Curtain Call Show Stopper Award

 I was so excited today when I was scrolling through my blog roll and found that Stacey over at Stacey's Stamping Stage selected my card here to be one of her Act16 Curtain Call Colour Challenge Card winners from last week!!  No way!!  What a wonderful honour - thank you Stacey!!!  Can't wait to play in this week's colour challenge :D

Hope to be back later today with Karen Giron's sketch challenge card, but  I'm having such a hard time doing anything other than watch the Olympics!!!  Hi, my name is Marisa, and I'm and Olympic-aholic......LOL!  I have competed in so sports for years and have skied for over 30 so I just get a buzz when I watch the athletes pushing themselves to the limits and putting all their training to the ultimate test.  Many things are going to be severely neglected over the next two weeks - maybe even card making GASP!! I'll try my best to squeeze everything in this week, but just giving you a heads up just in case LOL!

Canada won their first medal yesterday!!  Go Canada Go!!!  Jenn Heil won the Silver in the women's mogul competition. We were really hoping for a Gold medal as Canada has never won gold in any year we have hosted the Winter Olympics.  However, Hannah Keamey had the run of her life and definitely deserved to win the Gold.   You couldn't have asked for a better competition between the two and the close final score proved it.

It is beyond fun watching these Olympic games because of our hosting the games.  I know where they are skiing, bobsledding etc. because I have actually skied those runs or been where the venues are.  The city is totally energized and they can't bring in enough of the Olympic mittens!  They thought they would sell about 1 million of them, but they have now sold over 2 million and are well on their way to 3 million!  Think it is because they are only $10 so very affordable also very useful.  Kids are wearing them all over the place :D

Can't wait to take the family down town to see the actual Olympic Flame and join in some of the excitement in the city.

Here are a few pictures from the Opening  Ceremonies (not taken by me - I wish!!). The first one is the Olympic Cauldron they lit inside BC Place where one of the arms didn't come up - ugh!  The next one is the Spirit Bear in the Opening Ceremonies, and the last one is the Olympic Cauldron in its permanent outdoor location in downtown Vancouver.

Thanks for letting me ramble. Have a great day and may your country do well in whatever events they are in! 

Blessings,

Thoughts and Prayers for Shannan

I just love the sketch Amber gave us this week.  So many fun things you can do with it.  It's so fun to see what inspiration pictures she will provide each week.  This week's dining rooms are are pretty bold.

I just love the colours in the third picture (may make another card using them I like them so much), but since this card is a sympathy card, I thought the colours in the first dining room were more appropriate.  For those of you who may not have heard, Shannan Teubner lost her husband earlier this week. Though I don't personally "know" her, I feel connected to her through seeing her Design Team work at Verve and having a few chats with her at some Verve release parties.  She has two little boys ages 7 and 9 and just the thought of what those children are going through (never mind Shannan!) brings me to tears.  My kids are just a few years older, and when I think of how they would react, it just breaks my heart.  Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

I went on the lighter side of the colours in the picture so my yellow ribbon would match LOL!   In addition, these colours just scream Spring, and to me, Spring always represents new growth and new life - two things Shannan will no doubt experience as she walks through this season in her life and comes out the other side.  I managed to squeeze in my Swiss Dots and I added some yellow half pearls to the left side of the card to balance things off because it was pretty empty over there.  

Can't wait to watch the Opening Ceremonies to the Winter Olympics tonite.  It still feels like a dream that they are actually in our city!!  Things are ramping up and there is a lot of excitement in the air.  Can't wait to go down town and check things out just to get a taste of the atmosphere.  Here is a fabulous picture of a snow carving of the Olympic Torch.  Click on it to enlarge it, it is really well done!!.  Needless to say, I'm an Olympic junkie so many things that "should" be getting done over the next two weeks will be put on hold - hopefully not card making LOL!

Gotta run, kids have a hip-hop presentation at school.  Each grade will be doing a dance and it is so much fun to watch them :D  Have a great rest of the day!




