Going MIA for a few days

We're off tomorrow morning to meet up with my son and grandchildren and his girlfriend and her two little ones and my sons friend and his wife and little one to camp for the weekend. Where we are going to is only about 40 minutes away at a place called Miracle Beach which has a beautiful long sandy beach.

I'm very excited as this is going to be my son's first real visit up here since we moved to Vancouver Island 5 years ago. He use to come up this way when making deliveries for Ikea, but that was usually arriving late in the evening and crashing for the night and then taking off the next morning to make all his deliveries down the island. I always have my grandchildren up here for three or four weeks in the summer but my son's usually to busy working (being a single Dad can be tough sometimes). We come home on Sunday and the grand kids will come back with us. So I'm pretty sure I'll have lots of photos to scrap when I get home. Have a great weekend everyone!

Another great tutorial

I don't know what it is but I always seem to go in spurts of making different things. Sometimes I'll doing nothing but layouts and the next thing I'm doing nothing but cards. Oh well, as long as I'm keeping busy, that's all that counts, lol. I made this card following another of my friend, Paulien's great tutorials. Paulien's tutorials are always great to follow as she has tons of pictures and very detailed directions so that even a beginner paper crafter can follow them! You can find this tutorial at Swirlydoos here: http://www.swirlydoos.com/sd_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?106343

The paper I've used here is from the May 2011 kit from My creative Scrapbook which just happened to be the same papers that Paulien used from one of the Swirlydoos kits - how convenient is that, lol! I did have to do a little but of substitution on the flowers and instead of using the Rock Candy Crackle paint I used Stickles glitter as I thought the Stickles showed up better on the small butterfly than the crackle paint. Now all I have to do is make an envelope to fit the card and I'm all set! I do hope you pop over to Swirlydoos and check this great tutorial out. TFL and have a great day!

Swing card

So I decided to try making one of these cute little swing cards that I found a tutorial for on Split Coast Stampers. I think this one turned out pretty good. I love the look of them when they are standing up. The only thing with these cards is that you don't have a lot of room for writing your own little message on them but I suppose you could do that on the very back of the card. It is nice to be able to send someone something different instead of your usual type card.

I used this pretty paper again from Stampin Up,  I love this paper - I may have to go back and pick up a couple of more sheets of it. I used one of my Martha Stewart punches for the edge papers. I cut out the "Love" and butterfly on my Cricut machine and added a bit of ribbon and a bow to finish it off. Thanks for taking a look and I hope everyone has a great week!

Another step card

Okay so I think I'm going to get addicted to making these step cards, I just really think they turn out so cute. Although this is only the second one I've made, I can see many more of these in my future, lol. I made this one for some friends who were so nice to lend me one of their trucks the other week while mine was in getting fixed. I think that's why I love living here in a small town compared to living in Vancouver/Richmond on the mainland. Here everyone is always there to help you out no matter what it is you're doing, you don't even have to ask them. We only moved here almost six years ago and we have made so many wonderful friends - love, love, love the small town atmosphere!

 Anyways, back to my card, lol. The little hedgehog on here I drew  myself in my Paint Shop Pro program. He's my version of the Penny Black hedgehog stamps. I couldn't afford to buy all these stamps so I decided I would just draw my own and I think he turned out kind of cute. I think these papers that I've used are from Stamp-in-Up, I really liked the colors in them when I saw them. I used my Spellbinders Nestabilities to cut and emboss the ovals with my Big Shot. I used one of my Martha Stewart punches for my side pieces and the "Thanks" I cut out on my Cricut machine. Oh and the little flower is one of Prima's. Well thanks so much for taking a peek!

Getting published

I just received an email from Scrapbook News and Review to let me know that they are publishing two more of my cards in their issue that comes out on Sunday. I'm very excited, this will be my fourth time published in their online magazine, which is so cool. It's very exciting when you're a crafter of any sort and find that people really like what you have made, it just makes it all worth while. The cards are my "Once Upon a Springtime" fairy card and my "Fun in the Sun" paper piecing card, which for some reason I forgot to post that one here on my blog. After the August issue comes out I can re-post both of the cards here on my blog.

