Monochromatic Teal Blues

As we were driving to work yesterday morning, the sky was gorgeous! I knew it was going to be a beautiful day!

It also turned out to be a very productive day! I tackled all the piles of paperwork on my desk at work and am now down to 1 small pile! I love days like that. I came home feeling like I accomplished something. Often my days consist of many incomplete projects. I love being able to complete tasks and move on to the next.
My evening was spent catching up on writing messages to a couple friends and getting my dose of exercise at Zumba Fitness.

I say goodbye to my hubby this morning for a week. :( He gets to go to southern Queen Charlotte Islands for work - lucky guy! We had the opportunity to go there a couple years ago and I absolutely loved it there! It's so beautiful! Here's a couple of my favourite photos from our trip:

Bonanza Beach

 

Sunset on North Beach (view from Toe Hill)

 

 

Today's card was created for Kevin's coworker/friend, Melissa, for her 30th birthday. She loves humming birds, so I thought I'd use the Bloomin Marvelous stamp set, which is becoming one of my favourites!

 

I played along with two card challenges: Dynamic Duos and Retro Sketches.

 

Dynamic Duos has my ultimate favourite colour combo for their challenge this week:

 

 

It is the 52nd challenge at Retro Sketches. This week we get to pick our favourite sketch to re-do!  I chose the following sketch:

 

I thought the flowers in the Blooming Marvelous stamp set would be perfect for this sketch! Here's what I came up with:

 

I randomly stamped the flowers in Island Indigo and Pool Party on the left side of the card. I extended the flowers a bit further than what the sketch suggests, only because I didn't like the white space at the top of the card. I also added stamped leaves in a neutral colour (Crumb Cake). Some of the flowers are popped up to add some dimension.l It's easier to see in this picture:

 





I also popped up the humming bird to make it stand out against the flowers. Island Indigo bakers twine is wrapped around a strip of cardstock and tied in a bow. I added the sentiment "happy Birthday wishes" and rounded the corners of the card base to complete it.

 

 

 

I love how this card turned out! As I said earlier, this colour combo is my absolute favourite! I'll be sad to see these colours retire this summer :(

 

Thanks for visiting! Make sure to stop by tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Blooming Marvelous (Sale-A-Bration); Petite Pairs

Paper: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Whisper White

Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Crumb Cake

Tools: Corner Rounder Punch (Creative Memories)

Accesories: Island Indigo bakers twine

Mojo 282 {Going Green}

Tuesday was a long day. It seems this week is dragging on... I was exhausted when I came home from work (the consequence of late nights!) I am truly a night owl, but tonight I may have to hit the pillow a tad earlier than normal!

To beat the winter blues, I have been doing a lot of research lately on top sites to see along the west coast for our road trip in June - I'm SO excited! We plan on staying a couple days in California and one of the things I've found to do there is snorkeling at La Jolla Cove - we can see all kinds of fish including leopard sharks! I think, for me, California will be one of the main highlights of our trip. I just love the sun and beaches and the ocean! June cannot come soon enough!

For today's card, I'm playing along with a few different card challenges, one of them being another great sketch from Mojo Monday.



A couple other card challenge blogs that I've been following have a similar theme this week:

Stampin Up Only Challenges has a "Going Green" challenge this week and Late Night Stamper's theme is "Celebrating St. Patrick's Day".

I decided to incorporate all three challenges into one great card!

 

The outer borders of the card front are embossed with the Tulip Frame embossing folder and sponged lightly with Old Olive ink. I layered designer paper from the "Tea for Two" DSP collection with a piece of Always Artichoke cardstock. A swirl design is stamped in Old Olive for the background. I created a 3-leaf clover using the Small Heart punch. Each 'petal' was folded in half to create a crease in the center and then sponged with Always Artichoke ink. The stem was punched out from the Bird Builder punch. It is placed on a layered scallop circle. The clover took a little practice to find out which heart punch would work best! I tried the Heart to Heart punch, but found that this Small Heart punch had the best shape and a good size for the clover. Finally, I stamped the sentiment "happy st. patrick's day" in Old Olive ink to complete the card.

 

 

 



Thanks for stopping by!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Everything Eleanor
Paper: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Tea for Two DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Always Artichoke
Tools: Frame Tulip Embossing Folder, Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, Small Heart Punch, Bird Builder Punch





Birthday Wishes for a Special Sister-in-Law!

Yesterday was a fairly good Monday. The work day went by fairly quickly... however, we got another dump of snow! About a foot of snow fell and it was a winter wonderland in PG by the end of the day! While it did look quite pretty, I was kind of disappointed... What happened to the early spring they predicted?? Here are a couple photos I took of what is hopefully the last big snowfall before spring:




 


Despite the disappointing snowfall, I came home to a few goodies in the mail! First and foremost, I received my prize from Verve Stamps for the card that was chosen as a winner at Mojo Monday. To see the original post for this card, click here. I got to choose a stamp set of my choice from Verve Stamps and this is what I chose:

 

It is such an adorable stamp set and I can't wait to use it! It will make some cute baby cards!

