Hyde 'N Seek Creations

Superman

2012-01-26T23:29:00.000-08:00

DH got a real kick out of this one. DS got a Superman housecoat for his BD and I just couldn't throw out the tag. Quickly made the utility belt and mounted it on blue brazil paper. The inside says, "Happy birthday to a Super Man." I know another terrible pun. What's a girl to do?

The card will go to my brother who as a kid was obsessed with Superman. He wore a cape and has scars on his forehead from when he found out the hard way that capes don't really make people fly.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Mark's Finest Papers - Birthday Card
Paper Sundaes - Paper Piecing (the belt is multiple layers to make)
Simon Says - Anything Goes

I Love Ewe

2012-01-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

Here's to a very non-traditional Valentine. We are to use barnyard animals at our For Fun Challenge for the week. I was given this very cute image of a sheep from our sponsor this week, Bugaboo. If you follow me, you'll know I just can't resist a pun.

When I saw this challenge, I just had to pull out this DP out of my stash. It's the Old McDonald song. You can see the E-I-E-I-O in the background. I had seen some fantastic cards recently using doilies so I thought I'd give it a try. I sponged some green and walnut stain on it to match the DP a bit better. The head and the hooves of the sheep are popped up for dimension and I added fun flock for his wool. The sentiment is computer generated.

Hope you have as much fun with our Farmyard Animal challenge as I did!

Challenges this card meets:
Cupcake Craft - All You Need Is Love
Fab 'N Funky - Its All In the Eyes
Oldie But a Goodie - Have a Heart (Both Paper and Dollie are over a year old.)
Paper Sundaes - Paper Piecing
Simon Says - Anything Goes

Red Solo Cup

2012-01-23T00:09:00.000-08:00

I was looking back on my blog and realized I hadn't used my Bella's in over a year. GASP! I look at the Bellarific Friday Challenge every week and comment and always mean to play... where does the time go? Anyways I totally had to remedy the situation since I also have some that haven't even been inked yet.

Had lots of fun with this one. The stars are from my Starbucks cup holder. I didn't have any really good masculine embellishments so I had to make some. I love the the strip of binary code on the brown DP since DH works with computers. Both this Beerafella and the sentiment were in my pre-inked box so I've met my January New Year's resolution to use up those images.

Better yet, I had the most amazing stamping night. After finishing this, I managed to complete the last of my set for my girlfriend that moved including sentiments on the insides of the cards and addressing the envelopes for her. I even finished 20 ATC Valentine cards for my mom! I haven't had such a great craft night in months! Expect to see both in future posts this week.

Challenges this card Meets:
Bellarific Friday - Sketch
Do You Stack Up - Patterned Paper
Mark's Finest Papers - Birthday Card
Saturday Challenge - Food or Drink
Sentimental Sundays - Diecuts (image and stars)
Stamping with the Dragon - Anything Goes
Stamptacular Sunday - Seeing Spots
Truly Scrumptious - Something Forgotten (My poor Bellas!)

Get Well Soon

2012-01-18T23:33:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, this week's challenge at For Fun couldn't have come at a better time for me. I have a relative in need of cheering up. The image is from Dear Dollies and was lots of fun to colour. I chose very bright colours for this 4.5 squared card. It needs to be small since she has only small space. This was lots of fun since I don't often use such a busy pattern but it just worked so well here.

I do hope you'll join us. I always hate having to make get well or sympathy cards on demand. Their the ones that I always feel better having on hand.

Challenges this card meets:
Do You Stack Up - Patterned Paper
Marks Finest Papers - Border Punch

New Home Surprises

2012-01-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

I'm still making a selection of cards for a friend that has moved. She moved in on Wednesday. On Friday, it snowed 10 cm and they had to use a board they found to push the snow out of the way in order to get out to buy a snow shovel. I couldn't resist this! The snow globe is from Class Act Insider. The house and sentiment is SU's retired Right At Home Set. Love the simplicity of this card.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Crafty JC - Something New
Crazy 4 Challenges - Monochromatic in Blue
Fab N Funky - Recycle It (Rescued the Brad from the trash at school and the ribbon from a present)
Fussy and Fancy - Let it Snow
One Stop Craft - Spots and Ribbon
Simon Says - Spots or Stripes

Frosty the Snowman

2012-01-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

We are having my favourite type of challenge at For Fun this week - anything goes! Just don't forget, only 3 entries each please.

I was having to clean up for Christmas and found some chipboard in my stash-and-dash. The hat was adorable but I couldn't find the snowman piece, just the backing piece that he fell out of. Then I was inspired. I decided to use the chipboard as my template and smushed the white ink around to create my snowman. The snow was created using torn paper as a template. The snowflakes are from Heartfelt Creations. The ribbon on the hat is the same as the scarf, just folded down so it fit the scale. The scarf was created by cutting slits in the card stock to wrap the ribbon around Frosty's neck. I then used half pearls to decorate Frosty. Lots of fun to make!

Now I have to empty out that cupboard...

Love, Love, Love

2012-01-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

This is what I get for watching Love Actually while crafting. I had the wedding song, Love, Love Love, playing stuck in my head. I had cut and embossed a ton of these images when I had borrowed them from a friend a while a go. I just loved them. The card fits a standard business envelope. Once I made one though, I had to play with it.

Why not use different colours? I think the yellow would be better in green. What do you think?

I love how the pink background mades the white die cuts pop. It's fantastic in real life.

I liked the pink so much, I made one version that I'm going to keep to give DH. Love how it looks in red! Are you bored with this card yet?

The embossing folder is a Cuttlebug one that came if you bought a Cuttlebug. I loved them so much, I borrowed them from a friend. I originally had over a hundred of these hearts cut but I'm already starting to run low. Good news, I found these folders and die cut at a garage sale. Funny, my girlfriend says she never uses them because she can't think of what to do with them. I love them though.

Challenges these Cards Meet:
Joan's Garden - use pink or red, embossing, hearts and embellishments of your choice
Paper Sundaes - Saturated Colours
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
The Pixie Cottage - Monochromatic

The Stockings Were Hung

2012-01-07T16:34:00.000-08:00

A super simple card today. I am working on decreasing my stash. The stockings with the white background came from a Costco tag that my mother used at Christmas. I simply mounted it on this great plaid DP with a gold frame on a real red base. A real quick but effective Christmas card.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Cards for Men - Recycle
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Recycle
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Je T'Aime

2012-01-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

I love making Valentine's cards. I'm not so big on the commercial holiday. DH and I always pick another day to celebrate since it's less crazy and seems more genuine. This card is using the same layout from LateBlossom that I cased earlier. I used a roller stamp from SU that I unmounted. The sentiment is from Paper Makeup. It seemed to be floating in mid-air so I grounded it with the red gems.

You're Dinomite

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

When I found out that Paper Makeup with going to stop producing rubber stamps, I went on a buying spree. I love their stamps and will so miss their sentiments. This image is one of Dustin Pike's dinos. I love these images since they make such great little boy cards. I always need those.

The Pumpkin Pie background was stamped with SU's little background. I then used an old piece of card stock and covered it with small bits of masking tape. I rubbed Distress ink all over it and then covered the that with clear embossing powder to set the ink so it won't rub off. The background looks green even though I used blue ink because of the yellow tinge of the tape. Once I'd finished creating my background, I ran it through my Big Shot to get the shape I wanted. I am so going to do this again.

The dino is coloured with Copics. Not my usual colour choices but DS loves it and so does DH. He even asked me about how I made the background.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Crafty JC - New year / age

Everybody Art - Anything Goes

Paper Sundaes - Something Old, Something New (old - background and sentiment stamp / new - dinosaur stamp)

The Secret Crafter - Anything Goes

Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes

Simon Says - Anything Goes

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry, if you are here to see the latest card, please scroll down.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to list my New Year's resolutions. I tend to list many and then celebrate what gets done rather than get upset that I can't meet them all. This year I really want to use my stash and to do this I want to:

1) Use all my stamps 3 times this year. If I don't want to use it, it needs to leave my collection. I'm not worried about going through all my stamps this year, this is about not buying more when I have so much and reducing what I've outgrown.

2) Use at least one pre-stamped image a month. I have a huge box of pre stamped images that I never look at. I will just stamp a new image rather than look in the box. 12 cards won't put a dent in the pile but it will get me started.

3) Use my scraps. I'm pretty good about this but I want to really decrease my stash this year.

4) I will not buy any new DP this year until I can reduce my stash down to one magazine holder. This may not be in my lifetime but I will try.

Good luck to you in your crafting goals!

Key to Success

2012-01-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful New Years. I thought with the start of a new year, I should show a "New Beginnings" card. I have friends that are moving so I'm making them a set of Change of Address cards. All of them are slightly different. The key is chipboard which I've covered several times in silver embossing powder. That was lots of fun! The background was done using some Costco DP with a new Sizzlix embossing folder to represent the new address numbers. The stamp is from SU's retired Right at Home Set. My friend was floored to find out I had a moving stamp but not a birthday cake, or candles.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Crafty JC - Something New
Everybody Art - Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes - Something Old, Something New (old - key, punch, DP, brad, stamp / new - embossing folder)
The Secret Crafter - Anything Goes
Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes
Simon Says - Anything Goes

Quick Nativity

2011-12-30T00:10:00.000-08:00

I made this before Christmas but didn't have time to post. I realized as I was sending out my Christmas cards I had not made any religous cards this year. I have family members who are offended if they receive non-religous cards so I needed to whip some up in a hurry. I realize that it would not be snowing in Bethlehem but I love this paper and the colour scheme. I'm hoping my relatives will forgive me. If I was to make this card again, I'd do the embossing in silver. I still like how elegant it looked in simple embossing. I'm wondering what the image would look coloured on kraft. But not this week. I'm all Christmased out.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Christmas Card Challenge #4

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Everybody Art - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy - Winter Wonderland

Mark's Finest Papers - Anything Goes

One Stop Craft - Winter Wishes

Paper Sundaes - Celebrate

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Christmas Blessings

2011-12-29T23:57:00.000-08:00

I've unmounted all my wheels and have fallen in love with them all over again. They are just so much more flexible now that I can use any ink on them and I can actually see where they will be stamped. I should have done this years ago! I even gotten half of one of my craft drawers back.

I love how this card turned out but I can't take the credit. The layout comes from Susan Raihala's (aka. Lateblossom). I've tried to find the post but am having trouble with blogger at the moment. I loved her one layer version. I didn't have the nice pens though for bordering the image so I've layered a scrap of white card stock with my stamped image onto two small strips of real red. I love the red bling on this card. My LSS was blowing out red bling one year after Christmas and I bought the entire stock just so I'd have lots for this stamp. And now I'll finally use it since I have rediscovered this pretty holly image.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Christmas Card Challenge #4
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Everybody Art - Anything Goes
Mark's Finest Papers - Anything Goes
One Stop Craft - Winter Wishes
Paper Sundaes - Celebrate
Simon Says - Anything Goes

Everybody Off the Road!

