May Counterfeit Kit and a Smash Page

 A couple of things to share with you on this holiday Monday!  First up is a SMASH page I started ages ago, but it always needed just that last little touch.  Once I added the fussy cut butterflies, I figured it was done.  It's mostly random stories about Ailis, and some of them are pretty funny!  Here's a closie of the left page:

 And one of the right:

 The "laugh out loud" card is here (love this whole set!)  and the "today we..." card is here.  The green "TODAY" card I can't find anywhere, sorry 'bout that!  If you've visited my "SMASH book ideas" pinterest board, you may already realize that I have an addiction to free printables, and if you know where to look, you can find some awesome journaling cards!  I have a whole ziploc bag crammed full of 'em!!!

I feel like I'm a bit late this month getting my counterfeit kit together, but I missed the last two months and this month's kits are so gorgeous, I really wanted to make my own.  Here's the inspiration kit I chose to copy:

Isn't it pretty?  It's the Monmarte Add-On from Studio Calico's April '12 kits.  Of course I don't have any of the same products, but I was inspired by the colours, so this is what I came up with for papers:

The back row is all Echo Park This & That (love!) and the front row has from left to right: 2 BoBunny, MME, BoBunny Double Dot (only a half sheet unfortunately), Recollections, and Bazzill.

And here's the rest of what I pulled from my stash:

Yes, I know it looks a bit of a mess, but there is a method to my madness!  What I'm most excited about is turning my kraft scraps into journaling spots with white ink, white embossing powder, and some older stamps!  I've also got some ancient buttons and heart pins that I'd love to use up, and some newer product mixed in.  Ooooh, now I want to play, too bad I have to go for a run tonight, in the rain no less!  Hope everyone had a great weekend, and thanks for looking!

Happy Anniversary and a Commission!

Finally got Jason's anniversary card done, only 2 days late, and I was quite pleased with his reaction!  I told him it takes time to create a work of art.  Here it is minus the sappy note I wrote inside:

Is this a gate fold card?  I couldn't get it to stay closed for the picture!  Here's the inside:

He really liked the colours, and said it was his favorite card yet!  I used the May Stamp of the Month from Creative Accents (by Hampton Art) to make the front panels, clear embossed with turquoise ink and brayered with black.  I used the same technique on the label cut with a new Page Maps Spellbinders die.  I traced the heart with an old yellow die cut I had, then inked up a canvas Prima key - get it, key to my heart?  On the inside I just used some more of the beautiful BoBunny paper.

And I thought I'd add a couple pictures of my first commission!  Jason's boss turned 50 yesterday, and they were planning a surprise party for him but didn't know what to do for a card.  The receptionist gave me this cute picture printed from somewhere, and the rest I made up as I went:

 I went with a beachy theme and made some "waves" with cardstock inked with Broken China Distress Ink and smeared with gold Perfect Pearls.

 I sprayed the top with mist from Lindy's Stamp Gang, and made the kites and cloud by hand.  I think it turned out pretty neat!

Well, I went for my first run on Wednesday night, and I'm really feeling it in my hamstrings today!  I'd be tempted to skip tonight's session, but I've paid my fee and feel obligated to get my money's worth!  See, this is how my mind works, and I knew there was a reason why I signed up for this running clinic.  It should be the kick in the pants I need to get me motivated long term.  Here's hoping!

A Birthday Card for My Mom

 Raise your hand if you think this is the funniest image ever!  There's something about a bunch of more mature, curvaceous ladies dancing around in tutus that makes me laugh!!!  I've had this stamp set from Artistic Impressions for a bit, but I had to be in the mood to colour, and finally I just went for it.  I used this sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday:

(flipped around to fit my image) and Copic markers for colouring.  I used the Fabulous line from Simple Stories (have I mentioned how much I love these papers?  Only about a billion times!) as my colour palette, added some embossed cardstock (new Sizzix folder that came in our goodie bags from Fiesta!) a paper strip punched with my new Fiskar's border punch (yay, finally bought a new border punch!) and some flowers and buttons from my stash.  All that work and I still didn't post it in time for the challenge, boohoo!  But on the up side, my mom loved it!

This is going to be a short post because I have to take advantage of Brenna's nap time to make Jason an anniversary card.  It was our 13th yesterday, and I think with all the hubub around mom's birthday and mother's day, I just didn't get time to make him anything!  Here's what he sent me yesterday:

Pretty cute, huh?  Kind of wish I thought of it first!

A Mother's Day Card for Graphicat Sketches

Well, I tried to get this card up in time for the Graphicat Sketch challenge yesterday, but Google completely died on me!!!  So, alas, I missed the deadline (again!) but I did get this card to my MIL for Mother's Day.  We had a pretty fantastic time here in 100 Mile House, nice dinner with both grandmas, a papa and a brother, so it was quite the family affair.  We even had a cake and candle for my mom, seeing her birthday was on the 11th.  I'll make a separate post with her birthday card, but right now I have to get the girlies to bed so I can go for my first run - I heard via the small town grapevine that it's going to be 5 km, and I have nothing to wear, oh my!

