Playing in Paradise Challenge #08

.... ohh kay, I'm gettin ready so I don't miss another deadline. My project must be linked up by noon on Thursday, April 1st - no Foolin' LOL!
I really, really like how soft the colours are in the above challenge photo. I found some Anna Griffith paper in my stash that reminds of the duvet cover on the bed and I went from there, making a Mother's Day card for my dear mother. . . <3  I sure hope she likes it!

 

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Anna Griffith - AG012 & AG155

Cardstock: Bazzil & DCWV Neutrals Mat Stack

Trim: Prima - Alencon Collection Tea Stained Apron Border; other laces/tulling were from my Mom's old stash

Graphics: The Graphics Fairy

Inks: Anna Griffith - Chocolate & Robin's Egg

Button: MME - Tres Jolie Collection

Paper Doily sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Simply Khaki

The Play Date Cafe Challenge PDCC74

Shucks. . . I missed the deadline, I forgot about EST - oh well I'm posting the card on my blog anyways. . . LOL! I will be ready next time - just another learning curve :o)

SUPPLIES: 

Graphic: The Graphic Fairy

Paper: K&Company Wedding Collection Mat Stack; SEI Coordinating Cardstock - Grape; Miscellaneous Cardstock

Pearls: Recollections

Stamp: Stampin' Up - Much Appreciated

Inks: Stampin' Up and Hampton Arts

Ribbon: Offray

Paper Doily: Dollar Store

SCT's Project 12 - February 2011 "Green Things Growing"

Well here's my SCT  P12 project for February. . . think I'd still like to put a title on this layout. . . but there's a slight problem, half my sbooking supplies are still in Kelowna, including all my alphas - sigh. Yeah so. . .  will definitely have to get more creative or go shopping. . . LOL!

Excerpt is taken from Dinah Marie Mulock Craik's "Green Things Growing" - "O the green things growing, the green things growing, The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!. . . " this poem is so beautiful and reminds me of Spring and with the sun shining today. . . i thought this poem would be so beautiful for this layout. . . where all things growing are so green, even the slug. . . LOL! This slug is called a "Banana Slug".

SUPPLY LIST:

Paper: MME - Bella Bella "French Flea Market" Sophie; MME - Mabel "Joy" Woodgrain; Ooh La La "Checked Out"; Teresa Collins - Noel: Cards & Notes; Dream Street - Clubhouse Dungarees; Basic Grey - Figgy Pudding - Nestled; Cardstock - Miscellaneous

Ribbon: Maya Road Satin Pleat - Brown; Prima - Alencon Collection Tea Stained Apron Border

Elm Tree: Kaiser Crafts (their new line of scrolled wood products is so awesome)

Chipboard: Maya Road Scroll Frames;

Die Cut: MME So Sophie Graceful "Little Lady";

Vintage Buttons: from my Granny's button tin;

Cricut Cartridge: - Serenade;

Glitter: Hampton Art Glitter Glue

Owls: Paper Piecing from Jane Beljo at Design House Digital

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #73

SUPPLIES: 

Paper: Karen Foster Design - Doodle Flowers

Ribbon: American Crafts Premium Ribbon - Plum; Prima Alencon Collection - Tea Stained Apron Border

Flower: Maya Road Trinkets - Crochet Shimmer Blossoms

Inks: Stampin' Up - Classic Rose Red

Stamp: Kolette Hall

Leila's Happy Birthday Banner

It’s my nieces "Sweet 15" party on Monday. Perfect opportunity to make a banner. I’ve been itchin’ to make one of these Banners for quite a while now.  Nothing like leaving things to the last minute... so I went digging through my mom's old sewing stuff and hit pay-dirt. A box full of laces, seam bindings, tulling and many more bits and bobs I will be using in the future, they already have the "vintage" thing going on... LOL!

I used one of the cotton crocheted laces and dyed it with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Twilight. I just poured a little of the mist into a glass bowl and soaked the lace until all the mist was absorbed. Then I spritz’d it a couple times with water to give it a more stippled and shabby look.

In order to speed up the process I just threw the wet lace into the dryer. It came out all crinkly, so I pulled out my straightening iron (yup, the one I use for my hair - works great!), heated it up and ironed the lace... I absolutely love the results and will definitely be doing this again with a few other colors of TA Glimmer Mist. I love, love this product!

I really like how the banner turned out. The colours have a soft vintage feel and the lace, ribbon and sliver pearls give it a very elegant look. Perfect for a teenage girl. I didn't hang the "Happy" my sister is on her way to pick up all the party decorations... phew, just finished in time!

And to keep the invited guests busy we put together a lil scrapbooking project, which I found on Making Memories blog just this morning - Je t'Adore Gatefold Album by Leah Fung - Woo Hoo! It's so beautiful and perfect for a teen girl's birthday party. However, instead of making the whole album we will just make the gatefold album cover and place a 4x6 notepad on the inside (time restrictions).

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous! Can't believe the timing on this post from Making Memories. Thank you, thank you, thank you! They even have the tutorial on how to make those gorgeous flowers on their blog post. I know the girls will be having a grand time making this project.

SUPPLIES FOR BANNER:

Paper: white card stock with printed music sheet image from Free Music Sheet and inked with Anna Griffith - Robin's Egg; and miscellaneous pieces of cardstock. Ribbons are from Offray and are 5/8" - the colors used are Iris & Light Pink, along with Silver Pearl Strings glued above the dyed cotton lace. I used 5" - lace paper doilies inked with Stampology - Aquamarine (i love their inks for distressing).  Letters were cut with the Cricut using the Base Camp cartridge and then embossed with silver embossing powder. Buttons - pink, purple and aquamarine. I used a hot glue gun to keep it all together, went a lot faster than using my glue runner (cheaper too). Circles and scalloped circles were made with the Mini Monograms Cricut cartridge, so quick and easy. An EK Success Punch - Embossed Curve was used for the scalloped edge on top of the pennant.

Note: the music sheets were chosen especially for my niece, who plays piano and guitar, and has a real love for music.

So sorry about the photos, i know they are not great, but I've misplaced my battery charger for my Nikon DSLR and so I'm using my point and shoot - sigh! And yeah I know my blogging stinks too LOL! Still discovering how all this stuff works ;)

The Play Date Cafe Challenge PDCC #73

OMG. . . i love these colours together, so creamy, rich and delicous! I can hardly wait to see what i come up with! Just wanted to thank all the ladies at PDCC for their kind words and encouragement!

... oh yeah for Challenge #72 i got  "The Cream in our Coffee" award!

 (now if anyone could tell me how to keep this at the top of my blog i sure would be grateful)

Gift Card Wallet

... a little gift card wallet for a special couple, who are always willing to help me out. I found this little gc wallet design on Martha Stewart's site.

SUPPLIES:

Paper: BG's Nook & Pantry Collection - dishes

Stamps: Stampin' Up's "Much Appreciated" collection & Tag - Inkadinkadoo stamp set "Tickets & Tags"

Paper Doily: from the Dollar Store and sprayed with TA Glimmer Mist - Twilight

Ribbon: discovered in my mom's sewing stuff - yuppers i found a whole whack of white seam binding which I sprayed with TA Glimmer Mist - Twilight

Flowers & Bling: Dollar Store (after all I am on a budget)

Inks: Anna Griffith (my favourite inks eva)

Cardstock: scraps

and of course to finish it off a Tim Horton's Gift Card (mmmmm....)

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #72

This is my first time playing along with the PDCC and am so excited. I've always wanted to try making the little pennants, which I adore! So after measuring and cutting and measuring and cutting and more measuring and cutting. . . . I finally got it together - LOL! So much for "Measuring twice, cutting once". I may still make a few changes, like the bottom left corner... what to do? The card is for my nieces birthday and so I really wanted it to be special.

The Play Date Cafe Challenge (PDCC) was created to be unique and fun. Just follow the COLOR COMBINATION as closely as possible making those colors the FOCUS of your creation. You can make anything you like: cards, layouts, 3-D, home decor...pretty much anything!

... so I thought I would give it a go. Deadline is prior to Tuesday, March 15th.

Distressing Trick. . .

Thought i was so cool that i discovered my seam ripper for distressing paper - uh huh! So I decided to place it on my blog, only to find out that other women, just like me have discovered the same thing. . . LOL Oh well just wanted to share with you how well the seam ripper works - I actually like it better than my distressing tool, which I left back in Kelowna :) It's amazing what can happen when you need something in a pinch.

Wilna's Sunday Challenge. . .

Phew. . . just barely made the deadline for Wilna's Sunday Challenge . Was just doing some surfing and found her challenge a little too late Sunday afternoon so I quickly pulled together some papers and started up the old sewing machine. . . I'm not totally happy with this LO and so I may have to do a lil fine tuning later. . . like straightening out the letters. . . LOL!

My phrase is the title of a song from Suzy Yarei "Praise is Beautiful" . . . it's a beautiful worship song that i absolutely adore!

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Teresa Collins - Giving Thanks Collection; MME - Ooh La La For Him Collection; Fancy Pants - Road Show; and random pieces of card stock

Inking: Anna Griffith Inks (my favourite - so juicy)

Alpha: American Crafts Thickers - Marquise Pearls; K&Company - Handmade Mini Alpha.

Embellishments: Prima Lace - Alencon Collection; Ribbon -seam binding sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Twilight; Butterfly - K&Company Flora & Fauna Botanical Butterflies Layered Accents; Diecut - Teresa Collins Giving Thanks Collection

. . . Celebrate Cards

. . . a card made with leftover scraps from my Project 12 layout below. I used MME Stella Rose – Mable “Love” Letters Paper and MME BellaBella – “French Flea Market” Sophie Paper and Dream Street Papers – Clubhouse Dungarees. The stamp is from Stampin' Up Set "All About U". Punches used are from EK Success - Open Scallop and Stampin Up - Ticket Corner Punch. Design is from Becky Fleck at Page|Maps.

I love this stamp by Daisy Bucket Designs . . . it's so adorable! I used paper from DCWV Pocket Full of Posies Mat Stack; buttons and ribbon were from my leftover stash and 2 little purple rhinestones for her gorgeous eyes :)

Til Debt Do Us Part. . .

I have loved watching Gail Vaz-Oxlade's show "Til Debt Do Us Part" for several years now. She has definitely impacted my life as I've applied her techniques to my own personal life. In the past I've contacted Gail regarding a few financial issues and within a day or two I received a very helpful and practical response. This woman is to the point, she believes in tough love and it works. . . Gail I really appreciate you and the gift you walk in "Common Cents".

Gail also has her own website, blog, tv show, clubs and has just released a new book called "Never Too Late - Take Control of Your Retirement and Your Future". Her website has tons of resources, interactive worksheets and just common cents articles, you can find it at, "Gail Vaz-Oxlade Debt-Free Forever".

Thanks to God and to Gail I have been debt free for several years now and am loving my financial freedom. So get rid of those credit cards, debit cards and begin to live on cash - it's amazing!

So this year I decided to add a little flair to my Budget Binder and my $$ Jars using some recycled materials, here is the result:



My supply list:

5 - Jars (you can add an additional jar for "Surplus")
1 - New or used binder

PAPER:
October Afternoon - Detour Series, Fruit Salad; Hometown Series, Woolworths & Depot Park

EMBELISHMENTS:
Flower - Prima
Ribbon - Random scraps
Bling - Dollar Store
Labels, Alpha and Worksheets were created on my computer

Note: This project cost less than $5