Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

We've arrived in Saskatchewan and have begun the celebrations.  Hailey is having a ball with her cousins.  She is definitely going to sleep well tonight and tomorrow night.

Having a Ball

I absolutely love this sequence of pictures that our photography, Virginia captured of Hailey playing in the yard back in September when we were getting new family photos.  These pictures are so Hailey, the carefree spirit that she has.  She is so relaxed and at this time in September was really starting to develop her little personality.  I have to put a shout out to Nancy for giving me the title.  I didn't know what I wanted to call the layout and at the Jingle Bell Crop - Nancy said 'having a ball' .... so appropriate.  Thank you Nancy. 

Supplies:

Paper - Bazzill cream cardstock

Patterned Paper - Echo Park

Letters - K&Co

Flowers - Kaiser

Brads - huge mix, Bo-bunny, Doodlebug, candy dots, some unknowns

Best thing about this is I used up a lot of things that I've had for sometime!

You make me SMILE

I'm not the girl that always has a smile on her face.  I have the serious picture face.  I do know how to have a little smirk but I don't have the wide open mouth , teeth showing kind of smile.  So, this layout is appropriate as Ian does make me smile in life, sometimes it is just more on the outside then on the surface.  He is my guy and after 3 years of marriage and 5 years together, he still makes me smile. 

I made this layout months ago just realized it was on my hard drive.  I don't do many double page layouts anymore I have quite a few in my wedding album. 

Christmas is getting closer and I have piles of things to do and really no energy to do any of them.  But I have 8 days until we leave to Saskatchewan so I guess I better get cracking.  This weekend I will be wrapping up a storm but first, there is Calgals on Friday night!  Looking forward to seeing my girls.  A little lunch with a couple we know on Saturday that has a Christmas present for little HAT but other than that a wide open weekend.  Hope I accomplish some things so I am not the nutcase next Wednesday packing and wrapping before we leave on Thursday. 

34

My 34th birthday was not quite a month ago.  I started last year making a layout 'about ME' for my birthday.  It's a nice reminder to look back and see what was in my head that year.

This layout was a lot of fun.  I did it when we were in Saskatoon at SK Scraps.  I figured a lot about me needed some sparkle and bling.  The base is a piece of paper from House of 3 that I used tattered angels glimmer mist and chalkboard on it.  You can click on the layou to read the journalling.  The picture was taken at the end of September by our photographer when we were getting family photos done.

Supplies

*Patterned Paper - House of 3

*Flocked Paper - Fancy Pants

*Embellishments - Bling - House of 3, Letters - American Craft Thickers, Ribbon - Tim Holtz

*Misc - Tattered Angels - Glimmer Mist and Chalkboard

Scrapbook Design 101

My dear friend, Christy is launching her Scrapbook Design 101 course as an online course starting in January 2011.  I am so excited for her as this course is amazing.  Christy uses her background in interior design and art and applies that to your scrapbook layouts.  I actually meet Chrity in May 2008 when I took this course from her at a local scrapbook store in Calgary.  I did my first 12x12 layout in her class, before that point I was a self declared stamper and I'd put together a couple mini albums that were 6x6.  Anyone that knows me is aware that I've gone from being a stamper to mainly a scrapbooker that might be due to my little girl but I love the larger canvas of scrapbooking.

Anyhow, registration for Christy's class started on Monday, December 6th.  To read more about her course, visit her blog and to visit the MondayNightClass.ca site to register.

Free Spirit

Well, I have to say the only good thing about a migraine and having to take some imitrix is the amount of things I get done through the night because I can't sleep.  I did however, have an amazing 6 hour sleep after popping the pill.  I woke up with only a mild feeling left from the migraine which was a good thing as I was in tears my head was spinning so bad. 