Another wonderful surprise was a card from my Mom. She is so sweet and I love getting things from her in the mail! It makes me smile and miss her all the more!

 

And finally, I received the new Stampin' Success magazine! I love getting this magazine in the mail. It has many great ideas of how to use Stampin Up's products in unique ways. I often see quite a few things that catch my eye and inspire me to try a new layout or technique.

 

 

Today, I think of my dear sister-in-law, Angie. It's her birthday today! Unfortunately, she is so far away, living in Uganda, Africa, and I wish I could be there to celebrate with her! The closest I could get was a phone call on Saturday morning :) It was great to catch up with her! I miss her so much! She is such a sweet, caring, supportive sister and a wonderful mother to 5 darling kids. I hope she has the best day and that God blesses her with a wonderful year ahead. Love you, Angie!

I sent her a little package in the mail to let her know I'm thinking of her. I filled an envelope with a few goodies and this fun-folded greeting card!

 

This is a cascade card fold. It's created with an 8.5"x11" piece of Old Olive cardstock. I've made cascading cards before in a larger size, but I love this size, just for the fact that I can stick it in a regular A2-size envelope! I decorated it with designer paper from the Twitterpated collection and stamped flowers in Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo and Pool Party. I added leaves that were cut from the Little Leaves sizzlit and embellished a few of the flowers with rhinestones. The sentiment is stamped in Elegant Eggplant and punched out using the Curly Label punch. Here is a side view of the card:

 



I left a spot on the back of the card to write my card message. I just love this card fold! It's so unique and can be decorated in so many different ways! I hope to make more of them and do a picture tutorial with instructions in a future post. Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow to see my take on the Mojo Monday sketch this week!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Elementary Elegance (ret.), Mixed Bunch
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White, Twitterpated DSP
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo, Pool Party
Tools: Blossom punch, 1" Circle punch, 1/4" Circle punch, Little Leaves sizzlit
Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's)

FM#98 {Happy Easter}

Happy Monday!

As usual, the weekend flew by! It was a nice relaxing weekend - from catching up with family, papercrafting and spending some quality time with my hubby. (He will be going out of town later this week for work, so I'm cherishing the time I have with him :) )

For today's card, I decided to play along with the Friday Mashup! This week, the mash up is a Sketch featuring Bunnies - how fun for Easter!

I chose some "Eastery" colours with a neutral and followed the sketch quite precisely. Here's what I came up with:

So Saffron cardstock is used for the card base.  I chose green flowery designer paper from the Summer Smooches collection for the card front. The tree stamp was coloured with Chocolate Chip and Old Olive markers. I fussy-cut the bunny and popped it up using dimensionals. A flagged banner in Tangerine Tango is added to brighten up the card. To coordinate with this orange I coloured large rhinestones with an orange Sharpie and put them in all four corners.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Forest Friends (ret.); Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Summer Smooches DSP

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive marker, Chocolate Chip marker

Tools: Labels Framelit, Circles nestabilities

Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's)



Deconstructed Sketch #90 {Thanks So Much}

This morning we wake up to more snow and lots of wind. Now is the time of year that I get cabin fever and I'm anxious for the next season... Yesterday almost felt like spring! I went for a walk with our dog, Keta, down the forest service road near our apartment. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to take off my jacket! It was a beautiful day!

 



Another highlight to my Saturday - I got to catch up with my brother and sister-in-law in Uganda! It was so nice to hear their voices and to hear what they have been up to lately. I miss them all so much! I hope one day, my family can all live closer together!

 

For today's card I used the new sketch by Deconstructing Jen. It's a good one! I really like this layout.

 

I created a square 5"x5" card and picked "Spice Cake" designer paper for the 4 squares. While this may not be my favourite designer paper collection, I really like how well it coordinates with Soft Suede and Pool Party in this card:

 

I stamped the Triple Treat Flower in three different colours and layered them. The top layer is popped up using dimensionals and I added a small pearl in the centre. Linen thread is wrapped around the Very Vanilla cardstock. I sponged the edges with Soft Suede ink and added the sentiment "Thanks So Much" to complete the card. 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Triple Treat Flower (ret.), Sincere Salutations (ret.)
Ink: Soft Suede, Pool Party, More Mustard
Tools: Fancy Flower punch, Five Petal Flower punch, 1/2" Circle punch

Accessories: Pearl (Michael's), Linen Thread

Inspired By... a Little Man Tie!

