Happy Holidays!

Oh, you better watch out, you better not cry,

you better not pout, I'm telling you why,

Santa Claus is coming to town!!!!!

And, we have a house elf!!!

And Blizzard here is keeping an eye on Chester and Pickle Pants to make sure that they are behaving themselves. He reports back to Santa each night and appears in a different place each morning! He came with a great story called "The Elf on the Shelf" - Wesley rec'd Blizzard for his Birthday on the 21st of November and both the boys are enjoying having him around. Chester thinks it was a great gift and reports that Pickle Pants has not been "as much of a pest" since Blizzard's arrival - lol!

We never know where he might end up next!

The boys and I fly down to Southern Ontario today to spend Christmas with my family where hubby will join us in a couple of days. I am not sure if I will be getting back on here to make another post until after the holidays - I am going to take a little time off. After Christmas, hubby and I have managed to plan a little getaway "sans children" - woo hoo!

Best wishes for a Happy Holiday and all the Best in 2011! Enjoy the festivities, however you celebrate! I look forward to visiting with you all again in the New Year!

Cheers,

Shanna & Blizzard, Hubby, Chester & Pickle Pants

Forever in my heart....

This card is for the family of my dear friend Ellena who lost her battle with Lymphoma back at the beginning of November. I lost my "zest" for blogging around that time and sort of disappeared from cyberspace for a bit. When I came back, I wasn't up to discussing the reasons why. It is still so difficult for me to believe that she is really gone - I think that is why it took me this long to make her family's card.
E had a thing for owls, so I just had to include them somewhere on the card. :)

Ellena was a dear friend and fellow scrapbooker. She was a Stampin Up Demonstrator - when I first met her years ago, I actually thought of her as "the competition" and treaded carefully since she was in "the business" first. Ha - no need really, we quickly became each others customers! And of course, in the stamping world we can never have enough - variety is the spice of life right?!?

Ellena or "E" as most of us called her, was always smiling - we shared so many great laughs together! She was kind and generous, always willing to participate in an event to benefit a charity - such as our Annual Stamping Pyjama party. Despite her failing health, she attended this year's event - we were so honored to have her there! She was a true fighter, right to the end - it was evident that her intent was to "live with cancer" rather than die from it and that is exactly what she did.

Though I am sorry that she is gone, I am a better woman to have known her and call her my friend, and for that I am fortunate and truly thankful. E - you will remain forever in my heart.

Hugs,
Shanna :)

p.s. I would like to enter this in the Paper Sundaes challenge this week which is to "cut it out".

What I used:
stamps: CTMH
papers: My Mind's Eye - Quite Contrary
Embellishments: twig, Bella Bling, ribbon

Ready for our Open House....

Well, almost....I've had the decorating done awhile now, all that is really left to do is the food prep and tidying.

Over at The Scrapbooking Cottage, Stacy shared photos of her Gingerbread themed kitchen last week. This inspired me to take photos of my decor. I decorate quite extensively each year, but often neglect to take any decent photos...

I enjoy collecting both snowmen and Santas, especially older or antique ones. Below are my what I'm calling my "Santa Cabinet" and the my "Snowman Cabinet".

Both are pieces are managed to acquire at our local store "'Twas the Month before Christmas".

This is my favorite store of all time,well except for my LSS, DAT'S! I have a naughty habit of finding a new piece of antique furniture, usually a cabinet, each year when I go into the store at the beginning of the Christmas season - even if I'm not exactly sure where it will end up! This year, it was my sister who acquired a beautiful and unique cabinet and took it home to Southern Ontario.

Leslie is the owner/operator and her husband is a talented carpenter. He recently did some custom-made nightstand/bookshelves for me for our bedroom and I just have to share!

This first shot is the BEFORE - I had Bob make this shelf for above the bed last year for us. I love it, especially the little drawers. It took me awhile to figure out what should go on either side. I had been asking friends and family when the visited what they thought, keeping in mind that we are desperate for book space - we love books! Well, I took all their suggestions into consideration and this it what I had Bob build for us!

I am thrilled with how it turned out! I haven't had a good chance to really organize our library quite yet, but that will be a great project for the New Year!

The right side of the bed and then the left - I am going to store quilts in the bottom half of the nightstand.

Best go work on that "to do" list....

Cheers,

Shanna :)

Peace and Joy

Hello! What a busy weekend and week it has been so far! The boys had Danderella's girls over for a big sleepover on Saturday night. We had a staff Christmas Dinner on Sunday night and a Cubs Christmas Party/Investiture on Monday night. In there somewhere I managed to baked Gingerbread cookies for Chester's class, make a few more cards and get almost all of my Christmas cards ready to go in the mail.

Whew....however, I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this way! Here is one of the cards I snuck in on the weekend....

I'm going to go ahead and enter this in Sparkle's Christmas Card challenge though I'm cheating a little since this one will be used this year rather than go in the stash for next year. The challenge this week is to use an angel on your card, but any Christmas/Holiday cards qualify for the challenge.

I was so happy to get my cards to the post-office this afternoon - all 41 of them! I will be hand-delivering more than usual this year since we are going to Southern Ontario for Christmas. I also sent two parcel and two others are not quite ready - those are on the to do list!

Despite the fact that I had 90 cards already done for Christmas, I am finding that I need a few more so here is the other one I put together quickly on the weekend. I picked up this adorable Echo Park (lovin' Echo park) paper at DAT'S and have been itching to put together a simple (no coloring) card with it. I love all the bright colors, aren't they just the cutest?

So, how many more sleeps? I really am looking forward to Christmas, we haven't been "home" to Southern Ontario for Christmas since Chester was a baby eight years ago! Wishing you a productive week of crossing items off the list - because the more items that are crossed off, the fewer you have to do as the big day approaches right?

Cheers,

Shanna :)

Believe.....

Life has been "happening" - the only way to explain my absence. Anyhow, you just have to read my journalling on this one to understand why I had to pull over and write down what Chester said to me one day while driving.........



Our conversation:

Chester: Mom, when I grow up I'm going to be a very special worker. I'm never going to see you guys!
Mom: Why?
Chester: I'm gonna be Santa!

So, I've been carrying around this layout in my head for forever. I am so glad to finally make it happen! I've hung this one up in my shadow box frame in my scrapspace since it's appropriate for the current season. I finally took down the summer layouts that were in there. I like to change them every few months when I get a new layout or two done.

Happy Friday!
Shanna :)

p.s. Thanks Donna for suggesting adding the stitching - I had difficulty finishing this layout since the top right corner was too bare but I couldn't figure out what to put there. All you have to do is ask a friend and voila, problem solved!

Trees and a Big Thank You!

The challenge this week at Raise the Bar is to use trees. Hooray, I can play along with a challenge - it's been so long since I've done. I would also like to enter this in the Wee Memories challenge which is to take Inspiration from Christmas Music - my inspiration came from "Oh Christmas Tree" of course! :)

I just love this paper from Little Yellow Bicycle that I picked up from DAT'S awhile back, but I have trouble using paper like this in a scrapbook layout, so I decided to turn it into a card. I just love the music notes in the background. Of course, I used the awesome matching buttons and some tiny beads that I mooched off of Donna for ornaments on the tree. These days I buy almost anything with music on it - I'm a little obsessed. Maybe it's because I finally decided to take some music lessons. My eldest, Chester has been taking piano for two years now, and I love listening to him play. Last spring, I spoke to his teacher to see if she would consider taking me on as an adult student with zero experience. I started my lessons in September and am thoroughly enjoying it! I have managed to learn enough so far to pay several basic Christmas songs! I always wanted to try piano as a child, but my family didn't have a piano and did not have the means to acquire one. So here I am learning at thirty-something. It has been so fun!


I want to send a big shout out to the team over at Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenges. I suddenly stopped posting for them and have yet to provide an explanation. I had almost come to the end of my DT term when some major stressors hit and they gave me permission to bow out gracefully a few weeks early. I am thankful that they understood that life had to come first as I had some important things to attend to. I had a fabulous time being on Sparkle's Christmas Challenge Design Team and am so thankful for the opportuntiy and also for the fact that I have 90 - count 'em - ninety Christmas Cards ready to go. All we have to do is finish the signing (my boys sign them all) and finish addressing. I am so grateful to be ahead of the game and hope to do the same for next year! To the girls on the team, thanks for a great time! I'll be playing along come the new year as I hope to keep up with you all as much as possible.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Shanna :)

Vintage Christmas Fleamarket finds

Check out the vintage Christmas stuff Pickle Pants and I found at a fundraiser sale. I'm lovin this vintage stuff. I think I'm going to frame the card - it wasn't even signed!

