May Cross Canada Blog Hop with CTMH

Hi folks!

Welcome to our May Cross Canada Blog Hop featuring the Sweet Girl collection from Close To My Heart. Whether you are a scrap-booker or card-maker, both of these collections have something for you.

If you've just hopped onto my blog, then you CAN start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada, then please start at the beginning at Michelle's blog. If you came from Colleen's then you are in the right place!

I have a few cards to share with you today and not one of them is baby themed.

Up first - this birthday card. The cute bunny from the Sweet Girl Complements was perfect for the friend who received this card.

Next? A graduation card for my niece. She's winding up her college program and I thought this was a cute card to celebrate the occasion.  For this one I used cute Hedgehog from the cut-apart sheet in the Sweet Girl Paper Pack.

And finally? All FIVE of this year's Mother's Day cards.

That's it for me! Up next is Brandi!

Remember - if you get lost you can always head back to Michelle's blog as she has the full list of participants.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we are able to inspire you in some way. If so, please leave us a comment as we love to hear back from the hoppers! We hope you are able to join us again next month. So be sure to mark June 10th on your calendar. And don't forget, you can reach out to your local consultant to purchase any of the items you see on the hop today!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Making Waves for a couple of birthdays

Hi folks,

Just thought I would pop in and share a couple more cards made recently for two more of our nieces who celebrated birthdays this summer.

For the first one, I wanted some happy, fun papers. So I turned to the CTMH "Make Waves" paper pack.

And since I had them out anyway, I used them on this card as well. Along with the "Block Numbers" Thin Cuts to mark the special year.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Happy 1st birthday

Hi folks,

Just thought I would pop in and share a couple of cards I made for nieces of ours that just celebrated their first birthdays - one from each side of our respective families.

I kind of cheated and made two cards that were pretty much identical - except for the arrangement of the balloons. But my card-making mojo has been in short supply lately so.....it is what it is.

In case you are wondering, the balloons are cut with the balloon die cut from the CTMH "Sweet Baby" set - I snapped it up during a recent flash sale and have NOT regretted it.

Of course, the "1" was die cut using the CTMH Block Numbers Thin Cuts - another versatile set and I do NOT regret having in my collection. It comes in handy for those milestone birthdays and anniversaries AND graduations.

The papers on the cards are a mix of different CTMH collections - mostly from the Whimsy palette I do believe. I wanted something fun and summer-y for those two little nieces.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Mojo 347

Hi folks,

Well it looks like I forgot to share the card I made for my Mom's birthday back in mid-June. I've had a draft post sitting since I made the card - I just forgot to post!

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, kraft card stock base
• patterned papers: Carta Bella "Traditions"
• stamps: Verve "Because of You" (Mom), "Big Wish" (Happy Birthday)
• layout: Mojo Monday 347
• blue satin ribbon, yellow satin ribbon, buttons and twin from my stash

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Viva La Verve March Week 1

Hi folks,

Long time no Viva La Verve posts from me! I haven't been much into crafting lately, well, much of anything truth be told. I'm actually in the midst of a Doctor ordered break from work due to massive burn-out from the stress I've been experiencing for the last year or so.

But I'm finally easing back into playing with the stamps and papers I love so very much so that means a return to my one of my favourite weekly challenges - Viva La Verve!!!!

My dearly beloved celebrated his 49th birthday last week so I grabbed the first sketch for the March Viva La Verve challenges and made this card to mark the day.

Clean and simple, with some fabulous papers from Prima.

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, black card stock base, white card stock mat
• patterned papers: Prima "Craftsman"
• stamps: Verve "Borderline", "Merry & Bright", "Heart Flutter" Plain Jane, Love Notes (whoa, that's a lot of stamps sets on one card!)
• dies: Verve "Classy Label"

challenges for this card:

• Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes (I didn't do the toppings option of stitching)
• Love to Create #107: Clean and Simple
• House of Cards: March Challenge #2: Clean and Simple (oops...I missed the fact that I was supposed to include a button. Sorry! Tried to remove it from the linky list but couldn't!)