2011-12-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

With the start of a new year, we've chosen "New Beginnings" as our theme at For Fun Challenges. This is really open: New Home, New Marriage, New Baby, New Pet, etc. I had lots of fun using this image from our sponsor, Bugaboo Digis. One of my nephews will be getting his license soon and I thought this was perfect for celebrating the occasion. I used Splitcoaststampers Sketch #364 as a starting point. The All the papers were matted with Brocade Blue. The DP comes from my endless Costco package. The image and the circle were coloured with my Copics. I wanted to put gems in that empty space but my husband asked me to refrain. Am I not the best of wives?

This inside sentiment says "________ has just passed his driving test!" I actually wrote his name in but you understand.

This will be a two week challenge at For Fun so I'll be sure to post some additional "New Beginnings" for you!

Challenges this Card Meets

Charisma Cards - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Mark's Finest Papers - Anything Goes

Daring Card Makers - Spots and Stripes

Blue Christmas

2011-12-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

I just love this Bo Bunny DP but one of my New Year's Resolutions is to use up some of my mountains of paper. The image is a freebie from Meljens that I thought was cute. I finally got around to using my snowflake pendant and snowflake shape abilities. I have had them for more than six months and never used them. Talk about embarrassing. The base is Gina K's Luxury white. I then added a layer of Not Quite Navy, which was also used for the snowflakes. Brocade Blue is for the second layer of snowflakes. The snowflakes then have very small gems in the centre, not that you can see it in these photos.

I'm hoping to be a bit better at posting than I have been recently. I have actually been crafting a lot so I do have quite a bit to share. It's getting the computer time...

Challenges this Card Meets

Charisma Cards - Anything Goes

Christmas Card Challenge

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy - Winter Wonderland

Mark's Finest Papers - Anything Goes

Stamping with the Dragon - Let it Snow

Snowy Collage

2011-12-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

This photo doesn't do this image justice. I love the fact this card looks so different than what I normally stamp. It's really done in multiple shades of pink and raspberry, not red as it looks here. I started with a very pale background Harlequin stamp. I then layered on SU's French Script. The snowflakes and sentiment are from Heartfelt Creations.

Challenges this Card Meets
Charisma Cards - Anything Goes
Christmas Card Challenge
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Incy Wincy - Winter Wonderland
Mark's Finest Papers - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Last Christmas Card of the Year
Stamping with the Dragon - Let it Snow

Go Fly a Kite

2011-12-10T17:27:00.000-08:00

Pulled out my Ladybug Picnic set from Stamping Up. I'm embarrassed to admit this is the first time I've ever used this image. I love it, I was just never inspired by it. The sentiment is from Take Three, another retired set. The kite should match the ladybug but because I put stickles on the kite, it is not showing up properly.

Dancing in the Rain

2011-12-09T17:23:00.000-08:00

Another very CAS card. I mounted a layer of DP onto my Gina K. luxury white. The sentiment is one I just love from Paper Makeup Stamps. I'm so sad that they are going to stop producing rubber.

Anyone with little kids can understand the joys of puddle dancing.

Butterfly Kisses

2011-12-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

Just a simple card today. I was just so happy to find this image. I thought I'd lost it for good. I had bought the DP with this stamp in mind and there it sat for 6 months because it had been lost in my stash. Love the simplicity of this design. Next time I'd make the bottom panel just a touch larger to centre the circle but otherwise I'm happy.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2011-11-29T23:00:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to look like Christmas and we are in full Christmas mode at For Fun Challenges. We'd love to see your Christmas cards this week.

I'm in full Christmas mode now! I really enjoyed making this card, both my kids sat at the table and coloured with me, the first time that's ever happened. I'll have to post their attempts next! You can't tell from this photo but this card really sparkles. I've used stickles on all areas covered by snow and all around the edges of the card. By the way, the colouring is not smudged in places, it just seems to be the way the colour is reflected in the glitter. Grrr. I've tried taking several photos but it seems to show up somewhere in all of them. The image is from Michelle Perkett, our sponsor for this week. I love her snow family images. Of course I love anything related to snow! Probably because we get so little here.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Crafty Catz - Snowmen

Everybody Art - Christmas

Paper Sundaes - Winter Wonderland

Stamping with the Dragon - Christmas

Stamptacular Sunday - Christmas

Totally Papercrafts - Christmas

Peaceful Wishes

2011-11-28T18:13:00.001-08:00

I love this snow globe image from Class Act Rubber Stamps, a Canadian company (YEAH!). I've been wanting to play with it for ages. Unfortunately, I realized that I don't have that many Christmas stamps that fit inside. Oh no, I'll just have to go shopping! The tree is the top of a larger stamp Flourishes. The sentiment is from Christmas Expressions by Cornish Heritage Farms. All the stamping was stamped in Versamark and then embossed in white. I know that embossing is no longer "cool". But it gives such a clean look that I love it, especially for Christmas cards. I know it seems dark but the dark panel is actually Night of Navy.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Crazy 4 Challenges - Snow
Creative Card Crew - Monochromatic
Everybody Art - Christmas
Incy Wincy - Trees
Mark's Finest Papers - Make It Masculine
Oldie But Goodie - Let it Snow (Tree image and sentiment are over a year old)
Paper Sundaes - Winter Wonderland
Stamping with the Dragon - Christmas
Stamptacular Sunday - Christmas
Totally Papercrafts - Christmas

Merry and Bright

2011-11-15T22:24:00.001-08:00

Christmas is around the corner - how crazy is that! I have been cleaning/decluttering for months and opened my card stash up to friends in the summer. I just went to look for my Christmas cards and realized I've been almost completely wiped out! Let me know when you get bored of Christmas.

This week's challenge at For Fun is a recipe challenge to use one image, two designer papers and three buttons or brads. I found this challenging because I often don't use DP and rarely buy co-ordinating paper. I have lots; it just doesn't co-ordinate. The papers are scraps from my stash. I love how the design elements on the DP give the illusion of a Christmas Tree. It's really just the way I cut my paper. The buttons and brad used up some stash in my odds and ends box and I had fun playing with my pearls and rhinestones. The image is from Clear Dollar Stamps, our sponsor this week. I've just found them and love their images. I lucked out and won their new digi calendar in a blog hop this week. Stay tuned for those images later.

I do hope you'll join us!

Challenges this Card Meets:
Cards for Men - Christmas
Christmas Card Challenge - Holly or Wreaths
Crafty Catz - Use a digi image
Paper Sundaes - Use a digi image

Happy, Happy Birthday

2011-11-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

This photo doesn't do the card justice. Our challenge at For Fun Challenges is to make a birthday card for your best friend. My glitter and shaker cards are always the most raved over by my friends. Anything that you can play with is always a big hit. So I combined them. This cute Bugaboo image was coloured in copies. I then layered a large piece of score tape over the image and poured glitter over the whole thing. I used my finger to press the glitter in and shook off all the excess. A large shaker window was built around the image and I used cake decorating sprinkles as my beads. Just a warning - this card won't go through the mail since the sprinkles will shatter and the sprinkles can begin to bleed colour after about six months. The flower is made using my Tattered Flowers dies and fabric from two of DH's shirts. The fabric was too nice to throw away! The sentiment is an old one from Stamping Up and the DP is from Bo Bunny.

I do hope you'll play along. The winner will receive 7 images of their choice from Bugaboo.

Alien Invasion

2011-10-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Bonus points to anyone that can identify the movie quote I used. I think my warped sense of humour got the best of me again. The card is for DH who loves anything related to science fiction. I couldn't help myself. I saw the alien image and I was itching to get to my computer to get a good quote. I was surprised at how hard it was to find a PG quote. Quotes from the Aliens movies were not ones I wanted on my mantel.

The image is from Rick St. James, who is our sponsor this week at For Fun Challenges. He has some amazingly detailed images. Our winner will get the images used by our design team this week. Our challenge is anything Halloween this week. Aliens count don't you think?

Hope you'll come play too!

Are You my Mummy?

2011-10-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this week's challenge at For Fun. I received this fantastic Magical Tidbit House from our sponsor, Bugaoo and it makes such a fantastic jumping point for all sorts of Halloween cards. And I'm sure you've all noticed how much I love Halloween by now! The card fits a standard business envelope and I think the change in canvas size was part of the fun. I also pulled out some of my own stamp images, my poor neglected stamps. My images would probably have looked better stamped in versa fine but I used Night of Navy to fit in with this week's challenge of Halloween with no black, orange or purple. The windows are lit with a thin line of red and then three shades of yellow to give the warm glow. No orange used! It's hard to see but I also used a soft yellow on the outside of the moon and stars to represent their glow.

Hope you will be able to join us this week!

Boo!

2011-10-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

Can you tell I love Halloween? I sometimes send more Halloween cards than Christmas cards. I can write them before report card season so I often get them out early. This card was very simple but lots of fun to make. I used one of Meljen's freebies and printed it 3 times. One as a test, then I taped my pumpkin card to it to print directly on the pumpkin shape. I printed it a third time with a thick sheet of white for my ghosts and cut them out and adhered them on top of the pumpkin. I finally printed the image a fourth time onto some gold cardstock for the BOO stars. So cute and with lots of green bling, I know it will be well enjoyed. Perhaps I could use it as my "You've been BOOed card this year!" with a treat of goodies.

This card fits this week's theme at For Fun Challenges. We're using pumpkin, but not jack-o-lantern images. I love any excuse to use my pumpkin Spellbinders. Meljen's is very generously giving our winner 4 images of their choice. Hope you'll join us!

Are you a good witch or are you a bad witch?

2011-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry, couldn't help myself with the title. The image is Witch Carly from Di's Digis, our sponsor for this week's challenge at For Fun. I loved colouring this image. I chose blue since I don't like to see girls in black. All my witches are green, purple or blue.

This is in fact my second card for For Fun's challenge this week. You can see yesterday's card here. Our challenge this week is to use leaves as a focal point in our cards. This card couldn't get much more leafy. I really do hope that you will join us!

Haunted Pumpkin

2011-10-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today's challenge at For Fun is to focus on Fall leaves. I think I've gone a bit overboard but it was a lot of fun. The adorable image is from this week's sponsor, Di's Digis. Her images were so cute, you'll get to see a second card I did for this challenge tomorrow. The image is coloured with copics. The base is SU's Pumpkin Pie - perfect, don't you think? The DP is from Graphic 45's Halloween in Wonderland pack. I love all the papers but I admit I will be making Halloween cards until kingdom come in order to use it all up.

Wish Upon a Star

2011-10-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Happy World Cardmaking Day! Well, it still is for me for a little bit longer. I was very excited to be able to take some time to craft today. Today's idea looks very simple but it took FOREVER and a LOT of ruined paper before I got it to turn out the way I envisioned in my head. The card is basically a shaker that is using tulle instead of acetate to hold my stars and sequins. The star panel goes through both sides of the front panel. Getting everything lined up was what was driving me crazy. I just wish the picture did it justice.

