Over The Top Award

My fellow British Columbian blogging friend, Maureen, passed this award on to me.  I met Maureen at one of the Verve release parties and she is the sweetest thing ever. Stop in and check out her blog, Buttons and Bling, you'll thoroughly enjoy her wonderful creations!! 

The timing for this award couldn't be better.  I'm pretty sure my son has H1N1 (it's all over the school and he has all the symptoms).  He hasn't been swabbed to confirm it because the clinics aren't even swabbing any more due to so much of it in the area and the labs being so backed up.   Consequently, I haven't had a lot of stamping time this week.  Thankfully, he is on the back end of it and should be back at school tomorrow or the next day.  That means I should get some stamping time again :D  In the meantime, I get to enjoy some one on one time with my son as well as being able to share this award with you :D

Here are the rules: 

Answer the following questions using single word answers (as you can see I failed miserably!  Heck, I could have easily written a few sentences on each question LOL!)  

Pass the award to 5 other people and let them  know.

Your cell phone? Purse 

Your hair? Curly!!

 Your mother? Amazing
Your father? Remembered
Your favorite food? Sushi
Your dream last night? None
Your favorite drink? Green tea/decaf nonfat latte
Your dream/goal? NO stamping budget

What room are you in? Guest room/stamp room
Your hobby? Stamping
Your fear? Premature death of my kids
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Not working
Where were you last night? Home
Something that you aren't? Impulsive
Muffins? Cranberry orange
Wish list item? Family Vacation
Where did you grow up? Costa Rica/BC, Canada
Last thing you did? Unload the dishwasher
What are you wearing? Jeans/sweatshirt
Your TV? On (son is playing Wii) 

Your Pets? Cat
Friends? Cherished

Your life? Blessed
Your mood? Relaxed
Missing someone? My dad
Vehicle? Honda Odyssey
Something you're not wearing? Shoes

Your favorite store? Michaels

Your favorite color? Green

When was the last time you laughed? Today
Last time you cried? Sunday (Extreme Home Makeover)
Your best friend? Hubby

One place that you go to over and over? Costco/Michaels
Facebook? Sort of
Favorite place to eat? Home (hubby is a fabulous cook!!)

The 5 bloggers I would like to pass this award to are:

Dawn (flowergal36)

Stacy (Twinshappy)

Hollly (Toy)

Angela (My SU Demo)

Viv
 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to be back soon with a post  :D
 

Chocolate and Butterflies

This is the fourth and final Verve Sketch With A Twist for the month of November.  This week's twist was a colour challenge.  We had to use chocolate, purple and vanilla.  I loved the thought of that combination, but it turned out to be more of a challenge than I bargained for.  None of my limited stash of purple DPs worked as they all had other colours in them so I opted to go with plain card stock as I was too lazy to try to create my own DP.

Once I got that issue out of the way, I decided to flip the sketch so there would be more room for my image.  I found a fabulous little Studio G stamp set at my LSS and wanted to try it out.  I used the wonderful flower border image and the sentiment from the set.  Unfortunately,  the butterflies that go with the set were a bit too big for this panel so I went to my favorite Verve butterflies :D   I stamped them on the image panel and then again on another piece of paper so I could cut them out and add them on for dimension.  I also used some purple liquid pearls in the center of each flower but it doesn't show up as well as I had hoped.  The butterflies were finished off with some brown half pearls on the antennae.  Of course, the polka dots on the butterflies lead me right to my Swiss Dots embossing folder (insert warm fuzzy feeling) for the vanilla layer.  I added a row of half pearls under the sentiment so it would stick out a bit more and finished things off with the purple gross grain ribbon.

Unfortunately the butterflies look more blue that purple (Lovely Lilac to be precise) in my picture.  I need to learn more about Photo Shop before I can play with adjusting the colours so until then, just pretend they are more purple LOL!

The wind storms have finally settled down a bit but the rain is pouring down - yup, we are now into our typical November weather.  Good news is Whistler is getting DUMPED on with snow and are building a wonderful base for the 2010 Olympics in February.  They have set an all time November snowfall record and we still have a week to go.  Hopefully we don't get a warm snap with rain to mess things up!

That's it for today.  Have a fabulous weekend and thank you so much for stopping by (((hugs))).

What's In It?
Stamps:  Verve, Studio G
Paper:  Lovely Lilac, Chocolate Chip, two other purple cardstocks from LSS
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Lovely Lilac
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Brown and Cream Half Pearls, Purple Liquid Pearls, Lovely Lilac 1/4" gross grain ribbon, Dimensionals

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Sorry about another dark picture....another wind / rain storm is on the way (ugh!) and the sky is getting very dark!  Mercy's sketch this week is another "long" card.  I had fun with the last one  as it is always good to get out of the 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" card size rut.   For this sketch I dug through my Costco DP pack again (I have a lot to go through so I'm trying to use it LOL!) and found this fun baby boy DP.  It's hard to believe my "baby" is now 9 years old, but he is all boy and only has two speeds - go and sleep LOL!   He is my bouncy child and my little ray of sunshine with a big smile who loves life and lives it to the fullest :D

The duckie is part of a Studio G stamp set I picked up at Michaels.  He is too cute and yes, reminds me of the duckie my son played with (and sometimes still plays with) in the bathtub.  I coloured him with Twinkling H2Os and used the Swiss Dots embossing folder for the blue mat to give the focal image a big off texture.  I scalloped the horizontal panel and added a white bow on each side of the focal image.  I didn't have  the right size sentiment or type of script to work with this card so I added a safety pin for the corner feature.  I used to have safety pins with various baby colours on the head but couldn't find them anywhere so I had to settle for the plain ones.  However, I like how it finished things off.

We are quickly approaching a very busy time of year, so I greatly appreciate your taking the time to stop by  (((hugs))).  Have a fabulous day :D

What's In It?

Stamps:  Studio G

Ink:  Black

Paper: Costco DP Pack, Blue, So Saffron, Green (close to Mint Medley) 

Accessories: Twinkling H2Os, Aqua Brush, 1/8" White Satin Ribbon, Safety Pin, Paper Piercing Kit,  SU Scalloped Border Punch, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Dimensionals.

Mojo in the Wind Storm

I love Monday's in that they bring Julee's Mojo Monday Sketches :D    However, this Monday also brought a HUGE wind and rain storm  which started last night and is still going forward today.  Lots of areas were/are still without power and since our street is a wind tunnel, we had  to go on a garbage can and recycling box hunt this morning in the pouring rain - oh joy!  Our garbage can got blown over and was rolling around on the street - thankfully the lid stayed on!!  One of our recycling boxes went across the street and somehow managed to stay upright.and retained all its contents!  The other recycling box managed to work its way up the street (about 3 houses) and stopped in front of the entrance gate to the gated community across the street.  It  was totally empty with none of its contents in sight.  Our  compost recycling paper bag got run over in the middle of the street and  promptly spewed all the maple leaves that were in it all over the street!  Needless to say, the crow population in the area increased significantly today and they are having a feast!  Good news is our power stayed on and none of my flower pots got  knocked over.  After the first year we lived here, I quickly learned you need to put your house number on your garbage cans and lids as well as your recycling boxes because you are never quite sure how far up or down the street they will travel in one of these wind storms!  Not sure why I shared this but there you have it -- now you've experienced life on the West Coast during one of our windy rain storms :D

Okay, now to the card!!  I had a bit of trouble trying to settle on a stamp set to use for this sketch. I tried several and just wasn't inspired.  I found that I kept coming back to this Michael's $1.50 stamp which  I loved when I bought it.  However, when I stamped it in multiples, it just didn't look good :(   It tried it in all one colour, second generation stamping, multiple colours, staggering the image etc. but nothing seemed to work. I finally settled on just stamping it once and adding a sentiment next to it.  Verve has so many wonderful verses in their Plain Janes that I was able to find one that worked with this image quite easily.  I used some basic DP in yummy Fall colours, crimped the horizontal strip for some texture as the DP was rather plain, and then had a bit of trouble with the small circle since I had used a sentiment in my focal panel.  Needless to say, I have a lot of butterflies punched out that I can use on future cards LOL!  Not a card that came easily ....I'm blaming  the wind storm because all the garbage cans and recycle bins were making such a racket while they were having their dance party out on our street, they woke me up at 5:00 a.m. and I never really got back to sleep (and I don't do mornings well at the best of times LOL!)

Thanks so much for stopping by for a peek.  Always enjoy the company :D  Have a fabulous day!

What's In It?

