Layout in response to the fun challenge by Jenny Box for her 500+ You Tube subbies

Happy Sunday to you all !  I hope you are having a good one.  It is rather a cloudy autumnal day here but the temperatures are still reasonable - 11 deg C so far today (it is noon here).  I am still fighting my flu bug but went for a long walk this morning to help clear my head and my sinuses.  It seemed to work ... yay !

Two blog posts in one weekend you say?  Well, yes.  This second one is for a challenge by my You Tube friend Jenny Box (you will find her under her name on You Tube, and she is also part of the nicolejones911 facebook group).  If you know Jenny, you will know that she is Australian and that she makes awesome layouts.  She has two "trademarks" - layering and black ink splatters.  I think Jenny is the queen of layering; she makes it look so effortless and the results are always beautiful.  She also finishes each page with some black India ink splatters in two corners of her page.  The perfect finishing touch.  Jenny challenged us to take on her trademarks on our own pages!!  What fun, but a challenge indeed.  So without further ado, here is my response to her challenge and my 5th layout with the Scraptastic Boys of Summer kit :

What I did that was new to me :  Firstly, this page is a lot busier than my normal style but I really like the outcome.  Normally, when I use a lot of bits of patterned paper on a layout, I will use cardstock, or a very subtle pattern, as the background but this time I went for the bold because I wanted the star PP as a  background since the layout is about Oliver's (the golden retriever in the picture)  bed and both he and Cali (the queen kitty LOL)  are sleeping.  Secondly, I clustered the title in a block down at the bottom of the layout so that it sort of acts as an embellishment cluster as well.  

This layout sure made be appreciate Jenny's layering talent even more because I did not find it as quite as effortless as it looks when Jenny does it :).  But I enjoyed it and I will certainly do more layering on my layouts as a result.  Thanks Jenny.  I used Mister Huey's mist for the splattering but I will be buying the black India ink because I like the effect much more.

The supplies: I used a few more supplies from my stash add-on this time around, to bring in the pet theme.  However all of the papers are from the kit with the exception of the grey cardstock behind the star PP, which is Smoky Slate by Stampin' Up, and the yellow-gold plank paper (which I can't quite remember where is comes from - I know it is recent and it is a 6X6 pad).  The other items from my stash add-on are :

• The dog and cat wood veneers are from Studio Calico
• the bone sticker, good dog sticker, paw sticker and kitty face sticker are all from the Simple Stories dog and cat sn@p collections
• the rest of the stickers are from the kit
• the alphas are mainly from the October afternoon's Daily Flash in Nightfall
• as I have already mentioned, the mist is from Mister Huey's

The story :  Well there isn't much of a story here, the photo is pretty much self-explanatory.  Cali, who is my sister's older cat just loves sleeping in the dog's bed.  We could never understand it because Oliver's bed, which came with him from the Rescue organisation, was pretty stinky no matter how much my sister washed it LOL.  But since it was the one thing Oliver was used to, they kept the old bed for the first year after he joined our family.  Early this autumn, Deb couldn't stand that old bed any longer so she went to buy Oliver a new one.  This photo was taken on the same day !!!  Cali got to the bed first LOL... and Oliver just let her be.  He never nudges her or tries to get her out of his bed.  But, if one of the cats gets within a yard of his food bowl ... oh my, that is a whole other story !!!

So there you have it - the story of Oliver's bed, or should it be Cali's bed?  

Thanks so much Jenny for this fun challenge, I really enjoyed it.  And, if for some reason, you don't know Jenny, get out from under that rock and search her out on You Tube.  Her videos are as amazing and her layouts.  

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I will be back soon with another layout and more ramblings.  Hugs xox

Visions of birds & squirrels & butterflies - Layout No. 4 with the August Scraptastic Kit (Boys of Summer)

Hello there and happy Saturday!  I hope you are all well and having a lovely start to the weekend?  What are you up to this weekend?  Any scrappy plans?.  I missed posting on Thursday; I am pretty laid up with an awful flu bug (figured I would get it out of the way before the holidays LOL), so pretty much spent the day in bed with tea, soup and You Tube.  All of my weekend plans are cancelled and I will hopefully be doing a little scrapping between naps and soup.  The upside is that I get to watch such great process videos on You Tube and catch up with you all! Also, Jamie Oliver just posted a bunch of videos on his Food Tube channel, so if by some stretch of the imagination, I run out of process videos, I have a Plan B.

