Detailed Hand Cutting

For this week's layout challenge over at TSF I challenged everyone to do some detailed hand cutting. I made this layout of my dear friend Lisa using pp from SEI and alpha stickers by Pink Paislee. From my stash I dug out trim, felt, tickets and green acrylic flowers. Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

Happy Birthday

Avril's card challenge this week over at TSF was to whip up a card in 15 minutes or less. I made this birthday card for our nephew's birthday on Sunday. I used BoBunny papers I had in my stash for quite some time and an embossing folder for the sentiment. I had time left so I cut out a few of the gears and popped them.

Happy 15th birthday Liam!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I just finished reading this wonderful book by Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson. I have loved Sweden since our honeymoon there 12 years ago and was familiar with the books and their comparison with Henning Mankell's Wallander series. The best part was that I was reading it during our recent trip to Sweden! What a surreal feeling to read about events happening down the street, in the towns we passed outside the train window or the regions we flew over. I have just started the second in the trilogy and can't wait to see what happens.

Here's a cool shot of one of the narrow streets in Stockholm's old town, Gamla Stan

And a lovely Swedish vista in Lapland.

A typical Swedish farmhouse north of Lulea, just 100 km from the arctic circle.

Just an amazing trip!

Card Sketch Challenge

For a recent card challenge at TSF, I posted this sketch from Mojo Mondays. I love their sketches.

Here is a thank you card I made using scraps from 3 Bugs in a Rug, Scenic Route and We R Memory Keepers.

Happy Anniversary!

It is my parents' anniversary later this month. I made this card for Bobbi's challenge over at Two Scrapbook Friend. She asked for embossing. I used three different Cuttlebug embossing folders. One on the background, one for the sentiment, and a third on the flowers. I also made the flower centres with seed beads and Glossy Accents.

Happy 42nd anniversary!

Ode to my Forsythia

This year we had to remove our forsythia. I will miss its gorgeous burst of yellow colour in early spring.

For Regan's weekly layout challenge at TSF, I used kraft paper from Jillibean Soup for this layout of the last blossoms of this old tree.

Friendzy Friday--Stencils

Sometimes I like to make my own background paper. And this is even better when you can coordinate it with your embellishments. So I created my own stencil using a die and some acetate from a bling package.

Supplies: craft paint, sponge, acetate, your favourite die, background paper.

Run the acetate and die through your cutting machine to create the stencil. Hold the stencil carefully (or tape down with green painters tape) and sponge paint onto the paper through the stencil. Start with a light coating of paint and build up your colour slowly.

Let paper dry. You can wash your stencil and use it over and over again. And voila you have your own unique background paper! I used a tone on tone effect here, pink paint on pink paper, so it is a bit hard to see in the photo. This layout is from the NSD challenges, using one of Joanne's sketchs.

I used pink paint on white paper to make this fun card for our niece and God daughter's birthday earlier this week. And the best part was I could coordinate my green die cut flower embellishments with my background floral design!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Sunshiney Day

I also made this card with the July DT kit. I thought the pink ruffled ribbon looked like curtains so I punched a "window" in the card and cut flowers from the pp to fill a window box. I thought this Bella stamp was the perfect sentiment.

Design Team

Happy Canada Day! Today is the first day of my term on the design team at TSF. It is going to be great fun!

Here are my July DT layouts using My Little Shoebox "All A Flutter" papers, acetate overlays and mini alpha stickers.

This is the last day of our trip to Dubai and Singapore last summer. We had a day-long layover in Frankfurt so we spent it touring a few cathedral towns. By this point we were tired and hot so we stopped in a lovely park in Speyer. We were getting a bit silly and giggly...must have been time to go home.

This layouts show the condo we didn't pick in Florida. But that view...I still think about it!

Eating grouper at Harpoon Harry's and debating about which condo to buy. Stressful stuff!

My folks on their 41st anniverary, July 2009. I sprayed diluted paint on the background paper for a soft contrast to the bold papers. See the little ladybugs at the very bottom? My mom loves ladybugs.

We joined them for dinner at Red Lobster to help celebrate. A great evening.

This was a great DT kit to work with. It took me a bit to figure out what to do with the acetate overlay. But once I cut it apart it was fun to use the flowers and words separately on my pages. And I just love those tiny alpha stickers.