I "LOVE" this page! I bought the 'making memories' chipboard piece when I first started scrapbooking hard-core- so like 4 years ago! This just goes to show that it is worth saving some of the old stuff you think you'll "never use"... I think the page worked out well too; had I have used it 4 years ago, I never would have done this with the page, (nor was I married)!

So besides the 'making memories' chipboard LOVE piece, I also used 'Prima Marketing' paper flowers, 'Bazzill' paper flowers, 'Stampin' Up' brads, 'Creative Memories' paper, and ribbon by 'Kaiser Craft', 'American Crafts', and 'Stampin' Up'. I really like how simple this page was, and it took very little time to create.  A lot of the paper I used for my wedding album is from a 'Creative Memories' pack, and its elegance requires less embellishing!

Canmore Scrap Retreat

What a great weekend!! I got a fair bit accomplished in my wedding album, but even more importantly, had some great laughs, drinks (plenty of them),  a little more sleep than normal... The weather was amazing, though we were too busy scrapping and drinking to enjoy it much.  I am excited to end this weekend with some great layouts.  I am also excited to have officially e-mailed Scrapbooker's Paradise with some links to my work, in an attempt to be part of their Design Team. Wish me luck!!  
Me (R) & Ashley (L); enjoying dinner by the fire. The food, rooms, scrap area, and coffee were amazing (and we drank loads of the coffee!).  The Inn has a very cozy cabin-feel to it. It doesn't get much better than scrapbooking in the mountains with great company (yup, me- you were very lucky Ash)! 

Sandra showing us one of her layouts.. Lucky girl got her own room (separate livingroom in our room), and half a table to herself!!

Yikes! Our table by the end of day 2!  I suppose this is pretty typical of a scrapbooking day with the girls.  The other ladies at the retreat marvelled at how much "stuff" we had.  What can I say though, we needed all of it!

 These are some of my favorite layouts from my wedding album. They were created at the scrapbooking retreat this past weekend in Canmore. Me, Ash, and Sandra had a phenomenal time; getting up early, and late to bed.  I had fun scrapbooking my wedding album in all black and white, with some blue accents on select pages.  I feel like my creativity was pushed with limiting myself to only three colors to play with.  It was a lot of fun- a trip I'm looking forward to repeating in the future!

 I found some really great embellishments to help accent the black and white pages. I used 'Pink Paislee' artesan elements circles to frame the pictures on the first page of the layout. The paper was a combination of American Crafts (glitter), as well as Creative Memories. I used a small Stampin' Up tag that I further accented with 'Maya Road' flower rub-ons. I embossed the title "beautiful" with black 'Whispers' embossing powder. The ribbon on the page included Stampin' Up lace ribbon, and American Crafts flower ribbon. I finished the page with a few 'Hot off the Press' brads and some rug-hooking canvas that I painted black!

TWO More Sleeps!!

2 more sleeps, 2 more sleeps! I feel like a kid going to Disneyland, but I'm a mom going on a scrapbooking retreat instead! Actually, my excitement matches that of when I was young and DID go to Disneyland! Me and my two very close girlfriends are on our way to Canmore this weekend for hours, upon hours, upon hours of sweet, sweet scrapbooking. This trip has been in the plans for a few months now, and it couldn't come sooner.  I have only been on one other scrapbook retreat, on which I completed my son's baby album, as well as a few other pages for my 2010 album.  I came home very surprised with what could be accomplished in a weekend dedicated solely to scrapbooking.  SO this weekend, I will be focusing on starting (and completing) my wedding album.  I am excited for this for so many reasons; scrapbooking me and my husband, which doesn't happen often- most of the pages I do are of the kids. Also, our wedding was almost 3 years ago, and never thought I'd get to doing our wedding album, as so many projects compile themselves throughout the year(s). In addition, this weekend is completely KIDS-FREE!! All the moms out there understand the significance of this!  C is now just about 5 months old, and is still breast-feeding, so I have been pumping and freezing milk for over 3 months now.  It will be my first weekend away from him, and first weekend without the kids in just about 2 years. I am really looking forward to adult conversations, a good glass of wine (and by good, I mean large), no cooking, no cleaning, and re-living the wonderful memories of the day I married my best friend, and soul mate. Stay tuned, for samples of the work I do over the weekend! In the meantime- CHEERS!

 This is one page of a 2-page spread.  Not too sure why the other one is not up here also... Anyways, this is such as sweet picture of A- yes, she is always this sweet! No really though, I am constantly told that she is "soooo cute", and take pride in the fact that I could actually reproduce a sweet child:) Definately doesn't get it from me!  As a result of her sweetness, she doesn't get in very much trouble- so she too may be a bit of a handfull one day, when she realizes her sweetness can work wonders to her advantage. 

This layout (and the one that goes with it!), was made using paper from the 'Me and My Big Ideas- cardstock pack'. This paper was a fantastic deal- I got a PACK of paper in Scrapbooker Paradise's 70% off rack, so it only cost me, like $8! And the paper is really pretty- lots of fuzzy paper, shiny, glittery paper... So I matted the pic on some square pieces of this paper.  This page is also a good example of something I do a lot in scrapbooking, though I don't think I have any more examples on my blog- creating embellishments with the paper.  The leaves 'vine', was cut out, as well as the swirly embellishment under the pic.  I used a Stampin' Up corner punch to add some detail to the corner of the pic, and 4 various white flowers were layered to create one big, pretty flower! I used Stampin' Up's build-a-brad to make the brad in the center of the flower, a 'K&Company' "happy" adhesive chipboard word, and some 'e. prima marketing' self-adhesive pearls and crystals to finish off the page.  If you follow my blog, you will hear me say this a lot- Darn my kids are cute!!

  So this layout doesn't showcase my best scrapbooking (in my defense, it's an older layout), but it is so relevant to what life is like now with M, and what life will be like in a few years.  I couldn't give up such a great opportunity to discuss it (or her), with you!  She is a bright, beautiful, sassy young girl. The hands-on-the-hip says it all!!  She has a bit too much of  "that" twinkle in her eye- you know, the one where you know she's up to something.  I have a feeling its not going anywhere either; me and Adam are going to have our hands full! Unfortunately, I've been told she gets it from me- guess its true when they say "the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree". Lets just hope when this apple falls from the tree, it falls softly- few bruises, and hopefully with no worms. Hmm, that could be a whole new thought to ponder!! I hope when M comes home with her biker boyfriend and sleeves of tattoos, her dad and I can remember our childhoods, where she's coming from, and go easy on her (and her biker boyfriend).

I created this layout 4 years ago (she was a sassy little 4-year old here!) I can't believe I would do such a tedious task, but each word is made from INDIVIDUAL rub-on letters. So, I'm sure you can imagine how long it would take to make the journalling on this page! The rub-ons were on vellum, and the black letters are 'Heidi Swapp' chipboard letters.  Speaking of- why can I not find Heidi Swapp stuff around anywhere anymore? I love(d) her embellishments, but they seem hard to come by these days. I have many more new loves, but if I find her stuff anywhere, you can be sure I will be stockpiling!

First of all- look at that sexy man!! Now, look at my husband, lol, just kidding honey, I meant you... So, me and Adam went to this concert together last year.  We felt so unbelievably old there! We were undoubtedly the oldest people there who were not chaperoning younger kids.  So we jumped around with all the middle-school-aged kids (ok, not quite), and had a really fun night! My husband is such a trooper for coming with me- definitely one of my favorite bands.  I first stamped the background cardstock I used with the stars, and used some glittery paper out of my 'DCWV- The Glitter Stack' cardstock pack. I added to the bling on the paper with some more bling, with the border rhinestone adhesive strips. A little bit of black lace ribbon, some 'thicker' letters, and a touch of journalling finished off the layout. What a great date night this was with my sexy husband:)