Thoughtful Frog

I love this little frog from the SU set A Flower for All Seasons. I finally mounted this set last night and inked it up for Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch # 24.


Nothing too complicated here...the patterned paper is from the same DCWV Latte Mat Stackpaper I used for the teacher cards paired with SU certainly celery and orchid opulence and Gina K Pure Luxury heavy base weight- chocolate kiss.

I don't think I've ever used orchid opulence, but what a great colour and it goes so well with Papertrey's satin ribbon! Because I ran the ribbon straight across the card instead of following the sketch exactly, I moved the sentiment strip (from the SU Trendy Trees set, which I also finally mounted last night) up a little. The froggy image is stamped in Adirondack espresso and coloured with copics.


Thanks for looking!
~Nancy

Teacher Cards

So these are the cards I was working on the night before the Bella Birthday Blog Hop--teacher cards! I totally CASEd Dawn's 'Thanks a bunch' card for my daughter's two teachers:

I created the flowers with my Sizzix BIGZ Flower & Leaf die using an assortment of DCWV Latte Mat Stackpaper. I stitched around the edge of slices of Papertrey plum pudding cardstock from my generous friend Charlene mounted on Gina K's Pure Luxury heavy base weight- chocolate kiss (I don't think any dark brown cardstock really compares with this) and added assorted buttons to tie in the colour scheme. Quick and fairly easy.

The next one was for my son's teacher who gave him lots of support; engaging projects; and encouragement and energy this year.

I spotted the sentiment on Lisa Johnson's blog and thought it was perfect for Aidan's teacher. Since I don't own this Papertrey Ink stamp set, I created my own in Illustrator and printed it on Gina K 120lb pure luxury cardstock.

The tree and swing are from Taylored Expressions Branching Out and Branching Out Accessories, the first sets I designed for Taylor. Love this tree!!! The colour choices were inspired by the sweet schoolyard paper from the Basic Grey Mellow 6x6 paper pad and the funky orange is from K&Company 's Carolyn Gavin Greenhouse paper pad. Overall, I was thrilled with my stitching and how this card turned out.

Thanks for looking...

~Nancy

Happy Birthday, Emily-Life is a Party!!

Welcome to the Birthday Blog Skip, Hop & Dance sponsored by Stamping Bella where you can start at the beginning if you've just happened upon my blog.

Here's my card to celebrate Emily's birthday who's only turning 37 today! I wanted to create something bright and cheery and this American Crafts metropolitan paper is just that (I think). I followed this week's Mojo Monday #92 sketch and managed to whip this party card up in 30 minutes because I forgot today was the blog hop and just discovered that I was part of it before my morning rush with the kids!

I used nestabilities, embossed a piece of Papertrey raspberry fizz (more on my new Papertrey paper that came in a care-package from Charlene later today) with my cuttlebug, trimmed the scallops from the AC paper and wrapped it with SU ribbon, floss and love! The image is coloured with copics.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Megan's blog...

~Nancy

'a happy hello' in a row

I wanted to play along with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge this week, gave the sketch a turn and thought the little squares would make perfect windows for this sweet stack of birds from Remember Happiness, Unity's August 2008 Kit of the Month. Although I love this Basic Grey patterned paper, I think it's a little busy for this card--I tried to tie it together with my wavy border and SU ribbon and buttons. The birds are coloured with copics. And since Emily asked, I used my smaller square nestabilities to punch out the squares--they made it easy (although maybe a little time-consuming) because I just had to line up the next square with the subtle embossed lines from the previous one.

Thanks for looking!

~Nancy

Happy Birthday, Taylor!!

Taylor, it's your birthday today, so here's a card (actually two) to wish you a very wonderful day filled with what makes you happiest, which I expect includes cupcakes!! You're a wonderful inspiration. I couldn't decide on bright and bursting with love or paper-pieced, adorable monkey cakes for your 'beary special' day...

~Nancy

Details to follow later today...I had to run with Henri to Sick Kids (don't worry...just a scheduled appointment) before I could finish this post and set up the links.

Tic-Tac-Toe with Cupcakes

Today’s the day—you can purchase the Taylored Expressions stamp sets and other bundles and treats revealed this week. I’m thrilled with how the card I created with my For the Love of Cupcakes set (one of the sets in the Whimsical Wishes line I design) turned out. Dawn’s color challenge was just the perfect thing for a cupcake card—bright pink, cream, chocolate and kraft. Sounds just like a cupcake fresh from the bakery to me! While blogging recently I discovered Heather Pulvirenti’s creations-WOW! Heather’s got talent...and this one caught my eye. I thought this layout combined with cupcakes would make a great tic-tac-toe card. I also got a little braver with sewing card layers this time and stitched the game board and borders and even the inside!! But the greatest little find was the QuikKutz magnetic sheets I bought at a local scrapbooking store. I can’t believe that four 4”x12” sheets were just 5.99 CDN! Don’t you think that’s a deal? I punched magnets with my SU ½” circle punch for the backs of the cupcakes, which are coloured with copics and paper-pieced with retired SU designer paper Loves Me, and larger circles using the ¾” punch for the playing zone. It's hard to see the cream patterned polka dot paper used for the cupcake liners on the chocolate frosted cupcakes. I made a home for the spare cupcake on the inside of the card using the same oval nesties I used for the sentiment on the front of the card.

