A Sassy Pirate

I pulled out my Prismacolors and Mona Lisa OMS for a change. Wow, I thought I needed to practice my Copic colouring, but I *really* need to practice with my Prismacolors! My 7-year old could give me a run for my money with her Walmart pencil crayons...

I was just having a bit of fun with some of my Nestabilities and coloured Kraftin' Kimmie's "Cutthroat Lizzie" to match. Some of the Nesties are then popped up with dimensional foam stickers. The embossed layer is a Stampin' Up embossing folder - "Square Lattice" and is quickly becoming a favourite for me, and that little belt buckle is from a really old Quickutz die.

I tried a faint gray cloudy day for the background, but apparently, it's soooooo gray that it doesn't even show up :)


Don't look at the colouring too closely (yes, she has a bit of lipstick "bleed", LOL!).

Hope you all had a great weekend. We "bunked in" at my sister's garage sale and managed to get rid of a little "junk" from the garage and make a bit of cash in the process. At this rate, I am determined to have a parking spot in the garage come winter!

Happy Girlie Birthday...

I love this Francesca stamp from the Moonlit Whispers line at Kraftin' Kimmie stamps - she's perfect for little girl birthday cards (and big girls, too, I suppose!) I've used SU's Pacific Point and Pumpkin Pie cardstock to go with the DCWV designer paper (from the gloriously glittery Mango Frost pack).

Francesca is coloured using my Copics - still practicing, LOL!The cupcake stamp was a find from the Michael's $1.50 bin a while back (yes, $1 in the US, $1.50 in Canada) Now it makes more sense as to why I was so excited about shopping down south!

I also used a template that I picked up at Impress in Tukwila for the "faux stitching" - I haven't done that in a while - and my white Signo gel pen from SU for the "stitches". The "border" punch is from Martha Stewart. I keep promising that I'll write the name of the punch in permanent marker on each punch, but I've only done it for a few so far.

That's all from here, it's almost time to call it a night (*after* I clean up what used to look like my craft desk ;) )

Rock On!

Happy Friday the 13th to you all. Hope you're all off to a roaring start :)

This happy little rocker is from the Greeting Farm. I've also used one of my EK success border punches and some DP from a DCWV paper pack - all "bargains" that I picked up at Joann's stateside.


I really need to fill out my collection of birthday cards as I always seem to be short really cute babyish ones and older "more-mature" (LOL) cards - most definitely not part of my arsenal. I suppose it's time to expand my horizons - yeah, I'll work on that ;)

The music note stamp on the inside comes from the Totally Stamilicious "Rockin' Frawg" set and so does the "Rock On!" sentiment.

Well, in case I don't post anything over the weekend - parties galore; quite remarkable for this "self-confessed" homebody - have a good one!

Draggin'...oh, sorry, I mean Dragon :)

Draggin' kind of describes how I'm feeling today...

It's dreary outside and it's supposed to be summer, and these drugs I'm on for my back make me "odd" - I can't describe it really. Some days I'm drowsy, other days I'm dopey (yeah, ask me about the morning I didn't remember greeting my boss as he walked into the office. Ten minutes later, passing by his office, I asked "hey, when did you get in?" - hahaha!).

Today, I'm just blech - even the morning coffee that hubby handed me as I rushed out the door and the Timmie's hot chocolate that the broker I work for brought in didn't really get me out of the "funk". No worries, I'm not having the "suicidal thoughts" side effect - hubby saw one of those drug commercials for Lyrica and asked if I was feeling okay. I told him I was far too drowsy to make the effort. I don't suppose it's something we *should* joke about, but...

Anyways, enough about my "funk" - I think I might go downstairs to the mall and hit the toy store. I have a present to buy for a 4-year old's party this weekend, and if a trip to the toy store can't help... :)

Here's a fun cheerful dragon card. His flying goggles make me smile! Back when Dustin Pike was just getting his feet wet in the digital stamping world, I bought a bunch of his images (dowloaded a schwack of free ones too). This is one of them...


