Seems like a familiar tune this year with this blog.
I have good intentions, take a lot of pictures, but just don't find the time to update it often. I think I was in a slump with wanting a change. So, when needing that creative outlet, you must go in search. For me, I came to the conclusion, I needed a blog make over. (one that actually happens.lol) So I've comissioned someone new to work on it in the New Year. I am STOKED. So that has got my heart going pitter patter working on fun stuff to send her. It in fact has motivated me big time!
Of course lot's of my work is always for companies and I don't get to show you many sneak peaks, but this year I thought I might change that. I love doing CHA boothwork, it is highly fulfilling. And I am well ahead of where I usually am for CHA Winter. I've got a good chunk done already, and that feels fantastic!!!!
Let's quickly catch you up on what has been occupying my time. As I write this, it feels like our Christmas letter. I didn't intend for it to be this way, but just rolling with it. So here is our Christmas Card to share virtually with all of you!!!
Ireland:
The number one kid in my house that has a gazillion nickname changes. Right now, we tend to call her pips. She has went through these so far in her short 4yrs. Little Miss, Pipsqueak, Pixie, Monkey and now Pips.
This little girl started 4yr old preschool. Going 3 mornings a week, which is fabulous. However that means I drive to and from the school 3 days a week.
We had her in Speech Therapy for a group of sessions this past 2 months and we saw AMAZING differences. Much stronger in her pronounciatio of words. So that is AWESOME! Of course she is just an active little girl, soccer and dance every week, and trust me, if they let 4yr olds join our Tae Kwon Do, she'd be in there.She is counting down the minutes till Sept.2013 when she will be able to go with the boys.
She really discovered Barbies this year, so her & I play Barbies daily, and sometimes the boys join in when I can convince them nice brothers do just that. So we also now have "Ken" dolls so the boys can play.
Pips is definitely our fashion diva. She is more conscious about what she wears than any other child I know. Always likes to match, have her hair and jewelry accesories match. Pretty neat to watch. My fave is her in tights and boots. So cute!
(first day of school pic-Sept.2012)
Jager:
This kid is our comedian. always entertaining, always dancing, always on the move. Smiles and sinister looks always are letting us know he is up to something. But I couldn't possibly live without my daily dose of Jager!
This is probably the most calm photo I have of Jager. Probably because he is embarassed I am taking first day of school photos while all his buds walk by. but tough. He should be used to it by now...REALLY! lol.
He has kept us busy with an intensive social calendar for a Gr.2 yr old. He's got a core group of buddies since Kindergarten, and they are tight like a mafia group.
He decided only to take Tae Kwon Do, hip hop and basketball this fall/winter. Basketball is a fist for us, recommended to take by his Gr.1 teacher. She told us he is amazing at it, I looked at her like she was nuts. But I trust her explicably, we enrolled him and who would've thought. The kid rocks at Basketball. So he's been enjoying that. and well Hip Hop is just his "groove". no surprise.
We still have him in French tutoring, and I won't give up our spot with her till Ireland is out of school. She works with Riley & Jager and is just that perfect part of our week that helps the kids out with the French.Great confidence builder that we actually have the kids reading in front of the class now. Who would've thought any of my kids would've been shy to read in front of the class. Not me.
Riley:
This kid is the heart and soul of our family. The biggest help and the kindest kid EVER. Just one big walking hug. We've had such a fantastic year with him, and have actually stopped counting how many times we get calls from the teacher on how he helped out another student, or from other parents that he was there for their kid, we even had such nice calls from the principal and vice principal. One day a kid fell and got hurt at his bus stop, he ran and helped and the adults all told us, he reacted so fast and just immediately took charge to help. Neat things to hear. Cause you wonder everyday if you are doing things right.
His strong points in life are definitely anything athletic. It just come naturally to him. This fall/winter season he is in soccer, tae kwon do and hip hop. Both boys did also play floor hockey for a few months. It's over now, but such good exercise.
So as you can see I do a LOT of driving and activity watching during the week. Around 21 hrs worth a week to be exact. But that is exactly why I am a stay at home working mom. I don't want our kids to miss out on any opportunities.