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Have a Magical Birthday

Hi folks,

Just popping in to share a card I made for one of our nieces for her fourth birthday. She's really into fairies these days so I thought I'd get out one of my Pink Cat Studio fairy images and use it on her card.

card details:

• finished size: 5x5 inches, white card stock base, dark brown mats
• patterned papers: Doodlebug "Flower Box"
• stamped image: Pink Cat Studio "Enchanted Lily", coloured with Copic Markers (E000, E00, E01, E93, BG0000, E50, E51, E53, Y23, Y21, C7, R21, R22, R43, R27, YR00, YR01, Yr02, BG10, BG11, BG15). Sentiment is from Pink Cat Studio "Fairy Friends"
• Spellbinders Petite Circles
• Recollections Butterfly Paper Clips from my stash
• layout: hmmm, I'm not sure. I'll come back to update if I can find the sketch.

challenges for this card:

• Love to Create #106: Anything Goes
• Craft Your Passion #204: Young at Heart

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Mojo Monday 295

Hi folks,

Woohoo! Once again I am playing along with this week's Mojo Monday sketch.

Here's the sketch:

And here's the birthday card I made for my Aunt using the sketch

card details:

• finished size: 5.5 x 5.5 inches, kraft card stock base
• patterned papers: My Mind's Eye "Be Happy"
• stamps: Verve "Treasured Words"

additional challenges for this card:

• Sister Act Card Challenge #8: Anything Goes 
• Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Mojo Monday 294

Hi folks,

Here in Canada, today is Victoria day, so we have the day off from work. Yay! So, I found some time to play along with this week's Mojo Monday 294 sketch

here's the sketch:

and here's the birthday card I made for one of my Aunt's using the sketch:

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, kraft card stock base
• patterned paper: My Mind's Eye "Be Happy"
• stamps: Verve "Treasured Words"
• die: Verve "Rounded Rectangle"
• EK Success Diamond Scallop border punch
• satin ribbon and CTMH Sorbet buttons from my stash

additional challenges for this card:

• Creatalicious Challenge #50: For the Girls (this one is for my Aunt)
• Shopping Our Stash #101: Scrap Attack (after making all those Mother's Day cards in my previous posts, I had lots of pieces of the MME Be Happy paper scattered about my desk so no new papers had to be cut into to make this card!)
• Love to Scrap #6: Color My World (I went with the pastel option)
• Kraft Outlet: Make it Monday: Celebrations (Celebrating my Aunt's birthday!)
• Sister Act Card Challenge #7: Anything Goes

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Mojo Monday 293

Hi folks,

here's a bit of a break from all the girlie Mother's Day cards - a milestone, masculine birthday card using this week's Mojo Monday 293 sketch.

Here is the sketch:

and here is my card - featuring one of my favourite colour combos - kraft and black.

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, black card stock base
• patterned papers: My Mind's Eye "Kraft Funday"
• stamps: CTMH Solos "7", Verve "Amazing Wishes"
• black button from my stash + Basic Grey Hopscotch buttons (the caramel coloured ones)
• Spellbinders Petite Circles, Verve "Pennant Trim" Die, Cuttlebug "Harmony" alphabet dies

additional challenges for this card:

• The Pink Elephant - TPE199: Masculine Birthday Theme
• Verve Stamps: May Diva Dare: Stars and/or Stripes (I went with stripes on one of my layers!)
• Cupcake Craft Challenge #242: Lots of Layers (believe it or not, there are 9 layers of paper on this card - not including the card base itself!)
• Shopping our Stash #101: Scrap Attack - yep. The patterned paper on this card were not cut from new sheets from my paper pad. All from scraps left over from previous cards! Yippee! I was most pleased with that larger scrap of 3.75 square paper. 
• 365 Cards: Day 134 - Overlapped (at least four things, overlapping with at least one other).
• Here Come The Boys #52: Must have buttons

Seize the Birthday #13

Hi folks,

One of dearly beloved's D&D pals (Dungeons and Dragons for you non-geeks out there), celebrated a birthday recently. Since they played at our house last night and it was the first time we had seen him since his birthday, we were able to give him this card.

