Two more travel layouts with the Scraptastic Daylight Kit for May 2014

Well hello there, welcome and happy Saturday !  It is a glorious day here so it looks like we will be able to plant the garden next weekend as planned.  Meanwhile, it is still a little too wet to get out there today, but I accomplished the next best thing:  buying the seeds, YAY !  On Thursday, we will buy the plants and then we should be off to the races :).  I hope the sun is shining wherever you are.

Today, I want to share the second and third layouts I did with the Scraptastic Daylight kit for May 2014.  But, first let me just say that I don't think I have ever done 3 layouts in one week - ever.  I am just so happy with the kit and am very glad I decided to subscribe. Getting the kit and putting together an add-on from my stash, is really the best of both worlds.  I get new goodies every month without breaking the bank and I use up some of my great and voluminous stash :).

So we are still in Europe, still scrapping the photos from my 2005-2006 year-long backpacking trip and I am still enjoying it.  i hope you are too.

Here is the first of two layouts today :

I used my augmented kit entirely for this page, with the exception of the doily (can't believe that I forgot to add doilies to this kit !).  As I mentioned in the previous post, I used the Weathered Wood Distress ink to ink all the edges and I find that it really complements the kit wonderfully. 

The story behind this page:  While I was visiting some very good friends in Madrid in September 2005, I spent a jam-packed day visiting Segovia.  Located about an hours + drive north from Madrid, Segovia is a small city of no more than 55,000 inhabitants but it sure packs a lot of history and landmarks!  Of course the famous aqueduct,  the Alcazar and its beautiful gardens (more about all of these in future posts), but also one of the most beautiful and famous cathedrals in Europe.  The Catedral de Santa Maria is located right in Plaza Mayor, the main square of the city as can be seen in the first photo.  It was built between 1525 and 1577 in a late Gothic style. It is massive and beautiful inside and out.

For my next layout, we are off further north - all the way to Amsterdam :

I love this layout !  It is really a far cry from my normal style and nowhere close to what I had as an idea when I started the page.  Actually, I just started with the photo and the mats around it.  The page then took on a life of its own.  I think I was influenced by a couple of pages on the Scraptastic facebook page as well as a couple of videos on You Tube (one by Sandra (ohsnapgonzo) and another by Gina (Gina Beth). The idea for the ampersand came from KittyScrapper (Nancy Sinclair)  I am really proud of this page LOL (I even researched the Dutch words for Bye and thanks - the title of the page).

The story behind this page :  Well there really isn't much of a story to this one.  it will be the last page in the Amsterdam portion of my trip.  The picture is simply one of me going into the train station in Amsterdam after an amazing 10-day visit in July 2005.  I really loved Amsterdam, so much so, that I actually went back in May 2006 just before coming back home.

As always, thanks so much for sticking with me to the end of this post.  Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon with another layout - I am on a roll with this kit!

First Scraptastic Layout - 12 X 12, using the Daylight Kit

Good morning and happy Thursday to all !  I hope the sun is shining wherever your are.  We have had a lot of cold and wet weather so far this Spring and are having trouble getting out to play in the garden.  Planting is now scheduled for next week (sigh ...) but I should be out there getting things ready on Saturday (hope springs eternal LOL) !

Meanwhile, I am off today and the sun is shining and it should stay out all day (small wonders LOL).  It is also Roland Garros time, one of the four grand slam tennis championships; this one from Paris, France.  So I am keeping a keen eye on what is going on there.  For the first time in the history of ATP tennis, there is a Canadian in the top ten men's ranking - Milos Raonic from Ontario is No. 8 in the world and safely through to the third round.  On the women's side, we are making history as well.   Montrealer Genie Bouchard is no. 18 in the world and is also safely through to Round 3. Yay !!  

