Oh What Fun!

Owls!!  I love owls and some day soon when my scraproom is re-done I will show you some of my critters.

This card was quick and simple and makes me smile, love how it turned out.  The pewter embossing powder is beautiful, I didn't expect it to look this good!  The last to be added was the corners - remember that punch?  I think it was the perfect finishing touch for this card.  I just kind of relied on the paper to be the focus.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

Christmas Card Challenge #48 - Anything Goes

Jingle Bells Challenge - Not a CREATURE Was Stirring

The Pink Elephant Challenge #274 - Anything Goes

All products Stampin Up (except where noted):

Stamps:  Christmas Messages
Paper:  Snow Festival dsp, Raspberry Ripple cs, Baja Breeze Textured cs
Ink:  VersaMark, Baja Breeze
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Pewter Embossing Powder, Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon, EK corner punch

Happy Life

OH MY GOSH!!  Can this be any cuter??!!  I am so happy with how this turned out.  My daughter asked me to make a birthday card for her best friend and I knew I would use one of the Uptown Girls from Stamping Bella.  I have recently purchased a few of them, but of course I had to borrow this one from my friend Nancy.  I stamped and coloured the image last weekend at Crop & Create and finally got around to putting it all together.  I wanted warm fall colours and the paper from Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 were perfect.

I'll tell you a little story - see that canvas frame?  That is covering up a booboo :)  When I stamped my image I also stamped two other images.  One of them, was a bit too close to this one and I really wanted to stamp this out as square as possible.  Well, I couldn't do that without having some of the other image in the top corner.  I was trying to figure what frame dies I had that would accommodate and then I remembered these:  Crate Paper Designed Frames from the Maggie Holmes collection.  It's coloured canvas and they're adorable and I managed to find one that went will with the papers I had decided to use.  PERFECT, love when things come together like that.

And I finally used the Graphic 45 flowers I've had for so long.  I think I bought them at Dat's (local scrapbooking store) before it closed.

The Bellarific Friday Challenge at Stamping Bella this week is to use Buttons and/or Bows.  I decided to use buttons from my Basic Grey stash.  And no card is complete without a little bling right?  I had to add some Diamond Stickles.

I also used Mojo Monday's Sketch 368 for my card.

I'm also entering in the Simon Monday Challenge:  Anything Goes and the Simon Wednesday Challenge:  Get Crafty, Use Kraft!!

Stamps:  Stamping Bella Uptown Girls Belinda and Bernadette Bench Buddies
Paper:  Crate Paper Circa 1934 6 x 6 paper, CC Designs Copic Quality white cs, kraft and black cs
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, copics
Accessories:  Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Designed Frames, Graphic 45 flowers, Basic Grey buttons, Stampin Up twine, Diamond Stickles

More Crop & Create 2014 (and challenge update)

A couple more photos from last weekend Catherine Tachdjian from SCT, Angie Blom illustrator for Unity Stamps, Nicole Harper and my friend Nancy, Vicki Boutin and my friend Donna.  

And just a quick photo of me prepping my first art journaling page with gesso :)  I like having a month for this challenge with Tracy - it lets me do a bit each day if I want and if I can't do something one day, at least I can plan what I'm going to do.  And that's okay, cause I'm really nervous about the next step - applying paint!!

TE Hauls

Just thought I'd share my recent Taylored Expressions haul.  I got some bright coloured felt, some new copics and some Doodlebug Vellum and Sprinkles.  I was super excited to see a new die that coordinates with the Woodland Winter Stamp Set which I got last year (and still haven't inked up), but now there's no excuses!!!

And the next two photos are some more hauls from this summer :)  As you can see I love the stamps that are illustrated by Danielle Lounds, I've got three so far, I've been following her Blog for a few years now :)  She used to illustrate stamps for There She Goes Stamps too and I have a few of those also.  

