Congrats

Sorry I didn't upload at my normal time ... I meant to schedule them, but totally forgot. I'm a bit distracted with Paul gone not to mention the fact that four of us have a chest cold (nasty cough). But, here's another Verve challenge sketch card, this time with a monochromatic twist ... I used blue!

Hope you like it!

Stamps: Cheep Talk, Congrats
Paper: Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Good Morning Sunshine DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Pacific Point, Stazon™, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Curly Label Punch, Bashful Blue Grosgrain, Vintage Brads, Dimensionals®, Piercer, Crystal Effects

A Note of Thanks

Thanks for all your sweet comments on our little sweetie! He is a cutie and he is an awesome kid. Well, all my kids are but I'm their mother and I'm biased :). I LOVE messy birthday cakes. It's about the one time I handle mess with grace and laughter!!

Stamps: Cheep Talk
Paper: Pacific Point, Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive, Stazon™
Accessories: Top Note Die, Wide Oval Punch, Pacific Point Striped Grosgrain, Vintage Brads, Dimensionals®, Flower Layers die, Crystal Effects

Here's another card I made for the Verve February challenges. Again, another sketch with a twist: no patterned paper! Kinda tough. I haven't made a card without patterned paper in ages ... It was super fun, though. I love the challenge to use the stamps I have to make my own paper. Because I loved the birdie paper in the Good Morning Sunshine DSP from Stampin' Up, I thought I'd recreate it with the stamps from the same stamp set I'd used on the other card, Cheep Talk. It turned out kinda cute, if I may say so myself!

The sketch called for a circle behind the image panel, so I made a circle, kind of, using the flower layers die. Hopefully, you can understand the rest? I'm tired and my hubby leaves today for Grand Rapids, so I'm also kinda weepy ... :( call me a suck, but I'm gonna miss that man. I have a huge respect for military wives who do this for waaaaaaaaaaay longer periods of time.

Anyways, have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

P.S. What's with all the ovals and circles in sketches?

Hello There!

The Verve forum (over at SplitCoast) has a month of challenges called "Viva La Verve" and there are four challenges in a month. This is the first one, it's both a sketch challenge and a twist! This one has a twist of embossing, either dry or wet. I did both. Not sure if you can see that, but I wet embossed the sentiment, and dry embossed the patterned paper. I also sanded the patterned paper so the embossing shows a little more. The bird and stem are covered with crystal effects. You probably can see that in the second pic!

Stamps: Cheep Talk
Paper: Pacific Point, Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Good Morning Sunshine DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Black Craft
Accessories: Tangerine Tango Striped Grosgrain, Vintage Brads, Wide Oval punch, Dimensionals®, Texturz Backgrounds I, Word Window Punch, Black EP, Crystal Effects

In other news, my baby turned one on Monday!! I can hardly believe that a year has gone by ... my oh my ... We have a tradition of making my very favourite cake for each of our kids on their first birthday. It's with those chocolate wafers by Mr. Christie and whip cream. Super yum, basically a log cake that requires no baking but guarantees a ton of mess! This is Mattias at his best. He LOVED it!!

Have a fabulous day!

So Hoppy For You

Another missed challenge, this time from Our Creative Corner (Feb 14th's sketch). AND, another stamp set mounted and inked up! This set will be a tad more difficult for me to use. I don't really know why, though ... I'll just have to get it out again and play more!! Anyways, fun card and fun sketch. The circles were interesting as was the colours I chose ... I really like these three together with a nice balance of white, don't you? The Rockabilly DSP has a wonderful sheen to it. If you click the pic, you may be able to see that better! Love love love that sheen. It's on every piece, at least one side! and, the white square and circle are dry embossed with the new Texturz plates!

Hope you like it!

Stamps: So Hoppy For You
Paper: Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Rockabilly DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Stazon™
Accessories: Texturz Plates Backgrounds 1, Pacific Point Corduroy Buttons, 1-3/8", 1-1/4" Circle Punches, Scallop Circle Punch, Dimensionals®, Tangerine Tango Stitched Grosgrain

Trendy Trees

I don't know if you'd noticed, probably not, but I had a bunch of new stamp sets sitting on my desk just waiting to be mounted and used! This is one of them. It's called Trendy Trees and I just love how simple it is to use. A quick two-step stamp that makes an awesome image! In playing "catch-up" with some challenges, this one was for last week's Mojo Monday (74). I love the sketch and I may well use it again, if I find time, that is!

It's a pretty simple card, one cranked out in a few minutes. It's mostly patterned paper, from the new DSP (Designer Series Paper) called Urban Oasis. Love love love this paper, although Urban Garden is still my most favourite.

