It's been very long since my last post. I kept my self very busy with my clubs, classes, family, house. I've been doing a lot, but wasn't really in a mood for "Show and Tell". I will try to make up for it in this post. Let me see, what do I want to start with?

We had some lovely weather here. I was gardening a lot and spending a lot of time with my boys exploring our new town. Here is a picture from the last weekend, we went kite flying and it was a great day.


The boys always enjoy helping with gardening. This year I decided to make our own garden labels. They are made of aluminum flashing and hanging wire (local hardware store), chalkboard vinyl (SU), ball chain (Etsy). All you need is Big Shot, some dies and embossing folders, and a crop-a-dile. Lookie:


I liked this so much, I combined it with something totally different. If you are anything like me, you have your fridge so cluttered with everything under the sun, that you can not see a tree from the woods. Our kitchen is where we do our homework, play board games, build Lego... And somehow, all of this finds its way to the top of my fridge. All the pencils and erasers and sharpeners... I got tired of it and this is what I made:



These are made from a tin my favourite tea is packed up in.


I covered it with SU paper, Tim Holtz tissue tape and attached a few rare Earth magnets on the back. I now have all our pencils and small stuff tidy in these on the side of my fridge.

Mentioning Tim Holtz, while I was away from my blog, I also did something very neat. I took Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry class. That was so much fun!!!


Guess what one of my next classes will be. Guess correct and you get $5 off the registration fee for my class.

One more thing for today... Were you wondering what that OUCH was in my title? Well, let me tell you... SU published the retiring list of stamps yesterday. I don't want to tell you how many of my stamps are retired now. Way too many!!! Shhhhh! Don't tell my hubby - he comes to my blog here and there, he doesn't even know I have that many stamps to begin with. LOL. I think I will keep some of those for personal use, and sell most of them... SO, come June 1st, there will be lots of stamps for sale. If you are somewhere near me, you might want to come to my June Open House and check it out. But here - take a look at the list for yourself, these stamps are available only until June 1st:



OK, that is it for now. Hopefully I won't be as long until the next post as I were last time. Fingers and toes crossed. I hope I somewhat made up for it.

Blog ya' later,

Another rainy day and for some reason I was lacking inspiration. Usually on those days, I just start playing with my scraps and supplies and see what happens. I, kind of, enjoy those days, I don't feel like I have to really finish any projects. Today though I did finish one card. I thought it was a good way of using some of my smaller scraps.

Supplies Used:
Paper: Crumb Cake (SU!); Early Espresso (SU!); scraps of different colours (SU)
Ink: Early Espresso (SU!)
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral (SU!)
Other: dimensionals (SU!); paper snips (SU!); white gel pen (SU!); corner chomper; baker's twine (SU!); Edge Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)

That's it, folks! Short and sweet today.

Blog ya' later,

Valentine's Day is coming up. I wasn't really in the mood for making Valentine's cards. I still have to make all the Valentines for kids' school. 44 children. 44 Valentines. And I am not in the mood. This is going to be painful. Oy. Anyway, I did make one Valentine's card. Just so I can say I did it. Lookie:

Supplies Used:
Paper: Cherry Cobbler (SU!), Crumb Cake (SU!), Whisper White (SU!)
Ink: Tempting Turquoise (SU!), Cherry Cobbler (SU!), More Mustard (SU!)
Stamps: I (Heart) Hearts (SU!)
Other: Simply Scored Scoring Board (SU!), 5/8" Organza Ribbon (SU!), Basic Rhinestones (SU!), Fashionable Hearts Embosslit Die (SU! Occasions Mini 2012), Word Window Punch (SU!), Modern Label Punch (SU!), Silver Brads (SU!)

This is a stationery box to hold your cards and envelopes and would be a wonderful gift. The instructions very kindly shared by a fellow Stampin' Up demonstrator, Lisa Zwolanek. This is my take on it:




All the supplies are Stampin' Up.

That's it for now. I have a movie date with my little boys, watching Planet Earth. Gotta make popcorn.

Blog ya' later,

It's raining here. A lot. It's raining like it's never rained before, you know. All the snow is gone and it as all dark and murky. One of those days you want to snuggle with your book, a cup of coffee or tea, and not go anywhere. But, I do have to go to get my kitty from the vet. He went in yesterday for a check up as there was a bit of a bleeding from his front paw, but it's all good. Raddatatt is coming home. So, it's a pleasure more than a chore. These are some photos of him from September.

I spy with my little eye... Something hiding in my cupboard!!!!


"Oh, no! She found me!"


I also craft on rainy days. This is the last of the cards we made at the last club meeting, and it happened to see the day on a rainy day like today. Yeah, what are the odds of that, right???? LOL.

Supplies Used:
Paper: Very Vanilla (SU!), Pacific Point (SU!), Garden Green (SU!), Everyday Enchantment (SU!)
Ink: Pacific Point (SU!)
Stamps: Three Little Words (SU!)
Other: Island Indigo 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon (SU!), Antique Brads (SU!), Paper piercer with Mat Pack (SU!), Paper Doily Large Sizzlit Die (SU! Occasions Mini 2012), White Gel Pen (SU!), EYelet Border Punch (SU!), Wintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder (SU!)

Blog ya' later,

I can't say that this year was good so far. Way too many bad things happened already.

My mum is not doing great health wise and for few days we were not even sure if she would make it. She is doing better now, thank you. At first doctors thought it was a stroke, but after some extensive tests, they are quite certain that it is not, but who knows. It sounds to me like a bit of "He likes me, he likes me not" diagnosis. The only CT scanner in her town is broken and they have to wait for a CT scan to make sure. The things we take for granted and are a luxury elsewhere. Makes me even more thankful for what I have.

Three days ago, Charlie fell off the climbing structure after school, I saw it happen, and it scared poopies out of me. So I ran to him, only to slip on the gravel and fall myself. We're both ok, just a touch scraped. Ouch. :-)

Our kitty Raddatatt got badly hurt two days ago. He suffered an extensive trauma to all 4 of his legs. The vet thinks that he possibly went under a car, climbed on top of the engine and the owner started the car. Apparently, it is very common with cats. They go for the warmth of the engine, and it is the motor belt that gets them. He is a very lucky kitty, it could have been much worse. He came home as usual and until I saw a bloody trial after him, I didn't even realize that something was wrong. I took him to the vet, all while shaking and crying. Luckily, I was in a cab, not driving. He was stitched, a hind leg was also taped and braced as one of his joints was dislocated. The vet is expecting a full recovery. My boys were just devastated when he got home that night from the vet looking like a Frankenstein, all stapled and drugged. They are doing better now when they see him slowly recovering. I don't want to take any pictures, he really is not a pretty sight right now. :-(

So, no more. That is three. They say that bad things come in threes. I've done my share of bad things for this year in the first 12 days of the year.

On the other hand, here is another card we made with my club. Lookie:

Supplies Used:
Paper: Basic Black (SU!), Watercolouring paper (SU!), Bold Brights paper stack (SU!)
Ink: Stazon (SU!), Cherry Cobbler, used for colouring (SU!), Old Olive, used for colouring (SU!)
Stamps: Apothecary Art (SU! Occasions Mini 2012)
Other: Aqua Painter (SU!), Stamp-A-Ma Jig (SU!), Basic Pearls (SU!), Framelits Labels Collection (SU! Occasions Mini 2012)

Off to check on my little kitty. He is such a trooper. Blog ya' later,

I love when new catalogues are being released. This month we get two - Occasions Mini, started on January 5th, and Sale-A-Bration starting on January 24th. My clubs had a chance to play with goodies from both last weekend.

Supplies Used:
Paper: Crumb Cake (SU!); Soft Suede (SU!); Pacific Point (SU); Everyday Enchantment (Sale-A-Bration 2012 SU!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU!)
Stamps: Three Little Words (SU!)
Other: dimensionals (SU!); paper snips (SU!); paper piercer (SU!); corner rounder punch (SU!); Adorning Accents, Edgelits Dies (Occasions Mini 2012 SU!); Adorning Accents, Embossing Folders (Occasions Mini 2012 SU!); Beautiful Wings Embosslit (SU!); clear rhinestones (SU!); Pear Pizzaz 3/8" Pleated Satin Ribbon (Occasions Mini 2012 SU!); Chocolate Chip marker (SU)

Isn't that paper designer's paper just yummy? I wish it was available for purchasing, I'd be buying lots of it. The whole pack is just amazing.

I will show you another club card soon. I will have new clubs starting in March, let me know if you would like to join us.

If you would like to get your own catalogues, give me a shout. There are so many cool things in both.

Blog ya' later,

My house is de-Christmasized. The tree is down, the lights are gone, nut crackers are asleep... My Christmas stamps are packed up to wait for next October. My new Dylusions stamps arrived today.... Lookie:




This is a 8"x10" stretched canvas. It kind of tells a story of our decision to move out of the city. See that little bling on the house to the left? Yeah, I went for bling, LOL. Here is a quick list of supplies, I am sure I've forgotten something - there was a pile of stuff in the studio after I was done.

Supplies Used:
black gesso, Watercoloring paper, Perfect Pearls Powders, Copic markers, SU watercoloring markers, crackle paint, stencils, Stazon ink, Punchinella, tissue tape, Gaffers' tape, acrylic paint, gel medium, color wash, butterfly 3D stickers, SU bling, gold leaf pen, white gel pen, glitter pen.

Stamps: Dylusions

Off I go to clean up the mess I've made.

Blog ya' later,

I've been playing with mixed media for some time now, but I never seem to post any of my stuff - except my glass/scrabble tile resin jewelry that is. Well, as I am preparing my next mixed media class, I thought it would be nice to actually post something so people can see what it is they will walk away with after the class. We will be working on 8x10 stretched canvas. All of them tend to look very different at the end of the class, but here is one of mine:

Supplies Used: Color Wash, Distress Stains, Crackle Paint, stencils, masks, Perfect Pearls, stamps, archival ink

I might be adding few more things to this canvas over the next few days, but this is a general idea. We will be using all of the listed supplies, we might even play with some wax, who knows. I can guarantee you one thing - no one leaves clean!!!!! LOL. Let me know if you would be interested to come and play. I will be posting other details of the class soon. I will keep classes small, only 4-6 people at the same time.

Blog ya' later,

As most of you know, I have two boys, and there is no pink anywhere in my house. I don't wear pink, and it is only on baby cards you can find pink here. This card was made after I've seen some of these dresser cards on the internet. Some of them have mirrors, some don't, some are pink, some are blue. I thought they were really cute and cased one of them. This was done last month with my club.

Supplies Used:
Paper: Whisper White (SU!), Pretty In Pink (SU!), Rose Red (SU!), Watercolouring paper (SU!)
Ink: Pretty In Pink (SU!), Basic Black (SU!), Stazon (SU!), different inks for colouring
Stamps: Baby Bundle (SU!)
Other: dimensionals (SU!), paper snips (SU!), sponge (SU!), Basic Pearls (SU!), Curly Label punch (SU!), Word Window punch (SU!), Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack (SU!), blender pen (SU!)

We have to do some more Christmas shopping for the kids on the weekend, but we're thinking of going either to Mount Baker or to Manning Park for a day with kids. We all keep hoping for the snow.


Blog ya' later,

This time around I really, really have a good excuse for not blogging. The last few months were so busy - I didn't even remember that I have a blog. OK, OK, I did remember, but honestly, truly didn't have time to create and therefore felt I shouldn't be blogging either. I am getting back into crafting now, so watch out!!

At the end of the summer break we sold our house in Kitsilano and moved to Abbotsford. I don't know if you've ever sold a house before, this was my first time and let me tell you - I don't want to do it again. The number of hours that went into getting the house ready for viewing was huge! I keep thinking how many cool things I could have made in that time! LOL. Anyway, we're in Abbotsford now and finally starting to settle in the new house. There was a lot of work being done on the house and I wasn't able to unpack as fast as I wanted to. One of the areas that had to wait was my home studio. I will take pictures of my studio and post them in the next few days.

So, no worries, my classes, clubs and craft fairs are still happening. Christmas Stamp-A-Stack was a big success. We made 20 cards (4 each of 5 designs). Here they are:











I've been spending a lot of time with my boys. It was a difficult adjustment period in the beginning, but we are all doing really well now. Here are few pictures from our annual pumpkin patch trip. We always go to Westham Island Herb Farm. It is a great place:





OK, that is it for today.

Blog ya' later,