Hi all! How is everyone doing? It is cooler here now in Vancouver, B.C. Summer is kind of over..... the mornings and evenings are definitely colder but the days are still summer-ISH. We are enjoying what some call HOTAUMN! We deserve it because our summer was kind of lame.... not very summery at all.
This past week I have been playing with the Sweet Gingerbread stamp set and the matching Gingerbread House dies. I am having so much fun and have made 4 cards in 4 days.... I just can't stop. It is addicting. Today I'm showing you 2 of them :) The set of 4 are available in a tutorial, the link is at the end of this blog post.
One of the cards I made is this belly band card.
It opens up to show the gingerbread house popped up!
And these are the components that you need to make the card. Measurements are below each picture.
Real Red base card 11 X 4 1/4
Coordinating DSP for real red base 5 1/4 X 4 (I wanted a bit more of the red cardstock to show so I cut a smidge more of each side for this card in the picture)
Garden Green Belly band 9 1/2 X 1 1/2
Coordinating DSP for belly band 9 1/2 X 1 1/4
And for the inside of the card you will need:
2 pieces white 4 /12 X 4
panel for moving mechanism 3 1/3 X 4
The tutorial video is at the end of this blog post.
The second card I want to show you is this one.
I have 2 other cards I made and I have a tutorial with all the pdf's to make these cards, below. The cost for the tutorial is $10, just click on the paypal logo below. The tutorial is sent to you free if you make a $60 purchase from my online store, the link to shop is on the left margin. ** Free offer valid in Canada only***
Last week the "He's All That" stamp set that I ordered arrived. I have been waiting for it and knew I wanted to use it as soon as I had time!
The set has 11 stamps that can be used to make birthday, father's day and just because cards for the men in your life.
Along with the stamps, you can also purchase the All That Dies to help you cut out the images and diecut shapes to finish off your card.
If you buy the stamp and dies at the same time, you save 10% by purchasing it in a bundle. All shopping links are at the end of the post. (links work in Canada only)
The first card I made uses Early Espresso, Sahara Sand and Real Red cardstock.
The center element is made out of one of the sheets from the matching He's the Man DSP.
I cut out a piece from one of the sheets using one of the circles from the Layering Circles Dies.
I cut out the circle following the lines on the design...nothing fancy, I just used my scissors!
Then I glued all the strips down on early espresso cardstock, leaving a little space in between. You start with a circle, but when done you will end up with an oval shape like this.
Once cut out, I adhered some linen thread to it, creating loops on either side, below. Again, nothing complicated -- I just used regular tape that you can buy at any office supply store or even at the dollar store!
The red strip on the left side of the card is made by stamping this image using Real Red ink on Real Red cardstock for a monochromatic look.
The base card is Early Espresso and I glued a layer of Sahara Sand to it that I had embossed using the Cascading Ruffles 3D embossing folder.
And below is the final card. The image of the car is stamped using Early Espresso ink on Sahara Sand cardstock and cut out using one of the dies in the matching die set. Then I stamped it a second time using Real Red ink and cut out just the car and glued it on top of the original image.
The final touch is some rustic metallic adhesive backed dots. I added 3 of them around the card where I felt they needed to be.
I have 3 other cards that I have designed using this set and the youtube tutorial for that will be available next weekend. I'll post the link then.
Last year we did a thing. We got a boat! A 50 foot Beneteau sailboat. She is a beauty! The name on the hull still says "FORTUNA" which is the name the previous owners had for it.... we are still waffling on a name and thinking of "STEADY" as the new name.... no final decision yet so we jokingly call her "Falafel" --- and I tell you the name has kind of stuck, lol! I don't know how that name came up, but we did it for a laugh (rather I did it, because it was me who started calling her that) and now it seems that is what we call her, haha! On any given day, Trevor might say,"I'm heading over to Falafel this afternoon to do some work". Poor boat, such a beauty and we call her Falafel! She is a work in progress as Trevor and his dad installed new toilets and got some new sails, etc but she is a happy and exciting addition to the family! She has 2 toilets/showers and sleeps 6. Here are some photos.
The galley where all the food action happens. The woodwork is pretty unique and we added a new microwave. There's lots of room in the fridge to store all our supplies/drinks, etc.
