MIA (again)

It has been a really long time since I last posted here, and it was brought to my attention that I really need to post more often! I can't believe how the last part of this year got away from me and with having very little time for creating, I just haven't had a whole lot to share with you all here!

It is my goal to have more to share with you in the New Year though, as I have been busy planning out some sort of creating calendar! I am missing the time to play with all of my goodies and see what transpires in front of my eyes. I need to MAKE time for creating or I just might end up going stir crazy (no comments from the peanut gallery...you know who you are)

The holidays are getting closer and there is still so much to be done. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day, but I have faith I will get everything done on time. I just keep plugging along knowing that when the big day is here, I will enjoy spending time with my boys and look forward to our extended family gathering too! It will all so be well worth all the work!

For now, I will share this project with you that I will be teaching at my LSS next week. It has turned out to be a real hit with everyone and it didn't take long for class to fill up to the max! I love when that happens!



I hope you are all having some fun while getting ready for the holidays, and if I don't see/hear from you before then, please know that I am thinking of you, and that I wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Imaginisce/Echo Park giveaway! Don't miss out!

If you like Imaginisce as much as I do, you are not going to want to miss out on this great opportunity! Head on over to the Imaginisce blog and see what their team has done with papers from Echo Park. Lots of great inspiration there that you are not going to want to miss out on!
The Echo Park papers are so much fun with lots of great colour and fun patterns and are perfect for a variety of projects! Add in the i-top and i-rock from Imaginisce and the possibilities are just endless. These 2 tools are bound to be help get the creative juices flowing and will make it easy to add some great elements and dimension to anything you are creating!!! Now who wouldn't want to win a package like this?!!! I know I certainly would!!!

Good luck to everyone!

Some more creating!

Since I have been trying to sort and organize my scrap goodies, I haven't been scrapping layouts much lately. I am working hard on getting all of my stuff put away (purging will wait now until Spring).

I have made a goal for myself to get some sort of creating in at least once a week. I am finding that by the end of the week I am very tired from either doing my class projects, teaching, or all of the organizing of my goodies!

Lately, I have been playing with scraps and trying to use up some of those and in the midst, I have created some cards. It just really feels good to be creating something! I finally decided to try my hand at a tri-shutter card and this is my end result! I definitely need to be making some more of these! I just love this style!!!


Thanks for looking!

October Surprise Envie Challenge/Scraptures

This month I was lucky enough to participate in this fun challenge. I was sent the following items to create with:

1 pcs Bazzill

3 pcs Paper Trunk PP

1 Sweetwater wooden disk with circle embellishment

2 Prima's

2 brads

1 Jenni Bowlin journalling block

1 pc of green twine

I had fun creating with these goodies and it was nice to finally create something for ME again!
Here is what I came up with for this challenge:

Thanks to T, and to Scraptures for the opportunity to play along with this challenge this month!

Love my yard!

I so love my yard. Even with the wonderful, warm, season over, there is always so much to love in my yard. I miss all the colour of the garden, and getting out to tend to it in the sunshine, but the view can still be spectacular from time to time. This morning was a very busy one in the yard, and I just thought I would share some of my photos of this morning with you! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

The Gold Finches frequent my yard, and altogether I have seen 3 couples feeding on my Cosmos along with plenty of babies! I love this sight!

Blue Jays are no stranger to my yard!

They have the most beautiful and striking colour and I love to listen to them as they 'warble' with happiness when the peanuts are plenty for the eating! I love to watch them sit in the lilac tree and watching them gobble up peanuts can be quite entertaining!



This little Red Headed Woodpecker is the most comically of the fine feathered friends that come and visit in my yard. Watching them eat the peanuts and sunflower seeds is delightful. They work so very hard pecking away and getting their fill. I love watching him fly into the tree and peck away at the sunflower seeds to break it open! Such a wonderful delight to see in the morning!



Mama and Papa Cardinal.....simply beautiful! They jump from branch to branch in the lilac tree making sure that it is safe to get in on the seeds! I love how papa will watch out for mama while she eats. He is never far from her at all. I love when he gets the seeds and feeds her! Such a beautiful site to see!

Now this last feathered friend was quite the surprise this morning! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this magnificent creature sitting on the top of the tree. I thought I was 'seeing' things! By the time I had grabbed my camera, he was getting ready to fly away, but I managed to capture this wonderful shot just in time! I so love nature and the joy it can bring! Even nicer when it is right in your very own backyard!

