A Brand New Adventure for me....

I am tickled PINK to share my newest adventure with all of you...

I have LOVED Susan Weckesser's amazing creations ever since I was first introduced to them back in 2010 when she was SuzieBee Studios, but I also admire her as an artist and as a genuinely warm and caring person.  It is a joy to watch her living her dream of being a full-time artist while raising and supporting her family ... so to be selected to be a Guest Designer for her first ever design team feels like Christmas Morning!  

Here are some cards that I created with one of her new Unity stamp sets and I cannot wait to share more with you, so stay tuned!

Send (or be) an Unexpected Gift

Have you ever noticed that when you are going through something really hard, or really dark how it is the smallest, unexpected act of kindness that gives you the strength and courage to keep going?  I have been reflecting upon some pretty rough times in my distant past when I started to remember that there were a handful of times when I felt like I REALLY couldn’t go on, and then a card would appear in the mail or the phone would ring out of the blue and someone would take me to lunch and spend an hour of their life just listening to me!  And why this had such an impact on me was because IT WAS NEVER FAMILY or even close friends, but usually someone that I had met briefly or casually or someone who had heard about my situation through someone else… which is why I still remember all of them - these  almost Strangers who took time out of their busy lives to send me some kindness.   I wish I had paid more attention at the time and expressed how their one act of kindness felt like a lifeline at the time!  But Shoulda….Woulda…. Coulda….. I can’t change the past but I can do something now.

I am currently immersed in my Brave Girls Art School on-line classes

Doodling Funk Flowers - Brave Girls Art School - Lesson 1

and last week we were given an assignment of creating a 3-D collaged flower garden and sending it to someone who is not expecting it and may need a little joy in their lives. (I guess that is what got me thinking about all those times I received unexpected gifts of love and kindness) and I thought WHO can I make this for?  And the name “Dawn” immediately popped into my head!

Dawn's Garden

I met Dawn briefly in June At a women’s empowerment retreat I go to every year called "Scrapbook Your Heart".  A talented and generous soul, she has spent the last 20 years of her life in service to others – especially children. Dawn had made each of us at the retreat a personal journal – there were 80 of us! And each journal was an original, individual work from her heart… EIGHTY OF THEM!  We all cried when we received our gifts, every single one of us!  And then it was announced that she was off to the States the following week to undergo some experimental treatment for the Big “C”.  She did NOT want to be singled out, she was uncomfortable with our thanks, but her journals were a gift to us of how powerful journaling can be in everyone’s life, and her journal to me gave me another little push along the road to recovery and forgiveness that we all walk one way or anther. 

I LOVE my Journal -  it says "The world will tell you that happiness comes from more, bigger, better, newer.  Find out FOR YOURSELF if this is true... when you find the truth, lovely you, be brave enough to live that truth."

 So my Garden goes to Dawn… it is in the mail today…. And I send it with love and prayers and hope that it will give her a little light and joy, and let her know that she matters, she is thought of often and she has made an impact on my life.

And so I encourage you to give in to that little voice/thought/nudge that says “you should call her.” Or when you see a card that would be PERFECT for someone… don’t draw back, thinking it is too personal, or you don’t know them well enough… because they may need just that … a little joy or kindness from an almost stranger!

A Gratitude Adjustment

Well, so much for my promise of regular blogs (guilty smile)… but really what a ride the last five months have been!  In May just after I turned 50 an amazing book came into my life titled “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne and it started me on a journey of daily gratitude and joy!  I start every morning being truly thankful and grateful for the amazingness of my life today (no matter what is happening – smile) and I end every day with a quick review of all that happened that day, choosing the one thing that was my favorite, BEST moment of the day and saying a quick “thank you" for that moment before I fall asleep! and you know what... Life just keeps getting BETTER and BETTER these days and even the "hard moments are joyful!

Birthday Flowers from My Sister-in-Law!

In June I attended a five-day Brave Girls Camp hosted by Melody Ross and her sister Kathy Wilkins in Star, Idaho.  Imagine, Empowerment and healing through ART! It was LIFE CHANGING! 

Melody, Me and Kathy

Our Group... I MISS YOU GUYS!

Me at my art table in Star, Idaho (see the stars?)

