Happy New Year!!!

A quiet new years celebration at my home tonight.  Kids in bed at just after 10pm after kids new years that happens at 10pm complete with champagne glasses filled with apple cider.  The last couple of new years were spent with friends and their families eating, playing board games and great conversation while the kiddies played (quite well together) in the finished kid friendly basement.  I was hoping to head over to a friends place this year but alas, a tummy ickyness has hit me and I am not very up to much excitement this evening.  In reflection: 2011 has been an AMAZING year!  New baby, new blog, the whole summer off with my family, travelling, Disney cruise, so many memories.  2012 has some big shoes to fill but my only hope is that it's filled with laughter, love and good health for those I love (and maybe a declutter-my-house elf and a weight loss miracle!)
Here's a card I made to send off 2011 and for great things in 2012! (and I'm also submitting for this week's Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge!)
Happy New Year everyone!

Hitting the Slopes

So it finally started snowing here on the 27th.  We had a green Christmas and I was getting very ancy for the snow to arrive for 2 reasons: 1) Love having a white Christmas, 2) can't go snowboarding without the snow (can't call yourself, "Snowboarderchic" for nothing!).  I finally got my first run out of the season yesterday (After missing last winter on account of being preggers).  It was just a little hill a few minutes away from home but I was meeting up with a friend and her hubby (who are here from jolly ol' England!) who are rookies at the sport so the small hill was just fine for them right now.  The conditions were not the best but enough to get down the hill without muddying up the board or having to walk down.  The bigger slopes were actually quite icy and the snow blowing around from the snow making machines made it tricky to see but I won't complain.  I got to go out and have fun with good friends.  Perfect.  Today it continued to snow and I'm dreaming of hitting the slopes again tomorrow...trying to convince my hubby (the skiier) to leave the kidlets with the grandparents and head to higher ground.  Don't think it's working.  Wahhhhh!  I really wish my 7 year old was up for snowboarding fun.  She's got the excitement and enthusiasm but no skill...yet.  I'm going to have to work on that for sure!
This week's Simon Says Stamp challenge is "Anything Goes".  Perfect!  I've got a couple projects to hopefully win me some smiles.  My middle daughter has a thing for penguins.  When we were in Disney last year she added to her collection and my oldest daughter decided to draw a picture of all of them.  She was 5 at the time of the drawing.  So cute!  The 3 penguins names are Peachi, Leechi and Chichi.

The next entry is a card a made just because I LOVE the stamp so much.  It's by Whimsy Stamps and it's so beautiful and dreamy!

Bingo-Revisited

Hey Blogworld.  I hope you all had a very wonderful Christmas!  I sure did and I can't describe my holiday so far with any better words than TRULY BLESSED.  Family, laughter, smiles and some granted wishes along the way.  What more can a girl ask for?  (*sigh*)
Here's another entry to this weeks Simon Says Stamp Challenge-Bingo.  This time I did the first column (ribbon/punches, die cuts/multifold).  I must admit, I saw this tri-fold card on various blogs and often wondered how in the world to do this.  It looks soooo cool and sooo complicated!  Then finally, a Google search found my teacher of such a cool multifold card.  It was at "Craftiblog".  Check it out!  It was soooooo incredibly simple I think I'm going to make a bazillion more of these cards.  One thing about this card that I do have to mention is that it's not the most intuitive card for people to open or close and I found myself cringing when someone would open it up and then close it again as it never seemed to close the right way and thus I was worried there were creases being put in places where there shouldn't be creases.  I guess it's like closing up a folded road map.  I found myself sneaking back to where the card was kept to re-fold it back properly after someone looked at it.  Oh well.  This particular card I gave to my hubby's brother and his wife for Christmas (I hate referring to them as "in-laws" as there always seems to be some negative spin on this term and by no way are my hubby's family a negative in my life in any way.  They are all truly amazing people and I am so totally blessed to be apart of their family!)  It was also the holder for some tickets we got for them to see "American Idiot".  I hope they enjoy it.  I haven't seen it but I'm a Green Day fan so I'm sure it'll be pretty cool!  Here's hoping for some luck...as always!

