Fall Home Decor

It's a beautiful fall day here, the sun was out nice & warm, the leaves are changing color....my favorite season is here!

All the beautiful colors and the thought of Halloween just around the corner inspired me to create a little Fall/Halloween home decor project for my blog post at Love Is In The Details!

I picked up a cheap wood plaque from the dollar store and altered it into this fund fall/halloween inspired wall hanging.  I dug through my stash of Tim Holtz dies for this....also realized there are some that I don't have that would have been perfect for this project, time to shop!!

You can see more details including some close ups of this over at the Love Is In The Details Blog!!

Happy Sunday!

Time to freshen up around here!

Well I have to say this blog is a sad state of affairs, full of cobwebs & tumbleweeds.  Seriously it's been almost a year since I posted last...yes I'll be the first to admit that is pathetic!

Time to freshen up around here and get posting again.  I decided the ole blog needed a bit of a facelift, I wanted a brighter look...what do you think?

Since I have some catching up to do I better share something crafty....certainly no shortage of things to share there. ;)

How about a tag...yes a slow start but I think I should ease myself back into this blogging thing. LOL

If you ask me nothing gets the creative juices flowing like playing with some Tim Holtz products!!

Look at the texture on that feather with the crackle.....love!!

Well I have one more thing to dust off around here and that's my scrap table.  Work was getting pretty crazy, big deadlines...some stress so I've taken a bit of a break from scrapbooking.  But I'm on hoidays, took a little family camping vacation last week, had lots of sleep so I think it's time to get at that table and have some fun with my supplies!

I promise to be back soon to share some more projects!

It's a Blog Hop Party with Die-Namites!!!

Welcome to the “Premiere” Die~Namites Dies Blog Hop.

We are so happy that you have chosen to join us!!!

Our blog hop will be from August 9th ~ August 11th.

Along the way, you will see creations by our

Die~Namite Design Team using the LATEST release

of Die~Namites Dies.

The Die~Namites Design Team Members will be sharing with you

how they made their pieces through

video and picture tutorials.

Each of the Die~Namites Design Team Members

will have a secret word.....on their blogs.

Collect all the words, make sure to leave a little love,

 to find the secret phrase

this will give you one entry into our

prize drawing.

You will receive additional entries for

Liking us on Facebook

Signing up for Email Notifications.

We will be awarding one Grand Prize of a

$50 Gift Certificate to Die~Namites Dies and

5 ~ $10 Gift Certificates to Die~Namites Dies.

So enough about the logistics....

LET THE HOP BEGIN....

Peggy Lee Baker

Lisa Tottle

Taniesa Vlasak

Dunja Dücker

Susie Moore

Lynne Forsythe

Die~Namites Dies

If you have arrived here from Peggy’s blog you are in the right place.

If you have just arrived in the midst of our Blog Hop

please head to the Die~Namites Blog.

Hope you enjoy the “Premiere” Die~Namites Dies Blog Hop!!!

 Today I have a photo tutorial showing you how I made a tag using the Cattails & Floral Wheelbarrow dies.

Here is the finished tag, I love how all the pieces work so well together!

I love the texture the Distress Embossing Powder added to the Floral Wheelbarrow.

 The Distress Stickles added that finished touch to highlight the tops of the Cattails.

So let's get started, all the steps are included right on the photos...enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed my tag tutorial and it gave you some inspiration to get creative...after you've finished the blog hop of course!

My secret word is: COMES

Now head on over to Taniesa’s blog to continue the

“Premiere” Die~Namites Blog Hop!!

My little ones...

I love short weeks, especially when they land just before holidays!

I have a project I made for Love Is In The Details to share today.  As I've said before I am totally in love with the Tim Holtz Burlap Panels...I can't seem to get enough of them.

I pulled out this old photo of my kids, it's one of my all time favorite photos of the three of them.

It's hard to imagine they were that small once!!

You can read more about the canvas over at the LIITD blog.

Sorry for the quick post, but it's late and I should get some sleep, see you soon!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!

