At $1.50…they don’t count

That’s what I told myself today.  I walked into Michaels on my way home from work, armed with my40% coupon to buy a specific punch for a special card (more on that later).  I walked by this display and found all this wonderful coordinating stuff!

Each item was only $1.50.  Therefore, it doesn’t count. I didn’t really spend all that much.  They had much more, but I limited myself to this haul here.  I couldn’t wait to rip open my new finds, and so after 8.5 hours on the road, in a terrible rain storm that created about 3 ft of visibility, I somehow found my second wind and sat down at my craft table.  I needed some thank you and birthday cards for a customer order; both Thank you stamps are SU and the ‘Happy Birthday’ stamp is GinaK.

I loved this weekend’s WSC78 sketch hosted by Sharon at Paperfections; I missed the deadline, but decided to play anyways.

I used the scraps of my beloved Yellow Bicycle paper and created two thank you cards:

I’m loving the buttons lately; I’ve been envious of everyone using buttons over the past few weeks, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Then I used MojoMonday sketch 82 for my next two cards and used the paper from my $1.50 haul

 

I wasn’t paying attention when I stamped the “Happy Birthday” for this next card, so it’s slightly different

(sorry, the picture is a little blurry)

I took these pictures outside, we still have some daylight, and the sky has cleared from our torrential downpour that I had to drive through this morning.  Mother Nature sure is fickle!

I know it’s TwilightTuesday (check it out at TwilightTuesday.com), but I’ll be making my TTIC card tomorrow, (and that special card with that specific punch--- hopefully, tomorrow I only have  5 hours on the road, but about 4.5 hours of paperwork…) I just don’t have it in me after 4 cards.

Happy Tuesday!

Ciao for now,

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A TECC65 entry, and quite possibly my best card yet

I think I’ve outdone myself.  I think it’s incredible how some cards come together on their own, and some you have to fight tooth and nail to get them to where you want them to go.

My TECC65 entry morphed into something else, and I’m incredibly happy with it.

I saw Taylor’s sketch for this weekend  and immediately had an idea.  I wanted the vertical piece to be a bookmark.  Taylor had said she was excited about this week’s sketch because it was so open to interpretation.  Boy, was she right!

My card seemed to take on a life of it’s own, but I really think this may be my best work yet, and I’m thrilled!!

I used Cloud9Design paper in Cocoa Bouquet; this paper MADE the card!  The cardstock is SU Chocolate Chip and some American Crafts Rust paper (from the Christmas pack if you can believe it!) some SU Chocolate Chip ribbon and my MS border punch.

I mounted the bottom piece using foam tape, as well as the sentiment so my bookmark can slide in and be held without any adhesive.

I’ve left the inside blank, I’m not sure if this card is meant to be a Thank You card, a Congratulations card (sentiment is from SU Congrats set) or maybe even a Mother’s Day card. 

One thing is for sure…I love love LOVE this card.  It may be very hard to part with.  I’m not sure if I’ll list it, but I probably will and just use this design over and over again.

I did make 4 other cards today, but honestly, I’m embarrassed to show them because they’re not as good as this one! LOL

Make sure to check out Taylor’s site and all the wonderful submissions for this week, everyone really had a different way of interpreting it.

Happy Saturday!

Ciao for now,

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RANT: My very own real life Seinfeld episode

Technorati Tags: car rental,rant,cars,seinfeld

I had a one hour in-town meeting today at 10 am, and an out of town meeting at 2 pm.  It’s a 3 hour drive to my second meeting, one way.  I arrived at the car rental place at 9am.

This is what happened to me today:

Except:

Add in an offer for a compact car: Not safe, I don’t care what you say.

And an offer for a minivan:

Agreed to after I negotiated a reduced price for the gas that this Beast would consume.  I sat in the car to drive away and realized:

 

The seat height is not adjustable and my feet don’t touch the pedals.  I’m 5’6”.  This should not be an issue!

Back inside I go, where I have to spend another 15 minutes telling them I’m going to walk out without renting a car; I finally conceded when they arranged for me to pick up a car at another location, after my first meeting, on my way to the second meeting.   They promised me it would take no more than 2 minutes, and I would have a full tank of gas so that I can just ‘get in and go’.

Meeting #1 completed, off to pick up the 2nd rental car and give back the Beast.

So, I just got home and I called my good friend HILL to come over and serve chill.

Happy Thursday.

Ciao for now,

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Holy Cow! She finally completed a TTIC Challenge! TTIC 28- The Wedding

I will be the first to admit, I have been totally slacking when it comes to the TTIC challenges…I have missed more than I care to admit (darn ‘real life job’), but I COULD NOT bare to miss this one.  Breaking Dawn was on of my favs in the series, partly because Edward and Bella finally said “I do”.

Margie asked us to focus on the Wedding for this weeks Twilight Tuesday.com challenge and provided us with some inspiration as well with this photo

I know that red, white and black have become the unofficial colours of Twilight, but I don’t picture Edward and Bella’s wedding like this.

I see soft, romantic colours, and I think blue would be a big part of it because Edward loves Bella in blue.  We know that Alice kept roses as part of the theme, and so in creating my piece this week, I knew I was going to use the SU Fifth Avenue rose stamp.

I wanted to do something a little different, and looked around my apartment for inspiration.  I really wanted to make what we Italians call bonboneirri, or the ‘giveaways’ from the wedding.  I may still do that, but I came up with this idea in the meantime.

I created a Unity candle for Edward and Bella.

I followed this very simple tutorial at Splitcoaststampers ; who knew tissue paper, wax paper, stamps and a heat gun is all you need! oh, and  candle of course.

Here’s a close up:

This is another SU stamp, and one that I’ve used before for a TTIC challenge, for a wedding card that I thought Bella would give to Edward. I did think at first to make the candle match the card, but I wasn’t sure white satin ribbon on an ivory candle would look so good.

 

So I used chocolate satin ribbon because I think it goes so well with the blue flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Margie also asked us:

What are your favorite things in a wedding? and/or most memorable ‘in real life’ or movie/tv wedding you’ve ever seen…?

My favourite things in a wedding…I like the tradition of all of it, the exchanging of vows, and rings and seeing the groom’s face when he sees his bride for the first time.

My most memorable ‘in real life’ wedding would have to be my friends Alison and Jamie’s wedding, last summer; I was a bridesmaid, and it was a great party!

*whispers* although technically, I don’t remember much after dinner….. I told you it was a great party!

Make sure to check out everyone else’s submissions this week!

Happy Wednesday!

Ciao for now,

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Ethan’s Christening card and a sneak peek at a special project…sort of

Yesterday was Ethan’s Christening (my Godson), and what a day it was!

He officially turned 3 months old, was  Christened AND cut his first tooth in the middle of the ceremony!  All that and he was very good throughout the whole thing, getting a little fussy towards the end, but he did  cut a tooth.  Once I get some pictures, I’ll share them, but for now I’ll share with you the card I made for him.

I thought the “Little lamb” from the MFT Baby First set was perfect, since Ethan is now officially part of our ‘flock’.  I wanted the card to compliment his announcement cards that I made, but not be exactly the same.

Here’s his announcement card, made using a set from Inkadinkadoo:

And here’s his card for his Christening:

I just love the Little Lamb, and of course I used some more Fun Flock :)  The inside says “Blessings” and is from the Unity Easter set (I forgot to take a photo before I sealed the envelope).

I also created something else for him…but I can’t share it completely just yet. 

See, over at the TwilightTuesday.com forum, we’ve started a RAK mailing list, and this will be something that I will send out to my TwilightTuesday.com friends…so add your name to the list people!!

So here is a sneak peek, this was made to compliment Ethan’s gift  and card, so the Twilight version will be different.  It’s an envelope of sorts, and there’s some goodies inside (hint* they’re flat and sticky on one side)…can you guess what it is??? hehe, I know, so sneaky!

 

Happy Monday!

Ciao for now,

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Two for one: TECC64 and Sissy Scrap card challenge #1

This is my first entry in Margie and Sara’s Sissy Scrap Card Challenge, and I combined it using Taylor’s sketch for TECC64.

I worked on the baby cards for my customer, I got another two done with this design.

I used the MFT Baby First stamp set, I just love it! and again, went straight for the SU Salebration paper.

Margie’s challenge asked us to use inchies, ribbon and buttons.  I kept the stroller a true 1” x 1” by masking the handle and using floral wire instead.  I did somewhat cheat with the buttons, they’re brads….but I looked all over Michaels this morning and couldn’t find buttons! I swear.

I love the little “baby on board”  stamp and used Glossy Accents to make it a little more authentic.

I have two more cards to make for my customer, a special project (you’ll have to wait for that one) and I still have to make Ethan’s Christening card for tomorrow. It’s all planned in my head, I just have to put it to paper.

Happy Saturday!

Ciao for now,

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Foto Friday # 14: Modern Art at the Chateau du Versailles, Paris, France

Happy Friday!

On our last full day in Paris in September, we travelled to the Chateau du Versailles. It’s roughly a 40 minute train ride outside of Paris.  My dad was adamant that he did not want to see yet another castle.  But I knew the Chateau du Versailles is the castle of ALL castles, and decided I would go with or without my parents.  My dad decided he had nothing better to do, and didn’t want to wonder around without me and my mom, who did want to visit Versailles, so the three of us hopped on the train and away we went.

I’m going to keep this photo Friday specific to the modern art that was on display at the Chateau du Versailles while we were there, and save the overall pictures of Versailles for another edition.

How odd!! would you agree? My mom and I kept thinking it was a joke! The juxtaposition between this giant balloon animal and the grandness and beauty of the Chateau  itself and the art belonging to that era is incredible.

 

To be honest, these are the only two pictures I took; I didn’t really enjoy the exhibition, I think it took away from the beauty of the castle, and to some point, made a mockery of it.  I did think the Heart pictured above was beautiful, just not in the right place.

I’m going to take advantage of some summer weather we’re having (sunny and 22 degrees Celsius); I’ll be working on some more cards and another special project this weekend and on Sunday, my Godson Ethan will be Christened.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ciao for now,

 

PS- my Dad LOVED Versailles and can’t stop talking about it ;)

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Holy Cow! She finally made a card!

Hello strangers!  I know, I know, it’s been too long!  Don’t you hate when that thing called ‘life’ and ‘responsibility’ get in the way??

So after nearly two weeks *gasp* of not stamping, I made the time tonight to start an order of baby cards that I received.  My customer asked for 6 cards in all, some babies have already arrived, one boy and one girl, 3 others will arrive shortly, and she asked for a spare card since she has a gut feeling she’ll be needing one soon.

Of course, since I haven’t stamped in a while, I wasn’t up to date on my supplies…meaning I’m running out of Tombo adhesive tape.  I had just enough to finish 2 cards, so the rest will have to wait until I can go out tomorrow. 

I used the layout from Taylor’s weekend sketch (last weeks) and I finally inked up a My Favorite Things stamp set that I’ve had sitting in the wrapper for about 2 months now.

I picked the stork stamp and set to work on the baby boy and baby girl cards.  I immediately pulled out the Fun Flock, and it worked perfectly!

Thank goodness for glue pens, that’s all I have to say!

Here’s a close up of the boy stork.  I used SU Salebration paper, it’s the perfect ‘boy’ colour combo.  The card base is Sahara Sand, and the dark blue paper is one I found in my stash.  I used some Bashful Blue ribbon and painted the end of a safety pin with blue acrylic paint to match. Cute, eh?

