Earth Elements Best Blossoms

Tonight I used the SU Best Blossoms set. This is probably one of my favourite sets. It's so versatile, I really like using it. I decided to play with some SU Earth Elements colours that I don't often use. Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie and Really Rust.

I sponged the background on with Pumpkin Pie ink on SU Barely Banana (part of SU Soft Subtles) cs using the saran wrap technique, but think it's perhaps too 'heavy.' I'm not sure if I'm happy with the way this background turned out.

Well, this is a quick post for me, but I really need to go get some sleep. Thanks for stopping by!

My Altered Recipe Tin

I had so much fun making this Altered Recipe Tin last night for my kitchen counter top...now I just have to decide on what images I'm gonna use on the actual recipe cards inside...I have a few ideas brewing. Also, I still have to do up the divider tabs for inside the tin. That's another project, it was just getting way too late for me to be up last night! I'm not fooling anyone, I'm not as young as I used to be...hard to believe I used to party until 5 or 6 am and it wouldn't even faze me the next day! If I tried that nowadays, it'd probably take me a week to recover! lol :)

For the tin, I decided to go with green and rosey pink colours. This was a hard decision, as we're in the midst of repainting our new (to us) house. We own a bungalow with an open concept between the side door, into the walk-through kitchen, then the dining area and hallway to the bedrooms. Right now they are painted a Hunter Green with an alternating sateen strip below the white chair rail. On the top is just white. Well, the Hunter Green is getting quite worn, as well as the fact that I've had everything this colour for years and frankly I'm sick of it! lol :) So, I've decided I'm gonna paint the top and bottom of the chair rail a deep Mexican Red and leave the chair rail white. For the two little walls, one continues down the stairs to the rec room, the other looks into the formal living room and down the hall. This one is gonna be a Butter colour with a white chair rail. How does that sound? I'm not completely sold on the idea of leaving the chair rail white...but I just hate to have to paint all the woodwork again! I'm certainly not an interior decorator, but it's nice to finally be able to put some colour on the walls after years of renting where we didn't bother since we'd just have to repaint when we left.

So, back to the colours that I chose for my tin. The Green on the top is some gorgeous heavyweight DP(Designer paper) from My Mind's Eye, Signature Suite - 'Family Roots', Defining a Family / Taupe. Wow, that a mouthful! I wish I had bought more of this DP, I'll have to see where I can buy this around here. I got it up in New Brunswick while on vacation. The other gorgeous DP is from Chatterbox Inc., Scrapbook Walls - 'Rosey Garden Floral.' I just bought this DP on sale (gotta love a sale) at our local art store, Loomis Art Supplies. I can envision another trip there soon! lol :) Wanna go girls? You know who you are! :)

The grosgrain ribbon is Olive Green and White from Fabricville. I also used a piece of SU HodgePodge Hardware in Antique Brass to frame the word 'favourite' that I printed myself in black gel pen. The letters for 'RECIPE' were also hand printed by me as I don't have any individual letter stamps. I printed them on lime green Bazzill cs and matted them on wine Bazzill cs. (I don't know the exact names of the CS. The only colours that I know by memory are SU colours, and I'm not even a SU Demo! Yup, it's a sickness! lol :)

Well, there's some rambling for ya! Thanks for stopping by!

Altered Recipe Tin

OK, I'm officially sick in the head with the Crafty Bug! lol :) It's 1:36 AM and I've just finished a project that I've been meaning to do for a month now. In my defense, I wanted to do an altered tin to hold my recipe cards and our local stores have been out of stock of the size of tin that I wanted until the Grand Opening of our new Michaels, where I got one yesterday. The tin is for a contest that I'm entering, and the contest closes tomorrow at noon, so I'll post my creation after lunch...which sadly isn't that far off!

Gotta go to bed...oh, the morning is gonna come early!

Thanks for stopping by!

Riveting Retro card

I also decided to play with my SU Riveting set tonight to make a 'Retro' style card. I had seen this style a while back...I apologize, I can't remember where, but I loved the colours together and this was just the ticket! I was looking for another way to use my Riveting set, and thought this was a great idea. Then, I added a little bling to the corners of the gray cardstock, to add a little something extra. (My 5 year old daughter calls these her 'sparkling red jewels'...so cute) I really like how this one turned out. :) I'm always on the look out for good masculine card ideas, and I think this would be a good one.

Well, this tired Mama is gonna relax for a bit and call it a day. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Cuttlebug Swirls and Flowers

I'm so excited, I finally broke down and bought a Cuttlebug today! Today was the Grand Opening of the new Michaels here in Dartmouth (WooHoo!) and they had a ton of them at the store. I got to use my 40% off coupon, so I got a screamin' deal!

