Mid-month Inspiration- Tyssyna!

Hi Everybody!

Very quick post for today... I have not been able to make even one single card this month!  But I have still been VERY BUSY with MDS and will have some layouts from that to show you over the next few days!  Here's one to get you started!

My sweet niece Tyssyna... she's a little firecracker!  This was a custom canvas (8.5" x 5.5") I created in MDS for a gift book I created for someone... can't say anything else on here.... until they get it!

And... don't you love her name?  This is a VERY old family name... five generations so far.  And in each generation there are many that have it or some variation of it.  I'll have to ask my Mom for the pictures of each generation that has passed it on, to post on here.  Love very old family pictures!

Anyway.... I am linking this up to Stampin' Celebration... it's the middle of the month, so it's time for a sketch to get your mojo flowing!  Check out the blog, create a project using our photo inspiration or the sketch... or both... and then link it up to earn a chance to be December's Pick of the Party!

Here's the sketch!

Don't forget to follow the blog hop on the Stampin' Celebration site to check out what all the other design team members have created to inspire you!

Thanks for looking!  Now... get creating!

I'm Baaack...

... from Mexico that is!  Yes... I was relaxing on the warm sandy beaches of the Mayan Riviera... taking tons and tons of pictures so that I can make lots of scrapbook layouts (using MDS of course!)  So, I'm back, but that's about it.... no cards or creative-ness yet!  

I'll get settled and answer ALL the questions my kids are asking about... absolutely EVERYTHING!!!  It sounds like they had an absolutely fabulous time staying with Grandpa and Grandma... one big party by the sounds of things!  

So... hope to see you all soon with some creative goodness!  

xo Anita

Thinking of You!

OK... I am down to the last of the cards I made using the Everyday Occasions Card Kit.  I hope you haven't been completely bored with this.  I'll be back to making cards and showing you them again within a couple days I hope!

Seeya later!  xo Anita

Love... in December!

I love December!  So today, we've got some 'Love' cards for you!

I love this stamp image... and will be using it for a whole lot more than just creating the cards in this kit!  It's so scroll-y (is that a word?) and pretty!  Very Love-ish!

xo Anita

Season's Greetings! SCIC73

Hello December!  Can you believe it?  December is a super busy month for our family.... we have a ton of birthdays, including mine and my husbands!  He is one week older than me, which he  LOVES to joke with me about, that he has one week more of authority over me!  Well... we'll just leave it at that!

Anyway... December 1 means a new post over at Stampin' Celebration using this beautiful inspiration photo!  This should get you in the mood for Christmas... and if it's too early for you to start thinking about that, then you can at least get in the 'season' mode!  Here ya are...

And for this month I made my girls' Christmas cards to give to teachers and friends.  I made it easy on myself and simply made them all exactly the same... just switching out pictures and words, depending on whose it was!  Check it out!

 

You can see that I used the colours to inspire me.  I managed to get a Christmas tree in there, and really wanted to do something with the feathered woodcuts download... but it just wouldn't work, and you can't squeeze everything you love onto EVERY layout!  Let's see what you do with it though.... maybe you'll be inspired to make a card, or scrap layout, digi or traditional... it doesn't matter!  Let's

see what you've got up your sleeve!  

So... click on over to the Stampin' Celebration website and follow along on our blog hop to see what everyone else has created!  They're all so talented and creative!

Seeya later!  xo Anita

For You...

Hello!  It's Friday!  Always love when the weekend comes around again...

This is another great stamp included in the Occasions Card Kit.  These cards both use it and you can use it for a variety of occasions or just a little notecard or 'just because' card.  I make a lot of cards like that, that I just write a quick little letter in to a few friends back where I grew up.  As far as I know, they all LOVE getting them!  

Come back on the 1st of December for my Stampin' Celebration post!  I've got the cutest little card made in MDS to show you!  Quite darling, I assure you!

xo Anita

Happy Birthday... again!

Hello!  A few more cards again using that same birthday stamp as yesterday.  It's such a cute stamp image... and would totally be suitable for anyone's birthday... a child, man or woman!

Have a great day today!  xo Anita

Happy Birthday!

 Hi there everyone! Happy Wednesday to you all!

I hope you are not getting bored with these cards... I'll be back to having time to make cards again soon... hopefully!  Although, we all do know what December can be like!  Eeek!

