Happy New Year - Bonne Année...

Well, 2009 has come and gone and 2010 is upon us. May it be a happy new year for all, full of good things and fun challenges, friends and family and love and laughter. May the angels smile upon us and all our prayers be answered...

In the fun department, the new year has brought us pleasure in the form of snow, so we can enjoy snowshoeing and perhaps even coax out our long forgotten cross country skis. There has even been some time for scrapbooking... YAY!!! That has been on hold for a while! Spending more time on scrapbooking, mainly card making and family albums is on my resolution list for 2010, although, we all know how efficient new year's resolutions are... LOL!?

Anyhow, here are a few of my favorite creations from Christmas and three pages I created for the various December challenges over at Scrapbook Québec.

This is a banknote holder I created for my daughter - I had fun with the girly vintage look.

I created this personalized notepad for my son so he can write down his list of things to do (hint, hint...)

This is Alexandra and her irresistible eyes - back sometime in '89-90.

And voilà MOI - way back - I think it was about 1986-87. Guess what the papers are - what else but Graphic 45...




This is a new addition to Tati's album - a double page holding two beautiful pictures taken by Diane. The background is stamped using a big leaf stamp from the dollar store. This layout was really lots of fun to create.

Until next time...

More cards... I'm on a roll!

These past days I've been struggling through a rough patch, so naturally I turned toward scrapbooking to keep my mind focused on something plaisant. Since cards don't come easy to me, I concentrated on card challenges...



I submitted this first card to Scrap Whispers for challenge #42, which happened to be a colour challenge. The requirement was to to create a layout or card using the colours Pink, Brown and Cream and include 4 buttons.









Next is my submission to Get Sketchy - GS4








Card #3 is submitted to Card Patterns, based on sketch #31

Last, but not least, a card I created for our friend's wedding... just for the pleasure of it.

I looked up this quote by Mother Teresa... it speaks of faith. I will keep it here as a reminder for those days when I may tend to forget.

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

Timeless BEAUTY

This is my first time participating in the OLW (One Little Word) blog challenge. I love the idea of being inspired by words. Visit them at this link http://onelittleword.typepad.com/olw/ ... it is really worth it. This past week's word was BEAUTY and I am posting my participation just in the nick of time! It is a card I made using my all time favourite Graphic 45 papers.

I based it on Get Sketchy's sketch #3 below.


On the subject of beauty, I also found a beautiful quote from John Keats...

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness; but still will keep a bower quiet for us, and a sleep full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing..."

Pro...

I picked up this neat paper from Necessities' urban collection. I love the wild grungy feel of it and it matched up perfectly with some cork sheeting I started experiencing with recently. Thus was born the page below featuring my son practicing basketball - in what I teasingly call his wannabe basketball pro look.


This layout is my submission for the Scrapbook Québec august sketch challenge based on the sketch below created by Isabelle Giasson.

For the occasion I found a sports related quote. I think that it is one worth remembering...

"A winner is someone who sets their goals, commits themselves to those goals and then pursues their goals with all the ability that God has given them. That requires someone who believes in themselves, who will make self sacrifices, work hard, and maintain the determination to perform at the best of their ability."

- C. Leeman Bennett

Poupée

Voici la page que j'ai soumis pour le défi scraplift de Scrapbook Québec (http://www.scrapbookquebec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3965). Je l'ai créé à partir d'une photo à laquelle je tiens beaucoup, malgré le fait que la qualité de l'image laisse à désirer. Elle représente ma puce quand elle avait à peine 2 ans, dans un ensemble style poupée de chiffon, que ma mère lui avait confectionné avec beaucoup d'amour et de patience. J'ai été obligée de scanner la photo originale et la réimprimer pour essayer d'eclaircir l'image et obtenir un format 4X6. C'est purement par "accident" que j'ai utilisé l'image en triple - fruit de mes essais-erreurs d'imprimerie - et j'ai trouvé l'effet intéressant.

Je vous laisse sur la citation du jour:

"Seules les pensées lumineuses et les sentiments d'amour désintéressé peuvent créer la beauté."

- Aïvanhov, Mikahël Omraam

Winners circle...

The Scrap Whisper Big Reveal is out and guess what... Team 3, of which I was a member, was named the winner! This was my scraplift. Check out the rest of the layouts here http://www.scrapwhispers.blogspot.com/. It is really neat to see the progression of all the layouts...

And here is a new quote for today, one that touched a sensitive cord for me.

"Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you."

- Marsha Norman

So many challenges... so little time...

This week my attention was grabbed by a number of card challenges. I'm glad to have found them, because I have neglected cards lately. I also really enjoyed them, because they pulled me out of the rut and pushed me in new directions.

I created the first card, "Haute Couture", for the Get Sketchy challenge. This is their first challenge and they are promising to post one every Friday. You can check it out here:
http://www.getsketchy.blogspot.com/

To create my card, I used (you can't really tell from the picture) pre-embossed card stock from Michaels, designer paper from Graphic 45's Fashionista collection (have I mentioned that I LOVE Graphic 45?), a decorative metallic brad and a few pearls.


Next in line is the "Celebrate" card. I submitted this one for the august card challenge on Scrapbook Café - http://forumscrapbookcafe.forums-actifs.com/forum.htm
Very simple, once again pre-embossed card stock and ribbon from Michaels, rub-on candles from miniMARKS, metallic flower and chipboard sentiment from the Dollar store, and some glitter to spice it up.

Last, but not least... "The beat goes on", submitted to Scrap Whispers for challenge #41. This was a really fun challenge - the theme was a Shreck in the swamp karaoke video - so it was wide open for inspiration...

Well, that's it for the cards... but till the next time, here is another quote...

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead."

- Louisa May Alcott

Today's quote and a new page

Who has never gone through tough times, faced the unexpected and questioned whether a brighter day will come along? Well, if you're in a rut, try to remember today's quote from Dolly Parton:

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

Alex and I are fortunate to have our fair share of sunshine. And although we did not catch any rainbows, we did enjoy some beautiful views of San Diego during a cruise in September 2007.

When visiting a new place, we really enjoy discovering it either by foot or by bike. This time we found a really inexpensive bike rental place just across from the cruise teminal, and in spite of threatening rain, we set out on a beautiful bike route that took us up to Cabrillo Point. We spent several hours enjoying the views on the way, and up at the Cabrillo monument. Even the weather turned in our favor, and the clouds parted by the time we made it to destination.

I created this page for last week's challenge on Scrapwhispers. You can visit their blog at http://www.scrapwhispers.blogspot.com/ and check out their weekly challenges, guest designers and gallery. I really enjoy their challenges. They are varied, fun and you always receive comments on your entries.

Until tommorrow...