Sketch-y Friday at Scrapmuch? - Cows

Good morning, another bright and early start for me as it's time for a brand new Sketch reveal over on the Scrapmuch? blog.

Team B is up for a little inspiration this week so here's my effort:

Cows.

I'm liking this black and white colour scheme with a splash of red.

I used a few random layered strips, a border punch and a touch of stitching for the top detail on the page.

Those little black stars are actually studs I picked up once thinking they were brads!  Had to make use of them somehow.

I used my Silhouette to cut the 'sketchy' circle element, and the journal strips explain all.

Finally, I was really pleased how the title turned out.  I cut some simple alpha's (again with the Silhouette) then doodled the 'cow' markings on there......that is about the extent of my drawing skills!

A few chevrons and a bottle cap and that's about all.

Papers for this one are from the awesome new Amy Tangerine collection....'Stitched'.

Here's this weeks Scrapmuch? sketch - the final one for December and 2014 for that matter!

Please join us for this weeks challenge or any of the previous sketches in December.  Just link up over on the Scrapmuch? blog to be in with a chance of winning a little something.

OK another week over and one step closer to Christmas.  Today is a day for finishing my gift shopping.......I hope!

Have a great weekend and I'll be back next week,
Jayne.x.

Inspiration Elevator - Christmas Past.

It's the 15th of the month folks which means it's time for a little Inspiration Elevator!

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond our usual boundaries.
You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges on Facebook .

 This month's challenge is issued by the creative Lisa Moen. Lisa is a busy scrapbooker who takes on every creative challenge with gusto; she works layering and clustering beautifully. This month she has a seasonal challenge for us. Here it is in her own words:

" Scrap A Christmas Past.
We all have them- one Christmas that sticks out more in our minds than others. Maybe it was when you were a child or maybe it was more recent. Maybe it was a gift you received that makes it memorable. Maybe a special visitor? Create a page, with or without photos and tell us the story behind that Christmas.."

OK so this challenge was actually a little tricky for me as anyone who knows me is fully aware of the fact that I'm not a happy Christmas scrapper!

Anything with a theme, I tend to steer well clear of and unfortunately this includes festive pages.......I know - what kind of a scrapbooker am I?!

I did create one 'Christmas Day' page quite a number of years back and included 6 years on one page! Lol

So for today's project I had to root back through bunches of old photo's till I found one which triggered a little something in me.

Christmas to me has always been about Family, and although I now live 3000 miles away from the majority of mine, it's the memories of those Christmas lunches shared with parents/Grandparents/siblings that I hold dear and miss so very much.

Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of one of those family gatherings, but I do have one which kind of changed my Christmas perspective.

One which commemorates the start of our own little family Christmas, marked by the birth of my first born.

Blessed.

I realize it's quite ironic that this photo shows my daughter surrounded by a huge pile of gifts (what can I say.....first Grandchild on both sides = spoilt rotten!) because that's not at all what this page is about.

It's about a new beginning.  New memories.  New/Old traditions, and although I would jump on a plane in a minute to experience one more Family gathering (if only finances would allow Christmas airfares!), I cherish these new family memories which will become our legacy.  They say you don't appreciate the joy of Christmas until you have children and I guess this is true.  I certainly hope I get to experience one of those Christmas lunches where I'm a Grandparent surrounded by those I hold near and dear.

On with the deets.

Papers are from a fabulous new festive DT Kit I was generously gifted by Two Scrapbook Friends......'Tinsel and Company' from Teresa Collins.  This collection is everything I look for in a Christmas collection.......if only I scrapped those kind of pages more often!  It's the perfect mix of 'modern' patterns paired with luxurious 'gold' elements.  I still have one more page to complete for the store, but find myself torn between jumping right in there and not wanting to cut into a sheet of patterned paper - it's so pretty!

Most of the inspiration for this page began with the gorgeous 'wreath' cut file I snagged from the Silhouette store......love it!

Lots of layers too of course but I continued the traditional theme by hanging the ribbon behind.

The title was cut from a sheet of glittered cardstock, again using my Silhouette.

There's an abundance of awesome stickers and brads included in this collection so I made use of most of them by either laying flat or 'popped with foam dots.