I hope this gives you a little inspiration today and that you head right on over to the Taylored Expressions store and load up with cupcakes and other ‘beary special’ stamps!

~Nancy

A 'beary special' day

Thanks for visiting today. There’s lots going on over at Taylored Expressions this week and I’m especially excited about the sneak peeks today. Two ‘Beary Special’ Whimsical Wishes sets are coming your way on June 5th and Taylored Expressions will donate generously for each set sold. So why Sick Kids up in Canada?

As many of you know, my son Henri was diagnosed just under two years ago with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), an immune disease he was born with. I’ve often thought that we were so fortunate in this case not to know earlier because Henri was allowed to do everything that kids love to do and that he saw his older brother and sister do—he splashed in puddles, played at parks, picked up frogs, plucked flowers, climbed trees and jumped in lakes. All of these things are on the DO NOT DO list when you have CGD because the beautiful world around us naturally has fungus and mould just doing it’s job and not visible to the eye. A persistent and odd infection on Henri’s wrist (probably from getting stuck by a thorn on a bush), which travelled up his arm to his lymph nodes, brought us to emergency and very quickly to Sick Kids. A young, ‘very with-it’ doctor led us from his diagnosis to the immunology team for testing. We didn’t think we would ever need to go for a risky bone marrow transplant, the one possible cure, but within a year that’s where we were.

I originally thought about creating a scrapbook page to give a glimpse of Henri’s experience since August 2007 at Sick Kids, but I thought just two pictures would tell you quite a bit...

Here Henri is three and desperately wanting to water ski like his older siblings. He’s trying out his moves on the dock at the cottage. He looks healthy and we believe he is—we have no idea that he has an immune disease or that an aspergillus infection is spreading from the tiny mark on his left wrist to his lymph nodes, his lungs and his spleen. This was about two months before we were given the devastating news. I think this picture should be the poster for CGD. Look at his life vest, which says 'endurance' on the badge. Endurance is something he’s needed and fortunately has plenty of!

The second picture tells just as much. Here Henri is just outside of 8B (the isolated bone marrow transplant ward) visiting with his twin siblings, Morgana and Aidan. Henri has started his chemo but still feels well enough to venture out of his little room, which will eventually be more strictly isolated and he won’t leave for about 20 days after his transplant. Look at his face and then his sister who will give her bone marrow blood to save her brother in about 10 days. Neither look uncomfortable or frightened (well actually, I guess Morgana looks a little nervous)—Sick Kids has been Henri’s home on and off throughout the year; the public areas are open, welcoming and often where you might see a favourite doctor, nurse or clown; Henri thinks his central line is cool and certainly better than a line in his arm; he knows that everyone is looking out for him and that even though the chemo and pre-meds are awful that he wouldn’t be going through this if we didn’t believe in his cure.

I’m working on a simple collection of cards to take to Sick Kids when we go for Henri’s bloodwork and follow-up on Friday.

I haven't coloured them yet but I may leave them as is and wrap up the collection with pencils--kids in hospital beds like to colour too. If you have a children’s hospital (or any hospital) near you, think about taking in some cards—some children live for long periods of time in the hospital and celebrate birthdays and other important holidays while they’re there. From Feb. 2 to May 29 last year Henri lived at Sick Kids and celebrated Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day and his own birthday before he got out—did I miss any there? Some kids don’t get cards unless the hospital has a great child life program in place. Please give it some thought...

But here's my card for today's sneak peek. Yes, a tangerine monkey inspired by one of the twin's first stuffies. I flipped Taylor's Cupcake Challenge sketch this week and used papers from K&Company (Carolyn Gavin Greenhouse collection) and We R Memory Keepers (Nonsense). The flower is cut from a slice from the Greenhouse collection--I couldn't believe how well it went with the flower image in this set! I used four of my favourite images from the two sets to create this little scene and coloured with copics, but I desperately need someone to teach me how to master them. Karen??? Anyway, 'thanks for your kindness' visiting today...

Enjoy the sneak peeks this week!!

~Nancy

If you are interested in knowing more about CGD, Henri’s journey and how Sick Kids has made a huge difference in our lives, please visit the blog we kept to keep family and friends informed: http://henri.typepad.com (username=henri; password=hair).