What's In It?
Stamps:  Thoughts and Prayers
Paper:  Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Light Purple
Ink:  Black
Accessories:  Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, SU Scalloped Border Punch, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, 5/8" Yellow Satin Ribbon, Marvy Flower Punch, White and Yellow Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Big and Bold

This week's sketch on Splitcoast was an easy one to work with so I decided to sneak in a quick card.  Black and white came to mind, probably because I am still suffering from my early morning rise on Tuesday to watch the Olympic Torch Relay (told you I wasn't a morning person LOL!).  However, if truth be told, my drowsy state is due to my staying up way too late reading that same evening.  What can I say, I'm not as young as I used to be LOL! 

The flower image on the card is from my new With All My Heart set from Stampin'UP (nothing better than inking up some fresh rubber....aaaaahhhh).  I added a Swiss Dots panel (surprise, surprise), and a touch of red to liven things up.  It's a bold, dramatic card, that's for sure LOL!.  Only one more sleep until the Opening Ceremonies - can't wait!!  Have a fabulous day!




What's In It?
Stamps:  With All My Heart (SU)
Paper: Basic Black, Real Red
Ink: Black
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, 5/8" Red Satin Ribbon, Red Bling, Dimensionals

Mercy's Curtain Call

Mercy brought us another long shaped card for her sketch this week.  It is always a good push for me to get out of my usual A2 card size "rut". 

This card is for my aunt's 80th birthday.  I used Mercy's sketch and combined it with the Curtain Call Act16 colour challenge on the Stamping with Stacy blog.  I've seen this challenge on a few other blogs and couldn't resist the yummy colour combo of Real Red, Kraft and Vanilla.

I flipped Mercy's sketch this week because I wanted to use my new Stampin' Up For All You Do set.  I have had my eye on this set forever, but the $38.95 Canadian (before taxes and shipping - ouch!) was too hard to swallow.  Thankfully, I had some birthday money to spend and it didn't take me long to decide where to spend it LOL!   I cheated a bit with the placement of the butterfly and the addition of the sentiment panel so hopefully Mercy won't come after me :D  Some chocolate half pearls on the flowers, butterfly and border punch as well as some red bling on the sentiment and it is off to my aunt later today. 

Only two more sleeps until the opening ceremonies - can't wait!  We almost got a chance at some tickets to the dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremonies on Thursday (anyone who volunteers gets tickets), but they decided to go after all - darn!  Regardless, I'm an Olympic junkie and our recently acquired digital cable to go with our HDTV will be very well used over the next few weeks.  Go Canada Go!!

Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me today (((hugs))).

What's In It?
Stamps:  For All You Do (SU), Savvy Stamps (sentiment)
Paper:  Real Red, Kraft, Vanilla
Ink: Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Martha Stewart Punch, 5/8" Sheer Red Ribbon, Brown Half Pearls, Red Bling, Dimensionals

Mojo Hearts and Olympic Torches

 

This sketch took a little thinking, and what I started off doing versus what I ended up doing were two very different things LOL! 

As it turns out, I ended up making a Valentine's Day card for my mom.  That is a good thing because I still had to make one for her :D  I used one of these sparkly hearts which were left over from a prior project in lieu of the circle on the sketch.  My one creative gene was snoring it was so tired due to our 5:45 a.m. rise to go and see the Olympic Torch relay, so I kept the colours nice and easy LOL!  A bit of bling under the sentiment so it would pop out a bit more and I called it a card. 

The Olympic Torch Relay was wonderful to go and see -- other than the early rising time LOL!!   Seeing as it started about 5 blocks from our house, there was absolutely no excuse not to go.  We hauled the kids out of bed and were thrilled to see how many other people were out in the wee hours of the morning to cheer on the runner.  I just missed getting pictures of my kids with the torch bearer as they were absolutely punctual in their start time of 6:12 a.m.  The line up didn't move fast enough for us to be able to squeeze a picture in - darn!!  However, we had a wonderful time cheering the torch bearer on and even ran up the road with him for quite a while.  Best part was being able to see the first runner light the second runner's torch. 