In July my amazing grandboys (who are 8 & 5) arrived for a 35-day visit -woo hoo!  I spent the month of August RECOVERING from the 35-day visit!  (it was totally worth it though!)

My Boys (Charlie's Angels?)

and this is what it was like most days!! LOL

In September I started Brave Girls Art School and discovered my Inner Artist and my life has changed YET AGAIN! 

Brave Girls Art School Lesson 1 - doodled Funky Flowers...WHO KNEW!

And as I reflect back upon the past few months I have to share with you that life has taken on a very rosy glow since I started focusing on all I HAVE in my life instead of moaning about all I don't have in my life.... I call it a GRATITUDE ADJUSTMENT and I encourage you to give it a try!

To My Amazing Daughter!

CONGRATULATIONS to My Lovely Daughter Who is writing her final exam this morning for her Real Estate Licence!  What an amazing accomplishment in such a short time.. I KNEW you could do it!

The inspiration for this card I created for my daughter came from the Beyond Grey Challenges site I just discovered... They are a group out of India and I am looking forward to sharing with them! (Don't you just love how small the world has gotten with this World Wide Web?!)

  The challenge was to create a simple card using chipboard and ribbon... I used some one-inch wide satin ribbon; a Harmonie ribbon slide which I painted silver using Ranger's dauber paint and then cut in two; four jewels as accents; and then I stamped and embossed (in silver of course) the words.  

That's It! Simple and Elegant - Just like my daughter!

Enjoy!

It's a BLOG HOP! Presenting the CMS STEAMPUNK Release

Welcome Friends to our FIRST EVER Copic Marker Scrapbooking Blog Hop!  If you are currently "hopping" this should be your 9th hop and the letter you need is "I"

If you have just stumbled in and WANT to join our hop go to the Making our Mark blog to start.  Every person completing the hop will receive the entire Steampunk Digital Stamp set FOR FREE! AND one lucky hopper (randomly selected) will receive the Copic Sketch Set Ex-6 - which is a set of all the new Copic colors!

Hopping Instructions:  Starting with the Making Our Mark site you will hop through all the blogs of our Design Team and one Guest Designer, collecting a LETTER and leaving some blogging LOVE (a comment) at each site.  While you are visiting you will get to see what our amazingly creative and talented team did with the newest Copic Marker Scrapbooking digital stamp: STEAMPUNK (Designed by our own DT Leader - Colleen Heron!)   When you have visited all the sites your collected letters will form a "secret word" that you need to e-mail to hurricaneheron@gmail.com and if you have the correct word you will be sent the complete Steampunk digital stamp set to play with however you like!  This hop is active only until Midnight April 29th so don't wait... come and play!

Now here are my takes on the Steampunk release:

When I saw these two "young people" images I knew I just had to scrap a layout of my grandson Aidan and his best friend Sophie. She is the "older woman" being 9 to his 8 and is the centre of his world (just look at how he LOOKS when he is with her.)  Sophie is an independent, creative and very, very smart young lady who has NO fear and is the first to come up with another great creative play idea.  And while Aidan is also very imaginative and very smart he tends to be the more analytical of the two and he plays a more supporting role in their relationship.  I love watching them together and I just love how these two Steampunk images captured my vision of their two personalities. 

To add more dimention to a layout I like to pop my images off the page

For my tag I wanted to create a more whimsical feel.  Using my Tim Holtz embossing folder and Ranger's sky blue dauber ink for the background, I rubbed a slightly darker ink over the embossing; I then popped my SteamPunk Hot Air Balloon images off the tag and added whatever "goodies" I had on hand in the Scrap Basket I keep on my counter in my studio.  My secret to this technique is DON'T OVERTHINK - If you like it - just glue the stuff down! and of course the finishing touch - highlight with a little stickles and liquid glass!

 

For my card I used one of my favorite "quickie card" techniques... again using Ranger's stickles I decorated the heck out of this dragonfly paper and then I popped my Copic Marker Scrapbooking Steampunk image off the card to add some dimension; a stamped word and some liquid glass and I'm done... Quick, fun and unexpectedly original!

And last but not least - here is OWL... I haven't done anything with him yet, but he is just soooo cool I HAD to share him...

