Sweet Sunny Smile | My Favourite Things 2015

29 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things, ScrapBook

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Dylusions Ink Spray, Little B, Mixed Media Layout, October Afternoon

edit: Ack! I forgot to hit post yesterday! Sorry!

You know how you have products you love but sometimes they get laid aside so you kind of forget about them until you’re looking for something new and/or different to use and suddenly hey! there they are and you fall in love all over again?

Yeah. That was me and Dylusions Ink Sprays this month. The colours. Seriously people, the colours. Yum.

Look at that face. First day of school and she (actually they) let me take pictures even though it was cold outside.

I added rub-ons, iridescent sequins, and those amazing gold feathers from Little B:

For the second LO – hello sweet little face –

I punched it up a notch with overspray, ghosting, and overheated molding paste.

I still added the same embellishments to tie both pages together:

And I love how the titles worked out on both! Those alphas are from October Afternoon’s new holiday line, Under the Tree, and I love how it can be totally Christmassy, or not.

As always, it was fabulous seeing how everyone used the exact techniques and products I did and yet they are all so different. Gorgeous and amazing pages were made, as usual! If you’re a regular who missed the class this month, you really did miss out! #sorrynotsorry Lol!

Cheers!

Trunk or Treat!

27 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Family, This & That

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Halloween, trick or treat

This past Sunday our church held its annual pumpkin carving night. Yes, our church celebrates the pagan holidays. No, we don’t care, we actually love how spirited they are. Yes, we had an awesome time!

This is always an event the kids look forward to – we bring our pumpkins, the church has templates, snacks, and games available, and we have fun. This year there were tattoos and face painting as well so the kids really had a great time.

Gabe picked out a template and after Darrell gutted both pumpkins, I drew the design on and he carved it out:

Molly, of course, didn’t want a template, she wanted a bunny. Sitting. With kind of floppy ears. Friends, I cannot draw. Not even a little bit. Sigh. This is what I carved out for her – luckily, she was happy enough with it!

After the pumpkin carving all the kiddies (who had been told to dress up), lined up and went to the parking lot for a round of Trunk or Treating!

Have you all heard of this? I hadn’t and it’s the most genius idea ever! All the cars lined up with their trunks (or the boot as my friend Emma and my stepfather would say!) pointing out into the parking lot.

Now, to backtrack a little, before the kids went up the adults were told to go get ready so Darrell went to open the trunk and get the candy ready. Then I got a text:

When we went out, I got it. These people are seriously *into* Halloween.

All the trunks were decorated. There were lights, and decorations, and smoke machines (really) and people pretending to be decorations but would then come to life.

One car had a seemingly benign setup – there were bags of chips so you could just take one from the trunk. And then a hand would grab you and yank you in. Molly and Gabe could not get enough of that one – they thought it was hilarious!

To say they had the best Halloween ever is not an exaggeration. The fact they get to go door to door and do it all again on Saturday? Icing on the cake, my friends, icing on the cake.

Cheers!

12 on Twelve | October 2015

22 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in 12 on Twelve, Family

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12 on Twelve

This week got a little crazy and so I’m late with a post – sorry all!

I haven’t posted on of these in a while but I’m still doing, and loving, the 12 on Twelve pics – here’s the October bunch, taken on Thanksgiving Day.

Loving Mom’s spare bed in Eastport
Molly and Gabe’s favourite place – their “cupboard under the stairs.”
watching movies on the long drive home.
gorgeous weather as we drove through Terra Nova Park
talking to Nana
taking a selfie with Donna
selfie with Mister Gabe
sideways selfie!
Gabe and Sydney picking red currants
Thanksgiving dinner
watching The Voice
bathtime

Cheers!

Roar! Everything is Awesome | Kids Card Class

18 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Cards, Classes, Kid's Crafts, Mixed Media

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cards, kidart, The Paperie

This coming weekend I’m teaching a Birthday Card Class for kids of all ages! We’ll be making ten cards and getting messy in the process – my favourite way to create!

Although I’ll be teaching a bunch of different techniques, all the cards can be decorated in almost any way. I’ll have some stamps available but they can be mixed and matched as people want.

We’ll be playing with Distress Stains, Crazy Birds stamps, Inktense watercolour pencils, embossing powders, alcohol inks, Ranger Shrink plastic, and more!

Plus, we’ll be making fun and crazy monsters:

And a few space alien monsters with crazy eyes!