So on to the layout ...  Even though this is just the first layout, I already know that I am loving the Scraptastic kit.  It made this layout come together much faster but with just as much fun.  I did not get the kit to make my scrapping experience faster - I am a slow scrapper and don't mind - I do it for fun and enjoy every second.  But I was finding that a lot of my time was spent choosing my supplies, going back and forth, dilly-dallying ... you get the picture LOL.  And getting the kit, and then assembling my own add-on was a fun process as well as  eliminating much of the dilly-dallying.  To see my kit, with the list of supplies I added from my stash, check-out my previous blog post here : 
 http://lifescrapsbymoira.blogspot.ca/2014/05/my-first-scraptastic-kit-daylight-kit.html.

Hereis the layout :

I am really happy with the outcome.  I went back into my stash for just a couple of things:

• Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Harlequin
• Tim Holtz Distress ink in Weathered wood.  I think this will be my go to ink for this kit.  I used for the stenciling but also to ink my edges, for more definition.  I am already half way through the second layout and also used this ink for edging.

The story behind this layout:  We are still in Romania, still in Brasov as we have been for the last couple of layouts.  Every morning, coming out of our pensione, we would turn towards town to go exploring.  One morning, after about a week, I decided to turn in the opposite direction.  It didn't look as if there was anywhere to go from there, just forest, brush and minimal plant life.  But off I went anyway.  Well, 2 km later I wound up at this oh so lovely look-out point with the most beautiful views of Brasov and its surroundings.  It was evidently well known to all but I since it was full of people - tourists and locals alike.  It was a small park, with benches to just sit and contemplate the city.  I am so happy I went the "Other" way.  A layout, showing the gorgeious view will follow soon and will be the facing page to this one in my album.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Don't hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions, or just want to say hi!  Have a wonderful day and I will be back soon with Layout No. 2 from the Daylight Kit.

My first Scraptastic Kit - the Daylight kit - May 2014

Well hello there and happy Saturday.  I hope you are having an amazing weekend.  It turned out beautiful here, although they had announced some rain.  So yay !!  My day is winding down and I am about to settle in with a glass of wine after all the chores (the last load of laundry is in the dryer LOL).  But on to the reason for my popping in here today :

I got my first ever Scraptastic kit!!!  Oh my, I was so excited and it seemed to take forever to get here LOL.  It shipped out to me, from South Carolina, on the 1st of May and didn't actually make here until Wednesday.  Since, I was at work, I had to wait until today to pick it up.  I am really pleased with the contents.  I had been on the fence for several months, trying to decide if I would subscribe to a kit club or not.  It became clear about 3 months ago, after seeing Tracy Banks (Mercy Tiara on You Tube) and Nicole Jones use theirs that If I did subscribe to a kit, it would be Scraptastic.  Then, quite a few of my other You Tube, and Facebook, friends also subscribed; and started making process videos with the kit.  So I had to join the club (LOL, pun intented)!

For the first month, I got only the main kit : 

and I am quite happy.  It is a well balanced kit with lovely patterned paper and cardstock, and definitely enough embellishments (which often seems to be lacking in other kit clubs).

Right after joining Scraptastic, I put myself on a spending freeze, except for the kit, for at least 90 days.  So, this afternoon, I went through my stash and added to the Daylight kit, to create my own kit for the next month.  Here it is :

These are the supplies I added :

• Alphas :  Studio Calico Essentials in blue and yellow, SN@P aqua, Amy Tangerine Thickers in Ocean and American Crafts Thickers in leaf
• 2 pieces of cardstock - vanilla and aqua and a couple of smaller scraps in pool and yellow.  I added a few sheets of patterned paper - from Jillibean soup Chilled Cucumber Soup and another from Stampin' Up from the Sweater Weather collection (in crushed curry).
• Additional chipboard shapes from Studio Calico essentials in the blue, yellow and green (some cameras, stars and hearts)
• partial sticker sheets from the Jillibean Soup Chilled Cucumber Soup collection and from October Afternoon Woodland ParK
• I added additional wood veneer pieces from my stash - mainly some wood chip from my Citrus Twist PL kit.
• A small collection of buttons from SU in coordinating colours to the kit
• 4 washi tapes and two ribbon spools, also in coordinating colours
• Enamel dots and shapes from My Mind's Eye Milo, Basic Grey Basics, Freckled Fawn and Studio Calico 

There you have it!  That is what I will be working with for the next month.  I am challenging myself to work with a kit for the whole month, something I have never done before.  I think it should be fun.  i will post the layouts and let you know how it goes.

