A Blog Award!!!

It made my day when Patty gave me a blog award and made some very sweet comments.
It's my first award!
Here's the link to Patty's post.

I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy and pass this award on to 5 other great bloggers!

Patty, Lynn, and Cookie already have the award, but I enjoy their blogs very much.

I had a tough time choosing just 5 blogs. I am consistently impressed and inspired by these ladies...
Kristin - Sunshine, Smiles & Stamps=Loving Life
Susan - Simplicity
Marisa - Rosemary Reflections
Joanne - Sleepy in Seattle
Riley - Stampin' With Riley

I really don't mean to leave anyone out as I have lots and lots of blogs that I follow and love and gain inspiration from. Thanks to all of you.

Here are 10 things that make me happy...
- Real hope and love through Jesus
- My husband (Dan) and 2 kids (Desirae & Myron)
- My extended family
- My 2 dogs (Kia - Cockalier, Mulch - Pyrenees X)
- Being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!
- friends who care
- dog agility
- all the great crafting sites on the internet
- warmth and shelter
- volunteering at the school library

Stars with Top Note

This is the card I made for Arielle's Color Q challenge. She picked really stunning colors once again. I haven't played along with this challenge for a few weeks, but today I had time to join in again. http://colourq.blogspot.com/

The colors for the challenge were: Real Red, Taken with Teal, Bashful Blue, White and Black. Of all these colors the one that I wanted the least on my card was bashful blue, so I just used it for layering. I decided to make a boy birthday card with top note and stars. I added crimping to all the Taken with Teal elements for some extra texture and interest. The designer brads fit perfectly with this boy star card!



Here's a close up of some of the layering, crimping and designer brads details.
Thanks for looking!

More flower cards

The local gift store ordered 100 flower cards. I did 10 of each design. 50 were Valentine (which I posted about earlier), these are the other 50 I made.


I tried to use some different colors here. I really don't like Crushed Curry. I think this turned out quite cheerful. I used a corner punch, tearing and word window and modern label punch.


I have so many great sentiments to choose from. Here's a cute one I hope will be useful. I sponged the edges which really added a lot. I colored the stamps with different color marker and used the oval and scalloped oval punch. The ladybug is cut out and glued on.



I really love how cheerful this cake turned out simply with coloring with marker. I love the kraft and the bit of patterned paper.


Love this cute baby card. I made it in generic colors so I wouldn't have to make a boy and girl one separate. The duck is stamped on yellow and cut out to put overtop the orange scalloped square. I thought the hearts as a border worked well for baby.



Very simple card with some punch layering and colorful leaves.

Which one is your favorite?

New & Challenging

This card was made for a challenge to use a new stamp set, and a color you don't often use. I paired Forest Green and Sahara Sand.

I bleached the background which shows up very subtly. I also inked the other images with 2 colors marker.

I used the layout from Clean & Simple Stamping.


Here's a close up so you can see some of the details better. The Friends image was quite hard to cut out.

Birthday Boy Card

I wanted to make a card for my nephew (turning 4) and here's what I came up with - with the help of a few challenges!

Challenge #1 - The sketch + designer paper
Challenge #2 - Colors - Bashful Blue, Soft Suede, Ruby Red

I was really scared of the color challenge, but the colors worked perfectly for this boy card!
I colored the image with different color markers. I got to use a designer star brad. I also decorated the inside...

Very simple and quick. Using another stamp set with the image that I think works great for boy! I used two punches - scallop square and photo corners.

Valentine's Day flower cards

Here's a batch of Valentine's "flower cards" for the gift store. I went in last week and she bought a stack of my Valentine's cards and 20 of these "flower cards" (which I forgot to take pictures of. She ordered 50 more! Here's the 5 designs I made - 10 of each. A lot of hearts and punches!







Which one is your favorite?

Forever - wedding card

It's been a long time since I've been able to create a challenge card. Finally today I did it. This is for...

Diva Coffee Break Designs - sketch challenge
Clean & Simple - color challenge - Use teal and white and one other color. I used White and Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede.



Here's a close up of some of the details. A cut out flower, hardware with ribbons, piercing, scallops and texturz.

Feeling gray, black and white

Here's a card I wanted to share with stunning colors. It's for the Diva Coffee Break Designs challenge to use black, gray and white. What a great color combo!

I used some retired patterned paper and I texturz embossed the gray panel.

Fun switch

I partipated in a challenge to use ideas from the SU catalogue to create your card. I made two for extra fun using the same 2 catalogue samples. I liked the layout and colors from these two cards so I switched them. The first card was from the Occasions Mini pg 5, the second card was from the Sale-a-Bration brochure, inside cover. Part of the challenge too was to use a different stamp set than the one featured on the card. I thought I'd continue with some Valentine's cards, hopefully to sell.




I had fun with Pun Fun set, my crimper, some ribbons, a large eyelet, a button and some piercing. Look also for the paper pieced flower (stamped in a different color, cut out and glued overtop the main image)

Thanks for looking today. Have a great day!

