HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARDYTH

My good friend Ardyth

who lives to the east,

delights us daily

wish a visual feast...

of colors and patterns

so simple and clean

and creative ideas

like we've never seen!

She shares her talent

on her blog we all visit

to gather ideas

her work is exquisite!

Today is her birthday

Let's all shout "Horray"

and send her good wishes

on this special day!

Our dear friend Ardyth is celebrating her 29th birthday today!  Why not pop on over and wish her a happy day!  

My card was inspired by Ardyth's clean & graphic style and her flawlessly stamped images and by this stunning card that our dear & talented friend 'Anita from France' created a short while ago! BTW, the bottom flower is really a nice sunshine yellow in real life (as opposed to the somewhat mustard color that Photoshop chose)!

2014-05-30  Here's your belated b-day card Ardyth! Hope you had a fabulous day!

Gallery Idol 2014 Entry #2

Can you believe this?  Another entry into Gallery Idol !!!

I just checked out the gallery...the entries are amazing!!! You will definitely be Wowed by Washi !

As I mentioned in my previous post, my supply of washi tape is really quite sad. The patterns featured here showcase the rest of my 'stash'. I really love the vibrancy of the green and the graphic patterns.

The "trees" were cut with a triangle die (3 layers cs plus one of washi tape). I traced & cut the image a bit bigger to create the red matting. SSS star die covered in Recollections glitter. The sentiment was cut with my Silhouette. So in love with my Lil' Inkers stitched mats!

If my time zone figuring is correct and if you live on the west coast, then you still have time to enter.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Best of luck to all who have entries in this year's competition :)

Gallery Idol 2014

                                                      

Yes...a last minute entry into 2014 Gallery Idol !

I must confess...I am afraid of washi tape!  I'm quite sure that I have never used washi tape on a card! I do have a few rolls that were either found in a clearance bin or came to me by way of a prize pack! I've also totally stepped outside of my comfort zone with a less than C& S design.

But hey, isn't that what challenges are meant to accomplish?

This roll of pretty teal colored gingham is my fav in my stash. Is four rolls considered 'a stash'?  The card came together with bits & pieces of items sitting on my craft table.  The polaroid frame was covered with rows of  3/8" tape! Two pairs of reading glasses were required for lining up the pattern! The pretty pinky-mauve bow (also from the scrap box) seemed to work really well with the teal.  A few punched hearts, a bit of bling, IO alphabet dies and done like dinner!

If you're planning on entering a card, you best get busy as the deadline is May 19th.

Card Concept Challenge #10 - Use A Coffee Theme

... are the perfect blend!

Welcome back!  CCC Challenge #10 is all about coffee!   

I'm hopelessly addicted to coffee - specifically skim milk lattes (Starbucks being my absolute fav!), so to say that this theme had me all in revved up would be an understatement! Two cards for the same challenge theme is proof of my love affair with this beverage!

Soooo....not only does the coffee theme rock, but take a look at the colors in the inspirational photo! They are the yummiest ever!

The image (imported from a free clip-art sight) was cut with my Silhouette. I love the vibrant coral color of my first card and the rich 'coffee' colors of the second card! I underexposed the brown card just a bit to better capture the pearly sheen of the textured card stock.

Okay folks...grab a java, check out the awesome creations from the DT and start 'perking up' some coffee creations!

CASology and MOTHER'S DAY INSPIRATION BLOG HOP

Welcome to the Mother's Day Inspiration Blog Hop brought to you by the Inspiration Crew!  We're making projects we like, using products we like. Be sure to check out all the blogs for tons of crafty Mother's Day Inspiration!

I'm sure you have all caught on to the fact that I LOVE my Silhouette! This pretty cut file is perfect for my MIL's card...isn't the detail lovely?  I hope that this card will make her day just a wee bit more special :)

The pretty posies in my card will also play nicely with this week's challenge at CASology, where the cue word is "Garden".

If you're hopping along, then you should have arrived from Ardyth's blog...and then carry on to Libby's blog from here. 

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman

Angi Barrs

Annette Allen

Misty Buck

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Geri Greening

Libby Hickson

Jennifer Cuthbertson

Ceal Pritchett

Happy crafting!

CFC130 - Good Egg & CAS(E) THIS SKETCH #72

Just a few quick details before the door closes on Julie Day's amazing sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch #72! The door over at CAS-UAL Fridays will be open until April 18th! Two great challenges jam packed with amazing DT creations and tons of challenge entries!

The eggs were cut with my Silhouette. Once again, I sliced & diced & cut & pasted a few different elements to create the inlaid chevron eggs. I used my itsy bitsy Martha Stewart punch & SU glimmer paper to create the bits of bling on the aqua eggs. The sentiment is a $1 bin find at Hobby Lobby. 

Now about the photo...AGAIN! Our new laptop has me totally beffuzzled with the colors! In real life the eggs are a lovely robin's egg aqua blue and a gorgeous deep coral pink! I opened my post on my computer at work and darn near fell off my chair...the eggs were some CA-RAZY shades of overexposed colors! I would love too know what you folks are seeing out there in blog land.  

We have a busy, family filled Easter weekend planned! Yay!  We also have more terrible weather headed our way tomorrow!  Yep, more snow, rain & ice! Sounds lovely, doesn't it? NOT!

Blessed & Happy Easter wishes to all.

The Card Concept Challenge - Use an Umbrella

EDITED TO ADD

Sorry folks, for some reason Blogger lost my 'scheduled' post...imagine that!

Wow! Can you believe that we are on Challenge #8 at the Card Concept Challenge? It is so much fun visiting all your blogs! The ideas, the colors, the talent, the designs, the texture....total yummy-ness without any calories!

AND, it's great to see so many of you stepping outside of your comfort zone into new style categories! You guys are all so dang talented and brave!

I will be honest...I struggled a bit with a clean & graphic umbrella image. I do think this Silhouette image works though! Nice clean lines, simple handle, no foof or frills.  I used the edge of my Lil Inker Designs mat to get the stitching lines. Just trimmed each piece to the desired width, snugged the strips up tight and anchored with tape! I really do like the little bit of extra interest that the stitching adds without compromising a clean & graphic look.  The sentiment is generated using my Printmaster program.

Now it's time to scoot on over to CCC, and check out the awesome cards that the DT has created for your viewing pleasure! Then get busy putting your umbrella ideas to paper! Happy crafting everyone!

EASTER INSPIRATION BLOG HOP

Welcome to the Easter Inspiration Blog Hop brought to you by The Inspiration Crew. This hop is just for fun. We’re posting projects we made using products we like and hope they will give you some inspiration for your own Easter craft projects.

You will find the links to all the other participating bloggers below. Hopefully you can find time to visit their blogs and snag some great ideas for your Easter projects!

My card is 100% Silhouette! I got the idea from the online store and did a bit of slicing and dicing with the files that I had.  All the elements are popped up with tiny foam dimensionals.  

Here are the names of the rest of the crew who have been able to contribute to this hop:

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman

Ceal Pritchett

Ardyth Percy-Robb 

Jennifer Cuthbertson
Geri Greening 
Veronica Zalis

Happy Easter crafting!

The Card Concept Challeng #7 & Time Out Challenge

Welcome back to another fun challenge! Were you all as blown away as I was with the amazing entries again this week? I thought so! And how about the DT cards? Those ladies are soooooo talented!

Butterflies....no problem....until I started searching through my stamps! Yes, there was a stamp or two of the pretty winged beauties but most images were no larger than a dime! Silhouette to the rescue. My heart skipped a beat when I spied this little pretty! I love the clean graphic lines of this design. And for only $.55 - it was one of those "Start The Car, Start The Car" moments!

