The Clan Noreau

My father was from a large family... There was ten of them, not counting the ones who died very early in life. From what I can remember, it was not so unusual to have them all together on Christmas time, when I was young. But as years went by, it became more and more difficult for them to meet. In 2004, as we celebrated on a many 50th wedding anniversaries, we were finally able to have them all together and take a memorable picture. Of course, two were no longer of this world, but we were happy to capture this unique moment with all the ones who were present with their spouse. Since then, six left for the other world, and among them, my dear father.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of this beautiful picture. For the longest time, I didn't know what to do with it... until I finally got inspired! So I created a very vintage looking layout to surround all these people that I loved and still love with all my heart.

Le Clan Noreau

I had a real pleasure creating this layout, and I did it as part of a design team project for Tina's Scrapbooking, using the beautiful Printery paper collection (Prima Marketing). I created flowers out of glassine paper (Tim Holtz), using glimmer mist, distress stain and distress ink to give them the exact colour I wanted. I particularly worked hard on the cream one as I didn't have the exact shade of glimmer mist I needed. Plus, glassine doesn't take colour very well, so I had to ink, stain and mist intensively to get this result. I love the vintage look I got in the end.

A couple of months ago, my brother, who recently re-decorated his house with new curtains, wall paper, etc., brought me a nice loot of goodies: textile, ribbons, beautiful curtain ties and loads of wine labels! Just breath taking! I decided to use a piece of curtain tie, along with this gorgeous lace I had laying around for months, to create a nice border. I punched and distressed two little butterfly, and voilà!

Finally, one of the sheet in the Printery collection had letters all over it, allowing me to create a 'family crest'. I cut around the N and used gold acrylic paint to put more emphasis on the letter, and the edge of the crest. I covered it with a thick layer of Tim Holtz Glossy Accent.

Of course, I put this crest close to my dear Papa, as he was so proud of  his family. And I am so proud of who he was...

I hope you like this new layout!
Have fun scrapping!

She's all that...

I wanted to create a cute layout of my preteen girl that would be feminine, sophisticate but not to old for her age. My daugther loves scrapbooking and she is especially very keen on knowing how I created certain elements, whether it is a flower, a crafty boarder or anything I made from scratch.

I had these amazing canvas butterflies from Maya Road for quite a while, and wasn't sure how and where to use them. Of course, doing a layout about my daughter inspired me... So here is what I did with one of them.

I layered a lot of glimmer mist, and I top coated it with Maya Mist in Silver Plated. I love this product! I then added some pearls (perfect pearl) and used glimmer glam to colour them (many different colours). I placed a pretty Prima flower to enhance the beauty of the butterfly.

I made another butterfly for the other page, but a pink one. I painted swirls all over the canvas with Chandelier glimmer glam to create a resist and spayed Party Pink glimmer mist on top. The resist effect worked, but the swirls were so pale that I re-painted them with Pearl acrylic paint (Adirondack). Here is the result...

To add a bit of relief, I created a border with a few stripes of paper and one of my favorite border punch (Fiskar); I used foam squares to attach it to the layout.

So here is the end result:

I used a very girly yet sophisticate looking paper collection - Posh - from Theresa Collins. It was love at first sight between this paper and I and I knew I would use it for my daughter! The letters I used are from BasicGrey and I misted them with Snow White Maya Mist for an iridescent look. Since I did this layout at a crop, I didn't have a wide choice of letters. I find them a little overpowering for the layout... but at the same time, they give a little childish look to the whole layout! So I like it!

Thank for reading!

Crafty Valentine's Day!

Every Valentine's Day, I carry on with my tradition of making my own handmade cards for my immediate family... my hubby, Alyssa and Nico always receive Valentine's card made with love.

This year, I used more glimmer mist than I did previously. All three cards are misted in the front and the back, using the same mask for the kids' cards. For all three cards, I used little hearts from Maya Road 'love mini chipboard set' that I inked, misted, and then covered with one of my faves: Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint from Tim Holtz.

So here is Alyssa's card... an ultra feminine look for a super girly girl! She loves it!