I think this could be a great way of getting a little new stuff everymonth (without breaking the bank) and using up a lot of my lovely stash - the best of both worlds :).

Thanks for joining me again today and I'll be back soon with my first layout from this kit.

12 X 12 Layout - From here to there - Nazare, Portugal, Feb 2006

Well hello there and happy Sunday !!  I have had a weekend like I love them :)  Nothing on the calendar - a ME weekend.  Of course, there are always chores but when they are done, I got to go for a walk, do some cooking for the week, and scrap while watching the semis and finals of the ATP and WTA Tennis tournaments in Rome, Italy.  Love it !!!

I got a couple of layouts done - yay me!  Since Tuesdae's challenge, I have been on a "scrapping my passions" kick and today's layout is no different. Another travel layout; this time I am taking you to Nazare in Portugal.  It is a lovely little fishing village on the Atlantic coast and I spent a relaxing, sun and sand filled week there in February 2006 (still part of my year-long backpacking trip).  I visited a few places in Portugal and loved most of them - Porto, Figueras da Foz, Tomar and Nazare.  I didn't however enjoy the capital Lisbon quite as much (more about that in a future post LOL).

So, here is the layout :

The top photo is one I took just outside our little pensione; if you enlarge it you will notice that at the end of the street, you see just a touch of blue - blue ocean. The bottom photo is the beach at the end of the street.  Hence the title "From here to there, ahh!"

Nazare was another discovery, it was not on the agenda.  We went there on the recommendation of friends we met in Tomar and, I am so happy we did.  It is a lovely, very traditional village.  In parts of it, I swear time stood still since the 50's.  All along the ocean front, there are old-fashioned nets strung here and there with fish drying in the sun.  Many of the elderly ladies still dress in  traditional garb.  My one regret is that I did not get pictures of some of these lovely ladies. Since I did not speak enough of the language to converse freely with them, I was not able to ask their permission for a photo and, I felt it disrespectful to just take photos without asking.

The supplies :

• The background and layering patterned papers :  My Mind's Eye (MME) The Sweetest Thing and Simple Stories Vintage Bliss.  The heart paper is a 4 X 6 from the Citrus Twist April PL  Kit as is the "Bliss" die cut (I fussy cut it from the 4 X 6).
• I used Mister Huey's custard mist on the doily
• I used all sorts of bits and pieces form my die cut bowl plus some stickers from Jillibean Soup's cold cucumber soup collection
• I used the DIY shop cork stickers. I was quite disappointed with these, they are so thin, that I actually broke, or tore, as many as I put on the layout :(
• The alphas :  Lily Bee, Daily Flash Mason jar, and some very old Thickers from my stash
• The wood veneer are again from Studio Calico and I used Stampin' Up Baja Breeze ink on them.
• A few enamel dots from MME and rhinestones from Queen & Co. complete the page.

So there you have it!  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely Sunday afternoon.  I hope the sun is shining whereever you are. 

Layout in response to Roni Sue Scrapper's 550+ You Tube subbies challenge

Good morning and happy Thursday!!  I have Thursdays off, as well as my weekends - yup down to 4 days a week and I hope that by the end of the year, I will be able to go down to working 3 days a week LOL.  Thursdays, I try and get all the errands and chores out of the way so that I can take full advantage of my weekends.  Sometimes, it actually works.  Sometimes, like this morning, I play before I get to the chores :)

I am here this morning to share my layout in response to Roni Sue Scrapper's 550+ You Tube subbies challenge (as of this morning, she is actually at 601 subbies - yay Roni !!).  Now I am sure you already know Roni but if by any chance you are new to scrapbooking, or to the You Tube community and don't know her, then run on over to her channel right now (Roni Sue Scrapper).  She is such a nice lady.  I really wanted to participate in this challenge because Roni is definitely a champion supporter.  She participates in every challenge, comments on layouts, promotes everyone's channels, follows us all on our blogs and makes fantastic layouts, and process videos, to boot.

