Our Easter in Photos

We celebrated an 'eggcellent' Easter weekend just last week. The kids and I dyed some eggs as you can see above. Lots of fun until they wanted to 'play' with them... Hard boiled eggs + toddler play = a stinky, messy toy.

The Easter bunny visited us and boy - do we ever LOVE CHOCOLATE!! Breakfast of champions! We had woken up, finished our Easter Egg hunt, eaten breakfast - all by 7:03am!! LORD, that was the longest Easter EVER!

After naps, we headed to my parent's house for an amazing turkey dinner. Why is it we only get to enjoy turkey dinners at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas?? Notice how the boys are dressed? (hee, hee....)

The kidlets in their Easter best...

The whole gang! On the left is my eldest, my hubby, my sis and her hubby, my mom, my daughter, yours truely, my brother and his gal and my youngest son. My dad is taking the photo.

If you celebrated Easter this past weekend, I hope you had a wonderful time with friends and family or at the very least, ate your weight worth in chocolate - LOL!

Bo Bunny Card Challenge

Yesterday over at the Bo Bunny Blog, it was Card Challenge Tuesday. Our challenge was to create a card based on this gorgeous sketch created by the super talented Romy Veul.

I decided to flip the sketch and created my card using Bo Bunny's Vicki B. Collection.



Thanks so much Romy for another amazing card design and thank you everyone for stopping by today for a visit!

Supplies:
Vicki B. Petals,
Vicki B. Dimensional Stickers,
Vicki B. Layered Chipboard Stickers,
Vicki B. Chipboard
Vicki B. Jewels,
Vicki B. Trinkets,
Vicki B. Buttons
Vicki B. Stripe, Florilicious, Cut-Outs, and Bazzillion Patterned Papers

April Zva Blog Hop Winners Announced

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

Ingrid Danvers
Jillian Deiling Cassity
Nancy Doren
Guiseppa Gubler
Jolanda Meurs

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

Congrats winners!

Scrap That! Anniversary Celebration Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Scrap That! Anniversary Celebration Blog Hop!

First stop on your “hop” is the Scrap That! BLOG. If you are arriving here from Lisa's BLOG you are here you are in the right place! We have EIGHT AMAZING blogs for you to visit today, each with a some beautiful projects that were created using the Scrap That! May Kit "Romantic Spring".

You will need to visit all EIGHT blogs. There will be a randomly drawn comment winner from each blog! That means EIGHT winners will receive a yummy package of Prima goodness! Once youʼve done that, youʼll need to swing by our facebook page and LIKE us. Then head over to our NING community and become a MEMBER.

Plus, while you are hopping you will want to be looking for the special word on each blog.

My secret word is "DUSTY".

Once you have visited all the blogs and collected all the special words, create the sentence and email that sentence to Scrap That!

All qualifying entries will be entered into a draw for the GRAND PRIZE, a FULL Scrap That! Paper Crafting Kit! Watch the Scrap That! newsletter on May 21st to see if you are one of the lucky winners!

Okay, so here are the projects that I created with this gorgeous kit:

I decided to play up the punchy colours in the flowers found in the papers. I fussy cut the blooms and made that the focal colour of my layout.


I didn't want to use the Prima branch in its entirety so I cut off each flower from the branches and applied to my project here and there - to add texture.

I think I may have a new addiction to Perfect Pearls. There is always one bottle included with the Scrap That! kits and they are so perfect for adding in tiny details.

My next project features a softer palette. I decided to play up the peach tones found in one of the sheets of paper. My only issue was that there were only 2 peach flowers. What to do? I painted the rest of the flowers with acrylic paint !


I added some of the perfect pearls to the centres and tips of all my flowers to give them more of a realistic look.
I added in some vintage newsprint from an old children's book I found at a local thrift store. Love adding unique pieces like this - just a little goes a long way.

The last layout I created with the kit started off as a total nightmare!!! I had never worked with canvas before receiving my kit and let me tell you.... it was a 'titch' of a challenge! Let's just say this is the 'back' of my canvas that you see on my page (LOL)!

I added in some of my own Dusty Attic Flourishes and the crochet doilies are from a previous Scrap That! kit.
I opted for a monochromatic feel for this layout - using mainly white and lightly coloured embellishments. The little bows were created using strips of the canvas sheet.

To created my doily mask, I lay a paper doily on my canvas and proceeded to mist away. I then gave it a bit of a whitewash by painting over the misted image with white acrylic paint.


Scrap That! is also EXTREMELY EXCITED to share that they are sponsoring The Color Room for the month of May!!

If you are not familiar with The Color Room, they are a fabulous online community of over 3,000 like minded people. They inspire creativity by offering a sketch and a color palette each and every week. They also have tons of tutorials to push you even further! The color palettes during May will all be created from the colors of the Scrap That! Kits so head on over and upload your gorgeous creations for a chance to win some fantastic goodies!

We hope you all had good fun hopping with us today, thank you so much for playing along! Your next stop is over at the amazingly wonderful blog of Tina.

