Laugh Out Loud

Materials: paper - Bazzil; assorted stamps; VersaFine ink by Tsukinelo; shape and alphabet dies by Quickutz; flower - Heidi Swapp; epoxy shapes - Making Memories.

Please somebody take my picture of me laughing like McGruff! Sometimes I laugh so hard (usually at myself) that I can barely catch my breath and then I start squeaking which makes me laugh even harder.

I have done variations of this and the layout above over the years. It is mostly just doodling with stamps and seeing what I can come up with. The best part is no two are the same. When I do this in a class I just bring a ton of my stamps and let the students run wild. It is amazing to see all the results especially those who often tell me they don't think they are that creative.

I think we all have a creative side and sometimes we just have to give ourselves permission to explore it.

Just a Little off Kilter...

Materials: paper - Bazzil cardstock and Basic Grey; alphabet dies - Quickutz; stamps - Autmn Leaves and Technique Tuesday, ink- VersaFine by Tsukineko; flowers - Prima Markeing; black sheep charm - Around the Block.

Another layout for my Black and White album.

I want a Cat's Life!

Materials: Guess what - more Basic Grey and Bazzil and more Quickutz too.

This is my cat Zephyr. She is definitely mamma's baby and is just a little spoiled. She has quite the personality and she brings such joy to every day. Even when she is "helping" me work on a layout or typing on the computer. Needless to say there may be a few cat hairs included on many of my layouts.

Hey Baby! You've got a little Cattitude!

Garden Party

Materials: paper - Basic Grey and Bazzil; dies by Quickutz, butterflies by CuttleBug; ink- Distress ink by Ranger; buttons & brad- Basic Grey.

This was one of the first layouts I did with my students when I went to teach at Scrapalicious after Cherished Scrapbooks closed. I had the pictures from my garden when I lived in Sarnia, several years ago. In fact, I have lots of garden photos from those days and could fill many scrapbook pages using that collection of pics. I am often inspired by songs when I create a layout and if you look at many of my layouts, the titles are often from song titles or lyrics form a song. Strangely enough, it is often the title that is my starting point when designing a layout.

Round and Round we go...

Materials: paper - Scenic Route & Bazzil, stamps - Inkadinkado and Technique Tuesday; ink VersaFine by Tsukineko; dies - Quickutz; tool - Coluzzle circle template.

I definitely love the music from the early 70's and Harry Chapin was big in those days. This song was running through my head and just wouldn't leave me alone. I believe this was one of the last layouts I did at Cherished Scrapbooks before it closed and I was feeling kind of sappy sentimental. (Shh, don't tell anyone). I also wanted to end off with a happy kind of vibe and I love blue and orange together. I don't know if I will ever add photos to this layout as I love the happy feeling I get when I look at it. Maybe I will just put the journalling on the back in case I ever need reminding of the good times I had teaching there.

To Infinity! And BEYOND!

Materials: paper - ? and Bazzil cardstock, shape and alphabet dies - Quickutz, inks - Brilliance, Staz-on and VersaFine by Tsukineko; stamps - Autumn Leaves, tools Coluzzle circle and star templates and Grommets by Making Memories.

This is one of many tool classes I did a few years ago. This series of classes I did was to encourage those who were ready to move beyond the trimmer to try and explore other tool options. Since the store I taught at was heavily into Quickutz, they were a part of just about every layout class I taught. In addition to Quickutz, I Incorporated the Coluzzle cutting tool, the grommet tool, stamps and different types of ink and my favourite scissors. It may be that the movie Toy Story was popular at the time.