It is really hard to believe the Opening Ceremonies are on Friday and our city will be hosting the Winter Olympics!!  Unfortunately, Vancouver has set a record high for January temperatures and it shows (we had a high of 12C (56F) yesterday afternoon and I have crocuses blooming in my front yard!!)  The snow on Cypress, the local mountain where they are holding some of the skiing events,  is disappearing FAST!  They are trucking snow in from other locations as well as using a helicopter to bring snow down from higher elevations in order to keep snow on the runs they will be using for the Olympic events. Thankfully, Whistler has enough of a snow base so they are much better off, though the snow making machines are going full tilt whenever it is cold enough for them to run.  Never though I would say I wish we were getting the snowfall the East Coast is getting!! At the rate we are going, they will be selling shorts and t-shirts with pictures of a grassy ski hill with flowers on it and a skier scratching his head and asking if this is the location of the 2010 Winter Olympics!  Needless to say, our province will be paying for these Olympics for years to come based on the unexpected cost of having to haul snow to the mountains.

Unfortunately, the ticket prices are pretty outrageous so we will not be able to attend any of the events as a family.  You even have to buy tickets for the medal ceremonies!  I'm telling everyone we have front row tickets to every event - right from the comfort of the couch in our family room.  We hope to at least be able to catch a few of the free events being held around the city so the kids can feel some of the "Olympic Spirit".

Sorry, got a bit long winded today - can you guess I'm tired LOL!  Have a fabulous day everyone :D




What's In It?
Stamps: Three Little Words (SU)
Paper:  Pretty in Pink, Brushed Silver, Sparkly Silver
Accessories:  Heart Nesties, Label 1 Nesties, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Pink Bling, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

Butterflies and Swiss Dots -- I Think I'm in Heaven!

 

Happy Monday everyone :D  I had a lot of fun working with this sketch, especially since I got a few goodies from Mr. Brown on Friday :D  Thanks to Julie, I discovered you can use this gorgeous SU butterfly die in your Cuttlebug!  Don't know what rock I've been hiding under to not have known this earlier, but to say I'm over the moon is an under statement!! 

Since I love Chocolate Chip with pink and with blue, I gave myself double the pleasure and used it with both colours - simple things for simple minds LOL!  I crimped the horizontal panel for some dimension, ran the smaller butterfly through my Swiss Dots folder and added a button using the twine to extend out and become the antennae as per many samples on Julie's blog - thanks Julie :D.  The side of the blue panel gave me issues because I really wanted to put some ribbon with a bow there, but every width, type and colour of ribbon just didn't work.  Enter punched flowers :D  I added some pink half pearls to the centers for a bit of lift and called it a card.

Thanks for sharing a bit of your day with me today :D  Back with the Mojo sketch next.

What's In It?
Stamps: None
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean
Ink: None
Accessories: SU Butterfly Die, SU Scalloped Border Punch, Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Crimper, Pink Half Pearls, Twine, Blue Button, Dimensionals

Accent Notes for a Friend

This is the inspiration picture I selected for this week's Verve Challenge.  I love the colours in this picture!  The wreaths immediately caught my eye because they reminded me of the wreathes in the Verve Accent Notes and Verve Thankful Notes sets.  I opted for the Accent Notes wreath because it was a bit smaller and fit the sketch better. 

I started off with some of this yummy polka dotted paper and paired it up with some Mellow Moss and a close match to Sahara Sand.  The wreath was framed with my birthday Nesties.  I added brown half pearls to the wreath and a little red heart in the middle because the lady is adding red flowers to the wreath (you can click on the image to enlarge it and see the red).  It adds such a wonderful pop of colour to the earth tones.  I cheated a bit on the sentiment panel and put it under the image rather than partly across it - hopefully Amber won't object :D

My hubby saw the card and said I needed to put another sentiment on it because "friend" on a card with a heart just didn't go together.  I must admit it crossed my mind, but after trying sentiment after sentiment, this was the one that worked, and we females can give hearts to friends any time so I think it will stay LOL! 

Have a fabulous weekend!  Kids' Science Fair projects are going to be d-o-n-e, done and mounted on their display boards by the end of this weekend - yeah!!!  

What's In It?
Stamps:  Accent Notes (Verve), Because of You (Verve)
Paper:BoBunny DP, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand, Real Red
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke
Accessories:  Square and Scalloped Square Nesties, Heart Nesties, Brown Half Pearls, 5/8" Sheer Red Ribbon, Dimensionals

Petals and Stems Mojo

It took me a little while to wrap my mind around this week's Mojo Sketch.  I tried a few things that came to mind and finally settled on using Verve's Petals and Stems set.  I've had this set for a long time and still just love it. 

