Egg-stra Egg-stra! Read all about it!

Bad puns aside, I think this little guy is cute! A year or two ago, The SU magazine that they send out to all of their demos featured a picture of a plate/bowl with 6 or so decorated eggs. They had used a larger flower punch, sparkles and different Easter coloured paper to decorate the eggs. I know now why they used a bigger flower! LOL It took a while to assemble this one.

I used the flower trio punch and Razzleberry Lemonade dsp to make my flowers. Then I curled each one against the end of a pen, put a mini glue dot on the bottom and stuck it to the styrofoam egg. Looks cute, no? The big problem came after I took the picture-the flowers started popping off! There was a scattering around my egg, and at first, I couldn't figure out who punched the extras and placed them around the egg, then I realized my egg was molting! LOL

I would have love to have tried this with pins that have the pearl heads, they would have stayed put much better, I think. However, with this method, my fingers were kept hole-free, which is just how I like 'em! LOL

This Sunday I am getting together with my girls (Jacqui, Kim and Laurie) for a card Stamp-a-stack. I can hardly wait! It is going to be a blast! So on Monday, I will be able to show you the cards I designed for the class.

Until then, have a great weekend!

Donna

Wishing For Spring

About this time of year, I start wishing for spring to hurry up and get here already. As I type this, there are big, fluffy flakes falling outside, and I can no longer see grass, my driveway, nor much of anything, because there is so much snow. Blech! It's hard to believe that just yesterday the sun was shining, squirrels were out, and the girls, my hubby and I were skiing and sweating from the heat! I wasn't even wearing mitts or a hat because it was so hot! And then I woke up today, and it's like yesterday's hint of spring was all a dream....dang!

So as an invitation to spring, birds singing, and the end of another way-too-long Canadian winter, I made this card. This flower pot card doesn't open. Instead, you pull on the flowers, which are attached to what looks like a wide bookmark, which is where you would sign and put your hugs and kisses to Mother Nature, in the hopes that she would be sweet enough to end winter just a tad earlier than she'd originally planned. LOL I love making cards that are not your typical quarter-fold card, so this one is right up my alley. Plus, I was able to use not one, but two of my Big Shot dies (the daisies and the leaves) for this card, plus an embossing folder (ok, not SU, but relevant to the spring theme). The Big Shot can make life (ok, not all of life, just the card-making, and 3-D project-making part of life, which is pretty important, no? ;) ) so much easier, don't you think? Yeah, me too!

I have another 3-D project to show you on Friday, so I hope to see you then! Have a great week!

Donna

Fantastic Friday!

Hello and Happy Friday!

As promised, I am here, showing off my latest 3-D project. As I mentioned, I cannot take complete credit for this little beauty. The original idea came from an e-mail I received from Andrea Walford, in which there was a link to the instructions to make this box. Hers was a Christmas box, and the top incorporated a Christmas card. Mine was adjusted to use non-Christmas stuff, so it would be more applicable to spring. And of course, I had to incorporate my new fave colour, Rich Razzleberry. Plus I had a lot of extra Cottage Wall dsp, so it was very convenient to use the Razzleberry for this project.

I love using transparencies to create butterflies, but on their own they're hard to see. So I used white Staz-On to sponge around the edges, and then some swirly parts from Baroque Motifs to decorate the wings. It reminds me of the new SU embosslits that cuts and embosses 5 (?) butterflies of different sizes at once. The biggest one has a bit of a swirl at the bottom.

Not wanting to over-think things and take too long to put this together, I made the cards inside the box identical to the top of the box. Original, no? LOL Well, at least this way, you'll know exactly what's inside.

I just changed the sentiments on the cards, since the cards are versatile for a variety of occasions. (As you can see above)

This is a peek at the drawer that is inside the box. I think this is so neat, to make a box that contains a drawer!



And this picture proves that I made it so you could close the drawer. Thank goodness for great instructions! LOL
So there you have it! What do you think? Drop me a comment, I'd love to hear from you!
Have a great weekend!
Donna

A Little Birdie Told Me...

