March Madness Sneak Peak

Happy Family Day to all my fellow Ontarians (and to all of you from Alberta too!).  We spent a lovely weekend at our family cottage enjoying the cold by snowshoeing and tobogganing down the hill to the beach!  It was great!!!  When we weren't outside we were warm and cozy in beside the wood stove playing games, working on a great puzzle and eating yummy food!  So nice!!!!  I LOVE this mid-February holiday.  It's still pretty new but it's not hard to take : )

So, I didn't do any stamping this weekend but I do have a card that I made a couple of weeks ago for my March Madness Make and Take on March 5th.  I had a lot of fun with my Big Shot on this one!

Spring colours for March Madness

See what I mean?!  I just couldn't stop on this one.  One of my favourite things on this card is the little crepe paper flower.

Crepe paper flowers

I ran the crepe paper (see it in Stampin' Up's Spring Catalogue) through the Big Shot on the Floral Fusion Sizzlits die.  I then, very gently, sponged the individual flowers with Raspberry Ripple ink....the more you sponge on the colour the darker the flower.  Finally I pinned them all together with a little brad.

Come out and make this card with me on Tuesday, March 5th.  Contact me to RSVP and to get directions.

Happy Stamping!

Halloween Treat!

My son had his first Halloween party today at preschool!  He was terribly excited and dressed up as a giraffe....so cute!  I tried to convince him to be a horse because his little sister is dressed as a cowgirl but he didn't bite : )

He was allowed to bring treats to school so we had fun using Stampin' Up's cookie stamps to make sugar cookies for his classmates. 

I put them in 4 x6 cello bags and used the Top Note die to create little "toppers" for the bags in Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black.  Then a stamped an owl from the Owl Occasions stamp set in Pumpkin Pie and Basic Grey ink.  I was really pleased with the result and for a moment felt like a "super mom"....Stampin' Up product is so easy to use and coordinates so well that it makes it pretty simple to make something cute!

Happy Halloween!

"Quilted" Birthday

A dear friend of mine is celebrating her birthday tomorrow and I want to share the card I made for her.  I wanted to try something for her that I've been meaning to do for a while....."quilting".  Here is the result.

I took little squares of Everyday Enchantment and adhered them to a scrap of paper before running it through the Big Shot using my Top Note Bigz die.  I then gave it some texture by running the quilted piece through the Big Shot using the Square Lattice Textured Embossing folder.  It's hard to see the texture on here but I really liked the result. 

Here are the rest of the details:

Stamp sets:  Elementary Elegance  (SAB 2012)

Papers: Everyday Enchantment DSP  (SAB 2012), Pool Party CS, Soft Suede CS, Very Vanilla CS

Inks:  Soft Suede

Other:  Pool Party ruffled ribbon,  Curly Label punch, Modern Label punch, Top Note Bigz Die, Square Lattice Textured Embossing Folder

Happy Stamping!

Monkey Fun and an Amazing Deal

So, have you heard?  Stampin' Up! is offering a FREE (yes, FREE) Big Shot this month if you join the Stampin' Up! family!  WOW!!!!  If you are interested in receiving your very own Big Shot for FREE please contact me!

And now onto this week's A la Card Monkey Challenge!  Terry and Shirley were kind enough to allow me to be a guest designer in this week's challenge and I had a lot of fun creating a sparkly (and jingly) Christmas card.

Here is the sketch for this week:

I LOVED this sketch and quickly decided that "Dasher" and sparkles had to be a part of the card.  Here is my take on the sketch:

Lots of sparkles for this Dasher card

So my colour combination is Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip.  It's taken a while to grow on me but I'm started to love the "Holly Berry Bouquet" Speciality DSP in the Holiday Mini.  The best part is that it has Sparkle Paper in it : )  I used some for the bottom of the "Top Note" background.  I also used Real Red sparkle paper for the "rosette" behind Dasher and some more Dazzling Details sparkle on Dasher himself.  I also HAD to use the new miniature Jingle Bells on this one.  Here's a close up:

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells....

They actually jingle!  It's great!  A very simple way to add something special to your holiday cards this year.  I'm really looking forward to using them in upcoming workshops.

Happy Stamping!

Monkey Challenge 72

It's been quite a while since I've entered a Monkey Challenge over at A la Card Monkey and have decided to get back in the game tonight.  This week's challenge was a Christmas card challenge.  I have always resented the fact that Christmas is so commercial and we can barely get through Halloween or Remembrance Day before we get pounded with Christmas propaganda...but here I am, entering a Christmas challenge and encouraging my customers to book their Christmas workshops early....sigh.  Oh well, I do LOVE Christmas and the holiday season so here I go, getting into the festive spirit in September ; )

Here's the Monkey Sketch for this week:

Monkey Sketch 72

And here's my rendition:



Merry Christmas Pennant

 I'm not sure if I like it, to be honest : )  I took some liberties with the sketch, due in large part to the fact that I do not have any up-to-date Designer Series Christmas Paper or any up-to-date Christmas stamp sets.  Hmm, guess I'd better get on that.

I did turn to the Holiday Mini for some colour inspiration and decided to go with Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Marina Mist, Early Espresso and Whisper White, a combination in this year's "Frostwood Lodge" suite. For the Christmas tree I used a pennant from the Pennant Parade stamp set along with the tree stand and star....you will need a Stamp-a-ma-jig to do this.  The sentiment comes from "Four the Holidays" (the only Christmas stamp set I have that carried over!).  I finished it off with the Early Espresso baker's twine.

I'm looking forward to creating more Christmas cards with more bling and "excitement" than this one, but what can I say....it is only September ; )

Best Wishes

Yesterday I hosted a bridal shower for my cousin who is getting married next month.  It was so nice to get together with the ladies of my family again.  We always have so much fun together, especially when we're showering someone with gifts : )

I decided to use the Stamping 411 challenge sketch as part of my inspiration for my card to her.  I also used her wedding invitations and the cards I made for her shower invitations as a jumping off point.  The bride-to-be's wedding invitations include colours similar to Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango and So Saffron.  These are the colours I used throughout the following projects.

Best Wishes to the Bride-to-be

For her shower card I decided to lots of layers using the Scallop, Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer and 1/2" circle punches.  The centre of the "flower" is using a stamp from the "Bold Blossom " stamp set from the current summer mini with an Old Olive brad in the centre.  I used the "Four Frames" stamp that has the bird on it but just coloured the edges instead to create the border for the sentiment from "Sincere Salutations".   I just had to use some "Play Date" DSP again and loved the pattern on this piece for this card.  Finally it's finished with some Very Vanilla satin ribbon.

I took the flower from the outside and toned it down a little for the inside of the card.

An inside look



Some advice from the rest of us!

As a keepsake, each lady wrote a little piece of marriage advice on a "Top Note" and then I bound them together using some more of the Very Vanilla satin ribbon.  The covers to this "book" again use Old Olive card stock, "Play Date" DSP and the same flower and sentiment from the card.  I punched through all the layers with my Crop-a-dile and used some jumbo eyelets on the covers to finish the look.