get sketchy!

Helllllllllo!  Happy Saturday!  All over blog land I have been hearing about many of you covered in snow!  Me too.  It snowed A LOT today!  I am so thankful that my hubby does the shoveling! I have trouble with me neck and shoulders and have to watch how much I lift and what I do, if I shoveled I would pay for it dearly for a few days!  There may be a lot of snow, but at least it's not as cold as it was!  And at least it didn't rain like it was predicted!  I hope all of you who are covered and are having a hard time that it gets better fast!  I know that if your not used to it, it's overwhelming.

We have another great Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge for you!  Our sponsor again is a great online store Simon Says Stamps!  I am sure you know what a great online store they are! :>  And what a great prize they are offering today, $10 gift certificate to there store to our winner!

Our challenge is different today as we are Getting Sketchy!!!!  (I so love the name of our challenge!)  Jenny made a sketch for all of us to play with!

Today we are celebrating a sweet baby boy's first birthday!  It's always great to celebrate with friends!!!  I needed to make a birthday card for him.  I was planning on using this sketch to make a Valentine card and started.  I didn't like it.  Than it clicked for me and I used it for his birthday card:

I don't know if you can tell but I flip die embossed the clouds in the background!  (I used the back of the die to emboss the background)  And the clouds are felt!  I am really pleased with how this turned out! 

I hope you love this sketch and join us and play!  And I hope that if you don't love it, you love the challenge of it and play too!  :>  Please jump on over the Wee Memories blog here  for more information and to check out the rest of our wonderful DT's creations!

Lawnscapping Challenge card, and a card for Charlie

Hello!  Happy Wednesday!  The weather here has warmed up considerably.  It's still winter but after last week's freezing temperatures of minus 40 the minus 15ish is a lot better!  Although they are calling for rain on Friday and really cold weather on Saturday.  What a great mix! Ack!  Two years ago it rained about this time of year and kids went skating down the street!  Now that it's warmer I was able to take the kids outside to play in the snow.  This year I got some snow pants for me so it really wasn't that cold!  The kids had a blast.  We walked down the street to the lake to sled down but there was too much snow and it was way to soft.  I think it should be good in a couple of days!  The kids loved going outside, I loved that they worked off to much energy, but let me tell you boy was I bushed afterward!

My blog friend Laurel started a new challenge blog Lawnscaping Challenge!  I actually won some Lawn Fawn stamps from Laurel so I had to play!  The challenge is to case the owner and designer of Lawn Fawn stamps herself Kelly Alvarez!  I was inspired by this card here and I noticed that Kelly uses a lot of die cut shapes in her cards,or makes shaped cards so I used one too!  And I am also entering this card into the current Simon Says challenge  My card that I am sharing today is quite fitting for my adventures in the snow!  And for what goes on around our house.  We often see little bunny trails and have even seen a bunny outside in the snow from our window!  The kids love it, so cute!  which is animal antics!

I am actually sending this card for a little boy named Charlie who is in the hospital who Britta is collecting cards for.  Please check out her blog here for more information!

When I made this card I could totally see one of the bunnies that we see going for a nice sleigh ride in the snow, you know when it's minus 40 whose going to see him having so much fun?  No one would catch him!  :>  I stamped the bunny on white felt and the scarf on some stripey pp!  I hand cut the snowbanks and ran my gray ink pad over it to add dimension.  I stamped the clouds background by HA and the sentiment and tied some twine around it.  It's fun to make a winter card because I still have a few months of winter left! 

Masking Little Girl Birthday Card

Happy Sunday!  The weekend is almost done here and I am okay with it!  It's been busy!  Monday's are usually a nice relaxing catch up kind of a day so I am looking forward to that.  I usually spend Monday's cleaning but the house is looking good already so it only gets better!  Today Ariel had a birthday party for her friend who lives across the street, at a kid indoor play place across the city.  I think almost EVERYONE in the city thought to go there!  It makes sense with how cold it is but it was crazy!  Oh well she had a good time!  I have the card I made for the party to share:

I made this also for the current Hero Arts contest, one part of the challenge is masking.  I used to actually mask a lot but haven't in a while so I very much enjoyed this!  The little girl has a dog so I wanted to include one, first I stamped the dog, than I masked her (with post it notes), than stamped the girl, masked her on top, than the grass masking each time, than the flower masking and than the background!  For some reason the card looks so washed out in the picture!  I colored it in with my derwent pencils.  I stamped the background and lined it up with the top piece.  Couldn't find a place for the birthday sentiment so I did a tag!  So fun.  I think there is a few birthday parties coming up so you may see a few more cute cards on my blog!

