Happy Valentine's Day

The inspiration for my Valentine's Day cards came from the February issue of Scrapbook's Etc Magazine. Check out this super cute owl card on the cover.

Here is how my cards turned out. I played around with a couple different color patterns.

The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide

I wanted to a take a minute to tell you about the new class I am taking at Big Picture Classes - The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide by May Flaum.  I absolutely love the structure of BPC and it is a goal of mine to take any class taught by May. The one thing I say after every class is 4 weeks just isn't long enough. I get sad when the classes end. So I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear that this class was going to be 12 whole weeks. The class focuses on different techniques and products. Week 1 is all about misting. The tips provided have been super helpful. I actually only have 2 mists in my stash - blue and brown. Below are two of the projects I made showing them off. 

My favorite part about the class so far are the A-Z videos that May has included with this class. That means 26 amazing videos highlighting pretty much every technique topic you can think of. If you haven't had a chance to sign up, there is still a little more time. Trust me, if you are looking for motivation and inspiration this is one class you don't want to miss out on.

February Counterfeit Kit Challenge

I am off to a bit of a late start this month. Life has been really hectic (in a good way!). I feel like this always happens in February. It is my birthday month and we have two great trips planned so I'm accepting that things will be s.l.o.w on the blog front.

This month the Counterfeit Kit Challenge offered two fabulous kits from Scrapbook Circle. I am big into holidays so whenever there is a holiday themed kit I usually go that route. Plus, February is my favorite month so how could I not pick the Valentine's Day kit. Here is a picture of some paper original kit:

I have to tell you that I kept it super simple this month. I went with one of the smallest kits I've ever created. But I was trying to be realistic about what I think I can do.

Here is a picture of my kit: 

Go Canada! Cricut Cart

I am so excited about my most recent purchase! The Go Canada Cricut Cart is exclusive to Michael's Canada. I tried several times to locate it while I was up visiting family, but it was always sold out. The prices on Ebay were ridiculously expensive. I was thrilled to find out that they are now being sold on Cricut.com. I ordered one as fast as I could and had it just a few days later.

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This cart has everything I need for my Canada layouts: hockey, curling, bear, canoe, tuque, a Tim Horton's like coffee/donut, loonies and toonies, the provinces, an alphabet and so much more.
C'est tres bon!

Baby Cards

Two of my friends recently celebrated the arrival of their baby boys! The blue papers in my Counterfeit Kit were perfect for creating boy cards. I used the Cricut Sugar and Spice cartridge (which yes, is the girl cart), but I changed the color of the stork from pink to blue. The white ribbon and orange scraps were an add on to the kit. Sweet and simple!

My Scrap Room

We moved into our house a year ago and I was very lucky to be able to convert one of our bedrooms into my personal craft retreat. It is a continuing work in progress as the space is an awkward shape and I am still trying to figure out how to best organize all of my stuff.

My favorite part of the room is that it is at the front of the house and gets tons of sunlight so it keeps the room bright and toasty. Here is a view from the doorway:

I kept the mess on the floor for the picture because it shows off my scrapping work style which is to sit on the ground surrounded by supplies.The curtains are from Target and my mom was nice enough to hem them and make matching pillows for the chairs with the left over fabric.

Here is the technology work station with my Cricut, laptop and printer.

Here is a view of the main desk. It is the Ikea Expedit desk which I absolutely love and wish I had one of these bookcases in every room in the house.

The desk is not normally this clean. However, I am taking The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide with May Flaum at Big Picture starting in a few weeks and I got a head start on pulling my supplies together and cleaning up. I just installed the Ikea Bygel rails on the side of the desk and filled them with supplies for class.

And the last part of my room, and certainly the least, is the super small closet that I haven't quite figured out what to do with. Originally there was just the one shelf on the top, but I added two more for additional storage.

And there you have it! I think if I could have my dream space it would look something like this:

Here's what I love:
1. The mix of blues & whites
2. The window seat. I love window seats and would like to figure out how to install one.
3. Oversized chairs for relaxing and reading breaks
4. A huge counter that goes on forever. I think if I had more counter space to spread out, I wouldn't need to sit on the floor
5. Those cabinets! I would love custom cabinets to get everything out of the plastic bins and into nice shelving.
6. An area to display my favorite work

Valentine's Day Tag

This month's Scrapbook Etc magazine had a really cute tag that I decided to turn into a card. Here is their tag: 

And here is my card:

I tried something new with my Cuttlebug and actually inked it first and then put the tag in to run it through the machine. I like the way it turned out and will be trying this technique again in the future.