I'm also very happy to report that my DH liked his card and his new motorcycle helmet that I got for him - Yeah! My in-laws were in town so the four of us all went out to this really nice Chinese smorgasbord  that we have here in town, which is one of my DH's favorite places to go to. Of course after all that food all we could do is come home and flake out in front of the TV, lol. Well I'm off to bed - have a great weekend all!

A new card

It's my husbands birthday tomorrow (the big 47 - I can't even remember 47 it was so long ago, lol) so I have been racking my brain, trying to get some inspiration for a card for him. I was surfing through Split Coast Stampers website and came across a tutorial on making a step card. I really like these type of cards, I just think they look really cool when they are opened. So now I had the type of card decided on and just needed to find some masculine type paper and I came across some really nice ones from "Crate Paper". One was from their Static collection called "gravity" and the other from their Taylor collection called "Play Time". Although they were from different collections their colors matched perfectly.

The next thing I wanted to do was something a little more than just your standard "Happy Birthday" and since I had bought him a new helmet for his Harley I kind of wanted to somehow base it around motorcycles. I was trying to find some kind of saying like "Harley riders don't get old they just...." but I couldn't think of anything to finish the sentence off. After poking around the internet I found someone talking about how some people think they are to old to ride a motorcycle but this person thought they got old because they quit riding. I thought that would be perfect, I just switched the wording around to suit what I wanted and so I came up with "Harley riders don't get to old to ride, they get old because they quit riding!" For my sentiment on the inside of the card I said "To someone I know who will never grow old - Happy Birthday Sexy!"

For the motorcycle on the front of the card I went searching the internet for a silhouette of one. I finally found one I liked except that it had a girl riding it, so I took it into my Paint Shop Pro program and cut the girl out of it and then I saved it as a .png file which I then took into my "Inkscape" program and turned it into an .svg file and cut it out on my Cricut Machine and attached it to the front of the card with foam to pop it up for a 3D look. I think it turned out not to bad, so I hope he likes it and his new helmet! I've posted a photo below, if you click on the image it will show you a larger picture, then just hit your back button to return to this page. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Happy Tuesday

Well I've been busy recovering my in-laws cushions from their trailer. The people who owned it before must have really been into cows because all of the cushions were covered in this black & white cow pattern fleece. They even had the lamp shades in the same material - not really my in-laws style - can't say as I blame them, lol. Anyway I decided after breaking numerous finger nails trying to get the new covers on the very dense foam I should take a break and have some "me" time.

I decided to follow along with my friend Paulien's new July tag that she has up on her blog, which you can find here: http://paulienvandenbosch.blogspot.com/
I had to do a bit of substituting as I didn't have all of the needed items, such as a chandelier stamp, script stamp and I used one of my pretty Prima butterflies rather than make my own (I know lazy).

The first thing I had to do was to find a .png file(a graphic with a transparent background) of a chandelier to use in place of the stamp that Paulien used. Once I found that I was able to use my Paint Shop Pro program to print the graphic onto my tag. I also didn't have a nice lacy border stamp like Paulien used but I did have one with little butterflies so I used that instead. For my script stamp I used one of my rub-ons, which doesn't look to bad. I really do need to get a script stamp as I found that doing different projects it would be really good one to have.

For my misting on the card I didn't have any of the Distress re-inkers so I used some of my Rangers "stream" ink and mixed that up with water and sprayed that onto the tag. I didn't have any of the Pearl-ex micro powder to add to the spray to give it some shimmer but I had just some Lumin Arte "Radiant Rain" shimmering mist and applied that over top of the blue mist after I had heat set it. It is hard to see how it shimmers in the photo below but if you click on the photo you are able to see a bigger photo of the tag and see how it shimmers. 