Roni also made her challenge super easy but fun :

• Be a subbie
• Make a layout - the layout can be anything really but you have to tell the story behind it. That is it really.  But you can get extra entries ...
• Make a 4 X 6 card, decorate the front anyway you want and, on the back put your You Tube name, birthdate and a list of the things you love (they don't all have to be scrappy related).  Mail the card to her.

Isn't that fun!

If you recall, on NSD, I made three layouts and mentioned that I would be choosing one for Tuesdae Hubbard's challenge (see previous post) and one for Roni's challege.  In the comments Roni left me on my layouts, she mentioned that she liked seeing travel layouts as she had not had the opportunity to travel as much as she would like.  So, a travel layout it is  Roni!!!

The story :  There are actually a couple of stories that go with this layout, or rather my travels in Romania.  Firstly, how I managed to go to Romania is interesting.  Romania was not on the itinerary of my year-long European backpacking trip.  But at certain times of the year, destinations can be difficult to get to because of tourists, vacation etc...  Little did I suspect that In May, after a second visit to Vienna, Austria, I could not book a train or bus to any of the destinations I wanted to go to next.  I had checked out of my pensione, was at the bus terminal with my pack on my back and traveling with a friend.  We were at the ticket counter, and every place we tried to buy a ticket for, we could not get one.  Full, full, and full ... so eventually I just said:  OK where can we go?  The answer was Brasov, Romania.  So there you go ... off to Brasov we went!!!  The bus trip was quite the experience (but I will keep that for another time LOL).  Twenty four hours later we were in Brasov, sort of stranded as we knew nothing of the town (other than the fact Dracula's Castle is a mere 20 or so km away), didn't speak the language, had no guidebook and the tourism office was closed.  LOL.  I eventually found an internet cafe, went online and found a  little pensione walking distance from downtown Brasov.  It was lovely, only about 2-3 km from town, but it really felt like being in the country.  The hosts were such a nice couple.  We would mime and draw to communicate LOL (I picked up a few strategic words in Romanian as they did in English).  We spent a wonderful week in Brasov.  I loved every minute of it.  It was quite the culture shock but such a great experience at the same time.  The people from the pensione took us to Dracula's castle for a full day.  On the day we went, even the weather cooperated to make it an "eerie" atmosphere LOL.  

Oh my, I do go on!!!  You are still here ... boy oh boy, thanks so much.  

The supplies: 

• The background cardstock is from the Citrus Twist September 2013 kit 
• The patterned paper is from the Authentique Strong Collection
• I used Studio Calico wood veneer, My Mind's Eye enamel dots, strong twine from Stampin' Up (coastal cabana I think) and Simple Stories Urban Traveller stickers.
• The alphas are from the October Afternoon Daily Flash collection - Nightfall and Mason Jar
• I also used two different size scalloped circle punches and Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress Ink.

So there you have it.  Thanks again for being here and a big thank-you to Roni for hosting such a fun challenge, and for being such a big support to all of us !!!  Roni, I will be working on my card later today :)

Cheers and I will be back on the weekend

12 X 12 Layout - Of Flowers and Zukes

Good morning all and welcome !!!  Happy Mother's Day :).  Well, it looks like we have turned a corner and are headed for a few days of sunshine and .... oh my!!  20 deg C weather.  I can hardly believe it.  The buds are budding, the birds are chirping and Chopin is very busy taking it all in.  He is going from window to window, chatting up the birds, smelling the smells and generally have a fun spring fever time :).

I am off to visit my mom and will walk to her house to enjoy the weather a bit myself.  She lives about 3 km from me so just a perfect Sunday morning walk.  We will be watching the final of the Madrid Open Tennis tournament, and brunching with the gang !  Hope you all have a fabulous day wherever you are :).

I did a quick layout (well for me anyway) - I think this one only took me about 1 hour, or a little over.  Since Tuesdae and Roni have inspired me to scrap about my passions and their stories, it seems I can't stop LOL.  So it would seem we are in for a series!

