Crop du Soleil

Sunday was just a wonderful day! 12 uninterupted hours of scrapbooking at the Photo Express Crop du Soleil. I am pleased to have completed the layouts I had planned, plus a bit more. I also packed much lighter than usual (although I still had a large stack of supplies to carry in). And I can attest to having used everything that I brought!

2010 Winter Olympics

I tried something new this time in that I didn't print off my photos. Instead, I printed off a proof sheet of all the pictures I might include and then I was able to print off the photos at home later to the exact proportions I needed. This worked out particularly well when I decided to make this row of photos match the wave pattern in the paper. The paper and die-cut title, by the way, are part of a limited edition set created by Photo Express. The mattes are made with paper from my stash.

The Allsorts Challenge for this week was to turn something from "rags to riches" and so I created "The Olympic Flame" embellishment by repurposing a City of Coquitlam advertisement. I absolutely LOVE free embellishments (LOL).

There will be a 3rd page to this layout that will have all of the journalling as I wanted to write quite a bit about the experience of living in a host city during the Winter Olympics.

Challenges:

• Allsorts Challenge - Rags to Riches - alter or recycle something

Recipe:

• Patterned paper - Photo Express
• Die cut title - Photo Express
• Cardstock - stash

Monsters at Rest

This is one of my favourite pictures of the boys and I really wanted to give it special treatment. When I came across this "monster" paper & sticker set I knew that I had to use it with this photo. After all, the kids were being absolute monsters that day until they just collapsed on the couch.

Recipe:

• Cardstock - stash
• Patterned paper -
• Cardstock stickers -
• Letters - Quickutz "Reuse" alphabet set  (thanks Jacqui for letting me use your brand-new dies!)

Monsters Vs Aliens Birthday Party


This layout was an extreme challenge because I had no pictures for it. I took a couple during the party but all but one were too out-of-focus to be usable. And the party was so incredibly hectic (what was I thinking asking Luke's entire kindergarten class???) that I hardly took any pictures anyway. I was able to redeem just one photo by blurring out the busy background so that the shot of Luke blowing out his candles was sharpened in contrast. I was absolutely thrilled last month then to come across a digital stamp of two kids in a movie theatre. I created a row of kids, added some clipart 3d glasses, and "voila" a "picture" of the kids in the theatre.

Recipe:

• Cardstock - stash
• Patterned paper - Piggy Tales "Billy Goat Gruff"
• Letter stickers - Piggy Tales "Billy Goat Gruff"
• Digital stamp - Karen's Doodles
• Brads - stash

Olympic Winter Games

The energy here in Vancouver is quite incredible now that the Olympics have begun. Even out in the suburbs (where I am) the excitement is noticeable. I've been pretty apathetic about the entire thing (I don't like sports, especially watching sports) but now that it has started I find myself getting involved too. There are flags flying from the car, a big Canada flag in the living room window and, much as I hate crowds, I am taking the kids downtown today to visit some of the venues and see the sites.

The kids have been doing all sorts of Olympic-themed activities at school and daycare. I wanted to share this picture of them putting on their own Torch ceremony for us. I admit the passing of the flame was a bit more like a sword-fight but they were soooo proud of their homemade torches and so pleased to imitate their heroes.

Card Challenge: The Bugaboo Stamps Catch the Bug Challenge challenged us to create an Olympics-themed card this week. I started this card before I "caught" the fever so you will have to excuse the tone (inside the card reads "Cuervo Gold that is". Nonetheless, I kind of like this card and its tone. You have to check out the cards submitted by the design team - they are absolutely fantastic!

Recipe:
Digital stamp - Bugaboo Stamps
Olympics images copied from web
Copic markers
Glossy accents (for dots on shirt, glasses)
Stickles (for purse, shoes)