Happy Canada Day!

Hope all my Canadian friends are having a Happy Canada Day! Not much going on here. It's overcast but we might try to brave the crowds and pick some strawberries later. Yesterday we bought some steaks for the BBQ so we'll have a nice dinner together complete with cheesecake for dessert.

I've been on holidays since Saturday and it always takes me a good few days to get into the swing of things. We tend to put everything off "until school is out" so when it finally is out, we have a million things to do! Plus, we are having raccoon woes in our backyard (they were trying to get in our bedroom window last week!) so the man with the traps is coming back and forth each day. We're caught four so far (mom and three babies) and thing there are at least two more. Once they are caught, he will release them altogether somewhere. They are cute as can be, but they sure are causing some damage! I've also been busy starting to pack up the craft/crap room. We are going to put laminate down in here and get all new furniture from IKEA. I can't wait! But I don't like packing. I have waaaaaaaaaaaay too much stuff in here. I will be working on limited supplies for the next little while until the reno is complete. I should take some before photos but I'm honestly too embarassed! It's such a mess.....

Anyways, enough of my rambling! I've got a few cards for you today using new There She Goes sets. This first card is using a gorgeous new set called Bloom. I love the sentiments! And you can never have a enough flowers...

I stamped the flower image randomly in Pretty in Pink ink onto cardstock of the same colour and again on Whisper White. Memories Black ink was using for the sentiment. It's layered using dimensionals onto Basic Black cardstock and then a sheer polka May Arts ribbon tied in a bow.

These next two cards use another newly released set called Life's A Beach. How fun is this? So many great images in this set.


For both cards I used Whisper White and Baja Breeze with Tangerine Tango ribbon. The top card also has So Saffron for the umbrella, Tangering tango for the fruit and Memories black ink for the drink image outline and sentiment. For the top card I stamped the drink twice and cut out just the liquid part, coated it with Baja ink and then glittered it up with a two way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds. A Marvy punch was used for the scalloped border. These two cards are for the CAS challenge this week which is to use glitter on your cards. Love glitter!

For the bottom card, I again used a two way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds. I also used SU!'s Scallop border punch for the white layer.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope you have a wonderful Canada Day/plain old Wednesday (depending on where you live)!

To finish, here's a little proud Canadian action for you in honour of Canada Day :)

TSG09

Good morning!

Well, it's crunch time. Two more weeks of school. Ten days left and about 20 days of stuff to get done! I know it will all be finished, but it's feeling crazy the last few weeks.

I took some time out today to make a card for the There She Goes Challenge TSGO9. It was a sketch challenge combined with an inspiration challenge. Here's the inspiration site. You can see the details of the challenge here. Click on forum to get to the challenges part.


I decided to use this room for my inspiration. Father's Day is coming up and I have a few cards to make for that.


I combined the star from the Tweeterpated set with the Father's Day sentiment from Holidays Galore. Colours are Riding Hood Red, River Rock and Not Quite Navy. I scored the card base with my Scor Pal to get the stripes. The corners of the sentiment panel were punched with a ticket punch to give more of a "baseball" feel. I used a 1" punch for the stars (stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock). The sentiment panel and stars are both raised on dimensionals and some gold tone eyelets finish it off.

Here's another card I made for the Splitcoast colour challenge earlier this week which was to use white as a main colour.


The image from Act of Kindness was rock and rolled in More Mustard and Bravo Burgundy ink.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! I'm off to clean my house as my mom is coming over to babysit the kids tonight while hubby and I go into the city to see Russell Peters at the Air Canada Center. Check him out on You Tube. Some seriously funny stuff IMO. Some language though, so be forewarned! I don't think we will be the only ones representing B-town tonight. Can't wait!

Hope the rest of your day is great!

DDIC1

Good Morning!

A little while ago, Lori (chanteuse on SCS) contacted me to see if I would be interested in participating in an Inspiration Challenge she is hosing on her blog. It's a bi-weekly challenge (bonus! Lots of time between challenges) so I thought, why not? Actually, it will be the first and third Monday of the month. Challenges often inspire me to create something I never in a million years would have thought to create on my own. Inspiration challenges are my personal favourites because there is so much room for interpretation. Great if you're not so good at following runes (like me!) And, best of all, they get me stamping! Motivation is always good for me, and sometimes needed. Plus, it gives you guys something to look at!

So, I present to you the Divine Divas Inspiration Challenge. Ta-dah!

Here is the inspiration picture we were challenged to work with.


