Paper DragonFleur

Unfortunately I have been really under the weather since the 27th.  Fortunately it waited until after Christmas but I really would have liked to have gone out tonight... HAPPY NEW YEAR! I decided for this weeks sketch challenge from AHSC , I would try to follow the pattern as close as possible.  I also decided to make is as CAS (clean and simple) as possible. Using the very cute January Stamp of the Month , Sunset Ink , Babycakes Paper Packet and the very useful Kraft paper , I quickly whipped up this 6x6 card.   Thank you for stopping by and I truly appreciate your comments!  Follow the link to check out all the great artwork submitted to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge ! I hope you get inspired and decide to come play along!  We would love to see what you create and you may be voted into the top 3 cards of the week.  Happy Crafting!

  This month is just going by too fast!!!!  Slow down December!  My household had a bad bug that turned into Strep Throat over the past few weeks and thankfully we have all responded well to the antibiotics. Unfortunately, I feel like I have lost about 10 days of getting ready for Christmas fun, I like baking and making homemade gifts and crafts but it is sooo hard to do with a 100' fever! ACK!  I have had enough illness for this winter and I will now be healthy until allergy season begins! (I've heard that positive affirmations work, so I am giving it a try.) Now onto this weeks sketch challenge from AHSC !  A simple sketch that can be interpreted in so many ways.  As you can see from my card, I didn't follow the design exactly but it does have "a flower off to the side and my sentiment is in the middle" so I am following the sketch but giving my own interpretation of it.  I made this card a few months ago for a retirement party and like my last card this

Welcome to our December Blog Hop featuring creations that we plan to give as gifts this Christmas. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order. We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!  If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at the beginning and join Michelle at My Creations with Michelle . If you came from Karen of Karen's Clearly Precious Impression then you are in the right place!  I did make a few sets of these home decor trees last year using the lovely Pear & Partridge and decid

Wow, we are into December and up to week #32 already!  It always surprises me how quickly time goes by...  This weeks challenge from AHSC is so quick and simple, so I made a quick and simple card!  Thanks Michelle!  I needed quick and simple this week... For this card I used the Frosted Paper Packet and cut the bow out using my Cricut Artiste .  I heavily inked all the edges using a sponge and Slate Ink , I like how the heavy inking really gives this card an antiqued look.  Once I put my card together I used Silver Glitz Glitter Gel on the center of the bow and the "ribbon" strip (gulp, this product is now on the soon to be retired list!).  In all honesty I have made this card before, it's a nice way to use up some "scraps" and create a pretty card at the same time. When I started this weeks challenge I had a slightly different card in mind but this is what it turned into.  Sometimes that just happens! Thank you for stopping by and I trul

I don't typically do odd shaped cards and I thank Michelle from AHSC for creating a sketch that encourages me to work "outside the box"!  I had a request for a Happy Birthday card for a sweet little girl who is turning 1!  I have been doing tons of Christmas related projects for the past several weeks so it was super fun to do something a little bit different.... The products I used to make this card are  - the Babycakes Paper Packet - Bronze Shimmer Trim - Bronze Glitter Glitz Gel - a craft paper star (from my stash) that I painted with Pearl Create-a-Shade Paint - the 1 is from Irresistibles Houndstooth Alphabet - the "Hooray" is from the Hostess Rewards - Party is On ( You can get this stamp set for FREE! ) - and  I also stamped Happy Birthday inside the card using the Heartfelt Birthday Wish Mini Stamp. Thank you for stopping by and I truly appreciate your comments!  Follow the link to check out all the great artwork su

Welcome to our November Blog Hop featuring creations made with products from the mini Holiday With Heart Gift Guide.   To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order. We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!  If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at the beginning and join Michelle at My Creations with Michelle .  If you came from Karen of Clearly Precious then you are in the right place! The Holiday With Heart Gift Guide has some great ideas in it and for this blog hop I wanted to share th

So to keep with my current theme of "life has been a bit challenging as of late" my camera has decided to be cranky and the card that I was going to post is currently not available... But I do have a large stash of cards that I haven't posted yet that I made for some recent workshops!  As always Michelle and Darla of AHSC created a super cute sketch for us to work with and while this card doesn't follow the sketch exactly it is in a similar style. This card was created using the "Quick Cards - Bright All Night" Stamp (which can be found in the Hostess Rewards Stamp Set section of your Autumn/Winter Idea Book .)  Other materials I used were White Daisy and Twilight Cardstock , Twilight and Cranberry Ink , Cranberry Twine, Stardust Glitz Glitter Gel , a piece of scrap ribbon and a bling button from my stash. I love the Quick Card stamp sets because they are just that, quick!  To make this card,  I stamped the image and then corner rounded th

In amongst all sorts of injury and illness (not all mine!) I have also been very busy getting ready for some upcoming Christmas Card Workshops and being in Christmas mode I changed this weeks lovely sketch from AHSC from flowers to snowflakes. I love how the Cricut and the 3 wonderful Cricut Collections from Close To My Heart make making things (like snowflakes) so quick and easy!  The snowflakes are from all 3 Cricut Collections and I lightly sponged them all with Crystal Blue Ink to give each a little more dimension.  Products I used for this card are the Frosted Paper Packet , the gold/cream twine is from The Twinery , the golden shimmer brad is a retired product (so sad my horde stash is running low!) and I added a few touches of Almond Glitz Glitter Gel to finish it off.        Thank you for stopping by and I truly appreciate your comments!  Follow the link to check out all the great artwork submitted to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge ! I hope you g

The new Holidays From the Heart Gift Guide is available today! and we are so excited to share with you some of the fabulous products that can be found inside this little booklet.  Being a Close To My Heart Consultant I was able to order from the guide a few weeks early and my first impression when I opened my box of goodies... wow.  I was not disappointed!  The Sparkle and Shine Paper is gorgeous and the "slate" grey on all the papers has a "shine", it picks up the light and gives your projects that little something extra.  A product that I wasn't sure about when I ordered it was the Sparkle & Shine Washi Tape .  For me the price seemed a bit high at $14.95 for the 3 pack but upon inspection the grey is in a shiny metallic silver and each roll of Washi is huge!  I have bought rolls of Washi from other sources and they haven't been even been half the amount that is on these rolls, so pleased and I now feel that I got an excellent deal on a great pr

Whew! What a week... last Monday my mom had to be admitted to the hospital as "something wasn't right with her hip". For those who do not know her she has had 6 hip replacements (stemming from a childhood accident) and was on the wait list to have a 7th.  Due to the degeneration of the bone from so many surgeries,etc. she has way more bits, pieces and parts than just an artificial hip and her x-rays make a competent ER Dr. gulp and look around for help.  Needless to say I have been very busy driving back and forth to Nanaimo Hospital (a good hour away on a winding 2 lane highway) and have been feeling a little overwhelmed with trying to keep up with all my commitments and life in general!  I wasn't sure if I was going to get this weeks challenge from AHSC done in time but I did it! As always we have been given a super fun sketch that can be interpreted in so many ways.  I am in the middle of getting my yearly "EPIC" Christmas Card workshop ready and

  Happy first day of Fall!  Summer just flew by and in celebration of Fall for this weeks challenge from Atlantic Hearts I created a super cute card using the lovely Huntington Paper Packet .  At first I was unsure how to approach this sketch as it seemed too simple but it turned into a wonderful 4x4 card. I used Kraft paper as my base for this card (the photo makes it look green but it really is kraft!)  and mounted my Huntington pattern paper on Colonial White Cardstock .  I stamped the super cute Fall images from the current Petite Perks - A Touch of Fall (ask me how you can get this exclusive stamp set for free!) using Autumn Terracotta, Barn Red, Olive and Desert Sand ink.  I lightly sponged all the edges with Desert Sand and add a few swipes with one of the four colours to the edges of the stamped images.  For the embellishment across the bottom I used a piece of coordinating Huntington paper, a strip of Bronze Shimmer Trim (love that this goes on just like tape!),

So this moving stuff is driving me crazy! Perhaps it is the fact that we own this house instead of rent or we just have too much going on in addition to setting up house. Whatever it is this place is a mess, I am super tired and I am so far behind in my to do list!  So far behind that I missed last weeks sketch!  This weeks sketch from AHSC is from one of the design team members, Anna-Carin and it is so super cool that design team submissions are also being featured.  I've said it before and I say it again Michelle and Darla are the greatest! at everything, no seriously, I think they are wonderful. With all the packing, cleaning, fixing, general hard labour that has been going on in my life the past several weeks I have had very little time to play with all the new product from the Autumn/Winter Idea Book .  Well not tonight!  I finally got to play with the August Stamp of the Month, A Chocolate Affair and looking through the new paper packets I choose the funky chevron patter