Finally...as promised!

Well, I finally have had some chance to be on the computer today to get my newest creations uploaded and shared! I had a lot of fun playing and creating these fun Halloween cards. I used my Studio G stamps, flock, mini buttons, ribbon and well it was just a lot of fun to create these adorable cards for my nieces and nephews!

The above card was a lot of fun to create! I love google eyes and just couldn't resist adding so many to this 'spooky' card. I flocked the ghosts as well! This card is definitely too cute to spook!


Dracula is so much fun and the addition of the google eyes really bring him to life!


Frankie holds a special place in my heart! He is just too cute and I couldn't resist giving him the full flocked look and the different size google eyes really give him such great character! I think he may be my favourite!




Mr. Bones has been flocked white! He is pretty cute and I can't wait to give him to my nephew!

I really had a lot of fun with these, and although the designs are very simple and basic, they turned out pretty good (I think!)

Hope this inspires you to play and have fun with some cards!

Have you missed me?

Well it seems that I have been neglecting my blog the past few months, and there are some of you out there that have started to really bring it to my attention. I apologize for not having a whole lot to post on here lately, but do hope that the days and weeks to come, will show some changes.
This past Friday I actually had some time to sit and just be a little creative. I managed to get a handful of cards done (well 2 still need a couple of finishing touches). Anyways, I am hoping to get those photographed in the next couple of days and then I will have something new to share with you!

In the last couple of months, I have not been doing a whole lot of personal scrapping. Since my term as Guest Designer at Scraptures, so much has been going on in my life that has kept me from having the time to devote to my personal scrapping. I did, however do 50 pages for the page sale at The Memory Keeper. The sale had a great turn out, and all of my pages sold! I was extremely happy about that.

I also created a memorial album for my brother-in-law's funeral. Sadly we lost him suddenly to a massive heart attack on August 28, 2010. This was by far the hardest project I have ever had to work on, but my sister had requested that I did this album. My heart breaks for my sister and my 2 nieces, who are still having a difficult time dealing with their loss. No child should ever have to grow up without their parents, but together we will get through the difficult days ahead.

Since my brother-in-law's passing, I have found it very hard to find the time to devote to scrapping. I have been assisting my sister with dealing with things around the house, being there for the girls after school, and thrown in there, I am still doing my classes. I am working on trying to set one day a week aside for me to get creative, and hopefully this schedule will work out and I will have more things to share on a more regular basis. Hold tight, and keep checking back!!!

Where does the time go? Honestly....

Well it sure is hard to believe that so much time has gone by since I was last here to post! The summer has certainly been a busy one and time has gotten away from me. I am just glad to be able to find some time to do some posting and let everyone know that I am still around! Just been busy with attending CHA, and holidays.

I am going to do my best to get some posts done this week and get you all caught up on what has been going on with me, but for now, I am going to go and do some more catch up online.

Hope you didn't miss me too much!

Been a very LONG month!

Summer arrived, and boy has it flown by so far! I have not found any time for much on the computer this month and therefore have not updated my blog it what seems like forever!!! I am sure hoping that things can slow down soon so that I can get back on track and keep up with my posts, my creating and just keeping in touch with everyone!

Next week I am heading to CHA and am really looking forward to the journey! So many great new goodies are coming on the market and I can't wait to personally see things in person. I am hoping to be able to share some photos with everyone during the week, but if not, you can be certain that there will be lots of new posts once I arrive home.

Hope everyone is staying safe and has found a way to stay cool!

Check in with you when I can!

This Bunny has HEART

Well, today is the deadline for a challenge that Shanna posted on her blog, and it was definitely a challenge that I just couldn't resist! Anyone that 'knows' me, knows how much fun I have with my punches, and this challenge was just right up my alley!
Back on June 11th, Shanna posted a punch challenge. She has asked that we use a minimum of 2 punches on a project, card or layout. In her original post she used her punches on some cards to show us how fun they can be and how they can add the perfect embellishment for our projects.

Well, I like to take punches to a whole new realm and see what can be created from them other than what they actually are. I LOVE shapes and love to be able to transform them into fun embellishments for my layouts, cards and projects. I see shapes in a whole new light and I love the creating process it brings to me.