As soon as I got the girls off to bed tonight, I RAN downstairs to my craftroom and got it set up and starting playing! No time like the present! lol :) This is the card that I came up with, also using my SU Watercolor Garden flowers and a SU HodgePodge hardware buckle in antique brass. Very Springy, eh? Now, if the nice weather would just come back! We had a few days of +24 C, then it teased us and went down to +5 C yesterday, back up to +12 C today. Let's hope tomorrow is warmer. I need to get outside and enjoy a nice day and the girls are getting shack happy!

Tonnerre (L9014)

Lookie-lookie at the Big War Pig (aka Naval ship) that I just spied in our Halifax Harbour! It's a French Navy Aircraft Carrier. The size of it is simply beyond crazy!!!

Here's a link that tells all about the Tonnerre, if you're interested...I know Jim's gonna be sooo pee'd that he missed it! lol :)

Here's a little about her:

The Tonnerre (L9014) is an amphibious assault helicopter carrier of the French Marine Nationale, the fourth vessel to bear the name, and second ship of her class.

Medical Capabilities The Tonnerre features a fully capable 69-bed hospital (as much as a 40 000 inhabitant town), with a triage room, a shock room, two surgery rooms, a room for treatment of burn injuries, a telesurgery room, and radiology equipment, including a scanner.

In normal time, the ship has a medical doctor, two nurses, and 19 medicalised beds. The helicopter hangar can be converted to a campaign hospital to improve medical capabilities. If needed, modular elements can be added to provide four surgical rooms and accommodate a 100-person medical team, including 12 surgeons.

Construction The space for the crew and passengers is unusually large, since the Tonnerre is designed to spend three months in a row at sea, in accordance with the "mobile base" doctrine. The ship features an all-purpose sport room and large common areas. The crew lives in 4-person cabins fitted with sanitary equipment, which allows the ship to accommodate a mixed crew.

Military equipment The Tonnerre is equipped with combat detection systems linked to a SENIT 9 system that allows integrated sharing of information between units of a fleet. The communication systems and other equipment allow the Tonnerre to host a 200-person general staff.

She is capable of deploying 16 NH90 or Tigre helicopters, or 35 Aérospatiale Gazelle. and has reinforced forward pod, as to be able to accommodate 30-tonne helicopters such as the CH-53E Super Stallion; four landing barges or two LCAC; and 70 vehicles, including 13-tank Leclerc battalion, with up to 450 soldiers (900 for a short period).

The Tonnerre features light, short-range missiles and cannons for last-resort self-defence.

All I can say is WOW! Check out the size in comparison to our little Canadian MCDV (Maritime Coastal Defense Vessel) to the bottom right of it...makes ours look like a tiny bath toy! Terrible...Anyway, I realize this is pretty far from cardmaking or paper crafts, but just thought it was interesting since I'm a Navy wife, and thought I would share. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

I've been tagged...again!

I’ve been tagged again! (By Tracy, Toni and Ila.) This one is a little different. It's more of a ‘get to know you’ kind of tag game. I’m supposed to list 7 things about me and then tag 7 others who will do the same. So, here’s a bit about me…try not to fall asleep!

~ I met my husband when I was 19, we got married when I was 21 and he was 25. My Mother actually asked me if I was sure he was the one (even though they liked him from the beginning), since they were only paying for one wedding! We'll be celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary this Fall. Guess we surprised them all!

~I'm a Navy wife. It's a life that not all would stand for. You need to be an independent person, willing to sacrifice a lot and being willing to be ok with everything that is going to go wrong the minute that they leave for a deployment! Jim's been away for a week now and already the side door lock has broke, our new microwave broke after the shelf that was holding it fell off the wall! So I had to buy a new one, both girls and I have all acquired colds and I've acquired Laryngitis...that's lots of fun! How am I supposed to yell at them? lol :) Oh, ad I got a flat tire. How's that for what can go wrong, will go wrong!!!

~We have two daughters, 3 and 5 years old. They are two sweet little girls with tonnes of energy and imagination. The youngest however has quite a stubborn side and loves to test us with her temper tantrums! I'm not lovin' them as much as she is, but I do love her, so I guess we'll keep her! lol :) Just another stage that will pass...

~In September 2006, I made the decision that I finally need to lose my extra weight for good! I've tried different ways, but never really with much success. This time, I joined LA Weight Loss and I'm very happy with the results. I've already lost 54 lbs and 25 inches and I'm about half way to my goal. It's a wonderful plan where they teach you the proper way to eat and make it so easy. I'm never hungry and the pounds are melting away. I've already vowed to myself that I'm never going to be at the weight that I was at my heaviest, ever again. I'm doing this for me to boost my self-esteem and health. I want to be here to enjoy my life and to see my little girls grow old.

~I have a love for rubbah! That's rubber stamping, that is! I've been stamping for 3 years now and find it be such a wonderful hobby. I love making handmade cards and I also really enjoy doing other paper crafts...as long as it includes stamping, pretty paper, ribbon and embellishments...I'm one happy gal!

~I like to bake, but unfortunately I can't really eat as much of the 'chocolaty goodness' treats that I used to. It's ok, though, it's been a great trade-off. I've been creative in finding some low-fat substitutions...

~We just bought our first home in August last year after a 3 year posting to Ontario. We're happy to be back in the Maritimes and to finally be homeowners...even if it does come with a crazy side door! One more thing to have fixed...

So, these are a few tidbits about me, I've had my chance to ramble, now I'm gonna tag the following gals to tell us a bit about themselves.

Amy of Heartfelt Greetings,
Val of Steady Winds,
Julie of Paper Pleasing Ideas,
Catherine of My Stamping Grounds,
Kim of Creative Diversions,
Steph of Steph's Stuff,
Sharon of Paper Fections

A rainbow of faux stitching colours

Last night when I was in the midst of making the cards below...I decided that I needed a dark brown gel pen so that I could do the faux stitching on the flower and doodling on the edge of the House Mouse image.

So, that was one of my mission this afternoon. I went to Staples and found this package of 10 different colours of pens. They write really well and were a reasonable price. $8.29 + tax. I then went to Zellers and they also sell these, but for $8.97 + tax. They will price match, though! I'm the Queen of Price Matching, it soooo embarrasses Jim when I do, but hey, it's more money for other things when I do...stamps included! lol :)

Lots of you have probably already spied these pens...I just don't hang around the stationary section of stores very often. Glad I ventured there today! Now I have to go hide them from my budding little artists that are sleeping upstairs! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a good night and I'll be back soon!

How cute are these mice?

I just love House Mouse images. They're just so darn cute! A card swap came to my attention and I had to join in. Only problem was I don't actually own any House Mouse stamps! lol :) Good thing a friend of mine does and let me borrow them! Thanks, Kelly! :)

These are the cards that I've been working on for the past few nights. I kinda made a boo boo on the one with the green edging on the mouse image. With the other 4 cards, I used vanilla to do the edging, but I had green ink on my finger and somehow it smeared on the edge of the vanilla, so I had to cover it up! Oops. I actually kinda like the green, but I had already mounted the others on the dusty rose card stock, so I didn't want to have to take them all off to change the colour.

By the way, I know I've been using this SU Big Blossom stamp a lot lately with different stamps to decorate it with, and you're probably getting tired of seeing it, but it's just so much fun playing with it! Anyway, as much as I love it...I will 'try' to put this one away for a bit and play with some others! lol :)

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Enjoying another gorgeous day

Spring is definitely here! Although we're all fighting colds and me with Laryngitis, we did enjoy another gorgeous day here today. That makes 3 days in a row of +24 C! I love it...and apparently so do the crocuses that the previous owner surprised us with that started growing in my garden! They're such pretty little flowers, I love the deep purple colour. Certainly springy looking for sure! :) Only problem is that the girls keep picking them for me...sweet gesture, but soon there won't be any left outside to enjoy! lol :)

I have to decide what else I'm gonna add to my garden. It's funny but I hated to leave my old house as my garden was beautiful, now I have to start over from scratch. I already have a Holly bush that I'm adding to the driveway side of the front entrance steps. If there's any Green Thumbs out there that would like to offer advise on some nice flowers or bushes that would spruce up my front garden, comment away! :) I love hearing from people and I'm always up for suggestions!

New Stamp Cleaner

I've recently learned of a cleaner to clean your stamps with. It's extremely cost efficient, so I though I would pass along this wonderful information.

You buy the cleaner at Canadian Tire and it's called Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner. It comes in a 650 ml bottle, but the best part is this is concentrated! It actually makes 3 times that much cleaner for your stamps because you use 1 part cleaner and 3 parts water to use on your stamps! The bottle only costs $5.99 + tax. Is that a screamin' deal or what!! :) Another great thing about it is it's non-toxic, bio-degradeable and the safer alternative to toxic cleaners, solvents and bleaches. (I'm sure the Halifax Harbour will be happy for that!)
You can also use it for lots of other things, too...if you need to further justify your purchase...lol :) Just keep an keen eye on you DH, he'll be running off with it, I'm sure! :) The back of the bottle says Simple Green removes: grease, oil, carbon, dirt, pet stains, coffee, and juice stains, lipstick, food, soil, wet nail polish, soap scum, inks, crayon, blood, smoke, soot, adhesives, chocolate, and much more from any washable indoor/outdoor surface.
If this works as good as it says it does, I may never need to buy any other kind of cleaner ever again! It also has a really nice fresh scent. I find a lot of cleaners get ya right in the throat and are very strong smelling. I think I'm very happy with my purchase! :) And, no, I don't work for the company, I just learned of this fantastic cleaner that some of my stamping friends have been talking about and thought I'd give it a try.

