PPC-CC #15

Boy it has been mighty busy!! Jamie and I finished our Relay for Life yesterday and boy were we exhausted!! The weather was miserable but everyone's spirits were still high. I'll be posting a few photos later on. Megan over at the Picture Perfect Creations Crafty Challenge blog has another great color challenge for us this week! Woot woot it's challenge #15 already! I didn't do so hot last week but I definitely like this week's colors more and they fall into my comfort zone. The card is super simple and uses Fall to Layout #91's sketch. The flower uses the Floral Fusion sizzlit with the Big Shot and it's just so adorable. I ended up spending about an entire 5 minutes figuring out how to layer the pieces together. I was trying to make 2 flowers and in the end, it just didn't work. I wanted to spray a bit of shimmer onto the flower so I sat it on top of my stack of scraps in my recycle bin and it fell in. The more I tried to grab it the further down it fell. By the time I managed to fetch it out, it hit something blue at the bottom and had blue ink all over the edges. Being super lazy, I just sponged some Chocolate Chip ink on the edges along with some Frost White shimmer paint. I think it totally looks better with the little bit of color to add some dimension to the petals. Hopefully you get a chance to join us this week over at the PPC-CC! 

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

Stamps: None! 

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Paper: Bella Rose DSP (retired), Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Blush Blossom

Embellishments: Old Olive button, Chit Chat rub-ons, Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, linen thread, Frost White shimmer paint

Tools: Scallop edge punch, sponge

Relay For Life!!

Wow the big day is tomorrow and I'm excited! I can't believe how generous people are. I originally started with a goal of raising $200 but that goal was quickly smashed so I raised my goal to $500 and I'm very excited to say I've smashed that goal too!! My final total reached a staggering $645!! And Team Dawn raised over $6400, breaking our goal of $5000. We even beat last year's amount which is incredible. The amount will likely be higher because Penny was still tabulating everything tonight. The only thing I'm not excited about is the weather. I'll definitely need to dress warmly and a big thanks to Dianne for bringing me some warm polar fleece. I'm sure I'll be needing it.

Sat

11°C | 2°C

Sun

12°C | 3°C

Now I would like to say a BIG BIG thank you to all the amazing people I know because it's not always easy to give but so many of you offered your support in a heartbeat. These amazing people deserve a little shout out. So a BIG THANKS to: Mark (the first to sponsor!), Cynthia, Van, Laura, the Mitchell family, Lorraine, Steve, Christine, Amber, Arlie, Elizabeth, Leslie, Alice, Gaydene, Laura B., Linda, Karen and Dianne. I better head to bed because I need to work in the morning. So my day tomorrow will go as so: wake up at 8:00, work till 17:30, come home and grab Jamie to head out to the Relay for Life, hopefully stay up all night and head home at 8:00 Sunday morning. Boy I'm not looking forward to staying up for 24 hours running in the cold rainy weather. Please think of me when you're warm and toasty in your beds at 3:00 AM. 

PPC-CC #14 & CPS #65

Boy this week Megan sure put up some challenging colors for me over at the Picture Perfect Creations Crafty Challenge blog. I never use these colors and I mean never. I don't think I have ever inked up my Handsome Hunter pad and I'm sorta glad it's retiring! I decided to pair up this week's challenge with Card Patterns Sketch 65. I'm not entirely happy with how the card turned out but it's way too late to make another card. 

Boy the more I look at this card the more I don't like it one bit. Bleeeech! I'll have to give it to someone I don't like.... jk!! Hope everyone has a great Monday! 

We've had a busy weekend with garage sales and cleaning. I even managed to fit in 30 minutes on the elliptical. Longest 30 minutes ever. Jamie on the other hand, had time to make some bread for us to eat! 
Card Ingredients (All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated. )

Stamps: Elements of Style

Ink: Basic Black, Cameo Coral, Handsome Hunter

Paper: Whisper White, Handsome Hunter, Ballet Blue

Embellishments: Dew Drops (The Robin's Nest)

Tools: Big Shot, Finial Press embossing folder, blender pen, aqua painter

Blog Candy Contest!

Megan, the creator of PPC and my fellow PPC creators would really LOVE to get more particpants and followers at PPC so we've decided to have a 'Follow PPC' Contest! We want to reach at least 150 followers by Monday, May 24th, and we NEED your help!  

All you have to do to win is become a follower of us here at PPC-CC  AND submit a design this week for the #13 color combo challenge! Winner will get 12 yards of Shabby Vintage Seam Binding donated by our very own PPC Creator, Debbie!!! The contest ends at 10am EST on Monday, May 24th.

Debbie is also running a challenge special for us this week ... make a card or project using the Week #13 colors and post here at PPC. Then, go to her site, Simple Treasures and leave her a comment on her PPC #13 post letting her know that you want to be entered into her blog contest. One lucky participant will win two yards of the colors of your choice of her Shabby Vintage Seam Binding, as well - 15 colors viewable in herEtsy Shop!

Have fun and Good Luck!

PPC-CC #13 & SSSC #69

It's a great Monday not only because a new challenge time but because I have the day off!! Hopefully I can be productive and go pick out a paint color for our laundry room! I also plan to do some mudding today and patch up the 9 million nail holes left behind from the wood paneling. This week Megan over at Picture Perfect Creations has picked some super fun colors. I love how they're all neutral with a loud pop of color. I combined PPC-CC #13 with Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #69. The background uses the new Presto Designer Series Paper from the Summer Mini catalogue. It's all white with images that are pre-embossed. So you can make the images pop like magic with a few sweeps of ink. I sponged on Basic Gray and Green Galore and finished off the card with an embossed Green Galore tree and Liquid Pearls. Hope you all get a chance to play along this week with us over at the PPC-CC blog! Have a great start of the week! 

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

Stamps: Pendent Park

Ink: Green Galore, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Whisper White

Paper: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Presto Patterns DSP

Embellishments: Liquid Pearls in Platinum (Ranger), clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, buttons (Wal-mart)

Tools: Coluzzle, sponge, Stamp-a-ma-jig

BUST UP That Laundry Room!!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that Jamie and I are in the midst of renovating our 41 year old home. We bought our house 3 years ago in May. The move in date was actually 3 years ago today!! How amazing is that?? We bought during the huge housing boom and ended up paying a ton for our home that I'm sure we'll spend the rest of our lives paying off... But that's okay. We've done a lot to the house already! A few major things we've done: added new insulation and siding/stonework to the front of the house, high efficiency furnace, new hot water tank, new windows and exterior doors. Now the list of things we still want to do: remodel the kitchen, expand the master bath, change the flooring, put in a new deck, update the backyard, fix up the laundry room. This year our big goal is to remodel the kitchen. We need to knock down a supporting wall so it's definitely going to take us a while. We have tile, a double wall oven, an induction cooktop and a sink sitting in our living room... Since we haven't really gotten going on the kitchen, we decided to start on the laundry room! It's actually quite a huge room but really dated. We spent this weekend tearing out all the gross wood paneling and taking apart the shelf that the previous owner built. Boy they were nail happy. It's incredible...incredibly frustrating!!! Here's a couple photos for your enjoyment! 

The Sweetest Thing 68 & The Color Dare 66

Crushed Curry Bashful Blue Soft Suede Old Olive

So here's another combo card. Boy I am not too fast when I try to watch tv and craft at the same time. I was also doing random things on the computer like sending out another email for Relay for Life. If you are interested in supporting me on this 12 hour relay to help raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society, please click to this post. My card tonight combines Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge #68 and The Color Dare #66. The hard part for me was finding an image to go on the white card stock and also cutting all the rectangles to fit properly. If you haven't noticed (and Arlie I know you did!!!) there's way too much space between the top two rectangles. I noticed it after I glued it down and it is way too late to fix it. Hope everyone had a great hump day! 

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

Stamps: Older & Wiser

Ink: Staz-On Jet Black, Old Olive, Crushed Curry

Paper: Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Bashful Blue DSP

Embellishments: Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, Old Olive felt flower, brown button (Wal-Mart), linen thread, Dazzling Diamonds glitter

Tools: 

Just Add Ink #16

Good evening fellow late night crafting bloggers! I'm very excited to be trying out a new challenge blog that I've been following for quite some time now. It's called Just Add Ink. They're a fun blog because they don't just stick with color challenges. Here's my take on their Just Add Ink #16. Now I must say I suck suck suck at taking photos. It definitely helps when I can take pictures by my back basement window but boy I really need help with night time shots. I just can't seem to get it right no matter what I adjust. If you've got some tips for late night photography, please teach me!!! I'm getting desperate! This card was cased from one of Kristina Werner's wonderful creations! 

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

Stamps: Wonderful Favorites

Ink: Soft Suede

Paper: Sweet Pea DSP, Pretty in Pink DSP, paper from a Costco pack I had laying around, Soft Suede

Embellishments: Prima flowers, linen thread, button (Wal-mart)

Tools: Signo white gel pen, scalloped edge border punch

CPS #166 & SPCC #47

I love having Monday's off! I had all these great plans for today but I ended up waking up at 10:30, ate and watched Top Chef Masters, then proceeded to fall asleep on the couch till 3:00!! I wanted to be a teeny tiny bit productive so here's a quick card for Card Positioning Systems #166 and SPCC #47. I'm still trying to showcase stamp sets from the new Summer Mini catalogue. This super cute stamp set is perfect to create scrapbook pages for vacations. There's so uber cute paper to match the stamp set but unfortunately the colors don't match SPCC's color challenge. Another great bonus, this stamp set qualifies for this month's bonus of a free package of designer brads! Hope everyone had a more productive day than I did!! 

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

Stamps:Sentimental Journey

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Bermuda Bay

Paper: Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Creamy Caramel, Thoroughly Modern DSP

Embellishments: 

Tools: paper distresser

PPC-CC #12

I hope everyone had a great mother's day! We ended up having dinner at my brother's place with a bunch of family. I baked a tiramisu genoise layer cake and for some reason it was ridiculously dry. I have no idea happened. It's such a finicky cake that I really should just stop trying to bake it. I've baked it 3 times now and I think it only turned out once. And that "turned out" is more like a "turned out better". We'll see if there's another occasion for me to bake another cake because I still have another entire container of marscapone cream. Now onto this week's Picture Perfect Creations Crafty Challenge. We're already up to challenge 12!! Megan chose Bravo Burgundy which I can honestly say I have never used. I cracked open that ink pad and did some aqua painting after I realized that using the SU marker was going to be too dark. Head on over to the PPC-CC blog to play along with us this week and see what the other creators came up with! 

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

Stamps: A Little Bit of Happiness, woodgrain

Ink: Soft Suede, Basic Black, Bravo Burgundy, Perfect Plum, Sage Shadow

Paper: Soft Suede, Perfect Plum, Sage Shadow, Whisper White

Embellishments: Bravo Burgundy grosgrain ribbon, button (Wal-Mart), linen thread

Tools: scallop edge border punch, 1/16" circle punch, paper distresser

Salmon Sushi Anyone?

I recently had a request to make a sushi theme birthday card for a friend. Her favorite colors are pink/red and this is what I came up with. I drew out the little pieces of salmon by hand, cut them out and drew some white lines with a gel pen. I covered the little pieces with Crystal Effects and just hand cut some "rice" for it to go on. Now the sentiment is a little "punny" but I thought it was quite cute. Jamie didn't get it... Let's hope the card recipient does! 

SPCC #46

Yay one card made today! It really isn't a big enough accomplishment but I guess it's better than zero cards made. It feels like I have a never ending list of things to do. Ever feel that way? I spent time at a friend's yesterday and it really made me realize how much junk I have in my house!! It's unbelievable actually... Jamie and I are both pack rats so that makes for a really ridiculous house. Our friend Penny is having a garage sale on May 20/21 and I'm going to do some major clean-up and sell-off. Hopefully we can get rid of a bunch of stuff and make a few bucks. But on a totally different note, my friend Julie just started blogging and she's got some good stuff going on. Her blog is full of recipes and tidbits of info on cooking. Check it out here. Now for my card for SPCC #46. I immediately wanted to use the new stamp set Sweet Scoops from the Summer Mini Catalogue when I saw these colors. This set reminds me so much of an old school ice cream parlor. I love it! 

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

Stamps: Sweet Scoops

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Pixie Pink, Basic Black

Paper: Bella Rose DSP, Pixie Pink, Whisper White, Close to Cocoa

Embellishments: Pink buttons (Wal-Mart), Crystal Effects

Tools: 

FTL 86 Birthday Card

Just wanted to share a card I made last week for Jamie's uncle's birthday. I absolutely love this layout from Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout #86. It's super simple and I like how it's kind of masculine in a way too! I have huge issues with masculine cards. It's a pretty relaxing Saturday so I'm going to do some crafting! 

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

Stamps: Upsy Daisy

Ink: Baja Breeze

Paper: Various DSP from SU!

Embellishments: 

Tools: Circle punches

PPC-CC #11

Can you say WOW?!?! What an awesome color combo Megan has come up with this week. I absolutely love Basic Gray and I can't get enough of Bermuda Bay! I made this card using the double emboss resist technique (I think that's what it's called...) I stamped the words all chosen specifically for my best girlfriend to describe her, then stamped my medallion image in Versamark and embossed it in clear. Lastly I sponged Bermuda Bay over the entire card stock and wiped off the excess ink that didn't stick to the embossed image. It was my girlfriend's 27th birthday party and we had a great party by surprising her with a night full of her favorite food dishes! She's kind of a carnivore so we had meatloaf, shepherd's pie, green thai curry, mac n cheese, mushroom dip, creme brule, cheesecake and strawberry shortcake. Hope you all get a chance to hop on over to the PPC blog and join us this week for this fantastic color challenge! 

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

Stamps: Define Your Life, Medallion

Ink: Basic Gray, Bermuda Bay, Versamark

Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Gray, Bermuda Bay

Embellishments: clear embossing powder, Basic Gray satin ribbon

Tools: paper piercer, mat pack

SPCC #45

Boy it's been busy lately! But then again, when is it ever not busy?? And I don't even have kids!! I don't know how all those crafty ladies do it out there! Maybe that's why there's so many late night crafters. So I have to share 2 stories before I write about my card. Story 1: Jamie and I were dog food shopping yesterday and we were at an intersection trying to make a left turn. There were a bunch of cars parked along our left hand side so it was hard to see if there were any oncoming cards. Jamie pulls out a bit and there was a car so he stopped and started reversing. The car continues along in front of us and it's this sweet old couple that look about 70, white hair and all. The wife is driving and as they pass us... The husband in the passenger seat gave us the finger!!! My jaw just dropped. I have never been flipped off by an elderly person before. I can expect that from a teenage punk but a 70 year old grandpa?? Boy was I shocked and upset. Story 2: I had to work today and I walk up from the parkade and when I entered the office, I was in tropical office weather!! Now our new office building has been having air circulation problems. Last week we had temperatures of up to 28 degrees Celsius (82 F) in our clinic rooms and today the thermostat read 31 degrees Celsius (87.8 F)!!! I was so grouchy doing my work all afternoon. I had to go to the sink every 3 minutes and water myself down! Unbelievable!! Ok stories shared, moving onto my card. 

Like I promised, I'll be trying to make cards using stamp sets that are from the new Summer Mini Catalogue. This set is called Elements of Style and qualifies for this month's scrapbooking promotion of free designer brads! This card is for SPCC #45. I stamped the main image in craft basic black then embossed it with black embossing powder. Then I sponged on color, cut it out and popped it up on a Dusty Durango sheet that I dry embossed with the Big Shot. I used the new Smooch spray (also from the new mini) but you can't really tell from the photo. The sentiment is from the set Asian Artistry. I'm off to bed now. Check back tomorrow for a new color challenge over at the PPC-CC blog! 

NEW Summer Mini Catalogue!!

Can you believe it's almost summer?!? I know I can!! Today I was out with Jamie and I was telling him that all the sunshine lately is deceiving because it looks like summer but the temperature is just a touch cool. Anyways, Stampin' Up! just released their new SUMMER MINI CATALOGUE!! There are so pretty cool products! I've already purchased a bunch of stamp sets that I absolutely LOVE! To download the pdf version of the catalogue, visit the SU website HERE! Plus if you're interested in any of the qualifying stamp sets in the catalogue, SU has a great offer for National Scrapbooking Month. Purchase any qualify stamp set (list can be found HERE) and get a free pack of designer brads!! That's an $8.50 value! I'll be making cards showcasing some of the great stamp sets I own. I already have more that I want and can't wait to order!!