I was inspired by the large brown flower on the pink comforter. Here's what I came up with.

I didn't have a flower image similar to the one on the comforter, so I decided to use my Baroque background stamp instead. I only inked up part of it with a Chocolate Chip ink pad and stamped it off to the side. The Stamp-a-ma-jig was used to get that sentiment just so, and a length of ribbon added to make a bow. The final touch was three small rhinestones added to give it a bit of shine.

I hope the bedding photo inspires you to create something! If it does, be sure to leave me a comment with a link so I can check it out. Or, you can upload at SCS using the keyword DDIC1.

Check out what the other Divas have come up with!

• Chat Wszelaki
• Chris Olsen
• Julie Warner
• Keri Brown
• Lori Rider

Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Have a wonderful Thursday. It's almost the weekend!

CAS07

So, the Clean and Simple Challenge for this week at SCS is to use punches. Love my punches. It's great to be able to get a clean, perfect shape with a little squeeze!


I used a few on this card. First off, the corner rounder was used both on the image panel and the sentiment piece. The slot punch was used to make a hole to thread the ribbon through on the sentiment panel. Unfortunately, you can't see it because of the bow. But it's there. The last thing I used a punch for was to create small centers for the flowers. I used a 3/4" punch and some Chocolate Chip cardstock scraps.

If you get a chance, upload your Clean and Simple card using punches to SCS and use the keyword CAS07 so was can all check it out!

Thanks for stopping by! It's off to bed for me :) Good night!



Stamps: Flowers of Happiness, Nature of Friendship (There She Goes) Polka Dot BG (SU!)
Ink: Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron

CAS06

Well, hello!

The March Break is here and I could not be more excited! No plans to speak of, just hanging out and relaxing. Ahhhhh.....

I kicked off the weekend attending the SU! Regional conference in London, ON. What fun! We made some cool stuff and I'll try to post pics of it later this week.

In honour of the Regional, I've got an SU! only card for you today.

The Clean and Simple challenge this week was to create a card using inspiration from the site www.robeez.com I *adore* the soft soled shoes there! My boys both had a Canadian Flag pair when they were babies. Loved them so...

I chose to use this pair of shoes for inspiration. The shoes spoke to me and said "die cuts" so I obliged and used the Birds and Blooms Sizzlits to make the flowers. Did you notice that I reversed the colours of the petals and face of the flowers? Neither did I until just now. Oh well.... The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black ink using a sentiment from the Really Retro set. A piece of Certainly Celery twill finishes it off. This is the Sale-s-bration twill. A good tip I read is to run the twill between your thumb and a bone folder to soften it up before you use it. Great tip. I find it a bit stiff to work with but that trick helped me get a neat knot.

I am hoping that since it is March Break I will get a change to spend more time in the craft/crap room to create and get ahead on some of my DT stuff. We were planning to redo the room, but as I looked about at all the stuff I would have to pack up, I got tired. So it will have to wait until summer :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great.



Stamps: Really Retro
Paper:Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Whsiper White
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Birds and Blooms Sizzlits, Certainly Celery twill ribbon

CAS05

Time for another Clean and Simple Challenge over at SCS.

Today's challenge was to use shades of blue and green in your creation. I chose to use one shade of each colour. Kiwi Kiss for the green and Not Quite Navy for the blue. I don't tend to reach for NQN a whole lot, but rather use the Night of Navy. Today I dared to be different :)


This card is a one layer card. I do love one layer cards but have to admit that I get a bit anxious I'll mess it up when I'm getting near the end! I didn't on this one but have many, many times before. I used the new There She Goes set Nature of Friendship for this card. Not much more to explain really! I used the Papertrey white cardstock for the base as I just don't find Whisper White makes a good base. It's awesome to stamp on but doesn't stand up well enough for my liking. Too bad Canadians are charged a small fortune to ship to Canada or I'd be getting some more. Well, now I'm rambling....

So, today I tidied the craft/crap room up. I, like many of you out there, have enough stuff to work with for 100 people! So sad how much stuff I have. I am pledging to try to scrap more often as I have a case that will barely close full of stickers and rub ons. Plus, I've got paper coming out of you know where! I made a December daily countdown album this year and my boys really enjoy looking at it. I also pulled another scrapbook out and they had a ball with that which is making me feel suuuuuuper guilty. I've got all this gear but don't use it! Well, no more. I printed off over 100 photos and picked them up on Friday. I seriously think that having the pictures ready to go is half the battle. I don't tend to print them off but just look through the computer file. Hopefully that, combined with a tidy space will motivate me! We shall see...