This time, I chose gardening.  My sister, BIL and I have a garden together at their place in the country.  They live about an hour away from me, in Ontario.  We all love gardening and more specifically, growing our own fruit and veg.  So we started a garden about 5 years ago, with the goal of eventually being self-sufficient in vegetables. Our climate does not permit us to do so with fruit, but at least we can still get quite a few - currants, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and apples.  We have not planted strawberries yet.  Our garden has grown to about 2000 sq ft; we will have to add at least another 1000 sq feet to achieve our goal.  We have given ourselves another 3 years, our approximate retirement date, to get there. In the meantime, we are having a blast.

I am in charge of planning the garden, the companion planting and buying the plants (or seeds).  We love zucchini so last year, I bought a few more plants than usual (6 actually)!  I did not, however, notice that what I bought was actually the summer yellow squash LOL.  And, boy did they like our soil.  We were certainly self-sufficient in summer squash, as were many of the family, friends and neighbours around us LOL...  But you have to admit, they are beautiful and really added some lovely colour to the garden :

And, I have found a great recipe for yellow summer squash pickle to boot !

The supplies:

• The background paper is from the Amy Tangerine Cut and Paste collection and the wood grain strip is from Fancy pants.  For layering, I used the reverse side of the Fancy Pants paper and some scraps that were on my table.
• The washi tape is from Stampin' Up as are the stamps I used on this layout, namely the hearts and hexagons.
• I used four different alphas for the title:  October Afternoon Sticky keys in Honey, the Daily Flash from October afternoon as well as some SN@P alphas.
• The wood veneer are from Studio Calico and I coloured them using Distress inks, the flowers are from my stash, and left over from the layout I did for Sue's challenge. The enamel dots are from My Mind's Eye. 

Well, there you have it.  As always, thanks so much for joining me and for leaving such sweet comments.  Have a wonderful Sunday.

I'll be back soon with my layout for Roni's challenge :)

Layout in Response to Tuesdae Hubbard's 500+ You Tube subbies challenge

Goodmorning and happy Thursday to all!  We have sun, yes we do; oh my, how we have waited for this.  Yesterday we hit about 17 deg C and today we are headed for 19.  I can hardly believe it!!!  Yay, double yay!  I have my windows open and I can actually see buds on the trees out there (I have to squint a bit, but I can see them LOL).

Ok, so now for the subject at hand.  Do you know Tuesdae Hubbard on You Tube (you can find her here : https://www.youtube.com/user/thelonlaire/feed).  She makes lovely pages and great process videos to accompany them.  Her layouts are beautiful and colourful (well except for a little monochromatic stint recently, but she will tell you all about that on her channel) and I love her page designs.  You really have to go on over there and check her out because she is also a super sweet gal and she is having a 500+ challenge (it is open until May 12th, so you still have time to participate).

The rules to Tuesdae's challenge are really super easy:

• Be a subbie
• Scrap about your passion(s) !!  That is pretty much it LOL.  You can make a 12X12 layout, 8.5X11, anything really.
• You can make a process video, send her the picture via email, post it on Instagram and then let her know.
• Multiple entries are welcome.

I think it was a great idea to get us scrapping about our passions.  In fact, I am very thankful to Tuesdae because it made me sit back for a moment and just think about my passions in life and realise yet again that I am a very luck lady to have quite a few in addition to the obvious scrapbooking one of course : family and friends top the list but then I also love travel, animals,  gardening, cooking and preserving, tennis as well as walking and hiking.  Pretty big list huh?

So now, which to choose for the challenge?  I scrapped three layouts on NSD (two travel related and one of Chopin, my cat, when he was just a kitten) and posted them to our FB groups and said that I would choose one of those for Tuesdae's challenge and then one for Roni Sue Scrapper's challenge.  So based on their comments, I have made a choice.

Here is the page I chose to submit for Tuesdae's challenge :

This layout, well Chopin actually, got more comments and likes than any other, ever LOL.

