Happy Canada Day

I am proud to be Canadian and equally as proud of this great country. Sometimes we make gaffs but Canada is a great place to live.

Happy Canada Day

to you all.


Donna drew the short straw and will be minding the store from 12 until 4. Drop by and say hello.


(Rosewood Stamp C72)

Bad Blogger

I don't know what it is about June but life really speeds up during this month. I haven't had much time to post lately, combine that with learning new programs and you have one slightly stressed lady. Just a bit of rant here...my old computer was a youthful 5 years old. So why is it so difficult to use the same programs I had on the old computer? OH NO!!!! The old email program no longer works with Windows 7. Windows 7 is nice but everything looks and is stored differently. I still need to decide what photo editing software to use. I am not a professional photographer, so I don't know what to invest in and I can't find the disc from the last program to see if it will even work on this computer. Sigh!!!!! I am figuring it all out but as I said June always seems to be on fast forward.

A bit off topic here but I did take one of my girls to Ste Anne's Inn and Spa for her sweet 16 birthday present.



I have been fortunate enough to visit Ste Anne's a few times and on one of my first visits the girls asked to come with us. At the time Ste Anne's had a policy of 16 years of age, so silly me I promised to take them when they turned 16. They weren't very old at the time but they didn't forget. I took Cassie 2 years ago, Nicole went this year and Jess goes next year. The older 2 girls have enjoyed their time at the spa (Nicole didn't want to come home, can't say that I didn't feel the same way!) If it is within your means to have a spa day at Ste Anne's (or better yet a weekend) I would highly recommend it. The buildings are so beautiful, the view and the grounds spectacular. Tell me who couldn't use a day or two where all you had to do was get meals and show up for whatever treatments you have chosen. Friday was an incredibly relaxing day with my daughter, my Mom and my sister.....heavenly!!!

New Stuff

Rose-Marie has spent a lot days in the basement working away at her computer. She has ordered a lot of new products for the store and spending like a sailor on shore leave!!!! Oh my, the goodies that are arriving daily makes it so much fun to go to work.




Already in stock is the Glue Glider Pro. I think this will be the last tape runner I will buy. I've used the bigger model and always found it a bit cumbersome but this little cutie is just the ticket. Donna already owns one and loves it. Rose-Marie has brought in lots of co-ordinating papers and brads from Bo Bunny. She has refreshed the stock of Flower Soft in both orginal and micro fine. Just before I left the store yesterday the man from U.P.S. brought in 3 boxes of treasures from Penny Black. I didn't dare open those boxes or I may have been very late getting home for chores.


We are waiting impatiently for orders from a couple of different companies that will include more Cuttlebug folders, a new machine for paper cutting, inks from Tim Holtz and bling, bling, and more bling. You might want to bring sunglasses the next time you visit the store.

It is very exciting around the store. Now...where to put it all.

Up and Running

We bought a new tower yesterday and it was relatively painless I will add. Now begins the process of re-loading all of the information we lost in the crash. I have taken computer related courses over the years and the one thing I remember is beind told to back up your data often. Thankfully the really important things like the banking and accounting were done last week but I have not been as responsible on all of the photos we had on the old computer. The local shop is getting that information....and my email addresses.....but right now it is very inconvenient.

Give your computer a hug and do yourself a favour take time to back up your data today. You just never know.....

So Sad

Well the computer people have tried but apparently my computer has a terminal illness. I am not a techie but it wasn't hard to figure out that a blown mother board is a very bad thing. :( They are getting as much of my stuff as I can remember to ask them to get off the computer and I am off this morning to buy a new destop. Exciting in a way but all of the "stuff" I had saved is probably lost to the whims of a old by technie standards computer. I was told once 2 years is a good life for a computer so 5 must be like the dear old dog. I guess nothing lasts forever.

Crash

Today started out just lovely. My desktop at home crashed this morning. UGH what a pain!!!!! I have taken it for a spa day at the local computer shop and hopefully it won't take too long (or too much money) to repair. I have liberated my daughters laptop from her death grip and will continue to post as often as possible until I get my computer back. I have a couple of cards to share with you, including a really good picture of Lauralee's white on white card. I don't know where Nicole hides the photo editing software on her laptop and will need to wait until she gets home from school to share that information with me.

Uggghhhh what a pain in the $%#$%#^%.

May Challenge - Continued.

Jacqui's May card creation is first up today. Jacqui made good use of her Cricuit to make this shades of pink card. She stamped the Rosewood Calla Lillies in a a pale pink to make an all over background on her base card. The shaped elements are all Cricuit and the cute little bunnies are popped into the medallion. NOTE: the "m's" on the bottom of Jacqui's card are part of the frog I used to hold the card and are not part of her design. I do like the look though but not for her card.

For my challenge card, green chose me. I intended to make a blue card but somehow green spoke to me for this challenge. The base card is stamped with an old Magenta stamp. (I just can't get past a plain base card. It just looks naked.) I found some old tags, sponged them green inks to create the medallion. The sentiment is Obsession Impression and Distress Stickles Peeled Paint was added to highlight the oval. I distressed the edge of the designer paper with Memories Soft Leaf. I cut the bracket from Tim Holtz Hanging Sign diecut and trimmed it to fit the card then sprayed the brackets with Smooch Vanilla Shimmer.

