Monochromatic Engagement card

I made this card tonight for a childhood friend of mine who just recently became engaged. I wanted an elegant look for this engagement card, so I stuck with a monochromatic scheme for this one. I love the look of black of white together with a touch of pewter. This is a new stamp that I got with a credit that I had from Michaels. It's so elegant, I luv it! And, yes, I had to use my Cuttlebug again! I'm obsessed! lol :)

Stamp: Inkadinkado
Cardstock: Black and White (The Paper Company)
Ink: Black (StazOn)
Embellishment: Pewter ring from wedding themed set (Dollarama)
Tools: Cuttlebug, d'Vine Swirls embossing folder

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Paisley and Swirls

I recently fell in love with a card that Julee Tillman created. If you haven't checked out Julee's blog, called Poetic Artistry, you need to go take a look. Her work is absolutely amazing! I decided to use her basic layout and colour scheme for this card but I changed the patterned paper and the stamps. I really like how this one turned out. Can you see the Cuttlebug embossing on the patterned paper? I like this effect. It's much easier to see in person, unfortunately the photo doesn't catch it very well.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs (SU), Small Script (SU)
Patterned Paper: Deja Views - Fresh Prints - Blue Raspberry Paisley
Cardstock: Black and White (The Paper Company)
Ink: Tempting Turquoise (SU)
Tools: Scalloped Square (Mega and Giga) punches, paper piercer
Embellishments: Jumbo Black Brads (Dollarama)

Well, it's that time again, gotta call it a day...so much for going to bed early! lol :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

RAK from Kelly and CCE from Charly

Kelly Eelhart and Charly Weaver came to my SU party last night and gave me these cards. Kelly's was a RAK card... cause I'm such a wonderful person! Muwaaaah....I have everyone fooled! Just kidding! lol :) and Charly's card was one for the CCE (Canadian Card Exchange). Both are wonderful cards, thanks so much girls! I really appreciate them both! :)

Kelly has done a wonderful job on her card and I really like the vellum window to soften the card. I love the different things that you can do with the Baroque Motifs set. Very nice job!

Charly has used an image that I've been eying for a while now. Isn't she beautiful. This is a cool pocket card. Kinda like a tri-fold card, but instead of the inside flap folding out, it's sealed down to make a pocket. These would be great to make to hold a gift card or a little note. Very cool! She also did a bleach technique to colour the wings. I'm gonna have to try this. Sounds fun to play with.

Well, thanks again, girls! :) I'll be back tonight with another creation, until then, thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Stampin' Up! Party cards

I hosted a SU party last night at my house, I had a great time and I hope that all the girls did, too! :) We made three cards...we have a great Demo...thanks Yvonne! :)

Below is a little Thank You gift that Yvonne made for me for hosting the party along with all the other goodies that I'll be receiving... insert big smiley face! :)

It's a little folder to hold chap stick, isn't this a cute idea!


She also made these cute little packaged Halloween chocolates for my girls. How sweet is she!? Of course, my girls won't like those at all! lol :) Just kidding! They love chocolate and will love the little baggies! I think I'll wait closer to Halloween to give them to them. She used Black StazOn ink to stamp on the little SU baggies.

Here are the 3 cards that we made:

I absolutely love this one that we made using a chipboard frame that we covered with SU Designer Series Paper. I really like these snowflakes and the little snowman is so cute peeking through the window, don't you think? I also really like the blue and white with just a touch of orange.
I also really like this card. These are beautiful colours together. We stamped the holly from the SU Peaceful Wishes set in SU Always Artichoke and then used a marker to colour in the berries with Bravo Burgundy. Then, we applied a touch of glue to the berries and added shimmer glitter. They don't look purple IRL, that's just my camera being whacky again, or shows my inability to take good pics! lol :) The ribbon feed is neat on this one for giving the illusion of a bow. You punch two holes side by side and feed the ribbon through from the front to the back, then criss-cross them in the back to feed back through the opposite hole and ta-da, you have a bow!

