Guess where I've been?!

...and this was the view from the scrapbooking store there where I got to 'play' one afternoon! (that's the Three Sisters Mountain:)

For our anniversary, my amazing hubby and I took a quick trip to Calgary and then on to Cochrane, Canmore and Banff (we mostly stayed in our favourite little Inn in Canmore - think English charm, amazing views, fireplace....) We had originally planned to head to Jasper this year, but Brian Doerksen and Kathryn Scott were going to be in concert in Calgary, so we decided to go that route. It was quite the opportunity to see the two of them together (Kathryn is from Causeway Coast, Ireland - I could go on and on about what her and her husband have taught us...!)

So off to Calgary we went - and the concert was AMAZING! ...and we did end up really enjoying our few days there, but mostly because we worked really hard at it - as it turned out that it was very stressful to get around Calgary and the shopping wasn't what we thought it would be, but we did end up eating at White Spot (one of our favourites), spending a morning at IKEA and finding a guitar and scrapbooking shop that we enjoyed, so all was well and then off to the mountains we went!

Canmore was were we spent our 5th Anniversary last year and so it is very special to us! As that was the first time we ever did a getaway like this:) Time prevents me from telling you about all the beautiful things we saw and did, but it was all charming, and not only did I get to look around in this cute scrapbook shop there with the view above, but I got to create a bit there. This is my first acrylic mini album - I got their scrapping room all to myself - just me, the mountains and the fireplace:) The book's not done yet, but I thought I'd post my progress since it had been so long since I posted something:)

Eifel for him:)

Happy anniversary to the most wonderful man I know~!

Arte y Pico

Kiara at the Stamping Cafe was so sweet and shared an award with me! She has an awesome blog and if you head over there right now you'll see this gorgeous acrylic mini album that I love!

The "rules" for the Arte y Pico award are:
1. If you are an award winner, show the award, the name of the person who gave it to you, and link back to his or her blog.
2. Pick 5 blogs you think deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and for contributing to the blogging community.
3. List the author's name and link to his or her blog.
4. Leave a message on the blogs of those you've selected.
5. Link back to the original Arte y Pico blog http://arteypico.blogspot.com/, so all will know the origin of the award.

Here are 5 blogs that I would like to share this with:

1. Michele at the Stamp Link. She often has new ideas that inspire me to create! I love the scrapbook pages she has up on her blog right now!
2. Dannie at Dannie's Designs. I love her tutorials! She's always sharing new ideas!
3. Kristina at Kwernerdesign Blog. Everyone knows Kristina - she gives us the colour inspirations, make a card Monday, Finally Friday. Her creations are so much fun and she inspires me to create!
4. Kadee at Kadee Morrison's Design. I love Kadee's style and recently she was published for the first time even!
5. The new Cinema Saturday blog because I *love* doing their challenges!

Thanks again Kiara for the award!

Cinema Saturday #4

'Grease is the word...is the word...
...it's got groove it's got meaning...'

So this week's Cinema Saturday challenge is inspired by the movie Grease, and my card is a card I've made for a friend who just got back from a month long vacation. Of course I took inspiration from the red convertible from the movie, from blonde haired sizzled up Sandy and then I tried to play that against some varsity feeling elements - the pennant, the argyle. I picked the red and white in the card because those were Ridel's colours.

'Grease is the word...'

'We take the pressure and we throw away
Conventionality belongs to yesterday
There is a chance that we can make it so far
We start believing now that we can be who we are '

Peace&Joy&Love&Cheer

I took inspiration for this from this from Linz:)

I've had a hard time though finding frames the sizes I need for the ideas I have - so this one was a bit larger than I originally wanted, but I worked with what I found and like the result:)

Big Shot Fun!

Here's another one of those boxes that I made out of 4 envelopes with my new Big Shot! It's fun to experient. I still don't have my top note die - backordered, I guess, but I have lots of ideas for it too when it gets here:)

Happy Hallowe'en

Well, my creating this morning has consisted of treatbags for the neighbour kids. I fill each one individually with the child in mind. We have two under 1 who'll be coming out so I have animal crackers and puddings in theirs (those are the happy face bags). Then there are the girlies between 2 - 4 - they have candy necklaces & bracelets and chocolate and treats. And then there are the older kids they have chocolate bars, gum, sours, etc. I think we went a little overboard when buying treats this year I have 4 bowls from which to fill all the treater's bags:)

I wonder how many prince and princesses will come to my door tonight?!

Colour Inspiration # 28

Guess what I got today? ...that's right my Big Shot finally arrived from being on backorder. At the beginning of the month my hubby insisted that I take a bit of the bonus I'd gotten at work and order one - isn't he a good husband?!!! And so you know I HAD to use it in this week's colour inspiration...