The weekend is finally here! As usual, I have a fairly long to-do list and hope to complete most of it by the end of the weekend. My hubby will be working all day today, so I'll have the day to catch up on some papercrafting projects. :) I also hope to do some more trip planning for our June road trip!

We received a picture of our new neice yesterday....

Isn't she a sweety? Wish we could be there to snuggle her!


I'm excited for today's card challenge!

It was my pick this week and I chose a photo of an adorable baby product made by TC Creations:

This is called a Little Man Tie! Isn't it the cutest thing for a little boy!? Tammy from TC Creations is one talented lady! I met her at the Kelly Road Craft Fair here in Prince George this past fall. I was looking for a baby gift for a friend and came across her booth. She makes the most adorable bibs, pacifier clips, taggies, and these Little Man Ties that were launched just a couple days ago! Her products are so well made and make the perfect gifts for new babies to toddlers! Make sure to check her out on facebook -- TC Creations!

I decided to choose this photo as inspiration for our "Inspired By..." card challenge this week. I think the pattern in this tie is so fun and the colours coordinate so well together! Here is my card:

This is definitely a card on my favourites list! I love how the vibrant blue, green, and white circles stand out against the black cardstock. I embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder and added rhinestones to embellish the card.



Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to check out how this photo inspired Karly at Karly's Creations.

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Happiest Birthday (hostess)
Paper: Basic Black, Tempting Turqouise, Certainly Celery, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, Whisper White Embossing Powder
Tools: 1-3/8" Circle punch, 1-3/4" Circle punch, 1-1/4" Circle punch, 1" Circle punch, 1/2" Circle Punch
Accessories: Rhinestones

Rock 'N Roll Birthday Celebration

Happy Friday! It has been a looongg week. Friday took forever to get here! Looking forward to relaxing this weekend and getting some good crafting time in.

So yesterday, as we were driving home from work we got a phone call from someone who found our dog, Keta a couple blocks from where we live, playing with some kids just outside her home. We were SO grateful to those kids for taking care of her! But now is the question... how did she get out of our fenced-in backyard?? We discovered, this is how...

Bad girl... and super sneaky. Looks like we have some dog-proofing to do in our backyard. I'm glad that we live where we do - we have such great neighbours! I don't know what I would do if I lost Keta!

After all that comotion, Kevin and I had the pleasure of visiting with my coworker/friend, Karly and her boyfriend Matt. They prepared a delicious elk roast and deer tenderloin meal for us! This was my first time trying elk and it really was quite good! It didn't taste 'gamey' at all! The deer tenderloin was also delicious! I haven't always been a big fan of deer meat... But apparently the taste is quite different if it was an older buck versus a younger doe.
They sent us home with a bag full of moose meat, deer meat, and elk meat... my hubby was thrilled! (Thanks again Karly!)

Moving on to the card challenge of the day...

Today's random recipe includes these two elements:

Rock 'N Roll Technique
Midnight Muse

 

I struggled with this challenge a bit. While I love Midnight Muse, I don't have many options in my supplies, but I made it work! The rock 'n roll technique is a fun element to add to a card and it's quite simple! First, you pick a solid stamp. I decided to use the retired "Upsy Daisy" stamp, which is one of my favourites. You then stamp it in a lighter colour ink (in my case, I used So Saffron) and 'rock 'n roll' it in a darker ink, such as Pumpkin Pie. I used this technique on both the flowers and the sentiment:

 

 

I love the look of this technique! I added Midnight Muse designer paper, an eyelet border, rhinestones and pleated Pear Pizazz ribbon for some detail on the card. I fussy cut some of the flowers and popped them using dimensionals. The pictures below display this a little better.

 

 

Feel free to play along! Hop on over to Karly's Creations to see how she has incorporated these two elements in her card!

 

Come back tomorrow to see a new "Inspired By..." challenge! I'm excited for this one!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps - Upsy Daisy

Paper: Old Olive, So Saffron, Whisper White, In-Colour 2012-2014 DSP

Ink: So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie

Tools: Circles nestabilities, Eyelet Border punch

Accessories: Pleated Pear Pizazz ribbon (ret.), Rhinestones (Michael's)





Paper Craft Crew #30 {Open Sea}

Wednesday began with a lack of motivation - not a good sign for the beginning of the work day! However, as the day went on I started tackling the piles of paperwork on my desk and gained some motivation. Kind of backwards! Generally, I lose motivation as the day goes on. I got quite a bit accomplished in the afternoon!

One of the first things my husband and I do when we come home from work is check our phone for messages. Well, there was an exciting message yesterday from Kevin's sister and brother-in-law -- we have a new neice! Her name is Nadine. This will be their 4th girl :) Wish we could be there to meet her!