Challenges This Card Meets:

Crafty Creations - CAS style
Fussy and Fancy - try a new technique (window card, using tuille)
Paper Sundaes - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Wine Tags

2011-09-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

I've had this idea for a while now but needed to get some special jewelery making tools. I have a friend who loves throwing big parties and the wine glasses getting mixed up is always a bit of a confusion. This way we'll always know whose is whose! I think I'll make her several sets. Thankfully the Heartfelt Creations set that this ornament came with also has several different shaped ornaments that I can play with. I also have a set of snowflake medallions that would work just as perfectly.

These tags are also part of my Heartfelt Creations design team application. Wish me luck! I've added my instructions below in case you are interested in trying this out.

Materials:

HCPC 3337 Fancy Ornament Precut Set

Silver jewelery findings

Silver jewellery chain (2 inches of chain per charm)

Shrinky Dinks Shrinkable Plastic for computer inkjet printers

Stazon Ink

Copic markers

Special Tools:

Wire cutters

Needle nose pliers (2 pairs)

Oven

Instructions:

Stamp the ornament with Stazon ink onto the Shrinky Dink plastic. (Please note: Other types of ink will smear.) Cut out the image. Turn the image wrong side up and colour with your copics on the BACK of the image. (Using copics with Stazon will damage your nibs.) The lines are easily visible in good light. Stamp the same ornament image on top of your colouring. Punch a hole in the top of the image for the chain. Place on a clean cookie tray and bake in the oven at 275 °F (135 °C) for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Attach a silver finding (a circle of silver) through the loop of your ornament charm. Loop the desired length of chain through the charm’s finding. Attach the clasp at one end of the chain and a finding at the other. Your wine charm is now ready to be attached to a wine glass.

Challenges this Project Meets:
Do You Stack Up - Swirls
Fussy and Fancy - Try a New Technique (wine tags, using shrinky dink, jewelery making, reverse stamping)
Paper Sundaes - Anyting Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Wishes for Warm Weather

2011-09-29T00:28:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge at For Fun is to create a card or project that conveys warmth. I don't know whether I should be appalled or overjoyed that I had such a perfect sentiment for today's Challenge. I paired it with this great image from our Sponsor, Bugaboo, called Thanks a Latte. I love coffee images and this one in particular since it seems to be inviting friends to share a cuppa. Bugaboo will be giving our lucky winner 7 images of their choice.

My warm wish by the way is for our nice weather to last a bit longer. Our winters are so wet and cold where I live so I'm enjoying every last minute of fall. I hope you'll join us this week.

Love in Venice

2011-09-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

I am quite happy with this card. A couple I know will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in Venice so when I saw this image from this week's For Fun Challenges sponsor, The Paper Shelter, I had to use it. It's called Love in Venice and will be perfect for the occassion. This week we are to make anniversary cards without wedding bellls or cakes. Since the card's for a 40th, cakes and bells didn't seem to fit anyways.

The layout uses this weeks sketch on Splitcoast Stampers. The sentiment is from Gina K.'s Fanciful Tags set.

Witching You a Happy Halloween

2011-09-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

I just love this image from Di's Digis and was so glad that this week's theme at For Fun Challenges fits. The topic is children at play - Halloween and costumes are certainly that, at least for my little ones. I chose to colour my little witch in purple because I don't really like kids in black. The base is from my Costco stack. The strips are from my Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland stack. I had to have it last year and this is the first time I've even touched it! The sentiment is from Inkadoo's All Hallow's Eve set. I then rounded it off with some purple bling - I can't believe I had matching bling in my stash.

I hope you'll join us this week!

Additional Challenges This Card Meets:
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
Do You Stack Up - Friendly Critters (Witch's Familiars - Bat, Frog and Cat)
Everybody Art - Autumn
Lexi's Creations - Autumn
Mark's Finest Papers - Bring on the Bling
Paper Sundaes - Sketch
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Stamp Something - Use a Digi

Je t'aime

2011-08-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

I know this looks almost like a closeup of the card I posted yesterday. While I was playing with my scalloped hearts the other day, I thought about taking the same idea and focusing on just the two hearts. I then remembered that I had this lovely scrolled sentiment from Paper Makeup Stamps that seemed to fit just perfectly beneath the heart so it was framed. I am tempted to try pulling out some of my other diecuts and seeing if I can get similar effects using apples, snowflakes or pumpkins. Maple leaves anyone?

Challenges this Card Meets:

Cards For Men - Anything Goes

Challenge Up Your Life - No Patterned Paper

Fab and Funky - Monochromatic

Papertake Weekly - Use Die Cuts

Truly Scrumptious - Use Pink

Falling In Love

2011-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a card that was a happy accident. I used my smallest scalloped heart Nestie, thinking I'd do a grid pattern and they slide to the side of the card stock when I brushed the card by accident. I liked the idea of the cascading hearts and then rearranged them a bit more artistically. What a great way to used up some of my never ending raspberry Brazzil paper. The sentiment is from Gina K's Fanciful Tags set. It seems to be my go to set for sentiments these days. The base is Gina K's luxury white. It will make a nice card for DH.

Challenges This Card Meets:

Cards For Men - Anything Goes

Challenge Up Your Life - No Patterned Paper

Fab and Funky - Monochromatic

One Stop Craft - Bold and Bright

Papertake Weekly - Use Die Cuts

Truly Scrumptious - Use Pink

Simply Thanks

2011-08-24T00:37:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to win some Smooch from Susan, aka LateBlossom, and wanted to send a thank you note for enabling me. I loved the gold so much, I ran out and bought red, green and blue for Christmas cards.

If you follow Susan's blog, you know that she is the queen of CAS and one-layer cards. I wanted something that hopefully she would like. I found it really intimidating actually since I love following her blog, before I realized that anyone would prefer a thank you card to nothing at all!

The base is Gina K's luxury white and the sentiment is from her Fancifal Tags set. The image is from Flourishes Mix and Match Mugs set. I masked the mug to add the flowers. I really need to use this set more often. I really do like it. The image was then coloured with Copics.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Challenge Up Your Life - no patterned paper

Charisma Cardz - Negative (or white) space

Do You Stack Up - Thank You

Back to School

2011-08-23T22:53:00.000-07:00

Only a teacher would by an embossing folder about school, but I just love the fact that I had it on hand for this week's challenge at For Fun Challenges. We are getting ready to go back to school. Of course, I've been getting ready for weeks now! I think I'll give this card to welcome my new student teacher.

The image is a vintage school desk, from our sponsor this week, the Digi Doodle Shop. When I was a kid, I always wanted to sit in desks like these. I also wanted to use a fountain pen until I realized how aweful it is to use when left handed. I was so crushed to see all my careful work smeared.

Hope you will join us!

Additional Challenges this card meets:
Colour Create - blue, green, red and brown
Creative Inspirations - Back to School
Mark's Finest Papers - Emboss It
One Stop Craft - Bold and Bright
Tuesday Throwdown - Dimension and Texture

Summer ANTics

2011-08-10T00:04:00.000-07:00

When I found out that this week's challenge at For Fun Challenges was watermelon, I was so excited to pull out this image. I don't use it enough. It's Stamping Up's Ladybug Picnic (retired). Actually, I'd had it for years and had never used it until this summer. But it was just perfect, especially when I saw this framed image from our sponsor at Meljen's. Don't they go perfectly? I did print the frame a bit smaller than the standard 4.25 * 5.5 inches but decided to run with it since it was such a nice size for the stamps. I wanted the stars in the corners to really look like buttons so I put a very thick layer of Diamond Glaze on top and left it to dry overnight with markers across the paper to try and prevent it from curling up. That seemed to work.

The winner this week will receive 4 images of their choice from Meljen's. There is a freebie from Meljen's if you don't have a watermelon image and you want to play that you can find here.

Hope you'll join us.

Welcome to Hogwartts

2011-08-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Can you tell I loved the Harry Potter series? This is my second post based on the books in less than a month. I couldn't help myself. When I saw this cute image from Digi My World, our sponsor this week, I just had to make a bookmark out of it. I know one of my students will love it come September.

This is a really scrappy project. The DP is from my Costco pack that I will never finish. The paper for Harry was a scrap. The foil stars were from the liner of a Christmas card. The eyelet was from a package being thrown out at my school since no one on staff had a tool to use them. (SCORE!) The ribbon was from an old wedding favour.

I'm sorry the photo looks a little small. It's because the bookmark is only a fraction larger than the bookmarks you buy in a bookstore. Boy was Harry hard to colour at that size! The stars were really a happy coincidence. I needed something to cover the orange streak I made when I dropped my orange copic when I was putting on the finishing touches of Headwig's beak and talons.

I do hope you'll join us at For Fun Challenges this week. Anything goes, my favourite topic!

Challenges this Card Meets:

Pirate Monkey

2011-07-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm embarrassed to admit how long I've had these pirate supplies on hand. I was so excited when pirates became popular. I got a whole bunch of stamps and supplies and did not make even one card. I am just so glad for this week's challenge at For Fun Challenges to kick start me.

This week to celebrate summer we are to use sand in our cards. I ran out to my garage and stole a bit of my finest grit sandpaper that I use when preparing our bookshelves and window seats for painting. The image of this cute little monkey pirate is from our sponsor, The Paper Shelter. The gold coins are pieces of confetti that I couldn't help myself from grabbing at Michaels ages ago.

The colours seem a bit funny in the photograph. I'm not sure if the shadow effect is being caused by the colour contrast in my two different DP or whether it is the soft evening light.

I do hope you'll join us and have as much fun as I did with this card! This week's winner will recieve a $15 gift certificate to The Paper Shelter.

Teacher Notes

2011-07-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

I had started making a class set of the apple cards to go on my end of year gifts to my students when I realized I had the Changito Loco stamp and that they would probably like those ones better. I was right, they did! The cards are 3 x 3 and the stamped images were stamped on scrap and then cut with my Creative Memories circle cutter. I then used my smallest circle nestie to get the scalloped circles.

2011-07-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm on a Christmas Tree roll. Today I was inspired by a card I saw in the Winter 2011 Stamp It! magazine called Hppy Holidays card on p. 57. The creator had used Papertrey Ink's text stamp and masked a Christmas tree. It looked very clean and sharp. I wanted to CASE it. I tried using my French Script background stamp but it is so large and loose that the image wasn't really obvious. I decided then to sponge in my masked area with my green in order to keep the shape clean. It looked a bit stark to me so I added the sentiment at the top.

Let me know if you are getting bored of Christmas.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Chapel Road - Merry Christmas

He's Checking It Twice...

2011-07-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

I had fun with this week's challenge at For Fun Challenges. We are to use two different ribbons, which is something I never do. I decided to go for broke and try a ruffling technique that I had seen on Splitcoaststampers.

The image was generously provided by this week's sponsor Di's Digis. I love this image. You won't be able to see here but I did colour the snowmen with my C1 copic since snow tends to reflect light and isn't really white. The snowman's note is coloured with E11 for the same reason. The snow on the ground is covered with Frosted Lace stickles and I used white Flower Soft to give the texture to the hats. They feel great.

