For You-Masculine Birthday

Hello again!  Another quick post for now.

I've got a really nice masculine card for you again.  This one uses the (retired) Backwoods stamp set.  It's got some great images in it for guys cards, I think it's too bad it's retired!  I also used the Vintage Labels stamp set, along with the Curly Label Punch.  The Spiral Punch is also the one thing that I don't think I will EVER get rid of.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Hope you've been inspired to make something today!

xo Anita

Island Pool Party Birthday!

Quick post today.  It's Friday... and that usually means there's lots of work to be done around here, and it's School Store Day for us as well!  Let's get those bags packed, supplies put away in the classrooms, meet the teachers, and get all PSYCHED up for school on Tuesday!  Yay!

This is another direct CASE from Dawn Olchefske.  Love it!  Simple, but lovely card.  You can't see it too well on here, but I used the Perfect Polka Dots EF for my Island Indigo panel.  Isn't the colour combo great on here?  Island Indigo, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade and Whisper White... YUM!

I've got one more card for you later on today.  A masculine one this time.  I love stocking up on masculine card ideas... those ones are hard to come by it seems, and there are not nearly as many masculine stamps as girly, fun, cutesy, pretty ones, are there?

Seeyou later!

Whoooo's Celebrating?

I promised you another card using that adorable owl punch, and here it is!

I CASEd this card from Mary Fish I believe.  It's pretty much a direct case, except I changed the sentiment.  Why re-invent the wheel?  I loved her card, now i love mine too!

 

I also put a little party hat on this guy.  I free handed that thing, but the pennant punch would totally work.  Doesn't he look ready to party?

Thanks for coming by!  See you tomorrow for another fun birthday card.  

And.... make sure you come by on September 1st for an EXCITING announcement!!!  Eeeek!

xo Anita

Joy Fold Card-Birthday Wishes

Good morning!  Happy Thursday!  Today I've got a bright, happy colourful birthday card for you.  I love this one.  Not only is it eye catching because of the cheerful colour combo, but it's not your regular "scored in the middle" kind of card.  This is the joy fold.  Click here for a straight forward tutorial on how to achieve this look!  This card is still the regular A4 card size, so still fits in a regular envelope and is totally mailable.  Make one yourself!

Now, this is one of the cards that I found in my folder, not yet posted, so many of these items are also retired, or are Sale-a-bration items.  I cannot remember what the name of the DSP is, the stamped and punched owl inside of the card is also reitred, and the sentiment on the front is from sale-a-bration a few years ago.

The only supplies not retired are the owl, scallop circle and label punches, but use your imagination with DSP and stamp choices, and you could easily make this card yours.  it's so fun!

Come back later today for another card I made using this same little owl.  Isn't he adorable?

Another Masculine Birthday!

Another quick post for Wednesday!  Scroll down to see my first one.  It's another masculine card that I found in my folder that I had not yet posted for you.  This one uses the Backwoods stamp set (retired!) and a classy colour combo, to make a super simple, quick, easy and fast card!

Here's the supply list!

Paper:  Real Red, So Saffron, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Pacific Point
Stamps:  Backwoods, You're My Type
Accessories:  Chocolate Chip Button, twine, Old Olive marker, sponges

Masculine-Lovely As A Tree

Happy Wednesday!  Hope your week is going great!  We're halfway to the weekend!  Yay!

Today's card is pretty much the same as this one here.  I just changed the colours and stamps, nixed the sentiment, and WAH-LA.... a different card, but without all the figuring out of a layout, and all that jazz.  I often do this if I'm in a crunch to get a card quickly.  Oh, I know there are 10 minute cards out there, but it would take me 20 minutes to find them!  This way, I just check my own archives, find one that I can quickly recreate... and then.... DONE!

I love the colour combo on this card.  It's a very masculine looking card as well, which is great, because I never seem to have enough of those!  If I create just for fun, I usually make something pretty, or girly, or do some digi scrapping.  

Thanks for looking!  Hope the rest of your week is just fabulous!

xo Anita

Supplies:

Paper:  Old Olive CS, Whisper White CS,  Early Espresso CS, Daffodil Delight DSP, Early Espresso DSP

Ink:  Early Espresso

Stamps:  Lovely As A Tree

Accessories:  Early Espresso Grosgrain Ribbon, Brights Buttons, Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Sponges (Yellow Baker's Twine-contraband!)