The music box in this cute little ornament still works and plays the sweetest little tune! It looks adorable in my antique cabinet.....

I do have a card to share and another layout too. It's a matter of editing photos and typing up my post.

I hosted our CNIB staff party this afternoon - I'm thrilled as now all my decorating is finished and I am ready (except for the food of course) for our annual Christamas Open House in two weeks time! I love having motivation to get rid of clutter and get the house looking good, especially at this time of year! My boys have a birthday party tomorrow then we have the Parade of Lights tomorrow evening and Homework Club on Sunday - somewhere in there, we will try to get more Christmas cards addressed and evelopes stuffed. I have our family letter written, but have to get it typed up and printed. Here's hoping you have a fantastic weekend!

Shanna :)

Backseat Driver

Here is another layout that lived in my head for what seems like forever! I managed to get this one done at Yap N Scrap as well. For those of you who don't know, hubby is owns and operates a Driving School and has since the boys were tiny - so they cannot help but be backseat drivers - it's in their blood! lol
Sorry the photo seems so far away - as usual, I am not good at photographing my layouts.

The journalling is the best part of this one since it is something that I took a few minutes to write down way back when it happened - it is difficult to see, so I'll type the main bit here in case you are interested......it may also help you make sense of why on earth there is a dinosaur on the page!

On a roadtrip returning from Sudbury, Chester was pointing out all the road signs. He would yell "Watch out for moose!" So Pickle Pants starts shouting "Watch out for dinosaurs!" After Pickle Pants had said this about 3x, Chester pipes up and says, "Dad - you don't have to, they're all stinked." A little later, Pickle Pants decided to warn us to "Watch out for Nanny!" and laughed hysterically each time. Very funny boys we have!

There you have it. I am heading out on the road again - last work trip before the holidays - woo hoo! Please cross your fingers for good weather - the temp is hovering around zero which makes me nervous, sometimes we have better luck when it is like -20 - none of this rain and ice business! I shall catch up with you all when I return,

Cheers,

Shanna :)

What I used:

honestly can't remember all of it, but I believe the papers are from Crate Paper - something I've been hoarding for at least a couple of years. I am also very proud of the fact that I used a sticker on my page and I think it looks great - when those fabby stickers come out, I am so drawn to them, but rarely use them - pat pat for me!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.......

Well, our first snowfall of the year and we were already making snowmen!!! These photos are from November 14th - a whole week before the Santa Claus parade even happened. The boys were so excited - Pickle Pants had me outside within minutes of crawling out of bed!!!



No treadmill required - the shovelling did the trick and we got some fun photos to boot! Often, if we get it this early it doesn' last too long. This year, it doesn't look like it is going away anytime soon - we've already had several more snowfalls - winter has arrived in the great White North my friends! "Sorrells" are now my footwear of choice (well maybe convenience rather than choice!) from now until April! Good thing I'm not much for fashion - much too troublesome in this sort of weather!

So, do you have any snow yet?

Cheers from snowy Thunder Bay,

Shanna, Pickle Pants, and Chester :)

Edit: The boys were thrilled to have a "Snow Day" on Thursday since all the buses were cancelled. It was especially sweet for them since they also had a PA day on Friday!

A Fishy Happy Birthday

First up today is the card that Pickle Pants made for hubby. They share the same birthday - Pickle Pants being born on hubby's 30th.

And here is the card I made - rather simple and straightforward, but with a bit of a twist. I won these cardstock accordian stickers (Carolyn Holt Designs) in a class at Scrapfest a few years back and hadn't yet cracked open the package - they were perfect for this card.

I added a few photos.....

and a few more on the other side, used some photo clips to hold them in place and there you have hubby's bday card.

Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend. I was lucky enough to spend the evening hanging out with girlfriends and I have stuff to share, but will save that for another post.

Cheers,

Shanna :)

Tee Hee Hee

The idea for this page lived in my head for many, many moons.....