Stamps:  Michael's $1.50 Stamp

Paper:  Costco DP pack, So Saffron, Vanilla

Ink:  Old Olive, Chocolate Chip

Accessories:  Crimper, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" Circle Punches, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, Brads, Dimensionals

Snowflakes and Bling

This week's Verve Sketch With A Twist had the twist of having to make a Fall/Winter holiday card.  Needless to say, anyone who participates in these sketches regularly are all more than a little suspicious of Amber because the last time she gave us  an easy twist the following week's twist was a doozie!   She has assured us she won't give us anything we can't  handle so we will see what that means when next Friday's Sketch With A Twist is posted LOL!

Since I have been on a bit of a Valentine's Day kick lately, I chose Christmas as my holiday of choice.  After all, one can always use more Christmas cards :D   When I saw the squares I immedately thought of scalloped squares.  I pulled out my Marvy scalloped square punch to make sure I could get two squares across  my card and thankfully they fit like a charm - score!!   Next, out came my trusty Martha Stewart snowflake punch (how did we ever survive without Martha Steward punches?!) to be used on this lovely silver paper .  Presto, instant snowflakes :D  I added a Chocolate Chip panel to the scalloped squares and just LOVE how it goes with the Bordering Blue (and to think that back in my younger days it was a big no-no to wear blue and brown together!) and the silver.  The snowflakes were a bit bare so some silver crystal brads came to the rescue to give them a bit of pop, shine and dimension.   The sentiment  need sometihing to bring it out a bit as it was just sitting there looking a bit lost so I added a row of bling underneath it to give it some focus and to tie it in with the snowflakes.  To finish things off, I used my SU scalloped border punch for the bottom  of the blue panel to tie in with the scalloped squares.  I just love how this card turned out!  Think I'm going to have to go and get more bling so I can make a few more to use for Christmas LOL!

Thanks for stopping by today and I'll be back with Julee's Mojo Monday sketch next. 

ETA:  Sorry the Chocolate Chip squares with the snowflakes look almost black!  We had a BIG storm come through here yesterday and today and there wasn't a whole lot of light!  They look better IRL as they are a much closer match to the ribbon!






What's In It?
Stamps:  SU Best Yet
Paper:  Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip
Ink:  Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Marvy Scalloped Square Punch, Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch, SU Scalloped Border Punch, Clear Medium Circle Brads, 5/8" Brown Satin Ribbon, Bling, Dimensionals

Penny Black With Bows for Mercy

Sorry about the dark picture, it is a wet, rainy day here today!   Mercy has come up with another wonderful sketch this week.  I had hoped to get to it sooner, but with the kids off school from Wednesday through Sunday, stamping time has been cut short.  The image for this sketch is one I wanted to use no matter what.  Ever have that happen to you??   No other image would do, and it's not like I'm short on images LOL!  

Before I coloured it I dug through my Costco DP pack and came across this DP.  It is a bit out of my comfort zone as I tend to go with the softer less busy DPs but  the orange and red are wonderful colours for the flowers so it was a go.  I coloured it with Twinkling H2Os (I'm going to take them to my grave if I don't start using them more LOL!) and I filled in the stamens with a black fine tipped pen so they would stick out  a bit more. The sentiment is a wonderful Wordsworth stamp (just love the script on their sentiment stamps!) and I cheated a bit on the sketch as I omitted the portion where the heart is and opted for two bows on the ends of the sentiment panel instead.  When the whole thing was done, the DP seemed more subdued and I am quite happy with it on this card.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Sorry for the slow posting this week - kids at home and stamping  time just don't mix well in this house.  However, I'll take all the time I can get with my kids because  soon enough they won't want to spend that much time with me because they would rather spend it with their friends.   They grow up waaaay to quickly!!

Have a wonderful day!

What's In It?
Stamps:  Penny Black, Wordsworth
Paper:  Costco DP Pack, Real Red, Vanilla
Accessories:  Twinkling H2Os, Black Fine Tipped Pen, 1/8" Red Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

Cutesy Mojo Angel

First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to all those men and women who served and are serving their countries.  My dad was involved in WWII for a short time and though he seldom spoke of it, I could always sense the burden of war and the sacrifices that were made by him and many others for the freedom of  their countries.  I always cry when I attend my children's Remembrance Day assembly and pray that the younger generations will never take for granted or not understand what has been given to them through the sacrifices of others.  Lest we forget!   

