NEW Photography Class!! Join me this Saturday!!

So if you've ever been intimidated by your camera, THIS is the class for you!!!

It is a new class that is based on the concept that we learn BEST through PLAY!!  And so I have a bag of "tricks and toys" that we will use to learn how to move off auto mode and into a little bit of creative play with our photos!!

At this point, this Saturday is the only scheduled class, but if you can't make it and there is enough interest, I will consider teaching it again :)

Meanwhile, click HERE to register for Saturday!!!  I would  LOVE to play with you!!

And while you are there, you may as well join us at the Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival!!!  There is shopping and creating and sooooo much fun to be had with our Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine team and readers!!!!  Wooooo hoooooo!!!!

September 26-27, 2014Friday 9am – 6pm
Saturday 9am – 5pm
**NEW VENUE SPRUCE MEADOWS EQUIPLEX!

Admission Tickets:

2 Day Adult Pass:  $18
1 Day Adult Pass:  $12
2 Day Senior/Student Pass:  $15
1 Day Senior/Student Pass:  $10
Children 6yrs – 12yrs:  $2
(under 6 no charge)

FREE Shuttle from Somerset-Bridlewood Station

Announcing: Hope For Haiti Project!!

Okay so THIS has been on my heart since standing in Haiti at the school after helping to finish the 5th classroom and talking about the vast needs still to be met for these precious children…

As we stood looking across the rugged property of this school built on the side of the mountain, they mentioned that one day they hoped for an outdoor Art Room to be built on the rooftop overlooking the city of Cap Haitien below.

I smiled as I could so easily envision the students creating beautiful art and music in such an inspiring space… perhaps for just a small part of their day while at school, they could forget the difficult conditions that come with living in the slums at the base of the mountain.

I got to spend part of the day with the family of one of the students and help them cook a meal and clean their home… this is the mom in her kitchen (I vowed I would never again complain about anything in my own home!)

What really hit me is it takes so little to do so much for their lives in Haiti… and I'm not just talking money (although that helps too!).  I will never forget the look on this little girl's face as I indicated that I wanted to pick her up… it was like she won the lottery that I chose her to hold in that moment…

Anyways, back to the Art Room… I informed Frantzo, one of the many who has dedicated his life to helping those in need in both Haiti and Dominican, that I would see if all my Canadian artist friends back in Canada would be willing to help make this dream a reality. BTW… Canadians are mostly the ones who have helped build the school from the start so they LOVE us!!!

Once home, I emailed Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine whom I have worked with for almost 10 years to see if they wanted to join forces and within minutes I received a resounding YES!!! So we are partnering with Live Different who hosts trips to Haiti (and other locations to do humanitarian work).

And we are now calling on all our readers and all artists from across Canada to participate in this project!!

There are 3 ways you can participate!

1. Hope for Haiti Flags: for donations $35+ if you would like, we will send you a blank canvas flag that you can decorate and send back to us. We will then join them all together to create a beautiful banner for the new Art Room in Haiti!

2. Hope for Haiti Events: Host an art day, hold a garage sale or dinner or come up with another creative way to raise funds! Be sure to take a picture at your event and send it to us so we can share it with others! Every dollar and every gesture is precious to us!

3. Hope for Haiti Donations: We have set up a link where you can donate directly to the building of the Art Room!

Just click HERE!!

Thank you in advance for your support and we invite you to watch closely how artists from across Canada can come together to make a difference in the lives of these deserving children in Haiti… what a beautiful picture of artists in Canada helping to bring art and hope and support to so many in Haiti.

TV Segment on Christmas Crafting!!

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas and one of my favourite motifs is the snowflake!!  Check out this awesome snowflake photo by my friend Natalka Lindstrom... she has inspired me to try my own real life snowflake photos!!

So when preparing for my Christmas Crafting TV segment, I googled snowflakes and discovered some pretty cool ideas!!!  I've had so much fun with these Star Wars Snowflakes designed by Anthony Herrera and with the help of my Westcott cutting mat and blade, they were easier than they look!!!

To make these and to find even more fun Star Wars Snowflake templates, click HERE to go to the Anthony's website.

Then I came across Ballerina/Nutcracker snowflakes... click HERE to see more ideas for these fun "Dancing" snowflakes!!

I did my own rendition of these "Snowy Candle Holders" using salt and Craft & Glitz glitter, but you can click HERE for more inspiration above.

And as always, Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine, the magazine I write for has TONS of great ideas for Christmas AND features my Mommy and Daddy on the front cover!!!!!!  Be sure to get your issue soon!!!

And if you're still in need of an awesome gift for the crafter in your life, be sure to check out our Crop For Haiti event... consider buying the gift of this event as a wonderful way to also give to others and change lives!!!  It's a win-win-win!!! 

Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival this weekend!!

Woooo hooooo!!!! It's finally here!!!  The event we all wait for each year... The Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival organized by Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine and once again I get to host the Calgary Crop!!!!

Be sure to come shop, visit and have some fun in our infamous Photo Booth!!  AND... this is always a great time to get a subscription for yourself or a crafty loved one for Christmas!!!

I'm heading out... hope to see you there!!!!  Friday hours from 9am-6pm and Saturday from 9am-5pm.

Getting Closer!!!

So I'm getting closer and closer to being able to "OFFICIALLY" launch the opening of my new studio... since moving over 3 years ago, I've not really run my portrait business (as I have no studio!!) and I've missed it dearly!!!

Yes, I've been galavanting around the world taking photos, teaching photography in hot tropical locations and writing a photography article for Canada's BEST magazine ever (Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine!) and having way too much fun with my camera (and not-so-fun moments dunking it in the ocean!!), but I really really REALLY miss my studio and the ART of creating a beautiful portrait!!!

Yes, it is ART.  It is a beautiful form of ART.  ART that captivates attention when seen.  

I am loving that I can take any and all women and show their beauty... well... MEN can be "beautiful" as well (at least that's what they say in Brazil!!)

But I don't just want the "beautiful" by society's standards to come for portraits... I want EVERYONE... every age, every size, every nationality, every everything... 

...because EVERYONE has beauty 

and deserves to be celebrated simply for being who they are right now.

And so while getting my studio ready for "official launch" (COMING THIS FALL!!), I've been taking courses and intently studying and practicing with many wonderful women to refine my ART.

And I think I'm going to try a "Photo Friday" where I will post a beautiful photo each Friday and perhaps share a bit of their story... 

So this is my beautiful niece Kayla... and she just graduated and is taking a year to go on an amazing adventure through Canada first semester and then off to Guatemala next semester where she will get to do humanitarian work and really grow and learn about herself and our world!!!  I am so excited for her and seeing this beautiful picture of her makes me smile as I can not see only see her outward beauty, but more importantly her inner beauty that simply SHINES out through her smile :)

Seriously?!?!?

I just noticed that I have not blogged for over a month!!!!!!!  SHOCKING as I have so much to say and share and tell and show!!!  Where does one begin?????

Let's start with MEXICO!!!!  I'm leaving in just a few days to drive on a bus (yes a bus) to Mexico with about 30 of us to go build houses for 2 needy families!!!  The above layout was in my latest Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine article and tells of how I had a full circle moment during last year's trip to build in Mexico... so very powerful.  And here are the families whose lives will be forever changed this year...

FAMILY#1: Single mom, Lourdes (30) and her three boys, Reynaldo (17), Fransico (3) and Antonio (2). Lourdes works when she can, whenever she can get someone to look after Fransico and Antonio. In the afternoons she goes to school to finish her education. Lourdes works hard to keep her oldest son, Reynaldo in school and he is in the process of finishing up high school

FAMILY #2:  Bulmaro (24) and Isabel (19) and their son, Cristian (3). Bulmaro works 5-6 days per week in the fields and when childcare is available Isabel also works 2-3 days per week in the fields. Isabel comes from a very large family (we're talking 29 kids!!), many of whom live in the same area.  Their current house is made of sticks, cardboard and plastic. Somewhere you would not even keep your lawn care tools in! 

What's really cool is that the moms are sisters and live right next door so we will get to be VERY CLOSE to both families as we build their new homes right beside each other :)  And we will get to go back and visit the family we built for last year!!!!  HOW FUN IS THAT?!?!?!

And I am excited as this year, instead of going with my entire family, I'm taking my 15 year old son and 3 of his friends with me... yup... I'm going to be "Momma Orthner" for this adventure to 4 teen boys!!!  Can NOT wait!!!  If you'd like to follow along on the adventure (especially if you'd like to join me on something like this in the future!!), I'll likely post a fair bit on Facebook while in Mexico and here is a link you can also go to:

http://livedifferent.com/blog

Next... GRADUATION!!!  Well, sort of... Lindsey attends a middle school so graduation comes at the end of Grade 8 and next year she is in the High School (YIKES!!!)  But we had tremendous fun taking some grad photos with her and a couple of friends...

