Alcohol, fall, and kids…

17 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album, Mixed Media, ScrapBook

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Yes, I’ve been MIA the past week or so. Everyone has been sick and it’s all viral so there’s nothing to do but deal and wait it out. Sigh.

Anyway, I wanted to pop in really quick and fill you in on my classes at The Paperie from now until Christmas – there’s a couple of fun ones coming up!

This Thursday night I’m teaching another Distress Renewed class and it’s all about Alcohol Ink!

Look at the texture there – fun, fun!

Of course, I have the Yearlong Album class the end of this month and again in December.

During the November class I’ll be talking about the changes for next year – and I think you’re going to like them!

The second Seasonal Mini Album class is December 4:

The great thing about this class is that you can take all four throughout the year or you can pick and choose. This fall one is looking pretty cute so far and has some new fun elements that differ from the Summer one.

On December 6 I’m teaching along with some of the other members of the Paperie Creative Team at the annual Holiday Hoopla. This year it’s all ornaments! I don’t have a picture of mine, I forgot to take one before I handed in the project, but it’s cute!

Finally, I’m teaching a kid’s class on December 7 so any parents who need some shopping time, this is a great time for that! Drop the kiddies off, they make a great project and you get all your stuff done!

I taught this to some Paperie Retreat participants last weekend and I’m super excited to see what the kids do with it – they always have the best ideas!

There are loads of other classes happening over the next month and a half as well so make sure you take a look!

Cheers!

12 on Twelve | November 2014

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Sara in 12 on Twelve, This & That

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12 on Twelve

1. Student of the Week – 5 Incredible Days!

2. heading off to school

3. playing trains and watching the street

4. pomegranate seeds

5. time to break out the winter boots

6. porch selfie

7. hot chocolate for my sore throat

8. these guys are still looking good!

9. homework time

10. all labeled – these three WITL albums make me happy

11. the things you find out shopping

12. Instaweather is messed up – apparently it’s 9:20am and night time…..

Cheers!

September | YLA2014

07 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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Photo Flips, Simple Stories, Yearlong Album, YLA2014

The September LO was a fun and interesting one this month – I had a lot of letters to try and fit on the page (September is a long word!) and I wanted to show how to use the Simple Stories Sn@p Photo Flips in a different way – I love how it turned out!

I chose to use patterned paper again, simply because the icon paper seemed to fit with the Back to School theme that is September around here!

This time I layered the paper on watercolour paper to get a border. I added the usual grey Project Life arrows and some extra stickers, along with a doodled border, around the edge:

And, believe it or not, these pages hold 10 pictures! I specifically made sure to add both landscape and portrait orientations so everyone could see that either would work.

And it’s a super fun interactive element, especially when you add all the great Simple Stories stickers to the pics:

See that picture of Mister Gabe? That’s his best friend Hannah – we kind of like her a lot, and her little sister (who I take care of) is the cutest thing you ever saw. Just for proof:

I mean, seriously. She kills me. Hannah is the hilarious Gingerbread Man behind her – love these two. But Halloween is for another day……

Anyway, that was September – hope you liked the fun tip about Photo Flips!

I’m off this weekend to The Paperie Fall Retreat and I. Can’t. Wait. Really. I’m writing this the day I’m leaving and I woke up at 5am. It’s like Christmas to a 5-year-old. 🙂

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and come back early next week to check out the Halloween craziness that happened here!

Cheers,

August |YLA2014

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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Mixed Media Layout, Scrapbook Layout, Yearlong Album, YLA2014

Well. I was just going to post my September Yearlong Album LO’s and realized that I haven’t shown you August yet. Oops! So, to keep these in some type of order, here’s August – you’ll get September tomorrow! 🙂

This month it was fun with strips and drips! We cut a bunch of papers into different length strips which we layered behind photos and diecuts:

You can see I added my signature doodling to the diecuts to make them pop a little more.

The drips were made with three different shades of Heidi Swapp ColorShine mist. We made a pool of mist behind the photos then let it drip to either side:

The shimmer and the slight colour variation, plus the bit of added texture and dimension from the strips is pretty awesome.

We finished the LO with the usual arrows and some bits and bobs:

Have I mentioned how much I love those cork hearts and gold stars? Love. Them.