The winner this week will get to choose 5 digis from our sponsor, Di's Digis. I really hope that you'll join us this week!

O Christmas Tree

2011-07-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I had made an earlier post using ribbon to create an heirloom Christmas ornament. I had shown it to a crafting friend and she mentioned that she has a hard time using that much ribbon in a card and she would have made it with scrap paper. Talk about brilliant! I don't have much green ribbon but I'm being buried alive under my scraps, especially those little ones that somehow seem to multiply when I'm not looking.

This one uses my Christmas tree Nesties and scraps of Old Olive, Mellow Moss, Garden Green, Certainly Celery, and some from Brazzil - Crisp apple and a textured, sparkly green that I don't have the name but love how it seems to make the card pop. The base is more Cherry Cobbler. Can you tell that it's my new favourite colour?

Wouldn't this be great Christmas card for a single guy or the boss?

Happy Halloween

2011-07-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

I love it when "mistakes" work out so well. I was trying to make a Halloween base to go with the card I had made for yesterday's post. This one just wasn't balancing. The image was too large. That's what I get for working backwards. I had started with punching the goo. I just love that punch and will use any excuse to pull it out. That's probably why I make so many Halloween cards. So despite the fact I don't normally care for the DP used and was just using up a scrap, I was really happy when I found the sentiment sticker in my stash and it fit the empty black space perfectly. Yeah me!

Harry Potter's Shelf

2011-07-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is my second attempt at this card. I love this image and had it all coloured and cut out but when I attempted to add a base, it just didn't balance properly. You'll see the base made into a card in my next post.

The image is from this week's sponsor at For Fun Challenges. You really should play. Bugaboo is generously giving the winner 7 digis of their choice. Bugaboo has so many wonderfully funny images. I love some of their sentiments.

Our challenge is to make a card with only one fold. Not a hardship for me. Most of my cards are the standard 4.25 x 5.5 inches. This one is a 5.5 inch square; I'm living dangerously. I really do hope you'll join us!

Watermelon Invitations

2011-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my second batch of wedding invitation samples for my brother. The colours are watermelon and white. I don't know what share of watermelon yet so I've just used Melon Mambo. I personally would love to see these in green. Mellow Moss maybe? Since these are only to give her an idea of how the same layout can have different looks, I wasn't worried about matching the colours exactly. All the cards are 5 X 7 with different wording for the bride to choose from. The stamps were generously lent to me by a friend. I have hundreds of stamps but no flourishes!

Please let me know which one you like best.

Invitation Samples

2011-07-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make up some wedding invitiations for my brother's wedding. Unfortunately, all I've been told is that the colours are watermelon and white. Now is that pink, red or orange in shade... I haven't gotten a sample yet. Nor have I been given an idea of how formal she wants or a theme. I decided just to make up samples from my stash.

The white has their information computer printed out. I've just digitally removed it for this posting. There are not really any smears to be seen. I wanted her to see some samples using cards that fit into a business sized envelope since they would not require extra postage and it would be easy for them to include a full sized map. I also wanted her to see how we could use punches to create an effect. I don't expect her to use either the butterfly or the hearts, I just wanted to show how punches could look.

To be honest, these invites are not impressing me. I find the contrast between the bright pink and white to be stark. In the second one, I find the ribbon too heavy but I didn't have a pink one to match and I'm going with what's in my stash until she gives me some direction of what she likes and doesn't like.

At least I'll have lots of fun going back to the drawing board!

Baby Elephant

2011-07-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Little Claire is sponsoring us this week at For Fun Challenges and I was so excited because I just love this image. DH collects elephants so they have a special place in my heart. This image was coloured in copics and then cut out by hand.

The challenge this week is to use a crochet flower. I don't crochet so luckily I had one given to me by a friend in a swap. There are some fantastic youtube videos though if you want to try it yourself. I'm really tempted to get some supplies and try it myself!

2011-07-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

I just love simple Christmas Cards. I find them so relaxing to make. This one was completely CASED from Susan Raihala's (aka: LateBlossom) buttefly card, which was in turn also a CASE. I've added the link so you can see. I changed the punches to snowflakes (Creative Memories) and used my Heartfelt Creations Snow Flurry background stamp on the Brocade Blue and then mounted it on Night of Navy. I added half pearls just for fun.

Enjoy your day!

Happy Canada Day!

2011-07-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day to all my Canuck friends! This post was scheduled since we will be busy all day. Canada is BIG here in our house. Pancake breakfast, parade, neighbourhood party, barbecue and fireworks that can be seen from our balcony.

Anyways, today's card is very CAS. I wanted to recreate Canada's Olympic mittens. I figure everyone around the world recognizes them by now. I used both my winter mittens and maple leaf nesties. I actually cut out the the shape from the centre of the mittens and inlaid the white maple leaf so they would lie flat.

The sentiment on the inside was a Michael's dollar stamp that I picked up on a whim.

Hope you like and enjoy the day!

Wishing You a Fairy Merry Christmas

2011-06-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week at For Fun Challenges we are looking for anything Christmas. Expect to see several Christmas cards for the next little while. Once I pull out all that pretty paper, it's hard to put it away. I love how this card turned out. It has more layers than I normally use but I love the richness of the red and gold together. Check out her wings. I was given some gold Smooch by Susan aka Late Blossom and I have just fallen in love. I will have to get this in every colour!

The image is Tia, the Holiday Fairy by our sponsor, Michelle Perkett. DS really enjoyed colouring her in many different sizes because I couldn't make up my mind. The whole card is 5.5 * 5.5 inches.

Believe

2011-06-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Just a super simple card today. I was "cleaning" and putting away my stash and found this beautiful dp with the word BELIEVE on the back of some paper that I had bought for it's red and white candy cane stripes. Instead I cut a simple panel, centering the word and adhered it to a cherry cobbler base and then added some gold organdy ribbon. Super simple and a great way to clean up some ribbon and DP!

Ribbon Ornament

2011-06-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

I got this idea from Susan aka Lateblossom's blog post, "Way to use Ribbon Scraps". I really wanted to try to do a tree but didn't have a variety of green ribbon. I seem to have an inordinate amount of pink instead. For someone who doesn't "do" pink, I really seem to have a lot of it.

I started with my white layer and cut out the ornament shape using my largest heirloom ornament Nestie and stamped the sentiment . I then cut a large piece of score tape that would fit this space. I started with the widest ribbon and worked up and down from there. Once, I had layered on the ribbons onto the score tape, I adhered that to the white top layer. At this point I adhered the top layer to the cherry cobbler base.

I showed it to a friend and complained about my lack of green ribbon and she just looked at my scrap pile and asked why I didn't use paper. DUH! Stay tuned for that attempt soon!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

2011-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Just a couple more of my buggy thank you cards. The top one was looking a bit silly floating in the middle of the frame so I free hand drew in some cobwebs for him to stand on. Again they are coloured with copics. The heart and the body of the spider are covered with Diamond Glaze to give them a bit of dimension and interest. Sentiments by Gina K.

Challenges these Cards Meets:

Less is Mor e - Single Layer and use a Frame

Saturday Challenge - Going Buggy

Moving Along with the Times - Inspired by Song (Itsy Bitsy Spider)

Delightful Sketches - Anything Goes

Buggy Summer

2011-06-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Summer is coming and I need a bunch of simple notecards for my year end. I just love how these turned out. The images are from Stampin' Up's Cute as A Bug (retired) and Lady Bug Picnic (retired). I bought both of these probably five years ago just for this purpose and am embarrassed to say this is the first time I've gotten around to my end of year cards with them.

The cards are made on Gina K.'s luxury white cardstock and the images were coloured with copics. I'm so impressed that the colour didn't bleed through. I just love how these turned out! Then sentiment is also from Gina K.'s tag set. The frame was hand drawn with a ruler and a 0.2 Copic fineliner. I will so have to use this technique again.

You'll see the next two in the set Thursday. Have a great day!

Challenges these cards meet:

Less is More - Single Layer and use a Frame

Saturday Challenge - Going Buggy

Happily Ever After

2011-06-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

My new Gina K. order came in and I'm in love! The luxury white cardstock is so gorgeous; thick and smooth. I also couldn't help myself and bought this tag set. It is such a perfect size for cards and I love the font.

I had wanted to try the Class Act Insider Challenge this week but was a bit stumped on the sketch until I thought of this technique. I cut the hearts with my Nesties and then ran them through my Big Shot in inked embossing folders. I love how it turned out! The ribbon was actually taken off of one of DS's teddy bears. The ribbon was long and not sewn a the neck. It was a chocking hazard - at least that's what I told my husband!

Challenges this Card Meets:

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Blue Christmas

2011-06-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

Just a really simple card today. This is a long card that fits in a standard business envelope. I used some scraps of Brocade Blue for the snowflakes, using my Creative Memories punch. I (heart) that punch! The sentiment is from Heartfelt Creations. Their winter sets are fabulous! I even found matching light blue half pearls to finish it off. Score!

Challenges this Card Meets:

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Phindy's - Water (Snowflakes are just frozen water falling from the sky. Yeah - it may be a stretch...)

Stamp Something - Something Punched

Just for Giggles

2011-06-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

Meljen's is our Sponsor this week at For Fun Challenges and I was given this cute heart image. We are making wedding cards this week. I needed a card for my future sister-in-law's hen party so I wanted something fun and not serious. Being a good older sister, I take my brother getting a good ribbing seriously.

The image was printed 3 times so I could freehand cut out the layers. The green (certainly celery) was embossed with my lace embossing folder. A nice quick card. The most time consuming part was looking up the sentiment.

Challenges this card Meets:

Paper Sundaes - Let's Get Sentimental

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Paper Playtime - Wedding & Use a Digi Stamp

To An All-Star Champ

2011-06-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

We are lucky enough to be sponsored again by Di's Digital Downloads this week at For Fun Challenges. Our winner will receive a 5 digis from the shop of the winner's choice. Yeah! The theme this week is School's Out!

Nothing screams summer to me like little kids outside with the dog. I just love this image and had to play with it when I saw it. This card will be DS's very best friend's birthday card. He's turning 5 so I wanted something very bright and cheerful and fun that would reflect the birthday boy's personality. I love all the primary colours! The image is coloured with copics and there are no embellishments that could fall off around little hands.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Charisma - Boy Oh Boy
Crazy 4 Challenges - Favourite Summer Activity (Playing in the park on a nice day)
Do It With Digis - All About the Boys
Phindy's - Summer Living
Stamptacular Sunday - Bugs or Boys or Both

Playoff Fever

2011-05-30T21:51:00.001-07:00

Canucks are in the playoff and we need to celebrate. Vancouver hasn't gotten this far since I was in high-school. Please don't do the math! Anyways, I needed to celebrate and this is just such a fantastic quote by Paper Makeup Stamps. I thought it would make a fabulous encouragement or graduation card for a masculine teen. Aren't they the hardest ones to make cards for?

