Stampin' with Catherine and Diana

Tonight my friends, Catherine and Diana came over to stamp with me. We had a nice night, other than the fact that both my girls woke up and took a while to get back to sleep. I think that sometimes they can sense that it's 'Mommy's night!' Oh well, I think I'm mostly to blame. Since we moved into our new house, the largest table to work at while friends are here is right outside my youngest daughter's room, in the dining area. We're in a bungalow, so all the bedrooms are on the main level. This isn't the nicest set up when I have all the girls over to stamp with me, as I normally close the kids doors so we don't wake them up. Well, that was fine and dandy all Winter and Spring while the temperature was ok, but today it was +34 C here and I wasn't even thinking when I closed their doors. They both woke up hot as can be. No wonder! I had the fans going in the dining room, but not in their rooms. Anyway, I feel really bad...what was I thinking! Bad Mummy! :( But, their rooms are cooled down nicely now and they're sleeping soundly again.

I got 2 cards done tonight. This is the first one that I made. I CASE'd this design from Amy Rysavy over at Prairie Paper & Ink. Amy's cards are always an inspiration, she does such beautiful work, you have to check out her blog, if you haven't already! I absolutely love the SU big Blossom stamp. For this one I stamped the back of the Basic Grey designer paper, (isn't it pretty?) and then cut it out. My card base is Eggplant Bazzill card stock, I then layered white and celery Bazzill card stock. I cut the purple corner freehanded and stamped the centre for the flower using my SU Rivetting set. I added a pewter brad embellie to the centre of the flower...yup you guessed it, from the Dollarama. Have I mentioned how much I love that store! lol :) Finished it off with some sage green grosgrain ribbon and some purple brads from Michaels.For the second card that I made, this was more of a fun style. Unfortunately, I CASE'd this one as well, but for some reason when I saved it, I forgot to rename it to add the creators name and this person is like me and doesn't use a watermark to protect her work. So, I'm sorry, I can't give you credit for your fun card, but if this looks familiar, let me know who you are and I'll gladly give you credit! :) Again, I used the SU Big Blossom, I love the versatility of this stamp, you can do so many different things with this flower. It's one of my favourite stamps, for sure!
For this one, I used Cranberry Bazzill card stock, then layered light blue and speckled mustard card stock. I added a little red grosgrain ribbon to the corner...where I flubbed on my attempt at adding eyelets, so I had to cover it up! Oops! I freehand doodled the border, and the sentiment '..thanks' was from a dollar store. I used SU Real Red for the Big Blossom and freehand cut the flower centre out of the speckled mustard card stock, as well. Now, that I look back at the card I was CASEing, I see that she roughed up the edges instead of tearing them...I knew I wasn't happy with this torn look, I'm more for crisp edges, but next time I would definitely just distress the edges of the card stock instead of tearing them.

Well, it's already after 1 am, so much for going to bed sort of early tonight. Oh, the morning is gonna come soon, gonna be a full coffee day, I think! I have to leave the house early for our road trip to my Uncle's birthday party, then we're staying the night at my Mum's, so my Mum and I can have a crafty night after the kiddies go to sleep. :) I'll post something again on Tuesday of what I make down there.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Don't worry if I've unsubscribed....

I feel that I need to explain to those that I've just unsubscribed from through FeedBlitz. It's not that I don't luv all your blogs! It's just that I've been running Google Reader for a couple of days now, and am finally saving some time, I added all your blogs into my list, so I'm not missing anything. I love it! What a great service!!! :)

I've had a couple of people unsubscribe from my blog, I got all worried, thinking perhaps I'm really boring or I ramble to much...yeah, I know I do that...or maybe my creations just aren't nice enough. I'm such a worrier of what others may think of me! Anyway, hopefully it's just that they've done as I have and got on the Google Reader train! I hope so! I'm such an emotional sap!!! lol :)

Hope you're all having a great weekend for my American friends, that you're having a wonderful Memorial Day long weekend. It's been very rainy here lately, some sunshine, but still very chilly. Today, it's +34C! Woohoo! We actually had to leave the playground this afternoon cause we were all getting way too hot! I had to get home anyway, as I'm having a few friends over tonight to stamp and I have some sweets to make. :)

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Happy Birthday Uncle Frank

Tonight I CASE'd a card that I saw recently on the blog by Artfully Ila. If you haven't checked her blog out, skip on over, she does gorgeous work, you won't be disappointed! I actually really like Ila's card a lot better, she did a much nicer job. Unfortunately, I was in a bit of a hurry putting this one together and wasn't in the mood to redo parts of it that I wasn't happy with. Anyway, I thought it was a really cute layout and I think my Uncle Frank will be happy with it. His birthday party is on Sunday, it'll be nice to see him and a great opportunity to see a bunch of my Mum's side of the family. We always have a few good laughs. Keep your fingers crossed for me that my girls don't run and act like crazy hyenas, though! They get excited and lose control sometimes...ok a lot, but I really hope they behave themselves there for my sanity!

