Saturday, March 31, 2012

Goodbye Saleabration

It's time "snif" :(
Time to say goodbye to Saleabration - boo hoo

Today I have a cute set of cards that I designed to showcase the Everyday Enchantement Paper which was a free option during Saleabration.


To make these cards I first went crazy with the rosettes.  I tried to make one out of each type of paper, but of course, some designs just do NOT lend themselves to rosettes.


Each card is based on a similar sketch.  I used the Modern Label Punch and the Word Window Punch paired with the Teeny Tiny Wishes set to come up with a variety of cards.


I even turned the sketch sideways for the final card.  The band of colour across the middle of each card was made with a coordinating cardstock,versamark ink and the Fresh Vintage stamp set.


Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #117


This week we have a theme challenge over at Stampin' Royalty.
The theme is

SPRING

And what is more springlike than flowers???
Or even a flower garden?


I orignally made this 3D display for the Leadership displays back in November.
I used die cut pieces from the Occasions Mini.  It was really fun to layer up the pieces and find great combinations for the display.


I used the zig zag shape from the Tasteful Trims die.  I layered a few stips
of Old Olive cardstock and folded it to make the 'grass'. 
I also stamped a portion of the flower image to mimic the stalks of grass.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Colour Q Challenge Number 130


This week we have a bright and seasonal colour combo for you.
This page was so fun to create using some of Stampin' Up!'s latest downloads.
As you can see from the photos, my son really enjoyed spending time
 in the swimming pool last week.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Leadership Display Samples - Take TWENTY!


Well it's official - Seven years ago today I got married in Mexico.  It seems fitting to post up this leadership display page seeing as it has a photo from that memorable day.  You can't tell from the photo, but Brad and I were both really sick with the flu (not the mexican flu - just the flu).  We both had really high fevers, and most of that day I was concentrating on staying on my feet and not fainting.

I know that this page actually was on display at Leadership.  I really like this page.  The cardstock was stamped tone on tone with matching ink to make an interesting and subtle background.  This DSP is from the Occasions mini, and it's my favourite  I found the letters for the banner in all of the stamps from this set.  I stamped several copies of each word in Island Indigo on Whisper White Cardstock.  Then I coloured around the letters with Island indigo so that the letters really stood out in White.  I then punched them out with the 1/2" circle punch and popped them up on dimensionals.  The banner flags are punched out from a 1" narrow stip of paper using the pennant punch.  This made for really small flags which made the title the perfect size.  The "Love" sentiment was stamped on Blushing Bride with Riding Hood Red.  I then coloured in the letters with my Signo White Gell Pen.  I punched it out using the sizzlits label die for the big shot.  I then mounted it on a piece of Riding Hood Red and carefully cut it out so that It made a nice matte.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Crazy Momma

Today's post is not about really about crafting.  But I need to tell a story that I am now, finally starting to find amusing.  As a Mother, it's important to look back on these memories and try to find the humour, or else we will all go insane.  I wrote this story out for my other blog, Sandra's Savvy Teaching Tips, and I found it so cathartic, that I'd like to share it with my crafting friends as well.  So here it is.

We're back from our vacation.  I was a crazy lady and decided to travel to California with my 2 kids WITHOUT my hubby.  My parents are down in Palm Springs for the winter, and usually we fly down to be with them.  But due to our house flood and Brad's job of refinishing the basement, we decided that he needed to stay home and work on finishing up the suite.  (which he did and it looks fabulous!)

I bought the tickets at the last moment - (2 weeks before the trip, and the day before we were told we would be losing 3 days pay due to the strike)  I got a great deal on the tickets.  3 of us, flying to California for $550 TOTAL.  fantastic right?  BUT the flight left from Seattle.  So crazy little me decided to drive down to Seattle with the kids for the flight.  I needed to park the car down there for a week, but luckily there are tons of hotels around the airport that will give you a week of free parking if you stay one night at the hotel.  Our flight left at 7 am, so we stayed a night at the hotel before we left.  Super cheap - but a total dump of a hotel.

Anyway, so last Monday we pile in the car to go to Seattle.  As we live in Canada, first we had to drive 1 hour to get to the border crossing.  30 minutes in line, to talk to the customs officials and then off to Seattle right???

NOPE
- Mommy I need to pee!!!
Bathroom break #1. 

Hop back in the car and drive for 15 minutes
- I'm hungry Mommy.
No Snacks in the car - I forgot - drat!

Stop at first fast food place I find - Burger King to the rescue.
Two Child's meals and a sandwich for Mommy later, and we're back on the road.  Bathroom break #2 part of this stop.
Hop back in the car and start driving. 

Torrential rain storm begins.  The water is literally bouncing a foot or two off the ground after it lands.  There is so much water flying off the wheels of other cars and trucks that it's like driving in the fog.

And the whining begins...

Out come the games they got in the child's meal from Burger King.
- Give it BACK!!!!  Connor stole my game!!!!!!!!!  STOP it Connor!!!!!!
Strange crazy animal sounds coming out of my son's voice a la typical 5 year old boy 'aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhrhhrhrhrh'
'Connor - STOP that'
Evil smile from 5 year old boy.
More strange crazy animal sounds.
I turn up the stereo and continue to drive.

Evil smile on my son's face
- This is MY game
- No it's MINE!  Connor give it BACK!

Driving and trying not to run over little white bumpy things on Interstate which mean I've drifted over the line.  BBBRRUUUMMP!
Get car back in between the lines.
Turn down the stereo.

- Connor, where is Teagan's game???
- I dunno.
- Connor, where is Teagan's game????
- I dunno.
- Connor, WHERE is Teagan's game????
- I DON'T KNOW!!
Let's try a different tactic here, I'm thinking, and BBBRRUUUMMMMPPP - driving over white bumpy things.  Straighten out car between lines, someone's driving on my tail, can't pull over due to large semi trailer truck beside me which is causing me to squint to see through the haze of water coming off it's tires.

- Connor, where is your game???
- Ummmm,  I dunno.
- Connor, whose game are you holding???
-  I dunno.
- Connor, do I need to pull over and get out of the car?  You know if I do that I will be pretty upset.  do you want that??
- Ummm  No!

Deep Breath Mommy

- So WHOSE game are you holding.
- silence
- CONNOR
- um, Teagan's??
- WHAT!!!

Keep car on road Sandra (I'm thinking)  Finally past the semi-trailer, time to change lanes and let the idiot on my bumper pass by.  BBBRRUUUMMMPPPP - whew made it.

Deep breath Mommy

- Give the game back to Teagan.
- but...
-NOW!
Evil smile, and he throws the game at his sister.  Game hits her in the face and falls on the floor where she can't reach it.
- OOOOWWW!  Co-nnerrrrrrrrr!
and the crying starts.

Where can I pull over???  Road signs are hard to read in the haze.

Whoah - am I really driving 120 km/ hour? These MPH signs are hard to interpret with my Canadian kilomtres spedometer.  Slow down.  No - wait, I think I'm allowed to drive 70mph, which is 120 kmph...60 is 100 right???    BBBRRRRUUUUUMMMMPPPP!

Get car back between the lines.
Crying in back seat is now wailing...

Pass tissue back to crying child.  Trying to stay in straight line on highway, slowing down to 50mph, BBBRRUUUMMPPP - oh, phew, back between the lines.  Child in back seat has tissue, Wait - I think I see a pull out for a gas station coming up...Ow, the headlights of the car behind me are really close,
back up buddy,
Oh, I'm going 50kmph, not 50 mph. 
Speed up a bit.

DRAT - missed the exit.

and on it went...

Ever have a day like that??? How about a week??

The swimming pool in California was the godsend.  The kids swam every day, several times a day.  They had fun, they got more confident in the water,  they got tired.  Seeing that excitement on their faces every day, made the craziness of getting down here worth it

Kinda worth it, I mean.  I got home and slept in 3 days in a row - Brad can get up early now that we're back.

So that's the start of our trip, and the end of my story for now.  I've just started scrapping some of the photos and they should show up in my posts over the next month.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #116


This week we have a sketch challenge for you over at Stampin' Royalty.


Here's my take on the sketch.  The background of the sketch was put together when I was making cards for the Artisan Award contest last year.  I put it away and forgot about it until I had to clean out my craft room after my flood.


