Just Chillin'...

Oh my, it's been more than 2 months since I posted on this blog. Unfortunately, it's also been over 2 months since I have made a card/scrapbook page. Missing mojo I suppose...


We spent Christmas Day with my grandmother, brother and uncle. It was low key just the way I like it. My husband decided to bake this year and chose to make soft ginger cookies. In our 14 years together he has never baked but he is a great cook. Funny thing, as I watched him go about his business his measurements were anything but precise leaving me to wonder how they would taste. Final report: the cookies were fantastic and I think we have a new baker in the family. 


Today I felt like getting a little inky & used one of my Your Next Stamps stamps to make a Happy New Years card. The sentiment was printed from my computer.


This is the result:

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

• YNS Challenge #57 - Winter or Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes
• BasicGrey Challenges #59 - Anything Goes

Card Ingredients:

Basic Grey - Little Black Dress PP, YNS stamp - Penguin Cheers, White Uni-ball Signo Broad Pen, Prima Say It In Crystals, Spellbinders Circle Dies, Memento Ink - Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink - Black Soot, Pop Dots, Ribbon - stash, Copics -C3, C1, C00, BG10, B21, R27, YR04, spica clear

Thanks for stopping by and have a very Happy New Year!

A 1st for me...

Do you enjoy card challenges? 

I know I do and not too long ago I found the company Lawn Fawn. They produce adorable stamp sets that are versatile and often accompanied by "punny" sayings. It wasn't long after purchasing my 1st set that I found a site called Lawnscaping Challenge dedicated to bimonthly challenges using Lawn Fawn stamps. It's good fun; you should definitely check it out.  

For the Challenge #20 Paper Piecing was the name of the game.  If you can believe it I have never used paper piecing on a stamping project. Hence the title of today's post "a 1st for me". After waking this morning in the wee hours I finally gave up the battle on trying to get back to sleep at 3am and crept into my craft room to have a little fun.  The card below is final product.

(click on picture for full sized image)

Thanks for checking in!

This little man makes me laugh!

One of my favourite things about scrapbooking is recording the everyday moments.  I feel the little things are what all add up to give us an overall feeling of contentment.  

This particular layout captures my nephew and I playing together last Halloween right before he left to go trick or treating with his brother.  One of the joys in life is hearing babies, toddlers and kids laugh.

I tucked the journaling on card in a pocket behind the photos.  It reads: 

M loves to be tossed around and I love the joy and giggles it brings. 

Halloween 2010 visiting R and M before they went out trick or treating.

One last thing, can I get a HOLY COW!! (heehee) as I finally completed a scrapbook layout after months and months of having no mojo.  I'm still on the card-making bandwagon though.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Which Witch is Which?

This cute little witch is a digi stamp courtesy of Your Next Stamp a company I recently found at my LSS.  I have a couple of their stamps that I love.  They are cling rubber in the funkiest purple colour & they're a Canadian company, which is a bonus.  I decided to play along with the current YNSC #53 - Halloween challenge and made this card. 
As this week's theme over at the Simon Says Stamp challenge is Halloween/Goth and the Basic Grey challenge is Autumn/Fall/Halloween I am entering this card in these challenges as well.

We are planning a very low-key weekend as the previous weekend included an out of town wedding, Thanksgiving & my hubby's birthday.  It was a fun but very tiring weekend.   ;-)
Thanks for looking! 


Products used: Basic Grey 6x6 Origins Paper Pad, Echo Park Wicked Potions PP, Neenah White Cardstock, YNS Digi Stamp, American Crafts Enchanted PP, Copic Markers, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, American Crafts Apricot Zing, Penny Black Spooky Collection Stamp, Twine - Twinery, Black Inkssentials Enamel Accents, Black Soot Distress Ink, Ranger Stickles, Taylored Expressions Twinkles Crystals

In Honour of World Card Making Day

I was busy card making this weekend as Oct 1 (aka World Card Making Day) fell on Saturday. I will share a few of my card creations below.

I was also fortunate to attend The Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival put on by the great folks from the magazine publication Canadian Scrapbooker.  I went with both my mom & younger sister.  The Carnival took up most of my Saturday & Sunday as there was shopping/displays from local vendors plus a make & take bar.  

There was also a 2 day crop event that you had to preregister for. I think I may give it a try next year.  In all the time I have been paper crafting I've never been to a crop.  It will make a great goal for this upcoming year.  

Without further ado I present 3 of my cards...

*Please note this 1st card is my entry into the Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week where "Anything Goes".

The close-up shot.

My 1st card ever using the Glitter Ritz product. I love the outcome but I will warn you there was glitter all over me, my table, the floor and my dog ;-)

My 2nd attempt with the Glitter Ritz... much cleaner this time I'm happy to say.