Hello! I am back from Vegas and adjusting to real life once again, which means that I have made some time to stamp (and have done some housework too, but let's stick to the fun stuff here!). Having a nice clean stampin' table, and stampin' area has been like an open invitation to sit and be creative. It is so nice! *sigh* Maybe it was bad feng shui that was cutting into my stampin' mojo, because it would seem that under all that clutter, I've found it again!

Just before I left for Vegas, I had my Stampin' Divas over for the first time in a long time. It was great to catch up with them again-I've really missed my ladies! I borrowed some of the new things in the Occasions mini and the Sale-a-bration mini from my friend Kim (hello! and thanx!) and came up with a couple of cards for my ladies to make. This was my favourite of the two. The bird and branch were created from a new punch that SU has just released. Isn't it adorable?? I love this idea, because this bird is so versatile, you could put any sentiment on this card--thank you, birthday, sympathy, congratulations on the news a little birdie told me...and on and on! See what I mean? Unfortunately for me, I had to give the punch back to Kim (pout) but I have ordered one for myself (yay!), but it is on backorder as far as I know, so I'm not sure when I'll get mine (pout again). I am looking forward to making more of these cards. I like the scallop circle card idea, it's something different from the typical 4 1/4" x whatever card (no, I am not awake yet, why do you ask? LOL).

The clouds in the background of this card were a neat little trick my friend Jacqui (hello friend!) showed me not too long ago. You just punch out a scallop circle (the punch one, not the Big Shot one). Then you use a sponge inked with Bashful Blue (on bashful blue paper here on my card). Start at the top and ink around the top of the scallop circle. Slide it down (or over), and ink along the top of the circle again. Continue downward until you have enough clouds. It's that easy! I have to say that in real life, the clouds are not this hard to see on the card. The picture really blanched them out, and I couldn't bring them back with Photoshop. So if you're trying this technique remember that you don't need a lot of ink to create a dramatic effect.

If you happen to make a card with the bird punch or try the cloud technique, send me a link in the comments section, I'd love to see what you've come up with!

On Friday, I will be back with a really neat 3-D project I just completed last night. The only hint I'll give you is that it is AWEsome (modest, aren't I?) and you're going to LOVE it (more modesty!). That's your hint! LOL If you want to see it, you'll have to wait for the post on Friday! But I think you really will like it! (ok, you'll love, love, love it, but I'm trying to keep the bragging to a minimum! LOL) In all seriousness (and modesty) I can't take credit for all of it (but it won't stop me from trying!), just some of it.

See you Friday!

Donna

Vegas, baby!

Hello!

Good news! My stamping area is organized, I can see my stamping table again, I know where most of my things are (LOL), and I am ready to sit down and stamp! But I can't today...I'm in Toronto, and tomorrow my hubby and I, and 10 friends are headed to Vegas! Yahoo!

But I will be back early next week! In the meantime, I've dug up a picture from Regionals when I went last February. Isn't this a cute little frame? Simple yet fabulous!
Have a great week!
Donna

Where's January??

Hello!

So sorry I've been AWOL this past month. I haven't been doing any stamping, because I've been slowly working on organizing my stamping space. Not just the table I stamp on, but the closet where I store my things, the cupboards that house my stamps, Big Shot dies, punches, Christmas stamps, unfinished projects, 3-D items, and on and on....needless to say it is a huge undertaking! LOL I have so much stuff, I never realized how much I had! I found things I had forgotten about, and things I couldn't remember buying (shhhh....don't tell my husband! ;) )

At any rate, it is becoming more manageable with each passing day, and yesterday I actually saw the top of my stamping table (well, hello there, old friend!). I am now so close to being finished that I can almost taste it! I am sooooo looking forward to getting this job done! My goal is to have it completed by the weekend, which I think is reasonable. I then will have a nice, clean, organized area to stamp in. Doesn't that sound like a piece of heaven? *sigh*

Wish me luck, I'm headed back into the tornado in just a few minutes!