Here are a couple of the projects that I have created to meet Shanna's challenge:

This pail would be perfect for any Easter Bunny to leave your treats in. The bunny on the front of the pail is created completely of hearts, and an oval added for the egg he is holding. The heart punches are 3 various sizes by Marvy. (small, medium and large/Jumbo) His feet are actual a folk heart from a Sizzix die.


This second project is a plaque that I made for my scrap room wall. It uses a paper shaper flower punch and the Punch Bunch fern punch. The barrel was hand cut.


I also teach classes at my LSS, and this layout was done by request of some ladies that take my classes on a regular basis. I was asked if there was anything out there to do with Backyardigans, and upon looking, found the availability for scrap booking was not there. I decided to see what I could come up with and this is the layout I created. Each of these characters were created with a variation of punches, Quickutz dies and BossKut dies. They are my very own creation and I had so much fun coming up with these. I don't have children young enough, so therefore, I have no photos to put on this layout. Papers, of course are Bo Bunny....my FAVE!!!!



The bunny on the pail and the Backyardigans are my own original design and are to only be used for personal use. I do ask that if you scrap lift these ideas, to please link back to my blog post and give credit where credit is due. I also ask that you do not use these designs for monetary purposes. Thank you.

Scraptures Blog Hop winners announced!

Scraptures held their first ever blog hop at the beginning of the month, and today the winners were announced: Scraptures blog

I would like to thank all the members who participated and helped bring such great success to the first ever blog hop at Scraptures. It was a lot of fun helping to put this together and bring some inspiration to the members along the way! Thank you to all who hopped and participated using the sketch that was created by Sarah De Guzman.

Thanks ladies and congratulations to the winners!

It has been one of those weeks!

As I sit here this morning, I reflect back on what last week held for me, and I am really hoping that this week will be a much better one. I need to clear my head, focus and learn to move forward with things, so that is on the top of my TO DO list this week!

I have lots of creating to get done this week. July classes need to be designed, I have kits to create for the LSS, kit need to get put together to put in the mail and I have some pages for another gal that need to get worked on. With so much on the go, it is time for me to refocus my energy for the positive and move forward with these things.

Clearing my head and posting some of my TO DO list here, is going to help me meet those goals.
So here is to a much better week!!!!

Now, if I could only get Mother Nature to cooperate with me, all could be good. The sky is grey and cloudy and it isn't looking too promising at the moment! I am hopeful that this weather is not going to hinder my mojo and motivation to get things done! I so need to see that list getting smaller so that I can sit back, breathe and just have some fun creating time!

Wish me luck!

Hamilton Wingfest

It is evident that festival season has begun in the Hammer, and I am loving every bit of it!!! I look forward to festival season every year and it really couldn't have started at a better time for me!Last night was the opening of Hamilton's Wingfest, and Kim Mitchell was playing. I was so jazzed up and raring to go for last night. I really was looking forward to having a great night out to have fun, and the weather was even good for it. Thankfully, Mother Nature decided to be nice, and although the clouds started to roll in, we weren't blessed with any rain at all!!!!

We headed down to the festival a little early and were able to catch a great new band from Toronto on stage. They have a pretty good sound, and they are brothers. If you get a chance you should check them out here at Fairchild. They were the band that performed right before Kim went on stage.

Just prior to Kim starting, I was standing there and I got a text. I thought it might have been my sister asking me if I was there, but it was my good friend T!!!! She was telling me to have a great time and that I did! I even called her and told her to listen, but we had a bad connection...LOL. She probably thought I had too much to drink or that I really just had rocks in my head, but I am sure she still loves me anyways!!!! After all it was a WILD PARTY and I was in ROCKLAND WONDERLAND, with PATIO LANTERNS!!!! :)


Anyways, just wanted to share some of the photos from last night's concert! It was amazing and Kim NEVER disappoints! I was just so happy to have gotten out of the house and have such a fun time as this has been a pretty frazzling week for me, and well, I just needed to relax, unwind and just think about ME for a change! It felt GREAT!!!!

Scraptures June Reveal

Well another month has begun and we have a new kit in store at Scraptures. This month the kit is Crate Paper-Brook. The texture of this paper is wonderful and the colours are so bright and cheerful and really have a great summer feel to them. Nice to see this geared to adults and not just the fun filled kid themes that are out there. I loved all of the product that was sent in this kit, and it really helped the creating process flow.

