I am thankful

Well, I have something different than a Christmas card to share! This one is so CAS though that its almost funny. I am second guessing myself here, but I think I like it. I love the text layered over the heart. I may try stamping the focal point on one more layer (slightly smaller than the card base) of white to see what that does, but I didn't want to fuss too much.

I have been having so much fun this last while playing with my new Unity stamps - well, they came before Christmas, but the time to play didn't come until after the rush of the holidays.

I would like to share at:
Less is More - this makes me happy 
It is wonderful to have reasons to be thankful, so love to make (and especially send) thank you cards. I have a long list of things that make me happy - skiing is one of them (had a fabulous skate ski this morning - happy to say we reached a high of -6C this afternoon, it felt tropical!), Unity stamps is another. Both of the stamps I've used here are from Unity.

CASology - mini (mini flowers in my heart) and a smallish focal point

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Shanna :)

stamps: Unity - "The Time is now" (sentiment) and "Strength & Dignity" (KOM 11/13)

May your holidays Sparkle!

I was playing again with my distress stains! This time, I made a flat Christmas card, perfect for mailing! Thrilled to have another holiday card for the stash.

I would like to share at Christmas Card challenges where the current challenge is "anything goes." Donna just pointed out to me that I was voted in the top 3 last week at this challenge. Cool beans!

Thank you for stopping by today!
Shanna :)

What I used:
Nutcracker - Graphic 45
sentiment on front - MFT
inside sentiment - Unity "Let's be Jolly"
Tim Holtz distress stains
background stamp - SU & Tim Holtz

Always thinking of you

A quick post today as we are having a rather busy weekend here! Just thought I'd share this little tag I made to attach to a bag of goodies for a friend. I had my distress stains out and decided to try them on a shipping tag.

This little snowman is "Winterberry" by Stacey Yacula. Isn't he sweet?

Send warm thoughts this way for me! Today I am participating in Women on Skis out at Lappe Nordic and I am really looking forward to it, but alas, it is currently -36 C with the windchill and a forecasted high of only -22 before windchill (which we often don't reach here until 5pm when the event will be over, lol). There will be two ski lessons (one on classic skis, one on skate skis), homemade lunch, a guest speaker and a wax clinic. So as much as I really want to get some exercise and enjoy the trails, today I am particularly looking forward to the wax clinic, lunch and speaker - all of which take place INDOORS, lol! So like I said, plesase send your warm and toasty thoughts my way. I am hoping the speaker is a little long-winded!!!

Sending warm thoughts your way!
Shanna :)

Season's Greetings

Just one more Christmas card? I promise I will try to switch gears soon - I am really rather in need of some birthday cards, so I promise this Christmas stint won't last too much longer!

I would like to share at:
Christmas Card Challenges - inspiration photo of a snowman

CASology - monochrome

Shopping Our Stash - movie inspiration (mine is very unoriginal, Frosty the snowman, but hey I am increasing my stash!)
Thank you for stopping in today!
Shanna :)

What I used:
sentiments - Hero Arts (I think, out of pkg.)
other stamps: CTMH "Bundled Up" D1165
Outdoor Denim Ink - CTMH
bling

May for Graham's Album

Dear Krista,

I finally managed to get another layout done for Graham's album! You might as well check it out here as I won't likely see you for several weeks. Hope you like it!

Love, Shanna :)

p.s. I can't wait to see the whole album all put together once I get the last couple layouts done!

Regular followers may remember this project. If you would like to know more, click here - it will bring you to the title page - and you can view the others from there if interested. You may notice that these last pages are way overdue - let's just say I have an understanding sister, lol!

For the left side of my two page layout, I have used the current sketch from Unity. As always, I have difficulty photographing my layouts and find they never look as good on here as they do in person.

I am sharing 2 photos of the right hand side as I was struggling with the fact that it just needed a little something. In the end, I added the blue ribbon which seemed to be the thing and seemed to make  world of difference, what do you think?

And here is the entire two page layout together.

 I am sharing at Unity Stamp Company as I have used their sketch (and many of the colours) from the current challenge. Here is the sketch/challenge info:

Thanks so much for your visit!
Shanna :)

What I used:
papers: Simple Stories "Baby Steps"
stamps: love words on left side of layout and flowery heart on calendar - Unity
flowery stamp on calendar - CTMH February Stamp of the month
buttons - MFT and CTMH
Starbuck's Coffee sleeves
machine stitching
CTMH crystal blue ink

Jolly

Today's card is for the current challenge at Just Us Girls - use burlap or hessian. Apparently, I seem to be on a holiday roll here in February. I must admit, I am beginning to tire of the Christmas theme, but I am certain that I'll be thankful for it come November!!!

the inside...

