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.

Homemade Holiday Blog Hop Giveaway Winner!

Thank you everyone for all your kind words about my blog hop project! I really appreciate them and enjoyed reading each of them. I am glad to see that a lot of you have similar memories as I do attached to ribbon candy!  It's funny how little things like that bring the memories flooding back, isn't it!  As promised I have drawn a random number using the Random.Org webiste and the winner is lucky number 5!

Congratulations Steffanie! Please send you mailing info to jenniferdewolfe (at) gmail (dot) com and I will send your package out to you!

I noticed a couple of questions in the comments as well as some things I forgot to mention so I figured I would do it hear and now!

• For my ribbon length I didn't really use a specific length. Each ornament I made is made using what ever the length of ribbon I had seeing as I was using leftover pieces. I did have a minimum size as I wanted more that two loops so I made sure they were at least 6 inches long.
• To create a mostly uniform loop I used a finger width between the pearl and loop.  If they weren't exactly the same size I did not worry about it.  I thought it gave it character, plus I've never seen a perfect asymetrical piece of ribbon candy either.
• Every couple of pearls I would knot the fishing line into the ribbon.  This would give the ornament some stability that made it way easier to work with.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Amanda again for hosting another fantastic blog hop! I always enjoy participating and seeing what everyone else does.

Homemade Holiday Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome to the Handmade Holiday blog hop! I am so happy to have you stop by my humble little blog! If you did not arrive to my blog from the uber talented Becky's blog please return to Amanda's blog to follow the hop in order so that you don't miss any wonderful inspiration from the amazing ladies participating with me!

This year is our second year doing a homemade Christmas in my family.  It is something we started last year because we decided to take a family vacation to Jamaica over Christmas and it was done in an effort to save a little money.  It ended up being one of my favorite Christmases!  I do come from a crafty family so all of the gifts were super creative and had such heartfelt meaning!  So much so, that we decided to do it again this year and this blog hop is perfect with that goal!  We were challenge by Amanda to create a handmade project using our scrappy stash or tools.  It can be a gift, home decor item, food/recipe that somehow uses our scrappy items.

So for this blog hop, I had hard a bit of a hard time because all of the projects I am working on have to be kept under wraps until I can give them to their new owners at Christmas!  So I had to come up with an idea just for this blog and something that will be just for me!  I have always had a fascination with Christmas candy.  I think it's because it reminds me of my beloved Grandmother.  I remember bowls and bowls of candy all over her house at Christmas, especially ribbon candy!  I went through my stash of ribbons and looked for a bunch of striped short pieces of ribbon that I could use to make my own ribbon candy ornaments. 

Using some fishing line and pearl beads I got at my local dollar store I stung together these super cute ornaments for my Christmas tree! I love them! I am actually thinking that I might make a garland or swags for my tree when I have more time and can get some pretty ribbon on sale in large enough quantities to go around my tree!

And now you have your chance to win! I am doing a giveaway to one of you. Simply comment on this post and become a follower. I will do a random draw on Monday morning for all the materials you need to make one of these adorable ornaments and maybe I'll even throw in one I made; make sure to check back then to see if you won.

Now for the next stop on your blog hop, please head on over to very funny and super talented Shanon!

Supplies: Embellishments: Ribbons, Pearls, and Fishing Line.

Field of Dreams

This post is kind of a continuation of yesterdays post with more photos from our anniversary photo shoot. All of these photos were taken in one of my works canola fields. I love the bright yellow of all the canola flowers and how it pops against the bright blue sky!

I had to enlist the help of my dear scrappy friend to help me narrow down which of the many photos I should use on my layout. Thanks Haley!

I really liked the demask patterned paper but I found a little bit much for this layout but I still wanted to use it.  I didn't like it just as a strip because not matter where you cut it in the pattern you were cutting away parts of the design.  I'm not one for fussy cutting but I found it came in useful in helping me to incorporate it on this layout simply without over powering it.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Authentique - Blissful Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and Dooblebug Alphas; Embellishments: Twine, 7 Gypsies - 97% Complete Stickers, Buttons, Authentique - Blissful Die Cut Words, and Ribbon; Inks:Colorbox Chalk Ink; Sketch: ; Tools: .

You Make Life Blissful

For our anniversary this year I told my hubby that I wanted us to have our pictures taken seeing as we hadn't had any nice ones taken since our wedding 11 years ago. He granted my request being the sweety that he is and I got some new photos to frame and scrapbook. These were actually taken at my work which from certain angles made for a beautiful backdrop!

I thought this paper line worked beautifully with the photos. 

Supplies: Patterned Paper:Authentique - Blissful Collection ; Embellishments: Ribbon, Buttons and Authentique Die Cut Words; Inks: Colorbox Chalk Ink; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking.