Afternoon Tea Thanks

I finally got a chance to do a little stamping for fun this afternoon! I decided to try the sketch challenge from Stamp Something for this week. I think this is a beautiful sketch, and it was really fun to work with. I made a thank you card for DH's cousin (at whose resort we'll be staying when we go to Jamaica this summer!).

I pulled out my trusty Afternoon Tea designer series paper (LOVE this paper!), and the other colours came from there (Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi). My Chocolate Chip silk ribbon went perfectly with it as well. I had the main layout all finished, and then I couldn't decide what to put on the main image piece. I had stamped a piece with some flowers all over it, but it clashed with the designer paper, so I put it in the "try again later" pile and came up with this butterfly piece. I stamped the butterfly from Priceless in Guava and cut it out. Then I stamped it again in Chocolate Chip and adhered the Guava one over top (I've seen a lot of people doing this with their butterflies, so I thought I'd finally give it a try. I love the 3-D look!). I also added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the wings (don't know if you can tell from the photo). Then I added some Wasabi flourishes and the greeting from Sincere Salutations.

Thanks for visiting! I haven't had time for blurfing yet this week, but I'll be at it this weekend, so if I haven't stopped by your blog for awhile, I'll be there soon!

Blessings to you,

More Hostess Appreciation Stuff!

I had a lot of fun at my Hostess Appreciation Open House. Thank you all for your encouraging comments. The weather was absolutely gorgeous here, so not as many ladies turned up as I had expected. I think they wanted to play outside instead! But for those who did stop in, we had a lot of fun! There was tons of food and make & takes. My SIL, Wendy, won the door prize draw (no, it wasn't fixed!).

This is the final make & take. I found this card in the new Company's Coming Card Making book (Yes! Company's Coming has a crafting book!) I modified it a bit to make it standard size. This is a great card for using your scrap designer paper! We just punched 14 circles with the 1 inch circle punch and adhered them in rows on the Kraft cardstock card. They stamped their choice of sentiment from the For a Friend hostess set in Close to Cocoa ink and edged it with ink as well. Then just add a few random buttons using mini glue dots.

As well, I promised to show the hostess gifts I made. I made Patty's Two-Pocket Card for them (CASEing Diane's) with a coupon book inside, some seeds and a little chocolate bar, all stamped of course! I used the Le Jardin designer paper and matched the cardstock accordingly (I had So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue and Always Artichoke cards for them to choose from). I used the French Flair and Carte Postale stamp sets to decorate (can you believe these are retiring?!)
I also thought I'd include some photos of what my boys were doing while we were all inside making cards (forgive my parental indulgence! I think they look really cute - I know I'm biased though!). It was the first time this year we were able to pull out the little pool and the sprinklers, so they had a blast! Thanks for reading!

Hostess Appreciation!

I'm really excited to be hosting my Hostess Appreciation Open House tomorrow! I really appreciate the ladies who have hosted workshops and stamp-a-stacks for me and who have been in stamp and scrapbooking clubs. It's so wonderful getting to know all these ladies that I probably wouldn't have met had I not become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I have made so many wonderful friends through this amazingly fun obsession I have!

I've been working all week getting things ready - planning make & takes, making gifts, preparing a menu, etc. I'll show the gifts after the open house because I want to surprise my hostesses. But here's a sneak peek at a few other things:

I'll be having a door prize draw, of course, with many chances to enter. Each lady will receive an entry form for each of the following:

• coming to the open house
• doing the make & takes
• signing up for a club in the fall
• placing an order
• booking a workshop or stamp-a-stack
• signing up as a demonstrator with me

And what can they win? A gift basket that includes a Simply Scrappin' Kit (Creative License), a package of Love & Happiness Rub-Ons, the Friendship Blooms stamp set and a package of assorted 8 1/2 x 11" cardstock (one of each colour).For the make & takes, the ladies will make this "Cami's Trifold Card" that I made using Porcelain Prints (with Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi and River Rock to coordinate) and my Wild Rose stamp set.They will also make this brag book page (that I CASEd from the Stampers' Showcase on the Stampin' Up! demonstrator site - it was created by Debra Gray).
There will also be a surprise card that they will get to create using some punches and designer paper (I'll post that one later!).

Thanks for sticking with me through this really long entry! I hope my hostesses will enjoy their day tomorrow!

Blessings to you,

Farewell Wild Rose!

I first saw this two-pocket card on Diane's blog, and she found it on Patty's blog (there's a great tutorial here). I've been making tons and tons of these! This is one I made with my downline at our meeting last night. I've also made thirty of them for my Hostess Appreciation Open House that's this Saturday (but I won't show them until after the open house so it's a surprise for my guests!).

