I caved.....sort of!

Well, I did it! I caved.....sort of! I purchased some copics. I own one Stampin' Up marker, 6 Tombows, and that's about it. I decided that for my cards that I sell, I needed a quicker colouring method than either prismas & gamsol, or blender pens and re-inkers, or a water pen and re-inkers. One of the better art stores in Toronto (http://www.currys.com/) just opened a location nearby in Oakville and they carry the Ciao's. I decided to purchase a couple - especially a skin tone marker for the Bellas and MFT stamps that I love. I have to say, that they are really nice! Because I only bought the 5 so far, I haven't really tried to blend or shade with them, just layering the same colour - but I hope to slowly accumulate more so I can practice.

I don't have a card coloured with them - yet! But I do have this one to show you. Let me preface this card by saying that I'm not in love with it. It had great potential, but I fell short in the execution.

I did have fun with it though! I flocked the brown border around the pink bathmat - it's all fuzzy! I covered the tub and the mirror with Crystal effects and while it was still wet, I sprinkled Martha Stewart fine glitter over the mirror to make it sparkly. The image panel itself is super pretty - but the layout is forced. I was trying to do the sketch challenge at SCS, and should have abandoned it - but I'm stubborn!

Oh and I've been reading this book! It's awesome! I highly recommend it!

Anyway, thanks for looking. Sorry for the lapse in posting over the last couple days. We are dealing with health issues with all three sets of our parents and it is taxing me. I'm off to my stamp club tonight and we're going to a Toronto Raptors game tomorrow for hubby's birthday. I'll post sometime in between!

SCS Ways to Use it Challenge

I try and play along with the challenges on Splitcoast when I can. Thursday's challenge was to use flowers on your card. I've been hoarding these Heidi Swapp flowers for a while and decided to break them out. This one is super simple, SU polka dotted background stamp on Kraft cardstock. I stamped one of the Gina K. sentiments (my dreamy treats win from Michelle's blog - Stamper's Dream) on shimmery white paper and matted it with a scallop punch. Behind the flower, there's some purely pomegranate satin ribbon and there's stickles on the flower. Hope you're having a great weekend!

We Go Together!

I got these two stamps at my LSS for 30% off at their Boxing Week sale. Not an incredible price, but I love Changito and the sentiment goes with so many of my other stamps as well - just wait and see! I coloured the monkeys with my prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol, and I had to use some of my new Bo Bunny paper. It's got a shimmer to it and is so pretty - I ran it through my cuttlebug. All mounted on Purely Pomegranate and Close to Cocoa cardstock and embellished with some Bella baubles. Thanks for looking!

Christmas Thank Yous

I really wanted to make our Christmas thank you cards to send out, rather than buying them, but time seems to be so short these days. Luckily, I found this amazing card on SCS by Smitty2004 and realized I had all the tools to make this card. I pretty much cased it as is - all I changed was the colour scheme, the stamp (although it's super similar), and the embellishments. It's been super quick to produce and will be mailable (not bulky at all!). What I especially like about this card, is that it is the same colours as our Christmas card, just used in reverse!

I had some great stamping time today - I made two cards and a third is in progress! On the third card, I used fun flock, crystal effects and glitter - I had so much fun!! Can't wait to share with you again tomorrow!

Happy New Year!!

Wow - hard to believe it's 2008! We had a busy Christmas and New Year's and are happy to be getting back into routine again. Although my son doesn't return to school until next week, I have him signed up for camp every morning for the rest of the week. Yesterday I was able to take down all of my Christmas decorations and pack them away until next year. It feels good to be off to a clean start!

This is another gift that I made for Christmas. I made two of these, one for each of my brothers. When I moved out, I sat down ahead of time and copied out all of my mom's favorite recipes. I use so many of them still! I knew my brothers hadn't done this and I wanted them to have some of their faves as well as some of my faves. These flip albums were originally red and white checked - not quite the style I had in mind. I covered them with this awesome Creative Imaginations paper called Sweet Tooth. I thought it was "manly" enough for my brothers!

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Gifts

Hope you all had a very happy holiday! I really enjoyed my blogging break and spending time with family, but I'm itching to get back stamping. I've stamped a bit, but my juices are needing a little more help to start flowing. I always find it hard to get back into it when I've taken a break.

This is a frame I made for my brother and sister-in-law. I used the Headline Alpha and All in the Family both from SU. I used a 5x7 frame and watercolour paper to stamp on. Hope you're having a great weekend!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

Sometimes it's hard to remember that this is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, and why it's wonderful. With all the hustle and bustle of the season, I'm afraid posting has gone by the wayside - so sorry! I haven't made a Christmas card in a while - mine were finished and mailed out a while ago and I haven't needed anymore. I'm so over Christmas cards anyway (for this year!). I've been stamping a little - I've decided to try for a design team and I've been working on my submission. I'm a little nervous to put myself out there and face possible rejection (I'm not good with rejection - I take everything personally) but I'd really like to grow as a stamper and this is a company that I really like.

Anyway, I pulled these out to post - I made these about 3 weeks ago for an order - I ran out of paper for the last five cards and subbed the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding snowflakes for the last 5. I think they turned out cute!

Hope all your preparations are going well! I'm finished shopping and am trying to get all my wrapping finished. I also have a little baking to do and I'm going to tackle my grocery shopping tomorrow! Good luck!

Teacher Notecard Set

As promised, here is the notecard set I made for Riley's teacher. I was inspired by this set on SCS, and by the glitter on this set also on SCS. I used one of my favorite sets - Mixed Bouquet (retired) and one of my favorite colour combos - brown (choc. chip) and pink (regal rose and pretty in pink). I personalized them by running them through my printer (font is Harrington). I outlined all the flowers with my Sakura glitter pen, it makes them all sparkly!

I packaged them up in one of those pop-together acetate card boxes and I will add some ribbon and a gift tag. My hubby was blown away and said I should sell them. I took that as big praise - my projects always get thumbs up, but never to that level of enthusiasm. Anyways, I hope Mrs. Walls likes them (and the Starbucks gift certificate too)!

Gate Fold Take a Bough

I haven't done much stamping lately but I did want to share the final result of the samples I was showing you earlier. I ended up running out of the pretty Cloud 9 paper I had used, and substituted some Basic Grey Figgy Pudding for the last couple of cards. I like the way both of the patterned papers mimic the branch image used.

I did get to stamp a really pretty notecard set for my son's kindergarten teacher. I'll post pics tomorrow - it was too dark and dreary today to get a good picture. We had a big snow storm today - at least 12 inches of snow!

It was also a busy weekend for Christmas preparations! I finished my Christmas shopping, did a big chunk of my Christmas baking, and got some gifts wrapped. My mom arrives on Wednesday and we're going to see White Christmas on stage on Sunday - I'm super excited about it - it's our favorite Christmas movie (well either that or Holiday Inn - it's a toss up!). Hope you had a great weekend! See you tomorrow!

Magic Reindeer Food

My son Riley and I made 20 of these the other day to give away to his kindergarten classmates. I think we'll probably make another couple to give to some friends as well. I simply printed the poem on SU Kraft cardstock, swiped the edges with a Cat's Eye ink and adhered my reindeer. I don't own any reindeer stamps so I went with a Quickutz die instead - which I ran through my Cuttlebug. I swiped the edges of the reindeer's head as well and added red stickles to his nose. My son filled the bags with oats and glitter and wrote his name on the back of the toppers.
We're off to his school Christmas concert tonight - so no stamping time. Hope you have a good evening!

Our Family Christmas Cards

Here is what our family Christmas cards look like. I used Amuse stamps and Stampin' Up Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Kraft cardstock. I totally cased this from someone on SCS, can't remember who - so sorry! This is not an original idea at all - but it caught my eye and was easy to mass produce. I only made 50 - so not so bad, but still time consuming. The inside is stamped with "from our house to yours". My ds and I made Magic Reindeer Food for his classmates today - I'll post them tomorrow for you to see - they turned out so cute!

People to see, places to go, things to do.....

So sorry I haven't been around. So much is happening that I just haven't been able to make time to blog (or stamp). I've been busy getting gifts finished up (mostly handmade) as the shipping cutoff is tomorrow for regular shipping through Canada Post. Most of our family live across the country, so it was a big job. Unfortunately, said family members tend to frequent my blog, so I can't share pictures of my projects until after Christmas.

Can I share more about what I've been up to? If you only came for the stamping pictures, this would be a good place to stop reading.

If you're still with me, look at what my awesome small group from our Church was able to donate. We sponsored two families and raised over $940. We were able to not only meet the needs of our Christmas families, but spoil them!! These are the two packages for our two families - I had such a great time shopping for them. I am so blessed to be part of such a generous and loving group.

In other news, our house is finally decorated completely. Our poor tree had been standing completely naked for more than a week. I keep telling everyone that I was waiting for this.....

It's our new fireplace!! The silly thing is, my husband is in the fireplace business, and we've been in this house for almost a year now. I am so looking forward to Christmas morning in front of the tree and the fireplace. Here's what our fireplace used to look like:

I think it's a big improvement! Plus we got rid of the shelving and the ugly blue carpet before we moved in.

Well if you've stuck with me this long - THANKS! I'll hopefully be back soon with some stamping stuff! Hope you have a great week!!

Some samples

These are some samples that I made for a Christmas card order. We ended up keeping the design (gate fold) and patterned paper and colours, but changed the image panel. It will be the branch from the Papertrey Take a Bough set with an ornament and a page pebble. It will also be in a circle rather than the square. I'll share the completed version tomorrow.

This pocket card is a rejection. And that's o.k. - cause it will go to someone else! I love this patterned paper - it's by Cloud 9 and the berries are embossed and the whole thing is sparkly. It's so pretty!!


Hope you have a great day!!

Seriously!!

If you haven't been yet, you need to go check out Tim Holtz's blog! SERIOUSLY!! It's awesome! I am learning so much and am itching to buy some products and play! Smart man - making me want to buy products and all! Plus he's having daily giveaways - now mind you, chances are 1 in about 600, but still. Go check it out!

Back to our Regularly Scheduled Programming....

O.k. back to Christmas cards...I made some fun cards last night that weren't Christmas cards but haven't managed to take pics yet so I'll share them another day. Oh and I have been a lucky ducky lately!! I won dreamy treats on Michelle's blog - Stamper's Dream!!! Gina K.'s set with the sentiments - I am excited as I don't own any Gina K. sets yet (although I have my eye on the toilet set!!). And I also won a background stamp from my SU demo Jenn. She had a contest to guess which sets would retire and I won!! Now I just need to pick one! Oh and my best friend in the whole world ordered me some Papertrey Ink sets for my birthday and they arrived last week!!! Green Thumb and Little Lady - I can't wait to play!

This is a quick Christmas card I whipped up using one of my bellas. There was no reason that she couldn't be holding Christmas presents right? I coloured her with Prisma pencils and gamsol. The background paper is Basic Grey figgy pudding. I am so loving those Bella baubles - the green beads on the corners. They are cheap and look wonderful! The felt flower was a dollar store find. Hope you have a wonderful day and thanks for reading!