Sabrina's Anouncement

Don't you just hate moving? All that packing, organizing, what to keep, what to get rid of, cleaning, and more cleaning! I do love unpacking though! Making a new space your own finding new places and ways to display your belongings; that's fun! But I wont be able do that for a while.

During the summer I learned that my Dad has cancer. Since my parents live in Sidney, B.C. (Victoria) with no other family close by, and Mom's health not the best, I had thought, even before this newest bombshell news, of moving there to be close to them in their aging. When this new unwelcome original news came I thought more seriously of doing it, but my parents where of the mind that there is more employment available for me to find here in Calgary. Since I've been unemployed as of November 2009 only teaching the odd class at Scrapbookers, they said Calgary was the place for me  to be for now.

Here is a photo of my Mom and Dad this last summer, holding their newest and 7th great-grandchild.

But, at the end of November, Mom called to let me know that Dad's cancer had suddenly become more aggressive. So, I knew that I had to go to Sidney. So taking a big, and I mean BIG, leap of faith with no money saved up for a move of that distance, and no job, I'm am packing up my belongings and storing them in Dana's basement. I'll take three suitcases with most of my clothes and a few other necessities, and fly to Sidney on February 1st.

So, I'm leaving Calgary, my friends. There will be a few months of no designs to post as all my craft materials and tools will be stored. Once I find employment and a place of my own, I'll come back to Calgary and pick up my belongings. Then once I'm settled into my new home and set up my new craft room, I can start creating, designing, and crafting again and share them with you in postings once more.

I will make the odd written post before that day arrives, just to let you know what's going on and how I'm doing. Wish me luck in finding some good employment! Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments on my designs and I look forward to reconnecting with you all again in the near future. In the mean time...HAPPY CRAFTING!!!

"Thank You" Isn't Enough - A Secret Santa Story

I wish to share someting special with you and hope that you don't mind doing a little reading with this post.

Some of our readers are Calgarian crafters that have taken many of my classes at Scrapbookers Paradise for a year now, and know that I have been unemployed since November 2009. I have only earned a little here and there by teaching classes for the past year. The church I attend also knows of this life challenge that has been mine, and have taken good care of me. There are many wonderful people in our congregation, and this Christmas one of the families chose to be 'Secret Santa' to me. They had someone else drop off a large bag of gifts, a couple of days before Christmas, so I wouldn't know who they were.

After they were dropped off, I took each gift out, and found there where four of them, two large, one medium, and one small. I placed them under my beautiful white tree with silver and a variety of blue ornaments, because I wanted to wait to open them. I wanted to enjoy my Christmas. Two of the packages were wrapped in the gold foil paper and red gold embossed ribbon of Estee Lauder! The other two, the largest and smallest were wrapped in traditional Christmas paper. Each gift had great Christmas tags (no pics of them sorry).

Now, because I was raised with some of the wonderful German Christmas traditions, one of which is opening all the gifts Christmas Eve after a fantastic feast, I decided to open two gifts Christmas Eve and two on Christmas Day. This is the tradition that I started when raising my family. Everything from my side of the family was opened Christmas Eve, and everything from their dad's side was opened Christmas Day. This really made Christmas last longer in our household, and I loved it. Of course, so did the children.

Anyway, let's get back to my Secret Santa gifts. Christmas Eve I opened the smaller of the Estee Lauder wrapped boxes and found a gift set of 'Sensuous' scent and lotion. That was a "wow" for me! The other was the largest gift that held the surprise of a blue/purple top. It was one of those one piece tops that looked like two pieces. It's a beautiful color and I really like the top. But, that's not all that was in the box. There was a beautiful silver satin drawstring bag that held a gift card to the same store that the top was purchased from so that I could buy more clothing! Generous, right? Wait till you read about the other gifts!

Christmas morning, I opened the small personally wrapped gift first. As I lifted the lid to the box, you'll never guess what I found inside! When I saw it, I quickly put the lid back on the box, because I could scarcely believe what I saw! I then slowly opened the box again as my eyes began to water a little, though not quite to tears yet. Inside were three $100 bills with several gift cards. Included, a $100 Safeway card, $100 Shoppers Drug Mart card, and a gas gift card! Talk about generosity!! Behind that generosity is thoughtfulness, caring, and the true spirit of Christmas and giving.