This is a quick technique but a pretty one. It's called VersaMark Resist. First, we stamped the trees from the SU Lovely As a Tree set using VersaMark onto glossy white cardstock. Then, using the SU Pumpkin Patch Spectrum Pad, we brayered onto the glossy cs on top of the stamped trees. The ink adheres to the cs, but resists where we stamped with the VersaMark. So, the trees show in the background. Alternatively, you could also stamp the trees in VersaMark, sprinkle with clear embossing powder, heat set to emboss and then brayer on the colour. That technique would make the trees appear as though they are in the foreground and is called Emboss Resist.
Thanks again to everyone for coming over to stamp with me last night. I love having all the girls over to create and to have some sweets and as hoped my daughters were asleep before everyone arrived and stayed asleep the whole evening. They've been a bit cranky lately and I was looking forward to a true girl's night and I got it...I needed that! :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Birthday Invitations for Alexandria

My task tonight was to make 10 birthday invitations for my daughter, Alexandria's upcoming 6th birthday party. She decided on a butterfly/dragonfly theme for her party this year, so I chose this dragonfly stamp that I had. The inside is also stamped with For, Date, Time, Place, RSVP. She wanted me to use this 'rainbow' ink as she calls it. It's a cheapy ink pad that I got at a Dollar store a while ago, and it gave me some major grief tonight! It kept bleeding and smearing everywhere. I'm not overly happy with how these invitations turned out, but seeing as they're for a child's birthday party, I guess they'll do. It's not like they're for a formal event! Besides, the kids will probably ruin them anyway within a day or so after they get them! lol :) But, you know what, Alexandria will be thrilled with them, I'm sure. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees them in the morning.

Well, it's that time again and I need to go grab some zzz's before my alarm starts barking and it's time to start the day all over again...Ah, the need for more caffeine! lol :)

I'll be back tomorrow with another creation. Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Stamps: Dragonfly (Magenta), You're Invited (AMN)
Ribbon: White - Sheer Creations (Michael's)
Cardstock: Pink, Fuchsia, Mauve (The Paper Company)
Tools: Ticket Punch (SU)
Ink: Rainbow Craft ink pad (Dollar store)

Update on the Autism Fund Raiser Project

Just a little update on the Autism fund raiser project, the total money raised so far from our greeting card project is $2,885.00! Woo Hoo! Isn't that wonderful!! :)

I just discovered that a couple of days ago, The Oprah Winfrey Show had Jenny McCarthy and Holly Robinson Peete on as guests, who both have Autistic children. I missed the show, but apparently it was a great one and was very informative. Here is a link to take you to Oprah's site and the show details.

For those of you that are interested, Oprah now has an interactive message board where you can ask questions to Jenny and Holly. Plus, gets lots of other great info!

She has info about understanding Autism- the basics, tools to help your child thrive and the regular message board where you can discuss the show.

I'll be checking out the site more in depth later today, hope you decide to check it out, too.

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Exchange cards

I love this stamp set and the versatility of it! I chose to do something quite straight forward with them and used some pretty ribbon that I've had kickin' around for some time now. I made 4 of these cards tonight for a card exchange that I belong to. Each month, I make 4 cards and send them to 4 different people and receive 4 cards back from 4 different people. It's a fun way to see different styles of cardmaking and get ideas.

I feel bad though, over the past bit, I've hard a hard time with these. I think I've just been so busy with other projects that I've got behind with my exchange cards and then I feel pressured to do them all at once. I usually do 4 different cards, but I decided to do them all the same this time. This card exchange round ends next month and I think I'll take a break from it for a while and concentrate on other cards for fun or just stick with the occasional swap. It should be fun after all and not feel like something I 'have' to do. Cleaning the house is something I 'have' to do, card making is something that I want to do!

Anyway, enough of my ranting...I have to go to bed! I had a busy weekend and I'm beat... oh, the morning is gonna come early.

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Stamps: Baroque Motifs (SU), Small Script (SU)
Ink: Black (StazOn), Baroque Burgundy (SU)
Ribbon: Doors (Michaels)

RAK from Deb

Lookie, lookie what I got in the mail today! My friend, Deb surprised with all these punched scalloped shapes to play with! Woo Hoo! I'm tellin' ya, I have the best friends ever! Either that or they're taking pity on me cause I don't own any scalloped punches yet and I love scallops! Just kidding! lol :) Seriously, thanks so much, Deb! I'll be putting those scallops shapes to use, soon! I can't wait to play! You can visit Deb's blog here. Deb does scrapbooking, cardmaking and loves to alter things like me! Go take a peek! :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Weekend of Fun

