the remaining straight piece (trim off the curve) to make the back
i = take the back of any letter
j = take a "f" turn it up side down and remove the extra bits from the line.
k = take a straight back from a letter and attach a "v"
l = take a straight back from any letter
m = take two "n" remove one back and glue whole "n"
n = trim down an "m" or an "h", take your "z" and turn on its side.
o = take an "e" remove the line and fill in the side gap
p = take a "p" turn it around for a "d"
q = take a "b" turn it around for a "q"
r = take an "n" and remove the side piece, or you can trim down an "m" or an "h"
s =
t = take the back of any letter and add extra bits
u = turn the "n" upside down, trim down an "h" and turn upside down
v = take to straight segments from any excess letter.
w = take two "v" and trim one down to fit up against the other.
X = never needed two of these
y = take a straight piece and glue small bits to complete,
z = have never needed two of these.

Of course it won't always work for all fonts but at least it gives you a starting place. and don't forget that you can also use numbers to build letters too.

If all else fails.........have a mixed font title LOL LOL

Stitching, Beading and Inking How To's....

I am so very pleased with this layout. I love the way that it all came together portraying the bright vivid greens and blues of the surrounding sky and forests of this lazy little restaurant situated in the middle of a slow moving river and falls. Chino falls was like a bit of paradise and it is a place that I want to return to and savour again. Tim Holtz created a stamp that allowed me to recreate the vines and plant life and of course the butterflies.... were floating quietly through.

Chino Falls is just outside of Puerto Vallarta near the town of Mismolaya, it is sleepy and run down so I felt I needed to distress this layout a bit but not excessively. Bob and I were lucky enough to locate a tour guide that was willing to take us to this bit of paradise with 3 other couples from the ship.

You had to walk in about half a mile and then you could go through the restaurant where a mariachi band played for you..... done to the waters edge. Walk across the little damn and sit out on the sand bar. The water was so warm compared to what we have at home. I had to laugh and almost missed the shots when the group was startled by the minnows that were busy nibbling at there toes. It didn't hurt of course but if you weren't expecting it.........

The couple standing in front of the falls was completely oblivious to my taking their picture and it is one of my absolute favourite photos from that day. That night they became engaged but they didn't announce it until a couple of days later.




Well enough of strolling down memory lane.............. lets get on with the how to's of this layout.

First of all you need some cardstock, and once again I have chosen Bazzil. I then chose to do the inking with Cats Eye from Colorbox. You can use any ink you like but be aware of the different properties and how they behave with what your working on. I chose the pigment because I wanted the delayed drying time to ensure that I could sponge it out to my liking......oh and I loved the color.

Of course you have already chosen your cardstock and ink colors to match your personal tastes. I have cut out of scrap chipboard a large circle and then kept the negative so that I could ink the opposite direction for the inside circle.

Place your template on the cardstock where you would like your finished circle to be on your layout. I use a makeup sponge to pick up the ink and brush it out ward over the chipboard and and extend it to the depth you would like.


Using the inside edge of a circle template ink the inside like edge of the circle that you are creating. There is no right or wrong thickness for you to achieve. I do reccomend that you contemplate how your stitching will look. To thin and you loose the detail, to thick and you have lots of open space between stitches.


The next thing you want to do after you have finished inking in your circles is to place a computer mouse pad or sponge under the curves then take your poking instrument (needle or poker). Then poke your holes into the cardstock. The location of your holes depends on the design of the finished pattern you are hoping to achieve. In this case I made holes about a quarter inch apart on the outer ring. Then I put the inner ring holes so they were inbetween the holes of the outer ring. This resulted in me making the angled stitches of my pattern.


For this design I chose to do stitches in opposite directions with the each layer a separate color. As a rule if your going to add beads you would add it to the second or top layer. However, you should remember that rules are meant to be broken so have fun with your design.

I stamped using the Tim Holtz archival inks in black and sepia. Then used the Water Distressing Technique to add the blues and greens. Glimmer mist turned white netting the jungle green and Stickles turned the butterflys into sparkling gems.


How to Ink Shapes

This is a post that had been requested by a friend of mine. She wants to know how to avoid ugly smudges or marks when doing her masking. First of all, whenever I do my masking, I always used a sponge. The sponge that you see in the above photograph is a cosmetic sponge where we would normally use to apply our wet foundation. It's triangular in shape. I've always dab the sponge on one edges into the ink. To mask, I've hand cut a self made simple template, place it on my card stock or paper with temporary adhesive. (I would advise that if your masking template is huge, use a temporary adhesive to hold it in place) (Tip: simply use a normal sticky tape and roll it in circle to create your own temporary adhesives)

To start masking, place the inked edge of your sponge on top of the template. This is to avoid too much ink on the masking. Using the portion after the edge to do the masking instead. This will soften the look of your masking and you will avoid any ugly marks. (Tip: Do not over dab your sponges with too much ink too.) I hope this will help any of my readers who also had the some problems while doing masking

Just so you don't wonder.........

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have not forgotten about my tutorials. I have just been very sick with pneumonia and not feeling up to doing the necessary re-shots of my work that I need to do.

Don't worry - my mind is working overtime and just waiting for the body to catch up. Looking forward to sharing more techniques and information with all of you.

Happy Mothers Day Weekend

I hope each and everyone of you had a great weekend being pampered and spoiled by those that love you.

So this has been a rather productive week for me, I love weeks like this.

I am going to apologize for the less than stellar quality of the photos of this finished layout and I hope to get them replaced in the next few days.I had a ton of fun creating the pages for this layout. Watch for the Tutorial in the next posting on how to do the inking and stitching.

Well Look what got Made this weekend.

Well it is almost over a weekend dedicated to celebrating the art of Scrapbooking. I had the best time visiting, singing and dancing with my Gal Pals in Saskatoon and then completeing the challenges at The Paper Passion. There will be a few more that I will wrap up in the next 24 hours and I will share them here with you.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day

I am really excited as I am Scrapping today! All Day! All Night! Whats even better is I get to Scrap with my Bad girls. Which Bad girls you say? Well both my online Buddies and the Saskatoon Bad Girls. I love this site........ so many ladies that just really know how to rock the techniques and an amazing resource for information.

Check out these talented ladies at www.badgirlskits.com and have a blast with them today.

These BG are so awesome that they have shared with me the "Secret of the Book" it took some doing and some digging on there parts but we have the Secret. So watch in the coming weeks as I create my "Book" and share with you a step by step tutorial.




For those of you gals that like to check out Canadian based stores and forums pop over to www.thepaperpassion.com today and check out the talent that is blossoming on this new site. If you choose to do some of their NSD challenges let them know that you were referred from my site.


http://www.justcre8.com is another AWESOME Canadian Community, and that is just what it really is a community and family. These folks are amazing caring and the enthusiasim for scrapping and stamping is amazing. Sue's unique stamps are a treat to use and so very versitile.

Check out the online Scrap that they will be sponsoring the weekend of May 22 and 23rd. I promise you it will knock your socks off.