First Time Stamper!!

Here's Elise's first attempt at stamping! I think she's a natural!!!

Soooo much SNOW

I'll get to the snow in a sec, but first....

Today was our baby Elise's dedication at Church. Here she is in her pretty red dress. The beautiful quilt she is on was a gift from the church. A group of ladies get together every time there is a Baby Dedication and quilt up a bunch of beautiful blankets to give to each family. Elise also got a little book of Bible stories.

Ok, so if you're from the Prairies or even further East, then you think we are crazy on the west coast to even mention a couple feet of snow... that is common for you in other parts, but here in Abbotsford - this is NOT normal! We are definitely in a winter wonderland tonight. Traffic is going slow, big trucks are crawling by with chains on and the kids... they LOVE it! It is so beautiful... I think I will turn on the fire place and curl up on the couch with my hubby and a cup of hot chocolate... Have a good night everyone!

Over 1000 visitors

This just blows me away!! That over one THOUSAND people have come to visit my blog in less than a month. Thank you so much for taking a peek! And if you take a minute to look at the little map, you will see where everyone is from... and now there's a dot in Europe! Thanks for stopping by, Leslie!!!! You are my first "overseas" visitor!

Happy Monday!

Good morning and welcome to a brand new week!

I haven't stamped anything to share this weekend, but I will today because I have all kinds of ideas I want to get on with!

My husband and I were at a seminar all weekend (ask me more if you are interested) and one quote I want to share with you is:

"God gave us faces, but he left it up to us to add the expressions!"

Make it a great day!

Sarah

Centrepiece Inspiration

Often I see projects in craft magazines where the artist will see some fabric, or some object that inspires her creativity... well, I was recently at Save-On-Foods and I bought some yummy smelling cinnamon candles with cute little silver snowflakes on them. And the same day we were at Walmart and I bought some decorative apples... I put them together for my coffee table and then had an "aha" moment... I could make a card like that! So I chose two different reds (ruby red and bravo burgundy) as well as brushed silver paper, and silver embossing powder and put it together in a card. The silver embossed snowflake on the brushed silver paper is so festive... better in real life.

I can't wait for Christmas!! It is my VERY FAVOURITE time of the year! Plus we were married 3 days before Christmas and spent our first married Christmas on our honeymoon in Cuba... so what's not to like about that! Ah, memories... that was almost 5 years ago.

Anyway... I digress! Thanks for taking a look.
Sarah :)

RAK

What is a RAK??? A "Random Act of Kindness!" I received one today from Cindy (view her blog under Good Places to Visit) Today in my mailbox was this great surprise. Cindy used the Monogram F, Looks Like Spring set, and Spring Flowers paper, as well as the coordinating punch. Thanks Cindy, it sure brightened up this otherwise rainy, windy, misererable day!

Growing up WAY TOO fast!

This little girl of mine is growing up way too fast. She sat in the highchair for the first time tonight... she's only 3 1/2 months old, but she LOVED it! Todd was all too happy to hand over the highchair to Elise, and Scotty crowned Todd a "big boy, because the highchair is Elise's now!" Obviously Elise didn't have anything to eat in the highchair (that will come soon enough!) it was just to socialize... that's my girl!

Journalling Ideas for Scrapbooking

Have you ever gone to scrapbook a page only to be stumped by what to say (journal) on that page?? Here are a few hints that you might want to keep in mind the next time you get an hour or two to pull out the pictures to scrapbook.

1 - Look around you. There are little quotes and titles EVERYWHERE... billboards, magazine ads, conversations with a friend. Maybe carry a little notebook in your purse (or if you're like me... the diaper bag!) to write down ideas as they come.

2 - Journal in different shapes... why not try putting your journalling in a circle, or a square, or maybe writing all around the outside of the page instead of always writing on the lines?

3 - Write a story... try journalling as though you are telling the story to a friend.

4 - Write lists... Make a list of random words to describe a favourite picture.

5 - Traditions - Especially during the holidays, write about your Family traditions, and special memories you have about people and places. Your kids and grandkids will love you for this!

