Folding Brush Washer

I just realized that I forgot to post the cutest little folding brush washer bin that my friend Catherine picked up for me the other day at DeSerres. She has one and uses it for collecting card making scraps while working at her table. I plan to do the same thing. It'll make a great little bag to collect all those little pieces and to keep a few items like my bone folder, white gel pen, scissors, etc close at hand.

They come all folded up compactly like this. On the package label you can see all the pockets for the brushes or whatever you'd like to use it for. Well, just thought I'd share in case it's something that you're looking for, too! :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Hostess Gift from Yvonne

Ok, this is gonna be a quick post, but I just had to show you the gorgeous altered wooden gift box that my SU Demo, Yvonne Balmer gave me as a Hostess Gift for having the SU party on Monday night...did I mention that she spoils us? lol :) It's not only beautiful, but smells heavenly, too! She knows that I love coffee so she included a couple of flavoured coffee packages. One is Creme Brule and the other is Cranberry Cream. Yummm! I'll be making use of those very soon! lol :)

This shows the contents of wooden box that she altered for me.

Here's a close up of the card that she included in the box set.

Here's a close up of the top of the altered box.

Here's a close up of one of the two tumbled tile coasters. Aren't they gorgeous?

Ok, I need to go get ready for work...gotta go make some more stampin' money! lol :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

'Never Been Inked' Card Challenge

Whew, this is post number three for tonight and I never got home from work until 11:30 pm! Time to go to bed soon, but I just want to share one more post tonight of the swap cards and then I'll call it a night! lol :) The card above is the one that I made.

Within our group of stamping friends, our challenge for this time around was to make a swap card that used a stamp that we have in our collection that's 'Never Been Inked' yet. I decided to use a stamp from a Hostess set from a while back, 'A is for Adorable'. I had originally got this set thinking it would be great for scrapbooking, but then never got into scrapbooking, I know, I keep saying I'm going to, but I never do...one of these days I'll get my act together! lol :)

We drew names and I got Kim's card. This is the super cute Turtle card (above) that Kim made. I'm soooo gonna have to borrow this stamp to use for little kids birthday cards. I think this said it was made my Cornish Heritage Farms. I just love the card! The Cuttlebug layers go so well with the turtle shell. Awesome water colouring and great layout. So cute! Thanks so much, Kim. :)

Ok, it's 1:25 AM...I really need to get to bed! I'll be back in the morning to share the beautiful project that Yvonne made me!

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)



Supplies for my swap card:
Stamps: Dream - A is for Adorable (SU), Ornate Textured Background (Stampabilities), Distressed Flourish - 96129 J (Inkadinkado)
Cardstock: Key Lime (CRS), Pink (Bazzill), Chocolate Chip (Bazzill), Cream (Staples)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU), Walnut Stain (Tim Holtz Distress Ink)
Embellishments: Brown Taffeta Ribbon (Michaels), Copper Brads (Making Memories)

SU Workshop Cards: Faux Linen and a Tri-Fold

We made two cards last night at the Stampin' Up! Party here at my place. The first card was a beautiful card using a 'faux linen' technique. I'm definitely gonna be playing with the faux linen technique again soon. I can't get over it, I feel like such an idiot...I thought when I had seen this technique before that people used regular card stock and I could never get it to work out. I didn't realize that you're supposed to use glossy cardstock! Sand it, and then brayer it. Ahhhhhh, a light bulb moment! It's all making sense now! Don't mind me, I'm just a little slow to catch on sometimes! lol :)

This is the second card that we made. A different take on the traditional tri-fold card that I'm used to making. I really love this card! The colours, the neat fold and the stamps! See what I mean, we're soooo gonna miss Yvonne and her wonderful projects! :(

This is what the card looks like inside when you open up the front cover.

And, this is the the view when you lift up the final flap to the card.
Ok, for my next post I'll share the swap cards that I made and the one that I received. :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Thank you, Yvonne

I really enjoyed having all the girls over last night for one last Stampin' Up! party with our Demo, Yvonne, who's retiring from doing parties. So sad, but at least now she can just have fun with us on stamping nights and not have to do all the prep work for a party. We're all bound to introduce her now to the world of 'other' stamps that are out there to be had, too! Such enablers that we are!!! lol :)

This is the card that I made for Yvonne as a thank you for being such a great Demo to us all! She's such a sweetheart and always had nice projects for us to do. She truly spoiled us...and we loved it! lol :)

I'll share the projects that we made and the swap cards that we made in my next couple of posts. Yvonne also made me a gorgeous Hostess thank you gift that deserves it's own post! OMG, it's just beautiful! I'm such a lucky girl! lol :) Thanks again, so much, Yvonne!

