Monkey54 Any Animal+ Sketch Challenge

Okay so I love this "My Digital Studio" scrapbooking stuff.  I decided to play along with this weeks challenge over at Ala Card Monkey  which was to design a scrapbook page or card using the Monkey Sketch 54 and an animal of my choosing.  Well that was a no brainer, I quickly pulled together a scrapbook page of my little mutt Murphy.  Our pride and joy, and here is my sketch.

Hope you enjoyed this.  It was fun to do and so fast.  

ScrapSketch30 Challenge Using My Digital Studio

In case you haven't heard, May is National Scrapbooking Month, and this upcoming Saturday, May 7th is National Scrapbooking Day. Whoo Hoo!!  So in honour of this special month, I thought I would take advantage of what some of the very talented Stampin' Up Demonstrators who are experienced scrapbookers are doing with My Digital Studio. One of those great scrapbooking gals is Alesha Walls a certified instructor for "My Digital Studio". This month Alesha is issuing a challenge on her blog to get out there and scrapbook.  She'll be adding a new scrapbooking sketch every day.  I decided tojump right in and try my hand at her ScrapSketch30 Challenge and show you how easy it is to create a scrapbook page. Here is Alesha's sketch.

And here is my rendition of it. What do you think?  It took me less than half an hour to complete this sketch, and thanks to Alesha's great instructions on how to add a picture to a punched image, I was able to insert my pictures into the two punched hearts.  

Laura and mom Kim at their recent recital.  She looks so sweet in her little white Tutu!

If you would like to learn more about My Digital Studio just visit my Stampin' Up! web page and check out this flyer. There is so much that you can do with this product, and I would be happy to share my experiences in using it with you.  Also don't miss Stampin' Ups! National Scrapbooking Promotion to take advantage of all the great savings on products and on becoming a demonstrator during this promotion.

Welcome New Baby Boy!!!

A very good friend of mine recently became a Grandma for the first time.  She has been so excited all through her daughter's pregnancy, and now he's finally arrived. I'm over the moon excited for her and her family.   The picture she sent of her "grand son" made my heart melt.  He is just so adorable. 

So I got busy trying to design a perfect card to commemorate this happiest of occasions!  I chose a retired Stampin' Up set called "A New Little Someone", mainly because of the sentiment stamp and this adorable Bunny image.  The cardstock base, Designer Series Paper and Classic Ink are also retired, but one of my favourite colors - Soft Sky. I stamped the Bunny image in Soft Sky on Whisper White card stock.  Isn't it cute?  This layer was mounted on Soft Sky cardstock, then on Whisper White card stock.  The following layers are Soft Sky DSP and then a Whisper White layer that was texturized using the Square Lattice Embossing Folder, then another layer of DSP and finally the card base.  The bow is made from 3/8" Whisper White Taffeta ribbon.  I've adhered a row of Basic Rhinestones above and below the Bunny's picture to give it some sparkle. 

Here's a view of the inside of the card - the verse says "Bottles and booties and bibs and more, a new little someone to hug and adore". 

I love the way this card turned out and will be making one for a girl in Pink Pirouette, and another boy one, but I'll be using Baja Breeze.

Colourful Impressions Swap Cards

As promised here are some views of the cards I received from the Colourful Impressions Swap on April 18th.  They are all so beautiful.  I haven't included the names of the creators as in some cases they didn't put them on the back of their cards...... such a shame.  I will say though that these are some of the nicest swaps I've received in a long time.  Thanks ladies.

Sunny Fun Stamp set page 16 of the Summer Mini.  Coloured with Markers

Gift Bag made from Paisley DSP from Summer Blossoms Campaign.

Isn't this scooter sweet?  It's from the "On the Grow" stamp set in the Summer Mini.

Bold Blossoms StampSet from Summer Mini

Love this little tag and cover made with the Owl punch.

Label is from Four Frames in the Spring Blossom campaign.

This card features the fabulous "The Open Sea" set from the Summer Mini. 

This adorable card features another fun image from the "Summer Fun" set.

This gate fold card featured a beautiful sponged Fun Flowers Die from the Occasions Mini Catalogue.

This card features one of the awesome Fabric Designer Brads from page 36 of the Occasions Mini.

And finally here are some pictures of the two make and takes we made at the meeting:

This card features the faux fabric technique.  The flower images are made from the new and exciting Triple Layer punches from the Summer Mini catalogue.  The three coordinated punch images are easy to make and fun once you get the hang of how the punch works! 

This card features the new textured impressions embossing folder called "Flower Garden".  Do you recognize the stamped flower image?  It's actually from the Fifth Avenue Floral Set and it's mounted on the new Postage Stamp Punched image.  Great card to make!