The DP is Bo Bunny's Boys and Bugs collection. The quote was stamped with Garden Green and then cut with a Nestie. It was then distressed in Garden Green and popped up on the card with SU dimensionals. I added Stickles after. Yes, there can be glitter on a guys card as long as it's purposeful. The stars are So Saffron and are popped up at different layers to visual interest. The small stars are popped on red rubber slightly higher than the quote and the large star is even higher, popped up on scrap EZ Mount.

Go, 'Nucks, Go!

Cards this Challenge Meets:
Class Act/Chapel Road - Masculine
Charizma Cards - Boy oh Boy
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
My Time To Craft - Use a Die Cut
Pear Tree Designs - Sparkle
Stamp Something - Something Sentimental
Truly Scrumptious - Anything Goes

Hot Chocolate Gifts

2011-05-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

I'm crazy. I was mounting some of my stamps today and saw Colette and just had to make a jar of hot cocoa out of her. I think I had recycling on the brain because of a post I saw earlier today but I was totally inspired. I think this will make a wonderful secretary's Christmas gift. And it was so simple too! The jar was even on my counter. The paper band is from Bo Bunny. The snowflake on the lid is Bashful Blue run through my Create A Flake 2 Spellbinder die. Colette was coloured with copics, run through my Nesties and then distressed around the edges with Copics. The ribbon is wired from Michaels.

The Hot Chocolate mix is so easy and I think better tasting than anything that you can purchase. It's simply one part Fry's Dutch Cocoa and 2 parts sugar. Mix together in the jar. For hot cocoa, simple add one tablespoon to one cup of milk and heat. I love to add my aunt's homemade marshmallows to it but I know I'm spoilt in that regard.

Challenges this Project Meets:
Challenge Up Your Life - Recycling (Sundried Tomato Jar)
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations - Christmas in May
My Time To Craft - Use a Die Cut
Truly Scrumptious - Anything Goes

Guardian Angel

2011-05-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

I just love this image from Paper Makeup Stamps. My little ones were premature and I recieved a card with this image while my first was in the hospital. It reminds me of a guardian angel looking after a little one until she's big enough for Mommy to hold. Little things like that mean a lot when you can't hold your baby. I just had to have this stamp and share it with others.

The card is for another little one that will be spending a while at Children's Hospital. I wanted to send Mommy and Daddy something practical to cover the gas and parking fees while they have to go visiting every day.

The DP is from my Coscto pack and is embossed with my new folder called Budding Vine from Craft Concepts. It is very deep embossing so it created a very distressed look with my thin DP that looked really cool once I got over the fact it was not what I was expected. The sentiment was a little extra from a friend. The ribbon and the charm are both from Michaels.

I Moose You

2011-05-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

This week's sponsor at For Fun Challenges is the Digi Doodle Shop. Our challenge is patriotic colours, which for me here in Canada is Red and White. With the hockey playoffs on and the local team ready to make it to the quarter finals, I've been really inspired lately so look for more Canadiana and hockey cards soon!

For this week, I was given this fabulous moose image from our sponsor, which is just so stereotypically Canadian. I loved it. I've never actually seen a moose here, only in the States but still, people think of nature when they think of Canada. Go figure.

The background image is Loveliest of Trees from SU and I did a quick copic wash of the background colours. The maple leaf is a Nestie which I just love. I use it more for scrapbooking than anything else. The sentiment is from My Favourite Things, Nature Calls (retired). I showed it to my husband and had to explain "I Moose You," "I Miss You." He didn't get it. What do you think? Should I forgo that sentiment next time?

Challenges this Card Meets:
Cards for Men: No Patterned Paper
Class Act Insider - Masculine
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - Good For a Giggle
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
My Time to Craft - Use a Diecut
Truly Scrumpious - Anything Goes

Serendipitous Summer Crafting

2011-05-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, sometimes things really do just fall together. I was given all the DP this week at work because it had come in a donation box and no one knew what to do with it. Score! Most of it was in masculine colours. As soon as I saw this tropical theme I knew it would be perfect with this Soft Pencil image I was given. I needed the perfect embellishment though and didn't want to use a flower. I don't like to add "extras" unless they actually fit the image and since I don't usually have daisies at the beach I can't seem to make them go together the way others seem able to do. So I was scrambling at the back of my drawers looking so something, anything to embellish it with and found this plastic sun that matches both the colours of the paper and the happy sun in the image. How lucky is that? The sun came as the weight on a helium balloon given to us when DS #1 was born. So how many years is that? I didn't even want to keep it at the time but DH thought it would be great with my cards and I have long ago learned that he is ALWAYS right when it comes to these things.

The So Saffron ribbon and bow at the bottom are to cover some wavy lines on the DP that seemed a bit out of place.

You should be aware that this card is ginormous. It's a full 6.5 by 6.5 inches. Normally I would never make a card this large but I wasn't willing to give up any of the elements. Besides, as a teacher, I can always use this as one of the staff cards (where lots of signatures are used) for either a going away card at the end of June or a retirement card.

In terms of the sketch, I did move the sun over to the other side so he wasn't blocking the little sun in the image. I liked the repetition it provided. I also didn't and a seconardy sentiment since I had carefully used the "Take a Break Hang Ten" on the DP. I hope you'll forgive my creative license.

This week's sponsor at For Fun Challenges is Soft Pencil Digital Stamps. Elizabeth Pujalka, the owner at Soft Pencil, creates whimsical, cute images of animals, fairies and children. Do go check her out.

This week, we are hosting a sketch challenge. This one was a real fun challenge and I really do hope that you will come join us.

Additional Challenges this card meets:
Joan's Garden: 1) blue and green, 2) use a lady (mine is a very young lady), 3) include a large embellishment (my sun) 4) attach a bow. I was so impressed. I found this and only needed to add the bow. I had all the other elements already.
Sentimental Sunday - Anything Goes

To the Moon and Back Again

2011-05-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

I made this card for DS. I read to him "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney and he was totally taken by the quote "I'll love you to the moon and back again." If you haven't read the book, you simple must. I even gave it to DH with a red canvas cover one Valentine's Day. If you want a wonderful I love you book - this is the best. Much better than the Robert Munsch one, "I'll Love You Forever".

The card is very simple with a Pumpkin Pie base. DP is Bo Bunny I believe. I knew what I wanted to do with it the second I saw it. The image is SU's Pun Fun and distressed with Pumpkin Pie around the edges. No embellishments or even Nesties in sight. I used my CM circle cutter for the image panel.

On the inside, which I forgot to photograph, I printed "I love you to the moon and back again." on So Saffron cardstock and ran it though my Star Nestabilities in keeping with the theme. So cute!
Challenges this card Meets:
Cards for Men - Circles
Challenge Up Your Life - Travelling (to the moon and back again!)
Mark's Finest Papers - No embellishments
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Pear Tree Designs - Free for All

Flowers for Mom

2011-05-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

This card is for For Fun Challenges Mother's Day Challenge (or use flowers). There is still plenty of time to enter, you have until Tuesday here on the Wet Coast to enter. The sponsor this week is

The Paper Shelter has some really adorable images. I just loved this one of the little girl. Unfortunately, I managed to get some red ink on her knees just after I had finished colouring her and didn't want to scrap it so I improvised a bit. I think it would have been better if I had the sentiment strip in a colour going across the whole bottom of the card but you live and learn. Mistakes are just design opportunities. The DP was DS's choice - very springy. I don't normally like yellow but it seems to work well here. I just wish the image didn't look like a late Easter egg. My mom will still enjoy it though.

Additional Challenges this card meets:
Sentimental Sunday - Anything Goes
Colour Create - Aqua, Green, Purple White (and I added a little yellow)
Crafty Catz - Use a Sentiment
Crazy 4 Challenges - Use flowers
Creative Card Crew - For Mom
Delightful Sketches - Mother's Day
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Pear Tree Designs - Free for All
Stamp Something - Digi Day

2011-05-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

My brother will be getting married next summer. I had made up this rosemary salt last summer and decanted it into some old jars for family members this Easter as a mini present. Rosemary salt can be substituted for anything that you use regular salt for, it just has a little extra flavouring. I thought it would be a good favour since 1) it is made in advance 2) would be inexpensive to make 3) reflects the casual feel the couple is trying to make. (They are getting married at a fishing lodge.) We'll have to see. My mother is campaigning to not do any favours at all.

The stamping is not the best but I didn't even think of it until it was almost time to go and DS was "helping" with the stamping and distressing. He is pretty good at distressing. The stamp is from SU's Pocket Silhouettes. I love that set and finally broke down and got it during Sale-abration.

Dancing in the Rain

2011-05-03T22:22:00.000-07:00

I won a gift certificate to Paper Makeup Stamps in February on the Paper Sundaes blog hop and have been dying to play with them. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time with DH out of town. I had to pass on all the adorable fairy images to play with this wonderful sentiment. It was our first day of sun so I decided to take pictures in the garden.

Winter Wonderland

2011-04-25T00:10:00.000-07:00

This is me supposedly cleaning my stamp area (er, dining room table). DS had been playing in my stash earlier and had found the snowflake. The base was a bit of scrap lying on the table. Put the two together, add my favourite Christmas sentiment from SU with some white embossing powder and it could all go on my to be photographed and filed pile rather than put back in drawers. That's cleaning isn't it?

Less is More - Off Centre

Creative Card Crew - Recycle Something (The snowflake came off a card given by another cardmaking friend)

Moving Along with the Times - Recycle Something (The snowflake came off a card given by another cardmaking friend)

Simon Says Stamp - Embossing

Flowery Thanks

2011-04-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

This week's one layer challenge on Susan's Simplicity blog is to use an old stamp to make a thank you card. I pulled out my 2007 sale-abration set, Delight in Life and retired Wonderful Words. I did have fun trying Wild Wasabi and Rich Razzelberry for the first time. Love them! I may not have exactly followed the instructions to the letter. Embellishments were to be kept to a minimium but the purple bling really wanted to play today and Susan swears that bling is always a good thing.

If I was to do this over, I would move the flower over a little so that it was a little off the edge of the card, it may ground it a bit better. I would also have included a bit more of the scroll from the top of of the t in thank you - it seems a bit chopped, which it is but still.

Additional Challenges this Card Fits:
Challenge up your life - Masking (and lots of it! The flower was masked twice and all the leaves are in fact individually stamped around the flower.)
Daring Cardmakers - Speaking Professionally - As my Secretary's Day card for Wednesday

Fussy and Fancy - Springtime
Less is More - Off Centre

Hoppy Easter

2011-04-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week our sponsor at For Fun Challenges is Di's Digital Downloads. I just loved this bunny couple the second I saw it. They are just so adorable. The card will definitely be going to DH this Easter. I coloured the image with my prisma pencils since I wanted a soft effect. It's been way to long - I have to work on my shading. The sentiment is on the left to cover a booboo where I had not cleared all the colour from my blending stick and it left a brown smudge in my sky. Thank goodness for layering. The sentiment is computer generated.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Joan's Gardens - 1) nature (I used bunnies), 2) circle dies, 3) the colours red, orange and green, 4) patterned paper with lines (my orange piece has what looks like scratch marks on it.)

