Stamp N Stuff

Christmas Card 10

2011-12-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the last of it folks and I'll probably disappear for another month. Time is just hard to come by these days which is hard to believe now that the wedding is over. This last card is actually a copy of the card found in the current winter mini catalogue from Stampin' Up! I didn't have the same stamp set so I modified the set and the size. Not too cluttered and I really like the pops of color.

Christmas Card 9

2011-12-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

Christmas is less than a week away! I can't even believe it. Christmas really crept up on us this year. I think the weather had something to do with it. Normally we're covered with snow and it's freezing cold, but it's been so gorgeous out that some days I don't even think it's December! Today's card is just simple and easy to reproduce. Love that Dasher!

Christmas Card 8

2011-12-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday! Boy am I glad I have today off. After yesterday's shift, I need 3 days off! Unfortunately I only get 1 day off before I have to go back for another 5. I can't wait till the Christmas stretch off. Even though Jamie and I didn't take any holidays this Christmas, the 4 days off will be nice. Today's card was one of Arlie's favorite! Probably because it's blue.

Christmas Card 7

2011-12-17T23:18:00.004-07:00

Oh boy, it's been so unbelievably crazy at work lately. I took on a new position at work so it's been a lot of learning, catching up and full time work! Plus I had to work today and it was super busy. Lots of babies being born prior to Christmas. Are you all ready for Christmas? It just dawned on me tonight that Jamie and I haven't started our Christmas baking yet!!! Not good...

Christmas Card 6

2011-12-16T10:00:00.002-07:00

I recently went to a scrapbook clearance sale and found a stack of Cards magazines on clearance. I flipped through it and only found one card that I liked so I decided to CASE it! Super simple to make and I'm thinking I'll need to make a few cards like this for birthdays!

It's way cuter with smaller stars but I don't have a small star punch so 4 stars it is!

Christmas Card 5

2011-12-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have seen these little leaves being made for years now but I finally managed to try it myself! I used the wide oval punch to punch out the oval and the same punch to get the little cut outs to create the mistletoe. Some of the girls at my workshop found it easier to just use scissors and trim out the shape they wanted. Others said, "Use a punch for this? Heck ya!"

Baker's twine is super in right now and Stampin' Up! sells it for uber cheap. I've seen it at Michael's and on etsy but often the rolls are way too big for me. And that red isn't really red at all! It's Poppy Parade!

Christmas Card 4

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've had this stamp set for two whole years without inking it up! Can you believe it? I love the idea of hanging ornaments on cards and in previous years, I reached for my ornament punch instead of this set. I'm glad I finally inked it up with some Versamark and embossed it with some gold. Something about shimmery gold embossed images that just makes a card instantly fancy and Christmas.

Christmas Card 3

2011-12-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

You know what movie was playing over the entire weekend? Elf! This card totally reminds me of those bold Christmas colors seen all over that movie. You can't really see in the photo but the sentiment is embossed with gold powder.

I actually stole this layout from my dear friend, Carolyn! She used this layout for my wedding card. You can use this layout again and again! The only problem I had was the big ol' circle punch. I only have a 1 3/4" and not the next size up so I just trimmed the outer circle by hand... Don't look too closely!

Christmas Card 2

2011-12-12T10:00:00.003-07:00

You aren't dreaming! It's a post two days in a row!! I'll be sharing the 10 Christmas cards I made this season over the next week and a bit. Please don't mind the quality of the pictures. I've learnt that if I take them with my regular camera, I just never get around to loading it onto the computer. So the interim will have to be iPhone photos...

Simple. Easy to reproduce. Screams Christmas. I love it!

Christmas Card 1

2011-12-11T22:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted anything. Don't worry, I am still alive and well. Trying to fit in crafting whenever I can but it's still busy despite the wedding being over. Are weddings ever really over? We finally ordered our thank you cards today. Why so late you might ask? Because we only got our pictures from the photographer last week! I managed to squeeze in 2 Christmas workshops and I had a coworker request 10 cards so I'll be sharing those over the next couple days. I could share them all in one post but... why not stretch it out right? If I wasn't so lazy, I would've made 2 more and started a 12 days till Christmas countdown. I am super lazy though so it'll be 10 cards. Here's card #1. It was made using the new Simply Scored tool that Stampin' Up! released. I always scored my cards with my old school Scor-Pal and was constantly frustrated whenever I needed to score anything other than 5.5" or 4.25". The lines are preset in the weirdest increments and to this day, I still don't know why. Martha Stewart has a very similar scoring board as Stampin' Up! but I love the little markers that you can put into the Simply Scored. Be careful though! People are always curious about those markers and will take them out to look at. It's happened to me twice already where someone didn't put it back in the same place! Without looking at the actually measurement on my Simply Scored, I just followed where my marker was set and ended up with improperly measured score lines.

The rosette was actually super easy to make. You can see the tutorial here. Not sure if this was the tutorial I watched but it still goes though all the steps! The flag corner was easily cut out using a square paper punch! Sticky Strip comes in handy for this card!

I'm Married!!!

2011-10-05T16:44:00.001-06:00

It's been a loooong time coming. One year of planning and wedding crafting led up to one amazing day. I am officially married!

Mini Thank You Cards

2011-06-24T21:23:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to make a bunch of thank you cards and finally got around to making them. It's not much stamping but I still like how they turned out. Sometimes just using patterned paper is enough. ;)

A Farewell Card

2011-06-18T23:44:00.001-06:00

Sorry I have been MIA lately. As you can imagine, the wedding has taken over my life! I just popped by to let everyone know I'm still alive and am doing wedding crafting most days now. I did manage to find time to make a card for my dear friend, Gaydene, who left to work for another health center. I CASED Kristina Werner. You can see her card here.

Now I know the card sentiment seems a touch rude and mean but it's an inside joke and only good intentions! Till next time!

Farewell PPC-CC Design Team

2011-04-09T16:03:00.001-06:00

The last month has been so incredible busy with wedding stuff that I haven't found anytime to craft. What time I do have is spent working on wedding invitations! Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to the girls on the Picture Perfect Creations design team. I'm sad but I know I can't give them 100% right now and it's not fair to the other girls and Megan. I can't believe it was a whole year I was able to spend with the girls. They have all inspired me and I'll miss them all.

They just announced a new design team so hop on over to the PPC-CC blog to see the new team!

PPC-CC Specialty Challenge #5

2011-03-21T14:18:00.000-06:00

I apologize in advance for missing last week's PPC-CC. It's been so crazy with wedding planning, work and friends getting engaged! This week's a bit better but I'm getting ready to go on my stagette! It's a touch early but I don't mind. Vacations are welcome anytime! This week Megan has another specialty challenge for us over at the PPC-CC blog. Show us your creative space! The little nook that you spend hours upon hours creating your masterpieces!

Remember when I was doing my craft area overhaul? This is the semi-final result. I'm loving my new little area. I can still see the TV from where I'm sitting. The only thing is I have nowhere to put all my stamps so they are still sitting way over on the far bookshelf. It's been inconvenient that way but I just can't find any more room! I also thought about cleaning up my area before taking the picture but... aside from being lazy, I wanted to show you guys what my crafting area looks like on a regular day to day basis. All that scrap hanging around on my desk top? It's alway there. That pile of stamps on the left side of the desk? I clear it and then it builds up again. Doesn't help that it's just so far to walk to put them back. Hope you all get a chance to share your creative space with us and pop by the PPC blog to see all the other creative spaces!

PPC-CC #51

2011-03-07T08:00:00.001-07:00

Good morning everyone and happy Monday! Can you believe it's already March!?! It's so scary how fast time flies when you have a big event coming up like a wedding!!! My BFF (holy when was the last time I used that phrase?) today exclaimed "Ahhh! 5 months and 3 days left!" I can totally sense panic starting to set in for myself as well. I have a lot to do still. Onto today's card! We're up to Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo #51 already! How insane! I've combined it with an old Fall To Layout Sketch #113. I wanted to keep the card really simple with 4 colors and I like how it turned out. You can literally stamp any sentiment on this card and it'll work. Well, maybe not for a manly card but anything else! If you get a chance, pop by the PPC blog to see what the other DT members have made! Have a great week everyone!

PPC-CC #50 & Card Patterns #104

2011-03-01T00:43:00.000-07:00

I am truly so short on time lately it's insane! I apologize folks for the late post. Usually I can manage to get the new PPC post up at 8 AM but alas, I couldn't even get it posted on Monday. It's officially Tuesday already and I'm just ready to climb into bed. In case you missed out last week, we're celebrating some major milestones over at PPC-CC! We're up to our 50th Color Combo and also we just had our 1 year blog anniversary! To make the celebration even more fun, Megan decided to have another design team call! Visit the blog for more details! Trust me! Entering is SUPER easy. I've combined this week's colors with Card Patterns Sketch 104. This super cute card was made for my friend, Marilyn's birthday. She's such a young-un. I love it! Happy birthday Marilyn!

SSSC #106

2011-02-28T01:14:00.000-07:00

Omg omg omg! It's 1:09 AM and I have to work in in about 7 hours. It is my dear friend Arlie's birthday well... yesterday! I wanted to make a special blue card for her because it's her favorite color. I combined it with Sweet Sunday's Sketch Challenge #105. Originally I wasn't going to have the yellow butterfly but when I was stamping the flower underneath it, I accidentally stamped a bit of the edge of the rubber and the little line of extra blue was driving me crazy. I like the little pop of yellow. Brings a bit of cheer to the card! Hopefully she likes it and I know she's going to tsk tsk me for staying up so late. But it was totally worth it! Happy birthday Arlie!!!

PS. Stay tuned for a new post from PPC! I'll need to write it up when I come home after work tomorrow!

PPC-CC #49 & SSSC #105

2011-02-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone!
Boy do we have some awesome stuff going on this week for you!! PPC-CC is celebrating our First Anniversary tomorrow and we're super-duper excited to share it with you! We have a double-whammy of a challenge for you this week and of course some super awesome giveaways! First off, here's our challenge for you...please combine our color combo below AND make it an 'ANNIVERSAY THEMED' creation! Easy-peasy, eh?! We can't wait to see what you've come up with!!!

AND...did we mention that we're looking for TWO new DT Members?!?! All you have to do is create something for our challenge this week, submit your entry and add "DT" to the back of your name (ie..'Sally-DT'). We will then take a peek at your blog! You have until next Monday, February 28th at 10am EST to enter! The PPC Creators and I are excited to get some fresh new faces, creation and ideas!! Do you have what it takes to be a PPC Creator?!

Excited for the giveaways!? Just hop on over to the other DT members blog and they'll show/tell you what they've got to giveaway! You can find their links on the main PPC-CC blog. To win, just leave them a message on their post telling them why you love the PPC-CC Blog! You have until Monday February 28th 12pm EST to enter. All winners will be picked at random and posted here on the blog on Wednesday, March 2nd.

I combined this week's double whammy challenge with Sweet Sunday's Sketch Challenge #105. I've been trying to use up the scrap pieces of the Walk In a Park DSP that's sat on my desk for months and months. Every time there's gray in a color challenge, I try to use up a bit more. This challenge was no different! I love the look of scrunchy ribbon and it's so easy to do! Just put down a strip of adhesive, pinch and adhere! I wasn't thinking when I put the card against a white background to take the picture but I'm too lazy to retake it so... Just squint to see the white card base.

Hopefully you all get a chance to join in on our PPC celebrations!

More Chocolate Holders!

2011-02-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share some other chocolate holders I made. If you remember, I made a bunch for Valentine's day. The tutorial can be found here.

PPC Celebrates One Year!

2011-02-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday!

As part of the PPC-CC Design Team, have some VERY exciting events coming up in the next few weeks over at PPC!!! Tuesday, Feb. 22nd marks our 1 Year Anniversary--woohooo!!! Where has the time flown?! We have a double-whammy of a challenge for you to check out, as well as some super awesome giveways! PLUS, we'll be conducting a PPC Creators Design Team Call! Our DT has had a few that have come and gone in the past year, but we're ecstatic to get some fresh new faces, creations and ideas...do you have what it takes to be a PPC Creator?!