You've Got Mail

One thing I love about the Christmas holidays is getting Christmas cards in the mail.  Often these are generic store bought cards with a nice message inside letting you know that they've thought of you during the holidays.  So Sweet!  Sometimes they are photo cards with a sweet family pic or cute kid picture on it sending smiles.  Love these!  And sometimes...if you're super lucky you get a handmade card in the mail.  LOVE LOVE these!  Maybe it's because I know what kind of thought and care goes into a handmade card that I appreciate these the most.  Sooooo a couple days ago I was the proud recipient of a handmade card all the way from out west in Edmonton, AB.  My friend, Carrie V sent me a beautiful card that I just have to share!

It's soo gorgeous it inspired me to use the same idea on a holiday card I made for my daughter's teacher.  I didn't have double sided Christmas paper so as per Carrie's suggestion I stamped on the white side to snaz it up on the inside of the cones and added some glitter to boot!  I'm submitting it for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Bingo Challenge where I used the top row of items.

Here is my version.  Her's hoping I'll get lucky this week!

 

A Little Sketch-y to Me...

I can't believe Christmas is only days away...less than a week!  Yikes!  I spend the afternoon (and into the early evening) with my mommy, shopping.  Fun stuff...and not as crazy as I thought it would be.  We didn't hit the mall but went to a Power Center and Toys R Us (luckily not the death wish I was expecting!).  We found pretty much everything we were looking for...except for this Girly Train Set by Imaginarium called "Downtown Shopping Fun Railway Set".  My daughter (C2) had cut it out of a flyer and put on her wish list but apparently it doesn't exist!  It's not online, Toys R Us has never heard of it and it's not even Googleable (is that a word?).  How in the world my daughter managed to find this and cut it out is quite amazing (and utterly frustrating).  If anyone has every heard of this and know where I can find one, please share!

On another note, This week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge is to follow a sketch.  Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on this sketch...(do you detect a theme?).  Wish me luck!

The penguin is from Darcie Stamp set and the snowflakes are from Inkadinkado.

I'm a Christmas Card Making Machine!

Okay, maybe not a big machine. I know I'm not churning the cards out as fast as I'd like to but I'm definitely in a groove!  I used to have all my winter/Christmas stamps all scattered about since much of my stamps are organized by manufacturer (I have a "database" on my iPhoto where I take a picture of my stamps, put them in a "scrapbook stamps" event and attach keywords to them to help me search for them later.  I name them based on their Manufacturer name and stamp name/Title).  I realized that it's much easier get more done when I just have to go to one box where all my stamps are...sooooo I moved all my winter/Christmas stamps to one box and I just keep pulling them out and getting inspired and then letting the creative juices flow (not to mention it makes for a less cluttered desktop since I only need one box out!).  Here are a couple of my Christmas creations!  I'd also like to submit them to this week's Simon Says Stamp challenge.  Yay!

This is a Cuttlebug emobossing folder that I used the debossed side of and filled in the center snowflake with Stickles.

This is another Cuttlebug empbossing folder to which I added patterend paper to accent some of the ornaments.

Another Cuttlebug embossing folder (detecting a theme here?) and an adorable Penguin stamp from Wild Rose Studio.

From Across the Pond

So I made a card a couple of weeks ago for a friend of mine who lives just across the Atlantic pond in Liverpool, England.  I used to work with her a while back until she moved on to bigger and better.  I was quite excited to hear she was coming down this holiday for a visit and even more excited that she wanted to spend some time hitting the slopes or our snowboards.  The card I made for her was an attempt to share with her my eager anticipation.  The inside of the card reads, "snow much fun!".  It just came in the "post" for her this past week.  So exciting!  This card was fun to make and most of it had to do with the inspiration!  See you soon, Snowboarding buddy!  Maybe this winter theme can also land me some luck with this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge.