The story:  Chopin's mother was heavily pregnant when she was rescued by my sister and BIL.  She had a litter of 5 and the only "smoky" coloured one was Chopin.  Within a few days he was the friendliest and cuddliest (is that a word?) of the bunch so my sister immediately said :  "that's MO`s cat".  Three months later he arrived!  He was a little terror as a kitten, tearing around the place like nobody's business, climbing curtains and me, nibbling toes, pouncing on me in bed .... but he oh so cuddly and lovable as well. The day after he arrived, as he was on a running mission, I put some music on.  I love Chopin.  My cat ran straight to the sound system and stopped abruptly and just stared, was totally quiet for the duration of the piece and then climbed up on my lap for a nap.  So Chopin he was named !

The supplies:

I used a lot of the scraps that were on my desk to create this layout; sometimes it is just more fun to use up those scraps than to tidy up, don't you think?.  

• The background cardstock is Stampin' Up's Daffodil delight and the patterned paper is also from and SU collection.
• the for the layering and banners I used some SU scraps as well as at least two 6 X 6 paper pads : My Mind's Eye Indie Chic Saffron and Dear Lizzy Day Dreamer
• I fussy cut those doilies, so they would act as die cuts
• I used Amy Tangerine puffy stickers, flair from my Citrus Twist Kit and enamel dots from Basic Grey
• I inked all the edges with Tim Holtz Black Soot

So there you have it!  Thanks so much Tuesdae for putting on such a fun challenge.  Again, if you haven't seen any of Tuesdae's videos, run on over to her channel, you will have a great time.  Thank-you all who have stuck with this post all the way to the end (I do go on don't I ?  but you know I just love it all)

Have a great day and I will be back soon with my page for Roni Sue Scrapper's challenge

Hugs, xx

Fun day in Segovia - layout scraplifted from Kitty Scrapper (Nancy Sinclair)

Happy Thursday everyone :) .  Hope this finds you well and happy.  We are having rain, rain  and more rain this week although the temperatures are finally climbing a little (16 deg. C today LOL).  

I have a pretty good schedule this week.  I am off today, and since it is raining, I got the chores out of the way early so I could scrap the rest of the day away.  I do work tomorrow, but hopefully only a half day because I have a crop with my local scrap buddies tomorrow evening.  Then, Saturday is NSD ... yay !  I plan to scrap all day, check in with Big Picture Classes and Two Peas, but more importantly, with our Facebook groups and my You Tube friends!  What are your NSD plans ?  I would love to know, and see your projects.

Speaking of projects, on to today's layout.  I borrowed this page design from Nancy (Kitty Scrapper on You Tube), more specifically her Process Video No. 61 called "Pull the damn lever".  She had me in stitches, as usual LOL.  I have done a few layouts in this type of style recently and am really enjoying it.  I think I am even getting the hang of the small clusters.  What do you think ?

I mixed a few different textures this time :  patterned paper, washi tape, cork, wood veneer, mist and gems.  I am happy with the outcome.

Here is the full layout :

Sorry, the picture quality is not great.  I used some vellum on this layout, something I don't do very often as I never know how to put it on, where, or how to stick it down LOL.  But it worked this time and I may start using it more.  You never know, I may even graduate to those lovely transparencies in my stash, yup the ones that keep staring at me.  Oh you have some of those too?  Let's try then and use them on a layout on NSD shall we?

The supplies :

• The background patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye The Sweetest Thing (again from the lovely RAK I got from Sue Hiles (shiles728 on You Tube).
• For layering I used an Stampin' Up scrap (the purple and cream paper), as well as the 6 X 6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye Indie Chic saffron.
• I used two alphas on this one : The  Thickers are Cecily in gold, and the October Afternoon are  Daily Flash Bonfire.
• The washi is also from the October Afternoon Daily Flash collection
• The wood veneer is from Studio Calico
• Finally, I used two mists :  Tattered Angels Coffee Shop and Mister Huey's Custard

Well, there you have it.  Thanks for stopping by today and I will be back on the weekend with some of my NSD projects. See you then :)