Crafty Girl Designs

Glitter Shaker Birthday Card

2012-02-16T16:30:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Thursday! Not sure where the week has gone so far! I am happy to share my voice is a lot better but still not yet 100%, it's taking a while to come back since I lost it on Saturday night!

Today I have a card to share that I made for the Play Date Challenge newest challenge which is color splash with hot pink!! I saw the challenge last night before bed. I love the color choices! I sat down this morning and this card came together quickly. I very much enjoyed making this card, don't you love it when that happens? With not feeling all that well this was the first time I crafted this week!

Here is my card:

I wanted to play with my new zig zag stamp by Hero Arts. And I was inspired by Julie Cambell's shaker card here. I love shaker cards! I used to make them all the time! I love the idea of using a clear bag for the shaker! You know how many clear bags I have? Between the various clear envelopes and various size bags that I have for treats I am set! Beyond an easier way to make a shaker card! Today my two ideas meshed and I came up with this card! I used some glitter that I have had forever! I added some twine by the Twinery, some jewels and a hot pink strip with the sentiment!

Hope that you had a terrific Valentines Day! On Monday night I went out with a bunch of girls friends and saw this movie:

We all loved it! Such a fantastic movie! Great story! :> I want to see it again with Chad! You should go see it too! Next up I want to read the book!

For Valentines Day I made treats for Ariel's class, I used my babycakes cake pop maker for the first time. It really made it so much easier but it was a bit tricky to figure out how not to overfill it! I wanted to make red velvet cake pops but didn't have enough red food coloring so I made pink velvet!

Chad and I enjoyed celebrating Valentines Day as a family. This weekend we are planning to go on a date! :>

Well that's it for me! Supper is in the slowcooker so I think I will spend the time I usually would making supper baking some banana bread! I love baking!

Aqua, Red and White You're The Best!

2012-02-12T21:10:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Sunday! I hope that you have enjoyed your weekend! We sure did! Last night we had dinner with some friends, Ariel went to kindergarten last year with there daughter. Same school still diff classes, but that's okay they are still friends! Today was a Valentine service at church and Ariel was asked to hand out chocolate kisses in between the two services! She had so much fun! She was so cute and sweet! :>

This weekend continues to be wonderful with more crafty good news, yesterday I got an email that one of my cards was picked up for publication in the July issue of Cards!!! Yay totally doing the happy dance! Two publications in one weekend! :>

I wanted to pop in and share a card inspired by one of my wreaths! I loved the color so much that one day when I was sitting and creating I thought I would be inspired by it. And use felt on a card since I find myself making felt flowers a lot! Here is the card that I made:

Here is a close up on the flower:

This is wreath that I made that I was inspired by:

For the card I stamped the classic fabric background by Hero Arts with white pigment ink onto the teal cardstock. Love how it looks. I made the flower out of 5 circles, 4 of them folded and sewn onto one of the cirlces and I sewed a button by my mind's eye on top. I am really pleased with how this card turned out!

I actually have another wreath to share too. This one is inspired by the other one but slightly different. This wreath I made just to make. I am thinking of starting an etsy store to sell my wreaths! If you have any tips on etsy let me know!

What do you think when I put the flowers in two places? Better or you like both?

I have a super cute story to share with you. On Saturday morning Chad woke up at 5:15 am to Carter wimpering loudly crying. He thought Carter had an accident so he goes to see him. (Oh I am super blessed Chad gets up with the kids at night, two reasons I sleep deeply and he can fall right back to sleep while I couldn't) He asks Carter why he is crying and Carter tells him he wanted to go cuddle Ariel and he can't open her door! I had put a door handle on her door so he would stop waking her up early! How sweet is that? Chad told him no your supposed to sleep in your bed please go back to sleep! Ariel tells us in the morning "Oh he just wanted to cuddle! He went right to sleep!" WHAT? Well Ariel hears the commotion and goes to see what's up with her door and she said he was right there and went to her bed and went right to sleep! They slept together till morning! So sweet! They love each other so much! I got these sweet photos on Saturday while the two of them were cuddling on the couch after Carter's nap:

Well I am off! To make treats for Ariel's class!! :> Oh and I was on the mend. But I lost my voice last night! Not sure if it has to due to with my previous vocal problems or to do with my slight cold. Annoying none the less I enjoy talking!

Baby Ivy's Thank You Card Set!

2012-02-10T17:17:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Friday! Hope you have fun weekend plans! It's gotten really cold here again. We are talking minus 40 with windchill! We have some plans and I have to work on Valentine treats for Ariel's class!

I have some very exciting news to share with you. Today I received an email from Paper Crafts Magazine! I got a card picked up for publication from them for the Stamp It issue! This is my first time I've gotten a card accepted by them! I am so happy! My heart was in my throat and I had tears in my eyes as I read the email! Dreams do come true!

Today I have a baby thank you card set to share! One of my friends just had a baby girl, this is there fourth child, the other 3 are boys! Beyond excited for her! I babysat two of her boys once in a while this past fall and got to love on her youngest. It was wonderful and I look forward to loving on this new baby! A friend hosted a shower for her and I asked if she would like a baby thank you card set and she said she would!

I was inspired by Cath's Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger of Fancy Schmancy! I mean looking at this doesn't it scream out baby cards to you??? Oh you make it what you need right? (PS that Cath has to pick something that looks beyond delicious and I just can't stop thinking of eating it!)

Here they are:

I made 20 cards, two styles 10 of each:

I started by stamping Classic Fabric background by Hero Arts in angel pink. I did all the backgrounds first. Than I embossed in Chestnut Brown Zing powder the elephants and giraffes from the Sweet Baby set by PTI. Than stamped the thank you (from Year Round sentiments by HA) And than stamped all the hearts, to me the finishing touch and what made me happy was stamping the heart by the thank you! I added my favorite bakers twine by the twinery and than adhered the panel to a white card base. I forgot to take a picture but I stamped the elephant or giraffe inside the card in the angel pink! This set took me a bit (I worked on it for a few days) but I worked on it stage by stage which made it better. I was finishing it just hours before the shower and tied twine bows in the car! I threw together a gift bag and tag just before leaving:

Can you tell I made the tag fast I just noticed that I forgot to stamp the hearts on the bottom beside baby! Oh well I made it to the shower on time and with a finished gift! I love making thank you card sets when my friends have babies, I find that when they have a shower or a sip and see and I have a date I have to have it done I can do it! :>

Well I am off to make dinner! I was feeling sick yesterday but am feeling so much better. I could feel that my body was fighting the cold! So happy to be on the mend! Looking forward to a night at home! It's too cold to go out!

Luscious Birthday

2012-02-08T16:45:00.000-06:00

Hello! Hope your having a great day! Sorry it's been a bit since I last posted. First up I want to send out a big thank you for all the kind words I received on my last post on my first publication! You girls really made me smile and feel special!

Today I have a card that I made for the current Lily Pad Patterned Paper challenge! What a great challenge as I totally have pp that I have not used up. Some is hoarding and not wanting to cut up the pretty paper, and with this one it was I didn't like this piece of paper! BUT I love it now! I was thrown off by all the yellow, not that I don't like yellow it just threw me off, than I noticed the tiny teal flowers and an idea formed:

The paper is from Hello Luscious by Basic Grey, one of my favorites. I stamped the flower and leaf from the Hero Arts matching set and the sentiment is Hero Arts too. Really happy with how this card turned out, not my usual color combo and I am so happy that I gave a paper that I didn't like a chance! LOL (by the way which picture do you like more? I couldn't decide!)

I apologize for not updating my blog in a bit. We enjoyed a busy weekend this past one and I have been playing catch up. We got together with two families that we hadn't hung out one on one with before. It's so great to get to know people better! And this weekend was so special because Ariel sang a duet at church! Her school had a children's choir sing a song at the service and Ariel sang a duet! She loved it! She sang the same part at the Christmas concert and she says she loves being on stage when can I do it again? Hmmm I will admit this makes me quite happy, I loved to perform as a child! Everyone says she is so comfortable on stage and that she sang so well! Her music teacher said she is meant to be on stage! We are thinking next year putting Ariel into musical theater (she takes piano already) And oh I am one proud mommy I told everyone in the halls to watch for her, lol! I couldn't help it! This picture is dark but you can see her holding the mike and singing:

Than on Sunday night it was the superbowl. I am not going to lie to you I am not really all that into it. But my church was having a party and the guys decided that they would go and bring along there families! And it was one of the best nights we all had! The guys watched the game in the sanctuary, us girls sat in the lobby which had been set up as a cafe and enjoyed chatting and catching up. And the kids played connect in one of the rooms, ran around, and enjoyed running, doing an obstacle course and playing football on the sides of the sanctuary! It was fun for all! I remember back when we all had one kid and it was easier for a bunch of us to get together but as our families have grown it has gotten much more difficult which made this so much fun!

Well I am off to work on dinner and I am working on a wreath! :>

January Publication, My first!

2012-02-02T11:37:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Thursday! I love Thursdays as it's a nice relaxing day at home. No kids activities and no reason for me to leave the home! I love catching up on house stuff, crafting and today I am focusing on my assignment. Unless inspiration strikes!

I am beyond excited to share with you my FIRST ever published card! It is in the January issue of CARDS magazine. Back in August when I received my first email of having a card picked up I was beyond happy! It really is a dream come true. I know my crafty friends get it but I was surprised by how happy friends and family were too! Running into people I got a lot of congratulations and questions about it! Neat, huh?

It was fantastic that this card was picked up because I love it:

I was very thankful for Vanessa emailing me a scanned photo of my card in the magazine as I had yet to see it. Here is how it looks in the magazine:

I love how they took a photo of it! So pretty! I love what is in the background! :> So when the issue arrived here in Canada I had to check it out in print so I went to my LSS and they shared in my joy! :> Here you can see how happy I am:

I am a happy girl. Who would have thought 5 years ago when I was a young mom to a sweet baby girl and thought I needed a hobby just for me and decided on cardmaking that one day one of my cards would be in a magazine never mind CARDS! I've realized lately that I am the happiest that I've been since I've rediscovered my creativity. It started 5 years go with card making. I was creative as a child but with the demands of school and university I lost it. So happy I've found it again.

Wishing you a fantastic day!

Valentine Wreath!

2012-02-01T18:13:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Wednesday! It's been a great day! The weather here has been amazing, only a short oh so cold spell but other than that it's been a fabulous winter! I think most of North America has been quite lucky!

Today I have a new wreath to share with you. I love it! I had seen it on a few crafty blogs and had to make it! I was delighted that Chad found me a heart wreath! I wrote about it on facebook and a friend said she was interested in it so I made it for her! :>

I followed the tutorial from the Idea Room here. I won't lie to you, it took a long time to make. I worked on it each evening for a bit and had to keep sending Chad back to Michaels to buy more felt. I handcut more than 260 3 inch circles and pinned them on the wreath. I was a bit apprehensive about just pinning it with a stick pin but when I tried it was very sturdy and I knew it would stay put. I thoroughly enjoyed making this!

I want to share a tip with you. I often use circles when I make flowers out of felt, lots start out as a circle! Rather than using a paper circle as a guide or tracing circles on the felt I ink up a cup, or a vitamin lid and stamp it on the felt so much faster. You can see it here:

It saves so much time and it's easier to cut a nice circle. And the white ink wipes off easily!

Oh and I have the sweetest photo to share with you:

This is a familiar site around here. My two love each other so much! Carter wakes up first in the morning and used to come to our bed and cuddle us but has moved on. He now wakes Ariel up each morning with "Ariel I want to cuddle you!" And she is more than willing! I often find them cuddling together in either his or her bed! It is the sweetest but the only problem is that he wakes up earlier than her when she would like to sleep about half an hour or so more. On Saturday Chad caught him going to her at 6 am! He put him back in his bed and they both slept for 2 hours more. We are trying to convince Carter to come to us but that hasn't worked and I have been trying to convince him to go back to sleep when he wakes up and wait for Ariel to wake him up! By the way like Carter's pj's? He spotted the material at fabricland when my mom and me were there buying the fabric for Ariel's birthday skirts and she bought it and made those pjs for him!

Hope you have a great crafty day! Thanks for visiting today!

For Cath With Love Blog Hop

2012-01-30T23:24:00.000-06:00

Hello! I am here as part of a very special blog hop for Cath Edvalson! As many of you know she is not able to take part in CHA this week due to a shoulder injury so Virginia Lu and Lorena has put together this blog hop to cheer her up! I had to take part! Never mind the busy day I had ahead and that I was finishing putting together a 20 card set that I needed as a gift for tonight! I love the idea of this hop to cheer her up! It's no fun living in pain and when it stops you from doing what you love it's even worse. Thinking of you Cath!

