Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Classes, Classes and More Classes!

With the end of August in sight, I will get back to writing more blog posts and bid a sad farewell to our lazy summer days.  But I am excited for September too because I have some wonderful classes coming up.

On September 10, I am teaching a "Summer Layout Workshop" at Treasured Memories...
If you would like to get those summer photos into albums, then join me and learn some fun stencil techniques as well!

Click HERE to register.

If you live in Alberta, you have probably heard of this fantastic event hosted by Canadian Scrapbooker magazine:  The Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival...

I will be teaching a layout class in both Edmonton and Calgary called "Double the Fun"...

Using some fun new Fancy Pants Designs products, we will use one of my sketches and a few cool techniques to create 3 double or 6 single page layouts.  

Click HERE to learn more about the Carnival and register.  It's a really great time with lots of awesome classes!

In October, I will be teaching at ScrapFest in Oshawa. 

I'm SO excited to be invited to this event and cannot wait to meet up with all the Ontario scrappers there!

Along with "Double the Fun", I will have 2 other classes as well:
In my class "From  Simple To Sensational", we will create 2 double page layouts, learning how to embellish a basic design with lots of extra special elements.

The third class is a travel mini album, featuring the wonderful Simple Stories "Urban Traveler" collection:
Click HERE to register for my classes at ScrapFest.

Although September means an end to summer, I'm really looking forward to getting back into the classroom.  Hope to see you there!

Friday, August 9, 2013

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

This blog post title could only mean ONE thing:  Las Vegas!  

Here is a photographic recap of my fun trip to Sin City, where I attended the Create & Connect trade show with Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  

It was my first trade show, and I was so excited to represent the magazine as their Social Media Correspondent.  

As well, I had loads of fun doing demo's in the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L booth.
There was so much eye candy at the show and some of the booths had amazing displays.  One of my favourites was Sizzix...



Luckily, we had time for some sightseeing!  Our first stop was Hoover Dam.

The heights were dizzying!  It is an astonishing engineering feat. Wow.

From there, we drove into the desert looking for the Eldorado Canyon Mine Tour
This place was soooo cool!  Well, actually it was about 105 degrees, but you know what I mean.

Our tour guide was fantastic.  We saw some real rattlesnakes (in his fridge and freezer!)

He even showed us proof that there are aliens...



We walked around the ghost town...

...and toured inside the Techatticup Gold Mine.
This place is a popular set for movies and music videos etc.  Here is the site of a movie plane crash...




The fellow with the beard is Bobbie, one of the family members that owns this land and gold mine, and the man with the cowboy hat was our tour guide, telling us all about the gruesome history of the area.  Lots of violence when it comes to gold mining!

Back in the city, I spent 3 days at the trade show and my evenings on the strip...

The beautiful Paris hotel....it's not France, but the lights at night are gorgeous!

We ate in a restaurant in Paris...
We stopped in the Bellagio Hotel too....so beautiful inside and out!


Check out that glass ceiling!

And the hotel window displays were fabulous...
We went to 2 shows:  Penn & Teller and Jersey Boys...
They were both excellent!

On our last day, we had a free afternoon so we drove back into the desert to visit Red Rock Canyon...



Did you know there are wild burros in the area?  We were lucky enough to spot a couple and stopped by the roadside to take photos!
We also stopped for lunch at Bonnie Springs Ranch.
Rustic setting, but delicious food!
Love the metal divided plates!

The washrooms were "unique"...

Yep...looking like the Wild West now!

This is definitely a trip that will end up in a scrapbook !  But it was definitely ALL good and no bad...Good times, good friends and lots of laughter!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Fabulous FabScraps

If some of you are fans of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine and follow their blog, then you know I've been writing updates on the new releases from the Create & Connect trade show in Las Vegas that took place 2 weeks ago.  

Today on their blog I share this layout, plus some wonderful photos of the amazing displays in the FabScraps booth.


The design is based on Sue Sykes' August sketch for the Sketchy Challenge. 

I made a video to show how I designed this page, and you'll also see how I altered the chipboard title and created that cool circle element with a Crafters Workshop stencil.
It's all on the Canadian Scrapbooker blog, so click HERE to head over there now.