What a Charmer| My Favourite Things 2015

01 Wednesday Apr 2015

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

Tags

Alcohol ink, Classes, Mixed media, Ranger

I stuck with my plan and used Ranger alcohol inks for this month’s Favourite Things class. These inks are made for use on non-porous and slick surfaces where they move and blend beautifully. Although I do like using that technique, my favourite is to use the inks on porous elements, like watercolour paper and sticky back canvas.

The first LO was simple blending of colours to make a striped effect. I love the intensity of the colours – I can’t get such richness with any other product I’ve found yet!

There were some awesome colour combos used in class for this! Although I generally use black and white photos when doing mixed media and/or colourful backgrounds so I can go with whatever colours I want at the time, many people brought colour photos and picked inks to work with them. I love seeing all the different preferences and ideas!

Once the majority of our background was done, we used Alcohol Blending Solution and extra ink to add some splatter and texture:

We finished it off by inking enamel chevron stickers to use as embellishments:

The second LO was made by using the alcohol inks over a stencil:

We brought the chevrons back in on this LO but with wood veneer instead. We still coloured them with the alcohol inks and then added some shimmer because I’m obsessed, lol!

I’m sorry I’ve been a terrible blogger lately – I know I’ve been totally AWOL! – but I can’t seem to get around my own self lately; I think winter is taking its toll! I do have posts for tomorrow (some fabulous “guest artists” will be featured!) and on Friday I have something fun to share so come back and check out all the eye candy!

Cheers!

Always Remember | My Favourite Things 2015

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Classes, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things

In 2009 (I believe) I went to the owners of The Paperie and asked to teach a yearlong class – one that people would sign up and commit to for an entire year, once a month. Although I’m sure they were more than a little hesitant, they went for it. I’ve been teaching the Yearlong Album class ever since.

If you ask anyone from the original class most will probably say it was their favourite one. I was into some basic mixed media back then, when it wasn’t the popular thing to do and it was much harder to get product, and boy, did we have fun playing! That first year it was a small 8×8 album, if I remember correctly, and we used every single little bit in our kits. Right down to the paper pad cover and sticker sheet leftovers. We literally had nothing left. It was actually kind of stressful for me, lol!

We moved onto a 12×12 LO plus pocket page system the next year. Then an 8.5×11 album. 2013 was all mixed media and last year it was sketch based. 5 years of albums and photos. And I loved every minute of it!

But it was time for a change so this year the class has been overhauled. It’s now called My Favourite Things and that’s exactly what it is – all my favourite items, techniques, and stuff! Plus, you no longer have to commit for a full year; it’s month to month so it works better for those people who travel or know they’re going to miss a bunch of classes. We’re also focusing on journaling and how I add it in, since I hate doing it! What hasn’t changed are the awesome people (thank you to all of you who have stuck with me from the beginning, or who have come back after taking a break, or who are brand new this year) and the fun times we have in class. Plus, there’s new product, and what’s more fun than tearing into a brand new package of stuff? Nothing!

The first 2015 class was last month and we played with one of my top 3 faves – Distress Inks!

Our cover page used one of my favourite colours in the Distress line, Evergreen Bough, and a wet on wet watercolour technique.

We added lots of layers with some October Afternoon speech balloon and label diecuts:

Some shine with Studio Calico silver star rub-ons:

And a bit of bling with embossing powders on the Thickers:

The layouts were made with the use of Distress Ink though a stencil and then more ink through another stencil layered over the first:

My journaling trick here was to use a quote – I do that all the time! Google is my friend!

We also used hidden journaling here, written on one of the speech balloons and tucked in the top corner:

The second layout used the same techniques but we added in some drips too – I love drips!

The water and stencil layering, plus a glitter pen and some enamel elements added lots of texture:

So we’re off to a good start! If you want to join us anytime, just give The Paperie a call and they’ll sign you up. If you want sneaks of what’s coming up in class, I try to post them to Instagram with #FaveThings2015. I’m still debating exactly what we’re doing this month but I’m leaning heavily towards alcohol inks!

Cheers!

December and Final Page | YLA2014

13 Friday Feb 2015

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, Prima Color Bloom, Yearlong Album, YLA2014

This is it! The last Yearlong album class ever and the last LO’s for 2014.

