Merry Moosemas!!

Okay, this will be my last Christmas card....I promise. I'm really quite tired of making Christmas cards, but I do want to show them all to you.

This one was made using Santa Riley coming out of a chimney! I picked it up over at The Town Scrapper (who has a big Boxing Day Special going on right now) and the sentiment is from the Things Riley Would Say set.

The card base is Real Red along with Soft Sky and Regal Rose for matting. The dp is Be Merry by My Mind's Eye .... guess I have to put that stuff away until next year now, huh? I used my Nestabilities to cut and emboss Riley and I coloured him in with my Copics. Then I added satin ribbon and some rhinestone snowflakes. I gave this one to my boss at work.



Well yesterday was a wonderful day! We drove down to my parents' house in the morning and arrived about noon. We spent quite a while opening Christmas presents, which is always fun! Then we had a wonderful turkey dinner complete with roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding and yummy gravy! Of course there are always delicious desserts for afterwards too! Thanks Mom!! Then we cleared off the table and played HOURS of fun games!! I'm talkin' like, 5 or 6 hours of games! We played Sequence (a great board/card game) and Catch Phrase....the most fun and heart pounding game ever!! Have you ever played it???

Today, I plan to spend most of my time in my craft room, catching up on all my stamping deadlines. There are LOTS of new releases coming up for January, so hold tight to your Christmas money....I'll give you lots of reasons to spend it!!! Heehee!!!

Have a stampin' good Saturday!!!

It's a Snow Day!!!

My daughter is THRILLED this morning, because we got up (rather I got up and she burrowed further under her covers) and I checked the school board website. There was a big red scrolling info band across the site that said that in anticipation of the today's winter storm, all schools in the area are CLOSED!!! Woohoo!! It was the last day of school before the holidays anyway, but Emileigh was excited to start her winter vacation today!

Now I am waiting by the phone because I'm REALLY hoping that they decide to close the library today. It's not very often that they close the library altogether but we are supposed to get up to 20 cms of snow by tonight. I would hope that the 'powers that be' will look out, no only for the patrons' safety but also the safety of their employees. It could also be that I'd just REALLY love a snow day!! I wanna STAMP!!!

Anyhoooo, today's card features ME, skiing to work later today because I won't be able to drive through the blizzard!! hahahaaa!! Okay, it's not really me, it's SKIIER RILEY!! I got mine at the Town Scrapper....that's where I pick up most of my Rileys!! The card base is Tangerine Tango and I used Close to Cocoa for matting. The designer papers are from Frosty Day by SU (what an appropriate name for today). I used my new Nesties to cut out Riley after I coloured him with my Copic markers. The ribbon is from My Favourite Things and I used some Basic Grey brads up in the corner.




The sketch is a great one and I'll use it again for sure! This was a sketch challenge in the Hanna Stamps Forum a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was perfect for Riley images! Also this wonderful sentiment is from High Hopes!! I use it a lot on winter cards!!

Okay, I'm off to wait for my poor husband to drive home in this insane weather and hope for the phone to ring with my boss telling me not to bother coming in to work!! hahaa!! It may be wishful thinking but it's good to have hope, isn't it?? Have a stampin' good day!!!

Dream BIG!!

Well, I'm up early this morning!! I had PLANNED to sleep in today since I don't have to work....but my dog Daisy, had other ideas!! She thought that I needed to get up at 7:15am so that she could go get a drink!! And now I'm up for the day....

Anyhooooo....today's card features my new Sleepytime Riley stamp, which I won at their release party last month! Isn't he cute?? I made this particular card using a sketch they posted in the Hanna Forum over at SCS. It's a fun and simple sketch...which is perfect for me!

I stamped Riley on Wausau bright white cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The dp I used is from the DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy stack, the card base is Blue Bayou and for accents, I used So Saffron and Almost Amethyst. I coloured Riley in using my Copic markers, cut him and embossed him using my Nesties and pop dotted him. The sentiment is by High Hopes and I stamped it on Certainly Celery and then cut it out using my new Double Ended Tag Nesties and attached it with some mini button brads and finished it off by adding some Prima hydrangeas!!




Don't forget that today is your last chance to win some Whiff of Joy blog candy!! Be sure to answer my question in THIS POST!! And I'll post the winner tomorrow!! Have a wonderfully inky day!!

Riley's Winter Wishes

Over the weekend I had a chance to play with a couple of my new Riley's! Yay! I love Riley, he's so darn cute and does so many fun things on his stamps!!

The Hanna Stamps forum released some new stamps last week (I won the new Riley in his pyjamas too) and they posted a couple of cool challenges. I played in both of them but today I'll just show you the layers challenge. I really like it when challenges are pretty simple and general so that everyone can play along. I don't usually take part if there's a big technique or a lot of restrictions involved.

Anyway this challenge was to use more than 2 layers on your card, so I decided to use my new Riley with his Christmas tree and some scrap dp from DCWV that was laying on my desk (along with many other scraps). I stamped Riley on Wausau bright white cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured him in using my handy, dandy......Copics!! Oh I had a deja vu of Blue's Clues there for a minute!! haha!




The card base is Certainly Celery, I matted Riley on Soft Sky and stamped the Verve Visual sentiment on So Saffron. I punched a couple of Martha Stewart snowflakes from some turquoise glitter paper and added some matching glitter brads in each of the four corners. I pop dotted the main layer and then added sparkle to the snow with Stardust Stickles!! Ain't he cute???

For those who are interested, yesterday's library trip was actually not as painful as I'd envisioned. We started off very early and made good time travelling to each of our destinations. We picked up a lot of ideas of what to do....and what not to do, when renovating our own library. I went with a fun group of ladies so we did a lot of yakking and laughing. But after a full day and a long drive home, I was whipped! I'm heading in to work the late shift today, so maybe I'll have a little nappy-poo this morning!

Have a great Friday!!!

You're Snow Sweet!!

I love Riley.....don't you love Riley?? He so stinkin' cute with all the things he does!! I think this one is my favourite so far and I picked him up from Phebe at The Town Scrapper. She has LOTS of Rileys and if you live in the area, you can catch her at The London Scrapbook Expo on Saturday....that's where I'll be too!!

I decided to play long with the Hanna Sketch Challenge this week which was perfect for this image. I pulled out some of my favourite Heidi Grace dp from last year as the colours were exactly what I wanted! I stamped Riley and his pal on Wausau bright white cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and used my Copics to colour them in.




I used Blue Bayou cardstock for the base and Soft Sky to accent and then added some River Rock stitched grosgrain ribbon. The sentiment is by High Hopes and I used one of my Nestabilities ribbon sliders to stamp it onto and then threaded my ribbon through it. I also added some white snowflakes brads that my friend Crissy sent me a while ago. I finished off the card by adding Stardust Stickles to the snow to make it all shimmery!

I also wanted to point out to you, if you haven't already joined in the fun, that my friend Cammie is having an amazing blog candy challenge to support World Alzheimer's Day! You can win over $800 worth of stampin' goodies....so what are you waiting for? Go check it out!!!

I'm off to work again this afternoon and working late, so I'll be home just in time to catch the end of the Dancing with the Stars results show. I hope I don't miss the Jonas brothers...heehee! No, I really mean it....my daughter has me hooked on them! Did you watch the show last night and see them all dance again?? There are some real contenders there....my faves are Lance Bass, Brooke Burke and ROCCO....mmmm..yum!

Life's a Beach!!!!

Okay, here's my second post for today!!! I was able to carve out a few minutes to join in the SCS Sketch Challenge for today!! Yippeeeeee! It also gave me an excuse to use my new Riley stamp that I picked up at The Town Scrapper last week!!

I grabbed this awesome Bo Bonny Press dp that features some Island flowers that I thought would go perfectly with Riley in his hammock! I used Kraft cardstock for the base and coloured Riley in with coordinating Copic markers and layered him on Old Olive. The bottom left section is So Saffron and I stamped the floral images from Best Blossoms by SU on it. I added some stitched grosgrain ribbon in Soft Sky and some Old Olive brads across the bottom. The sentiment is from Twisted Sentiments by My Favorite Things on Apricot Appeal and layered on Soft Sky. The lovely sheer blossoms are by Creative Impressions and attached with more SU brads, then the focal layer and the sentiment are both pop dotted for that funky 3-D effect!!



Now, I really wish I could spend the rest of the day just chillin' like Riley here, but unfortunately I have to head in to work! Hope you have a super stampy day!!

Riley Two-fer!!!

Today's post features another Kimmie Two-fer!!! This time I'm using the Coffee Riley stamp.....he looks so chill, relaxin' with his cuppa joe and a cupcake!

I stamped a couple of images on Wausau bright white cardstock using Archival Brilliance Graphite Black ink and coloured him in using my Copics and taking the colours from the Basic Grey Urban Couture papers. It's a very simple layout really. The card base is Chocolate Chip with Almost Amethyst layered on top and a strip of the dp. I added a fancy swirl from Baroque Motifs and pierced a line along the bottom. One card uses an A Muse sentiment and the other is by Hero Arts. I matted the focal image on Rose Red or So Saffron, added some scrumptious chocolate satin ribbon and pop dotted Riley!

These cards are also perfect for this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge, which is to make a masculine card!! I think this Riley dude is perfect for the men in your life!!!



I received a couple of questions in the last few days. One was what size are my cards. Generally speaking, I do two sizes. I do the regular A2 size which is half a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock and when I do square ones, it's usually a 5 1/4 square as the envelopes I find around here are slightly larger than that. I sometimes do 6x6 but I don't have a lot of 12x12 cardstock to cut in half, so I use my 8 1/2 x 11 and make a square one from that.

Also I have been asked several times about my Magnolias. You're right, they are very hard to get your inky little hands on, but I have a friend who owns a stamp store and she gets orders straight from Magnolia in Sweden. When they arrive at her store, they are generally sold out in less than a week. She does not take preorders but she keeps an email list and lets everyone on the list know when they come and then it's first come, first served. My suggestion to you, is to get on her email list and check it often, then when you get 'the email', call her right away with your credit card in hand!!! Feel free to email me and I can forward you her contact information.

Well, I'm off to work tonight and all day tomorrow. Yuck!! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Things With Wings........

This week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge is to create a card using something that has wings. Well, LOTS of things have wings.....but I thought airplanes would be a little unexpected!!

I got this awesome Riley stamp from Phebe at The Town Scrapper! This one and the one in the comfy chair are the only ones I have. I HAVE to get more Rileys!! I started by stamping Riley and his plane on a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock and again on Wausau bright white cardstock. The idea was that he was flying through the sky, which needed to be blue, but I didn't want to have to colour that huge area. So I stamped on the sentiment and then coloured the one on white using my Copic markers and then cut it out. I glued it onto the Bashful Blue piece including the tiny little clouds and voila...he's flying through the blue sky!



I did both these cards at the same time but using different patterned papers and colours. Both dp's are from a DCWV stack, but I can't remember which one. For the paper that has stars on it, I chose the sentiment 'Reach for the Stars' and the other one I made more generic and chose 'Have fun on your day'. I used a trio of shiny silver star brads on each one and added some tiny So Saffron star punches to decorate the sky. I finished them off by adding a couple of silver brads in the top corners and some striped Wild Wasabi grosgrain ribbon.

Good thing I have today off from work, because I actually feel worse today than I did yesterday! Don't know if I'll get any stamping done.....I really feel like going back to bed right now. Maybe I'll go have a nap!

Sow the Seeds of Love.........and Shopping!!!

Well, it's Sunday and my only day off this week. I have piles of laundry to do and dishes and the floors need cleaning......and of course, there's always stamping to do!! I wonder how much I can get done before I cave in and retire to my stamp room? Heehee!

Lunch in Petrolia on Thursday was great, as usual!! This time it was Ellen, my Mom, Irene and myself and Phebe joined us later. The meal was phenomenal (I had the special which was quiche....and fries!) and we had a great chat!! Then we headed over to Phebe's for a little stamp shoppin'! I got some new Prima Sprites and Press n' Petals. LOVE Prima flowers!! The other ladies spent more than I did (for once) and picked up some High Hopes stamps and some from My Favorite Things!

Then after we left there we decided to head up to the main street to check out a store called Two Doors Down that we had heard so much about. Well, it's a discount store where places like Costco send their clothing and stuff to sell off....cheap!! Let's just say that I really scored!!! Did I mentioned to you that next weekend, Al and Emileigh and I are flying to Florida for a week??? Yippeeeeeeeee!! I REALLY need a vacation!! Anyway, the one section of this store is like a women's boutique will all sorts of beautiful clothes!!! I was able to get: 3 eyelet tank tops, a sleeveless white blouse, a short sleeve hoodie top, 2 cotton A-line skirts and a quilted winter jacket all for $100!!! It was awesome!! Now I'm all set for the warm weather!!

Anyway, I'm waiting to get my March work schedule and then we can plan another outing. I will post it on here and you can email me if you'd like to join us!!

Today's card is one I created last week for a Gina K. sketch challenge on SCS. I used an older retired SU stamp set called Friendships Grow. I got it in a trade and I just LOVE the design. If you know of any other SU sets done along the same lines or style, let me know!! This one I stamped on SU watercolour paper and used my SU markers to colour her in. The dp is Melissa Frances and I added some SU taffeta ribbon and some Prima flowers and brads. Cute huh??? Oh and the sentiment is one of the Hanna Stamps sayings.

Well, hope you have a nice quiet Sunday with a little bit of 'alone' time!! Happy Stampin'!!!

ELZYBELL'S IN THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!

I like to join in Secret Pal exchanges and I just got one in the mail on Friday!! I got lots of cute things but my FAVOURITE was the Elzybell stamp!! I SO love these little simple stamps and I got to play with her yesterday!!

One of my favourite bloggers and fellow MFT Design Team members is Michele Boyer over at Paper Cuts. She has a lovely fresh style and is also responsible for a lot of my spending!!!! Michele has such a way with design and layout and she makes all those whimsical stamps just come alive!!! If you've never been there, go check her out!! Her stuff rocks!!

Anyway, I was blurfing yesterday and I stopped by her blog (as I do every day) and her latest post features an adorable Elzybell stamp and I was really inspired by it! So I borrowed her design and used her layout for my Elzybell card!! I hope she doesn't mind!!

I just thought little Elzybell would look fabby in a pretty pink car so I pulled out a package of Lollipop Shoppe paper by Basic Grey. I bought this package at LEAST a year ago and it's never been opened......how sad. So I used Cool Caribbean for the base and the rest of the paper is from the pack. I masked the car and then stamped an oval underneath it so it didn't look like it was flying across the card!! I added some grosgrain ribbon and the sentiment is from Hanna Stamps and I punched it out using my Word Window Punch. I added some SU brads and pop dotted Elzy and there ya go!!!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I think we might go shopping today, so I'll let you know if I make any spectacular finds!!

Lovely Lola!!

Well, I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday!! I know I am!! Emileigh is out with her friends today and Al is sleeping after working 14 hours last night, so I have the day to myself!! I've been in my craft room all day, emerging only to take quick trips to the loo and to the kitchen to grab some sustenance!!! My kind of day!!!

I've received some wonderful entries to the challenges today and I bet more of you are working away. You have until Monday night to enter them, so lots of time.

I had a great mail day yesterday as my new Simon and Lola stamps arrived from Scotland!!! I ordered them about 10 minutes after they were released and it took about two weeks to get here, but they were worth the wait!!!

The first one is Lola with Flowers and I used some new We R Memory Keepers dp as it has this great washed out distressed look and I really like it. I coloured Lola in using my Copics and then used my Nestabilities to cut her out and emboss the frame and matted her on So Saffron. I distressed the edges of the dp more with my distressing tool and stamped the sentiment from MFT's By the Seashore....love that font. I paper pierced a line above the sentiment with my Mat Pack and then added some Prima Sprites with brads. This card was made with the Papertake Weekly Challenge in mind, which is to use Blooms of any kind on your card!!



This next card was made using Lola with her Bunny.....SO cute, right?? I lovey her!!! I used Kraft cardstock and this sparkly DCWV paper from The Town Scrapper and coloured her in accordingly using my Copics (love those things). I stamped the sentiment which is from Hanna Stamps and I added some lovely pink ribbon that I got at Michael's. I used my Mat Pack around the edges of the focal image and added a Daisy D's rhinestone heart and pop dotted the whole thing. Quick and cute!!!!

If you like the new Lola and Simon stamps by Sugar Nellie, my pal Suzanne over at Slumber Cards is having a challenge to win some!!! The challenge is to use shades of lilac or purple on your card as it is her favourite colour!!! The contest is open until next weekend, so be sure to enter!!!

Hanna and Wormie!!

Happy Monday morning! This will be a quick post as I have to get Emileigh to her Business exam and then be at work for 9am.

Yesterday I got a chance to finally crack open my Hanna stamps and have a little fun! This first one was for the Featured Stamper challenge over on SCS and the second was for a Hanna sketch challenge!



I used the same basic colouring scheme for both of them and used my Copic markers. I tried some new paper and I'll tell you about it later! No time, ya know!! I think they are both pretty self-explanatory but I did add three rhinestones on the sentiment circle on the Hanna card and I added crystal lacquer all over the umbrella in the Wormie card, so that it looks shiny and wet!

Have a stampin' good day!!!