Being Intentional

In my last post, I put forth a challenge. A challenge to put aside all the things you think need to get done, so that you could spend some time with the people you love.

I took some time this holiday season to hang out with my kids.  We had a great time, however, when my laptop died, it took the pictures with it!

But, I will not leave you empty handed!

I also spent a lot of time thinking about how much I want to continue spending the time with my family.  So, I came up with a little project that will take me though 2010.

It's called "a month of sundays".

Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest.  A day of refreshing, when I get "fed" and ready to go for the rest of the week.  It's also a perfect time to reflect on my life, my husband and my kids.  A time to look back on the week, and to look forward to the next.

It's also the day that I get the most scrapping done.

I bought this dayplanner kit from the Shoppe and I put it together a couple days ago. I printed off all of the pages, but I had too many of the Saturday and Sunday pages. I don't like to waste paper, so I had been thinking of a project that I could use with the extras.

So I came up with this. 

I've pre-made the album, as that works best for me, and each and every Sunday I will take time to scrap a little page (with or without photos) about how I spent time with my loved ones that week. 

It's goal setting time as we get ready for the New Year, and one of my goals is to be diligent about spending that time with my family and doing this every Sunday!

What are your New Year's goals? How does your scrapping change because of them?

Hope you all have a happy and safe New Year's Eve! See you next year!

And I'll be drawing a winner next Thursday to win a RAK from me!

a sneak from me

so, I'm getting my post ready, and then I see Flo made the same one! ha ha.
oh well.
so, prepare yourself for more january kit sneaks!


a project using the kits will be going up soon (I forgot to pick up my pictures).

Sneaky, Sneaky

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas. If you hadn't noticed, the DT took a bit of a break over the holidays to do what everyone else was doing - eat, spend time with family, open presents and eat some more. I know I certainly did a lot of #1 and #4!

But now we're back, and I'm checking in today with a little sneak of the January kit. Which might have caused me to squeal when I opened it. Maybe. Just a little. I loved every single piece of paper, and if you looked at my paper stash, you would probably have noticed I already had most of it. But that's ok, because I was secretly hoarding it all. But now I don't have to!

But enough babbling.....here are the sneaks:


The kit goes on sale January 2, I think? And the main kit, as well as the add-on, can be purchased here.

A fun little project

As soon as I saw these adorable chipboard characters by My Mind's Eye , I knew I wanted to make something for my daughter to enjoy.

So, I visited my local Thrift Store and found this metal tray -- a steal at $0.25!



I covered it with some My Mind's Eye patterned paper and some white Bazzill cardstock that I stamped with a snowflake image & versamark ink and then heat embossed. I added the chipboard trees & snowflakes and adhered it all with hot glue. Then, I ran a bead of hot glue around the edge if the circle and sprinkled it with white glitter.



I hot glued some magnets to the back of the little chipboard people, animals and snowmen, so Sage could move them around and play with them.





When I gave it to her, she was just thrilled with what I'd made.



Supplies used: My Mind's Eye chipboard and patterned paper, Bazzill cardstock, all from the Shoppe.

Challenge

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I love, and yet don't enjoy, the Christmas season. 
I've been working really hard to be intentional about both the time spent doing things with my family.  And enjoying that time, not just getting through it.

So here's my challenge to you.  Take one day or one hour, and spend time with someone you love. 
Forget your to-do list. Forget all the things you think you need to do (it's amazing what can be done tomorrow) and just think about the person you're spending time with.

Take a picture (or don't) and scrap the time you spent.  Remember how you felt.  Remember how much you love them.

I'm taking time for this next week and will post my layout, and share my experience in my next blog post!

You have until January 7th, 2010 to complete it and post a link here.  I'll pick a winner the following week and one lucky scrapper will get a RAK from me!

Mid-Month Challenge ~ Homemade

Good afternoon!

I just spent part of my day today delivering Christmas gifts to some of our top clients (read: clients that give us lots of money). It was kind of nice to get out of the office to do that. Not to mention that one of the gifts was going to my old work, so it was nice to see some old friends. My work is all about local and handmade things, so the entire basket was full of locally made food and other such items.

Anyway, today's the 15th, which means Mid-Month Challenge day! This month's challenge was 'Homemade'. And I know what you're thinking, "isn't scrapbooking itself homemade?" Well, yes. But as Marcy put it, "let's push ourselves one step further." So, here are our layouts:

Marcy

Homemade element: button/vintage paper embellishment (also available in the shop!)

Nicole

Homemade element: 2 crocheted strips at bottom

Leigh

Homemade element: flower made from fabric and a cut out stamped image

Flo

Handmade element: button embellishment (same idea as Marcy)

So post your 'Homemade' layouts in the gallery by the end of the month for a chance to win a RAK!

Studio Calico's Homefront

Studio Calico's Homefront line is now instore!

A mod-vintage line perfect for home and house pages and projects.