The awesome snowboarder is a digi stamp from The Greeting Farm. 

The Social Calendars of a 5 and 7 Year Old!

So as December kicks off, Christmas shopping in full swing, holiday planning on the mind and even some sprinkling of snow has arrived...top all that off with 5 birthday parties to attend for which my little 5 year old was invited and another 3 of which my 7 year old was invited to (Luckily 2 of the parties between C1 and C2 are the same party).  My goodness!  The social calendar of the SK and 2nd grader is busy busy!  2 of these parties have already come to pass this weekend.  So much fun for the parent to even just come and watch!  The first party was an all girl party with about 6 SK kids at a place called Creative Kids.  What a fun place!  The girls got to pick, stuff and dress their own little animal (kinda like a "Build A Bear" but wayyyyyy less crowded or stressfull (for the parent)).  My girls had a great time!  Today was a party at the local grocery store where the kids got to make their own pizza and decorate their own cake to take home.  So much fun!  My hubby and I were hoping to leave the kidlets at the party and head to the grocery store to do some shopping...but the party was so interesting I didn't want to miss out on the fun the girls were having!  With this busy weekend in mind, I made 2 cards for these parties which I hope would land me some much needed moola to splurge on myself from the Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes challenge this week!

The embossing folder is from Creative Concepts, the stamp is from Belles n Whistles, patterned paper: DCWV, Martha Stewart deep edge punch, Spellbinders scalloped circle, Copic Markers for colouring.

Sizzix embossing folder (Tim Holtz collection), gear dies from Tim Holtz/Sizzix, patterned paper from MME, stamp from The Greeting Farm, Copic Markers, Greeting Stamp from Inkadinkado.

Tag....You're It!!

What a weekend it has been!  Once of those seems so busy but nothing got done kind of weekends!  It's the first week of Advent and our weekend plan was to put up the Christmas Tree and decorations.  The girls were really looking forward to it!  As it turned out, my best friend was up for the weekend from New Jersey and we made a point to spend some time with them!  Yesterday we took the car in for service.  We have a Honda mini van and a Mini Cooper S Clubman as our family vehicles.  Unfortunately, there are 5 people in our family now (we bought the Mini Cooper when there was only 4 of us) and so we can't all fit in the Mini at the same time.  This rarely is an issue but this weekend, it actually was.  There was no way to take the van to the shop and then have us all pile in the the other car to run errands (or go home).  We ended up all going to the shop together, having lunch at a nearby Kelsey's restaurant (that we walked to) and then killing time in the waiting room with the big girls playing on the iPad or my iPhone and the baby asleep in the stroller.  By the time the car was ready it was about 3pm.  We were having dinner at the grandparents so that pretty much completed our day.  I got some awful tummy ache after dinner and it lingered until today...feeling a little better today...but no tree or decorations are up.  At least the outside Christmas lights are on.
I also made some headway on Christmas cards this weekend.  One of which qualifies as an entry to this weeks Simon Says Stamp Challenge.  It's all about tags...and here is my contribution.  Hoping I can be so lucky this week!

Giving Thanks!

Up here in the "great white north" we celebrated our Thanksgiving over a month ago.  But our neighbors to the south have their 4-day (!!!) weekend coming up this week and the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog is celebrating it with a "Thank-you" theme.  I know for me, with our thanksgiving behind us, my thoughts on being grateful focus on the Christmas Holiday season and all it's wonder and joy.  Having 3 little munchkins makes this time of year even more warm and fuzzy and blessed (despite the cold outside).  It'll be C3's first Christmas and we are all looking forward to sharing the holidays together!  Last holiday, hubby was away on business for most of the holiday which made for a less than festive time.  I'm so very much looking forward to this holiday and gaze upon it with much thanks.  Here are some projects to fit the theme.