Birthday Cupcake!

Here's another post for Tuesday... what can I say?  I am feeling generous!

I CASEd this card from someone but honestly cannot remember who.  If you recognize it, please give me a shout so I can give credit where credit is due.  This is a pretty self explanatory card.  The most difficult part was getting the flag banner centered!

Supplies:

Paper:  Pool Party CS, Whisper White CS, Soft Suede CS, Calypso Coral CS, Pool Party DSP

Ink:  Soft Suede, Pool Party, Calypso Coral

Stamps:  Create A Cupcake

Tools:  Scallop Edge Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Cupcake Builder Punch, Circle Punch

Thanks for looking!

xo Anita

Thinking of You

Hello everyone!

 

I've still got a few cards that I haven't shown you yet.  Some of the supplies may be retired supplies, but that's just the way it is with me!  So let's not waste any time getting to today's card!  Shall we?

OK, so it's been something like more than a year since I made this card.  I'm pretty sure this card was from one of my Artistic Avenger DT challenges.  By the looks of things here, I was definitely in the "distressed zone"!!!  I colored this beautiful little guy in with inks and a blender pen.  After tearing the edges, I sponged around with Soft Suede to soften up the edges a bit.  To give my Little Leaves die cut some depth I made a line down the center with my fingernail.  No fancy tools there!

Have a great day!

Supplies:

Paper:  Sahara Sand CS, Marina Mist CS, Bravo Burgundy CS, Very Vanilla CS

Ink:  Soft Suede, Marina Mist, Bravo Burgundy

Stamps:  Young Vermillion, Three Little Words

Tools:  Distressing Tool, Big Shot, Little Leaves Sizzlits Die, Perfect Polka Dots EF, blender pens, sponges

MDSM28, CQC #203

Happy Monday everyone!  Last week of summer vacation is here!  The kids are excited, I am excited... today is the day we make sure we have everything organized... check out the school supplies, make sure the uniforms are ready... new backpack and lunch... speaking of lunch... that's the one thing that gets me every. single. day.  Something the girls like one day, will be old news the next.  They'll eat it today and by next week they claim they have NEVER liked THAT on their bread to school!  We have actually resorted to just telling them to eat an apple or an orange in place of a sandwich.... horrors... what bad parents!  I always begin the year with good intentions and tell myself I will think up new, innovative ways to get them to enjoy eating their lunches... and this year is no exception!  I have a few tricks up my sleeve still.... we'll see how it goes!

Anyway, on to what you are here for...

A little MDS Monday and a ColourQ challenge thrown in the mix.  Go check them out.  I love the colour combo for this week's challenge.  It's so bright and bold, and I'm partial to that in my girls' scrapbooks.  I took some liberties with the sketch and used the three panels for three different DSP's and then added the picture on top of that.  I love using flag banners, flowers and buttons (not to mention staples and stitching!) on most of my layouts, so that's what I went with here as well!  

 Here's my layout made in MDS of course!  (is there any other?)

Thanks for looking!  Have a great week!

xo Anita

FM123, Fab Friday 24

My cousin and her husband have been married for 15 years and after all these years finally had their first baby!  I wanted to give this long-awaited arrival a warm welcome, so I turned to the Friday Mashup and Fab Friday challenge blogs for some inspiration.  The colours at Fab Friday were perfect for a nice soft baby card, and I've been wanting to try stamping with just my clear blocks for some time, so the challenge at the Friday Mashup was just the kick in the pants I needed!

Here's your Mashup Challenge:

1. Create a project using "Clear Block Stamping (use your clear block as a stamp)."
2. Create a project using "Color-blocking."
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project using "Clear Block Stamping & Color-blocking."

I chose to mashup the challenge and do some colour-blocking as well.  Take a look at the adorable baby card I ended up with.  

Here's a closer up view of the cute little guy!

I started with a base of Crumb Cake, then layered another paper pierced panel of Crumb Cake on that.  I sponged the edges of both.  For the colour-blocked panel I used clear block H in Pistachio Pudding, So Saffron, and Crisp Cantaloupe on Very Vanilla CS.  I layered that on a piece of textured Very Vanilla and sponged the edges with coordinating colours.  The little hippo was stamped in Crumb Cake on Very Vanilla and then coloured in lightly with a sponge.  I fussy cut him (her) out and used dimensionals to adhere next to my ribbon.  Love that ribbon, btw!  (And now as I am typing up the list of supplies, I see it is actually Crushed Curry!  Oopsy!  My bad!)  For my sentiment I used Nursery Necessities and cut out a flag banner.  I then used my Crumb Cake marker to add a little bordered line edge.

I'm really happy with how my card turned out... I think I'll try this technique again on another baby card for a friend who is due on Friday!  We'll see what she has first, though!

Leave me some love!  I enjoy reading your comments, and appreciate each and every one of them.  

If you missed the post about my daughter's bedroom makeover birthday surprise click here to read it and see the (many) pictures!

Thanks for stopping by!  xo Anita

Stamping Supplies:

 Stamps:  Nursery Necessities, Bundled In Love

Paper:  Crub Cake CS, Very Vanilla CS, Very Vanilla Textured CS

Ink:  Crumb Cake, Crisp Cantaloupe, So Saffron, Pistachio Pudding

Accessories:  Paper Piercing Tool, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Crushed Curry 3/4" Chevron Ribbon, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, Pearls, Crumb Cake marker, square punch (to make flagged banner), sponges

 

SCIC#69 Sketch, HSS Color Challenge #166

Good morning!  I unfortunately needed to make a card for my 10 year old nephew... not unfortunate that I had to make a card, but unfortunately the poor guy broke his leg!  At least it isn't the beginning of summer holidays I guess!  So anyway, he's going to be in a cast for about 6 weeks, and hopefully will not need surgery... so in the meantime I figured we would send him some love and cheer across the country!  I hope he likes his card!

I turned to the sketch challenge at Stampin' Celebration and the colour challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments (first time for me over there!) for inspiration, and my card came together pretty easily.

 

Here it is!

Isn't he cute?  Despite the fact he's obviously felt better!

I hope this card will cheer James up!  Did you notice I drew little buttonholes on his vest buttons (Candy Dots-Subtles) and some stitching around the edges with my Early Espresso marker.  I also stamped on textured cardstock for an imperfect look, after all James is feeling less than stellar!

Thanks for stopping by!  Let me know what you think about my card.  I love comments!

Supplies used:

Paper:  Very Vanilla textured CS, Early Espresso CS, Eastern Elegance DSP, Gingham Garden DSP

Ink:  Early Espresso Classic Ink

Stamps:  Sassy Salutations

Other:  Linen Thread, Designer Naturals Buttons, Chalk Talk Framelits, Owl Builder Punch, Candy Dots, Early Espresso Marker

xo Anita

"Cuted Up" Pre-made MDS Template

Today I have a digital layout that I made a little while ago, using a premade template in MDS.  I didn't really change much of anything, other than adding some drop shadows and a few embellishments.  I just "cuted" it up with these adorable pictures of my bebe!

Enjoy your day!  Come back tomorrow for a cute card for my nephew who broke his leg over the weekend!  Poor kid!

xo Anita

With Sympathy

Happy Friday!  Woohoo! (only 2 more weeks till the kids go back to school!)  Except that means I go back too, and it actually gets alot noisier since I'm the one driving the bus!  Joke's on me!

Anyway, today is our 11th wedding anniversary.  Most people try to go out with just the two of them on these sorts of special occasions, but... we are not most people I guess!  We are going out with my husbands WHOLE family!  Fun, right?  Just happened to work out (or not!) that way, but it's all good!  The more the merrier!

Let's check out the card I have for you today.

WARNING:  When I made this card I had no appropriate sentiments from SU! that would fit on this piece of Whisper White, so I went right ahead and used some contraband.  Forgive me!  My bad!

Now that we've gotten past that, take a closer look at my card and leave me a comment letting me know what you think!

Have a great weekend!  xo Anita

Lovely As A Tree Masculine Birthday!

Good morning Stampers!

Today's card uses the catalogue's oldest ( I think!) but loveliest stamp set... Lovely As A Tree!  I'll get right to it!

Isn't it a beautiful card?  I used the stamping off technique to make the trees recede into the distance and also did a fair amount of sponging on here to aid in the more masculine feel.  I used the modern label punch and the word window punch to make the tag, which I stamped with the Vintage Labels stamp set.  The Bashful Blue panel was embossed with the wood grain folder.  Love that thing!

xo Anita

Warmest Wishes!

Good morning all!  I've got a quick card post for you today.  