Now is really the time for them to figure out what sports they really enjoy, what activities they are interested in.
Riley was doing so well, he got asked to move up to the advanced class. Kinda neat since he's only been in Tae Kwon Do for a yr. Already Yellow belt, black stripe. working on his green belt next.
This kid however has discovered a passion for DC and Fox clothes. Ouch, those a nice and pricey. But on the same aspect, he's been saving and earning money like crazy. He's about 2 months away from being able to buy his own ipad. AMAZING drive! And he's got 100% on almost every single spelling test this year. Things like that just make us proud! He has to work so hard because surprisingly, the English language structure does not come easy to him at all. He's struggling but not giving up. Funny, he enjoys French so much. I always wonder if we are doing the right thing having our kids in French Immersion, but it's always the end goal I have in mind.
As for Jim & I, well our life has drastically been inverted lately. We sold our semi & trailer, now to get out of gravel hauling and buy a new truck to do a different job. Always freaky starting something new. I'm still pretty consistent, lot's of scrapbook work, still traveling to teach and work at events. Less than before, as you can see, my home life is BUSY! But I still love it.
Well, speaking of busy, gotta go pick the kids up from school, so I will try to keep up with the blog. Bare with me. Change is good, and I have had some exciting things happen to me lately, I can't wait to share!
Posted at 02:55 PM in ireland, jager, me, riley | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Welcome to the 2nd Hard Core Crop!
We are bringing in the Holiday season with challenges designed to get you inspired to create for the Holidays. Please head over to the Core blog for crop rules. And we have the Facebook HCC crop page here for you to chat and hang out with fellow Hard Core Croppers so make sure you head over there, too. You never know when challenges or giveaways will pop up over there!
Today I have created for you Gift Bags. These are a great way to brighten someone's day with a personal gift wrapping. Today I did 2 Thank you bags, but it would be a perfect concept for a birthday or Christmas, even a baby gift. I can't wait to see what each of you come up with.
Supplies needed:
additional items that will be awesome:
Let's get started! Here is the first
Start out with a plain gift bag, I get mine from my local Dollar store.
Cover the gift bag with a base colour. I never ever go edge to edge with the bottom layer. I like a bit of the gift bag still peaking through.
I did sand ONLY around the edge.
Make sure you use enough adhesive, the last thing you want is your gift bag to fall apart on the way to the recipient. :0
Next I started to create my layers. I started with a fairly light beige background. So it was natural for me to pull in a darker colour. For the darker layer, I sanded the entire thing. I wanted it now to "pop" a little more and by revealing the base it really stands out more. I also raised it with Scrapbook Adheive by 3L 3-D Foam Squares.
Break out those Spellbinders Dies! Here's a perfect time to cut out a funky shape! I picked red cause it seems to help the brown tones POP! For this element I DID NOT sand it. I like to really vary the layers with sand and no sand. I think they give a larger impact.
Again another fun die. For me it seemed so natural to add some tone of blue. I love the neutrals, but I love them more when they have some sort of "snap" to them to come alive!
Now for my main accent! I die cut a cute little Gingerbread man. (Tim Holtz die) I adore him and he makes me smile.
Add a title and somw twine and voila! Now it looks like a decorative piece!
Gift Bag #2:
I'm not going to show all the steps again, as some are a little repetitive of the first bag. Lot's of layering again. This time I used more border punches . Again I popped everything up with 3-D Foam Squares from Scrapbook adhesives by 3L. This time I added lettering stickers from Bo-Bunny.
I brolke out my EK Success punches and made some butterflies. I only put my Dodz Adhesive in the middles so they wings could be bent to look like they are flying.
Rule of 3, so I balanced another butterfly lower down on the left.
Then I punched out a whole bunch of little flowers and layered those and used them as little accents all around the gift bag. Same with the itty bitty hearts. What I haven't shown you is, I later decided to put rhinestones in the centers of my flowers. I didn't have any on me when I was scrapping at a friends house, but when I got home I decided they needed a little something something.
