Received a Gift

Today in the mail I received such a wonderful card from Suzy at PaperMonkey.

Isn`t this the most gorgeous card ever! I won her blog candy and she sent this wonderful card along with the stamp for the girl....Whiff of Joy Christmas stamp. I usually use stamps as soon as I get them but I would have to be crazy to post my example next to Suzy`s. This is just so beautiful. In real life it all sparkle...

from the beautiful glittered BG to the angel`s dress. I love the way she attached her ribbon so I plan on doing this trick really soon (like in the card following). Simply beautiful. Suzy has so much talent. Please go check out her blog if you are not already a follower. I sure am and I love it. She is found here:http://blog.papermonkey.org/

So....this is mine. I know there is no comparison but hey I try. I used another one of my new stamps from Magnolia. I just love this stamp line. Whiff of Joy and Magnolia each have so much detail and yet you can still be so creative. She just reminds me of myself when I was younger (though I do love opening presents still). I could hardly wait for the time to see what was inside all those presents. Now I love the build up to the day and always wish Christmas Eve would last just a bit longer. The anticipation is so wonderful. I love the expression children have and this stamp does a wonderful recreation of the look.I put her on top of one of the images Claudia sent me...the present. She is already to open this one as soon as the clock hits the correct time. All papers are from the Glittered Christmas from DCWV and I love them.

Well its time to decorate again. Only 6 days until our Saturday/Sunday Christmas Tours and we still have decorating to do. I will post some photos when we are finished and all the boxes are put away. It is lots of work but most of it is fun. Not much time to blog so until I get a few moments....Happy Holiday preparations.

Heather

Found some new candy to go for. Check out this great blog:

http://www.joyofstampin.blogspot.com/

Here is a Whiff of Joy blog candy found here:

http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com/2008/11/whiff-of-joy-blog-candy-from-katharina.html

Go enjoy and lots of luck.

Heather

Skaters from Magnolia and Blog Candy Sites

Still using the new stamps I received yesterday from Magnolia in the Winter and Christmas Bundle. I am so glad I ordered it. This first one is another favorite. Those two skaters are just so cute. In this first one I made ice using Diamond dust. The paper used is Shimmer Green. I love the sheen and the color.I used my Prismacolored Pencils and used the stamp I got yesterday in Michelle`s gift as the sentiment. The heart was cut using the heart nestibilities. I trimmed it with ribbon and pearls both from Michaels.

This second card uses the same image but this time I used Glitter paper to make the ice and trimmed it using the fancy corner punch from SU and glitter flowers from Michelle. That was such a lovely package she sent to me.While I as blogging I found these great sites. go check them out. Talk later.

* Here is a great site for new stamps and blog candy:

http://kadoodlestamps.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/stamp-of-the-week-blog-candy-weatherboard-cottage/#comment-695

*Another great blog to go to for more candy.

http://theluckyclucker.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-candyfinally.html

*Lori has stamps and copics to give away here:

http://loricraig.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/11/26/cupcake-carols-copic-giveaway/#comment-10112

Heather

Blog Candy Win & Childhood Memory

I had the best day today! When I got the mail I had 2 surprises both of which I love. The first was this box load of beauties.
I won this beautiful group of goodies from Michelle Pearson of Inspiration Blooms. She is such a giving person. I love how she made the great little notepad with pen. What a wonderful gift. She is a great lady and one of my new Blogging Friends. Go check out her great blog.

My second post brought me so much pleasure. It was my Winter/Christmas stamp club stamps from Magnolia. Oh, they are so gorgeous. I almost cried when I saw the stamp I used below. When I was 5 my Mom sewed me a beautiful coat made from Purple wool and had fur trim. I absolutely felt like a princess. I have always loved purple and this was the first time I didn`t have to wear hand-me-down clothes. When asked what my favorite childhood memory is , I always think of that special day when I got my coat. I wore it until it no longer fit and then I hung it in my bedroom for years. This stamp is exactly like my coat.