Zva Creative April 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!

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, April 25th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, April 26th and the 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, Apeil 27th 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.

My colour this month was pink/rosy pink. I decided to try an altered project this time round and love the result!

I found these adorable canvas headbands at Michaels for less than $3.00. They were VERY easy to decorate with ZVA's self adhesive pearls and flowers.

The blog hop begins at Kim Hughes' blog

Your next stop is at Julianne McKenna-De Lumen's blog.

Thank you SO MUCH for joining us !!

ZVA Products Used:
Self Adhesive Crystals: CR04CA139
Self Adhesive Crystals: CR04CA133
Flowers: FL04CA132, FL04CA128
Bulk 3D Roses in Pink (large & medium)

Isn't She Lovely

One of Petaloo's newest CHA releases is their gorgeous Devon Collection which includes Silk Paper Flowers, Petite Roses, Crocheted Florals and Glitter Critters.

I wanted to capture the true feeling of spring when I snapped this photo of my daughter smelling some of the newly blossomed flowers from our yard.

What better way to hilight these photos than with heaps of flowers and blooms from one of Petaloo's most beautiful, Springtime collections. I also used the feminine and vibrant Vicki B. Collection from Bo Bunny to enhance the punchy tones of pink in the flowers.


Petaloo Supplies:
Devon Collection, Brighton (11pcs) White/Pink/Fuschia
Devon Collection, Bristol (10 pcs) White/Pink/Fuschia
Devon Collection, Petites Mini Rose (10 pcs) Pink
Devon Collection, Crocheted Flowers (7pcs) Pinks

Spring Romance Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak of the Spring Romance Kit from Scrap That! Kit club. Be sure to come back on April 26th for the full reveal as well as our monthly blog hop. Lots of prizes to be won!

Oh the DRAMA!

NOTE: If you have left a comment on this post and are receiving negative, personal emails and/or blog comments from Tina White (white.tina86@yahoo.com) - please feel free to ignore and delete them as I have done. She also goes by the name of: "1sassypea" over at 2Peas... and "Linda-isms All The Rage"

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to give you all a heads up on a certain issue that has taken place over at the scrapbook.com site as of late.

Some of you may have no idea what I am talking about and some may already have heard a few things - So I wanted to let you hear the whole story.

There has been an enormous debate over at sb.com regarding scraplifting. I have had some issues in the past with a certain individual (who will remain nameless) blatantly copying my designs and not giving credit. Before I go on, I wanted to clarify my stance on the entire "scraplifting" debate. I personally think its perfectly normal and even expected to occur in this industry. I am actually quite flattered when someone wants to copy a design or technique they've seen on one of my projects. It means I've done my job as a designer for a manufacturer. They want to buy the product and make what I've made with it. Perfect! What I'm NOT okay with is having someone copy MY layouts and passing them off like they're their own. It's theft - plain and simple. Without giving credit (credit meaning 'inspired by' or 'lifted from') you are stealing intellectual property - this is not okay with me. Some people are fast scrappers. I am NOT. It takes me DAYS to create pages and for someone to lift it in a matter of 30 min and not give credit breaks my heart.

Okay.... on to the story...

I privately emailed the lifter about the problem and she flat out denied it and continued to scraplift my projects as well as many other designers' projects without giving proper credit. There were tons of designers who would email me on a daily basis to report another lift that this lady had done. There were a LOT of angry designers (including myself).

Needless to say, I just left it alone as it was causing me more stress than necessary.

LONG STORY SHORT: a forum thread was created on sb.com by some anonymous user "Tattle Tale" about scraplifting and it was targeted at the same lady who had lifted my designs. Of course the lifter assumed it was ME who created the thread. It was not me. The lifter then began posting accusing comments on her layouts stating that this "Tattle Tale" person was me, etc, etc.

Finally I had had enough.

I sent an email to the VP at SB.com as well as their Tech Support staff about the entire issue and how it had gotten totally out of hand and how this lady was basically creating a bad name for me and my manufacturers as well as slandering my reputation in this industry.

I am PLEASED to report that SB.com has since removed this individual's profile(s) and all her images from the site.

Many people are pleased. The lifter and a handful of her anonymous 'friends' are not as pleased and are now trying to make additional trouble for me - some have actually emailed my Design Teams in attempt to get me 'fired' I suppose?

SO..... just wanted to give you a heads up if you see any emails, blog posts, forum posts, etc. from people about how much 'trouble' I've been causing on the SB.com forum and site... Its not true. I simply took a stand against an individual stealing my intellectual property and not giving credit where credit was due.

Hopefully other 'lifters' will realize the hurt they cause designers when they copy designs without giving credit - that's all we ask. Lift away until your heart's content. Just a little 'inspired by' would make all the difference in the world.

So sorry for such DRAMA!!!!

Any thoughts on this? (oh lord, do I even want to open up these flood gates?? LOL!!)

