Lessons in Compromise

I love my roomie and we get a long really, really well .... but sharing a tiny apartment with another person has certainly been a lesson in the art of compromise, particularly when it comes to home decorating. Katie and I have very different decorating styles. I'm very urban chic and I prefer things to be streamline and open and super organized. My roomie, on the other hand, prefers a hippie-vintage look. She's into mixing and matching and likes furniture pieces that have a bit of an antique flair to them. Needless to say, it took a little bit of compromise on both sides in order for us to finish decorating our apartment. This is a layout I made documenting that process:

That's Katie's table (and her artwork and her tomato plant) in our kitchen. I wasn't crazy about it at first, but it's starting to grow on me. :)

Speaking of layouts ... my super sweet friend Catherine scrap-lifted one of my layouts. I had no idea she was doing it, so it was such a surprise to swing by The Everyday Scrapper and see my layout up there! I love Catherine's layout so much ... especially the two different colors on the title. Gotta try that sometime! Be sure to swing by and leave some love!

Anyways, it's a beautiful summer day here in Vancouver. I was at the beach this morning and came home for lunch, and I think I'll head back down to the water this afternoon. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

xoxo

Scrapaholic

Today I went to my very first all-day crop. It was held at a scrapbook store in Coquitlam (about an hour out of downtown by public transit) and it was sponsored/organized by a fun group of ladies who call themselves The Scrapaholics. Basically, anyone who is interested in scrapbooking or card-making can join and to join you pay a $20 annual fee. They host crops once a month and the membership fees go toward covering door prizes, gift bags, etc. It's such a great idea and I wish I had thought of this when I was living in Montreal! I joined back in March, but this was the first crop I was actually able to attend.

The ladies were all super sweet and welcoming, not to mention uber talented!!! What an inspiring bunch. They lovingly referred to me as "the new kid" the whole time and they were really friendly. I was super productive and managed to get 6 layouts done!!! SIX! Can you believe it? I won't share them all at once, but here is one:

Yup, another one of me and Jessica - photos were taken during her visit last month. What can I say, we got some *awesome* shots during that visit! I'll post the other layouts eventually, but right now I'm just too exhausted. Being creative all day is hard work, ya know!!

Happy Sunday everybody -xox-

Proof ...

.... that I still scrapbook! :)

I've been getting back into my scrapbook groove lately, which is ironic considering I went to all the trouble of posting a blog entry about how I wouldn't be posting many scrapbook layouts anymore. *sigh*

playing the fame game.

Look what I finally got my hands on ....

... the winter 2010 issues of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine & Canadian Scrapbooker Basics! Why is this such a big deal for me??

Because 2 of my layouts were published in them!!! :oD

My cupcake layout (above) was published in Canadian Scrapbooker magazine and my sushi layout (below) was published in Canadian Scrapbooker Basics.

Sorry about the crappy pictures, but I was too excited to wait until I had proper sunlight to take the photos!! This is my first time being published in a scrapbooking magazine, and Canadian Scrapbooker is my favorite so I'm sooooooo proud.

You can pick up your copies at Scrapbook Star or through the Canadian Scrapbooker website. (And maybe, if you're really nice to me, I'll agree to autograph it for you! *Kidding*)

Love, Love, Love ...

I made this scrapbook layout for Catherine's challenge over at The Everyday Scrapper. The challenge was to use a punch on your layout or card - easy peasy for me, since I'm obsessed with border punches these days!! I decided to bust out my Fiskars' Upper Crest punch ...

Here's a close-up of the cut it gives ....


That's it for now, kids. :o)
Happy Wednesday!!
xox

Moments

On Sunday, I had a lovely girls' day in with Jessica and Catherine. We chatted, scrapbooked, had a delicious pot-luck meal and then watched a movie. It was so much fun AND my creative mojo actually showed up!! It took me *forever* to finish this layout .... but I'm really happy with the end result!

products used ~
Cardstock - Coredinations
Papers - My Little Shoebox, Love Elsie and Making Memories
Letter Stickers - Sassafrass Lass
Bird Button - Paper Trail Studio (available here)
Best Friend Tag - Cosmo Cricket
Quote Sticker - Love Elsie
Pink Rhinestones - Kaiser
Heart Punch - Martha Stewart

guesssss what?!

I've been working on a scrapbook layout inspired by this ~


I'm hoping to put the finishing touches on the layout soon & post it this weekend! In the meantime ... any guesses what my layout is about?!

wishing you all a very happy week! xox

Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card I made recently. The stamps are by Hero Arts and were colored in using Touch markers. The paper is by ScrapMode. I also used my new Fiskars border punch and my Cuttlebug swiss dot folder, as well as red Stickles and some Diamond Glaze on the heart.

Expect to see some more birthday cards in the near future as both my sister and my brother-in-law have birthdays coming up. :o)

Catherine and I had a wonderful evening of scrapbooking last night ... we ordered pizza, watched a chick flick, ate lots of candy corn, chatted about her wedding plans and listened to some great songs. I didn't get as much done as I hoped, but it was such fun to have a carefree girls' night in!

xox

Bragging Rights

Every now and then, Riff Raff Designs posts a segment on their blog called Riff Raff in Real Life where they post layouts and projects that have been sent in by "fans". Well, as most of you already know - I'm a HUGE Riff Raff fan and they've posted some of my work!

Check it out here:

http://riffraffdesigns.typepad.com/gems/2009/08/rr-irl.html

Be sure to leave a little comment so they know you stopped by. :o)
xox

2 layouts ...

Yesterday I spent a good two hours going through my scrapbooks and looking at all the different layouts I've done through the years. It's so fun to see how my style has evolved and changed!

This is a layout I made in early June ... Tara and I went on a day trip to Quebec City and did a little photo shoot. I got some really nice portraits of Tara and I just had to scrap one! I used Basic Grey paper and letter stickers (all from the Wisteria line).

This is a layout I made a long, long time ago ... at least two years ago. The journaling talks about how much I enjoyed visiting my sister in Whistler.

That's it for today peeps! I'm hoping to get some serious scrappin' done this week, so hopefully I'll have some new layouts to share soon!

Ooooohh and I almost forget - rumour has it, something fun is coming to my blog very soon. *cough* like a R.A.K *cough*

-xoxo-

A simple card ...

My sweet friend Michelle is hosting a contest over on her blog, Ready ... Set ... Let's Stamp! The challenge was to use a stamped image on a card, scrapbook layout or other art project. The prize was a $5 gift certificate for Stampin' Up stamps. Since I love stamps and already have my eye on a few from Stampin' Up's catalogue, I just had to play along!

Here is my entry for the contest .... a simple summer card ....

I used 2 stamps on this card - the quote is a stamp by Outlines and the butterfly is a new stamp by Technique Tuesday which I then embossed with gold glitter. The paper is from Basic Grey's Lemonade collection.

-xox-

Cherry Limeade & Layouts

I have a new obsession, y'all : Cherry Limeade. Goodness gracious, that stuff is delicious!!! I can't wait to scrap a page about it for my guilty pleasures album. Speaking of scrapping, here are two layouts I completed last night ~

This one is about my love for flying. I took that photo when I was flying home from Vancouver; we were hovering over the Rockies. *blissful sigh* And below is a layout I made for my 2009 art journal album ...

It was really theraputic to make this layout. I tend to be very hard on myself so I wanted to make a page to remind myself that it's okay to let go of the guilt and just embrace the things that make me unique. Those journaling bubbles have been in my stash *forever* so it was nice to finally give them a home.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. :o)

xox