I had a great weekend, I took my girls down to my Mum and Dad's place in the country and we visited a local corn maze for an afternoon of fun on Sunday. They had fun running through the maze looking for checkpoints...while Mum and I proceeded to continue to get lost! lol :) Oh well, it was fun and eventually we found all the checkpoints but one, so not too bad. After we came out the girls had a blast playing on the huge slide and climbing the tire pyramid and stacked hay tower. It was really funny cause as they slide down the big PVC slide, they would scream, "WEEEEEEEEE," then they would get buried in the hay pit at the bottom of the slide. Tonnes of fun!On Saturday, we went to one of the local Frenchy's clothing stores and I got a ton of clothes for the kids and some for me, too. Nice to get some cheap clothes to tie me over while I'm still losing weight. I'm down to a size 10/12 now! Woo Hoo! A far cry from my size 22 that I was in a year ago! :) I feel great and it's so nice to be able to find clothes that actually fit now or a wonderful feeling to try on clothes that are too big! I have to snicker to myself! lol :) Afterwards, we stopped in at the mall and the girls wanted to have a ride on the merry go round while Mum was trying on some clothes, so Mum treated them to a couple of rides. I had to include this pic of them just grinning away while they're on the little carousel horses. Ah, my little cuties! :) I love to see them smile and laugh and carry on. Gotta treasure those moments and remember them when they're having a meltdown later in the day because they don't get their way! lol :)

Who could have known a little carousel horsie ride could be so much fun! :)

Or a simple ride on a swing...look at Natalia just a laughin'... see our maple trees are changing already way at the top right of the pic! My favourite time of the year. It was nice to see some of the trees beautiful colours as we were driving on the highway to my parents place.

Here's the map to the corn maze...sorry about the mess of stamps...the girls wanted to help and stamped all over the map! Wonder where they would ever get that love of stampin' from? lol :)

Alexandria inside the corn maze.

Natalia stompin' down the corn maze path...

Here's a wicked slide that the farm market built using a PVC pipe. Wow, all the kids had so much fun!

Natalia crawling out of the slides hay pit at the bottom.

Weeeeeee....crash.....pile up! lol :)

Natalia at the top of the tire pyramid, overlooking the Village of Port Williams in the background left. The corn maze is to the right.

Well, as you can see I didn't get any stamping done this weekend, but I have a ton of projects on the go this week, so stay tuned...

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Bella card

How exciting! I just found out that 2 of my friends are each expecting their 2nd child, so a couple of cards are in order! Here's one card, I'll have to do the other one tomorrow night. I borrowed this Bella stamp from my friend, Kim. Thanks, Kim! ...Kim's kinda like my stamp library! lol :) Hugs to ya, Kim! I had full intentions of watercolouring the Bella image, but at the last minute I decided that I wanted to leave it simple, like it is. I guess I just didn't want to add more colours, I wanted to stick with the teal, banana and white. Was that wrong? Well, guess it's kinda late to ask now...lol...my card is done and I think I'm happy with it.

Cardstock: Teal (Bazzill), Barely Banana (SU) and White (The Paper Company)
Stamps: Teddybella (Stamping Bella), Tiny Miracle (Studio G), Doodle This (SU)
Tools: Largest Oval using red and green blades (Creative Memories), paper piercer, scalloped border template, white gel pen
Cuttlebug: d'Vine Swirls Embossing Folder
Ink: Taken With Teal (SU)

OK, it's time to call it a day. Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Blog Candy RAK from Teresa

I received the most wonderful Blog Candy RAK today from Teresa Chapman of Aunt T's Paper Arts. Thank you so much, Teresa! What a great bunch of goodies...I'm one lucky girl! I'm gonna have so much fun playing! :) Here's what she sent me:

The cutest little pink and lime green mini lunch tin, a great little index file folder box...I'm gonna have fun with that! Four jumbo paperclips to alter, a little pewter frame, a sweet little card made by Teresa (Thanks, Teresa, I love the colours and the fish!), some gorgeous ribbon and four wonderful clear stamp sets! WOW! I'm gonna be an altering fool! lol :)

Here's the beautiful 8" x 8" patterned paper that she included, as well.

And, yes, even more beautiful patterned paper, this is 4.5" x 6.5"
OK, I have to run and go organize my new goodies! I'm grinning from ear to ear!!! lol :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Funny card

I have a funny card to share with you tonight. I saw a card on Maria's blog at Stampin Inspirations by Maria and it was a swap card that she received from Gabby. You can see the original card on Maria's blog at the link above. I thought it was hilarious! I knew as soon as I saw this card that I had to recreate one for our friend, Dave for his upcoming birthday. Dave is such a great friend, whom we've known for years. He loves dogs and with his off-the-wall sense of humour, I know he'll love this card! lol :)

Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye - Bohemia - Backyard "My Journey" Stripe/Lime
Cardstock: White and Chocolate (The Paper Company), Brocade Blue, Mellow Moss, Speckled Blue ...Sorry, I can't remember where I got these last three colours of cardstock and I'm not sure which company makes them.
Embellishments: Latch - Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware (SU)
Tools: 1/4" square punch (SU), Black gel pen (for doodled thought cloud)
Stamps: Alphabits (SU)
Stickers: Frances Meyer 'Walkies' dog stickers
Ink: Black (SU)

I hope you all got a laugh out of this one! Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Places and Things Tag Game

I've been tagged by a few friends and thought I'd play along. This is another little tag game to play to share some info about yourself.

