Happy Holidays everyone! I hope yours was wonderful - ours was! I took the tree and decorations down today - it was time. We are having a small get together tomorrow evening for New Years. I hope that whatever you are doing, you are with people you love!

I did have a few minutes before the busy Christmas rush to get down into my craft room and make one more card. We bought our god daughter a gift card for Christmas and I saw this great little idea for a gift card holder on Heather Summers' blog (her link is on the right of my page) and I just had to try it. So simple but looks like I spent hours on it! I used my new favorite Christmas stamp set from Stampin' Up - stamped it on the kraft and then again on white. I cut the little white snowman out and popped him up on the card...again, some glitter and flock and some heat embossing on the title and what a great little card!

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas goodies!

I always try to make something special for my kids to take to their classmates on the last day before the Christmas break. This year, my 12-year-old told me it was no longer cool for her to take things in :-( I'm so glad I still have a first grader who loves to bring treats to his class!

I used the amazing new little treat cups this year for Ethan's cards....I wanted them to be simple because really, what 6-year old cares about the actual card - they just want the treats! I made this like a card front - so they don't open at all. I wanted to use white jelly beans but I couldn't find any but I think the coloured chocolate drops (I was too cheap to buy actual m&m's...lol!) look great. I cut a white strip of card stock and randomly stamped snow flakes on it - then punched the hole for the treat cup. I then adhered it to a blue card front, added a caption - and there you have it! I made 20 of these in about an hour.

I have 3 boxes of treat cups left (since the 7th grader decided she didn't need the cards) and can't wait to decide what to make with them next!

I'm Back!

It' been such a long time since I've made a post. There are so many great new products out - but I've had such little time to craft at all. We purchased a new house this summer and made the big move in the fall. On the bright side, I now have space to spread out - granted, it's still in the laundry room but some day, it's going to be a room of it's own - that's my plan!

I am thrilled with how this little card came out - I actually made a tag first and then thought it would be simple to transform into a card. The stamp set is from Stampin' Up.....so cute! I stamped it on the kraft card stock and then again on white card stock. I then cut 2 of the snowmen out of white and popped them up onto the card base. A little glitter, a little flock on the earmuffs and pompom hat - and voila! A cute card that really looks like it took way more work than it actually did!

Glad to be back.......hope you'll stop by again soon !

New Butterfly

I was lucky enough a few weeks ago to have a weekend with some of my oldest and dearest girl friends. We went to a cottage at a close by lakeside village and enjoyed a lot of conversation and even more food! I am so blessed by the friends and family that I have in my life and am thankful for them every day. These friends I don't get to see often enough - life and some distance get in the way sometimes but we can always pick up right where we left off each time we get together. It's wonderful.

Before I headed to the cottage and because I was uncharacteristically without children or spouse, I took the time before I hit the highway to duck into a local scrapbook store in a neighbouring town called Memories on Main Street.

What an adorable little shop she has here - it looks tiny but it's stuffed with yummy scrapbooking and card making merchandise - and fabulous ideas. I couldn't get enough and had to force myself out the door - but not before I spent some money first. I bought a whole bunch of designer paper and some glittery oversized brads as well as a new stamp to add to my newly growing collection. I don't know the designer of the stamp but it is a long style stamp with 3 butterflies. I used 1 of the butterflies on the birthday card that I made above for one of my coworkers.

I hope the endless winter isn't getting you down. Thank you for stopping by to take a look!

Hearts Galore!

I am so in love with the new "Luv you Much" bundle that I bought from Stampin' Up! It came with some yummy designer paper, a three-heart punch (with matching stamp - yay!) and a set of stamps for Valentine's day! I think I can find ways to use this set all year long! In fact, I made a cute little pre-birthday gift for my husband's birthday with the set already.

This is the other card that I'm sending off to Michigan for the children's hospital there. I got the idea from a friend's card that I saw today when I was at her house. Her hubby made a ginormous skating rink in their back yard. Seeing that today was a PA day, it was the perfect opportunity to go over and take advantage of the mild weather for the kids to skate....17 kids I might add and there was still plenty of room on that rink!

Enjoy and thanks so much for taking a peek!

By George I think I've got it!

I can't even believe that I myself did the colouring on this image! This is another card that I made with my cute Cheesecake stamp that I bought a few weeks ago. This is the full image...isn't it so cute? I used my water colour pencils and a blender pen to colour the cute little mice in. The "just for you" sentiment was stamped onto the same colour card stock as I used for the card base and I popped it up slightly to look like a little flag. I'm thrilled with the outcome! Water colour pencils definitely make this craft simpler than I would have ever expected!