Since there was some So Saffron on my desk from a prior card, that became my starting point.  I paired it with celery, orange and chocolate chip.  My obsessive / compulsive relationship with the Swiss Dots embossing folder shows no signs of relenting....it was a perfect match to the polka dots on the images :D 

The horizontal strip gave me grief as it took some doing to get the colours to work for me (I'm blaming the cat who kept sitting on my work because I was ignoring him LOL!).  The chocolate chip needed to be there to tie in with the flower centers and brown half pearls on the butterfly, but it seemed to make the card very bottom heavy.  I switched to some larger brown pearls on the butterfly and it helped, but something still feels off to me.  Any ideas, or is it just me?  I finished the card off by using some orange ribbon to tie in the butterfly and some Tiny Twinkles under the sentiment for a bit of pop. 

Thanks for popping in today.  It always makes my day to know you've been here (((hugs))). 

What's In It?

Stamps: Petals and Stems(Verve), Circular Sayings (Verve)

Paper:  Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip

Ink:  Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip

Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, SU Scalloped Border Punch, 5/8" Orange Satin Ribbon, Tiny Twinkles, Dimensionals

Swiss Dots Meets Flowers

 

I know I've said this before, but I just love Mercy's sketches.  They are nice and simple and they leave things wide open as to what you want to do with them.  You can keep things clean and simple or ramp things up, whichever you prefer. 

I took the easy way out today and used punches because I'm a bit sleepy this morning.   My daughter had a hard time getting to sleep last night and after giving her warm milk and taking repeated trips to her room to tell her to just relax, at 11:00 p.m. I caved and crawled into bed with her so she would fall asleep.  She definitely has my hubby's sleep genes because when my son and I hit the pillow, if more than a few minutes go by, we are having trouble falling asleep LOL!   Needless to say, my daughter is growing because things are getting pretty squishy in her twin bed when the two of us are in there.  Thankfully she fell asleep (probably after I did LOL!)  and when I woke up it was 1:30 a.m., back to my bed I went only to have to fight for my side of the bed because the cat had taken it over.  Amazing how that little ten pound creature can be so difficult to move out of the way when he decides it is his spot to sleep in.  Sorry...I regress!

I had a white, "swiss dotted" (think I just created a word LOL) panel sitting on my desk so I decided to use my SU flower punch to make flowers for this sketch.  The dots would give the flowers some dimension and it would be a nice change from having it on one of the card panels.  I punched the flower centers with another SU punch, used some ribbon from one of my ribbon bin dives at Michael's, added a scalloped border on the right and did some scoring on the main white panel to finish things off.  Think the embossed flowers are a keeper :D

Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me today (((hugs)))




What's In It?
Stamps: Hero Arts
Paper:  Real Red, So Saffron
Ink:  Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, SU Flower, Multi-flower and Scalloped Border Punches, 1/4" Hole Punch, Ribbon from Michael's $1.50 Bin,  Scor-Pal, Dimensionals

Accent Notes Wreath

 

When I first say Karen's sketch this weekend, this Verve Accent Notes set was the first thing that popped into my mind.  It was my stamp set of choice for my Mojo Monday win last month.  Since it just arrived last week, it was a perfect opportunity to "smell some new Verve" (inside joke on the Verve Forum - many of us love the smell of the new stamps when they are opened) and ink it up.

Time was tight today, so I kept things nice and simple.  I stamped the wreath and added black half pearls to the dots on it.  Then I added the sentiment and the three black pearls under it.  I used my Nesties to cut out the circle and scalloped circle and matted it on to this purple which is quite close to Almost Amethyst.  The purple panel needed something so I pulled out my trusty Swiss Dots embossing folder.  A strip of scalloped black down the side, a bit more matting and I was good to go.

Hope you are having a good Monday.  Thanks for dropping by today :D

What's In It?
Stamps:  Verve (Accent Notes)
Paper:  Black, Purple
Ink: Lavender Lace
Accessories:  Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, SU Scalloped Border Punch, Dimensionals