Friday, December 16, 2011

Busy, busy, busy...

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd pop in a say 'hi' this morning. I've been busy, busy, busy this past week working on a project that required me to make 6 cards from a couple of particular stamp sets that were mostly words and frames. Boy was I stretched (in a good way)... and realized just how much I LOVE my background stamps. ;)

Today I'm busy cleaning house, Christmas caroling with the kids at a nursing home this afternoon with our homeschool group, and getting food ready for TWO Christmas parties. I thought I'd take a short break and pop in to share a card I made last week for my husband's uncle. As some of you know, I've been sending him weekly cards for the past year and a bit as he's been battling cancer. I'm hoping to see him tomorrow at one of the parties and am so grateful for the amazing example he's been through everything.


I used a bunch of scraps for this one and it came together very quickly. Love when that happens. :)
Hope you all have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, December 12, 2011

One Sketch - 2 Cards

Hi everyone,

Just popping by to share a couple of cards I made for a recent Paper Crafts call based on a sketch. Neither card got picked up so I thought I'd share them with you. :)



That's all for now. Time to finish writing out the rest of my Christmas cards. :)

Friday, December 9, 2011

Spring Get Well Card

Hi all,

Thought I'd pop in real quick and a share card that didn't getting an loving from Paper Crafts. ;)

Here it is:


This card uses Hero Arts Butterflies and Wildflowers set as well as Classic Messages. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey's Picadilly 6x6 pad and and the twine is Honeydew by The Twinery.

Before I go... Have you heard of Blitsy? It's a new paper crafting deal website where you get some major discounts! Check it out! I've already placed an order. ;)

I have some cards I need to work on tonight so I'll leave it at that. Enjoy your weekend!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Winner of Card Creations: Get Inspired

Hi everyone,
 
Wish I had a card to post today but I'm in the middle of getting my Christmas cards ready to send out. :) I just wanted to thank everyone for all the sweet comments during the Get Inspired blog hop. They all meant so much to me. Now to announce the winner of the copy of Card Creations: Get Inspired.
 
The winner is....
 
Barb who said...
Congrats on being a part of this fun blog hop, Sarah! Love your fabulous take on your daughter's jacket! She sure is a cutie! :)

Friday, December 2, 2011

Paper Crafts magazine Presents: Card Creations: Get Inspired Blog Hop!

Hi everyone!!

Today I'm excited to be part of Paper Crafts Card Creations: Get Inspired blog hop! 


I had so much fun working on cards for this issue! I enjoyed going through all the inspirational pieces and trying to figure out what I could take from them and put on paper. Since I'm a stamper at heart a lot of this involved going through my stamps and seeing how I could work them into projects that represented the inspirational pieces. 

For today's blog hop I decided to make a card based on my daughter's new snowsuit. I LOVE the pink, gray, and white colour combination and the design of the scattered flowers. (The cute girl wearing it didn't hurt either). ;)


 I took the yummy colour combination and paired it with some scattered snowflakes to come up with a Christmas card for this great cause:


I hope you'll check out what the other participants created for the blog hop. I can't wait to see what they came up with and what they were inspired by! (click on the names to get to their blogs)
AND be sure to comment here (and on the other designers' blogs) by midnight on Sunday, December 4th for your chance to win your own copy of Card Creations: Get Inspired

Also, be sure to head over the the Paper Crafts Connection blog and leave a comment there by midnight on Sunday, December 4th. There's a BIG prize up for grabs...


That's right! The Martha Stewart craft station including a 12”x12” LED light table and glass cutting mat, a cutting shuttle and movable ruler arm, three cutting blades and cartridge, a metal stencil, a stylus, five 12”x12” tracing templates, a cutting knife and an alignment guide. Retail price is $165! Hurry on over!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hambo Stamps Guest Designer


Hi everyone,

I have a fun card to share today using a sweet nativity scene and sentiment from Hambo Stamps. I was thrilled when Libby from Hambo Stamps contacted me earlier this month asking if I'd be interested in guest designing for them. After checking out their selection I knew I definitely wanted to play along! :) They have so many cute, fun, hilarious stamps and sentiments that it was hard to narrow down my selection. In the end the Christmas season won out and I couldn't resist this adorable nativity scene and coordinating sentiment found here:


Coloring isn't my strong point (and I'm not a patient enough person to work on it). ;) So when I have images like this to work with I tend to paper piece. When I first saw this adorable nativity scene though, I knew I wanted the focus to be on baby Jesus and the manger and decided to colour just those areas with white pencil crayon on kraft. Not sure if you see it in the picture below but I went over the white areas with a glitter pen to give a hint of sparkle.