The last of the gifts was the larger Estee Lauder wrapped box. In it was a large travel bathroom/makeup bag with a very large box with eye shadows of every color, a smaller box with 4 blushes, 5 lipsticks, makeup remover, 3 pencil eye-liners, a set of brushes, a flat travel mirror, and a smaller makeup bag.

So I ask you, who would spend somewhere around $700 to $800 on Christmas gifts for someone who isn't a member of their family? It humbled me to be the recipient of such heartfelt and thoughtful charity. A very special family did this for me! So I just had to make my Secret Santa a Thank You card. It doesn't seem to be enough to just give them a card when they gave me so very much, but I had to do something.

It turned out to be a little bit of a challenge to make this, as I'm moving at the end of January and have a lot of my craft things packed away already. Dana used to have all her crafting things at my place but has recently moved her craft things back to her home. I used her Cuttlebug nearly every time I make a card. So what to do this time? I really miss access to it. But this is what I came up with for this special generous family, and my Secret Santa.

I still have my kraft paper, my scraps that I still need to sort through before moving, my inks, my stamps, and my border punches. On the paper pierced/faux stitched piece I stamped the background with Versa Mark and clear heat embossed it. I ink distressed the edges with Versa Magic Purple Hydrangea, and used the same ink and clear embossing powder for the sentiment. The sentiment is a combination of Inkadinkado Thank You Words set and The Stamps of Life Thanks 2 You #7 set. I used Martha Stewart's Deco Fan border punch on the scrap of purple patterned paper.

So there you have a very special Christmas "Secret Santa" story and the reason behind this card.


I WISH ALL OUR BLOG FRIENDS A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Couple of Green Grass Stamps Cards

I found Green Grass Stamps through Maile's blog, Simply Stamped, here and here and fell in love!

My first, somewhat rustic, card uses Warm Winter Wishes.

I love stitched looks! The scalloped oval is popped up over the card and the mittens paper-pieced and popped up over the stamped oval. I meant to just chomp the top corners but oh well.

The second, CAS style, card is from the most adorable set ever: You Are My Sunshine.

The center of the sun and the sentiment strip are both popped off the card. I was going to embellish the bottom right corner with something (ribbon or button) but the kids interrupted me and I couldn't really get back to it. Maybe another twice-stamped partial cloud instead?

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

Warm Winter Wishes

• Cardstock: Rustic Cream Enchanted Evening, Simply Chartreuse
• Stamps: Warm Winter Wishes (Green Grass Stamps)
• Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko), Dark Chocolate, Scarlet Jewel
• Dies: Oval and Big Scalloped Oval (Spellbinders)
• Other Tools: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), paper piercer (Tim Holtz/Tonic)

Oh, Happy Day

• Cardstock: Aqua Mist, Stamper's Select
• Stamps: You Are My Sunshine (Green Grass Stamps)
• Ink: Fresh Snow, Lemon Tart, Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate
• Other Tools: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

Stamping Vacation DT: Lots of Paper Challenge

For this month's Lots of Paper challenge over at the Stamping Vacation blog, we need to go through our paper stashes and find some paper with words/text on it. I love this type of paper and don't use it enough!

Since I need to work on my Christmas thank you cards, I chose some Christmas-y text paper.

The snowman image is from Stamping Vacation's December sponsor: Cardmadfairy.

This was my first time attempting the Spellbinders cut-out technique and didn't quite do it correctly but no matter. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select, Pinefeather, Linen Vellum
• Patterned Paper: Polar Expressions - Frosted Forest (Imaginisce)
• Stamps: image (Cardmadfairy), sentiment from Signature Christmas
• Ink: Noir Palette
• Buttons: True Black
• Copics: B0000, T1, R27, R59, G28, BG99, 0, random orange
• Dies: Circles and Labels 17 (Spellbinders)
• Other Tools: sewing machine/thread, white gel pen (Signo)

My Team Favs: Dana

As my mother mentioned in a previous post, it's hard to sift through SO MANY projects and pick only a few favs! I've limited myself at the onset to 5 a piece, so here goes...

Stefanie:

As I said in this post, this card won my heart forever! It was one of Stef's first and she made it in seconds (it seemed) for me to send out announcing my youngest daughter's birth. I still love, love, love this card!










This card ended up being my Christmas card from Stef last year. Simple, yet completely adorable!