When you read this post Monday morning we will hopefully be all moved into our new house!  We are in the last stages of packing and as with every move have decided that we have way too much stuff!  I am so thankful this is our last move for years and years to come.  Don't get me wrong we wouldn't change the adventures of the past seven years for all the tea in china but we are so very excited for this next stage in our lives.  Home ownership... all I can say about it a this point in the move is that it better be worth all the worry and trouble it has put us thru. Now onto this weeks sketch from AHSC !  So adorable! So many possibilities. I think this sketch is going to be used many, many times in the future.  For my card I decided to use a super cute stamp set call "Buttons, Bits and Bobs" to stamp my sentiment and make most of my buttons.  I did add a few "real" buttons from my stash and tied all of the buttons with bakers twine . Using the great colou

It is the week before moving house and oh what a mess our current home is!  Going to be a very busy week but we are so excited to finally move into our very own home.   This weeks sketch for AHSC is wonderful and uses the very popular hexagon's that are so fun to play with.  For my spring card workshop I did a hexagon card and have decided to submit it to this weeks challenge.  I had wanted to blog about all the cards from the Spring Workshop but time got away from me.  So I am glad that I can share this one. This card is fun in that it is all stamping.  Stamp sets used are Honeycomb and Quick Cards- Bumble Bee .  I stamped that Bumble Bee in Archival Black Ink so that I could go back and add yellow touches of colour using my Honey Alcohol Markers.   When I made this card I didn't have the true hexagon shape available to me via Cricut or punch so looking thru my Art Philoshopy and Artiste Cricut Collections I found this "fancy" edged hexagon in Artiste .

As always AHSC has given us a great sketch for this weeks challenge!  This week I decided to try and follow the sketch as closely as I could.  It's fun to interpret sketches and make them my own but sometimes the fun is in the recreation of the sketch! Using Pacifica Cardstock as my base, I cut the Tommy B&T in the pattern shown, for my embellishment I did go a little off sketch and made a pinwheel  from May's Stamp of the Month instead of a flower.  It is wonderful that life can be so busy but it does make it challenging to play with all the cool product I have been getting  I feel very far behind! The pinwheels are adorable and I know I will be using this stamp set again when I finally get back to creating layouts of my son when he was a toddler.  I am so looking forward to this move being over and I have tons of room to spread out and create!  I cut the pinwheels out using my Cricut Artiste and stamped them using Pear, Lagoon and Sunset Ink .  For the sentime

Happy BC Day, I hope everyone has had a wonderful long weekend! It is very sad to say but I have spent the last week or so trying to get this sketch done...  Don't know why but every version I came up with I just didn't like.  Not even a little! I literally have a basket full of bit and pieces and half finished cards or cards that I tore apart.  Granted I have been under a bit of stress with all this house buying stuff but wow it really needs to stop affecting my creative mojo! That being said, earlier today I sat down at my desk and said "MAKE SOMETHING!" and this is what I came up with in about 10 minutes.  This one I like... cute, quick and done! To make this card I cut out all the pieces using Art Philosophy (pg 43), Chantilly B&T papers and White Daisy Cardstock .  I stamped the " Thank You " in Twilight Pigment Ink and once it was dry coloured in the "You" using Buttercup Alcohol Makers . I then inked the edges of the Chantilly

Blog Hop time!  (I love blog hop time!)  This hop is all about the new products that can be found in the Autumn/Winter 2013 Idea Book & Catalog from Close To My Heart!  Which is available as of today!!!! With this new Idea Book comes some surprises... we still have our amazing stamps, papers and inks (that will never change) but now we also have a new Cricut Collection called Artbooking , new additions to our Designed Decor , Crush Books and Jewelry ! The Jewelry line is called Base & Bling . When I first heard "Jewelry" I think my reaction was like most peoples... "WHAT?!?" but with all things new I try to reserve my final judgement until I have seen it for myself.  So I ordered the " Fabric Necklace Kit "  that can be found on page 77 and got to work.  First impression... love the embellishments!  If I decide not to make jewelry with them they are the perfect size for scrapbook pages, cards and many other crafty projects! I did ha