See you tomorrow with the September LO!

Cheers,

Simple Scrapper Show & Tell | November 2014

04 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

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Mixed Media Layout, Scrapbook Layout, Simple Scrapper

I don’t know where the year is going but here I am again with new Simple Scrapper material. The rest of the Team, as always, knocked it out of the ballpark so make sure you check out the November Team Gallery. Also, we just announced some new Team members so go give them a big hello!

My Story Starter LO for this uses a picture that I’ve scrapped before but it’s one of my faves and it was perfect for this LO:

The sketch was so much fun to use and I love how my old, hoarded Basic Grey paper worked for the circle element:

I also got to break out some Prima alphas that I love and, of course, I added my usual black pen work to them:

My template LO was a fun mixed media one:

The picture of my kiddies from this fall cracked me up – Molly makes it looks like Gabe is choking her to death, she’s such a drama queen – and I wanted it to be a fun LO to match. I used a different resist technique from my normal faves and traced a stencil with a glue pen:

And then I mixed alphas for my title:

Now it’s your turn to play! Go check out all the Show & Tell links and then add your own – I love seeing what everyone makes each month, and it doesn’t have to be Simple Scrapper material so go share whatever you have!

Cheers!

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

Week in the Life | 2014 – midweek roundup

31 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by Sara in Week in the Life

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Week in the Life

So yesterday was the midway point in this year’s Week in the Life Journey and, as is normal for me in all parts of my life, the midway point was the hardest. Wednesday’s are always the worst at bootcamp – I have no energy – and the same goes for this project. I took less pics than usual (though I still had tons!) and I wrote less on my daily sheets. I just hit a wall in the middle of things!

But today is a new day and it’s Halloween so I’m sure there will be too many pictures today to make up for yesterday!

Here are my favourites of the week so far:

On Monday my mom’s cousin sent her some old pics:

My grandmother – Molly is named after her. She’s Molly Nora.

My grandfather – the best man, best person I’ve ever known. He was truly one of a kind. So was my grandmother, they were two incredible people.

Tuesday, according to Gabe, was the worst day ever:

I love that he took a selfie while keeping the pout, ha!

Wednesday

Love it when she’s silly.

Love it when he stays in his footie jammies all day – makes me feel like he’s still a baby. 🙂

Thursday

Week in the Life has brought out some camera smiles with Molly – normally she’s a definite no to pics!

Would have missed this moment if not for WITL – I was waiting to take a pic of him going to school so had my camera when I normally wouldn’t have.

And that’s it so far. Three more days left and then putting it all together happens. I’m lucky to work from home so whenever I get a chance I upload and edit pics. I also add times and a few words to each one in Photoshop before printing. By the end of the night I have the day done and I send them off daily to be printed. It keeps them organized for me and I don’t feel overwhelmed at the end of the week. I just need to add some bits and bobs then and I call it done!

How is your week going? Let me know if you’re still snapping and writing!

Cheers!

Week in the Life | 2014 – supplies

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Sara in Week in the Life

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Week in the Life

It’s back! This is the week each year that I really look forward to and then kind of hate by the end! 🙂 Also, my kids kind of hate it by the end too – having a camera in their face 24/7 gets to be a bit much.

If you don’t know what Week in the Life is all about, check out Ali Edwards – this is her baby.

I’ve done this the past two years and I can’t even explain how much I love the finished product. Going through those 6×8 albums and seeing all aspects of our days and lives for that week is amazing.

I’m kind of behind this year in that I have no prep done – usually my album is set up and I have an idea where I’ll go with it to finish. This year, well, I have some product pulled and we’ll have to see how it all comes together!

Here’s what I have so far:

Simple Stories burlap chevron album in red

Bo Bunny, Simple Stories, and Shimelle papers (I also have old Halloween Scenic Route that I’ll use)

Simple Stories alphas and stickers

Sn@p pouch for bits and bobs (I used this last year and it was great!)

Plus lots of different page protectors so I can do whatever I want in terms of photos and the 6×8 daily sheets from Ali. I’m sure there will be lots more added as I go!

And that’s it. Pretty simple – you truly only need a camera of some kind and a place to stick pictures and journaling – Week in the Life doesn’t need to be, and shouldn’t be, complicated or about the product. In its essence, it’s a photo journal about the nitty gritty details of your life for one week.

