Flowers, Butterflies, Embossing, Oh My!

TGIF!!! I can say that this week because we are all better (knock on wood!!!). Yep it was a nasty head cold that blew through our house for a week but we are all 100% and ready to have a great Easter Weekend lol We will be having our hunt on Sunday morning and dinner on Sunday evening J

Back with my second installment for 2 of the new challenges I have found and LOVE. This week I went with a sketch from Try Stampin’ on a Tuesday and a colour theme from ColourQ.

It has been a while since I heat embossed and I just LOVE white on black and so when I saw this sketch I thought it would be perfect and it just so happens the colours went as well.

My Challenge(s):

My Card:

I was in love with this stamp set from the moment I saw it. Crossing my fingers it does not make the retiring list which will be revealed THIS SUNDAY!!!

Thanks for stoppin’ by!

My 1st Summer Smooch!

I always love to try something NEW and what better than to test out a new card design with BRAND NEW STAMPIN’ UP! products. I have been sooo busy that I did not have a chance to break into my summer smooches collection (which is available for presale to customers for the month of April before they appear in the NEW 2012-2013 catalogue on June 1^st!

The card design I chose came from an excellent tutorial by Beate Johns at Split Coast Stampers. What a fun new idea J

The Surprise Pop Up Card:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/surprise_pop_up_card

Thanks for stoppin’ by!

And a Merry Monday (or Wednesday lol) to You!

Back with my second Merry Monday challenge card. Wow I cannot believe that by the time December rolls around I will be all set to go yahoo!!!

Not going to be a long post as I am sick with a miserable head cold and it was the most I could do to get this card done J

My Challenge:

My Card:

I just can’t let go of this glitter paper, I REALLY hope it makes it to the NEW catalogue!!!

Thanks for stoppin’ by!

You Mean the World to Me!

Warning major gusher post coming up!

My husband and I will be celebrating our 5^th wedding anniversary on April 30^th and I made this card for him to celebrate our big day, using the Mojo Monday sketch and for the first time The Paper Players Colour Challenge.

My Challenge(s):

My Card:

This coming September it will be 12 years that Mark and I have be together. He came into my life at a very difficult time for me. My father had just passed away about a month before we started dating. He was much different than any man that I had ever dated before, he was nice, I mean REALLY nice. This was very unsettling for me as I was not used to being treated quite like this and so I decided we should break up. When I told him that I thought we should not see each other anymore he did the logical thing and asked what he had done wrong and as the words came out of my mouth I realized just how silly they sounded, “you didn’t do anything wrong, you are just too nice”. So we both agreed that was not a very good reason to break up and here we are almost 12 years later still going strong.

We have been through some really rough patches in our lives so far. The death of my father, a near close call of ending our relationship as we started to plan our wedding, the divorce of his parents, moving away from our families to a new province to start our life after getting married and most recently the miscarriage of two babies. Through all of this he has been nothing short of amazing. I feel so truly blessed to have him in my life and believe that there is no way I should be deserving of his love, but somehow he does so who am I to argue J We have the most amazing son I could have possibly imagined and it is my most sincere wish that he grows up to be as caring, compassionate, kind, loving, sensitive, responsible, humble, and devoted as his father. We are blessed to have another child on the way and I truly cannot imagine a better man to be sharing a family with.

I feel that being with him in some way makes me a better person, more the person that I wish I had always been and though I feel I am still very much a work in progress he gives me a reason to keep my “crazy” in check J

Happy (almost) anniversary Mark Gregory Kew you mean the world to me and always will xo

                             Thanks for stoppin’ by!

Wedding Season is Upon Us!

How nice it has been to have a 4 day weekend! And that means only a 4 day work week for the hubby, yahoo J The fun will continue for us next weekend as we did not get a chance to do our Easter hunt or dinner this weekend with our little guy just getting over a nasty cold.

I am back with my second installment for the Retro sketches Challenge. I just finished a wedding invitation order for friends and ours who are getting married this coming July. They will receive them midweek and I hope they are happy with the end product as I sure was! I decided that I would make their wedding card after seeing this sketch. I wanted something simple but elegant at the same time. They went with Pinks, Grays and Creams for their wedding colours. I threw in the Old Olive on this card for good measure.

My Challenge:

My Card:

When I saw this stamp set a fell in love and after seeing a card that another fabulously talented stamper make I just had to try the layered flower look. It is a bit of work to do all the cutting but the end product is so worth it!

Thanks for stoppin’ by!

Brights, Ribbons, BABY!

I hope the Easter Bunny found you all and you enjoyed your egg hunts. Our little guy is doing better but was still not in the mood for hunting for eggs so we have decided to celebrate next weekend with our egg hunt and family roast dinner. Our sister in law from Nova Scotia will be coming up for a visit and arrives on Sunday so that will be perfect timing!

I was pretty excited about this week’s Friday Mashup Challenge. As you can imagine I am so in the baby card making mood lately so when I saw that was an option I was all over it. We were asked to make a special fold card and to use elements from the tic tac toe board for the theme of our card. I chose the Side Step Card (instructions below) and the Line which included: Baby Theme, Ribbons & Brights!

My Challenge:

Make a project using " a Special Fold".

Or Make a project using the " Tic Tac Toe Board".

Or "Mash it Up" and create a " Special Fold card using Tic Tac Toe".

My Card:

Side Step Card - Create a card that has step folds on one side.

You will need:

·   One 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of cardstock

·   Scoring tool

·   Paper cutter

·   Additional cardstock and embellishments to decorate the card

Step-by-Step

1.    Step 1 - Line up the short side of the cardstock at 3" in a paper cutter. Start at 1" and cut all the way to 6 1/2".

2.    Step 2 - Score the 2 1/2" wide section of the card at 4 1/4".

3.    Step 3 - Score the 3" wide section at 1", 2", 3 1/4", 4 1/2" and 6 1/2".

4.    Step 4 - Fold the score line at 4 1/4" down.

5.    Step 5 - Fold the first score line on the right hand side of the card down (mountain fold). Fold the second fold up (valley fold).

6.    Step 6 - Continue to fold the score lines mountain valley style.

7.    Step 7 - Fold the last score line down to finish the card base.

8.    Step 8 - Finish the card by decorating the long side as well as the steps.

For the full tutorial including fabulous pictures and card design ideas go visit Beate Janes at Splitcoast Stampers! http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/sidestepcard/

                                Thanks for stoppin’ by!

Christmas in April? You betcha!

Yes you saw it right, and no I am not losing my mind J Christmas in April I think so!!! I came upon a fabulous blog http://www.alwaysplayingwithpaper.blogspot.ca, this lovely site is the home of the Merry Monday Challenge. A weekly CHRISTMAS CARD CHALLENGE! What a fabulous way to get ALL of your Christmas cards done over the course of the year without the rush and worry in November (or December lol) and each card will be totally unique. Yep this stamper was sold, I am a few weeks behind but I will be caught up in no time!!!

My Challenge:

My Card:

I find it so hard to say goodbye to retired products, ESPECIALLY Christmas products!!! For this card I used some of my scraps of Jolly Holiday DSP. I love the colours used (I did add in the early espresso). I also used the super fun waffle ribbon from last year’s Holiday mini.

Thanks for stoppin’ by!