The next thing I had to do was to figure out what to use in place of silver metallic paint to mix with my iridescent medium. I remembered I had some Rangers Silver ink so I mixed that with the iridescent medium to paint on my doily. It didn't come out quite as silvery than if I had used metallic paint but it looked not bad. 

When I first started scrapping I always thought I had to use the exact same products as was in the tutorials I followed. I soon found that it could be quite expensive to keep buying things I might not ever use again. Now I realize that the idea of a tutorial is to give you the basic techniques so that you can then put your own spin on things! So I  hope by giving you some of my steps for this tag that it will get your own ideas flowing when following tutorials. Anyway here is my take on Paulien's tag, hope you like it. TFL and thanks for another great tag Paulien!

Prize Giveaway!

Yeah Friday is here!! I've got a few things to show you today. The first is news about a prize giveaway at my friend Gabi's blog, which you can find here: http://gabriellepollacco.blogspot.com/ Gabi is giving away a great prize pack full of all of her favorite scrapping goodies. A photo of the prize pack is below this post. So pop on over to Gabi's blog and leave a comment and you never know - you might be the lucky one to win this great prize!

The other thing to show you is my layout that I did for the "Pages in Time" interactive Blog Hop. I don't know if any of you followed it last week or not - it ran June 30th to July 6th. The idea of the blog hop was to go to each of the listed blogs and the girls were sharing with you different ways to spice up your scrap layouts. It was really fun seeing all the different techniques used. At the end of the hop what you had to do was follow the sketch they gave you and incorporate at least 5 of the techniques that the girls shared into your layout. So below is my take on the layout, a photo of my son taken this past weekend while he was camping with friends. The techniques/things I used in my layout were: Distressing, matting with doodling on it, scalloped border punches, my own hand made bling using stickles glitter, title "Life - Enjoy", journaling "Cultas Lake, July 2011", and flowers. Thanks for all the inspiration ladies and thank you all for stopping by my blog and having a peek. Don't forget to hop on over to Gabi's blog at a chance at winning her prize!

    

An altered project

I didn't realize that it has been so long since I updated my blog. I guess I got a little busy visiting with friends etc on our "Canada Day" (July 1st) long weekend this past weekend. This week has been so warm and sunny I wanted to spend it outside doing some yard work and soak up some of that good old vitamin D!

I did this altered toilet paper dispenser a couple of weeks ago but I forgot to take a photo of it before I sent it back to my sister so I had to wait for her to take a photo of it and send it to me. So this was a gift that my sister received from someone a number of years ago, she just had it as a decoration in her bathroom. It was getting so old that the picture on it was getting all faded and yellow looking. I decided to give it a makeover.  This is the before photo so you can see how it looked.

I painted the whole thing with white paint and after it dried I painted it with Rangers Rock Candy Distress Crackle paint, not that you can really see the crackle effect in this photo. I used Prima Flora fairy paper for the background and then used Graphic 45 "Once Upon a Springtime" collection papers cutting out the fairies and flowers etc popping them up with foam for a 3D look. I used stickles glitter on the fairies & butterflies wings. Also cut out the two butterflies with my Cricut and covered them with stickles glitter also and used pop dots down the centers so I could fold the butterflies wings up. I'm quite pleased at how it turned out. TFL!

 

Beautiful day in paradise!

Well we're having another gorgeous sunny summer day here in Campbell River today - now if it would just stay around for a few days that would be even better. I tell you this spring and now the beginning of summer have just been crazy. Here it is July 1st at the end of this week and we are still having a few days where we need to wear a jacket.According to the "experts" El Nina that we are having is suppose to be over by the end of June and all across Canada is suppose to get and unusually hot summer - okay, it can start anytime now! Just to show you how weird it's been our local ski mountain, Mount Washington (here on Vancouver Island), had the biggest snow pack in the world (for ski hills) of over 700 cms. So instead of opening up for their usual summer sports of mountain biking etc. they are opening up for more skiing on July 1st! Isn't that crazy? Oh well, lol.