Here is my card for her, I went with the first idea I had:

I embossed the wildflowers in chestnut onto some patterned paper by My Mind's Eye. It was sitting on my craft table and I had been "hoarding" it so I finally decided to use it! And had to use twine, can't seem to stop!

Please visit Virginia Lu's blog here for the rest of the blog roll!

I hope that this hop helped cheer you up Cath! Hoping the days ahead are better and that a solution is found for the pain. Sending you a virtual hug!

Teal, Red, White and Grey Wreath and Sledding Fun!

2012-01-29T14:15:00.001-06:00

Hello! I hope that you are having a great weekend! :> We sure are! :> Enjoying a lazy Sunday at home is the best! Today I wanted to pop in and share a new wreath that I made. My friend ordered this one from me and picked the colors, and I just love how it turned out! I love it so much it deserves it's own post, I also had fun taking a bunch of photos of it:

Wreaths are quite popular these days and I think having one on your door all year really makes your house shine! I really love this color combo as it's bold and draws attention to your door! :> I love adding pearls to the wreath as I think it finishes it quite nicely! This is the first time I used silver pearls, love how it looks! You know I love playing with paper but I also really enjoy making wreaths too. I often wrap the yarn around the wreath when driving (as a passenger!) I find myself working on wreaths when it's late and I can't stamp straight! I can't keep still very well I gotta be doing something!

On Friday after school we all went sledding as a family. The weather was warmer and it was perfect sledding weather! We recently discovered that a park close by has a toboggan run. All my life the idea of a toboggan run terrified me and boy was I missing out! I love it! I grew up next to two huge hills that we would go sledding down all the time but now as an adult and mommy I find myself screaming the whole way down and putting my legs out to slow it down! LOL I know what happened to me? And this is where I love toboggan runs yes it's fast but it's a cleared path and no chance of crashing into someone or something! And the walk up is easy and I don't end up having to carry a child up the hill! As my kids grow up I see that there is so much you can do with them (makes it a bit bearable that they aren't my little babies anymore) I took some photos:

I got some great photos didn't I? Love that when I asked Ariel and Carter to sit together they sat this way! :>Gotta love winter fun! Oh and I have a love for animal hats! :>

Love Never Fails

2012-01-26T22:30:00.000-06:00

Hello! Hope your doing well! It's been a pretty good week, no idea where it went though! :> Happy to share that the weather has warmed up but it's still winter! :> I read an article that stated that my city Winnipeg is the coldest city of it's size in all of North America! I think a few other cities in Canada come close though! It makes me wonder what made my parents immigrate here from Croatia? Oh well I have a great long past the knees with a furry hood parka and it's warm so it's not all that bad. Yes I know with reading that it gets to be minus 40 something here you picture me in a snowsuit when I go out, if only people did that here! I do have snowpants though, with little kids and sledding it's a must!

I have a card I made for my parents they needed it for my cousins wedding in Banff! Sadly I wasn't able to go but I did enjoy hearing all about it and seeing pictures! I love that my parents wanted me to make a card for them, although I totally stressed out about it:

I used some pp from My Mind's Eye lost and found collection, I love the glitter on it! I used a metallic cardstock with it. Love this bible verse, it's actually the first one Ariel memorized this year in September. I couldn't believe it when she came home with it, a whole page and she did it! And every month! Hearing her sweet voice say this verse is one of the sweetest sounds ever! I just had the best idea to video tape her doing her verse each month!

I do have a few things to share. My kiddies are improving amazingly with skating! I am so proud of them! On Sunday we went to the Forks which is where two rivers meet and a great location for various things and one of which being winter fun! There is a great rink (where they had djs it was cute watching Carter trying to skate and dance!) And a bunch of ice trails that you could skate! Ariel loved it! On Monday the kids had skating lessons. Carter got his first skating injury! At the very end of the lesson out of nowhere a kid comes and accidentally hits Carter with his hockey stick! All I see is the stick leaving his face and Carter crying! :< Luckily it was a plastic stick and it hit him under the eye not the eye! He had a pretty big bruise but it is healing quickly. :> Carter keeps telling us "I have to learn how to skate so I can play hockey!" If he ends up doing so this may just be his first skating injury!

I also wanted to share a few links to recipes that I have tried lately. Not sure if I shared but I am doing Slowcooker Mondays. With skating lessons being at 4:30 and having to prop Carter up for half an hour I am exhausted and we are so hungry when it's done! I have been trying new recipes. This Balsamic Chicken was really good and easy you can find it here. It was recommended by a friend and than I shared it with another friend who really liked it!

I love peanut stir frys not sure if you remember but I think I have mentioned it on my blog before how I've been on the hunt for one. My friend shared on facebook this Asian Sesame Stir Fry and it's sooo good! I think I may be making it once a week! Just telling you about it makes me want to make it right now! You can check it out here.

And I baked something new too, Reese's Peanut Banana Bread! You can find that recipe here. We enjoyed it but next time I won't put actual reese pb cups in, I'll just put chocolate chips since there is peanut butter in the batter so I think it would taste better. :>

With trying new recipes I did have a bad one, not bad but horrible! I won't give you the link to it but that is part of trying new things right? Hope yow enjoy these recipe links do you like that I share that? I did have a friend mention that she did. I would love to know if you try it! Oh and did you find something that you think I should try? Let me know!

Well I am off to spend some time with the hubby! :>

Hoo Loves You?

2012-01-20T16:51:00.000-06:00

Hi! Yay it's Friday! It's always great when the weekend comes again! If you remember from my last post where I was talking about cold weather here it got colder! I haven't left the house since Wednesday afternoon! Yesterday I think was the coldest day this year so far with the windchill it was minus 41! Yikes! I've been enjoying being home. Cleaning and catching up with stuff. Today I've been in the mood to be creative but just don't have the mojo for it! Annoying much! Although I am working on my last wreath for an order of 3, so I am still being creative! The weather is supposed to get warmer tomorrow and it better as Ariel is invited to an outdoor birthday party!

Today I have another Valentine card to share with you. It's one that I made with a non valentine stamp set!

I love this set by Jenny Suchin for the Craft's Meow. It's not a Valentine one but can be used for one! (BTW did you see the Valentine one, oh how I love it!) I paper pieced it and used a cute valentine sheet by My Mind's Eye, Love Me, love that it's two sided! Added some glossy accents to the hearts and there you go!

I am off to play with some felt and yarn and create another wreath! Next week I'll share one! :> Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Oh so CAS Valentine

2012-01-18T16:40:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Wednesday! I've had a great day this morning Carter and I went to stay and play (indoor play time at our church with coffee and chat time for mommy!) It's beyond cold here minus 34 C with windchill! Tomorrow they are calling for -41 with windchill the weather calls it "extreme" windchill! Even though it's cold I've been spoiled as Chad drove me to Stay and play and picked me up! Just having to walk from the car pretty close does make a difference! Than I told him I needed some yarn for a wreath I am working on so he brought me to Michaels and waited in the car! And than we got some groceries! Isn't my husband wonderful? So I am all set not to leave the house for a couple of days, well until I can handle it!

Today I have another Valentine card to share. Remember my window card from the day before? Looksie what I made with the leftover:

I found a good use for the die cut from the window didn't I? A CAS valentine! So fun as when I cut the window out I never even thought of what I could do with the scraps! I heat embossed a sentiment from Year Round Sentiments from HA with chestnut brown zing powder. Stamped old letter writing on the white to tie the collage feel of the die cut in.

Well I am off! I have to get supper started and I am hoping to get creative tonight!

Valentine Week Day 1

2012-01-16T21:30:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Monday! I wanted to start this posy by saying THANK YOU! Thank you for all your sweet sweet comments on Friday's post for the Hero Arts Catalog Hostess Blog Hop! Absolutely floored with all the kind comments I received! I very much enjoyed reading which card was your favorite! Each card received much love! Thank you for making me feel special! At the end of this post I have the winner of the basic grey paper pack!

I don't know what it is but I am loving making Valentine cards! In fact this week I will be sharing a Valentine card each day! Do you also love making Valentines? I want to encourage you to check out Winter's Valentine Card Drive! This is her third year collecting Valentine cards for Children in the hospital, she does it for several hospitals! Please check it out here.

I wanted to stamp and decided to make another collage stamped card like my last one but I changed it up. Sometimes when something works and you enjoyed making it why not try it again but make it different?

Here's a side view:

And a laying flat shot:

When I started this card I wasn't going to go the window I was going to layer a pink mat stack 4 die cut with the hearts but than thought it would be way more fun to make a window! I realized after taking photos that I am not supposed to send cards with buttons so I will take it off when I send it. To make the window I used my mat stack 4 die from PTI decided where I wanted it and used a bit of tape to hold it down, I didn't want it to be crooked! Cute isn't it? I think a child will like it!

I am also going to enter this card into this month's Hero Arts contest, Love Hugs and Kisses!

I used random.org to pick the number for the lucky winner of the 6 by 6 Indie Bloom paper pack is;

Vera W. Yates (Ling) said...

These cards are fabulous, Anita! Love that first one. :)

13 January, 2012 09:22

yay Vera! Please email me your address! :>

Well I am off! I love Monday night tv! After skating lessons where I stand bent over holding Carter up and skate and not get kicked when he "fast skates" I am tired, but I still had to get the kids to fed, educated (reading, piano, spelling, memory verses) and to bed so now I am very tired! Looking forward to laying on the couch and laughing at sitcoms! See you tomorrow with another Valentine card!

The Tooth Fairy

2012-01-14T20:49:00.000-06:00

Hello! If your looking for the Hero Hostess Catalog blog hop please click HERE.

Well I am here with the last Wee Memories challenge! Major boo! But I totally understand Jenny's reasons! It's been a pure pleasure being on this design team! And so fun! The girls on the team are beyond great! Thank you for being so wonderful to Wee Memories and playing along!

This week we have three sponsors, we are going out with a bang! Our sponsors are There She Goes Stamps, The Twinery, and May Arts Ribbon!!! We have a sketch challenge:

I got to play with the stamp set Fairy Best. I was quite excited to play with this set and made a card using the sketch and something else:

The set has a fairy in it and a tooth fairy! So I made a card with the fairy following the sketch, I'll add it to my pile for little girl birthdays! And with the tooth fairy I had to make a box for when Ariel loses her first tooth! I was really happy when I found the little jewelry box in one of my drawers and dressed it up with papers from Lime Twist by My Mind's eye and the tooth fairy! Colored everything with my pencils and tried something different inspired by my fellow DT how they colored, I didn't blend with mineral spirits (paint thinner) like I usually do. I added a lot of glitter to the Tooth fairy her dress and outline of her wings are pink, and the inside wings is stickles! I think Ariel will love this!

Ariel is 6 and she should be losing her first tooth any day now. I have a lot of friends who all have kids the same age as her (we had a mommies group when they were young!) And all of them have lost there first tooth. In fact Ariel is in grade 1 and her and one other child in the class have yet to lose a tooth! Her cousin and friend who are younger than her have lost theirs! I'll be honest I am not a big fan of the whole no teeth thing! :> I was hoping it wouldn't happen until after we took Christmas photos and since those are done now it can happen right? Well maybe not apparently Chad didn't lose his until he was 7! And apparently he had to get A LOT of teeth pulled since the other tooth was growing in underneath! Yikes! Ariel was 8 months when she got her first tooth, which apparently is late so maybe she will lose her first tooth late too? Well here's hoping they grow in super fast since they seem to take a while to fall out! It's not a sore subject for her we always just talk about how it will happen and it's okay it hasn't. But I have hidden this box in my sock drawer so it's surprise and so she doesn't get sad she can't use it yet!

Well I hope you will join us and play with our last challenge! :< Please check out the Wee Memories blog for more details! I am off to make more wreaths!

Hero Arts Hostess 2012 Catalog Blog Hop

2012-01-13T08:00:00.002-06:00

Hello! Happy Friday! I am so excited to be part of the 2012 Catalog Blog Hop with the Hero Hostesses! (day 5) You should have arrived here from the Hero Arts Blog! This time last year my dream came true and I was asked to be a Hero Arts Hostess! I loved it and love now that I get to be part of this! Hero Arts rocks!

P R I Z E S. Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning!

B R O K E N L I N K S. If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Club Blog. Also, please report broken links to Tami.

