Great WInter and Christmas Kits!!

I've actually got two kits that I want to show you today. I've been so busy lately that I haven't gotten to my blog!! With Christmas and weddings and New Year's there has been very little time. Not to mention that I was very busily trying to finish scrapping my calendar!! The first kit I have to show you I used to do my November calendar top.

This is a gorgeous winter kit with a bit of sparkle from the ScrapMatters Design team, called Magical Winterland. I love the colours here and it was perfect for my winter photos! You can find it here. Here is my calendar page (using a template by WM[Squared] Designs) followed by the preview.

This next kit is a beautiful Christmas one by Scraps of Ellay! It is full of traditional colours and fun elements. Now is the perfect time to pick it up so that you can scrap all those photos you just took at Christmas! You can find this kit here. Next is my layout (using a template by Jenn Lindsey and alphas by LDrag Designs and Denise Beatty Originals) followed by the preview!

Hopefully I can get some more layouts posted and scrapping done when I return from the last Christmas we're having this weekend!

Until next time...

My First Year

OK. I seriously forgot to blog this! Oy, it's been too busy around here this Christmas season and it's only the 6th of December! I'm also frantically trying to finish my calendar so that's taking up scrapping time!

Anyway, Scraps of Ellay has a new kit out...My First Year. There are tons of add-ons and a mega bundle available at Stuff to Scrap here. I had some fun with this and did both a baby and non-baby layout. Here are my pages, followed by a preview of the kit!

The template here is from WM[Squared] Designs and the sequins are recoloured from Ellay's Spring Bling kit.

This template is from Sabrina's Creations.

Here is the preview.

Until next time...

More Pages...

Well, these are old layouts but I've never posted them so I thought I'd give you some more eye candy today (there's A LOT of them!)...

These are mostly self-explanatory layouts...you can click on them to see a bigger version.

Kit - A Touch of Winter by Erica Zane

Kit - Connect by the Scrap Matters Design Team

Template - Fabulously Negative v4 by WM[Squared] Designs

Kit - Harvest Happiness by Jady Day Studio

Alpha - Rustic Chic Alpha by Jady Day Studio

Date Bits - EZ Date Bits v1 by Erica Zane

Kit - Just One More Story by Graham Like the Cracker and Chelle's Creations

Metal Alpha & stitches - Sleep Tight by Jennifer Barrette

Round Alpha - Rustic Chic Alpha (recoloured) by Jady Day Studio

Metal Date Bits - Metal Date Bits by Stolen Moments

This is a double page layout. The photos were just so cute and this kit just so perfect that I had to do both pages. The first will be the left side and the second, the right side.

Kit - Pumpkin Spice by Jennifer Barrette

Leaf scatters - Magic Autumn by BL Design

Frame - Harvest Happiness by Jady Day Studio

Date swirl - Perfect Date Monthly Date Swirls by Jennifer Barrette

Kit - Pumpkin Spice by Jennifer Barrette

Leaf scatters - Magic Autumn by BL Design

Raffia bow - Early for Autumn by Thalaris

Template by Liz (Tuesday Template Challenge)

This next page was for the Extreme Makeover Challenge so I will show you the page I was remaking, as well.

This was the original:

Kit - Wynken, Blynken and Nod by Stolen Moments and Scraps by Jenn

This is the redo:

Kit - True Blessings by LDrag Designs

Precious WA - So Big! by Man in the Moon Designs

Clipping Mask - So This is Love by Sahlin Studios

I don't like the title on this one so I think I'll have to rework it!

Kit - The Three R's by Threeology

This one was also for an Extreme Makeover Challenge and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the redo!!

The original:

Kit - Christmas Morning Train parts by Sweet as Mel, Random Inspirations by Monica, Latte'Dah Designs and Kim's Scrappin'

This is the redo - can you even tell it's the same?

Kit - Season of Giving by Sahlin Studios

Word Bits - Season of Giving Snipettes by Sahlin Studios

Date Element - Simply Dated v.8 by WM[Squared] Designs

Template - temp blends sampler by Jenn Lindsey

Kit - Modish (some recoloured) by GeniaBeana Scraps

Alpha - Modish Acrylic Alpha by GeniaBeana Scraps

Flower buds (recoloured) - Easter Morning by Stolen Moments and Man in the Moon Designs

Leaf - Sweet 'n Blue by Elo Designs

Stones - Ohe Matelot by Cjournet13

Template - Fine Waves Template by A'nyi

Kit - Coastal Getaway by the Scrap Matters Design Team

Alpha - Vintage Summer Bonus Alpha by WM[Squared] Designs

Template by Happy Scrap Girl

Kit - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow by Plum Dumpling Designs

That's all for now! I'm currently working on my 2011 calendar and it's taking me WAY too long! Hopefully I'll finish it soon so I can print it!

