Nannie's Frame

This is an old photo of my grandmothers parents that I did up for her 70th birthday. She is a big fame of these classic colours and so I tried to incorporate that into the design. I am happy with the way it turned out.

I don't think there is a challenge out there that this fits so I will have to post it for pure fun :)

I did not fall off the face of the earth ....

Well I am back to my little blog after a very busy November/December. I finished school, helped organize a dinner for 160 people to raise money for Christmas hampers, did a caroling competition and taught my first ever card class. So I did have good reasons to be busy but I really missed doing all the blog challenges and being inspired by every ones creative minds.

To start my postings off I wanted to share a picture of the class I taught at Scrappers Anonymous. It was a blast and it was thrilling to have people make a project that I had designed.



I will be posting a frame I have been working on for my grandmothers 70th birthday in a bit here and I will try and get the couple of attempts at some recent cards up too.

I am hoping to get back to some of the challenges this weekend but if it doesn't happen I wish everyone a very merry Christmas!

Laurie

The Magic of Winter

I am a huge, HUGE, Christmas fan and until this year I never did much crafting in a Christmas theme for some reason. Other then the odd gift,a handful of cards and a few other things but never all the projects I had floating in my head.

So this new creation (I am working on turning this into a class possibly! Very exciting for me since it would be a first) was inspired from some paper I bought called "Jovial" which I think is a funky take on Christmas paper. It also sealed the deal as paper of choice when I saw the Colour Queen challenge for this week and I think it matched really closely. Since it's such an in depth project time wise I was pleased that I could find a challenge for it.

I also get to play along with the excellent Paper Players this week with there anything goes challenge.



I"m working on finishing up one other flower arrangement for another challenge and for a family member who is going to be celebrating 5 years of being breast cancer free! I will try and get that up later today.

Christmas Is Love

So I got a change to do a bit of crafting before tomorrow. Lucky me. I did this up for a couple of challenges. I used the rules from the Paper Players (and mostly Stamping Up product, yay me! lol) the colours from Color Throwdown and I found this fantastic sketch at Skipping Stones.

NOW when I found the sketch on the Skipping Stones site I didn't take my usual peek at the projects. I liek to do that so that I don't create anything to similar. So I went back to link up and the twin (in my opinion) to my card was sitting there! lol I must have been channelling the maker of the twin (same stamp, almost same paper). So long story short I am not going to enter that challenge because I don't want to step on someone else's colours and design. I should have looked first, that will teach me! ;)

Hockey Birthday

Well it's been awhile again since I have been online and updating but such is life right! :)

I did this card up for my mom for a friend of hers and I think it turned out cute.

This is Cricut cuts from both paper doll cartridges and Don Juan. I used an edge punch, some ribbon and a cuttlebug folder to create the background.

Well I still have more to post but I won't have time until Saturday to get them all up!

Back in Action! :)

Well I am finally back to crafting today. I was up doing a class at Lesley's on some beautiful Christmas cards yesterday and was inspired to keep crafting today.

This is a set of thank you cards using the theme from the Paper Players this week. I was anxious to use this bunched ribbon technique after I saw a card at Lesley's yesterday where she had done it and so I used that too.



I have a few other cards that I need to photograph and post from last weekend I just haven't had time yet. I will get to it! :)

Thanks for taking a peek at my creations!

Laurie

Hello all ...

Hello wonderful blog world.

So I do have a few projects to post I am just running out of time with my final exam looming over my head ... I will try and take some time to myself at lunch to make a post or two and if not it won't happen until Friday. Such is life.

Cross your fingers for me if you are reading this as I am about to head into a final exam that 45% of people fail the first time. I REALLY wish I hadn't found that out!

Have a great day,
Laurie

Dreams Really Do Come True

I did this card up for the Peachy Keen Challenge and the My Pink Stamper Challenge.

My pink stampers challenge was to add a bird. I added a little pink bird to go with my scene from the Winter Woodland cartridge.

I used my Peachy Keen face stamps and the layout from there challenge to complete my project.

This was their challenge sketch:


I flipped the square (my princess) and the orange stripe (my tree) to opposite sides of the sketch. The brown strip is my ribbon and the squares are my castle scene in the background. I used the faces I had on the princess and the sun. I'm probably over doing these scene cards but I'm having a really good time with them and they are forcing me to get really creative!

FYI ... It Will Getter Better

So I just got my new Stamping Up FYI stamps from my favorite Stamping Up demonstrator! :) I bought these a while ago and for some reason I find them hilarious. I don't think anyone else (that I know anyway) thinks they are quite as hilarious as I do but they just hit my funny bone and so I had to use them right away.

I was blog hoping a bit and found a few blogs I wanted to play with this week and of course I had to play along with Paper Players since they are (I think they all are) Stamping Up ladies and I have a set of Stamping Up stamps that I am using! I found inspiration in the cheeky little girl and her adorable outfit.

I also had to play along with Fantabulous Cricut because I do love using my cricut and their challenge was none other then faux (or real) stitching which I have an addiction to doing. So perfect challenge! lol

Last but not least was the challenge at Practical Scrappers which was stamps. Which I used obviously and thought it would be fun to play along with them.

I did a card with a similar layout to this last week and I find them really fun little scenes to build and think I may just build more. My card was built around the "It will get better" FYI stamp (hilarious! I just think it's funny to use For Your Information in front of these different sayings) and I thought it would be a fun card to give to a busy mom as a joke one day.

No one is sleeping, the bear is ripped and the bottle is knocked over and the baby is cranky ... I think all mom's have crazy days now and then :).

Ready, Set, Grow

I did this up for the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge which was a harvest/garden theme.

I don't really give any cards that would fall into that category so I had to think of something that would work for a card I would give. I was noted to use fall themed colours and I had this ribbon that I'very had forever that I wanted to use.

A bit of staring at the paper and my cartridges and I came up with this.

I thought it would make a nice baby card! I used Wall Decor and More which I haven't used much yet and I think it turned into my favorite of the day!

It's Your Birthday!

Just a card to add to my card box. I really liked the sketch at Just Add Ink and came up with this take on it.

Morning Surprise

A couple of things ...

#1. I was very lucky to be picked over at Jitterbuggin as top 3 for my apple themed card. So thanks very much to Sherri and her wonderful challenges.

#2. Dorcus at http://4craftyangels.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway and she is really lovely and always takes time to comment on peoples posts so you should pop over and support her.

#3. COMMENTS... I really try hard to comment back when people comment on my posts because I really appreciate people taking the effort to do so. That being said there are people that don't actually have their blogs listed in there profiles so I can't find you to say thanks and to check out your work. So if I don't comment I'm sorry and that is why! The other reason could be that I will have just gone temporarily insane and missed your comment altogether ... :)

Puppy Party

I had a bit of time tonight and wanted to create a cute card for my sisters birthday that is coming up soon.

I used the sketch from Mojo Mondays challenge. I really wanted to challenge myself and as per usual I sat there staring at paper and then came up with this idea to use the ribbon as the tall vertical layer in the sketch. I think it turned out ok!

I was able to incorporate the challenge from Practical Scrappers, a new to me challenge which was exciting for me. The ribbon was hard to work with ... I used curling ribbon and getting it to loop and stick was not fun ... but in the end it looks like a puppy all rolled in ribbon and that was the goal. :)

I was also able to incorporate the `Cute and Cuddly` theme from the Pollycraft Monday Challenge blog, also new to me!

So two new excellent blogs to keep an eye on for me and a great sketch to work from so ìt was a successful evening overall.



Sorry the image is a little dark ... I`m not quite sure why! :)

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree!

Ok I am super proud of this!

Mostly because it took way longer then it should have (I won't lie I've been working on it for like 3 hours)so I'm attached to the project.

The best part is I again have no one to give this to (AGAIN!) but it was what I was inspired to make based on the two challenges I wanted to enter. I ended up thinking it would be nice to make a card for parents of a graduate based on "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree".

I entered the Jitterbug challenge and used it's apple theme, colours and layout as my inspiration but it was when I found the challenge at Throwback Thursday that I came up with an actual idea.

I had paper picked out as soon as I read the Jitterbug challenge the other day but it was when I found Emma's challenge to use old cartridges that I got to brainstorming. I ended up using Paper Doll Dress Up, Stretch Your Imagination, and Accent Essential (Three of the very first cartridges I had) and a touch of Everyday Paper Dolls to make the graduate gown.

I think overall it turned out cute and I am really happy with my last minute add on of the button clouds!



Laurie

#1 Teacher

I have no use for this card ... lol, but I made it anyway since I was inspired by a few challenges and it just sort of came together.

I got my colour inspiration from Paper Players, my layout from Inspirational Card Sketches and my theme from Fantabulous Cricut.

Flower Window

Ok, so I know I've made a window card before! BUT a window card was all I could see when I was finding inspiration from this weeks sketch over at Peachy Keen Stamps. lol

You had to use this colour combo and sketch.



This is what I was inspired to do. Again, I don't have a ton of Peachy Keen stamps but I love using the faces I do have in different ways!



So to try something new and different I scored siding and used my crimper to make curtains which I think turned out cute!

Laurie

Cindy Loo and challenges!

Well now that I am back into the swing of the year I had a bit of time to craft today! yay :)

I made this card using the Cindy Loo cartridge (which I was lucky enough to treat myself to today at Michael's during there sale!) for the circle with the tree design and the little bird. I made it for the Colour Throwdown challenge and the Mojo Monday challenge. Both were difficult for me this week as I had to go through all of my paper to find something to match the colours at the Throwdown and I was having a had time with the sketch and then with Cindy Loo it just sort of came together!



The picture of this isn't quite right on the actually colours but you get the idea!

Laurie

oh time!

Well I wish, wish, wish that I had some time to craft this week but I am just to busy! hopefully next week or the weekend. I'm missing working on challenges and can't wait to do some.

Laurie

Happy Day AGAIN! lol

I was picked top 5 over at the Peachy Keen Challenge site. How amazingly lucky am I!

It was for my super star card which I was really happy with so that makes me even happier!

What a great lunch time surprise! lol

Laurie

New Shelf

SO my lovely father built me a shelf that I "designed" (I don't know that you can really design a bookshelf) so I will just give myself credit for coming up with the right measurements for the shelves. I wanted it to be for my current cartridges but big enough that if and when I get more cartridges it would hold them all. So I got him to build it a big bigger then needed but I figured I could use it to hold some current projects etc. I think he just did the best job! I love it and it's actually really nice to have a place to put my cards, I usually just put them in a bucket!



Anyway thanks dad you did a great job and I find the whole thing very inspirational, I love looking over there mid day as I do my work! :)


L

A nice surprise!

Well I had no time to craft this weekend, it was a sort of busy/putter around the house kind of weekend. On a lovely, happy surprise note I made the headlines over at the Paper Players Blog for my "Have a berry nice day" card. There was some really cute projects (which I fully plan on "scraplifting") and so I am thrilled to be choosen as the headliner!

Thanks again ladies of The Paper Players!

On an unrelated note my custon built shelf my lovely dad built for my cricut cartridges is up and running and I keep coming into the den to look at it, lol. So I feel like pictures are in order so I will post those tomorrow just for fun.

Laurie

Have a berry nice day!

My inspirations for this photo were from two different challenge sites.

I got my colour and theme inspiration from The Paper Players website. It took me a couple of days of just sort of thinking about the picture to come up with what I wanted to do.

I got my layout from the sketch challenge over at Mojo Monday. I centered the ribbon and even though you can't see if because the paper is black there are 3 little black glitter dots under the ribbon just like on the sketch ... darn camera! :)

Featured Stamper

I'm very excited this evening! I got chosen as the featured stamper over at The Color Throwdown. There are so many great projects submitted on this site you should take a look. I can never make it though all the postings but the thumbnails are great too! I've only played a couple of times there and they always have great color challenges (I never seem to have the colours! lol) and beautiful inspiration. Thanks again to all the ladies for featuring my project.

Laurie

Believe

So there were two challenges today that I actually had colours for so that has been my project for this afternoon.

I really likes the sketch over at Mojo Mondays and so I twisted it a bit but I still think it looks like the original!

I also used the colours from the Colour Throwdown and they worked out really well.

I took a few shots so you could see how the card works. It's sort of an envelope and card in one!

Birthday Wishes

I got a couple of things made this morning during my exciting day off to craft!

This first one is a challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary and I actually had paper with all the colours so I just had to play along!



This next one I wanted to make something that my sister could use and she goes through a lot of notebooks at work so I decided to make her a notebook to fit in with the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog I really like how this turned out and I think she will like it! I've never done a challenge over at there site but there is some great inspiration so you should all play along!



Off to lunch! :)

Just moved card

Ok SOOOO this week I was going to actually make the Jitterbug challenge on time, lol! So I made my card tonight so that there was no way I could miss the deadline.

So for this challenge you had to use stripes (my ribbon) and add an animal or two (monkey, bird, bug in my case). I started out and decided to use a tree as my main shape and I was just thinking I will put a bird in the tree as my animal. BUT that got me thinking even more and that got me making a "Just Moved" card and all these little animals were moving into the tree!

I have no one to give this too, lol but I think it turned out cute! I'm just excited that I've had this evening and I have tomorrow during the day to just craft away. YAY!



Oh and as a side note these animals are like 1 inch big and that was a big big mistake on my part! lol

Christmas in advance!

I was working on this for the challenge over at the Jitterbug site! I was wrong about the deadline and so I missed the challenge but Sherri was kind enough to post it on her site.



You were supposed to do a vehicle ... I think this counts as a vehicle, no? lol

Charlie and Annie

I had some time today to make a layout for the Papertake Weekly Challenge I found the site on one of my clicking adventures, lol, and I was inspired to play along.

I thought their sketch was perfect for a layout, I had to make a little change to accomodate the paper I was using (croped a corner so you could see the bird) but I think it still works and follows the sketch!



I had to use the scraps to make something since they were so cute so I just put together a little birthday card to have on hand.

Super Star

My friend Kelly told me the Peachy Keen Stamps does a challenge so I headed over to check it out this week and was insired by the colours so I decided to play along.

I don't have many stamps but I do have two sets of their face stamps so I decided to try and come up with something creative and use them in a different way!

Fingers Crossed!

Well ladies and gents! If you can imagine there I was fiddling around with the wires around my desk getting it tidied up for the cable guy who is coming to fix my failing modem. I saw that my cricut was plugged into the wrong power supply (a different power cord etc) and so not thinking it would help at all (power is power right! lol) I switched the cords and gave it a whirl and a MIRACLE happened!!! it seemed to fix the issue. I only had time for a quick test cut but it seemed good.

Yay, Yay, Yay!

I never would have thought that using a different power cord would have created the issue.

Keep your fingers crossed that when I craft tonight it's still fixed! ;)

L

Somebirdy Loves You

Here is my card for this weeks challenge over at the Photo-Synthesis Challenge site. It also fits the challenge over at The Paper Players Site. I sure needed the creative boost of Lesley's design tonight and I took a little creative liberty on the placement of the flowers as a lower accent then the two dots on her sketch. BUT in the end I think it works.

I also worked with Digistamps for this challenge which was neat for me to try. Tiffany over at Tiffany Doodles has some lovely images and I just fell in love with the little bird she made and the saying and used them to make this nice little scene!

I'm still in a mood about my circut but at least this little card turned out cute and lifted my spirits a little for now!

WELL!

I'm in a state of slight panic ladies and gents. My cricut may be broken ... this is a really bad time for it to be broken since I don't know that a new one would be possibly for me right now.

Has anyone ever had trouble loading the mats (like they don't seem to catch in the roller) and having there cuts be completely off ... like lopsided shapes and circles that don't start and finish in the same place?

*Sigh* Not what I need right now!

Laurie

Friday Night Girls Craft Night!

So we have had our girls craft night ... it was a blast! All sorts of crafting happening from paper crafts to ceramics and door prizes and goodies. It was a fun night over all. There were 8 of us in the end and it was a great number to be able to chat with everyone and still be sitting to work on your projects.

Here are a few picture:




My GOAL for the night was to make 10 cards trying to use up my scraps only. I only got 8 made but I was really happy with that since there was A LOT of chatting happening. lol

Below are my cards that I got done.

Laurie

PS There is a great giveaway here at Melissa's site, I think it's still open!

Favorites of the night!

Left Overs :)

I wanted to use up the rest of the little animal paper I had sitting in my drawer so I used it here:

Birthday Wishes Sunflower

Birthday Wishes

Hello

Excited ...

Well I never thought I would get more then just a few blog followers ... and now look! Almost 30 ... that makes me super excited. I am going to have to change my goal of 10 followers to 50 I've decided. I don't know if I'll get there but I will be one happy gal if I do!! lol

I relly am enjoying blogging and learning all sort of new tips and tricks from reading everyone elses blogs. The creative people out there never stop amazing me. So talented this world is!

I'm off to a girls craft night tonight that my friend and I have organized and I am going to try and get a bunch of cards done. I'm in a card mood not a scrapbooking mood so hopefully I will actually get some work done and not just sit around and snack and chat! lol

L

Life Gives You Lemons

Hello All,

Just a note to tell you about a new challenge site. I am pleased and excitied to say that I am on the design team. You should come out and play along, the colours for this first challenge are amazing! The Photo-Synthesis Challenge

Here is my design team entry!



Laurie

Happy Day

I did this card up for my sister as a congratulations card. I wanted to work with the vintage challenge at Always Playing With Paper the design at Mojo Monday and the colours at Color Throwdown. Usually I can only make a project to fit one maybe two challenges and yet today when I was blog hoping and enjoying looking at every ones hard work and creativity I found three that I could work with for one card. ]

I'm really loving doing these challenges... I find that since I've started them and starting blogging I am finding myself much more motivated to find time to craft, even if it's only an hour, and to not spend soooo much time on each item. I still take way to long, lol, but I'm getting a lot better and making decent cards in under 1 hour! :)

Happy Birthday Spider Card

I wanted to take part in the Jitterbuggin' Challenge again this week and so I decided to make a card for my friends little girls birthday. It's the next child's birthday I have coming up. It's not until October 31st, Halloween, and she will be turning 2. I think it's kind of cute to play off of Halloween for her birthday but wanted something cute for a little girl too! I think this came out nicely.



Laurie

Picked In the top 4!

I'm feeling pretty special this week! I was picked at Always Playing With Paper as "A Cut Above" ... so I'm feeling pretty lucky yet again!

_________________________________________________________

I've also had a chance to work on some crafting this morning and made some little bottle tags with my friend Kelly for a craft night we are doing next week! What I actually like best is we used the cut outs from the punch where the top of the water goes through as part of the decoration on the bottom... I love when you get to use up scraps like that!

This is the inspiration photo:



and here is my project ...



I've added the sour cream shaped treat containers I finished this morning (filled with candies if your curious :) ) and photographed them altogether. Michelle below mentioned a challenge blog that my project would fit (Thanks Michelle!) so I am very excited to find a challenge to enter it into because I didn't think I would. There are lots of great posts and projects on this new (to me :) ) site. Check it out! Off The Wall

Have a great day,
Laurie

Jitterbuggin'

I'm very excited, I got top 3 at the Jitterbugin' challenge this week for my panda card!

Thanks Sherri and the Jitterbuggin' Challenge.

Laurie

Because ... Some days you are the bug, and some days you are the window!

I was sitting here trying to think of something creative for two challenges and I had a bunch of pink paper left over from a card I made to send to a women who blogs who has breast cancer. So then it got me thinking. I have a family member who will celebrate 5 years in remission in November so I will create something for her. She is a very funny and outgoing lady and I thought I need to think of something a little out of the ordinary to put on it. So after staring at paper and embellishments for a bit (Kate and I would make a good crafting team ... sitting in silence staring at paper ;) ) I came up with this idea.

"Some days you are the bug and some days you are the window" ... I had read that somewhere (or something like that) and I think it fits the sketch at Just Add Ink and the animal (bumble bee and embosed puppy) at Fantabulous Cricut .



L

Love

This card seems to fit in with two challenges! I was inspired by the colours and rich tones over at Always Playing with Paper and I needed some ideas for a layout and came across a new site (well new to me!) called The Sweetest Thing

Make sure you check out both sites and join in! They are both great!

Laurie

Thinking of You - Panda Card

I did this up for the Jitterbugin' challenge. I had to sit and stare at a few cartridges and some paper for a good 15 minutes before anything came to me, lol ... but eventually I came up with an idea! I really like the orange, it seems to pop on the black and white theme.

No crafting

So I didn't even lift a pair of scissors or glue yesterday. Saturday was very tiring and so I vegged out yesterday. Maybe tonight I will get around to it ... I've missed a few challenges I wanted to do though :(

ALSO my background disappeared and so I am going to try this one and it's layout for now until I find something a bit more crafty ...

L

Fantabulous Cricut

I got picked as a top 5 over at the Fantabulous Cricut blog so I am very excited! It's a fun blog with some great challenges for anyone who is a cricut person. Check it out here: Fantabulous Cricut Blog

I think I am going to get a chance to craft again this Sunday. Yay. I'm going to try and finish my Alaska book and try to join a few challenges again. I'm also hoping my Wall Decor and More cartridge shows up because I have some vinyl sitting here just waiting to be played with!!

L

Sweet card or layout?

So I had this idea for a card based on the challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut Blog and I got cutting out pieces etc eventually making this WAY to big card. lol. It's made completly with "From My Kitchen" and it did turn out cute but I'm almost wondering if it should be turned into a layout. I could see it as a layout for sure. BUT on the other hand sending it as a bit of a joke to someone joking about there can never be too many goodies on your birthday etc would be fun. Well I think I will tuck it away and wait and see what event comes up that it might work for.