After a week off...

Hi all! Merry Christmas to everyone! We just got home from our trip to Dad's. The kids enjoyed their visit from Santa on the 24th. Of course the next morning looked like a Toys R Us truck exploded in the living room.....the boys loved all their new stuff and of course wanted more when we went out shopping later in our trip.

We did a little shopping the day after Christmas. We didn't find any fabulous deals. The research groups and economists seem to think we're in a big recession and are projecting sales to be down by 2 - 4% from last year. That's it? While I was at the stores there were tons and tons of people buying stuff. I could understand if the projections are 20 - 30% down from last year. I don't get it. Then again I'm not an economist.

Did anyone else have some wild weather lately? We left 3 feet of snow behind when we left and came home five days later to 60 degree weather. Thank god the sump pump worked!! We drove thru some water over the streets in a few places. Kinda scary in the dark! Today there was crazy wind. A few neighbor's lost some shingles from their roofs. Global warming I tell ya!

Oh, for all you Calgarians, one of your puzzles showed up in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Christmas day. It was this GIGANTIC crossword puzzle with something like 660 clues both across and down. My dh started it, I took a couple tries and so did my brother and we're still not done!!! Guess I need to go give it another shot!

Hopefully I can post a project a little later. The same thing that was plaguing me downloading pictures is happening again....

Snow, Snow and more Snow!!

This little guy is stamped with a Cat's Pajamas stamp set "Deck the Hall" and colored with copic markers. Patterned paper is dcwv. I used nestabilities to cut the scalloped squares and the cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder. The little clip is from CTMH and dollar store ribbon. I liked the color combination. It looks better in person.
Well, starting Friday we got a huge snowstorm, like the kind you can't see 50 yards up the street through the blowing snow kind......the buses for school were cancelled which I found out after I had bundled everyone up and stood at the busstop until a nice lady decided to stop and roll down her window to tell us there were no buses.....school is optional at that time. However, I need my four hours without kids to keep my sanity so I drove them to school. That was after we came back to the house and brushed everyone off because we all looked like snowmen.

Driving wasn't bad out. You just couldn't see......

Yesterday (saturday) was our big family christmas on my dh side. Of course I had offered a while back to host at our house....busy, busy, busy- what was I thinking? It was a beautiful day outside. Bright and sunny and a clear blue sky..........the party was nice too....

Today we have another snow blizzard like Friday. How am I supposed to finish my christmas shopping with this blizzard? I need a dog sled.....

Happy Birthday Andrea

Well, I'm trying to upload a picture but it's not letting me. There is still so much to learn when doing this blog. It takes some time to get to know the ins and outs but I'd rather go craft something than have the perfect blog page. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to having a pretty banner. For now I'll just stick with the basics which is working just fine.

Tonight was the kindergarten Christmas concert at school. It was so cute to see all the girls in their little poofy Christmas finest and the boys in their fancy red and green sweaters. It's wonderful to see the junior kindergarten kids sing with such enthusiasm while the senior kindergarten kids - not so much......what changes from one year to the next?

I didn't get much response to the teacher losing the toy debate on Monday. One of my peeps wanted to know why the kid that got the toy didn't tell the teacher it wasn't his?

I haven't been receiving comments on this blog. I'm thinking that I have to turn on some button in order for people to leave me comments. I'm guessing that's the case and not that there is noone interested in my blog. Yeah, I'll keep on believing that.......

Let's try the picture again...
Hey, it worked! This is a card I made for my niece, Chatty Andrea, for her birthday. The stamps are Pink Cat Studio Farm Animals. I colored in with copic markers. The paper is from We R Memory Keepers White Out Collection . I used nestabilities for the circles, prima flowers, and Kaiser pearl thingys for the centers. I love the way this turned out, so bright and cheerful.

Until later, peeps!

A Couple of Birthday Cards

Hey Peeps! Here are a couple of cards I made for my "peeps" birthdays. I give them these cards but I don't write anything in them so they can use them again. They think I'm weird for doing that, but that's just me.

These cards are a little different from what I do as there is no stamping. The first card is using a CTMH Big Blooms flower in colonial white with chocolate grosgrain ribbon. I don't know what brand the patterned paper is.
The second card is using a whole bunch of misc. flowers from prima with misc brads as the centers. The pink stripe paper is from CTMH "Best Friends Forever" paper pack which is retiring at the end of the year. It is one of my favorites. The vase is stamped in Indian Corn Blue ink and popped on dimensionals.
Well the school drama starts. Last Thursday I took the boys to McD's and they both got a happy meal with a high quality plastic toy - Lego Bionicle robots. Erik took his to school on , wait, let me amend that - Erik took Leo's to school on Friday and got it taken away by the teacher for playing with it at an inappropriate time. I agree with that and E and I talked about it. However, I feel that at the end of the day the teacher should return the toy so the child can bring it home. Well the teacher forgot so I wrote her a note to remind her to send it Monday. Somehow over the weekend it found it's way to some other child and the teacher called me explaining she forgot whose toy it was and mistakenly gave it to another child. I told her she didn't have to replace it after she offered but I'm still a little miffed because I buy my kids stuff, I'd like it back. I think this whole thing has blown way out of proportion and I don't want to be a pain in the butt for the teacher. Any thoughts?

This is another card I made using CTMH products. The stamp set is Merry Pursuits, the paper is Everlasting Creative Basics, and finally cranberry ribbon. I colored the elf with my copics and found I like the result better than a previous elf I had colored with Crayola colored pencils. The scallop square is cut with nestabilities and popped on dimensionals.
Sorry I didn't post last night. I was out with my friends. My friend Lisa was in town from Calgary so we had a girls dinner out. Heather (from Heather and her peeps) joined us as well as my neice, chatty Andrea. We had some excellent thai food but I made the mistake of ordering an extra spicy 'cold beverage' as well as a spicy pad thai. Boy, I PAID for that. I think the doctor's diagnosis of "moderate reflux" was quite the understatement..... I was even feeling the after effects this morning. Yuck.

Today me and the gals took a trip "over the river" to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY to do a little shopping. We spent all day hitting all the good stores. I haven't done that in a while. Usually I have two little boys tagging along and the shopping trip lasts about two hours just as my sanity is waning. Today, however, I think my feet gave out before my credit card. Serves me right for wearing my goin' out shoes. I need to stick with my "bus-stop" slip-ons. Ya know, the ones I throw on to run out to the bus stop to send-off or retreive the kids..... the ones for the grocery store..... the comfy ones!

Despite the shoes we had a great time and picked up a couple of last minute bargains before Christmas. Now I really need to focus on finishing up my Christmas cards as I am seriously running out of time...... Better get crackin.....

bummer of a day

This card is made using my new stamps from Pink Cat Studio and colored in with copics. The set is called "Lily and Billy Winter". The patterned paper is dcwv, with a martha stewart snowflake punch, and ribbon from Michael's. I just love the cuteness of this set!
Here's a close-up
I submitted this for a design team call but didn't get called so I'm a little bummed. So then I decided to check the gallery to see what they are looking for and see that there is a card really similar to mine. Oh well. I'm still fairly new to blogging and I'm still trying to find my own style in cardmaking. I'll have to try again.

O happy Day!

I found out last night that I was the winner of Asela Hopkins blog candy!! I never win anything! I am so excited. Asela designs for Gina K Designs and they are having a new release on the 11th! Check it out.

This card is one I'm rather fond of. The stamp is from The Cat's Pajamas set "Deck the Hall". I colored it with copics and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The patterned paper is dcwv, with Kaiser pearl dots, Michael's ribbon, and SU ticket punch. While I was making a few Christmas cards I stamped some images for the boys to color in and paste to some cardstock. I stamped three for each of them thinking that they would each make three cards. I guess when you are 4 and 5 years old you need more detailed instruction.....Here are their creations. (I can't get these to rotate straight, I'm uploading them straight?)

Erik's the inside of Erik's
Leo's
the inside of Leo's Well that's all folks! See ya soon!

happy birthday, Riley...

I made this card for my step-daughters 15th birthday. The paper is not dcwv!! Can you believe it? It is actually a CTMH paper pack, "Best Friends Forever", which is being retired on December 31st. The colors are awesome and it is one of my favorites including twilight, hollyhock, garden green and goldrush. The mouse stamp is from Whipper Snapper, which I colored with my copics. I'm starting to get the hang of shading..... The sentiment is from Pink Cat Studio Farm Animals cut out with the cuttlebug and nestabilities circle/scallops. The ribbon is from Michaels.
Today the boys went on a field trip to the theatre to see Beauty and the Beast. They were gone from 8 a.m. until 2:30 when I had to pick them up. It gave me an extra 2 1/2 hours free time to myself. Normally they get home at noon. Wouldn't ya know that today I woke up with a pounding headache so bad it made me sick to my stomach so I didn't end up doing anything all morning. What a waste of a day. I finally ran to the mall at noon to run a couple of errands and then had to hurry back to pick up the boys. My only day I could have done something without having to rush to be back at noon. ooh I am soo mad! Of course now my headache is gone.....

TGIF

These two cards were made using the Inkadinkadoo stamp set. Used dcwv paper, nestabilities, cuttlebug tag, ctmh safety pin. I colored with the copics (love those things), and obviously thought long and hard how to piece these two cards together. haha.


