High Time to Get Back into the Blogging!

It is October already?

I have been away for quite some time now, Eight months to be exact. I have been going through changes, searching and all these wonderful things that happen when you reach a point in your life where you start reviewing things!

Well, for me that point seems to be turning 50. I am set to do that next month whether I want to or not! Unfortunately while I was doing my soul searching, it brought away from my stamping and my blogging.

The journey has taught though what is valuable in my life and this blog and my creations are two of those things. I love to share them with all of you. It brings me joy.

The other thing that brings joy to my life's journey is my family and my animals so I will continue to share all of that with you!

Here is a project that I completed a while back.

We are all shutterbugs in our family. Everybody has a camera and we are always snapping pics of everything. One of the main subjects of course is our pets.

This is a picture that my B-I-L's Girlfriend took when we were having a b b q in the back yard. I love it the moment I saw it. My husband George is holding our youngest fur-kid, Scalliwagg. I love the strength of him and the softness of him as he holds her. I knew this just had to do more than sit on the computer!

The frame is a $2 one that I got a Michaels, and the stamps are Inkadinkado who have put out a wonderful collection of clear stamps that I have started collecting. The problem is that they are coming out with new ones way too fast! I can't keep up!

I first covered the frame using a black and white matt stack that I found at Michael's. I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper.

The stamps are all stamped on white CS with versamark and then embossed with Black EP. I cut them out and mounted them on the frame then added the brads (after cutting off the backs) with some glue dots.

And there you have it. I hope you like it. I really enjoyed making it.

It is good to be back.

They Are Smiling Down

All day I have been looking forward to doing a little stamping at some point. I did my regular blurfing and I cut and pasted some of the wonderful sketch challenges I found. I printed them out and laid them on my stamping desk with the full intention of doing at least on of them.

Here is the card I came up with and…surprise, surprise! It wasn't for any of the sketches! I find sometimes you just have to go where the stamps are telling you too (do your stamps talk to you too?). Today my direction was totally opposite of where I thought I was headed when I first sat at my craft desk!

I bought this stamp from Quietfire Design last year. I really love their stamps and have managed to collect quite a few. This one attracted me because my husband is Inuit (Eskimo) and I thought it would be nice to have for a sympathy card. It took me until now to have the inspiration to actually make one though!

It is a pretty straight forward card. I have Black on Black embossing on the main panel and then the verse panel is white on black. The stars are black on White with the mini gems in the centre of each. It is really difficult to see how it shines in the picture but the black EP is called Starry Night and has small flecks of silver in it. It is actually quite beautiful IRL>

I must say I like how it turned out. What do you think?

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Eskimo Legend –Quietfire Design; Stars – High Hopes, Swirls – The Cats Pajamas

Paper: Black and White – The Paper Company

Embellishments: Ribbon, Gems (medium and mini), Starry Night EP and White Fine Detail EP both from Creative Images.

Tools: Corner Ticket Punch from SU!, Heat gun, paper cutter, Dimensionals

Tina’s Blog Candy Challenge Well Wishes

In my Blurfing yesterday I ran across this wonderful blog! Yummy Scrummy (Ready, Steady Go). As the blog appeared on my screen the first thing I saw was a dog running happily in the snow. Now, I thought, this is my kinda blog! Then as the first article appeared I saw that the blogger, Trina, was offering blog candy and what great candy it is too! She has a whole assortment of treats including a Sugar Nellie and a Magnolia stamp! I don't have any of those so I read more.

Trina had a rough 2007 – me too Trina I so understand your plight! As a celebration of her return to work she is offering this Candy. What you have to do to enter is to make a "Well Wishes" card.

Here is the one that I came up with and what fun I had with this one!

Poppin' Wishin' Pooh

I really enjoyed making this card. I absolutely love Winnie the Pooh and recently got this Cuttlebug embossing folder from Scrappin Great Deals (my favorite on-line store, thanks to my buddy Karen!). I also got the Bottle caps there as well during one of Sheila's great 12 hour specials.

I had wanted to make something with the bottle caps for a long time and then once I had the embossing folder in my clasp I knew they belonged together.