Notice the 'Thanks' dies??  Those are are little thank you gifts that arrive with your order :)  And I didn't take pics but most of the stamps come with matching dies!!!  Some I didn't get pics of, matching stamps and dies make me happy!!!

Now if only I could get my scraproom done!!!!!  Grrrr!!!!

Crop & Create 2014 - new friend and new challenge

Hahaha toooo funny!!  Hello Tracy!!!

I was going to make a post about my new friend as well - I guess today is as good as any!!!

So a couple weeks ago, I had a comment on one of my blog posts from 'Tracy'.  She was commenting on a comment I made about Crop and Create.  We began emailing each other and quickly found out that we live in the same city and were both going to be attending the Crop and Create last weekend.  I was so excited to meet another crafter/blogger.  Turns out we've attended a couple crops at the same time but we've never met.  We probably did speak to each other or at least visit each others tables, I'm sure!!  Tracy is a fantastic crafter and blogger and I look forward to visiting her blog Tracys Treasures each day.  YES, I mean each day, I think she has a post every day :)

So during our many visits between classes and shopping at the store at Crop and Create we learned that we've both been wanting to try art journaling.  I have been interested and I've been reading and watching and trying to absorb all this newness, but I was afraid to make the jump.  Well, not any longer, Tracy came up with a brilliant idea, we are challenging each other to make an art journalling page.  We have a month!!  I hope we can challenge each other each month ;)  I invested in some paints and journaling books and now to try to put the ideas on paper!!!  Yikes!!!!

Tonight I tried playing with some chipboard letters and Crackle Distress Paint.  I can't believe it's probably been about four years since I've used it!  Still not sure how it's all going to come together, or if I'll end up using these, but it's fun to play :)

Anyway, so happy we met!!  Looking forward to more fun times.  I met a couple other ladies who were at my table at the Crop last weekend, they were two friends who were reconnecting after something like 20 years, Cindy and Sandy.  Hope to meet up with them again soon too :)

Wet Nose, Warm Heart .... and a sad good-bye

I am sharing some sad news today, last Saturday I had to say good-bye to my Bosley.  He would have been 13 in December.  He had not been well for some time due to liver problems, he was blind and not hearing well, confused at times and I just couldn't stand to see him go through the winter like that.  I'm sure he wouldn't have made it through and I didn't want him to suffer.  I had been mentally preparing for a little while now.  Even though I know it was the right decision, it is hard to be the one to have to decide.  He was not alone, he deserved to be held and comforted and not be more frightened than I'm sure he was, I was there for him.  I'll never forget that day.

Needless to say, I was not up for making cards on National Scrapbooking Day.  This weekend it's quiet in my house, daughter working and visiting friends, hubby and son away hunting, so the house is littered with my crafty supplies.  And I created this:

It is cased from a layout I found on Pinterest from Pamela O'Conner, a CTMH consultant.  I fell in love with the layout the minute I saw it and I knew I had the perfect picture.  It was taken in January 2012, before we had Sampson and before Bosley turned ill.  Some time ago, I had bought the Echo Park For the Record 2 paper pack specifically to make layouts of my babies...so I used those papers on my layout.  I embellished with coordinating stickers.  Don't you just love the title??!!  I couldn't change it, it's perfect.  The heart was cut using my Cricut and the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge.  The enamel dots are from MME.

These next few photos show some of my thought processes in planning my pages - papers, layouts etc.  For my Cricut Expression cutter I always use Cricut Craft Room.  LOVE this program.  I'm not even sure what most of the buttons are for on the Cricut 'sigh' so I'd be lost without it, but it works well for me using the free software.  So in the first picture, I plan the layout so I can determine what size I want to cut the heart.  To do this I go to the Machine and Mat tab and change the machine to Cricut Imagine, this lets me use the colours and patterns that are offered and I can make it similar to the patterned paper I'm using.  The black square represents my photo.