These cards couldn't be easier! I kept this one pretty simple since I didn't have a lot of time! For this one, I used Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi with my Porcelain Prints designer paper. It's stamped with Wild Rose (I can't believe this one is retiring!). All of the materials for this card will be retiring, as there will be new In Colors as well. I will miss this stamp set, though!

Beach Layout

This is the layout that my Scrapbook Club will be doing tonight. I will not take any credit at all for this because I completely CASEd it from a talented lady on Splitcoast Stampers. Unfortunately, when I went back to try to find the pages again so I could give credit to whomever came up with them, I couldn't find it! So I apologize that I do not know who originally came up with this - if it's you or you know who it is, please let me know and I'll credit you!

Anyway, it's obviously a beach page! I used Tempting Turquoise as the base, wheeled with my Something Fishy jumbo wheel in the same coloured ink. Then I tore some Very Vanilla and inked the top with Sahara Sand to make the beach part. I stamped on that with my Life's A Breeze set (I LOVE this set, by the way!). Then I tore some More Mustard for the top. The title and journaling piece are vellum cardstock with the edges torn. I also inked the edges with some More Mustard. I attached them to the page with gold brads. I would have used eyelets, but I don't have enough for my whole club, so we'll use brads! The title is stamped in Basic Black with my Short Order Alphabet.

And there you have it! I always have such a hard time photographing scrapbook pages. Is there a trick to it? I've seen some great photos out there, but I can't seem to figure out how to just get the pages in the photo without the table underneath showing!

Blessings to you,

Welcome Baby!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I hope you're enjoying your Hawaiian vacation! :)

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day this weekend! We decided to celebrate on Saturday since we have church on Sunday. I let DH sleep in and my sons and I made him a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast and cinnamon buns. We don't usually eat that unhealthy, but it was a special occasion! Then we went into Edmonton to shop for some things we needed for our trip to Jamaica. We were going to go to the zoo, but the weather didn't cooperate. Oh well.

Anyway, this is a card I made for a friend of mine who just had a baby girl. I used this sketch by Tamara. I decided on Soft Subtles for colours since they're nice and baby-ish! I used Almost Amethyst, Barely Banana and Pretty in Pink. I used my spiral punch for the top piece and tied some ribbon through it.

Just a quick post today! I've got my Scrapbook Club tonight, so I have to get ready for that! Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings to you,

Fresh Blooms

I was playing with my Fresh Cuts stamp set again. This set is sooooo versatile! I will definitely be using it lots! I don't know how often I'll make a card like this, though, because it took forever to ink the stamp!

I first inked the stamp in Blush Blossom, then I used my Lovely Lilac and Garden Green Stampin' Write markers to colour in various parts of the stamp. I was frustrated because this was actually my third attempt! The first two didn't stamp properly so I had to start over. Grrr!

Then I rounded the edges with my corner rounder punch and layered it on some Garden Green and Almost Amethyst cardstock. I rounded all the corners of this one to soften it (a tip from Alex!).

Finally, I stamped the sentiment in Garden Green on Whisper White and cut it to fit the frame from my pewter Hodgepodge Hardware.


Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope everyone has a great weekend and a good time celebrating Father's Day! We're going to the zoo to celebrate (appropriate that my children should be with some other wild animals! LOL!)

Blessings to you,

White-on-White Challenge

This is the card I came up with for Deb's white-on-white challenge. When I first read her challenge, I wondered how you would make a completely white card that would look good. Then I saw her samples, and the wheels started turning!

I CASEd Deb a bit by using my cuttlebug for embossing the main part of the card. Then I wrapped some Whisper White taffeta ribbon around the bottom of the card. I used my 5-Petal punch to punch out some vellum flowers. I layered two of them over the knot in the ribbon and put the other three in the top left corner. Then I used mini glue dots to put some half-pearls from my Pretties kit in the center of each flower.
I think I'll use this card for a wedding I'm going to this summer. I actually quite like the white-on-white look, but I think I may edge the embossed piece with some Sahara Sand ink to give it a bit more depth...

Thanks for the challenge, Deb! I never would have tried this otherwise, and I really do like the effect.

Blessings to you,

Fresh Notes

I hope you've all had a chance to order the Fresh Cuts stamp set with the Fresh Notes from Stampin' Up! This is one of the most beautiful sets I've seen, and I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of it! And I love these note cards, with the laser-cut flower that you punch out. The 5-Petal punch fits perfectly behind it! I made this card for a wedding shower for a girl at my church. I chose to use Groovy Guava since it matched the floral gift wrap I used! I just sponged ink all over the outside of the card and stamped the sentiment in the bottom right corner. I put a little orange flower (not sure who made it - just from an assortment of little paper flowers I bought at Michael's) in the center of the card flower with a So Saffron brad.

