Winter.Snow.

Well, it certainly been a long time since I last blogged. Sometimes it feels life's activities get in the way .... and also my very busy 2 year old. This was a class I took from Urban by Roxanne of course. This year Roxannes theme for her classes is using sketches. She of course also still incorporates new techniques into each layout. Roxanne gets her sketches from a well-known websites, Page Maps by Becky Fleck. The sketches are organized by month and by sketch type. They are very easy to navigate and you can also view a sample page beside each sketch. This one is the 12x12 double page sketch from March 2011. The paper line she used was "The Yellow Bicycle"...beautiful paper. Details that made this layout unique were the little handmade pine cones (which I had a little bit of trouble making) and the many different ways we inked and embossed the snowflakes. Very fun class to take. 

Roxannes interpretation of Becky 

Fleck sketch and put together 

by Rhonda Witzke

Frightfully Delightful...

This class was by far one of the best I have attended so far. I was so inspired by this layout that I want to hit my scrapbook room right away and start creating. These flowers we made were amazing, lots of detail, lots of time and totally worth it. They turned out beautifully, the black stickles were a perfect added touch to make them pop. The black on black was pure genius giving you the Halloween feel but with some elegance. There was nothing "ordinary" about this layout, the way Roxanne layered the transparencies gives a cool 3D look and feel AND page two leaves you just breathless..... The collage of the three different kinds of flowers with the black brads, black ribbon and the iridescent embossed stamping gives that special added touch to the page. LOVED IT, LOVED IT, LOVED IT!!!!!!! Such a fun class :) Hats off to Roxanne!

 Above: Transparencies

 Above: Cluster black on black

Designed by Roxanne Olsen and put together

by Rhonda Witzke

Finding Fall Colors

HAPPY OCTOBER 1ST everyone, it is definitely looking like fall outside with all the reds, oranges, browns and golds. I just love Autumn...... its one my favorite seasons of the year (the other is summer)! Recently, I had a very optimistic friend question my love for this time of year, "Why would you like fall, it only means that the most wonderful season is over and that winter is on its way? It's always dark and dreary and you can't  garden and camp any more..."  Yes, so maybe there are some down sides, like night arriving much, much earlier but to me fall means a whole lot more. I love that the crisp weather does not require a big winter coat, just a sweater or a light coat will be enough to keep warm. I also love sipping my favourite fall tea:  gingerbread  and making sugar cookies with my little man.  Lastly, Autumn also means putting away my flower pots and setting up my hay bails, scarecrows and pumpkins on my front steps. Overall, its just a beautiful season.

I loved the fact that the September layout for my monthly scrapbook class was based on Autumn. This is one of the very few layouts that I have completed in 2 years that does not contain any photos of Raydn. Its actually the first layout where there are not any people in it at all. I focused on the fall colours that were in my yard, the red vines, the golden leaves and my red and orange coloured lilies.
The technique we used this month was alcohol inking and glimmer misting with perfect pearls (I just love them..), all on kraft glassine, vellum, acrylic and foil leaves. We used the memory keepers paper line "Autumn Splender", very, very beautiful paper. I actually changed the layout a bit but accidentally. I made a wrong cut and ended up loving the change. I was one that used to worry about making mistakes in classes but now I'm much more slacked. You end up being the only one who knows there even was one. I loved working on this layout, it wasn't as much detail as we usually do but I think it is definitely one of my favourites. My next post will be something by me, I found the most beautiful paper the other day and am super excited to get started.

Below and above:

The alcohol inks used were rust, butterscotch and cranberry.

They were then misted with copper perfect pearls.

Created by Roxanne Olsen and Put together

by Rhonda Witzke

Happy Trails.....

Good morning everyone!! Well I guess we can say now that Fall has officially arrived. The grass is turning brown and crunchy and the flowers are wilting away. As much as I love summer with the heat (well not this year anyways...) and the outdoor activities; fall is probably my most favourite season. The changing colours and the nice crisp mornings are amazing!!! The only downside is, it means winter is on its way..BOO! Well I guess there is always snowmen, snowmobiling and sleigh rides to keep Raydn entertained. This has been one busy summer for him for being outside, so I think winter may be torture for him if its to cold to go outside. I guess time will tell.

