Mini album with flaps - Mini album à panneaux

I have been working on this mini album for a while now. The pages are not all done so you only get to see the cover for now. I might still add embellishments to it too.

Last day of the year. It seems like time flew by for the most part. I don't have too many regrets, thankfully.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read my blog. I hope the new year will bring you everything you deserve.

Ça fait un bout de temps que je travaille sur ce mini album. Les pages ne sont pas toutes faites alors vous n'avez droit qu'à un apperçu de la couverture pour l'instant. J'y ajouterai peut-être encore quelques décorations.

 

Dernière journée de l'année. Il me semble que le temps se soit envolé pour la plus grande partie. Je n'ai pas trop de regrets heureusement.

Merci à tous ceux et celles qui prennent le temps de lire mon blogue. J'espère que la nouvelle année vous apportera tout ce que vous méritez.

 

Music scrapbook pages - Pages scrapbooking de musique

November is here. Which means I will be spending the better part of my waking hours attempting to write a novel. I'm still planning to create and post here every weekday. But I will keep most of my written words for my novel instead of my blog.

Le mois de Novembre est ici. Ce qui veut dire que je passerai la majeure partie des mes heures éveillées à essayer d'écrire un roman. J'ai tout de même l'intention de créer et d'afficher ici chaque jour de semaine. Mais je garderai mes mots écrits pour mon roman plutôt que mon blogue.

Scrapbooking October 2008 - Collimager Octobre 2008

Two years ago, on Thanksgiving day (it's in October here in Canada,) my mother and I went for a walk in a nature park close to hour home. I brought my camera to capture the beautiful colours of nature. I have had these photos printed all this time, waiting to be turned into a scrapbooking page or two. And last night, I did just that. The papers are from K & Company, the cardstocks, ink and marker from Stampin' Up! and the brads from American Crafts.

Il y a deux ans, à l'Action de Grâce (c'est en Octobre ici au Canada,) ma mère et moi sommes allées marcher dans un parc nature près de notre maison. J'ai amené ma caméra pour capturer les belles couleurs de la nature. Ces photos étaient imprimées depuis tout ce temps, attendant d'être utilisées sur une page de collimage ou deux. Puis hier soir, j'ai fait exactement ça. Les papiers sont de K & Company, les cartons, l'encre et le feutre de Stampin' Up! et les attaches parisiennes de American Crafts.

Bo-Bunny mini album

This past summer, I found this fun mini album (Arrow mini edgy album by Bo-Bunny) with coordinating paper (Sophie by Bo-Bunny) and just had to have them. I love the arrow edges and thought they would be fun to play with. Thankfully, the paper pad has pre-cut papers to glue on the pages. I only had to punch holes through the paper and I sanded all the edges. The cover is an acrylic shape so I glued identical pieces of paper on both sides, to hide the glue. Now, I just have to decide how to fill it.

Au cours de l'été, j'ai trouvé ce mini album amusant (Arrow mini edgy album par Bo-Bunny) avec papier assorti (Sophie par Bo-Bunny) et je devais l'avoir. J'aime les bordures en flèches et me suis dit que ce serait amusant de jouer avec. Heureusement, la tablette de papier a des papier pré-découpés pour coller sur les pages. Je n'ai eu qu'à poinçonner les trous au travers du papier et sabler tous les contours. La couverture est une forme en acrylique alors j'ai collé des morceaux de papier identiques de chaque côté, pour cacher la colle. Maintenant, je dois décider comme le remplir.

Grungy mini-album - Mini-livre grungy

This is a mini-album that I did quite some months ago. In March, in fact. I don't know why it took me so long to show it here because I haven't played in it since then.

Ce mini-livre a été fait il y a plusieurs mois déjà. En Mars, pour dire vrai. Je ne sais pas pourquoi j'ai pris tant de temps à l'afficher ici puisque je n'ai pas joué dedans pendant tout ce temps.

 

But now that I'm showing it here and that I looked through all the pages again (you can see them all by going to this set in my Flickr), I'm tempted to add a few more pages and use the mini-album for a whole month of scrapbooking/journaling. I did it last year in September and really love that book. But, this time around, I'm thinking of doing a whole year of mini-albums. One for each month. And prepare them all in advance. And I think that this one would be perfect for February.

 Mais maintenant que je le montre et que j'ai regardé les pages à nouveaux (vous pouvez toutes les voir en allant voir l'ensemble sur mon Flickr), je suis tentée d'ajouter quelques pages et d'utiliser ce mini-livre pour un mois complet de scrapbooking/écriture. Je l'ai fait l'année passée en Septembre et j'aime beaucoup ce livre. Mais, cette fois-ci, je pense faire une année complète en mini-livres. Un pas mois. Et les préparer tous à l'avance. Et je crois que celui-ci serait parfait pour Février.

 

To make this album, I simply cut cardstock pieces at 5" x 7" and punched a hole in the upper left corner to put them on a binder ring. The decorating was done over a couple of weeks while dog-sitting at my parents' house so I only had a few of my supplies and borrowed some from my mother. The idea was to use things I was keeping for "something special" and things I didn't know where to use otherwise. No two pages are alike. And that's what I like the most about it.

Pour faire ce livre, j'ai simplement coupé des cartons à 12,75cm x 17,75cm et poinçonné un trou dans le coin gauche supérieur pour les mettre sur un anneau à cartable. La décoration a été faite sur deux semaines pendant que je gardais les chiens chez mes parents alors je n'avais pas toutes mes fournitures et j'en ai emprunté quelques-unes à ma mère. L'idée était de prendre des choses que je gardais pour "quelque chose de spécial" et les choses que je ne savais pas où utiliser autre qu'ici. Il n'y a pas deux pages identiques. Et c'est ce que j'aime les plus.

 

If you have any questions about the materials used in this album, let me know in the comments and I will do my best to answer you.

Si vous avez des questions sur les fournitures utilisées dans le livre, laissez-le moi savoir dans les commentaires et je ferai de mon mieux pour vous répondre.

Shaved head scrapbook page - Page scrapbooking tête rasée

I can't believe that this is only my second scrapbooking page this year (the first one was back in January!) At the beginning of the year, one of my goals was to scrapbook more. So, to achieve this goal, I will be doing at least one page per month until the end of the year. And I will mostly be using photos that are already printed.

J'ai peine à croire que ceci n'est que ma deuxième page de scrapbooking cette année (la première était en Janvier!) Au début de l'année, un de mes buts était de scrapbooker plus. Alors, pour atteindre ce but, je ferai au moins une page par mois jusqu'à la fin de l'année. Et j'utiliserai surtout des photos déjà imprimées.

 

 This page is about an event that took place in June of 2007. I had raised money for Leucan and was participating in their Shaved Heads challenge. I had wanted to do that for a long time and that year was the right time to do it. Especially since I knew someone who had a very sick granddaughter at the time. In fact, the big white block is an envelop in which are letters and a photo from that person and her family. It was a very emotional experience for me and I was happy to be surrounded by my friends, my family and even some of my students.

Cette page est à propos d'un événement qui a eu lieu en Juin 2007. J'avais amassé des fonds pour Leucan et je participais à leur défi Têtes Rasées. Il y avait longtemps que je voulais le faire mais cette année-là était le bon moment pour le faire. Surtout que je connaissais quelqu'un qui avait une petite fille très malade à l'époque. Justement, le grand morceau blanc est une enveloppe dans laquelle se trouvent des lettres et une photo de cette personne et sa famille. Ce fut une expérience très émotionelle pour moi et j'étais heureuse d'être entourée de mes amies, ma famille et même quelques-uns de mes élèves.

 

For this layout, I used Stampin' Up! cardstock in Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White as well as patterned paper from The Write Stuff Specialty DSP. The alphabet stamps are from a discount store, I believe and the brads are American Crafts.

Pour cette mise en page, j'ai utilisé les produits Stampin' Up! suivant: carton en Rouge-rouge, Noir nu et Murmure blanc ainsi que du papier à motif de la trousse Pages d'écritures Spécialités. Les étampes d'alphabet proviennet d'un magasin à rabais, je crois et les attaches parisiennes sont d'American Crafts. 

Paper bag album - Album sac de papier

Clicking on the image will bring you to Flickr where you can see each page individually.
Cliquer sur l'image vous mènera sur Flickr où vous pouvez voir les page individuellement.

Tomorrow, I'm teaching a workshop at a summer camp. A group of 22 kids and one of 24 kids. Ages are between 7 and 12 years old. They will learn how to make a paper bag mini-album as shown above. While half a group will be doing the album with me, the other half will be with my mother, learning how to make a cute bookmark and a few animals out of punched shapes.
Demain, je vais enseigner un atelier dans un camp de jour. Un groupe de 22 enfants et un groupe de 24. Agés entre 7 et 12 ans. Ils apprendront à faire un mini-album avec des sacs de papier comme celui montré ci-haut. Pendant que la moitié d'un groupe fera l'album avec moi, l'autre moitié sera avec ma mère, à apprendre comment faire un joli signet et quelques animaux faits avec des formes poinçonnées.

I plan on making a tutorial with photos for this kind of album in the foreseeable future.
J'ai l'intention de faire un tutoriel avec photos pour ce genre d'album dans un avenir rapproché.  

Scrap Your Day - May

May 25th came and went. I took photos and scrapped about it last week. This is the end result. The album template was a bit of a challenge for me because when I did my album, I forgot to add an extra inch to the background cardstock (I did 6" x 12" instead of 7" x 12") but that's ok. I made it my own. I added a few rub-ons and stickers to fill in some blank spots. And voilà! a scrapbook layout representing a day in my life (a lazy Sunday at that!)

A day in pictures

Tonight I picked up my photos from the 25th and decided to do the layout right away instead of letting things stew and gather dust. I'm not 100% happy with the result but it'll do. Besides, it's only the first time I was doing this and I have 11 other months to make up for it! Out of the 30-odd pictures I took, I used 14 and followed the album prompt almost to the letter.



What I liked about this project:
-having the paper already picked and glued down makes things so much easier;
-having to take certain pictures and use those in the layout also makes things easier;
-using a lot of pictures and cropping them in different sizes was interesting;
-as was layering some of the pictures.

This project definitely forced me to step out of my comfort zone when it comes to scrapbooking. Before this, I had mostly worked in 12"x12" or 8"x8" (with the exeption of one or two projects for other people) so working in 6"x12" for myself was definitely different. A fun project which kept my hands busy long enough to stop thinking about food.

(And I just spent the last 15 minutes typing up a storm about food and weight and personal issues and with one click, deleted the whole thing because really, I don't need to air my dirty laundry in public. And my blog is titled Good things and Good thoughts! So there.)

PS I changed my counter so I can now see where my visitors are from. Cool, huh?

New project

So last night I had a craving for sweets. I had nothing in the house that would do. I put my shoes on twice and removed them twice. I decided not to indulge and instead, kept my hands busy while starting a new project. I saw on Shimelle's blog a new project that appealed to me. It's called "Scrap Your Day" and consists of taking photographs all through the day on the 25th of each month and then making a scrapbook layout out of it, following a few guidelines. You can see a few pictures of my book here, pages all ready to receive the photographs and journaling. The format is 6" x 12" and I made it out of cardstock and paper I was keeping for just the right project. This seemed as good a time as any to use them. The quote you see here is a sticker from 7gypsies. I love the results so far and am looking forward to taking pictures on Friday to put them in this new little scrapbook of mine.

Have you started anything new lately?

Too often, like many people, I tell myself that "starting right now I'm going to take better care of myself." You know, exercise, healthy food and all that. And every time, like many people, it lasts a couple of weeks and then I fall back into my old habits. I've tried using visualization and positive thinking to reach my goal. But I guess I'm still not getting it, for this anyway. I don't know. Maybe I need to read The Secret again.

Doing my Daily Art Cards is really helping me in trying to step out of my comfort zone. I'm giving myself permission to try new things, new products (in moderation), to make mistakes and messes. Anything goes on these. My intention at first was to use a different size for every month but I don't know that I can find a total of 12 different card sizes. We'll see. For March, I want to do more of a postcard size.

Recently, I found that my little drawings speak to me. Like the girl below. She didn't like the dress I picked for her so she let me know with that little line. M'kay.