Hope you like it!

Stamps: Trendy Trees
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Grey, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Urban Oasis DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Close to Cocoa, Basic Grey
Accessories: Dimensionals®, Kiwi Kiss Corduroy Buttons, Piercer, Silver Brads, Grey Velvet Ribbon (Beachfront Originals, retired)

RAK from Kristine

I received this beautiful card from Kristine, over at Ink Something. I LOVE this card, Kristine!! It so absolutely beautiful. Just check out the colouring ... my oh my, she's talented! The Magnolia image is so cute. I haven't gotten any yet ... perhaps soon ... Thanks so much!!

Birthday Clipboard

and the last of the three clipboards! This one is just a simple birthday calendar that I quickly printed out. I just left the lines blank so I can easily add names in pencil to the ever-growing list. The main reason I made this? Well, I'm horrible at sending out cards on time ... my sister's birthday was at the beginning on February I forgot to send her card, my cousin's daughter's birthday is tomorrow and I haven't mailed one out and my other sister's is next week. Hopefully, I have time to get one out to her! So, I made this one to be in front of my face in my favourite place to be, my craft room!

Anyways, pretty simple board. There's not much in the way of decorating other than the sticky letters and the clip. I'd never used the sticky letters so this was kinda fun. They are so easy to use! What I love? They pop out of the sheets they come in so you don't have an immediate sticky mess. You can easily figure out where you want them and how they'll fit. So, after I'd done that, I peeled off the backing, one at a time, and just did half of the word, "birth". I removed the top layer of backing, and poured the green micro beads over top and smooshed them in with my fingers. I did this over my largest Powder Pal tray and even then, some of the beads went flying. Those things are staticky (is that a word?)! Then, once done and cleaned up, i did the other letters. Those ones I covered with the green glitter that comes in the new Supernova Fine Stampin' Glitter assortment. I smushed it in with a stipple brush, carefully. Here's a closer-up shot:

The clip decoration was pretty simple too. I stamped a cupcake image from the set called "Crazy for Cupcakes" three times: once on the green DSP, once on the blue DSP, and once on whisper white card stock. I cut out the blue and green, glued it on the white and then cut it all out. Matted it on a scallop circle punch and stamped the words. Then it was adhered to the white flower (from the pretties kit).

Hope you like it!!

Calendar Clipboard

Sorry for the semi-washed-out pic ... it's too tall for my photo thing and I've run out of daylight to take the pic! Anyways, this is my calendar clipboard. The calendar is one I'd received from Our Daily Bread stamps a while ago with one of my orders. Totally handy and it was totally lost until I revamped my room! So, there are definitely some pluses to re-organization beyond the mind boggling chaos that occurs :) I cut off the photo portion of the calendar, and it's clipped to a square of card stock with a 1/2" library clip. The card stock is popped up on dimensionals so I can easily change out the calendar. I'll just make my own when I need a new one!

Pretty, simple design. Just layers of card stock, a couple die cut star images. If you remember the clipboard from yesterday and my out dated to-do list, you may remember Jen's SFYTT which I used for this clipboard! I really wanted to keep the clipboards simple as the majority of it will get covered with paper ...

I'm labelling this as SU only, but I did use some extra flowers on the clip part: they're from Prima (the green), and from All That Scraps (white).

"To Do" Clipboard

Thanks for all your kind comments on my revamped craft room! I think I've inundated you all with the seemingly never-ending changes, eh? Well, this *should* be the end, with maybe some minor tweaks such as flooring, crown molding, and baseboards. Some will happen when Paul (my hubby) gets back from school. He leaves next Friday and won't be home for THREE MONTHS. I'm going to go totally nuts ... and miss him like crazy. He'll be in Michigan while I'm here in Alberta. No chance of a weekend trip ... ANYWAYS, I don't feel like bawling yet :) Here's one of the three clipboards I made to be a functional pretty thing in my space:

I chose to use the same DP for all three clipboards: Urban Garden. It's got to be my all time favorite pack of Designer Series Paper!! The colours are gorgeous and perfectly match my craft room (and no, I did not choose the paint colours based on SU's, I just went with what I responded to). This one is, obviously, my "to do" board. I'll clip up projects I want to try out, sketches I try to play in (as you can see, if you're familiar with any of the ones pictured, I missed the "deadline" for the ones shown).

The letters were die cut out of chipboard (I pre adhered the DSP to a square and then cut) using the Big Shot and the Serif Essentials alphabet (item #113464). I love this die set. It's perfect for a title, or even as the beginning letter of a title. I tacked the two letters together with crystal effects as well as to the clipboard. The library clip and brad are just a decorative touch, but it kinda looks like it holds the letters together and to the board! They are new hardware to this catalogue called 1/2" Library Clips and 5/16" Neutrals Brads.

