I just had to share …

my not-so-little fur baby turns 4 today … happy birthday, Smudge!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Dance

I was just as happy as could be today … I had found a new scrapbook store in my area and decided that since I had the day off work I’d treat myself with a caramel-pecan-gingerbread scone from Whole Foods and a few goodies from the LSS. Well, I think I actually did a happy dance when I saw the Jillibean Soup ‘Atomic Soup’ paper collection there. The inner nerd in my had been on the hunt for this collection since I first saw it … you see, I have a BSc in Chemistry and Biology and have spent the last 10 years working in a lab as a research chemist. So, these papers …

… made me smile.

And, I just had to get this itty bitty stamp set to go along with the paper …

I can’t say if I’ll ever use the ‘love potion #9’ stamp, but the little beaker, test tube and Erlenmeyer flask were just too cute to pass up!

I have a few layouts in mind for this paper … I have pictures from university and the research lab that I’ve never done anything with, so I’m excited to finally be able to do something with them.

Thanks for stopping by.

YPP Sketch Challenge #2

Here’s the sketch …

Here’s what I came up with …

Part of the challenge was to use Lindy’s Stamp Gang products … so, I used a couple of colours to colour the white Thickers and to create the accent paper behind the picture (along with my very first set of Nestabilities).  I also used them to colour a paper flower and to add a bit of shimmer to some seam binding and a bit of Webster’s Pages trim.  Then I added a bit of journaling on a piece of vellum to the corner with a few grey pearls.  I’m enjoying doing these challenges as I’m finding that I’m getting a lot more layouts done.

Materials used:

• card stock and vellum: Stampin’ Up!
• seam binding: from Fini Ribbon
• pearls: Prima E line
• trim: Webster’s Pages Bloomers
• LSG: Voodoo Violet Blue, Golden Lump of Coal & Creme Brulee Cream
• Thickers: American Crafts ‘Platforms’
• flower: Recollections'
• Spellbinders Nestabilities: Curved Rectangles

Thanks for stopping by.

Stylish Blogger Award

Aw, shucks.  A big thanks to my friend Sarah over at The Handmade Card Blog for sending me this lovely Stylish Blogger Award.  So part of receiving this award is telling you all a little bit about me … so, here are 8 things that you may not already know:

1. I’m a classically trained violinist

2. I’ve taken professional culinary baking course ... just for fun

3. I love refinishing furniture

4. I have dipped my toes in both sides of the Atlantic ocean

5. I’ve helped birth a litter of piglets

6. I’ve been on a plane that had problems deploying the landing gear and had to make an emergency landing ... I got to go down the inflatable slide

7. I have a ‘thing’ for stationary – I *heart* pens, notebooks, sticky notes and tabs

and finally ... drum roll, please ...

8. I’m a science geek (sorry, can’t help it ... that’s what happens when you spend 5 years studying chemistry in university and then spend 10+ years working in a lab)

That’s it … that’s me.

I’d love to pass it along to those who inspire me everyday with their fabulous blogs …

1. Erin: http://inked.papersweets.ca/
2. Nicole: http://gingersparkles.blogspot.com/
3. Lisa: http://notladylike.blogspot.com/
4. Nicole: http://myscrapology.blogspot.com/
5. Megan: http://maddmartha.blogspot.com/
6. Deb: http://sideshowdeb.blogspot.com/
7. Virginia: http://www.scrapalicious-creative.blogspot.com/
8. Heather: http://www.stampwithheather.typepad.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

I *heart* Johnny

So, it’s no secret that Johnny Depp is my favourite actor … I’ve been a huge fan every since his days on 21 Jump Street (ok, I think I just dated myself).  I was just gitty when I found his block in front of Grauman’s Chinese theatre the other year when we went to Hollywood while on vacation. 

So, you’d think with all my excitement I would’ve scrapped my happiness before now.  Well, I would love to say that I have a good excuse reason, but I don’t.  Well, maybe I do … you see, I’ve been trying different styles of layouts, but nothing seemed right.  Until now … I think I finally found a style that I really love.  It’s simple and clean and very understated.

There’s not much to the layout and I think that’s what I like most about it.  And the best part … the layout was created with scraps of paper (not including the base paper)!

Materials used:

• cardstock – Papertrey Ink
• patterned paper – My Mind’s Eye, Prima
• Glimmer Mist – Haunted Shadow (my fav!)
• butterfly punch – Martha Stewart
• bling & pears – Prima
• border sticker – Basic Grey
• Tim Holtz tiny attacher
• ribbon trim – don’t know … it was gifted to me

Thanks for stopping by!

Winterlicious

So, in  case you don’t know I’m a foodie at heart.  The food network is always on my TV, I love reading cook books and strolling through a grocery store or kitchen-type store makes me happy.  Why am I telling you this?  Just so you can imagine how gitty I was when my friends and I decided to partake in Winterlicious this past weekend. 

What is Winterlicious you ask?  It’s an awesome 2 weeks when restaurants in the city have special menus for amazing prices … it’s an opportunity to dine in places that would, normally, be too far out of your price range or were booked solid so you’d have no hope of ever getting in.

This year my friends and I decided to check out a restaurant called Horizons … not only did it offer an outstanding menu, but the dining experience was amazing.  You see, the restaurant is located 346m (1,136feet) above the ground.  Here’s the view from our table …

view of the downtown core from 346 meters

The dinner, itself, was just as amazing as the view …

Butternut squash bisque with toasted pecan crème fraîche

Niagara Pinot Noir Braised Short Ribs of Beef, Roasted Holland Marsh vegetables & Yukon gold potato mash

Dark Chocolate, Almond Cornmeal Cake & Lindt milk chocolate ice cream

After dinner we decided to take in more of the amazing views of our city …

view of the Rogers Centre from the observation deck

view of Rogers Centre through the glass floor on the observation deck

We had a blast and can’t wait to try another restaurant in a few months when Summerlicious comes to town.

Thanks for stopping by.

A hard card to make …

… for a couple of reasons.  A very good friend of mine lost her grandpa yesterday to cancer.  So, to let her know that I’m thinking of her at this hard time I wanted to make a card.  However, I only have one sympathy stamp and it’s a tiny little thing.  So, I ended up using the hydrangea stamp from the ‘Because I Care’ set from Stampin’ Up! along with my little sentiment stamp (thanks for the idea Sarah).

I coloured the flower in with nice subtle shades of pink, purple and blue and then stamped the sentiment on a piece of vellum (thanks Natasha for the tip!) to use as an overlay.  It’s a pretty simple card, but I didn’t want anything too ‘flashy’ considering what it’s meant to say.

   flower without the vellum overlay

Materials used:

• card base cardstock: Papertrey Ink
• paper for stamping and vellum, inks and ‘Because I Care’ stamp set: Stampin’ Up!
• patterned paper: DCWV ‘Luxury Stack’
• sentiment stamp: Inkadinkado

Thanks for stopping by.

A Little Inspiration

A while ago I went to a scrapbook warehouse sale … I had picked up some really cool items from Kaiser crafts, but I hadn’t really had any ideas on what to do with them.  Until now, that is.

I decided to make a decorative piece for myself using the jigsaw puzzle set …

I ended up keeping the project very simple … I decided to let the words have the biggest impact.

   

It’s the first altered piece I’ve made that I’ve kept for myself … it goes perfectly with my room and it’s something that makes me smile every time I see it.

Materials used:

• Kaiser craft jigsaw puzzle
• patterned paper: MME So Sophie collection
• bling: Prima & Basic Grey
• flower & ribbon: Prima
• stamps: Michaels
• charms & metal accents: Making Memories & Blue Moon
• chipboard accent: DCWV Mariposa collection
• miscellaneous: Craftsmart black paint, Ranger Distress Stickles – Rock Candy

Thanks for stopping by.

I’m on a roll!

Wow … I think I’ve posted more this month than I did all last year.  Yay me!

For today’s post I wanted to share another layout I did … but this time I had used a sketch from Beggahuna to help me design the layout.

I really had a lot of fun creating a layout with a sketch … I found it was easier for me to complete my layout, so I’ll definitely be trying this again.

I decided to use a couple of pictures from my trip to New York City the other Christmas for the layout … mostly because I knew the journaling would be easy.  I rarely do journaling on my layouts, so I wanted to make it as easy as possible for myself.  I also used a Christmas ornament on the layout (instead of the flower on the sketch) and I really think it worked well.

Materials used:

• patterned paper: Chatter Box & Invisibles by Heidi Swapp
• Thickers: American Crafts (roller rink & bliss)
• bling & lace: Prima
• Distress Ink: Ranger (chipped sapphire, bundled sage, peeled paint, tumbled glass)
• Tokens charms: Blue Moon
• journal card: Colorbok

Thanks for stopping by.

I have a bone to pick with you …

pretty much sums up the look my little fur-babies give me every Halloween when I dress them up and attempt to take their picture.  So, when I decided to create a layout of the pictures from this past Halloween the Haunted paper collection from Cosmo Cricket seemed to be the perfect choice – I loved the colours and distressed look, but the little skeleton dude was just too perfect. 

Martha Stewart spider web punch add a nice detail

 a dew drop highlights the ‘31’

I used crackle accents on this little guy

Materials used:

• cardstock – Stampin’ Up!
• patterned paper – Cosmo Cricket
• Tattered Angels Bingo Board – Halloween
• Glimmer mist – Haunted Shadow & Raven
• Lindy’s Stamp Gang Starburst Stains – Frosty Forest Green, Golden Lump of Coal, Black Orchid Silver & Crème Brulee Cream
• Frames – Recollections
• Bling – Me and My Big Ideas
• Crackle Accents - Ranger
• punch – Martha Stewart

Thanks for stopping by.

It’s been three years …

but sometimes it feels like it’s only been a few moments. Three years ago today my grandmother passed away. We were very close … as close as a grandmother and granddaughter could be, I think. You see, my grandmother helped raise me, so we shared an extra special bond.

She was always impressed with everything I did … and always made sure to tell me so (she cried like a baby when she saw me in my cap and gown when I graduated university). She taught me how to read when I was three and walked me to school everyday until I was old enough to do it on my own. She encouraged me to dream big and not to settle for less than what would make my heart sing.

She passed on her love of Cadbury chocolate, custard, scotch mints and sticky toffee pudding to me. She was a very special lady and I miss her terribly every day.

this was one of her favourite pictures

Sorry guys, nothing crafty today, but thanks for stopping by.

A Lazy Sunday

After working overtime at work yesterday I decided that today is going to be a relaxing day. So, I’m organizing my scrap space (for what seems like the thousandth time) and working on a few projects and cards today.

So far I’ve finished one birthday card …

Materials used:

• cardstock & stamp – Papertrey Ink
• patterned paper & die cut – Basic Grey’s Kioshi collection
• ink – Colorbox Chalk in Chestnut Roan
• random ribbon from my stash

Thanks for stopping by!

I know it’s a little late, but …

Happy New Year!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something and I have a feeling that this could be a long post.

First I just wanted to share a couple of photos of my fur-babies on Christmas morning while they opened up their gifts …

Smudge opening a gift

Maizie looking at all the toys

Smudge posing with the toys

my fur-babies checking out the anchovies

Now for something crafty … I’m hoping that I’m going to be better about updating my blog this year. I think my biggest problem is that I always forget to take pictures of what I create and I either end up giving them away or I put them away and don’t think about them anymore. Well, it’s not my New Year’s resolution (‘cause I just think those are made to be broken) but I’m going to try and take at least one picture of whatever I make when I’m done. *fingers crossed*

My mom’s aunt is turning 95 next week and wanted to create an card for her that was special and I really like the way it turned out. It’s pretty simple, but I think it’s pretty elegant.

close up

I think that’s it for now … hope everyone’s New Year is off to an amazing start.

Material list:

• patterned paper, cardstock, ink, ribbon & embossing folder – Stampin’ Up!
• stamps – Recollections
• stardust embossing powder
• rhinestones - CTMH

Thanks for stopping by.