Here she was moored at her previous slip in New Westminster, B.C. where we purchased her. She now happily lives in the Bellingham marina, just 10 minutes from our home in Washington State.
The cockpit. It's quite big with lots of room for us to gather on deck if the weather permits. We usually sit around the table and have our snacks/wine and chat as we sail.
This was taken on the first sea trial. You can see the Alex Fraser Bridge in the foreground as we came from New Westminster where she was moored -- a bit of a foggy day!
We are still adding a few more things/upgrades to her. But she is ready to sail and many voyages await us. It is nice that Trevor can spend quality time with his dad, just the 2 of them. Lots of father/son memories to be made on this boat. It will be a voyage filled summer of 2022!
Forever Fern
The new Stampin' Up! 2022-2023 has launched. I have ordered some new sets and all the new colours but I haven't gotten them yet. I should have them this Monday and I can't wait to play.
For now I'm playing with the Forever Fern set. I love this set!!! This is by no means a new set, it has been around for some time but it is one of my faves and I tend to find myself pulling it out of my shelf full of sets again and again.
These are the elements I used to create the final card -- the inks I used were So Saffron and Pear Pizzaz.
The embossing folder I used is a retired one from my stash, again another fave that I can't bring myself to get rid of.
Below is a close up of the finished card. I love the way the embossing adds that extra dimension to the background layer of So Saffron.
And below is a picture of the full card. Hope you like it!
I'll be making some cards next week with one of the new sets, and I'll post then so stay tuned.
Hey everyone! It's a long weekend here in British Columbia.... a stat holiday we call Family Day. So tomorrow I get to sleep in! Yay. This girl loves long weekends for sure.
This weekend I played with Stampin' Up's Heart & Home Memories & more card pack.
This awesome card pack is made specifically for scrapbooking but it is also great for cardmaking. The pack contains 50 double sided cards total. Some are 4X6 and some are 3X4 and the colours in this pack are Cinnamon Cider, Fresh Freesia, Garden Green, Pale Papaya and Basic Grey. The prints on the cards are so versatile....flowers and stripes and a large enough variety to make both masculine and feminine cards. There are also 4 sticker sheets with sayings, flowers and tags. Below are some of the ones I made with the pack.
This card uses no stamping whatsoever, I just used cardstock and some components from the card pack. The flower image in the center is actually from the sticker sheet and so is the greeting.
The card above uses another greeting from the sticker sheet in the pack and the background paper is from the pack as well. The images are from the All Things Fabulous stamp set, shown below.
I wanted to also make some masculine cards using the set, and I knew the striped designs in the pack would make great neck ties!
This card uses the Handsomely Suited stamp set and its matching dies. I used Basic Gray for the suit, embossed with the Tasteful Textiles Embossing folder. I though the striped green tie was perfect!
The card above uses the same stamp set, but this time I cut a bow tie instead of a tie, and I used one of the papers from the pack for the shirt. I loved how both these masculine cards turned out!
Below is my youtube tutorial showing all the cards I made using the Heart & Home Memories Card Pack and the supply list is on the bottom of this post. Enjoy!
Last week, I traveled back into Canada via the Douglas Border Crossing. It was not busy and the crossing was easy.
There were 4 cars ahead of me in the Nexus line and altogether, the crossing took about 8 minutes. The lineup in the regular line was a bit longer.... maybe 12 cars in each line, but there were only 5 lanes open. I had my negative COVID test on hand as this is a requirment for crossings. Starting next week, on November 30th, Canadians who are out of the country for visits less than 72 hours no longer need a negative COVID test to return home. This will help the small border towns that rely heavily on cross border traffic to stay in business. It is good to see that life is slowly getting back to normal.
Thanksgiving on Whidbey Island
We spent Thanksgiving on Whidbey Island with Trevor's family. Whidbey Island is in Puget Sound, south of Bellingham. From our home in Bellingham, it is about a 2 hour drive -- starting off at I5, and then crossing into a bit of winding roads, through farmland and some beautiful scenery. One of the most beautiful sites you will drive through en route to Whidbey Island from Bellingham is Deception Pass. There are places to pull over and take in the view at Deception Pass State Park which offers clifftop views of the water below as well as forest trails and freshwater lakes.