So, seeing as I couldn't sleep.  I spend several hours editing pictures in PSE5 and sending them to Costco to get printed.  Then I decided to get my blog looking better.  It has been so long since I have used blogger extensively, I didn't even know about the new templates and editor etc.  I have a new background and now with my new skills in PSE5, I made my very own banner.  I am pretty happy with it as I threw it together in about 10 minutes.  I had to keep resizing then I realized as I was uploading that the pixel width would be strunk to 910 pixel ... would have saved me a bit if I had read that.  Oh well, I'll remember for next time.

On to my scrap page .........

My little HAT has grown so much in the last year.  This picture was taken in January 2010, she was a mere 6 months old.  We are a few days shy of 17 months now.  I made this page when I was in Saskatoon with Christy for SK Scraps.  It is heavy with product!  But, I figure it looks better on a page then in the package and as Christy pointed out to me - I still own it when it is on my page.

I really am going to try to make this an active blog again.  I won't make any promises but I have been feeling creative lately which is better than it has been since I came back to work in July.  Perhaps I have finally found a routine?  Doubt it ..... just when things start running smooth something throws a wrench at my head ..... next week Ian is out of town so I'll be dropping Hailey at the dayhome at 6:30 am.  I hope she makes it as she is my little sleeper and a 11 hours isn't enough for her.

Supplies:

All paper and embellishments from Bo-Bunny Delilah line

December 1st!

Not sure where the fall has gone.  It is now December and Christmas is what around the corner.  I figure I better get my Christmas shopping done sometime really soon.  I have a visit to Chinook mall planned to get Hailey's 2nd Christmas picture with Santa.  I love their sleigh Santa display, great rich colors for scrapping.

In the last couple months, I haven't crafted all that much.  I did manage to make one card at Calgals at the end of October.  And have done 4 single pages in November when I was at events.  I, however, find I have no light to photography my projects in.  I leave for work in the dark, I come home in the dark and when I do come home at night, I have Hailey in tow, who needs to be feed and watered (haha) pretty much as we get in the door.  Then it's playtime, bath, some cuddles and bedtime!  I tend to flop exhausted from day.  I've been googling buying a light tent but I'm just not finding the right sites for what I need? or do I know what I need?

I have been so fortunate to spend a pile of time with Christy Riopel and http://www.mondaynightclass.ca/ throughout the fall.  I worked at both Scrapbook Carnivals in Calgary and Edmonton for http://www.mondaynightclass.ca/.  The consumers definitely kept me running in Edmonton as they were shopping up a storm.  It was great to spend time with the girls in the industry that I know, Donna Houston from Inspired Designs, Michelle Zemlack with The Hope Chest and I was fortunate enough to meet so many of the Canadian Scrapbooker team, Jackie Ludlage, Katarina Doyle, Allison Orthner, Leica Forrest and Cathie Allan.  These girls are so funny and had me laughing until I had a stitch in my side.  I took Cathie Allan's class in Calgary and learned so much about taking ink to paper. 

On October 28th, we lost my amazing Aunt Matilda to Ovarian Cancer.  She fought a hard fight with the disease and after a little over 2 years of chemo, her little body couldn't fight anymore.  I travelled to Hope, BC to be with my Mom and celebrate my Aunt's life.  Thanks to the Hospice staff and nurses at the Hope Hospital that cared for my Aunt throughout October and made sure that her family was doing good as well.  We had to visit to the Hope Emergency Room as Hailey got a terrible ear infection while we were there.  It is near impossible to keep a child with an ear infection quiet while in a hotel room!  Though it was a sad week, it was amazing to see my cousin, Gwyn who I haven't seen since Easter 1997 and meet her new husband and 7 year old daughter, Shaelynn.  Shaelynn was great at keeping the running Hailey at bay!