Since tomorrow is halloween I made this little basket with some Basic Grey paper for this week's inspiration and I filled it with treats for a little girlie around here:) The basket is made out of 4 envelopes which I cutout with my Big Shot! The tutorial is right here:)

Cinema Saturday #3

Halloween is not really my thing. Don't get me wrong - I love seeing little itty-bitties dressed up like princesses and cowboys and filling their pumpkins with treats. It's just all the other darker stuff associated with the event that I could do without. So I surprised myself when I made a halloween card tonight. It's just a little gift card that I'll attach to my daughter's goodies this year. I've bought her favourite goodies and I've stored up extra treats for the neighbour kids too! One of my favourite things on halloween is that the neighbours bring even their teeny-tinies out with them, so over the last couple of years I've gotten into the habit of making some treat bags for those under 2...and I've picked up all my supplies again this year, so I just have to assemble.

This card was inspired by the colous in this week's Cinema Saturday. I haven't seen this week's movie, but thought it would still be fun to use the colours in some way - particularly since someone sent me some witchybella images.

Colour Inspiration #27 (#9 if you're me:)

Kristina said to use any red or pink as your inspiration this week, so I thought I'd take it as a challenge to use red and pink together in a Christmas card. I just got my winter post stamps, so I had to play with the skater/lovers and I clear embossed snowflakes in the background:) ...a little glitter here and there and voila!

Recipe:
Cardstock - SU ridinghood red, pink piroette & whisper white
Stamps - SU winter post
Ribbon - SU ridinghood red taffeta
Embossing powder and glitter - SU

I Love Your Blog

Look what I got from Deb today?!! And here I was feeling bad that I haven't been able to post much this week or visit too many of your blogs very much either. Thanks Deb!

I want to pass this on to a few other people too, so I'm giving this award to:
1. Sankari
2. Linz
3. Brooke
4. Julie

So if you want to be inspired, why don't you go and visit their sites! And while you're at it, be sure to check out Deb's too!

A couple of quick cards from the weekend...

We made these at my neighbour's this weekend. Quick & cheerful!!

Thanks to Candace & Nicole for a fun afternoon!

Cinema Saturday #2

This week's Cinema Saturday inspiration was Breakfast at Tiffany's! First of all, I need to say that I need to watch this movie again (and my hubby has agreed we should!:) I first saw this film when I was very young (well, not a child, but young), and so, many things were lost on me - like the 'mean red's'...but now I understand Holly Golightly so much better! As I didn't have time to re-watch it this weekend, I did watch a few snipets on youtube (someone has the full opening scene on there complete with Holly having breakfast at the window of Tiffany's, her meeting of Paul and explanation of the 'mean reds' - she totally explains the feeling of belonging by it's absense too! -- someone also has my favourite scene where she's in her window with a guitar playing 'Moon River' and Paul overhears:) ...(sigh....)

So for my card this week, I took inspiration from all the hats you wore in the movie (I kind of think when she went out she was often disguising who she really was because she didn't know how she fit and didn't feel she belonged...). And there's this great big black hat with a long pink ribbon that she wore in one scene that I tried to emmulate (as best as my supplies would allow) on my card.

Also, in keeping with her love of Tiffany's, the base of my card is Tiffany's signature colour. I also clear embossed the swirls on the black piece and I clear embossed over the hat piece and it's mounting piece - because it needed to be glossy, like a Tiffany's window. The pearls are a wink to the opening scene when Holly has that gorgeous pearl necklace on with THE dress. Of course THE dress was the inspiration for the black backdrop in my card.

I'm not totally happy with it, but I sure enjoyed making this week's project while singing 'Moon River':) Thanks Sankari & Brooke for another great inspiration!!

And the 'Audrey' goes to...

Nellie & me:) (I cannot believe that they included me?! All of the creations were so beautiful in every way!!)

Cinema Saturday is a new challenge that started last week. This week's theme is Breakfast at Tiffany's so you know I'll be back to play this weekend! Last week's theme was Pride & Prejudice...and the girls from Cinema Saturday gave Nellie & I the 'Audrey Award' for playing along:) You really need to go and check out Nellie's creation, it so so pretty! And then you need to play along with this week's theme:))))

Notes for a Neighbour

I'm heading to my neighbour's this afternoon... She's having a Stampin' Workshop - her first! Since club was on Wednesday, another workshop isn't really in my budget right now, but she's my neighbour, so of course I'm going and I'll place a small order - I always need paper or ribbon, right?

Anyway, she's just getting into this all, so I thought I'd bring her a little somethin' I made to thank her for inviting me - and this is it..

You can find the link to instructions here where I posted the last one of these I made:)

Colour Inspiration # 26 (#8 if you're me!)

I started this project for my
daughter...shhhh it'll be part of
her stocking stuffers although
I doubt it will fit in her stocking.

It's an altered tin using this week's Colour Inspiration colours...
The idea is that this will be
a blessing box where she can
store memories of blessings,
papers with hopes that's she's praying for, etc.

