Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Christmas Time Memories

I used more of my new Unity stamps to make this card for the Embellish Holidays Color Challenge. This card features a couple of ornaments and a sentiment from Embellished Season. I love the big ornaments in this set!

I used one of the larger swirly ones to create a beautiful pink background. Then I embroidered along the stem of the featured ornament with some green twine and added sparkles to the leaves. I replaced the hanger with wire and attached some brown twine to hang the ornament. Lastly, I stamped the sentiment directly on the card base and popped the word shine that was stamped in red.

Sources: GinaK 120lb pure luxury White cardstock; Unity Embellished Season; SU Pink Pirouette, Cherry Cobbler & Wild Wasabi inks; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Lewiscraft 24-gauge stainless steel wire; The Twinery baker's twine in Cappuccino & Peapod; PSX Diamond Sparkles; Stampin' Dimensionals

Monday, November 29, 2010

RAK from Stephanie

About three weeks ago, Stephanie had a giveaway on her blog and I won! I received the package on Friday. I was only expecting the photo box itself which is what I won but Stephanie was ever so kind and generous to include all the papers and embellishments for decorating the box as well as the panels for attaching photos. She also included one of her amazing handmade cards. I love Stephanie's cards and there's nothing like having one of my very own! Stephanie uses the best combination of drool-worthy papers and I can't believe she parted with so much of it. I can't wait to find some time to decorate this fabulous box. Thank you so much, Stephanie!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Put On Your Party Dress

During the last big Unity sale in October, I ordered a bunch of awesome stamps and that box arrived earlier this week! Now that they're finally in my hands I couldn't be happier and I'll be making a lot of cards with them so I hope you love Unity as much as I do. ;) Today's card is for the Play Date Cafe Challenge #57 and features the Unity set Undeniably You as well as a gorgeous background called Tea Time Toile. For PDCC57, we are to use the colours shown at left. I loved working with these dark colours and making them feminine! My brown elements are the card base and dress image. I used gray for the background panel and shading on the dress. The silver is in the stitching, circle nestie and the sparkles on the necklace and belt. Since the silver paper was so reflective, it was difficult to take a good close up shot so you see the camera lens and part of my hand in it. LOL

Sources: SU Early Espresso & Basic Gray cardstock; Aitoh Silver Origami paper; GinaK 120lb pure luxury White cardstock; Unity Undeniably You; Unity Tea Time Toile; SU Basic Gray ink; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Staz-On Jet Black ink; Copics; Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large; QuicKutz Epic Six; Gutermann metallic silver thread; sewing machine; Stampin' Dimensionals; Gary M. Burlin silver glitter glue

Friday, November 26, 2010

Pink Cat Studio ~ Nov 26th Digi Release, Gift With Purchase, a Holiday Contest and a Farewell!

It's Pink Cat Friday! This post will be a little longer than usual so I hope you have your morning beverage of choice! ;) First up will be the digi release, followed by the Black Friday special, details for the holiday contest and a farewell! Today's digis will be the last new release for Pink Cat Studio in 2010. We'll be taking a break 'til the New Year!

Today's digis are meant to inspire you to either start or continue making your Christmas cards! I can tell you that I'm nowhere near done with mine but I was happy to take the incredible Billy Train Ride digi and make my son his perfect Christmas card. He's been collecting Thomas & Friends trains and accessories for the past year. We've been so good about trickling them into his collection and he always has a huge smile on his face when he gets a new one. The newest one arrived yesterday via a good friend from Indianapolis. My son has been asking for a crane for the longest time and I wish I had captured his smile on camera!

My card was very simple to make. I coloured in the image, cut it out, used my wheel to create the tracks and popped the image on with dimensionals.

Here's the Black Friday Special! If you make any purchase of $5 or more from the Pink Cat Studio rubber or digi stores today only, you will receive these six amazing digital stamps for free!! These stamps are valued at more than $15! If that doesn't inspire you, read on. ;)

Pink Cat Studio is having a Holiday Challenge! All you need to do is create a project that includes at least one Pink Cat Studio image (sentiments excluded). Examples of projects include cards, gift boxes and bags, tags, scrapbook layouts, etc.

Here are the rules:

  • You may enter one project only.
  • You can use PCS digital or rubber stamps.
  • You may combine the Pink Cat Studio Holiday Challenge with other challenges but please use the PCS name and provide a link back to this challenge on your blog.
  • Submit a direct link to your project via the Inlinkz tool on the Pink Cat Studio blog post for this challenge.
  • Submissions that do not provide a direct link will not be considered for the prizes.
  • Pink Cat Studio and its design team will choose One Grand Prize Winner who will win 10 digital stamps of her choice.
  • In addition, random.org will be used to select Two Random Winners from all of the challenge participants. The random winners will each receive 3 digital stamps of their choice.