I quite like the look of this paper against the black card stock - very dramatic, very masculine.

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, black card stock base and mats
• patterned papers: My Mind's Eye - Kraft Funday - "Everyday Fun"
• stamps: Verve "Birthday To You" Plain Jane
• layout: Seize the Birthday #13 (Masculine)
• brads from my stash
• Spellbinders Labels Four (small and large)
• Ek Success border punch

additional challenges for this card:

• Sister Act Card Challenge #2: Anything Goes
• Card Crafter's Circle #70: Die-ing to impress you

As always, thanks for stopping by! 

March Viva La Verve Week 4

Hi folks,

Remember yesterday when I said I got crafty? Well, here's EIGHT more cards....yep, EIGHT that I made during my marathon crafting day.

They all use the Week 4 Viva La Verve Sketch. For half of them I kept the original orientation, for the other half I flipped the sketch. Now I have a bunch more cards for my stash and a bunch of Easter cards ready for this weekend!

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, white card stock base, CTMH Buttercup and Indian Corn Blue for the mats
• patterned paper: CTMH Sweet Home (I am REALLY REALLY working on reducing my stash of papers.....REALLY. These must be at least a couple of years old as they are retired.)
• stamps: Verve "Eggstra Special". "Easter Joy", "Joyful Blooms", "Birthday Surprise", "Chicks Rule", "Wishful Elegance", "Doodled Occasions"
• CTMH Buttercup and Indian Corn Blue buttons from my stash
• butcher's twine

challenges for these cards:

• Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
• Use it Tuesday #52: All About Spring (for me, Spring is all about Easter and birthdays - my birthday in fact! It's on Easter Sunday this year!)
• Oldie but a Goodie: Easter
• Heart 2 Heart Challenges: So Egg-cited for Easter
• Hiding in my Craft Room #90: Anniversary (for the anniversary card for my Aunt and Uncle)
• Simon Says Stamp: Easter/Spring

thanks for stopping by!

March Viva La Verve Week 3

Hi folks,

I finally gave myself permission to have a full day of crafting in my craft room and was able to make a bunch of cards.

Up first were these six cards I made using the sketch for Week 3 of the March Viva La Verve Challenges over on Splitcoaststampers - I made four Easter cards and two birthday cards.

I've been trying REALLY hard lately to use of my stash of older 12x12 papers from CTMH. I figured 6 cards using these long-retired Topstitch papers would be a good way to make some progress on that stash-busting goal. Pink and blue for Easter cards or spring birthday cards - sounds like a plan to me!

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, white card stock base, CTMH Baby Pink & Heavenly Blue mats. The brown card stock is from Bazzill.
• patterned papers: CTMH Topstitch
• stamps: Verve "Birthday Surprise", "Joyful Blooms", "Hoppy Easter", "Egg-stra Special", "Chicks Rule", "Bunny Shake". Images were coloured with Copic Markers (E57, E41, R21, B00, B01)
• CTMH Baby Pink, Heavenly Blue, Cocoa buttons from my stash
• butcher twine
• Stampin' Up Scalloped Circle Punch, 1 3/8 inch Circle Punch

challenges for these cards:

• Oldie but a Goodie: Easter (stash busters are my papers and my buttons)
• Shopping our Stash #94: Easter or Spring
• Papertake Weekly Challenge: Easter Treats
• Simon Says Challenge: Easter/Spring
• Cute Card Thursday #261: Easter Parade
• Crafts4Eternity Recipe #116: Egg-celent Easter
• Raise the Bar #136: Spring is a hop away (bunny, chick, baby animal)
• Heart 2 Heart Challenge: So Egg-cited for Easter
• Craft your Passion #155: Make it Cute (the bunny from the bunny shake set is just squee-dorable - love that little tail!)

