It's Looking Pretty Girly Around Here...

So I thought I should post a layout I did of Isaac. I actually finished it a little while ago but just got around to photographing it. I wish that I could do a better job of photographing my layouts because they really do seem to "lose something in translation" as it were. In real life the photo of Isaac on the page really stands out, especially his amazing blue eyes.

SUPPLIES
Sassafras patterned paper. chipboard accents
Making Memories velvet alphas
DCWV corrugated shapes
Martha Stewart glitter alphas
My Mind's Eye bling
Vintage book pages

Still not sure how two brown eyed people ended up with a bright blue eyed little charmer but I sure am glad we did. He really is such a joy!


Hope you're all having a wonderful Saturday,

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Some Firsts

Things are starting to get a lot busier in our house. While Ellie was very content to stay a quiet little baby for the first eleven months of her life, she now seems determined to grow up completely before her first birthday. I am not kidding - in the last ten days she has gone from being completely toothless and content to stay in one place to crawling, pulling herself up to standing and walking around furniture. Oh, and she also sprouted her first tooth, finally. And she has decided that she really likes solid food all of a sudden too. Such a funny little person.

I think that the fact that Ellie stayed a "baby" for so long lulled me into forgetting that her first year was actually passing really quickly. And now I realize that not only is it almost over, but I still haven't even started her baby album. Last night I started going through the last year's worth of photos and pulling out the ones that I want to use for the baby album and then promptly got distracted by some of the earliest photos of Ellie. So instead of getting all the photos for the baby album sorted I made a couple of layouts for our family albums.

SUPPLIES
Bazzill cardstock
Making Memories patterned paper, metal signage, blossoms,
brads, clear elements, paint, metal frame (corner),
journaling page, ribbon
K & Co. chipboard alphas
Vintage Lace

Nothing like going through photos of when your baby was a newborn to make you realize how big they are getting! Almost makes me want to have another one... almost.

SUPPLIES
Bazzill cardstock
DCWV patterned paper, corrugated shapes
Making Memories ribbon, alpha stickers
Basic Grey buttons
Heidi Swapp flower
Misc. thread, twine, pebble sticker

Sorry the photos are kind of dark. Learning to be a better photographer and photo editor is on my list of things to do but with having to vacuum my floor three times a day to prevent Ellie from eating off of it, and constantly checking that all the doors to dangerous rooms/stairs are shut, I do not have nearly enough time in the day :)

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Caardvarks May Challenge

I cannot believe that May is almost over! I had so many things I wanted to get accomplished this month but now I am running out of time and I have not been nearly as productive as I wanted to be. Oh well, at least I got a couple of things scratched off my to-do list. One of which was to a make a card for the May challenge over at Caardvarks. They had two great sketches to choose from this month and if I had more time I would have used them both. Who knows, maybe I'll get busy and make another one before time runs out, but for now here is what I made for the challenge:

SUPPLIES
Bazzill cardstock
Sassafras patterned paper
Pink Paislee patterned paper
Misc. ribbon

I need to make an effort to make more masculine cards since making girly ones seems to come so naturally and I have a box full of them but always have to scramble when I need a boy card. Am I the only one who has that problem?

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Sketchy Thursday 5.20

I recently discovered the Sketchy Thursdays blog and am so excited to try my hand at some of their challenges. They have a very inspiring design team and some amazing prizes! This week's challenge was actually a double layout but I didn't have enough photos for two pages so I adjusted the sketch for a single page layout.

SUPPLIES
Sassafras patterned paper
Bazzil cardstock
American Crafts thickers
K & Co. bling
Fancy Pants felt
Offray ribbon
Jenni Bowlin Studio butterfly
Studio G number stamp

I used some more of that wonderful Cherry Delicious paper from Sassafras. When I first bought the paper I wasn't sure if I would ever use it because I didn't think it was "my style" but it turns out that it is one of my favorite supplies at the moment. Now I wish I hadn't been such a chicken and had bought more!


Well, I'm off to take my kids for a walk and enjoy the rest of this gorgeous spring afternoon. I hope it is as beautiful where ever you are,

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Friends to the End.

I was introduced to the Greeting Farm stamp line a while ago and it was love at first sight! If my bank account allowed it, I think I would own every stamp there was available. The adorable little stamps are so versatile for any occasions. On my most recent card, I used the HG - Snuggle stamp, isn't she precious? I haven't decided yet for who, or what the card will be for, but I'm pretty sure I'll be saving this for someone special.

I used the sketch #67 from ICSketches. I wasn't going to play along this week, but it was far too tempting. What a great sketch! Plus, there is the oppertunity to win some more digital stamps, this week from Meljien's Designs, another great stamp company with so many cute stamps to choose from.

SUPPLIES
Making Memories Paper
Vintage Ribbon
Crayola Pencil Crayons
HG-Snuggle Stamp
Dewdrops

I made a few more cards tonight as well, but I will be saving it for another post! Leaving you with a sneak peak though... It was a very successful evening in regards to crafting. My family might not agree as I seemed very anti-social, but sometime a girl has got to do, what a girls got to do. And tonight for me, that was craft! Crafting has always been very therapeutic for me. A time to sit back, forget about all the day to day things and get lost in the glue and glitter of papercrafts!

