Sketchy New Year's Eve!

Hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season so far! And in case I forget - I'd like to wish you and your families a very Happy New Year! Anyone have big plans for New Year's? We are just going to snuggle up together as a family and watch Kung Fu Panda and eat take out.
We got 2 or 3 inches of snow last night so everything is sparkling white here. In fact the snow is what inspired my card today. I had time to play along with the sketch challenge over on Splitcoast and wanted to use this adorable Penny Black snowman that I haven't even had time to get inky yet! I also used one of my Christmas presents - the top note die from Stampin Up - I love it!! The paper is still more of My Mind's Eye - I just love this stuff!

Hope you have a safe and cozy New Year's!

A Fuzzy Challenge!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was great - the kids were so much fun! On Christmas Eve, I got to host the My Favorite Things What's Up Wednesday challenge over in the MFT forum on Splitcoast. There's still time to play along and be entered to win a $5 gift certificate!

My challenge was to use flock - or flocked paper, or Flower Soft. Here are my samples. The first is Snow Bunny Flopsey and I flocked him using Caramel Latte Fun Flock from Stampendous. I find it easiest to work in small areas, using my quickie glue pen, and pressing the flock down. The second sample is A Scarf for Three and I flocked all of the purple areas using Doodlebug's Lilac Crushed Velvet Flock. I also used some Doodlebug flocked paper on the card. Both cards were made using Julee's Mojo Monday sketch #66.

Well - we're off to do some visiting over the next couple days, and I NEED to clean my stamping area - it's so bad that I can't even stamp! Enjoy your holidays!

Last of the Christmas Cards

I think these are the last of the Christmas cards that I have to post. I made these for a friend as a special order. The first is using Papertrey's Take a Bough and has an epoxy sticker over the ornament for some added dimension. The second is using Stampin Up's To You and Yours and is meant to be more of a Hanukkah card. The dove is embossed in silver but is showing wonky in the picture.

Well we're still full of Christmas preparations here. We're hosting 9 others for Christmas dinner, so I've been busy baking, cleaning, wrapping, and doing a little crafting for gifts. I am going to take a break from blogging until after Christmas though. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and we'll see you after!

BC Dzyns Blog Hop!

Welcome to the BC Dzyns Blog Hop! If you're just joining us, you'll want to start at the beginning - Kim's blog. Make sure you follow the blog hop through until the end as there's a

chance to win this new set being released Wednesday night by My Favorite Things! The set is called Day Dreamer and is full of awesome sentiments that all fit into the included thought bubble. I've had so much fun playing with this set and I will get lots of use from it! The cloud paper is Basic Grey Mellow - I thought it fit well. I used the thought bubble as a little bit of a tent topper and combined two of the sentiments.

Alrighty then! Enough chatter - your next stop along the hop is the wonderful Natalie!! Have fun!

Rest of the Mom to Mom Cards

Last week I shared one of the cards that I designed for my Mom to Mom group and our cardmaking morning. Here are the rest of them. Special thanks to my good friend Becky for helping me finish the designs and helping me to prep all the supplies (you rock!). The first one uses Stampin Up's To You and Yours. Love this colour combo!

The last one plays off the colours in the strip of Making Memories patterned paper. The snowflake is from a Stampin Up set from last year's saleabration. The green glitter is Martha Stewart and was applied with a quickie glue pen. The clear glitter on the pink snowflake is actually using stickles - and we prepped those ahead of time.

I have made a couple cards for some special orders - so I should be able to post a couple of times next week. Also, Wednesday is the blog hop for the BC Dzyns release - so make sure you check back then! Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Ack!

I'm still here - but bogged down in lists and things to do. Unfortunately, most of these tasks can't be put off - so I'm taking a blogging break for a couple of days. Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll be back on Thursday or Friday.

The Last of the MFT Release Projects

Hello all! I wanted to share the last of my projects that I made for the MFT release. I had such an amazing time being a guest designer! The first is using the main image from the Tote-ally Fantastic set. I just love that little tiny dog! The paper is Stampin Up's Dasher.

I made this little sack out of some flannel that I had around. I sewed a simple sack and cut out the handles with my nestabilities. I stamped Flopsey in Adirondack Pigment ink and heat set it with my iron. I coloured a little bit with a copic marker. You'll notice one of my favorite things - Starbucks Christmas blend (yummy!) - but you could also use this for cocoa or something else.

