A Sprinkle On Top!

Well, it is official! Amanda has named her business and created a blog. The blog is in its early stages and it will improve as time goes on. She is going to be offering some special promotions for Thanksgiving and for Halloween.

You can check out her new blog at www.asprinkleontop.blogspot.com!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Today is Matt's 14th birthday!

I got up this morning, just like every other morning, and Matt was at the kitchen table eating his breakfast. I said good morning and headed to my computer to check my email. I was thinking to myself that he probably thinks I have forgotten his birthday! I could never do that. I waited until he headed up to have his shower and then I made his lunch. I wrote a little note and placed it on top of his sandwich.

I heard him coming down the stairs and it was only seconds before he said to me 'mom, I thought you forgot'! I flashed him a smile and told him that I would never forget his birthday!

Tonight we will celebrate his special day with a family dinner at the restaurant of his choice. I am hoping now that he is fourteen, he will pick somewhere other than McDonald's!

Happy Birthday bud! I hope you have the best day ever.

A Busy October For Amanda

Amanda's baking business is growing and she is going to have a very busy month! She has several big orders coming up in October. Every time she gets a call or email for an order she calls me right away.

She has been busy testing recipes and her brothers and friends have been the tasters. She has developed a really fun looking cupcake for birthday parties and her brothers say that this is the best one yet.

The batter is created in many different colours......

Scooped into the baking cups.......

Baked to perfection.......

Isn't that amazing.......

Each one has its own unique look.

She adds some buttercream icing and a few sprinkles.......and you have the perfect tie-dye cupcake.

Amanda is going to be making a cupcake tree for a birthday party this Saturday. I will be sure to get photos and post them.

Body Surfing!

I am in week #3 of my course and this is the layout that I created using the sketch we were provided. I really changed up the photos and created some of my own embellishments.

The photos were taken on our holiday at Six Mile Lake! They are some awesome action shots of David (Jay's best friend, and my 'adopted' son). I really wanted the photos to make an impact on the page, so I enlarged one of the photos to a 8x10 and placed it over page 1 & 2.

David was not centered in the photo (don't judge......you should try taking photos on a boat) This actually worked out well for my layout. I was able to make David the focus on page 2, and then in the space on page 1, I added some close up shots and placed them right on top of the 8x10 photo! I sanded the edges of the photos on my layout to give them some texture and make them stand out a bit more. I used some foam adhesive to raise the small photos off the page.

I created some of my own embellishments using the chipboard stickers. A while back my hubby received a package in the mail and inside was this perfect piece of corrugated cardboard. I knew I could put it to good use! I used it to jazz up the chipboard pieces and made a tag and both of my titles!


My layout was not complete without a bit of stitching and I also added some stamping around the entire page when I was done.

If you are interested, here is the store behind the photos. David had this bright idea that he wanted to try body surfing while we were out on the boat. I thought he was crazy and never thought he would actually be able to do it. When we first took off, it appeared as though he was drowning (I knew he was safe because all he had to do was let go of the rope). All of a sudden, when we were going fast enough, he just popped up out of the water and skimmed across the top. It was amazing. I quickly snapped a bunch of photos (he was ready for the photo shoot......he was smiling in all of them).




It was an awesome day and David was so proud of his body surfing talent. He provided a ton of entertainment for us, as usual!

Under Construction

I am totally addicted to sketches......Allison Davis' sketches to be exact. I am in week #2 of my online class with Allison, and I am loving it!

Here is my layout using the sketch that was assigned to us. I changed things up quite a bit and also tried something I had been wanting to do for a while.

These photos are of my youngest son! Matt and I were on a field trip to Doon Heritage Crossroads (this is back in 2004 when it was cool for me to attend field trips. If I even step foot in their school now, they are so embarrassed) and he is making a something out of wood.

I decided I wanted to play up the construction theme and tried out the new Nuts & Bolts collection from 3 Bugs in a Rug. I wanted to add something that would really tie the theme of the page together and make a big impact.

I searched out some colouring pages on the internet and found some cute images that I wanted to use. I copied them into word and adjusted the sizing for my page. I printed the images out several times on the different papers and pieced them together.


I was really pleased with the overall look when I was finished. I considered adding some stitching, but I felt I had spent enough time on this layout.

I can't wait to see what we get to do next week.

Little Red Wagon #46 - Stars

I am so happy to be playing along this week with my girlfriends at Little Red Wagon. It was a really busy summer for me and I just didn't have many opportunities to scrapbook. With the cooler weather and the routine that fall brings, I was able to create this layout that just happens to work with this weeks challenge.

Deanna has challenged us to use stars on our project. I created this layout for an online class that I am taking (a sketch from Allison Davis).

My stars are created from chipboard. I covered them with paper and then added some stitching with floss! They created great dimension on my page and worked really well with the theme. These are photos of Jason's first pair of goalie skates.

A big 'thank you' to Deanna for the idea for the title. I love it! It took Jason forever until his feet were big enough to fit into a pair of goalie skates, so they really were 'big blades to fill'!

Be sure to check out what the other girlfriends have created and link up your creation on the Little Red Wagon blog!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes & More Cupcakes!

