Happy Holidays~

Wishing everyone the happiest of Holiday Seasons, whatever your beliefs! With everything going on in the world, cherish what you have! Love like you've never loved! Live like you've never lived!

Best wishes,
The McLennons

Paint Chips...Why Not?

I am a huge fan of finding product to use on scrapbook layouts that have little to no cost. Paint chips are one of those no cost items that can be used in so many contexts.
Here is one layout I recently created and used 2 colour families of paint chips. I punched 2 sizes of circles out of each colour on the paint chip.

Father and Daughter~

A rather self explanatory layout I did using a photo from our wedding by Wonkyeye. Love the photo, love the colours and love the layout.

Papers are from a Recollections paper stack.

Bass is Best~

I thought I would post a layout that I created on the weekend, during my frenzy crafty productiveness.

This is a layout featuring Sean and his tuba buddy Randy! Randy is a man that always has the most interesting story to tell, gives the best hugs and always brings a smile to my face!

Patterned papers by Pink Paislee, Portfolio Collection

Photo by Wonkyeye Photography

November's Sketch~

On the Cutting Garden's blog you will find a monthly Sketch Challenge. It's a great way to get a layout done quickly and easily...PLUS if you submit your entry to them, you could win a great prize!
Here is my take on this months sketches!

Patterned papers are from the What's Up Collection by Basic Grey

Here's the sketch I went from:

Here is the card that I created from the card sketch. I used Simple Stories, Harvest Lane Collection

Here is the sketch:

Check out the monthly sketch challenge!

www.thecuttinggarden.ca

Portfolio~

I spent a couple of hours at a day long crop over the weekend. These are a couple of the layouts I created using a kit of papers that I received from ScrapShotz.

They are not colours I would have normally picked out myself, but that is one of the reasons I am liking getting monthly kits. I love how the layouts turned out!

Patterned papers  are from the Portfolio Collection by Pink Paislee.

Bear in a Bathtub~

One of those little things to make you smile. I found a link to a recipe on Pinterest, and pinned it for another time. I picked up the marshmallows and bear crackers, but instead of the chocolate cake that they used, I opted for a boxed brownie mix. Follow the mix instructions. The only thing I changed is the bake time. I set the oven at 350 and put the mini cupcake tin in for 12 minutes. Take the brownies out, place the bears into the brownie and add 3 mini marshmallows in front of the bear. Then place back in the oven for 2 minutes. Easy as that!

If you would like to check out the original link that I found, that makes these with chocolate cake mix, here it is:
http://www.food.com/recipe/award-winning-bears-in-a-bubble-bath-mini-treats-320840/photo

Our Wedding: The Personal Touches~

What can I say...
We had such an amazing day! Exactly the way we had wanted it, great weather and all the people we love! Because I am who I am, I made a lot of the decor myself. Here are some images captured by Wonkyeye Photography.

My beloved bouquet! Made from coffee filters, maps and sheet music.

Ribbons tied to the cedar archway on the beach.

Place cards waiting to be picked up.

Table numbers also created from maps.

Mason jars filled with sand from the beaches we have been to together.

A candle lit in each one.

The driftwood centerpieces made into candle holders with the help of a friend and the right tools.

Instead of a guest book, our guests wrote in these little notebooks with lots of good...and fun ideas.

Quick and Easy Holiday Cards~

These are photos of cards that I created for a recent class. Quick and easy cards that can be done in minutes!

All cards created from a single 6x6 stack from Michaels.

2" Scallop Circle and 1" Circle punch used to create a cute little wreath.

Buttons as ornaments!

4 circles using my 1.5" Circle Punch, folded in half to create this 3D ornament.

Paint Chip Christmas Tree

Best part is, they're free!

MMMmmMMmmMMollasses~

If this dreary cold winter weather is going to keep up, well we may as well have some yummy belly warming cookies to go with it...and perhaps some tea.

People rather enjoy my Molasses Cookies, so here is the recipe.

They look great on the beautiful pottery dish given to us by Randy and Lena too!

Molasses Cookies:

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Molasses

1 Cup Melted Shortening

1 Egg

(Mix the above ingredients)

4 Cups Flour

1 1/2 tsp Salt

3 tsp Ginger

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cloves

(Mix the above ingredients)

Mix the 2 bowls above

Add:

1/2 Cup Milk

2 tsp Baking Soda

Refrigerate  (10-15 minutes)

Preheat Oven to 375

Roll dough into small balls, about an inch or a little bigger. Place on parchment paper. I also put the dough back in the fridge between batches in the oven.

Bake for 8-10 minutes

A Little Bit of Business~

My business cards arrived just a few days to late for the last weekend crop. But good to have none the less!

Printed through Vista Print

vistaprint.ca/

Take 2~

Just thought I would post again about how changing your colour scheme or patterns can make all the difference in a layout. Here are 2 layouts that are the same, just changed out the patterns.
You don't always have to be creative when you sit down to scrapbook, just recycle a previous design with a different theme.

Patterned papers by K&Company

Patterned Papers by Simple Stories

Embellishments by K&Company

Fall Fling Crop~

Here are a few more layouts that I had created on the weekend at the Fall Fling Crop hosted by the Cutting Garden. It was a fun filled weekend surrounded by friends new and old! Looking forward to doing it again in the spring!

http://thecuttinggarden.ca/

Patterned papers by Simple Stories, Harvest Lane Collection

Patterned Papers by Echo Park, Life is Good Collection

Photo Series~

I would say that about 80% of the time I do single page layouts and focus on just one or two photos. But there are times that when taking photos, I come up with some pretty fun series of photos that just have to all be used.

