Let's all go on a summer holiday! For me, it's not a vacation without a beach. And not just any beach. A quiet cove with palm trees, and gentle breezes. So grab your sunscreen and beach blanket and you're all set to go with this kit.

Ideal for cruises, summer vacations, days at the beach and of course, sand castle pictures. 11 12X12 papers with luscious texture, a complete alpha, 2 grosgrain shell ribbons, 2 fibers, 2 glass square buttons, 2 frames, 1 glitter wave edge, 1 fastener, 1 embroidered patch, 1 bottle cap, 1 journal paper, 2 glitter shell stamps, 1 silk flower, 1 negative frame, 4 photo corners, 2 twisted ribbons, 3 wordarts, 1 staple, and one glittery journal tag.



Look what my team's done with it!







It's available here at my SBE store. Enjoy your rest and relaxation!

And if water's not your thing, maybe fire is! Here's the sexiest alpha. Use it for your holiday layouts, or rich elegant layouts!



You can get it here.

Here it is at work with the coordinating kit:


Or perhaps you'd like some elegant glitter flourishes?



It's available here.

Don't forget to take advantage of the Customer Appreciation Sale going on at SBE right now! 25% off! You can't miss!

It's time to Celebrate the savings!



I hope you all have a wonderful 2008! There's special news coming from me in the new year, so stay tuned. Here's a hint for you...you'll see me twice, and hopefully it will be twice as nice!

How is it possible to be getting rain just two days before Christmas? Especially after all the snow we've gotten? I really don't know. Just boggles the mind. But that's what we are getting. Rain. Lots of it. Tomorrow, just in time to go to work, we should have nothing but ice in the driveway.

So I've decided to make a nice pot of split pea and ham soup, which hit the spot.

If you are like me and need a pick-me-up, check out my new kit, Celebrate! It's full of rich textures and is bound to make you smile, thinking of warm memories.



And one of my CT members, Sara has worked on a beautiful QP album with my kit Frosted Poppies.



Go see them in my store when you got a chance. And I have news for the new year! Stay tuned.

So I thought I would join the blog carnival for the first time ever. I wanted to post a little something that I contributed to Kim Higueria's newsletter awhile ago. I hope you enjoy it. If it inspires you, I'd love to see the layouts you produce, if you feel up to sending me a link.

Scrapbooking Emotions

One of the challenges that I faced when taking up my new hobby of scrapbooking was journaling. I think it’s a challenge that faces many people who start scrapbooking their memories. How do you explain the circumstances around the photo? How do you explain what you were feeling when you took those pictures. For many, expressing their emotions in words is a challenge indeed, especially when a photo has sentimental value, or scrapping a picture of a loved one who has since passed away.

But while it is a challenge, at the same time, journaling your emotions can be quite cathartic. It can help you to face fears, remember fond memories with joy and sometimes tears. For me, scrapping a photo of me holding one of my nephews as a baby started out as a loving, sweet memory. But I scrapped a very different emotion. I scrapped a feeling of loss, mourning, grief. You see, when I was younger my brother and I had a contest of sorts. We always said that when each of us got married, we would have the first grandchild, and for the other siblings, the first cousin. So my brother got married, and won the contest, with three adorably sweet children. They are all near and dear to my heart. I, however, married older, and with my frail health, and other circumstances, have resigned myself to not having children. I won’t go into the details, but it has taken me a long time to come to terms with this. So when I sat down with this photo of me holding my nephew, such a tender moment, my emotions came flooding forward again about how I was holding my brother’s child, and not my own.

I decided to face that emotion head on, and scrap the emotions that best described how I felt – those of grief, mourning and loss. And after I completed the layout I realized how I had tried to bury feelings, repress them and that was much harder on me than expressing them. I felt relief and a sense of a weight lifting off me once those emotions were put to the page. Now, hopefully you won’t have to scrap those emotions in your journey to scrapbooking your photos. But I wanted to show you how cathartic journaling your emotions can be.