I found this gorgeous piece of aqua colored velum in my scrap pile. It has a slight hint of mauve that is so pretty in real life. I cut the panel about 1" longer, scored a nice deep line at the top, folded it over, placed the fold line along the top of the card and adhered the panel on the backside of the card. No messy glue marks to be seen!

I also added a layer of regular velum (see close-up picture) and two tiny seed pearls to the butterfly.

We would love to see your butterfly card creations.  Remember, you get to choose your style at  The Card Concept Challenge!  Why not try something different this time round?


I'm also entering my card into a new challenge called TIME OUT Challenge, where we are encouraged to take time out from our busy lives and enjoy the relaxing sport of card making! Take a look at this lovely duvet ensemble! Thanks for introducing me to this new challenge blog Shirley!

                                              

Happy crafting!

hello you!

Scroll down for a couple of sweet pics of our grand dog Ruuk and our snow banks!

I love the look of a Polaroid frame on a card! I happened to notice this file in the Silhouette store (on sale for only $.55) so into my cart it went and here it is! The speech bubble and "you" were also snagged during the sale for the same low price!

Easy peasy...inlaid letters in the speech bubble, three layers worth of "you", some dimensional foam pop dots....done! 

I hope that the "real life "vibrancy of the lime green is what you will see on your monitors and not the pea soup color that showed up during the editing process!

Next up is Ruuk...our grand dog. He looks quite wolfish, but has the personality of a wee kitten and loves coming for visits!  Do you  think it might have something to do with treats? 

And then there's the snow that is still in our backyard! It is the coldest recorded winter in Manitoba history! Oh, yay....not the kind of record we want to break!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy crafting :)

Card Concept #6 - Create a Birthday Card

Yes...you're pretty much seeing double here.....if you're comparing my BIL's Winnipeg Jets themed card with this card!

The previous card was actually the ''copy-cat" as this card was completed first but couldn't be published until the this challenge went live!

Isn't this the coolest cake ever? And how about those yummy colors? Yep, fabulous. This cake has a little bit of everything going on - moss, mushrooms, wood grain, lace, pretty flowers...quite the mix that is sure to inspire some interesting creations!

My card was quick and easy peasy! A few strips cut from colors inspired by the flowers on the cake, some scored lines for definition and a Silhouette sentiment. I popped up the design panel using 3D foam dots.

And YAY...we had another huge turnout for the last challenge...it is SOOO exciting! I've met so many nice people in my travels through blog land and look forward to stopping by for another visit! Thank you all so much for embracing our challenge so enthusiastically!

Here's the link to the next CCC challenge. Hope to see you there :)

I'm also linking my card up to this week's challenge at Seize the Birthday challenge which offers an option of adding stitching to your card. There are tons of cards in  the gallery...why not join in the fun?

Happy crafting!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY ANITA

Our dear friend Anita

 who lives far away,

Had a birthday sneak by us

One month ago today!

Bev called us together,

she plotted and planned,

on how to surprise her

without showing our hand!

The plans were discussed

Now what shall we do?

To make things all better

And have some fun too!

Let's have a party

Darnell shouted out!

One month later?

 A surprise...no doubt!

So put on your party hat

no matter the date,

And shout HAPPY BIRTHDAY

... hey, we're only one month late!

 VERY HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY WISHES ANITA!

I hope that your 'real birthday' was fun as fun can be and that you took time out just for yourself...as in no "maison" work.  Cyber hugs to you...for now!

The party is over at Darnell's blog so, skip on over and join in the linky fun! Many thanks to Darnell and Bev, party planners extraordinaire!

Card deets:  PTI - All About You (likely one of their original stamp sets!); Memento Teal Zeal ink

Hello Carol!

After what seemed like weeks and weeks and weeks of waiting...the day finally arrived!

I got to meet Carol from Just Me C !