I'm not sure if you can tell but there are also wooden stars coloured with gold or silver marker, resting in the background clusters too.

That's about all from me but we encourage you to check out each designer's creation for Inspiration Elevator this month: here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!  

Lisa Moen

Ann Jobes

             Jayne Morgan - that's me!

Wendy Robinson

Katherine Sutton

Why not give the challenge a try yourself? Then pop by our Facebook page and share with us what you created!

Have a great day and I'll be seeing you again later this week.

Take care,
Jayne.x.

Joy

It seems only fitting that I should share a Christmas layout on here today in the midst of our Winter Wonderland out there.

This page is another I seemed to have missed blogging, and was the second I created using my Two Scrapbook Friends DT kit 'Cozy Christmas' by Simple Stories.  You can check out the first here.

I'll confess (as I seem to do regularly on here!) that I'm not a huge fan of this page.  I loved the first one using this collection so I guess I must have used up my quota of creativity by the time I got to this!

I don't hate it exactly........just (definitely!) not my fave.  I think it has something to do with using a large number of photo's on a single page..........I'm a single (or maybe 2) photo gal at heart.

Joy.

Busy huh?

I'm definitely missing my white space......probably another reason I'm not a fan!

I made lots of use of the die cut collection pack included in the line, some are layered and others 'popped' with foam dots........

I do love that kraft washi I've been hoarding in my stash.  It has random phrases printed on there and space to add your own journalling.

I cut a few Polaroid style frames with my Silhouette and used them to highlight a few of the photographs.

Everything sits on a background of stenciled chicken wire pattern, and finished with randomly scattered enamel dots.

Phew, that's about all for that one and as I'm usually a 'NON' Christmas scrapper, I think that should keep me going for a while!

Have a great weekend........keep warm out there and I'll see you on Monday for a fresh bunch of goodness from Inspiration Elevator.

Take care,
Jayne.x.

Good Day Sunshine!

Aside from the irony of my title as there isn't a glimpse of sunshine to be found out there today (!), I've created my own little piece of sunshine inside as I have a day off......yay!!!!

Time to finally get that Christmas tree finished as the decorations have been lying around half hung since Friday.

First though more important things.......blogging!

I was checking through a bunch of completed scrapbook pages lying on my desk, as I had a feeling I'd probably missed posting one or two here and there.  Sure enough I found one from way back in the Summertime.

I'm not sure why I didn't get around to blogging this one because it happened to be one of my faves at the time.  Papers were from one of my Two Scrapbook Friends DT kits using the 'Truly Scrumptious' collection by The Paper Loft.  This page happens to be the second page I created as the first was posted way back here.

Good Day Sunshine

A beach selfie from our Summer camping trip, wisely positioned to show head and shoulders only! Lol

This page is another example of my present love for embossing powders as there are random doodled circles in the background.

The title was cut using a freebie file for the Silhouette from Kerri Bradford, and there's a bunch of stamping, paint splatters and stenciled molding paste in the background too.

Lots of layering with patterned papers and more cut files here........

And a nice little cluster of embellies to tie in with those on the opposite side of the page.......I was a good girl for using up my flower stash!

I think that's about all so I hope you find your own little piece of sunshine today.

Have a good one and I'll be back again later this week,
Jayne.x.

Sketch-y Friday at Scrapmuch? - Laugh.

Can you believe it's December 5th already?

Are we feeling festive yet?

I'm just about entering a mild festive panic, wondering when I'm going to get all my gift shopping done as I've been working without a day off for the last couple of weeks, and don't have a free day in the near future either.

The joys of working retail.......'tis the Season!!

We have plans to start putting up decorations and the tree tonight at home, and probably for most of the weekend in and around more work shifts.

I think there could be wine involved! (hopefully!)

Today however, it's time for a brand new Sketch-y Friday Challenge and therefore DT Inspiration from Team B over on the Scrapmuch? blog.

I'll go right ahead and fess up what I did before I post my page.

Earlier in the week on the day our DT pages were due, I thought I was well ahead of the game having completed my page a couple of weeks earlier (for once!) at a scrappy retreat.