We'll continue celebrating the week of Feb. 28, too! PPC will have reached our 50th Color Combo Challenge! With that said, we'll reveal our newest DT member(s) and of course, have more yummy giveaways!

Make sure you come back bright and early Monday morning to take part in all of the fun! We promise you won't want to miss out!
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And from there, please be on the look out for the actual monday Morning post for all of this hoop-la we have going on! Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, etc.

Also, we are very sorry to say that Melissa will be stepping down from her DT position. We'd like to give her a big 'THANK YOU' and 'hug' for all of the hardwork and dedication she has brought to the DT during her time here. Thank you soooo much for everything, Melissa! We'll miss you, but please keep in touch! xoxoxo

As for the rest of you, we'd LOVE for you all to keep joining us for another fabulous year at PPC! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T23:40:00.001-07:00

Hopefully everyone had a great Monday. I'm not big on celebrating Valentine's Day but it's still nice to give cards out! All my girlfriends got together to hand out Valentine's Day cards on Friday night. We all made little mailboxes for ourselves. It was elementary all over again! Perhaps it's because the mastermind behind it all is a kindergarten teacher...

I made some chocolate candy holders to give to my girlfriends instead of just plain cards. Perhaps it's because the nursing students at work bought us an entire tub of peppermint patties. I just googled for a video and found one from Dawn. You can see her video here. These are so ridiculously easy to make. I ended up making 15 of them.

I also decided to make Jamie a little card because this will be the only Valentine's Day that he'll be my fiancé! I loved the card that Kristina Werner made so I CASEd that card. You can see her card here. I sorta misjudged how big the word "fiance" would be but I had already stamped the "wonderful." Oh well! It's the thought that counts right? Kristina used Stickles and I don't own any because I can't justify paying more than a buck for glittery glue. Instead, I used the Smooch Pearlized Top Coat to draw in little hearts. Worked like a charm. It was super easy to use with a felt tip applicator. Definitely handy to have around.

Have a great night!

Valentine's Day PPC-CC!

2011-02-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'm not a big supporter of the big V-Day but it's still fun to make some lovey dovey cards. This week at PPC-CC we're celebrating by having a different type of challenge. Create anything that's related to Valentine's Day! It doesn't have to say "Happy Valentine's Day" as you can see my card doesn't and my hand didn't get slapped. The card uses the Delightful Decorations stamp set ornament punch. The fins are the leaves off the Two-Step Bird punch. The ribbon is unfortunately the retired Blue Bayou.

Do you have any big V-Day plans? Do you celebrate it or is it just another day? Either way, pop by the PPC-CC blog if you get a chance to see all the love that our DT created!

PPC-CC #48 & Saturday Sketch Challenge # 189

2011-02-07T08:00:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday everyone! Hopefully you had a restful weekend and if it wasn't restful, then hopefully it was at least productive. It's time for another Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo! Can you believe we're up to #48?! It definitely doesn't feel like it's been that long. But I guess Megan did have a baby during that time! That's a good nine months right there! I'm loving this week's combo because I love Crumb Cake. It looks so awesome as a card base. I combined this week's PPC-CC with Stamping 411's Saturday Sketch Challenge #189.

The stamp set is called Just Believe from Stampin' Up and I love it. I went to a workshop a while back that used this stamp set. The demonstrator had us color the image with markers and then we spritzed it with some water. The effect was gorgeous. Almost a faux watercoloring effect. Just be careful you don't get mist happy because then the ink runs too much and you'll end up with a glob of gross colors. I finished it off with some pretty pearls from Stampin' Up as well. Hope you get a chance to pop over to the PPC blog to check out what the other gals have created! Have a great Monday!

Vintage Blue

2011-02-03T02:05:00.000-07:00

Is it 2:00 AM? Why yes it is! I'm absolutely exhausted but really felt the need to craft tonight. I was poking around on the ColorQ challenge blog and fell in love with Christina's card. Thinking it looked super simple to CASE, I decided to make a whopping two cards. I always forget that I'm a ridiculously slow crafter and 3 hours later, I finally get the cards done and photos taken. I absolutely love the paper. I dug it out of my big ol' box of paper from K&Company. Wonder why it took me 3 hours instead of say, 20 minutes? I like to hum and ha about everything. Deciding what colors and papers took about 5 minutes. The 1.75 hour part was figuring out what sentiment/stamps, layers of punches and buttons to use. I just can't throw it on paper and make it look good on the first try. I wasted about 5 different punched out shapes and I laid out about 10 different configurations on where to put the sentiment, how to layer the punched shapes (vertical or horizontal) and where to put the darn thing .

I love the faux stitching effect because the thought of actually sewing just tires me out. I'd be posting this card at 6 AM! I deliberately drew in the faux stitching messily so it'd look more like scraggly stitching. Love it!

I'm loving the color combination and I might just have to make a few more cards with it! Gotta use up that piece that's leftover which I used as a photo background.

PPC-CC #47

2011-01-31T08:00:00.001-07:00

Holy cow! Is it just me or is time literally flying by?! Perhaps it's all this wedding stuff but boy I blink and it's another week! I haven't had a lot of crafting time because as some of you read last week, I'm moving my crafting area. I'm also trying to finalize our wedding invitations so that Jamie and I can start on those! But we can't work on invites without a proper crafting area! I'll need to post some pictures of the new area once I get it a bit more organized. We went to Ikea yesterday and bought a cheap shelf to hang along with some rods for my punches. Even though Jamie isn't happy with how it all looks, I remind him that it's a step up from what I had before so I'm happy. It's functional and it was cheap and fast to do. What would we do without cheap Ikea furniture? While you're thinking of how much Ikea furniture you have in your home, (I know you were!) I'll get to today's card. I think I'm losing my mojo a bit. This week's Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo is just gorgeous but I'm having a rough time bringing all colors together. I'm in wedding invitation mode! I tried CASEing Kristina but failed a bit when I tried to add a fat grosgrain ribbon. Anyways, hope you get a chance to pop over to the PPC-CC blog to see what the rest of the team has created. I've seen them and they're GORGEOUS! Have a great day!

Crafting Area Overhaul!

2011-01-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

So much for crafting today... I decided to move my crafting area! Why you might ask? Because I used to feel the need to craft in front of the TV but then realized that I actually like crafting to just music. I also got used to using a normal desktop computer that was sitting oh so nicely on our dining room table that surfing the web on my little netbook laptop just wasn't cutting it anymore. My eyes get tired!

This is my original crafting area. I know it's impossible to actually see where I craft but I sit in between all the stuff so I just swivel back and forth to get paper/stamps etc. Directly in front of me (and Jamie in the photo) would be the TV.

That desk to the left is where I wanted to have my new crafting area. That desk is about 10 years old already and I've been meaning to sell it but then I figured I really like the pullout keyboard tray.

It might not look idea because the desk hutch is sorta hanging out in the middle of nowhere but for now, it'll have to do. Jamie started talking about building a wall behind it... Yah, like we don't have enough projects on the go...

I only managed to set up the computer and the biggest accomplishment of the evening? Since the desk was 10 years old, it had accumulated a lot of crap in the drawers. I mean stuff from like junior high school/high school that I've stored in there. I found super old "Best Friend" jewelry where I have the "Best" portion. I even found my old Visa receipts stapled together from 2002, sorted by month!!! I know it doesn't look very different from pictures 3 and 4, but trust me. Jamie even called me out on not going through that desk when we moved almost 4 years ago. I just hauled the entire thing over from my parents straight into the UHaul, into the basement. At one point in the night, I had to get Jamie to stand there and remind me to throw things away because I am a mega pack-rat. More sorting needs to be done tomorrow because if I don't, I have nowhere to craft!!!

PPC-CC #46 & FTL #124

2011-01-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday morning everyone! I love having Mondays off! It gives me time to run errands and avoid the evening rush hour. I've been working on my wedding invitations, trying to choose what design I'd like to use. Today I'll run to the stationary store to pick up some sample papers to print on. Jamie's leaning towards linen paper and I'm leaning towards shimmer paper. Guess I'll need to make samples with both and see which one looks better. Onto today's card! It uses Picture Perfect Creations #46 and Fall To Layout #124. I'm very excited about all the goodies I got from Papertrey Ink. I love the stamps and even got some Nestabilities! Super fun!! Looking back as I load the picture, I would've put a scalloped circle underneath the circle just go give it more pop. Oh well! Head over to PPC to see what else the other team members came up with!

PPC-CC Heat/Dry Emboss Challenge!

2011-01-17T08:00:00.001-07:00

Good morning fellow crafters! Hope everyone had a great snowy cold weekend indoors crafting! I have to confess, I did very little crafting. Why you might ask? Because there are better things to do when it's -25 degrees Celsius outside and that's taking engagement photos! It wasn't the engagement photos that are included in our wedding package. We (I) decided to trek out to take some snowy shots because it just looked so beautiful outside with the snow falling all weekend. It was just oh so much fun that we did it both days. So in the little crafting that I did do, I was excited to create a card for this week's Picture Perfect Creations Challenge: heat/dry emboss! I love embossing of any sorts and I remember at my very first Stampin' Up workshop, it was the gold embossing powder that really wowed me.

But gold has collected dust. I've found a new love and that love is as strong as ever. It's Iridescent Ice. The clear embossing powder with glitter from Stampin' Up. It's always my go to for embossing powder and that hasn't changed in say... oh ever! This card is a complete replica of the one Maile made. It's not as nice, but I just adore the card. Hopefully you get a chance to join us this week at PPC!! Have a great day and stay warm!

Just Add Ink #50

2011-01-11T00:18:00.000-07:00

Just a quick (Ha! Yah right...) card to post before I head off to bed. I wanted to CASE the card seen on Clean & Simple Stamping's blog. You can see the original here. The colors are almost identical to Just Add Ink's #50 color combo. I didn't realize how HUGE my squares were until I cut them all out! And since it's past midnight, I figured I better just get the darn card done and head to bed. The daisy is from a retired Stampin' Up set called Petal Prints (LOOOVE IT and so glad I bought it on ebay) and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink Signature Greetings. Hope you all have a great sleep!

2011 Project Count

2011-01-10T23:35:00.018-07:00

Do you ever feel discouraged that you don't create enough or use your crafting items enough? I feel that constantly. I spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on stamps, embellishments, paper and the list goes on and on. What do I have to show for it? Some would say I've got a basement full of "stuff". If a thief knew how much my crafting supplies was worth, they'd hit my house first. Good thing I've got a nice big scary looking dog with a loud piercing bark. Khuno would definitely lick the thief into surrendering.

Remember when I had joined the No Paper/Product Buying Challenge a while back? The post can be found here. I really liked the idea of tracking the number of projects I completed. Instead of counting up to 100, I decided to count down from 100. I think it' be really fun to actually count upwards and see how many projects I complete in 2011. I'm not off to a very good start with a whooping 2 projects so far but it'll be cool to see if I can hit a few hundred projects. Maybe I'll even hit 1000 because I know I'll be making my wedding invitations so that's already 150-200 projects right there!

So feel free to join in on the count! Lets see if we can all hit 1000!!!
Lets get ready to CRAFT!!! (I imagined all of us saying it like the boxing announcer that says "Lets get ready to rumble!)