I'm really happy with how it turned out and will be sending it to Cards that Care.

Big thanks to Libby, Monica, and Hambo Stamps for warmly welcoming me and inviting me to play with their wonderful stamps. I do hope you'll check them out.

As always, thanks for popping by!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Another Paper Crafts Get Inspired card

Hi everyone,

Hope all my American friends are sufficiently stuffed from your Thanksgiving dinners yesterday. I just saw that the Paper Crafts Connection blog has another one of my cards from Card Creations: Get Inspired on the blog today along with three other wonderful cards all inspired by the same tank top. This will give a good idea of what the issue is like.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Paper Crafts: Get Inspired

Hi everyone,

Back today to share one the cards I have in Paper Crafts newest special issue: Get Inspired. This was such a FUN issue to design for. A number of designers where sent pictures of 80 different objects from around the house - clothes, jewelery, pillows, dishes, etc. and asked to make cards inspired by them. I have a few cards in this issue and here is one of them:

Hero Arts: Designer Woodgrain, Four Flowers, Find Joy
Hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks again for popping by! I appreciate it. :)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Virginia Lu's 29th Birthday celebration! ;)

Hi everyone!

I'm back to share I card I made for Virginia Lu's 29th birthday celebration. She claims she's turning 50 but we all know better. ;)


Happy Birthday, Virginia! I hope you have an amazing day! I've enjoyed getting to know you over the past few years during our shared time as Hero Hostesses, at the crafting weekend we did together with some of our fellow hostesses (you give the best massages), and our trip to St. Jacob's with my Mom. You are such a fun, caring, hospitable, funny (in a good way) woman and I'm glad I get to call you 'friend'.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Paper Crafts 365 Cards

Hi everyone,

Quick share this morning. I had 2 cards accepted for Paper Crafts 365 Cards and got my issue in the mail yesterday. This is such a fun issue with cards celebrating tradition and wacky holidays as well as sharing cards we tend to use on an everyday basis.

Here's one of my cards:


 I wanted to print some Fall pictures onto canvas and my sister-in-law is a great photographer so I asked her if she had any she could email me. Both this leaf picture and the pumpkins in the other card I have in this publication are photographed by her. Paper Crafts didn't include her name for the photo credit so I'm going to do it here. Thanks Erin Moerman for the great pics! :)

Hope everyone has a great day. The kids and I are off to visit my parents today.

Monday, November 14, 2011

quick share

Hi everyone,

I can't believe it's almost been 2 weeks since I've posted a card. I'm crazy busy working a on big project but should have that done in the next couple of days. :)

I thought I'd pop in real quick before I get back to work to share I card I made recently for the last Paper Crafts call. Unfortunately it didn't make the cut and so you get to see it here. ;)



I made this for the heat embossing category. I heat embossed a circle with 4 layers of embossing powder and pressed my stamp into it while still hot to give the look you see here. Stamps are both Hero Arts: 'Blooming Meadow' and 'Friends Are Treasures'. I had SO much fun heat embossing for this call. I had 4 cards picked up for that section alone and 2 more in other categories. My new record! :)

Okay, off to work. Lots of pop dots in my future.  Fortunately my kids like pop dotting little bumble bees. :)
Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Basic Grey!

Hi everyone,

Just popping in to share that I have an (older) card up on the Basic Grey blog today for their Eye Spy feature! So honoured!

Basic Grey

Lots of sun here today. I better go soak some of it in. :) Hope you all have a great weekend!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

WCMD cards

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd share the cards I made for Paper Crafts World Card Making Day contest. They didn't make the cut but will be going to some soldiers to send home to family so it's still a win! :) Most of the cards use Hero Arts, one uses Technique Tuesday and one Paper Smooches. Let me know if you have any specific questions.







There you go! (I had one more included here but realized it closely resembles a group of tags I'm going to have published so I decided to remove it). ;) It's suppose to be beautiful weather today so I think a trip to the park is in order for this afternoon. Hope you all have a wonderful day

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Some Our Daily Bread cards

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd pop by today to share some cards I made last month at the craft retreat I went to Cincinnati. Jana Millen was sweet enough to let me borrow some of her "Our Daily Bread Designs" stamps: Scripture Collections 1 and Scripture Series 1. I really do need to add these to my own collection of stamps. I LOVE the messages and have been needing to send out some extra special cards the past few weeks. The sentiments in these set were perfect.