Pages for Stampin' Out Alzheimer's

I managed to get a few cards and pages done for the Stampin' Out Alzheimer's challenges this week. What an incredible place of inspiration and community...Jen Tapler and her friends worked hard to get people on board, offer really exciting prizes and bring people and their stories together. If you weren't involved, look for it next year!

My brother-in-law passed away in November 2007 after a decade struggling with early-onset Alzheimer's. Michael and Anne have three children, and although we still have many memories from these last years, his decline and the effect on everyone who loved him was heartbreaking. I still can't listen to My Immortal by Evanescence without tearing up.

Anyway, here they are...

Both pages use digi papers by Mindy Terasawa from her Moss Scape kit at http://www.designerdigitals.com/. I love the colours and the subtle designs. I also used Ali Edward's layered template (AELayoutTemplateNo3) and wonderful font on the Remembering Michael page. The tissue paper letters are by Anna Aspnes (also http://www.designerdigitals.com/).

And here's one more digital page:

The picture isn't a new one--but the title is something I need to commit to. Digital paper and embellishments are from Mindy Terasawa's Allure kit, http://www.designerdigitals.com/.

Henri turns 5 today

Here's a quick page I created in Photoshop today using Ali Edward's Four Corners Layered Template and papers from Lynn Grieveson's Percentage Wise digital kit (both from Designer Digitals).

I wanted to show a picture from each of Henri's five years and thought this template was perfect. I see myself getting back into digital scrapbooking big time--what great stuff out there!!

Sailing in circles

I'm trying to play along with as many challenges on the Stampin Out Alzheimer's community blog as possible, but today is Henri's birthday, this week is Morgana's big dance performance week and Aidan is playing soccer and more soccer--so I'm always on the run. Anyway, here's my card for this week's Mojo Monday Sketch #88. Love this sketch! I used stamps for PaperTrey's Men of Life set and it came together quickly.

Curtain call in pink and brown

This time I'm playing along with Jodi and Karen's Two by Two challenge over at Stampin Out Alzheimer's. It's also Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #69 this week. More later...

A Swinging Happy Birthday

Again I'll tell more later...just wanted to get a few projects uploaded tonight...

This one is for Taylor's sketch challenge at Stampin Out Alzheimer's.

Bluebirds

I'll give more detail about this card later tonight--I just wanted to get some cards uploaded to Stamp Out Alzheimer's and to Kristina Werner's challenge before I'm too late.

Dazzling Kenya for a girl's birthday

I managed to get a challenge done and a birthday card done a day in advance (or at least one sleep) and it’s only just past midnight!!! This week Stamping Bella is the sponsor over at Card Positioning System for sketch CPS116. Love this sketch!

I picked up quite a few things on my recent first visit to Bella land and Kenya KETTO was on the list. I stamped her in Memento Tuxedo Black on Gina K pure luxury 120lb cardstock and coloured her with copics, then cut her with my rectangular nesties and layered her on a rose red scalloped panel and then again on basic black. I pulled out some Marigold Morning from my stash (I love this colour and wish it would come back) and embossed the top part of the bottom panel with my Cuttlebug snowflake folder—yes, snowflakes. I thought the part that I’m showing on the card looked like Kenya’s sparkles. To create something a little different for the bottom border, I stamped a row of small circle shadows in soft sky on soft sky cardstock and then stamped Kenya’s small sparkle in Momento Tuxedo black. I added Kaiser scrapbook pearls in plum to the centres. The patterned panel is basic grey lime rickey liquid candy. What a great name! I used the lighter, layered cardstock that just arrived from Gina K for the actual card. Finally, I applied sakura quickie glue and decoart glamour dust to give Kenya the dazzle she deserves.

Thanks for looking...
~Nancy

W.O.W. on Unity!

Hey, I'm listed on Unity as a W.O.W. --that's for Watch Out Wednesday. Exciting!! The blog hop last week was lots of fun...

Fire it up, Babe!

I made two cards using Karen's sketch SSSC18 posted on her blog, the sweetest thing, but I like the sentiment I used on the manly BBQ card--Fire it up, Babe! Hope you're liking the Boys Will Be Boys set at Taylored Expressions. I'm having as much fun using it as I did designing the images.

I'm finding I'm very 'copic-challenged'--I seriously need some tips from my friend Karen! But surprisingly I don't think the photos reveal my flaws too much. I'm using Gina K pure luxury cardstock, so I know I have the right tools. On my 'fire it up...' card I embossed just the right side of the cream panel with the sentiment to repeat the flame pattern. This was after I created the sentiments in Illustrator and printed on cardstock. I was thrilled to find the screw brads in my stash from heavy-scrapbooking days. Somehow I smudged copic grey in the corner of my image panel, so I ran the marker along the edge allowing it to seep into the cardstock then used my SU distressor tool to rough up the edges and make it even more manly!

I was inspired by the SU designer paper Good Morning Sunshine for my second card and gave my little squirrel a pear from the Branching Out Coordinates set instead of a nut. I created the "don't be afraid to try something different" sentiment in Illustrator. Because my squirrel was so dull looking after I over-coloured him with copics, I gave him some 'smooch' on his tail and belly and highlighted the pears with yellow atyou marker. I smooched the flame on the BBQ too.

Waiting for summer

Thought I'd go back to my scrapbooking roots for Kristina Werner's colour challenge #52 this week...so that's why my card looks like a scrapbook page. Not sure where, but I recently found a great sheet of patterned paper (Sparkle Celebration Bubbles Cinnamon Stick by Cloud9Design) with exactly the colours required for this challenge: Baja/Aqua, Saffron, Mustard, Sand and White. No adding, which means no black or chocolate. Coincidently Ali Edward's digital templates use a similar scheme and so this was an easy one!

I used the Ali Edwards Layered Template No. 05, designed by Ali Edwards, which I purchased at designerdigitals.com. Hope I credited that one right! Whew... Although I spent too much time playing around in Photoshop and Illustrator today while creating this card, boy, did I learn a lot. I gave the original photo an antique hue then changed it to a blue hue close to blue bayou before importing the altered photo into the template in Photoshop.

Here's the original:

Basically, this is what the layout looked like before I printed on Xerox 110lb cardstock and embellished with SU so saffron, blue bayou, more mustard and textured sahara sand cardstock, circles cut from the patterned paper, and a Basic Grey brad:

Just in case you're wondering, the fonts I used are Candara and Marydale. It's hybrid scrapbooking that I really love. Hope you like what I've shared...

~Nancy

Believe, Be Strong

I created this angel image months ago and for some reason Dawn McVey's color challenge this week made me think of her.

Today I was chatting with a friend who is going through a lot and so I was also thinking of her, hoping she's strong and that she continues to 'believe' that things happen for a reason. I tried to keep the card simple with some elegant embellishments--I hope I've achieved this.

I printed my angel and sentiment on Gina K 120lb luxury cardstock and the angel again on translucent vellum, then coloured her with copics and highlighted the swirls with my atyou spica in turquoise--sorry, I know the blue is not supposed to be turquoise but I thought it worked. I embossed the top border with the flowers from the Cuttlebug Border Set Frills, paper pierced the swirl and edges of the card and curled the vellum wings for some interest and dimension. The recessed areas in the flowers and the swirls called for the gems I just received in a May Release VIP collection from My Favourite Things.

Thanks for looking...

~Nancy

Unity Kit of the Month Blog Hop!

You should be joining me from Christine’s blog. If not, you’ll want to start at the beginning so you don’t miss out on the Unity Kit of the Month Blog Hop today. I was so excited about playing along that I couldn’t just stop at one card! Here’s my first inspiration:

I thought the pretty packaging that one of the earlier kits came in was perfect for this project so I used both the organza bag for the curtains and the ribbon for the tie backs and other embellishing. After embossing the pink panel, which happened to have a pink core, I went with it and sanded for a little distressed effect.

The colours and awning actually remind me of my friend Cathy's old storefront at The Ink Spot. If you're out there, Cathy, sending you happy thoughts...

Stamps: window and sentiment from March KOTM; Unity handmade stamp from September KOTM

Ink: Adirondack dye ink in espresso

Paper: Gina K 120lb Pure Luxury cardstock; SU chocolate chip; American Crafts metropolitan paper; Colormates (worldwinpapers) in Deep Pretty Pink 65lb cardstock
Other: ribbon and organza fabric from UNITY kit packaging; square and labels nestabilities; EK Success Dotted Wave border punch; Cuttlebug Swiss Dots and Spots/Dots embossing folders; SU felt flowers, dimensionals and chocolate chip marker; sanding block; mini-brads (unknown)

And here's a quick peak at the other cards I created when I was still deciding which one to feature today ...

I used these amazing Unity kits!

Since these are cards I created for sketch challenges, I'll give more detail in a separate post so you can get on your way!

~Nancy

NEXT LINK HERE! NEXT LINK HERE!
Now hop on over to see what
Jodi C.
has created for today at
http://jodisjazzylifeart.blogspot.com/

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If you get STUCK or LOST at anytime during the blog hop you’ll find a list of all the participants HERE.

Go to the list. Find your spot. Begin Again!

Live all the days of your life!

Quick post...here's my card for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #67:

I'll give more details later but wanted to get this uploaded before the deadline is up. This card was in the works as I was brainstorming for today's Unity Kit of the Month blog hop.

Thanks for looking!

~Nancy