If you’re in need of some creative time and/or some birthday cards (or just fun How are you? cards) then come and play on Sunday at The Paperie. You can even bring your favourite little or big person to join you!

Cheers!

amazing dear | My Favourite Things 2015

16 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things, ScrapBook

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diecuts, Distress Ink, Simple Stories

I’m super duper late today but it’s still Friday so it counts, right? 🙂

Here’s the latest Fave Things LO’s – some of my personal faves from this year! We did a quick wash of Distress Ink – of course! – and layered. layered, layered!

For the first one, we only used Simple Stories diecuts:

I make the diecuts work by cutting and/or hiding the pieces I don’t want to see, like this banner:

We also used Crate Paper cork stickers from a previous month and added some metallic pink phrase stickers to the mix:

For the second LO we used a lot of Amy Tangerine paper scraps and then added a few diecuts to finish it off:

I love all the levels and depth in the layers!

For both, we added a finishing touch of a few sequins and stars for some shine:

Pretty simple, but so fun to do – I love sitting down and layering up diecuts and paper scraps!

There are extra pictures at Flickr, including pics of the envelopes we matted the photos on – we used them to hold mini albums of extra pictures, a favourite trick of mine, since I’m a one photo per page lover!

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers!

hello love | My Favourite Things 2015

14 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things, ScrapBook

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Distress Ink, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things, Perfect Pearls, Ranger

I think the August class of My Favourite Things was one of the most popular so far – everyone loved the technique (which I originally got from Jennifer McGuire) and everyone’s turned out so beautifully but all so amazingly different.

I love how the ombre turned out on this one! Molly’s favourite colour these days is blue and since the Distress line has so many incredible blues, I decided to use a bunch! What better way than ombre? You can’t see it, my photography skills are just not up to the challenge, but the shimmer of Perfect Pearls over the Distress Ink is amazing!

We embellished up the LO’s this month with cork stickers from Crate Paper, some paper strips from Amy Tangerine, and more rub-ons from a few months ago.

The second LO is the exact same technique but with a different shape, ink colour, and Perfect Pearl colour.

Still more cork and rub-ons for the title and journaling work – I love how those pieces all came together!

We also mixed a few colours together on this one; you can see the blend if you look closely. It added great depth without breaking up the visual of one colour tone.

And now we’re almost there – on Friday I’ll have you all caught up with My Favourite Things so make sure you check in for that!

Cheers!

Sweetness | My Favourite Things 2015 (& Happy Thanksgiving Canada!)

12 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things, ScrapBook

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Balzer Designs, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things, Prima Color Bloom, Stampendous Embossing Enamel, The Crafter's Workshop

Back in June, a local photographer, Stacy Breen-Crane, was offering mini photo shoots with the proceeds going to charity. I jumped right on board and got some amazing pictures of Molly and Gabe at the park on one of the only nice days we had that month! They were perfect to use in our July class with lots of Prima Color Bloom sprays.

We layered mist through a stencil, then modeling paste through a large stencil, then more paste through the same, but smaller, stencil. All of that was heated in between to overdry and bubble up the paste, making lots of gorgeous texture. Then, we sprayed and sprayed and sprayed. And dripped. And tossed on some Stampendous embossing enamel while the spray was still wet. Look at the awesome texture!

As if that wasn’t enough shine, we dusted Perfect Pearls over the spray to take down the stickiness (thanks to Cathie for that fabulous tip!)

You can see there’s also gold thread under the photo, and we finished with some sticker labels and rubons:

Believe it or not, the second LO is almost identical, including the sprays. Just to show how different these colours can look depending on how much you spray and how you layer them, I used the exact same colours but in different order and intensity:

We also sprinkled the embossing enamel on the paste before we dried it, which allows it to cover a completely different area than the first LO.

There’s still tons of shimmer and texture, just done in a slightly different way:

We had a ton of messy fun doing this one, and it was incredible to see how different all the LO’s were, even when people used the same products and colours.

For my fellow Canadians, it’s Thanksgiving – enjoy, eat lots, and have fun doing your thing!

Cheers!

Foxy Guy | My Favourite Things 2015

09 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things

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Derwent Inktense Pencils, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things

Yeah. So…. I’m waaaaaay behind in posting the Fave Things LO’s. Sorry. 😦 The nice thing for all of you is that there will be a whole bunch in a row which means lots of awesome inspiration – yay!

The class we did in June featured Derwent Inktense pencils. If you haven’t tried these yet, they’re incredible! They’re watercolour pencils but better. The lead is ink based and so the colours are super vibrant and blend really well when wet.

We coloured over some dried texture paste and misted water to blend. We followed that up with layers of paper, drywall tape, and cheesecloth. I love how the title turned out – black marker covered with Sakura Clear Stardust pen for shimmer:

The second LO was very similar, though the placement of the elements was different. The big difference here was the way we used the pencils. Instead of just misting and letting them run, we misted and used our fingers to blend the colours together more smoothly, leaving less pencil marks on the paste.

We had some fabulous chipboard stars from Bella Blvd. as our embellishments this month and I love them!

Adding a bit of white paint pen to each really makes them pop as well! The star sequins were added because, of course, I need a bit of sparkle and shine on my layouts!

See you Monday with the next set – they’re all about Prima Color Bloom Sprays!

Cheers!

Simple Scrapper | October 2015

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

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Distress Ink, Mixed Media Layout, Simple Scrapper

Yay, I’m all caught up! Whew! 🙂

I had fun with this month’s LO’s – the templates and Story Starters were, as always (I know I say it every month) fabulous! Jennifer and her Team behind the scenes knock it out if the park each month with the templates. Although I’m not a digital scrapper, I love that they come as a sketch and also as a layered Photoshop template; it means I can use pieces on my traditional layouts too.

For my Story Starter LO this month I used a fun picture of my scrappy friends and I at a Retreat our local scrapbooking store, The Paperie, puts off twice a year. It’s an awesome time – 4 nights and 4 days at a hotel with great people. Sometimes we get lots of stuff done, other times, well, we just have fun and relax! A few retreats ago the store started bringing props for pics and we have taken full advantage!

It may have been fairly late and there *may* have been some wine involved. Just saying….. 🙂

I had fun with Distress Inks and water to make the background panel and then used OCtober Afternoon plus several colours of Kelly Purkey alpha stickers for the title work:

One of my favourite tricks is to outline letters with a black pen to make them pop out against a busy background. It’s amazing the difference it makes!

My template LO has lots of white space but still uses lots of paper – a great way to use up those favourite bits and pieces you might have left over.

Some epoxy Freckled Fawn hearts and Amy Tangerine alphas gave it some shine, and a wash of watery Distress Ink grounded the whole piece. And then I just layered and layered paper scraps that I had distressed:

And there they are! Make sure you take a look at my sidebar for links to the rest of the Team and see what they did this month. You can also check out our Pinterest page for a quick overview!

I’ll be back Friday with some My Favourite Things LO’s – we did some fun techniques over the summer!

Cheers!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Simple Scrapper | September 2015

05 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

≈ 4 Comments

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Distress Ink, Mixed Media Layout, Perfect Pearls, Ranger, Simple Scrapper

Back, as promised, with more Simple Scrapper LO’s today! These are using the September Premium Membership materials – both templates and Story Starters.

I used a fun Distress Ink and Perfect Pearls technique on both my LO’s this month – they’re super shimmery and colourful in real life!

One of the slight twists I used this month was with the doilies – I layered two and flipped one backwards so it has just a subtle pink tint coming through. The white wasn’t quite right, the red was too deep and the pink I had wasn’t the right shade. Flipping the red doily over worked perfectly!

I used my favourite Amy Tangerine Kraft Thickers for the title and added some detail to those and the cork hearts with my white paint pen:

The Story Starter LO has this year’s annual cabin pic of my kiddos and my best friend’s kiddos – she added an extra one to the mix this summer!

Every summer we spend two weekends at our family cabin with this crazy crowd and have the time or our lives! Unfortunately we missed a weekend this year because I was delayed due to weather on my way home from Mexico. I’m not complaining – we got four more days of sun and got to see some family during our stopover – but I did miss our second weekend together.

I punched circles from a previously made watercolour background paper and added wood veneer chevrons that had been coloured with a Sakura Stardust pen:

I don’t have a decent picture of the border, but I simply drew two lines and scribbly doodled in between to frame out the piece.

And that’s it! Check back Wednesday for the October LO’s using the all new materials from Simple Scrapper. Also, don’t forget to take a look at the 2016 planner Jennifer has designed – it’s really awesome and it comes in five different sizes!

As always, if you have any questions about how I did something, just ask and I’ll try to answer. If you want to know pretty much exactly how I made the shimmery background, check out this video from Jennifer McGuire!

Cheers!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.