Now for my card.  Oh how I wish I had just a few of Julee's sketch genes!  She just keeps coming up with fabulous sketches and this one is no exception.

I found this totally adorable little angel stamp in the Michael's $1.50 stamp bin (yup, we have to pay $1.50 for ours up here in Canada!).  I usually don't go to the "cutesy side" but this little angel stole my heart!  I coloured her with Twinkling H2Os (her wings are really shimmery even though you can't see it very well  in the picture) and in the process realized how desperately I need to learn how to colour images properly!  May have to take a Copic colouring course just to get some basics down, especially when it comes to images that are predominantly white.  However, that's part of what I love about this craft - you can always learn more :D

I wanted her halo to really shine so I used Dazzling Diamonds on it, but it didn't sparkle the way I wanted it to so I added some Stickles over top and that helped.  Part of me thought I should have made her hair a bit lighter and used her hair colour for her halo....hmmm....something to keep in mind next time I use her.

I used my Nesties to cut out the image and I pulled out  my all time favorite Swiss Dots embossing folder for the white panel.  While pondering what to do with the blue horizontal strips, stars came to mind so out came the Background Basics star stamp which I used with VersaMark on these panels.  A jumbo brad and some ribbon tied with silver twine completed the sketch.  I had multiple sentiments to choose from including "wish", "wish big", "very merry", "love you", "praying for you" and a few others, but settled on "thinking of you" for this card.  Think you could easily go with some of the other sentiments depending on who you were sending the card to.  I must say I quite like this "cutesy" card because every time I look at this little angel I just want to smile :D  Now all I have to do is learn how to colour her properly LOL!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  Always appreciate the company LOL!   Have a great day and I'll be back with Mercy's sketch next.




What's In It?
Stamps:  Michaels $1.50 Stamp, Savvy(sentiment), Background Basics (SU) 
Paper:  Pretty in Pink, Brocade Blue
Accessories: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Scallope Circle and Circle Nesties, Twinkling H2Os, Aqua Brush, Jumbo Brad, Ribbon, Silver Twine, Stickles, Dimensionals.

Hearts for Verve

I am a bit behind on my Verve Sketch With A Twist card this week because this past weekend DH and I plus a few friends cooked for  80 people attending the Alpha Retreat at our church.  I should actually, say, DH did the cooking and the rest of us were sues chefs and clean up crew!  Using the Hobart (professional dishwasher) brought back many memories of washing dishes at summer camps as well as water fights in the kitchen (even if it meant your cabin had to do another day's worth of dishes due to the water fight).  We were blessed to witness 12 people giving their life to Christ and one of the attendees who was having a hard time making ends meet and feeding her family was able to go home with three boxes of left over food :D   However, my age is certainly catching up to me as I was exhausted for the following two days and am just now  getting back to my normal self.  Sure wish I could somehow capture my son's energy level and put it in my body!  Oh the things I could get done LOL!

This week's twist was to use cracked glass on your card.  I haven't done this technique in years so it was fun to revisit it.  For some reason I seem to be on a Valentine's kick as this cute little heart stamp I got in the Michael's $1.50 bin was my stamp of choice.  I embossed it with gold and then did the cracked glass technique on it.  It was a very plain card and no embossing folder I tried seemed to work on the white panel - grrrr!  In an effort to jazz things up a bit, I used my Scalloped Oval Nesties, my corner rounder to make scallops on the right side of the white panel and added corner tabs (cut in half) on the left side to hem in the focal image.  A bit of ribbon on the horizontal panel and I was done.  Still feeling the main white panel is quite bare but I just can't figure out what else to do with it -- any suggestions?

That's it for today.  With Remembrance Day falling on a Wednesday, our school district has added a vacation day on Thursday (our school district has a huge deficit so they have cut over two weeks of school days out of this year to save money (they are adding 10 minutes a day to each school day to make up for it) and a Pro D day on Friday so the kids are home for five days this week.  That means my stamping time will be limited, but I'm working on my Mojo Monday card as well as Mercy's Tuesday Sketch card and hope to be able to post them in the next few days. 

Thanks for stopping by and please take a few minutes tomorrow to remember and reflect on the great sacrifices made by those who have served our country/ies and fought for our freedom.  Blessings!





What's In It?
Stamps:  Michael's $1.50 Stamp
Paper:  Real Red, Brushed Gold
Ink:  VersaMark, Gold
Accessories:  Ultra Fine Embossing Powder, UTEE, Scalloped Oval Nesties, Corner Rounder, Corner Tab Punch, Ribbon, Dimensionals.