A Look Back
This was a picture we took in 2012, when we stopped to take some shots of the great view.
And below is a video I took when we crossed underneath on our boat, this was in 2014.
This cute little powerboat was one that we sold a few years back. We sure do miss it! It was a fun trip we had that day, towing Trevor's dad's sailboat and then lunching in La Conner before heading home past Deception Pass. The weather that day was beautiful as you can see in the video!
My visit this time was for 16 days! I hadn't been to our Bellingham home in so long due to COVID and the border shutdowns and now that they are open again (let's hope) ..... I feel good about being able to travel back and forth again. I type this as we are in the midst of learning more about the new variant OMICRON, so I am crossing my fingers that this new mutation isn't one that will cause severe disease. We shall wait and see.
In the meantime, STAY SAFE everyone! We are in this together, let's all wear our masks and please get vaccinated!
And as always, before I sign off, here's another youtube card tutorial that I uploaded last week. Enjoy!
On Nov 8, 2021 after about 18 months of the US/Canada border closure due to the global pandemic, the US border finally opened again to non essential traffic. It felt all a little bit surreal, and I remember feeling a bit weird and a tad nervous leading up to my first crossing. Why? I have no idea. I had done this many times before march 2020 and a handful of times between then and now on essential service as we transported cars back and forth between the 2 countries for our business in Bellingham. But this was different. I was going for pleasere.... going to stay 2 weeks. I had never been able to stay longer than a few hours before this -- just enough time to pick up Trevor to drive him back to Canada to transport a car. It felt good, but weird. So weird. Currently there is a requirement for anyone crossing back into Canada to have a negative COVID test (PCR molecular test, not the rapid antigen test). These tests are expensive, ranging from $140 - $200 depending where you get them, so there hasn't been a rush of Canadians crossing over. The border was pretty easy to cross, with no lineup whatsoever. This requirment for a negative PCR test will be lifted at the end of this month, so I expect that to change. But for my crossing, this was what I had to deal with.
There was no one. It was just me. AHHHH..... the glorious wait that was NOTHING. I just sailed up to the booth, they asked me the purpose of my trip, I said visiting family and off I went. The easisest border crossing I have ever experienced.
This was my first time at our home in Bellingham where I could stay more than just a few hours. This time I was crossing on a non essential trip. This meant I could stay for days if I wanted to. Waiting for me was the most beautiful welcome home bunch of flowers from Trevor.
It felt good to be in our Bellingham home. 18 months I was not allowed to enter the country. Thank you COVID. We are hopefully seeing a light at the end of this long tunnel. COVID will always be with us but I'm hoping it will be endemic in the future, no more lockdowns but a managable fact of life. Please, please, please, let this be so.
So for now, I'm thankful that life has come back to "somewhat" normal. I like to look at life with a "cup half full" view, and this is my cup half full. I am grateful. So grateful.
I will share more pictures of my stay here in Washington.... I'm still here -- going back home to B.C. after Thanksgiving. But I am here and I am thankful. My pair of rose coloured glasses keeps me hopeful that life will be less complicated moving forward. While waiting to see if this is the case, I will take what I've been given and enjoy today, enjoy what I am given and smell all the flowers along the way.
Who has jumped on the air fryer bandwagon? Air fryers aren't new, they have been around for years now but I only got mine about a year ago and let me tell you, it has changed my life. This is the one I have.
I love how it creates a crispy, cruncy exterior and moist insides -- on EVERYTHING! I barely use my oven now, in fact lately I've been using it to store pots/pans.... so basically it's a cupboard, haha. I love air fryers so much that I convinced the branch manager where I work to buy one for the office. I basically bugged him and bugged him everyday till he just caved! This is the one we have at work.
It's a bit different than the one I have at home, in that it is a basket that holds the food whereas the one I have at home has 2 trays, configured like a little oven. I like it because I can cook more at one time, though this one at work is also great! So far this is what I have made at work.