Until next time...

Some Layouts...

(The link to my family blog is in the post below this!)

I'm going to post the 10 layouts I did on Digital Scrapbooking Day (well, weekend most places :) ). ScrapMatters had a Scrap-A-Thon and I managed to get 5 of the 10 challenges done and I did 5 speed scraps, as well. I must say, after doing that in just over 2 days, I was a little burned out. I barely touched my computer the whole next day!! I was really happy with how most of them turned out...here they are...

First the speed scrap pages:

Kit - Pumpkin Spice by Jennifer Barrette

Frames - Sweet 'n blue by Elo Designs

Corn - Magic Autumn by BL Designs

Small green sprig - Early for Autumn by Thalaris

Alpha - Rustic Chic Alpha by Jady Day Studios

Kit - Sleep Tight by Jennifer Barrette

Scallop Frame (recoloured) - So Big! by Man in the Moon Designs

Ricrac - Planes, Trains and Automobiles by Scrappin' Serenity

Alpha - Modish Acrylic Alpha by geniaBeana Scraps

Kit - Many Thanks by the ScrapMatters Design Team

Date Element - Pinned and Dated by Stolen Moments

Kit - Perfect Moments by Erica Zane

Bib (recoloured) - So Big! by Man in the Moon Designs

Fork & Spoon (recoloured) - Cookie Monster by Jenasis Designs

Date Elements - Pinned and Dated by Stolen Moments

Template - Wonky Grid Template by Melody (WM[Squared] CT)

This one was a little difficult because it was the last speed scrap of the weekend (one Friday, two Saturday and two Sunday). Also, we had to work the number 12 or the word twelve into the page...so I came up with this slightly cheesy title!

Kit - Into the Night by Stolen Moments

String (recoloured) - Dandelion Wishes by Jennifer Barrette

Template - Thursday Challenge by Trixie's Scrap Star Carrin

Photograph by Lilyfield Photography

Now for the Scrap-A-Thon Challenges:

This challenge was to ask a question and scrap the answers. There needed to be at least three answers so it could be one question to three different people or three (or more) questions to one person. I had a little conversation with Xander about school!

Kit - A Time to Learn by Stolen Moments

Template - Building Blocks v1 by Chelle's Creations

This challenge was to use the "cut out" technique. This is where you cut shapes out of a top paper to reveal the paper underneath.

Kit - Dandelion Wishes by Jennifer Barrette

Alpha - Fun and Frosty by Cinnamon Designs

Word Art - Perfect Moments by Erica Zane

Template - Fabulously Negative v6 by WM[Squared] Designs

This challenge was a colour challenge. You were given a colour palette and had to pick shades of the colours to use in your layout. The palette was a brown/cream/green/burgundy palette.

Kit - Fun and Frosty by Cinnamon Designs

Alpha - A Touch of Winter by Erica Zane

Red ornament - Christmas Essentials by The Maltese Scrapper

This challenge was a double scraplift. Basically, you find two layouts you like and combine elements of both of them (plus your own interpretation) to create your own layout. If you're interested I lifted Sweet as Sugar by slurpeegirl13 - inspired by the colours and band of paper - and Happiness is... by Strange.Bird - inspired by the line of little photos- to get this page:

White paper - Fun and Frosty by Cinnamon Designs

Navy paper - Just One More Story by Chelle's Creations

Photo Mask - Mask Collection 1 - WaterColors by LawTeeDa Designs

Word strip - Une Chanson Douce by Pitchouk82

Ribbon and clouds - Rose de Mai by Manue Designs

Photograph by Lilyfield Photography

My favourite challenge (and the last of the 5) is an extreme makeover challenge. In this one, you were to take a layout from your first 6 months of digi-scrapping and redo it. One photo had to stay the same. Most of my first pages were for my Mexico scrap book, which is already printed so I didn't want to touch them. If I did, I knew I'd want to redo the whole book as my skills have improved SO MUCH since then! However, I realized that, in my annual books for the boys, they would have some pages from Mexico as that is a big event in a 2 year old's life! So, I redid this one for Xander's annual book (I didn't keep track of credits back then because I figured I'd never post them...just do this one book then quit! Yeah.):

I came up with this:

Kit - Tropical Sunshine by LDrag Designs and Siamese Studio

Template - Fabulously Negative v6 by WM[Squared] Designs

It was a fun weekend and I love the pages I came up with!