This past week I wasn't having a very good week. I had to take my vehicle in to get fixed last Wednesday - which was suppose to be ready on Thursday but now it won't be ready until Tuesday as they had to fix a number of other things - "Oh joy, more money to spend"! On Wednesday afternoon my MS decided to start acting up again and I was having major problems with vertigo again. I couldn't even lift my head off of my pillow for two days without feeling like I was going to throw up or fall over - not a fun feeling. So I guess it was a good time to take my vehicle in to get fixed as I couldn't drive anyway, lol. It's settled down a lot now, I just have to not look up to much or  move to fast and it seems to be more in the morning when I first get up.

Before the vertigo happened I did get started on a new layout of my son and his new girlfriend. This layout was made from following Delaina's (My Creative Scrapbook) video tutorial which you can find here: http://www.mycreativescrapbook.blogspot.com/. I was quite happy at how it turned out. My scrapping style has really changed since joining the "My Creative Scrapbook" group, the ladies have really got me to thinking more "outside" the box when I scrap and when I look back at my layouts I did when I first started scrapping I just think how "un-exciting" (if that's a word) they are compared to now. So let me know what you think of this layout - I love to hear any comments  - good or bad!

I also managed to get a quick all occasion card done using up some more of my Feb LE kit which is below.  I used a duplicate paper to cut out the fairy and chick to pop up with foam for a 3D look and also used some stickles glitter on the fairy and butterfly wings. TFL and have a great week!

 

Websters Pages

Check out all the fun here at "InspireMe" this week celebrating Websters new paper  lines!

Apologies to all!

As a Canadian and a former Vancouver person I can not believe how embarrassed I am over the riot in Vancouver last night after the Stanley Cup hockey game. Watching what unfolded on the TV last night after the game just seems so surreal. I felt like I did watching the news of the Twin Towers being hit - I could not believe it. Everyone we know and people we don't  know are so shocked over this and are so totally pissed  off (pardon my language here) at the people who went into Downtown Vancouver last night to purposely start these riots. 

These were not "Hockey Fans" nor were they regular Vancouver citizens! We are all disgusted at these people and we all want them caught and brought to justice over this. To these few people who started this - You have put a black mark on Vancouver that the world will not easily forget and if you think any of us are proud of you for this, think again! With all of the street camera's, news camera's and regular everyday people with their cell phone camera's getting shots of all of you idiots, you'll be caught. People have already put up Facebook pages, websites so we can post your photos for the police and anyone who recognizes anyone in these photos are coming forward to the police and giving them your names.

It would not have mattered if the Canucks had won the Stanley Cup, these riots would have started anyway. Police found people who had come into Downtown Vancouver with Molotov cocktails in there back packs. Normal people do not carry something like this to a huge gathering of people unless they planned on starting something. Watching you idiots on the TV smiling and laughing and acting so proud of yourselves for what was happening made me sick and embarrassed. So lets see how much you laugh and smile when the police come knocking at your door. Yea you are real heroes - NOT!

To the rest of Canada and the world we apologize to everyone for what they witnessed last night and want them to know that is not what the real Vancouver and it's citizens are about!   

Another Brooke layout...

Well you must be getting bored with all these photos of my friends little granddaughter, Brooke, but every photo they take of  her is just so adorable I can't help but scrap it. lol. On this layout I used some of my leftovers from the October LE kit from MCS, I just love all these butterflies. These papers are from DCWV and are just so pretty. When I laid my photo down on the papers I didn't want to cover up the big butterfly on the paper on the bottom right corner of the photo so I cut out around the butterflies wing so I could slip the photo underneath it. Then I decided to do the same with the smaller butterfly on the background paper on the left side of the photo.  I also cut out some of the small butterflies from the paper strip I used with all the butterflies on it and then just taped them down the middle so I could fold up their wings for a 3D look and staggered them up the paper on the right side of the photo.  The 3D butterfly sticker is also from DCWV and of course the flowers are from Prima and are from the May LE Kit from MCS.