This one used loads of Simple Stories stickers for the banners along the top:

And the words along the bottom:

And the circles around the photos:

Then we finished everything off with October Afternoon chipboard stars and gold mist spatter:

The last page of the album mimicked the first with the paper choices and colours:

But we added in a subtle crayon resist with Prima Color Bloom spray:

And we used the spray for regular misting plus a spatter effect:

And that’s it! I filled two complete albums, which means I need to do another cover page and final page, but there is another year in the books.

I’m super excited and stoked for the new class this year, My Favourite Things. I’ll be posting sneaks on Instagram and Twitter with #FaveThings2015 and there’s already a couple there, like this one:

Hope to see some of you there, it’s going to be awesome!

Cheers!

November | YLA2014

11 Wednesday Feb 2015

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

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Mixed Media Layout, Yearlong Album, YLA2014

We’re almost at the end of this album and for once I thought I’d do a fairly monochromatic layout. There is a bit of colour but it’s all fairly light and tone on tone.

There is a super fun, and messy, technique on this one using stickles. If you look closely you can see glitter all around the small squares I punched out – Stickles!

I love the sparkle it brings, highlighting just those pieces. Of course, I did go in with my favourite Sakura Stardust pen to outline the title and chipboard hearts, plus add some shimmer to the wood veneer stars – you can’t have too much sparkle after all!

Cheers!

October | YLA2014

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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Mixed Media Layout, YLA2014

I sat down to do my final Yearlong Album post and realized that I hadn’t done several months – my mind is leaving me, obviously! So, rather than post the last one, I’ll catch up here this week and have them all in order for you. If you want to see what we’ve done this year just type YLA in the search bar and/or check out the Flickr album.

Here’s October:

We had fun with one of my favourite techniques – Distress Ink and water for a blendy, watercoloury background. I also added another favourite in there, shimmer!

And of course, layers of paper, die cuts, pop dots, stickers, and embellishments:

We finished off the page with some doodling and a cluster of stickers with the date:

Check back tomorrow for November’s page and don’t forget to check out (and sign up for!) my new yearlong class – My Favourite Things. We’re starting this month and it’s going to be all my favourite techniques and products, plus some of my tried and true journalling tips. Trust me, some of the new product ordered in for this class is amazing! I can’t wait to get started!

Cheers!

A present for our beautiful Maya

03 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by Sara in Canvas, Family, ScrapBook

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

alphabet name, Home Decor

One last Christmas present to share and a confession – this one hasn’t actually been sent yet. Oops. It’s going in the mail this week though, I promise! #worstauntandsisterever

Anyway…….

I did another name for another gorgeous baby, my awesome niece Maya:

I found a frame big enough for this one but since you can see my fabulous crazy hair in the glare of the glass I thought I’d show it to you out of the frame too:

I like to keep these pretty simple so the letters themselves actually stand out. I do normally back them with patterned paper but the colours of these looked so good on the black fabric background that I left it as is.

I added enamel dots and hearts, plus wood and enamel buttons from Freckled Fawn to the “M”:

And to the “Y”:

The “A”‘s have cork stars layered with gems and cork arrows:

At the last second I also added little vellum phrases from Freckled Fawn to each letter as well – I love how they look, all vintage-y and translucent.

That’s it! Super simple and pretty for my pretty girl! Hope her parents like it when all their presents finally arrive! 🙂

Cheers!

December Daily 2014 | Days 10 – 18

15 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by Sara in December Daily, Mini Album, ScrapBook

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Ali Edwards, December Daily, Freckled Fawn, Stampin' Up

Ready for some more eye candy?

Molly had her school Christmas concert on the 10th and I just love this picture of her and two of her friends – the word art is another digital oldie from Ali Edwards and I added some star sequins from my stash.

A picture of Molly singing at the concert and another with her beloved teacher (she was filling this fall for the regular teacher who was on maternity leave and she will be sorely missed!). I also added a Stampin’ Up! transparency and some Freckled Fawn stars to one pocket but forgot to take a close up – sorry!

The night of the 11th was our last Keeping Track of Life class before Christmas and a couple of us decided to take advantage of the fact we were out anyway and go grab some food – love doing that after classes! The awesome script paper is from the DD kit while the wood veneer and red metallic alphas are from the SU! kit.

This is one of my favourite spreads in the album for two reasons: it’s got my 12 on Twelve pics, which I love each month, and it’s got that amazing chipboard page from the DD kit which I heat embossed using gold, silver, and gold glitter powders. It’s super awesome. I added a transparency which I stapled on and then I added bits and pieces to the holes.

That’s the front and back. Isn’t it great?!? I really love how it turned out!