Well off to bed for us!  Chad and I have been enjoying watching Modern Family this weekend, the first season.  We missed it when it started but recently have gotten into it.  I love funny shows! 

your so specail rosette

Hello!  It's Saturday!  I hope your having a great weekend!  We are!  Last night we had some good friends over for dinner!  I made beef dip and it was so yummy!  Since we cleaned and organized our house at the beginning of the month I am finding it a lot easier to keep it clean and get ready for guests!  

Being Saturday means that we have another great Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge!  This week our sponsor is iCopic!  Everyone loves copics!  And everyone will love the great prize they have provided for the winner, Copic Marker Ciao Set of 8 of your choice!  

Today it's our fellow DT member Jinny's birthday!  Jinny I am wishing you a wonderful day!  And a truly amazing year! I don't think my card will arrive on your doorstep for your birthday, but it will come soon!  And this isn't the card I sent you.  You have to wait for it to come to see it! Our challenge is an easy "Free your creativity" anything goes!  

I made a paper rosette (I think that's what they are called) for the first time:

Products used:  Bo Bunny PP, PTI Buttons, All stamps Hero Arts Magical Background, CL380, Colorbox FrostWhite Ink and SU Chocolate Chip, Fiskars and EK Sucess edge punch and twine by the twinery!

 I kept seeing these paper rosette's all over and thought it would be fun to make one!  It is!  I stamped the background in white and punched the edge.  For the rosette I cut a 12 inch strip by 1 3/4 inch than punched the edge and than scored it between each scallop, folded it and adhered it.  Added a button with a twine bow!

It's still so very cold over here so I think we may be staying home a lot, although Ariel does have a birthday party tomorrow.   She refuses to go without me so I will be enjoying the afternoon at Kidcity a big kids play place, looking forward to the noise, not!  She is actually invited to 2 birthdays but I don't know if we will be able to make it to both! 

I hope that you will join us and play this week!  Make sure to check out my fellow DT's creations and the Wee Memories blog, you have until Friday January 28th 11:59 pst to play!

Embossed and Patterned Paper Card Set

Hello!  Hope where you are it's warmer than here!  Today it is a shocking minus 43 with windchill!  Apparently at 3 am a city more north from here in our province was the coldest place on earth!  Needless to say that when Chad heard that he decided that it was much too cold for Ariel to go to school!  He said it's early dismissal anyways so it's not a full day.  I think what may have motivated him was that he can work from home!  He ended up having to go out anyways but he came back as fast as he could!  The kids haven't left the house since Sunday morning when we went to church.  They are starting to get a little stir crazy so I think tomorrow we will be going to stay and play no matter what, we need to get out!  I have been cleaning, preparing great meals, crafting and yesterday I baked some blueberry muffins and peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Today I have a card set to share.  I don't know if you remember but I made the decision this year to work on card sets every month so that I have them on hand.  I am going to work on using them as gifts or part of gifts for friends and family.  And for teacher gifts!  I really enjoy making card sets by the way!  My blogging friend Ivy liked this idea so much she is going to do it too!  Make sure to check her out here and see what she made, and leave her some love too!  If anyone wants to join in please do!  I think card sets make great gifts but leaving it to the last minute it never gets made!  Here is the one I made:

I took a photo of the other 3 but it won't load right!

I made these cards in one evening.  Working with patterned paper makes it faster and an easy way to pick your colors.  I used the same piece of pp it was double sided, I couldn't decide which side I liked best so I went with half of the one side and half of the other side!  I embossed the flower in black and white on the pp, tied some baker's twine by The Twinery around it and added a scallop edge.  Make sure to check out Ivy's card set too!

I have been enjoying receiving mail lately from a few of my flickr friends!  It's so fun to get a handmade card in the mail!  :>  Here they are in the order I received them:

From Greta:

 I love all the border punches and that big silver bow!

From Dawn:

I love the soft colors and the glitter!  :>

From Vicky:

This card is so creative!

And today I received this one from Alice!

So lucky am I!  Thank you so much ladies!  I enjoy receiving them as do my hubby and Ariel!  :>  I hope you all have a great week.  I hope it warms up a bit I need to get out!

mmmm...donuts!