Are you playing along? I’d love to see what you all are doing so let me know! Post a link in the comments so we can all go have a look.

P.S. My friend Cathie posted her WITL supplies this morning – go take a look!

Spiders and bats and Halloween fun!

23 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts

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bats, Halloween Crafts, kidart, spiders

I love Halloween. Love. It.

I love Christmas more but don’t like the crafting aspect as much – weird.

There’s just something about making ghosts and bats and spiders that makes me happy so the other day we made some creepy crawlies while the kiddos had a Professional Development Day off school.

See how happy Molly is about getting her picture taken? Haha!

Here’s the three of ours together (Poppy had already taken hers home):

I went with regular googly eyes but the kids wanted coloured ones, of course! I’ve almost run out of my round coloured eyes but found some oval ones the other day (for you local peeps who have been asking, I found them at the dollar store in Mount Pearl!) and I think they look pretty awesome! We obviously used egg cartons, black paint, and googly eyes. For the wings I had some sticky back felt but paper would work just as well.

We also made spiders but I only have a picture of mine:

Isn’t he cute? I had the idea and wanted to make him *now* but had no pipe cleaners so we painted wooden skewers and broke them up for legs – I actually like how it looks that way! He and Mister Bat:

have become two of my faves! Now, to come up with a new ghost idea….

Cheers!

Birthday Girl

21 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Sara in Project Kit, ScrapBook

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Project Kit, The Paperie

One of the fun things I’ve been getting to do for The Paperie is design some project kits. These come with everything you need to complete at least two layouts and two cards (or more) and very detailed, full colour instructions. Lots packed into a $30 kit! I showed you one a few weeks ago – Back 2 School – and here’s another one!

Molly had her 7th birthday in August so I had the perfect photos waiting when Wendy mentioned a Birthday Girl kit. The first one highlights how old she turned, a typical birthday pic that I try to take each year:

The fun parts here came from the title and embellishment cluster on the top of the LO. I added doodling to the alpha stickers, some fun sequins and wood veneer, and some taps of shimmer mist:

The next LO is all about cake because, come on, who doesn’t like cake?

I wanted to add pictures of all Molly’s past cakes so I made a little mini album that’s hidden behind the main photo:

My favourite part of this whole kit is the sticker cake:

Yes, I admit, I patted myself on the back for that one – love how it turned out!

Once the kit was completed, I discovered I had enough left over for a bonus LO, a 6×8 this time featuring an outtake picture:

I added my usual touch to the sticker title, by doodling:

Of course, there are some birthday cards too!

The first one is pretty simple, with the touch of some glossy accents for the balloons, but the second one is a fun window card:

Aren’t all those stickers and alphas great? This is an awesome kit and I still had stickers left over to make more cards!

Hope you enjoyed and if so, keep your eyes open – we have some ideas for future projects kits too!

If you want more information about the kits, or to get one, check out The Paperie.

Cheers!

A Super Star

17 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album

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Classes, Mini Album, Star Album, The Paperie Retreat

Are you going to The Paperie Retreat? If you live anywhere close to St. John’s area or like to travel, scrap, and have fun then you really should come. It takes place at The Wilds Resort and we basically have the run of the place from Thursday to Sunday – it’s a blast! Trust me, it’s worth the money and the trip…

The Paperie sets up a pop-up store with a ton of new product and retreat exclusive kits, the designers and staff do demos (Cathie and I will both be demoing brand new products!), we have Make ‘n’ Takes, and there are a few classes to take, if you want. This time around, I’m teaching a fabulous Star Mini Album.

Isn’t that fun? With the kit you’ll get instructions for that one, plus the papers and stickers for these pages:

And as a bonus, I’ll include measurements for two bigger stars as well so you can have a hanging cluster for decoration this Christmas, if you want!

The mini is a great Christmas present too, since it comes with a stand to hang your finished album on. If you decide you just want to leave it closed, it’s got a super cute cover to display!

Have I convinced you to come yet? Here’s some more! Rae Lynn will be teaching an ornament Make ‘n’ Take and on display will be the ornaments all the designers have created for our Holiday Hoopla class in early December. I’m still working on mine but here’s one that didn’t make the cut for this year: