Monster Hugs

Isn't that lil' monster just the CUTEST??!!

I am a follower of Jen Shurkus aka {Creative Chick}. When I saw her initial card kit/online class, I had to try it out.  The stamp set (designed for Simon Says Stamp by Sandy Allnock, I believe) has the most adorable images! I love the big eyes.  I added a little shading to them, then Wink of Stella, then Glossy Accents to make them shimmer and shiny... But I'm getting ahead of myself!

I made four of the cards in the Valentine's and Friendship Card Kit for my hubby and sons. Then I made a shaker card with little Wendel (yes, those monsters have NAMES!).  I used a trick seen on Jennifer McGuire's blog, where rather than using adhesive foam tape as the spacer between the card base and overlay, she die cut craft foam sheets. This seemed like a good idea to me, as I find my sequins tend to stick to the edge of the foam tape.  

Here's a closer look:

There's the water-coloured Wendel image surrounded by the craft foam cut-out. I used Lil'Inker Designs stitched hearts dies.  Using the actual shape evacuated from the foam, and working from the bottom up, makes it easier to add your sequins and punched shapes because they are contained.  I cut out some little foam hearts to add to the shaker mix, while I was at it. The sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh (came in the card kit) and Neat & Tangled.

Then I die-cut another heart from card-stock, and layered it over the foam, sandwiching the acetate in between.

I wish I'd left a little more space between the shaker box and the sentiment, however its still pretty darn cute, eh?

Since I used Pretty Pink Posh sequins, and Paulina is sponsoring the challenge, this card's being linked up to Virginia's View shaker card challenge. I also hope Jen Shurkus gets to see it!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

And she's back...

I believe this is my first post of 2015!

Sorry to have been MIA the past few weeks. Truth be told, I was a bit burnt out with crafting and blogging after taking on a bigger role in the Caring Hearts Card Drive this year. Lots of work right up until Christmas. Then the holidays themselves, with three adult boys home and parents and sister visiting from out of town.  Plus, I started another contract at work January 5th, and am now working full time for the first time in YEARS. Not sure how everyone else manages it :) I now go to the gym for 7:00 a.m. and do everything else after work or on the weekend. Not a lot of time or energy left-over for creativity...

I DID get to go to my annual scrapbooking retreat with my besties in Wisconsin in January. SUCH a good time. It felt so good to re-connect with my gals, and to remember how much I love scrapbooking.  I'll be sharing a few lay-outs here in the next few weeks.

But today is all about Paper Smooches and Valentine's Day.

Kim Hughes is celebrating four years in business, with lots of extra fun on the PS blog.

I made my Valentine cards this year using the goodies from Jen Sherkus' "Monster Hugs" kit. But I had to get inky for THIS CHALLENGE:

I've been having fun making patterned paper with embossed images and Distress Inks. I learned this technique from the very talented Heather Telford.

Here's the process:

Heat-emboss assorted PS heart images on 5.5" x 4.25" card stock. Blend two-to-three colours of Distress Ink over the embossed images, using a foam tool.  I used Worn Lipstick, Tattered Rose and Gathered Twigs (thinking of roses, chocolate and kisses!). Splatter the panel with water and spritz with Ranger Perfect Pearls Mist. Dry it and add more stamped images in the distress ink colours. Here's a close up of the final effect:

 I then cut the panel into three smaller pieces and used them to make three LOVE U cards.

 This one uses the PS Love die, the U from the new Sassy Script stamp set, and some Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

Number two uses a sentiment from the PS Fancy Frames stamp set, and the heart border from the PS Heart Dies. I used Worn Lipstick to custom colour my row of little hearts. Looking at this photo, I realize I glued my panel on UPSIDE DOWN!

This one's a little over the top, but fun! I cut a stitched heart (Lil'Inker Dies, as is the new stitched rectangle mat) from the panel, and mounted it over matching card stock. The "thanks" is another PS die; I sponged more Worn Lipstick onto white card stock in a gradient of colour before cutting out the sentiment.

A satisfying afternoon's work!  Beats being outside today...-34 C.  Brrr!

Make sure to check out the Paper Smooches blog for more fun and inspiration!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Happy 8th Day of Christmas

Hope you are all enjoying a jolly old time, with friends, family and food. That is what the holidays are all about. Some excellent meals, killer game-nights and generally catching up going on at our house, with three sons, parents and sister from Amsterdam all converging. It's been busy... Talk about your polar vortex!

I am very late in giving a final followup on the Caring Hearts Card Drive, Canada-side. You can click onto Vera's blog to see her final post. The drive was a HUGE success this year.

The total number of cards I received for distribution was:

1020 

Woo hoo! These were sent in by 36 wonderful, generous and talented card-makers. Thank you all! It was a treat for me to see your outstanding handy-work.

The prize I promised to the person sending in the most cards went to Adrian Michaud. She conceived of a service project for her son's scout troupe. She made a couple dozen Christmas cards and had the scouts write personal notes to seniors inside. She contacted the Madonna Nursing Home, in Orleans, Ontario. When she found out that there were 160 seniors, many of whom would not be receiving Christmas gifts or greetings from family and friends, she decided to make a card for EACH ONE. That's right, she personally make 160 cards.  Way to go, Adrian!  You have a huge heart!♥

The remainder of the 1020 cards were sent on to 17 nursing homes. 

One of my "elves" who attended my card-making workshops had the idea to have her group, Ottawa Therapy Dogs, help distribute the cards as they made their regular nursing home canine visits. She called the project "Operation Reindog," and the dogs and their handlers really got into it!

We also received some lovely feed-back on the cards themselves:

"I should like to thank Ottawa Therapy Dogs for sending a Christmas card via Claudia & Simba to my wife Helen Young. Helen has lived at The Ravines retirement home for the past four years but is unable to reply herself because of dementia. She did however enjoy the card which is beautifully handmade and unlike any other we have seen" (from a resident's husband).

"Harris and I did watch "guests" opening these beautiful hand-crafted cards.   I have to admit that I had not looked at any beforehand. They are SPECTACULAR!!!!

Please extend my huge thanks to Caroline and all of the amazing women who  have made this happen" (from one of the Reindog's handlers).

So there you are, folks! You gave some people beautiful reasons to smile this Christmas. Just another  reminder that it is just as blessed to give as to receive.

Happy holidays, and all the best for 2015.

 Love you all to bits!

Caroline

Freshly-Made Sketches and Freshly Falling Snow...

 

Good morning!

We are enjoying temperatures above zero today.

But the white stuff is on its way...

This is one of the final cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive. Inspiration for the water-colour panel from Heather Telford's card class.

I used Freshly-Made Sketches' design #164

After heat-embossing the Stampin' Up snowflakes on white cardstock, I added Distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Evergreen Bough and Salty Ocean. Then flicked on some Perfect Pearls mist and plain ol' water. I subbed in some cascading sequins for the ribbon on the sketch.

 Hope you fit some crafting into your day,
Caroline

Caring Hearts...♥

Happy Saturday, crafty friends!

Collection for the Caring Hearts Card Drive 2014 ended yesterday.

Want to know the total number of cards I received, here in Eastern Canada?

936

Wowsers, eh?

Many of the contributors commented on how much they enjoyed making cards for such a good cause, and that they look forward to doing it again next year (yes!). Several mentioned that they held card-making "bees" with their friends. Some asked how to make sure nursing homes in their area receive cards next year. This thing just keeps on growing!

 

As a "depot" I got to admire & enjoy the beautiful designs and top-notch craftsmanship of the cards that arrived. We had contributions from across Canada (British Columbia to Nova Scotia) as well as a few from overseas (France and Australia). Amazing!

I'm going to wait to announce the winner of the prize I mentioned in THIS blog post; Vera will take another week to finish collating all the results and drawing for prizes.

Next week I'll be able to tell you about a special project we have going in Ottawa to deliver the cards to nursing homes... It has an awesome name.

Finally got a little time to craft today, and was inspired by this advertisement:

I used the stripes from the shopping bag, and a new stamp set from Close to My Heart.

Took my trusty Paper Smooches bookmark die, and some platinum embossing powder and voilà.

I love those bright colours sandwiched between the traditional red & green.

This card is being entered in this week's Card Concept challenge: use a tag.

Stay tuned for more Caring Hearts news...

Happy crafting, 

Caroline

Final Call: for the Caring Hearts Card Drive

Hey there, crafty friends.

Last couple of cards to inspire you for the final week of the Caring Hearts Card Drive 2014.

There is still time to get inky and send in your cards. Check Vera's post HERE to see how the drive is going.  I've been receiving cards from some incredible paper-crafters, from all over Canada, and one from France! We'll get into distribution mode in early December, delivering the cards to nursing homes.

The "elves" that have been coming to my weekly card workshops ask where I get all my ideas...from other people, of course! Sometimes I love a design so much I shamelessly CASE it; other times it may lead to something completely different (to quote Monty Python)...

This card was inspired by Jen Mitchell's creation, HERE. Loved the use of multiple greetings in different colours.

And this one by the ever-inventive Sandy Allnock. Here's her original:

My star isn't as big, but I had fun with the embossed monotone background.

So, still time to send in some cards, to make some seniors smile, this holiday season!

Happy crafting,
Caroline

Another card for the Caring Hearts Card Drive (post #4)

To comment on my Caring Hearts Card Drive Blog Hop

post, go HERE.

 Bringing you another cute snowman card, which I've reproduced for the Caring Hearts Card Drive, but which features Paper Smooches products, so it's going into this week's challenge:

I've been a little slow to jump on the stencil band-wagon, but I had fun with TWO of them on this card.

First, used a beautiful birch-tree stencil from Club Scrap for the background, then went over that with the Falling Snow stencil from Simon Says with some embossing paste. After removing the stencil, I s sprinkled micro-glitter, which only stuck to the paste "flakes" for some serious shimmer.

The snowy slope was Paper Smooches border dies #1. The heat-embossed sentiment comes from PS Christmas Sampler, and the snow-dude and cardinal (coloured with Copics) are from Warm Hearts.

Go check out the entries at the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge, go follow the Caring Hearts Card Drive Blog Hop and for goodness sake, GO MAKE SOME CARDS for the drive!

Happy crafting,

Caroline