This theory flew right out of the window when I realised on the day of posting, that I'd actually used the Sketch intended for the for the next reveal......duh!

Plan B - scramble to put a page together that evening after work, to submit the next morning.

The reason I'm sharing this with you is that I've come to a conclusion.

I scrap better under pressure.

I'm not saying my pages are necessarily better, but I always feel happier with the results.  Maybe it's the lack of procrastination that moves the creative process along nicely?

Eh....who cares?!  All I know is I was more than happy to complete a page that didn't look like something from the last period of the day in Kindergarten.

You can make up your own mind. Lol

Laugh.

I love the title alpha's that I've been hoarding forever from Prima - perfect for this page as 'Laugh' is what we did!

My Mom uses a wheelchair for the most part to help her get around, so whenever we're out shopping she becomes our trusty truck/trolley (voluntarily I might add just in case anyone feels they should report me to some sort of society for protection of the elderly!).

We usually start laughing at some point when the pile of goods reaches her chin.  My (older) British friends will appreciate when I say, remember the kids TV show Crackerjack from years ago with Ed Stewart (Stewpot I think we used to call him!)?

At one point in the show, kids had to answer quick fire Quiz questions in order to win, and consequently hold prizes.  We're not talking iTunes or Gift cards here......we're talking good old fashioned actual toys in boxes, so obviously the more answers they got right, the harder it became to hold everything.  If they answered wrongly, they got a Savoy cabbage to hold......drop the cabbage and you loose!

To cut a long story short, in the midst of our laughter and serious loading of our substitute 'truck', my Mom asks "Where's the cabbage?"

This was not very productive!!

Anyhow, back to the page.

Thank goodness for the Silhouette on this one as there are plenty of cut elements.......

I'm also glad I finally got to use another hoard......patterned papers (Fine and Dandy I think!) from My Minds Eye.  Also had to get another one of my faves on there - wood.

Finally.....back to that title and a couple of stamped chevrons which remind me of tire tracks.

Maybe one day I'll share the story of 'Nanna', her wheels, and a little trip to Old Navy.......how one Grandma can bring down a whole store!

Think I'll save that one for another time.

Here is this weeks fabulous Sketch......

Why not join us by linking up your own creation over on the Scrapmuch? blog.  As always , there's a prize to be won!

That's it from me so have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you next week,
Jayne.x.

Youer Than You!

Good morning.

There's a new Sketch and Crafty Challenge up over at Two Scrapbook Friends and it's my turn to deliver the goods so here goes.

As it's the beginning of December, I guess I should be delivering a creation of the merry, tinsel variety, yes?

Errrr no........for those that know me, it's painfully obvious I'm am not a happy Christmas scrapper!

Unfortunately you'll have to make do with an everyday kind of page from me, but that doesn't mean to say you can't get into the festive spirit yourselves!

Here is this month's Sketch........

I'm quite partial to the everyday kind of photo's and pages, so here's my sample showcasing my daughters recent photo shoot........

The only problem I encounter when creating this type of theme (or lack of theme!), is finding an original title or journaling that means something, when in honesty I really have nothing to say!

So did you figure out the Crafty element yet?

This month I'd like you to use a quote somewhere on your creation.

Quotes are such an awesome resource for us Scrapbookers/Cardmakers.  Why not leave it to the experts - the writers, poets and thinkers of the World to put into words what we're trying to say, and give our page meaning?

Here's a close up of the quote I used for my title, provided by the ever inspirational Dr Seuss.

We've also got tearing and layers......

and an eclectic collection of embellies together with more layered goodies.

So there you have it and of course you are free to use a quote wherever you choose, whether it's as a title, journalling or sentiment etc.

It's time to get your craft on and enter this month's Challenge to be in with a chance of winning a $25 Gift Certificate for the store.

Just remember to link up your creation over on the TSF blog.

That's all from me so I'll be seeing you again later this week,
Jayne.x.

Gr 6

My little blog is getting dusty from lack of posts recently, so time to change things!

I'm almost recovered from my happy scrappy weekend away.......I'd like to say I'm all rested and rejuvenated but the sad fact is that I'm getting too old to handle the 'scrapping till 2am' scenario!  Good job I only had to last 2 days!!

Good news is I have some crafty endeavors to post.

Today I'm blogging a fairly simple page I created using the November 15th Sketch over at Stuck?!.

This impresses myself in two ways:

#1. It's a current Sketch and therefore qualifies for entry into their contest........this does not happen with me very often as I set out with good intention to enter these things, then finally post a month later!

#2. I've actually scrapped this years school photo (one of them anyhow!) and we're still in 2014.......monumental I'd say!

Gr 6

Here's the Sketch and before you try to figure out any resemblance to my page, I did rotate it 90 degrees CCW to accommodate my photo. 

Close ups include.......

a Silhouette cut circular caption, and a background panel, together with a little stitching - real and doodled.

Another cool little Silhouette cut (decorative circle) and a metal 'Smile' brad I found in my stash.

Finally, I mixed up the title.......part wood alpha's, part Silhouette and one of my current faves.......pin badges/buttons.

I am all over these things right now.....can't get enough of them!

Love the papers btw.......Creative Agenda from Echo Park........gorgeous bright colour scheme but not too in your face, and grounded by that great Navy blue.

OK that's about all so I'm off to link up this baby.

Have a great day,
Jayne.x.

Sketch-y Friday at Scrapmuch? - The 3 Amigos

Hey there, are we enjoying our Winter Wonderland here in Canada and the States?

Not.

I can honestly say I'm sick of Winter already and we haven't even started the season yet!

Anyhow, one thing is sure to cheer us up.......a new Sketch over on the Scrapmuch? blog and a little inspiration from Team B too.

Here's my effort this week:

The 3 Amigos.

This photograph brings a smile to my face every time I see it.

It was taken as we were on route to our very first camping expedition this last Summer.  The car was soooo ridiculously packed that no-one could move an inch!  I turned to take a snapshot of the three passengers in the rear and they all seemed to be posed perfectly.  In reality, I think they had no other choice as they were cramped into that one position for the whole journey!

For my background on this page, I have chalk ink stippled through a stencil to add a few more random lines on there, then distress ink to create the coffee mug stains.

Two of my favourite types of embellies.......wood and buttons/pin badges.

Finally, I decided to create an envelope flap kind of thing to represent the top portion of the sketch.

Talking of the Sketch, here is this weeks fabulous inspiration provided by Laura.

Feeling inspired to run to your crafty space?

You have 9 days left to enter your own interpretation of this or any of the November Sketches.  Just link up over on the Scrapmuch? blog to be in with a chance of winning.

I'm off this weekend for our annual awesome scrapbook retreat with the Scrapmuch girls.......so much fun and hopefully a little productive too!

See you next week,
Jayne.x.

A Winter's Tale

This is a second and rather late in the day post from me!

If you're looking for this month's Inspiration Elevator challenge.....please scroll down or click here.

Otherwise stick around as I have another layout to share.

The reason for my late appearance is that firstly, I've been meaning to share this page FOREVER, and secondly, I wanted to submit it for the upcoming edition of the Let's Get Sketchy Get Inspired magazine, and the closing date for that is......well.......today!

Last minute of course - no surprise for me!

Anyhow, let me get on with some details.

This layout happens to be the first page I created using my recent DT Kit from Two Scrapbook Friends.  This time around I had the pleasure of working with the yummy new Christmas collection from Simple Stories......Cozy Christmas.

I loved the combination of woodgrains, glittery prints and traditional red, green and gold colour schemes throughout.........visions of a log cabin Christmas come to mind.

I had one of my 'struck with inspiration whilst lying in bed moments' for this page which if nothing else, usually means the outcome is interesting!

A Winter's Tale.

I do love how this turned out - pretty close to what I envisioned in my head for a change!

There's obviously lots (and lots!) of torn layers including patterned paper, corrugated paper and zipper trim from Maya Road.

I happened to have a few zipper pulls in my stash, so I added one of those too along with a little faux stitching.

There's 'snow' on there, in the form of Martha Stewart Texture Paste and a Tim Holtz stencil.