With our dear daughter Brady in tow (actually I was the 'in tow' as Brady did the driving) we left Calgary and headed out to Canmore, a beautiful ski resort town in the Rocky Mountains, about 1 hour away from Calgary.  Our itinerary - a cup of coffee, a little bite of a treat and the best part...to meet Carol!

What a thrill!

We arrived at the restaurant a bit early, but minutes later Carol walked in and came right over to our table.  Huge hugs all around...followed by conversation similar to what two longtime friends would engage in!  We talked about biking, and work, and crafts, and shopping, and cooking, and weddings, and travel....

Carol is a absolute gem!!! The first thing I noticed were her eyes! Beautiful 'smiling' brown eyes full of warmth and kindness. She is funny, entertaining and beyond sweet....just like her posts! Honestly, I could have sat there for the entire day! We still had so many topics to cover....but Brady and I had to get back to Calgary for a dinner date with Brady's boyfriend Jeremy!

Here we are in  the restaurant, enjoying some yummy goodies and each other's company! The picture says it all - we were thrilled to have had this opportunity to meet!  The best thing is that Carol lives only one hour away from Brady so I know that there will be more visits in the future...as early as this summer!  Like Carol would say...YAY times a million!

Doesn't Carol look amazing! See what I mean about her 'smiling' eyes! And although Carol likely won't agree with me - I love her hair!  Me...well I've decided that I need a haircut and that a horizontal striped shirt does not work well in a photo!  But you know what? That part doesn't matter. The real life friendship is what it is all about!

My apologies Carol for the tardiness of my post. We have been "computerless" for the past week while our new rig was getting all readied for action!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

.... not a challenge....not a DT project...just a card to wish my BIL a happy birthday!  He is an avid Winnipeg Jets hockey fan, as are his children and my sister!  The Winnipeg Jets are an NHL hockey team that plays out of Winnipeg, Manitoba (about 4 hours from Dauphin).

A quick & simple project made by criss crossing a few 1/4" strips of card stock. The silver represents the jet on the Winnipeg Jets hockey jersey. It is hard to see in the photo, but I scored lines on either side of the paper strips, stamped a dollar store stamp greeting and done!

I'm off bright & early tomorrow morning for a visit with our daughter in Calgary! AND if that isn't exciting enough...I also get to meet Carol from Just Me C in real life!  We are meeting for a coffee on Saturday! I will share a pic or two when I get back!

Happy crafting!

the Card Concept - Challenge #5 - Use Colors: Lime, Espresso & White

Welcome back!

I know that I've said it before....but WOW....the display of talent each week is unbelievable, as is the support for our new challenge! Thanks for sharing your creativity with us :)

This week's challenge is an awesome color combo! I love deep, rich browns, especially when paired with lime green!

My card was inspired by the colors in the photo and the graphic pattern created by the sticks of the yummy cake pops....all so perfectly lined up....

....well, almost perfectly lined up!  The OCD in me would really like to reach into the photo and straighten those that are a bit askew!  

I tweaked a Silhouette cut file to create my pattern. The pattern was repeatedly cut  in white, green and brown and then paper pieced to create the design.

The sky is the limit with a color challenge! I can hardly wait to see what you create!

This photo has made me hungry....so I'm off to raid the deep freezer because I know that there is a tray of homemade brownies left over from Christmas.  Can't figure out why they never made it to the Christmas desert buffet table ???? 

I'm thinking that one of the cats likely hid them there!

Happy crafting!

Card Details:  AC colored CS; CTMH white CS; Silhouette cut file - Chevron Border

the Card Concept - Challenge #4 - Use a Floral Theme

Welcome to Challenge #4 at the card Concept Challenge!

First and foremost, a HUGE THANK YOU for your support of this new challenge! We had 140 amazing entries for Challenge #3! Do you know how tough it was to select just one card? Let me tell you folks, it was really, REALLY hard!.

My card was relatively quick & simple to create (Silhouette cut file). The toughest part was finding a sentiment that worked well with the graphic design of the flower. I added three small seed pearls to the flower which I feel are subtle enough for a sympathy card and nice & tidy for a clean & graphic design.

