Our Roadtrip Across Canada

Sean and I headed out on our road trip on October 29th and on November 1st we pulled into our new hometown, Vernon, BC!

Us in front of our chariot just before leaving my parents house in Hamilton

What a great trip it was, I never realized how large of a province Ontario was until it took me over 18 hours to get out of it.
On Day #1 we drove from Hamilton to Sault Ste Marie and stayed with my cousin Eva.

Day #2 we drove from the Soo to Dryden, an 1100km drive.  We encountered our first bit of snow in Wawa but thankfully it was on the side of the road and not falling.

Roadside Snow in Wawa

Day #3 we drove from Dryden, ON to Regina, SK.  Manitoba was a very uninteresting province and we stayed away from Winnipeg as the news report informed us that 4 people were shot in Winnipeg the night before.  We stayed with Sean's Aunt Maria and Uncle Dick on their Soy Bean Farm just outside Regina

Day #4 had us setting out to Calgary!
With over 3000kms behind us it was nice to know that the trip was almost over.  It was a HAFA reunion in Calgary, as we stayed with Jeanette in her wonderful 2 bedroom condo.  Even Jr drove down from Edmonton to spend the night with us.  Jeanette arranged for us to go to this swanky restaurant - Lounge Burger which was delish!

Day #5 we left Calgary - after a quick pit stop at the Volcom Store in the Chinook Centre and set our sights for our final destination, Vernon!
It was a beautiful day - the sun was shining and driving through the Rockies and National Parks is a breathtaking experience. 

my view from the passenger seat driving through Banff National Park

After a little hiccup with a speeding ticket outside of Lake Louise we just sat back, turned on the iPod and soaked in our new life in BC - where Mountains are Mountains, not escarpments :)

At around 4pm we passed this sign and knew our trip was finally over.

so, this is it - our new home!
I'm going to be more diligent on posting to my blog so all your Ontario-ians can keep up with what's going on in our lives!
Tomorrow, I'll fill you in on a House Hunting Saga!

xoxo Bri

A great weekend of scrapping

This has for sure been a great weekend of Scrapping!!

On Friday night I went to my friend Stacy's house for some shopping and Scrapping! I participated in Forever Scrapbook's Garage Sale on June 5th and I had to go pick up my earnings.  

The way the garage sale works is, I pay a $5 fee to submit my items, but they sell them for me and give me a gift certificate for my sales.  Well wasn't I surprised when they called and I had $182!!!!!!!! to spend.  TOTALLY AWESOME!  I submitted 98 items, and they even gave me back the items that didn't sell - so I would highly recommend this sale to everyone.  I will for sure be participating in the next one (I've already started my box). Oh and I've already spent my gift certificate :)

On Saturday, I went the all day crop in Brantford with ScrapMuch? what a blast that was (yes this scrapper drives all around southern ontario).  I've just recently started participating in events held by ScrapMuch? and I have to say that these ladies are THE BEST. Anita & Elaine are the owners, but their group of friends, The Scrapping Bitches - I know, best name ever, are hilarious and very welcoming.  I was at this crop solo but never felt that way the entire time.  Their next retreat is in November, and I'll be going for sure!


Here is the layout I started at the crop and finished today:

I can't take credit for the amazing glittery LOVE, it was part of the paper - but I did use a lot of different techniques on this layout.  I used Sew Easy along the side to do my loops, stamped my letters and followed Laura Whittaker's tutorial on how to make a pinwheel to add just that extra little touch. I even wrapped my stick for my pinwheel with ribbon.

This will be the first page of the Honeymoon album I'm working on.  I have about 14 layouts done but I'm waiting on the hubby to snap some pictures for me to post - and hopefully I can be on here a lot more.


Now it's time to clean up and maybe go for some ice cream!

I know, it's been a long time...but I have new a post

Well, I'm back.
I know, I know, it's been since 2010 since I've posted anything on my blog, but I actually have some great work to post!

As most of you know, I make my Mother-in-Law a Scrapbooked Calendar for Christmas, well as per usual Brianne style, I left it too late and I didn't finish it until March 30th.  But I knew Janice (MIL) would still love it even if I gave it to her on December 30th, so I had the hubby snap these pics and off it went in the mail.

I've very proud of these pages, I think my skills are getting much better and a little less amateur.  I've even started using Stickles, something my friend Stacy swears by, but I had never tried them before this.  I used them on Harvest Time and An Afternoon at SilverStar.  

I'd love any comments you might have and now that I have the scrapping bug again, I will keep you posted on my projects and how the organization of the Scrapbooking Room is coming along.

and now for the pages:

Design Team Submission Submitted....Crossing my fingers

Tonight,I sent off my submission to be part of the Two Scrapbooking Friends' Design Team - so now my fingers are crossed that they don't open my application e-mail, take one look at my submissions and keel over laughing.  I submitted my 3D calendars and 3 of the layouts from yesterday's post - November, May and March.

Sean informs me that this is "stupid talk" and that they should be uber impressed - but we'll see.  There are some really talented ladies who have been on the team in the past and I feel as though my "refined amateur" style might be lacking.  "Refind Amateur" is how I answered their question of "how would you describe your scrapbooking style".  I know how to scrapbook, and I do think I am pretty talented, but I'm still in elementary school for sure.


