A Colourful Life

Baby it's Cold Outside.....

....well it was 2 days ago, anyway.  Today it is raining, but 2 days ago it was cold and I made this card to match the weather. 

 

The stamp is from the set called "To You and Yours".  I decided to go with all white -- after all, it is a winter scene!  And I used my favorite cuttlebug embossing folder, swiss dots.

   

To add the ribbon detail, I punched a 1" circle and cut it in half.  Then I punched a 1/2" circle in white and added the hole in the middle to create a reinforcement, kinda like a washer so the ribbon would be more secure through the hole with the double thickness.  Then I just glued the white washer made out of cardstock onto my half circle and ran my ribbon through and tied into a knot.  Easy, peasy.

Here's a close up.  I added liquid applique for the snow and then tossed on some glitter!

 

Today  I spent lunch hour at Jordan's school selling pizza as part of a fundraiser for their grad year.  Talk about hungry teenagers.  The line was long and the pizza went fast.  This is one of the school's best fundraiser and the kids love it!

On the homefront, our washing machine died.  So sad (insert sad face here).  But I have to admit that our treasured machine served us well.  We got it when Jordan was 2 and now he is almost 18.  That's 16 years of washing!  And I'm a happy camper, cause lookie what Doug bought.  Click here.   It is getting delivered tonight.   I didn't think I could get excited over appliances, but I have to admit I'm looking forward to this one!  It is energy efficient and we even get a rebate cheque for $75 from the power company because we are getting this new machine and saving energy.   Guess what I'll be doing tonight??

Twilight, Coffee and Good Workout Music

Twilight: This movie opened this past Friday and Alyssa really wanted to see it.  I was dreading it cause I can't stand going to see anything on opening night and she wanted to see it right on opening day.   I envisioned a packed theatre.  I don't like being in a packed theatre -- or a packed anything -- I envision bacteria and germs and everytime I hear a sneeze I think, "oh geez there go another couple thousand germs invading my air space."  My saving grace:  she was invited to go see this movie for her friend's birthday.  Hallelujah, there is a God.   I got to the theatre to drop her off and the line to see this was super, super long.  So glad all I had to do was drop her off!   She loved it and wants to watch it again.  I will take her a second time, but not for another couple of weeks -- when less people will be watching.  That I can handle. 

Coffee:  My one last vice. I've already given up dessert and sugar.  I also don't eat meat or cook it at home -- just chicken and fish.  And I don't eat anything with the word "white" in it -- white bread, white rice, etc.  The less refined and the more natural, the better.  But coffee I will continue to drink till the day I die.  This I cannot do without.  You know you value your coffee when you go and buy it and it's pouring rain outside and you don't want to get your coffee wet, cause heaven forbid some rain gets into it and dilutes it.....so you use your umbrella to shield your precious coffee and proceed to get soaking wet.  Well, that was me last week on a rainy day.   I was soaked, but my coffee was nice and dry.  And full strength.  Anything to protect my java. 

Good workout Music:  This I cannot stress enough.  It can make the difference between working out for half an hour and working out for a full hour.  We subscribe to Sirius XM Radio and Doug has uploaded some serious workout music onto my cellphone so I can listen to it while at the gym.   I like to listen to Underground Dance, Chill Music or Club Hits.  Anything with lots of bass.  This keeps me going on the elliptical -- I'm now up to a full hour on it -- that's 5 miles and about 475 calories burned.  I try to do this 3X a week and in between those 3 I might go for half an hour, followed by some weight training and core work.  I met for the second time with the trainer today -- he worked me on the machines till I swear I wanted to give him a swift kick right where it would count.  He really pushes till you are worn out.  And want to kill him.  Today that was what I wanted to do.  But I did feel great after the session.  Tomorrow I will be hurting.  I just know it. 

Here are some pics from the Copic Certification Course I attended 2 weeks ago.

 

Cory and Amie.

 

Cory and I, along with Marianne Walker from Copic who taught the class.   And here is a card I made using one of the images I colored that day.

 

This is the owl from Cornish Heritage Farms.  They have the most wonderful images, perfect for coloring in.  Here is a close up:

 

The paper I used was Basic Grey's Urban Prairie, Harvest.  Love Basic Grey.

 

Early Morning Quickie

Okay....that title sounds a bit naughty....but get your minds out of the gutter, people.  (or maybe, I should get my mind out of the gutter....!)

