Saturday, December 27, 2008

Hope You Had a Very Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I had a wonderful Christmas.

The day started out with my DS and I opening our gifts. Then we ate the traditional breakfast scrambled egg casserole that I prepared the day before. I've been making it now for about the past 14 yrs. DS would never even try it until about 4 yrs ago. I used to be able to get away with cutting the recipe in half since it was just my mother & I who ate it. There was always enough left over for breakfast the next day too! Now that DS is older, he loves it and a half recipe isn't enough. (He likes it for a bedtime snack too!) Mom has always come over for Christmas breakfast & looks forward to it every year. This year mom wasn't able to come over because of her knee replacement and hazardous walking conditions outside. So I took breakfast over to her.

I love being able to spend the day with my family which this year included my mother, my sister & her husband, my brother, my son and of course myself. My BIL's mother also came along so she wouldn't be alone. This year we did miss my sisters 2 daughters, their hubby's and of course the 5 little ones. They spent the day with their inlaws this year.

Since my sister, her hubby, their girls & children were heading out to Florida (how lucky) that night, I decided to cook the turkey dinner this year to make it easier for my sister. Normally I don't do the cooking as with my health it's a bit too much. Plus living in such a small apartment, I don't have room for everyone. With my mother having a knee replacement in September and her getting older, it's getting a bit much for her to do the dinners. Since I live at the back of her house, I cooked the turkey here and my BIL carried it over to mom's when it was done. I also peeled the potatoes & sent them over to be cooked as well as the squash that I had baked. Mom took care of making the salads.

The meal was wonderful if I do say so myself. lol After dinner we had some of mom's homemade apple pie (she makes the best apple pies), exchanged gifts and by 8 pm my sister & her hubby were out the door. This was the earliest Christmas departure for us ever. They had to go home and load up their truck and head up to London to their daughters house after leaving mom's house. They borrowed my car top carrier (how nice, it gets to go to Florida and I can't) to take on the trip.

Yesterday it hit me, I was in so much pain from overdoing it the 3 previous days with all the preparations, cooking and carrying the food over to mom's that I could barely move. This goes along with my Rheumatoid Arthritis & Fibromyalgia. I also have a bulging disk in my back that sits on a nerve and makes walking & standing very painful. Thank goodness today I feel better as I have to go and return some gifts.

I purchased the new Guitar Hero World Tour complete band game for DS. He set it up Christmas Day to played it and wouldn't you know it, the foot pedal doesn't work, one cymbal doesn't work either. I'm not overly happy about it considering the cost of this item. There are also some download patches that you have to do before playing it. (too bad for those who don't have internet access). The joys of gift giving. lol

So we're heading out early this morning to return the game and he plans on running around trying to find another one. I hope that he'll be successful as I know how disappointed he is that this one has to be returned. Hopefully he'll find another one today in town.

Santa Baby RAK Card & ATC too!

I finally got the time to play with my new punches that I won in the Fiskateers Online Christmas Party Crop three weekends ago. I love the card that Lisa Storms created on the Fiskars Craft site. You can see her card and tutorial here http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/projects/t_holiday1108.aspx

I followed Lisa's tutorial for the punched Santa which was really easy. I pulled out one extra punch - the Fiskars 1/8th inch hand punch (I think that's the size) for the black part of Santa's eyes. I also used Heidi Grace Frost Blvd. papers for the background of the card.

The punches I used are:

Face
XL Cameo Appearance - beard
M Oval 'n Oval Again - face
Circle Pop Up Punch - cut in half for cheeks, shade with chalk
1/4" hand punch - whites of eyes (punch 2)
1/8" hand punch - black part of eyes (punch 2)
1/4" hand punch - nose
Large Comma, Comma Chameleon - whiskers (punch 2)

Hat
XL Comma, Comma Chameleon - punch in red
XL Square-a-licious - punch out of white & then reinsert in punch and punch it again so that it consists of 2 or 3 scallops for hat brim.

That's it! You have the cutest little punched Santa to add to your cards, ATC's, or layouts! I love it!

Here's my ATC that I made. I am planning on using this in my "punch book" and on the back of the ATC I listed all the punches that I used to create this Santa.

Thanks for looking!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Happy Mail Day & I’ve Been Blessed!!

Three weekends ago I won the “Santa Baby” Rak during the Fiskateers Online Holiday Crop. I was so thrilled to win this rak as I have a huge addiction to punches. The punches included in the RAK are the XL Squeeze Punch - Cameo Appearance; XL Squeeze Punch - Square-a-licious; XL & Large Squeeze Punch - Comma, Comma Chameleon and the Medium Squeeze Punch - Round 'n Round. It also included the Pop-up Circle Punch and the 1/4 Inch Circle Hand Punch. That’s a total of 7 punches!!! Now you see why I’m so excited!!! Did I even mention the orange Fiskars "Practice Random Acts of Crafting" nylon bag. Not only is it an awesome bag...it also has straps that allow you to wear it as a backpack. Too Cool!

