All is calm, All is bright

May your holidays be filled with PEACE, JOY and LOVE!

Hugs,
Shanna 

Fa La La

Here is one of the tags I created using mostly bits and bobs that were hanging around my scrap space. I love using shipping tags as my base - makes for quick and easy tags!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Shanna :)

Elf Donuts?!?

Say hello to Blizzard! He got busy one night a week or two ago and baked some elf donuts! Who knew he was so talented!?!

What has your Elf been up to?

Shanna :)

p.s. The kitchen toy was my Mom's when she was a little girl - I love it! Blizzard removed the turkey that was roasting in the oven in order to bake his donuts.

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Merry Christmas to you and yours

Another card from my recent creative frenzy! This is the Christmas card I made for my boy's music teacher.

 My eldest is in grade 7 and got to choose a brass instrument to learn this year. He is playing trombone!!! Why then, is there a trumpet on this card? - I love this set from CTMH, but there is no trombone in it - perhaps because it is big and rather awkward. It had been awhile since I had done any embossing and this card screamed for it, so out came the gold embossing powder. I am in LOVE with the font in this fabulous sentiment from CTMH's "Christmas Post" set, love that old-fashioned feel! A simple CAS design, but I do love how it turned out. Unfortunately, not the best photo as I did not have the benefit of daylight to photograph.

.I would like to share at:

Cute Card Thursday - sparkles

Thanks for visiting at this very busy time! Wishing you and yours a Wonderful Christmas time!
Hugs,
Shanna :)

What I used:
CTMH - Delightful Ditty C1590
CTMH - Christmas Post D1610
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Candy Cane Kisses

Whew, we have had a busy weekend! A quick post for today!

Here is the inside, simple but fun! I had forgotten about this MFT set!

I would like to share at: 

CAS on Sunday - Christmas theme

and

Little Red Wagon - anything Christmas

Thanks for visiting!

Shanna :)

What I used:

MFT - Candy Cane Kisses

CTMH - D1109 Gingerbread (very old set - long retired)

papers from scrap bin

misc. baker's twine

Wishes for SOS

Here is a quickie card I whipped up during my creative "frenzy" on Wednesday! Sometimes its fun to play with traditional colours!

I would like to share at:

SOS - Red Alert

Little Red Wagon - anything Christmas

Thanks so much for stopping by! Happy Holidays!

Shanna :)

What I used:
papers - Peppermint Express 6x6 by American Crafts
Cricut - A Child's Year
wishes sentiment - SU
machine stitching

Winter Joy

It's no secret that I like to spend time playing in the white stuff - skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, I am game! I had a fabulous ski lesson last night out at Lappe Nordic, skiing under a breathtakingly beautiful, starry sky - it was bliss, and a great workout! If I hadn't been in a lesson, I would have been stopping every 10 minutes just to take in the scenery!

Having said that, this was a super fun card to create! I had been wanting to use my ski die from Winter Gear at Simon Says on a project, then I came across the winter themed brads gifted to me by Donna some time ago and this is what happened. It actually started out as a tag and morphed into a card!

I would like to share at the following challenge blogs:

Tuesday Morning Sketches -

Inky Chicks winter wonderland
Merry Monday - winter theme
and
CASology - SNOW

Thanks so much for visiting! I busy weekend ahead for us. My boys are playing their first ever duet tonight for their Christmas Piano Recital - "The First Noel." Tomorrow night a party to attend, Sunday we host our annual Christmas Open House combined with our annual Caroling Party - best go cross a few more items off the list!
Cheers,
Shanna :)

What I used:
all stamps: 
trees - CTMH "Bundled Buddies" C1472
Winter - CTMH "Christmas Scripts" C1209
JOY - Hero Arts I think...

papers mostly scraps from the bin
brad - Karen Foster

Musical cards

I just realized that I am following up my "music tree" post with music themed cards - you would think I planned it that way eh?