Well THANK YOU for Hopping by!  Now don't forget to leave me some Blogging Love (a comment) and then HOP over to Peggy's blog: My Stamping Obsession for your next letter!

(NOTE:  if you get lost on the hop you can find a listing of all the DT blogs to the left of my post)

Our First EVER Blog Hop!!!

You start on Friday at Copic Marker Scrapbooking's Making Our Mark site and you hop through all the sites of our Design Team and one Guest Designer, collecting a LETTER and leaving some blogging LOVE (a comment) at each site.  While you are visiting you will get to see what our amazingly creative and talented team did with the newest Copic Marker Scrapbooking digital stamp release

STEAMPUNK!   

And EVERYONE who completes the Hop will recieve  the complete SteamPunk digital stamp set to play with any way you like!

We start the very first minute of Friday, April 27th and you have until the very last minute of Sunday, April 29th sooo don't wait.... COME PLAY!

Hand Made Paper Flowers

I was browsing around my other design team members websites' when I found this post by Peggy Oliver.... Check This out  -  I am off to try it right now!  My Stamping Obsession: Hand Made Paper Flower

Yoda Lynne

Well it has been a CRAZY, but WONDERFUL year for me as I steam full-speed-ahead toward my 5oth birthday... Yup 50! (gulp) I was feeling VERY stressed over this upcoming milestone when I realized.... "I AM TURNING 50!" (I made it! I am here!)  and I realized I don't want to be one of those women who worries constantly about weight, wrinkles, growing old and sagging - but that I want to be one of those women who embraces life!  I want to Live MY life so you only see my personality - not my body!  Life really IS too short to waste one more minute on worrying about anything I can't control or change AND I am not going to waste one more SECOND spending time with anyone that sucks the joy out of my life!  As of today I am moving forward EMBRACING the badges of aging... saggy, wrinkly, grey, pear-shaped me! But my soul shines through my eyes and I have a nice energy about me and now I can be old and WISE - Just call me Yoda Lynne!

A Weekend of Creativity!

Yes, that's ME and Donna Houston (my lovely daughter and owner of Inspired Designs Scrapbooking Boutique, Ft. McMurray, AB) and Leica Forrest (Saskatoon, SK) and Trisha LaDouceur (Edmonton, AB) two of my favorite designers and scrapbook friends.  And this was just one of the great moments I had this weekend at the Memories Wholesale Retailers Event in Edmonton, Alberta this weekend.  One of the things I love the most about this crazy scrapbooking world in Canada are the people I have met and continue to meet.  What amazing, talented, and just genuinely NICE people they are!  Leica and Trisha are two of my favorites and if you ever have the opporltunity to take one of their classes - RUN to register!  Here we all are in the "Good" photo - don't let it fool you!

This was my first Retailer event (supporting my daughter's store) and what an experience it was!  I attened 90 minute workshops with representatives from all the great companies lik Bo Bunny, Ranger Industries (Tim Hotlz) Clearsnap (Cathie Allen), We R Memory Keepers, Copic Markers, Graphic 45 (Diane Shultz)-  all of my very favorite lines!  The following are just some of the amazing things I got to create and the people I got to meet and talk to... Enjoy!

this is Diane Shultz, the owner and designer of all that Lovely Graphic 45 paper, and she is just a lovely in person! And below, standing beside me is her lovely Daughter Aimee, co-owner and Director of Operations of Graphic 45... Can you see the new PAPER line behind us?  It is FANTASTIC!

The following is the paper tag I made using the new paper line - Curtain Call

Then there was the Ranger Class with Tim Holtz (yes in person!)

When I dragged Donna up to get a photo of the two us with Tim Holtz, I asked him if he "had a Mother?" and his repsonse was.... "Not like YOU!"  giggle - too fun!

Here are the tags we did in the two workshops we took:

I learned sooo much in his classes that I will have to do a blog just on these techniques!