The inspiration for this RAK prize came from the Fiskars Craft site and a card created by Lisa Storms. She created the most adorable Santa “Believe” card using various Fiskar Squeeze punches that you can see here at the Fiskars Craft site http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/projects/t_holiday1108.aspx . The Santa Baby rak gave the winners the punches needed to make our own Santa card using the punches that Lisa did. I am so going to try making this cute card now that my punches are here. I was fortunate to be one of 3 winners of this awesome RAK.

I patiently stalked the Fedex site to track the arrival of this package. Well, it finally arrived on Monday, December 22nd. (I really shouldn't say finally as it was only about a weeks wait from the US to Ontario, Canada). I checked the Fedex site first thing that morning and it was on the truck scheduled for delivery. The Fedex truck usually shows up between 11 – 11:30 am. Of course that day would have to be the delivery day as I had a doctor’s appointment at 11, I was suppose to meet my BF for lunch as well as I wanted to run around and finish up my shopping too while the snow had stopped. Well, the Fedex guy arrived…a little later than usual…I think he wanted to see me sweat. lol Fortunately I only had to sweat an extra half hour as he was here before noon.

I couldn’t wait to open that box and drool over all my new punches. I’ve definitely been blessed by the Fiskateers & Fiskars as well as Kelly Jo for randomly selecting my name to win this awesome RAK.

I’ve been wanting the large Comma, Comma Chameleon Squeeze punch forever as you can make the cutest little birds with it as well as many other out of the box things. I can’t wait to play with these new punches and see what “out of the box” creations I can come up with.

After I finished opening & drooling over the punches for awhile, I headed out the door to get the mail, meet my BF and finish up my shopping. I was also surprised to see that a prize I’d won in the November Fiskars Sighting contest was in my mailbox. I won some beautiful Heidi Grace papers and embellishments. Now I can’t wait to play with my new papers & toys.

Who wants to win some Cosmo Cricket?

Who wants to win some Cosmo Cricket? To be more specific, who wants to win $150 worth of Cosmo Cricket?

Cosmo Cricket is giving away $150 worth of product just for commenting. Just leave a comment on the blog link posted below between now & January 2nd. Draw date is January 5th.

All you need to do to win is leave a comment on this post http://lifeaslou.blogsome.com/2008/12/20/christmas-mini-album-pages-6-7-plus-150-give-a-way/

Monday, December 22, 2008

More Fiskateer Online Crop Challenges

Here's the rest of the challenges from this weekends Fiskateer Online Crop and my take on them.

Mini Online Crop Challenge #8
Draw inspiration from the cover of any magazine and interpret it your way. Post a link here to both the cover and your interpretation.

This is another challenge that I didn’t have time to complete.

Online Challenge...w/RAK #9
Since the northeast has power from Ice Storm (#1)....and are digging out from 10-12 inches of snow (#2)....AND we are expecting another 5-8 inches of NEW snow tomorrow.....(#3)....here's my challenge....

Create a LAYOUT ....using...SNOW as your theme !...You gals in nice warm places...get creative !!....Your title must have SNOW in it !!!

For this challenge I created a layout of my adorable Great niece hunting Easter eggs in the snow. I used the Heidi Grace Frost Blvd papers, the Fiskars “A Total Flake” Squeeze Punch and my new Martha Stewart Snowflake Border Punch.


ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE (sort of) #10
Have you seen the beautiful sketch of the month that Fiskars Crafts has listed for us to work with? Unless there is a new date I believe this one is due on December 27 This one needs to be uploaded to the Fiskars Crafts site.

Another challenge that I didn't have time to complete but hope to do it before the December 27th deadline.

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE (sort of) #11
Have you seen the card sketch of the month put out by Fiskars for us to work with? This one is super fun! Unless there is something I have not heard before these are due by December 27th to the Fiskars Crafts site.

Another challenge that I didn't have time to complete but hope to do it before the December 27th deadline.

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #12
Thanks to Fiskars and this awesome message board we have become the best community online, I think. In honor of Fiskars and their generosity to us as a group of extremely diverse people I challenge you to turn the gallery orange by making Fiskars an orange Christmas card.

I didn't have time to do this challenge either although it definately would be a fun one.

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #13
This challenge is not to create a lo or card, or any other type of project. This challenge is to journal for us on this thread something special that has happened to you since becoming a Fiskateer.

This is what I said on the challenge post...Living in Ontario, Canada doesn’t allow me to attend the Fiskateer events or meet any Fiskateers in person but I have met some wonderful Fiskateers Online. I have had the opportunity to be one of May’s Secret Agents and have done a few missions for her as well as had the opportunity to do a card for the Fiskars Craft site. By participating as a “Secret Agent” and in all of the online crops, I’ve been challenged more than once to “think outside of the box”. I feel that by being actively involved on the Fiskateers site that I have really grown as a scrapbooker. I have also been fortunate enough to win some awesome RAKs. Thanks Fiskars & Fiskateers.