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)



Supplies:
Stamps: Baroque Motif (SU), Design Block Flourish (Hero Arts), Thank You (Stamp Craft)
Cardstock: Flat White (CRS), Blue Bayou (SU), China Red Linen (CRS)
Ink: Basic Black (SU), Ruby Red (SU), Marigold Morning (SU), Blue Bayou (SU)
Tools: Ticket Punch (SU)
Embellishments: Red, Blue and Gold Swarovski Crystals (Michaels), Red Grosgrain Ribbon (Michaels)

Fun Birthday Colours

I thought I'd play with some fun colours for this one for a birthday card to keep on hand for when I need a quick one. Not quite sure what look I was going for...just felt like adding a bit of whimsical ribbon to the partial circle...it's not supposed to be anything in particular, just a shape, I guess.

Well, I'm getting ready for my Stampin' Up! party tonight. I'm really looking forward to having all the girls over, I just wish my own girls wouldn't keep messing up my house every time I get it tidied up! lol :) Pretty much everything is done just gotta go get supper ready now so we can eat at a decent time and then get the kiddies off to bed.

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)



Supplies:
Stamps: Design Block Flourish (Hero Arts), Textured Best Wishes (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Flat White (CRS), Goldenrod Linen (CRS), Turquoise (Bazzill), Fushia (The Paper Company)
Ink: Basic Black, Orchid Opulence
Tools: Circle Custom Cutting Templates (Creative Memories)
Embellishments: Clear Self-Adhesive Gems, White Grosgrain Ribbon (Michaels)

Our new patio set

I just realized that I haven't posted a pic of our new tile top patio set yet and a few people have asked me if posted it already and missed it...nope you didn't miss it I just pulled a typical Jules moment and forgot! lol :) I had said that I'd post it and then we left for vacation for 5 days. Then it rained all week pretty much so I could take a pic of it. Anyway, here it is. We love finally having a nice set so we can enjoy eating outside.

I took this picture last night just before we got to enjoy a few minutes outside having a BBQ'd meal. We got about 95% done our meal though and the heavens opened up again! Wow, a lot of rain this week. Today was quite nice all day, though and the sunset tonight was absolutely beautiful. The most gorgeous shades of red, and as the old saying goes, 'Red Sky by Night, Sailors Delight,' so hopefully we'll have another nice day tomorrow.

I've completed a couple of cards in the past couple of days, however I can't show them to you quite yet. They're for a swap that I'm doing with my local group of stamping friends. They're coming over for a Stampin' Up! party at my place on Monday night. It should be a fun night and I always love having them all over. Anyway, we made a deal not to spoil the fun so no posting our cards before the party, so you'll all have to wait! lol :)

I'll try to create something else tomorrow to show you. I had to work again today, lots of stuff on the go lately and I haven't been able to get the crafty time in that I'd like to. Terrible how life gets in the way of crafty time, eh? lol :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Hello Friend Flap Card

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything! Sorry about that...we headed up to my Hubby's folks place for a short vacation last week and this week has been busy again with getting the house back in order, working, dental appointments and having my youngest in Day Camp again. Lots of running around...aren't you supposed to relax in the Summer? I don't know, it doesn't seem to be happening here! lol :)

Anyway, I've been going through a bit of crafty withdrawal and had a chance to play a bit last night. I thought I'd try a card that's a little different from the norm and thought I'd try a flap card of sorts. You lift on the tab at the bottom and it lifts the metallic layer of the card up to reveal the inside of the card.

Here's an angle shot to show you my vellum butterfly. Another pretty butterfly...yup, the novelty hasn't worn off yet, I still love butterflies! lol :)

This is what the inside of the card looks like with the flap opened.