I am here to share the fourth layout I made with my Boys of Summer kit from Scraptastic. We are back in the country, with the kitties - Chopin and Sophie :

The inspiration for the basic set-up of this page came from Jen Schow's second process video on You Tube (Jen just recently started making videos, but is a total natural and her pages are awesome - go check her out !!).  the wide polka dot paper strip and the two narrower strips at the bottom, as well as the photo placement are pretty much scraplifted from her.  Then, I think I went my own way ....

The supplies : All of the paper, the cardstock, stickers and die-cuts come from the kit or its add-on.  The items pulled from my stash add-on are :

• I am having quite a bit of fun lately making up long (and I think clever LOL) titles. This layout is no exception.  I used alphas from the Simple Stories sn@p collection, Jillibean Soup alphabeans in tart teal, October afternoon sticky keys in peacock blue and Jillibean soup mini markets in pine cone.
• The bird wood veneers are from my stash and I am not quite sure who they are from.  They are not from Studio Calico but I have all my bird wood veneer together in a jar with the SC pack. I think they are either from Citrus Twist or were in a RAK I got from Nancy Sinclair last year (kittyscrapper on You Tube).

The story:  In the country, there is a large, very old style, bay window in the dining room (so terribly drafty in the winter LOL).  It has an extra large ledge and is just the perfect place for the kitties to watch the world go by.  And it is perfectly set up for them.  Just outside that window, there are a few bird feeders, a small ornamental garden, and a few trees, a couple of which are a little poorly.  So there there is a never ending stream of birds of all sorts, including woodpeckers pecking away at the trees that are sickly, butterflies, bees, squirrels and chipmunks (stealing all the pine cones).  They often spend time sitting in that window, watching, and chattering away together, and at all the critters.  It also makes for a great sunning spot in the afternoons.

So there you have it - I leave you with  visions of birds & squirrels & butterflies; or if you prefer chocolate and fudge LOL.  Have a lovely day and I will be back tomorrow with my layout in response to a challenge from Jen Box, who has reached over 500 subbies on You tube (I will tell you more about her and her lovely pages tomorrow).  Til then, be well and be happy.  Hugs xoxo

Amazing Daily Harvest, 12 X 12 layout with my Scraptastic August Boys of Summer Kit

Happy Saturday!!!  Thanks for popping in to spend a few minutes with me today.  How is your weekend going?  I hope you have some time for fun this weekend.  In my neck of the woods, it is going to be indoor fun today because outdoors is pretty rainy and windy. Although, I think I saw the sun for a few minutes LOL. I am getting some laundry out of the way, will do some cooking and scrapping.  A nice "homey" day !!

I am forging ahead with the August kit and really enjoying it.  It is so colourful and fun :). This second layout is meant to be a companion page to the first (see my last post) one.  It is not a double page spread but it is complementary - the two pages will live side-by-side in my album.  Basically the same colour scheme but in a different order as well as some of the same multi-coloured die-cuts, stars and alphas.

Without further ado:

Just like on the previous layout, I integrated one of the die-cuts into my title but I did not really try anything else new-to-me on this page.  

I seem to have developed a slight addiction to arrows.  I have been using them a lot lately and loving them.  I bought a new SU punch with two sizes of arrows, and there are quite a few die-cuts and stickers with arrows in the kit. I guess that explains it in part.  I like how arrows can easily help bring the focus to where you want it and also act as an embellishment. I like staggering them and mixing them up with banner shapes as well.