I am quite pleased at how the layout turned out but what is funny is the photo I used on this layout is totally different from the one I started with - funny how that happens sometimes. Well now I'm off to do a layout with the photo I originally started with, lol. Thanks for stopping by and having a peak at my layouts  and cards!

Challenge winner!

Well what a nice surprise tonight. I was over at My Creative Scrapbook's message board this evening checking all the new posts and found out that my layout below of my sons friends little girl bouncing on the trampoline won the "May Sketch" challenge. There were so many gorgeous entries into this challenge that it means so much to me to have had the honor of my layout winning this challenge. So excited, I can't wait to receive my prize pack from Pam! So here is a copy of the layout that I made for this challenge. TFL!

 

What a difference a week makes.

So the Canucks were up 2 games to nothing and they go to Boston and lost the next two games - not just lost but lost badly. So disappointing, I felt so bad for our goalie, Luongo, losing that first one in Boston 8 zip - where was the defense? Oh check me out, like I really understand the game, lol. But here they are back in Vancouver and played game five and Luongo gets a shutout - I guess being in their hometown, with the hometown crowd cheering them on really works a lot of magic. Let's hope when they go back to Boston for game six they can take some of that magic with them! Okay so enough about that, let's get back to scrapping, lol.

I did manage in between gardening to get some cards made. The first two I made with the goodies from the May LE Kit from MCS and the last one I used the February LE Kit from MCS. It was my sisters birthday this week so the birthday card was for her. I love making cards and layouts that people love getting. My sister sent  me an email to let me know she had received the card and thought it was so beautiful, that just made my day! The other two cards I may put on my website or eBay to sell, I haven't decided which yet. I've posted the cards below and I would love to here your comments on what you think of them.

On this third card I took some duplicate paper and cut the fairy and the frog out and popped them up with foam for a 3D look. Then I took one of the tags from this same paper line and did some fussy cutting on some of the flowers and added them to left bottom corner popped up with foam.

 So my friend Paulien Van den Bosch has her June tag up  on her blog now so I figured I would actually do the tag before the end of June, unlike when I did the May tag, lol. I really love the ideas that Paulien comes up with for her tags, they really look great when they are all done. So below is my version of her tag. Once again, thank you Paulien for another great tag tutorial!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Woohoo...

I just found out that my "Happy Anniversary" card is being published in the June issue of Scrapbook News & Review! This is my third time in this online magazine so I was pretty excited to receive this email. My next goal is to get one of my layouts or cards published in a paper magazine! I guess I just have to keep sending things in and one day maybe!

So did everyone watch the Saturday night play off game between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks? It was a pretty awesome game! We were at a friends place for their annual Spring Fling lawn curling party. They had the TV going so we were all running in and out of the house between our games to see how the hockey game was going. There sure was a lot of happy faces and jumping up and down when Vancouver got that winning goal! So I guess tonight the game is in Boston so I sure hope the Canucks keep this up.

Well I'm off to do some more gardening as summer has finally shown up here on the West Coast and who knows how long it will stay for, lol. Hope everyone has a great week.

Canucks take the first game!

So this is a first me actually watching a hockey game and caring, lol. I'm not a big hockey fan normally but this is different....the Canucks made it to the Stanley Cup and it is so exciting, even for me! Everyone in BC is Canuck crazy right now, heck everyone in Canada! Everyone has Canuck flags flying from houses and cars and wearing their Canuck jerseys - people even have their babies in Canuck Jerseys, lol. So it was a pretty exciting game,  thought for sure it was going into overtime but thank goodness it didn't, just way to stressful, lol. So 1 game down - 3 more to go. Well most people in Vancouver are hoping that it goes to 5 games that way the Canucks would be winning in their own hometown - but I'm pretty sure that no one would be made if they won it in four games, lol. So on to game two and keeping my fingers crossed.

So I was actually doing something while I was watching the game. When I was checking out Paulien Van Den Bosch's blog the other day looking for her tutorial on the May tag that I posted yesterday I found she had another great tutorial for some handmade flowers using "Baby "Wipes". Yup, you heard right - Baby Wipes. These looked so pretty I just had to try making some.