When it came to coloring this image I knew the coat color and my hair color. Before by silver/grey hair I had blue black hair. It was my pride and joy. All the rest of my family had red hair so I always felt special. I colored the image hair to match mine. The only difference is I never had long hair. It would get to my chin and I would have to have it cut. I still don`t let my hair grow long.

I made two copies of this card and only changed the way I colored the hair and the coat.I used Glitter white paper to frame my coat image and cut a heart with the nestibility out of glittered paper from the Glittered Christmas slab from DCWV. I found the word star and joy and cut them out. The Merry Christmas stamp is embossed in white. This is one of the stamps from the blog candy show at the start of this entry.

Well I feel all fuzzy and warm from the Purple Coat memories so I must go call my Mom. She will love this stamp as well. Talk later.

Heather

Magnolia Greets The Holidays & Candy

Another Christmas card. My needed number is finally going down. What will I ever do when they are all done? We had wonderful weather today. I love when the sun shines and makes the snow glitter. They are predicting rain tomorrow but I`m hoping they are wrong. Once the snow comes and the roads clear, then let the snow alone! It`s pretty, the kids have fun playing and sliding and the dogs think its great.

I used the Magnolia with flowers in her hair. Normally she is a Spring stamp but today she is wearing Poinsettia like flowers. I don`t usually use red and green but decided I would today...I wanted to make sure she looked like winter. The next time I do her I think I will try deeper shades for the winter or maybe blues. Guess I`ll have to get back to coloring eh.

I used two sizes of nesties to make the image and layers. The smallest rectangle and scallop are the same size and then I went one size larger for the green layer. I also CB with Dotted Swiss on a layer and finally added two layered ribbons both fr Michaels Spool o ribbon. The word window was used to add the sentiments and I used the spica pens to add some glitter.

A very simple card. I used Cottonwood paper from The Paper Company and it was very hard to color using the Prismacolored Pencils and OMS. It seemed to absorb too much of the color. It is OK but not great coloring.. I`ll know better next time.

Blog Candy Alert: Check out this blog for some great candy.
http://franmade.blogspot.com/2008/11/double-whiff-of-candy.html

Off to make Supper. Talk Later.
Heather

Cardinals

On a gorgeous sunny day like this I just had to paint some cardinals. I only wish we had them in our part of the world. I saw my first ones at my Sister`s when she lived in Michigan. They are stunning. Unfortunately here in the Maritimes we do not have them as visitors. So, woe is me. I must settle for stamps with cardinals.

I was blog surfing and I found this layout on Sharon Johnson`s No Time to Stamp. I loved it so here is my version. Again, another simple card to put together. I used Twinkling H2Os and gold embossing powder to add a little zing. The stamp is Impression Obsession for the cardinals and Inkadinkado for the sentiment. I backed the cardinals with glossy gold paper and used a gold and chiffon ribbon I purchased at Michaels.

Love the way this card turned out. It is a great one to make multiples of. Guess its time to get a move on some housework....ugh hate how that gets in the way of living. I would like to push a button and have it all done. That`s my dream and I`m sticking to it.

Talk later
Heather

Blog Candy Alert

Just found a great new blog and she has blog candy to really make you reach for the stars. Go check it out. Go on over to this site:http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-11-08T08%3A00%3A00Z&max-results=7. It really is worth the trip.

Heather

Just found another site so I am just adding this one. Please go over and visit this one as well:
http://stampingunderthesun.blogspot.com/2008/11/rak-from-lorna-pt-2-and-some-blog-candy.html

6 cards 1 layout

One of the hardest things for me to do is decide what layout to use. Today I managed to make 6 cards by simply using the same layout for the cards. All the images are Magnolia Tildas. I used 3 different images and used Prismacolored Pencils and OMS for them all. I also used the largest of the oval nestibilities both classic and scalloped. I only embossed the classic (white) one. The Merry Christmas tag is from SU called the Curly Tag and there is a punch that matches the stamp. I embossed this tag using Pearluster Emerald powder. The ribbon is the same on all the cards and is from Michaels. I used papers from the Paper Company and found it at Michaels. I used either the Swiss Dot embossing folder or the Swirl embossing folder and my cuttlebug.

So, finally the cards.