With fall comes scrapbooking again, no flowers to keep me busy until bedtime. I actually cleaned my scrapbook desk off yesterday so I can start; I have SO many ideas and pictures that I want to scrapbook. Lots of camping, Raydns 2 year birthday party, family reunion, Raydns 2 year pictures, girls trip to Las Vegas, quading and lots of pictures at grandmas house with cousins!!  Many, many, many great memories and great times.

This layout here that I did is a Roxanne Olsen creation. It was her August layout and her technique this month was wood. We used my favourite products...Tim Holtz stains and alcohol inks :) Very fun class!! This is paper I would normally not have used because its very bright and not distressed but I LOVED the end product. Being in this class pushes me to go outside my comfort zone and create some things new. Its good to be pushed a bit, I think it makes you a better scrapbooker. Unfortunately I DO NOT have the last 3 months of Roxannes classes completed...just the kits in my room. My summer was way to busy to attend the classes but never less great winter projects.

I also was nominated for a blogger award from my good friend Roxanne eons ago it seems. I actually typed it out twice (a very long post) and blogger erased it....twice. I am going to redo it again and get it posted as well, perhaps I will use Microsoft word first..lol. Just like today........ I went to add pictures to this post and it booted me out of blogger. Thank gosh this time it actually saved it!!! Technology can be so frustrating!!!!

I also just want to thank you all for still keeping in touch with my blog (Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!) and not forgetting me throughout the summer months. Now that's its cooler out, I will be in my room much, much more (that means I am going to have a lonely husband again...lol). Happy scrapbooking all!!

These pictures were taken at Drayton Valley on one of our quad trips. This was taken early August and the leaves were already starting to change. The couple on the top left are great friends of ours, Betty and Carl...

one of the many times we were stuck that day. The top right is Timm and Raydn throwing rocks in the river. Great Day!!!!!

The top bottom picture is of Timm and Raydn in the ranger. We have created a monter...Raydn cries when he is NOT in the ranger!! The top right picture is of all the men that we quad and camp with.

Happy Trails created by Roxanne Olsen

and put together by Rhonda Witzke

Memories...

Can you believe it? Spring is here (lets hope)!!!! Put away the touques, mittens and winter jackets....lets hope mother nature doesn't make me a liar now! I can't even begin to explain how wonderful it has been to be able to play outside again. This weekend especially; we had Raydns  play-date (11 kids) in our front driveway with all the summer toys (chalk, bikes, quad, games and bubbles) , it was amazing!! Raydn had such a great time. I learned in the last week  though that my little man is a little puddle jumper...and a pro I must say. He was soaked head to toe because he would sit in the puddles..needless to say his outside attire now consists of rain pants, rubber boots and a rain jacket. What a kid!

On Thursday night I also had the "Year in Review Class" for March with the lovely Roxanne.  I must say the layout was amazing and there were some really cool techniques. We used Rangers color wash and boy oh boy is it a messy product. Ya stained fingers...not really great for the gel nails ;) Color wash reminds me of glimmer mist but without the glitter and it is more concentrated in colour. Such an amazing product though, we sprayed it on the corners of the paper and also on all the flowers. It gave the flowers a antiqued look, depending on how close you spray it, you could have concentrated areas or just by spraying water makes the colour bleed and lighter. When it dries it looks amazing. No 2 flowers looked the same. We also used a product called Mya Resist which was pretty cool. With this product you draw it on your paper, let it dry then spray over it (in this case we used color wash). After your paper is dry you rub off the mya resist and viola...you have the design in the colour of the paper below...pretty neat stuff!!
It just amazes me to how Roxanne comes up with these neat ideas.....pretty talented lady!!

Did you notice that these pictures weren't of Raydn....lol. There is a first for everything! These pictures were taken at Pierce lake and a lake way up North in the Canadian Shield (I can't remember the name of it though). Such a great feeling to sit on the fishing boat and watch the sunset....breathtaking!! The bottom picture (below) was of my first shore lunch...another great memory...ahhhh the taste of summer!

Below is the color wash sprayed over the mya resist. Very cool look!

Designed and created by Roxanne Olsen

Put together by Rhonda Witzke