When Will Winter End?

Can you believe this? This is the view of our backyard this morning, and, oh yes, that's snow! It had all melted and it was raining last night, but then the rain turned into snow this morning. Where is spring?

Some "Just Because" Cards

I've been asked to make some cards for the Women's Ministry at my church to give to the ladies of our church, so I was busy this week mass-producing cards! Here are some of the cards I will be giving them.
This one is actually for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #45. It's been ages since I've participated in a sketch challenge, so it felt good to make something like that! Blue Bayou and Sage Shadow are my go-to colours when I can't think of a combination! I love how they look together. I used some Blue Bayou Prints paper as well, along with my Simply Said stamp set. I coloured the flowers with Stampin' Write markers and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter for a little bling.
For this one, I used Splitcoast's Sketch Challenge 172 for the layout. I used Berry Bliss paper and matched it to Pretty in Pink and Close to Cocoa cardstock. The image is from Embrace Life, stamped in Basic Brown and coloured in with Stampin' Write markers. I used some Whisper White taffeta ribbon and my ticket corner punch to finish it off.

I got to play with my Cuttlebug for this one. I used Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip and River Rock, along with my Baroque Motifs and Sincere Salutations sets.

For the very last card, I used Blush Blossom, Mellow Moss and Elegant Eggplant as my colours and Bloomin' Beautiful and En Francais for the stamps. I coloured in the flower with my Stampin' Write markers.

Wow! I managed to post something two days in a row! Are you impressed? :) Thanks for visiting.

RAKs!

Man, I have to stop saying I'll post something on a certain day because I'm so bad at blogging lately that I never post when I say I will!

Here are some wonderful RAKs I received last week from some talented ladies!

This first one is from Amy. I just love the colours on this one! And look at all the gorgeous paper piercing on this - what beautiful details! Thank you so much, Amy. I just love it!

This one is from Blue Moon as a thank you for some blog candy that I sent her. I just love those Bella stamps! I really need to order one soon! I love the colours she put in this one, and the cute little flower bling! Thank you, Blue Moon! I hope you enjoy your blog candy!

Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate those of you who are still showing up, even though I've been a bad blogger lately! I'll work on it!

Spring Silhouettes

This is a card I made for a swap Alex is hosting (I hope it's okay to show it!). This is my first full-card swap, so I'm a little nervous! I hope everyone likes this card.

I used Splitcoast Sketch SC172 for this one. I started with Spring Silhouettes designer paper and chose my colours from there. I used Soft Sky as the card base. I layered the designer paper on some Wild Wasabi cardstock, then wrapped some Wild Wasabi double-stitched ribbon around it with a slider from the Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware (I hope you appreciate this, Alex! You know I'm a hoarder of supplies, so to part with my Hodgepodge was really hard! LOL!). I stamped the rose base in Soft Sky, then the outline image in Blue Bayou, stamped off once so it was a bit lighter. The leaves are Wasabi. I matted this on Wasabi and adhered it with some dimensionals. Then I attached the whole thing to the card base. I used the ticket corner punch on all the corners, before adhering them, of course!

I received a couple of beautiful RAKs in the mail this week from Amy and Bluemoon, so I'm going to post them tomorrow after I get a photo of them! Thanks for reading!

Thank You Boxes

Thank you all for your kind comments about my cat. I'm glad I'm not alone in this. We really miss her, but it's much more sanitary around here now!

On a happier note, I was able to make some gifts this week for the ladies in one of my Stamp Clubs, as it was our last meeting of the year on Tuesday. I decided to make these 2-5-7-10 boxes for them and fill them with treats.

I used Brushed Gold cardstock for the boxes, and I embossed the flourish from Priceless all over the cardstock with gold ep before folding them up. This took a lot longer than I thought it would! But I'm pretty happy with the results. I tied the box with Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon.

For an embellishment, I embossed the flower from Priceless onto some more gold paper and punched it out with my 1 3/8" circle punch. I layered this onto Very Vanilla and punched it out with my Scallop Circle punch. Then I put the whole thing on with a dimensional. The tag is the thank you stamp from the For a Friend hostess set, embossed in gold and punched out with the Key Tag punch. I tied these to the ribbon with some gold elastic cord (I know it's retired, but it matches the boxes!). I put some candies, a tealight and an incentive stamp in each box as a thank you.

A huge thank you to all those ladies who participated in my Tuesday night Stamp Club. It's been such a fun year!

Jasmine

Today was a sad day for our family. I had to give away our cat, Jasmine, after having her for fifteen years. I adopted her from the SPCA as a kitten when I was in university. We had to get rid of her because she started leaving poop streaks all over the carpets and that's too unsanitary for my kids to be playing around (she's just getting old and can't care for herself like she used to). Plus, we can't give her the attention she needs because she's afraid of the boys (they're not mean to her, they just have too much energy for her liking!). She hides all day in the basement and we don't see much of her until we go to bed.