My first card features one of my favorite stamps from the new 2012 catalog:

Products: Newspaper Tulips, Newspaper Background, Hero Arts white embossing powder, Year Round Sentiments, Twine by the Twinery, Versamark, button by my minds eye, Authentique Free Bird pp, pumice stone distress ink by tim holtz.

I stamped and heat embossed the tulips onto some pattern paper, love how the newspaper text adds so much depth to the image! The sentiment is from a fabulous new set year Round Sentiments that Hero Arts made for Operation Write home. Hero Arts is donating 25% of the profits from the sale of this set to OWH! :> I stamped the newspaper background with pumice stone TH ink onto the cardstock.

Here is another card using the Newspaper Tulips and one of my favorite cool techniques:

Products used: Newspaper Tulips, Newspaper Background, Year Round Sentiments, versamark, markers, clear embossing powder, water spritz bottle, twine by the twinery and pumic stone distress ink.

I did a cool embossing technique that Lisa Spangler showed on her blog a while ago. I inked up the stamp with versamark and than colored it with markers, spritzed it with water than stamped itand than clear embossed it! Than I stamped over it with the newspaper background!

My next card is a CAS Valentine Card:

Products used: Untitled Heart, Newspaper Background, Year Round Sentiments, red pigment ink ny colorbox, clear embossing powder.

I stamped with red pigment ink the heart and clear embossed it, and stamped the newspaper background over top. Added some rhinestones and a sweet sentiment!

I made another card with the Untitled Heart set, a more romantic one:

Products used: Untitled Heart, Year Round Sentiments, Old Letter Writing, red and raspberry pigment ink by colorbox, angel pink memento ink, antique linen th distress ink, Hero Arts lace.

I stamped the old letter writing in antique linen and than stamped over top the hearts in the various inks, some I second stamped to have a lighter image. I stamped and cut out the heart in red and popped it up with foam squares and stamped the sentiment. I wanted to add lace but when I tried white and cream it blended in so I colored it pink myself. I ran the white lace under my ink pad a few times and spritzed it with water (so that the color runs through!) and let it dry in the sun! And there you go! A romantic card for my hubby!

Before you go I wanted to let you know that I will be giving away this 6 by 6 pad by Basic Grey to anyone who leaves a comment here. You do not need to be a follower of my blog but I would love it if you were! I will leave this open until Sunday January 15th, 2012.

The Basic Grey pads with matching Hero Arts stamps are some of my favorites!

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you continue along the hop because I know you will be inspired! Your next stop is the super talented and my hostess sister Heather Maria! I can't wait to see what she has in store I know you will be inspired!

Luscious Mini Card

2012-01-12T13:17:00.001-06:00

Hello! Happy Thursday! I am very much enjoying a day at home! I love being out and about but being home is also great! The fact that beyond freezing cold weather has come helps me want to stay home! This morning I've been catching up on laundry and crafting! I hope to bake a bit this afternoon I am in the baking mood, I think I'll whip up some oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookies!

I want to share some exciting news I had a card picked up in the June 2012 issue of CARDS! Yay beyond exciting! I was a bit lazy and truly waited to the last day to submit which was Jan 1st which was also the day I was super sick with the stomach flu. Boy was I kicking myself! Around 1 oclock when I wasn't feeling any better and I realized that I may not be able to get the energy to submit I looked at my hubby and asked him if he would do it for me that I would tell him what to type. He said of course! Let me tell you I was so happy! It meant a lot to me. Thankfully later that evening I felt better enough that I was able to do it myself, well I did have a pounding headache! Having a card picked up after that ordeal really made it worth it!

Today I have a mini card to share. After making one for the current Wee Memories Challenge which is mini cards I got in the mood to make another:

This card measures 3 by 3 and uses scraps for the paper and lace! So fun to make, the hardest part was finding a sentiment that fit! :> I love the Hello Luscious papers and stamp set by Hero Arts!

By the way I don't know if you noticed but I added a new profile picture, it's from our December family photo shoot:

Well I am excited to be back tomorrow as part of the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop! :>

Owl Be Thinking of You

2012-01-09T21:15:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Monday! Hope your having a great day! I am so enjoying the less business of January so far! Today I have a card to share that uses my friend Jenny Suchin's first stamp set for the Crafts Meow! Last night I sat down and played with it, it's absolutely adorable! Heres my card:

I did a lot of paper piecing with cardstock for this. I also finally used my grass die by MFT that I had to have and got in the summer and than never used!

We had a great weekend. On Saturday we had a couple over to watch hockey and hang out. On Sunday after church we went sledding. It was our first time trying out a toboggan run as opposed to sledding down the hill. And I much prefer a toboggan run! Less scary, no worries of crashing into people and so much fun! I feel wrong saying that as I grew up next to a huge hill that we would sled on practically daily in the winter! I think it's just my old age! :> I bet when the kids get older the hills will be what they want! The weather was 0 and since we went early right at lunch time (early service means early lunch) we were the only ones there! I love family fun!

Today the kids started skating lessons for the first time! For Ariel it was overdue and for Carter it was probably a bit early. He is in a parent and tot class he did well at first but soon had enough. Hopefully next week will be better! Ariel did well!

I want to share two great recipes I made today that I got off pintrest. For dinner I made this Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken. And it turned out amazing! We all loved it! So tasty! And than tonight after dinner I saw these Donut Mini Muffins and had to make them! They were sooo yummy! We have kiosks here that sell mini donuts and these tasted even better than those! You so have to try them, they are delicious!

I am off to spend some time with Chad! Thanks for stopping by! :>

Mini Cards with MFT Stamps!

2012-01-07T11:04:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Saturday! I hope you've had a fantastic start to your weekend! :> I am happy to share that yesterday the temperature got a bit cooler and it snowed! The weather had been unseasonably warm and we had a mostly brown Christmas! This week the weather was so warm that you wanted to be outside but there was no snow to play or sled on! Everything was getting muddy, in January! I don't ever remember temperatures like this! I really doubt that this year we will have the minus 40s like we usually get in January! But not having much snow makes me worry we will get it in the spring! With the snow falling Ariel who had a playdate over and her friend played so happily in the backyard!

I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge! This week our challenge is sponsored by MFT Stamps (My Favorite Things) I am more than sure you know about MFT Stamps! I love there pure innocence stamps and all there dies! I found them so easy to order with and it came quickly to me here in Canada! Our challenge is Mini Cards! It's so fun to make mini cards I should do it more often!

Here is my mini card, it measures 4 by 4 inches:

I got to play with the Fairy Good Day set! I loved paper piecing her! If you remember I did use her when I made Ariel's birthday invitations, you can see that here if you want.

I am sure that you saw this post that the Wee Memories Challenge will be closing. Since this is Jenny's personal blog she will be keeping it she just won't be doing the challenges anymore. You can read more about it there. We still have a few challenges left so I hope you can continue to play with us. I am really sad that it is closing BUT I really do understand her decision and respect her for it. I have loved being part of the challenge. Jenny really is so easy to work with and is also so very generous! I wish her all the best! And my fellow friends on the design team are seriously amazing our guest designers month after month say that we are such a great group of ladies and it's true! I really will miss being part of this with them!

Last night I went out with a few girlfriends for appetizers and dessert to celebrate two friends birthdays. We had so much fun! It really is important to get together with your girl friends and spend time chatting! After the holidays and being with the family so much it was quite needed! :>

I really hope that you will join us this week for our challenge. Make sure to check out the Wee Memories blog for more deets and to be inspired by our talented DT! You have until Friday December 13th 11:59 pst to play!

Girly Birthday Card

2012-01-05T17:21:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy Thursday! My daughter is still on winter break from school so we have been enjoying A LOT of family time this week! Thankfully I am healthy after my stomach flu! Today I am popping in with a Birthday card to share. I am super low on my birthday card stash that it's crazy! So for the next bit birthday cards are going to be a focus for me! After I picked my card favorites from 2011 I felt like playing with my getting ready cling stamp by HA and wanted to do the kissing technique again.

I love the way the envelope pattern by HA adds so much to this silhouette stamp! Blogging about this card makes me want to make another one using these stamps! :> I find for me that the kissing technique works best with dye ink as opposed to pigment, how about you?

Yesterday I took the kids to the Children's Museum. I invited friends and several were able to join us which made for even more fun for the kids! The museum just recently renovated and everything was new! So fun we will definitely be visiting again soon! Here's a few of my favorite photos from the day:

In the Lasagna lookout climbing thing

Can you tell it's noodles! Carter loved the water table! He was soaked!

Love him in this hardhat!!!

There you go! I hope you have a great rest of your week! The weekend is almost here! :>

You Rock!

2012-01-02T22:36:00.001-06:00

Happy 2012! Wishing you a Happy, healthy, joyful, prosperous, blessed New Year! I hope that you started the New Year better than I did! Chad and I had a lovely time at the New Years Party that we went to and stayed quite late. It was fun to hang out with friends with no kids around! Much quieter and more easier conversation! By the end I started to feel bad and spent the rest of the night sick with the stomach flu! I don't think I've ever had such a bad stomach flu with how bad the stomach cramps were! Thankfully my parents kept the kids until almost bedtime New Years day so I spent the day on the couch watching tv, relaxing and dozing on and off. Chad was so very good to me and took good care of me! I am feeling much better but not yet 100%.

Today I have a fun card to share that I made for my MIL to give to my niece who just turned 12! When I got this stamp I knew I wanted to make her a card with it!

I love this stamp You Rock by Hero Arts! Perfect for tween or teenage girls! :> I colored her with my prisma and derwent pencils. Stamped the background with Life of the Party dots by HA in frost white pigment ink. Used some paper from Lime Twist by My Mind's Eye! I love starting the new year with a fun cute card!

With it being the new year I thought I would share some of my crafty goals with you:

-That my crafting never comes before being a mom and the best mom I can be

-Be a better blog friend and better commenter. Life has been busy lately but I miss ya!

-Not just pin things to make on Pintrest actually make them! I've actually been pretty good at this so far!

-try playing with challenges more! Not just check them out actually play!

-Send out birthday cards especially!!! And other things in life, celebrate those around you!

-Be a better poster. I am always working on something and often have cards waiting to be posted! I need to post more!

There you go! :> Do you have any crafty goals for 2012? I would love to hear them! I better be off I can feel that I need to go and relax a bit! :> Next time I post wait till you see the wreath I working on!

Favorites from 2011

2011-12-31T19:54:00.000-06:00

I love seeing my friends posts celebrating there favorite cards of 2011 so I thought I would do the same! I am deciding this as I write this post so I am looking forward to hunting through my cards to find my favorites! (BTW New challenge post for Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday challenge underneath..)

2011 was a great crafting year for me! I was beyond blessed and so happy to have been asked to be a Hero Arts Hostess! I was part of an amazing group of 5 talented ladies from February through April! It was a great three months. One of my favorite cards is actually the one that they introduced me as one of the apron ladies on the Hero Arts blog here. I wanted a fun card using one of my favorite color combos. You don't know how much thought I put into this card I made several versions and emailed my local crafty friends for advice!

This is another favorite card of mine, not only do I love the stamp but it's my first time trying stamp kissing technique and I loved doing it!

It may be odd to have a sympathy card as a favorite from 2011 but it is!

This card uses my favorite twine by the Twinery! I not only made one of these butterflies I made 2 since Ariel took the first one and I couldn't find it! :> (Later on I found it in her crafty bag!)

This has to be one of my favorite cards because I made it on my first video ever, and for Hero Arts! You can see the video here. About a week after the video going up I went to look at it and almost fell off my chair when I saw that it had 5,500 hits! I couldn't believe it! Talk about shocked!

With that said when I made my next video for Hero Arts I was beyond nervous! Could you tell? I did three cards in that video and this one is my favorite of them, you can see the video here.

This card for sure is one of my favorites, I made it as my last card saying thank you being a hostess and it was shared on the HA blog. I think this stamp set nd Basic Grey papers is my favorite that they released in 2011!!

This is my favorite Mother's Day card that I made:

This is a card that is very me which is why it's one of my favorites:

It's getting harder and harder to choose! I so love this one:

In July I was a guest designer for Market Street Stamps! I love there stamps! This isn't one of the cards that I made for that but one I made later with there stamps that I love!

I was also a guest designer for GCD Studios in November! I love there products and this was my favorite card I made for them:

The invites that I made for Ariel's birthday are so my favorite not because I slaved away on them of anything:

This is one of my favorite Christmas cards that I made this year, I made it for my first class that I taught this past November!