I used another 1/2 sheet of printed transparency as a divider between the chipboard and the photos for the 13th. The kids had breakfast with Santa at church and then their Christmas pageant rehearsal.

Christmas Pageant day! M&G were two of the three “wise people” plus Gabe lit the Advent Candle and Molly did a scripture reading. Then my Dad took us all out for lunch – big day all around! The “JOY” letters were simply stapled to a page protector that I cut up and slipped into the pocket.

One the fun nights each year is The Paperie Members party. There’s always a group shot plus Heather and I always manage to have crazy pictures together – I think we’re the wacky ones. 🙂

A couple of months ago our new fitness centre and pool opened – a *huge* upgrade from the place we were in and the kids are loving their lessons in this big bright place. Luckily, most of the instructors made the move over too so we still have the same awesome swim coaches for the kids.

Today also had a fun little visit to Gabe’s classroom to see all the Christmas art projects he’s been working on and to hear the songs he and his classmates have learned. All those four- and five-year-olds singing and dancing? The best.

Day 17 is my other favourite spread. I convinced the kids (Molly required bribery) to let me get some pictures and I love how they turned out. I’ve already shared Molly’s and Gabe’s here on the blog but they needed to make it into my album too. I’m pretty sure you’ll also see them on a LO or two in the future! I kept things super simple with a large gold initial in one pocket and a puffy heart sticker in the centre of each page.

Molly had her last climbing night of the year and managed a 5.8 overhang, with a little help. I have no idea what any of that means since Darrell is the one who takes her wall climbing but they were both very happy with that news when they got home!

One of my favourite things to do each Christmas is to go see a local group, The Ennis Sisters, do their Christmas show. They travel right across the island part of the province, singing in churches, and they donate part of the proceeds of each show back to the communities they perform in. They’re amazing and I always feel like Christmas truly starts once I’ve gone to the concert. I added the playbill and ticket in one of the pockets.

Woah! Another long one but only one more post to go – tomorrow I’ll finish it off!

Cheers!

December Daily 2014 | Days 1 – 9

14 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Sara in December Daily, Mini Album, ScrapBook

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Ali Edwards, December Daily, Freckled Fawn, Stampin' Up

Ok people, grab your favourite cup of something and settle in! Even though I’m breaking this up into several posts there are still lots of pics. I’m give a quick rundown but if you have any questions just ask in the comments and I can answer in more detail. Enjoy!

The first spread in my book has pieces from the Freckled Fawn Christmas Embellishment kit and the Ali Edwards December Daily kit. Those two, along with a mini Project Life Christmas Kit from Stampin’ Up! made up my supplies for this year.

I love the full-page papers from AE and thought this was the perfect way to start the season, with the addition of a little bling, of course!

Another full-page paper with some embellishment additions and the sheet Molly had to fill out for school listing her Santa wishes.

And December 1st is not complete with Advent Calendars – Lego ones here, as always! I used an old Ali Edwards overlay in Photoshop for the picture.

On the third I started decorating and Gabe brought home a colouring page from school. He loves to look through the mini albums and see his things so he asked almost every day to have his school work added in.

I wanted to show more of the decorations but not have them a focal point so I used a Simple Stories flip pocket to add in a couple more pictures.

Whenever I have two days on one spread I try to separate them with an acetate divider. I totally stole this idea from Ali Edwards – I loved how the transparency overlays looked when cut in half.

I added Gabe’s end-of-session report from Gymnastics and I still have to include the reindeer the kids are making in the picture. The washi tape is from the Freckled Fawn kit and I gold embossed the circle of stars and the “3”. Almost all the wood veneer numbers are gold, with a few silver thrown in for some change!

A bunch of odds and ends for Day 4 – Stampin’ Up! wood veneer embossed with gold and silver, a glitter tree stickers, lots of diagonal stamping and a small pocket from last year’s DD kit to hold a lunchbox note I gave Molly. It cam back with a heart and a note on it for me. 🙂

Day 5 was all about the Santa picture. I think I’ve figured out the timing to get at Santa without the huge lineup – I’ve manged to beat it the last two years! This is my favourite Santa picture ever – I’m sure the photographer thought I was nuts when I said I didn’t want the kids looking at us but it turned out perfectly!

This year, my sisters- and mother-in-law decided to have a girls only Christmas shopping trip. I decided we were doing a Santa picture and yes, I totally bullied them all into it. Isn’t that a great keepsake though? All the girls on my husband’s side of the family – that doesn’t happen very often!