Until next time...

Changes Around Here...

I've decided to make a few changes around here. I'm going to be splitting up my blogs. This will now be my scrapping blog (which, by the way, I have A LOT of layouts to post...maybe tomorrow) and I created a new blog Life With The Berkans for my family photos/stories. So, if you're interested in one or the other or both, be sure to bookmark them. I just posted my first post at the new blog and you can find it here. I'll be back with some new layouts tomorrow (I think!).

Until next time...

This Little Piggy

Hi there! It has been a long time but the days have been crazy busy with painting, birthday parties and the rest of life. I'm also trying to get my blogs organized. I want to leave this blog as my scrapping blog and start a new one as my family blog. I started one but I'm trying to get it pretty and stuff so I'm not sure when I'll get to posting there...hopefully soon because I have a ton of photos to share (and a lot of LOs)!

Anyway, this week, Scraps of Ellay has a new collab out. It's an adorable kit with KnittenJen Designs called This Little Piggy, which you can pick up right now at STS. I had a lot of fun working with this cute little thing and here is what I came up with:

Here is the full preview of this wonderful kit...

Hopefully I will be back soon with some photos for you on one blog or another because I have some really adorable ones!

Until next time...

Thankful!

Today (and all days) I am thankful (in no particular order)...

for my husband

for my kids

for my childhood

for family in general

for my house

for turkey

for friends

for our church

for our wonderful world

for sunshine

for rain

for babies that sleep

for flowers

for raspberries

for creativity

...and above all...for the God who has created it all and made all these things possible.

O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever. Ps 30:12b

Until next time...

So There Was School...

Yesterday was a strange day. Just thought I'd share our little school adventures!

This summer, I go the calendar from the school division listing all the days off etc. for the year. Dutifully, I marked them on my calendar. Other than stat holidays, the first day off would be October 1. OK. That'll be a good break. So, I'm planning things to do...I have to paint my bedroom so I'll work on that...then, because our bedroom will be totally covered in plastic and drop cloths, we'll have a camp out in the living room with the boys...this sounds like a good idea. I tell the kids and it's all planned. Then Thursday comes. Xander gets home from school and tells me teacher says tomorrow's library day...really? I ask him, are you sure she didn't say next school day? Nope. He insists it's tomorrow. Well, I wanted to call the school, anyway, so I thought I'd just check into it. Sure enough, I talk to the secretary...the division messed up...we have October 8th off, not October 1st! Good thing I called! Then comes Friday...we're ready for school and waiting for the bus... I thought I saw Xander's bus go by but there are several that drive by our house every morning and he insisted it wasn't so OK. Time passes and the bus is ten minutes late...that shouldn't be - the weather's fine. So I call dispatch. She puts me on hold to find out what's up. The bus driver forgot to stop! I'm not upset...it's kinda amusing (though I was hoping not too hard on Xander). She says he'll be by in a couple minutes...10 minutes later - he's late for school by now - I call to see where the bus is. He's five minutes out, still. So much for a couple minutes...I may as well drive him to school now...the regular doors will be locked and he'll have to go in a different door and go to the office etc. So, I drive him...Evan is in heaven, getting to go to school...and throws a fit when I make him put back the toy and leave - poor boy...he's really kinda jealous! But, Xander got to school fine and all was good...we'll chalk that up to another adventure! Just thought I'd share :).

I did get some painting done - well, priming actually...tomorrow will be painting the main colour! I'm so excited! Off to bed now!

Until next time...

Some other pages (Mom that picture is in here)...

OK, I keep saying I'll do more posts and that I was going to schedule this but by the time I got to posting my last post, I'd forgotten. It's late and I should go but I'm going to put this up. Things have been busy, getting used to the new kindergarten routine and care groups starting back up and FaithBuilders (kids club at church) starting again...we have to find the new groove. It's so weird how it feels like I have so much less time with school on. I guess it's just because I now have times that I HAVE to be home, otherwise, I'll miss Xander's bus. Xander is having fun at school and learning lots so that is awesome!