Here's a note from Diane regarding Simple Green Cleaner.

Here's what I do: I apply the mixture of Simple Green & water (1 part cleaner & 3 parts water) to the dirty stamp and then scrub it on a paint edger or one of the similar pads sold at stamp stores. When all the ink is off, I hold the stamp under running water to get all of the cleaner off the rubber. Then stand to dry. That's it!
I keep a nail brush at the sink to get into the more intricate designs. I've tried the babywipes, but they're fiddly, often come apart, leave lint on the rubber and don't do the job as fast as the Simple Green. After rinsing, I stand them up in such a way that the rubber is vertical and all water drains off that, and out of the foam underneath.

I bought my bottle of Simple Green last summer, diluted it 1 part to 3 parts water and I haven't used another cleaner on my stamps since. It hasn't affected the rubber or the glue, but because it will even de-grease car engines and clean driveways, I sure wouldn't leave it on my stamps for any extended period of time!
For my acrylic stamps, I spray or pour the diluted Simple Green on the scrub pad - and afterwards, I rinse and rinse again. And yes, it will remove StazOn!
Diane

Hope this is helpful! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Spring has Sprung!!!

I went outside and noticed that my first crocus has bloomed! Yippee! Spring has finally Sprung! :) It was a gorgeous day here today, it got up to +22C! We enjoyed some the afternoon having a picnic and an hour and a half at the new playground near our house. The girls had a blast!

These are my two little monkeys...they noticed the bike rack was in the shape of an "M" for Mutch...but I think "M" could be for Monkeys, too! :)


This is my littlest little monkey (with the long hair) who just loves to climb, so this new climber was a huge hit for her! I guess she takes right after her Mama. I used to drive my Mum crazy when I was little by climbing everything in site. At 9 1/2 months I started to flip myself over the edge of my crib...so I upgraded to a 'big girl' bed a little sooner than anticipated. Soon after that my parents enrolled me in gymnastics, which I did competitively for 10 years. I guess they figured if I was gonna flip myself around, I might as well be trained in it! lol :)

Gotta go put the girls to bed and I'm planning to get some crafty time in after they go to sleep... that's if I don't fall asleep with them! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Big Blossom Birthday Card

I love my SU Big Blossom stamp so much that I thought I would play with it again tonight for a little bit. I'm trying to decide if this card is too busy...I think perhaps it is...or maybe the Cuttlebug embossed background doesn't even go with the stamp that I used over top of my cut out Big Blossom stamp. I think I'm just too tired...lol :) Anyway, I like these colours together and I always have fun making my own little scallops using the SU Slit punch for the flower centre. It's nice that you can make the scalloped shape whatever size you want simply by attaching the little half circles to the back of another shape, in this case the burgundy ring layer. I am disappointed over my attempt at faux stitching on the flower, though. I usually use a white gel pen, but tonight I thought I'd try a black gel pen...well, you can hardly see it and I think it just ruined it! :( Oh well...lesson learned! lol

I'm gonna hit the hay before midnight tonight..the kids ran absolutely wild today and frankly I'm wiped out! I'm sure they'll be up at the crack of dawn again looking to run all over again! Oh, if only I could bottle up some of that energy!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by! :)

I've been tagged...

So, I was tagged tonight by Julie Buhler. She's got an awesome blog. She has such great ideas, does gorgeous work and the best tutorials! If you haven't checked out her blog, pop on over, now! I'm new to this Tag scene...but apparently the tag challenge is to point out 5 blogs that I browse. I will probably tag some that have been tagged before, but here are a few of my favourites to visit. Check them out, they all do gorgeous work! :)

Tracy - Tracy's Happy Place

Alli - Card Metaphors: Create-Embellish-Adore

Toni - Inkyfingers: Everyday Art

Barb - Barb's Card Creations

Dawn - Amusing Musings & Things

Ok, Ok...I'm really going to bed, now! lol :)

A Great SU Party Tonight

We all had a great night tonight at Diana's Stampin' Up! party...well, I know at least I did! lol :) My Mum came to babysit so I could go out with the girls and have a girls night out. Bought more goodies and ate a couple of Nanaimo Bars (yeah, yeah, I know...they're not on the LA plan, but I couldn't help it, they were calling my name!)

I really like the first card that we did. I love the colours and we did another technique that's new to me. We used a SU wheel for the black strip and used Whisper White craft ink. While it was still wet, we daubed on blue chalk over some of the larger images. I'll be playing with this technique some more, I know it! Hard to see in the picture, but it's a nice, subtle look.

