I'm back...

Hello my crafty peeps! I have been away on a mini vay-cay with my hubby, and boy oh boy have I missed a lot!!!! 

This awesome weather is the main thing of course, but what came along with it has totally blown me away. I just went outside in the backyard to clean my heated birdbath, and I just can't believe that everything in my garden is up above the soil and/or budding. Even the mighty Oaks and Maples are showing signs of new life. 

As some of you know my husband and I traveled to Vancouver from Toronto on VIA Rail's the "Canadian" passenger train a little over one week ago. We had a fantastic experience to say the least, and we met so many awesome people from all around the world . We have a new friend from the Czech Republic named Jara, and also made a few new American and Canadian ones too. 

We had at least 25 people on board from various locations across Great Britain that we shared many a conversation with or simply a laugh or two. All in all it was a very unique experience, both visually and intellectually. I highly recommend you put it on your bucket list, and for those of you that can't travel may I suggest you hop on over to my hubs blog, http://www.travelbyrad.blogspot.com where you will be able to re-live our journey through photos and script. I believe he is going to be posting the pros and cons and sort of an epilogue and perhaps a few Vancouver photos. We didn't have the best weather over there and also experienced camera problems unfortunately.  

Something else I missed while I was gallivanting the miles away, I learned that I won the Color Me Creative Classroom Group Challenge # 38 titled; Fuzzy-Wuzzy Furry Animal Antics. Well let me tell you, between these two wonderful realizations I am so pumped to get back into colouring mode. Thanks CMC!

I do however have a couple more items to take care of before I do, one of which is travel up to my parents to retrieve my little Yorkie, Lucy. She was vacationing at Grammy and Papa's while we were away. It's funny how you miss your pets when they aren't with you, but I always feel great comfort in knowing that she is happy and well taken care of. I will be back at it when I return on Sunday, and hopefully I can get a few cards up on the site soon. 

Hope all is well with you and the world, thanks for stopping by :)S

Long awaited first sign of spring...

Hi crafty friends. 

Before I show you my card today I would like to share a quick little story. My girlfriend Charlene and I have been playing a little game that we call "Robin Tag". I'm not sure how it came to be, but the two of us try to be the first to spy a Robin every spring.  If you do, you then have to take a picture of it as evidence, and then email it to other person in order to win the game. 

This is the third year we have been playing, and I so far have been the reigning champ 

(insert applause here), thank you very much. 

Unfortunately I must relinquish my crown to my friend this year as she was the one to spy the first Robin this year. I actually heard mine a day or two ago, but I just couldn't find it until this morning. I opened the blinds at the back of the house, and there she/he was just sitting on the fence. I am sure it was contemplating how in the world it was going to eat today given the fact the the ground was still covered in that white stuff and was  a chilly -11 degrees Celsius. So I  guess the early bird doesn't necessarily always get the worm does it? LOL.  

Does anyone know where you can buy worms at this time of the year?

Lil' Robin Red Breast

Honourable Mention 2012

Without further ado, Congratulation Charlene!

Ok, now on to my card. If you remember I told you that I had a guest design team spot over at The Outlawz.  I'm a part of the group challenge called "Creative Freebies", As a guest design team member I am given two digital images that are created by two talented digi artists; Sandi Huggett and Anne Fenton every two weeks. I must use one or both images in a creative fashion which is then posted as inspiration for others onto the website.

For my second design I used an image created by Anne Fenton.  I coloured the image using my Copic markers and then created a birthday card for my dear friend Mary. 

I spent the day with my friend Mary and she loved her card. Thanks Anne for the lovely image, I enjoyed creating with it. 

Well that's it for me tonight. I will be getting two more images from these ladies which I will be using to create other projects over the next week or so.  Thanks for stopping by :)S

I’m Here For You…

Hey blogger peeps, it's me again. Wow, can you believe that this is my third post in less than one week? What's up with that? I must be feeling inspired I guess.

The card I have for you today has an itty bitty story behind it. Last month I posted about a girlie weekend I had away in Michigan with some of my most favourite peeps in this world, Charlene, Pat, Wendy and Darlene (Scrappy Dues). We all attended an event known as the Crop-A-Faire that was held at the Hampton Inn in the Sterling Heights area. While we were there, we sat along side two very lovely ladies, Karen and Linda, also from Michigan.

Let me say that we gals yakked way more than we accomplished, or at least Darlene and I did, but to me it was well worth it. I don't get to attend events like this very often, and let it suffice to say that there were very few dull moments especially when Darlene started telling us of her childhood sibling rivalries.

Both Karen and Linda’s focus was scrapbooking. Darlene and I brought along our Copic markers, and a ton of images to colour, and yeah that ended up being wishful thinking that's for sure.

As we conversed over the weekend Karen showed me this adorable wood mounted stamp that I am using today on my card. She told me that it was her intention to use the image to make cards for the people that she worked with in order to portray the importance of teamwork. I totally fell in love with this image and her reason for using it, so I asked her if I could stamp a couple of copies that I could use at a later date.  My intention was to design a card using the image, and then send it to her so that she would have it as a sample. Or perhaps she could design her own card using this one as a sketch. I tried to keep the card clean and simple due to the fact that she would have to mass produce the card. I think she had a a really great idea, and that the stamp was a perfect one to use for make her point. I gave her my email, but I have yet to hear from her to get her mailing address. So Karen, if you are following my blog this is the card I made for you. I will tuck it away and hope that you will contact me so that I can forward it on as I promised.

After I assembled the card I was puzzled with regards to a sentiment or title if you will, and decided that; "I'm here for you" was pretty much a "catch-all" term and could mean so many things to so many people. Let's say for example a person is struggling with a particular issue, has lost their pet, a friend or a relative, don't you think this little saying pretty much portrays the role you are willing to play in that persons life? 

I chose a soft colour palette because bunnies are so soft and gentle. I didn't use any bling except for a touch of stickles in the centre of the flowers.  I made the flowers using a MS punch, and I also used a MS border punch.The card stock is basic everyday stuff from my stash, and "I'm here for you" was simply printed out using my computer. .

I used a little bit of glossy accents on both the toothbrush to create a shiny plastic effect, and on the hot/cold portion of the tap to make it look as if they were made from porcelain. I had to crop the picture so you could in fact see that effect.

I am going to enter my card over at the Color Me Creative Classroom Group Challenge # 38 titled; Fuzzy-Wuzzy Furry Animal Antics. I hope you liked my card today, and thanks for stopping by. I'd also like to mention that I truly appreciate all of the lovely and kind comments you leave behind :)S

A Liebster Award for Me...

Hey, check this out everyone! My friend Darlene Lyons a newbie blogger like myself, just gave me a Liebster award today!  Isn’t that cool and very nice of her as well? Thank you so very much for thinking me worthy girlie!!!

What is a Liebster award, you ask?  Don’t feel bad, I had to Google it too.

Apparently it’s an award that one blogger gives to another for being totally awesome and/or having a great personality. LOL, no seriously it’s actually an award for what you blog about. 

The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear, but the general consensus is that it originated somewhere in Germany. Liebster apparently means favorite or dearest , and the award is used to help showcase bloggers that have fewer than 200 followers.  However, there are a few stipulations that come along with it. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five other blogs of note.

So without further ado, here is what you do as a presenter of this award!

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.

3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs with 200 followers or less who you feel deserves it.

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

 
So in order that I may fulfill my obligations as a new recipient of this award I first want to thank Darlene over at Scrappy Dues for this cool honour. You rock girlfriend.

 Next, I will be forwarding this award to five awesome blogs that have 200 or less followers; ones that I think are very deserving of it too.

 I have been following these blogs regularly and find them very inspiring to say the least. They may or may not know me personally, but I truly believe they are deserving of this well-intended award and hopefully many more people will discover their blogs from this point on. Great work ladies. Below are the 5 bloggers that I have chosen to bestow this award upon.

Brigitte - Bricolage de Brigitte

Brook - My Padded Craft Room

Nadine - Wahine Inks

Denise – Stamps-a-Latte

Guylou - Guylou's Oh La La

Well ladies, I truly hope that you enjoy receiving this award as much as I did. Don't forget to pass it on to 5 worthy blogs as well. Have a great rest of the day, and thanks for stopping in :)S

I have some awesome news to share…

Well my friends, I have some awesome news to share with you today. I have been given the most amazing opportunity to fulfill one of the goals that I had set for myself this year. Now I must admit, I did not expect this particular goal to come to fruition so soon, and I am honestly over the moon that it has.
I recently joined a paper crafters website known as The Outlawz. For those of you that personally know me it’s NOT because of my past profession that I was attracted to this website, given its name and all. (ha ha). It was in fact referred to me by another one of my cyber-friends; Lisa aka, The Purple Palace.
Since I became a member I have made several cyber-friends from all over the world. How cool is that? These friends share the same passion as I do for creating beautiful things with paper, among other things. Let me tell you folks, there is some amazing talent over there that’s for sure. So if you need some inspiration than I highly recommend you get your crafty butt over there and join.
Now for my awesome news…one of my cyber-friends over at The Outlawz; Sandi Huggett is a Design Team member and a Digi Artist for the website. Sandi, along with Anne Fenton moderate one of the challenge groups on the website called the Creative Freebies Challenge. I was asked if I would like to be a guest design team member for their challenge during the month of March. Yes, you heard me correctly, I did say little ole me :) woo-hoo!
Believe it or not, I did have to ponder this amazing offer for a bit because I didn’t think I was ready to take on this role. However, I am the firm believer that nothing ventured, is nothing gained! So I graciously accepted this amazing opportunity.
This particular challenge involves being given two digital images, one created by Sandi Huggett and one by Anne Fenton. I have chosen Sandi’s image to colour up with my Copic markers, and use in a project of my choice. In order to bring justice to Sandi’s beautifully hand drawn butterfly, I chose a scrapbook page layout to do just that.

My husband and I travelled to Hawaii and French Polynesia in the South Pacific for our 10^th Wedding Anniversary back in September 2009. It was one of the most amazing adventures of our lives to date. My scrapbook, as I am sure most others, is a continual work in progress. Isn’t it funny though how you can immediately see a layout in your head when you spy something that inspires you? When I saw Sandi’s butterfly I knew exactly which photos and colours I was going to use in order to bring justice to both the image and the photos .

These particular photos were taken while we spent three days at the Intercontinental Resort in Tahiti. The over water bungalow in the background was our home during our stay, the hammock in the foreground hung in wait for that impromptu nap in the shade, and of course last but certainly not least the ever attainable Mai Tai….this shot was sort of staged, I just had to move a couple of fallen hibiscus blooms a few inches to the right :)

I hope you like my layout, especially you Sandi. It was so much fun putting this together as I was filled with so many different emotions. I found myself moving forward but at the same time reflecting on my past. Thank you Sandi for giving me this amazing opportunity, and thank you friends for stopping by :)S