My exciting scrapping news is that I'm now a ScrapMatters Girl!! A new forum I've been hanging out at, ScrapMatters, has a team of us that encourage people with compliments on their work, police the gallery and things like that. We get "paid" with scrapping stuff and the amazing inspiration we get from looking at everybody's work. I've learned so much and gotten so many ideas already and am loving the fun chatter we get to have in our forums!

Out house renos are finally coming along, too. The roof was re-shingled Friday and the deck is well -formed...it just needs the top! The roofers came Thursday to prep - drop off shingles, put them where they'd need them, get the ladders set up etc. But, it only took them Friday (and not even all of it) to do the actual shingling. It was very impressive. I thought we'd be without the satellite dish for a couple days but it turned out to be more like a couple hours! We were very pleased and we really like the new shingles. Now, I'm just super excited for the deck to be done!

Here are some other pages I've done recently.

This picture was for a photo challenge to try to emphasize the eyes. I really like how the photo turned out! The layout might be a little girlie but I just loved the cute little flowers!

Kit - Forget-Me-Not by Andilynn Designs

This was for a ScrapMatters Girl speed scrap (or chat and scrap later :) ). I love how it turned out!

Kit - True Blessings by LDrag Designs

Brown, Green & Music papers, sparkles - Into the Night by Stolen Moments

Template - Scraps by Number B.L.O.C.K.E.D. by Stolen Moments

This was a kit I won and I love the colours. I simply adore this photo of Rene and Jonathan!

Kit - Modish by geniaBeana Scraps

Template by Connie Prince Digital Scrapbook Designs

OK Mom - this is it...the photo I was telling you about. I totally LOVE this photo of Xander at the beach! I didn't even do very much editing on it - just a little lightening!

Kit - Vintage Summer by WM[Sqaured] Designs

Background Paper - Wynken, Blynken & Nod by Stolen Moments and Scraps by Jenn

Alpha - Modish Acrylic Alpha by geniaBeana Scraps

Date Element - Simply Dated v8 by WM[Squared] Designs

OK - so now you're sort of up to date. I may type more in a bit and we have some fabulous family photos that I will post at some point in time! I am actually thinking of starting up a second blog for all my photos and talking and just leaving this as a scrap blog to post kits and pages on...I haven't decided for sure but we'll see how that goes!

Until next time...

Yesterday...

OK, OK...I'm late with this kit again but I promise it really is a beautiful kit! Scraps of Ellay has a new kit out this week called Yesterday. It's a really pretty heritage kit and I had a lot of fun playing with it!! It's still on sale for 25% off at Stuff to Scrap for the rest of this week. Here are a couple of layouts I've done with it and the preview of the kit...

The boys and I, Mother's Day 2009:

This is for you, Mom! My Mom and her sisters...circa 1976ish, I think? Isn't it a cute photo?
And here is the preview of the entire kit...

We've been settling in to our new routine and I haven't quite got everything down yet but I promise I'll post some updates and other pages tomorrow! (In fact, I'll go schedule the post right now!)

Until next time...

Child's Play Revamped

Hi all. Just a quick post (see Colette, told you I'd post)! Scraps of Ellay has a new kit out this week (well, a new old kit!!) This is a revamp of her Child's Play kit. I just love the bright colours! It's such a fun kit for all those kid pictures and it's available at Stuff to Scrap. Here are the two pages I did with it and the full preview! It's on sale this week so hurry over and snag it!

This one uses some snowflake brushes by hawksmont. I love how this turned out for a winter page!

This uses a template by Man in the Moon Designs...my poor, accident prone little Evan!

And the full kit...

It's late now! Off to bed or something like that!

Until next time...

Asian Beauty...FINALLY!

OK...I am so late posting this kit. Hopefully I'll be forgiven! It was a busy week with kindergarten starting and swimming lessons and plans for the long weekend! Kindergarten is going well, so far. Xander seems to be really enjoying it, though insists he'll be talking "normal" (he's in French immersion). The bus is going well so far so that's good, too. He's growing up so fast, it's hard to believe. He keeps surprising me with new things that he'll do...all by himself! Swimming lessons also started well...we'll see how they progress.

The long weekend was good, too, though I now know why I'm not a camper - it's WAY too much work to get ready for just a couple days! We went up to northern SK to spend the weekend at the lake with my family. All the kids (but not quite all the in-laws) were there for a brief period of time, anyway. It was a gorgeous day on Saturday and (due to a forgetful Mom) we got a bit sunburned. It wasn't that hot so I didn't think to put on suntan lotion. The kids also went mini-golfing and we had a bit of a campfire. It wasn't as nice the rest of the weekend. It rained Sunday morning but we did get in our bonfire with wieners and s'mores so that was good! The kids also went off to play in the bush and it was fun to see them do that. I remember how much fun I had in the bush! My one niece got sick so she and her Mom stayed in town Sunday night. It rained hard Monday but we checked out that day, anyway. We made it home (somewhat tired but glad to be home). Now it's back to the routine and school again!

Now for the kit. Scrap of Ellay had a new kit out last week that I never got around to blogging about (due to the above). It's actually a collab with Misty O'Brien scraps and is a beautiful Asian-themed kit called Asian Beauty. It's available at Stuff to Scrap here. You can do so much more than just Asian themed pages with this. Here are the two I did...followed by the kit preview!

Well, I think that's all I have for now.

Until next time...

The Big Day!!

Well, tomorrow is it...it's the big day...kindergarten!! I can't believe it's here. In some ways it seems to have snuck up on me but Xander's gotten so big that it really is time! I have mixed emotions...I'm not ready for it but I loved school and hope he will, too. I scrapped this page last week. I did it for a challenge on blending but it seemed so appropriate with the baby fading into the background and the little boy now the focus. I just love how it turned out, too, I've been trying to refine my pages and this one actually turned out almost how I envisioned!

Kit - A Time to Learn by Stolen Moments

Word Art by Scraps 'n Pieces

Date Stamp - The Only Date Stamps You'll Ever Need by Stolen Moments

This is what the journalling says, if you're curious:

You have made life an adventure for us all. The first born child is such a new and different thing that there is no way to describe it but as a daring adventure. It seems like you have been ours for forever and yet for such a short time. You are now 4 1/2...almost 5, really and you are about to go off to kindergarten. You are so excited but I'm not so sure that I'm ready to be sending you off so soon! I know you will do great and this will just lead to so many more daring adventures in both your life and in ours!

I also made this page this week and I think it is super cute! It was for a speed scrap over at Stuff to Scrap - it seems like forever since I've speed scrapped and I've missed them!

Kit - Wynken, Blynken & Nod by Stolen Moments and Scraps by Jenn

Last but definitely not least...today is another big day because it is my husband's birthday! We had an evening with his family and he got to play some of the fun games he got (or had previously). Despite the rest of my post, I'm not so good with the sappy stuff so just suffice it to say that I love you Jason and I'm glad that I'm the one who gets to celebrate all your birthdays with you!

I'll sign off now but I'll be back tomorrow with another new kit and some layouts (and hopefully good news of the first day!!)

Until next time...

Girls' Night Out!??

Curious? No, I did not have a girls' night out...I don't remember the last time I had one of those! It's a new kit from Scraps of Ellay called Happy Hour (available at Stuff to Scrap)! It's a kit full of really pretty colours and elements great for scrapping, well, girls' nights out. Since I don't have picture of anything like that, I did manage to find other uses for it! I dug out some old negatives from a trip to Hawai'i I took back in 2000 with a friend of mine. Once I finally found them, I scanned them in and then edited them to finally come up with these layouts! It took me longer than I thought but I think the pages are really fun! This'll be a two page layout when I finally do up this book. Here they are (the first uses a template from Trixie Scraps):

Here's a look at the full preview (Ellay may also have a freebie on her blog later this week - you can check it out here):

Now, we'll say that I'm done posting because I'm quite tired tonight!! We started VBS this week at our church and I'm in charge of registration. We had just under 250 kids this week so it was absolutely crazy (in a good sort of way)!! Xander got to go for the first time and he had a blast. At one point in time, he saw me standing by the door and instead of a "hi" I got "why are you standin' there Mom?" He was quite suspicious that I had come to pick him up before it was all over! Most certainly not! Anyway, four more days to go!

Until next time...