I'm not sure if I'm quite done with the
tin yet, but I am out of time
for this colour inspiration, so I'm
taking a break from this project,
but will likely come back to it:)

I'm hoping to make a little mini album
inside too to remind her about
some of the blessings that are hers:)

I (heart) Club!

So last night was our monthly club night. I'm really enjoying this year's club... Firstly because the women are awesome - so many new fun people to get to know! And secondly, because we're doing techniques every time, and last night we started our technique cards - so each time we'll do a technique card and then a couple of projects with that technique.

Last night's techniques were: rock'n'roll, kissing and twisted kissing! Here's the two projects we made and then the technique card (on the back are the directions and all 3 techniques were used on it). I'm quite smitten with the orange and red flower card:)

And now for 'dear Georgiana'...

...my daughter thought she needed a gratitude journal as well, so I made this one yesterday, still taking inspiration from P&P, but this time Mr. Darcy's young sister - 'dear Georgiana.'

Mr. Darcy's Journal

...or rather, my hubby's! Les needed a gratitude journal too - so carrying on in the theme...Mr. Darcy's journal was born:)

Cinema Saturday #1

It's actually Sunday not Saturday, but I really wanted to participate in this new challenge... Cinema Saturday is new this week and takes it's inspiration from a film. This week it's Pride & Prejudice, so you know I HAD to participate!

This weekend is also Thanksgiving in Canada, and so because of family get togethers and such I haven't had much time to create, but I did steal away a bit of time this afternoon to make my project. In keeping with Thanksgiving, I chose to make a Gratitude Journal instead of a card this week. I plan to try to write five things I'm grateful for down each day between now and Christmas (...and maybe beyond then too:)

I had the soundtrack from the BBC version of P&P playing while I was making my journal. I was thinking of Elizabeth's address to Mr. Darcy toward the end of the story where she tells him of her gratitude for what he did for her and her family. This is just before he proposes again... and just before he turns to her and says 'dearest & loveliest Elizabeth' (the first time he uses her first name might I add!) So this is where I took inspiration. I also thought about the balls and socials, the rich colours in some of the decor in some of the more stately homes, and the beautiful dresses when I was selecting my colours. I know it was the richer women who were dressed in darker colours in this society as opposed to dear Lizzie, but I felt the rich colours captured my gratitude best for this project and there are a few scene's where Elizabeth is dressed in some reddish and brown hues (see example below).

Happy Thanksgiving all!!

Take the Quiz here!

Colour Inspiration #25 (#8 if you're me:)

This week's inspiration colours from Kristina were perfect for a nursery, so I made a baby card, and I dug out my All in the Family stamps and stamp-a-mi-jig:) I also combined this colour inspiration with this week's tutorial on Splitcoast... It's on using the scallop edge punch to make the scallop frame - too fun!


Recipe:
Cardstock: SU so saffron, certainly celery & blue
Patterned Paper: SU DSP in certainly cellery
Stamp: All-in-the-family
Ribbon: Michael's bargain bin in as close to ruby red as possible:)

How 'Bout a Challenge

Kadee had a challenge on her blog this week to "Make a card using Pink, Green, Ribbon & Buttons." So I made a card using pink and green and ribbon and buttons...







This is what I used:
Cardstock - SU pink piroette & SU Always Artichoke
Designer Paper from Basic Grey
Flower/heart stamp from the set Merci; coloured using pretty in pink and always artichoke
Celebrate It sparkle ribbon in Regal Rose
Button from Making Memories laced with linen thread
Ink - Black stazon and SU always artichoke

Ornamental Christmas

So I never did get back to make another card yesterday, but this morning after my hubby left for work and before my daughter got up, I stole away a few moments to play again! And this was the product. I can't take credit for the idea though... I was inspired by Jenn & Aly for the layout and the colour inspiration came from the new SU DP in the Holiday Mini (which I don't have YET, but soon, soon...) My snowflake stamp isn't as ornate as I would like but there's a new snowflake in a set I'm ordering so if I decide to make more of these, I think I can make them even prettier:)

It's World Cardmaking Day!

Yes, there is a holiday for the paper-crafting heart! I'm not able to make it to my friend Nicole's card-making party this afternoon, but I still had to get in the fun somehow, so this morning I've been playing...

This card was actually inspired by this one that I saw on the World Card making Day site. It looks completely different than mine, I know~! I made the tree on this card using two swirl diecuts I cut a while back at my LSS. The patterned paper is from K&Company. The cardstock is SU Regal Rose. I stamped the hearts using the heart from the SU Merci set and then I clear embossed them and cut them out. Who says you can't use pink and hearts on a Christmas card?!!

Hopefully I'll have a chance to make something else yet this morning, but I thought I would provide you with a couple of links for the day:
- Papercraft Magazine has a World Cardmaking Day site!
- Homespun with Heart has instructions on this cute trifold card!
- Thinking Inking has some other great links to sites celebrating World Cardmaking Day - along with some giveaways!