This is gonna be a quick post -- it's 7 AM and I have to get ready for work.  It was my birthday 2 days ago and lookie what was delivered to me at the store!!

 

.....a gorgeous vase of flowers from Doug.  He also got me a black leather purse which he bought the prior week when he was in Italy and he took me for a nice dinner that night.   Jordan got methis -- he knows I've been wanting it and Alyssa got me a little feng shui sand garden that I can put on my desk at home.  I love my family!

I am busy working on baby boy and girl cards for a friend of mine who just had twins.  She asked if I would make her some and of course I said I could!  Here's the boy card.

 

I used an old wheel from Stampin Up from many moons ago -- I think it was from 3 years ago.  I never did get rid of it cause it's such a useful thing to have!  Here's a close up.

 

Anyway, off to get ready for work now!  Blog later.

Busy Weekend

Was your weekend busy??  Mine sure was.  But it was fun.  On Saturday was our Christmas Open house at the LangleyClipper street.   I had fun -- it was an afternoon of make n' takes and non stop talking on my part, but anyone who knows me will tell you that talking has never been something I couldn't do.  On the contrary, shutting up would be my problem.  To all our loyal customers -- thanks for coming!  I had a fun time with you all on Saturday.  Hope you enjoyed it as well.

Today, I taught my Interactive Card Class in the Coquitlam store -- I'll upload some scans of those cards this week sometime.  I know I promised some of you that I would, so check back in a couple of days.   Tonight I'm sharing another card I made last week.  Here it is.

    

  I knew I wanted to use a circle punch in there somewhere and this is what I came up with.  The colors are Apricot & Teal -- and of course white.  There's never such a thing as too much white space!  I love white!  Here are the 3 stamps I used.

 

And here is a close up of the flower -- I popped up the middle flower from the stamp that has 3 flowers -- just stamped it and then cut what I wanted and glued it to look like it was part of the swirl.

 

On a side note -- Jennifer Aniston was on Oprah last week and all that night on all the talk shows and on CNN's Showbiz Tonight all they talked about was whose side are you on?  Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie.  Personally my answer to that is, I don't care and I thought the more important question was, "Is Oprah getting fat again??"
Also on another side note,  I can't wait to watch this.  Cause I love this guy.  I CANNOT WAIT.

 

 

Copic Certification

On Monday, November 10,  I attended the Copic Certification class. The class ran all day with some basic info and coloring/blending techniques in the morning, followed by a lunch break and an afternoon learning special effects like using the blender, coloring on fabric, etc.  It was an info packed class and I had fun.  I was excited to see my friend Amie there -- Amie used to work for the Langley Clipper Street location and has now moved to the island.   We all sat together (Amie, Cory and myself) and had a fun and colorful day.  Here are some samples of what I colored that day.

 

See the difference between the top and bottom cupcake?  The bottom one uses shadows with the C1 - cool gray marker.    Nice effect.  The top cupcake had some bleeding due to oversaturation, but we hadn't yet received our blender pens when I did this, otherwise I would have been able to remove the color that went out of the lines.  The blender pens don't really erase color -- rather, they "push" the color out of the spot you don't want it to be in, into another spot on your project.  Too cool.

 

I love this little owl from Cornish Heritage Farms.  I plan to  contact this company with a plan to stock their stamps at Clipper Street.  Hope we can but not sure yet if Cornish sells to retailers. 

More stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms.  Love these images for coloring in with copics!

 

Love this stamp as well and I had planned on asking who makes this, but got carried away coloring and totally forgot!  If anyone knows who makes this stamp, please email me!

I have pictures of this event, including one of Cory, myself and Marianne as she was signing our certificates.  But alas, I used my cellphone to take the pics and with Doug being out of town till Friday, the pics are hostage on my phone and will have to wait.    He has the little gizmo thingy to transfer the images from my cell to my computer, and to be honest even if I had it, I wouldn't know what to do.  Yes....it's sad.  Give me rubber and ink and I'll create like you wouldn't believe, but ask me to do anything at all that has to do with technology and I will look at you like you have 2 heads.  I'll post the pics when Doug gets back.  It was a fantastic day of learning -- we will be offering Copic classes at Clipper Street starting January 2009 for those of you who want to learn more about these fabulous markers.  Stay tuned!

 

We Will Never Forget.....