For this card I used my Cuttlebug...did you notice that I bought another embossing folder? My poor swirls is getting some great use, but it was the only one that I owned. I'm slowly building a collection. The bee is from the SU Watercolour Garden set. It's the only thing I stamped on this card. All the rest was freehand doodling. The ribbon is from Michaels. The corner frame I cut out by hand, as well.

Well, I'm calling it a night, busy day planned for tomorrow and a few of the girls are coming over tomorrow night to stamp with me. Yippee! :) I'll post my creations on Sunday morning.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

I Finally Tried Google Reader

I've been meaning to try out Google Reader for some time now, and I finally got around to setting it up last night. What a wonderful service. I can see being able to save a lot of time now. If you're not familiar with Google Reader, you add blog addys to it that you like to visit and it automatically tells you when each blog has been updated with a new post. So, no more visiting blogs to see if they've added anything new. I love checking out blogs, but I think I used to waste half my time checking them and there wouldn't be anything new from the last time I visited. So, if bloggin' is sucking up too much of your time, check Google Reader out, it's great! Hey, if you're saving time there, there'll be more time to stamp! lol :)

Doodle This One Sheet Box

For this project, I used Beate's tutorial for a One Sheet Box. This is my first attempt at one of these cute little boxes and it was a fun project to do. :) All you use is one sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" card stock and with a series of score lines and folds, ta-da you have a little box!

I used my SU Doodle This set for the flowers and the doodles. The 'grateful' is from the SU Small Script set. I stamped on the black card stock using VersaMark and then heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I used black eyelets on the back to feed the ribbon through. Black with white polka dot sheer ribbon is from Michaels.

Now, I have to decide what's going to go inside this little box. Thanks to my friend, Catherine for the challenge of trying one of these! It was fun! :) Now, it's your turn to try one!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Dreamin' about Basic Grey

Basic Grey designer paper, that is! lol :) Don't you just love their paper!!! I've had this paper for a while now and I've been wanting to try a card using it, this is what I came up with tonight. The brown flower was from a Colluzle template and I freehanded the pink background flower layer. I couldn't decide what to use for the yellow layer under the pewter flower, but I decided on a square piece of yellow cs, to which I used my corner rounder. I found more of these pewter flower embellies at the Dollarama the other day...getting low in stock, what will I do when these are all gone! I love them! :( I also found the 'Dream' pewter embellie at the Dollarama the other day. I love going in there, you just never know what you're gonna find...yeah, I know that I get way too excited over the little things, I think I must lead a sheltered life! Oh well, I guess it's good that I'm easily pleased! The light pink with white polka dotted shimmery sheer ribbon is from Michaels. Found that on my last retail therapy trip. I've also added a little bit of 'bling' in the form of brown jewels to the corner of 'Dream' and 3 more on the edge of the strip of chocolate brown card stock. Can you guess where I got the jewels...yup...I need to get out more! lol :)

Well, gotta go see who's gonna win American Idol tonight. Then, I'm off to la la land a bit early. Thanks for stopping by! :)

A Touching Video

I saw this video on a friend's blog and I just had to share it with you all. It's nice to see how supportive of the troops some people are! This video was actually done by a 15 year old girl if you can believe it! What an amazing job! Take a look and see for yourself...

Remember Me Video

This is a pic that my husband, Jim sent to me yesterday of his ship docked in Windsor, Ontario. This is the H.M.C.S. Halifax, looking down at the ship and her berth.

He's away for 2 months right now. I'm glad that it's not for 6 or 8 months, but that's to come... there's really no life like it. I'm used to it, but it is very hard on our girls at times. I'm so very proud of my husband for the career that he chose, though and thankful for all the men and women that risk their lives so that we may continue to have our freedom. They need all our support!

This is a pic from a while back of Jim with our girls. The pic was taken while we were living in Trenton, Ontario and Jim was in an Army position. Weird seeing him in another uniform after so many years of being in a Navy uniform. He's now back in his Navy combats and sailing again, though. The girls love him so much and look so forward to when he's able to phone from away. It'll be a very happy reunion when he comes home next Friday! :)

Thanks for stopping by! :)