The image is coloured with my Copics and I "dotted" little pools of Colorless Blender from my marker to make the scales - not sure how well that shows up here.

The journey "sentiment" is "Define Your Life" from Stampin' Up. I bought this set for scrapbooking (which I have really neglected until very recently. I've actually been on a bit of a roll this week...), but have only used it for cards so far.

I bought the papers on a recent trip to Seattle and think they're DCWV. The border punch was a steal at Joann's.

Have I ever mentioned how much I *love* Joann's? Border punches for 40% off (when they're already 30% less than we pay for them in Canada)??? Plus, my 7-year old noticed, "Wow, they have way more stuff than our Michael's does!!!" Dropped a small fortune (except if the border guard reads this, then I only spent $50, LOL!)

The punch that is below the oval punch (SU) journey sentiment was bought at Impress Rubber Stamps - OMG!!! I could have spent days locked up in that store. I...ahem...spent a little more money there. It *also* punches the brackets to either side of the dragon. Oh, and they ship to Canada...

Here's a peek into the inside...

Man, I've been "talkative" today, LOL! I think the "funk" is fading... I'm even smiling now!

Bookmouse...

Long time no blog...I'm starting to detect a theme.

Again, I've been stamping and colouring and making cards...it's just the taking pictures and editing them that kills me.

Here's one I completed just recently.

This adorable little mouse is an image by the very talented Elizabeth Dulemba (who writes AND illustrates children's books - I feel lucky if I have the time to read them by the time the kids are ready for bed, LOL!)



The mouse image itself is not popped up, but the books *are*. I'm not sure that I managed it, but I wanted to give the impression that they were toppling over.


It also happens to fit in with the theme of "READING" over at the Copic Creations blog.

(as an aside, I think I've figured out how to save my "watermark" thingie as a brush in Photoshop Elements. Next step, I'll (hopefully) figure out how to save the whole faded edges thingie (with all the settings specific to me) as a favourite "action" - I think that's what they're called. Perhaps that will make the whole editing process easier.)

Well, back to the job that pays the bills...sigh...

Squeaking in an April post...

Where did April go? I haven't posted since the beginning of March and now it's nearly May.

I'm posting the Easter cards I sent to my niece and nephew back in Ireland.

This was for Jade:


And this one for her brother, Jamie:


As per usual, I've used my Copics to colour the images. I've used some unknown DSP for the background (and some of it was verrrrrrrrrry old), but have also used some retired SU DSP (the red polka-dotted paper). The swirly sentiment stamp is from SU (Well Scripted).

The little girl image is from Sugar Nellie, the jester is from Whiff of Joy.

So again, I *have* been creating, I just haven't been sharing (and I wonder where my 2-year old gets it from, LOL!)

Something old, something new

This is one I made tonight.


I've been so envious seeing how some people can capture such soft colours using their Copics. I'm so heavy handed (and obviously tend to grab for the more intense colours first). I'm not 100% happy, but it's certainly softer than my usual work.

The image is The Greeting Farm's "Snuggle". I had to buy her since my 2-year old won't go *anywhere* without her precious "bunny", a well-loved bunny head attached to a small blanket. The head has been sewed on more times than I remember and it's even been dipped in an inkpad (a stain that I CAN'T get out). We've tried to replace it at least a dozen times with close imitations, newer "prettier" bunnies, kitty cats and the like, but I'm afraid it's bunny or nothing.

My biggest nightmare is the loss of "bunny" - she's simply irreplaceable!

Finally getting around to posting some of my older cards

This was my hubby's Valentine's card this year. We are definately not the soppy sort, LOL! (well, he did propose at the tomb of St. Valentine, but I said no...and that's a story for another time!)

I used a stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie, a lovely Canadian company (and perfect for me since I'm *not* known for my patience when waiting for an order to arrive). Artist Annie Rodrigue's images never fail to make me smile. I love this card and all it's swirly nestie goodness - don't you think the die cuts go perfectly with Drucilla's hairdo?

