Right Now

listening: Lots of Songza. Gotta love the early 90's r&b playlists.

eating: Lots of healthy food. Snacking on cherries but craving chocolate.
drinking: diet ginger ale + water.
wearing: New glasses. Lots of layers. 2 pairs of socks in the Bluntstones this week for walks & runs.
 feeling: Optimistic.
weather: Cold, cold, wet, cold. Enough said.
watching: Still plowing through episodes of Pretty Little Liars on Netflix + the usual shows on Hulu.
reading: 'The President's Club' & 'The Sweetness of Forgetting'
waiting: For the weekend-it's almost here.
wanting:A sunny, hot vacation.

needing: To get in touch with a few friends I haven't talked to in ages.

thinking: about finishing my 'Keeping Track of Life' class layouts.
enjoying: Everyone's reaction to the big news from The Paperie this week-KP is coming!
wondering: how long it's going to take me to knit that cowl.

wishing: For more of these cuddles this week. It's been a busy week and that means not enough cuddles-for either of us.

*This is part of my 'Keeping Track of Life' series for The Paperie where we chorincle a list of things on the last day of every month.  

Stay tuned tomorrow for a very special 5 for Friday.  I'll be sharing 5 things I'm including in my January PL/Keeping Track of Life class.

xoxo
K

Have you Heard the News?

Kelly Purkey is coming to St. John's, Newfoundland in March and I, along with many others, couldn't be more excited about it!

The news went live yesterday on The Paperie's blog. You can check it all out here if you didn't see the big announcement.

In honour of today's exciting news I thought I'd share a few layouts that I made for The Paperie's retreat in November. I know, I know-it's a bit late but I forgot all about them until now. They were inspired by Kelly Purkey-I basically borrowed her idea entirely and created maps out of pattern paper, misting along the way to create a really cool dimentional effect. Check out her layout and tutorial here.

This was the layout that I showed the crowd, demoing the map concept.



We did a lot of traveling this summer all over Newfoundland and this was the perfect way to chronicle all of our travels. Just a few little photos cropped into circles. I identified the locations with brads and used twine to 'point' to the pictures.



I also used some wood veneer people and a little car-I even cut the legs off the people and stuck them in the car as a 'road trip' embellishment. I mean, how stinkin' cute does that look?!



And this was the one I 'made' during the demo. Just a note, but it's always a good idea to have a great story while you fussy cut a million pieces of paper. Just sayin'.



This one chronicles all of the East Coast trail hikes we did this past Fall. We had a blast exploring with Eugene and managed to fit in lots of trails before the cold weather kicked in!

Similar idea here with the circles but changed it up by using a tiny Newfoundland map (bottom left hand corner) and focusing on one area-like in the maps that you see where one area is zoomed in and then it says 'you are here'-hence the title!



This puppy dog paperclip from Amy Tangerine was perfect with the little people wood veneers as an embellishment.



I used arrows, painted with some gold paint to identify the different trail. Stuck with photos cropped in circles and little letters around the circles-same as the one above. 

I LOVE this idea. I think I'm going to frame these two and add one more to it- a NYC one with some landmarks from our trip this past November- and put them up in the scrapbooking room.

This technique is a time-consuming one but well-worth it in my opinion! Try it out.

And if you're local you should call The Paperie to sign up for an awesome weekend of fun with Ms. KP herself in March. I can't wait to see what she's going to share with us!

xoxo
K

Inspired By

So I'm back this week with another layout that I was inspired via-the usual-pinterest. What would we do without it? Really?! I'm addicted.

So here's the layout that I loved-



It's by a scrapper whom I very much admire-Sasha Farina. I love her work. It's always layered and colorful but not too busy. In this layout I loved the circles that were scattered down the page & the three tags as photo mats. So stinkin' cute.

This is what I came up with-



I stuck with a 12 by 12 page as opposed to the 8 1/2 by 11. I also traced some manilla tags with the Kelly Purkey DD papers that I had leftover from the kit. I used a smattering of stars to do a little masking and some little wood veneer stars instead of circles to scatter down the page. For the pictures I cut them on photo paper but left margins to allow for a Polaroid effect which I mimicked with the SC Polaroid holiday frames.