This challenge starts immediately and closes Friday, December 10th at 11:59pm PST. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, December 15th.

Last but not least, the amazing Maria Bell is leaving the Pink Cat Studio design team after two great years. No words can describe the incredible number of projects Maria has made for PCS. If you've never been to her blog, you're in for a real treat! Best of luck in your future creative endeavours, Maria. We will surely miss you at PCS!

Is that enough fun for one day? I hope to see many of you participating in the Pink Cat Studio Holiday Challenge and I can't wait to see what you create with Melissa's fabulous stamps! If you don't own any yet, take advantage of today's fabulous deal!! Have an incredible weekend.

Sources: GinaK 120lb pure luxury White cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Billy Train Ride; SU Right on Track; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals

The Twinery Cyber Monday Sale

The Twinery will be having a CYBER MONDAY SALE where everything will be 30% off!!! This discount will only be valid on orders placed on Monday, November 29th from 12:00am through 11:59pm. The code that you need to use at checkout is CRAZYSALE30. This is a huge sale! The Twinery has never given out discounts this large ever so hurry to The Twinery on Monday and shop to your heart's content! Tell all your friends, too!! When you've received your twine, come back here and let me know what you made with it! :D Happy shopping!!!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends in the U.S.! I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating. Today's card shows my appreciation for all of you who have given me so much inspiration! I used Amber Ink's Hostess with the Mostess which I now have in the clear stamp version. I paper pieced the hostess' apron, dress and shoes with Amber Ink iPapers and coloured in the rest of her with Copics. After stamping the background using two sentiments from Unity's September Kit, I adhered the hostess to the card base with dimensionals. Enjoy your turkeys and all that is good in life!

Sources: GinaK pure luxury Kraft cardstock & 120lb pure luxury White cardstock; Amber Ink iPapers in Cocktail Conga-Pink: Tiny & Bubble Fizz-White: Tiny; Amber Ink Hostess with the Mostess; Unity September Kit of the Month - When I Am With You; SU Crumb Cake ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

May Your Season Sparkle

This card is for the Color Cue {10} challenge which is to use the colours shown at left. Each Wplus9 design team member has also chosen their own combinations and you can visit Dawn's blog or click on the photo to see the other colours. One of the reasons I love Dawn's Color Cue Challenges so much is because I'm amazed at her ability to choose colour combinations that are striking and surprising. I often fall in love with them even if I'm not quite sure they work at first. This is a true example of that!

I've had this ornament punch for almost a year now and it was definitely time to use it. I used a couple of stamps from Magical Moments to decorate the ornaments, sponged up the edges, added some rhinestones that I coloured with a purple Copic marker, punched holes in the top and strung them with lilac twine. I stamped a sentiment from Unity's November Kit and popped the ornaments on the kraft card base with dimensionals. This was so much fun and easy so I think I will be using this design to make a huge batch of Christmas cards. Purple lovers will exalt because I'm about to say that I might actually like purple after making this card! ;)

Sources: GinaK pure luxury Kraft & 120lb pure luxury White cardstock; Wplus9 Magical Moments; Unity November 2010 Kit of the Month - Picture Perfect; Vivid Red ink; SU Lavender Lace ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU ornament punch; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" long reach circle punch; SU Basic Rhinestones; Copics; The Twinery baker's twine in Lilac; Stampin' Dimensionals; SU Crystal Effects

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Happenings of the Heart

I haven't been feeling too crafty in recent days but I do have some things to share with you! Those of you who are fans of The Twinery already know that 23 talented ladies were named to the inaugural design team and I was one of them!! I'm still pinching myself! Some of you may have noticed that I've had the design team badge on my side bar for a few days but I figured it was time for a formal announcement. :) Details of the design team will be up on The Twinery's blog soon and I will be announcing a very special offer on Black Friday, so stay tuned!

I bought a bunch of cute jammies for my son since he's outgrown most of the ones he had. The best one is this one because it has pandas on it. :Þ This photo doesn't show the panda wearing a reindeer tee but you can see the reindeer wearing a panda tee. There are so many different animals on it, including giraffes, tigers and raccoons. My son loves to say, "Bear hold pengwee!" referring to the polar bear holding a penguin. When he wears this, he's too busy looking at his jammies to pay attention to where he's going. LOL