And this is another one of my favorite holiday cards from this year:

And there you have it! My favorite cards from 2011! It's been a great year for me crafty wise and I can't wait to see what 2012 holds in store!!! I better run, the kids are gone and were heading out to party with a bunch of friends!

Love and Laughter!

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy New Years Eve!! I am so excited that it's New Years! I am beyond excited and hopeful for what 2012 will bring! Tonight Chad and I are going out without kids, our first New Years Eve with no kids! We usually get together with friends with the kids but this year my parents are babysitting and were getting together with a bunch of couple friends! And seeing as last year Ariel had Scarlet Fever and we had to stay home I am even more excited to go out! :>

I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge! We have such a great fitting challenge! Our challenge is New! Something new like a new to you technique, new stamps, new papers, a new baby card or whatever new you can come up with! I am so excited for what Wee Memories has in store for you for 2012, wait till you see the challenges we have in store for you!

I made a card with some new papers from Authentique. Well there sorta new, I did buy them a bit ago but with Christmas cards and Christmas didn't have a chance to play with them.

I embossed in white the flower and leaves from Blossom Art by Hero Arts and cut it out. Stamped the sentiment onto coordinating paper. Added tons of rhinestones and done! :>

On Thursday night Chad's parents took the kids on a sleepover with some of there cousins! So Chad and I went on a double date with his brother and his wife! We went for some pizza that's cooked over coals and than saw a movie!

It was a great movie we all really enjoyed it, so funny! We had a great night out and were happy to sleep in! :> I hope and plan in 2012 to try to get out on dates more!

I hope that you have a fantastic New Years Eve ringing in 2012! Wishing you a joyful, prosperous, happy, peaceful New Year! I hope that you will join us this week for this challenge! Please check out the Wee Memories blog for more details!

Holiday Photos and more Wreaths!

2011-12-27T16:51:00.000-06:00

Hello! I hope that you had an amazing Christmas! We sure did! We had a great time celebrating with family the birth of our savior! It was busy but great and I won't lie, I am glad that it's over! We have been enjoying time at home now recuperating after such a busy time. I know that I may have overdone it before with wrapping gifts, baking, and all the gifts that I made. I am trying to take it easy today but other projects that I have in mind are calling my name!

I want to share my Christmas card with you. I did photo cards but also gave handmade cards to family. I even ran out of handmade cards and made some last minute!

I'll share some favorites from the photo session later. I wanted to share two wreaths that I made for friends who asked me to make them one, the first is a paper flower wreath much like the one that I made for me and shared here. She asked me to make it in white to match her decor and I think it turned out so beautiful:

I won't lie it took a long time to make, I won't tell you the total time but gluing on the flowers and making a few extra to fit took over 3 hours! But when you enjoy what your doing it's worth it! I've considered that if I make more to get a rolled flower die but most of the flowers I make for these wreaths are around 5 inches around and the dies are much smaller. I made a yarn and felt flower wreath for a friend that she was giving her mom:

I also made my mom one almost the same as it would work well with her home. She loved it!

Here are some photos from the past few days, on Friday the 23rd we made sugar cookies Ariel and Carter loved them. I think you can sorta see what Ariel will look like as a teenager in this photo:

Here are a few opening present photos. Carter always stops and smiles really nice for photos when he is opening presents! I think that next year's family photo may be of us holding presents or something!

At Chad's parents:

See that cookie monster? It's all Carter talked about! All day long he kept mentioning it! It took me a week of listening to him asking me for cookie monster to figure out what he was talking about! I thought he meant he wanted to eat cookies like cookies monster, or read his cookie monster book! Ariel finally told us that he wanted this toy! LOL Trust me there were days that he asked so much I was close to giving it to him early! :>

Well that's it from me today! Hope your enjoying this time off! It's slow time for Chad so were enjoying family time at home!

Lots of Crafty Stuff and Santa Photo!

2011-12-23T10:41:00.000-06:00

Hello! Merry Christmas Eve Eve! Apparently today is the busiest shopping day of the year! Sadly we do have to go out for a few things but not to the mall! I hope your enjoying this season! I am! Today I am stopping in with quite a few projects, first a Christmas card:

I did some paper piecing and embossing on this card, my color scheme came from the pattern paper!

Yesterday was Ariel's last day of school before Christmas Holidays! I made her teacher photo coasters of her grandchildren, I happen to be friends with her daughter and daughter-in-law so I asked them on facebook to send me some photos a bit ago and didn't tell them what I was making! I forgot to take photos of them but I am making the same for my MIL so I will show those one later. Ariel ended up being sick so we went in and dropped everything off. Her teacher later emailed me telling me how much she loved the coasters! Yay! I made the chocolate covered marshamallow snowman like last year again, but had to change them a bit to make them peanut free. (M&M's are not!) So I used smarties and gel for the eyes and nose!

This year I didn't package them up as the gel was wet but I was glad I didn't as when I dropped them off I didn't see any other baking for the kids mostly chips. Sad that Ariel wasn't there when the kids got to eat them but she did get to hear there oooos and ahhhs! :>

So for the other teachers (music, gym, and her teacher who teachers every friday) I gave them handmade gift tags and a pretzel stick dipped in chocolate:

Doesn't the pretzels look good:? They are! I made a whole bunch more last night for the neighbors and when I went to package them up I can't find the pretzel bags! I have looked everywhere! I am wondering if because I finished the teacher gifts at midnight if I accidently threw them away? And I refuse to go back to Michaels and buy more because I have been there everyday this week if not twice! (To buy stuff for the wreaths mostly!) Chad told me not to worry about it as he wants us to keep it for ourselves!

I decorated some gift bags for the teachers went with the first idea that came to mind:

I don't know if you can tell in the photo but the banner says for which teacher! When we dropped them off I also handed out some chocolate covered pretzels to the secretary and the librarian! :>

On Tuesday I took the kids to see Santa! They did amazing! It was a long line and Carter behaved so well! (Worth waiting the line this Santa is free!) I think telling Carter that if he didn't sit in his lap and smile he wouldn't bring him presents worked! They took 3 great photos, this is my favorite:

Well I am off have a lot of crafty things to do today but first baking some roll out cookies with the kids! In case I am not back I want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas!

Sparkly Bird in a Tree and Another Wreath!

2011-12-19T11:22:00.001-06:00

Hello! Happy Monday! I made it through the weekend alive! :> Wow what a busy weekend. It's hard for me to even remember all the gatherings and such! I am so loving having a more handmade Christmas but the work needed to have one and keep up with everything else.... Oh well I made it and I finished my projects that I needed for yesterday in time!

I am here late with the current Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday challenge. Note to self when you start writing a blog post just finish it so that your not late! Opps! This week our challenge is running for two weeks which is perfect since the upcoming weekend in Christmas! And our challenge is easy it's ANYTHING GOES! So if your crafting last minute for the holidays or after just to relax please share with us!

Today I have to share with you one of my favorite Christmas cards!

I stamped and embossed with gliterry powder by Ranger the Merriest Wishes stamp. I love this silhouette image all glittery! I went with a clean look with the rest of the card by mating it with a silver paper, and stamping the magical background with pumice stone distress ink by TH. I loved making this card so much I am working on 8 more of them! Almost done!

This weekend I also worked on two wreaths, the first one I'll share tomorrow but today I'll share the yarn and felt flower one that I made as gift for Chad's grandmother. She loved the one that I made for Chad's mom. And we had a big extended family gathering with her last night so I need to have it done for than! Here it is:

Chad's grandma lives in a condo and has a white door so I wanted the base to have color rather than cream like my other. First I had a hard time picking the colors (didn't help that Michaels sells out of felt pronto, and didn't feel like driving to fabric land!) I wanted colored that would work all winter. Than I had a hard time deciding on flowers which ones to make, I had a certain one that I wanted to make took me a long time of searching to find a tutorial finally did and when I made one it was a flop! Finally settled on these and am happy with how it turned out! And on time too! She loved it! These wreaths are pretty simple to make so if your looking for a handmade gift idea I totally recommend them! I think I may make my mom one too! Now to actually find a wreathform it seems like Michaels is the only place but they are cleared out!

Well I better be off and do some cleaning around here! I am happily spending the day at home! I may start on a few other projects! I hope you check out the Wee Memories Blog and check out the challenge and the fellow talented DT's creations!

Yarn and Felt Flower Wreath and a winner!

2011-12-16T13:44:00.000-06:00

Hello! Happy past the middle of December Christmas is coming closer! I hope that you aren't suffering from the hustle and bustle of the season but instead are enjoying it! I know that it can be hard though! I am just about done my shopping. I know what I am going to buy (well mostly Ariel is harder) and just have to go get it! It's the going to buy it that I dread! :>

I am making a few gifts this year though! And I have to say that I absolutely love it! I enjoy it so much more than shopping, and I really like shopping! We celebrate Chad's mother's birthday this past weekend and I made her gift! I saw on Pintrest wreaths made from yarn and felt flowers. I looked at LOTS of them and came up with my own! It was so fun to make!

I lucked out because on my way to buying the supplies at Michaels I stopped in at our dollarama and they had great chenille yarn in this off white color! For $1! :> I went with a jewel red, light grey and charcoal grey because my MIL's door is brown so it will stand out, and because it's winter colors so that it can be displayed all winter not just Christmas! :> The big red flower took the longest to make, about an hour! And while I made it I couldn't in vision it and really thought it was not going to turn out. I was so happy when it did! The pearls are leftover from a few months ago when I tried to make a ribbon and pearl necklace. So glad I remembered them because I feel that it's the perfect touch for the wreath! Chad's grandmother really liked the wreath too so I am working on one for her as a Christmas gift! I have to have it done by Sunday as we celebrate with her than!

I want to say thank you so much for all your sweet Birthday wishes last week! I had such a great day with friends and family! I used random.org to figure out who the winner of the giveaway was but can't figure out how to post it! The winner of the Hero Arts set Big Ticket is:

CinnamonSally said...: Happy Birthday Anita. I hope you had a fabulous day!!WOW WOW WOW I love your wreath it was definately worth all the hard work. It looks stunning in your hall!!!!!!
Congrats Sally! I am pretty sure that I have you address already but maybe send it again! :>

I did want to share a cute photo Chad captured of the kids and me on my Birthday. We were out to eat at a new restaurant that served intresting pizza cooked over coals!
I am SO blessed, boy do I ever love them! Oh and here is a photo of me at my birthday dinner with friends:
Well I better go! Carter is napping and I am so enjoying a quiet house! Gotta get my craft on!

Snowflake Birthday!

2011-12-08T22:55:00.001-06:00

Hello! Happy Thursday! First off I want to say thank you so much for all the lovely birthday wishes! Had a wonderful day yesterday! We went to a newish restaurant for some pizza cooked over coals, so yummy! And why is it that my kids eat so much better in a restaurant? :> If you didn't enter already I do have a giveaway with my birthday post it's the post after this one.

I wanted to pop in with a Birthday Card for Virginia Lu!!! It's her 50th Birthday tomorrow and she is hosting a Virtual Birthday Celebration!

First of all I can't believe that Virginia is turning 50! She looks SO MUCH younger! But I admire her for her for embracing it and celebrating it! I have to say that I think so highly of Virginia! Not only is she crazy talented but she is such a great person! She is kind to everyone (especially in the Hero Arts Flickr group!) Always leaving comments everywhere (how does she do it?) I so enjoy her blog and how she talks about her family life. I love that she shares that about herself it really helps you to know her! I've been blessed and been able to chat with Virginia on the phone from time to time and I always enjoy our conversations! She is so easy to talk to! I really hope that one day I have the chance to meet her! I know that we will truly hit it off in person! BTW Virginia you are welcome to visit, I'll kick one of my kids out of there bedrooms and it will be yours! :> (in case your worries the kids have pillowtop mattresses!) So Virginia HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Happy 50th! Congrats on your first publication, I hope you only get more and more! :>

I decided to make her a wintery birthday card. Having a December birthday I've seen that Hallmark makes them (sadly no one has ever gotten me one!) So I had to make it. Plus I really like my new sparkly embossing powder and wanted to use it!

I am running out of time so I will write about the card in a bit...

Phew I made it! I had planned on posting a birthday card for Virgina tomorrow on her birthday but than luckily I checked and saw that her celebration ended today!!! I worked on this card while my kids with my friends son (took him home from school and watched him for a bit) ran around playing loudly! I made the snowflake panel three times because I couldn't get it perfect (not sparkly enough) than I couldn't find the Happy Birthday stamp! But I did finish it in time before daylight left and got a picture! Go me! :>

I hope you like this card Virginia! And I hope your birthday is as special as you are because you are so special!