On the other side of the coin, we also have a tendency to let our joys and happiness fade far too quickly, because of the stresses of everyday life. So journal your happiness, the bliss, the joy you felt when you took pictures of your son’s first steps, his first bike ride without training wheels, his graduation. Journal your happiness, joy and pride when you scrap pictures of your daughter’s first bath, her first pony ride, her first class play, her prom, her wedding.

Journaling is such a power part of scrapbooking. Don’t take it for granted that once you have a title to your page, that your job is done. Journal those emotions!

I've become convinced that cars are more of a pain than a wonder. My vehicle has once again decided to let me down. So while my sweet car heads to the shop, I'll try to keep on a positive note by showing you a little teaser of what's coming to my store on Sunday.



Hope you enjoy your Thursday!

The latest Everyday Life Challenge is up at SBE! I hope you'll participate. This one should be fun.

This challenge will be about scrapping everyday moments. So for the next two weeks, your challenge is to scrap something about ...

preparations you've made for the holidays!!! It could be about shopping for gifts, baking cookies, a family tradition, etc.

Scrap something about your holiday preparations and that's it.

Stay tuned, because I'm going to be posting a sneak peek at my newest kit coming Sunday!

Well it's been the snowiest of days. Today we got a storm that dumped 40 cm. or more on us. Want a peak?

The garbage pails had been shovelled out, so that gives you an idea of how high the snow is. The bonsai pic is my kitchen window, which is about 2 feet from the ground. Yes, I guess you could say winter is upon us!





And a little news for you - I hate to be a tease, but I do want to leave this teaser for you. If you are a lover of cinnamon, and red, watch my store. You'll love what's coming!

It's over! It's finally over! My migraine that is. It started Monday night, and continued until this morning. Ugh. There's nothing worse than trying to get a good night sleep and seeing stars while you are sleeping. It's called an aura, and those who get visual migraines get them. Basically it's like sparkles in front of my eyes that I can sort of see through, but they make me feel violently sick and I lose my peripheral vision so it can actually be dangerous if I'm driving.

We got another lovely snowstorm last night. Very pretty, but now we have to shovel unless our snow removal contractor comes by. That would be unique. LOL

So since I'm feeling good, I've decided to give you a few lovelies to add to your holiday layouts. I hope you enjoy them. If you do, please leave me a comment.



You can download it here.

Hope you have a great day!

It's Monday! Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you all have a great week.

Seems to me that most people need a little joy in their life right now. Hope you enjoy this little clip as much as I do.

Well another quiet weekend. Hubby worked all weekend, so Mom came to meet me for breakfast on Saturday, with her new little car. Real cutie too. Makes me want a newer car with heated seats.

Today I was alone so I played a bit with designing and came up with some new snowy overlays. You'll have to wait to see them in store next weekend, but in the meantime enjoy this glittery freebie:



Get it here.

And don't forget to register for Scrapbook-Element.com's newsletter. It's full of goodies each month. Even if you registered before, you'll have to re-register because of a server crash that we had a few weeks ago. You'll love this newsletter!

Okay, well I thought I'd post some pics of the snow outside since yesterday's storm. We got about 15 inches of snow all in one day, and the city plow still hasn't come by. There were cars stuck out in the street this morning, and our snow contractor that is supposed to shovel our driveway? Didn't show up. Grrrr.... And I'm home today with a pinched nerve in my back. I am officially the stand-in for the Hunchback of Notre Dame. No autographs please.

This is the view out my front window. That snow, wasn't there yesterday. See the woodpecker?





Next door:




This is the view from my office window yesterday:





This is my view from my living room. I'm in a semi-basement, and yes, that is snow half-way up the window.

Yep, winter has finally hit! We are in the middle of getting what they predict will be 45 cm. of snow by the end of the day. Yay!!!! And I truly mean that! YAY! I love winter. It's quiet in the neighbourhood, with the exception of kids having snowball fights. Hearing the crunch of snow under your feet. How can you not like that?

