Blast from my past

Wanna see the past.  Here it is.  This is one of my first "nice" scrap pages I ever made.

This my husband and I on our first trip.  We weren't even dating here we were just friends.  I believe it's November 2005.   It's hard to believe I've known this wonderful caring, supportive man for 10 years already.  

Anyways, this is back when we were living in Edmonton, Alberta.  I'd never even been to Banff, Alberta which is only about 3-4 hours away but always wanted to.  He was from Saskatchewan and hadn't been either.

But enough about nostalgia and back to the page.  I got this scrap page idea from Jennifer McGuire who is super creative and awesome.  I liked the idea of doing a bunch of different patterns behind my main pictures. Almost every square is slightly different from each other. I used stamp scapes stamps for many of the backgrounds.  I felt it was super suited for Banff since the reason you go is for the mountains.  I did a bunch of distressing or embossing.

For the black and brown background I clear embossed a Michaels flourish stamp and then did a thread border.  Something I had never done before and almost never done again.  The black border is from Stampin Up

Just in case you are wondering, Darcy is in a gondola in this picture.

This is absolutely one of my favorite times with my husband.

I hope you have enjoyed today's scrap page.

Nicole G

Daniel's page

It's unbelievable to consider, but this picture is 7 years old now!   Hilariously, my uncle who is from Montreal, PQ, specifically took time off to drive down to my wedding which was in San Francisco but accidentally got the date wrong so he missed it!  He was only late by a few hours as he thought I was getting married on the Sunday, but late is late!  It's something we often laugh about.  However, we did do dinner with him and I am ever so lucky because we went to a place called Morton's and it's still the best restaurant steak I've ever had.   My sister is on the left-she's incredibly photogenic.  My "oncle" (uncle in french) Daniel and me on the right.

In this page I used Tim Holtz Grunge paper for the huge florish.  I painted it and spritzed it and then added those tinnnnny little beads and embossed it for texture.  Then I used some already weird texturized papers for the circles and cut out fleur-de-lis' out of the red one.

The border at the top is using a fleur-de-lis mask.

I used my KNK to cut out the words.

The flourish on the bottom right is my favorite Stampin up Stamp.  Unfortunately, I broke apart my stamps years ago and can't recall the name of the set.  It's only clue is 2007 on the sticker.

Well... I hope you have enjoyed today's scrap page.

Nicole G

Queen Wilhelmina Scrap Page

I find scrapbooking to be hard.  I find it requires even more patience than making cards. I think that is because unlike cards where you don't normally use your own photos, in scrapbooking you do.  It's very intimate, at least to me.

I have literally been "working" on this scrap page for years.  I would start and muck around with a few ideas, then lose interest, patience or inspiration.  I am glad, however, that it did take me this long.  The original was not going to look anything like this and I LOVE how this turned out.   It's hard to believe my original colors were pinks to match my gown and what I now think of as some terrible greens to go with it.

Instead, I have this.  My masterpiece!

Darcy and I got married in San Francisco,CA on September 8, 2007 at a location of Golden Gate Park called the Rustic Bridge (see filmstrip pics or see pic below).

We took pictures at 3 locations: Rustic Bridge, Queen Wilhelmina Park, and Lyford's Tower (still need to make a page with those photo's).

The main paper background (brown with white dots) is from SU.  The clear overlay with red velvet is from Michael's.  The filmstrip is a piece I have had for a long time and just couldn't ever figure out the best way to use it, but voila, here it is.  I had this super fun rhinestone bling with a heart shape and it fit this picture so well I had to use it.  Also used some fun bling along side the main picture.

There is some green velvet self-adhesive ribbon below one of the flourishes and the word love.

These are our actual vows!  My husband and I scoured the internet in search of the perfect vows for us.  The chipboard pieces were painted with acrylics paints with 3 colors for some light to dark effect.  Afterwards I added some luminescent from the SU pad I own.  For an additional touch, I added little white dots with my white pen.  I did a similar effects to the word "Love", but in painted in one solid black color and without the luminescent ink.

The picket fence cardboard piece I purchased I've had for years. After painting it black, I threw it through an elegant embossing folder and highlighted the highs with gold ink.  It's a little difficult to see the gold in this picture.  The flowers were white and with patience and many dip and dries, they are now red to match the photo.  I used the heat dryer to add some "burn" around the edges for some texture and color densities.

View of Golden Gate's Rustic Bridge.  Magical isn't it?

This was the 3rd location of our pictures.  Lyford's Tower.  I hope to make another scrap page one day with this set of pictures.

Thanks for stopping by, I know it was a much longer post, but hope you have enjoyed it.

Nicole G

My Really lovely House scrap page

I made this a while back.  I LOVE this scrap page.  This is the page that actually made me realized I could do scrap pages.  I had always found it very difficult to make them but this page came so naturally and I love it.

Talking about homes, I just want to send out hugs and comforting thoughts to those in Calgary dealing with the flooding.  Check out this video for the unbelievable fury of all that water.  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152915137815526   I have checked with our friends and family and they are in safe places.

It is times as these that really make you appreciate your own current circumstances, my home, and my family.

Hugs to everyone today,

Nicole G

Curtis Part Quatre and final

This is a friends page for them.  The picture on the left is the left over piece from the last page.  The color worked perfectly so I added it to this page.  I did a bunch of heat embossing with words and flourishes, added bling and finally used my pendant spellbinders die! 

 I loved this project because I was able to do anything creatively that I wanted!

Well... hope you enjoyed those 4 pages.  Curtis mentioned he is hooked and looking forward to more pages in the future, so I am you'll see more of this happy couple.

Nicole G

Curtis Part Trois!

Here is the third page for Curtis's girlfriends xmas present. 

I used embellishments, that unfortunately to me cannot seem to find again, Tim Holtz Flourishes, game pieces, and spellbinders for this page.  The game pieces are the where Curtis' and Angie names are.  I layered them with purple paper, embossed with flourishes, gold leafed the edges and their names and added a fun corner accent.  I used Labels 7 to create a distressed book at the bottom.  Inside is the very special story from this trip.  This way they could still put the page in view of people without everyone seeing what was inside.  The key on the book is a symbol from their trip as they were in BC for a wedding and keys with people's names were on them to seat people. He didn't have the original so I got my own key.  The flourish was painted and then added some microbeads for some texture.  And the coolest part of this page is the background picture.  That is actually a picture he took while they were on their trip.  I enlarged it and voila! It's the perfect background. 

Thanks for stopping in and checking out this page.

Nicole G

Curtis Part Deux

As mentioned before I am showing you Curtis's scrap pages for his girlfriend for xmas.  This is page 2!

This is when they are at his cabin with friends and family this past Thanksgiving.

I stitched the pictures on for a woodsy feel.  All the leaves except for the green ones are real.  I added some clear applique to given them some durability.   I used a grass punch at the bottom of the page.  The  "tree" is actually a rose branch that I had dried long time ago.  I stuck it to the page with a glue gun and some wire for stability.  The "leaves" on the tree were made with my new favorite die called Lorelai by Memory Box.  I painted them with green crackle paint from Tim Holtz.  The paper came from Michael's in a woodsy pack.  I like how if you look at the page further away it looks like the maple leaf is floating in the water! 

Hope you liked today page,

Nicole G

Curtis Part Un

Throughout this month I am going to showcase the 4 scrap pages I was asked to make for a friend.  He wanted something special for his girlfriend for their first Christmas.  Isn't that just so sweet?  The worlds around the page is the list of songs that played at their first concert.  The picture is from Brewsters, their first date. The distressed blue sheet is from their first game of golf.    I added some embossing to sort of match his shirt on the page and I like how it worked out.  Dried wheat (yes I have dried wheat in my stash) was added as it's part of Brewsters image and both Curtis and Angie are from Saskatchewan.

I took this picture a little early as I didn't notice when I took it that I did not glue down the music notes below the jounal entry... so just picture it being straight for me... okay? LOL.

Hope you like todays creation,

Nicole G