The second project that we did was a little goodie pouch to put whatever you want in. Maybe candy or flower seeds or specialty herbal tea, etc. as a little gift. Pretty, though. Again, I like the colours a lot on this one. This was a square piece of cardstock that with some folds became this cute little pouch and it didn't even require any glue. Quite a neat little origami project. I'll do up a tutorial in the next couple of days, I'd like to try another one with double-sided designer paper.

Well, its time for bed...thanks for stopping by! :)

Blog Candy Winner

I just remembered that I forgot to post the winner this morning. Oops! It's been a busy day...

Thanks so much to everyone for all the great ideas. I have a few ideas brewing...I'll make a decision and post my project soon. :)

The winner of my latest blog candy giveaway is:

Corinna aka MsFit

She left the following comment:
I joined a recipe book swap and you don't _need_ food images for them all.. but you can certainly find them almost anywhere. I am partial to SU! but that is for obvious reasons. Ha! (Nice blog, btw!)
(Hi, my name is Corinna and I got your blog addy from CST)

Congrats, Corinna. Please email me with your snail mail addy and I'll get your goodies right out to you! :)

Have a great night everyone...I'm just getting supper ready and heading out to a Stampin' Up! party! Yippee! :)

Big Blossom Elegance

I've been tickering with this card for a while tonight, and OMG...I just realized that it's 1:41 AM! Eesh! I have to get up in a few hours to get my daughter off to pre-school and then go pick up my Mum. She's coming up for a couple of days and babysitting for me tomorrow night...oops, I guess that would tonight now! I'm heading out to a Stampin' Up! party at Diana's and I can't wait! :)

Anyway, this is the creation that I made tonight. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I got to play a bit with a few stamps I haven't used in a bit. It's always nice to have fun with ones that you've kinda forgot about for a bit. It was my intention to make a Mother's Day card for my Mum. What do you think, does this look like a Mother's day card?

Ok, I really need to go to bed! Thanks for stopping by! I'll post the blog candy winner tomorrow morning. Nighty-night.

...For some reason, the picture isn't showing up...I've even tried adding another one in case the file got corrupted or something, but looks like it might be a Blogger problem. I'll try adding it again in the morning. Maybe you're not allowed to add pics at 2 AM! lol :(

DP that I used for my Trifold card

I've had a few people email me asking what kind of paper I used for my Triangle Trifold card so I thought I would post it to let you all know. I know I never really get into all the wonderful ways that other people do about describing their cards. I guess it's because I tend to rant so badly, that I may never get off the computer if I had to go into depth about how I made every card! lol :) I figure if anyone has any questions about how I did a card, they can always ask me. For the most part, a lot of the cards that I do are pretty straight forward and if I do something special, I add a tutorial, as well, to clarify things.

Anyway, the DP (designer paper) that I used was the gorgeous paper that I got up in New Brunswick while we were visiting my in-laws a couple of months ago. The paper is called 'Tickled Pink - Inspire" (tic-191) by Three Bugs in a Rug. They have a website addy listed on the bottom of the paper, it's www.3bugsinarug.com in case you're interested. I'm sure there are lots of places to buy this DP, but I'm still rather new to buying it, so I can usually never remember where I bought it! OMG! I just checked out this site for myself and I'm absolutely drooling! Tonnes of gorgeous paper and rub-ons...perhaps an order in the making. I tried the store locator, but it's not working, after I select my area, it's directing me to select a US State, but still in Canada! I think it's confused...perhaps I'll try again later. lol :)

For my technique, I simply used the centre strip of this sheet of 12 x 12 paper. I cut a square, then cut the square in half on the diagonal for my two end pieces. For the inside piece for journaling on, I used a piece of SU Barely Banana cardstock , it's almost an identical match to the background colour of my DP. For the three flowers going up the side of the journaling piece, I actually cut them out my hand...I cheated and only cut out two large flowers and cut one in half to use one on the top and one on the bottom. Then, I cut out the little green flowers and used my mini circle punch for the black and white ones. Easier than cutting those teeny weeny flowers out by hand! I really don't like cutting flowers out...so whatever is easiest is my preferred route! lol :) Now, for the outside of the card, I also cut out the flowers from the DP. I really love the colours and think I may try another one of these cards tonight. They're a lot of fun!

Have fun with this and hope you can find some of this paper. It really is gorgeous and nice heavy weight DP. It was a great find, I bought about a dozen sheets of it and I've been rationing it...sometimes I think it's almost too pretty to cut up, but then, I guess it would be prettier on a card or another project than sitting in my Iris drawers, eh?