Hello!  Hope you've had a great weekend!  We sure did!  Enjoyed some time with friends and each other!  If you've been following my blog for a bit you may have heard me talk of donuts before.  I love donuts.  I love anything sweet really but donuts are just so yummy!  I remember as a child my dad's older aunt worked in a bakery and always when visiting her she would have donuts for us!  My children love donuts too and since they are so skinny and could use some fatting up I get it for them from time to time!  (Don't worry I feed them very healthy usually!)  So you can imagine how excited I was when my flickr friend Marilyn sent me some donut stamps!  Currently my favorite company Hero Arts monthly contest includes Inspiration from the 2011 catalog!  I was inspired by two cards on page 5 of the catalog.  I like the whole repeat stamping in a pattern and did it with the donuts.  I was inspired by the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World for my colors (love these fresh colors):

 Here is my card, I went freehand with the stamping no pencils just did it by eye and it worked pretty well:

A donut lovers dream!  Pink sprinkled , Double chocolate, creamscicle (orange and cream Chad's favorite!) and lemon lime?  After I made this one another similar idea came to me so I decided to make it too:

First I stamped the back of the donut in color and than stamped the donut on top in brown!  You know I love to colors yes I do but I so prefer to stamp and I like how this looks so much.  And the satisfaction I got out of all that stamping!  I so enjoyed making this card and doing the double stamping I am warning you I looked through my stamps with hopes of doing this so more!  I may prefer this to coloring! The way I did it was stamp the top, than the bottom and than the middle one in each row.  It involved some thinking to keep the colors right!   Now which card do you like more? Here they are side by side:

Another part of the Hero Arts contest is decorating the insides of cards so I did some simple stamping inside these:

Well if it weren't so cold after all this donut talk I would so be on my way to get some!  But alas it's so freezing outside I am hoping to hibernate inside my house with my stamps for the next few days.  I wonder if I've got you hungry for some donuts?

For the Love of Ribbon!

Hi all!  I hope that you are doing great! I have been house bound the past 2 days as it's horribly icy out there!  Chad has gone out to work, errands and driving Ariel to school since he doesn't want me on the roads!  He's always so concerned with me driving in these conditions!  I have never been in a car accident... although I did hit a curb last year and the wheel ailment had to be fixed.  When it's like this if you can it's better to stay at home!  Sadly I have to work today,  I think Chad's thinking of driving me...

I am here with another great Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge!  I loved last week's challenge with the twine and seeing all your great submissions!  

This week we have the wonderful ribbon sponsor May Arts!  Our challenge is For the Love of Ribbon!  

Last week I shared a Valentine treat and this week I have another Valentine treat!  But this one is super quick and easy.  It's nice to send something to your child's teacher, a friend or a coworker.  Sometimes you don't have much time and who says it has to be complicated?  

Products Used:  Hero Arts stamp Musical Background, sentiment.  Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Inks,  Red Colorbox Ink, TM Edge distresser, Quickutz heart die, bazill cardstock, ribbon.

I took a package of 3 Lindt chocolates, I know you've seen these before!  And made a tag for it.  I die cut a heart stamped it with the musical background and than distressed the edges.  I added a red rolled flower and tied a big bow to hold it all together.  I know that this would make anyone smile!  I think I am going to give this to my hubby Chad as I know he loves these chocolates.  I'll hide it in my night table and in the morning on Valentines Day I will put it on his pillow when he wakes up!  Until than I better hide this from myself!

I hope you join us in the fun this week!  And please remember to check out the rest of the fabulous DT and leave them some love!  You have until Friday January 21, 11:59 PST to play!  For more info please check out the Wee Memories Blog!

More Valentine's for St Jude's

Hello!  Happy Thursday!  It's been a busy week over here!  The weather outside is terrible with falling snow and slippery conditions! Chad actually came home sick and begged me to call in "sick" to my work since I had to work tonight.  I did, I told them that he was sick and couldn't look after the kids!  I am glad I did since he's spent the day in bed! I am praying he gets better since he has a busy couple of days with work! I was able to get crafty today and made two more Valentines for the kids at St Jude's hospital.  Click here for more info on the card drive that Winter Sims is having for them. 

I also decorated the inside, I am entering it into the current Hero Arts contest, one of the challenges is card insides!  I go through phases where I do decorate the inside, and than I forget!  I did decorate the inside this time since I knew it would make it more special for the kids!

Products used:  Hero Arts Stamps Kiss from the Sun, Monster Fun. Bazill cardstock, Red twine from the Twinery, Stickles, SU Black Ink, Razzelberry colorbox Ink, glitter, googly eyes.

I thought that this sentiment works pretty well for a Valentine sentiment for kids!  I covered the monsters in pink and red glitter.  I wasn't too sure about the red glittered monster and asked Chad for his opinion.  I asked him what he thought it looked like and replied "well it's half a heart thing" men.  Hearing that he thought it was half a heart shape makes me think it's even better for a Valentine card! For the inside I continued the banner and stamped the cute circle stamp!   I sure hope it brings a smile to the child who receives it!