When I read Trina's challenge I knew exactly what I would do! Pop in with good wishes! Ah ha! My card had a theme!

Pop bottle caps popping and a pop up card! I embossed my folder and away I went…I outline the embossing in black marker and added some red liquid appliqué for Winnie's trademark red shirt. And put them inside the card. I tried a number of different styles and finally decided that it would be cute if they were also "popping out" of the top of the card! The bg paper is from Basic Grey (I also got that at Scrappin Great Deals!)

The card also opens upside down – that is you pull the front down instead of up! When you do, this is what you see:

Cute hay!?!

I made the scalloped circles from my Cuttlebug Flower dies and stamps the words with my Martha Steward typeset letters. The butterflies were added as a special touch as Winnie is usually surround with either bees or butterflies!

How can a person not feel better with these two characters smiling at you!

Here is a close up of the happy pair:

OH! And just incase you are wondering why there is one empty scalloped circle – That is where you sign your name!

Hope you enjoy my card and let me know what you think?

Valentine – a little late!

Ok, So I disappeared again! This bit about getting my life back in order and settling down into a routine is proving to be a little more complicated than I had thought.

The year itself is going good so far so that is a positive sign after a very tumultuous 2007.

I am managing to get back to my stamping card making. The break down seems to be happening between my stamping space and my computer!

Dotty Over You!

This is actually the only Valentine that I made this year. I made it for my DS but actually forgot to give it to him as I didn't see him on valentines' day. Maybe I will save it for next year or I may just give it to him just because…. We will see! I made it for last weeks Ways To use it Challenge on SCS – Going Dotty WT152.

The idea for my valentine hit me when I was making my Delilah fold card! The butterfly left such a pretty template behind in the paper I decided to use it and the wing patterns looked like hearts so I figured it would be perfect for Valentines' Day!

The butterfly is actually a Sizzix die I got last year at Michael's for $1.00. I took the shape left behind when I made the butterfly for the other card and mounted on the reverse side of the double sided SU! DP. And placed the hearts in the wings where they had been cut out. The corners of the panels are punched with my Friskar's flower corner punch and the hearts on the bottom are punched with my tonic boot punch. The circle with the piercing is a Cuttle Bug die and the circle with the sentiment is done with my SU circle punch.

Yes…you are right in the picture that is in your head…I had punches everywhere!

I embossed the sentiment with Gold EP and added the ribbon with the white bow but felt there was something missing so I used the gold foil I had saved from some hard candy and placed under my punched out shapes and added the hearts that came from the Heart Punch to the bottom and doodled around them and on them with gold gel pen. And there you have it! Hope you like it!

SCS Challenge Cards from last week (opps!)

I am getting back into doing challenge cards again, slowly but non-the-less I am getting back into them.
Here are two cards I did this week. One is for the Technique challenge, the other is for the sketch challenge.

Amen Dahlias

This card is for the SCS Technique challenge found here.
I had lots of fund making this card. The Dahlia fold is fun and easy to do.
The leaves and butterfly are Sissix Dies that I used in my Cuttlebug. The scalloped circle is a cuttle bug die from one of the alphabets. I punched out the sentiment with the SU 1 3/8 inch circle punch.
The sentiment is from Quietfire Design. I just love all the word stamps they have and have been slowly collecting as many as I can!
The corners are punched with Friskars Flower corner punch.
I also enjoyed making a tall card for a change. It is said that change is as good as a rest!

The second card is for the weekly Sketch Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. The Challenge can be found here.

Sorrows and Blessings

I really love this sentiment. Once again it is from Quietfire Designs.
I think the meaning behind the words is so true and something that we should always keep in mind as we journey along through life.
The main part of the card is stamped with versamark and embossed with fine detail white ep.
The central panel is embosed with my cuttlebug with the Texture Textile embossing folder.

The sentiment is stamped in versamark and also embosed with white fine detail ep.

The cardstock is a new kind that I found on my last trip to Michael's. It is called Nature Preserve and the colours are from their Grand Canyon Collection. I bought the one package to see what the paper was like. I must say it is a good quality paper. Thicker than the paper from The Paper Company but now quite as thick as SU's paper. a plus is also the is it made of 100% recycled fibre papers.