Well, gotta run to go get Jim at work and then I have to go to work myself. I wasn't supposed to work tonight, but hey, who am I to say no to good stamp money that could be earned! lol :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)


Supplies:
Stamps: Butterfly (The Stamp Barn), Hello Friend (See d's - Inque Boutique)
Cardstock: Cranberry & Gray (Bazzill)
Patterned Paper: Pink Swirls - Luxury Print (DCWV)
Embellishments: Cranberry Satin Ribbon (Michaels), Clear Adhesive Gems and Gem Brads
Tools: Ticket Punch (SU)

Stamped Artwork from Alexandria

Well, I'm her 'only' Mom, but I still love it! While I was having a bit of crafty time yesterday, my oldest daughter, Alexandria (6 years old) stamped this butterfly image and coloured it in with glittery gel pens and she wrote the saying all by herself. She's just learning how to write sentences so I was truly touched! It reads 'I love you. You're my greatest Mom.' She's such a sweetheart. She's my emotional little girl who's always doing nice things for me. This picture is definitely a keeper! :)

She loves to play with my stamps and really enjoys crafty time. When she described her picture, She said "The butterfly was comin' in for a landing on the flower." Too cute. It's funny, she makes my hubby, Jim roll his eyes when she explains her work and uses the proper term of 'cardstock!' That's my crafty girl! lol :)

Anyway, just thought I'd share her sweet artwork with you all.

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Butterfly Garden

I got a chance to break in my new butterfly stamps this morning that I won from Storage Units, Ink & More! These stamps are absolutely wonderful! They're made of a really good quality clear polymer and they stamp like a dream! They're such beautiful butterfly images - they totally feed my love for butterflies! lol :)

I came up with the idea for this card last night after seeing this paint chip that one of my girls got from Home Depot while we were buying a new patio set. Can you tell me, what is it about children and paint chips and their obsession with getting a few colours every time they're near that section of the store? lol :) Every child I know does this, it's amazing...the power of the paint chip! Oh, I'll share a pic of the new patio set tomorrow, too. It's so nice to finally have a good set to use outside. We like spending time out in the back yard and now we can enjoy eating outside in style! lol :)

Here's an angle view to show the curled wings. If you can't read the saying, it says 'Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases, and it pleases where it goes.

Anyway, I really like these colours together. I don't think I would have put them together had I not seen the paint chip, so I'm glad she brought this one home! lol :)

Well, I'm gonna call it an early night. Thanks for stoppin' by! :)



Supplies:
Stamps: Butterfly Garden (Storage Units, Ink and More!)
Cardstock: Rust (Bazzill), Flat White & Key Lime (CRS), Baby Boy Blue (The Paper Company)
Ink: Onyx Black Archival (VersaFine)
Watercolour Wonder Crayons: Certainly Celery, Really Rust and Bashful Blue (SU)
Patterned Paper: Blue Raspberry Collage - Fresh Print (Déjà Views)
Tools: 1/8" Dimensional Squares (EK Success), Aqua Painter (SU)
Embellishments: Blue Self-Adhesive Gems

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Well, my Hubby had a laugh over the original version of this card last night...on the first draft of this card, I stamped the moon in Close to Cocoa ink on the pink cs and he said 'Well, it's fitting for a baby card, I guess, cause it looks like you smeared a baby's dirty diaper onto the card!" Eep! Rather gross, but he's right, it did! lol :) I knew I wasn't happy with it, but I left it overnight to think about it and re-did it this morning. I decided to add the white layer of cs and stamp the moon in the Pretty in Pink this time and add a star stamp that I had to tie in with 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' theme that I was going for. I know the pattered paper that I used in the background are actually 'floral bursts' as they call them, but they look like stars to me, so that's what I'm calling them! lol :)

My friend, Val Wilson had made a card for our recent card swap and she used this neat 'tie' method for her ribbon and I finally got to try it, but first I had to figure out how she did it. I think it makes a cute ribbon embellie. I'm still not sure if I have it completely right, though. It looks like hers except mine is kinda loose, I think it might fall out rather easily. I'll have to check with her again to see if I'm missing something.

Well, my girls are yanking at my arm as I'm typing since they want to go outside an enjoy the day. We better go take advantage before I have to go to work seeing as it's a beautiful day out there!