And I added the date and a few little holiday-themed embellishments.



Now, let me explain my title-



I truly have the best husband ever. One of his wonderful traits is his ability to buy the most perfect gifts and this past Christmas was no exception. I found a little Kate Spade under my tree this year and boy was I excited. Excited enough that I am using the box as a scrap box in my scrap room because it jsut makes me happy every time I look at it. A beautiful classic, structured forest green, bag lay within the layers of pink patterned tissue paper. She's stunning. And that's just one of the reasons why he rocks.

He's pretty great and he's all mine ladies.

xoxo
K

This weekend

I worked a birthday party at The Paperie with W. It was, in a word, fabulous.

Let me set the scene for you-think 'American Girl' theme party with a photo booth/'modeling shoot', props galore, 14 excited 9-year-olds, and a whole lot of scrapbooking supplies.

As expected their inhibitions never stood in the way of what they felt to be a masterpiece scrapbooking page. I started out with this page to scrapbook-



Yeah we misted. Yeah their all 8 & 9 years old. Let's just say that I'm lucky that I walked away with clean pants but they had an awesome time!

From the misting things got creative and honestly their creations turned out nothing like mine. They were given some pattern paper strips, some 3 by 4 pattern paper pieces, washi tape, a fabric flower and some gems and they went wild!

But I thought I'd share my page here anyways.

I used some old supplies including a pin and that fabric flower. I re-used the punched heart that was used for the masking with a number of different Mr. Huey's.



That's a very old friend of mine from way back in junior high/high school. She was married in August and I couldn't be happier for her. I love that wood veneer speech bubble!



And just to add a little something at the top to balance out the layout I used some flags made out of old scraps of pattern paper, a little 7 Gypsies date sticker and some gems.



It's a lovely & simple layout that only took me 20 minutes. Their layouts were pretty awesome too and no two looked the same!

I hope that C had an awesome birthday party- I know I had a great time working the party! C's got an awesome group of friends and I hope I'll see some of them again soon at some of The Paperie's kids classes.

So, happy birthday C! I hope you had an awesome party!

xoxo
K

5 For Friday

1. So I joined a knitting class at the last minute last Thursday night. It is awesome. I've learned to cast on, knit and purl. Let me just say that 'you tube' is a wonderful thing. The ultimate goal is to make a cowl neck infinity scarf thing. For the past week I've been in the practice stages with some yellow wool but I managed to get out on an excursion last week with Cathie to buy some thicker, prettier wool and some new needles to call my very own. I noticed an awesome tutorial on Design Sponge this week as well for knitting a cowl. Check it out here. 

2. I've been slowly working on my class layouts for February's 'Keeping Track of Life'. Check out this little sneak.



I'm so excited about this class. 

3. I'm also pretty excited to co-host a birthday party at The Paperie tomorrow with W. We're going to have a photo booth and make layouts with fourteen 9-year-olds and it's going to be awesome. I'm pumped.

4.Liz Kartchner had some pretty cool news this week. She started a new site called 'Paper Party'. It looks intriguing! I'm sure I'll be lurking around there from time to time. It looks like it will also be an awesome site for my 'Inspired by' theme here on the blog. I can't wait to see some of the challenges and projects.

5. I'm on the hunt for a coffee table-one that can easily have the legs taken off-for a DIY project. If you are local and have one that you are looking to get rid of I would be happy to take it off your hands. There might even be some treats from Taffety in it for you.

Have a great weekend!

xoxo
K

Inspired by

I"m sharing another layout today for my new series 'Inspired By'. I'm back again with another layout inspired by Pinterest. This week it's this one-



by Kelly Noel. I love her work. Click the photo to go to the original page. I stuck with a very similar layout here but what inspired me were the arrows. I stamped a few with white & gold ink and used some velum and wood veneers as well.



And now, onto the layout.

