Quote for Today

On the weekend, we caught 'Akeelah and the Bee', a movie we had wanted to see and had never gotten around to. We just happened upon it flipping channels after our housework. There was a lot of good food for thought in it, and this is the quote that Akeelah's coach had her read as they started working together. I think it struck a chord with all of us, so I thought I'd make a place for it to rest upon our shelves so we could think about it some more...

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."

The frame is an 8x8 wooden frame that I got at Michaels for all of $1.50. Most of the dsp I used is from Webster's Pages (Your Life. Beautiful.) I also used the Baroque Motifs stampset from SU, Chestnut Colorblok Chalk, some Ridinghood Red CS, etc.

Home + Happiness

This is the card I made for our new neighbours. I took inspiration for the colours by the row of houses ribbon I had on my shelf from American Crafts. I was going to bake muffins for them this morning as well, but found my canister was low on sugar - so maybe later...

I have mixed feelings about the new neighbours.. On the one hand the family that moved in seems super nice, but on the other hand they have a tenant in the basement that caused a raucous on Friday night and then this morning was parked so close to our shrubs, I'm not sure how they got out of the car and I am sure that they stepped through them. Forgiveness...I keep telling myself - forgiveness. I haven't even met this person, but how do I ask them to show respect for us respectfully?!

Anyway, I better go get some sugar...

Wiper Card

We made these at the lake last weekend too! There was also a recent tutorial on Splitcoast on this.

Shawna's mum crocheted the big snowflake - isn't it daring?!!

Snowman Card

The new to me techniques on this card were the 'sweet center' part in his belly and stamping with shimmer paint (the camera might not have picked up on this one very well - it's very subtle). The snowman was coloured using an aqua painter and stamp pads (I usually use a blender pen).

Recipe Box

I went to Shawna's stamp camp this past weekend, so the next few projects were all done at camp. I tried to do a new technique (for me) in most of the projects. It was a beautiful day to be at the lake and I have missed crafting with Shawna as I wasn't in her club this year.

The new technique on this project was the colouring of the flower (using markers and pulling the colour down the petals with an aqua painter).

Happy First Day of School

It's our daughter's first day of high school (grade 9) today. I can't believe I'm the mom of a 14 year old. I gave birth to her 7 years ago now - and trust me, it's not easy giving birth to a 7 year old - but it is totally worth it!

Back to School - Part 3

...and this is the suitcase that the card, chocolate and other goodies (you need an assortment of s-f gum, etc. to go back to school don'tcha-know?!)

The suitcase is ala Becky's tutorial (see the set I made here). I thought I'd make my girl a suitcase kind-of symbolically - you know 'oh the places you'll go...' She has amazing dreams - so we want to give them wings (aka the butterflies:)

Back to School - Part 2

...and this is the matchbox full of chocolate that goes along with the letter... every girl needs some chocolate of course when she's facing something new;)

Back to School - Part 1

Every year when our daughter goes back to school I write her a letter to tell her how special she is and give her encouragement for the year - and I try to come up with some creative way to give it to her (along with some treats;)

This is the card I'm writing the letter in this year...

DSP is 'Tessa's Fairytale'
CS is all SU

Matchbox File Cabinet

I got the idea for this from Becky (she made one for the SU convention boards). I don't even remember where I got the dsp from (I grabbed it from my scrap pile;). The CS is SU.

All you do is make 4 matchboxes and then attach them with sticky-strip, cover with dsp and voila - a mini-cabinet:)

Paper Bag Purse

I made this little 'purse' out of a paper bag (...and some Basic Grey dsp; the ribbon and cardstock are both SU). Here's a link to the tutorial I used from Becki - thank Becki for such great inspiration!

It's a set

As you've probably figured out, my posts the last few days form a set of notecards in a box - which I recently gave to a friend:)

Stack of cups

I saw an idea for a card like this on Becky's blog - and since I finally have some teacup stamps, I had to try my own version;)

Tea, coffee, hot chocolate...

Teacup Card

I love cups & saucers, don't you?!

Tea Box

I love this little teabag stamp! Isnt' it darling?!

(The paper I've used on the next few projects is SU candy cane lane:)

Tea Time

I was playing with a new acrylic stamp set on this card (Coffee Cafe by TPC Studios). The images are darling, but I do have to say that rubber stamps leave a much crisper image! That being said, I like how this card turned out - it's for a friend that I'm having tea with this week:)

Tri-shutter Birithday Card

I made this birthday card using this week's splitcoast tutorial...