Have a great day!
Donna

Decor Elements

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday, was spoiled, ate too much, spent time with loved ones, and had a lot of fun! (maybe even found a little stamping time?)

I had a great Christmas (I was spoiled!), and then we went skiing up north. Which, despite the falling, was still fun for me!

I did not find much time to stamp, as I was busy getting ready for Christmas and then for our trip up north, and once Christmas was over, I was very busy reading the third and fourth books of the Twilight series. Sooooo good! Oh my! I finished the fourth book last night, as I could not possibly go to bed with only 50 pages left to read! LOL It was worth staying up late and being a little slow to wake up this morning, just so I could find out what happens in the end. If you haven't read the fourth book, I won't ruin it for you, I will just say that the story is riveting to the end. You'll find it hard to put it down for the night with only 50 pages left to read-trust me!

Of course, now that I'm done....I have all kinds of time to catch up on the housework I've been neglecting while I read! Hopefully I'll get to squeeze in a little stamping time too. But since my stamping area is a mess waiting to be organized and tidied (hello, New Year's resolution!), I thought I'd finally post these pictures of the Decor Elements that I put up in Olivia's (my youngest) room. She really likes butterflies, so selecting these was a no-brainer. I'd been wanting to try my hand at the Decor Elements, but hadn't found any that I thought my hubby would approve of (he's our decorator-no, really! He has better taste than I do, and unfortunately, he knows it! LOL), so I was a happy girl when these came out. The picture above shows what the wall looked like in the middle of the process. I cut them out of the giant sheet, and taped them to the wall, so Olivia and I could see how it looked before we committed to anything. Some of the butterflies had two layers like the one below:

With this one I started with the Certainly Celery layer, and then added the Tempting Turquoise layer. This layer was supposed to appear just as polka dots outlining the wings. So what I had to do was carefully peel the strip, and make sure I left the dots behind:

See how the strip looks? It's dangling here, just so you could see how this looks in the middle of the process. The second layers really added a lot to the butterflies, and of course, more colour! (The wall in Olivia's room is a light purple, not quite as light as Almost Amethyst, but in the same colour family.)

This is what the butterfly wings look like, before and after peeling the strip.

This is the finished project. Olivia was very pleased with the way this turned out, and I was too. The good part about these is they take up more space on the wall than a picture would, so it really fills the space. And, I have to add, they are a lot more fun to put up than a picture!

Well that's about all for me today. I will be back soon! Have a great week!

Donna

Hello!

I just wanted to let you know I am still kickin' around, and that I've survived Christmas. I hope all of you had a great holiday and were able to spend some time with the ones you love. I got to do that, and I was spoiled with Christmas gifts too! I'm a very happy girl!

Currently we are up in Collingwood, visiting family and skiing. I went out skiing today for the first time in about 15 years. Uh huh, I am crazy...how did you guess? LOL Ok so I played it smart and I had a lesson today so I could remember what I am supposed to do on skis. It felt weird to have them on my feet-like my size 10's aren't big enough, now I had to contend with ski feet! I did ok at my lesson, and only fell four times. In an hour. That's once every 15 minutes. Is that bad? I actually had a headache when I was all done, because every time I fell on my tush, my head hurt a bit more. I guess we know where I keep my brains! That explains a lot, actually....

Anyway, I didn't bring my stamping stuff up because I figured the car would be full enough with the girls' and my hubby's ski stuff(and when I pack stamping stuff, I am not a light packer!), and because for Christmas I received the last two books from the Twilight series, and I brought one with me. I should have brought both! I'm already 3/4 of the way through number 3 and I am going to want to read number 4 right away! And it is getting really good! I can hardly wait to see what happens, but I don't want to give anything away for anyone who hasn't read it but wants to. You have to hurry to read it so I can talk about it, ok? I am restless, not knowing what happens!

I would like to send out a big Happy Birthday to my friend Jacqui! Hope you had a great day! I've been thinking about you today-yeah, thinking about how hard you'd laugh watching me trying to ski! LOL I would have laughed at me too, I bet it would have been hilarious to watch! Anyway, I hope you were treated well and spoiled rotten!

