Melissa Frances

I've been a long time fan of Melissa Frances and tonight I got to meet her and am an even bigger fan! What an amazing lady. She spoke candidly about her fight with breast cancer and spoke very passionately about her desire to educate and make a difference in women's lives. I think she touched all of us in that room tonight. Here's her website Melissa Frances (Just try NOT to drool over her new Christmas line!)
And here is an organization that she's supporting through her Thankful scrapbooking line and a place to learn about breast cancer and receive support from others who have been through the same fight. BreastCancer.org

Melissa brought her fiancee to help with the demo.

The smiles say it all!

So as Melissa asked us to pay it forward...my message to you tonight is...do your monthly self breast exam, have a yearly mammogram and see your doctor regularly, especially if you find something you're not sure of.

Go now...do your SBE and set your computer calendar to remind you to check every month.

Happy World Cardmaking Day!!

We're having a month long celebration on the Cococat Carmaking site. It's our First Birthday. Pop on over and have a look. There are games and challenges and prizes, all organized by the members. There's always room for more cardmakers and we love new members, so I hope you join in the fun.

This is for one of the daily challenges to use an Internet image on your card. I made this earlier this week for one of our Doctors at the clinic. I apologize for the crappy picture of it. I made it late at night and had to deliver it the next morning, last minute as usual!
Image: Internet
Die Cut Heart: Sizzlits
Glitter: Scrapbook Glimmer by Making Memories
Flower: Prima
Loopy Brad: Karen Foster
Texture Plate: Fiskars

Hope you make some time to create today!

Birthday Cards

My very good friend Barb's mom is turning 90 soon and we're showering her with cards. Barb says that she lives on her own, still embroiders and loves to make apple pies. I can only wish that I have such a wonderful quality of life when I'm 90! Here's the card I'm sending her.

I dug into my favorite stash of PSX stickers. I've long had a love affair with these stickers, but the company no longer exists so they're hard to find. I stock up on them whenever I see some. The BG stamp is Stampin' UP, the sentiment stamp is Studio G and the trim is from Creative Impressions.

This is a quick card for a friends' daughter. I love quick cards, I think it goes back to my need for instant gratification. LOL.....

The sticker borders and brad are from Stemma's Holiday Cheer line. I kept looking at them and came to the conclusion that if I didn't know they were from the Holiday line, I would think they were just festive. I hope she thinks the same thing!! Flowers are from Making Memories (white) and Prima (blue).

Hope you're having a wonderful Friday.

Cococat Image Swap card

Each month on Cococat's Cardmaking site someone takes a turn sending out an image and then we post the results in the gallery. It's amazing the different ideas everyone comes up with for the same image. This month, this beautiful wagon image was sent out. I was a bit intimidated as I'd never colored an image as detailed as this before. But as I got going, it was actually a lot of fun. I used Twinkling H2O's and I really like the watercolor feel of the finished image. The paper is from K&Co., the ribbon and the heart are from Making Memories and the buckle is from Rusty Pickle.
The buckle and the heart are re-purposed from a card that I made many moons ago for a Simply Sentiments feature I did on Rusty Pickle. I've had the card since then and never could use it for anything, so I took it apart and used the buckle here. Here's the original card:

I think that I like the buckle much better in the new card. I'm glad I finally put it to good use.

Hope you have a great evening.

Cherish Wedding Card

I feel that I've been extremely lucky to have been part of 2 cardmaking message boards where I've felt like I belonged and where I've made some wonderful friends. One of these cyber friends Amy, recently got married. This is the card that's on it's way to her. Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: My Mind’s Eye
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug
3D flowers: K & Co.
Ribbon: Offray
Paper Frills: Doodlebug Design
Charm: K & Co.
Finished Size: 5 ½ x 4 ¼ ″

Congratulations Amy and Larry! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness!

Christmas Card Class

Yesterday I went to a Christmas card class here at Angela's Craft Center. All of the cards we made had stamping on them and I loved that as I dabble in stamping at the best of times, so I was glad to have so much hands on time. Here are the cards we made...

This one was my favorite, it was 2 tags that come attached. The stamps are from Inkadinkado. We distressed with Walnut Stain, Faded Jeans and Spiced Marigold ink and embossed the angel with Cranberry Adirondak embossing powder. I broke down and bought the two stamps, so you may be seeing a lot more of them in the coming months.

