The dictionary can help us round out a title or journaling for a layout.  Just pick a word that represents your layout and then use the dictionary or online resources to get the definition of the word.  Use the definition as your journaling -- but feel free to embellish or add to it to suit your needs.

For example, I had a photo of my mom snuggling with my younger son Charlie. I used the word "Cuddle".  Like this ......

"Cuddle: to hug or embrace fondly, something Grandma's are particularly good at."

You could also do something like this:

"Beach:  pebbly or sandy shore, a place where dreams and adventures are built"  would be perfect for sandcastle building pictures.

Or.............

"Elf: a mischievous child" for holiday pics.

Have some fun with it.  Happy word hunting.

I love this layout I did for my boys' treasure cruise at Disney.  I've been collecting pirate embellies for so long!  And I love love love my Magnolia pirates -- which fit this layout to an Arrrr!  It also fits this fun challenge at Cupcake Craft.  Take a look:

Two's definitely company with my two boys. They are best friends.

Two's company with Pirate Edwin and Tilda.

Welcome to the land of pretending.  A place where joy is never ending.

What's a Disney layout without a Mickey?  Pirate Mickey this time!

Heart 2 Heart showcases some fantastic layout sketches.  I print them out and use them when I'm scrapping.  Here is the one for this month:

And here's my layout using the sketch!


All cardstock is CTMH, as is the inks, cork colour-ready alphabets, brads and oh-so fantabulous Flip Flaps.  Printed paper and metal page edgers are not CTMH, but sorry, I can' remember what brand.

Sometimes it's fun to challenge traditional colours.  This card uses traditional "Halloween" colours for a winter holiday card.  No reds or greens here.  It has a very interesting result.  What do you think?

With this card, I'm entering the Play Date Cafe Challenge for the very first time.  This week, their challenge was to use black and white and a splash of orange.  So here it is:

I've always loved the Clean & Simple sketches, so I'm happy to finally participate.  Here's a cheery Santa card, using their latest sketch.  All supplies are CTMH, except the Copics I used to colour Santa.

I love this little penguin that I made using the Create A Critter Cricut cartridge.  So I just had to make a card with it.  It worked perfectly for the Black and White Plus One challenge over at Allsorts.  They have some gorgeous work shown over there -- go check it out!

Here's my card:

The B&W paper is Stampin' Up, the rest of the supplies are CTMH.

Here's a cute little card I made with just black, white and gold.  I love the simple look and push myself creatively to keep cards clean and uncluttered.  Sometimes you just have to tell yourself to stop fussing.



This card is being entered into 3 challenges that I follow regularly:
Allsorts Challenge:  Black and White Plus One
Penny Black Saturday Challenge:  Gold plus presents  (using the cute little PB hedgehog stamp!)
Clean & Simple - following a sketch

Supplies were from Close to my Heart (stamps, white CS, ink), Stampin' up (black striped paper), Penny Black (hedgehog stamp), gold Stickles.

I felt inspired last night to make some cards.  And while my original intention was to do more Christmas cards for SickKids, I couldn't pass up this challenge over at Cupcake Inspirations.  They are looking for guest designers and I hope they pick me!

Here is the cake they showed for inspiration:

The challenge over at Cupcake Craft was to use things with text on it -- newsprint, books, etc.  I chose to use this adorable paper (by Bo Bunny, I think) with letters to Santa.  Perfect for this time of year.  I loved this challenge because it's hard to design a card without covering up the text that you want to be your focal point.  I also had lots of fun because my little 6-year-old Charlie joined me in the card-making and it was special time for us.  :)

Charlie's text inspired card!

The Hospital for Sick Children is a phenomenal place.  It's a place where hope stays alive, even for the sickest of children.  I have been so fortunate that neither of my children have had to go to SickKids for any serious illness, but in my life as an advertising copywriter, I did work for this client and learned so much about the important work they do.

Did you know that some children don't get to go home for the holidays?  SickKids makes sure that Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate, is special for these kids and their families.  And my friend Anabela is one of their elves.  At Christmas and all the year through, Anabela takes cards to SickKids, so that they can give a little happiness.

Anabela's doing another card drive and making a delivery on December 15.  Charlie and I have already started making cards for her to take.

Charlie colouring in stamped images to turn into cards.

Some of our cards, and the goodies we're using to make them.

It would so brighten their day.  The cards don't have to be fancy or covered in embellishments.  Sometimes the simplest cards give the biggest smiles!  Dig in your stash and see if you have any extras that are just sitting, collecting dust or maybe even getting crumpled.  Then mail them to me by December 10 (email me at justscrapit@sympatico.ca or leave a comment here and I'll send you my snail mail address).  I will make sure they get to Anabela to take to the kids.

Click here to check out Anabela's blog.  Become a follower and get updates on when she has her card drives.  Plus you'll get to see some of her lovely artwork too.

I created this special fall card for the Heart 2 Heart challenge.  It reintroduced me to one of my fave fall colours - Autumn Terracotta (also CTMH's VP of Marketing Kristine Widtfelt's fave colour!).  It also let me play around with the Trees and Things stamp set.  I had lots of fun experimenting with second generation and tissue stamping.  Take a look!

(Other colours used, as per the challenge:  Juniper and Bamboo.  All products CTMH.)

This year, I'm making a special gift for 2 of my nieces -- pennant banners with their names.  I've covered all the pennant shapes and now I'm staring to bring them to life.  Mojo Monday's sketch inspired the "T" pennant of Teagan's banner.  I plan to use the sketch in various orientations for most of the pennants.

Here is the T!


Teagan is only two years old so I wanted something that fit in her pink, blue and brown bedroom now, but not make it too babyish so she could keep it for a long time.  I love the paper from 3 Bugs in a Rug April Showers line, and the sketch helped me give it a "look" without being overly complicated.  The little CTMH pearls give it a nice, sophisticated touch. 

Honestly, I'm a paper, glue and scissors kind of gal.  Give me my ribbon, glitter, Cricut diecuts, brads, and more any day of the week and I'm in heaven.  I've been resisting the digital world because I spend most of the day on a computer and really didn't want to take my hobby (and passion) there too.

But as a CTMH consultant, I needed to give Studio J, our exclusive online digital scrapbooking system a whirl.  And over the year or so (or more!) since this has been available, I've tried it.  It was good but it didn't capture my heart.  UNTIL NOW!

A couple of weeks ago, after organizing all my albums (see my previous post), I came face to face with how much I still have to do to get "caught up".  So I uploaded a bunch of pics to Studio J to give it another try.  AND I BECAME ADDICTED!  I was getting layouts done in record time but they don't LOOK like they've been done quickly.  I added brads and buttons and ribbon (virtually, of course) and was able to be just as creative as with my paper layouts.  And I loved how I could move my photos around from big photos wells to small photo wells and back again without having to get the photos reprinted.  I did almost 30 layouts in the span of a week.  It was awesome!

Here are just 3 of the layouts that I did:

 See how I could add journalling right on top of the photos?  Love that!

Anyways, I still have a long way to go to get caught up.  And for me, I still love my hands-on scrapbooking -- it's still my first love and passion.  But Studio J has given me a different way to express myself and it made me think differently.  Which got my creative juices flowing.