Hope you all have a wonderful coming week.

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Perpetual Birthday Calender

I have been meaning to get a birthday/anniversary calender for a while but I wasn't able to find one I liked. I am not sure why it took me so long, but it finally occurred to me that I could use some of the stuff in my stash to make myself one. I even had a sturdy chipboard tabletop calender from Making Memories that worked perfectly.

SUPPLIES
Making Memories chipboard calender, metal plaques
Pink Paislee patterned paper, journaling spot, cork
Basic Grey buttons
Heidi Swapp acetate clock face
American Crafts thickers
Tim Holtz clock hand
Fancy Pants felt
Rob & Bob Studio clipboard
Scenic Route chipboard accent
Misc. ribbon, binder rings

This one has actually been in the works for a while but for some reason it took me a long time to finish it. I had an idea in my mind of how it should look but could not get it quite right. Every time I walked by my craft table and saw it sitting there I would add something to it in the hopes of "fixing it" only to discover on my next walk-by that I still wasn't happy. It wasn't until it occurred to me that I didn't have to keep adding stuff and I started taking things off that I got it to where I wanted it. I originally had a gorgeous, black velvet Prima flower on the cover which I really, really wanted to use but it had to come off. sniff. I really loved that flower. I guess I`ll just have to find something else to stick it on.


Now I just have to get around to actually filling the calender in and I will be without excuse for forgetting to send cards... or at least without the excuse that I forgot their birthday, I`ll still have all the other ones ;)

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GS#38

I am just about to start a game of Canasta with my husband and siblings, but I wanted to quickly post the card that I made for the Get Sketchy card challenge #38.

I just have made a couple of projects using Making Memories Love Struck paper in the past couple weeks and I am really enjoying working with it. I tend to naturally gravitate towards more muted palettes so the vibrant reds and pinks of the line are a bit of a departure for me but I am really happy with the results I have achieved. And of course any layout or card on which I am able to include felt and a ruffle is a bonus :)

SUPPLIES
Bazzill cardstock
Making Memories patterned paper
K & Co. vellum quote
Fancy Pants felt heart
Basic Grey Button
Misc. twine, thread

Well, I'm off to have my butt kicked at cards.

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Home again....

Had a wonderful, but short vacation in Alberta visiting friends but was equally as happy to be home again. I have a quick card to show you all that I created for the Papertake Weekly Challenge - Say it with Flowers. Again, I created the flower with different layers of paper cut in smaller sized circles. Not much to say about this card, except that it was lots of fun to make!

SUPPLIES
Sassafrass Paper
MM sentiment sticker
Vintage songbook paper
Vintage Ribbon
MM Brad
My Minds Eye Paper

Have a wonderful day!

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2 Sketches 4 You #52

Well, it was a gorgeous spring day in the shuswap and how did I spend it? By staying inside and crafting of course! I'm not seeing a problem. Actually, I didn't just make cards and scrapbook... I also organized my scrap-booking supplies and took pictures of my projects. And now I'm blogging about them. So you see, I've been very productive today. I'll get to the laundry and dishes tomorrow...maybe :)

Actually it isn't my fault that I spent the day making cards - it's really the fault of the awesome designers over at 2 Sketches 4 You. I haven't been doing a lot of challenges lately but when I saw Kazan's Sketch #52 I just had to make a card based on it. I absolutely adore the row of ruffles along the bottom half of the sketch.

I've been hoarding some Sassafrass Lass patterned paper from my March Little Red Scrapbook kit and I knew that it would be perfect for this project with it's awesome lacy, die-cut edges. I am pretty happy with how this one turned out - the cherry makes me hungry! Hopefully it won't be too much longer till we have cherries on our tree.

SUPPLIES
Sassafrass Lass patterned paper
Tsukinedo ink
Bazzill cardstock
Studio G mini alpha stamps
Misc. thread, ribbon

Kazan's sketch also inspired me to create a really quick and easy layout for my girl's album. It hardly took any time at all since I used an 8x12 photo with my title already printed on it and managed to use up some scraps from my ever expanding pile! See, I was productive and frugal today.

SUPPLIES
Bazzill cardstock
DCWV patterned paper
Making Memories paper flower
Prima paper flower
K&Co. brad
Vintage ribbon
Misc. thread

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Friends are flowers . . . .

What a beautiful day we had today, I couldn't have asked for a nicer afternoon! We had the family over for Mother's Day and spent the afternoon just visiting and playing games. We have a new one "Ticket to Ride" that we spent some time with. What fun! Its a nice, fast paced game . . .

I will be gone for the week starting tomorrow so I thought I would catch up on some cards I needed to make for the week. I followed the newest challenge over at Caardvarks, wasn't feeling to adventurous, so I stuck pretty close to the sketch! I loved the way this card came turned out. Of course, having the glittery paper from DCWV can add such sparkle to any card! I usually find that no matter how drab the card is, if I can get some sparkles on it, that somehow fixes the biggest problems! The flowers are handmade and are so simple! I just cut them out of tissue paper using lots of layers and different sized circles. Distressing them with some ink and crumpling them by hand. They are held together using brads and thats it!