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #14
This challenge is to share your favorite quote that can be used on scrapbooking project, but be careful...if someone already uses the one you were thinking of then you have to come up with another one!!!

This is a favorite quote of mine that I've just recently found..."Fairytales are more than true - not because they tell us that dragons exist but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten"

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #15
Last one! If you made it to this point then you have been very busy Fiskateers! This is the final challenge of the day, unless some others come out and challenge us further...

Everyone has filled the gallery this weekend and filled it well! Take time to go back and appreciate what your friends have done. Go to the individual threads for the challenges and leave some luv for those who have participated. So often great projects get overlooked in the rush of the day. This will be a nice way to wish everyone a wonderful holiday week ahead!

This one was easy as there were so many awesome layouts and cards posted to the gallery this weekend...many from those participating in the online crop.

Then Rebecca popped in with a challenge of her own....here's her challenge

Online Crop Challenge-Time Flies!
I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but I STILL have baby pictures of my kids left to scrap! Where does the time go? For this challenge, dig out an old baby photo and scrap it! It can be a photo of you, your kids, your mom or other relative, as long as it's a baby pic! The only rules are it has to be a NEW layout, and it has to be completed by 12 pm PST tonite.

Well, Rebecca your aren't the only one with baby pictures to scrap. My son is almost 23 and since I just discovered scrapping about 5 years ago. I also quit scrapping for 2 of those years & only made cards. It wasn't until April of 2007 when I discovered the Fiskateer site that I actually got back into scrapbooking again. Needless to say, I have lots of baby pictures of DS to scrap. Here's my take on the challenge. I used Heidi Grace baby paper, Martha Stewart Lace border punch, 3 Gypsies stamps & SU stamps.

This definately turned out to be a very productive weekend for me as far as scrapping goes. I managed to complete 10 challenges on Sunday which really surprised me. Normally I only scrap in the morning but yesterday I went back upstairs to my scraproom after supper to finish off some of the challenges that I hadn't yet been able to do.

Have a great day! Thanks for looking.

Another Fiskateer Online Crop

On Saturday, Groovy Deborah Fiskateer #2644 posted an inquiry on the Fiskateer Message Board about hosting an online crop and asked if anyone was interested. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to her post on Saturday as I was supposed to be going to my sister’s house on Sunday for our family Christmas. We were holding it early this year as my sister & her DH, along with their 2 daughters, their husbands and 5 children (one has 3 and the other has 2) are leaving for Florida on Boxing Day (December 26th is Boxing Day a Canadian Holiday). Since the girls wanted to see us before they left we decided to do our Christmas early. Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to step in and a snowstorm kept us from going. Now we’ll be having our Christmas dinner in January with them.

My sister & her husband would have been spending Christmas Day alone as this is the year their girls spend with the in-laws. With that being the case I’m going to be cooking the turkey at my house & taking it to my mother’s (my home is too small plus mom had knee replacement surgery and it’s hard to get out.) Then between mom and I we’ll prepare the rest of the meal at her house. This way my sister & her DH will come down and spend Christmas with us.

Well, enough about that. Since my plans had changed on Sunday and it was so miserable outside – snowing and blowing all day….I decided to take part in Deborah’s Online Crop. Rebecca one of the Lead Fiskateers also offered to do some prizes and a challenge. I was pretty surprised that I still managed to get 10 challenges done on Sunday. It was a fun crop with some great challenges.

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #1
Rebecca (one of our Lead Fiskateers) may be a few borders away by land and air, but I have a perfect challenge to allow you to play for a spectacular prize...

Let me see your best lo or card using borders as many as you would like. Use them around the outside of your page or use them in new ways.

For Rebecca's challenge I chose to use my Fiskars Leave it to Weaver border punch and the Martha Stewart border punch on my card.

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #2
I am wild about monochromatic layouts. Create your best monochromatic layout and be entered to win a yummy prize!

Unfortunately I didn’t get this challenge done!

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #3
With the galleries loaded with lots of holiday photos I am missing seeing layouts with warm and sunny pics. Create a project using anything but holiday pics and be entered into a prize package from Rebecca.

For this challenge I decided to scrap some photo’s from my niece and her families Florida vacation. The photo’s are of my niece’s DH and daughter. I also used Cloud 9 papers. Here's my take on the challenge.

ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #4
From my own personal stash I will RAK the person who is randomly drawn after creating a project using cardstock only!!! NO patterns on this one!!!

For this challenge I decided to scrap these cute photo’s from my Great nephew’s 1st Birthday. I added a paper pieced Winnie the Pooh and Piglet to match the card that he’s holding.


ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #5
You know you have them and I want to see them come out from hiding...deco scissors! Use them to create a project.

Unfortunately I didn’t get this challenge done!


ONLINE CROP CHALLENGE #6
OK, ok I do love Christmas and we know we have got to get previous Christmas photos scrapped so we can make new memories this coming Christmas. This challenge is for you to scrap something from a previous Christmas and you will be entered to win Christmas goodies for working on the upcoming projects.

For this challenge I scrapped some holiday photo’s from Christmas 2007 of the little one’s opening their gifts. With 5 little one’s in the family and the grandparents (my sister & her DH), 2 grandmother’s, aunt’s & uncle’s and then the great aunt – me the room was so full of gifts that you could barely move. They are definitely 5 lucky children.


Online Crop Challenge #7
Another fantabulous Fiskateer has come out to offer a special prize to another winner during this impromptu online crop. Her name is Donna and she is Fiskateer #4454. Your challenge will be to head over and leave some luv in her gallery AND create a layout using at least 4 stamps. They can be foam, acrylic or rubber stamps.

I decided to do a flap card for this challenge. This card has 2 different flaps that open up to reveal either another image or message. There were four different stamps used to make this card.

This is the front of the card.
This next photo shows the first flap of the card.
This last photo shows the inside of the card.

I'll be back with the rest of the challenges. Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

What’s On Your List of Books to Read?

Last month I finished the last book in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I read the entire series (14 books + 3 in between books) during the months of October/November. I really enjoyed this series and can’t wait to read more books in this series.

Recently I had heard about the Scrapbooking Mystery Series by Laura Childs. So far there are 6 books in this series: Keepsake Crimes, Photo Finished, Bound for Murder, Motif for Murder, Frill Kill and Death Swatch (new in 2008). I was able to sign out the first 5 books in this series and just finished reading book 5 in the series. Now I’ll have to put in an order at our local library for book 6 in the series. (For those that do other types of crafts, she has a Knitting Series, Needlecraft Series, Coffeehouse Series & Tea Shop Myteries).

My BF (yes that’s you B) says that I have it bad…not only do I scrapbook…I have to read mysteries books about it too. lol (She’s probably reading the Tea Shop Mysteries and not telling me.)lol

I just finished reading Danielle Steel's "A Good Woman" this morning. It only took me 3 days to read it which is slow for me. I've been reading her books since my early 20's and always enjoy them. Now that I've finished reading it, my mother will read it too. My mother is 84 and is still an avid reader. With this book being a 2 week loan from the library we both usually manange to finish her books within a week.

Next on my list is the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris aka Southern Vampire Mysteries. I read about this series on May Flaum’s blog. She always has such great taste in books and so far I’ve really enjoyed the past series she’s recommended – Stephanie Plum series and the Shopaholic series. I just picked up this book from the library on Thursday and will start reading it today.

I've heard that the Twilight series is really good too! What’s on your list of “Must Reads”?

Monday, December 15, 2008

Fiskateer Recipe Book


Several times on the Fiskateer Message Board there have been RAK's that require you to leave a recipe to win. Recently Kelly Jo posted a RAK that required us to leave a cookie recipe to enter.

I thought that it would be nice to have a place to put all my Fiskateer Recipes and decided to make a mini recipe book. This was what I came up with.

I used the Chef from Stampin Up and paper pieced him. The tray is a shiny silver cardstock that I have in my stash. Notice the orange tie & cuffs on the Chef (Fiskateer orange lol)

Eventually I'll add some of the other recipes that have been posted since I joined the group (I have them saved). When I add the other recipes, I'll put in divided sections.

I love how this mini album turned out and it is so nice to have a place to keep all these great recipes.

Fiskateer Online Christmas Party December 13th and 14th

I love the Fiskateer Online Crops and this one was fabulous. So many awesome RAK’s and challenges. Fortunately for me there were 2 challenges that were posted in advanced or I probably wouldn’t have completed them all. Even with being away all day Saturday, I still managed to complete the challenges on Sunday.

Lead Fiskateer Kelly Jo posted a couple of challenges in advance to get us started.

Challenge #1. Create a paper craft project with a photo(s) of your very special ornament(s).

For this challenge I decided to create a mini album. I’ve been wanted to put together a “My Treasures” mini album for sometime. A place where I can put pictures of my treasures, the stories behind them and the sentimental/monetary value of them. This is just the beginning of this album as I ran out of 8 ½ x 11 photo paper and didn’t feel like running out to get some.

This next photo is just one page in this album. I have to pick up some more photo paper as I ran out. I also want to print the pictures a little larger as I'm not happy with the size of them.

I'll continue to add to this mini album which is why I used binder rings. Each page will hold a photo of my "special treasure", the story behind it, etc. I've got lots more to add to it.

Challenge #2 - Create a paper craft project with the lyrics (all or in part) of your favorite Christmas song somewhere on the project.

For Kelly Jo’s second challenge, one of my favorite Christmas songs is Little Drummer Boy. (I also like “What Child is This” and “Do They Know it’s Christmas”). For this challenge I decided to go with the song “Little Drummer Boy”. I created a layout of my son and his first drum set. Although his first drum set was long gone years ago, he was about 12 or 13 when he got his drum set that he has now. He’s now 22 and still loves to play the drums.

Lead Fiskateer Angela posted a challenge of her own. This one required us to make a scrapbook page inspired by Patty. Patty used to be with Angela on Scrapbook LifeStyle show. On this episode she tells of losing her mother at the age of 11 and never having any special notes from her mother. It really was a touching video and I can so relate to her. I lost my father when I was 11 years old. Patty talks about how important it is to her that her children have these love notes. For an added twist Angela’s rules were that this page must have a photo of YOU on it.

I’ve always felt this way and part of the reason why I scrap is so that these stories are told and preserved. I’ve always felt that I am the keeper of these stories and when I’m gone, so are the stories. I wish I had of started scrapping when DS was little but unfortunately I only started scrapping a few years ago. Fortunately I have a fairly good memory and can remember a lot of the details when he was little.

The last challenge was from Lead Fiskateer Wendy Jo who challenged us to Simply make a layout all about cookies! Here's my take on that challenge.

When my son was younger we used to make Sugar Cookies and decorate them every Christmas. We’d then box them up & gift wrap them for those special people in his life. He took great pride in being able to give these gifts that he worked so hard to create. They definitely were “Cookies from the Heart”.

There were so many awesome RAK's this weekend and I was fortunate enough to be one of the winners on the Santa Baby RAK. (we had to post a picture of someone with Santa) What an awesome prize to have to put under my tree this year.

Blog Neglect

I’ve been neglecting my blog the past few days. But then I’ve been busy crafting, taking a road trip and participating in the Fiskateers Online Christmas Crop.

Yesterday I went on a road trip with 2 of my GF’s to London, Ontario. I left my house at 7:20 a.m. to go to my BF’s. We then went and picked up C and headed for London. It’s about a 2 hr+ drive from my home. We had 2 stops that we wanted to make – Stamp Art & Scrappin Great Deals in Kilworth, which is 5 minutes from London. (it seemed like longer)

Our first stop was at Scrappin Great Deals. Sheila just moved into a store at 26 Kilworth Park Dr., Unit #7. Her store is amazing. It is really big and even with the Grand Opening crowd, there was lots of room, we weren’t bumping into each other and she had tons of stock. Plus she had some fabulous goodies for everyone to eat as well as door prizes for her Grand Opening. She also had 20% off all stock. I was so surprised when my name was called to get one of the door prizes.

I treated myself to some new stamps, papers, Sizzix & CB dies. I also decided to splurge and try the Copic Markers.

She also has an online store that you can find here: http://www.scrappingreatdeals.com/home.php

We definitely left Sheila’s with lighter wallets…we then headed over to Hamilton Road to Stamp Art. They have a great store there that is full of stamps & stamping products. We bought a few goodies there and headed for home.

We made a quick stop in Tillsonburg at Dollarama and to eat and then back to my BF’s house to get my vehicle. I got back to my house around 6 pm so it was a long day but I had a great time. Thanks B.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Old Bird

I bought this stamp set back in the summer and today I decided to pull it out and create a card for it. I love this owl stamp and the verse that goes along with it “Happy Birthday You Old Bird”. On the inside of the card I stamped the verse “Another Birthday, Weren’t You Old Enough Last Year?”. lol I’m going to add this one to my mother’s collection of cards. She has several friends who have a great sense of humor that would enjoy this card.

This image is from the Inkadinkadoo stamp set called “The Aviary Assortment”. Once again, I purchased this set from Addicted to Rubber Stamps.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Weekend Stamping Frenzie

Since Friday I have been stamping up a storm. This has been the perfect weekend to stay inside and stamp. Friday night we had a nasty storm that made roads pretty dangerous and Saturday wasn't much better. Today the sun was shining but it was pretty cold out. I'm not much of a winter person and would much rather stay inside where its nice and warm.

Outlines Birthday - I’ve had these Outlines stamps for over a year now and have never made anything with them. This was actually an easy card to make. I just stamped the flower images on pink watercolored patterned paper, cut both sizes of the flower out, layered them and added stickles to the center. The background paper is a K&Co mat pad (either Bailey or McKenna) that I bought awhile back and finally decided to use it. The birthday script stamp is an acrylic one belonging to a set. A pretty but simple card.

Welcome to the World - Next May we will be having 3 new additions to our family. Since all 3 of my nieces are expecting babies in the same month I’ve been adding baby cards to my stash here & there.

I love this little giraffe stamp. It’s perfect for cardmaking or even to add to mini books or scrap pages. Normally brown and gold aren’t traditional baby colors but these colors just caught my eye so I decided to go with it. This is another simple card that came together quite quickly.

Princess Turtle - I love this stamp set by Inky Antics called “Princess Turtle”. I purchased it from Addicted to Rubber Stamps. (It’s now discontinued there). There are about 17 or 18 images in this set so it was well worth the money.

This is another quick & easy card. I added it to the Cuttlebug number collage embossing folder background. There are stickles on the wand and on the stars on her hat.

Heidi Grace Cards - I love this Heidi Grace bird stamp. The crown stamp I borrowed from my Princess Turtle acrylic stamp set by Inky Antics that I purchased from Addicted to Rubber Stamps. (It’s now discontinued there). The rest of the images are from the “Tags & Words” stamp set by Heidi Grace.

I added stickles to the heart, as well as on the heart & tail piece on the bird plus on the crown. The verse “No You May Not Wear My Crown” was printed on my computer.

Every Step You Take - I love these adorable shoes from Paperbag Studios. The black and white paper I received awhile ago as a blog prize and it was already cut to this size which is probably why I never used it until now. I added a small piece of the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder background to the center of the card which, gave me the look I was after. I am thrilled with how it turned it.

Giddy Up House Mouse - I love the House Mouse images. They always make me smile. I have a few of the House Mouse stamps but I always struggle with turning them into cards. For this card I used pattern paper from a K&Co mat pad (baby) and stuck with the colors of the image.

At the Beach - This is a stamp that caught my eye because of the innocence of the children. I love the beach and playing in the sand brings back memories of my childhood. I grew up a few blocks from the beach and spent almost every day at the beach in the summer.

Basic Grey Santa - I couldn’t resist adding another Santa card. This time I used some pattern paper from the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding line.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Hurtin Burton

This cute stamp is called "Hurtin Burton" and he definately looks like he's "hurtin". What a fun image to send off to someone who is feeling ill. It's definately one that would bring a smile to someone.

I'm busy working on some assorted cards to give to my mother as either a birthday gift (December 9th) or for Christmas. I thought that this would be a fun card to put in with her cards. Plus it helps that she loves cats.

Thanks for looking!

Sugar and Spice and everything nice..

Sugar and spice and everything nice….that’s what little girls are made of. I love the sweetness and innocence of little girl stamps. There are so many adorable images available now days.

This card is a favorite of mine and I’ve had it for sometime now. Yesterday I was in a real stamping mood and decided to create a few simple cards with it using the Cuttlebug Embossing folders. I used my Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol to watercolor this card.


Thanks for looking!

Going to the Dogs…

I’m beginning to think that I’m going to the dogs or at least my cards are. lol But then what can I say, I love the Penny Black dog images. They are so cute.

This first card uses an acrylic stamp that comes with several other cute Penny Black acrylic stamps. This set is called “Critter Party” and has 11 images (mice, hedgehogs, dog, cat) along with 2 verses. I purchased this set from Addicted to Rubberstamps during one of their sales. It was definitely worth the money.

This second card uses a Penny Black wood mount stamp that I bought from Addicted to Rubber Stamps in the spring. At the time I didn’t know that it was also available in an acrylic stamp set called “Bubbly” that has 8 other cute animal stamps on it along with the dog. I did end up purchasing the “Bubbly” set because of these adorable animal stamps from Sheila at Scrappin Great Deals. Here's a link to her online store. http://www.scrappingreatdeals.com

I used my Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol to watercolor both cards. I then added Glossy Accents to the rose and the tie to give them a 3 dimensional look. I definitely need to continue practicing this technique as I’ve only done it a few times.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Secret is Out….

The secret is out….Val and Janna just announced on the Got Sketch blog “The Got Sketch Mini” . It’s a FREE week long workshop

Here’s what to expect:

· 2 top notch sketches by Valerie Salmon and Janna Wilson
· The sketches will include a sample layout, supply lists, instructions, and project notes which are delivered in high quality printable pdf files.
· 1 Sketch Challenge on Day 1
· 1 Tip and Trick Sheet
· An Interactive Community
· Class Gallery
· A Live Chat with Valerie, Janna and community members
· Prize Giveaways
· Self Paced class: No Deadlines, No Homework and No Tests

The community will open on Wednesday, December 3, and ends December 10.

You have to register for this class and you can go here to sign up http://gotsketch.blogspot.com/2008/12/surprise-announcement.html

I’m a huge fan of Valerie and Janna’s classes. I’ve already taken Got Sketch 101, Got Sketch 102 and Got Sketch Express and immediately signed up for this class too! A lot of the layouts that I’ve posted have been inspired by the Got Sketch classes that I’ve taken with Val and Janna. You won’t be disappointed.

Hope to see you there!!

Another Neglected Stamp Finally Gets Inked

This past summer I found a few stamps that I have always wanted at a yard sale: Santa Collage, PSX Truck and a Star background stamp. I had stuck them in a drawer and forgot all about them until now.

Today I decided to pull out the PSX Truck image and make a couple of Christmas cards with it. The nice thing about this stamp is it makes a nice masculine card. I have always liked this image and was disappointed to learn that it was discontinued years ago. It’s definitely a hard stamp to find and I’m fortunate to have it in my collection.

I stamped the image and watercolored it with my Stampin Up Markers. I’m definitely a bit rusty when it comes to watercoloring and even cardmaking now days but I’m working on it. I matted the image and then added it to the Snowflake Cuttlebug Embossed background. I thought that it needed something in the upper right corner so I added a little red heart-shaped button.

What Happened to November??

It seems that every year I find that the month of December sneaks up on me. Of course in spite of all good intentions, I’m never ready. This year is no exception. I have 2 family birthdays this month, (my mother’s is on the 9th and my great niece will be 3 on the 15th) and then of course there’s Christmas. I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping yet and hope to feel up to going out one day this week to do some.

So what have I been doing instead of shopping?? Well, yesterday and today I pulled out some of my neglected stamps that I have and had a play day.

I love my Stampsmith stamps and have seen so many gorgeous cards made with these images. My BF Bonnie makes stunning cards with her photo stamps and as much as I tried, I only got 2 half decent images. I won’t say how much glossy cardstock I wasted in trying to get a decent image. I know it’s a matter of practice, the right amount of ink, the right ink and of course the right amount of pressure on the stamps (this is where I have problems). I’m not giving up just yet & will continue to strive for perfect images. Anyways, this first card is one of my favorite images Lucille Ball. I apologize for the photo here as the Lucy card picture is rather fuzzy.

After giving up on the Stampsmith stamps, I dug out my Paperbag Studio stamps (another favorite of mine) and made the next two cards using these images. I don’t have very many masculine stamps and I love this image and verse. I already have a recipient in mind for one of these cards.

This little girl image by Paperbag Studios is so adorable. I made the ribbon flower and added glitter to the edge.

I love this Penny Black dog image and the verse that goes with it Hope you have a “bee”utiful day!


What a great way to end this post…..hope you have a “bee”utiful day!

Honda Element Paper Pieced Card

A few days ago Peg Fiskateer #3675 posted a Honda Element card that she made on the Fiskateer Message Board. I thought that she did a great job and I was inspired to try one myself.

I sketched out the design myself as there was no template available for this type of card. After sketching the card out in a rough draft, I copied it over to white cardstock and placed the top along a fold so that it would open like a card. Then it was just a matter of paper piecing the black, silver and red on the card and adding the details.

My son is a Mechanic at a Honda Dealership and when I showed him the card, he guess right off that it was a Honda Element. I thought that he could give this card to his boss for Christmas.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Out of the Box Punch Card Idea and Tutorial

This morning I saw a cute card idea on 2Peas using the new Fiskars "My Funny Valentine" Squeeze Punch to make a Christmas Tree. Since I don't have the Fiskars Scallop Heart, I pulled out my Marvy Scallop Heart Punch and decided to give it a try. Since this was just a quick try at making the Christmas tree, I haven’t decided whether or not to turn it into a card yet. For now it’s just sitting on a piece of cardstock so that I could show it to you.

I love "Out of the Box" ideas for my punches. It's so nice to buy a punch for one purpose and then to find all these neat ideas that you can use the same punch for.

To make this Scallop Heart Christmas Tree

You need:
15 Scallop Hearts (Marvy Scallop Heart Punch or Fiskars “My Funny Valentine” Scallop Heart Squeeze Punch.
white ink (I used SU White Craft Ink)
Adhesive
Ribbon or cardstock for stem
Star punch for top of tree

Just punch out 15 Scallop Hearts, shade the edges with white craft ink and then start assembling the tree from the bottom up. The hearts are all turned upside down. Bottom row has 5 hearts, next row 4 hearts, 3 hearts, then two and the top is one heart turned upside down. Add a piece of ribbon or cardstock for the tree stump and a star on top. Makes a nice Christmas Card or even an embellishment for a scrapbook page.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Collage Card


While I was making the baby collage cards, I dug out all my Christmas card sets and made a Christmas Collage card. Although it doesn’t show up too well in the scan, this card has red stickles on it as well as a gold cord. Although it’s not one of my favorite cards, it turned out okay.

One thing I have discovered while making Christmas cards is that although I have a lot of stamps, I have very few that just say Merry Christmas. This is definitely something that I’ll have to add to my list.