On the inside of the card, I stamped the big floral stamp on vellum and attached it with some copper eyelets. Then I sponged ink on the inside front of the card as well. I actually like the inside better than the outside of this card! The only problem was deciding where to write! I think next time I play with these note cards, I'll attach something over the front inside cover so that the inside back is left blank for writing on.
Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

RAKs!

My MIL made this card, and she and my SIL gave it to me as a thank you for donating some prizes to their Weekend to End Breast Cancer All-Day Scrap. Isn't this card amazing? I just love the little pink ribbon and the filmstrip style.

Then yesterday when I went to get the mail, I found an envelope from Janet. She sent me some Bella images because I had mentioned that I wanted to get some Bella stamps. That is so sweet of you, Janet! Thank you so much! I just love these images and I can't wait to make some cards with them.

The Wild Backyard!

It's been a long time since I've shown a scrapbook page, so I thought for Stamp Something's challenge this week (In the Wild Somethings), I would add some pictures to a layout I did for my Scrapbook Club. This was actually for a Valentine's layout that we did, but the colours went well with these photos from my mom's backyard. I hope it fits well enough with the theme of having something wild! It feels like you're in the jungle when you're in her backyard! And my two-year-old is in the photos too. If he isn't wild, I don't know what is! LOL!

Here's the recipe:
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate, Certainly Celery, Close to CocoaBerry Bliss designer paper
Stamps: Best Friends Upper Alphabet
Ink: Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: 1 3/8 circle punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, 5-Petal punch

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

Blog Candy Winner!

Thank you to everyone who commented. I've discovered some new blogs that I will be returning to! It was so interesting to read what people are planning to do over the summer - looks like there'll be a lot of traveling! And it's nice to just stay home and relax too! I wish you all the best this summer, and hope you enjoy time spent with friends and family.

And now - the winner is #11 - cricketpe. Here is what Cricketpe is doing this summer:

I'm getting married in December, so my plan is to get as much wedding stuff done as possible!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Please email me with your mailing address, and I'll get your goodies sent out to you!

Thanks for playing!

Blessings to you,

Cutie Pie Friends

**Remember to enter my blog candy draw at the blog candy post!** Chris also has some blog candy available - check it out here (after you read my blog of course! ;)).

This is the other sketch challenge I was able to complete this weekend. I used this sketch from Sketches by Tamara.

I decided to make this one a little more fun than the cards I've been making lately, so I pulled out my Cutie Pie designer paper and some coordinating cardstock in Purely Pomegranate, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery. The sentiment is from Time Well Spent, coloured in with my Stampin' Write markers (Bashful Blue, Rose Red, Certainly Celery and So Saffron). I put a couple of coloured brads in the flowers as well, and attached the sentiment with some dimensionals. As a final embellishment, I tied some Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon through a Hodgepodge buckle and tied a bow with it.

I've actually had a chance to do some blurfing yesterday, and I noticed that lots of people have signatures now, so, of course, I had to try my own! So in signing off today, I will say:

Blessings to you,

More Blossoms!

Remember the blog candy post is here - leave a comment for a chance to win!

Yay! I'm on a roll with stamping! This is two weekends in a row that I've been able to do some challenges! I also played around with my blog header to try to come up with something original, like I've seen so many other ladies do on their blogs. I had some "help" from my boys (they thought the flowers were fun to play with), so I managed to get the photo taken before they had pulled apart my display!

Anyway, this sketch is from Alex's blog. She came up with it for her SBS9 group, and she's offering a chance to win blog candy if you do the sketch (so you may want to head over there and check it out!).

This sketch was a bit of a challenge for me - I had to play with it for quite awhile, and I'm not sure I'm completely happy with it, but that's okay! I pulled out my Ginger Blossoms designer paper and matched it with some River Rock and Groovy Guava. On the main image, I masked the flower from Embrace Life and stamped it a few times. I used my Aqua Painters to colour in the flowers with Guava, River Rock and Ruby Red.

The "thank you" is from my new Fresh Cuts set (I've been playing with that set this afternoon as well!). I rounded the corners and sponged the edges with Guava to soften it a bit (thanks, Alex, for that tip!).

Thanks for stopping by - I'll post some more later in the week (I have to save some for when I have a dry spell!).

Walking For a Cure

**Don't forget about the Blog Candy! Leave a comment at the Blog Candy Post for a chance to win.**

I wanted to share this special email I received from my SIL, Wendy. She is walking for the second time in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer in August. It's a 60 km walk, and she has committed to raise $2000 for breast cancer research. She is an Arbonne consultant, and so she has a special offer to help with her fundraising. If you would like to help out, please read on:

From Wendy:

I will donate my 35% commission from all June sales of Water Resistant Sunscreen, SPF 30 towards the Weekend to End Breast Cancer!