Seeyou tomorrow!  xo Anita

Thank You!

 Good morning!  A few more quick cards...

These cards all use the 'thank you' stamp that comes with the Everyday Occasions Card Kit.  All the cards in the kit are just beautiful.  Love them!

xo Anita

Congratulations!

Happy Monday!  You came back for more cards!  Yay!  I'll be quick and to the point... Monday's always a busy day anyway, let's get it started!

These two cards use the 'congratulations' stamp from the Occasions stamp set from the Everyday Occasions Card Kit.  They're so pretty, aren't they?

xo Anita

Helloooo???

Gaaahh!  It's been one of those weeks again... I was busy, busy, busy with... you know... various!  None of it crafty or of the card making variety either!  Sooooo.... I got out that handy, dandy Everyday Occasions Cardmaking Kit that I originally thought I would not need.... and managed to make a card here and there in between all my wifely, motherly, school-related duties this week!  

Now... next week looks like it will be a non-crafty week too.... so, I plan to show you the cards from this kit over the next few days!  I know.... you may think it boring... but please hang in there!   

Here's a few to get us started!

These little notecards are just perfect for a quick little "hello" or "thanks".  The "happy birthday" one is adorable, no?  Be sure to come back next week to see some more of these.... and hopefully I will be back soon with my "regular programming"!!!

Thanks for stopping in!

xo Anita

Sister Love - SCIC#72 Mid Month-spiration!

Hello everybody!  I cannot believe how fast time is flying by!  It's already the middle of the month... next thing you know December is here... and that is always such a busy month for EVERYONE!  Anyway... since it's the 15th, that means that it's time for some mid month-spiration over at Stampin' Celebration!  Woo-hoo!

Check out the sketch!

And here's a little something to get you going!

Colourful, huh?  I used the new-to-me Nobody's Business download.  There is some serious cute in that download!  With three girls and my love for colourful pages... I can see this one showing up in a lot of my layouts!  

Erica Cerwin - Pink Buckaroo Designs

Erin Gonzales -Hand Stamped Style

Cori Kozak - Creative Chat

Nina Dee - Deesigns by Nina Dee

Lauri Ingram - Paperville Crafts

Krista Jensen - Krista's Stamper Room

Anita Krul - My Paper Chronicles

Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge

Now, before you leave, be sure to click on the other design team member's links so that you can see what they've done with this sketch!  There's sure to be lots of inspiration for you to get your creative juices flowing, so YOU can play along with us and link up YOUR creations on the Stampin' Celebration website!  See you there!

Seeyou next time!  xo Anita

Cutest Baby Ever! PPA178

Oh boy... another post for today!  I was seriously on a roll this weekend with making cards!  So relaxing!  And that's good, because we have some serious yard work to do today!  So let's get right to it!

I am linking up with Pals Paper Arts for this one.

This is such an adorable colour combo and you could go in a few different directions with it... but I chose to go in the baby girl direction!  I really needed to make a few baby cards, mostly girl ones, so.... check it out!

Isn't it cute?  I did CASE the layout and idea from another demo, but with my own colours and stamps I made it mine!  That's what I love... there is just a wealth of great ideas out there from people who love to share!  Perfect!  I am definitely going to be re-creating this one in a boy colour combo as well.  I think it's so cute!  

Thanks for looking!  Have a great day!  

xo Anita

For You - FMS111, CQC#214

Hello again!  Another post for today!  

I wanted to link up with Freshly Made Sketches and the ColourQ for this one!  

 

I had to dig into my box of retired colours for this one!  Still have a teensy bit of Dusty Durango left, and lots of Bashful Blue!  Such a lovely colour combo.  I made my brother in law to be a birthday card.  Hope he likes it!  I used my Truly Grateful stamp set for the first time with this one.  Love it!  I actually used a few different stamp sets... Truly Grateful, Gorgeous Grunge and Chalk Talk.  The Bashful Blue ribbon I cut down from a 1" grosgrain with stitching on each edge, to a narrow one with stitching down the middle!  I heat embossed with Early Espresso embossing powder on the Early Espresso label for some added interest and detail.  I love little details like that!

 It's a great masculine card don't you think?  Thanks for taking the time to look!

Have a fabulous day!  xo Anita

Happiest Birthday - CTD267

Good morning everyone!  