1. PPC-CC 44
2. PPC-CC 45 & Fall To Layout 122
3. Just Add Ink #50-made 2 of them!
4. PPC-CC Heat/dry emboss-made 2 again!
5. Made 11 of these to swap at my demonstrator meeting!
6. PPC-CC 46 & Fall To Layout 124
7. PPC-CC 47
8. Vintage Blue-made 2
9. PPC-CC 48
10. PPC-CC 49
11. Valentine's Day (16 projects)
12. 2 more chocolate holders
13. 2 waterfall cards
14. PPC-CC #49 & SSSC #105
15. SSSC #106
16. PPC-CC #50 & Card Patterns #104
17. PPC-CC #51
18. Farewell
19. 110 wedding invites!
20. 25 mini thank you cards

PPC-CC #45 & Fall To Layout #122

2011-01-10T08:00:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday everyone! Hopefully you all had a great weekend. I spent most of my weekend at home because we had a major dump of snow in Edmonton. I managed to do a bit more wedding planning so that's a bonus! Onto today's card. This week over at the Picture Perfect Creations blog, we're up to challenge #45!!! Boy Megan really stumps me sometimes! It's fun creating with colors that I'd never normally put together. I absolutely hate River Rock and Wild Wasabi. I met both colors when I was first introduced to Stampin' Up. I was a complete beginner and ended up ordering a bunch of random stuff. Well, can you believe I still have my packages of River Rock and Wild Wasabi? That's how much I use them. Enough about my dislikes! I've combined this week's colors with Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout #122. I ended up flipping the sketch just so I could make 2 cards out of 1 sheet of card stock. I'm really loving the sketch and I'll definitely be going back to it! Hopefully you all get a chance to pop on over to PPC to see what the design team has created!

PPC-CC #44 & SSC98

2011-01-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone and happy New Year!!! How incredibly insane that it's already 2011. I swear, time flies by when you're older and it just crawls when you're in school. What better way to ring in the new year than with some crafting time! Megan over at Picture Perfect Creations has another awesome color challenge. Can't believe we're already up to #44! I combined it with Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #98. I remember when I first laid eyes on Pendent Park. I knew I just had to have it! But once I got my hands on it, I never got to ink it up very often. This is the second time I've made a card with it. Hopefully it'll get some more lovin' in 2011. Head on over to the PPC blog to see what the other design team members have created! Hope you get a chance to join us this week!

PPC-CC #43

2010-12-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone! Hopefully you all have the day off in lieu! I have 2 days of vacation left... Booooo =( But enough sulking. It's time for another Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo! Can you believe we're up to #43 already?!? It's my friend's "21st" birthday and I made a card for her.

The poor cupcake blends in a bit too much but I didn't want a green or navy blue cupcake popping out! Not appetizing at all! Head on over to the PPC blog to see what the other team members have created!

2010-12-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!! May your bellies be full of delicious food and your hearts warmed with loved ones all around.

Boy I'm not very good with this My Digital Studio thing. My projects look terrible right now... Will definitely need to work on this. Have a great day!

Christmas Stamp-A-Stack

2010-12-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

This post is way long overdue. Back a few weeks I had my second Christmas Stamp-A-Stack. The only problem, I spent all night either on the couch nauseous or in the bathroom puking. I felt miserable but didn't want to cancel because I had 6 people coming over and it's so hard to find a date/time that works for 6 people! Everything that came was super. I had typed out some instructions and they managed to complete their cards. Everyone had to help each other out but I'm glad they were all so understanding and I don't think anyone caught the stomach bug I had! Here are the cards that we made that night.

This card was actually CASEd from a card I found online at Splitcoaststampers. I don't have the actual girl's name that created it though. Love how it uses a simple tree to make it a Christmas card.

This card was CASEd from one of my favorite blogs, Clean & Simple Stamping.

This was CASEd from one of the girls in my DARS Stampin' Up team. It's just absolutely gorgeous. I don't have her sample on hand to get her name right now.

Finally a card that wasn't CASEd from anyone.

Another card that wasn't CASEd. Off to bed! Have a good night!

A New Personal Blog!

2010-12-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Ever since I started blogging all my card creations, I've always wanted to share more. You might have noticed that a lot of my posts include personal things like what I was doing that night or what we had for supper. Well I finally decided to make another blog to share my non-card making life. I do have a life outside of card making! I decided to call it Live, Love, Capture. Jamie didn't understand why I chose that name but I think it's quite meaningful. The "Capture" part of it was more related to taking photos but I think even writing posts is "capturing" a part of our life. Feel free to pop on by the new blog if you'd like to creep on what our little home has been up to!

PPC-CC Specialty Challenge #2

2010-12-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone! Is anyone else as lucky as me to have this week off? I love planning vacation around the Christmas holidays and every year I'm so happy I do! Unfortunately Jamie didn't take the week off so next week when I'm back to work, he's off work! I spent the afternoon baking some shortbread cookies. Every year Jamie and I do some Christmas baking for our neighbors and some close friends. This year is no different. Although we have scaled down the variety of baked goods we do. I think the very first year we had like 5 or 6 different types and it was stressful! This year we'll likely just keep it down to shortbread, gingerbread, and Jamie's famous puff wheat squares. Possibly some yummy fudge... and perhaps some oatmeal cookies... LOL that's already 5 again! Darn! Anyways onto this week's Picture Perfect Color Creations Challenge! With it being Christmas, Megan has decided on another specialty challenge. This week is to create anything Christmas related. Not difficult at all right?!? This little card was super fast to create. I actually got 4 of these little cuties from one sheet of 8.5"x11" card stock. Cut it into 4, fold in half and layer on some more card stock! I used SU's 2-Way Glue Pen to outline the antler swirls and just dusted on some gold glitter. Easy peasy. Pop on by the PPC blog to see what Christmas goodies the design team has created. Have a great week everyone!

Daisy's 30th Birthday!

2010-12-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

My good friend Daisy turned 30 this past week and I had organized a surprise birthday party for her. She was totally clueless and it was an awesome surprise because she wanted her 30th birthday to pass without commotion. Being a good friend, of course I couldn't let that happen! So on top of decorating her desk the night before her big day (thanks Amber for the awesome idea!), we managed to organize a dinner and gift for her right under her nose!

She loves ribbon, buttons and green! Not really knowing what to get her, I decided to just collect donations for a gift. At first I was thinking something along the lines of spa to pamper her aging skin but then came up with a cooler idea. I know she's been wanting a new phone and has been looking at the iPhone4. So the money collected was put into a tin that I altered to look like an iPhone4! Took me till 3 am but it was totally worth it!

Christmas Cards

2010-12-18T03:15:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone! Hopefully no one else is up at this ridiculous hour like I am. It's 3:11 AM and I've been up busy crafting! I'll post my little project tomorrow night and I'll explain tomorrow. For now, I just wanted to post a picture of the Christmas cards I made for all my coworkers. I got the idea for these cut little mitts from a fellow Stampin' Up demonstrator on my team. I forgot to take a picture of who made the card so I can't give the exact stamper credit but please know that I didn't come up with this uber cute card. It uses 3 punches, the wide oval, small oval and scalloped oval. Super easy and super cute. Also, in case you're wondering why the heck I photographed them sitting in a box that says, "Fruit Buddies", it's because I bought Fuzzy Peach flavored candy canes! Hope you all have a great day!

PPC-CC #42, SSSC96 & Top Tip Tuesday Challenge

2010-12-13T08:00:00.001-07:00

Good morning everyone! We're only 12 days away from Christmas! Hopefully you all have your shopping and cards finished. I don't have either so I'll be working on those all week. Megan has another fun color challenge for you this week over at the Picture Perfect Creations blog. I combined it with 2 other challenges today. I used Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 96 and it's my very first Top Tip Tuesday challenge! I stumbled onto this blog a few weeks ago and was excited to follow another challenge blog. This week's challenge at Top Tip Tuesday is to use ribbon on your creation. More on that after I show you what I came up with.

I was just thinking this afternoon that I need to use more ribbon on my cards (preferably on all my cards) since I was organizing my ribbon today. I was at the mall yesterday and stopped in at Deserres. They had a sale on some Craft Mates storage items so I stocked up on 4 of the ribbon holders. After loading in as many Stampin' Up ribbon rolls as I could, I realized I need more!!! So I'll need to stop by sometime this week and pick up another 2 or 3... Here's my new ribbon storage! Any thoughts? Jealous? =)

Lazy Sunday...

2010-12-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a couple things on this lazy Sunday. Jamie had a craving for cinnamon buns so decided to make some! I've made them once before and he criticized that mine were dry. I told him he should make sticky buns so it has that ooey gooey yumminess on top. Well I must say, if I didn't tell him to do that, his buns were just as dry as mine!!! So if he brings up my dry cinnamon buns again (which is often does), I'll have some ammo to fire back!

The second thing I wanted to share before bed. Remember when I made my little garbage container out of scraps? If not, you can see it here. Well something that I learned that night made me love Stampin' Up card stock even more than I already do. When I first started crafting, I did as all beginners do. I went to Michael's and bought a bunch of card stock to get started. I still have about 4 packages of white hanging around. I often will use this card stock as scraps so what better time to use it than now for making letters for my garbage box. After stamping a few times, I kept wondering, "Why the heck is my stamped image so crappy?" It looked as though I didn't ink it up enough. So I decided to change card stock and viola! It was the card stock and not the ink or stamp that was crappy! Stampin' Up's Whisper White just takes ink so much better. Try clicking the picture and enlarging it to see for yourself.

So the picture above shows the same stamp set and same Classic Basic Black Stampin' Up ink. The bottom row is white card stock from Michael's (Value Pack White Cardstock Sheets by The Paper Company ANW Crestwood). The second row is just white card stock from Staples (Staples brand). The top row is the gorgeous Whisper White card stock from Stampin' Up. Not only does it take ink way better, it's also a nice bright white color and just oh so smooth to the touch. Michael's card stock is rough and kind of dull looking. Really just bleh in my opinion! Do you have a go-to white card stock?

Color Q #62, 4 Crafty Chicks #14 & Fall To Layout #119

2010-12-08T00:41:00.000-07:00

Alrighty this is going be a very short post because it's already 12:36 AM and I need to work in the morning! And you read correctly. I am making another card for 4 Crafty Chicks and Fall to Layout! I had made a birthday card for my friend and posted it yesterday. The colors I chose were very close to this week's Color Queen Challenge. Although it was close, it still wasn't the exact colors and you could definitely tell so I wanted to make an exact replica of the card using similar colors. Here is it along with Clean and Simple's Fall To Layout #119 again. Love this sketch!!! And yes, it again does qualify for 4 Crafty Chick's challenge 14, to make a birthday card. Have a great night everyone!

PS. I miss my beloved Circle Circus stamp set! I'm glad I busted it out again!

PPC-CC #41, 4 Crafty Chicks #14 & Fall To Layout #119

2010-12-06T15:57:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's another Monday already!! Have you started our Christmas shopping yet? I've been sick sick sick lately and haven't really done much of anything! First it was the flu for 2 weeks, then numerous bouts of nausea and vomiting. Then on Wednesday night I sneezed a couple times and felt a tickle in my nose. Thursday morning I'm down with a cold. I've been out of commission all weekend. We did manage to go to Jamie's work Christmas party but I went to the washroom every 10 minutes or so to clear my sinuses. Good thing the washroom wasn't too far away. Today I took a sick day from work because with my hacking and green snot, I'm not visiting new born babies and I can't even imagine having to talk to parents for 4 hours on their child's growth and development. Is anyone else having as much illness this winter as me? My manager and Arlie keep telling me to start taking Cold FX. I think I just might. Onto today's card! Boy I haven't done a triple play in a long time. I really wanted to make my friend a birthday card for her 30th birthday and I know she loves green so I decided to combine Picture Perfect Creations #41, Fall To Layout's #119 and 4 Crafty Chicks #14 birthday card challenge. Here's what I came up with.

I'm loving the ribbon and I think I just might need to do more of that! Works great with Stampin' Up's satin ribbon. And the big ol' button is from the winter mini catalogue's Big Designer Buttons. I might need to redo a card that's more "wintery" for my friend's birthday as I'm not so sure I chose the theme very wisely.... Hope you get a chance to join us at PPC this week and pop on over to see what the other creators have made! Have a great day!

PPC-CC #40 & Saturday Sketch Challenge #179

2010-11-29T08:00:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's almost DECEMBER!!! Have you started or better yet, finished your Christmas cards yet? I sure haven't! I'm definitely feeling the fire under my butt though! I thought I'd get a lot more accomplished while I was on vacation but all my time was eaten up by wedding planning and renos. We've started using our new shiny fridge and today Jaime finished putting in the new dishwasher (into our old cupboards, so it's not as exciting). We started our first load of dishes last night and let it air dry. Needs a bit of tweaking still because I think the dishwasher door rubs against the cupboard. Minor details right? Now for the real reason you're here visiting. It's Monday and that means another color challenge over at the Picture Perfect Creations challenge blog! This week's colors are out of my comfort zone. I'm still not sure about Poppy Parade but I'm trying! I combined it with Stamping 411's Saturday Sketch Challenge #179.

I'm really not sure why I chose a Poppy Parade background but I'm too lazy to take another picture. Originally I had a button where the sentiment is but then realized it wasn't Not Quite Navy. Boo. Hopefully you get a chance to pop by PPC-CC and join us this week for a challenge coloring challenge!

4 Crafty Chicks #13

2010-11-26T02:23:00.000-07:00

Boy it's early... 2:12 AM early! Today is the last day of my week long vacation and I'm sad I didn't get in more crafting time. But I am happy to say that we got a lot accomplished still. We managed to book our wedding photographer, our ceremony location, our reception and we bought a new fridge and dishwasher! So all the appliances for our future kitchen are purchased! The fridge and dishwasher were delivered today so I made Jamie help me wipe down the new shiny fridge and move everything over from our old fridge. One thing I noticed about fridges though, the veggie/fruit bins are never big enough. Perhaps we buy a lot of produce but seriously, we needed to make the entire shelf on top of the bins a designated "produce shelf". Hopefully Jamie will be able to install the dishwasher in the next week even though we'll be ripping out all the cupboards around it. I just really hate washing dishes! Such a waste of my precious life minutes. Can you tell it's late and I'm just doing some late night ranting? Onto the purpose of the post! This week over at 4 Crafty Chicks, it's an inspiration challenge. Can you believe it's already week 13 those gals are up to? Here's a CAS card I created using colors from the photo. Hope everyone has a great Friday and pop by 4 Crafty Chicks if you get a chance!

Wednesday Morning Breakfast!

2010-11-24T11:17:00.002-07:00

So Jamie and I are on a little mini vacation this week and I've been sleeping in the last 2 days. We both fell asleep on the couch downstairs last night and woke up with sore backs. So of course instead of crawling into bed upstairs, I decided to wake up at 8:30!!! That's almost unheard of for me on a day off. Jamie's usually the one that makes elaborate breakfasts for me and this morning I wanted pancakes. I remembered my friend, Julie, posted a recipe for pancakes with blueberry sauce on her blog. I made a few changes.

Fluffy Pancakes
original recipe
makes 10 - palm-sized pancakes

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 cup ~~all-purpose flour~~ whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon ~~butter~~ Becel, melted
~~cooking spray~~
Directions

Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside ~~for 10 minutes~~ to "sour" while you prep the rest.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and whisk until lumps are gone. This will happen with a few good whisks.
Let the mixture sit for a couple minutes so that vinegar gets the batter all frothy. Do NOT re-stir the batter!!!
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, ~~and coat with cooking spray~~. Scoop 1/3 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet. You almost need to shimmy the batter around to spread it out.
Cook until bubbles appear on the surface. I found the batter quite thick and I didn't see the bubbles like I do with other pancake recipes. I flipped with a spatula when I saw the top of the batter start to move. If I let it sit till it bubbled, the bottom would have burnt.

Blueberry Sauce

original recipe

Ingredients

~~1/2 cup sugar~~ 2 tbsp of sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

~~1/3~~ 1 cup water

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

pinch of salt

Directions

In a 2-qt. saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; gradually stir in water. Add blueberries and salt; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. ~~Boil for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.~~ Turn the heat down to low and stir occasionally until you're done cooking all your pancakes. Serve warm or cold over French toast, pancakes or waffles.

I wanted some coffee but we didn't have any on hand so Jamie roasted some beans up in our popcorn maker. I tried to take a picture of the steam coming off those hot hot beans but didn't make it in time with the camera.

Now for those that know me, know I love my savory foods. Yesterday the Mundare sausage I ordered from this little girl that came around a few weeks ago fundraising finally arrived. We pan-fried that up with some onion as the coffee was brewing.

The recipe was very easy to make. It would have tasted a lot better with all purpose flour because with whole wheat, it was a little dry and crumbly. I think also omitting a lot of the fat didn't help. I'd definitely go back to this recipe though! I love vacations!! Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Using Up Scraps!!!

2010-11-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

I am really not good at using up my paper scraps. So I always just leave them in a little (actually it's quite large!) pile underneath my cutter. You can see from the photo that I had a lot of leftover pink patterned paper. I used a bunch of paper to make a wedding planner for my best friend, Elizabeth. I was left with a bunch of 1" strips so I decided to try weaving them together. After weaving a short panel to cover a box that was used as a "garbage" box during my last workshop, I realized I could weave a huge panel!

I ended up cutting up all the rest of my pink scraps into 1" strips and made a nice long weave! Afterwards I stamped some letters out and stuck those onto the sides. This will now be my new garbage can for workshops!

Three cheers for using up scraps!!! Hip hip hurray! Hip hip hurray! Hip hip hurray!!!

Online Spectacular Sale!!!

2010-11-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

Now we all know Stampin' Up throws specials at us all the time. This holiday season is no different! Remember last year's Extravaganza? Well this year Stampin' Up! is having an Online Spectacular Sale!! Items are on sale between 30-50% off! You can shop online or you can email me your order. The perk about emailing me your order is all orders over $200 qualifies for free shipping!!! That's a savings of an extra 10%. The sale ends November 30!!! Happy shopping!!

PPC-CC #40

2010-11-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hopefully everyone had a relaxing weekend. I was out of commission on Friday night puking my guts out. I've had a really bad fall/winter so far. Someone suggested that I might be having migraines but minus the actual stabbing headache. I'll need to ask about it when I have my annual physical. But enough about me! A few of you joined us last week for Picture Perfect Creations very first Sketch Combo. We'll be throwing other curve balls at you as the weeks go by. This week at Picture Perfect Creations, we're back to another color challenge. I was very excited with this week's colors and here's why. Jamie and I were over at our friends' place (Mark & Jinnee) yesterday. Jinnee was showing me some of the cards she had made recently and my absolute favorite was this really bold Pacific Point and Real Red card she made using some DSP from the Celebrations pack. The colors matched this week's color challenge almost to a tee. I think she even used something close to More Mustard. Now I don't have a photo of Jinnee's photo to post but I can say that this card is an exact copy of hers! The only difference is I used a scalloped circle punch instead of a star punch.

I tried adding my blog address to the photo and I have no idea how it came to be so blurry! It was too late to fix though because I already saved it and I have no idea how to reverse it! Hope you all get a chance to play along with us at PPC this week! Have a great Monday!

Win a FREE Copy of My Digital Studio!

2010-11-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

Barb Mullikin has an AMAZING give-a-way!!! Check out her blog for more information. To enter, she wants to know why you'd love a copy or love to give it to someone. Now some of you may not have heard about My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up. It's the new way to scrapbook! You can even make digital cards and print them out. I have never used MDS before but things that I know I already love about it are many! The biggest love is of course how everything matches and coordinates! Stampin' Up is known to make everything simple for all crafters. That means all the colors and images are made to coordinate with punches and even the inks/card stock you already own! You can custom create all of your scrapbook pages and add in journaling. What makes MDS different as well from other digital scrapbooking programs is there are always new images/accessories to download! Just like how you would go to the store to buy new accessories, you can go onto the Stampin' Up website to shop for new items! When you're finished, just send in your order from home and it'll get delivered right to your door! And for those that don't scrapbook, you can even create cards and print those as well! Those are all reasons that I'd love to own My Digital Studios. What are yours?

Color Q #59 & CPS #193

2010-11-17T00:50:00.001-07:00

It looks like I'm getting back into the late night crafting. That always seems to happen when winter starts looming. We got some snow today in lil Edmonton and it's starting to finally get chilly. The days get dark at like 3:00 PM. It really is quite sad. Sorta like that Expedia commercial where the girl is at work and looks outside into the dark night, looks at the clock that says something like 4 PM and then starts to cry. Anyways, onto why I'm really posting tonight so I can get to bed! I was out with my friend, Arlie, last week and we ran out of time at the mall so she didn't stop by Bath & Body Works for some little hand-sani. I had bookmarked this cute little project a while back from Pink Buckaroo Designs. it's a cute little holder for those mini hand sanitizers. I haven't participated in very many challenges since I took on the design team position with Picture Perfect Creations. I think summer had a little bit to do with that too. So here's a little combo challenge and those that know me know I almost always combine a sketch and color challenge together. Like I always say, why do more thinking than you need to. Especially for late night crafters! I've combined Color Queen's Challenge #59 and Card Positioning Systems #193. Now those that are Stampin' Up fans will notice that the DSP I used isn't the exact colors listed in the color challenge but they are just so darn close and it matched the stamp set so well that I decided to bend the rules a little bit. And for those that didn't notice, well then... Carry on!

Now you also can't really tell from the picture but I used a new product called Smooch Pearlized Top Coat. Picture a little bottle of sparkly glitter that you can paint onto projects like nail polish or white out. I painted it over the entire flower and in the middle added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The Smooch stuff is definitely fun to play with and now I need to buy more!

For complete instructions, visit Pink Buckaroo Designs. She also has more photos on her blog. Total side note. I decided to try using a patterned piece of paper for the background instead of my plain old white and boy, I'm loving how it looks! That paper in the background is actually the one used on the project, but just flipped onto the other side! That's the great thing about Stampin' Up! The DSP is always double-sided and all the colors coordinate! Thanks for stopping by and happy early hump day! (Hump day still sounds so weird to me....)

Start A New Business?!?!

2010-11-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

From November 15 through November 30, 2010, you can purchase the Standard or Digital+ Starter Kits for only $107.50--that is 50 percent off the regular price of $215 for over $375 worth of paper or digital crafting and business supplies! Don't feel like starting a business? It's a great time to start your own crafting hobby! The stamps and inks you get from the kit alone are worth it! There's no penalty if you want to stop being a demonstrator and you can stop anytime! Plus, on your first order as a demonstrator, you can save up to 30%! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

PPC-SC #1 & PDCC #55

2010-11-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone! I can't believe November is officially half over! I'm not ready for it to be Christmas quite yet. The weather has been cooperating with that! No snow staying on the ground yet. We've had an entire day of rain though! Kind of feels like Vancouver!
Today's card threw me for a double challenge and not because I combined 2 challenges together. Over at Picture Perfect Creations, we've decided to start sketch challenges! So this week is the first sketch challenge. I've combined it with the Play Date Cafe Challenge #55. I call this a double challenge because
1. I do not like using more than about 3 colors on my cards and PDCC #55 uses 5 (and ones that I would never put together)!!
2. I do not use complicated sketches very often and the very first PPC-SC is more complicated than I am used to.
I wanted to make a card for someone close to my heart that was recently diagnosed with liver cancer. I don't know very much about liver cancer except for what she has told me. She will hopefully go for surgery within the next couple weeks. She'll be in my thoughts and I'll be praying for a smooth surgery and speedy recovery. Hopefully you don't need to make a get well card for anyone but come pop by Picture Perfect Creations to try out our new challenge and see what the design team has come up with! They did a much better job than me!

Unscripted Sketch #80

2010-11-11T14:58:00.001-07:00

Good afternoon everyone. It's Remembrance Day here in Canada today so I hope everyone takes some time today to remember those that have lost their lives fighting for us. I've got a quick post today of a card that my friend, Viv, asked me to make for her boyfriend. He's a big Vancouver Canucks fan so she wanted a card with that theme. Here's my attempt using Unscripted Sketches #80. I couldn't figure out how to add something to that top right corner so I had to skip that little bit there. Somehow a button or ribbon just didn't lend so well to this card. I made a little jersey prototype before trying to construct the actual one on the card. Hopefully he likes it. I have a really hard time making masculine cards so it was a good challenge for me. Guess boys need to receive cards too sometimes. I'm off for a walk with my pup.

PPC-CC #38

2010-11-08T08:00:00.001-07:00

Good morning ladies! Can you believe it's already mid November? Time really does fly! Megan is always so great at pairing up unusual colors or at least colors that I never put together. This week is no different! I combined this week's PPC challenge with a birthday card I was supposed to make. My coworker is turning the big 5-0 and I wanted a little card for her. Hopefully she likes it. I know it's a little simple but if you've been a follower of my work you'll know that I like CAS (clean & simple). Hope she (and you of course) likes it! On a side note, I haven't been very good about my No paper/product Buying Challenge. I've made a purchase over at Papertrey.com and I must say, I am loving my new stamp sets from there. Although I've caved and made some buys, I'll still count down to 100 projects! Have a great day everyone!

PPC-CC #37, Fall To Layout #114 & 4 Crafty Chicks #9

2010-11-01T08:00:00.001-06:00

Good morning everyone! Can you believe it's almost Christmas?!?! Ha ha, right? Hope everyone had a safe and fun All Hallows Eve. I managed to find some time to do some crafting this busy busy weekend. Can you believe we're up to Picture Perfect Creations #37? Wahoo!! I definitely didn't think these colors would look good together but I'm actually happy with how the card turned out. I combined the colors with Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout #114. I have a really hard time with single layer cards and I'm not sure if this technically qualifies as one because I didn't just stamp onto the card front. Those that know me, know I love layers. I love those little flowers and I'm so glad I have the Big Shot and punches for them. Can you imagine cutting those little suckers out?? Over at 4 Crafty Chicks, this week's challenge is to "Roll with the punches!" so I did just that! Anyways, the stamp set is Stem Sayings. Big Shot accessories include the Floral Fusion sizzlit and the Little Leaves sizzlit. The punch is from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack. Uber cute right? Hopefully you get a chance to play along this week. Both challenges are will definitely require you have some creative juices. Have a great week!

Give Thanks

2010-10-27T08:00:00.001-06:00

I'm very thankful for a lot this fall. I'm thankful for wonder friends and family. I'm thankful for my fiance and puppy. I'm thankful I have a great job and great coworkers. I'm thankful that I came down with the flu and can recover from it. I'm thankful that I had a great meal tonight in my own home. The list can go on and on but I just wanted to do a quick post on giving thanks. I made 30 of these little suckers to give out at work because it's been a tough few months. What are you thankful for today?

PPC-CC #36 & Fall To Layout #113

2010-10-25T08:00:00.003-06:00

Good morning! Boy it's been a LONG week. I'm still sporting the cough and over the weekend I came down with something worse. I'm not sure if it was food poisoning or the stomach flu. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea is not fun. Nausea is probably the worst thing for me. Especially when I'm away from home and need to curl around a friend's toilet. I'm feeling a bit better now and even managed to do a bit of crafting. This week's Picture Perfect Creations #36 colors are something that I would have never put together but Megan did some awesome pairing! I joined it with Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout #113. Hopefully you all get a chance to join us at PPC this week!

My Dear Sweet Arlie

2010-10-18T23:54:00.000-06:00

So for those of you that have been reading my blog for some time, you might have noticed that I mention my dear friend, Arlie, from time to time. The story about Arlie is she used to buy cards from me that I've made. Then she progressed from being a card customer to a stamping supplies customer! I have tried time and time again to get her to start a blog to showcase some of her beautiful work, but to no avail. So the only thing left for me to do is show off her work for her!

I love her use of all the colors and the DSP. She used Crystal Effects over all the dots and it looks fantastic!! She really oomphed up the card by using the Crystal Effects, embossing the sentiment and a textured card stock card base! She knows how much I love textured card stock. I only save it for special occasions! I know she's a loyal reader of my blog and I hope that seeing her work posted will inspire her to start her own blog!

PPC-CC #35 & Fall to Layout #111

2010-10-18T21:32:00.001-06:00

Well I had a total brain fart while making this card. I thought the Tempting Turquoise was a Bashful Blue and didn't realize my mistake until I went to upload the picture! It was too late to make another card so this will have to do for now. I've been MIA for the last bit and that's because I've been sick as a dog the last week. I had to call in sick for work for 3 days last week and had a complete meltdown at 7 am yesterday because after making Jamie drive me around to find a store open to buy cough syrup at 2 AM, I was only able to sleep from 3:30-6:30. I woke up and tried sleeping on the cough but I couldn't sleep from all the hacking. So finally I made Jamie take me to the Medicenter for some prescription grade codeine loaded cough syrup. It totally did the trick and I was zonked out like a little zombie. I've slept so much in the last 5 days it's gross. Enough about me though. I've combined this week's Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo with Clean & Simple Stamping's Fall to Layout #111. I love the clean lines and simplicity of the cards. Hope you all get a chance to join us at PPC this week! In the meantime, stay crafty and healthy!

PPC-CC #34

2010-10-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

My oh my what a great Thanksgiving long weekend! Today Jamie and I will be going to my aunt's place for some yummy turkey dinner. I also got to sleep in a little bit today!! I've been sporting a sore throat the last 2 days and it's getting worse so hopefully the sleep will help a bit. I ended up drinking plain hot water last night because I wanted something warm but had already brushed my teeth. Boy I felt old! My grandma used to drink plain hot water all the time. She'd even mix her rice with hot water if it wasn't going down very well! Now speaking of family, I just want to give thanks for the wonderful friends in my life. I'm also thankful for an amazing partner in life, Jamie and for a great family. We have our quirks but I love them all. I hope everyone gets a chance to take a couple moments to be thankful for everything that they have in their lives.

Onto today's card! Megan over at Picture Perfect Creations chose some gorgeous colors this week. I'm loving purples and greens right now, which is probably why my eyeshadows are all those 2 colors. I wanted to keep it really simple and got most of the detail from the DSP. I feel like I'm never going to make the 100 projects that I need for the No paper/product buying challenge. I really gotta step it up!! Hope you all get to play along with us this week over at PPC! Head on over to see what the other design team creators have come up with.

PPC-CC #33

2010-10-09T16:17:00.000-06:00

Sort of late for this post but this week has been insanely busy! Influenza season officially started and I am one of the coordinators for our area of the city. This includes almost all of the inner city and I've been going crazy trying to manage 17 casual flu nurses. I did survive though and slept for 11 hours last night! I was hoping to wake up at 10 but managed to drag myself out of bed at 1:15 PM!! I really needed that extra catch-up sleep! This past Monday Megan over at the Picture Perfect Creations posted some fun colors. Here's my take on this week's challenge. My card is copied from a layout that Kristina Werner did. Hope you all had a chance to play with us. You have till tomorrow night! Have a great Thanksgiving weekend all my fellow Canadians!

4 Crafty Chicks #5 & The Color Dare #78 (again!)

2010-10-03T15:25:00.000-06:00

Another beautiful fall day in the neighborhood! It's a day before the craziness of influenza starts and I had a chance to do another little card using The Color Dare #78 and 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #5. The colors are Vanilla, Chocolate Chip and Daffodil Delight. The challenge over at 4 Crafty Chicks is to put a "chick" on the card. Speaking of 4 Crafty Chicks, I was given a Golden Egg Award for my card last week. The girls over at 4 Crafty Chicks are amazingly talented and I feel very honored to have been chosen out of all the entries they received so BIG thanks to the the 4 Crafty Chicks team. I was thinking this card could be used as a sweet little wedding card. Those little chickies are just so cute! The stamp set is called Happy Together and the DSP is from a retired hostess lvl 3 set from last year's SU catalogue. Another card down for my No paper/product buying challenge! Hope you get a chance to enjoy the gorgeous weather we're having (in Alberta anyways)!

Happy World Card Making Day & CD 78

2010-10-02T15:02:00.000-06:00

What a gorgeous fall weekend! It's been so busy lately and the next 2 weeks are only going to be nothing short of CRAZY!!! It's influenza season and the next 2 weeks are the busiest out of the entire year for public health. I'm glad to have some time to craft today. Tomorrow I'll be going to the Bridal Expo with my best friend, Liz, to do some scoping out for her wedding next year. Onto the card! If you didn't know, today is actually World card Making Day 2010! I wanted to make a quick and simple card for my friend's birthday yesterday and stumbled onto The Color Dare's color challenge. The colors are Vanilla, Chocolate Chip and Daffodil Delight. I cased this card from Maile. I love the simplicity of it.

The stamp sets are Watercolor Trio and a retired set called Wonderful Words. Another notch on the No paper/product buying challenge. Hope you get a chance to make a card today for World Cardmaking Day!

Give Thanks... Again! And Photography Mumbo-Jumbo

2010-09-28T23:56:00.000-06:00

I had originally wanted to make 2 of the same cards when I was crafting on Sunday night but realized that I wanted to use some Chocolate Chip ribbon instead of Pear Pizzazz like on my previous card. I finally got around to finishing the second Give Thanks card. I normally wouldn't have posted this but decided to for 3 reasons: 1. I wanted to knock another card off of my No paper/product buying challenge. 2. I wanted to share a story that my friend Arlie told me. 3. I wanted to test out a new camera lens that Jamie had purchased today. I didn't crop the photo and I didn't take it on a white background like I normally do because the lens we got is a fixed lens that really creates that nice fuzzy out of focus background and a sharp main image. This first image is on the "A" mode on my camera. The "A" stands for aperture priority mode. I didn't actually adjust anything on this photo except the white balance to match my lamps.

Jamie said the salesman warned him this might happen. The lens focuses so well that often times if you don't have the setting right, it'll literally focus on someone's nose instead of their whole face. That's what happened in that first photo. I tried fiddling with the settings and turned up (or down..?) my aperture. So the f number got bigger. That means my field of depth is bigger so a larger f number means more of my picture will be in focus and vice versa. A smaller f number means a smaller field of depth so there'll be a small area in focus and a lot of blurry fuzz. I cranked up the sucker and this is how it changed the photo.

Not sure if you can see the difference, but the words are actually clearer in this second picture. If I kept cranking up the aperture or f value, then that computer in the background would have continued to get clearer/sharper. Compare the computer in both photos and you'll see what I mean. I'm very very happy with my little camera which is a beginner SLR Nikon D60. The new lens is a Nikkor 50mm f1.4?? I just read that off the top of the lens! I wanted to take it out for some fall shots but Jamie hasn't purchased some sort of protective cover for the lens yet so we don't want to expose it to outdoors yet.

Now onto my story from Arlie (and I hope she's ok with me sharing!). I don't know if I have all the facts right but a little grade 1 boy goes up to his teacher and says, "Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Smith. I've had a catastrophe in the urinal! I was trying to hold up my pants and my penis slipped back in while I was peeing!" LOL! Now I told Jamie the story and his first reaction was more of contemplation and then he says, "Oh yeah... That can happen." I guess every boy needs to eventually learn to stand with his legs apart so his pants don't fall down! Lets just hope none of the girls heard/saw him! Have a great day everyone!

PPC-CC #32, 4 Crafty Chicks, SSC170

2010-09-27T08:00:00.001-06:00

Good morning everyone! Hope you all got out and enjoyed the lovely autumn weather this weekend. I had to work this past weekend again but did get to enjoy some outdoor shopping at the downtown farmer's market. Learned a few things like how brussel sprouts grow! We did see a lot of families out taking photos with all the fall leaves. I'm doing a triple hitter today. I've combined this week's Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo with 4 Crafty Chicks "Fall" themed card along with Stamping 411's Saturday Sketch Challenge. I haven't done a triple challenge combo for a very very long time. I often don't like combining this many challenges because I don't like visiting blogs that make 1 project and list about 10 different challenges that it remotely qualifies for.

I'm really liking this French Foliage set from SU. You can't tell from the photo but the main image is actually stamped onto glossy card stock and then colored with a sponge dauber. It looks really pretty in person, I swear! I had to move the main image to the other side because I wanted to put a sentiment and it just didn't fit if I tried to squeeze the panel beside the bow like in the sketch. Hopefully I don't get my hand slapped too hard! The sentiment is from a retired hostess set called Holiday Best. That ribbon is the new poly-stiched ribbon in Pear Pizazz. Another project knocked off my list for the No paper/product buying challenge. Hopefully you get to join in on at least one of the challenges!

PPC-CC #31 & 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #3

2010-09-20T08:00:00.006-06:00

Good morning everyone! Hope everyone had a better weekend than me. I had to work all weekend so today was finally my Friday. Working 6 days straight sucks. Some of the girls on the PPC-CC design team joined up and started a new challenge blog! It's called 4 Crafty Chicks. This is their third challenge and this week it's to emboss! I'm really enjoying this week's PPC-CC colors that Megan chose. I know it doesn't seem like I embossed very much on my card but I often do this style of embossing because it just adds a tiny detail that I quite enjoy. Just make sure if you're planning on embossing, do that before you add all the embellishments because I tried to emboss after I tied the ribbon and added the flower. It's a lot harder. I'm happy to knock another 2 projects off my No paper/product buying challenge. I made 2 of the exact same cards. The paper used is from SU called Love Letter. The ribbon is actually from when River Rock was around the first time! The stamp set is For You Flower. Hope you get to pop over to either PPC-CC or 4 Crafty Chicks to join in on this week's challenges!

New Letterpress Plates For The Big Shot!

2010-09-15T21:33:00.000-06:00

Now I haven't actually ordered any of these yet but I'm just loving the idea! If you're not familiar with what letterpress is, do a quick google search. Now she doesn't demo the winter plate but I think that's my favorite. I'm excited that Stampin' Up is offering some cool stuff!!

PPC-CC #30 & FTL 107

2010-09-13T23:57:00.000-06:00

This post is a little late but better late than never! Hope everyone had a great weekend. It was my good friend, Penny's, birthday this weekend so we spent Saturday night celebrating with her in her GORGEOUS new home. Being in a house like that makes me wish our home was bigger but as Jamie said, "The house fits us right now". This week's Picture Perfect Creations colors are just absolutely beautiful together. I combined it with Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout #107. I used the new level 3 hostess stamp set Playful Pieces. The sentiment is from my beloved Watercolor Trio. Hopefully Penny liked the card! I managed to squeeze in some DSP for my No paper/product buying challenge! Woot woot!

Hope some of you get to play along with us this week over at PPC!

Another Wedding Card

2010-09-08T23:35:00.000-06:00

Well if you had a chance to see my card for this week's PPC color challenge, this card will bring a little deja vu. I made the same card except with different colors for my sister-in-law. She attended a wedding this past weekend that had burgundy and gold as the wedding colors. If you're experiencing deja vu and it's not from the other card I posted earlier, that's because I CASEd (copied and shared everything) this card straight from the Stampin' Up catalogue (pg. 122). I wanted a punch of color in the rose so I attempted to do the floating re-inker technique but the Bravo Burgundy and Bermuda Bay turned into just plain gross so I had to just watercolor with my aquapainter and re-inkers. Can't believe it's already Thursday! I'm busy prepping for my workshops this Friday and Saturday. I'll post those when I'm done! Yay! Another project down for the No paper/product buying challenge! Have a goodnight everyone!

Holiday Mini Catalogue!!

2010-09-07T11:36:00.001-06:00

Can you believe it's already September??? I know some of us don't want to think about Christmas yet but it's fast approaching! I'll be having some Christmas card stamp nights coming up in October/November. In the meantime, if you want to look at the new mini catalogue from Stampin' Up, click here. My team of fellow demonstrators got together and did a card swap. I made 18 cards to swap using the new set French Foliage with the DSP Woodland Walk. That totally helped knock down a few projects for my No paper/product buying challenge! Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!!

PPC-CC #29

2010-09-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

Good morning! Hope everyone is having a great Monday. I know I am because it's Labour Day long weekend and both Jamie and I are off. We are both officially done our vacations now and we weren't all that productive with the house renos. We did manage to run a bunch of errands like pick up our new kitchen beam (to support our roof after we knock out a support wall) and get Khuno vaccinated. Megan over at Picture Perfect Creations came up with another fabulous color challenge. This week's colors really threw me for a loop with that Peach Parfait. I have to admit, I don't love that color. I don't think I even ordered any of it except for what came in the starter package. I know the flower looks green but that's due to me trying to be extra creative. I did a overall wash of Daffodil Delight and then tried to add Marina Mist to it. Kinda forgot that blue and yellow make green!!! So hence, the green rose. I embossed all the images from Fifth Avenue Floral in gold and the sentiment is from the new level 3 hostess set Occasional Quotes. The ribbon is the new 1/8" taffeta ribbon and I just love it!

Hope you get a chance to join us at PPC this week!! Another project down for the No paper/product buying challenge!

PPC-CC #28 & Fall To Layout #105

2010-08-30T21:33:00.001-06:00

Happy Monday everyone! This post is a touch late because blogger was uncooperative yesterday. I'm officially on vacation for a week but unfortunately I have to go in for a meeting tomorrow morning. Jamie and I both took a week of vacation to work on the house but it looks like the time will be used to do more catch up than renos. We've got a huge list of things to do before we even touch the kitchen renos. First off, we need to finish that darn laundry room. So Jamie was madly doing laundry today so we can unplug both machines and hopefully drywall tomorrow. We need to bring Khuno for his yearly shots and check-up, he desperately needs to be groomed and I also need my annual check-up! I've also set up a couple lunch dates with some friends and on Saturday we have an all day concert to go to. To end off our vacation, we have a friend's wedding on Sunday. Phew! Just thinking about it makes me feel like I have no time at all! To top that all off, I've finally booked an appointment and saw a chiropractor today about my numb foot issue when I run. The consult alone cost me $89! Gee whiz. So tomorrow I've got an appointment to do some work on my lower legs so that'll be another $39. Lets just hope it works!

This week over at Picture Perfect Creations, the colors aren't ones I usually put together but I think it worked out in the end. I combined the colors with Fall To Layout #105. The technique used is double emboss resist and the DSP is from Walk In The Park. Yay! Another project down for the No paper/product buying challenge. I do have to confess though, I did put in an order recently for paper that I need to hold an upcoming workshop. Technically, the paper really isn't for me..... So I'm going to keep going with the challenge! Hopefully you have time to join us at PPC this week!

PPC-CC #27 & FTL #104

2010-08-23T08:00:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the second last Monday of the month! Fall is looming and Megan over at the Picture Perfect Creations blog has chosen some fun non-autumn colors this week. I combined this week's PPC #27 challenge with Clean & Simple's Fall To Layout #104. This card had only one stamp and I even mucked that up! I went to stamp the sentiment but my Stamp-a-ma-jig was sitting on top of the knot so I ended up rocking my stamp a bit too forward and got a little line. I tried covering it up but couldn't so I just added more lines! The sentiment is from the Wow Flowers stamp set and the DSP is from a retired hostess 6x6 paper pack. Isn't that new poly-stitched ribbon great?? I'm definitely glad I got all the colors! Worth the splurge! And whooo hoo! Another card using up some DSP for the no paper/product buying challenge! Hopefully you all get a chance to play long with the rest of the design team this week over at PPC!

Sharing In Her Sorrow

2010-08-22T23:28:00.000-06:00

I missed a call late Friday night while out eating dinner with my girlfriends. It was a call from a dear friend at work. I checked my voicemail and received a message that knocked the wind out of me. I didn't even get a chance to hear the entire message before the tears started to fall. The message left was that my friend has just got a call informing her that her son and daughter-in-law had just been killed in a car accident. I stumbled out of the restaurant to call my friend and could hardly speak when she answered. Her son Michael and his wife, Merin, had died in a head on collision. The news is still surreal to me. Michael and Merin became proud parents just a mere 7 weeks ago and my friend, a proud grandma. My heart is heavy and it aches even as I write this. Their families are in my thoughts and prayers. A trust fund has been started for their baby girl, Ysa. To find more details about the trust fund, please visit here.

CPS #180 & PDCC #43

2010-08-20T00:08:00.000-06:00

My oh my it seems like I'm finding my crafting time again! Perhaps it's because all of the trashy reality tv shows I've been following are over... Doesn't matter what the reason is, I just know I'm enjoying myself and even more excited that it's finally FRIDAY tomorrow. The office today was brutal. The air here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada has been pretty unusual today. It looks like it's ridiculously foggy but it's actually a hazy smoke that's floated all the way over from BRITISH COLUMBIA!!! On the news today it was reported that there are over 200 fires in BC right now and the smoke is travelling across the border! So lots of people at work are getting headaches, allergic reactions and even wheezing! I can't even imagine how bad the air is in BC if Edmontonians think our air is bad. Anyways, onto tonight's card. I combined the Card Positioning Systems sketch #180 with the Play Date Cafe's challenge #43. Speaking of PDCC, I got picked as the cream in their coffee last week (sorta like I got honorable mention)! Unfortunately I couldn't incorporate any patterned paper but I'm still counting this for my no paper/product buying challenge.

I find is kind of humorous that most of my cards look so insanely simple, but yet it takes me a very very very long time to finish! Take this card for instance. I started this card at approximately 9:30 and finished it at 11:30. Why does it take me so long you might ask? Well here's what happened with this card. I looked through my stamps and found a stamp I wanted to use. Then I proceeded to find coordinating ribbon to use as the 3 stripes. After choosing 3 ribbons, I sat around trying to figure out how to incorporate the Tempting Turquoise. I also wanted to use patterned paper for the no paper/product buying challenge so I look through all of my patterned paper for something green. I pull out the Woodland Walk DSP and spend some time trying to picture it on the card. After wasting precious minutes, I decide against the DSP. I stamp my image in Glorious Green and trim it out. I try stamping the image again on Tempting Turquoise and trim out the flower. After realizing it was kinda ugly because it blended in too much, I stamped it again on white and re-cut it. I started with a white base and wanted to use Glorious Green for the background so I cut that out and dry embossed it. At this point I still haven't found a way to put Tempting Turquoise in so I grab some ribbon and see how that looks. Not good. Then I decide to use the Tempting Turquoise as the base so I re-cut and re-dry emboss another sheet. I then cut up my neutral cream colored ribbons. At this point I have looked at the colors online numerous times already and tried to figure out what the 3 colors were. After reading the description again and again, I realized that the middle color wasn't a light vanilla at all, but rather a LIME GREEN like the description said!!! So I scrap all that previous ribbon and have to choose lime green ribbon now. After I get all that sorted, I wanted to add a bit of color to the middle of the flower. I was hoping for a light watercolor wash of yellow so it still looks close to the lime green. Of course I forgot that the water will make the green ink flower lines run so now I've got a mucky middle. Great. So I decide to add glitter to it to hide my dummy moment. After finishing the glitter I think I'm finished but don't actually like how it looks so I try adding other embellishments to the top left corner. After realizing I have nothing I can add, I decide that the white card base isn't good enough so I trim off the back half of the card and trim down the white border and attach the whole thing onto a Certainly Celery card base. Then I pick a sentiment for the inside, glue in the white inside sheet and stamp the finishing touches (the envelope and my name). Phew!!! I don't know if anyone actually reads posts that have this much writing but I just wanted to share. 12:01 AM. Perfect time to end this post and shower. Good night and hope everyone has a great Friday!!

PPC Guest Designer Call!!

2010-08-17T08:13:00.000-06:00

PPC-Crafty Challenges is now looking for upcoming PPC Guest Designers for September, October and November! (One for each month, of course!)

Candidates must apply by Sunday, August 29th, 10pm EST.

PPC Guest Designers will be chosen and announced on the First of every month. (Winners will be notified prior to beginning of each month, though).

::What is in it for you::

Your name, picture and link to your blog on PPC-CC for the month you have been chosen to Guest Design.
Your projects featured on PPC-CC.
Possibility for some goodies and RAKs from me during your designated month.

::What we are looking for::

Cardmakers, scrapbookers, altered art creators, beaders, quilters, etc...
Creators who are active on their own blogs
Anyone willing to make new friends, have fun and create! :)

::Responsibilities::

Guest Designer term is the alloted month only (chosen by Megan), with the possibility to be extended.
Each week, PPC Guest Designer will be required to complete a challenge in advance and send a photo of the finished project to my email. (Guest Deigner will receive a the months worth of challenges in advance. So if you create all of them in one night, you may send all your creations at once and be done for the month).
Promote PPC-CC whenever and where ever possible in the online community.
Post comments for the creators who enter the challenges each week.
Make a weekly post about that week's PPC Color Combo and other happenings on your blog.

How to Apply::
Please send Megan the following information to stampinmegs@hotmail.com.

Name
Mailing address
Email address
Phone number
Birthday
Link to your blog
Past and current DesignT Exeperience (DT experience not required)
Are you a current Stampin’ UP Demonstrator? (Just curious...thats all. :))
Why would you like to be a PPC Guest Designer?
What would you like to see in the future at PPC-CC? Would you make any changes, additions, etc.??
Three (3) Creations of you own that show your creative style...One (1) Creation MUST be of a current/previous PPC-CC challenge!
Help spread the word about PCC-CC and our Guest Designer Call!
Email Subject Line MUST read: PPC-CC Guest Designer Call

Do you have what it takes to be a PPC Creator?! We'd LOVE to have you on our team!
Thanks and Good Luck to all!
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PPC-CC #26 & Stamping 411 SSC #164

2010-08-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Boy I simply cannot believe that August is almost over! I always tell people that time goes by so much faster as an adult! In school the time always seemed to just crawl but not months and years just zip by! It's another Monday and time for another color challenge. Megan over at Picture Perfect Creations put some challenging colors together this week. I combined it with Stamping 411's Saturday Sketch Challenge #164. I got to use a bunch of new things including: the eyelet punch, the Elizabeth stamp set, my Poppy Parade ink pad, Blueberry Crisp DSP and new polystiched ribbon! If you missed my last couple posts, I've joined in on a no paper/product buying challenge. You can find info on my left side bar. I'm trying really hard to incorporate patterned paper into all of my projects. Something else that I noticed while unpacking my latest big order is that I have way too much ribbon!! So that'll be another personal goal to work my way through all my ribbon!

That new Elizabeth stamp is sooo pretty. I colored it using a blender pen and my ink pad because I don't have the marker for it. Originally I didn't have it on the Pacific Point card base but when I glued on the main panel, I realized I glued it on upside down! There was no way that white embossed panel was coming off so I had to trim down 1/8" off of each side and slap it onto another card base. Turned out alright. Hope you all have a chance to play with us this week at PPC! I'll leave you with a photo of my precious pup Khuno. I came downstairs yesterday night to craft and found him enjoying a snooze by the patio door.

Play Date Cafe Challenge #42 & Fall To Layout #103

2010-08-16T00:14:00.000-06:00

I wasn't very productive today. I had every intention to be productive! Alarm was set for 9:00 AM and Jamie even came to wake me up at 9:30 but then I convinced him (wasn't hard) to nap with me till 10:00. He eventually got up at 11 or 11:30 and I woke my lazy butt up at 1:00 PM!!! Jamie asked what I wanted for breakfast and so I asked him what he wanted and he goes "Well it'd be lunch for me." Ouch. Anyways, I managed to muster up a card today. The photo is the inspiration from the Play Date Cafe Challenge and I paired it up with Clean & Simple's Fall To Layout sketch 103. I got to use some patterned paper for the No paper/product buying challenge and you get a sneak peak of a stamp set that will be available in September from the new winter mini catalogue! Don't be upset with the very Autumn looking card. I swear fall is here already because Jamie and I already saw yellow leaves on some trees on our dog walks.

The leaves are from the new stamp set French Foliage and the sentiment is from a retired hostess set Flower Lines. I wanted the patterned paper to show through so I used some vellum and got to try out my new Scrapbook Adhesives vellum adhesive. Not too bad but it does tend to clump a bit at the start and end. You can see a little blip of it on the top left corner. The rest is still pretty invisible so I'm happy with it. Worth the $8. The ribbon is Chocolate Chip taffeta and I'm in absolute love with it! The sheen it has is so gorgeous in person. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Card Positioning Systems #179

2010-08-12T02:11:00.000-06:00

98 projects left to go for the No Paper/Product Buying Challenge. If you're wondering what that is, feel free to check out the information on the post here. I didn't do a very good job using patterned paper and I know the goal for Megan and Allison is to use up their patterned stuff. For myself though, my main goal is to just use any of my stuff! With renos and summer, I've been having a hard time sitting down and crafting. So what happens? I post ridiculously late at night. Tonight's cards were made using the sketch found over at the Card Positioning Systems blog. I envisioned a more masculine card when I chose the Marina Mist card base but that didn't pan out...

You can't tell from the picture but the words are actually embossed with Not Quite Navy and I scored both cards along the length of the ribbon. I've been using this level 1 hostess set Because I Care a lot lately, probably because it's nice a big and covers a fair portion of my card. The sentiment is from A Little Birthday Cheer. I didn't even realize I had this stamp set till tonight. The hydrangea is colored with SU pastels and I tried to add a bit more by using my Signo white gel pen to dot the flower centers. The new ribbon is the fantastic new 1/8" taffeta ribbon in Daffodil Delight! If you're wondering why my ribbon knot is facing the opposite ways, it's because:

1. I tied the left one first and cut the ribbon.

2. I attempted to tie the second one and realized the first one looked kinda ugly with the ends poking towards the image.

3. I tried about 7 times before I could figure out how to tie the knot so the ends would poke outwards.

4. I attempted to retie the left card but had cut the ribbon so short I could hardly grab the darn thing.

5. I just plain old gave up. So there you have it. Hope everyone has a good day! I'm off to bed!

No Paper/Product Buying Challenge!!!

2010-08-12T01:38:00.003-06:00

Now for all of you that know me, I am a self-proclaimed hoarder. I hoard everything from paper stationary to old clothes to even Khuno's (my dog) fur!!! Since I started meddling in the paper crafts, I must admit that I've accumulated a lot of patterned paper. I've got two entire cases of paper from Costco just sitting there collecting 2 years worth of dust. Although it was a fantastic deal, I just don't get around to using any of it because it never matches Stampin' Up's colors. Well that's going to change! A couple of my blogging world friends Megan and Allison started a NO PAPER/PRODUCT BUYING CHALLENGE!

The Challenge: Complete 100 Crafty Projects (beginning August 1, 2010) before you're allowed to buy any paper/tools/accessories! It's like a support group for those of us not allowed to buy paper! It also gives us a really good excuse to allow more time to get crafty and to do what we love!

And of course, with every challenge, there are rules...

Challenge Rules:
1. You must complete 100 different paper-related projects. AT LEAST 50 of these projects must be shown on your blog. For the project to count, you must mention in the post that you created the project for the No Paper Buying Challenge.

2. You are allowed to buy consumable items such as adhesives (glue dots, tape runners, etc.), tool accessories (Cricut blades, Big Shot plates, etc.), and embellishments (use good judgement -- do you really need them?).

3. You must keep track of the number of projects you complete. Please display a Project Challenge Tracker on your page and update regularly so we know how many projects everyone has completed.

4. Please be honest with the number of projects you report to have completed!

5. You may enter this challenge at any time. The sooner you join, though, the better chance you have of winning!

6. You must be signed up to be eligible to win a prize. You can send Allison a comment at prettypapersandmore@gmail.com to sign up. Plus, once we know you're participating, we can support each other while we try to use up our paper stashes. Once you have completed all 100 projects, please send Allison an email at prettypapersandmore@gmail.com so she can get your information and send your prize pack out!

Prizes: The first two individuals to complete 100 projects will receive a special prize pack from Megan and Allison. They will share details on the prize packs once we have some idea of how many people are participating.

This prize-contest officially started August 1, 2010 and will end whenever the first person completes all 100 of their projects; your personal No Paper Buying Challenge may end at a different date. Don't give up if you're not first or second!! ;)

Happy crafting everyone!!!

PPC-CC #25 & Fall To Layout #100

2010-08-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

Boy weekends go by way too fast don't they? This weekend we had a great BBQ with Jamie's family. The weather was perfect and we got to watch a bunch of amazing people pass our house all weekend while they were doing a 60km walk for the annual Weekend To End Women's Cancer. Such inspiration! Last week I missed out on Megan's Picture Perfect Color Challenge #24 but not this week!! Head on over to the PPC blog to play with this week's colors. I paired this week's colors with Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout #100! Nice milestones for both blogs!

The PPC Creators and Megan are SOO super excited to announce our 25th week and #25 Color Combo at PPC, that we just had to celebrate with some super-de-duper Blog Candy!

How about an...

Assortment of Stampin' Up! NEW In Colors Cardstock!!!

Includes: 4 each of 5 NEW In Colors (8-1/2 x 11): Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade and Concord Grape

These NEW In Colors are abosolutely fabulous! The cardstock will definitely, as they will be included in our upcoming challenges! :)

HOW TO WIN:

Become a follower at PPC, if you're not already one.
Leave a comment at the bottom of this post.
And if you would be so kind and crafty, please partipate in our PPC-CC 25 Color Combo Challenge this week!

That's it...sooo simple and easy! Contest ends next Monday, August 16th at 10am.
Good Luck!

Play Date Cafe Challenge #41

2010-08-07T16:18:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's already Saturday!!! It has been so busy lately that I didn't even get a chance to participate in this week's Picture Perfect Creations Challenge! I did manage to find some time (at 1:15 in the morning!!) on Thursday night to make a card for the student that I had shadowing me for the last 10 weeks. It was her last day yesterday and I wanted to make her a little congrats card on finishing her nursing school! I was poking around looking for some color inspiration when I found this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge #41. I had a sheet of leftover Sweet Pea DSP in So Saffron sitting on my desk (pays to be messy sometimes!) so I thought it'd go perfectly with Cherry Cobbler. The layout is similar to one that I used in the past PPC challenge. You can check out the other card HERE.

Everything is Stampin' Up except the button (local craft store) and the flower (from Prima). The embossed white panel is using the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder with my Big Shot. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Off to a family summer BBQ get-together!

Follow PPC for a chance to win!

2010-07-29T23:34:00.000-06:00

'Follow PPC' Contest #2

Remember the last 'Follow PPC' Contest we had?!? We'll we're back at it again here at PPC and we're ready to give away more prizes! Read below to see how you can win more than once! :)

Here at PPC, we would LOVE to get more particpants and followers, so we've decided to have another 'Follow PPC' Contest! Our goal is to reach 150 followers by Monday, August 9th, and we NEED your help!

All you have to do to win is become a follower of us here at PPC AND submit a design this week for the #23 color combo challenge! Winner will get a package of 50 Kraft Colored Cards with Envelopes! (See picture below). The contest ends at 10am EST on Monday, August 9th.

Megan is personally running another challenge special for us this week, too! Using this week's color combo #23, make a creation and post it here at PPC. Then, go to to her blogsite,Picture Perfect Creations, and leave her a comment on the PPC #23 creation. Let her know that you want to be entered into her blog contest. One lucky participant will win Bazzill Basics -- Really Big Chips, 9 Petal Flowers!

Wow--2 chances at winning some cool stuff! Don't miss out on the fun!
Good luck crafters!!

PPC-CC 23 & Just Add Ink #27

2010-07-26T08:00:00.002-06:00

Boy I can't believe we're at the end of July already!! This is insane! It's amazing how little we've gotten done for our home renovations. We haven't touched the poor laundry room since we tore down all the gross wood paneling. If you want to see photos, check out my previous post here. Enough babbling! Onto this week's color challenge over at Picture Perfect Creations. This week Megan gave us colors that fall into my comfort zone. Although I do love Basic Gray, Daffodil Delight still needs to do more work if it wants to replace Summer Sun in my heart. Having only 3 colors to work with is also another one of my comfort areas. I have a hard time working in more than 3 colors so I'm glad we have a 3 color week. I paired it with Just Add Ink #27, which is the sketch shown above.