Here's some info on this incredible sunscreen:

Water Resistant Sunscreen, SPF 30

This advanced, water resistant formula includes a premium sunscreen ingredient, Parsol® 1789 and helps prevent sunburn by preserving maximum SPF even after 40 minutes of activity in the water. This formula includes arnica, chamomile, linden and rosemary ex ( 6 oz./170 g )

Golfers have told me that this is the only sunscreen that won't burn their eyes when they sweat. Just like all of Arbonne's products, it is pure, safe and beneficial. Sunscreen with the added benefits of our fantastic RE9 anti-aging ingredients! Can't beat that!

Water Resistant Sunscreen, SPF 30 is $37 CAD each (not including shipping & tax). Wholesale clients who usually enjoy 35% off, but who would like to donate their discount are still welcome to order at retail price. Instead of your discount, I will give wholesale clients a special gift for donating through this offer. (If you are not a wholesale client but would like to become one, please call or email me for details).

For more information about the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, the Alberta Cancer Foundation and breast cancer detection, please visit www.endcancer.ca

This offer is good anywhere in Canada, Great Britain, Australia and the United States as long as the order is placed through me.

Thank you!

Walking for a cure,

Wendy

If you would like to order this or help Wendy in any way, please email her at wendypowell@mac.com. You can also contact her to find out pricing for countries other than Canada. Thanks!

My Swaps Have Arrived!!

***Blog Candy Reminder - Check out the blog candy post to enter!***

I was so excited when I got the mail yesterday, as there was a big padded envelope from Alex. Well, I knew what was in there, so I tore it open as soon as I got home, and look at all the beautiful cards! This was my first full-sized card swap, and I am so happy with it. I'm going to have to get in on more swaps now - maybe even host one this summer... (stay tuned!).

It is so neat to see all the different styles that different people have. I love them all! I put together my first slide show below, so you can see them all individually if you'd like.

Blog Candy Time!!!

I just realized that I've hit over 25000 on the counter! You know what that means...Blog candy time!! Thank you to all of you who keep on checking in even though I haven't been posting much lately. Here's what you can win:
There's some assorted 12 x 12 paper, stickers, brads, eyelets, flower embellies, clear stamps and ribbon.

All you need to do for a chance to win is leave me a comment telling me what your plans are for the summer. I'll have random.org select a winner on Sunday, June 8. Please make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you!

As for me, we'll be going to Jamaica for a little family holiday this summer, and I'm so excited! My husband's father is from Jamaica, so my MIL and FIL are taking all their children and grandchildren for a visit to see where he grew up. It should be great for us and our boys. We are so blessed!

While you're in the mood for some blog candy, you will want to head over to Diane's blog and check it out. She has AMAZING creations, and she's offering some yummy candy as well right now.

Groovy Blooms!

The second challenge I attempted this weekend is this great sketch at Stamp Something. This is a fairly new sketch challenge blog that I've been dying to try!

I know the sketch is for a square card, but I can never mail those because of the odd shape, so I went with standard size for this.

Again, I pulled out some In Color paper to use it up! I started with Groovy Guava as a card base. I love the Afternoon Tea designer series paper, and I thought it was a nice floral design to go with the sketch. I matted it with Chocolate Chip. I also pulled the Soft Sky out of the designer paper and used that as an accent colour.

For the floral image, I used my Embrace Life set, masking the center image and stamping around it. I coloured the flowers with my Aqua Painter and Soft Sky and Groovy Guava inks.

After I finished adhering everything, I stamped the sentiment, which, of course, turned out crooked! But by then, I was finished everything else and I didn't want to start over again!

I really love this sketch, and I hope to be able to do some more sketch challenges soon! June looks like it will be a quieter month, so I'm planning on catching up with my blogging and visiting my blog friends! Thanks for visiting!

Big Blooms

I finally got to do some sketch challenges this weekend! My mother- and sister-in-law hosted an all-day scrap as a fundraiser for the Weekend to End Breast Cancer walk that they're participating in this summer, so I got to spend an entire day stamping!! I decided to try this sketch at Sketches by Tamara, and here's what I came up with.

I want to use up my In Color paper before it retires this summer, so I chose Blue Bayou and Soft Sky (going with the Spring Silhouettes designer paper).
I pulled out my Three For You set since it's itty-bitty and fits nicely at the bottom!

I also cracked open my Pretties kit, blew the dust off and dyed some flowers!