Creative Inspirations - Easter

Creative Inspirations - Easter (Yes, it's a different challenge blog)

Critter Challenge - Punches or Dies

Delightful Sketches - Easter

Crafty Catz - Furry Friends

Sentimental Sunday - Easter with a Sentiment

Sunday Sketch and Stamp

Pear Tree Design - Easter

Happy Easter

2011-04-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make some Easter cards this week which gave me the perfect excuse to borrow this Heartfelt Creations stamp from a friend. The scrolled image is so beautiful that I wanted to keep the card very simple to not detract from it. The cross was stamped in Versamark and then embossed in gold. I coloured the inside with Almost Amethyst. The flower at the centre is also a Hearfelt Creation's stamp called Posy Patch with a matching Spellbinder's Die set that I borrowed at the same time. The ovals was cut with my Creative Memories oval cutter and matted on Pale Plum. I am so going to miss both these colours when I run out. The background was made using my SU French Script backgound stamp to reinforce the writing on the cross. I then used half pearls just to add some bling to flowers and the cross.

I was going to stamp Happy Easter on the inside but I think I will leave it blank for now. Looking at it, I realized it would also make a wonderful sympathy card for someone who was religious.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Creative Inspirations - Easter

Creative Inspirations - Easter (Yes, it's a different challenge blog)

Critter Challenge - Punches or Dies

Delightful Sketches - Easter

Papertake Weekly - Truly Dimensional (My Flower)

Pear Tree Design - Easter

The Best Things in Life are Chocolate

2011-04-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

When I saw this image by Whimsy Doodles, I just knew that it was the perfect chocolate bunny. Personally I normally eat the ears off first but I wanted to be sure everyone knew it was a chocolate easter bunny so I used my scalloped circle Nesties to make the teeth marks. The sentiment was printed from my computer. Inside the card says Happy Easter. I thought it would be a good pick-me-up for a friend. I am the world's worst chocoholic. It's a good thing there is no 12 step program for chocolate addicts.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Cards for Men - Easter

Creative Inspirations - Easter

Delightful Sketches - Easter

Do You Stack Up - Scallops

Phindy's - Easter

Jingle Bells

2011-04-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

The challenge this week at For Fun Challenges is a colour challenge - use any of the following three colours on your card: pink, purple, green, yellow or blue. I've managed to use all 5 colours on this non-traditional Christmas card.

Meljen's Designs is our sponsor this week and I have had this jingle bell from them for a little while now. I have always loved this image and wanted to play with it so I started to look for how I could make a non-traditional Christmas card and found this paper in my stash. It's not clear in this photo but there are very tiny snowflakes in the smaller dots that match the big one below.

The sketch comes from Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge and between the image, colours and layout, it was a very fun card to create this week. Hope you enjoy it!

Challenges this Card Meets:
Christmas Card Challenge - Bows
Crafty Hazelnut Challenges - Circles
Fab N Funky - Spotty and Dotty
Meljen's Designs - 3 colours, 2 patterned patters, 1 bow
My Time to Craft - On the Spot
Paper Sundaes - A Childhood Memory (Listening for Santa's Sleigh Bells every Christmas Eve)

Sentimental Sundays - Treasured Memories (Listening for Santa's Sleigh Bells every Christmas Eve)

Spotty Dotty Watering Can

2011-04-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

My favourite card layout, can you tell? I wanted to participate in this month's Delightful Inspirations challenge. I love images with bugs, any sort of bug and was disappointed that I didn't get the bug in the jar image. I may have to buy that one.

Anyways, I'm not quite sure what happened with the colours. The DP and the watering can do match in real life. The ribbon and the spots are actually the same pink. I will have to try to shoot this card again on the weekend.

DS was helping Mommy with card. He was the one that peeled all the adhesive backings and ran the die cuts through the machine. He even picked the gems, although Mommy had to help with the placement. I always try to keep the layers simple when he wants to play. He loves making cards, stamping and colouring but becomes frustrated with layers.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Delightful Inspirations - use the watering can image

7 Kids College Fund - Seeing Spots

Do You Stack Up - Yellow

Flutterby Wednesday

One Stop Craft - Spots and Dots

Paperplaytime - Use a Digi

Paper Sundaes - Spring Blossoms

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown - Spring

Dancing Elves

2011-03-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

The challenge this week at For Fun Challenges is Christmas and you're definitely going to want to play this week! Our sponsor, Rick St. Dennis has a fantastic prize this week and his digital images are amazing - so detailed! The prize includes the three images our DT used, as well as at least three more gorgeous images! Do go visit his blog here, and his Etsy shop here...

My project this week is shockingly not a card but a Christmas bag. I used Rick's Dancing Elves image and then flipped the same image again so that I had a pair of elves. Dancing is always more fun with a friend. The image is coloured in copics, cut out and then I popped up the hands that are touching and the leg that is in the air to give the elves the feeling of movement. It looks quite effective in real life. The sentiment is stamped with Fired Brick and then embossed for a bit of extra texture and to frame the elves, the bottom piece is a piece of Real Red run through my big shot for a few snowflakes. All in all, a very fun project to make.

I do apologize for the off colours in the photos. The images were taken after midnight and with my husband's camera so I'm not quite up on how to adjust the image properly. I will retake the photos this weekend for a natural light shot.

Challenges this project meets:
Cards for Men - Embossing
Christmas Card Challenge
Daring Cardmakers - Book Inspiration (The Shoemaker's Elves)
Mark's Finest Paper - Dry and heat embossing with part of the image popped up
Paper Playtime - Use a digi stamp
Saturday Challenge - Christmas

Sweet Pea Stamps Stamp Off Entry

2011-03-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Link to the Sweet Pea Stamp Off - I'm entry #6!

I'm very excited. I've made it to the second round of the Sweet Pea Stamp Off. The winner is up for a $50 gift certificate and I love their images. DH is complaining that all my cards look very similar recently - lots of fairies and dragons.

This round we were challenged to make a fancy fold card. The phrase, "Make the card the gift" really stuck in my head. My family rarely keep cards so I had to think of something that would appeal - I chose a card with a detachable bookmark. One thing my family does do is read. The perfect mini gift.

Here is the front of the card. The image is Rain Dragon. I just love this image - very fun for little people cards and quite versatile.

This second picture is of the bookmark itself as it is folded into the card. The image is Dragon Luck. The sentiment is actually part of a larger sentiment that said Autumn Wishes that I cut down to use just the part I wanted. I used to be terrified of damaging my stamps but have found I get way more use out of my stamps now. I can always lay them back together on my block if I want to use the bigger sentiment again.

The third picture is of the inside of the card and the back of the bookmark, which was scored with a perforation tool to make it easy for the precipitant to detach later. My brother will be so happy to see me using the Christmas gift he gave me.

If you have made it this far, I would so love it if you please go vote for my card. Follow the link here and click on entry #6. Thanks for your support!

Additional Entries this Project Meets:
In a Sweet Pea Dream - Hello Spring
Charisma Cards - To Die For
Everybody Art - Happy Birthday
Lexi's Creations - Ribbon but No Bows or Knots
Pear Tree Designs - Happy Birthday
Stamp with Fun - Spring
Stamping with the Dragon - Bring on Spring
Sweet Pea Stampers - Scallops

Perfect Pansies

2011-03-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

This week our sponsor at For Fun Challenges is the Digi Doodle Shop. This week's winner will receive a $10 gift voucher to the Digi Doodle Shop. The DT was given some gorgeous floral images to play with since our challenge is flowers with a sentiment. Just remember, the flowers must be the focal point!
My card uses pansies. The second I saw it, I just knew I had to make a card with this image. Pansies are just such happy flowers to me. They grow like weeds around the base of my monkeypod tree. They just appeared one day and even when DH chops them down with the lawn mower once a month, they always come back. I love pansies. Notice the yellow pearls for the centers. Pansies come in a huge selection of colours but the centers are always yellow. This week, I decided to stretch myself, I tried a round card for the first time because I wanted to make a slightly larger card that would really show off the image. It was actually really simple, I used my CM cutter to make the circles. The image is coloured with copics and then the panel was distressed with my scissors and I applied my copic marker to the edge. I love the way the ink bled inside, creating a fairly even border around the edge. I wasn't expecting the ink to bleed quite so much. The sentiment was stamped from SU's Autumn Leaves (retired). I've been reaching for that set more and more recently. Have you ever had sets that you haven't touched in years and all of a sudden you can't put them down? Challenges This Card Meets: 7 Kids College Fund - Pink with Flowers Creative Inspirations - No Square Cards Allowed Marks Finest Papers - Round Card, One Image, Three Pastel Colours (Green, Lilac, Yellow) and 3 bling. I used more but I checked - many of the DT did too so I figured it would be okay. Stamp with Fun - Spring Stamping with the Dragon - Bring on Spring

Truly, Madly, Deeply - For Fun Challenges DT Card

2011-03-14T22:16:00.001-07:00

Our challenge this week at For Fun Challenges is to make either a Saint Patrick's Day card or a monochromatic green card. I chose green. I wanted a card for DH, just because I think he needs a pick-me-up. Given St. Patrick's Day this week I chose green instead of red. I kind of like the change. The hearts are water-coloured to give them that country, not too perfect look. The top heart is popped up just to give the card some visual interest. I wish I could have softened the image to the same grey as the sentiment but couldn't figure it out. The song by Savage Garden came out the same year we got together.

Challenges This Card Meets:

Creative Card Crew - No Flowers

Critter Sketch - Monochromatic Green

Marks Finest Paper - Grey, Lime Green and only one layer beyond the base

Meljen's - Green

Moving Along with the Times - Card for a Guy

One Stop Craft - Clean and Simple

Paper Sundaes - Keep it Simple

Sentimental Sundays - Go Green

Love's Life's Fairytale

2011-03-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

I've entered to the Sweet Pea Spring Design Contest. There are just so many fabulous cards. But with a prize of $50 just to use the stamps I love to play with, this was no contest. I just had to play. I would love it if you would go here and vote. If you vote for me, I'm card #10, it would be even more appreciated!

The contest requires that you only use Sweet Pea Stamps cards and images. I have only two horizontal sentiments and I like the idea of life being a fairy tale. It's what we make of it isn't it? The quote just screamed for me to use this image, Storytime by Lisa Victoria. Since the challenge on Sweet Pea Stampers is to use scallops and on a Sweet Pea Dream is to use pink, the elements started to come together.

The tricky part for me was the three decorating elements in the top right corner. I didn't want to use the standard flowers and wanted something that fit my fairytale them. The stick pin was found rummaging in my stash and I thought it added the element of riches (may we never feel want). The crown for loyalty (think of a claddagh ring) and of course the hearts because love is life's true fairy tale. I hope you enjoy!