Well, I'm off to create something...I'll post it later tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

Ribbon Fixed on Triangle Trifold Card

*Update: I ended up taking my card apart last night so that I could re-do the ribbon, yup...it bothered my that badly that I did it wrong that I had to make it right! It's a sickness, I know! lol :) Anyway, my camera is finished charging so I could take another pic to show the ribbon done the right way. :)

Triangle Tri-Fold Card

My friend, Michele came over tonight to make a few cards with me, it's always nice to have company while being crafty, and we can chat while we're at it. We're both looking forward to heading over to Diana's for a SU party this Thursday...oh decisions, decisions on what to get!!!

I decided to finally try a triangle tri-fold card. I've been meaning to try one for a while now and tonight was the night. I made a bit of a error with the ribbon, but overall, I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I'm sure I'll be making more of these. I think they're sweet! :) I followed Beate Johns' tutorial. She does beautiful work and does up amazing tutorials, this one is no exception! You should also check out her blog, if you haven't already!

Well, that's all for now, I'll be back on tomorrow night with another creation... thanks for stopping by!

*Update: I ended up taking my card apart last night so that I could re-do the ribbon, yup...it bothered my that badly that I did it wrong that I had to make it right! It's a sickness, I know! lol :) Anyway, my camera is charging right now, but when it's ready I'll take another pic and post with the ribbon done the correct way. :)

Two cards by Jean Bircham

What a great mail day! Today, I received another 2 CCE cards, this time both from Jean Bircham. Jean made two elevator cards for me, each a different colour combination, and each wonderfully put together. I love the colours she chose, very pretty patterned paper and the flower diecuts are sweet. Very Springy cards on a very dreary day today. They lifted my spirits among the heavy winds and rain. :) Thanks so much, Jean, a great job on both!

Flower Garden Game

I got this in an email from a friend of mine today. I thought it was too pretty not to share! It'd make gorgeous background paper for a card, don't ya think! :) Also, fun for the kids to play with...

http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

click any place on the black part or hold down and move the pointer..you can make it as beautiful as you want...how lovely!

Two cards by Sherry Heinrich

I received 2 great cards from Sherry Heinrich today in the mail for CCE Group 3 and 5. In case you're new to my blog, CCE stands for the Canadian Card Exchange. I belong to 2 groups where I send out 2 cards per month to each group to another Canadian cardmaker. It just so happens that the way the lists worked out this month, my name came up for each group, so Sherry sent me a card from both lists. Does that make sense?? Maybe it's cause I'm tired, but even I'm confused! lol :)

I really like both the cards that Sherry made. I have the SU 'Big Blossom' stamp and the SU 'So Very' set, I think I'll be playing with those soon! Very nice, Sherry! Love all the colours that you chose for both cards. The friends stamp is also great! Love it! And, you all know that I LOVE ribbon! :) Can you tell I love those colours...see the ribbon that I bought today at Michaels in the post below.

Well, it's blowing like a banchee outside. We have a Storm Surge/Freezing Rain Warning for right now. The rain has started and high winds are here. They're calling for 90 mm's of rain. We'll see how close the Weatherman is this time! Should be quite a mess come morning. Good thing I stocked the storm shelter already before Jim left! lol Gonna go try to get some sleep as I listen to garbage cans and debris blowing around the neighbourhood!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ribbon and Brads for an Addict

So, Jim left this morning for 7 weeks at sea. I was a bit sad, so I decided to do a bit of retail therapy. Michaels has a great deal on right now for ribbon and brads. That's all I ended up getting, and a little horse figurine for each of the girls. Can you believe we went in the store at exactly 9:00 AM when they opened and we walked out at 10:35 AM! Does it take that long to buy 2 horses, 2 packages of brads and 6 rolls of ribbon?! Apparently so! I didn't have my watch on and the girls were very indecisive today on their choice of animal figurines, that's their treat when I drag them to Michaels...lol. But over 1 1/2 hours...that's just crazy! I thought we might have been in their for a little over a half an hour, but nope! Time flies when you're surrounded among crafty stuff, I guess!!! :)

Some Blog Candy for an idea...

I'm nearly at 3,000 hits, so I thought I would give away another little thank you blog candy to my readers.

This little assortment includes:

~a package of assorted colour tags,
~a little 13 page book to alter,
~a package of button quote stickers and
~a pretty fabric tag.

In your comment, I'm asking for ideas on where I can find some nice images for using in the corners of recipe cards. I'm re-doing some of my favourite recipes and I'm having trouble finding food/produce/dessert/canning etc. stamps that I like. A lot of them just don't appeal to me. So if you could steer me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it! I'm also open to the idea of just using clip art, if the image was nice...and free!

Thanks so much for your help, you guys always come through! I'll leave this open until Wednesday night and announce a winner on Thursday morning.

A great night out!

