What an incredibly long day its been. Nicole (from www.tilanofresco.com) arrived to pick me up at 8:30 am this morning and with the car absolutely FULL of class kits (over 400 various kits), we set off on our journey to CKC Portland. From out previous road trip to CKC Seattle, we don’t have a very good track record for getting places without getting lost along the way. We stopped off at a Starbucks only minutes from the border and we got lost trying to find our way back onto the highway. I know, it sounds ridiculous! We did however make it all the way to Portland without getting lost or sidetracked along the way, the sun was out and by the time we reached Portland it was actually warm out! (20 degrees celcius). We got lost trying to find the Walmart Supercenter, so we gave up and decided to go straight to the hotel, then we got lost trying to find the hotel. Finally we made it! The Jupiter Hotel. Well…. its….different. It’s not like any hotel I’ve ever stayed in before, its totally funky and retro! But it sure seems to be a popular place – there are always people around, the bar and restaurant are constantly booming. We burst out laughing when we saw our room – green shag pillows on the bed, a mural of a babbling brook on the far wall, and the doors were painted with chalkboard paint (there was a cup of various chalks inside for us). There was also a little something on the bedside table too…. you can use your imagination for this one. ;) Oh and when we checked in they told us quiet time starts at 2am!!! lol! There were also 2 pairs of ear plugs waiting in the room for us.

Our funky room

Handy little ear plugs, wonder if we will use them…

We thought it would be fun to write our names on our door….  then thought maybe if people knew there were two girls inside we might get some unwanted knocking on the door so for safety reasons, we changed it….

Then it was off to CKC – Nicole was teaching 2 classes around dinnertime.  The classes went really well, everyone in the classes was so nice! And apparently we have Canadian accents :)

We didn’t leave the convention center until almost 9pm. Other stores we wanted to go to were already closed so we headed towards the Walmart Superstore. We had a map but of course we got lost again (this was the 5th time getting lost today for us). We finally pulled over at a Holiday inn and went in to ask for directions. We were told we were 135 blocks away from where we were trying to get to! How in the world we wound up there we have no idea!!

We did make it to Walmart eventually – this is a 24 hour one too – exciting for us! LOL!!! Well actually the exciting part is being in Oregon and having no sales tax!!!!  We grabbed snacks, and some stuff we can’t get in Canada, and headed back to the hotel but we didn’t get back until after 11, and we still hadn’t eaten dinner. The bar at the hotel was open (and was quite busy) – so we went down to see if they were still serving food. They were serving a select menu and we were starving so we stayed, and actually the food was really good! Eating dinner at midnight is not something I usually do though. Oh and something else funny, we got ID’d a couple times tonight – I love it when this happens! Getting ID’d at 30 years old is very exciting, lol.  :)

the lights around the outdoor lounge at the hotel

All weekend I have been busy putting together the kits for my classes at CKC Portland later this coming week. I’ll be teaching 2 classes for a little coaster album “Betcha Didn’t Know” and 2 classes for a Pet themed accordion album. Should be fun! I should have some extra kits left over, so I might do a couple giveaways for them next week on here :)

* Please note: I will be away the first weekend in March, so I am extending the deadline for the February Challenges. You now have until March 3 to get any of the challenges posted so far for Year In Review contest done and uploaded into the February folder in the gallery in order to qualify for the 2 prizes this month. I will announce the winners on March 4Challenge #8

* Please note: I will be away the first weekend in March, so I am extending the deadline for the February Challenges. You now have until March 3 to get any of the challenges posted so far for Year In Review contest done and uploaded into the February folder in the gallery in order to qualify for the 2 prizes this month. I will announce the winners on March 4

For my layout, I did it on my iPhone

I had the pleasure of playing with the February Kit from Freckle Friends.

What a great kit! I got 5 layouts done and a mini book – thanks again to Debbie from Freckle Friends for sponsoring the Inspiration Team at iScrap this month!

I should have posted this up sooner, but to be honest, I haven’t been on the computer much lately, things are just really busy around here right now.

I did a class on these at Precious Memories last month – if you need a quick gift to give to your sweetie – try making these coupons, they are lots of fun :)

All you need is one 12 x 12 piece of plain cardstock – (I used black bazzill), and some patterned paper and stickers/embellishments. I used the fun new Loveland line by Scenic Route – both their patterned paper and their cardstock stickers – I just love them!

Start by cutting your cardstock in half, so you have 2 pieces measuring 6 x 12, then cut each of those pieces in 4 equal pieces – you will end up with 8 pieces measuring 6 x 3. Cover them with patterned paper leaving a small border around the edge and embellish with stickers, ribbon and doodles.  Add your own coupon write ups (ie: good for one dinner out; good for one movie, etc), or if you’d like to use the ones I made, please feel free to do so. I have both the black and white version and the colored one.

  Download the black and white here

  Download the color here

Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!

This week’s challenge is just about that – “What Valentine’s Day means to you.”
For me, Valentine’s Day is the anniversary of my Grandpa’s death so I did my layout about that.
You can do it about what you are planning to do/did this Valentine’s day, about a special Valentine your child made for you, or about how you don’t celebrate at all. Try to think outside the box , also focus on journaling.

If you aren’t into Valentine’s day at all, the alternative challenge for this week is “My Job” – do a layout about what you love about your job – even if you are a stay at home mom – cause that’s a job too!

I just finished this little Tag book for an upcoming class at Precious Memories (for March) – it will feature over 25 different techniques, each having their own little tag with examples. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but there are actually 20 different techniques just on the cover there.

And here is a funny picture of Angus I wanted to share. I took this of him when we were on the ferry last week – his hair kept falling in his face, so I found a little clip in my bag and I clipped his hair up, lol

Speaking of ferries, I am leaving soon to catch another one back to the island for a couple days. My grandma is very ill, this will most likely be the last time I am going to see her :(

For this week’s challenge, since February has just started, do a recap of January. I chose to do mine in a calendar style – it really made me think back about what I have done over the month. I added the trips I went on, as well as day to day activities that don’t seem very exciting right now, but it will be fun to look back later to see what I did.

I am going to give you the choice of doing this challenge or another one for this week. In case you really don’t want to do a recap of January, your alternative challenge is this:

Do a layout titled “I Predict”, make some sort of prediction for a month down the road or even a year down the road. It can be a personal prediction, for a family member, or even something going on in the world. It can be serious or funny. Have fun with it!

Please upload any layouts you do for February into the February folder in the gallery.

Here is the layout I did for this week, I downloaded the calendar from this site. You are able to customize the size of the calendars which I found very helpful in order to get it to fit on my 8 x 8 page.

It was so hard to choose a winner for the January entries for Year in Review. Everyone did such a fantastic job on the challenges!

I decided to choose Right Now by Hockeymom – I love how she managed to get so many photos on these pages, and the white doodling looks fantastic!

For the second winner, I put all the layouts that were uploaded to the gallery in a random generator and the following one by Brendab won!

Congratulations to both of you! Can you please email me your addresses (jess.acs@gmail.com) and I will have your prize packs sent out to you right away :)

Is everyone ready for the February round? I’m just working on the first challenge, so watch for it soon!