So much going on

Wow crazy long time since I last posted. I always grumble in my head about those people who only update their blogs once in a while and here I'm doing the same. I'm sorry! The last few months have been so different for me in so many aspects that blogging hasn't been a priority. My children have gotten older and their problems and school lives have gotten much more demanding. Anyone who says having a baby is hard work hasn't had a junior high student yet, lol!

Things with my dayhome business have been very different as well. Last year at this time I was full to the brim with children and it was crazy and great all at the same time. This year, well, its been quiet. I'm learning to be thankful for the quiet but in reality its a bit concerning for me. I started my business because I love kids and I really wanted to be home with Owen. With only having 1 full time child and one less than full time child, I really need some extra kids :) so if anyone knows of anyone needing great childcare please feel free to give them my name 8)

Also I have decided to take my love of scrapbooking, cardmaking and crafts in general down a different avenue. I've offically signed up to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrater. As many of you can tell from my previous posts I'm a huge Stampin' Up! fan and I love to teach and share new ideas so this was a no brainer for me. For those in the Plamondon area please don't think that I'm undermining my fabulous sister-in-law Rhonda who was the previous demo. She had decided about a month ago to step down as a demo and has passed the stamping torch to me :)

So in January there will be another scrapbooking/cardmaking class where people can sign up for a kit and learn some fun new techniques. I'll keep you all posted with more details. I now have a website for all my Stampin' Up! creations and online ordering for those who aren't in the local area. Please feel free to check it out and leave me some feedback. The address is http://www.stamphappyrebecca.stampinup.net/  here you can sign up for my newsletter and recieve special promotions via email.

Big news post I know! But I'll leave you with some of my latest creations!

a long overdue post

I seriously tried to update my blog before but blogger had other ideas. I haven't had a whole lot of time to do a lot of crafty stuff do to other commitments but I tried! I was thrilled to get the new Scrap Shotz monthly kit for October featuring Fancy Pants Happy Together paper and embellishments. I have to say that the combination of white, brown, blue and what I'm calling Baja Breeze (like Stampin' Up!'s colors) knocked me off my feet! But I didn't have any of the right color of photos for the papers. So I threw most of them into black and white.

 I had to use one of my new punches from EK Success, its this huge honking big scallop with circles cut out. Fabulous for scrapbooking pages but I doubt that I'll use it for cards lol!

 My favorite photo of Owen lately!

 Just for those who can't read Owen's shirt it says "my mom is outta your league" guess who bought that ;)

Trying out a transperancy card. This transperancy has very cool flocking on the outside that just begs to be touched!

 These cards were done for a challenge that I put up for the Scrap Shotz card crew. The idea was to take an inspriation piece and built a card around it. I had fun finding pieces from Pier1 online and Pottery Barn which has a ton of eye candy for the home decorating people. Or people like me who can't decorate my house at all and need tons of help from sweet sister in laws! Thanks Nicki! Course if I could go shopping without 3 children and have an unlimited budget I'm sure I could come up with something lol!

 These cards were the subjects of the Christmas Card class that Rhonda (my sil and SU! Rep) taught locally. Not pictured is the cute little gift box and the Christmas tags that were made as well. It was totally awesome because we had total newbies and some seasoned stampers who all loved the class. Everyone learned something new and had fun! My fun was added by the few Bailey's and coffee that I consumed ;)

 This card was also done for a challenge at ScrapShotz, the challenge was to use white and kraft on a card. I love how it turned out and to be honest I love anything kraft :)

 Just an extra layout from the Fancy Pants Happy Together kit.

September Memory Workshop Kit

I was super thrilled to be asked to guest design the September kit for the Memory Workshop! Then I got the kit in the mail and was thrilled all over again! The SEI papers were so gorgeous that photos just don't do it justice.

Me and 2 page layouts don't usually get along just because I find I struggle to create unity between such a large area and the simple fact that I'm better with squares than rectangles. However I had some awesome photos of my daughter and my niece from our recent trip to the Calgary Zoo. I'm so thankful that these cousins are best friends no matter how often they see each other. I totally had fun with the coordinations cardstock and the beautiful canvas texture flowers.

This might be one of my favorite 2 pagers that I've done. The pattern paper that frames the entire layout was actually created with only 1/2 a sheet of pattern paper. I just cut them all the same size and made a "frame" I love the fact that photos of the butterflies allowed me to go a little crazy with my butterfly punch and sizzlets butterfly die :)

I love these photos of my wonderful mother in law and sister in law. Truely wonderful people, talented too!

As soon as I saw the chipboard word "mother" I thought of these great photos of my sister and her kids.

This has got to be my go-to photo placement. Two photos butted up together to create one unified photo. It just simplifies the whole design process for me. I figure why fix it if its not broke?

And because Sandra puts together a huge kit, I had leftovers that I created 3 cards with. To be honest I had enough to really create one more layout but my attention span being what it is, I was done ;)

Scrapshotz card crew

I was super excited to be a part of the Scrapshotz card crew for the next 3 months. Scrapshotz is my go to online scrapbooking store and my message board home since Scrapper's Haven closed. This week was my week to put up the card challenge!

So the challenge was to add some dimension to your card by adding dimension to your stamped image. Come and play along!

I borrowed my sil rose stamp set because surprisingly I didn't have a flower stamp that would work with this challenge. We laughed because this was the very first Stampin' Up! stamp she bought about 11 years ago! I stamped the image 2 times on different cardstock pieces. Then I colored in one completely with my new Bick Mark Its! (poor woman's copics) then I colored in the roses on the second stamped image, cut them out and used foam pop dots to put them on the same spot as the original stamp. The card was then finished off with purely pomegranite papers and ribbons from SU!.

restocking my card stash

Despite having a sick kid this past weekend, I was able to get some cards made. Poor little guy slept a lot and now is feeling better. Still a bit clingy but that's to be expected.

