Social Isolation Crafting

For me, it's day 10 of social isolation and working remotely.

I always wanted to be able to spend more time at home, but this is a bit more than I bargained for.

I am incredibly grateful for so many things in these very strange times.

I have a home, I have a job that continues to pay me and permits me to work from the safety of my own home. I have a husband who works in a grocery store, so we haven't experienced the difficulties getting some of the things that have been tricky to come by (toilet paper!!).

My home office has been built within my craft room....so that allows for some crafty time when I am either not working or taking a break from conference calls (so many conference calls) or emails.

So far this week I have made 12 cards and 4 scrapbook layouts...I am even on top of my design team projects (can you believe THAT??!!).

Today I pulled out my Oh Happy Day kit from Simple Stories and made a few cards to keep in my stash....thinking if we are confined to home for weeks to come, I might need to start sending out some happy mail to friends and family.

Shite I used to make these cards:

• White cardstock (Recollections)
• Mounting tape (Dollar Tree)
• Oh Happy Day! (Simple Stories)
• Design paper
• Ephemera Bits & Pieces
• Combo Cardstock Stickers

Stay safe & be well friends!

Shopping Our Stash #308 - Think {{GAH}} Pink!!!

Greetings friends!

Thanks for stopping by today to check out the latest challenge from the SHOPPING OUR STASH crew!

In honour of National Pink Day on June 23 and one of our founding members, Leslie, who sadly passed away at the end of 2015, we are celebrating all things pink this week.

This is a bit of a tongue in cheek shout out to Leslie as she was NOT a fan of pink

I belong to a fun group of ladies called the Stampin' Scrappin' Roadtrippers. 
Each year the group holds a birthday card swap. 

My card for this challenge is a CASE of a card that our friend Ruth made for the "other Donna" in our group.

I am so pleased with how this card came out, I think I am going to make a bunch of them in different colours! 

Shite I used to make this card:

• White cardstock (Fireworx)
• Picked Raspberry distress ink (Tim Holtz)
• Gorgeous Grunge stamp set (SU)
• Elegant Butterfly punch (SU)
• Sentiment sticker (Tim Holtz)
• Bitty Sparkles (CTMH)
• Mini ink blender tool (Tim Holtz)

As always, we would love for you to play along with us!

You can find all the details for the challenge on the SHOPPING OUR STASH BLOG

While you are there, please share some crafty loves with the rest of the crew!

Scraptures - Finally Friday - February 5, 2016

I like when Christa asks me to do the Finally Friday projects for SCRAPTURES because it's anything goes!!

It's an excellent motivation to go back to some older kits to make cards to add to my stash.

This month I am going back to July 2014 to the card kit which featured "We Are Family" by Echo Park.

I made two quick and easy cards this week, both of which I think would work well as Valentines or thinking of you cards

Sorry the pictures are a bit wonky, it was actually dark outside when I took them! 

Shite I used to make these cards:

"We are Family" design paper (Echo Park)
SN@P "Homespun" Insta Squares (Simple Stories)

White cardstock (Fireworx - not in kit)

SoSS #51 - T is for Technique

Hello snarky friends! Thanks for stopping by to check out the newest challenge from THE SISTERHOOD OF SNARKY STAMPERS.

This week Edna and the sisters want you to put on your thinking caps and show us a technique, maybe it's something you've never tried before, maybe it's your go to...whatever it is, we want to see it AND we want you to tell us what it is.

I used a few different techniques for my card(s) this time around.

I created my own background, which I like to call Grandma's wallpaper - when my parents moved into their new home in 1989 the living room and hallway had this most awesome blue velvet damask wallpaper, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen!!

The old pot & pan (my dad) tore it off almost immediately...but even now damask reminds me of that funky wallpaper!

Here's how I made the background:

First I embossed the piece of cardstock with the damask embossing folder, then I brayered ink over top. Then to make it look worn / distressed, I sanded the bejeeeeezuz out of it.

I also inked up another piece of white cardstock in coordinating ink to cut out the word so it would be all matchy matchy.

Then, thanks to my ever-so-smart-friend-Betty I ran the hello through my Xyron sticker maker...ha ha ha I will never have to worry about gluing fiddly words again! Thanks for that tip Betty!!

I was so impressed with my grandma's wallpaper background that I made another one.

Shite I used to make these cards:

• White cardstock (Fireworx)
• Cracked Pistachio distress ink (Tim Holtz)
• Smoky Slate ink (SU)
• Damask embossing folder (ProvoCraft)
• Sanding block (SU)
• Xyron creat-a-sticker
• Scripty Hello die (Lawn Fawn)
• Fishtail Banner die (Your Next Stamp)

Please visit the SISTERHOOD OF SNARKY STAMPERS BLOG for all the details on the challenge and while you are there show some crafty lovin' to my snarky sisters and our Guest Designer Maarit.

Keep it less simple sister!!

I always admire the detailed, intricate cards that other people make.
My cards tend to be very simple, just a layer or two, an image, a sentiment, that's about it.
I saw this picture on Craft Project Central and thought the bird card was just beautiful (so is the bird house, but that just looks too complicated for me).

I am hosting a "thinking of you" swap for our Stampin' Scrappin' Roadtrippers this month and thought it would be a fun chance to make something a bit more intricate.
For as long as this bird card took me to make, I can tell ya, I am glad I only had to make 5 of them...but overall I am happy with how my CASE of the card came out.

Thanks for lookin!!!