I am so excited about the theme of  this challenge! Seeing another 140+ entries with beautiful flowers gracing the card fronts will be a lovely distraction from the  4 - 5 foot snow banks currently in our back yard!

Happy crafting!

the Card Concept - Challenge #3 - Monochromatic Pink

Welcome back for challenge #3 - Use Monochromatic Pink. Can an inspiration photo get any prettier than this? We were thrilled to see 118 amazing cards posted for the second challenge! Let's see if we can beat that number this week!

I drew my inspiration from the beautiful peony blossoms!  I'm sure that I can smell their distinctive fragrance!  Notice how the petals 'nest' together in soft curving lines.

I used my Silhouette to create a curve that I liked. The 'swooshes' are three layers thick and create some nice dimension in real life. The sentiment (which took me a kazillion tries before I got the 'curve' to match) is also done with the Silhouette using Glitter Pens.

Perhaps this photo will be just what you need to inspire you to get busy on your Valentine Day cards.  Or perhaps it will take you in a completely different direction! We would love to have you share your talent with us at the card concept challenge :)

Happy crafting!

Card details:  White Linen CS - Ellen Hutson, AC colored card stock

Paper Smooches Designer Drafts challenge

A quick post as the door is just about to close on the Designer Drafts Challenge at Paper Smooches.  

My DH's great nephew turned one today so a special card was in order!  The birthday party was fabulous! Food galore and a little boy that was more excited about the wrapping paper than what was inside!

I used PS Hullabaloo for my card. The versatility of this set is amazing! 

The striped panel was made by alternating two of the line image stamps in the set using Memento Bahama Blue ink. The cup cake was stamped on AC card stock and paper pieced. I 'swapped out' the cherry on the top of the cupcake with the candle...totally appropriate for a 1st birthday!  The 'celebrate' sentiment is also from the same set. 

Happy crafting!

VALENTINE'S DAY INSPIRATION BLOG HOP & CFC127 - OVER THE EDGE

I'm thrilled to bits to have this card selected as one of the VIP's at CAS-ual Fridays!
Thanks for the honor ladies :)

.... Red for the boys

                                       .... Pink for the girls

  

Welcome to the Valentine’s Day Blog Hop brought to you by the Inspiration Crew!  We're a group of crafty blog friends making projects we like, using products we like. 

Two more Silhouette creations paired up with the the fabulous Lil Inker Stitched mat! The center of the heart is open right through to the inside of the card...looks kind of cool in real life! 

My dear friend Ardyth suggested the current CAS-ual Fridays challenge CFC127 - Over The Edge, so I will be linking up there as well.  

And speaking of Ardyth...you seriously have got to check out the cards that she posted today....out of this world amazing!!!

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, so take this opportunity to glean some inspiration from the following talented ladies:

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman

Ceal Pritchett

Lalo Ik

Misty Buck

Veronica Zalis

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Susie CraftHappy

Jennifer Cuthbertson

Happy crafting!

the Card Concept - Challenge #2 - Texture

Welcome back to the Card Concept Challenge.  I want to start by saying WOW... the gallery treated us to a breathtaking display of talent and creativity!  It was so exciting to see the number of entries for our first challenge!

Challenge #2 asks us to incorporate texture into our design.  Our son is a Journeyman Carpenter (oh yeah...he has a list of  'to do' projects for his mommy!) and his birthday is fast approaching. Things added up quite well for this challenge...texture + carpenter's birthday = sand paper!  The sand paper is a low grit so it isn't too rough. I love the color, especially paired with black & white.

I cut the chevrons and the sentiment with my Silhouette.  I used an old blade just in case the sand paper damaged the blade.  I alternated the inlaid chevrons pieces with sand paper and black card stock.

I am really looking forward to seeing all of your lovely creations!

Card details:  SU Black card stock; AC White; Home Hardware Sand Paper