Lots of layers were provided by a few patterned papers, enamel dots, and the ecclectic die cut pack you can find with this collection.

As you can see I also trimmed the photo into a 'tag' shape to add a little interest.

Finally, the simple title was cut using my Silhouette and layered with glitter cardstock.

That's about all.......probably one of my faves for this year I think.

If you are local and would like to create your own version of this page, Two Scrapbook Friends are holding a workshop at 6.00pm on Wednesday 3rd December where you can do just that!  You can contact the store for more details or to reserve your spot.

So, onto the second reason for my late post.

As mentioned, I am submitting this page to the Let's Get Sketchy Get Inspired Magazine in the hope that I may get lucky and achieve another publication.

This is an awesome online publication full of lots of inspiration from crafty gals far and wide.  I was totally over the moon when the last edition was released and yours truly found she had made the cover!!

Totally honoured and thrilled to bits!

Anyhow, the next edition will be brimming with seasonal goodies, so my page will be submitted to their 'Mood Board' challenge.

Here is said board:

Fingers crossed but I look forward to the next issue regardless.

OK, I think that's just about covered everything so it's time for PJ's and a little snack for this gal.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you next week,
Jayne.x.

Inspiration Elevator - Fun In The City

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond the mundane.
You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges on Facebook .

 This month's challenge is issued by the creative Katherine Sutton. Katherine has a fabulous, eclectic style where she showcases all kinds of mediums and keeps the focus on her great photos. This month she has a warm seasonal challenge for us. Here it is in her own words:

" 'cos Autumn is all about layers of leaves and layers of jumpers (in the northern hemisphere) I would like to challenge you to add lots of layers to your page....this could be layers of paints, inks, stamps, papers, glassine paper, acetate....lots of lovely layers."

So, I myself love to use layers on all of my pages whether it's a clean and simple look, or messy mixed media kind of thing..........they're a fairly easy way of adding depth and interest to your layout.

For this months challenge I decided to push myself further and get creative with my layers.

Here's what I ended up with:

Fun In The City.

As you can hopefully see, I got and oversized 8"x12" photograph developed at Costco and layered it behind a mask I cut using my Silhouette.

It provides a funky little backdrop and is the perfect accompaniment to my smaller photo, as this is the view of Toronto's cityscape from where we had our fun day out on the Islands.

I added another little cluster of layers down in the left corner of course......

And finished things with a title, again cut using the Silhouette.......I couldn't resist a hand doodled outline!

That's it from me but we encourage you to check out each designer's creation this month: here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!

 Katherine Sutton

Lisa Moen

Lisa Speigel

Ann Jobes

Michelle Hernandez 

Jayne Morgan

Christa Uttley 

Wendy Robinson

Why not give the challenge a try yourself? Then pop by our Facebook page and share with us what you created!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Jayne.x.

Little Red Wagon #263 - 50 Shades of ?

Good morning.

Here I am bright and early with this weeks challenge over at.........

and NO........we have not altered the tone and theme of our challenges at Little Red Wagon, as my title may suggest!  That's just my feeble attempt at a little witticism whilst presenting a challenge for 'Monochromatic' creations this week.

For anyone who's unsure of exactly what I mean, I'd like you to choose one colour for your project (neutral whites, creams, black etc. are also allowed) then create using a variety of shades in your chosen hue.

Just to be clear.......it is not mandatory to use 50 shades!

For my sample I took the clean and simple route and created a single layer card, although in reality there's cardstock, ribbon, patterned paper, foam dots, and more cardstock so I guess it's not one layer at all!

However I did make a head start on my Christmas cards so this makes me happy.

It's pretty difficult to tell from the photograph but I added a little glitter too, which also makes me happy!

However I'm also a little sad, as this will be my final challenge for Little Red Wagon.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my time serving on the Design Team over the last couple of years, and I have been grateful for the constant source of inspiration shared by my fellow Girlfriends and those who have participated in our challenges.  However life's busy schedule means it's time for me to move on.

I hope you'll be able to join us with this weeks challenge.  Just remember to link up over on the blog and check out what the Girlfriends have been up to this week.

Have a great week, and I'll be back again pretty soon,

Jayne.x.