It's My Birthday!

2011-12-07T17:12:00.000-06:00

Hello! Hope your having the greatest day! Today is MY BIRTHDAY! I've been enjoying the day today first took Ariel to school and went to stay and play at my church. Also learned how to do coffee for stay and play as I have volunteered to start doing that every second week (the other weeks I volunteer with set up) May as well as I am there early dropping Ariel off at school! Had a lot of fun at Stay and Play chatting with other mom's, a lot who I would call my friends! And Carter had fun getting out of the house and playing with other kids! Took my nephew home with me for lunch and he had a nap here while my SIL and BIL went Christmas shopping! Carter loved playing with him and they went down easily and I joined them and had a nap of my own! Tonight were going out for dinner as a family and it's a surprise as to where! :>

I wanted to pop in and share a project that I made! I had had hinted in my post here about it by showing you some of the flowers I was making for it. I ran out of hot glue last night so I put the finishing touches on it today and put it up!!! I so love it:

It's a wreath made out of rolled flowers from an old university text book of mine! I knew I would get some use out of that thing! :> I got the idea off of pinterest. I have been on pinteret for a while now but only the past two weeks have I really fallen hard for it! I am proud of myself for seeing something I like and actually making it never mind actually starting to make it the next day! I think for us cardmakers making rolled flowers is a love, and using text is another love! It did take A LONG time to make I worked on it in the evenings making 10 flowers or so at a time but I didn't work on it everyday either. Totally worth it! Here's how I hung it in my front entrance:

I think I really like this spot for it! Refreshes my beloved mirror! I have other crafty home ideas I've seen on pinterest so I hope to make a few more things for my home and gifts! What do you think of the spot I put it? To me this is not a Christmas wreath at all so I will keep it up for a bit. Who knows how long until I come up with another idea? Could it be a keeper there?

Well it may be my birthday but I want to give something to you, simply leave me a comment on this post until Wednesday December 14th, 2011! You must be a follower in order to win! You could win:

Well I am off to get ready for dinner! Hope you have a fantastic day!

Holly Jolly Snowman!

2011-12-03T22:48:00.000-06:00

Happy Saturday! It's snowing here which is great because the weather keeps getting warm and the snow keeps melting! We have our first Christmas family gathering tonight with one side of hubbys family! We also just had our Christmas family photos taken. We got some good shots but had to deal with a 3 year old boy who really did not want to cooperate! So hard as kids are so cute when they are little but so hard to capture on film!

I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge! This week our challenge is Free For All! Yay can't wait to see your creations!

Our sponsor is Artful Delight! Artful Delight offers the latest and greatest paper crafting products in a monthly kit!!! You can buy just a monthly kit or sign up for 3 to 6 months!

I decided to make a card with my favorite snowman:

I used some cute snowflake paper from the Holly Jolly Echo Park paper collection! Made some hills from some glittery paper! Stamped the snowman and sentiment from Wonderful Christmas stamp set by HA. Sponged some tumbled glass distress ink onto the snowman to give definition! Paper pieced his scarf and added some stickles!

I hope that you will join us this week, how can you not with a free for all challenge? Please check out the Wee Memories blog to see my fellow DT's creations!

A Card and Christmas Concert Photos!

2011-12-02T11:32:00.001-06:00

Hello! Happy Friday! I have a card to share and share about Ariel's Christmas concert last night! My card is similar to another I made but different too:

I stamped with cranberry pigment ink and clear embossed the nativity from Greatest Gift set by Hero Arts. Used paper from October Afternoon! And added some twine by the twinery!

Last night was Ariel's Christmas concert! And I can't tell you how excited she was for it, never mind me! For a couple of weeks now she has been singing the songs around the house and talking about it! Her concert has the entire school on stage singing for the whole concert while other kids act (in between songs) and have little dances and solos during the songs! When Ariel was in preschool and kindergarten she went up and sang her song and than we could go home. This was her first year on stage for the whole show! Her school puts on an amazing show as they start practicing close to the start of the school year! Ariel was given a duet with a little boy in her class. The funny thing about this is that last year he told his mom that he was going to marry Ariel! How funny is that? Last week Ariel told me that he was being silly during practices (Ariel gave up a few recess to practice but she did not mind!) And I asked her how was he being silly? She said "Oh he kept holding my hand and kissing it!" LOL She said that none of the teachers saw! I thought it was so funny! I told his mom the other day and she was shocked! She couldn't believe it as he is shy and apologized to me! She also said he talks about Ariel all the time!

I was very excited for Ariel to have a duet but nervous for her too! She can be shy at times (not at home or with friends just at school) And I worried for her! On stage she stood with all the other kids who had solo's and it was right in front. We were lucky that our friends had extra seats in the third row so I had a good view of her all night! And let me tell you she did amazing! WOW! What a natural on stage! And you know where she gets that from right? Me! I love to sing and act! She smiled lots, did all the actions and sang never looking away! When her solo came she did amazing and was sooo sweet! I totally got tears in my eyes watching her on stage yesterday! Being a mom is AWESOME and amazing! On our way to the car Ariel told me that she wants to go back on stage! Yay! I asked her if she would like to take a musical theater class and she really wants to! And that would be really good with her shyness!

Emailing with her music teacher today she told me that Ariel did really well last night and was born for the stage! :>

The theme of the concert was It Happened In the Country! You know Jesus birth!! So here are some photos:

Here she is singing the duet, she may be a microphone hogger a bit (totally gets that from me!)

Taking a bow:

I got a picture of the two of them after the show:

And after we got a picture with Ariel's cousins who were also in the show (along with Carter and Cameron) Chad's sister and brother's kids also go to the school but the older two are now in junior high!

What a night! I am so proud of her! :> I am off to study! My MIL is watching Carter today so I can get some studying done! BTW in case you mixed it I was a guest designer for GCD Studios please go and check it out here. I'll be back tomorrow with a new Wee Memories challenge!

Guest Designer at GCD Studios!

2011-12-01T22:12:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends! I wanted to pop in and share with you that I am a guest designer at GCD Studios today! :> I loved working with the GCD November kit of the month! I hope that you will go and check it out! You can see it here!!!

I hope to be back tomorrow with some photos from Ariel's Christmas concert!

Some Christmas Tags

2011-11-27T11:54:00.001-06:00

Hello! Happy Sunday! Hope you've had a great weekend so far! Our has been filled with kid birthdays so it's been fun! This week we had some unseasonable warm weather and all the snow melted! As nice as that was it was messy and everything was becoming brown! Yesterday we awoke to a beautiful winter wonderland as it snowed most of the night! Feels so much more like Christmas is on it's way!

I want to say thank you so much for your super kind and sweet comments on my last post regarding my first class! You made my heart happy! :> I am blessed to call you friends!

Today I have some tags to share that I am entering into the Hero Arts contest for the tag challenge:

I got this Wonderful Christmas Stamp Set by Hero Arts last week and love it! I've wanted a snowman stamp set every Christmas! I sponged some tumbled glass distress ink on the snowman like Tami showed on the HA blog, love the definition it brings to the snowman! Went sentiment free instead put it on the back along with the to and from! Added some stickles the the scarf and stamped in white the snowflakes from the set! :>

For this one I used my favorite reindeer stamp and paper pieced it with some red and cream striped paper! And stamped in white the magical background stamp and added the joy sentiment and some twine by the twinery! I made 8 of each of these tags. My plan is to give 4 of each to two different teachers for Christmas. Tags would make a good gift? Still have a few more to work on!

So I have a cute story to share with you. On Wednesday Carter was over at my SIL's house playing with his cousin Cameron who is 6 months older than him. She overheard while they were playing: Carter_ "I love you Cameron" Cameron- "I love you too Carter!" LOL Later that day at Chad's grandmother's when we were leaving Carter goes up to Cameron and hugs him and kisses his cheek, Cameron gets right in on the action hugging back and kissing! We had to separate them to go! :> Last night when putting Carter to bed I told him that tomorrow we would be going to church he told me "Mommy tomorrow I tell Cameron that I love him!" So cute!

Oh I have another story. Ariel is a pretty good student. But she has been struggling with spelling. It was almost like she wasn't trying. And that annoys me not everything can come easy and subjects that are harder for her she should at least try. If she tried and didn't do well that's another story! It was frustrating to get her to study for it. Last weekend she mentioned to me that her classmate told her that if she gets all her words right (10) her mom told her she would buy her something crafty. I told Ariel oh yeah if you get them all right I will buy you a crafty thing too! They write there spelling tests twice once on Wednesday and than on Friday (if they get it all right Wednesday they don't have to write it again) Well when I picked her up on Wednesday I asked her in passing how she did on her spelling test. She says matter of factly oh I got them all right! WHAT? I was shocked! Hmm I suppose she needed the right motivation! So I took her right away to the dollar store (would have taken her to Michaels and bought her anything she wanted but she wanted to go there!) And spent $2! She was so happy and proud! And I told her I would do it every week! Oh and I made a big deal Wednesday and Thursday night how now she didn't have to study spelling since she got it all right. And she gets it on the first try!!!!!! Yesh she is so much smarter than she lets on!

This week I have a few things up the best of which is Ariel's Christmas concert! :> She is singing a duet and I can't wait to share that with you! I am also going to be hard at work studying as I am going to write my second real estate test on Monday Dec 5th! Eek but I want to get it over with before the true bussle of the season starts!

And I will leave you with a preview of a project I am working on besides my always card making! It's not for a card or cards I am so excited but it will take a while especially with having to put studying first, oh and I hope it works out! :>

See you soon! Hope you have a terrific Sunday!

My First Class!

2011-11-22T10:14:00.000-06:00

Hello! Last Thursday I taught my first ever cardmaking class! This month I joined my LSS design team, Scrapbooking by Design! You can see the bio about me here. I love that store and am so happy to be teaching there! This is a real dream come true because I love people and I love working with them! (The past few years I've realized what makes me happy is being around people which means I want to work with them! Another reason why I choose Real Estate!) For my first class with this time of year I of course was going to do holiday cards! I decided to work with my favorite stamp set by my favorite stamp company Hero Arts, The Greatest Gift!

Here are the cards:

The class went so well! I had four students which was perfect for my first time! One of the ladies drove An HOUR AND A HALF to take my class!!!!! She lived out of town and wanted to take my class and learn more about cardmaking! They all really enjoyed each card and kept saying how much they loved which ever card they were making! They were all so nice and we had a lot of fun which I think is super important! I forgot to take lots of photos but I took two:

Next time I will remember to take a photo of my "students" looking and smiling! :> In case any of you are reading this (you never know!) Hi! Thanks for taking my class! Hope your having a great crafty day!

So there you go my first class! I am really happy with how it turned out! I teach my next class this Friday! :>

I better go, Chad's grandmother told me on Saturday that her condo is having a craft sale again and they want me to come back! It's tomorrow so I've been busy creating as much as I can! :>

Merriest Wishes

2011-11-19T15:03:00.000-06:00

Hello! It's Saturday and I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge! It's a beautiful winter wonderland over here as it's been snowing! Not much snow but still it's gorgeous! Last winter we got sooo much snow and than such a dry summer so bring on the snow!

Very happy to share that I had a tag picked up publication in April 2012 Cards magazine! So happy to see that email in my box yesterday! Totally doing the happy dance!

Our challenge will run for two weeks so more time to play! We have a fun and exciting new challenge of Woodland Animals! , OWLS, Foxes, Squirrels, and many more to choose from! Everyone loves them and they are so hot right now! :>

Our sponsor is the fantastic The Craft's Meow! They have really great stamps and Jenny Suchin designs for them! Check out her stamps here.

So the mail man is very slow and I haven't received my stamps yet! :< It should be here SOON as in I bet Monday knowing how that works! I do have a card to share using a Reindeer as that's a woodland animal, right?

I paper pierced the reindeer with some October Afternoon paper. I really enjoyed making this card! The reindeer stamp was on my list last year but I never did get it you can imagine how happy I was to find it this year!

Well I am off, I will be back soon to share photos and my experience teaching my first ever class!

I hope you will join us don't forget you have two weeks to play! Do check out the Wee Memories blog as I am kidding you not the design team did more than wowed!!!!!!!!!

Greatest Gift

2011-11-17T14:07:00.001-06:00

Hello! Today is a very exciting day for me! I am teaching my first ever card making class tonight at my LSS Scrapbooking by Design! I am beyond excited and a wee bit nervous! I am teaching a stamping class using my favorite Christmas stamp set Greatest Gift by Hero Arts! I am teaching four cards in my class but I created two more using the same supplies to show the class what else they could do. Today I want to share them with you:

I stamped and embossed the nativity scene in white on watercolor paper. Than I colored the whole paper with tumbled glass and broken china th distress inks all over and spray it with a mixture of perfect pearls and water. After it dried I stamped the sentiment and stamped stars with versamark all over. Than took a brush with perfect pearls and brushed it across the versamark stars, love the sparkly holy night it created!

In the class I am using two labels from North Country by Prima for this card I am using another and some scraps. Love this design a great one for scraps! :>

I wanted to say thank you for all your sweet comment regarding Ariel's birthday party! I loved doing it all to celebrate her and she loved it! Reading your sweet comments made me smile!

Well sorry this post is so short, I still have some prep work to do! :> I hope to be back tomorrow with some pictures from my first class!

Ballerina Birthday Party!

2011-11-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

Hello! It's Saturday and I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge! This week we have a fun challenge, Birthday and Parties!

Our sponsor this week is Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker!!!! For our winner we have a paper pack!!

This challenge is perfect for me as my daughter Ariel just celebrated her 6th Birthday (I have a birthday post underneath this one) I have A LOT to share today!

I want to start with the invites. I was running out of time and was not inspired. I came home from a few days away to a package in the mail including new goodies from my favorite things! As soon as I got that stamp set in my hands I was inspired and came up with this fun design:

For my regular readers you may remember me mentioning these invites and how much time they took! Now you can see why! :> I stamped each "Polaroid" with the girl's names and colored each girl to look like them! I paper pierced her outfit it's hard to tell but the skirt is sparkly! I stamped the kraft cardstock with white frost pigment colorbox ink (got a new ink pad and what a difference!) with the Hero Arts Stamp Life of the Party Dots. I also made the polariod a magnet by applying magnet sheet to the back (may as well make it a keepsake with how much work i put into it!)

The invitations were a HUGE hit! When the parents RSVP they had such lovely things to say! :> And the girls loved them! When I started the invitation I was thinking of doing a fairy party but than I told Ariel that it could be a fairy party or a ballerina party. And she choose ballerina!

I made a lot of things for Ariel's birthday party. I made tissue paper pom pom's to hang from the ceiling. It was my first time making them, I always wanted to! I youtubed it and watched several videos and combined the knowledge! It wasn't perfect but a lot of the mother's complimented them, they gave the room a nice pink glow:

(By the way none of the girls tried to hit them, that was Carter when he got home from the grandparents he pulled out the chair stood on it and gave it a good go!)

Because it was a ballerina dance party I decided it would be fun to make dance skirts for all the girls. My mom and I went to the fabric store together and decided on this fun material and she wanted to sew them! We came up the pattern from another ballerina skirt of Ariel's:

All of the girls loved the skirts and were so excited to put them on! We danced in the basement. I showed them some steps than two of them showed some others. Than we put some music on and just danced away:

I made little ballerina cupcake toppers. I got the idea here. I didn't have tulle and I didn't want to go back to the fabric store (another errand) so I used some fabric I had already. All the girls loved them, the photo I took during the party was blurry so I had to take one again later. But all the leftoevers were crumpled a bit oh well you get the idea:

I made chocolate covered oreos on a stick for her class on her birthday:

And for the party too:

They are so delicious! The best hint I would have for making them is to use double stuffed oreos! :>

Here are a few more photos from the party:

We made wands. I looked online and was horrified by how many sites were to actually make magical wands instead of kids wands like I put in! Check out this link for the ones we made.

The party went really well. The girls all loved the craft and the dancing! With so many girls (13 came!!!) I was worried it would get out of control but it didn't at all. It went really well and fast! :>

I hope that you will join us this week with our challenge of birthdays and parties! Please check out the Wee Memories blog for more info and to be further inspired by all the designers! You have until Friday November 18th at 11:59 pst!!!! I hope that you enjoyed my post! It took a really long time to write up!

Happy 6th Birthday Ariel!

2011-11-11T21:31:00.000-06:00

I wrote this post yesterday and completely forgot to share it, I still want to:

Today is my daughter Ariel's 6th Birthday! Today as we celebrate her I can't help but think of the impact she has had on my life! I remember when she was born and Chad said it's a girl! Oh the pure joy that I felt! The whole pregnancy I and mostly everyone else thought she was a boy! We never found out her gender and I really carried like what most people thought was a boy! I was so surprised that she was a girl! But I was also beyond happy that she was a girl! As soon as I saw her I fell in love with her! She was beautiful and I saw myself in her, but that didn't last long since later when you compared her newborn photo with Chad's newborn photo she was completely him! We had her name all picked out before Ariel Brooke and she fit it perfectly! She was a big baby at 8 pounds 14 ounces but more to love! Chad and I were smitten with her (well we still are) and took so much joy in having a baby. She was such a cuddly baby! I always knew I wanted to be a mother and I was so happy that I finally was! (What was I thinking finally I was only 25!)

Ariel has been such a joy and blessing in our life. As a small baby she was a colicky baby and I remember being up many long nights trying to get her to stop crying. She grew into such a happy baby. She was easy to nurse and to feed to this day usually eats whatever is placed in front of her. I remember when she was two and begging me for my veggies and dip! She was a curious toddler. She got into many things like the toilet, vaseline (many times that I finally removed all vaseline from our house!) cornstarch, peanut butter up to her elbows and all over (that's how I figured out she wasn't allergic at 15 months!) And anything else she could! We found it so amusing and cute! She was delightful and everyone loved her and commented on her beauty! As she has grown into a little girl she amazed us with her talking and personality! She was so happy when we told her she was going to become a sister. She loved the baby in my belly and later her new baby brother! She has been an amazing sister always loving on him and playing with him. Many comment on how there children don't play together like they do! As she has started school she has been a bit shy at school but loves it! Ariel loves to learn and is easily taught! And she is so crafty loving to color, play with papers and glue and all things crafty! Ariel is a good friend and enjoys spending time with them! She is described by everyone as a sweetheart and a pleasure to be around. I love her so much and am so blessed that God gave me her! I love spending my days being her mom and look forward to what the years bring!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Ariel! I love you forever! Thank you for being you!

Here are a few special photos:

3 weeks old:

Our first Christmas as a family:

The cutest baby:

So happy to have a baby brother:

New Years when she was three:

You can see her getting bigger here:

I look forward to seeing how she grows up, just not too fast! I will be back tomorrow with a post all about her birthday party!

Baby Dedication Cards!

2011-11-07T10:39:00.000-06:00

Hello! It snowed! Last night the rain turned to snow and we woke up to a blanket of snow! At first you feel dread but having children changes that as they were so excited! All they could talk about was snow and playing in it! I got all excited too! Apparently it's supposed to go to plus 2 C so I don't think it will be here by the end of the day! On Saturday it was beautiful outside so I took the kids to the park we had so much fun and I am really happy we did as it looks like that was our last time for this year!

Today I have some baby dedication cards to share that I made for my church bookstore! Baby Dedication was this Sunday so I spent a few days making cards for the bookstore! I don't have any baby dedication stamps (I have been looking for them but haven't found any yet) so I use baby stamps and use a computer print out with sentiments and bible verses for the inside. I'll start with my favorite:

I used PTI's stamp set Sweet Baby and Simple Stories baby papers to make these cards! I enjoyed making them! And friends let me know on facebook yesterday that they received them as they had dedicated there babies yesterday! :>

Well I better go it's Monday which means a start to a new week and lots to do! We had a fun busy weekend having friends over on Saturday and spending the day with both sets of parents yesterday! I've been spending a lot more time at home during the week working on my to do list so it was good to get out this weekend! :> Hope your having a great start to the week too!

Wee Memories November Blog Hop!

2011-11-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

Hello! Yay it's Saturday! I am here with our November Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Amy's blog! If not please join us and start at the beginning of the hop at Jenny's blog! I am so excited for this week's challenge as I came up with it! Our challenge this week is Handmade Gifts, Tags and Boxes! And this is our 75th challenge!!! WOW right?

This week our sponsor is Oh My crafts! Make sure to check them out as I am sure they have whatever your looking for and more!

With the holidays approaching I know I am not the only one who is thinking of gifts. I love the idea of making my own gifts but actually knowing what to make is not easy! I recently saw this tutorial on how to make coasters from bath tiles and got very excited! I knew it would make a great gift for a friend of mine. Her birthday was coming up and she had a girls night planned. She recently had a new baby and had gorgeous photos taken! I totally saved them off facebook and sent them to be developed! (When I gave it to her she didn't mind at all) The next day I went and picked up my first ever bottle of Mod Podge and felt went to Home Depot and got tiles and got to work! I used a clear acrlic sealer that I had already from another project. Did research and both mod podge and the sealer and both are non toxic which as a mother provides a lot of relief! They turned out great:

I am sorry that the photos aren't better. I put a lot of coats of mod podge and sealer and worked on it until it was time to leave! It ended up not being the best time of day to take the photos in the light. :> They turned out so amazing and my friend loved them! And so did all the other girls! (I am sure you know how I was nervous that it wouldn't go over well!) So happy with this gift idea! My plan is to make them as teacher gifts for Christmas for the teachers. They are so easy and cheap to make! I think I may make them for family too! :>

Well that's it for me! I hope you continue on with our hop your next stop is Brandi!

Cards that Care Blog Hop!

2011-11-04T07:00:00.008-05:00

Hello! Happy Friday! I am thrilled to be taking part in the Cards that Care blog hop! You should have arrived here from Jenny's blog! If you didn't we would love to have you take part please check out Vera's blog for the start of the hop and all the info about Cards that Care! There is also a ton of prizes you can win from both sending in cards and leaving comments on the hop! These companies generously offer prizes for the hop: Lawn Fawn, Penny Black, Sweet Stamps Shop, Avocado Arts, & I Love It All.

I really love this Cards that Care drive. Such a great drive that Vera and Jennifer put together! The holidays can be a very hard time for people especially when they are alone. I can't imagine what is like for some elderly people who are alone in a nursing home, missing there family and not able to spend the holidays with them. I love making cards as I am sure you do too. The difference that a card can make for an elderly person in a nursing home makes making that card even more special. I really want to encourage you to take part. Even if you can only send in one card send it in, it will make a difference!

I wanted to play with the Hero Arts stamp bird on a tree and couldn't decide what colors to use so I made three with different colors:

The blue one is my favorite:

I stamped the bird on a tree in moss green, robins' egg, and cranberry pigment ink by colorbox. Added my favorite twine by the twinery colored in the birds and added a scalloped piece to the bottom! The cards a smidge smaller than regular size just to accommodate the image better.

Thank you so much for stopping by! Your next stop on the hop is Giovanna!

Giveway Winner and Exciting news!

2011-11-03T22:43:00.004-05:00

Hello! Hope you've had a great day! I wanted to pop in and share with you some exciting news! I am joining my favorite scrapbooking store, Scrapbooking by Design, Design Team! I love shopping at the store the owner is such a sweet heart! You can see the bio of me here I will be teaching two Christmas card classes there this month! I am so excited! You can see the cards here. It's a total dream come true for me. I can't wait to teach what I love! :>

I also wanted to announce the winner to my thank you giveaway! :> Thank you so much for all of your comments! The winner was number 18 and it is:

Lin said...: Beautiful card, Anita, to showcase my favorite part of autumn, the changing leaves. Would love a chance at your wonderful goodies - I'm a follower. quilt14 at gmail dot com.; 11 October, 2011 17:47; Yay Lin I will email you!!! :> (by the way no clue why it's all capped! Can't seem to fix it!); Don't forget that I do have a giveaway for a Hero Arts stamp set on facebook under Anita Rex Designs!; Well until tomorrow when I come back with the cards that care blog hop!

All Dressed Up!

2011-11-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

Hello Happy Tuesday! Today I have been a good girl and working on my assignment! I have no visited my craft table I am staying focused! I want to get it done and over with! I have a huge to do list and most of it's crafty but I am loving it! I wannted to drop in and share some photos of the kids from yesterday and other things!

Also don't forget that today is the last day to enter my thank you giveaway click here. I'll draw sometime tomorrow for it so until I do you can enter!

I also wanted to share with you that I started a facebook page for my papercrafts. I know I am not the first to do this but it's an easier way for my friends and you to keep up with my work! I am doing a giveaway there too for the Hero Arts Snowflake Stamp Set so if your on facebook search Anita Rex Design's and it should pop up. I am not computer savy enough to know how to link it up here.

Yesterday was Halloween I am sure most of you know we do not celebrate it. Both hubby and I grew up not although both our parents provided us with lots of candy and a fun night anyways! I don't have a problem with kids trick or treating it's just the roots of Halloween that we don't like. We've avoided trick or treating with our kids up till now and hope to continue. Even my daughter's school doesn't celebrate, they have a School Spirit Day instead! So last night we went to a local church for there Rock o Rama night! Kids dress up play games and get a lot of candy. Carter dressed up as a cowboy and boy was he ever cute! He kept swinging his hat around shouting Yeeehaw! I was smart and Ariel dressed up as a Fairy wearing her dance recital costume (in my defense she should get another use from it, it cost almost $100!!)

Aren't they sooo cute? It's so fun to dress up your kids! I think it's time to start a dress up bin for Carter too as he is soo cute all dressed up! :> And I know what your going to say, they look so grown up! I know how did it happen?

Well that's it for me! I am sitting on some very exciting news and I can't wait to share. Hopefully soon!!!!

Wee Memories Challenge 74

2011-10-29T13:02:00.001-05:00

Hello! Happy Saturday! Can you believe that we are at the last weekend of October already? :> Today I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge! This week we have a new sponsor Jay Gee's Nook! Jay Gee's Nook is a little online shop in Australia! She offers product that is new to Australia market at reasonable prices!

This week our challenge is Brands, Buttons or Bows! The 3 important B's! You can create with all 3 or just one!

I decided to create with a bow. Usually when I think of bow's I picture ribbon but I realized that I make bows with twine all the time! I decided to make a sympathy card as I want to be prepared with them. I used my go to color combo for it (because it's good for both men and women)

I stamped the envelope background by Hero arts in Antique Linen distress inks by tim Holtz, stamped the leaves over top from the With Sympathy set and embossed the sentiment! Added some baker's twine with a bow to finish it off!

I have a cute story to share. I was cutting Carter's nails after bath time and trying to keep him still so I was asking him questions and such. I asked him how many fingers do you have? Without missing a beat he says: many! I had a good laugh! He is right but it wasn't the answer I was looking for!

I hope you will join us this week! Please check out the Wee Memories blog for more info and to be inspired by my fellow design teams creations! You have until Friday November 4th to play!

Fall Card Exchange!

2011-10-25T23:18:00.000-05:00

Hello! It's been a busy couple of days as I have been working on a lot of different projects and some of them crafty. :> The major one is Ariel's birthday invites! Still slaving away with it! I wanted to pop in and share two cards. A few weeks ago I organized a fall card exchange in the Hero Arts Flickr group! I love organizing these card exchanges, I love bringing friends together sending cards that they love to make to each other!

I made this card for Kathy:

I embossed the flower and leaf from the Floursh Flower and Leaf set by Hero Arts and than colored it with several Distress inks! I also colored the lace with spiced marmalade ink, I was really pleased with how it turned out!

I received the most lovely card from Brenda:

I have her card sitting on my side coffee table and I so enjoy seeing it through the day! The rhinestones glitter beautifully! It's so fun to open an envelope and find a gorgeous handmade card!

Have a great night I am off to bed!

All Things Grow With Love

2011-10-23T12:23:00.000-05:00

Hello! I hope your having a great weekend! :> I am a bit late with my Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge post as I was away for a few days! We went on a little vacation to a close city in the US with our kids and with some friends of ours who also took there kids. We had such a fun time by the pool, eating out and spending time together! And I did get some shopping in there! With a few new crafty items! :> We ended up joining Chad's family at the next city (an hours drive) so we enjoyed spending time with the cousins, and I got more shopping done!

This week our sponsor is Annabelle Stamps! They have such a great selection of stamps to work with! They were so generous to us and provided us with stamps, I totally loved and All Things Grow With Love and got this one:

I have so many ideas and can't wait to play with this set again! With being busy packing (why is it even a small trip results in so much to get ready?) I only had the chance to make one card!

This week our challenge is Free For All! How could you not join us and play along?

I loved stamping these leaves over and over in various shades of green! :>

It's always fun to travel but with little kids it is quite exhausting so we are looking forward to a relaxing day today. Well I still have to go grocery shopping as our fridge is empty! This was our first time traveling since Carter has been sleeping in a bed so it was interesting! Ariel usually falls asleep right away at night and Carter usually takes a bit to fall asleep. Even though they were both exhausted it took them a little while fall asleep! We had them sleep in separate beds but the third night they slept together. That was so hard! Because they were so exhausted they were even more worked up! And they woke up earlier than ever it was cute to hear them giggling when they woke up! On the drive home Carter slept for 2 and a half hours of the 3 and a half hour drive home! Ariel slept too, it was funny them conked out!

Here is a cute photo from the weekend, at the restaurants we had the kids sit at there own table, we learned that Carter still needs to sit in a high chair otherwise he is roaming the whole restaurant! (Well at least the first night they sat us upstairs alone!)

When we met up with Chad's family we visited a sports store that has a ferris wheel inside:

I am feeling quite inspired which is really good since I have a lot of crafty deadlines. But the list is a bit stressful. Currently working on Ariel's birthday invites, I was going to go the easy route of a printed invitation or store bought but inspiration has struck at least I am halfway done!

I hope that you will join us this week! You have until Friday October 28th 11:59 pst to play! Please do check out the Wee Memories Blog for more deets and to be inspired by my fellow talented DT!!!

Zebra Shoes!

2011-10-19T09:52:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy Wednesday! :> Can't believe it's Wednesday already! Fall may be over as it's so cold here and it snowed a little bit last night! We've had to pull out winter coats! Yikes two weeks ago today it was so hot you could go swimming (my friend invited me to but I didn't feel well!) So fast the weather has changed!

I wanted to stop in with a card that I made for the Market Street Stamps special edition First Anniversary Block Party! Market Street Stamps has just turned one and I am so excited for them! Angelica one of the owners really is a sweetheart and I couldn't be any more happy for her! I had to make a card and play along! I so enjoyed being there guest designer this past July!

I had to play with the Fashionista set! I have a funny story to share, when I created with this set I "lost" the sentiment I used on today's card. I turned my craft table upside down looking for it! Time I could have been using to create! I looked everywhere. I have a good memory so it really bugged me! After some time I came to the sad realization it was gone! And you know nothing is worse or more annoying than losing a stamp! And I went on and created without it! A few days later I found a package of candy (I love candy and hide it all over the place so the kids don't find it, they have before and have a great time!) that I had forgotten all about. When I picked up the package I found my stamp! It was at the bottom of the bag of candy! It got stuck to the bottom! I know you understand my joy when I found it! I had had the candy on my craft table but you know I quickly hid it from the kids! Whoooo hoooo so I was so happy to create with this sentiment today!

I made this card for a close girl friend who celebrated her birthday yesterday! This card is so her and I know she will just love it! Ever since I've had this set I have planned to make her birthday card with it! We are currently on baby watch for her with her second as she is 7 days overdue right now! Can't wait! I may be bringing her this card when I go visit her and her new baby! :> It really is so fun when your friends don't find out what gender they are having!

Well I am off! I am so excited to share some very exciting crafty news hopefully next week!

Embossed Wildflowers

2011-10-17T17:41:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! Another start to the week! Hope you've had an amazing start! Today I enjoyed a playdate with a girlfriend and her two boys! Carter had been asking to play with him last week so I am glad they were able to come over! And what a fantastic playdate, as a mommy to a busy boy who doesn't always keep his hands to himself the joy that comes from a day when he does and you have a hassle free playdate where they play amazing all day really is special! And my friend and I had such great conversation! I love friends you get along with and is a great person! Carter was so sweet he took a short nap after they left and when he woke up he told me he missed his friend!

While I cook dinner (super easy mushroom pork chops and rice) I thought I would stop in with a card! I really like this card, love the design and made it quick. But picking out which pp I wanted to use took 3 days, no kidding! But it was worth it no?

Still working on cards for my church bookstore! But I am in the mood to do so, so it's all good! :> I used Stella and Rose pp by My Mind's eye, realized that I've had it for a bit so I should stop hoarding it already! Am I the only one who tries to save 1 piece of each pp for future use? I made this card on Saturday night. Chad was out with the guys watching our city's hockey and football game. I picked up some thai food from my favorite thai place as a treat as I don't eat out that much. And enjoyed creating! I got a peanut stir fry, it was amazing with a coconut base. I am in love with peanut stir fries lately and want to try to make my own. But I did a few years ago and it was horrible! So know of any good peanut stir fry recipes?

Products used: Vintage Cream cardstock by PTI, Stella and Rose pp by My Mind's eye, Wildflowers and Butterflies stamp set by Hero Arts, Zing Chestnut embossing powder, versarmark, sentiment from PTI.

Well I better get back to dinner! :>

Wee Memories Challenge 72!!

2011-10-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy Saturday! I am here with another fabulous Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge! This morning maybe while your reading this I am currently at a baby and kids sale, selling all my baby toys, clothes and what nots! It's nice to clean out my basement! And sorta sad to close the door to that part of my life! :>

This week our sponsor is the cutest stamp company ever, Lawn Fawn! Our challenge this week is Holiday Madness! Create a card for an upcoming Holiday! There are so many holidays coming up! :>

I decided to make a Christmas card! I played with a few of my Lawn Fawn stamps!

I played with winter bunny and say cheese by Lawn Fawn! So enjoyed it! Maybe a fun Holiday photo! Soon this will be a major past time for my children, sledding! I used some Hero Arts stamps too (sentiment and snowflakes) and the pp is October Afternoon!

I wanted to share some cute stories with you. Last week my MIL took Carter to the cabin with his cousin who is the same age as him. They had a blast! Playing together! My MIL said they chatted the whole drive and she did not understand how they understood each other sine she couldn't understand them! Than last Sunday we had a family gathering and they started playing together again. It was so sweet to see them sitting on the floor pushing a car back and forth to each other! Cameron loves Carter just as much so it's so cute to see there friendship bloom! Carter is just 3 but seeing him making buddies is so sweet! Today all day he has been asking to play with his friend Hudson over and over and over. I called my friend to ask her over for a playdate next week, she told me that Hudson had been doing the same to her the other day! We let them talk on the phone to each other and heard I heard Carter say "I want to play with you! I miss you! Your my friend!" So cute!

Well I hope you will join us this week with our challenge! Can't wait to see what you create! Please check out the Wee Memories blog for more deets and to see the always fabulous design team creations!

WildFlower Christmas

2011-10-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy Thursday to you! It's a dreary cool day here, one that reminds us that winter is on it's way! I've been enjoying my day at home with Carter and I babysat my friends two little boys today too. It was good they had a lot of fun and the youngst is just 1. I very much enjoyed cuddling him and by the end of the day thought to myself I could just keep him! :>

Today I have a card that I made for the current Hero Arts October challenge. One of the challenges is to make Holiday cards with non Holiday stamps! At first I was a bit thrown off and didn't think I would play with this part of the challenge. But than I started thinking of using a small stamp in the Wildflowers and Butterflies Hero Arts set to make a colorful background and realized I could do a Christmas one! Here it is:

I stamped one of the small flower stamps from the Wildflowers and Butterflies HA set over and over to create the background. Than I tied the bow and than stamped the sentiment from a HA Christmas sentiment set. Added some rhinestones for a bit of bling, foam squares for depth and there you go! I love how this background looks. I think it works really well for a Christmas card!

Well I am off. Chad is out watching hockey with a good friend and the kids are in bed. It's quiet here! Lately I've been very inspired so I am off to get creative! I have a whole bunch of card ideas in my head! Plus tonight is a good tv night with grey's anatomy, private practice, the mentalist, big bang and the office! Yesh too many good thing we PVR them and watch them through the weekend!

Cards for Card Drive for Kids with Spina Bifida

2011-10-12T20:53:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy Wednesday! Always find that the week after a long weekend just flies by! Tonight I am looking forward to my dance class! :> Oh and my skor dip, I had cream cheese that was close to expiry so I whipped some up last night and have been enjoying it with apples that are in season right now! Check out the recipe here, soooo yummy! Although I warn you it's soooo addicting! And I added more cream cheese as I found it sweet so maybe put less sugar...

I wanted to share with you a card drive that my friend Giovana is doing. "Card Drive for Kids" with Spina Bifida. October is Spina Bifida Awareness Month I think it's really great that she is collecting cards for these kids and families and wanted to support her so I made two similar cards to send. Please consider making cards for this also for more info please check out her blog here.