Anyhow, today I had what can only be described as a "creative frenzy". I took the day off to tackle a variety of tasks at home including, but not limited to: sorting and wrapping gifts, creating tags & last-minute, person-specific cards, organizing teacher gifts, writing more to-do lists and creating this last-minute set of cards for the boy's music and piano teachers. I made at least two of each one so they will make a nice little set of cards for each.

I had taken note of the fun sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch - it was perfect for whipping up some quick CAS cards for gifting! I would like to share these at CAS(E) this sketch. I am just squeaking in before the deadline!

I made a couple more versions but they are similar so didn't photograph them all.

This is what the inside of the holiday cards look like:

Thanks for visiting! Here's hoping your "to do" list is shrinking! It was a productive day, but it sure looks like a tornado went through my scrap space!

Shanna :)

Quick list of what I used:
Grand Piano - Prima
Sax - CTMH Delightful Ditty C1590
May your days be... CTMH Frosted Cardmaking workshop D1562
Tim Holtz tissue tape
music notes CTMH Sweet Music D1523
Happy Holidays CTMH D1224 Holiday Joy
Ink: CTMH black and Vineyard Berry

Music tree

The hours and days are flying past. I still haven't figured out what happened to October and November, never mind the first 12 days of December!!!

Here's to taking a few moments to just sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds of the season!

Cheers,

Shanna :)

Celebrate 40

 Hubby turned 40! - here is his card. At first, I was stumped as to what theme to go with, then I remembered this fab paper pad I've been hoarding saving from Basic Grey. Since he owns and operates a Driving School, this was perfect!

Here is the inside. My youngest loves to draw Yoshi, so he often adds a Yoshi to things that he signs. :)

I would like to share at Seize the Birthday where the theme this week is "anything goes".

He requested that we not have a big party, but since he was turning the BIG 40, we had to do something...

He had to teach in the classroom on his actual birthday, so we decided to sneak in and leave some ahh, subtle hints for his students!!!

I apologize for the pictures which are rather awful, I had only my cell phone and we were in a bit of a hurry...this is the hallway outside of his class. The big sign on the door is for people to leave comments/congratulations, we left a pen attached to the door.

Big thanks to Donna who knew where to find all the fun 40 stuff! She also helped me out with fun little ideas when I was feeling stumped about what to do considering I was not "allowed" to have a party! My fave find was this "yield tape" that said something to the effect of "caution 40th birthday party."

He has a little fridge in the classroom where he keeps pop and water. Inside, we left 3 Duncan Heinz "Deep and Delicious" marble cakes - his favourite! We left plates, napkins and forks so everyone could dig in a lunch time. I got a text part way through the day asking "do I really have to share?" lol

Unfortunately, my photos were too rushed, but we left a jar full of "rock" candy with a sign that said "40 ROCKS!" We were going to leave a pile of actual garden stones/river rocks, but they froze to the ground before we could get them there, lol!  It would have been lots of work to haul them in there but it would have been rather hilarious to leave him a huge pile of rocks on his desk! 

We also left him a little surprise in his car, 40 Hershey's Hugs & Kisses with a little note. He told us later that we actually surprised him. I consider that a compliment that is nearly impossible!

Have a fabulous day!
Shanna :)


What I used:

Basic Grey "Wander" 6x6 paper pad and ribbon doilies

SU ticket punch

CTMH numbers and sentiments

Gelatins "tread" stamp

MFT buttons

Eggnog Latte

I just had to share my newest favourite hot drink. I have never really been a coffee drinker, so I like my coffee drinks on the sweet side. Last year, Starbuck's was serving a hot Eggnog drink though I can't recall what it was called. My sister, Krista, and I played around with it and tried to make our own version. The first one we came up with was a version made with Eggnog and Earl Grey tea - yum!

Today's version is made with coffee.

This is how I make it:

Pour approx. 1/2 cup of Eggnog or Eggnog mixed with milk into your coffee cup. Heat in the microwave. Sprinkle in some cinnamon.

Add coffee. I use the medium button on my Keurig machine. Zip together with a frother.

If you want to be fancy (you do, trust me!), top with whipped cream and sprinkle cinnamon & nutmeg on top. Easy on the nutmeg, it can be strong!

Enjoy!

(and do not, under any circumstances, count calories! lol)

Merry

Today's card is for the current prompt at Jingle Belles (the last of the year!!!) which is "Christmas Feast". Well, turkey may come first to mind to some, but for me, it's all about the sweets - I do love me some gingerbread...and pie and fruitcake and chocolate...

These are pretty quick makes - necessary since its already Dec. 3rd yes? Truth be told, I am about dying to pull out my copics and some fun images that require colouring, but I just can't spend that much time just now, sigh. In any case, it felt so good to whip up a couple of these cuties! I am really pushing the deadline here. I had my card made two days ago, but needed sunlight to photograph - those early dark evenings make it difficult to get things photographed mid-week!
Here is the inside:

I would also like to share at:
Christmas Card Challenges - anything goes
JUGS - wild card


Thanks for visiting!
Shanna :)


What I used:
gingerbread and candy cane stamp - CTMH Gingerbread D1109  (long ago retired)
tiny sentiment - SU "Pennant Parade"
inside sentiment - Scrappy Moms "A Holiday to Remember"
SU tiny tag punch"
CTMH chocolate and cranberry ink

Celebrate

Since I haven't been playing with my washi tape enough, I thought I would pull it out to enter at Little Red Wagon this week where the challenge is "wishy washi." Right then, I suppose I should really make some more of these in Christmas colours since I do not yet have enough cards to mail out!

House is clean and no concrete plans until 7 pm tonight, hooray! Time to turn on the Christmas tunes and well...do I craft or decorate??? Either way, I had better get to it. Thanks for visiting!

Shanna :)

What I used:
sentiment - CTMH
washi - Stampin Up
random button
embroidery floss
Starbuck's coffee sleeves
copics for splatter

Merry Christmas - non-traditional colours

A quick post this morning to wish our neighbours to the South a Happy Thanksgiving!

I would also like to share my card at:

Christmas card Challenges - inspiration photo
and
Inkspirational - Christmas with an optional twist (no red or green)
Ok, so I admit, there is a tiny bit of limey green, but not the traditional green we would routinely use on a Christmas card.

Thanks for visiting!
Shanna :)


What I used:
papers; Crate paper - Snow Days
stitching - CTMH
ornament punch - SU

Dr. Who Birthday Party!!!

After making a TARDIS costume for my eldest for Halloween this year, we decided it would be fun to have a Dr. Who themed party for my youngest son's Birthday! So, that's just what we did.

First I made invites:

The pertinent info was in a pocket on the back of the TARDIS. I admit it, doing white print on black stumped me at first. All I could think of was Cricut, but there was no way I was cutting out letters that small and gluing them  all on! Then it came to me - bring out the heat gun and embossing powder and voila!

We turned the door heading down to our basement into a TARDIS, scribbled BAD WOLF on any available windows and mirrors with paint and put up balloons in shades of blue, grey and black. We planned to turn our front door into a Tardis as well, but the boys let me off the hook since it was VERY COLD leading up to the party. My boys wanted to serve fish sticks with custard for dipping. In the end, we decided it was safer to actually serve pizza as the main offering, since lots of kids might just turn their noses up at fish, and offer the fish sticks as a snack or appetizer. I am amazed to say that SIX of them decided it was tasty! Dr. Who, you have some serious influence!!!

Sorry for the terrible photos - I stink at editing and had to use flash because of the location of the Tardis and lack of natural lighting, oh well, you get the idea!

Loot bags were a bit tricky, but then the boys remembered the episodes with the bananas - we added actual bananas and gummy bananas, rings that looked like aliens and Fruit Cream Peak Freans (the kind with the red centres) to serve as "Tardis self-destruct cookies as well as twisty blue lolly pops.Wow, were the kids pumped about this party! 

And here is the Birthday Boy with two of his gifts! I was thrilled when I walked into the mall back in September and found this fabulous bathrobe in the window of HMV! He received the book from a friend a fellow Dr. Who fans whose parents are also fans. The kids were awfully excited about it!

I would like to share at:

Crazy 4 Challenges - ways to say hello
well, I think this qualifies since to a person who is not a Dr. Who fan, it appears to be a Public Telephone box - a great, if old-fashioned, way to say hello!

and

Heart 2 Heart - NO embellishments
well, I suppose I could have tried to embellish the Tardis (a Christmas wreath perhaps), but I tried to keep it as authentic as possible

Thanks for visiting!


What I used:
stamps: CTMH W189 on the invite
font on the life-sized Tardis if from CTMH Cricut Artiste - a pretty close match I would say!

The Great Outdoors Take 2 - Let it Snow

It's time for round TWO of The Great Outdoors challenge at Jingle Belles! I was thrilled when Lauren asked me to guest design and choose a challenge! (There is a new challenge issued every two weeks to encourage us to get our Christmas cards done early!) Since getting out and enjoying the white stuff is BIG in our family, I came up with "The Great Outdoors" for the theme. See here for last week's card.

As for this week's card...
a few weeks ago I got my hands on a fun new release stamp/die set from Simon Says, "Winter Gear" with a winter sports theme and was itching to play. This challenge gave me the perfect excuse to pull out this new set and get crafting!

Ever since I visited Banff in 2013, I have had this picture in my head of all the FUN and colourful gear gathered at the ski racks (lots and lots of boards and skis especially around lunchtime) with the snow and mountains in the background. Papercrafters will understand this - the eye candy when you walk into a well stocked scrap store... Well, that is sort of how it is when you walk into a ski shoppe or past the ski racks at lunch time on a busy day at the slopes. So, once I got this die in my hands, the idea that came to me was to try to recreate that sort of feel. My little scene definitely lacks mountains, but perhaps I'll try that next time!

This was the perfect opportunity to try out my new snowboard dies! The snow is falling here in Northwestern, ON and it won't be long until we can get geared up and hit the slopes! 

Here is the inside. How fun is this snowboard? I would LOVE one like this and I love the punny sentiment that came with this set!

Over the last couple of winters, I have spent a significant amount of time in the great outdoors learning to RIDE! There have been bumps and bruises (thank goodness for helmets), sore muscles (remind me to tell you about the time I couldn't lift my leg high enough to put my sock on!), massage therapy, physiotherapy (for an injury sustained from trying to catch myself from falling yet again!), and LOTS and LOTS of soaks in a tub with epsom salts. Can you say mid-life crisis?!?! I can't explain wanting to learn to snowboard at 30 something any other way! In the end though, I can't explain how very gratifying it was to finally get it! By the end of last season, I was able to say to hubby, "I think I am finally at the point where I not longer look like the "Old lady" trying to ride a snowboard, I might possibly look like I actually know how!"

 Here is my snowboard, not too fancy compared to the ones on my card, BUT I bought myself funky PINK bindings at the end of last season and they are fabulous. Yes, I wear purple ski pants. You can get away with A LOT on the ski hill!!! I LOVE wearing all sorts of wild colours out there. My ski jacket is orange AND pink!

The view from part way up Mount Baldy on a late winter evening. There was a fabulous sunset that night!

Thanks so much for visiting! Sure hope you can join us at Jingle Belles in the Great Outdoors!

A big thanks to Steph and Lauren at Jingle Belles for having me along for the ride. Fun stuff!

Shanna :)

What I used:

papers: from my scrap bin, including an art card that I repurposed and turned into funky snowboards

dies and stamps: hat/goggles stamp: Simon Says "Snow Gear"

sentiment: CTMH C1209 Christmas Scripts

stamps used to decorate snowboards: SU Extreme Elements

snowflakes on envelope: CTMH Holiday Trinkets

SU envelope maker
Tim Holtz Alterations Embossing folder (woodgrain)

Believe

I have a quick and CAS card to share. It is also flat enough to be mailed with only one stamp. I really need to make more like this! I found my stash of card bases and thought this silhouette from "A Child's year" would be just the thing.

The snow is flying here and I have the Christmas music playing, so it is really helping to get the holiday mojo going!

I would like to share my card at:
CASology - festive
and
CAS on Sunday - use ribbon or twine

Have a great day!
Shanna

What I used:
Cricut Cart - A Child's year
scrap paper
card base from MME
scrap of gingham ribbon
Bo Bunny alpha stickers

Welcome to the neighbourhood!

I created this for friends that recently moved into our area. They have been house-hunting for awhile, and the one they found just happened to be in our neighbourhood! So happy for you guys!

I would like to share at:

Little Red Wagon - home is where your heart is

and

Crazy for Challenges - numbers - you might not have noticed, but I included their house number on the front of the card, just for fun

Thanks for visiting!

Shanna :)

What I used:
papers and ribbon: Love, Elise "Jack and Abby"
house stamp: Stamping Bella
number stamps: CTMH Calendar C1191
heart and border punch

Christmas Dreams

The current challenge at City Crafter Blog is to use a deer on your project. As luck would have it, I had a cricut-cut reindeer who had taken up residence in the little bin on my scrap table of things that didn't quite work on projects past! I rumaged around and found a few other bits and bobs and this is what I ended up with. I kinda like it and I think Mr. Reindeer is much happier here than he was on my scrap table.

I would also like to share at Inkspirational, where the word prompt is SHINE. Stars are rather shiny, so I thought this was fitting.

Thanks for stopping in!
Shanna :)

I won't list what I used today since most of it was either from my scrap bin or my basket of bits and bobs and so I can't remember where most of it originated except that I'm rather certain the sentiment is from Kraftin' Kimmie.

EnJOY the great outdoors with Jingle Belles

Happy Friday!

You cannot imagine how thrilled I was when Lauren emailed me and asked not only if I would like to be a guest designer, but if I would like to choose the prompt for an upcoming challenge at Jingle Belles!!!

(If you are unfamiliar with Jingles Belles, this is their mission: to avoid holiday mayhem by making unique and inspiring christmas cards, in the company of friends, january through november. won't YOU join us?!)

Well, that was some time ago, but the time has finally arrived!I have a wide variety of interests, but there is nothing I value more than quality time spent with my family outdoors. So many things keep us indoors these days that it can be hard to tear yourself away to get a breath of fresh air. A few years back, we decided we were "hiding inside" a little too much during our long Northwestern Ontario winters. We were getting sick too often and we were lacking motivation to get outside and play in the snow. Well, we introduced the boys to skiing and the rest is history. These days, most of our friends think we are loco because we LIVE for the WHITE STUFF - yes SNOW! * For some people, it is a bad word, but for us it means playtime** - alpine skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing - bring it on!!! We bought our season passes in September, and my eldest son is carefully watching the forecast, we are ready! 

So without further ado, this week's prompt at Jingle Belles is "the great outdoors", chosen by yours truly, and here is my card!

I had been wanting to try my hand at creating a collage-style card and this seemed like the perfect opportunity since I was hoping to incorporate a number of things on just one card. I have many fond memories of time spent in the great outdoors growing up and tried to portray some of them here. When I was a little girl, we sometimes went hunting for a tree the old-fashioned way, by tromping through the bush until we found a tree that was just right, no need for tree lots in the country - hence the trees and snowflakes. We all ( I am the eldest of four children) learned to skate shortly after learning to walk, whether it was at the local rink or on the tiny pond in the pasture. We spent countless hours on skates, some of us playing hockey, some ringette, I was a figure skater - so I had to add the silhouette of the skaters. The overall vintage feel of the card reminds me of Christmases as a small girl when we would pack up our favourite new toys, get bundled up warm, and drive the country roads to Nana & Papa's house where we would spend most of Christmas day with family in their big old house - warm & cozy memories!

One of the really fun things about this card is that much of it came together rather organically as a result of rootling through the little baskets of odds and ends, bits and bobs on my scrap table. We all have them don't we? Those little containers overflowing with little bits of things that weren't quite right for another project...this card was so much fun to make!

The process also got me to thinking about how when I was a little girl, we got to have our very own REAL tree in our bedrooms for Christmas. When we were small (there were four of us), my Papa would come by the house a couple of days before Christmas and bring us each our VERY OWN tree! My Mom would find big mason jars to put them in. Usually we had to wrap towels around them and put them inside a shoebox or something to make them stand up. Then we got to decorate! Over the years, we each started our own collections. We each had a special box we kept our own ornaments in. By the time I moved away from home to go to University, I had several boxes of Christmas decor and more than enough ornaments to decorate a 7 foot tree!

So, this project is also for the Tree-mendous Tree Challenge in the Moxie Fab World!

And here is the inside:

I must admit, I love how the inside turned out and am thinking about making a card using a similar layout on the front.

And voila, a peek at the matching envelope:

Thank you so much for your visit! I know you still have at least a few holiday cards to make, so I sure hope you can join in the fun this week at Jingle Belles! Thanks Lauren and Steph for asking me to join you this week!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

(there is snow in the forecast after all ;)

Shanna :)

* I will admit that although I do LOVE to play in the white stuff ...I, like so many of you, do NOT enjoy shoveling the stuff!

** READ avoidance of household duties and other nasty chores that generally tend to get accomplished on weekends. The reality is that lots of playtime= messy house and large piles laundry that is mostly clean but not folded or put away, piles of equipment (goggles, helmets, mittens and ski pants in the process of drying) that simply live near the front door for ease of access and a constant stream of containers and thermoses that are either dirty or drying upside down in the sink, so please keep that in mind if you plan to visit me between December and March, lol! It is actually much safer to meet me at the ski hill than at my house - as I've told my friends that don't ski, the ride up the hill is long and boring - an opportune time for catching up - if you learn to ski, we could solve the world"s problems whilst riding the lift over the course of a couple of weekends!

What I used:

CTMH Winter Wonder D1241 (on envelope)

CTMH Holiday Magic S1110 (trees)

papers: various, mostly from scrap bin

wooden snowflakes: Studio Calico

Kraft Journaling Tags: Maya Road

cricut cut - A Child's Year cartridge

Tim Holtz distress ink

Wish Big - Toronto Maple Leafs

Here is the birthday card I made for my brother-in-law, Adam. He is a big hockey fan and the Dad of my precious nephew who is, wait for it...also a big hockey fan. He is two and is already skating!

Here is a little peek at the inside.

For this card, I used my NHL Logo set from gel*a*tins that I have had for many, many moons. Do you remember them? They come in an awesomely cool tin for storage.

When I showed this to my youngest son, I asked him: "Look what I made for Uncle Adam, what do you think?" I must admit I was rather please with his response of: "He will LOVE that!" Presumably because he knows how big a hockey fan his Uncle is!

I do love playing with my SU envelope punch board and this project was no exception. Imagine my delight when I realized that I actually had hockey stamps to match - the right team and everything!!! Since the cost of postage went up at the beginning of the year, I did have to add a butterfly stamp to ruin my theme, but alas, there was no reason to ruin a good photo shoot! lol

I would like to share my project at Shopping Our Stash where the theme is "leaves". I definitely dug into the OLD stash for this stuff. I have had the Toronto Maple Leafs paper and that NHL logo stamp set for what seems like forever! 

Thanks much for visiting!

Shanna :)

What I used:

stamps: NHL Logo set from Gel*a*tins, tickets from SU "That's the ticket"

wish big sentiment from SU "Pennant Parade"

SU ticket punch

Bella Bling

black and outdoor denim CS from CTMH