And now for our May challenge mistress. Lauralee had two cards in mind with the challenge and sent them both for us to see. Since Lauralee has already posted how she made her cards on her blog. I will send you to her blog to get the instructions.



This is the worst photo of Lauralee's butterflies in flight. White is so hard to really photograph well for an amateur photographer such as myself. I intend to try again this afternoon when the sunshine isn't so bright and hopefully I can get a pic that will do her card justice. The instructions for this card are lengthy but not complicated and again I am sending you to Lauralee's blog

These card challenges are so much fun and really do stretch the creative limits. Cassie has chosen June's Challenge which I will share later.

May Challenge Cards

Our May Challenge was given to us by Lauralee, seen here. The twist with this challenge was to create a tone on tone card.

Barb used her Cricuit to cut the flourishes. She used Cuttlebug Flourished Frame to make her central frame. Her sentiment is stamped and embossed on vellum then centered in the frame. A coordinating ribbon added the finishing touch.



I don't own a Cricuit but Barb, Jacqui & Darlene do. Barb used a Cricuit cartridge to create a spectacular envelope to match her card. Who wouldn't want to receive this set in the mail? Maybe I will have to ask for one for Christmas....hint, hint



Donna really outdid herself with Lauralee's May Challenge. She created this incredibly beautiful card using only black cardstock. She used a flourish folder to mimick the design challenge Lauralee gave us to work with. Layered Nestibility label to create a striking design element.



Darlene used gorgeous blues to create her card. All of the sparkle on Darlene's card comes from Cobalt Tapestry Embossing Powder. She used it on the Spiral Frame that is stamped top and bottom and she used it to edge the ovals. Sorry Darlene didn't identify the makers of the stamps she used.



Cassie made the reds sing in her cards. She used Inkadinkadoo Floral Flourishes embossed with Red Sparkle to create her flourish element. She punched layered ovals and added a Tim Holtz diecut bird from his new set Caged Bird. Not a complicated card but very effective


Tomorrow I will add the rest of the challenge cards, including this month swap mistress' work who is such an overachiever. Kidding Lauralee, just kidding.

Butterflies In Resist

Today I have the last of the cards Lauralee did for Kitchener. These cards use a resist technique that can be adapted a number of different ways but still get the same gorgeous look.

Here are the cards:



And here are Lauralee's instructions in her words but cleaned up a bit:


Use up any ugly scrap designer paper (you don’t see much of it as the design shows up very faintly so it’s a great chance to use that butt-ugly stuff you have tucked away – come ‘on, I know you have some too!!!) (Using a magazine page works great for this too)

Stamp Rosewood Music Background on the butt ugly designer paper(BUDP) with black ink – clear emboss.

Using Versmark ink, stamp the butterflies randomly on top of the music note and clear emboss (Inkadinkadoo stamp – Donna gave it to me and I gave it back to her since she couldn’t find it again to reorder. I found it in clear rubber with a bunch of other butterfly images and cut mine up so I had six single butterflies instead of one long stream of them all attached. I’m such a rebel!)

I took Distress Ink – Broken China and rubbed it all over the top, paying special attention to the sides so the edges were darker. The green was shabby shutters but was too light and you can’t make out the outline of the butterflies.

Take a Kleenex and rub off the butterflies as they will have Broken China ink on them. They will buff up nicely.

I used black bazzill paper as the background layer.

I used a smaller piece of BUDP and a Nestabilities for greeting – edged the sides with ink and then stamped the sentiment on it (I think it’s from Stampin Up). Then the tricky part – I laid the whole small label in the versamark pad and covered the whole label with versamark ink. Then I clear embossed the whole thing – it makes it really shiny and stiff. Backed it with another bazzill piece that I ran through the bigger Nestability die.

I stamped a small scrap of white paper with the music note stamp and clear embossed it. Then I used the Martha Stewart butterfly punch (LOVE LOVE IT!). Inked little butterfly with the Distress ink and put two little rhinestones on it

Distressed the edges of the music note panel and card stock base with the Distress Tool.

DONE! Phew!! That was too much work.

Thank you again to Lauralee for helping Tom & Rose-Marie at the Kitchener show and for allowing me to post all of her beautiful cards. Check out Lauralee's blog here. She always got something entertaining to share.

Blow Out Sale - UPDATED

The blow-out sale begins today Thurs. June 3 and runs until Sun. June 6. All stamps from other stamp companies are 50% off. Selected stamps will be marked to $2 & $3. All punches are 50% off. Off the roll stickers are $1 and all pre-packaged stickers are 25%. Peel-offs are priced to go at $1. We have a good selection of Bollios marked down to $5. Le Plume Marker sets are also marked down to $5. We even found some Colour Cutters that had been hidden away. Rosewood stamps will not be marked down but almost everything else is.

This is an in store and in stock sale only. So make the drive to Campbellford, this is the best sale we have ever offered.