It was so nice to see you today, thanks for swinging by!
Shanna :)

What I used:
CTMH "My Crush" Holiday Happenings
ruby and New England Ivy cardstock
burlap ribbon & twine
New England Ivy brads
embossing folder
CTMH "Christmas Post" D1610 and "Be Jolly" B1455 (Hostess Rewards)

Happy Holidays from Berry!

Well Hello!

If you are not yet acquainted, please allow me introduce you to Berry. Isn't he a love? (Perhaps you met Cora and Thomas this past Sunday?) If you have not yet discovered Stacey Yacula Studios over at Purple Onion Designs, I must encourage you to make a visit. 

But BE WARNED - if Berry makes you smile, you will absolutely, positively, fall for his friends. Once I had made their acquaintance, there was no turning back!

Don't mind me, I seem to have a thing going with this colour combo - ruby combined with tumbled glass - there is just something so pleasing about it...

And a quick little peek at the innards of my card...easy peasy!

My card today is for two challenges:

Winter Wonderland - for a child
Christmas Card Challenges - inspiration photo (snowman)

Hope you are having a great week!
Shanna :)


What I used:
Berry the snowman by Stacey Yacula Studios - Purple Onion Designs
Happy Holidays from CTMH "Just to Say..." D1629

Tis the Season

I had so much fun with this one! I was aiming to incorporate a couple of challenges, so I knew I wanted to use washi tape and My Crush cards, but was stumped with the background. While cropping with the girls this weekend, Donna did this "make and take" using background stamping with CTMH's current stamp of the month, and that reminded me about this fun and versatile technique (that I don't use much anymore). Thanks Donna! I am sure it was one of the first few techniques I ever learned (heat embossing was the first)!

Here is the inside:

I would like to share at:

Jingle Belles - use washi tape
Little Red Wagon - winter washi
Christmas Stampin' all year long - anything goes
Heart 2 Heart - CTMH LOVE - use your fave CTMH product
as mentioned in an earlier post, my fave product from the start was their acrylic stamps (which I have used here in the background Holly) but my fave newer product is their " My Crush" line - so versatile!
Sweet Stampin Christmas - only words

Thanks for stopping in! It is Family Day here in Ontario, Canada so that means no work for me!!! Not yet sure what our plans will entail. My eldest son and I were originally planning to go skiing, but it currently feels like -32 C with the windchill and while that is significantly warmer than yesterday, it may well keep us off the hill, lol! Hmmm, staying inside - maybe playing some board games, baking some muffins and sneaking into my crafty space for a wee bit sounds rather attractive! After all, the snow in the these parts usually hangs around for a good long time - last year, we were still skiing in April!

Happy Family Day to those who are celebrating and Happy Day to everyone else!
Thank you so much for your visit!

Hugs,

Shanna :) 


What I used:
CTMH My Crush Holiday Happenings card
Holly stamp CTMH "Vintage Christmas" D1166
sentiment - CTMH "Be Jolly" B1455 (Hostess Rewards)
various washi tapes
Prima poinsettia
inks: CTMH Ruby and New England Ivy

Love you

I know I said the last one was the last Valentine, but I couldn't help it. Well, this could be a Valentine, but you could also send it simply as a winterish "Thinking of you" yes?

While cropping with my girlfriends yesterday, I had a chance to play with some of my fabulous Stacey Yacula stamps. This is one of the cards I came up with. Aren't Cora and Thomas just the cutest???

This card was created for:
Less is More - one layer challenge - LOVE
City Crafter - You Matter
and
CASology - LOVE

I'll be back with a Christmas card tomorrow. I've been working on my stash!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Shanna :)

What I used:
Cora and Thomas (Skating Bunnies) - Stacey Yacula Studios (Purple Onion Desgins)
love you - Unity
hearts - CTMH "Glitter Glam" B1465
CTMH Ruby and BlackInk
Broken China Distress Stain by Tim Holtz

Happy Valentine's Day!

One more Valentine, this one is for Donna. 

I was lucky enough spend my entire day croppin' with a fabulous bunch of girlfriends! Can't wait to share some of the projects I managed to get done.