The ribbon on the bottom was a strip of pink piroette  which I stamped with the border image from the Fresh Vintage SAB set.  Then I punched it out with the scallop trim border punch.  Then I ran it through the crimper and pleated it like a ribbon.  The mini vintage take was attached using the string it comes with.   I used a variety of circle punches and my circle scissor plus to make the circles around the middle of the card.  The doily is from the Flirtatious DSP.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Colour Q Challenge Number129


It's Tuesday and that means another challenge over at colour Q.  It's not even my week and I knew that I just had to participate as this is one of my favourite colour Combos.  I had these adorable, but grainy photos of my daughter from Disco bowling.   The colours on her shirt really went with colour combo.  I tried to enhance the colour as best I could but I had to make the photos really small because they were so poor.
The layout is based on a sketch from Pagemaps.  I love the sketches at Pagemaps.com

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Leadership Display Samples - Take NINETEEN



This little hair clip was made using products from the current Occasions Mini.  I made this for the displays at Leadership this year.  I know this one actually made it on display, but they hung it on a clothesline, which I don't think really did it any justice.  But oh well, it looked really cute on my daughter's head.  I just didn't get a photo that was in focus to publish here.


Here's a look at the back of the pin.  I tied it to the clip using some of the organza ribbon from the Sale-a-bration catty.  Below you will find a closeup of the whole thing.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #115

This week we have a great colour challenge over at Stampin' Royalty.


I really loved the colours in this challenge, so I decided to use
My Digital Studio and scrap this photo of me and my daughter a few years ago.


I started by using the Downtown Grunge digital kit.  It has the best templates.  I really recommend it if you want to get a digital kit.  Don't forget you can use these kits with other digital scrapbooking programs like Photoshop.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Colour Q Challenge #128




This week there is another fabulous colour combo for you at Colour Q.  Hop on over to check out the fabulous creations by the design team.

Although green is not really the first colour you think of when you think of Easter, I thought that these photos of my son in his green shirt, searching for Easter Eggs was great to scrap for this challenge.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Leadership Display Samples - Take EIGHTEEN


This card was kind of fun to put together.  I am really getting into the whole vintage, distressing thing.  I used to be such a Clean and Simple kinda gal.  :)   Anyway, I stamped the frame and then tore the paper around it.  Then I crumpled it and squished the edges.  Finally I sponged on ink from the Distressing Kit.  The label was stamped with the 'Hello' sentiment and then punched out with the Decorative Label punch.

The Lace border punch was punched out, and then I wove the organza ribbon through it.  I placed it on the expresso strip of cardstock for more contrast.  The final touch was the tiny little butterfly Brad which I added to the top right corner.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #114

This week we have a theme challenge over at Stampin' Royalty.
The theme is

GO GREEN

You can interpret this to mean Green as in St. Patrick's Day
or Green as in Recycling and Good for the Earth.


Originally I made this little 3D display banner for the Leadership Display boards.  I used the Sale-a-bration set  Elementary Elegance.   I made the letters with the Big Shot and Daffodil Delight cardstock.  I used a two way glue pen and a LOT of glue and some gold glitter from the Supernova fine glitter pack.  Below is a closeup of one of the panels in the banner.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Colour Q Challenge #127


 We have a fantastic Colour Challenge for you today over at the Colour Q.  I made this page featuring the Sale-a-bration downloads for My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up!  I have to admit that these colours did not immediately make me think of Easter, but when I found these photos from Easter last year, I started scrappin' and here's what I came up with.  The layout is a sketch from Pagemaps. 

Monday, March 5, 2012

Leadership Display Samples - Take SEVENTEEN!!


I absolutely love this picture of my son.  Can you believe that I took this with my iphone???  The colours match the cardstock perfectly.  I used the sale-a-bration set Spinkled Expressions to make the background paper.  I stamped each image twice.  The second image was lighter.  This is called 'stamping off'.  It adds a lot of texture and depth to the images.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Leadership Display Samples - Take SIXTEEN


I made this little cake for the make-n-take displays at Leadership.  Check out my blog in the near future for a tutorial on this little cutie!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Stampin' Up Facebook Project


I'm so proud to show off my latest creation for the Stampin Up Facebook Page.  This card was made to showcase various products from the current Occasions Mini Catalogue. 


If you scroll to the bottom you will find a list of ingredients. 


Here is a few closeups of the bow




Paper
125406 – Twitterpated Designer Series Paper
122925 – Calypso Coral Smooth Card Stock
119795 – Pear Pizzazz Smooth Card Stock
101650 – Very Vanilla Smooth Card Stock
100730 – Whisper White Smooth Card Stock
Ink
119670 – Early Espresso Classic Stampin’ Pad
122939 – Calypso Coral Classic Stampin’ Pad
Stamps
125487 – Rue Des Fleurs
Accessories
125592 - Paper Doily Sizzlits Die
125598 – Labels Collection Framelits Dies
125568 – Pear Pizz 3/8” Pleated Satin Ribbon
127279 – Everyday Enchantment Ribbon and Brad Pack