...I used the same paper as in the frame project I last posted, but aren't the colours so much more vivid in these pictures?! ...we just got a new digital camera (Fujifilm S1500 Finepix) - and I'm loving it! Much better than my old Kodak Easyshare! ;)

Frame

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much lately...work has been busy...home has been busy... so a little less time for creating (and it doesn't help when I give away projects before photographing them;) Anyway, this is what I made this weekend. I was missing a dear friend who lives far away and so I made this frame and played with a coloring technique on their family picture:)

I used the same frame as I did in this project, and I used dsp from my Old World Stack (which I actually didn't get at the lss...I found it at an incredible price at Winners! It pays to dig through the bottom shelf!) Some of the flowers are primas and some I made using a distress technique and a scallop punch.

A little thank you...

Just a tiny thank you note I made using my friend's sip by sip stamp set that I borrowed. I haven't had much time to craft lately and the biggest thing I made this week I gave away without photographing, but I did make nugget boxes for my favourite Starbucks Barristas since it was 'partner appreciation week':)

Repurposed Bag

This was just a brown flat bag that I got some 12 x 12 in that I repurposed using the same concept as a bagalope (scores on 3 sides were at 2).

I really like repurposing thing:)

Thanks a latte...

This is my latest installment in the category of 'gratitude journal'. My current journal is almost full, so it was almost time for a new one, and this morning I had a couple of friends from club over to share images. I thought I would prepare a little make and take for us to do for fun and this was the product:)

I borrowed a friend's 'sip by sip' set to embellish mine:) You can see my previous gratitude journals here and here...

The idea of keeping a gratitude journal is simple, each day you commit to write down at least five things you are grateful for before your head hits the pillow each night. I've found it to be a life changing habit:)

Best Wishes

I used Dawn's instructions on creating a faux linen look on this card along with the parisien breeze dsp from Stampin' Up.

Father Owl

This was the father's day card I had made for my father-in-law this year. I thought the owl was appropriate as he knows somethin' about everything;)

My Journal

For my birthday I made myself a new journal. I used my favourite paper that I've been hoarding from Webster's Pages:)

Matching Note Holder

Just a little gift I made that went along with yesterday's card. I made one of these a couple of week's ago using Angie's directions, you can find the link here.

Friend's Birthday

A birthday card for a friend I met for lunch this week:)
The dsp was from JSI, but I'm not sure if it was Cosmo Cricket or not. All other paper is SU; the ribbon is dots & dashes from Michael's and the flower is from a gauze grab bag I got at Prairie Chicks.

Graduation Day

Today is my darling daughter's grade 8 grad! This is one of the gifts I made for her, a dream journal...again, with the penny lane paper:) You might have guessed, the frame last week was also another part of her gift (the saying in it is her favourite quote:) We have a larger purchased gift as well, but when your mom is a papercrafter, you're going to get handmade gifts for every occasion, right?!! :)

We're very proud of our girl, she has worked hard and achieved much - and shone her light all the while!!
As an added honour, Amanda is also her class' valedictorian today - she's quite a girl, isn't she?!



P.S. ...before I get another message that tells me I'm too 'young' to have an 8th grader, I'll just say that I gave birth to her by love when she was 7:) ...so I totally am old enough;)

Card from the Cat

Yes, the cat did make 'daddy' a Father's Day card too! This one was inspired by one of Kristina's MACM's:)

A Family Portrait

Happy Father's Day to my 'long-legged guitar pickin' man'! My husband is a true gift from God. God has taught me so much about His love through him and has fulfilled my biggest dreams through him! He is a great father and husband in all ways!!

Mini Album Make n' Take

Happy 10th Anniversary to Just Scrap It! JSI has been celebrating their anniversary all week with special make n' takes at the Art Bar! Here is the one we made yesterday by recycling some packaging material. I finished it off this morning with some pictures, rubons and punches:) I've only included a couple of the inner pages due to the posting size limits of blogger...

Post It Note Organizer

I'm still loving Penny Lane paper:) I made this organizer using Angie's instructions. I have it on my desk at work:)

A sweet thank you

Just a sweet treat I made for the most helpful person at work these days:)

Love

Just a little gift card I made the other day... I borrowed an eyelet punch from a friend and have been using it on EVERYTHING lately! I think it's time to return it and order my own:)

All things grow with love

I'm still luvin' that Penny Lane paper. And I LOVE how it works with baja breeze cardstock:) I wish I really could grow some hearts in my flower garden...too cute!

Frame

I found this wooden frame at Michael's for $1.50...and as soon as I saw it I had a project in mind...

Sense of Time

I love this paper from Penny Lane. Last Saturday, my hubby decided we needed a road trip, so we drove to a nearby lake... On the way he stopped in this small town (Hague) that has a darling quilting & scrapbooking shop (Prairie Chicks) and this was one of the papers I bought:) Isn't he a keeper?!!

Agent 99

I made these post-it pads for one of my teams at work - we're involved in a competition and we've chosen to make it fun and taken on the team name 'Agent 99' (as in 'Get Smart' ...think Control vs. Chaos;)