In other news, I have been having a blast participating in "A month of letters" challenge. The idea is to send snail mail every business day in February. It hasn't been too difficult to manage so far since I sent decided to send a few Valentine's and a couple of postcards in addition to the birthday cards that I was already planning to send. I did cheat a bit, mailing a few Valentines on the same day at the beginning of this week so they would arrive in time. I truly love this idea, as it necessitates slowing down long enough to really think of a friend of family member and connect with them via the good, old-fashioned pen! Click on over to read the brief description of how it all started. This was right up my alley, so I decided to take on the challenge! 
Here are a couple of the letters I sent. One is a Valentine for my nephew (who is 2 1/2) which also contains a mini version of "Thomas' Snowsuit" by Robert Munsch. My boys loved Munsch and I loved having the mini versions in my bag or purse when travelling or anytime we had to wait somewhere. At Christmas time, I sent him the mini version of "Red is Best." I am hoping to get him hooked on snail mail at a young age, lol! Bills in the mailbox are just so boring! I am determined that the boys in my family are at least going to know HOW to write and mail a letter, even if it doesn't happen frequently.

Thanks for stopping by! I will be back tomorrow with a project I made at the crop!

Shanna :)

LOVE

Another Valentine which is hilarious since I said I wasn't making any this year, lol! Just couldn't stop once I got going!

I would like to share at:

CASology - LOVE
and
Heart 2 Heart - Love,the CTMH way - use your fave CTMH product - my fave product is and has always been their acrylic stamps

Thanks for visiting!

Shanna :)

What I used:
Tim Holtz Distress Stain - fired brick
CTMH stamps: D1254 Soul Mates
black copic
black bling

Pink & Grey Valentines for Less is More

So, I actually said out loud that I wasn't going to make any Valentines this year... That was until I found myself in a blissfully quiet house on Saturday night and found inspiration in blogland.

Playing with pinks and greys just sounded like fun! These are the cards that resulted from my quiet playtime on Saturday night. I went to bed with the feeling that they needed a little something more - hence the copic splatters added the next morning. And yes, I did sneak some black ink onto the second card - I couldn't help trying it out - I like how the word pops off the page in black. Actually, it sort of looks like a die cut in the photo, but it is a stamp. I guess I better get these in the mail asap!

I am sharing at:
Less is More - pinks and Greys
Congrats to Less is More on your 4th anniversary!
Thanks for the ongoing inspiration!

Shanna :)

What I used:
CTMH stamps: D1254 "Soul Mates" and D1269 February Word Puzzle
black and N3 Grey copic marker
Pixie & Grey Wood CTMH ink
SU background stamp from "Extreme Elements"

Valentine Be Mine

I took advantage of a quiet house last night and decided to get crafty!  I finally got my Tim Holtz Distress stains out to play!

Here is the inside:

I would like to share at:

Heart 2 Heart - Home is where the Heart is

Just Us Girls - LOVE

Crazy 4 Challenges - Blingy Valentine's Card

 This is what I was up to yesterday! We had a great ski outing at Kamview yesterday! It was a bit chilly, but lots of fun! Hubby joined us for the first half of the outing, then headed back to the chalet to wait for us. A couple of skiers from the Kamview group hosted us by greeting us with a bonfire at the Sundial at the top of the "Sun up" run. We enjoyed hot dogs and marshmallows at the bonfire before skiing back down to the chalet. Wesley is not wearing a smile in this photo, but he wasn't unhappy - we were just tired after a big, snowy, blowy ski! 

Thanks for visiting!

Shanna :)

What I used:

Tim Holtz Distress Stain - fired brick and broken china

CTMH - February Word Puzzle (D1269), Heartthrob (inside sentiment) - (D1309)

Stampendous - Changito Pop (large heart)

various bling

washi tape

SU - Work of Art (heart)

CTMH cranberry ink

CTMH distressing tool

Thanks Grandma Joan!

We are so lucky to have Grandma Joan in our lives! She is not actually related to our family, though we have considered her "Grandma" since I was just a little girl. She is kind, generous, adventurous, talented and so much fun!

You can read a funny story HERE about the time Grandma Joan jumped off the dock "showing off" at the lake and lost her glasses! Here she is on the dock with my nephew at Mink Lake.

Grandma Joan keeps busy doing lots of different things. She crochets, paints, sews and bakes. She enjoys travel, gardening, walking and yoga. She plays the ukulele! (It was great to have music and singing at the campfire this past summer!) I see myself in her if I fast forward several years. Grandma is in her mid-eighties and enjoying all life has to offer. We are so lucky to know her!