It's Remembrance Day here in Canada today... the day we remember and are thankful for those who have served and are serving to defend our nation's freedom.  They all deserve our deepest and heartfelt gratitude.  

I have a quick card today.  I used the colours at Colour Throwdown as inspiration.  

 Here's my card!

The picture isn't showing the Very Vanilla the very greatest... but the button and sentiment strips are Very Vanilla.

This was a pretty simple card to make.... and I think I'll make it again but with a different colour combo... maybe some softer colours and a different embossing folder?  

Seeyou later!  xo Anita

Birthday Greetings - SR#201

Hello!  Hope you're all having a great weekend so far!  I had a rare opportunity for a Saturday... time to sit down and make a card!  I used the colour challenge from Stampin' Royalty as a starting off point for my card.  The colours had me befuddled for a bit, but then I decided to use my markers to colour a stamp and this is my end result....

I chose to colour my stamp in the challenge colours... which in the end, I decided were simply beautiful together!  I spritzed my watercolour paper with some water and stamped my image... then watched the magic happen!  I sponged the edges to give it a bit more of a "finished off" look, stamped my greeting (Wetlands), matted it on Raspberry Ripple, tied on a Summer Starfruit ribbon and mounted it on my Sahara Sand card base!  Voila!  Done!

Here's the challenge colours from the Stampin' Royalty site...

Aren't they really beautiful?  Let me know what you think about my card... I love hearing from you and checking out your blogs too!  

xo Anita

Merry Christmas!

Hi Everybody!

Today's card was for the winter colour challenge at Create With Connie and Mary... but... I didn't get it linked up in time, but that doesn't mean it's too late to show you guys!  Take a look!

I love it... and have wanted to try the Christmas wreath idea with that stamp set and matching framelits for a while now.  It was pretty fun... and I used the Circles Framelits to cut out the inside of the wreath!  Give it a try!  

I am actually not real big on sending out Christmas cards... but there are always a few that I hand deliver to teachers and such... this one will probably be for my daughter's preschool teacher.  She's seriously the best!  My little lady LOVES to get dropped off, and always needs to give her hugs and kisses when it's time to go!  No tears when Mommy leaves her there!

Now... I am off to make some baby girl cards!  There's been a baby girl boom in my church lately... and one of them is my own sweet little niece, Kyla... who is already a couple weeks old!  Such a dear little thing!

Seeyou later!  xo Anita

Everyday Occasions!

Good afternoon!  I've been busy, busy, busy here, so what more perfect time to pull out my new Everyday Occasions card kit from Stampin' Up!  At first, I thought, who needs a card kit?  I have so much stuff already!  But all the cards looked so pretty, and yes, sometimes I just want a FAST card, where someone else has already done all the creative thinking!  So I ordered it.  HELLO!!!  What exactly was I waiting for?  All this cute, cute stuff packaged up in this cute, cute box!  Yum!

I whipped one up in a couple (OK, maybe five!) minutes.  Honest!

Take a look!

So cute, right!?  My parents-in-law hope to celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary this weekend.  Guess what?  Their card is done!

Now to keep this out of my girls' clutches!  

xo Anita

Masculine Birthday! PP170, RS#88

Good morning!  Welcome to Monday!  It's another ab.so.lutely gorgeous day here in the Fraser Valley!  I'm going to take advantage of the sunshine and wash my bus after this, so let's get right to it!  I needed another birthday card, as it's my big brother's birthday tomorrow... so I pulled out my dusty Nature Silhouettes stamp set to play along at the Paper Players and their 'wildlife' theme.  I used the sketch at RetroSketches... and I was all set!

 Love the way my card turned out!

I embossed my Island Indigo panel with the woodgrain embossing folder, topped that with a Whisper White panel tied with some non SU! (sorry!) black and white baker's twine, a SU! black button and a little tag with the sentiment on it!  For my focal panel I heat embossed my stamped image with black embossing powder, then used my 1" circle punch for a mask for the moon, and using a mixture of 5 different blue inks, I sponged my night sky!  The colours I used were Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Island Indigo, Night of Navy and Midnight Muse.  Love the 'glowy moon in the night sky' effect when I pulled that sticky note off the moon!  Absolutely beautiful!  My brother will be impressed!

OK, I'm off to enjoy the bright sunny day.  Have a great day yourself!

xo Anita

It's Time For A Stampin' Celebration! SCIC72

Hello November!  I can hardly believe it's November... with the gorgeous weather we've been having here in the Fraser Valley, it certainly hasn't felt like it! But the rain did just arrive yesterday, so... in honour of November... we're back with another Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge!  Check out the beautiful inspiration photo we have for you!

Doesn't it make you feel all fall-ish and full of warm, cozy thoughts of drinking out of that cute owl mug?  If not... no worries!  As long as you feel inspired to make something crafty... be it scrapbooking (traditional or digital), cardmaking... or even something 3D!  We want to see what you do!  So get busy in your craft space and be sure to link up on the Stampin' Celebration blog!  You've got all month long, or at least till the 25th, and we'll be back mid-month with a sketch for even more inspiration!

Oopsy... before I forget... I should show you what I made, and how the photo inspired me! 

What do you think?  I scrapped a photo of my beautiful niece, taken at a corn maze.  I used MDS of course. (what else!?)  This photo of her was taken last year... I couldn't even find any current photos that were sort of fall-ish of my own kids!  I am going to have to get my camera out more regularly, in order to get the hilarious (and sometimes not so hilarious!) moments that happen in our everyday life documented.  I used a sketch from MDS Monday to make this layout... love one photo sketches... you don't have to have 50 pictures of one event... and if you do... you DON'T have to scrapbook them all!  I finally figured that out.... after 10 years!!!!

I have another layout very similar to this one where I simply recolored pretty much everything, to get a totally different look!  Try it! 

Erica Cerwin - Pink Buckaroo Designs

Erin Gonzales -Hand Stamped Style

Cori Kozak - Creative Chat

Nina Dee - Deesigns by Nina Dee

Lauri Ingram - Paperville Crafts

Krista Jensen - Krista's Stamper Room

Anita Krul - My Paper Chronicles

Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge

OK... so follow along on our blog hop in order to see what all the other fantastic design team members have created... and get busy on yours!  You could be our Pick of the Party!

Seeyou later!  xo Anita

Oh, Hello - DD#76

Happy Wednesday!  I had a wee bit of time (my daughter decided one hour was long enough to nap!) this morning to make a card, and this is what I came up with.  Honestly, I think it took like 45 minutes total! (choosing stamps, supplies, layout, Dynamic Duo colours, and the execution of it)  That's not a bad way to spend 45 minutes!  I loved it!

It's really a very pretty card isn't it?

 

 

I LOVE this embossing folder.  So elegant!  And the colour combo of Wisteria Wonder and Perfect Plum is just stunning.  Perfect Plum is not one of my most used colours (for that matter Wisteria Wonder isn't either!), but together they are great!  That's the thing I love about challenges.  They make you do stuff you wouldn't normally do!  Which is not necessarily always a good thing... but in card-making and stamping... it's great!

 

OK... time for lunch!  Seeyou tomorrow I hope!

 

xo Anita

Happy Big Day! CCMC274

I had a few minutes (literally) to make a card this afternoon, and this is what I came up with!  I used the colour combo at Create With Connie and Mary... 

and used the layout of a card from fellow demo Jenny Peterson that I had saved in one of my folders.  It came together so quickly!  Here... check it out!

Totally love this colour combo and have saved it for future use as well!  It's a really happy one isn't it?  I used some Soft Sky candy dots in the corner... I really like that they are so flat!  Perfect for the mail... which is where this card will go for my sweet niece Abigail, who will have a birthday in just a few days!  Hope she likes it!  I know her Mommy will!

Okay... that's it... off for my afternoon run... yeah, not like a "run" run, but my school bus run.... although it sounded good didn't it?

xo Anita

Look Who's Turning... 3! FabFri29, FM133

Hello again!

Second post for the day... it has to be quick.  My little lady will wake up from her nap any minute!  I played along with FabFriday and the Friday Mashup.  

I turned the sketch on it's side and mashed it up as well using the challenge colours AND cake!  Cupcakes are little cakes aren't they!   Yum, yum!  This card will be for my baby who will hopefully celebrate her 3rd birthday in just a couple weeks!  Boo hoo!

Here's my card!

This is such a fun and colourful card!  I never would have used gray tones on a cupcake... but it works!  I trimmed my chevron ribbons in half and frayed them a little.  I squeezed some Basic Gray sprinkles on the middle cupcake... that was about the best I could do for that colour!

Three cupcakes, three candles... three years old!

Seeya later.

xo Anita