November crops brought the 3rd annual Jingle Bell Crop, hosted by http://www.mondaynightclass.ca/.  I love being on this team, Christy and Cindy are both so amazing.  They feed the troops, keep up entertained and I love the new addition to the 10 minute scavenger hunt!  The following weekend I motored to Saskatoon with Christy to attend the Saskatchewan Scraps event hosted by Leica Forrest.  It was http://www.mondaynightclass.ca/ first visit to Saskatchewan.  The fog started to roll in when we were about an hour and half out of the city, so we never did see much other than fog.  The fog did cause some havoc with air travel and the wonderful Cathie Allan wasn't able to make it in but Vicki Boutin and Jill Hildebrand were there.  Vicki ran classes throughout and the sweet Jill spent the day doing a make n'take using Nikki Sivils product. 

So, that has been life in a nutshell.  My little one is now running, climbing up and down the stairs, she has so many new tricks and she lives us in giggles most nights with the things she comes up with. 

And because I don't have any photographed creations to share.  I'll leave you this picture of my babe, eating chili for the first time with a spoon that she did all by herself.  She hit her mouth most times! :-)

The Breast Crop Ever

The Breast Crop Ever was in Red Deer on Saturday, September 18th.  Christy asked me to come along with http://www.mondaynightclass.ca/ to help her out in our booth selling kits.  Of course, I jumped on board as a day with Christy is always a pleasure. 

When I attend a crop as a vendor, I never participate in the door prizes or contests as I don't want to win and take away a prize from a participant.  Though, I am not sure why I worry as the only kind of luck I have is back luck..... (I'm not the person to take to the casino with you.... Ian tends to tell me to go to the other side of the place so he can win something)  Anyhow, back on top ..... But, I've always participated in the 50/50 to build the pot knowing that if I won, I could donate back my winnings.

Well low and behold, I won the 50/50 at the Breast Crop Ever this year.  So, I told Tiffany when she was handing me that money that I would be taking my $167 from her but on Monday, I would be donating the money back to Breast Cancer website so that I could tax receipt in my name.  As if I have a tax receipt in my name, the company I work for Cenovus Energy would match my donation as an employee of the company.  So here is my receipt.  Sometime in the next quarter, Cenovus will be sending the Breast Cancer Foundation a check for $167.  I am happy to have made the 50/50 at the crop a 150/0! .... or in dollars - $501. 

This feels pretty good!

I won!

Echo Park Paper Co. has become one of my favorite new paper companies.  I heard that there was no room to stand at their booth at CHA.  I've got my hands on the first few lines that they have released and the Christmas ones are to die for.

I just won the 'Merry Christmas' line on their new blog and you can too.  Go over to their new blog and sign up to be a follower and leave a comment.  They are giving away one collection for ever 25 followers until they reach 500 followers.

2010 Edition

Well this is the page I made all on my own, no template, just me and a digi freebie kit online.  Definitely a design I would do with real paper.  Though I'd probably put jewels as flower centres but I didn't have a digi of just jewel only the wave of jewels and I wasn't quite sure how to just get one jewel out of the wave.  (photoshop skill beyond me but suspect I would have had to cut and crop it or something.  Regardless I am happy how it turned out.  This one doesn't really need anymore journalling as I think it says 'Yup, this is our family in 2010'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet

This weekend I finally learnt how to digital scrapbook.  It actually was pretty easy now that I have had Photoshop Elements 5 for 3 years, I've gotten used to the program.

I actually didn't design a page for my first attempt.  I rather used a digi template that was free.  I then used used a free kit that I found online.  I like the page and how it turned out.  I need to add some journalling as it isn't complete without it.  I can't say that I am convert but I definitely will do some more digi for gifts.  I think an album done in digital format would be good for me to give as presents to the Grandparents as it is faster than creating 3 paper layouts.  I was amazed at all the freebies out there.  I haven't spent a dime on digi but I know I could.  I then went on to make a layout that I created myself.  (I'll post later)

This weekend I made a big dent in my basement scrapping area.  All the baskets/boxes are up on the 3 bookshelves.  I sorted the 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock into color family.  (Holy batman, I didn't realize I had that much cardstock!)  I also got the tables cleaned off and the recycling under control.  I need one more trip to IKEA for some more DVD and CD storage boxes and then I should be set to start unpacking the bags and boxes were all the stuff is temporarily stored .... piece by piece, hour by hour - I will get this done. 