The patterned paper I used for the base of the card is actually from an envelope in which 7 gypsies stamps I had purchased were packaged in.  I love the vintage newsprint look.  The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch.  The butterfly paper is from MME and the label die cut is from a Tim Holtz/Sissix die.

I wish I had more time to scrapbook as it happens but alas I supposed it's better late than never.  These pics are from Thanksgiving 2007 with my beautiful C1 and C2.  I made the "princesses" metal embellie myself using craft wire.

Buttons Revisited

Like I said,  I like buttons.  Here is another card I made for my hubby's mommy (I hate referring to her as "mother-in-law" as it seems so cold and impersonal when she is amazing, wonderful and loving.  I love her like I love my own mommy...almost!)  I try to use pictures of my kids in any cards I make for the grandparents.  Just a little way to add an even more personal touch...and it's neat to be able to look back on them over the years to see all the changes.

Button Up!

It's my 10 year anniversary today.  10 wonderful years with my Prince Charming.  The Disney Cruise was our gift to eachother for this special occaision.  Can't ask for more than that!  Tonight, however, we did head to our favourite dessert cafe (called Demetres) and share some great conversation and some great ice cream and crepe (for me!)or ice cream and waffle (for hubby!).  Even the name of the desserts were great, "Livin' La Vida Mocha" (for me!) and Moo La La (for hubby!)  Happy Anniversary to the love of my life!
So the Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week is buttons.  Love buttons.  They are a embellie that I find myself reaching for quite often.  So versatile.  Here is a layout for just such a challenge!

Blessings

It's been quite the couple of days.  I certainly had one of my most scariest Halloweens EVER! (and it had nothing to do with the goblins and ghouls at my door!).  C2 had a CT scan on Friday for some recurring headaches she's been having.  Halloween night I get a phone call from the doctor's office saying that the doctor has received the results and he would like to see her "right away".  OF COURSE the worst of the worst goes through my head.  The secretary couldn't give me any more information.  "You'll have to discuss it with the doctor."  Maybe that was her way of contributing to the Halloween spirit and scaring the living crap out of me!  I hardly slept last night and today I was so anxious for what I might hear at 1pm when the doctor was scheduled to inform us of the details it made my stomach very nauseous.  As it turns out, no brain issues to speak of but a rather serious sinus infection.  Not good...but not nearly as bad as my overactive imagination made it out to be!  I must say...I counted every single blessing today and am gratful for every single one!  Here is a card I made to reflect this...and hopefully score me some uplifting retail therapy swag for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

The background was made using Distress Inks and water spritzes.  The gorgeous flourish stamp (seriously I love this stamp) is from Hero Arts and the precious little girl is a stamp from Belles and Whistles.

Back to the Real World

So my hubby and I have completed our 3 month parental leave together and the absolute BEST SUMMER EVER has drawn to a close.  We ended our 93 days of summer with a Disney Cruise that headed to the eastern Caribbean.  We were on the Disney Magic and it was awesome!  We had three port of calls to St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Castaway Cay in the Bahamas.  Castaway Cay is Disney's own private island and non but our ship and it's crew shared this little private paradise.  It was a dream!  I can't wait to get my pictures and memories laid out in a scrapbook.  Now to find the time.  WAHHHHH!!!  That's been the challenge!  Last week was my first week back to work and although I enjoy the work itself, it's the commute that is killing me!  It's gotten worse than I remember it (and it was pretty bad before!).  I'm finding myself in the car 3 hours a day (1.5 hours each way).  That's three hours of precious time that could be spent with family or scrapbooking and such.  Quite depressing. 
On a brighter note, this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge is "Sparkle and Bling" and I've got some creations that fit the bill.

This Christmas card was cut from a Silhouette template.  The stamp from Greeting Farm.

This is one of those whipped it together in a flash cards.  The butterfly die cut is from Cuttlebug (Provocraft) and the bling on it comes from a Chatterbox set.

To Die For....

