A Colourful Life

I Am so Dead......

WHY????  Because today I went to I'm Impressed where I start work next Friday.  There was so much eye candy for the stamper/papercrafter that I don't know how I will not spend all my wages, not to mention my children's college tuition and our retirement fund......(hope my husband's not reading this......hehehe....) Here is Raya, the owner and Ceci who who works there as well.
 

Look at ALL THOSE STAMPS!!  And here's more.....
 
And more......
 
And here's what Raya sent home with me to play with....I need to get cracking on design boards, classes and kits.  So much fun!
 
I'm looking forward to my new job....and all the designing and teaching that I will get to do.  If you are in the area, pop in and say hi....I'd love to see all my friends come and visit me at Granville Island.   While there here's what the market has to offer.....
 
I said I was dead and there can't be a truer statement because 5 days out of the week I will be surrounded by stamps, paper and ink and not 5 minutes outside the store there is this market with FOOD, FOOD, and FOOD!  Doug is already dreaming about the fresh pasta he will have for dinner everyday!  Have a look....
 
Fresh pasta!!  And look at that gnocchi.  When we were in Italy I think we had gnocchi every other day.  Today I bought fresh cilantro, basil and pine nuts -- everything to make pesto sauce.  Here's more....
 
This is the stall I will try my best to walk right by everyday....TRY is the operative word.  I heard my stomach growling when I walked by this place today, but I was good and just bought a coffee.  There will be plenty of days ahead when I will have a chance to sample the goodies....so I better pace myself.  I also found this fruit....not sure what it was, but it looked so colorful that I just had to take a pic of it.  If anyone knows what it is, please leave a comment.
 
Doesn't it look exotic???  I will have to bring my camera to work everyday to capture more sights on the island.  Today, this guy was outside the market putting on a show for all the tourists and locals alike.....
 

He was funny.  He said he had only just started doing this and he was worried he'd get his pants on fire....and if it did happen would someone be so kind as to throw water at him to save his legs from burning.  He was a hoot and I enjoyed watching him.

Anyway....gotta go and play with all my new toys and start designing classes.  Stay tuned for scans of the projects!

It's been a Looooong week......

I'm sorry to not have posted in a week.  It's been a long and busy one.  For those of you who live locally and know me, you probably already know what's going on....for those of you that don't, well.....here goes.... the store I work at is shutting its doors for the final time on Sunday, May 3, 2009.  Clipper Street in Richmond has always been a wonderful place to work at.  Managing the Richmond store was the best job and I always considred myself lucky to have been chosen to do it.  I love my job there.  And I love the girls that work with me.   All of them!  That I think is the saddest part with this whole thing....the friendships and the people who I will miss.  To all my Clipper Chick buds, we need to stay in touch!  Once a month Crop for sure!.....but when one door closes, another one opens.  And one has opened really WIDE for me!  I again have the opportunity to continue doing what I love....this time at I'm Impressed Paper Arts in Granville Island.  How cool is that?  Raya, the owner had stayed in touch with me over the years as I used to teach classes there, and when this opportunity came up, how could I not say yes?  I still get to play with rubber and ink everyday!   Stay tuned for lots more info on what I'll be doing there (....lots of really cool events, promise!)  To all my friends and customers in Richmond -- I know you are upset but be patient....you just might see me back in your neck of the woods doing the same thing so stay tuned! ....in the meantime, check me out here -- I will be doing my bit to help out with this worthy cause.  Hope to see you there!

Before I go, here is another card featured in my Charmed & Dangerous class which will be the last one I will teach at Clipper Street.

  
I used the Cuttlebug to create texture with the D'vine Swirls plate on the patterened paper from My Mind's Eye.  Love the way this turned out!

Enjoy!

Are you ready for the next Card Kit?

If you are, here it is!  Below is a picture of one of the cards featured in this kit.  More info on the kit and its contents, plus purchase options can be found here:

 

This card features one of my fave colors -- Baja Breeze.  I love the little tire swing on the tree!  The saying reads, "Laugh, Enjoy, Play!"

Hope you like it!

Easter

This past weekend was Easter.  And as we always do, our family got together for Easter lunch and then we had our chocolate egg hunt.  We do this every year and though our kids are getting older now, no one really outgrows chocolate, so the chocolate egg hunt is always a fun event that our kids enjoy. 
It was a rainy day unfortunately, so we had to do the hunt inside.  This is the family room where we hid eggs -- some were hidden well and some eggs were just thrown here and there and a bunch were just thrown on anything -- the couch, the mantle, even the floor!   Here you see my niece Kath, pole vaulting over the couch to grab eggs that were on the fireplace mantle.

