Too Early???

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I attended a scrap booking retreat locally today.  Managed to accomplish more that I thought I would.  One of the projects that I took with me was the November 2018 Paper Pumpkin Kit.

I now have 10 Christmas Cards ready for next year!!!  

I decided to do these cards now rather than wait on them even though it seemed a wee bit early, because knowing me next Christmas they will still be in the box!  

TAH DAH!!  A finish for Kathy.  I used to have home made Christmas Cards ready for mailing early in December for family and friends.  Colleagues got a home made Christmas Card as well.  The last three years however I had a lot going on in my personal life as well as spending a lot of time trying to "help" someone.  I gave up on the "helping" early last year and have slowly been getting back in to being me and doing crafts for my own enjoyment.  Today was an ENJOY craft day.

Hope this inspires your own creativity and 

BEST Day EVER Sunday.

Kathy

It's Friday!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today I got into all sorts of crafty activities!

I white washed half a wooden box.

I knit a few rows on each of the three pairs of socks I have cast on right now.

I knit a few rows on the three different shawls that I have cast on.

I started cutting more paper for some Christmas cards I am making.

I made two packages for a modified Advent Calender for a quilting friend of mine:

I used Designer Series Paper (retired/expired Stampin' Up), my Advent Stamp Set (retired/expired Stampin' Up), a package of tags that I found and left over red yarn from some fingerless mittens I knit last winer!

I was pretty excited about how these turned out!

This evening I did a couple of baking things: 

Skor Bar Square with frosting (had some recently without frosting - just not as good)

Drop Sugar Cookies with Christmas sprinkles!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Horse Scrapbook

If you follow my blog at all you will know my son LOVES animals.  For the past year and a half he has been riding horses at a local Equestrian Center, and so I finally got around to making a scrapbook layout for his scrapbook.

Almost all of the products came from Scrapbook Memories & More with the exception of the ribbon, twine and button that were in my Stampin Up stash.

The decoration horses are a rub on transfer, which was interesting to work with as I had never done that technique before.  My son drew the smiley faces on the sticky notes as he thought that looked better than just covering over his face : ).

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy Easter!

On Easter Sunday after brunch is finished, we get in the car and go for a drive to Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm in the metropolis of Bon Accord, Alberta.

My brother once described this place as "your crazy aunt's farm", and that is probably one of the best ways to describe it.

There is an eclectic collection of junk there that is the fascination and delight of any child (brings back summer memories at the crazy aunt's farm).  

Easter in Alberta is usually muddy, so after about a mile walk from the field where you park and hope not to get stuck, you walk in your gum boots to the farm proper, where your admission provides you a bead necklace (reminiscent of Mardi Gras), and then the fun begins.  There are straw bales to climb on, random ducks and geese wandering, an old Ford tractor parked (might have broken there) in a pile of random straw with the corresponding old clothes pile  to make a scare crow out of.  A swing set from the '70's, a menagerie of animals, calves, goats, sheep, chicks, and of course baby bunnies (a sign lets you know the bunnies are a perfect Mother's Day gift and will be ready for the mother's day weekend), a small straw bale maze for children, an area with small ride on pedal tractors, baskets, and random plastic eggs.  When your basket is as full as you want you can trade it in for a piece of candy.

My son loves this place, and I have to say we own a season pass to this fun every year!

As for the craft, I decided last night I better get the scrapbook page for last year made since I will be taking lots of pictures today.

The background paper and sheet of stickers was purchased a while back at Scrapbook Memories & More, the bases for the pictures is Certainly Celery card stock from Stampin Up.

If you look closely you will wonder how I got scrapbook paper to stand so nicely.  I did not have any card stock in the house in a size that would be fitting for a backing, so I used the 12 x12 sheets of cardboard that come in the back of the Designer Series Paper sets!

The bunny, egg hunt, and basket all have foam dots behind them to elevate off of the page, so I will leave them out to dry for a while (til the sticky is gone).

The letters are cut with the Cricut Plantin cartridge at 2" size.