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great :)

CAS02

The Clean and Simple Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers this week is to use one button on your card.

Here's a sample to hopefully get you inspired!


This card uses the set Flowers of Happiness from There She Goes. I stamped the large flower image using Very Vanilla craft ink onto Riding Hood Red cardstock and cut that out with the Top Note die. It is layered onto the Vanilla card stock base using dimensionals. The sentiment is stamped in Riding Hood Red ink on Vanilla paper and cut into a strip. It is also adhered with dimensionals. I used a button from the Button Bouquet from SU! and threaded and knotted a small length of Vanilla taffeta ribbon through. It is adhered with a glue dot.

I hope you get a chance to participate in the challenge! Don't forget to upload your creation at SCS using the key word CAS02 so that we can check out all the button cards in one place :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

CAS01

A super, super quick card and post for today. I'm swamped!!!

There is a new challenge over at SCS for Clean and Simple cards. I took my inspiration from this flannel fabric.

I used the SU! set Nursery Necessities for the sentiment which was stamped in Pretty in Pink ink. The DP is from Michael's and I think it is Making Memories. The star is punched out of Pretty in Pink cardstock and attached with a SU! taffeta ribbon.

Thanks so much for taking the time to look!

Hope the rest of your day is great :)

LSC205

Hi!

Here's an SUO card for you gals who come here for that :) The limited supplies challenge (LSC205) at SCS was to make a Clean and Simple or CAS card. Clean and Simple can be considered in the eye of the beholder, I think. I tend to think my style is fairly clean and simple. I don't do a whole lot of layers or embellishments together and try to let one element be the focus, be it a gorgeous image, beautiful paper or embellishment. Rarely do I combine the three on one card! I guess the challenge with CAS is to have the card look simple, yet finished.


I think I will use this card for my card camp coming up next weekend. Better get crackin' on my designs for that!

This card is pretty simple. I used the sketch from SC208 from Splitcoast. The flowers from Eastern Blooms are stamped randomly on the Pale Plum card stock in Pale Plum ink and also onto a Very Vanilla piece. The sentiment from Hugs and Wishes is stamped in Certainly Celery. It's layered up after using the scallop border punch on the celery piece and punching slots with the slot punch. It's mounted on dimensionals and then the ribbon threaded through and knotted.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great :)

Enjoy! TSG03

The new There She Goes challenge is to make a card using dimensionals.

Hello? I think it would be more of a challenge for me to make a card that doesn't use dimensionals! lol I love me my dimensionals! I just love how they give, well, dimension! A simple card can be given an extra special touch raising part of it up.


I used a load of them on this card. The cup is raised and then the Enjoy! sentiment is again.

For this card I used Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip cardstock. The patterned paper is courtesy of my friend Sheilagh. It's Prairie from the Jackson Lodge Collection. The cup and oval sentiment from Let's Get Together from There She Goes were both stamped in Chocolate Chip and cut out. The steam is stamped directly on the card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you get a chance to participate in the challenge. Upload your card with TSG03 in the key words so we can check them all out. Those of you that use your TSG stamps will be entered to win one of the brand new release sets! Check out Jessica's post here for more info.

Hey, and congrats to Julie Lacey who is February's TGS guest designer!

Have a great day!

IC162

Good morning!

I had a chance to do the Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast this morning. Here is the towel I was inspired by. I often start an inspiration challenge by trying to see if any images remind my of any patterned paper designs. In this case, the pattern reminded me of the Summer Picnic designer paper from SU!. The colours and placement of flowers led me to select the orange and red dotted paper to work with.


I used the Fall to Layout #24 of Natasha's at Clean and Simple stamping paired with Special Delivery from There She Goes. Once I selected my colours (Only Orange and Real Red), I embossed the sentiment using white craft ink and white embossing powder. I find the ink alone doesn't stand out as much as I'd like. The heart was stamped with Real Red ink onto Real Red cardstock, cut and and covered with two way glue. I then sprinkled Martha glitter over it to give it some sparkle. The entire panel is raised on dimensionals as is the heart once again to make it stand out. The circle was punched with a 1 3/8" punch in case you are interested :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great :)

WT199

A quick card today using the new Special Delivery set from There She Goes.


