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.