A Colourful Life

Apothecary Art, and a bit of Christmas.

Stampin' Up's  new mini catalogue launches on January 4, 2012.  If you are on my mailing list, you'd have already received this in the mail.  If you haven't yet, send me an email with your snail mail addy and I'll be happy to get one in the mail to you right away.  To email me click on the EMAIL ME link in the left side margin.

One of the new sets in the catalogue is one called Apothecary Art.  This set is meant to be used in conjunction with the Labels Framelits Dies.  I wondered at the name of this set.  Historically, an apothecary is someone who dispenses medicine to doctors and patients.  Today we have pharmacists that do that.  So the nature of this stamp set being very floral and vintage didn't really tie in with this definition.  However,I'm guessing that back in the day many Apothecary shops carried herbal medicine in various forms, herbal teas, medicinal wines and tinctures.  All of which were dispensed in  dark glass bottles bearing vintage labels much like the images in this set.  I am not one to use a lot of vintage type images, as I gravitate to more contemporary looks, but once I started playing with this set, it started to grow on me.  I will be teaching a class using this set and again if you are on my email list, you'd have already received the email blast with the info on class times and dates.  If you aren't on my list, or haven't received the class email but would like to, please let me know and I'll send it out to you. Below are pics of a couple of the cards included in this class.

These are the Labels Framelits Dies that are perfect to use with this set.  They cut out each image perfectly.

After stampin and coloruing, use the right sized die with the Big Shot to cut it out .

This is what you end up with after cutting out each stamped image.  Cool, huh?

This is a close up of the finished card, and another one I made also for the class below.

I love this card above.  It's very girly and feminine.  Looks so much better in person!

Now as promised, here are a few pictures of my family's Christmas.

Christmas Eve dinner at my sister's house.  Here I am with Taren, my niece and my daughter, Alyssa.

Alyssa baked cookies for Jordan and Erika for Christmas, and made little paper caricature cutouts of both of them. The cookies were shaped in their initials, J and E.  It was so cute.

Christmas day lunch at my brother's house.  Here I am with my other niece, Ashley.

Baby Sophia, the newest and youngest member of the family.  I love her!

Time to eat!  There was so much food.  When my family celebrates Christmas, they like to prepare a lot of food!

Relaxing after lunch, getting ready for the 2 hour present opening marathon that ensues.

Trying to get the family organized to take the Christmas shot is harder than it looks.  It involves trying to extract toddlers who are hiding under the dining room table refusing to come out, babies smiling one moment and crying the next and a lot of laughing.  We always manage one good shot.....but what you don't know is that that one good shot may have taken several attempts to achieve!   It is crazy, but so much fun.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.  Next up, New Year's!

 

 

Almost Time.....

1 more day till Christmas.  The christmas lights have been strung up outside, presents have been wrapped and laid out under the tree and the kids have been warned to stay away from the tree trying to figure out which presents are thiers.   Of course my kids are older now and know better than to sneak into the living room looking for their presents so that isn't really a problem anymore.  

As always this christmas will be busy, starting with Christmas eve dinner at my sister's house tomorrow.  My sister makes a mean turkey dinner with all the fixin's......mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, carrots, peas.....you name it.   On Christmas day we all go to my brother's home for lunch.  This is when all the presents are opened and with 6 siblings plus spouses, plus all our kids and their significant others you can imagine that this is at least a couple of hours of present opening, wrapping paper flying with a healthy dose of talking and laughter thrown in.  Then after this, we then proceed to Doug's brother's home to have Christmas dinner.  You can see why I usually spend the entire week leading up to these 2 days at the gym.  I promise to take pictures and share them with you all after I recover.

So another year has come to an end. What have you learned this year?  Here's some things I know I've learned.