The Believe stamp is from Inkadinkado and the Pine Tree Star stamp is from Penny Black. Here we stamped the tree onto glossy cardstock with VersaMark. Then we applied Stamp n' Bond like you would embossing powder and heated it until the image turned clear. Then we took the image and pressed it into a box of gold leaf. We brushed off the excess and wiped clean with a tissue. I really liked this technique and it was pretty easy to do. Funny thing is that I have some gold leaf that I bought last year but never used. I'll have to dig it out and have a 'leafing' session!

For this card, the stamps are from Inkadinkado, we used silver and gold detail embossing powder and Denim Blue Adirondak embossing powder for the trees. We edged the paper with Blue Permapaque pen and added Stickles. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey. I loved this one too, was tempted to get these stamps as well, but I held out. (may have to go back!)

Here the paper is from K&Co., the peace stamp is from Stamp Barn and the tree stamp is from Art Impressions. The images were embossed with silver powder.

The paper here is from Basic Grey, the Christmas background stamp is from Stamp Barn, the sleigh stencil is from Dreamweavers, gold embossing paste, and teal blue StazOn ink. It was fun working with paste. I added glitter to mine while it was still wet, so it doesn't stand out so well. I'll have to try this again.

The paper is from Anna Griffin, stamp is from Inkadinkado. We stamped the image over the 2 pieces of paper, then punched out an oval from ivory cardstock and stamped the image on that, then mounted it over the already stamped image, trying to match it perfectly. (I didn't quite do it perfectly though!!) I really liked this too and will be trying it again...you know to achieve perfection...

The Three Kings stamp is from Inkadinkado again. We used a Southwest punch for the corners.

There, it's almost like you were in the class with me!! I had so much fun and learned a few new things as well. Now I'm pumped to start making Christmas cards...

Thanks for stopping bye...hope you have a fabulous week.

Paper Crafts-Holiday Cards and More

My issue of Paper Crafts Holiday Cards and More came within the last week. It's a great issue full of really great ideas and inspiration. Not that I'm ready for winter, but I'm looking forward to starting to make some Christmas cards using a few of the ideas I've seen it there.

I'm excited to say that I had 2 cards and a gift box published in this issue. Here's one of my cards.

The paper is by Stemma from Masterpiece Studios I love this Holiday Cheer line and I've used it a ton. It's so bright and cheery, it just makes me smile every time I pull it out to work with it.
The rhinestone gift is from Me and My Big Ideas.

Thanks...hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Thank You!

So here we are again, Monday. I really have no idea where the time goes, I just know it seems to be flying by. We had a nice and relaxing weekend but it was nice to have the girls leave for school this morning so that I could catch up on some things around here. One of the things I needed to do was to get a thank you card out to our Black's Photography lady, and that's what I'm sharing today. It probably seems like a strange person to give a card to, but she really was amazing in helping us when WalMart messed up Julia's pictures from her trip to Arizona and Mexico. We had bought 4 single use cameras for her trip as that was what was suggested to them. She has a digital, but didn't want to take it because they were going to some community centers in Mexico where their things may have been stolen. So we picked up these single use cameras that included developing and a CD of the pictures, and I thought it was great deal. And it was, right up until the time that they messed up the developing. Apparently all 4 cameras got stuck in the machine and no one noticed till it jammed and the film was ruined.

Needless to say we were all upset. Now she had no pictures from her trip. WalMart refunded the price of the cameras but that really didn't make us feel better.

So on the off chance that my local Black's store could do something with the negatives, I took them all in. In retrospect, I have no idea why I didn't get the instant cameras at Blacks, but I think we were doing other shopping at WalMart so it just seemed easiest. Not always the best choice, I guess. So Pat, who has been with our local Black's forever, took the negatives, but couldn't make any promises. About a week later, she called and said that the pictures aren't the greatest, but you could make out the images in them. When we picked them up, she didn't charge us anything as I'd been a long time customer. Holy cow. We now had pictures from the trip and she didn't charge us for them. You really don't get service like that anymore. We were so grateful that we felt that a thank you card was needed. We inserted a Tim Horton's card in there for her as well. Needless to say, I'm a Black's customer till the end. Not only for the amazing service we got, but also because I think their pictures really are the best.

Patterned Paper: October Afternoon
Cardstock: Prism Papers
Stamp: October Afternoon
Ink: ColorBox
Blossom: Making Memories
Brad: K&Company

Boo!

I don't know about you, but when September comes, it feels like fall. We may still have a few hot days, but it cools off at night and fall just seems to be in the air. As much as I hate to see summer come to an end, I love fall. Fall colours are so warm and welcoming, and nothing beats coming in to a warm kitchen when it's chilly outside. Especially when something wonderful is baking in the oven!

