Gone, gone, gone I been gone so long!

Now that song is stuck in my head - darn it! Sorry I've been away but I've been working (my contract work for the school board), packing, making final Disney preparations, and most importantly of all - helping my husband with a project - check out the pics below.

This is our kitchen when we first moved in. We've done a ton of work since then, but it's the best picture of the floor.

This picture is in progress - after we had painted the walls and cabinets this summer. Again notice the floor.

This is what we've been doing this weekend: notice my new floor!!! We decided to take advantage of the long weekend and get some stuff done around the house. My husband is such a sweetie! It looks so good and is so much nicer than the old lino! We still need to put our new baseboards up, but that will wait until we're back from our Disney trip. We also did the floor in our powder room but I'll spare you the pictures as it's the same floor!

Anyway, I still have tons to do before we leave. I've saved some posts to publish along the way so I will have some posts while I'm away. Hope you have a great week!

Valentine's for Classmates and finally a card!

I finally feel like myself again and my kids and hubby are starting to as well. I still haven't been down to stamp yet, but I have my SU monthly club tonight, so I'm sure that will get my creative juices flowing!

This weekend we put together the treats for my sons classmates. We had a ball doing it and my son really enjoyed the stamping part of the project. I got the idea for these from a Papercrafts magazine - Feb. 08 from the Ask the Pros article. Nichole Heady (the genius behind Papertrey Ink) describes them as what she makes with her son. I thought it sounded good so we gave it a whirl. Nichole said to use tootsie rolls, but we used Rockets instead. Oh wait - you Americans call these candies Smarties. But to us Canadians, smarties are little chocolate candies similar to M&M's, and these candies are called rockets (I say tomato, you say tahmato....)

This card is one I've been thinking of for a while. I got this SU set - Spring Song last month at my SU club and haven't been able to make a card with it yet. I was determined to get it done! I stamped the bird in Versafine Onyx black and embossed with clear detail embossing powder on watercolour paper. I watercoloured it using my aquapainter and my ink pads. The paper is Basic Grey mellow on Pumpkin pie cardstock. I distressed the edges with my Tim Holz paper distressor and added a Prima flower and a Bella bauble. I was a little afraid of this image but am loving the way it came out - I see lots of bird cards in my future 'cause I just love this little one!

You like me, you really like me!!

(just to be clear - my title is written tongue in cheek!)

I am honoured to have been awarded an award from my friend Michelle! I'd like to pass it to a couple of my fave bloggers.
Card Metaphors (have you seen the new stamp set Alli Miles created for Papertrey?! OMG!!)
Card Creme (Sherrie Siemens is so inspiring to me and has been so willing to help and share when I've emailed her)
My Favorite Things (cause I love all of Dawn McVey's cards and her style)
Mish Mash (Michelle Wooderson is constantly giving me new ideas and inspiration)
Heartfelt Greetings (Amy is so open and honest and makes beautiful cards)

There are tons of others I'd love to pass this to - but these are some of my daily fix! Hope to be back tomorrow with a new card! A good friend and I are going into Toronto to hit a couple of fabric stores - I know I will be inspired! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Bugs for a Friend

I know, who wants bugs from a friend? My friend Tracy owns the best little store in Edmonton called Bugs N' Berries. It sells upscale baby, children's, and maternity clothes. They also sell kids shoes and all kinds of fun stuff. Tracy recently had her second baby as well as opened her second store (both with help from her husband!). I was thinking of Tracy today and decided to make her a set of notecards. The logo for Bugs N' Berries is a ladybug so I had been wanting to do this ever since getting Papertrey's Little Lady set, but had never gotten around to it.

I cased the layout from Nichole's blog cause I loved the look of her card and the one rounded corner. I used cryogen white cardstock so the whole white panel is shimmery - so pretty! I'm pretty sure it's safe to post these here, even though they're going in the mail tomorrow as Tracy's so busy, she's got no time to read blogs!

Hope you're staying warm - we're getting a ton of snow here!

