Scrapbook tip - Liquid Glass

I have often been asked what to do with Liquid Glass! It is one of my favourite items on my desk to use. It can be used as an adhesive or as an embellishment. Liquid Glass dries completely clear so as an adhesive it is great for adhering clear buttons or other clear embellishments to my projects. I love to adhere clear buttons to patterned paper and then cut them out and have coordinating embellishments for my page or card! On these pages you can see the buttons I made to match the blues in the striped paper.

As an embellishment you can use it to highlight certain parts of a pattern, use it on stickers, make a subtle accent by squeezing drops of it in a row or around a photo. In this layout I hope you can see how each dot on the dotted paper and on the mushrooms has a drop of liquid glass on it - giving it great dimension without being overwhelming. I have also outlined a plaid pattern, used it for photo corners, outlined flowers etc. The possibilities are endless!

The biggest thing to remember is to give the Liquid Glass time to dry. Depending on how thick the application is it can take anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple of hours to dry. I apply the Liquid Glass and then set my project aside and work on something else.

If you have any questions or ways you've used Liquid Glass let me know!

As far as the East is from the West

During Pastor Paul's sermon on Hebrews 6 yesterday I was struck anew by his statement that God not only forgives our sin, he forgets our sin! "...as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." Psalm 103: 12 Wow! As much as I knew that intellectually, I can easily forget that. I know that I am forgiven but I will replay my failures over and over again in my head (especially when I am tired and trying to fall asleep). What a great reminder that God is so great and loving that He actually chooses to forget our sin and then He chooses to remember our good work that He has created for us to do! So when I can't sleep I need to remember my sin is forgiven and forgotten and focus on what a great God I have.

Scrapbook layout - Escape

Passages Level 2 paper pack, Cocoa ribbon, Stamps: Backwoods, Building Block

I made this layout this summer as the extra two pages for my July 12 for 12 clubs. It was fun to be able to fit 14 pictures on one layout! This layout comes from Imagine. The pictures come from my family's camping trip in the Kananaskis last summer (one of our favourite places to camp!) I printed the pictures through Scrapbookpictures.com because I could pick the sizes of 2x2, and 4x4, zoom in and see exactly what they would look like. They also offer many different sizes (i.e. 3x3, 4x7, 6x6, 8x8, 4x12 and so on!) which are great for scrapbooking.

A new adventure - Homeschooling!

I know many of our family and friends have wondered why we decided to homeschool. We had hoped to enroll Nathan and Noelle into a local private Christian School close to us in Toronto but because the Ontario government doesn't support private education at all (unlike Alberta which provides partial funding) the school was unable to negotiate on tuition. With Daniel in school himself we were hoping to come to an agreement with the Christian School but since we couldn't we decided to homeschool. This has been a decision made with a lot of prayer.

Why not a public school? The reasons that usually come to mind first are the potential for bad influence from other students and anti-Christian teaching. However, when we really pondered it we realized that these are not the main concerns. The biggest thing it came down to was worldview. With Christian education (private school or homeschool) children are taught with a biblical worldview rather than a secular worldview.

What do I mean by worldview? The best explanation I have heard is that it is like the glasses you wear to look at and interpret the world and all of your experiences. (i.e. it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts with it. Wikipedia) Everyone has a worldview - whether it is a secular one, a religious one, or a combination of views - and recognizing this can help us understand others.

So in a secular setting children are taught to look at the world without a reference to God and to His word the Bible. Now, one may argue that this isn't a bad thing and that parents at home and through church can teach this Biblical worldview but I can't say it is a good thing. It is like choosing white bread for my children to eat all the time - it is not necessarily bad (although too much of it would be :) but brown, wholegrain bread is definitely better and will nourish them more. By being able to choose a Christian education for our children we are able to choose what is better, we are able to teach them through Biblical glasses. I know this is not an option for all Christian families and every family needs to decide for themselves, based on the resources (physical, spiritual, monetary etc) God has given them, how they will fulfill the biblical mandate to "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6)

There are definitely aspects of a school setting that we will miss this year but there are other aspects that I am really looking forward to. It has been a blessing that we are able to register with Alberta Education through Northstar Academy to homeschool. Since Daniel is a student and we plan to go back to Alberta in the summer, we can keep our Alberta health care, licence plates, and now school registration. This will entitle us to some homeschool funding as well as support through Northstar.

If you have any questions about homeschooling (or anything else I post :) please ask!

An Organized Blog :)

So I've been wondering how I should balance what I post - adventures, scrapbooking etc and I came up with the following:
Tips Tuesday - tips I've learned about classical scrapbooking or digital scrapbooking
Whatever Wednesday - anything that doesn't fall into one of the other categories!
Family Friday - adventures we're having in Toronto and anything else relating to my family
Scrapbook Saturday - layouts that I've made (classical or digital)
Spiritual Sunday - insights from books I'm reading, sermons I've listened to, Bible time with the kids

These titles are a little corny and probably don't matter to much to you but they will help me feel organized (and as you probably know - I love to be organized!) I couldn't think of anything for Monday or Thursday but that's probably okay - I don't know if I will realistically blog 5 days a week anyways!

If there are suggestions you have I would love to hear them! This blog is definitely a work in progress but it has been fun so far to share what is going on in my life. I've also had the thought that I am journaling for my scrapbooks before I've even scrapbooked the pictures! This is great because I don't know when I'll get around to scrapbooking our pictures from this summer but I will at least have some of our experiences and feelings recorded.

Layout - Sand-Sun-Mud

This has to be one of my favourite all time layouts that I have ever made. I think a large part is due to the great picture of Noelle on the muddy slide and ones of her second cousins! They had a great time that day!

If you were in one of my 12 for 12 Scrapbooking Clubs you should recognize this layout from June.  It was one of the summer Workshop on the Go kits. It uses CTMH's Splendor paper, Irresistibles Miracle Chipboard Die-Cuts (these come in white that have a pattern that resist whatever colour ink you use on them - great for matching any paper you want), and Glitz Stardust Glitter Glue.

CN Tower!

Nathan and Noelle loved the CN Tower! They talked about it for days. We went Sunday afternoon after touring Daniel's school. On the way back to the subway station we stopped at a Eastside Mario's for a delicious supper. What a great day! And of course, anything with Lisa and Travis will be fun!
 Here are some pictures:

Nathan lying on the glass floor. It was a very strange feeling to step on it!

From the skypod 447 m high!

Jeremy's place to hang out. He also fell asleep in Daniel's arms later in the afternoon - what a trooper though!

From the observation deck - feel the breeze!

This picture is for my Dad - we'll have to go to the CBC Museum when you come!