Digi Supplies: Internet freebies (I can get the sites if someone is interested)

For all you Scrapbookers ....

I found a new website called Big Picture Scrapbooking which is an online classroom with some great instructors, fab projects and a lot of free classes or worshops.

I'm about to start this one - I need a jump start to my creativity right now that has been on break for about 2-3 months too long.

You're a HOOT

Well this is my last layout (I think), that I have to show.  I suspect there are a few more but they need some photoshop work.  Though from the looks of this page, I didn't crop it very nicely.  Paper and flowers are all by BoBunny, letters are Thickers, chipboard owl by Riff Raff Designs, brads by Doodlebug and felt by Queen&Co.

Hailey turned '1' on Friday, July 9th.  We had a great birthday party for her surrounded by a little bit of family and a lot of friends.  Her favorite gift was her little car from Grandma Rita and Grandpa Gerald.  I have to download the pictures yet, once I do a post a recap here.

I started back to work on Monday, July 12th so today is the start of my second week back however, this is the real test this week as last week was Stampede in Calgary so the work week wasn't very heavy.  I think I have finally figured out my commute to get me to my office by 7 am allowing me to leave at 4pm to get Hailey from the dayhome by 5 pm.  Hailey hasn't noticed me going back to work much.  She had been going to the dayhome, one day a week since the beginning of May so she is right at home there and loves being there.  Ian is great as he gets her up in the morning and takes her to the dayhome so that I can leave for work early.  I am sure we are going to have a lot of growing pains but for now things seem pretty good.

Back to work isn't lasting long as I am off on vacation from July 30th - August 8th.  We are heading to Halifax to see Ian's family.  We are looking forward to seeing them as it has been a tough year for the Tompkins'/Wolfes' families.  Grandpa Tompkins passed away on Jan 1st, Grandma Wolfe passed away on June 20th and Grandma Tompkins passed away unexpectedly on July 15.  We are so glad that we took Hailey to see everyone in December.  We have a picture with each of her great grandparents.  Each of Ian's Grandparents will be sadly missed but lived full lives into their 90's.

You are a delight

July 2nd!  Wow!  Last year at this time I was ready to shoot myself in order to get this baby out of me now, her 1st birthday is a week away and my return to work is a few days after that.  I'm trying not to say it out loud or count it down.  Just enjoy the 2 weekends and 1 week ahead of me before the early mornings start.

I made this layout of Hailey at Crop 4 Kids in March using a new line from Crate Paper and mosaic tiles by Harmonie (Canadian company).

Hailey truely is a delightful child, I know all Mom's say that but this girl gives us no trouble, goes with the flow, travels all over the place with us, never a whine ..... just smiles.  Going back to work is going to be hard but knowing she is in good hands at Alexis dayhome makes it easier.  Busy weeked coming up, Hailey is going to the dayhome today while I price our stuff for a garage sale.  Let's hope people think our 'junk' is there treasures.... we do have a window a/c, 52" proj tv and tons of PartyLite items (from when I was a consultant) that I hope will move .... also piles of books as I've gone to an e-reader and am parting with my real books though I did keep the ones from my favorite authors .... books fans should come by as I am anal about my books, so there are no bent spines here ....

Special Bond

Little Miss Hailey will be 1 years old in just 3 weeks ... 21 days .... wow, where did the year go.  So many changes in this little one.  She is a blessing and even though she puked in her crib last night at 10:30 pm and we had to clean it up and her, then she didn't want to go back to sleep .... I love her.  (her puke not so much!)

Anyhow, I made this layout at Crop 4 Kids in March.  It is quite simple but I like how soft the Basic Grey paper is with the layout.  I think this sheet is from the Eva line?  can't really remember.  Cardstock by Bazzill, rhinestone brads were from my brad stash, rhinestone swirls and flower by Prima and of course, my favorite, letter by American Crafts Thickers.

