A little purse card, my first try.....

So I found a website that had a template for this cute little purse album. I'd thought I'd give it a try and is it ever cute. Though I left it as a card for my BFF's birthday, I already sent it, before I had a good look at how bad the pictures of it really are. I am working on my photoraphy skills, maybe I need a course????!!!!
Anyhow, if you can see it clearly enough, it was cute and I was happy with it, with practice I think I can improve enough to have some in the store soon. In the mean time, I'm working on more spring cards and Easter cards too.

A Busy Week in the life of we!

Yup, some weeks seem much busier than others, and this one was one of them. From last Friday, we've been going non stop. We celebrated my 37th birthday on Friday, though it fell on Valentines Day, no one would have been around for it, so we baked cupcakes and decorated, had a little lunch party.



Then David went off with his Dad for TaekwanDo. Saturday I wanted to go shopping, catch a movie, and have a fun night out. While shopping, my cell rang about 7 times eventually prompting me to just go home, because I was warned that my delivery would not be re-delivered until the next day if I wasn't home. I did manage to pick up PJ's, 2 hoodies, shoes and a whackload of scrap stuff for $73!! I was home by 1:30pm and patiently waited for my delivery, then not 1 or 2, but 3 bouquets of flowers showed up at my door!



One was delivered by none other than my 4 year old mini-man, he was so sweet too, a big kiss and back out the door he went.

That night, I went out singing with Lori, Wally, Sue and her crazy Seymour, as usual Karaoke was a blast and I got a huge Princess crown pillow, not a bad end to my 36th year on this planet!

Sunday I got up early, to do the grocery shop, I was supposed to have a Pampered Chef Party, but I canceled because not enough people were coming. So, I spent part of the day cleaning and had my Dad, my son and his Daddy over for roast (in the crockpot, it was no work at all). Then I remembered, our weekend was not done just yet....the Monday was Family day, yay, another day off for us. For Monday, I planned to see Lori and her children (5 kids, one set of twins). So we took the 1/2hour drive out to Airdrie and spent half the day playing Wii and catching up, it was easy and all the boys kept themselves busy and we had a great time actually having a good heart to heart. That, I think was the highlight of my weekend, we don't spend enough time with good friends. In the late afternoon, we drove back into town and went straight to my son's Daddy's house for supper, his grandma made lasagne and it was delish!




But our week did not end there! On Tuesday we had a regular day, school, all the kids etc. I remembered that David, my son, had a small piano recital, so we had to do extra practice after lunch because we missed the whole weekend. I also had a board meeting to attend that night, so I dropped David off at the sitters, went to the meeting and then had to go get David back from the sitters. We went to bed early, if you can call 9:30 early for a 4 year old! I was soooooo tired. Then Wednesday, again kids in the am, school, etc. Music school in the evening, (he did just fine at his mini recital, playing with both hands and only missing one note). Thursday I took the morning off from the kids to do a Sand Magic Creations workshop with fourteen 4 year old's at a Daycare in downtown Calgary, even with the traffic it all went well and I stayed on track, then I picked up the kids from school and it was back to our regularly scheduled programming. I had Bible study that evening which is nice, it's a mental break from out routine and it refreshes me for the rest of my week.



So here we are at Friday, 3 kids are on the couch watching "Return of the Jedi", it's 9 pm, and my week really flew by. My son is having his friends Evie and Eric sleep over, and although I'd love to be free of the kids because it is the weeknend, I love how delighted my son is to have someone his age to hang out with on a Friday night. Tomorrow is yet another busy day, David has Tap Dance and then we are going to the Science center, Sunday I have shopping to do and a baby shower and maybe in the evening, after I'm done cleaning, I might make a card or two, then another weekend is will be done.



I will never be the person who can say "I am bored", there's not a boring minute in this life, thank you God for giving me a little piece of heaven here on earth.


EDIT- THE highlight of my day today was Anna from Lullabies and Lace giving me a feature on her blog!! http://lullabiesandlacecrochet.blogspot.com/ , what an honour!! I am so so blessed!

My First ETSY Alchemy.

I got a request last week, to make a CD/DVD tin that looked like a card I have for sale on ETSY. Well, after a quick scan of my supplies, I knew I had everything to make a similar front. So on Friday night, while my son was at his Dad's I got down to inking and getting my stuff ready and last night I finished it off and voila!



What do you think. I hope they will love it, it's a very thoughtful gift to have something like this made for someone. I hope to hear back from the buyer, just to find out what they thought of it. Anyhow, I hope to get many more of these request, I really enjoyed making this one!



A little bit of the detail on it, I love embossing and using the powder for different things. I used a corsage pin, I coated the head with embossing powder, put beads on and then embossed the earring back for a pin cover. HAT pins are hard to FIND!!!!

So I Get The Mail Today.....

and in it was my CRAP! I got my ring today, I LOVE it! Not only is it gorgeous pink and yellow and came in a cute little clear box....it fits perfectly. The 6.5 is really a 6.5. Wow, I am impressed with the packaging, the little thank you and the way it came carefully packed in fluffy stuff. It looks so delicious that I must share a couple of pictures with you all. If you want to see more rings, the link is
go check them out. Thought they are in the process of relocating, they are worth keeping in mind.

