First two layouts with the Best Day in My Life Kit from Scraptastic

Happy Friday everyone !  What a glorious day it is here - sunshine, a slight breeze and not too muggy.  Perfect to be in the garden.  I have staked all the tomatoes, trained both the green beans and the borlotti beans, done some weeding and harvested a few goodies for lunch.  It is early days yet in my climate so the harvest is mainly lettuce, zucchini, a few cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and fresh herbs.  All the makings for a wonderful  lunchtime salad. Yum !

So, I have started in on the June kit, together with my own add-on.  I really hope to get about 20 layouts done during my vacation (which would be a record for me, for sure :) ).

Here is layout No. 1 - a silly but fun one for me:

What I used from the kit and add-on : 

•  the background cardstock is the AC Kraft - I love the colour, it is slightly lighter than the kraft I have in my stash
• MME Now and Then, Dorothy "Wild and Free" pattern paper
• Bits bobs from the Heidi Swapp Ephemera pack, and the HK alpha stickers
• I am not sure if the flair is from this month's kit or from last month's (I put the leftover flair with the new kit at the end of the month)
• enamel dots

What I used from my own "added-on" : 6X6 paper from Lemon Lush by Studio Calico, brads from my stash (I don't even know how long I have had them LOL), washi tape from Freckled Fawn and my stash, mist from Tatterd Angels, MME word stickers, twine from SU and enamel dots from BG and MME.

The story: There is not much of a story to this one.  A friend of mine is living in London at the moment and took a side trip up to Edinburgh (such a beautiful city, full of culture and art - love it!!).  She was walking around, popped into a shop and saw this plush toy sitting there.  Notice its nametag LOL.  She sent me a photo for fun and of course, I scrapped it!

The second layout is of a photo I took here.  We have bird feeders all over the yard and occasionally other "critters" help themselves LOL:

What I used from the kit: 

• The background cardstock was a leftover from the May kit.
• The pattern paper is from Alison Kreft Capture life "chevrons", a piece of 12 X 12 lime green from Lemon Lush (the B side of that beautiful butterfly paper).
• Some vellum pieces from Oh Darling
• Wood veneer
• The Heidi Swapp ephemera pack and a tag from the cut apart 4 X 6 card

What I added: Again, I used a sheet of the 6 X 6 Lemon Lush paper pad, Simple Stories Homespun "Heart & Home" pattern paper, bird wood veneer from SC, puffy stickers from Amy Tangerine, October Afternoon and Jillibean soup alphas and enamel dots.

The story:  The journaling on this page is more about photography and photo ops when I am in the country.  We have so much going on - the garden, squirrels, chipmunks, hummingbirds and all sorts of other birds in addition to the neighbouring farm animals.  I used to sit there and try and capture so much on my camera, but by the time I set up, the "moment had passed".  Everything happens so fast in nature LOL.  And of course, I am by no means a pro at photography.  So now I just love to sit and observe; listen to the sounds and every once in a while I get a really cute shot like this one!

So there you have it for today.  Off I go back out to enjoy the weather, and the garden, a little. Thanks so much for stopping by a sharing some of your precious time with me today.  I'll be back soon.  Hugs

My scraptastic June kit, vacations and summer :) :) YAY

Happy Tuesday everyone and welcome !  I am sorry that I have been MIA  the last couple of weeks.  But I am on vacation now, and really plan on making up for lost time!!!  As with every year, the two or three weeks before my vacation are rather intense at work - I tend to have to pull a few doubles and then I usually work about 11-12 days straight.  This year was no different.  That unfortunately leaves little time for scrapping, reading, tennis watching and blogging !!!

I did manage to watch some Wimbledon as our Canadians did an amazing job - wow semi-finals for both men's and women's; and then Genie Bouchard made the final - wow, double and triple wow !!! 

