Lots of "JOY" in Hinkley

That's right, I am still creating in Hinkley. This is my last creation in Hinkley for this trip. Shanna & I have to hit the road bright & early Thursday morning. I have to get back to the store so that Trevor can get to his work on time & Shanna needs to spend time with her husband because it is their 10th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary!

I am submitting this card to Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge. This week's challenge is wreaths. I have been wanting to participate in her challenges the last few weeks, but could never make the time. I also wanted to get at least one Christmas card done on this trip and now I killed two birds with one stone. I have also submitted this card to the Little Red Wagon Blog Challenge; which is Christmas in July.

The image & the sentiment on the inside of the card are stamps from CC Designs. The "JOY" sentiment is from Kraftin' Kimmie.

The Copic Markers I used are: Hair - YR23, YR24 & YR21; Skin - E00 & E000; Dress & Headband - RV95, RV93 & T2; Wreath - YG23 & YG95 and Berries & Bow - E19 & E97.

I used BoBunny Wine Double Dot Cardstock, Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses Patterned Paper and some more patterned paper from my CTMH stash. Throw on some Stampin' Up Ribbon, American Crafts Glitter Buttons, Stamping Bella Baubles and miscellaneous embroidery floss & there's my Wreath Christmas Card for Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge.

This was one of the best...correction....this was the BEST girlfriend get-a-way I have ever had. Fabulous company, fun shopping, productive with Christmas Calendar gifts & cards, great food (including pepperjack cheese on my sub from Subway), many laughs....many, many laughs & even more memories to cherish for a lifetime.

Oh! One more thing.....the Best Hair Days I have ever had!

Thinking of You with Cupcake Ruby

Yeah! I finally received my first order from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps. Not only did I receive my first order, but I actually inked one of the stamps & made a card within days of receiving it. This is probably a first for me.

I love how my card turned out; especially since I designed it on a whim in a hotel room in Hinkley without full access to all my stuff like I am used to. Don't get me wrong, we packed well, but I am not used to not having access to my store for cardstock or having all my thousands of stamps at my disposal for sentiments. So I am quite proud of how this card turned out with "limited" products & tools & no planning prior to this trip. Yes, Lee-Ann, we brought the sewing machine with us as well as the cricut, cuttlebug, copics, stamps......and the list goes on.

Fortunately, we had exactly what I needed to be able to participate in the Inspiration Challenge this week on Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps blog. I used BoBunny Chocolate Double Dot Cardstock, Basic Grey's Sugared Patterned Paper & Patterned Papers from The Greeting Farm's Birthday Pack of Paper. Yes, I paper pieced the cupcake liner & the dress with patterned paper.

I used the Cupcake Ruby stamp from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps & the sentiment stamp was from CTMH. I also used one of EK Success' border punches, Oval Nestabilities & Basic Grey Opaline Half Pearls.

The Copic Markers I used were: Hair - E47 & E49; Skin - R00 & R000; Eyes - Y28; Cupcake Icing - R81 & Everything Red - R37 & W4.

I didn't have anyone in mind for this card, so I have left the inside blank to be filled with an appropriate sentiment at a later date.

A Cricut Hooting Good Time in Hinkley

Hello from Hinkley, Minnesota!

Shanna & I are having a great get-a-way "weekend" with the girls. We shopped, shared many laughs and now we are scrapbooking and still sharing many laughs. Our friends Caroline & Stephanie had to head home this morning because they have to work tomorrow. We already miss them. Did you see any interesting "squishables" on the drive home?

Anyways, Cricut has come out with a new line of "Cricut Lite" cartridges that are exclusively sold at Super Wal-Marts. Our local Wal-Mart only carries three of them. The Duluth Wal-Mart carries all of them. So, I was able to pick up the cartridges that I wanted and the ones that my friend Lee-Ann asked me to pick up for her. You know Snappy Scraps the Cricut Card Queen.

Lee-Ann, I did this card in your honour. Shanna and I both made cards with your new "Hoot 'n' Holler" Cricut Cartridge. I was also able to incorporate the "Back to School" theme into my card for the Paper Sundaes Challenge this week.

I used BoBunny Chocolate, Decaf & Coral Dot Cardstocks, a Bazzill Brown from my stash (don't know the name of it) CTMH Sweetleaf Cardstock & more of my CTMH Patterned Paper from my old stash. I embellished with Stamping Bella Bon Bons, CTMH Buttons & a light pink zig zag stitch on the inside of the card. Both of the sentiment stamps I used are from CC Designs.

Shanna and I are having such a great time that we have extended our trip by a day and we won't be returning until Thursday afternoon. Our husbands were very supportive when we texted them our wishes for an extention. They totally understand how this helps our mental health and they probably know that this definitely gives them huge brownie points as well.

