BOOK SIGNING THIS SATURDAY!!!!

Hey all!

For those of you who don't know... my Mother, Tracy Krauss, is a published author. Her first book, "And The Beat Goes On" was published in 2009. Her second book is coming out late this fall!!! I'll keep you posted!

This Saturday, July 10, there will be a book-signing here in Fort St John, at 'Kurios Books' in the Co-Op Mall from 12-2pm. Come out and meet my Mom and check out her book!

Hope you can make it!!!!

Creating an "Alphabet Album." Kurt's Life: A-E

I can be quite obsessive and extremely organized and orderly. I scrapbook in chronological order. I am not one of those people who finds a picture and does an entire page with the one picture because it is beautiful. My pages tell stories. They share an event and they are kept in order.

EXCEPT, that is...when I did this alphabeticl album of my husbands life. Kurtis's Mom had 22 years of pictures jumbled together when we got married. There was no way I could sort through them all and get them in the right chronological order. So, I decided to do an "Alphabet Album" of Kurtis's life. I organized the pictures by events, such as biking, fishing, camping, etc. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. This is one of my favourite forms of scrapbooking to do! Because I had so many pictures (and belive me, I didn't even use half of them!), I did a ninety page album, with two double layouts for (almost) every letter of the alphabet (K, P, U, V, W, X, Y and Z only have one double spread). 

I love how the title page turned out; simple yet bold.

Since there are so many pages, I will take several posts to show them all to you. Here are A-E of my Lovey Hubby's life...

A:

B:

Alot of the pages in this album are of fishing, camping, guns and outdoor activities... here you can see him playing 'guns' at a very young age...I wonder why my Hubby is still so obsessed with hunting and fishing??

C:

D:

This is one of my favourite pages in this album... I simply took my creative memories "squiggle cutter" and made cuts from 12 inch paper in three different colorus... and tada! You have a beautiful river scene! Simple, yet oh so effective!

E:

This is another of my favourites (again with the fishing!). The letters are cut from the "Micky Mouse Font" cricut cartridge, and then I used real twine to string them all together to look like a fishing line.

One of the most fun parts of making an Alphabet Album is coming up with all of the fun titles.

I organized the pictures at home, and then did the entire 90 page album at a weekend retreat! This was also my very first introduction to the cricut! I had never seen or even heard of one before, and was absolutely delighted with what I found! I bought my own a few months later. I used the circut on almost every single page of the album!

Have you ever tried making an Alphabet Album?? Let me know how it turned out! What were some of your favourite titles??

"Red, White & Blue" Layout Challenge from Lasting Memories

Welcome to the Lasting Memories BLOG HOP! Hopefully you are on track and have just hopped over from NANCY'S blog (if not, go there now so you don't miss anything!!!) Don't forget to leave a comment on each post in order to be eligible for " blog candy"  and link your own " red, white and blue"  layout to the Lasting Memories site...have fun!
This is our first layout challenge since the new Design Team was assembled at "Lasting Memories." In honour of our American neighbours and their Independence Day, our first layout challenge is a "Red, White and Blue" theme. I decided that I did want to stick with the "patriotic" theme that 'Red, White and Blue' represents, so this is what I came up with:

My lovely hubby is Norwegian, so every year we get together for a day of traditional baking, dressing, gifts and stories with all of his Norske relatives.

This is a super simple layout! I only used paper and pictures - absolutely no extras!

I made the Norwegian flag from strips of blue and white paper, and 81/2 x 11 sheets of red.

The letters are cut from the cricut cartridge "Mickey Mouse Font"... one of my favourite fonts! I love the "blocky" look and they are ridiculously easy to stick on.  

As part of the weekend, we have a gift exchange of "Norwegian" or hand crafted gifts. This past year we got this lovely Norwegian Prayer Tile...

Hope you have enjoyed the first challenge from "Lasting Memories." I am very excited to see what you all come up with!
TIME TO HOP!! Scoot on over to SUEZIE'S  blog to see her "Red, White and Blue" layout!

Happy Canada Day!

Today is one of my favourite days of the year! I love being Canadian, and I love to celebrate our beautiful, amazing country with my fellow Canadians.

The following layout if from a family vacation back in 2002. We spent seven weeks camping in our vehicle and driving across Canada. We ended up on Parliament Hill for Canada Day, what a rush! Every Canadian should experience this!

God Bless Canada!

One of my dear University roomies and her husband are coming to spend the entire weekend with us, so I won't be posting anything until next week. I can hardly wait for all of the adventures we will have this weekend! Happy Canada Day!!

The Joy of Literary Terms!

Don't laugh...this is my English Degree coming out! I found these fantastic kids books by Michael Dahl that I think are absolutely amazing!! They teach children about literary terms! I was so excited when I found these, plus I got them on a really-super-deal-sale...$10 for all four! You can also find them on Amazon and they are about $8 a piece. I read through each one and was very impressed. Who wants to come to Auntie Pris's house to learn about literary terms?!?! (Oh, pick me! Pick me!!)

If You Were a Noun (Word Fun)

If You Were an Adjective (Word Fun)

If You Were an Adverb (Word Fun)

If You Were a Verb (Word Fun)

Some of the other books in this series include:










































If you ever feel the need to buy me a gift... :)...there are lots more great books in this series!

I Made It!!

After a superb weekend with my traveling sister-in-law(s) (one recently home from nursing in Africa, and both heading off to Europe tomorrow!!), I got some great news... I am now a member of the "Lasting Memories" Design Team... woohoo! Get ready to see some awesome challenges and layouts in the coming months. I am very excited for the next six months of scrappin'... here we go!!!!

Check out the site and greet the rest of the Design Team... congrats Mandy, Nancy, Kelli, Suezie and Melly... I look forward to getting to know you and work closely with you over the coming months!

Can't Get Enough of my Cricut!

I am entering a contest to become a member of a Design Team at Lasting Memories, to get my designs and name out, but also to make me focus a little more on my scrapbooking. The summer sure takes away from my creative time...well unless it is gardening!

I am a rather simple scrapper...I like my photos and memorabilia to be highlighted more than anything else. I have no idea what Lasting Memories is looking for as far as layouts... so I thought I would venture out and try something I don't often do... pre-made layouts rather than scrapping with pictures. Since I want this to be an available option in my scrapbooking business, I better start perfecting the art!

The designs I decided to share came from Cricut inspiration...I love my cricut(s!) but just don't spend as much quality time with them as I would like to. When I get in the mood to cricut though, there is no stopping me! Normally I draw my inspiration from the pictures that I am going to scrap, but this turned out to be a very fun little project!

The NPSS Graduation is coming up next week, so I thought I would share a pre-made graduation layout. The layout is made in the colours of the school (dark burgundy and gold). I used (one of!) my favouite cricut cartridges "Everyday Paper Dolls" for the graduate and large diploma. The "Way to Go!" lettering is from "George and Basic Shapes" and "Congrats" is from my other favourite cartridge, "Zoobaloo!" I wanted to keep this particular layout very blocky and simple to keep the focus on the pictures. I love how it turned out. Isn't the doll adorable!?!

I was having so much fun on my cricut that I decided to make a "Kid's Birthday" Layout as well. I love how the bright green contrasts with the dark brown. This was a delightfuly fun page to make. Most of the animals and lettering comes from "Zoobaloo" or one of the "Paperdolls" cricut cartridges. This would be a great layout for a kids party that was themed Trains, Zoo, or Animals. It would also be a good layout for a family outing to the Zoo. Enjoy!

For some real scrapbooking (with pictures!) see my 'categories' on the right hand side...