In preparing for my vacation, I decided that I would use the June Scraptastic kit - I got the Best Day of My Life kit and the add-on.  I put together a rather large add-on from my stash and the leftovers from the May Daylight kit (details below).  But then, on the Thursday before my vacation started - that would be last Thursday the 10th, my July kit arrived (I got the Either Way kit and add-on).  I had previously decided that I would leave the July kit for after my vacations; but then I opened the box!!!  What a quandry LOL.  How did I resolve it - well, I prepared a second add-on to that kit and brought both with me on vacation !!! So I think I have enough stuff to last me the month.  I do plan on scrapping a lot during my vacations - most evenings in fact.

I get up really early - tour the garden, come back in for coffee and a large breakfast and then on out to the garden for a good part of the morning.  I come in about 11 or so and stay indoors for lunch, a few chores, shower time and some playtime with the cats.  Then I head on back out to relax under a tree, gazing at the view, reading (I will post a couple of reviews shortly), watching tennis and just taking advantage of the peace and quiet.  Come the late afternoon, I am back indoors for a cocktail (yup it is vacations, right ? LOL), a garden dinner and scrappy time, accompanied by You Tube or Netflix.  I am a lucky girl am I not ???

Ok, well about that June kit; after all that is why you are here.

First, I took the left-over wood veneer, flair, exclusive die cuts and other embellis from the May kit, and added them to the June kit.  I then added a few fun things from my stash like ribbon and twine from Stampin' Up, enamel dots (I love enamel dots), brads and some washi tape 

A couple of highlights are the Studio Calico essentials chipboard shapes in the pink shades, the Amy Tangerine Puffy stickers, Freckled fawn washi and some really fun wood veneer from previous Scraptastic kits and my stash.  I pulled a couple Stampin' Up colours to go with this kit and added the inks, twine or ribbon, and markers.  I took Melon Mambo, Pool party, Bermuda Bay and two great neutrals - Crumb Cake (a kraft) and soft suede.  I also added a few mists from my stash - Mr. Huey's and Tattered Angels.

Then on to the papers and cardstock.  I did not add much in the way of either.  Since I got the main kit and add-on, I had quite a bit to choose from :

I added three sheet of pattern paper from Stampin' Up (pictured at the far left of the photo) and some journaling cards from a previous Citrus Twist PL kit.  As far as cardstock goes, I only added a couple of sheets of Kraft.

Alphas are probably the item that I added to the most:  some Dear Lizzy foam thickers, Alpha beans, Sn@p and some of the MME word stickers.  You can never have enough letter stickers or alphas can you ?

And finally I added the Sticker sheets from the Simple stories Homespun collection to the stickers sheets we got in the add-on.  The colours match so well and I tend to take garden photos as well as photos of food and preserves that I make from the garden harvest; so I also brought along the Paper pack from Simple Stories home spun collection

Wow ... I may have been away for a bit but I sure did go on today LOL.  As always thanks so much for sticking with me all the way through.  If you have any questions about a specific item that I may have added, please let me know in the comments below or over on one of our facebook groups :).  But as I make and post layouts, I will try and be quite specific about exactly what I use.

I will be back soon with the July kit (I did the same exercise) and also a note about some of the "basics" that I brought along.

Have a wonderful day wherever you are whatever your are doing!  Hugs xo

Travel with a twist layout - 12 X 12 using the May Scraptastic Kit

Well hello there and happy Sunday to you all !  Summer has definitely arrived here in Southern Quebec - it did keep us waiting a little this year, but it is here in full force now - it is about 30 deg C today, with bright sunshine.  Unfortunately, when it gets hot here, it also tends to get muggy - but oh well, it is such a short season, I won't complain !!

I thought I would pop in today with the 8th layout I did with the May Daylight kit from Scraptastic.  I have almost killed the kit I think LOL.  I will get one more layout in for sure, with scraps and bits of die cuts, but that is probably it.  But I really, really (did I say really?) enjoyed my first kit and am so happy I subscribed.  I am certainly scrapping more and spending less time choosing product.

