Moments Like These

When I saw this idea from Teneale (SU Artisan) using the Project Life Accessory pack from Moments Like These...I knew I had to recreate it. Mostly the same, some of my own twists, obviously my own family photos! I chose to use them in colour, since the sunset shots went well with the kit colours. I used black matting to tie it all together!
Such fun and quick to make! I love it!

(and I got to use my Rotary stamp that has such potential, but underused so far by me.)

smiles,

Laurie

Summertime Banner Building

Gearing up for a new Banner Builder class...pretty excited by the new shapes that are part of the new Build a Banner kit. Playing with the exciting Flower Patch stamp set and matching dies. 

Using stencils from the kit and the sun ray from one of the card kits. 

Lots of new products used to pull this together. I love the new Ronald McDonald House Charity stamp set and matching punch. So many possibilities ~ the tree, an icecream cone! 

Even used some "punch art" in this banner. What better than watermelon in the summer...and flip flops! Accented the whole banner with some pieces of  the wonderful chevron ribbon.

smiles,

Laurie

A little of This and That

One of my favourite styles of scrapbooking has been updated lately with the fun idea of Smash books, or the Stampin'Up! version, the This and That book. A great coil notebook with wonderful patterned pages to fill with memories. I ran  a class last year, online with prompts to Capture the wonderful moments of summer. And I'll be running another this summer. Here a couple sample pages of how easy and quick it is to document great memories.

 Some pages don't even need photos ~ some can be more of a 'classic' scrapbook layout.

 A bit of washi tape and some journalling easily complete a page.

smiles,

 Laurie

From the Herd~ some Advice from my Daughter

 I'm getting a head start to my new May...a Month of developing habits!
My daughter recently mused, "why wouldn't I break my time down into blocks like at school and do things in assigned times" There seems to be great merit in that...despite the fact that there are too many things to do in a typical day to actually schedule time for them all adequately and interruptions run rampant, but I'm going to give it a try this coming month...and within the scheduling define a few habits to create a streamline life. (Breathe! that was a long sentence!)
For example, we have just finished our taxes (in Canada, that's okay, we have till April 30) but it is the latest my husband and I have done them in years. For my part, I need to pull off data from our bookkeeping, which means having done the bookkeeping! ..and done it accurately. Fortunately, or not, I file quarterly GST reports which does create a deadline for keeping up with the biggest majority of it. One goal is to create a time for input more regularly (which will greatly reduce the paper clutter on my desks as well, yay!) and redefine a couple categories, so specific items needed for deductions will be easier to pull straight out from reports.
My reward for this should surely be time to create, don't you think!?

I'll keep you posted on the other habits I'm hoping to incorporate in my new "timetable".

I want to share with you this fun little card I'm doing for classes this week.

I adore this sweet stamp set. It was probably the first I spotted that I knew I needed to have while flipping through the Occasions catalogue when it was first released (and we know, there have become many sets that I have had to get from this great catalogue since!) I'm looking forward to playing with it with more ladies this week in the upcoming classes. Teaching them this neat Telescoping card template, along with a Spinner Window card idea.

smiles, Laurie

If you need to see more details and ideas for this set you can find them online in my store

www.lauriel.stampinup.net

Creative Blog Hop ~ Project Life by Stampin'Up!

Today is my turn to post on the Creative Blog Hop … typically these posts are done in the morning, I struggled with an early morning post in my house, but noon is pretty good for me! Thanks to Amber Meulenbelt at Stamp with Amber for nominating me. This blog hop doesn't require a commitment - just the one post where you answer a few questions and then nominate two other stampers to carry on next week. It's a sort of creative chain letter ;) 

So faced with putting together this post with no theme...I tried to think what I'd like to showcase...
So many stamps ~ so little time!
I'm not sure the exact chain of thoughts that led me to showing off our wonderful Project Life ~ I'm teaching a class of 10 Grade 6 Girls right now...Capturing their first year in Middle School...so scrapbooking is on my mind...
I'm very pleased with how these turned out...and planning on working with the Love set pretty soon to see how they'll turn out (stay classic Black & white or add dramatic splashes of colour!?)

I added in the Crazy About You stamps and a couple small flowers with pearls.

This was the first one I started with, using the background as a jumping point and adding in African animals to match the print. To use these cards you simply need to trim down the 4 x 6 card to 4 x 5 1/4. The little stamp comes from Let's Get Away...one of the new PL by SU sets in the new Occasions catalogue.

This was my last card and I almost didn't finish it up last night (it was getting late) but really look how simple it is! a little layer of textured paper, a couple little banners, and the most perfect stamp from my new Favourite set Adventure Awaits!

No stamps needed! How perfect is this? A 3 x 4 card layered over the 4 x 6 card onto a base. I added the smidge of 'bling' by using the banner die from Celebrate Today.

 Perfect cards for mailing!

The second component of the Creative Blog Hop is to answer the four questions:

1. What are you working on right now?
 I'm still finishing class content for the next couple ideas to share with the Ladies I have coming to class the next couple days....and I'm always working on organizing and decluttering my room.

2. How does your work differ from others in your genre?
The way I do my classes is really unique...I do not pre-cut anything. I design a class, but when the ladies come they take the technique, template or idea and make it their own with colour choice and even altering the design a bit. I've always done this. It's really wonderful to see what they create!
 
3. Why do you create what you do?
I've always said the serendipity of working this business is that I actually do take time to create projects, pages and home decor in order to have it ready for a class. Usually seasonal cues for what I actually present in class.

4. How does your creativity work?
 I usually have a specific stamp or tool that I want to work with and then it just goes from there. Inspiration comes from Pinterest, blogs and magazines. Once I start working and get away from the computer, it seems to flow from actually working with what's in front of me~ colours, product, ideas.

 
And now it's my turn to nominate a talented lady to participate in the Creative Blog Hop next week: Krista Frattin at Stampin'Dolce  I'm so happy to have met her as a fellow Demonstrator. She inspires me with her creativity and verve for life.
 Check out her blog, if you haven't already. She is one of this year's illustrious Artisans! Let her know you've visited - and then come back next Monday (March 16) to see what she's come up with. I know you'll love her projects!

Thanks again to Amber for asking me to be part of the Creative Blog Hop. It was fun!

 (come back and visit here, too! I'll be sure to post again! thanks for stopping by!)

what did you do all day?

I came across this post a couple days ago and I loved it. Wanted to share!

what did you do all day?

A great reminder to remember all the little moments as well as the momentous!


A tradition we do around Christmas is sleeping under the tree, this is the girls snuggling back in the next morning. It's a bit of an example of what keeps me busy..but not 'productive' per se, right?!

smiles, Laurie

Friday Night ~ Working late!

I'm going to be a guest blog hopping stop on Monday...so watch for that!
In the meantime, I'm also busy scouring for ideas of page layouts for my Kids Scrapbook Club to do on Monday.
I started a project in September with ten young ladies to Capture their first year in Middle School.
We have been having a wonderful time doing just that. This upcoming class, I'm thinking we need to work in a place to Capture all the Field Trips they do throughout the year...trips that I don't necessarily have photos for!
I have an idea in my head of how I'd like the page to shape up...but not finding anyone online with the same thought as me!?! I hate when that happens...how can no one have already done what I'd like to copy from inside my head? : )
I'll let you know how it turns out..and how their adaptions come together!
I am coming up with a few other technique ideas to work with for other pages...even if just for my own pages!