Things seem to be going well in the job department these days. And it's funny because half the office isn't here due to the snow storm. My hubby, unlike most public servants, is a dedicated man. :) He woke up at 5 a.m. and got me out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to make sure that he and, unfortunately, I got to work early. Way too early. I don't agree with arriving at work before sunrise. Never have. Seems to me if the sun gets to sleep in, I should too. But no. My punctual hubby decided otherwise. Gotta love him. At least he made the coffee. And because I'm in early, you'd think I could leave early and go home early by bus, and wait for hubby to get home, but no. My 5:30 a.m. brain forgot the keys at home. So I have to wait for him to get off work. Ugh. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

So, I'm here to post my latest goodies - Acrylic Painted Frames. I hope you like them. I did them up for a special friend, Gemma, who remarked on my Icy Journal Frames, and said that she'd like some plain frames. And that's a good point. Why limit you to what I chose for the journaling paper. You choose! Or don't have any at all. It's totally up to you!



I hope you like them! Visit my store to see more of my latest goodies.

Well it's been a busy week. But you know the weekend is all the more enjoyable when the week's been long. My hubby and I finally have a full weekend together after a few weeks of his new job. Yay! And I've been busy with my mojo - take a look at some of the latest!



These newsy frames will be out this Sunday...and I thought you'd like a sneak peek at next week:



Some sad news - Scrapbook-Elements had a server failure this week, and the forums have to be rebuilt, so the Everyday Living Challenge won't be ready until the forums are up and running again. I hope you'll continue to play along. I'll post the new challenges in the gallery along with the new posting gift with the instructions for the challenge. Stay tuned for more later!

I've had such a week! Wow, let me tell you. Things have been so busy. My real-life job :) has been crazy. I've been teaching and things don't seem to be slowing down, although they are supposed to be. My hubby's got his job going now, and we are trying to adjust to the two of us working now. It means we don't always have weekends together, so that's an adjustment.

And of course, I've been filling my spare time with designing. Take a peek. These are products coming soon to SBE!






One of the alphas is a posting gift for those who participate in my challenge called Everyday Living Challenge at SBE so don't forget to check that out.

Hope you like the new products, and hope you have a good weekend!

I challenge you on DSD...
to have your layout posted in the Everyday Living Challenge thread, here! Doing so, you'll already guarantee one gift - the add-on to my new kit, Harvest Moon Jeans that arrives in stores soon.

But on Digital Scrapbooking Day, I'll be gifting a few people at random, who participated and POSTED the link to their layout in the thread. What gift do I have up my sleeve? Wouldn't it be nice to get the kit that coordinates with the add-on? I think so....

So getting scrapping those Everyday Living layouts and be sure to post the link to your layout in the thread and on Saturday, you may be putting on your favourite new jeans.

Well it's been an interesting few days! My hubby has found his first job here in Canada, pursuing what is his passion right now, the restaurant business. He's a prep cook at a restaurant at a mall here that we visit all the time. It's been quite the change.

You see for the past 2.5 years I've been spoiled rotten. My husband has been the homemaker, cook, laundry person and kitchen hand. And now he's working. So both of us are waking at 6 a.m. and while he has his shower, I make his breakfast and lunch, and then get ready myself so that I can get a ride to work to arrive one hour and fifteen minutes earlier. It's rough. So we've finally become the 'normal' double income couple fighting bills, and trying to find time to spend together.

The hardest time was this past weekend. He worked both days, and we've never spent a weekend apart since our marriage in 2005. Saturday, I was a cleaning fiend to deal with it. Sunday, I was extremely sad. But I spent the day trying to scrap and design some new items.

I've been working on some new products, some of which are already in store now. You'll find the sequel to Organic Elegance, and soon, Harvest Moon Jeans.



And I've launched a new challenge at Scrapbook-Elements.com - all about Everyday Living! There's a posting bonus for each person who posts.



Just visit the forum at Scrapbook-Elements.com for more details about the bi-weekly challenge, here.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Well the celebration's almost over. Congratulations to the 20 individuals who won my new kit, Graphical Botanicals - The Sequel. I hope you love it. I'm giving away one more copy of it though, because I'm one of many sponsoring an event at Dragonflaire Studios to support my friend Maggie Lamarre!