Supplies:  BoBunny patterned paper, Bazzill and Close to My Heart cardstock, Versamark, Tim Holtz, and Memento ink, Close to My Heart stamp set (words) and embossing powder (clear detail), Prima canvas

B-day Card for Frosted Designs

Ailis was invited to a birthday party today, and apparently the little girl likes Barbies, ballet, and eating.  So here's a cute little card I whipped up this morning for her:

Before NSD, I think I lost a bit of my mojo, but I must have been very inspired by being around like-minded people that weekend, because I feel the creative juices flowing once more!  Here's a closeup of the ballerina bunny (I used a freebie digi you can find here) and my embellies:

This was a very quick card to make.  I used a bit of grey (C3) to colour the fur, but felt it was a bit dark, so I just blended it in with the colourless blender.  Then I used my new Spellbinders (door prize from the NSD crop!), some Fabulous papers from Simple Stories (love these!!!), some pink Glimmer Mist, and this sketch from Frosted Designs:

On the inside it says "Happy Birthday Tutu You!"  The sentiment came with a new stamp set from Artistic Impressions that I'm currently working with to make my mom's b-day card.  She's 62 today, and the old gal  is still in pretty decent condition!

I have another ramble in the works, but I'll save it for another day, as I should probably get dinner started.  Just so you know, though, I had a terrible sleep last night - I could not stop dreaming about snakes!

BFF's for "Use Your Stuff"

I just love how this page turned out!  I love the photo (my friend took it with her phone and then doctored it up with instagram - myself, I'm an instagram virgin, that was the first time I'd seen what it is!) and the boots (cute Quickutz die I borrowed at the Fiesta crop), the colours and the kite (I paper pieced that myself!)  I used a Creative Scrappers sketch, but I erased it off my computer and I'm too lazy to go looking for it right now!  Here's a close up of those boots:

 And another of the kite:

At the fiesta crop we had a pinata, and I was lucky enough to win some Claudine Hellmuth Matte Medium. This stuff is perfect for gluing down twine as it doesn't come out all shiny if you make a mess with it.  The hardest part of making this layout was probably choosing which of the Simple Stories Fab-U-Lous papers to work with, they're all so gorgeous for girly pages!!!

I'm going to enter this page over at a new blog I found called "Use Your Stuff" - their challenge this week  is to do a nature-inspired page.

So here I'll take some time to do a quick ramble for ya:

• I had a fantastic time at the NSD Fiesta crop put on by Creative Accents on the weekend!  The food was prepared by a real live chef, and the goodie bags and prizes were fantastic - my door prize was a new set of Spellbinders!!!  It was only marred by my trip home, where I came as close to death as a person can get without any actual bodily harm.  A trucker was tailing me through a construction zone, where I was vigilantly obeying the speed limit of first 50 km and then 80 km an hour.  When I didn't speed up for him (I'm assuming it was a man, but I suppose it could have been a female), he flashed his high beams at me.  So I, developing a bit of fear and rage in equal doses, decided to roll down my window and give him the bird.  Yeah, admittedly not the smartest thing I've ever done, but I was hoping it would get him to back off.  It didn't!  Instead the blankety blanker got even closer and turned his high beams on and kept them on!!!  I have never in my life had something that big driving so close to my bumper!  Right after that, I signaled and pulled over.  I would have liked to get his licence plate number to report his reckless driving, but I couldn't see it.  Needless to say, my heart was pounding like a jackhammer for most of the hour drive home.  
• Nolan and Ailis came home super excited yesterday!  The kid who threw rocks at Nolan's head last week jumped off the big toy at school and busted his ankle!  How's that for karma?  If I was a better person, I would have told the kids to show a little sympathy for him, but I guess I'm not that kind.
• I won the random prize at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge for April!!!  Woot!
• Do you have a cleaning schedule for your home, or are you kind of random?  I was always a random kind of cleaner, but now that I'm a pinterest addict, I've been taking note of some great ways to stay organized and clean better.  I'm trying to follow a schedule this week, and hopefully once I get into the habit, it will mean that my bathrooms won't be so grungey all the time.
• I think I might have signed myself up for a running clinic.  Ugh!

Okay, it's 11 am and Brenna and I are still in our PJ's (she calls them jee-bees, so cute!) so I guess I best get going with my day!  Have a great rest of your week!

P.S. just had to add this - Oh, my God, I took Brenna and Hunter for a walk and had my first encounter with a snake in the wild!  People have said that there are snakes this far north, but I've never seen more than a shed skin.  It slithered right in front of me and I screamed!!!  I know the ones here are harmless, but still...snakes freak me out!

May Challenge at Creative Accents!

Yes, it`s that time again, time for a new challenge at Seriously Creative Challenges, and it`s one I absolutely love!!!

If you`ve visited my Pinterest boards, you may know that I have one devoted to embellishments, and many of those are flowers!  There are so many ideas out there, the sky`s the limit, really!!!  For this layout, I crocheted a few flowers out of embroidery floss (tutorial here) AND made some rosettes (much easier with a scoring tool and some hot glue, I tell ya!)

 And here`s a close up of my flowers:

I really hope you`ll join us this month in making some beautiful flowers from scratch!  Hmmm, maybe I`ll put some of these cute rosettes on a Mother`s Day card...

I`m going to enter this layout over at Frosted Designs.  The first challenge posted for their NSD online crop was to make a project with only patterned paper, no cardstock allowed!  Fun, fun, and if you`re thinking my rosettes and journaling strips are cardstock, think again - it`s BoBunny Double Dot (love that stuff).