Thursday, December 31, 2015

Welcome 2016!


Happy New Years Eve everyone!



I thought I’d pop by today and show the card I made for my Dad’s birthday yesterday.  To be honest, my Dad doesn’t fully appreciate this whole card thing.  He barely takes a second look at the card....but this is what I do, so even if he doesn’t fully appreciate it, it is an act of love to him from me :)  

I found a gorgeous card created a couple of years ago here that I think is a perfectly constructed card.  She had created it with SU products, but I wanted to see if I could recreate it/CASE it myself with some of my The Cat’s Pajamas goodies.  I love how it turned out!  I started with TCP’s Holiday Toppers CutUps die to create the scene of the trees and farm, cutting on the textured gray cardstock, and then cutting it on the Neenah Natural White cardstock.  After I had the creamy cardstock cut out, I inked it completely with VersaMark ink, added Heat and Stick Powder and then while it was still hot, dumped lots of shimmery glitter over top.  I tapped it off a bit and heat set it a little so that the glittery wouldn’t blow off (but man there was glitter everywhere, I’ve transferred it to all my family members!).  I created the moon with a large 1 3/4 inch punch in the Pool Party cardstock.  



Finishing details include glittery snowflakes from TCP’s Snowman Accessory Kit, and then the sentiment from TCP’s Simply Stacked Sentiments.  Seambinding, rhinestones and silver cording complete it.  It’s beautifully shimmery in real life.  



Happy New Year’s and 2016 from our family to yours!  This photo is from a family photo shoot our dear friend and talented photographer ClaraCecilia took of us.  I love this shot because it feels like we’re in a Church surrounded by the steeple of trees.  

Blessings to each of you as you celebrate and welcome a new year!  




Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Best of 2015 - Part 2


I’m back with round two of my favourite designs from 2015.  You know what I’ve realized looking at my favourites?  The designs I like best actually gravitate toward a more clean design.  That’s a bit of a surprise to me!  I don’t think I’ll ever be a CAS girl, but I do prefer a well executed clean design more than others.  That’s one neat thing about looking at a whole year of designs.  


July







August







September







October











November










December







Thanks for stopping by to see this round of favourites!  I look forward to creating again in 2016.  Do you have any creative goals for the year ahead?  I’ve got some brewing in my head.  Let’s enjoy it all together!  


Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Best of 2015 - Part 1


Hello Friends!  I’ve collected up my favourite creations of 2015 to recap for you again this year.  I realized as I looked at my posts that this was a year I didn’t have nearly as much time to create as in other years.  Working almost full-time for a good portion of the year really changed my creative time.  I still feel so grateful for the chance to colour and put cards together whenever I can, and I so appreciate you coming by to visit and your kind comments!  I hope to have a more regular blogging schedule in the year ahead.  


January







February




March










April










May




June







Back tomorrow for round two!  


Monday, December 28, 2015

Pow!



It’s a super day!  My sister-in-law was looking for a collection of kids cards that she could use for birthday’s so I’m working on some designs that she’ll like.  These superhero kids from MFT are some of my favourite.  This card uses both sets, Super Boy and You’re Super.  I also found an old paper pack that I love, Authetique Loyal.  It has great stripes and plaids in it.  I stamped the background from one of the sets onto a lighter blue piece of the dp and then did our superboy, coloured him and fussy cut him out.  



A little sewing and this fun mini clip finish it off.  

Here’s the Copics I used.  A whole bunch of them because I used a number of colours in his hair.  




Thanks for stopping by!  


Sunday, December 27, 2015

Precious One


Good Monday morning to all of you!  How was your Christmas time?  Ours was filled with family and food and lots to enjoy and appreciate.  I love watching my “big kids” at Christmas learn what it’s like to be excited to GIVE presents not just receive them.  And I also love seeing my little niece and nephew and their excitement for their presents too.  Best of both worlds.

Today I thought I’d start out with a baby design.  I had a few minutes of colouring time while the kids were enjoying their Christmas presents yesterday and made this sweet little baby girl design.



This digi image from A Day for Daisies is called Under the Stars.  It’s such a sweet little design of a baby in a hammock under the moon and stars.  I gave it some colouring with Copics and cut it out with the feeling of an arched window.  All you need to do is cut it as a rectangle, and then only run part of your stitched circle die so only the top portion of the die cuts.  I echoed that feel in the overall card shape as well.  

Those blossoms in the image inspired me to pick the blossomy white ribbon to accent and then some sparkly star rhinestones.  


The sentiment is from an old SU set, Cute Converse.  I like it for the sweet little sized sayings.  I wanted the little bit of yellow in a circle to mimic the moon.  



Here’s the Copics I used.  Be back this week again.  I’ll have new things and also my year end wrap up of my favourite cards from 2015!  




Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Merry Christmas to You

Merry Christmas Eve!  Hoping that this finds each of you well.

It’s a special day in our house as we’ll be getting ready for our Christmas Eve candlelight services at Church tonight.  It’s one of our favourite services all year as we celebrate Emmanuel - God with us.

Then later we’ll be opening presents with my family.  We’re a Christmas Eve family, which my kids love :)   Then on Christmas Day we will have another gathering with my family and we’ll be cooking a nice big meal.  So much to be grateful for in such a special season.


Here is my Christmas Blessing for each of you.  That no matter what your circumstances you experience what it means God reaches out to each of you, as so evident in the birth of Jesus.  

I thought I’d create a Christmas design as my wish for each of you.  May your days be Merry and Bright throughout these weeks.  Created with the lovely Power Poppy Poinsettia Set.  

Did you know this legend of the Poinsettia?  (from wikipedia)

The plant’s association with Christmas began in 16th-century Mexico, where legend tells of a girl, commonly called Pepita or Maria, who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus’ birthday and was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the Church altar.  Crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias.  From the 17th century, Fransiscan friars in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations.  The star shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red colour represents the blood sacrifice through the crucifixion of Jesus.  



I distressed the main image after I coloured it up with Copics using some Wild Wasabi ink.  Accents include sparkly ribbon, velvet ribbon, and embossed pennant and an iridescent glimmery circle.  

Below are the Copics I used.  



Blessings to each of you this Christmas friends!  


Monday, December 21, 2015

Pretty Pink Camellias


We’re on the home stretch of Christmas week!  Our kids are now all done school, University exams have been written by our daughter, and we’re grateful for a little down time in the next couple of weeks.  I have a few cards to show off in the next weeks that I created for a friend who was looking for some all-occasion designs she could use.  This pretty design uses Power Poppy’s Simply Camellias set.  I hadn’t done it in pinks yet (that I can remember), so while I was away a few weeks ago I coloured this arrangement up with Copics.  

The white panel is embossed, the pink trim is coloured up with a RV52 marker to better match the flowers and the sentiment is from the Dynamic Duos:  Peonies and Tulips set, stamped in green.   



A couple of green pennants and some enamel dots finish it off.  

I didn’t write down what Copics I used and as I was away I didn’t take a picture either, but I’ll give you my best guesses.  

Petals:  RV00, RV52, RV55, RV66   Leaves:  G40, G43, G46, YG21, background BG10.  

I hope these next days are full of special moments for each of you as you spend time with people you love!  We’re doing our best to be present for all the moment we share together.  



Friday, December 18, 2015

Hello Posies



Hello Friends.  I’ve been sidelined this week with a head cold and feeling a little miserable....so I’ll keep this short and sweet with some pretty posies from Power Poppy.  It’s the very lovely Dynamic Duos:  Peonies and Tulips set.  Stamped onto XPress It Blending Cardstock and coloured up with peachy Copics (R00, R01, R10, R12, with some BV00 thrown in, the greens on the leaves are YG21, YG23, YG25).  The little hello sentiment is from our Cozy Cupfuls set.  

I wanted to tie in the gold theme from our Power and Spark Challenge:  Go for the Gold from back in March, so I took out some gold shimmer paint and ran it along the edges of the stitched circle, added it to the veneer heart, daubered some circles onto the background paper and splattered some onto the heart paper.  Add a couple of gold sequins and a gold embossed sentiment and it’s very shimmery and luxe.  You might even be able to tell that I added a really light wash of gold shimmer over the leaves and petals of the flower once it was all done.  




We do hope you find some time this month to join us for our Power and Spark Rewind this month.  You can choose any of the themes we’ve had this year, which are all listed HERE.  You could win a Power Poppy set of your choice!  



Take a peek at the rest of the Bloom Brigade bringing you inspiration today....


Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller



Sunday, December 13, 2015

Hostess Set


Do you have any special Christmas parties or gatherings you’re headed to in the next weeks?  Saturday night we were invited to the Christmas party of one of the small groups in our Church, so I thought I would make a boxed set of cards as a Hostess Gift for them.  It was a lovely party with good company and delicious food and celebration.  



I chose not to go the Christmas route for the style of cards I’d be making, and to do cards that celebrated the season coming....spring!  So, the boxed contained four different cards with spring themed flowers and colours.  This first card is made with Power Poppy’s set Daffodils.  I chose a pretty pastel palette and coloured with Copics and added some embossing paste through a Tim Holtz Stencil (Gothic) to give it some elegance.  I kept all the sentiments on the cards quite general so they could be used for many different occasions.  





Card number two uses Power Poppy’s set Dynamic Duos:  Peonies and Tulips, and some purple plaid dp (MFT), enamel dots, a touch of lace and twine and a bit of a windowed design.  






Next up is the peonies from Dynamic Duos:  Peonies and Tulips in some creamy yellows.  This one also showcases some crochet lace and banners.  






Finally it’s some gerbera daisies and Power Poppy’s Dynamic Duos:  Glads and Gerberas.  I think this one might be my favourite, thought I’m not totally sure why, it might be the coral colours or the sewing.  Simply accented with bakers twine.  



And now for a quick look at the box.  


I just made a simple A2 box stamping the bouquet from Countryside Bouquet Deluxe on the top.  I also used the smaller flowers from the stamp set to stamp as a background on the box top as well and then tied it all together with some seam binding and a trio of enamel dots.   




What do you like to give as hostess gifts?    Hope you’re having a splendid start to the week.  Will catch up with you again soon!