Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A Warm Hello

Don't Forget.....Blog Candy Here!

I have a Warm Hello to you today with these cute The Cat's Pajamas stamps.  I didn't have enough time to play in last week's color challenge (Lime, Orange and Charcoal), but I really loved it, so I threw it in with this weeks' TCP Challenge to use people and the heart die.


She's one of my favourite little TCP peeps.  She's so cute!  From the set You Suit Me.  I paper pieced her lime green coat (yum, I'd wear a coat like that!), and then copic coloured in the rest.  I've also used the Deconstructing Jen sketch this week.  On time for once! 


I used the heart die along the edge of the charcoal DP and the added the negative image of the the heart die as the border on the main image.  In person her face doesn't look quite so spotchy....hmm maybe a little too much on the saturation there hey?  

Sweet and simple.  Hope you're cozy in your neck of the woods, especially if it's in the path of the Sandy storm.  Way up here we won't be effected, but we did get more snow today.  Sigh...I think it might stay :(  WAY too soon for snow to stay!  

Copics:  YG21, YG23, YG25, C00, C1, C3, C5, C7, 100, YR14, YR12, YR24, E00, E21, E51

Sunday, October 28, 2012

One Grand Blog Candy

If you stopped by yesterday you saw that I had my 1000th post on my blog, AND today (Monday the 29th) is my Birthday, so I wanted to celebrate by offering you a present :)  I have 4 new and beautiful Christmas sets from Flourishes to give away....










RULES:  
  • One comment per person.  
  • Tell me the BEST Present you've ever given and the BEST present you've ever received.  
  • Please leave your email address in the comment.  It helps me contact you if you win, so I don't have to draw new names.  
  • Deadline for entry is Friday November 5, 11 pm MTN Time.  I'll post the winner Saturday November 6th.  

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Project 365 - Week 40 - 41

Today is a Milestone for me as a blogger.  It's my 1000th post!  It's been just over 4 years and here we are at one thousand!  :)  Thanks for all your support.  Please come back Sunday evening for something special!

I'm still a bit in catch up mode on my 365 Project, though the title says it's 2 weeks together, I didn't take pictures every day, too much going on and it's been so dreary outside too.  Makes it hard to be motivated to get out and take any pictures when it's so gray each day.


Panda Bear, Panda Bear - our little nephew wanted to be read to one night, and he wanted the same book from all of us.  So, my husband started reading creatively to him, one page backwards, one page forward.  It sounded hysterical.  Like an old western movie Native American speak.  Then my husband would throw my nephew's name in there randomly.  He'd just giggle :)  


Volleyball Tournament :)  Our oldest is the one in the middle blocking that blur of a shot.  He's playing well this year.  I'm so proud of him.  I'm trying so much harder with sports shots, but its challenging with the light and the motion.  I've got a lot yet to learn.  


Love the intense look on our son's face under the net.  



That gym was so cold all weekend at the tournament!  But probably just right for the athletes.   Our youngest had his sweatshirt and his brother's on to stay warm.  He's a trooper for getting carted around to all his brother's games.  


Apple Butter - I canned some apple butter for the first time this year.  The house smelled so wonderful too.  I'll be making more this next week too.  Hopefully for gifts.  


My very messy creative table.  I've been working on magazine submissions this past week.  And I don't have a dedicated space to craft, so I share my space on our kitchen table, packing it up each day.  But it's been really messy! (read I've been really messy!)  


Snowflakes.  I was picking up our son from school one day as it was snowing.  I wanted so badly to capture the snow landing on the window, but it was melting so fast I had to be quick with the shots.  So, I'd love for it to be even crisper....but yet I know I'll have LOTS of opportunity for more snow shots yet this year!


Sweet 16 Party - our daughter had her friends over today/night for her party.  Just a cute little cupcake liner I puts some M & M's in at each place setting.  

Short and sweet tonight!  Thanks for stopping by! 

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Snowflake Forest


Today the Flourishes Senior Design Team Girls are showing off an oldie but goodie set....Forest of Trees.  It's really a classic set that you'll never grow out of using.  So, I know you'll enjoy today's Flourishes Friday.


I decided to go with a winter theme and this beautiful pine tree.  I embossed it in white and then watercolored the "open spaces" with my Letraset Aqua Markers, giving it some nice green color.  Then I also embossed the snowflakes from another Flourishes set Warm Winter Wishes.  And then I sponged some Memento Ink in Summer Sky and Nautical Blue to give it a night sky feel to the glowing tree.  I used the Color Made Easy True Blue Collection of papers and ribbon as well.  The sentiment is from another Flourishes set - Paperwhites, because I thought it went well with the glowing tree.




Then for embellishing, I took a Spellbinders snowflake die, and die cut out some shrinky plastic and heat set it to become this little snowflake accent, jazzing it up with some chunky glitter.  The tree also has some Prima faceted gems on it to give it the feeling of light. The papers are older MME.   