I started the process of making them the other day. I used my Rangers Ink  color "Stream" to dye my baby wipe, which had to dry overnight. Then yesterday I added the "Gesso" to the one side of the baby wipe and let that dry overnight. So tonight  while watching the game I cut out all my petals and added the puffy paint to them. I didn't make my own stamens as Paulien did in her tutorial because I already had these white ones, you see in the photo, in my stash - so I saved myself a step, lol. I made my petals a couple of different sizes and I think they didn't turn out to bad. You can click on the picture for a larger view. Now I'm going to have to try making them in some different colors. So stop by Paulien's blog here: http://paulienvandenbosch.blogspot.com/ and try making some yourself. 

So thank you for a great tutorial Paulien and thank you for stopping by and please leave a comment and let me know what you think! Have a great week all!

Better late than never!

So it's the last day of May tomorrow and I just finished a "May" tag today - yes I'm a slow poke, I admit it, lol. I do have a little bit of an excuse....I didn't have all of the needed supplies to do this tag, namely "Gesso" and some "Iridescent Medium". I had to wait until I went down to the mainland (Vancouver) so I could go to Micheal's and pick these up. Our LLS carry a lot of supplies but unfortunately not these two items.

Anyway, I really wanted to do this tag that my friend Paulien Van den Bosch had on her blog, which you can find here: http://paulienvandenbosch.blogspot.com/2011/05/may-tag.html. I just thought it was so pretty.

I had to improvise on a few things while doing this tag. I didn't have a stamp with leaves on it so I used one of my Christmas holly stamps. I also don't have a lot of stamps so I used one of my Tim Holtz stamps "Live the Life you've Imagined" as I've always liked this saying on the stamp. I didn't have any of the small little calenders so I drew my own up in Paint Shop Pro and added the sepia toning on it using the PSP effects, then printed it out and distressed the edges and used one of my small versa colored stamps from "Tsukineko" called "Pine Cone" and ink the edges of the calendar. You also have to bare with me as my stamping technique is not that great yet, lol.

I've never used gesso or the iridescent medium before but I found I really like the effects these products have on paper crafts so I think I'll be using this a lot more in my layouts and tags. I want to thank Paulien for this great tutorial and for helping me to realize there are new and interesting ways to add effects to your projects using these products. TFL!

New layout

Good morning bloggers! This is my latest layout I did this past weekend of another of my friends sweet little granddaughter Brooke. I just love the expression on her face in this photo.

I used the May LE Kit from My Creative Scrapbook for this layout. There's just so many beautiful papers and goodies in this kit and they are all so perfect for doing layouts for sweet little photos like this one. I did some distressing on the papers that I layered with and also tried out this really cool way of doing lacing for scrap layouts.  This is a tutorial from Natasha of "Moments of Tranquility" blog for twisted lacing, it's very easy to do and really has such a cool look to it when it's done. You can find her tutorial here: http://mymomentsoftranquility.blogspot.com/2010/08/twisted-lacing-tutorial.html

The papers used from this kit are from Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden collection, along with their matching die cuts and the clear pops Butterflies from the same collection. I also used some of Prima's flowers: Regent Collection "Rathbone" and their Sugar Blooms Collection "Fairy" as well as a few that I had in my stash. You can never have enough Prima flowers I always say.  *Smile* The lace also came from the May kit which I colored using some Tim Holtz Distress ink "Peeled Paint". The title I cut out with my Cricut machine. Thanks  so much for stopping by, I'd love to hear your comments!

A quick layout

I just had to scrap this cute photo I took of our friends little girl while we were out visiting them at the campsite. She looked so cute with her goodies in her hands and her bucket on her head like it was suppose to be there, lol. These are some paper I  had in my stash from My Minds Eye "Wild Berries" line. The background paper is actually red in this layout but in my photo it looks more orange - poor lighting I guess. TFL!