I don't have a card to share with you tonight, but on the bright side I had a great night tonight! Jim stayed home with the kids tonight and I left and picked up my friend, Michele at 5 pm and we went shopping and I bought Jim a new MP3 player for his trip. Our other one died last year and he likes to listen to music while he's sailing, so I thought I would surprise him with a treat. :)

Anyway, then at 6 PM, Michele and I met up with 6 other friends at East Side Mario's for dinner and we just left at 10:30 PM! I think the people at the restaurant must have been wondering if we were ever gonna leave, but we all had a great time chatting and telling stories. It was just so nice being there without all our kids. Usually when we all get together it's for a playdate, which is fine, but it's nice to just have Mommy's night out every once in a while! :) I just got home and Jim was mighty pleased about his little treat. I think I scored some big-time brownie points! ...Do I see a Cuttlebug is my future for my birthday...pretty please! lol :)

Well, this woman is going to relax for a bit and go to bed. Thanks for stopping by!

A fabulous card from Sharon

I got this fabulous card in the mail today, from Sharon Grant, one of my stamping friends. Don't you just love it? I love her choice of designer paper and her woman stamp is priceless! Sweet little flower and brad embellies along with a little bling for her earrings. Too cute! The best part is that it came with some unmounted stamps that I bought from her. She even threw in an extra teddy bear stamp for my daughter's to play with as they love to stamp with me. I 'might' let them play with my new goodies...just kidding! lol :) Thanks so much, Sharon for passing them on. I can't wait to play with them, but I need to get some acrylic blocks first so that I can use them. Yes, I'm an unmounted stamp virgin! I think I've always just bought mounted stamps because I was too lazy to make a wood block by myself...duh...never thought of buying acrylic blocks! Should have known there was a lazy man route for my dilemma! No, I don't have blond roots...but I do need to colour it soon to get rid of this beastly gray hair that's showing up full force! I think my kids and husband are turning me gray!!! :(

It's been a busy day of running around trying to get as many groceries and household things while I can before Jim leaves for 2 months this Monday. My girls don't behave very well in stores, so I rather stocked up today to avoid any extra trips with them. Is that terrible? Just trying to maintain my sanity, is all! :) Jim joked with me when I got home asking me if I left any groceries for other people to buy. One would think I was stocking a storm shelter or something! lol Little do they know my children are the storm when we go grocery shopping together, they tear through the store like a hurricane! A bit stressful for me!

Well, Jim's putting the kiddies to bed so I can relax for the evening...might get some stamping in...

Thanks for stopping by!

Playdate at Diana's house today

A few pics today of our playdate at my friend, Diana's house. Alex and Tallie have so much fun there. Always lots of kids and toys to play with. It's a nice time for me to chat with the other Mom's, too. It was my first day out of the house since Friday night! I threw my back out on Sat, well, that's how I woke up on Sat., been laid up ever since. So, needless to say it was really nice to finally get out of the house today. Still pretty sore, but the kids and I were getting a bit shack happy and when Diana called and invited us, we hurried to get ready and flew out the door!

This is my youngest, Tallie (Natalia) and her little friend, Cody, shooting some hoops.

Alex is here pondering her next great masterpiece! lol :) She had a great time having some crafty time and story time with Diego. I think Isaac's got some competition! Alexandria and Isaac are engaged (or so they say), but Diego is doing some serious pining over her! lol :) I think you're safe, though, Isaac, Diego is 2 years younger than Alex!!

An Anniversary card for my parents

I managed to get the kids off to bed at a decent time tonight...they've been up really late the past week or so. Seems as thought the lead up to the Easter Bunny coming and then too much chocolate in their systems played a big role in it... but, we're getting back on schedule now.

So, I got to have some crafty time tonight. I had to do up an Anniversary card for my parents to deliver to them on Sunday for their 43rd Wedding Anniversary! They're the best parents a person could ask for. I think it's commendable that they've been together for so long. Funny, I've mentioned to a few people lately and they were astounded that they've been married for that long. I guess nowadays a lot of couples decide not to get married, but I'm old school along with my parents, I guess. I'm 32, ok nearly 33 and I'll be married 12 years in October. How time flies! My Mum just called, their flight just landed safely, they've been down to Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and California the past couple weeks. I've very envious...would have loved to go on that trip. Some day... Oh well, enough of my pity parade! Can't wait to hear all about their trip and see lots of pictures! :)

Gonna call it a day. Thanks for stopping by!

CCE card from Carole

I received a lovely Spring card from Carole Mork for the Canadian Card Exchange in the mail today. This is a card exchange that I do where I have 4 cards each month to do up and send out to 4 different people across Canada. It's a lot of fun to get cards from different cardmakers. There's never a theme for this card exchange, you just send whatever card you wish. It's always fun to see what other techniques people use.