I also haven't talked about Pit'r in a while! The vet gives her the cutest bandaids after her chemo treatments. Heehee. Pit'r had a rough two weeks earlier this month which was really stressful for us but she's doing incredibly well now. We think she's finally turned the corner and only has about four chemo treatments left. She used to like a lot of different flavoured foods but ever since she started chemo, she will only eat Fancy Feast Grilled Salmon in Gravy. Now that she's finally feeling better, she's been eating like crazy (trying to gain weight and grow back lost whiskers)! Whenever there's a sale, I have to buy every single can they have in that one flavour. The cashiers must think I have ten cats. LOL

Lastly, I wanted to share a few of my favourite things during the holidays, like new and limited edition foods. :Þ I love anything with cranberries and even snacking on Craisins so why wouldn't I love these cookies, right? The tartness of the fruit makes the cream less sweet which is so nice. The LCBO is our provincial liquor store (our supermarkets don't sell alcohol) and it releases about six of these magazines throughout the year. They are packed with reviews on alcoholic beverages, music, cool kitchen gadgets and includes some of the best recipes all around! Here are some of my favourites from this edition:

That's it for today. I hope to have something crafty for you soon but, if I don't, keep in mind that there will be not just one (as I mentioned at the start of this post) but two fun and fabulous announcements on Black Friday!! The Pink Cat Studio digi release will be taking place on Friday instead of the regularly scheduled Thursday. Hint, hint. ;)

Friday, November 19, 2010

Unity FWF Blog Hop {Nov 19th}

Hooray for Friends With Flair Fridays! For a full list of blog hop participants, click here and don't forget to look for the FWF blinkie as you hop along. Leave a comment on that blog and you could win 25 random Unity stamps!

My card features the itty bitty called Oh Joy. It's only two stamps but you can do so much with it. Long-time followers of my blog know that I love to create backgrounds out of single stamps and I've done that here with the sentiment. I sponged the edges of the ivory panel with crumb cake ink, distressed the edges and stitched a black border around it. The tree was stamped in black ink and adhered to a panel of black cardstock so it would stand out against the light and bright colours. I sponged red and green ink around the kraft edges, as well as all over the tree. To finish, I randomly applied rhinestones in three different sizes, coloured them in with Copics and popped the tree on to the background with dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by! Your next stop is the amazing Bonnie Rose!!

Sources: GinaK pure luxury Kraft & Black Onyx cardstock; SU Naturals Ivory cardstock; Unity Oh Joy; SU Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green & Crumb Cake inks; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Gutermann black thread; sewing machine; SU Basic Rhinestones; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Amber Ink {Passing of the Torch}

This is my second post for today.
For the Pink Cat Studio digi release, please scroll down or click here.

It seems like I joined the amazing team at Amber Ink just yesterday but, alas, it's time to pass my Torch! The past four weeks have gone by quickly and it was certainly a lot of fun. I learned a lot during my time with the (th)Ink Tank and made a lot of new friends. My time with Amber Ink allowed me to dabble with digital papers for the first time and that has fuelled a bit of an obsession. LOL

Thank you to Sunghee who passed her Orange Torch to me. Sunghee is someone I greatly admire and I'm still in disbelief that she chose me. Sunghee actually inspired quite a few of my projects for Amber Ink. If you haven't been to Sunghee's blog, Creativity in Progress, you better grab a cup of coffee because you'll be scrolling through pages and and pages of sheer genius!

Here's a recap of all my Amber Ink projects in the order of creation (click on the photos for the original posts):

I'm excited and pleased to announce that I'm passing my Amber Ink Torch to the multi-talented Angela!

For those of you who don't know Angela, we met during the Summer 2010 CAS DT search on Splitcoaststampers where we both won guest designer spots and our lives haven't been the same. LOL We share the same quirky humour, intellectual reads, fashion sense and love to constantly enable each other in crafty purchases. I picked Angela to carry the Torch because I know she'll impress all of Amber Ink's fans! Please join me in cheering Angela along as she carries the Orange Team Torch for the next month. There is a fabulous new release on Monday and I can't wait to see what Angela has created!

Pink Cat Studio ~ Nov 18th Digi Release!

Yum, yum, yum! Today's Pink Cat Studio digi release is all about sweets. Just look at all those gingerbread cuties! I knew I should've bought some when I was at the market yesterday. LOL At least I have candy canes, chocolate and wine, right? ;)

I seem to be stuck on making things other than cards lately, ever since I attempted my first template. Well, I continued that trend through to today but don't worry! I love cards first and foremost and I'll be returning to them very soon. I just wanted to expand my paper crafting skills a little bit.

I made the hanging treat box using this tutorial and the treat basket using this tutorial. The treat basket also holds six small spools of American Crafts ribbon. Wouldn't that make a great crafty gift? I used Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly papers to decorate them both so they're pretty matchy-matchy and not just in a gingerbread sort of way. I coloured the images with Copics and heat embossed the white parts of the candy canes and gingerbread people with snow embossing tinsel.

I filled the hanging treat box with mini candy canes and I filled the basket with a variety of Kinder Chocolate. Some of you may be wondering about the Kinder Eggs. Canadians love them because they're made of an ultra thin chocolate shell (milk chocolate on the outside and white chocolate on the inside) and there's a surprise inside which is usually a really cool (or strange) little toy! I grew up collecting all of the toys and have a whole box of them. In 2001, my husband thought he had made a grand discovery while he was living in Italy and I couldn't help but laugh.

Thank you for stopping by today! You can find all of today's delicious digis at the Pink Cat Studio Digi Store and, for today only, the Gingerbread Gang digi is free with any purchase. Next week's release will be on Black Friday and Pink Cat Studio is going to have a challenge for you. We hope you'll play along to win some fabulous prizes for the holidays!

Sources: SU Wild Wasabi, Real Red & Chocolate Chip cardstock; Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly patterned papers; Pink Cat Studio Gingerbread Candy Cane Swing; Pink Cat Studio Gingerbread Gang; Zig Emboss Writer; PSX Snow Embossing Tinsel; Hobby Hot Boss; The Twinery baker's twine in Maraschino; SU Chocolate Chip 1" double-stitched grosgrain ribbon; SU 1-3/8" circle & scallop circle punches; SU silver brads; PTI button in Poppy; Stampin' Dimensionals; Glue Dots minis

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Happenings of the Heart

I just realized that I never took a photo of the inside of my box from yesterday's post so here it is. The papers are a combination of Amber Ink iPapers, Making Memories and Provo Craft. The colours are just scrumptious and looking at them makes me want to make a bunch for myself! My son has this Fisher-Price construction site and loves to put the stars on the dynamite platform and blow them up. LOL

What's been happening? Two nights ago, my son fell while wearing his sunglasses which cut his face and we had to go to the emergency room. The cut had to be glued and he was so good about not touching his wound for the first 24 hours. Then he ripped off the glue and the wound split open again. He actually asked to go back to the hospital as if it were a fun adventure! I applied surgical tape to the cut and so far he hasn't tried to peel it off yet. So for the past couple of days, my son has been very grumpy and emotional, hence my lack of posts at the start of the week. Honestly, I think he's recovering nicely and handled the whole situation better than I did.

Recently, I discovered these amazing stamp sets sold by Dwell Studio. This one is definitely on my son's Christmas list! In origami news, I've made several attempts to make one of these Christmas stars and I haven't been successful yet but I'm determined so one of these days you will see one here on my blog! I've also been drooling over the JCrew Holiday catalog. I really love this sweater in particular. The ruffle details and pockets are so cute! :)

Can you believe I only realized tonight that I could download multiple photos on to Blogger at the same time? Duh. :) Oh, and I removed word verification to make it easier for you to leave your awesome comments! I also have a new tab that stores all those moments that make my heart smile big time. :) That being said, I will have two posts for you tomorrow!!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Amber Ink {iPaper Spotlight}

Wow, it's been a while since I've had so many days in between posts. Life's been busy! I've been crafting away but I can't show you some of those things yet... soon though. ;) I pass my (th)Ink Tank Torch on Thursday so I wanted to create one more project for Amber Ink! I combined three of my current top loves in this little project - Amber Ink iPaper, Unity stamps and baker's twine from The Twinery!

I made a little gift box using this easy tutorial, tied it up with some yummy baker's twine and decorated it with a tag made with a couple of Unity stamps.

What's inside, you ask? Lucky stars! I hadn't thought about these since high school when a fine arts friend of mine used to fill glass jars and give them to all her friends. They were made with every colour of origami paper you could imagine and they were so beautiful! I can't believe I never made them 'til now using this fabulous tutorial. Making these stars is seriously addictive and therapeutic! Just make sure your paper isn't too thick.

Are those stars the cutest? I have a friend who is going through a rough time and I'm pretty sure this little box with beautiful tag (perfect sentiment) and all these lucky stars is going to cheer her up! This project was really fun to put together and I could whip up more in no time... except for the stars, but they're so worth the time and effort. My son loves the little stars and likes to hold one in each hand. He pretends he's the little boy from one of his favourite books, How To Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers. :)

Sources: Amber Ink iPapers in Bubble Fizz - Green & Bubble Fizz - White: Tiny; SU Real Red cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury White cardstock; Unity June 2010 Kit of the Month - Fly Free & September 2010 Kit of the Month - When I Am With You; SU Cherry Cobbler & Garden Green inks; SU Basic Rhinestones; The Twinery baker's twine in Maraschino