Glimmer mist: Party Pink

Ink (heart): Worn Lipstick and Black Soot

Punch: Martha Stewart

Heart: Maya Road

Tag: Core'dinations

Heartshape pins: Unknown

As for Nicholas' card, I went with a more masculine look. Using the same mask, I glimmer misted the front and back of the card, and I added a very red heart that I wrapped with rafia! Simple, but pretty without being too girly... 

Glimmer mist: Red Velvet

Ink (heart): Barn Door and Black Soot

Heart: Maya Road

Tag: Core'dinations

Rafia: Unknown



And here is the card I made for Scotty... very grungy! I used the same Maya Road hearts set, along with a small Tim Holtz grungeboard key that I completely distressed with all kinds of mediums: ink, crackle paint, pearl paint, and more ink! You should see my pretty fingers day... ;o). I also embossed the front of the card (Tim Holtz) , I inked it and finally, I sprayed it with glimmer mist.

Glimmer mist: Red Velvet

Ink: Barn Door and Back Soot

Hearts & 'love': Maya Road

Now, time to go celebrate Valentine's Day with my loved one!

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to spread the love!!

The Creativity Rut, the Bad and the Ugly... Merry Belated Christmas Everyone!

Who, among all of you, fellow scrapbookers, ever went through a creativity rut? Well, if you haven't, I envy you...

For the last 2 months, I have been dragging myself around, hoping that something would inspire me to go back to my favorite addiction. Anything, from colours, photos, papers, magazines to blogs and websites, left me completely blah. Even CHA didn't get me going... there was truly something wrong with me. I checked out articles like 'Getting out of a non-creative rut', and 'Get Out of the Scrapbook Creativity Rut!' but it didn't really help. How discouraged I felt....

And then, one night that I felt very frustrated and upset, I flew down to my scraproom to get some peace and quiet time. I grabbed some Christmas pictures I had handy and decided to create something out of them. Happiness, peace, relaxation... it all rushed back to my mind and my heart! Welcome back, I said... yes, I talk and sing all by myself in my cellar! How satisfying it was to finally recover these feelings that are so hard to describe. I scrapped until 3:00 am that night. Pure delight. And this is what I did:

This layout is about this tradition we have in my family to put our pj's on, make hot cocoa for the kids, and coffee and Baileys for hubby and I, when the time comes to decorate our Christmas tree.

I made a lot of sewing on the layout; I used Sew Easy, it is really easy to use! You just need a little bit of patience.... I also used shimmery cardstock from DCWV (Neutrals), and paper from My Mind's Eye - Rosy Collection. I also used Jillibean Soup corrugated alphas that I stained with Picked Fence Distress Stain (Tim Holtz) and covered with Chandelier Tattered Angel glimmer glam, for a frosty look. I really like the result!

This was my first layout since the crop my friend Natalie held at her place early January. This crop was very special as we (the Divas, and a guest-Diva) decided to use the same Christmas kit for one-day crop. You can see our posts on Natalie's blog. All five of us have a blog entry... this is mine: 'One group kit, and amazing day!'.

My creativity rut was already acting up on that day, and all I have done was two layouts. Not productive at all, when you think I spent over 12 hours in my friend's house... This layout is about my goofy hubby wearing  my son's elf tuque:

Lots of glimmer mist, drops of glimmer glam, heat embossing, massing distressing and inking, some sewing, and a lot of fun! This is my kind of layout: lots of work, lots of creativity and lots of happiness creating something from scratch.

My second and last layout of the day is entitled Christmas Cuddles, a title my friend Sylvie helped me find. Here it is:

This layout is all about love and tenderness. The best thing in life is my kids hugging me and me hugging them. Paper in this layout is also from My Mind's Eye - Rosy Collection. I  used Maya Road snowflake chipboard that I covered with Adirondack Metallics Paint Dabbers in Pearl. This is my favorite colour in this paint collection. The little frame is from Pink Paislee Mistables, and I covered it with Be Positive glimmer glam, which my friend Natalie lent me. I love the result.

So, dear friends, if you get into one of these creativity ruts, don't be discouraged. It will come back one day or the other... in the mean time, enjoy doing other things!! You will soon feel like scrapping again!

Cheers, and thanks for stopping by!