More Amber...with an Irish twist

I printed a couple of copies of the Amber Ink digistamp that I used yesterday, so it was easy to colour another one in tonight. (I told you I'm a lazy stamper)

I dug out an old sketch from Mojo Monday, and old DSP from SU in Certainly Celery, and put my new Amber to work - something(s) old, something new...

All of the St. Patrick's Day challenges on the blogosphere got me headed in that direction, so using a sentiment stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie (more new stuff....shhhhhhh....), this is what I came up with:The "nestied" deckled rectangle is popped up on dimensionals, as is the glorious Amber herself. I've added "twinklies" to her drink (to cover up the icky looking colour it turned out, LOL) and to those fab shoes using Stickles.


So Amber, when's your next release???

Congrats on a gold medal

My daughter's school mentor is called Kaillie Humphries. She often comes in to talk to them about things like bullying, drugs, and always striving to do your best. She also won a gold medal for Canada at the Olympics in women's two-man bobsled.


A couple of weeks ago, Splitcoast Stampers had one of their Virtual Stamp Nights (which tends to run for 2 nights, LOL!) and one of the challenges was to use an Olympic sweater as your inspiration. I thought nothing would be more appropriate than to make a card for my daughter to give to Kaillie - she's hoping to get to see (and hold) the gold medal. Truthfully, I'm envious :)

The maple leaf stamps came from Michael's dollar bin some time ago and the sentiment is from a Just Rite Christmas set.

This is probably one of my favourite cards that I've ever made...and although I'm going to dread giving it away, I'm glad it's going to someone so very deserving.

Amber Stamps!

Get this digistamp set for free and send some love to an awesome stamp designer: www.amberink.com I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

I created the scene in Photoshop Elements and coloured it in with my Copic markers. Don't look too closely at the clouds (or at least ignore how heavy handed things got in the middle, LOL!)

I can't wait to play with this set some more...

Calgary SU! Regionals 2010

What a fun day!

I attended the SU! Regional Seminar in Calgary yesterday. A full day of meeting fun, crafty people who love to stamp. What could be better?

I'm posting pics of the 3 swaps I took to trade. I get bored far too easily to just make a ton of a single design, LOL!

This first one seemed to be the favourite, simply because of my ingenious (hahaha!) use of the ornament punch to make a pagoda border. I must confess that I came about it quite by accident while trying to sharpen the top part of the punch as it was making ragged cuts.


This one was the second favourite. To be truthful, I thought most people would look past it because it was soooooo simple (my favourite type!) I figured that if it wasn't snatched up, I would be that much closer to finishing this year's Christmas cards. Alas, they were all swapped out...but it shouldn't take too long to "whip up another batch".


This was the least favourite. I'm a bit of a lazy swapper and not one to get out there and swap (not that it helped with my back being in such a sorry state and me not wanting to take the painkillers in public - they make me a bit loopy (loopier?) ). Of course, it was also the most labour intense of the bunch - typical! What was I thinking when I decided to make a swap that involved hand colouring a stamp???

You should have seen some of the gorgeous work that was traded out - seriously, some of those cards must have taken forever. But everyone seemed to accept my trades with a smile and I didn't come across any of the dreaded "swap snobs" that I've heard about (and was a little worried about, to be sure).

Fun time, met some great people and got some fab ideas. It's got me all pumped up to start sharing again!

And the "Bad Blogger Award" goes to...

Me!!!

Yes, I had computer problems, but I have a great friend who managed to round up and get rid of the virus that was plaguing my system.

My next excuse was my daughter's 2nd birthday...then I had Christmas...then January brings birthdays galore: Dad's, Mum's and my (now) 7-year old's.

But, I've run out of excuses and as the cards I've made (yes, I *have* been crafting, I've just been lazy about uploading my pics and blogging them...) have been piling up on my desk, the guilt has started setting in.