This was the only card that I used Bazzill on, it doesn't stamp very well but it was the color of grey that I wanted. Also the embossed paper was an old DCWV glitter mat stack.

For almost all the cards I made I used Stampin' Up! Cardstock and Stampin' Up! pattern paper. I got to play with my new nestabilites and my cuttlebug embossing folders.

Loving the new large size of cuttlebug folders. I almost didn't buy this one because I already have a polka dot one but I'm so glad I didn't resist. It actually embosses the whole front of the card not "most" of it.

This was one of those stamps where you need to line up the flowers with the stem. I really am not good at it so this is my second try. I made the decision to unmount my stamps and I can't wait until my ezmount foam comes in so I can begin. I'm mainly doing the unmounting for space saving purposes (in my scrapbooking room and my crop bag) and for ease of stamping.

This was just a quick and easy card made from scraps. I so love this Hero Arts acrylic set of stamps. Very clean and simple sayings for so many occasions.

If its hard to see the sentiment on this card says "Happy Anniversary" I used versamark and I'm thinking that I should have heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Oh well, next time!

This card took me a few tries to get the butterflies just right. My markers are in serious need of refreshing and I think they will be on my next Stampin' Up! order form.

Ok I have to admit this is my favorite! I really think I'm going to do some varitions of this one, maybe different butterflies and different color schemes. I adore the simplicity of it.

This was one stamp set that I *had* to have. I have the matching embossing folder and to be honest I can't seem to use it very creatively. I stamped the green flower with old olive and then found that the water color pencils I had didn't work well with that color. So I ended up coloring in the flower with smooch. I think some water color crayons in a larger variety of colors in next on my list as well.

Summer time scrapbooking

So with the more relaxed routine of summer I've been getting more chances to scrapbook which is very

 good.

I created this layout for a challenge at Scrap Shotz to do computer journalling, something I rarely, if ever, do. I even pulled out some of those "older" embellishments that have been taking up space in my drawers. The pattern papers are Cosmo Cricket.

This is a layout that has been in my mind for a while to create. Not so much the photo or the story but the design with the punched out squres. Pattern papers are American Crafts, as well as the thickers and plastic flowers.

I got a chance to make some cards today and I had so much fun playing with new papers (Basic Grey Green at heart 6x6 pad) I'm really liking the 6x6 pads for cards because you don't waste a full sheet and I find that some of the papers are less overwhelming.

Totally loving that Top Note die from Stampin' Up! by sizzix! This cute little SU! stamp set (Trendy Trees) is one of my all time favorites too. Add a few scraps of October Afternoon papers and a cute sentiment by Hero Arts and you're good to go.

Ok for some reason this blue backgroud looked way better in person. I might have to change it because to be honest its bugging me. Love this cuttlebug pumpkin and Cosmo Cricket Earth love papers.

I'm quite pleased with myself for using only paper scraps for all these cards! Almost finished up this Basic Grey pad! Plus these Hero Arts stamps are my go to favorite lately.

I had fun with this color combo, easy when you pull colors from your pattern paper. I made a mistake stamping so I added 2 rows of ribbon to cover my mistake. Gotta love flexibility!

 

This card may just be my favorite with cuttlebug embossing folder (happy birthday) and Basic Grey ribbon with my favorite butterfly embosslits (from SU!) All done with scraps again!

So I dusted off the ol' stamps...

and a made a few cards! It felt so good to just play! This card was made with Stampin' Up! inks, butterfly stamp, cardstock and their scalloped punch, the pattern paper is October Afternoon. I'm a sucker for red & pink combos!

I got to play with my new sizzlets embossing/die cut butterfly from Stampin' Up! its so cute!! I used Bella Blvd. pattern paper, Jillibean Soup ribbon, SU! stamp, Prima pearls and my cuttlebug embossing folder.

This was a fun card to do, got to play with some coloring and my blender pen. I used SU! cardstock and stamps, Basic Grey pattern paper and ribbon from my mom's stash :) I wonder if my dh knows I hardly ever use the sewing machine that he got for me on fabric?

This was just a cute, simple card using SU! sweet pea felt flowers. The white scallop circle was made with my spellbinders and the cardstock and stamps are SU!

I got to play with some of the new style of SU! stamps, the acrylics (the monkey) and they are so great! I love that I can place them way better than my old wood mounted stamps. Inside this card is a birthday sentiment.

This card was made with a Unity stamp, my favorite I think. I also used SU! new salebration border punch. Very cute!

One of my few non-Stampin' Up! stamps (I have a personal connection with my rep, she's my sister in law) I think this stamp is from Stampendous, but I used a cuttlebug embossing folder and prima pearls.

I had to have this beautiful paper from My Mind's Eye but I thought if I used it in a scrapbook you wouldn't get the full yumminess of the flock. You can't see the sentiment well but it says happiness always.

This was another fun card to do. I made a mistake with the butterfly and colored it a really wonky color that could have potentially wrecked the card but I quickly did another one and put a pop dot underneath and volia! mistake no longer :)

I was inspired to use up some scraps that I had kicking around. The embossed swirls were done on a glossy sheet with some ranger alcohol inks, I trimmed it up and colorblocked the patters. I stamped the cherry blossoms with a stamp from Inkadinkado (I think).

This was also another quick card (my favorite kind!) I used some scraps from the Basic Grey Archaic line, the SU! punch and one of my favorite new tree stamps.