Photo by http://www.mudpiestudio.net/

New Parents

A page made back in January when I took off for a day to scrapbook with some good friends at one of Jennifer Roswell's awesome get aways ..... it was just 2 months prior to Crop 4 Kids.  I loved this tree by Riff Raff Designs.  I decided to do a little layout on us as 'new parents' with a little letter to Hailey.

Supplies: Prism cardstock, Prima patterned paper, American Crafts Thickers, Maya Road flowers, Riff Raff Designs chipboard, KaiserCraft Pearls

The whole family is now suffering from a cold.  We all slept until 1:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon, Ian stayed home on a sick day.  After a long sleep in, the adults are feeling better just a tad weak and lazy.  Hailey seems to be on the mend, she was playing up a storm when she was up but she does tire fast .... it's been a breeze getting her to go to bed.

Have a great Wednesday!

Monday Night Class

Just wanted to let everyone know that the newest webisode by Canadian Scrapbooker features a kit by MondayNightClass.ca

Go check it out:
http://www.canadianscrapbooker.ca/?powerpress_pinw=397-podcast

Our little Miracle

This page is the first page in Hailey's first album.  I made this page and a whole lot of others using this paper pack by My Mind's Eye when I was in Arizona in February.  I love this little picture of her taken when she was 12 days old by Mud Pie Studio.  Lots of rhinestones on it and brads by My Mind's Eye Lush Line.  The felt pieces are felt coasters that were at Michael's int he $1.50 bins a while back.

Thanks for stopping by .... Hailey has had her first cold so we have been pretty close to home since Saturday.  Ian was with her all day Saturday while I was at the Summer Scraptular hosted MondayNightClass.ca and I checked in on them a few times.  She seems to be the baby that wants to sleep her cold away so she is up for 1-2 hours during the day and then goes back to bed.  So far today, I've only seen her for about 45 minutes so she could eat, change diaper, play with the cat and then go back to her crib.  Hopefully, she is back to herself soon.

Wishes in the Wind

I loves these pictures of Hailey in what was my christening gown.  She laying on a blanket that my Great Grandmother gave to my Grandma when my Dad was born.  The blanket has been passed from my Grandmother to my Mom and Dad when I was born and my Mom saved it to go to her firstborn's firstborn.  I am to continue the legacy and pass the blanket on to Hailey's first child.  I didn't even know that this was coming so you can image in my post baby state I cried!  I also just realized that I need to scrapbook the story of this blanket.  As on these pages, which were a MondayNightClass.ca kit desgined by Jennifer Roswell, I talked about the things I wished for Hailey.  The butterfly paperclip can be pulled off to reveal a hidden journalling message.  I changed the kit by only putting little girl rub-ons on the little squares rather than pictures.

Kit by MondayNightClass.ca

Almost Five

I should perhaps go back to the drawing board and get a new photo on this one.  I see a shadow on the picture and lots of glare.  But hopefully, you get the idea.  The paper is all from Basic Grey Origins line, I used dimensional fluid to highlight the details in the photo.  Ian and I actually got a picture of just us at the last photo shoot with Hailey.  I wanted to do a page that caputred where we were in our lives after having meet almost 5 years ago. 

On another note, I am trying to post every other day.  I've been scheduling posts and so far it is working.  However, if I keep that pass up I will run out of this to show by the time I go back to work on July 12th!

I didn't post this ......

On March 1st 2010, history was made in my world.  I was published for the first time in a magazine.  That publication was the Spring issue of Canadian Scrapbooker.

The Summer issue of the magazine is now out but I've been meaning to share this on my blog.  I know my close personal friends all know this but I never did put it up on my blog in celebration.  Here is my picture of the magazine with my layout and the original layout posted below.

Thanks for letting me share my accomplishment!