And these are my cutting guides for my photos.  I like to place these over photos so I can see how they will look at different sizes and where I need to cut to best use the picture in the layout.  I used the 8 x 8 guide to trim my 8 x 10 photo of Bosley.  I also cut out a sample heart so I could place it over different patters of paper to see which one I preferred.  I couldn't decide between two papers, so this definitely helped me decide on the flowered pattern, rather than the more abstract pattern I was considering.

I'm sure you'll be seeing more layouts of my babies soon.

Friendship Has Its Perks

For the last several months I've been subscribing to the Simon Says Stamp Monthly Card Kit, you get lots of fun goodies - coordinating stamps, paper, embellishments, ink etc and for a great price.  I made a birthday card for my friend Donna and I used October's Card Kit featuring the Simon Says Stamp set 'What's Brewing' and die.

I don't know about you, but I hope she has good eyesight cause you can barely read the inside sentiment, it's so small!!!

I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches #157

and I'm also entering my card in the Seize the Birthday 'Anything Goes' Birthday Challenge.

And the Simon Monday Challenge - Falling in Love With....  - I think these Basic Grey papers are perfect warm fall colours :)


Simon Says Kit items:
SSS Khaki Ink, SSS "What's Brewing" stamp set, SSS coffee cup die, Basic Grey Grand Bazaar paper, mocha sequins
Additional items:  SSS Birthday Messages stamp set, Glossy Accents

Just A Little Prayer...

Here is another card for my other friend who lost her mom (my friends are sisters).  I actually made two of these, one for my friend's daughter as well.

This is a card a cased, I saw it a long time ago and new I would make it some day.  Here is the original.

Stamps:  CTMH Card Chatter - Sympathy
Paper:  Basic Grey Origins, Stampin Up Baked Brown Sugar
Ink:  StazOn Timber Brown, Pigma Micron Archival Ink journalling pen (faux stitching)
Accessories:  CC Designs Butterfly dies, CTMH Opaques pearls, SU Victoria 5/8" Crochet Trim

Thinking of You

Today I'm sharing a card I made for a friend who lost her mom.  I used some new (to me) stamp sets and coordinating dies from Taylored Expressions - 'Discover Your Wings' and 'It's a Banner Day - 2'.  I used some clear Wink of Stella on a couple of the flowers.  Love this silhouette stamp.

I'm entering my card in Simon Says Monday Challenge - Falling In Love With..... I love the warmth of the colours in the Basic Grey Origins papers.  

Stamps:  Taylored Expressions Discover Your Wings and It's A Banner Day - 2
Paper:  Basic Grey Origins paper pad, Stampin Up Baked Brown Sugar and Early Espresso cs
Ink:  StazOn Timber Brown, Antique Linen Distress Ink
Accessories:  Taylored Expressions Discover Your Wings and It's a Banner Day - 2 dies, Wink of Stella, Ink Blending Tool

Documenting December - progress 2

Hi there - here are a few more pages I've completed for my Documenting December Album, from last year's Crop & Create by Scrapbook & Cards Today.

Progress 1 (pages 1 - 9) can be found in this post.

Page 10 - here I used some Pink Paislee 'City Sidewalks' die cuts and American Crafts 'Woodgrain' Thickers (this was Sampson's 1st Christmas).  I used a bit of Heidi Swapp's Gold Lame Color Shine on the red paper as well.

Page 11:  love these Bazzill 'Believe' word stickers

Page 12:  I added some Studio Calico Mr. Huey's Seafoam color mist (guess what Katie got for Christmas that year???)

Page 13:  the stars are added to the outside of the pages and coloured with Pewter pigment ink.  I also used Studio Calico's Mr. Huey's Shine mist on the papers and all the edges are inked with the Pewter pigment ink as well.

Page 14:  here I used the My Favorite Things Stamp set 'Document It - December' 

Page 15:  love love love the My Minds Eye enamel dots

And here they are as they appear in the album :)

More to come...... I'll share soon :)