Distressed Stickles

I love all things Distress, which is funny since when Distress Inks first came out, I wasn't impressed. That was before I realized how they were different and before they added all the colours (the first round was mostly browns) and now I love them. I love how they all react with water and how you can use them for so much more than just as a stamp pad and reinker (for starters).

With this technique, I coloured clear stickles with two different colour Distress Reinkers and then swiped my paper through it. It gave such an awesome texture and it was easy to match colours to use to stamp (not that I did on this card, but you could).

So Bunny Cute

I'm still getting organized to start Blogging and sharing again, and while I was looking through my photos, I saw this layout just sitting there. I loved it and so am excited to share!

When Nathalie was a baby, I had this froggy coat that I completely loved. I got so many comments on it and it's packed away in my keepsake box. When she outgrew it, I ordered a Bunny coat and she was just as adorable!

I had fun with this layout too. I played with my new (well, they were new when I did the layout) Distress Markers. Sometimes, I just putter and play when I scrapbook and it's nice to be able to relax. Often times, I feel stressed about getting caught up and getting it all done, so it's nice to be able to play sometimes too!!

It's Been Awhile

The title really says it all. It's been awhile. I always have such good intentions about posting, but then life happens and I don't. Or I figure no one reads this, so I don't bother. Then someone will mention a post they saw or something and I think, "I should post again." But, this year, I just haven't.

There are so many reasons really. One is just that life gets in the way. I have 3 kids and I run a business. I sit as the Chair of our School Council and all that seems to take precedence. And I enjoy a clean house (although lately, you'd never know it) and I feel an obligation to feed us. So, all of that takes time. Time I don't get to stamp or scrapbook. Then when I do actually create, I don't take the extra step to share it. My office is separate from my craft room (which is what I want) and so I need to bring my cards and pages in here to scan and then post, so it's one more step in the process. One more thing to stop the flow.

Truthfully, though, I haven't even stamped or scrapbooked much this year. I was feeling a ton of guilt over the fact that I didn't get very much time in my room. And then when I was in there, I was fulfilling obligations: my technique club and my paper pack club. And I enjoyed them. A lot. But I just felt such pressure. Well, I've dropped both of those which was both good and bad. No more pressure which was great, but also, no more creativity since I wasn't forced into my craft room for anything. So, I didn't do much. Add to that the fact that I'm not happy with my organization in there and I wouldn't spend much time in there. I redid my room many years ago and have made small changes since then, but I'm running out of room for my unmounted stamps. I need another shelf. And I don't really have anywhere to put all my Distress Stains and Paints, so they sit in a box. And there are a couple of boxes of stuff that I haven't put away because I don't know where to put them and so it makes it even more cluttered in there.

But it's all changing now. My awesome brother has agreed to help me build some new storage solutions and I'm so excited. We're going to move some stuff around, rip some stuff down and build new shelves. I'm going to have a whole embellishment area and it's all going to be awesome!!! He came over last week and we talked about what we could do. It's tough for him since he has no idea what half the stuff is, but he asked questions and I talked about what I want close and what I don't need access to all the time and so we have a plan! It's going to take a bit as we do one section and then plan out the next, but I'm excited. And I even organized a bit in there the other day and I'm starting to find my groove again.

I did 5 pages last Thursday and Friday. That's a ton more than I've done in months, so I'm pretty excited. I'm hoping to have lots to share too. I'll start with a page I did awhile ago (not one of my 5 recent ones as they are hanging up in my room at the moment), but it's a start right??

I finished to Nathalie's second birthday and so am starting up with Kayla's album now. I left off at her third birthday and she is 10 1/2 now, so I'm seriously behind. She is so excited that I'm working on her album now too!! This is a cute one of her smile. She looks so different now; so grown up. It's hard to remember her when she was little and so it's fun to go back and do these pages now.

Toy Story

I'm back to working on my Disney layouts. Part of me is getting bored and part of me is excited that I might have something scrapbooked within a few months of actually doing it.

I had done a few "boring" layouts and so was looking to do something a bit more creative again and in the end, I do like how it turned out. I'll have to go back to boring for awhile though if I ever want to finish!

Splotted Distress

Today, I want to share an old card. I used the Splotted Distress technique which I love as it gives such a cool background (ink your paper with Distress Ink and then flick water on it and let it dry). I love that I can then use the same colour to stamp and everything will match!

I've had this card sitting in my folder of stuff to share for awhile. The stamp is a Hero Arts one and I just added some rhinestones to the flowers to give it a bit of bling and make them pop.

Donald Duck

I was getting tired of boring Disney layouts, so I wanted to be a bit creative. I figured I'd give it a try with a Donald layout. And in the end, I an really happy with how it turned out. It's pretty busy and loud for me, but it was a nice change putting together different papers. At first, I thought I'd have to do 2 pages because I had 3 - 4x6" photos and I had put Donald's signature on them, but I ended up cutting that part off and went with 4x4" photos so I could keep it on one page.

Hockey Cake

I enjoy making cakes although I would never want to do it for a living or anything. I don't really know what I'm doing, so it takes awhile to make them, although sometimes it's fun to just play around.

Kayla's friend was having a birthday and I wanted to make a cake for her. She plays hockey so I figured a hockey themed cake would be cool. I spoke with my cousin, Debbie, and we found a picture of one we liked. I figured it was way beyond me (well, it was) as it had a figure on it, but Debbie thought she could do it so we went for it.

Well, the figure turned out so awesome and Kayla's friend loved the cake!! And truth be told, I really liked it too.