The flower is from the Pretties kit that I inked up with a sponge Dauber and it's held on with a jumbo eyelet. I also adhered some swirls that I die cut with the "Swirls & Scribbles" sizzlits die.

I hope you like it! Tomorrow, I'll post the calendar clipboard!!

P.S. Do any of you follow GinaK's blog? (or any of the DT?) well, if you don't or if you do, you have GOT to check out the new StampTV! Fabulous resource with phenomenal video's!!

Hi again!!

Well, it's been a few days, unusual for me, I know! I've been busily working on my revamped craft room in between bouts of strep throat (yes, I got it back, yuck). But, my craft room is done! I just realised the other day that I've basically taken over the whole room ... and my hubby doesn't even mind! Isn't that great? The room is quite large, about 22' long and 14' wide at my new desk side and 10' at the opposite end. Now, before I started this move, I actually graphed it out. Call me weird, but I wanted to guarantee where things would go and what I'd need to finish it. This is what it looked like at it's concept stage!!:

I'd made little acetate pieces of furniture (to scale with my room) and played around with the layout until I was happy with it. I don't have a problem with visualising anything, that part was easy! I just had to choose paint colours (because I have an issue with all white/cream houses) and I wanted the colours to be bright. I think I got that. I'm not sure how clear the colours translate through the pictures, but the blue is sort of a dark Baja Breeze and the other walls are a much lighter shade with a touch of grey in it.

Here's what the room looks like from three sides. If I'd shot from the fourth, all you'd see is the messy toy room!

I plan on putting up a molding frame on the wall on the right (the lighter coloured wall). There's no backing to this frame, the molding will be just put right on the drywall. I'll put all my card samples inside that frame. It will control the wall clutter a bit! Then, I think on the opposite wall, I'd like to put black and white pics of our family. That back door leads to my girls's room which I showed a bit of right HERE!!

Here's a few closer up shots of some areas that I love:

I made three clipboards for above my ink pads. One is a to do board, one is a calendar, and one is a birthday calendar. I'll show you more close up's tomorrow when I take the pics!

Computer clutter is generally ugly, so I bought a kitchen cabinet from Ikea with solid doors (Akurum/Nexus Birch 24"x24") and prettied them up with the Décor Elements - Manhattan Flowers (chocolate)! I really like how it turned out. Gives a little more prettiness to a really functional area. (The desktop pic on my computer is my youngest, Mattias, wearing some bunny ears I'd found at the dollar store!)

I hope you like my room and perhaps it will inspire you?

p.s. all my furniture is from Ikea: inexpensive and beautifully designed!

Card Holder - cards #4

well, this is my stamp room so far! I love love love the paint colour. I have yet to paint all the cream out. It's going to be mostly white with a hint of a greyish blue. Now, all those cupboards and shelves have to come down and get put back up on the other side of the room (the wall you see in the pic is the wall I'm putting my desk on) ...

and here's the last of the 4 card set!!

This is the last set of two cards for my mother-in-laws card holder. I love this set the most (hence why it's saved for last!)!! The beautiful pinks and brown together are always a great combination, eh? I stamped the flowers on the DSP and embossed with Heat & Stick and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. You can't see it too well on the first card, so when I made the second one, I stamped with White craft ink instead of VersaMark.

I hope you like my card set using this stamp set! If you've made a fabulous card using Upsy Daisy, please let me know! I'd love to see what YOU can do with this set!

all Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Bella Rose DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Regal Rose, Old Olive, Riding hood Red, Whisper White, VersaMark®
Accessories: Heat & Stick EP, Dazzling Diamonds, Dimensionals®, 5.8" Neutrals Brads, Chocolate Corduroy Brad, Large Oval Punch

Card Holder - cards #3

Here's the third set of cards using Upsy Daisy! This time, I embossed the image in white directly on the patterned paper. I love the soft look of this. The card stock has also been embossed using the new Texturz Backgrounds 1 from Stampin' Up!®. It is a softer look, but I really like it. Here's a closer up shot:

Anywho, thanks for stopping by!!

all Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Paper: Bella Rose DSP, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss
Ink: Whisper White Craft ink, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Backgrounds 1 Texturz plates, White Embossing Powder, Vanilla HodgePodge Hardware, Pink Pirouette Striped Grosgrain

Card Holder - cards #2

Another set of cards for my MIL's card holder. This time, I kept the cards exactly the same. My eyes want to see double when I look at the pic of this card, but the shadow effect is not nearly as dizzying in real life. There's a touch of glitter over one flower, but otherwise the card is pretty straight forward!