Here's a card I made some time ago.  I used the scallop square punch on here to make it come together VERY quickly.  Love that you can use a card like this to get rid of some of your scraps!

Here it is!

For the base of the card I used Garden Green.  After punching out some co-ordinating scraps with the scallop square punch, I stamped, fussy cut and layered the flower from the retired hostess set, Apple Blossoms.  A few buttons tied with hemp twine and a flag greeting finishes off the card perfectly!  Easy, done!

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Gemma Turns 10!!! Bedroom Makeover Surprise!

So for today, there's no card.... not even a scrapbook layout!  Or even doll clothes, which I said I liked to sew and show on here!  Today is dedicated to a few pictures of the bedroom re-do that we surprised Gemma with last week!  And, boy, was she ever surprised!  I had to blink back a few tears and swallow hard myself when she opened that door!  The smile on her face was all we needed to know that she was IN LOVE with the finished product!  She didn't even care that she wasn't getting a DS, which is what she had asked for and believed she was getting!

Let's start with a few pictures, shall we?

First of all... the birthday girl herself!  Happy birthday, Sweetie!  We love you very much!

 

Without further ado, here's a shot when you are standing in the doorway of her room, looking in.

Close up of the chair (Pier 1 Imports) The cushions I snagged at Home Sense.  Blanket is IKEA.

The wall colour is Refreshing Pool, which we bought at Home Depot. (Behr brand).  The framed pin board is from Winners, and came with those pearl headed pins.  You can see she is already putting it to good use with two of her MANY birthday cards!  You can see that my girls already know that you do NOT buy birthday cards... you make them yourself!  And if you're very lucky, your mommy gives you her old, but perfectly good supplies!

This picture is taken with me standing over by the dress form looking toward the wall with the door.

Dresser, night table and book shelf are all from IKEA.  Frames and shell jewelry holder are Home Sense.  The picture above the dresser is something we've had for years (IKEA) and it matched the room and theme perfectly.  It will hang here until we find just the right mirror for above her dresser.

Decorations on the bookshelf we found at IKEA and Michaels.

I was VERY excited when I saw this at HomeSense and immediately phoned my husband to prepare him that I was definitely having a successful shopping trip!  The dress form was just what I was looking for!  I bought the jewelry at Ardene's and the flower brooch at Michaels!  Isn't it so pretty?

The bedding is a great find at HomeSense (where else?)  And the throw cushions were one of her top wish list items for a new room.  Pretty sure we can cross that off the list!  

Now, you may be wondering where in the world did we buy that bed?  We didn't!  I'm VERY proud to say that MY HUSBAND built it!  And then proceeded to take anything we MIGHT HAVE saved on this bedroom, and bought a paint sprayer with it!  Granted, it saved me ALOT of painting time and the finish on the bed is FANTASTIC!  Seriously!  The bed plan we found on the Ana White website.  It is the Twin Farmhouse Bed.  All free!  Thanks Ana!  You should definitely go there and check it all out!  The paint we used for the bed was leftover paint we had from some cabinets in our family room, and just happened to match the other new furniture exactly!  What could be better?  The lamp on the bedside table is also an IKEA find. (as well as the curtains!)  The curtain rod is from FabricLand. (50% for members all the time!)

Here's a couple more shots of the bed!

This is the sturdiest bed we have in the house.  The headboard alone weighs at least 60-70 lbs.  We did have to put it together in the bedroom after it was painted.  We'd never have gotten it in otherwise!  So a few touch ups were necessary, but not a big deal at all!

You may be wondering how in the world we pulled off a surprise like this?  Let me tell you, it's sort of stressful!  Since our house is sort of being renovated by the two of us, it is not unusual for us to be working on one room or another, at some time or another!  We let her pick a paint colour and told her that's all we'd do.  So she moved in upstairs with her sister for a week.  Then we said we would have to do new trim and doors, so it would take a little longer.  She totally didn't want to see the new paint colour until it was all done, so that was perfect!  She saw Ron building the bed, but we informed her it was for SarahLynn, her two year old sister when she switched from a crib.  Easy!  The night before her birthday we blew up an air mattress and told her we were on the home stretch with painting and would set up her old black bed so she could see it first thing on her birthday morning!  We were up till midnight the night before setting it all up and putting on the final touches!  I was VERY excited!

Imagine her enormous surprise when we let her open the door the next morning and there was an ENTIRE NEW ROOM staring back at her.  Yeah, I know, right?  She was smiling so hard that I actually choke up a little when I think of the look on her face!

I hope you enjoyed the little (photo heavy!) tour of her new room.  We are actually pretty proud of it ourselves.  Thankfully my hubby is a handy guy and we do all the work ourselves.  I may or may not have run that saw a time or two as well.  Fun times!

Leave me a comment letting me know what you think of Gemma's birthday present!  If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them!  Ask away!

xo Anita

CQC#201, MDSM27, PMDC-025

So I know I already have a layout posted today, but I've got another one!  Yay!  After I cleaned up the house and kids, took them to swimming lessons, fed them lunch, I sat down and played with MDS!  I played along with not one, not two, but THREE challenges.  A first for me!  I found a new challenge (thanks, Nicole!) at Pixel Maven's Retreat to use BRADS!  Well, I just happened to be using brads on my layout, so I'll squeak in under the wire before the challenge closes!  I also love this weeks' challenge colour combo at the ColourQ, and of course, I LOVE playing along at MDS Monday, and the sketch is awesome this week!  My layout came together beautifully, if I do say so myself!

Hope you enjoy what I've done with these ADORABLE pictures of my two year old!

Seriously, the ability to recolour something in MDS is my most favourite feature, I think.  I recoloured my Bright Blooms to Soft Sky, Calypso Coral and Night of Navy.  It worked perfectly!  My stitching is also recoloured to N of N as well.  Did you notice for the centers of my flowers, that I used BRADS?  I love it.  The Everyday Enchantment ones are conveniently Calypso Coral!  The colour combo is fabulous!  I will definitely be using this on a card in the near future as well!

Thanks for checking it out!  Leave me a comment, letting me know what you think!  

Come back tomorrow for some gorgeous pictures of our renovation and redecoration of my daughters bedroom, which we surprised her with for her 10th birthday last week!  She says "it's like a magazine, Mom!"  And I agree... humbly of course!

xo Anita

Joy - Jump For It! PPA167

Good morning everybody!  I managed to slip in a little MDS playtime over the weekend.... not sure yet how, what with BBQ's, pool parties, and birthday parties!  What matters is that I did!  And I used the colour combo over at the Pals Paper Arts blog for some inspiration.  I also used the sketch from the Stampin' Celebration Inspiration blog from last month.  I really liked it and hadn't had a chance to work with it, so even though the challenge is closed, I still used it.  Go check it out!

 

What a gorgeous colour combo, eh?  My layout came together so easily.  I had to recolour a few things to get the right colours.  Amazing... you mean I don't have everything?  That's right, I don't!  But with MDS you can usually get whatever you want, it just takes a little fooling around!  Anyway, here's my layout!

I thought the colour combo felt like so spring-like, so I went right for these pictures of my middle daughter, when we were outside really enjoying one of the first beautiful days of spring this year!

Thanks for taking a look!  Let me know what you think of my scrapbook page!  Come back tomorrow for some pictures of 'the big reveal' of my oldest daughters bedroom, which we renovated and re-decorated as a surprise for her 10th birthday!

Seeyou later!

Gemma's 8th Birthday-Two Years Ago!

Just a quick post today.  Hope everyone had a great BC (Civic) Day yesterday, or if you are not Canadian, then I hope you had a fabulous Monday!  We are enjoying our last few weeks of summer here... trying to cram everything in before school starts again.  

This week is my oldest daughter's 10th birthday, so in honour of that, I thought I would show you a scrapbook layout I made in MDS that showcases Gemma, her Daddy and her sister Carlye on her 8th birthday two years ago!

I love this layout!  The picture is just a quick snap we took after breakfast.... if you look closely someone probably has a dirty face!  My husband doesn't like that he has his dirty work clothes on after a night shift, girls' hair hasn't been done, teeth have probably not been brushed... but, STILL... these are the sorts of everyday life pictures we get out of this household!  Your pictures do not have to be perfect or posed or anything!  Honestly, a few months ago I emailed my sister some of the layouts I had made and she said..."you make even just an ordinary plain jane picture into something beautiful!"  Now, I'm not saying I'm such a great scrapper, I'm saying..."that's what you do with MDS!"

Have a wonderful day everyone.  Thanks for stopping in to take a peek.  See you tomorrow!