I finished this one up tonight. I really *should* be thinking about Valentine's cards, but I seem to suffer from this "illness" that prevents me from making the cards I *should* be making and takes me off on some other entirely different tangent.


The image, Young Alexa, from Susana's Custom Art and Card Design reminds me so much of my younger daughter - especially since she always seems to have a book and her ever present "Bunny" in tow.

I've attempted to colour the image (the little pink and purple bear) to meet the challenge over at the Copic Creations Challenge Blog: Feather Blending. I say "attempted", because I'm not sure I quite "have it", LOL! I think I've got the feathering bit, but my blending definitely needs some work!

I had fun making the ribbon flower. I'm so "ribbon challenged" that I've become more of a collector. Tonight, though, I pulled out the sewing tin and ran a line of stitching down one side of a length of ribbon and gathered it up to form the flower. It just so happened that I found that little pink button in the same sewing tin, so it's like it was meant to be.

I'm quite proud of this little card...not sure what I'll use if for 'though!

An oldie...

It was a busy weekend: dinner with friends, Dad's work's kids party, so I didn't get too much stamping done. Nor did I get any blogging done!



Anyways, this is an old card that I made this past summer - yes, summer. Back when I had every intention of having all my cards made and mailed out by December 1st - ha, who was I kidding?

The image is from Penny Black and the sentiment from CTMH's "Just for the Holidays" (in case you thought of asking, that sentiment set has been sitting ON my craft desk since summer - it would be pointless to put it away now!)

The tree is up (hubby did it yesterday while I took the kids to the Christmas party), but since we then went to my sister's house for a curry dinner (thanks Johanne and Glayde!), it has yet to be decorated. So, we have a sad sorry lighted and tinseled tree in our family room at the moment. Eat your heart out, Charlie Brown!

Snow Day in Calgary

...as in severe weather warning. But, since it wasn't snowing when I left for work this morning, I decided to drive. Now that I look outside, I'm wondering if that was the wisest decision I've ever made.

Anyways, in "honour" of the whirling whisps of white fluff outside, I am going to post my snowy Anya card (image from The Greeting Farm). The sentiment is from my heavily used CTMH set, "Just for the Holidays"


Here's a close-up of her snowy accessories (using Flower Soft in Ivory)



and the inside, lovingly decorated with the small holly and ivy stamps from the CTMH set.


Hope you're all keeping dry and warm out there. Wish me luck for the drive home...I hope it doesn't take hours and hours!

Happy Birthday Chris!

So, it was my birthday last Thursday and my best friend who just immigrated from England gave me a gorgeous Tiffany's necklace - she had to ask the sales clerk in T's if she could suggest anything for a friend who "doesn't really wear jewelery" (apparently the poor girl nearly passed out, LOL!). It's a gorgeous, but plain (just like me - hahahaha!) silver disc with a scrolly-L engraved on it.

Anyhow, said *friend* also gave me a rather sarcastic birthday card - some old biddies under the hairdriers at their local salon with an associated "old" sentiment...but that's alright, I had this set, Old Brawd, from Totally Stampalicious just waiting to be used on her (it's her birthday today - exactly one week after mine)!


I've also used the Stampalicious Sketch Challenge sketch. Who doesn't *love* a sketch to get the creative juices flowing?

The brads along the top and bottom of the vertical strip match each other (ie. the 3 top ones match, as do the 3 bottom ones, but they don't match *each other*). This goes back to when my darling nephew decided to rearrange my brad storage and upended the filled container! My sister was mortified, but I learned a valuable lesson: don't assume that just because your own kids don't mess with your stuff that anyone else's kids will be able to stay away. So now I have this lovely box of "assorted" Bazill brads!

My favourite part of the card is the inside sentiment:


You see, Chris is an IT Project Manager, so the "jab" is double-edged, LOL! The little mouse image is from Hanna Stamps.