Thanks for stopping by :)

all Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sweet Little Sentiments
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Bella Rose DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Riding hood Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Double Stitched Chocolate Grosgrain, Scallop Punch, 1-3/8" & 1-1/4" Circle Punch, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Scallop Edge Punch, Flower Designer Brad, Dimensionals®

Card Holder - cards #1

These are two of the eight cards in this set. I chose to make two of each layout, but simply flip the DP over so that both sides get equal love! This layout comes from the Double Dutch blog, a new challenge blog for me. Not that I need to find more challenges ... I have a hard enough time keeping up with the ones I do do. But, I've decided to not worry about "deadlines" and am just going to post as I get them done. Anyways ... I'm blathering ... The cards are simple, with a touch of glitter over the front panel:

Hope you like them!

all Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Paper: Bella Rose DSP, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Wide Grosgrain, Chateau Bella Rub-Ons, last year's SAB rub-ons, Dimensionals®, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter

Card Holder

Before I can show you my oh-so-awesome-I-totally-love-it project, I just have to show you my craft room ... it's a mess! (and my kiddoes are goofs that just had to be in the pic!) That window in the first pic is going to be above my craft desks next week, once I get it painted, that is! Hopefully this weekend. I am so sick of the cream ... it's going to be a nice greyish blue (dark) on two walls and then a greyish white on the rest. I'm so excited to see it!! We'll probably do the flooring later this year. I think I'm going to go with a natural coloured laminate. It will keep it looking fresh and bright especially once the crown and base moldings are up in glossy white! But boy, what a job moving all the "stuff" out for a bit ... :)

anyways ...

I made an early birthday present for my Mother-in-Law. She just loves giving out cards as encouragement or whatever. She's superb at remembering details too! As with any person who already has what they need, this is the perfect gift for her. Something she can use and I can refill! I saw the idea on Julie Buhler's blog (Paper Pleasing Idea's) and just loved it.

There's a demo challenge to make a four card set, using the same stamp set and papers but different cards. So, that's what I did but I'm going to draw it out ... you'll see them over the next few days! I also used the colour combination from Color Throwdown (Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, and Chocolate Chip). The front layout came from 2 Sketches For You (Kazan's Sketch 19). I used a rarely-used stamp set: Upsy Daisy. Don't get me wrong, I love the set, I just don't know what to do with it ... it feels so one dimensional ... I endeavoured to use it on all four cards as well as the outside of this holder! I used a corduroy button in the centre of the flower that I sponged Regal Rose ink on. Love love love the new buttons!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hardware Club

I had a hardware club with my local gals and this is the little package I made up to hold all their new goodies! Super cute little package and the embellishments are luscious! I'm an embellishment junkie ... it makes me drool to see all these lovely things :) Anyways, simple packaging but oh-so-cute, eh?

all Stampin' Up!®

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Love You Much
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Good Morning Sunshine DSP
Ink: Stazon™, Pretty in Pin, Rose Red
Accessories: Top Note Die, Scallop Punch, 1-3/8" & 1-1/4" Circle Punch, Vanilla Wide Grosgrain, Cello Bag

I'm in the midst of revamping my stamp room, yet again. I'm actually switching to the opposite end of the room and streamlining it a bit more with the computer area. I'm also repainting my walls and puttying the myriads of holes ... ! It should be done by next week, if I'm lucky. On Monday, I'm heading to the city with a friend and we're hitting IKEA where I'm going to get another desk (for the computer), cabinet (for computer crap) and one more cabinet for my stamps so all my stamps can be in one spot. Right now, all my SU stamps are together, but all the ones in CD cases are in CD boxes which is a pain in the you-know-where. I'll make sure to take pics, if you're interested!! I can't wait to get this one done, and I'm not even going to bother saying it's the last time ... I'm an organizational nut :)

Thanks for coming by my blog!

Stamp Club - Technique Project

Ok, I totally LOVE this card. It is so simple and clean, or so I thought. When my club members made this card, it turned out that it wasn't so simple. Stamping through the hearts was a challenge for some ... making sure the heart punch didn't punch off a corner (or try to find it in the mass of punched out stuff) was another challenge. I suppose I could have made it easier my doing a circle, but I still LOVE the hearts. This technique is really shown off with these shapes. The technique is called Glitter Window and is super simple. A fun way to use glitter!

all Stampin' Up!®
Stamps: Love You Much, Short & Sweet
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red Patterns DSP
Ink: Stazon™, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Heart to Heart Punch, packing tape