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! :)