A couple more layouts with the July Scraptastic Kit ... some travel, some cookin' :) :)

Happy Sunday to all !  It is a rainy one here so far.  But that's ok, the temperatures are back up to seasonal and I had a day indoors planned anyway - chores, cooking, scrapping and a little tennis watching.  And, lot of kitty cuddles :) :)

Hope you are having a great Sunday, doing what you like best and doing it with those you love most!!!  Have a couple of chuckles while you are at it !

Here are the 7th and 8th layouts I made with the July Either Way Kit.  I actually have 10 layouts completed and still have quite a bit of the kit and add-on left.  It may be a record breaking month - I think I might get 14 or 15 layouts.  Woot woot!!

For, the first layout, we are back to a travel theme.  Let me take you back to Amsterdam for a stroll along "Canal Street" ... 

The supplies:  Everything on this layout comes from the kit, or add-on, with very few exceptions :

• The "hello" die-cut comes from the Simple Stories 6 X 6 Good Day Sunshine paper pad.
• I used Dear Lizzy Foam thickers for the word "canal" in the title, and MME stickers for the word Amsterdam.  I used October Afternoon's Daily Flash for the year - 2005
• the airplane puffy stickers was the very last in the set from Amy Tangerine.

This layout came together quite quickly for me.  It is the first time I put a title sideways on a layout and I quite like the outcome.  The inspiration for this came from nicolejones911 - she does it quite a lot and I always love the way it looks on her layouts.

The story:  There really isn't any great big story with this one.  It is meant to convey how I love wandering the canal streets of Amsterdam.  It is such a pretty city.  And, to me, Amsterdam is a city to stroll - not walk, not run, not rush - but wander, and stroll, on foot or on a bicycle :)

Now let's wander back to this summer :

I thought I was quite clever with this title LOL :).

The supplies:  Again, everything came from the kit, with just a couple of items from my stash add-on:

• The doily is from my stash and I used Tattered Angel's glimmer mist, in Italian Sunset to colour it.  The colour is a little more peach, than the coral in the papers and embellishments but I still like the effect since the photo has lots of golden, peach, orange and reddish tones.
• I used my one inch circle punch to punch out the viewfinders from the Good Day Sunshine 6 X 6 paper pad
• The the subtitle uses MME word and alpha stickers.

The story:  This page will go in my summer garden/vacation album and is meant to record part of my vacation routine.  I just love stir-frying - it is so fast, healthy, yummy and it's the fastest clean-up around :) :).  It became an integral part of my vacation routine:  a long walk followed by garden work in the morning, garden salad for lunch, lazy afternoon under a tree, harvesting, reading, or scrapping.  And then a lovely stir fry for supper, again using garden fresh veggies.  I would add shrimp, or scallops, or tofu, or beans and voila ... Clean-up took all of 5 minutes and then I could settle in for an evening of You Tube or tennis watching, as well as puppy and kitty cuddles!!!  Bliss

So there you have - you have made to the end again!  Thanks so much.  Hugs xoxo

1-2-3 Stretch - 12 X 12 Layout using the July Scraptastic Kit

Happy Thursday everyone!  I hope this finds you well and enjoying the day.  As I mentioned in my previous post, we were canning tomatoes over the weekend.  And, we were very productive indeed :) :)  We got  sixteen 500 ml jars and 11 one litre jars. On top of that, we got about twenty 500 ml jars of corn done as well.  So yay us!  This weekend, all the cats (3) are with me in town as my sister and best BIL have a Golden (Retriever) Rescue activity out of town.  Oliver of course goes with them.   I am promising myself a fun scrappy weekend.  Then back to the garden next weekend to plant the garlic and finish harvesting the carrots, beets, turnips, eggplants and peppers.

Today, I want to share the sixth layout I made with the July Either Way Kit from Scraptastic.  I am getting a lot of mileage out of this kit and add-on.  The colours and patterns are so lovely and luscious.  

We are back to a puppy layout - you may have noticed that my main scrappy subjects are the furkids, travel, the garden and its bounty, food and then some everyday moments.  I try to get a few layouts from each category done with every kit.  So, on to the layout :

I am so glad I got this photo; it was such a cute and spontaneous moment.  So often, these moments happen and for whatever reason I don't manage to get a photo.  Pets will not pose and certainly won't "stay" when you want to get a photo LOL.  But this one, just worked out beautifully !!!