Pajama Scrapper, in the forum at Scrapshotz asked what do we store our flowers/blossoms in, so I thought I'd share with all of you my solution. I got the cases at Canadian Tire, when 1/2 price they are $12.50 for 2 (one large and one small), though you could get something similar at other hardware stores (I even saw a smaller version of my small one at the dollar store). The small one measures 10.5x13x2" and the large one 15x19x3". I keep my brads and eyelets and other small charms in the small ones, and all my blossoms in the large one. I love that I can see all my things at once and seem to use all of them more since they are easy to just pull out all together to chose from and I can carry them all with me when I go cropping.

Yippeee, NSD is coming up!

I opened my email today and found the newsletter from Scrapshotz. Finally, we can register for the annual National Scrapbooking Day Crop. I'm excited because last year was so much fun, I met some really great ladies, and made a couple of good friends in the process. I also learned quite a few new techniques and won a couple of really cool items. The giveaway were great too. It was nice to see how many ladies FLEW or drove from places like BC, Saskatchewan and Ontario I believe, and Norther Alberta. I'm excited for this year because Sandy is so good at this and I can't wait to see what she has in store for us this year.

If you're in Calgary, come see what the fuss is all about.
Ok, off to buy my spot!

Love Letters Paperbag Album Tutorial (Kit in my ETSY)

When I got started on this little album, I wasn't sure what direction to go in. Should I get all my punches out, make bordered paper, mat every page, use photo corners, lots of extra embellies? Well, I decided that for this one, I would keep it simple to show what can be done with a kit, a sling blade cutter, scissors, a glue runner, some glue dots and maybe a couple of extra bards (that's your items list BTW), and a little bit of creativity. You don't really need much more than the basics for getting this one done.
This is the kit I used, Love Letters from "My little Yellow Bicycle", a classy, barely distressed looking line.



The first thing I did was lay out my stuff. I counted how many pages I had and decided on which papers I would use for the pages. I cut them down to 4.5x5".
I then sprayed the front of my album with some glimmer mist (though you can ink it, paint it or leave it plain. I put it in an empty box and sprayed in there to keep the area from getting the mist all over, that stuff doesn't always come out!



I then decided on what embellishments I would use for the cover.
This is what I layered on there, it's all in the kit with the exception of the round black brads through the flower.



I used one of the clear cuts as the title on the cover. (I am single so there is no one in particular I was thinking of making it for).



I also used one of the square brads around my bow, I slipped a little charm through the bottom post and curled the posts around the knot on the bow.



I adhered the items with either my glue runner or glue dots, you could use pop dots for a more dimensional look, but I was trying to keep it as simple as possible. At this point you could use a corner rounder or edge punch on the papers, or ink them for a distressed look, or paint eh edges with white or red. There are so many things you could do, but to keep it basic I didn't do anything else to them.

I then adhered my 4.5x5" papers to each of the pages , I left two pages blank but I'll show you why in a minute. I also picked some of the embellishments and clear cuts I would use on the pages, and I adhered them with glue dots or glue runner.



I then opened the blank pages and took some more of the embellies and the large tag and layered and adhered them to the pages.



I used some of the ribbon for dimension. I also, as you can see, I adhered a doily to the page and wrapped it around the flat bottom of the bag page. This gave me a little flap to work with, and I put the little journal tag peeking out underneath for a little message.





I embellished some of the pages with the sticker borders, some of the clear cuts, ribbon and some of the paper strips I had cut from the 6x6. I tried to keep my pages simple and carry a similar theme by embellishing the pages with patterned paper only on the corners.







The last step was cutting the left over silver ribbon in half, putting it through the eyelets ans tying it in a bow. Tadahhhh! Ready to just add pictures and maybe some love notes to hide in the pockets, and give it to someone special.






The kit for this paperbag album is in my Etsy store for $14.
Leave me a comment please, I'd love to know what you think.

The $30 a week challenge.

I've been wanting to come a write a little something up about that week KZ (Kelly) and I did a little challenge, where we would try to keep our spending down to $30 for one week.

So, for me, it was a very eye opening experience. Since when we started, I knew that the groceries were bought, the bills all paid up, the car had gas and I had all the scrapbooking and kid supplies I needed, there was little reason to buy much else. I learned something about want and need, and how much effort it takes to curb spending on things we don't need.

I realized that so much of the spending I do in a week, has nothing to do with needing the items, I buy clothes when I have plenty (usually because of a sale, and there is still things in my closet with tags!! ie, Reitmans was closing out in our mall and has 30% off lowest ticketed tags!!!), I'll buy household stuff like containers or shampoo, or hair clips, though if I look hard enough there are tons. I buy too much food and sometimes it goes to waste, and sometimes I just buy because I might need it in the future.