And one final topic for today... CROP AND CRUISE!!!!  Things are getting super exciting as we are planning all the fun details for this November in Hawaii!!!  Great sponsors are already coming on board...

And this is only the beginning!!!  Our featured instructors Christy Riopel, Jill Hildebrand and myself are cooking up some delicious treats for all our attendees!!!  We are capping both the LAND event and CRUISE event at 50 scrapbookers each and currently only have 10-15 spots left at each so if you were thinking of joining us for this ultimate vacation, REGISTER SOON!!!!

You had me at Aloha!!!

That will have to do for today as I am off to Banff for my 3 month check up with my knee surgeon!!  I am hoping that I will be given the OK to do most (if not all) of the activities while in Mexico!!!

AND... I still need to chat about the AMAZING Scrapbook Your Heart retreat we had this past June!!!  We were abundantly blessed in so many ways and by so many wonderful ladies... I will share soon, but here is a layout (yeah for Bo Bunny!!!) that shows just a small glimpse from our "Lessons from the Garden of Life" theme...

Crop For Mexico Results!!!

So it was a most splendiferous day I must say!!! In March we did our second "Crop For Mexico" at Grace Baptist and the support for this fundraiser still brings tears to my eyes :)  Take a look at this BEAUTIFUL group of women who came out to give their generous support to help build a home for a needy family in Mexico this summer!!!  Want to know how much we raised??????  I'll tell you, but first this...

The talented Christy Riopel designed and taught this stunning canvas class for us... what I absolutely LOVE about Christy (besides the fact that she is simply a beautiful person with a beautiful heart), is that she can guide EVERYONE from beginner through expert into creating their OWN version of art with enough guidance to clearly show you the steps and techniques, but enough freedom to let you make it your own!!!  So needless to say, I'm loving my new canvas!!!

Kay, back to how much money we raised...  but first one more quick thing... while at the Crop For Mexico event, I was working on a layout for my "Life's BIG Little Lessons" article for the summer issue in Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine (simply the BEST magazine evah!!!) with my story from last year's trip to build a home in Mexico so here's a sneak peek of the layout that is now one of my most favourite (so watch for it in the next issue!)...

Okay, back to the Crop For Mexico Fundraising results... it's actually a neat "God Story"... so last year we raised exactly $7001 and I absolutely loved that extra $1 that put us there as it represented how important each and every $1 is!!!  So this year when all was said and done and my family was helping me count the $, the total came to $8997!!!!  I was ecstatic at the amount but kept thinking, if only we had a few more dollars to put us over $9000!!!  I even debated throwing in an extra $5 of my own money, but decided that I wanted to be true to the actual amount as we had last year and so I left it but for some reason didn't feel like I should announce it yet so I didn't.  No reason why, just felt that way.

So the next week I went to get the mail and lo and behold there was a card from Jennifer Reynard who had volunteered her time to help with the garage sale part of the event and inside was a $5 bill!!!  She had helped take a few extra supplies to the thrift store after the event and inside a binder her son had found the money!!!  She felt strongly that it needed to go towards the event as someone had donated the binder and so here is now our final total...

$9002

So that means not only did we raise enough to build one complete home ($6000), but half of the second one!!!!!  I am so overwhelmed with gratitude and am so anxious to introduce you to BOTH the families that will receive a new life because of the generosity of these women!!!  And it will be sheer joy for me to introduce the families to you as I will for sure take the top photo of all of you with me to show them!!!

So from the bottom of my heart... thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! 

Made In Canada!!!!!

Check THIS out!!!!  Crop and Cruise was the featured "Made In Canada" company in the Spring Issue of Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine!!!!!!!  

I LOVE this picture of my hubby and partner in crime who is sooooo supportive of all I do!!!  And the inside pages of the article simply make me giddy with such FUN photos (a special thanks to Sandy Holmquist for contributing the top left photo of the girls in the ocean!) and an extra special layout from my good friend and loudest cheerleader Lynne Mizera!!!

A HUGE thanks to CS magazine for this special feature and I love that so many of our readers are planning on joining us in HAWAII in November!!!!  If you ever wanted to connect in person with other like-minded Canadian scrapbookers from all over the country, we invite YOU to join us on this adventure!!!!  

Check out all the Hot Tropical HAWAIIAN details at

www.CropandCruise.com

You had me at ALOHA!!!!

YES CHA here we come!!!!!!!

