Pink For October - Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I will leave this link at the top for the month of October, so please scroll down for new posts!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. As most families, mine has been touched by breast cancer. My grandmother died sixteen years ago after a long battle. My neighbour was recently diagnosed and underwent chemotherapy. Her prognosis is good, praise the Lord! My sister-in-law also has a close friend who is fighting this horrible disease. It seems to touch everyone in some way.

So I have decided to join the thousands of bloggers who are going Pink for October.

Click here every day to give FREE mammograms to underprivileged women!

November Stamp Club Cards

Here are the cards we will be making at November's Stamp Clubs. I wanted to stick with a Christmas theme, but still teach some new techniques and cards and use the designer paper as much as possible (since it's on special in November!), so here's what I came up with.



















The first card has been on my blog before. I just love the effect of the puffy paint to look like snow! It's Tulip puffy paint, which I heat set with my heat tool until it puffed up like popcorn! This card also uses the Wintergreen designer paper with Soft Sky and Mellow Moss cardstock. The tree is from Lovely as a Tree (stamped in Always Artichoke), and the sentiment is from Greetings Galore.

The second card uses Poppin' Pastels technique with the Wondrous Gift set. For my colours, I used Bravo Burgundy, Handsome Hunter, Close to Cocoa and Very Vanilla. I used some gold elastic cord as an embellishment.

The final card is a pocket card that's open on the sides (it's held together with the wide burgundy grosgrain ribbon across the flap, which is tied with some gold elastic cord). I used Wintergreen designer paper with Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Bravo Burgundy and Soft Sky cardstock. The stamp set is Season of Joy. I turned the insert into a gift card holder by adhering a strip of cardstock across it with sticky strip. I just marked off where the gift card would fit and put sticky strip from those points to the edges of the insert.

I hope my stamp clubs enjoy these cards! I always agonize so much when I'm planning for clubs! I want them to like the cards they're making, obviously, but I also want to be able to show different techniques and showcase different products and projects. I probably put way too much pressure on myself!

Thanks for reading!

Blog Candy Winner

Wow! Life has been crazy busy lately. I just have a few minutes here, and I thought I'd better get a winner for this blog candy! Thank you all so much for your comments. You've given me some fabulous colour combinations that I can't wait to try out! I appreciate the inspiration! I will visit all of your blogs when I can get a chunk of free time - I promise! I really want to check out everyone's work! Don't you hate it when you don't have time to blog? LOL!

Anyway, I went to Random.org and generated a number between 1 and 47, and the winner is #26!

tyrymom29 (a fellow Canadian!)

Here is her comment: My favorite color is true thyme,cranberry crisp and brown ...Love it !!! Congrats on all the hits WoW !!! Thanks for the chance !

Please email me at shannon.mcgann@gmail.com with your mailing address so I can get this sent off to you!

Thanks to everyone who commented.

Snowflakes Softly Falling

Here's another card I made for the class I did at the Dutch Canadian Association last weekend. I used embossing resist technique for this one. I thought it ended up looking pretty cool - like snow falling with Christmas lights in the background (maybe it's just me, though!).

I stamped the snowflakes and the greeting from Frosty in white craft ink on Whisper White cardstock. I embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I sponged Real Red, Glorious Green, Brilliant Blue and So Saffron ink all over it.

To finish it off, I knotted some Real Red grosgrain and stuck that on. I then matted the page onto Glorious Green before adhering the whole thing to the Real Red card base.

There you go, quick and simple!

Thanks for reading, and remember to enter my blog candy draw here!

Fifty Cards from a Simply Scrappin' Kit!

About a month ago, Corie sent me a CD in the mail that Teri had made with 50 cards she had designed using the Winter Bright Simply Scrappin' Kit. Well, I finally had time to finish all the cards, and here they are! (Actually, there are 25 here, but I made two of each.) I had to improvise a few since I didn't have the same stamp sets as Teri, but they are basically the same. I just love them! I'm so glad there are creative people out there to borrow ideas from! Thank you so much, Teri and Corie!

I will be offering this as a class in November, so if you're in my area, let me know if you'd like to attend. You will get to make all fifty cards, plus you will have supplies left over to make even more cards if you'd like (or save it for your scrapbooking)! If you receive my monthly email newsletter, the date and cost will be listed on that. If you'd like to receive my email newsletter, just email me at shannon.mcgann@shaw.ca and let me know!

Remember to enter my blog candy draw here.

Christmas Pocket Card

This is a pocket card that I made for a class I did on the weekend for the Dutch Canadian Association. (By the way, what a fun group of ladies they were! There are several ladies who meet each Saturday to make cards and crafts, and I was honoured that they invited me to show them some stamping crafts. They were so nice, and definitely didn't need my help with crafting!)

Anyway, I will likely do this project with my stamp clubs this month as well. I love pocket cards! I'm going to add a variation to the insert so that a gift card can be attached to it (I'll show that when I figure it out!). Perfect for Christmas!

For this one, I used Always Artichoke as the base and decorated the front with Wintergreen designer paper. On the flap, I first stamped "Merry Christmas" from Holidays and Wishes in Bravo Burgundy, then adhered some burgundy grosgrain ribbon over top. I used the poinsettia from the Season of Joy set with Bravo Burgundy ink on Soft Sky and punched it out with the Scallop Circle punch. I also punched a second scallop circle in burgundy to layer underneath. The whole thing is held together and attached to the flap with a gold brad. I glued the flap down after I had decorated it.

The insert is a piece of Certainly Celery, stamped with the flourish from Season of Joy in the same colour of ink. The tab is made using the Round Tab punch with Bravo Burgundy. I stamped the tiny poinsettia from the stamp set in the same colour ink to decorate it. I think for the gift card "holder", I will adhere a band across the front of the insert using sticky strip (leaving an opening wide enough for a gift card through the center).

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this!

Don't forget to enter my blog candy draw for a Stampin' Up! stamp set here!

Blog Candy for 10 000 Hits!

Yes, I'm offering more blog candy! I feel like that's all I've been doing this month! Oh well, it's lots of fun.

I notice that my counter has passed 10 000 hits! THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who visit my blog regularly. I so appreciate your support and your kind and encouraging comments.

To win the blog candy, please leave me a comment telling me your favourite colour combination(s). I'm always looking for inspiration for my colour schemes, so I'm interested in hearing what your tried and true combos are!

I'll leave this open until the evening of Sunday, October 28, and post the winner on Monday morning (whom I will select using Random.org). Good luck!

Updated to add: Here's what's in the blog candy: a new, unmounted "The World Over" Stampin' Up! stamp set, ten 6 x 6 sheets of designer paper (most of it is Stampin' Up!, but a few are some I've found in my craft store shopping), some American Craft card embellishments and some Christmas bling. I hope you like it!

Blog Candy Winner!

The winner of the Breast Chek Breast Self-Examination kit, as randomly selected by Random.org, is:

Cheryl (Engineered Expressions)! Here's Cheryl's comment: "This is so cool! I never saw anything like that before! Great!" Cheryl has a fantastic blog, by the way, so you will want to check it out!

Congratulations, Cheryl! Please email me your mailing address so I can get this on its way to you!

It seems a lot of people have never heard of this amazing tool, so if you would like to purchase one, there are a number of online sources for purchase. I Googled "Breast Chek" and came up lots of sites. I don't want to refer any specific one, since I'm not familiar with all of the sites, so I'll let you do your own research! You can also contact my friend, Shelley (Fresh Brewed Faith), through her blog, as she has more information about it and can probably tell you where to get it in Canada.

I'm Still Here!

Wow! I feel like I haven't been blogging for quite a long time! I guess it's only been a few days, but I've been super-busy, and I'm feeling blog deprived! I haven't had a chance to check out any of my favourite bloggers and see what they've been up to! And I only have a few minutes tonight, so I just wanted to check in. (I've also discovered Facebook, which is as addicting as blogging, so I think I'm in trouble. LOL!)

I notice that I'm quickly approaching 10 000 hits! I'm overwhelmed and so flattered that people are checking out my blog! I will definitely be offering some blog candy for that, so please check back - I promise to have it up soon.

I'll be closing the blog candy for the Breast Chek kit tonight, so make sure you enter here if you're interested. I'll post the winner tomorrow (probably in the evening as I'm booked solid all day).

Thanks for checking in with me, and I promise to have some cards posted for you in the next day or so, along with some more blog candy!!!

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #24

My friend, Sherri, and I were making Christmas cards yesterday, and she came up with the idea of using navy and white with this set. I hadn't thought to use navy for a Christmas card, but I really like the look of it with this particular stamp.

I made this card tonight for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #24 (by the way, congratulations on 800 000 hits, Beate!) Can you imagine? Eight hundred thousand visits!!! Her blog is fantastic (obviously!).

Anyway, I hope you can see this card alright - the light wasn't the best for photos. I may replace this image tomorrow!

I used Whisper White as the base and used toilet paper technique with Night of Navy ink. Then I stamped the little poinsettia from Season of Joy all over (after stamping it off so it wouldn't be so dark).

I stamped the main image on Whisper White in Night of Navy as well. Then I matted it on Night of Navy. For the bottom strip, I added some diamond brads from SU!'s old Vintage brads before I adhered it to the card. (I realize the strip is too long - it's not supposed to come out on the right from under the image, but I hope this will still count!) After I adhered the main image to the card, I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the flowers, tree, snowflake and star using my two-way glue pen.

Don't forget to enter my Blog Candy for Breast Cancer Awareness draw here!