DH and I went back and forth about taking her to the SPCA or having her put down, etc. because she's so old and we couldn't find anyone to take her. But we didn't want her sitting in a cage at the SPCA, and she's in good health, so I couldn't in good conscience have her put down. My SIL mentioned this place that adopts cats called the Hervey Cat Foundation. It's run by a lady in our area who just loves cats and she adopts them (for a fee) and either finds homes for them or keeps them. She makes sure they have proper medical care and food, and they're a no-kill facility. I dropped Jasmine off this morning with many tears, and Ms. Hervey gave me a hug and promised to take good care of her. After becoming accustomed to the other cats in the house, she'll be one of the family - even sleeping on the bed with them if she likes! I felt like I was leaving her in good hands. Ms. Hervey is a very nice lady. She said that because Jasmine is so old, she won't adopt her out, but will just take care of her until the end. It's just sad to have to part.

Okay, enough of that. I'll post something less depressing tomorrow!

One Crazy Week!

Wow! I'm such a bad blogger! I've had a busy week (plus I'm now addicted to Facebook! LOL!).
My mom has been visiting since Friday, and we've had such a great time! We celebrated my son's fourth birthday this past weekend, so she came out to party with us. Where on earth does the time go? I feel like it was only yesterday that I brought him home from the hospital. Now he's four already, and he'll be starting pre-school in the fall!

Here he is opening some gifts with Daddy (can you say spoiled?) We had all of his cousins and his uncles and aunts, my mom and my husband's parents, plus some family friends over, so the place was packed! Adam insisted on inviting his Sunday School teacher and her kids as well. He just loves Ms. Corbett! The kids were surprisingly well-behaved and the party went very well. I was pretty impressed that he went and said thank you to everyone after he had opened each gift (we had a big talk before the party about saying thank you to people).


DH and I also celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary on the weekend (yes, my son was born the day after our anniversary! We came home from dinner four years ago and turned around and went right to the hospital! What a great way to celebrate your anniversary - NOT!) Anyway, it was nice that my mom was visiting because she stayed with the boys and let us go out for dinner and a movie. We went and saw Leatherheads. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a hilarious movie! I love George Clooney's comedies. Very witty and intelligent humour!

My mom went back to B.C. this morning amid tears from my boys. They had such a great time with Grandma (as did I!). There's nothing like becoming a mom to make you realize how much you appreciate your own mom!

Also, our car's broken, so DH has been driving my van to work this week and I'm stuck at home, so at least I should be able to get some stamping done tomorrow!

Well, there's a quick recap of my past week! Thanks for listening to my ramblings! I'm hoping to get some cards posted tomorrow if I can stay off of Facebook for awhile! (Come on, I know I'm not the only one! LOL!)

April Stamp Club Projects

I finally got my April Stamp Club projects planned! I wanted to use a lot of the Occasions Mini Catalogue items because they are so much fun! So this month, it's all about the Mini!

Our first project will be this clear envelope brag book. I've made so many of these as hostess gifts and door prizes, so I wanted to show my Stamp Club ladies how to make them! This one uses the Summer Picnic designer series paper with the matching Tart & Tangy stamp set. I used the Bashful Blue brads to match, along with Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon.

Next is this card that uses the die cut blossoms from the Occasions mini. I curled the petals a little bit and added a button with some linen thread through it to the center of the flowers. I used Rose Red cardstock as the base with some Bashful Blue stamped in Weathered in the same colour. The sentiment is from Time Well Spent.

Finally, we will be doing the wax crayon resist technique to make this card. I used Always Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy to take a little break from all the Bold Brights! The card base is stamped with the big flourish from Baroque Motifs. I stamped the flower from Bloomin' Beautiful in black Staz-On onto glossy white cardstock. Then I used a white wax crayon to colour on the edges of the petals and leaves. Finally, I sponged ink over the whole thing and wiped it off of the crayon area afterwards. I hadn't tried this technique before, but I really like it! I think it would look really nice with some Soft Subtles colours too.

Well, I hope my Stamp Club ladies enjoy these projects. Thanks for reading!

Diane Nominated Me!

I'm so flattered that Diane (ddnjoys2stamp) nominated me for this award. She's the one who always cheers me up with her encouraging comments! What a lovely lady. Thank you for this honor!

I want to pass on the nomination to all of you who visit my blog and leave me nice comments. I know I'm not the most consistent blogger out there, but it's always nice to know someone is looking! So consider yourself nominated if you visit my blog and enjoy what you see. Blessings to you!