Here's my Oldie-Moldie Monday project. It's been a while since I've posted one.

Patterned Paper: Adornit, Carolee’s Creations
Gift Bag: DMD Industries
Inks: ColorBox by Clearsnap
Brads: Hot Off the Press
Blossom: Making Memories
Ribbon: Bo-Bunny Press

Happy Monday!

New Blog Header

My friend Wendi is amazing with all things digital...and I have her to thank for my new blog header. All I had to do was email her to see if she had some ideas and in no time at all, she came up with this perfect creation for me.

Thank you so much Wendi, it's perfect and I absolutely love it.

Hey...

Hey, can you believe that it's September already?! Where has the summer gone? The wait for summer seems so long and then when it arrives, it's gone so fast. I have nothing to complain about today though, it's simply beautiful outside. Still hot and sunny, a good way to end the summer vacation and enjoy the last bit of freedom for the kids. It's off to school tomorrow!! Yay!

Yesterday we finally made it to the CNE Air Show in Toronto. We've been wanting to go for years, just never made it. We made the trip by boat and enjoyed a beautiful day on the water. We took pictures, but didn't get any good ones, so I found these amazing shots to share today.

The water bomber demo was very cool!

And the Snow Birds are always impressive.

So here's my card for today. The background is made with a Sizzix texture plate which a wonderful lady (Debby) shared with me. They are very cool backgrounds.

Cardstock: The Paper Co.
Patterned paper: October Afternoon
Mini Shimmer Alpha stickers: Making Memories
Round Scallop Punch: Marvy Uchida
Small Daisy punch: Paper Shapers, EK Success
Weave Texture plate: Sizzix
Rhinestones: Me and My Big Ideas
Ink: ColorBox

Till next time...Ivanka

Heaven Sent

I'm sneaking in a few minutes on the computer this morning. The end of summer is such a busy time. We've been trying to enjoy the last few days of freedom and trying to get the back to school shopping done all of which don't leave much time for creating or blogging.I did recently have a bit of time to play with my embossing folders. Love using them, they're so easy to use and I just love the texture they add to the card. Here's a baby card that came together really fast. Hope you enjoy the last weekend of the summer.Card stock: The Paper Company
Patterned paper: Basic Grey
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug
Scalloped Square Punch: Marvy Uchida
Ribbon: May Arts
Rub on and eyelet: Making Memories
Stamp: Stampabilities
Ink: VersaFine

Puppy Treat Bag

I am amazing myself...blog posts 2 days in a row!!
Hope you're having a great weekend. The weather yesterday was perfect and we had a wonderful day out on the boat. Very relaxing. So today we're doing some yard work to try and catch up with all the chores around here.
Here's a puppy treat bag that I made from this wonderful Top Dog collection from Stemma.

Patterned Paper, ribbon and brad: Stemma,
Cardstock: Prism
Die Cuts: Scallop Tag by Sizzix, Gift Bag by AccuCut
Stamps: October Afternoon
Inks: ColorBox
Rub Ons: American Crafts (faux stitching)

Happy Saturday

Hope you're enjoying a nice relaxing weekend. The sun is finally out and hopefully here to stay today. We've had so much rain and so many storms that I think we're overdue for a nice weekend.
Just a quick little card that I have to share today. This is one that I made for my SIL.

Patterned paper is from Bo-Bunny, flower, brad and heart are from Making Memories and the sentiment stamp is from Print Works.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Hi There!

So...it's been a while, hasn't it?! How is the summer going for you so far? Ours has been crazy/busy but also a lot of fun. And I can't believe how fast it's going.
My girls spent a couple of weeks getting spoiled rotten by their grandma and all of our family in Edmonton. They had an amazing time and we are very lucky to have a very wonderful extended family that the girls just love! While they were gone out West, Steve and I went on a boating trip down the Trent-Seven Waterway here in Ontario. We had crappy weather, but loved the relaxing days on the boat and some nice 'together' time.
After that, I joined the girls in Edmonton for a week. I am so grateful to be able to go home again. My mom still lives in the same home where I grew up and having her bang pots around in the kitchen brings back so many wonderful memories.
One of the radio stations had a retro weekend while I was there. That was such a blast from the past! Hearing the same songs now that I used to listen to back then, in the house where I grew up...well it made me stop and relive the past. It almost made me feel like you can go back again, if even for the length of a song!
So my retro weekend inspired me and when I came home, I dug out my We Are Memories paper and made this card, reminding me of the 'good old days'!