Here are the cards I made:





Thanks for stopping by today!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Paper Crafts Holiday Cards & More project

Hi everyone,

I'm back to a share a project of mine that's in the current issue of Holiday Cards & More by Paper Crafts. I'm still waiting (impatiently) for my copy to come in the mail as I have 5 projects in this one (a record for me)! :)

Anyways, here's the one I decided to share:


The case insert is made with Hero Arts and Papertrey Ink stamps, Echo Park and Papertrey Ink papers and my beloved Sizzix snowflake die. My initial thoughts for the CD itself were to use Staz-on ink with the Hero Arts snowflake stamps on a regular CD. I really wanted to use blue ink and only had white and black Staz-on. Going through our office supplies I came across some printable CDs and thought I'd give inking on one a try with regular (chalk) ink. It worked!

Hope you all have a great day and enjoyable weekend! My kids are at the in-laws today and I'm trying to take advantage of it and get a little touch up painting done around here.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Christmas Cards!

Pooping in REAL quick to share a couple of cards I made for the current Hero Arts challenge (focusing on Christmas cards).

Hero Arts: Envelop Pattern, Old Letter Writing, Holiday Sayings; Tree is a Silhouette shape; Buttons; PTI die

Hero Arts: Greatest Gift (LOVE this set!)

This it. Off to heat up leftovers for dinner and get us all out to watch my daughter's dance class. :)

Monday, October 17, 2011

Giveaway Winners

Hi everyone,



I'm popping in to share the giveaway winners for Latrice Murphy's Handmade Holidays class. I'm getting excited and can't wait for this class to start! I used Random.org to pick my winners and came up with #8 and #13!

Here they are:

pegg said...
Sounds like a great class! I've been making some handmade animals for my new niece but honestly don't really know what I'm doing ! Would love to learn how to make some "real" goodies :)
Kimba's Kreations said...
These classes sound like a lot of fun! I would to win a spot in this class.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Merry Christmas Money Card

Hi everyone,

Popping in real quick to share a card I have in the December/November 2011 issue of Paper Crafts magazine.

Here it is:


It was picked up for a section they did on using twine and I must say there are some AMAZING card in here!!!

I'll be back soon to share a project featured in Paper Crafts Holiday Cards & More.
Off to start school. :)

See you soon!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Some exciting news!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to pop in to share some exciting news. My dear friend, Latrice, has asked me to be part of her online class series...



Handmade Holidays is a class that is all about Doing it Yourself. You will learn how to create projects with varied difficulty from cards to a monogram wreath. We will focus on both Fall and Christmas holiday for our DIY projects. Lots of the items you will have on hand and a few you can find either online or at your local craft store. No worries though the class blog will be available to you for one year.

This class is taught by Latrice Murphy along with some great guest designers.

The Deets

Registration Dates: October 7-21, 2011

Class Dates: October 24- November 4, 2011

What are we making: We will complete 10 Fall and Christmas themed projects. Here is the full list of projects.

1. Cards using sketches (2)
2. Scrapbooking with sketches (2)
3. Holiday Wreath
4. Yearly ornament
5. Paper pom pom balls
6. Holiday odd and ends banner
7. Framed artwork with stitching
8. Ruffled pillow

Tutorials: Each day there will be a photo tutorial and we will also have 3 videos (Maybe more)

Flickr: We will have a flickr group set up in order to share our projects and to ask any questions during the class.

Supplies needed: Because there are 10 projects in this class the supply list is big, but most of the items you will have in your crafting stash or you can improvise. A quick trip to your local craft store and you’ll be set. You can also get most of the item online at eclectic Paperie. A full supply list will be given to all registered students on October 17th (One week before class starts)

Discount codes: Registered students will receive a special discount code to eclectic Paperie that is good through the entire month of November!

Prizes: There are prizes from May Arts, Penny Black and eclectic Paperie to be given!

Cost: $10 for students who sign up within the above registration dates! Whaaaaat! Yes…just $10! Individuals who sign up after the above date will pay $12...if you would like to register please go HERE to do so.

Latrice has also generously offered me to giveaway TWO spots in the classes. All you need to do is leave a comment on this blog post by Sunday October 16th at midnight EST for a chance to win a free spot.

I've been busy working on my card for the class and am quite excited to be part of this. It's going to be so much fun and I hope that you will join Latrice, myself and the rest of the guest designers.

