I believe

I believe in pink.

I believe that laughter

is the best calorie burner.

I believe in kissing,

kissing a lot.

I believe in being strong

when everything seems

to be going wrong.

I believe that happy girls

are the prettiest girls.

I believe that tomorrow

is another day,

and I believe in miracles.

I love this saying by Audrey Hepburn. I came across it again today as I was learning how to "pin" on pinterest. That site is totally addictive ... check it out if you haven't already!

Today was my birthday. My daughter took a couple of pictures of me so that I could remember what I looked like today. I added Audrey's quote to the photo because it is so "me".

owl always love you

The count down to back to school is on in our house as we begin our second last week of summer holidays. Lists for school supplies and fall clothing have started to appear on the kitchen table and I know that time is starting to run out to get everything ready for the new year.  

With bts in mind, I thought that I share a sweet little project that you can make with the kids ... it's another decorative clipboard. I made some of these one afternoon with the kids on our street and they loved it. They are going to use their clipboards to keep track of school notes and memos on their desks at home.

These are simple to make using scrapbooking papers, some distressed ink, paint and old buttons for the eyes. I use Claudine Hellmuth's studio multi-medium matte as my adhesive of choice for most of my mixed media pieces. We added letter stickers and scrabble tiles to make fun sayings. And of course we had to decorate the silver clip at the top ... mine has a ribbon and bottle cap magnet but some of the girls used ribbon and large flowers.

After I finished the clipboards,  I decided to use my "Emily owl" design to create some wall art and project samples for a mixed media class that I am going to offer this fall.

I ended up making a few variations of the same design because I love to show how you can make a basic project kit your own with just a few simple changes.

This first piece would be adorable in a bedroom ... I love the quote "always kiss me goodnight".  The paper flowers were fun to make and I added some rhinestone bling just because I don't think you can ever have too much bling! (for a boy's room take out the flower details and change the paper for the owl's body to something more graphic)

This next piece was created with a bright blue background which immediately gave the design a totally different look. And instead of a quote I used a large chipboard letter covered in silver glitter to customize this for someone special.  "E" is for Emily owl!

I'm sure that you are getting the idea now. This last picture is of the three samples that I recently put on display at Scrapbook Queens for my fall classes. I have not scheduled dates for my fall classes yet but as soon as I do I will update my class website and let you know. If you are interested in being on my class email list ... send me an email and I will add your name to the list.

I hope that you enjoy the week with your kids if they have not started school yet and find a little bit of time to do something creative with them to get them excited about the new year.

World Photo Day

So today is World Photo Day and I thought that I'd share with you some of the photo tricks that I have used this month. I love this new picture that my daughter took of my husband and I on the beach. My husband, Peter, is not always the most co-operative "model" and my best shots of him are when he is not looking or is doing something with the kids.

Here's how my daughter, Haley, and I worked together to get a picture that I would be happy to print. I set my camera to "action" and then I told Haley to just keep clicking ... then after a few {boring} photos I leaned into Peter and gave him a kiss on the cheek. As you can see Peter was a little surprised and he loosen up and gave us a natural smile.

As much as I loved the final photo ... I didn't like the person & two seagulls in the background by my head ... so I opened up Photoshop and started to work with my "clone stamp tool" to clean up the background. If you have never used the clone stamp tool before I'm going to suggest that you check out Rebecca Cooper's blog simple as that for her clone stamp tool tutorial ... it's easy to follow and she has some great tips on photography and using Photoshop.
 

Here's one last picture of my daughters on the beach.

I hope that you get your camera out today and take a few pictures to remember the day. By the way, 4x6 photos are on sale for eight cents at Costco (Canada) until the end of the month ... another good reason to take some photos!

We do not remember the days ... we remember the moments.

happily ever after ... wedding inspiration

Don't you just love fairy tales and happy endings ... I do ... and I was so happy to attend the wedding of our friends' daughter recently. Breann married her Prince Charming {Kyle} and their wedding and reception was amazing.

I collected a number of old frames to use at the reception as part of the decor. We removed the glass, painted the frames white and added chalkboards. The sign pictured above was a gift I made for Breann and Kyle. I hand painted the words so that the "happily ever after" will never rub off or go away. I also made another one with the words "thank you" ... it was used in the wedding day photography and I am just waiting to see the wedding photos so that we can print the thank you notes.

One idea that we had was to set up a photo booth at the reception. Breann fell in love with this yellow and grey fabric {which ended up being our inspiration for the wedding stationery} and we knew that it would make a beautiful backdrop for photos inside the hall. We purchased enough fabric so that I could sew two 8' panels together ... we wanted to make sure that we had enough width for group pictures. We hung the fabric in the reception hall, added some chalkboards and chalk, a big white frame and lots of silly props and that was all it took to "get the party started"! This would be great for a kid's party too! ... just let the fabric and props set the party theme.

Here's a picture of myself, two daughters and a friend's daughter ... can you tell we were having a lot of fun at the wedding?

I had a case of vintage mason jars that we filled with fine beach pebbles & candles to use at the bar. I created the paper flowers using extra* papers from Breann and Kyles' stationery. A little bit of Tim Holtz's distress ink in yellow (scattered straw) and grey (weathered wood), some pop dots and a ribbon to tie the flowers to the jars was all it took to make these candles complete.

I think that these would be cute for an anniversary or birthday party too ... just remember to keep the paper decorations away from the flame!

*Just have to tell you that we had "extra" stationery because a few weeks after we printed the invitations we found out that Breann's youngest brother was going to be representing Canada in the World Junior Swim meet in Peru ... and he would be swimming in Peru on her wedding day. Long story short ... the wedding date was moved ahead by two weeks, I made new invitations and I we have 200 extra wedding invitations to "play with".

I hope that you find these ideas inspiring whether you are planning a wedding or a party!

Have a great week.

cake pop tutorial

We just got back from two weeks of holidays at the cottage. Everyone had a great time and the weather was great. We had a couple of rain days that were filled with reading books, working on craft projects and baking with the kids.

The girls and I made cake pops one afternoon .. so yummy and so much fun to make. I took photos as we worked and so I could create this mini tutorial!

Note: we found that our cake pops were a little on the big side ... I'd suggest making the balls slightly smaller than the ones in the photos!

These sweet treats are so yummy and would make a great treat for a birthday party,

shower, wedding or any excuse that you have to entertain! You could decorate these treats in colours and shapes for the holidays ... I'm already making notes for how I might decorate these for Halloween and Christmas!