We bow to Lee-Ann, our Cricut Card Queen. We hope we made you proud with our non-copic colouring, cricut cartridge cutting cards. Say that five times fast!

U R Courage

Danielle inspired the beginning of this card with her challenge. When I saw her challenge I immediately thought about my alcohol inks that I haven't played with in a coons age. The colours of this card is much better in person, but it was hard to shoot and get all the different hues.

So, I pulled them out & began to play around with the Eclipse themed card, but it wasn't working for me. I gave up that idea and decided to work with the colours of my alcohol inked glossy paper. Then the creativity began to flow and my card became a "thinking of you" card of sorts for my girlfriend Ellena.

Most of you know that she is battling cancer right now. My girlfriends and I make sure that she receives at least one or two cards a week from us letting her know that we are thinking of her.

I am always on the look out for unique items to use on my cards or in my scrapbooks. A local store called, Green Earth, in Intercity Mall is one of my favourite shops to go to. It carries a lot of unique picture frames and now they have these fabulous charms that are meant for key chains or necklaces. I saw them and thought they would be a fabulous embellishment for cards and scrapbook pages.

I had purchased the key with the word courage on it with intentions of putting it on one of my cards for Ellena. I buy a lot of things for cards with good intention, but they don't always get on a card....this one did! So, I am very excited about that!

I used Scrapbook Sally Glimmer Paper for my base of my card. I alcohol inked white glossy paper to make the background paper for the front and inside of my card. The chipboard frames from Tattered Angels were also alcohol inked.

I used Basic Grey Bling it On Rub-ons & Bling, Maya Road Straight Pin, Prima Marketing "Say it in Pearls" Flourish, We R Memory Keepers metal photo corners & lettering and the ribbon & brads are just from my hodge podge of stuff and I don't know where they came from.

The sentiment on the inside of the card is from The Greeting Farm and I used brown Staz On ink to stamp on the glossy paper.

I have stepped out of my "box" for this card. I haven't created a card with a more serious tone to it in years because I have been having so much fun with all my fun, whimsical stamps that I can't stop buying. If you could see my scrap room and my kitchen right now, you would see how much fun I had putting this card together.

My grandparents were here today and my grandpa's reaction to my card was...is that leather on the card? That must have been a lot of work! My grandma's reaction was...WHOA!!! (with bulging eyes) and she analyzed the card for a good minute or two taking it all in. She had a stroke 2 years ago and has very minimal speech.

Maybe Ellena can just live with the photo on my blog and I will keep this one for myself....of course I am just kidding!

Let Your Hair Down

I got to play with another one of Kraftin' Kimmie's new Fairytale Stamps. Her New Release went on sale on Sunday on her website and they are already in the store for when I open the doors tomorrow.

This is Rapunzel. This card came together quite nicely except for trying to incorporate a bow for this week's challenge on Kraftin' Kimmie's Blog. Once I let go of putting the bow on the front of the card, the rest came together in no time.

I used a sample pack of patterned paper from CTMH. I don't know how long I have had it in my stash, but once I came upon it yesterday I knew it was perfect for what I had in mind with the Rapunzel stamp. The cardstock is Bazzill from my stash, so I don't know it's colour name. The flower is also from my hodge podge stash, but I think it is a Bazzill flower from an old line. The pearl is from Kaiser Craft. I used my nestabilites for the die-cuts and one of EK Success' medium size corner punches.

For the inside of the card, I used an EK Success border punch & a Stampin' Up label punch for the sentiment. The ribbon is from Stampin' Up as well. The image and both sentiments are stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie. The skinny brown mats behind the nestability die-cuts & the Stampin' Up punch out were all hand cut.

Copic Markers: Hair - E17, E18 & E15; Dress - B21, B41 & B93; Crown, Dress & Bow - YR31; Skin - R00 & R000.

I have entered this card into this week's Kraftin' Kimmie's Bow Challenge.

Bear Hugs & Kisses

It is SNEAK PEEK day over at Kraftin' Kimmie's Blog!

This is one of the new stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie's upcoming release this Sunday, July 18th. Since DAT'S is closed on Sunday & Mondays, the new stamps will be available in my store on Tuesday for store opening.

This one is called Goldilocks. The five other stamps in this line are: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, Snow White & Swan Princess. All the stamps come with a sentiment or two & an accessory stamp.

I used two-sided patterned papers from Echo Park Paper Co.'s line Sweet Summer Time, Core'dinations Cardstock, Stampin' Up's New Daffodil Delight 1/4" & 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon & Die Cuts with a View brads.

I used Kraftin' Kimmie's Goldilocks Stamp, Holiday Sentiment Stamp Set & Everyday Sentiment Stamp Set. I also used CTMH Hodgepodge Alphabet Stamp Set to make the word "bear".

The Copic Markers I used are: Skin - R00 & R000; Hair - Y17, Y18, Y35 & YR31; Bears - C0, YR04 & Y38; Bows & Dress - R22, C0 & R32; Dress - BG01 & BG72, YG63 & YG05 and R08.

I have submitted this card in the Paper Sundae's Challenge for "Lots of Layers" & Kraftin' Kimmie's Challenge for "Pink - Lots of or just a Splash".

Also, I am so excited about Stampin' Up's New Ribbon & Buttons that I have to mention them. I just received my first order of ribbons & buttons from Stampin' Up yesterday and they are gorgeous! The new 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon is to die for. The new colours they added to the 1/4" & 3/8" Grosgrain Ribbon collection are fabulous and the New In Colour Ribbon 1/2" Twill Ribbon is amazing. The twill isn't thick like most twill ribbons are and the texture is so soft.

The new Designer Buttons are a MUST HAVE! I received the Brights Package and the colours are undescribable & the styles are so versatile. It was love at first sight when I received my new catalogue, but now.....I almost don't want to use them because they are sooooo pretty! I just want to sit & stare at them, but I am one of those scrapbookers that believes it will look even better on a project so I will be using them. The 3 other packages of buttons are already ordered and I am working on another ribbon order because I NEED THEM ALL!

Ellena will be placing another order on August 1st, if you can't wait until the Charity Stamping Party in September to put your order in.

Can you feel my excitement!
Enjoy Kraftin' Kimmie's Sneak Peek & Have a Great Day!

Kaylin's First Scrapbook

My girlfriend, Lisa, and her husband Lanny are the proud parents of Kaylin Teija Garrison. She was born 2 weeks early in March and that caused me a bit of a problem.

I had fully planned on making the calendar baby album for when their daughter was born, but due to things that I could not control, the album kept getting pushed off to the side. Then it was getting close to the due date, so I planned a weekend of scrapbooking for myself to complete this album.

This is Lisa's first baby, so I never thought Kaylin would come early, but she did. Lisa lives in Kingston, but her mom and now grandma lives here in Thunder Bay. I wanted to send the album with grandma so that I wouldn't have to pay the huge shipping fee.

So, I had 24 hours to get this album done. Within those 24 hours, I had my store to run for 10 hours and my husband was on shift work, so I also had to do the mom thing and feed my daughter and so forth.

Needless to say, I didn't complete the album, but I did get the cover of the album done, the title page and March 2010 - July 2010 complete. This worked out perfectly because Lisa would be visiting Thunder Bay with her family in June or July. So, I sent the incomplete album and a note explaining that she would get the rest of the album when she visited in the summer.

She loved the album and as you can see, she has been filling in the album on a regular basis (I removed the photos before shooting the pages for my blog). I have been working on this album for the past week and a bit and that is why you haven't seen any cards posted on my blog in a while.

My family & I met Kaylin last Wednesday for the first time. She is absolutely beautiful and just so adorable. The neat thing is that my daughter, Amy, was the first baby that Lisa ever held and now I have a photo of my daughter holding her daughter.

I have lost track of how many of these ablums I have made for friends and family members. Most of the time, it is a group effort, but this one wasn't. It's a great gift idea for any mom. New mom or second or third time around. Scrapbooking mom or Non-Scrapbooking mom. It's a great keepsake.

I won't be giving a break down of what I used and such because I will be here typing until Kalyin's first birthday if I do that. This is one of those projects that you can just sit back & enjoy. If you really need to know what paper was used or what technique on a certain page, you can always email me or leave a comment with your question.

Penguin Tag Make 'n' Take

Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Cost: $2.00
&
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Cost: $2.00

DAT'S Welcomes Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps to the Store!

To celebrate the new line of stamps in the store, we are offering a $2.00 Make 'n' Take all day. No sign up required, just drop on in and we will get you set up.

The gift tag is an easy project that can be done on your lunch hour. Amy will be instructing the make 'n' take and the $2.00 fee will be going to her for her prep work and her time running this workshop.

To assist with making this a quick make 'n' take,the tag design is the same, but there will be different colours of tags so that we can have up to 4 people at one time working on the project.

Stamps Used: Kraftin' Kimmie
Cardstock: Bella Paper & Core'dinations
Embellishments: Deco Art Glamour Dust & Hemp
Copics: W5, C5, V01 & V15; N5, T5, RV91 & RV95; YR21 & Y21

Hope to see you at our DAT'S Kraftin' Kimmie Day!