Top 10 of 2010

So I've been peer pressured into posting my top 10 of the year - LOL! I don't normally do this but have found so many of my friends posting their top ten lists. I think its a great idea actually - a recap of the year - so I will follow suit! In no particular order, here are my faves of the year (that aren't out for publication): Tara's Top 10 (+2 - sorry, couldn't narrow it down) of 2010!

Lost & Found
Chalk
Keys to my Heart
Cozy
Journey Through Parenthood
Blue Sky Holiday
Queen of my Heart
Welcome Spring
Self Proclaimed Princess
Princess Cupcake Face
Love You
Light up my Life

December Zva Blog Hop Winners Announced

We'd like to congratulate the FIVE December Zva Blog Hop winners! Their names will be found on the following blogs:

Angelica Franssen
Tanya Tahir
Debbie Olson
Windy Robinson
Gail Lindner

One winner from each of the 5 blogs will receive a Zva prize package worth $30.00. Congrats winners!

I'd like to leave you with a little more inspiration. This is my daughter this past summer trying out her twirly dress. Love it.

Adore the ZVA rose blossoms - every color and every size you can imagine!

Of course there's the two toned crystal flourishes to compliment the warm tones in the papers - which are Bo Bunny's Noel Collection (who'd have thought you could do a summer layout with winter papers eh?)


Thanks so much for the visit and for participating in the hop!! Stay tuned in the next few days for some more scrappy goodness. Cheers!

Supplies:
ZVA Self Adhesive Crystal (CR03CA119)
ZVA Bulk Sweet Blossoms
Bo Bunny Noel, Memories
Bo Bunny Noel, Stripe
Bo Bunny Noel, Noel
Bo Bunny Noel, Joy
Bo Bunny Noel, Noteworthy
Bo Bunny Chocolate Chunky Charms Swirls & Brackets
Bo Bunny Chocolate Dot Cardstock

Zva Creative December DT Blog Hop!

Zva Creative and the Design Team welcomes you to join us this month for a blog hop that we feel is always extra special!

There is now an added twist to our blog hops, YAY! As you know, Zva offers so many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals. We want to make sure that they shine bright for you, so each designer was asked to share a creation using a specific color or color combination on their blog hop project.

The Blog Hop begins at Kim Hughes' blog. She will have the complete list of all blogs that are participating in case there is a glitch along the way. If you would like to play along, just follow along the blog path. I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way. Hidden on FIVE of the blogs is a Zva Creative prize package ...YAY! Winners will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

The Blog Hop starts today, December 27th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, December 28th and the 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, December 29th on each of the five winning blogs. The full list will be found on Kim Hughes‘s blog as well (linked above). We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Wednesday...plus, you never know what kind of inspirational creation that you may find there. All you need to do is leave a comment on this Zva Blog Hop post...you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. The more times you leave a comment along the blog hop path though, the more chances you will have to be one of the lucky winners.

This month, my colour is purple!! I used the beautiful new purple pearl flourishes from ZVA as well as their butterfly flourish which I inverted.

You can see here where I used the rest of the butterfly flourish, paired with another black butterfly from a previous project that I saved. In addition, I used some of ZVA's crystal alphas for my title and some of their larger purple pearls for the centres of my chipboard blooms.

The Winter Joy papers from Bo Bunny had the perfect accents for this project and hilighted the purple tones perfectly!

The blog hop begins here: Kim Hughes

Your next stop is at the blog of Ingrid Danvers

Thank you SO MUCH for joining us.

ZVA Supplies:
Self Adhesive Crystal: CRB03CB112
Self Adhesive Pearl: PES03CB107
Sefl Adhesive Pearl: PEW03CB154
Self Adhesive Pearl: PEW03CB142
Self Adhesive Crystal Alphas: CRB02CB112
Self Adhesive Crystal: CRB03CB109

Scrap That! January Kit Reveal

I was so in love with this month's kit from Scrap That! The entire collection from My Minds Eye, Lost & Found, is to die for! The January kit is packed full of 10 of these gorgeous papers from Union Square line. I created three layouts and a 10 page mini with this beautiful kit.

My first layout is quite simple in design. I love the pops of colour from my daughter's jacket and wanted to enhance this with some blooms. You can see how well the flowers and red swirls stand out with such an otherwise monotone background. Love this.

I'm all about making the products work for me and I'm not afraid to alter each product to suit my needs. The kit comes with some beautiful fabric flowers that I just didn't feel worked well with my layout. I took apart the flower and used the fabric petals to layer on the top of my page for added softness and dimension.

I made my own roses with the beautiful patterned papers and finished with some XMas Red Distress stickles - also in the kit. (NOTE: The leaves were not included in the kit)

I used very few embellies aside from my flowers as I felt they pretty much dominated the page (LOL). I fussy cut this photo frame, the bird and the birdcage from another piece of patterned paper and finished with some Diamond Glaze (also in the kit).