Below are the products I used for each card:

1. Happy Birthday

Taylored Expressions - Belated Birthday Stand Out
Basic Grey - Life of the Party 6X6 Paper Pad
Copic Sketch Markers ~ Basic Grey Brads ~ American Crafts Zing (Chestnut) ~ Distress Ink (Broken China) ~ Diamond Glaze ~ Pop Dots (dimensional adhesive)

2. Happy

Basic Grey - Eva 6X6 Paper Pad & Kioshi 6X6 Paper Pad

Recollections Kraft Cardstock ~ KI Scribbles -Glitter Borders ~ Elizabeth Craft Designs - Peel-Off Sticker
Glitter Ritz ~ Sookwang Tape ~ Uni-Ball Signo White Gel Pen

3. Flower

Basic Grey - Kioshi 6X6 Paper Pad
Color Mates - Light Terrific Teal Cardstock
Elizabeth Craft Designs - Peel-Off Sticker ~ Glitter Ritz ~Sookwang Tape ~ Distress Stickles (Spiced Marmalade) ~ Distress Ink (Pumice Stone)

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers!

The ABC's of Me

I struggle a lot with what to put on my blog. Part of me would like to share my creative endeavours, however, I am often intimidated to do so after perusing the blogs of other papercrafters. There are so many talented people in the blogosphere and I have a hard time not comparing my work to theirs. (I'm working on this.) 
Sharing personal info is another struggle and in general I tend toward being private. I realized recently many of my favourite "crafty" blogs have a nice mix of crafty goodness plus some personal tidbits. 


Soooo..... this morning after reading THIS blog post by the delightful Krista Wells (her blog - Confessions of a Twenty Something Artist) I decided to add a dash of personalilty to my blog. I decided to play along in the following exercise. 

note: Wacky is my default setting for pics - "normal" is very hard for me.

The ABC's of Me

A bit of me in a nutshell...

A. Age: 35
B. Bed size: Queen - it's a little squishy with me, my hubby and our basset hound ~ we like to cuddle ;-)
C. Chore that you hate: scrubbing the bath tub - it's 60+ yrs old & the enamel has worn off
D. Dogs: Our sweet babies - Rosco (8 year old) Basset Hound and Daisy (6 year old) Beagle 
E. Essential start to your day: a great cup of coffee, mmmm, or 2 maybe 3
F. Favourite colour: grey ~ I love many colours but always gravitate to a shade with a grey undertone. 
G. Gold or Silver: silver for now but I can see with the change in trends eventually adding some gold to the mix
H. Height: 5'6"
I. Instruments you play: none but I do like to sing around the house making up wacky songs for the dogs or my hubby
J. Job title: making the most of my life and being the best person I can
K. Kids: the 2 fur babies mentioned in item D
L. Live: Alberta, Canada
M. Mother’s name: Debbie
N. Nicknames: when I was little my Grandpa used to call me Fleecy and Duckie (I miss him)
O. Overnight hospital stays: not a one, knock on wood
P. Pet peeves: people who are rude to sales staff at stores (urgghh) 
Q. Quote from a movie: I am forever trying to remember movie quotes but I have some sort of mental block.  I could hear the quote and not be able to repeat it verbatim 2 seconds later, haha, it's a quirk of mine.
R. Right or left handed: I'm a lefty!!
S. Siblings: 2 brothers, 1 sister - the difference in age between us ranges from 13-17 years
U. Underwear: under there
V. Vegetable you hate: hate is a strong word but I dislike cucumbers
W. What makes you run late: I get extremely anxious arriving somewhere early
X. X-Rays you’ve had: dental, back
Y. Yummy food that you make: scones, apple turkey burgers
Z. Zoo animal: gorillas and tigers

Our kids :-)

If you made it this far I thank you.  If you decided to give this a try please link you post in my comments.
Have a great weekend!

Stamptember Fun

I still have the card making bug & decided to put forth the following card as my entry into the Simon Says Stamp Stamptember Blog Hop.

Supplies Used:
Harmonie Stamp
American Crafts Chestnut Zing
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Copic Sketch Markers
Spellbinders Nestabilities - Scallop Oval
Basic Grey PP

Thanks for stopping by.

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge 14

It has been forever & a day since I last posted on my blog but I've been having fun making cards lately so I decided to take part in this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge CFC14.

I love any excuse to break out the glitter & had fun making my Glue Dots sparkle.

Here is my creation:

Thanks for looking!

AMLT Challenge

I made the following layout this past Saturday using the strip journaling technique from the A Million Little Things blog. I have many pics of our "babies" but have only scrapped 1 photo of them previous to this.

This photo is of Daisy & Rosco from 2010 sitting on "their" chair. I must say I'm pretty happy with how the layout turned out.

Thanks for looking & have a great week!

I'm now off to play with my new Studio Calico & Crate Paper goodies from AMLT.

happenings & a couple layouts

I'm back :-)

Since my last post I have yet to follow through on either of my New Year "intentions" but they are both on my to do list.