This last card is using the Isabelle Paper doll set and some My Mind's Eye paper. The sentiment is from Essential sentiments - although I realized after the fact I should have just printed a sentiment on the computer that said "Miss you Beary much". That would have been perfect!

Thanks for reading! We're decorating our Christmas tree tonight and tomorrow night I'm finally going to see Twilight with my very best girlfriends - I'm so excited!!

MFT Blog Hop!

Welcome to the MFT Blog Hop! If you're just joining us, you'll want to start at the beginning - Kim's blog. Make sure you follow the blog hop through until the end as there's a pot of photopolymer gold at the end! MFT is releasing three new awesome sets on Wednesday Dec. 3rd and they rock!

I made this little gift set with the new Tote-ally Fantastic set. I got the purse template from Splitcoast (Mel is amazing!) and made it out of Scenic Route Sonoma paper - I am so in LOVE with this paper! I used the purse images and sentiments to make some 3x3 cards that fit inside the purse. Super cute and super easy (or easy peasy lemon squeezy as my ds's teacher would say)!

Your next stop along the hop is over to Julie's blog! Not only is she a fellow Canadian, she's amazingly talented and so sweet to boot! Go see her gorgeous creations here and hope to see you at the release party tonight in the MFT forum!

Mojolicious Sneak Peek!

Here's a peek at the new Flopsey being released Wednesday night from My Favorite Things. I coloured and cut out Snow Bunny Flopsey and used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch to put it all together. The papers are all Doodlebug - including the gorgeous sugar coated (glitter covered) white panel that I put through my cuttlebug with the snowflake embossing folder.
Make sure you check back tonight/tomorrow morning for the MFT blog hop - it all starts over at Kim's blog at midnight and ends with "a pot of photopolymer gold". You have all day Wed. to complete the blog hop as the winner is usually drawn at the release party! Have a great day!

MFT Sneak Peeks - Paperdolls To Go!

I had such a good time playing with this new Stephanie Fizer set being released this month by My Favorite Things. The set is called Isabelle Paperdoll, and I decided to stay true to the name, and create a paperdoll project. I thought maybe I should save this project for the Blog Hop, or the release party, but I just can't resist sharing it now because I love it so much!

I was inspired by one of my daughter's toys - a doll that has magnetic clothes and shoes that stick to her so you can dress her up any way you like.

I had a tin lying around from some promotion, and decided to make a travel paperdoll set for my daughter Sydney. I stamped, coloured and adhered the images to a magnetic sheet, then cut them out. Because they're mounted on magnetic paper, they stick to the tin and they even stick to each other, so you can layer the clothes onto Isabelle. I created 2 Isabelles for the set and I think I will go back and make some more clothes, so they can both be mermaids. My daughter loves to pretend play right now so this will be perfect for waiting rooms, coffee shops, etc... I tried to keep the embellishments minimal, since this will be taken in and out of my purse, or my daughter's backpack. Don't tell my daughter, but this is going into her Christmas stocking!

Hope you'll join us Wednesday night in the MFT forum on Splitcoast for the release party! Come back tomorrow for more sneak peeks k?

Mom to Mom Cards

I've been playing around with card designs to make for my Mom to Mom group. Somehow I agreed to help run a card making morning as our Christmas wrap-up activity. So I've been trying to come up with cards that are easy enough for beginners, but still have lots of impact. This one's a definite possibility. The stamp is from Inkadinkado and is stamped in Versamark and embossed in silver. Super simple - but I remember the first time I embossed and saw the powder turn to liquid - super fun!
Hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you survived Black Friday if you decided to venture out. Sorry things have been so quiet here - I'm working on projects for the My Favorite Things release on Wednesday. Make sure you stop by after midnight Tuesday as I'm one of the stops on the blog hop! We're also trying to finish the reno of our bathroom - my weekend is full of priming and painting!! See you Monday for the first of the MFT sneak peeks!

The Best Birthday Present!

Yup - today is my birthday - and I get to tell you about the best present I received. I actually got it a couple weeks ago but couldn't spill the beans until today! Kim, the MFT Lady, asked me if I would be a guest designer for December!! Some of the regular design team is taking the month off - so she's assembled an amazing group of ladies to fill in. Check out the announcement here for the fabulous ladies I'll be joining. Hope you'll come back on December 1st when the sneak peeks start - and for the release on Wed. December 3rd.

