My First Decore Elements!

With the arrival of my new addition close at hand, I wanted to make some things for his/her room. When I got my copy of Stampin' Up's new Decore Elements brochure in July, I loved the ideas, and couldn't wait to try them out! I decided to start small, so I ordered the small Lollipop Flower. I thought it would look great in a child's room! Off I went to Michael's to get a frame, and came back with one measuing 12x18. I haven't used much chipboard before either, so I decided to try that out too, with some inspiration from the "Home" project on the cover of the DE brochure.

To make the "lollipop's" different colors, I simply punched out 1 1/4" circles and placed them behind the glass, after applying the DE to the front of the glass. The "SWEET" letters are also in front of the glass, while papers and ribbon are behind it.

This is a picture of it hung up in the nursery. A few more things need to be added to the walls, but overall I think this project made a great addition to the baby's room!

Baby Shower Fun

I threw a shower for my sister-in-law the day after her due date (I took a chance, I know!). She had 9 family members coming in from Ontario that weekend including her mom, so I wanted to make sure to include them. I figured if she had the baby early, then baby would be there for the fun, and if not, the shower would be a good distraction while she waits for his/her arrival. I wanted a surprise shower, so asked my brother for all the emails and phone numbers, and planned with him very carefully. It was a huge success! She had no idea, and was very happy. She didn't think anyone would throw a shower for her, and was kind of sad - but there was NO way I was letting her get away without a shower! I had so much fun planning; our little ones will be about 6 weeks apart (mine has yet to arrive - due date: today!), so it's not like I didn't have a lot of other things to do. I think I was avoiding those things though, so made myself busy planning her gift, the games we'd play, the prizes they'd win, party favors and food. Whew!

In this picture you can see the party favors I made: little Kit Kat's wrapped with designer paper, with a little rattle attached to a pink elephant (my sister-in-law knew she was having a baby girl). Also in the picture is my gift to her: a fuzzy bin filled with homemade blankets, clothes, breastfeeding supplies, etc. I had intended to wrap it very simply in some cello wrap, but discovered (about an hour before I needed to leave!) that I didn't have enough! So, I stuffed it with pink tissue paper, and made a chipboard flower to peek out of it!

How can you help but have a tonne of fun planning one of these parties; you don't need to spend a lot to be successful, and having the internet to browse for ideas is a life-saver! Thanks to everyone who has posted their baby shower ideas to the internet - there were so many great ideas; it made my task so much easier!

Oh Baby!!!

Well, this year we've had it pretty easy as far as being invited to weddings goes. We had one in Kelowna, and as far as I know, that's the one and only this year! When the subject changes to babies, well, that's another story! There seems to be a HUGE baby boom over the last few years, and this year is no exception. Including mine (coming in September), I know of at least 6 babies being born (or already here!) this year! Not to mention the 3 or 4 I already know of for next year! Well, one thing's for sure, my newest little one won't be lonely! :)

The newest arrival came about 3 weeks ago; a little girl to my good friends Anita and Joel. I have been so excited to meet their new addition, and I wanted to have a special card for the occasion. I've seen some diaper shirt cards come up on Splitcoast once in awhile, and always thought I'd love to try one out. Well, here's my attempt! For my first time making one of these, it was surprisingly fast and easy - only took me about 35 minutes! Even my husband was surprised at how fast I was done. Now that I've done one though, others would only take me about 10 minutes - a very fast, cute card!

This card is done on Whisper White cardstock, with Pretty In Pink accents. It measures 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 (a regular card), after cutting an 8 1/2 x 11 piece in half lengthwise (measuring 4 1/4 x 11). Fold in half, and use your 1 3/8" or 1 1/4" circle punch to punch out the legs (insert cs on each end so that it makes a right angle, and the point or corner touches the other side of the punch. make sense?) Then use your scallop punch to make the bottom "leg" accents, and add some brads or buttons to the bottom. For the top, use the same circle and scallop punch for the "neck". To make the sleeves, I used my paper cutter and cut into each side 3/4", then cut down from each inner cut to the outside of the "legs". I'm fairly comfortable with my cutter, but I know some people who would prefer to use their hobby blade for this step. Now for the hardest part of the card - choosing the stamp to go in the middle of your shirt! No kidding - I spent most of my time deciding which image to choose... Gotta love a card this easy!

Now that I've made one, I'm addicted and can see myself making a tonne of these! If the directions above aren't clear enough, or you just have a couple questions, please let me know. I'll try to remember to take some pictures while I'm making the next one, and post a little tutorial for it. :)

Congrats to all the new moms and moms - to - be out there - there sure are a lot of us! :)

I came into contact with a long lost friend in November; she was my next-door neighbor in Ontario when I was 8 years old, and we were best friends. She moved away when I was 11, to Quebec; we kept in contact for a few years, and tried to visit whenever we could. Then I moved to Alberta when I was 15, and we lost contact. Well, thanks to Facebook we were reunited! And not only did we make contact, but it turns out that she also lives in Edmonton, and has for 3 years! What a small world.


