We also went to the Bowring Park Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony and naturally Molly and Poppy would only pose together if they were crazy pictures. Someday I will have a nice one of those two together!

The see-through element here is made up of the bokeh star, a piece of tissue confetti, and a number from Freckled Fawn. I added more confetti and a puffy heart sticker to the back. Those puffy stickers in the DD kit? Maybe my favourite embellishment this year!

Another double day spread for 7 and 8. I taught a kid’s class at The Paperie on Sunday and we put up the tree (minus decorations) on Monday. I had originally stamped that card with numbers 1-8 but ended up attaching the big gold 8 instead and just stamping some sentiments.

I had a chance for some fun with Lori on the ninth and it took us forever to get a decent picture of the two of us – I’m not sure we ever succeeded! I pulled an Ali Edwards and journaled some notes to M&G with different size pens on the large paper page – I love how it looks! To highlight the “9” I coloured it with my red Wink Of Stella pen and doodled with Sakura’s Clear Stardust Gelly Roller.

Whew! Are you tired of pictures yet? I hope not! Tomorrow I’ll have some more of the album, including my two favourite spreads of the year!

Cheers!

Simple Scrapper | January 2015

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Sara in ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Layouts, mixed media layouts, Simple Scrapper, Sketch Template

Here I am, starting my third year as part of the Simple Scrapper Creative Team! I can still clearly remember getting the email from Jennifer inviting me to the Team and how excited I was – and it just keeps getting better and better! There are some fabulous new changes and events in store this year, for both members and nonmembers, so make sure you pop over and take a look at what Simple Scrapper has in store!

Here’s what I made for this month.

First, my template LO:

I had a bunch of mixed media fun here, using Prima 3D Matte Gel, Antique Silver Art Sugar, and ColorBloom Sprays, along with one of my all time favourite Balzer Designs stencils. I also layered tons of diecuts:

That gave me lot more dimension, texture, and colour! Finally, what’s a LO without a little shine?

Glittery alphas and blue stars took care of the sparkle for me, representing the sparkle my girl has in this picture. It’s a favourite, even though it’s blurry.

And here’s just a bit of the news from Simple Scrapper – there will be a layered template/sketch available on the blog every month for free!

Before moving on to my Story Starter LO I just wanted to tell you what Story Starters are (I get asked that questions a lot!). Basically, each month there’s a different theme, for January it’s New Beginnings – and then Premium Members are provided with a fitting quote plus twelve (12!) prompts to get you scrapping those stories you may not think about! Awesome, right? And, for more good news, Jennifer will now provide the theme on the blog each month along with a challenge for everyone to take part in!

The New Beginnings theme and Story Starters this month prompted me to scrap the story of how my friend Suzette and I became BFF’s – we’re been friends for over 30 years (but if you ask, I’m only 27 😉 )

I knew I had to include the story, and you all know how terrible I am about journaling, so luckily for me it’s a pretty short story to tell:

Seriously, that’s it. Life is pretty easy when you’re kids!

To finish it off, I added some puffy hearts I received in my Ali Edwards December Daily kit, a scrap of paper, and some drywall tape. The paper was pretty enough to keep the whole thing simple.

And that’s it! Make sure you check out the Team Gallery and our Pinterest page for more inspiration this month and, as always, let me know what you’re making out there – I can always use more ideas and look at pretty stuff!

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 | December 2014

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by Sara in ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Scrapbook Layout, Simple Scrapper, Sketches

Wow. Another year done at Simple Scrapper and the templates this month are some of my favourites. Also, if you’re a member, have you checked out this month’s Spark magazine? It’s gorgeous! If you’re not a member, you’re missing out this month, truly, but you can still see all the Creative Team work and get inspired over at the Team Gallery!

My template LO this month has a fun pic of Molly and I at the beach:

There’s a bunch of shine here too – gold buttons and shimmer mist:

And of course, lots of layers with paper, doilies, and stitching:

My Story Starter Layout is one of my favourites. The photo of Gabe is from a visit to Lester’s Farm with my brother and his family while they were home for a visit this fall:

I love using songs for titles and I really love mixing up alphas, especially when I can pull out the gold ones!

I finished this one off with a bunch of die cuts:

When you go check out the Team Gallery make sure you scroll down. All the Team bios and links are there, along with a few recent LO’s – lots of eye candy! Plus you can get even more at our Pinterest board for Team Layouts.

Cheers!

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