The supplies:  I integrated a few things from my stash add-on :

• I used Jillibean Soup Alphabeans in Blue Corn Navy and October Afternoon Sticky key in Honey for the title.
• the multi-coloured polka dot paper layer behind the photo, is a 6X6 sheet from the Fancy Pants Be Different paper pad
• the  wood veneer are left over from a previous kit, and
• the enamel dots are from My Mind's Eye

The story:  This photo was taken during my vacation month in the country, in our garden.  It is a very relaxing and peaceful month with very simple pleasures!  In the morning, right after breakfast, I would go and work in the garden for a couple of hours - weeding, pruning if needed, dead-heading the flowers, adjusting and adding stakes;  whatever little chores needed doing.  I enjoyed working early in the day, before the heat set in (although we did not have a very hot summer this year).  Then, I hit the shower, and headed back out to sit in the garden and admire the view LOL.  Just before lunch was harvest time!!!  I really enjoyed this part of the day - walking around with my basket and harvesting whatever was available that particular morning.  I could then plan out that day's menu - lunch and dinner from the garden.  There is nothing like garden fresh meals and letting the garden bounty inspire you!

There you have it - another day in the garden.

Thanks for being here and have a wonderful day, whereever you are!  I will be back later in the week with layout number 3, which I promise is not the garden this time.  We could be back to the furkids though LOL...  Hugs, xoxo

All that awesome was a treat - Layout No. 1 with the Scraptastic Boys of Summer Kit

Well, hello there and welcome !  I am always so glad when you take the time to stop by and there have been more and more of you doing so;  so I am doubly grateful.

I have started using the August Scraptastic Kit, the Boys of Summer Kit. I got the main kit and the add-on.  I must say that when I chose the kit, I was not really sure.  The colours are what convinced me to choose this one and in all honesty, the other kit was just too themey for me (it was the Celebration kit, a birthday themed kit).  But then this kit seemed geared to boys, young boys.  I don't have boys (except for the four-legged kind) and the "boys" in my family, and extended family, are either adults, young adults, or babies.  None of them are "gamey" types either.  I was sceptical .... BUT I was worried for nothing.  I loooove this kit so far. I have made 4 layouts and am not having trouble at all using all the fun stuff.  I got the extra wood veneer, from all the kits,  so that helps (the ones that are really geared toward games have been put in a give-away pile, but that still leaves me plenty to play with).  We also got a lovely gift of very useable flair and I bought extra flair.  Some of the die-cuts may need altering but all in all I am really happy with the kit.  Yay !

Here is the first layout I made :

What I did that was new to me :  I incorporated one of the large die-cuts into my title.  I love it and this is an example of "altering" the die-cut.  The bottom half of the die-cut is under the photo block.  The words continue with "in such a little kid".  That part was not useable for me.  The top part made an awesome beginning to my title and then I just continued using colourful little stickers from the Fancy Pants sticker sheet !  What do you think?

The supplies:  Since this is the first layout with the kit, everything on the page comes from the kit with very few exceptions.  I had a partial pack of the Fancy Pants Be Different 6 X 6 paper pad in my stash so added that to my homemade add-on since quite a bit of that collection is in the kit.  I used two sheets of the 6 X 6 pad for layering, the star and polka dot papers to the left and right of the photos.  The only other items from my own add-on are:

• the star wood veneer which came in one of my last Simon Says Stamp card kits,
• the gems which are from Bo Bunny (and part of the 10 embellishment packs I put aside for the October challenge over on our nicolejones911 Facebook group)
• The brads are from My Mind's Eye Lost and found 3 (Oliver) and also part of my challenge pack.

The story:  Planting garlic in our climate can be tricky.  It is a bulb so should be planted in the fall at the same time as tulips and other bulbs.  Some years are easier than others...The temperature needs to be cold enough that the plant will not sprout but not too cold to shock the bulb, or to make working the earth difficult.  It is often a very narrow window.  In 2012, we totally missed the window.  It was a terribly rainy autumn and then turned bitterly cold ... on days we thought we could plant, it poured!  I had read somewhere that there was a variety that could be planted in the spring.  So we had a fallback - phfewww!!! We diligently planted the garlic in the spring of 2013.  And, you ask?  MONUMENTAL FAIL!!! no garlic, not a one, nada.  As if that weren't enough, we missed the window again in the fall of 2013.  At that point, we just gave up.  But for some reason, we did not touch the area that had been planted in the spring when we planted the rest of the garden this year!  And .... drum roll .... LO AND BEHOLD...look what 2014 brought us!  A total surprise, a total treat - the best garlic EVER lol.  

So there you have the story of the garlic :).  What about this year?  It is shaping up to be a difficult one again .... it is 22 deg C today and has been all week!  But we almost planted last weekend because we had had a ground frost two weeks earlier.  The plan now is to plant on the 25th.  I will keep you posted (I know you just can't wait to know LOL).

Have a wonderful rest of the week and I will be back on the weekend with another layout and another silly story ! Hugs xo

Have cage, will travel, 12 X 12 scrapbook layout with the Scraptastic July 2014 Either Way Kit

Happy Sunday to you and thanks for stopping by!  It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and a beautiful one it is.  The sun is shining bright today, the colours are absolutely gorgeous and the temperature is pleasant.  We had a family day yesterday - watching the Shanghai Tennis Masters semis, having brunch and generally catching up with each other.  I love those days!!  How about you?  what are you up to this weekend?  Any scrappy time?

I am bringing you the 14th and final layout done with my July Scraptastic Kit.   I so loved playing with this kit and as you will see later in this post, I think I did it proud - there are litterally just some tiny scraps left.  Here it is :

What I did that was new to me :  I mixed upper and lower case letters in the word "travel" in the title and I love how it looks.  I have seen many of you do this but never have - not for any specific reason, just because I didn't think of it or because I had all the letters I need in one case!  But I think it certainly adds interest to the title and now I wish I had done the first part of the title that way as well.  There is always a next time :) :)

The supplies:  I was down to bits and pieces of patterned paper so I used vanilla cardstock as my background (something else I don't do very often but love the look of on this one).  Everything is from the kit, with the following exceptions :

• The floral wood-grain paper is from the 6 X 6 Good day sunshine paper pad, from Simple Stories.  I had that paper pad in my stash and since a lot of this paper was in the other main kit for July, I made it part of my stash add-on.  The "Hello" die-cut also comes from that paper pad.
• The pink chipboard stars and camera are from Studio Calico Essentials
• The gold stickers are from Maggie Holmes and came in my June Citrus Twist PL kit
• I used Dear Lizzy Thickers for the word "will" in the title
• Finally, the bow was left over from the June kit.

The story:  Most cats don't like cages.  Not so with Chopin and Sophie (she is my sister's younger cat and Chopin's girlfriend.  She is also the kitty in the picture).  They love playing in and around the cage.  When we go visit, Sophie always comes over to the cage to nose kiss with Chopin before I let him out. When I do let him out, Miss Sophie goes into the cage and settles in for a few minutes LOL.  They then often play - one will go inside the cage and the other will be on the outside, on top of the cage and they play through the side openings. They also play chase and I gather that when one runs into the cage, it is a time out??  Oh and, the cage makes for a really cool obstacle when running - they jump over it, or run around it LOL.  Neither Chopin, nor Sophie, ever complain when being put in the cage but they are both travel snobs - they complain all the way in my sister's little car but not a peep out of either when we use my BIL's big truck !!!

So there you have it ... the story of the cage!!!  

And now, here are the only bits left of the Either Way Kit :

I can hardly believe all that is left on the Gold Thicker sheets because I used them on many titles - wow!!!  I can also see a few of the die cuts that will fit perfectly with the Boys of Summer kit.  The sticker sheet is part of the 10 items I want to use up in October (the challenge over on the nicolejones911 facebook group).  So I call this kit killed, done and dusted !!

My next post will be the first layout with the August kit, Boys of Summer.  

Have a wonderful end to the weekend and I will be back on Thursday with another layout and a few ramblings.  Hugs xoxo

Chatting with the neighbours - 12 X 12 layout with the July 2014 Scraptastic Either Way Kit

Hello there!  Welcome!  I am glad you stopped by.  How has your week been?  I am lucky this week since I have four days off.  It is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, the fall colours are just brilliant and all in all it is crisp, fresh and rosy cheek weather out there.

This is the 13th layout with the July Either Way kit from Scraptastic.  I really enjoyed playing with this kit and used up pretty much every last bit of paper!!  For this layout, we are going back to my summer vacations :

What I did that was new for me:  I thought I would add a little feature to my posts.  I am so inspired by all of you - all my friends on facebook, You Tube and on your various blogs - that I have been trying new-to-me techniques, or placement, or embellishments on my pages.  On this page, I added some clear & black speech bubble stickers right on the photo.  I thought I was quite clever LOL, and that it fit right in with the title.  What do you think?