I must admit, I'm a bit of a die-cuts junkie.  So this week's Simon Says Stamp challenge, "Dies to Die for" is right up my alley.  I seem to be more of a die cut's collector junkie I seem to have way more dies than I have actually used.  I buy them from garage sales and scrapbook store clearance sales with all these brilliant ideas racing through my head as I stand at the cashier....until they take up residence in my scrap room die cut cubbies waiting for their day in the spotlight.  What a great challenge to get my dies dusted off and showing off.   I'm currently at the airport enroute to our family vacay so not too much time to chat right now.  Here are a few projects I've been busy with that I'd like share before I leave.  Thanks for dropping by!

This card is a thank you card using Spellbinders nested scalloped circles and Martha Stewart's PATP punch.  The stamps are Fancy Pants and Inkadinkado.

This birthday card uses a Fiskars border punch and a Sissix butterfly die.  I accidentally cut the butterfly's wing tip off on one of the wings so I improvised by trimming both wings similarly.  The stamps are from Hero Arts.

This one is one of my favourites.  The punch used was a Martha Stewart PATP.  The small butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch and the bigger butterfly is a Cuttlebug die.

Yes...another one! ;)

This last SSS challenge really has my creative juices flowing.  Its certainly got me up and scrapping layouts for older pictures I've been meaning to scrap for a while but couldn't find the motivation.  Thank you Simon Says Stamp!  This layout was inspired by the movie: Monsters Inc.  The papers are from Chatterbox.

Inspired by: Pirates of the Carribbean

Hey I'm back!  Can't get enough of this Simon Says Stamp Challenge! This time it's a movie that has me inspired.  The pictures were taken while we were on vacation, driving the Pacific Coast Highway in California on a stop in Long Beach.  It happened to be pirate week.   The stickers are from Jolee's Boutique.

Inspired by Tom Petty: Free Fallin'

For this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge I have another creation that fits the bill.   I think the layout is pretty self explanatory.  I assure you no babies were harmed in the making of this photograph.
 :).  This layout was made of mostly scrap paper from my scrap paper bin.  The scalloped cardstock is Bazzill, the butterfly stamps are Autumn Leaves, the title letters are Sizzix, "Playground" and the label maker is Dymo.

Inspired by Train: Marry Me

 So the Simon Says Stamp challenge this week is inspiration from a song or movie.  Here is a card I made inspired by the song, "Marry Me" by Train.  It started from a Becky Fleck Page Map and then did a 180.  It ended up looking nothing like the the original sketch but I'm so proud of it.  It was so fun to make.  The silhouette couple was cut from a Lifestyle Sillouette design.  It's just so cute!  The frame stamp is from Fancy Pants and the embossing folder was Provocraft.

It's been a while...Update to a Challenge

It's been an AMAZING...and I mean AMAZING summer for me.  My husband and I have been on parental leave together since July 1st and have been enjoying every minute of it.  Everyone said we'd get sick of eachother but quite the contrary...he's awesome!  I always knew that (that's why I married him) but there's something to be said about spending many a waking (and sleeping) moment with someone and not want to rip their head off (that goes for my 3 wonderful children too!).  Many a day trip to Marineland, Canada's Wonderland, Center Island and the beach was had as well as a week trip to New York and New Jersey and a 2 week trip out to Alberta to visit friends in Calgary and Edmonton.  We drove to see so many AMAZING things between these 2 cities as well.  Alberta is gorgeous!  Those mountains are incredible.  I could easily be coerced into moving there!  One more big trip left before reality hits hard and back to work I go.  A Disney Cruise is in our very near future and I am sooooo looking forward to that!  Until then, here is a card to submit for the latest Simon Says Stamp Challenge.  It's got more than one fold so it should qualify.  I recently made this for a friend of mine.