YES!! YES!!  YES!!

For all those asking, YES I am again heading to CHA in LA this weekend for the biggest, best, blingiest craft show ever along with my partner in crime Christy Riopel!!!!

And YES we will be partying and playing with the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine Team!! We even rented a bus to tour LA with many of the other Canadians that will be there... can't imagine that there will be ANY trouble that follows us on that adventure!!!  

And YES I am on the hunt for my Top Picks from CHA 2012 so if you see something online you would like me to check out (like this new Bo Bunny line!!), leave a comment and I'll try to go see, touch, smell, and photograph it for you (I draw the line at licking... usually!!)

And YES I am also on the hunt for Splendiferous Sponsors for our Crop and Cruise HAWAII event in November this year!!!  I can't wait to take a closer look at this line called "Tropical Travelogue" from Graphic 45!!!

So the only CHA thing I am not a clear YES on is if I should try again to interview Tim Holtz!!  If you don't know what happened last time, you can go HERE to read about it!!!

And YES we are planning another super fun GIVEAWAY event from CHA where all you need to do is comment, answer questions and participate on our blogs from the comfort of your home!!  More details will follow, but we may as well get started even though we don't fly out until Saturday!!  So... 

Question #1:  Should I attempt another Tim Holtz interview?  Why or why not?

TWO Exciting NEWS...and 1 deadline!

So I have TWO exciting things coming up that just so happen to have the very SAME deadline of:

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The FIRST... I'm writing another article for Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine called, "Life's BIG little Lessons" and am having sooooo much fun with it!!  And we'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to see your submissions!!!  They can be funny life lessons (like this layout Christy Riopel did about our friendship... one of my favourites EVER of hers as it so accurately portrays our crazy beautiful friendship)

or it can be a more serious life lesson (like this one I did for another CS article on Scrapbooking Your Faith... another one of my favourite layouts that I now have displayed in my scrap room as a daily reminder)

Either way, I'd love to hear what you think are "Life's BIG little Lessons" and if you can put it on a layout and submit it for the article, even better!!!!  Just get them in by Sunday, Jan. 15!!!

And SECOND... I'm planning on heading back to Mexico this July to build more homes for needy families and am hoping to bring along others who wish to join us!!!!  Wanna come????!!!!!  WARNING:  it will change your life :)

If you want more info, you can go HERE or you can always contact me as I'd love to tell you more!!  But the deadline to apply is Sunday, Jan. 15 so you don't have much time!!!

AND... if you can't go, but are interested in helping out support the project, we will be doing some fundraisers again including... wait for it...

Last year we raised $7001 and I am soooooo excited to see what this year's event will bring in and who I will get to play all day with!!  Remember, 100% of your event registration and 100% of your spending at the event goes towards building needy homes and schools for those in some pretty sad living conditions in Mexico.  I already have tears and goosebumps just writing about it :)

Fun at the Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival!!!

What a blessing to be a part of the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine Team!!!  Not only do I get to write about what I love (photography, crafting, etc.), but I also get to hang with some of the most creative and fun people in this country and meet new ones!!

The fun started on Thursday with the arrival of this lovely lady who was teaching for Westcott for the weekend...  Jill Hildebrand :)

Jill is one of those friends that it feels like we've known each other FOREVER, but it's only really been since 2007 when she was one of the featured instructors on our Crop and Cruise Scrapbooking Cruise!!  And I'm not the only one to feel that way!!!  She "reconnected" with a few other Alberta friends from the past...

And met some new creative friends like Susan Weckhesser who is an amazingly talented designer that has recently joined our CS team and has her own whimsical line of papers from SusieBee Studios.  I figured Jill and Susan would hit it off as their style is very similar and both are simply beautiful ladies!!  Jill had a lot of fun giving away some of Susan's papers at the crop :)

This year I had the privilege of hosting the 2-day crop, running our infamous "photo booth" and teaching my Lights! Camera! Action! photo class!!!  Here are some of my favourite photos from the day... first my "students" having fun in our photo class...

And the fun in the photo booth...

But the photos that make me smile THE MOST are these...

Christy Riopel is a soul sista extraordinaire and although she has met Jill numerous times over the years, it simply warmed my heart to see the two of them getting a chance to really get to know each other this weekend... and THIS is the result...

Simply too much fun!!!!!!  And now, we get ready to do it all again next weekend in EDMONTON!!!  Be sure to make it out!!  All the details are at www.CanadianScrapbooker.ca under "The Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival".