Heavy Heart....

Hello sweet friends...

Such a heavy, heavy heart today. 

Andy and I arrived in Edmonton last night, and enjoyed spending some time with my folks before heading to bed. 

At 5:00 am, my mom awoke us; my dad wasn't breathing...

Two ambulances, a fire truck, a trip to the hospital, where he is currently on life support.  

It's been a long, trying, hard day.

Right now, all we know is that his heart is severely damaged (from an event precipitated 5 years ago), but it's the extent of brain injury he's sustained, as a result of being without oxygen for a period of time, that is equally as concerning.

We've been at the hospital since 6am, and have come back to my mom's to catch our collective breaths. We'll return tomorrow, trusting that the doctors and the Good Lord will do what is right. 

Needless to say, I've not seen my niece and nephew, and  under the circumstances, that's fine. Lots of hugs, lots of tears shared with my sister and her husband, my brother and sister-in-law, my Andy and, of course, my mom. I'm calling out all stops to be as strong for my family as I can during this trying time.

That's all...I'm tired and so deeply sad.  I'll aim to leave comments when I can....

Hugs and love to all of you...hugs and love!

Hello, hello....

Popping in on this 'five-sleeps-before-Christmas day' to share Inspiration Challenge #72, where we're invited to draw inspiration from this shimmery, sparkly, gorgeous city scene.

Incredibly talented Karen Mead is joining us as a Guest Designer, and her card, along with those of my team mates, capture the *WOW* of the photo beautifully.  Please be sure to visit their blogs, if you have time, and leave them some love; I know you'll make them smile:

Marina

Sandie

Shauna

Nonni

Yvonne

Pia

Kim

With the busy-ness of wrapping up work for the break (woo hooooo...two weeks off! YES!!! *fist pump and happy dancing wildly*)  getting ready to travel four hours north to see my family this weekend,  back home on Sunday, then six hours west, on Christmas Eve day, to spend Christmas with my husband's family, my creativity opted for a simple, clean, quick, and oh-so-literal interpretation.

Paper Smooches city-scape die, cut twice in purple cardstock, once in silver shimmer paper, then the purple offset over the silver,and a dive into a new set of sentiment stamps from Lil Inkers.  The black frame is shimmer paper, as well. 

Hope you're inspired a wee bit by my card, Karen's and the design teams, and that you'll find some crafting time to join us in the gallery. The winner will be invited to guest design in a future challenge.

My card's heading off to Happy Little Stampers~December Challenge

Wishing you all a most wonderful 'nearly Christmas' weekend!!

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!

Oh Deer, Oh Deer, Oh Deer, Oh Deer....

Oh Deer, but I may have gotten just a bit carried away with some recent new arrivals (Black Friday goodies...yayyy).

With these lovelies arriving fairly close to Christmas, I wanted to give a few of them some play time; ultimately, I've recreated pretty much one card, altered slightly to fit challenges. Hope you don't mind the 'same, but different'...My theme will be readily apparent, which is why I'll just zing these in quickly.

First up is my tag for the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist 2104 Challenge, which was inspired by incredibly talented Julie Ebersole's tag from Day 1:

Julie's pretty-in-pink number, with mine below, inspired by her ombre backgroud and gold/white images....

My second card is off to

Freshly Made Sketches #166

and The Male Room #25~Christmas

Third card (theme figured out, right...and obsession duly noted, right)...

is heading for the galleries at TIME OUT #20~CASE Amy Wanford with Your Own Twist and CASology #125 (my sentiment is silver foil paper..,)

Cards #2 and 3, along with "just because" Card 4 

are off to Winnie & Walter Join in to Win.

Evidently I'm very happy to have deer in my collection *grin* and some swoon-inducing Winnie and Walter cutaways.

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!

Merry Christmas Holly and Berries...Merry Monday #138 {Gold, Silver, White and ??, Just Us Girls #271~Trend

Happy Sunday, all!  It's a crisp, cool bright sunny day, and in few minutes, my husband will be embarking on a bike ride. Yes. And in about three hours I'll be going to pick him up in a small town just west of Calgary.  My plan is to do a wee shopping-snoop for about an hour before meeting him at Tim Hortons, where he'll be warming up with a coffee and refueling with a bagel,  muffin, cookies and whatever else 'calorie repletion' food he needs.  I'm not sure what stores even exist in said town; guess I'll find out...

I was frantically sentiment embossing, texture-pasting-and-distress inking card-making yesterday - as you can see in the trio below (six in total emerged...)

when I remembered the  Merry Monday #138~Gold, Silver, White and ??

I had one panel left unadorned (because it was hidden under another sheet of paper), so this morning, I decided to see what it would look like inked with Hero Arts silver leaves, Delicata gold fronds and pine cones and Festive Berries berries. I added, as with the others, a sheen of perfect pearls and...stood back to give it the head-at-varying-angles review.  My husband came past, in the midst of my analysis, gave it a thumbs up and...well, here it is.

NOTE: Honoured and thrilled to receive an Honourable Mention at Merry Monday for my Gold, Silver and Festive Berries card. THANK YOU!!

I'm sharing these in the galleries over at Just Us Girls #271~Trend 

and Virginia's View~All Things Distressed

By the way: I not Christmas-ready yet *grin*

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!

Warm Holiday Fun...Coffee Lovers' Blog Hop

*Whew*  It's been 'one of those weeks'...I need a coffee, strong and black (or several...). And I want to know when the old, but my absolute favourite, animated Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer is on. I want to be a 'kid' for a bit...

Anyway, I'm dashing in to share my two little contributions to the AWESOME 

hosted by our charming Amy, along with Maureen, Lesley and Chaitali. 

Have you seen the incredibly dazzling delights in the gallery? We're talking 275+ here! Way to spark the inspiration, ladies!! 

Actually, I had another four other tags to show you, each one "supposed" to be sporting a Via coffee from Starbucks (first time I've ever bought those). In a random act of 'what the heck', I was taking them across the counter (remember, my craft zone is on one side of the counter, between the sink and the fridge...mini space. Very mini.) to put the coffee packets in, when, for some unknown reason, my foot caught the edge of the floor mat and, frantically grabbing the counter edge to maintain my balance: kersplash. Dropped the tags. In the sink. That had water in it. *hangs head* 

I usually keep the sink empty while crafting, but I was soaking the cookie sheet and...'nuff said.  Soooo...four tags gone. On the plus side, I wasn't particularly happy with them anyway.  Recycle bin! No guilt!

 I ate two cookies to make myself feel better, though, just in case. It worked.

My 'surviving' projects I do like; they're 'technically' not coffee-themed, but they're wearing a coffee cup, so hope that counts. They're attached to hot chocolate packages, which will become part of my stocking stuffers for my niece and nephew.  Tags, hot chocolate:  I know which one will impress them more...

Amy suggested we share a recipe so I'm passing along a link to one of my husband's Christmas favourites. He baked them for me on our first Christmas together. If I had any doubts about whether or not he was 'the one', he removed them all with those tasty treats *grin*)...Chocolate Espresso Black Pepper Cookies.   The recipe 'appears' to come from Martha Stewart, I guess, but my husband has it from an old, now yellowing, newspaper clipping)  Don't let the pepper turn you away; they are amazing. I'm incredibly picky, and I love them! In fact, perhaps I'll bake them during the week to surprise him when he comes back from Ottawa, where's he's heading on Monday. At least he's home for the weekend...

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!

Christmas Ornaments with Dots...Addicted to Stamps and More #125~Photo Inspiration

Hello everyone,

Today, I'm welcoming you to the new Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #125, with this lovely wreath as our photo inspiration.

For this challenge, I went well beyond my comfort zone in working with a digi from our sponsor, StitchyBear's Digi Outlet.  I selected the lovely trio of ornaments image you'll see below and WOW! Talk about not being exactly sure what to do! I 'tried' colouring, but because my computer is el-cheapo, the gamsol was causing issues when I tried to blend.  Same with copics, not to mention my ultra-limited colour selection.  After plenty of hemming,  hawing and yes, all-out-panicking, I stepped back and realized these ornaments are GORGEOUS just as they are!  I didn't want to take away from their lines and designs, so I added dots of red stickle for a whisper of colour, and framed them in red and gold, drawn from the bow, along with a green Christmas die cut as a nod to the wreath itself.  My photo doesn't do it justice, but in real life, it's quite pretty

Here it is...

Christmas Ornaments 1 With Dots

Please check out the dazzling creations shared by the rest of the team; leaving them some love would make them extra happy.

Our sponsor this week:

Prize - 3 images up to $10

http://stitchybearstamps.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index

Looking forward to seeing your photo-inspired cards in the gallery; I know they'll be fabulous

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!

Wreath, Snowflakes and Dots...Always Playing with Paper #20, Addicted to CAS #53~Dots, Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge~Clearly Christmas, Bugaboo’s Second Annual Holiday Chaos

Hi,

Zipping in with a flash post (I know - so uncharacteristic of me!) during my *ahem* break at work to share two cards I made yesterday, inspired by things dotty, blue, green, and sparkly...

Here's card 1. featuring my obviously besotted by CB wreath and a Memory Box (or Poppy Stamps...) 'zig zag knit die...

 
Card 2 is sporting a strip of silver glitter tape, two snowflakes - one in teal foil paper, one in glitter paper - and a dotted Memory Box (or is 'that one' Poppy Stamps?!) Merry...

  I should have figured this one out earlier and made a zillion of them...so pretty in real life

 I'm adding these to the galleries at:

Bugaboo's Second Annual Holiday Chaos ~ Day 1: Sparkle and Shine

Always Playing with Paper #20

Addicted to CAS #53~Dots

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge~Clearly Christmas

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day. (Oh look...time to get ready to head home...)

Advent Project Tags...The Card Concept #24 - Snowman (Make a Tag), Simon Says Wednesday Challenge~Christmas/Holidays

Hello once again!

A quick post to share the collection of 24 tags I made for my niece and nephew's Advent Countdown Project; every single one was inspired by Tracey's recent 25 Days of Christmas Tags (version 2014).

Where's Tag 25?  Well, that one remains a secret (and I sure hope it reveals itself to me soon, too! Still in the thinking about phase...)

I'm adding my tags to the gallery at:

The Card Concept #24~Snowman (Make A Tag) (the last one does have a snowman...yayy!)

 and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge~Christmas/Holidays

Ta dahhhhh.....

Twenty four tags attached to 24 little envelopes that contain Frozen, Cars and Avenger stickers, some money for their 'bank' that they'll take to Christmas Day church as a donation, and an activity.  No chocolate, though...my sister-in-law and brother are appreciative of that (can you say: wound up!). Advent Countdown Project 2014 is a wrap.  Hope my sister-in-law takes photos of the 'finished' product, since I didn't get a chance to do so. If she does, I'll share...

NOTE: Honoured and thrilled that Geri selected my tags as a Card Concept winner. THANK YOU ever so much! 

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!

Seasons Tweetings, and Birthday, Too....Merry Monday #137~Feathered Friends, CASology #124~Old, Seize the Birthday~Anything Goes, Lawnscaping Challenge #95~White on White, Simon Says Wednesday Challenge~Christmas/Holiday, Sweet Stampin' Challenge~Things with Wings

Hello!

My husband and I have a "deal" regarding family birthdays.  He remembers the dates on his side of the family; I remember those on my side.  While it's a fair deal (I think), it's not really a 'successful' deal, because unless something is written down, my husband is, 9.9 times out of 10, likely to forget. He's very good at forgetting, which also includes forgetting to write down things he's sure to forget.  Sighhhh.

So, on Saturday morning, before he headed off to what is becoming a marathon weekend of timing biathlon competitions, (he's home, but leaving at 7:00am and returning close to 10pm...long days) as well as playing host to a group of 10 Korean biathletes and their 5 coaches, here on a 10 day visit, I asked if he had a card for his mom's birthday, which is but a few days away. 

Predictable response, "Ummm, no. I was hoping you'd make her one," Smart man!  So imagine his surprise when I handed over the one I made on Friday, because 'someone' remembered *grin*  Hope he gets it to the post office...

While I had the embossing folder, dies, coloured pencils and gamsol out, I made a second card. Yes, you've seen these Lawn Fawn images before, but hey...they are so cute how could I resist?

NOTE: So thrilled that my card was selected for an Honourable Mention over at Merry Monday. THANK YOU!!

I'm sharing my cards over at:

Merry Monday #137~Feathered Friends

CASology #124~Old

Seize the Birthday~Anything Goes

Lawnscaping Challenge #95~White on White (If my card has too much colour, I totally understand if you remove it from the gallery)

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge~Christmas/Holidays

Sweet Stampin' Challenge~Things with Wings - which is a new-to-me challenge

Hope his mom likes the 'Birthday Tweetings"....

Thanks so much for dropping by; your visit and comments add sparkle to my day!