So, they are folks. Do you have a favorite? I think this is a very pleasant and fast to do layout and since they are all going out the same day, I do not have a problem that they all look similar.

Guess its time for bed now. Only about another 50 cards to go so no time for the wicked. Talk tomorrow.

Heather

Christmas Large Tags & Birdhouse Card.

Well we are stuck inside due to the first (of many I`m sure) major storm. I got my son up to head off to work and my DH to clean off the car. Much to my dismay, I only got as far as 10 feet when I accepted the inevitable....no Michael's coupon spending today. I was stuck. We got about 25cm and expect another 10. The wind is the problem...lots and lots of drifts.

Oh well, I only hope my DS`s boss understands...no like threatened is worth the pay check. So onto today`s post. I made these tags a few days ago and forgot to post them. They are large 5 inches by 3 inches. I made them to hang off large gift bags.

I used paper scraps from that wonderful slab from DCWV Glittered Christmas paper. I found the Happy Holidays in a bin at Michael's and the tag at the bottom is SU`s Curly tag embossed with detail gold.

The one above uses the oval tag for the to and from section and another Curly Tag stamp. I doodled around the oval stamp for some color.

And now for the card I originally was giving out at the Open House.

I made 35 of these cards and then decided that variety was a whole lot more fun. I used a full sheet of paper and got 4 cards out of each. The cards are 11 inches by 3 inches. I folded the length so that I had the underneath showing. I used the Inkadinkado stamp for the Merry Christmas and the birdhouses are from Impression Obsession.

I used Twinkling H2Os to color in only part of the image. I think that kind of adds impact. What do you think?

So far I have made about 60 cards for the Open House only about 60 to go! I have just been told by my DH that it is time to get to decorating....I know he waits until I sit at my desk to decide its Time...to do something else. He hates computers and really hates to see me content at one. Oh well, he is a great guy except for this...but hey, sometimes my hearing just is not that great! I have learned from the men in my life...selective hearing is a great thing.

Talk later.

Heather

Green for Trees

I made this card following the sketch on the Magnolia Vs Stampavie blog Challenge. It was great fun to do. I had this image of Tilda with an ornament just begging to be in a card so...I put this card together.

I used my Prismacolored pencils with OMS for coloring and I love how she turned out.

The paper is from the DCWV Christmas Glitter stack and it is great paper. I used Martha Stewart`s lace edge punch and a scrap of blue paper. The base paper is the same shade of blue but still no label for brand.

The green paper is a glitter paper also from DCWV. I added the prisma flowers for a bit of punch and the wonderful brads I got from a visiting friend from Victoria, BC. I love the blue snowflake.

Well its hockey night in the family. Both of our younger sons play Midget. One is the goalie and one the right wing. Its their last year of recreational hockey so each game is special. Hope they win.

Talk later.

Heather

Cute Card Thursday

This was one of the easiest cards ever. I found the most perfect paper...already glittered and ready to be cut. It even had snowflakes on it. I love sparkly paper and the colors are perfect..pink and red. I only wish the photo would do the paper justice. I had color an image to go on the card but decided the paper was too beautiful to cover. I added the image from curly tags from SU. I embossed it with Disco Black to keep the sparkle theme working. The ribbon is velvet ribbon I got at Michaels.

Well yesterday was a day and a half. I drove into the city, 30 minutes away to attend a Doctor`s appointment. I went in early to visit my Mom. When I went to the Doctor`s office and the nurse had such a guilty look on her face. She had been trying to reach me to tell me the doctor was sick. It was snowing and windy...the perfect day to be at home. Well anyhow, she felt bad and I decided to eat out to make me feel like the trip was not useless.

The day had been fairly OK until I got home. I had locked the Golden Retrievers in my son`s apartment to prevent any damage to the decorating. They are good dogs but they like to play. Normally I would put the Golden`s out but it was storming and I wanted them comfortable. Stupid me,,, the mischievous Golden managed to squeeze through the cat door, get upstairs, knock down the gate for the Yorkies and eat and tear a whole pile of decorations from a box. I came home to torn Christmas decorations scattered all over the Family Room. Between wanting to kill the dogs, and dealing with them kissing me to death, I wanted to just leave again...But it was Storming.

