Birthday card for Lisa

Well, I figured I had better make a card to go with Lisa's gift... I awoke this morning with the image of pink monkeys random stamped on paper with a pink barrel, like the Barrel of Monkeys game I had as a child, only mine was red. This little monkey stamp is from It's A Zoo and it totally reminds me of the little monkeys from that game. Pairing the monkey image with the sentiment from Life's A Jungle got me a pretty cute card, albeit a very busy one! I think she's gonna like the card, but she'll probably wonder about the sentiment. She's a rather serious little girl, really an old soul, with a wickedly creative side. I'm totally amazed at her drawings and art she produces.

I saw a CD envelope on Jeanette Lynton's blog which was created by Jody Gustafson, another CTMH Consultant. It made me want to try one for myself, although mine is fairly simple. The card is just soooo busy, that the envelope needed to be the calm before the storm! lol

Supplies (all CTMH unless otherwise noted): Envelope: CD envelope, Silhouette polka dot B&T, Coluzzle circle, Prima flower, Blush brad. Card: Black, White, Blush and Bamboo CS, Silhouette polka dot B&T, Hollyhock ricrac, Hollyhock brads and arrow brad, Baby Pink brad and Edge Anchor, CC Rhinestone Frame, It's a Zoo stamp set, Life's a Jungle stamp set, Solo F stamp set, Argyle Backgrounds stamp set, Hollyhock, Blush, Baby Pink, Bamboo and Black inks, Black journal pen (SU), Curvy Label punch (SU), Key Tag punch (SU), Scallop Edge punch (SU), Nestabilites Square die and Labels One die (Spellbinders), Cricut Paper Dolls cartridge (Provo Craft), foam tape (other).

A Gift for Lisa...

My son is away on summer vacation with his Aunt, Uncle and two cousins for the whole month of July. They are up in Alaska with their 5th Wheel in tow. My niece is turning 10 this month and when they do the loop around to drop my son off at the end of the month, I am going to give her these 9x9 layouts as her birthday gift. Hope she likes them! Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Back Country Workshop Layout

This is the layout my Workshop Club gals get to make this Sunday. I created this one to show them, using pictures from Lee's fishing trip that he took at the beginning of July. My picture is a little washed out because I took the pic out on the deck while the bright sun was high in the sky, so it's looking a little muted.

For the journaling, I decided to keep it really simple using the 5 Ws as my starting point. Wow, journaling has never been so easy... lol.

It seems like forever since I made a layout. I guess it was only a month ago for our last workshop. But that was more of a "have to", not necessarily a "want to". KWIM?

Supplies (all CTMH unless otherwise noted): Back Country Level 2 paper pack, Back Country My Stickease, Campin' Fever stamp set, Rustic Alphabet stamp set, Tiny Typewriter Alphabet stamp set, Brown Bag ink, New England Ivy ink, Outdoor Denim ink, Dimensional Elements In Color - Adventure, Outdoor Denim Twill ribbon, Make-up sponge (other), Scor-Pal (Scor-Pal), Brown Journaling Pen (SU)

Kids' Coloring Birthday Card sets

I was inspired by fellow CTMH Consultant Debi Davis' sets she created around last Fall. I made mine to be a set of 4 cards (one of each shown above) with 4 envelopes and 3 crayons in a little zip-lock baggie. I've made 6 sets so far to sell. I'll see how well they sell the next time I participate in a craft sale. :)

I just think they are so cute. They are meant to be given to a child to color and give to their friend on thier birthday.

This is how I created mine:
Stardust B&Ts
Daydream B&Ts
White Daisy, Black, Clover Meadow, Hollyhock, and Moonstruck CS
Dino Roar, Happy Endings, Reach for the Stars, Nursery Bash, Thoughtful Seasons, and Say It In Style stamp sets
Black, Clover Meadow and Moonstruck inks
Crayons (24 pack of Crayola)
Black/white gingham ribbon (Walmart)
Little zip-lock bags (Dollar store find)
Clear plastic bags (found at Walmart gift section)

Finally, a day to play!

I had posted one of these (done in That's Amore papers) at the end of March on the CTMH Consultant Bulletin Boards. (You can find it listed under Special Envelopes on my sidebar under Labels.) It got bumped back up to the front page yesterday and just looking at it made me want to create another one today. So this is the one I created this morning. I haven't stamped the sentiment yet. I used Tombo Mono Multi glue, which when left to dry before adhering, makes it repositionable. So the flower and the Nestabilities die cut label are not permanent yet. That will enable me pull off the flower parts to do my stamping when I'm ready to, then glue it all back in place permanently. Cool, huh? I will eventually stamp a sentiment like For You in the upper right corner of the flap of the holder, too. Hmmm... or I might just leave it... not sure yet.

What I used:

Penny Lane - Feeling Groovy "Pure Joy" Pure Posies Paper (My Mind's Eye)
Penny Lane - Feeling Groovy "Pure Joy" Large Accessories (MME)
Black and Colonial White CS (CTMH)
Black ink (CTMH)
6x6 clear page protector (other)
Coluzzle File Folder template (discontinued)
Nestabilities Labels One die (Spellbinders)
Black/white gingham ribbon (Walmart)
Pop dot (other)
1/4" Super Tape
Make-up sponge (other)
Self Adhesive Velcro Dot (Walmart sewing dept.)
Threading Water edge punch (Fiskars)
2" circle punch (Fiskars)
3/4" and 5/8" circle punches (EK Success)
2" paper flower (Prima)
Black brad and mini brads (CTMH)

I'm hoping to play all day, so I'll post as I go. I have another project that should only take me maybe 1/2 hour to finish up, so I'll tackle that one first. :)

We were THIS close!!!

Whew, what a day we had on Saturday. Lee and I drove to Grande Prairie, which is a 2 1/2 hour drive from here, to go see his Dad and about 1/2 hour from GP, someone crossed the centre line and came towards our truck. I wasn't driving, so I didn't see them until right before... I'm still in shock as to how it all played out. I saw the truck coming right towards our front left and next thing I knew, Lee swerved and they took out our mirror. The really surprising thing is that the only thing damaged was the driver's side mirror. There were rub marks all the way down the side of our truck, but no other damage. At those speeds, I'm amazed we didn't have a head-on. It all happened so quickly. Someone was looking out for us. They had to be because that truck was too close to not hit our front end. I can still see it extremely vividly.

We pulled over a few seconds later after driving over a little hill in the highway, discussing what to do. Lee saw what we believed to be the truck come back over the hill behind us, pull over and get out to pick something up off the highway, and get back in their vehicle. They waited for traffic to pass and then blew a U-turn and took off. I'm still PO'd that they didn't come to talk to us. Wow. We ended up continuing on our day, mirrorless. We looked over the truck after we got to my Father-in-law's and I found a piece of black plastic from either their mirror or ours tucked inside the gas flap. Weird.

In talking with Lee, he said he looked in the rearview mirror and saw that these people were completely in our lane once we swerved out of their way. He also said that they weren't passing anyone and couldn't figure out what happened because he swore that the driver was looking straight forward, but we'll never know what really caused it.

The wierdest part for me is that I have had a feeling all last week that while driving, people were coming across the center line at me, but they really weren't. I just thought my imagination was over-reacting for some reason. And I didn't react to the accident the way I thought I would. Instead I was really quite calm and I haven't had that feeling anymore of people crossing the line since then. I'm more relaxed now.

Once again I'm reminded that I really need to learn how to listen to my "feelings" better. I can't seem to differentiate what is just a feeling to what is really going to happen. Next time I get the repetative nagging thoughts/feelings, I'm going to listen. :)

Busy, busy... life gets too busy...

Life... sometimes it just gets in the way of my creativity! I have so many things running through my mind that I want, no need to get created and out of my head. But life puts it on hold for relatively little increments of time.

What's keeping me so busy? My twin daughters are in the process of moving into their first apartment together. So I've been busy with that. Lee (the girls' step-dad) helped me move the big stuff on Sunday and we've been picking away at it since then. They have to buy pretty much everything because all they really have are their twin beds, so we've been shopping a lot, hauling and building and putting together and setting up... and I'm tired.

We have a lot more to do... they still need to finish up all their piles of laundry and buy groceries and they have to go through every inch of "stuff" to see whether they are keeping it or letting it go. It's a big job, coupled by the fact that they are both visually impaired. So I feel like I'm doing a lot of the work. But that's okay. I'm a Mom, that's what I do.

We are off to buy a sofa today that we picked out yesterday, coffee tables and some other odds-n-ends. More to build, more to put away and find a home for. Did I mention I'm tired? I think I'm fighting a bug or something because I'm feeling so tired. I'm also a little emotional... it's a big step for them, and to let them out (or push them out - lol) of the nest is a big deal. Those of you who have already gone through this stage with your kids may understand.

I have a lot of mobility training to do with them so they can get around and know how to do what they need to do. It's the day-to-day stuff that we do so easily, but they will have to learn and I have to figure out how to adapt things to suit their needs. Online banking will hopefully be very helpful, but we'll see.

Anyways, I thought I'd drop a quick, albeit rambling note, to let you all know I'm still around... just very busy... ;)

Just for FUN... a robot face birthday card...

I was making some cards today using the Gear Up stamp set and while random stamping with it, I saw the gears a little differently than just gears. This is what I came up with. It looks like a little robot face (or at least to me it does). : )

What I used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Gear Up stamp set

Happy Birthday stamp set

Tiny Typewriter Alphabet stamp set (just for the black dots in the eyes)

Tinkerin B&T

White Daisy, Holiday Red, and Twilight CS

Black, Holiday Red, Sunflower, Twilight, Clover Meadow, and Grey Flannel inks

1 1/4" and 1 1/2" circle punches (EK Success)

Paper crimper (Dollar store find)

Screw-head brads (Dollar store find)

Pop-dots (other)

A great blog to check out... Nona's Pearls of Wisdom

For those of you who don't already know my fellow CTMH sistah, Nona has a wonderful blog full of great ideas, wonderful artwork and personal journeys. She is currently selling cards to help with her adoption fund, and she is offering a free template with each card purchase. As you can well imagine, it costs a lot of moola to adopt a child, so if anyone wants to help out, it's for a great cause. If you take the time to read through her blog, you will learn about the trials and tribulations of the adoption process, including all the heartbreak her and her family has experienced. But through it all, she has remained a positive, compassionate person with a great faith that it will happen. I know that God has a special plan for her. Wishing you all the best, Nona! Here's the link to Nona's blog.

Buy a Handmade Card, get the card sketch... plus a bonus!

I’m offering you a great deal where you can buy a card, handmade by me, and I’ll email you the sketch/instructions for the card at no additional cost, so you can re-create it with your own papers and stamps. And as a bonus, I will even offer you the instructions for one of my templates of your choice.
(Cost of one card is $4 CAN, plus $1.50 CAN for shipping to anywhere in Canada or the US.  Buy Now buttons are located below the pictures of the bonus templates on my sidebar.  If you are buying 3 or more, please email me for a better shipping rate and I'll send you an adjusted Paypal invoice.)

Right now I have available 5 different bonus templates (this may change as I create more) for you to choose from (you can find even more artwork for these items, listed under Labels: Vicki's Templates, in my sidebar):

• Treat Box
• Double Scraplings Cards & Gift Box
• A2 Card Box (larger version of the Double Scraplings Card Box)
• Scallop Edge A2 Card Box
• Large A2 Card Box (larger version of the A2 Card Box)

The handmade card(s) will be made from one of my sketches, and they will be left blank on the inside. (***Note: the card you will recieve will look different from the above pictures, but will be similar to the sample ones shown above because they will be all made with the same card sketches, but will have different papers, embellishments, and stamps used.   Edit:  I have and will continue to create new card sketches, so please click on Purchased Cards under Labels in my sidebar to view different samples of cards I've mailed out.)

You can email me if you want something other than a birthday sentiment, otherwise that will be what you will receive.

I will do my best to have your card in the mail to you within 24-48 hours of purchase, excluding weekends and holidays. (Usually the only other exception would be if I were away on vacation.)


***When paying with Paypal, be sure to leave me a comment to let me know the following (or email me):

• Birthday card or other sentiment?
• Mostly CTMH products or No preference?
• Please make sure that your mailing address listed with Paypal is up-to-date, as that is where I will be mailing your card to, unless you make a note otherwise. (I will email the bonus templates to you right away, and then I will email the card sketch I used to make your card once I've finished creating it.)

I have the shipping cost set up for Canada and USA, but if you are from somewhere else, please contact me about a shipping price for your area, as I will ship anywhere. :)

Any questions?... please email me at vwizniuk@pris.ca.

*** If you do not receive an email from me, please check your junk email folder, as it will likely be sitting there.  You may need to add me to your contacts list to receive an email from me.