Today is Remembrance Day here in Canada -- Veteran's Day in the U.S.   While I think we should always be thankful every day of the year for the brave men and women (and their families) who put their lives on the line for the country they serve, today is the day that we all come together as people and a nation to formally salute and give thanks to these fine and deserving individuals.   Every year in Vancouver there is a Rememberance Day Service given at Victory Square to remember all our veterans.  It is a very touching, moving and solemn service.   In Ottawa, our country's capital the service is at the National War Memorial and the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier in Confederation Square.  There is a veteran's parade and the official service starts at 10:55 then att 11 a.m., the Peace Tower clock will strike, followed by the firing of the first gun and two minutes of silence to honour the dead.   Every year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, these 2 minutes of silence are observed.  A flypast and 21-gun salute will mark the end of the two-minute silence. The formal ceremony is organized by the Royal Canadian Legion.

Remembrance Day is very important to me.  I had 3 uncles who served in the war.  One of them, my Uncle Gerry who has now passed was awarded the Purple Heart for being wounded in active duty.  He served in the U.S. Marines.  I am so proud of them all.

No cards, crafts or pictures today.  Just a day to remember and give thanks. 

Another week gone by.....

It's Sunday again -- another week over.  Creative Expo was fun, busy, exhilirating --- so many adjectives could describe it.  Thanks to all our customers who came out to see us.  You guys always make work so much fun!

I got up bright and early today and hit the gym.  I hadn't been able to go the past 2 days and it was a well needed respite.   I did 45 minutes on the elliptical and about half an hour doing free weights and core exercises.   I really do leave the gym feeling so pumped up and ready for anything! 

Today is just a rest day for me.  Doug is still out of town, but finally back in Canada from Europe so at least he is on the same continent!  Jordan is working today, though he was told last week that the grocery store he is working at is closing in a month.  So he's a bit sad about that.  He does have the opportunity to go to one of 2 other locations without losing seniority and he is still deciding what to do. 

I have to clean my jewellry drawer and sort out my stuff.  Last week as we were getting ready for dinner out, I was rooting around in there for a gold chain and I swear I couldn't find it, and everything else was just all knotted up and I couldn't find anything.  So bad.  So after this post, I plan to clean that drawer up!  Both Doug and my parents have given me beautiful jewellry and I can't find anything in that drawer.

But first, cards!!!   This card set uses the Hearfelt Thanks set and a greeting from Hero Arts.  I used green and brown -- 2 of my fave colors.

 

The top textured brown part is done using my Cuttlebug and my Swiss Dots folder.  The bottom green part is done with 2 stamps to create a pattern -- see below.

 

I stamped the solid flower first using celry ink directly onto the celery cardstock for a monochromatic look, then overstamped using the outline flower using white pigment ink.  The beauty of this look is that the outline doesn't even have to be excatly bang on top of the solid and it looks great.  Here is a close up.

 

Tomorrow I will be taking the Copic Ceritification Course taught by Marianne Walker from Copic.  I'm looking forward to learning new tips and techniques to using these fab markers.  Look for new Beginner's and Advanced Copic classes at Clipper Street soon!

Okay, now off to do some cleaning!

BC Creative Expo

We will be at the B.C. Creative Expoall day tomorrow, Nov 7 and all day Saturday, Nov 8.  Come down and visit our booth!  We will be offering free make & takes both days -- it will be a cute little card using the Christmas Characters stamp set from Inkadinkado.  This set consists of 11 images -- here are just a few cards I made using this set.

   

 

 

 

I don't have any pics to share of the actual make & take -- you'll just have to come on down and check it out for yourself!   Yesterday we spent the entire day making kits for this event -- the make & take can be purchased in kit form -- enough product to create the card 4 times!  Here are the guys using this mega machine to cut reams of paper into just the right size.

 

This machine makes quick work of kitting.  We cut enough patterned paper to create 175 kits in less than 10 minutes.  And that would have taken less time if not for me running to grab my camera so that I could capture some shots.  Lookie below -- that's a friday the 13th type looking blade coming down on a ream of paper and slicing through it like butter.

And this is the end result!!

 

Hope to see you guys at Expo!