I love using papers with lines already on them - makes journalling so easy! Just ask Donna - I think I buy almost every paper that shows up in the store with lines on it.....


it finally made it onto a layout at Yap N Scrap a couple of weeks ago. Thank goodness I write down some of this stuff - I don't think I would have even remembered Pickle Pants saying such a thing let alone the circumstances of just how he used to do it! It felt so good to get this layout done!

Happy Hump Day!
Shanna :)


What I used:
papers: Bo Bunny
chipboard: Bo Bunny
embellishments: Tee Hee, I think everything on this page is Bo Bunny - no I don't have a Bo Bunny problem, not me!!! lol
lettering: Cricut - might have been Winnie the Pooh font - thanks Lee-Ann for letting me use it!

Happy Birthday to you....

My goodness! This post gave me such difficulty - first I didn't have good lighting, then I couldn't upload my photos from my camera, then blogger would not upload this particular photos - it was loading some then not others....oh well. Needless to say, I meant to have this posted a couple of days ago, but it just wasn't in the "cards."

On Sunday, my baby turned six!!! I can hardly believe it! Sunday was also hubby's Bday - Pickle Pants was born on hubby's 30th Bday! What are the chances!?!
Anyhow, I ordered this stamp set awhile back since it reminded my so much of Pickle Pants - so I just had to use it on his card. These papers seemed to work perfectly with him.

I'll be back with more stuff to share soon since I finally got my photos taken and uploaded. Hope you are all having a great week! It is very wintery in my neck of the woods!

Cheers,
Shanna :)


What I used:
stamps: The Greeting Farm - Just for You, CTMH
papers: Kaiser Craft - Jungle Bug
copics: B93, B95, E000, E00, YR12, E59, E55
embellishments: misc ribbon, Velvet Brads (making memories)

Backtrack a few weeks....

I know, I know, everyone has moved on to Christmas - and so have I in many ways, even have some of my decorations up - but since I've been neglecting my blog, I haven't gotten around to posting the photos from Pickle Pants' Halloween Birthday party and Halloween Night!

Here are the treat bags from the party. Chester actually made these. I helped with the stamping and he got busy with the Glimmer Mist! Yep, his fingers were black for at least a week after - but he had fun! Note to self - next time pull out the latex gloves before allowing the younguns to use Glimmer Mist!!!

Pickle Pants in costume #1 - he wore this for the school parade, daycare and for his party.

Here are Pickle Pants and Rock Star concentrating on their game of "chomp the marshmallow". This game was a BIG hit - thanks Amy and Donna for the inspiration for this one. They also enjoyed making Mad Scientist potions - very fun, but very messy! A big thanks also goes out to Amy from for all her help the day of the big Party! You were such a great help Amy!

And here is the "Boo Crew" - consisting of Danderella's two kiddos and my two. Here we have: an elephant, a red M&M (Pickle Pants' second costume), the Ghost Bride and Frankenstein. Don't they look great?

Papa looks like he might be getting a little tired. He found a tiny spot at the edge of the table while the boys were gutting and decorating their pumpkins with Nanny and Auntie.

Here is Mr. M&M posing with Auntie "Witchta's" creation - the scary pumpkin from "Dragon's Halloween". This has to be my favorite pumpkin creation ever! Thanks Auntie!

Special guests on Halloween night were offered Witch's Brew and fingers in addition to treats.

Auntie Witchta herself posing with our resident ghost.....

Meet Daddy Scarecrow - we raided Hubby's closet for his grubbies and nabbed his work boots as well. The hat belongs to Pickle Pants.

Frankenstein posing with Auntie "Witchta". Mom, Krista and I all dressed up this year - we had so much fun "lurking" around in the dark and handing out treats.

Mom thinks I look good in black, but aren't those the best tights you ever saw???

This last one if my favorite - can't you see the three of us brewing a fantastic potion. That is fog you see in the photo - it was really hard to photograph - Mom, Dad and Krista drove up for their visit and so Mom was able to bring her fogger so we could use it Halloween night.

There you have it! A good time was had by all. We totally went overboard this year since I had extra helping hands not only to set it up, but (thankfully) to clean it up as well!

Be back soon with some crafty goodness,

Cheers,

Shanna :)

Lovin the trees.....

Here is the page I promised to share. This one is for the same album I mentioned for my girlfriend's daughter who will arrive home from China this weekend. I love trees and so it was fun to use this one from "Paper Dolls" cricut cartridge. Thanks Donna for your suggestion to cut out the tree in a non-traditional but matching color.