Honestly December 1st is a magical day for me. I always feel like anything is possible on that date. I LOVE the holidays and when December rolls around I get sappy and sentimental and everything is special and means something to me. I had this magical shot and it seemed perfect to journaling my feelings about the possibility of magic in December.

Note: journaling is tucked in on the tag on the left.



A little velum and a little badge directs your attention to our very tall, very magical tree.

Puppies 1st Xmas

And boy, was it a wonderful whirlwind.

If you've been reading this blog for a while you already know I'm a complete nut over my puppy. Well, Christmas was a total calamity. There were puppy toys and treats wrapped in tissue paper and once he figured it all out he was gung ho for it ALL.

So of course all the fuss deserved a scrabooking page.



I have been looking for the perfect way to use that gold polka dot overlay. Frankly, I've been hoarding it for ages. And I thought this page deserved something special. It flips open to reveal-



some more photos of the madness that was out Christmas morning. And a few KP stamps for good measure.

There are lots of bits and pieces in this layout too.



I added some sewing to secure the flap and then put a little chipboard 'December' piece from last year's Echo park holiday collection. I also added the little Basic Grey '25' sticker. The 'noel' badge is from last year's Ormulu holiday collection adn the tab is last year's Basic Grey office tabs.



The teal Thickers and the green October Afternoon sticker both matched perfectly with the Kelly Purkey pattern papers that I used to mat my picture.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Obviously, so did our puppy. I think it's safe to saw Christmas was a success this year.

xoxo
K

Home for the Holidays

One of the reasons I love Christmas is because it draws all the friends out of their holes in random places all over the world and back to their home her in Newfoundland.

This year we were fortunate enough to have our friends from Ottawa, Toronto and even Austraila come home for the holidays. And holidays mean parties and hang outs and lunches. And so we took advantage and spent all kinds of time together.

I combined some of those pictures together to create a little grid for this page.



I decided to do a little sewing on this page and sewed around the perimeter of the page for something a little extra. I also wanted to use a little wood veneer house for the 'o' in 'home' but it was just a little too plain. So, I used a little stickles on top to give it a little sparkle.



I can't wait to see them all again. Until the next time friends- I'll just scrapbook the memories.

xoxo
K

Teal + Red- A Holiday Combo

Before I get down to scrappy business I have to give a huge shout out to my Mom today. It's her birthday and she pretty much rocks. She's not big on having a big fuss on her birthday but I thought I would give her a shout out here on the blog anyway. So, Happy Birthday Mom! I hope your day is amazing and this coming year brings you all the goodness the world can provide!


I've decided that in an effort to use some of my Christmas stash, I'll be scrapbooking Christmas photos until the end of January. Then it's all being put away until next year-well, the stuff that doesn't easily fit back into my stash anyway.

And this was the first Christmas picture I printed and scrapbooked.



It's my fav photo from Christmas 2012. It's also one of my new fav color combos. How about that real + red combination. I threw in a little neutral craft and silver for good measure but I love the bright teal and the pop of red.



The red Thickers are from the SC December Daily kit and honestly the font is one of my favourites. The My Mind's Eye enamel dots & the Crate Paper fabric brad are also from the same SC kit.



I added some flags and a few triangle stamps to draw the eye down the page.



And of course there are lots of layers anchoring the page. That teal snowflake brad also happened to fit perfectly! It's from an old set of My Mind's Eye brads.

I'm sure this won't be my last teal + red page. I just love the colors together.

Happy Monday.

xoxo
K

Monday Musings

So it's Monday.

I'll tell you a secret-I actually love Mondays.

No really.

It's a chance to start fresh for the week. It's the day when making new goals are paramount and possibility lies in the rest of the week. Best of all, on Monday's I have nothing planned after school or in the evening so it's a day with my boys. And I love my boys.

Speaking of my boys-this weekend we had a birthday party for Eugene. Yeah, we're those people. I even made him a puppy dog cake. LOL.



I recently started compiling pics to make a little blurb book of-who else- but Eugene and I came across a bunch of photos of a Fall puppy date that we had with our friend N & his puppy Clipper.



They had a great time and so did I taking pics and scrapbooking the photos. I mean how can you not love that action shot? Eugene looks like a crazy beast!