Anyway, my friend got married in February this year (in Quebec), and while I would have LOVED to be there, it wasn't meant to be. So, when she came back I gave her this wedding card. It is another example of using the Bursting With Joy set, and I really like using it! Those sunbursts are really pretty, and I love layering the stamps - the sunburst with a light ink and the swirly thing over top in a dark ink. This card was really easy and fun to make; since the popular wedding color this year seems to be green (either apple or celery, usually with some kind of brown), I opted to use Certainly Celery for this card. I just love when you can do an entire project with ONE stamp set!

So, my friend is moving back to Quebec at the end of this month. :( Very sad to see her go! She's going to spend Canada Day with my family and I, and I'm glad for the oportunity to see her a few times before she leaves. I will definitely have to make a visit to Quebec a priority on my list of trips!

The Season of Love Has Arrived!

The birds are singing, the sun is shining... and the weddings are a-happenin'! This year, my husband, daughter and I were invited to my husband's cousin's wedding in Kelowna B.C. His whole family was there, and it turned out to be quite a wonderful event. A few weeks before his cousin's bridal shower, my mother-in-law asked if I would be willing to make some Thank You cards for the bride as a shower gift. Well, of course!!! I'd been eyeing a couple of cards in the Stampin' Success magazine (sent to all Stampin' Up demonstrators) and thought I'd like to try to make something similar. The cards in the magazine used the Simply Scrappin' kit "Tie the Knot", and since I was making 50 cards, I didn't want to buy a tonne of those kits for just a couple pieces. So, I improvised, using different stamp sets for my images, instead of the die-cuts from the kit. My intention was to make a few of each of these 3 designs, totalling 50 cards. Well, after making the Certainly Celery "Congratulations" card (which I would have put "Thank You" instead), I realized how much work it would be to cut out all of those flowers! So, I opted to use this card as the one I'd give to congratulate the bride.













Then I tried the Chocolate Chip card. I figured this card would take me no more than a few minutes to whip up, but I was wrong (again!). First I started with a background stamp (Canvas), then I punched my circles. I stamped a bunch of branch images from "Embrace Life" stamp set, and colored all the leaves, then punched out circles from those. Then I stamped the hearts, and cut them out. Making one of these wasn't too bad, but to make 50 would have been a little time consuming, so I made 10 of them instead.






























Then as I was playing around, I threw the Very Vanilla card together, and really liked it! It's simple, elegant, and quick to make! So I made 40 of these. I loved using the "Bursting With Joy" stamp set. I'd had it for awhile but had not touched it; once I had, my mind started whizzing with ideas (see my card tomorrow for another example!)! So in the end, I ended up with 40 "simple" cards and 10 more "intricate" cards she could give to special guests. I was pleased with the results and she was very happy when she received them!

We Love Our Teacher!

A couple of weeks ago, Kaitlyn and I had our last class with her Kindermusik teacher, Miss Carly. Kate was in 2 classes this semester with her, and we've been coming to her classes for the last 2 and a bit years. Miss Carly has been a wonderful teacher, whom we have loved dearly and will miss, because she is off to finish her teaching degree! We weren't the only ones sad to see her go; the whole class (both actually) were in tears as we said our goodbyes. Over the last couple of years Miss Carly and I have become friends, and I hope to see her during the summer holidays before she goes off to school. Anyway, to show our appreciation for all the hard work, effort and creativity she puts into each class, I let my daughter know that we could bring her a goodbye/thank you gift. "What would you like to bring her?" I asked. "Well," said Kaitlyn, "I think I'd like to give her a glass slipper." A little astonished by this, I said that's sounds like a nice gift, "but why a glass slipper?" Kaitlyn replied "because every girl deserves a glass slipper Mommy!" Well, that settled it; we were on the hunt for a glass slipper. I looked everywhere I could think of, in downtown Edmonton, and came up empty handed. Then I took Kate to West Edmonton Mall, thinking that if there was a glass slipper anywhere in the city, this would be the place we would find it. Well, wouldn't you know, the 2nd store we looked in had one! We were walking along when I spotted Royal Doulton and thought "I wonder...". I also wondered about the price if we found it there, but decided it was worth a look. Not only did they have a lovely glass slipper, but it was also only $7! Whew! I didn't have to break the bank for that one! Kaitlyn was very pleased we found her gift too. I decided the perfect thing to go with a glass slipper would be a pedicure, so I also got her a gift certificate for some pretty toes for the summer. Then I made this purse out of the Carousel Notes from the Occasions Mini Collection catalog (which you can still order from for 5 more days!) and the envelopes they come with .


