Hope you're having a great Easter, and Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Mini Scrapbook

Today I decided it was time to brake into my Christmas Lane Simply Scrappin' Kit not just for stickers.  I decided that I would see if and how quickly I could make a mini scrapbook.  The entire project was less than an hours, I used only products that I had easily accessible, and so in under an hour I had the whole project completed.  The cover is half of a 12 x 12 sheet of card stock scored with the Simply Scored Tool at 5 7/8 and 6 1/8 for the seam binding.  The fold out portion of the album is 11 x 11 scored length and across at 5 1/2 " to get the four equal squares.  I did make a cut along the seam on the left hand side between the top and bottom layers to allow for easier closure of the book.  The pages are decorated with the Designer Series Paper and cards tock included as well as the sticker packages.  For the cover I ran a piece of early espresso card stock through the Snow Burst Embossing folder, stamped the Christmas Lodge Stamp set in Cherry Cobbler and Early Espresso ink and sponged the edges with early espresso, used a bit of 3/8 Quilted Satin Ribbon and foam dots to raise off of the embossed background.  A really quick and easy to make Christmas gift I think.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Birch Tree Scrapbook Page

So, while most of people are making Christmas cards and Christmas scrapbooks, I am making summer ones.  I must be confused..... (for those of you that know me - you know this is no laughing matter, but more a way of life), and I digress.....   I bought the Designer Series Paper pack of Frostwood Lodge because it has beautiful cottage Christmas prints.  A must have item.  However, one particular piece of paper did not put me in the Christmas mood, but more of a nostalgic summer one.  As a child my favorite part of summer was going to Waskesiu Lake in Prince Albert National Park (PANP).  It is still the best lake I have ever been to.  Waskesiu Lake in PANP is at the edge of where the Aspen Forest meets the Boreal Forest and there are lots of birch trees amongst the Coniferous Trees.  So when I saw this piece of paper I knew I had to do something with a lake theme.  This summer we were fortunate enough to find one almost alright lake in Alberta called Crimson Lake and it is located at the edge of the Rocky Mountains but in an Aspen like region as there were lots of birch trees there as well.  So, although it is early November I had to make a scrapbook page about Crimson Lake.  For the layout I used the 12 x 12 sheets of Cardstock from the 2011 - 2013 In Color series; the background is Pool Party, the lake is Island Indigo, the grass is Garden Green, and the sand is crumb cake with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz sprayed over top to look like glistening sand (ooooohhhh top drawer).   Stamp sets used were Summer Splash and Sunny Fun both from the Summer Mini.  I left the photo mats as plain white to possibly resemble clouds in the sky and will sponge the edges a bit once the photos are matted.  Then I had a left over piece that I had tried to score and make a lolly like all the cool people are making right now - that did not work out, so I made it into an umbrella and a toothpick wrapped in a glue dot holds it all together quite nicely.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Mini Album

I found these little mini albums this summer during my roaming of craft stores (not sure which one though).  When I saw the Designer Series Paper Frostwood Lodge and the Winter Wishes Stitched Felt I immediately knew what I would use it for.  The early Espresso quilted satin ribbon holds the album together.  I used the package of DSP, very vanilla, garden green, and cherry cobbler card stock.  The back cover has garden green card stock embossed with the Snow Burst embossing folder.  The front image is from the Christmas Lodge stamp set and the snow flake inside is from the Bright Hopes stamp set.  I used the label punch to make small frames that could be used for journal entries.  This project is fairly quick and easy to make, and all it needs now is some photos and mementos.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Fall Scrapbook Page

I had lots of die cut leaves left over from yesterday's project, and did not want to waste them.  What to do???  Make a fall scrapbook page!  I had 2 pieces of brown  12 x 12 card stock sitting around waiting to be used along with another sheet of lighter brown from which I made the tree.  I drew the tree outline on the right hand side of the paper and then ripped along that line to make rough edge for the tree.  Used my chocolate chip marker to draw the lines on the tree and the left over paper made the photo frames.  The leaves were dropped on the page from the bag they were in, and slightly rearranged.  The title is cut at 1 1/4" from my Cricut Speaking of Fall cartridge.  Now I will take my son to the river valley this weekend and the page will be complete.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy