Sentimental Sundays

Happy Sunday!

Today I'm happy to share with you some good news....drum role here...I have been accepted to the Sentimental Sundays team!  When the challenge blog first started a number of months ago I was excited since Ann, of Raindrop Echo Designs, makes such beautiful sentiments and I liked the idea of a challenge blog focused on featuring sentiments.  I'm thrilled to be part of the team.

This weeks theme is Birthdays, I hope you'll play along with us!  To get you started, here is the card I made:

The main image is an Elizabeth Bell image, and the sentiment is from Raindrop Echo Designs, available at the Whimsy Store.  Don't the two totally coordinate?!  The background was made using a Cuttlebug folder.  All colouring is with Copics.

My plan is for this to be a very productive crafty day -- work has ramped up the last couple of weeks and  has been cutting in to my crafting time, so I've got some catching up to do.  I hope you all have a great day!

Card drive for Spina Bifida

Morning folks!

This week I needed a card for a little guy for a card drive.  Immediately I thought of Paper Jewels and all the cute stamps they carry, and decided to use this fun and cheery Lisa Victoria Rain Dragon stamp.

It's such a fun image, and I decided to pair it up with cheery colours and a simple layout (somehow little guys don't normally appreciate all those flowers and lace LOL!).  The colouring is with copics, and the image is popped up on both levels.  Apart from that it's pretty straightforward.

There is a card drive on for two kids to encourage Spina Bifida awareness.  This is the first of the two cards I've made.  Please check out the link and I'm sure these kids would be thrilled if you'd play along too.  Link for card drive:   A place to praise and craft

Have a great Saturday! 

Flower in my garden

Morning folks,

eek, don't you love it when scheduled posts go wrong LOL!

Here is a card I made recently using Heartfelt Creations images.   I was saving it for next week, but I see it's posted and a bunch of you have commented before I caught it, so I've madly rushed to add instructions below.

Have a great day....I'm off to work...on my day off :-( .... so no time to play, but will be back here later in the week to share with you the posts I did have planned :-)

Ok, so you want some details for this card?  Well, I have to say, it was a super EASY card to make, and quick too.

First, I stamped the background stamp using Versamark (clear) on to the coloured cardstock.  Then I stamped the sentiment in and flower image on the cardstock using black Versafine. I then coloured directly on the cardstock using Copics, being careful of bleeding since I had used the Versafine.  I added the ribbon on to the layer, but then decided to dress it up.

So to dress it up, I stamped the daisy flower onto coloured orange patterned paper, and then cut it out with the coordinating die cut.  Glued the pearl in the centre, then added glue around the edges of the pearl and added flowersoft.  After allowing it to dry I stuck that over the centre of the flower.  Then I added little pearls, following the dots as a guide which were already part of the image.  Finally, simply layering that over cardstock, it was done!

Products used are all from Heartfelt Creations:

Daisy Patch Background PreCut Set HCPC 3322

Daisy Patch Swirls PreCut Set HCPC 3324

Daisy Patch Flowers PreCut Set HCPC 3318

 Daisy Patch Diecuts HCD 703

Good friends tip the scales

Can't believe how time is slipping away!  I hope you all had a good weekend and have been having a good week so far.

It seems this past weekend I spent the whole time trying out new recipes and then reorganizing my craft room.  While I did make a few cards I haven't photographed them yet, and it's dark now when I leave for work in the morning and when I get home, so I may wait till Saturday to load these latest ones up.  Luckily I made this cutie recently and hadn't posted it yet:

The image and sentiment are from the set called Weighty Matters by Cornish Heritage Farms.  Isn't that dog an absolute cutie!!!

I stamped the image in Espresso Adirondak ink on Aquabee marker paper, and added shading around it in pink with the Copic Airbrush.  The gorgeous flourish is cut out of black cardstock using a die cut from Heartfelt Creations called Decorative Butterfly-Border.  I layered everything together on top of some SU designer paper and some black grosgrain ribbon.

Now, on to my cooking experiences.  So far we've spent about $100 on supplies to make chinese food.  We have chili oil, sesame oil, and peanut oil.  We have dark rice vinegar, yellow rice vinegar, white rice wine, and yellow rice wine.  We've got bean paste, and fermented beans.  We have dried chillis, garlic chili sauce and regular chili sauce.  Soon we hope to get value from all this LOL!  So far we have made 5 dishes.  The wonton soup worked well and was yummy.  The fried banana and chocolate wontons were WONDERFUL.  it went downhill from there, with one dish too spicy hot, the next one too salty, and the last too sour.  I'm getting tired of cooking, and more importantly I'm reaching my limit on eating experiments gone wrong.  Hopefully the next tries will be more successful!  For tomorrow we decided to go back to our regular standard cooking, so it's going to be tried and true chili.

I'd like to mention that there is a card drive on right now for two young kids, in recognition of Spina Bifida Month (October), I hope you can play along too:  A place to praise and craft.

Look up!

So happy that Friday is finally here!  I hope you all have fabulous weekend plans.  I will be hanging around in my craft room (ok, the craft space that combines my craft room, kitchen and dinning room, LOL!).

Here is a CAS (clean and simple) card I made recently:

The images are from a CHF set, by artist Sara England.  I thought these images would be great for quick cards as well as gift sets--I've got a dolphin, a turtle, a dragon fly, and a seashell.  Now I wish I'd also gotten the crab and starfish, sigh!  Anyway, This card was super quick to make, and looks great IRL.

I used two different green colours of pigment ink on the rubber stamp (one darker colour on the shell and lighter colour on the body) and then stamped on the cardstock, covered with embossing powder, and heat set.  Added some blue shading in the background with the Copic Airbrush, and stamped the sentiments using black versafine (since it gives the clearest sharpest dark black impression).  Added a bow and layered it on to some cardstock, and it was done!

All right, so I have to tell you about my latest discovery, a wonderful blog with chinese cooking recipes. We've been trying to watch our budget and cook at home instead of at the restaurant, and I've been having chinese food withdrawal LOL!  So finally looked up some recipes.  Check out this site, she's got fabulous recipes with lots of pictures and clear instructions on what to get and how to put it together:  http://appetiteforchina.com/

I'll let you know how the cooking experiments go!

Have a great weekend all!

Winter Luminaria

I've been going through the resources section at SCS and came across this tutorial for a luminaria.  I decided that this would be a super cute project to make using some of the new stamps and dies from Heartfelt Creations.

A full set of instructions can be found on the Heartfelt Creations blog.  I have to tell you, this was one of the quickest and easiest projects I have made, and it looks lovely on my mantel.  I recommend you try making one of these yourself.

Now, who can tell me what a flameless candle is, or how to use this without lighting my home on fire?  I'm assuming it would be a bad idea to put a regular tea light in there.....Please leave me a comment and give me the details if you know!

Products Used on This Project

HCPC 3345 Snowflake Medley Swirl PreCut Set
HCPC 3335 Elegant Snowflake Medallions PreCut Set
HCPC 3344 Single Snowflake PreCut Set
Snowflake Wonder Shapeabilities

Oval nestabilities

Snowflake edge punch, sorry don't know brand!

Silver Encore Ink

Silver Glitter

Rhinestones

Cardinal postbox

Hiya!
Can't believe how the days have flown, just realized I hadn't updated my blog since Thursday!  I took the weekend off from crafting, mainly, and spent some time with my non-crafting girlfriends, and we had a great time.  Got to get back in to my craft room though, so many ideas flitting through my head.

Here is a card I did make last week, using one of the fabulous new images from Heartfelt Creations that is part of the Cardinal/Holly Berry Collection:

All colouring was done with Copics, as usual.  For the front I used a reverse method to get the snowflakes--that is, I coloured the sky in blue with Copics, and then spritzed the snowflake stamp with blender solution and stamped, so that it removed the ink to make white snowflakes.  Then on the background panel, I stamped in blue ink on white cardstock, to get the opposite treatment.  The bow was made using my handy dandy bow easy (after having watched the how-to video yet another time!)

This is my hubby's favorite image from the Cardinal collection, so am already planning his xmas card using it.  The pressure is on, how to wow my hubby when he has seen all the cards I have made?  It will need to be something out of the ordinary....If you have any suggestions, please share!



Products used:

Cardinal Holiday Mailbox PreCut Set HCPC 3349

Elegant Holly Swirls PreCut Set HCPC 3339

Petite Medallion Background PreCut Set HCPC 3338

Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 1

White cardstock is Neenah

Green cardstock is Co-ordinations

Ribbon is SU

Ink is black Memento and bliss blue from SU

Vintage Kinkaid

The weekend is almost here, Yay!

I'm off for a slumber party tonight with a bunch of girlfriends, so won't be around blogland tonight, but before I left I thought I'd post this card for you to check out :-)

I had a lot of fun with this one.  I wanted to create something that would make me think of what an older woman might find in a box of old memento's that she was looking through, remembering Christmases of years past.  I was going for the feeling of nostalgia.

First of all, the background is made using sheet music I found online and printed, then crumpled and inked up.  Then I stamped the Thomas Kinkaid Village Christmas image on to glossy photo paper, cut it in two, and distressed the edges.  Layered it over the music sheet, and added the sentiment, but it was still missing something.   And then I remembered my new die cuts and matching stamps from Heartfelt Creations, so made up the holly leaves and added those on.  Finished off with a couple of Robins nest dew drops.  What do you think?

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Products used:

Holly leaves precut set by Heartfelt Creations

Holly / Ornament die cut by Heartfelt Creations

Thomas Kinkaid Village Christmas by Cornish Heritage Farms

Snowy winter scene

Happy Wednesday!

Today I have a gorgeous card to share with you, one of my favorite ever.  It's going to be hard to part with this one!

I made this card using all Heartfelt Creations images as well as the new snowflake one that coordinates with the Spellbinders snowflake die cuts.  Dug out my heat embossing supplies too, seems these are all the rage again, which works for me since I love the effect.  And aren't those chickadee's and that little girl adorable?!

For the background behind the little girl in the image panel, I used a technique I learned in the Copic Certification course.  After stamping the image of the girl, but before colouring her, I sprayed the background with blue ink using the copic airbrush.  Then I put some blender solution in a little spritz bottle and sprayed it on to the snowflake stamp, and then I stamped over the background, so the blender solution created the snowflakes by "removing" the ink from those snowflake spots.  Hopefully I've explained it so it makes sense!  You can always leave a comment or email me if you want more details.

The rest of the instructions for the card are on the Heartfelt Creations Blog today, along with another 32 (!!) cards that the design team created....I suggest you check them out!

Products Used on This Card HCPC 3345 Snowflake Medley PreCut SetHCPC 3344 Single Snowflake PreCut Set HCPC 3338 Petite Medallion Background PreCut Set Snowflake Wonder Shapeabilities 714E Chickadee Surprise Copic airbrush system and pens Versamark Grey craft (pigment) ink Silver Encore ink Silver embossing powder Basic Grey Rhinestones

Cherry on Top Award

Tuesday is here, and the beginning of a short work week for many of us :-)
I have some fun trivia to share with you.  I had a nice surprise from Kathy (Lucky Stamper) of http://luckystamper.blogspot.com/ which is a Chery on Top Award....Thank you Kathy for thinking of me!


Of course there a few things I need to do, as a recipient of the award, thank the person who gave it to me, with a link to their blog, post the award, share three things about yourself, or things you like to do, then pass the award to five more people.

So three things about me (which you will hopefully find interesting!)

- I LOVE to vacation at the very same all inclusive resort every year, and prefer to travel with the same airline, stay in the same room, go to the same restaurants, and hang out with the same folks every time.....obviously not much of an adventurer LOL!
- My FAVORITE weekend is one where I go home from work on Friday and put on my nighty and then don't put on real clothes or leave the house until Monday morning....not that I'm antisocial or anything {grin}
- If I could choose any restaurant to go to for any meal at any time, I'd pick my favorite dim sum restaurant, where they have wonderful shrimp dumplings with banana in them, and mango pudding--yum!

Now, here are 5 folks I'd like to share this aware with, folks whose blogs I visit very regularly, and I thought I'd also note what I most enjoy about my visits to their blogs.  Given I daily visit about 30 blogs, picking 5 was a problem, so I tried to pick one where I hadn't seen them fill in one of these quizes lately, folks that I thought might carry on the chain (I know some of you have stated previously on your blogs that you don't do these) and then further narrowed it down to folks that I had visited in the past day....without further ado (drum roll here!):

Annmarie, EmuCreations - I love hearing about Australia, and the occasional photo of animals that I've not even heard of.
Christine, Hyde N Seek Creations- does a great job with CAS cards that are mailable, and isn't that what we usually need?!
Spardha, Get Addicted to Craft  -  - neat scrap layouts and I like reading about her balance between school work and crafting
Crystal, Creations of a spare time stamper - very cute cards, and I enjoy the occasional glimpse into her life that she shares.
 Roberta, Peach Pit - I like your stories (and your recipes!), they make me smile.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here in Canada we are celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend, and many of us have been busy with gatherings, cooking and eating....and hopefully taking time to reflect on all we have to be Thankful for.

One thing I love about the changing of the seasons is the burst of colour and the beauty of the foliage as it prepares to go dormant, kind of like it knows it's time is limited, so is going to go out with a bang.

This card is made using images from Heartfelt Creations following this week's OCC sketch challenge.

You'll notice on the left edge I used a lacy edge punch, and then laced cord through the holes.  I can't take credit for this technique, I saw it on the blog of Stampin Anne, and loved how it looked, so thank you Anne for this idea!

Back to Thanksgiving, last year I posted cards on both Canadian and American Thanksgiving, and looked up the history of each, and it was kind of interesting to see the difference in both the traditions and history of Thanksgiving in each country.  You can read about them online here:
Canadian Thanksgiving
American Thanksgiving
Regardless of the history and tradition, in both our countries the main theme is to be thankful for what we have and to take a moment to reflect and rejoice in that.

Products used for the card:
HCPC 3320 Vintage Word Background Precut set
HCPC 3334 Open Falling Leaves Precut Set
HCPC 3330 Elegant Autumn Swirl Precut Set
HCD 707 Falling Leaves Die Cut
Spellbinders Labels 4
Essential Glue Pad
Turning Leaf Pee Wee Kit Glitter
White paper is Staples, coloured is SU
Background image is stamped in Versamark
Ribbon and copper cord are SU
Rhinestones Basic Grey
Copic airbrush used for colouring

Challenges:
OCC - sketch
Stamping for the weekend - Autumn inspiration
Paper Sundaes - A change of season
The Secret Crafter - Distressing
Stamp Something - Get Punchy
Charisma Cards - Autumn colours
If the Shoe Fits - Distress it

Birthday's are the best

Happy Saturday!  Today I have a card to share with you made using a Spesch image from the Paper Jewels store.  When I saw this one I knew it would be great for fun birthday cards.

All in all, a pretty easy card....the image is coloured with copics, the baloons were layered with crystal effects, and I added some DP, sentiment and ribbon--and presto, a birthday card in record time!

Autumn Mousies

Hi folks,
Well, I'm sitting here in my living room, huddled next to the fireplace with a blanket...sure is funny how quick the weather can change at this time of the year!

The leaves have started to fall here, and they are so beautiful!  When I'm driving I have to remind myself to focus on the other cars, not the pretty leaves :-)  I felt inspired to play with some leaf images, and this one jumped out at me: 

This House Mouse stamp is a great image to colour since you can geet pretty artistic with the leaves, and despite that there's not too much detail to bog you down with.  The background is airbrushed with some grey, blue, and sand colour.  The leaf is cut out using a Spellbinders die cut which was then coloured with the airbrush.  In the top right hand corner I added a piece of chipboard from my stash which is coloured with my airbrush and some recycled canvas thread tied through.

I also decorated the inside, since I wanted to use an autumn sentiment, and there was no room on the front.  It sure does dress a card up when you decorate the inside!

The background is made using the faux letterpress technique, there is a tutorial on StampTV  here: "Inking a Cuttlebug Folder".

The sentiment is one from Heartfelt Creations, from the set called All Seasons Tree.  Added a bit of lace, and it was done!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Sentimental Sundays - Autumn
Tuesday Throwdown - Chipboard
Stampin for the weekend - Autumn inspiration
OCC - Colour combo "Beautiful fall colours"
Cute Card Thursday - Make your own (the leaf)

So on to more technical details, did you see I finally started using a watermark?!  The watermark was purchased from Doodle Pantry, Laurie there makes them so pretty and they are a great price, totally recommend if you want one you go there!  And my Photoshop Elements arrived yesterday, so I started playing with it--this is going to take a lot more learning than I expected!  Any words of wisdom, please share!

Thanksgiving Church

October is here, and Thanksgiving is coming up very quickly--here in Canada especially!

Over at Crafters Digital Art Centre they had a challenge last week to use a free digi.  This fabulous one was made available by Sugar Creek Hollow, and I'm finally getting a chance to share this card with you now.

The image is coloured with copics.  I used the techniques from the Copic Certification class for feather blending, as well as the method from the Thomas Kinkaid book on colouring windows.

I think this would be a wonderful image for a fall wedding.  Many folks choose to get married in last September/October, in my neck of the woods at least, since the weather is nicer than spring, venues are easier to book, and it's generally less expensive than a summer wedding.  I'll be making more cards with this image, that's for sure!

Special delivery

Today I've got another baby card for you using the Bildmalarna Baby image from Paper Jewels.  You've seen a handful of these over the past few months, it seems so many folks are expecting or having little ones, and I do enjoy making cards for them.

The image is coloured with Copics, and I sponged some ink on the edges for depth.  DP from Micheals, and the coordinations paper is embossed and sanded.  Dug out my sewing machine on this one, seems to me that baby cards need to have sewing on them, LOL!  Also used my bow easy on the bow, sure do love that little tool!

Have a wonderful weekend, I hope you have time for some crafting and creativity :-)