Now how about some sale fun???


Are you ready to take a gamble? Starting today, Flourishes will be hosting a progressive sale called our Gambler’s Sale! We’ll start the sale at 10% off all items on our SALE page and then, each Friday afterward, we will drop prices another 5% until all the items are going, going, GONE! Quantities are limited – so take a gamble and see how low these prizes will go and risk losing the sale or buy them before they get snatched up! There will be no back orders on any of the products facing retirement. So, get these items before they are gone for good! Since we have to make room on our shelves for new products, this sale is bound to be good! Click HERE to take a peek at our sale pages!

Visit the rest of the team to see their Flourishes Friday creations with the lovely Forest of Trees...

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Project 365 - Weeks 39 - 40

Thought I'd finally get to some of the catch up on my Project 365 pictures.  You'll see QUITE a variety in these shots!


First Frost - I captured the frosty morning on my daylily leaves.  


And frost also looks beautiful on these roses.  I think the growing season is done!


Cherry pie and ice cream.  One of the pies my mom and I made this summer with the cherries from our tree.  So delicious!


....and first snow too!  Snow came early this year.  I didn't stay long, so then it's not so bad.  It looked pretty collected on the hedge.  


We celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada and I had the family over at our house, this is my fall banner on the fireplace.  

And then....we took a little trip!  My husband and I went to the National Youth Ministry Conference in....sunny San Diego!  We went from close to freezing weather to 30 degrees Celcius.  It was an outstanding conference with about 3000 people in Youth Ministry from across the US, Canada and also other countries attending.  Here are some of our highlights...


Lots of nice gardens at the hotel, I hadn't seen a yellow hibiscus before.  So lovely.  


Yeah...from snow to ocean :)  The hotel was like 15 minutes from Mission Beach and there were times we'd have a 2 hour break between sessions at the conference, so it was off to the beach for us!  


Not a "spectacular shot", but I have to tell you these guys are AWESOME!  They are the Skit Guys and they are some of the funniest guys I have ever seen.  They're in the middle of a skit here.  We watched them later at a late night session, and I'm telling you I laughed with tears streaming down my face for more than an hour.  What good medicine!  Other great highlights for us (besides the main sessions and smaller sessions) were the music.  We got to see For King and Country (I already loved them so it was amazing to see them live), Rend Collection (awesome worship band from Ireland), Brilliance and Digital Age  (the new band without David Crowder).  I was so impressed with all of these groups.  Not just their music, but how approachable they were and also seeing and hearing their heart.  Really great.  


My beloved on another quick trip to the beach.  What beautiful weather we enjoyed, and the beach was so quiet because it's already October.  I LOVE the ocean.  

Then...after the conference was over we took a little trip up the coast because I wasn't going to be that close to one of my favourite places on earth and not go....to Anaheim and Disneyland!  Woo Hoo!


The first night we stopped at Downtown Disney and went to the Lego Store and also watched the fireworks.  My kids are big fans of the Avengers so this photo was a goofy one for them.  


We decided to try out Knott's Berry Farm one day.  What a great time we had!  Rollercoasters galore, and not busy at all!  


I "think" these might be azaleas.  Such a pretty spot in the old town Knott's.  


OH MY.   This was my favourite rollercoaster.  It's called the Silver Bullet.  We must have gone on it 4 times.  Your feet are loose and it takes you around 6 loops at crazy speed.  I laugh hysterically on it.  What a riot!


And I could not miss going to Disneyland.  :)  It really is one of my favourite places.  There is no one who does imagination and creativity like Disney.  This one was taken waiting to enter the park.  The park is decked out for Halloween.  We were there from the moment the park opened, till the time it closed.  We only had one day there, so we wanted to make the most of it.  


The Disney Railroad Station.  


The Castle.  What an iconic image hey?


And the Mark Twain Riverboat late at night.  We had the best day.  I feel so blessed that we could take the trip and learn so much, enjoy so much, and have such a special time together too.  We missed the kids a lot, but it was great to be together.  Don't ask me how bummed they were to miss Disneyland though!  So um, we had to bring some treats home to make up for it :)  


These are the most amazing caramel apples I've ever tasted.  They are from Disneyland and I remembered them from 5 years earlier when we were there before.  They are called Apple Pie Caramel Apples, and they are a ridiculous $10 a piece.  But oh MY YUM.  See her big eyes?  She's enjoying it too  Hee hee!  

Alright just a couple more weeks behind on the photography posting :)  Hopefully I'll catch up this weekend.  See you Friday for a Flourishes Friday!   

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Peace Wreath

G'day friends :)

I thought I'd play along in the TSG Sketch this week.  It's a neat one.  But I'm not 100% sure I'm in love with my result.  That happen to you too?  It looked better in my head that's for sure.

I like parts of it...but I think it has too much pattern even for me.  I think it takes away from the focal image, but I do love the paper.  Just probably not all together!  :)  The set is TSG's Season's Greetings, and the paper is MME Christmas.  