I'm not a big fan of colouring as you have probably noticed, so I don't tend to do it often. For this card, I decided not to colour the mailbox but leave it white so that the pink accents would stand out. The Ways to Use It challenge was to use something silver on your card. I stamped the mailbox omitting the flag and filled in the missing space with a marker. I then stamped the flag on Regal Rose paper and cut it out, then attached it using the brad. Now my flag moves up and down! The white panel and hearts are on dimensionals.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great :)



Stamps: Special Delivery (There She Goes)
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Paper: Regal Rose, Whisper White, Loves Me DP
Accessories: Close to Cocoa marker, dimensionals, silver brad, hole punch

HCE13 New Year, New Habits

There was a great challenge on SCS today called New Year, New Habits, Old Stuff. What a great challenge for me. I have so many underused items in my craft space and I really am going to try to use more of them up this year. I no longer will ask myself if the recipient is "card-worthy" but just go ahead and use my embellishments for the sake of using them. Perhaps this is a resolution I can keep!


For this card I used a set being released today from There She Goes called Welcome Home. This set is my favourite created by Jessica so far! It was so fun to piece all the parts together and create this beautiful image.

The underused items I used for this card include the SU! library clips which I have been hoarding and the little heart charm which was a purchase from A Buck or Two way back when I first discovered card making. I sanded it down a bit and tried to reduce the shine by adding some brown Stazon and tied it to the clip with gold SU! cord. The edges of the image are distressed and inked up a bit with Creamy Caramel.

Hope you had a wonderful Happy New Year. Ours was nice and quiet! After Wii chicken for dinner (this is chicken that gets burned on the BBQ being forgotten about by hubby when playing Wii...) We watched the Canadian Junior hockey game and then sent the boys off to bed. I was really surprised they fell asleep right away after the high they were on following the win! After that, we tuned into the Dog the Bounty marathon LOL I've never been a New Years fan so I'm glad it's over and done with.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! All the best for 2009!



Stamps: Welcome Home (There She Goes)
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Riding Hood Red
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla
Acessories: Library clips, gold brads, oval punch, hole punch, dimensionals, gold cord, sponge (all SU!), ribbon (May Arts), heart charm (A Buck or Two)

cc198

So, I think I may finally be finished my Christmas shopping! Woooo hoooo! Now to wrap...

Had a chance today to play in the Colour Challenge at SCS. I was looking forward to it until I saw the colours!!! Orchid Opulence, Cameo Coral and So Saffron. Ugh. I suppose that's why they call it a challenge! So Saffron is a fav, but the others are rarely used by me. I decided that I would make it a mostly white card with colour accents. The colours made me think "spring" when I put them together, so I decided to use a spring set. It came together pretty quickly after that.


I used the set Flower Filled for the boots and flowers and Heart From the Heart for the sentiment which was borrowed from a friend (Hi Sheilagh!).

Pretty straight forward. The panel, boots and purple flower are on dimensionals. I used a silver brad for a buckle on the boots. The stems are stamped in Mellow Moss.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope to have another post before the big day so I will save my holiday wishes for then :)

FS89

The Featured Stamper today was Emily (Ink-E) at SCS. What a great gallery! And she's only 18 years old! Makes me feel old, that's for sure!

Anyways, I chose this card of hers to case.


I kept the layout the same but changed up the colours and stamps. I used Kraft paper for the base and to stamp the tree image from Mr. Twigster on using Chocolate Chip ink. I debated adding red glitter to the tree decorations, but skipped it to keep the country feel I was going for. A piece of Holiday Treasures DP is torn across the top and has a piece of Riding Hood Red ribbon tied around it before it was adhered. The tree image was added and then I added two buttons (attached with mini glue dots) from SU!'s Button Bouquet that I tied hemp cord through. Finally, I stamped the sentiment from SU!'s retired set Cricle of Friendship and punched it out with a 1" circle punch. It's adhered with a dimensional. To finish it off, I added a row of piercing using my mat pack and piercing tool.

I was going for a country feel with this like I said, but I'm getting a bit of a Charlie Brown Christmas vibe from it! LOL I think it's the tree all alone that's reminding me of the tree in that Christmas special.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! It's a gorgeous sunny day here and I'm hoping to spend some time outside with my boys-all three of them! :)

Have a wonderful day!

FS88

I had some time to do the Featured Stamper Challenge today. I chose this card of Anne Ryan's to CASE. I've been meaning to try out Snow Swirled since I purchased it (in August I think!) and thought this challenge would be perfect for use with this set.