All the papers except cardstock are Cosmo Cricket, love it!

Hope you all have a fab weekend, I have been avoiding blogging for a bit but plan to pick it up again soon. Will share more at a later post. The good news is, the crop I attended last weekend helped to get my mojo back so I actually have stuff to share once I get around to photographing it - I actually did some layouts!!! Gasp...

Cheers for now,

Shanna :)

Lucky Ladybugs

Thank goodness it's Friday! Sorry for being MIA, life has been "happening" so to speak and blogging was simply not high enough on the priority list. However, here I am trying to get back into the swing of things.
This is a layout I made for our friend Kelly who is in China right now to meet her new daughter and bring her back home to Canada. A group of us got together and made up an album for the first year of her life with her new family. On each page, we leave room for photos on the left side and provide journalling space in the form of a calendar on then right side. I was responsible for both August and September. I hope to share September with you tomorrow.

My papers are from Basic Grey's Lemonade line, one I hoarded for a very long time. By chance, the papers that I chose for this layout happened to include ladybugs. It is my understanding that ladybugs are a universal sign of goodluck, especially in the Chinese adoption world. Many explanations of this can be found on-line, I enjoyed reading up on this. :) Congratulations Kelly, I cannot wait to meet your daughter!

Hugs,

Shanna

p.s. I look forward to catching up with all of you soon!

Elmer's Crafter's Challenge Blog Candy Winners!

Good morning!
The winners of the Elmer's Craft Glue gift packs are:

HappyCrafter

laterg8r

Tammy

Congratulations!
Please email me asap with your mailing address so I can get those gift packs sent out to you! (you can link to my email if you go and view my profile - scroll down a ways on my sidebar)

Cheers,
Shanna :)

Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge Week #47

It's Sunday again and time for another challenge from Sparkle. This week, the challlenge is to use flowers on your card. Remember, the only real challenge is to make a Christmas or Holiday card, so come on, get those Christmas papers and stamps out and join us this week!

My card this week is a quickie - I wanted to play around with my new Basic Grey Jovial papers and also this set of ovals nestabilities. I added a few Kaiser craft pearls to the "dots" on the paper for fun and a little texture. I also used some of my new ribbon from SU.

Hope you are all having a fab weekend! Pickle Pants' Halloween Bday party was today - it was a ton of fun, but I'm exhausted! I have photos to share later this week.

Cheers,

Shanna :)

A Little Creepy......

Hey! Check out the "Witch fingers" I made for Pickle Pants' Birthday/Halloween Party! How fun and creepy are these!?!?

The first time I saw these was at a Halloween Stamping Party Donna hosted several years ago. I've been wanting to try to make them ever since. Well, the party coming up this weekend was the perfect excuse! Thanks Barb (Donna's Mom) for the recipe!

Here it is in case you NEED to have some creepy Witch's fingers at your house for Halloween!

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¾ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
¾ cup whole blanched almonds
1 tube red decorator gel

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla, beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and
Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Work with ¼ of the dough at a time. Roll heaping teaspoon of dough into finger shape for each cookie.
Press almond firmly into one end for nail. To form knuckle, make a small impression in about the middle and then put small slits with a paring knife. Place lightly on greased baking sheet. Bake in 325 oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until pale golden.
Let cool for 3 minutes, lift up almond, squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back in place so gel oozes out from underneath.
Remove from baking sheets; let cool on racks.

Hope you are having a great week!

Cheers,

Shanna :)

Happy Haunting!

Hello and thanks for stopping by! Here is a card I made up using the new Happy Halloween line from Echo Park - such fun festive colors! I just had to add that pewter charm I've had in my stash forever! I love the sentiment in the September stamp of the month (Thriller) from CTMH - such a fun look! I don't do many Halloween cards, but this was fun to put together! Now I just have to remember to mail it out in time!

This is a schedule post since I am on the road this week for work. We have a busy weekend ahead as we decided to have a Halloween Birthday party for Pickle Pants!

Have a fab week!

Shanna :)

What I used:

stamps: CTMH - Thriller, September's Stamp of the month, Beware

papers: Echo Park's Happy Halloween line - purchased at DAT'S
embellishments: misc, stitching