Here's the sketch. 

See cute right?  I think I should have stuck to more monochromatic in the panels however. 

Here's a closeup...


I added sparkle pen to some of the Christmas balls, and I like the scalloped line of black rhinestones along the bottom.  I also used a E08 copic to make the red ribbon a bit more rust looking to match the tone of the paper.  

Alright - let's just chalk this one up to:  very imperfect creatively but one more card for the Christmas Stash! 

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Sweet Sixteen

I can hardly believe it but our oldest turned Sweet 16 on Friday.   I remember the moment she was born, after a difficult labour and the Dr. said "it's a girl!", my husband and I both declared with wonder "it's a girl???  It's a girl!!"  Here she is with her Grandma, 16 years later, celebrating with the family and a chocolate cake with whipped peanut butter and jam filling, because she still loves peanut butter so much.  

Excuse my mama overtone today...we will get to the card I made for her too :)  


From the time she was little she was a bitty-little-thing, always way down on the growth charts, under 10th percentile.  That concerned me so much when she was little, and I look at her now, taller than me, long and lean and I marvel at what I was worried about.  She was this shy little girl with big blue eyes who would wrinkle up her nose and frown (quite comically) at anyone she didn't know.  I couldn't get her to stay in the nursery at Church, and we had to teach her 2 year old class at Church because I knew she'd never stay on her own and we'd be there anyway.  To look at her today in her beautiful confidence reaching out to others, you'd never have known she was shy.  She's a marvel to me.  So bright, gifted from God with this amazing bright brain, musically adept, great with kids and fun loving.  I realize that I have her with us "needing us" for such a short time now and I realize that as I watch her grow up.  My big things now are thinking over in my head, 'what do we still need to teach her, help her learn, help her experience before she's off on her own'.  She went to her first college fair a few weeks ago, and I know she has much to offer her world, wherever God places her.  We're very proud of her.  I love watching her live out her faith, Who she believes in, and what she believes.  It's a privelage to be her mom.  Teenage years can have bumps and bruises along the way, but she's been a delight even in the midst of some of the bumps and bruises.  We're so grateful she is our daughter.  


This is the card I made for her.  I used a negative image of the 16 die cut inside of the Spellbinders Hexagon die and then paired it with Flourishes "Let Them Eat Cake" set.  I stamped the bottom of the cupcake holder in Memento Cantaloupe, and then the top of the cupcake with all those pretty swirlies in VersaMark and embossed on the designer paper.  Then I took a Copic Marker from the Peony Collection and added some peachy color in-between the embossing for some depth and interest.  The papers are MME - Howdy Doody, and they work perfectly for the quilted design I used with the smaller hexagon dies.  I didn't want to make it a "full quilt" feel, just partial.  I added some pretty ivory lace and champagne pearls for accent.  


For those of you who've been looking for my 365 Project....hang in there.  I DO have more pictures!  I think I'm about 3 weeks behind :(  But my husband and I just returned from a trip, a conference for work, so I haven't had time to edit the pics yet ....and our destination was SO FUN that I can't wait to show you the pictures!  Stay tuned for later this week.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

All Downhill from Here

Today's Free for All Friday will give you another look at the October New Releases from Flourishes.  It's always fun to do the tour once more! 


Wouldn't that be a cute winter Birthday card?  Such a cute sentiment on this awesome new set from Flourishes Snow Day.  The thicker letters have the look of wood logs placed together.  

I stamped the card with Memento Tuxedo Black on Flourishes Classic White, then colored with Copic Markers.  I cut out the main shape with Spellbinders Creative Pages Two, as well as adding the blue tab from the Creative Pages Two dies as well.   I embossed the background with a new Spellbinders folder and then swiped the edges and raised embossing with some silver metallic ink which gives it a "cooool" effect.  I used our Color Made Easy Collection of paper in True Blue and the Seam Binding is from this collection as well.  Lastly...a little touch of Kaiser Sparklets for some more shine.  I tilted the sentiment just a bit to give it that "downhill" feeling too.  


Isn't that the cutest ski image?  



So be sure to visit the Design Team today to check out their tour through the October Sets today!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Cheerful Monday

I thought I'd post another card from the Flourishes Newest Releases to cheer your Monday up :)  'Cause it's a pretty vibrant card!


I paired the new Sentimental Favorites set with the Zinnias set to make something cheerful as a get well card.  The Zinnias are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Flourishes Classic White and the sentiment and cardstock is from the Candy Pink Color Made Easy Kit, and I stamped the sentiment with Lilac Roses from Memento as well.  The Designer papers are Kaiser Miss Nelly.  The tag is from the Spellbinders Antique Frame and Accents.  I told you it was vibrant!  :)





Can you see the shine on the pink paper?  It's raised embossing and it's really pretty :) 

Alright ....a quick chat today...catch you soon!