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)



Supplies:
Stamps: Moon (SOA Canada), 'tiny miracle' and star (Studio G)
Cardstock: Fairy Tale Pink (DoubleMates), Dark Brown (Bazzill), Flat White (Staples)
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa & Barely Barely Banana (SU)
Patterned Paper: Aurora Flora Bursts - Sticko Style Letter Press ( EK Success)
Embellishments: Light Pink Grosgrain Ribbon (Michaels)

A new little baby to hold

I got to visit a new little baby tonight, born a week ago to my friend, Charly and her hubby, Chris. Ah, the sweet smell of a new little one, how I miss that with my own girls. They grow up way to quickly! You've got to enjoy the time you have with your kids while they're young, before you know it years have passed and it only seems like yesterday that they were that small.

The name they chose for her is Kiah (pronounced Kai-ah) and she's absolutely adorable and such a good baby. It was so nice to hold her for a little while tonight. She was a perfect angel. As I held her, she was very alert and just looked around, taking everything in. You can check out pics of little Kiah on Charly's blog.

The pic above is the sweet baby announcement that they gave me tonight. Ya gotta love the House Mouse image - very cute! There's a beautiful picture of Kiah on the inside of the card behind an oval frame and the details are on the bottom. I think it's the nicest baby announcement I've ever received!

Congrats again, Charly and Chris! I know you're gonna make wonderful parents. All the best to all of you! :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Blog candy winnings arrived today!

I got some wonderful mail today! I entered for some blog candy a little while ago and I won! Yippee! Butterfly stamps and they're super cute! Can't wait to ink 'em up! :) Denise from Storage Units, Ink and More! also included this little personalized tube of lip moisturizer. It's berry flavoured and smells absolutely heavenly, too! Thanks so much, to Denise for sending these out to me! Please check out her site if you haven't already. They offer some really cute stamp sets and have some great designers working with them with some awesome ideas. Consider yourself enabled and go take a look! lol :)

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

RAK from Catherine

My friend, Catherine Levy made this pretty little note card and necklace for me as a thank you for taking her out the other night to the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. We had a great time, it was a really good show, but I think I had almost just as good a time afterwards when we went out for coffee and chatted. Sometimes, it's just nice to get out with friends...when the kids are at home! lol :)

Thanks so much, Catherine! It was sweet of you to think of me. However, I think I may have trouble with the necklace, my oldest daughter seems to have claimed it for herself! :)

Sorry that I don't have much to share with you lately that's on the crafty side. Now that the weather is nice, we seem to be out on the run all the time. Our schedule over the next week is pretty full, but I'll try to get something new done for you to see soon.

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)

Embossed Thinking of You

Wow, I can't believe that this is card/project# 101 that I've made since Jan 1st! I started a new system this year of numbering all my cards and altered projects. I've found that it's an interesting way to keep track of how many things I've made. So, I guess at this rate, I should have made about 200 by Xmas, but then I guess I need to figure Xmas cards into there, as well...but we won't get started on that topic right now! I had a whole plan to do about 6 Xmas cards each month starting at the first of the year and then by November I'd be all done and ready to send them out...Yup, you guessed it, I haven't even started on them yet! Oh well, it was a good thought anyway! lol :)

I don't know if you can tell in the picture, sorry it's kinda blurry, but the floral background is actually patterned paper that comes pre-embossed. It's really pretty in real life and I got some in several different styles. I've never seen this patterned paper before, and I found it on sale at DeSerres the other day, marked way down. So, that's a bonus! I love a sale! lol :)

Jim and I have been super busy the past couple of days re-organizing our storage rooms in our basement. Lots of work, but it's almost all done now and looks soooo much better. I'm a self-confessed pack-rat and have a bad habit of piling stuff when I don't want to deal with it! Sound familiar? lol :) Anyway, now we just need to buy some good quality paint so we can re-paint the floor and it'll look a look better. Hopefully that'll get done soon...

Well, I think I'll call it a day and go get some rest before my little ones decide that it's time to start a new day!

Thanks for stoppin' by! :)



Supplies:
Stamps: Petite Messages (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: China Red Linen (CRS), Jet Black Linen (CRS), Flat White (CRS)
Patterned Paper: Aurora Flora Flowers - Sticko Style Letter Press (EK Success)
Ink: Ruby Red and Basic Black (SU)
Embellishments: Antique Copper Brads (Making Memories), Epoxy Butterfly (Horizon Group USA)