  Whew! I am tired!  This past weekend I participated in a Street Fair on Saturday and on Sunday I had a small open house to showcase some of the new product that will be available in the new Autumn/Winter Idea Book from Close To My Heart.  At the street fair I made some wonderful new crafty friends and I look forward to meeting them all again this fall when my workshops begin but I was standing outside all day in the hot sun.  Thankfully I had a canopy and was next to a tree but I really, really do not do well in the heat. I do not think I will be a "snowbird" who spends her retirement years in Arizona! Other big news for me... I had a new member join my Team!  Welcome Karen, we are going to have tons of fun.  It really is exciting to share my passion for paper crafting with others and I love that Close To My Heart makes it so easy!  Onto this weeks challenge from AHSC .  As always, super cute!  I made my card several weeks ago and it turned out a little different f

Wow the weeks just keep moving on!  Seems like it was just a few days ago that #1 was posted at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and the fun began... Like all Cricut fans I am super excited for Close To My Heart's new collection called "Artbooking" which will be available August 1st but in all honesty I feel that I have barely scratched the surface in all that my Art Philosophy and Artiste collections can do!  With that in mind I was flipping through my Artiste collection and came across the super fun images for "Movie Night".  I loved how the top of the popcorn box reminded me of this sketch from Michelle's at AHSC and the idea for this invitation was born! All the images can be found on page 67 and I did cut out the 3D image for the popcorn box and then trimmed off what I didn't need.  Using my Embossing Stylus I made the lines on my popcorn box and then sanded them lightly with my sanding block to show the white core of the paper.  To create

Two blog posts in one day!!  Another great sketch this week from Michelle at AHSC !  I found this one (thankfully) not as hard as previous weeks to complete and really do enjoy trying to complete the challenges showing my own style while still staying within the sketch. Compared to the past few weeks this card seems very busy!  Supplies I used to create are: the Clair Paper Packet (retired), flowers from the Just Blooms Paper Flowers and a few from my stash, Bitty Sparkles , Stardust Glitter Glitz Gel (of course), the ribbon and big bling button were both purchased from the While Supplies Last section several weeks ago. I inked the edges of my paper in Outdoor Denim Ink and this card came together quickly.  I did have to use a lot of Liquid Glass to get that big bling button to stay but I so wanted to use it on this card, it just seemed like the right embellishment. Thank you for stopping by and I truly appreciate your comments! Follow the link to check out all the great a

Welcome to our July Blog Hop featuring retiring items that you will want to have too.  You will see creations from our participants that will include many retiring items, from stamps, papers, and My Creations products, there is bound to be something that you will need to grab before it's gone.  Last day to order these products before they are going going gone is July 31st.  See your local consultant to place an order. We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop! If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at the beginning and join Michelle at mycreationswithmichel

Welcome to Week #11!  Another super challenging sketch from AHSC this week.  These challenges at first glance always seem so easy but then I have another look and think "What am I going to do with this?!" LOL it took a couple of days to figure that out! But once I made a few decisions this card came together in about 10 minutes! As you know I love all things Close To My Heart but there are a few small companies out there that I love to support not only because they are a small company but because they produce a high quality product for a decent price.  One of these companies is "The Twinery" and I started using their twine back in 2011 when they only had 14 colours!  Now they have dozens of choices not only in the classic twine but shimmer and solid options!  (I am a fan!) To make this card, I wrapped a piece of our silver glitter paper in Mandarin, Cantaloupe, Marigold and Buttercream twine and tied each into a pretty bow.  I then attached it to a pie

  Happy Canada Day!  The sun came back this weekend and in the Alberni Valley (where I live) it feels like someone turned the heat way up!  It is currently 30'C and the weather network says it feels like 37'C.  We love it but it takes a bit to get use too especially when it was only 20'C a few days ago.  Hello summer... swim lessons and sunburns here we come! We are already at week #10 for the Atlantic Heart Sketch Challenge and as always Michelle created a super fun sketch for us to play with!  We have had a number of new babies recently and I have been trying to keep up with all the welcome cards.  This week I needed to make another hello baby card but this one needed to be a little divergent from the norm as it is for a co-worker of my husbands and well my husband is a little divergent. :)  LOL If I made him a flowery, cutesy welcome baby card I do not know if it would actually get delivered! Using some of the awesome Later Sk8r paper (so sad that it is already