Gouda For You!

Hi all!  Just popping in with another entry for the CAS-ual Fridays Just for the Pun of It challenge.  I used the little mouse from Paper Smooches' Santa Paws set and balanced some cheese on his nose to make this congrats card.  I'm not a big fan of cheese but I just couldn't resist this little pun.  Tee hee!  


I also need to post the winner of my blog candy!  Thanks to all of you who suggested bloggers for me to check out.  I've had a blast discovering more fabulous cardmakers!  I know I've posted the actual random number generator before but it is not cooperating with me this time.  So drum roll please!!  The winner is:

#1 - Lindsey!    

Whoop whoop!  I've never had a #1 come up before.  Send me your snail mail address, Lindsey, and I'll get your package on it's way.  :)

*ETA:  Simon Says Stamp is having an Anything Goes challenge so I'm linking this up! 

Cardstock:  (White) Gina K
Stamps:  (Mouse, cheese & dotted line from Santa Paws, "for you" from Word Up, letters from Alphadots) Paper Smooches
Inks:  (Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko, (More Mustard) SU
Copics:  C-5, C-3, Y38, Y17, RV10

Typing Flowers

I've been stalking Laurel Seabrook's Inspired By Challenge for a while now and after seeing this week's picture I couldn't put off playing any longer.  I went pretty literal with my interpretation and used some long neglected stamps and papers.  The stamps are Hero Arts and because it's a friendship-themed card I'm entering this in the Hero Arts Monthly Challenge.  The four patterned papers are from a paper pad I picked up in Walmart in Toronto back in 2008 and they make this eligible for Simon Says Stamp's challenge to use 3 different papers.  


*ETA:  So I missed the HA challenge deadline by 5 whole days!  I think that's a new record for me...


Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Basic Grey) Stampin' Up
Patterned Paper:  (Le P'tit Bloc) Toga
Stamps:  (Typewriter & flowers) Hero Arts
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Bravo Burgundy) SU
Embossing Powder:  (Clear) Ranger
Stickles:  (Cotton Candy, Burgundy, Orange Peel, Yellow) Ranger
Font:  (Traveling Typewriter) Dafont.com

Just Popping In

Good morning everyone!  It's a beautiful day here and I've just gotten done Facetime chatting with Jenny from Crafting in the Country!  Isn't technology brilliant?  Not only have I met all these wonderful people through blogging and the internet but now I get to talk to them face to face!  Now all we need are those Star Trek "beam me up" transporter things and we'll be set!

Okay, onto the card.  I was so excited to see that the theme at CAS-ual Fridays is Just For The Pun Of It.  I love a good punny card!  And the colour story at the Play Date Cafe gave me a brilliant idea for it.  I love the colours and was inspired by the bottles - some of which I figured were soda pop bottles and there you have my pun.  :)  


Off to the Craft Cave for some more carding and I'll be back later with a blog candy winner!


Cardstock:  (Kraft) PTI, (Marina Mist, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Bottles from August 2011 KOM - What I Know) Unity Stamp Co
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko
Embossing Powder:  (Clear) Ranger
Font:  (Traveling Typewriter) Dafont.com

Hexagonal Hello

Luis has been busy earning his son-in-law points this weekend by painting my mom's kitchen and living room.  I offered to help but Luis has no faith in my painting skills so I didn't argue when he said no thanks and scooted into the Craft Cave instead!  :)  I made this card for two challenges:  The Colour Throwdown and Paige's quilt-inspired card challenge over at the Create blog.  This is another one of those Unity stamps that I'd been admiring in my collection for ages but hadn't yet managed to ink up.  One day (like in a hundred years) I may have actually inked up every one of my stamps.  Uh huh...


After yesterday being 75 and so humid that the paper in my printer was soggy, today is cold and windy!  I really wish this weather would make up it's mind.  It's been such a strange winter.  Going to have to bundle up when we walk the hounds later and then we'll be hunkering down for the Oscars.  At least I will - Luis will spend the evening changing the channel every time he thinks I'm not paying attention!
  
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Yellow) Pacon, (Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Basic Grey) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Hexagons from July 2010 KOM - Happily Ever After) Unity Stamp Co, (Sentiment from Little Bitty Bird) PTI
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Pumpkin Pie) Stampin' Up
Embossing Powder:  (Clear) Ranger

Be Whoever You Wanna Be

I was a lucky winner during Market Street Stamps' last release and the new Make A Memory set finally popped up in my mail box a few days ago.  It arrived just in time for me to play along with the MSS Block Party!  This will be my first MSS challenge card that doesn't use images from Hippie Chic!  (Although the sentiment is from that set - I can't abandon it completely!)  I thought the colours from this week's ColourQ challenge would go along perfectly with what I had in mind.  I love that Dusty Durango colour - too bad it's retired.  I used Terracotta from ColourBox as a substitute and although it looks rather red in my photo it's actually a pretty good match.  Originally I planned to make a one layer card and mask all the cameras but I smudged it of course.  So I ended up popping up the Terracotta camera.  I also tried again and made a one layer card without smudging it but in the end I preferred the one with the popped up image.  So glad that sometimes mistakes can be so handy!

Cardstock:  (White) Gina K

Stamps:  (Camera from Make A Memory, Sentiment from Hippie Chic) Market Street Stamps
Inks:  (Terracotta) ColourBox, (Baja Breeze, Basic Grey, Lucky Limeade) Stampin' Up
Gems:  Doodlebug

Copics:  E08, YG23

Blog Award and Blog Candy!

I have been lucky enough in the last month to be gifted with the Liebster Blog Award by not 1 but 4 lovely fellow crafters!  What is the Liebster Blog award? Here is a quick explanation.   'Liebster' is German for 'dearest'. The award is a 'share-the-love' arrangement, given to inspirational bloggers with less than 200 followers (based on Google followers).

Here's the to-do list of any Liebster award recipient:
1) Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
2) Reveal your five blogger picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
3) Copy and paste the award on your blog (see above)
4) Hope that those you award forward it to their favorite bloggers! 

A big thank you to the following lovely ladies who were kind enough to pass on the award to me.  If you haven't checked out their blogs before then you must - they are all super talented and super sweet and supportive.  

JJ of Ribbon Girls - I found JJ when two of her cards were winners in the Moxie Fab Championing Award Medallions Challenge - a Moxie Fab first!  She has a fantastic CAS style and a super cute pooch named Cooper!

Noelle of Paper & Ice - Noelle is on the DT of one of my favourite challenges - ColourQ - and I love her bright, cheerful cards and paper crafted creations.

Jen of The Sparkle Within - Not only are Jen's cards super cute but she has inspired me with her personal challenges such as not purchasing any new craft supplies until making 100 new cards.  She's also a huge supporter of Operation Write Home.  

Jane of Create and Show - Jane makes cards but is also an avid scrapper.  I love her fun layouts of her boys and especially the ones that are inspired by magazine ads - so cool!

There are about a million people I'd like to pass this on to but we're supposed to keep it to people who are relatively new to blogging or have under 200 followers.  Here are my Fab 5: 

Lindsey of Bashful Blogging - Not sure why she's bashful because her cards are gorgeous! She's also such a supportive bloggy friend and a fellow book lover.

Jessi of OneCraftyMama - Jessi is hilarious.  I always stop to read her comments on other people's blogs because I know I'll get a good giggle from them.  She is also the most prolific crafter I know and is the anti-Jen as she loves her patterned paper and isn't afraid to use it!

Joyce of Cards-by-the-Sea - Joyce has only been blogging since last August but you'd never know it's been such a short time given her gorgeous cards and many challenge entries.  I love that she's always ready to dive in and try something new!  

Michelle of Amusing Michelle & Happy Snap Michelle - You get double the creative fun with Michelle as she has a crafty blog and a photography blog both of which are spectacular!

Jackie of Rockwell Designs - I love Jackie's bright and cheerful CAS designs many of which have found their way into my CASE file!

And now onto the blog candy as promised in the title!  This week I reached 100 followers! Whoop whoop!  I remember when I started blogging and thinking of that as an unattainable number but here it is!  And I know it's not cool to care about how many followers you have but you know what?  It makes me happy.  So there.  :p  To celebrate I've got a little stash of blog candy to give away.  There are Hero Arts, Stampin' Up and Unity stamps and some Maya Road flowers.  In keeping with the theme of sharing the love, leave me a comment and tell me about a fabulous blogger that I should check out.  I'll draw a winner on Monday! 

Thanks to everyone who comes to visit!  I am so grateful for the wonderful friends this blog has bought to me and for all of the amazing inspiration I find from fellow bloggers.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  

Black & White Flashback!

I wanted to play along with Amy Tsuruta's Flashback Friday Challenge which this time around involves sharing your first black and white card.  After scrolling through my entire blog it turns out that the first black and white card I made was just a few weeks ago!  Not much of a flashback but you can check out the original post here.  If you've never played along with Flashback Friday before then now is definitely the time to join in on the fun as Amy has amassed a whopping prize package in honour of this being the 20th challenge.  Scoot on over there and hop along with all the past designers for some fun and a chance to win!

Get Well & Sympathy

**This is my second post for today.  Please scroll down or click here for my CAS-ual Fridays/Jay Gee's Nook post.***

Almost missed the Paper Smooches Sparks deadline again but I am sneaking in the last few hours.  I was inspired by the grey and peachy pink colours and the heart.  The mug is paper pieced from some textured Bazzill paper although you can't see it too well in the picture.  I had a few different ideas for this picture but I didn't have time to get to them today as I ended up making a couple of sympathy cards for clients at work.  Not my favourite job but Darwin and Jeter were pretty special dogs and I wanted their owners to know that their sweet boys touched us too.

Supplies for Get Well card:
Cardstock:  (White) Handy Hippo, (Grey) Bazzill, (Calypso Coral) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Mug, shadow and swirls from Hot Concoctions, Heart from Falling for You, Sentiment from Chit Chat) Paper Smooches
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Calypso Coral, Basic Grey) Stampin' Up
Copic:  R22

Supplies for sympathy cards:

Cardstock:  (Kraft) Gina K, (Early Espressol) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Single paw print & sentiment from With Sympathy: Loss of a Pet) PTI, (Multiple paw prints) Bouji
Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Early Espresso) Stampin' Up
Die:  (Swirly alphabet) Cuttlebug, (Block Alphabet) PTI

Fabric, tag & twine - Craft supply

Bright and Fuzzy

I think this is now the third time I've paper pieced a Purple Onion Designs image for a CAS-ual Fridays challenge. I really need to change it up a bit but when I made this card on Monday I was in need of bright cheeriness and this card did it for me!  The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is to use ribbon.  That is something you rarely see on my cards despite the large quantities of it that can be found in the Craft Cave...  However, I pulled out this fun red fibre to add to the plant pot.  I love the fuzziness of it!  And since I needed bright cheeriness I knew that the challenge at Jay Gee's Nook was perfect as the inspiration photos are full of rainbow goodness.  


Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill
Stamps:  Purple Onion Designs
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Cherry Cobbler) Stampin' Up
Patterned Paper:  (Cherry Cola, Orange Cream, Lemon Drop, Fuzzy Navel, Deep Blue from Lime Rickey collection) Basic Grey
Ribbon:  (Adornments Fun Fibres) EK Success

A Splash of Pink

Here's card #2 from Monday's battle with my mojo!  I decided to play along with the Play Date Cafe's colour splash challenge.  This is quite an old Unity stamp (from 2009!) that has never seen any ink.  I thought of it immediately when I came to this challenge and was glad to give it a chance to see the light.  I used some Liquid Pearls in the centres of the flowers - so excited to finally have some of that stuff.  I embossed the tree and the sentiment and didn't spill a drop of embossing powder at all during the making of this card! Whoop whoop!  :)


I also wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for their sweet messages on yesterdays post.  You all sure know how to make a girl feel better.  :)


Cardstock:  (White) Gina K, (Melon Mambo, Basic Black) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Tree from May '09 KOM - Another Sweet Day) Unity, (Sentiment from Think Big Favourites #5) PTI
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMark) Tsukineko
Embossing Powder:  (Clear, Seafoam White) Ranger
Dies:  (Nesties Standard Circles Large) Spellbinders
Other:  (White Opal Liquid Pearls) Ranger

Battling My Mojo

Last week was one of those weeks when everything at work was an emergency.  Sometimes we have days where it seems like all we have happening are basic things like vaccines, nail clips, spays, neuters, dentals, etc.  Then there's weeks like last week when nothing is basic - GDVs, broken limbs, pancreatitis, bite wounds, RTAs, etc.  Just when we thought we were getting under control something else would turn up.  The vets and nurses were going straight through from 7:30am - 7pm not even stopping for lunch breaks.  It was nuts.  And it was heartbreaking as we lost several battles.  I was totally fried by Friday night and more than a little depressed.  I know that we can't save everything and you have to have a level of stoicism for this work but sometimes it wears you down.  Needless to say my mojo was NOjo this weekend.  Didn't get any crafting done at all.  Just tidied the house, hung out with Luis and the hounds and spent Sunday doing my best impersonation of a sloth.  When I woke up this morning I was still feeling a bit blah but I was determined to get that mojo kick started.  It was a struggle but I pushed through and got 3 cards made.  Nothing amazing or wildly imaginative but I got something accomplished so I'm feeling a lot better.


So this card is for the Just Add Ink colour challenge - a sweet spring colour palette.  Unfortunately the gale force winds outside are not exactly spring-like today but I found this lovely image from Unity that definitely is.  :)
Cardstock:  (White) Gina K, (So Saffron) Stampin' Up

Stamps:  (Flowers from Jan '11 KOM - To The Moon & Back) Unity, (Sentiment from Everyday Sayings) Hero Arts, (Bit of Burlap) Market Street Stamps

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMark) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder:  (Clear) Ranger

Punch:  (Corner Punch) Marvy Uchida

Copics: Y21, YG63, G21, BG10, BV23

You Hold The Key

Popping in with one more challenge card today.  This month's challenge at Young Crafters Unite is a sketch challenge and I broke out some new PTI stamps to play along.  It took a lot of fussing and rearranging and colour changes before I came up with something I liked but I'm glad I didn't quit because it means I've conquered yet another sketch challenge!  They'll probably never be my favourite challenges but I'm definitely feeling more comfortable with them. 




Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Melon Mambo, Basic Grey) Stampin' Up

Stamps:  (Banner from Bannerific) Lawn Fawn, Sentiment from Lock & Key) PTI

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Melon Mambo) Stampin' Up

Dies:  (Heart Prints, Lock & Key) PTI 

Sweet Lil' Boy

I needed a baby boy card for a friend and wanted to use this sweet Purple Onion Designs stamp.  They have a whole series of these little framed doodles which I think are so cute!  I dug out this fun paper pad by Deja Views that I've had since late 2007.  I remember very clearly that I REALLY wanted this paper collection and ever since I got it it has looked lovely on my shelf!  :)  Now it finally gets to see the light of day!  I'll be entering this in the Love You to Pieces challenge at CAS-ual Fridays and the patterned paper challenge at Lily Pad Cards.    


Cardstock:  (Kraft) PTI
Patterned Paper:  (Pear Collection) Deja Views
Stamps:  (Bear Framed Doodle) Purple Onion Designs
Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Hello Hello

I've got a multi-challenge card for you today.  I started out with the colours from the Play Date Cafe.  I love their bright and cheery colour story this week.  Susan of One-Layer Wednesday has challenged us to use more than 5 circles on our card and Chrissie and Mandi at Less Is More are looking for one-layer cards with stripes.  I figured there must be a way to combine these and I ended up using my new (to me) Background Basics: Retro stamps from PTI which incorporate stripes and circles!  Using the PTI stamps also made this eligible for A Passion for Papertrey's stripes challenge.  A CAS four-challenge wonder!

Cardstock:  (Rustic white) PTI

Stamps:  (Background Basics: Retro) PTI, (Hello) Woodware USA

Inks:  (Pacific Point, More Mustard, Night of Navy) Stampin' Up

Gems:  (Bumblebee Assortment) Doodlebug 

Unique Chic

I've had a lovely and productive day in the Craft Cave but now I have to dash out and pick up Luis as his bike has broken down.  Doh!  Hope it's not too expensive to fix but at least the hounds will enjoy going for a ride.  Anyway the first card I worked on today was one for Market Street Stamps' Paint the Town Challenge.  And guess what set I used?  My trusty Hippie Chic set!  I actually won a set from the latest new releases but it hasn't arrived yet so I'll have to use it for the next challenge.  For now though, I'm still enjoying the Chic!  

Cardstock:  (Cream & white) Pacon, (Grey) Bazzill, (Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze) Stampin' Up

Stamps:  (Guitar and sentiment from Hippie Chic) Market Street Stamps

Ink:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Daffodil Delight) Stampin' Up, (Wild Hare) ColorBox

Embossing Powder:  (Black) Ranger

Gems:  (Sunflower Yellow Ice Rox) Queen & Co