Beautiful Brads Winner

It's Friday! WOOHOO! A week ago, we were celebrating the new Rachelle Anne Miller stamps at PaperWorks Co. Today, I'm sending off some gorgeous brads to one lucky winner....

According to Random.org, that winner is #18....Wilfreda!

If you can drop me an email, Wilfreda, I'll forward it to Peggy (who generously donated them) to send you those awesome brads.

Speaking of Peggy, I hear someone celebrated the big 3-0 yesterday..and to celebrate, I'm offering up THIS. That's right....the entire set. Just leave me a comment with your favorite online shopping destination for stamps. You have until NEXT Friday (May 7th) at 7am MT.

(And in celebrating Peggy, it just wouldn't be right to do it without a little love for Starbucks....so one Canadian commenter will receive a $5 g/c for a lovely latte! )

Boxes Galore!

This week's challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters is a 3x3 notecard box based on the Splitcoast Stampers tutorial. This was my first time making one and I wanted to use it not for notecards, but for little gifts to go with a couple of cards I'd made recently.

For this one, I recreated my two layer Verve flower and used another sentiment from the Feel the Sun stamp set. This was my first box and I tried using the large scalloped edge...note to self.....this works like crap - don't try it again! (The photo shows the two "better" sides!)

The second box used the small scalloped edge and worked much better. Again, I tried to match it with my card and used more Feel the Sun images and sentiments.

And here's the final products together, perfect for the gifts I have planned! Now give it a try and let us see your best 3x3 notecard.

It's my challenge next week and I can't wait to see what all of you talented crafters come up with!

Whew - sorry I'm late!

We got caught up watching Angels and Demons downstairs and I didn't check the clock until we were done!

Anyways....the winner of a $15 gift certificate to the stamp/scrapbooking store of your choice is...

#4 - Dawn!

Seriously - I swear it's not fixed, but I think Dawn won my last blog candy, too! =)
At any rate, I like making people's day, so check back later this week for some more giveaways.

Birthday Award - and yet another reason to extend talking about my birthday!

The most genius user of the Swiss Dots folder that I know (who claims she only has one creative gene - and it's totally untrue), Marisa over at Rosemary Reflections, gave me this award yesterday for my birthday, so I thought it would be a great time to relflect on things that make me happy (in particular, they're what made me happy yesterday - in no particular order)

10. Naps - I never napped until I met MrP. Weird truth. I was up late all week while he was gone off to Vegas and then I surprised him by picking him up from the airport (which he didn't think I'd be able to stay up late enough to do since my usual bedtime is around 10:30). My birthday was filled with naps!

9. Mystycka, my sweet, sweet kitty. She cuddled with me on the couch yesterday and something about cuddling with her always makes us end up napping. Oh yeah...and yesterday I made a few strips of bacon with my breakfast and left it on the counter for the grease to harden. Turns out when we went out for supper, someone thought she'd give the grease a little taste!!

8. Planning - I'm a bit of a crazy planner and on Friday, our tickets for Wicked in NYC arrived. Talk about exciting! Seeing those official tickets really made it real. MrP also gave me the 'permission' to use some of our $$ from savings to take two riding clinics this summer - the same Cross Country three day camp over the August long weekend and then the following weekend, my instructor's having an adult fun camp where I'll enjoy another fun filled two days of horseback riding/jumping fun.

7. Almond Joy - yep. I really enjoy Almond Joy bars, as I've mentioned before, and MrP brought me three king size bars and three regular bars from Vegas. Apparently when he grabbed the three king bars at the Walgreens, the lady laughed at him and said "Really like them, hey!?", to which he replied (a little offended since he put on weight while in Vegas) "We can't get them in Canada and my wife does. I hate coconut". Oh I can picture the look on his face, as he truly despises my love of that darn coconutty goodness bar! PLUS as a bonus, he brought me back a pair of TKOs - Thomas Keller Oreos. Thomas Keller is the (in my opinion) genius behind The French Laundry, which we dined at in 2008, along with Bouchon Bakery, which makes the glorious TKO, and a couple other NYC restaurants that have earned him Michelin stars. Check out my goodies!

6. Springtime - I love seeing our trees in the back yard flourish and the green grasses start coming up. However, I don't love that the one poor tree in the back yard is finally having a good year and we're ripping it down to build the garage. I've also got some perennial flowers that are FINALLY shooting up happily on their own and wouldn't you know it, they're going to be cemented over this year. MrP told me we could cancel the garage if I want to let the flowers grow. I think he was being facetious, but if it was pansies that were growing, I'd consider it =)

5. Technology - MrP won a minoHD Flip video unit while at the convention he attended and while we don't have a dedicated video camera (we just use our digital cameras), this is such a fun little unit and so easy to pack around that we'll have to see about taking it with us to New York.

4. Good food - since it was my birthday, I indulged. Not that I went stark raving, end of the world crazy, but I did have a small plate of delicious potato salad for lunch from a new favorite cafe (mainly because of their outstanding coconut cream pie, which I took a slice home for dessert to enjoy today) and for supper, MrP took me to Madison's Grill, where we enjoyed the six course Menu Surprise. Again, an outstanding selection of courses that I would normally not have ever been brave enough to order. Truthfully, by the end of the third course, which was a delicious halibut, I was so stuffed I didn't see how I could continue. The serving sizes were larger (at least we thought so) than the last time we were there and I had just a few nibbles from the fourth and fifth courses. The dessert course I powered through like a champion since it was a very small square of walnut cake with caramel whipped cream and peach preserves. I felt like I waddled to the car on our way out...which leads me to #3.