My thoughts are all over the place tonight. Sometimes I wish my blogging were more profound or witty or something else. But it isn't because, well, it is me, my thoughts, my memories, my ideas. I have so many ideas brewing in my head that I don't always know how to get started. For instance, a few weeks ago, I suddenly had a flash that turned into a story which I want to turn into a book for kids à la Neil Gaiman, with grungy looking illustrations and dark humour. But I don't know how to get it all started. Not yet anyway.



March break is coming up next week. (Our version of Spring Break.) There are so many things I want to do but the week won't be long enough! I need to spend less time on the computer and more time in the world. Or at least in MY world. You know, the one where it's okay to talk to animals and imagine they talk back. Where it's okay to have paint splattered on your hands and arms and clothes and maybe in your hair too. Where it's okay to dance in the rain and chase snowflakes around.

I'm ending today's post with another image. A new layout for my scrapbook. It's completely different from anything I've done before. I love that cluster of vintage buttons at the top.

Back to scrapbooking

It's been a while since I've done any real scrapbooking. This page has been waiting to be done for months (since last spring I think.) I finally decided to do it yesterday. To start off, I sanded the edges of the pictures because I felt they looked too perfect (_I_ don't even know what I mean by that but whatever...) I layered them over a cinema-themed paper and then assembled everything on another cinema-themed paper. Die-cuts, embellishments, journaling (in french) and voilà!

It's not my best and not my favourite but at least it's done and now I can move one. I also made an ATC last night for the 7/30/365 Art Card Project. I still don't now how long I'll do it but at least I'm doing it. I've also started a daily journal like this but instead of calling it a gratitude journal I call it "Every Day Brings Something New." So the idea is to write down something that I've done, seen, heard, etc during the day that was completely new. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Don't forget to comment here for the giveaway. I'll pick a winner Friday around 10 PM EST. Thanks for visiting!

2-page layout

Last wednesday, I went to Catherine's house for her Stampin' Up! "open house" party. It was fun. We did 2 make-n-takes. We received a piece of cardboard cake with goodies inside. And I won a paper pack! I usually don't win anything! Yippie! So these two pages are done with said papers from the pack. I love the colours! This is for my 8.5" x 8.5" album. I'm liking this 2-page spread a lot! What do you think?

Layout + Card

I made these, this morning, to give to our school's principal because she's going to another school next fall. The pics aren't the greatest but it'll do for now.

All patterned papers are from Costco (the 3rd series) and cardstocks are Bazzill. On the card, I stamped the face (unknown source) on glossy paper coloured with alcohol inks and then mounted it on a 1-1/2" square chipboard. I did some paper piercing, added gold Stickles and used a gold leafing pen for some edges.


On the layout I used my Van Dyke Brown ink on the frayed edges of my stripped paper. All pictures are size 3-1/2" x 5". Ribbon is unknown source and all metal embellishments are from We R Memory Makers (bought the hardware kit yesterday.)

These aren't my greatest creations but they are still pretty nice. I especially like the card. (BTW the inside reads "... il y a une fin.")

Hopefully, this summer, I'll be able to do some of my own scrapbooking.

When inspiration strikes...

...it's best to follow. For a week, I've been looking at my pictures from New-York, wondering how to use them in a layout. I finally decided on a 2-page layout but then was stumped for colours. I brought my New York paper with me to SC and asked Catherine for some help. She suggested this gorgeous blue to match the Radio City neon sign and some white for matting and journaling. I picked up some Thickers for the title. But I still felt like it was missing something. Yesterday, as I was shopping with mom, I found the perfect gray to match with the page. Yep! That's what I needed. On a whim, I decided to cut up one of the pictures (an original no less) because there was a big spot of light in the corner that annoyed me. And lo and behold, that was what pushed me to finish these pages! I spent all of today's afternoon on it but it's done, scanned and now posted online! Yay me! For the journaling, I searched my old diaries to find only a small entry about the trip, which was mostly about what I had bought instead of what I had seen! Darn teenagers!!! Oh well, at least I remembered some of the stuff already. I'm really happy with the final product. This was my first 2-page spread done all on my own!