So now... this layout gave me trouble.  I love the end result but it is nowhere close to the idea I had in my head when I started.  It all started with a layout my friend Roni did (Ronisuescrapper on You Tube - check her out, she does great layouts).  It was a grid type layout and I really find that I am loving them lately.  It seemed perfect timing to also do a grid type layout since I was starting to get into the scraps with my kit.  So I cut a few 3 X 4 cards out of the scraps with the intention of making 6 mini layouts on a cardstock background.  But then I got side-tracked by one of Nicole Jones layouts where she cuts up scraps and glues them to the page to create a background .... so, well here is the background piece I made : 

Now the photo I had selected for this layout was a 4 X 6 but once it was matted on a piece of  yellow-gold cardstock, I just couldn't find placement for it  on this background - no matter which way I turned the photo, or the background LOL.  So  off I went to get a series of small photos I had printed (mainly 2 X 2, or a little larger) from one of the Will Craft for Supplies Day in the Life days that I had participated in.  Well, the colours were all wrong - so that didn't work either.  So I had to change my idea completely.  I found three 4 X 6 photos that worked wonderfully with this background, so I cut them down into smaller pieces and made 5 photo blocks with them.  Here is the resultant layout :

Would you call that grid style ?  PL style?  Collage style?  I don't really know what to call it but in the end I actually like it LOL.

So, on to why I call this "Travel with a Twist" ...

The story behind this page:  My l'il sister and best BIL love travelling as much as I do and three years before I embarked on my one-year backpacking trip to Europe, they went on a 15 month sailing trip!  They took a sabbatical, sold the house and off they went.  They bought a small (really small for that kind of trip) sailboat - a 26 ft Tanzer (BTW, my BIL is 6 foot 5 LOL) and left from Valleyfield here in Quebec, did the intercoastal for part of the way through the States - went to Florida and then crossed to the Bahamas where they spent their 40th birthdays (that was in 2002).  In 2012, when they were turning 50, I asked them what kind of party they wanted.  They asked for a virtual return trip to the Bahamas.  So that is what we did - a full menu of Bahamian food (sweet potato salad, pigeon peas and rice, particular Caribbean coleslaw, tomato dip, Bahama Mamas of course), I decorated the house in Bahamian colours of turquoise and yellow, we had to wear those colours as well, played Bahamian music, I made little party favours .... the whole nine yards!!  We had a wonderul day and they were so happy.  Part of their present included a scrapbook layout of photos from when they were in the Bahamas.

Oh my, I do go on, and on, and on.  If you are still reading, my gosh thanks so much!!  I will be back during the week, with my last layout and a sort of kill the kit blog post.  I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and a great start to the week.  I must just take a minute to thank you all for the sweet comments.  You Tube, our Facebook groups and this blogging world are just amazing - well actually I think it is the Scrapbooking community that is just amazing.  I have made so many lovely friends here - thank-you so so much.

Hugs xoxo   

Scrapping some more of my "passions" with the Daylight Kit from Scraptastic

Happy Sunday to all !  What a glorious day here.  The sun is shining; it is lovely and warm, but not hot and muggy ... so all in all a YAY day.  I spent a lot of time outdoors yesterday so today will be more of an indoor day, but with all the windows open and the occasional few minutes sitting outside to take full advantage :)  Hope you have, or are having, a wonderful day!

I wanted to pop in today to share my 6th and 7th layouts using my augmented May Scraptastic Kit.  This time we are moving away from travel layouts for just a bit to focus on a couple of my other passions - my animals and the garden !!

The first layout is of my cat Chopin, relaxing and snoozing on my craft table.  It is one of his favourite spots.  There are two warm and bright lights above my table; and he seems to think that it is a kitty spa, or tanning salon LOL.  It also keeps him close in the event that any fun strips of paper fly of the paper trimmer, or any flowers, flair, wood veneer or buttons become all of a sudden within chasing and playing distance :) :).  You will also notice that is head is resting on the trimmer.  He loves to sleep with his head slightly elevated - at night my legs seem to be the perfect pillow.

I really like this layout, except for the misting that I decided to add at the last minute.  I should have left well enough along (sigh)... Because of the colour of the cardstock and the mist I used, it just looks dirty and stained.... oh well !

