Inspiration Station - Family

Happy Monday everyone!

Isabelle, here today, with the latest installment of Inspiration Station.  It's New Brunswick Day here where I live, which gives us a long weekend to enjoy with family.  This particular weekend is special for our family, because it's the weekend we always celebrate our Family Reunion.  The last 2 years have been rough on the family, as we've lost a few family members.  This year we were really looking forward to seeing everyone and sharing memories, laughs and tears.  We had a really amazing time! 

As we took photos of the kids, of course I thought to myself, "these will make great scrapbooking pages!".  But then I thought to myself, why do I scrapbook?  Is it really to preserve the memories?  I've come to realize that I scrapbook to capture the essence of the people in the photographs.  Yes, I'm sure I will remember the circumstances of the photo in the layout, but when I look back at my pages, what I remember most is the person, the relationship that I have with that person and the good feelings (and the not so good feelings!) that I feel about them and about me.  This is what inspires me to create my pages.  It's my personal journal of sorts.

Here's a layout that is just that.  It's of my cousin having a tickle session on the couch with my kids and my nephew.  Nothing to stop them from having the best laugh ever!  Makes me feel content and blessed.  Love them to pieces.

 

    

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope I was able to inspire you today.   Please join us on Thursday, when Jocelyne returns with her latest Product Shuffle installment.  (P.S., you really don't want to miss it.  I've seen it and it's AWESOME!!!)

Have a great week!

Isabelle

Product Shuffle : Double Sided Paper

Good morning everyone!  Jocelyne here with another installment of Product Shuffle.  I have a question for you!  Have you ever purchased a paper that was so pretty and when you turn it over to apply the glue you discover that the reverse is just as pretty?  This happens to me a lot.  I was recently faced with the dilemma of choosing which side of the paper to actually use.  Of course I only had one sheet of said paper.  What to do?  Thankfully I was scrapping with a group of very brilliant ladies and one suggested I use both sides!  And that is exactly what I did!

First things first, let me introduce you to the paper that was being discussed.

There it is.  It is part of Echo Park's Capture Life collection.  One side is a gorgeous pink ombre and the other side a very cool out of focus lights polka dot.  You might recognize the ombre from last week's Product shuffle. It is the very same sheet of paper! Click here to view again

Let's take a look at how I made it possible.  First of all, I  like to frame my layout with a sheet of 12X12 cardstock.  To save on paper and to make sure my photo mats match perfectly my outside frame, I take my trusty paper trimmer and cut the inside of my cardstock.   I then have a sheet of 10X10 cardstock to use as mats, like this :

It looks like a frame doesn't it?  I adhere my background paper over the frame and it covers the hole.  But on the other side I have a wider frame with the reverse side of the paper peeking out.  For this layout I used the back side of last week's product shuffle layout.  That's right!  Two layouts, back to back on the same paper!  Once inserted in my page protector in my album, no one will suspect!
I had at my disposal some Jillibean Soup Chalkboard Banners.

These, alone, would be awesome as a mini album!  But for this layout. I fanned them out and used them as a focal point in the middle of my layout.

I used a white pen to write my journaling all around the layout and also on the edges of the chalkboard tabs.

Last year, we had the chance to be the host family for a Colombian student.  She became another daughter for us and before leaving my husband wrote a very touching letter on Facebook.  This was the script I used for this layout. 

Once again I used Echo Park's Capture Life collection.  The chalkboard stickers included in the collection kit and the square cutouts in the paper were a perfect addition to this layout.

To finish the layout I then added a Webster's Pages ribbon, some Kaisercraft flowers, a few Prima butterflies and American Crafts alpha stickers.

And there you have it : a layout honoring our Colombian princess.

Well that's it for today.  Join us again bright and early Saturday for another awesome sketch reveal. You will not want to miss it!

Have a fantastic day!

Product Shuffle : Banner Tabs

Good morning everyone.  Jocelyne here hoping the sun is shining on you on this fine July day. 

For today's instalment of Product Shuffle, I will be talking about banner tags, like the ones found on this on My Mind's Eye Journey Buttons.

 

We usually use them in a banner or as a accent in a cluster of embelishments.  I found another way to use them.  By taking out your scissors and cutting parallel to the tag end, we can create chevrons! You could do this with any banner tab, any size

Using the My Mind's Eye chipboard tabs were especially fun since they are already sticky, just cut them and adhere them right away to the layout.  I find it makes a very cute chevron, don't you think?

Along with the chipboard tabs, I played with the new Echo Park Capture Life collection

 You could really use this collection for any occasion. I really love it! As a background for all this scrappy goodness I used CTMH cardstock and some Jillibean Soup's Soup Staples paper.  I added a some Simple Stories stickers and some American Crafts alpha sticker and made this layout.

I like to use Thickers but often run out of the letters I need.  I sometimes try to find a title that fits the letters I have left, but most often I simply make the letters I need with whatever is left on my sheet.  On this layout, I made and "i" using a dash and a flower sticker and the "e" from a "w"!  Turn your sheet of letters upside down and sideways and you may just find the letters you need hiding in the letters you have left. 