Carol has heat embossed her Summer garden gateway scene in black and watercoloured it in using nice vibrant colours. How I wish I were there right now! I just heard on the news that we're expecting another 15 cms of snow tonight. We got about 25 cms a few days ago out of the blue and now that it's melting, it's time for more, I guess! Can't Spring just arrive already!!!

Thanks for making my mail day, Carol! :)

New buttons on my sidebar...

I've added a couple of buttons to the bottom right of my sidebar for a friend. She runs a business for creating custom personalized watermarks and also has joined forces with a very talented guy who makes craft racks for holding ink pads or ribbon or both. Check out her sites, she offers wonderful service, a great product and is a super sweet gal! Check out her crafty blog while you're at it, as well. She stamps, she quilts, she makes yummy desserts...the list goes on! You'll have to go take a look for yourself! :)

Sweet little Laura

Ah, ya gotta love holding a new little baby. I held her as she slept in my arms for about an hour, as I got to listen to all those wonderful little cooing sounds. Then, I gave her to Jim so he could enjoy some baby time. The above picture is my Jim holding her... loving every minute of it! She woke up a little startled at who was holding her. Oh, what a cutie! Laura is 6 weeks old already, how time flies! She's such a good little girl, starting to sleep more through the night and stay up more during the day. I think Craig liked his little maze book hat I made for him to take to sea with him. He leaves tomorrow for 5 weeks. Oh, he's gonna miss her so much. I always feel bad for a new Daddy when he has to be separated from his baby, especially when they're that young. They change so much at this age, you hate to miss any part of it. Hopefully the time will go by quickly and he'll be back to enjoy time with her again. He certainly loves her to pieces! :)

Contain Yourself Spring Giveaway

This was her post title, cute, eh? Tracy has come up with a wonderful idea for a Spring Giveaway. She's having a contest where you send a picture of an altered creation that you have made. She would like you to make something new for this contest and you have plenty of time as the deadline isn't until April 30th.

I love doing altered tin cans (normally 28 oz, but some 19oz), journals, paint cans and sticky note holders. But, Tracy has given lots more ideas on her site, as well. Can't wait to see what you all come up. I hope she posts all the creations for everyone to enjoy! :) So, what are you waiting for? Go check out all her rules and play away!

My little Easter bunnies on the run...

Happy Easter, Everyone! I had to throw in a few pics of my little Easter Bunnies. They had a great time looking for chocolate eggs and are thrilled with the princess dolls that the Easter Bunny brought them! They've been playing with them all day, dressing them up in different outfits and playing with their princess castle. Looks like I have to cut Natalia's bangs again today... they just seem to grow overnight! I think we'll donate her hair soon to 'Wigs for Kids,' as well. We donated 17 inches of Alexandria's hair last Summer. Their hair grows so fast. It's such a good cause to give to, to make real hair wigs for children that lose their hair from Cancer treatments. Alex is so proud that she was able to help another child to look 'pretty' again.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter weekend and enjoying special time with your loved ones.

A Maze Book for Craig

This is the maze book that I came up with last night for our friend, Craig to take on the ship with him when he goes sailing. Just a few little pictures of his newborn girl to enjoy while he's away from her. Craig is a great Daddy, I know he'll carry this little book around with him to brag about 'Daddy's Little Girl.' :) I tired to keep it as masculine as I could, so he wouldn't be embarrassed carrying it around. It took a lot for me not to add pink to it! lol :)

I used the template that I found on CraftTVWeekly for their Maze Book. You can watch a full video of the project, plus download the whole illustrated tutorial of the same project. Just click on the link below the video window that says 'Download Design Guide' and you can save a copy using Adobe Reader. What a wonderful site for tutorials. I love them! :) You've gotta check them out!

I made this little maze book last night while my youngest daughter was up til 11:55 PM! Yes, she was more wired than I can explain. Excited for the Easter Bunny coming, I guess. Oh my goodness the rambling!!! Finally, I tried putting her to sleep again and when I put her in her bed for the last time, she was sound asleep in about 1 minute, flat!

Faux scalloped circle punch technique

I got in some crafty time tonight and I thought I would try out a faux scalloped circle punch technique that I had seen on a blog a while back. Don't look too close... I kinda made a mess with the glue. I ran out of double-sided tape and had to use my SU two-way glue, which I normally love, but for this, I think I'd rather use the double-sided tape to prevent the glue from oozing out the sides. I used my SU slit punch and punched out a bunch of little half circles and glued them all the back edge of the orange circle.

Well, it's time for bed. Gotta get in a few hours of sleep before the a long day planned for tomorrow starts. I'll be back in my craft room in Saturday.

Happy Easter everyone, hope the Easter Bunny finds you all! :)

Thanks for stopping by!