Happy Bear-Day to a Brother-in-Law!

A couple weeks ago, my brother-in-law and two nephews came to PG for a visit to go bear hunting with my hubby. They had a great time! A week later, Julian celebrated a birthday. I decided to continue with the bear theme and create a card with black bear punch art. I found a great punch art image on Pinterest and decided to CASE it, making some slight changes. 

I love this bear! It's perfect. And so easy to make! 

Inside I wrote a pretty funny bear-day message, using bear puns. He should get a kick out of that! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Loved Ones

Paper: Always Artichoke, Basic Black, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White

Ink: Black Staz-On

Tools: Ovals Nestabiltiies, 1-3/8" Circle punch, 1" Circle punch, 3/4" Circle punch, Small Oval punch, Owl Builder punch (for the eyes)

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





Margaritas and "Inspired By..." Challenge

Oh, how I love the weekends! Last night, I spent some good quality time with my hubby :) We made our own margaritas and watched "The Notebook".

The margaritas turned out sooo delicious! Here are the ingredients:

- 1/8 cup of water
- 90 mL tequila
- 30 mL Grand Marnier
- half an orange, peeled
- half a lime, peeled
- half a lemon, peeled
- thin slice of ginger
- a handful of spinach
- 3 tbsp honey
- 3 cups of ice cubes

We blended it for 45 seconds in our wonderful Vitamix....

 

...and voila!

Now for a new card challenge!

 

Karly chose a photo that she took just outside of Prince George as our inspiration for this week:

IB #5

What a gorgeous sunset! As soon as I saw this photo, the lovely stamp set "Lovely as a Tree" came to mind -- one of my favourites! I used the masking technique to create a landscape with a sunset:

 

I LOVE how it turned out! The sky is a vibrant orange/yellow and after looking at it again, it almost seems like the sun is shining a glow on the grass underneath the trees. The sky is created by sponging Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie and So Saffron ink. I sponged Old Olive and Always Artichoke for the grass. The landscape is cut into 3 panels to make it look like window panes and a simple "happy birthday" sentiment is added to complete the card.

Hop on over to Karly's Creations to see how this photo inspired her!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, All Holidays (ret.)
Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White
Ink: Staz-On Black ink, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso

Thanks for stopping by!

KCRR #4 {Faux Patina Technique}

Happy Friday!

One more work day and it's the long weekend for all of us in BC! We get our first ever Family Day on Monday, Feb 11th. For some reason, our Family Day is different than the rest of Canada... But, all the same, I am ecstatic to have an extra stat holiday!

It's time for another card challenge brought to you by:

Here are the two items we randomly chose from our long list of card ingredients:

Faux Patina Technique

Pool Party

 

I was quite excited when these two items were chosen! I love incorporating different techniques in my cardmaking. I have only done the Faux Patina technique once in a card class and haven't tried it since. I just love this technique and hope to try it more often! Here is my card:

 

KCRR #4

 

Faux Patina makes a card look so elegant! I decided to use the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder for the background. I used Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Always Artichoke and Early Espresso to sponge the embossed cardstock. The lighter inks are sponged first and the darker inks accentuate the embossed pattern. I sprayed champagne mist over the whole background to give it a velvety shimmer.

 

 

Tea Shoppe is one of those stamp sets that I love but don't use enough! It fits so well with the elegance of this card. I popped it up on a framelit label and added pearls to embellish it.

 

Hop on over to Karly's Creations to see what she has created for today's KCRR challenge!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Tea Shoppe
Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White, Pool Party DSP

Ink: Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Champagne Mist Paint

Tools: Labels Collection Framelits die, Word Window Punch, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder

Accessories: Pearls (Michael's)

 

Thanks for visiting! Come back tomorrow for a new "Inspired By..." challenge!









Birthday Celebration!

It's been a great weekend of birthday celebrations! Saturday night, my hubby, Kevin, and I  dressed up and went out for a delicious dinner at Ric's Grill. Kevin had his favourite seafood meal - Alaskan King Crab legs and prawns, and I had a delicious Italian sausage pasta dish. We enjoyed white and red wine and completed our meal with ginger cake and vanilla ice cream. It was scrumptious!

I promised to share the birthday card I made for my hubby's 29th birthday... It's a side-step folded card with an outdoorsy theme - perfect for my hubby! He loves the outdoors!

 

I got this idea from a card I found online and decided to CASE it. To see the original design visit Creative Corner Studio. I added my own touch to this card. The tent on the back 'step' is cut free-hand. I added eyelets and bakers twine to the open door flaps. A sleeping bag sticker is added to the inside of the tent. On the 2nd 'step' i created a campfire and marchmallow stick using punches. On the front 'step' I created a bush with the Little Leaves embosslet die from Stampin up and added the sentiment 'happy birthday'. On the larger side panel I stamped trees to make it look like a forest, added a stamped bunny, and cut a sign post shape using my cricut.

 

If you would like to try out this card fold, click here for some great instructions. I found these instructions were very easy to follow.

 

Some other highlights from Kevin's birthday:

 

Turtle Brownie Ice Cream Cake -- yumm!

I made the pennant banner using the Pennant Punch and cut the letters out using my cricut.

 

I spoiled him this year! Got him a couple merino wool t-shirts, the 75th anniversary edition of "The Hobbit" and a portable JetBoil stove. He was thrilled!

 

Had quite a few phone calls/skype calls today. I think he had a great birthday!

 

 

Card Ingredients for the Side-Step Card:

 

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Forest Friends (ret.), Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Whisper White, Certainly Celery DSP, Always Artichoke DSP, Crumb Cake DSP

Ink: Early Espresso, Always Artichoke

Tools: Bird Builder punch, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Snowflake punch (ret.), Little Leaves embosslit, Campin' Critters Cricut cartridge

Accessories: Brads (Michaels), Eyelets, Bakers Twine, Sleeping Bag sticker

 

Thanks for stopping by!