Challenges this Card Meets:
Creative Card Crew - No Flowers
Fab N Funky - Make it Girly
My Time to Craft - Jewels (Pearls)
Paper Playtime - Pink and Glitter
Tuesday Throwdown - Use Scraps (If it's pink, its a scrap left over from doing a cousin's wedding invites two years ago.)

Bella Easter Wishes

2011-03-11T00:15:00.000-08:00

I'm in a real purple and green kick, which is strange. I almost never reach for purple but the Easter basket seemed to work in purple and it just snowballed from there. Oh well, it fits with this week's Bellarific Friday Challenge to make an Easter Card. The sketch came from this week's Critter Sketch Challenge. I will definitely use this one again.

Now I really should get back to work. Must finish my paperwork this week!

Additional Challenges this Card Meets:
The Pixie Cottage - Easter
Simon Says - Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes - Stripes
Tuesday Throwdown - Use Scraps (I'm using up my big pile of green scraps. I still haven't cut a base yet.)
Fab N Funky - Make it Girly

A Little Birdie Told Me

2011-03-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

Wow, that was close. I wanted to play with the Delightful Inspiration challenge this month and I knew it was going to be tough to get it in before the deadline. Its a progressive challenge so I needed to finish this week to play next week. DS would not go to sleep so I had a total of 8 minutes to colour and post. Luckily it was otherwise assembled. I posted the picture and linked the card and by the time it posted my picture, the collection was closed. That was tight. Now I have to go back and fill in the details.

The end result is a little more simplistic than I would like but with the busy DP, I think it balances out well. I actually really like the card and I normally don't like plaid or check patterns. The image is coloured with Copics. The ribbon is So Saffron from SU and the button was inherited from my grandmother's collection. Hope you enjoy.

Challenges this card meets:
Delightful Inspiration - Use the bird image
Creative Card Crew - No Flowers (A shamrock but no flowers)
Paper Playtime - Use a digi stamp
Paper Sundaes - Stripes (Don't you just love his legs!)
Papertake Weekly - Lemon Zingy
Simon Says - Anything Goes
Stamp Something - Use a Digi
Stamping with the Dragon - St. Patricks Day - Use green, gold and white (Look at the shamrock!)
Stamptacular Sunday - You Lucky Duck
Tuesday Throwdown - Use Scraps (The card base, the green to frame the image)

A Bushel of Thanks

2011-03-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

An odd little card I know. Don't ask why I made a fall card before spring has even arrived. I wanted to participate in this week's Mark's Finest Paper challenge but this week it's to do a technique with bleach. I haven't kept bleach in the house in years. Anything that was used as a nerve gas in WWII is not welcome in my house with my kids! So I went to Splitcoaststampers and found this great faux bleach technique where I embossed the white card stock with clear embossing powder and then sprayed my paper with Eucalyptus Walnut Ink. While it was still wet, I sandwiched the paper between to pieces of scrap and ironed it on high until it was dry and the embossing powder melted off. The background was a very pretty, green with slight variations in tone and depth. I just wish my leaves weren't quite so even. Truly random stamping is very hard.

I loved the background so much I didn't want to cover it up so I just cut some apples. A baby fell asleep in the room with the printer so I had to hand write my sentiment. I may change that later. I think this would make a great card for a guy even with the red bling in the corner. It's especially great for me since I'm always trying to thank my colleagues for their support.

Edited: I did change the hand printed sentiment since I had made spelling error. That's what I get for making cards on very little sleep. Thank you to my Anonymous commentor for pointing it out. Had a good laugh at what my anonymous commentor wrote. Please do be sure to read it below. While it's true that bleach can include chlorine, not all bleach products do. Yes, chlorine can be used as a disinfectant in hospitals, schools and doctor's offices. However, all these places are frequented by very high number of usually sick people every day. Is my anonymous commentor trying to say that bleach is perfectly safe (and in which case I would direct him or her to read the label) or that my house has as many germs as a hospital and needs and industrial grade cleaner? Hmmm. Either way, it does not change it's historical use or the fact that I don't want it anywhere near little hands. Who would have thought that bleach would be such a controversial topic?

Additional Challenges this Card Meets:
Papertake Weekly - Something Old (The leaf stamp is a retired SU one from at least 4 years ago.)
Creative Card Crew - No Flowers
My Time to Craft - Jewels
Tuesday Throwdown - Use Your Scraps (No new papers were harmed in the making of this card.)

Well Read

2011-03-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the My Favourite Things Wednesday Stamp Club is due at 12:00 noon
EST on Tuesdays? That means I have to have it posted by Monday night? Where is the Wednesday involved in this? Can you tell I missed the deadline? Grr. I had this done a couple of days ago but had trouble with the camera.

I should not be anywhere near my card stock right now. I have so much work to do and the house is falling apart. That is exactly why I could not stay away! I have more to post...

The card follows the sketch from this weeks My Favourite Stamps blog. The image and sentiment are both from MFS but from different sets. The card is a bit of a joke. DH and I go on vacation to read. Until ebooks came out, we would take one case for clothes and the other for books.

The patterned paper is from the package DH gave me last Christmas. I will NEVER use it up but it makes him happy when he sees me using it. The flowers are white Prismas that I have coloured with my Copics. I just love that technique. I would never buy a package of orange flowers but it's so fabulous to have the flexibility to make some.

Other Challenges This Card Meets:
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Simon Says Challenge - No Cook Recipe (1 image, 2 patterned papers, 3 types of embellishments. I used Prismas, half pearls and a brad)

Mardi Gras Fairy - For Fun DT Card

2011-03-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

What started out as a very CAS card did not end up that way. I was really challenged by this week's choice of Green, Purple and Gold for our For Fun Challenge. I then decided to use my background stamp to emboss in gold. That meant I needed to pull out some green and purple inks to sponge - uh oh. I don't have purple TH ink, which seems be the only ink I can sponge without really aweful blotches. I'm still working on that! So I experimented with using Victorian Velvet layered with Faded Jeans to create a violet colour. Genius!

I was going to go simply stamp a butterfly, mounted in the middle with a vellum friendship sentiment. However, at the last second remembered my Masked Fairy in Green from Sweet Pea Stamps which I'm embarrassed to say I have had for months and have never gotten around to inking. She's embossed in gold and coloured with my limited selection of Copics. The wings and accessories are all covered with Star Dust Stickles to add some glitz and interest. This just seemed to fit the Mardi Gras theme better.

The jury is still out on the large posy I made since I think it results in a lack of focal point on the card. Is it the image or the flower? Anyways, the flower was made with my Tattered Flowers Die, sponged with Victorian Velvet, run through my Big Shot with my Victorian Lace embossing folder and then sponged again with Faded Jeans and Victorian Velvet a second time. A half pearl and rhinestones finish it off.

A large gold ribbon with green over top are used to ground both the flower and the image to the card.

Challenges this Card Meets:
7 Kids College Fund - Purple, Green and Gold
In a Sweet Pea Dream - Warmer Weather (It's snowing here, so spring will be warmer!)
Challenge Up Your Life - Fairy Tales (She reminds me of the movie, Ever After.)
Crazy 4 Challenges - Flowers
Creations by Gill M - Purple, Green and Gold
Incy Wincy - Spring is in the Air
Oldie but a Goodie - Spring is in the Air (BG stamp has been around for YEARS, the Sweet Pea stamp since at least September but probably more like summer so it should qualify too.)
One Stop Challenge - Spring Flowers
Pear Tree Designs - Ribbon
Stamp Something - With Flowers
Sweat Pea Stampers - Sweet Pea Favourites (How to choose!?!)

Coffee with a Friend - For Fun DT Card

2011-02-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge at For Fun Challenges is a sketch. I just picked up this set from Flourishes and thought that the teacup was perfect for this layout. It's coloured in Copics. I just love this set and can't wait to play with it some more. The colours are a little off in my picture. The background is supposed to be Certainly Celery and the matting behind the teacup is Not Quite Navy, not black. I didn't have a thick enough ribbon to balance the top so I used a strip of Brocade Blue under my white ribbon. The centre of the prisma flower is a clear bead that comes in a huge bag at Michael's. I then covered it in nail polish. I have never had much luck colouring with my copics but have found nail polish to be the bomb! I'm the only person I know that buys strange colours of polish when she never wears it herself.

I really do hope you'll join us this week at For Fun Challenges. I always love to see other people's ideas and creations.

Other Challenges this Card Meets:
Challenge Up Your Life - Monochromatic
Crazy 4 Challenges - Use dies on your card
Creative Card Crew - Friendship
Pear Tree Designs - One Colour (Blue)
Sentimental Sundays - Photo Inspiration (Inspired by the blue and white colours)

Simply A Happy Holidays Wish

2011-02-22T16:06:00.000-08:00

This week's One-Layer Challenge on LateBlossom's site is to use Green and Red on a White base. I so wanted to play. I made three cards right away on the Wednesday and a week has gone by and I still haven't posted them! Where does the time go?

As for my card, it doesn't get any simplier than this. The pointsetta is stamped in Real Red from SU's Happiest of Holidays set. The sentiment is stamped in Old Olive from their Take Three set. Both are long retired.

Other Challenges this card meets:
Christmas Card Challenge

Christmas Wreath

2011-02-21T23:59:00.000-08:00

I'd seen this idea in many forms under Splitcoaststampers and wanted to try. The image is really a sprig of mistletoe from SU's Peaceful Wishes set (retired) which was stamped 5 times around a penciled in circle. I then erased the circle markings. I didn't have a red ribbon to go with the card so I used my Copic markers to colour in a cream ribbon. I tried to colour in the dots but the only medium dark enough and fine enough to do the job was my Copics and my paper isn't thick enough to not bleed through so I just left them. The card is 5 x 5 inches square.

This was another item that I tried for Lateblossom's One Layer Challenge this week to make a Christmas card with only red and green on a white base.

Other Challenges this card meets:
Christmas Card Challenge
7 Kids College Fund - Square Card

Queen of Hearts - For Fun DT Card

2011-02-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

This week at For Fun Challenges we are celebrating our first birthday! To help us with the festivities, we have another sponsor, Michelle Perkett. She gave us images to use for our Birthday celebration. So this week's challenge is "Happy Birthday".
Michelle Perkett is an artist who believes the world can always us more kindness, innocence, inspiration and color. She lives in beautiful Southern California, and has an incredibly unique, and positively happy style in her art. She has a magical store filled with angels, fairies, mermaids, and wonderful images, bound to delight you!

Michelle’s first love is her art. She has run her art business for over 6 years and is spreading worlwide with Etsy and devoted crafters. She tries to live the way she creates her art; with love, happiness, peace, harmony, joy, friendship, kindness and inspiration and hopes that she inspires other people to do the same.

You can visit the MPS shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/michelleperkett

Or Michelle’s blogs: http://michelleperkettstudio.blogspot.com http://michelleperkett.blogspot.com

Now onto my card:
The Princess came over on Sunday, wanting to learn how to make cards. We had a good time playing with my stash. It took 3 and half hours but she made a Valentine for her Sweetie. After much studying, she realized she has a very different style than mine, wanting to pull out any paper that is very loud, and the more embellishment the better!

Wow this card is busy! I really wanted to use this image and the Princess decreed this was the perfect paper. With all the hearts, they compliment each other well, but is far more busy than I would normally choose. She loved it though and wants this one for her birthday. The sentiment is from Inkadoo's Birthday cupcake set and the sentiment panel is sponged with TH ink.

Challenges this card meets:
Michelle Perkett Studio - Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - Hearts
Cupcake Challenge - I Heart You
My Time to Craft - going in Circles
Papertake Weekly - Putting on the Glitz (The DP is blinding)
Paperworks - Hearts

2011-02-13T23:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you have a love-ly day! These pencil toppers were made as Valentines for my students. I did 50 of them - a class set for both my mother's class and my own. The paper are all bits from my scrap pile. (Now isn't that scary!) I used my heart and scalloped heart Nesties for the shape. The sentiments are computer generated on my computer. I used recycled bits of EZ mount between the two hearts so the paper wouldn't crinkle when I inserted the pencil between the layers. The pencils came from the local teacher store. I find the dollar store pencils do not sharpen well. The little extra money is worth the fact that they last 5 times longer.

I'm sorry the image is a little fuzzy. It is perfectly clear in IPhoto so I am not sure what blogger is doing to the image. Is anyone else having problems or is it "end-loser error"?

Challenges these pencil toppers meet:
7 Kids College Fund - I Heart You
Cards for Men - Valentines
Crafty Catz - Valentines
Crazy 4 Challenges - Hearts
Cupcake Challenge - I Heart You
Everybody Art - Valentine
Incy Wincy - Love
Papertake Weekly - Hearts
Paperworks - Hearts
Pear Tree Designs - Valentines Day
Simon Says - Anything but a Card

6 More Weeks of Winter

2011-02-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

This Week at For Fun Challenges we are being sponsored by Little Scraps of Heaven. Tricia is kindly giving our random winner a $25 gift certificate. Since today is Groundhog Day, you get to choose: Will we have 6 more weeks of winter or is spring on the way? Create either a winter or spring card.

I still have only had one snow walk this year and am feeling totally deprived! I want more snow before I take the winter tires off my car.

My card uses this little groundhog from Little Scraps of Heaven. It's coloured with Copics and accented with Icicle Stickles. The DP is from Bo Bunny and the ribbon from Michaels. The Sketch is this week's pattern from Card Patterns.

If you haven't had a chance, please go check the samples from my design team mates, its so cool how each card is so different given the same two images were used.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Paper Playtime - Digi Monday; Anything Goes

Cupcake Crafts - Old McDonald Had A Farm (A Groundhog is more a pest and a danger to the horses, but they can be found in the pastures.)

Card Patterns - Sketch 100

Do You Stack Up - Patterned Paper

Stamp Something - Winter

Stamptacular Sunday - Whateva

Thank You Baby

2011-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

I received my Restoration Hardware Kids catalogue this week. Was inspired to play with some of the images in it. I saw this pink and brown fabric in a onesie and just had to play with it.

I only have a small polka dot background stamp - may have to invest in the large one. I don't like how difficult it was to line up such symmetical items. Once again, I'm using up scraps. I don't know why the sentiment looks different than the card base. I can assure you, its the same paper and it's thick enough that the underlying pink shouldn't be casting shadows.

Shiny, Happy Birthday

2011-01-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

The challenge this week is at For Fun Challenges is sparkles. I love sparklies of any kind. DH calls me a magpie. He laughs that it's a good thing I teach because I still love my glitter and paints. There is some truth to that!

I was actually planning to make another card but found one 6 x 6 sheet of the background paper and one of the cake medallion paper in my stash. They were part of a blog candy I received last summer. Score! Don't you love it when you "shop" in your own stash and find the perfect item that you don't even know you have? Okay, that didn't sound right. I hope DH never reads this or I will be permanently cut off my craft budget!

The photo may not really show it, but there is lots of sparkle in real life. The pale pink is a shimmer brazzil paper. The raspberry are scraps from my cousin's shower. (I will forever have these scraps!) The both sheets of the DP are accented in glitter. The scalloped circle was cut out with my nestie and then I added dots of Cotton Candy Stickles to it. Then entire scalloped circle is popped up on some recycled rubber.

Challenges This Card Meets:
Challenge Up Your Life - Clean and Simple (While the DP looks busy - the layout couldn't be simpler!)
Creative Inspirations - Celebrate
Pear Tree Designs - Free For All
Stamp Something - Anything Goes
Totally Papercrafts - Happy Birthday

By the Bookcase

2011-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

I received my Restoration Hardware Kids catalogue this week. I was inspired to play with some of the images in it. I saw this bookcase and was inspired by the rectangular shapes and the white space.

Here's the card that it inspired:

Please excuse the slightly off colours. I've gone back to work and can't take pictures during daylight since the babies want to "help" Mommy take photos. This is my second card this week to use up some bits and pieces. I think the bottom part is a bit heavy but like the block shapes. I'm also wondering how it would look in other colours. Should I try blue or pink?

Challenges this Card Meets:
Challenge Up Your Life - Clean and Simple
Crafty Catz - Thank You
Cute Card Thursday - Monochrome
One Stop Craft - Card for a Male
Pear Tree Designs - Free For All
Stamp Something - Anything Goes

Paper Pieced Heart

2011-01-16T00:37:00.000-08:00

Was in a bit of a restless mood and the shear number of scraps in my bin was bothering me so I decided to use some up. Not that the heart used very many scraps but at least no new papers were hurt in the making of this card. The inspiration came from Splitcoast Stampers to try a paper pieced quilt block. The pattern was in my closet. I layered some adhesive on a block of scrap white and then built the heart around the it. I then cut the scraps down to size and mounted it all on the blue scalloped Nestie square. The sentiment is from Stamping Up's retired "All Year Cheer" set. Somehow I've never managed to get a "Happy Valentine's Day" sentiment or any that express "Love". Guess what's on my list now...

Challenges this Card Meets:
Challenge Up Your Life - Clean and Simple
Stamp Something - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - Monochrome
Mark's Finest Papers - Use Hearts
Paper Sundaes - Favourite Challenge from the past year - Challenge # 25 - White Plus One (I chose blue.)
Pear Tree Designs - Free For All

Call Me

2011-01-10T22:39:00.000-08:00

This card is huge. It's 6 x 6 inches but somehow it just seems to work. I love the image but haven't played with it as much as I would like. Once I let myself let go of the standard, 4.25 x 5.5 inch card, a whole new range of possibilities opened up to me.

The card is for a girlfriend whom I rarely see. This is really sad since she lives only 3 blocks away. Our kids are at different ages and don't play well together though and she has a different work schedule. Occasionally we will make a "phone date" where we will plan the time, snacks, and call each other to catch up as if we would over a coffee. It's not quite as nice as getting together but we do okay. With the holidays and kids being sick, we haven't had time recently.

The colour scheme is a bit unusual for me. I don't usually do orange but I just loved the DP in the store. I used my new Creative Memories paper cutter to make the top and bottom borders. The image and sentiments are from My Favourite Thing's Call Me set and it's coloured with Copics. I think I need to darken the skin tones a bit.

The flowers were used with my TH tattered flowers die. I bought it thinking it would be so useful and I haven't liked my results. I see other peoples, and am totally amazed but have struggled with the results myself. I'll have to keep playing.

Challenges This Card Meets:
Cupcake Crafts - Something New
Cute Card Thursday - Out with the Old - The flower paper is 2 years old from a cousin's shower invite. The rhinestones and DP are both over a year old.
Fab 'N Funky - Anything Goes
Moving Along with the Times - Ring out the old, Ring in the New
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Snow Queen

2011-01-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

I am so excited! I have been accepted as a Design Team Member for "For Fun Challenges". Thank you so much Pauline! I hope you'll join us and play along.

This week it's a recipe challenge. 1 image, 2 brads and 3 papers. The image is Sweet Pea's Winterberry from ching chou kuiks Fantasy collection. She was stamped in Memento blue ink to give a softer look than my usual black and coloured with Copics. The snowflake brads were from my stash. The DP from BoBunny. I bought everything that was left at my LSS - I just love it! I used Night of Navy as a layering piece. I did not count my base. The "dewdrops" came from Michaels in a big bag for five dollars. I'll never run out! I used crystal glaze to adhere them but the glue oozed out the sides a bit. I think I'll try glue dots next time. I'm still debating whether or not to add some glitter. I do love my glitter!

Challenges This Card Meets:
7 Kids College Fund - Anything Goes
Christmas Card Challenge #5
Crafty Catz - Your Choice. I chose Challenge #60, Christmas
Jingle Bells - Something Old (snowflake brads) and Something New (the beautiful image and papers)
Mark's Finest Papers - Use Something New (the beautiful image and papers)
My Time to Craft - Brand Spanking New (the beautiful image and papers)
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes - Something New (the beautiful image and papers)
Stamping With the Dragon - Your Favourite Winter Colour (Blue)

Blue Christmas

2011-01-02T23:27:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year's to you and your family. I hope you have a happy and healthy year. May you also have time to craft since I'm sure that's why your visiting me!

I can't believe I made a Christmas card. I was so happy to put Christmas away. I did not see myself making Christmas cards until at least April. I found a sentiment that was stamped and given to me that read "May a peaceful spirit fill your heart and bless your life this season and all year long." I have used that to decorate the inside. I just loved the feeling. It had me reaching for this Flourishes stamp. I find quiet, snowy evenings five me this soft, contemplative feeling. I love to just go for quiet, solitary snow walks. I really wish it would snow!

This card has taken more effort than it looks. As it is, I can assure you, the image is centered in the frame of Vintage Violet. I don't know why it looks off kilter in this photo. I started off trying to use Vintage Violet and Buckaroo blue ink to match the paper but it was too dark. I then switched to Old Olive and Mellow Moss but the green and blue competed for dominance, it wasn't as serene as I wanted. I also tried using a circle with scalloped edges but then found that the spacing was off. Here I managed to fit 3 trees comfortably. In a circle, I ended up with an even number of trees and the image didn't have a real focus.

The base is stamped with a small image from SU's retired Snowflakes set. The image is a baby blue organdy from Michaels. I would have preferred white or silver but I seem to be all out. I don't know how that happened!

Challenges this Card Meets:
7 Kids College Fund - Anything Goes
Christmas Card Challenge #5
Crafty Catz - Your Choice. I chose Challenge #60, Christmas
Jingle Bells - Something Old (background snowflake stamp) and Something New (tree stamp)
Mark's Finest Papers - Use Something New (Flourishes tree stamp)
My Time to Craft - Brand Spanking New (Flourishes tree stamp)
Paper Sundaes - Something New (Flourishes tree stamp)
Stamping With the Dragon - Your Favourite Winter Colour (Blue/White)