This will be the weekend that I get my cards done and in the mail to Detroit for Pat (see post below for details). I plan on holing myself up in my craft room (which, incidentally, is my laundry room in case you wondered - lol!) and finishing 15-20 cards as my contribution. It's supposed to be bitter cold this weekend so I think the craft room is a great place to be.....if I wasn't in there, I'd have to be house cleaning so I think I prefer my alternative!

Have a super weekend everyone!

Friend to Friend

I was playing around tonight - trying to create some easily duplicated cards for Valentines Day. I used my new Big Shot from Stampin' Up (Merry Christmas to me! :-)) to make the scalloped inside and the new 3 heart punch to punch out the corner. I then stamped a larger heart and cut it out and adhered it with pop dots over the ribbon. I am happy with the outcome - cute and easy! I'm going to be sending this card off with several others that I'm making to send to Pat in Detroit to help her meet her 1000 cards request for kids at the Children's Hospital of Michigan. If you are interested in helping out with this cause, you can check out Pat's site here . I feel very lucky to have 2 very healthy children and am honoured to be able to help out in this capacity. I hope you will too - you have until February 7 to get your cards to her and as a thank you, she's also offering some sweet blog candy!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Last week was my hubby's birthday - he is sure to take every opportunity to let people know that he is younger than me and on the day of his birthday was no different - lol! We had a nice dinner out with family and the kids and I bought him a reflective running jacket since he trains for his runs at night sometimes and I'm deathly afraid that he'll be hit by a car. Now everyone will see him!

I had a wonderful weekend - over at my friend Rebecca's for a class that she did. We made a fantastic organizer for cards for the year which I will share later this week. It was nice to sit and work for a few hours with ladies who enjoy the same addiction!

I'm posting a photo of the card that I made for DH for his birthday. I used a new stampt that I purchased at the Rubber Room - an adorable little store that I've discovered not far from my work - which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it! The stamp is actually a long one with 5 little mice called Cheesecake Parade by Penny Black. For this 5x5 card, I coloured 3 of the mice individually with my stamping markers so that they'd be individual instead of a group and cut them each out. The giant brads are something I've had for a long time in my stash but never knew what to use them for. I think they were perfect for this card!

I hope that this snow we've been getting is not bringing you down - maybe it's even giving you more time to stamp! Have a super week!

Shout Out to Sheetload!

You just have to check out this new site that I've stumbled across - thanks to some help from my friend Rebecca! The website is called Sheetload of Cards and is a mountain of great ideas for you to try. Each month these talented ladies compile an issue of fantastic sketches and cards made with that sketch for you to duplicate or use as inspiration for your own ideas! You can check out their January '09 issue here. You can even use the sketch ideas for scrapbook pages!

Another birthday card post

I'm totally in love with this 5x5 square card - I think it just might be my new favorite card type. You can just fit so much onto the front of these cards and nothing looks crowded which is a typical problem for me. This is another birthday card that I made last night for a coworker, using the same stamp set as the first one.

I'm sitting patiently waiting for my next Stampin' Up order to come from my friend Rebecca. It has a brand new punch in it that I'm excited to use - hearts! In the meantime, I think I'll take out my new cutting machine and cut some designs out of the heart die that I have in advance of the kids' Valentine's making extravaganza. I'll post pictures of that pile of fun!

Well, we're experiencing some nasty weather here in SW Ontario - and it seems to be going on forever. Freezing rain, snow....I'm tired of it. Can't wait until the first robin of spring! My husband and I are already talking about our trip to Mexico in April - I am so excited! I had best get my Costa Rica album done from our trip last year before April or I'll be so behind I won't know which end is up!

I hope that wherever you might be, that you're staying warm!

Happy New Year!

Wow - where does the time go? It doesn't seem like that long ago since my last post but when I take a look, I can't believe how long it's been! My family spent some really great quality time together for the week following Christmas which was fantastic. We went bowling with friends, out for dinner and one day, my hubby and I and another friend took the kids to the movies. Hubby and his friend took the little ones to see The Tale of Despereaux while my oldest and I went to see Twilight. What a fantastic movie! I highly recommend it and my daughter is a huge fan of the books!

Now that all the hustle and bustle of the season is over - it's time to start thinking of all the birthdays that I have to make cards for over the next little while. In fact, I do believe that between today and Valentine's Day, I have 6 birthdays and an anniversary. And what about Valentine's Day? My kids like to take special treats to their friends at school and luckily, I love to help them make their cards! I can't wait to get them started!

I did knock out a couple of birthday cards tonight for some work friends. I'm sharing one tonight - a case from Jenn Diercks on Splitcoast Stampers. I had a tough time with the colour scheme on this one but in the end, I think it turned out nicely.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas season and I wish you all the best in 2009!