Wedding pages

We've been married for almost 3 years and have a daughter that is almost a year old but I am still working on the wedding album.  I haven't done a wedding page in a long while but while I was at Camp Croppin' in Calgary.  I had some new papers and lots of black, white and red out so I knew wedding pictures were in order.

Here are two quick single page layouts I whipped up using the new embossed coredinations paper.

Supplies: Coredinations, Cosmo Cricket letters, Thickers, Glitz Design papers on flower, coffe filter

Supplies: Coredinations, Bazzill, Thickers, Bazzill flowers, KaiserCraft pearls, Prima pearls and rhinestone swirl

It's June already!

So, exactly where did the month of May go .... I know the weather was miserable but it really did fly right by.  I am finding that this is happening alot lately as I get closer and closer to going back to work.  My return date is set for July 12th and it is really going to be bitter sweet.  I love my days with Hailey but I don't think I could be a stay at home Mom ..... I realized I'm not a very good housewife!  My home and life are better organized with the regular routine of work.  I have a great dayhome for Hailey to go to.  She has been going each Thursday since the beginning of May and it really is a challenge to convince her to come home.  It is a great feeling to have her somewhere that she is so comfortable.

Miss Hailey is crawling and pulling herself to stand on everything she can get a hand on.  She mastered up on the stairs on the weekend.  Though she has no idea on down and still wants to launch herself.  In March before our road trip, we had pictures taken with our photographer, Virginia Booth.  I've had a great time scrapping with them though I haven't done a layout since the beginning of May!  Anyhow, the layout I have here was up on the MondayNightClass.ca Blog sketch #9 at the beginning of May as it was based on a sketch from an old kit.  I really can't get enough of Bo-Bunny paper.  I think Bo-Bunny is #1 now with me. 

I really want to post to my blog more this year but I find that I am so off and on with that.  It isn't from lack of having material to post it is just remembering to do it when I sit down with the laptop.  I really hope I still have a few followers left that read my blog. 

Please, please leave me a comment so I am not just writing letters to myself.

Supplies:

Paper: Bazzill, Bo-Bunny Allisa

Embellishments: Prima jewels, Imaginsce flowers, Doodlebug sugar coated brads, Basic Grey bird jewel, Bo-Bunny letters, American Craft Thickers, journalling quote from internet

New blog URL

Hello to my fellow bloggers!  If you are here it most likely that you were redirected to this blog from my original url of http://www.livelovelaughandstamp.blogspot.com/ to my new url.

I have changed my blog address to http://www.shannontompkins.blogspot.com/ my original url will redirect you to my new blog address however, it won't update your google feeds. So, please add my new address to reader feed so that you can still stop by and love me some. I am happy to say, I have new posts and I have been scrapbooking a lot lately! The biggest thing for me is photography now and then editing but I've spent some time over the last few days on photoshop.

Join me on this new blog URL and watch for a new post with blog candy.

The new kits are up...

Seven new http://www.mondaynightclass.ca/ kits hit the internet today.  As always, some great kits up from the designers.  I loved Jen's Going Banana's when I saw it awhile back, I didn't think it was going to make it as the paper had almost been discontinued.  I am also happy to report that I have 3 kits up today - Little Prince, Little Princess and Older Than Dirt.  I have all three pictured here.  Let me know what you think of the whole kit rather than just the sneak peek I showed the other day.  I love seeing the kits go live on the 1st of the month.  Most of the designs aren't a suprise to me as I see most of the kits at Christy's as I do some admin work for the company but, seeing them go up means we suceeded as a company and were able to find all the product which is really a challenge for Cindy these days with so many companies only doing one run on a paper line and with the paper lines changing so fast.

Also, Happy National Scrapbook Day to all my fellow scrappers ... and of course, stampers get some love too!

Little Prince

Little Princess

older than dirt

Sneak peek of New MNC kits by me

I think some of these may appear on the website really soon but here are 4 kits that I have in the works right now for MondayNightClass.ca - New kits will be release on the 1st of each month which is just around the corner.