Now I have been a follower of (and in love with everything by) Cathie Allen for years!  So being able to take a class with her in person was a personal milestone for me. I don't have any good photos of what I did in Cathie Allen's stamping class, but if you ever have the opportunity to take a class from this Wonderful Woman... DO IT!  she has been in the industry for 20+ years, and here love of, and passion for stamping is contagious.  NOBODY stamps like Cathie and her techniques, (which she shares with everyone) are somthing that will change how you look at your stamps and how you incorporate stamping into your scrapbook pages.  Here is me with her and a photo of one of her stamped cards... just remember that that was a piece of white cardstock when we started!

Here are some of the other projects that I got to start creating in our workshops and will continue to work on over the next few weeks... Enjoy!

This is a photo of the cover of a portfolio we created using Little Yellow Bicycle's new line "Twig" that is totally sold out all over north America, but don't worry we were told that Twig II is coming!

Open and not yet embelished. We started with two pieces of cardboard, paper & hockey tape! WOW!

Now one of my favorite classes was with the lovely ladies from We R Memory Keepers

Here they are, Jennifer Garry & Laurel Mitchell.  I loved both their teaching style and the wonderful tools we got to play with.  watch for the new Brad setting tool - You NEED one! And if you like to stich on your projects you need to try out the Sew Easy! I am getting one for sure!  In our class we used the Cinch to create this wonderful book from just some old cardboard, their new Mexican paper line and some looseleaf with the holes removed...

I will definitely be using this book for my next journal, or maybe Receipts?  We added four divider pages that have pockets to hold stuff and that created sections in our book... LOVED IT! and done in 90 minutes!

Now have you heard about the new Vagabond Die cutting machine by Sizzix?   Well I got to use it!  (and yes, I am ordering one!)  I am a Quickutz Revolution girl, not really a Cricut girl; me and electronics just don't get along, but this baby does all the great things my Revolution does, but you push a button instead of crank a handle!  AND it cuts chipboard exactly the same way.... here is our little project made out of 1/4 inch chip board, and it took about 10 minutes!

Well that's it for now except I did want to share with you some of the layouts that they allowed me to photograph from the Prima Booth.  I just LOVE Prima... Sigh....

2011 and New Beginnings

This is a transition year for me... I will be 49 in May... I NEVER thought I would live this long - Really!  My Dad died when he was 43, his sister a year later when she turned 43, do you see a pattern?  At some point I decided that I too would probably never make it passed 43... and then I did?!  But really, 44 was still too close, and 45 was just practicing ... and I kept telling myself that each year after 43 was the probably the last one, until now... 49 this year!  I guess I'm going to make it after all (LOL), and 50 is just around the corner, so now I have decided that I am probably going to live a long, long time and that I'd better get my personal "house" in order.  So I am spending the first part of 2011 working on ME; reflecting on the past and just celebrating the process that got me to this point in my life.  I have found a couple of quirks that I am working on changing so I can be a really interesting and entertaining "Old Woman" but otherwise I have discovered that I kinda like who am right now.  I am attaching this layout as a little challenge to you:

This is a  VERY different style for me and I allowed my "inner voice" to direct the entire process while I was creating it.  I don't usually cut out my photos or have this much dimension on my layouts, but my rule of thumb for scrapbooking is "There are NO rules, do what YOU like, do what YOU think looks good no matter how weird or different that may be."  And now I am adding a second line.... "Listen to your inner voice!"   I love the whimsical effect of everything on this layout and I especially love the richness of the Stampendous velvet leaf sticker next to the BoBunny's ruffled, satin ribbon, in contrast with the shiny Dewdrop pearls, glossy accents and stickles.  I used foam tape to raise the center 6x6 page off the main layout and and I used stacked pop dots on the frogs and photos to raised these elements off the page at higher and lower levels for even more dimension.  The frogs are from Copic Marker Scrapbooking's new Fantasy line of digital stamps which I colored using my copic markers and the center 6x6 paper is from DCWV's "Once Upon a Time" stack.

I LOVE the ribbon detail on my wedding dress.  To get this effect, after cutting out the image, I actually cut through the middle of the photo skirt and pop-dotted the photo with a split between the two pieces, then I used glue dots to add the already ruffled ribbon and tucked the pearls in to hide any edges. 

So I my challenge to you this year  is to create one layout where you listen to your inner voice  (you know, the one we usually suppress or ignore)  and try something totally new to your style, you might just surprise yourself!