Some of my favs...

Efficient scrapping

I'm not quite sure when I started scrapping this way. It probably has something to do with working with the MSS kits for the past four years. But for me, to get the most our of my scrappy time, it just seems to work that if I have pulled out a bunch of product to make a layout, I will search through my photos to see what other ones I have that will work with the same product. Then I'll make a second (or a third) layout right away. It saves time in putting everything away and starting from scratch again.

Or, if I don't find other pictures right away, I'll make a card (or two, or three, or four....).

Case in point: This week, I pulled out my Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co. goodies and made this layout...



And four Christmas cards for my kids' teachers....









I thought it was great how some of the Mistletoe & Co. product had "Joyeux Noel" on it-- perfect for my kids' French immersion teachers!

Thanks for looking!

Pre-CHA sale this Saturday

This Saturday only!
Save 30% off your entire purchase (excluding the current kits, the new release wall and our handmade goodies in the front). Member save 35%!!

And, this applies towards sale items too! So, even with Heidi Swapp products already discounted 50%... you get them for 80%+ off!
Sweet!

Enjoy!

Cards, Cards and More Cards!

I'm back with my weekly card update. I have to tell you that I fell off my "one card a night" plan pretty quickly. In fact, I think it was after Day 3. Ha! Now I'm freaking out and struggling to catch up because I forgot that not only do I need these for actual Christmas Day, but for my work Christmas party, which is this weekend. Eeeeekkk!

So here are cards 3 + 4. The first one (card #3) was inspired by a few LOs I've seen, namely this one from April Foster. Garlands seem to be all the rage this year! I ended up making 2 versions of the card, one with rub-ons and one with alpha stamps, as I didn't have enough rub-on letters. Coincidentally, the same day I realized I didn't have enough, I happened to spot these stamps at Michaels - and I think they're the exact same font as the rub-ons! I knew it was fate and picked them up immediately (ignoring the little voice in my head that said I didn't need more alpha stamps....what does she know, anyway?)

Supplies used: Basic Grey pp, Maya Mist brown, white cardstock, AC rub-ons and stamps

Card #4 was inspired by one of my own LOs. I love this Crate paper.

Supplies used: Crate pp, Bazzill cardstock, Jenni Bowlin pearls, white pen (?)

Supplies used: Crate + Pebbles pp, Bazzill cardstock, Jenni Bowlin pearls, AC + Crate alphas

Missing in action

i have been kidnapped by a huge
pile of presents, demanding to
be wrapped....

help..............

...be back next monday with a
challenge. minus a stuffed nose
and sore throat.

Changing colours

While I was working on one of my layouts with the December kit, I was going to put the brown alphas on for my title, but decided that with the 7 gypsies journaling card, black would go better. So, I pulled out my American Crafts Slick Writer and coloured in the letters I wanted on the sticker sheet.



Then I peeled them off and added them to my layout:



Don't forget to join us for our monthly online crop this weekend, for some great inspiration and chances to win some prizes.

See you there!

The YUMMY December kit!

I thought I'd show you what the design team members did this month with the kit! I loved ALL of it, it was great to work with, and I have some more ideas (just not the time) for a few more pages, and maybe even a mini!!

From Leigh:

From Jen

From Marcy

From me

2010 Planner (kit and PDF) now online

A new project kit!

A 2010 Planner.

Includes the kit to assemble your own planner for the new year and a PDF to print off as many calendar and planner pages as you need. Currently available online (I hope to get them in the physical store next week).

Check out more details here.

Need help Christmas shopping?

I just wanted to take the time to highlight some non-scrappy stuff at the shoppe.

If you made it to our open house, then you've seen it.
We made room in the front of the shoppe to highlight handmade goods from local artists! It's small now, but it will grow (I hope!)


(I've been trying to upload more pics for the last 15 minutes, but blogger's having none of it, you'll have to make due with the link at the top of the post)

Along with paper and memory-making kits you'll find...

- embroidery patterns

- coasters

- handbound books and journals

- knit phone cozies

- knit hats

- knit wrist cuffs (which work great as Tim's cup cozies)

- fabric wrist cuffs

- pencil case wraps

- crocheted flowers

- camera strap covers

- paper embellishments

Coming soon...

- mittens

- knit toys
- a new 2010 planner kit

- new snowflake embellishments

- aprons

... and more

Perfect for teacher gifts and stocking stuffers!

What would you like to see in our handmade section?

More Cards

I'm back again this week with another card to show you. This card is one of my favourites to make as it's really easy, but super cute. And since gift cards are huge around this time of year, having an actual gift card card works great. I found it off Kristina Werner's blog, who, if you haven't checked it out, is definitely a great place for card ideas. The PDF and video with step by step instructions can be found here.

Supplies used: Pebbles pp, AC and Jenni Bowlin alphas, kraft cardstock, popdots + Dollarama ribbon

I'll be back next week with another card!