I've actually made 2 of these lovely little purses; the first I gave as part of a charity auction item, and forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it away! Anyway, they are very easy to make; I got the directions from another blog, which you can find here at Stamp a Little Love. I love her examples too! Once I had made one of these, I bought a couple more packages of the Carousel Notes; I just knew I'd be making more! I encourage you to try this little project, and if you do, I'd love to see what you come up with! You can post a link to your picture in your reply to this post; and don't forget a link to your blog too, if you have one!

Thanks for looking! Oh yeah - 47 more days until the new Stampin' Up Catalog!!! Yippee!

For My Mother In Law

Whew, has it ever been awhile! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to post again; I found out in the middle of January that I am pregnant, and it has sure been a busy (and sick) time since then! I am now 17 weeks along, and while I'm still not back to my old self, I am trying my best to get back into some kind of groove. My head is so full of stamping ideas; I just need to find the time (and energy!) to let them out!



















In the mean time, here are a few cards I made for my Mother-in-law, as a gift. She loves hand-stamped cards, and it's always nice to have a few different ones on hand, so every year I make her a stack to give for birthdays, thank you's, etc. I fully admit that these were CASED by some very talented ladies at Splitcoaststampers.com! They are a bunch of very talented ladies, and when I saw these cards, I knew I had to make them! In some cases, I don't have the same colors, or stamps or accessories, so have changed a couple of details here and there, but mostly they are totally CASED (copy and share everything!). I loved making all three of these cards; the dragonfly is so very creative; the "ever greatful" card is so bright and cheery, and I always love using the color combo on the "thinking of you" card. Enjoy! Here are the links to the original card makers (click on each): Dragonfly, Ever Greatful, Thinking of You.

Shoebox Swap - Part 2

Here are the other 4 cards from the shoebox swap at my upline Terri's Christmas party. We had so much fun doing this, that we're talking about meeting throughout the year for a swap! That would be so much fun! :)
This is my 1st upline Bonnie's swap card. Every time I see this "Fabulous" flower I think of how much work it must be to cut out. Well, while I wouldn't want to make a large number of these cards (over 30), it was a lot easier and less time-consuming than I had thought. I really like this flower and now that I have the stamp set, I'm sure I'll be cutting it out frequently. The rest of this card is gorgeous too; I loved how we did Direct to Paper on the bottom half, and doesn't it look like designer paper? The top half IS designer paper; the bottom was stamped by moi. Love the jumbo eyelet too!
















This card was so fast and easy to make, but what a "wow" card it is! I haven't used the brushed gold cs before, and I really liked how it looked. This color combo isn't one I would have thought of either, but I really like it; very fresh looking!
















This was my card for the swap. I was very busy this Christmas season and wanted something fast. I haven't used the Simply Said set in awhile, so I dug it out. I like the color combo, but I definitely could have done a lot better with coloring the stems! Actually I made quite a few of these cards, as gifts for my mother-in-law and sister-in-law; those ones had much nicer stems... Why I didn't take a picture of THOSE ones, is beyond me!
















This was another simple one, and the lady (I'm sorry I can't remember her name!) was even nice (and organized) enough to pre-stamp the "C" and the background for each of us! All we had to do was assemble! I love the Pomegranite and Chocolate Chip together! And ohhh, that ribbon!

Upline Christmas Party

I know I promised no more Christmas cards for the next long while, and I'll live up to that promise - honestly! I will talk a bit about the fantastic time I had a my upline Terri's Christmas party and am only sorry I haven't posted about it earlier!

I always wait for Terri's Christmas party every year; I've been twice now, and every time has been so much fun! This year (well I guess last year already!) we did a Secret Santa gift exchange, a Chinese gift exchange, a shoebox swap, and enjoyed so many great treats while we talked about stamping and other fun things that we're all up to. I received some amazing gifts from my Secret Santa Kerri; I need to take some pictures to post for you! In the meantime, I DID take pictures of the shoebox swap cards we made and I'll share those with you. We wanted to make non-Christmas cards, since most of us had been in full Christmas mode since July and we wanted a break! Here are 3 of the cards we made; I'll post more next time! :)












This first card is made with the brand new set Embrace Life and the new papers Bali Breeze. I loved the sponging we did with this card!














This next card was designed by my up line Terri (you can visit her blog here). I loved using the 5/8 ribbon and that Flowers For You designer paper is really pretty. I thought this card was perfect for getting me in a "Springy" mood! We also got to use a build-a-brad for the centre of the flower - long awaited and long coveted! I think they're a great way to finish off a project.