This months Canadian Scrapbooker "Get Sketchy" sketch reminded me of 2 layouts that I have already done, one at a crop that I attended just this past weekend.

Patterned papers by Echo Park, This & That Collection

Patterned papers by Echo Park, Paradise Beach Collection

Making Music Together~

Another recent layout that I love! One of the things that I love the most are the photos by Wonkyeye Photography.

Check out more of Christine's work!

http://www.wonkyeye.ca

What is Geocaching?

I have had so many people ask about our new family hobby that we have fallen in love with called Geocaching. So I've decided to dedicate a blog post to it to try to inform more people about the outdoor fun loving hobby.

Here's the definition from the website:
Geocaching is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using a smartphone or GPS and then can share their experiences online.

Sean likes to describe it as using million dollar satellites to find dollar store trinkets in the woods.

What we ended up doing is going out with another couple, who were able to show us the ropes. There is an etiquette to geocaching. Stealth is often required to protect the caches from being damaged by non-geocachers or "muggles". If you take anything from a cache, you are to replace it with something of equal or more value. After our first evening of caching, we came home and explored the website. This is where we got a lot more information about the logistics of logging what you have found, and finding more caches to look for.

http://www.geocaching.com/

The basic membership is free. You do not have to put your personal information out there for everyone to see, as you or your family logs everything under your geocaching name. For example our family is McHawkeye4. When we find a cache, that is what we write in the log.

This is a layout I recently created of a photo taken of our family while geocaching.

"Hello my name is McHawkeye4"

Patterned paper by Simple Stories, Fabulous collection

The girls like to find the larger caches which hold "collectables", meaning trinkets. Everything from keychains, McDonalds toys, plastic jewelry etc. What Sean and I like to find are "trackables".  These too are small trinket looking things that have dog tags attached to them, or geocoins that have tracking codes on them. When you find one of these trackables, you enter the code on them on the website and you get the items history, where it's been and where it wants to go in the future. Then you place it in another cache in your travels, hoping to meet that specific trackable's goal.

This is a geocoin that we came across called "Liquid Titanic" in honour of the ships recent anniversary. The only goal this coin had was to stay near the water. We picked it up in PEI, prior to that it had been all over Europe, starting in Germany. We dropped it in a cache located right at Peggy's Cove.

Geocaching has already taken us so many cool places that we would have never seen otherwise, and we are loving the adventure!

So like I have said to friends who have asked me about geocaching; if you like the outdoors, if you are a little adventurous, if you don't mind getting sticks caught in your hair. This could be the hobby for you!

Summer Fresh~

Most of you know already that I am a big fan of most anything by Simple Stories. Great quality patterned paper, with bright and fun colours! Their matching page embellishments, mats and overlays let you add so much more to a layout.

So from one of their great summer lines Summer Fresh, here are a couple of layouts that I have created.

Summer Fresh by Simple Stories is available at The Cutting Garden

Seeing Doubles~

I will admit that I do more single page layout than I do doubles. However, this past weekend at the Gadget Girls Crop in Truro. I completed 2 double layouts and thought I would share them.

"Time With Rick Mercer" patterned papers by Bo Bunny

"Tuba Guy" patterned papers by Moxxie

In the Halloween Mood~

I've never been one to decorate much for Halloween. However this year I made a new wreath for the front door, instead of just having a fall wreath up for the whole season. Here is what I came up with.

Take a wreath form covered with lime green feather boas from the dollar store, then add some googly eyes and a big halloween glitter bow! That's it!

Thanksgiving Treat~

Well it's official, our family has a new favourite cookie! This could be a great addition to all the turkey and stuffing you will be indulging in this weekend.

Cranberry & White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies:

3 Cups Rolled Oats

1 1/2 Cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Cup Butter (softened)

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Cup Cranberries/White Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350

Combine flour, oats, b. soda, b. powder, cinnamon and salt. Combine remaining ingredients except the cranberries and chocolate. Mix the 2 and add your cranberries and chocolate. Roll into balls and place on parchment paper.

Bake for up to 9minutes: Until just golden around the edges.

(I found that the first batch in the oven took 9 minutes, all batches after that took 8 or even 7 minutes)

Muffin Time~

I haven't added any of my favourite recipes for some time. So, inspired by something a friend said to me here is a recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.

My friend Scott said that these were his hands down favourite muffins! So this blog post is in honour of him!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins:

1 3/4 Cups Flour

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Egg

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 Cup Plain/Vanilla Yogurt

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Cup Mashed Bananas (2)

3/4 Cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat Oven to 350

Combine the dry ingredients. Combine the remaining ingredients except the chocolate chips. Combine both mixtures and then add the chocolate chips.

Bake for 22-25 minutes. Should yield 20 muffins.

One Sketch~

A week from today I am doing a class at Michaels called Sketch Class #1. Great name right? So here are some samples I created using my sketch with a variety of colour schemes, to show you just how different a sketch could look.

Class Date: October 2nd

Class Times: 1-3pm OR 6:30-8:30pm

Cost: $12.50

Contact me or the store if you are interested!