For tonight's project showcase, I am posting pictures of the card book I've been making.  This book has every card we have given to each other, except for one birthday card that I can't find. I find it fun to look back on these cards and it's a great way to store the memories.  Enjoy!

Eek, Time's a ticking...and I haven't started my Christmas projects yet

Well in true Brianne fashion I am freaking out because it is November 24th and I haven't even started the calendar I'm making for Sean's mom.

Now last year I went to the Two Scrapbooking Friends' Winter Retreat so I had 3 whole days dedicated to getting the calendar done.  This year, however, I did not attend the retreat so I still have a blank canvas to work with.


Here is what I created last year - I was really proud of these pages, it took HOURS and HOURS of work to do, but the praise I received on the phone from Sean's mom (she lives in BC so our gifts were mailed out) was worth the blood, sweat, tears and lack of sleep.

The first page when you opened the calendar - I love this background paper, it's just so festive.

January - Pictures from our trip to Lake Louise, AB.  I think this page is my least favourite of the whole calendar.  I must have replaced the items fifteen times before giving up and going with this layout.

February - my favourite is the LOVE in the middle of the page.

 March - I like how this whole page is centred around Janice and her smile.  It was a very simple page, the paper was beautiful so it didn't need much embellishing.

April - this is what Sean and I dressed up as for Hallowe'en.  I have this cute stamp set called 'Life's a Jungle' so it fit in perfectly.  I have a lot of stamps but I don't use them as much as I should.

 May - our niece Cedar is so photogenic that it's hard to decide how to crop the photos.  I love how playful and warm this layout turned out, and the 3D elements I used.

June - a tribute to our fun times up at 'the plot of land' sometimes just a simple title and a border of pictures turns out great.

July - Once again Cedar was my focus - what grandma doesn't love pictures of her granddaughter??

August - Sean, Logan and I took a trip up to Tobermorey and Sean took some amazing pictures, so I highlighted them in this layout

September - a nice, simple layout.  As I am a proud owner of a Cricut, I like to use the background pieces along with the true cut out forms - I like how neat it looks.

October - a scary witch, a big title, some stickers and great paper!

November - this is by far my favourite layout in the entire Calendar.  I found this paper a long time ago, it was shiny and the watch and words were raised a little to give it such an awesome texture. This picture shows Sean's grandpa in his war uniform, and then Sean in the same uniform.  It brought tears to Janice's eyes to see them side by side.  I always keep my poppies, so I put one in the middle and simple wrote out the first lines to 'In Flanders Fields'.

December - instead of the usual Christmas pictures I went with my brother and sister-in-law's wedding photos.  They were married in Mexico in December.
Who isn't dreaming of saying Mele Kalikimaka on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day??
















And now it's time to really start on my 2011 Calendar project - the count is 0 layouts done, 12 to go!

and the Hanging Display is up

Well when I last left you I threw out the teaser of: a curtain rod, 125 8" pant hangers, some ceiling hooks and a ton of paper - and all I can say is TA DA! 
Here is My Paper Display!

I am so very proud of it and it wouldn't have been possible with out my handy Husband!

We had a very busy weekend in Hamilton for my niece's birthday, and not arriving home until 8pm tonight, I had my doubts that Sean would be eager to come up to my scrapbooking room and hang the curtain rod for me, but after giving him the puppy dog pouty lip he marched upstairs and within 15 minutes I was hanging my paper.

Sean said to me tonight, "honey, sometimes you think of the craziest ideas, but they always seem to work out" - thanks to my handy man my crazy ideas work!

My next mission is to start moving my paper out of the bins they are currently stored in and into clear envelopes and bags so I can add them to the display.  I realize that there is only a finite amount of room, and weight my display can hold, but I'm going for broke on this!

Welcome..and here's what I just finished

Hello Everyone - well I'm not sure if there is anyone out there yet who is following my blog, but I'm sure in the near future there will be at least 6 followers of my blog (my husband, my BFFs Katie and Emelie, my dearest cousin Matty, my scrapbooking buddy Stacy, possibly my own mother and my mother in law), actually that looks like 7 followers! Whoop Whoop.

I started this blog as a way to show the scrapbooking creations I have made to inspire you to and in the hopes that one day I'll make it on to some design teams! and of course get some oooh's and ahhh's!

What is a design team you ask? Well, basically it's a team of ladies - though I'm sure men could be on it, just I haven't found a man scrapbooker yet - that share their creative scrapbooking ideas and techniques with us amateurs out there.  In Waterloo, there is a store, Two Scrapbook Friends, that is having "auditions" for their Design Team and I am working hard on putting together my portfolio to send over to them.  Their blog is fantastic, I highly recommend you bookmark it if you are into scrapbooking ideas.

So now on to my work - this week my challenge was to finish the 3D Advent Calendars I was making for my two nephews, Connor & Sam and my niece, Emma. I purchased these blank calendars from Karen Foster Design last year, and have only now got around to making them. The cool thing about these calendars is you can reuse them, the little drawers are about 1" by 1" so they fit little candies and chocolate perfectly.

Here are the first two I created

And the last one

The only thing left to do is to put a big C, E & S on top to distinguish who's calendar is who's.


Tonight's project: create my paper holder.....stay tuned to see what will I create with the following:

• A Curtain Rod
• 125 8" pant hangers
• a gazillion sheets of scrapbooking paper