Look What the Stork Brought in Challenge

So friends of mine from church had a baby girl last week!  They named her Sadie.  They already have two 11 year old twins.  This new one is a bit of an oopsy but still very welcomed and loved!  Their faces on Sunday were tired looking.  At that point Sadie was 5 days old and crying every night.  I remember those days.  My new little one had a bit of a mix up when it came to the days and nights but on the whole, she is a great eater and and great sleeper.  Especially now being almost 3.5 months old and sleeping up to 6 hours at night.  A couple times this week I actually had to wake her up after 6 hours in the middle of the night to make sure she was fed.  Having said that, this weeks challenge at Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog (http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/05/simon-says-look-what-stork-brought.html) is "Look What the Stork Brought In".  I made a card to welcome the new baby and congratulate the family which I hope could land me some free stuff at SimonSaysStamp.com.  Here's the card.  The stamps are from a Darcie's Clear Stamp Set called, "On the Line".  The butterflies are a Martha Stewart Crafts classic butterfly punch.

Stumped on a Title...Please Help.

So I started this layout based on a sketch I got on the Sketchabilities blog (Sketchabilities-Sketch#10).  The stars made me think of C1 in these pictures.  I used paper from a DCWV paper pad called "The Music Stack".  As I got to putting it all together I was stumped on a title for this layout.  I still am.  So I'm putting it out there in hopes that someone in blogland could help me out and come up with a good title. 
I'm looking for something not too long (preferably no more than 5 words) and possibly sweet and witty.  If you need some context on the pictures, here's the story:

We were on a family vacation in Florida in Jan 2010.  While we were swimming in the outdoor hotel pool some people were setting up some sound equipment on the nearby patio area...it was Karaoke Night!  C1 and C2 asked inquisitively what exactly Karaoke Night was and hubby and I explained.  C1 immediately exclaimed "I wanna do that!"  I was quite excited that she was so interested.  I asked her which song she wanted to do and she said "...that Taylor Swift one."  I figured it was either "Our Song" or "You Belong With Me" as she often sang these in the car when I played them and she sang them quite good.  When I went up to the stage area to sign her up she said she wanted to sing the song from the Hanna Montana movie.  That song was "Crazier" and I was positive she wouldn't know all the words to it as she just got the move for Christmas 2009 and had only seen it once.  After trying to several times to change her mind about the song choice to no avail,  she was signed up.  When her time came she was sooooo excited.  She took the mic, and swayed through the introduction and when the words showed up on the screen she realized she really didn't know this song that well.  I attempted to whisper the words to her as they came up and she managed to follow along quite melodically.  She actually knew the chorus part without any help.  When the song was over she smiled so proudly and the whole poolside audience clapped and cheered loudly for her.  She did good...even with the little lyrical setback.  I was very proud of her for trying out new things like this making an attempt at finding her voice.  I look forward to many more attempts in the future!

I look forward to hearing your suggestions!

Late Night Delirium and some Fuel for it!

So I can't sleep.  Late night feedings are a challenge.  But I'm up and surfing the web, checking Facebook and laughing myself silly at a posting I put on my BFF's wall the other day.

I meant to write "things" not "thongs".  Sooooo funny.  I tend to do this quite often.  Whether it be an actual typo or an autocorrect feature,  I find myself writing some unintentional, usually inappropriate but absolutely hilarious things to people.  Most of them I catch before incriminating myself but the odd one has managed to squeak by my vigorous proofread (above case in point).  Luckily, these have gone to friends or family (I hope!) and thus minimized any serious repercussions and hopefully only succeeded in adding a smile or two.   This leads me to a website my sister brought to my attention.  I've been reading through it and it's been somewhat of a godsend these last few days in keeping my spirits up. (I actually found myself laughing out lout at the walk-in clinic on Saturday because of it!)  Check it out for a guffaw or two:  http://damnyouautocorrect.com/.
Here are a couple examples to hopefully peak your interest.  I hope you find this as entertaining as I do!  Enjoy!  (Just a heads up though, there is some explicit language in some of them on the website).