The supplies: I chose the Either Way kit in July and am really happy with my choice.  But I was lucky to get the Simple Stories 6 X 6 Good Day Sunshine pad as part of my Citrus Twist PL kit, so I made it part of my stash add-on since that collection was the main focus of the other Scraptastic July Kit. 

• The majority of the items on this page are from the main kit and from the Good Day Sunshine 6 X 6 paper pad.
• I used a one inch circle punch to punch out the view finders and then also used a few pieces from the cut-apart sheets in that pad.
• the wood veneer, enamel dots and stickers are from the kit as are those beautiful gold glitter thickers.  I got so much use out of them - four titles so far!
• the gold stickers are from my stash add-on and I believe they came in a Citrus Twist PL kit and are from the Oh Darling collection.

The story :  The photo was taken the day we planted the garden this year.  Ron had strained his back during the week as he worked to prepare the earth for our planting endeavour.  So he had to wear a brace for a couple of weeks.  Our planting day was a full day of physical work - a lot of bending, crouching, being on our knees etc.  So at the end of the day, Ron laid down on the floor to "straighten out" his back.  Oliver thought this was such an interesting new game :).  He ran over to Ron and immediately laid down on his back as well!!!!  I am so happy I got this photo.

So there you have it.  Thanks for joining me again today and I plan on being back on the weekend with a couple more layouts.  Until then, be happy and have fun.  Hugs

Got my head in the clouds - 12 X 12 layout with the July Scraptastic Kit

Happy Thursday everyone !!!  It is a rainy one here and the weather has turned slightly cooler .... autumn is around the corner but so far September has been lovely so I won't complain :).  I am off on Thursdays, as well as weekends.  I try and get most of the chores, and errands, out of the way on Thursdays to free up more fun time on the weekends.  Sometimes it works; but sometimes I play a little hooky on Thursdays too.  Some scrapping time is so good for the soul is it not ?

I have really been enjoying the July Either Way kit from Scraptastic.  The colour scheme is right up my alley and the papers are just beautiful,  It is a varied and versatile kit!  I have also been playing along with some of the challenges over on the Scraptastic blog and the layout I want to share with you today was made in response to a challenge to use a monochromatic colour scheme.

When I saw the cloud paper in the kit, I knew immediately which photos I wanted to scrap!  I am really quite proud of this layout, if I may say so myself heehee !

It is quite a simple page design as I wanted the cloud paper to stand out, it is central to the theme and subject of this layout.

The supplies:   All of the paper and cardstock are from the kit, as is the wood veneer.  My original intention was to use markers to colour the continents on the wood veneer but in the end I inked up the entire piece.  I wish I had stuck to my original idea... but, oh well, I still like it :)

• The camera stickers, the bow, the vellum flower piece and the tags are from previous Scraptstic kits (although the tags may be from this one; I can't quite remember).
• The aqua chipboard hearts and stars are from the Studio Calico essentials line
• The washi tape is from my stash and i actually think it is from a RAK I got last year from Lisa and Sandra (Maggie Mylow and Oh Snap Gonzo on You Tube)
• The foam Thickers are from Dear Lizzy and the alpha stickers are from the October Afternoon Daily Flash collection (I really love the Daily Flash alphas - they are my favourites right now).
• The enamel dots, flair and puffy sticker are from my stash.  The latter is from Amy Tangerine and was the last on the sheet.... yay for using up entire sheets, or sets of embellishments !!!

The story:  these photos were taken on the flight back home after my one-year backpacking trip (there are several posts and layouts about this trip and several more to come :)).  I felt that the mood of the photos matched the cloud paper and the monochromatic colour scheme.  It was a bittersweet day, one filled with mixed emotions.  On the one hand, I was happy to be reuniting with friends and family after a year apart, but on the other hand I was sad to be leaving many new friends behind.  I so loved that trip and the lifestyle it allowed me to have for a whole year.  A year as a nomad, with all my belongings on my back.  I worked when the budget required it (I am fortunate to have my Irish citizenship and well as my Canadian one) or when something interesting came along. I visited 21 countries in that year.  I saw some amazing things and places, met some fantastic local people everywhere I went, but also made great friends amongst fellow travelers.  I discovered so many interesting foods, music, culture, art, history, nature, flora,  animals ..... I could go on and on.  I could write a book.  I could, and probably will, fill many scrapbooking albums as well as many journals.  I cherish all of the memories, good and bad (there were few of those), funny, hilarious and life enriching.  All of that made for a very full heart and a lot of thinking on the  flight home.  I felt those two photos depicted that very well.

