Surprise...it's me!

Hi everyone!  

Happy New Year...I wanted to send this late wish rather than none at all!  So Happy New Year everyone, I hope it's a wonderful year ahead for you filled with love, laughter, good health, good friends and of course a little dash of mischief tucked in for good measure!

I also want to tell you all how much I appreciate you, I can see that I still have lots of you following my blog and to my complete surprise and wonder, lots of you are newcomers and have joined me even though I've not been updating my blog since....oh my..gosh...last summer!  So thank you for coming to my little corner of the world to check in on me and welcome!  I love to have your company on my ramblings and its fun to share my creations with you too.  I appreciate you all so much, big hugs from me to you!!

Here's a close up showing the focal point of the card I made, Champagne glasses of course!  I designed a New Year's background page that I'm hoping will show up here (!) so that you can click on it and print it out for your own use...fingers crossed that it will work!  

I've been trying to totally convert my things from my old PC and so after updating my Mac with Windows I think I might be onto something, that is with lots of help from my son for installing it, teaching me new things and his reminders to use Dropbox.  If this works, I'll be so pleased and it will be easier to share here on my blog rather than sending individual emails to share.  Hope it works!!

So, here we go, onto the card I made with my homemade background, I hope you like it!  I really had fun with it.  

Supplies I used: Whisper White Cardstock, Basic Black Cardstock, Black Organza Ribbon, Flower (MFT Rolled Rose Die) Happy Hour (used a black marker to ink up the Champagne glasses), Fringe Scissors for the Streamers, Gelly Roll Sakura Pen (Clear Star) to colour in the Champagne and Glass Beads from the Bead store.

Thanks so much for stopping by to share your time with me!  If you can download and print my text background, please leave me a quick comment to let me know...thanks so much!

Hugs ~ Judy

What a sunset!!

Hi everyone!

I'm back from a wonderful summer holiday with my family, we had so much fun.  We went to Victoria on Vancouver Island for a few days, shopping for tea and chocolates, mingling with all the tourists and celebrating Canada Day there.  Then we went on to Parksville and played on the beach for a few days, it's my absolute favourite place to go.

We walked on the beach, played in the tide pools and totally relaxed.  At night we watched the changing tides and the unbelievable sunsets...I had to share one of my many pictures with you.

I hope you enjoy this photo of our beautiful west coast beach sunset...awesome, isn't it?  I can't wait to go back!

We ended our holiday in Whistler, walked, played in the pool and enjoyed the Farmers Market which gets bigger every year and it's so much fun to see all the displays.  There is everything from yummy baked goods, to handmade jewelry, fresh fruit and veggies, lots of crafty things, it was great fun!

Now I'm home, I'll be getting back into my craft room soon to share some cards with you, just getting all the laundry done, groceries bought and setting the house back to normal after being away!  Hope you're enjoying your summer time too!  Our weather has been fabulous...finally!!

Thanks so much for stopping by to share your time with me!
Hugs ~ Judy

Sail Away with me!

Hi everyone!

I just finished a card for a challenge that was posted on Pals Paper Arts. It was an interesting sketch but the thought of putting different patterns of DSP together on one card...well that is way out of my comfort zone!  LOL...guess what?  It was fun and I was really happy with the way my card turned out!   Sketches are a lovely way to get my creative muse back!  Here is the sketch:

I used 3 different Designer Papers from Stampin'Up! (all retired) but all from the same package and I can't remember the name of them....I'm a bit of a paper hoarder!  This was the hard part for me, mixing DSP...not something I've done before!  It was great to have a sketch too!  Anyway, here's the card I came up with...hope you like it!

I used a black card base of 4 1/2" x 4 1/2"  The art piece is Very Vanilla, I stamped the ship from the 'Open Sea' in Black Stazon, used my new 'Gorgeous Grunge' for the water and stamped it in Crumb Cake. I also sponged the clouds in Crumb Cake as well.

Here's a close up of the clouds..love how they turned out!  For the template I freehand cut a piece of cardstock to look like a cloud, placed the template down and sponged away from the template, moving it around as I sponged.

The little banner is from Affection Collection (retired) and stamped in Black Stazon, cut and mounted with dimensionals.  Then I added a small bow to finish it.

For the final touch I made an envelope to fit and lined it with the same designer paper that I used on the card...pretty...I love finishing touches!  That was a fun challenge!

Thanks so much for stopping by to share your time with me!  Hope your week ahead is wonderful!

Hugs ~ Judy

Shabby Chic...sigh...love it!

LOL...can you believe it?  I'm posting again...yay!!  

I fell in love with this card by Anne Marie Hile.  It's so pretty, I just had to case it!!  This card uses 3 stamps sets that are recently retired, I don't know about you but I can't part with my favourites!  

The Bingo background is a new purchase for me, I told myself that I didn't need it even when it went on the retirement list.  My daughter decided she had to have it and then I began to see lots of possibilities with it...isn't that crazy?  So I used it for a class and it got a bit inky so I ordered another one and gave her the new one.  I mean you can't snitch someones new stamp and then give it back all inky...lol...if she gets it inky, well that's okay!

I inked up the Bingo background and the Eiffel Tower with Early Espresso,  then stamped the Medallions with Crumb Cake.  The water spots are stamped in Crumb Cake too.  I made the pink ruffle by punching out a strip with the Dotted Scallop Border punch, then ran it through my crimper and attached it behind the oval art piece.  You can click on the picture for a larger image.

I made a big bow with some cream organza ribbon (non SU) and then melted it with my heat gun to give it a shabby vintage look, then I placed one of SU organza flowers (now retired) in the centre. I added 3 small pearls to the side of the art piece.

I hope you like my vintage card... I love, love, love this style!

Thanks so much for stopping by to share your time with me!

Big hugs ~ Judy

Hello! I'm baaaack!

Hi everyone!

I've been away from my blog for ages, I've really missed sharing with you!  First I want to say a huge thank you to all of you for continuing to follow my little blog and second I would like welcome all of the newcomers to my blog, wow...you've subscribed even though I haven't been posting!  You are all so amazing and I cherish each and every one of you!  Thanks for being here with me!!

My life has been extremely busy this past while and not only has my blogging slipped under the radar, I've been missing my creative muse!  Thank goodness I follow lots of great blogs and have been {Casing} my little heart out.  So I'm going to share some of my cards with you and of course share the blog or artist that I Cased!  I'm sure you will be inspired by these talented stampers too!

But first...I have to share one of the latest pictures of my sweet granddaughter, Emily... she is such a doll!  Can you tell I'm a proud Nannie? LOL!!!  What a cutie!!

Okay...now onto some sharing!  Here's my card below, cased from Joan Robertson at The Daily Stampede.  I found her work on Pinterest and loved everything about her card.

The stamps I used were, Daring Adventure (retired), Open Sea, and Netting Background (also retired).  I used a Crumb Cake base and Whisper White layer. I did all the stamping using the new Smokey Slate Ink, although in the picture it looks more brown!  I used Island Indigo for the sponging, such a fun and easy card to make!

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your time with me!  

Big hugs ~ Judy

Hi everyone!  Happy New Year!!

I've been away from my blog for so long that I actually had to think a minute to remember how to do a post...now that's pretty bad!  I want to say thank you so much for continuing to check in on me and I want to send all of my new subscribers a big hug and thanks so much for joining me here on my blog.

Things at my house have been super busy, I've been having lots of family time and of course lots of cuddles and kisses from my sweet little granddaughter, oh my...she's so much fun!   Here's a picture my daughter took of her before Christmas, what a little cutie!!

                                                                  Waiting for Santa

We had a great Christmas but we all got that awful Norovirus flu and it left us feeling worn out, thank goodness our little darling didn't get it!  We're all recovered now, but I haven't been stamping for ages and I'm hoping my muse hasn't left me!!

Here is the Christmas card I made this year....each year I run out of time, so I just made a few to send out and *gasp*... I actually bought cards to send out this year!  I keep telling myself that I'll be more organized but I really think that I need to do a few each month so I don't need to resort to buying cards again!  LOL!!  The card turned out really pretty, it didn't take a good photo though.

I used Pink Pirouette and double embossed the layer using the Polka Dot and Tulip Frame embossing folders.  I used silver glimmer paper for the snowflakes, adding a rhinestone in the centres and the image is clip art from the internet, matted on Pool Party cardstock.  I added dazzling diamonds to the image but it doesn't show in the photo...so pretty though!

I would like to wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year, full of all the things that are special to you!  I wish you joy, peace, the love of family and friends and buckets full of creativity and the time to enjoy crafting!

Thanks so much for visiting me and for sharing your time with me today!  It's good to be back, I missed you!!

Hugs ~ Judy

By the Seashore

Hi everyone!  Hope you're having a great summer wherever you are!  Here on the southwest coast, we are having rain, rain, rain...I still have my furnace on and yesterday I actually turned the heat up a teensy bit!  Crazy!  It seems like each part of the country has one extreme or the other.

I made a dreamy beach scene with the new stamp set "By the Seashore" I love this set and love how the card turned out!  It reminds me of one of my favourite beach spots in Parksville on Vancouver Island.

This card was super easy to make!  I tore a piece of card stock to sponge the waves and used the straight side for the horizon and sponged Baja Breeze ink on Baja Breeze card stock.  My white gel pen dried up so I used my white craft reinker, squeezed a little blob out and painted on the whitecaps with a toothpick and then smudged it with my finger...love getting inky!!  I drew the seagulls with the toothpick/reinker as well.  The clouds were sponged with the white craft ink pad.  It's prettier in real life!

I stamped the shells and starfish on VeryVanilla using Basic Gray ink and then sponged Baja Breeze and Pretty in Pink on them and cut them out.  I used a glue pen and sprinkled some decorator sand onto my card layer (got the sand at M's) then I adhered the shells/starfish using Tombow green glue.

I made a little bow with hemp twine and added it to the sentiment which is raised on a dimensional. The mat layer is Crumb Cake.

Hope you like my dreamy card...are you ready for the beach?  The forecast is for some sun this week, which is really good to hear, I think we're all getting webbed feet here on the coast!

Thanks so much for stopping by to share your time with me!
Hugs ~ Judy