Sunday, April 27, 2008

First Edition of the Canadian Scrapbookers Blog Carnival!

Though it was off to a slow start, there was a flurry of activity today and the first edition of the Canadian Scrapbookers Carnival has representation from more than half of the provinces of Canada! Come travel our great country with me as we stop in and visit with scrappers along the way.

Starting in my own beautiful province we will visit with Deanne in Newfoundland. She gives great instructions on how to make an explosion box.

Unfortunately we don't have any visits to make in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Quebec this time around. Hopefully that will change in the next edition. I'm sure there are some great scrappers in each of those provinces that will invite us to visit next time.

Next up we arrive in Ontario, where we have two places to visit.

Heidi, in Ontario, tells how she made her own embellishments using heat embossing on foam. Who would have thought to try that!

Jennifer, also in Ontario, says she's a scrapaholic and does her creating by night. Her post shows some of her great creations.

In the neighbouring province of Manitoba, Cathy shows some beautiful acrylic albums she made. They are so different and wonderful! Be sure to check them out.

Sheryl, in Saskatchewan, shares about an idea she found for making your own organizer for stickers and such. She also tells about one that she made.

Next up is Tania, in Alberta and she shares some layouts she's completed for a special album she's creating for her grandmother. She is doing a great job!

Jennifer, in British Columbia, is our last stop on this tour. She tells us about how she uses mineral spirits for her coloring and blending on a cute card featuring a House Mouse.

That's the end of our tour of personal blogs of scrappers but in this edition of the carnival we also have a quick tour of a few of other blogs. This time I'm going to start where we left off and head our way back to my home province.

If you're in the Nanaimo area in British Columbia, EllaBella Designs is a place to check out. According to their blog they are celebrating their grand opening May 3rd.

Creative Crafts and Stickers, based in Ontario, was my favorite Canadian Scrapping board when it closed this year and I was thrilled that Jen, the owner, decided to keep the fun going, with the help of Ally and Tara, through the Creative Crafts and Stickers blog after the store closed. On their blog you can find Challenge Monday, Tuesday Tips, Word Wednesday, Tutorial Thursday. Font Friday, Sharing Saturday and Sketchy Sunday, along with other special things thrown in from time to time. Be sure to check them out!

Run by three sisters from Newfoundland, The Sisterhood of Scrap blog is a happenin' place. Every Sunday they pick a new Sister to join their Sisterhood. The new sisters are chosen from people that take part in their Challenge Monday. On their blog you'll also find Teaching Tuesday, Web Wednesday, Text Thursday, Foto Friday, and Sketch Saturday. They also host online crops from time to time. It really is a great place to check out.

And there you have the first edition of the Canadian Scrapbookers Blog Carnival. Thank you to everyone for inviting us to visit. If you didn't get around to inviting us for this carnival, be sure to do so for the next.

Inspired by a comment by irisbleu I am planning a special second edition of the Carnival for Thursday, May 1st. For that edition send me blog posts about your plans for National Scrapbooking Day. The deadline for submissions will be Wednesday, April 30.

Then, for the third edition of the Carnival you can send in blog posts telling, and showing, what you actually ended up doing on National Scrapbooking Day. The deadline for that edition will be May 7th.

Please don't post your submissions in the comments area of the blog. Any submissions posted in a comment wil be deleted. Email your submissions to canadianscrapbookerscarnival@gmail.com .

Questions and comments are welcome in the comment section. I love to hear your thoughts.

Please help spread the word about the Canadian Scrapbookers Carnival! Provide a link to it on your blog, mention it in a post, post about it on scrapping boards you visit.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

What is this?

I recently discovered the world of blog carnivals - and I love them. They make it easy to find blog posts on a topic that you are interested in.

When it comes to scrapbooking, I am very interested in seeing the work of other scrapbookers in my country and province. I searched for Canadian and Newfoundland scrapbooking blog carnivals and came up with none, so I decided to start my own.

The Canadian Scrapbookers Blog Carnival is a place to unite new and veteren scrapbookers, stampers, and cardmakers that live in Canada and like to blog about their scrappin' passion.

In case you don't know what a blog carnival is, here's some of what Wikipedia has to say about it:

A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks links to other blog articles on the particular topic....


Here's how it works. If you are living in Canada and have a blog where you like to post posts about scrapping/stamping/cardmaking you are invited to submit a link to one of your posts for an edition of the Canadian Scrapbookers Blog Carnival. It has to be a link to a particular post on your blog, not to the main page of your blog. You are permitted to submit one post per Carnival edition, but you may submit to every Carnival edition that you like. Send your submissions to canadianscrapbookerscarnival@gmail.com . Please indicate in your email what part of Canada you are in as I may sometimes use a "Scrapping Across Canada" theme in organizing the links.

I actually made the first call for submissions on my personal blog on April 10 and figured I would be overrun with submissions. I got two. I was sadly disappointed at first and was tempted to give up, but I had received positive feedback on the idea so I decided to keep trying.

I wondered if having a separate blog and email address for the carnival might be better than having it on my own blog so I've decided to give that a try. In time I hope to fancy this blog up a bit. I'm also planning on using this site to highlight Canadian scrapping boards and stores. I'd really like this to be a place where Canadians can connect with fellow Canadian scrapbookers and find out about Canadian scrapbooking ventures.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on, and suggestions for, this venture. You can leave a comment at the bottom of this post or you can email them to canadianscrapbookerscarnival@gmail.com .