First Trifold Pocket Thank You

This was my first attempt at a trifold pocket card (instructions here) and although it took me way longer than it should have, I like the way that it turned out!

I used the SU slit punch to create the scalloped border in the picture above, and used Beate's tutorial here to create the longer size window punch. I also paper pierced along the belly band - I had wanted to make faux stitching but realized after piercing I didn't have a white pen.

This is the insert with a provo craft rob and bob studio clip ease fastener at the top covered in dp.

Stamps: SU Short & Sweet
Ink: SU Old olive
Papers: SU old olive, ww, fall flowers dp
Supplies: SU slit punch, word window punch
Accessories: Rob and Bob Snap ease fastener clips

Jen's Groovy Sketch

This week, Jen's sketch for you to try seemed so beautiful I had to give it a try. Especially after looking at her gorgeous sample. I altered the sketch slightly by making it standard size rather than long, but I figure it's ok because she made hers square!

I had seen this colour combo (basic gray and groovy guava) somewhere before and loved it and thought this would be a great sketch to try it out with. I love the way that this turned out. I just wish I had gray ink to have stamped the sentiment with. Since I didn't, I stamped the image with VersaMark and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder then raised it up on dimensionals.

I also got a chance to try out making faux page pebbles with Crystal Effects. These were super easy and they look great. Andrea Walford has a tutorial so can see how to make them here.

Stamps: SU Full of Life
Paper: SU basic gray, groovy guava, ginger blossom dp
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Crystal Effects, Whispers clear embossing powder, SU dimensionals

SC182 Fairytale Love

Two posts in one day! I've finally got my idea juices flowing again; I haven't been feeling up to stamping with Carson's death plus I've been working evenings and I usually sleep in right until I have to leave!

This card was inspired by SC182, which I think is one of my favourite sketches thus far because I love square cards.

I have been wanting to use this stamp but haven't been quite sure how to incorporate it until now. I am going to be a bridesmaid at a friends wedding in August and the colour scheme is red, white and black which inspired the colour choices for this card. I love the way that it turned out. Maybe I will use it to go along with their wedding present.

Stamps: SU Full of Life
Paper: SU whisper white, basic black, real red prints pack
Ink: SU real red, basic black
Accessories: SU dimensionals to raise sentiment

Bind It All One Sheet Pocket Book

After seeing all of the projects that people have been making with the Bind It All, I knew I had to have one. The local scrapbook store was having a 30% off one item day and I decided to take advantage and finally get this machine.

I saw these adorable one sheet pocket books that Patty Bennett made and decided this would be my first project. I kept it quite simple as it was my first booklet using the Bind It All.

This is the front of the little booklet:

This is a view of the inside pockets:

I think that these little booklets are great for birthdays and Christmas for people who are difficult to buy for because gift cards fit perfectly in the little pockets.

This is to show how many different pages there are in the booklet (there are a total of 8 pockets!):

If you would like to make your own one sheet pocket book, check out Vicki Hook's tutorial here. It is so easy, it didn't take more than 20 minutes (and that was including getting all the supplies ready, cleaning the machine for it's first use, etc.)! I used 5/8" coils as that is all I had bought.

Stamps: SU Full of Life
Ink: SU pretty in pink, chocolate chip
Paper: SU Berry Bliss, WW, Pretty in Pink

CC172, SC73 Baby Boy Card

This card was inspired by CC172 and the an older sketch challenge, SC73. At first, I thought this colour combination seemed like a bad idea, but after looking at a few cards in the SCS gallery for this challenge I really liked it. The only cards that came to mind for me with this challenge was a baby card...

This card was a tad difficult as I still am trying to just ink up stamps using the stamping spots as I haven't yet invested in the markers, but I think it worked out ok!
Paper: SU whisper white, wild wasabi, taken with teal cardstock
Stamps: SU Full of Life, Inkadinkadoo for baby feet/hands
Inks: SU taken with teal, wild wasabi
Accessories: SU dimensionals to raise center square

In Memory of Carson

Yesterday at 2:05 pm, Carson, another little guy I know lost his battle with cancer. He was 5 years old and had been in remission for two years until his cancer returned in February. His family told him after his heart and kidneys started failing following his latest stem cell transplant that if he had to go to Heaven to get better that would be ok and they would meet him there someday. Now he will be cancer free.
Please send your love and prayers to his family. He will be missed.

SC181 Thank You Sets

Ever get a good idea and then have to execute it repeatedly? Well that is what happened when I thought of this card for SC181. I made it and it worked out so well, I made 9 more! 5 of each of 2 designs in the 5 different colours of the hostess designer prints pack.

These 5 are made using the Embrace Life set and the images are coloured with the SU stamping pastels and shaded using blender pens in the respective inks.

These 5 are made using the Friendship Blooms set. They are stamped in the respective ink and then coloured in with stamping pastels.

This is a close up of one of the cards just so you can see what they all look like better! Hope you enjoy! All 10 flowers are raised up on dimensionals too!

Stamps: SU Short & Sweet, Embrace Life, Friendship Blooms
Ink: SU basic black, wild wasabi, bashful blue, pretty in pink, apricot appeal, real red
Pastels: bashful blue, pretty in pink, appricot appeal, real red, green galore and old olive (used to make wild wasabi pastel colour)
Paper: SU basic black, designer prints pack (hostess set)
Ribbon: Spool O'Ribbon black

Stay Tuned

Make sure to check back Friday evening to see another 10 piece set! It's too dark for photos to work right now and I'll be at work all day.

SC181 Birthday

This is my card for SC181 over at SCS. My inspiration was based on this card, although mind didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped.

Papers: real red and whisper white cardstock, pumpkin pie designer paper from Summer Picnic
Inks: SU real red, basic black, pumpkin pie, tempting turquoise
Ribbon: SU tempting turquoise 1/4" grosgrain
Stamps: SU Birthday Whimsy

I'm not happy with the result, but at least it's nice and bright I guess and for some reason the picture looks worse than the real thing!

Wasabi Enchilada TLC171

I've been overflowing with ideas and inspiration after over two weeks away from all of my supplies, especially after checking out the blogs I frequent and seeing what creations everyone has been making.

This post is done for TLC 171 (Technique Lover's Challenge) in which we had to create 3x3 cards, envelopes and a box to hold it all.

In addition, the inspiration for my set came from two things:
In reviewing blogs, Nancy Riley of iStamp had made several cards (seen here) using up Wild Wasabi paper before it retires. I realized that I too have tons of wild wasabi papers that I may as well use up now before they get neglected by new supplies! For this same reason, I again used my Circle of Friendship stamp set and this time, used all 8 stamps!

Here are closer up pictures of the 8 cards and their matching envelopes. I used a different envelope template than that posted at SCS. The one I used can be found here at StampwithGwen - I just like the look of them a bit better.


Here is a close up of the box. I used the template and directions here that my upline Andrea Walford created. I altered it slightly to make it deeper so that all 8 cards and envelopes could fit in.

Stamps: SU Circle of Friendship
Papers: SU WW, Wild wasabi, wild wasabi dp (from Hostess prints pack), regular computer printer paper for envelopes (cardstock seemed too thick)
Ink: SU Wild Wasabi
Punches: 1/2" circle, 1" circle, 1 1/4" circle, scallop punch
Brads: Creative Imaginations Decorative Brads

Garden Friendship Set

These are 4 cards I made today to fulfill a few things I've been wanting to do while I was away.

1) I wanted to use the SU Garden Silhouettes set that I won from Robin over at About a Girl. I love this set but it arrived the day I was leaving to go to Mexico. You should go wish her congrats as she just had a baby girl!
2) I wanted to do the Colour Challenge 168 (CC168) over at SCS because I loved what everyone was creating with this combo. It's not one I would have thought on my own but again I was leaving right after its posting.
3) I wanted to use my SU Circle of Friendship stamp set since it will be retiring, which makes me very sad because I love this set!


These four cards are all made using SU chocolate chip, very vanilla and sage shadow cardstock and inks. They are quite simple just layered a fair amount and punched with 1/2", 1 1/4", and 1 1/2" circle punches.

Here are closer versions of each of the cards. Not too different between them just used two of the Circle of Friendship stamps with each of the two different stamps I chose from Garden Silhouettes.

Card 1:

Card 2:

Card 3:

Card 4:

Thanks for stopping by! Hope my readers stuck around during my weeks away!

I'm Home! Happy Father's Day!

It's a day late, but Happy Father's Day!
Got home from 2 weeks in Mexico on Saturday and back into Lethbridge just a couple hours ago! Grant and I had an amazing time and our trip was filled with unforgetable experiences. I'll share a few picures from each of the day trips that we took after sharing a Father's Day Card.


This card is one I made for my sister to use. Unfortunately, with the trip, I didn't even get an opportunity to make one for me to give our Dad. Sorry Dad! The stamp is Inkadinkadoo stamped in VersaMagic Jumbo Java. Green and patterned paper are from Costco with the cardstock from DCWV. Ribbon is Spool O Ribbon from Michaels.

The best part is the shirt, which I made using Cambria's directions. They are super easy. She uses the Scor-Pal in the directions, I don't have one but still found them super easy to follow. She has the best blog, be sure to check it out (although you most likely already have)!

Now for some pictures.

This is a picture from our day trip to Xel Ha. This place is amazing. The best snorkelling. You get to go down a river snorkelling or on an inner tube and end up in a big area at the bottom that has tons of huge fish. We saw a parrot fish that was at least as big as me! This picture was from one of the best parts of the day where we jumped into the water off a 15 foot cliff (explains why it's a bit fuzzy)!


This is a picture from our day trip to climb the ruins in Coba. They are the tallest ruins in the Yucatan. Over 100 feet - I can't recall exactly. You get to the top and can see so far and other ruins in the distance. My legs were killing me afterwards but it was definitely worth it.


This is a picture of us snorkelling with wild sea turtles. We took a trip where they take you on a boat to a spot where the sea turtles are known to frequent because of all the seaweed there that they eat. What an amazing time that was. There were so many and they are just fascinating creatures! Too bad Grant ended up getting sea sick, but he still enjoyed it!


We also took a day trip to Xcaret. So much to do there it was crazy. We were there 12 full hours and didn't get to see/do everything we wanted to. Luckily we mostly skipped out on the snorkeling because we had done so much of it at Xel Ha the week before so we didn't feel like we missed out. We did however, snorkel down an underground river - although it was too dark to see anything in the water since it was underground and the only light was from the occassional break in the surface above us! Incredible! Plus, they have tons of different animals and help to breed the animals natural to Mexico. I know this is just a picture of a flower, but unfortunately it was raining that day so we weren't able to snap too many pictures.