I used the retired Walk in the Park DSP and the new hostess stamp set called Because I care. It may look a bit funny in photos with that layering effect I tried to pull off (but didn't really...) on the hydrangea but in person it looks a tad better. Did you notice a new piece of embellishment that I've never used before? It's a pin that was made by Lisa over at Pretty Pin Embellishments and she graciously sponsored a few of our challenges over at PPC. Hopefully you get a chance to play along with us this week!

PPC-CC #22 & Fall To Layout 99

2010-07-19T08:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! I definitely wasn't very productive on my weekend. On Friday night I slept for a whopping 15 hours!!! Someone asked if I was preggers and I can say definitely not! This week Megan over at the Picture Perfect Creations blog threw me for a loop! I had such a hard time with this challenge that it literally took me two whole afternoons! I'm not sure if it's the Cajun Craze or if it's just because there were four colors. Here is my first attempt using The More The Merrier retired hostess set from SU.

I didn't like how this card turned out so I made another card using Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout #99 sketch. I used the stamp set Embrace Life and filled in the flower with some Crystal Effects. The paper used is the retired Walk in the Park DSP.

Hopefully some of you get a chance to join us this week over at PPC and fingers crossed that you have an easier time than me with these colors!

Jinnee's Birthday & Just Add Ink #26

2010-07-16T01:20:00.001-06:00

Well today is Jinnee's birthday so I decided to make a card just for her! I bought the Lots of Bots stamp set when it was a pre-order for last year's catalogue! Can you believe I haven't inked it up until today?? Oh my... I know Jinnee has a small fancy for robots so I figured what better time than now to ink up my little bots. I copied the layout of my card from Kristina Werner. I love how she used ribbon on the card. This week's Just Add Ink challenge #26 is to Just Add Embossing! I embossed the wood grain with clear embossing powder and just used my bone folder to create the embossed lines on the card base. Did a little watercoloring to add the finishing touches and cut out a circle with my Coluzzle. Hope she likes it! Happy Friday everyone!

PPC-CC #21 & FTL 98

2010-07-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

Good morning everyone! Hope everyone had a great weekend. As you know from my last post, I was craaaazy busy. I almost didn't have time to make a card for this week's Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo! But being a night owl crafter, I managed to whip up a card. Another great color combo from Megan this week and I paired it with Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout 98. The stamp sets I used are: Punched Posies (retired) and Trendy Trees for the sentiment. Hopefully you all get a chance to play this week!!

Cherry On Top!!

2010-07-09T00:18:00.004-06:00

All my close friends know that I really enjoy blogging to share a little bit of what I create. I am always bugging people to start blogging and managed to convince (I'm taking credit!!) 4 people to start blogging. These 4 people include:
1. My Jamie- A blog on coffee and knitting.
2. Regan- A fellow card maker.
3. Penny- A blog that shares a bit of her life and crafting.
4. Julie- A blog on yummies.
Now onto the cherry on top! A fellow Picture Perfect Creations team member Allison gave me a very sweet blog award.

The rules for this award are:

1. Thank the person who gave this award to you. Thanks again Allison!
2. Copy the award and put it on your blog.

3. List three things which you love about yourself.

4. Post a picture you love.

5. Tag five people you wish to pass this award on to.

Three things I love about myself:

1. I love that I enjoy eating vegetables!

2. I love that I have amazing friends in my life.

3. I love that I am good at my job.

A photo that I love: My friend Jenn's wedding.

5 People that deserve this:

1. Megan - Picture Perfect Creations

2. Julie - Devoured By Cravings

3. Penny - Copper Coin Connection

4. Renee - Stamping For Sanity

5. JennySue - JennySue Makeup

Just Add Ink #25

2010-07-08T23:53:00.000-06:00

Good evening fellow night owl crafters! I'm so excited that it's 15 minutes till Friday!! I usually work 4 days a week but this week I was stuck with 5 and boy am I glad it's Friday tomorrow. I've got a packed weekend with our monthly girls' night (we're having a poutine buffet Newfoundland style!), dim sum with the work girls, a baby shower and dinner with Jamie's out of town relatives. I don't think I can pack in any more crafting time till Sunday night! This is my take on Just Add Ink #25. Some yummy colors this week to work with. This card layout is actually from a swap I got from my upline Carolyn. I love the Watercolor Trio stamp set. If you haven't gotten it yet, trust me. You will not be disappointed! I used some retired Sweet Pea paper and a couple embossing folders. The one on the right is the new Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. I've got one more post after this so I'll keep this short and sweet!! Have a scorching great weekend everyone!

PPC-CC #20

2010-07-05T08:00:00.002-06:00

Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone had a great relaxing Canada Day and 4th of July! It's time for another color challenge over at the Picture Perfect Creations blog! I'm really digging this week's colors that Megan chose. Today's card was actually copied from the new Stampin' Up catalogue page 75. I'm missing the brad and moved the sentiment but I still think it's super cute I love textured card stock. It almost feels like paper gold, needing to be cherished and conserved! This is actually the very first card I've made using textured card stock as the base. =) Hopefully you all get a chance to pop over and take part in this week's challenge. If you don't have time to play, you can always check out what others have created and leave them some comment lovin'.

Stamp set: Happy Together (SU)

WAHOOO!! The New Catalogue Is Officially OUT!!

2010-07-01T20:13:00.000-06:00

How exciting!!!! The new Stampin' Up catalogue is officially ready for your viewing pleasure! I've been giving you a little teaser the last few weeks and now you can see for yourself all the new goodies!! I'm very excited that there are now coordinating accessories in every color! I'll be having an open house soon so stay tuned for more info!!

Bundle Of Joy Brett

2010-06-30T00:56:00.000-06:00

My good friend at work had a baby boy a couple months ago and we're throwing her a baby shower next weekend! I really wanted to use the retired By Ones & By Twos stamp set from SU. Love love love the little onesie. You can't tell from the picture but the letter background is actually embossed in clear. I was hoping for a card that had more kaaaapower, but I think it still turned out alright. I was going to hang the onesies on hangers (which were part of the stamped image but I cut them out) but realized I couldn't stamp the hangers onto the background because I had already embossed it! Hope everyone has a great Wednesday! Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians!!

Winner Of My Blog Candy!

2010-06-28T23:57:00.000-06:00

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:12Now I've never used www.random.org before so I have no idea how to get the pretty little box onto the page. I am not the most computer savvy so I just highlighted what I could and copy/paste! So the lucky winner of the my PPC Summer Blog is #12 which is Jeannie! I hope you enjoyed your very first blog hop! You have one week to contact me and claim your prize! Remember to become a follower of PPC and hope to see you this week for our new color challenge!

PPC-CC #15 & Fall To Layout 96

2010-06-28T08:00:00.007-06:00

Good morning ladies (and those few crafting gents!) and hopefully every had a great weekend! The first ever PPC Summer Blog Hop is officially over and I hope all of those who wanted to participate got a chance to. I'll be announcing the winner of my blog candy in the next couple days. Keep an eye out on the PPC blog for the winners of more blog candy and of course, the Grand Creation winner and runner ups. It's Monday and that means time for another challenge! Can you believe our first week of summer is already over?? My friend realized on Saturday, "The longest day of the year is already over?!? Now I'm sad." Summer really does fly by and I'm not sure if it's because we literally only have like 3 months of warmth and 9 months of winter in Edmonton. Megan has a great color challenge this week. For those of you that aren't SU demonstrators and haven't gotten your hands on the Daffodil Delight, feel free to substitute in a bright yellow. I'd say it's closer to Summer Sun than than anything. I've combined this week's colors with Clean & Simple's Fall to Layout 96.

I used the new level 2 hostess set called Apple Blossoms and I absolutely LOOOOVE it! It has that new modern feel feel to it paired with cuteness like the apple! And if you haven't fallen in love with the new clear mount stamps set, I stamped all of the images without a Stamp-a-ma-jig!! Lovin' the new clear mount! I can't believe I already own 21 clear mount stamps!! Insane! Speaking of insanity... Jamie just picked up his new Suzuki Grand Vitara on Friday. Boy it sure is nice to ride in a new car. It's a brand spanking new car for the both of us. It's costing us an arm and a leg for the next 6 years but in the end, it's worth it to not have to smell gasoline every time I get into the Cavalier. And even more insanity my friend, Mark, proposed to his girlfriend (also my good friend) of 3 years, Jinnee!! He proposed on Saturday morning and get this. They decided to elope, flew out to Niagara Falls at midnight and got married Monday afternoon!! It's so romantic that two people can love each other so much and get married just like that! A big congrats to them both!

Hopefully you made it through my wordy post and get a chance to pop over the the PPC blog and create something this week!

PPC's Summer Kick-Off Blog Hop!!

2010-06-21T10:00:00.005-06:00

It's finally June 21st and today marks the start of our Summer Kick-Off Blog Hop!! We have a featured color combo challenge for you to get crafty with, as well as more than 15 amazing prizes to win! Just hop around to the PPC Creators list of blogs and make sure you follow the rules below...and you may just be a winner!

Blog Hop Rules

Become a follower on PPC.
Create a card, scrapbook page, altered art, etc using our featured Blog Hop Color Combo.
Directly post your link to inlinkz below.
Hop on over to the Design Team Members Blogs and leave a post on each DT Members Blog Hop Challenge Post.
Head back to PPC and leave a final comment on our Blog Hop Post telling us what you like about Summer.
All winners from each blog will be chosen at random.
There will be 4 winners from here, at PPC-Crafty Challenges Blog!

Blog Hop Featured Color Combo

Our Sponsors and Prizes (More on each Creator's Page!)

GlitterBabe's Art by Stef H. is offering 2 Digi-Images of your choice!

Pretty Pin Embellishments by Lisa G. is offering a 4-pack of beautiful Pin Embellishments!

2 Cute Rubber Stamps by Heidi is offering 1 Cling Cushion Rubber Stamp!

Sprinkles by Renee is offering a $15 Gift Voucher for her store!

My Blog Candy

A set of mini stamps and note cards with envelopes and 3 mini punches!

Blog List

Allison

Debbie

Jackie

Lori

Megan

Melissa

Nicole

Paula
Sandy (You're here!)

Tamie

Trish

PPC Challenge Blog
Here's my creation for the Summer Kick-Off Blog Hop!

HAPPY HOPPING EVERYONE!!

PPC-CC #18

2010-06-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! I know I sure did! On Saturday night, Jamie and I fell asleep on the couch at 7:30 PM!!! We didn't wake up till midnight! Boy we're such party animals huh? We had a great Father's day supper yesterday with a TON of left over steaks which ain't a bad thing at all! Now onto this week's Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo! Megan really been challenging me choosing colors that I don't often use. I did a lot of just sitting and staring, trying to figure out what to do! I noticed that I've been making a number of cards with a white card base so I tried to stay away from it with this card. It uses a few sneak peak items from the new Stampin' Up 2010-2011 catalogue. The stamp set is called Friends Never Fade and the dry embossing is the new Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder! Absolutely love both of them!! I'm very very excited for the release of the new catty because of all the new stamps, colors, ACCESSORIES and lower cost clear mount stamps! I've already got my new catalogue all flagged. One of the many great perks of being a demonstrator is we get things sooner!! Anywhoo hopefully you get to play along this week with us at PPC! And don't forget to check back for our new Summer Blog Hop! Lots of fun and prizes to be won!!

PPC-CC #17

2010-06-14T12:48:00.000-06:00

Whooo hoo!! It's time for another color challenge over at the Picture Perfect Creations blog!! I would've never combined these colors but boy Megan did a great job picking as usually! I'm very happy with how my card turned out this week and I think the colors look great together! If you've got time, head on over to the PPC-CC blog to take part this week! And stay tuned for details on our upcoming supper blog hop!! Click HERE for more details.

Now onto my card for this week's color challenge. I CASEd it from Renee's blog. If you haven't seen her work, please visit her blog because her work is simply AMAZING!!!