The next layout is going to be the final page in my 2013 garden album; the transition page to this year's !  I love spending time in the garden and once the chores (weeding, harvesting, transforming ....) are done, I love just sitting and gazing out at the view. It is so peaceful and relaxing.  This year I will have a little over 3 weeks there, from mid July to the 7th or 8th of August. 

So that's it for me today - I am working on another layout using some of the patterned paper scraps.  I am cutting them up in blocks a la Nicole Jones, or grid style, to create a background and then... well I have a couple of ideas.  I'll be sure to come back and show you the result.  There are a few cards in the making as well.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful, restful Sunday.  Hugs xo

Two "throwback" 12 X 12 layouts using the Scraptastic Daylight Kit :)

Good morning and happy Sunday !  Happy Father's day to all the wonderful fathers out there, particularly to those who encourage their wives'  and children's scrappy passion LOL.

Sorry that I missed a couple of weeks on here; last weekend we finally got the garden planted.  It was a long, painful (my muscles are still groaning a bit) but glorious weekend.
The garden is a joint effort between myself, my l'il sister and best BIL.  My l'il sister hates gardening and working outside, although she loves the fruit of the labour so the agreement we have is that my BIL and I do all the "hard labour" and she waters and feeds us all weekend.  We can ask for all sorts of special treats and she will make them.  We had scones for one breakfast, the best Indian food for dinner one night, a couple of great cocktails after the days were done and yummy lemonade and iced tea during the days.  Ahhh!  Lots of photos were taken and lots of pages to come.

Now on to the two pages I made this week.  They are of course made with my augmented Scraptastic Daylight kit.  I am really loving the kit idea.  I pull product so much faster as it is  half assembled already.  So I spend a lot more of my free time just scrapping. Yay!!

Both pages are from the mid-90's, and both are in Spain but they are not really travelled related, rather people and friend related :

Here is the first that I posted on my Instagram as this week's Throwback Thursday (btw if you want to follow me on Instagram, I am "mooreilly") :

The background paper I used here has to be one of my favourites from the kit :)

The story:  this photo was taken in the autumn of 1994 and is of me pretending to drive my friend's motorcycle.  We had used his motorcycle as transportation during the week because the traffic was even more horrendous than usual  (it was quite hilarious to see me on the back of a motorcycle in suit, heels and with a briefcase LOL - the second layout of this two page spread is to come).  So after a relaxed dinner one evening, I just hopped on the bike, made motorcycle noises (so mature!) and Pedro snapped the picture.  Can you believe that I still own that sweater, that I still wear it regularly and it is still one of my favourites.  Hmmm, should I even admit to that; should I be proud or ashamed LOL?  Proud I say!

The second photo was taken a few months later - in the Spring of 1995 :

There seems to be a little glare on that photo, sorry !.  The title came from the "smile" die-cut and the Ampersand wood veneer.  I put the background down and wanted the photo in the lower right-hand corner.  The photo is of myself and great friends all with goofy smiles ... so I just put the die-cut there above.  Then thought, OK now that has to be part of the title.  Next came the ampersand wood veneer and the rest just fell into place :)

The story:  The travelling I did in those days was mainly for business, I was in the aircraft industry for many years.  That is certainly what gave me the travel bug, particularly since during business trips, I rarely could do any sightseeing or touristy things.  This was a fun exception.  We had worked very hard for three solid weeks in Madrid and Albacete, Spain.  Finally, we decided that we deserved a weekend off.  So we flew to Sevilla for a weekend and arrived just in time for the Good Friday night procession.  What fun (a page will come for that).  This photo is just the story of how I made such wonderful friends, that I still have to this day through my job at the time!  We are just relaxing with a drink after a morning of exploring the city !

So there we have it for this week.  I will be back soon.  I have a few posts already ready in my head LOL.  In the meantime, have a lovely Sunday, spending time with your father if you are lucky enough to still have him around, and/or with your sons and grandsons.  I hope the sun is shining wherever you are :)  Hugs xoxo

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.