PS - If anyone wants to educate themselves on Copyright in general or is interested in additional ways to protect 'original' works of art, etc. I find the following sites very useful:

U.S. Copyright Office
Creative Commons

Bloomin' Spring

Spring is here, the grass has ris', I wonder where the birdies is? (LOL! That's a famous quote from my dear dad - god love him...)

Spring is officially here! The weather is warming up, the sun is shining and the flowers and cherry trees are in full bloom! LOVE this time of year!

I wanted to share a layout today using the beautiful Vicki B. Collection from Bo Bunny. The rich oranges and warm pinks just pop right off the page!

Couldn't resist adding some of Petaloo's Bristol Box blooms to this page. Don't they match perfectly?!


The adorable velvet butterflies are also from Petaloo. I finished them with some of the Vicki B Jewels.

Well, that's all for me today lovely bloggers. I'll be back in a few with some more Spring inspired layouts to share. Enjoy your day!!

Petaloo Supplies:
Devon Collection - Brighton (11pcs) white/pink/fuschia
Devon Collection - Brighton (11 pcs) fusch/purp/yel/orng
Devon Collection - Sweat Pea (12 pcs) fusch/purp/yel/orng
Devon Collection - Delila (8 pcs) fusch/purp/yel/orng
Devon Collection - Bristol (fusch/purp/yel/orng)
Velvet butterflies

Bo Bunny Supplies:
Vicki B Patterned paper: Fabulouso, Stripe, Bazzillion
Vicki B Chipboard
Vicki B Noteworthy
Vicki B Cut Outs
Vicki B Brads
Vicki B Buttons
Vicki B Jewels
Vicki B Combo Stickers

APRIL Blog Giveaway WINNER

Firstly, I just wanted to tell you all how wonderful you are. I cannot believe there are over 800 of you who willingly come to my blog to be inspired - LOL! I am so very grateful for such amazing people and for the encouraging words and support you all constantly give to me. Thank you - so very much.

I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me to have so many people interested in what I have to say and what I have to create. You are the best and as such, it pleases me to give back to you in return.

Without further adieu, the winner of my April Blog Giveaway is......

MONIQUE FOX

Monique Nicole Fox said... Wow! WHat an awesome prize. I am a blog follower and a Facebook friend. April 1, 2011 9:45am

Congrats my dear!! Please send me an email - torrjorr[at]shaw[dot]ca with your shipping info and I will send off your parcel promptly!! Thank you everyone for your comments. Please don't be discouraged if you didn't win - there's always next month :>

I will have more scrappy projects to share with you all in the next week or so (they are under wraps until then... isn't that always the way)

Also, I've been having some issues with Photobucket so please disregard all the blank images in my sidebar.... 'they're working on the problem' (still, for over 2 weeks now) 'and it should be resolved shortly' UGH....

In the meantime, I hope spring has blessed you with some beautiful weather as it has here. Get out, take some photos and be inspired.

Love you all!

Crazy Kids!

Hi all! Just wanted to share some cute pics I snapped of the kids the other day. Can't wait to scrap some of these! Do you realize how tough it is to get a single shot of all three kids a) looking at the camera and b) smiling at the same time?! Sheesh.... Don't forget there is still a few days left to enter into my April Blog Giveaway!! Check it out HERE. Night!

Blast Off! Card & Invitation

Greetings earthlings! I have a quick card and invitation set to share with you all using the adorable Blast Off! Collection from Bo Bunny!


Thanks for the visit today! Enjoy the rest of your wonderful night!

Graphic 45 Design Team

It has finally happened! After an entire year of waiting, I am so very proud to announce that I have made the Graphic 45 Design Team for 2011!! When they announced their annual Design Team Call I was sooo excited (and nervous). I had applied for the team last year but did not even make the top 25 finalists! I was so disappointed but rather than be discouraged, I persevered and continued to use their products and post in their galleries and became a regular member of their facebook page and blog.

There was no denying my love for their papers and products; beautifully vintage designs with an endless amount of fussy cutting possibilities. Each and every paper collection is so unique - they have most definitely found their niche in this ever expanding scrapbooking market and I am over the moon to be able to work with all their new and exciting products over the next year. Here are the projects I submitted for my final Design Team application. Enjoy!!

This was the layout I created using their Once Upon a Springtime Collection.

Do you see what I mean regarding the amazing fussy cutting options?! The fairy, the flowers, the leaves... the paper BECOMES your embellishment!


I paired the paper flowers with some Rose Blossoms and Rose Leaf Sprays from Petaloo's Canterbury collection.

Originally cream, I transformed the roses into the perfect shade with a little distress crackle paint from Tim Holtz and some acrylic paint.

Here is a Card & Tag set I created with Graphic 45's Steampunk Collection, Staples, Trim and a few of their other collections here and there.


I created a pocket on the inside of the card where you could insert a tag, invitation, etc.

The tag was created by reusing some of their packaging from the trims.

The last item I submitted was my Hallowe'en in Wonderland mini album (which you may have already seen) Here is a quick post of a few of the pages...






Thank you soooo much for the visit today! Back again tomorrow with another project to share...

Until then!