Father's Day Weekend Recap

Last weekend was a busy one! Saturday I spent the day with two of my nieces. We had a great time together! I know these two girls (ages 3 and 7) love to craft. Each time they come over, they head straight to my craft room wanting to draw, write messages to friends, stamp, and glue paper cut-outs to create their own piece of art. So, since I had them for the day, I wanted to organize a crafting 'workshop' for them. Father's Day was the next day, so I thought it would be perfect for them to make their own cards for their Dad. I created a couple samples for them to follow:

Simple with lots of white space for them to add to it. They loved it! It was so fun to watch them think of how they wanted to decorate their cards, making it their own. I find crafting brings out creativity in most people, especially kids.

I also gave them a couple more blank cards for them to decorate for any occasion. Here they are showing off their completed cards:

Father's Day was a special day this year, as we celebrated my husband's first year being a father! Kevin is a wonderful father to our little girl. He loves her so much! I had Raya make him her first card...

It was quite the challenge to try and get her hand prints... as you can see on the card front, I was unsuccessful, but it still looks like a piece of art, right? :)
Tracing her hand and foot was a little easier.
My hubby loved this card!

I decided to make a card with a gardening theme. Kevin has been working on our gardens quite a bit over the past couple months and is doing such a great job! Not only did he plant trees, bushes and flowers, he also made a vegetable garden with its own irrigation system - very impressive!

In fact, we harvested our first vegetable - radishes - a couple weeks ago. So fun to watch everything grow from seeds!

Having said that, here's the card I made for Kevin:

I was inspired by this card and decided to CASE it, however making it somewhat my own by adding woodchips in the wheelbarrow and a spade shovel on the side. Both the wheelbarrow and shovel were made from scratch using pieces of cardstock.

And finally, I made a Father's Day card for my dad and father-in-law, using the "Building Blocks" card fold.

For this card I used the tie stamp from the "Something for Baby" Stampin Up stamp set. I thought it was perfect for my Dad as he loves to wear a shirt and tie every now and again.

We refer to my father-in-law as "Pop". He celebrated a birthday also this past week so I added a 2nd sentiment on this card :)

Building Blocks Card Fold Instructions:

To make this card fold, simply start with a piece of cardstock measuring 5.5" x 10.5". Score on the long side at 3.5" and 7". Fold to create one mountain fold and one valley fold.
To create the blocks, cut 1.5" in from the valley fold at the following measurements:
3/8", 1-5/8", 2-1/8", 3-3/8", 3-7/8" and 5-1/8".
Decorate each panel as you like!

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!

FMS69 Everything Eleanor

When I saw the new sketch challenge on the Freshly Made Sketches blog, I wasn't sure how I would go about designing my card.  I thought of what shapes I would use in place of the three circles, and if I would make the card as simple as the sketch or spice it up a bit.

I recently got a few new stamp sets, one being the elegant "Everything Eleanor". This one was on my wish list for a while and now after using it, I'm glad I got it. It is such a beautiful stamp set and I know I will make good use out of it! Here is my card:

 

I realize now, comparing the sketch to my card ,that I changed the direction of the diagonal line... oops! :) You will notice I am a bit of a perfectionist :) But, I actually like the way it turned out! The colours Soft Suede and Very Vanilla are such an elegant colour combo and Cajun Craze adds a little pop of colour. The flowers are cut precisely using paper snips and are popped up using dimensionals. I've added pearls and crochet ribbon to embellish the card.



 

I love that swirl so much, I decided to stamp it on the inside of the card. I think this would make a great card for newly weds. What do you think?

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Petite Pairs

Paper: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Comfort Cafe DSP

Ink: Soft Suede, Cajun Craze

Tools: Circles Nestabilities, 1" Circle Punch

Accessories: Crochet Trim Ribbon, Pearls

 

Thanks for looking!