Well the dogs are still alive and the Christmas decorations are still partially up. Next time I want to leave them, they are outside no matter what the weather is.

I will post again later tonight but I have to go get the meal for the family together. Talk later.
Heather

Lots of Candy

Here they are...loads of places to visit.
* http://www.sketchandcolour.blogspot.com/

*http://papirrommet.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-candy_11.html

* http://ribenaruby.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-very-first-blog-candy-christmas-has.html

These are all great blogs and well worth your visit. Some candies finish soon so make your trip over to the new sites now.
Heather

Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge Flowers

Here is the card I made for the Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge this week.It was such a change to make a non-Christmas card. This weeks challenge was to use flowers or floral paper so I used both. I love this paper. It is a 12 x 12 piece from daisyds paper. Such beautiful colors and there is even a small parrot like bird in the design but it doesn`t show on this piece.

I used the Magnolia image Picking Flowers and colored it to match the paper. I used my favorite Primacolored pencils with OMS to color and cut it out with the middle oval nestibility and my cuttlebug. The scalloped layer is the flip side of the blue paper also from daisyd. Both of these papers are lovely.

As you can see I used Prisma Flowers and brads. I was very happy to find the correct colors in my stash. I don`t have many so it was great to find something that worked.

Well it is 2:08 am and I am pooped. DH comes home this afternoon so I will finally sleep in a bed tomorrow night. I sleep in a hospital bed for my back and there is just not enough room for myself and three dogs. When DH is home at least one sleeps with him but when he is away they just pace and fight. I find it easier to stay in the family room and sleep in the lazy boy. My back loves this but I just can`t sleep as well. Too many noises and the TV is there calling me to watch it way into the morning.

Off I go to the chair. Talk tomorrow.

Heather

Card for Tagen

Michelle of http://donkeysmiles.blogspot.com/ has a nephew who is recovering from serious surgery and I would love everyone to send a card to Tagen. He is marking where the cards are from and when he gets to go back to school, the cards and the map where they are all from will make it to show and tell.

This is the card I made for Tagen.

I used this dinosaur stamp from Stamp Zia since I think all boys think dinosaurs are great. I sure hope so. I find it hard to make a card for an unknown someone. I used some glitter paper on the bottom section. This paper is from the Christmas Glitter matstack from DCWV. The blocked paper is from The Paper Company and the blue is cardstock from Michaels.

I wanted to make a card that a boy would like and not have it too Christmasy. Hope he likes this one. Its on its way to him. If you would also like to send Tagen a card, go over the Michelle`s blog http://donkeysmiles.blogspot.com/. If you email her she will give you the address. It just seems a nice thing to do. He may be in a wheelchair now so any encouragement would help.

We are still in the midst of decorating for the open house. It will never be completely done until the day of the open house. My husband loves to decorate for Christmas and he will only stop when the day finally comes. I am awfully glad we have a large home. We joke about moving to a smaller home once the boys leave home but it always ends with....where would we store/display all our Christmas decorations? The boys always joke about what they will do with all our decorations after we pass on. They say there will be the largest garage sale in the history of garage sales. LOL Oh well, as long as they let us enjoy them now.

Well its that time again....DH is away so I must go pick up DS from work. Life sure will be different once he decides to get his driver`s licence. Talk later.

Heather

Annual Christmas Card Voting

the annual Christmas Card voting has started on Sue Daley`s blog. Go on over and see all the great cards. Lots of variety and great ideas. The address is
http://www.stampndaly.com/?p=986. Hope you take the time to vote.
Heather

Blog Candy from Kristine and Rina

Kristine has two wonderful prizes to celebrate her blog anniversary. Please go check it out. The trip is worth the time.

Rina is celebrating 1000+hits on her new blog and has the most wonderful and large blog candy up. I have never seen so much in one blog candy. Again, its worth the time to visit her at:

http://heartfulstamping.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-candylets-celebrate.html
Heather

I am Back with Christmas

Guess who has been busy this past few days? Pick me. I have been making invites to the Christmas Open House and making gifts. Fun. Fun. Fun. This is a long post, lots of photos so please enjoy. If you need info on how to make please email me for the info.