I hope you'll come and enjoy all the fun. There is no better site for hybrid projects! Challenge yourself to making your first hybrid project after the Spa Retreat!

So have you got all the answers yet for the Scavenger Hunt? A few people do! Some are a bit tricky but I'm sure you'll get there! Don't forget, you have until Wednesday night to come up with the answers and email them to me!

Have fun everyone. Believe me the work in finding the answers will be totally worth it!

It's here! My one-year anniversary celebration starts today!

On top of being In the Spotlight, which means 25% savings for you, but I'm also giving away a FREE kit. FREE? Yep, when you play the scavenger hunt at Scrapbook-Elements.com and you have the answers, you get this gorgeous kit:



While you are there, don't forget to check out my latest paper pack, the long awaited sequel to the hugely popular Organic Elegance:



You'll find the scavenger hunt here at Scrapbook-Elements.com - so head over there and play! What are you waiting for!!

Are you ready for it? For what? My anniversary celebration!! Not only are my best products going to be In the Spotlight, but I'm also taking part in the SBE mid-October sale!! Take a look:



You seriously don't want to miss it. It starts Saturday so you can start to celebrate early!

The countdown is on!

It's almost my one year anniversary in digital scrapbook design! And I'm celebrating big time! On top of releasing the sequel to the hugely popular Organic Elegance, I'm also In the Spotlight at Scrapbook-Elements.com which means big savings on my best kits, I'm hosting a new challenge at SBE, and I've saved the best for last....a scavenger hunt with the most gorgeous I've come up with yet. Want to see??? Sure you do!!



I hope you'll join all the fun starting Sunday, October 14th. The scavenger hunt will be posted on DST and SBE and I hope you'll participate. Everyone who sends me the correct answers will get the whole kit for free!

But don't worry...if you don't win the scavenger hunt, the kit will be avaiable in store at a later date!

So get ready for some fun! It's less than one week away!

I absolutely loved working on this kit. It was inspired by the changing leaves and fire red sunsets we are getting here now. And look what my wonderful creative team did with it! It's available exclusively from Scrapbook-Elements.com, here.















This gorgeous kit brings the vibrant feel of a raging fire and a stormy sunset into your layouts. Vivid red, orange and yellow papers with delicate textures and detailing provide the perfect backgrounds. The elements include frames, ribbons and swirls that bring out the flames and intense colors of the wild storm. The worn metal elements help to bring warmth to your pictures and layouts, and the journal papers and paper swirls add a touch of whimsy. Kit includes 10 richly textured patterned papers, 4 solid papers and 16 elements. This kit is perfect for a rugged masculine layout, or for rich autumn layouts. If you need to brighten and warm up your layout, this is the kit for you!

Wow, wait until you see this change.

Mom and I went to the Women's Show - and it was so much fun. Getting the goodie bag that they give out at the start of the show is insane. I have never seen so many grown women act like school children in my life. It was scary. Pushing, shoving - and these are women, some my age, some retired. It's like they thought the last supplies of Dove were in their bag!

Well, part of the joy of going to the show is the makeovers and this year, I decided to do it.

Ignore the quality of the picture - hairdresser is not a photographer for sure.



So, that's before.....and here's me now:



My long hair has been donated to Lock of Love.

Now for some news. I'll be celebrating my one year designing anniversary. So I've put out my best kit ever, and it will be in store in one week. Here's a preview.



I know you are going to love working with this kit. The papers are probably my best yet. It will be a perfect kit for the fall foliage pictures that I know you are taking right now!

So have fun with your Fall walks and I hope that you'll post some pics of your layouts with that beautiful fall foliage on SBE!

It was tough to filter through the wonderful galleries of all the applicants. There are some very talented ladies out there. My thanks to all who applied!



Please give these gals a big welcome! They'll be joining the other regular members as well as some wonderful guests for September October and November!

Welcome ladies to the team!