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!