Before I go I thought I'd share a picture and a card I made while at a scrap retreat just over a week ago. The room was full of talent with the likes of Jennifer McGuire, Jana Millen, Kathy Racoosin, Britta Swiderski, Deborah Nolan, Stephanie Klauck and many, many more fabulous ladies. We had so much fun, so much ice cream (and much to my surprise I got so much done)!





Here's one of the cards I made (for my husband's uncle). If you could keep him and his family in prayer I'd really appreciate it. Thanks. 

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Fall Guest Designer

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to pop in real quick to let you know that I have a card over at my sweet friend Michelle's blogs: Page Master Designs. She's posting fall and Halloween projects all month long. :)

I'll try and post something here soon. Still have to share about my fabulous weekend away last week but have had a busy and emotional week. If you could pray for Jack and his family I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Happy World Card Making Day!

Happy World Card Making Day!

Hi everyone!

Happy World Card Making Day!!! I hope you all have a chance to get crafty today! :) I've pre-scheduling this post as I'm in Cincinnati this weekend getting crafty with some of the most talented card makers ever! I'll be sure to post about it once I'm back home. :) Before I go here's a card I made recently for a Paper Crafts call that wasn't picked up. Not sure if you can see it in the picture but I added some Frosted Lace Stickles to the candle flames.


Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a wonderful weekend...whether it includes pretty papers & stamps or not. :)

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Thanks ever so much!!

Hi everyone,

Super quick post today as I'm getting ready for a crafty weekend away with friends... Just had to make one more card for the current Paper Smooches Sparks challenge.


 

This one is super simple and features a greeting from the Pretty Phrases set.


Thank YOU ever so much for stopping by!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Paper Crafts Holiday Cards & More

Hi everyone,

A quick post today. We just got home from celebrating my brother's birthday (today), our twins' birthday (tomorrow) and my Dad's birthday (Saturday) all at my parents' place. Lots of fun! :)

Anyways, I thought I'd just pop by and let you all know that I have a card featured on the Paper Crafts Connection blog along with a little write up about what I love most about card making and a little tidbit about Santa's address being Canadian. Still some time to get your letters in to the 'big guy.' ;)

Thanks for popping by!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Paper Smooches Sparks challenge

Hi everyone!

I'm back today to share a couple of cards I made for the current Paper Smooches Sparks challenge! I LOVE Kim's adorable Paper Smooches stamps!




Here's the inspirational piece for the challenge:



and here are my cards:



Both cards use Paper Smooches sweet 'Birthday Buddies' set. They also both draw from the colors of the inspirational piece. The first one also uses a similar layout from the picture and includes a tag like in the picture. For my second card, I was inspired to make a shaped card using the onesie as inspiration. The 'she' is from the word 'fishes' in the set.


Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Bring on the Bling!

Hi all!

I'm here today to share the card I made for this week's Lily Pad Cards blog challenge. I'm sad to say that this will be my last challenge with Lily Pad Cards. I've had lots of fun playing along with Deborah, Vicky and the rest of the wonderful design team. Thanks for everything ladies! I just felt it was time for me to hop off the pad since I'm homeschooling all 4 of our kids this year and wanted to keep other commitments to a minimum until I knew everything was running smoothly (which it is). :) Anyways, this week it's all about the bling! :) Our sponsor is none other than the wonderful Simon Says Stamp!

Here's my card:


I punched/ die cut the butterflies from black cardstock, adhered the bling and went around it all with Glossy Accents. For my background, I heat embossed the grid image in black, rubbed over it with Pumice Stone distress ink and spritzed with pearlized water. If you have any questions about the card feel free to send me an email. :)

Now please head over to the Lily Pad Cards blog to see what the designers have come up with and to get all the challenge details.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Lily Pad Cards/ Hero Arts sketch challenge

Hi everyone,

I'm here today with another Lily Pad Cards blog challenge. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and is sponsored by the one and only Hero Arts! Yay! :) Hero Arts was so generous with the design team. They sent not one, not two, but THREE sets for each designer to work with! Because of that I couldn't help but make two cards for this week's challenge. ;)

Here's the sketch:





Here's my first card:




Hero Arts: Greatest Gift, Artistic Circles, Joyful Christmas Season

 ...and my second, in which I flipped the sketch on it's side and didn't include the sentiment:




Hero Arts: Greatest Gift, Artistic Circles

I LOVE the Greatest Gift set SO much! I've been wanting a faith-based set for a long time and Hero Arts has totally delivered with this one. :)

I can't wait to see what the other designers have come up with! Head over to the Lily Pad Cards blog to see what they've created and to get all the contest details.


