Canada Day and Girls Night Out

Last year we went to a community fireworks event, and I actually figured out how to take half-decent fireworks pictures with my camera, so here they are.

I attended a bridal shower for one of our Fabulous Ladies today (that's what we call ourselves), and I realized I hadn't scrapped the bridal pics from the wedding of another of our Fab Ladies from last year, so here's a start.

Product Giveaway

Prima Marketing Flowers is doing a great Botanical giveaway on Monday! Check it out! All you have to do is share the link and comment on what you would make with the supplies. I'd love to win this!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prima-Marketing-Flowers/149525251733751

Gallery Gem

I'm so excited! I only joined Scrapbook Challenges a couple weeks ago, and this week one of my layouts was chosen as a Gallery Gem! This means that whenever you go to the Gallery of this site this week, my layout will be right at the top! WOOHOO!!

A Unique Family Tradition

This LO is a bit different than what I usually post. There's no real design or beauty to it, I just wanted to tell a story. This is a unique tradition we do in the Ysseldyk family every year when the immediate relatives get together: We challenge the kids to eat a raw fish. I was surprised this year, because my two kids and my stepdaughter's b/f were the only people interested in participating. I have a very competitive spirit, and I think I've passed that on to them. LOL My son, Conner, has developed a love of sushi so this wasn't too big a deal for him, but his chewing abilities were no match for my daughter. The newcomer, Nathan, didn't have a chance. He couldn't even finish! I'm so proud of my kids!

Christmas Memories

I know Christmas is long gone, but I'm a few years behind so you'll be getting a little bit of everything in this blog. I wanted to give this LO a bit of a vintage feel, so I downloaded some beautiful vintage Christmas cards onto brown cardstock, which immediately aged them, and the brass stars were a perfect accent.

Apple of My Eye

I just completed this LO last night. It is for two separate challenges. An inspiration challenge at http://scrapbookchallenges.ning.com/ required you to use turquoise, yellow and brown in a layout, and a sketch challenge at Punky Scraps requested that you follow this sketch. Here's the sketch: 

And here's my take on the sketch, using the colors from the inspiration challenge. I blurred out the faces of the other students for the purposes of posting online. This is my daughter winning the Silver Award of Merit last year.

A Little Piece of Heaven

YAY! It's Friday! That means a whole weekend of scrapbooking! Last night I completed Sketch 241 from www.scrapbookchallenges.ning.com. Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on the sketch.This is my darling niece enjoying a Timbit.

Crop Suey Challenge

I know I've posted this before, but I'm entering this LO in the Crop Suey challenge that says to use 9 different items on one layout. Here are my items: patterned paper, inks, brads, netting, jewels, metal, homemade flowers, glitter, pearls, vellum, sparkle pen, stickers. Hey, that's 12!

Punky Scraps Challenge

Here's a layout I finished last night for this challenge on http://punkyscraps.blogspot.com/2011/02/challenge-6.html. You had to create a layout inspired by a picture (follow the link to see the picture), sort of a "punky frills" feel. Here's my submission:

Homemade Flowers

I just finished another wedding page using homemade flowers, and then I went to www.papersecrets.net and they were hosting a technique challenge that required you to use homemade flowers. Go figure! So I entered my layout, of course. :) Here's the final two pager, although I only entered the first page. It's kind of a hodge podge of random stuff thrown together, but I like the final effect. The term "shabby chic" comes to mind when I look at it.

A Favorite

I decided to get away from the wedding for a moment and showcase one of my favorite pieces. I made a scrapbook a couple years back for my niece, Isabella. This was the first page, where I talked about the origins of her name. I just love it. The only thing I would change is the chipboard I used for the letters.  I think they should have been in a brown tone, but I didn't have anything appropriate at the time so I went with the black and silver.

Once Upon a Time...

Happy Valentine's Day! This is the perfect time to start showcasing my wedding album. This is the first page, done entirely in red and black. I feel like I've learned a lot since this was done, and I have the urge to go back and change it, but I'm too far behind to get caught up in that, so I have to just be happy with it for now.

Happy Valentine's Weekend!

We're almost halfway though February now. YAY! I can't wait for the snow to disappear and the warm weather to finally arrive. I just entered a contest on http://scrapbookchallenges.ning.com where you had to create a card entirely in red. Here's my take on it. I hope I win!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

Welcome!

My first blog post! I've created this blog in an effort to share my love of scrapbooking. I plan to post my favorite personal layouts here, participate in scrapbook challenges, and share information. I'm currently working on my wedding album. I got married in 2007, so I'm a few years behind.

I've chosen to do the entire album in red and black, but I'm also incorporating cream, white, gold, silver, and whatever else I feel flows with the pages and keeps to the theme. I don't think I have a specific style, as I like to dabble with lots of different supplies and new ideas, but I'm generally a two-page scrapper. I've recently discovered sketching, and I'm having loads of fun creating layouts based on sketches.

Here's a fun layout I just finished based on a sketch challenge at http://scrapbookchallenges.ning.com. First, here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it. These are a few fun pictures that were taken during the wedding formals session.