 

Here are the happy egg hunters showing off their booty after the hunt.  The sugarfest followed this of course, and then for some it was a full-on chocolate coma after that.  It was for me.....as I took a nap when I got home, satisfied with a wonderful lunch and topped off with chocolate! 

Today is Monday, and it was back to work.  It was a beautiful sunny day...the weather we should have had yesterday for Easter!!  

Here's a simple card I made using the same Trendy Trees set from the prior post.

This is simple card.  I only used white cardstock, nothing else, though I did multi layers of the white cardstock to add detail.   The top stamped layer is distressed on all edges.

The middle layer is pierced on all sides and the greeting is popped up on the stamped layer with 3D dots. 
The inks I used were Pink Passion, Green Galore and Chocolate Chip.

Enjoy.

New Card Kit Available

I have a new card kit available for purchase.  It features the Trendy Trees stamp set and the new matchbox dies, as seen below.

 

For more information on how to purchase the card kits, click  here.  Note:  The link originally posted here will now show info with the current kit for sale, not this one.  Kits are updated on a regular basis.

Easter!

It is a long weekend here coming up.  We have Good Friday off and for some other lucky people, they not only have Friday, but also the Monday after Easter Sunday off.  It is Tuesday today and I'm lucky enough to have it off, too!!  It is a glorious sunny day in my corner of the world, so after breakfast I went to the park and ran a few laps around the track.   The sun was out, but there was a nice, cool wind so it was very relaxing.  Now I'm home and I made these:
 

I used hexagonal glass jars that I filled with chocolate candy easter eggs from Cadbury's.   The band around the jar is made using an old retired wheel from Stampin' Up called Hot to Dot.
   
The Easter greeting is also from an older Stampin' Up set which name escapes me right now....if anyone knows, please mention the name in a comment, as I'm sure to get emails asking where it's from!

I made these for a special event at a nearby community center for the children's Easter Egg Hunt this weekend.

Happy Easter everyone....and don't eat too much chocolate!

Writing Notes.....thanks Mom.

I hate writing.   And by that I mean writing with a pen in my hand.  Because I do enjoy to write, just not the using the pen part.   Since the advent of computers, who even really uses a pen nowadays....other than to sign a signature???   But my Mom is a note writer.  She writes notes all the time -- not just plain 2 or 3 line notes.....LOOOOOOOONG notes.  She stayed at our house in February of this year to be with the kids while Doug & I went to Vegas and when we got home, there were little yellow post it notes in different parts of the house with notes from her.  In the laundry room (to tell me that my laundry was piling up....a fact I already knew, but mothers like to point out anyway....),  on the fireplace mantle (to comment that I still had one last Christmas decoration out) and even inside thef fridge on various food items.  Only my Mom would leave a post it note on jars in the fridge.  Then yesterday I was going to make Peanut Butter cookies and found this note that I missed in my pantry.
 
What does it say????  It says, " 3 jars of peanut butter -- all opened up - dont' buy any more first."  Yup, that's my Mom -- always telling me what to do.   I had a good laugh when I saw the note and I left it there.  Too funny. 

Now my kids are starting to write notes.  They never used to, but I guess Mom is rubbing off on them.  This is from my son...on my alarm clock.

He had to work and his shift started at 7 AM, so he wanted me to make sure he was up.  He does have an alarm clock, but he is like me and always wants a back up, just in case....so he asked me to make sure he was up.

But the funniest notes that I saw where from my daughter, Alyssa.  This is classic Alyssa -- always choosing play over work.  She never does more than she needs to at school, preferring to just do the basic stuff she needs to get by....never more.  She hates anything academic, but loves anything artsy like music and art.  This note I found on her Science display at the Science Fair.
 

Notice first of all that on the table in front of her display, is an empty plastic glass of iced mocha and some other snack items.  Can you see the note???   Here is a close up....

 

 

She actually left her display alone to go and have a break....so while all the other kids were right by their displays,  she was off somewhere else taking a break!   I had to go and find her to get her back so that she could tell me about her project!  And then she refused to get her picture taken beside it....because she said she knew that I'd put it on my blog.  And of course I would have!   My kids have such different personalites. Jordan, the worker, the thinker, the planner and always studying.  Alyssa, the dreamer, the dancer, the singer and always doing something creative.    She better marry someone rich one day.

Lastly here is a card.  It is one of the cards I will be teaching at Clipper Street.  
 

I used a Hero Arts set and I colored my images in with Copic markers.  The paper is from My Mind's Eye.

Enjoy!