Here’s a smile to make your day brighter! My beautiful granddaughter Madison is the star of today’s page. The girls clothing store Justice, hosted a Dance Party on March 7, 2020. Our store in London, it HUGE – it would be any girl’s dream to shop there! Madison received an invite to this fun event with her birthday gift – also from Justice. She was so excited, and eagerly awaited the big day.

All the girls that attended the Dance Party, were invited to pick out their favourite clothes and accessories in the store. The employees then took off the price tags and let the kids put on the clothes, shoes and accessories for a giant fashion show and dance party. What an amazing idea! Way to go Justice – you are building the self confidence of these girls as they grow and develop into the women of the future. AMAZING! Maddy had an incredible afternoon, and I love that this picture really shows her unique style!

The cut file featured in this layout comes from The Cut Shoppe (https://thecutshoppe.com.co/collections/all), and is called “You Go Girl”. I cut the file in white cardstock and then used the offset tool in Silhouette to back fill the title with patterned papers. The whole title was then backed with double sided foam to add dimension to the page.

I used Paige Evans’ Bloom Street collection of patterned papers and ephemera to make this page. I purchased the full paper pad and ephemera from Two Scrapbook Friends in Waterloo – great selection, awesome service and quick delivery! (www.twoscrapbookfriends.ca). I did a little paint splattering on the background for added depth and added some pearl dots in pink and orange to complement the ephemera pieces throughout the layout. I completed the layout by using Doodlebug Design’s, Tiny Type lettering around the picture and to add the date.

Many thanks again to Justice, for hosting this wonderful event and letting our young ladies of today, build strong self images that will help them blossom into the women of tomorrow!

One of the aspects I love about creating scrapbook pages, is that inspiration can come from just about anywhere. But sometimes, we only need to look as far as someone else’s creativity to get us kick started. When Cocoa Vanilla Studio released their Legendary collection, I knew it would be on my “must have” list. With two grandsons, this masculine line was perfect. The very first layout Cocoa Vanilla posted was by the very talented Tarrah McLean, and she used this paper and the DIY Quilt die cut from The Cut Shoppe. It was a jaw dropper! I knew I’d have to find a way to use her creative inspiration to add to our personal scrapbooks.

Fast forward to this week. My daughter sent me a request to print a few photos for her. This picture of Owen was one of them. Well, as you can see, the colours in this photo fit perfectly with this paper. The rest is history, as they say. The overall page came together quite simply, using Die Cut Ephemera, Titles and Flair Buttons all from the Legendary line.

Again, I’d like to give credit and a shout out to Scrapbook Your Joy (https://scrapbookyourjoy.com/) for bringing in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio line of papers. Yes, they may be a bit more expensive, but the quality is superior and worth every penny! I guarantee you will not be disappointed. I can’t wait to dive back into this paper pack to create some more.

I hope you’re all finding some time to be creative these days.

Coronavirus has forced all of us to change our lives overnight. Plans have been put on hold, work looks completely different, and everyday activities such as shopping are now done only when absolutely required. For me, the hardest part of this pandemic is the social isolation. Being forced to stay home, when our nature is to socialize and enjoy life with others around us. I don’t want to come across as complaining – I am completely grateful that my family and friends are all safe and well. I will be forever grateful to those who work the front lines for us, they truly are deserving hero’s in my books.

I am very fortunate to have my daughter and her family living directly across the street. It’s incredibly wonderful to be able to just walk across the road to see my 3 beautiful grandchildren any day of the week. I often take advantage of this opportunity and love to read with them at bedtime. But social distancing called for an immediate halt to that luxury. They are so close, yet so far now! How I yearn for those little hugs once again! We are very lucky that we aren’t separated by miles, and I’m often found at their front bay window waving and blowing kisses.

My granddaughter Madison and I have been reading Harry Potter for the last 4 years. When an illustrated version of the series came out, I jumped on it as an excellent way to engage Maddy in these wonderful adventures. She was hooked right from the start, and we’re now on the 4th book “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. I can’t say enough about these illustrated versions. The pictures are simply spectacular.

Maddy and I have always read together, side by side. In our new state of being (COVID-19), this is no longer possible. When I asked Maddy if she’d like to keep reading via a video call, she readily agreed, and we now read via video link every night. I really treasure these times together. The layout at the top of this post was my attempt to document how we’ve adapted to our surroundings and found a way to carry on.

The papers for this project came from Harry Potter lines from Moxxie and Reminisce. The book cut file is by Paige Evans and is called “Open Book”. I loved that it provided an opportunity to journal directly on the “pages”. The title cut file – Just One More Chapter – is part of a larger cut file from Cut to You called “Book Lover”. You can find it here: https://createdbygwen.com.au/product/book-lover-cut-file/. The stickers used came from 2 separate Harry Potter sticker sheets by Paper House and Scrapbook Customs.

Wishing you all continued good health and happy reading as we weather this storm together.