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.

The missing is found ..... and other stuff about me

You are in the right place ........ I changed the URL for my blog from http://www.livelovelaughandstamp.blogspot.com/ to http://www.shannontompkins.blogspot.com/ ......

Many people have asked me why and when I post I am sure many more of you will.  Anyone who has followed my blog knows that I started out as a stamper only and over the last 1 1/2 years have become more of a scrapbooker.  I am sure my stamps are lonely as I have neglected them for months but I am really loving SB'ing right now and can't seem to pick up ink unless it is to distress paper edges so, with that being said I have changed my blog URL to my name.  However, if you have the old URL linked it will still work as I went back and registerd the url again after I released it and edited the HTML so that it would redirect to here. 

I want a new blog name but I can't seem to come up with anything to reflect me and my style. So, I am turning it over to you ...... give me an idea for a stamper/scrapper ... papercrafter ..... if I choose your title then I am sure I can find something great to send you .....like my extra copy of the spring issue of Canadian Scrapbooker or something more stamping related if you don't scrapbook.

Also, I know I left off on our trip at Day 13 ... when it really went 19 days.  I plan to finish very soon but I am visiting my Mom and StepDad in Regina right now.  I have to finish as the blog journal is my memories for my scrapbooking journalling.  I'll be posting again right away with some sneak peeks of my new kits that I think are going to be released this month.

Shannon

Day 13 - Rainy day in San Francisco

Friday, April 2nd

Other than wind in Vegas we have been very fortunate with the weather until today.  Rain in the Bay area ..... I guess we will be doing the motorcoach bus tour over the motorized street car.  It is foggy her so the pictures are going to be so so ... but that is the Bay area and now we can say we have seen a sunny SF day and a foggy, rainy one.

We packed up and checked out of the hotel in Lynnwood after our tour today we are going to cross the Golden Gate (Hwy 101) and stay in North SF area tonight probably around Santa Rosa.

One of the only pictures I got off with D3000, should have checked the battery the night before .... the day was shot with the point and shoot ...... The Bay Bridge in the fog.

Empty Street Car

The rolling hill streets of San Fran

Love the name .... probably a great place to eat

Gorgeous Catholic church

City Hall, encrusted in gold

Motorcoach self portrait, Hailey looks thrilled

Victorian Home, painted lady as it uses 3 colors in its color scheme most only use 2

Painted wall

View from Twin Peaks

A little rain can't hinder our smiles

Hailey all bundled up for the ride at our stop at Golden Gate Park, this is the area around the Japanese Tea Garden which we didn't see as we only had 15 minutes at the stop and it was a $7 entry each.

About to cross the Golden Gate on the bus in the fog

Across the Golden Gate

It started raining pretty hard and was windy so Hailey and I stayed on the bus however, Ian got some pictures and someone took a picture of him and the bridge.

Hailey was pretty happy when her Daddy came back to the bus.

All done the tour, headed back to Pier 39 for a bite to eat.  It was much quieter in the rain so, we took some photos with the famous carasouel.

The view from the upper floor of Pier 39 where all the yummy restuarants are.

The skies started to clear as we ventured across the bridge in the MINI which was great as we wanted to drive a bit of the coast.  Hailey was fast asleep in her carseat after our big tour.

Sharpie was HERE!

This photo was taken about 2 hours after we were at the bridge viewing area the first time what a difference without the rain.

What a weather change.  However, the car is now dirty which depresses Ian.

San Fran view from the GG Bridge viewing area.  The first time you couldn't see across the bay because of the fog.  Bye, bye San Fran.  I already miss the sourdough.

And we are off for a drive along Hwy 1 the coast road.  The sun is shining now.

The road had lots of twists, turns and switchbacks which Ian says is perfect MINI driving.

The sky is blue, I love how this tree grew.

The Pacific Ocean ..... we would love to show you more pictures but by this point in the day both camera batteries are dead so the rest of the drive along the ocean had to be pressed into our memories.

We stayed the night in Rohnert Park in a Best Western again.  It was a great room, we were only 5 miles from the Santa Rosa area.  After a rainy start to the day, the late afternoon and evening turned out great.

I did the laundry again.  Hailey hit the sheets by 8:30 and we all had a great sleep in this quiet hotel.  It was Good Friday today as well ... though when you are on a road trip vacation it is hard to notice the holidays such as this.

We plan to start driving towards Oregon tomorrow but we want to take the #1 for awhile so it is going to be a slower drive.  Hopefully the weather isn't that back.   I don't think we will make it to Oregon tomorrow night just probably the end of California.