This is the invite that will be posted today on the Church Bulletin. It is on a full 8.5 x 11 sheet. Below is an example of the invitations I made for special people. I made 40 of these. The poinsettia is painted with H2Os and then cut out. It is the center of a Impression Obsession stamp.
Now the rest of these photos are not paper crafts but gifts I have made for friends who love Christmas like I do. I used items I got last year after Christmas when they were on the 50% off the already reduced price. None of these cost more than $3 to $5 and were fun to make. So, here we go. Directions available by email. The base of each of these are platters that fit under your dinner plate for dressing (I know they have a name but it flew out of my head).

#1

Angel inside of a glass globe ornament, gorgeous Christmas Martini glass and candle.

#2 Reindeer inside globe with snowflake martini glass and jewelled candle.#3 Made for my Mom who loves angels. I used a rectangle platter and attached 2 golden musical instruments and of course, an angel. Her favorite color is lime green so I added this color of beaded branches.
#4 Silver Beauty using a large wine goblet with a beautiful jewelled ornament and loads of ribbon.
#5 Glass and gold angel inside a large wine goblet with golden tree and beaded votive candle holder.

Time to get ready for Church. I will try to pose again later tonight. I love getting ready for Christmas but until Dec. 6th all I think I will be doing is decorating. I promise lots of photos because our house is `Full of Christmas`.

Heather

Claudia has Great Blog Candy

I love finding these sites with blog candy and this site is wonderful. You will enjoy Claudia`s blog so much. She does wonderful work and has so much talent. Go check out her blog at:
http://rosaswelt.blogspot.com/ Go on, you`ll be happy you went.
Heather

Blog Candy

Go check out the cute little back packs on this blog for some great candy.
http://karinhoeve.blogspot.com/ It looks great. Go for it.


There is also some great blog candy from Whiff of Joy. Go check it out here:
http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com/2008/11/whiff-of-joy-blog-candy.html

Heather

Looking for Spring?

Well this is a change isn`t it! I decided that this stamp needed to be used today. It was warm and rainy and it reminded me of Spring not Fall soooo out came this stamp from Impression Obsession and SU.
The two Bird stamps are from SU Spring Song. I absolutely love hummingbirds. They are simply beautiful and amazing so when this stamp set came out I had to have it. Coloring hummingbirds is so much fun. They have such a variety of colors and they appear to be almost a fantasy bird. Love them.

The Birdhouses are from the Impression Obsession and I love it. Again, there are lots of details and I had fun coloring them today. I used Prismacolored Pencils and OMS. Love the way you can shade with the pencils.
I put the whole thing together and put in in one of those fantastic $store shadow frames. The birds are cut out using an oval nestibility and the SU scalloped circle punch. I used dimensionals to give some depth to the images.

Guess I will be back to Christmas work again. I just had to make something with that Spring Birdhouses and had such fun.

Talk later.
Heather

Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

I had such fun doing this one. I tried to color things differently hence a blue cat and pink fire. It was supposed to be my unique coloring for Sue Daly`s Annual Christmas card contest but in the end I put it inside a frame instead of leaving it as a card. This is the address for the contest: http://www.stampndaly.com/?p=940.

I colored my images using Twinkling H2Os. The stamp shown above is from the Stamp Store and I think its great. I do love lots of detail in a stamp and this one sure has details. I used two shades of pink, pink cloud and playful peony. H2O are great for creating different shades by simply using different amounts of water. The other colors used are: blue ice, Autumn butternut, mystic blue, sweet alfalfa and golden sand.
The other image is sleeping Tilda from Magnolia. She is such a cutie. It always makes me think of the time when my great big teens were willing to let Mom hug them as they went to bed. How times have changed.

I used my oval nestibility to create the BG for Tilda. I used a scrap of pink shimmer paper. As I said this was supposed to be my entry for unique coloring but I decided to frame this instead.

Off to do laundry. Talk later.

Heather