Wednesday!

Just had to share this fun little video we are loving around our house right now!!! 

Maybe I'll have to attempt a bit of a card using the Come to Bethlehem Camel...

smiles,
Laurie

Showcasing Retiring Sets

For me, many of the sets that hit the Retiring List this year make me sad. I was busy working with several of them during this past week to get ready for the classes to showcase them and I will miss some of them and be wishful that I'd have worked with a couple of them more during the past year. Forever Young has fabulous images with the tree and swing and that great cuckoo clock. Patterned Party, I just starting playing with and will miss the cheery banner especially. Greeting Card Kids and Lean on Me, are both fabulous sets to colour and have multiple ways to be able to use them.

I saw this little card in my perusing online and was drawn to the simplicity of it. I changed it from green to yellow.

 

Circle Circus was my go-to set for a masculine card in a hurry, Bordering on Romance was all things feminine and pretty!

And I love the word sets, so it's a fond farewell to many of them, including Word Play.

Out of the corner of my eye as I was flipping through pages I saw the pinwheel as a spinner and loved the idea, didn't see how she had finished off the card because I'd clicked and it was gone, but thought of the idea of the cloud embossing folder and some neat words from Word Play.

I will be especially sad to see Pursuit of Happiness retire, one set I won't ever rid of, the expressions are all wonderful!

 

My own design, using Lean on Me and Pursuit of Happiness.

 

Everyone should look at that one more time and be sure to get it before the end of May. Just saying!

Let me know which set you'll miss the most.

smiles,
Laurie

Freebies! My Digital Studio

Stampin'Up! has free downloads for you!   FREEBIES  Order them today from my store and start creating right away.
or this cutest little Backpack

If you haven't gotten MDS yet, take the FREE TRIAL for a test drive. You're going to love it!
And with 25% off over a hundred Digital downloads, there's never been a better time to get started. The SALE goes till June15, 2013. With the Print prices on sale too, you'll want to start today and begin crafting your projects...
...and having fun like this little video shows, 16 seconds of happy music and possibilities!

smiles,
Laurie

Join MyPaperPumpkin now!

If you're too busy to get out to a class to have some Creative Fun, Paper Pumpkin is just what you need to find your Creative Escape. Everything you need to take a few minutes for yourself to play and create some handcrafted items to share with your friends!

I love this idea for the busy women in my life. If you're a busy gal, give it a try!


smiles,
Laurie

Oh, Hello and Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all those wonderful Mother's I know

 ~ and a reminder to you of just how Special you are!

This has been a busy weekend and we are lucky to have a visit from Cary's folks and a friend of ours from Calgary. We started our Mother's Day with a brunch at our amazing Pine Hills Golf Course Club House here in Rocky. They do chocolate dipped strawberries, delicious eggs benedict (my favourite) and read this carefully: cinnamon buns dipped to make French toast!! Yummy!

Yesterday, I made a dozen of these cards using the Oh, Hello stamp set to give for Thank You's to the women that volunteer for our Girl Guides here in Rocky.

I'd seen a card similar using the little embossing border as a trim like this. I changed out the shape and words of the sentiment. I used Regal Rose and Marina Mist ink.  I found a great quote on-line to add to the inside of the card:

In this hectic world,
it's so thoughtful
and kind of you
to give of your time...
Thank you so much
for caring!

We had our celebration for 100 years of Girl Guides in Alberta and year end awards ceremonies.

We played a bunch of goofy games, had face painting and loads of fun. Here one of our Leaders donned a showercap of shaving cream and agreed to have the Girls shower her with Cheese puffs, much to their delight!     




  


When I came home,  I decided to change the sentiment out again and adapt it for my Mom. I added the flowers to finish it off.

 Hope your day is as wonderful as You! ...and especially to My Mom!

smiles,
Laurie

Flashback to 2009, an early Spring type card. I'll try to make an updated version of this card with the soon to be retired set Forever Young. Similar sort of tree and swing idea. Come on back and see what I come up with!

In the meantime, have a read at this sweet little poem I found on the internet that seemed the right timing to share, just in time for the start of a great Mother's Day Weekend!

To Moms everywhere:

If You Give A Mom A Muffin
by Beth Brubaker

If you give a mom a muffin,
she’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She’ll pour herself some.
Her three year-old will come and spill the coffee.
Mom will wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she will find dirty socks.
She’ll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry into the washer,
she’ll trip over shoes and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She’ll look for her cookbook
(How to Make 101 Things With a Pound of Hamburger.)
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her chequebook.
The chequebook is in her purse,
which is being dumped out by her two year-old.
Then she’ll smell something funny.
She’ll change the two year-old.
While she is changing the two year-old, the phone will ring.
Her five year-old will answer and hang up.
She’ll remember she was supposed to phone a friend
to come over for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
She will pour herself some more.
And chances are,
if she has a cup a coffee,
her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

smiles,
Laurie

Beautiful Butterflies

Our weather has finally turned spring-like here, so I have been busy out in the yard cleaning up the beds. Either it is actually earlier than I usually get out, or the plants are as confused as the rest of us by this weather, because there wasn't a lot of greenery poking through my perennial clumps...
Has anyone else felt like their plants are taking longer to peek out?

I trimmed a bit from one of the bushes and thought I'd bring in a couple of the branches to 'leaf-out' inside. I couldn't resist adding a half dozen butterflies. It looks so cheery on our kitchen table! The Girls were pretty tickled by the sight of the Butterflies when they came down in the morning for breakfast.


                                                                                                       I used the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die to cut out several from some pretty designer paper I had in my scrap bin.  I added    some baker's twine around their middle for antennae. 

 I hope you're enjoying this lovely Spring Day in your corner of the world!

 

smiles,

Laurie

 

Dress Form Fun!

The classes went so well! I always love seeing others creations and share in their excitement of what they've made! One of the ladies brought her Mom who was visitng from out of town. Look at these beautiful women with their pieces of art!

My Littlest was also enthralled with the dress form scene making and was playing after the first group of Ladies had gone home. Her wonderful Safari card inspired a couple of the ladies from the next class to recreate it the same!

...and it received further kudos when a visiting Auntie gravitated instantly to it on the banner line! : D

I haven't even started playing with the variations of the pop up itself! Exciting times ahead!

smiles,
Laurie

Patterned Party

Is that a bit ironic that I paired up the Dress Form with the "Pattern"ed Party stamp set...not intentional, just aiming for a bit of 'atmosphere' for these little dress forms.

 

I was saying to one of my Gals: I'm envisioning a whole big scene and then looking for a couple stamps to depict it. For instance, yesterday's little Tea Party had fancy tables set, tiered plates of cakes and a happy social buzz of conversation...but really, just a couple little tea cups.
This is another card for the classes coming up. Well actually card front, I'm thinking of stringing them all up on a banner to hang in our creative spaces till we need them for a card and then we can just take them off and add a card base.
...and I was going to wait and just post one each day, but I'm not good at that, so here is another card.

There are so many cards on Pinterest with the great flowers from Pop up Posies kit, so when I went looking for a flower die to  use and saw my Autumn Accent Leaves, I thought "a Fall card! And it shows off the diversity of this little dress form as all seasons" (I saw the cutest Mrs Claus card from Fran Sabad the other day)
I hand cut the tree trunk, used the embossing folder then sponged over the piece with ink. I also ran the leaves through the Woodgrain embossing folder for some extra texture.

smiles,
Laurie

Dress up for a Tea Shoppe Party

I'm getting ready for my next class, playing with a few different styles and colours and maybe a retiring set or two!

So many of the little fun dresses seem to be begging for a Tea party. This one combines the doily (spritzed with some Lucky Limeade), the ruffled ribbon and some Wiseteria Designer paper. This is one of my all-time favourite sayings, found in the fabulous stamp set Tea Shoppe which will be retiring the end of May.









Exciting news around the farm: these fabulous little twin Bison! Born about a week ago and so stinkin' cute. I don't ever remember having twins! They are so little compared to the other baby born just a day or so earlier. I'm so thrilled!

 

smiles,

Laurie