I couldn't resit coloring the girl robot pink! I masked the robots when I stamped the graph background over the robots. I had fun using up scraps for the banners. I'll be honest I really like this fun design! :>

Products used: Robot Trio, Sending Smiles, Graph Background by Hero Arts, lime twist by My Mind's eye, derwent colored pencils, recollections cardstock.

I wanted to share with you my friends that I quit my job! I hardly worked but I've hardly worked for almost 4 years at the children's clothing store! I would say on average a shift a week, every so often during a busy stint maybe 3 or 4 and at times nothing (winter) I really enjoyed it. I loved my discount! Shopping while I was there! Chatting with people (I love to socialize!) But there were a lot of negatives like call in shifts that I would need to call in an hour before and see if I am needed, and were talking 2 of those or more a week! With becoming a real estate agent in the near future I would have needed to quit anyways. In the end they had changed the job description and the amount of hours needed, and it was too much on a weekly basis for me and my family. With Ariel being in school all day now I had a really hard time leaving to go to work and the thought of so many more hours I broke down and had a good cry which told me it was time to go. It's a good break for me to focus on my course, my kids and family before I start my new career!

Well that's it for me! And don't forget to enter my blog candy you can click here!

Happy Thanksgiving and some blog candy!

2011-10-10T14:26:00.000-05:00

Today here in Canada it's Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving! (don't miss reading to end of this post I have some blog candy!) We are enjoying this long weekend very much with some relaxing time at home! Last night we had a great big fun family dinner with my husband's family. It was also a great night as our city had it's first NHL game in 15 years! We lost our team back than and just got it back! Sadly they lost but still played a good game and it's our team again! My hubby is one of the really lucky ones who got season tickets (with friends) they sold out in 3 minutes!

I have a card that I made for my hubby's parents to share, I can't seem to get enough of playing with these rich fall colors!

I stamped the leaves as if they were flying around, we had a very very windy day here (the kid that tress fall over!) made me think of it! Embossed the sentiment (so happy to have a Happy Thanksgiving sentiment finally) in chestnut and added some twine and a button, there you go! Oh and remembered how much fun it is to distress the edges!

Products used: Delicate Leaf clusters, old Letter writing, celebrate everyday and button by Hero Arts, Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo, Barn Door, Wild Honey Distress Inks by Tim Holtz, Versamark, Chestnut zing Embossing powder, twine by the Twinery!

Thanksgiving is a time to think of what you are thankful for (not that I don't more often than that!) I really am blessed in the small and the big. Trying to live each day being thankful is a goal of mine and one that I think leads to happiness. I wanted to thank you for being my crafty friend. For taking the time to read my blog and for always leaving me kind encouraging comments!! What better way to say thank you than to offer up some blog candy?

Anita's Thank You Blog Candy!

This blog candy consists of:

Daisy Label by Hero Arts Cling Stamp

Vintage Music background clear stamp by Market Street Stamps

Basic Grey Lauderdale 6 by 6 paper pad

Sea Pearls and Gems by Hero Arts

Sea Ribbon by Hero Arts

Mixed Earth Buttons by Hero Arts

The Fine Details:

You must be a follower of my blog to enter (if you subscribe by email please say so)

Please leave me a comment on this post.

Please leave your email address in your comment. You can leave it like

email at gmail dot com

so no spammers find it.

IF you would like to post about this on your blog, or tweet it, or facebook it please do you can leave as many comments for each (so up to 4 comments per person) (you do not need to to enter but if you do you can have more comments)

I will leave this open until Tuesday November 1st, 2011.

Good luck and thank you!!!

Wee Memories Challenge 71!!

2011-10-08T15:06:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy Saturday! Here in Canada we are celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend and it's a long weekend! I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge!

This week we have a great sponsor, Paper Smooches! They have the cutest stamps!! Kim has been so generous to provide two prizes, so two winners! Isn't that wonderful?

Our challenge this week is Halloween! Perfect for this time of year! And if you don't celebrate a fall creation! Since I don't celebrate I made a fall card!

I love that we have the option to make a fall card for the challenge as not everyone celebrates:

I am still working on cards for my church's bookstore since I got this PTI set that is all faith and bible verses!

Products used: Beautiful Blessings, Mat Stack 4 by PTI. Delicate Leaf Clusters and old letter writing by Hero Arts, barn door, spiced marmalade, vintage photo distress inks by Tim Holtz. Ek Success punch, prima lace.

Last night Chad and I went on a double date with a good couple friend of ours. We went to a restaurant in what's called the exchange district close to downtown. It's not an area that since we've had kids and such we've gone to much! The restaurant features healthy fast food with healthy homemade sauces. I ordered peanut chicken stir fry. They call it noodles in a box and it came in a takeout box! So yummy! We went there because this restaurant has an amazing deal of dinner and a movie at the your choice of downtown movie theaters for not much more than what a movie ticket is! It was a lot of fun and going to an area of town that you don't usually go to made it feel like we were in a different city! Kinda nice to break out of the norm! We saw:

And really enjoyed it! :> Great guy movie that you will enjoy too! :> What a fun night we had!

I hope that you will join us for this week's challenge! Please make sure to check out the Wee Memories blog to see all my fellow DT's creations!!!! You have until Friday October 14th 11;59 pst to play!!!

Praying for You

2011-10-06T22:53:00.000-05:00

Hello Happy Thursday! It's a been a busy week here. On Tuesday I worked the provincial election here. It's a long day I was there from 6:30 in the morning to 9:30 at night! It's almost like losing a day in the week! I really enjoy working the election though, I worked in my area so I knew so many people. :> My MIL took Carter and his cousin who is the same age to the cabin for the night! The weather couldn't be better it's hot like summer still! Carter is going to have so much fun! I had the afternoon to myself as Ariel was at school. Tonight the three of us went to see Mr Poppers Penguins, great family movie!

I did want to pop in and share a card that I recently made. At scrapfest when I went to do the Authentique make and take they asked me if I was a facebook friend, and I said yes. Apparently I was the first all day! They gave me a bunch of there 6 by 6 papers to play with. Here is my first card using them:

I embossed the flowers from my new HA set Butterflies and Wildflowers added some twine. I went with the praying for you sentiment as I am working on cards for my church's bookstore. :>

I am reading a book right now that I can't put down, maybe you've read it too:

And yes it's as good as you have heard! I really wanted to read the book before I see the movie! I can't wait to see the movie! Tomorrow when Ariel is at school I better be good and not read but study my course!

Well I am off to watch a bit of tv before bed with my hubby! Thursday is such a good tv night!

Happy World Card Making Day!

2011-10-01T12:03:00.001-05:00

Hello! Happy World Card Making Day! I am here with both my Wee Memories challenge blog hop and my post for World Card Making Day! I love that there is a day that celebrates Card Making! I have a few things to do today but plan to get some craft time with my daughter! I think celebrating World Card Making Day with someone I love will make it better! For the Wee Memories Blog Hop you should have arrived here from Amy's blog!

This week's Wee Memories Challenge is all about your favorites! So create with your favorite technique! Our sponsor is Unity Stamp Company! We have a stamp set for your winner as our prize!

Today I have my last Think Pink card to share. In total I made 9 (a few of each design) but when I went to drop them off I left one at home! And it's kinda perfect as I am going to send it to my family friend.

When I came up with the idea for my card yesterday I was actually working on this one. I used two of my favorite techniques for this card. Stamping and embossing!

Your next stop along the hop is Brandi!

I really hope you will join us for this week's challenge! And for our blog hop too!

Think Pink Week Card 3!

2011-09-30T17:06:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy Friday! Yay it's Friday! Now that my sweetheart is in full time school I am so happy for the weekend! Although last Saturday she did tell us she wished she had school! And my friends you know we don't just sit around home we have lots of fun doing things, she just really loves school! It's sweet but I do really miss her so you know how it is! We should be able to have lots of fun outside as the weather is still gorgeous!

I am back with another pink card! I am making think pink cards for my LSS Scrapbooking by Design. For more info please check out this post here. After my first post my friend Jenn told me that she had a stamp that I could use! It's perfect! I came up with this simple card while I was working on another one and love the simplicity of it:

The ribbon stamp is by Stampin Up, some colored embossing adds some interest! This card took no time so I made 3 of them!

That's it for me today! Who is excited for tomorrow? I am quite excited for World Card Making Day! Although I probably have created more today than I will get to a chance to tomorrow! :> I am trying to work on being a better blogger. I am quite behind I realized! :> Have a great night I am excited to be heading out for dinner with some great friends!

Think Pink Week Day 2

2011-09-28T16:36:00.001-05:00

Hello! Hope your having a great week! We are having unseasonal weather, super hot! It's strange how hot it is but I am not complaining. It could snow in October, and no I am not joking! :> We've been enjoying this great weather! Over the weekend we went to a corn maze and the kids loved it! There were farm animals to pet and my kids are so opposite Ariel loves all the animals and would bring them all home while Carter holds onto my legs and says "Mommy I am scared!" Scared of the bunnies? :> Which child do you think takes after me? Carter! I was so scared of animals when I was a kid! I guess your either an animal person or your not! I know the day will come that we will have to get Ariel a pet I think we just have to wait until Carter won't run screaming when it comes near him!

I am back with another Think Pink card for more info please see this post. I used the same sentiment as my last card as I really like it and I like what it represents for these cards:

I made actually made 2 cards like this, I find when I have a card idea in my head if I just stamp and color everything twice it's not that much extra work to make 2! I colored the butterfly with my prisma pencils and blended it with mineral spirits.

Well that it's for me today! Wednesday's are a busier day for us. Ariel has dance tonight, teeny tiny g's (hip hop) and ballet/tap/jazz so an hour and a half of dance! Trying to get a healthy home cooked dinner in, practicing piano with her, her sight words and reading and a decent bedtime in!! But it's also a fun day for me tonight I have a mom's dance class! Her studio offers a free dance class for the mom's of kids taking dance classes. It's super late from 10 to 11 but at the same time I am able to get some relaxation after the kids are in bed before I go to class! I am not the best dancer at all but it's exercise and so close to home too!

Think Pink Week!

2011-09-26T13:23:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy Monday! This week I will be sharing Think Pink cards! My local scrapbooking store Scrapbooking by Design is having Think Pink Month. One of the things they are doing this month is collecting cards for A Card for a Survivor, there goal is 150 cards that they would like to hand out at the Canadian Breast Cancer CIBC Run for the Cure walk that takes place this upcoming Sunday October 2nd! My goal is to work on Pink cards all week long and bring them in this Friday! I think that this is a great idea and want to help her reach an surpass her goal of 150 cards! If you would also like to create a card for this and can mail it asap or if you live locally please check out this link here.

For me sadly breast cancer has touched someone I love. A few years ago my aunt (my mother's youngest sister) died after her first treatment. My mother, other aunt and uncle didn't make it in time to see her as they were just landing in the airplane (my aunt lived in Croatia) My aunt lived a very hard life living through the war in Croatia (she lived in what was called one of the worst war torn cities in Europe) and after the war losing her husband to a tragic farm accident. Life was just starting to clear up for her. And recently another close family friend has gone out of remission and is undergoing treatment. I am praying for her healing. And I plan to send her a card now and again to let her know that she is in our thoughts and prayers.

I don't have a stamp set that is dedicated towards creating cards for this so I am getting creative with my own supplies! Today I have two cards to share that are similar:

I used two new stamp sets by Hero Arts the My Happy from there Studio Calico line (got this one with my HA class at Scrapfest!) And Butterflies and Wildflowers from there Basic grey line. I thought this sentiment today is a new day was a good one, thoughts?

See you tomorrow with another pink card!

Chloe's Crown Birthday Card

2011-09-24T11:46:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy Saturday! It's supposed to be an absolutely beautiful weekend here and we are quite excited! I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge!! This week our sponsor is the popular Echo Park Paper! Our challenge is "Patterned Paper"!

I tend to hoard pattern paper but am finding myself using it A LOT more than I used to! I decided to play with a really girly piece that I had from the Little Girl collection, Chloe's Crown. I had to pair the MFT stamp set Something Special Just for you with it! And I decided to play along with the MFT Get Sketchy challenge, I have never played before but have wanted to!

Here is my card:

I couldn't help but replace the stamped crown with one cut out of the patterned paper! :> Love this fun birthday card, working on my kid birthday card stash so that I am prepared! :>

I hope that you will join us this week for the challenge! Please do check out my fellow DT"s always inspiring work at the Wee Memories' Blog here!