• Spend more time with those who make you smile and less time with those who you feel pressured to impress.
• Laugh at silly jokes. Apologize. Tell someone how much they mean to you. It’s the small moments that make life grand.
• If you want to feel rich, just count all the great things you have that money can’t buy.
• No matter how bad your heart has been broken the world doesn’t stop for your grief. The sun comes right back up the next day.
• Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.
• It is okay to be angry. It is never okay to be cruel.
• And finally, people who are meant to be together will find their way  to each other. They may take detours, but they'll get to where they belong.

I will post again after Christmas as I take the next few days to be with my family and celebrate the season.  Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you find happiness, joy and contentment this holiday season.  God bless you all.

Lovely As a Tree

One of my favourite stamp sets is a set consisting of nothing but trees.  The set is called Lovely As a Tree and the images are below.

This set is a classic and indeed has been one that has remained in the Stampin' Up catalogue for sometime now.  It lends itself beautifully when creating masculine greetings as well as sympathy greetings.  Tonight I played a bit with this set, starting off with a background layer of Bashful Blue stamped randomly using the flower image from the "Field Flowers" set.  I stamped in Craft Whisper White.

If you stamp randomly, you create a pretty and subtle background paper.   Below is the finished card.

I used markers in Olive and Early Espresso to ink up the tree.  I didn't reink between the 3 images, thus creating the illlusion of depth as the images stamp progressively lighter.   And below is a close up.

I quite liked the way this turned out.  The blue and brown are fabulous together.

We are nearing the end of this year -- christmas is 11 days away.  Time is flying by, it is scary.  Do you have any New Year's resolutions you are mulling over?  Last year, my resolution was to start a muscle/strength program aside from the cardio I do at the gym.  It has worked quite well and I've progressively been able to lift heavier and heavier weights at the gym.  For those of you who want to try working out to build or tone muscle, here are some tips!

1. Always remember to breathe. This seems obvious, but when you're in the middle of an exercise you may actually forget. In most cases you'll exhale when you do the hard work (e.g. the pushing up part of a push up), and inhale on the easier part (e.g. when you lower your body for the push up).   When I first started training with a trainer, I had difficulty with this and always seemed to do the breathing in reverse.  I've since corrected this. 
   
2. Form is extremely important. If you do an exercise wrong, what seems like progress initially will quickly dissipate and possibly result in injury. Be sure you're doing the exercises correctly before you begin. Ask a friend to watch your form first. If you are a newbie with muscle and strength workouts, getting a trainer to teach you good form is a smart start. 
   
3. Take it slowly. While aerobic exercise if often the exception, most other exercise is best performed slowly. This doesn't mean you should take long breaks in between each push up and sit up, but that you shouldn't perform each as quickly as possible. Going slowly will work the muscle more and make you stronger.
4. Your goal is to fail. The key to a good work out is failure. That doesn't mean giving up because you're frustrated and tired, but rather pushing the limits of your strength until your strength is spent. Obviously you don't want to push yourself to the point of injury, but that shouldn't be a concern so long as you're exhibiting the proper form. Don't worry too much about the number of repetitions of any given exercise, but instead concentrate on working as hard as you can. A larger number of push ups doesn't necessarily mean you're stronger. Some days you'll have more energy than others and will perform better. Some days you'll perform worse. The key is to do the best you can with all of the energy you have. If you fail, you succeed.  You should train to total failure, i.e. your muscles are spent and can no longer lift another rep.

There are many other things to remember, but these 4 core rules are what my trainer taught me right from the start, and I've only had one injury so they must be good rules!

 

I'm Still Here.....

I've heard from some of you....wondering where I've gone to.  I'm still here, just been a bit busy.  Christmas is just around the corner and sadly, I haven't yet done much in the way of shopping.  I plan to do this in the next 2 weeks with a battle plan of arriving at the mall EXACTLY when it opens and doing what I can in about an hour, then leaving.  It won't matter if I don't finish what I need to do, the plan is to get out before the rush of people arrive.  I figure if I do this 3 or 4 times, I will have escaped shopping with the crowds and the long lines.  Wish me luck!

Classes and teaching:   work chugs along....been teaching a lot and I'll have one more class before Christmas then I'll be putting away the ink and stamps till 2012. Gosh that sounds so far away....but it's in 3 weeks!   Sneak peeks of some cards below!

Friends:  Last tuesday night I got together with some fantastic ladies to do some stamping....with a mix of delicious food in the way of cake and cookies.   Here is a pic of my friend Liane and I taking a break from stamping (and sugar consumption).

It's been a busy past few days and I sometimes scold myself for taking on too much, driving myself at full speed, even when not necessary.  I still need to practice the art of being more present, so that life doesn't rush past without me noticing.  I like being busy and therein lies the problem.  So in 2012, I will try to be more relaxed than busy.  Normally we have two different modes in life. There’s the busy of our everyday lives, and then there’s the relaxed mode, which happens when we have some unstructured time: vacation, a day at the beach, a spa getaway, some time in the park with the kids.  I must try to get an even balance of these 2 modes: busy and relaxed.   I know that if I just learn to "feel" instead of "think", I will be more "present" in each and everything I do.  As I put more focus into physical sensations, I am able to enter relaxed mode as opposed to thinking mode.  Am I making sense? For example, If I'm  going for a run,  I will try to feel the wind rush past my face, the sun on my back. If I'm eating, I will try to taste every little nuance of the food, smell the food, feel the texture in my mouth, feel the movement of my hand going to my mouth.  In doing so, maybe I will learn to live more in the present than the future and turn busy-ness into being present, harriedness into enjoyment.

Life will be lived, instead of ignored.  Want to try it together?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

A couple of days ago I was given the priviledge of sharing my passion and love for paper and ink at the Shervin Communications Annual Customer Appreciation Event.  Shervin owners Kevin and Sherrin Western had asked me a few months back if I would come and provide an activity for their clients at their annual Christmas Dinner.  Teaching and sharing my craft is a passion, and I immediately said yes.  I love this about my job.....not only do I get to share what I love, but I get to witness the joy it brings to people as I encourage their creativity and artistry to unleash.  There's no age limit to this exercise.....old, young --- everyone will enjoy it.  Here are the pics of that most memorable evening.

The tables were set to perfection.  I made each guest a little matchbox of chocolate nuggets with the Shervin logo emblazoned in the front in red. 

The action starts.....everyone received their kits and the ink and paper start to fly. 

I loved how the enitre room was creating.  They were all making handmade christmas cards!  I loved to watch everyone creating their own versions of my example, adding their own touches and creating something all their own. 

Aahhhh.....one of my favourite pictures from this evening.  "See what I made!"  

Busy colouring in the handstamped images.  Stamp, colour and cut!

Oh yes.  The Glitter Station.  A popular corner of the room.  This is where the sparkles flew at warp speed.  Glitter was all over this table and I only imagined what the servers were thinking when they walked by wondering, "who's gonna launder that tablecloth with all that glitter stuck to it?"  I smiled each time I walked by and saw people "glitterizing" their work.  I even saw a couple people throwing glitter at each other.  FUN.

I had helpers -- the staff from Shervin helped me out.  Thanks to all of you.  You guys should become Stampin' Up Demonstrators!!!!

Can you just feel the fun looking at the pics?   I smile when I see people sharing what I love to do and getting a kick out of it. 

"IT WORKS!"  The interactive pieces move correctly!  Another picture that I love......

And of course, what card is complete without a heartfelt message on the inside.  There is nothing like a handmade card.....until you start making them, giving them and receiving them, you will never appreciate the love that often goes into creating a card for someone in your life.  Store bought is never acceptable!

Can you believe someone made this?  They actually took the plastic sleeves that I packed thier supplies in and incorporated it into their card.  Now, if that is not impressive I don't know what is.  .....another reason I love my job.  I witness people creating and making works of art like this. 

Finally, one last picture -- Doug and myself at the beginning of the evening standing by the Shervin  welcome sign.   Thank you to Sherrin and Kevin Western of Shervin Communications for allowing me to share what I love to do with all their clients.  It was so much fun!