Animal pile-up

I sadly missed my friend's celebration of her son turning 2 this past weekend due to work, but I still made a card and dropped it off the following day.

I gained inspiration for this card from several 'animal pile ups' that were on SCS. It's a the set "Wild about you" (I think!) and the leaves are from the set "Season of Friendship" and the balloons are from "In the Family". Of course after I gave it to her and her son I said "Whoa I should have totally use the scallop punch to make clouds!

I sort of cursed all the cutting out I had to do for the animals but I think in the end it made a great card and it really was not that bad with all the cutting.

I actually had fun piling them up and shading the animals as well as stamping out the leaves. The photo is pretty good in that you can tell that I used a lot of dimensionals!

Ingredients:
Stamps: Wild about you, Season of Friendship, All in the Family, Circle of Friendship. Paper: Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White. Ink: Going Gray, Basic Gray, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Buckaroo Blue, Bordering Blue, Certainly Celery (I think?), Old Olive. Accessories: Scallop Punch, 1.25", 1 3/8" circle Punch, my scissors! hah

Zoo Favourites

A couple of weeks ago, I rented a fancy smancy lens for my DSLR (Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS) and the following day we headed to the zoo. It was my first visit with a nice zoom (my biggest is 105) so I took full advantage and got some great close ups of the koala, gorilla, bear and many other animals. It was a great visit and N had an awesome time at the playground and seeing the animals! I also got to take a lot of photos as my MIL and Husband were there to watch N while I took my time taking photos.

This page gives you a 'sneak' peak of the some new DSP "Walk in the Garden" that will be available for purchase in the new spring mini! I loooveee this paper, it's so pretty. What makes it even nicer is that it's Baja blue, one of my favourite In Colours. For the title I used the Cricut Cartridge Zooballoo at the LSS. Of course after I had done the letters I realized I should have made them smaller, but I don't think it looks too bad. I also got to use my newly purchased Corduroy buttons. I love the cord. buttons!

The kangaroo statue is new! It's right by the playground. Since we went on a weekday that was not too warm there was no waiting to take N's photo in the pouch. I imagine this summer there will be kids getting piled into it all the time.

funSHINE

I finally made it to the LSS this morning to do titles for my scrapbook pages. This page is actually a sneak in from 2008. I had not "planned" to add anymore pages to her Year Two album, however when I was looking through it a week ago (admiring my work! ha) I noticed I had 2 empty pages side by side. I flipped back and fourth a bit hoping what was on either side of it would jog my memory, but it didn't.

So I went through her archives for Year 2 and chose these photos from a visit to Arbour Lake with some friends. I had originally wanted to scrap them, but it was one of those situations where there were not quite enough photos for a double layout (which I prefer to do), and I was unsure on what pictures to use. Obviously I figured out a solution!

I used I think Jersey Shore DSP (I have 2 pkgs that had not even been opened yet!), Real Red for the framing and I hand drew the flower and cut it out. I like how it micmic's the flower on her bathing suit. :0)

Ingredients:
Paper: Jersey Shore, Real Red, Only Orange, Bashful blue, Certainly Celery, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Night of Navy. Accessories: Cricut - Opposites Attract.

I'm around. :0)

I've been busy doing scrapbook pages! Since the weekend I've done 2 layouts and am finishing up the 3rd layout today, hopefully. :0) I've not taken any photos or posted them as of yet though because I need to still do titles. I think I mentioned on here that I sold my circut? Well I now have a membership at the local scrapbook where I can use their circut, but I wanted to have a few pages done first before I headed over (it's 5mins from my house) to do titles. So this weekend I should have some pages to share.

Nothing too busy or extravagant, I've been sticking to fairly simple layouts lately. I also need to get my but in gear and do a mother's day card and 3 birthday cards, 2 for my sisters and one for my mom. :0)

Days in the making.

Ok, maybe I'm exagerating a teeny bit, but for some reason I've had the toughest time working out this card. I spent most of the afternoon on it. This is the 3rd or 4th card I made before I decided I liked the layout, the colours and the DSP.

The first card I did, I liked, but did not love and was going to settle on it, but then I messed up and bc I had "just" enough of one pattern of paper, I was not able to make enough to finish them.

Needless to say, I'm happy that I finally that I finally created this card. A loves it, so I just have to do 4 more now.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before buy my friend who owns Clippopotamus asked me and another friend to do her some cards for a tradeshow she's going to in April. So designed 3 and did 25 total while another friend designed 3 and did another 25. That's why there is a space in the bottom right where I would normally put a greeting and a ribbon. Alexandria will be putting her clippos there. :0) Plus I did not have any Tempting T. ribbon, just Only Orange and when I put it on the card to see, it was waaayy too much orange. This works though. :0)

PS. Check out Clippopotamus they are awesome clippos!

Ingredients: Paper: Whisper White, Bali Breeze DSP (I've had this stuff kicking around for a while I think it's from 2 catties ago!), Only Orange, Watercolour Paper. Stamps: Sock Monkey & Sock Monkey Accessories. Accessories: Stampin' Up Markers.

Birthday Flowers

I made this card without anyone in particular in mind. I just know I have zero birthday cards done up for the upcoming birthdays in April and May so thought I'd do one up as a small break from making baby cards. :0)

Does this look familiar to anyone? It's cased off of this card, and she gained her inspiration from a girl's quilt at Pottery Barn Kids. :0) I guess it would be more familiar if you have kids and love PBK. :p

I changed it up a little bit by adding buttons to the center for the flowers and using some cloud paper from Sweet Slumber DSP. I think it turned out rather cute! It's the first card in a very long time that I've not used any stamps for. Well minus the greeting. :0)

Ingredients: Paper: So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Sweet Slumber DSP and I'm not sure fir the flowers..I used some paper from the 6x6 paper share I did with Heather and it's all mixed up now. :p Stamps: Not sure where I pulled that Happy Birthday from. hah. Accessories: Buttons!

Birthday Butterfly

For a week now I've been trying to come up with a cute birthday card for one of N's little friends. I had considered doing the Sesame Street crew using punches, but she is 1 and has no idea who they are, so I've spent a week trying to figure out something, and then in the process of creating a card for someone else, and getting inspiration from Flutterby AtomicButterfly's Gallery on SCS, more specifically this card, that gave me the idea for mine.

My card does not really look much like her card, but that's the card that inspired me to create this one. she has some awesome cards in her gallery and seems to have a knack for creating multiple layers seamlessly without them looking overly cluttered or too busy. I always have such a tough time with layers, so it's nice to go through her gallery and see how she's "stacked" things.

Hopefully this card will also suit my friend that needs some birthday cards for a tradeshow she's attending, then I can get to work making them. :0) My husband saw it when he got home from work today and said "Nice, it's very...pink". Hah I think because I've done so many baby boy cards in the past week that given the opportunity to do a girl card I went to the very 'girly' extreme.

Ingredients: Paper: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Bella Rose DSP. Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, Circle of Friendship. Punches: 1/8"1"/1 1/4"/1 3/8" - circle punches, Scallop Edger Punch, Scallop Circle Punch. Accessories: Crystal Effects (butterfly wings), Pink Pirouette Ribbon.

I hope it's a boy!

I saw this sweet card over on Flutter by Atomicbutterfly and just had to case it for another expectant friend whose due at the end of this month. The only difference between her card and mine is I left off the button and the stitching. Love the paper (good thing I have 2 pkgs of it!), layout, stamps, everything! It's a super sweet card.

This is the 5th boy card I've made in the past week. I have 2 others I've completed but I have to wait to share them as the ppl they are for read this blog. :p

And with this card, I think it's my last baby card. I just have to finish up a birthday card for a little boy and have a girl card left to make. I have one done, but I'm not sure I want to use it.

Ingredients; Paper: Whisper White, Delicate Dots. Stamps: Nursery Necessities. Ink: Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Bashful Blue. Accessories: Scallop/Square Nestabilities, Certainly Celery ribbon, scallop edger punch.

Vanilla Ice Cream Sundaes and Summer Sun.

I decided to take a baby card making break and play with one of my stamps sets that I had not mounted yet, Goody Goody Gumdrops! It's a lvl 3 hostess set in the Stampin' Up Catalogue.

I got inspiration for this card from one Heather did a little while ago on her blog. I changed it up a little bit though to personalize it more to my style.

I even got to use my nessies for this one, the small scallop circle and regular circle. I've had them for probably 6m now and this is th first time I've even used them! I've played around with them but whenever I did, what I wanted to do never turned out th way I expected, so I never ended up using it on the card. I think if I do this card again I'll use an oval nessie instead. The circle works well, but even with some bashful blue shading, it's still a bit too much 'white space'.

I'm not sure who this card is for, but with numerous birthdays coming up this year I'm sure it will make it's way to someone's home. :0)

Ingredients: Paper - Kraft, Real Red, Old Olive, Summer Picnic DSP, watercolour paper. Ink: SU Markers, Basic Black. Stamps: Goody Goody Gumdrops. Accessories: Circle and Scallop Circle Nessies.

PS. I'm slowly getting images re-loaded on my entries!

Congratulations2

This card is for a friend that is having twins! What fun eh? She's also a bit of a science geek so I thought it was totally cute to use the congratulations² greeting. Plus I've been dying to use the cute little onsie from By Ones, By Twos forever!

You are all probably wondering just how many friends I have that are pregnant and due soon. The answer is Five. :p Crazy eh? It's all friends that live locally as well, so our playdates are about to get really crazy this summer.

I have to say that I LOVE DSP, it's called "Sweet Slumber" and unfortunately I only had a tiny bit of it! I did a paper share that Heather was hosting bc I could not decide on what DSP to get from the current cattie. I thought if I went in on the share it would help me decide what to get. This DSP is definitely only the list now! I also need to order some Boquet Buttons, as I wanted to put 3 small flower buttons under the congratulations greeting. :0)


Ingredients: Paper: Baja Breeze, Sweet Slumber DSP, So Safron. Stamps: By Ones & By Twos. Ink: StazOn Black. Accessories: Word Window Punch, SAB So Safron Ribbon. Inspiration: Niki E. (Although in the end, it did not end up anything like this card. heh but it's the card that got me to work on this one)

Babies, Babies and more Babies

First, there are a lot of dead links on my blog right now for images. I did a little re-arranging/house cleaning a week ago to clean up my Flickr account. I'm working on getting things back in order but it's going to take some time.

There are a slew of babies being born as well as well as a ton of birthday parties that N will be attending over the next few months so I thought it might be a good time to get some of my creative juice flowing and start making some of the required cards for the occasion. This one is for my friend S. I'll be attending her baby shower this weekend. Since I've been on a mini-break from crafting for a while I decided what better way to jump back in then to do a little casing to get back into the swing of things. The layout for this card I saw over on Heather's blog and I pretty much cased it right down to the stamp used. The only thing I changed was the ribbon (mine is from SAB) and one pc of patterned paper (again SAB).


Paper: Kraft, SAB & Summer Picnic, Certainly Celery
Stamps: Bundle of Joy
Accessories: SAB Ribbon, Paper peircing kit, SU Markers
Inspiration: Stamping with Heather