Anyhow, since the experiment, I've bought a few things. I got some paper from Scrapshotz, I've bought groceries and been more careful about what I'm buying. Every item I pick up, I think first weather I REALLY need it, and in so many cases the answer has been NO or definitely NO.

Anyhow, the point is, it made me think and it changed me a little too, and I'm really glad that I did it.

This was the total for that week,

$8 Sobeys
$5 Chiropractor
.07c at the post office
$5.25 walmart
18.32 was the grand total for that week.

Since then, I've had bills to pay, gas to fill, groceries to buy. But I've not got a new pair of shoes, clothes, or anything I did not really need. I bought some hair colour the other day....to cover those gray hairs, that was a real need!!!
_________________
Do everything with love, and take the time to say thank you for the little things.

XOX, Viviana

No longer just a craft.

Yesterday I was going through a bunch of the snaps I've taken of my LO's, and one of my favourites is this one. It was one of the ones I created for a Scrapshotz contest called, Hot Shotz. They gave us an inspirational piece and this was the end result.

I used a bunch of my circle punches and my circle cutters, and layered some over others, but didn't center them over each other. I was pleased with the result because for a LO that only took minutes to prepare, the simplicity is what made it stunning. I think this was the first time I decided that scrapbooking was not only a method to keep memories alive or a craft, it had elevated scrapbooking to and art form. Ok, I got deep there for a minute!



Anyhow, the point I was going to make with this LO, is that you can use your punches and cutters for striking LO's, and it's easy. Here's another one where I used my punch for a border all the way around the picture. So dig out those punches and get creative.

Easy Paperbag Gift Album

About a year ago, my mom was admiring my 12x12 Scrapbook albums, saying how much she would love to have them at her house (she lives 6 hours away). So I decided to make it happen, well sort of!

I took photos of all my favourite LO's, I then digitally cropped them as much as possible and printed them at 4x6. I trimmed of the white ends off to make squares. I took 6 paper bags and quickly sewed up a paper bag album. I then took sticker alphas and put a cover together with some embellies. I attached all my mini LO pics with a glue runner. I then decorated some pages further by adding some stickers and a little bit of trim (I have a boy and his pages don't require a lot of cutesey embellies) .... and VOILA!

I gave it to her and she was thrilled to get to take home a part of the albums with her. The whole project took only a couple hours to make and it will have a lifetime of loving!

Etsy store now open!

Ok, so I'm bad at keeping up with my blogging. I think I do way too many things at once, but I'd rather be busy than wondering what to do next.
I opened an ETSY store as a way to sell some of my card creations and card kits, I have tons of scrap stuff and probably will never use it up, but I love to share my craft. After making up gift kits for a few friends I realized that maybe this was a great idea. I make up the kits with material I love, since when you purchase usually qite a few of one thing comes in a package, I was beginning to have a huge surplus, and what a way to share the art of scrapbooking!
Anyhow, check out my store, what do you think??
Happy Scrapping!

OK, keeping up is hard!

So I have not tried very hard to keep my blog alive. I suppose running a dayhome, a new business and trying to get supper on the table does get in the way, but it certainly doesn't keep me from reading a few blogs a day. I'm in love with some of the amazing scrap blogs people out there keep. What an awesome medium to get your words, work or thoughts out there. I've been specially loving all the Winter CHA releases and getting sneak peeks at all the new lines and embellies and dies coming out from certain companies. Graphic 45, My Minds Eye, Creative Imaginations, Cocmo Cricket and Spellbinders are just a few of my favoutites. I cannot wait to get my hands on some of the new Spellbinder releases, WOW. Need I say more. I want the Peony, the Labels 3 and a few others, it's gonna break the BANK!

Cheers,
V.

Biscotti Recipe

This one is for Thynner...whose blog I just checked out.... I love this recipe and make it all the time. I sometimes drizzle white chocolate on them, if I'm giving them away, but for myself I keep it low fat. I get comments like, this is the best biscotti I've ever tasted!!! It feels good. Maybe I'll get on making a page about them, they deserve it, those tasty little morsels.


Awesome and easy Biscotti

INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 pinch salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sliced almonds or 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1 tablespoon orange zest
3 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

DIRECTIONS
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a baking sheet.
2.In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, almonds, and orange zest. Make a well in the center and add the eggs oil, and almond extract. Stir or mix by hand until the mixture forms a ball.
3.Separate dough into 4 pieces and roll each one into a log about 8 inches long (I like them small and about 2 bites worth). Place logs on prepared baking sheet and flatten so they are about 3/4 inch thick. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly, and remove from baking sheets. Slice diagonally into 1/2 inch slices with a serrated knife. Set cookies on side back onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 15 more minutes, turning over after half of the time. Finished cookies should be hard and crunchy.

Drizzle or dip in white chocolate, to dress them up!


ENJOY!!!

It's been a while!!!

Ok so a few things have happened since my last post......I bought a Franchise, which I'll tell about in a bit.... I got published in Candian Scrapbooker Magazine.....and my DS started Pre-School!!!!!

Yup been very busy, but I'm loving it all!