Have a great day!

Festive Friday #3!

Happy Festive Friday! I hope you're having a great Friday so far...of course, Fridays get better with each passing minute, because you inch that much closer to the weekend! Even though I don't work outside the home, I love Fridays because it means my girls are here for the weekend, and every other weekend my husband is here Saturday and Sunday (not just Sunday). Also, on Friday mornings I volunteer at my girls' school with the reading program. Every Friday, I have the same 5 children, one at a time, who sit with me and we read. Of course, I also like to chat with them about their siblings, their plans for Christmas, what they're asking Santa for...and so on. I could just sit there with them for an hour and just chat, they are all so adorable! Now that I've been doing this for almost two months, they've started to come out of their shells a bit, so they open up more and have fun. I really look forward to my time with them every Friday.

So, for today's Festive Friday, I've decided to showcase a cased card I made. I know we've all seen a Christmas card or two, but I thought this one would be appropriate because it is elegant and quick to make, which doesn't always happen. I love the Dasher stamp that SU has this year, he is so beautiful. Of course, all of those swirly things around his antlers are just screaming for some kind of bling, which as you may know, I love to use! As you can see here:

I stamped Dasher in plain old Real Red, and didn't emboss him (because he looked pink by the time I was done with the embossing gun). The white embossed piece was done with SU's pointsettia embossing folder. I like SU's folder a lot (and hope they come out with many, many more!) because unlike some other folders, this one embosses the entire card, and there are no un-embossed borders left on the outer edges. It's true! I trimmed down the white piece for this card, but what I trimmed was all embossed!

Well, I'm done patting myself on the back for being on time this week, I'm off to run errands. Have a great weekend!

Donna

An Ode to Mugs...

I'm very sorry for not posting last Friday. I didn't forget, I just didn't have anything to show. The weekend was a bit of a blur, too. I'm just now catching my breath, and only because my youngest is ill, which makes me homebound for the day. Otherwise I'd be running about, working on my Christmas shopping. So it's stamping, cleaning and hopefully baking on the agenda for me today! Oh, and blogging!

The idea for this mug came from the SU mini. They had a picture of a nice white mug with a silver snowflake rub-on on it, and it looked gorgeous! So of course, the next time I was out and about, I checked out the coffee mugs to see if there was one that would fit a snowflake or two on it. I found these ones, and they weren't that costly-always a plus! So I picked up a couple, washed them, and put the rub-on snowflakes on them. The pictures above are of the front and the back of the mug.

This is what it looks like all decked out. Unfortunately, I still have to spray some acrylic (?) spray on it, so the mug can be washed without the snowflakes falling off. I think what I'll do is put tape around the top of mug so no one is putting their lips on the spray stuff, and then wrap it back up.

I'm thinking I'll put a gift card in it and the girls can give this to their bus driver. She is very sweet and the girls love her. When I rode the bus in elementary school (a loooong time ago!), my driver was this whacky lady who used to talk to herself! LOL And every once in a while she'd try to shift gear and the bus would groan loudly. I don't know if she forgot to use the clutch, or it was fussy and only worked when it wanted to.

When I went to high school, I had the same lady, but she didn't seem so whacky. I came to understand that when she talked to herself it was a kind of road rage (I'd be lying if I said I never complained about other drivers, especially when I'm late for something. Which is always! People in glass houses, you know...). Of course, it was a mild, 80s version of road rage, not the scary kind we hear about now. She was, all in all, a sweet lady, and was complaining to herself more than anything else. I don't think I ever gave her a gift, which she would have definitely earned, dealing with some of the kids on our route! And because she came to know my sister and I, and how we were always late-even in high school I was not a morning person! There were many a morning my sister and I got in our workout for the day by running to the bus stop as she patiently waited for us! LOL My sister always got to the bus before me. I always blamed that on the fact that my books were heavier and I had to take home more of them, since I was older and had more homework! LOL That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

So one gift down, lots more to go! I'll be posting some of my Christmas cards on here this week, too. So stay tuned! I will be back this week!

Take care!

Donna