Colourful Impressions Swaps - April 2011

I am very fortunate to be involved in a large stamping group in my area called Colourful Impressions.  This group led by the wonderful Kristina Koch meets on a bi-monthly basis and features guest speakers, make and takes, demonstrations and an opportunity to get together with other demos and share.  One of the really fun parts of participating is there is always an organized swap.  This time around we had to make 15 cards, so here's a look at mine.

Just a few days before the meeting I received my new Paisley Petals designer series paper (DSP) from the Spring Blossoms promotion and I was dying to try it out.  Initially I came up with a design that incorporated four blocks of DSP and a stamp sentiment from the Friends Never Fade Stamp Set (IB&C 118750 w).  Here is a picture of my first card design:

DSP distressed with Cherry Cobbler ink around edges and layerd on
 Bravo Burgundy.  Pear Pizazz layered on Bravo Burgundy
and image stamped in Marina Mist

 

While I was happy with this card it just wasn't doing it for me so I went back to the drawing board and came up with my final card.  The changes I made, that I think made a dramatic difference were using the Framed Tulip textured impressions embossing folder (Occasions Mini Catalogue 121809) on my Bravo Burgundy base, and layering this with a piece of Whisper White cardstock texturized using the Square Lattice Embossing folder. I reduced the size of the DSP pieces and used 2 instead of 4 pieces.  I also  changed was the Pear Pizazz layer to River Rock as it went better with the DSP.  The final touch was adding the flag like layer from the Petal Cone Die (121810 Mini Occasions Catalogue) in River Rock to go below the sentiment.  Here's a closeup look at the finished card.   

Tomorrow I'll share the swap cards I received in return. They are simply awesome.   Thanks for coming to visit.  Let me know which one you like the best.............. I 'd love to hear from you.

Occasions Mini Catalogue and Spring Blossoms Promotion Ending........

Just a reminder there are only two more days remaining before the Occasions Mini Catalogue (January  4 to April 30, 2011) and the Spring Blossoms Promotion are finished.  So if you've been waiting to order, don't miss out.  You only have until  midnight on the 30th to order from this catalogue otherwise the products will no longer be available.  Click here to go to my on line shop. 

Easter Cards for Friends and Family

Hope everyone had a very Happy Easter and you were able to share it with friends and family this year.  My wonderful sister and her husband came to stay with us and we were fortunate to get the rest of the family together on Easter Sunday to feast on Turkey and Ham and all kinds of other goodies.  It was a full house with 16 coming for dinner. 

When I think back Easter for me has always been a happy time of year and an event I equate with the coming of Spring.  I love the colours of Spring - the daffodils with their cheery yellow flowers, the beautiful purple crocuses, crisp white snowdrops and fresh green grass. I also love all the soft pastel pinks and blues that showed up at this time of year.  I guess that's really a hold back to growing up in an era when it was so special to join in the Easter parade, be in an Easter egg hunt, and to get dressed up for Church on Easter Sunday.  As a little girl I could have cared less about Easter candy and chocolate bunnies.... that was for the boys.  In fact I later in life found out from my brothers that I tortured them by putting my fancy chocolate Easter egg on display in my room and not eating it, while theirs of course, were eaten in minutes. 

No Easter for me was all about getting dressed up.  I'd pray my mom would make or buy me a new Easter dress, along with some white socks, pretty little white gloves and maybe some new Mary Jane shoes. I remember on a couple of occasions we wore hats or hair bands with flowers on them.  I just loved getting my hair done up in ringlets and wearing my new finery to church on Easter Sunday.  Listening to the hymns and hearing the story of Jesus and his sacrifice for all man kind left me in awe.  It was a very special time and still is, although now-a-days I'm more about getting together with family, eating a big meal and sharing stories, than buying new Easter clothes. 

So those fond memories played a big part for me when I was trying to come up with  a design for my cards to make for my friends and family for Easter.  I kept coming back to to the importance of colour, and the little girl in me, wanting to do something soft and kind of sweet. So, it wasn't a stretch when I chose the Easter Blossoms stamp set and the Tulip Impressions Embossing folder from the Occasions Mini catalogue to make my cards.  Here's some closeups of the 15 cards I made.  Hope you like them.

Wild Wasabi and Whisper White

Perfect Plum and Whisper White

 

Bashful Blue and Whisper White

Pirouette Pink and Whisper White Layers

Daffodil Delight, Basic Black and Whisper White layers

All the insides of the cards looked like this.

A couple of matching eggs adorned the envelopes