Stamp a Stack cards

This past weekend (Feb 6) I attended a Stamp a Stack with some of my Stampin Canada friends at my SU upline's house.

Here are the lovely cards we made, 6 designs, 2 of each...

Birthday gumball:

Birthday butterfly:

Birthday bird (for Jen!!! Another card with a bird!!!!):

Paper piece birthday (I but the pieces for the present from DP rather than colour them in ~ lazy huh???):

Thinking of you:

Valentine:

Hippo for Norma

I bought this uber cute hippo stamp at Stamping Bella on a recent mini road trip with some of my Stampin' Canada friends (holla!!)

I knew it would be perfect for my friend Norma, who I work with...she is crazy for hippos (yes I cut those Telus hippo ads out of magazines for her).

I also love spinner cards...they are so fun, and a spinning hippo...I hope this makes her smile.

Big Buckle Card

Part of my goal for 2010 is to try some different card templates...Split Coast Stampers has a great variety of templates and tutorials.

Here's my first attempt at a big buckle card:

And here's a link to the tutorial on SCS that I followed:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/big_buckle_card

Stampin Canada Telephone Swap #3

Hooooray! It's that time again...telephone swap on Stampin' Canada!!
This is one of my favourite card swaps...it works just like broken telephone.
Someone makes a card and mails it off to the next person, that person has to recreate the card using only supplies they have on hand, then they mail it off to the next person and so on and so on.
It's really fun to see how the card changes from one person to the next.
MaggyMay decided to have some fun with Wenchie since she always organizes fun things for us, but rarely gets to participate, so we created our own Telephone Swap group and Wenchie gets to make the last card and send it back to me...so here's the card I made, the one we are starting with...we'll see what it looks like as it passes from me to hobbyist to crop_junkie to MaggyMay to Canadian_Stamper to Wenchie and back to me...

I love this card...

I have been going through boxes of cards I have made over the past year or so, ones I keep as samples...and picked out a few that I really like. I think this one is my all time favourite...

Just Because Class...

This week I attended a "Just Because" class with my uber fab SU upline ML.
We made three lovely cards (one I gave away before I had a chance to scan it ~ D'OH!!)...so here are the other two...

Love this one...ML thought it would make a good Father's Day card (if you have a martini kinda Dad). I do like the masculine colour combination in this one. In ML's sample the three scalloped squares were lined up beside each other, I decided to offset mine on the left and right.


This was a fun one to make, lots of different techniques. The background on the card itself was stamped in both ink and versa mark, the green was dong with a wheel, the flowers were coloured with a blender pen and the white is faux silk...mine didn't come out too well...I wish it had more wrinkles...next time :)

Care package for a friend...

I'll be sending off a "care package" of flavoured hot chocolate to a friend in the US this week.
Here's the card I made to go with it...

5th Avenue Class - May 5, 2009

Attended a class with my SU upline last night - the fabulous ML :)
This class featured cards made with the the Fifth Avenue Floral set, which I am really excited about because I just ordered it :)

Here are the three we made last night:

Watercoloured lilies:

Love this colour combination!!

This one amost has the look of paper tole, we stamped painted and cut out three of the roses to achieve this look. This one is going to be my MIL's Mother's Day card...shhhhhhhhh :)

Simple & Elegant Swap

The wonderful Wendy (one of my Stampin' Canada buddies), is hostessing a "Simple & Elegant" card swap...wanting to get more practice with my Scor-Pal, I made these for the swap...

It's Virtual Crop Day!!!

Hoooray for Virtual Crop Day!!

If you haven't yet checked out Stampin' Canada (and you totally should!) here's the link again:

http://stampincanada.com/

So what is Virtual Crop Day?? All the Stampin' Canada ladies spend the day making cards and posting them for each other to see. It's great fun! A new challenge is posted every hour from 10:00 am - 7:00 pm. Here are the challenges we have done so far today:

2x2 card:



Inchie card: Flip Flop card:

All About You card:

Just Buzzin By

No new technique here, this one uses a new SU set called Just Buzzin By, it has the cutest little bees in it!

This one is a 4x4 square card, the background is SU designer paper. Used a blender pen to colour in the hive and markers on the bumble bee.

Shaving cream background

Another new technique (for me) from the class tonight, again using re-inkers, this time with shaving cream.

Add the shaving cream to the bottom of a plastic container, add drops of the re-inker (I used baja breeze and pacific point), swirl with a popsicle stick (like mixing marble cake batter).

Drop the paper in, push it down into the shaving cream to ensure the surface is covered, remove and wipe off the excess shaving cream and set aside to dry. The marble effect is lovely.

Marbled background

Tried a few new techniques in a class tonight, first was making a background with marbles and re-inkers...I like the look of it and it's so simple.

Drop some re-inker into a plastic container, roll the marbles in the ink, add the paper, roll the marbles on the paper, let it dry...couldn't be easier.

This card used kiwi kiss on the marbles and a new SU set called sweet stems.

3X3 Note Cards

Made a set of twenty 3x3 note cards for a friend, 5 each of these four designs:

Tangerine Tango

I made a few more cards tonight when I got home based on one of the make and take cards we made with ML tonight.

DH needed a birthday card for a co-worker and I wanted a bright and cheery card to give my Nanny who is in hospital.

I really love the 'brightness' of this new Stampin' Up! 'In Colour' & this is one of the new stamp sets in this year's catalogue called "Upsy Daisy."