This post is dedicated to 3 very special men whom I am missing today, my Dad, brother & Grandpa.  

Dad was an amazing man, he was always there for family, friends and anyone else in need...even total strangers.  He was never afraid to show his love for us all.

My brother did not have children of his own, instead he spent many years as a foster Father to so many children who needed his love and support.

And Grandpa, he was always happy and always had a special sparkle in his eye...and a very special place in my heart!

I made this layout to celebrate & remember both my Dad & brother....

To create this layout I used lots of different Tim Holtz Sizzix dies, you can see some close ups on the Love Is In The Details Blog.

Happy Father's Day!

Gift for Mom

Happy Mother's Day (a day late) to all the moms in my life!!

I had a wonderful Mother's day, spent time with my family, received beautiful gifts from my kids, and just layed back relaxing yesterday.

My Mom has always loved home made gifts, she truly values the love put into making them...and yes they all make her shed a tear or two.  So of course this year like so many others I had to make something special for her.

I also spotted the May challenge on the Sizzix Blog, and knew that I had to join since I can't imagine creating without my sizzix dies!

As I was searching through my photos I realized I had a few of me with my brothers as we grew up.  I wanted her to be able to display the photos easily so I created an accordion style mini album.

I used a large variety of Tim Holtz dies, both old & new to create the front of the album.

I don't know how old we were in all the earlier photos, but the album starts with my first Christmas in 1974.....ssshhh I didn't just tell you my age. LOL

These 4 photos (above & below) make up one side of the album....

When you flip the album around magically we've grown into adults. :)

 The photo below is one of my favorites...my brothers have always been there to support me (when they weren't tormenting me), and having them hold me up on my wedding day meant the world to me.

 

This last photo was taken just last fall 11 years (almost to the day) after my own wedding, on the day my Mom remarried her wonderful husband. Sadly just a short week after this photo was taken my brother Jason (the one in the middle) was suddenly taken from us.

 As predicted my Mom shed some tears, they were a little bittersweet this year, but I'm happy that I was able to give her something special and full of love!  And yes I handed her a tissue before she opened it! ;)

Thank you for stopping by!!

National Scrapbooking Day!!!

Happy NSD to all my scrappy friends!!!

I hope you're all celebrating the day getting crafty!  If you're looking for some fun and inspiration join us on the Love Is In The Details Blog for some challenges!

 

This is the first online crop we've done on the Blog....kind of exciting!!

My challenge is to use a minimum of 3 different dies, they can be cut from any machine, or if you don't have one use some punches or pre-made die cuts!!

I ended up using 6 different Tim Holtz Sizzix dies on my layout....

Have an amazing day and get crafty!!! :)

Getting all inky!!

Wow February seemed to just fly by, here we are a new month and spring is just around the corner!!  This also means that the kids hockey season is soon over...phew we survived another one!

I spent some time this weekend playing with my dies, ink & embossing powder and made myself a fun & creative little calendar!

To me there is nothing better than taking left over plain boring chipboard and turning it into something new & creative!!

Now I have somewhere to keep track of all my CT assigments, and when the year is over I can replace the calendar portion with more art....or make a new calendar for next year!

You can see more details about how I made this and the products I used on the Love Is In The Details blog!

Hope you've had a great weekend and made something creative!

Happy Valentine's

I have another project to share today that I created for the Love Is In The Details blog.

Valentine's is coming up in a few days and I'm feeling the love!

Last week I received the sweetest box from LIITD full of new Tim Holtz dies!  I just couldn't wait to play with!

I just love the new Picture Wheel die!

You can read more about my project on the LIITD Blog.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Christmas - Tim Holtz Style!

Happy Hump Day!  With the cooler temps and Christmas creeping up I am definitely getting into the mood.  No I'm not walking around singing Christmas carols but I am focused on getting myself organized and everything ready so I'm not rushing around like I did last year.

I'm sharing another project I made for Love Is In The Details, featuring my most favorite things....Tim Holtz Dies!