My lovely friend Cathie, who also has a love of puppies, gave me an awesome set of doggie brads that I used on this page. Check out that cute paw print! 



And I finally used one of those basdges I've been hoarding from 'A Life Handmade'. I also used some of that awesome paw print washi tape. Love it.

In the same visit I also happened to get a few close up shots of Eugene lounging on the patio. Look at my baby-



How can you not fall in love?!

This was a great opportunity to use up some scrappy bits. I used papers that were mostly leftovers from Studio Calico kits and Paperie kits. It was easy to tie all the colors together with a little mist and the colorful chevron strip.



I also used an old Ali Edwards stamp that I dug out from ages ago to add to the bottom with a little button and a little gem.



And of course, a little journaling tucked away for safe keeping.

And now, I must be off to plan my week! Enjoy your Monday.

xoxo
K

5 For Friday

1. Well, it's been a day of rest & relaxation-for some of us-around these parts. We were pummeled here in Newfoundland with a snowstorm that left some 70+ cm behind. Mother Nature really gave us a good taste of winter. But, Eugene loved it. We ventured out last night when the storm began & then again this morning for some shoe shoe action. 


*at the park last night...


*this morning's snow shoe adventure. 

2. I'm working on a little video tutorial for my upcoming 'Keeping up with Life' class at The Paperie. I've also got a few freebies that I've made which I'll be putting up on the blog for those of you who are looking for some Project Life pieces to print out.

3. I found a great article for anyone looking to be happier. And really who isn't looking to be happier?! I read The Happiness Project a few years ago and loved it. I also watched the documentry 'Happy' last weekend so when I noticed Ali retweet this article I knew that I had to read it. Take a few minutes and read it.

4. I saw a beautiful blog post today when trolling through my blogs. Design Darling is a blog I visit for style ideas. It inspired me to make flowers more of an everyday things around here. Don't you love the peonies?!

5.Are you enjoying all of the CHA reveals? I certainly am. But, honestly, I'm just excited that the dates for distribution for the pieces I like are are actually sooner than later.

Enjoy your weekend.

xoxo
K

December Daily- You Are Done.

So it turns out having too much Xmas supplies is as bad as not having enough. One of my biggest issues was choosing what to use.

This year I ordered the Studio Calico DD kit & Kelly Purkey's DD kit. And then I couldn't resist a few extras from Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Crate Paper. Not to mention the ton of supplies that I had left over from all the other years of Xmas bits and pieces. So I had so much to choose from when I finally got down to business in making my album.

But it's finally done.



Cover supplies include: Studio Calico DD kit: album,  washi tape, Crate Paper boarder sticker, SC wood veneet, AC gold letters, BG blue letter, sequins. Kelly Purkey kit: 'Joy' card, background paper polka dots. Tree is a Chapters ornament that I stuck on there with a load of glossy accents.

I stuck with 25 days instead of my usual 31 because I was ready to be done-and by the look of the size of the album so was it. I will admit that the 4 by 6 size made it very easy to complete the album in record time seeing as how I didn't prep anything ahead of time. I also stuck to focusing on one event per day rather than trying to cram everything from each day into the album. In the past that's made it very overwhelming.

Even though it took me a little longer to get it all done this year I was pleasantly surprised with the ease with which it all came together.

So here's a bunch of photos of what it all looks like.







































And my very favourite-the last page...



How can you not be in love with that sleepy puppy? Christmas IS exhausting. This was taken using my iphone on the way home from our Christmas day festivities. It was a fluke that it turned out so perfect. Might be framing this one.

A few of the pages I love the most are December 4th-



The stamped sentiment is from an old SC set but it was so perfect for this pattern paper.

Then there's Dec. 9. It was so hard to chose photos from this one because it was such a fun night.



I love this shot. In the car, rear view mirror, using the iphone.



This was one of the few interactive elements I did to include a few more shots. It's a little strip of photos that folds out. It's adhered on top of the page protector.




And that's it. She's just full enough and she is lovely. I am so pleased that it's all done.



xoxo
K