Saturday at Ardyth's

Saturday was a wonderful crafty day at Ardyth's!
Lots of photos today...

Emily Leiphart, Natasha Kara and I met up at Ardyth's home in Toronto.

A typical winter day in Southern Ontario where you really don't know what the weather is going to do. After digging out of my driveway I left my house in a snowstorm, 10 minutes down the road it turned to rain which was much better to drive in.

Met up with the girls and had a fabulous day talking and laughing and believe it or not actually crafting (a bit). I learned some new tips and techniques. I always have a great time with these ladies. ♥

Natasha is just back from a family vacation in South Africa and she had one of these little pillow boxes for each of us with a souvenir from her trip, each one with a different keychain.

Isn't he the cutest. Natasha made the butterflies on the box (apparently 150 of them!) The photo doesn't quite pick up the gorgeous glitter on it, but the butterfly now has a home on my window frame in my craft room.

Ardyth started off by showing us a technique of how to achieve a beautiful Distress Ink ombre without transition lines and a tip on how to ink up the foam applicators well. Here is my finished card and you will no doubt know it is totally her design. The outline of the heart on the card front is rimmed with Stickles.

Emily brought her dies with her and showed us how she has them organized in 3 ring binders with clear pocket organizers, compact and easy to see what dies you  have. She also showed us how she tapes her videos and gave me some assistance on how to use my iPhone along with my JOBY tripod. She also had some tips on what the movie software can do. No we didn't make a video of us. Emily gave us each a card kit she prepared with some Paper Smooches goodies and of course we ran out of day. So it's for playing with in the comfort of our own homes.  Here is her kit, the frame inside is Simon Says wood veneer paper, cannot wait to try that out.

Emily had to get going so Natasha, Ardyth and I worked on her kit. She taught us how to create dimension using a Copic blender marker, pencil crayon and a three stage stamp. Natasha is so talented and her sample card looks just like a photograph of a real rose. I understood the process but need a LOT more practice.  Here is my completed card, the gold foil paper is gorgeous.

We didn't get to my kit either, but here is what was in it...

Now for the part I know you are waiting for, why Ardyth could not get rid of me.

By the time we packed up to leave it was snowing pretty good, so we headed out and I put my stuff in the car, including my cell phone and purse, and I started the car. Ardyth was already helping brush the snow off and I shut the door and went to get the brush from the back seat--the doors are locked! I must have accidentally leaned on the lock button on the door when I got out.  Since I didn't start the car with my auto-remote the car allowed me to lock it, had I used the auto-remote it would not have let me. Lessons learned! Ardyth had to go pick up her daughter so she left me her cell phone so I could call roadside assistance for help when they asked me for my number I didn't have one because it was Ardyth's cell and she was gone and mine was no good--it was in the car! 

Although they were really busy with the storm they were there within the hour. Ardyth and I sat is her front room watching my car sit there running! Ugh, so much for the cheap gas now right? It gets better, they arrived and went to the house across the street, I guess I gave CAA the wrong street address. Before I could get my boots on they left. Fortunately they came back around but were over at the corner of the street. You should have seen Ardyth take off on foot to flag him down, she is my hero!  He had it open in a couple of minutes and my car was so toasty warm. By then it was really snowing and the trip home took double time, you could not see the lines on the snow covered highway which makes for a scary winter drive.

Arydth and I always seem to have an adventure.  If you remember two years ago we went to visit Virginia Lu, a trip that should have taken an hour, the highway was closed because of an accident. We headed off the highway without GPS knowing only that we needed to go north-west--kind off. Three hours later we got there!

Never a dull minute with that lady, love her to pieces!

Hope you have a wonderful week, thanks for sticking through this long post.

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