Another Baby Collage Card

Today I decided to try another baby collage card, only this time in blue. Although they are a bit time consuming to make, they are still a fun & easy card. I couldn’t find a blue flower so I ended up coloring a white one with my SU marker to match the blue cardstock. At least now I have 3 baby cards to put in my card file.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

2009 is the Year of the Baby

2009 is definitely going to be the year of the babies in my family. Three of my nieces are expecting and believe it or not, all 3 are due in May. My oldest niece is due in the early part of May, the second oldest is due around the 23rd of May and my youngest niece is due around the end of May. So far I haven't heard whether any of the girls have found out the baby's sex. I'm pretty sure that my two oldest nieces want girls and my youngest niece would love a boy.

I decided that I had better get working on baby card designs for the new arrivals. It's been awhile since I've made any baby cards. This card is the first design I've tried and I’m quite happy with how it turned out. It’s pretty simple but time consuming stamping and punching out all the squares. I’m going to try a similar design in blue too.

Back in the Groove

Well, I think I’m finally getting back in the card making groove. Since I've declared this to be my card making week, today I made a few more Christmas cards. I’m trying to get back into the habit of making duplicates of each card I make. I used to do that all the time and somewhere along the line I got away from that habit. For me it makes the giving easier as I always had a duplicate card to copy.

Now that I've finally tried out my Cuttlebug, I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. It's not like I didn't have lots of choice when it came to the embossing folders. I have several of them to chose from.

Today’s cards show off my first time using a cuttlebug background with my cuttlebug. I can’t believe that it took me this long to play with it.

This first card uses my favorite Santa stamp again (I hope your not getting tired of it) with a Swiss Dots embossing folder. I had seen a similar card on SCS and liked it so I thought that I would try to do one too. I love the way it turned out.

The next card uses the Snowflake Embossing folder along with Snowbunnybella.

I’ve Caught the “Bug”

Cuttlebug that is! I finally got out my Cuttlebug to play with. I’ve had this toy for months now and it’s been sitting on my shelf staring at me daily. But have I been tempted to use it before today….no!

You see, I have a phobia when it comes to this type of tool. I think it’s more of a fear of messing up, breaking it, breaking the dies, folders, etc in my attempt to go through the learning curve. It’s not just my Cuttlebug that’s been neglected….all my die cut machines are brand new, never been used and some have been sitting there untouched for over a year. Well things are going to change around here now that I’ve tackled the Cuttlebug. Hard to believe that after all this time I’ve finally caught the “bug”.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Stories in Hand Online Class

Recently I completed the Free Stories in Hand Online Class by Jessica Sprague. What an awesome class. Jessica put so much time, effort and creativity into this class. I am so glad that I was fortunate to get in on this class and highly recommend it to anyone if it’s offered again. Everything was done up so well and the finished binder is just amazing.

For the Stories in Hand class we were given downloads to create a binder and a mini jotter along with all the necessary materials to go in them. There are thousands of “sparks” included under 3 different categories to help us remember those stories we want to share. The Stories in Hand class is a system used to gather the stories that we want to tell. How to gather those stories and how to remember those stories we want to share.

Since I don’t live near any stores I wasn’t able to purchase the binder that she uses in the class. I created a binder on my own along with trying to do other projects these past few days.

I used 12x12 some chipboard that I had bought in the summer and cut it down to size. Then printed out the cover that she supplied and used my ATG gun to adhere it. I used my Crop-i-dial to punch the holes and added binder rings and of course ribbon. Jessica supplied PDF files for all the inserts, tabs, and inner pages. It was a lot of printing but I love how it turned out. It is so worth it.

Today I created a journal to record my stories. I plan on numbering the journals as I go and will record the page and journal number in the binder on the “Stories to Tell” sheets.

You can go to http://www.jessicasprague.com/ for more information on Jessica’s classes.

Here's a picture of the finished binder:

This next photo shows the finished binder with all the printed pages, tabs and dividers along with the Mini Jotter. It also shows the journal that I created to match the binder/jotter set.

I am so thrilled with how my binder, jotter and altered journal turned out. I am sure that in no time I'll have it filled with stories that I want to tell.

Thanks Jessica for such an awesome class.

More Christmas Cards

This week I’ve decided to spend some time working on Christmas cards. Talk about a struggle. For two years I did nothing but make cards. I belonged to a card group, I joined in numerous online card swaps as well as made and swapped ATC’s. I missed my scrapbooking during this time. About 1½ years ago, I switched back over to scrapbooking.

So during the past 1½ years, I’ve made very few stamped cards. The cards that I have made are more “scrappy” cards with little or no stamping on them. Now that I’m trying to create cards again, I’m having a real struggle.

The other day, I made a card using a Santa stamp that I picked up at a yard sale this past summer. That card came together quite quickly and I was thrilled with the results. Yesterday I spent about 2 hours working on trying to create a card using the same stamp. I ended up giving up as I wasn’t happy with the way the cards turned out.

So today I tried again and managed to put together a card that I’m happy with. Now I at least have a start on my Christmas cards. Here’s that card: