Sabrina's Wedding Gift.

I wanted to make a gift for Sabrina's wedding as well as the cards for her shower. I had so many ideas and ended up making an ABC album. I like this format, and the albums can be fun. Another idea I had was a Wedding Album, that I still may make for a future gift.

Anyway here are the pages of the album I put together.

And here is the cover. I haven't decided if I will add anything to the back of the album yet. I may add a private note to Sabrina about the book, but a sentiment about sharing her life with her new husband will also be in there.

Shower Thank Yous

I have been seeing my physiotherapist Sabrina, on and off for many years now, and recently she told me she is getting married to her long time boyfriend Janssen.

I wanted to make her thank you cards for her wedding, but when I found out she was having over 200 guests, I reconsidered and offered her Thank You cards for her Bridal shower instead.

I made these cards for her to choose from:

The final one is the one she chose, so I made 60 cards and presented them to her for her shower gift.

Gardening Celebration Space

I wanted to do a Mother's Day celebration space, but it was only for a day. The work to shop my home, design the space with what I have found, and make it aesthetically pleasing is too much for just a day display. 

In the end I decided to put together a gardening theme. My mother was an avid gardener and had a beautiful flower garden in the back of her house. So this was my tribute to my mum, who passed away in 2004, ten years ago.

I didn't think I had a lot for this space, but as it turned out I did. I made a trip to Dollarama and found a wire fence, and fake grass, as well as some silk flowers and windmills. I had the flower pots, the watering can, the trowel and gloves, and I had that adorable bird, that I have used countless times, that was a Christmas gift from one of my kids at school.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out and I think my mum would enjoy it, too.

Scrapbook layout of Mum's flowers

Congratulations

I made this card for my friend who just found she is pregnant. She doesn't subscribe to typical pink and blue for boys and girls, and so I made this card as nontraditional as I could. 

With it being Spring, and knowing that all things nature are born/reborn in Spring, I thought this one appropriate. I saw this card fold on another site, and I can't remember where I saw it, sorry I can't give credit, but I did adjust the measurements a little. I also used my Cricut die cutting machine and the Give A Hoot cartridge

Baby Shoes

I was browsing online for some baby ideas for a friend of mine who just found out she was pregnant. As you can tell I am very excited for her.

I saw some paper baby booties that people had made, then a tutorial including a pattern. I transferred the pattern to my computer and made it with my Silhouette die cut machine. It came out nicely, but I have decided that I will make a few adjustments if I make more. This one was just a trial effort.

Long overdue card making.

I seemed to have lost my mojo for all things crafty, lately. I am assuming it's this long cold miserable winter!

I set about last weekend to making a few cards, not because I wanted to, but because I thought it would help inspire me to find my motivation. It didn't!

I made a card for my niece's daughter, Talia, whose birthday is March 23, and a card for my dad, just telling him I was thinking of him.
I found the sketch for Talia's card at Freshly Made Sketches after seeing it on The Redheaded Crafter's blog.

Talia's card. She will be turning 5 this year.

Flip it card for my dad. I miss him, and he has been on my mind a lot lately.

Once I brought the Stephanie Barnard stamps out, I thought I might try something simple with them, and came up with this. I found a honeycomb embossing folder at a craft store recently on sale and used it after stamping, then went over it with yellow ink on a sponge.

Then I tried the same stamped image on top of a hexagon shaped Happy Birthday stamp I found at the same sale.

I didn't like the way it turned out. But it was worth the try anyway. 

I am hoping that I can get excited once again for card making, scrapbooking, knitting, book making, or any of my other crafts that I usually enjoy.

What helps to inspire you?

Valentines Day Celebration Space

Sorry, I'm over a week late with this post, but I'm posting it anyway!

I'm not really a huge Valentine's Day fan. It's always hard to realise you don't have a 'special' man in your life, and makes you missed what you once had. So coming up with this display was difficult, hence it's simplicity.

I reused the wreath from the Winter theme, and added red tulle to the 3 candle sticks. The only thing I bought was the hearts that I added to the wreath, $1. The card on the right is the one I made for my son, Thomas.

I was planning on making a "Family day" Celebration Space, but I never got to it. Perhaps next year. I don't think I will get to my next planned one either. I was thinking of doing a birthday space for my celebration. My birthday falls on February 29, but this year it isn't on the calendar, so I don't think I'll bother. The next one is St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish, just an Irish Wannabe on March 17!

Winter Celebration Space

I had one idea to make my celebration space using white, blue and silver. However, I didn't really have any much of those things that screamed WINTER!

So I was on the look out for things in the Boxing week sales. I found a package of white garland that was $2 at Walmart. While waiting for inspiration, I just spread it out on top of the space. Next I pulled out 3 candle sticks that I found at the Dollar Store and filled the bottom some white tulle ribbon.



While out shopping at Winners I found a white tree that is actually a battery operated lamp for only $4. On the same trip I also found a cute little white rope wrapped polar bear for $1.50.



I took my foam wreath that I've used on many of my spaces, and wrapped it with the white garland, and I LOVE the way it looks. For Christmas one of the kindergarten children at my school gave me a lovely paper mache bird, and a basket weave nest. I used the bird only to sit inside the wreath.



I used my Cricut machine to cut out a few giant blue snowflakes, and a couple of phrases about winter.



This is the final product.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I had a lovely Christmas, especially since I was not one of the 300,000 who lost their power over the holidays. 

Thomas gave me a Kobo, a portable battery recharger for my phone, and a fantastic set of Henckel Knives that we use every day. From me Thomas got a new external hard drive, a DeLorean Lego set, another pair of mitts, (he keeps losing them), the usual underwear and socks, and a few other bits and pieces.

Here is the Kobo and the case I made for it, (from a bubble envelope)

Thomas's friend Kay came over for Christmas dinner. Thomas roasted a turkey breast, potatoes, carrots and celery. I made a lasagna, some steamed veggies and we ate all that we could. Poor Kay was one of those who lost power, and since she had no heat, she was finding it hard to sleep at night. She passed out on the couch, and we just let her sleep.

I set about deciding what I was going to do for my celebration space for New Year's Eve. It actually didn't come together until that day!

I only have one picture now, as the others are on my phone, so I'll post them later, here is the one and only I have now.

I love how it turned out. I had a bottle of sparkling grape juice instead of champagne, and picked up a hat and horn from the dollar store. I also got the 2 star things hanging from the corners of the mirror there too. The banner at the bottom I made with my Cricut. 

So to all and any who read this blog, Happy New Year, all the best for 2014.

Remembrance Day Celebration Space

Since we don't really have much to celebrate in Canada during November, (no the cold weather isn't worth celebrating!) I thought I would try to make a November 11 space. It's not totally finished, but I wanted to post it now while I remember.
I want to add something in the 2 photo frames on the shelf, with perhaps 'In Flanders Field' poem, and the other one saying, REMEMBER.
The banner on the mirror, is too bright, it looks too much like a birthday banner, I will correct that somehow.

I had cut out 12 poppies to go on the wreath, but in the process of putting it together one went missing. Try as I might I could not find that last one. Then it dawned on me, since it is for November 11, (11/11), then 11 poppies was appropriate.

Hallowe'en Space

Here is the Hallowe'en space. I love the way it turned out. Again I used the books from the previous displays. In fact there are a number of things I have reused.

The bottle of poison is the bottle I found in the garbage room, the glass pumpkin is the one I found in Home Sense. I also reused the large glass vase with the orange feather boa. The wreath I made from a Styrofoam form, added 2 orange and black boas and a black raven I found for a dollar each.  I used my Cricut die cut machine to cut the web and the house images.  I wrapped some skewers in sparkly pipe cleaners and put them with a branch with a few spiders on. Oh I also used a black cloak as the runner on the shelf, it is from an old hallowe'en costume.

I love how this one turned out.

This is something I saw on Pinterest, that I knew I had to try. Just added die cut eyes for the toilet rolls. Then used some black vinyl to cut out the little creature hiding in my toilet tank.

Next display is likely to be something around November 11th.