This card was Stef' daughter's bday card last year. I love it! The crackle-painted wings, the patterned paper heart, the embossed card base... Simple and completely rockin'!

I love this scrapbook page of Stef's son! The colors, the pattern, the texture, the stitching... Terrific elements!

Stef went wild making these flowers for awhile... I love them! I'm too lazy to do them myself but hers are terrific! This card is amazing!










Sabrina:

Some of my mom's favs are my own but to make it easier on myself, and to offer variety, I've posted other favs here. I've limited myself to 2010 only, since her projects are endless!

I LOVE this scrapbook page! I love the paper and all her little details! I look forward to hopefully seeing this under my Christmas tree! ;)

These cards are so stunning! My mom is famous for her skill with a glue gun and she's been making these wreaths for ages, it seems! I especially love the colors with these, though. The different greens on the dark blue are magnificent!

I love the paper on this card! Great embellishments and colors, too!

I love the colors and snazzy embellishments on these!

This was a terrific project my mom made for a sort of church handout. I love the papers and fonts she chose!











And that does it! Wonderful projects by wonderful women!

Another Christmas Thank You

Using up my Cardmadfairy (Stamping Vacation's December sponsor) Christmas images for Christmas thank you cards (as well as Christmas cards for next year).

Not the greatest picture: the white is stamped and gold heat embossed.

After Copic coloring the holly tree, the berries were done with Liquid Pearls; the bow finished off with Glossy Accents.

{Supplies}

• Cardstock: Pinefeather and Stamper's Select (Papertrey Ink)
• Stamps: image (Cardmadfairy), Vintage Labels No. 10 (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
• Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko)
• Ribbon: Pure Poppy satin (Papertrey Ink)
• Die: Labels 10 (Spellbinders)
• Impression Plate: Holly Jolly (Papertrey Ink)
• Copics: G24, G28, BG99, R29, E55, E57
• Other Tools: eyelets/Big Bite (We R Memory Keepers), Glossy Accents (Ranger), Ruby Red Liquid Pearls (Ranger?), gold embossing powder (Filigree)

My Team Favorites of 2010: Sabrina

Over the past year, Stefanie, Dana, and I (the ATC team) have gotten together at my place at times for some creativity & girl time. We had some real fun times. We would laugh out loud and then realize it was 1:00AM and since I live in an older condo with no sound proofing, we'd have to force ourselves to stop so that we wouldn't disturb my neighbors. We had such fun!

I want to post my favorites created by my fellow ATC team members over this past year.


Here are my 5 favorites of Stefanie's designs for 2010-

I love this CAS card! Especially the way Stef changed the angle of the stripes on the first green apple and combined stripes and circles. Click here to link the the posting.

I'm sure the teacher loved this card, too.

The colors, paper patterns, and layout of this page are wonderful. I like how Stef curved the word 'cooking', rounded the edges of the photos, and stamped the upper left corner of the first photo.

I love how Stef stamped the image on the card and then offset the pop-up layer over it. Beautiful Copic coloring, too.

Ever since I was a little girl, looking at the beautiful and cute illustrations of ladybugs in the wonderful storybooks I had from Germany, I've just loved ladybugs and am a sucker for them.

I like how Stef used the Spelbinders circles, too!

This 'Thank You' card is one that I'm drawn to. The unusual colors seem to work very well, and I love the layout, the stamped flourish over two pieces with the pop-up oval sentiment.

Keep crafting Stef! I can hardly wait to see what designs you'll post over this next year!







My 8 Favs of Dana's designs for 2010 (I couldn't narrow it down any less than 8) -

 This is the birthday card that Dana made for me this year. She worked hard on it figuring out how to cut and space the stamped and Copic colored image. She did a great job!

Whoops! I went to link this post for you and found out that Dana made this card last year! But, since my birthday was in February, I'm still going to let it count. View posting here.

This beautiful Sympathy card  is so elegant. I haven't had a chance yet, to use the Cuttlebug emboss die. I'll have to get some to try. I think they are a great tool!
View posting here.

This is a cheerful and bright card. I love how Dana cut out the clouds and the embossed texture backing shows through. Read more about Dana's card here.










I really, really, really, love the colors on this card! And at this time of year, with the cold and the snow, it makes me feel warm and think tropical when I see this card. Did I say really enough? I think Dana did a fantastic job on the flower and leaves. I love how she edged the leaves with a bright pink to match the button in the center of the flower. It's a cheerful card. To view the original posting click here.