5 card set

Here's a 5 card set that I made for some challenges that I think worked out quite well. The first challenge was to make a card set using the colors Rose Red, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Bravo Burgundy and Blush Blossom. I chose to keep the theme of hearts, gingham, clean & simple and use the new Well Scripted stamp set throughout the set.


This card was made from a layout I saw here.


This card was made for a challenge of doing faux stitching on a die cut or punch. You just pierce holes and connect the dots with a marker. I used the scalloped edge punch for a few frills.


The layout of this card I made up. The challenge was to use a technique I've seen called "faux flower soft". You distress or shred the edges of a piece of paper and use those tiny bits to glue onto your card to add texture and fluff.



The challenge for this card was to find a scrapbook layout in the My Digital Studio program and convert it to a card. There's a bit of texturz embossing with the Big Shot. I used the scallop square punch for the corner pieces.



This card was for 2 challenges. One challenge was to use 3 inchies and 1 sentiment and no other stamping. I also used the faux stitching technique again on this one for the other challenge. The layout I made up myself.

Thanks so much for looking. I'd appreciate your comments about what you think of my set. I'm going to try to sell them to the gift store for Valentine's Day.

Made time for 2 challenges

I really like how this turned out. I started out with 2 challenges that I really wanted to try. CAS49 from Splitcoaststampers. Make a clean & simple card and cut out an element for the card. The layout was from Pals Paper Arts sketch.

The beautiful flower is from Fifth Ave Floral. I texturz embossed the two white panels with my Big Shot. I added a bit of ribbon and some brads. I wanted to layer with some color, but yet keep it simple.

Thanks for looking today. Have a great day!

Fun layout copy card

I found a challenge to make a scrapbook layout into a card. I really liked how this card turned out and wanted to share it with you. I made it in My Digital Studio, which is an awesome and easy program to use. I'm really enjoying creating using already existing great cards (or in this case - a scrapbook layout) and not having to reinvent. I think I'm going to stick with this theme for a while. That way I can ensure something I'm happy with in the end and still make it my own.

About my ejoy challenges. I think I'm going to retire from that. There are lots of other great challenges for you to enjoy out there and I'll spend my time more wisely doing something else. All the best with your challenge hunting!

Inspired again

Here's my second card for my ejoy challenge this week. I think I'm going to stay on this theme all week! It's a great starting point and takes a lot of the guess work (and time) out.



I found this lovely card by tankgrl on Splitcoaststampers where I got my ideas from.

Thanks for looking and I hope you're inspired to create today. I'd love for you to join my challenge!

If it ain't broke - don't fix it!

Hey there. The challenge for this week is to find a card that you like from somewhere and duplicate it in your own way. I don't know if I've EVER copied a card exactly. I like to take what I like and keep it, then change a few things with ideas I have that go well.

Here's my first card to share with you for this challenge...


I used a masking technique so that I could overlap the flower and the vines nicely. I added some clear rhinestone "bling", piercing and some fun ribbon (retired). Love the new stamp sets Vintage Vogue and Well Scripted and the Cottage Wall DSP.

Here's the card I found inspiration from.

Thanks for looking. I'd love to have you join in with this challenge. If you upload to an online gallery please use the code EjoyVC15 so I can find it. I'd love for you to share your card here on Mr. Linky.

January - Card-making Kit of the Month

Here's a new idea I'm going to try in January. If it's an idea people like I will continue it monthly.

CARD KIT OF THE MONTH for January



In the card-making kit you will receive EVERYTHING necessary to make these 2 cards EXCEPT ADHESIVE and a scissor to cut the ribbon. The card-kit includes 2 made cards so that you can use them as a guide. There are supplies for 10 more cards, 2 of each kind. You can customize or change your cards if you like. You can also choose the sentiment(s) you would like:
- "simply said from the heart...thank you"
- "a friend is someone who makes it easy
- "love you much"
- "happy Easter"
- "happy birthday"
- "wonderful mother"
- "dear father"

The cost for this card-kit is ONLY $24. If you're not in High Level, AB I can mail it to you for the cost of shipping. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing January's card-kit. Please order by January 12, 2010!

In addition, I am featuring Stampin' Up! products which I will give a discount on if you order in January. Again, all the supplies to create the 2 cards are included in your card kit. These featured items are to purchase if you would like to own them and use them on your other projects.
10% OFF:
- Wide Oval Punch (pg 186-187)
- Full Heart Punch (pg 186-187)
- Small Heart Punch (Occasions Mini pg 11)
- 1/2" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon (pg 182)
- Cottage Wall designer series paper (pg 160)
- Simply Said stamp set (pg 51)
- Well Scripted stamp set (Occasions Mini pg 19)
- sticky strip (pg 192)

If you want to get some FREE Stampin' Up! products from January 5-March 31, 2010 Stampin' Up! has its biggest sale of the year - Sale-A-Bration! Look at my website or ask me for more details. If you like ribbons I will be holding a RIBBON SHARE in January as well.

Here are some photos of what will be included in the kits (including punched items and ribbon). Remember: There will be enough supplies to make 5 of EACH card. You can also choose the sentiment(s) you would like in your kit. For even more fun and customization - the patterned paper is double-sided so you can choose which design you would like to feature.