Long time no post

Hi all,

It’s been ages since I’ve posted…not much to say I guess. Anyhoo, I was going through my uploaded photos and found a few that weren’t attached to any posts so I thought I’d show you a couple. Never mind that the wedding card I’m posting was made so long ago that the bride and groom have a bouncing baby boy already! I used the bride’s chosen colours for this.

 

So here they are after over 1 and a half years!

Hey, if you are into digital scrapbooking and would love a free kit go to Design House Digital for their great blog hop and collect the coupon code letters on the way to download a beautiful kit for FREE!

Now I must go, see you in a few days, weeks or months, I can’t really say!

“I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives

as much as if we  had never married at all.”
Lord Byron

Thank you gifts

The school year ended a couple of weeks ago and I did get my butt in gear and make cards and gifts for the classroom teachers and learning assistants who help my kids out.  Everyone got a variation of the teabag holder that I showed in an earlier post, Tea Time.   The cards were inspired by something I saw in the Sale-A-Bration brochure in the spring but I mucked about and made them all my own.

More another time – the kids need milk!  Like what you see?  Let me know!

The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.

~Author Unknown

C the card?

With three kids in school there at a lot of invites to birthday parties.  I love to send the girls to parties with a nice card to give the birthday person.  When I was little I loved  birthday parties and now I want to help make the big day a bit more special for the little monkeys.  Each card, if I have enough prep time, tends to have a personal touch to it.  Usually it is as simple as the addition of the kid’s initial but I have made ones before with the child’s picture.

This one is another variation of the card I saw in the Sale-A-Bration catalogue and CASEd in my last post.  But this time the birthday party was for a boy, so I changed it up a bit.

That’s it for now but I’ll soon get to a digital page!

A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun.
Enjoy the trip.

~Author Unknown

Getting inspired

I know I’ve mentioned my amazing upline Carrie before.  She is a true inspiration for all of us in her downline and many hundreds who have never even met her.   Whenever she has us over for a meeting, she presents us with great ideas and then blogs her ideas for all to CASE.  The waterfall card  we made at her place is on her blog here: http://artisticavenger.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/dont-you-forget-about-me/

I was making a card for a co-worker’s 30th (yeah, she’s just a little kid!) and knew that I had to make her a waterfall card – my new favourite technique!  So here’s what I made.

I took some detail shots for all to see as well – yup, lovin’ that new camera!

I made a card for another co-worker who happens to share the same birthday as the 30-year-old – but she was celebrating her 65th!  Her card was inspired by the last Sale-A-Bration catalogue.  Below is the image from the mini that I liked and decided that I needed to CASE. 

Here’s my take on that card.  A little look at the close-ups and then the finished project.

Like what you see?  Let me know!

Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age.

Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
Tom Wilson

The return of …. well, me!

I’ve been MIA with my posts and for no good reason.  Okay, there have been a few illnesses in the household which have consumed much of my spare time.  However, I did have a bit of time to descend to the craft area prior to the vomiting, coughing and general ickyness that invaded the household.  So now that we are fairly healthy again (see me knocking on my head?), I’m attempting to get back to blogging a bit more regularly – at least until the next crisis arises!

A former co-workers of mine recently retired (great for her, sucks for us!) and I made a little card for her.

 

And, another co-worker just hit the big 30 and guess what I did?  That’s right, I made her a card!

I even managed to make a hybrid scrapbook page yesterday before I left for work but still haven’t taken a shot of it.  When I do, I’ll post it.  That’s it for me for now – don’t expect great thing right away!  But I’ll be back soon-ish, maybe, hopefully!

Like what you see, let me know!

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.
Joseph Addison

Playing catch up!

Between being sick and dealing with sick kids, I haven’t posted in a donkey’s age.  I have found a bit of time to make some stuff though!

As I mentioned before, I went to the Stampin’ Up regionals in Vancouver and in the days before, I sat down and designed a card front to swap.  Here it is.

Can you believe these shots are of the same card front?  Pete sweetly gave me a camera for Christmas and I’ve had a bit of a hard time adjusting to it.  The first shot is with our old camera and shows the colours as they really are.  The second shot is from the new camera and although it highlights the details of the heat embossing really well, the colours are a bit off.

This third shot is with the new one.  The colours are bang on but, well, it is super fuzzy!  Clearly I need more play time with the camera.

Anyhoo, moving along… the parties never end which in terms of making cards is a wonderful thing!  It always gives me an excuse to head down to the basement and get inky.  So here’s one I made for our good friends’ daughter.

See how sparkly it is?  That’s the wonderful Champagne Mist paint from Stampin’ Up.  I’m suddenly quite addicted to it.  I’ve discovered how great it looks on my nails after I spilled it on the countertop, too.  Fortunately, it washes right off.

