Retrosketches #145

Happy Saturday!

Up bright and early this morning to head to Sudbury for the Architecture Open house and bring Ben home for Christmas! A 5 hour trip, but driving just over 2 hours to Port Carling where Bens' girlfriends parent live and we will make the rest of the trip together to see the what our kids have been doing first term.

I imagine most of you are up and at it this morning to with Christmas only 12 days away!

Are you ready for this week's new RetroSketches Sketch?

Arielle created the sketch using THIS card of mine, I decided to remake it for winter. A bit of embossing paste and some Stickles for this snowy scene. Hope that you find time is your busy holiday schedule this week to play along!





I am submitting this to the Week 1 Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge Anything Goes.

I am also submitting this to this week's Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Bling It On!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Today is the day we have been waiting for.

Amy Tsuruta is hosting an awesome Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!

She has sponsors from pretty much everyone and has worked so hard preparing this event!

I made a coffee gift for the hop today using some dies from from Reverse Confetti and Love You a Latte set from Lawn Fawn.  I created the same package as I did last summer HERE for lemonade but using coffee (thanks you Kim Heggins for the idea to use Starbucks Via Packs).  I see me doing quite a few more of these before Christmas this year.

Inside, the dimensions and how to create the pocket to hold the via packs is HERE.

I can`t wait to see what everyone else has done!.

Amy thank you so much for all of your hard work putting this fun fun event together!

Happy Hopping!

CCC #125

Happy Tuesday and time for this week's new CASology Cue Card!

Getting down the wire with Christmas, I think the next couple of weeks are going to fly!  I am heading up to Sudbury on Saturday to attend the Architecture Open House. I love having the opportunity to see what Ben has been up to at school the past 4 months. No ice huts this year but the class split into two and each group built a canoe, so I will be armed with my camera.  After a couple of very stressful weeks of projects and deadlines Ben is done his exams and will be coming home with me on Saturday.  

This week's cue word is...

I have been using a lot of silver and gold this year--embossing powder, glitter, Delicata ink, Stickles and sequins. For my card this week I embossed my images with silver embossing powder on Soft Stone cardstock, I love the effect.

Stop over to CASology today and see what the rest of the design team has come up with.

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Gillian Ross

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg

Judy Marino

Kimberly Wiener

May Park

Meghan McMillan

Melissa Chipperfield

Guest Designer: Ren

I am also submitting this to Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Christmas/Holidays

cardstock: Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink)
stamps: Bells & Boughs (Papertrey Ink)
dies: Stitched Rectangles (Lil' Inker)
other: embossing powder (Recollections)

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Reminder

There is still time to join us for the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge!  

You have until December 10th at 8:00 AM CST to be inspired and share your project!

Current challenge details and link-up are here.

The LEAD of this challenge will be invited to be a guest designer in an upcoming challenge!

  

I am also submitting this to Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Christmas/Holidays

RetroSketches #144 & Merry Monday #137

Happy Saturday are you ready for this week's new RetroSketches Sketch?
This week our sketch is based on a card from our own Jeni Allen.

Here is how I interpreted the sketch...

I am also submitting this to this week's Merry Monday Challenge to use a bird.

and to Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Christmas/Holidays

TYIC #12

Happy Friday and time for a new challenge at Tag You're It!

Christmas is fast approaching, not to panic, but it 3 weeks away!

This challenge is the last challenge of 2014, we will be back again on January 16th, 2015 for a new challenge. Hard to believe that we are actually going into 2015! Our family renewed our passports in December and with the new 10 year passport, they expire in 2024! Yikes!

I am the featured designer for this challenge with a tag that I created last year during my 25 Days of Christmas Tags. I hope that you find time to create a tag based on mine and join us!
See you then.

Here is my remake, I stayed pretty true to the original.

I am submitting this to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Christmas/Holidays and

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge Anything Goes

When my husband was in town last week he got out all the Christmas decorations, put the lights on the house and got the tree up so that my daughter could decorate it. We couldn't get the ornaments up as  high as when the boys are around but I think we did a pretty good job. The star? well the more I look at the photo...yup, it definitely is croocked!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Magazine Special Blog Hop

You should have arrived here on the hop from the lovely Beverley Brown's blog.

News that Paper Crafts magazine was closing down came as such a huge shock!
Whether it is a print issue, a special issue or a digital issue my morning coffee always includes one of them! I still have all the print issues of Paper Crafts magazine.  For me I fell in love the day I found the very first issue on the shelf, a whole magazine dedicated to something that I loved to do. I still pull those old issues out year after year usually right before the new issue comes out each month. Looking at the cards again and rereading the articles like I had never seen them before. They always bring new inspiration and a few chuckles at how paper crafting has changed or how there is always a new technique that replaces an old one more efficiently.

I never had any confidence in my own creativity, but I studied. I studied the cards and studied the cardmakers and always walked away ready to try something new or something different.  So really for me this magazine was like my tutor, you taught me to keep creating, you taught me that what I was doing was good and you taught me to try new things.  I will be thankful for that always.

One of the  biggest surprises ever was when Cath Evaldson asked me to be a Moxie Fabber of the Week for October 2013! That was  such a huge boost to my confidence.  More recently I was recognized on the Paper Crafts Connection blog as one of the October Gallery Challenge winners.

I never submitted for publications because I couldn't possibly have what it takes to get published. What did change over time is that I had formed friendships with some of the 'celebrity cardmakers' that I found on the pages of Paper Crafts & Scarpbooking. Friends who encouraged me to submit and I finally did for my favourite issue of the year Holiday Cards & More. You could have picked me up on the floor when I got an email From Susan Opel that I was going to be published in Holiday Cards & Move Vol. 9.  That was the moment I realized just how much those magazines and special issues really meant to me and how I felt about myself and my abilities.

  

Thank you for that and so much more Paper Crafts &Scrapbooking!
You have given me the opportunity to not hide in the shadows.
You have brought so much joy to us all and you will be so missed.
This card is for you, and the sentiment is customized to how I truly feel.




Next on the stop is the talented Laurie Willison.

If you want to start the hop from the beginning head back to Jennifer McGuire's blog HERE.

Enjoy rest of the hop!