Thank You, Volunteers!

One of the events I helped organized, the 1st Niagara Food Fight for Foodies festival, was held last August 17th.  The event would not have been possible without the help of friends and volunteers (special mention to Craftmate, Virna who volunteered in the admissions tent).  I was pleasantly surprised by the volunteers from Brock University.  They were all very helpful and stepped above and beyond what was required of them.






As a thank you, I sent them a small token in a little handmade card.  I got the gift card holder tutorial from an awesome blog, "Secret Life of Paper" .  What I love about the tutorial is that I was able to use scrap stock card that I had saved.

Enjoy your weekend!

last day of school

Here is another layout I made of my DD’s last day of school last June.  (I probably should make one more with a photo of her first and last day of school side by side). 

  

Grid style layout is my go-to design these days.  I find that everything seems balanced and it takes no time to complete a page.  Hope you will not get tired of it as you will be seeing more of this type of design in the future.

 

I used cards from Project Life and Me and My Big Ideas, Fun Flair stamp from Ali Edwards and Smokey Shadow ink from Papertrey.

One more close up...

Thanks for stopping by!

pwp #19 - my favourite teacher

I cannot believe this is the last week of the summer break.  Where did time go?  It seems like only yesterday that we were saying goodbye to school and here we are, about to start a new one again. 

Awhile back, I saw some Project Life-like cards related to school at my local M’s. It's from a company called Me and My Big Ideas. I thought it would be perfect for this last day of school photo I took of my DD and her favourite teacher from junior kindergarten, Ms. Epstein.   

A close up...

I  used Papertrey’s Modern Alphabet dies, Fruit Fusion: Apple stamp and die,  loop de loop die and striped smokey shadow patterned paper.  I also used patterned papers from Fancy Pants and a sticker from Simple Stories.

Since I used 3 kinds of Papertrey dies, I am also linking this to Leigh Penner’s Pages with Papertrey challenge here.

Thanks for stopping by!

august papertrey blog hop

It’s that time of the month again… Papertrey Ink’s Monthly Blog Hop.

This month, we have a Fast Food Colour and Sketch Inspiration Challenge.  Just pick a colour + sketch combo and create!

For my card, I chose this sketch and colour combo…

And here is my 100% Papertrey card…

I used Papertrey’s stamps (Mini Blooms, Wreath for All Seasons and Birthday Basics), cardstock (royal velvet, simply chartreuse, stamper’s select white) and inks (plum pudding, enchanted evening, Hawaiian shores).

Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!

pwp #23 -- frances-ism

I am back with another instalment of Frances-ism, my way of documenting the silly things my daughter says or does.  My DD seems to be getting wiser by the day since her Frances-isms are becoming few and far between (not sure if that is a good or bad thing), LOL.

So while I can still remember them, I made a layout of her recent ones…

I used Papertrey’s Headline Alphabet dies and smokey shadow ribbon, button from October Afternoon, Fun Flair set from Ali Edwards, Right Now set from Kelly Purkey and cards from Project Life.

Here is a close up of the journaling...  Silly words call for silly photos.  I won't even mention what (clean) piece of clothing she has on her head, LOL.

Close up of the embellies...

I am also linking this to Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey challenge here  which is to include a quite to your layout.

Thanks for stopping by!

pwp #24 -- one happy day

I am in love with my Project Life kits.  Sure it will probably take me years to completely used them all up since I do not do Project Life the traditional way.  But I am having a blast using them on my layouts.  Really makes putting together a page come so quickly.

Here is another layout I made using my Project Life cards.  This was for our Father’s Day celebration last June.  Two cards from a Project Life kit, two strips of patterned paper from Simple Stories, several photos and a heart border die cut (from Papertrey) and viola!  Can’t get much easier than that.

Some close ups...

showing off the cards my DD and I created

I am also linking this to Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey challenge here which is to use two in a layout.  It could be two photos, two stamps, two dies, etc.  For my layout, I used two strips of patterned paper and two Project Life cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

pretty poppies

Making cards is a rarity for me these days as I have enough on my stash to meet my demand for cards throughout the year.  However, I feel guilty as I still have some stamps that remain uninked after months of sitting prettily on my desk.  So I decided to make new ones for our recent craft show. 

I must admit that when it comes to cards, I tend to CASE or get lots of inspiration from cards I see on my favourite crafty blogs.  I enjoy it more if I can dive right into stamping as soon as I sit on my desk to create rather than spend time "designing" my card.  There are already a lot of beautiful cards out there so why waste time reinventing the wheel?  Can you tell, that is my way of justifying myself when I am too lazy to think?

So this first set of cards was inspired by Nicole's recent Mums the Word card over at Papertrey.  I thought this card was so elegant and relatively easy to mass produce.

 

And here is my version....

I used Papertrey's Background Basics: Text and Botanical Silhouettes.  The poppies are from Lisa Johnson's Pretty Poppies set from MFT.

But wait, there're more...

Here they are together...

Thanks for stopping by!

these are the days

The other day, I shared with you my DH’s birthday layout at the safari.  Today I am sharing  another layout I made to capture all the amazing animals we saw during our wonderful drive through the wildlife park.  While we have seen most of these animals in the zoo, it is different when you are actually in the same enclosed area as their natural habitat.

Here is my layout…

I used Simple Stories patterned paper, card from a Project Life kit, Martha Stewart cardstock  and Papertrey’s Sketched Shapes die, button and twine.

A few close ups...The red river hog is actually not in the safari area but is in the farm area.  I just included it because of all the many marvelous animals we’ve seen that day, this little pig is actually my DD’s favourite.  We spent a great deal of time hanging around in front of its cage just enjoying watching him eat, sleep and roll around in mud. LOL.

This is what happens when you get too friendly with the monkeys...

In other news, Craftmates will be participating at the Food Fight for Foodies at beautiful Niagara on the Lake this Saturday.  Although it is about food, many vendors will be there to sell various crafts.  If you are in the area, drop by to say hi! 

Lastly, we want to greet Craftmate Aimee a very happy birthday!  Hugs to you our dear friend and see you this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Quilt

I made this reversible quilt for a friend who will be having her baby this August. It's a simple project that does not involve any piecing or patchwork. The size of the quilt is 40 x 40 and it's basically two pieces of fabric with batting in the middle. I wanted a modern look so I just quilted using straight lines. For the binding, I chose a blue colour as an accent. 

Front 

Back

I hope "Baby Red" will enjoy using this quilt. 

Enjoy your day!

pwp #21 -- safari adventure

Last July, we celebrated DH’s birthday with a fun weekend getaway to African Lion Safari.  We have been there a couple of times before and on both occasions, we took the safari bus to go around the wildlife park. But this time, to change things up a bit, we decided to drive with our car inside the park.  DD was fascinated at how close we were with most of the animals.  We also did the usual boat and train rides and animal shows but I thought I’d capture her photo sitting prettily inside the car while we pass by the amazing safari animals.

Here is my layout…

I used Papertrey’s Headline Alphabet and Edger #5 dies, bitty dots patterned paper, card from a Project Life kit and sticker from Simple Stories.

I am also linking this to Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey challenge here which is to scrapbook a birthday photo. I realized late that part of the challenge was to use a Papertrey stamp.  I would like to substitute that for dies instead (hope that is okay :)).

Thanks for stopping by!

  

eat this!

I was planning my daughter's birthday party one year when I read a magazine article about fun creative kids party giveaways, an alternative to the usual bags of dollar store items.  On it were innovative ideas that included a variety of edible gifts including a miniature hard candy sculpture of an actual loot bag.  

Because I have no sugar sculpture skills, I developed my own version using marshmallow fondant, brownies and store bought candies and made each bag personalized.

The kids' surprised reactions when they received their loot bags were priceless!

Here's another version of the edible loot bags I did for a client...

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a sweet week!

Bebsy