Most summers, Grandma Joan joins our whole family for a week at Mink Lake (near Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada). While there this past summer, I was trying to keep up a bit of my yoga routine. As such, I entered the main cabin while everyone was preparing their coffee one morning and announced that I was about to do some yoga on the front deck if anyone cared to join in. Mom and Grandma Joan decided to join me. We worked through a few poses and stretches and then I shared a new pose I had learned about that I thought might be beneficial to all of us, "legs up the wall" pose. Well, you should have heard the fit of giggles that ensued!!! Grandma went on to say, "Geez, if my family learns I've been hanging out at camp with my legs up the wall, they might never let me come again!" You kinda had to be there, but it was quite funny!
Anyhow, we got to talking about how my youngest son had been joining me from time to time for yoga and how I was encouraging this as I find it so beneficial - for strengthening, for relaxation and stress relief. I learned at that time that Grandma Joan had been making and selling yoga mat bags for her local Senior's Centre. I remembered this a few months later as Christmas was approaching. As I was tidying and getting the house ready for Christmas, I stumbled upon my son's old backpack that had his favourite character on it. It had long since ripped and was no longer usable as a backpack, but he insisted that we keep it. An idea formed. I wrote a letter to Grandma Joan requesting her assistance and sent the old backpack home with my Mom who visited late in the fall.

At Christmas, this arrived!

A custom designed yoga bag!

Lucky me, I got one too in addition to a scrumptious fruit cake!!! Such a treat - Grandma Joan made the fruitcake that we handed out at my Wedding almost 15 years ago!

The card above is the thank you that we sent. This was a Freshly Made Sketch from several weeks back.

Thanks for stopping by!
Shanna :)

What I used:
papers: Little Yellow Bicycle and CTMH
tag from Walmart Tag set picked up in Boxing Day sales
SU ribbon
sentiment: CTMH (embossed in black)
distressing tool
embossing folder

Do you see what I see?

Ok folks, first impressions?

 Before you scroll further down, what do the die cuts on my card look like? (sorry for the less-than-stellar photograhy!)


 I made this way back before Christmas and was rather pleased with myself - it was a fun CAS card with bright, fun colours and I also used a pre-made card base (that already had the fun scrolly doodles) - until I showed it to a couple friends and realized that they didn't necessarily see what I saw...I was causing some confusion!



So what do you see? Be honest, I want to know... lol...



Scrolling down may give you a hint and if you know me, or are a regular visitor, and know I enjoy playing in the white stuff all winter, you may have it figured out. Here is the inside...

Yes, they are indeed snowboards, but that wasn't what my friends were seeing! Band aids was the first thing that popped into their heads. Admittedly, the boards are pretty plain on their own, but I did add little black "bindings" to make them more authentic looking, perhaps that just made it more confusing, lol! In any case, I suppose I could make them look like band aids on purpose and make a Get Well card...

Thanks for sharing what you think! Have a happy Tuesday!

Shanna :)

What I used:

stamp and die set "Winter Gear" by Simon Says Stamp

papers from scrap bin 

SU "Extreme Elements" on the pink board

Celebrate - I freakin' love you!

You aren't going to believe this...I unearthed my copics, dusted them off and coloured an image! I am going to need some practice that's for sure, but it felt good to colour again! And why wouldn't it when you have an adorable image like this one to colour? I received several adorable Stacey Yacula stamps for Christmas and I have been dreaming about getting my copics out again. I started small with this little owl, "Snowy." This is what I came up with for my first attempt.

.

I must apologize for the poor quality of my photos. The lighting was less than ideal and the card has already been delivered so I am not able to do retakes! The papers/colours on the inside and out do actually match in real life, but try as I might to edit them, I could not make them match in the photos. Oh well, you will have to take my word for it. In fact, I feel like this is one of those cards that looks better IRL in any case. Here is the inside of the card...

I would like to share at:

Little Red Wagon - "winter blues"
Seize the Birthday - anything goes
Freshly Made Sketches - 


Thanks for visiting!
Shanna :)

What I used:
"Snowy" (winter owl) - Stacey Yacula Studio via Purple Onion Designs
banner anddeco label dies - SU
papers - Carta Bella "Warm and Cozy"
embossing folder
sentiments inside card - SU "Bring on the cake" and "Yippee-Skippee!"
copics -
E79, E77, E74, E71, E70
R89, R59, R56
B97
Outdoor Denim Ink CTMH
Celebrate sentiment - CTMH

Hello

Today's card is for the challenge over at Just Us Girls. The current challenge is to make the sentiment the focal point of your card. This one was a quickie and has LOTS of white space, but I do like how it turned out.

Thanks for visiting!
Shanna :)

What I used:
die - The Greeting Farm
stamp - SU
bling
juniper ink (CTMH)