Four place I have worked.
1. Dept. of Business and Consumer Services. Working with the Provincial Gov't 'Refunds' section was certainly an experience...I answered on average 500 calls per day!I learned that there's definitely some crazies out there, too, who are possibly still looking for money that they feel is owed to them! lol :) I had a couple of people come in to "lay a beatin' on me" as they called it, to which I had to call security. (These people were on Social Assistance and didn't qualify for the refund.) I can look back at it now and laugh. I had a lot of fun working there, too.
2.Nova Scotia Community College. I had a contract with them teaching MS Word and MS Excel as part of the Microsoft Office User Specialist module. Yes, I'm a Microsoft Office Geek!
3. Maritime Life Assurance Company. Another contract job, developed an MS Access database for them for the purpose of tracking resource utilization of the Retail Systems Division. Does that make sense...I'm even confused now that I think about it! lol :)
4. Home Support Central. I worked in payroll and did office support as well. I had fun running around helping people with their computer issues.

Four places I have lived.
1. Greenwich, Nova Scotia in the beautiful Annapolis Valley- born and raised there til I flew the coup at 18 to go to college in the city.
2. Halifax, NS
3. Trenton, ON (This was a 3 year military posting)
4. Dartmouth, NS (This is where we reside now. Bought a house when we returned to the Maritimes from Ontario.)

Four places I have been on vacation.
1. Disneyworld, Florida
2. Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island
3. Varadero Beach, Cuba
4. New Hampshire, Maine, Quebec and Vermont (during high school...solely for the purpose of downhill skiing...I wasn't into stampin' then or I'm sure I could have found some great stamp stores!)

Four of my favorite foods. (I have recipes for the first 3 in the list, if you're interested.)
1. Almond Thai Chicken Soup
2. Carrot Cake
3. Baked Chicken Parmesan
4. Greek Pizza

Four places I would rather be right now.
1. On Vacation somewhere! I don't even care where...just away!
2. Stamping
3. shopping with someone else's money...lol :)
4. Sleeping...I don't know how to go to bed early...can someone teach me that it's ok to not stay up til 2 am making cards!

Four friends most likely to respond. (I'm going to tag these gals)

Catherine (My Stamping Grounds)
Kim (Creative Diversions)
Cindy (Imagine. Dream. Create)
Ila (Artfully Ila)

New Cuttlebug folders and dies

Hello Fellow Cuttlebug Fans!

Have you seen the new folders that have just been released? OMG, I can't wait to get a hold of them!!! They're Gorgeous! My favs are the floral fantasy, birds and swirls and perfectly paisley. The build-a-flower die cuts also look fun and the puzzle die cut would certainly be a winner with my kids, I'm sure! Here's the link to the Provo Craft site. Go take a peek! :)

Screamin' Deals!

I'm absolutely grinning from ear to ear and dancin' the ultimate happy dance!! lol :) I've held off going over to Carsand-Mosher Photo Memories in Halifax...until today! Can you believe I've been able to go for a whole year and stayed away! I had no idea it had grown so big since I was there before 5 years ago... Holy Cow...I'll certainly be going back....what a selection of patterned paper, stamps and embellies and screamin' deals! Today, I got everything at about 75 % off! WHat would have cost me over $90, I got for less than $20 taxes in!!! Here's what I got:

Clear rubber alphabet and number unmounted stamp set (Carolee Creations - Ting a Ling Accents), some beautiful pink rub-ons (Chatterbox - Woodcuts), Prima Flower Ribbon embellies (Prima) and a ton of patterned paper! Yup, I'm one happy girl! lol :)





So, if you live in the Metro Halifax area, RUN fast and get over there for some sweet deals!

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

She finally did it!

My youngest daughter's hair has been getting so long and we talked about her donating it for a while now like her sister did last year to Wigs for Kids. It's a wonderful organization that makes wigs for children affected by Cancer that lose their hair from the Chemo treatments. Last year, our oldest daughter, Alexandria donated 17 inches of her hair at 4 years and 10 months old. Today, Natalia donated 12 inches at 3 years 10 months old. Yes, my girls have tonnes of hair! lol :) What a wonderful feeling to know that their hair will be given a new life an make another little girl or boy so happy.

Here's some pics of the haircut this morning. :)

This is the pre-haircut pic
Those long, beautiful curls are gonna be gone in a few minutes!