This you could say is a 'sister card' to the above card. Same beautiful tropical colors, but much more white and even more of a CAS card . The loops of string to create a flower are not seen often, I can understand that because it's probably fiddly work to create it. I also like how Dana scored  a box around the sentiment. I'd say that this a light and airy card.

I think Dana should make more cards like this one and the one above and try some other color combos while she's at it.

Here is the original posting of this card.

This is a card that Dana made for her Dad. A great masculine card! I especailly love how she made one tree stand out of the rest of the forest, not only by popping it out, but by using a different paper to stamp the tree on. (I wish I had a better photo of this card to show). Check out the original posting here.





This wedding card is gorgeous.. The purple, silver and gray are a very elegant combination. Dana did an excellent job lining up the swirls of the silver embossing with the die cut. Another beautiful CAS card. Check out the details here.

Well that's it for my favorites from my ATC team members designs for 2010. Aren't they talented?!! I love working with them.

I look forward to another year of designing, creating, and maybe some more teaching for 2011. I can't believe it's 2011 already! Well here's to a great and fun year past, and to the possibilities for the new year! Happy creating everyone!

Getting Ready for Christmas Next Year

I never get a good start on Christmas cards. Why? Because I can't get into the Christmas "spirit" until it's the Christmas season. Since I'm trying to use up some Christmas images I have, I'm getting a start on next year's cards now!

Another image from Stamping Vacation's December sponsor, Cardmadfairy.

Whoa, boy, I messed up the oval placement on the scalloped oval but couldn't remove it without damaging the image... So I did what any cardmaker who was too lazy to redo the whole thing would do... I covered it up! The 2 bows don't actually look too bad in real life...

Not too happy about the coloring either. Difficult to color around the snowmen on the snowsuit...

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select, Plum Pudding, Simply Chartreuse
• Stamps: image (Cardmadfairy), sentiment from Take a Bough
• Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
• Ribbon: Plum Pudding grosgrain
• Copics: RV32, RV34, V06, B0000, T1, G24, G28, E55, E57, random yellow
• Dies: Petite Ovals, Petite Scalloped Ovals, Grand Ovals (all Spellbinders)
• Other Tools: Bow-Easy

Inspiration Moment: Laurie

Laurie Willison of Soapbox Creations is one of my favorite creators and I couldn't resist posting some of her most recent cards...

On this one, I love the colors, I love the text frame and the crested border... I love the dotted background and the one rounded corner... I love Laurie's signature silver rhinestones, too!

 This one features delicious colors and engaging texture!

[Edited to add one more card!]

This stunning beauty was added Dec 30th!!

Toddler Happy Bday

This isn't for anyone in particular but I wanted to do something other than Christmas.

This is another image from Cardmadfairy, Stamping Vacation's sponsor for December. Such a cute little guy! Of course it could be done as a girl as well...

This was my first time Copic-ing skin, so I checked out Color Me Copic because they have fabulous Copic coloring help. I've determined that I need to get an E000 but did fine with E00, R01 and R20 for the cheeks.

The mat was inked and pen-stitched with the die still in place.

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select, Blueberry Sky, Enchanted Evening
• Stamps: image (Cardmadfairy), sentiment from All About You
• Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko), Enchanted Evening, Fresh Snow
• Ribbon: Enchanted Evening saddlestitch
• Button: Blueberry Sky
• Dies: Squares and Big Scalloped Squares (Spellbinders)
• Copics: E00, R01, R20, B34, B91, B97, B0000, R29, Y15?, W1
• Other Tools: Rustic Jute Twine, white embossing powder (Filigree), white gel pen (Signo), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

My 2010 Favorites: Sabrina

Choosing my favorites turned out to be a challenge, only because there was so much to go through. With my memory getting older it doesn't work as well as it used to, so I had to go through my postings to refresh my memory on the projects made this year. A good thing too! Because, some of my favs I had forgotten about! I tried real hard to keep the list small, but when you've made 100s of projects its get difficult to keep the list of favorites short. So here they are.

Little Miracles - A class that I taught in April. This was such a fun project and is still close to my heart.

See original posting here

 

Birthday Wishes - My Dad's 77th Birthday card
This may look like a very simple card, but it wasn't. It was, I believe, the first time I used UTEE. First of all, creating a masculine card can be slightly more thought-provoking in it's creation. If you look in the background, you see that paper that I used to cut out the medallion. That was challenging. Then the layers of UTEE - well that took patience.
I was very proud of the outcome, and happy that my Dad loved it!
See original posting here.
I do have some other masculine favorites, but I will keep it to this one.

Julia's 8th Birthday - A special Birthday
Of course this would be a favorite since it was featured on OCC's Weekly Sketch blog! This was also my first circle card.

I also made a card box to place the card into it. This you can all see on the original posting, here.

Card Boxes
Since I just mentioned making a card box, now would be a good time to say that making them is another favorite of mine. My Mom loved the idea and at one point asked me to make her some for her friends.

To read up more on them, check out the original posting, here.

Monochromatic Caardvarks Challenge  

I really loved this card. I hung on to it for 4 months before I could part with it. As followers will recall I participated in a craft sale at the end of August, and I decided it was time to part with it and sell it. I had to make a card box for this card as well since it was non-mailable. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the accompanying box, but I did sell the card and box for a whopping $12.00! View details here.





 
Bright, Cheerful & Girly
Originally I had made six of these cards, three of which were for my older granddaughters. Each had a slight variation to them, like either the ribbon used, or the tags I attached, or the color of the jewels. But so many people that saw them loved them so much I made six more, all the same, for the August craft sale. Of the nine cards that were extras, I only have one left! Click here to view original posting.

Because of the Paper
Sometimes it's the paper that makes it your favorite! That is the case for many of my favorites; this is once of them. Just so that you know, however, I do like the layout of the challenge this one was entered for as well. This card I gave to Dana once here maternity leave was over and she was going back to work. Click here for posting details.

Another Paper Favorite - Dana's Birthday Card

This is also a favorite design for me! The gold embossed flourish/leaves and two layered paper cutout, are on the inside of the card. The note to Dana, inside, was done with a gold ink pen. I think that this card is very close to the top of my favorite list. I just want to say, "Thank You, Dana, for all your help, encouragement, and love". For further card details, click here.
It is interesting to note that these last two cards, using some of my favorite papers, are all s.e.i. papers! There are a few s.e.i paper cards that I just love, but I won't be posting them on this favorites post.

My Granddaughter
This one is a favorite because of the fond memory of making it together with my three year old granddaughter sitting on my lap and helping me put together this scrap card.
To read about this CAS creation with Averi, click here.

Vintage Gold Butterfly
This one is close to the top of my favorites list. A lot of ink blending and gold heat embossing on this card. Yet, despite all the gold flourishes it is a CAS card. To me is speaks simple vintage elegance. I made four of these cards, and I believe they are all sold. I should check to see if I still have one left.
To view other photos and read the details, click here.

Christmas - Gray-blue Snowflake
This is one of the cards that I taught how to make in a class. We started with just plain blue/gray cardstock. There is ink blending, ink spaying with a toothbrush,and stamping. To read details, click here.

Christmas - 2S4Y Challenge - Cream & Gold
This one was not only a challenge submission, but I also made myself a challenge to use the sketch but to add a unsuspecting surprise to it. That added goal made it quite a challenge to put together once I decided on a concept.
You may want to check out the posting to find out what the surprise is.





Scrapbook Page Favorites

Christmas Traditions - A Love of Good Music; Especially Christmas Music
This is a recently posted item that you can read about here and here.

Spanish Old World & Wealth Christmas
This page took me about 5 1/2 to 6 hours. I know, you think I'm crazy! But I loved working on the details of this page. And I don't call it a favorite just because my Mom called me up when she saw the posting to tell me she thought it was my best work yet. I'm not sure why , but I love the Spanish Old World flavor of this page.
To view the details check out this posting.

Encouragement - My Two Older Children Now In Their 30's
Hope that you're not embarrassed, Dana; just remember you have such pictures of your children too, and you'll love those pictures more when they've grown up just as you have.I did my journaling on this page as a border around it.
For more details check out the posting here.

Brother & Sister Moments - They Grow Up SO Fast!
Brothers and sisters do tend to bicker, complain, and fight a little, but the did have their happy and loving moments together too. (I actually haven't finished this double page layout, but it is still a favorite with all the rings. See details here.


Well, these are my favorites from this year's creations. Check in on the 29th to see my favorites of the other two ATC members, Dana and Stefanie..