For my friends...

This card is for all of you who visit and leave such sweet comments. Thanks for all the get well wishes - my son went to school today and my daughter is starting to feel better. Hubby and I are hanging in there.

True confession time....I haven't stamped in over a week. Between taking care of sickos and researching our upcoming Disney trip, it just hasn't been in the cards. Today I actually sat down and watercoloured a couple images but haven't yet been able to make them into a card. I made this card a week or so ago, I need to work on my copic colouring though!

I had no idea how big a deal it was to go to Disney World. Here I thought we would buy our tickets and be set. Then I find out there's touring plans, strategies, etc... It's been a whole new education!! If you have any tips, feel free to share them. We're only there for a short visit - 3 days and it's our first time. I have the Unofficial Guide and I've been reading the dis boards.

Baroque Pair

Well - my whole household is sick. My ds started it, and we've all fallen victim. My dd is having a really hard time with the way she's feeling (she's 23 months) and I had a 3 hour nap today. So please excuse me if the post is short and sweet, but I'm heading to bed.

I did want to share this card I made for my inlaws 25th wedding anniversary.

I stamped the flourish from Baroque Motifs in Versamark and embossed with silver embossing powder. I used a tutorial from Natasha to dry emboss the rectangle. A neat effect that I'll use again - until I get my own set of Nestabilities anyway.

Here's another Baroque card - these are pretty simple and I haven't had time to really "play" with this set yet.

Colours are Blue Bayou and Soft Sky and I overstamped everything with Versamagic Platinum metallic chalk ink for a bit of pizzazz. I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line everything up when stamping for the second time.

Thanks for stopping by. Sending you all healthy vibes so that you can avoid getting sick!!!

Wow!

If you need a good cry today:
http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/2008/02/safe-and-sound.html

Check out the latest entry by Nate, husband to Tricia and Dad to Gwyneth. I mentioned them in this blog a while ago and have been enthralled by their story and they have remained in my heart and my prayers, although I don't know them. I am compelled by their faith and trust. What an amazing example of God at work!

Sketch Challenge Scrappy Card

I wanted to play along with the sketch challenge on SCS today, but decided I was in the mood to create a "scrappy" card, rather than a "stampy" card. In fact, there are no stamps and no ink on this card at all (gasp!!), but I think it turned out o.k. All the products are from Doodlebug - I absolutely love all their stuff. I especially love the sugar coated cardstock - the bright pink panel. It is so glittery and just so pretty!

Here's another card I created that relies heavily on patterned paper as well. This is shimmery paper from BoBunny and it is just so delicious! The only stamping on this one is the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment in the middle (Michael's $1 stamps). For this one I used Prism cardstock as it matched the paper much better than SU.

Who knew?

That a 5 year old could get croup? Certainly not me!! I thought only babies got croup, but apparently kids up to the age of 6, and sometimes as old as 10 can as well. So I have my son home from school today. Which totally annihilated my plans for today - I was actually supposed to attend a meeting for the contract work I do, and I had to cancel. Not sure if I'll have a chance to stamp today, so I thought I'd share some pics of my workspace and some organizational projects I've been working on lately.

These are some pics of my space that I took way back in November. It was messy, disorganized and thrown together. I stamp in our unfinished basement. We do have carpet down there, and the washer and dryer, some exercise equipment, as well as my kids playroom.

I had a good friend over one day and she suggested moving my main desk so that I was looking out into the play area, rather than with my back to it. Can you say duh? Why didn't I think of that - thank goodness I have brilliant friends! I also added another table (a Coleman camping table - hee hee!) just for more surface area and storage.

See the space heater on the floor in the lower right hand quadrant? My hubby brought that home for me one day - without me asking - what a sweetie!

I made this ink pad holder the other day out of 2 sheets of foam core board. Cost me all of $3 plus hot glue that I already had. It was pretty easy and it's pretty sturdy. The original design called for 5 equal columns, but since I don't own that many SU ink pads, I decided to modify it for my own needs. I got the pattern off of this blog. I plan to make another for my ribbon spools, just like this one - maybe today even!

Lastly, I made these two little baskets. I have been wanting something to put my cards in out in my front entrance - I often have friends who want to "shop" for cards while they're here and I didn't have anything pretty to put them in. I got this pattern off of Sharon Johnson's blog and modified it so it would be a little bigger for my landscape cards as well. I ended up making two boxes out of this gorgeous Amy Butler paper and they were super easy!

Anyway, sorry for the really long winded post. Hope that maybe something is helpful to you!

Dahlia Fold Card

Today's technique challenge over at SCS was to make a card using the Dahlia Fold. I had never tried this before but it looked doable so I gave it a go! My circle has a little gap in it - but I decided to not let my perfectionism win over and I used it anyway - I just didn't have it in me to do it again. The yellow panel is patterned paper from DCWV which I stamped with a flower from Mixed Bouquet and a smaller flower from Baroque Motifs. The sentiment is from a Doodlebug clear set. Thanks for looking!

New Year, New Look...

What do you think? I was getting a little bored with my coffee cup and wanted to try something else. The only downside with this template, is that all my links are at the bottom and can't be moved. I absolutely LOVE the bird and the cupcake. I'm still trying to come up with a name for my card business (I sell cards through a couple different sources) and I keep coming back to names about coffee and cupcakes and birds as those are some of my favorite things (when the dog barks, when the bee stings.... lol).

I made this card a couple weeks ago. This one was to sell - so it's one of my more simple cards. I love this set by MFT - You Take the Cake. I reach for it often as it's just perfect for birthday cards.

I just want to thank you for stopping by! I appreciate each and every one of you and love it when you leave comments.

Hoo's there?

I just love these owls! I think I will make some more cards with these two for Valentine's Day. I used a technique I saw on Nichole Heady's blog by stamping the image in SU Classic Chocolate Chip ink on watercolour paper. I then went over the image with my aquapainter and it softened the lines. I coloured the owls using my aquapainter and ink pads. The paper is Basic Grey Mellow and the sentiments is from SU's Friendship Flowers.

I've been busy organizing! I made an ink pad holder out of foam core board and I made a couple of baskets from paper to hold my completed cards for sale in. I'll post pics tomorrow! Hope you're having a great weekend!

My first Rubber Romance....

I was so excited to get my first Rubber Romance girl. I just love them!! They are a big image though - I had a hard time finishing this card after colouring the image. I coloured "Nay" with my prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol on watercolour paper. I'd like to try this image again with my copics. I used a Stampendous sentiment that I thought matched the image!

Baby Cards a la Jen!

I made these cards last week after seeing Jen del Muro's sketch on her blog 2 weekends ago. I'm really late posting these, but figured I'd get them up anyway. I needed a couple of baby cards and decided to use the same layout for both a boy and a girl card. The stamp is Papertrey Ink's Green Thumb - I've been playing with it a lot lately. The patterned paper on both is from the MME Costco stack - love how it all coordinates. I used some bella baubles on the cards for the peas - I didn't have any pink ones, so I coloured clear ones with my pink copic marker. I think they turned out cute - and I sure love working from a sketch!

Real Soft Bayou!

Real soft bayou was the name of today's color challenge over at SCS. That's because we were to use Real red, Soft sky, and Blue bayou for our card. I didn't have any real red cardstock, or any soft sky ink, so I had to work around those limitations. Luckily, I had this piece of patterned paper (Basic Grey Blush) sitting on my desk and noticed how well it seemed to match. I used Versamagic white cloud ink to stamp the polka dot background on the blue bayou cardstock. The stamps are Papertrey Ink's Green Thumb set, except for the bee, which is from MFT's Bundles of Bouquet. This was a fun card to make - thanks for looking!

P.S. Thanks for all the well wishes for my daughter. She seems to be healing well, even though her temperament is still bruised!