No turning back now...

We have a separated ponytail...

Tallie checking out her ponytail!

Tallie checking out her new haircut...

Proud of her new haircut! She's thrilled that she can brush her own hair now! :)

Thanks for stoppin' by and sharing in our fun! :)

Red and White Doodles

I got a chance to play tonight and thought I would go with just a red and white theme. I used a new flower stamp from a Studio G stamp set that my friend, Catherine Levy gave me a couple of days ago...I told you I was spoiled with wonderful friends! :) Thanks again so much, Catherine!
I saw a card a while back that Paula Goff did of Paula Ponders, and I really liked the layout and the colours, so I decided to make a take on her card. I can't find the the card that I remember in red and white, but here's another one using Purely Pomegrante that she did. Paula does absolutely beautiful work, if you're not familiar with her work, check it out! She does lots of great tutorials, as well. Tonnes of inspiration! :)

Stamps: Doodle This (SU), Live Love Laugh - flower (Studio G)
Tools: Creative Memories 1 1/4" circle punch, White gel pen, Red gel pen
Embellishments: Red and White polka dot ribbon (Dollarama)
Cardstock: Red (Bazzill), White (The Paper Company)
Ink: Real Red (SU)

Well, I hope everyone had a great weekend. Hard to believe it's over already. I'm heading to bed now with red ink-stained fingers...that should get the other Moms asking questions at school in the morning! lol :) We have the Terry Fox Run/Walk to do tomorrow afternoon. I volunteered to go if my younger daughter could come, as well. They said it was fine, so we'll all be going. Fingers crossed that it goes well... :) Gotta go get some rest now.

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

RAK from Kim

I'm so spoiled to have such wonderful friends!!! I received the most wonderful assortment of goodies today from my friend, Kim Prince who stopped by for a quick visit. Thanks again so much, Kim! I can't wait to play with all this stuff! :) You're such a sweetheart! I joked with Kim and said I loved the patterned paper in the little tin...but you know that's gonna get altered in the future! No tins are safe in my house from being altered! lol :)

Well, gotta go get some supper ready for the munchkins, shower them, off to bed and then I can get in some stampin' time. :) I'll post again later tonight.

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Love, Honor and Cherish

A friend of mine is getting married in two weeks, and I wanted to make a card for her for her special day. I wish them all the best on their day and wish them a wonderful, long and happy life together. I'm sure you know who you are...I'll share with you all later. :)

Cardstock: Silver (Creative Memories), White (The Paper Company), Almost Amethyst (Stampin' Up!)
Embellishments: Decorative brads (Dollarama)
Tools: Cuttlebug - Textile Embossing Folder

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

With Sympathy

Another sympathy card in a couple of days, this one is in English, though. All the same supplies as earlier, except the 'With Sympathy' comes from Impression Obsession clear rubber stamp set, Greetings Galore. I also used a different stamp from the IO Bold Florals set this time.

Thanks for stoppin' by!

More Dollarama Finds...

OK, so I lost all control at the Dollarama today...I had to go back and do a little more shoppin' therapy after a rough day with the kids. I think they're missing their Dad...seems like a week into his trip to sea, they always start to act a little whacky and act up something terrible to blow off steam, I guess. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. :)

So, this is what I got today...

Check out these Rhinestone Brads! I got them in clear, pink, blue, green and purple!

Yup, got some more ribbon...saw some sequin ribbon today, too and I thought it was pretty. I'll have to think about what I'm gonna use it for...

I never thought much of these crystal stickers before, but I've seen a lot of cards done with them lately and I actually like them, so I broke down and bought some. I thought the alpha stickers were kinda cool. Not sure how I'm gonna use them yet, though.

More chipboard frames and tags. I know some of these I likely wouldn't use, but it doesn't mean that I can't alter them with some pretty patterned paper! lol :)

Look at these gorgeous brads...wouldn't they be nice for a wedding card? I also got some jumbo brads in pastels and natural tones.

And, some more alphabet chipboard.

So, that concludes my shoppin' therapy session for today..yup, I feel much better, now! lol :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

My Sympathies

My friend, Diana asked me if I could make a sympathy card for her to give to her friend, whose Mother just passed away. Her friend only speaks Spanish, so I found a nice Calligraphy font online and printed the text off onto cardstock. 'Mis Condolencias' translates to My Sympathies or My Condolences.

Stamps: Impression Obsession - Bold Florals clear rubber stamp set
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Stylized Flowers
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip and Plum (Bazzill), Beige (The Paper Company)
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip
Font used: Freebooter Script 24 pt
Tools: SU Ticket Punch

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)