First, I rubbed my Embossing Buddy over the paper to eliminate static, then stamped the image in Versamark and embossed with Gold Glory embossing powder. I adhered it to some Brushed Gold paper and punched small holes in the centres of the snowflakes to insert a gold brad in each. Brushed Gold paper folded in half forms the card base and a piece of Basic Black cardstock is adhered to the front. I accidentally adhered it before I tied the ribbon (from Pink Hedgehog Papercrafts) so I carefully had to lift part of it up. I tied the ribbon and then stuck it back down the best I could! Once that was done, the tree piece was adhered to the front with dimensionals.

I think this is a very elegant looking Christmas Card. It may make the cut for my card camp! Easy, but with a bit of wow to it.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends :)

FS86

I used the Here For You set again today on a card that was inspired by this card by TERRORE3 at Splitcoast. She is the Featured Stamper today.


I love the masking that she did on her card and tried to replicate that using a variety of stamps included in the set Here For You from There She Goes. I used a square punch and punched out two squares side by side on scrap paper. I applied two way glue and let it dry before affixing it to the card front to make a temporary mask. Once that was in place, I inked up a variety of stamps from the set in Old Olive, stamped off a bunch of times and created the collage effect for the background on Confetti White paper. I also sponged a bit of ink around the edges of the masked area. I think you'll be able to see it better if you click on the picture to make it bigger.

Once that was finished, I inked up the bird and branch stamp with Old Olive and Chocolate Chip markers and stamped it full ink (without stamping off). Once the mask was removed, the rectangle was visible and I then stamped a sentiment off to the right in Chocolate Chip ink. A brown May Arts ribbon finishes it off.

It is a beautiful day here! We are off to apple picking this afternoon. I think we'll pick up an apple pie too. I'd love to make one, but honestly, it's not going to happen today! Too much to get done this weekend and not enough time (as always). So, instead of kidding myself that I will come home and get a home baked one whipped up, I'll just be realistic and buy it. Save myself the grief!

Hope the rest of your day is great! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today :)

WT184

So I'm a week late on the Ways to Use It Challenge! The challenge this week at SCS is to use a charm on your card. I don't have any (or at least can't find any!) charms, so I went with the challenge last week which was to use silhouette stamps.

The set Here For You from There She Goes was perfect!


The main image is stamped in Bravo Burgundy on kraft paper with the sentiment in Memories black ink. The burgundy panel is stamped with the same bird image in burgundy ink and a black May Arts ribbon is tied. Simple as that!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today!

Hope the rest of your day is great :)

CC185

They're here! They're here!!!

How excited was I to find a beautifully packaged envelope full of There She Goes stamps waiting for me when I got home today?!

I used two sets for the Colour Challenge at SCS today. Seems like forever since I was able to complete a challenge on a weekday!! Darn job gets in the way of stamping... ;)


The challenge was to use the Colour Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze and Very Vanilla. I started by stamping the tree images from Branching Out in Timber Brown Stazon and coloured the leaves in using my blender pen and Kiwi Kiss ink. Once that was finished, I added the sentiment from Butterfly Happiness in the same brown ink. A piece of Baja Breeze cardstock was stamped with the Polka Dot BG from SU! in Baja Breeze ink and adhered to the card front. I next used a two way glue pen on the leaves and added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the leaves. You can still see the Kiwi ink through it but it looks all spark-lay. Click on the photo to see it up close and personal. Love it! I finished it up by knotting a length of Kiwi Kiss ribbon around the card front and trimming the ends.

So, what do you think? Check back later in the week for more cards made with There She Goes sets :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great.

FS85

Here's a card I made for the Featured Stamper Challenge at SCS today. It's based on this card by E3stamper.


I love this new SU! set called Season of Friendship which will be available starting October1. It comes with a large tree image as well, but I didn't use that here.

I stamped the flower in More Mustard, the bird in Riding Hood Red, the snowflake in Baja Breeze and the leaves in Chocolate Chip. The images were punched out using a 1" circle punch and adhered to a Riding Hood Red card base using dimensionals. A small piece of Autumn Vine paper (also available Oct 1) was adhered to the bottom of the card and the sentiment stamped in Chocolate Chip directly on the designer paper. Finally, a length of 1" stitched grosgrain was knotted around the card front and trimmed.

I like this card. The picture not so much! I couldn't get the Baja to photograph well. For it to look good, the rest of the card looked washed out. I need to come up with a photo solution.

Anyways, thanks so much for stopping by today! We're going to do some garden work today and spend the rest of the last weekend of summer outside.

Hope the rest of your day is great!