Friday, September 9, 2011

Thank a Soldier

Hi everyone,

Popping in real quick (while my son works on his math sheet) to share a card I made for my brother-in-law who's serving overseas with the National Guard. We put together a care pack for him, including a Kindle from his entire family. Lots of down time gets kind of boring... but WE like it that way. He's serving as a medic, so the more bored he is the better. ;)

Anyways, here's the card I made to put in the care pack:


The background was created using the Silhouette and the sentiment is Hero Arts...

Thanks for visiting... and if you get the chance, thank a soldier for all they do to help keep the world safe.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Lily Pad Cards: A Day for Daisies

Hi everyone,

I'm back to share a card for this week's Lily Pad Cards challenge which happens to be a colour challenge. Yay! I love colour challenges since they take away some of the decision making. ;)

This week's challenge is sponsored by A Day for Daisies a great digital stamp company.

Here are this month's colours:





I used this adorable little dress from A Day for Daisies along with some Basic Grey patterned paper (Out of Print), a Hero Arts sentiment (from the Adorable Baby Girl set), and a touch of Glossy Accents (on the dots).

Go check out the Lily Pad Cards blog to see what the other designers have created and to get all the challenge details.

Thanks for stopping by!






Thursday, September 1, 2011

Scrapbook Stamping with Nichol Magouirk

Hi everyone,

I'm excited to share today that the ultra-talented Nichol Magouirk has asked me to play along with this month's Scrapbook Stamping class over at Two Peas in a Bucket. This month's class is focused on incorporating stamping on non-paper products. Now it's been a few months since I've done a layout so I was kind of nervous about it... but also very excited to stamp on one of my favourite things: Sticky Back Canvas!

Here's my layout of my sweet boy (love him so much):


I cut 6 panels from Natural Sticky Back Canvas and stamped them with background stamps.I also die cut tags from the same canvas and stamped on them too. Oh, and I promise that 'orange' button is really RED. Not sure why it photographed off. Anyways, for all the details and a supply list look here.

Thanks again for stopping by! I appreciate it!

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Simon Says Stamp-tember Hop and Treasure Hunt !




Hi everyone,


This is my final Simon Says Stamp! challenge guest designer post. I've had so much fun playing along this month and send a big "Thank You" out to the Simon Says Stamp! design team for inviting me to play along with them.

For the second year in a row, Simon Says Stamp and Show & The Simon Says Stamp Challenge are joining
forces to bring you a SUPER hop and treasure hunt to celebrate the approaching fall and winter holidays.
To help celebrate we will be giving a BIG BASKET OF CRAFTING GOODIES to the winner of this hop! PLUS 3 $25 VOUCHERS to the Simon Says Stamp Store! The vouchers will be the hidden treasure on 3 DT blogs and you have to find them.

The Blog hop starts today (August 31st, 2011) on the Simon Says Challenge blog and will finish on September 5th, 2011 on the Simon Says Stamp & Show blog. The theme for both challenges this week will be ANYTHING GOES. You can make anything you like … a card, an ATC, a Scrapbook layout … the possibilitiesare endless! You will need to hop through each blog, find the little parcel of goodies and make a note on which designer’s blog you found them. You do not HAVE to comment on all the DT blogs but we would appreciate any comments you would like to leave. ;)  If you lose your way at any time a full list of all the participating blogs with links will be available on the Simon Says Stamp Challenge and the Stamp and Show Challenge blogs. For more details please refer to either blog.

If you arrived here from Debby's blog  then you are going in the right direction otherwise you need to start at the beginning on the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog.

Here's my card:




I took a piece of the French Mint Core'Dination cardstock and adhered it backwards on the top section of my card base. I then cut a piece of patterned paper, torn the top edge, and adhered it in place. I then ran another piece of the Core'Dination cardstock through my die cut machine with the numbers embossing folder, sanded the raised area so the blue would show through, and ran it through the die cut machine with a tags die.
I stamped my greeting on a label and attached it to the tag using Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. I threaded some lace ribbon and twine through the tag hole securing it with the Tiny Attacher before adhering the tag to the card.

Here is a list of the supplies I used:

- Number Collage Embossing Folder
- Stella & Rose: Gertie 6x6 paper pad
- Classic Messages
- Lace Ribbon
- Walnut Stain Distress Ink
- Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher
- French Mint Core'Dination cardstock (from Chocolate Box collection)


Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about the card. :)

Your next stop is at the super talented Terry's blog.

Thanks for stopping by!