I just realized that my house is very quiet!  Everyone is sleeping, and it's just after 9!   Hmmm I think I am going to go and watch Grey's and stamp!  Or bake I so want to bake but ran out of chocolate chips, oh by the way anyone have some good muffin recipes beside banana?

Twine Birthday Card

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend!  We did and a nice relaxing one too!  It's nice how in January life slows down!  Today I have a birthday card to share with you.  It uses twine again with the current challenge at Wee Memories I thought I would share another card I made with twine!

 Products used:  Hero Arts Stamps flower from CL431, sentiment from CL181.  Ek Success Punch, Mandarin Twine from the Twinery, Bo Bunny pp, Chestnut Roam Chalk Ink by Colorbox, corner rounder, bazill cardstock, PTI button.

 I used some pp I have had for a while.  In the photo the dots seem to take over the card, in real life the brown shows through so much better.  I have been moving my craft stuff and reorganizing and found this!  I stamped the flower from the Hero Arts set that I won from Lin a little while back!  Added some scallops in brown and kraft and tied some mandarin twine from the Twinery along the bottom!

I hope your having a great start to your week!  :>

Valentine Twine Treat Box with Tutorial

Hello!  Happy Saturday!  Today I am here with a new challenge for Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge!  With the Holidays we had a nice break but we are ready today to wow you!  We have an amazing sponsor, The Twinery! 

Twine is so hot right now in papercrafting!  Our challenge this week is to design with some twine!  Not hard at all!  I have so been enjoying my twine from the Twinery, I can't tell you how easy it is to use!  And how easy it is to create with too!  

For this challenge I created some Valentine Triangle Treat boxes:

These boxes are so easy to make!  I can't remember where I learnt how to make this, nor can I find it online so I thought I would make my own tutorial for it.  Please excuse how bad the photos are!  :>  

Products needed:  4 by 8 inches cardstock or patterned paper  (with a 12 by 12 sheet you can make 4)

                             Heart die (mine is quickutz) or any die that fits, usually the smallest nestie

                             Scoring template

                             Baker's pink and red twine by the Twinery

                             Background stamp (mine is musical and magical by HA) and ink

                             Skewer 

                             Cellophane (like leftover packaging, cellophane bags or envelopes)

                             Buttons if you wish

Stamp background on cardstock and fold in half

Score the middle on each side, 2 inches in.  Than score from the middle to the edge, making a triangle on each side.

This is a photo showing where the pencil lines are where the scoring should be.  Once this is done take your die and die cut a shape into one of the sides of the triangle.  Using double sided tape attach a square of cellophane that covers the hole.

On each side close the box and punch a hole through both layers of cardstock...

Fill the box with candies.  I prefer the Hershey kisses to the cinnamon hearts.  Taking the twine you tie it to the skewer.  Close the box and push the skewer through both sides.  The skewer makes it easy to pull the twine through and close the box.  Tie the twine to keep the box closed!  And there you go!

For the Hershey Kisees one I tied a double bow and added a heart button, for the Cinnamon hearts I tied a regular bow!  

Well I hope you join us and play this week!  Make sure to check out my fellow DT gals!  I hope this tutorial made sense to you also!  Let me know what you think of it!

holiday photos

Hi all!  I don't have a new card to share today.  :<  But I do have a cute Valentine something coming tomorrow!  This week the hubby and I have been cleaning, purging and organizing our house!  It's sorta fun!  I realize that for 5 and a half years that we've lived here we've been bringing things in but hardly taking things out!  Still have yet to start on the toys though, I like toys so I don't think it will be easy to get rid of that stuff!  So instead of a card I thought I would share some of my favorite photo's from our holiday photos session.  I can't believe how great the photos came out!  Ariel looks breathtakingly beautiful and Carter is so handsome!  I am really starting to see how much Ariel looks like me and Carter looks like Chad.  Love them to pieces and I am so glad that we did this photo session! 

My favorite of Ariel:

 

Another good one:

Carter so handsome in this hat:

This summer when Carter's hair bleached blonde we thought it was because of the sun.  I tried not to cut it too much but eventually had to and discovered that it was just as light at his roots!  It's interesting the surprise we get from people over how white it is!

Here is my favorite of me and each child:

And one of just me:

And one of me and the man I love, my hubby Chad.  His eyes look a little red because the brightness bothers him!

If you've made it to here yay!  Hope you have a great weekend and I will be back tomorrow!