Today I’m providing you with two quotes as I liked them both so much!

 

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.

Emily Dickinson

 We are always the same age inside.

Gertrude Stein

As promised…

As promised, here are the two designs of birthday cards that I made last weekend and gave away.  February is full of birthdays in our family – 13, 16, 19, and 22 – see the pattern?  So I made two of each design in order to have enough for Dad, my brother, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law.

 

 

Don’t tell Shelli but I used  a non-Stampin’ Up ribbon on this next card.  It’s hard to see (darn that scanner) but the card has a raised pattern on it from running it through my Big Shot in an embossing folder.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the inside.

 

I embossing the paper before punching in out just to add a little oomph.  Rather than inking the stamp on an ink pad, I used my markers to get the two colours on the sentiment.  Anyway, I must run.  I’m off to the Stampin’ Up regional event in downtown Vancouver tomorrow and do require some sleep beforehand.

 

My next post will feature the swap that I designed for the event.  Down to the wire, I thought about it yesterday and not only designed a card front but made some (okay only 21) between noon yesterday and noon today. If I hadn’t worked today I’m sure I’d have made several more as I was whipping through my assembly line right quick by the time I had to head into town.

 

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.

~Leo J. Burke

Cards and coffee

Oh my, I really am lazy these days!  Here I am after noon on a Saturday posting in my pajamas.  But hey, at least I’m out of bed.  In spite of what my infrequent postings may suggest, I have been down to the basement in the last few weeks to create.  After making all the Valentine’s for the girls, I made one for my in-laws – it’s a knock off of the one I made at Carrie’s downline meeting.

The one I made for my hubby was such a poor last-minute creation that I’m not even going to show it.  I realized about an hour before he got home from work that I hadn’t yet made one for him.   But I will post the one I gave him last year.  This spinner card was designed by my good friend, Marnie.

As the mom of three girls, there is a constant need for birthday cards!  So, again, a last-minute creation (but one that I’m happy enough with that I’ll post) was needed for a sleepover birthday party.  As it wasn’t at my house, I was quite happy to send my big one off.  Can you imagine having 10 girls, ages 8 and 9 chatting until midnight?  Apparently there were even die-hards that stayed awake until 3 am!  Anyway, here’s the card I made for the birthday girl.

Here’s a card that speaks to my heart!  I love this stamp set and just had to use it as soon as I could.  After some trial and error, I came up with a card that I thought adequately expressed my love of coffee!  You can find this and a few other of my creations for sale at bookmark the library store!

That’s it for now as I can’t yet show the birthday cards that I made for the birthday folks this weekend.  Like what you see?  Let me know!

 

Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee.

 ~Stephanie Piro

No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee’s frothy goodness.

~Sheik Abd-al-Kadir

And the winners are…

Remember I recently posted the entries I sent in for the Stampin’ Up My Digital Studio contest??  Well, I’ve finally managed to get my memory back in line and am now put the link here so that you can see the winners and check out their creations. http://www.stampinup.com/us/enu/18786.asp

Enjoy!

I’ve been trying to get some crafting done in time for Valentine’s Day as I have 3 little monkeys in school now and that means loads of cards for their friends.  I could easily grab those little ones from the dollar store but where’s the fun in that??  So I grabbed some cardstock in the retired colours (hey, I love my kids and even like their friends, but why use current stuff on their cards when I have a mess load of older cardstock to use up?).  As a fabulous mom, I also have stamps with their names on them – saves me the agony of watching them scribble their names over and over getting messier as they go along.  Here’s what I made – 21 for K, 26 for H and 30 for S.

Then I grab those handy leftover bags from the Summer Reading Club medals, add candy, heart-shaped lollipops, and stickers and send the kids to school!

Like what you see?  Let me know!

I claim there ain’t
Another Saint
As great as Valentine.
~Ogden Nash

Copy and paste

I’m CASEing again!  Yep, artistic theft isn’t stealing when you acknowledge your source, right?  Right!  So thanks to the best upline any girl could have (and Marnie and I do!) I created something I really like without having to rack my brain for hours.  Carrie, The Artistic Avenger, seems to just pop out amazing items with no effort.  Here’s the original she created for us to make at a meeting. And here is my more generic, less Valentiney take on it.

I also made several cards from a predesigned kit that Stampin’ Up put out a few years ago.  They still make Simply Stampin’ kit but this particular one is retired.

That’s about all I’ve managed lately although I’m still trying to get my creative juices flowing again this new year.  But with the new mini catalogue and the Sale-A-Bration goodies due to arrive at my doorstep soon, I’ll be back to stamping and gluing in no time.

Like what you see?  Let me know!