3. Exercise - good thing I've got cycling and running events that I've been fundraising for or else I'd be far less likely to be going out today for a wonderfully long bike ride to get our distance comfort up! The MS Bike Tour I'm participating in is on June 12-13 and my next 10K run is scheduled for May 9th, the Forzani's Mother's Day Run.

2. Friends - yesterday I received a ton of FB messages from friends wishing me a happy birthday. I love how everyone chooses to personalize them. Even more exciting was the days leading up to my birthday where I received the most beautiful cards in the mail. Laural and Maureen sent me stunning cards and I can't even describe how much they meant! Then Marisa passed along this award, which just lets me extend talking about my birthday another day - LOVE IT! These amazing Canadian ladies inspire me daily with their stunning creations and I'm so honoured to be considered a friend to each of them =)

1. Family - MrP especially gives me reasons to laugh and smile each day and I love him beyond words. My nieces and nephew left me a message on the answering machine yesterday that brought tears to my eyes. My niece left her message first "Happy Birthday, Auntie! *and then very soft & sweetly* I love you." Gotta love kids and their amazing ability to tug at your heartstrings. Almost makes me want my own, but I have those three to keep me entertained for a while, I figure =) Family, whether they're driving you crazy or making you laugh is just the right medicine!

I'd like to pass this along to a few other blogging buddies who make my day with their talented creations:

Karin
Andrea
Chriss
All my Sisterhood ladies!

This card was the Verve Beach Party Color Challenge of aqua, green & orange, where I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #70.

As you can tell, I really need Maureen & Laural's help with bows. They're bow masters. Hopefully the Bow Easy I ordered will help?!

Anyways, have a fabulous day - and check back at 9:00MT tonight for the winner of my totally random birthday blog candy. Oh - and I'll do the PWCO blog candy draw on Friday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! (and a gift for YOU!)

Well the party's over, but I did get the other two cards done...only I was 8 minutes late to post them in the Verve Champions forum. Oh well - I did it anyways since I figured it's my birthday and I'll do what I want. This card was for the Verve Beach Party Release Challenge #5.

Growing up, I was never really interested in my birthdays, but nowadays, I'm all about 'em! Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to celebrate ;) At any rate, I'd like to celebrate with you, so let me know your birthday and I'll enter your name in my little bitty random candy draw. I've been doing a little too much celebrating it seems and I've got some goodies burning a hole in my pocket. The catch, however, is that I'm not telling you what it is! (Cuz everyone likes a surprise, right?! I know I sure do!) Anyways, leave your birthday comment and I'll make the draw on Sunday at 9pm MT.

Stamps: Verve Celebration of Thanks

Everything else was from a Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients
kit which I'm too lazy to go find right now! Let me know if you have questions.

PaperWorks Co New Release Blog Hop!

If you've arrived here from Nikki's blog, you're on the right path.

If not - head over to Tinla at the PWCO blog to start the blog hop!

Are these not the sweetest little birthday owls ever?! PaperWorks Co and Rachelle Anne Miller have joined up to create this exclusive line of adorable stamps, which can now be found here. The fabulous Peggy asked a few non-DT members to help out and I was only too happy to help. I mean, have you seen the images of this incredibly talented illustrator? This image makes me wish someone I knew who's having a baby was having a Noah's Ark theme!

For this easel card (which is a style that's been on my must try list for quite a while), I used everything from an old PWCO card kit (Aug 09), which is a heck of a deal - you get cardstock, paper and accessories (ribbon, dew drops, brads were all remaining unused in my kit, so I took advantage and used some of the perfectly matched accessories) Unlike many of the Copic masters on Peggy's design team (and let's face it - she's one, too), I tend to color with pencils & gamsol, which is exactly what I did with these cute owls. I did add some sakura gel pen for a little sparkle (in the star and the one owl's flower feather accessory - you know...since they have feathers, not hair. Oh boy - I need to go back to sleep!)

There's four amazing images in this collection and Peggy's generously offering an entire set for one lucky commenter. PLUS we've got some blog candy being offered up by each blog hop member. I've picked out these awesome brads for your candy-loving pleasure (and a spare set for myself because I wouldn't give you something I don't love!!) There's six of the pearl style brads and 8 of those awesome pink button style brads. Oh - and since my birthday is tomorrow...come back for a candy-grabbing goodness bonus round!



In case you've had any trouble following along, here's the entire list of participants for the blog hop - be sure to check them all out for some inspired creations with these super cute PWCO exclusive, detailed pink rubber stamps.

Tinla

Jenny

Cris

Sheena

Stephanie S

Kristy

Danielle

Bella

Nikki

Tanis *you're here*

Natalie

Stephanie J

Lisa
PaperWorks Co. Blog

Be sure to check out all of Rachelle's amazing illustrations on her website, too!

Hope to see you tomorrow =)

Verve Beach Party Release Challenge #4

My last card of the evening, I wish I'd done a bit of a stamp off of the flower so it was a smidge lighter, but whatever =)

I used a new stamp set, a new nestie AND old DP....look at me go!

Stamps: Verve Feel the Sun

Paper: Delicate Dots DP, Certainly Celery, Sahara Sand, Bashful Blue, So Saffron

Ink: Bashful Blue, So Saffron

Accessories: Nestabilities, Button, Celery Ribbon (x2), Brides Flowers, Flower Brad, Blue Rhinestone