My Fave New Food

Anyone who knows me will tell you that if I like some type of food, I pretty well will eat it everyday till I can't stand the sight of it anymore.  Right now I am having a love affair with this.  Thintinis.   Love them.  They are whole wheat, taste great when toasted and the best thing -- they come already sliced.  Hmmmmm.... delicious.  I like to load it up with tomatoes and cucumbers and spread one side with lowfat cream cheese that I've mixed with diced up artichokes.  So good and packed with good nutrients.   Have a look!

 

Doesn't that just look delish?  I like to have one right after I work out.  Makes the hungries go away pronto.

Other variations on filling:

• low fat yogurt and diced cucumbers

• alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, red and green peppers and honey mustard

• or even just with plain good ol' flavored cream cheese is great!  I like strawberry cream cheese.

I love this snack.  Now the question is how many more days in a row can I eat this without getting sick of it.  Right now I have had one of these for 6 days straight....and on Sunday I had one of these for lunch and then another one for dinner!

I am working on more Xmas cards for my coming craft fair.  Here's one I did a kazillion of using the Peaceful Wishes stamp set.

 

This card is fast and easy to make using just 2 stamps (plus the greeting of course.)

 

The branch is just stamped repeatedly without reinking using Olive ink.   Stamping an image in succession without reinking is called second generation stamping and creates the illusion of depth.   The darker images will look like they are actually in front of the lighter ones. 

The mistletoe stamped is stamped in artichoke ink, then I colored in the berries with my vermillion copic marker.  And to finish it off -- glitter and some ribbon and it's done!

Here's a close up.

   

For those of you who live in the lower mainland of Vancouver, B.C. don't forget to come out and visit the Clipper Street  booth at the BC Creative Expo.  We will be there all day Friday and Saturday, Nov 7 and 8 doing free make n'takes using the Christmas Characters stamp set from Hampton Arts.  The make n' take will also be available for purchase in kit form with everything needed to recreate the card 4 times.  The kit will include all the paper, cardstock, punchouts  and the actual stamp set.   I will post sample pics of several cards using this set tomorrow.  Promise. 

Sunday, Sunday.

This morning we got up early to go to the gym.  We went yesterday too -- really early, we're

usually there at 7, workout for about an hour, have our showers there, then get back home before the kids are even awake.  I did 4 miles on the elliptical today, then about 20 minutes with the free weights.  Working out is addictive.  If I go 2 days without a visit to the gym, I don't quite feel right!  I met with a trainer who asked me what I wanted to achieve and he worked out a program for me to follow.   I'm so glad Doug talked me into joining the gym with him.  It's nice to be able to go together.   There are some classes I attend, but with a busy schedule and the kids acitivities still, I tend to just go really early in the morning, or while Alyssa is at dance class.

Driving home after the gym today, I noticed that the car was making a really funny sound.  Doug said he didn't think it was anything.  But as soon as we got on the highway, the sound got worse and I got a little scared.   I thought, "great....I'm getting healthy working out at the gym on a regular basis, only to die in a horrific accident on the way home!".  When we got home, this is what we saw.  

  FLAT!!  So we both spent 15 minutes outside in the pouring rain changing the tire with the spare.  We've never had to do this before.....and the funny thing is when we got the car to Walmart to get a new tire put on (I went ahead and just put my snows on.....) the guy said, "by the way -- just so you know the lug nuts on the spare where put on backwards."  Ha!  If he only knew.  It was like the blind leading the blind when we put that tire on!

Finally after all that, we got home and had something to eat.  The workout and all that running around got me hungry. Of course, my day is never complete unless I can unwind by making a card.  And here is today's card.

  

This one uses the now retired River Rock designer paper and matching stitched ribbon.  I really do love that color!
 I also used the Ronald Mcdonald set called "Say it with Scallops".   Stampin' Up donates a portion of all proceeds of sales of this set to Ronald McDonald -- a very worthwhile cause.   The colors I used are Always Artichoke and Ruby Red.  

The actual stamp is stamped twice -- once in Ruby Red and a second time in Always Artichoke.  I used my scallop square punch to punch out the ruby red image.  Then I cut out just the center of the image that was stamped in Artichoke, mounted that onto Ruby Red cardstock to give it a border and then I mounted it back onto the first image that I stamped in the Ruby Red.  Here's a closeup.

These next few weeks will be busy ones for me.  Plus Doug leaves for Italy/Montreal/Toronto on the 5th for work and will be out of town till the 15th.   I don't like it when he's gone for so long.....but oh well -- the airmiles are nice!