SUPPLIES:
DCWV Paper
MM Brads
Vintage Ribbon
Bazzill Cardstock
Tissue Paper

Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

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Happy Mother's Day

I have a great mom. The older I get the more I realize how wonderful she is and I am so grateful to be like her in many ways.

SUPPLIES:
K&Company patterned paper
Bazzill cardstock
Tsukineko ink
Fancy Pants felt
Vintage buttons
Art Warehouse journaling stamp
American Crafts thickers

I hope all you Moms out there have a lovely day!

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Another Baby Card

I promised myself I was going to get to bed on time tonight but here I am posting a picture of a card I made instead. Will I ever learn?

Okay, I'll be quick so I can get some sleep. Here it is:

SUPPLIES:
K&Company patterned paper
Chatterbox brads
Bazzill cardstock
Close to My Heart stamp "Love You Forever"
Tsukineko chalk ink

Quick enough?

Good night!

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Sneak Peak

I have not been posting or crafting nearly as much as I would like to be lately... my kids are so distracting! But I have been working on a few projects, I just haven't been able to finish any of them . Hopefully I'll have something to show soon but in the meantime here is a little peak of what is sitting half-done on my craft table.

Did you notice the Jenni Bowlin Studio butterfly?!? So pretty! I could put them on everything... actually I kind of have been...

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Card Patterns #62

I actually got around to doing the challenge from Card Patterns! I am so very proud of myself, its something I have been wanting to do for a while, but somehow there never seems to be enough time in the week to get all my sketches done . . . The ladies on the Card Pattern DT are some of my favourite designers and I love seeing what they come up with every week. Its been my goal to one of these days join in, and now the day is here!

These aren't my favourite cards that I've ever made. I was drawn to the sketch because of its circular shape, what a good excuse to use my circle cutter again! I found incorporating a circle into the layout somewhat harder than I thought it would be. They ended up as a birthday card, and the other an early Father's day card (you can never be to prepared, right?). I certainley am getting a lot of use out of my circle cutter though! I've always stayed away from using circles in my layouts because its always a little bit of a pain having to find a circle object to trace thats just the right size, and then cutting it with scissors never ends up being exactly ... well, circular! I might be a little circle happy with some of my new cards!

SUPPLIES:
Bazzil Cardstock
Chatterbox Paper
Fancy Pants Ribbon
Misc. chipboard and stickers from my stash

SUPPLIES:
Paper by s.e.i
Bazzill cardstock
Vintage ribbon and lace
Misc chipboard from my stash

Have a fabulous day!

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Happy Anniversary

Its a bit of a dreary day in the Shuswap, but I'm not complaining, we desperatley need the rain! I'm looking forward to reaping the benefits of the rainy weather, spring flowers :-)


I spent the morning doing some card sketches, and even googled for a few new ones. The very first one I came across was Inspirational Card Sketches, a really fun site with loads of ideas and challenges. I knew right away I wanted to participate, especially since it meant using my brand new circle cutter from MM! The sketch was fun and I loved the color challenge as well. Its not often that I combine two challenges into one card, but I like the way this one turned out.

SUPPLIES:

K& CO paper
Vintage lace and music sheets
Lilly and Billy Sweetheart Stamp (Pink Cat Studio)
MM Brads
Bazzil Cardstock

Have a great day!

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2 Sketches 4 You # 51

I'm taking the oppertunity to update the blog while the family is watching Dr. Dolittle with Rex Harrisson. I have to admit, I'm sneaking out every once in a while to watch my favourite parts! Its such a classic movie and its really fun watching the kids as they are viewing it for the first time. They are finally at the age where they can enjoy and understand some of those great old movies, and its bringing back all sorts of good memories for me too!

2 Sketches 4 You has long been one of my favourite sites for inspiration, sketches, and just about everything cards! Love their new sketch this week! This particular card was made almost entirley from scraps I have lying around, I'm having a hard time remembering where the supplies came from, some of the stuff has been lying around for years! Feels so good to start clearing out some of the old stuff, helps to justify all the new stuff I've been buying recently.


Now its off to watch the rest of Dr. Dolittle!

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Baby Cards

I have a number of friends expecting babies in the next few months, which is great because I will be surrounded by lovely little newborns without having to endure the discomfort of pregnancy and childbirth. It also means that I have a whole bunch of wonderful reasons to go shopping and to make cute cards, two of my most favorite things to do.

SUPPLIES
DCWV patterned paper
Bazzill Cardstock
Tsukineko chalk ink
October Afternoon alpha stamps

I just love the Nana's Nursery collection from Die Cuts With a View. I've been using it to make layouts for Ellie's baby album and have been saving the scraps for card making. The patterns are so cute and glittery; I've been able to make a couple really cute (at least in my opinion) cards that came together very simply and easily.

SUPPLIES
DCWV patterned paper
American Crafts ribbon
Bazzill cardstock
Tsukineko chalk ink
Vintage lace

Ahhhh, I just love babies...

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