I hope you like this installment of product shuffle.  I hope to see you again on Saturday for another sketch reveal.  In the meantime, please feel free to comment and tell us what think, give us ideas on how to use those banner tabs or tell how you deal with missing letters in your alpha sticker.  

Have an awesome day!

Friday Faves - Substitution Game!

This week for my Friday Faves - I wanted to share a page that I recently made and show some goodies from the Let's Capture Our Memories store that you could pick up to make a page similar - substituting in other similar items!

Let's begin with the page I did make. I again used some Basic Grey Clippings, Paper Cottage:

Okay, so onto the substitutions. Let's start with the background paper! If you want a smaller chevron for a background, there are a few in the store that are a perfect substitute. Like these:

Echo Park:

My Mind's Eye:

Bella Blvd:

Now, there are lots of options for this next substitution ! Here are a few to get you started.

When I created this page, I used a lot of stickers and labels from the Basic Grey line. 

Here are a few others labels like these that are way cool.

Elle's Studio

Evalicious

Jillibean Soup

 Now Alphas - who doesn't love a good alpha right?

I used some Thickers here...

but here are a few other options:

American Crafts

Basic Grey

Jillibean Soup

Simple Stories

Those are some of my faves in the store now!!

AND I know there are lots of other new faves coming our way too!

For now, check out what's new HERE or what's ON SALE

Smash Book

Hi Everyone! It's Kate Vickers here today sharing part of my Smash book. It's still a work in progress, but I have quite a bit of it done to show you (more on Friday).

As you can see, I altered the cover. I found it a bit 'blah' and I wanted to hide the Smash logo. I coloured the kraft part of the book with a Faber Castell Gelato and then sprayed it with water to blend it in. This made the debossing on the cover stand out a lot more. I did the machine stitching on the Crate Paper Pretty Party chipboard pieces and the border stickers to make them look as though they are stitched right onto to the cover.

Here's a close up of the 'About Me' title on the cover.

These are the first two pages. These two pages are about my last horse. I don't own him anymore and I really miss him, so these pictures are very special to me. We are at a horse show here and my (new at the time) husband was helping me a lot at shows. He was there to hold my horse when I needed an extra pair of hands and to calm my nerves (I'm a bit of a nervous wreck at horse shows). I used Crate Paper's Pretty Party for most of the book, with a few odds n' ends added here and there.

Here's a close up. I hid some of the journalling in a small kraft paper bag. The heart is cut out of a piece of raw canvas and coloured with Dylusions ink. I used pink Jillibean Soup Alphabeans stickers for the letters.

These two pages are of my first horse. I have lots of fond memories of him. He was a sweet horse and he loved to do his job. He was a good jumper and loved to show off at shows. On these two pages I used more Crate Paper Pretty Party and I also used some Jillibean Soup Neopolitan Bean Bisque, a Maya Road kraft doily, a Jenny Bowlin stamp and some other random embellishments.

In this close up shot, you can see the Jenny Bowlin stamp that I used for the horse show ribbon. This stamp is so fun on horse-related and kid-related projects. I love using it.

That's all that I have got for today. I hope that you will drop by again on Friday. I have more to share with you then! Thanks for looking! :)

Helloooo CHA goodness

Tanya has been a machine loading up the shop with all sorts of goodness for us to get our scrappy little hands on.  No matter what your preference clean & simple, bright & bold, muted & subtle, minimalist or layer lovin', manufactures have been sure to meet your every need.  And Tanya's making sure you can satisfy your scrappy desires right here in the LCOM shop. 

In case you've been missing out on all the updates regarding brand, spankin' new product going into the shop these past few weeks let me introduce you to a few of my faves.

I'm not usually one for really bright colours but the new releases by Jillibean Soup sure have me tempted to buy every little piece of the collection.  

Fun & bright, and usable on with so many different seasons of photos

Hexagons are all the rage and these little guys are super cute

Corrugated stars and arrows?  Yes please

I'm a sucker for white alphas, these would look great on a dark background

I know a lot of you are Project Lifers, and these are just the right size

Love, love the idea of these flags, so easy

And who wouldn't love these wood veneer flags?  Can't you just see them on cards?

 All the new Jillibean goodness can be found in the store here.

If bright and bold is not your deal there's also the new Hey Day collection by Studio Calico to be had.

I am especially fond of these two sheets...

totally reminds me of the Parkay flooring in our first home

both sides of this sheet would be fun to fussy cut and pop dot off the page

Add a few of these embellies, and you've got the makings of some fab pages.

find these AC thickers here

You can find all the new Studio Calico goodies in the store here.

And if you know me, you know I love embellishments.  Here are a few that have already caught my eye.

I need another set of alphas like I need a hole in the head, but these, my friends are burlap.  Enough said :)

Evalalicious She knows how to satisfy.

Not sure if banners are still in, but I still love 'em and Heidi Swapp does too.

Last, but not least are a few stamps to satisfy the wanna be stamper in me.  I can't wait to work with some these guys. 

You can see more of their new releases in the store here.

After seeing all this goodness in one spot, I've got the itch to go and create.  Hope you've seen a thing or two to inspire you.  All these items are currently in stock.  As we all prepare to head back to school, and into routine, and start scrapping the photos we've been taking all summer, I'm sure they won't be around for long.  Better hurry before they're gone.