And here’s the baby girl card.  I used “My Little Bicycle” paper for this one, and some Bazzil Raspberry paper.  Again the card base is Sahara Sand, and I couldn’t find a pink ribbon I liked, so I went with white and tied a small bow. 

 

 

I’m really happy the Fun Flock worked just as I wanted it too, I was a little worried the image was too small.

 

 

Well, since I’m out of adhesive, that’s it for me!

Happy Thursday!

Ciao for now,

P.S. excuse the alignment of this post, apparently I've also forgotten how to use Live Writer :S

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Foto Friday- the Saturday Edition

So sorry I missed yesterday's Foto Friday...but with the long weekend, visiting friends and family, time is just flying by!

Our six hour drive home was uneventful (just the way I like it) and the new car made the trip up like a champ.

I've got just a few moments before we head out visiting again, and I'm hoping you are enjoying your holiday weekend.

Here are some pics I snapped just now in my mom's front garden, some sure signs of spring.






This is the front yard of a neighbor down the street... it signifies to me a summer long buried, but anxious to return...




Happy Easter!

Ciao for now,

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A Seal, and the Easter Bunny go to a Wedding and say Thank you?

Bet I caught your attention with that title, eh??

Before you have me committed, I couldn’t think of another way to highlight everything that’s in this post.  And even though it’s Tuesday…there’s no TwilightTuesday.com challenge entry.  Sorry kids, life is just too busy.  The only reason that I found the strength to make what I did tonight was out of sheer necessity.

First up, a Seal Concert recap. In a word: fantastic.  He was incredible, and what a talented artist.  One song after another, taking some time to chat up the crowd and tell a few jokes.  The range of this man’s voice is awesome.  Both my sister and I realized there were so many songs we didn’t know, but were happy to hear almost the entire Soul album.

                                                                                                                                           I told you I’m a sucker for a guy with a guitar…

 

 

And you know how there’s always one memorable person in the crowd at a concert                                                                                                                                                                                                 ….well here she is!  ------>

 

There were 3 empty seats in the front row, and Seal said it made him nervous, so the British gentleman he is, he invited 3 staff members to come and sit and enjoy the show.  Unfortunately they had to decline, but this woman was quick to run up to the front and grab a seat.  She was in her own little world and for a little while, I was afraid she would either 1) Jump on stage with Seal or 2) pull him OFF the stage.  She did neither  and Seal was a great sport about it.

Sunday my sister and I did visit the ROM (the Royal Ontario Museum), but I’m saving those pictures for a Foto Friday, so you’ll have to wait for those.

I want to send a thank you card to the Subaru Sales Rep who helped me with my car (it is here and it is fantastic!); he was so helpful, not pushy at all, and even remembered what radio station I listened to on my test drive and had it programmed in my car when I came to pick it up!  I was looking through my cards and realized all my thank you cards were too feminine, so I put one together using this past weeks Taylored Expressions sketch layout.  I had to stop myself from adding ribbon and flowers all over it, that would defeat the whole point! lol

My friend L asked me to make her menu cards for her October wedding.  Here’s  my first prototype,  and I’m not sure if I’ll continue with this design.  Her colours are silver, black and white, but I feel like I need to dress this up some more…any ideas?

 

 

 

I will be printing the menu on the computer, I just hand wrote Menu to fill up the space.  Both L and her fiancee are Italian, so I thought maybe this lyric would be cute on the menu cardI made a tiny ribbon rose but again, I’m just not feeling it.

One more thing to share, now that they’ve arrived safely to their recipient.  I sent these Easter Bunny mini 4x4 cards to Lorrie Veasey as a thank you for giving me the pink elephant (check this post for the whole story).

That’s it for me folks, I likely won’t be posting until Friday,  tomorrow I’ll be on the road all day long, and Thursday I’m heading home to my parents for Easter (another 6 hour drive).

Happy Tuesday!

Ciao for now,

 

 

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“We’re off to see the Wizard…

…the wonderful Wizard of Oz!”

Ok, not really, but I’m currently reading “Wicked” and I can’t get that song out of my head.

I’m off to Toronto today; my sister and I have tickets to see Seal at Massey Hall, a small theatre downtown.   It’s an incredibly intimate venue, and perfect for Seal’s new album “Soul”.  If you haven’t had the change to listen to it, and like the old standards such as “Stand by Me”; “If you don’t know me by now”; “Change is gonna come”, have a listen.

I’m going to take the train, have a nice relaxing ride with a book and some music. I’m also meeting my friend who’s in Toronto for the weekend updating her Flight Instrument certification (she’s a pilot, uber cool).  We’ll have a quick lunch before I go pick up my sister, wander around downtown, have a nice dinner, and head to the show.

We haven’t yet confirmed our Sunday plans, but it will likely be the Art Gallery of Ontario or the Royal Ontario Museum.  I think I may want to go to the ROM; I missed the Diamond exhibit, but they have the gem collection of Michael Scott (CEO of  Apple) on display now, and its supposed to be quite astonishing.  And I always enjoy a trip through the Gallery of Greece.

I won’t be making any cards this weekend, which makes me a little sad, I have a few ideas bouncing around…but I can’t really bring all my supplies and make cards on the train, LOL!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Happy Saturday!

Ciao for now,

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Foto Friday #12- Goodbye Ms. Money Penny; Hello…Scooby-doo?

This weekend is my last weekend with my Mazda 3, who I’ve named Ms. Money Penny.  She’s sleek, silver, and highly underestimated. 

This was the day I brought her home.  Oh the things we have been through in the past 4 years!

There have been good times and bad. 

 

The good times: road trips to concerts, going up to Blue Mountain to go snow boarding; numerous trips home to see my family and friends; and general cruising around with the sun roof open and the music blaring.

The bad times: Crossing the centre line in a blizzard (with snow tires of course and going very slowly—seriously, no snow fences in farm country? the white outs are killer) and ending up in a ditch almost flipping over (hit  a 42 degree angle before coming back down) and all that you suffered was some minor front bumper damage and straw that was in the grill for weeks.  The guys at the dealership were so happy they fixed you with some hot water, a heat gun and only one fender clip.

Being re-ended 3 times (all NOT my fault)

Hit #1) very impatient woman driving with an infant in the WRONG car seat, who’s husband offered to get some “colour match paint and BONDO” to fix you….so we took them to court

Hit #2) hit and run somewhere in SW Ontario with no suspects

Hit #3) rear ended at a red light 2 weeks after my leg surgery…I was going to Michaels to get ribbon for my Christmas cards

Poor rear bumper…painted 3 times, but never cracked or needed to be replaced.

The incident with a 70 yr old man from Wisconsin WHO BACKED RIGHT INTO YOUR DRIVERS’ SIDE DOOR when you was parked in a LEGAL parking spot, under a street light ; he thought there was something dragging under the car, so he JUST KEPT GOING? to shake it lose.  So we called the police and he made the female officer very mad….so we laughed and let him dig himself a deeper hole  (his wife told me I was young enough to climb into the car from the back seat, so I shouldn’t worry too much).

Ahh, Ms. Money Penny you have been good to me.  If it were not for your lack of AWD, I would be going out to get Ms. Money Penny the sequel…but alas, my driving needs have changed and so, I’m moving on up.  Up a bit higher on the road, and a bit bigger, with AWD to hopefully avoid any future run ins with blizzards and ditches and such.

And so, I say “Goodbye” to Ms. Money Penny, and wipe away a tear.

Then I say “Hello!” to my new car; I introduce you to her now, to be picked up and brought home early Monday morning:

The 2009 Subaru Forester, Touring Edition, in Satin Pearl White (mine isn’t the turbo as pictured, but this is the only stock photo in white).

I was told by a dear friend that the Subaru’s nickname is Scooby-doo….but I think we can do better, don’t you?

Any thoughts?

Happy Friday!

Ciao for now,

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