Thanks for joining me today on making gift bags. I challenge YOU now to make a fabulous gift bag for any occasion. And then PLEASE SHARE!!!!! We love to see what our loyal Core Addicts do. You guys just ROCK!!!!!
ow one of you lucky followers is gonna win a sweet prize package from Core'dinations Color Core Cardstock. I am giving away the Jenni Bowlin: Vintage Brights Core Impression line. fabulous product!!!!!
If you do not have a blog, please feel free to use Photobucket or Flickr or any other photo sharing sight that provides links. Challenges must include Core'dinations ColorCore Cardstock. You may NOT combine this challenge with any of the other HCC challenges but you may complete this challenge as many times as you like. You must link by 8 pm, December 2nd (Sunday).
Thanks so much for joining me. Keep checking all the fun activities everyone on our team has planned!
Leica Forrest
*you can also find me on facebook where I share my daily adventures**
Posted at 10:13 PM in 2012 layouts/projects, american crafts, bo bunny, core'dinations, Core'dinations, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L, spellbinders, the twinery, tim holtz | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBack (0)
are you joining us?
you can register here:
So it is October, which means we are like 5 weeks away from
Crop & Create Saskatoon.
Last year we tested out this event, and we walked away with a list of how we wanted to change it to make it better, where we knew we had to hold the hotels up to a higher level and we knew what we wanted our fabulous team to bring to the table.
This is what we have learned:
* When we say Dessert buffet. we mean it. So over the course of the last year we showed pics of what we expected to all the hotels and said, "Top this"... and they did. Here's a few pics ...
parking- well Saskatoon ultimately was uggh for parking. But what we learned is this. Saskatoon has the cheapest parking rates in all of Canada. yes that isn't comforting but it is something. Did we like that the Sheraton didn't have spots for us that we paid for? nope, so how are we going to make it better?
* well so far in other cities we've had people helping unload at each hotel. I personally was the person out helping in Winnipeg and would watch everyone's stuff while they parked. We had FABULOUS bell men help us. They ROCKED!!!!! SO in Saskatoon, the Bessborough said that they have parking on BOTH sides of their hotel, they have parking across the street on both sides. It will work. If you want help unloading, we will be there, if you want help walking to your car, call me! I recommend car pooling. If you are staying at the hotel, parking is FREE! A pass will be issued on check in so be sure to ask at the front desk. If you are not staying at the hotel the cost is $12/day ($14 for valet)
Some things that we are super proud of:
Our TEAM!
We have a handful that have been with us this year. We have been blessed. Super thanks to everyone! For a complete list of teachers and more about them and which cities they taught in click here.
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Posted at 12:09 AM in crop & create | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Posted at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Well you know my passion for mini albums. Just cannot stop making them. I find that I make one for every "major occasion". photoshoots, camping trips, summer faves, holidays, etc. that way, the kids can look over and over at their pics, I don't worry about them wrecking these books because I don't create these for a lifetime, those are the layouts in the albums that I want them to take with them. The albums are for our pure enjoyment now.
I love to make my albums out of chipboard or acrylic. Fave bases ever! I enjoy tackling making an album on burlap, canvas and other materials, it just requires more thought on how to adhere things.
This album is bright and fun! I sanded almost all the edges to give the album a "framed in" look.
I LOVE how I layered rows of ribbon on the edge binding. It felt like a girly touch. :)
fun right? It gives it a different look. Don't forget to include a spot for the CD. I used the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L CD pockets. They ROCK!!!!! I put them everywhere! I like to decorate a paper and I slide it in. I put the CD between the paper and the back, then it still has the protective paper in there.
Here's a few inside pages:
a little fun project!
See you later!
Leica
Posted at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Well you know my passion for mini albums. Just cannot stop making them. I find that I make one for every "major occasion". photoshoots, camping trips, summer faves, holidays, etc. that way, the kids can look over and over at their pics, I don't worry about them wrecking these books because I don't create these for a lifetime, those are the layouts in the albums that I want them to take with them. The albums are for our pure enjoyment now.
I love to make my albums out of chipboard or acrylic. Fave bases ever! I enjoy tackling making an album on burlap, canvas and other materials, it just requires more thought on how to adhere things.