I made this card last week for a friend whose Aunt was just diagnosed with cancer. One of my go-to fave sets - Out on a Limb by Papertrey paired with their sweet blush and berry sorbet cardstock. I think the patterned paper is by Imaginisce - but I'm not positive.
Hope you're having a wonderful weekend. I need to scoot because we're having friends over for dinner!

Mojo Monday Wind Down

Well it's not Monday anymore, but I wanted to do Julee's Mojo Monday sketch. I chose this Annie Lapointe image from My Favorite Things and paired it with some Scenic Route Sonoma patterned papers. It matches SU's Kiwi Kiss almost exactly! The sentiment is from MFT's Essential Sentiments set - one that I get a lot of mileage out of! Happy Thursday to you all!

Who's That E-Girl?

I got this new set from MFT last week and just couldn't wait to ink it up! I paper pieced the skirt and couch with patterned papers from Papertrey. In fact, all the papers except the choc. chip layer are from Papertrey - the cardstock is their Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush colours.
Hope you're having a happy hump day! I'm hoping to stamp today - I need a break from mass producing my Christmas cards.

Wintery Sketch for You to Try

I got a chance this weekend to play along with Jen's Sketch for You to Try (sfytt). I thought it would be perfect for my new Lily and Billy Winter Stamps. I just love this new set, especially since I have a girl and a boy - it totally suits! I cut Lily and Billy out and popped them up on dimensionals. I think the paper is by Imaginisce and it matched Old Olive and Baja Breeze really well. I did sponge some white ink on the blue cuttlebugged panel to make the snowflakes pop a bit more. Thanks so much for visiting!

Beate's Weekend Sketch - Thank You

Last week I was lucky enough to win blog candy from Caroline (CraftinCaro on SCS). I wanted to send her a card that was mostly Stampin Up since she's one of the top Canadian demonstrators. I chose to use Beate's Weekend Sketch challenge (WSC66) and went from there. The stamp from Pocket Silhouettes is stamped on the Kraft designer print paper. I did cheat a little with the Cuttlebug and the gems in the middle of the flower fusion, but I'm hoping she'll forgive me! The one thing you can't see in the picture is the score line on the Kraft layer that divides the polka dots from the sentiment.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend! I've been busy mass producing Christmas cards and am looking forward to completing them so I can move on to other projects.

Verve One Sheet Wonder Sketches

Way back in September, Julee Tilman (owner and illustrator of Verve Visual) posted a challenge using a sketch she had created that makes use of a piece of 6x6 double sided patterned paper to make and embellish 4 cards. It took me a while to get to this challenge, and I don't have any Verve stamps (yet!!), but I managed to make use of her awesome template. My patterned paper was from the Making Memories Noteworthy line and I used Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink and Taken with Teal cardstock. Stamps are from Stampin Up and are Pocket Silhouettes and Upsy Daisy. I decided to leave them without sentiments so they can be used for any occasion. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a wonderful start to your weekend!!

Family Christmas Card - Final Version

I think I've arrived at the final version of our family Christmas card for this year. The nice thing about this layout is that I can get 14 cards out of 1 piece of 12x12 patterned paper. The paper is Stampin Up's Ski Slope - in fact everything on this card except for the ovals are from Stampin Up. The stamp set is To You & Yours except for the snowflakes which are from Snow Swirled. I think it's pretty self explanatory - the only thing worth mentioning is that I coloured the stamp with water based markers so that I could get the different colours. It's also stamped on shimmery white cardstock although you can't tell from the picture. I'm planning on starting my mass production tonight while watching Survivor and Grey's Anatomy! Have a great Friday tomorrow!!

Christmas Shoe Therapy

Hey didja notice my new mug shot?? It's over there on the left with my profile. My wonderful friend Tina took it and I thank her a million times over!!

I made this card for the Who's That Girl Monday challenge over in the MFT forum on Splitcoast. We were to use the set Window Shopping (if we had it - any set would do otherwise) and give some love to our embellishments. I decided to make it "Christmassy" and used some Basic Grey figgy pudding paper. I figure that I'll give this to one of my girlfriends in a month when we're all getting stressed out with Christmas prep. I think it's fairly simple - nothing really to explain other than I inked up the sentiment differently than it came so I could fit it into my space. Hope you're having a great week - Happy Hump Day!! I'll be back tomorrow with the final version of my Christmas card - I figured it out!

Christmas Daisies

O.k. I know there's no such thing as Christmas daisies! I have quite a few sets of cards that I need to make for Christmas gifts and I've been trying to come up with a couple simple designs. I cased this design from Becky and am pleased with how it came out. I stamped this image from Upsy Daisy on Pretty in Pink designer paper and embossed with clear powder. The bottom panel is Purely Pomegranate cardstock stamped with the linen background and run through the textile folder with my cuttlebug. What do you think? I think this design will be perfect for one of my son's teachers. I plan to do a set of eight cards and package them in a clear plastic card box (along with a jar of homemade red pepper jelly and a Starbucks gift card!).
Hope you're staying warm! It's downright cold here today!

Christmas Card Prototype

So here's my first attempt at our family Christmas card for this year. I know that I'm going to use this set - To You & Yours from Stampin Up because I just fell in love with it. I also know that I want to use the ski slope designer paper and the real red ribbon...the rest is up in the air. I like this layout except that the red is unbalanced on the card. I don't however, want to wrap the ribbon around the whole card. So it's back to the drawing board for me.
Hope you had a wonderful Friday!!

Another Gift Card Holder and some Randomness!

I made another of these gift card holders yesterday for MFT's Who's That Girl challenge. The challenge was to use the set You Take the Cake and a sentiment from another set. I decided to make another gift card holder, because I'll need quite a few come December. The sentiment is from Essential Sentiments and the patterned paper is from American Crafts. Speaking of My Favorite Things - have you seen the sneak peeks for the latest release?? I am in love with the image from Who's That E-Girl - check out this card - it's one of my faves!! The release party is tonight over on SCS with the sets going live tonight at 10:30pm.

More enabling - but have you seen the sneak peeks for Pink Cat Studios?? I am so in love with these Lily and Billy winter stamps.

And to finish off the randomness, I got the opportunity to go hear Barbara Coloroso speak last night. She was amazing and many of the things she said made so much sense to me. It also made me reflect on the way that I parent and the way society pushes us to parent. I pulled out a book of hers that I've had for a long time but have never read "Kids are Worth It" and am really enjoying it.

Happy Hump Day all!!

Bleh!

I apologize for the uninspiring title of this post - but it's how I feel. I've been battling this stomach thing that's been going around, and for the past two days it's been kicking my butt! I did manage to quickly stamp a couple of cards. These are going in the mail today to Laurie Schmidlin and her daughter Ali. I love Laurie's blog and have been following it for a long while now. Her daughter is very ill and my heart breaks for them. Would you keep Laurie, Ali, and her family in your prayers?

Sketchy Owls!

I finally had the time and desire to stamp today and decided to play along with the MFT sketch challenge over at Splitcoast. I used Christmas Owls and stamped them on Kraft cardstock in Adirondack Espresso ink - I've been wanting to try this for awhile now. Coloured them with copics, prismacolour pencils, as well as a white gel pen. Distressed and sponged the edges with chocolate chip ink and the edges of all the other cardstock with Vintage Photo ink. Added a couple buttons and some linen thread - and voila! At least I've now created one card this week! Are you all ready for Halloween tomorrow? We're carving our pumpkins tonight - we can't do them ahead of time because the squirrels eat the designs off our pumpkins (right off our porch - brave little bums!). Have a spooky Halloween!

A Jump on Christmas!

I've been trying to get a bit of a headstart on some of my Christmas projects. This is a fairly simple one that I made the other day. It's a gift card holder and is for one of my son's teachers. I got the idea and instructions from Heather's Blog. I used old olive cardstock and some Basic Grey paper scraps. The coffee cup is from Inque Boutique's Chai Latte set - I was able to use a sentiment from Papertrey's Mixed Messages set to stamp in the label of the coffee cup (Thanks). The inside is stamped with the flourish from Baroque Motifs and a sentiment from Papertrey's Take a Bough. I have a couple more of these to make - luckily they're pretty quick. Hope you're having a great week - I haven't stamped in a while - I've lost my muse/mojo. Have you seen it??