So there you have it !  Thanks so much for joining me today, as always.  I appreciate your lovely comments, likes and shares.  The scrapping community is such a great one and I value each and every one of you my friends.  Hugs xoxo

I will be back soon !  Until then, be well!

... so just call me the salad queen - 12 X 12 layout with the July Scraptastic kit

Good morning sweet friends and happy Sunday.  I hope this finds you well.  It is a little brisk where I am this morning but the sun is glorious.  I have been MIA for a couple of weeks; it is a busy time in the garden and I am there at least every second weekend.  Last weekend, we harvested the onions, thinned out the carrots, beets and turnips and mapped out the transplanting that will need to be done at the end of the month.  Next weekend, we will be canning the tomatoes - yay !!  But oh my that is a chore and a half heehee; my back is already protesting just thinking about it :)

I have still managed to get a few layouts done (priorities of course !!).  

Scraptastic had a couple of fun challenges during August, as they do every month.  It was my first time participating in two of them and I really enjoyed it.  There was a challenge for a "long title" that really got me thinking but then I sort of fell into it,  

That die cut with the quote from Julia Child was just so perfect !!!  Don't you love it when that happens.  I used it to start my title and then just continued on from there.

The supplies:   Everything on this layout comes from the July Either Way kit, except :

• The coral alpha Thickers are from Dear Lizzy and the aqua alphas are from October Afternoon's Daily flash (Mason Jar).
• The acetate butterfly is from June's kit
• the vellum with the gold hearts that I use as a mat is from my stash
• The love paper clip is from Freckled Fawn but I can't remember where I got it - likely a previous kit.
• The ribbon is from Stampin' Up - it is a 3/8 inch taffeta in Crumb Cake (their kraft colour).

The story:  It is quite simple really - I loooooove salads, I could live on salads and if I may say so myself, I make great salads heehee.  My friends and family call me the Salad Queen, as I seem to just gather up stuff from the garden and the pantry,  and turn it into a salad.  I create recipes, I invent and improvise.  Whenever, we have a get together, I am always called upon to bring, or make, the salad.  Whenever I invite friends or family over, I am told that there has to be salad as part of the meal.  So it seems I have a label and one I will gladly take on :) :)

Enjoy your Sunday everyone and thanks for stopping by.  

First layout with the Either Way Scraptastic Kit (July 2014) - 12 X 12 travel related

Happy Thursday to all !  I hope you are having a fun and amazing day !  It is one of those cloudy, heavy, blah days here - feels like rain but so far, it has held off.  I am off on Thursdays and usually get a lot of the chores out of the way so that that my weekends are not all cleaning, cooking, washing etc....  but more garden fun, scrappy fun, tennis fun, photo fun and any other fun I can drum up!  How about you ?  How is your week shaping up?

I have broken into my July kit.  I must say that I was a little intimidated with this one at first... for just a bit.  The papers are so beautiful; the colour scheme is really right up my alley.  And with the touch of gold throughout, the kit felt a little regal. As I was sorting through my photos, I kept thinking they were not up to the standard of the kit LOL.  I felt I needed THE photo, just the perfect shot, the important photo .... you know the one that records that all important moment.  But truth be told, I don't actually have many of those photos (or those moments!!).  So, I just took the plunge and started.  And, I am sooooo loving this kit; truly!

My first layout is a scraplift of a layout by Tracy Banks (mercytiara on You Tube and a member of the Scraptastic Design Team).  She made her layout for the Bingo challenge during the 4th anniversary celebrations.  She mentioned that the L shape was one of her go-to designs and I just loved her layout.  So, to lessen the "awe" factor of this kit, I went with a scraplift of her lovely layout.  And I am so pleased with the outcome, This design will definitely become one of my go-to's as well.  I also find that I am enjoying scrapping 4X4 photos a lot recently.

My layout :

Since this is my first layout with this kit, there is very little from my own add-on, or from my stash.  Everything is from the kit except for :

• The October afternoon Mini Market alphas in mint and cream for part of the title
• The woodgrain photo mat and scalloped circle in the top RH cluster are from the 6X6 Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine paper pad
• The cork stars are from a previous kit (the May kit maybe?)

The scraplift is pretty much integral except that I journaled to the right of the photo as opposed to the top part of the L,  where Tracy had added speech bubbles for her journaling. 

The story:  This is one of those really great travel stories - well actually a story of how kind people can be.  In Feb. 2006, I was into the eighth month of my backpacking trip and was travelling with a friend in Porgugal.  We had spent a fantastic week in Porto and were on the train going back Lisbon.  We arrived at the Fatima station, and since my friend's uncle is a priest, he asked if we could get off there and visit for a bit, take photos for his uncle and go onto to Lisbon the next day.  So on the spur of the moment, we got off the train!!  Well, little did we know, the Fatima train station is 30+ km from the town of Fatima.  So there we were, in a station, in the middle of nowhere - there was a restaurant, a bar, a tourist office and a very long line of taxis just waiting to charge 50 euros or more to take unsuspecting tourists to the town LOL.  Well my friend, who is a little "hot blooded" was ranting, raving and using quite colourful language (in Canadian French).  I was laughing, which wasn't helping matters.  All of a sudden, we heard a French (from France) accent say "Eh les canadiens!!  Etes-vous perdus" (Hey are you Canadians lost?); hence the title of my layout.  This gentleman (Luis) had just returned from a work trip and was on the same train as us.  His wife (Marie-France)  was picking him up and they lived in a nearby town called Tomar.  To make a long story short, they took us to lunch, took us sightseeing in Tomar and absolutely insisted that we stay with them until we could go on our way the next day.  We went to the market, I cooked dinner, my friend bought some wine and we had a more than lovely evening.  They told us about a lovely fishing village called Nazare, so the next morning instead of getting back on the train for Lisbon, Luis and Marie-France took us to the bus station and we boarded the bus for Nazare where we spent another absolutely lovely week !!!

There is just a little bit of journaling on the front of the layout - I journaled the whole story on the back :)

Hmmm you know what?  The photo itself may be just one of my newfound friends, not the "life-changing, worthy" one I was searching for when I first looked at this kit; but boy the story sure is!

Thanks for joining me today and I'll be back on the weekend with the second layout!  Hugs xoxo

Did I kill the June Scraptastic Kit? and some thoughts going forward :)

Happy happy Sunday my friends !  I love nice quiet Sundays at home - cooking, scrapping, reading, cuddling with my kitty, watching tennis and going for a long walk early in the morning.  I don't get enough Sundays like that, but I sure take advantage of it when I get one.  Today is one of them!  Ahhhhh :).  I hope you are having a fabulous Sunday doing things you enjoy.

Well the "Best Day in my Life" kit is done and dusted I would say. I got 11 layouts total and I actually have one more in the works.  I started a layout of my kitty about two weeks ago and it is just not working for me - I scrapped a piece of cardstock trying to make my own background paper and then hating it. I did get the photo mounted on a bunch of layers but stalled again.  So I put that one to the side for the time being.  When it decides to cooperate with me, I will finish it :).  I really do not have much left - actually very few scraps of paper:

I could probably get a card or two and I may still do that.  I will cut the 3 X 4 cards apart and add them to my stash.

Although I feel I used the stickers quite a bit, I do still have a lot left over.  As for the die cut packages, I used a ton, and still have a ton :

I did not use that red alpha at all??  I was favouring smaller fonts this month, I guess.  But I will keep that sticker sheet close for the July kit because I think that alpha will work well with the Either Way Kit.

I struggled a bit with the vellum and acetate die cuts - but that is part of the fun of a kit - it pushes us to think out of our box; it pushes us out of our comfort zone.  And, although it looks like there is a lot left (and there is), I really did use them quite a bit but those packages were so darned packed - such value !!!

I ran out of the kit flair and  wood veneer early on, but I did have quite a bit in my own add-on so it was all good LOL.

In summary, after two months of working with the kit, having the third all ready to go (my own add-on is pulled) and the fourth on deck, I have a few thoughts to share :

• Scraptastic is definitely the way to go for me.  I love getting a kit and this one is so well put together.  I enjoy getting new goodies without breaking the bank.  Also, I used to spend a lot of time pulling product for each page and having the kit with my own little add-on has made that process so much easier.  I have never scrapped as much as I did in the last two months.  And I have never loved my pages more.  I spent a year, or so,  researching kits before making my final decision.  I may buy the odd Hip Kit here and there because they were a close second in my final analysis LOL.  But I cannot foresee ever stopping Scraptastic heehee :

• The best value for me is getting the main kit plus the add-on.  The first month, I got only the main kit and made my own add-on.  I got about 6 layouts but did not find that my add-on was enough (I don't have a large stash of die cuts, stickers and chipboard).  So in the second month, I did get the add-on but still made another add-on from my stash.  This time my add-on was mainly wood veneer, flair, enamel dots (I have a serious addiction) and washi, a couple of sticker sheets and some twine.  It worked a lot better.

• I pulled some of my own patterned paper and cardstock.  I did not wind up using the patterned paper (in the end, it just didn't go LOL) but did use all the extra cardstock I pulled.

• I felt I needed more of the kit wood veneer and flair

In July, I got the Either Way kit, add-on, and extra flair.  In August, I did the same thing, but added the extra wood veneer package.  I have a feeling I will be settling down to that.

In conclusion :  I have not shopped at all, other than glue and consumables.  I get new goodies and am using my own stash way more.  I scrap more and spend less time pulling product and overthinking.  Win, win, win !!!

Thanks so much for reading my ramblings all the way to the end.  I hope my thoughts may help if you are still in the evaluating process for a kit.  I will be back on Thursday with my July kit set-up and the first layout done with it.

Hugs xoxo

10th (hmmm and 11th lol) layouts with the June Scraptastic kit - 12 X 12 layouts - travel themed

Happy Thursday to all !!!  I hope you are having a lovely day.  After all that rain yesterday, we woke up to a fall-weather type day today .... brrr!  jeans and sweaters as opposed to capris and sandals :).

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I would be back today with the 10th and final layout using the Best Day in my Life kit.  Well, lo and behold, I realised that I had another layout that I had not posted.  I put it up on my Instagram (mooreilly should you wish to follow), but forgot to blog about or put it up on my various facebook groups.  So I will tag it on to the bottom of this post.

But first, the layout I intended for today's post :

This was the very first time that I used a piece of black cardstock as a background.  And I love the results, so it will not be the last.  My original idea was to use the black and white chevron from the kit as a background but I found that nothing popped on the page so I changed my mind.  At this point, I was down to scraps of patterned paper.

The supplies:  I used a lot of the little scrap pieces of patterned paper as layering pieces as well as quite a few of the stickers from the sticker sheet,  but did use a little more from my own add-on than on any other layout this month :

• The black cardstock is from Stampin' Up
• The doily is from the rak I received from Nancy (kittyscrapper) earlier this year
• The wood veneer are from Studio Calico (potty people) and from the Citrus Twist July PL kit
• The alphas are October Afternoon Daily Flash in Nightfall; I also used MME word stickers
• And as usual, I am not sure which of the enamel dots are from the kit and which are from my stash (I suffer from a minor ... ahem.... addiction to enamel dots, and to wood veneer for that matter :)

The story:  The picture is not very clear because it was taken on a train, in a small overnight compartment.  There are shadows and also mirrors.  Before leaving on my backpacking trip, I bought a train pass valid for 6 months.  It was a steal compared to buying individual tickets once in Europe, and compared to any other mode of transport. The pass was valid for first-class train travel so on overnight journeys, I was entitled to a private compartment.  They are tiny, usually with a bunk type bed and a sink.  But on the train from Berlin to Amsterdam, I actually had a shower in my little compartment.  It was such a luxury. It was quite ingeniously made, like a sliding cylinder.  I could hardly move inside it but I loved it nonetheless!.

Here is the "found" 11th layout ... now I am really and truly done with this kit.  I will do a "kill" post on Saturday.  I really enjoyed working with this kit and have come to the conclusion that kits (well Scraptastic anyway) are definitely the way to go for me.  I will talk more about this in my "kill", or month in review post !

This layout is part of the Mont St-Michel, France mini series of layouts I did this month.  They are all about stairs lol .... I am kinda proud of the title on this one :

 You will notice that this layout uses my new found go-to design, with two 4 X 4 photos placed slightly askew on the page.  I used my last full sheet of patterned paper as the background.

Again, thanks so much for being here and I will "talk" to y'all on Saturday.  Hugs xoxo