Over the summer Amanda has discovered the world of cake decorating. She enrolled herself in 2 different courses and it has impacted her greatly! She hopes to attend college in Toronto in September 2011 and pursue a career as a 'sugar artist'! Doesn't that sound like fun?

Although I have my hands full with my own store, I still take a great interest in Amanda's passion. It is also a great creative outlet and we have been having fun checking out blogs and websites, trying different recipes and techniques and creating ways to incorporate scrapbooking into the world of cupcakes!

Our kitchen has turned into a small bakery! We have every pan ever made, all sorts of icing tips, utensils and lots of eager 'taste testers'!

Amanda can make Butter-cream Icing in her sleep.........

Two Scrapbook Friends just celebrated a big anniversary which included an off-site crop for 50 people! Amanda made special cupcakes for us with these sweet little cupcake picks inserted into the top of each one.

She made the picks the week before the crop so they would be ready for the assembly process.

She started baking at about 4pm one day after school and I think she finished doing up the dishes around 11pm. She was still full of energy, but not enough to wash my kitchen floor.

In addition to the cupcakes for our crop, Amanda also made special 'friendship' cupcakes for our store that were handed out to the first 50 customers that made a purchase. There was a yummy mix of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes covered with white butter-cream icing, embellished with a few sprinkles.

The cupcakes for our crop were all individually packaged in bags and tied with matching ribbon. Amanda made a cute little tag to attach and spread the word of her new business.

On Sunday we were both invited to a baby shower for Deanna (from our design team at the store) and Amanda wanted to make a special cupcake tree for her! She made special baby girl cupcake picks for each cupcake.

She knew that Deanna would save the picks to use on cards and in the baby's album.

Amanda has had many inquiries and several firm bookings for some very large orders. She is currently working on a design for a fundraiser for a dance studio. I can't wait to show you what she comes up with........they are going to be super cute!

I think that she has a definite future being a professional Sugar Artist.

Finally......a layout!

I have been such a bad blogger/scrapbooker over the summer. I don't have any excuses except that I have just been busy with other things. The store always takes up a bunch of my time, my kids keep me very busy, 2 weeks away with my family for holidays, CHA Summer in Chicago, and enjoying the summer weather. I also discovered reading and I am already on my 4th book.

Last weekend I had the itch to do a layout, but to be honest I was not up to creating something on my own. I hopped on the computer and checked out some of my favourite blogs, looking for a layout to copy! My photo stash is dwindling, so I didn't have many to choose from. I found a photo of Jason and a layout with paper scraps that matched perfectly.

Here is the layout that I finished 2 days later. This layout was created by Julie Bonner. You can check out her blog here. I thank her for the inspiration.

Now, I am sure you are wondering how it could take me 2 days to finish a single-page, single-photo layout............that I copied!!!!!! I am not sure either. When I start to scrapbook, I get lost in a mountain of paper, embellishments, photos and adhesives. I think I go on a mental holiday. All I can say is that I love the finished page and I enjoyed looking at this photo of my son and reliving that summer day in 2009!

I loved this little cluster by the photo. The quote was from one of the 'cards' sheets that Fancy Pants always includes with their collections. The sun and surfboards are from the rub-on sheet.

I wanted to give the rub-ons some dimension, rather than just rubbing them on to my page. I had a sheet of transparency.........like this (click here), so I rubbed the design on the transparency first and then cut it out. Then I used my foam adhesive to pop them up.

Julie had done some detailing with a pen on her squares, but I thought that my page wouldn't be complete unless there was some stitching on it. I stitched all 8 squares with brown floss (maybe that is why it took me 2 days).

Here is a close up of the sun element (also a rub-on). I think I will be using the transparencies more often. I really like the dimension that it allows you to create.

I am currently working on another layout......this time a double-page. I only have one evening into it, so it may be a few days before it is ready to post. This one is my own creation from a sketch. It feels so good to have my hands back into my scrapbooking supplies again.

Loving My Six Teenage Kids!

As soon as Monty and I decided we were going to start a family, I worried about the teenage years. That might seem weird, but that is the way my mind works. It wasn't the diapers and sleepless nights, it was the thought of having 3 teenagers in my house all at the same time!

That time came sooner than I expected, but the road was nothing like I had predicted. Who knew that my kids would teach me how to text and that our family would have over 35000 texts in one month between our 5 cell phones? Who knew that I would love their friends as much as I love my own children? Who knew that I would jump on a wake board at age 40 and tube and knee board too?

We just returned from a week of camping with 6 teenagers and it was amazing. Most people shake their heads and wonder why we would even think of taking 6 teenagers anywhere and call it a holiday! I say.......they are missing out on something wonderful!

The above photo is my favourite from our holiday at Six Mile Lake! Amanda and Chloe are missing because they were off doing something with my hubby. We spent about an hour or so at this lock and as we were leaving, both of my sons told me 'thanks for taking us here mom.....so far it was the best part of the trip'!

If they only knew how much I enjoy their company......all 6 of them. I hope some day that they have the same experience with their own family!