The supplies:  I was pretty much down to paper scraps for this one, but managed to get it done.  The Kraft cardstock is from my stash since I had already used up both sheets that came with the kit.  The items from my own stash add-on are:

• Wood veneer from a previous kit, or from one of my Citrus Twist PL kits.
• The enamel dots are from My Mind's Eye
• The mist is Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Coffee Shop
• I used two alphas for the title :  the larger font is from Elle's Studio in Kraft (they may have come in this kit?? or if not they came in a previous one) and the smaller letter stickers have been in my stash for a couple of years now - they are from Glitz Design. Time to get them used up :)

The story : I called this one "Chatting with the neighbours" LOL.  Our little family house is right in the middle of country farmland so a lot of the neighbours are four-legged.  Our neighbour to the left has cows and horses!  Sometimes, it is the cows that are in the field adjacent to our house and sometimes it is the horses.  I love just sitting under a tree in the afternoon and watching the animals interact.  It is very relaxing and sometimes quite funny.  This summer, it was mainly the cows that were close and there were quite a few playful calves as well.  I walked up to the fence between the two properties and zoomed in a little for the photo.  They are not quite that close really when I am sitting under a shade tree facing the garden.

You made it to the end once again :) :)  Thanks so much and have a wonderful Friday and I will be back on Sunday with the last layout from this kit.
Hugs xoxo

12 X 12 layout - Ode to nappin', scrappin' and dreamin' ......

Well hello there and welcome!  I am so happy you are here.  The scrapping community is just so supportive, whether it be on You Tube, on the fun and inspiring groups we have on Facebook, on Instagram, and of course on our blogs!  Thank-you so much :)

I am still working with the Scraptastic July Kit - the Either Way kit.  It is almost done and dusted; just a couple more layouts.  When I am done with this kit, there sure won't be much left.  It was my favourite kit so far, but I think I am in for some beautiful kits to come; and I am getting anxious to get started with the August kit.  But before that, I want to share another kitty layout;  and, yes yet another one about the kitties and food LOL. It is the 11th layout with the Either Way Kit:

I had a lot of fun making this layout and I am pretty proud of the title :  "Ode to nappin', scrappin & dreamin' of catching yummy scallops" LOL.  I am enjoying coming up with out of the ordinary titles lately.  It is something that Nancy Sinclair (kittyscrapper on You Tube) does so well and she has inspired me to move away from the who-what-where titles once in a while.  

The supplies:  Pretty much everything on this layout comes from the kit, with very few exceptions :

• The biggest exception is the title :  I used 4 different alphas, all from my stash add-on :  Dear Lizzy foam thickers, Simple Stories Snap alphas, MME word stickers and alphas as well as October Afternoon Daily Flash mini alphas
• The washi tape comes from my August (or September) Citrus Twist PL kit
• Finally, the enamel dots are Dew Drops from Freckled Fawn.

I got the extra cardstock with the July kit and that definitely allowed me to get more layouts - I will finish with a total of 14.  That, I think, would make Nicole Jones (nicolejones911 on pretty much all social media) proud LOL.

The story:  There is not much of a story for this one.  Chopin just loves to lie on my scrap table when I am scrapping.  It helps that there are two quite hot lights shining on my work surface; and, since I am a cheapskate, I don't heat much in winter.  I believe in wearing socks and sweaters in the house, during the winter months, as opposed to shorts and sandals.  That was a constant disagreement between me and my ex-husband (that's a whole different story, with no layouts - so no fun :) :).  Anyway, back to this story ....  on this picture, Chopin is lounging and sleeping while I scrap about a special entree I made for my mom on Xmas. There are other times when he is not so quiet, and tries to "help" - he grabs die-cuts, wood veneer and just loves scraps as they "fly" of the paper trimmer. But plastic packaging has got to be the most fun - it makes noise as well.

Well, there you have it - a fun little bit of everyday scrappy fun from my house to yours!  Happy Sunday to all!  Talk to you soon :)