Snowflake Mojo

I finally got some time to get to this week's Mojo Sketch.  Julee has given us a wonderful, clean sketch to work with since things are starting to get busy with only 49 days until Christmas (sorry I mentioned it!).  

The first thing that came to mind for the main image panel was to use a big snowflake.  It's probably a carry over from my wanting to use one for Mercy's sketch last week and opting not to since others beat me to it fair and square.  As we used to say a few years back: "you snooze you lose" LOL!   Anyway, I was originally thinking of going with blues and a silver snowflake but then I found this wonderful paper in my Costco DP Pack, which has been feeling a quite neglected as of late LOL.  It paired up wonderfully with Mellow Moss and cream - two colours that give me warm fuzzies.  Needless to say, my snowflake went from silver to gold in a big hurry.  I used my Cuttlebug Snowflake Die to punch it out and added a gold brad to the middle for a bit of dimension.

Then my lack of visualization abilities swung into full gear.....should the image panel be embossed or plain. I decided an embossed one would look better but then had to try multiple embossed options before I could finally decided on which one to go with.  I should have stuck with my first instinct as that is the one I ended up using!  Have I ever mentioned I am not a very visual person LOL!  Believe it or not, I actually have to physically move a piece of furniture, a picture, decoration etc. before deciding if I like them in a certain place or put a certain way because I can't picture it in my mind for the life of me!  Unfortunately, this wonderful lack of visual/spacial skill carries over into my card making and as a result often provides me with many wonderful left overs for future cards LOL!  I used my circle and scalloped circle nesties for the sentiment and added a row of piercing underneath it for a little added something.  Yummy cream, satin ribbon and three brads finished things off.

Thanks so much for popping in listening to my card making "issues" LOL!  Have a great weekend :D  I'm off to help DH cook (well actually, DH is doing the cooking -- good thing too!! -- and I'm prep girl and sues chef) for the Alpha Retreat being held at our church this weekend.  We get do feed 80+ people three meals so I'll be a busy girl.  Verve Sketch With A Twist will just have to wait a few days.  Blessings!





What's In It?
Stamps: Fancy Flexible Phrases
Paper:  Mellow Moss, Vanilla, Brushed Gold, Costco DP Pack
Accessories:  Scalloped Circle and Circle Nesties, Brads, Paper Piercing Kit, Cuttlebug Snowflake Die, Script Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

Loving Mercy

First of all I just need to share some wonderful news with you.  I am still bouncing off the walls because yesterday I found out I was this month's Verve Sketch With A Twist winner!!  I was totally shocked and had to read the thread a few times to make sure it was me LOL!  I can clearly remember doing the very first Sketch With A Twist Amber put out in January of this year.  So over forty challenge cards later,  my name was  drawn, which means I get the entire next Verve release for free!  Thank you, Julee!!  I can't wait to see what Julee creates for the next release.  I'm hoping for Valentine's Day and some Spring themed stamps as I love hearts and flowers.  Will have to wait and see - that will be the tough part!

Okay, I think I've settled down enough to write about Mercy's sketch this week :D  As usual, this is another fun sketch to work with.  If you have never checked out Mercy's blog, you can do so here.  She has a sketch challenge every Tuesday and posts wonderful cards throughout the week.  

Today's card is a quick and simple one.  For some reason this little heart flower stamp jumped out at me while I was trying to decide which stamp to use for the sketch.  Because of its small size, I turned the card into a 4 x 4 (not the truck type LOL) to keep things well proportioned.  The DP came from my stash and ironically it is covered with basically the same image as the stamp!  I added an extra white mat around the DP so the red horizontal strip didn't overlap on to the red base.  I used my scalloped oval and oval nesties to frame the image and then put heart brads over the heart images for a bit of dimension.  Some olive ribbon and three brads finished things off.  

That's it for now.  Next up is this week's Mojo Sketch.  Thanks for popping by!

What's In It?

Stamps:  Rubber Soul

Paper: Art  Impressions Red Heart Buds DP, Real Red, Mellow Moss 

Ink: Mellow Moss, Real Red

Accessories:  Red Heart Brads, 1/8" Satin Ribbon, Oval and Scalloped Oval Nesties, Dimensionals