February Scrapbook Club Layout

This month, my ladies will be using the Sunshine Garden Simply Scrappin' Kit to make this layout (or whatever they'd like to make with their supplies!). I was so excited to see that SU! Demonstrators can order Simply Scrappin' kit materials in bulk now, so my Scrapbook Club ladies will benefit from that!

I love this kit! I cut up the designer paper to make the borders and photo mats. The title is punched out with my Big Shot Naturally Serif decorative strip die. Most of the flowers are die cut stickers from the kit, except the big one, which I made with the Small Tag punch. The butterflies are stamped from Flight of the Butterfly and embossed with clear embossing powder to make them stand out a bit more.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings to you,

Blog Award!

I'm so flattered and honoured that Corie nominated me for this award! If you haven't already checked out Corie's blog, make sure you head over there. She is an amazingly talented lady!

Following is the translation of the Portuguese words and the rules for the award: “This blog award invests and believes in proximity -(creating friendships)!” [meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' -being close through proxy]. These are the other words to be included with the award: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbon of these awards are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these bloggers! Deliver this award to 8 bloggers who must choose 8 more and include this written text into the body of their award. Here are my 8 Ladies:

1. Alex - California Stampin'
2. Diane - ddnjoys2stamp
3. Shannon - Tyrymom Stamps Alot
4. Denise - Stamping Vacation
5. Heather - {Witty Title Here}
6. Lee - My Reality... All Good
7. Barb - Barb's Card Creations
8. Shannon - Live, Love, Laugh and STAMP

These are ladies whose blogs I've been visiting for a long time, and whom I consider friends even though we've never met! There are so many more that I could nominate - check out my Blogroll on the right! All of the ladies whose blogs I visit are so warm and friendly, which is why I visit them!

Thank you, Corie, for nominating me! And thank you all for visiting!

Blessings to you,

Eastern Blooms

My husband has been working this weekend for Alberta Education, helping with the Provincial Achievement Tests, so I have been alone with the kids all weekend! This is a great opportunity for him, and I'm very proud of him, but I'm used to having a bit of a break on weekends! And of course, the boys miss playing with Daddy, so they're more agitated than usual. I've been refereeing a lot of arguments and I'm very tired. Anyway, just a short vent!

Here is another of the cards I demo'd at Patti's workshop on Friday. It is a CASE of a card that my upline, Winona, made, so I can't take credit for it! I love the new flower brads! They're so much fun!

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Eastern Blooms, A Note of Thanks
Ink: Chocolate Chip; Old Olive & Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Write markers
Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White cardstock; Delicate Dots dsp
Accessories: scallop edge punch, flower brads

Thanks for stopping by! I'm hoping to get some rest tonight before the new week starts again in a few hours.

Blessings to you,

Delicate Dots Spring

This is an 8 x 8" layout I did for a workshop that my friend, Patti, hosted last night. It was actually the make & take because I wanted the ladies to get a chance to play with the Big Shot! I really don't know how I managed before I got mine! LOL!

Anyway, I started with the Sale-A-Bration designer series paper, Delicate Dots, and chose my colours from that. The page is Barely Banana, rolled with the Scatter Sunshine jumbo wheel in the same colour of ink. I put a strip of Sahara Sand across the bottom that had been stamped with the flower from Simply Said in the same colour of ink as well. For the title, we stamped with the Short Order alphabet in Sahara Sand and punched the letters out with the 1" circle punch. Then we inked the edges with Bashful Blue, Barely Banana and Certainly Celery. The envelope is the Scalloped Envelope Bigz die, wrapped with Very Vanilla 1/4" grosgrain. I also made a little Bashful Blue insert for journaling in the envelope.

We had lots of fun last night! I'll post a few more of the cards I demo'd later in the week.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings to you,

Soccer Fever

Here's another page I was able to do at our all-day scrap! It was pretty easy with the soccer photo that you get from the team. I just matted it with black and yellow to match the team colours. I found the chipboard soccer ball and soccer stickers at a scrapbook store (I think it was Scrapbook Oasis in Spruce Grove), and I coloured it with a Basic Black Stampin' Write marker. I found a cute photo of Adam playing, and I added that to the page as well.

Thanks for reading!

February Stamp Club Cards

I've had lots of requests from my Stamp Club ladies for different types of cards and techniques, so I'm going to try to do them this month and next month!

This flower is in the Sale-A-Bration brochure, so we're going to make it with the SAB Delicate Dots designer series paper. It's a bit tricky to make - you have to fiddle with it a lot. I couldn't figure out how to hold it together at first, but then I put a pop-up glue dot in the center and pressed all the paper folds into it, and it seems to be holding it pretty well! It's hard to tell from the photo, but I also stamped on the Bashful Blue centre before punching out a 3/4" circle.

I also used one of the Big Shot Texturz plates for the Barely Banana cardstock background. I stamped the stem from Stem Sayings in Certainly Celery and added some die cut leaves from the Birds & Blooms Sizzlets die.

I also had a request to do something different with the Pick a Petal set, so I went onto Splitcoast Stampers for some ideas. I CASEd this card by Kim because I thought it was so cute!

The final card is also a CASE (of this card by Sherri). I had another request for something sparkly, and I wanted to use one of my new sets, so this was perfect. I used Just Buzzin' By with the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique.
Next month, we'll be making a wedding card, as a few of you have requested, as well as using some Sale-a-Bration products to make some great projects.

From the Heart

This is a card I made for a Sale-A-Bration swap that my upline, Winona is having with her downline. We have our downline meeting tonight, so I'm excited to see what other cards the ladies have come up with! I'll post them here when I get some photos of them. There are 15 of us in the swap, so there should be a great variety of SAB cards!

I used the mat pack and paper piercer to create some faux stitching at the bottom with the SAB Delicate Dots designer series paper and a Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker. In hindsight, I think I would prefer a lighter marker, like Close to Cocoa, but I already made 20 of these, so I'm not redoing them! The hearts and "leaves" are from the SAB Polka Dot Punches set, punched out with the Full Heart and 5-Petal Flower punches. The sentiment is from Holidays & Wishes.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Polka Dot Punches, Holidays & Wishes
Paper: Delicate Dots dsp, Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, Whisper White, Certainly Celery
Ink: Brocade Blue, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals, paper piercer, mat pack, Full Heart punch, 5-Petal Flower punch, 1-3/8" Square punch

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

January Sketch Challenge Winner!

In my monthly e-newsletter, I pose a challenge to my readers. Last month's challenge was to create a card using SC207 from Splitcoast Stampers. I put the entries into a draw, and Jeanette is the winner! This is her beautiful creation. She wins an assortment of 6 x 6 Raspberry Tart designer series paper. Make sure you check out her amazing blog! She is very talented.

Thanks for playing, Jeanette. If you would like to play along this month, you can subscribe to my e-newsletter by clicking on the link to the right under Stampin' Up! Stuff.

Have a wonderful week!

Blessings to you,

Halloween Fun (yes, I'm behind in my scrapbooking)!

Our church had its annual Scrapbooking Day last Saturday, and I finally got a chance to get some scrapbooking done. It's rare that I actually scrapbook photos - I'm usually doing layouts for my scrapbook club, but I don't add pictures to them! Here are a few of the pages I did of the boys at Halloween this year.

The only Stampin' Up! stuff I used for these pages is the cardstock. I'm afraid I don't know who makes the designer paper. I have a habit of going into scrapbook stores and buying a bunch of paper that catches my attention, then putting it in a box and leaving it there until the time comes to use it. I dug around and found this great Halloween-coloured paper, but I bought it so long ago, I don't know where it's from!