As always, thanks for stopping by! 

For Sweet 16 Birthday #2

Hi folks!

Back today with the birthday card I made for Sweet 16 #2. If you saw the previous post, then you will see that I used the same technique of just stamping the image and not colouring it.

card details:

• finished size: 5.5 x 5.5 inches, kraft card stock base
• patterned papers: My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart - Be Happy, again fussy cut to get the flowers and sentiment in just the right spot, edges ink distressed with Memento Rick Cocoa Ink
• stamped image: Sparkle Creations Rubbers Stamps "Celebrating Chloe", stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa
• sentiment: Verve "Small Celebrations"
• half back pearls from my stash
• Spellbinders Petite Ovals

challenges for this card:

• Cute  Card Thursday #249: Anything Goes
• Hiding in My Craft Room #78: Freestyle

Thanks for stopping by!!

For Sweet 16 Birthday #1

Hi folks,

Today I'm sharing one of two Sweet 16 birthday cards for the daughters of a dear friend of mine. One daughter has her birthday on December 23rd, the other is on January 7th. There is a BIG semi-formal party planned for January 5th with three of their friends and I am looking forward to celebrating their big days.

I wanted to do something a little different with both of their cards that I have seen so many other card making bloggers do so very well. Just stamp the image - no colouring!

I quite like  how this turned out actually.

card details:

• finished size: 5.5 x 5.5 inches, kraft card stock base
• patterned papers: My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart - Be Happy (first time using these papers from my stash!),  fussy cut to get the bird/doily/flowers and quote in just the right spot, edges distressed with Memento Rich Cocoa Ink
• stamped image: Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps "Cupcake Ruby", stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa
• sentiment: Verve "Joyful Blooms"
• embellishments: turquoise half back pearls from my stash to coordinate with my papers.
• EK Success Scalloped Scallops border punch

challenges for this card:

• Use it Tuesday #46: 2013 (trying a new technique AND the card is for a big birthday celebration happening on January 5th in the New Year)
• Card Crafter's Circle #55: Anything Goes
• Do You Stack Up #104: Turquoise (from the paper and the pearls - both from my stash) 
• Through the Craft Room Door #50: Anything Goes

Viva La Verve March 2012 - Week 2

Hi folks,

doing my best to play along with the Viva La Verve Sketches again this month. The week 2 sketch was posted last Friday, just in time for me to use it for a birthday card for my sweetie.

And here is the card - dimensions slightly modified to make a square 6x6 inch card

card details:

• finished size: 6x6 inches, CTMH Cocoa cardstock base
• patterned paper: Basic Grey Marjolaine, edges are distressed with my scissors
• stamps: Verve
• Spellbinders: Petite Circles

additional challenges for this card:

• The Sisterhood of Crafters: Let's Celebrate

Hope you are all having a wonderful day! Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Cute Card Thursday #196

Hi folks,

phew. Is everyone pooped now that Christmas has come and gone? I don't know about you but I had four days off for Christmas and this is the first chance I have had to sit down to write up this and the following few posts.

I'll be happy to go back to work tomorrow so I can sit down for a few hours!

Anyways, here is a card I made last week for my friend's other 15 year old daughter's birthday. Yes  she has two fifteen year old daughters and they aren't twins. Their birthdays are only two weeks apart though - one two days before Christmas and one the same day as my Dad on January 7th.

card details:

• finished size: 5.5 x 5.5 inches, kraft cardstock base
• stamped image: little peep's birthday cake from Stamping Bella, coloured with Copic Markers (E30, E31, E55, E57, E59, E49, B91, B93, B95, YG21, YG23, YG25, YG63, YG67. Y02)
• patterned paper & buttons: Basic Grey Marjolaine
• layout: Cute Card Thursday #196

additional challenges for this card:

• Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #166: Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by at this busy time of year! Hope you all had a fab Christmas!

