Be Mine Banner

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and once again I made another attempt at a Valentine's Day Banner. Last year's didn't work out so well. A friend and I got together for a craft day, a break from our usual scrap day, and we were going to troll Pintrest for something to make but we came up with this puppy all by ourselves instead! Every step of the way through there were lots of excitement as we came up with a new idea or twist to it!  It was so much fun!

This banner was pretty easy to make using cheap felt from Michael's, a real neat kind of fat yarn for the top, embroidery floss, and various Valentine's Day embellishments from my scrappy stash! Each pennant has a pocket on the front to store a little surprise for your valentine.  You could do little chocolates or even little love notes and use it as a count down to the big Love day!

Winter Wreath

There's this little website called Pintrest ... you may of heard of it! I am super addicted to it! There are so many neat ideas and for someone crafty like me, it's an inspiration overload site! If you haven't checked it out ... do it! And if you need an invite leave your email in the comments and I will send you one.

So one day while checking out the ideas on Pintrest I found this wonderful winter wreath that I loved and decided to do for myself. It only took me a couple of hours to do and it looks awesome hanging on my front door!

Here's the link to the original wreath that I used for my inspiration if you wish to see how it's made, Snow Ball Wreath.  Now, like most things, I used theirs as inspiration for mine and added in different little things to suit my tastes and I made mine a little bulkier because I wanted that look, but other than that it pretty much the same.  Here's a close up shot so you can see all the little details I added.

And here's a little tip for you if you decide to make this wreath. Your first stop should be at a dollar store. It's amazing what you will find there. Plus it is way cheaper! For example, I looked at the Styrofoam balls at my local Michaels and for 4 balls it was $4.99 but the Dollar Store had them for 6 balls for $2.00! Sure makes this wreath way more affordable to do!

In case you are wondering, it took me 4 packages of 6-2" Styrofoam balls, 3 different designs of silver ornaments - 4 of each, 3 large silver snow flakes, 4 Skeins of Yarn in different colours, 2 packages of raffia, 1 10" foam wreath, burlap to wrap the wreath, various little items to fill small spaces (ie: small wintery ornaments, pine cones, twigs of pearls, etc) and a boat load of hot glue gun sticks - I ran out twice!

Nahani Creek Trail

In case you haven't noticed, I love camping! Even more so since we got our trailer. It is just so relaxing to get back to nature. I was so excited last year when the majority of manufacturers came out with camping lines! I bought whatever I could find from all of them ... I am not kidding! It flew off the shelves here. One of favorites was this one by American Crafts called Campy Trails! So awesome and the colours we so bright and fun (not your typical orange, brown, and green). Now usually I will do one to two two-page layouts from a line and that is it. By that point I loose interest with it. It's sad, I know. Well that was not the case with this line! I have used it on almost all of my camping photos for the last year. I am even saving small strips and pieces cause I can't stand to throw it away. I am really hoping that I see new camping lines of the same caliber this year and if I do look out LSS, I will be there on receiving day to buy my share!

Oh and looky here!  More pictures thanks to my handy, dandy Flip Flaps (by Close To My Heart).  These are so awesome for getting more photos on a layout without cluttering up the design!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts - Campy Trails Collection and Imaginisce - Happy Camper Collection; Cardstock: Kraft Paper; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: American Crafts - Campy Trails Stickers, Brads and Tags, Close To My Heart - Flip Flaps, and Ribbon; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking; Tools: Creative Memories Corner Rounder.

Intense Focus

You can't not have any snacks around our dog. He stares you down like his life depends on it! It's hilarious really! We don't feed him people food (except the odd carrot or gold fish cracker) but we always fed him when we ate breakfast and dinner. So he now has it in his head that even if he's had his breakfast or dinner ... if we are eating he should get to eat too! Hence the stare down ... it's like he's saying Where's Mine!

I really like this background paper but I found my title was kind of lost on it.  So I dug through my clip it up and found this old Studio Callico rub on that looked like wood grain.  It worked out perfectly if I do say so myself!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Bella Blvd - Tail Waggers and Cat Naps Collection; Alphabet Stickers: Basic Grey Alpha Stickers; Embellishments: Baker's Twine, Jillibean Journalling Spot, 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Stickers, Studio Callico Wood Grain Rub On,

Stampede Date Night

OK! I know it has been a really long time! I know and I apologize to all you who have stuck around all this time! I had many things, both personal and work related explode in November that took a large chuck of my energy and time. So much so that it even stole all my personal scrappin' time. I didn't even have the time or motivation to do my Christmas cards this year ... and trust me that is a big deal. Well things have calmed down and leveled out and I have gotten back into my normal routine. So that means that you get to be inundated with hopefully my usual scrappin' posts!

Every year, our city puts on the Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth ... the Calgary Stampede!  It's basically a big week long carnival / rodeo mixed together.  When we were younger Steve and I used to go but we hadn't been in years!  This year we decided to head down to the grounds and check out all the action.  Pretty much the same as we remembered it from years ago except that it had got way more expense!  Anyways, it was still a good time!

This layout was inspired by Card Sketch #11 from Sketch Support.  I loved the hearts and really thought it was perfect for our date night photo!  I cut the hearts out of fun foam with my CuttleBug ... don't they look cute!  I also did the same with Date part of my title.  I might of just found my way of making my own thickers!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: DCWV - Green Stack; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: ; Inks: Fun Foam, Ribbon, and Stickles, ; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking - Card Sketch #11; Tools: CuttleBug, CuttleBug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder,  CuttleBug Alpha Die and Heart Die, Reverse Corner Punch.