6 - Journal Jar - there are a couple ways to do a journalling jar (to make one you can get some inspiration from the baby formula cans my club did last night) First, when something special happens and you don't have time to write it into a scrapbook, just put it on a scrap of paper with the date, and when you go to scrapbook that event you will have the memory written down from when it was fresh in your mind! Secondly, you can write a bunch of questions on scraps of paper and put them in a jar. When you are stumped about what to write, pull one out and see if you can get some inspiration from it.

7 - Ask the questions WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY and HOW??????? You can even set up the journalling in question/answer format. Every page should at least say the names of the people in the pictures and the date that the pictures were taken... remember - people 50 years from now might not be able to tell all your children apart when they were babies - hey, maybe YOU won't even be able to tell them apart! Save yourself some stress and put dates on your pictures!!

8 - Handwriting... I love finding old letters and reading about the lives of people in a different era. What makes it even more fun is if the letter was written in the persons own handwriting. Even if you don't particularly LOVE your own handwriting, try to use it at least once in awhile. Get a good quality journalling pen and it will be even more fun to journal. And then for other times, there are different computer fonts available (see the journalling on the pages in a previous post... click on the scrapbook pages and they will open larger) to help you with the job of journalling.

9 - Make it FUN! Whether you scrapbook alone, or love crops.... allow yourself to have your own style. There is no right or wrong in scrapbooking, or in journalling. You can put as much or as little on the page. Some people keep separate journals, or diaries, so they maybe don't want to put everything on the scrapbook page... Some people like to put more journalling than pictures. Both ways are RIGHT! Have fun!

Feel free to leave a comment about what your favourite journalling method is. I would love to know what works for you. Or, if you have any questions, feel free to email those as well!

Happy Scrapping!
Sarah

(some of the ideas in this post were adapted from CK magazine)

Stamper's Club

Tonight I had my Monday Stamper's Club at my house. We meet the first Monday of each month and the Ladies are so much fun, and very creative too! Take a look at the baby formula cans that we covered tonight (to the right of the screen). If you want to stop an image so you can have a better look at it, just double click on it when that can is highlighted. Everyone chose 1-2 pieces of coordinating Stampin' Up! designer paper and some ribbon and decorated their cans. I loved it how each person's can is different, and everyone was able to choose colours that work for them and their home's decor, or colours for a friend if they choose to give the can as a gift.

We did a couple other projects, too, but I can't show you until Friday because we are doing them with my Friday club as well :) Plus, that might make you check back in again then!

Thanks for looking!
Sarah

Journalling

Just in case you can't see the journalling on those pages that I just posted...

Like Father Like Son:
When Dawnelle sent me this picture of Steve from around 1976 (apporx 3 years old). I just knew that it had to be scrabooked! Then Scotty found this horse and cowboy hat to play with at Uncle George and Auntie Ruth's, and I knew I had a page! Too funny that they are both the same age! Like Father.... like son!!

Zoo Page:
The Zoo is still one of our favourite places to go as a family. Not only can we go to see the animals - we can ride on the train and play in the playground too! Fun!

My Little Lefty:
We figured Todd was left-handed from the start (just like his Grandpa!) because he always grabbed for stuff with his left hand. But here is some proof!

Family Scrapbook pages

Here are a few pages that I scrapbooked this morning. The boys had an early nap today because they were up so early... so I took the time to scrap some pics that I got developed yesterday at Aldergrove Photo. I love scrapbooking, but I don't get to do it as much as I'd like to.

Next on my "to scrap" list will be picks of Elise, but I did a ton of her up right after she was born, so I am good for a bit with her!

Artwork in my home

Not too long ago I had some friends over to stamp. We each worked on our own projects, and this is what I came up with. I was inspired by a picture I saw in a stamping magazine. So I went and bought the letters H-O-M-E and got busy with my paper and modge podge. I have these letters hanging in the stairway in my house. I love it that there is an old key on the E from our 70 year old farm house (we just moved out of it in June) and that there are little mini pictures of each of my kids. I used Stampin' Up! paper "Recollections" and Hodgepodge Hardware as well. I love how this turned out, and I bought more of this paper to decorate other things too.