In the past 3 weeks my hubby & I got in a weekend of skiing in Fernie, BC with friends. We had a fabulous time & the ski conditions were great. I've never skied in powder up to my waist but I loved it! Also realized after 2 days on the slopes that my age & the fact I haven't worked out in almost 2 years is catching up to me, heehee. Man, did I ever feel the burn in my legs!

We're headed to Golden, BC next week for 5 days with lift passes for 4 days. I'm excited to go but don't think my body will take 4 days of skiing back to back. I'm aiming for 3 ~ we'll see how that goes. Below is an iPhone shot taken by my hubby of me late on day 2 of skiing in Fernie... I was tuckered...

After I fell & I lay there he said "hold on a second", pulled out his phone & snapped this pic. When he was done he let me know I could get up & I said "what, done so quick?" haha... I was looking to stay there longer & rest.

I thought I'd share a couple of my recent layouts. The 1st one is for the Feb 13 at Studio Calico sketch challenge. This is my take on Vee's sketch & funny enough documents the excitement of receiving my monthly SC kit.

This 2nd layout is very special to me as it's about my wonderful sister. She is a beautiful person with a wonderful spirit. The age difference between us is 17 years but we are close & I feel blessed to have her in my life.

Thanks for dropping by :)

Let me know what you've been up to this winter or if you have any upcoming vacation plans.

Cheers!

A couple of layouts to share...

Do you ever find your creative mojo just up & leaves on vacation, often at seemingly inconvenient times? I truly think I’m not alone on this. For me, I frequently find my troubles compound because I place incredibly high expectations on myself to create something "perfect". In these moments I often find myself "paralyzed" & unable to create anything. As the month of January has progressed I have continued to focus on my One Little Word, embrace, & I feel I have been successful at starting to appreciate my abilities & talents. I have also had to continuously remind myself that I do not need to be perfect & the reason I scrapbook is to preserve my memories. The result has been greater ease when creating… much to my delight.

double click on either layout to view up close

I am especially happy with how this 1st layout, Oh Eddy, came together. I used a favourite iPhone photo and documented the special memories I had from babysitting our good friends two girls for a couple of months back in the fall of last year.

I would love to know what often stymies your mojo & what do you do to bring it back?

Thanks for stopping by...

Cheers!

Nature's Beauty

We have been having an incredible amount of snow here in Edmonton over the past month or so. It has been a lot of work shoveling it all but I must say I very much appreciate the beauty of it all.

We haven been undergoing reno's over the past few months on the outside of our house and tomorrow they start putting on the new siding . Yipee!

My One Little Word for 2011 - EMBRACE

As part of challenge of the week of Jan 3/11 on the Studio Calico blog I have scrapped my One Little Word for this year. Check it out below...

My word is EMBRACE ~ journalling reads "I will embrace the moment, my feelings and my abilities.

Thanks for looking ;-)

Cheers!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

I love receiving goodies in the mail & after doing my fare share of Black Friday shopping online the past month has been extra fun for me, woohoo!

I thought I'd share one of my new fave goodies that I received from the Etsy shop Knitty Bitties. I'm always very impressed when I open the mailer envelope to find my package beautifully wrapped & in this case I received a cute key chain as well. This is my new List Taker ~ it came with a fabulous note pad & pen inside ~ love it!!

Monday's mail was particularly exciting as I also received new buttons from the hyena cart shop TessaAnn. I am a repeat customer (numerous times over) as her buttons are incredible in their detail & the quality is superb. She also treated me to lovely packaging and a bonus button (see large white heart in pic below) ~ too sweet :-)

Here is a sampling of the button sets I ordered ~ (so stinkin' CUTE).

The customer service from both shop owners was FANTASTIC. I linked this post to "what's in your mailbox Monday".

Cheers!

Bring On the New Year!

Welcome!

I’m not one for making New Years resolutions, however, this year I do have what I’d like to call “intentions” for January. My 1st intention is to start taking yoga classes regularly (3-5 X/wk) and the 2nd is to complete the January prompt for Ali Edwards’ Big Picture Class -> One Little Word (OLW).

I have purchased a 3-month pass to a nearby yoga studio and I am going to my 1st class on Thursday this week.

Second on my list I have selected EMBRACE as my OLW for 2011. Simply put… “I want to learn to be ME”. This sounds somewhat bizarre, I know, but in essence I want to “embrace” the person/characteristics that make me unique. I will endeavour to stay true to the person I am, not try to be something else and, stop second-guessing myself.

I came across Ali Edwards’ blog for the 1st time in March of last year. I immediately fell in love with the OLW concept and chose CREATE as my word. My word served me well in 2010. As it came time to select my 2011 word I realized my habit of second-guessing myself was is a persistent stumbling block to my creative process and personal happiness. I want to enjoy life and the creative process more; therefore, I need to learn to embrace all aspects of who I am. I’m excited for this journey =)

I leave you with a photo of a December creation by my hubby and myself. I love how these cookies turned out...

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers!