Friday, July 29, 2011

C4C 98-Winter's Dream


Hi everyone and happy Saturday. It's challenge time again here at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and our challenge hostess Cindy is bring you her last fun challenge for the month. Today we are making Tent Card's. Here is a Tutorial for your  Tent Card!! The only difference in my card is that I made it 4.25" x 12" instead of 8.5".

My card worked up very quick and easy as I used the newly released Flower Soft Christmas Snow Globe Kit. This kit is specifically designed to work with the Flower Soft Snow Globes, however I wanted to think of other creative ideas to use them!  After cutting out the pieces of the kit and assembling the card, I added Polar White Flower soft to the snowy areas on the trees.

If you decide to play along with us, all you have to do is create a card/project, and upload it to your blog and/or to your SCS Gallery using the keyword C4C98. Don't forget to come back here and link it on Mr Linky so that everyone else can see it too.

Since I'm coming under the wire to make this post in time, I'm going to miss getting the team links up, but if you follow the links on my sidebar, you'll see all the Crazie's Creations!


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Challenge by AR-Challenge 2 Summer Bliss with a Slice of Orange!



This week, our challenge Hostess Lyn shares this! "

My favorite word is BLISS and my favorite color (right now) is orange...it's summer, it's hot, and it's blissful...! Take it from there girls!"  


And I say.....It is hot, it is summer and life has been blissful with our new puppy in the house!!!





Had to share one little sneak peek of her, but don't worry, I'll be blogging about her sweetness soon and you'll have to endure my tales of life with Sydney!!!!



I used this fun Bag it  Template for my project! Cut it on my Cricut, which makes the project go so quickly!!! The DP on the bag and the ribbon as well as the rub on, on the card is from SU. I pierced the handles to give them a wee bit of oomph!

Please play along with us to get the opportunity to win some great loot from Creations by AR. If you're loading your card into an online Gallery, the keyword is AR072811. Please link your project up HERE  on the Challenges by AR blog! Also follow the links on my sidebar to see the fabby DT creations!












Wednesday, July 27, 2011

SDC35: Red, Yellow, Orange-Let it Sizzle!





Are you ready for a new designer's challenge this week? We are ready to challenge you and today Kaz is your hostess. Here's what she has to say about the new challenge:

"When I took this week for my challenge back in the winter, I thought it would be lovely and summery so I decided to set a colour challenge using the sizzling colours of red, yellow and orange. I should have known better really as I do, after all, live in England. It's been positively Autumnal this month. Rain, wind and grey skies. Yuk. So I'd like you to help us entice the sunshine back to help warm my cold toes!!"

It's been red hot here in Canada though, so Kaz, the theme is JUST perfect for me!!!! For my card, I used Fleur Girl #3,  Splatter Long and Diva. In addition, I had this extra little flower left over from my Sympathy card, so I utilized my Lemon Yellow Flower Soft creation to suit this card by popping a red button into the middle!



My image is coloured with COPIC markers and the Newsprint DP is from Stampin' Up!

Please remember this challenge is a STAMPOTIQUE ONLY stamps week. Create a new creation with your Stampotique stamps and enter it below using InLinkz. Please enter by linking directly to your creation. Only one entry per person. This challenge will close on 8/9/11 at 5 p.m. eastern time.

Join us for your chance to win a $30 gift certificate to Stampotique (good for stamps) as we randomly choose a winner of our next challenge.

Follow the links on the sidebar of my blog to load up your creations on the Challenge Blog and to check out my talented Stampotique Diva's wonderful creations!

Happy Stamping!





Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Impression Obsession Challenge



I made this fun summer themed card for Impression Obsession's latest challenge, which was to use all IO stamps on your project to celebrate CHA Sneak Peek week and the debut of all the Fabulous images now available in the Impression Obsession online store. You can see all of the new images HERE. For my card, I used Lanterns, which I think is a very very pretty stamp. I don't have any IO sentiments, so I used this MM metal sentiment. I coloured my image with Copic Markers and then added a touch of Pearl Pen to add some dimension to the Berries on the Tree. I love the whimsical look of this tree and the fun patio set under the lanterns.  If you would like to play in the challenge, you have a wee bit of time left and can read about it HERE

Well, I'm off to pick up my son and then we're headed to pick up the latest addition to our Family........wait until you see HER!!!! I'm SOOOO excited!

Happy Stamping!

Monday, July 25, 2011

With Sympathy



Normally, when I create Sympathy cards, they are fairly neutral in colour and tone. This care is a little brighter, but perhaps it conveys a them of brighter days ahead. I created the soft flowers by using my spellbinders flower die cuts, then adding some Sunshine Yellow over the fronts, leaving the border tocreate more dimension in the middle.  The sentiment for this set is from The {Stamps} of Life  Sympathy4you set.  Leaves were made with a SU flower punch and Ribbon from SU as well. Border Punch is from Martha Stewart and I used the Beaded Oval Die from Spellbinders

Have a great week!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

C4C97 Shake it up baby!



Hi everyone and happy Saturday. It's challenge time again here at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and our challenge hostess Cindy has another fun challenge for you. Today we are making Shaker Card's. Here is a Tutorial for your Shaker Card!!

If you decide to play along with us, all you have to do is create a card/project, and upload it to your blog and/or to your SCS Gallery using the keyword C4C97. Don't forget to go back here and link it on Mr Linky so that everyone else can see it too.

For my card, I used this adorable image, Stanley the Snail from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. The palm tree and sentiment is from The {Stamps} of Life  July stamp of the month-Island2visit. the little sand dollar embellie is also made with a stamp from this same set. Image is coloured with Copic Markers and the shaker is filled with Ultrafine Sand Flower Soft. Border punches from EK Success.

Check out what's shakin' with my sweet crazies!




Have an amazing weekend and Happy Stamping!





Tuesday, July 19, 2011

It's a colour challenge!!!


It's not the colour that's a challenge. Quite often it's a challenge just to stamp for fun! I made the time this morning to create this card for the Splitcoaststampers Colour Challenge

I found this adorable Turtle while browsing Kraftin' Kimmie's June Release Stamps
Kimmie has a new artist Emilie and her characters are just darned cute!

This Guy is Sunny the Turtle. He just plain out makes me smile and I had to have him along with a couple of other adorable images. Watch later this week for another of Emilie's sweet Summer Images!

The sentiment is from The Stamps of  Life Island2visit  set, which is the July set of the month. The sun outline is from last summer's Summer4fun set, also available at TSOL

Hope you have a Sunny Day!

Sundays are made for fishing and what a catch it was!!!!




I'm not sure if any or all of you know this, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE to fish. I really didn't discover this until a couple of years ago when my guy suggested that I give fishing a go! I mean, I''ve fished before......fared out really well at the fishponds at the fairs when I was little. When Jon was younger, we'd rent a cottage for a week in the summer. A fishing pole in hand, I'd find a bait shop and buy a box of worms. I absolutely Abhored baiting the hook, but like swimming in a soft bottom weedy lake, I'd do this all with a smile on my face. Lord knows, I didn't want Jonathon to develop a phobia about lake water and worms! lol.




Fishing can be very relaxing, but it also can be completely frustrating. We set out at about 5:40 a.m. on Sunday Morning...........yep, you saw that correctly...........5:40 AM........to explore the fishing spots in a remote area of the lake. Not the usual spots that are close to the Cottage and where I"m guaranteed to catcha good harvest of Crappie, but down to areas that we haven't fished before. It was actually quite chilly, thus the hoodie! So away we went. Nothing seemed to be going right for me.............I was having trouble with my casting, of course it must have been a bum reel............and all I seemed to be reeling in was \SALAD!!! that's my way of describing weeds!!! I always brag about how effective I am about catching the side dishes!!!



Paul was having much more luck than me. He'd cast out and bring in a nice bass..........catch another and move along...............needless to say, when you get frustrated, your cognitions can get a little wonky.........too say the least and I was thinking...hmmmm , maybe these fish just don't like me!!!!

I found myself complaining about my abilities.............. I can't cast, I can't fish......... I'll never learn.........and then it dawned on me that at this rate, I musn't be too fun to fish with........so I turned to Paul and said "how do you like fishing with a negative Norma?" He just chuckled and so did I. I realized that although I wasn't catching any fish, I was out on a beautiful lake on a gorgeous day. I'd enjoyed the sun's rising, drinking in the hues of pink and mauve against a robin's egg blue sky. I was reveling in the beauty of this day.




So I relaxed and I fished. All the negativity washed from my brain, just enjoying the moment. There is much to be said about the power of positive thinking...........no it wasn't like the Secret, where I willed those big fish to come to me.......it was just making a concerted effort to focus on the positive aspects of the morning.  I cast out my line................a smooth cast and slowly reeled in. Thinking that I was hung up on a REALLY big weed, I started to reel in. As my line tugged left and right, I knew that I had protein on my line......PHEW finally I had something to compliment my salad. A fish!!!! A big fish!!! In fact the biggest fish I've ever caught!!!!! YAY!!!!! and yes, I did say YAY!!!!! Beaming in my moment of excitement, clapping my hands and giggling voraciously I celebrated!!!! Just as I had wished that I'd brought the camera to capture the beauty of the sunrise, Paul said he wished he had a camera to capture the glow on my face at that moment.


It wasn't long after that, I caught another; just a touch smaller than the first.........Large Mouth Bass are very tasty. With an ample harvest in the boat bales, off we went to clean and prepare our breakfast. A wonderful start to a glorious Sunday.

I placed a new card on the Flower Soft blog yeseterday. You can check it out here


Saturday, July 16, 2011

C4C96 Joy Fold Card



Hi everyone and happy Saturday. It's challenge time again here at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and our challenge hostess Cindy has another fun challenge for you. Today we are making Joy Fold Card's. Here is a Tutorial for you Joy Fold Card!!




For my creation, I used the following fun stamps from Stampotique Originals:

You've seen him here before, he's one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE  Daniel Torrente Images

He's the short chubby fella with the sharp teeth

I'm sure that Wilbur is his Big Brother

For the inside of the card, I used Happy Birthday and Do the Math which are from Stampin Up! and another company.......it slips my mind........I think Rubberworks?






For the DP , I used Graphic 45 Le Cirque Collection




I also used Tim Holtz Idealogy Adage Tickets and Sprocket Gears also available at Stampotique


If you decide to play along with us, all you have to do is create a card/project, and upload it to your blog and/or to your SCS Gallery using the keyword C4C96. Don't forget to go back here and link it on Mr Linky so that everyone else can see it too.












  • Frances Byrne









  • Jessie Rone








  • Joanne Grzelak







  • Joycelyn Turner







  • Lynda Benden







  • Maria Bell







  • Silke Kittmann







  • Silke Ledlow














  • Barbara Anders







  • Thursday, July 14, 2011

    SDC34-Flower Power~!


    If friends were flowers, I'd choose you... ALL!


    It's time for a new challenge here at the Stampotique Designer’s Challenge blog.This week Gez is challenging you to use flowers on your creation.

    Take a look at the fabulous Design Team samples for lots of flower power inspiration.

    This week you can use any stamps you would like but please only enter once and link directly to your creation. You can win a fabby gift certificate for playing along. Link your cards up HERE and get all the scoop on the challenge!

    For my creation, I used a few yummy stamps from Stampotique Originals including Bouquet  Friend and Jo's Flower Cube

    I really like this clean and simple layout, which I cased from a SU catalogue sample. Papers used are Vanilla, Turquoise and Kraft...........Ribbon is a retired satin in pomegranite from SU!  Image is coloured with Copic Markers. Lastly, I dusted a smidgen of fine glitter on the flowers to give them a bit of zing~

    Hope you have a wonderful day and Happy Stamping of course~

    You can find copics HERE


    Saturday, July 9, 2011

    C4C95- Summer themed card


    I must apologize for being late with my creation. The week just completely got away on me and I didn't have any spare time until this morning to complete my card. This week, our amazing Cindy has Challenged us to create a summer themed card...........when I see all the bright cheery cards on the C4C Challenge blog, I'm thinking that perhaps my card isn't so summery with it's earthy tones, but what I was thinking was having my flower imitate a Sunflower.......... So it's as summery as I'm going to get on this sweet balmy day!




    As you can see, I've made the Flower the main focus of my card. For Stamps I used the Cover a Card Damask Stamp to create the border along the bottom of my card.  I then used my heart lace nestie to create a base to ground these sweet Love Note Hearts. The sentiment is a rub on from SU , punched with the word tag punch. I added some kraft leaves fashioned from my sizzix die and gave then as well as the lace heart circle some dimension with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  Flowers are from Prima~

    I'm also entering my card in the Impression Obsession Well hello there Challenge pop on over and see what's happening there and be sure to hit the links on my sidebar to see what my sweet crazies have been up to


    Shop the latest HOT PRODUCTS at Two Peas in a Bucket.
    Featured Supplies



    Thursday, July 7, 2011

    Challenges by AR!!! AR-070711- It's a wild thing!



    CELEBRATE WITH US beginning JULY 7th, 2011 For Our Very First Challenge!

    During the week of July 7-14, we will be choosing a random winner EVERY DAY to win a not yet released template at Creations by AR. All you have to do to be eligible is to leave a comment! Every day we will choose one winner from the list of comments received that day, so you'll have several chances to win!

    Check back here (the challenges by ar blog) every day to see if your name is listed in the "Winners" area on the sidebar. If you're a winner, send an email to creationsbyar@sbcglobal.net!


    The challenge for this week is Wild Prints............I have to admit, that it was a wild search to find some animal print paper for the challenge, but I was able to salvage some small scraps from my spare paper bin! I've had this DP for awhile and frankly, can't remember where it hailed from, but it sure is pretty and fuzzy and well, just all over yummy!!!!

    For my project , I used the fabulous "Tray Chic" . Using my Cricut and the SVG cutting file, I was able to cut this with little effort. To give the black cardstock a little dimension, I used a sizzix embossing folder. I created a quick and easy 3.5x 3.5 gift card by cutting and embossing a 7 x 3.5 piece of Cardstock. The sentiment is from the flowers2share set from The {Stamps}of Life.




    I used some Metallic Dew Drops to add a little oomph to the wild strip on the card

    Did you KNOW?
    .
     that for every project you submit for the challenge, you will receive a $1.00 gift certificate towards any purchase at the Shop!

    Make sure you check out the very talented Challenge DT creations!

    Maria Levine

    Magdalena Cortez

    Lyn Bernatovich

    Lori Tecler

    Lisa Somerville

    Lisa Eisner

    Adela Rossol



    Can't wait to see your "wild" creations!





    Saturday, July 2, 2011

    C4C 94-Center Step Card



    It's a brand new month so it is time to introduce a new challenge hostess for the month of May. Cindy Haffner will be bring us some awesome challenges throughout the month!

    The first challenge this month is to make a Center Step Card. Here are directions from our very own Frances: Center Step Card!!~


    For my card, I used this Gorgeous Circus Paper from Graphic 45......... I really let the images in the Paper create a main focal point.

    The Happy Birthday Stamp is from The {Stamps} of  Life  and the inside sentiment if from River City Rubber Works

    If you decide to play along with us, all you have to do is create a card/project, and upload it to your blog and/or to your SCS Gallery using the keyword C4C94. Don't forget to come back here and link it on Mr Linky so that everyone else can see it too

    Let's see what the "crazies" have come up with this week ....


    Just wanted to share a couple of Pictures from our Canada Day Celebration Yesterday.......that's my Beautiful Mother Sandy!


    My Mom's Brother Bert and my Auntie Mary!


    Do you like my new Hat  Mom??


    My Dad-------He Turns 76 today~ Happy Birthday Dad~



    Me, Jonathon and Jon's friend Harry!



    Proud to be Canadian!