There was a gorgeous piece of crystal bling in the kit - much too elegant to use on any one area of my project. I cut it (totally hacked it actually) into several smaller pieces and used throughout my layout.

Layout number two! I love how this came together in the end. It actually took me AGES to get the composition just right and I actually thought that I had wrecked it initially. But you know what they say - 'there is no such thing as a mistake in scrapbooking - just an opportunity to embellish' - HA!

To create my vintage blooms, I first inked the lace included in the kit and then stitched them together. I finished with the gorgeous pearl brads. The petals were created using the unique feathers in the kit - very cool addition and the tones work wonderfully with the papers!

LOVE layers - this page is nothing short of TONS of them! I made a unique heart banner and layered with some scallop circles created for the border of my circle.

Just loving tags lately - they add to the whole rustic feel to the page and are super quick and easy to create using scraps of leftover papers.

My last layout is very simple but I wanted the photo to stand out so I kept the embellishments to a minimum and the tones very plain. I love the finished look. My father and daughter at the beach last month. They had so much fun exploring - love watching them together. (NOTE: I added the mini doily to this page from my stash)



And lastly, my mini album. I had so much paper left over after my layouts that I wanted to change it up a little and create a different project. This mini was so fun to do - the only thing I added to the kit were the actual scallop mini album and the mini alphas.




For the dressforms, I took apart another one of the flowers in the kit and used the tulle as a dress for my embellishment!






Phew!! Well, I hope you adore this kit - I loved working with these papers so much - just beautiful (warning - I was totally covered in red sparkles afterwards - LOL!) I hope you all had a wonderful holiday - we're continuing with our festivities into the New Year. My husband's birthday is tonight, relatives come in on the 29th, my brother in law has his birthday on the 30th, New Year's on the 31st, my son's hockey tournament on the 2nd.... AHHHH! I need a holiday from my holiday.

Youer Than You

It snowed. Not much, but it DID snow (this was a few weeks ago now, its all melted now). I was soooo excited - had to snap some snow shots of my little man. He was such a good sport - did tons of poses for me :> I ended up antiquing my photos to match the grungy tones in Bo Bunny's Cambridge papers and I love the effect. I added some burlap and lace for texture as well as some faux stitching around my die cut.

I'm only slightly addicted to banners as of late - LOVE them! For my banner here, I used some old fabric and cut out triangle shapes. I then layered with some of Bo Bunny's Newsprint ribbon (also cut into triangles). You can arrange on your page as desired. I love to layer mine or put one at the top and then one at the bottom for balance.


I also love making my own tags - super easy and a great way to embellish 'boy' layouts. For these tags, I simply cut a 'tag' shape out from patterned paper, roughed up the edges a little and then did some faux stitching around the outer rim. To complete, I layered with another piece of patterned paper and cut out a cardstock sticker for the journaling.

Thanks for the visit. We're getting close aren't we.... How many more sleeps?!?!

Supplies Used:
Cambridge Cut Outs,
Cambridge Cardstock Stickers Strength & Honor,
Cambridge Post,
Cambridge Chess,
Cambridge Stripe,
Cambridge Crown Die Cut,
Cambridge Chipboard Stickers,
Cambridge Combo Stickers,
Noel Postcards,
Newsprint Wraps,
Antique Lace Petal

Designer's Tip: I used faux stitching around the die cut as well as on my handmade tags. I find the white shows up very well with the darker colored patterned papers. I also took one of Bo Bunny's fantastic petals and 'unstitched' it creating a length of lace to which I applied to the outer rim of some of my die cut as well as at the bottom of my page.

Sneaky Sneek!

Here's a tiny peek of what's in store for you come December 26th! Scrap That's! January kit. yummy......

Holiday Traditions

Hello wonderful readers! Sorry its been awhile since I last blogged - 'tis the season! Hope you are all enjoying the month of December thus far! I have a winter layout to share with you today featuring the newest releases from Petaloo - the gorgeous Canterbury Collection! Oh my, are you in for a treat when you see these pieces! They are beyond gorgeous with their vivid colours and dimensional qualities.

The branches are so very easy to work with and can be bent and shaped to your desired position. I required very little in addition to these embellishments as they were so lush, overflowing with flowers and branches. To adhere to my project I simply used a generous amount of Tacky Glue.

I wanted to show the versatility of these blooms so I paired with non-traditional colours of blues and creams which really hilighted the coolness in this project.



Petaloo Products Used:
Canterbury Collection Magnolia & Berries, Cream
Canterbury Collection Magnolia Blossoms, Cream
Canterbury Collection Mini Magnolia Spray, Cream/Brown

Thanks for stopping by today!