This album is bright and fun! I sanded almost all the edges to give the album a "framed in" look.
I LOVE how I layered rows of ribbon on the edge binding. It felt like a girly touch. :)
fun right? It gives it a different look. Don't forget to include a spot for the CD. I used the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L CD pockets. They ROCK!!!!! I put them everywhere! I like to decorate a paper and I slide it in. I put the CD between the paper and the back, then it still has the protective paper in there.
Here's a few inside pages:
a little fun project!
See you later!
Leica
Posted at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I showed you a gift bag yesterday that I did lot's of step outs for. If you would like to see them, go here. Quick & fun and use up those scraps!
This little layout came together sooooo fast.any sort of ledger paper sends me to heaven and back! So I had fun mixing and matching this limey yellow with hot pink.
The Core'dinations cardstock worked sooooo perfect for this layout. I love the dimension this cardstock gives when sanded. bestill my heart.
This little girl also makes it easy to grab the bling and decorate with anything shiny! Lot's of times, I have no desire to have a specific"title" for my pages. So it is fun to just find inspiring quotes to put on. Makes me happy. This song I adore, so instead of using the most common line "These are a few of my favourite things." (funny even typing that I sang it outloud. happy times.) Anyhow, the song is fun for little girls and I like how Ireland always has her hair perfect, so the ribbons and hair bow prt has always reminded me of her.
Totally loved this quote today:
Pretty darn cute! makes you wonder...
Pinterest, my love, what did I spy today to share?
Snowflake ideas; they can never come too early. Gives me time to practice up before Winter gets here. Great activity for the kids.
but then I found this concept. LOVE. It is brilliant.
see you later!
:))
Posted at 09:27 AM in 2012 layouts/projects, american crafts, authentique, core'dinations, Core'dinations, Glitz Design, My Mind's Eye | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
LOVE this quote. It fits me to the fullest!!!! and Jager. poor kid, I know he gets that from me. I simply cannot help it.
right now I am inspired by Heidi's handwriting tips.
I just love her handwriting. always have, so trying to better mine. Especially in my journaling classes, trying to fine tune those. Make them a little more interesting for the upcoming season.
If I had one wish for a out of this world priced object to have in my house it would be this.Simply IN LOVE!!!!!!
I spend a lot of time driving the kids to and from activities and sitting on the sidelines watching and cheering. I love it. I love seeing their improvement. IT is AWESOME!
So I fill a lot of that waiting time on Pinterest. shocking. It is SO addicting. On the plus, I've spiced up our daily meals, created some wicked crafts, learned some yummy eye shadow tricks and just have enjoyed the inspiration.
Favourite thing found today:
Totally think Pipsqueak would love if I made her a few of these.
I've been making a lot of gift bags lately. Quick, easy and a nice personal touch. Great way to use up scraps and stickers!
Off to wash the floor. See you later!
Posted at 10:59 AM in 2012 layouts/projects | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This was SOOOOOOO much fun to do. I covered it in Canvas Corp burlap using Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Crafty Power Tape. I loved bringing in some texture paste and Tattered Angels glimmer mist.
Here's a closeup of the flowers that I misted with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. My preference is start with the Prima Marketing flowers or Petaloo flowers that are plain white. I love mixing and matching to make my own coloured flowers.
Even the Canvas Corp burlap I covered in mist and some Glimmer Glaze. (The glaze helped stiffen the bow)
The texture paste added just a little dimension. This pumice texture paste I mixed with Tattered Leather glimmer mist to enrich it to a deep chocolate brown. Just a different sort of a way to add something creative to the box.
Thanks for stopping by. I'm on a roll touching my blog. AMAZING, I know. But hopefully I can slot some time to make it work. But don't forget if you wish to see my work, grab the latest Creating Keepsakes, I'm in there! Pretty stoked.
Also I've been making lot's of videos for Core'dinations Color Core Cardstock. Or you can also find me at Tattered Angels or Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L. I've got loads of posts on those fabulous sites!
Posted at 10:30 AM in Canvas Corp, Glitz Design, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L, tattered angels | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