Pixie Cottage Challenge 101

Hi folks,

while I still have a couple of Christmas cards for the kiddos to finish up before the big day, I had a more pressing need to get a a few more birthday cards ready for a few birthdays that happen over the next couple of weeks.

For you today, I have the card that I needed for today! One of the daughter's of a friend of mine is 15 today (my oh my where have the years gone?) and this is the card I made for her birthday.

card details:

• finished size: 5.5 x 5.5 inches, kraft cardstock
• stamped image: Izzie has a birfday cake from Stamping Bella, coloured with Copic Markers (BV0000, BV000, BV00, BV01, E51, E53, E55, E57, E59, E49, E30, E31, E34, YG63)
• sentiment: Verve Big Wish
• patterned papers: Basic Grey Wisteria (thanks Peggy! These were in a "crafty care package" that I got in the mail a while back and this is the first chance I've had to use them.)
• prima paper roses from my stash
• layout: Pixie Cottage Sketch #101 (challenge: someone special)

additional challenges for this card:

• One stitch at a time #93: Anything goes

Thanks for stopping by at this busy time of year! Hope you are all catching a little time to relax in the middle of all the Christmas prep!

November Viva La Verve - Week 4

Hi folks,

Well, I have to say that I found the week 4 sketch for the November Viva La Verve Challenges to be QUITE the challenge! Here's the sketch:

See what I mean about being a challenge? Lots of elements - a bit busy for my taste but, I decided to go outside my comfort zone and tackle it with these four cards.

On the first one I pretty much stuck with the sketch, though I did change the shape of one element as I wanted to use one of the tags that was in the Bo Bunny Gabrielle kit I was using for these cards.

For this second card, I switched that same element to an oval shape and moved the banner element up just a little.

for the third and forth cards, I stuck with the circle shape this time but omitted the banner as I didn't want to cover the butterfly images that I was using from the kit.

I thought about stamping sentiments in the lower left corner of the last two cards but I decided not to so that they can be used for any occasion. I'm sending these to my Mom as part of the package of thank you cards for the recent fundraiser held in her honour. I figure if she has enough thank you cards, she can use these for some other occasion.

Overall, even though the cards are a bit busy for my liking, I do like how they came out. The paper kit that I was using made it really easy to coordinate all the bits and pieces.

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches
• patterned papers: Bo Bunny Gabrielle (from a kit I picked up from Tina's Scrapbooking Creations at the Crop for the Cure back in May and have been hoarding ever since)
• stamped sentiments: Verve Big Wish, Words Cannot Express
• lace and half-back pearls from my stash. I even made the little flowery embellies myself from the lace.Very easy to do...just hand sew some thread through the edge of the lace and gather it up until you have a flowery shape the size and fullness you want.
• Spellbinders: Petite Circles

Challenges for these cards:

• Use it Tuesday #20: Giving Thanks (for the gratitude card)
• Raise the bar #85: Thank you/Grateful (for the gratitude card)

Hope you are all having a lovely day! Thanks for stopping by!

November Viva La Verve - Week 3

Hi folks,

well, I had originally planned to do more thank you cards with the week 3 sketch for the November Viva La Verve challenges, but when I checked my calendar I saw that there were a LOT of male birthdays among our family and friends this coming week so I switched gears and made four birthday cards instead.

First up, the sketch:

And here are the cards:

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, kraft cardstock base
• patterned papers: Bo Bunny Timepiece (6x6 paper pad I picked up from Tracy of The Embellished Connection at Emily's Crop last weekend).
• Stamps: Verve Big Wish (sentiments), CTMH Wonderful Friend (pocket watch image)
• Spellbinders: Petite Circles

Challenges for these cards:

• Birthday Sundaes #37: Birthday Card

Hope you are all having a lovely day, thanks for taking the time to stop by!