My niece Andrea is sitting here watching me type this blog and chatting away. We tease her that she has a quota to fill so she should be up talking until at least 2 a.m. I have to apologize to those few followers of this blog why I didn't blog last night. I put the boys to bed at 8:30 and I was in bed by 8:45. I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 8:46. I slept to 7 a.m. this morning. I can't remember the last time I did that. I think it's the weather. It is really cold and gray these days. I just want to sleep. In fact, that is where I'm going now. Maybe Andrea won't notice I'm not listening anymore.......

Miss me?

Hi y'all, We were away for Thanksgiving and I was a bad girl. I promised I'd post on this blog but never did. Might be because we were part of the population that got up at 4 a.m. on Black Friday to go shopping. It's become a bit a of a tradition after my younger son was born. It's kind of refreshing (and nutty) to shop in the middle of the night in your pajamas...... Of course, that threw my internal clock off for the rest of the weekend. Anyhow, the shopping was good at some places and not so good at others. More about the shopping later....



This little card was made with a cute stamp from the same set by Inkadinkadoo. I colored with my copics and stamped the sentiment with a stamp from Hero Arts. The cutouts are with the cuttlebug, nestabilities. The ribbon is actually navy blue but this picture makes it look black.

I hosted another card workshop tonight. My friend Heather called me last week and told me she was bringing some friends over to make cards and wanted to know what day was best for me...... I wasn't planning on another workshop this week but apparently she was....sooooo we had one. It's always alot of fun with her 'peeps'. Hi peeps!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wishing all of you out there a very Happy Thanksgiving. We just finished stuffing ourselves with turkey and all the fixin's!

Check out the great dessert - I mean candy that Bev has for the holiday! The next holiday is Christmas and it's gonna be pink!

Gotta go have a turkey induced snooze.......cheers!

I found the jolliest clear stamp set at one of my fav stores, Stamplicity. The set is called "Christmas Characters" by Inkadinkadoo. I colored the santa with my copics, used the swiss dot embossing folder in the cuttlebug, nestabilities for the circles and scallop, dcwv paper (what else?), and I added a sparkle to his puff on his hat after I took the picture.

I wish I was better with my camera so I could get a clearer shot.

We're headed to my dad's for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm dragging the ol' laptop along so hopefully I'll have time to check in on my blog. Speaking of family, my son Erik comes home from school today in his "emergency clothes". These are the ones we leave in his cubby in the unfortunate event the child has an "accident". Well, when he gets off the bus today he says, "mom, I had an accident at school". Well, I'm thinking he filled his pants or something. So I question him only to find out that he decided to go swimming in a mud puddle on the playground (he actually tripped and fell into a mud puddle). He was soaked thru from head to toe including his winter jacket, the snowpants, shirt, jeans, underwear, socks. And of course he left all the wet clothes at school in his cubby......soooooo we had to go back up to the school to retrieve them. Though he did manage to remember to shove his wet, muddy, soggy snowpants in the bottom of his backpack. As my dad would say, "Erik, you act just like a five year old"!

Biker Babes Rule

I'm a total biker babe. My ten-speed is awesome. I've had it for years....

I know this isn't a Christmas card, but I really thought the stamp was cute. It gives me a sense of a high-powered woman taking charge of her life....... okay, too much philosophizing here... I saw the stamp on a card on someone else's blog and just fell in love with it. When I was "over the river" in Buffalo at my new favorite store, Buffalo Stamps, I picked it up.

The stamp is "Bikeababeabella" from Stamping Bella. Paper is dcwv (I have all of their "stacks" so I've got dcwv coming out of my ears), and I colored the image with Prismacolor watercolor pencils. It's a nice medium to work with besides my copics.

The boys were back to school today being a Monday and all. Leo had a pajama party so he wore some pajamas to school. I guess being four years old you can do that sort of thing. He almost fell asleep on the bus (again) coming home at noon. You would think he'd take a nap then, but nope! Off and running with big brother Erik. I finally calmed them down with some "pearler beads". Those are those plastic tubes you put on a pegboard and then iron so the little pegs melt together and make a shape. We're making ornaments for our loved ones. So if you are a loved one reading this be surprised when you get it. The boys made them with lots of love.

I just heard that my friend from Calgary is coming back to visit in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to it. Dinner with the girls, shopping and more food......and the kids staying home with my DH. All grown-ups all the time.... Well off to get my little ones in bed!

Candy and a snowman....

Check out Debbie's blog candy and the cute cards here.

This is a new card I did using a new Penny Black stamp. The stamp actually has three snowmen and I'll probably do a card with the whole stamp soon so check back later for more. The paper is dcwv and the cs is ctmh. I used a Martha punch for the snowflakes and added some christmas red stickles and colored the image with my copics. Not one of my favorites, but simple and cute.

I decided to do a little christmas shopping this afternoon so I headed out alone (read: no kids tagging along). When I got home, my dh had a couple of friends over having a couple of "cold beverages" and watching the game. Which game? Doesn't matter, as long as there is a game on the TV will be on also. I guess that old saying "when the cat's away, the mice will play..." rings true in my household!