Today's card is inspired by the sketch challenge at Paper Craft Crew. I loved this sketch as soon as I saw it. It has lots of layers - my kind of sketch!

My original intention for this card was to use the Spice Cake designer paper from Stampin Up. However, as I was designing the card, I couldn't quite piece it together using that designer paper. I had a second look through my stacks of paper and came across the Nautical Expedition collection. I paired it with the Open Sea stamp set and this is how it came about:

 

I decided to change it up a bit and make a more masculine card, since my cards lately have included flowers, butterflies, pastel colours, etc. I stamped the ship and the anchor and cut them out. The strip of Night of Navy cardstock is embossed with lines. Bakers twine is wrapped around it and a mini tag sentiment "4 You" is tied to it with the anchor. I added three rhinestones to embellish the card.

 

Thanks for visiting! Make sure to stop by tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Open Sea, Tiny Tags

Paper: Basic Gray, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Nautical Expedition DSP (ret.)

Ink: Basic Gray

Tools: Circles nestabilities, Tiny Tag punch

Accessories: Rhinestones, White Bakers Twine

Dynamic Duos {Wish Big}

My "Monday" carried over into Tuesday morning when I went to take a shower and discovered there was no hot water. Showers are what wake me up in the mornings, so I braved the freezing cold water and while it wasn't pleasant, it certainly did wake me up! Not a great way to start my morning though! I can tell this is going to be a long week... Tuesday was a long work day, but I made the most of my evening. I came home to a new issue of Papercrafts Magazine in my mailbox! I got the subscription to this magazine as a Christmas present from my Dad - what a great gift!

There are lots of inspiring ideas in this issue! It's all about baby cards and weddings - a perfect Spring issue! I will definitely be using some of the layouts and tips in my upcoming card creations.
To complete my evening I created a couple cards, watched some tv and made a delicious apple crisp, which made the apartment smell so good!

For today's card I played along with the Dynamic Duos colour challenge:

I went all in for this challenge and decided to incorporate the dessert option into my card as well. I don't have any cloud stamps, so I turned to using punches. Here's what I came up with:

It's a very simple card, but so adorable (in my opinion!) I used Basic Black for the card base. The card front represents sky. I used the cupcake builder punch to create the clouds. They are lightly sponged with Tempting Turquoise ink. A hot air balloon is created using a circle punch for the balloon and the cupcake builder punch for the basket.  The balloon is 3D - it pops out of the card, but folds flat so it can go into an envelope (cool technique!). I stamped and cut out the cute little monkey and stuck him in the basket. The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black, but unfortunately, my Basic Black ink is running dry, so it didn't quite stamp as solid as I would have liked. I actually like the faded look, however. I outlined the edges of the word "big" with black marker and I think it works!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Word Play, Fox & Friends (ret.)

Paper: Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise marker

Tools: 1-3/4" circle punch, Cupcake Builder punch

Accessories: Early Espresso Bakers Twine

A Clean and Simple Thank You

Yesterday was a busy Monday! From meetings to appointments to catching up on spreadsheets and paperwork... I was glad to be home! One good thing about a busy work day -- it flies by! I came home with a pounding headache, unfortunately, but it gradually disappeared and I was able to relax for the evening. And what better way to wind down after a busy Monday then crafting? 

Today's card is clean and simple. I combined two challenges: a great sketch from Mojo Monday and a nice colour combo from Just Add Ink.

I really love this sketch. Layering circles is one of my favourite layouts on a card and this gives great opportunity to use different patterned designer paper. I needed some help in choosing a colour combo so I turned to the challenge this week by "Just Add Ink". This is my first time participating in one of their challenges and I'm glad I came across this blog! I look forward to using their challenges as inspiration in the future!

This colour combo was a bit difficult for me because I don't have many products with Midnight Muse in it. But, as I went through my designer paper, I realize I had quite a few options! I chose polka dot designer paper from the In-Colour DSP stack and chevron patterned paper from the Comfort Cafe DSP collection. So Saffron became the card base colour. I love this shade of yellow! It's so soft and combines well with many other colours! Here's what I came up with:

 

 

I really love it! I wrapped So Saffron grosgrain ribbon around the card front and added the strip of designer paper below it. The flowers and sentiment are stamped on Whisper White cardstock, punched out in the shape of a circle and popped up using dimensionals. Because I'm not a big fan of white space, I added three rhinestones in the top corner to embellish the card.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Just Believe

Paper: So Saffron, Whisper White, New In-Colour 2012-2014 DSP, Comfort Cafe DSP

Ink: So Saffron, Night of Navy marker

Tools: Circles nestabilities

Accessories: So Saffron grosgrain ribbon (ret.), Rhinestones (Michael's)