Hope for Japan Charitable Fundraiser

The following are direct words from Jeanette Lynton, CEO of Close To My Heart:

"We've all been reeling with the images of tragedy and devastation in Japan. If you're looking for an easy, real, practical way to help relief efforts, then I invite you to contact your Close To My Heart Consultant!

Typically, our A-sized sets retail for $7.95/$8.95 CAN, but the "Hope for Japan" set will be available through April 30 for just $5--and Close To My Heart will be donating 100% of the profits to the American Red Cross to benefit relief efforts in Japan.

If we all do a little, together we can do a lot. Let's show our support and together, provide real HOPE for Japan!"

Let me know if you would like to place an order.  :)



A friend... touches your heart

I made this card around mid-January and realized I hadn't posted it yet.  Yikes!

It's fairly simple, but I like it.  :)

Happy creating!  :)

Supplies used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Paper:  Bliss B&Ts; Chocolate, Colonial White CS

Stamps:  Friendship - Feb SOTM, Blessed - April SOTM

Inks:  Chocolate, Grey Flannel

Embellishments:  Chocolate polka-dot organdy, Chocolate flower button, Cappuccino twine (The Twinery)

Punch:  Scallop border (SU)

Other:  Sponge, 3D foam tape

On my list of wants...

This is the chandelier I want to get for my scrapbooking room, to hang above the main work tables. 

Not exactly what I'm looking for, as I didn't really want any colour on it, I just wanted white or a creamy white, but definitley feminine and around 5-6 lights on it.

For some reason these are really hard to find, and this one is pretty, even tho the pink is not "matchy" with my blue scheme.  I'm ok with that.

But if by chance you should come across one in your travels, please let this girl know...

:)

Baby Boy card... an H2H Challenge

It's baby week over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog!

This is what I made for the challenge.  I think the longest amount of time I spent on this card was in looking for my Prisma colouring pencils that were packed away.  Of course they were in the last box I looked at.  {I've been busy packing, getting ready to move.}  Thankfully I had written down on the tops each box what is packed inside each one.

I had a lot of fun with this one!  I love the colour combo.  The bunny image is from the March SOTM Sensational Season.  It's full of adorable, Beatrix Potter type of images.  To colour the bunny, I used a combination of inks with my blender pen, and my Prisma colouring pencils with odourless mineral spirits and a blending stump.  I also random stamped the bunny image in Sunset ink onto the Sunset cardstock.

Happy creating!  :)

Supplies used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Paper:  Colonial White, Sunset, Chocolate, Lagoon CS

Stamps:  Sensational Season, Party Pennants, Birthday Boy, Tag the Occasion, Universal Backgrounds, Hit the Spot

Inks/Pencils:  Brown Staz-On, Grey Wool, Chocolate, Lagoon, Sunset; Prisma Colouring Pencils

Embellishments:  Chocolate grosgrain, Wooden button, Carribean Twine (The Twinery), Paper Doily (Michaels)

Punches:  1 1/4" circle, 2 1/4" and 2 1/2" circle (EK Success), Scallop border (SU)

Other:  Blending pen, Odourless Mineral Spirits (Michaels), Blending stumps (Michaels), 3D foam tape

Finally using a paper doily...!

These seem to be everywhere on the blogosphere lately... paper doilies used on cards, layouts, projects.  I picked some up over a month ago at Michaels and brought them with me to the weekend retreat a couple of weeks ago.

I am doing my best to buy with intention, so here's my intent... to use them!  lol

So on my first card, I pulled out the Wings Level 2 Paper Pack and the January SOTM Find Your Style for the butterfly and Tea Time for the sentiment.  {The white lace ribbon is from Walmart.} 

Using the same card layout, I made a second card.  I used B&T paper from the Sweetheart and Miracle Level 2 paper packs.  The tea pot and cup is from Tea Time and the sentiment from a must-have set called Card Chatter - Birthday.

So, with me being me, I only used 1 doily so far -- I cut the one I used in half.  Why can't I just use it up???  I guess that comes from growing up with very little.  I learned how to stretch stuff for as long as I could.  And that's a really hard habit to break!  ;)

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Which takes me to another topic...  after I move, I am planning to do a huge scrapbooking garage sale in my new crafty space.  There will be a bunch of tables set up, and I'm hoping that my sidelines and my upline will join me.  I'll spill the details once I have it all figured out.  It will likely be in May.   :)

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Happy creating!  :)

Supplies used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Butterfly card:

Paper:  Wings B&T; Colonial White, Black CS

Stamps:  Find Your Style, Tea Time

Inks:  Black, Juniper

Embellishments:  Black grosgrain, White lace ribbon (Walmart), Black button, Juniper waxy flax, Paper Doily (Michaels), Prisma Glitter

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

Other:  Micro-tip scissors, glue pen, 3D foam tape, 1/4" ScorTape (ScorPal)

Tea Pot card:

Paper:  Sweetheart B&T, Miracle B&T; Cotton Candy, White Daisy CS

Stamps:  Tea Time, Card Chatter - Happy Birthday

Inks:  Black, Sweet Leaf, Cotton Candy

Embellishments:  Cotton Candy Pom-pom ribbon, Paper Doily (Michaels)

Punch:  Dotted scallop border (EK Success)

Other:  Micro-tip scissors, 3D foam tape, 1/8" ScorTape (ScorPal)

Okay, We've Had Enough Winter Already! ;)

Photo by Unknown

Gosh, how can you tell I'm soooo ready for winter to be over?  We are finally having our first real warming (at least that I recall) where it was above zero and the sun actually had real heat to it since winter began, which just makes me wish Spring would arrive that much sooner.  ;)

...thought the picture was too funny not to share. 

:)

Latest pictures of the new house...

There's lots of changes since the last time I posted pictures of the progress.

• I've finished painting.  Whew!  That was a huge job and I'm so happy to be done.  {I'll just have to go in and fix the dings and marks on the walls after all the trades are done.}
• The hardwood maple floors have been installed in the living room, hallway and kitchen, and stained and oiled.  There was enough wood floor planks left over to do our master bedroom walk-in closet, too.
• The window trim has been installed throughout the house.
• The rails have been put up around the loft/hallway area in the upper floor.
• The firplace rock has been completed and the mantle built.  The area around the mantle will be grouted today and then the rock will be able to be sealed right away.
• The laminate flooring has been installed in Cole's bedroom and will be completed in my scrapbooking room today.
• Lino was installed in the laundry room and mudroom.
• The kitchen install has begun.  Lee will be picking up the rest of our appliances this weekend from cold storage at his sister's place.

Next week the carpet and the rest of the linoleum will be installed.  We will just have the tiling in the main entryway into the main floor bathroom, and the tiling in the master bathroom to do for flooring - and the tiling in the master shower and around the tub will need to get done, too. 

Once the flooring is done, they can start installing all the doors, and then the door trim and baseboards.  As well as some trim work around the beams, where the gyprock doesn't quite meet the beams perfectly and there are gaps. 

And the stairs need to be finished with hardwood and rails. 

The plumbing/ductwork is still a work in progress, too.  I think he should be done soon and then we can start up the geothermal heating system.  Right now the house is being heated by two little heaters.

Still lots to do... but on to the photos. 

I re-painted Cole's room in a warmer, kinda muddy grey called Graceful Grey - Behr.  I like it much better.

Plus his laminate flooring he requested is installed now.  {He didn't want carpet, I think so he can build lego's and stuff easier on the floor.}

It's hard to get a picture of "Cole's" little bathroom, but I painted the walls in the same Toasted Marshmallow colour as the majority of the house.

These pictures were taken last night before the sun set.

The kitchen cabinets are going in... these pictures will take you around the room.

Here's pics of the rails on the upper floor.

Here's what the fireplace looks like from the loft.

This is my scrapbooking room.  They started installing the same laminate as what's in Cole's bedroom and will have it completed today.  The cool thing about this laminate is that it has a built-in rubber backing, so they don't have to lay anything under it before installing it.  It's a nice, thick 15.3 mm laminate in a hand-scraped style that we found at Costco.

Looking down to the end on the left side in the picture below... that's where some upper and lower cabinets will eventually be installed, with a little sink and mini-fridge.  And the doorway beyond that is the main entrance for people to come through from the garage below for my future workshops/classes.

And one last picture is of Lee, getting the lighting ready.  He's up on a 10' ladder in the living room, just to give you a feeling of height in this room.  {He's 6'3".}

That's it for now.  Gotta continue with my packing!

:)

BFFs layout

Yes, it's been quite a while since I've created a layout to share.  I made this one for my friend who gave up her spot to me at the recent scrapbooking retreat I attended.   Please excuse the rushed, not-so-great photos of the pages.  I had to take the pics quickly before I rushed out of the house the morning after I got home from retreat to give it to her.

I used the Sweetheart Workshop On The Go kit for the majority of the layout.  The puffy button shapes and metal girlfriends title were given to me to use on this layout from another friend who was with me at the retreat, so I don't know which company makes those.

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Don't forget to check out my blog candy before you leave.

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Happy creating!  :)

Supplies used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Paper:  Sweetheart WOTG kit

Ink:  Black, Cotton Candy

Stamps:  Posterboard Alphabet, Cocktail Alphabet, Classmate Alphabet

Embellishments:  Pom-pom ribbon, Black waxy flax, girlfriends metal title (unknown), puffy buttons (unknown), heart brad (Making Memories)

Dies/Punch:  Top Note Bigz Die (SU), Island Floral Bigz Die (SU), Heart to Heart XL punch (SU), 1/2" circle punch (EK Success)

Other:  3D foam tape