Paper and chipboard are from We Are Memory Keepers, Paper Frills are from Doodlbug Design, colored with chalk ink, flower is from Prima, rhinestone is from Kaisercraft, sentiment is from JoAnne's

Retirement Card

It's not Monday anymore, but it's still a card using up some supplies, so I'll tag it Oldie Moldie Monday, I hope that's ok. This is for a lady who's retiring and taking some time off to learn how to sail. She'll be missed, she's so amazing at her job, but I know she'll thoroughly enjoy her retirement.
Patterned Paper: October Afternoon, Cardstock: Prism
Ink: Memories, Background stamp: Stampin UP, Sticker: PSX
Ribbon: Martha Stewart Crafts by EK Success, Sentiment: Computer Generated

Hope you're having a great day!

A Friend is Someone...

Well, the weekend is almost over. Hope it was a good one for you. I think the only problem with weekends is that they fly by way too fast!
We attended our DD's last music recital this afternoon and we're into the last week of school. High school exams are done and things are really winding down. I love this time of year.

Here's my card to share today. I love these bright pink blossoms... seems like summer is finally here! It's another one for the Caardvarks Pink Challenege.
Cardstock: Prism, Patterned Paper: Bo-Bunny Press, Blossom: Heidi Swapp, Rick-Rack: Doodlebug Design, Button: Heidi Grace
Ink: ColorBox by Clearsnap, Rub On Sentiment: Melissa Frances

Make a Wish

TGIF!!! I love Friday's. The work week is over and the weekend is just around the corner. And there's only one week of school left! Yay! I'm so looking forward to summer. To lazy days and going back home to visit family.

Today though, I have laundry and cleaning and errands. I guess there has to be some work before the fun, right??

Here's my card for today. The patterned paper is from Scenic Route, rhinestones are from Prima, flowers are from Sandylion and the sentiment is from Studio G.

Another one for the Caardvarks Pink Challenge.

Hope you're having a Fabulous Friday!

Happy Birthday

Last January, at my fist ever CHA with Simply Sentiments magazine, I was thrilled to meet a ton of wonderful people. It was just amazing to actually meet the people who were behind creating and bringing all the fabulous products to market. One of the nicest bunch of ladies we met were from Webster's Pages. They couldn't have been nicer to us. I've been a fan of Webster's Pages ever since, their paper is just beautiful! So I was happy to find out that the Webster's Pages crew have started a community where we can get all kinds of inspiration using their products, chat and have a chance to win some prizes. The site is called inspireME.
Take a peek when you get a chance. There are some amazing ideas on there and some very creative ladies.

So here's my Monday card using Webster's Pages paper and Audrey Pettit's June sketch on inspireMe. This Card also fits in with Caardvarks Pink Challenge

Patterned paper: Webster's Pages; Heart:Imagination Project; Paper Frills: Doodlebug Design; Flower: Prima; Metal flower: Creative Imaginations; Rhinestones: $ store; sentiment: computer generated.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Father's Day

I'm surprised they haven't kicked me out of 'blogdom' it's been so long since I've posted!! This time of year is always crazy around here. The end of the school year is always busy as are all the activities that are winding down and the new ones just starting. Our last dance recital is tomorrow, the last music concert is next Sunday. High school exams are starting and end of the year parties abound. Where do I fit in to all of this hubbub??? I'm the designated taxi driver...my time is not my own anymore! I wouldn't have it any other way, but I am really looking forward to summer vacation and the relaxed schedule that it brings.

In honor of Father's Day tomorrow, I thought I'd share some cards I've made.

Cardstock: Prism, Patterned Paper: (Blue and note paper) Sandylion Sticker Design, Cork Sheet: Karen Foster Designs, Rub Ons: One Heart…One Mind, 3 D Embellishment: (Father) Me and My Big Ideas, Metal Corner: One Heart…One Mind, Brads: (Arrow) Hot Off the Press, (Silver) Imaginisce, Clock face: 7 gypsies, Foam Letters and bracket: American Crafts, Stamp: Studio G, Ink: Stampin’ UP!, Tape Measure: Bobbin Ribbon, Ribbon: Offray, Twine: Darice, Staple: Making Memories

Sticker and patterned paper are from Bo-Bunny, ribbon is from Offray, key charm is from 7 gypsies.

Chipboard letters are from Me and My Big Ideas, photo turns are from Stampin' UP, Stamp is from Anna Griffin.

Have a wonderful weekend...I'll try not to be such a stranger around here.