The only part I'm regretting are these little Spica glitter dots that I've used to frame the image, but once I'd started, it was too late to stop. The smaller black dots were an attempt to save it, but although I like it a bit better, I'm still sorry I used the gold glitter pen to begin with.

Oh, well...

And Chris, "you'll always be older than me..." :)

2 Sketches 4 You challenge #40

This is the first time I've used a challenge for one of my blog posts, but when I saw the sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You and then saw that StarvingArtistamps was this weeks sponsor, well...I had to enter. I'm also a great fan of the "scheduled" post, but seeing as I don't have one lined up yet for tomorrow (or rather, midnight tonight), I thought I'd make the card, photograph it, pretty it up in PSE and upload it - whew! I'm exhausted, LOL!


This card uses the image of Coco the Polar Bear from StarvingArtistamps "Santa's Sweet Shoppe". The scarf is paper pieced using an old scrap of unknown DP. Coco is coloured with cool grey Copic markers and a bit of colourless blender (plus a bit of red and a bit of brown). Sorry, I'm not yet organized enough to tell exactly *which* markers I've used...



Coco's head is popped up on a 3-D Zot (as is the sentiment - from CTMH's "Just for the Holidays"). The border punch is by Martha Stewart.



I wanted to add a bit of sparkle to Coco, so I've painted on a bit of my SU (I guess it's made by Tsukineko) Frost White Shimmer Paint (or "All-Purpose Ink" as it says on the label). I didn't realize just how opaque the paint is, so I ended up using it rather sparsely (and sloppily) since it was covering up the stamped image.

Thanks for the great sketch challenge 2S4Y...and for helping me get another card finished for Christmas!

Happy Christmas to All...

I got this image from an image swap on SCS and am still wondering if I should just bite the bullet and order the set "Wandering Words" since it's only available until January 4th. Growing up in Northern Ireland, we always said "Happy Christmas" instead of the more popular "Merry Christmas", so this image with built in sentiment really calls to me.



Again, I've used some of my favourite SU Dashing striped DP and have broken out a CTMH sentiment - I love circle sentiments that I can use some of my many SU circle punches with!



That same CTMH set (Just For the Holidays) has the ivy leaves and holly berries stamps you can see that I've stamped on the inside.

Twilight...

Well, I've been indoctrinated into the club (cult?). Curiosity got the better of me and I asked for the Twilight books for my birthday, and DH bought me the first 2 books. I am already halfway through the first book - they really are an easy read to wind down at bedtime. I've actually missed reading since I started driving to work...I was reading around 2 books a week when I was taking the train. Lately, I've been too tired by bedtime to think about reading.



So, I was inspired to ink up TGF's Edward again now that I "know" him, LOL!

I gave myself some artistic license with his hair, but I was having so much fun with the streaks - and they were looking so good (if I do say so myself)


I dug out some eyelets and blew the dust of my Cropadile to give it some industrial "edge" - not to mention how well they seemed to go with the Diamond Plate embossing folder (the one that you can hardly see - haha!)

I get the impression that Edward wouldn't dress as grungily as this, but hey, I don't know him that well yet!

Willow with Umbrella

Well, I'm hoping that by playing with an image showing rain, I can keep the snow away for yet another week. Probably wishful thinking, but what have I got to lose? Last week showed a forecast of snow all week long, but the latest forecast shows we're good until Friday...fingers crossed...



I've used a retired DSP sample pad from SU for the patterned red background - I think SU would make a killing if they'd offer these sample pads as a purchase as opposed to just a hostess benefit.

The image is from Whiff of Joy and is called Willow with Umbrella. The highly talented artist behind her is Elisabeth Bell - she has designed for a number of different stamp companies and her quality never wavers.

The ribbon came from a huge box of assorted ribbon I bought from Costco quite some time ago (I'm still determined to start using some of the supplies I've collected and that are piling up beneath my desk).

So, Mother Nature, if you can hear me, I'd be fine for snow on Christmas Day, but I really won't be disappointed if we have to go the full winter without...