I actually created the base for this project a few months ago, but I just didn't know how I wanted to finish it until this weekend!

The base is created using an old ribbon spool that I rescued from the LIITD store!

You can read a little more about my project on the LIITD Blog, an see a couple close up photos too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Fun with Dies.....

Last weekend I was in Winkler, MB for Love Is In The Details fall crop!  It was a great weekend, first time at the new venue, the space was great, good food and of course fabulous company!!

For the demo the ladies joined me to make two cute simple projects highlighting different Tim Holtz Sizzix dies!  It wouldn't be a proper demo if it didn't feature Tim Holtz products in some way! ;)

First we made these cute little clips that you can stick on your fridge for messages, lists....or whatever else you need to keep front & center.

We used the Tim Holtz Movers & Shapers Vintage Phone & Typewriter dies, the ladies got to choose which one they wanted to make.  The phone was quite popular......luckily I didn't have to choose because I love them both!

Next we used the Tim Holtz Pillow Box w/Labels die which we decorated using his new large Snowflake Rosette die.

This is such a great little box if you're giving someone a small gift or gift card for Christmas!  I personally would like to see a nice little piece of jewelry in it! LOL

Once the demos were done I used the Pillow Box die and made a couple more....you can see these on the Love Is In The Details Blog!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've had a great weekend!

Glitter & Shine Galore!

I know it's been a long time again but life took a turn I did not expect.  The day after my last post one of my brothers suddenly passed away.  As you can imagine it was a big shock for my family, we are sad and missing him dearly, but trying to pick up the pieces and move on.

So now I'm trying to focus on the happiness life can bring, and I think a little sparkle always helps with that!  Today I have 3 cards to share that I made for Love Is In The Details!

With my love of all things Ranger (and Tim Holtz of course) I was so excited to see that Lori had brought in the new Dry Stickles Glitter & Sticky Embossing Powder!!  For each of these cards I used the Sticky embossing Powder with my Tim Holtz stamps...yes another fun way to use my stamps!  With each card I coated the Sticky Embossing Powder with something different!

On the first card I used Ranger Dry Stickles in Star Dust & Silver to create a fun sparkly snowflake background!

Here's a little close up to show how sparkly & shiny this glitter is!

On my second card I stamped the pine needle image in opposite corners, covering the Sticky Embossing Powder with Glitter Ritz!  The sparkle is much more subtle than the Dry Stickles.

Here's another close up so you can see the shimmer of the Glitter Ritz.

On this last card I created a custom background using the Tim Holtz Wallpaper stamp, but instead of glitter I coated the background with Perfect Pearls.  I love the pearly effect!

In this close up you can just make out the pearly effect the Perfect Pearls created.

You can read more about these cards on the Love Is In The Details blog!

Thanks for the visit!

Where did summer go??

Wow have I been a bad blogger this summer?  Here we are it's September, kids are back at school, soccer playoffs have begun and we're gearing up for hockey season too.

I've been pretty busy this summer, the family went to Banff, I've been teaching a mixed media canvas class at Love Is In The Details, my Mom got married and I have a new position at work!

The one thing I love about the kids going back to school is how we fall back into a routine, it's time to catch up and get a little more organized.  Part of this routine will be me getting back to my table more often and enjoy creating!

Today I'm going to share a couple of my recent (well one is recent LOL) projects that appeared on the LIITD Blog!

As I mentioned my Mom just got married on September 1st.  They had a small family & close friend country wedding, the day was beautiful!  Of course Mom & Ed didn't want any gifts, but I had to do a little something special for them.  I created these little favors for all the guests!

You can read more about them HERE.

Next up are some cards I created using my Distress Markers....

Again you can read more about the these cards HERE.

This has been the first weekend since BEFORE we went away on vacation that I have been in the city all weekend!  I am definitely enjoying being home, spending time with the kids, and celebrating our 11 year anniversary with Mike!

That's all my updates for today, I really need to start blogging more regularly, must work that into the schedule! ;)

Have a great week!