Relay For Life 2010

The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life is more than just a fundraiser. It is an opportunity to get together with family and friends and celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost to cancer, and fight back in the hope of finding a cure for this terrible disease.


This great event is happening on May 29, 2010 and I'm part of Team Dawn. Last year one of my good friends lost her mother to cancer and she started a team during last year's event in memory of her mom. She raised over $5000 and got the bronze position out of all the teams that participated. She wants to beat that goal this year and raise even more money. There are many people in my life that have been affected by cancer and I say it's time to show cancer who's boss. Visit my page to donate and support me in this overnight 12 hour relay where me and 9 others will take turns running a track along with other teams. I'll keep everyone posted on how close I am to reaching my goal of helping raise $250. I know money is hard to come by these days but every dollar helps! So skip your Starbucks for a couple days and donate!!

PPC-CC #10

Yay it's time for another Picture Perfect Creations Crafty Challenge! This week marks the 10th challenge! How exciting for Megan to hit the double digits! This will be my third creation for PPC-CC as a PPC Creator but I've been playing from day 1 and have been loving it! This card is super simple and I made it for my friends Julie & Jame's housewarming party. (Totally side note: my dog just came to lay down beside me, farted a stinky fart and left....dang Khuno!) If you have time this week, head on over to our team crafty challenge blog and take a crack at this week's color challenge! I was really trying to not go for flowers as that's my #1 fall-back with wild colors but I'm glad I decided to use it this way. I thought about stamping "home" in that little white spot in the middle but after a long 3 minute debate with myself, decided against it. Instead, the "home" went on the inside followed by "sweet home". Hope everyone had a great weekend and happy Monday!

 

Card Ingredients (All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated. )

Stamps: Good Neighbors

Ink: Certainly Celery, Real Red, Crushed Curry, Bordering Blue

Paper: Whisper White, Bordering Blue

Embellishments: Crushed Curry polka dot grosgrain ribbon, bulk button

Tools: Scor-Pal, polka dots embossing folder

PDCC 25 & SSSC 65

Here's my very first attempt at a Play Date Cafe challenge (PDCC25) and a Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge (SSSC65). I have been following both blogs for a very long time now on my google reader and just haven't really found time to play! But today I'm getting in my card by the skin of my chinny chin chin! The Play Date Cafe challenge is due by midnight but EST!! So I had to hustle my butt and create a card fast. I'm loving how it turned out. Now I know you may think the lattice cutout is "dirty" looking but I actually sprayed it with some shimmer mist. I'm not actually sure if it's a lattice cutout but I'm no longer at home to check. I better keep this short and sweet so I can submit it on time!! 

54 Mini 3x3 Thank You Cards

In case some of you were wondering what I've been busy with, I'll fill you in. I gave out little mini 3x3 Valentine's day cards in February and my manager was interested in getting some thank you cards made. She requested between 50-60 of them!! So I've been working like mad trying to get them done. Boy let me tell you how hard it is thinking of different designs for thank you cards! Especially when you have such little space to work with. I finished about 10 more tonight bringing my total up to 54. I'm tired of making them and I'm just plain tired! So I'll be bringing those to work tomorrow and hopefully she likes them!! Here's a couple pictures to show you my huge collection of mini cards! Good night!! 

SPCC #44

Boy I sure lucked out with this week's SPCC color challenge. I was working on a card for a coworker whose boyfriend loves bright green and orange. So the card I was making used Only Orange instead of Dusty Durango because it's so much brighter of an orange color! I don't often veer from the colors suggested but in this case, I'm doing it for a good reason. The card features a couple things from the upcoming Summer Mini catalogue from Stampin' Up. The new lattice embossing folder is used and the builder wheel. Hopefully her boyfriend likes it. 

Card Ingredients (All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated. )

Stamps: Creatures (Doodle Factory), Pop Numbers (Bampop), wheel builders (Candle Crazy, Birthday & So Many Stars)

Ink: Only Orange, Green Galore, Summer Sun, Staz-On Jet Black

Paper: Green Galore, Whisper White, Gable Green, Only Orange

Embellishments: 

Tools: paper distresser, lattice embossing folder, jumbo handle for wheel builders

PPC-CC #9 & CPS #163

I get all giddy when I think about being a PPC creator. It's still so amazing to me that Megan was gracious enough to pick creators with zero design team experience. I am already learning and getting tons of ideas from even just looking at the team's creations. I definitely have a lot to learn and I'm really happy that I get the chance. I had a friend ask me once why I do all this "stuff" and I tell her it's because I enjoy it. Then she asked why I don't just participate in the challenge that offer prizes and I told her I don't pick challenges based on rewards/prizes. I pick challenges that I enjoy and ones that challenge me to grow a little bit each time I participate. I've got more challenge blogs I'm following than I know what to do with so I definitely have my favorites that I tend to go back to time and time again. PPC was one of those blogs and that was even before Megan announced the design team call! Being a PPC creator just makes it all the sweeter! So last night I was up late crafting and I didn't really like how my first attempt turned out. You can't tell from the photo but I actually used glossy paper for the main image and the little gems on the side are a dark brilliant-like blue. I flipped the image from Card Positioning Systems sketch 163 and used PPC-CC #9's colors. So even though it was super late at night, I decided to try another card. 

I'm not sure why I did this card the way I did. I just knew i wanted to use the little heart punch from the Occasions Mini catalogue since I haven't touched it since I bought it. After I pasted it all on, it looked way too plain so I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to one heart. Well we all know you can't just glitter up one thing so I jazzed up all the hearts. And when looking for ribbon I realized I don't own any sort of ribbon close to Brilliant Blue or Garden Green. Oh well. 

Hopefully you all get a chance to join us over at Picture Perfect Creations Crafty Challenges blog this week! There's always some good candy that Megan has to offer. 

Card Ingredients (All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated. )

Stamps: Card 1: Thoughts & Prayers, Elements of Style. Card 2: Sweet Scoops

Ink: Garden Green, Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue

Paper: Garden Green, Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, glossy white

Embellishments: Gems (Kaiser Scrapbook), Whisper White organza ribbon, Bashful Blue stripped grosgrain, dazzling diamonds glitter

Tools: heart punch, curly label punch, large oval punch, corner rounder, Big Shot, embossing folder, SU markers

SPCC #43 & FTL #86

Jeepers!!! It's been one crazy weekend!! I've been complaining to Jamie all week that our entire April weekends have been booked up. It's insane! I'm having trouble finding time to craft even though I have 4 days off because I've been stressing over my TAXES!!! Boy do I ever hate taxes and I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about when I tell myself, "I need to keep better records for next year's taxes." The worst part of taxes isn't the actual taxes, it's finding all the bloody receipts and bills to claim. Anyways it seems like I've been doing late night crafting and pictures lately and tonight is no different. Here's my attempt at this week's SPCC color challenge and Clean and Simple's Fall to layout sketch challenge. I'm really really liking the sketch and I'll probably have to use one of my favorite sets, Circle Circus, to make another card with that layout. I didn't have any patterned paper in the colors so I just made my own by punching out the circles and then stamping a design onto them. Now I'm definitely not very smart because I didn't realize that the Yoyo Yellow ink I decided to use on the Glorious Green card stock would show up looking that yellow in photos. The other thing that makes me not smart is when I stamped it, because the ink was wet, it appeared darker. Now that the ink is dry, you can hardly see anything on the Glorious Green circles!! Bahumbug! I'll have to figure out something tomorrow to fix it. I just might rip it off, re-stamp it and glue it back on. Anyways I'm off to bed. It's been a looong day for my poor little brain. 

Card Ingredients (All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated. )

Stamps: Friends 24/7, Dot, Dot, Dot, Fine Flourish, A to Z

Ink: Yoyo Yellow, Glorious Green, Brocade Blue

Paper: Yoyo Yellow, Whisper White, Brocade Blue, Glorious Green

Embellishments: 

Tools: circle punches (various sizes)

PPC Blog Candy!!

Who doesn't love free stuff?? Megan over at Picture Perfect Creations is giving away some yummy blog candy!! Head on over to her blog here and all you need to do is leave a comment on why you like spring!! Be sure to head there before April 18th! 

The First PPC Creators Design Team Revealed!!

Now I'm not sure if any of you remember when I talked about applying to become a creator for Picture Perfect Creations Crafty Challenge blog when I posted here, but I did end up finishing my application and sending it in. Well Megan over at the PPC-CC blog had a huge response and got a whole schwack of applicants. After a week of anxiety and me constantly checking to see if the she had made the announcement yet, the new design team was announced yesterday! So Megan chose 10 lucky girls to be a part of her first design team and of those lucky girls is MOI!!! I'm very very excited because I've never done anything like this before and it's definitely going to help me learn and grow in ways I can't even fathom because all the ladies are uber talented and I already feel like we've started a little family. So I wanted to give Megan a super BIG CYBER HUG and a huge thanks for giving me this opportunity. I also want to say congrats to Megan as she is expecting her first little one!!! I must say I'm very excited to get started and I know it's going to be a big learning curve for the entire team but it's going to be so much fun! Here's the list of our new team: 

Allison Barroll

Lori Turner

Nicole Anderson

Sandy Tran

Melissa Hubert

Trish Radacs

Jackie Weeks

Tamie Camp

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Paula McClane

So let's kick start this Monday with challenge #8! 

My card is a lil flower pot card made from instructions found here. I'm making these cute cards for this month's workshops as well. I decided to use the Rock 'n' Roll technique for the flowers just to give them an extra little something. The technique, if you don't already know, is super easy. Basically ink up your stamp in a light color and then roll just the edges of the stamp in a darker color (while trying to not hit the middle). You get a really cool effect. Now a lesson I've learnt while doing this technique is that you always want to think, "What if I mixed these two colors in a pot together, would it look like poop?" And I'm being totally serious here because I found the Melon Mambo and Bashful blue turned out great because it almost turned into a light purple. The Pumpkin Pie and Bashful Blue was starting to look a bit like breastfeeding poop because what happens when you mix blue and orange in a pot? It looks like poop! The flower on top looks quite red and that's from mixing Pumpkin Pie and Melon Mambo. Anywhooo enough chit chat. I'll be sure to keep you on posted on the happenings over at the PPC-CC blog. If you haven't discovered it yet, pop on over and take a peek! There's a lotta fun waiting to happen! 

Card Ingredients (All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated.)

Stamps:Petal Pizzazz

Ink: Melon Mambo, Bashful Blue, Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Welcome Neighbor DSP

Embellishments: Grosgrain ribbon 

Tools: Scallop edge punch

SPCC #42 & Sketch Girl #15

Boy it's mighty late and I'm exhausted!! It's almost 1 AM and Jamie comes downstairs asking me if I'm ready for bed. My answer is a big fat no so he asks if I'm still posting. I poked fun at him a bit saying, "That's what bloggers do hunny." because he hasn't posted on his blog for like.. a year? LOL. So here's my card for this week's Sketch Girl #15 and SPCC #42. The main image is using the floating reinker technique which I am doing at this month's workshops. A picture tutorial can be found here. You basically use shimmery card stock, stamp and emboss your image and then spritz water over top to cover the entire card stock. Then take your aqua painter and reinkers and add it to the water and watch it float all over. Super fun and super easy. I thought it needed a bit of something extra so I added the faux stitching and I'm not sure if it was a good idea... I attempted to erase it and lemme tell you, it doesn't work. Why on earth I thought it might even remotely work is beyond me. Anyways I'm off to bed!! G'nite! 

Card Ingredients (All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated. )

Stamps: Embrace Life, Lovely Labels

Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White craft, Versamark, Basic Black

Paper: Shimmery White, Elegant Eggplant, Basic Black

Embellishments: White embossing powder, ribbon (Michael's & Costco)

Tools: 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punch, Signo white gel pen, aqua painter, heat tool

PPC-CC #7

Here's my card for this week's PPC-CC challenge. It's made using a technique I learnt at our last team meeting. I'm not sure if there's a name for it but I'll just call it "rolling marbles". All you need is some marbles, a container of some sort and some marbles (or anything that rolls around). You won't believe how hard it was for me to find marbles. I looked everywhere! Either they aren't cool anymore or it's not quite marble season. Jamie couldn't find them either so he suggested I use the marbles from my Hungry Hungry Hippos game! Worked like a charm. So you put a few drops into a container with a lid, drop in the marbles and shake shake shake! Then put a little adhesive on the lid and attach the paper on the inside of the container. Close the lid and shake shake shake again. I kinda messed up with the bottom because the marbles rolled a little too much along the bottom edge. Yes yes yes, I messed up on the shake shake shake part.. Who woulda thought one could mess that part up! Forgive the crooked photo too... 

Card Ingredients

All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated.

Stamps: Trendy Trees

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Embellishments: Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, clear embossing powder

Tools: Hungry Hungry Hippo marbles! 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" square punches, Stamp-a-ma-jig

OOOMYYYYYYGOOOOODNESS!!!!

I can hardly believe it but Stampin' Up! is having a major color renovation OVERHAUL!!! I'm SOOOO EXCITED about the new colors because they look SOOO awesome and I love how they don't have a lot of colors that look awfully similar. But as excited as I am about the new great change I also feel saddened that a lot of colors are retiring. Here's a list of retiring colors in case there are any that you love and need to have in your collection. I know I definitely need to stock up!!! 

Even more last minute PPC-CC!

Ok I had a terrible time with this color challenge over at PPC-CC. Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke embellishments look so much alike it's insane! You can't really tell but the ribbon and sentiment are both in Mellow Moss and the card base is Always Artichoke. I actually liked how the stamping turned out. Reminds me of some modern tile design or something. It's past midnight now and I've still got loads to get ready to head back to work tomorrow after having 10 days off. As I said in my last post, I'll share some photos of my mini vacation when I have a few more minutes to catch up! For now though, I didn't want to miss any PPC-CC or SPCC challenges so I'm spending my precious time doing some last minute card making! Off to do more laundry and get ready for bed! 

Darn. Looking at the photo and the actual card now, I should have textured the Always Artichoke card base. It's looking a little too plain for me. Oh well! It's too late now! G'nite! 

Card Ingredients

All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated.

Stamps: Park Avenue Patterns, Define Your Life

Ink: Mellow Moss & Dusty Durango

Paper: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Dusty Durango

Embellishments: Silver brads, Mellow Moss grosgrain ribbon

Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig

Last Minute SPCC 41

I'm posting super last minute for this week's SPCC challenge. I've been on vacation for the last 10 days and it's been BUSY! I'll have to share photos when I have a bit more time from my LA trip and also my mini Hinton, Alberta mountain's long weekend. I didn't even have time to unpack all my stuff yet! Here's my feeble attempt at this week's challenge. I'm not sure if i'm totally losing my mojo or I'm just plain old tired but this card went wrong as soon as I started daubing on color but I'm just too lazy to fix it. I used an old Clean and Simple Fall to Layout sketch. 

Card Ingredients

All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated.

Stamps: Fresh Cuts, Of the Earth

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Almost Amethyst, Versamark, Soft Suede

Paper: Almost Amethyst, Soft Suede, Whisper White

Embellishments: Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, clear embossing powder, white embossing powder

Tools: heat gun, scalloped border punch

Weekend in Hinton!

So I got back from my LA trip about $2000 poorer. Had Thursday to rest up and did I ever rest! I slept and slept and slept some more! Jamie and I just drove out to Hinton today to spend the weekend at his sister's place to help install new flooring. I couldn't bring very much of my card making supplies to craft with but I did manage to bring my paper cutter and paper to cut! I'll be prepping for upcoming workshops while Jamie and his family are working on the floor because although I can use a guillotine paper cutter, I definitely cannot use a table top saw. So hopefully when I get home on Sunday I can make something for the weekly SPCC and PPC-CC challenges. Hope everyone has a great Easter long weekend!