The last card uses papers from the Cutie Pie designer paper set, as well as the 5 petal flower punch (I HAVE to have it now!) and the Three for You punch. This was an easy but fun card to make - so many pretty colors, you can't help but be happy when you look at this one!

Stay tuned for more cards from the Christmas party! :)

Faux Postage Technique

These are the last Christmas cards I'm posting again until much later in the year, I promise! I had so many different Christmas cards to show you this year, and not enough time to get on the computer and post them before the big Dec 25! These were the other cards from my last stamp club meeting in November. Again, I couldn't decide which card for them to do, so I cut everything the same, showed them both cards and let them choose which one they wanted to attempt. The snoman card was a little more difficult to do, because you had to mask the area around each rectangle so you didn't get the rest of that stamp (snowman from the now retired Holiday Tag Team) anywhere you didn't want it. This was a great technique I always wanted to try; if you visit www.Splitcoaststampers.com they have a great tutorial for this technique, along with a link to a file so you can print out the "stamps". If you haven't tried this one yet and have a little extra time to play, I would definitely try it. I've so many beautiful examples with it! I have to say, I had a fun experience trying to get acetate though. You need window sheets for this technique, and have to cut out rectangles (or just one) to mask the other stamps. Well, since I didn't have enough acetate to go around, I was on the hunt. I went to Michael's and asked for sheets of acetate. I had to explain what I was using it for, that it was clear pieces of plastic to make windows on cards, etc. The lady had no idea what I was talking about, so asked someone else to help us. Well, the next lady pointed me in the direction of Staples Office Depot, because she said it was an office item, not a craft item. Doesn't she know ANYTHING can be a craft item? ;) At least she knew what I was talking about! So off I went to Staples, where I proceded to explain to this 16 year old boy what I was looking for. Eventually he said "do you mean transparency films for overheads?" And I figured that would work, so he showed me the way. Well, I had no idea there was such a selection! And what a price range too! In the end I found, tucked behind a bunch of others, a small pack of transparency sheets for the cheapest price. Whew! What an ordeal! All this with my then 2 year old tagging along; poor girl! So, if you want to do this Faux Postage technique, now you know where to get those window sheets and what they are called to those "non-crafting" people!

Just a quick note, because I'm such a proud mommy - my baby turned 3 today! I have been on the verge of tears for half of the day, first last night thinking about the experience of having her, and then today thinking about my first hours with her in my arms. Even typing this, my chest is getting heavy and my eyes are tearing up! She was so cute this morning, waking up asking "is my birthday starting yet?" What a girl; she's amazing and makes me feel like the luckiest mom in the world! *sniff*

Happy New Year! - And Some Cards

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday. My brother and sister-in-law came over to spend Christmas day with us, and New Year's Eve was spent with some friends; a very relaxing but fun time. Now that January 1st has come and gone, I am gearing up for all my classes, clubs and other stamping fun coming up this year! I'm starting a new stamp club this January (the 18th), and have 2 spots left! Let me know if you'd like to join (and are in the Edmonton area). I also have 2 Marker Clubs starting this January, and both are full. I'll have so many projects to show you each month from all of these clubs! I have a tonne of fun classes planned as well; including a Valentine's bundle class, a 6x6 bragbook class (create an entire 26 page scrapbook in one day!), a recipe box class, calendar class, etc. etc... I will be a busy year! I am also attending the Stampin' Up Convention in Salt Lake City this July - it's the 20th anniversary, and it is guaranteed to be an AMAZING time! Anyone who signs up to be a demonstrator before Convention is eligible to come; ask me for more details! I also plan to be at Scrapfest again this year; the last 2 years have been great, and I have every reason to think this year will be just as great! What a year this is going to be!















Well, to get on to the cards I've posted... These 2 were from my last Club meeting in November, where members learned the shadow technique. This was such a funny class (at least to me) because while making the cards (the other technique will be posted later) I couldn't for the life of me decide what I wanted to do! For this card, I knew everything about the card except for the layout I wanted, and couldn't for some reason decide between using a brad or a button for the centre of the scallop piece. I just couldn't decide! So, I made sure all the pieces were the same size, showed my club both cards, and let them decide which they liked better and wanted to make. Whew! These cards were made using the Wanted set, and C. Chip, Bordering Blue, R. Rock and V. Vanilla were the card stock colors I used. All you do is stamp your image on the V.Vanilla CS, then again on a piece of acetate; then you place the acetate with the image where you want it to go (this case, under the original horse for a reflection effect) and rub it on! The image will transfer from the acetate onto your CS! Then I just drew a line to look like grass, and sponged and aqua painted the sky and water. Not a difficult technique at all!

I hope you all have a great year ahead with lots of time to do the things that make you most happy!