Happy Canada Day!

Welcome to our "Card Making Canadians Blog Hop", celebrating Canada Day today!  You should be arriving here from Sarah's blog, but if you messed up somewhere, you can always go back to Tara's blog - she has the whole lineup there.

So, of course our theme is Canada Day, and at first I was going to make a card with a Canadian stamp, but then I saw this cute Saturated Canary image I had printed out and had yet to colour on my desk, and she reminded me so much of my daughter Ailis that I decided to go with her:

She's coloured up with Copics (kind of an experiment with the reds, ack!) and cut out with a Spellbinders die.  I also found this great Canadian themed paper in my stash from sooooooo long ago!  It's by Around the Block, and I'm down to the smallest scraps now.  A border punch, some dry embossing and sanding, and some iRock bling and she's done.  I decided to use a sketch from a local gal I know, Cheri, aka Graphicat.  She has a great sketch challenge blog that puts out two sketches a month - be sure to check her out and play along!  Here's the sketch:

And here's the inside of my card:

What do you think of my freehand maple leaf?  I know it's not completely symmetrical, but I'm quite proud of it!  

Well, thanks for stopping by!  Just curious:  leave me a comment letting me know what you do for Canada Day, or if you're from another country, what you do for your big national celebration.  I'm planning to take the girls to a celebration at the 108 Heritage Site, and then possible to a BBQ - really looking forward to it!  

Now make your way over to Lucy's blog, and make sure to leave comments everywhere you go, as I know there are some skookum (I think that's a Canadian word!) prizes to be won!

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Card for a Special Friend

Well, I finished a three week running program, and even though it was very difficult for me, I think it gave me the boost I needed to get going on a regular exercise/clean eating regime!  The best part of this clinic was meeting new people and getting to spend time with a new friend - I told her about the clinic, and she decided to give it a go, even though she's never run before, AT ALL!!!  I was so impressed with her effort, she came to every run and gave it her all, and she totally kicked my butt!  Anyway, I thought she deserved a special card to show how much I appreciate everything she's done for me and encourage her to keep going with the running.  What do you think, do the "Dancing Girlfriends" from Art Impressions fit the bill?  The sentiment that I stamped on here is so cute, it says "Dance like no one's watching... who can have you committed."  I stamped that last bit on the inside!  I thought it was appropriate as we often talk about how we're going to meet up at the asylum one of these days!  Here's a close up of some of the ladies:

I made the flowers with my NEW Tim Holtz Alterations die (tattered florals) and spring Distress Inks - they are so wonderful, I looooooove the blue especially.  And yay, I finally got to use one of Cheri's wonderful sketches AND get it linked up in time!

Can you see it?  I had to flip it sideways, and sub out one of the circles for the flowers, but I think it's pretty close.

I'm also going to enter this card at:

Art Impressions Challenge #66 - fitness

Bearly-Mine #39 - Tic Tac Toe (I used the line that says "dies, flowers, sentiment")

Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

House of Gilli - vibrant summer colours

Stamp and Create - bold and bright

Thanks for looking!

Supplies:  Art Impressions stamp, Memento ink, Simple Stories patterned paper, Tim Holtz die and ink, Close to My Heart rhinestones, Twinery twine

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A Mother's Day Card for Graphicat Sketches

Well, I tried to get this card up in time for the Graphicat Sketch challenge yesterday, but Google completely died on me!!!  So, alas, I missed the deadline (again!) but I did get this card to my MIL for Mother's Day.  We had a pretty fantastic time here in 100 Mile House, nice dinner with both grandmas, a papa and a brother, so it was quite the family affair.  We even had a cake and candle for my mom, seeing her birthday was on the 11th.  I'll make a separate post with her birthday card, but right now I have to get the girlies to bed so I can go for my first run - I heard via the small town grapevine that it's going to be 5 km, and I have nothing to wear, oh my!

Supplies:  BoBunny patterned paper, Bazzill and Close to My Heart cardstock, Versamark, Tim Holtz, and Memento ink, Close to My Heart stamp set (words) and embossing powder (clear detail), Prima canvas

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A Birthday Card for my Daughter (and one for a laugh!)

Finally finished this card for Ailis, hope she likes it (but she will because she thinks I'm the best scrapbooker in the world - it's nice to be idolized, I wonder how long that will last?):

I really struggled with this one, I had a heck of a time figuring out where to embellish and with what. I had to cover up some cutting booboos, so that's why the end result probably doesn't look too much like the sketch by Graphicat I was inspired by:

Anyway, I got to use my new Tickled Pink digi, although next time I think I'll print her out bigger, she was pretty hard to colour with my limited Copic skills. The paper is MME, cardstock, sentiment, and ribbon are CTMH, and the felt flower, fabric button, and lime twine are from Lovely Bug Bits 'n' Bobs. Spellbinders dies, Copic markers, a bit of Broken China Distress Ink, and a Prima flower round out the supplies used here.

And here's the card that Jason made me for Valentine's Day:

He has atrocious handwriting, not to mention he was writing with a Copic marker! It says "A Window to My Heart".

I don't know how I managed to turn over my desk, it was quite scary, but I thought it turned out pretty good considering he's never really done anything like this before. It's definitely going in my SMASH book!

I'm feeling like quite the dork today! Have you ever volunteered for something, and your efforts turned out less than stellar? Well, please, do share! Here's my embarrassing moment for today: I was planning to make cupcakes for Ailis' class for her birthday/Valentine's Day, but seeing their teacher was planning a chocolate fondue for that day and she needed 100 cupcakes for 100 Day (today), I told her I would make cupcakes for today instead. She got me to make 2 dozen, and they were to be decorated with numbers 1-24. Well, I can follow a recipe, but I'm no pastry chef, and my cake decorating skills are virtually nil, but I thought I could manage. To make a long story short, I was up until 10:30 last night making the bloody things and they look absolutely pathetic! The moral of the story is: don't volunteer to make cupcakes, or anything, ever again!!! I no longer care if I look like the slacker mom, I do not need to prove myself! (Yeah, right! Let's see how long that feeling lasts, too.)

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Card #23 - Graphicat November Sketch

Quick post here today because I'm not sure what time Cheri's shutting down her linky at Graphicat Sketch Challenges. I managed to get some crafty time with a friend this morning (how lovely is that?) and put this cute little card together using this sketch (flipped on its side):

and one of Cheri's new stamp sets. I love all the sentiments that came with this set, can't wait to use more of them!

Supplies: Graphicat stamp set, Memento ink, Copic markers, Creative Memories orange marker, Adirondack marker (for the arms), BoBunny patterned paper, Close to My Heart cardstock, Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Ink, Maya Road doily, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist

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Card #12 - Pile It On!

Here's a simple card I made for my brother-in-law Mike's 41st birthday. I realize it looks more like a St. Patrick's Day card, but if you knew Mike, you'd understand. Mike is a self-proclaimed Irishman. This is something I don't really understand. Yes, we have an Irish last name, but I think this branch of the McCleary clan has been in North America for something like 200 years. And yet Mike embraces everything Irish from the history to the literature to the sports, and of course, the beer. (And he's single, so if you're in the lower mainland and know a single Irish girl who likes cops and rugby, let me know, please! Our kids need cousins!) I just printed out this clip art image of a beer mug and a totally appropriate sentiment from Graphicat Designs, then layered them both up on a 5x5 base. What do you think of the bottom layer? It's a mesh bag from avocados! (Thanks to Karen B for that idea!) I sprayed the whole thing with some Perfect Pearls Mist, but you can't see it in the photo, unfortunately.

Anyway, Jason found this T-shirt for Mike in Kamloops:

Dropkick Murphys, apparently a real band that Mike actually listens to! Hopefully he likes his present and card!

Challenges I'm entering this card in:

Pile It On: use lots of layers (that background layer is mesh from an avocado bag!)

Sweet Sketch Wednesday: use this sketch:

Graphicat Challenges: Use a sketch, any sketch (the sentiment is also from Graphicat)

Creative Stamp Friends: Card for a man

Supplies: CTMH cardstock and brads, Kaiser, K&Co, and American Crafts patterned paper, Graphicat Designs sentiment, Ranger Perfect Pearls Mist, avocado bag

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Card #10 - I Got New Copics!

A couple of RV's, so now my girl stamps don't have to wear brown or yellow clothes all the time! And I really broke the bank and bought this sentiment from Graphicat Designs because when I read it, I just cracked up and had to have it! I suppose this isn't really appropriate for a kid's birthday card (although Ailis thinks it's hilarious, too, but she's desensitized from having an older brother with a potty mouth!) but I'm sure one of my old friends would love it! So I'm entering this card over at Kraftin' Kimmie (oh yeah, I was the random winner last week, so that was pretty awesome!): use 1 flower, 1 ribbon, and 1 piece of chipboard. While I was making this card, I realized that I hardly have any chipboard - what kind of scrapper am I? I used a scrap bit of chipboard to make the flower center, which you can't see that well in the photo, but it adds a bit of dimension, as does the box pleated cardstock at the bottom. This was the first time I tried to box pleat anything, and I like the result, so I'll be doing that again for sure! I also used this sketch from Graphicat Designs sketch challenges:

so that I can enter Cheri's August challenge.

Well, I hope you all have a lovely weekend! It's hot here, and supposed to stay so all weekend, so hopefully I'll get some sun on these ol' bones and rejuvenate a bit, because come Monday, I'm a single mom for a few days and I'm gonna need my energy!

Supplies: Close to My Heart, Prism, and Creative Memories cardstock, Cosmo Cricket and Echo Park patterned paper, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Kraftin' Kimmie stamp, Memento ink, Copic markers, Graphicat Designs sentiment, unknown ribbon

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