I created several projects using this kit and it was just amazing to see how much you could get done with one kit! I love it!This layout was so much fun! I loved cutting the wavy paper, which helped to resemble the breeze of the day. Although it was a hot day in Fort Erie, there was a warm breeze. I loved being able to cut this paper up and layer in an unusual way to add dimension to my page. Adding the chipboard piece and pop dotting the phrase also helped to bring even more dimension to my layout. I love to work in layers, with lots of detail to dimension.



My second project is another page using lots of layering and dimension. I used the yellow scallop card stock and cut out circles to add to make a more flowing background to the layout. The yellow was just too much, and although it really did compliment everything nicely, I just needed less of the yellow showing. Chipboard pieces, pop dots and ink also help to bring in that added dimension that I was looking for here.


Now for my last layout I cut out lots of circles from the pattern paper so that I could do lots of layering and dimensional work here. I just love to be able to take a piece of paper and get lots and lots of mileage out of it. I also cut out the flowers from a secondary pattern paper and created 2 butterflies for my page, using a button and a brad for each of their bodies. I did add some wire for antennas that was not included in the kit. Of course, I pop dotted the butterflies, as well as several of the circles. I added buttons for even more dimension and to keep with the circle feel to this layout. The combination of circles, flower butterflies and the wavy paper sliced and diced, I really like the flow showed in this layout.

Blog Hop WINNERS

Well the time has come to announce the winners of the Scraptures First Ever Inspirational Blog Hop. I hope that everyone had fun doing our little hop with us and I hope that you all found some inspiration along the way.

On my post for the blog hop, I offered up 2 prizes (RAKs). One was for a random draw for those that left a comment on my blog and the other was for a random draw for new followers. I had quite a few comments left during the hop, 12 to be exact. I asked a fellow team member to pick a number between 1-12. She picked 7........that makes the Comment winner....................................


Jen Hoover (More like....etc.) She left this comment:
Leave it to Lisa :P LOL
this is gorgeous! I love the demension you give your layouts!

I need to put my "stuff" to better use!

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during the hop and for leaving me such nice comments.

Now I only had one new follower through the blog hop, and that was Brandy Lees.

Congratulations ladies! Please PM me your mailing address over at Scraptures and I will get your prize out to you at the end of the week!!!

Thanks again to everyone who hopped along with us and helped to make our first hop a successful one. Don't forget that there is still time left to participate in the sketch challenge! You have to remember to also share a link to your creation based on the sketch on the Scraptures blog to qualify for the prize!

Sarah De Guzman/giveaway

Sarah has been at it again! She has been a very busy gal and has just returned from Texas, and now she is offering a wonderful giveaway on her blog. If you haven't had the opportunity to check out her blog, you simply must stop by. This gal is a great talent and she designs for several different companies.

Recently the team at Scraptures had the opportunity to use a sketch created by Sarah for our very first blog hop. I loved the sketch and had a lot of fun creating with it. Thank you to Sarah for her permission to use the sketch. It was great inspiration for this post: Blog Hop

Thank you Sarah for sharing your wonderful talent with all of us and for being so generous with your giveaways!

Walking with Dinosaurs

Yesterday we attended the Walking with Dinosaurs show at Copps Colliseum. The show was fantastic and the dinosaurs so realistic! These gigantic creatures were made to life size and moved around the arena as if they were alive. To experience this amazing show was one that I am glad I didn't miss.

What can I say about the show? To begin with I must admit that I wasn't entirely sure what it was going to be all about. There was one man on the arena floor who was the narrator, telling us the story of the dinosaurs through the eyes of a Paleontologist. He walks around the arena, amongst the dinosaurs as he tells their story.


The narrative is very educational and yet not boring at all. There are lots of great pieces of information that take you through all 3 ages of dinosaurs, being that of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. As the story is told, you learn more about different species of dinosaur and what it would have been like for it to walk the earth. You learn about their size, what they ate and who their enemies were.Although I studied dinosaurs as a child, I was still very fascinated with the show. It really brought to light what life on earth before man would have been like. To see these creatures roaming the floor, brought a realization that we are lucky they do not still exist. They certainly are a fascinating creature, and to have managed to survive through the different changes the earth had taken, simply is amazing.



If you ever get the chance to see this show, I would recommend it. Children of all ages will love it!