This was lunch one day -- Grilled cheese! Air fryer grilled cheese sandwiches are life changing! The trick here is add some butter on the outside of the bread as well. This technique makes a great cheese melt sandwich! The bread toasts perfectly, so golden brown and crispy on the outside and the cheese melts fantastic. I personalize mine adding tomatoes and onions.... but you can add anything else you want, or stick to the good ol' basic recipe and just do cheese. You can mix cheeses to for an even better sandwich -- mozza and cheddar/ cheddar and provolone/ mozza and gouda -- you get the idea.
Below is some chicken that I marinated with Epicure's Rotisserie Chicken spice. Put the chicken pieces in a bag sprinkle with enough spice till every piece is coated and let this marinade for about an hour. Marinading for that period will help the flavours to really set, but it isn't essential. Then cook in the air fryer.... AAHMAGAWD.... so delicious! Here I threw in some carrots as well .... overcooked it a bit, but it was so crispy and cruncy and still awesome.
There are so many ways to use your air fryer, you only have to do a search on you tube or tiktok to find a multitude of recipes and tutorials guiding you on how to use your air fryer with many recipes from appetizers, to entrees to dessert!
DYEING RIBBON
I have started dying ribbon to match my projects. Quite often I find that I am working on a card, or a scrapbook page and I need some ribbon to add the final touch, but I don't have the right colour on hand. Solution? I use plain white ribbon and dye it any colour I want! I have all the Stampin' Up reinkers so I can add the perfect colour to my cards and projects that match my cardstock and inks.
Below is an example of how I use the ribbons on my cards.... I dye them to match the patterned paper for the perfect finish.
I have started packaging them in groups of 100 and offering them for sale, due to popular demand from students who have taken classes from me, and other crafters. If you would like to order any, send me an email using the EMAIL ME link underneath my picture on the top left side of the margin.
BORDER BASICS DIE
This is one of my most used and up in the top 5 list of dies I reach for the most from Stampin' Up. This set comes with 6 dies!!! Here's a step by step of a project I made using this die set.
I chose the die with the scallop edge and cut using Balmy Blue cardstock.
This is a gatefold card, so I folded the card differently (tutorial is below) and then cut using the same die but using patterned paper from the Sweet as a Peach collection.
I used the Painted Labels Dies and the Painted Poppies stamp set to create the card. (links below)
And below is the final card.
Below is the tutorial on how to use the Border Dies and the supply lists for this card above is at the end of this post. Happy weekend everyone!
When I first started this blog ...... all the way back in 2006 (gosh, has it been that long??) ... I posted about myself and my family as well as my crafting. Then I got busy personally, went back to work full time and then opened a business with my spouse. 24 hours in a day was not enough to do everything I wanted to..... so I posted less and less with weeks in between posts. Then I realized how much I missed crafting and as time went by I started doing it more and more again, and the crafting posts returned. And now some of you, my readers have asked....."why aren't you posting about your life anymore? We miss that!" .... and I realized a lot of you have watched my kids grow up, watch my life evolve to what it is now and you are invested in this blog, and I feel that I now am ready to bring this blog back to its early days..... and blog again about my life as a whole -- my crafting, my kids, my spouse..... my family. I also realized that when I go back through the years and years of posts, I can reminisce about everything in my life and I find myself getting emotional reading some posts..... I've posted about my parents, my siblings, my family, my kids all the important life events..... so I thought, "I want to be able to read about my life and all that's happening for years to come".... so I will start to do that again. I hope you will continue to join me in my crafting and storytelling.
POWELL RIVER
Last weekend, Trevor & I traveled to Powell River to visit Alyssa & Zain. This place is not easy to get to!! It's a half hour drive to Horseshoe Bay where we catch the first ferry to Gibsons, then we drive about an hour to Earl's Cove and catch a 2nd ferry to Saltery Bay, then the last drive to Powell River is about 40 minutes. It's basically a day of travel. But once you get to the Sunshine Coast and see how beautiful it is, you realize.... "why haven't I visited here before?" It's just so beautiful there.
We ventured early on a Friday, a rainy one unfortunately, but you win some you lose some. The lineup wasn't too bad which was good because we forgot to make reservations and by the time we looked online, there were none left. We enjoyed some snacks in between ferries. I brought some lemon tarts I made the day before and leftover chicken from dinner that day as well.
What can I say?..... not the healthiest lunch, but when you're on vacation you take a break from the routine and indulge just a bit!
We got to Powell River around 2:30 and our room was not ready yet so we went to Alyssa & Zain's place first till 4PM when we knew we would have access to our room. We stayed at Beyond Bliss Suites & Spas -- nice, big rooms, but service left a lot to be desired, and some issues with maintenance in our suite. The unit itself was big and had a complete kitchen.
While it was nice, the front desk person Angela was rather rude and condescending. I gave this place a negative review on Trip Advisor as a resutlt, and we will not be staying here agian when we go back to visit. It was the only bad part of our trip, everything else about Powell River was awesome!
Alyssa & Zain brought us some sushi for dinner that first night, then we played board games the rest of the evening, it was fun!
The next day we brought breakfast to their place from Edie Rae's Cafe at the Old Courthouse Inn. Delicious. We ate the food before I remembered to take pictures, lol. Sorry.
The rest of the day was spent exploring, window shopping along Marine Drive and then back to the hotel to nap before dinner.
This was at Willingdon Beach Park -- it was nice that we the sun came out long enough for us to take some great pictures and there weren't a lot of people around because it had rained the day before. The forecast was still for rain, but it didn't come till much later and it wasnt much. So we kind of had the beach to ourselves. BONUS!
Alyssa took this great photo of us walking down to the end of the gravel walkway to get closer to the water. It turned out really good, we may need to get this framed!!
Dinner was just in our suite -- one thing about a full kitchen is it's easy to cook and I like that. I really do prefer vacationing in suites with complete kitchens. I seek these accomodations out as much as possible.
Dinner the next day was at Costa Del Sol, just steps from our hotel -- Latin food! COVID restrictions were in place as federally mandated in Canada, and we all had our vaccine passports with us. Only 2 tables inside, we came early for that reason and we had to wait till our table was ready. The food was delicious once again.
Refreshing Blackberry Margarita
Yummy fish tacos below.
Taco salad with charred jalapeno corn dressing. I thought it would be too spicy for me but it was just right.
The weekend was so relaxing and laid back -- it's so peaceful in Powell River, not much traffic, no city sounds like the garbage truck, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, car horns..... etc. Instead you hear birds and the wind. From Alyssa & Zain's front porch you can sometimes hear the sea lions as they live close to the water. Such a refreshing change from the city. We will be back there next year!
We were back in Vancouver by 4 PM on Monday, leaving Powell River on the 10 AM ferry. Welcome back, traffic! LOL.
And of course before I end, here's a craft project to share. This card was made using the Gingerbread & Peppermint DSP, as well as the Memories & More Card Pack. There is no stamping on this card! The greeting is a sticker.
The video tutorial on how to make this card is below, and the full supply list is at the end of this post. If you have any questions on the project or need help creating it, comment below or email me using the EMAIL ME link on the left margin under my picture. Happy Stamping!
I am excited to be offering a Designer Series Paper Share with the brand-new papers featured in the 2001- 2022 Annual Catalogue . If you haven't yet got your hands on a catalogue and you don't currently have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator you already buy from, let me know and I will send you one!
What is a Designer Series Paper Share?
A product share allows you to obtain a quarter of each paper pack for a quarter of the price of each pack. It’s the best way to get your hands on a little of everything and once you know the products you love most – you can buy the full pack!
What will you receive?
Sweet Symmetry Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
Simply Elegant Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
Well Suited Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
You’re a Peach Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
Beauty of the Earth Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
Tidings of Christmas Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
2001-2023 In Color Designer Series Paper [12 sheets]
That’s 120 sheets of patterned paper at your disposal to get crafting with. All paper will be cut to 6 inches by 6 inches.
How much does it cost?
The cost of this collections of patterned paper is $45 CDN including postage. This is only available until June 5, 2021 and restricted to orders within Canada.
Please ensure your address is detailed correctly upon checkout.
How do you order a share?
To order this Designer Series Paper Share please use the PayPal link below to complete the purchase. You do not require a PayPal account to complete the purchase however if you do face any difficulties, please email me. My email address is inkfinity@gmail.com If you want to see what each paper series looks like, click on the SHOP NOW button on the left margin and use the magnifying glass to search for the item and it will come up.