Busy, busy, busy....

This week has been reeeaaaaalllllyyyy busy and I've been super tired. Okay, just excuses as to why I haven't posted since Monday. My goal is to post daily, however, I also need some material to post. This requires me to have a sit down at the craft table which is not always possible. I keep trying though.

These little tags are what's leftover when I cut the oval out of the "Wishing You..." christmas card we did in my card workshop. (see below). I stamped the snowmen images using a set from Stampendous and colored them in using markers, added an eyelet and some ribbon and 'tada!' little tags ready to go whenever I get around to wrapping gifts. I guess I have to go buy the gifts first if I want to have something to wrap....

How sweet it is....

This is a cute little stamp from Elsybells that I picked up at a great store in Buffalo, NY called Buffalo Stamps. This is my new favorite stamping store. They carry everything and more. It's an hour from my house and includes crossing the Canadian/American border with a passport and birth certificates for the boys. Hey, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do to get her fix kwim?

I used my cuttlebug to emboss the background, patterned paper is DCWV, cs is CTMH, and I used my copics to color the stamped image. I'm sorta kinda startin to get the hang of blending and shading. Kinda sorta.......

A moosey Christmas...

Here's another card for those of you not following my blog. I really think I am the only one who looks at this...... This is a card I made using the Hanna Stamps Moose. He is so stinkin' adorable. I colored him with my copics but didn't let the stamped image dry enough before I started coloring and the result was....he bled. But then again, it kinda looks like his fur is fuzzy. I'm still trying to get the hang of these copics with the blending and all that. I've been following a couple of cute blogs like Jenn's and Marianne's that give some instruction. Without them, I'd be totally lost. I used CTMH cardstock in topiary and heavenly blue. A bit of a strange combination but I like it. Obviously I used the cuttlebug for the background and a new Martha Stewart snowflake punch that I covered in stickles.

TFL or not,
Susan

Offerings from a recent card workshop

These are cards that I offered at my Christmas Card workshop last week. They are all Close to My Heart as I am a consultant. The first card used Snow Friends stamps, cuttlebug snowflakes covered in glitter glue, Aspen paper, the image was colored in with markers (twilight, orange, black, cranberry). I saw the design on the iheart2stamp blog and scraplifted the design to acommodate the CTMH product. Thank you kindly for the inspiration, Jen!
This second card used Deck the Halls paper with O Christmas Tree stamps. I used my cricut to cut the circle/scallops as it had to be done in bulk. The christmas tree is origami folded from three squares of paper. Totally easy peasy (as my kids would say). The star is 'popped'.
The third card used paper from Everlasting Creative Basics, cranberry ribbon. I heat embossed the design on the ornament with gold embossing powder.
The fourth card used Evensong Creative Basics paper and Winter Memories stamps. The sentiment is from Wonderful Season stamps. I cut the oval with a coluzzle.


This fifth card used Evensong paper with the tree stamps from The Beauty of Christmas set and sentiment from Winter Memories set. The snowflake is cut and embossed on the cuttlebug.

This last card was not part of the workshop as my DH insisted that pink and green were not Christmas colors and that I should stick with traditional cards. I kinda like it though and it could probably be used for a birthday card because of the design and colors. Well maybe the snowflakes on the background wouldn't so well work for a birthday unless it's Dec., Jan. or Feb?
After all that, I wanted to do something for me so I created the following card for something other than Christmas. The stamp is totally cute from Whipper Snapper Designs. I colored it using my copics and cuttlebugged the paper behind. For some reason I really had trouble making the scallop edging with my corner rounder. Must be losing my touch!

Anyhow, I'm off to see what my boys are up to. They have the little girls from around the corner over to play so I have in my house two 5 year olds, one 4 year old, and a 2 year old. I can hear they are currently playing house and they go to work to be superheroes (we have a whack of costumes). I keep seeing a batman or a supergirl running past the room here....... TFL!

Susan
P.S. check out the blog candy at http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com/2008/11/whiff-of-joy-blog-candy.html

A Little Late for Halloween, but...

Okay, here are two cards I made for my sons' teachers for Halloween. I have been trying to figure out how to upload pictures, so let's see if this worked or not. The pumpkins and spiders I cut from my cricut and I used DCWV patterned paper. The background papers are embossed with the cuttlebug too. For someone who is a Close to my Heart consultant, I certainly used very little product on these! The sentiment is CTMH as well as the ink. Okay so there is a little there. Whew! That's about all I can tell you now. I'm still getting the hang of this blogging thing.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Hello all!
This is my first attempt at a blog and for those of you that know me I am computer literate to the point that I can turn the computer on. For me to get this far is quite the miracle! Okay, maybe I'm not that bad but I haven't tried to post a picture yet. I guess we'll see how this goes.